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A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace
An Israeli woman writes about growing up amid war and ancestral trauma and later building a friendship with a Palestinian woman in America.Israeli storyteller Noa Baum grew up in Jerusalem in the shadow of the ancestral traumas of the holocaust and ongoing wars. Stories of the past and fear of annihilation in the wars of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s shaped her perceptions and identity. In America, she met a Palestinian woman who had grown up under Israeli Occupation, and as they shared memories of war years in Jerusalem, an unlikely friendship blossomed.A Land Twice Promised delves into the heart of one of the world’s most enduring and complex conflicts. Baum’s deeply personal memoir recounts her journey from girlhood in post-Holocaust Israel to her adult encounter with “the other.” With honesty, compassion, and humor, she captures the drama of a nation at war and her discovery of humanity in the enemy. Winner of the 2017 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award, among others, this compelling memoir demonstrates the transformative power of art and challenges each reader to take the first step toward peace.Praise for A Land Twice Promised“A penetrating, introspective memoir that mines the depths of the chasm between the Israeli and Palestinian experiences, the torment of family loss and conflict, and the therapy of storytelling as a cleansing art. You will not think in the same way at the end of this captivating book as you did at the beginning.” —David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Arab and Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
339 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 7, 2016
127 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
May 6, 2018
I really loved reading Noa's perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict...how she views it and what she experienced as well as how her Palestinian friend experienced it. I love that she found a way to listen and learn from someone who would typically be seen as her enemy and to build bridges and develop a friendship. It's made me ponder about who I might see as "other" or as the enemy and how could I better listen, open a dialogue, and find common ground.
I love these words of advice given to her by a mentor: " ...there always was and always will be a huge gap between all that needs to be done in the world and what we can actually achieve. That's just the way it is. Your job as an artist is to remind people of their humanity. You do the best you can where you can. Don't give up just yet."
I love these words of advice given to her by a mentor: " ...there always was and always will be a huge gap between all that needs to be done in the world and what we can actually achieve. That's just the way it is. Your job as an artist is to remind people of their humanity. You do the best you can where you can. Don't give up just yet."
October 8, 2019
When tackling the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in memoir form, the author has to do something special to stand out from the herd. Noa Baum does this with her emphasis on storytelling.
Baum grew up in Israel in the 1950s-1970s. She takes us through the stories of her immigrant parents and grandparents, the wars of her childhood and her consequent nationalism, her army and college experiences where she started to question that one-dimensional narrative, her interest and career in theater and storytelling, and her adulthood in the United States where she became a mother and befriended a Palestinian neighbor.
While we hear her friend, Juama’s story, it isn’t an equal accounting because Juama doesn’t speak in her own voice. This memoir—and also the stage production—are Baum’s creation. This is also solely the story of one particular Israeli (and her mother) and one particular Palestinian (and her mother) largely focusing on their lives from around Israel’s creation to the end of the 20th century. So there are limitations when it comes to a generalized sense of history, and limitations which Baum acknowledges when it comes to perspective: “Once I got under the skin of "the other" and began to tell stories from the inside of who they were, I discovered that as much as this process allowed me to gain insight and compassion, it also revealed how infinitely vast and deep the world of any human being is….I can only know what I perceive, from my own limited, little, individual self….It will only be my ability to interpret it from my limited perception.”
But these are the limitations that we all face, so what better starting point for dialogue? One Israeli vs one Palestinian rather than the idea of Israelis and Palestinians, where it’s easy then to devolve into generalities and the impersonal?
Baum’s show (and hopefully her memoir) have been met largely with success because by making things personal, a conversation between friends with a built trust, it strips away the standard platitudes and defensiveness. And empathy can lead to something else, as Baum discovered as her family and Juama’s family compared and contrasted their experiences in the wars: “Too often, we believe that our personal experience is unique, so I was struck by these moments of surprise and discovery. Both our mothers concerned with survival and bread at the same time, the deep connection to Jerusalem, and so many more parallel images that kept emerging in our stories were powerful reminders of our shared humanity.”
Apparently this does not only work for cultural “enemies” but for schisms in the home as well. Starting in Baum’s teen years, she paints her mother as a Jewish Mom Gone Wild—almost unhinged in her paranoid narratives about her own suffering. To be fair, as soon as she was introduced, I classified this woman as a Holocaust survivor, to begin with. (She also served/lost family in Israel’s war for independence.) It was obvious that her mentally abusive behavior stemmed from a place of trauma. But not all memoirists recognize this about the people who abused them as children. Baum did—through the power of storytelling, of learning to listen and try and gain insight into her mother’s character. More barriers destroyed, pain acknowledged and salved.
Baum quotes a handful of Israeli writers, but none so much as Amos Oz, of blessed memory. She believes, as Oz did, that Israelis and Palestinians are people with complementary victim stories. The objective (beyond the more stalled one of political reform) is to listen to the other’s. Baum navigates through the quagmire of what people can truly hear, and paid careful attention to any criticisms of her art form while not losing track of her mission.
