Start our Scholar-in-Residence weekend with an unforgettable evening!

Celebrate Shabbat with acclaimed author Yardena Schwartz, writer of "Ghosts of a Holy War." Enjoy a warm and lively Shabbat dinner, then savor dessert as Yardena shares the incredible story behind her book: Letters from Hebron: How a forgotten box of century-old letters discovered in a Memphis attic sparked a journey into history and became the heart of "Ghosts of a Holy War." Hear her read select passages and bring the past to life.

ABOUT "GHOSTS OF A HOLY WAR"

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.

When a family in Memphis, Tennessee, discovers a box of century-old letters in their attic, a journey begins: not only to learn about the young man who wrote the letters from the holy city of Hebron in British Mandate Palestine, but about the massacre that took his life in 1929. Award-winning journalist Yardena Schwartz draws from these letters, along with extensive research and wide-ranging interviews of Israelis and Palestinians now living in Hebron, to tell a timely, captivating narrative. By illuminating the echoes of 1929 in Hamas’s massacre of October 7, 2023, Schwartz vividly illustrates 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.

ABOUT YARDENA SCHWARTZ

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer who has worked at ABC News, NBC News and MSNBC. Based in Israel from 2013-2023, her reporting from four continents has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, New York Review of Books, Time, The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011, received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013, and was awarded the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting. Yardena lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and children. Ghosts of a Holy War is her first book.

PRAISE FOR "GHOSTS OF A HOLY WAR"

"A good book about a bad mess.” - The Wall Street Journal

“One of the most balanced, comprehensive, and fact-driven narratives about the Israel-Palestine conflict to date.” - World Literature Today
"An astonishing work of history...Schwartz writes with clear, luminous prose, demonstrating the sense of timing and drama of a novelist."- Jewish Journal

"A gripping story...a must read" - Jerusalem Post

"Schwartz investigates the lies and denials that have fueled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a century, pushing a solution further away" - Times of Israel 

More book reviews here