Book cover of 1949 the First Israelis

Book description

Renowned historian Tom Segev strips away national myths to present a critical and clear-eyed chronicle of the year immediately following Israel’s foundation.

“Required reading for all who want to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict…the best analysis…of the problems of trying to integrate so many people from such diverse cultures into one…

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1 author picked 1949 the First Israelis as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tom Segev is one of the once “new” Israeli historians who, in the 1980s, began writing a critical history of their young state. I particularly like this portrait he drew of early Israel, which fought for independence and statehood against external aggression and took in hundreds of thousands of new immigrants within a short period of time.

It is not an idealized account, and it talks, for instance, about the selective nature of early Israeli immigration policy–a topic I also touched upon in my book. Emblematic for the complex history of Israel, a country forged from migration, is the author’s…

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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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