Raquela; A Woman of Israel [Paperback]

Ruth Gruber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2000

Raquela Prywes lived on the front lines of Israel's history. A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, she found her true calling as a hospital and battlefield nurse, delivering babies in the infamous Athlit detention camp, where Holocaust survivors were interned by the British, and literally walking across minefields to tend the wounded during the 1948 War of Independence.

Surrounded by men of uncommon bravery, Raquela fell passionately in love with the handsome young captain of one of the refugee ships and had to choose between him and the brilliant and distinguished doctor who waited for her back in Jerusalem. Upon her return to Israel, she helped to found the first hospital in the desert frontier of Beersheba, where she delivered the babies of Bedouin women and Jewish immigrants, eventually organizing the hospitals credited with saving Israeli soldiers during the Six-Day War.  

Alive with the courage of a rare woman and a rugged nation, Raquela tells the powerful and deeply moving story of an Israeli woman who knew passionate love, great danger, and shattering loss and who witnessed the darkest -- and most triumphant -- moments in the history of the Jewish people. This edition of Raquela, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1978, includes an introduction by best-selling novelist Faye Kellerman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 

“Ruth Gruber is an adventure in herself.” —New York Herald Tribune

“You couldn't invent Ruth Gruber . . . not even in a movie." —Richard Holbrooke, Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan

 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

Raquela Prywes lived on the front lines of Israel's history. A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, she found her true calling as a hospital and battlefield nurse, delivering babies in the infamous Athlit detention camp, where Holocaust survivors were interned by the British, and literally walking across minefields to tend the wounded during the 1948 War of Independence.

Surrounded by men of uncommon bravery, Raquela fell passionately in love with the handsome young captain of one of the refugee ships and had to choose between him and the brilliant and distinguished doctor who waited for her back in Jerusalem. Upon her return to Israel, she helped to found the first hospital in the desert frontier of Beersheba, where she delivered the babies of Bedouin women and Jewish immigrants, eventually organizing the hospitals credited with saving Israeli soldiers during the Six-Day War.  

Alive with the courage of a rare woman and a rugged nation, Raquela tells the powerful and deeply moving story of an Israeli woman who knew passionate love, great danger, and shattering loss and who witnessed the darkest -- and most triumphant -- moments in the history of the Jewish people. This edition of Raquela, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1978, includes an introduction by best-selling novelist Faye Kellerman.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (October 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081293153X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812931532
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ruth Gruber is an award-winning Jewish American journalist, photographer, and humanitarian. She was born in Brooklyn in 1911 and is the author of nineteen books, including the National Jewish Book Award-winning biography Raquela (1978).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars raquela a woman of israel, March 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Raquela: A Woman of Israel (Paperback)

this is a beautifully written book.it is actually the history of the forming of the state of israel but it reads like a novel.i found it to be extremely informative & written with great sensitivity. i had to put the book down for several days at a time to absorb the strong emotional content.this is a must read for all jews & non jews,alike.raquella was an incredibly intelligent, motivated & strong woman.she accomlished much in her life & was an extremely humble human being. enjoy our history!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful biography that reads like a novel, May 5, 2002

By 

Inna Tysoe (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raquela a Woman of Israel (Hardcover)

This book is, in one sense, the biography of a woman whose family has always lived in Jerusalem but in another sense it is a novel of one woman's life as she grows up, falls in love, gets married, has children, loses her son and child.

It is also a novel of how politics and personal life intersect: here we find Arab-Jewish relations ruptured during the Hebron Massacre only to be re-constituted again after the formation of the State of Israel; here we find Raquela's son killed in one war amongst many; here we see the international aid traded for guns in the refugee camps. And above all, here we see the heartbreak and the triumph of one woman, one Jerusalemite, who lives in her own country.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Israel and Israelis, be they Arab or Jews or Christian.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars reader, February 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Raquela; A Woman of Israel (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book very much and couldn't wait to finish it to see what happened next. I also learned alot from this book on how the people of that time had coped, had courage, and the strength to try and live their lives. I though of Raquela as an ingretible woman with lots of strenght and mental power.