Emblem of Israel

A seven-branched menorah, two olive branches, and the Hebrew name of the state form the emblem’s central composition, enclosed within a heraldic shield.[1] The menorah connects the modern state with the Jerusalem Temple and the Jewish people’s history in their homeland, while the olive branches express Israel’s longing for peace.[3][6] Together, these elements bring an ancient Jewish religious and national symbol into the visual identity of the sovereign state.[3]

The shield has a blue background, and the principal devices can appear in white or gold.[1] The white version appears on the presidential standard, while gold is used in many other settings, including the cover of the Israeli passport.[1] The Hebrew inscription ישראל sits beneath the menorah, identifying the state within the design rather than through a surrounding motto.[1]

The emblem developed through a public selection process involving successive competitions, committee deliberations, and revisions to the winning proposal.[3][2] Its designers initially submitted a modern-looking menorah accompanied by stars and olive branches; the final version substituted the Arch of Titus menorah, removed the stars, and added the name “Israel.”[2] The resulting composition serves on official documents, the presidential standard, and public buildings in Israel and abroad.[3]

Its legal recognition extends from the state’s first year to the 2018 Nation-State Basic Law.[7][8] The latter specifies the menorah, olive leaves, and name as components of the state symbol, placing the emblem alongside the state’s name, flag, and anthem in its treatment of national symbols.[8]

The menorah appears in biblical descriptions of the Tabernacle and Temple worship; Exodus gives detailed instructions for its construction, and Jewish tradition describes priests lighting it daily in the Temple.[9] Zechariah describes a golden menorah with olive trees beside it, imagery later connected with the state emblem.[4] Over time, the menorah also became associated with illumination and the idea of a light to the nations.[10]

Menorah imagery long preceded the establishment of the modern state and appeared on coins, mosaics, and other Jewish objects.[9] The Hasmonean ruler Mattathias Antigonus II placed the menorah on coins in the first century BCE, an early connection between the image and Jewish political authority.[9] After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, representations appeared in synagogues, and the Zionist movement adopted the menorah as a symbol in the nineteenth century.[11] Its eventual use in the state emblem thus drew on both ancient Jewish imagery and its modern national revival.[3][11]

Ancient synagogue mosaics supplied one important visual precedent during the emblem’s development.[3] A sixth-century mosaic from Jericho depicts a three-legged menorah accompanied by a ram’s horn and palm frond, together with the inscription Shalom al Yisrael, meaning “Peace over Israel.”[3] That combination offered a way to unite a recognizably Jewish central image with ritual objects and a verbal expression of peace.[3] It also provided an alternative to the form of the menorah preserved on the Arch of Titus.[3]

The Arch of Titus image became the specific visual model for the final state emblem.[3] The relief commemorates Rome’s victory over Judea and depicts Temple vessels, including a seven-branched menorah, being carried in a Roman triumphal procession after Jerusalem’s destruction.[5] The decision to reuse that image in the emblem of the new state gave it a reversed national meaning: the menorah associated with defeat and the destruction of Jewish sovereignty became a sign of Jewish restoration.[3]

A botanical explanation also forms part of the menorah’s symbolic background.[6] Its shape is said to derive from the sage plant, or Moria, whose branching leaves in some species resemble the Temple candelabrum.[6][12] This explanation concerns the form of the ancient lampstand, while the design process for the modern emblem specifically selected the carved menorah on the Roman arch as its model.[3][6]

On June 8, 1948, the provisional government published an invitation asking citizens to submit proposals for a national emblem and flag.[13] The search followed the establishment of the state in May and the need for an official emblem expressing its sovereignty.[3] It also had an immediate practical dimension: in a provisional-government committee discussion, David Remez called the emblem an urgent problem because Israel needed signs for its foreign missions.[14] Remez suggested a gold-framed shield divided into white and light-blue sections.[14]

The competition guidelines called for sky-blue and white, a seven-lamp candelabrum, and seven stars, while permitting entrants to introduce other colors and ideas.[2] The initial submission deadline was June 14, 1948.[15] A total of 164 applicants submitted 450 proposals, but all were rejected, and the committee issued a further public call.[2] The selection of an emblem generated more dilemmas and disagreements than the flag, whose general form and colors were settled more quickly.[13]

