Discrimination Never Takes a Vacation: Anti-Jewish Postcards in the United States
It shouldn't surprise you that my collection includes a huge number of anti-Jewish hotel postcards from Germany, printed in the 1800s and 1900s. What might come as a surprise, however, is just how many hotels and resorts in the United States shared the same anti-Jewish sentiment, in the late 1800s and all the way up to the 1970s.
We all know about anti-Black hotels, and we all know about the Green Book—the travel companion for Black tourists, highlighting where they can safely visit and stay. But it’s a lesser known fact that this discrimination extended to Jewish people, as well, and that Jewish travelers had their own “Green Book”—The Jewish Vacation Guide: Hotels, Boarding and Rooming Houses Where Jews Are Welcome, published by the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America circa 1915.
The other places—those that weren’t so welcoming to Jewish visitors—indicated their discriminatory practices with language like the following:
Restricted Clientele
Select Clientele
Selected Clientele
Christian Clientele
Positively No Jews
No Hebrews
Discriminating Clientele
Discriminating Public
and more…
And, just like the German hotels, they plastered their anti-Jewish feelings all over their postcards, brochures, and other marketing materials.
Important Moments
Highlights from the Collection
A late 1800s postcard from a hotel called the Kölner Hof, in Frankfurt, Germany. Even if you can’t read German, you can tell from the Jewish caricatures that the Kölner Hof didn’t welcome Jewish guests.
A late 1800s postcard from a hotel called the Kölner Hof, in Frankfurt, Germany. Even if you can’t read German, you can tell from the Jewish caricatures that the Kölner Hof didn’t welcome Jewish guests.
Brownsville, Tennessee. “A warm Christian atmosphere.” Now, I have quite a few Christian friends, and they all welcome me as a Jewish person. That’s what I would call a “warm Christian atmosphere,” but of course this hotel had a different perspective.
Gregory Beach, northern Michigan. This isn’t dated but, based on the picture, I’m estimating the 1940s. “Positively no Jews.”
The Park Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It strikes me as painfully ironic to see the American flag flying so proudly over the hotel, whose discriminatory practices feel anything but American.
Lake Luzerne, New York, 1942. “Selected Christian Clientele”
Hyannis, Massachusetts. This part of the country has never been known to be all that friendly to Jewish people. Mrs. Wagoner’s boarding house for “Restricted Clientele” was no different.
.webp)
The Reef, in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, 1968. Imagine being a Jewish person in the military, during the height of the Vietnam war. You’re risking your life in combat, and you see this postcard advocating, “Pray for Peace,” in the same breath as it says, “Restricted clientele.” Despite your sacrifice, you’re not welcome here.
Miami Beach, Florida, 1941. This is before the United States officially enters the war, but it’s no secret at this time that Jewish people are being rounded up in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Like much of the United States, the Park Lane Apartment hotel is saying, “We don’t want them here, either.”
