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NEW ITEMS
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Extremely Rare "Eretz Israel Volunteers Medal", 1918: issued to Jewish volunteers from Palestine-Eretz Israel on the eve of their departure to join the Jewish Battalions (i.e. the Jewish Legion; specifically the 40th Royal Fusiliers), which fought in Palestine under General Allenby.
The medal depicts "Bat Zion" (Daughter of Zion - symbolic of the Jewish People) freeing herself from Roman captivity, with the legend beneath "Judea the Freed", and the maker-mark of "Bezalel" on the obverse, and a Kabbalistic symbol surmounted by the legend "For the Volunteers of the Nation in Eretz Israel" and the Hebrew date 1849 (i.e. 1912 BC) on the reverse - probably a reference to the birth date of Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel ibn Nahor, wife of the Prophet Isaac, and mother of Jacob (ref. Esau, and Rachel, Leah and Laban).
Although seldomly encountered and not a standard catalogued item, there is a very precise account of its issue in Ever HaDeni's book "A Nation in its Wars" (publ. 1948; pg. 104):
"In mid June-July [month of Tammuz, 1918] there was organized a large assembly at the ruins of the home of Rabbi Yehuda the Chasid in Jerusalem, with the participation of James Rothschild and his escort Lieutenant Lipsy. The son of the Baron [Rothschild] delivered a speech on the importance of the Hebrew [i.e Jewish] Battalion which would fight shoulder to shoulder with the British. After him, spoke Lipsy and the Rabbi Harelp, who said: "Who is the G-d fearing and good hearted man who will go forth and return to his home."
The wise man Laniado gave support to his son the volunteer and at the same time people distributed fliers sponsored by the Battalion committee with the cry "Long Live the Hebrew Battalion". Students of the seminar answered the call and from sixty men, close to 40 enlisted as did 17 year-olds and teachers from the Boys' School. Fathers took with them their sons; mothers sent their children to enlist and brides sent their husbands. The Yemenite community sent upwards of 50 people (from Jerusalem); and volunteers from the religious Yeshivot also came.
On 4 July 1918 in the morning, after the departure ceremony, the volunteers were issued a "Bezalel" made medal on which was stamped, "Bat Zion Who Broke the Chains of Exile" - and depicting the Roman running away from her. At 12 o'clock the volunteers set out by train, accompanied by a crowd of 10,000 people."
The significance of this medal is that it represents the first military medal ever issued by Jews for Jews, commemorating military service for Israel. The British conquered Jerusalem in December 1917, although northern and southern Palestine were still in Ottoman-Turkish hands at this time.
There was no central government and so the issuance of this medal can be seen as "official" even if only within the Jewish community of Palestine. The Jewish Battalions (the "Jewish Legion"; 38th-40th Royal Fusiliers) succeeded an earlier formation called the "Zion Mule Corps" which served in Gallipoli, in 1915; although the Mule Corps by default faced front-line action, the Jewish Legion was technically the first all-Jewish combat formation in 2000 years. The medal originally had a loop at top for wear and has since been removed; in excellent condition; weight: 6.00g.
More pictures: front of medal, reverse of medal
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Item Code: 0120076 Price: $1500
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Jewish National Fund ("Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) medal: with palm tree, 8 Stars of David (one larger than the rest, with rays) and legend "Keren Kayemet LeIsrael" on obverse, and 7-branch Menorah, sword and Star of David surmounted by the legend "From the East I shall Gather Your Seeds, From the West I Shall Gather You" on reverse (from the Prophet Yeshayahu / Isaiah, Chapter 43, verse 5: "Fear not for I am with you; from the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you").
The Prophet Yeshayahu is most closely identified with the movement for the redeption of the Promised Land by the Jewish People, and given the land-purchasing objectives of the JNF-KKL, this quotation is appropriate for the medal.
Although not catalogued, the medal's design looks most similar to the Eretz-Israel "Bezalel School" of design, and is probably made in Palestine. The Bezalel academy of art was founded by the Zionist Congress of 1905 and established in 1906 under Professor Boris Schatz (the court sculptor to the King of Bulgaria); the JNF was founded in 1902, and so this medal probably dates to the period 1906-1909 - just before the founding of the neighborhood which would become Tel Aviv (and thence a physical symbol of Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel). Weight: 7.35g.
More pictures: front of badge, reverse of medal
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Item Code: 0120067 Price: $150
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Cloth shoulder patch of the Jewish Brigade (1944-46): as worn by Private Eliyahu Brigel; size: 5.3cm x 5cm.
