the wandering jew meaning

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Wandering jew:, by: joseph jacobs.

• Influence of Legend on Literature.
• Origin of Legend.

Imaginary figure of a Jerusalem shoemaker who, taunting Jesus on the way to crucifixion, was told by him to "go on forever till I return." The legend first appeared in a pamphlet of four leaves entitled "Kurtze Beschreibung und Erzählung von einem Juden mit Namen Ahasverus." This professes to have been printed at Leyden in 1602 by Christoff Crutzer, but no printer of that name has been discovered, and the real place and printer can not be ascertained. The legend spread quickly throughout Germany, no less than eight different editions appearing in 1602; altogether forty appeared in Germany before the end of the eighteenth century. Eight editions in Dutch and Flemish are known; and the story soon passed to France, the first French edition appearing in Bordeaux, 1609, and to England, where it appeared in the form of a parody in 1625 (Jacobs and Wolf, "Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica," p. 44, No. 221). The pamphlet was translated also into Danish and Swedish; and the expression "eternal Jew" is current in Czech. The pretended existence of the Wandering Jew, who is stated to be met with from time to time in all of these countries, was eagerly seized upon amidst the religious disturbances caused by the Reformation, as furnishing an eye-witness of the crucifixion. The various appearances claimed for him were at Hamburg in 1547; in Spain in 1575; at Vienna, 1599; Lübeck, 1601; Prague, 1602; Lübeck, 1603; Bavaria, 1604; Ypres, 1623; Brussels, 1640; Leipsic, 1642; Paris, 1644; Stamford, 1658; Astrakhan, 1672; Frankenstein, 1676; Munich, 1721; Altbach, 1766; Brussels, 1774; and Newcastle, 1790. The last appearance mentioned appears to have been in America in the year 1868, when he was reported to have visited a Mormon named O'Grady (see "Desert News," Sept. 23, 1868).

The figure of the doomed sinner, forced to wander without the hope of rest in death till the millennium, impressed itself upon the popular imagination, and passed thence into literary art, mainly with reference to the seeming immortality of the wandering Jewish race. These two aspects of the legend are represented in the different names given to the central figure. In German-speaking countries he is referred to as "Der Ewige Jude" (the immortal, or eternal, Jew), while in Romance-speaking countries he is known as "Le Juif Errant" and "L'Ebreo Errante"; the English form, probably because derived from the French, has followed the Romance. The Spanish name is "Juan Espera en Dios." The legend has been the subject of poems by Schubart, Schreiber (1807), W. Müller, Lenau, Chamisso, Schlegel, Julius Mosen (an epic, 1838), and Koehler; of novels by Franzhorn (1818), Oeklers, and Schucking; and of tragedies by Klinemann ("Ahasuerus," 1827) and Zedlitz (1844). Hans Andersen made his "Ahasuerus" the Angel of Doubt, and was imitated by Heller in a poem on "The Wandering of Ahasuerus," which he afterward developed into three cantos. Robert Hamerling, in his "Ahasver in Rom" (Vienna, 1866), identifies Nero with the Wandering Jew. Goethe had designed a poem on the subject, the plot of which he sketched in his "Dichtung und Wahrheit."

In France, E. Quinet published his prose epic on the legend in 1833, making the subject the judgment of the world; and Eugene Sue wrote his "Juif Errant" in 1844. From the latter work, in which the author connects the story of Ahasuerus with that of Herodias, most people derive their knowledge of the legend. Grenier's poem on the subject (1857) may have been inspired by Gustav Doré's designs published in the preceding year, perhaps the most striking of Doré's imaginative works. In England—besides the ballad given in Percy's "Reliques" and reprinted in Child's "English and Scotch Ballads" (1st ed., viii. 77)—there is a drama entitled "The Wandering Jew, or Love's Masquerade," written by Andrew Franklin (1797). William Godwin's novel "St. Leon" (1799) has the motive of the immortal man, and Shelley introduced Ahasuerus into his "Queen Mab." George Croly's "Salathiel," which appeared anonymously in 1828, treated the subject in an imaginative form; it has been recently reprinted under the title "Tarry Thou Till I Come" (New York, 1901).

According to L. Neubaur, the legend is founded on the words given in Matt. xvi. 28, which are indeed quoted in the earliest German pamphlet of 1602. So, too, from John xxi. 20 et seq. a legend arose in the Church that St. John would not die before the second coming of Jesus; while another legend declares that the attendant Malchus, whose ear St. Peter cut off in the garden of Gethsemane (John xviii. 10), was condemned to wander till the second coming. His action is associated in some way with the scoffing at Jesus, and is so represented in a broadsheet which appeared in 1584. An actual predecessor of the Wandering Jew is recorded in the "Flores Historiarum" by Roger of Wendover in the year 1228. An Armenian archbishop, then visiting England, was asked by the monks of St. Albans about the celebrated Joseph of Arimathea, who had spoken to Jesus, and was still alive. The archbishop answered that he had himself seen him in Armenia, and that his name was Cartaphilus; on passing Jesus carrying the cross he had said: "Go on quicker," Jesus thereupon answering: "I go; but thou shalt wait till I come." Matthew Paris included this passage from Roger of Wendover in his own history; and other Armenians appeared in 1252 at the Abbey of St. Albans, repeating the same story, which was regarded there as a great proof of the Christian religion (Matthew Paris," Chron. Majora," ed. Luard, London, 1880, v. 340-341). The same archbishop is said to have appeared at Tournai in 1243, telling the same story, which is given in the "Chronicles of Phillip Mouskes," ii. 491, Brussels, 1839. According to Guido Bonnati, the astrologer known to Dante, this living witness of the crucifixion was known as Johannes Buttadæus because of his having struck Jesus. Under this name he appears at Mugello in 1413 and in Florence in 1415 (S. Morpurgo, "L'Ebreo Errante in Italia," Florence, 1891).

