{"id":20715,"date":"2013-04-05T10:04:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=20715"},"modified":"2014-05-09T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T18:20:30","slug":"jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Jerusalem.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-26633\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Jerusalem-e1434045270186.jpg\" alt=\"Jerusalem\" width=\"705\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a>Some years back, during a discussion about what was then the latest tragic news coming out of the Middle East, a friend&#8217;s mother softly remarked about the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, &#8220;The absolute worst arguments happen among families.&#8221; She (the widow of conservative rabbi) was referring specifically to the shared <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abrahamic_religions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Abrahamic<\/a> ancestry of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. From Cain and Abel onward, too much of history\u00a0\u2013 and not just religious history\u00a0\u2013 has proven the truth in Mommy&#8217;s simple statement.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to\u00a0<em>Jerusalem<\/em>, &#8220;&#8230; a stubborn little slab of reality that nevertheless shimmers like a mirage before the eyes of both the made and the sane, united them into a single brotherhood of dreamers, murderers, and poets.&#8221; The &#8216;family&#8217; of the subtitle is the Halaby clan, originally from Syria, who arrive in the foothills of Jerusalem in 1893. A half century later, the family is bookended by two sons with four sisters in between: the elder, Yakov, is a wealthy community leader; Izak, six years younger, is always on the verge of ruin, mostly at the hands of his own\u00a0brother.\u00a0Yakov&#8217;s childhood animosity \u2013\u00a0&#8220;&#8230; overcome by jealousy at the\u00a0attention\u00a0lavished on his brother, [Yakov] vowed\u00a0never to allow Izak a moment&#8217;s peace&#8221; \u2013 remains a trenchant reality,\u00a0even into middle age.<\/p>\n<p>During the violent, tumultuous 1940s leading up to the declaration of an independent state of Israel in 1948, the Halaby brothers and their families live vastly different lives. Yakov manages to maintain stability and comfort\u00a0\u2013 luxury, even\u00a0\u2013 all the while tormenting Izak, even causing his brother&#8217;s imprisonment when Izak is unable to keep up with loan payments. While Izak is virtually powerless, his angry, often cruel, wife desperately tries to keep her family together. Their sons&#8217; reactions to their threatened lives vary significantly: one joins hands with his Muslim neighbors to serve the Communist Party, one leaves the family to fight abroad, one becomes entangled with an extremist anti-British underground network, and the youngest grows his reputation as a street hoodlum. The neverending conflict beyond the disparate Halabys is magnified within their relationships with one another &#8230; in spite of glimmering moments of haunting hope, tragedy proves inevitable\u00a0\u2013 again and again and again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Inspired by stories told to him by his father,&#8221; author Boaz Yakin\u00a0\u2013 perhaps better known as a filmmaker (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UE5XcjTpsdo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Now You See Me<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UE5XcjTpsdo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Prince of Persia<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nPhu9XsRl4M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Remember the Titans<\/em><\/a>)\u00a0\u2013 unwinds the Halaby history with unflinching detail, brought to the page by veteran graphic illustrator <a href=\"http:\/\/nickbertozzi.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nick Bertozzi<\/a>\u00a0whose images never stand still. As in too many families in conflict, winners and losers prove indiscernible\u00a0&#8230; the only truth is that people suffer, and always, the children most of all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some years back, during a discussion about what was then the latest tragic news coming out of the Middle East, a friend&#8217;s mother softly remarked about the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, &#8220;The absolute worst arguments happen among families.&#8221; She (the widow of conservative rabbi) was referring specifically&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,73,354,312,107,86,20,31],"tags":[84,352,6608,353,10,11,24,355,356,55,170,44,45],"class_list":["post-20715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","category-israeli","category-jewish","category-memoir","category-middle-eastern","category-nonfiction","category-young-adult-readers","tag-betrayal","tag-boaz-yakin","tag-bookdragon","tag-chris-sinderson","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-historical","tag-jerusalem-a-family-portrait","tag-moni-yakin","tag-religious-differences","tag-sibling-rivalry","tag-siblings","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some years back, during a discussion about what was then the latest tragic news coming out of the Middle East, a friend&#8217;s mother softly remarked about the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, &#8220;The absolute worst arguments happen among families.&#8221; She (the widow of conservative rabbi) was referring specifically...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-05T14:04:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-09T18:20:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Jerusalem-e1434045270186.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson - BookDragon","og_description":"Some years back, during a discussion about what was then the latest tragic news coming out of the Middle East, a friend&#8217;s mother softly remarked about the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, &#8220;The absolute worst arguments happen among families.&#8221; She (the widow of conservative rabbi) was referring specifically...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2013-04-05T14:04:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-09T18:20:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":705,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Jerusalem-e1434045270186.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/","name":"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-05T14:04:54+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-09T18:20:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/jerusalem-a-family-portrait-by-boaz-yakin-and-nick-bertozzi-based-on-a-story-by-boaz-yakin-and-moni-yakin-with-art-director-chris-sinderson\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26653,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715\/revisions\/26653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}