Shield Of David

"[This book] is not a study in depth of the growth of Israel's armed forces, nor is it a historical analysis of the military doctrines which those forces developed. It is rather a sketch, a profile of the people and events which moulded first the resistance movement and then the army of the Jewish State"--Author's note.

In 1941 the National-Socialist dictators, inspired by the medieval Church legislation, forced every Jewish person in Europe to wear a distinctive mark (the yellow badge or "Judenstern"). In 1948 the newly founded Jewish State chose the same six-pointed star, but now in the colour blue, as its national symbol, because the Shield of David had already been a Jewish symbol for several centuries. The present book offers - to commemorate these fateful events 50 years later - a comprehensive study on the history of the Shield of David and follows the development of the hexagram, which was used in many cultures in antiquity as an ornamental and magic sign, from the early Middle ages up to the first half of the twentieth century. We not only witness the adventurous history of the sign before it became a Jewish symbol, but also the 1900 year-long journey of the Jewish people until they could settle down in the promised land.

The Shield of David is the graphing of points (3x,6y) being (1a); (6x,9y) being (2a); (9x,3y) being (3a); then it is (6x,3y) being (1b); (3x,9y) being (2b); and (9x,6y) being (3b). Being still yet, there is still an important number being the graphed (9x,9y).

The hexagram was a symbol used by Jews and non-Jews from ancient times on, often as a decoration or a protective device. It became associated with Jews in 14th-century Prague, when the Jews were given their own flag (red, with a yellow Magen David), and spread through the Austrian Empire. The Zionists adopted the symbol as part of the national ensign. Pp. 97-104 deal with the Nazi use of the Magen David to mark the Jews. At first it was painted on shop windows and displayed in caricatures. The badge with the star was introduced in Poland in October 1939, and used throughout occupied Europe.

A landmark book, “brilliant, thoughtful” (The Atlantic) and “raw and gorgeous” (LA Times), that fast-forwards the discussion of the central artistic issues of our time, from the bestselling author of The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead. Who owns ideas? How clear is the distinction between fiction and nonfiction? Has the velocity of digital culture rendered traditional modes obsolete? Exploring these and related questions, Shields orchestrates a chorus of voices, past and present, to reframe debates about the veracity of memoir and the relevance of the novel. He argues that our culture is obsessed with “reality,” precisely because we experience hardly any, and urgently calls for new forms that embody and convey the fractured nature of contemporary experience.

Shield of David tells the history of the Jews’ armed forces from the Palestine Yishuv’s first efforts at self-defense in the early 1900s, under the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Suez Campaign and until the 1967 Six-Day War. “In recent years, most particularly since the Six-Day War of June 1967, people throughout the world have asked themselves how it happened that the Israel Defence Forces won so resounding a victory over the Arab armies. What suddenly endowed the Jewish people — traditionally non-martial — with such impressive military skills? What is the secret of the prowess of Israeli soldiers, airmen and sailors? The answer, of course, is that nothing happens ‘suddenly’; that the modern story of Jewish self-defence in the Land of Israel dates back some eighty years, and is the result of the commitment and dedication to national survival of many men and women — most of whom, seeking no publicity, received none. This book is my attempt to tell part of that little-known story — as simply, briefly and clearly as possible.” — Yigal Allon, Author’s Note, 1970

The Star of Redemption is widely recognized as a key document of modern existential thought and a significant contribution to Jewish theology in the twentieth century. An affirmation of what Rosenzweig called “the new thinking,” the work ensconces common sense in the place of abstract, conceptual philosophizing and posits the validity of the concrete, individual human being over that of “humanity” in general. Fusing philosophy and theology, it assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world, and finds in both biblical religions approaches toward a comprehension of reality.

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust is a comprehensive, authoritative one-volume reference that provides reliable information on this ignoble and frightening episode of modern history. It features eight essays on the history of the Holocaust and its antecedents, as well as coverage of such topics as the history of European Jewry, Jewish contributions to European culture, and the rise of anti-semitism and Nazism. The essays are followed by more than 650 entries on significant aspects of the Holocaust, including people, cities and countries, camps, resistance movements, political actions, and outcomes. More than 300 black-and-white photographs from the archives at Yad Vashem bear witness to the horrors of the Nazi regime and at the same time attest to the invincibility of the human spirit. Best Specialist Reference Work of the Year - Reference Reviews UK