Israel Stamp Reviews

The idea that stamps are a window into a nation's culture and history presupposes that culture and history are matters of national consensus. In reality, culture and history are abstractions. Culture is an abstraction of values, and history is an abstraction of narratives. Values and narratives are never static; they exist in states of perpetual internal tension. Most of the time these tensions are minor, even healthy -- the stuff of dinner table discussions -- which is what allows societies to function and develop as stable systems. Controversy is what ensues when values or narratives clash. When controversy rises above a certain pitch or when there is too much of it for too long, it starts to undermine the society's stability. It signals that values or narratives have moved so far apart from each other that they can no longer peacefully coexist. Controversy offers observers the most penetrating insight into a nation's culture and history, because it exposes the fissu...

Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer | הרב עזריאל הילדסהיימר The "Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer" stamp was issued by Israel Post on 4 February 2020. Face valued at ₪11.80, the stamp features a grayscale photograph of Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer (1820-1899) against a background of books on shelves in a library. The tab below the stamp proper highlights the founding of the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin as the rabbi's most notable achievement. Black, gray and the brownish color of old paper are the stamp's dominant colors. It was designed by Renat Abudraham-Dadon, who has been a stamp designer with Israel Post since 2013. As indicated in the stamp's release notes , Rabbi Hildesheimer was born in the town of Halberstadt, Germany in 1820. In 1846 he received a PhD in Jewish studies from the University of Halle-Wittenberg and shortly thereafter was appointed secretary of Halberstadt's Jewish community. In his role as secretary, Hildesheimer assisted the local rabbi and tau...