PAYEIN

aY HENRY LEONARD

The Romance of Israel's 263 Stamps

By AL LURIE

Jewish

Agency, lac-)

Few people realise that post-
age stamps are about the only
printed media which have free
access to every country in the
world and are, therefor e,
instruments of information and
propaganda. "
The Israel government has
given serious thought to its
postage stamps and has issued
them carefully, thoughtfully,
and beautifully.
Israel's stamps are welcome
in all lands and, in the United
States, are second in popularity
only to stamps issued by our
own government.
The people of Israel are
I among the most literate in the
world and because Israelis have
friends and relatives almost
everywhere, the stamps of Is-
] rael eventually reach every
section of our world. Israel
does not produce stamps simply
TEMPLE CRISES:
because the government is
The day the Rabbi's sermon got caught in
, aware of the popularity of post-
the wind ...
:age stamps and commercial
I value_ Israel issues stamps only
' when it needs them and has
taken the trouble to make
available stamps closely con-
nected in spirit with the Holy
Land, with Jewish history, with
Jewish traditions. with Jewish
holidays, and with Jewish per-
. sonalities.
"Can't you see why they a plea made by a woman_ to he
It is an education to study
scream like this? Can't you see permitted to retain Hitler's
Israel's stamps and to save
that they are burning, roasting photograph. It was smashed
theist. From 1948, when the
alive?" The Birkenati-Ausch- over her head and torn to bits.
State was established, through
witz concentration camp inmates
Kitty and her mother sur-
1961, Israel has released 263
knew at once what this warning vived. Tier father and brother different stamps. By the time
by one of the victims meant.
died. As she recalls the events
1962 is over, the collector, if
It was an assault on the lives of the past. she tells about the
he has a complete set of Is-
of degraded human beings. part looting the struggle for sur-
rael adhesives, will have at
of the Nazi scheme that in- vival. the stealing—from Ger- least 280 stamps.
cluded the shaving of heads to mans and by camp inmates one
Israel's plan for printing
secure the hair for the making from another.
stamps follows certain logical
of ropes, the pulling of gold
It was an age of terror, and patterns. Every Independence
teeth, the looting and stealing only miracles brought survival.
Day is commemorated with a
to enrich the Third Reich of Kitty Hart's story. which adds
set of stamps. The Jewish New
Adolf Hitler.
data to the record of terrorism, Year is honored with a set of
An eye-witness account of the describeds graphically the trag-
s u f f er i n g and humiliations. ic events that were brought stamps. The regular stamp is-
starting with the first war cry about by Nazism and the suf- sues of Israel emphasize the
in Poland. continuing through ferings in the Birkenau-Ausch- themes close to the Jewish
heart and Jewish history. It is
the war years until the rescue witz death camp.
typical. for example, that the
for the few fortunate by Amer-
first stamps of Israel repro-
ican troops, is told in "I Am
Alive" by Kitty Hart. published `Philadelphia Exponent' duced ancient coins of an ear-
lier
J e w is h Commonwealth.
by Abelard:Schuman (6 W. Rejects Criticism of
The second regular issues high-
57th. N. Y. 19).
Communal newspapers lighted the Twelve Tribes of
It is a horrifying story,
PHILADELPHIA, (JTA) —
and as Lord Russell explains The Philadelphia Exponent. a Israel. To study the background
in a foreword to the book, communal English-Jewish week- of the coins and the tribes
there is no limit to what one ly. used the observance of its force the collector and the stu-
dent of philately to delve into
can endure mentally_
75th anniversary to differ with the byroads of Jewish annals
For a time. Kitty and her
critics of the trend toward
mother were safe. They and a such newspapers in the Ameri- and to appreciate the Bible
and the heroic moments of
dozen other women posed as can Jewish community.
Jewish life.
Christians and they escaped the
Without
referring
directly
to
-
Notable leaders of the Jew-
horrors of the concentration recent criticism of this develop-
ish people have been depicted
camps. For a time they were
ment.
the
Exponent
said
edi-
on the stamps. Some of them
among the Germans. but they
were detected and sent to torially that the fact that the are known to all Jews: Theodor
Federation
of
Jewish
Charities
Herzl, father of political Zion-
Auschwitz and their survival.
as Lord Russell states. was. of and the Allied Jewish Appeal ism; Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the
"have
been
publishers
of
the
first President of the State and
course. "the exception rat her
Exponent for 18 years has not a brilliant leader of the world
than the rule."
altered
in
any
way
the
effec-
In her account. Kitty Hart
Zionist movement.
tells about the visits to Bir- tiveness of the paper."
Other notable personalities
The
editorial
asserted
that
kenau of Adolf Eichmann and
include the Hebrew poet Hay-
the
75-year-old
weekly
"has
re-
Hauptsturmfuehrer. M en g e 1 e
yim Nahman Bialik and Sholom
who now is being sought for mained a potent. conscientious Aleic_hern, the great Yiddish
reliable
newspaper
in
every
punishment as one of the most
humorist. There is, most fit-
cruel Nazi experimenters on sense of the word. Indeed, it tingly, a stamp honoring Elie-
has prospered and grown under zer - Ben Yehuda, the Hebraist
human bodies.
While "Dr. Mengele's pres- Federation's aegis. It has a who, with devotion and dedica-
ence in the camp boded only board of directors and a hard- tion, helped make Hebrew a
ill," Kitty managed to escape working professional staff to living language in modern Pal-
keep it in the forefront. Never estine. There is also
his wrath.
a stamp
When one of the inmates, has it wavered in its obliga- for the Jewish philosopher t
tions to serve the community."
Mala, who was used as a roes-
and scholar Rabbi Moses ben
:eager by the camp, managed
Maimon — Maimonides —
to escape with another pris- AJ
known as the Rambam.
Committee
Hits
oner, both having acquired
Baron Edmond de Rothschild,
SS uniforms, the camp re-
Soviet Matzoh Ban
one of the earliest benefactors
joiced: "At last there was
The American Jewish Com- of Palestine at the turn of the
someone 'outside' to tell the mittee has charged that the i c entury, has been honored with
world." But few escaped.
!Soviet government's r u l i n g a stamp reproducing his like-
When the time arrived for against the baking of matzoh n ess. Henrietta Szold, the
liberation, Kitty had planned in the USSR is another step in f ounder of Hadassah, appears
to kill the first German. The , its official policy aimed at keep- o n one of Israel's stamps.
Germans bolted themselves in, ing the Jewish communities "in
Albert Einstein, one of the
but when the door to one house an atomized condition."
g reatest scientists in the his-
was broken_in and Kitty had a
Louis Caplan of Pittsburgh, t ory of the world, has a stamp
chance to . fulfill her wish, she Committee president, said that
in tribute to his scientific
was unable to do it and she while religious liberty is cur- achievements and his devotion
threw down the knife. The Ger- tailed for all groups in the to Israel.
Professor Einstein, in
mans pleaded to be left alive. USSR, "Soviet Jews suffer far
the last years of his life, had
She relates about another greater handicaps and disabili-
been asked by Prime Minister
raid on a German home and of ties than others•"
David Ben-Gurion to assume

