Three original pieces of ephemera from the ceremony marking the State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. 4th-5th Iyar / May 13-14, 1948.
The present ephemera items were issued to the journalist Moshe (Ron) Danzigerkron (1904-1985), the first Secretary-General of the Tel Aviv Journalists Association, and one of the participants at the ceremonial gathering for the State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence:
1. "Gathering for the Declaration of Independence", official entrance ticket, printed, and filled out in handwriting. Stapled onto the inside is a note designating the seat number (Hebrew): "Row III, Seat 6, Middle".
[4] pages (ticket folded in half), approx. 14 cm. Minor blemishes. Small strips missing in two bottom corners.
2. "Gathering for the Declaration of Independence", official invitation. Sent one day prior to the declaration, May 13, 1948, with brief instructions (Hebrew): "Dear Sir, we hereby have the honor of sending you an invitation to the Gathering for the Declaration of Independence which will take place on Friday, 5th Iyar 1948, at 4:00 PM in the museum hall… We request you keep secret the content of this invitation and the time of assembly of the council … Dress: Dark suit".
Enclosed, the original envelope in which the invitation was submitted.
[4] pages (sheet folded in half, printed on front only). 21.5 cm. Fold line. Minor blemishes.
3. "Declaration of the People’s Council, 5th Iyar / May 14, 1948" ("Blue Copy" of the Declaration of Independence): Mimeographed booklet containing the final approved version of the declaration, printed on the morning of May 14, 1948, and distributed to individuals invited to participate in the ceremony.
3 leaves + [1] cover, on blue paper. Approx. 26.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Punch holes in margin. Tears, incl. open tears, to bottom margin, professionally mended. Sheets and cover not bound.
The "Blue Copies" of the Israeli Declaration of Independence
The final version of the Declaration of Independence – which most people naturally associate with the famous signed parchment scroll – was approved and completed close to midnight, May 13-14, 1948. The few hours remaining between the final approval and the declaration itself did not afford sufficient time for preparing the official parchment scroll, and thus, at the appointed time, the parties to the declaration put their signatures to a blank scroll, and the formal text was only added later, above the signatures.
Participants in the ceremony were handed printed booklets, prepared that same morning. Each booklet consisted of a three-page document enclosed within a blue paper cover. These booklets were often termed "the Blue Copies" of the Declaration of Independence; they represented the very first printed versions of the declaration, with the exception, of course, of the truly original copy, which was typewritten using a regular typewriter on a regular sheet of paper the night before the declaration ceremony.
The booklets were mimeographed by Dorit Rosen, the personal secretary of Ze’ev Sherf, secretary of the People’s Council, on mimeograph sheets she purchased at the Lautman stationery shop in Tel Aviv. Some 100 copies of these booklets were put together on the morning of the declaration (actually fewer according to some witnesses, who insist only a few dozen copies were made). They were the earliest printed versions of the declaration. At the official ceremony of the State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, David Ben-Gurion publicly read out the declaration from one of these "Blue Copies".
For reference, see Hebrew.
