Ariel Sabar

An award-winning journalist describes his father's birth into an isolated community of Kurdish Jews, their emigration to Israel in the 1950s, the disappearance of the ancient culture and language of the Kurdish Jews, and his and his father's journey to postwar Iraq to uncover the vanished history of a people and place.

A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq

My Father's Paradise

"In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star professor at the Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: She had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The discovery made front-page news around the world - if early Christians believed that Jesus was married, it would threaten not just the celibate, all-male priesthood, but the entire the 2,000-year history of the faith. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the Gnostic gospels. The "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," as she titled her discovery, was both a crowning career achievement and powerful proof for her arguments that there were alternative, and much more inclusive, versions of Christianity from its beginnings. Assigned to write a story about King's find, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar began to unearth disquieting questions about the papyrus. His globe-spanning investigation would lead to a rural hamlet in inland Florida, where he discovered a college dropout with a prophetess wife, a curious past in Germany, and a tortured relationship with the Catholic Church. The deeper Sabar dug into the mysteries of the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," the more surreal the story became. VERITAS is at once a surprising detective story, a fascinating journey through the rarefied worlds of Biblical Studies and Egyptology, a piercing psychological portrait of a many-faced con artist, and a tragedy about a brilliant scholar handed a piece of ancient paper that appealed to her greatest hopes for Christianity--but forced a reckoning with fundamental questions about the line between reason and faith"--

A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife

Veritas

Intrigued by the romance of his own parents, who met in Washington Square Park, Ariel Sabar set off on a far-reaching search for other couples who married after first meeting in one of New York City's iconic public spaces. Sabar conjures their big-city love stories in novel like detail, drawing us into the hearts of strangers just as their lives are about to change forever.

Nine Stories of Love and Serendipity on the Streets of New York

Heart of the City

In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born. Yona's son Ariel grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor, dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until he had a son of his own. Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s attention.

A Son's Search for His Family's Past

“The couples in this book hail from across America and the world. Most don’t live in New York City. Some never did. What mattered to me was that they met there, in one of its iconic public places. Each of the nine stories begins just before that chance meeting—when they are strangers, oblivious to how, in moments, their lives will irrevocably change.” —from the Introduction The handsome Texas sailor who offers dinner to a runaway in Central Park. The Midwestern college girl who stops a cop in Times Square for restaurant advice. The Brooklyn man on a midnight subway who helps a weary tourist find her way to Chinatown. The Columbia University graduate student who encounters an unexpected object of beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A public place in the world’s greatest city. A chance meeting of strangers. A marriage. Heart of the City tells the remarkable true stories of nine ordinary couples—from the 1940s to the present—whose matchmaker was the City of New York. Intrigued by the romance of his own parents, who met in Washington Square Park, award-winning author Ariel Sabar set off on a far-ranging search for other couples who married after first meeting in one of New York City’s iconic public spaces. Sabar conjures their big-city love stories in novel-like detail, drawing us into the hearts of strangers just as their lives are about to change forever. In setting the stage for these surprising, funny, and moving tales, Sabar, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, takes us on a fascinating tour of the psychological research into the importance of place in how—and whether—people meet and fall in love. Heart of the City is a paean to the physical city as matchmaker, a tribute to the power of chance, and an eloquent reminder of why we must care about the design of urban spaces.

Ariel Sabar

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