Keeping sterotypes alive - The last Jew in Europe

Photo by Marcin Poznan

How to discuss with someone, who - while looking for anti-Semitism in Poland - finds only the things he wants to find?

I asked myself this question after watching a play entitled "The Last Jew In Europe" by Tuvia Tenenbom of Jewish Theater of New York at a small theatrical stage of Manhattan's Upper West Side. According to the author it is supposed to depict the phenomenon of primitive anti-Semitism, which Tenenbom came across during his visit in Poland.
Maria, a daughter of a female butcher in modern Lodz is to wed Jozef, who is hiding from her his Jewish ancestry. When at the end Jozef turns out to be a son of a genuine German Nazi, he becomes from then on a fanatic anti-Semite. Maria of course deeply wishes to marry a descendant of infamous Josef Mengele than a Jew. Finding out she is Jewish herself is a great personal tragedy to her that leads her into prostitution.
The play is started with some images of graffiti from the streets of Lodz carrying anti-Semitic notion. Among many "Jebać Żydzew" (translated as "Fuck Jews" - not appropriate though, as it is a game of words with Polish word "Żyd" and a name of a local soccer club "Widzew") and the Star of David written into an abbreviation of worker's sport association of Lodz (RTS Widzew Lodz). Writings like those, constantly faught against by Lodz authorities by painting them over - although obviously primitive anti-Semitic in their content - are part of a much more complex phonomenon of word fight by warring hooligans of two local soccer clubs.
The play is being advertised by a poster showing two miniature figurines made of plasticine material carrying a genuine natural sized Polish one grosz coin (like a penny). The name of this exhibit is supposed to be "Little Jews Carrying Money", but the audience doesn't know whether it is a part of any extended exhibition or such. (Perhaps was it also an artistic provocation by contemporary artists of Lodz, just as one may consider Tenenbom's play?). Point is, they fit into the climate created around the play. In a little leaflet handed out before the show there is also an anti-Semitic quote from Maciej Giertych's (Polish radical right-wing member of European Parliament) book that was issued in February carrying European Parliament's logo.
In the brochure Tuvia Tenenbom describes his impressions of travelling to Poland (one of two "exotic" countries he likes to visit occassionally, the other one being Jordan). He claims that anti-Semitic graffiti is seen on every street of Lodz and the Jewish postwar survivors live in hiding. He met a man in Lublin once totally obsessed with a vision of "all-present Jewishness", because of which the poor man cannot fall asleep. In a Radzyn village around Lodz Tenenbom - whose ancestors had been baptised after their death by Mormons - as he himself states, found the place his grandparents were buried. Today there is a private house and an apple orchard. According to the theater artistic director a woman named Basia is proud to have her apples grow so well on a fertilizer from Jews. And when her teenage daugther accidently came across a hand bone sticking out of the ground, her mother allegedly stuck it back into the earth and plowed the field. The picture of both - the woman and her daughter - are to be seen at the cover of the brochure. I wonder if they are aware of the fact, that they are starring in New York as an example of primitive anti-Semitism.
Because of descriptions like those - to be read on the theater's website - www.jewishtheater.org - Poland seems to be a superanti-Semitic country, although they are setting fires to synagogues and devastating Jewish cemeteries in France, and a seat of the Central Jewish Council in Berlin, Germany is regularly being overflooded by letters containing anthrax or anonymous threats. On the other hand it is true that still a lot needs to be done in Poland and a play like this one - although carrying exaggerated content at times - can stimulate the process.
Too bad that the whole atmosphere produced around the play makes its point vanish somewhere. This is why this very opinion concentrates on the frame rather than on the tragicomedy itself.
Finally it is good to remember, that "The Last Jew in Europe" is just art, and art likes to provoke and create discussion. It is aimed at people that are wise and aware of historical facts. Much worse, however, if for the people who naturally approve the term "Polish death camps", the images shown by Tenenbom will become the revealed truth.