Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture: “The Dancing Jew” in Polish Culture: Between Phantasm and Practice

Numerous reports from German-occupied Poland document a peculiar penchant of the Nazi perpetrators to torture Jews by forcing them to perform caricatured dances. These testimonies from World War II survivors and witnesses resonate with an older cultural phenomenon of caricaturizing singing and dancing Jews.

The concept of “the Dancing Jew” has a long and complex history in Polish culture, having originated in representations found in the traditional nativity plays (szopka) and gaining popularity throughout the nineteenth century in lowbrow theater. By the end of the century, it also found its way into Polish- and Yiddish-language literary works.

The lecture draws on untapped archival sources and existing scholarly discourse to contextualize our understanding of the cultural phenomenon of “the Dancing Jew,” focusing on the case study of the ballet Karczma (The Inn).