The Underground Engineer

The untold story of Jenka Ratner-brilliant inventor, fearless resistance fighter, and the founding father of Israel's defense industry.

Long before the world knew the name Iron Dome, and before Rafael became a global symbol of technological defense, there was one man whose vision made it all possible: Colonel Evgeni "Jenka" Ratner.

Born in 1909 to Russian Jewish revolutionaries and raised in the chaos of war, Jenka arrived in Palestine a wild, headstrong boy with an unmatched mind for engineering-and a passion for resistance. By day, he worked for the British-owned IPC refineries. By night, he built weapons for the underground Haganah, intent on sabotaging the very empire he served.

Then came World War II. The British Navy, unaware of his double life, recruited him to lead a secret team in England that would develop one of the war's most decisive anti-submarine weapons: the SQUID mortar. When the war ended, he faked illness to escape their grip and return home.

In Tel Aviv, under the guise of an art studio, he established the Science Corps-a covert research unit that would evolve into Rafael. From its shadowy origins, Jenka trained a new generation of defense engineers-known as Jenka's Boys-and developed weapons systems still shrouded in secrecy today.

Told with the pace of a spy thriller and the sweep of a historical epic, The Underground Engineer is a dramatic true story of a forgotten hero, an inventor who fought for freedom, founded an entire defense industry, and whose impact is still felt in every interception system guarding Israel's skies.

In her debut novel, Dr. Ruth Eshel entwines her personal family heritage as IDF Colonel Evgeni "Jenka" Ratner's daughter, with a sweeping larger than life storytelling voice. Dr. Eshel is an acclaimed prize-winning dance researcher, critic, and author of Dance Spreads Its Wings - Israeli Concert dance 1920-2010 (English, De Gruyter).