Testament: At the Creation of the State of Israel

Aaron Levin

ISBN 10: 1885183941 / ISBN 13: 9781885183941

Published by Artisan, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1998

About this Item

This is a signed by author on title page, hardcover, first edition, first printing of Testament by Aaron Levin. The book published in 1998 by Artisan: New York is in fine condition in unclipped dust jacket in fine condition. Seller Inventory # 004588

Bibliographic Details

Title: Testament: At the Creation of the State of ...

Publisher: Artisan, New York, New York, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 1998

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition 1st Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

A collection of portraits of the founders of Israel, including Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres and the late Chaim Herzog.

From the Inside Flap:

In voices as plain as day, with memories as clear as dawn, the people of Israel offer their stories as TESTAMENT to the struggle to establish the Jewish state. Photographed on location in black and white, each face is a map, etched with the effort of fifty years. Each face is evidence, of the honor of battle, the horror of bloodshed, the heartbreak of loss. Each face is a witness to history.

American photographer and journalist Aaron Levin creates a TESTAMENT to the men and women behind the founding of Israel on its 50th anniversary. Transcribed from interviews, sometimes translated from Hebrew, the essays that accompany each portrait tell of the extraordinary events that transformed everyday lives. Shalom Massvari speaks nonchalantly of self-induced starvation, undertaken to make himself small enough to be smuggled out of prison in a suitcase. Eliahu Shavit crouches above the Jerusalem sewer holes he once crawled through as a saboteur, planting bombs. Munio Brandwein gazes at the olive trees he planted where three friends lost their lives.

Along with the ordinary soldiers, civilians, and kibbutzniks who contributed to the independence movement, notable dignitaries share their most personal anecdotes about this remarkable moment in history. Standing warily on the very street corner where he was arrested in 1946, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir recalls disguising himself as a rabbi in an attempt to elude the British, only to be caught by an officer who recognized him by his eyebrows. Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres sits surrounded by books in the library of David Ben-Gurion's house in Tel Aviv, once the center of so much military planning. Chaim Herzog, the former president and ambassador to the United Nations, pauses by the rough road he helped carve through the Judean hills to relieve the siege of Jerusalem. And the last two surviving signers of Israel's Declaration of Independence, Zerach Warhaftig and Meir Vilner, revel in the memory of dancing in the streets.