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 — appears as himself in the documentary A Wing and a Prayer (2015, dir. Boaz Dvir). ✦ Volunteer author Profile →
• Hodes, Roberta — filmmaker who made IDF informational films for the Haganah and appeared in the 1951 Israeli film Out of Evil. ✦ Volunteer author Profile →

Films to Watch

Films and documentaries that tell the story of Machal and Aliyah Bet, with where to watch them.

• Above and Beyond (2014) — the first feature-length documentary about the foreign airmen of the 1948 war, directed by Roberta Grossman and produced by Nancy Spielberg. It follows the World War II pilots, Jewish and non-Jewish, who smuggled planes out of the United States and flew for Israel in its War of Independence. Watch: Netflix · Prime Video · Apple TV · Google Play. Trailer: official film site.
• Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) — the Hollywood feature film (not a documentary) based on the life of Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus, the American officer who helped organize Israel’s army in 1948 and was killed days before the first truce. Directed by John Sturges, with Kirk Douglas as Marcus and Angie Dickinson, Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner and John Wayne in supporting roles. Watch: Prime Video · Apple TV. Availability varies by country.
• My Brother’s Keeper (2010) — a 40-minute documentary written, produced and directed by Machal volunteer Ira Feinberg (Palmach, 1948), filmed at the 2008 reunion of Machal veterans in Israel. The volunteers recall their own service in interviews, set against newsreel footage and photographs. Official Selection, Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. Get it: 7th Art Releasing.
• Les Volontaires de l’Étranger (The Foreign Volunteers) — a documentary on the roughly 3,000 Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers, mostly World War II veterans of the American and British forces, who fought for Israel in 1948, with the largest presence in the Israeli Air Force. View: Yad Vashem Film Collection.
• The Volunteers — a short film in the Eyewitness 1948 series produced by Toldot Yisrael with the History Channel, gathering firsthand testimony from volunteers who came from around the world to help build and defend Israel in 1948. Watch free: Unpacked for Educators.
• A Wing and a Prayer (2015) — a PBS documentary written and directed by Boaz Dvir, narrated by William Baldwin, telling the story of American flight engineer Al Schwimmer and the covert 1948 operation to deliver warplanes to the new state of Israel. Named Best Documentary at the 2016 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Volunteer Harold Livingston, radio operator and later a Hollywood screenwriter, appears as himself. Watch free: Plex · Tubi · Pluto TV · Hoopla. Rent or buy: Prime Video · Apple TV. Trailer & details: IMDb.