Good Jewish Girl: A Jerusalem Love Story Gone Bad

Liz Shulman isn't the first author to narrate her breakup with Israel. But she does so with humor, decency and painful honesty-a spirit that will move readers of all ideological stripes.

-Peter Beinart, author of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza

Refreshingly raw and captivating in its storytelling, Liz Shulman's intimate self-portrait offers a powerful account of identity made through relationships-not just with people, but with a place (Jerusalem) and an idea (Zionism). Unafraid to be authentic in her erotic entanglements and honest in her journey, Shulman's account humanizes the complexity of identity politics as she traverses the contentious terrain of one of the world's most enduring conflicts. In a voice that is accessible, inviting, and unassumingly wise, Shulman's collection of essays brilliantly invites empathy, frustration, despair-and still somehow a sense of hope in its radical honesty.

-Phillip L. Hammack, author of Narrative and the Politics of Identity: The Cultural Psychology of Israeli and Palestinian Youth and Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Good Jewish Girl: A Jerusalem Love Story Gone Bad is a significant voice in contemporary Jewish literature. Shulman's seemingly innocent love for Israel becomes romantic when as a teen she visits and later attends grad school in Jerusalem. In a conversational, sometimes lyrical-always honest and thoughtful-voice, Shulman writes of her friendships, love affairs, and the myths and truths she learns as she begins to question what she has been taught. By the end, Shulman thinks differently about Zionism, but her strong Jewish identity remains intact. A greatly compelling read, replete with wry humor and wise insights.

-Garnett Kilberg-Cohen