Bronze figurine in the shape of a seated Jewish fortune teller

The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures. 

The statue was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family. 

Bronze figurine in the shape of a seated Jewish fortune teller 

overall: Height: 5.750 inches (14.605 cm) | Width: 7.125 inches (18.098 cm) | Depth: 7.500 inches (19.05 cm) 

Bronze figure of a seated Jewish fortune teller depicted with oversized tarot cards made in Austria during the 19th century. It is possible that this figure was used to hold calling cards, or even as an ashtray. Although the Bible forbid Jews from using divination and magic, Jews were still associated with the magic and mysticism in the eyes of many non-Jews (Gentiles). The accusations stemmed from a combination of antisemitic beliefs, including pre-modern ignorance about the causes of natural phenomena like weather, fear of “others” (individuals or groups from outside the population majority or with nonlocal origins), and ignorance of Jewish language and religious practices. Throughout the Middle Ages in Western Europe, Jews were falsely accused of many malicious acts, including ritual murder, performing satanic black masses, and using amulets and talismans for occult sciences. It was believed that Jewish religious texts, written in Hebrew, with its different characters and right-to-left orientation, contained spells or secret knowledge that could only be used by initiated members. In Eastern Europe, many Gentiles believed Jews possessed the ability to control the weather. Folk tales accused Jews of using the holiday, Sukkot, which celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the protection God provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt, as a Jewish ritual event to control the weather. It was believed that the Jewish ritual dances and prayers called, Tefillat Hageshem, were used to invoke rain. This statue is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials. 

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Cast bronze figure depicting a male fortune teller wearing a kippah, long coat, loose scarf, rumpled vest, and trousers, seated on the ground. There are 2 oversize, pictorial cards stacked in the shallow, circular well formed by a cloth draped across his knees. He sits with his legs apart, knees bent, and the heels of his bare feet, with flexed toes, on the ground. His right forearm rests on his knee and his other hand, holding a money pouch, rests on top of his left knee. His head is angled questioningly to the right, his eyes gazing upward, wrinkling his forehead. He has heavy eyebrows over hooded eyes, thick sidelocks, mustache, and pointed, forked beard, and his fleshy lips are parted as though to speak. The figure is molded with fine detail and the body is hollow.