Wood panel painting of two Jewish men with fire sale sandwich boards

Painting on plywood of two Jewish men carrying sandwich boards advertising a fire sale at a Jewish clothing store. The men are depicted with several stereotypical physical features, including large noses and hooded eyes, and the man on the right is gesticulating in a manner often used to denote Jewish characters in Vaudeville performances. These caricatured portrayals of Jews on stage were known as “Jewface” and often included a large-nosed, bearded, figure speaking Yiddish or heavily-accented English while wearing old, shabby clothing, their bowler hats pulled low. The characters often gesticulated broadly with their open palms to mimic the stereotype that Jews spoke with their hands. The caricature became popular following the influx of Eastern European Jews immigrating to the United States in the late 1800s. The characters were often played by non-Jewish actors, but some Jewish performers, like Joe Welch, became quite well-known for their versions. Fire sales were used by merchants to recover something from a loss and to get rid of damaged goods at low prices. Cartoons suggesting that Jews staged fake or continuous fire sales were popular images in the casual antisemitism expressed in popular culture at the time. European Jews were barred from owning land, farming, joining trade guilds, and military service. These restrictions limited Jews to the occupations of retail peddling, hawking, and moneylending. As more Jewish immigrants arrived in the US in the late 19th century, they took up these “traditional trades” as peddlers and merchants and were met with antisemitic attitudes similar to those in Europe. This painting is one of 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.