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Israeli Embroidery Embroidery allows the artist to create images on fabric using only a needle and thread. It is one of the mediums used in ancient traditional artifacts and even in modern art. Every culture has own unique embroidery characteristics, but certain stitches and motifs made their way around the world and are common to all cultures. In the Arab culture in Israel, women embroider clothing, indicating their skill and tradition, personal expression, and collective identity. Embroidery features prominently on Judaica items such as the embroidered curtain on the synagogue ark, the Torah cover, the Talit bag and the Mezuzah cover. In the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel prior to the State, people saved embroidered greetings as a way to maintain their ties to Jews in the Diaspora. Students at Bezalel studied embroidery as a practical art and after the State of Israel was founded, popular embroidery was seen to represent the rebirth of Hebrew culture in Israel. Today, there is a rich embroidery culture among diverse communities in Israel, as art, as an expression of personal identity or as a unique community narrative. Judaica Embroidery Cave of the Patriarchs, Challah cover, Jerusalem, 1875. Embroiderer: Hannah Rivka Hermann, wool thread on mesh fabric, 78 x 81 cm, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Embroidered Shabbat tablecloths and challah covers were a traditional gift from a bride to her groom. Traditionally, challah is covered before reciting the blessing and the fabric is a symbolic representation of the dew that protected the manna, which fed the Israelites in the desert. From the 17th century onward, Jews in the Diaspora donated funds for Jewish schools, orphanages, and old age homes in Eretz Israel. Financial support from the Diaspora for the Yeshuv in Eretz Israel was considered to be a religious mitzvah, based on the biblical verse: “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11). As a gesture of gratitude, recipients sent Judaica items to the donors. The embroideries featured images of the Western Wall, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, either imaginary or stylized from illustrated manuscripts. The embroidery was a visual reminder of the holy places in Eretz Israel that the Jews in the Yishuv were protecting for those in the Diaspora. Yuval Etzioni, researcher of Textile Culture in Israel To all philatelic items issued on February 2024
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