A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land: How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli (2016)

information

tle A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land: How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli
Author Jackie Feldman
Edition illustrated
Publisher Indiana University Press, 2016
ISBN 0253021480, 9780253021489
Length 222 pages
Subjects History › Middle East › Israel & Palestine

History / Middle East / Israel & Palestine
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Travel / Essays & Travelogues

For many Evangelical Christians, a trip to the Holy Land is an integral part of practicing their faith. Arriving in groups, most of these pilgrims are guided by Jewish Israeli tour guides. For more than three decades, Jackie Feldman—born into an Orthodox Jewish family in New York, now an Israeli citizen, scholar, and licensed guide—has been leading tours, interpreting Biblical landscapes, and fielding questions about religion and current politics. In this book, he draws on pilgrimage and tourism studies, his own experiences, and interviews with other guides, Palestinian drivers and travel agents, and Christian pastors to examine the complex interactions through which guides and tourists "co-produce" the Bible Land. He uncovers the implicit politics of travel brochures and religious souvenirs. Feldman asks what it means when Jewish-Israeli guides get caught up in their own performances or participate in Christian rituals, and reflects on how his interactions with Christian tourists have changed his understanding of himself and his views of religion.