Assessment: Going against long-held Polish tradition, Krakow’s municipality will slowly phase out the souvenir caricatures after acknowledging the trinkets are antisemitic …
“In my father’s home, he has a little painting of a Jew counting money,” Ziolo told The Times of Israel. “He believes it is supposed to bring luck and prosperity to his household.”
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated”
During the past three years, Ziolo said she came to see the “negative connotations” of the Polish-made tchotchkes. Influenced by the opinions of Jewish tourists, Ziolo also took part in a community-organized discussion on the topic with other stakeholders in Krakow tourism.
“Talking to Jewish visitors made me see the inappropriateness of the dolls and paintings,” said Ziolo. “I don’t like them and I think we can rise above things like this.”
Before the Holocaust, Poland was home to 3 million Jews. Nearly all of them were murdered in Nazi-built death camps, and fewer than 15,000 Jews live in the country today. In other words, there are probably more “Lucky Jews” for sale in Poland than there are Jews.
Read More @ Times of Israel HERE
