Stamps for all

Fisher, 56, who made aliya from then Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – in 1977, is one of the exhibitors at the forthcoming 2016 Jerusalem Multinational Stamp Exhibition.

By BARRY DAVIS
Oman – Temple Mount (photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
Oman – Temple Mount
(photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
Those of us who remember a time when there was no Internet and no email may recall lifting the flap of our mail box at the building exit and finding actual physical letters in there. These days, most of our post comprises bills and other official or commercial stuff. Hence, one might naturally assume that, with the perceived reduction in mail volume, stamps are on their way out. According to Lawrence Fisher, that is simply not the case.
Fisher, 56, who made aliya from then Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – in 1977, is one of the exhibitors at the forthcoming 2016 Jerusalem Multinational Stamp Exhibition, which will take place at the Jerusalem International Convention Center from November 13 to 17, under the auspices of the Israel Philatelic Federation.
Considering that he has thousands of items in his vast collection, Fisher’s opening statement was a surprise.
“For me, just collecting stamps is boring,” he declares. “When we were kids we used to try to collect stamps from all over the world, and put them in albums.
Or we’d collect stamps of England, or Rhodesia or Israel. You could just open a catalogue and find all those stamps, it’s boring.”
Still, there are some educational benefits.
“It’s good for general knowledge because you can find the capital cities of different countries, but after a while that gets boring.”
In order to address his growing ennui, Fisher went for a different approach to his collecting pursuit.
“I have a theme,” he explains. “My theme is the use of a postage stamp as a propaganda tool against Israel. That’s how I started my current exhibition. My current exhibition [the one the public will see in Jerusalem next week] is called The Jewish Homeland, Our Struggle for Survival.”
A Stamp from Kuwait – "Deir Yassin" (photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
A Stamp from Kuwait – "Deir Yassin" (photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
Fisher says his new tack duly served to up his interest ante.
“I took something that I would have said was boring and mundane, and not exactly thought-provoking, and turned it into something that demands a lot of research and a lot of knowledge and a lot of time, using the gray matter that God gave me.”
The change of subject orientation has borne fruits on the global stage.
“My exhibit won three awards in the last three years,” says Fisher proudly. “Last year I was in Germany and my exhibit took part in the European championship.
When they announced: ‘The first prize goes to the Jewish Homeland’ I got such a thrill. It was an unbelievable honor for an Israeli exhibitor, especially with all the anti-Semitism and the BDS going on in the world, I still won the European championship.”
There has been other kudos for Fisher and his philatelic avocation.
“In New York I got a special prize for what we call ‘narrative’, and I got a special prize in Spain. This is a former southern African who is doing very well, in the international field, with an exhibit called The Jewish Homeland. And now I am going to be an apprentice judge [at the Jerusalem event], which is unbelievable prestige.”
A stamp from Sudan – "Muhammad al-Dura" (photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
A stamp from Sudan – "Muhammad al-Dura" (photo credit: LAWRENCE FISHER)
As a youngster I used to collect stamps, along with my older brother, but for us it was very much a matter of aesthetics and, yes, sometimes we went for thematic series. Back then, I had no idea that something as practical and seemingly innocuous could be used for political ends. Fisher’s display puts that line of Machiavellian intent into sharp relief. His lineup features stamps from Arab states and African countries that present definitively unsubtle graphic scenes and messages that are starkly anti-Israel.
One item, from 1967, has then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in a statuesquely heroic pose, alongside the words, in English, “Arab Solidarity for Palestine Defense.” Another, from Libya, in 1977, proclaims “No Peace with Aggressors” with a map of Israel beside it.
More recently, Tunisia issued a stamp commemorating the Muhammad al-Dura incident, which took place in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, on the second day of the second intifada, in which a 12-year-old was killed after being caught in crossfire between Israeli and Palestinian security forces. In 1970, Yemen issued a stamp to mark that year’s soccer World Cup tournament in Mexico, listing all the participating nations, but childishly blacking out the name of Israel.
When Fisher first became enthralled by philately, at the tender age of six, all those political machinations were a long way off for him.
“The reason why I started with stamps was because my father collected them for me,” he recalls. “We had a whole cupboard full of stamps from all over the world.”
In the pre-virtual world, the youngster’s hobby also served a social bonding end. “In those days I used to collect whatever I could get. You also used to go to your friends’ homes and compare stamps. When I was 14 we had [stamp collecting] clubs and we used to swap stamps.”
A few years later, when he made aliya with his family, Fisher had accrued a decent knowledge of Israeli stamps, some of which were prohibitively priced for the teenager.
That particularly referred to issues put out shortly after independence.
“In the first days of the state, up to about 1952, everybody wanted Israeli stamps. It was a new state with a long history. We’d just come out of the War of Independence and everybody thought it would be totally destroyed, so the stamps had a sort of novelty value.”
Today, Fisher’s vast philately-related hoard includes a letter sent from London in 1584 – that’s over 250 years before the British invented the postage stamp.
The letter bears a heart-shaped postage symbol and is associated with what is known as the Dockwra Penny Post service.
The collection also includes a letter sent from the Venice ghetto in 1762. “It has philatelic marks on it, including the amount that was paid – three soldi,” Fisher explains.
“My newest acquisition is a stamp brought out in Algeria last year, in cooperation with the state of Palestine.”
Eli Weber is just as enthusiastic about his stamp collection, and about stamps in general. As president of the Israel Philatelic Federation, the 71-year-old grandfather not only seeks out intriguing and sometimes valuable items from all over the globe, he also has a vested interest in spreading interest in the field. Weber has been engrossed in the pastime for 45 years, and focuses his efforts on a specific region of the world and a particularly specialized era.
“I collect German stamps from all years up to the unification [in 1871],” he says. “Before that there were all sorts of kingdoms and princedoms. Specifically, I focus on the kingdom of Bavaria, from the issue of their first stamp in 1849 until 1870.”
They issued 21 stamps during that time. Naturally, Weber has exemplars of all 21.
Weber is quite a celebrity in the global philatelic community, not just in Israel. He acts as a senior judge at competitions and recently returned from a professional stint in Taiwan. His gems include a couple of franked letters originally sent to the king of Bavaria in 1867.
“One arrived seven days before the king died, and the other arrived two days after he died.” His Majesty may not have gotten to read the epistolary contents, but Weber certainly did.
There will plenty for stamp exhibition patrons to see, including a bunch of rare issues from British Guyana, from 1815 to 1875, and there will be a slew of hands-on activities for visitors to enjoy, too. Admission to the event is free.


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