The Unholy Land: An Unconventional Guide to Israel [Paperback]

The essays in this ambitious volume explore the invisible walls that divide the modern state of Israel. Part hipster travelogue, part from-the-ground-up look at Israeli politics, Unholy Land is a sometimes irreverent, sometimes moving collection from a cache of Israel’s most talented young writers.

Shlomzion Kenan finds rich material in the stories and legends of the 100 year-old home she rents in Jaffa.

Tel Aviv-based writer Dana Kessler wryly reflects on the 1972 cult film Metzitzim (the Israeli Midnight Cowboy) and filmmaker Uri Zohar’s eventual conversion to Orthodoxy.

Actor Rana Werbin captures a slice of life at the Mersand Cafe in Tel Aviv: four friends sipping arak and chatting about bras, clonix, one night stands, and their monotonous jobs.

Fashion journalist Sahar Shalev ponders Israeli gay men’s love affair with the sleeveless t-shirt.

The first of Ron Levy Arie’s two essays traces the rise of the ubiquitous Sabich sandwich from it’s origins in Iraqi Jewish kitchens to its dominance as a street-food staple. The second records a series of impressions during a road trip through three Northern towns: Haifa, Akko, and Tveryah. We meet a Rastafarian walking with a group of pilgrims; attend the largest fringe fest in Israel; and ponder what type of fish Jesus fed his disciples at their miraculous feast.

Eran Sebbag lovingly unearths connections between the black slaves that invented the Delta Blues and the Jewish-American producers who made Rock N Roll and mass phenomenon: Blacks + Jews = Blues.

Novelist Reuven Miran writes elegiacally about a drive from Kfar Saba to Jerusalem with Ella Fitzgerald playing on the radio.

Filmmaker Tom Shoval hunts for traces of Hollywood in Jerusalem and stumbles on a trip tlc$