Judaic Lapel Buttons

I col­lect (Amer­i­can) Juda­ic lapel buttons.

I have over 3,500 unique items. Each one rep­re­sents a dif­fer­ent moment in Amer­i­can Jew­ish life and offers a way to learn about the Jew­ish experience.

instant history

Jews have pro­duced and dis­trib­uted lapel but­tons (or pins) since the begin­ning of the 20^th cen­tu­ry. Some of these were pro­duced to com­mem­o­rate cel­e­bra­tions, oth­ers to make a point at demon­stra­tions. Some were pro­duced for com­mer­cial gain, and oth­ers for a polit­i­cal cam­paign. Their pur­pos­es are legion and diverse. Some are humor­ous, some seri­ous. Each one tells of a moment in the recent Jew­ish experience.

In the Spring of 1979, Present Tense mag­a­zine (pub­lished by the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Con­gress until the ear­ly 1990s) print­ed a brief descrip­tion of my col­lec­tion [Vol 6 #3 pp. 30–31, it was actu­al­ly the cov­er sto­ry]. At the time, the col­lec­tion num­bered only a few hun­dred items.

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your lapel buttons

Many peo­ple have lapel but­tons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jack­et you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any lay­ing around that you do not feel emo­tion­al­ly attached to, please let me know. I am pre­serv­ing these for the Jew­ish peo­ple. At some point they will all go to an appro­pri­ate museum.

things are not always as they seem

Some­times I find a but­ton that looks like it should belong in my col­lec­tion. To be on the “safe side” I’ll buy it… only to learn lat­er that…

Image on century-old lapel button is priest, not rabbi

[The Catholic Mes­sen­ger had moved the page, but I was able to find it in their archive and recon­nect the link on 2020.08.24.]

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other buttons shared

1. women fight­ers and sho’a nightmares
2. count­ing the omer to climb over the rain­bow from slav­ery to roy­al­ty at Sinai
3. learn­ing the cheers
4. on being a bridge, a “com­pro­mise selec­tion” in a “gor­geous mosaic”
5. jew­ish texts on fair vot­ing and just elections
6. rejoice in your fes­ti­vals — a sukkot meditation
7. how many dif­fer­ent ways can you say the al chet (על חטא)?
8. Pass the Anti-Lynch­ing Bill!
9. breath­ing and the א of revelation
10. Plagues Suck (or: Passover in a time of plague)
11. Queen Esther Helped Me Beat the Draft
12. To big­otry no sanction
13. A Grow­ing Hag­gadah (2019)
14. Did you go to the Purim Concert?
15. Be Hap­py, It’s Adar! (again)
16. Fake News vs. Truth a case of Goliath vs. David
17. 
    Jews and Cam­paign But­tons: A Time-Hon­ored Tradition
18. crossover
19. let’s exper­i­ment
20. #blo­gelul — hear
21. #blo­gelul — believe
22. #blo­gelul — be
23. #blo­gelul — do
24. #blo­gelul — know
25. #blo­gelul — bless
26. #blo­gelul — act
27. pre­pare
28. face to face
29. (ac)counting
30. jew­ish envi­ron­men­tal­ism and tu b’sh’vat
31. #blo­gelul : faith 
32. 
    
    #blo­gelul : trust 
33. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    #blo­gelul : counting 
34. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    #blo­gelul : inventory 
35. #blo­gelul : return 
36. promise of dawn 
37. can an aipac sup­port­er explain this one? 
38. time for pruning 
39. 6 on a scale of 1 to 10? 
40. what’s the dif­fer­ence between 48 and 11? 
41. a cold peace 
42. now is the time for change 
43. what would dad think? 
44. …the real thing? 
45. love human­i­ty, & bring them close 2 #Torah
46. beyond the straits and narrow 
47. remem­ber­ing pearls of music 
48. the new year; trav­el­ing for chocolate…
49. let us make light
50. It’s very clear
51. pirke ima­hot .01
52. when?
53. אלול comes every year
54. Hiroshi­ma 広島市 Day Again (may we have many)
55. i love my gay rabbis
56. which jews…?
57. the elec­tron­ic leaflet
58. מזל טוב
59. be תורה
60. the boy and I
61. giv­ing and taking
62. fol­low­ing orders
63. let my peo­ple go (2)
64. do can­dles have feelings?
65. how much is any life worth?
66. esther’s song
67. steve’s song
68. Swann Song
69. Shake a Bib­li­cal Bouquet
70. The Peo­ple of the…
71. Elul Home­work 2 (I’ve done that too!)
72. How did the על חטא (al ḥet) begin?
73. Elul Home­work 1
74. Uni­fy­ing my life as I trim my garden
75. I am my ♥’s and my ♥ is mine אלול
76. for mul­ti­ple trans­gres­sions of…
77. Hiroshi­ma 広島市 Day ☮
78. Help Save Raoul Wal­len­berg; Sav­ior of 100,000 Jews
79. Rab­bis for Human Rights
80. Anne Frank
81. I. L. Peretz
82. Theodor Her­zl
83. Yom haShoa 5769
84. Let My Peo­ple Go
85. Be Hap­py, It’s Adar

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images of lapel buttons found around the Web

• Illus­trat­ing an arti­cle in New Sci­en­tist (07 July 2009)
  Win­ning the ulti­mate bat­tle: How humans could end war

   

  

  Can humans ever live in eter­nal peace? (Image: Rex Features)

• Illus­trat­ing an arti­cle in The New York Times (14 August 2009)
  Moveie Review — Earth Days Plan­e­tary Reflections

   

  

  Stew­art Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Cat­a­log, in the doc­u­men­tary “Earth Days”.

• Illus­trat­ing an arti­cle in the The New York Times (27 August, 2011)
  Ugly? You May Have a Case

   

  

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This page was originally Posted 26 March, 2009 (Rosh Ḥosdesh Nisan, 5769)

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