Greetings from Israel - vintage postcards are much cooler

If you have been to Israel before (or if you are here already), you may have noticed that the souvenir industry isn't really blooming, to say the least. The volume of tourist is simply not large enough for  Made in China Dead Sea souvenir spoons, Eilat shot glasses and thimbles with Haifa's landscape. And with the email take over came the decline of what used to be the tourist's favorite souvenir, the postcard.
You can still find postcards in the usual traps and tourist hubs, embedded with Jubilee 2000 logo, overpriced, generic. Charred remains of what used to be a thriving and competitive industry, that employed designers, photographers and printers whose creations were mailed all over the country and the world, commemorating kibbutzim dining halls, hotel lobbies, main streets of small towns and agricultural achievements, to name a few. Postcards that tell a story.

like this small image of Downtown Haifa. Look at the TWA logo! 

If your friends, who never bothered to even send you a text message from their weekend getaway to Amsterdam, really insist on a postcard from the Promised Land, right-to-left scripts and all, you can always find a wider, cheaper selection at second-hand shopping hubs.

In Tel Aviv-Jaffa try the flea market and the Dizzengof Square antique fair on Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. In Haifa the downtown antique stores are the place for old postcards. IN other towns, look at thrift stores and you might get lucky. 

 

 Hotel Ganei Hamat Tiberias, nowdays Holiday Inn Tiberias.