Ritual and Symbolic Xenocide in Central and Eastern Europe
Ritual and Symbolic Xenocide in Central and Eastern Europe

Summary/Abstract: Selected as a chapter from the author’s book The Image of the Jew in Romanian Culture. Study of Ethnic Imagology in Central-European Context, to be published soon by Nebraska University Press, this study is a brief on certain motifs of the ritual and symbolic xenocid in the central and eastern European context. The notion of the stranger takes here two principal meanings: the ethnical and the religious one. The major interest of the study focuses on the particular situation of the Jews in the Romanian folklore, as revealed according to the writings of the principal Romanian folklorists and ethnologues such as: Adrian Fochi, Laz`r }`ineanu, Teodor Pamfile, Ion Mu]lea, Artur Gorovei, Paul-Henri Stahl. The whole research goes to the final observation that „in all the examples given above, the biblical character of Judas has completely vanished from the ritual scenario, without anyone’s missing its presence. The generic Jew had successfully taken his place. The symbolic murdering of the ‘imaginary Jew’ (the one made of straw and wood) was only naturally continued with the actual murdering of the ‘real Jew’ (the one made of flesh and blood)“.

• Details
• Contents