*View the video of this event here.*

A cen­tu­ry ago, the notion of a Jew­ish war­rior would have seemed a con­tra­dic­tion in terms. No longer. Come hear from two excep­tion­al writ­ers, who as sol­diers in the Amer­i­can and Israeli armies, have wit­nessed — and trans­lat­ed for us — the absur­di­ty, chaos and tragedy of mod­ern war­fare in the most volatile region in the world. Mod­er­at­ed by Bari Weiss.

Elliot Ack­er­man served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and is the recip­i­ent of the Sil­ver Star, the Bronze Star for Val­or, and the Pur­ple Heart. A for­mer White House Fel­low, his essays and fic­tion have appeared in The New York­er, The Atlantic, The New Repub­lic, and Eco­tone, among oth­ers. Green on Blue is his debut nov­el. He cur­rent­ly lives in Istan­bul and writes on the Syr­i­an Civ­il War.

Mat­ti Fried­man​’s sec­ond non­fic­tion book, Pump­kin­flow­ers: A Sol­dier’s Sto­ry, will be pub­lished by Algo­nquin Books in May 2016. It tells the sto­ry of a group of young Israelis assigned to hold an iso­lat­ed mil­i­tary out­post in Lebanon. His first book, The Alep­po Codex, won the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture, the Amer­i­can Library Association’s Sophie Brody Medal, and the Cana­di­an Jew­ish Book Award for his­to­ry, and was select­ed as one of Booklist’s top ten reli­gion books of the year. His writ­ing has appeared in the Wall Street Jour­nal, New York Times, Tablet, and else­where. He was born in Toron­to and lives in Jerusalem.

Host­ed at the Jew­ish Muse­um in New York City (1109 5th Avenue), Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Con­ver­sa­tion brings togeth­er some of the finest writ­ers of the day for con­ver­sa­tions around con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish life and iden­ti­ty. This event is FREE with pay-what-you-want admis­sion and includes wine and refresh­ments, a book sale and sign­ing, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it the Jew­ish Muse­um gal­leries on the day of the pro­gram; how­ev­er, space is lim­it­ed and guests must reg­is­ter in advance.