Yossi Klein Halevi’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of “the enemy.”
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of “the enemy.” In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.
I call you “neighbor” because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, “neighbor” might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home, incarnation of each other’s worst historical nightmares.
From the introduction, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Amid Heightening Mideast Conflict, a New Israeli Approach to Reconciliation
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor was added to The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list on June 3, 2018.
With Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, award-winning author and Shalom Hartman Institute senior fellow Yossi Klein Halevi offers a heartfelt plea for peace and a new dialogue based on his “experience as occupier” and common ground in faith.
This ambitious work is an attempt to offer a new language for peace at a time when conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is escalating and a solution seems impossible. With 10 lyrical and provocative letters, Halevi is the first Israeli author to directly address Palestinians in an attempt to explain how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes.
Combining a powerful commitment to Israel’s legitimacy with deep empathy for Palestinian suffering, he reveals the complex strands of faith, pride, anger, and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.
Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor relaunches narratives about the Middle East at a historic juncture, making it an essential read for the present and for years to come.
Jan 3, 2024
A resource to lead a Reading Group study and dialogue program of Yossi Klein Halevi's book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Jan 3, 2024
Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor” is more important reading for American Jews than its intended audience.
Jan 3, 2024
Review of Yossi Klein Halevi's new book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Jan 3, 2024
Yossi Klein Halevi’s new book solidifies the author’s place as one of the most influential Jewish voices today.
Jan 3, 2024
Jan 3, 2024
Erica Dreyfus reviews Yossi Klein Halevi's new book, 'Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor'
Jan 3, 2024
Yossi Klein Halevi laments the “maximalist ambitions” on both sides of the conflict.
Mar 10, 2022
Yossi Klein Halevi in conversation with Rabbi Elaine Zecher about his book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.
Mar 9, 2020
Israeli interfaith scholar provides insight about his spiritual journey.
Jul 11, 2019
Discussion between Yossi Klein Halevi and 15 Palestinians took place in the West Bank and was moderated by Khalal Sayegh of the Philos Project.
Aug 5, 2018
For all the mutual ambivalence and fear, I believe a sense of shared citizenship between Jewish and Arab Israelis is both essential and possible
Jul 15, 2018
Yossi Klein Halevi’s new book solidifies the author’s place as one of the most influential Jewish voices today.
Jul 12, 2018
Yossi Klein Halevi in conversation with Yehuda Kurtzer for the 2018 Bronfman Family Foundation lecture at the Shalom Hartman Institute
Jun 22, 2018
It’s great that you are calling me neighbor, because we are neighbors even though it took me time to realize it. But there is wall between us, built on sadness and suffering.
Jun 8, 2018
Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor” is more important reading for American Jews than its intended audience.
Jun 7, 2018
A profound and original book from a gifted thinker whose allegiance is not so much to a religious or political ideology as to a ‘discourse of spiritual dignity.’
