A linguistic memoir by an American Jew who embeds himself in a village of the Arabic-speaking, reputedly secretive, Druze of Israel and emerges transformed by his experience.

During the 2015 "Knife Intifada" in Israel, author William Miles, a Jewish political anthropologist, embedded himself for four months in a Druze village within eyeshot of Lebanon. He returned year after year, spending eight months in total. The result is a multicultural auto-ethnography, a linguistic memoir that relates his research on, and experiences with, this intriguing Middle Eastern minority known mostly for practicing a "secret" religion. An Other Israel is intended not only for readers interested in the Middle East; it will appeal to all those interested in non-Jewish (but philo-Semitic) society in Israel, as seen through the eyes of a Jew who (paradoxically) comes to learn Hebrew from the Druze. Miles's experience of "living in Hebrew while surrounded by Arabic" is an inspiring example of radical multiculturalism, especially in these conflictual times when communication between Jews and Arabs is often so fraught.