Fragment of a Menorah (Seven-branched Candelabrum)

A special attraction turned out to be the "Gute Stube", (the good parlour): a room with furniture, crockery and those cult objects that are used on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. This room had been designed and furnished by the well-known Jewish genre painter Isidor Kaufmann, who had donated almost all the furnishings to the museum. After the museum was closed at its last location at Malzgasse 16, 1020 Vienna, in May 1938, half of the collection was inventoried by the Gestapo and passed on to other Viennese museums, which restituted it to the Jewish Community in the 1950s. Of the more than 200 objects from the "Gute Stube", ten still exist today and are on display in the museum's show depot. The seven-branched menorah is reminiscent of the giant gold temple candelabrum, and the latter recalls God's work of creation and his day of rest. This candelabrum form was developed at the end of the 19th century and became a popular prototype also for hanukkiot. As such, this type was soon mass-produced in Western and Eastern Europe and also in Palestine.