How To Understand Israel in 60 Days Or Less is a new biographical graphic novel by cartoonist Sarah Glidden that is coming out in early November from Vertigo. No spoilers following:How to Understand Israel... was a delight to read from beginning to end and was in no way a chore to read as the subject of "understanding Israel" might suggest to people. Cartoonist Sarah Glidden embarks on a birthright-Israel trip, a trip that is free to Jewish people, to better come to terms with that country. Sarah Glidden, in How To Understand Israel... states that she doesn't have any religious convictions and had put off this birthright trip because she feared that the tour was going to have a propaganda agenda. I'm not going to reveal what Sarah Glidden took away from her trip to Israel, but I will say that How to Understand Israel... is an excellent examination of the Israeli and Palestine conflict and really helps a skeptical reader (and non religious person) such as myself grasp the entirety of what is Israel.
While in Israel, Sarah Glidden attended a lecture by a Rabbi (which she was dreading) and discovered that he didn't just give a lecture on how one should live a "conventional" Jewish life, rather as the following passage he delivered illustrates, he offered words of advice that everyone would do well to try to emulate:
"As a Jewish State, Israel should be leading the protests of the atrocities in Darfur. We pray for two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Beautiful. But why can't we pray for one million Africans? We must get out of this family mode. The law is a compromise for those who cannot hear the universal language. It is not the ideal. Halachah is only the beginning. So bring flowers, but don't only bring flowers."
Thank you Sarah Glidden for writing and drawing How To Understand Israel In 60 Days Or Less and to Vertigo for publishing this great heartfelt, informative graphic novel.
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