Brothers at War

Jerold S. Auerbach's probing and poignant exploration of the tragedy of the Altalena, the doomed ship whose arrival in Israel ignited Jewish fratricidal conflict only weeks after the declaration of statehood. This is the first history of the Altalena by a historian and the first to explore it within the context of ancient Jewish and contemporary Israeli history. The Altalena remains embedded in memory, Auerbach suggests, still framing unresolved issues of political legitimacy in the Jewish State.


Identified as "America's foremost intellectual exponent of right-wing Zionism," Jerold Auerbach is the author of nine books including HEBRON JEWS: MEMORY AND CONFLICT IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL (2009), the first history of the world's oldest continuing Jewish community. His essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The New York Times, The Jewish Press, Jerusalem Post, Midstream, and American Thinker.


Auerbach has been a Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Lecturer at Tel Aviv University, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Law School, and recipient of two College Teachers Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College.