Yos­si Klein Hale­vi yearns for a mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion with a Pales­tin­ian coun­ter­part who is will­ing to read, lis­ten respect­ful­ly, and respond. He hopes to deter­mine whether two peo­ples can share a land while main­tain­ing their sep­a­rate con­tigu­ous states. Hale­vi under­stands that his over­ture must be root­ed in his own will­ing­ness to lis­ten. With some admit­ted reluc­tance, he has accept­ed the two-state solu­tion as the only way to move forward.

Hale­vi makes this over­ture with the utmost sin­cer­i­ty and a ful­ly nuanced under­stand­ing of mod­ern Israel’s evo­lu­tion and chal­lenges. He seeks a Pales­tin­ian part­ner whose desire for peace is equal­ly fer­vent, a per­son whose vision of the past includes the under­stand­ing that nei­ther par­ty can afford to be stuck in that past. The voice in the let­ters is filled with empa­thy, hope, and a bit of despair. It has an invit­ing, embrac­ing, and win­some lyri­cism, as well as dig­ni­ty and resolve—the per­fect pitch for its colos­sal purpose.

Hale­vi has craft­ed a sequence of ten let­ters, imag­ined for a read­er whose dwelling is near­by but who he hasn’t yet encoun­tered. The let­ters have over­lap­ping con­cerns, with undu­lat­ing shifts in empha­sis. These con­cerns include the func­tions of Holo­caust mem­o­ry, the need to pur­sue jus­tice, and the many pro­found par­al­lels in Jew­ish and Islam­ic holy texts and reli­gious practices.

Hale­vi meets dif­fi­cult issues head-on, includ­ing the Israeli pen­chant for set­tle­ment build­ing, which he under­stands in all its mul­ti­va­lent com­plex­i­ty. He has come pre­pared; he seems to have antic­i­pat­ed the like­ly respons­es and rejoin­ders from a Pales­tin­ian heart, soul, and mind.

Halevi’s exper­i­ment will, no doubt, reach many more Jews than Pales­tini­ans and Mus­lims. His effort is exem­plary: many oth­er pas­sion­ate Jew­ish minds need to see the promise of such dia­logue, cre­ate sim­i­lar oppor­tu­ni­ties, and move the process for­ward. The Pales­tin­ian on the near­by hill may answer full-heart­ed­ly. Let’s hope so.

With intel­li­gence and an essen­tial, human con­sid­er­a­tion for ​“the Oth­er” across the way, Hale­vi argues a new direc­tion to be tak­en by indi­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties, and gov­ern­ments in the Mid­dle East and across the globe. To this end, this mod­est­ly-sized vol­ume is a bless­ing, and may serve as a vehi­cle for dia­logue and peace.