Kol Shalom Reads: Ghosts of a Holy War by Yardena Schwartz

Join us for the first Kol Shalom Reads! We're kicking things off with Ghosts of a Holy War by Yardena Schwartz.

We’ll answer questions, discuss Middle East history as portrayed in the book, and bring other relevant factual information to bear, concluding with a deeper understanding of the current relationship between Israel and the Arab world.

To prepare for this event, please read Ghosts of a Holy War by Yardena Schwartz. You can request a copy from Kitsap Regional Library, purchase a copy from any online bookseller, listen to the audiobook from your favorite audiobook source, or visit the "Book Group" shelves at Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island. Let Eagle Harbor Books know you're a member of Kol Shalom Reads before you check out to get a 15% discount.

Then join us in person on December 14 from noon to 1:30 pm for a lively moderated discussion and light luncheon to discuss Ghosts of a Holy War and connect with your fellow Kol Shalom readers. Attendance is free and open to the community. Registration is required for each attendee.

About the Book:

“If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy, this is it...” - Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Synopsis from Abe Books:

An award-winning journalist presents an even-handed, thoroughly researched examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and illustrates how a shocking yet little-known massacre one century ago in what was then Palestine became ground zero of a war that continues to devastate. In 1929, in the sacred city of Hebron—then governed by the British Mandate of Palestine—there was no occupation, state of Israel, or settlers. Jews and Muslims lived peacefully near the burial place of Abraham, patriarch of the Jewish and Arab nations, until one Saturday morning when nearly 70 Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered by their Arab neighbors.

The Hebron massacre was a seminal event in the Arab-Israeli conflict, key to understanding its complexities. The echoes of 1929 in Hamas’s massacre of October 7, 2023, illustrate how little has changed—and how much of our perspective must change if peace is ever to come to this tortured land and its people, who are destined to share it.

Noted journalist Yardena Schwartz draws on her extensive research and wide-ranging interviews with both sides to tell a timely, eye-opening story. She expertly weaves the war between Israel and Hamas into a historical framework, demonstrating how the conflict today cannot be understood without the context of ground zero of this century-old war, which began long before the occupation, the settlements, or the state of Israel ever existed.

About the Author:

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer who worked at NBC News, including stints at the Today show, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. Her reporting has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, TIME, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011 and received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013. She then spent a decade reporting from Israel, earning the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting. She now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Read more about Yardena and her work here.