The Brigade was a unit of the British Army, which served with the 8th Army in Northen Italy (1944-45), and later, after the war, in France and Belgium.
These emblems were a unique concession by the British as they were the first ever emblem worn by Palestinian-Jewish units which displayed a form of the Zionist flag (today's Israeli flag) - a solid expression of national identity as separate from the British symbols. Although these flag patches appear in various forms due to different manufacturers, they were always worn on the upper left sleeve of the battledress tunic and surmounted by a shoulder flash reading "Jewish Brigade Group" (in Hebrew: "Khativa Yehudit Lochemet" - Combat Jewish Brigade) which also appear in a few different forms themselves due to different manufacturing sources.
The actual significance of the Brigade was ultimately due less to acquired combat experience and more to its vital role in assisting Jewish refugees: publicly giving them moral and physical support, and covertly, facilitating their escape from Europe and (illegal) immigration into Palestine (a movement called the "Bricha" - escape). Members of the Brigade on their own initiative also tracked down specific war criminals and their collaborators and killed them.
Enclosed are duplicates of photographs of Eliyahu Brigel from his period in the Brigade.
More pictures: front of patch, back of patch, stitch detail, Brigel with brigade insignia, Brigel, 2nd from right (standing), with lorrie - note the Brigade emblem on left, Jewish Brigade members with American soldiers in France (Brigel standing in center), Brigade members with Americans in France (Brigel kneeling 5th from right), Brigel in Brigade Dodge truck
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Item Code: 0120068 Price: SOLD
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War of Independence pin for the Palmach's 5th Battalion "Shaar HaGay" (pronounced "Sha'ar ha Gai"), 1948-49; weight: 5.45g; size: 3cm x 4cm; with fastened safety pin on reverse and incused back. The shield depicts a rising sun above the Judean Hills (around Jerusalem) and an armoured car, sumrounted by the Palmach's emblem of a sword across two sheaths of wheat.
Numbering 4 battalions with 12 companies (2,100 men and 1,000 reservists) on the eve of the War of Independence, the Palmach immediately expanded its ranks with the formation of the 5th and 6th battalions (under Shaul Yafe and Tzvi Zamir - the future head of the Mossad - respectively).
The 5th battalion was unique in the annals of the Palmach for its highly improvised creation: formed shortly after the United Nations vote to partition Palestine (29 Nov. 1947) between December 1947 and January 1948, the force was an amalgamation of Palmach reservists from Tel Aviv, members of the "Hagana" field companies ("Hish"), new recruits and volunteers from cities, kibbutzim and moshavim, and in the course of the War (1947-49), new immigrants as well as Holocaust survivors - all lightly/poorly trained with no prior organization; the battalion's commanders had similarly no previous familiarity with their troops.
Assigned to the Palmach's "Harel Brigade" (under the command of Yitzhak Rabin), and perhaps overshadowed by the Brigade's repute, the somewhat unknown 5th Battalion was a surprising linchpin in the Palmach's wartime operations: during the 1st phase of the War until April 1948 - the struggle for control of transportation arteries - the battalion was assigned to protect the coastal approaches to Jerusalem; to protect convoys delivering food and supplies to beseiged western [Jewish] Jerusalem from attacks by Arab irregulars, and also to mount reprisal attacks against villages from which the Arab forces mounted their attacks. There was only one main artery to Jerusalem and the Israeli leadership viewed its security as vital to the protection of Jerusalem; without Jerusalem, they felt, there would be no Jewish State.
The battalion participated in several famed convoy operations, including those to Gush Etzion, and the 'Great Convoy' of some 300 vehicles including the Israeli leadership to Jerusalem. All told, the battalion enabled 245 convoys of 3,100 vehicles with 10,800 tons of supplies to reach Jerusalem, delivering 90% of the beseiged city's basic needs.
From April onwards, the battalion participated in the conquests of the Katamon district, Beit Shemesh, Shuafat, Sheikh Jarakh and opening the artery to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, and earned its nickname for lifting the seige on the portion of the Jerusalem road called "Shaar HaGay" ("Bab el Wad" in Arabic). The battalion earned further distinction during the Israeli Army's third attempt to remove the Arab Legion from a critical juncture in Latrun along the Jerusalem road, when the force actually did capture a vital position there. Although it later had to abandon it, its attack limited the Legion's scope of movement and enabled the IDF to use its nearby improvised "Burma Road" route to Jerusalem. In subsequent operations the battalion even reached Rafiah, in the Gaza strip. After the War, in spring 1949, the force patrolled the dust road along the border with Jordan.
