Bezalel depicted Yemenite and Moroccan Jews as ethnic types rather than individuals

Evidence

Another popular theme in the art of Bezalel was the representation of “Jewish types.” The majority of them were from oriental ethnic groups—Yemenite, Bucharan, or Moroccan—usually old bearded men or young women. These pictures, drawn from life in a fairly realistic style, were intended nonetheless to portray the typical rather than the individual. … The recurrence of models from oriental ethnic backgrounds may be explained partly by the fact that Jews from these groups were more ready to take this job and were less suspicious of Bezalel than were the Ashkenazi Orthodox community in Jerusalem. Besides, Yemenite and Sephardi Jews were already a familiar view at Bezalel as students and workers. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 607

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illuminates the category of ‘Jewish types’ — realistic portraiture aimed at the typical, a genre distinct from both academic individual portraiture and pure symbolism.