A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land: How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli

This uneven hybrid of memoir and sociological study from Feldman, currently a lecturer in the sociology and anthropology department at Ben-Gurion University, examines Israel from the perspective of a tour guide. For over three decades, he guided Christian groups on pilgrimage to sites they’d previously only encountered in the pages of the New Testament. Feldman, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, brings an interesting perspective to this counterintuitive work, but too often the book becomes laden with jargon: “Moreover, the itinerary and the frame of the group tour foster a semiotic mode of looking. Even vernacular landscapes and cultures are constantly scanned for signs of difference from the home world or typicality.” Feldman’s chatty remarks to his charges lose something in the translation to print, and his lapses into flowery prose will frustrate scholars hoping for evidence-based insights. Feldman’s personal journey is unique and many of his insights are original, but the book’s overarching message never rises above the mundane: “As guides engage pilgrims in making places, they engage in remaking themselves.” (Apr.)