Smolenskin, Peretz. Nekam Berit. With an introduction by Reuven Brainin.

This semi-autobiographical tale, one of the first Zionist novels, tells the story of an assimilated young man, who after witnessing the debasement of his national honor following the Russian pogroms, returns to his people and becomes a Zionist. A critic of the Chassidic world in which he was educated, Smolenskin (1840-85) was a leading novelist and publicist for Jewish nationalism.