EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Rubenstein’s Crystal City Entertainment is developing a narrative feature adaptation of Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict, the bestseller from award-winning journalist Yardena Schwartz.
A thoroughly researched, even-handed examination of the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Ghosts of a Holy War examines the little-known 1929 Hebron massacre through historical records, personal accounts, and a trove of previously undiscovered letters.
When a family in Memphis, Tennessee discovered a box of century-old letters in their attic, a journey began: not only to learn about the young man who wrote the letters from the holy city of Hebron in British Mandate Palestine, but about the massacre that took his life in 1929. Schwartz drew from these letters, along with extensive archival research and wide-ranging interviews of Israelis and Palestinians now living in Hebron, to tell the story. By illuminating the chilling echoes of 1929 in Hamas’ massacre of October 7, 2023, Schwartz illustrates how little has changed — and how much of our perspective must change if peace is ever to come to this land and its people.
Rubenstein and Ari Pinchot are producing the project under their Crystal City Entertainment banner.
“There is an urgent responsibility to bring this story to the screen now. History itself is under attack, with revisionist narratives gaining traction and reframing the region’s past,” Rubenstein told Deadline. “We cannot have an honest conversation about the conflict without a clear understanding of the dramatic events of 1929. Yardena’s work powerfully shows that the tragedy of October 7 was not an isolated eruption of violence, but an echo of brutality that long predates the establishment of the State of Israel.”
Based in Israel for a decade until 2023, Schwartz’s reporting from four continents has appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Review of Books, The Economist, Time, National Geographic, and Foreign Policy. She previously worked at NBC News and MSNBC, earning an Emmy nomination for her contributions to the latter. Graduating with honors from the Columbia Journalism School in 2011, she received the Religion News Association’s award for excellence in magazine reporting in 2016.
“While researching the 1929 massacre of Hebron’s Jewish community, I realized that this little-known chapter in history was ground zero of the Arab-Israeli conflict, key to understanding the widely overlooked forces that continue to inspire so much violence,” Schwartz said. “My hope while writing Ghosts of a Holy War was that readers would gain a deeper understanding of the hidden roots of this conflict, and see that peace will only be possible when these forces are addressed. I look forward to seeing this adaptation bring this much-needed historical understanding to a wider audience, so that history might stop repeating itself.”
Rubenstein’s Crystal City Entertainment has previously worked on films including Everything Must Go, The Ides of March, The God Committee and Lee Daniels’ The Butler. They recently acquired film and TV rights to the Chia Pet figurine brand and are currently adapting the Lisa Jewell bestseller Then She Was Gone.
Yardena is represented by UTA.