
In 1969 Lionel Hodes, General Secretary of the South African Zionist Federation and a Machalnik. commissioned journalist, Henry Katzew to research and record the story of South African Jewry’s participation in Machal. Although completed in 1975, Katzew's research was never published.
In May 1997, after Maurice Ostroff, Machalnik, saw the original manuscript, he and fellow volunteers worked together to update and expand the manuscript. This resulted in the publication ‘South Africa’s 800. The Story of South African Volunteers in Israel’s War of Birth. Henry Katzew 1998’. It was compiled and produced by Maurice Ostroff and his wife Marcia Ostroff, and edited by Joe Woolf, Malchalnik.
The website World Machal https://www.machal.org.il/ contains comprehensive information regarding the South Africans volunteers as does Facebook. The book, ‘Seventy Years of Southern African Aliyah. A Story of Achievement’ published in 1992 by Philip Gillon also commemorates the Machalnicks. This project is to commemorate the volunteers who contributed to Machal.
The book is available for downloading https://www.machal.org.il/about-machal/south-africas-800-by-henry-k...