The Jew with a coin (), also little Jew () or lucky Jew (), is a good-luck charm in Poland and elsewhere, where images or figurines of the character, usually accompanied by a proverb, are said to bring good fortune, particularly financially. The motif was first described in articles from 2000, and probably dates back to the early 1990s.Wydaje się, że niska znajomość oraz popularność magicznych rytuałów czynionych na wizerunku – skontrastowana z wysoką rozpoznawalnością "Żyda z pieniążkiem" – może wynikać z krótkiego rodowodu tego przesądu, który nie zdążył się jeszcze ugruntować jako praktyka automatyczna(...)Hipotezę o słabym ugruntowaniu praktyki w polskim kontekście kulturowym wzmacnia porównanie z wykonywaniem przez Polaków innych praktyk uznawanych z przesądne "Żyd z pieniążkiem" jako praktyka polskiej kultury wernakularnej. Wstępny raport z badań, "Kultura Współczesna" 2015, nr 3. Pawel Dobrosielski page 71
Scholars offer various interpretations of the motif's nature and origin, though they generally agree that it is used as a talisman for good luck,Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father , Diana Wichtel, 2018, Awa Press, page 144. link to extract from book in Nzherald, published 16 May 2018 in particular financial good luck.Lucky Jews? Pictures + Essay by Erica Lehrer in Jewish Museum London's 2019 Jews, Money, Myth exhibition catalog, page 79 Opinions about the motif vary; some scholars believe it promotes Polish–Jewish dialogue or view it as harmless folklore or nostalgia, while others believe it is an antisemitic and offensive stereotype.Zawadzka, Anna. "Drinking vodka with anti-Semites. A case study of 'Polish-Jewish relations' today." Adeptus 11 (2018): 1-23. quote: ""A Jew with a coin" is an anti-Semitic picture people hang at home as a lucky charm bringing financial success, which can be bought across Poland in souvenir shops, newspaper stands, florists, art galleries and bazaars. The figure depicted in such pictures wears a hat or kippah. Putting a kippah on may therefore be interpreted as a gesture of self-exotization. It is putting a mask on, and taking part in a masquerade in the role of a Jew, designed to meet the needs of the Christian audience. Due to the latter view, the figurines have sometimes been criticized and called controversial as they have been connected to the traditional antisemitic canard of the Jewish moneylender.
Usage and customs The figurines are used as a good luck charm in the hope of becoming rich, Lucky Jews? Pictures + Essay by Erica Lehrer in Jewish Museum London's 2019 Jews, Money, Myth exhibition catalog, page 77 and are often given as gifts. Some are sold with "instruction manuals" how to use them to bring good fortune. It is advised to turn them upside down on the Sabbath (Friday night or Saturdays) or place a coin (grosz, 1/100 of a złoty) behind the image so that money and good fortune may fall upon the household. At homes the images are to be placed in the entrance hall to the left of the door (probably akin to mezuzah). The figurines are also placed in offices and in shops next to cash registers. According to a 2015 survey in Poland, 50 percent of respondents knew of the superstition of good fortune, 24 percent of the custom to place a grosz behind the frame, and 13 percent of turning it upside down on the Sabbath.
The motif is often accompanied by sayings. The saying ("Jew in the hall, coin in your pocket") has roots pre-dating World War II. The original meaning of the saying was that as long as the Jew stayed at the entrance of the house the money in the house remained safe, but in contemporary popular usage the meaning has been reversed: the Jew in the hall brings fortune to the house. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir stresses that: "Given the power of connotations associated with contemporary history, this maxim takes on a bitter meaning, as it alludes to how Poles enriched themselves when they protected the Jews". The saying ("He who has no Jew at home is moneyless") is based on ("When poverty is there, go to the Jew"), referring originally to Jewish moneylenders and also dating prior to World War II. Modern variants have also arisen and accompany the motif, for instance: ("So that the money stays at home, and that it does not leave, keep a Jew in your house, he will keep the cash").
Survey According to a 2015 survey conducted by Paweł Dobrosielski, Piotr Majewski and Justyna Nowak in Poland, 65% of respondents recognized the motif, 55% saw the motif at the home of family or friends, and 18% had such an object.Tartakowsky, Ewa (2017). "Le Juif à la pièce d'argent ". La vie des idées . "The Jew with the Gold Coin ". English translation by Dorval, Arianne. 24 April 2017 There was no correlation between respondent age and recognition of the motif, an affirmation that the motif is a recent introduction. 50% of respondents were aware of the superstition that it brings financial good luck, 24% were aware of the practice of placing a grosz behind the frame, and 13% of turning it upside down on the Sabbath. Some 16% of respondents performed one of these rituals.
