Srulik is an illustrated character who symbolized

National personification

A national personification is an anthropomorphization of a nation or its people; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations of the majestic wisdom and war goddess Minerva/Athena, and often took the...

 Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. The character was first drawn in 1956 by the cartoonist Kariel Gardosh

Kariel Gardosh

Kariel Gardosh was an Israeli cartoonist and illustrator known mostly by his nickname Dosh. He worked as a political cartoonist for the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv and for the Jerusalem Post...

, known by his pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 Dosh, a Holocaust survivor who made Aliyah

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 to Israel from Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, and appeared for many years in cartoons that were published in the newspaper Maariv

Maariv

Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...

. Yosef Lapid

Yosef Lapid

Yosef "Tommy" Lapid -Biography:Lapid was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent. His family was seized by the Nazis and deported to the Budapest ghetto. His father was deported to a concentration camp, where he was murdered. Lapid and his mother survived the war and...

, Dosh's colleague on the editorial board of Maariv, said that Srulik symbolizes Israel just as Marianne

Marianne

Marianne is a national emblem of France and an allegory of Liberty and Reason. She represents the state and values of France, differently from another French cultural symbol, the "Coq Gaulois" which represents France as a nation and its history, land, culture, and variety of sport disciplines in...

 is the symbol of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...

 symbolizes the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. His name is a hypocoristic

Hypocoristic

A hypocorism is a shorter form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment.- Derivation :Hypocorisms are often generated as:...

 for "Yisrael" (Israel).

Srulik is generally depicted as a young man wearing a "Kova tembel" hat (although looking a bit like a pileus cap

Pileus (hat)

The pileus — also pilleus or pilleum — was a cap worn by sailors in Ancient Greece and later copied by Ancient Rome. It was a brimless, felt cap, somewhat similar to a fez...

 in the character's first appearances), "Biblical sandals

Biblical sandals

The Biblical sandals or Triped sandals are sandals with a simple structure: A sole with two leather ligaments that pass across the foot, and one around the heel. The leather is usually brown or black. The Biblical sandals are the classic model of leading sandals manufacturers in Israel.The source...

", and khaki shorts. Srulik is a pioneering Zionist, a lover of the land of Israel and its soil, a dedicated farmer who in time of need puts on a uniform and goes out to defend the state of Israel equipped with an Uzi machine gun. Dosh drew Srulik in cartoons on current events for Maariv, and also for various "specials" and occasions of the young state. During wartime, Srulik put on a uniform and was drafted to raise the national morale.

Many have pointed out Srulik's function as an antithesis

Antithesis

Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...

 of the antisemitic caricatures which appeared in Der Stürmer

Der Stürmer

Der Stürmer was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of the Nazi propaganda machinery and was vehemently anti-Semitic...

 and other European and Arab journals. As against the stereotype of the weak or cunning Jew that was propagated by Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

, Dosh — a Holocaust survivor — drew a proud, strong and sympathetic Jewish character. The journalist Shalom Rosenfeld, editor of Maariv in 1974-1980, wrote:

External links

• שרוליק - הישראלי הנצחי ("Srulik - The Eternal Israeli"), on the website of the Ministry of Education of Israel
• Srulik maximum card from Israel
• Another Srulik maximum card from Israel