Bethlehem Road: Stories of Immigration and Exile

For fans of André Aciman, Omer Friedlander, and Ayelet Tsabari, these twelve stories convey the power, magic, and pain of place—one iconic street in Jerusalem where immigrants young and old struggle to find themselves between the years 1967 and 1999.

Leaving one country for another, even if it is an immigrant’s choice, is never easy. The stories in this collection—often emotional, sometimes funny—examine this truth as they render the experiences of twelve characters, most of whom immigrate to Jerusalem in the three decades following the 1967 Six-Day War. All of them come to create new lives in an old homeland. Some succeed, but for most the present and past collide, confounding and challenging attempts to create stability—like the Dutch Holocaust survivor struggling with her love of a Nazi, or the young American Reform Jew craving an observant Orthodox lifestyle.

Each of the characters in these layered stories, from the pregnant Canadian woman who imagines giving birth to a savior to the American chiropractor who takes his kids to watch the Passover slaughter of a lamb, comes to find that after the initial excitement of falling in love with a new country, difficulties emerge. Being an immigrant is a perpetual mode; you are always aware of loss and difference. In addition to this shared experience, iconic Bethlehem Road, with its ethnic mosaic and vibrant urban setting, is the great connecting thread in these tales—giving readers a chance to peek beyond its stone fences and glimpse the people who live there.