The Lonely Tree

Fiction. Jewish Studies. Tonia moves with her family from Poland to British Mandate Palestine, first to her uncle's small apartment in Tel Aviv and later to the kibbutz that her father Josef helped to establish. Due to the hardships of life in the kibbutz and against the backdrop of what is happening in Nazi-occupied Europe, she longs for security and comfort. Amos is a handsome and exotic Yemenite who fights in the Jewish underground, to which Tonia's father is vehemently opposed. Despite their different backgrounds, Tonia and Amos fall in love.This budding romance is interrupted by the siege of Tonia's home, Kfar Etzion. Tonia finally achieves her dream and moves to Michigan in the US, hoping her family will follow her. But is this where she belongs? The desperate fight is described very movingly and it is the first fictionalized account of the true story of the siege and fall of the Etzion Bloc.