A Poet, A Parachute, And The Birth Of Modern Israel

A Poet, A Parachute, And The Birth Of Modern Israel

Why did Holocaust survivors like a young woman named Hannah Senesh parachute back into Nazi Europe—and how did their failed mission forge one of Israel’s most enduring founding myths?

The Match That Lit the Flame: Hannah Senesh and the Creation of Modern Israel (with Matti Friedman)

Why would a group of young Jews who escaped the Holocaust choose to parachute back into Nazi-occupied Europe? How did they become heroes despite the failure of that mission? Author Matti Friedman joins EconTalk’s Russ Roberts to unravel these mysteries through his book Out of the Sky, revealing why a failed mission became one of Israel’s most powerful founding myths. At the heart of the story is Hannah Senesh, a 23-year-old Hungarian poet who tr…