The figure group was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
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.
Molded, polychrome painted terracotta figure group of 5 closely posed Jewish people. On the left is a fat, middle aged man in a red cap and long green coat, standing in right profile. He is addressing the group and gesturing with his raised left hand and the 3 on the left look attentively at him. Next to him stands an old woman, who looks right toward the other. She wears a white ruffled cap, and ruffled brown and blue jacket over a long ragged brown dress, both hands clasped on a walking stick. She stands next to a tall, middle aged woman in a white ruffled cap, white lace collar, and gray shawl. Her right hands rests on the boy's right shoulder; her left on the basket hanging on her arm. The boy wears a red cap and patched green pants. On the right sits an old woman, her hand grasping the head of a red beaked, white goose standing at her knee. She is less formally dressed, with a red shawl over her head and shoulders, and a white apron over her worn gray dress. The figures have pale white complexions, with large noses and pink cheeks and lips. They are on a gray, elongated oval base with a label. It has an open, flat sliced, halfback with a hollow concave interior, unpainted with furrowed lines. For other versions, see 2016.184.595 and .612. front, base, paper label, black ink : [Hebrew text] Rüstung auf den Schabis [Yom Hakodesh / Holy Day, Preparing for the Sabbath] back, top, red marker : 45
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overall: Height: 6.625 inches (16.828 cm) | Width: 8.125 inches (20.638 cm) | Depth: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm)
Colorful terracotta figure group based upon a watercolor, A Feast Day, created by Hieronymous Hess in 1838. The sculpture was modelled by Anton Sohn in early 19th century Germany. It is a tableaux of a Jewish family, one man, three women, and a young boy, conversing and dressed in what are probably their best clothes, although they are shabby and patched. Sohn (1769-1841), trained as a church painter, established a workshop in Zizenhausen, Germany, that was celebrated for its exceptionally detailed and elaborate terracotta figurines. His subject matter ranged widely and included genre and satirical groups on popular, topical themes, and religious figurines which were favorites for Christmas displays in homes, as well as businesses. This figure group is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
Yom Hakodesh: Prepared for the Sabbath Colorful terracotta figure group of a Jewish family dressed for Sabbath