My writing grows out of the same curiosity that drew me to medicine — a search for meaning in the ways people experience illness, care, and faith. Over the years I’ve written essays for both literary and general audiences, and I am the author of This Narrow Space: A Pediatric Oncologist, His Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Patients, and a Hospital in Jerusalem (Schocken / Random House).
This Narrow Space tells the story of my years working as a pediatric oncologist in Jerusalem, and of the families — Jewish, Muslim, and Christian — whose lives intertwined there. The book explores questions of identity, compassion, and the human impulse toward hope in a place where medicine and faith are never far apart.
Selected Essays
“Let Charlie Gard’s Parents Decide His Fate”, New York Times, July 6, 2017
“Immigration Fears Are Preventing Children From Getting Medical Care”, Washington Post, June 30, 2017
“A Pediatric Oncologist’s Account of a Tibetan Sky Burial”, Jewish Book Council Paper Brigade, March 22, 2018
“Two Rooms”, JAMA, November 26, 2019 (full text available on request)
“How Repealing Obamacare Would Harm Chronically Ill Children”, Time, July 27, 2017
“Laying a Groundwork for Hope in Israel-Palestine Through Grassroots Efforts”, LA Review of Books, November 22, 2017
“Children, Fatal Illness, and the Nature of Suffering”, Scientific American, May 25, 2018
Further essays and academic work appear under Medicine