“Unlike propaganda, storytelling, as Hannah Arendt said, reveals the meaning without committing the error of defining it,” Baum writes near the end of her memoir. “A sermon or propaganda wants to control the message and make sure the listeners get it. A good storyteller allows their listeners to create meaning from the story that will resonate for them. A story will always resonate differently for different people because every listener listens from who they are: their beliefs and preferences, their worldviews and psychological makeup, their culture and life experiences, and always where in their life’s journey they are when they are listening. The same story can have different meanings when you hear it at different times in your life.”
A meaningful book for any people in conflict.
Baum grew up in Israel in the 1950s-1970s. She takes us through the stories of her immigrant parents and grandparents, the wars of her childhood and her consequent nationalism, her army and college experiences where she started to question that one-dimensional narrative, her interest and career in theater and storytelling, and her adulthood in the United States where she became a mother and befriended a Palestinian neighbor.
While we hear her friend, Juama’s story, it isn’t an equal accounting because Juama doesn’t speak in her own voice. This memoir—and also the stage production—are Baum’s creation. This is also solely the story of one particular Israeli (and her mother) and one particular Palestinian (and her mother) largely focusing on their lives from around Israel’s creation to the end of the 20th century. So there are limitations when it comes to a generalized sense of history, and limitations which Baum acknowledges when it comes to perspective: “Once I got under the skin of "the other" and began to tell stories from the inside of who they were, I discovered that as much as this process allowed me to gain insight and compassion, it also revealed how infinitely vast and deep the world of any human being is….I can only know what I perceive, from my own limited, little, individual self….It will only be my ability to interpret it from my limited perception.”
But these are the limitations that we all face, so what better starting point for dialogue? One Israeli vs one Palestinian rather than the idea of Israelis and Palestinians, where it’s easy then to devolve into generalities and the impersonal?
Baum’s show (and hopefully her memoir) have been met largely with success because by making things personal, a conversation between friends with a built trust, it strips away the standard platitudes and defensiveness. And empathy can lead to something else, as Baum discovered as her family and Juama’s family compared and contrasted their experiences in the wars: “Too often, we believe that our personal experience is unique, so I was struck by these moments of surprise and discovery. Both our mothers concerned with survival and bread at the same time, the deep connection to Jerusalem, and so many more parallel images that kept emerging in our stories were powerful reminders of our shared humanity.”
Apparently this does not only work for cultural “enemies” but for schisms in the home as well. Starting in Baum’s teen years, she paints her mother as a Jewish Mom Gone Wild—almost unhinged in her paranoid narratives about her own suffering. To be fair, as soon as she was introduced, I classified this woman as a Holocaust survivor, to begin with. (She also served/lost family in Israel’s war for independence.) It was obvious that her mentally abusive behavior stemmed from a place of trauma. But not all memoirists recognize this about the people who abused them as children. Baum did—through the power of storytelling, of learning to listen and try and gain insight into her mother’s character. More barriers destroyed, pain acknowledged and salved.
Baum quotes a handful of Israeli writers, but none so much as Amos Oz, of blessed memory. She believes, as Oz did, that Israelis and Palestinians are people with complementary victim stories. The objective (beyond the more stalled one of political reform) is to listen to the other’s. Baum navigates through the quagmire of what people can truly hear, and paid careful attention to any criticisms of her art form while not losing track of her mission.
“Unlike propaganda, storytelling, as Hannah Arendt said, reveals the meaning without committing the error of defining it,” Baum writes near the end of her memoir. “A sermon or propaganda wants to control the message and make sure the listeners get it. A good storyteller allows their listeners to create meaning from the story that will resonate for them. A story will always resonate differently for different people because every listener listens from who they are: their beliefs and preferences, their worldviews and psychological makeup, their culture and life experiences, and always where in their life’s journey they are when they are listening. The same story can have different meanings when you hear it at different times in your life.”
A meaningful book for any people in conflict.
December 10, 2016
Even though I am American and Ms. Baum Israeli, her experiences as a youth resonated deeply for me. As a member of a Zionist youth group, I, too, grew up on stories of Israeli heroism. I heard and believed the same explanations about how lands were fairly purchased during the Yishuv; how, during the 1948 War of Independence, Palestinians were encouraged to stay, but Arab nations told them to flee; and how, throughout the history of the Jewish state, we strove for peace, while they wanted war. For me, as for Ms. Baum, the myth began to unravel with Israel’s military incursion into southern Lebanon in the early 1980s.
Even as I write this review, I grapple with the same tension she describes between wanting to be faithful to Israel and wanting to see Israel’s past and present in a more revealing light. I agree that her effort to tell both sides of the Israel-Palestine story is a step toward peace. I agree that trauma is at the heart of each side’s inability to make peace with the other.
