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.
When World War I broke out Jewish leaders Joseph Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky met in Egypt and developed the idea of a Jewish legion that would fight with the British. In 1915 the Zion Mule Corps was formed. It had 650 Jewish soldiers. Trumpeldor took part in the fight in Gallipoli, Turkey, where he was wounded in the shoulder. The emblem, the flag and their badge consisted of the Star of David…
Recently I wrote about the wedding stones and estimated that the Star of David which appears on some of them Symbolizes Jerusalem (Zion). I found this connection between the climax of joy [wedding] and remembering the destroyed Temple [Jerusalem Zion Star of David] also on Jewish Wedding Contracts (Ketubot).
Searching Google images for "Star of David" and ketubah brought me 38 aesthetic results; on a regular Google search for the above search terms I got thousands of results, most of them offering to buy a ketubah.
Recently I started thinking seriously about publishing the contents of this blog as a blook. Well, if it's a book which is based on a blog, I told myself, I'll have to prepare a cover page… so I softly opened my Photoshop software and started a new canvas thinking how to convey the idea that the Star of David is personal and intimate. Gershom Scholem wrote the most authoritative paper about the Star of David, but at the same time he disclosed to his readers his personal and intimate point of view as an academic secular Jew. His is not the only legitimate point of view; there are others, many-many others, who wrote about this symbol while the common denominator for their numerous writings was: (1) that they wrote about this special symbol and (2) that they disclosed themselves. There are Christian points of view and Pagan points of view, Muslim points of view and Anti- Semite points of view, Japanese points of view etc. To sum it all up there is no one ultimate source about this subject – there are thousands of such sources and every person who is interested is entitled to collect what he needs.
In this book I'm going to collect interesting stuff about the Star of David products that my son and I developed – and that's a pronounced personal and intimate point of view. At the same time I'm going to collect interesting stuff about other's products, researches, thoughts and photos. Deciding what comes in and what stays out, what comes first and what comes last is also a personal and intimate choice.
So I took my wife's drawing of the Star of David and added to it my portrait that was made by my good old friend Dvorit Ben Shaul. I signed with my internet—palindrome-name, Zeevveez. You'll notice that the title is in white letters on a blue background, like the colors of the Israeli flag, but this blue is a mistake that happened when I used the flash of my digital camera (the original paper was white) – so that it's also personal and intimate – who's putting deliberately a mistake on the cover of his book? Only a person who wants to say something; and what I want to say is that the Star of David is not only about heavy stuff like nationality and research but it is also a feeling of a secular non-academic Jew towards his emblem because you have to understand one thing: me and the Star of David on the flag of the state of Israel – we were born in the same year, we grew up together and in a way we are graduates of the same class in the same school of life.
