The Story of a Forgotten Community

The Hebrew community that lived in Acre during the British Mandate period did not leave an actual signature on the urban landscape, and did not record glorious tales of heroism or destruction. This fascinating story, which had been omitted from the collective memory and is currently revealed in depth in this book, illuminates this community's place in the building of the Jewish national society in Palestine. In particular, the book reveals the complex relationships that existed between the Zionist institutions and the Jewish and Hebrew societies in the Arab cities. Despite the decline of the old Jewish communities in the Arab cities, the unusual story of Acre shows how it managed to attract new, nationalist settlers. For a brief moment in the city's history, a Hebrew community existed that combined old and new settlements, had a national Zionist orientation and included Jews with local and Mizrahi recognition. This is a local story, but it seeks to shed light on the complexity and diversity of the Zionist enterprise in relation to the Arab and mixed cities of mandatory Palestine, by raising questions about the relationship between the "history of a place" and the "national history". Through the description of the failure of the Hebrew settlement in Mandatory Acre, the book looks at the Zionist project as a fascinating meeting point between the dreams of those who created the leading narratives and between the local interests and the geographical conditions unique to the region.