Justitia and Synagoga: dual icons of vision and blindness

The guiding visual for our database features a blindfolded woman, representing two historically significant icons: Justitia and Synagoga. ¹ Justitia symbolises both the cosmic and social order and was first depicted without a blindfold. A 1479 satirical depiction showed her blindfolded, “impl[ying] that Justice has been robbed of her ability to get things straight, unable to wield her sword effectively or see what is balanced on her scales”. ² Later depictions reinterpret the blindfold positively as a sign of impartiality and equality before the law. ³ Statues of Justitia are often prominently placed near courthouses or other public buildings. Synagoga, on the other hand, symbolises an antisemitic depiction of Judaism that goes back to the Middle Ages. It has almost always been paired with Ecclesia, who represents the triumph of Christianity over Judaism. These figures decorate many cathedrals and churches throughout Europe. ⁴ While Ecclesia is shown upright and victorious, holding a cross or a sword, Synagoga is intended to look defeated – sometimes holding a broken staff or with the Torah scrolls slipping from her hand. Unlike Justitia, whose blindness is positively associated with a neutral justice, Synagoga's eyes are covered because she does not see the truth. ⁵

Legal lenses and antisemitism: vision, justice and bias

The blindfolded woman is thus an ambiguous visual representation. Sometimes associated with neutrality and justice, she also signifies ignorance and is part of the centuries-old history of antisemitism. This case law database aims to enable a view of antisemitism through the legal lens: What does it mean to look at antisemitism with supposedly neutral tools of the law? How does the law imagine Judaism and the Jewish people? Can Justitia see antisemitism? The database is a portal to legal court instances that confront antisemitic discrimination.

Seeing Antisemitism Through Law: from “High Promises or Indeterminacies?” (first phase) to “Justice Through Experience” (second phase)

Seeing Antisemitism Through Law: a case law database is a product of the DFG-funded project Seeing Antisemitism Through Law. The first phase, “High Promises or Indeterminacies?” was located at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. The second phase, “Justice Through Experience” began in October 2024 when the SATL research team moved to the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Together with the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (Main), we continue to collect and compile court cases relating to the phenomenon of antisemitism in France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. Recently, the scope of the research has been extended to cover cases from Ukraine. The case law database aims to support scholars, legal practitioners and the wider public in navigating the complexities of antisemitism through the lens of law. A commitment to the principles of open access, the database ensures that court decisions are freely available, minimising technical and legal barriers to the fullest extent possible. The case law database utilises UWAZI, the open-source solution for building and sharing document collections developed and provided by HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems).

The Team

The interdisciplinary and international team that established the database and collects cases has always been composed of researchers from the legal and political sciences at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (Main).

Special thanks go to the student assistants who helped build the database: Lena Albrecht, Chiara Melina Bach, Marzena Duszynski and Mohamad Rashid.

Graphic design: Sabrina Ohm

Webdesign and Web development: thms.de Thomas Breitner