“An exemplary instance of a writer using his craft to come to grips with what is happening politically and to illuminate certain aspects of Israeli society that have generally been concealed by polemical formulas.” — The New York Times Notebook in hand, Amos Oz traveled throughout Israel and the West Bank in the early 1980s to talk with workers, soldiers, religious zealots, aging pioneers, new immigrants, desperate Arabs, and visionaries, asking them questions about Israel’s past, present, and future. What he heard is set down here in those distinctive voices, alongside Oz’s observations and reflections. A classic insider’s view of a land whose complex past and troubled present make for an uncertain future. “Oz’s vignettes . . . wondrously re-create whole worlds with an economy of words.” — Philadelphia Inquirer “An exemplary instance of a writer using his craft to come to grips with what is happening politically and to illuminate certain aspects of Israeli society that have generally been concealed by polemical formulas.” — The New York Times Notebook in hand, Amos Oz traveled throughout Israel and the West Bank in the early 1980s to talk with workers, soldiers, religious zealots, aging pioneers, new immigrants, desperate Arabs, and visionaries, asking them questions about Israel’s past, present, and future. What he heard is set down here in those distinctive voices, alongside Oz’s observations and reflections. A classic insider’s view of a land whose complex past and troubled present make for an uncertain future. “Oz’s vignettes . . . wondrously re-create whole worlds with an economy of words.” — Philadelphia Inquirer AMOS OZ was born in Jerusalem in 1939. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including his acclaimed memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was an international bestseller and a recipient of the National Jewish Book Award. AMOS OZ (1939–2018) was born in Jerusalem. He was the recipient of the Prix Femina, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, the Goethe Prize, the Primo Levi Prize, and the National Jewish Book Award, among other international honors. His work, including A Tale of Love and Darkness and In the Land of Israel , has been translated into forty-four languages.  In the Land of Israel By Amos Oz, Maurie Goldberg-Bartura Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Copyright © 1983 Amos Oz and Am Oved Publishers Ltd All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-15-648114-4 Contents Title Page, Contents, Copyright, Author's Note to the Original Edition, Author's Note to the Harvest Edition, Translator's Note, Map, Thank God for His Daily Blessings, The Insult and the Fury, The Finger of God?, Just a Peace, The Tender Among You, and Very Delicate, An Argument on Life and Death (A), An Argument on Life and Death (B), The Dawn, On Light and Shade and Love, A Cosmic Jew, At the End of That Autumn: A Midwinter Epilogue, Some Reactions to In the Land of Israel, A Postscript Ten Years Later: The Middle East Between Shakespeare and Chekhov, Glossary, About the Author, Connect with HMH, Footnotes, CHAPTER 1 Thank God for His Daily Blessings IN THE GEULAH QUARTER of Jerusalem, on Rabbi Meir Street, imprinted on one of the metal sewer covers is the English inscription "City of Westminster" — a reminder of the British Mandate in Palestine. The grocery store that was here forty years ago is still here. A new man sits there and studies Scriptures. It is after the High Holy Days: in Geulah, in Achvah, in Kerem Avraham, and in Mekor Baruch, the tatters of the flimsy booths built for the Feast of Tabernacles are still visible in the yards. Their greenery has faded and turned gray. There is a chill in the air. From porch to porch, the entire width of the alleyways, stretch laundry lines with white and colored clothes: these are the eternal morning blossoms of the neighborhood in which I grew up. The Kings of Israel Street, which was once Geulah Street, throbs with pious Jews in black garb, bearded, bespectacled, chattering in Yiddish, tumultuous, in a hurry, scented with the heavy aroma of Eastern European Ashkenazi cooking. An ultraorthodox woman, young, very pretty, pushes a twin baby carriage full of plastic-net shopping bags with bread, vegetables, canned goods, fish wrapped in newspaper, bottles of wine, cooking oil, soft drinks. Her hair is modestly covered but her fingers are richly adorned with rings. She stops to chat with another woman in one of the courtyards in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. " Er iz a meshuggener — he's crazy. He came back here from Brussels mit di gantze mishpocheh — with his whole family. Poor Esther." A Brooklyn accent in a figure from Lodz or Krakow. The other woman, behind the fence, answers in English, "It's a shame." New people, but the alleys and the courtyards arevirtually unchanged. During my childhood, Eastern European intellectuals and educated refugees from Germany and Austri