Starstruck in the Promised Land: How the Arts Shaped American Passions about Israel

by Shalom Goldman

Overview

From the days of steamship travel to Palestine to today's evangelical Christian tours of Jesus's birthplace, the relationship between the United States and the Holy Land has become one of the world's most consequential international alliances. While the political side of U.S.-Israeli relations has long played out on the world stage, the relationship, as Shalom Goldman shows in this illuminating cultural history, has also played out on actual stages. Telling the stories of the American superstars of pop and high culture who journeyed to Israel to perform, lecture, and rivet fans, Goldman chronicles how the creative class has both expressed and influenced the American relationship with Israel.

The galaxy of stars who have made headlines for their trips includes Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Scarlett Johansson. While diverse socially and politically, they all served as prisms for the evolution of U.S.-Israeli relations, as Israel, the darling of the political and cultural Left in the 1950s and early 1960s, turned into the darling of the political Right from the late 1970s. Today, as relations between the two nations have only intensified, stars must consider highly fraught issues, such as cultural boycotts, in planning their itineraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469683577
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	03/15/2024
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shalom Goldman, a popular opinion writer on U.S.-Israeli affairs and librettist of Philip Glass's opera Akhnaten, is professor of religion at Middlebury College. Among his books are Zeal for Zion and God's Sacred Tongue.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A riveting tale, neatly told, with wit and passion to spare. To say I gobbled up this book would not be an overstatement: Starstruck in the Promised Land is a superbly readable and knowledgeable work of cultural history. Goldman tackles one of the most puzzling and profoundly important subjects at hand—the American obsession with Israel, going back centuries now. And he reads this unlikely story through the lens of celebrity artists and intellectuals, from Mark Twain to such unlikely figures as Leonard Bernstein, Saul Bellow, Johnny Cash, Dylan, Streisand, Madonna, and so many others. Israel has formed this gigantic psychological screen onto which Americans seem compelled to project, even locate, their destinies." —Jay Parini, author of Promised Land:  Thirteen Books that Changed America and The Damascus Road:  A Novel of Saint Paul

This ambitious and far-ranging book colorfully contributes what no other book does to our understanding of the 'special relationship' that the United States has developed with Israel. This volume is a terrific accomplishment.—Stephen J. Whitfield, author of In Search of American Jewish Culture

A brave book, with new insights into the workings of cultural diplomacy and soft power between the United States and Israel, Starstruck in the Promised Land reveals a powerful perspective on the role that celebrity pop culture has played in U.S.-Israeli relations. The book sheds new light on how and why the two nations have developed a uniquely close, almost codependent relationship, currently as vexed as ever. The author's own experiences on the ground in Israel are especially compelling.—David W. Stowe, author of Song of Exile and No Sympathy for the Devil

Editorial Reviews

Effectively highlights the left-right division that is splitting much of the world."—Kirkus Reviews

This detailed history will provide any reader interested in U.S.-Israel relations an accessible overview of a complex social and political relationship."—Publishers Weekly

The author effectively explores the complicated relationship between Israel and American culture heroes in a time when sympathy is generally offered to the perceived underdog. This exceptionally engaging and well-researched book is highly recommended."—CHOICE

An exploration of the role that art and artists have played in mediating and manifesting the 'special relationship' between the United States and Israel. . . . Engaging and illuminating. . . . For those seeking to enjoy a collection of intriguing episodes about that relationship, curated and explained by an accomplished scholar who has himself been tangled in it."—Reading Religion—

In this brisk, informative, and entertaining study, Goldman offers a coherent narrative for one of the less studied connections between US and Israeli culture."—Diplomatic History

Goldman's true fascination in this realm is with the Christian religious attraction to the Land of Israel—not only in its biblical guise, naturally, but also in a modern Zionist context. Sometimes the author links this to right-wing American politics, but it is more often a function, in his telling, of evangelist zeal, like the nineteenth-century missionaries and the visits of Johnny and June Carter Cash (which open the book) and Jerry Falwell."—Israel Studies Review

A tour de force. . . . This highly recommended book will be not only of interest to students and academics with particular interest in how the arts shaped American passions about Israel, but any reader of US-Israel relations and political movers and shakers who require a better understanding of the complex social and political relationship between the US and the Israeli state, and the role of American Christians in Israel's destiny."—Journal of Religion and Popular Culture

From the Publisher

09/30/2019

In this persuasive work, Goldman (Zeal for Zion), professor of religion at Middlebury College, argues that the “intertwined cultural histories” of the United States and Israel have run in parallel and shaped one another. Beginning his chronological analysis in 1817 and following the contours of first Palestine, then Israel’s changing geopolitical status through to the present, Goldman examines how American Jews and non-Jews used books, movies, television programs, music, and their own celebrity to initially support and later criticize both the idea and reality of Israel. Depictions, Goldman notes, were often rooted in support for such other causes as socialism, imperialism, racial justice, or Christian missionary efforts—rather than support for Jewish faith or statehood. Each chapter thoroughly explains the shifting political landscape in both territories and the relationship between the two, basing the chapters around key American figures such as Mark Twain, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, and Madonna, who all took a stance on the status of Israel. Despite the title, Goldman casts a wide net in defining the arts, but his explorations of American tourism to the Holy Land and American philanthropy—in particular, the creation of the Jerusalem YMCA—are particularly illuminating. This detailed history will provide any reader interested in U.S.-Israel relations an accessible overview of a complex social and political relationship. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2019-08-07
The considerable effects of literature, music (popular and classical), and other arts on Americans' attitudes about Israel.

Goldman (Religion/Middlebury Coll.; Jewish-Christian Difference and Modern Jewish Identity: Seven Twentieth-Century Converts, 2015, etc.) delivers a studied and sturdy look at what the subtitle promises. He also inserts elements of memoir, describing his youthful experiences in Israel, his time in the military there, and some negative reactions to his writing and talks about Israel's rightward turn. (He is deeply concerned about the rise of the right and American evangelicals' unquestioning support for it.) Although artists and their works are his principal focus, Goldman does not assume that readers know the history of the Middle East from the early 19th century. Consequently, in each chapter, he includes historical background of each period he discusses across the chronological narrative. We revisit the Ottoman Empire, the founding of the country after World War II, the Six-Day War, Camp David, the various Israeli political leaders throughout the decades—and much more. As a result, his discussions of the artists sometimes slip into the swelling undergrowth. He tells stories about Herman Melville—who visited the Middle East after the publication of Moby-Dick; the result of that journey was Clarel, his "book-length poem based on his Holy Land experiences"—and Mark Twain, whose travels, chronicled in The Innocents Abroad, 1869, began his rocket ride into international celebrity. Throughout, Goldman explores the works of a variety of luminaries, including Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, John Steinbeck, Leon Uris, Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, W.H. Auden, Johnny Cash, Madonna, and numerous others. But he also informs us about lesser-known events and people—e.g., the Adams Colony (1866), the building of the YMCA in Jerusalem (1933), and the life of Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes. Near the end, he has some critical words for Donald Trump.

Textually dense at times but effectively highlights the left-right division that is splitting much of the world.

Kirkus Reviews