In reading Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s Jerusalem: A Biography, I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s
observation: “No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and
Jerusalem.” A city with over three
thousand years of history, the story of Jerusalem is deeply connected to its location
as a place where East encounters West and humanity encounters God. Strategically insignificant and lacking
in so many of the qualities and natural resources that have historically made a
city great, Jerusalem compensates mostly by its proximity to the divine.
And while the divine is never far from Sebag-Montefiore’s grand
and breezy survey of the city from the days of the Canaanites until today, his
focus is on Jerusalem as crossroads, battlefield, and prize for
conquerors. The indigenous
residents of Jerusalem—whoever they may be at any point in time—are rarely more
than pawns in larger historical dramas and military campaigns.
Interestingly, Sebag-Montefiore’s ancestor plays his own
role in Jerusalem’s history. The
famous windmill just outside the Old City and behind the King David hotel was
built by Sir Moses Montefiore. Though
he’s not always a great storyteller and his book suffers from lack of an experienced
editor, for a sweeping history of the much disputed, much desired, much maligned
city, Sebag-Montefiore’s book is worth reading. Some will quibble with his assessments of the modern conflict
between Israelis and Palestinians, but he makes a commendable attempt to extend
fair treatment to both historical narratives and various points of view.
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