STAR OF DAVID
Before it meant Jewish
By Jewish Review
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This Star of David does not connote the location of a synagogue. Rather, here in the Alsace region of France (northeastern France, adjacent along its eastern border to Germany), this symbol hundreds of years ago simply meant you could quaff beer here.
Today, Stars of David still hang over some buildings in this region that used to be brasseries, or breweries in English, according to Toni L. Kamins, freelance journalist and author of “The Complete Jewish Guide to France” (St. Martin’s Press, 2001). These symbols also are found in Bavaria, Mexico and South America, where European brewers wielded lots of influence on beer culture, according to Charles Finkel, of Seattle-based Pike Brewing Company.
This one pictured above is in Riquewihr, France, near the larger Alsatian city of Colmar. The proprietor of the shop—that now sells candles and the like—said she likes the symbol and chose to keep it over her door, despite her business now dealing in wax and no longer in hops.