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Written in 1933 by a Polish reporter travelling across Mandate Palestine, this book is an eye-witness account of the early stages in formation of the state and nation of Israel, as well as a collection of founding myths. It extends the historical perspective beyond the immediate context of the current debates in and outside Israel.
List of contents
Table of Contents
Foreword: Ksawery Pruszyński
Antony PolonskyIntroduction
Wiesiek PowagaForeword
1. On a Bunk Bed with the
Halutzim
2. The Dust of the Road
3. The Land Without Crises
4. More Beautiful Than Paris
5. The Jews Who Do Not Like It Here
6. The Onward March of Israel
7. Suppliers of Men and Money
8. Malaria and Millions
9. Histadrut Haovdim
10. Like Stones Thrown against a Bulwark
11. Trekking across Emek Israel
12. Sabras of Ein Harod
13. Gesher
14. Glass Towers Are not a Myth
15. From Ghetto to Kibbutz
16. The Dollar Falls Twenty Percent
17. Only Four Weeks
18. The Wailing Wall
19. Socialism
20. Collective Love
21. Kibbutz, Kolkhoz, Cloister
22. The Jewish Population Catches Up
23. In the Eyes of Young Islam
24. Arabs in the Eyes of Jews
25. Christian Jerusalem
26. Nineteen Centuries after Pilate: A Night in Gethsemane
27. The Way of the Cross
28
. Resurrexit29. So Many Different Roads: “Das Wirkliche Deutschland”
30. “A Daemonio Meridiano . . . ”
31. Roads
32. The Threat of Soviet Cannons
Afterword
Appendix: Ksawery Pruszyński’s Speeches to the UN
About the author
Ksawery Pruszyński (1907-1950) was a Polish journalist, writer, and diplomat. He was born in Volhynia (now Ukraine) into a landowning family who settled in Kraków after the Russian Revolution. After graduating with a law degree, he started working as a journalist reporting from Gdańsk, Mandate Palestine, and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, he fought as a soldier (Narvik and Falaise) and worked as a diplomat in London and Moscow. After the war, he joined Poland’s diplomatic corps, first at the UN and later as ambassador to the Netherlands, while still writing and publishing. He died in a car accident in Germany. He is now recognized as one of the founding fathers of the Polish school of reportage.
Wiesiek Powaga was born in Poland. He settled in London after the imposition of martial law of 1981. After graduating with a degree in philosophy at King’s College, London, he worked as a carpenter, translator, correspondent for a music magazine, and as senior editor for a UK publisher. He has translated fiction, poetry, and drama, occasionally script-writing for radio and tv.
Summary
A book of reportage originally published in Poland in 1933 by Ksawery Pruszyski, a young reporter who went to Mandate Palestine to see for himself whether the Zionist dream of returning to Eretz Yisrael had a chance of turning into reality. This book is a unique firsthand account of the early stages in formation of the state and nation of Israel.