Concentration Camp Horrors Told
by Auschwitz Survivor Kitty Hart
ill Graphic Account 'I Am Alive'

the Presidency of the State fol-
ilowing the death of Dr. Weiz-
mann. He declined because of
his age but was deeply moved
by the honor accorded him by
Ben-Gurion.
Israel's towns, agricultural
villages and industries have not
been overlooked by the Postal
'Services responsible for select-
ing themes for the stamps.
There are stamps focusing on
Tel Aviv; on the settlements of
Petach Tikvah and Degania: on
Jaffa (which has since been ab-
sorbed by Tel Aviv); Safed, the
cradle of Jewish mysticism; Ti-
berias, the resort area which
had been the playground of
Roman emperors: Ashkelon,
which is at present an archaeo-
logical treasure grove; and the
outpost of Ein Gev.
Israel's Merchant Marine, El
Al Airline, Jewish National
Fund, Israel Bond Organization,
Youth Ailyah, the atomic re-;
actor near Rehovot are all hon
ored with stamps issued in J

Greetings

Of The

Season

tribute to their activities and
achievements.

There have been stamps
showing three notable Kings
of Israel, Saul, David and
Solomon, as well as Samson,
Bar Kochba, Judah Maccabi,
the Maceabiah Games which
are the equivalent of the
Olympic Games, the World
Zionist Congress, Israel's ag-
riculture, including citrus,
figs, wheat, dates and olives.

Among the most intriguing
of these stamps are the ones
reproducing mosaics found in
ancient synagogues and birds
found in Palestine centuries
ago.
With the passage of time
there will be more and more
stamps relating to more recent
Jewish achievements. Already
there are stamps on the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra, Beza-
lel Museum and ZOA House.

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