Among the early designs was a proposal by graphic artists Oteh Walisch and W. Struski, which reached a selection stage but was not adopted.[3] It placed a seven-branched Temple menorah, modeled on the Arch of Titus relief, at its center and included seven golden stars.[3] Those stars referred to Theodor Herzl’s proposed Jewish-state flag and his vision of a seven-hour working day.[3] Although they appeared repeatedly during the competition, the stars ultimately disappeared from the official emblem.[3][2]

A committee headed by Beba Idelson agreed that the seven-branched menorah should be included but considered several possibilities for the rest of the composition.[3] Candles and the Lion of Judah were among the suggestions.[3] At Remez’s suggestion, specialists joined the deliberations, including architect Aba Elhanani, archaeologist Eliezer Sukenik, painter Reuven Rubin, and architect-artist Leopold Krakauer.[3] The broader field of alternatives also included designs based on the Tablets of the Law.[10]

Graphic artists Itamar David and Yerachmiel Schechter proposed an elliptical emblem combining a menorah, seven stars, the inscription Shalom al Yisrael, a palm frond, and a ram’s horn.[3] Their imagery drew on ancient synagogue mosaics rather than the Arch of Titus; the Jericho mosaic was probably its particular source.[3] This approach retained the menorah while placing it within an ancient Jewish decorative and ritual vocabulary.[3]

At a Provisional Council of State meeting on October 14, 1948, two proposals under consideration provoked fierce opposition.[16] One surrounded a menorah with seven stars and included the words Shalom al Yisrael, translated as “Peace on Israel”; the other placed a lulav, an etrog, and a shofar around the menorah.[16] These alternatives show that a menorah-centered emblem could still take markedly different forms depending on the accompanying inscription and objects.[16]

A further public appeal brought responses from 131 people, with most proposals including a menorah.[3] Henry Raczkowski, for example, paired the menorah with doves and made its base double as the base of scales of justice.[3] A streamer in his design carried Herzl’s seven stars and a Hebrew inscription from Proverbs 16:12.[3] The competition therefore produced combinations emphasizing peace, justice, religious heritage, and national sovereignty before the final design was settled.[3]

The committee considered the Shamir brothers’ proposal at its sixth meeting on December 28, 1948.[3] Maxim and Gavriel Shamir, graphic designers originating from Latvia, submitted a composition with a stylized modern menorah, a star above each branch, and an olive branch on either side.[3][1] Their proposal combined the requested menorah and stars with olive branches in a heraldic format.[3][2]

Before developing their design, the brothers studied national emblems from around the world and found no country using a candelabrum in its emblem.[15] Gavriel Shamir described olive branches as “the most beautiful expression of the Jewish people’s love of peace.”[3] Another account of the design’s development credits Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, with proposing that olive branches surround the menorah.[1]

When the committee met on January 10, 1949, it objected to the stylized menorah and asked the brothers to replace it with one based on the Arch of Titus relief.[3] They were also asked to add the name “Israel.”[2] After reviewing revised versions, the committee removed the stars, leaving the menorah, branches, and state name as the final composition’s principal elements.[2] These revisions changed both the appearance and emphasis of the design: the modern lampstand gave way to an ancient image, while the explicit reference to Herzl’s seven stars was omitted.[3][2]

The revised emblem was adopted unanimously on February 10, 1949.[3][4] The Provisional Council of State selected it on that date, corresponding to 11 Shevat 5709.[4] Following committee approval, Idelson forwarded the revised design to the council for ratification, whose proclamation was signed by council speaker Joseph Sprinzak.[3]

Two days after the final approval, the provisional government’s official newspaper published an announcement of the national emblem signed by Sprinzak as commission chairman.[15] The design continued to receive finishing touches: a few months later, the Shamir brothers prepared a final version with an embellished menorah base.[15] A surviving sketch of the final 1949 version bears Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s signature.[15]

The emblem appeared on official state documents, the presidential standard, and public buildings both in Israel and abroad.[3] These uses gave the new design a role in the routine presentation of sovereign authority, including the overseas representation whose practical requirements had helped make its selection urgent.[3][14] The Israeli passport provides another prominent application, with the menorah and branches rendered in gold.[1]

