by Eliyho Matz

Ask two ancient Talmudic rabbis "Who is an Israeli?", and one of these learned people might have asserted they do not exist, while the other might have stated just as vehemently that they do. Nationality is a modern concept. The Israeli Nation (State) erupted into modern history in 1948 as a result of many ideas that were mostly reactions to what we later called European Nationalism. The Germans (Nazis) were looking to expand their territory, and in the process annihilated thousands of Jewish communities, their purpose being lebensraum, "living space," ...space to grow potatoes.... This is not the history of potatoes, although, as many forget, the arrival of the potato in Europe resulted in a quadrupling of Europe's population. This book is an attempt to explore the modern-day destruction and rebirth of the Israelites (Hebrews) and to look at one of their ignored and misunderstood heroes, Hillel Kook.

Eliyo Matz was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1948. Following his army service, he entered Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and then completed work on his BA at the University of Massachusetts. He pursued graduate studies at Yeshiva University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, completing his master's degree in American Jewish History.