I Am My Brother's Keeper: American Volunteers in Israel's War for Independence 1947-1949
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I Am My Brother's Keeper: American Volunteers in Israel's War for Independence 1947-1949
Based on recently declassified documents and more than two hundred interviews, I Am My Brother’s Keeper tells the story of the more than one thousand Americans and Canadians, Jews and non-Jews, who fought in Israel’s War of Independence.
Did you know:
• The first commander of the Israeli Navy was Paul Shulman, an Annapolis graduate;
• George “Buzz†Beurling, Canadas leading World War II ace with more than thirty kills, flew for Israel;
• The first general in the Israeli Army was West Pointer Mickey Marcus;
• The Israeli Air Force’s leading aces in the War of Independence were Rudy Augarten, an American, and Jack Doyle, a Canadian;
• Israel’s first tank commander was Lionel Druker, a Canadian; and
• The Israeli Air Force’s first test pilot was Slick Goodlin, the man who flew the X-1 experimental aircraft before Chuck Yeager.
These volunteers, and many others, served in all branches of the Israel Defense Forces - the army, the air force, and the navy. They were critical to Israel’s victory. Most of Israel’s fighter and heavy bomber bomber pilots were North Americans, and Israel would not have had an effective air force without them. In other areas, the Americans and Canadians provided invaluable technical expertise and combat experience. They stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel’s citizens in that country’s most desperate hour. Thirty-eight of the volunteers lost their lives in the struggle for a Jewish state. Others were wounded, and some ended up as prisoners of war of the Jordanian and Egyptian armies.
This is a story about men like Rudy Augarten (shown on the front cover), who interrupted his studies at Harvard to fly for Israel. This, despite the fact that Augarten had been shot down over occupied France during World War II, and survived sixty-three days behind enemy lines. It’s about Chris Magee, a World War II ace and veteran of Pappy Boyington’s Black Sheep Squadron who felt the Jews deserved a homeland. And about American Indian Jesse Slade, who believed that fighting for Israel was “the Christian thing to doâ€. And Buzz Beurling, the legendary “Falcon of Malta†who sought to recapture the glory days of World War II.
It’s about David Starec, who left his rabbinical studies in New York to serve aboard the Exodus, the most famous of the refugee ships that tried to break through a British blockade of Palestine. And George Tzizik, who refused to let a wooden leg keep him out of the fray. And Ray Kurtz, a Brooklyn fireman who led a daring bombing raid on Cairo.
I Am My Brother’s Keeper captures the powerful story of those Jews and Christians who stood up to be counted at a critical time in Jewish History. Only three years after the Holocaust, these volunteers helped establish the State of Israel.
This story will forever change your understanding of the relationship between Americans and Israelis.
