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My Name Was Alec: A Memoir
My Name Was Alec is the true emotional journey of one man born running from the Nazis to becoming the youngest officer in the Israel Defense Forces. Along the way, he encounters Jewish vigilantes seeking revenge in Germany, survivors of concentration camps seeking hope in a new land, and the British army seeking to keep Jews out of Palestine. His own identity is shattered by the discovery of a photograph.
This is also a stirring account of the birth of the State of Israel. By age 14, he is living on a kibbutz overlooking the Jordan Valley. He survives an attack by Arabs yelling “get out Jew,” within an inch of his life. At the kibbutz, he meets the heroes of Israel’s War of Independence, Arik Sharon and Shimon “Katcha” Cahaner, inspiring him to enlist in the IDF at age 17. As a paratrooper in command of an elite recon unit, he witnesses untold atrocities and suffers a personal loss from which he will not recover.
A vivid and intimate account of one man’s search for belonging, My Name Was Alec is a moving and personal testament to the endurance of the Jewish people.
This is also a stirring account of the birth of the State of Israel. By age 14, he is living on a kibbutz overlooking the Jordan Valley. He survives an attack by Arabs yelling “get out Jew,” within an inch of his life. At the kibbutz, he meets the heroes of Israel’s War of Independence, Arik Sharon and Shimon “Katcha” Cahaner, inspiring him to enlist in the IDF at age 17. As a paratrooper in command of an elite recon unit, he witnesses untold atrocities and suffers a personal loss from which he will not recover.
A vivid and intimate account of one man’s search for belonging, My Name Was Alec is a moving and personal testament to the endurance of the Jewish people.
Kindle Edition
Published May 13, 2019
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May 7, 2020
TLDR: Buy this book! An Israeli's Account of Life Just Before, During & After the Birth of a Nation
Recently, my relationship to Israel has been under siege. There is unrest between my politics and my Judaism and this current Administration (in both countries) has escalated this inner unrest.
But I had the opportunity to borrow this book from my cousin, Debbie, and the contents are weighing on me. This book is written by Allen Jacoby and traces his life from his birth in a cattle train car on the run from the Nazis to his early life in a displaced persons camp and finally serving as the youngest officer in the IDF helping to protect a nascent country.
While I have read the stories of other Israeli heroes of Allen's generation as well as those who came a little before him and those who came much later, Allen's story surprised me. Maybe it's because I know him personally and yet didn't know his story. Maybe it's because discovering a hero among ordinary people feels rarer than it is. Maybe it's because my inner war has distanced me from my cultural identity and this book made me feel reconnected. Or maybe it's something else.
Allen is not a Holocaust survivor in the way we tend to think of them and certainly not as Allen describes them in his book as living bodies with dead souls. Neither is he the wretched refuse from a far-distant shore the same way in which my own grandparents had been a generation earlier escaping pogroms and an increasingly intolerant government. Although Allen says he's just a product of his generation: those born on or near the birth of Israel who grew up strong and proud. He's a hero all the same. And maybe it's that we hear and read those other stories more frequently that stories like Allen's feels unfamiliar. I invite everyone to read his story and get to know Allen.
Allen is not a writer by trade so his style will feel informal and conversational. Yet, the topics he covers are deeply philosophical: How do we define ourselves? What makes a family? What is heroism? How does it feel to take a life? What is our legacy as a people and what will Israel's legacy be as a nation?
You will not find the answers. But maybe you'll ask yourself some new questions and make some new discoveries.
Recently, my relationship to Israel has been under siege. There is unrest between my politics and my Judaism and this current Administration (in both countries) has escalated this inner unrest.
But I had the opportunity to borrow this book from my cousin, Debbie, and the contents are weighing on me. This book is written by Allen Jacoby and traces his life from his birth in a cattle train car on the run from the Nazis to his early life in a displaced persons camp and finally serving as the youngest officer in the IDF helping to protect a nascent country.
While I have read the stories of other Israeli heroes of Allen's generation as well as those who came a little before him and those who came much later, Allen's story surprised me. Maybe it's because I know him personally and yet didn't know his story. Maybe it's because discovering a hero among ordinary people feels rarer than it is. Maybe it's because my inner war has distanced me from my cultural identity and this book made me feel reconnected. Or maybe it's something else.
Allen is not a Holocaust survivor in the way we tend to think of them and certainly not as Allen describes them in his book as living bodies with dead souls. Neither is he the wretched refuse from a far-distant shore the same way in which my own grandparents had been a generation earlier escaping pogroms and an increasingly intolerant government. Although Allen says he's just a product of his generation: those born on or near the birth of Israel who grew up strong and proud. He's a hero all the same. And maybe it's that we hear and read those other stories more frequently that stories like Allen's feels unfamiliar. I invite everyone to read his story and get to know Allen.
Allen is not a writer by trade so his style will feel informal and conversational. Yet, the topics he covers are deeply philosophical: How do we define ourselves? What makes a family? What is heroism? How does it feel to take a life? What is our legacy as a people and what will Israel's legacy be as a nation?
You will not find the answers. But maybe you'll ask yourself some new questions and make some new discoveries.
Displaying 1 of 1 review