New Year’s greetings postcard

This New Year’s greetings postcard, decorated in the fashion of the time with gold dust and an artificial flower, was published in the 15th district of Vienna, where a large suburban Jewish community lived. It is a fine example of the great number of commercially produced holiday cards, which were popular among both Jews and Christians in the first half of the 20th century. The traditional Hebrew wishes for Rosh Hashanah 5682 (1921) “May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a good year” were sent by Abraham and Palomba, a young couple from Salonica, to Bohor Krispi in Halkis. The personal note in Ladino on the back of the card is written with Greek letters, reflecting the change in the educational system, after Salonica was integrated into Greek territory, during the First Balkan War of 1912.

The postcard was donated by Haim E. Cohen to the JMG in the year 2000, in memory of his father-in-law.