Bidspirit auction | Wedding invitation - “The eighth

Wedding invitation - “The eighth year of the First Congress in Basel”. October 1904 - Wedding invitation for the couple Zelda daughter of R' Moshe Fraker and the groom R' Aryeh Yosef son of Rabbi Shalom Shachna: “which will take place on Sunday, Parashat Noach, the 30th day of the month of Cheshvan, the eighth year of the First Congress in Basel”. Glasgow, October 9, 1904 - rare. At the top of the invitation is a Star of David with the inscription “Zion” and the quotation: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember thee, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy”. The details of the bride and groom appear in Hebrew and English in gold letters. The date of the chuppah appearing on the invitation counts the years beginning from the First Zionist Congress in Basel - due to the importance of the event, which marked the beginning of a new era for the Jewish people, certain families began to count the years from the year of the Congress. Further details appear: “the chuppah will take place at the home of R' Bakan”, and the schedule. It is interesting to note that the counting of the years from the First Congress in Basel appears only on the Hebrew side of the invitation, whereas on the English side only a standard Gregorian date appears. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, especially in the decade or two following the First Zionist Congress, private documents such as greeting cards and official papers of associations appeared in which the date was noted “according to the counting of the Congress, ” that is, years were counted beginning from 1897 as a new starting point for the Jewish reckoning. On wedding invitations, this phenomenon is considered rarer. This interesting phenomenon appeared mainly within distinctly Zionist circles who themselves took part, in one way or another, in the building of the Zionist enterprise. Rare. In the book by Tchia Sapir, “Bekarov Etzlechem - Wedding Invitations from Eretz Israel from the End of the 19th Century to the Present Day, ” published by the Israel Museum (2007), there are no invitations that count the years from the Congress with the mention “the ... year of the Zionist Congress in Basel.” Size: 15x20 cm (open). Light stains, good condition.