Auto­bi­ogra­phies are great tools to learn about peri­ods and places. Hirsh Goodman’s auto­bi­og­ra­phy is a per­fect tool to learn about Israel, its great­ness and its foibles. 

Good­man arrives in Israel from South Africa filled with Zion­ist fer­vor. Over the next four decades his impres­sions and under­stand­ing of Israel devel­op and mature. He sees a real Israel with much to offer, but also an Israel with many imperfections. 

As a jour­nal­ist, Hirsh Good­man had a front row seat at many piv­otal events in Israel’s growth and devel­op­ment. Some of those events may have been major dis­ap­point­ments but they nev­er shat­tered his con­vic­tion that Israel has a real mis­sion, that the State of Israel was cre­at­ed for a purpose. 

Some of the most pow­er­ful dimen­sions of this auto­bi­og­ra­phy emerge when the author sheds his pro­fes­sion­al cloak and reveals him­self as a father. It is then that we see a man grap­pling with his adopt­ed coun­try not through wit or intel­lect, but with his heart and with his soul.