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    A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism
    Unavailable
    A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism
    Unavailable
    A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism
    Ebook405 pages4 hours

    A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism

    By Yossi Katz

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A VOICE CALLED - STORIES OF JEWISH HEROISM is a collection of articles about some of the great Jewish heroes of modern times. The book is a collage of role-models and inspiring makers of Jewish history. The first chapter tells the story of Theodor Herzl, father of modern Zionism, who died at the age of forty-four. He accomplished so much in just a few short years. His story is followed by an array of chapters about unique heroes and heroines including poets and song-writers, spies and underground fighters, soldiers and statesmen, boxers and a basketball player, a religious Christian, an astronaut and many others. The stories are written to shed light on Jewish history and to inspire the reader to live in the present with pride and dignity and to help build a better future. Some of the heroes are famous like Chaim Nachman Bialik, Sarah Aaronsohn, Rachel the Poetess, David Marcus and Menachem Begin. Other chapters deal with little known heroes like Michael Halpern, Manya Shochat and Zivia Lubetkin and then there are the unsung heroes like Michael Levin, Adam Bier, Alex Singer and Brian Bebchick. Readers will meet courageous fighters like Roi Klein and inspiring poets like Naomi Shemer. They will learn about the struggle after 1967 to free Soviet Jews from perspectives on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The book title takes its name from a poem by the great Hebrew poetess and fighting partisan Hannah Senesh who wrote, A voice called and I went . Hannah answered an inner calling when she moved to Israel in 1939 and again when she volunteered to parachute into Nazi occupied Europe to help rescue her Jewish people. She gave her life to light a fire that continues to burn brightly today. The legacy of these inspiring Jewish heroes is one that will remain with the reader for an eternity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGefen Publishing House
    Release dateMar 1, 2010
    ISBN9789652294951
    Unavailable
    A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism
    Author

    Yossi Katz

    Yossi Katz, winner of the 2016 Israel Prize in Geography, is a professor in the Department of Geography, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Most of Katz’s research work relates to various issues of settlement, society, state, and community in the contemporary history of the Land of Israel and the State of Israel.

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    Reviews for A Voice Called

