Emily Raboteau

At twenty-three, Emily Raboteau traveled to Israel to visit a childhood friend who'd found a place to belong. As a biracial American woman, Raboteau couldn't say the same for herself. After meeting black Jews in Israel, she sought out other black communities that had left home in search of a Promised Land, from Africa to Jamaica to the American South. In Searching for Zion, Raboteau overturns our ideas of place and patriotism, displacement and dispossession, citizenship and country in an honest and brave take on the pull of the story of Exodus.

Emily Raboteau is an associate professor of English at City College of New York; the author of the novel, The Professor's Daughter; and a recent recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts award.

Recorded On: Wednesday, February 6, 2013