stamp exhibition

  • Issue: October 1986
  • Graphics: N. & M. Eshel
  • Sheet size: 130 x 80 mm
  • Sheet of 1 stamp
  • Printers: E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd.
  • Method of printing: Photolithography

Ten years after the National Stamp Exhibition, "Netanya 76", another such exhibition - "Netanya 86" is to be organised by the Netanya Philatelic Society. The show - the 13th in the series of National Philatelic Exhibitions - will be held on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of organised philately in Netanya.

It started in 1936 when a number of stamp-lover immigrants from Germany decided to meet and create a "Collectors Club" where stamps could be exchanged. Later, in the 1940s and, after that, during the period leading up to the establishment of the State, interest in philately developed among the town's inhabitants.

When, on April 25th, 1948, during the period of "Minhelet Ha'am", the British Mandate authorities instructed all post office employees in the country to discontinue postal services to the public, the Jewish postal workers accepted the ruling of the Jewish Provisional Government and remained at their jobs. At all the small provincial post offices, Jewish National Fund labels, with the word "DOAR" (Post) printed on them, were used. Rubber hand-stamps bearing the Hebrew words "MINHELET HA'AM" (the country's provisional administration) and the name of the locality replaced the chancellors that had been withdrawn. (The large cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Yafo and Haifa were allowed to carry on until May 5th, 1948).

Philatelists all over the country hurried to have their letters cancelled - letters that were to be sent off as well as those which were meant to be mementos of the period when the first Jewish postal service - "after 2000 years" - was inaugurated. Immediately after the establishment of the State on May 16th, 1948, when the first regular stamp series could be bought at post office counters, the citizens of Netanya hastened to buy those cherished symbols of independence. Since then, philatelic activity in the town has never ceased.

By the combined efforts of the Netanya philatelists and with the assistance of the Ministry of Communications, a Collectors' Club for the town's stamp lovers was founded in 1976, the third such club in the country, after Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Nowadays, the Philatelic Society of Netanya is-proud to count among its members a number of young philatelists who have exhibited collections in Israel and other countries, some of them having earned fine prizes. At "Netanya 86" the participation of young collectors, some of whom will be showing their collection for the first time, will be emphasized. There must be no "generation gap" between philatelists. The map of the Holy Land by Gerard de Jode (Judaeus) of Antwerp, dating from 1578, is a fine example of 16th-century cartography. Like most contemporary maps it mainly shows places mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, but also some more recent names. A view of "modern" Jerusalem is incorporated. The map is directed towards the North-West, unlike the truly "oriented" mediaeval maps pointing to the East or modern maps directed towards the North. It was not yet based on survey measurements, a fact which is reflected by the indented coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and the shape of the Dead Sea. A note in the lower margin states that the map is based on the work of Tilemann Stelle.

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National stamp exhibition "Netanya 86"