It's In The Cards A popular craze includes an interesting collection that chronicles Jewish history. ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR ,Pea i;t: C;; ;I•Pt, ‘S-THEREMEAVVIDEDFORTHE ISRAELI TES >OVILLTHEIRONCURTAINFORSOVIETJEWU Top: Mailed from St. Louis in 1930, "Frankie" sent this card, showing a scone from a beach in Israel, to "Dolly" Peshek. Above: This colorized card of the Kotel was printed in Jerusalem. Right: This 1966 card shows a banner used in a 1960s "redemption" march on behalf of Soviet Jewry, in which 15,000 students participated. here are plenty from Detroit and Grand Rapids, but not a one from Southfield. Mt. Clemens has its share, and there are any number from Troy — but they all read Big Beaver, the name of the city at the turn of the century. These days, postcards are getting the stamp of approval from collectors. Local fans are, naturally, primarily interested in Michigan, with some of the most coveted cards showing small cities in the state pre-1917. Because there was no Southfield then, of course there are no Southfield postcards. But Mt. Clemens, with its hot springs, was a popular resort, and so, too, a popular postcard sub- ject. In the past 12 years, postcards have become the third-most col- lected item, behind stamps and coins, in the United States. (It had been in fourth place until last year when baseball struck out, and so did third-place baseball cards.) And to think — it all started with a Viennese resident of Jewish ancestry. Dr. Emmanuel Hen-mann was an instructor of political economy at the Military Academy of Vienna who, in an 1896 ar- ticle in the Neue Freie Presse, introduced the concept of the "postal card." Its value, he said, was obvious: "Officially or private- ly produced (it) ... assures open communication thanks to the public service of the post." The director of the Austro-Hungarian postal system was convinced. So were other postmasters. By 1874, dozens of countries, including Germany, the United States, France, Spain and Belgium, were using post- cards. Literally millions of them had been mailed by the late 1800s, and at the 1900 Paris World Fair, postcards were the rage. Today, the most popular cards with Jewish themes invariably show Israel. Who hasn't seen those floating visitors, newspapers in hand, at the Dead Sea, or the ubiquitous men at the Kotel, or Jaffa orange trees? But in earlier years, printers and photographers were more clever. Postcards have charted Jewish history with such themes as the story of the Exodus, the rise of Zion- ism, the Dreyfus affair and scenes from the Yiddish the- ater. Among local businesses dealing in postcards is Ab- bott's Coinex in Birmingham, which has several hun- dred Jewish postcards depicting everything from victims of a pogrom to the Kotel. Collectors and interested buy- ers will have the opportunity to view these and other cards at the county fairgrounds in Kalamazoo, where a major postcard show will be held April 15. Matt Abbott, vice president of Abbott's Coinex, knows just about everything there is to know about postcards. He knows about the treasures, like an advertising card with an il- lustration by Alphonse Mucha, valued at $13,500. He knows about the collectibles — that is, anything showing scenes that have altered dramatically. A park in 1940 still in existence today is not likely to have changed much, but keep an eye out for theater districts replaced by towering office buildings. One of Abbott's most recent purchases was a 55,000-card collec- tion owned by David Keever of Grosse Pointe. Purchased for $23,000, it includes a number of cards from pre-state Israel. All were print- LO ed in Switzerland and Germany, which tells Mr. Abbott they have been around for more than 80 years. Until 1914, he explains, postcards were printed either in Switzer- ti land or Germany. They also were subject to the whim of the print- er, who started out with only black-and-white photographs. "Then CC 0- they used the colors they thought things should be," Mr. Abbott