Rabbi’s Speech Front page of a Polish magazine with a caricature of a Rabbi

Cover of a Polish humor magazine, Zagłoba, with a satirical caricature and commentary on Jews as foreigners. Their foreignness is emphasized by not speaking Polish or Russian. An article on the reverse page claims that Jews often speak about their plans to gain wealth and power. The double-sided sheet is from the October 4, 1919 edition of Zagłoba, edited by Wacław Jeziorowski, who was also the editor of the periodical, Muchy. Zagłoba shares its name with Jan Onufry Zagłoba, a patriotic character from the popular 19th-century Polish series, The Trilogy. Satirical humor magazines were popular throughout Europe in the first part of the 20th century. Censorship by occupying powers during World War I (1914-1918) led to the creation of many illegal National Democratic periodicals that attacked the occupiers, especially in Poland. Following the war, many of these periodicals increased in circulation, and often expressed a fear of Jewish economic and political domination. Many Polish nationalists perceived Jews who spoke their own languages as foreign threats to the often-partitioned Polish State and a unified Polish identity. This illustration of foreign Jews - in combination with an article about Jewish wealth and power - is common antisemitic rhetoric that reflects the long-standing myth that Jews use their communal presence, power, and influence to manipulate and control other nations for their own benefit. This myth was popularized by the widespread publication of the fabricated antisemitic text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The myth was also popular in places where large groups of Jewish refugees gathered following violent pogroms in Russia between the 1880s and 1920s. This cover is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.