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Coming Together, Coming Apart: A Memoir of Heartbreak and Promise in Israel
Praise for Coming Together, Coming Apart
""Interesting conversation is Israel's most ingratiating commodity, and this is an especially interesting one. To read Coming Together, Coming Apart is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with one of Israel's most thoughtful observers--an American who made Israel his home, despite its imperfections and dangers. Gordis's conversational narrative is irresistible.""
--Alan dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel
""Whether describing a walk through Jerusalem in snow, a hike in the desert, or a farewell family drive to the Gaza settlements, Gordis manages to capture the essential details that tell us the larger meaning of our Israeli lives. There is much irony in this book, and also anger, especially against those who unfairly judge Israel in its most desperate and noble times. Most of all, though, this book is the chronicle of a love story--of an immigrant family in Jerusalem falling in love with Israel and, through that love, discovering the strength to cope with life on the front lines of a jihadist war. As a fellow Jerusalemite, I feel a profound debt to Gordis for explaining what it means to raise a family in the middle of a terror zone, and the courage that average Israelis instinctively display in maintaining the pretense of normal life. Those of us who share his passion are fortunate to be so well represented by this book.""
--Yossi Klein Halevi, Foreign Correspondent, The New Republic
""Interesting conversation is Israel's most ingratiating commodity, and this is an especially interesting one. To read Coming Together, Coming Apart is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with one of Israel's most thoughtful observers--an American who made Israel his home, despite its imperfections and dangers. Gordis's conversational narrative is irresistible.""
--Alan dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel
""Whether describing a walk through Jerusalem in snow, a hike in the desert, or a farewell family drive to the Gaza settlements, Gordis manages to capture the essential details that tell us the larger meaning of our Israeli lives. There is much irony in this book, and also anger, especially against those who unfairly judge Israel in its most desperate and noble times. Most of all, though, this book is the chronicle of a love story--of an immigrant family in Jerusalem falling in love with Israel and, through that love, discovering the strength to cope with life on the front lines of a jihadist war. As a fellow Jerusalemite, I feel a profound debt to Gordis for explaining what it means to raise a family in the middle of a terror zone, and the courage that average Israelis instinctively display in maintaining the pretense of normal life. Those of us who share his passion are fortunate to be so well represented by this book.""
--Yossi Klein Halevi, Foreign Correspondent, The New Republic
- GenresNonfictionIsrael
272 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 7, 2016
In this volume Daniel Gordis writes of his life in Israel from when he family moved from Los Angeles to Jerusalem.
It covers the events of the Terror War (2000-2005), after Barak's offer of Gaza, half of Jerusalem and almost the entire West Bank to the Arabs was met by a bloody war of terror against Israel's population, launched by mass murderer Yassir Arafat.
He describes the wave of terror attacks, which engulfed Israel during this period, in which thousands of Israeli men, women and children were butchered in a war by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades the Popular Resistance Committees and the PFLP, to get the Jews out of the Land of Israel by killing them.
The experience of parents not knowing if that morning when their children left the house to go to school it would be the last time that they ever saw them.
Gordis reminds us that the Jews have no place to go other than Israel, and that the war is not about land but about the existence of the Jews in Israel.As the author writes "We are not leaving. Where could we possibly go? Does Europe want us back? It didn't work very well the last time we where there.
He describes the international furor over the security fence that enemies of Israel and her people the world over refer to as the 'Apartheid Wall', which has saved thousands of lives in Israel, which is probably why much of the world wants it taken down, so that terrorists can get into Israel to murder Jews.
The trial by the International Court of Justice' at the Hague, is not about the fence but about the existence of the Jews in Israel.
Arab inconvenience is treated as more important than Jewish lives.
The author describes the internal conflicts through the eyes of his family, and Israel, including about the forced removal of the Jewish population of Gaza in 2005.
I don't agree with the author's conclusions that there was no alternative.
I also disagree with the author that the idea of transfer of the hostile Arab population out of the Land of Israel is in any way more horrific than the expulsion and forced removals of Jews from parts of the Land (eventually all of the Land, accompanied by a Second Holocaust?)
The Gaza disengagement led directly to the Israel-Hezbollah War of 1996, and the destruction of the town of Sderot. Hamas attacking Israel with thousands of Kassam rockets in the last few years.
As Gordis' son Micha observes 'And right that every time Israel does something after they attack us, the world thinks Israel was wrong?'.
We get an overwhelming illustration of a Nation struggling to survive in a world in which millions would rather it did not exist.
The book affirms the extraordinary spirit of the people of Israel,
the most humane, giving, life-affirming people on the planet--
whatever sick propaganda you might have read to the contrary.
