The Figure of the Wandering Jew

Who is the Wandering Jew?
The Wandering Jew is a familiar figure in German culture, based on a short story by an unknown writer that describes the encounter between the Jew Ahasuerus and Jesus. In the narrative, Jesus seeks rest on the wall of Ahasuerus' house during his final journey, but Ahasuerus refuses, and as a result doomed himself to become a restless soul, condemned to eternal exile and wandering.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the figure of the Wandering Jew became a recognized symbol, bearing the burdens of Jewish sins on one hand and symbolizing the transformation from the old European Jew to the new Jew on the other. Dr. Dekel Shay Schory explores this mythical figure in her new book, "Tree Trunks in the Snow," examining the works of four Viennese writers: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, who wrote in German, and Gershon Schoffmann and David Vogel, who wrote in Hebrew.
In her book, Shay Schory delves into how Zweig used this image to depict Jews settling in Europe, finding reprieve from eternal migration, and explores how Schoffmann identified Jewishness in the dark eyes of the wandering gypsy woman.