Haim Watzman (b. 1956, Cleveland, Ohio), is an American-born, Jerusalem-based writer, journalist, and translator.
Watzman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. After receiving a B.A. from Duke University, Watzman made aliyah to Israel, where he has lived since 1978 and worked as a freelance translator and journalist. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Ilana, and four children.
Watzman is the author of Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2005), a memoir centered on his service in a reserve infantry unit in the Israel Defense Forces and A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2007), and Necessary Stories, (West 26th Street Press 2017).
Watzman is known for his English translations of recent works by Hebrew-language authors. His translations include Tom Segev’s The Seventh Million, Elvis in Jerusalem, and One Palestine Complete, as well as David Grossman’s The Yellow Wind, Sleeping on a Wire, and Death as a Way of Life.
He served for 25 years as Israel correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and was Israel correspondent for the British science journal Nature. His opinion pieces have appeared on the pages of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Forward.
Watzman currently writes the monthly “Necessary Stories” column for The Jerusalem Report, and co-authors the widely read South Jerusalem blog, along with Gershom Gorenberg. In 2017 a collection of his "Necessary Stories" was published.
Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Israel-Arab Conflict, Brandeis University Press, 2015Itamar Radai, Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa, 1948. Routledge Studies in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2015Tuvia Friling, A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz: History, Memory, and the Politics of Survival. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2014Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe. Wayne State University Press, 2014Shlomo Avineri, Herzl: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013Anat Helman, Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2012Tamar El Or, Reserved Seats: Religion, Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Israel. Wayne State University Press, 2012Orit Rozin, The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel: A Challenge to Collectivism. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011Boaz Neumann, Land and Desire in Early Zionism. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis, 2011Gilad Margalit, Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. Indiana University Press, 2010Hillel Cohen, Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs. University of California Press, 2010Menachem Klein, 'The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Struggle to Ethnic Conflict. Columbia University Press, 2010Yoram Bilu, The Saints’ Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery. Academic Studies Press, 2009Menachem Klein, A Possible Peace. Columbia University Press, 2007Hillel Cohen, Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948. University of California Press, 2007Yaakov Lozowick, Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil. Continuum, 2003Menachem Klein, The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status. University of Florida Press, 2003David Grossman, Death as a Way of Life. Farrar Straus, 2003Igal Sarna, The Man Who Fell into a Puddle. Knopf, 2002Tom Segev, Elvis in Jerusalem. Metropolitan, 2002Tamar El-Or, Next Pesach: Literacy and Identity among Young Orthodox Jewish Women. Wayne State University Press, 2002Menachem Klein, Jerusalem: The Contested City. Hurst/NYU Press, 2001Tom Segev, One Palestine Complete. Metropolitan, 2000Oz Almog, The Sabra: A Portrait, California University Press. 2000Tamar El-Or, Educated and Ignorant: On Ultra-Orthodox Women and Their World. Lynne Reinner, 1993David Grossman, Sleeping on a Wire. Farrar Straus, 1993Tom Segev, The Seventh Million. Hill & Wang, 1993David Grossman, The Yellow Wind. Farrar Straus, 1988 