Gendered National Memory on Israeli Postage Stamps

From Gender Blindness to Feminist Commemoration

in Israel Studies Review
Author:
Einat Lachover Sapir Academic College, Israel einatl@mail.sapir.ac.il

Search for other papers by Einat Lachover in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6503-6675
and
Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler Sapir College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel inbalbag@gmail.com

Search for other papers by Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9748-9129
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/isr.2022.370306
Keywords:
commemoration; feminist historiography; Israel; national heritage; national memory; postage stamps
Restricted access
USD  $22.00
Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

In this article we focus on the gendered national construction on Israeli stamps commemorating renowned women over the course of Israel's history. We analyze gender construction on both the selection of the stamps and in their design. Based on analyses of the social role of women in Israeli historiography, archival documents, interviews with fourteen key figures involved in conceiving and designing the stamps, and the way stamp design constructs gendered memory, we outline major aspects of commemorating women in stamps: gender blindness, women's accomplishments, identity politics, and the emergence of gender as a theme. These are discussed in the context of gendering in official commemoration, the development of feminist historiography and discourse in Israel, and the conjunction of these issues and stamp design.

Contributor Notes

EINAT LACHOVER is an associate professor of Communication at Sapir Academic College. Her work is dedicated to critical analysis of the encounters between gender and a broad range of media forms and contexts. She has published in international journals, including: Communication Theory, Journalism, International Journal of Communication, Communication Culture and Critique, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Children and Media, European Journal of Women's Studies, Journal of Gender Studies, Israel Affairs, NASHIM, The Journal of Israeli History. ORCID: 0000-0002-6503-6675 E-mail: einatl@mail.sapir.ac.il

INBAL BEN-ASHER GITLER is a senior lecturer of architecture and visual culture at Sapir College and a teaching fellow at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research focuses on the modern architecture of Israel/Palestine, as well as Israeli visual culture. Her recent book, Architectural Culture in British Mandate Jerusalem, 1917–1948 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) is the recipient of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies / Concordia University Library Award for Best Book in Israel Studies. ORCID: 0000-0001-9748-9129 E-mail: inbalbag@gmail.com

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Israel Studies Review

Cover Israel Studies Review
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
25
Keywords:
commemoration; feminist historiography; Israel; national heritage; national memory; postage stamps
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2022
Copyright:
© Association for Israel Studies 2022

  • Altman, Dennis, 1991. Paper Ambassadors: The Politics of Stamps. North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson.

  • Anderson, Benedict, 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

  • Andreou, Sonia, Stephnie, Stylianou, and Evripides Zantides. 2017. “Gendering the Nation: A Case Study on the Postage Stamps of Cyprus.” Semiotica 215: 73–90.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Azaryahu, Maoz. 2012. Namesakes: History and Politics of Street Naming in Israel. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Magnes.

  • Ben-Asher Gitler, Inbal, and Einat Lachover. 2021. “Gendered Memory and Miniaturization in Graphic Design: Representations of Women in Israeli Postage Stamps.” Design Issues 37 (3): 18–32.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Berkovitch, Nitza. 1997. “Motherhood as a National Mission: The Construction of Womanhood in the Legal Discourse in Israel.” Women's Studies International Forum 20 (5/6): 605–619.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bernstein, Deborah. 1992. Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel. Albany: State University of New York Press.

  • Brooks, Andree. 2002. The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House.

  • Burke, Roland. (2016). “Premature Memorials to the United Nations Human Rights Program: International Postage Stamps and the Commemoration of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” History and Memory 28 (2): 152–181.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bushnell, David. 2011. “Philatelic Feminism: The Portrayal of Women on Stamps of Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, and the United States (1893–2006).” Women's Studies 40 (7): 829–852.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cusack, Igor. 2005. “Tiny Transmitters of Nationalist and Colonial Ideology: The Postage Stamps of Portugal and Its Empire.” Nations and Nationalism 11 (4): 591–612.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Elboim-Dror, Rachel. 1994. “Gender in Utopianism: The Zionist Case.” History Workshop Journal 37 (1): 99–116.

