Simḥat Torah Flag

S. M. Sochora

1902

Lithograph with Hebrew title, two portraits of men on either side of Hebrew text, and drawings of figures holding flags along the bottom. — Flags like this, made of paper, decorated, and attached to a stick—sometimes with an apple and a small lit candle atop it—were commonly carried by children during Simḥat Torah celebrations. The printing (as opposed to handcrafting) of such flags appears to have developed in urban centers like Lemberg (today L’viv, in Ukraine), Vilna, Warsaw, and (as evidenced by this example) Bobruisk in the second half of the nineteenth century. Because flags were used only one day a year, during a celebration, and handled by children, early examples are very rare. This flag, printed in Bobruisk by Jacob ha-Kohen Ginsberg, integrates imagery associated with the increasingly popular Zionist movement, including images of Zionist heroes (Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl) and a Zionist hymn. Ginsberg’s press remained active into the first years of the Bolshevik regime and the Sovietization of the region, printing religious books, calendars, and Passover Haggadot despite the censor.

Flags like this, made of paper, decorated, and attached to a stick—sometimes with an apple and a small lit candle atop it—were commonly carried by children during Simḥat Torah celebrations. The printing (as opposed to handcrafting) of such flags appears to have developed in urban centers like Lemberg (today L’viv, in Ukraine), Vilna, Warsaw, and (as evidenced by this example) Bobruisk in the second half of the nineteenth century. Because flags were used only one day a year, during a celebration, and handled by children, early examples are very rare. This flag, printed in Bobruisk by Jacob ha-Kohen Ginsberg, integrates imagery associated with the increasingly popular Zionist movement, including images of Zionist heroes (Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl) and a Zionist hymn. Ginsberg’s press remained active into the first years of the Bolshevik regime and the Sovietization of the region, printing religious books, calendars, and Passover Haggadot despite the censor.