The issue date is February 9, 2016.

Our calendar consists of twelve months – the amount of time it takes the Earth to complete one full cycle around the Sun.

The 365 days of the year are divided into four different seasons, each of which complements another: winter and summer, spring and autumn. Each season is characterized by its own typical weather, changes in the animals and plants and by its designated songs. Every season creates a certain type of atmosphere. In Israel the transitional seasons – autumn and spring – are short and often bring surprising weather changes.

Winter
“The chill of morning, the shriek of the crow, awakened me. And I know not why holiday joy suddenly came upon me” wrote poet Haim Nachman Bialik (from Songs of Winter).

Winter is the coldest season, and it brings the rain. Each year we wait and hope for abundant winter rains and look forward to using our warm blankets, boots, umbrellas and coats. “Come rain!” sang the IDF Nachal entertainment troupe, lyrics by Tirza Atar and melody by Alona Turel.

Snow falls in Jerusalem and on the high mountain peaks. Water gushes in the rivers and even in the previously dry riverbeds. The Israeli landscape turns from dry grey to bright green. The green orchards are dotted with orange and yellow citrus fruit.

The days grow shorter as the nights lengthen. But we still enjoy clear warm days, as opposed to countries far to the north where the sun barely shines at all during the winter months. Good visibility, clear crisp air, the “smell of rain” – and the green landscape fills with flowers: Shoshana Damari sang “Anemones, anemones, reddish red-haired anemones,graceful anemones” in the wonderful song by Natan Alterman and Moshe Wilensky.

From the theme song for the children’s television program “Carousel,” which described the seasons of the year:

“So come whirl round on the carousel
Down and up and all around,
So come whirl round on the carousel
In summer, winter, autumn and spring…”

—Leah Naor
Author, translator and poet

* All songs have been loosely translated from the original Hebrew.

Nehama Pohatchevsky, Zelda

The issue date is February 9, 2016.

Early signs of women’s aspirations for gender equality in Eretz Israel were apparent as far back as the First Aliyah, as some women chose to take part in public affairs or nonconventional professions. Although the pages of history have not granted them their proper place – they operated in a world of preconceptions and discrimination against women, their fight for self-realization and equal opportunity cleared a path and inspired others.

The State of Israel embraced equality as a core principle early on, and just three years after the establishment of the State the Knesset passed the Women’s Equal Rights Law of 1951, guaranteeing equal treatment of women and men.

Women have yet to be fully included in society’s most influential bodies, but the efforts of these pioneering women set a quiet social revolution in motion, furthering gender equality and changing our society.

Nehama Pohatchevsky
1869, Brest, White Russia – 1934, Rishon LeZion, Israel
Author Nehama Pohatchevsky, known as Nefesh (“soul” in Hebrew, based on her maiden name, Nehama Feinstein) wrote articles in Hebrew as a youth in Russia and corresponded with poet and scholar Yehuda Leib Gordon (Yalag,Y.L.G). Her desire to immigrate to Eretz Israel was realized in 1889, following her marriage to Michel Pohatchevsky of Rishon LeZion.

Writing was in her blood. Nehama Pohatchevsky wrote about the lives of the pioneers and about building the national Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel, focusing on the struggles of the “new woman” in the newly developing Jewish community in the ancient homeland and her position in the family and in society. Thus she is known as the first female Hebrew author of Eretz Israel.

Life in the agricultural community was difficult during the First Aliyah and she worked hard raising her children, on the family farm and in the community. Although her two eldest sons passed away in infancy, she raised her son and daughter Asahel and Efrat. Nefesh was a pioneer and a woman ahead of her time. While working as a farmer and an author, she was also a public activist who fought for Hebrew labor and for instilling the Hebrew language, and also promoted equal rights and voting rights for women. She founded and was active in the Bikur Cholim Association, served as a mediator in the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court, assisted new immigrants from Yemen and was a member of the Moshava Committee and the National Committee. She published articles and stories. Her collections of stories BeYehuda HaHadasha (In the New Yehuda) (1911) and BaKfar UbaAvoda (In the Village and at Work) (1930) were published in her lifetime, while her novel BaMidron (On the Decline) was published 70 years after her death, in 2004.

