This is an advertisement for Maxwell House coffee which was printed on March 11, 1965 in The Sentinel, a weekly newspaper serving the Chicago Jewish community. The full-page advertisement has a picture of a well-dressed woman offering a cup of coffee in a china teacup and a plate of hamantaschen (traditional Purim pastries). The caption above the picture reads, “It’s Purim Time!” and is decorated with Purim masks on both sides. The caption beneath the picture reads, “Have Some Maxwell House...And Hamentaschen!” The text below adds that Maxwell House coffee is the favourite coffee in Jewish homes and “truly belongs with holiday fun and feasting.”
Hamantaschen is Yiddish for Haman’s pockets. In Hebrew, these pastries are known as oznei Haman, Haman’s ears. They are triangular-shaped pastries with different fillings such as poppy seeds, fruit, chocolate, and even halva. Their triangular shape has many explanations. While the Hebrew name suggests a reference to the shape of Haman’s ears, the triangle might also depict a three-cornered hat that Haman might have worn. Some connect the three corners of the triangle to the three patriarchs or the three days that Esther fasted.
Maxwell House was the first American company to target the Jews as a specific demographic audience. Beginning in 1932, they published a Passover Haggadah which was given away free with the purchase of a can of coffee. Maxwell House soon became the most popular coffee in Jewish homes, and the company advertised widely in Jewish publications.
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Purim - Purim is celebrated on the 14 Adar as the day the Jewish people were saved from destruction during the fourth century BCE. The heroine of the Purim story, Queen Esther, worked together with her uncle, Mordechai, to reverse the decree of genocide issued against the Jewish people by Haman, the vizier of Persia. It is the tradition on Purim to dress up in costumes, distribute small food packages known as mishloach manot, give charity, and listen to the reading of the Megilla – the Book of Esther.
The Chicago Sentinel - The Chicago Sentinel, a weekly newspaper for the Chicago Jewish community, was one of the longest continuously published Jewish weeklies in the United States. The first issue of the Sentinel was published on February 4, 1911. The newspaper focused on cultural events and included many eye-catching illustrations and photographs. It also published short stories and reports about events in the various Jewish communities. The Sentinel differed from many other English-language, often highbrow, Jewish weeklies, because it reached out to the Zionist immigrants who preferred to read in English and not Yiddish. The Sentinel is a treasure trove for social, cultural, and religious historians who are interested in American Jewish life outside of New York during the twentieth century.
