German federal court mulls bid to remove antisemitic relic

BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court is mulling a Jewish man’s bid to force the removal of a 700-year-old antisemitic statue from a church where Martin Luther once preached. It said Monday that it will deliver its verdict in the long-running dispute next month. The “Judensau,” or “Jew pig,” sculpture on the Town Church in Wittenberg is one of more than 20 such relics from the Middle Ages that still adorn churches across Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The case went to the Federal Court of Justice after lower courts ruled in 2019 and 2020 against plaintiff Michael Duellmann. He had argued that the sculpture was “a defamation of and insult to the Jewish people.”