Deruta Plate

Photo of Star of David on a Deruta Plate is courtesy of "framois" who published it on Flickr and wrote to me: 

I took this picture in Italy. The city of Deruta, Umbria is famous for handpainted ceramics. There are hundreds of artists and shops in the city with each designing their own patterns. We found only one shop that had this pattern. The shop owner was from Turkey where he obtained a degree in graphic design while his wife majored in interior design. The plate was originally made for one customer in San Francisco. The artist blends his own colors and may be the only Deruta artist to utilize the dark blue.

David Ben Gurion and the Magen David

Shulamit Gad in her book "King David and the power of Psalms" writes in page 698: David Ben Gurion talked about the Magen David in a meeting of the provisional government in 11.7.1948 and said:

Concerning the Magen David there is controversy if it is an ancient emblem or not. In my opinion it is unimportant if it is ancient. There is no other emblem, which is considered by Jews and Gentiles as a Jewish symbol like the Magen David, and it is an asset.

I don’t know if there was any weight to the fact that David was the first name of Ben Gurion, but there are others with this first name who connect to the history of this symbol like David Ganz, David Hareuveni, David Al Roy…

Moroccan Chamsa

Day of Issue: 25/07/2006, Designer: Meir Eshel
This is a replica of a Moroccan Chamsa from 1920. It is made of silver and is decorated with a Star of David. Chamsa is an apotropaic symbol and so is the Star of DAvid - together they seem to have even more power...