Gaelle Lehrer Kennedy worked as an actress and writer in
film and television in the United States
and Israel. Night
in Jerusalem is her debut
novel, which she has adapted to film. She lives in Ojai California
with her husband and daughter.
She writes, “I lived in Israel
in the 1960s, a naive twenty-year-old, hoping to find myself and my place in
the world. The possibility of war was remote to me. I imagined the tensions in
the region would somehow be resolved peacefully. Then, the Six Day War erupted
and I experienced it firsthand in Jerusalem.
I have drawn Night in Jerusalem
from my experiences during that time. The historical events portrayed in the
novel are accurate. The characters are based on people I knew in the city. Like
me, they were struggling to make sense of their lives, responding to inherited
challenges they could not escape that shaped their destiny in ways they and the
entire Middle East could not have imagined.
I have always been intrigued by the miraculous. How and
where the soul’s journey leads and how it reveals its destiny. How two people
who are destined, even under the threat of war and extinction, can find one
another.
Israel’s
Six Day War is not a fiction; neither was the miracle of its victory. What
better time to discover love through intrigue, passion, and the miraculous.
Writing this story was in part reliving my history in Israel,
in part a mystical adventure. I am grateful that so many who have read Night In
Jerusalem have experienced this as well.”
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About the Book:
A bewitching love
story that is also an extraordinary portrait of Jerusalem, its faith, spirituality,
David Bennett is
invited to Jerusalem in 1967 by his
cousin who, to the alarm of his aristocratic British family, has embraced
Judaism. He introduces David to his mentor, Reb Eli, a revered sage in the
orthodox community. Despite his resistance to religious teaching, David becomes
enthralled by the rabbi’s wisdom and compassionate presence. When David
discloses a sexual problem, Reb Eli unwittingly sets off a chain of events that
transforms his life and the life of the mysterious prostitute, Tamar, who, in a
reprise of an ancient biblical story, leads both men to an astonishing
realization. As passions rise, the Six Day War erupts, reshaping the lives of
everyone caught up in it.
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As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m
always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. How did you come up with the idea for your
book?
I was working on a film in Israel that was being
shot in Mea Sharim, the orthodox community’s neighborhood in Jerusalem. A young
Hasidic woman kept running out onto her balcony to watch us. We spent most of
the afternoon shooting there, and every ten minutes or so, she would reappear.
I realized she was attracted to one of the handsome crew members. This was the
seed that inspired me, years later, to write about a young woman’s desire for
love, passion and freedom from her social and religious clan. So far as setting
the love story during the Six Day War, Winston Churchill wrote that there is
nothing as exhilarating as when someone shoots at you and misses. When the Six
Day War erupted. I experienced it firsthand. I spent days in shelters with
other women, listening to Arab news reports on the radio proclaiming victory
while we contemplated how we would end it for ourselves. It turned out, of
course, that the war went the other way. We were to live! Jerusalem was
re-unified! Now, that was exhilarating. At the same time, the search for peace,
the endless arguments about what it should look like, and the courageous,
impossible loves that thrived despite all odds - the themes of Night In
Jerusalem – are what inspired me.
Can you tell us what your book is about?
I have always been intrigued by the miraculous:
how and where the soul’s journey leads and how it reveals its destiny; how two
people who are destined, even under the threat of war and extinction, can find
one another. Night In Jerusalem is a love story set during Israel’s Six
Day War in which passion, mystical
encounters and the miraculous come together to change the lives of everyone
caught up in it.
Can you tell us a little about
the main characters of your book?
David Bennett: David is a young British
aristocrat who longs to find his place in the world. He is invited to Jerusalem
by his cousin who, to the alarm of their family, has embraced Judaism. Unlike his
cousin, David has no interest in religion and feels little affiliation with his
Jewish heritage. Shortly after he arrives, we learn why David is unable to
sustain relationships with women
Reb Eli: Eli came from an orthodox family in
Germany. His father, a prominent rabbi, arranged for him to be evacuated to
England just before the Nazis slammed the door shut. He was taken in by David’s
family and developed a deep friendship with David’s father, who was a young boy
also. Learning after the war that his family had been lost in the holocaust,
Eli found a new life in Israel where he became revered as a sage and spiritual
leader of Jerusalem’s orthodox community.
Sarah: Sarah, one of Reb Eli’s daughters, lost
her husband to an early death. She had no children and was judged to be barren,
leaving her utterly bereft. Without a sense of purpose, her sadness grieves Eli
who can find no way to give her comfort. She is devoted to her father and their
religious tradition, which she observes faithfully and sincerely.
Anat: Fresh out of the army, Anat is a
free-thinking Israeli beauty, confident in her sexuality and ready to embrace
the world on her own terms. She is an archeologist, impatient with the
shibboleths of Jewish tradition, insisting on a clear-eyed interpretation of
the historical record based on the facts, not religious convention.
If you could tell your younger writing self
anything, what would that be?
You were right, when you were at Columbia, to be
suspicious of writing that seemed to exist for its own sake, no matter how
pretty or clever it was. You were right when you saw that writing works best
when the reader can see clear into the souls of the characters - and the writer
is out of the picture. You were right to
let the characters and their story say it all.
And you were right, too, when you insisted that your writing should open
you, and the reader, to a shared wisdom.
What would you say is one of your interesting
writing quirks?
I’m not good at syntax. It’s a long way from my
strong suit. I don’t try and edit myself when I am writing. I let the story
come forth. Sorting out the syntax is for later. I do plenty of re-writes.
Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?
I do hear from my readers, and I am very
grateful for their feedback. Night In Jerusalem works as an engaging
love story, and also as a reprise of a Bible story. It has a spiritual meaning
that people resonate with. They find themselves reading the book multiple
times. Others see it as a page-turner. Both types of readers are interested to
learn what happens next and I am often asked if I am writing a sequel.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as
an author?
I am not a lyrical writer. I do not write
breath-taking sentences. There is a simplicity to my style that some literary
critics do not appreciate. My view is that “simple” can often take mastery to
pull off –like Isaac Bashevis Singer, for example. So I hear what they are
saying, and I ignore it, for the reasons I stated in response to your earlier
question about what I would say to my younger writer self, if I could.
What has been the best accomplishment?
Night In Jerusalem is my first novel.
Previously, I have written screenplays. They are, of course, totally
visually-oriented, with limited opportunity to be discursive about the
characters’ states of mind. Everything
has to show on the screen. I was drawn to writing a novel because the canvas
can be so much larger –as big as you like -
and the story does not have to fit a budget! However, the relationship
with the reader is more intimate and complete, and there’s a challenge to meet
right there. Hearing from fellow writers that I had pulled it off is perhaps my
best accomplishment as an author.
Do you Google yourself?
No. I’m not especially handy with computers. I
use mine mainly for writing and email.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do
you have?
I am presently working on a novel about the
middle class in America and what happened in the last recession when millions
were thrown into life altering changes they are still trying to work out.
Do you have anything specific that you would
like to say to your readers?
Keep on reading! I think it is the most
important and fun invention of all time.
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