American Jews played in a variety of significant, yet largely unknown roles in the founding of the State of Israel, serving as WWII veterans (Machal) who fought in the War of Independence; volunteers who smuggled weapons, machine parts, and uniforms overseas; businessmen who raised funds to help bring Holocaust refugees to Palestine; and as doctors, nurses, journalists, students, etc., who were eyewitnesses to Israel’s founding.
Over the last ten years, Toldot Yisrael (www.toldotyisrael.org/en) has interviewed over 1,000 of the men and women who were part of Israel’s founding generation. However, only a fraction (2-3%) of these interviews have been conducted with Americans either in Israel or in the United States. Toldot Yisrael recently received a major grant from the William Davidson foundation to locate and interview Americans that participated in Israel's founding. For the first time, we are also recording a limited number of second generation interviews, where children can share stories of the role their parents played in 1948. We have already recorded over 50 fascinating interviews around the US and Israel and aim to record many more.
As we approach Yom Ha'Atzmaut, I am excited to share Toldot Yisrael's newest short film series, Eyewitness 1948: The American Contribution (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8PsmAjtLl4wiHCC1MWbVk3D22gL1olLR), focusing on the efforts of Americans in the period leading up to the founding of the State of Israel. These 3-4 minute films will appear in both English for US audiences and Hebrew for Israeli audiences, to convey the message that the State of Israel is a collective enterprise of Jews around the world. Stories will be selected to give American Jews a sense of pride in their role in building the State of Israel and help educate Israelis about the unique contribution that Americans made to Israel's founding.
The first five films in the series were just released this week.
• David Macarov (https://youtu.be/eoXeaI1W8JE) learned how to use many unorthodox methods to acquire ships that would bring Jewish refugees to Palestine in 1946-7.
• Norman Lamm (https://youtu.be/huY1RMRz_Mo), a chemistry student at Yeshiva College, hoped to use his science background to help the State of Israel.
• Sam Schulman (https://youtu.be/q1mQuh9dy30) didn't let a humorous misunderstanding prevent him from volunteering for a key role as a crew member on the historic voyage of the “Exodus.â€
• Zipporah Porath (https://youtu.be/4VUSFOJ0ZfE) describes the culture shock she encountered upon her arrival at the Hebrew University as an exchange student from New York in 1947.
• Julius Stulman (https://youtu.be/ybXSxtQOHXc), owner of the Lumber Exchange Terminal along New York's East River, steps in to help arm Israel for the coming War of Independence. As told by his son Stephen Stulman.
Additional films and playlists are available on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/toldotyisrael).
Chag Sameach,
Aryeh Halivni (Eric Weisberg)
Executive Director
Toldot Yisrael
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2018 01:41PM by mlb.
