wandering jew meaning

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.

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• 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.

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Why this Houseplant is Called the Wandering Jew

Have you watered your Wandering Jew? As you may know, the popular spiderwort ( tradescantia ) is a convenient and flexible houseplant—it can be planted in soil or set to hang in a pot, and it’s very patient with  forgetful owners . Its name calls to mind Moses and the Israelites in the Sinai Desert, wandering for 40 years.

But the plant’s name actually refers to a more recent, and sinister, legend of a Jew who scoffed at Jesus en route to his crucifixion. The story isn’t actually  canonical —the earliest versions  appeared in the 13th century , and were popularizied  in the 17th century in by a pamphleteer named Ahashver. (Interestingly, this name is derived from Ahasuerus, the Persian king of the  Purim story .)

This motif of the wandering Jew also took form as an  1844 French novel , opera, and  silent film  which weren’t  anti-Semitic  so much as straight-up depressing: A Jewish man is separated from his sister by the  Bering Strait  and condemned to wander the Earth forever. A plague of cholera follows in his wake, and—spoiler alert—he never finds his sister.

Pretty heavy legacy for a houseplant.

__ Watch the silent film, The Wandering Jew :

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The story behind ‘wandering Jew’

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Have you heard, or even maybe used the expression “wandering Jew” without knowing the story behind it?

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.

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

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 17 Apr. 2024.

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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 .

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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 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.

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

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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 wandering Jew, Wan·der·ing-jew [ won -der-ing- joo ]. /ˈwɒn dər ɪŋˈdʒu/. 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.

Origin of Wandering Jew

Words nearby wandering jew.

• wandering albatross
• wander plug

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Wandering Jew in a sentence

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.

British Dictionary definitions for wandering Jew (1 of 2)

any of several related creeping or trailing plants of tropical America, esp Tradescantia fluminensis and Zebrina pendula: family Commelinaceae

Australian a similar creeping plant of the genus Commelina

British Dictionary definitions for Wandering Jew (2 of 2)

(in medieval legend) a character condemned to roam the world eternally because he mocked Christ on the day of the Crucifixion

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Wandering Jew Care: How to Grow a Long and Luscious Inch Plant (Tradescantia Zebrina)

Tradescantia zebrina (commonly known as wandering Jew, spiderwort, or inch plant) is popular for a reason: This beginner-friendly houseplant is low-maintenance and grows quickly. It’s also super easy to propagate more plants so you can fill your home with more of the colorful striped foliage the species is known for.

Written by Linda Ly

When it comes to vigorous, colorful, and easy-to-grow hanging houseplants, there aren’t many that can compare to Tradescantia zebrina (known more commonly as wandering Jew—and I’ll touch on the history of that name below). Whether you’re a houseplant beginner or a veteran, most indoor gardeners have owned one of these potted plants at some point. 

Keep reading for everything you need to know about Tradescantia zebrina and growing this stunning houseplant in your own home.

Disclosure: If you shop from my article or make a purchase through one of my links, I may receive commissions on some of the products I recommend.

About inch plants

Natural habitat.

Tradescantia zebrina is a native of Central and South America, from Mexico down to Colombia, as well as the Caribbean. Here, it forms part of the undergrowth in lightly forested and often very moist areas. It can form very dense, wide mats thanks to its creeping growth pattern and ability to throw roots extremely quickly.

Unfortunately, its vigorous growth has also made Tradescantia zebrina an invasive plant in some regions. This includes Hawaii, Brazil, and Australia, where the species easily takes hold in moist, forested areas.

As a 2019 study carried out in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest notes, this is problematic due to the species choking out native plants.

Some of the above was caused by careless gardeners allowing bits of the plant to get into the wild, where they quickly root. If you’d like to grow spiderworts like this one in your garden, please make sure to dispose properly of any trimmings left after pruning!

This also applies to zebrina’s popular cousins, like Tradescantia fluminensis, T. pallida, and T. spathacea.

Description

It’s not difficult to see why Tradescantia zebrina gained popularity as a houseplant. Wandering spiderwort plants (not to be confused with spider plants , another beginner-friendly species) are low-maintenance and grow just about anywhere—they even just grow in water !

Easy care and quick growth aside, spiderworts are also just good-looking plants. The pointed, oval leaves on thin, fleshy stems overlap slightly and are characterized by their zebra pattern in purple and silvery green. The leaf undersides are deep purple in color and the tiny, three-petaled flowers are bright pink.

Although this species is naturally a creeping plant, it’s often grown indoors in hanging planters. As long as the plant is provided with enough light, the foliage will be very dense and brightly colored, forming a spectacular waterfall that can reach more than 3 feet in length.

What’s in a name? In the case of common houseplants, sometimes a lot.

Tradescantia zebrina is a classic houseplant (I found mention of it in a 1964 German book about houseplants, but it’s probably been around longer than that!) and among most English speakers, it has long been known as wandering Jew. This is probably a reference to the “wandering” nature of the plant, as it does have a creeping growth pattern.

