Demons, <i>Dybbuks</i> , and a Water Medium: Possession in Early Twentieth-Century Warsaw

This chapter examines a public spectacle that occurred in Warsaw in early 1914 regarding a case of demonic possession. For close to two months, Warsaw’s Jewish residents were spellbound by demons, dybbuks, and mediums. A careful reading of newspaper coverage of the events reveals how the city’s Jews considered possession a real, albeit contested, possibility. Particular attention is given to divergent models of possession: traditional notions of spirit possession and demonology, modern occult currents—namely psychical research and spiritualism—and the transformation that these underwent over the course of the affair; Tsiporah Kuzka, a 10-year-old Jewish girl whose short-lived fame as a medium gained her entry into the aristocratic salons of Warsaw; and the criticism raised by the city’s Jewish intellectuals in response to the spectacle.