It is difficult, however, to connect this Cartaphilus, Buttadæus, or Buttadeo with the later Ahasuerus of the pamphlet of 1602, no trace being found either in popular legend or in literature during the intervening two centuries. Graetz supposes that the somewhat different picture given of the Wandering Jew in a book called "The Turkish Spy" (1644), in which work the Wandering Jew is called "Sieur Paule Marrana," and is said to have passed through the tortures of the Inquisition in Spain, Portugal, and Rome, was derived from a Marano author (see, however, Boswell's "Life of Johnson," under date April 10, 1783, and Malone's note). Moncure D. Conway attempts to connect the legend with others of immortal beings, as those of King Arthur, Frederick Barbarossa, and Thomas the Rhymer, not to speak of Rip Van Winkle. These again he connects with immortals visiting the earth; as Yima in Parsism, and the "ancient of days" in the books of Daniel and Enoch. Yima and Enoch, as well as Elijah, are also credited with immortality; but there is no evidence of any connection of these names with the legend of the Wandering Jew which, as stated above, was put into currency in 1602 in Germany, by some one who was acquainted with the earlier form of the story known only in literary sources from Matthew Paris.

• G. Paris, Le Juif Errant, Paris, 1881;
• M. D. Conway, The Wandering Jew, London, 1881;
• H. Graetz, in Papers of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, pp. 1-4;
• Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, v. 1834-1836, Rotterdam, 1707;
• Graesze, Der Tannhäuser und der Ewige Jude, Dresden, 1861;
• Jacob Bibliophile, in Curiosités des Croyances Populaires, pp. 105-141, Paris, 1859;
• Neubaur, Die Sage vom Ewigen Juden, 2d ed., Leipsic, 1893.

Wandering Jew

In popular folklore, the Jew who hurried on Jesus when he was led to Crucifixion . As punishment, he was compelled to wander about the world, homeless and restless, until Judgment Day .

There are several variations of this story.

The first tells of Kartaphilos, the door-keeper of the Judgment Hall and employed by Pilate . He struck Jesus in the back with his fist as as he led Him forth, saying, "Go on faster, Jesus"; whereupon Jesus replied, "I am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come again." 1 It goes on to add that Kartaphilos was baptized by Anannias and received the name Joseph. He falls into a trance at the end of every hundred years and wakes up as a man of about thirty.

The second legend relates that Jesus, pressed down by the weight of the cross, stopped to rest in front of door of a cobbler named Ahasuerus. The craftsman pushed him away, shouting "Get off! Away with you, away!" Jesus replied, "Truly I go away, and that quickly, but tarry thou till I come." 2

A third variant has it that it was Ahasuerus, the cobbler, who dragged Jesus before the judgment seat of Pilate, saying to him, "Faster, Jesus, faster!"

There is a German legend in which the "Wandering Jew" is associated with John Buttadaeus. He was seen in Antwerp in the thirteenth century, again in the fifteenth century, and again in the sixteenth century. His last appearance was in Brussels in 1774. Leonard Doldius of Nünberg writes that Ahasuerus is sometimes called Buttadaeus. 3

The French call him Iscaac Laquedem or Lakedion. 4

Schubert has a poem entitled Ahasuer (the Wandering Jew) .

• Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Alban , 1228.
• Paul von Eitzen, 1547.
• Praxis Alchymiae , 1604.
• Mitternacht: Dissertatio in Johannem XXI. 19, 1640.
• Bonnerjea, Biren. (1920). A Dictionary of Superstitions and Mythology . Thomson Gale.
• Cobham Brewer, E. (2001). The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable . Cassell reference.

Send comments , cite this article .

• Variations Eternal Jew
• Pronunciation ˈwɒnd(ə)rɪŋ dʒuː
• Previous article Walriderske
• Next article warlock

Article created on Saturday, September 5, 1998 .

• © MCMXCV–MMXX Encyclopedia Mythica. Some rights reserved.

The story behind ‘wandering Jew’

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One of the earliest versions comes from Italy, in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Apparently some pilgrims told the abbot of Ferraria that they had met a Jew in Armenia who confessed that he had not helped Jesus during his Passion, that is, his arrest, trial and crucifixion. Jesus had cursed him for that and decreed that the man would neither age nor die until the Second Coming. So far, that may not sound like much of a curse. But the man was destined to find no rest throughout eternity.

According to a version of the tale from seventeenth century Germany, the Bishop of Schleswig spied a tall, barefoot man with shoulder-length hair in a Hamburg church in 1542. He introduced himself as Ahasuerus – yes, the name of Queen Esther’s king – and said that he was the Jewish shoemaker who drove away Christ in his hour of need. Later the man was spotted in Madrid, and by that time was said to be fluent in every language on Earth.

Over the years, writers from Geoffrey Chaucer to Mark Twain have taken up this tale. It has been the basis for three films, two movies, and an opera, and was a popular English broadside ballad in the late seventeenth century, titled “The Shoemaker of Jerusalem.” In the ballad, the Jew spends his long life converting pagans to Christianity.

As can be expected, the story has a distinct anti-Semitic flavor, and some variants of the ballad emphasize this. Accordingly, many botanists have started calling the three species of spiderwort by the Latin Tradescantia, rather than use the offensive term. Still as many as six other plants bear the name.

In his “Dictionary of Jewish Lore & Legend,” Alan Unterman points out that the Wandering Jew only stops to eat his meals.

“The story has affinities with that of the biblical Cain who wandered as punishment for his sin,” he writes, “and in the Christian mind it symbolized the condition of the Jewish People who, because of their sin in rejecting Jesus, wander forever, knowing no rest and witnessing to the truth of Christianity.”

Supposedly the most recent sighting was in 1868, when a Mormon claimed to have met the unhappy wanderer in Salt Lake City. By that time, his appearance was thought to foretell a natural catastrophe. As far as I can tell, Jews have wandered the globe because of, not in advance of catastrophes.

Caren Schnur Neile, Ph.D., is a performance storyteller. She teaches storytelling studies at Florida Atlantic University. Contact her at [email protected] .

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Wandering Jew

Wandering jew.

WANDERING JEW , figure in Christian legend condemned to wander by Jesus until his second coming for having rebuffed or struck him on his way to the crucifixion. The story has given rise to a variety of folktales and literature still flourishing into the 20 th century. Like the image of the Jew in popular conception, the personality of and tales about the Wandering Jew reflect the beliefs and tastes of the age in which he is described. While in the era of Church dominion he inspires religious horror and exhortations to piety, the character is later used as a vehicle for social satire, and even appears as a tragic figure expressing a spirit of revolt against the Church and the established order. He also appears in his old role as a target for modern *antisemitism . The name Wandering Jew has been given to a card game, a game of dice, plants, and birds. The legend has obvious affinities with other tales of eternal wanderers, primarily Cain (with whom the Jewish people as a whole is identified by Christian homilists, beginning with *Tertullian (150–230)).

