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Exodus Revisited

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Exodus is the story of the greatest miracle of our time : the rebirth of a nation. It tells the story of Jews coming back after centuries of abuse , torture and murder , to carve an oasis in the sand with guts and with blood"

That was how Leon Uris describes his famous novel Exodus about the re-birth of the State of Israel. In Exodus Revisited, he returns to the places and people that first inspired Exodus.

In this pictorial essay , first published in 1960, and illustrated with over 250 photographs by Dimitrios Harissiardis, Uris examines the vibrant young nation, with an ancient and glorious but often tragic past.

As a land of contrasts , from the deserts of the Negev to the lush valleys of the Galil, from the tough and wonderful young Sabras to the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem and Safed, Uris takes us on a journey through Israel's glorious past, hopeful present and divine future.

"The dispersed Jews , destroyed as a nation, suffered unspeakable persecution in most of the world. They never stopped looking towards their ancient homeland, with the prayer that ended, Next year in Jerusalem.

From the remains of Hazor, an ancient city that was conquered by Joshua, to the fortress of Masada, where 286 Jews held back the might of Rome for three years, until, betrayed they all perished: men, women and children. The Jewish nation was destroyed and the Jews dispersed to the four corners of the earth. To the battlegrounds where the poorly armed Jewish community of Palestine held off the armies of five Arab nations in the War of Independence, and where to this day the people of Israel have lived in the sights of Arab hate and violence, longing only for the day when their children can live in peace.

It portrays the brave young soldiers of Israel whose determination is that 'We shall not perish again'.

It is a digest of Jews living as a free people in their own land, the State of Israel, re-risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the holocaust

To Israel's most precious possession of all. Her beautiful , bright eyed and inquisitive children.

It is important to see the beauty of Israel, at a time when the media do not portray all that is wonderful about this land and it's people , choosing instead to engage in prejudice and hate-filled invective , unfairly demonizing the Children of Israel , in the same way Hitler and Goebbels did.

"Israel is the light of a new dawn. As in ancient days , she is again a bridge from the world of darkness to the world of light.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

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About the author

Leon Uris

90 books1,658 followers
Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 - June 21, 2003) was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.

Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."

Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.

Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.

According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.

He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.

Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.

Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Gary.
1,036 reviews253 followers
July 25, 2017
xodus is the story of the greatest miracle of our time : the rebirth of a nation. It tells the story of Jews coming back after centuries of abuse , torture and murder , to carve an oasis in the sand with guts and with blood"

That was how Leon Uris describes his famous novel Exodus about the re-birth of the State of Israel. In Exodus Revisited , he returns to the places and people that first inspired Exodus.

In this pictorial essay , first published in 1960 , and illustrated with over 250 photographs by Dimitrios Harissiardis , Uris examines the vibrant young nation, with an ancient and glorious but often tragic past.

As a land of contrasts , from the deserts of the Negev to the lush valleys of the Galil , from the tough and wonderful young Sabras to the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem and Safed , Uris takes us on a journey through Israel's glorious past , hopeful present and divine future.

"The dispersed Jews , destroyed as a nation, suffered unspeakable persecution in most of the world. They never stopped looking towards their ancient homeland , with the prayer that ended , 'Next year in Jerusalem".

From the remains of Hazor , an ancient city that was conquered by Joshuah , to the fortress of Masada, where 286 Jews held back the might of Rome for three years , until , betrayed they all perished : men , women and children. The Jewish nation was destroyed and the Jews dispersed to the four corners of the earth.

To the battlegrounds where the poorly armed Jewish community of 'Palestine' held off the armies of five Arab nations in the War of Independence , and where to this day the people of Israel have lived in the sights of Arab hate and violence , longing only for the day when their children can live in peace.

It portrays the brave young soldiers of Israel whose determination is that 'We shall not perish again'.

It is a digest of Jews living as a free people in their own land , the State of Israel, re-risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the holocaust

To Israel's most precious possession of all. Her beautiful , bright eyed and inquisitive children.

It is important to see the beauty of Israel, at a time when the media do not portray all that is wonderful about this land and it's people , choosing instead to engage in prejudice and hate-filled invective , unfairly demonizing the Children of Israel , in the same way Hitler and Goebbels did.

"Israel is the light of a new dawn. As in ancient days , she is again a bridge from the world of darkness to the world of light.
Profile Image for Georgia Brunt.
91 reviews1 follower
December 14, 2024
I'll give it 1 star for the photos. Yeah I mean this was interesting but it just pissed me off. The history of Jewish people is sad of course, but when you talk about how Palestine "needed" to be conquered and "Arabs could not handle Israel", it just sounds so hypocritical! Also Leon Uris makes Jewish people act like the victim so much even though they were let into Palestine and then he literally says in the book that they aggravated Palestinians and other Arab countries around because Palestine was nothing until they showed up and obeyed the prophecy. Like shut up? Typical western coloniser mindset of saying something is bad because they are used to an experienced difference. Anyway some of the history was interesting but I don't really trust it since it labels Arabs as "aggravated terrorists", even though it literally says that Jewish people provoked them into war. But anyway pretty crap ngl, but glad I read a very biased book about the "creation" of Israel so I can see where the Zionist arguments stem from. Free Palestine!
Profile Image for Holly.
664 reviews9 followers
July 24, 2023
What a miracle Israel is. This book was published in the 60's and shows the amazing transformation of Israel since 1948 despite being surrounded and attacked repeatedly by their "neighbors" and being betrayed by world powers. If anyone has been to Israel lately it's phenomenal to see what another 50 years has brought. Anyone who doubts God is in control just has to look at the nation of Israel. How else could a tiny little ragtag group have been so widely persecuted, attacked, captured, threatened with eradication resiliently rise to become this powerhouse of modern Israel?
Profile Image for Anne.
17 reviews
February 18, 2024
This book is nothing more than propaganda. It presents a one-sided, whitewashed and often fictitious view of the history of the establishment of Israel. The systematic displacement of the Palestinian people and all traces of their culture from the Palestinian homeland does not feature, neither does the erosion of their human rights, the wars, the killing and the brutality. There are many books which do provide an honest history of this region - Sandy Tolan's book The Lemon Tree would be a good one to start with.
82 reviews1 follower
April 17, 2008
The content: a collection of photographs taken in Israel in the 1950s with some accompanying captions by Uris.
No kidding regarding the biases (deserved or undeserved) of the author! But not surprising considering the slant of Exodus itself and the time this work was published. Of historical interest.
Profile Image for Adam.
357 reviews4 followers
March 16, 2013
The world needs more picture books for adults like this, concise text dominated by images. A nice 60s tinge to the typography, this is an interesting snapshot of a particular moment in history, 12 years after the War of Independence and 7 before the Six Days War.
55 reviews
October 6, 2024
This is a pictorial, or rather photographic review of Exodus and is helpful to look at after reading Exodus
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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