OnPoint Subscriber Exclusive
Longer Reads provide in-depth analysis of the ideas and forces shaping politics, economics, international affairs, and more.
The Eternal Jew Hatred
Throughout Poland’s history as an independent nation-state, the myth of “Judeo-communism” has served many purposes, from justifying anti-Semitic pogroms and cracking down on dissent to carving out political constituencies in the modern era. Precisely because the trope has no bearing on truth, it remains malleable in the hands of cynics and demagogues.
https://prosyn.org/EIsUgbc
WARSAW – On Good Friday this year, residents of Pruchnik (population 3,519), a town in southeast Poland, carried out the ritual beating, hanging, dismembering, burning, and drowning of Judas in effigy. The ceremony included children, who were furnished with sticks and encouraged to beat a dummy with the peyos (“side curls”) and head covering of a Hasidic Jew. The effigy also had a giant red nose, a common adornment in Polish depictions of Judas that is meant to equate Jews with communists.