At first the legend had only indirect connections with the Jews. Its beginnings have been traced (by L. Neubauer, see bibliography ) to the New Testament story of the high priest 's officer who struck Jesus (John 18: 20–22); it subsequently became linked and equated with other figures and elements, and in particular was associated with sayings attributed to Jesus foretelling his second coming (Mat. 16: 28; John 21: 20). The legend changed, and details were added. This story of the sinner doomed to eternal life apparently circulated in oral tradition in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean as late as the 15 th century.

When the legend appeared in Europe, it readily gave expression to the prevailing medieval anti-Jewish hostility. The first written account specifically mentioning a Jew condemned for his sin to live until Jesus' second coming is recorded in a 13 th -century chronicle of Bolognese origin. This states that, in 1223, some pilgrims at the monastery of Ferrara related "that they had seen a certain Jew in Armenia who had been present at the Passion of the Lord, and, as He was going to His martyrdom, drove Him along wickedly with these words 'Go, go, thou tempter and seducer, to receive what you have earned.' Jesus is said to have answered him: 'I go, and you will await me until I come again.'" The Jew subsequently repented of the deed, converted to Christianity, and led an ascetic life while enduring his punishment ( Ignoti Monachi Cisterciencis S. Mariae de Ferraria Chronica… ed. A. Gandenzi, 1888). The English chronicler Roger of Wendover relates in his Flores Historiarum for 1228 that an Armenian bishop visiting the monastery of St. Albans told substantially the same story, adding that the man had struck Jesus. The tale was incorporated by Matthew Paris (d. 1259) in his widely circulated Chronica Majora , and in many other writings – in entirety or mentioned – in chronicles, poems, tractates, pilgrim itineraries, and miracle plays, from the 13 th to 16 th centuries in Italy, Spain, France, and England. The scene with Jesus is said to have been painted by Andrea Vanni of Siena (d. 1414).

At the beginning of the 17 th century a chapbook was printed in German which accentuated the anti-Jewish implications of the legend, and was to popularize it further and inaugurate its transposition to further literary genres. Evidently based on Matthew Paris ' chronicle, it first appeared under different imprints in Germany dated 1602, entitled Kurtze Beschreibung und Erzehlung von einem Juden mit Namen Ahasverus . In the copy published under the imprint of "Christoff Creutzer of Leyden" it is related that Paulus von Eitzen, bishop of Schleswig, in the winter of 1542, when attending church in Hamburg, saw a tall man, dressed in threadbare garments, with long hair, standing barefoot in the chancel; whenever the name of Jesus was pronounced he bowed his head, beat his breast, and sighed profoundly. It was reported that he was a shoemaker named Ahasuerus who had cursed Jesus on his way to the crucifixion. On further questioning he related the historical events that had occurred since. He conversed in the language of the country he happened to be visiting. This version shows "Ahasuerus" as a fully fledged personification of the Jewish people, incorporating the themes of participation in the crucifixion, condemnation to eternal suffering until Jesus' second coming, and the bearing of witness to the truth of the Christian tradition. The description of his person suggests the well-known figure of the Jewish *peddler .

In former versions of the legend, the man who assailed Jesus is referred to by various names: Cartaphilus, Buttadeus, Buttadeo, Boutedieu, Votadio, Juan Espera en Dios. Subsequently the name Ahasuerus (then a cant name for Jew through the familiarity it achieved in *Purim plays ) became the most common appellation of the Wandering Jew in later literature, though in French he is frequently called Isaac Laque dem (corrupted Hebrew for "Isaac the Old" or "from the East"). In the German connotation he appears in a distinctly anti-Jewish light, referred to as the "Eternal Jew" (Ger. Der ewige Jude ), which in English and French versions became the "Wandering Jew" ( le Juif errant ).

Numerous reissues of the chapbook appeared in German in varying versions in the 17 th century, nine of which are attributed to the authorship of a (pseudonymous) Chrystostum Dudulaeus Westphalus. It was translated or paraphrased into French (notably the Histoire admirable du juif errant , c. 1650, reprinted well into the 19 th century), Danish ( Sandru Beskriffuelse , 1621), Swedish ( Jerusalems Skomager , 1643), Estonian (printed at Reval, 1613), and Italian ( Narrazione d'un Giudeo errante , and others).

In Folktale

Well over 100 folktales have invested the legend of the Wandering Jew with many local variations in places far apart, e.g., when the moon is old, he is very very old, but when the moon is young he turns young again (Ukraine); he may only rest for as long as it takes to eat a morsel of white bread (Westphalia), and can only rest on two harrows or a plowshare (Denmark, Sweden). Throughout the Alps his appearance presaged some calamity. In France his passing was connected with storm, epidemics, or famine; 19 th -century museums in Ulm and Berne even exhibited large shoes allegedly worn by the Wandering Jew. Mark Twain, in his Innocents Abroad (1869), summarizes a local version of the legend told in Jerusalem by his guide in the Via Dolorosa .

After 1600 the Jew was reported to have made his appearance in localities in numerous countries at various dates (among many: Luebeck, 1603; Paris, 1604; Brussels, 1640; Leipzig, 1642; Munich, 1721; London, 1818).

In Literature

In the 17 th and 18 th centuries the Wandering Jew was the subject of complaintes or lyric laments by French popular singers. In England a 17 th -century ballad entitled "The Wandering Jew" was printed in Percy's Reliques (1765). The Wandering Jew or Love's Masquerade , a comedy by Andrew Franklin, was produced at Drury Lane , London, in 1797.

From the end of the 17 th century the Wandering Jew was used to describe "at first hand" events in world history or remote corners of the earth. *Goethe planned an epic poem based on the legend to survey events in history and religion and the Church (begun c. 1773; pub. by J. Minor, Goethes Fragmente vom ewigen Juden… 1904). The Wandering Jew became a popular theme in Romantic literature, ushered in by the Swabian poet Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's Der ewige Jude (1783), a poem in which Ahasuerus, standing on Mt. Carmel and overcome by despair, recounts how he has vainly sought death in battle, fire, flood, and tempest. Shelley invests him in Queen Mab (1813) with Promethean dimensions as the rebel against the dictates of a tyrannical deity.

