Unexpected Bride in the Promised Land: Journeys in Palestine and Israel

After hitchhiking from Paris to Jerusalem, Jordan in 1967, Iris Keltz had to wait three days for permission to cross a U.N. checkpoint into Jerusalem, Israel. That was enough time for this young Jewish woman from New York to meet a Palestinian poet, musician, and world traveler. After a whirlwind courtship of less than three weeks, they married and were planning their honeymoon when the Six Day War broke out. The day Israeli soldiers barged into the basement apartment where the newlyweds had found sanctuary with other Palestinians, Iris was frozen with fear. She meant to cry out, "I'm Jewish, American and these are my friends." Her silence that day compelled her to write this book.

About the Author
Keltz, Iris: - Iris Keltz was raised in NYC on the Jewish narrative of suffering in a thousand-year Diaspora. She recently retired from a forty-year teaching career that began in Harlem, NY. Her first book, Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie (2000, Cinco Puntos Press) is an award-winning memoir documenting the counterculture in Northern New Mexico, where she has lived since the early seventies. Keltz's articles, op-eds, and essays have appeared in print and electronic media. She has spoken in universities, synagogues, churches, high schools, and civic centers, and has represented her district in a national Tikkun lobby. A member of Jewish Voice for Peace, Keltz has spent decades working to support human rights for Palestinians.