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Blind Jump: The Story of Shaike Dan by Amos Ettinger (169,000 words, 26 illustrations)

Shaike Dan was one of thirty-two Jews from Palestine who volunteered to parachute behind enemy lines in Romania on behalf of British Intelligence during World War II. Some of them parachuted into Yugoslavia, linked up with partisan forces, and stole across frontiers with the help of local smugglers. Many of these volunteers were caught and some of them never returned. Shaike Dan decided on a “blind jump,” so as not to depend on smugglers. Ever since that first jump, Shaike Dan’s life has been a series of “blind jumps.” Through the friends he made during the war, who over the years became key figures in the security services of Eastern European countries, he had access to the highest levels of those Communist regimes. Thus began his remarkable career of rescuing Jews from behind the Iron Curtain, and shipping weapons clandestinely to the new State of Israel.

“This is the story of the amazing exploits of Shaike Dan, who volunteered during World War II to parachute behind enemy lines in Romania on behalf of British Intelligence. His jump had two objectives: (1) to locate the prison camp where 1,400 Allied Air Force crewmen were being held and (2) to try rescuing Jews from Eastern Europe and getting them to Palestine. With the publication of his life’s story, the curtain goes up on the astounding tale of a modern-day Pimpernel.” — Menorah Review

“In 1935, youthful Zionist Shaike Dan left his Romanian village for life on a Palestinian kibbutz. Almost a decade later, at British request, he parachuted behind Nazi lines to rescue prisoners and facilitate the mass departure of East European Jews for the Promised Land. Relying primarily on Dan’s own words and recollections, the author then turns to post-war Israel, where his subject’s contacts, chutzpah, and organizational legerdemain became crucial in supplying the emerging nation with both population and weaponry.” — Mark R. Yerburgh, Library Journal