David Shulman - Freedom and Despair - Jonathan Lear

“Artful yet often passionately angry. . . . An earnest and valuable jeremiad insisting, reasonably, that ethical behavior is imperative when parsing the nearly impossible Israeli-Palestinian conundrum.” —Kirkus Reviews

David Shulman discusses Freedom and Despair: Notes from the South Hebron Hills. He will be joined in conversation by Jonathan Lear. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

Presented in partnership with University of Chicago Press

At 57th Street Books

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About the book: David Shulman knows intimately what it takes to live your beliefs, to return, day after day, to the struggle, despite knowing you are often more likely to lose than win. Interweaving powerful stories and deep meditations, Freedom and Despair offers vivid firsthand reports from the occupied West Bank in Palestine as seen through the eyes of an experienced Israeli peace activist who has seen the Israeli occupation close up as it impacts on the lives of all Palestinian civilians.

Alongside a handful of beautifully written and often shocking tales from the field, Shulman meditates deeply on how to understand the evils around him, what it means to persevere as an activist decade after decade, and what it truly means to be free. The violent realities of the occupation are on full display. We get to know and understand the Palestinian shepherds and farmers and Israeli volunteers who face this situation head-on with nonviolent resistance. Shulman does not hold back on acknowledging the daily struggles that often leave him and his fellow activists full of despair. Inspired by these committed individuals who are not prepared to be silent or passive, Shulman suggests a model for ordinary people everywhere. Anyone prepared to take a risk and fight their oppressive political systems, he argues, can make a difference--if they strive to act with compassion and to keep hope alive.

This is the moving story of a man who continues to fight for good in the midst of despair. An indispensable book in our era of reactionary politics and refugee crises, political violence and ecological devastation, Freedom and Despair is a gripping memoir of struggle, activism, and hope for peace.

About the author: David Shulman is the Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of several books, including Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine and The Hungry God: Hindu Tales of Filicide and Devotion, both published by the University of Chicago Press. He is a peace activist and a founding member of the joint Israeli-Palestininian movement Ta'ayush. In 2016, he was awarded the Israel Prize for Religious Studies. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

About the interlocutor: Jonathan Lear is the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. He is the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and in the department of philosophy at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony, Freud, A Case for Irony and most recently, Wisdom Won from Illnessi.