Simon Sebag Montefiore
Jerusalem: The Biography
A Fresh History of the Middle East
Flipping through the book's 600 pages, written in a clear, lively, illustrative style, one can't help but wonder why an Israeli writer didn't write this biography of our capital city first.
Sometimes it seems as if Jerusalem is more popular among people who don't live there. So it's not surprising that the author of "Jerusalem: The Biography – A Fresh History of the Middle East," is a Jewish British historian by the name of Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Sebag Montefiore, 46, carries the family name of the famous philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, who nearly single-handedly directed the settling of Jews outside the walls of Jerusalem. He also constructed Jerusalem's iconic Montefiore Windmill and established the neighborhood of Yemin Moshe in 1891.While Sebag Montefiore is not a direct descendent of the philanthropist, he said his book was a project based both on his own private contribution to Jerusalem as well as the legacy of his name.
"Jerusalem: The Biography" was published and widely distributed recently in English and is now scheduled for translation in more than 40 languages. A Hebrew translation will be released next year.
Flipping through the book's 600 pages, written in a clear, lively, illustrative style, one can't help but wonder why an Israeli writer didn't write this biography of our capital city first.
But why did Sebag Montefiore call the book a biography? And why did he prefer to write the biography of a city rather than a person? The answer, apparently, is because Jerusalem is not just any city. It is a city that has seen division and war ever since the days of King David.
The fascination with Jerusalem extends far beyond Israel. U.K. viewers this Christmas will be shown a documentary on Jerusalem, created by the BBC and narrated by Sebag Montefiore. That project sent him to Jerusalem once a month for interviews and taping, so much so that I have visited places in Jerusalem that I was told were visited by Sebag Montefiore and his team, as well.
Although we don't know yet what conclusions the political slant of the BBC documentary, it seems that Sebag Montefiore will not recommend that Jerusalem remain undivided under Israeli control. In his book, however, he has kind words for the Israelis, saying that only under Israeli control of Jerusalem, since 1967, has the city seen true freedom of religion.
Jerusalem, he writes in his book, has a strategic value, and not just for our region. "Jerusalem is the command center of the Middle East. It's the battleground of Western secularism versus fundamental Islam. Jerusalem is a "powder keg," as the Jordanian King Abdullah II put it."
