Star of David
The Star of David (Hebrew: מָגֵן דָּוִד, romanized: Magen David, lit. 'Shield of David')[a] is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism.[1] Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
This article is about the hexagram as a Jewish symbol. For other uses, see Hexagram.
A derivation of the seal of Solomon was used for decorative and mystical purposes by Muslims and Kabbalistic Jews. The hexagram appears occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity as a decorative motif, such as a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of the 3rd–4th century Khirbet Shura synagogue. A hexagram found in a religious context can be seen in a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible from 11th-century Cairo.
Its association as a distinctive symbol for the Jewish people and their religion dates to 17th-century Prague. In the 19th century, the symbol began to be widely used by the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, ultimately coming to represent Jewish identity or religious beliefs.[2][3] It became representative of Zionism after it was chosen as the central symbol for a Jewish national flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897.[4]
By the end of World War I, it was an internationally accepted symbol for the Jewish people, used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers.[5]
Today, the star is the central symbol on the national flag of the State of Israel.
Use as Jewish emblem
Only around one millennium later, however, the star began to be used as a symbol to identify Jewish communities, a tradition that seems to have started in Prague before the 17th century, and from there spread to much of Eastern Europe.[2][11]
In the 19th century, it came to be adopted by European Jews as a symbol to represent Jewish religion or identity in the same manner the Christian cross identified that religion's believers.[2][12] The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community after it was chosen as the central symbol on a flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, due to its usage in some Jewish communities and its lack of specifically religious connotations.[3][13] It was not considered an exclusively Jewish symbol until after it began to be used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers in World War I.[5]
Star in the Schneider Synagogue, Istanbul
Star in the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, Safed
A recruitment poster published in American Jewish magazines during WWI. Daughter of Zion (representing the Jewish people): Your Old New Land must have you! Join the Jewish regiment.
Roundel displayed on Israeli Air Force aircraft, 1948–present
Stained glass Star of David
