The print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
1837. The New Jewish Game Woodcut of an antisemitic board game with printed instructions
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Woodcut print in black ink on discolored, off-white paper depicting the square board for a dice game with 11 numbered spaces and the rules printed beneath. The board resembles a square, stylized wooden picture frame with a square mat around a central circular image, both edged with decorative borders. On the left and right sides of the exterior frame are eight, evenly spaced, numbered circles, each with a scalloped frame and solid border. On the left, from the top, is 2-5; the right is 11-8. Centered above and below the inner image and flanked by leafy garlands, respectively, are a numbered trophy marked 12 and a circular frame with a numbered circle marked 6. Surrounding the central image is a square mat with a beaded frame and a circular, roped frame. In the central circle, a Jewish man with a stereotypically large, hooked nose and sidelocks, wears a slanted top hat (tzylinder) while sitting at a table marked with a number 7 on the tablecloth, in front of two windows. He looks to his left as his left hand points at two dice, and his right hand points toward his bearded face. In Dutch, the title is printed at the top and the instructions are printed in two columns below the board. There is a pencil marking in the lower left corner. The paper is creased, has discolored edges, and is backed for additional support. A triangular section is torn out of the center of the left edge. front, bottom left corner, pencil : 1
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Print of a numbered playing board and Dutch instructions for a dice game, the New Jewish Game, printed in 1837. It was a variation on a game called Jeu de Sept, Merry Seven, or Glückshaus, which was common throughout Europe. It is played with two dice and many tokens. The dice are rolled and the value indicates the corresponding space to which tokens can be added or removed. The central space is numbered 7, which has the highest probability of being rolled, and depicts a man with a bushy beard, curly sidelocks, and a large, hooked nose; all stereotypical features commonly attributed to Jewish men. Tokens are only added, not removed, to the Jew’s space. This is the only regularly unlucky roll for players, and suggests how the Jew will always take money. The player who rolls a rare 12 collects the accumulated tokens on the board, and the player with the most tokens wins. Thus, the player's goal is to emulate the antisemitic stereotype of the greedy Jew hoarding, counting, or handling money, which originates from the economic and professional restrictions placed on early European Jews. They were barred from owning land, farming, joining trade guilds, and military service. These restrictions forced many Jews into occupations such as money changing or money lending. They were perceived as morally deficient, greedy, and willing to engage in unethical business practices. This canard was often visually depicted as a Jewish man expressing an exaggerated desire for or accumulation of money. The game board is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
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.
overall: Height: 21.125 inches (53.658 cm) | Width: 18.000 inches (45.72 cm)