Date of Issue: 01 May 2019
Size of stamp: W: 35 mm H: 50 mm
Face Value: NIS 11.80
Plate Block No. 1115
Designer: Tal Hoover
Printing Method: Offset
Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France
Sheet Type: Regular- Mini Sheet
Stamps per sheet: 10
Tabs: 5
No. of FDCs: 1
Price of FDCs: NIS 13
Place of cancellation: Jerusalem

Hava Nagila is one of the most famous Hebrew songs in the world, arguably the most recognized of all Hebrew melodies. The lyrics were apparently written by composer Zvi Idelsohn and his students at the Lemel School. Idelsohn was the first professional Jewish composer in Jerusalem and in all of Eretz Israel. He was also a vocal and music teacher, musical arranger, choir conductor, cantor and mentor to young cantors. In addition, he researched Jewish music, meticulously collecting and compiling thousands of Jewish melodies from all of the Jewish ethnic groups and tribes and was the first to record music in Eretz Israel.

The song was composed when 400 years of oppressive Turkish rule in Eretz Israel came to an end and the Jews of Jerusalem were enthusiastic and joyful after the British troops led by General Edmond Allenby entered the city on the first day of Hanukkah, 1917. During such moments of joy the Hallel prayer of praise is recited in synagogue: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice on it”.

Idelsohn decided to compose a song in honor of this great event and arranged the melody based on a Hasidic tune that he heard in the Hasidic court of the Sadigura Rebbe. The ancient melody stems from the courts of the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty and was heard in most Hasidic courts.

The song was first performed in 1918. It was later performed by many different artists, Jews and non-Jews alike. The melody was played at a dance in Jerusalem that same year, to great success. The words of the chorus are: “Let us rejoice and be glad, let us be happy, awaken brethren with a cheerful heart”.

The song was recorded in the 1920’s and spread among the Jewish communities of Europe and America. It reached New York, a center for Jews and also the music world, and quickly gained popularity. The catchy, rhythmic tune and the simple Hebrew lyrics made it a hit among the Jewish population and it became the core of Jewish celebrations, sung at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, etc.

Non-Jewish singers also embraced and performed the song, thus expanding its popularity in the United States and later throughout the world, and it eventually became a musical standard. Although lyrics have been written in other languages, most renditions of the song feature all of the Hebrew lyrics and it is probably the most recognized Hebrew song in the world.

The First Day Cover features part of the musical score to Hava Nagila.

Three stamps: Haaretz, Davar, Doar Hayom
Date of Issue: 01 May 2019
Size of stamps: W: 40 mm H: 30 mm
Face Value: NIS 4.10, 4.10,4.10
Plate Block No. 1116, 1117, 1118
Designer: Ronen Goldberg
Printing Method: Offset
Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France
Sheet Type: Regular
Stamps per sheet: 15
Tabs: 5
No. of FDC’s: 1
Price of FDC’s: NIS 13.50
Place of cancellation: Jerusalem

From Israel Post:

The printed press has existed in Eretz Israel since 1863, mostly in Hebrew, along with some other languages as well. The first daily newspaper was published in 1908, but a wider range of daily newspapers did not appear until after WWI. In the summer of 1919, two dailies appeared within weeks of each other: News of Haaretz (which changed its name after a few months to Haaretz) and Doar Hayom.

Haaretz, 1919
News of Haaretz was the civilian version of the British military weekly in Hebrew The Palestine News which was published for just one year (April 1918 – April 1919). When the British put it up for sale the Zionist Organization could not fund the purchase and called upon Isaac Leib Goldberg, a wealthy man and passionate Zionist from Eastern Europe, who acquired the newspaper and served as its first publisher.

Goldberg retired from Haaretz after only a few years, but continued to support it financially and otherwise until his death in 1935.

The newspaper had significant financial troubles due to limited circulation and a lack of advertising, as the Jewish population numbered no more than 60,000. It had three different editors within three years: Nissan Turov, Shmuel Perlman and Leib Yaffe. The newspaper’s financial crisis led Haaretz to close in late 1922. It later reopened under editor Moshe Yosef Glikson, who served in this position for 15 years, until the newspaper was acquired by the Schocken family.

In 1923, Haaretz moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, where it has remained ever since.

Davar, 1925
The third newspaper, Davar, was first published in the summer of 1925. It was the journal of the Histadrut Workers Organization, which was a rising organization at that time, led by David Ben Gurion. The decision to publish a daily newspaper was made at the Histadrut’s founding convention in 1920, but its implementation was delayed by internal struggles within the organization. Berl Katznelson, the ideologist of the Labor Movement in Eretz Israel, founded Davar and served as its first editor. Shneur Zalman Rubashov (Shazar), later the third President of Israel, was his head assistant. Shazar succeeded Katznelson as the newspaper’s editor upon his death in 1944.

Davar, as opposed to the other newspapers, established an “empire” of publications that included the punctuated daily Hege (that was later called Omer) as well as weekly, biweekly and monthly publications such as Davar for Children, Davar for Women Workers, Davar for the New Immigrant, Hameshek Hashitufi, a magazine in Arabic called Hakikat Al-Amar (The Word of Truth), as well as newspapers in English and German and an annual literary publication. Davar for Children was considered to be the leading children’s newspaper in Israel for more than 50 years.

Davar was the most popular and influential newspaper in Israel for many years. It was published in Tel Aviv for 71 years, until its closure in 1996.

Doar Hayom, 1919
The founders of Doar Hayom, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his son Itamar Ben-Avi were initially among the first at Haaretz but after only a few weeks they left and started their own newspaper. Editor Itamar Ben-Avi derived the name of the Jerusalem-based newspaper from London’s Daily Mail. The right-wing Doar Hayom represented the veteran members of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel, the Sephardim and the farmers as opposed to the mid-left wing Haaretz and tended to publish more “scoops”, amusing stories from around the world and personal attacks on the heads of the Zionist movement and the Yishuv. Ben-Avi loathed Haaretz and used to say mockingly: “Haaretz may be a decent newspaper – but it isn’t a newspaper; Doar Hayom may not be decent, but it is a newspaper”.

In late 1928, when Doar Hayom was actually the most popular newspaper in Eretz Israel, Ben-Avi inexplicably transferred the editor’s position to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who turned it into the journal of the young Revisionist Movement. Two years later, the newspaper returned to Ben-Avi, who served as its editor until he retired in 1933. The newspaper continued to exist sporadically until 1940.

Doar Hayom was mostly published in Jerusalem.

—Dr. Mordecai Naor

The Buildings on the Stamps
The three buildings featured on the stamps housed the three newspapers – Haaretz, Doar Hayom and Davar.

The first building to house Haaretz was built by I.L. Goldberg on Montefiore St. in Tel Aviv (as featured on the stamp). The newspaper later moved to Mazeh St., where it remained for decades. Doar Hayom was housed in an office building on Hasolel St. in the center of Jerusalem. Hasolel was the name of the publishing company that published the newspaper. Today it is called Havazelet St., named after the second newspaper to appear in Jerusalem, in 1863, (the first was Halevanon).

For many years, Davar was housed in the Histadrut Executive Committee building on Allenby St. in Tel Aviv (which appears on the stamp). In the late 1940’s the newspaper moved to its own building on Shenkin St.