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Trees: The Green Testament
Back in 1993, Dry Bones cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen created his one-and-only novel-length work. It was called Trees: The Green Testament. He never expected it to become an underground cult classic. But that is exactly what happened.
Within months of the publication of Trees, the Wall Street Journal's front page proclaimed, "An Israeli Cartoonist Becomes a Prophet to U.S. Christians." Bearded ultraorthodox Jews in Jerusalem debated the identity of the "reincarnated Jewish sage" who had actually channeled the work through Kirschen.
Dozens of people reported breaking into uncontrollable weeping while reading it. A radio evangelist in Manila began to supplement his Sunday Bible readings with readings from Trees.
"I told one minister I'm not a believer," says Kirschen, "and the minister, tears streaming down his face, said, 'Isn't God wonderful? If you had been a believer, what you wrote would be ignored. God needed a cynical, unbelieving cartoonist in order to get His message across.
The years slipped by, but the bizarre story of Trees: The Green Testament would just not go away. Copies were being sold on eBay at inflated prices. As recently as 2011, although the book was long out of print, when the national magazine of Young Israel published a special issue on "Zionism in Our Time," it devoted its cover to Trees, along with reporting the incredible story of its creation inside the magazine.
To satisfy a long-simmering public demand by Jews, Christians, and conservationists, LKP Ltd. (the Dry Bones company) is now publishing this annotated edition of Kirschen's cult classic.
Within months of the publication of Trees, the Wall Street Journal's front page proclaimed, "An Israeli Cartoonist Becomes a Prophet to U.S. Christians." Bearded ultraorthodox Jews in Jerusalem debated the identity of the "reincarnated Jewish sage" who had actually channeled the work through Kirschen.
Dozens of people reported breaking into uncontrollable weeping while reading it. A radio evangelist in Manila began to supplement his Sunday Bible readings with readings from Trees.
"I told one minister I'm not a believer," says Kirschen, "and the minister, tears streaming down his face, said, 'Isn't God wonderful? If you had been a believer, what you wrote would be ignored. God needed a cynical, unbelieving cartoonist in order to get His message across.
The years slipped by, but the bizarre story of Trees: The Green Testament would just not go away. Copies were being sold on eBay at inflated prices. As recently as 2011, although the book was long out of print, when the national magazine of Young Israel published a special issue on "Zionism in Our Time," it devoted its cover to Trees, along with reporting the incredible story of its creation inside the magazine.
To satisfy a long-simmering public demand by Jews, Christians, and conservationists, LKP Ltd. (the Dry Bones company) is now publishing this annotated edition of Kirschen's cult classic.
- GenresJudaism
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1993
About the author
Yaakov Kirschen
13 books2 followersYaakov Kirschen, Political Analyst, Yale Fellow, Blogger, and Dry Bones Cartoonist.
Kirschen was born in Brooklyn NY in 1938. He studied art at Queens College and became a cartoonist after he graduated in 1961.
In 1971 he moved to Israel, changed his first name from Jerry to Yaakov, and in 1973 began drawing a daily editorial strip called Dry Bones, which has become internationally syndicated and is known as Israel’s Political Comic Strip. Kirschen is a member of both America’s National Cartoonists Society and the Israeli Cartoonists Society.
He was, in parallel with his career as a cartoonist, been an innovative computer game designer and inventor. His company LKP ltd. has done work for major computer and game companies both in Israel and in the U.S.
In 2009, Dry Bones cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen was made a “visiting fellow” and “artist in residence” of Yale University’s Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism and Racism (YIISA).
In 2010, Yale published Kirschen’s ground-breaking working paper entitled “Memetics and the Viral Spread of Antisemitism through “Coded Images in Political Cartoons”. The paper identifies antisemitism as a behavioral virus, isolates its three viral strains, and reveals its use by totalitarian movements in their attempts to conquer the West.
In October of 2010 Kirschen presented his revolutionary findings at Yale in a presentation called “Secret Codes, Hidden War”. The “Hidden War” is the war against free and Democratic societies. The “Secret Codes” are the codified and virally spread anti Jewish libels used in that war. The presence of these codes in political cartoons should be seen as symptoms of a deeper sickness.
