|
|
The letter card, cover and stamp - all of which are special and unique to Memorial Day -constitute the basis of a sensitive, original and extraordinary tradition that came into being following the War of Independence.
Since Memorial Day 1952, a long line of Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers of Defense have signed personal letters to bereaved families of the fallen and Israel's premier artists take part in designing the covers and stamps for this commemorative day. Thus, from year to year, an unprecedented tradition has formed which, over time, has become one of the most recognized and extraordinary ambassadors of Israel's commemorative culture.
(From: "Dear Families" published by the Ministry of Defense, on the occasion of Israel's 50th Anniversary)
The graphic design of the Memorial Day stamps has been expressed over the years symbolically and through monuments, and in recent years, through commemorative songs as well.
The Wheat Grows Again
The stamp design reflects the words of the poem "The Wheat Grows Again" by Dorit Tzameret.
This is not the same valley
this is not the same home.
You are all gone, never to return. The path and the boulevard, an eagle soaring skyward -
and yet the wheat grows again.
Eleven members of Kibbutz Belt Hashita fell in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Kibbutz member Dorit Tzameret wrote the poem to commemorate the fallen on the first anniversary of the war.
