Further Reading

A selected bibliography on Machal and Aliyah Bet, together with the books, articles, and films created by the volunteers themselves (non-fiction unless otherwise noted).

✦ Volunteer author marks a work written or made by one of the American and Canadian volunteers of Aliyah Bet and Machal. Where we hold a volunteer’s profile, the entry links to it.

Machal

• Barber, Rowland, The Midnighters, Crown Publishers, New York, 1970. — Documents the personal experiences of aviation volunteers involved in the clandestine cargo and weapon-smuggling operations crucial to the war effort.
• Bercuson, David Jay, The Secret Army, Lester & Orpen Dennys, Toronto, 1983, and Stein & Day, New York, 1984.
• Burstein, Samuel, Rabbi with Wings, Herzl Press, New York, 1965. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Cull, Brian, with David Nicolle and Shlomo Aloni, Spitfires over Israel, Grub Street, London, 1990–1994.
• Dunkelman, Ben, Dual Allegiance: An Autobiography, Goodread Biographies / Formac Publishing, Halifax, 1984 (ISBN 9780887801273, 340 pp.). ✦ Volunteer author Profile → — The memoir of a privileged Toronto youth who became a decorated World War II officer and then, in 1948, commanded the 7th Brigade in Israel’s War of Independence.
• Fenton, Dr. Jason, Strength and Courage: The Untold Story of the Machal Volunteers. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Gandt, Robert, Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel. A fast-paced narrative focusing on the international volunteer World War II veteran pilots, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who braved global arms embargoes to help construct the nascent Israeli Air Force.
• Greenspun, Hank, Where I Stand, David McKay Co., New York, 1966. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Heckelman, Joseph, American Volunteers and Israel’s War of Independence, Ktav Publishing House, New York, 1974. ✦ Volunteer author
• Kaplansky, Eddy, The First Fliers, Israel Air Force Historical Branch, 1993. ✦ Volunteer author
• Klausner, Samuel Z., Mahal: North American Military Fighters in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. His study of the North American volunteers, drawn from questionnaires answered by hundreds of veterans. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Kurzman, Dan, Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War, De Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
• Levett, Gordon, Flying under Two Flags, An Ex-RAF Pilot in Israel’s War of Independence, Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London, 1994. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Lichtman, William, Between the Star and the Cross, Citadel Press, New York, 1957. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Livingston, Harold, The Coasts of the Earth, Houghton-Miflin, 1954. (Novel) ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Livingston, Harold, No Trophy, No Sword: An American Volunteer in the Israel Air Force during the 1948 War of Independence, Edition Q, Chicago, 1994; paperback edition, Destination Israel, Gates & Bridges, Norwalk, 1998. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Lowenstein, Ralph, A Time of War: A Novel of the First Israeli War (also published as Bring My Sons from Far). A novel of the 1948 war drawing on his service with the 79th Battalion. (Novel) ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Marcovitzky, Yaacov, Machal, Overseas Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence, English translation by Moshe Kohn, Israel Ministry of Information, Jerusalem, 2003.
• Nomis, Leo, with Brian Cull, Desert Hawks: An American Volunteer Fighter Pilot’s Story of Israel’s War of Independence, 1948. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Ondra, Winona, Lonesome & Coping, Boyden Publishing, Pennsburg, PA, 1997.
• Porath, Zipporah (ed.), Machal: Overseas Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence 1948–49, the World Machal anthology she compiled and edited. ✦ Volunteer author — Read the booklet (PDF) → · Profile →
• Porath, Zipporah, Letters from Jerusalem 1947-1948, Assn. of Americans & Canadians in Israel, 1987. Her eyewitness account of the siege of Jerusalem and the founding of the state. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Senior, Boris, My Life as a Fighter Pilot and a Founder of the Israel Air Force, Potomac Books, Dulles, VA, 2005. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Slater, Leonard, The Pledge, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970.
• Weiss, Craig and Jeffrey, I Am My Brother’s Keeper: American Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence 1947-1949, Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA, 1998.
• Yonay, Ehud, No Margin for Error: the making of the Israel Air Force, Pantheon Books, New York, 1993.

Aliyah Bet

• Cohen, Eugene, Rescue, Riverside Publishing Co., Rolling Meadows, IL, 1991.
• Flaks, Samuel, Without Permission: Conversations, Letters, and Memoirs of Henry Mandel, Cherry Orchard Books, Boston, MA, 2021.
• Grauel, John, Exodus 1947, an autobiography as told to Eleanor Elfenbein, Ivory House, New Jersey, 1983. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Greenfield, Murray, and Joseph Hochstein, The Jews’ Secret Fleet, Gefen Publishers, Jerusalem and Hewlett, NJ, updated edition, 1999. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Hadari, Ze’ev Venia and Ze’ev Tsahor, Voyage to Freedom: An Episode in the Illegal Immigration to Palestine, Mitchell Valentine & Co., Totawa, NJ, 1985.
• Liebrich, Fritz, Britain’s Naval and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948, Routledge, New York, 2005.
• Mardor, Munya, Strictly Illegal, Robert Hale, London, 1957.
• Naor, Mordechai, HaApala, Clandestine Immigration, Israel Ministry of Defence, Jerusalem, 1987.
• Patzert, Rudolph, Running the Palestine Blockade: the Last Voyage of the Paducah, U.S. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1994.
• Silverstone, Paul, Our Only Refuge, Open the Gates! Clandestine Immigration to Palestine 1938-48, Paul Silverstone, New York, NY.
• Yellin, Harriet Steuer, Hatkvah, Song of Hope, T&S Associates Inc., Phoenix, 1995.

Articles by Our Volunteers

• Tugend, Tom, “Israel at 50: An American Jewish Volunteer Reflects on the Last ‘Good’ War” (JTA). A Machal veteran’s unsentimental look back at the volunteers’ contribution. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Tugend, Tom, “Hollywood Writer Fought for U.S. and Israel” (JTA, 2022), his obituary of fellow volunteer Harold Livingston. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Tugend, Tom, “Machal Fighters Get Memorial in Jerusalem, Seven Decades After Volunteering for Israel” (Jewish Journal, 2017). ✦ Volunteer author Profile →

Films by Our Volunteers

• My Brother’s Keeper (2010) — a documentary produced by Cinema Angels, weaving interviews, photographs, and narrative with Machalniks, among them Machal volunteer Ira Feinberg. English. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Livingston, Harold — screenplay for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); featured subject of the documentary Above and Beyond (2014, dir. Roberta Grossman, prod. Nancy Spielberg). ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Hodes, Roberta — filmmaker who made IDF informational films for the Haganah, then a long Hollywood career: script supervisor on Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954), Baby Doll, and A Face in the Crowd; director of The Game (Venice Film Festival best-documentary award) and A Secret Space (PBS); she appeared in the 1951 Israeli film Out of Evil. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →