Without Permission: Conversations, Letters, and Memoirs of Henry Mandel

A fantastical propaganda play depicting an armed revolt financed the purchase of the yacht Abril and its conversion to an "illegal" immigrant passenger ship renamed the Ben Hecht. The plan was to evade the British naval blockade and bring Holocaust survivor refugees to Palestine. Henry Mandel volunteered aboard the Ben Hecht, a converted yacht that challenged the British blockade of Jewish immigrants to pre-state Israel. Captured and detained in Acre Prison, Mandel aided the efforts of prisoners planning an escape. After release, Mandel helped set up a secret bazooka shell plant in New York, which he helped to reassemble in Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Mandel was an Orthodox Jew whose reminiscences provide a uniquely illuminating perspective on the creation of the Jewish state. Mandel's story is explicated in a running commentary that includes the personal narratives of other members of the Ben Hecht crew as well as historical background.

About the Author :
Samuel Flaks is a grandson of Henry Mandel. He is currently an attorney who lives in New York City with his wife and young daughter.

Review :
"You've probably never heard of Henry Mandel. Neither had I until I read Without Permission... A machinist who died in New York City in 2015, Mandel was an ardent American Zionist who helped create Israel's arms industry and challenged Britain's ban on Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine. ... Without Permission... covers Mandel's career in workmanlike fashion. Mandel was a rare individual, a man of conviction and action who selflessly devoted himself to a cause higher than himself." -- Sheldon Kirshner, Times of Israel "Without Permission is one of those rare achievements that succeeds in twinning painstaking historical research with a compelling personal story. Flaks welcomes the reader into the remarkable life of his grandfather Henry Mandel, a man of courage who served as a Merchant Marine and a volunteer sailor aboard the S.S. Ben Hecht, a ship that sought to challenge the British ban on Jewish emigration to Palestine. Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, oral history and interviews, archival documents, letters and speeches, and significant original research, Flaks' book offers a personal perspective on those complicated moments at the dawn of modern Israel. He demonstrates that Mandel and his fellow crewmen 'struck a significant blow against the British Empire and its imperialist policy of denying the Holocaust survivors of Europe a permanent home and national self-determination.' Joining personal narratives and testimonies with superb historical contextualization, Without Permission is a must-read for anyone interested in the American Jewish experience and the founding of Israel!" --Ariel Evan Mayse, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University