<P> The Star of David (✡), known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David (Hebrew מָגֵן דָּוִד ‎; Biblical Hebrew Māḡēn Dāwīḏ (maːˈɣeːn daːˈwiːð), Tiberian (mɔˈɣen dɔˈvið), Modern Hebrew (maˈɡen daˈvid), Ashkenazi Hebrew and Yiddish Mogein Dovid (ˈmɔɡeɪn ˈdɔvid) or Mogen Dovid), is a generally recognized symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism . Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles . Unlike the menorah, the Lion of Judah, the shofar and the lulav, the Star of David was never a uniquely Jewish symbol, although it had been used in that way as a printer's colophon since the sixteenth century . </P> <P> The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community, and later the broader Jewish community, after it was chosen as the central symbol on a flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897 . The earliest Jewish usage of the symbol was inherited from medieval Arabic literature by Kabbalists for use in talismanic protective amulets (segulot) where it was known as the Seal of Solomon among Muslims . The symbol was also used in Christian churches as a decorative motif many centuries before its first known use in a Jewish synagogue . </P>

What does the star of david symbol stand for