Foreword
It
has
been
a
real
and
exciting
pleasure
to
read
thousands
of
pages
of
Habonim
documents
and
literature
in
preparing
Arise
and
Build:
The
Story
of
American
Habonim.
It
has
been
difficult
to
establish
criteria
and
to
decide
what
to
include
and
what
to
exclude.
An
effort
has
been
made
to
present
various
aspects
of
Habonim
during
the
twenty-five
years
of
its
existence,
to
collect
pages
from
its
history,
and
to
portray
in
some
measure
its
thinking
and
its
deeds.
Not
everything
could
be
included,
and
not
all
the
chaverim
who
were
asked
to
write
were
able
to
do
so.
Many
of
the
original
sources
were
not
available,
and
there
were
financial
limitations
which
determined
in
no
small
measure
the
scope
of
this
volume.
Nor
has
it
been
possible
to
recapture
completely
the
mood
of
neshama
yetera
and
the
sense
of
historic
responsibility
which
accompanied
Habonim
from
its
very
inception
throughout
all
the
years.
The
record
does
mirror
the
reactions
of
a
vital
and
alert
portion
of
American
Jewish
youth
to
the
cataclysmic
events
of
the
past
quarter
of
a
century.
War,
hopes
for
peace,
the
destruction
of
the
Jewish
people
in
Europe,
the
establishment
of
the
State
of
Israel,
the
atomic
age-all
of
which
found
their
expression
in
the
lives
which
we
lived
coactively
within
the
movement-our
hopes
and
dreams,
our
frustrations
and
unfulfilled
strivings;
and
our
movement
and
personal
tragedy-that
"our
generation"
of
American
Jewry
and
especially
the
Labor
Zionist
movement
was
unprepared
to
respond
to
the
challenge
of
aliya
when
the
State
of
Israel
was
created.
Would
not
the
face
of
Israel
and
that
of
the
American
Jewish
community
be
entirely
different
if
thousands
of
our
chaverim
would
have
been
prepared
to
"Arise
and
Build"?
Perhaps
the
marking
of
the
history
of
twenty-five
years
of
American
Habonim
is
not
the
most
important
event
in
Jewish
life.
But
the
intensity
of
living
for
the
chaverim
in
Habonim
made
the
movement
a
dominant
factor
in
the
life
of
each
chaver,
a
force
which
led
to
the
aliya
of
hundreds
of
chaverim
and
has
given
to
those
who
remained
in
America
a
sense
of
unrest
which
is
creative
and
has
made
of
these
chaverim,
too,
a
leading
force
within
the
Labor
Zionist
movement
and
within
the
American
Jewish
community
at
large.
May
we
call
upon
you,
the
present
generation
of
Habonim,
on
the
occasion
of
the
twenty-fifth
anniversary,
to
join
us
in
the
joys
as
well
as
the
burdens,
of
the
mitzvah
of
rebuilding
our
people
in
the
Land
of
Israel!
The
sense
of
fulfillment
and
creativity
will
be
adequate
compensation
for
all
the
difficulties,
disappointments,
and
heartaches
which
beset
one
on
the
path
of
realization
in
Israel.
And
to
our
colleagues
and
those
we
educated
who
have
not
come
to
Israel—to
those
within
the
movement
and
to
those
not
in
the
movement—may
we
use
this
occasion
to
say
to
you
that
"our
ideal
and
our
reality"
have
not
been
found
wanting.
It
is
not
too
late
for
you,
too,
to
join
us
and
to
be
among
the
builders.
It
will
be
difficult,
but
you
will
be
able
to
find
your
place
in
Israel.
Founders
of
Habonim,
former
menahelim
and
madrichim,
graduates
of
the
Institute,
the
Workshop,
and
the
Machon—and
you,
the
stam
chaver,
you
who
remember
the
discussions
and
the
debates,
the
many
conferences
and
soul
searching
of
our
youth—to
you
we
can
say
that
what
we
talked
about
was
true
and
is
true—the
joys,
the
sorrows,
and
the
hopes
and
pains.
Come
to
Israel!
Come
and
join
with
us
in
rebuilding
our
lives
and
the
life
of
the
Jewish
people
in
the
Labor
Commonwealth
of
Israel!
*
*
*
The
editor
expresses
his
gratitude
to
all
those
who
have
cooperated
with
him
in
making
this
volume
possible:
to
the
chaverim
who
responded
to
his
request
for
articles
and
materials,
to
Matya
Shuval
for
her
illustrations,
to
Bashe
Smaller
for
typing
the
manuscript,
to
David
Goldberg
and
Menucha
Kraines
for
technical
assistance,
and
to
our
patrons
who
made
this
book
possible
financially.
My
special
thanks
to
Ben
Frank
and
Danny
and
Elaine
Mann,
who
have
seen
Arise
and
Build
through
the
press
and
whose
assistance
and
cooperation
made
it
possible
to
complete
the
work
which
was
begun
in
Israel.
Much
of
the
material
has
been
gleaned
from
the
various
Habonim
publications
which
appeared
over
the
years.
We
hope
that
each
reader
will
find
within
these
pages
something
of
intimate
significance
as
well
as
a
record
of
our
years
in
the
youth
movement.
DAVID
BRESLAU,
Jerusalem,
1960