During the War of Independence, some 3,500 volunteers from 37 different countries rallied to Israel's defense. These young men and women, Jews as well as non-Jews, were known as MACHAL (Mitnadvei Chutz-La'Arets) - the Hebrew acronym for overseas volunteers.

Many of the volunteers had been members of Jewish underground movements in Palestine and abroad before the State was proclaimed, or had served as crew members on Aliya Bet ships running the British naval blockade to bring Holocaust survivors to the shores of the Land of Israel.

Most overseas volunteers were veterans of World War II; their skills and expertise were crucial - often decisive - for the newly-formed Israel Defense Forces, on land, at sea and in the air. These men and women fought valiantly and served with distinction in every branch of the IDF, including infantry, artillery, armor, the air force, the navy, the medical corps and the signals corps, often in key positions.

Overseas volunteers came with a high sense of purpose and a shared feeling of pride and privilege in knowing they were helping to create and to defend a Jewish homeland. After the war, most returned to their home countries, but about 500 settled in Israel and raised families. Carrying on the MACHAL tradition, their children have served as Air Force pilots, commanders in the armored forces, as soldiers of Golani and as paratroopers.

One hundred and nineteen overseas volunteers lost their lives in Israel's struggle for independence: four of them were women; eight were non-Jews.

Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, said: "The participation of...men and women of other nations in our struggle cannot be measured only as additional manpower, but as an exhibition of the solidarity of the Jewish people...without the assistance, the help and the ties with the entire Jewish people, we would have accomplished naught...some of our most advanced services might not have been established were it not for the professionals who came to us from abroad..."

At the conclusion of World War II, most Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust could not remain in Europe with its terrible memories; many opted to build a new life in the Jewish homeland. The British escalated their restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine. The yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) responded by increasing the activities of the clandestine network of rescue operations (started in 1934) known as Aliya Bet.

The availability of vessels in Europe, most of which were small, soon proved insufficient to transport the large number of survivors who wanted to come to Palestine. In the United States, on the other hand, there was a surplus of ships that could be purchased inexpensively, and persons willing to pay for them, as well as experienced seamen ready to man them.

Ten ships were purchased in the United States and manned by American and Canadian volunteers. These ships played a significant role in the post-World War II Aliya Bet fleet. From mid-1946 until May 1948, when Israel became an independent state, they carried some 33,000 refugees, about half of the refugees leaving Europe. These vessels, aside from two, were old; four were pre-WWI vintage. Yet four of them were to become the first warships of the nascent Israel Navy, and the two largest of the ten ships, the Pan York and the Pan Crescent, later joined the Zim Navigation Company's fleet.

Some 240 young men, mostly Jews, volunteered to man these ships. Some were recently demobilized WWII servicemen. Others were merchant seamen, a few with pre-WWII experience. Many were officers who had been trained in the academies and schools of the Navy or Merchant Marines. Quite a few had no sea experience or training at all.

The sixth President of Israel, Chaim Herzog, told a reunion of Aliya Bet volunteers in 1987, "Out of six million American Jews, it was you who jumped into the breach."

The "illegal" ships were:

The Josiah Wedgewood (originally the Beauharnois), a Canadian corvette; the Hagana (originally the Norsyd), also a Canadian corvette; the Haim Arlosoroff (originally the Ulua), a coast guard cutter from the 1920s; the Ben Hecht (originally the Abril), had been a private yacht, a smuggler's boat and a coast guard vessel; the Hatikva (originally the Tradewinds), a coast guard cutter; the Exodus 1947 (originally the President Garfield), a Chesapeake Bay excursion ferry; the Geula (originally the Paducah), a coast guard training vessel; the Jewish State (originally the Northland), a coast guard icebreaker; the Kibbutz Galuyot (originally the Pan York), a cargo vessel; the Atzmaut (originally the Pan Crescent), also a cargo vessel. An additional vessel, the Calanit (originally the Mala), had served as presidential yacht for Presidents Theodore Roosevelt to Herbert Hoover. She is not included in the roster of Aliya Bet ships, since she arrived on July 11, 1948, after the establishment of the state.

Each of these ships was eventually intercepted and captured by British forces. The refugees were interned in transit camps, initially in Atlit (in Palestine) and later in Cyprus. The 4,530 passengers of the Exodus 1947 were returned to Germany. An American volunteer, a mate on the ship, was clubbed to death on the Exodus 1947 by the British boarding party.

Overseas volunteers served on all fronts during the War of Independence; many fell in battle - at Ramat Rachel, Sejera, at Latrun, on the road to besieged Jerusalem, and in other places. Some units were almost exclusively MACHAL. Overseas volunteers also served on armored corps tanks, including two Cromwells which had been "lifted" from the British by two non-Jews who threw in their lot with the Jewish forces.

Almost every army unit - artillery, engineers, communications and radar and other technical groups - included MACHAL. There were MACHAL soldiers, in the fighting brigades Alexandroni, Golani, Givati, Etzioni, the Seventh, the Eighth and Ninth (Oded) Brigades, as well as in the Palmach brigades Harel, Yiftach and Hanegev.

