Hebrew Women Join the Forces: Jewish Women from Palestine in the British Forces During the Second World War

During WWII, some 3,600 Jewish women from Palestine volunteered to serve in the British armed forces in the Middle East. For the first time ever Jewish women joined the army, wore uniform, left home to defend their homeland and to support the Jewish people around the world. The Council of Women’s Organizations, headed by Hadassah Samuel, spearheaded the recruitment. This recruitment was in defiance of all conventional male thought. Not least because these women were joining the British Army - a foreign and colonial army. This created a unique situation that cast gender and nationalist issues in a new light. Using archival research and 60 ‘last voice’ interviews, Hacohen tells the story of these women: their reasons for enlistment; their social background and status; and the arguments over recruiting them. Also discussed are: their military roles analyzed from a gender perspective; the locations where the women were stationed and the nature of their service there; their relations with their British colleagues; their involvement with illegal activity as members of underground organizations’ and the Jewish and national identity which they developed during their service. This pathbreaking book will be of interest to scholars and general readers alike. *** .. .the book is a real contribution to historical scholarship of the 1930s and 1940s. Scholars and students interested in Jewish and Palestinian history will certainly benefit from it. Highly recommended. -Choice, Vol. 54, No. 9, May 2017 [Subject: WWII, Gender Studies, Israeli Studies, Military History, Middle East Studies, Jewish Studies]