I Am A Palestinian Jew A Memoir By Margalit Edelson

Margalit Edelson's Eyewitness Account To The 1948 Birth of the State of Israel and Her Role in the Irgun.

With historical background, this memoir, I Am A Palestinian Jew, covers the period between Margalit Edelson's birth in 1930 in Jerusalem through the period until the birth of the new state of Israel in 1948. She is a Jewish child living in Palestine under the British Mandate. Her family home, living conditions, Arab attacks, her family's friendship with an elite Arab family, her school environment, visits to the Kotel, and the onset of World War II are described. So are the ordinary things that children like to do.

As a teenager, Margalit joins the Irgun. She writes about her experiences as a member of this underground organization, including her unique connection with the commander of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, while he is on board the about-to-be-blown-up Altalena.

"It was difficult to set up our state. Tens of generations and millions of wanderers from one land of massacre to another ... burning at the stake and torture in the dungeons, the sweat and toil of generations of pioneers and builders, the uprising of rebels to crush the enemy, the gallows, the banishment beyond seas, the cages in the deserts – all this was necessary for Hebrew independence to be declared in at least part of the country, the whole of which is ours." ... A portion of what Menachem Begin, commander of the Irgun, tells the new Jewish Nation on May 15, 1948, from the Irgun radio station Kol Zion Halochemet – Voice of the Fighting Zion. (Menachem Begin becomes the Prime Minister of Israel in 1977.)

Born in 1930, Margalit Edelson grew up in Palestine, home to Palestinian Jews and Arabs.  Britain ruled Palestine through a mandate from the League of Nations, the predecessor to the UN. Though Hebrew was her mother tongue and the language spoken around her, the London sponsored Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls which she attended, provided her with English fluency.  

Margalit explains about her book: With historical background, my memoir covers the period between my birth in 1930 and the birth of Israel in 1948.  I am a Jewish child, living in Palestine under British Mandate.  My family home, living conditions, Arab attacks, my family’s friendship with an elite Arab family, my school environment, visits to the Kotel, and the onset of WWII, are described.  So are ordinary things I do when I am a child. When I am a teenager, I joined the Irgun and describe my experiences as a member of the underground organization fighting the British.

This book provides an accurate eyewitness account to the birth of the State of Israel. Appropriate for libraries, unbiased presentation of the facts around modern Jewish history.