The first half of the book fully engaged me with Ms. Baum’s early life, later awakening, and discovery of friend Jumana who became co-creator of Baum’s one-woman production, “A Land Twice Promised.” The second half, which describes Baum’s process of invention and translation—crafting and revising a performable script from hours of transcribed interviews—is really a separate subject. It belongs in the Performance Studies literature. The discovery that performing your mother’s insufferable stories can build empathy and improve family relationships—wow! That’s profound. Ms. Baum, if I were you, I’d be pairing up with clinical psychologists to develop story telling as a supplement to talk therapy.
Even as I write this review, I grapple with the same tension she describes between wanting to be faithful to Israel and wanting to see Israel’s past and present in a more revealing light. I agree that her effort to tell both sides of the Israel-Palestine story is a step toward peace. I agree that trauma is at the heart of each side’s inability to make peace with the other.
The first half of the book fully engaged me with Ms. Baum’s early life, later awakening, and discovery of friend Jumana who became co-creator of Baum’s one-woman production, “A Land Twice Promised.” The second half, which describes Baum’s process of invention and translation—crafting and revising a performable script from hours of transcribed interviews—is really a separate subject. It belongs in the Performance Studies literature. The discovery that performing your mother’s insufferable stories can build empathy and improve family relationships—wow! That’s profound. Ms. Baum, if I were you, I’d be pairing up with clinical psychologists to develop story telling as a supplement to talk therapy.
August 6, 2019
When I first started this book I wondered if I could finish reading it because, initially it seems so pro-israeli but because a friend had given me her copy to read, I felt an obligation to continue reading. As I did, I was intrigued by Noa Baum's ability to introduce in a very personal way, the Palestinian side of the conflict with the Israelis.
I found it mind expanding to have Noa Baum extend her "story" to include all situations where I might find myself to include listening to another with the idea of really understanding the why's, where's and How's of another's viewpoint.
QUOTES from the book that I found meaningful
p. 200--"The only way to get what you've never received is to give it."
p. 236--"Being able to imagine and understand their point of view does not mean I have to adopt it.
"It does, however open the possibility that, eventually, adding another's point of view may challenge my opinions or perhaps reveal misconceptions, but I don't have to change or replace it in the moment. Listening to another's story is not a declaration of defeat.
p. 244--"We had been dancing this dance for so many years. Suddenly, I realized that much of that frantic admonishing and judgmental combativeness between us all of the years since my adolescence was part of her anxiousness to be UNDERSTOOD and VALIDATED by me.
p. 245--"Without intending to, I had given my mother what she's always so desperately wanted and never knew how to get: that crown with a bright, burning candle on the top. The validating proof that she is LOVED. And something delicate and silky like peace alighted between us."
p. 259--"If we can make room for more than one story, if we dare to validate the story of the "other" if we open up to the paradox of more than one version of truth, then we are giving peace a little window of a chance."
p. 260--"My hope is that my choices will give permission to my listeners and readers to feel for "the other" without losing who they are or feeling threatened. My hope is that more of us will choose to listen to each other and acknowledge the story of "the other," because it is stories that call out for all of us to surrender prejudice and fear, turning instead to listening, compassion, dialogue, and peace."
I found it mind expanding to have Noa Baum extend her "story" to include all situations where I might find myself to include listening to another with the idea of really understanding the why's, where's and How's of another's viewpoint.
QUOTES from the book that I found meaningful
p. 200--"The only way to get what you've never received is to give it."
p. 236--"Being able to imagine and understand their point of view does not mean I have to adopt it.
"It does, however open the possibility that, eventually, adding another's point of view may challenge my opinions or perhaps reveal misconceptions, but I don't have to change or replace it in the moment. Listening to another's story is not a declaration of defeat.
p. 244--"We had been dancing this dance for so many years. Suddenly, I realized that much of that frantic admonishing and judgmental combativeness between us all of the years since my adolescence was part of her anxiousness to be UNDERSTOOD and VALIDATED by me.
p. 245--"Without intending to, I had given my mother what she's always so desperately wanted and never knew how to get: that crown with a bright, burning candle on the top. The validating proof that she is LOVED. And something delicate and silky like peace alighted between us."
p. 259--"If we can make room for more than one story, if we dare to validate the story of the "other" if we open up to the paradox of more than one version of truth, then we are giving peace a little window of a chance."
p. 260--"My hope is that my choices will give permission to my listeners and readers to feel for "the other" without losing who they are or feeling threatened. My hope is that more of us will choose to listen to each other and acknowledge the story of "the other," because it is stories that call out for all of us to surrender prejudice and fear, turning instead to listening, compassion, dialogue, and peace."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2016
Loved this book! It was so eye opening for me, I learned so much about "the situation". Noa is an amazing storyteller. I laughed, I cried. I couldn't put it down.
