![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/scrap.jpg\")
<\/a>The cards were affordable and could be purchased from stationers or street vendors, as depicted in this \u201cscrap\u201d [image 1] showing a woman examining a selection of Rosh Hashanah greetings. (Scraps were die-cut paper images often collected by children or adults and incorporated into greeting cards, albums, or stationery, much like the stickers of today.)<\/p>\n Many cards, even those designed for an English-speaking public, were printed in Germany, where artisans had perfected the craft of color printing, often re-using images created for other, non-Jewish occasions, as in these late Victorian examples [images 2-5]. The most elaborate were pop-up and foldout cards.<\/p>\n Late Victorian consumers enjoyed visually interesting or surprising imagery, often featuring animals [image 6] or fantasy creatures. Pansies were particularly favored for their anthropomorphic qualities [image 7].<\/p>\n Early 20th<\/sup> century postcards from the Williamsburg Art Company in Brooklyn often depicted technological innovations, such as the airplane [image 8] or the telephone [image 9], the latest way to send holiday wishes.<\/p>\n Other postcards from the Williamsburg Art Company displayed the idealized interior of a Jewish home, with short Yiddish verses added [image 10]. In one card [image 11], a man can be seen passing a Rosh Hashanah greeting through a window. (How meta!)<\/p>\n The Hebrew Publishing Company in New York, a rival to the Williamsburg Art Company, was known for elaborate pop-up cards featuring synagogue interiors [image 13] or biblical scenes [image 14].<\/p>\n Dating from a decade of widespread immigration, a card titled \u201cA Good Year Ship Ticket\u201d [image 14] from the Hebrew Publishing Company was designed to appeal to recent or soon-to-be immigrants, depicting a train and a factory on either side of the Statue of Liberty and featuring the Hebrew text of the Traveler’s Prayer.<\/p>\n These examples are particularly poignant in our own era, in which technical innovations including email and social media have made such paper cards nearly obsolete.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Selections from the materials discussed above are on display in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History through the end of September 2023.<\/strong><\/h4>\n