This is a painting by Hermann Junker entitled Shabbat Peace. The painting depicts three people: a woman, a man, and a boy, and a cat sitting on a bench outside a closed shop. The woman is reading a large book, the man, wearing a yarmulke, is holding a newspaper, and the boy is sitting on the ground, holding his knees and staring into the sky. Everyone seems very relaxed and peaceful. The street is very clean, and a flowering plant is seen hanging above the street. They are seated in front of what seems to be a shop that is shuttered and locked.
The painting, from the end of the nineteenth century, was part of a collection of postcards titled Scenes of Traditional Life. These reflect the style of Junker and his contemporaries, who depicted traditional Jewish life maybe as a way of idealizing the tradition and thus proving that they fit into bourgeoisie German society or maybe as a way of recalling nostalgic memories.
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Shabbat – Shabbat is the Jewish name for Saturday, the Jewish day of rest. According to Jewish tradition, this day commemorates the final, seventh day of God’s creation of the world. Shabbat is observed from just before sunset on Friday night until the appearance of three stars on Saturday night. The Talmud devotes an entire tractate to the rules of Shabbat and derives 39 types of forbidden activities. These include using electricity, writing, and other actions that are considered forms of creating. Shabbat is, instead, a day for family, community, prayer, and reflection. Traditionally Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles, reciting the blessings over wine, Kiddush, and over the two loaves of special Shabbat bread, challah, and enjoying a festive meal. Shabbat is marked in the synagogue by a special additional prayer, known as Musaf, and the reading of the weekly Torah portion. The end of Shabbat is marked by the Havdalah ceremony. In Israel, secular Jews also enjoy Shabbat by eating Friday night dinner with their family and friends and spending time together in the countryside or on the beach. Most workplaces are closed on Shabbat.
Hermann Junker – Hermann Junker (1838–1899) was a German painter who followed in the footsteps of his teacher, Moritz Oppenheim. Junker strived to show German Jews as an integral part of the overall society. He was less interested in showing the reality of German Jews of the time but rather in portraying an idealized and nostalgic version of Judaism.
German Jews in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries – After many centuries of oppression, segregation from the general population, and poverty, the German Jewish community went through major changes. Germany, together with other European countries, began to adopt liberal ideas about religious equality and civil emancipation. This was also the time of Enlightenment, and many German Jews received a secular education and began to integrate into general German society. The late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries mark the transition of the Jews to modernity and the integration of many into Germany’s cultural, scientific, and financial elite. Moses Mendelssohn is an example of an Enlightenment thinker who aspired to bringing secular culture into Jewish life. These social changes also brought about a transformation in the identity and practices of the German Jews, as exemplified in a famous saying of the time: “Be a man abroad and a Jew in your tent.” Due to these changes, this period saw both the foundation of Orthodox Judaism and the birth of the Reform Movement in Germany, a movement that aimed to adapt traditional Judaism to modern times. This period did not, however, see an end to the discrimination or riots against the Jews, as can be seen by the 1819 Hep Hep riots, tax legislation against Jews, severe limitations on marriages, dismissals from public office, anti-Semitic literature and preaching, more. This discrimination led to many Jews emigrating, in particular to the United States.
