Book Talk - Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging

Join us for a presentation and discussion with the author of Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging (Olive Branch Press at Interlink Publishers, 2023). Written by Linda Dittmar, an Israeli-American who grew up in Israel and served in the IDF (1938-1960) before coming to study in the US, this memoir covers decades of Israel’s state formation, from the later years of the British Mandate through the 1950s and to the present. With Israel’s “War of Independence” and the Palestinians’ ethnic cleansing, the Nakba, at its core, this memoir offers a retrospective view of a history rooted in the traumas each side brings to the current fighting and its elusive prospect of healing. Written with intimate knowledge and empathy, Tracing Homelands speaks urgently to the present moment.

Linda Dittmar is Professor Emerita at the University of Massachusetts Boston.