October 6, 2025
This book taught me so much about compassion, empathy, and understanding of others who feel like the enemy. It felt long to get through but it was so worth it!
December 11, 2023
I highly recommend this book to understand the war(s) better in Israel that have been ongoing for so long. This book is written by an Israeli woman who becomes friends with a Palestinian woman and how this friendship changes them both leaving the reader with a sense of hope if we humans can learn to understand each other. I continue to pray for peace during this horrific time of war. The book was published in 2016 but could have been written this year.
April 7, 2019
A really outstanding book about the power of storytelling and listening with one's heart open to build bridges of understanding, holding out a slender yet vital hope for peace. Noa Baum is an Israeli-born Jew and storyteller. She grew up with the terror of the Nazis in her dreams and imagination while believing wholeheartedly in the absolute truth and justification of the Israeli occupation and war efforts. It was only when serving her compulsory military service and attending college to become an actress that Noa began to see there was more than one truth and to question what she had always known to be true. When she moved with her American husband to the United States, she met a young Palestinian woman in her mothers' circle in Davis, California. After years of bonding as young mothers, they started to share their personal stories from opposite sides of the conflict while growing up in Israel. Noa crafted -- with her friend's complete support and input -- their stories into a powerful one-woman storytelling performance. This book is a great introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a deeply personal everyday level. It is also about learning to listen and share from the heart, to be able to hold more than one truth, and feel compassion. For me as a storyteller, it is also a profoundly informative and inspirational book about the process of mining for, shaping and constructing and performing those difficult and so important personal stories.
Book Pairings:
Noa mentions a number of recommended books related to the topic of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict at the back of the book.
For those most interested in the storytelling aspect, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories by Loren Niemi and Elizabeth Ellis will build on the coaching Noa mentions that she received from Loren.
Book Pairings:
Noa mentions a number of recommended books related to the topic of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict at the back of the book.
For those most interested in the storytelling aspect, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories by Loren Niemi and Elizabeth Ellis will build on the coaching Noa mentions that she received from Loren.
June 26, 2019
I met author Noa Baum recently. This book shows a much deeper side of her than I saw when she performed at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival. This book is a personal look at the Israel/Palestine issue, presenting a complex set of inter-related problems: Jews and Palestinians endured traumatic experiences in the 20th Century that stretches to this day; can the rights and needs of both peoples be respected? Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced during the Nakba, which occurred during the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. How can their "right of return" be accommodated in modern Palestine/Israel? At the same time, how do we accommodate the rights of Jews, still traumatized by centuries of anti-semitism and, of course, the Holocaust?
Through her friendship with "Jumana" (a Palestinian living in California, just like Baum), they discover that they both grew up in Jerusalem. They eventually build trust and exchange stories of their lives there: their experiences reveal similarities and stark differences. Baum tells their compelling story honestly and with compassion--I was brought to tears more than once.
No clear solutions are presented to these thorny political issues, but Baum advises that we need to listen to the stories of the "other"--all of us, I would say. With Israeli settlements expanding into the Occupied Territories, is two-state solution even possible? This is the question I would really like to pose to Baum--then really listen to her answer.
A Land Twice Promised is on my short list of books that I wish everyone would read.
Through her friendship with "Jumana" (a Palestinian living in California, just like Baum), they discover that they both grew up in Jerusalem. They eventually build trust and exchange stories of their lives there: their experiences reveal similarities and stark differences. Baum tells their compelling story honestly and with compassion--I was brought to tears more than once.
No clear solutions are presented to these thorny political issues, but Baum advises that we need to listen to the stories of the "other"--all of us, I would say. With Israeli settlements expanding into the Occupied Territories, is two-state solution even possible? This is the question I would really like to pose to Baum--then really listen to her answer.
A Land Twice Promised is on my short list of books that I wish everyone would read.
February 24, 2023
A Land Twice Promised
An Israeli woman in the US meets a Palestinian woman.
They exchange stories from opposing sides.
One can return home at any time, the other cannot. Palestinians who have been absent for two years can never go back to their Israeli occupied homeland. They are wiped as citizens by Israelis. Their properties are given to Israeli settlers who come back.
Sadly nothing has changed since this book. Its still worth reading to understand the conflict.
An Israeli woman in the US meets a Palestinian woman.
They exchange stories from opposing sides.
One can return home at any time, the other cannot. Palestinians who have been absent for two years can never go back to their Israeli occupied homeland. They are wiped as citizens by Israelis. Their properties are given to Israeli settlers who come back.
Sadly nothing has changed since this book. Its still worth reading to understand the conflict.
November 20, 2018
A heartfelt telling of the life stories from within the Israel/Palestinian struggle. Noa is a wonderful storyteller, and her storytelling abilities are strong in her writing. The personal nature of the narratives in the book helped me put down my assumptions and allowed me to see complicated issues with a wider lens.
