Tag: Israel stamp

The Holy Land contains the Dead Sea, the lowest level of land on Earth. Proving that and exploring the possibilities of it was left to outsiders. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is an interesting piece of history and the stamp is well printed. What also is interesting is who is doing the scientific exploration that is being rightly celebrated. An American/Confederate Naval man, an Irish Catholic Priest and a Scottish adventurer who popularized canoeing are represented. Notice that none are local Jews or for that matter Arabs. Scientific advances are the prevue of the most advanced civilizations, here is an example of that.

The stamp today is issue A417, a 50 Agorot stamp issued by Israel on November 24th, 1987. It was part of a three stamp issue that also came as a souvenir sheet the honored three 19th century Holy Land explorers. In this stamp the 1847 exploration of the Dead Sea by a United States Navy Expedition under Captain William Francis Lynch is honored. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Captain Lynch was from Virginia and lead the exploration of the Dead Sea. By using triangulation, he was able to prove that the Dead Sea was indeed below sea level. This had been hypothesized before. The aspect of being below sea level changes temperature and cloud cover/ Solar ultraviolet rays enough that if effects the ability to maintain life, which is where the name Dead Sea derives. The unique conditions lead to substances not present elsewhere, many of which have medicinal value. The 16 man expedition had better luck than the other expeditions celebrated on this issue of stamps.

The expedition of Irish Priest Christopher Costigan ran out of water and Costigan resorted to drinking the extremely salted Dead Sea water. It made him sick and that ended his exploration. He was taken to a monastery to recover but when they tried to transfer him to a hospital in Jerusalem, Father Costigan died on the long donkey journey.

John MacGregor, the Scottish adventurer was captured by Arab villagers who lifted his canoe out of the water while he attempted to fight them off with his oar.

Captain Lynch himself had trouble on a later expedition to East Africa where he contracted malaria. He survived that and when the American Civil War broke out he resigned from the United States Navy and fought with the Confederate States of America Navy, including at the battle of Vicksburg. He ended up in a Union prisoner of war camp. He died in 1865 shortly after being given his parole.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast the adventures who strike out against all the danger to expand mankind’s knowledge. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

This stamp shows a modern postal truck and the General Post Office in Jerusalem. This stamp implies correctly that the then new state of Israel had a modern functioning postal service. It doesn’t show the effort involved in getting there. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

As is so often the case with an early post colonial/mandate state, an impressive piece of infrastructure was shown without the useful piece of information that it was a gift of the former mandate British government. This lack of thanks should be an important influence on the decision to build something for someone else instead of remembering your own people first.

Todays stamp is issue A40, a 2 pound stamp issued by Israel on October 14th, 1954. It was a two stamp issue, the other showing the old post office in Jerusalem and horse bound mail delivery. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.

Postal history goes far back in the territory occupied by Israel. During the Mamluk period that predated the Ottomans, there was a regular mail run between Cairo and Damascus that made several stops in what is now Israel. Already in 1901, a Jewish National Fund was established with the purpose of buying up land for the use of Jews moving to Ottoman era Palestine. Their largest project was the city of Tel Aviv and an important fund raising tool was the issuance of fake stamps.

The post World War I mandate for Britain was to run Palestine and attempt to treat the various peoples there equally. In terms of the postal service, the effort included a large new general post office in Jerusalem. It was designed by British architect Austen Harrison to be both modern and fit in with the traditional architecture of the Middle East. Austen Harrison was a McGill University graduate and a descendant of authoress Jane Austen, for whom he is named. Harrison lived in Jerusalem for 15 years and had friends among all the religious and racial groups. He enjoyed hikes to Amman and Cairo, which then was possible. The new building was to house the post office, the telephone and telegraph service, and the then Palestine Post newspaper. Hand cut stone from the quarry Beit Safafa was chosen with a stripe of black basalt at street level to camouflage street grime. Inside the stamp buying room the counter facing the customers was cool durable marble, but facing the employees was warm polished oak. In the basement is a large secure vault for the stamps.

Half way through construction Austen Harrison abandoned the project and left Jerusalem for Cyprus. He felt the British mandate authority was overly favoring the recently arrived Jewish residents at the expense of the others. The building was finished by a replacement in 1938 and is still in use today.

The transition from mandate to an Israeli postal system was not smooth. In 1948 the British discontinued their postal service. The Israelis took over the infrastructure left behind and tried to get it back in operation. They first overstampted fake stamp issues of the Jewish National Fund to make them real stamps. That doesn’t happen often. The first newly printed stamps of Israel printed a few months later were labeled Hebrew Post, as the final name was not yet decided. Israeli Post soon bowed to the British Mandate tradition of being trilingual with Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of our Turkish friends are no doubt saying what about us? Don’t you remember the Ottoman Empire? There is only so much room on a stamp.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

In the nineteen century there was a movement among Ashkenazi Jews in Europe to move to Palestine which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. These new Jewish communities needed spiritual guidance and help interacting with the long established Jewish community already in place. Rabbi Kook took on this challenge. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This was from a series of stamps on the heroes of the underground movement of Jews in Palestine in the lead up to the founding of the modern state of Israel 30 years before. The stamp issue started by remembering five heroes. Then it was realized that there were more people worthy of remembrance. By the end of the year 14 stamps had come out each with a different hero. I am left feeling sorry for the 15th hero on Israel’s list who just didn’t make the cut. What was he? chopped liver?

