Critical Praise for Jerusalem Calling by Joel Schalit
*Selected for Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2002 list
This remarkable collection of essays by an astute young writer covers a wide range of topics [and] provides an overview of contemporary critical, radical thinking This is the debut of a new and original thinker.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
The essays combine provocative political analysis and a powerful first-person voice. Schalits artful blending of the personal and the political is bound to make some readers uncomfortable. But its also what makes Jerusalem Calling so good.
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Over time Schalit has risen to the forefront of a new leftist culture thats postmodern and ultra-aware but still believes in the power of activism.
SF Weekly
Jerusalem Calling delivers thoughtful, passionate analyses of subjects including the religious fundamentalism of American cultural politics, the failures of the left, the inner conflicts of punk, and the past, present, and future of the Arab-Israeli conflict Schalits meditations on a recent journey to Israel are more refreshingly insightful than most any other current writing on the Middle East.
Clamor
Joel Schalits passions are unrestrained but his arguments are impeccable, his attitude distinctive. He has a clear eye for nuance and subtext, and a sharp scalpel for hypocrisy and pretense. You will hear a lot from and about this writer in the future, so be smart: get in on the ground floor. Jerusalem is calling and we all have to answer from the cell phones in our minds and hearts.
Danny Schechter, author of News Dissector
Schalits anticapitalist, Jewish, postpunk perspectives on the Middle East, the relevance of rock music, and the true impact of religion in America pack a powerful punch, yet resonate with fellow feeling.
Booklist
A thoughtful collection of essays.
Rain Taxi Review of Books
Its a palpably vulnerable and excruciatingly honest read, and a compelling milestone in American public intellectual life.
XLR8R
Schalit successfully utilizes his diverse background to articulate a persuasive and progressive view of the modern world. Schalit is a thinker of our times
The Stranger
Joel Schalit is a model punk. Outspoken and revolutionary yet levelheaded, he has channeled his wild intellectual energy toward the pursuit of organized rebellion. Jerusalem Calling [is] an amazingly readable collection of essays focusing on his politics, ideology, and heritage as a Marxist, a secular Jew, and a Zionist.
Portland Mercury
ISRAEL
VS.
UTOPIA
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.
Portions of this book were previously published by Allvoices, France 24, the Guardian, Tikkun, and Zeek. A condensed version of Israel vs.Utopias second chapter, Everything Falls Apart, is available in the collection Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice, edited by Rabbi Or N. Rose, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, and Margie Klein (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2008).
Published by Akashic Books
2009 Joel Schalit
ePUB ISBN-13: 978-1-936070-32-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-87-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009922937
All rights reserved
First printing
Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
info@akashicbooks.com
www.akashicbooks.com
For JenniferTABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every book takes awhile to will itself into being. Some gestate longer than others, especially when you work a full-time job as an editor. Though it may seem like an ideal space to get work doneduring the time of this books writing, I held down editorial gigs at three separate periodicals and edited three booksdepending on how much consideration your subject demands, its more likely that the actual writing will take a lot longer than you ever could have imagined.
To that end, I cannot thank my publisher, Johnny Temple, enough, for waiting as long as he did for Israelvs. Utopia to finally materialize. Johnny, youve been a mensch, as always. And then some. The same goes for Akashics managing editor, Johanna Ingalls, and editor Ibrahim Ahmad. You all have been wonderful, supportive, and unbelievably patient with me. Im thrilled to still be working with you after eight years. New York publishing still has nothing on you guys.
Im equally grateful to this volumes editor, Charlie Bertsch, for guiding Israel vs. Utopia to publication. He not only handled the grammar and content with remarkable ease, but also used this project as an opportunity to teach himself about the painful reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict. My religious colleagues would call Charlie a righteous Gentile. All I can say is that Charlies tire-less efforts made for a far better book. That, to further indulge the native, is its own mitzvah.
Heartfelt gratitude goes to Ron Nachmann, one of my favorite music critics and the former associate editor of XLR8R. Also a self-described Israeli American, Ron read this manuscript at several different stages in its development, and gave it a fabulous copyedit in its next-to-final version. Even better, along the way we discovered that Rons father dated a relative of mine in Haifa during the 1950s. Ron, we could have been brothers. Not that we arent already.
There are few designs as predictable as those which grace the covers of books about Israel. Whether consisting of a panoramic shot of Jerusalem or an image of an Israeli soldier, they tend to look the same. But designer Courtney Utt spent days creating a key exception; the cover is brilliant and inspired, just like the rest of her work.
My eighty-eight-year-old father, Elie Schalit, deserves a remarkable amount of credit for talking through Israel vs. Utopias main themes with me. Our conversations are littered throughout these pages, giving them a distinctly familial vibe that contributes to the intensely intimate feel of this books subject matter.
Id also like to thank several others: my fellow editors and friends at Zeek, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser and Shai Ginsburg; Arthur Neslen, Vance Galloway; and former Haaretz translator Robert Rosenberg, may he rest in peace. All of you provided invaluable comments on the articles and editorials that served as this books basis. An equal but decidedly different form of thanks goes to the Old Jerusalem Restaurant in beautiful San Francisco. The salat Turki and knafe are positively utopian.
Angry
I said you make us angry
Angry people
Thats who we are
Keith Hudson, Nuh Skin Up
P urple. Pink. Green. Orange. The brightly colored, flat-roofed, concrete residential buildings immediately stood out. No more than three stories in height, some still under construction, they could have been found in any Palestinian or Israeli Arab town, albeit one crossed with a United Colors of Benetton ad. I imagined that it could even have been a picture of one of the communities lining the highway between my parents home and Afula. If you werent familiar with such scenery, you might very well have assumed that this was a typical eastern Mediterranean Arab municipality.