March 26, 2023
Employing a readable conversational style of prose Baum accomplished 4 things in A Land Twice Promised.
First, it is an engaging depiction of her life which began in the years immediately following the country’s independence in 1948. Through the lens of her own personal experiences she portrayed her evolution as a child of Holocaust escapees from a diehard patriot to one who by the early 1980’s questioned and then opposed the country’s Occupation of what were territories held by the Palestinians. Even readers who consider themselves informed about Israel’s history will learn about many issues from an insider’s point of view. Ie, she disclosed things not reported in mainstream media in the USA.
Second, as part of this progression in her life Baum developed the friendship with a Palestinian woman noted in the publisher’s blurb about the book. With heartwarming honesty she disclosed the mistrust both she and the other woman had to overcome for their relationship to blossom. Readers will learn about the deeply held misconceptions each had about the other as their friendship developed.
Third, the author explained how storytelling came to be an important part of her life. The mechanics of building and refining stories was clearly articulated over the course of a number of chapters. How storytelling can be utilized to broach difficult issues and to resolve longstanding and seemingly intractable conflicts between people was demonstrated as well.
Finally, Baum portrayed how she gradually, and at times painfully, achieved a greater understanding of and some important resolutions to her complex relationship with her mother. In sharing this she provided readers with an insightful and empathic analysis of how the psychology of Israeli Holocaust survivors affects their relationships with family members as well as with the Palestinians.
Through the 37 pages of endnotes the author provided a great deal of contextual information about Israeli culture, literature, and politics. Her references to theories of storytelling and experts in that field are also cited in the endnotes.
The only relative modest flaw with A Land is that it can be a proverbial victim of its own success: at times her descriptions of conversations or her impressions of places are so detailed as to become slow going.
Overall, I recommend this book most highly. It is a powerful and poignant testament of one woman’s life.
One can get to know more about Baum at her website: https://noabaum.com
Some samples of her storytelling can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/results?searc...
Storytelling has been utilized therapeutically with children for many years now. Here is an introduction to the topic:
https://cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cyconl...
A psychiatrist Richard Gardner published a book many years ago about his use of storytelling in psychotherapy:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
First, it is an engaging depiction of her life which began in the years immediately following the country’s independence in 1948. Through the lens of her own personal experiences she portrayed her evolution as a child of Holocaust escapees from a diehard patriot to one who by the early 1980’s questioned and then opposed the country’s Occupation of what were territories held by the Palestinians. Even readers who consider themselves informed about Israel’s history will learn about many issues from an insider’s point of view. Ie, she disclosed things not reported in mainstream media in the USA.
Second, as part of this progression in her life Baum developed the friendship with a Palestinian woman noted in the publisher’s blurb about the book. With heartwarming honesty she disclosed the mistrust both she and the other woman had to overcome for their relationship to blossom. Readers will learn about the deeply held misconceptions each had about the other as their friendship developed.
Third, the author explained how storytelling came to be an important part of her life. The mechanics of building and refining stories was clearly articulated over the course of a number of chapters. How storytelling can be utilized to broach difficult issues and to resolve longstanding and seemingly intractable conflicts between people was demonstrated as well.
Finally, Baum portrayed how she gradually, and at times painfully, achieved a greater understanding of and some important resolutions to her complex relationship with her mother. In sharing this she provided readers with an insightful and empathic analysis of how the psychology of Israeli Holocaust survivors affects their relationships with family members as well as with the Palestinians.
Through the 37 pages of endnotes the author provided a great deal of contextual information about Israeli culture, literature, and politics. Her references to theories of storytelling and experts in that field are also cited in the endnotes.
The only relative modest flaw with A Land is that it can be a proverbial victim of its own success: at times her descriptions of conversations or her impressions of places are so detailed as to become slow going.
Overall, I recommend this book most highly. It is a powerful and poignant testament of one woman’s life.
One can get to know more about Baum at her website: https://noabaum.com
Some samples of her storytelling can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/results?searc...
Storytelling has been utilized therapeutically with children for many years now. Here is an introduction to the topic:
https://cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cyconl...
A psychiatrist Richard Gardner published a book many years ago about his use of storytelling in psychotherapy:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
March 6, 2023
I listened to the audio edition of this book narrated by Noa Baum herself. Noa's story opens up the stories of both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Like most of my favorite books it opened up my mind to the lives of someone unlike myself and created empathy for these people.
