There are only a few people who can qualify for nomination as "the person most responsible for the State of Israel being". One of those people is Rudolph G.Sonneborn. The only place you will ever read about him and his unique group, "the Sonneborn Institute", is in The Pledge. Leonard Slater "found" him and tells us of his importance in the creation of The State of Israel in this most important, most unbelievable, but absolutely true story. Everyone interested in Israel should read this book and know not only the facinating story, but learn about Rudolf G.Sonnnborn, one of the most important, yet most private of men, in Jewish history.

Fascinating account of an unpublicized story about weapons purchases in the US and the origin of the State of Israel. Although non-fiction, The Pledge reads like a spy thriller. The book provides an interesting backdrop to today's far more challenging questions, and reminds us that Israel was once the underdog.

"The story of an incredible aand dramatic race against time -- to providea state not yet born with an army that was still illegal -- is told in one of the most suspenseful works of historey ever published. It was an Force was supplied with Nazi fighter planes, bought from Communst Czechoslovakia with dolllars solicited from an American real-estate magnate on the urging of a Socialist farmer, who ran this amateur undeerground operating out of the Hotel 14, a Manhattan hotel known for its high-kicking chorus girls, packed appearances by Frank Sinatra and its little old ladies.

When it was first published by Random House in June 1965, ALY, my biography of Prince Aly Khan, was an instant success. It appeared just as a new concept of morality was taking over from the Puritanism that had inhibited the USA from its earliest days. Sex had been something that consenting adults didn't discuss in public, contraceptives had been sold under the counter. and books and movies about sex were censored, if not banned. But a new day was dawning in America, demanded by younger people, spurred by the invention of The Pill. TV networks began to take Elvis Presley's pelvic gyrations for granted. "Hair," a musical with lots of nudism was a hit on Broadway. Playboy magazine was sold openly on newsstands. The success of my book ALY was part of that new frankness.

It was chosen by Helen Gurley Brown to be featured in the first issue of Cosmopolitan she edited. The reborn Cosmo was the first women's magazine designed for the new American young woman -- liberated and sophisticated -- who wanted to read something more exciting than recipes and dress patterns. ALY was favorably reviewed in Newsweek, where I had worked for years. It made Time magazine's list of bestsellers. I had worked there too. It was syndicated to newspapers all over the country, none of which I had ever worked for. Most surprising of all the reviews was the favorable endorsement that appeared in The Atlantic, then the most staid of magazines, edited and published in Boston. Eventually ALY appeared in five foreign editions, including Japanese. Now it's back again, for a new and wiser generation. It's still fun reading.