Ellis Island Doll - Yosef

Little Yosef, (affectionately called Yussel by his family) looks out through pale grey eyes in amazement at the milling crowd in the great hall at Ellis Island. He has never seen so many people. He has never heard so many different languages. He is completely overwhelmed. Yosef is one of several dolls in the Ellis Island Collection of Porcelain Dolls whose features, costumes and stories were inspired by the collected memories of the descendants of Eastern European Jews who immigrated to America through Ellis Island in the late 1800s. Yosef began his journey to America from a small, quiet Jewish village in the Carpathian mountains. Sporting knee breeches and a matching cap made from a cut-down pair of his grand father's trousers, little Yosef wears his golden blonde hair in the traditional manner of his people long ear locks framing his face. The color of his homespun breeches and newsboy cap is medium brown. From beneath his tan, dark green and red pullover sweater peek the tzitzit of his four cornered undergarment. The pale goldtone and white (simulated) hand knitted scarf around his neck was made by his grandmother from the unraveled yarn of a sweater outgrown by Yosef's second cousin, Reuven. Clutched tightly in Yosef's hand is the wooden hobby horse that the little boy's grandfather fashioned for him as a farewell gift. Pale goldtone and white (simulated) hand-knitted socks (also knitted for him by his grandmother) stretch from the tops of Yosef's dark brown faux-suede shoes to the bottoms of his knee pants. The doll has a porcelain head, arms, hands, legs and feet and a cloth covered stuffed body. Sturdy plastic doll stand included.