Watzman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. After receiving a B.A. from Duke University, Watzman made aliyah to Israel, where he has lived since 1978 and worked as a freelance translator and journalist. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Ilana, and four children.
Literary careeredit
Watzman is the author of Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2005),[1] a memoir centered on his service in a reserveinfantry unit in the Israel Defense Forces and A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2007),[2] as well as Necessary Stories (West 26th Street Press 2017).[3]
Watzman is known for his English translations of recent works by Hebrew-language authors. His translations include Tom Segev’s The Seventh Million, Elvis in Jerusalem, One Palestine Complete, and "A State at any Cost", as well as David Grossman’s The Yellow Wind, Sleeping on a Wire, and Death as a Way of Life.[4]
Watzman currently writes the monthly “Necessary Stories” column for The Jerusalem Report,[5] and co-authors the widely read South Jerusalem blog,[6] along with Gershom Gorenberg. In 2017 a collection of his "Necessary Stories" was published.
Published worksedit
Company C: an American's Life as a Citizen-soldier in Israel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2005) ISBN 0-374-22633-4
A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel's Rift Valley. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2007) ISBN 978-0-374-13058-9
Necessary Stories. West 26th Street Press (2017) ISBN 978-1-630-64053-8
Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Israel-Arab Conflict, Brandeis University Press, 2015
Itamar Radai, Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa, 1948. Routledge Studies in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2015
Tuvia Friling, A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz: History, Memory, and the Politics of Survival. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2014
Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe. Wayne State University Press, 2014
Shlomo Avineri, Herzl: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013
Anat Helman, Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2012
Tamar El Or, Reserved Seats: Religion, Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Israel. Wayne State University Press, 2012[7]
Orit Rozin, The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel: A Challenge to Collectivism. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011
Boaz Neumann, Land and Desire in Early Zionism. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011
Gilad Margalit, Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. Indiana University Press, 2010
Hillel Cohen, Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs. University of California Press, 2010
Menachem Klein, 'The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Struggle to Ethnic Conflict. Columbia University Press, 2010
Yoram Bilu, The Saints’ Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery. Academic Studies Press, 2009
Menachem Klein, A Possible Peace. Columbia University Press, 2007