Obj. ID: 55156
  Ephemera  Be-Sukkot Teshvu Shiv'at Yamim, Jerusalem, circa 1910

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

The Ushpizin (Aramaic for guests”) is a short ceremony of welcome on Sukkot. With a formula established by the kabbalists in the 16th century, based on the earlier Zohar, on each night of Sukkot we invite one of seven exalted men of Israel to take up residence in the sukkah with us. The texts for welcoming each of the renowned figures from Jewish history were often printed on a plaque, often decorated, to be hung in the Sukkah. From the middle of the 19th century, a wide variety of such plaques were printed and used.

Printing in the holy land began only in 1841, but by the end of the century, there were several printing houses and a large quantity of printed books and single sheets to serve a variety of purposes. A great many of these printed items were decorated by vignettes of Holy Land sites. This single sheet, printed for use in the sukkah, is typical of many of the items prepared in Jerusalem.  They were often sent abroad as souvenirs or fundraising devices by the many Jewish religious, self-help, and charity organizations operating in the Holy Land. This seems to be an immediate pre-WWI Ushpezin plaque published by Moshe Segal and printed by the shop of Zuckerman. On the back is an appeal letter from Rabbi Segal for contributions to Tzedakah in the Holy Land, without any specific charity mentioned.

According to the illustrations presented here, this sheet was printed by Shmuel Zuckerman. Shmuel ben Ya’akov Halevy Zuckerman was born in Mesiritch in 1856. As a six-year-old child, he made Aliyah with his parents. He learned the printing trade while working for Yisrael Bak, after whose death he continued in the printing house of Bak’s son Nisan. He soon went to London, however, and worked in printing there before returning to Eretz Israel to work in the shop of Ag”n. By 1885 he was a partner in that enterprise and from 1886 became the sole owner, publishing books under his name, and becoming one of the foremost printers in Jerusalem. The press operated in the Old City of Jerusalem until Zuckerman moved it to the new city in 1926. Up to 1890 almost 80 books were printed from his press in addition to many single sheets. More than 150 items from the Zuckerman printing house exist in the Gross Family Collection.