A vital discussion on how Israeli identity, life and literature have been shaped by the seismic events of 7 October and their aftermath.

Jerusalem International Writers Festival artistic director Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler leads a thought-provoking conversation about resilience, creativity and the enduring power of words with three outstanding Israeli writers: journalist Amir Tibon, whose The Gates of Gaza is the story of his family’s rescue from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the day of the attacks; award-winning essayist and novelist Ayelet Tsabari; and renowned author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the speakers:

Amir Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, Israel’s paper of record, and the author of The Last Palestinian: the rise and reign of Mahmoud Abbas (co-authored with Grant Rumley), the first-ever biography of the leader of the Palestinian Authority. From 2017–2020, Tibon was based in Washington, DC, as a foreign correspondent for Haaretz, and he also has served as a senior editor for the newspaper’s English edition. He, his wife, and their two young daughters are former residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz but are currently living as internal refugees in northern Israel.

Ayelet Tsabari is the author of the memoir in essays The Art of Leaving, finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize and The Vine Awards, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Her first book, the story collection The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction. The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, was nominated for The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and has been published internationally. She’s the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Her novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted was published recently.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is co-host, together with Donniel Hartman, of the Hartman Institute’s podcast, For Heaven’s Sake – the number one Jewish podcast in the English-speaking world. Halevi’s 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller and has appeared in a dozen languages. He is currently writing a book about the meaning of Jewish survival.

He has written for leading op-ed pages in North America and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. He is frequently quoted on Israeli, Middle Eastern and Jewish affairs in leading media around the world and is one of the best-known lecturers on Israeli issues in the North American Jewish community and on North American campuses. He co-directs the Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim leaders in North America about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. Over 150 Muslim leaders have participated in the unique program.

Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler is a fiction writer. Her debut novel, Safari, was published in 2011 and became a Bestseller. Her second novel By the Orange Orchard won the Minister of Culture Award for Young Writers. Her work has been published in German, Polish and English. She is also the artistic director of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival. Her novel Black Honey will come out in German by Diogenes Verlag in 2026