Page - 150 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

150 | Entangled Entertainers erous nature of language is also the message of a popular antisemitic short story written by the German psychiatrist and author Oskar Panizza (1853–1921), published in 1893 under the title “Th e Operated Jew.”4 In it, the main pro- tagonist, Itzig Faitel Stern, undergoes surgery and blood transfusion to discard his externally recognizable Jewish nature. He also converts to Protestantism. His life after the operation, especially his professional career, is as a result crowned with success. Ultimately, he even wins the heart of a “blonde German woman.” During the wedding, however, Itzig Faitel Stern’s latent Jewishness returns with a vengeance. His concealed Jewish identity resurfaces above all in how he speaks. In a state of exasperation, his “high-pitched, tinny voice” returns and he shouts, “Kéllnererera! . . . Kéllnererera! – Champágnerera! – What’s it called? – Shall I have nothing to drink? – Am I not as good and worthwhile as you all!”5 Th e wed- ding guests are deeply disturbed by the revelation of Stern’s Jewishness and hastily abandon the festivities. Only a few remaining people witness Itzig Faitel Stern’s entire transformation back into a “Jew.” Th e groom’s metamorphosis is not just linguistic, but his pre-op “Jewish” physical characteristics also return in full force. His blond hair begins to curl and turn blue-black, his limbs regain their previous crookedness, and in the end, he even releases the foetor ju daicus, the dreaded “Jewish stench.” But the central distinguishing feature that betrays his Jewishness in the fi rst place is his idiosyncratic use of language. Although Hirsch’s portrayal of Jewish linguistic particularity and its function as an urgent feature of Jewishness repeats a well-known anti-Jewish stereotype, he does not, however, leave it at that. As has been the case in most of the farces I have discussed thus far, Hirsch’s depiction of language as an inclusive characteristic for the determination of being Jewish, which does not establish an unchanging diff erence between Jews and non-Jews, also in turn problematizes the role of language as an essential criterion of distinguishing between Jews and non-Jews. We can see this in Th e Apostle of Schottenfeld in the conversation between Bruno and Father Lorenz. When Bruno tells him that he is destitute, he uses the term stier (br oke). Since Father Lorenz is unfamiliar with this word, Bruno attempts to explain it by saying, “Because I’m in Dalles [p overty].”6 Th is phrase is equally incomprehensible to the priest. Bruno adds that people say stier in Schottenfeld and Dalles in Leopoldstadt. Th e Jews of the Leopoldstadt therefore have a dis- tinct mode of expression; they are at least partially linguistically diff erent from the rest of Viennese society. At the same time, there are also distinctions among non-Jews. Bruno’s use of the word stier points to a sociolect partly unknown to Father Lorenz. Even diff erent non-Jewish groups in Vienna do not always seem to understand each other. In this context, language does not indicate any ethnic affi liation, but possesses a social potential for distinction. In Hirsch’s farce, a Jew explains to a Catholic priest the meaning of a term used in his own parish. If the use of language marks a gap between people, then this gulf is, in this case, more This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.