Rabbin Alkalai Stamp

Rabbi Yehuda Hai Alkalai known to history as being among those first promulgators of Zionism, before Herzl, who were given the epithet “the Fathers of Modern Zionism”. Rabbi Alkalai was born in Sarajevo, then under the Ottoman rule. He received his religious education from his father, who was a rabbi and teacher, and later on he also immersed himself in studying the books of the Kabbalah. Early on he was appointed Cantor and Rabbi of the township of Semlin, near Belgrade. During this period he wrote his first work “Darkhei No’am” – Paths of Pleasantness – a booklet on Hebrew language and grammer. Rabbi Alkalai was greatly impressed and influenced by what was happening arround him in the period of the “Birth of Nations” in Europe. There is no doubt that in this situation and under these conditions, he conceived and nurtured the glimmering idea of the return of the Jewish People to its historic homeland. In 1840 the Damascus Affair took place, and this gave Rabbin Alkalai the incentive to consolidate his ideas. The Damascus Affair was for him what the Dreyfus Affair was to be for Herzl some 56 years later. Rabbi Alkali was taken up with Zionism before the word could be found in any dictionary. He visited some of the capitals of Europe, meeting with contemporary leaders of the Jewish communities, such as Montefiore, Cremieux (a member of the French Parliament), Charles Netter (founder of Mikveh Israel) and others. Quietly and with gentle, inexhaustivle persuasion, he spread his propaganda and new ideas. At the same time he wrote and published essays and pamphlets.

His ideas aroused a mixed response: from enthusiastic agreement to violent opposition. In the course of his life he knew disappointment and disillusion, since his ideas were way ahead of their time. The stamp with an information sheet are enclosed in a plastic protection sheet.