Feb 04, 2010 - Sale 2201

Sale 2201 - Lot 77

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 4,500
DESIGNER UNKNOWN [VOTE FOR ZIONIST SLATE NO. 6.] 1917.
23x18 inches, 59x46 cm. M. Pivovarsky, Petrograd.
Condition A. Japan.
1917-18 was a politically tumultuous time in Russia, but exuberant for the country's large Jewish population. Zionism had been an illegal movement under the tsarist regime, but under the provisional government established after the February Revolution, Jews in Russia experienced a previously unimaginable renaissance of rights and possibilities. With the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, the Russian Zionist movement gained even more optimism and hope. Such were the freedoms of the Jewish community, that a conference of Russian Zionists decided to convene an all-Russian Jewish congress. "The purpose of this congress was to establish an autonomous, political-cultural organization and central representation of all the Jews in Russia" (Magnes p. 40). This poster is urging Russian Jews to vote for the Zionist slate 6 in the upcoming elections for this all-Russian Jewish Congress. The text reads, "Jewish workers, storeowners, salesclerks, all who suffer from exile and misery, your friends are the Zionists, who call for a home of their own for the Jewish people. To the All-Russian Jewish Congress!" The poster uses imagery that is evocative of the Old Testament story of Ruth. Although these elections were held, the revival of Jewish rights was short-lived, as the Bolsheviks who came to power in October opposed it, and the congress never met. Magnes 12.