Jews have lived in the South since Colonial times. The artifacts in the museum’s collection attest to that. Postcards, as an inexpensive means of communication and keepsake, give us a contemporary illustration of that presence, at least since the late 19th century. Some of the postcards in this exhibit were made to illustrate specific Southern Jewish institutions; most were not. Most were meant to promote a city, to advertise a shopping district, or simply to provide an inexpensive souvenir for a traveler passing through. But these postcards, too, attest to the presence of Jews across the South. They reveal how the non-Jewish population encountered the Jewish presence in their communities in ways large and small, often on a daily basis.

Much of the Southern Jewish presence depicted in these postcards is long gone, following the economic and demographic trends that have affected communities across the South. In some cases, these postcards are our only visual reminders of them.