New Year’s Greetings
Cordial New Year’s Greetings. Hermann Struck, Havdalah. Published by Kunstverlag “Phönix” Leo Winz, Berlin.
The image shows an individual Jew engaged in the ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat. Hermann Struck (1876–1944) was a leading German impressionist. The etching shown on this card was first reproduced in 1902 in the December issue of the Jewish feature magazine Ost und West (East and West), which Leo Winz (1876–1952) edited throughout its entire existence from 1901 to 1923. Winz also stood at the helm of the Kunstverlag (arts publisher) Phoenix. It issued postcards with this motif in various versions over the years, suggesting that it sold well. During the First World War, Struck served on the eastern Front and developed a deep fascination with the world of Eastern European Jewry. A book of his drawings, The Face of East European Jewry, was highly instrumental in promoting romanticized notions of the authenticity of Eastern European Jewish life in the west. In late 1922, Struck moved to Palestine where he spent the rest of his life. From the late 1920s onwards, Winz edited the newsletter of the Jewish Congregation in Berlin, arguably the Jewish publication with the largest readership in Germany. He fled to the Yishuv in 1935.
