“Avodath Yom Hakipurim 5631 Bemachaneh asher al Penei Metz.” Hebrew and German texts. Image in tones of rose and sepia.

GERMAN LINEN COMMEMORATIVE WALL-HANGING.

1870

Touch discolored. Within elaborate frame (unexamined)

Fanciful scene of French- and German-Jewish soldiers commemorating the Day of Atonement at an open-air service during the Franco-Prussian War. With gentle, vaguely Satyagrahic sentiment : “Have we not all one Father...”(Hebrew). For a more Nationalist interpretation of the image, see R.I. Cohen, Jewish Icons, Art and Society in Modern Europe (1998), pp. 169-171 See also: Cologne State Museum Catalogue, Monumenta Judaica (1964), plate 45; R.D. Barnett, Jewish Museum (London) Catalogue (1974), number 664; and Jewish Museum (New York) Catalogue, Fabric of Jewish Life (1977), number 246