The Ascenders

Itzhak and friends personify a small number of Jews who ascended to Eretz Israel, where they played a critical role in the unfolding drama of the Jewish national rebirth. Their stage was the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Eretz Israel), but the impact of their deeds reverberated throughout the world. From the outset, they joined with world Jewry and its leadership to form a triad in order to restore the Jewish nation to its ancestral homeland. Ready to face any obstacle, they embarked on a long and arduous journey to transform Am Israel (the Jewish nation) from a diaspora littered with anti-Semitic atrocities, to independence. No other nation, marginalized or scattered as the Jews were across the globe, had ever managed to rekindle its national ember, amassed the personal energy, the political will, and the necessary capital to accomplish such a transformation. On behalf of the Jewish nation, Itzhak and friends did! Their journey was unique. It was filled with personal sacrifice, heroic deeds, and many losses. It also triggered floods of emotion and unending conflicts. But, at the end that journey created an anchor for the Jewish people: a flourishing democracy, rich in art, culture, science, and learning. The Ascenders is their story. They were the spokes of the nation's wheels. Without them, no one could have crossed the finish line to realize the ubiquitous refrain, "Next year in Jerusalem."