Other literary treatments of the legend include, in French, Edgar Quinet's modern morality play Ahasverus (1833); Eugène Sue's highly colored novel Le Juif errant (1844–45), an anti-Jesuit satire (filmed in France in 1926); and a novel by Dumas Père, Isaac Laquedem (Paris, 1853). Gustav Doré published 12 engravings illustrating the legend in 1856. There is a short satirical story by Guillaume Apollinaire (1910; translated into English by R.I. Hall, The Wandering Jew , 1965). In Danish, Hans Christian Andersen 's drama, Ahasverus , was first staged in 1847. Among German writers, Karl Gutzkow ( Plan eines Ahasvers , 1842) identifies him with the evil attributes of Judaism. Kierkegaard in his notes (1835–37) depicts Ahasuerus as a man whom God cursed and outlawed. To Maxim *Gorki Ahasuerus is a symbol of all Jews in "The Jewish Massacre." August Strindberg in a short poem dealt with Ahasuerus' difficulties in coping with the complexities of modern life (in Ordalek och Smakonst , Stockholm, 1905).

English and American literary treatments include George Croly's historical novel Salathiel (1827), Nathaniel Hawthorne 's story in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), Rudyard Kipling 's "The Wandering Jew" (in Life's Handicap , 1891), a yarn by A.T. Quiller Couch (in Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts , 1900), and short stories by William Sydney Porter (O. Henry; in Sixes and Sevens . 1911), and John Galsworthy ( A Simple Tale , 1914), and E. Temple Thurston's popular play The Wandering Jew (1920). Another popular work was the erotic interpretation in the U.S. novel My First Two Thousand Years by G.S. Viereck and P. Eldbridge (1928).

Among Jewish authors who have used the legend as a symbol are Jaroslav Vrcblický, the Czech poet (in three poems between 1872 and 1902), Abraham Goldfaden (poem in Yiddish, Evige Yude , Frankfurt, 1880s), and David Pinski (a one-act Yiddish play The Eternal Jew , 1906). The Wandering Jew appears as the narrator in the biography of Jesus by Edmond Fleg (1933).

Movies include the Yiddish film The Wandering Jew (1933), starring Jacob Ben-Ami, and an English film of the same name with Conrad Veidt (1935).

The hatred of the old superstition is turned into understanding and blessing in the Danish Hans Hartvig Seedorf 's poem "Ahasuerus and the Plough" (1961), in which Ahasuerus is bidden to rest on his plow and thus bless the earth: for by the Jew "stones become grapes/ and figs grow from sand./ Pass between lilies, thou son of Israel,/ into the Promised Land of desire."

bibliography:

J. Gaer, Legend of the Wandering Jew (1961); G.K. Anderson, Legend of the Wandering Jew (1965); Baron, Social 2 , 11 (1967), 177–82; J. Karlowicz, in: Biblioteka Warszawska , 3 (1900), 1–13; 214–32; F. Rosenberg, From Shylock to Svengali (1960); L. Neubauer, Die Sage vom ewigen Juden (1893); A. Yarmolinsky, in: Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects (1929; Slavic treatments of legend); A. Scheiber, in: Midwest Folklore , 4 (1954), 221–35; 6 (1956), 155–8 (Hungarian treatments); F. Kynass, Der Jude im deutschen Volkslied (1934); H.C. Holdschmidt, Der Jude auf dem Theater des deutschen Mittelalters (1935).

[Yvonne Glikson]

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Wandering Jew ★★½ 1920

An excellent print of the rare Austrian film version of the classic legend, one of at least three silent versions. A Jew is condemned to wander the earth for eternity. 65m/B VHS . AT Ernst Bath, Else Osterheim, Josef Schreiter, Rudolf Schildkraut, Joseph Schildkraut; D: Otto Kreisler; W: Heinrich Glucksmann.

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Wandering Jew

Definition of Wandering Jew

Note: The name wandering dude is now often used as an alternate name for this plant due to the offensive nature of the historical name. Other common names for this plant are inch plant and tradescantia .

Word History

1632, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near Wandering Jew

wandering jenny

wanderingly

Cite this Entry

“Wandering Jew.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Wandering%20Jew. Accessed 20 May. 2024.

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The exile's library

"Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the Road, Which we discover we must travel too."

When I was five years old, my family spent a summer in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a postcard Alpine village with geranium-filled balconies, heart-shaped openings in the shutters and orange cows that waddled through the little streets at dusk, sounding their copper bells. In those days, I had no sense of my social or cultural identity: I didn't know that my family was Jewish, and therefore I had no notion of how strange it was for a Jewish family to choose, as a holiday destination, and less than a decade after the war, a village that had been one of Hitler's favourite haunts. Deep-blue woods rose on the surrounding slopes, and often we trekked up the shaded paths to one of the hilltops for a picnic. One of these paths was a via crucis, each station sculpted in wood and set high up on a pole: 14 little scenes that led, as through a comic strip, from Christ's trial and sentence to the laying of his body in the tomb.

My nurse (a Czech Jew who had escaped the Nazis, and who possessed little imagination and less humour) knew the story of the passion only vaguely, and her explanation of the various images never quite satisfied me. One scene, however - that of Christ's third fall - she seemed to know well. Christ, having stumbled twice under the weight of the cross, stumbles once more, this time by the door of a Jewish cobbler called Ahasverus. The cobbler pitilessly pushes Christ away, telling him to move on. "I will move on," Christ answers, "but you will tarry till I come." From that day onwards, Ahasverus is condemned to wander the earth, and is only allowed to stop here and there for short respites. His shoes and his clothes never wear out completely, and every 100 years he is miraculously rejuvenated. His beard hangs down to his feet, he carries five coins in his pocket that match the five wounds of the man he offended, and he is able to speak every language in the world. Since he is a little over 2,000 years old, he has witnessed countless events of historical importance and knows every story there is to tell.

Though the Eternal Wanderer, condemned because of a sin committed or a promise not kept, has a few precursors in Jewish, Islamic and early Christian and even Buddhist literature, the story as we know it first makes its appearance some time in the 13th century. The earliest dateable telling is Italian, tucked away in a Bolognese chronicle spanning the years 781 to 1228. In 1223, according to the chronicle, a group of pilgrims arrived at the abbey of Ferraria and informed the abbot that, when travelling in Armenia, they had met a certain Jew who had revealed to them that he had been present at the passion and had driven Christ from his door, and was thus cursed till the second coming. "This Jew," the chronicle explains, "is said, every hundred years, to be made young to the age of 30, and he cannot die until the Lord returns."

