Seeds of Peace

President Emeritus

Janet Wallach is a journalist and the author of eight books. She has written extensively about the Middle East. Her book, Desert Queen; The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, is the biography of the British official most responsible for the creation of modern Iraq. Published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (1996), it has been translated into twelve languages. It The New York Times Sunday Book Review said, “Ms. Wallach is an expert on the region and her knowledge is on full display here. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “necessary reading for anyone interested in the Middle East.” Her latest book, Seraglio, a novel published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in January 2003, was called “both serious and enchanting” by Publisher’s Weekly. The New York Times Sunday Book Review said it was “a Horatio Alger story…and a micro-history of the Ottoman Empire.” In her research for the book, Ms. Wallach traveled to Turkey where she worked with experts in history, art and the Topkapi Palace. For her work on Desert Queen Ms. Wallach traveled to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Iraq. In Baghdad she spent several weeks doing research in the British archives and at the Antiquities Museum, both of which were closed to the public but made available to her, and interviewed numerous diplomats, archaeologists, former officials and journalists. In addition to her time in the Middle East, she did research at the Universities of Oxford, Newcastle and Durban, as well as at the British Library and the Public Records Office in Kew. Over the course of the past twelve years, much of it spent living and working in the Middle East, Janet Wallach has co-authored Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder (Carol Publishing, 1991, updated 1997), a biography of Yasser Arafat; The New Palestinians (Prima, 1992), a look at leading figures in the West Bank and Gaza; and Still Small Voices (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), the personal stories of twelve Israelis and Palestinians during the intifada, with a foreword by Teddy Kollek. Her work on the Arafat biography took her to Tunis, where she spent three months interviewing Arafat and other PLO officials; Egypt, where she met with PLO officials, Egyptian officials and Arafat family members; Syria, where she interviewed radical anti-Arafat Palestinian groups and high Syrian officials; Jordan, where, in addition to meetings with Arafat confidantes and family members, she had an extensive interview with His Majesty, the late King Hussein; and Israel, where she interviewed leading officials and met with the Defense Minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin. As a frequent contributor to The Washington Post Magazine from 1982-1987, and as a contributor to Smithsonian Magazine and other periodicals, Janet Wallach has written cover story profiles of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon; Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; Reza Pahlavi, heir to the throne of Iran; PLO envoy Hassan Abdul Rahman; Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi; First Lady of Egypt Jihan Sadat; and the British official Gertrude Bell. Ms. Wallach is currently president of Seeds of Peace, a conflict resolution program which brings together teenagers from the Middle East; India, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the Balkans; and Greece, Turkey and divided Cyprus. The organization has a year-round program that includes a summer camp in Maine, a Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, annual conferences and an educational arm that helps Seeds alumni attend college in the U.S. More than 2,500 participants have participated in a three-week session at the camp in Maine and then returned to their regions for further workshops, meetings and conflict resolution programs. Ms. Wallach is a Woodrow Wilson Institute Visiting Fellow and has taught at Earlham College; Longwood College; Ohio Wesleyan University; Stetson College; St. Olaf College; Bradford College; Susquehana College; and West Virginia Wesleyan College. Janet Wallach has been a guest speaker at Arizona State University (T.E. Lawrence Symposium); the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs; Chautauqua Institution; The Cosmopolitan Club; The Explorers’ Club, Harmonie Club; Meridien House; the National Arts Club; Quinnipiac College; St. Olaf College (Nobel Peace Prize Symposium); Wellesley College; Women’s Democratic Club; Women’s Republican Club; and Yale University. She has appeared as a guest commentator on various television programs for the Cable News Network, A&E "Biography," National Geographic, and network talk shows as well as on C-Span "Booknotes." She co-hosted a nationally syndicated program, “Private Lives; Public People,” on the Lifetime cable network. Janet Wallach was born in New York City and received a B.A. degree from New York University. She was married to the late John Wallach, founder and president of Seeds of Peace, and has two sons, David Allyn, and Michael Wallach.