A rare gold medallion of the Irgun Tzvai Leumi has been donated to the Begin Center archives by Barry Pakula of Indianapolis in memory of his late uncle Mr. Reuven Meir Kramer, who helped fight for the establishment of the State of Israel.
In quite a strange turn of events, the medallion was found on the floor of the only kosher bakery in Indianapolis by none other than Simona Hasten, wife of the head of the US Friends of the Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation, Hart Hasten, and immediately identified its significance. After an extensive search for its owners, they found Mr. Pakula and asked him to donate the medallion to the Begin Center archives.
The medallion is modeled on the symbol of the Irgun Zvai Leumi: a hand gripping a rifle over the profile of a map including the land of current Israel, administered territories and Jordan which were the area of the original Mandate. The Jordan river is also marked in the map. Two Hebrew characters at right side and two other at left side (rak-kah = only thus) are also part of the symbol.
The symbol was fashioned in Poland.