According to Dobrosielski, the low level of knowledge and practice of the associated superstitions in contrast to the high level of recognition may be explained by the motif being a recent phenomenon, with accompanying superstitions not yet established in a habitual fashion as older superstitions are. Dobrosielski notes that women were more likely than men to practice the superstitions associated with the motif, as well as other superstitions. Dobrosielski finds further affirmation for the recentness of the phenomenon when he contrasts his results with the results of a survey on general superstitions in Poland, which found that 39% of respondents practiced five common superstitions such as finger crossing. Dobrosielski's final portion of the survey asked a series of questions related to antisemitic prejudice, based on questions used by sociologist Antoni Sułek. Sułek's respondents when queried on "whether Jews have too much influence on Poland's affairs" answered in the affirmative 43% in 2002 and 22% in 2010, whereas Dobrosielski in 2015 found a rate of 33% (correlated with age, inversely correlated with financial wellbeing and education). Dobrosielski notes that the figurines are weakly based in cultural context, and are not popular compared to other good luck charms and rituals.
Some 50% of respondents viewed the motif as a talisman for financial luck (with 18% disagreeing, others did not know), 43% as a good luck charm (with 20% disagreeing), 23% as a regional souvenir (31% disagreeing), and 15% as a talisman for protection of house and family (33% disagreeing). Dobrosielski notes with surprise that few respondents saw the image at shops (27%), the internet (21%), or service location such as restaurants (12%) while multiple academic and journalistic pieces have stated it is ubiquitous in such places. Dobrosielski explains the discrepancy by suggesting that the motif, which is often on small objects, is easy to miss in a location with a multitude of other items in particular when customers have an intent to purchase something else.
Bans In June 2021 the city of Kraków announced its plans to ban the sale of Jew with a Coin figurines in public events, A statement calling for this ban was issued by a committee of Krakowian cultural professionals who had investigated the "Jew with a coin" phenomenon, arguing that:
It was the report of the 48-member round table Towards the Phenomenon of the "Lucky Jew" in Poland, which also stated that "the presence of Jewish figurines with money in souvenir stores and fairs is unequivocally perceived as a proof of lack of reflection and sensitivity in the area of the so-called 'difficult heritage'... [the] participants declare that the city, which lost almost all of its Jewish inhabitants as a result of World War II, must take all possible steps to prevent the presence of this phenomenon in the public space."
Ethnographic analysis
Origins Research by Erica Lehrer, who curated the Souvenir, Talisman, Toy exhibit at the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków, shows that while figurines of Jews existed in the past in Poland the contemporary figurines connecting traditionally dressed Jews with financial motifs like coins is recent. Prior to the Second World War, Jewish figurines were present in Christmas and Easter rituals and in particular in the Emaus Easter market fair in Kraków. During the communist era in Poland figurines of Jews were available for sale in the ethnic art stores. The figurines with the coins were first described in articles from 2000 whose authors state the phenomenon is recent, and that the figurines probably date back to the times following the transition of government in 1989.
Scholars have looked at a number of dimensions of the "Jew with a coin" figurines, paintings and associated products. One of those is the stereotypical connection between Jews and money. According to Polish scholar of Jewish history , while Jews were stereotypically associated with money and financial gain for many centuries, the rise of the coin imagery in post-communist Poland is not coincidental as Jews have become equated in Poland with success in the capitalistic West that post-1989 Poland aspires to catch up to. Sociologist Ewa Tartakowsky ties the popularity of the figurines to the even more recent growth of public discourse on the Holocaust in Poland, that began with Jan T. Gross's publication of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (2001).
According to historian and sociologist Alina Cała, three points of reference stand out in the figurines. The first is reminiscent of figurines in the traditional , the second is black magic, whereas the third is the traditional antisemitic caricature of the Jewish moneylender which was exploited in Nazi and antisemitic Polish iconography. However, whereas classical moneylender tropes often presented assimilated Jews, the current Polish figurines present Jews in traditional Orthodox dress. Cała also notes that, most likely after a complaint from a tourist, currently the figurines being sold in the Kazimierz neighborhood feature the Star of David instead of a coin.