  • Fogiel-Bijaoui, Sylvie. 2016. “Navigating Gender Inequality in Israel: The Challenges of Feminism.” In Handbook of Israel: The Major Debates, ed. by Julius H. Schops, Olaf Glockner, Eliezer Ben-Rafael, 422–441. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Frewer, Douglas. 2002. “Japanese Postage Stamps as Social Agents: Some Anthropological Perspectives.” Japan Forum 14 (1): 1–19.

  • Gelblum, Amira. 2007. “Gender and the Politics of History.” In Venues of Feminist Thinking: An Introduction to Gender Studies [In Hebrew.], ed. Niza Yanay, Tamar El-Or, Orly Lubin, and Hannah Naveh, 451–504. Rananana: Open University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Grahn, Wera. and Ross, J. Wilson, eds. 2018. Gender and Heritage: Performance, Place and Politics. Oxon: Routledge.

  • Grever, Maria. 2003. Beyond Petrified History: Gender and Collective Memories. Museumsblatt. Mitteilungen Aus Dem Museumswesen Baden-Württembergs. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/1895 (accessed 28 September 2022).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Guliat, Yael. (2001). “The Yemenite Model in Israeli Culture and Arts.” Israel Studies 6 (3): 26–54.

  • Helman, Anat. 2011. A Coat of Many Colors: Dress Culture in the Young State of Israel. Boston: Academic Studies Press.

  • Herzog, Hanna. 2008. “Re/visioning the Women's Movement in Israel.” Citizenship Studies 12 (3): 265–282.

  • Israel Philatelic Federation. 2021a. “Israeli Music.” [In Hebrew.] https://bit.ly/345MeVt (accessed 21 May 2021).

  • Israel Philatelic Federation, 2021b. “Israeli Authors and Poets.” [In Hebrew.] https://bit.ly/30SUx4A (accessed 21 May 2021).

  • Israel Philatelic Federation, 2021c. “Pioneering Women.” [In Hebrew.] https://bit.ly/3v9eqkT (accessed 21 May 2021).

  • Kamir, Orit. 2006. “Typology and Analysis of Israeli Feminism.” [In Hebrew.] Democratic Culture 10: 409–475.

  • Kamir, Orit. 2011. “Collective Memory, Law and No Women: Why the Israeli Legal Discourse Is Not a Viable Venue for the Commemoration of Women.” [In Hebrew.] Israel: Studies in Zionism and the State of Israel. History, Society, Culture 18/19: 183–212.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kamir, Orit. 2013. “Unacknowledged Spheres of Discrimination: The Normative Private Sphere and the Unknown Sphere of Sisterhood.” In Gendered Perspectives on Space [In Hebrew.], ed. Ruth Halprin, 77–110. Even-Yehuda: Reches.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Keren, Nili. 1998. “Preserving Memory within Oblivion: The Struggle over Teaching the Holocaust in Israel.” [In Hebrew.] Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly 64: 56–65.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kimmerling, Baruch. 2001. The Invention and Decline of Israeliness. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Kress, Gunther R., and Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn. New York: Routledge.

  • Lachover, Einat, and Dalia Gavriely-Nuri. 2013. “Israeli Stamps 1948–2010: Between Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism.” Israel Affairs 19 (2): 321–337.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lahav, Pnina. 2006. “Gender Politics and the Diaspora Museum.” [In Hebrew.] Democratic Culture 10: 329–356.

  • Lemish, Dafna, and Einat Lachover. 2021. “Portrayals of Women in Israeli Media.” Shalvi/Hayman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Jewish Women's Archive.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Leon, Nissim. 2018. “Aftershocks of the 1977 ‘Mahapach’ (Upheaval) and Their Effect on Religious Politics in Israel.” Israel Affairs 24: 944–957.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Limor, Yehiel, and David Mekelberg. 2017. “The Smallest Ideological and Political Battlefield: Depicting Borders on Postage Stamps: The Case of Israel.” Nations and Nationalism 23 (4): 902–928.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Limor, Yehiel, and Ilan Tamir. 2017. “The Paper Ceiling: Under-Representation of Women on Israeli Postage Stamps.” [In Hebrew.] Media Frames 16: 23–49.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Limor, Yehiel, and Ilan Tamir. 2019. “Postage Stamps as a Cultural Portal: The Under-Representation of Hebrew and Israeli Language and Art on State-Issued Stamps.” [In Hebrew.] Kesher 53: 125–130.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Limor, Yehiel, and Ilan Tamir. 2020. “The Neglected Medium: Postage Stamps as Mass Media.” Communication Theory 31 (3): 491–505. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz043

