Handwritten and hand-illustrated "shanah tovah" greeting card, made in the Vittel internment camp, France. Addressed to Benzion Chomsky, from a female prisoner in the camp. Rosh Hashanah 5703 (1942). Hebrew.
The greeting card is comprised of two notebook leaves folded in two. On the outer leaf, an illustration of Jerusalem, captioned "Next Year in Jerusalem". On the inner leaf, a letter with wishes for the new year.
Benzion Chomsky was born in Jaffa in 1896. In 1920, he participated in the defense of Jerusalem under the command of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and was imprisoned with him in the Acre prison. In 1927, he was deported from Palestine by the British and settled in France, where he joined the International League against Antisemitism and Racism. In WWII, he was sent to the Vittel internment camp, where he was held until the end of 1944. After the war, he became a Nazi hunter for the Allied forces, and led a radio broadcast for locating survivors. Immigrated to Israel in 1949.
[2] leaves (detached), folded in two. Approx. 21.5 cm (one leaf slightly smaller). Good condition. Fold lines and minor stains. Tiny marginal tears.
Enclosed: envelope of a letter sent to Chomsky in Jerusalem, after he immigrated to Israel.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Chaim Grossman.

Dr. Chaim Grossman's Israeliana collection is exceptional in size, quality and variety. Grossman, an educator, historian and folklorist, was a methodical, knowledgeable and meticulous collector, and his deep understanding of Palestinian-Yishuv and Israeli material culture set the ground for a one-of-a-kind collection of mundane and less than mundane objects – from the ephemeral, the negligible, the widely available to the rare and singular.
The "shana tovah" collection left by Grossman – a considerable part of which is offered in the present auction – comprises thousands of postcards, cards, letters and other paper items made and sent year after year in, by and for Jewish communities: in Eastern and Western Europe, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, North Africa, North and South America, as part of the tradition of sending hand-written, hand-drawn or printed new year’s greetings, which originated in German Jewry but with the rise of postcards spread to most communities. The earliest items in the collection date to the 1860s; the latest were made in the late 20th century. It includes both beautifully designed, rare, early and singular postcards and cards, and mass-made, highly popular items sold in large quantities, in varying production quality and in dozens of repeating versions, each according to the technical abilities achieved by the local publication industry.
The collector's devotion to his collection is evident in the sheer number of items, in the wealth of techniques, visuals and themes, and in the thorough, intersectional categorization by period, origin, motif, technique and material. Glitter and relief embossing, scraps, lace and golden ink, lithography and celluloid transparencies, plastic, textile and metal decorations; Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Polish, German greetings; children, angels, families, pets, immigrants, travelers, professionals; portraits and tinted reproductions; Judaism, Zionism, the state, the army; the ritual and the mundane; any new year's greeting, in any form whatsoever, had a place in Grossman's collection and was honored as a historical testimony, as a timeless, invaluable treasure.