Jerusalem

Review by Gene R. Garthwaite

Jerusalem's critical importance to the three great monotheisms hardly needs yet another book; nevertheless, Sebag Montefiore has written a masterful historical overview. His recounts the history of Jerusalem from King David to the 1967 Six Day War—he actually starts with A.D. 70 and the Roman destruction of the Temple—before going back to David. However, in an epilogue, he does bring that history to the present. In Jerusalem, Sebag Montefiore goes beyond religion and metaphor to examine the Holy City as lived, whether 1,000 years ago or today or with its idealization or messiness. The city's actual history, contrary to its metaphysical meanings, has seldom been peaceful.

Sebag Montefiore writes about the city's broad social and cultural mix of peoples to emphasize the consequent multiple truths encompassed in "Jerusalem," in which each culture has attempted to undermine competing views so as to claim the city for itself. However, he sees this phenomenon as part of Jerusalem’s history; his commitment to “truths” will open him up to criticism from all sides.

Sebag Montefiore is a superb storyteller and writes narrative history with depth and zest, which can be seen in his histories of Russia, particularly Young Stalin (2007). In addition, Jerusalem is based not only on apt anecdotes and detail, but an impressive reading of both primary and secondary sources, including Arabic ones that most generalists miss. Jerusalem itself is of special meaning to him, for Sebag Montefiore is a scion of one of Zionism’s founders, yet he writes with measure and detachment.

Jerusalem is organized chronologically with a prologue, and moves on from David to the Jerusalem of antiquity and then to Islam; the Crusades and on to the Ottomans. Emphasis is given to the 19th century, with European imperialism and the formation of Zionism, and then the 20th century, with the emergence of the state of Israel and finally, to the 1967 Six Day War and, in an epilogue, to the present. Here, Sebag Montefiore recounts the continuing conflict and the changes in Jerusalem, including its expansion, continued violence and failed peace efforts, to observe:

“No deal can be agreed nor will it endure without something else. Political sovereignty can be drawn on a map…but it will be futile and meaningless without the historic, mystical and emotional. The real conditions for peace are…the heartfelt intangibles of mutual trust and respect…. If this book has any mission, it is to show that both sides have unimpeachable claims to Jerusalem, both ancient and modern.”

Sebag Montefiore closes with very human vignettes of living representatives of each of the major faiths continuing their millennial rituals on a daily basis. These stories characterize this rich, contradictory history in which violence and peace, the ridiculous and the sublime, saints and rogues coexist—the historical reality is hardly “Jerusalem the Golden.” The ending emphasizes the repetition of a very human history, in which there is conflict not just between but within each of the major faith communities that leaves little hope for any romanticized notions of a possible peace.