The Woman Who Fought an Empire
Sarah Aaronsohn and Her Nili Spy Ring
Gregory J. Wallance (Author)
9781640126763
Paperback / softback, published 1 November 2025
328 pages, 18 photographs, 2 maps, index
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg
“Gregory J. Wallance’s beautifully written and meticulously researched account of Sarah Aaronsohn’s leadership of the Nili spy network during World War I casts a long overdue spotlight on one of the most fascinating personalities of the early Zionist era and should be required reading for anyone interested in modern Jewish history.”-Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress
“Wallance’s narrative shifts artfully between the macrocosmic events swirling around the world between 1915 and 1917 and the microcosmic struggles of the Nili spy ring to gain traction. . . . This is a book written with a great deal of nuance, refreshingly avoiding all hyperbole, sensationalism, and mythmaking about both Sarah and Nili.”-Joseph Lowin, Hadassah Magazine
"Wallance also reminds the reader that these were not just spies, but bright, ambitious twenty-somethings with their own desires, both personal and professional. The dynamics of the group provide a fascinating undercurrent to the plot. It was a tight group, but certainly not without its drama, romantic and otherwise."-Amy Oringel, Jewish Book Council
"Wallance's saga is a fascinating, entirely readable entry into the history of the Nili spy ring, a group of Jews who spied for the British in hopes of aiding in the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. Aaronsohn, the leader of the operation, was motivated by witnessing the Armenian genocide on her way from Constantinople to her hometown of Zichron Ya'acov. She feared a similar fate would befall Jews under the Ottomans, and set out to do her part to influence regime change. . . . Wallance leaves readers marveling at her accomplishments and wondering, intentionally or not, what more she could have accomplished with colleagues more like herself."-Ariane Mandell, Jerusalem Post
"Wallance's narrative allows Sarah to step out of the shadow of her famous brother and her headstrong colleagues, showcasing her intense focus and sense of duty to her fellow Jews."-Amy Newman Smith, Jewish Review of Books
"The story of how a multilingual Sarah presided over a circle of information gatherers and provided information to the English intelligence service that resulted in the defeat of the Turks is a riveting narrative."-Aron Row, Seattle Book Review
"Wallance vividly conveys the logistical challenges and daily intrigue of operating a spy ring in that time and place."-Jeff Fleischer, Foreword
"A remarkable story, well told."-A. A. Nofi, Strategy Page
“A solid, well-researched biography of a remarkable woman.”-Ronald Florence, author of Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T. E. Lawrence, Aaron Aaronsohn, and the Seeds of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in Biography
Though she only lived to be twenty-seven, Sarah Aaronsohn led a remarkable life. The Woman Who Fought an Empire tells the improbable but true odyssey of a bold young woman-the daughter of Romanian-born Jewish settlers in Palestine-who became the daring leader of a Middle East spy ring.
Amid the outbreak of World War I, Aaronsohn learned that her brother Aaron had formed Nili, an anti-Turkish spy ring, to aid the British in their war against the Ottomans. Aaronsohn, who had witnessed the atrocities of the Armenian genocide by the Turks, believed that only the defeat of the Ottoman Empire could save the Palestinian Jews from a similar fate. She joined Nili, eventually rising to become the organization’s leader, and she and her spies furnished vital information to British intelligence in Cairo about the Turkish military forces until she was caught and tortured by the Turks in the fall of 1917. The Woman Who Fought an Empire, set at the birth of the modern Middle East, is an espionage thriller that rebukes the Hollywood stereotype of women spies as femmes fatales.
Acknowledgments
A Note on Terminology
Major Characters
Introduction
1. I Will Be Really Happy When I Am Home
2. Two Cannot Take Three Places-What Is Missing Is Missing
3. Don’
t You Feel That a New Generation Is Born?
4. What Sights Her Eyes Have Seen
5. They Must Attack Immediately
6. The Wait
7. Aaron Aaronsohn’
s Journey
8. One of Your Men Came across the Desert
9. What about Avshalom?
10. Black Nights
11. What I Have Done, I Have Done Purely for My People and My Country
12. To Sarah
13. We Are Watched by a Thousand Eyes
14. Everywhere I Turn I Feel His Absence
15. The Situation Is Getting Worse
16. She Is Worth a Hundred Men
17. The Boys Will Turn into Green Crowned Date Palms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
