JEWS Etching of a Jewish thief bargaining with police to lessen his punishment

Etching depicting a Jewish thief caught stealing from his employer, a silver smith, and bargaining with police officers to lessen his punishment. A block of Cyrillic text beneath the image records the conversation as the thief tries to reduce the number of times he should be whipped. Eventually, the Jewish man tries to bribe the officers with a pocket watch, in exchange for avoiding his punishment entirely. Old prejudices surrounding wealth and business practices form persistent stereotypes about Jews as greedy, unscrupulous, disloyal, and untrustworthy wrongdoers. They were often portrayed as hoping only to enrich themselves, often at the expense of others. These stereotypes originate from the economic and professional restrictions placed on early European Jews. They were barred from owning land, farming, joining trade guilds, and military service. The restrictions limited Jews to the occupations of retail peddling, hawking, moneylending, and pawning goods. In these roles, Jews would often be described as charging high interest, offering low compensation for goods, or working against the honest citizens dealing with them. Over time, the tendency to bargain unscrupulously for a lower price was referred to as “Jew[ing] someone down”. Consequently, Jews were perceived as morally deficient and willing to engage in unethical business practices. This stereotype was often depicted as a shabbily dressed Jew, described as an untrustworthy individual, selling cut-rate or stolen items or bargaining excessively to get the best deal. This print is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.