A ''Judensau'' (German for "Jews' sow") is a folk art image of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow (female pig), which in Judaism is an

unclean animal In some religions, an unclean animal is an animal whose consumption or handling is taboo. According to these religions, persons who handle such animals may need to ritually purify themselves to get rid of their uncleanliness. Judaism In Jud ...

, that appeared during the 13th century in Germany and some other European countries; its popularity lasted for over 600 years.

Background and images

The Jewish prohibition against eating pork comes from Torah, in the Book of Leviticus Chapter 11, verses 2 through 8. The arrangement of Jews surrounding, suckling, and having intercourse with the animal (sometimes regarded as the devil), is a mockery of Judaism. The image appears in the Middle Ages, mostly in carvings on church or cathedral walls, often outside where it could be seen from the street (for example at Wittenberg and

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

), but also in other forms. The earliest appearance seems to be on the underside of a wooden choir-stall seat in Cologne Cathedral, dating to about 1210. The earliest example in stone dates to ca. 1230 and is located in the cloister of the cathedral at Brandenburg. In about 1470 the image appeared in woodcut form, and thereafter was often copied in popular prints, often with antisemitic commentary. A wall painting on the

bridge tower A bridge tower (german: Brückenturm) was a type of fortified tower built on a bridge. They were typically built in the period up to early modern times as part of a city or town wall or castle. There is usually a tower at both ends of the brid ...

of Frankfurt am Main, constructed between 1475 and 1507 near the gateway to the Jewish ghetto and demolished in 1801, was an especially notorious example and included a scene of the ritual murder of

Simon of Trent Simon of Trent (german: Simon von Trient, also known as Simon Unverdorben (meaning Simon Immaculate in German); it, Simonino di Trento), also known as Simeon (1472–1475), was a boy from the city of Trent (now Trento in northern Italy), in the ...

Judensau in Wittenberg

The city of Wittenberg contains a ''Judensau'' from 1305, on the façade of the Stadtkirche, the church where Martin Luther preached. It portrays a rabbi who looks under the sow's tail, and other Jews drinking from its teats. An inscription reads "Rabini Schem HaMphoras", gibberish which presumably bastardizes " Shem HaMephorash". The sculpture is one of the last remaining examples in Germany of medieval "Jew baiting". In 1988, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the '' Kristallnacht'', debate sprung up about the monument, which resulted in the addition of a sculpture recognizing that during the Holocaust six million Jews were murdered "under the

sign of the cross Making the sign of the cross ( la, signum crucis), or blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. This blessing is made by the tracing of an upright cross or + across the body with ...

". In '' Vom Schem Hamphoras'' (1543), Luther comments on the Judensau sculpture at Wittenberg, echoing the antisemitism of the image and locating the Talmud in the sow's bowels: In July 2016, Dr. Richard Harvey, a Messianic (Christian) theologian from the United Kingdom, initiated a petition on

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

to have the Wittenberg Judensau removed. In 2018, Michael Düllmann, a member of Berlin's Jewish community, sued to have the sculpture removed as defamatory. As of February 2020, the district court of

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

and the Higher Regional Court in

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

had rejected the claim, though petitioner vowed to appeal to higher courts. The Lutheran church and some historians, such as

Michael Wolffsohn Michael Wolffsohn (born 17 May 1947) is a German historian. Wolffsohn was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine and today is Israel. His parents were German Jews who fled in 1939. In 1954, the ...

, have also debated whether the sculpture should be removed for being antisemitic or whether doing so would whitewash the church's historical antisemitism. The legal debate continues. Kläger: Wittenberger Schmähplastik ist Rufmord an den Juden
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Partial list

Some of these sculptures can be found at some churches today. *

Aarschot Aarschot () is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Aarschot proper and the towns of Gelrode, Langdorp and Rillaar. On January 1, 2019, Aarschot had a total popul ...

in Belgium (Our Lady Church) * Basel in Switzerland ( Cathedral) * Brandenburg (Cathedral) * Cadolzburg *

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...

in France at ( Église Saint-Martin – 2 representations) * Cologne ( ''Judensau'' at the choir stalls of Cathedral – probably the earliest example, and in Church of St. Severin) * Eberswalde *

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

( Cathedral) * Heilsbronn (Cathedral) * Gniezno ( Cathedral) * Lemgo (St. Marien) * Magdeburg ( Cathedral) * Metz in France ( Cathedral) * Nuremberg ( St. Sebaldus Church) *

( Cathedral) * Remagen (Gate post) *

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

(Cathedral, on capital) * Uppsala in Sweden ( Cathedral) * Wiener Neustadt in Austria *

Wimpfen Bad Wimpfen () is a historic spa town in the district of Heilbronn in the Baden-Württemberg region of southern Germany. It lies north of the city of Heilbronn, on the river Neckar. Geography Bad Wimpfen is located on the west bank of the Riv ...

(Church of St. Peter) * Wittenberg (Town church) * Xanten ( Cathedral) * Zerbst (St. Nicolas Church)

Image gallery

File:Darstellung einer Judensau (Dom Brandenburg).jpg, ''Judensau'' at the Cathedral of Brandenburg File:Colmar Cathédrale Judensau.JPG, ''Judensau'' on the Cathedral of St. Martin in

File:Heilsbronn Münster - Mortuarium 0.jpg, ''Judensau'' on the Cathedral in Heilsbronn File:Regensburger_Dom_Judensau_2004.jpg, ''Judensau'' at the Cathedral of St. Peter in

File:Wimpfen-stiftskirche-judens.jpg, ''Judensau'' at the minster in

File:Judensau-Wittenberg.jpg, ''Judensau'' on the Wittenberg Parish Church, cited by Luther File:Judensau from Frankfurt.jpg, Woodcut of the Bridge Tower at Frankfurt, showing martyrdom of

above a ''Judensau'' File:Judensau judenschule 1822.JPG, Illustration from an antisemitic book (

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

1822) File:B 4305.png, ''Judensau'' at Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden

References

External links