Author to lead program on ‘Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel’

Award-winning author Ethan Michaeli will lead a conversation about his new book, “Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel,” on Dec. 8 on Zoom.

Meticulously researched and immersive, “Twelve Tribes” is a vivid depiction of a modern state contending with ancient tensions and dangerous global forces, a land of paradoxical intersections and unlikely cohabitation, and a microcosm of the challenges faced by all nations today.

In 2015, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned that the country’s citizens were dividing into tribes by class, ethnicity, geography and faith, saying: “In the state of Israel, the basic systems that form peoples’ consciousness are tribal and separate, and will most likely remain so.”

“Twelve Tribes” explores tribalism in Israel by weaving together personal histories of ordinary people from all walks of life, revealing the country’s extraordinary, polyphonic diversity, as well as its volatility.

An American Jew with close family in Israel, Michaeli used his background to gain access to Israelis of all sectors during his travels across the country over four crucial years. Readers of “Twelve Tribes” will meet the aging revolutionaries who founded Israel’s kibbutz movement; the brilliant young people working for the country’s booming big-tech companies; Ethiopian Jews; and ultra-Orthodox Haredim.

The book also examines Israeli-Palestinian relations at the grassroots level, with portraits of Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the territory ruled by the Palestinian Authority, as well as Israeli settlers and soldiers, illuminating complex dynamics within the country that have global consequences. Michaeli will share some of these stories during his talk.

Michaeli is an award-winning author, journalist, philanthropic adviser and university lecturer. National Book Award winner Evan Osnos called Michaeli “a master portraitist – of lives, places and cultures” and said, “His rendering of contemporary Israel crackles with energy, fueled by a historian’s vision and a journalist’s unrelenting curiosity.”

Michaeli is currently a lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy of the University of Chicago.

“Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel” is available for purchase at Books on the Square, in Providence, and other bookstores, as well as online.

The free program will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. For more information, contact Amit Moshe Oren at 401-421-4111 or AOren@jewishallianceri.org. Look at for a registration link at jewishallianceri.org, coming soon.

The program is part of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s partnership with the Jewish Book Council to bring authors to Rhode Island for book talks. It is also the third program in this year’s Israeli Culture Series, which takes place on the second Wednesday of each month.

LARRY KATZ is director of Jewish life and learning at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.