Todays stamp is issue A280. a 2 Israeli Pound stamp issued on August 2nd, 1978. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

Abraham Isaac Kook was born in Courland in what was then Czarist Russia (now Latvia) in 1865. I did a stamp about Courland here,  https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/09/latvia-1919-ulmanis-slays-the-russian-dragon-to-take-kurland/   . He was born into a family of prominent Orthodox Rabbis and became one himself. He was known as quite a Torah scholar. He believed it was the destiny of Jews around the world to return to the territory of the ancient Israeli Kingdom in order to fulfill divine prophesy.

In 1904 he accepted a Rabinacle assignment in Jaffa. His responsibilities their included nearby newly established Jewish farming communities. To his surprise he found the communities to be fairly secular. He made reaching out to secular Jews a specific mission of his. He thought secular Jews still had a part to play in the founding of a new Israel. He could see the important work they were doing getting agriculture in place in what had been a desolate land. He also was in deep spiritual communications with Jews still in Europe and others in Yemen to guide them on the path of coming to Palestine.

A committed pacifist,Rabbi Kook sat out World War I in Switzerland and London while the territory of Palestine passed from the Ottomans to the British. The now British administration of the area was heavily staffed by British Jews and the time was right to make his move back to Jerusalem to become the Chief Rabbi of Palestine. This was the first time that job had been held by a Ashkenazi Jew rather than an Ottoman Rabbi. This was reflective of the Jewish community now being far more than Jewish Quarters of Ottoman cities. See also, https://the-philatelist.com/2017/12/05/mosque-of-omar-the-mandate-to-try-to-stand-between/

Rabbi Kook did not live to see the founding of the modern Israel, dying in 1935. A Yeshiva he founded still exists and a community has his name in the form of an acronym of his name in Hebrew, Kfar Haroeh.  I am not Jewish, and am no religious scholar but I think this quote from Rabbi Kook did a good job of explaining where he was coming from. “Therefore the pure righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not not complain of evil, they increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, they increase faith: they do not complain of ignorance, they increase wisdom.”

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

This is a story how a place can change overnight, over and over, and yet still be a part of ancient tradition. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This series of stamps was issued a quarter century after the founding of Israel. The views of Israel presented make it look a lot older than that. The city of Zefat, with it’s stone edifices built a long time ago on a high hillside plays into that theme well.

Todays stamp is issue A193, a 1.3 Israeli Pound stamp issued by Israel on November 5th, 1974. It was part of a 23 stamp issue in various denominations that came out over a five year period showing Israeli landscapes. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

Zefat, there are many spellings depending on who you are. is a small town in northern Galilee near the Lebanese and Syrian border. Being near the Syrian border is dependent on whether you accept the Israeli annexation of the occupied Golan Heights. Towns in this part of the world make you accept a lot of quick changes. The town first came to prominence at the time of the Crusades when the hill sprouted a Christian castle and a town grew up around it. The town was majority Christian but contained an Arab quarter. At the time there were no Jews in the area. The town fell to the Arab forces under King Saladin in 1188 after a year long siege. Most Christians in the area relocated to Tyre in modern Lebanon. Unlike most crusader castles, the one at Zefat was not destroyed. The crusaders were soon back in Zefat and refortified the castle. This didn’t last and in 1260 the town again fell to Arab forces under Sultan Baybars. He was more vengeful on Christians, and that was the end of their presence.

The area passed to the Ottomans who administered it as part of the vilayet of Sidon in modern day Lebanon. The city  became attractive to Jews who were relocating from Spain. Specifically to Jews who practiced the mysticism of Kabala. Kabala Jews believe that the Jewish Savior will arrive on a hilltop in Galilee. Zefat is on top of the highest hill in Galilee. By the standards of the area, the Ottomans were most welcoming and a Jewish Quarter of the town took shape.

The time of the British mandate of Palestine paints a confusing picture depending on whose story you are following. Both sides seem to agree the British stood back as either Jews encroached on Arab land or the Jewish quarter of Zefat was mercilessly attacked in an attempt to starve them out. The Arab view should be given more credence as within a week after the end of the British mandate in 1948, there was a military offensive by the Palmach Jewish forces. At the time the town had 12,000 Arabs and 1700 Jews. The entire Arab population was forced out. Among them was the family of Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the West Bank Palestinian Authority.

Today Zefat has a population of 32,000 and is over 99% Jewish. Tomorrow? The Hebrew language has been modernized since this stamp and they currently call the city Safed.

Well my drink is empty and I will switch to Turkish coffee and toast the comparatively welcoming Ottomans. Come again tomorrow for another story  that can be learned from stamp collecting.