ABSTRACT
This article examines the processes of selecting human figures on banknotes since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Given Israel’s relative youth, along with the permission to read all proceedings and correspondence of the Bank of Israel Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee from its inception in 1955 to 2012, we will decipher the selection of 33 human figures and the ideological motivations behind it. We will contextualize the discussions of the committee in Israeli social and political history; explain the belated, 1969, selection of human figures for illustrations on banknotes; depict the ideological outline of the committee; assess its level of independence; and reveal the working dynamics of a hegemonic body that is compelled to reflect the central personas of a society in the process of founding and institutionalizing a nation state – in this case, the State of Israel.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
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4. New York Times, 9 June 2015; New York Times, 20 April 2016; and Israel Hayom, 28 April 2014.
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6. Proceedings, 10 December 1989.
7. The selection of the human figures was out of wide variety (see Appendix), according to consensual decisions made by the banknotes committee. Here we analyze the figures that finally appeared on banknotes (see Bank of Israel website at: https://www.boi.org.il/en/Currency/PastNotesAndCoinsSeries/Pages/Default.aspx).
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35. Hymans, “East is East”; Unwin and Hewitt, “Banknotes”; and Elhan, “Money Talks”.
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38. Proceedings, 15 December 1980, 3.
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40. Proceedings, 5 April 1992.
41. Landau to Begin, 11 July 1993.
42. Proceedings, 31 August 2010, 1.
43. Hadshot 10, 21 August 2013.
44. Proceedings, 20 August 1997.
45. Proceedings, 15 December 1980, 2.
46. Kama, Letters-to-the-Editor, 6–8.
47. Kimmerling, Immigrants, 283.
48. Proceedings, 18 November 2009, 2.
49. Proceedings, 30 June 2010.
50. Proceedings, 26 July 2010; and Ynet, 2 March 2010.
51. Kikar HaShabat, 27 December 2010.
52. Globes, 10 April 2011.
53. Walla!, 10 April 2011.
54. NRG, 28 April 2013.
55. NRG, 5 May 2013.
56. Kimmerling, Immigrants, 14.
57. Caligaro, Negotiating Europe, 119.
58. Billig, Banal Nationalism.
59. Unwin and Hewitt, “Banknotes”.
60. Caligaro, Negotiating Europe, 155, 171.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Na’ama Sheffi
Na’ama Sheffi is an associate professor of history in the department of communication at Sapir Academic College
Anat First
Anat First is a professor of communication in the school of communication at Netanya Academic College.