Yeshiva University Libraries Blog

The Scandal of the Bernard Revel Commemorative Postage Stamp

Some among the YU community may recall firsthand the issuance of a United States Postal Service stamp in honor of the University’s first president, Bernard Revel.  It was the opening event in a yearlong celebration beginning September 1986 marking the University’s Centennial. Others in our community may have learned about it subsequently. I referenced it last year as part of this blogpost on quirky, little known facts about YU, which, as the only USPS stamp featuring a Talmudic scholar, seemed to qualify it for that list. What I didn’t know then was that was the least qualifying part of this story. Read on for the rest.

In the summer following the stamp’s issuance, an anonymous tip to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing reported the discovery of a tiny, unauthorized Star of David buried in the right facing side of Bernard Revel’s beard, which can be seen below at the bottom of this post. Though invisible to the naked eye, it was something that stamp experts and enthusiasts would undoubtedly eventually find, even with their much lower-tech tools of that time. The ensuing investigation found that this unauthorized symbol had been etched into the stamp’s master die by the engraver, Kenneth Kipperman, son of Holocaust survivors who spent his earliest years in a DP camp. Kipperman was one of only 16 craftsmen at the Bureau deemed skilled enough to engrave the nation’s stamps and currency. When asked, Kipperman characterized the act as a symbolic gesture, saying “he’s Jewish, I’m Jewish – no big deal”. Some engravers interviewed at the time acknowledged the temptation to personalize designs, since they are not just highly skilled technicians, but also artists.  While some countries permit the practice, the United States does not.     

If this isn’t quirky enough, read further still...

It turns out that Kipperman had been arrested several months earlier for what was reported as threatening to blow up a building at the construction site next to the Bureau, which was where the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was to be built. Kipperman objected to the demolition of a building on the Annex portion of the site, which was known as the Auditor’s Complex. Original planners of the Museum had noted that the Annex building resembled brick structures at Auschwitz, and it was to have been incorporated into the original design but was subsequently slated for demolition when the Museum required more space. After talking his way onto the site, Kipperman launched a one-man protest, refusing to leave until he was forcibly removed.  A psychological evaluation found him to be honest and non-threatening but having a form of PTSD associated with the Holocaust.

The aftereffects of these incidents were less dramatic yet still consequential:

• Kipperman would receive probation, do community service and even be reinstated at the Bureau. His Holocaust-related pursuits continued, and focused on tracking down human remains, and artifacts made from them, he believed were seized by the U.S. government after liberating Buchenwald.
• The Bureau’s inspection of all master dies created in the previous decade yielded the discovery of several unauthorized signatures. The Revel stamp was the only one containing a symbol.
• The USPS did not issue a revised version the stamp, so, unfortunately for collectors, and for the University since the Archives has a considerable number of them, its value as a collectible did not rise.
• As for me, I will update my list of YU quirky facts. I am also grateful to the Wikipedia editor who included this tidbit in the article on Bernard Revel, which, even after nearly 18 years in the Archives, I had not heard of nor come across in our considerable records on the stamp.