The Czechoslovak Post Office has issued a series of postage stamps commemorating the 1,000th anniversary of the Czech Jewish community which will be celebrated officially a year from now. The issuance of the series, each containing six stamps with a tiny inset of a traditional menorah (ritual candelabra), is seen here as further evidence of a more liberal attitude toward the Jews taken by the new Czech regime.
(The director of the Czechoslovak Travel Bureau in North America announced in New York yesterday that the Czech-Jewish millennium will be celebrated next year with official approval and subsidies. The previous regime in Prague withdrew its support from the celebrations, which were to have been held this spring, following the June, 1967 Arab-Israel war.)
The subject matter on the new Czech stamps includes Jewish ritual objects and synagogue decorations, reproductions of the 700-year-old Alt-Neue Synagogue in Prague and an ancient tombstone in the Prague Jewish cemetery, and a portrait of Rabbi David Ganz, a 16th Century astronomer, mathematician and Talmudic scholar.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