The 7th Armored Brigade eventually had about 250 English-speaking MACHAL. It was commanded by Ben Dunkelman, a decorated WWII Canadian veteran who had previously been involved in the preparations of the "Burma Road" to Jerusalem and organized mortar support in the battles for the relief of besieged Jerusalem.

The 79th Armored Battalion, part of the 7th Brigade, was commanded by Canadian Joe Weiner. The 72nd Battalion included the non-Jewish company commander Derek Bowden, who, as a paratroop officer, had been taken prisoner and sent to Bergen-Belson concentration camp, because of letters found in his pockets from Palestinian Jewish friends.

Having been involved in battles at Latrun and Nazareth, the 7th Brigade also participated in Operation Hiram which included the capture of Meron, Gush Halav, Sasa, Malkiya, and Tarshiha.

Some outstanding officers were:

Col. David (Mickey) Marcus [nom de guerre, Michael (Mickey) Stone], a West Point graduate, was recruited at the end of 1947 as military adviser to Ben-Gurion and the Hagana. A Pentagon planner during WWII, Marcus had been commandant of the US army's Ranger school which developed innovative tactics for jungle fighting in Japan. He urged the clandestine Hagana to deal with the practical side of military organization, and personally wrote the training manuals for officers' courses for the army-to-be. He was convinced that the Jewish partisan fighters had the makings of a first class army.

During the fighting in the Negev, the hit-and-run night raid tactics he initiated kept the Egyptian army off balance. He was in the forefront of the heroic effort to build the "Burma Road" to Jerusalem. Appointed Commander of the Jerusalem Front by Ben-Gurion, with the rank of Aluf (Major-Gen.), he led four brigades and planned the strategy for a combined operation which eventually freed the beleaguered capital and changed the outcome of the war. Tragically, on June 10, 1948, two weeks after his appointment, only hours before a UN negotiated cease-fire went into effect, Marcus was mistakenly killed by a sentry.

Captain Thadée Difre (Teddy Eytan), a French Catholic, joined the IDF after a long career as an officer in the French army under Generals De Gaulle and LeClerc. He established the French Commando unit, which took part in the battles in the south of the country during the War of Independence. Among the unit's successes were a battle against the Egyptians on the Rafiah-El Arish road, paving of the way for Israel's tanks northeast of Be'er Sheva.

Sgan Aluf (Lt. Col.) Shaul Ramati, born in Poland, served as a Captain in the British Army and the Jewish Brigade between 1943-47. He arrived in Israel in 1948, served as a company commander, and was twice wounded.

In November 1947, the Hagana set up Sherut Avir (Air Service), a forerunner of the Israel Air Force. Though many Palestinian Jews had volunteered and fought in British units against the Nazis, few had been accepted by the RAF for aircrew training, and there was a severe lack of trained personnel.

This gap was filled by MACHAL, who served as pilots, navigators, radio operators, bombardiers, air gunners, aerial photographers and bomb-chuckers. After Sherut Avir became the Israel Air Force in May 1948, some 70% of its aircrew personnel throughout the war were MACHAL.

Most squadron commanders, pilots, and senior operations officers, as well as training command, maintenance, engineering and radar specialists, photo intelligence and technical personnel were MACHAL. The training of pilots, both in Israel and abroad, was accomplished almost exclusively by MACHAL.

During the War of Independence, 19 MACHAL aircrew members were killed or went missing in action. Six of the seven IAF fliers who were taken prisoner by Egypt were MACHAL.

Some of the earliest air force volunteers were:

Harry (Freddy) Fredkins, an ex-RAF pilot, was sent to Europe in late 1947 on Ben-Gurion's instructions to acquire aircraft. His acquisitions included the light transport airplanes which later provided the crucial air link to isolated Sodom on the southern end of the Dead Sea.

Jack Freedman (Freddy Ish-Shalom) of Great Britain covertly gave assistance to Sherut Avir while still a member of the RAF. In February 1948, he joined Sherut Avir and provided essential expertise in airplane engineering, maintenance and overhauling. He managed to restore most of the 20 ex-RAF Auster planes which had been bought as scrap, and initiated and supervised a team which built the IDF's first Spitfire from scrap left behind by the British. He also trained many of the young aircraft mechanics who later assumed key positions.

Boris Senior, an ex-South African Air Force World War II pilot, joined Sherut Avir in December 1947 and soon after was sent to South Africa to recruit air and ground personnel and to acquire aircraft. He purchased DC-3 medium transports and other aircraft; set up a dummy airline to facilitate the transfer of planes; test-flew the IAF's first Spitfire; served as a fighter pilot with the 101 Squadron; and held important staff positions.

Al Shwimmer, an ex-TWA flight engineer and licensed pilot, was responsible for buying planes and recruiting airmen in the US. He acquired a number of C-46s and other heavy transport planes; played a key role in organizing the IAF's Air Transport Command and its air bridge from Czechoslovakia to Israel. He then served as O.C. of the IAF's Engineering and Maintenance Wing.

