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Documenting Israel's 1948 Generation

Press

New York Jewish Week

Seven Decades Later, Unsung ’48 Heroes Are Heard

Gary Rosenblatt

Soon after the end of World War II, Zimel Resnick, a Russian Jewish immigrant operating an amusement park in New Jersey, was contacted by a good friend in Palestine. Resnick was asked to help raise funds and arms for the Haganah...more

Jerusalem Post

70 Years On: The Bombing of the Post's Offices, and the Paper's Legacy

David Brinn

Three young staffers at the Palestine Post that day in 1948; three lives spared. Alexander Zvielli, Mordecai Chertoff and Marlin Levin were all at work on the evening of February 1 that year. In separate interviews before they all passed away over the last decade, they recalled the harrowing attack that claimed four lives...more

Voice of Israel

Eternalizing Israel's Founding History

Josh Hasten

Aryeh Halivni, Founder and Executive Director of Toldot Yisrael tells Josh Hasten his group has recorded over 3,000 hours of unique and historical footage, firsthand testimonies of the men and women who helped found the State of Israel....Listen

Ulpan Shishi - Channel 2 News

The War of Reenactment

Shai Gal

The State of Israel was established 66 years ago and the people who built it, the ones who are now 80 years old and over, are departing this world. Now that the word “narrative” is becoming more prevalent...Watch video

Arutz Sheva

Israel’s Founding Through Eyes of People Who Lived It

Yoni Kempinski and Tova Dvorin

Landmark film series documents the history of the founding of the State of Israel - from the people who were there to see history happen...more

New Jersey Jewish Standard

Telling Israel's Story

Abigail Klein Leichman

On the eve of Israel’s 66th Independence Day, the Toldot Yisrael Video Project announced a new partnership with the National Library of Israel...more

BBC

Israel: Testimonies on founding of the state go online

By News from Elsewhere...

A set of video interviews with people who lived through the founding of Israel in 1948 has gone online as part of a project to build a national archive... more

Arieh O’Sullivan

Toldot Yisrael Collects Testimonies of 1948 Fighters

IBA News

Six decades after the bloody battles of the Independence War, efforts are being made to record the testimonies of the shrinking ranks of eyewitnesses...Watch video

CBN News

Project Chronicles Memories of Israel's Founding

Julie Stahl and Chris Mitchell

Although Israel has existed for thousands of years, as a country it is still very young. In fact, the Jewish state celebrates the 66th anniversary of its founding Tuesday. Meanwhile, a unique project is underway...Watch video

United with Israel

Eyewitness 1948: Fighting for the Jewish State

Atara Beck

Inspired by renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History project, American-born Eric Halivni left his day job seven years ago to begin documenting stories of eyewitnesses to the founding of the State of Israel...more

The Times of Israel

The Last of the Founding Generation, Captured on Film

Mitch Ginsburg

Lt. Elad Peled, 20, set out with 35 men, on foot, at three in the morning, to take the city of Safed in the spring of 1948. The story of how he managed to prevail...more

Jerusalem Post

New project digitally archives testimonies of hundreds of 1948 veterans

Lidar Gravé-Lazi

Project marks the first comprehensive digital project recording the history of the State of Israel into one national archive... more

The Media Line

New Archive Documents Events Surrounding 1948

Linda Gradstein

By age 20, Elad Peled was a senior commander in the Palmach, one of the branches of Israel’s pre-state army. He was wounded during the fighting, and was taken to the hospital....more

TLV1

Where Were You in 1948?

Gilad Halpern

A new project seeks to record eyewitness video testimonies from Israel’s founding generation...Listen

JNS

Preserving the Memories of Israel’s Creation

Judy Lash Balint

Elad Peled, 87, has told the story of how he was injured during the battle for Tzfat (Safed) in Israel’s War of Independence many times. Now, for the first time...more

The New York Jewish Week

New and authentic films will counter Israel's negative image

Gary Rosenblatt

...For the last five years Eric Halivni (formerly Weisberg) has been working on an ambitious effort to document on film firsthand accounts of the birth of the State of Israel, bringing a generation’s quiet heroism to life... more

Ofer Aderet

Toldot Yisrael Project on 1948 Generation in Race Against Time

Haaretz

Last week Peleg Levy put 17 hard drives into a large bag, got into a taxi and headed to Jerusalem. On a note he attached to the bag he wrote: "If something happens to me on the way...more

Maariv

A History of Documentation

Amihai Attali

Eric Weisberg decided to give up his comfortable home in the United States and make aliya. After changing his name to Aryeh Halivni, he established a project to document the 1948 Generation...View PDF

The Jerusalem Report

Ordinary Heroes - Sung and Unsung

Bernard Dichek

With what words did Abba Eban express himself, after leading the successful UN vote in New York on November 29, 1947 for partitioning Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state?...View PDF

JTA

Oral Histories from 1948 Tell Firsthand Stories of Israel’s Founding

Dina Kraft

Ruth Farhi’s eyes cloud with tears and her gaze turns from the camera recording her story as she tells of a memorable January night in 1948 that haunts her to this day...more

The New York Jewish Week

A Chronicle Of Pioneers

Michele Chabin

Ruth Stern could have lived a life of privilege and security in her native South Africa. Instead, in 1946, at the age of 17, she and two dozen other South Africa...more

The Forward

A Living Lens: Memories From Israel’s Founding

Nathan Jeffay

It was November 29, 1947, and the United Nations was about to vote on the resolution that paved the way for the establishment of the State of Israel... more

IBA News

Toldot Yisrael on IBA Closeup

Elli Wohlgelernter

What happens to the memories of the thousands of others who participated in the formation of the State of Israel? To the rescue is an organization called Toldot Yisrael...Watch video

Jerusalem Post

In Perspective: Protecting the Zionist Narrative at Last

Daniel Gordis

Imagine that Germany, embittered by incessant reminders of what happened during the Holocaust, passed a law forbidding German Jews from publicly marking...more

Yossi Melman

Spielberg of the underground

Haaretz

Aryeh Halivni dreams of becoming Steven Spielberg. Actually, the young American-born Orthodox man, who immigrated to Israel a few years ago, has no pretensions...more

New York Times

On Fiery Birth of Israel, Memories of 2 Sides Speak

Dina Kraft

In a high-rise apartment with a Mediterranean Sea view, the cameraman checks his frame and the interviewer makes sure the slight, silver-haired man is relaxed enough to tell his story. Then Peleg Tamir, 81, starts recounting his days as a teenage recruit for an underground militia fighting for the Jewish state ... more

Cleveland Jewish News

Seeking firsthand memories from those present at Israel’s founding

Cynthia Dettelbach

What Steven Spielberg did for Holocaust survivors, Aryeh Halivni (Weisberg) hopes to do for the men and women who helped found the state of Israel. Halivni, born...more

The New York Jewish Week

Preserving The Memories Of 1948

Gary Rosenblatt

Thanks to Steven Spielberg and others, visual testimony of the Shoah has been recorded for posterity, with footage of more than 50,000 survivor interviews housed under... more