"The stamps tell the history" • Motti Kramner from Haifa presents a rare collection of stamps in a joint exhibition with the United Arab Emirates

At the age of 80, Moti Kramner ("Mordechai, but only my mother used to call me that, when she was angry with me"), a "Raphael" retiree, chairman of the Haifa Philatelic Association, and secretary of the Israel Philatelic Association, continues in his father's footsteps and is dedicated to collecting stamps and with unending passion. On the AAPE 2021 virtual stamp exhibition website, you can now get an impression of the Kramner stamp collection, a collection that describes the history of postal services in the Ottoman Empire, and other impressive collections of stamp collectors from Israel, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates (link to the exhibition website at the end of the article).

Moti was born in Kiryat Eliyahu, today Kiryat Eliezer, grew up in Haifa and has lived there ever since. Both his parents came to the city in their youth from Europe, before World War II. His mother came with her family from Poland in 1922. His father's family came in 1933 from Germany. Muti's grandfather, his father's father, built an iron foundry at the Vulcan junction in 1934. "He had money in Germany, and thanks to the fact that he bought and brought equipment from there for the factory, he received 200 certificates for workers. He saved 200 families."

Moti's father, a stamp collector himself, was a 17-year-old boy when the family immigrated to Israel. He had to leave his collection in Germany, and later when he became a father he taught his son everything he knew about the delicate craft of stamp preservation. "I've been collecting stamps since I was a little boy. Father taught me how to remove the stamps from the letters, how to clean them, how to arrange them in an album by series and by country. At that time everyone was collecting stamps, there wasn't much else to do. If someone managed to get a stamp from outside the country, everyone would be excited.'

Befitting the age of youth, at the age of ten Muti abandoned the hobby, and began to be interested in other things. The collection remained at home, and he continued to collect stamps that came his way, but only at the age of 40 did he return to collecting seriously. "The children grew up, we were settled, and I was looking for an occupation that I would have outside of work, something that broadens my horizons. I started collecting more and more seriously, the members of the association taught me how to do it. Over the years I became a judge at exhibitions, and today I am an international judge.'

The Haifa Stamp Association has about 35 members, most of them older people, who gather on Sundays at noon at Abba Khushi's house in Haifa. "We are really a community" says Muti. "We meet every Sunday, between 12 and 15 friends, buy, sell, tell stories. Every stamp has its own story.'

So what exactly is a stamp?

If you were to go back in time to the year 1800, and send a letter to your close friend from Haifa in 2021, he would probably be surprised, not only by the fact that he received a letter in the mail, and not only by the fact that the letter is 200 years old and sent to him especially, but also by the fact that he will be the one who has to pay for the letter, because that has no stamp on it. This was the practice before the stamp was invented in the middle of the 19th century - the recipient pays the postage. The invention of the stamp actually regulated the method of paying for letters: the sender of the mail bought a stamp, stamped it on top of the envelope, and thus the postal service knew that the fee for the letter had been paid and the financial investment was returned.

The first stamp

The first stamp in the world was issued in 1840 by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and it was called the "Black Penny". "Apparently, since it is the first, it should be an expensive stamp," explains Muti, "but since eight million such stamps were printed within a year, they are not rare and therefore do not have a high monetary value today. On the other hand, in the USA, for example, they issued a series of stamps for the air mail service, stamps with a picture of an airplane printed on them. This was at a time when they printed each color separately, meaning they would pass the sheet three times in printing. It turned out that the sheets of paper were accidentally rotated, and the drawing on these stamps was printed upside down! This defect makes the stamp very rare and expensive. Recently such a stamp was sold for about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What makes a stamp expensive is on the one hand its rarity and on the other hand how many people want the stamp. As the demand increases, so does the price.'

Egyptian stamps

When Moti began to collect stamps seriously, towards the age of 40, he came to the Haifa Stamp Association with his collections from his teenage years. "Of all the small collections I had, the Egyptian stamps seemed the most beautiful to me. I focused on them and expanded the collection, and slowly presented it at stamp exhibitions in Israel and abroad. The collection won beautiful medals, but at some point I reached a dead end with it, and changed direction. I became interested in the history of postal services in the Middle East. During the Turkish rule, the postal services of the Ottomans were not very developed, and the European countries, Austria, France, and later also England, Germany and Russia, opened post offices in Israel, in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa. There were many pilgrims here who needed such services, it was a very profitable business. The country was then part of the province of Syria, and there was a large postal service center in Beirut.'

Little by little, with persistence and curiosity, Muti put together a rare collection of stamps that reflects the history of the post office in Beirut of the Ottoman Empire, until its disbandment at the end of World War I, in 1918. "The last time I presented the collection physically was in the Czech Republic, and because of the corona He is still to be returned to Israel, and he remains in Germany on duty with a friend.'

The stamps tell the history

"The interesting part of collecting is that you have to learn the historical context of each item. I have an item in my collection that really connects me to our history - a postcard sent from Tiberias to Hungary in 1876, in which a Tiberian yeshiva asks the more established communities in Europe for a donation of funds. The postcard was sent with a messenger from Tiberias who rode on a horse to Beirut, and from there it was sent by Austrian mail ship to Hungary. This is a very rare item. I am connected to him because he reminds me of my connection and my love for the country and its history.'

Although the use of stamps is disappearing from the world, stamp printing still takes place all over the world. In the Land of Israel, for example, there are stamps that are issued regularly - stamps that are issued every year for the holidays, and stamps for Memorial Day - and there are stamps that are issued for special and one-time events. The one who approves the stamps is the Ministerial Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies. The rare Israeli stamps in Israel are a series of nine Hebrew postage stamps. This is a series that was issued before the establishment of the state, under underground conditions. The series is called "Hebrew Mail" because the name of the country has not yet been determined. The value of the series today is about 3000 dollars.

"Collecting is an unexplained need"

The craft of collecting stamps apparently fails to pass down to future generations, when I ask Muti about it, he sighs sadly. "Today I received four letters, none of them have a stamp. Stamps are hardly used today, and naturally children do not see stamps and do not recognize them. Besides, children today have a thousand and one pursuits that compete for their free time: TV, computer, cell phone, games and various classes. So they don't collect stamps. As part of the Israel Stamp Association, we do try to encourage collecting among the young. It is very educational because for any subject you want to teach you can find stamps from all over the world.'

"I have grandchildren and of course they ask about the stamps, but I haven't been able to pass on the passion. There is one that looks a bit of a collector, so maybe when he grows up. Collecting is an inexplicable need. We are a very wide variety of people from the settlement, and the relationship between us is very close because of the gathering, it's hard to explain it.'

Following cooperation between 3 countries, Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, a virtual exhibition was opened this year at the initiative of the Israel Philatelic Association. Each of the countries presented up to 9 collections - one in the honorary section and eight in the other sections, with an emphasis on collections mostly related to the Middle East. The Israel Philatelic Association is a non-profit association, established to nurture and promote the issue of stamps in Israel. The site is open for free viewing to the general public.