Yom Kippur Service Held by Jewish Soldiers in the German Army

Some time after the Franco-Prussian War, an anonymous artist drew a commemorative depiction of the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) services held by Jewish soldiers in the German army in the streets of the conquered city of Metz. The scene is imbued with the vision of emancipation and civic unity prevalent in 19th-century Europe, and holds up as a shining example the egalitarian treatment accorded the Jewish religion at the time. The verse "Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?"(Malachi 2:10) is written in German across the top. The work has been reproduced many times on paper and textile.

Credit: The Feuchtwanger Collection, purchased and donated by Baruch and Ruth Rappaport, Geneva Israel Museum, Jerusalem