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Maloney, Michael. 2013. “‘One of the Best Advertising Mediums the Country Can Have’: Postage Stamps and National Identity in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.” Material Culture Review 77–78: 21–38.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Nassi, Gad, and Rebecca Toueg. 1990. Dona Gracia Nasi, ed. D. Gottan. Tel Aviv: Women's International Zionist Organization, Department of Education.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ogletree, Shirley. Matile, Sara Merritt, and John Roberts. 1994. “Female/Male Portrayals on U.S. Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century.” Communication Research Reports 11 (1): 77–85.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ohayon, Shira. 2010. “Shoshana, Ofra, Achinoam – Yemenite Women Sing.” Haoketz, 11 October. https://bit.ly/3mTxDTU (accessed 24 December 2020).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pető, Andrea, and Ann Phoenix. 2019. “‘Indelible Stains’? Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Memory.” European Journal of Women's Studies 26 (3): 237–243.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Raento, Paulina, and Stanley. D. Brunn. 2005. “Visualizing Finland: Postage Stamps as Political Messengers.” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 87 (2): 145–164.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Reading, Anna. 2014. “Making Memory Work for Feminist Theory.” In The Sage Handbook of Feminist Theory, ed. Mary Evans, Clare Hemmings, Marsha Henry, Hazel Johnstone, Sumi Madhok, Ania Plomien, and Sadie Wearing, 196–214. Los Angeles: Sage.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Reading, Anna. 2015. “Making Feminist Heritage Work: Gender and Heritage.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, ed. Emma Waterton and Steve Watson, 397–410. New York: Palgrave McMillan.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rosenberg-Friedman Lilach, and Naama Teitelbaum-Kari. 2021. “Liberalism, Radicalism and Multiculturalism: Changes in the Status of Women in Israel.” [In Hebrew.] In The Fifth Decade, 1988–1998, ed. Zvi Zameret, Zeev Drory and Yechiam Weits, 225–240. Jerusalem: Rubin Mass Ltd.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2002. “Constructing Identities at the Margins: Masculinities and Citizenship in the Israeli Army.” Sociological Quarterly 43 (3): 357–383.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scolincov, Hanna. 2000. “Ages of Man, Ages of Woman.” Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies 57 (1): 61–78.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scott, Anna. 2018. “It's a Man's World. Or Is It? The ‘Pilgrim Fathers,’ Religion, Patriarchy, Nationalism and Tourism.” In Gender and Heritage: Performance, Place and Politics, ed. Wera Grahn and Ross J. Wilson, 81–98. Oxon: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scott, David. 1995. European Stamp Design: A Semiotic Approach to Designing Messages. London: Academy Editions Limited.

  • Scott, Joan, Wallach. 1988. Gender and the Politics of Women's History. New York: Columbia University Press.

  • Sheffi, Naama, and Anat First. 2019. “The Power of Hegemony: Human Figures on Israeli Banknotes.” Israel Affairs 25 (5): 769–787.

  • Smith, Laurajane. 2008. “Heritage, Gender and Identity.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, ed. by Brian Graham and Peter Howard, 159–178. Hampshire and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Worek, Michael, and Jordan Worek. 2008. An American History Album: The Story of the United States Told Through Stamps. Buffalo: Firefly Books.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Yosov-Shalom, Miri. 2016. “‘Woman Warrior’: Heroism and Activism in Devorah Omer's Works.” [In Hebrew.] Children and Youth Literature [Sifrut Yeladim Vanoar] 139: 47–61.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 524 524 66
Full Text Views 56 56 0
PDF Downloads 56 56 0