However, the most influential of all the early versions of the legend, in that it lent the Wandering Jew a tangible contemporary presence, was a small German pamphlet published in 1602 under the title of Kurtze Beschreibung und Erzehlung [sic] von einem Juden mit Namen Ahasverus ("Short Description and Narrative of a Jew Called Ahasverus"). It tells how the Bishop of Schleswig, in his youth, had visited Hamburg in 1542, and there had seen in church, one Sunday, "a man who was a very tall person, with long hair reaching down over his shoulders, standing barefoot by the chancel". The soles of his feet were hard as horn, and so thick that one could measure them with two fingers held across. The stranger turned out to be Ahasverus, the Jew who drove Christ away from his door. He told the bishop that, at the time of Christ's passion, he was a shoemaker, and that after he was cursed, he wandered without respite through the world. To the bishop's astonishment, Ahasverus was able to describe in detail "the lives, sufferings and deaths of the holy apostles". Years later, in 1575, the Schleswig ambassadors to Spain reported back to the bishop that they had seen a stranger of similar traits in Madrid, and that he spoke good Spanish: later versions lend him the power to speak all the languages in the world. This is the Wandering Jew who appears in the work of countless writers, from Chaucer to Cervantes, from Rodrigues Lobo to Mark Twain, from Eugène Sue to Fruttero and Lucentini.

The story of the tireless wanderer haunted my dreams. I didn't feel his fate as a curse; I thought how wonderful it would be to travel alone and endlessly, to visit every country in the world and to meet all sorts of extraordinary people; above all, to be able to read any book that fell into your hands. Until the age of eight, my only languages were English and German. I had enviously scrutinised the Hebrew letters in my father's coffee-table Haggadah, and the Arabic inscriptions on the boxes of Egyptian dates that my mother ordered from Cairo, and the Spanish words in the storybooks sent to me from Buenos Aires by an enterprising aunt who hoped that they would encourage me to learn my native language. All these scripts were as tantalising and mysterious as the secret codes that appeared in the Sherlock Holmes stories. I envied the Wandering Jew's ability to read in the universal library.

To see the Wandering Jew's fate not as a curse but as a blessing may be less odd than we might think. Two conflicting impulses rule our short time on earth: one draws us forward, towards the distant horizon, curious to find out what awaits beyond; the other roots us to one place and weds us to one sky. Both impulses are ours, define us as human beings as much as self-consciousness and its corollary, language. The impulse to move on and the impulse to stand still, shape our sense of place; the urge to know who we are and the urge to question that knowledge define our sense of time.

Stateless wanderers and city dwellers, cattle herders and crop farmers, explorers and householders (or, in literary terms, Enkidu and Gilgamesh, Cain and Abel, Ulysses and Penelope) have, throughout time, embodied these two longings, one for what lies outside, the other for what lies within. And two moments in Christ's passion, two stations in his via crucis, symbolise, perhaps, these opposing forces. The moving and the questioning are acted out in the ninth station, when the meeting with Ahasverus takes place; the standing still and the mirroring of self occur in the sixth station, when Veronica places a cloth on Christ's face and finds his image miraculously embedded in the fabric.

These vital forces compete with and complement one other. To move away from the place we call ours allows us a better sense of our identity but, at the same time, distracts us from self-reflection; to sit in a steadfast point helps us unveil that identity in communion with the numinous, but also renders the task impossible by blinding us to what defines us in the surrounding tangible world.

It may be that, of all the instruments that we have invented to help us along the path of self-discovery, books are the most useful, the most practical, the most concrete. By lending words to our bewildering experience, books become compasses that embody the four cardinal points: mobility and stability, self-reflectiveness and the gift of looking outward. The old metaphor that sees the world as a book we read and in which we too are read, merely recognises this guiding, all-encompassing quality. Even after Ulysses has returned home to sit by his quiet hearth, Ithaca remains a port of call on the shores of the beckoning sea, one among the countless volumes of the universal library; Dante, reaching the supreme vision of love holding bound "Into one volume all the leaves whose flight / Is scattered through the universe around", feels his will and his desire turned by that love "that moves the sun and the other stars". Likewise, the reader in the end finds the page written for him, a part of the vast, monstrous volume made up of all the libraries and lending sense to the universe.

And yet, almost all the depictions of the Wandering Jew show him bookless, keen on finding salvation in the world of flesh and stone, not that of words. This feels wrong. In the most popular of the fictionalised versions, Eugène Sue's 19th-century roman-feuilleton, Le Juif Errant, the underlying theme is the wicked Jesuit plot to govern the world; the intellectual undertakings of the timeless Wanderer himself are not explored. On Ahasverus's ongoing journey (according to Sue) libraries are merely gathering-rooms in aristocratic houses, and books either pious tracts or evil catalogues of sin under the guise of Jesuitical confession manuals.

But it is hard to believe that a merciful god would condemn anyone to a worldwide waiting-room without reading material. Instead, I imagine Ahasverus granted 2,000 years of itinerant reading; I imagine him visiting the world's great libraries and bookstores, exhausting and replenishing his book-bag with whatever new titles appear during his travels, from Marco Polo's Il Milione to Cervantes's Don Quixote, from the Chinese Dream of Red Mansions to Virginia Woolf's Orlando, in which (like all readers) he will find traces of his own curious destiny. Closer to our time, so as not to be over-laden, the Wanderer travels perhaps with an e-book which he periodically recharges at an internet café. And in his reader's mind, the pages, printed and virtual, overlay and blend, and create new stories from a mass of remembered and half-remembered readings, multiplying his books again and again.

Long after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, Jews in scattered lands continued to carry out the appointed rituals, moving about in a space that no longer existed in stone and mortar, but only in the words set down for their guidance. That is the nature of all exile: it affirms the perseverance of memory. Expelled from their native al-Andalus, the Arabs of Córdoba, Toledo and Granada continued to recite the verses that their Spanish landscape had inspired; as refugees in South America and Canada, the Armenians who survived the Turkish massacre rewrote the libraries destroyed in their Anatolian homeland; the survivors of the military dictatorships in Chile and Argentina created publishing companies in their new countries for the literature that continued to be written in spite of the blood-imposed silence; in Paris, the Cubans who fled Castro's regime borrowed the French language and tailored it to suit the retelling of their stories; in London, Mahmoud Darwish blended the Palestinian cadence of his verses with his readings of Borges, Paul Eluard and Emily Dickinson; Vladimir Nabokov carried with him, into his American exile, the Russian dictionary which held, he said, the building-blocks of all his childhood reading.

