This is a Shana Tova card from 1910 with portraits of Zionist leaders enclosed within a Magen David (Star of David). There are flags on either side of the Star of David: the American flag and the flag of the Zionist movement, later to became the Israeli national flag. At the top of the card “A Happy New Year” is written in Hebrew and English. The postcard has a pink background and a light blue frame. The large portrait in the middle of the Star of David is of Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) wearing a top hat. Inside the corners of the star are smaller portraits with the names of the Zionist leaders written in Yiddish. Clockwise from top: Nathan Birnbaum (1864–1937), Max Nordau (1849–1923), Israel Zangwill (1864–1926), David Wolffsohn (1856–1914), Menachem Ussishkin (1863–1941), and Nahum Sokolow (1859–1936).
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Theodor Herzl – Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl (1860–1904) was the visionary behind modern Zionism. Zionism was a political movement with the goal of re-establishing a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael. Herzl, born in Budapest, was a journalist and playwright. He was very affected by the events surrounding the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in France in 1894, which he covered as a journalist. Witnessing the anti-Semitism around the Dreyfus affair, which included a mob yelling “Death to the Jews,” Herzl became convinced of the need for a Jewish state. In 1896 Herzl wrote The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat), and the following year he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, with the aim to begin creating a modern, secular Jewish state. Herzl proposed that Jews around the world raised money for the Jewish State. The delegates of the First Zionist Congress adopted the Basel Program and declared that: “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.” The World Zionist Organization was formed as the political arm of the Jewish people, and Herzl was elected its first president. Herzl convened six Zionist congresses between 1897 and 1903. At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, Herzl proposed the Uganda Plan which stated that a temporary Jewish State would be created in Uganda for Jews in immediate danger. Although Herzl stated that the Uganda Plan would not replace the goal of creating a state in the Land of Israel, the idea was very controversial and nearly split the Zionist movement. After Herzl’s death, his Uganda Plan was officially rejected at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. Herzl died in 1904 in Vienna where he was buried. In 1949 he was reinterred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Nathan Birnbaum – Nathan Birnbaum (1864–1937) was born in Vienna and is renowned for coining coined the term “Zionism.” He played a large role in the First Zionist Congress but later had ideological differences with Herzl and eventually left the Zionist movement to become a proponent for cultural Judaism in the Diaspora. Later in life, Birnbaum returned to religious Judaism. He lived the end of his life in Germany, where he died in 1937.
Max Nordau – Max Nordau (1849–1923) was a Zionist leader from Hungary. He co-founded the World Zionist Congress and was a supporter of the Uganda Plan. Like Herzl, Nordau became a Zionist due to his experience of rising anti-Semitism.
Israel Zangwill – Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) was an Anglo-Jewish writer and political activist. Despite being a Zionist, Zangwill believed that the first priority was to create a safe haven for Jews regardless of location, and he was thus involved in bringing Jews to Galveston, Texas in order to escape persecution.
David Wolffsohn – David Wolffsohn (1856–1914) was the second president of the World Zionist Organization, after Theodor Herzl. He was born in Lithuania and was inspired by Herzl’s ideas after reading his books and hearing his speeches. He became Herzl’s constant companion as they travelled around the world. Wolffsohn was a successful businessman, and funds from his estate helped build the National Library in Jerusalem.
Menachem Ussishkin – Menachem Ussishkin (1863–1941) was the president of the Jewish National Fund. Born in Russia, Ussishkin immigrated to Israel in 1919. Ussishkin opposed the Uganda Plan and insisted that the Jewish State must be in the Land of Israel. Ussishkin was one of the founders of the Hebrew University. He also travelled throughout the United States with Albert Einstein raising money for the Jewish Agency.
Nahum Sokolow – Nahum Sokolow (1859–1936) was a journalist born in Poland. In 1901 he wrote a booklet trying to explain to religious Jews that even though the Zionist movement was being led by secular Jews, there was no ideological reason for them not to support it. Sokolow translated Herzl’s book Altneuland into Hebrew, calling it Tel Aviv, from which the city later derived its name. Sokolow worked closely with Chaim Weizmann and was a key figure in the negotiations for the Balfour Declaration.
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.