Karen Lehrman Bloch

How is it that, year after year, the UN World Happiness Report ranks Israel as one of the world’s happiest nations? Israel – a country with compulsory military service, internal and external enemies bent on its destruction, and three national days of mourning. Readers looking for an answer to this paradox should check out Passage to Israel, a photographic tour through the astonishing varieties of nature, life, creativity, and faith that define Israel.

Divided into four sections – Land, Light, Life, and Soul – Passage to Israel presents the work of 34 of the country’s most gifted photographers with a forward and introduction that communicate the love and enthusiasm that together were the book’s genesis.

In her acknowledgments, the author writes that inspiration came not only from lovers of Israel (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) but also from the lies and disinformation that form part of the daily output in most of the global media. She also reveals a powerful idea at the book’s heart: “Israel is indeed a mirror to one’s soul. Those who see the beauty, who stand up for the truth, who understand the meaning, will never regret where they stood in this moment of history, when silence is not an option. Am Yisrael Chai”

Published in Regent University Library Link, January 17, 2017 http://librarylink.regent.edu/?p=3099… (altro)