The Israeli-American connection

The alliance between Israel and the United States has required careful nurturing over a considerable period of time to evolve into the warm and intimate association of the late twentieth century. In the years between the two world wars, a crucial time in the development of the framework for statehood and of the new Hebrew-speaking society, the Israeli foundation of the relationship with America was officially laid, as the United States emerged as the only likely political and financial patron of Zionism. To realize and capitalize upon this potential, however, and to gain broad acceptance for an American connection in the yishuv, required careful cultivation of many links by the leaders of a community which had deep ambivalence about America. By the end of the war, six outstanding leaders had succeeded - sometimes without intending to do so - in weaving an intricate and essential network of ties to America that bound the two countries closer together in the areas of labor, finance, business, politics, public health and medicine, education, social welfare, literature, and journalism. In six rich, biographical chapters, Michael Brown studies these central figures of the yishuv: Revisionist-Zionist maverick Vladimir Jabotinsky; poet Chaim Nahman Bialik; influential labor leader Berl Katznelson; the American-born founder of Hadassah, Henrietta Szold; beloved American-raised Zionist leader and later prime minister, Golda Meir; and David Ben-Gurion, the foremost statesman of the era. Making use of a wide range of archival and primary sources in English, Hebrew, and other languages, Brown focuses on the leaders' involvement with and image of America, both positive and negative, as well as the impact of America on their lives and careers.