First Day Cover: Israeli New Year 1955

Authors

Object ID

2012.1.142

Object Name

Envelope

Date

10-12-1955

Files

Description

Off-white envelope with green and black illustration of women sitting on steps.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Miriam Karoly’s 1955 Jewish Festival series of 4 stamps to celebrate the New Year of 1955 (5716) and 1956 (5717) depicting musicians playing ancient biblical musical instruments: in this case the cymbal and timbrel. The cover itself illustrates a group of mourners before the “eternal flame” of an oil lamp -the ner tamid- representing the abiding presence of God and his care of the Jewish people. As well the illustration on the cover contains the Hebrew words Yad Vashem, which refers to the verse in the Book of Isaiah wherein God says he will give the Jewish people a “memorial and a name” that will endure forever within his temple. (Isaiah 56:5) The stamp’s date of issue postmark in Haifa is to the left of a pictorial cancellation, showing the oil lamp representing the “eternal flame” and a reference to the victims and survivors of the Shoah and Yad Vashem- the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel- opened just two years before the printing of this first day cover, the “enduring memorial” and national depository for the names of the Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death.

Dimensions

3 1/2 x 6''

Keywords

Israel, victims of the Shoah, Shoah

Subcollection

Philatelic

Recommended Citation

"First Day Cover: Israeli New Year 1955" (1955). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2012.1.142.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/828