More pictures: front of pin, side angle of back, back of pin
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Item Code: 0120064 Price: $500
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Rare metal hat emblem badge of the Palestine Regiment, 1942-1943: slightly curved with two pronged loop backing; smooth reverse; not maker marked; weight: 9.85g. In excellent condition with some [manufacturing?] residue around a few of the letters.
The Regiment was a shortly-lived Arab-Jewish formation created by the British authorities in Palestine, and drew upon soldiers from existing forces in the British Army, namely "the Buffs".
Although there were already by this time Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian units in the British Army, from a Jewish-Zionist perspective the local community in Palestine was not being encouraged by the British to take arms for proper combat service: this Regiment, like most other such forces was assigned guard duties either within Palestine or in neighboring countries, like Egypt or Cyrennaica (Libya). The Zionist leadership in Palestine was keen on the one hand to have Jews serve in the forefront of the struggle against Germany, and on the other to acquire combat experience which would be needed at some future date to help establish a Jewish country (i.e. Israel). The British, for their part, were wary of precisely that latter goal and so for most of the war prevented Palestinian Jews from service in mass front line duty, especially in all-Palestinian Jewish units.
The second element of this emblem's significance is its design: only in December 1942 did the Zionist leadership and then the Allied leaders publicly announce that Germany was systematically murdering Europe's Jews. This made the Zionist push for military enlistment and nationalist awareness even more pronounced, and together with public pressure by the Jews in Palestine to serve especially in combat forces against Germany, they also wanted to wear emblems signifying their nationality or to raise the Zionist flag - the British at that time categorically and emphatically refused.
This led to a spate of occurences in which either the Zionist flag (today's Israeli flag) was raised and not the British Union Jack, or to localized mutinies in which Jewish-Palestinian soldiers refused to wear the emblems issued to them, such as this one. The issue with the Palestine Regiment is that in spite of its unique name and high Jewish recruitment rates, the Jewish recuits were extremely and publicly unhappy about its emblem's design and most refused to wear it. One British official noted: "...I can see no objection to the design, but I feel sure it will not satisfy the Jews. The olive branch certainly does not denote the offensive spirit, but it may be taken to imply the burying of the hatchet [hatred?] between the Jews and the Arabs" (Gelbar, p. 638). It's design looked like local mandatory coinage, leading the Regiment to be nicknamed the "Five Piastre Regiment". In one instance in October 1943, 69 members of the Revisionist "Beitar" movement refused to wear this emblem and received prison terms in Sarafand (today's "Tzrifin" IDF base). Eventually, when the Regiment was disbanded and the Jewish Brigade created (September 1944), its members were allowed to wear special Jewish and Zionist insignia on their uniforms, and to fly the Zionist flag.
The uniqueness of this specific piece is that it does belong to the Palestine Regiment: in the collecting community we normally come across the crude gold-gilt colored version of these emblems, with rough lumpy surfaces and improvised slider backings; these are often confused with Regiment emblems because their design was also retained by the Jewish Brigade's 2nd battalion.
However, professionally manufactured pieces like this were commissioned by the British firm J.R.Gaunt and herein lies what may have been part of the Regiment members' anger at the design: in Zionist parlance, the region called "Palestine" is called "Eretz Israel" (Land of Israel) and this is the name used in all Zionist materials in reference to this region; the emblem instead uses a kind of standard compromise phrase of that time between Zionist and Mandatory parlance, and reads "Palestine (EI)" - Palestine (Eretz Israel) - in Hebrew. From a Zionist perspective the phrasing is less offensive than the fact that the Hebrew spelling is imperfect: the first two letters (from right to left) are incorrectly designed. The letter "Pay" ("P") looks just like the Hebrew letter "Nun" but with a dot in the middle - for the "Pay" sound, a dot is used, but part of the letter's stroke from the top left and down is missing; the "Lamed" letter, the 2nd letter, is lacking a stroke which would extend above the upper border line of all the letters, making it look like the Hebrew letter "Resh". As these badges are rarely encountered its hard to appreciate their distinctions until closely examined.