The examples are countless. The condemned crowds outside the city walls, Ahasverus's travelling companions in the detention camps of Calais, Lampedusa, Málaga and scores of other places, carrying with them the tattered libraries of their past, are so vast and varied that our protected inner citadels seem desolate in comparison. In our anxiety to punish our enemies and protect ourselves, we have forgotten what it is that we are meant to be securing. In our fear, we have allowed our own rights and freedoms to be distorted or curtailed. Instead of locking the other out we have locked ourselves in. We have forgotten that our libraries should open on to the world, not pretend to isolate us from it. We have become our own prisoners.

That is the deeper meaning of the Wandering Jew's punishment, and its inevitable consequence, because no curse is ever one-sided. The legend of the man condemned to wander because of an uncharitable act became an uncharitable act in which many men were condemned to wander. Pogroms, expulsions, ethnic cleansings, genocides regardless of nationality or creed are the abominable extensions of this reading of the legend.

But whether we wander to lose or to find ourselves, in libraries and on roads, depends on our own will, not on the hostile or welcoming cities that lie behind and before us. We can allow ourselves to be anchored in a shallow page, never moving forward, or, like the Wandering Jew, steer forward with the flow, on and on, towards the enlarging horizon. "For my part," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, one of the most charitable of men, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

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Wandering jew.

A phrase that can describe the most trivial situations such as having to change tables at a wedding.

Wandering Jew is a phrase that trips easily off the tongue and can be heard to describe the most trivial situations such as having to change tables at a wedding to a busy travel schedule, as I once heard someone say, "With bookings in London, New York, LA, and Johannesburg, I'm going to be the Wandering Jew this year." But did this self-important lecturer know to what millennia-long antisemitic legend he was referring?

It all started in the Greek Testament, when Jesus is carrying his cross along the Via Dolorosa and supposedly a Jewish man assaults him or chides him for resting along the side of the road. Jesus responds with a curse that this man will wander earth and know no rest - not even death. In the early modern era, some priests report actually meeting the Wandering Jew - according to some he converted to Christianity and according to all, he was not ageing very well.

The predominance of Jews in the peddling trade that required them to travel from town to town and the unique status of Yiddish as a borderless language fuelled the antisemitic notion that all Jews were destined to be wanderers.

Today, the majority of Jews live in Israel - perhaps this empirical fact will finally put the legend of the Wandering Jew to rest.

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Wandering Jew

• a legendary character condemned to roam without rest because he struck Christ on the day of the Crucifixion.
• Also wandering Jew, Wan·der·ing-jew [ ] Also called inch plant . any of various trailing or creeping plants, as Zebrina pendula or Tradescantia fluminensis, having green or variegated leaves: a popular houseplant.
• (in medieval legend) a character condemned to roam the world eternally because he mocked Christ on the day of the Crucifixion

wandering Jew

• any of several related creeping or trailing plants of tropical America, esp Tradescantia fluminensis and Zebrina pendula: family Commelinaceae
• a similar creeping plant of the genus Commelina

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Word history and origins.

Origin of Wandering Jew 1

Example Sentences

In England the Wandering Jew was reputed never to eat but merely to drink water which came from a rock.

The Wandering Jew has been regarded as a symbolic figure representing the wanderings and sufferings of his race.

Most people are so short-lived nowadays; it's only with that Wandering Jew now that I ever have a chat over old times.

I must have muttered aloud something to myself about the Wandering Jew, for the old man spake up, bitterly and loudly.

Since the French visits referred to, it seems that the Wandering Jew's advent has not been able to gain much credence.

Ahasver, the Wandering Jew: Between History and Literature

The Wandering Jew is one of the most important figures in the history of Antisemitism. In its modern iteration, it dates to a most mysterious pamphlet, published anonymously and by an unknown publisher somewhere in German-speaking Europe in 1602. The pamphlet describes how a Jew named Ahasverus mocked Christ on his way to the Crucifixion, for which God cursed him to wander the earth until the Second Coming. The lecture will present new evidence about the origins of the 1602 pamphlet, discuss the surprising motivation behind it, and reveal new details about its early reception history.

Department of German Princeton University 203 East Pyne Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 (609) 258-4142 [email protected]

© 2024 The Trustees of Princeton University Last updated: 9 November 2022

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My Favorite Wandering Jews

By Stephanie Feldman | July 21, 2014

But I loved the Wandering Jew—his mystery, his magic, his mix of danger and tragedy. I couldn’t leave him behind to the more-or-less explicit anti-Semitism of 300-year-old British authors. I didn’t want him to be, as my professors would say, “the Other.”

I decided to write my own gothic novel with a Wandering Jew based on Jewish tradition. I studied Jewish folklore and history and found a wealth of wizards and travelers, some of whom appear in my novel,  The Angel of Losses .

Here are a few of my favorite Wandering Jews:

A body of Jewish folklore features the prophet Elijah, back on earth after his ascension to help pious Jews in need. He arrives as an unnamed stranger, and disappears again before anyone can guess his true identity.

2. Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph

The second-century rabbi is a famous mystic and religious scholar—”Head of all the Sages,” according to the Talmud—but he was also a political figure. Akiba traveled through the Middle East encouraging Jewish communities to support the Jewish general Bar Kochba, who led a briefly successful revolt against the Romans. I prize him for his legendary journey to paradise. According to lore, Akiba brought three rabbis with him on this forbidden mission. Upon breaching paradise, one died, another went insane, and the third became an apostate. Akiba, somehow, survived unscathed.

3. Eldad Ha-Dani

In the ninth century, Eldad Ha-Dani traveled through North Africa, the Middle East, and Spain, announcing himself as a member of an independent Jewish kingdom in Africa founded by four of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel. His contemporaries accepted as truth his tales of an extraordinarily wealthy, hidden Jewish nation. Today, scholars consider him to be a fraud, but his mastery of an unusual version of Hebrew suggests that he may have indeed come from some kind of surviving isolated Jewish community in Africa.

4. Benjamin of Tudela

A twelfth-century Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela traveled through Europe, North Africa, and Asia. His narrative, recognized as a precursor of Marco Polo’s, features both meticulous observations of Jewish communities and fantastic tales of Jewish magicians and enigmatic tribes.