    4/5

    18 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      As a a teacher in the Jewish community, I will certainly use this book as reference material when building lessons on modern Israel. The biographies were a bit on the brief side and the language could have been a bit better, but all in all I am sure this will be useful to me.
    • 3/5
      This book gave me mixed feelings.First, I loved the differing personas and circumstances of all the heroes portrayed to make one great goal as all had the dream and vision of having their own place to belong. So often history only portrays the "leaders" and military movements that bring events about skipping the everyday people who struggle and fight for events to happen. This anthology of biographies gave a more full picture across the board of those who fought for an independant state of Isreal. It was lovely to see the passion of those who weren't necessarily soldiers or politicians, such as the poets, students, and sports figures included in the book.That said, the biographies were very brief, and gave only a glimpse into how each individual felt and lived and contributed, leaving the reader to do further research on their own should any one intrigue them enough to want to know more.The one thing that detracted for me was the jargon used throughout. I'm not Jewish and have limited exposure to the culture and even though the author used his own biography as an introduction to some of the words and terms, I couldn't remember them enough to not have to stop and relook them up each time I encountered them in the text. Perhaps that is a fault of mine or my memory, but I found myself wishing that he would have just written out what he meant in each biography instead of expecting the many new vocabulary words to be learned instantly in the one chapter. Especailly as a lot of them seemed similar to my untrained eye.Despite that, all the biographies were interesting and it was captivating to see all the differing heroes of at least one person, if not a whole nation.
    • 5/5
      The author has gone to great lengths to collect the stories about the founding of the current state of Israel. It is through the eyes of Israel’s heroes that you get a profound sense of what the Jews went through to establish this nation. Many of these people gave their lives for what they believed in and their stories are not limited to macho guys, but include stories of poets, songwriters, military personnel, families and foreigners. This is a book you will read slowly, chapter by chapter, personal story by personal story as you soak up this rich history. Yossi Katz knows what he is talking about since some of these heroes are personal friends and people he has met and worked with. Mr. Katz teaches a course in Israeli history that sounds wonderful, taking students all around Israel relating the stories of Israel’s founding from the places they occurred.
    • 5/5
      A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish HeroismBy Yossi KatzA copy of this book was received from LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program of LibraryThing. Let me start this review with the information that I took two week trip to Israel last December and came back with a different perspective of the country and the people who call this land home.To read Yossi Katz’s book after visiting this fascinating country and having walked the streets of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and Tel Aviv, and then explored the Golan Heights was very exciting. I couldn’t put this book down and finished it within one day.Mr. Katz brings to life the stories of people who dreamed of building a country for Jews that would be their own…where all Jews could live and thrive. He takes us from the 1860’s to current day. His book relates accounts of people from countries like Europe, Russia and United States who all worked and in some cases gave their lives to bring about this goal.We forget sometimes that all of us in our own way can contribute to a cause whether it is teaching, writing poems and songs, fighting, winning sporting events or raising money. It is the total effort that accomplishes the task and makes a country. Yossi Katz’s well written book encompassing all the contributions over many years and by different people; men and women.One hero in particular stands out from this book. While I was in the Golan Heights, I visited the Valley of Tears near the Syrian border. I watched a movie about the 77th Tank Battalion in the 1973 Yom Kippur War where Avigdor Kahalani was the commander. Against all odds this man led his men into battle and survived until the reinforcements arrived. Katz’ narrative brought tears to my eyes when I think about the bravery this individual showed in the face of the unbelievable number of enemy tanks.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the unsung heroes who were and are devoted to the state of Israel and the people who never denied their passion in being Jewish under some difficult circumstances and in some cases unbearable conditions.
    • 5/5
      "A Voice called..and I went"...what a wonderful thought from which to take a book title. And by reading this book, I must follow my heart some day to go to Israel and see first hand the country written about so passionally and lived by the heroes in the book. "A Voice Called" is about a wonderful variety of people from students to atheletes and rulers who felt passionally about what they believed in, enough to do something about it. This collage of role-models who have inspired many in Jewish history, inspired me to learn more about the their their history simply by turning one page after another, Standing by their beliefs and expressing their love of Israel in unique ways is the theme which binds each entry to the next. This collection presents only thumbnail sketches, which I liked; it has fostered a desire to look further into Jewish history and to visit Israel to see first-hand the country whihc inspired these heroes of modern times. Because each short biography stands alone, "A Voice Called" makes for easy reading. A wonderful gift for anyone, of any age and especially for classrooms, as it captures your attention but also teaches with each hero's contribution to Jewish history. Women, men, young and old are presented and in such a way that the book is a must read, and one that I couldn't put down until the last biography was read. This is a book that will be purchased year round as I need a gift for a loved family member or friend.
    • 4/5
      Disclaimer: I got this book as an ARC in exchange for a review.This is the kind of book I used to love as a kid, and still do. Sometimes you just don't know if you're interested in something and are looking for a short summary about a subject to see if you would like to learn more about it. Mr. Katz makes such an interesting case for each one of his subjects, that my interest was picked and I will certainly find several available biographies to continue exploring these heroes more in depth.A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism is one of those books fathers wished they wrote for their children to help them explain where they came from and who they are. The book is by no means a comprehensive biography of the men and women profiled, but a short essay about each person and the author's personal reflection on how they helped him shape his views, attitudes and life.The stories are very interesting, Mr. Katz has picked a handful of people he considered Jewish heroes (at least one is not Jewish though) and gives us some short details about their lives, what made them heroes and drawing a line between them and the biblical Jewish heroes as well as their spirit.A wonderful message to all of us.The people Mr. Katz chose to profile are not only military heroes (even though they do get the lion's share of the glory) but also poets who inspired with their words, educators, spies, partisans and he even did the unthinkable and managed to find a statesman or two to bestow this honor upon.
    • 4/5
      At a time when Israel is, once again, being vilified by much of the world, it did my heart good to read Yossi Katz’s A Voice Called: STories of Jewish Heroism and see that someone is reminding the world of all the heroes, some still living, others fallen, this tiny nation has given the world. As to be expected, most of the biographies detailed had a military theme, but Katz also reminds us of people who stood by their beliefs and expressed their love of Israel in unique ways and became examples to the world of living what you believe in. Katz shows us a hero is not always a soldier with a gun; a hero may also be a poet with a pen.Two entries were missing from this collection, and I felt the lack of these two serious enough that I cannot otherwise give this outstanding work a perfect score. There is no mention of Gilad Shalit, a prisoner of Israel’s enemies since June of 2006 and a current symbol of Israel’s struggle to survive, nor of Ron Arad, an Israeli soldier missing in action since 1986, whose fate is still unknown today, who has become a symbol of the unknown fate of Israel.The biographies are thumbnail sketches of the lives of the people presented. Katz gives us the essential details of the person, and then moves on. Lovers of biographies may be disappointed by the lack of depth to the entries and maybe this idea could have been better served by presenting this as a series of books. I felt that while the entries are brief, they fully justify why each person was selected for inclusion as a hero. As a whole, the book succeeds is giving us a group of people anyone can look up to with great respect.After reading this collection, my desire to visit Israel is stronger than ever. To know these people is to feel more connected to the history of my people and their land. I can’t say “Next year”, but I can say, “Some year, in Jerusalem”.