Category:Wandering Jew (subject)

The Wandering Jew is the fictional character of a Jew, who taunted Jesus on the way to the crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming at the end of times.

The Wandering Jew is a fictional anti-Semitic character, whose origin can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The legend took its modern shape at the beginning of the 17th century with the publication of the anonymous pamphlet Kurtze Beschreibung und Erzählung von einen Juden mit Namen Ahasverus (1602), novel.

Ever since the character of the Wandering Jew can be found as protagonist or simply as a symbolic presence in numerous fictional works.

The Wandering Jew as a collective symbol

The Wandering Jew became such a familiar and recognizable character that it could be used derogatorily by anti-Semitic propaganda, as well as in a sympathetic fashion by Jewish (or philo-Jewish) authors, as a collective symbol for the Jewish people, even without any direct reference to the legend.

Anti-Semitic works:

- Der ewige Jude (1940 Hippler), film

Philo-Semitic works:

- Joseph Roth, Juden auf Wanderschaft (The Wandering Jews) (1927)