Gideon Shamir attended the Zimriya in 2010 and saw the emblem of the organization. He thought it was very similar to an Ex Libris designed by his father, Maxim, when Gideon was a child. When he came home he checked and was able to confirm that the Ex Libris pasted on his sheet music was identical. From the date of the sheet music Gideon dated the Ex Libris as having been designed around 1950-51.

I checked “Zimriya” on Wikipedia and it came up with "Propes". Aharon Zvi Propes, it said, was one of the leaders of Beitar. He started “HaZamir” an Association for the Celebration of Song. Later he founded the International Harp Competition and even later - the Israel Festival.

Given that he was with Beitar, I checked if he donated his archive to the Jabotinsky Institute archive. This was confirmed - both his and his wife's archives. I went to “Metzudat Zeev” and found a document of the “HaZamir” Association from mid July 1952 - noemblem, and another document from end July which included an embleml. This is the exact same design on the Ex Libris of the 10 or 11 years old Gideon.

I also found in "Davar" daily a number of ads announcing the opening of the first “Zimriya” on 08/06/52 - all included the Shamir designed emblem.

I still do not have absolute proof that the “HaZamir” Association commissioned the emblem from the Shamir Studio. The Propes' archive is a family archive and does not include all the material of the “HaZamir”. Financial information has only been found about the fourth “Zimriya” Convention, for example.

Gideon called Joseph Frost who said that he was, at present, working on the history of the “Zimriya”. He promised to try to find who designed the of the “Zimriya”.

There is a Shamir designed poster for the first “Zimriya” at the Central Zionist Archive. The proximity of the dates of the first use of the symbol for the “Zimriya” leads me to believe that Shamir designed all three items relating to the “Zimriya”: emblem, poster and ads AND Gideon's ex-libris.

Yoram Shamir 2010