The untimely death of her cousin Jacob Rayman, in the Yom Kippur War, moved Hallie to travel to Israel to learn about the battle where he fell. The product of that search was,
Crying For Imma: Battling For The Soul On The Golan Heights.
The book has been widely reviewed and acclaimed in the world press. The Los Angeles Times praised “Its intimacy” saying that it is “as much a loving memorial as it is a document of war,” and The Jerusalem Report stated, “The effect is complete and overpowering.” The book was reviewed in The Washington Post, Hadassah magazine. Amit Magazine, nearly every major Jewish Journal newspaper around the country. In New York City, the book was featured on the cover page of the Metropolitan Jewish Journal. It was reviewed in Moment Magazine, and The Jerusalem Report magazine gave it a three -page spread.
Hallie traveled around the United Sates and Israel for over two and a half years lecturing on Crying For Imma. Barnes and Noble Booksellers hosted her around the country. She has lectured with a slide show presentation at nearly a hundred and fifty synagogues, churches, Jewish community centers, Jewish organizations, and meetings of Friends of the IDF . Her reception in Israel was dramatic and requests poured in for interviews on radio and television. The Embassy of the State of Israel, Washington, D.C. hosted her as a keynote speaker. Hallie also lectured at West Point Academy on Crying For Imma. Her book was given to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Wye Conference and more recently to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. Crying For Imma is currently being made into a documentary film.
In 1973, on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – Syrian forces advanced without warning on a rocky stretch of Israel’s northeast border known as the Golan Heights. Years earlier, during the Six Day War of 1967, the State of Israel had successfully captured this critical region while combating Syrian attack. This time, the Israel Defense Forces would face, and eventually overcome, an even more severe martial onslaught that for a few tense days threatened the very survival of the State.
With dramatic sweep and poignant intimacy, Crying For Imma: Battling for the Soul on Golan Heights recounts the invasion and defense of Tel Saki, a small outpost on the Golan Heights where the Yom Kippur War began in patriotism and tragedy. Presented through remarkable words and images that tell stories of bravery, camaraderie, loss and perserverance, the battle for Tel Saki emerges as a microcosm of war’s horrific destruction and complex personal entanglements.
Much more than a strictly factual account of military maneuvers or a glorified retelling of battlefield heroics, Crying for Imma sensitively reveals the all-too-human intricacies and consequences of wartime experience. By weaving the reflective first-person accounts of Israeli soldiers with archival battle snapshots, photographic portraits and her own poetic prose, author Hallie Lerman adds layers of intellectual and emotional meaning to the historic events she so eloquently reconstructs. Lerman’s chronicle of young men-among them Menachem Amsbacher, Shlomo Avital, Yair Yoram, Avigdor Kahalani and her beloved cousin, Jacob Rayman – fighting for their young country is a stirring story of specific people and places, and of universal truths.
As a passionate statement regarding the devastation of war and soldiers’ indomitable spirit, Lerman’s singular testimony adds an important new chapter
to Middle Eastern history. Arriving 25 years after the battle of Tel Saki, and resonating anew in the wake of Israel’s recent fiftieth anniversary, Crying for Imma is a valiant, brutal, beautiful and necessary reminder of all that has been lost and gained in the struggle of the Jewish people for their homeland.
Through photographs that depict moments of precious, whose lives, frozen before the unimaginable catastrophe, and pictures of the sites of brutal suffering, paralyzing fear and unparalleled courage; through the words of those haunted still by the experiences that forever altered their lives and the life of their country; and through her own lyrical deeply-felt commentary on the Yom Kippur War and its victims and survivors, Hallie Lerman has made known the universal. –
The New Jersey Jewish News, September 24, 1998
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{Your book} is a sensitive tribute to the great sacrifice we made in securing our northern gateway – and one that should always be remembered.
Benjamin Netanyahu (Former Prime Minister of The State of Israel)
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The strength of Crying For Imma is its intimacy. … The stories, which move chronologically through the fighting and its continuing aftermath, are detailed and emotional. The description of the fear and frenzy of battle, of maiming and death – juxtaposed with photos of the soldiers alive and well, often smiling, just days away from battle – are chilling.
Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1998
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The effect is complete and overpowering.
The Jerusalem Report
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Crying For Imma, an oral and visual history that transcends the tragedy of one man and transforms it into a universal story of loss as it was felt by an army and a nation. … Lerman reads the stolen moments frozen on film with the expert eye of a photographer.
The Jerusalem Post October, 1998
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Lerman has made an immensely important contribution by writing this book. The luminescent beauty of the photographs, the exquisite prose through which they come alive, the quotations from Aeschylus, Wordsworth, Bialik and C.J. Jung, make this much more than a pretty coffee table book, though it is that at the least. Read it and see why. You will not forget it anytime soon, if ever.
Jewish World, February 2000, William Helmreich, professor of sociology and Judaic studies at CCNY and CUNY
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This book has a different approach to war. … Lerman has built her book in layers, between them are captured quotations and poems. … The interweaving of her portraits and photographs with archival shots and personal photos …escalates the tension I feel as I turn the book’s pages. Lerman’s text is both poetic and poignant.
Amit Magazine, Fall 1999 Patricia Israel
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Through photographs that depict moments of precious, whole lives, frozen before the unimaginable catastrophe, and pictures of the sites of brutal suffering, paralyzing fear and unparalleled courage; … and through her own lyrical, deeply-felt commentary on the Yom Kippur War and its victims and survivors, Hallie Lerman has made known the universal.
Jewish Federation of Central NJ, September, 1998
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Crying For Imma is a passionate and poetic work that reflects the agony of a single battle at Tel Saki. The soldiers who suffered there – and who died there- become real in pictgures and reminiscences. Hallie Lerman has transmuted her love and her pain into a work of art.
David Wolpe, Rabbi of Sinai Temple, Los Angeles
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Lerman provides an accurate impression of the doubts, fears, resolve and faith of the soldiers whose human stories she locates behind battle schemes and war metals. This story helps us to understand why one side or the other wins when war becomes inevitable.
Major General Stephen Nichols, U.S. Army (Ret.)
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Lerman’s photographs are made with intimacy and love, characteristics that need to be applied to any discussion of war. The book’s real strength is its synergy – words and images come together as an absolute reminder of the totality of loss.
Arthur Ollman, Director, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
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This book is a must for every collection of Jewish history.
Jewish Public Library, Toronto, Canada