The AVILC

American Veterans of Israel Legacy Corp

Digital Archives

The Virtual Museum

This Virtual Museum relates the history and most of the names of the approximately 1,500 American and Canadian men and women, including Jews and Christians, who risked their lives in the service of the Jewish people from 1946 to 1949. They served on the ships to smuggle Holocaust survivors through the British blockade into Palestine or as volunteers with the Israeli armed forces. The volunteers aboard the ships participated in Aliyah Bet ("Immigration B"), the effort to thwart England's extremely-restricted "legal" immigration quotas for Palestine with clandestine immigration. Those serving in the armed forces were known as Machal, the Hebrew acronym for mitnadvei chutz l’aretz – “volunteers from abroad." The museum is sponsored by American Veterans of Israel, the organization of Aliyah Bet and Machal veterans in the United States and Canada. It draws upon the Aliyah Bet and Machal Archives in the University of Florida Libraries, and also upon the Museum of American and Canadian Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence located in the University of Florida Hillel, Gainesville, Florida.

The Machal Volunteers: Heroes of Israel’s Independence

The term “Machal” (מח”ל) stands for “Mitnadvei Chutz LaAretz” (Volunteers from Outside the Land), referring to the approximately 3,500 foreign volunteers who came to fight for Israel during its War of Independence from 1946-1949...

The Story of Aliyah Bet and Machal

When Israel faced a war of survival, 1,500 American and Canadian men and women, Jewish and Christian, came to her aid. In the words of Yitchak Rabin, “they came to us when we most needed them, during those difficult, uncertain days of our War of Independence in 1948.” More..

A Nation Reborn

Sustained by a love for Israel embedded in their religion, and motivated to escape the violent anti-Semitism endemic to Europe, Jews organized political and pioneering movements aimed at re-creating a homeland in Palestine. More..

A Rescue Fleet is Launched

With Holocaust survivors languishing in camps throughout Europe, Americans secretly purchased 12 ships and recruited North American crews to take them through the British naval blockade of Palestine. They were part of the Aliyah Bet (clandestine immigration) movement. More..

Names of Volunteers

The Aliyah Bet and Machal Archives at the University of Florida has collected data on most of the 1,250 volunteers from the U.S. and Canada, including hometowns, units or ships in which they served and their duties in Aliyah Bet or the armed forces. More..

40 Who Gave Their Lives

Among the 4,000 Israeli military deaths were 40 Americans and Canadians, including seven Christians. The toll among North American pilots flying hand-me-down planes was especially high. More..