Ghosts of a Holy War

“A good book about a bad mess.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“[A] superb, meticulous and hauntingly detailed account of the 1929 Hebron Massacre.”
—Commentary Magazine

“An astonishing work of history.”
—Jewish Journal

“Tells a gripping story, recounting not only events of historical magnitude but also the reasons behind them. Schwartz has an especially attractive writing style, which keeps the reader turning the pages. For anyone interested in understanding the back history of Black Sabbath – namely, October 7, 2023 – this is a must-read volume.”
—Jerusalem Post

“Schwartz has writ­ten a valu­able work, review­ing the peri­od in an acces­si­ble, engag­ing style that con­tributes to under­stand­ing what has been termed the world’s most endur­ing conflict.”
—Jewish Book Council

“In this groundbreaking account of the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Yardena Schwartz tells a compelling story of how one American’s tragic life converged with a seminal moment in history. Focusing on the ancient city of Hebron, Ghosts of a Holy War masterfully weaves together past and present, the historical and the personal. With a keen reporter’s eye, Schwartz reveals the best and the worst in both sides of the conflict. If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy, this is it.”
—Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

“With meticulous archival research and journalistic skill, and aided by a fascinating trove of letters left by a doomed young American, Yardena Schwartz gives us a valuable account of one of the key tragedies in the meeting between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Ghosts of a Holy War fills in a missing piece in our understanding of a conflict that continues to echo worldwide, reminding us of the human characters at the heart of global dramas.”
—Matti Friedman, author of Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai

“The Hebron massacre is a pivotal event in the history of the Jewish-Arab confrontation, one with profound resonance with our own troubled time. Yardena Schwartz has written an engaging, accessible, and deeply personal account of the massacre and its enduring legacy in the post–10/7 Middle East.”
—Oren Kessler, author of Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict, winner of the 2024 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

“Important, timely, deeply researched, and beautifully written. Yardena Schwartz has made a key contribution to understanding the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A family story is seamlessly woven into the political narrative, which explains comprehensively the present sad state of affairs.”
—Martin Fletcher, former NBC News Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv and author of Promised Land: A Novel of Israel

“Hebron is the epicenter of the extremism that has fueled a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews. Yardena Schwartz’s deep dive into the city’s violent past and disturbing present is moving and incredibly timely.”
—Gershom Gorenberg, author of War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East

“Ghosts of a Holy War is an excellent, vivid account of the 1929 Arab riots against the Jewish community of British Mandate Palestine. This outstanding book by Yardena Schwartz is recommended reading for anyone who wishes to understand not just the history that is so often neglected, but also what is happening today.”
—Simon Sebag Montefiore, bestselling author of Jerusalem: The Biography

“Ghosts of a Holy War stands out as one of last year’s most under-reviewed and yet most read-worthy books on the Middle East.”
—Josef Joffe, a distinguished fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer. She worked at NBC News, including stints at the Today show, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.

Her reporting has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, TIME, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, among other publications.

She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011 and received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013. She then spent a decade reporting from Israel, earning the 2016 RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting.

She now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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