5. and 6. Shlomo Molko and David Reubeni

Messianic fever gripped the Jewish population in the wake of the fifteenth-century Spanish expulsion. Molko, the son of conversos, rediscovered his Jewish heritage and traveled through Europe and the Middle East with self-proclaimed Messiah David Ruebeni. Molko and Reubeni’s journey speaks to the desperation and hope of their time, the sense that the reassembly of the diaspora—and the Ten Lost Tribes of legend—was imminent. Molko was burned at the stake in Italy, and his shawl is still on display in Prague.

7. Israel Cohen

Reading him when I did, I came to see Israel Cohen, who published several books about the Jewish communities of Europe, as an early twentieth-century successor to Benjamin of Tudela. I couldn’t shake one of his notes about the Vilna Jewish library, which one of my characters adds to his collection of legends of the Wandering Jew: “Beneath the Library there was a little room, on the door of which in bold letters appeared the sign of a Hebrew scribe. The door opened as I descended, and out came a hungry-looking man, with sunken, stubbly cheeks, and a dirty collar.”

8. The White Rebbe

A medieval Polish legend describes a “White Rebbe” who sends a calf into a cave. When the animal fails to return, the holy man determines he’s discovered a magical path to Jerusalem. The White Rebbe descends into the cave himself and is never seen again.

I borrowed the name “White Rebbe” for my own Wandering Jew, the hero—or anti-hero—of the mysterious fairy tales my protagonist Marjorie Burke discovers among her late grandfather’s belongings. My White Rebbe’s story combines the magic, history, daring, and spiritual longing of the Jewish travelers I discovered in my research, and like the Wandering Jews of gothic literature, he refuses to remain safely in the past.

The Visiting Scribes series was produced by the  Jewish Book Council ‘s blog,  The Prosen People .

The Jewish world is full of debates.  Get the latest in MyJewishLearning’s weekly blogs newsletter

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wandering Jew noun

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What does the noun wandering Jew mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun wandering Jew . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

wandering Jew has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

How is the noun wandering Jew pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun wandering jew come from.

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun wandering Jew is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for wandering Jew is from 1622, in the writing of ‘Jack Dawe’.

wandering Jew is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: wandering adj. , Jew n.

Nearby entries

• wandelard, n. 1338
• wander, n. 1843–
• wander, v. Old English–
• wanderable, adj. 1906–
• wander-bird, n. 1924–
• wander-book, n. 1844–
• wandered, adj. c1420–
• wanderer, n. c1440–
• wandering, n. a1300–
• wandering, adj. Old English–
• wandering Jew, n. 1622–
• Wanderjahr, n. 1893–
• wanderlust, n. 1902–
• wanderment, n. 1597–1605
• Wanderobo, n. 1902–
• wanderoo, n. 1681–
• wander-plug, n. 1923–
• wander-soul, n. 1917–
• wander-spirit, n. 1927–
• Wandervogel, n. 1928–
• wander-witted, adj. 1959–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, entry history for wandering jew, n..

Originally published as part of the entry for wandering, adj.

wandering Jew, n. was revised in September 2023.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into wandering Jew, n. in September 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1921)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View wandering, ppl. a. in OED Second Edition

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Citation details

Factsheet for wandering jew, n., browse entry.

Wandering Jew Plant – Ultimate Care Guide

By: Author Daniel

Posted on Last updated: September 18, 2023

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You are reading this guide to learn more about the Wandering Jew Plant and its care . I have had this plant at home for many years and write about all the growing aspects in this guide.

Wandering Jew Plant Care Takeaways

What is the wandering jew plant.

The Wandering Jew, or Tradescantia zebrina, by its scientific name (old name = Zebrina pendula) is native to Mexico. It is not to be confused with Tradescantia albiflora, which also goes by Wandering Jew and has very similar care needs. 

Tradescantia zebrina has attractive foliage, sporting exciting zebra-patterned leaves. It also flowers. But when kept as a houseplant, this rarely ever happens. It is a fast-growing and excellent groundcover, according to the University of Florida .

W andering Jew Plant Care

To keep your Wandering Jew plant thriving, ensure it receives bright, indirect sunlight. Keep it in average room temperatures of 60-75°F (16-24°C). Fertilize once a month during spring and summer. In winter, relocate the plant to a cooler area with temperatures of 54-59°F (12-15°C).

Table of Contents

Tradescantia zebrina Growing guide

Tradescantia zebrina care is pretty straightforward, but it certainly can’t hurt to glance at the most important things to consider when caring about this herbaceous perennial plant. 

So, without further ado, let’s see how you can make your Wandering Jew, aka the Inch plant, as happy as possible.

Any good potting soil will do for your Wandering Jew. For instance, this could be Miracle Gro potting soil readily available online in stores like Amazon. 

But these plants not only feel very comfortable in soil but can also be kept in hydroponics .

Sunlight is a vital aspect when it comes to the well-being of most houseplants. Some houseplants do well with moderate sunlight, while others only thrive (or flower) when a certain level of sunlight is guaranteed.

The Wandering Jew does best in bright, indirect sunlight . 

If you are unsure what that means, please look at our Light Levels article.   

The Wandering Jew, a tropical native, thrives best when the root ball is always well moisturized. Still, waterlogging should be avoided whenever possible, as this could lead to root rot .

This tropical plant does not enjoy limy water. Use soft water whenever possible. Rainwater and distilled water are very good choices. 

Temperature

People who own an Inch plant and keep it outside run the risk of exposing it to cold temperatures. This is where indoor plant owners have the upper hand.

Wandering Jews can thrive with average room temperatures of 60 to 75°F (16 to 24°C) if it doesn’t drop for long periods. Anything below 12°C for an extended period could be fatal for your Wandering Jew.

Wandering Jews prefer a humidity of around 70%

The perennial, herbaceous Wandering Jew plant is native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, so it should not surprise you that it likes a good deal of humidity. 

To ensure high humidity levels, regularly misting your plant is a very good idea. A hand mister filled with water does the trick. 

As for the location, you may want to keep your Wandering Jew in the bathroom , as this is usually the place in the house with the highest humidity. 

Feed your plant once a month during spring and summer. In winter, fertilizing is not necessary. 

Also, fertilization of the Wandering Jew is only necessary from the second year of cultivation or after repotting. 

Propagation

It is best propagated through stem tip cuttings. Propagating the Wandering Jew is an easy task.

