A Land Twice Promised
An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
An Israeli woman writes about growing up amid war and ancestral trauma and later building a friendship with a Palestinian woman in America.
Israeli storyteller Noa Baum grew up in Jerusalem in the shadow of the ancestral traumas of the holocaust and ongoing wars. Stories of the past and fear of annihilation in the wars of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s shaped her perceptions and identity. In America, she met a Palestinian woman who had grown up under Israeli Occupation, and as they shared memories of war years in Jerusalem, an unlikely friendship blossomed.
A Land Twice Promised delves into the heart of one of the world’s most enduring and complex conflicts. Baum’s deeply personal memoir recounts her journey from girlhood in post-Holocaust Israel to her adult encounter with “the other.” With honesty, compassion, and humor, she captures the drama of a nation at war and her discovery of humanity in the enemy.
Winner of the 2017 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award, among others, this compelling memoir demonstrates the transformative power of art and challenges each reader to take the first step toward peace.
Praise for A Land Twice Promised
“A penetrating, introspective memoir that mines the depths of the chasm between the Israeli and Palestinian experiences, the torment of family loss and conflict, and the therapy of storytelling as a cleansing art. You will not think in the same way at the end of this captivating book as you did at the beginning.” —David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this touching and honest memoir, Baum shares the story of how her search for peace informed her life. Born in Israel in the shadow of the Holocaust, Baum grew up with the fear of another Jewish destruction looming large. The fear was enhanced by stories retold by her dramatic mother and by childhood experiences that included wars and the constant threat of attack and destruction. When she was a college student, the increasing death toll and the virulence of extremists instilled in her a strong desire for peace. After she moved to California, she joined a network of storytellers and realized the power of a well-told story. As she crafted a one-woman play about her friendship with a Palestinian woman and subsequently performed the show for many diverse audiences around the globe, Baum saw firsthand the long-reaching effect of her judgment-free and dual-perspective routine, as people who had never listened to the "other's" viewpoint opened their hearts to hers. Although not everyone will agree with her leftist political perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Baum's genuine desire to make a difference may well inspire others to do the same.
