Flight to the Promised Land

It is a rugged experience for a boy to watch his family cling stubbornly to old, nearly barbaric customs while he himself adjusts to a new modern world. Time had "stopped" during the Middle Ages in the land of Yemen where Shalom and his family lived, unaware of the mechanized, high-powered world beyond. Here the ews were treated as if they had the plague, so when word came that the state of Israel had been established, a mass exodus occurred. Among the many journeyers were Shalom and his family. In Israel, the twelve year old boy left home to live in a kibbutz with other boys where he would learn modern methods of farming, of thinking, and of living. The Swedish author who wrote another fine book, Dangerous Journey (1961, p. 112, J-40), has etched out a sensitive, convincing picture; the book was formed from a true story which the author heard from a Jew-- the Shalom of the tale-- in Israel. The translator, Annabelle Macmillan, is to be commended for her smoothly executed work.