Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story

This is a love letter to Jerusalem after everything breaks open. In these vivid, funny, aching essays, Sarah Tuttle-Singer writes from inside the Old City’s pulse, before and after a devastating gas explosion destroyed her home and upended her family’s life. Through ancient stones, fairy lights, sirens, neighbors, grief, motherhood, faith, absurdity, and impossible kindness, she traces what it means to lose a sanctuary and begin again. More than a memoir of survival, this book is an offering of witness and hope: a testament to community, resilience, and the stubborn human decision to keep building beauty.

Sarah Tuttle-Singer was raised in Venice Beach, California on Yiddish lullabies and Civil Rights anthems.

She now lives in Israel with her two kids where she climbs roofs, explores cisterns, opens secret doors and talks to strangers.

Sarah has written for a variety of places including Times of Israel, Kveller, TIME.com, and Ladies Home Journal about her life in Israel, her love of Jerusalem, and her family. But mostly she just writes about people.

Sarah also speaks before audiences left, right, and center through the Jewish Speakers Bureau, asking them to wrestle with important questions while celebrating their willingness to do so.

She is a work in progress.