Pionier der Verwirklichung: Ein Arzt aus Deutschland erzählt vom Beginn der zionistischen Bewegung und seiner Niederlassung in Palästina kurz nach der Jahrhundertwende

Autobiography by Elias Auerbach, gynecologist and surgeon, who left his native Germany for a pioneer's life in Palestine in 1909, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. He built the first hospital in Haifa, worked toward modernization of medical services, founded the Haifa Jewish community, participated in the establishment of a model high school and a technical college. Against the background of these facts the author successfully recreates the social and cultural atmosphere of the time: the friendly contact between Arabs and Jews, the beneficent influence of the German colony, the frictions between the various religious orders, the survival of ancient customs and mores, the idealism of the Jewish immigrants, and their adjustment to very primitive living conditions.