The Stephanie Comfort Collection of Jewish Postcards

Tuesday, 28 August 2007 21:03

" I believe I was born with a special “collecting” gene. Having gone through all the usual collections such as bottle caps and Dick Tracy special rings, I graduated to ancient Jewish coins, and stamps. Then one day in Israel, I found a couple of postcards from Eastern Europe in the Jaffa flea market, and that began my obsession. When I give programs I always start off with the statement “I collect dead Jews.” I collect their photos in market places, schools, synagogues and Jews at play, work, prayer and rest. Most are Pre-Holocaust. Then, after visiting Salonika, Turkey and Morocco several times, I expanded into Jews on every continent of the globe.

This had allowed me to obtain over 7,000 cards of “us.” Purchasing the cards of Anti-Semitic nature was one of the hardest decisions to make and still is. Purchasing the actual photos of the Jews during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto and the camps is even more difficult.

Being the last generation to remember the War and afterwards when names were whispered and were spoken of those “gone-turned to ashes", and the last generation to have grandparents who came from the “old country” and were told tales of the Pogroms. I feel I have a mission to collect that which was lost -the world that was- and by collecting these cards, I am “ransoming the kidnapped.”

Every two months I enlarge a group of 120-150- post cards to 8 X 10 glossies-using a theme- and put them up in my Temple in Dallas, Texas –Temple Shalom. The Exhibit up now through Sept. is Jewish New Year Cards from the late 1880s through the first few years of Israel’s Independence. One of my favorites of last year was asking all temple members to tell me where they came from. Then, when I found a post card for them from the town or shtetl they came from. I posted their names under it. The Religious School kids readily got involved; some even made a family tree for me. I ended up with around 900 signatures, and close to 200 photos of the cards. Some of the favorites are the Jews of Kai Feng, the Salonika Fire Department and a Yiddish Gaucho from the Pampas in Argentina. " . . . by Stephanie Comfort : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Picture postcards experienced a boom around the turn of the century not only as a means of fast communication but also as collectors' items. Writing and exchanging postcards quickly became a popular hobby. Apart from postcards showing famous sights and views of towns or countryside, the great demand gave rise to wide-ranging series dealing with special topics. One of these was Judaica postcards, interesting above all for Jewish images, places, and people.

In 1889, private publishers in Germany began issuing postcard with attractive pictures on the front side. The popularity of these picture postcards increased steadily, and countless picture postcards were produced and mailed throughout the world during the "Golden Age of the Postcard," lasting from 1898 until 1918.

European and American Jews participated fully in the "Postcard Craze." The colorful images that adorn these postcards afford a nostalgic view into a bygone world and provide the modern spectator with a rich and rare visualization of Jewish life at the turn-of-the-century.