The Art of the Vintage Jewish Postcard

with Hy Mariampolski

 Wed. May 7, 2:45-4pm

Picture Postcards illustrated by Jewish topics and themes are quite thorough in representing all of the features and details of the Jewish experience from the late 19th century through the 20th century. They add depth and context to our understanding of the rise of Zionism, the settlement of Israel, the growth of the Jewish community in 19th and early 20th century Palestine until its evolution as the State of Israel in 1948. Picture postcards illustrate customs with precise ethnographic detail, showing the status of worldwide Jewish communities, and how they changed as a result of immigration, growing antisemitism and the Nazi campaign of genocide. They often served as instruments, not only as documentary evidence, of insults and hatred. These postcards can be aspirational and idealistic, featuring the most innovative forms of artistic expression in their eras. Simultaneously, they can be mundane and prosaic, unselfconsciously showing the pain and ambivalence of Jewish life, promoting synagogues, markets, schools, bungalow colonies, Kosher delicatessens, Yiddish theaters and summer camps. Postcards were the medium through which Jews spoke. Hy will show a number of postcards, telling their stories. Author, Qualitative Research, now a retired researcher, Hy is a dealer of vintage postcards.