“T.G. Masaryk’s legacy in Israel” is a new commemorative stamp identified with a letter coming out as a joint Czech and Israeli project on Tuesday, 30 November 2021. The stamp, designed by the Israeli art designer David Ben-Hador, depicts an artistic mosaic of the Kfar Masaryk kibbutz named in honour of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The first day cover (FDC) was designed by Petr Foldera who combined the national flags of both countries against the background of cultivated land as a symbol of the arrival of the first settlers who formed the kibbutz.
“The stamp further documents the warm relations between the two countries. I believe that it will find its admirers not only in the Czech Republic and Israel but elsewhere. As one of the most important persons for both countries, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was rightly chosen as the main motif of this beautiful stamp,” commented Czech Post’s Director General Roman Knap.
"This stamp is published on the occasion of the thirty years anniversary of the renewal of Czech-Israeli diplomatic relations. And it has been an incredible thirty years of friendship between our two nations that goes back to President Masaryk and beyond. That is why I am glad that we can celebrate it in this really rare and symbolic way - by issuing a common Czech-Israeli stamp," commented HE Anna Azari, Ambassador of Israel to the Czech Republic.
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was the first head of state to visit mandatory Palestine in 1927. Soon after its establishment in 1918, Czechoslovakia was among the few countries to recognise the Jewish nationality. This was a result of the personal involvement of Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the attitude of Czech intellectuals who empathised with the Jewish struggle for independence after the successful fight for their own national recognition. After World War II, Czechoslovakia very effectively supported the establishment of the State of Israel. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Masaryk used a great deal of diplomacy towards achieving this aim at the United Nations. Kfar Masaryk is a kibbutz formed by Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia and Lithuania as a fortified Jewish settlement in 1938. In 1940, the kibbutz was moved to its current place and renamed Kfar Masaryk in memory of the first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The charter states that the decision to rename the kibbutz after Masaryk was made “as a sign of respect for his personality, his humanism, his struggle for truth, the liberation of nations, and in gratitude for his support of Israel’s freedom.”
The stamp is identified with the letter “Z” corresponding to the current price of the international priority service International Ordinary Mail up to 50 g to non-European countries, i.e. CZK 45. Tiskárna Hradišťko, s. r. o. printed 500,000 commemorative stamps by offset and 2,800 FDCs by digital printing.
The stamp is available at post office counters or in the online store on Czech Post’s website.
- Publish Date
- 11/29/21
| Zdroj dat | www.ceskaposta.cz |
|---|---|
| Originál | ceskaposta.cz/en/-/nova-znamka-pripomina-masarykuv-kibuc |
