‘What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?’
Brooklyn BookBeat: New book explores the road to reconciliation
When David Harris-Gershon’s wife Jamie was severely injured in the 2002 bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he was devastated, confused and angry. The two friends with whom his wife had been sitting were killed instantly, and Jamie was thrown across the room, her body burned and sliced with shrapnel. In a desperate attempt to alleviate his secondary trauma, Harris–Gershon resolved to confront the incident by investigating it.
In his new book “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?” published this past September by Oneworld Publications, Harris-Gershon chronicles his path to reconciliation. The author will appear in Brooklyn to discuss his book on Thursday, Oct. 24 at Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim.
Harris-Gershon’s path to reconciliation began when he learned about the identity of the Palestinian man who had placed the bomb next to his wife: Mohammed Odeh had been raised in a middle-class family and had two children. He also learned that upon being captured by Israeli police, Odeh uttered the words “I’m sorry.”