A particularly colorful part of the Rosenthall Collection is several dozen large format Rosh Hashanah pop-up cards. Rosenthall himself described these beautiful cards in a New Year’s message to his congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in Charleston.

He described the pop-up cards as “very old and unusual examples of Jewish Near Year cards, today a not insignificant business in America and in other parts of the world. Many of these cards are extraordinarily ornate, much more so than the most fancy available today, for the fold out and pop up and are remarkably colorful contrivances of paper lace and filigree. Not only are engaging religious scenes presented, but also flower-laden ships, automobiles and locomotives, all expressing a joyous ‘L’shanah Tovah’ wish to a delighted and perhaps dumbfounded recipient. Most of these fanciful, intricately manufacture cut-outs were produced in Germany around the turn of the century and very few have survived the many decades, let alone in good condition.”

The cards pictured below are only a sampling of those held in the William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection.

For more information on Rosh Hashanah cards, see the article “Holiday Cheer” in the Summer 2003 issue of Pakn Treger : Magazine of the Yiddish Book Center.