WHY page 14
OSTEOPE
i
ADASSAH TODAY,
• : W.
teen-ager. She remembers the ex-
citement of her first convention,
held in the early 1960s at the for-
mer Hilton hotel downtown.
"Awesome," she recalls. "I re-
member, at 15, the elections and
being all dressed up on Saturday
night for the dance."
Over the course of three
decades, the USY scene has
changed somewhat.
`The programming has become
much more intense," Ms. Stern-
berg says. "The kids are much
better trained to conduct religious
services. Many more of them
have day-school educations so
their Hebrew skills are much
more developed than they were
in years past.
"Also, I think kids these days
are much more aware of the
world around them."
On April 9, USY will partici-
pate in an event with other local
youth groups: National Federa-
tion of Temple Youth (Reform)
and the National Conference of
Synagogue Youth (Orthodox).
This interdenominational group
of teen-agers will prepare boxes
of Passover food for the needy.
Ms. Sternberg's sons, Michael
and Andy, will take part. And so
will she — precisely because she's
an adult.
"I think (youth group) is a
tremendous commitment parents
should make to their children,"
she says. "Children learn by ex-
ample. My children became much
more involved and committed to
their synagogue and their Jew-
ishness when I, as an adult, be-
came involved in synagogue and
USY."
`-‘±)
❑
li' For more information about
USY and the upcoming USY,
NFTY and NCSY Pesach event,
call Sharon Levine at (810) 547-
6151,
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"Or, the printers might add a
person," Mr. Abbott says, point-
ing to an obviously drawn-in
small, dark figure standing out-
side one mosque.
All that changed with World
War I. None of the Allies would
buy postcards printed by the en-
emy, Germany, and so the Unit-
ed States and other countries
started their own businesses.
Photography came into fash-
ion, as well, and photographers
started circulating their own pic-
tures on cards.
The United States quickly be-
came home to many of the world's
best printers, with Michigan's De-
troit Publishing Co. among the
leaders.
Postcards published during the
first decades of the century are
vastly different from what's avail-
able today. Anti-Semitic cards,
for example, weren't difficult to
find. Usually they show large-
nosed Jews counting their mon-
ey; all were printed in the United
States, Mr. Abbott says.
Tragic themes were not un-
common. One in the Abbott col-
lection, with printing in French,
Russian and English, bears the
title "The Victims of a Massacre
in Russia." Another has two
homeless Jewish boys. There are
quite a few showing Jewish or-
phanages, as well.
It isn't that anyone found such
sights pleasant, Mr. Abbott says.
It was simply how things were
done back then. "Everything was
depicted on cards."
Jewish postcards are scarce,
both because not that many were
printed and because demand is
great for good, high-quality cards,
says Marty Raskin of Oak Park,
who is organizing the Kalamazoo
show. They usually range in price
from about $2 to $25.
Collectors generally have a fa-
vorite subject, with synagogues,
families and anti-Semitic themes
especially popular. Mr. Raskin
recalled one postcard, produced
at an Austrian resort in the ear-
ly part of the century, bearing an
ugly caricature of a Jew and the
message "this type of riff-raff is
not welcome."
There are finds to be made at
garage sales and flea markets,
Mr. Abbott says. But the safest
bet is to buy from professional
shows or individual collections —
though here, too, caution is de-
manded.
"Out of a collection of 200
there's likely to be about 15 de-
sirable cards," Mr. Abbott says.
"A lot of them are just going to be
`instant relatives' (photos of
unidentifiable family members)."
Then there are those nasty
habits of some postcard aficiona-
dos. Like typing.
Some time ago Abbott's pur-
chased a large collection of cards,
showing scenes from Israel, from
a Catholic group in Ohio. Some-
one had typed the subject of the
card at the top of each scene —
an action that still makes Mr. Ab-
bott cringe.
His last bit of advice to poten-
tial collectors: save your trea-
sures. Abbott's came across an
extensive Michigan collection
that included tin-type cards pic-
turing the construction of the De-
troit-Windsor tunnel. It was sold,
"and I've never seen another like
it," Mr. Abbott says. "I'd love to
have it back." El
For information on the Kala-
mazoo postcard show, or on a
June 18 show in Berkley, call
Marty Raskin at 968-5910.
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