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Monday, July 4, 2016

Our Magen David: Star of David and The Trump Controversy

Israel's flag has a Magan David smack in the center.  
Nazis recognized the meaning of the 6 pointed star, the Magan David, and forced all Jews to wear one for their identification tag.  

Star of David, Shield of David: this is our 6 pointed star, a Jewish symbol.  
We're talking about King David who ruled Israel in 1010BCE to 970 BCE.  That was a good 3,000 years ago.  
                                                                                   
Israel's flag, seen since 1958.  It's hard to read about current events in Israel and not be familiar with the flag.
It's made of 2 superimposed triangles forming a star or hexagram and has been regarded as a Jewish symbol for at least the past 300 years or longer.        
The Star of David in the oldest surviving complete copy of the Masoretic text, the Leningrad Codex, dated 1008 CE.

One found such a star in a Capernaum synagogue in the 3rd Century C E.   The name of Magen David comes from the 13th Century in Kabbalah.
                                                                                 
Historical flag of the Jewish Community in Prague
It occured  in a specifically Jewish context in Prague in the 17th Century.
                                                                           
The Star of David is a generally  recognized symbol of  modern Jewish identity  and Judaism.
                                                                                 
I look at this sheriff badge and see our Jewish star with the same 6 points in the same places.. 

5 pointed star such as seen on the American flag.  

Finally, the Magen David was adopted by the First Zionist Congress in 1897 as a symbol, and was used on the flags of the Zionist Organization and of the State of Israel, so at least since 1948, people all over the world have known its association with the Jewish State.
                                                                             
Who does not remember seeing such a symbol from the Holocaust?  It was used by the Nazis, in the form of a yellow 6 pointed star, as the Jewish "Badge of shame" for identification purposes.  All Jews had to wear them on their clothing where Nazis were.  Today we use it proudly as our ID.

The outline of the Star of David is very well known, copied by many Sheriff Departments in the states.  It's still the star of David to me when I see the shape.
                                                                     
Why use a Magan David in connection with words-"most corrupt candidate ever"?  His charge is that the Clintons made money illegally, so I don't appreciate the star on a background of dollar bills, either.  Too often anti-Semites attack Jews about being money lenders or some such monetary squabble.
It was changed to a circle quickly after the uproar over it.  

What's worse is the site that they borrowed this from, a white supremacist site, which is also very anti-semitic as well as being against Blacks or Browns or people of any color.  It was they who originally chose the shape of the Jewish star- or sheriff's star, more likely because it's basically Jewish identification.   
       Donald Trump's tweet of late showed a 6 pointed star as the outline for something negative about Hillary Clinton, Trump's opposition in the Presidential race.  He evidently took a defensive posture by denying that it was a star of David.  But Donald and whoever is responsible for using such a star, our star of David is so well known, at least to anyone calling himself a Jew, that it is highly doubtful that it could not be taken for anything else when seen.

Israel's existence has been a struggle for the whole 67 years since its birth on May 14, 1948.  We are sensitive to slurs.  About the only country standing with us has been the USA.  We know that Trump is not anti-Semitic and that his daughter, son-in-law and children are Jewish and that he regards Israel highly.  We hope he has brighter people than the one who chose the outline of the star of David working for him, that's all.  This boo-boo was really quite an affront to many of us.

Updated 7/5/16
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_David
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-s-star-david-tweet-about-hillary-clinton-posted-n603161





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