Wandering Jews don’t get very tall. They might reach a height of about 14 inches (36 cm) when kept indoors. They spread to about 10 inches (25 cm).

(Re)potting

The thing with the Wandering Jew is that it grows fast , hence its nickname “Inch plant.” Because of its fast-growing pace, the plant usually gets very leggy, and leaves are often lost near the base of the plant. 

Repotting is pivotal for keeping the root system healthy regardless of the actual plant species. However, how often a houseplant needs to be repotted depends on various factors.

Some houseplants grow incredibly fast, so they need to be repotted often. Others, on the other hand, grow very slowly, so repotting is not a top priority. 

That said, repotting your Wandering Jew occasionally is a good idea. 

How long does a Wandering Jew live?

As far as the longevity of Wandering Jews goes, they often don’t get older than 2 to 3 years.  

Wandering Jew Watering

Water about once every 5-7 days in spring and summer. Keep the soil slightly humid. Do not let the Wandering Jew dry out between waterings. Use your index finger to check if the soil is dry down 1-2 inches of soil (2.5 – 5 cm).

Reduce watering to every 10-14 days in autumn and winter.

Wandering Jew Propagation

The Wandering Jew roots very easily . The plant can easily be propagated through stem tip cuttings.

When propagating your Wandering Jew, make sure that your plant is in a healthy condition. 

Please follow our step-to-step guide to propagate your Wandering Jew through stem tip cuttings.

Propagation through stem tip cuttings

• Identify the plant that you want to replicate. It should have healthy growth and plenty of stems. 
• Make clean cuts on sections that are three to six inches in length . 
• Use a sharp knife and carefully cut the leaves on the stem’s bottom half.
• If you want, you can dip the exposed end of the stem in a rooting hormone . This will speed up the rooting process. However , it is unnecessary . 
• Place your stem tip cuttings into a pot with fresh soil after thoroughly watering the potting mixture. 
• Use a clear plastic bag to hold in moisture, taking it off to water weekly . 
• Keep your eyes on the plant for new growth . You should start to see roots in about two to three weeks . Once this happens, transfer the plant babies to a larger pot. 

Note: Instead of rooting your stem tip cuttings directly in soil, you could also root them in water .

Wandering Jew Pest Control

Wandering Jews are prone to aphids and spider mites attacks. So, you will need to look out for these two little pests. 

Some of these are known to cause defoliation, while others can kill the plant altogether. Depending on the severity of the infestation, you may need to use chemicals or insecticides .

Aphids on my Inch Plant

The Wandering Jew is not particularly susceptible to plant diseases or pests. Yet, you might have to deal with an aphid attack at some point. These parasites pierce the leaves of their host plant and suck their sap.

Like scale insects, they excrete sticky honeydew, by which you can immediately recognize the infestation.

Aphids can multiply explosively, especially in warm , dry environments.

As a preventive measure, ensure regular watering and occasional misting of your Wandering Jew.

The best way to combat aphids is to control them mechanically by rinsing them off the plant with water . Isolate the plant from the rest of the collection.

Pest Prevention

To prevent the Wandering Jew from pest infestations, plucking dried leaves regularly makes sense as well as using neem oil. The dried leaves lying on the substrate must be removed. Otherwise, there is a risk of rotting or infestation by parasites and fungi .

Wandering Jew Problems

Brown leaf tips.

Brown leaf tips is a very common problem with a wide variety of houseplant. Depending on the species, the causes for this problem can be very different, though. 

So what causes leaves to turn brown with Wandering Jews?

My Wandering Jew has only green leaves (not enough variegation)

If you do own a variegated Wandering Jew but only see a great amount of non-variegated leaves, chances are that your plant does not get enough sunlight . 

To solve the problem, allow your Wandering Jew some bright, indirect sunlight by placing it in a sunnier location. 

Fading leaves

If your inch plant’s foliage is suddenly losing color and sports fading leaves, this is another sign that it does not get enough sunlight . 

Dropping leaves

Dropping leaves is another very common problem many plant parents must deal with regularly . If your Wandering Jew drops leaves, this is usually due to too low or too high temperatures . 

In summer , ensure your Wandering Jew is exposed to average room temperatures.

In winter , it should be kept in a cooler environment.

Is Wandering Jew care difficult?

Wandering Jews are considered low-maintenance plants and are perfectly suitable for beginners. 

They do well at average room temperatures, don’t demand a very high level of humidity (which is sometimes difficult to achieve in a home environment), and it is very easy to propagate them through stem tip cuttings. 

Which plant species are commonly referred to as “Wandering Jew”?

Tradescantia zebrina as well as Tradescantia albiflora. 

What is the difference between Tradescantia zebrina and Zebrina pendula?

There is no difference between Tradescantia zebrina and Zebrina pendula. Zebrina pendula is just the old name for Tradescantia zebrina. 

Does my Wandering Jew flower at all?

Wandering Jews are indeed flowering plants. However, when kept indoors, they very rarely flower. 

How long can you keep a Wandering Jew?

If you don’t propagate your Wandering Jew, you can keep it for about three years. After that period, the quality of your Wandering Jew will most likely decrease. If you regularly propagate your leafy friend through stem tip cuttings, you can keep it indefinitely.

Any display tips for Wandering Jews?

Wandering Jews look great in hanging planters!

Is the Wandering Jew toxic to cats?

The Wandering Jew plant is toxic to cats. Therefore, you have to keep your cat away from this plant. 

Is the Wandering Jew toxic to dogs?

Yes, the Wandering Jew plant is toxic to dogs. Therefore, you must ensure your dog does not come in contact with this plant. 

What are the health benefits of Tradescantia zebrina, if any?

Not only is The Wandering Jew a beautiful houseplant famous for its striking foliage, but it also presents several health benefits for humans. It is especially known for its antioxidant and antibacterial activity, and it is widely used in Traditional Medicine in several countries. Tradescantia zebrina is also believed to be a valuable source for treating kidney diseases.

The Last Zebrina

The Wandering Jew is a great houseplant that looks stunning in hanging planters. Its care is easy apart from its humidity-loving nature.

Daniel has been a plant enthusiast for over 20 years. He owns hundreds of houseplants and prepares for the chili growing seasons yearly with great anticipation. His favorite plants are plant species in the Araceae family, such as Monstera, Philodendron, and Anthurium. He also loves gardening and is growing hot peppers, tomatoes, and many more vegetables.

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