Here are several elements of Jewish life and religion that Oppenheim depicted in the series, and the issues involved in each. In these paintings the ghetto, commonly known to have been a dismal place, was transformed. Oppenheim's ghetto streets are clean and emanate warmth and comfort. The ghetto is viewed not as a place to where gentiles banished the Jewish population, but as a place where Jews intentionally took refuge from daily life in gentile society. Women are depicted reading from prayer anthologies.
Men study and pray from sacred books.
By stressing literacy, these images countered a s tereotype that the Jew was uncultured. The Polish guest, for example, appears in several of the Pictures paintings. Oppenheim's use of the charity box for the Holy Land is another example. Oppenheim took into account these interpretations, carefully considering what to portray and how. His Circumcision takes place before the baby's arrival on the scene, thereby avoiding the portrayal of medical procedure, which German Christians considered repugnant.