Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Must Read: The 222 Days Of Kfar Darom

Note: The 222 Days of Kfar Darom, which details the heroism of Kfar Darom in 1948, has just been published. This long-awaited book was written in Hebrew by military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki of Efrat.

The Yitzhaki family from Kfar Yam in Gush Katif moved to Efrat immediately following the 2005 expulsion. The head of the family, Aryeh Yitzhaki, has written 30 books and studies on the Land of Israel and its history. His wife, Datya, is a communications expert who was the spokeswoman of the Gaza Coast Regional Council, and the Amanah representative in Gush Katif. Datya founded the settlements of Kfar Darom, Kfar Yam, Nisanit and Dugit.

The Yitzhakis have three children, who study in schools in Gush Etzion.

The 222 Days of Kfar Darom book launch was held on May 10 in the moshav of Bnei Darom.

A diverse audience of some 400 people attended the event. They included veteran fighters from Kfar Darom; commanders from the Palmah’s 2nd Company of the Negev Brigade, headed by the company commander Major Moshe Netzer; the founders of Bnei Darom; residents of Kfar Darom in Gush Katif, uprooted in 2005; and commanders of the new Negev Brigade, an IDF reserves infantry brigade.

Over the course of the past 50 years, eight historians and authors attempted to complete this book, but were unable to do so for various reasons. Aryeh Yitzhaki completed this mission, defining this episode as the height of heroism in Israel’s wars.

The book portrays an unparalleled heroic episode. For eight and a half months in 1948, several dozen young men and women faced the local Arab enemy and the invading Egyptian army. The defenders were under almost complete siege, suffering from terrible hunger and thirst. Most of them were religious kibbutzniks, reinforced by Palmah fighters.

The epic of Kfar Darom was neither publicized nor commemorated for various reasons. Fighters in other places, such as Yad Mordekhai, Negbah and Deganyah, won everlasting fame, while the supreme heroism of Kfar Darom was repressed and forgotten.

This new book does historical justice to the students of the religious youth village, and to the entire national religious public. It ends with the demand to award a collective medal of honor to the 1948 fighters of Kfar Darom.

Many rabbis and educators have recommended this book. Rabbi Hayim Druckman wrote in his recommendation: “This book is capable of strengthening and raising the spirits of those loyal to Eretz Israel in this time of crisis, encouraging its readers with the acts of heroism in those days for this season.”

An additional reader (David Yitzhaki, a third-grade pupil in the Reshit school) recommends: “I read it, and I enjoyed it very much. It’s more interesting and fascinating than the Harry Potter series.

This is the first book to be published by the new Efrat-based Eretz Israel Publishers, that plans, with God’s help, to issue in the coming year a series of books on Land of Israel studies and Israeli military history.

We hope this important book will be translated into English soon.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 and is filed under news. You can leave a response.