The Gavriel Tirosh Affair, Yizhak Shalev; translated by Hillel Halkin; foreword by Ruth Wisse

This is the first English edition, published in 2026; the novel was  originally published in Hebrew in 1964. It is set in British-ruled  Jerusalem from 1936 to 1939, during the time of Arab attacks on the  Jewish population sometimes known as the Arab Revolt or in Hebrew,  Meora'ot HaDamim (The Bloody Events). That’s the setting- now, the  story. When I started to read the book it wasn’t what I expected. This  is Palestine, well before 1948, when Jewish inhabitants are Palestinians  and the Arab population doesn’t yet identify this way. Both are subject  to British rule. The Israeli narrator is reflecting on his high school  years, where a small group of idealistic teenagers is under the  influence of a younger, more daring, charismatic teacher, Gavriel  Tirosh, a German refugee, who is unlike the usual staid, old European  teachers they are familiar with. He takes them out of the classroom to  the hills, mountains, and parks to explore the land they will be  responsible for and called on to defend. Five students form a secret  group: Aya, the one girl in the group, Aharon, Yair, Dan, and our  narrator. They must confront emerging Jewish power as well as how and  when to use it, either passively, as was the prevailing belief at the  time, or actively on a larger scale. This decision is akin to what  Israel or any democracy faces today, no matter your politics.