The legend of the wandering Jew is hundreds of years old and is now commonly considered to be rooted in antisemitism. It describes a Jewish man cursed to walk the planet until the Second Coming because he taunted Jesus on his way to the cross.

Because of this, the plant name has partly fallen out of fashion and has been the source of much debate in the plant world over the past few years. 

Some plant enthusiasts have embraced the alternative “wandering dude,” which I personally think is a great option.

“Inch plant” (houseplant enthusiasts don’t agree on whether this refers to the fact that it can grow an inch a day, or that you only need an inch of stem to propagate it), “spiderwort,” or “wandering spiderwort” are also popular alternatives, though these are common names for other Tradescantia varieties, such as Tradescantia Nanouk.

The best way to avoid any confusion is to just stick to the scientific name.

Inch plant varieties

There are three subspecies of inch plant (wandering Jew): Tradescantia zebrina var. zebrina, var. flocculosa, and var. mollipila. Unsurprisingly, after it having been a popular houseplant for so many years, nurseries have also managed to create a whole bunch of cultivars through selective cultivation.

A few of the popular Tradescantia zebrina cultivars you may come across in your local plant store include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Quadricolor’: Yep, as the name suggests, this one adds an extra color to the mix. The leaves are cream, pink-purple, light green, and dark green.
• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Burgundy’: Characterized by its very dark purple coloration.
• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Silver Plus’: Less purple, more shiny silver.
• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Red Gem’: Less silver, more intense (light) purple.
• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Purple Joy’: Less silver, more dark purple. 
• Tradescantia zebrina ‘Tikal’: A rare, naturally occurring variety that collectors pay a pretty penny for.

Do keep in mind that most of these cultivars aren’t patented and the amount of mislabeling and variation within a cultivar are both huge. Just growing your wandering Jew in lower-light conditions can completely change the way it looks, so it’s not surprising that confusion sometimes reigns supreme.

Luckily, care is the same across all cultivars, so your best bet is to just enjoy your plant even if you’re not sure what Tradescantia variety you’re dealing with!

Where to buy wandering Jew plants:

• California Tropicals
• Daylily Nursery
• The Green Escape

Caring for an inch plant

Light and temperature.

It’s important to provide your Tradescantia zebrina with enough light. It’s tempting to use plants to brighten up dark, shaded spots in your home, but that just doesn’t work with this one: It loses its dense growth pattern and beautiful coloration in low light.

To prevent your wandering dude plant from growing sparse and green, place it near a window that gets bright indirect light. Some full sun isn’t a problem either, but do make sure you acclimate it gradually to a higher light location.

Temperature-wise, this species is a lot hardier than many of the tender tropicals we like to grow in our homes (like Anthurium andraeanum and Begonia maculata ).

Wandering dude plants can handle a very wide range of temps, making it perfect for those chillier windowsills that your other plants may not appreciate. Room temperature is ideal, but anything between 50°F to 85°F will keep them happy.

Water and humidity

Your Tradescantia zebrina will appreciate lightly moist soil. You can water a bit more during the summer months, when the plant is actively growing and needs a lot of moisture, and less during winter, when soil tends to take significantly longer to dry. 

If you’re not sure whether it’s time to water your wandering Jew plant yet, you can always turn to the age-old trick of sticking a finger in the soil.

• If it still feels damp, wait a little longer, until the first inch or two has dried. 
• If it feels bone dry, you’ve waited too long; you may also see limp leaves on your plant at this point. It’ll bounce back, but not always without lasting damage. 
• If the soil feels wet, you watered too much and need to keep an eye out for root rot.

As for humidity, given its rather wet natural habitat, wandering Jew does appreciate higher air moisture levels. The great thing is, though, that it doesn’t demand it. As long as you keep its soil lightly moist and the air isn’t extremely dry, your plant should do well.

Soil and planting

Wandering Jew is not fussy about its potting mixture at all. I’ve grown it in pure houseplant potting soil with no additives. If you do want to take things to the next level, you can add some perlite and/or peat moss, although this is really not a must. 

Most houseplant enthusiasts like to place their wandering Jew in a hanging planter so they can enjoy the look of the leaves cascading down. This is not a must, though. You can also emphasize the species’ creeping growth habit by filling up a large, shallow planter, growing it in a terrarium, or even keeping it in water on a semi-permanent basis.

Recommended products for wandering Jew plant care:

• FoxFarm Ocean Forest Potting Soil
• Espoma Organic Potting Mix
• Perfect Plants Organic Perlite

Fertilizing

Like most other houseplants, Tradescantia zebrina appreciates a bit of fertilizer during the growing season, which extends from spring to early fall. You can use a normal houseplant fertilizer according to the instructions on the bottle.

Don’t fertilize during the winter months unless your plant is growing well. It doesn’t need extra nutrients if it’s inactive.

Recommended fertilizers for wandering Jew plants:

• Houseplant Resource Center Liquid Fertilizer for Houseplants
• Instant Biologics Instant Plant Food (Fizzing Nutrient Tablets)
• Maxsea All-Purpose Seaweed Plant Food

Pruning 

There’s a good chance you’ll have to prune your Tradescantia zebrina regularly, because as I mentioned, this is a very quick grower. It also roots very easily, so any trimmings can be replanted! I’ll describe how to do this in the section on propagation below.

