Four issues of The Shekel are sent annually to members of the American Israel Numismatic Association who pay $18 for digital copies or $40 for printed copies, but anyone can obtain the digital copy of the full-color 48-page 300th anniversary issue for free by emailing [email protected] and requesting it.
The Shekel, self-described as “The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics,” has been published by the American Israel Numismatic Association since the Spring of 1968. The 300th issue contains diverse topics – the Holocaust, Judaic medals, ancient Judaean coins, Israel commemorative coins, current news, and collectible pins. The articles featured are “Lodz Numismatics” by Joshua Blustein, “Two Medals with the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) In Paleo-Hebrew” by Stuart Weinerman, MD, “Eighths of a Shekel Ancient Coins” by Steve and Ray Feller, “New Jewish-American Hall of Fame Medals Honor Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Black Icon Booker T. Washington” by Mel Wacks, “Israel’s Football (Soccer) Coins” by Simcha Kuritzky, “U.S. Customs Import Restrictions Affect Tyrian Shekels” by Peter Tompa, “Let My People Go: Badges of Jewish Human Rights Organizations issued at Summits with Soviet Leaders” by Dr. Vladimir Bernshtam, and “Let My People Go” Commemorated on Israel Coins.
Writing in the Tenth Anniversary Edition of The Shekel (March-April 1977), the founding
President of AINA, Morris Bram, indicated that “We didn’t know when we sat in a room in
midtown New York and planned a new numismatic association, one to be a center about which all collectors of Israel’s coins and paper money, that we were reaching for the moon. When we thought there should be a quarterly mailing to tell those in Chicago what was happening to the others in Los Angeles – and even in Tel Aviv, we had no idea that we were launching the dynamic Shekel.”
The first editor of The Shekel was Nathan Sobel, who also created the AINA logo and the name for the publication. Nat was the first in a long line of editors: George Gilbert, Ed Schuman, Andrew Perala, Mel Wacks, and the present editor Chaya Sara Oppenheim. The 300th issue of The Shekel thanks the hundreds of collectors and experts who have contributed articles for over a half century, including Howard Berlin, Vladimir Bernstein, Steve & Ray Feller, Sylvia Haffner, David Hendin, Simcha Kuritzky, Aaron Oppenheim, Ira Rezak, Donna Sims, Marvin Tameanko, Mel Wacks, Benjamin Weiss, and many more.
The 300th issue of The Shekel covers nearly 2,000 years of Judaic numismatics – from coins of the First Revolt (69/70 CE) to Israel’s Football (Soccer) coins (2006).