The new State of Israel needed a Navy to protect its Mediterranean coast and insure access of supply vessels to its ports. Israel had no experienced naval officers. MACHAL was vital in founding Israel's navy.

Most notable among the founders was Paul N. Shulman, a US Naval Academy graduate with WWII combat experience in the Pacific. In 1947, he resigned from the US Navy and joined the Aliya Bet staff, assisting in purchasing and refurbishing vessels. Then, in May 1948, David Ben-Gurion asked Shulman to come to Israel to assist in the organization and establishment of the Navy. Shulman was appointed Commander of the Israel Navy in October 1948 and served in that capacity until March 1949, when he was appointed Naval and Maritime Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Among other MACHAL naval officers were:

David Baum, a US Merchant Marine Academy graduate, an Aliya Bet veteran, was Engineering officer on K18 and K28; Marvin Broder, a US Navy officer, was active in damage control training; Allen Burke, a former Corvette commander, became commander of one of Israel's first frigates; David DeLange, former skipper of British motor torpedo boats, organized Israel's coastal patrols; Ben De Roy, a US Navy officer, was active in shipboard communications and radar; Saunder Finard, a US Navy submariner, became chief of operations; Jonathan Leff, an experienced gunnery officer, graduated from Annapolis, the US Naval Academy; Harvey Miller was a former R.N. Destroyer captain and radar expert; Dick Rosenberg, an experienced US Navy combatant communication and operations officer, headed the communications and electronics section at Israel Navy HQ.

The ratio of physicians to population in the yishuv in 1948 was exceptionally high; but most of these doctors were no longer young, and only a few had military experience.

Seventy-four doctors came to the newly founded state as MACHAL. The largest number was from South Africa; others came from Britain, the USA, Canada, South America, Switzerland and Spanish Morocco. They served as commanders of wartime field hospitals, as specialists in trauma, orthopedics and plastic surgery, as internists and as psychiatrists. Most brigade and battalion medical officers were MACHAL. In addition to the doctors, some 25 nurses, and pharmacists, dentists, physiotherapists and bacteriologists served in the Medical Corps.

Among the outstanding MACHAL in the Medical Corps were:

Dr. Leo (Arye) Bornstein was the first MACHAL physician to arrive. As an experienced battlefront surgeon, he commanded Military Hospital No. 2 in the Galilee, before the establishment of the State, and later served as a surgeon in Military Hospital No. 10.

Dr. Menachem Brand, a Lt. Col. in the British Army, founded and commanded the Hygiene Training School of the IDF.

Dr. Norman Cohen, who had served in the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps), was the senior psychiatrist of Military Psychiatric Hospital No. 1.

Dr. Jack Medalie, a South African, was surgeon to the Third Battalion, and to the Palmach's Yiftach Brigade.

Dr. Lionel Meltzer, who had been a Colonel with the South African Army and was awarded the Military Cross, was in charge of planning and personnel at Medical Corps HQ.

Dr. Louis Miller, a South African, established the Israel Air Force Psychiatric Service.

Dr. Solomon Morley-Dahan, of Spanish Morocco, served as a doctor in a battalion of Druze and Circassian troops in 1948. In October 1948, he was killed by enemy fire while caring for a wounded soldier.

Dr. Isaiah Morris received the Military Cross while serving in the RAMC, and after the war, volunteered as a physician in displaced persons camps in southern France, where refugees awaited transport to Palestine. After a period of internment in Cyprus, he arrived in Israel in the spring of 1948 and was appointed Chief Medical Officer of the Golani Brigade. In June 1948, he was killed by a mortar shell while caring for wounded soldiers at Sejera.

Dr. Max Goldberg, a Swiss volunteer, was seriously wounded by the same shell. Dr. Goldberg had volunteered together with his wife Hilde, a qualified nurse, as a husband and wife team for Golani.

Mildred Schlumschlag of New York, a physiotherapist, arrived on board the Pan York. Released by the British after the establishment of the State, she set up and supervised Israel's first center for the treatment of paraplegics in Military Hospital No. 5, which later became the Tel Hashomer Medical Center.

Dr. Ellis (Eliyahu) Vior, who had extensive RAMC experience, refined the IDF's procedure for clearing casualties from the front lines.

Dr. Simon Winter, who had served in the RAMC, became the IAF's Chief Medical Officer.

The MACHAL monument at Sha'ar Hagai commemorating the 119 overseas volunteers who lost their lives in Israel's struggle for independence.

Over the years, a constant stream of volunteers from all over the world have continued to come to Israel to serve in all branches of the IDF, many in combat units; several have died in action.

MACHAL veterans living abroad maintain close ties with Israel through World MACHAL and its affiliates in many countries. World MACHAL affiliates built the MACHAL Monument at Sha'ar Hagai to commemorate the 119 overseas volunteers who lost their lives in Israel's struggle for independence. At the dedication ceremony, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin acknowledged MACHAL's contribution to the successful outcome of the war. He said: "They came to us when we most needed them, during those hard and uncertain days of our 1948 War of Independence."