Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me

In Harvey Pekar’s final memoir, he recounts the entire history of the Jews to explain how he lost his faith in the state of Israel

Harvey Pekar’s mother was a Zionist by way of politics. His father was a Zionist by way of faith. Whether handing out communist pamphlets, attending Zionist picnics, or going to daily Hebrew classes, Pekar grew up a staunch supporter of the Jewish state. But he was also an autodidact from the moment he could read, and as he grew up he confronted more and more questions his parents couldn’t answer. Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me interweaves Pekar’s gradual disaffection with the modern state of Israel with a comprehensive history of the Jews, from biblical times to the present. Told over the course of a single day in Cleveland, Ohio, the graphic novel follows Pekar and the book’s illustrator, JT Waldman, as they wrestle with the mythologies and realities surrounding the Jewish homeland. Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me is a graphic memoir from the man who defined the genre.