Let Me Create A Paradise, God Said To Himself: A Journey Of Conscience From Johannesburg To Jerusalem

Goodman, Hirsh

ISBN 10: 1586482432 / ISBN 13: 9781586482435

Published by PublicAffairs, 2005

About this Item

Signed. SIGNED by author on fffep. Minor shelf wear. Pages/boards/jacket clean.

Seller Inventory # mon0003431096

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Let Me Create A Paradise, God Said To Himself: A Journey Of Conscience From Johannesburg To Jerusalem
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586482432
• ISBN 13: 9781586482435
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Hirsh Goodman's childhood in South Africa was white — and Jewish — in ways he did not initially appreciate. While the local culture brutally suppressed the black population, Hirsh and his friends marched off to Zionist Socialist meetings, full of rhetoric about equality, justice, and democracy — all within the context of Israel. By his midteens, Goodman could no longer ignore South Africa's anti-Semitism and racism. He soon left for Israel, never expecting that the promised land of his dreams would also prove to be riven by ethnic and religious conflict. It was after marching victoriously through the Sinai as a paratrooper in the Six-Day War that Goodman heard David Ben-Gurion on the radio warning that Israel must rid itself of its Arab territories lest it "become an Apartheid state," a warning that had a very specific meaning to the young soldier. Then, as a journalist, Goodman witnessed firsthand all of Israel's subsequent troubles, from frontlines, to occupied zones, to the summits that attempted to find even a temporary peace.

Let Me Create a Paradise is a wise, warm, and wry memoir. It is one man's life story and the story of two divided nations in two different eras; the tragedies in their histories, and the hope that still exists for both of them.

About the Author

Hirsh Goodman was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946. He immigrated to Israel in 1965 and since 1971 has been a journalist, starting as the military reporter for the Jerusalem Post, then as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report. He has been a contributing editor to U.S. News & World Report, a contributor to the New Republic, and a news analyst for CBS News. He is currently a Senior Research Associate at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. He is married, has four children and lives in Jerusalem.