Their Stamp on Literature
November 2001
1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT
November is Jewish Book Month. This annual event, which in 2001 runs through December 12 (not coincidentally the beginning of Chanukah), first was
celebrated in the United States in 1941, in response to the Nazis' attempt to destroy Jewish culture.
Of course, the best way to participate in Jewish Book Month is by reading -- books from your personal collection, from your library or borrowed from a friend or relative.
And, if you collect Judaica philately, you will find many paeans to Jewish writers and literature in the pages of your stamp albums.
Since Jewish Book Month takes place in November, let's take a look at "November stamps" that illustrate this theme. For example, several Jewish authors depicted on stamps were born in November. These include Arnold Zweig and Stefan Zewig.
Arnold Zweig was born on November 10, 1887, and died on November 26,1968. He was a novelist and playwright who fled to Palestine from Germany after the Nazis came to power. But he left Palestine a few months after Israel declared its independence. He eventually returned to East Germany, which later featured him on two stamps -- one issued in 1977 (Scott #1792) and another in 1987 (#2604).
Stefan Zweig, born in Austria on November 28, 1881, was a biographer, 
novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist. He also fled his native land after the Nazi takeover. But he never overcame the depression he felt as a result, and he committed suicide in Brazil in 1942.
He was pictured on an Austrian stamp issued in November 1981 (#1199).
Several Jewish authors died in the month of November. These include the
American poet Emma Lazarus, most famous for her poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. She died on November 19, 1887. Her words have been included on stamps from the United States (#1599 and #1619), Antigua (#834), Belize (#584), and Turks and Caicos (#665).
Dutch playwright Herman Heijermans died on November 22,1924. The author 
of 50 plays, Heijermans wrote extensively about social problems (such as slums, poor working conditions, and religious intolerance). He is pictured on a 1974 Netherlands stamp (#B503).
The Hungarian poet Miklos Radnoti died in November 1944, while on a forced rnarch from a slave labor camp in Yugoslavia. His body was found in a mass grave with his last poems still in his pocket. He is shown on a November 1972 Hungarian stamp (#2187).
It Came from November
1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT
© 2001, J-Stamps/Murray Frost. All Rights Reserved.
froststamps@yahoo.com
