Porcelain drinking cup shaped as the head of a sneering Jewish man

Small, colorful ceramic drinking cup in the shape of a Jewish man with an unpleasant facial expression. The piece is similar in style and production period to character mugs, which were ceramic mugs modeled on representations of popular characters. The man has thick eyebrows, hooded eyes, and fleshy red lips with curly hair; all stereotypical physical features commonly attributed to Jewish men. Stereotypes of the Jewish body are a common antisemitic trope. Malformities such as flat feet and bowed legs were used as justification to exclude Jews from the military, which was then used to indicate a lack of patriotism and masculinity in those men. Other physical features such as short, arched foreheads, large, hooked noses, and fleshy lips were believed to be predominant features of Jewish men. In antisemitic images, these features were applied to humans as well as animals commonly considered vermin or pests to indicate Jewishness. The idea of the large Jewish nose originated from craniological studies by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) that claimed to identify a prominent nasal bone in Jewish people. Later scientific studies have proven that none of these features are more prominent in Jews than in any other population. However, these stereotypes were used by the Nazis to foment antisemitism, and many still permeate today. This drinking cup is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.