Vocabulary in Exodus

The immigration of Jews to the land of Israel, regarded as a spiritual ascent or return to the homeland. In this novel it refers specifically to organized waves of Jewish settlers moving to Palestine.

The principal underground Jewish defense organization in British-controlled Palestine before Israeli statehood, responsible for protecting Jewish settlements and later organizing armed resistance.

A collective farming community in Palestine/Israel where members share labor, property, and resources equally, organized along cooperative socialist principles.

A cooperative agricultural village in Palestine/Israel where families each work their own land but share equipment and marketing, distinct from the fully collective kibbutz.

The elite strike force of the Haganah, composed of full-time trained fighters who lived communally and carried out offensive operations against both Arab forces and the British.

A militant Zionist underground organization that used guerrilla and terrorist tactics against the British in Palestine, operating separately from and more aggressively than the Haganah.

The League of Nations authority granted to Britain after World War I to administer Palestine, giving Britain legal control over the territory and its population.

Short for 'displaced person,' a European Jew left homeless and stateless after the Holocaust, typically held in Allied-run camps while awaiting resettlement.

The British naval and military effort to prevent ships carrying Jewish refugees from reaching the shores of Palestine, turning back or seizing illegal immigrant vessels.

A British government policy document, specifically the 1939 one, that severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jewish land purchases, effectively closing off a refuge during the Holocaust.

In this novel, the name given to a group of young Jewish fighters, evoking the ancient Jewish warriors who revolted against oppressive foreign rule and reclaimed their homeland.

In this novel, Jewish fighters of fierce and uncompromising dedication to the cause of statehood, echoing the ancient Jewish sect that resisted Roman occupation to the death.

An organized, often state-sanctioned massacre or violent persecution of Jewish communities, historically carried out in Eastern Europe and Russia.

A walled or sealed-off urban district in Nazi-occupied Europe where Jews were forcibly confined under brutal conditions before deportation to concentration camps.

The political and cultural movement advocating for the establishment and support of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine, the ideological driving force behind the novel's characters.

A Jew born in Palestine/Israel, as opposed to one who immigrated; the word also refers to a thorny cactus fruit, suggesting toughness outside and sweetness within.

A detention facility, in this novel operated by the British on Cyprus, where Jewish refugees intercepted trying to reach Palestine were held behind wire under guard.

The United Nations 1947 plan to divide Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, a central political event around which the novel's climax turns.

In this novel, both the name of the refugee ship carrying Jewish survivors to Palestine and a symbol of the biblical escape from bondage, linking modern Jewish refugees to ancient liberation.

Nazi facilities where Jews and others were imprisoned, used for forced labor, and systematically murdered during the Holocaust; survivors of these camps are central characters in the novel.

The network of secret Jewish resistance organizations operating covertly against British rule in Palestine, including the Haganah, Palmach, and Irgun.

Palestine as the biblical and spiritual homeland promised by God to the Jewish people, used throughout the novel to express the settlers' religious and national longing.