(Courtesy of Penoaks Publishing) Mendy Ganchrow, MD, the former head of several major Jewish organizations including the Orthodox Union (OU), has revealed in a new book that while serving as president of the OU, he was recruited by the Saudi Royal Air Force to serve as a surgeon.

“The Five Day War” begins with his receipt of the recruitment letter, from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, asking him to serve as a colorectal surgeon in the Air Force Military Hospital in Riyadh. It gives the author’s fictional account of what might have happened if an Orthodox Jewish Zionist would have accepted the offer. The story evolves into how this young surgeon became Israel’s most well-positioned spy and protects the Jewish State (and most of the Middle East) from Iranian nuclear aggression. The book includes an unlikely alliance with Arab nations who face the same Iranian threat throughout the Middle East as Israel. The 293-page book was published by Penoaks Publishing and is available for purchase at https://www.amazon.com/Five-Day-Mendy-Ganchrow-M-D-ebook/dp/B075JSL6L5/.

“For years I have thought about what might have happened had I accepted that offer,” said Ganchrow. “The book allowed me to let my imagination run free with what could have been, if I had accepted the position and been able to serve the State of Israel as their unlikely emissary in the court of the Saudi Crown-Prince.”

The book deals with the Iran nuclear threat—that remains at the forefront of current events—and provides an inside look into the workings of pro-Israel political action committees and the organized American Jewish community. One of the factual, yet rarely reported, passages in the book references the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement of 1919, in which Emir Faisal (a likely ancestor to the current Saudi regime) and Chaim Weizmann, then the World Zionist Organization leader, agreed upon increased Jewish emigration to Palestine, economic cooperation and even partnership.

The book has been reviewed by several leaders in the pro-Israel community, including Harvard University Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

“First-time novelist Mendy Ganchrow has crafted an exciting adventure, based on an invitation he actually received from the Saudi Arabian government to serve as a surgeon in Riyadh,” said Dershowitz. “This well-written epic is based on Ganchrow’s vast experience in pro-Israel activism and serious research into the modern Arab-Israeli and Sunni-Shia conflicts. As the plot develops we witness a union between Israel and the Sunni nations versus Iran. The ensuing Five Day War leads to a realignment of the Israeli-Arab political, cultural and economic relationships.”

Mendy Ganchrow, MD, is a retired colorectal surgeon. He is a former associate clinical professor of surgery at New York Medical College and has authored 19 surgical papers. A graduate of Yeshiva University, he served as president of the Orthodox Union and formed the Hudson Valley Political Action Committee, which under his leadership was the largest local pro-Israel PAC in the United States. Additionally, he served on many boards of non-profit organizations, including AIPAC, Yeshiva University’s RIETS Rabbinical School, the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Governing Board of the Jewish Agency. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of Americas Heritage Abroad. He was president of The Community Synagogue and the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland, both in Monsey, New York, where he lived for many years.

During the Vietnam War, Ganchrow served as a U.S. Army combat surgeon and volunteer chaplain. He achieved the rank of major and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

Ganchrow has published four previous books, including his autobiography, Journey Through the Minefields, From Vietnam to Washington: An Orthodox Surgeon’s Odyssey and three religious anthologies on Jewish celebrations after marriage, circumcision and bar/bat mitzvah.

Ganchrow and his wife, Sheila, have three children and eleven grandchildren. They currently reside in Boynton Beach, Florida, and Fort Lee, New Jersey.