All Roads Lead to Jerusalem

A Muslim American Woman Looking for Hope and Answers in the West Bank

When Jenny Jones and her three children move from their Washington home to that of Jenny's in-laws in the West Bank, the village of Safa seems like a haven. Sheltered from much of the area's troubles, Jenny considers the village to be the ideal place for her children to explore a part of their identity they deserved to know more about. In spite of its pastoral charm, Safa is far more complex than Jenny had imagined. On top of dealing with inter-tribal battles, military round-ups, and nighttime raids, Jenny has to deal with her in-laws and day-to-day difficulties caused by her less than eloquent Arabic and frequent cultural misunderstandings. But the Holy Land is famous for its miracles after all-and after coming across a National Geographic article one day bemoaning the jealously guarded off-limits archaeological chambers on Jerusalem's famous Temple Mount, Jenny decides to make a sudden, life changing decision to find a way in herself—despite virtually impossible odds—along the way discovering a kind of self-acceptance and belonging that she never imagined possible. All Roads Lead to Jerusalem depicts a woman's struggle to find a sense of inner peace after realizing that neither the restrictive Islamic culture she has chosen, nor the increasingly hostile North American society she was born into, seem to offer the acceptance she yearns for.