A Goodreads reviewer wrote this summary
A really outstanding book about the power of storytelling and listening with one's heart open to build bridges of understanding, holding out a slender yet vital hope for peace. Noa Baum is an Israeli-born Jew and storyteller. She grew up with the terror of the Nazis in her dreams and imagination while believing wholeheartedly in the absolute truth and justification of the Israeli occupation and war efforts. It was only when serving her compulsory military service and attending college to become an actress that Noa began to see there was more than one truth and to question what she had always known to be true. When she moved with her American husband to the United States, she met a young Palestinian woman in her mothers' circle in Davis, California. After years of bonding as young mothers, they started to share their personal stories from opposite sides of the conflict while growing up in Israel. Noa crafted -- with her friend's complete support and input -- their stories into a powerful one-woman storytelling performance. This book is a great introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a deeply personal everyday level. It is also about learning to listen and share from the heart, to be able to hold more than one truth, and feel compassion. For me as a storyteller, it is also a profoundly informative and inspirational book about the process of mining for, shaping and constructing and performing those difficult and so important personal stories.
A Goodreads reviewer wrote this summary
A really outstanding book about the power of storytelling and listening with one's heart open to build bridges of understanding, holding out a slender yet vital hope for peace. Noa Baum is an Israeli-born Jew and storyteller. She grew up with the terror of the Nazis in her dreams and imagination while believing wholeheartedly in the absolute truth and justification of the Israeli occupation and war efforts. It was only when serving her compulsory military service and attending college to become an actress that Noa began to see there was more than one truth and to question what she had always known to be true. When she moved with her American husband to the United States, she met a young Palestinian woman in her mothers' circle in Davis, California. After years of bonding as young mothers, they started to share their personal stories from opposite sides of the conflict while growing up in Israel. Noa crafted -- with her friend's complete support and input -- their stories into a powerful one-woman storytelling performance. This book is a great introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a deeply personal everyday level. It is also about learning to listen and share from the heart, to be able to hold more than one truth, and feel compassion. For me as a storyteller, it is also a profoundly informative and inspirational book about the process of mining for, shaping and constructing and performing those difficult and so important personal stories.
June 17, 2024
I read Noa Baum's beautiful, honest memoir as part of my synagogue's book club, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to witness the value of dialogue between difference. Her story is of growing up Israeli, deeply embedded in a traumatized world, and coming to the United States, where she meets and befriends Jumana, a Palestinian woman. Their friendship grows over time as they raise their children in California, both always longing for home, both feeling the ongoing traumas of war and conflict despite being thousands of miles away. From this, and Baum's sense of helplessness, she draws upon her creative talents in storytelling to craft a dialogue of her and Jumana's conversations, which she proceeded to perform to various audiences around the world for a number of years.
It's hard not to feel pessimistic these days, but I found Baum's story to be hopeful (even with a sense of pessimism still lingering in the final chapter) - hopeful in the sense of recognizing the bond between these two women from a world that is similar yet vastly different, and how their stories intertwine and mutual respect is forged through real, honest conversation, not slogans on social media. This book won't solve the issue, but Baum's performance, printed in full here, as well as her journey of developing it, provides new insights into a more forward-looking approach, one that embraces the history of past wrongs while moving into a shared future. I also appreciated her footnotes into the history of I/P, which were well-researched and articulated for those not familiar with this tiny corner of the world, as well as her recommendations of organizations in I/P that are actively working towards peace (a number of which were new to me, while others were quite familiar). In short, a phenomenal and beautiful story, and a must-read.
It's hard not to feel pessimistic these days, but I found Baum's story to be hopeful (even with a sense of pessimism still lingering in the final chapter) - hopeful in the sense of recognizing the bond between these two women from a world that is similar yet vastly different, and how their stories intertwine and mutual respect is forged through real, honest conversation, not slogans on social media. This book won't solve the issue, but Baum's performance, printed in full here, as well as her journey of developing it, provides new insights into a more forward-looking approach, one that embraces the history of past wrongs while moving into a shared future. I also appreciated her footnotes into the history of I/P, which were well-researched and articulated for those not familiar with this tiny corner of the world, as well as her recommendations of organizations in I/P that are actively working towards peace (a number of which were new to me, while others were quite familiar). In short, a phenomenal and beautiful story, and a must-read.
April 6, 2023
This an incredible, immensely powerful book. We should all study it, not just read it.
It works on several levels. As a memoir, with insights into the conflict in the Middle East through the author’s eyes as she grows from a young girl into a young woman and then learns to understand the view from the other side once she befriends a Palestinian woman in the US. We also follow her conflict with her mother and how she finally approaches resolution of sorts and her own journey as a storyteller, fighting the demons telling her that she is not good enough.
It works as a brilliant text on the importance and power of listening to and learning from other people’s stories. The author explores the limits of empathy and the way we listen through our own filters. It’s a remarkable coincidence that I’ve just delivered a talk on this very topic, I didn’t know about this book at the time, but it’s both validated what I shared in that talk and given me further, more resonant, insights.
As a speaker and author, I loved the insights given into the craft of storytelling. It’s a big risk to address two very different topics in the same book but it works well.
As you would expect given the author’s background in storytelling, the stories in the book are beautifully constructed and told and it’s nice to see how they are delivered first in the main narrative and you then see how the author used them in her performance story.
