Joseph Blumenthal

Joseph Blumenthal is one of the main characters in the novel The Hope by Herman Wouk. He is more commonly known as "Yossi," and also as "Don Kishote" (Hebrew for Don Quixote). Americans call him "Joe" and Yiddish-speakers call him "Yussele." He earns his "Don Kishote" nickname when he appears at the Battle of Latrun. Tall, lanky, bespectacled, wearing an old rusty British helmet, riding a muddy mule, using a broomstick as a goad, he indeed looks like Don Quixote—only a lot younger. He is sixteen (which means he was born in 1932), but claims to be eighteen. Born in Poland, he survives the Holocaust and makes his way to Israel by way of Cyprus. He impulsively volunteers to fight in the 1947–1949 Palestine war and is assigned as driver and aide-de-camp to Zev Barak, who in turn is aide and liaison to Mickey Marcus. Zev and Yossi enter the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem through tunnels. Kishote, living up to his nickname, quixotically volunteers to help defend the besieged quarter. The defenders, overwhelmingly outnumbered and outgunned, are soon forced to surrender. A massacre is prevented by the presence of British officers and of the Red Cross, but all the synagogues of the Old City are blown up and destroyed by the Arab Legion. Meanwhile, Yossi, who is blessed with excellent spatial memory, escapes through the same tunnels through which he entered the Old City and is not part of the surrender. His next assignment is to carry sacks of flour to relieve the siege of Jerusalem. After this he returns to his job as Zev Barak's driver. Not long afterwards, however, he enters a unit commanded by Moshe Dayan and is given a lightning course on artillery. As the gunner of an armored vehicle, he is a very important element in Dayan's takeover of the towns of Lydda and Ramleh. Over the next few years, Joseph grows from tall and lanky to big and muscular, and becomes a member of Israel's most distinguished elite combat unit, the Paratroopers Brigade. He performs acts of great heroism during the 1956 war, in which Israel clears the Sinai of Palestinian terrorists and Egyptian armies, and restores freedom of navigation through the Gulf of Aqaba.