Chopin and Jews

This chapter illustrates Chopin's invocation of the word Jew, in contexts that often go beyond the purely descriptive and instead verge into invective and abuse. In a correspondence that otherwise portrays a sympathetic and imaginative individual, an overview of his use of “Jew” reveals something else entirely: something repulsive, bitter, and distressing. For advocates of Chopin's music, the common reactions to these outbursts are to ignore them, to make excuses, or to find ways to bracket off the invective from his sounding creations. Yet it will not really do to avert scholars' attention: not only do basic principles of biographical honesty compel them to think in a sustained way about Chopin's anti-Judaism, it is also possible that his tirades tell something about his creative life.