It covers the events of the Terror War (2000-2005), after Barak's offer of Gaza, half of Jerusalem and almost the entire West Bank to the Arabs was met by a bloody war of terror against Israel's population, launched by mass murderer Yassir Arafat.
He describes the wave of terror attacks, which engulfed Israel during this period, in which thousands of Israeli men, women and children were butchered in a war by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades the Popular Resistance Committees and the PFLP, to get the Jews out of the Land of Israel by killing them.
The experience of parents not knowing if that morning when their children left the house to go to school it would be the last time that they ever saw them.
Gordis reminds us that the Jews have no place to go other than Israel, and that the war is not about land but about the existence of the Jews in Israel.As the author writes "We are not leaving. Where could we possibly go? Does Europe want us back? It didn't work very well the last time we where there.
He describes the international furor over the security fence that enemies of Israel and her people the world over refer to as the 'Apartheid Wall', which has saved thousands of lives in Israel, which is probably why much of the world wants it taken down, so that terrorists can get into Israel to murder Jews.
The trial by the International Court of Justice' at the Hague, is not about the fence but about the existence of the Jews in Israel.
Arab inconvenience is treated as more important than Jewish lives.
The author describes the internal conflicts through the eyes of his family, and Israel, including about the forced removal of the Jewish population of Gaza in 2005.
I don't agree with the author's conclusions that there was no alternative.
I also disagree with the author that the idea of transfer of the hostile Arab population out of the Land of Israel is in any way more horrific than the expulsion and forced removals of Jews from parts of the Land (eventually all of the Land, accompanied by a Second Holocaust?)
The Gaza disengagement led directly to the Israel-Hezbollah War of 1996, and the destruction of the town of Sderot. Hamas attacking Israel with thousands of Kassam rockets in the last few years.
As Gordis' son Micha observes 'And right that every time Israel does something after they attack us, the world thinks Israel was wrong?'.
We get an overwhelming illustration of a Nation struggling to survive in a world in which millions would rather it did not exist.
The book affirms the extraordinary spirit of the people of Israel,
the most humane, giving, life-affirming people on the planet--
whatever sick propaganda you might have read to the contrary.
March 7, 2012
I was given this book to read before I spend a month in the Middle East. It's the story of an American family with school-age kids who emigrated to Israel in 2000 and their lives in Jerusalem during a very dangerous period of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. It's part memoir, part op-ed, and quite a bit of rant.
I found it honest, frightening, funny, and poignant but would have liked the book to have been more tightly edited. I learned much about Israeli politics and the internal difficulties and disagreements over how to deal with the terrorism. In the middle, Arafat passed away and the war calmed down a lot.
I'm very glad I have read Coming Together, Coming Apart before I leave as the insights will enhance my visit and interviews with Jewish, Christian, and Moslem Israelis.
I found it honest, frightening, funny, and poignant but would have liked the book to have been more tightly edited. I learned much about Israeli politics and the internal difficulties and disagreements over how to deal with the terrorism. In the middle, Arafat passed away and the war calmed down a lot.
I'm very glad I have read Coming Together, Coming Apart before I leave as the insights will enhance my visit and interviews with Jewish, Christian, and Moslem Israelis.
July 19, 2023
Just finished another fabulous book from Daniel Gordis. ‘Coming Together, Coming Apart’ is a personal(ized) story of Israel and Israeli life from the beginning of the second Intifada to the unilateral disengagement from Gaza. Gordis is a master storyteller and here he blends his personal and family life with the events of turmoil, trauma, violence, and yes hope, during the most recent war-torn period in Israel’s history. I cannot recommend this moving book enough.
June 5, 2017
This books is quite engaging. Gordis describes with realism, passion, and honesty his love of Israel. This love led to his making aliyah and living through the difficult times of the Intifada. Gordis's writing is beautiful. I highly recommend this book to people who want to know the inner struggles of an American Jewish intellectual who is committed to living in Israel.
December 23, 2012
The third of my Israeli trilogy, this time a memoir. An Orthodox rabbi has emigrated to Israel with his wife and three children. The memoir is about life near the west bank during the 2nd Intifada in 2002. It's about terrorism, death,fear, and bombings as well as the search for the meaning of a country whose existence is threatened from within and without. It is about the shrinking of a country as land is returned and terrorism worsens. It is about the left and the right, a fair portrayal of both sides. And it is a book about people torn among themselves as to what their country should be: a haven for Jews or a multiethnic democracy that will eventually have an Arab majority. Read it to really understand what the hell is going on in the Middle East.
January 5, 2008
This book made me cry many times. I really enjoyed it...though I felt I could have written it myself- though not as well. It's really a book for Anglos- I would not recommend it for Native Israelis.
August 5, 2016
Could have been so good, but was so not.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews