(Jewish Group) 'Mazel tov on assimilating:' The strange, rich history of Rosh Hashanah advertisement

[Behind the Aegis]

The practice of placing Rosh Hashanah greetings in Jewish newspapers first emerged in the early 1900s. Graphic by Forward Collage

“Nobody can chide you for forgetting them — if Your Greeting is published in the Annual Rosh Hashanah Edition,” declared a 1937 issue of The American Jewish World of Minnesota.

Long before the era of perfectly-staged social media posts wishing friends and family “l’shanah tovah,” families and companies placed Rosh Hashanah greetings in newspapers, a practice that originated in the early 1900s as a revenue generator for American Jewish periodicals.

Holiday greetings gained steam as a popular way for public figures and institutions to connect with their constituencies in 1927, when President Calvin Coolidge issued the first official presidential Christmas greeting. The tradition quickly expanded to a variety of holidays, with prominent politicians, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, placing ads in Jewish newspapers before the High Holidays.

By the late 1940s, more local businesses and national brands had caught onto the trend, and began placing holiday greetings in Jewish publications as a way to engage with and show support for the Jewish community. The lengths to which advertisers went to court the Jewish market were unparalleled. The greetings were specific, personal and highly creative — in contrast to, say, the subjects and imagery used by advertisers at Christmastime, which involved “pretty generic Christian content,” said Leigh Eric Schmidt, author of “Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays.”

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