Roya Hakakian was born and raised in Tehran, and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, made her way to the United States, where she found political asylum and eventually became an American citizen.

Her 2004 memoir Journey from the Land of No was a breakout situation. political asylum, and eventually became an American citizen.

Her 2004 memoir Journey from the Land of No was a breakout sensation, leading to a career as a writer that would come to include a Guggenheim Fellowship and fancy affiliations

with all manner of fancy and prestigious institutions.

In the summer of 2023, issue of Sapir, Hakakian published a letter to an anti-Zionist idealist,

in which she acknowledges the misgivings that her benighted, well-intentioned, kind-hearted,

idealistic correspondent has about Israel, and she confronts that point of view with her own gratitude for Israel.

She explores in this letter precisely how her upbringing helped her see why Israel is a Jewish

necessity. But she also does something more. By examining the different judgments at which she

and her correspondent, known by the letter J, have arrived, she is also able

to shed light on the effects that America has on the Zionist prospect.

Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver.

Americans have always had the luxury of seeing ourselves a little more clearly when viewed from the outside.

The most penetrating book written about America and the American Way of Life was written

by the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s. We need that outside angular

vision to see ourselves in proper perspective. What also interested me about Hakakian's argument was the manner in which

it was expressed, in the form of a letter. Letters, as a genre, have carried some of the most

important arguments in modern times. Don't forget that Edmund Burke's reflections on the

French Revolution was written as a letter, and perhaps the foremost Zionist

polemic written in the English language.

Hillel Halkin's letters to an American Jewish friend were likewise presented in that way.

Well, joining me this week to talk about her fascinating letter, Isroya Hakakian.

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