Om Star

Photo of Indian Om symbol inside a six-pointed star is courtesy of Ben Piven who shot it a few days ago in Kerala, India

Copyrigts: Ben Piven 2008

Stamp With Hebrew Poetry

JNF issued in 1987 a holocaust stamp with a yellow badge on concentration camp prisoner uniform, and with two Hebrew poems: one by Chayim Guri (1923 - ) and one by Avraham Shlonsky (1900 – 1973). IMHO the idea of displaying poems on stamps is brilliant, and I’m sorry this is the only instance of poems on stamps that I know… The stamps are courtesy of Hayim Shtayer and part of his collection.

Herzl’s emblem for the Zionist Congress

Photo is courtesy of Dr. Haim Grossman.

Since I helped organize the Magen David Festival in Yavne I was very pleased to read what Dov Gutterman wrote on 7 June 2007 in the Flags of the World website:

I was invited to give a lecture during a "Magen David Festival" held in the city of Yavne on Passover. Just before me, there was a lecture by Dr. Haim Grossman, who lectured about "Herzel and the Magen David", and his findings gave me the missing link.

As we know, Herzl's idea about the flag of the Jewish homeland was made of seven gold stars on white background. Dr. Grossman sent me scan from Herz'l diary in which one can see that the stars were arranged as such: 6 stars will make a virtual Magen David and the seventh star will be above them. Putting gold stars on white flag is not a good idea as in quite a short distance this flag will be seen as white-only flag, and therefore, it is not surprising that it was not adopted.

However, Herzl designed one thing more. He designed an emblem for the Zionist Congress. Again, thanks to Dr. Grossman findings, we can see that Herzl's idea was exactly the same as the central device of the first Zionist flag.

So, Wolfson may "invent" the blue stripes but for the center of the flag he took the Zionist Congress emblem designed by Herz'l.