Teen’s Independence Day collection worth thousands
WHEN MICHAEL LEVIN was a teenager, he became fascinated by the “magic” of his country’s Declaration of Independence. Little did the young Israeli imagine that the documents he collected would be worth tens of thousands of pounds.
On November 15, the autographs of all 37 signatories, along with various documents and photos ( will go under the hammer in Jerusalem, and the lot is expected to sell for between £65,000 and £80,000.
Mr Levin started contacting signatories in the 1970s, telling them of his interestintheindependenceceremony. Some wrote back with details about the day and, of course, a signature. Others signed in front of him — sometimes with testimony — when he visited them in their homes. Somesignatureswereonlygath
ered in adulthood — those of signatories who had died or could not be tracked down, and which he obtained from relatives, auctions or other collectors.
Now in his 60s, he feels ready to part with the collection because the “chance… to tell the story” of the first Independence Day will stay with him.
Mr Levin, who lives in Paris, said: “It’s the story of a kid in the 1970s, before you foundoutabouteverythingthroughthe internet, knocking on people’s doors and enjoying people opening their hearts and their stories.”
Some of the documents capture the excitement of the first Independence Day.RachelCohen-Kagan,oneof thetwo women to sign, wrote on a transcript: “At the fateful hour that I signed my name on the manuscript, I felt that I was signing for all the daughters of Israel.”
Other items in the collection, which is being sold at Jerusalem’s Kedem auction house, include letters by the designer of the Independence Scroll Otte Wallish.
One signatory, Meir Vilner, revealed in comments recorded in a signed transcript what a quintessentially Jewish process writing the Declaration of Independencehadbeen,withnobodyagreeing on the wording. “The truth is not one of the cosigners agreed to the whole contents,” he said, adding: “the unifying element was the last phrase, ‘we hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Israel.’”