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“In these ghettos something strange happened. Instead of dying slowly, the faith and culture of the Jews deepened and their numbers multiplied. Sealed off forcibly as they were from the outside world, the Jews turned more and more to the laws of Moses for guidance, and these laws became a powerful binding force among them.”
Dov’s story begins in Book 1, Chapter Twenty-Two. The Landaus live in Poland, which has a long history of persecuting Jewish people. Even before World War II, the Jewish people are marginalized and oppressed, but they lean on their faith to help them endure. The Jewish faith and culture become a binding force among people who have been dispersed to all parts of the world. It is something they have in common no matter where they are from, because their faith has often flourished in hardship, just as it does in the Polish ghettos. The same determination that keeps the law of Moses alive in the ghettos is the one that later blooms in the barren lands of Palestine and on its battlefields during the War of Liberation. Even though most of the new Israelis are not overtly religious, they have a deep respect for their religious history and an almost mystical connection to the land of Israel. Maintaining their freedom becomes their new religious quest.
“There was more. Divine inspiration, the destiny foretold by the ancient prophets, the heritage of a people who had fought for their freedom before, the tradition of King David and Bar Giora and Bar Kochba, strength and faith from an unseen source—these, too, stopped the Arabs.”
In Book 4, Chapter Nine, Uris contemplates the unlikely success of the Israelis in their War of Liberation, stating that there were several factors involved in the Israeli victory. For example, the Arab forces were large, but they were disunified, and while the British hurt the Israelis in certain instances, they helped in others. Uris, though, is inclined to think there was a higher power at play, and he expresses this belief here. Throughout their long exile, the Jewish people always relied on God to protect them and eventually bring them back to Israel. When they finally return to Palestine, they toil for decades before they can declare their independence. Even then, they have to fight for their land. But the Israelis are infused with an indomitable faith throughout the entire novel. God has always helped them before, and they are sure He will again. When they are rewarded for their sustained faith and win the war, they are quick to offer God the praise, certain that He had a hand in the victory. In Uris' book, the Israelites see a free Israel as their birth right, and now God has provided it for them.
