Flag of Israel

The flag of the State of Israel consists of a white background with a blue Star of David in the centre and two horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom, recalling the design of the tallit (Jewish prayer shawl). This design was previously known as the Zionist flag; it was officially chosen over other designs in 1948.

Flag of Israel

I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars. ~ Theodor Herzl

We already had a flag—the blue and white of the tallith … We had but to unfurl it before the eyes of the Jewish people and the world at large! ~ David Wolffsohn

Quotes

flag of Israel flying at Yad La-Shiryon

• The combination of blue and white as the colors of the Jewish flag was derived from an 1860 poem (“Judah's Colors”) by Austrian Ludwig August Frankl, which explained that the blue symbolized "the splendors of the firmament"
  • Ronald L. Eisenberg, Jewish Traditions: A JPS Guide (2010), page 577
• We have no flag, and we need one. If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads. I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars.
  • Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, 1896.
• We would obviously have to create a flag, since we had none … Suddenly, I got a brainwave: We already had a flag—the blue and white of the tallith … We had but to unfurl it before the eyes of the Jewish people and the world at large!
  • David Wolffsohn describing the flag he designed for 1897 First Zionist Congress, quoted in "Flags of the forefathers and foremothers",Chicago Jewish Historical Society, 2021.
• Jews in Palestine have appealed for the right to form a separate Jewish Army under a Jewish flag.
  • anonymous, Hearings Before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Seventy-Eighth Congress, Second Session (1944), page 339
• [The colour] varies from flag to flag, ranging from a hue of pure blue, sometimes shaded almost as dark as navy blue, to hues about 75% toward pure cyan and shades as light as very light blue.
  • Speaker Joseph Sprinza "The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel" (28 October 1948), quoted by Alec Mishory
• As American Jews grappled with the questions of patriotism, Communism, and Zionism after the war, the blue Jewish flag would also be translated into dramatic representations of the Jewish struggle against oppression.
  • Avinoam Patt, The Jewish Heroes of Warsaw: The Afterlife of the Revolt (2021)
• I love Israel for its blue and white flag as it matches my legs.
  • Joan Rivers, quoted in The Washington Post (September 5, 2014).

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Flag of Israel on Wikipedia
• Media related to National flag of Israel on Wikimedia Commons