Another project for which I was contracted: an accompaniment to a series of articles about the Machal entitled, “Writing in my Father’s Footsteps.” It appeared in The Forward, a weekly Jewish newspaper founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily, which entered the din of New York’s immigrant press as a defender of trade unionism and moderate, democratic socialism.

“Writing in my Father’s Footsteps” tells stories from a certain battalion in the Machal—a group of volunteers who fought with the Haganah for Israel’s independence. The Machalniks were mostly World War II vets from America and England, but many Jews and non-Jews came from the world over to fight for Israel’s statehood and sovereignty. For this project, I spoke to veterans, Holocaust survivors, and others who knew firsthand the conflict of pre-state Israel. This gave rise to tons of footage for which there is sadly no use in a short, 6-minute spot. The article, by Jonathan Kesselman, is worth a read.