He wrote a Dry Bones Blog which he started in 2005 dedicated to combating the willful rewriting of history and fighting the spread of antisemitism.
Biography courtesy of Koren Publishers
Kirschen was born in Brooklyn NY in 1938. He studied art at Queens College and became a cartoonist after he graduated in 1961.
In 1971 he moved to Israel, changed his first name from Jerry to Yaakov, and in 1973 began drawing a daily editorial strip called Dry Bones, which has become internationally syndicated and is known as Israel’s Political Comic Strip. Kirschen is a member of both America’s National Cartoonists Society and the Israeli Cartoonists Society.
He was, in parallel with his career as a cartoonist, been an innovative computer game designer and inventor. His company LKP ltd. has done work for major computer and game companies both in Israel and in the U.S.
In 2009, Dry Bones cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen was made a “visiting fellow” and “artist in residence” of Yale University’s Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism and Racism (YIISA).
In 2010, Yale published Kirschen’s ground-breaking working paper entitled “Memetics and the Viral Spread of Antisemitism through “Coded Images in Political Cartoons”. The paper identifies antisemitism as a behavioral virus, isolates its three viral strains, and reveals its use by totalitarian movements in their attempts to conquer the West.
In October of 2010 Kirschen presented his revolutionary findings at Yale in a presentation called “Secret Codes, Hidden War”. The “Hidden War” is the war against free and Democratic societies. The “Secret Codes” are the codified and virally spread anti Jewish libels used in that war. The presence of these codes in political cartoons should be seen as symptoms of a deeper sickness.
He wrote a Dry Bones Blog which he started in 2005 dedicated to combating the willful rewriting of history and fighting the spread of antisemitism.
Biography courtesy of Koren Publishers
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 25, 2022
“The people of the covenant had been taken from us. But we were different than trees in other lands for we had lived in partnership with men.” p. 108
This comic book/graphic novel presents a retelling of the Jewish people from the perspective of trees. The trees link humans and trees as partners in the original covenant and that environmental degradation has resulted from “the separation” between these partners. During this separation, the “Rootless” humans left their lands to study war and weaponry, exploited the land and the trees, but they eventually returned to their land and resumed their roles as gardeners.
“Our covenant was the promise of the future for both of our species … and we knew the nations of the rootless could not ignore us [the trees] … because we grew at the crossroads of their world! … in the path of their movement?!?” (p. 93)
I’m not sure I fully understood all of the allusions to the Old Testament, nor have I fully captured the many tenets of the tree & human covenant in this book. That said, I appreciate the positioning of humans as in partnership with the trees and that part of one’s spiritual practice is to repair this communion.
Used: Bookman (Anaheim, CA)
This comic book/graphic novel presents a retelling of the Jewish people from the perspective of trees. The trees link humans and trees as partners in the original covenant and that environmental degradation has resulted from “the separation” between these partners. During this separation, the “Rootless” humans left their lands to study war and weaponry, exploited the land and the trees, but they eventually returned to their land and resumed their roles as gardeners.
“Our covenant was the promise of the future for both of our species … and we knew the nations of the rootless could not ignore us [the trees] … because we grew at the crossroads of their world! … in the path of their movement?!?” (p. 93)
I’m not sure I fully understood all of the allusions to the Old Testament, nor have I fully captured the many tenets of the tree & human covenant in this book. That said, I appreciate the positioning of humans as in partnership with the trees and that part of one’s spiritual practice is to repair this communion.
Used: Bookman (Anaheim, CA)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2017
Meh. I'm a Zionist, but this was particularist beyond what even I can handle. Plus sides: cute trees, graphic novel format. Minus sides: just about everything else.
September 17, 2017
This is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it. It made me cry in spots. He tells a complicated story in a simple and beautiful way.
January 31, 2020
A great read of the history of the Jewish people and the value of the trees who live/d on the land and combined their story with the story of these people of The Covenant.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews