Yiddish New Year’s Cards

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Yiddish speakers around the world sent a variety of postcards. Particularly popular were cards for the Jewish New Year—in Yiddish, Rosheshone. The galleries below include examples of such cards. And just as the cards were sent around the world, so too did they depict various scenes of travel, with figures riding bikes, flying planes, and soaring in hot air balloons just to wish their loves ones “A Happy New Year!”

The translations of the postcards included in the galleries below are drawn from: Past Perfect: The Jewish Experience in Early 20th Century Postcards: An Exhibition, October 7-December 30, 1997 (New York City: The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1998).