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INTERVIEWS | PALESTINE
Interview with Author and Activist Alice Rothchild
Part 1: On the absence of Palestine in children’s literature; on her fascinating journey from a “typical” liberal Jewish American to a Palestine solidarity activist; and on Zionism and antisemitism.
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Sitting across a Zoom screen from Alice Rothchild, and this being my first interview assignment, I intimidated myself with the hard questions I had prepared. What I really wanted to know was what was it like to be a Jewish activist, at this time, who has spent a good part of her life advocating for Palestinian rights. Thankfully, Dr. Rothchild’s warm, candid manner immediately put me at ease. In less than an hour, we covered vital topics of urgent relevance to the activist community. It was indeed my fortune and honor to probe her wisdom through this informal but pertinent chat. I found Dr. Rothchild an excellent storyteller, one who approaches difficult conversations with authenticity and nuance, so I relay her words here with minimal editing.
If you are in the Greater Washington, DC area the next two weeks, you are invited to meet Dr. Rothchild at any of the events listed after the interview. A bibliography follows.
“Israel is a state, it’s not a religion.”
The Interview
Ramsey Hanhan (RH): I have a daughter about to start high school in September. You have written books for that age group. Tell me about them.
Alice Rothchild (AR): I’ve written one young adult book called Finding Melody Sullivan. It’s a novel–what I call a stealth Palestine book, because I want teenagers to just pick it up and like the cover and be curious about the story and not really know that they’re going to end up in Hebron (West Bank). It’s basically the story of three kids who live in some nonspecific college town in Vermont. One of them has a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. Both parents are not religious, and the mother has died of breast cancer. Melody is just a depressed, angry 16-year-old. Her best friend, Yasmina, is a 17-year-old…
