Demons on the Jewish Street

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Abstract

The feuilleton “Demons on the Jewish Street” by Hersh Dovid Nomberg appeared in response to a wave of public interest in demons and dybbuks that spread across Warsaw beginning in early February 1914. This interest was initially spurred by a report in “Der Moment” newspaper about demons allegedly haunting a tenement home in the Jewish quarter of the city. Events came to a head with the appearance of a dybbuk in one of the courtyards of Nalewki, the economic and commercial center of Jewish Warsaw. Nomberg’s feuilleton laments the latent superstition that continues to haunt the Jewish street. The rabid interest in demons and dybbuks is, for him, an indication that the Jewish public is less modern (educated, rational) than its cultural leaders had thought. Turning inward, he blames the Yiddish press for “unleashing darkness” by printing sensationalist coverage of the demons and dybbuks, rather than educating its readers and working toward the development of modern Yiddish culture.