Joseph Butwin's oral history presents conversations with ten Jewish veterans of the ALB. Recorded from 1992-94 in the wake of European communism's collapse, the interviews explore the milieus that formed the volunteers. Immigrants established the secular Yiddish-speaking socialism that became a part of many Jewish American communities. Their children, reacting to economic depression and the rise of fascism, enlisted in the ALB. Butwin follows their stories from their youthful motives and choices through their lives as Jews and leftists, and records the reckonings that took place as they reflected on their past.

Insightful and revealing, Salud y Shalom explores the forces of identity and history that led young Jewish leftists to fight fascism.