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Marking the New Year - From Our Photo Archive

Before the War    |   During the War    |   After the War

The Rosh Hashanah cards in our collection from before the war generally fall into one of three categories:

Drawings rendering a traditional scene or observance associated with Rosh Hashanah and the fast day of Yom Kippur which follows ten days later.

Pictured here are a group of men practicing the custom of “Taschlich” (casting off). The custom involves going to a river or creek on Rosh Hashanah and casting a piece of bread into the river symbolizing the “casting off” of sins
Pictured here are Jews on their way to services on Yom Kippur. The Hebrew greeting on top reads: “May you be inscribed for a good year”
Pictured here are two Jewish men in the synagogue following the Torah reading. The Hebrew greeting on top reads: “May you be inscribed for a good year”

Pictures or drawings of scenes from the village of the sender.

Pictured on this New Years card is a parade in the town of Lackenbach, Austria honoring the new Rabbi on May 7, 1902. By October of 1938, the Jewish community was officially closed down, some succeeded in emigrating or escaping. Most Jews however were sent to Vienna and from there to the east
Pictured here is a New Years card sent from Banska Bystica, Slovakia. It is a view of the town from the end of the 19th century. In 1940, there were 1,327 Jews in Banska Bystica. Deportations began in March, 1942. Many families were deported to concentration camps and ghettoes in the Lublin area. 400 “useful” Jews remained behind
Pictured here is a New Years card sent from the town of Plunge in Lithuania in 1935. The Jewish population in 1940 was about 1,700. Only 221 Jews from Plunge survived the war

Photographs of the sender(s) to various relatives and friends.

Pictured here is Dawid Markowicz from Trzebinia, Poland, who perished while trying to illegally emigrate to Palestine aboard a boat called the Patria
Pictured here is a Rosh Hashanah card sent by Aharon and Sheindl Blumen in 1926 from Luboml, Poland
Pictured here is Zvi Estrajch from Warsaw Poland on a Rosh Hashanah card sent in 1935. This card was given to Yad Vashem by Zvi’s sister, Hadassah, who came to Israel in 1936 and was the only surviving member of her family
Pictured here is Jacob Graiman and his wife from Lodz, Poland on a New Years card, September 26, 1936. The inscription reads: “May you be inscribed for a good year. Our heartfelt wishes for success in honor of the New Year, Jacob Graiman and his wife. Lodz, the 10th of Tishrei 5697”. Jacob Graiman and his wife perished during the Holocaust