Due to a proposal of the interconfessional organization Casa Argentina en Jerusalem (Argentine House in Jerusalem), the Argentine Postal Service issued on December 12th, 1998 a postage stamp allusive to the Commemorative Mural of the Holocaust victims and the murdered in the terrorist attacks against the Israel Embassy (1992) and the AMIA (1994) in Buenos Aires. This memorial was installed within the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, the main Catholic temple in Argentina, on April 14th, 1997 on an initiative of Casa Argentina. It is the first postal stamp with Hebrew characters in the Argentine history.
The design combines the frontispiece of the Cathedral with one of the sacred texts included in the Mural which contains a very special story: the cover of the Hagadah of Pessach (Jewish Easter).
This Hagadah was delivered to Mr. Szlama Dawidowicz in a camp in the Toulouse area, France, in 1941 or 1942. It is dedicated ”to the Polish soldiers of the Kayleus camp”. Mr. Dawidowicz was deported on March 6th, 1943 to Maidanek. The Hagadah was donated by his daughter, Miriam Kessler.
The mural is an unprecedented symbol of reconciliation in the world. The Buenos Aires Cathedral is the first Catholic temple in history to have a memorial to the people who died during the ”Shoah”. Thus, the Argentine Postal Service pays tribute to this unique cultural expression, which distinguishes and highlights Buenos Aires in the concert of the great cities in the world.
