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German Church Brings Back ‘Jew Pig’ Statue

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June 16, 2020
WITTENBERG, GERMANY – OCTOBER 31: A sculpted relief shows the controversial ‘Judensau,’ or ‘Jew’s Sow’ that shows Jews suckling from the teets of a pig on the facade of the 13th-century Stadtkirche Sankt Marien church where theologian Martin Luther once preached on October 31, 2017 in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther drafted his 95 theses that called for reform within the Catholic Church in Wittenberg and held the first mass in the vernacular at the Sankt Marien church. Germany is today celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation that Luther set in motion and that led to the creation of successful Protestant movements in history’s most significant challenge to the Catholic Church. Luther’s translation of the Bible made it accessible to a much broader audience. He spoke out against the practice of indulgences and the sale of relics, and also argued that a place in Heaven is possible not by good deeds but through faith. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

A medieval German church has returned a statue known as the “Jew Pig” gargoyle to its original perch.

The Jewish Chronicle (JC) reported that the church, which is located in the Salzland district in central Germany, was decorated with, among other statues, one called Judensau, German for “Jews’ sow,” which depicts a Jewish man sucking from the sow’s teat. The church decided to take down the statue in March for restoration but considered it to be “too offensive to return to the buttress,” JC reported. However, the district later decided to bring back the statue because it considered the statue to be a key part of the church’s history.

In the interim, the statue will be covered but remain at the church.

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement, “What’s wrong with this picture? German Church within whose walls Jews were demonized and vilified, the Church that did nothing to stop Hitler, the Church that does nothing to combat today’s anti-Semites in Germany reinstates the Jew/pig Medieval obscenity to preserve its history? Depraved.”

The StopAntiSemitism.org watchdog tweeted, “While statues around the world are being removed because of their racist origins, a German church had the genius idea of reinstating a statue of a Jewish man sucking from the teat of a pig. REALLY?!”

The group added in a subsequent tweet: “Note the spikes on the pig; specifically placed to not be defaced by birds. Because heaven forbid we would want to ruin this anti-Semitic beauty.”

 

According to the JC, there are 30 churches in Germany that have similar Judensau statues. In February, a German appellate court rejected a Jewish man’s attempt to have one of the statues removed at the Town Church in Wittenberg.

“The presentation of a part of the building in its original condition that was originally meant to be insulting is not necessarily insulting,” the ruling stated. “Rather, you can neutralize the original intent with commentary as to the historical context.”

According to the Times of Israel, the Town Church is where Martin Luther preached and his “his later sermons and writings were marked by anti-Semitism — something that the Nazis would later use to justify their brutal persecution of the Jews.”

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