Sunday, November 30, 2008

Israel 1958 Postcard

Israel 1958 Postcard

Magen David as part of the IDF aircraft emblem appears on an 1958 nostalgic postcard issued to mark Ten years of Israeli Independence. A plane that arrives from the sea allows us to see Israel from above: a green small (before the settlements) and clean country.

Copyright: Uri Mayrav and Hadi Or 2008

Thanks to Dobush who referred me to this image

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Yaacov Agam’s Magen David Signature

Yaacov Agam’s  Magen David Signature Israeli art

Thirty-fifth Independence Day Israeli stamp carries not only a kinetic art Magen David but also this Magen David Signature in which the Jewish star replaces both the Hebrew Aleph letter and the Latin A letter. It is, in my view, a separate stand alone work of art!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hexagonal Postage Stamps

Bulgarian star of David made from six stamps

Commemorating 100 Years to Sofia Synagogue

Issued on 09.09.2009

Designer:Radoslav Iliev

Thanks to Cvetan Cvetkov for referring me to this stamp
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Since I consider myself the inventor of the six-pointed-star-shaped postage stamps I felt intimidated by this rivalry, but:

  1. It was issued after “my Stamp”
  2. It wasn’t six-pointed from the start.

This set of 2 stamps, which shows Aldabra giant Tortoise, was released on 2 August 2008 by the Indian postage Service. The stamp in picture is courtesy of Mansoor Hussain who wrote to me:

It is not star shaped (originally it is in hexagonal shape) it has been cut from the sheet in star shape.

Copyright: Mansoor Hussain 2008

Makoya

White on Blue (instead of the blue and white national Israeli colors) Magen David on the coats of the Makoya members who arrive to Israel.

Photographed by Zako and all rights are reserved to him.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Herzl in Caesarea

Magen David, Menorah and the Ten Commandments appear above Herzl’s statue in the yard next to the Caesarea Ralli Museum, which was founded by Harry Recanati in 1993.

Picture by Hayim Shtayer

Copyright: Hayim Shtayer 2008

See more Herzl pictures by Hayim Shtayer

Sunday, November 23, 2008

David & Goliath Ltd

Italian candies manufactured by Golis (=Goliath) Company with the Star of David symbol decorating the wrapping. These two names are meeting again like in a second life (Karma).

All rights reserved to Sabina Saad 2008.

Shipibo

Jose Manuel Chamorro sent me pictures of these most interesting hexagram art works. He added in Spanish (but I translated with Google translator):

I am enclosing some pictures I have taken of a carved stone of the Shipibo. It belongs to a tribe of the upper Amazon in Peru. I still have not found the meaning of these six-pointed star images.  Greetings

Copyright: Jose Manuel Chamorro 2008

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Herzl Sign

Two small white Magen David emblems on blue background are carved in the Herzl Memorial sign at the house were he was born in Budapest in 1860.

Photography: Tamar Hayardeni

Copyright: Tamar Hayardeni 2008
Source: Hebrew Wikipedia


Friday, November 21, 2008

Joaniki papa Vitanov


My thanks to Rossitza Ohridska-Olson who referred me to this impressive outstanding usage of the Christian hexagram in art works and who wrote to me:

These are 2 Christian icons from the Tryavna School of Icon painting authored by Joaniki papa Vitanov. They were painted in the beginning of his career (the historians put them around 1820). The artist was living and working in the Sliven region in Bulgaria. These  photos are from the site of the Bulgarian Orthodox Christian Church.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bulgarian Mosaic Floor

A colorful hexagram appears in a 2-4th century C.E.  mosaic floor excavated at a rich house in the Roman city Augusta Traiana in south Bulgaria. The city was built in 109 C.E.  The mosaic is exhibited at the Regional Museum of History, Stara Zagora.

Copyright 2008 Rossitza Ohridska-Olson - photographer (culturalrealms.typepad.com)

Copyright 2008 Vizantia Enterprises Inc. (vizantia.com)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

My new Theodore Herzl Group on Flickr

Recently, I got a few dozens well-selected images of Theodore Herzl from Graphic designer Hayim Shtayer who collects such images for many years, I thought it could be a magnetic center for many other Theodore Herzl enthusiasts, so I opened a group in Flickr dedicated to Theodore Herzl items -  see:

http://flickr.com/groups/899548@N25/

The above photo is an invitation (from Hayim Shtayer’s collection) to an Independence Party on 2003. Caption under the blue (what else?) Magen David is: Even Herzl didn’t believe.

Copyright: Hayim Shtayer 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Intolerance

In Lesnovo Monastery (the Church of St. Archangel Gabriel), Macedonia, there are three circles. Rugs cover two of them, and in the picture we see the third, which is uncovered. The local monk told Rossitza Olson while she visited there that the Star of David is uncovered so that Christian visitors would have the opportunity to step on it and by that to reject Judaism.

This issue of stepping on the emblem of Judaism is quite popular and “jumps” each time one sees the six-pointed star on the floor, like in the Temple Mount at the 7th century C.E. Dome of the Chain, or in the case of Vans shoes. Anyhow Anti-Semitism is no news…

Copyright 2008 Rossitza Ohridska-Olson - photographer (culturalrealms.typepad.com)
Copyright 2008 Vizantia Enterprises Inc. (vizantia.com)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Coffee Haggadah

Magen David on 1938 Hagadah 

Issued by General Foods Corporation to promote Maxwell Cofee sales

Copyright: Alfonzo 2008

Thanks to Dobush who referred me to this image  

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Messiah Obama

There are inter-religious expectations that Obama will save the world as the Messiah. Tradition has it that the Messiah would come on a white donkey.

