Looking for Elsewhere explores the past, present, and future of the Jews of Turkey, an embattled community rarely at home in the country they have lived in for centuries.Looking for Elsewhere is a warning about the consequences of intolerance and prejudice. In Turkey, there was once a thriving Jewish community that numbered hundreds of thousands. Today, very few remain. This book is a trained historian's own exploration into what led many Jews to leave a country th...

Today's Turkey little resembles that of recent decades. Newfound economic prosperity has had many unexpected social and political repercussions, most notably the rise of the AKP party and President Erdogan. Despite unprecedented electoral popularity, the conduct of the AKP has faced growing criticism: Turkey has yet to solve its Kurdish question; its foreign policy is increasingly fraught as it balances relations with Iran, Israel, Russia and the EU; and widespread protests gripped the cou...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR“A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York TimesWinner of the Natan Book Award...

In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing their beloved Iraq to the new state of Israel.'Remarkable.' Max Hastings, THE SUNDAY TIMESToday the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq, at one time numbering over 130,000 and tracing its history back 2,600 years, has all but vanished.Why so? One explanation speaks of the timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilisations and a heroi...

2024 Winner, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, The Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute One of the Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2023 Named a Booklist **Editors' Choice in History: Adult Books, 2023 Finalist, Writing Based on Archival Material: National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, Sophie Brody Medal, American Library Association"Kessler has done an exceptional job and opened new vist...

'By some way the best history of the Mandate I have ever read, with the greatest scope, the widest research and the clearest moral sense' JOHN SIMPSONTom Segev's widely acclaimed work has changed the way we view the history of Israel. He discussed the three decades when Palestine was ruled by the British Empire; and Britain's promise to both Jews and Arabs that they would inherit the land.Segev reconstructs in vivid detail the tumultuous era when anything s...

The historian and expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations offers "a well-written, well-balanced" account of cultural conflicts in the region before WWI (Anita Shapira, author of Israel: A History).When did the Arab-Israeli conflict begin? Some discussions focus on the 1967 war, some go back to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and others look to the beginning of the British Mandate in 1922. Alan Dowty, however, traces the earliest roots of the c...

Award-winning writer Matti Friedman’s tale of Israel’s first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff—but it’s all true.**“Wondrous ... Compelling ... Piercing.” —**The New York Times Book ReviewJournalist and award-winning author Matti Friedman’s tale of Israel’s first spies reads like an espionage novel—but it’s all true. The fou...

"In this epic examination, [a] celebrated historian explores the evolution of Judaism and Islam through a lens of Middle Eastern stability." ( Publishers Weekly)The relationship between Jews and Muslims has been a flashpoint that affects stability in the Middle East with global consequences. In this eloquent book, Martin Gilbert presents a fascinating account of the hope and fear that have characterized these two peoples through the 1,400 years of their in...

Bernard-Henri Lévy's Israel Alone is a passionate and outraged cri-de-coeur, about the loneliness of Israel and the tragedy of October 7, starting with Lévy's eyewitness account the day after the pogroms.On October 8, 2023, Bernard-Henri Lévy flew to Israel to bear witness to the unprecedented invasion and massacre committed by Hamas. Israel Alone begins here and weaves in Lévy's fifty years on the ground in Israel, from his first trip in 1967, his experiences writing on all the co...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • “A rich, penetrating, and moving portrayal of Arab-Jewish hostility, told in human terms.”—NewsdayNow expanded and updated • “The best and most comprehensive work there is in the English language on this subject.”—The New York TimesIn this monumental work, extensively researched and more relevant than ever, David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices that exist between Jews and Ar...

**A spellbinding history of the hidden world below the Holy City—a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval“A sweeping tale of archaeological exploits and their cultural and political consequences told with a historian’s penchant for detail and a journalist’s flair for narration.”—Washington Post**In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discov...