Raquela; A Woman of Israel

New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc, 1978. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. 379, [5] pages. Endpaper map. Illustrations. Map. DJ has wear, tears, chips and soiling. Cover has some wear and soiling. Some edge soiling. Inscribed and dated by the author on the half-title page. Ruth Gruber (September 30, 1911 ? November 17, 2016) was an American journalist, photographer, writer, humanitarian, and a United States government official. She was a recipient of the Norman Mailer Prize. In 1946, The New York Post asked her to cover the work of a newly created Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine. The Committee was to decide the fate of 100,000 European Jewish refugees who were living in European camps as displaced persons (DP). The committee members spent four months in Europe, Palestine, and the Arab countries and a month in Switzerland digesting their experiences. The committee's twelve members unanimously agreed that Britain should allow 100,000 Jewish immigrants to settle in Palestine. British foreign minister Bevin rejected the finding. The author interweaves the personal story of an Israeli woman, Raquela Prywes, with the national story of modern Israel. Ruth Gruber is a foreign correspondent and authority on Israel, refugees, and the Middle East. A National Jewish Book Award?winning biography: A look at the early years of Israel?s statehood, experienced through the life of a pioneering nurse. During her extraordinary career, nurse Raquela Prywes was a witness to history. She delivered babies in a Holocaust refugee camp and on the Israeli frontier. She crossed minefields to aid injured soldiers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and organized hospitals to save the lives of those fighting the 1967 Six-Day War. Along the way, her own life was a series of triumphs and tragedies mirroring those of the newly formed Jewish state. Raquela is a moving tribute to a remarkable woman, and an unforgettable chronicle of the birth of Israel through the eyes of those who lived it.