This Rabbi has had an eventful life. About 24 years ago, he was stolen from the deYoung Memorial Museum in San Francisco and for over two decades he wandered around no-one-knows-where. Then one day he showed up in a New York auction house.

This caused no end of excitement and the old guy was subjected to every kind of investigation. Most pertinently, the Rembrandt Committe in the Netherlands, after painstakingly prodding and poring, concluded that (1) he probably wasn't painted by Rembrandt, but rather by one of Rembrandt's students and (2) there was no reason to believe he was a rabbi. Talk about ignominy!

However, even if this chap isn't a genuine Rembrandt rabbi, Rembrandt did indeed paint several rabbis, as well as about 200 other Jewish men -- roughly one-fifth of his male subjects (Jews formed about 1% of Amsterdam's population at the time). Rembrandt lived near the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, making friends with many of the Sephardic Jews who had fled the persecutions in Spain and Portugal. Because of their exotic dress and un-Dutch physiognomy, they were compelling subjects for the painter. (Lest we've led you believe he painted only Jewish men, consider one of his most famous works, The Jewish Bride--http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rembrandt/jewish_bride.jpg.html).