This colour postcard from 1909, depicting Jewish immigration to America, was intended for use as a Shana Tova card. Two groups of people stand on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. On the right (eastern) side is a group of traditionally dressed Jews holding bundles and above their heads is the symbol of czarist Russia: the two-headed eagle with a coat of arms of St. George slaying the dragon on its chest. This group represents the Jews fleeing Europe. On the left side, a group of richly dressed and smiling people are stretching out their arms. These are the Jews who are already established in the United States, and they are welcoming and inviting their European brethren to America. The outline of the Statue of Liberty in New York City can be seen as well as steamships crossing the ocean. Above the American Jews is another eagle, in this case a bald eagle, the symbol of the United States. This eagle, with the American flag on its chest, holds a ribbon with the words from Psalms 17:8,“and shelter us in the shadow of Your wings,” written in Hebrew. This quotation reflects the fact that the United States was considered a safe haven for European Jews who were victims of pogroms and persecution.
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Immigration to America – Sephardi Jews were the first to arrive to New Amsterdam (later named New York) in 1654 from Brazil. Large numbers of German Jews arrived in the United States in the 1840s due to persecution and a lack of economic opportunities. By the onset of World War I, 250,000 German-speaking Jews had arrived in America. They settled in America, spread throughout the country, and built institutions such as B’nai Brith and the American Jewish Committee. Eastern European Jews began to arrive in America after the 1880s, fleeing from pogroms, persecution, and poverty in their home countries. These new immigrants spoke mostly Yiddish and came from less educated and more traditional backgrounds. Many were attracted to labour and socialist movements, eventually becoming leaders in their communities. They tended to live in poorer neighbourhoods of large cities, often working in the sweatshops of the garment industry. The large waves of Jewish immigration to America ended in 1924.
Shana Tova Cards - The earliest instance of a written “shana tova” greeting is a fourteenth-century letter written by the Ashkenazi rabbi known as the Maharil (Jacob ben Moses Moelin). This letter affirms the existence of this custom in German Jewish communities at the time. In the eighteenth century, the custom began spreading beyond the German-speaking realm to other large concentrations of Jews in Eastern Europe, especially Poland. By the end of the century, Shana Tova cards began to take on distinct characteristics, such as special writing paper, with the custom spreading throughout the entire Ashkenazi world during the nineteenth century. The postal service emerged around this time, and in the 1880s, Jewish entrepreneurs began to print commercial greeting Shana Tova cards. By this time, Shana Tova cards constituted the main body of postcards sent by Jews, and this would remain so for around 100 years.
Between the end of the nineteenth century and the end of First World War, a time known as the “Golden Age of Postcards,” the vast majority of the mail sent by Jews in Europe and America consisted of Shana Tova cards. Today, in the digital era, cards sent by post have given way to text messages and emails.
