Israel Odyssey: Coming of Age and Finding Peace in the Middle East

By: P. David Hornik

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Synopsis: A deeply personal account of an American Jew&’s relocation to the Holy Land from &“one of Israel&’s best-informed and most astute journalists&” (Chicago Jewish Star). What makes a young American Jew who was never encouraged to move to Israel—whether by individuals or in an organizational framework—suddenly decide to do so at age twenty-eight? How does a young American Jewish family, with little background in Hebrew, make its way in a new, highly distinct culture with no more than a shallow resemblance to America&’s? This memoir traces the unlikely emergence in its author of a fascination, a passionate concern, and an identification with Israel that left him no choice but to relocate there. On the one hand, his parents were Austrian Jewish refugees from Nazism; on the other, the family moved to what was then a rural area of New York State where almost no other Jews lived—resulting in a richly complex, albeit confusing and difficult, identity to navigate. Israel Odyssey opens a window on modern Israel as seen by an immigrant both deeply patriotic but, at the same time, carrying cultural baggage from across the ocean. P. David Hornik&’s highly personal story is his quest for inner peace and fulfillment amid the pressures, strife, and special vitality of the old-new Land.