Simḥat Torah Flag

Nothing is known about S. M. Sochora, the lithographer of this Simḥat Torah flag. 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 exampled) 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 with more traditional religious images; images of Zionist heroes (Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl) and a Zionist hymn stand alongside an image of a family celebrating around a festive table and of Moses with the Ten Commandments. 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.