The leadup to Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut) is the busiest time of year for Kalman Berman and a dozen workers at Berman’s Flags and Embroidery factory in Jerusalem.

“For Yom Ha’atzmaut, we make 20,000 to 30,000 flags in two months, about double the amount as usual,” he tells ISRAEL21c.

Berman’s blue-and-white banners, most of them measuring 3 by 5 feet, were ordered by just about every municipality to mark the nation’s 75th anniversary on April 26. The factory also supplies the flags for official Independence Day ceremonies and parades.

These are not the cheap made-in-China Israeli flags that get bought by the thousands for everything from preschool pageants to public protests.

“I cannot compete with that price,” says Berman. “They’re not the same quality as ours.”

Berman’s Flags is one of the only domestic manufacturers of Israeli flags, producing both printed and embroidered versions. But it didn’t start out as a flag-making enterprise. 

The oldest quintuplet

The factory was founded in 1944 by Polish refugees Hela and Kalman Berman, the current Kalman Berman’s grandparents.

Flags for countries, weddings, parades

Israel’s national banner, based on the traditional Jewish prayer shawl, is white with a blue stripe at the top and bottom and a Star of David in the center. It was the symbol of the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and was accepted in 1949 as the design for the new state’s official flag.

“We make them mostly from polyester but also from cotton or satin, depending what customers want,” says Berman.

Image - Yonatan Sindel/Flash90