Going through my Israel collection, I remembered that this country issued a stamp in 2006 to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the language Esperanto (in 2007).
In 2007 it was also the 90th anniversary to the death of L.L. Zamenhof.
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| Stamp with tab - Israel 2006 / 2007 |
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| detail |
* The double 'la' should be 'de la' or 'en la', not 'la la'
Translated it means : Zamenhof was born (naskiĝis = past tense of naskiĝi: to be born) in 'Zielona street nr 6' in Bialystok (at that time in the Russian Imperium of the tzars, now in Poland).
His birthday was the 3rd of December in the Julian calendar, the 15th of December in the Gregorian calendar and the 19th of kislew, in the Jewish (calendar).
In the mid 19th century, the Russian Empire still used the Julian calendar.
That's why the October Revolution was actually in November.
Since Zamenhof was Jewish - and this stamp is issued by Israel, also the Jewish calendar is mentionned.
All Israeli stamps are issued with a 'tab', often they contain extra information, a logo, or the image continues on the tab.
Not all stamps in a sheet have this tab, so there are less 'tabbed' stamps than stamps without tabs.
The catalogues mentionnes both stamps, but stamps with tab are more sought and more worth.
In this case, the tab does give some extras:
the image continues through tab and stamp and on the tab we also see the Esperanto flag, known as 'la verda stelo' (the green star).
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| tab on Israeli Esperanto stamp (detail) |
On the whole world, there was one language and one way of speaking .... Genesis 11.1
Green stands for hope, and 'Esperanto' means 'hoping', but I wonder if Zamenhof got this idea from the street where he was born, 'Ulica zielona' (Polish) = green street' ...
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| Zamenhof, Esperanto flag and 'peace in the world' |
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