Help plaintiff's lawsuit to remove Wittenberg sow

What Antisemitism looks like when it is carved into a Church!

Most Americans have never seen —and don't know anything about —the medieval folk carvings called the judensau, seen on countless Churches in Europe.

Thankfully, these carved images never crossed the Atlantic when immigrants and refugees sought freedom from religious oppression.

Background information on the judensau. A deliberately offensive stone image was carved 700 years ago into an outer wall of The Wittenberg Church, Wittenberg, Germany, where Martin Luther preached. The carving is known as the Wittenberg Sow. The stone Sow is portrayed in bestial contact with a Jewish man who is looking under the sow's tail while Jewish children suckle her teats. It was crafted purely to insult, terrify and dehumanize Jewish people and replicated countless times during the Medieval Ages. The Jews' offence was their refusal to convert to Christianity!

Michael Dullman, the Plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Wittenberg Church, has worked over 40 years to raise awareness of the ever- offensive nature of the Wittenberg Sow. He is suing the Wittenberg Church to have The Sow removed from public view, for relocation and preservation in a nearby museum.

The presence of the Wittenberg Sow, and the judensau on other churches fuelled antisemitic persecution in Europe over hundreds of years, culminating in the senseless murder of millions of Jews and others, and spurring their fear and flight from Germany and Europe.

In the 1980’s, steps were taken by German authorities to inform the public the offensive carvings were no longer intended to be offensive. Authorities installed explanatory plaques on church grounds near the judensau.

But Michael Dullmann says the explanations do not explain. Instead, the plaques convey a tacit message inviting Jews to change themselves--to perceive the judensau in light of the official apologies -- so they themselves are no longer offended by the carvings.

But they still do offend Jews and others. The message conveyed by the carvings has not changed. This egregious insult must be addressed and removed.

The Plaintiff claims the "Sow" is not only an insult to Jews and others, but an embarrassment in the 21st Century to the wider world: to daily civic life on the streets of a world Democracy.

The Wittenberg Church and other ancient churches are renown for their beauty. But the hideous carvings

are not beautiful. They detract from the splendor and majesty of the Churches.

The antisemitism these carvings represent can no longer be tolerated. In much the same way the American South took steps to remove Confederate General statues, relics of slavery, from the public streets of their cities and towns , it's time for the judensau to come down.

Two German Courts have rejected the Plaintiff's claim that the Sow is offensive to Jews and others. The case will come before the European Court of Human Rights where Mr. Dullmann will ask the Court to remove the Sow from public view to a nearby museum .He has been funding the case himself since 20118 on his modest personal income.

Please consider a donation to help pay Court costs. Help persuade the Court this 700 year-old folk relic, deliberately designed to insult, dehumanize and terrify Jews, with appalling success in WWII, has no intrinsic artistic value whatsoever; it's message is still vicious antisemitism. The ancient Wittenberg Sow and other judensau across Europe are truly out of place on the 21st Century streets of a European Democracy.

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