Aaron Leibel

Aaron Leibel is a veteran journalist who writes regularly for The Jerusalem Post and Washington Jewish Week newspapers. He is the winner of two Rockower Awards for Excellence (2018 and 2019) from the American Jewish Press Association. He has written a memoir, "Figs and Alligators: An American Immigrant's Life in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s" (Chickadee Prince Books).

The book has been well-received. Below are a few excerpts from three reviews:

“All the memories of my years in Israel came rushing back and I laughed and I wept as I read. Simply written and conversational in tone, I could have been sitting in the same room with author Leibel and comparing notes.” — Reviews by Amos Lassen

“Aaron Leibel tells us in this fast-reading book about his decision to make Aliyah; his experiences learning Hebrew in an ulpan; living with his wife Bonnie and three daughters on a kibbutz near the Lebanese border; becoming a reserve soldier in the Israel Defense Forces; deciding to move to a poor section of Jerusalem; struggling through hyper-inflation; becoming a freelance writer, eventually being hired on the staff of the Jerusalem Post, and ultimately deciding for economic reasons to move back to the United States…. You can read this volume easily in a single day, perhaps sitting in your back yard, socially distanced, with your mask off.  Try it; I bet you’ll enjoy it.” — Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World

“Figs and Alligators is Leibel’s account of the 16 years that he, his wife Bonnie and their three daughters spent in Israel before sheer poverty drove them back to the States in 1988. Leibel, who became a widely-published journalist during his time in Israel, writes this personal history as if chatting informally to a friend. In simple terms he tells his story of living and struggling in the Israel of the 1970s and 1980s ‒ a story that will evoke many a smile or sigh of remembrance in anyone who went through the same experience…. And what an adventure it proved to be.” — Neville Teller, The Jerusalem Post

Leibel lives with his wife in Silver Spring, Md.