This blog (by Zeev Barkan) is dedicated to the Star of David, its history, its various meanings and usages in different cultures. It includes thousands of pictures of Star of David, six-pointed stars, hexagrams, Solomon's Seals, Magen Davids and yellow badges,and served as a resource for three books and four art exhibitions.
My brand new Hebrew Book is based on my Hebrew blog
http://magendavidalbum.blogspot.com/
It’s about the meaning of the Star of David, it’s history, it’s usages in daily life and in arts in various cultures, and it includes a chapter about the yellow badge.
Soon I hope to publish an English version…
Yesterday I brought home copies of my Hebrew Books from the printer. The name of the book is Star of David Black and White, and it summarizes the info in my blog
http://magendavidalbum.blogspot.com/
Above you can see the photo on the front page of the book beside the same image from my blog on the monitor
Yesterday I brought home My Hebrew Books from the printer and hurried to take their pictures in order to show them to you. The translation of the name of my book is Star of David Black and White. It summarizes the info I collected in my blog during the past two years about our national emblem. The photo shows the books beside their source, the blog, as it appears on the monitor.
JNF stamp with palm trees inside the shape of the Star of David is from Haifa designer Hayim Shtayer’s collection. The hexagon inside the shape of the Magen David always tempted designers to use it as a frame for important national and religious themes such as peace, menorah, Jerusalem, the name of God, or, as in this case, immigration. Designer: Joseph Budko, 1973.
JNF Israeli Independence Declaration stamp with Stars of David on the newly made flags of Israel is from Haifa designer Hayim Shtayer’s collection. Usually I don’t publish here Israeli flags (I believe they deserve a website of their own) but this is an exception, and the reason is that at that moment in history the Magen David entered our consciousness as a national emblem.
Jerusalem is flooded these days with posters of Taglit-birthright Israel, an organization that brought since its foundation 160,000 Jewish students from all over the world to Israel. Their logo is a young and colorful Star of David.
I bought this last year via eBay, while building up a collection of antique books. I came across it by accident and being the only bidder it cost just £5.00.
I briefly tried to research the author – D. M. Barter Snow – but found nothing via Google. Judging from the booklet he's an English or British Christian (anti-Semitism has not been a prominent feature of English Christianity in recent centuries). On the back page is:
BIRLING PUBLISHING COMPANY,
HADLEIGH, SUFFOLK.
The inside front cover has the following dedication:
To the Jewish people, through who’s race the world has been given all that matters most; and particularly to those of the seed of Israel who are my personal friends.
The first poem is ‘HE WAS A JEW’. This is a strong attack on Nazi Germany. The first of eight verses follows:
If Jesus lived in Germany
And plied his craft today,
Doing his honest carpentry
In his own perfect way;
Oh! Would he find his workshop wrecked
By some mad Nordic crew,
His windows labelled: “Men, beware!
Within here works a Jew”?
The rest of the poem is stinging in its condemnation of the brutalities of the period, describing Brown Shirt violence and concentration camps.
The second poem – ‘ENDURANCE’ – is just three verses. Here is the first verse:
They shall endure, as they have endured
Hatred for centuries past:
Slavery, sieges, exile and shame,
Torture and death at the last;
The Pharaoh, the Nebuchadnezzar;
Rome, and the swords of Crusades;
The pogroms in Russia and Poland;
And Nazi rule which degrades.
‘TO A JEW-HATER’ is the third poem, here complete:
So you detest the Jews, and you think that they
Can claim no right to that fair Holy Land
Where once their fathers, led by God’s Own hand
Through the dear desert, came at last to stay;
And there they worshipped him, Whose sovereign sway
They owned for years; but, failing to withstand
The Roman legions, were sent forth – a band
Of wanderers, scorned, insulted to this day.
You think it strange that I should answer you
By saying that to Israel alone
Was given, among the peoples, a decree
From God, Himself, to hold that Land? The Jew
You hate, I love; but then as Lord I own
That Jew, who gave his Life to set men free.
The booklet concludes with the brief poem ‘THESE ARE MY BRETHREN’:
How will you answer on that day,
When Christ as Judge sits on His throne
And asks you what you have to say?
How will you answer on that day
In vindication of the way
You used the race that was His Own?
How will you answer on that day,
When Christ as judge sits on his throne?
