All the symbols depicted in the hate symbols database must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some white supremacists as shorthand for "100% white." Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.
The phrase “The Jew cries out in pain” is shorthand for a longer antisemitic slogan, “The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you.” The slogan, often attributed as a “Polish proverb,” is essentially a claim that Jews constantly portray themselves as victims even though they are themselves the ones who ostensibly perpetrate harm and sorrow.
The “Jew cries out” slogan appears in text, such as social media posts, and has been incorporated into memes. Other antisemitic memes convey the same accusation without using the phrase, such as one image of a stereotypically Jewish man saying, “Why do they persecute me so,” while holding a knife and standing knee deep in a red lake labeled “Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Palestinian blood.”
Sometimes the slogan is paired with another popular antisemitic slogan, often claimed to be a Russian proverb: “The Jew will always tell you what happened to him, but never why.” This slogan implicitly suggests that Jews do harmful things and deserve any antisemitic condemnations or violence against them.
Antisemites have also rewritten the “Jew cries out” phrase into slogans approving violence against Jews, such as “if the Jew cries out in pain, you’ll know you’re doing the right thing.”
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