The presidential standard uses a white-and-blue version of the composition.[1] Other common applications use gold against blue, while descriptions of the shield identify its background as blue or light blue.[1] The central identifying features remain the seven-branched menorah, the flanking olive branches, and the Hebrew name Israel, rather than one exclusive rendering of those elements in white or gold.[1]

The Flag and Emblem Law was adopted on May 24, 1949, establishing the legal and public status of the national flag and emblem.[7] The legislation followed the emblem’s February selection and proclamation, making the proclamation and the subsequent law distinct stages in its establishment as an official national symbol.[3][7]

Section 2(c) of the 2018 Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People specifies: “The symbol of the state is the Menorah with seven branches, olive leaves on each side, and the word Israel at the bottom.”[8] The following clause provides that further details concerning state symbols are to be determined by law.[8] Within the same section, the emblem is grouped with the state’s name, flag, and anthem, giving its principal components explicit recognition in the Basic Law.[8]

The adoption of the Arch of Titus menorah expressed the idea that the menorah had “come home” after a long exile and had become a symbol of Jewish renewal.[4] An image associated with the destruction of Jewish sovereignty was incorporated into the insignia of the restored Jewish state.[3] In this reading, the emblem links the modern state not merely to an ancient decorative motif but to the Jewish people’s historical homeland, the Temple, and the aspiration for national return.[3][1]

The menorah also carries associations of hope, faith in victory, and illumination.[1] Its use in the emblem connects the establishment of the Jewish state with the aspiration to return to the homeland.[1] The lampstand has also been associated with the idea of Israel as a light to the nations.[10]

The olive branches have both a contemporary message and a biblical background.[17][6] They express Israel’s yearning for peace and recall the association between an olive branch and the story of Noah in Genesis.[17][6] Olives also supplied the oil used to light the Temple menorah, linking the surrounding branches to the central object through the material of Temple worship.[17] Their inclusion thus joins the peaceful aspiration of the modern state with imagery rooted in Jewish scripture and ritual.[17][6]

The pairing of a menorah with olive vegetation also recalls Zechariah’s vision of a golden menorah and two olive trees.[4] One interpretation associates the branches with the king and high priest, both anointed with olive oil; a contemporary interpretation understands them as sovereign government and Jewish tradition.[4] Another reading associates the two trees with the high priest and governor standing together and relates the establishment of Israel to the rebuilding of the Temple after the Return to Zion.[3] These readings give the same paired forms meanings involving leadership, religious continuity, and renewed sovereignty.[3][4]

The word “Israel” explicitly names the state and expresses the national dimension of the composition.[3][10] It has also been read as retaining an echo of the earlier proposed inscription Shalom al Yisrael, even though the complete phrase did not survive into the final design.[3] In combination, the menorah, branches, and name express the heritage, culture, and values that decision-makers wished the new state to represent.[10]

A remembered episode at the Arch of Titus gives a human expression to this symbolism of reversal.[17] Roman Jews traditionally avoided walking beneath the arch, but on the day Israel was established they marched through it in the opposite direction, carrying Torah scrolls and Israeli flags.[17] The march and the emblem’s adoption of the arch’s menorah share the theme of transforming imagery associated with Jewish defeat into an expression of renewed national life.[17][3]

The decision to model the emblem’s menorah on the Arch of Titus relief drew religious and historical criticism.[18] Chief Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Herzog argued that the relief may have been altered by non-Jewish hands and contrasted its form with three-legged menorahs depicted in Jewish catacombs and ancient synagogue mosaics.[18] A discussion in Hakirah also presents Daniel Sperber’s argument that the arch’s menorah reflects Roman influence.[18]

Ancient menorah depictions vary, including between the stepped polygonal base on the arch and the three-legged bases found in synagogue imagery.[3] Those variations prevent the surviving images from providing a single uncontested reconstruction, and suggestions that religious restraint influenced their accuracy remain interpretive.[3] Debate over the emblem also concerned the relative emphasis on religious heritage and secular sovereignty, although its development cannot be reduced to a simple victory of one camp over another.[3] The overlapping biblical, national, and peaceful meanings of its elements support several readings rather than one exclusive account of the designers’ intentions.[3][4]