I’ve left the final part of the book unread - there’s a transcript of the full story the author crafts throughout much of the book. Instead I’m going to YouTube to search for a video of the full performance.
Read this book and then share it. It’s brilliant.
It works on several levels. As a memoir, with insights into the conflict in the Middle East through the author’s eyes as she grows from a young girl into a young woman and then learns to understand the view from the other side once she befriends a Palestinian woman in the US. We also follow her conflict with her mother and how she finally approaches resolution of sorts and her own journey as a storyteller, fighting the demons telling her that she is not good enough.
It works as a brilliant text on the importance and power of listening to and learning from other people’s stories. The author explores the limits of empathy and the way we listen through our own filters. It’s a remarkable coincidence that I’ve just delivered a talk on this very topic, I didn’t know about this book at the time, but it’s both validated what I shared in that talk and given me further, more resonant, insights.
As a speaker and author, I loved the insights given into the craft of storytelling. It’s a big risk to address two very different topics in the same book but it works well.
As you would expect given the author’s background in storytelling, the stories in the book are beautifully constructed and told and it’s nice to see how they are delivered first in the main narrative and you then see how the author used them in her performance story.
I’ve left the final part of the book unread - there’s a transcript of the full story the author crafts throughout much of the book. Instead I’m going to YouTube to search for a video of the full performance.
Read this book and then share it. It’s brilliant.
January 24, 2024
A Land Twice Promised is a multi-layered, multi-faceted book that shows the power of listening and story in a style that is both tender and strong; heart-rending and heart-healing. Noa Baum examines conflict between and within nations, cultures, families, and ourselves without shying away from the pain - and more importantly, nourishing the seeds of hope that we all can plant and encourage.
Written in 2016, it describes a time when the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians seemed intractable; now, the 2023 war still rages - and its lessons are not diminished, but strengthened.
If you open your heart as you read this amazing work, you will be deeply disturbed and deeply moved. You will find the evidence that truly listening to another - breaking out of our expectations and fears and truly listening - can heal everyone involved.
This book speaks about intergenerational trauma at the national and individual scale, and points the way toward hope.
Don't miss this book!
Written in 2016, it describes a time when the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians seemed intractable; now, the 2023 war still rages - and its lessons are not diminished, but strengthened.
If you open your heart as you read this amazing work, you will be deeply disturbed and deeply moved. You will find the evidence that truly listening to another - breaking out of our expectations and fears and truly listening - can heal everyone involved.
This book speaks about intergenerational trauma at the national and individual scale, and points the way toward hope.
Don't miss this book!
September 6, 2024
This book changed my views on the Middle East and I have recommended it to many people. I've been told by one of those people that it's even better on audible as the author, Noa Baum, is the narrator. She is a professional storyteller and I would imagine my friend was correct. This book is about an orthodox woman born to survivors of the Holocaust and brought up in a very conservative, "no arab is worth living" kind of way. She eventually marries and moves to California where she meets and befriends a Palestinian woman with whom she becomes very friendly. For seven years they never speak of the problems between Israel and Palestine until something happens that forces them to acknowledge each other's background and story. Throughout the book the author weaves in the history of the conflict in the Middle East starting after WWII ends. It is brilliantly written and made me look at the other side. I highly recommend this book and think it should be required reading in every school.
May 31, 2024
I am so inspired by the beauty of storytelling, listening, sharing vulnerabilities, and witnessing an acquaintance become a beautiful, enduring friendship. Israeli woman Noa listens to, learns from and shares her own experiences with a Palestinian woman, Jumana. As they raise their children in Davis, California, far from their homeland Jerusalem, they recognize the heartache of generations of people. On both sides. They recognize a desire for peace, wish for an end to occupation and violence, hope for a two state solution. For Jumana to be allowed to return home. For Noa to see her government choose a new direction of compassion, concession, and ultimately peace. Can storytelling help? Can two groups of people come to an understanding? Can peace come to Jerusalem?
Some favorite passages:
From book club, Andrea shared what some of the professors in Israel taught. They never missed an opportunity to make a wrong decision.
Some favorite passages:
From book club, Andrea shared what some of the professors in Israel taught. They never missed an opportunity to make a wrong decision.
November 23, 2021
This book is rich and complex, yet so easy and entertaining to listen to and follow. Noa Baum is an award-winning storyteller, and all of her skills come to play in the many layers of her narrative. This book is so much more than a memoir, though it is also that. It tells the story of modern Israel, and Palestine, as seen by women on both sides. It evokes empathy for everyone in this heart breaking “situation”. Further, this book also tells the story of crafting a story, a piece of performance art, and is a masterclass in how to do that. Ms. Baum’s performance skills bring multiple characters to life in the audiobook.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in memoirs, even if you have little interest or knowledge of the Mideast. But I doubly recommend it if you are interested in the region, no matter your pre-existing assumptions.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in memoirs, even if you have little interest or knowledge of the Mideast. But I doubly recommend it if you are interested in the region, no matter your pre-existing assumptions.