In this Photoshop photomontage I added gold embroidery of a six-pointed star since this symbol is:

  1. Connected to the Messiah (and to the House of King David)
  2. An inter-religious symbol adored by Muslims Christians Hindis and Jews for generations.

Picture of U.S. President Obama is courtesy of “craynol” from Flickr

Picture of  a white donkey is courtesy of “hoyasmeg” from Flickr

Printers’ Mark

This printer mark is copied from Project Gutenberg, Printers' Marks - A Chapter in the History of Typography, by William Roberts, 1893. Printer William Faques designed this between 1499 and 1508. It has scriptural quotations on a white and black hexagram.

I thank Zeev Bonovitzky for referring me to this interesting appearance of the hexagram.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Lexicon of Zionism

A unique design of the Magen David appears on the Hebrew Efrayim and (his son)  Menachem Talmi Lexicon of Zionism, which was published in 1978 by  Sifryat Ma'ariv, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Copyright: Zako 2008

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Martyrs of Rhodes And Cos

The base of this monument to the 1604 martyrs of Rhodes and Cos who were murdered in Nazi death camps has the shape of a Magen David in addition to the frequently used white on black Magen David which is engraved on the column. Picture is Courtesy of “templar1307” from Flickr”

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

From Dark to Bright

Painter Meir Salomon shot these four Magen Davids reflecting different stages of light at the area of Jaffa Flea Market, Israel
Copyright: Meir Salomon 2008

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Varanasi Swastikas

Hexagram framed by many Swastikas appears in a shop in Varanasi, India.

In India the meaning of these two symbols is quite different that their Western interpretation.

Copyright: Dr. Gilad Galili 2008 (I cropped the hexagram from a larger image he sent me)

Thanks to Dobush for referring me to this interesting image.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Documentation of Graffiti Reactions to Rabin’s Murder

Hayim Shtayer went in November 1995 to Kikar Malchei Yisrael in Tel Aviv, the place where Yitzhak Rabin was murdered, and documented the spontaneous reactions of the Israeli public as they were written on the walls there. In the picture above we see a white Magen David below the caption: "you were born for peace".
Copyright: Hayim Shtayer 2008 

See the whole collection on:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeevveez/sets/72157608679326292/

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Gederah Bell

Magen David appears on the old Gederah Bell that was used to gather the citizens more than 100 years ago. The picture was shot by Ya’acov Shkolnik. Copyright: Ya’acov Shkolnik 2008

I thank Dobush from Kfar Aza and Oded Israeli for referring me to this historical image.   

Byzantine Hexagram Oil Lamp




Hexagram appears on Byzantine hexagram oil lamp from Shlomo Moussaieff collection.
Otto Friedrich August Meinardus,  a German Coptologist and pastor (1925 – 2005),  mentioned a few other Greco Roman terra cotta lamps  in his article "The Hexagram or the Magen David in Byzantine Art" (in the Bulletin of the Christian Archeological Society 8 (period IV)(1975-1976) p. 97-100):
Excavated in Jerash – Goodenough, I, 161; VII, 358; I:142; VII, 251
Excavated in Samaria – George Andrew Reisner et al, Harvard excavations in Samaria 1908-1910 Cambridge 1925 Vol. II Pl 96 c.
Excavated in Ephesus – Forschungen in Ephesus, osterreichisches Archaeologisches Institut, Wien, Vol. IV, 773, Pl. V
Excavated in Athenian Agora – Judith Perlzweig, the Athenian Agora – Lamps from the Roman Period first to seventh century, Princeton 1961, nos. 353, 2440. 



Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Magen David Logo Made From Hebrew Letters

Magen David logo made from the Hebrew Letters Lamed Vav Yod, which compose the name Levi of the owner of a private Ambulance in Jerusalem, Israel. Designing Magen David logos is prevalent, and you can see many such examples in different logos of the Maccabiah. 

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Anti-Semitism Demon

Size: 40X14X14 cm

Wood box, spring, wood Yellow Badge and acrylic paintings.

Anti-Semitism is hiding usually until it bursts unpredictably. Like demons that were hiding in a box. The Yellow Badge is bigger than the box so that once it’s out there’s no way to put it back. On the sides of the box are painted the flags of Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Holland. There wasn’t enough space for the flags of the other Anti-Semitic countries…

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008


Sunday, November 02, 2008

Nepal 1994 Postage Stamp


Hexagram appears on Nepal 1994 Postage Stamp
 Picture is courtesy of Dobush from Kfar Aza Israel
Dobush from kfar Aza asked Israeli philately expert Ron Berger (in a Forum at Tapuz) about this postage stamp. Ron Berger says that this is the fourth in a series of famous people postage stamps issued on 23 December 1994, showing Bala Guru Shadananda (1835- 1916) who founded the first public schools in Nepal.
I thank Dobush and Ron Berger for the accurate info.



The 50th Anniversary of Management Education in Nepal-2004  




 2009 - Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Tribhuvan University in Nepal

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Tau Crosses inside a hexagram

Picture of early 20th century Tau Crosses inside a hexagram at Sheffield Roman CatholicCathedral, England, is courtesy of  “evissa” from Flickr who calls the hexagram by the name “double Trinity star”. Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and it looks like the letter T.