Photoshop contest

On Photoshop contest Religious Shapes 5 I saw some Star of David pictures, which were full of inspiration, full of imagination, creative, surprising, fun, entertaining, humorous, amusing, artistic, aesthetic…
My recommendation is to run see it with your own eyes and tell your loved ones:
Aquarium in the shape of the Star of David with fish swimming in it ( BTW a year ago I planned building a similar aquarium from glass)
Pupil in an eye
Pyramid for pharaoh
The building of the Jewish center in the film "Hebrew Hammer "
Two embryos connected by their umbilical cord
Jewish egg
Made from a beautiful woman's hair
6 pointed starfish
Dominoes
Jewish menorah
Leaf
Made from butts in an ashtray
Original chocolates from Morguefile
Emergency
Car Gear
Star of David on the Wailing Wall
On chess tools
Stop sign
As one of the tools in a jackknife
As a wheel of a bike (I did the same on a wheel of a car 5 years ago)
Pink Floyd - The Kosher Side of the Moon
Aiming device for a hunting gun
Glider
Made from floating plants in the water

Using the Photo of the Star of David in Wikipedia

Just to prove how ubiquitous the Star of David is see the list of Wikipedia links to projects that use the picture of the Star of David (502). You’ll see that this picture  is used by an amazing number of projects, which surround every corner of the Jewish life.

I just hope I'll have enough patience to visit all the pages these links lead to...

Crop Circle Formation

Rani from Yaly Judaica referred me to a Star of David Crop Circle Formation
Discovered on September 16, 2001 in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada and reported by Judy Arndt.
More than the excellent photos I liked the tolerant approach of Judy Arndt's explanations:

It doesn't matter to me if we solve the puzzle of who made it. People respond to the beauty and geometry. After the horrific images we've been viewing on TV this month, walking in the serenity of this crop formation is a soothing balm.

That's exactly the way I feel towards the Star of David phenomenon - It doesn't matter to me if we solve the puzzle of who made it…walking wherever this symbol leads me is a blessing!

Stars of David in art

On the website of Frank Meisler, an Israeli sculptor who has a studio in the Old City of Jaffa I found several Stars of David.

Israeli painter Nir Hod's "I Swear" shows a female soldier in the image of the artist swear on a bible and a gun with a false Star of David unit tag on her shoulder and a pendant with a Star of David in her hand.. In "Love Story" there's an Israeli officer with a Star of David on his arm in the image of the artist who's embracing a nurse who is also in the image of the artist. In the background there's a war.

 In the 80th Moshe Gershoni made a painting titled "Mizmor Ledavid"  (a hymn to David) with a black Star of David.

In 1998 Eitan Bushery and Tamar Shalev made a painting for the 50th Israeli Independence Day where the Star of David is broken into two separate triangles on the background of a fire that is going to burn it.

Star of Judaism or Star of Israel

The Jewish Star of David means a lot of different things for a lot of different people:

God's rule

Creation

Jewish identity

As above as below

Four elements

Masculine – feminine

Astronomical configuration

Protection

Messiah

Hope

Suffering

Survival

Messianic

Twelve tribes

Opposites

Marriage

Sukkah Guests

Jerusalem (Zion , Zionism)

Water and fire in Alchemy

One of the stars in the sky

House of David

Symmetry

Personal meanings

Anyhow the main interpretations are that it stands for Israel and or Judaism. How to draw the line between these representations opens another arena.

The Bar Kochba Coin from Clay City Kentucky

Recently I wrote that serious academic scholars base much of their theories on the physical evidence found in the field. I asked how can they be sure that these findings are not FORGERIES? Today I followed a story I read on Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut's book "The Magen David: How the Six-Pointed Star Became an Emblem for the Jewish" and found an interesting answer for my question.

Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut developed a whole argument around the story of Robert Cox who found in 1952 a Bar Kochba coin in a pigs' pen. Plaut said that since Bar Kochba's revolt failed there's no reason to think that the spreading of the Star of David started in his period. Anyhow Israeli coin expert Yaakov Meshorer identified the Bar Kochba coin as a forgery from the beginning of the 20th century.

One side of this coin shows the Star of David above the Second Temple and the name Simon in Old Hebrew letters. On the other side there's a lulav and an ethrog and the words "Year 2 of the Freedom of Israel".

In his survey of "Pre-Columbian Old World Coins in America" Jeremiah F. Epstein devoted almost a page to the Kentucky Bar Kochba coins. This seems to me like a waste of good energy – why include it in the book if it is forged? This only adds fuel to the debate about the possibility that Solomon's fleet arrived to America…

Similar coins were found in 1922 near the Missouri/Arkansas state line; in 1932 in Louisville, Kentucky; in 1967 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and in Alcolu, South Carolina. This last mentioned coin was also identified by Meshorer as a forgery.

Town Emblem Stamps

M. & G. Shamir designed two series of town emblem stamps. The first series was issued between March 24, 1965 and Feb. 8, 1967 and the second series was issued between July 9, 1969 and Oct. 18, 1970. Among the stamps there is the emblem of
Tel Aviv designed by Nahum Gutman with the seven small stars that Theodor Herzl's planned for a seven-hour workday next to a large Magen David
Ashkelon's emblem with 5 Stars of David that stand for the 5 quarters of the town;
Herzeliya emblem with Theodor Herzl's seven Stars of David.

Picture of Tel Aviv emblem stamp is courtesy of Dobush.