After receiving a complaint from the Anti-Defamation League, the Spanish porcelain company Lladro has removed from its Moses figurine what could be construed as horns on his head.
The ADL contacted Lladro, based in Valencia, Spain, in January after receiving a phone call from someone who had seen the company’s original 16-inch Moses figurine in a store in Bermuda.
The original Moses featured what Lladro USA Marketing Director Glenn Conciatori called “not horns, but rather rays of light” on the top of his head.
Kenneth Jacobson, the ADL’s assistant national director, said that after he examined the company’s brochure, he “agreed with the individual that one could see it as horns. We’re dealing with [the] centuries-old image of a Jew with horns. We told them perpetuated this pernicious image.”
In April, Jacobson received a letter from Conciatori that Lladro would replace the offending model with a new one. The new 21-inch Moses is featured in its 1996 1,000-item line.
Conciatori said the old model is “based on a centuries-old rendition of Moses. There have been sculptures of Moses with rays of light. Our sculptors go to many different places for inspiration.”
“Unfortunately, we are not aware of the connotations,” he said. The creative team “made what they thought was a piece of art.”
For the ADL, Jacobson said, “We were pleased with the response. It’s very important when institutions recognize a problem.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
