Shana Tova [Happy New Year\u27s]

Front: White card with black English text on upper left, black Hebrew text on upper right and across the bottom. Illustration of a crowd gathering at the Western Wall in Israel, with a blue and white banner with the Star of David at the bottom. Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Sending Shana Tova-Jewish New Year- cards has been a venerable Jewish tradition, even as the themes and motifs of these cards have changed with changing times and circumstances. Biblical themes were commonplace for many years. Later cards would reflect the customs and traditions of the eastern European shtetl Jews. Alternatively, they could evoke a sense of pride in their prosperity, carrying on Jewish customs and a thriving family life in larger European cities. As Jews left the “old country” at the turn of the twentieth century for new lands, Shana Tova cards reflected an emigrant’s desire for opportunity, religious freedom, and freedom from persecution in their new homeland. In the wake of the Holocaust, Shana Tova cards could thematize Jewish refugees-the surviving remnant- seeking sanctuary from a Europe devastated by the Nazi scourge. There were perilous journeys in salvaged boats and ships to a Palestine that seemed as elusive as the Promised Land for Moses. Yet as the immigrants eventually settled their new homeland, raising families, working and defending their cities and kibbutzim- men, women and children co-participants in the common project of building a new nation- Shana Tova cards would reflect a burgeoning pride: photos of men and women proudly marching in their military uniforms, but as well singing Hatikvah and dancing the Hora. Shana Tova cards feature this Jewish pioneer who is self-reliant, hardened by working the land, raising a family as well as a military force: a secular Zionist who would never again fall prey to aggressor nations wishing his demise.https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1162/thumbnail.jp