On Sale: Oct 1, 2024
Page Count: 336 pages
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
ISBN-13: 9781454949220

$14.99

$19.99 CAD

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An award-winning journalist presents a thoroughly researched examination of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and illustrates how a shocking yet little-known massacre one century ago in what was then simply Palestine became ground zero of a war that continues to devastate.

"[A] compelling story. . . . If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy, this is it."
—Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

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.

This meticulously researched examination of the Israel-Palestine conflict's origins interweaves historical analysis with contemporary insights, providing crucial context for understanding today's Middle East tensions. Perfect for anyone who has read Yossi Klein Halevi, Matti Friedman, or Nathan Thrall, Schwartz's work is a riveting exploration of the complex background of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the ongoing struggle for peace in the region.

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Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer who worked at NBC News, including stints at the Today show, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. Her reporting has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, TIME, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011 and received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013. She then spent a decade reporting from Israel, earning the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting. She now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

"A good book about a bad mess."
The Wall Street Journal
"[A] superb, meticulous and hauntingly detailed account of the 1929 Hebron Massacre."
Commentary Magazine
"An astonishing work of history."
Jewish Journal
"Tells a gripping story, recounting not only events of historical magnitude but also the reasons behind them. Schwartz has an especially attractive writing style, which keeps the reader turning the pages. For anyone interested in understanding the back history of Black Sabbath – namely, October 7, 2023 – this is a must-read volume."
Jerusalem Post
"Schwartz has written a valuable work, reviewing the period in an accessible, engaging style that contributes to understanding what has been termed the world’s most enduring conflict."
Jewish Book Council
"In this groundbreaking account of the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Yardena Schwartz tells a compelling story of how one American's tragic life converged with a seminal moment in history. Focusing on the ancient city of Hebron, Ghosts of a Holy War masterfully weaves together past and present, the historical and the personal. With a keen reporter's eye, Schwartz reveals the best and the worst in both sides of the conflict. If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy, this is it."
Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
“With meticulous archival research and journalistic skill, and aided by a fascinating trove of letters left by a doomed young American, Yardena Schwartz gives us a valuable account of one of the key tragedies in the meeting between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Ghosts of a Holy War fills in a missing piece in our understanding of a conflict that continues to echo worldwide, reminding us of the human characters at the heart of global dramas.”
Matti Friedman, author of Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai
“Crystal City Entertainment Developing Yardena Schwartz’s ‘Ghosts of a Holy War’ for Film”
Deadline Hollywood
"Important, timely, deeply researched, and beautifully written. Yardena Schwartz has made a key contribution to understanding the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A family story is seamlessly woven into the political narrative, which explains comprehensively the present sad state of affairs.”
Martin Fletcher, former NBC News Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv and author of Promised Land: A Novel of Israel
"Hebron is the epicenter of the extremism that has fueled a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews. Yardena Schwartz’s deep dive into the city’s violent past and disturbing present is moving and incredibly timely."
Gershom Gorenberg, author of War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East
"Ghosts of a Holy War is an excellent, vivid account of the 1929 Arab riots against the Jewish community of British Mandate Palestine. This outstanding book by Yardena Schwartz is recommended reading for anyone who wishes to understand not just the history that is so often neglected, but also what is happening today."
Simon Sebag Montefiore, bestselling author of Jerusalem: The Biography
“Ghosts of a Holy War stands out as one of last year’s most under-reviewed and yet most read-worthy books on the Middle East.”
Josef Joffe, a distinguished fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution
“One of the most balanced, comprehensive, and fact-driven narratives about the Israel-Palestine conflict to date.”
World Literature Today
“Schwartz’s book is not only a history but a warning. She draws on extensive research, archival material, and interviews with survivors and descendants from both sides. Her balanced, accessible account brings depth and humanity to a complex, heartbreaking story.”
The Detroit News
“Schwartz investigates the lies and denials that have fueled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a century, pushing a solution further away.”
Times of Israel
“One of the most important works of the 21st century.”
Commentary Magazine
“Fascinating, powerful, personal, and indispensable. Ghosts of a Holy War is a rigorously researched masterpiece. It should be required reading for anyone who cares about resolving this conflict.”
Dara Horn, author of People Love Dead Jews, winner of the National Jewish Book Award
“Yardena Schwartz tells this story with the rigor of a historian and the storytelling of a journalist. Nuanced, sensitive, and deeply compelling, this book brings a pivotal tragedy to life in a way that feels hauntingly urgent—almost as if it could have been ripped from today’s headlines.”
Guy Raz, award-winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller How I Built This
“Yardena Schwartz has provided an invaluable service with her new history of a century-old tragedy. Ghosts of a Holy War masterfully and powerfully illuminates how this long-forgotten slaughter in the biblical city of Hebron was a seminal event in the pre-state era and provides crucial context for the complexities we grapple with today, drawing stark parallels to the events of October 7, 2023.”
Dan Senor, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Start-Up Nation
“A powerful depiction of a horrendous attack that hasn’t gotten its due in history books, told through the lens of a Memphis family. The evil excavated was chilling and all too familiar.”
Zibby Owens, author and editor of On Being Jewish Now

Yardena Schwartz

About the Author

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer who worked at NBC News, including stints at the Today show, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. Her reporting has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, TIME, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011 and received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013. She then spent a decade reporting from Israel, earning the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting. She now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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