Jerry Levin born Jeremy Isadore Levin. (Mar. 20, 1932 – Feb. 7, 2020) He was a former
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
network journalist.
He wrote on nonviolence, with an emphasis on the Middle East and in particular Palestine and Israel.
In 1984 he was kidnapped and held hostage by
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
.
He escaped after eleven and a half
months in captivity due to the nonviolent behind-the-scene efforts of friends and colleagues organized by his wife, Sis Levin.
Of Jewish birth, Levin converted to Christianity during his captivity.
In 1991, his story was made into the television film ''Held Hostage''.
The film stars
David Dukes
David Coleman Dukes (June 6, 1945 – October 9, 2000) was an American character actor. He had a long career in films, appearing in 35. Dukes starred in the miniseries '' The Winds of War'' and '' War and Remembrance'', and he was a frequent tel ...
as Levin.
He worked with several violence reduction organizations in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and
Gaza, including
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Community Peacemaker Teams or CPT (previously called Christian Peacemaker Teams) is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. The organization uses these teams to achieve its aims ...
) and with
nonviolent
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
peace and
nonviolent justice organizations in the U.S.
In April 2009 he and his wife were recognized by the Dalai Lama as one of
2009's "Unsung Heroes of Compassion".
Books
*Jerry Levin. ''Reflections on My First Noël''. (Pasadena: Hope Publishing, 2002). .
*Jerry Levin. ''West Bank Diary: Middle East Violence as Reported by a Former American Hostage''. (Pasadena: Hope Publishing, 2005). .
References
External links
Levin's blog (archived)
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American male journalists
Kidnappings by Islamists
Converts to Christianity from Judaism
CNN people
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