The collection under review is the seventh in a series on the subject of the training farms (kibbutzei ha-hakhshara) in those parts of Poland formerly under Russian rule. Like them, it consists of a wide range of contributions, such as recently written reminiscences, authentic source material, excerpts from the press, minutes from meetings of organizations, letters from party activists, and so on. The volume also has a lengthy introduction which successfully places Dror and the movements which established it, namely Freiheit and he-Halutz ha-Tsa'ir, in the wider context of Jewish Galicia.

The contributions are not of uniform quality. The memoirs, written decades after the events, must be treated with circumspection, in part due to their sometimes nostalgic and sentimental tone. On the other hand, the older sources published here are of considerable importance. They are certain to help constitute a basis for future work on the history of the Jews in the region.

The volume offers further evidence, if more was really needed, of the importance of the regional traditions in the life of Polish Jewry, even when all parts of the country were united within the framework of the new Polish state. This was the result of the specific development of the various parts of Poland under the rule of the occupying power, which established the distinctive character of the Jewish settlements in the different regions. This tradition proved too strong to be overcome even within the new political framework, and, as a result, all attempts at unification on the part of the Zionist or other Jewish organizations failed. Such regional differences had their impact on the political disagreements of the Jewish representatives in the Sejms (which did much to weaken their impact), on the character of the pioneer movement and on the Zionist youth movements, where tensions between western and eastern Galician Jewry were abiding and significant.

Dror was established in 1929 as a kibbutz training farm shared by two movements, Freiheit and he-Halutz ha-Tsa ‘ir. The former was the youth movement of that part of the Po'alei, (ion that refused to embrace rapprochement with the Comintern and which established an independent movement in 1920. Freiheit was intended to train the movement's young recruits.