Re: Polish klezmer statuettes

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Hi Paul, Alex:

I  saw the Jew dolls under discussion during my visit to Poland in 1994.
There were also carved tableaux of the Jewish innkeeper and his drunken
patrons.  Did you happen to see any of these?

After consulting a  Polish-born friend (born after WWII):
there were no images of Jews whatsoever in post-War Poland
as he recalls.
And it was only after 1990, that he, on one of his many visits,
became aware of the figurines.

Like the Black lawn jockeys and boys-fishing-off-the-porch
one sees in the USA and Canada, -- I am told that figures of Jews
are considered "good luck" in Polish homes.

Wolf

PS  Paul, -- "Krakow" is correctly spelled with Ks, not Cs.

"Alex J. Lubet" wrote:

> Responding to the message of <11FA5BBC6688 (at) flint(dot)umich(dot)edu>
> from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> >
> >
> > Does anyone know how long they have been making those wooden
> > statuettes of klezmorim in Poland? I saw a couple of guys in
> > the Old City in Warsaw selling wooden statuettes of various
> > subjects, usually caricatures of some sort. But they had sets
> > of klezmorim, playing violin, clarinet, flute, cymbaly, bass, drum,
> > which seem realistic from an instrumentation point of view, and I
> > wonder how long they have been making them and selling them to
> > tourists. One guy had a little sign over them saying something like
> > "19th Century Warsaw Nostalgia." I understand that the carvers sell
> > them to tourists in Cracow too. I just wonder what these guys have
> > used as models, or whether it is a convention of long standing.
> >
> Can't help you with how long they've been making them, but you can find them
> everywhere, as I learned when I taught my Jewish music course in Lublin.  
> There
> are other Jewish figurines as well.  They may not seem offensive in and of
> themselves, but in a context where that's all you get of that magnificent 
> Jewish
> culture that was nearly wiped out, I found them a little hard to take.  After 
> I
> got back, I made a point of getting together with an Ojibwe friend to let him
> know that I knew a little of how American Indians must feel.  He agreed.
>
> Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
> Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
> Adjunct Professor of American Studies
> University of Minnesota
> 2106 4th St. S
> Minneapolis, MN 55455
> 612 624-7840 612 626-2200 (fax)
>

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