Treasure Trove: David Matlow explains how this stag became the symbol for the Israeli mail system
Isadore Schalit (1871-1953) was one of Theodor Herzl’s first assistants and a main organizer of the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. He opened all of the Zionist Congresses through to the 23rd Congress in Jerusalem in 1951 by knocking a hammer on the chairman’s table. Schalit moved to Palestine in 1938 This is Schalit’s mailbox […]
Treasure Trove goes back in time, to an obscure system of Ottoman timekeeping
W.D. and H.O. Wills of Bristol, England, founded in 1786, was the first British company to mass produce cigarettes and to encourage sales, it included trading cards in the packages. In 1907, the theme of the give-away was Time and Money in Different Countries, a set of 50 cards which showed the currency used in […]
Treasure Trove: How loans and taxes helped Israel build in the lean financial years after 1948
In the first few years after Israel’s independence, it incurred significant expenses to defend itself in the 1948 war, absorb 800,000 immigrants and build the state. Although significant financial support came from outside of Israel (including through the sale of Israel Bonds starting in 1951), a large portion of the costs were borne directly by […]
Treasure Trove: Remembering Yoni Netanyahu, a heroic soldier and leader
Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu was the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. He was the commander of the Entebbe Operation on July 4, 1976 when Israel rescued 102 hostages who had been on a flight hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and ordered to land in Entebbe, Uganda. Yoni was the only Israeli soldier killed in […]
Treasure Trove: David Matlow takes a look back at the first Jewish training ship, the predecessor of Israel’s modern navy
The Betar Naval Academy at Civitavecchia, Italy was a Jewish naval training school that operated from 1934 until 1938 and trained 200 sailors. Betar, the youth organization of the Zionist Revisionist movement founded by Vladimir Jabotinsky, believed that seamanship was beneficial to the reconstruction of the Jewish state. Most of the students were from Poland, with […]
Treasure Trove: A bottle of beer tells the story of a soldier’s bravery on Oct. 7
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack took a terrible toll on Israel’s army, with 275 Israeli soldiers and 38 security officers among the 1,200 people killed by terrorists. One of the soldiers tragically killed that day was Tomer Nagar. Tomer was alone guarding a storage bunker 150 meters from the Kissufim army base, close to Gaza. Although […]
Treasure Trove: Abba Eban wrote about Zionism (and the United Nations) 50 years ago—his ideas are still true
Abba (born Aubrey) Eban (1915-2002) was a South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician. In 1947, he was the liaison for the Jewish Agency to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), formed after Britain announced it was terminating its mandate over Palestine. UNSCOP’s mandate was to propose a solution to the conflict in Palestine, resulting in […]
Treasure Trove: An award named for Herzl recognizes those who make the world safer for the Jewish people, including a Canadian prime minister
Established in 1936, the goal of the World Jewish Congress is to protect Jewish communities around the world and to allow Jews everywhere to live freely, without discrimination or the threat of persecution. The WJC’s Theodor Herzl award is its highest honour and recognizes individuals who work to promote a safer, more tolerant world […]
Treasure Trove brings a splash of colour to the end of a dark year in Israel
It has been a difficult year for Israel and its supporters. In the first nine months, we saw Israel almost rip itself apart over a judicial reform process that aimed to restructure how the country is governed. Then, on Oct. 7, Israel was the victim of a deadly attack by Hamas terrorists who murdered 1,200 people, and […]
Treasure Trove: David Matlow revisits an older terrorist attack from Gaza—and explains why David Ben-Gurion is upside down
David Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister who served from 1948 to 1953 and again from 1955 to 1963. For a period of time in 1955, he served as defence minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Moshe Sharett. The two men had a heated argument about how best to respond to a terrorist attack […]
