Come from the four winds; the story of Youth ʻAliya

It’s taken me many years to read this book, but I’m not sure why. The book is stories told to the author about many individuals’ experiences in the Youth Aliya which was the immigration movement to Palestine and later to Israel of Jewish youth. Some of these young people were those whose parents tried to save them from political upheaval in their own countries of origin. Others came because of Zionistic beliefs and ideals. Yet others came after being rescued as war orphans.

Each chapter is a story told by a different person of his or her experiences when immigrating to Israel. All were trained prior to their arrival in their new land as to how to work together for the benefit of each other and were thoroughly indoctrinated into the show more ideals of socialism. The point of the youth villages, where the young people were trained, was to prepare young people to be the pioneers who would develop and settle the Israeli kibbutzim.

The book covers the years from the 1930’s to 1970 (when the book was published). Much has changed in the goals and ideals of kibbutz life today, but it’s very beautiful to hear the stories of so many people from back in the days when Israel was young and the goal of bringing in more young Jews from the Diaspora to their homeland began in earnest.

One chapter of this book even told a bit about my own family. Robert (his story starts on page 96 of my edition of this book) was my mother’s first cousin. I had the good fortune to get to know him during the times I lived and visited Israel. My mom used to admire Robert very much. Helena, also mentioned in the same chapter about Robert, later married Robert, becoming his second wife. I had the chance to get to know Helena as well. Of course, I’m very proud of Robert’s role in rescuing war orphans. I just happened to find out about this episode of his life by chance during a visit to his home in 1980.

I liked very much the way the author, Chasya Pincus, spoke gently to each individual, encouraging each person to share what I believe to be very personal experiences.

This is a beautiful book which I enjoyed reading. I’m not sure how much broad appeal it would have to others. However, if a reader is interested in the development of the early years of the state of Israel, this would be a good read for such an individual. show less