‘Judensau’ translates to ‘Jew Sow’ in German, and was commonly used in Germany as a slur or insult towards Jewish people. In the Torah, pigs are explicitly identified as impure animals and are forbidden to be eaten or touched due to their specific physical characteristics. Judensau evolved as a mockery of Judaism. First appearing in sculptures and medieval iconography at significant Christian churches in Germany, this trope predates Nazi propaganda by almost 700 years.
In the current antisemitic climate, comparing Jews to pigs is a form of dehumanisation used to demonise Jews and Israel in order to excuse any vitriol or unfounded criticism towards them. Though these instances on social media in New Zealand are not definitively connected to age-old Judensau in Eastern Europe, the Jewish community in NZ will be wary of this dehumanisation as reminiscent of pre-Holocaust antisemitism, and therefore it should not be overlooked.
This first example is an image of pigs that uses Artificial Intelligence to create a depiction of the Star of David. The Star of David is perhaps the most prominent contemporary symbol of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, so it is clear who the pigs are meant to depict. “Suidae” refers to pigs, hogs, or swine.
Another example is shown below, where the poster refers to IDF soldiers from Israel.
This example from Instagram is a comment on a post about Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld being a Zionist. Disregarding the personal vitriol against him as a person, the commenter tells him to “go to hell with your beloved zionistpigs”. “Zionistpigs” has become a common phrase used to dehumanise all Zionists. It is important to note that in modern antisemitism, the term “Zionist” has become a code word to mean “Jew”.
X/Twitter
The following post from a user on X is blatantly antisemitic, not even hiding behind the term “Zionist”. “Pig jew” and “peace of shit pig jew” is an apparent attempts to dehumanise Jewish people, similar to Jundensau, directing the slur at Jewish people as a whole. The post also calls the person a “baby killer”, evoking the antisemitic blood libel trope.
The next example also uses the Judensau trope to refer to ‘genocidal pig Zionists’, again using the term ‘Zionist’ as code for Jews.
Telegram
Monitoring Telegram has uncovered raw, unfiltered antisemitism, specifically in neo-Nazi channels in NZ. The example below is from one of those groups. The poster comments “jew swine”, in an attempt to dehumanise the subject. The comment here also references the “Final Solution” which is a euphemism to describe the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. Though not completely clear, the context in the channel suggests the poster is referencing Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. Recently he has received a lot of online abuse, including antisemitism targeting his Jewish wife.
The next example is a post in a Telegram channel that contains a screenshot of an email response to a rabbi in New Zealand, upon being welcomed to the community. The reply not only uses the slur ‘kike’ for Judaism, but also calls the sender’s organisation “filthy swine”. There’s a further attempt to dehumanise Jews with the label “jew paricites [sic]”.
