But is history what matters about the text? Silver answers with "a resounding 'yes and no.'" As he explains: "No, errors and truths contained in Exodus's telling of the history of the founding of the Jewish state are not crucially significant because Uris's novel was not ultimately about the 'real' Israel. In the introduction Silver writes that what little scholarly literature there is on Uris and Exodus is marked by a pedantic focus on details of historical accuracy-what Uris got right and what he got wrong. Silver's Our Exodus, the need for such exposition might be a thing of the past. Few, however, dwell overlong on how or why this text came to be so important in that capacity. Many historians of American Judaism make a point to mention the importance and impact of Leon Uris' Exodus, and of the 1960 film adaptation starring Paul Newman, on the formation of American Jewish attitudes toward Israel.
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