Artisans of Israel

After earning an M.A. with distinction in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, where she focused on Islamic art and architecture, Lynn Holstein served in administrative posts in a number of educational and cultural institutions. They include the Jewish Museum in New York, The New York Public Library, Harvard University, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. From 2000-2004, she lived in Jerusalem, directing Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer's New Marshall Plan for the Middle East initiative. For the past decade, she has shared both her work and her home life with Mr. Wertheimer in an effort to promote his various programs. All are aimed at bringing peace to the region by educating skilled professionals, developing industrial parks, and creating jobs for all sectors of Israeli society. In addition to this book, she is writing another that examines the challenges of the rapidly changing Bedouin community in Israel's Negev region. She also adapted Mr. Wertheimer's very successful autobiography (originally published in Hebrew) for an international English readership. Entitled The Habit of Labor, Overlook Press released it in November 2015.