Last Updated on February 2, 2017
The Bank of Israel releases 2 new bank notes
Later this year, 2017, the Bank of Israel will be releasing 2 new bank notes – a new 20 shekel note and a new 100 shekel note.
The new red 20 shekel note (replacing the current green one) will feature the poet Rachel Bluwstein.
Who was Rachel Bluwstein?
At the age of 19, Rachel visited Palestine where she planned to study art and philosophy. She stayed on as Zionist pioneer, learning Hebrew by listening to children’s chatter in kindergartens. She settled in Rehovot and worked in the orchards. Later, Rachel moved to Kvutzat Kinneret on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where she studied and worked in a women’s agricultural school. At Kinneret, she met Zionist leader A. D. Gordon who was to be a great influence on her life, and to whom she dedicated her first Hebrew poem. During this time, she also met and had a romantic relationship with Zalman Rubashov—the object of many of her love poems who later became known as Zalman Shazar and was the third President of Israel. Rachel died on April 16, 1931 in Tel Aviv, at the age of 40. She is buried in the Kinneret cemetery in a grave overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Naomi Shemer (Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) is also buried here.
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The new orange 100 shekel note will feature the well known Israeli author and poet Leah Goldberg. Goldberg wrote Hebrew poetry, drama, and children’s literature. Goldberg’s books for children, among them “A Flat for Rent” (“דירה להשכיר”, dira lehaskir) and “Miracles and Wonders” (ניסים ונפלאות, nisim u’niflaot), have become classics of Hebrew-language children’s literature. Goldberg received in 1949 the Ruppin Prize (for the volume “Al Haprikhá”) and, in 1970, the Israel Prize for literature.
The two new bills will be composed of a special material and contain complex watermarks consisting of the characters on the bill and the value of the bill, along with a security line and color-changing icon. The bill will also feature Braille for the visually impaired as well as other tiny holes and transparent sections.
