Object ID
2019.2.257
Object Name
Envelope
Date
5-14-1948
Files
Download Full Text (460 KB)
Content Warning
The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
Envelope with red and white postage stamp of the Star of David in top right corner above a blue postage stamp with man’s profile, “14 MAY 1948” stamped near top in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:The cover is postmarked with a 20 mil emergency post stamp tied by a dated postmark of May 14, 1948 above a 10 mil Chaim Weizmann JNF (Jewish National Fund) stamp with a Nahariya Minhelet Ha’am postmark and Hebrew Doar or Post overprint.
The interim period, or Minhelet Ha’am, refers in philately to the transition period between the end of the British Mandate over Palestine and the first stamps of the new state of Israel, a two-week period from May 1st to May 15th of 1948. While all public services were affected during this chaotic time, the postal service was particularly problematic. The Jewish provisional government did not have its own stamps; consequently, JNF labels-typically used for fundraising- were employed, with the Doar overprint, along with local community tax stamps.
On the day this letter was postmarked, May 14, 1948, the British Mandate had expired, and Davis Ben Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel. At 5:25 a.m. the next day, May 15, 1948, Israel was attacked by five Arab states, marking the beginning of the War of Independence.
Dimensions
4 x 6"
Keywords
Interim cover, Minhelet Ha'am, Nahariya, Doar, JNF, David Ben Gurion, British Mandate
Subcollection
Philatelic
Recommended Citation
"Interim (Minhelet Ha'am) Cover Mailed from Nahariya to Alfred Zolokovitz in Haifa" (1948). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.257.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1584
Rights Statement