More pictures: front of badge, front of badge at angle, back of badge at angle, back of badge different angle, surface of badge at angle, JR Gaunt's emblem design proposal (here the Hebrew letters are fine)
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Item Code: 0120065 Price: $800
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Israel Air Force ("Kheil Ha'Avir") hat badge, 1960's: with screwback reverse (possibly replaced from the original) though screw itself is missing. Received from consignor whose father was in the IAF in the 1960's, the emblem can also be dated to the period because the legend in Hebrew uses one letter "vav" in the word "Avir" (air) instead of two, as used in versions issued from the late 1970's onwards. Darkened metal with some surface wear but otherwise in excellent condition; not maker marked; weight: 7.70g
More pictures: front of badge, back of badge, back of badge at angle
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Item Code: 0120060 Price: $20
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Carmeli brigade conference medal, signed: special medal issued [to Eliyahu Brigel] to commemorate an assembly of veterans celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Carmeli Brigade's operations Haifa and northern Israel-Galilee-Samaria in the War of Independence and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Israel; a special post office cachet was also designed for this conference event.
The medal displays the official emblem of the State's 20th anniversary on one side, and the IDF emblem, conference name and date, and "1948-1968" on the other. The medal is housed in a standard black plastic foldable case, and a paper insert inside with greeting is signed by the Brigade's wartime commander: "Regards, Moshe Carmel, General; Haifa 23.05.68".
More pictures: medal case, medal with signed greeting, front of medal, reverse of medal
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Item Code: 0120070 Price: $75
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IDF Druze Battalion emblem: unit badge belonging to "Gdud Kherev" ('Sword Battalion') of Druze and Circassian soldiers in the Israeli Army; weight: 3.7g; not maker-marked.
Druze (Bedouin and Circassians) have served in the IDF since 1948 and are conscripted for national service like Jews. Like religious Jews, the Druze and Circassians (and Bedouin) serve in homogenous ethnic units. Originally these existed as anonymous "ethnic units" within the IDF, but from 1951 the Druze and Circassians served in "Battalion 300", a force which earned the stature of a special force given the paratroop and additional training afforded to the unit. In 1974 all the "ethnic units" in the Army were amalgamated together into larger units, and the Druze-Circassian battalion become known as the 299th "Sword Battalion".
More pictures: front of badge, back of badge with backing, back of badge
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Item Code: 0120061 Price: $20
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IDF paratroop battalion (890th) commando school pin: awarded upon completion of the corp's commando course; 1955-1960's.
At the end of 1954, as head of the IDF training division, Yitzhak Rabin suggested that the Army create a commando course to improve the physical and psychological strength of the regular army officers. The former commander of the special force "Unit 101" and the then commander of the 890th paratroop battalion, Ariel Sharon, created a month-long course in commando training at the Tel Nof paratroop base, and the first class opened on 1 January 1955. Graduates of the course received this pin, whose motifs were: parachuting, explosives and hand-to-hand combat (an Israeli form called "Krav Maga").
Weight: 1.70g; not maker-marked.
More pictures: front of pin, back of pin
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Item Code: 0120063 Price: $75
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2 sets of Israeli Army and Israeli Airforce sergeant rank stripes, circa. 1950's: the Army ranks are of the earliest style, with individually stitched blue lines along each of the three stripes - and all three are separate (since the 1960's sergeant ranks have been a 1-piece triple stripe patch); still attached to battledress fabric. The Air Force patch has 4 small corner prongs on the reverse for snapping it onto a uniform.
More pictures: front of Army patch, back of Army patch, back of Air Force patch, back of Air Force patch
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Item Code: 0120069 Price: $25
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Kofer ha'Yishuv "Matat Tachshitim" pin in bronze, 1938-39: issued to those who contributed jewelry (of non-precious metal) during a special initiative called "Matat Tachshitim" (in Hebrew; "Giving of Jewelry") within the framework of an overall movement called the "Community Levy" ("Kofer ha'Yishuv").
The Levy was a fundraising effort which supported self-defence within the Jewish community ("Yishuv") of Palestine. The pin was designed by M. Moro of Jerusalem and depicts a "Tower and Stockade" ("Choma u'Migdal" in Hebrew) settlement surmounted by the legend "Kofer ha'Yishuv Matat Tachshitim for the Year 1938-1939"; with soldiered safety-pin reverse; weight: 0.8 grams.
Metal tokens - rings and pins - from this movement are very rare: of this pin type, its silver counterpart (for jewelry made of precious metals) is the more familiar one; this bronze version is less well known.
More pictures: front of pin, front of pin (more light), back of pin at angle, back of pin at angle
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Item Code: 0120066 Price: $400
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