—Dr. Ora Asahel Silverstein

Zelda
1914, Ukraine – 1984, Jerusalem
Zelda Schneerson-Mishkovsky is one of the most significant and beloved Hebrew poets of our generation. Tens of thousands of copies of her collected poems from the six books published in her lifetime have been printed to date. Her poems are read and adored by an extremely broad audience: young and old, religious and secular, people from different places and from varying spiritual worlds.

Zelda was a direct descendant of the Lubavitcher Rebbes. She immigrated to Israel as an only child with her parents and grandfather in 1925. Several months later, her grandfather and father both passed away in Jerusalem. Although Zelda published poems and articles in newspapers and magazines over the years, her first collection of poems P’nai (Leisure) did not appear until 1967, when she was 53 years old. The book achieved immediate success among critics as well as a broad section of the reading public.

Thirty years after Zelda’s death in Jerusalem, her friends published a book of her unpublished writings and drawings, Tzipor Ahuzat Kesem (An Enchanted Bird). As writer and critic Dror Burstein remarked in his review of the book (Haaretz, July 2014): “These pages confirm Zelda’s place as one of the most important spiritual figures in Israeli poetry of the 1960’s and 1970’s and far beyond.”

Description of the Stamps and First Day CoversNehama Pohatchevsky
Stamp: portrait adapted from a photo, courtesy of Ora Asahel; photo of Hacarmel St. in Rishon LeZion, 1912, photo by Leon Kahan / Rishon LeZion Museum

Tab: quote from a letter written by Nehama Pohatchevsky, from the Michel and Nehama Pohatchevsky Collection, Rishon LeZion Museum.

First Day Cover: Quote from “On the Decline”, 1920. Published by Sifrei Iton 77, 2004.

Zelda
Stamp: portrait adapted from a photo by Yisrael Simionski / Israel Sun; photo of the young Zelda, 1932, from a class photo – Mizrahi Teachers College for Women.

Tab: Zelda’s poem “Everyone has a Name” in her own handwriting.

First Day Cover: quote from Zelda’s poem “Shlomi”, from the collection P’nai, Hakibbutz Hameuhad Publishing House, 1967.

With thanks to Dr. Rivka Goldberg.

Budapest, Hungary – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1924–2005

The issue date is February 9, 2016.

Ephraim Kishon was an author, satirist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, film and theater director and 2002 Israel Prize recipient. He is considered to be one of the greatest Israeli satirists of all time.

Kishon, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, immigrated to Israel in 1949 and within just a few months learned to speak Hebrew fluently. His first play in Hebrew, “Shmo Holech Lefanav” (His Reputation Precedes Him) was staged by Habima three years after his arrival.

Kishon wrote more than 50 books in Hebrew, which were translated into 37 different languages. Over 45 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and he is considered to be the most widely sold and translated Israeli author in the world.

Kishon wrote about simple people and their ordinary problems, but also addressed social and political issues. He exposed the tangled web of the bureaucracy and focused on the gaps between different sectors of the population, all from a perspective of love for the country and involvement in the national experience.

Kishon wrote some 20 plays, which achieved global success. Among some of the most renowned were “HaKetubbah” (The Jewish Marriage Certificate), ”Hu VeHi” (Him and Her), ”Ho, Ho Yulia” (Oh, oh Juliet) and more. His plays have been translated into many languages and continue to be performed today on stages around the world.

Kishon was also among the leading figures in Israeli cinema. His films, including ”Sallah Shabati”, ”HaShoter Azoulay” (The Policeman), ”Ta’alat Blaumlich” (The Big Dig) and more, were nominated for Oscars and won three Golden Globe awards as well as many other international awards.

Kishon elevated humor to an art form. His diverse and astute works reflect the diversity of Israeli society and successfully get across Israeli viewpoints to a wide audience of readers throughout the world.

New generations continue to be brought up on Kishon’s works, which remain just as relevant and sharp today as when they were written. These works are an Israeli cultural asset and millions of readers around the world continue to both laugh and cry as they enjoy them.

Description of the Stamp and the First Day Cover
The stamp was designed by Renana Kishon and Pini Hamou based on a photograph by Isolde Ohlbaum ©.

The stamp features the titles of articles, books, plays and screenplays by Ephraim Kishon. The stamp tab features Ephraim Kishon’s handwriting and signature.

The First Day Cover displays 12 of the numerous Hebrew phrases coined by Ephraim Kishon. With thanks to Ephraim Kishon’s cultural estate.