I can speak about the history of the symbol, and maybe refer to what is signified by it, whether in the work of kabbalist Yosef ben Avraham Gikatilla or philosopher Franz Rosenzweig; and I can touch on semiotics and explain how it is a shield that offers protection, but that the identity that it represents is its own protection.
But none of that would do justice to the meaning it holds for me. That may be illustrated best by a story from graduate school. A very respected Canadian historian approached me and said that a house that was demolished in his neighborhood – in the furthest thing from a Jewish neighborhood – had a Star of David engraved on one of its inner walls. While I was never able to find a satisfactory explanation for it, the excitement with which the mere mention of the Magen David filled me, the way in which I was immediately drawn to this now-broken structure, and how I was awed by the Jew or even small Jewish community that it likely once signified will remain with me.
