Candles were removed from two Polish retailers this week after anti-racism and Jewish awareness groups drew attention to the offensive products.
Depicting a stereotypical orthodox Jewish figure holding a coin, the products were sold by Beekeeping Łukasiewicz Center and the Łysoń Beekeeping Company, two Polish retailers, before being removed, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (neither business responded to JTA’s request for comment). A Jewish-focused Facebook group named Życie Żydowskie first called out the products, according to the publication, while other organizations like Warsaw-based advocacy group Never Again and a groundswell of media attention forced the shops to remove the wares from their sites earlier this week.
There is a long history of such figurines being sold in Poland. While they are often billed as good-luck charms, many Jewish advocates and historians suggest they are deeply insensitive and dangerous, given the devastation the Holocaust wrought on the country’s Jews and the perpetuation of anti-Semitic sentiment currently coursing through the nation and much of Eastern Europe.
“The idea of burning a figure of a stereotypical Jew in a country where millions of Holocaust victims were burnt by the German Nazis is particularly disturbing,” Rafal Pankowski, Never Again’s executive director, told Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner.
In 2017, a similar controversy surrounded the Polish parliament in Warsaw, whose own gift shop had sold Jewish figurines. And in 2019, a German-owned home improvement retailer, OBI, removed the sale of products featuring offensive Jewish stereotypes in 58 of its stores in Poland, as The Algemeiner reported.
