Star of David

The Star of David (Hebrew: מָגֵן דָּוִד, romanized: Magen David, lit. 'Shield of David')^[a] is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism.^[1] Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.

A derivation of the seal of Solomon was used for decorative and mystical purposes by Muslims and Kabbalistic Jews. The hexagram appears occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity as a decorative motif, such as a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of the 3rd–4th century Khirbet Shura synagogue. A hexagram found in a religious context can be seen in a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible from 11th-century Cairo.

Its association as a distinctive symbol for the Jewish people and their religion dates to 17th-century Prague. In the 19th century, the symbol began to be widely used by the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, ultimately coming to represent Jewish identity or religious beliefs.^[2][3] It became representative of Zionism after it was chosen as the central symbol for a Jewish national flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897.^[4]

By the end of World War I, it was an internationally accepted symbol for the Jewish people, used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers.^[5]

Today, the star is the central symbol on the national flag of the State of Israel.

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