ISRAEL
Israel in books and films
Here are some suggestions about what to read and watch before going to Israel:
"The Bridal Canopy," by Nobel Prize-winning Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon, a 1931 novel about Judaism in Spanish Galicia.
"Exodus," a 1958 novel by Leon Uris, about the painful birth of the Israeli state after World War II; the 1960 film version was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Paul Newman.
"From Beirut to Jerusalem," by Thomas L. Friedman, the Middle East problem analyzed by a prize-winning journalist stationed in Beirut and Jerusalem from 1979 to 1989.
"Goodbye, New York," a 1985 comedy directed by Amos Kollek about a woman who is mistaken for a Hasidic Jew on an airplane and ends up in Israel with no money or luggage.
"The Jewish War," the classic history by Flavius Josephus, who was a commander in Galilee during the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in AD 66 to 67.
"Late Marriage," Dover Koshashvili's 2001 film about a handsome young Israeli's efforts to evade the demands of his traditional Georgian Jewish family and marry after his own heart.
"Mr. Mani," by acclaimed Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua, is a 1992 novel, written as a series of conversations, about six generations of a Jewish family in the Middle East.
"The Saturday Morning Murder: A Psychoanalytic Case," by Batya Gur, is the 1992 debut of a mystery series featuring Israeli police detective Michael Ohayon.
"Schindler's List," Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning 1993 film about businessman Oskar Schindler who saved 1,100 Jews from Nazi gas chambers; it sets the stage for the creation of Israel after World War II.
"Walk on Water," a 2004 movie directed by Eytan Fox about the transformation of a hard, dispassionate Mossad agent through friendship with a young, openly gay German.
-- Susan Spano and Penny Kaganoff
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