Last modified: 2015-01-03 by andrew weeks
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extract from Herz'l diary
image contributed by Dr. Haim Grossman
See also:
image by Kazutaka Nishiura, 22 December 2009
The process of adopting an Israeli national emblem is
discussed in detail in Handelman and
Shamgar-Handelman 1990 [an article by Don Handelman and Lea
Shamgar-Handelman: Shaping Time: The Choice of the National
Emblem of Israel, in Emiko Ohnuki-Tierny (ed): Culture
Through Time: Anthropological Approaches, Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1990, pp. 193-226]. The main attention in this
article is on the emblem of Israel, but there is some information
on the adoption of the flag as well:
In 1896 Theodor Herzl published a book called Der Judenstaat
(in English: The Jewish State). He proposed a flag for
the state. This was to be seven golden stars on a white field.
Handelman and Lea Shamgar-Handelman quoted this explanation from
a 1970 edition of Herzl's book (p. 101): "The white
field signifies our new, pure life; the stars are the seven
golden hours of our working day."
Jan Oskar Engene, 24 June 1996
In the Jewish Encyclopaedia under the word "Flag" is
the second design from Herzl for a Jewish flag. The first
proposal was white with seven golden sixpointed stars. In the
second Herzl proposal the David star is in the center and the
stars (golden? blue?) are in the six angles of the star and above
is the seventh. The blue and white colors were quoted first time
by the poet L.A. Frankl in his poem Zivei Erez Yehuda. (...)
Perhaps the flag of 1885 was with golden star and the one of 1897
was with blue star. Blue and white colors were adopted 1933 in
the zionist congress.
Jaume Ollé, 31 May 1998
The first mention of this flag was in Benyamin Ze'ev (aka
Theodore) Herzl's private diary on June 14, 1895 when he wrote,
"the flag that was raised in my thoughts, maybe a white flag
with seven gold stars. And the white field mean our new, pure
lives. The stars are the working hours (...)".
Dov Gutterman, 25 February 1999
With all the respect to Herzl, he had no clue about good
vexillography, using yellow on white. On the other hand, he could
find a precedent, the medieval coat-of-arms
of Jerusalem kingdom. As a matter of curiosity, Herzl is
familiarly called Toša (read Tosha) in Zagreb among the
members of his family that remained here.
Željko Heimer, 27 February 1999
Dr. Grossman sent me scan from Herz'l diary in which one can
see that the stars were arranged as such: 6 stars will make a
virtual Magen David and the seventh star will be above them.
Putting gold stars on white flag is not a good idea as in quite a
short distance this flag will be seen as white-only flag, and
therefore, it is not surprising that it was not adopted. However,
Herz'l design one thing more. He also design an emblem for the first Zionist Congress which was used on
its flag.
Dov Gutterman, 7 June 2007
There is an interesting flag at 7th Congress postcard at <stampcircuit.com>
showing Hertzl's 7 stars (although the exact design of the flag
field is hard to guess, if it includes the stripes or not...).
Željko Heimer, 28 May 2009