Aside from stem trimming, you can remove any dead leaves, which are bound to pop up from time to time in very dense plants like this species.

Dividing or repotting

Inch plants don’t grow by producing plantlets at their base like many other houseplants (such as spider plants ) do. Instead, inch plants spread by rooting along the stems.

This means that division is not really the way to go; keeping these plants manageable is usually done through pruning. You can shape your plant by pinching off any long, leggy stems to create a fuller appearance and control its spread.

You’ll notice that Tradescantia really doesn’t mind being a bit cramped in its planter. Still, it’s a good idea to provide your plant with some fresh soil every year or two by repotting it.

Propagating an inch plant

If you’ve never propagated a houseplant before, this is truly one of the best species to start with. It’s known for rooting extremely quickly in both water and soil, meaning it’s easy to fill endless planters to keep or give away.

All you need to propagate your Tradescantia zebrina is a pair of clean scissors. Here’s how you do it:

• Snip the ends off existing branches. An inch or two with a few leaves works best.
• Remove the leaves at the bottom so part of the stem is exposed.
• Place the cutting in a glass of water to root or plant it directly in soil. You can put cuttings back in the mother plant’s pot to give her a fuller appearance on top.
• It can take a little longer during the winter months, but the first roots should appear within a week or so. You can give soil cuttings a slight tug to verify they’ve rooted.
• Once the first signs of new foliage appear, you’ll know your propagation attempt has been a success! 
• If you propagated in water, you can leave the rooted cuttings in water almost indefinitely, although you can also pot them up in fresh soil.

Common questions about inch plant care

How do i make a wandering jew plant bushy.

By their very nature, wandering Jew plants are not bushy. Their creeping growth habit means they naturally grow leggy over time, especially in containers.

However, you can mimic a fuller appearance by strategically pinching off any long, spindly stems to shape the plant more. These stems can also be replanted near the mother plant.

As the baby plants grow, they’ll help fill in sparse areas and create the illusion of a bushy wandering Jew.

How long do wandering Jew plants live?

Wandering Jew plants have a limited lifespan of just a few years, and as a potted plant, you’ll notice your wandering Jew becoming very leggy after just two to three years.

Unlike other fast-growing plants that benefit from pruning, cutting back a wandering Jew doesn’t work well to renew its growth; it simply controls the spread.

The best way to keep your plant coming back year after year is to propagate new plants from stem cuttings, which—fortunately—is super easy with a high success rate.

Is wandering Jew perennial?

Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina) is a trailing evergreen perennial in its native habitat (USDA hardiness zones 9 through 12). Where it’s not winter hardy, wandering Jew is grown year-round as a houseplant.

Are wandering Jew plants toxic to cats and dogs?

Wandering Jew is not considered outright toxic, but it can cause some skin irritation. If your pet gets into your plant, don’t worry too much, although it can be a good idea to have a look in its mouth to make sure there’s no excessive swelling. Be sure to offer water. To prevent skin rash, it can be a good idea to wear gloves if you need to handle your wandering Jew plant. This especially applies if you have sensitive skin.

https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/110354

Racism in Taxonomy: What’s in a Name?

Chiba de Castro, W. A., Xavier, R. O., Garrido, F. H., Romero, J. H., Peres, C. K., & da Luz, R. C. (2019). Fraying around the edges: negative effects of the invasive Tradescantia zebrina Hort. ex Bosse (Commelinaceae) on tree regeneration in the Atlantic Forest under different competitive and environmental conditions. Journal of Plant Ecology, 12(4), 713-721.

Encke, F. (1964). Pflanzen fur Zimmer und Balkon; Auswahl, Pflege, Vermehrung.

I'm a plant lover, passionate road-tripper, and cookbook author whose expert advice and bestselling books have been featured in Time, Outside, HGTV, and Food & Wine. The National Parks Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring—all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. After all, the secret to a good life is... Read more »

We bought a full grown Bolivian Jewel mid summer last year. It was in a 14” raised pot and flowing 2 foot over the sides. It was beautiful next to our fountain outside. We live in Minnesota so we had to discard it in the late fall since we had no place to care for it in the house. Since we can’t find another like it we’d like to plant one from scratch but how. We still have the pot and riser but have no idea how to start from that. One plant, a few or just how many to make a bushy over grown plant so it looks like the one we purchased last year. Does this make sense or should we just forget it since it is already the middle of May. The greenhouse that we bought it from last summer doesn’t have any this year, just small ones in 4” pots. Thanks

If you can only grow it as an annual (and won’t be overwintering it indoors), you can plant a few smaller ones together to make them look fuller as they grow.

It seems counterproductive to talk about the problematic origin of the name wandering Jew, recommend multiple alternative names (including scientific), but then continue to call it wandering Jew in the rest of the article. If the name is anti-Semitic just set a good example and use a different name.

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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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