Judensau in Wittenberg
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With Your Students
Date
June 28, 2016
Description
A Judensau [Jew's sow] statue created around 1305 at the City Church of St. Mary in Wittenberg, Germany. The Judensau was an antisemitic motif that emerged in medieval and early modern Europe (especially Germany), that showed Jews engaging in obscene or degrading interactions with a female pig (sow), an animal considered impure according to Jewish dietary laws (kashrut). The writing above the statue says “Rabini Schem HaMphoras,” a mangled inscription intended to mock the Hebrew phrase for the holiest name of God.
Type
Photograph
Region
Global
Topic
Global History and Geography, Jewish History
Repository
Avishai Teicher Private Collection
Source
Courtesy of Avishai Teicher. Photograph under Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Accessed at Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Judensau_in_Wittenberg.jpg
Rights
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