November 10, 2024
Israeli storyteller Noa Baum grew up in Jerusalem in the shadow of the ancestral traumas of the holocaust and ongoing wars. Stories of the past and fear of annihilation in the wars of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s shaped her perceptions and identity.
In America, she met a Palestinian woman who had grown up under Israeli Occupation, and as they shared memories of war years in Jerusalem, an unlikely friendship blossomed.
A Land Twice Promised delves into the heart of one of the world’s most enduring and complex conflicts. Baum’s deeply personal memoir recounts her journey from girlhood in post¬-Holocaust Israel to her adult encounter with “the other.”
If you want to learn more about the Jewish and Palestinian conflict with stories from both sides on the pain and trauma they have gone through, this is a book to turn to.
I learned so much and gained a new perspective on Israel.
In America, she met a Palestinian woman who had grown up under Israeli Occupation, and as they shared memories of war years in Jerusalem, an unlikely friendship blossomed.
A Land Twice Promised delves into the heart of one of the world’s most enduring and complex conflicts. Baum’s deeply personal memoir recounts her journey from girlhood in post¬-Holocaust Israel to her adult encounter with “the other.”
If you want to learn more about the Jewish and Palestinian conflict with stories from both sides on the pain and trauma they have gone through, this is a book to turn to.
I learned so much and gained a new perspective on Israel.
May 20, 2025
Oy vey, how do I describe this book, a gift from a family member. Although my grandmother was a fervent Zionist, I somehow never felt much attachment to the "idea" of Israel and, unlike much of my family, have never visited. This book was very moving and thought-provoking. Baum does a very good job of describing her journey to being able to become such a close and confiding friend to her Palestinian neighbor. Her story-telling journey was fascinating too. Unfortunately, as we know, the objective conditions have gotten even worse than she and her friend could have imagined since this book was published.
June 29, 2018
I'm usually a fan of thrillers and who done it's, but I started reading this story after my wife finished it. I'm really glad I did. It's the story of a young (10) Israeli girl who moves to America because her scientist father had a great offer. She meets and bonds with a similar looking looking girl who happens to also be from Jerusalem, but is Palestinian. Their story is intriguing, with each side hearing the other.
The author has a real talent with words painting beautiful pictures of her homeland with incredible metaphors.
I hope Ms Baum is working on another story. I'm a fan.
The author has a real talent with words painting beautiful pictures of her homeland with incredible metaphors.
I hope Ms Baum is working on another story. I'm a fan.
August 1, 2024
There are 2 sides to every war. Sides that no one tells you about. Sides that the other side doesn’t want you to tell them. Well Noa does exactly that. She takes you through her experience (which made me quite mad at times), and then meets her friend~ someone who she never even imagined she would be friends with (rightfully so, and vice versa). This book is so eye opening, and gives me compassion for those i didn’t want to have compassion for.
January 7, 2022
I enjoyed the way in which this book detailed the creative process and the determination it takes to live out a dream. It does a wonderful job breaking down how dialogue can lead to compassion and eventually (and hopefully) incremental social change. A very hopeful narrative of peace building without feeling overly simplistic or cheesy at all.
June 7, 2023
a beautiful memoir- not only was it incredibly educational about the current Israeli/Palestinian crisis, but it also speaks to the importance of listening to other’s stories-
“It is stories that call out for all of us to surrender prejudice and fear, turning instead to listening, compasión, dialogue, and peace”
“It is stories that call out for all of us to surrender prejudice and fear, turning instead to listening, compasión, dialogue, and peace”
July 8, 2025
A beautiful memoir by an Israeli storyteller who moves to America and there becomes friends with a Palestinian woman.She turns their stories into a performance piece about the predicament in Israel/Palestine. The book deepened my understanding of both peoples. It was quite absorbing until the last part which became too long and didactic.
June 22, 2018
What better way to explain Israel and Palestine than through personal storytelling? Baum brings the conflict to a human level, a level us mere mortals can understand. If only more people would read this book and take the time to listen to each other's stories, we could heal more conflicts.
September 13, 2018
Beautifully written and super-readable. Ms. Baum wrote an honest personal story, combined with historical detail, providing a realistic, yet very moving account of her perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that sometimes felt as if it was about my own memories as a young Israeli leftie.
January 20, 2019
Interesting perspectives from the Jewish and Palestinian women. Also enjoyed learning about the craft of storytelling...never knew it was so involved. However I did find the book repetitious in several areas.
March 7, 2023
I enjoyed this modern look at a conflict that began with Ishmael and Isaac. At times, I found the detail a bit tedious and repetitive but overall, I enjoyed the book. The author is a professional storyteller; the audio version read by her deserves more than five stars!
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