President Herzog: "The Presidential flag has the emblem of the state, the menorah and the seven branches. The thinker Rabbi Yonatan Zack said that one pillar holds the people together. The leadership is looking upwards at the people, it is subordinate to the people. "

The Menorah, as the central element of the state emblem that was designed by the Shamir brothers. In the photo: Preparing for the opening of the Knesset session, November 2022. Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

Many governments swore allegiance over it, many fateful speeches were delivered around it • Yesterday, the national emblem, which adorns the plenary podium in the assembly hall, also won its own honour, when the Knesset Speaker decided to give it a professional artistic renovation. The timing, she explained, was not accidental either - since this is a relative of the menorah, we did it on the eighth candle of Hanukkah.

In 2014, the Knesset announced a competition for design students to design a new logo for the Knesset (instead of the state emblem). Following a public outcry, chairman Yuli Edelstein canceled the competition.

In the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" hosted by Erez Tal on Channel 12, a question was posed about the national emblem: "What appears at the bottom of the emblem?" The contestant knew the correct answer: the word "Israel". 

The Chief Rabbinate presents a new and uniform kosher symbol for all products in Dairy, Meat and Parve versions. Their proposed symbol is based on the state emblem.

Courtesy of David Sela

The 71st Independence Day - the torch lighting ceremony - this is how the State emblem was shown at the ceremony. Two missing elements: the shield and the word - Israel

An exchange of letters in April 1949 between Kretschmer, the workshop for badges, medals and artistic engraving & enamel and the Government Kiriya department about the creation of displays of the State Emblem. The issue was that the workshop recommended that the displayed emblems be created in metal and not cheap plastic as originally proposed by the government officials. The Government agreed with the workshop and ordered urgently 15 display emblems.

The Knesset is currently running a campaign to encourage use of their new mobile device application "Transparent Knesset". At the top of their ad is the State emblem in gold. The original colours were planned by the Shamir Brothers were silver and blue. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose a gold version for his office.

January 2017