Of the 193 member states in the United Nations, only one – the State of Israel – has a Jewish Star, or more properly a Shield of David on its official national flag. With its blue and white colors evoking a tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl, and the Mogen David linking modern Israel to the ancient biblical Jewish nation founded by Saul, David and Solomon, the flag inspires pride among Jews and supporters of the Jewish State all over the world. 

Most Jews are very familiar with the flag of Israel, which stands alongside the American Stars and Stripes at many synagogues, but few are familiar with its origins or with the startling fact that the first time the Zionist flag flew over a public building on an official occasion was at the 1904 World’s Fair right here in St. Louis!

President Thomas Jefferson, principal author of this nation’s Declaration of Independence, purchased the vast Louisiana Territory from Emperor Napoleon I of France for $15 million. Napoleon was willing to part with this prime real estate to raise funds for his expensive and extensive military campaigns. The Territory, which includes all of what is now the state of Missouri, had been traded back and forth between France and Spain. When it was briefly under Spanish ownership, the Inquisition was still in effect, and Jews were forbidden to enter the territory. When the Territory came under U.S. control in 1804, it became possible for Jews to move to the area, including Joseph Philipson, believed to be the first Jew to settle in what is now St. Louis, back in 1807.

When the World’s Fair (officially named the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) was being organized, Michael Stiffelman, a local Zionist leader, won the support of Jules Aubere, a non-Jewish newspaperman, to persuade the Fair’s board of directors to approve a request to publicly fly the Zionist flag alongside those of other countries atop the Hall of Nations. According to the late Moses Joshua Slonim, a famous local Zionist leader in his book, “The Struggle for Zion’s Rebirth,” which was extensively quoted by the late Jewish historian, Dr. Walter Ehrlich in his definitive “Zion in the Valley,” the flag snapped proudly in the breeze, alongside the Stars and Stripes of the USA, the British Union Jack and the French Tricolor.

A striking photograph of the Zionist flag fluttering above the Hall of Nations appeared in the 1926 anniversary edition of The Modern View, a local Jewish newspaper published in St. Louis from 1900 through 1944. That photograph appears with this article.

The year 1904 has another Jewishly relevant significance – the death of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern, practical Zionism. Herzl was only 44 when he died, believed to have been caused by exhaustion from traveling all over the world to meet with world leaders on behalf of his idea of creating a modern Judenstadt – a Jewish State.

In 1897, Herzl, whose Zionist movement attracted hundreds of thousands of ardent followers, convened the first World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, where he addressed the delegates, telling them “If you will it, it need not be a dream!” Herzl thought that the realization of the dream of an independent modern Jewish State would not take place during his lifetime, but would become a reality within 50 years.

When Israel’s Declaration of Independence was read out by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister on May 14, 1948, a portrait of Theodor Herzl looked down on him from the wall of the Tel Aviv Museum. His “dream” came true almost exactly within the time frame he predicted in 1897 – tragically after the Holocaust, which claimed 6 million Jewish lives.

Herzl himself was the designer of the Zionist flag, which became the basis, with minor modifications, for the flag of the State of Israel.

The odds were clearly stacked against the request by the local Zionist leader Michael Stiffelman for the Zionist flag to fly with those of other countries at the 1904 World’s Fair, just as the odds were stacked against the “dream” of Theodor Herzl, who envisioned an independent Jewish State taking its place among the nations of the world, to fulfill the biblical prophecy that it become “a light unto the nations.” But Herzl and Stiffelman, and those who fought so bravely to create the modern State of Israel had the will, and as a result, their dream became an enduring reality!