Drinking vodka with anti-Semites. A case study of ‘Polish-Jewish relations’ today
Drinking vodka with anti-Semites. A case study of ‘Polish-Jewish relations’ today

Summary/Abstract: This text analyzes the events that occurred between December 31, 2016 and January 6, 2017, namely the ‘scandal’ at the Café Foksal pub in Warsaw and its ramifications, as well as the simultaneous attacks on the Prince Kebab shop in Ełk. Both events were local or, many would venture to say, marginal. It is not my intention to attribute great importance to them. I rather treat them as meaningful case studies which exemplify how anti-Semitism operates in Polish culture at present and, probably more importantly, the roadblock encountered when problematizing anti-Semitism. These allegedly insignificant events from the turn of 2016–2017 are an excellent illustration of the conditions that Jews and other individuals perceived to be non-Polish have to accept in order to ensure relative safety to themselves. I discuss these events as a certain spectacle, whose actors played either the roles they chose or the only roles available to them (perpetrator, victim, bystander, and mediator). I also suggest viewing these events from the point of view of certain elements of Polish history.

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