The Faces of Israel : A Conversation

This book of photographs incorporates images taken between 1980 and 2015, from all of Israel's diverse communities. These photographs of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and tourists, of the religious and the secular, illustrate personal worlds distant from the conflict and complexitites so often encountered in the headlines.

The Faces of Israel: a Conversation by Larry Roberts incorporates images taken between 1980 and 2015, from all of Israel's diverse communities, depicting people living their daily lives. These photographs of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and tourists, of the religious and the secular, illustrate personal worlds distant from the constant conflict and hate splashed in headlines. ‘Conversations with myself about Israel’, from the introductory section of The Faces of Israel: “Israel is also the place where you confront your beliefs and your past. [ . . . ] For all my chatter about family in Israel, for the longest time I thought we had none. No Rabinowitzes, no Rabinoviches, no Starkmans, no Glanzrocks, no Graffs, no Gelenters and no Steinhauses. My grandfather did tell us a story about family in Israel but referred only to a Shoshana Steinhaus, who showed up needing help in the 1950s after arriving in Brooklyn. He thought she moved to California. [ . . . ] what I learned, is that your past may not line up with your present. Turns out that I, more-or- less a left-leaning secular Jew, am related to one of the men who, under orders from Lehi, a right-wing organization, helped kill Lord Moyne, a British official in Cairo, before the birth of the State. Perhaps, someday, I will meet my relatives face-to- face and learn how a family from Minsk, named Steinhaus, ended up in Israel with the name of Beit Zuri—when some of the brothers turned West and landed in North America."