Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
), is an American-born,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
-based writer, journalist, and translator.
Biography
Watzman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Silver Spring,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
. After receiving a B.A. from
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, Watzman made
aliyah
''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...
to Israel, where he has lived since 1978 and worked as a freelance translator and journalist. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Ilana, and four children.
Literary career
Watzman is the author of ''Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2005), a memoir centered on his service in a reserve
infantry
Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...
unit in the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
and ''A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2007), as well as ''Necessary Stories'' (West 26th Street Press 2017).
Watzman is known for his English translations of recent works by Hebrew-language authors. His translations include
Tom Segev
Tom Segev (; born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group critical of many of the country's traditional narratives.
Biography
Segev was born on March 1, 1945 in Jeru ...
’s ''The Seventh Million'', ''Elvis in Jerusalem'', ''One Palestine Complete'', and "A State at any Cost", as well as
David Grossman
David Grossman (; born January 25, 1954) is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.
Biography
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the eld ...
’s ''The Yellow Wind'', ''Sleeping on a Wire'', and ''Death as a Way of Life''.
He served for 25 years as Israel correspondent for ''
The Chronicle of Higher Education
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription ...
'', and was Israel correspondent for the British science journal
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
. His opinion pieces have appeared on the pages of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', and ''
The Forward
''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...
''.
Watzman currently writes the monthly “Necessary Stories” column for The Jerusalem Report, and co-authors the widely read South Jerusalem blog, along with
Gershom Gorenberg
Gershom Gorenberg () is an American-born Israeli journalist and historian specializing in Middle Eastern politics and the interaction of religion and politics.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
(2005)
* ''A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel's Rift Valley''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2007)
* ''Necessary Stories''. West 26th Street Press (2017)
Books translated
*
Tom Segev
Tom Segev (; born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group critical of many of the country's traditional narratives.
Biography
Segev was born on March 1, 1945 in Jeru ...
, ''A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion'',
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...
, 2019
* Hillel Cohen, ''Year Zero of the Israel-Arab Conflict'', Brandeis University Press, 2015
* Itamar Radai, ''Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa, 1948''. Routledge Studies in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2015
*
Tuvia Friling
Tuvia Friling (; born 7 May 1953) is an Emeritus professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Previously he served as a senior researcher at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and a lecturer at the ...
, ''A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz: History, Memory, and the Politics of Survival''. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2014
* Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, ''On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe''. Wayne State University Press, 2014
*
Shlomo Avineri
Shlomo Avineri (Hebrew: שלמה אבינרי; born Jerzy Wiener; 20 August 1933 – 30 November 2023) was an Israeli political scientist. He was a professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and member of the Israel A ...
, ''Herzl: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State''.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld ...
, 2013
* Anat Helman, ''Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities''. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2012
* Tamar El Or, ''Reserved Seats: Religion, Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Israel''. Wayne State University Press, 2012
*
Orit Rozin
Orit Rozin (Hebrew: אורית רוזין) is an Israeli historian. She is a professor of Jewish history at the University of Tel Aviv.
Donna Robinson Divine, writing in '' The New Rambler'' in 2016, described Rozin as "one of a new generation ...
, ''The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel: A Challenge to Collectivism''. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011
* Boaz Neumann, ''Land and Desire in Early Zionism''. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011
* Gilad Margalit, ''Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II''.
Indiana University Press
Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...
, 2010
* Hillel Cohen, ''Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs''.
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 2010
* Menachem Klein, 'The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Struggle to Ethnic Conflict''. Columbia University Press, 2010
* Yoram Bilu, ''The Saints’ Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery''. Academic Studies Press, 2009
* Menachem Klein, ''A Possible Peace''. Columbia University Press, 2007
* Hillel Cohen, ''
Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948
An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by p ...
''. University of California Press, 2007
* Yaakov Lozowick, ''Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil''. Continuum, 2003
* Menachem Klein, ''The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status''. University of Florida Press, 2003
*
David Grossman
David Grossman (; born January 25, 1954) is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.
Biography
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the eld ...
, ''Death as a Way of Life''. Farrar Straus, 2003
* Igal Sarna, ''The Man Who Fell into a Puddle''. Knopf, 2002
* Tom Segev, ''Elvis in Jerusalem''. Metropolitan, 2002
* Tamar El-Or, ''Next Pesach: Literacy and Identity among Young Orthodox Jewish Women''. Wayne State University Press, 2002
* Menachem Klein, ''Jerusalem: The Contested City''. Hurst/NYU Press, 2001
* Tom Segev, ''One Palestine Complete''. Metropolitan, 2000
*
Oz Almog
Oz Almog () is an Israeli and Austrian artist, born on 15 April 1956, in Kfar Saba, Israel.
Biography
Oz Almog was born to a family of Russian/Ukrainian pioneers (Avrutzki) and Romanian/Russian immigrants (Abramovich). After studying classical pa ...
, ''The Sabra: A Portrait, California University Press''. 2000
* Tamar El-Or, ''Educated and Ignorant: On Ultra-Orthodox Women and Their World''. Lynne Reinner, 1993
* David Grossman, ''Sleeping on a Wire''. Farrar Straus, 1993
* Tom Segev, ''The Seventh Million''. Hill & Wang, 1993
* David Grossman, ''The Yellow Wind''. Farrar Straus, 1988
*
Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari ( ; born 1976) is an Israeli medievalist, military historian, public intellectual, and popular science writer. He currently serves as professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His first bestse ...