Press
Seven Decades Later, Unsung ’48 Heroes Are Heard
Gary RosenblattSoon 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
70 Years On: The Bombing of the Post's Offices, and the Paper's Legacy
David BrinnThree 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
Eternalizing Israel's Founding History
Josh HastenAryeh 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
The War of Reenactment
Shai GalThe 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
Israel’s Founding Through Eyes of People Who Lived It
Yoni Kempinski and Tova DvorinLandmark film series documents the history of the founding of the State of Israel - from the people who were there to see history happen...more
Telling Israel's Story
Abigail Klein LeichmanOn the eve of Israel’s 66th Independence Day, the Toldot Yisrael Video Project announced a new partnership with the National Library of Israel...more
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
Toldot Yisrael Collects Testimonies of 1948 Fighters
IBA NewsSix 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
Project Chronicles Memories of Israel's Founding
Julie Stahl and Chris MitchellAlthough 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
Eyewitness 1948: Fighting for the Jewish State
Atara BeckInspired 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 Last of the Founding Generation, Captured on Film
Mitch GinsburgLt. 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
New project digitally archives testimonies of hundreds of 1948 veterans
Lidar Gravé-LaziProject marks the first comprehensive digital project recording the history of the State of Israel into one national archive... more
New Archive Documents Events Surrounding 1948
Linda GradsteinBy 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
Where Were You in 1948?
Gilad HalpernA new project seeks to record eyewitness video testimonies from Israel’s founding generation...Listen
Preserving the Memories of Israel’s Creation
Judy Lash BalintElad 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
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
Toldot Yisrael Project on 1948 Generation in Race Against Time
HaaretzLast 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
A History of Documentation
Amihai AttaliEric 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
Ordinary Heroes - Sung and Unsung
Bernard DichekWith 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
Oral Histories from 1948 Tell Firsthand Stories of Israel’s Founding
Dina KraftRuth 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
A Chronicle Of Pioneers
Michele ChabinRuth 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
A Living Lens: Memories From Israel’s Founding
Nathan JeffayIt 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
Toldot Yisrael on IBA Closeup
Elli WohlgelernterWhat 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
In Perspective: Protecting the Zionist Narrative at Last
Daniel GordisImagine that Germany, embittered by incessant reminders of what happened during the Holocaust, passed a law forbidding German Jews from publicly marking...more
Spielberg of the underground
HaaretzAryeh 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
On Fiery Birth of Israel, Memories of 2 Sides Speak
Dina KraftIn 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
Seeking firsthand memories from those present at Israel’s founding
Cynthia DettelbachWhat 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
Preserving The Memories Of 1948
Gary RosenblattThanks 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