Jerusalem memoir: A single mother’s account of life and loss

A June 2026 explosion destroyed Sarah Tuttle-Singer’s home in Jerusalem’s Old City and killed a neighbor. That event serves as the central pivot for her new book, “Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story.” The work moves beyond the physical destruction to examine the emotional aftermath of losing one’s home in a place deeply intertwined with personal identity.

Tuttle-Singer frames the city not merely as a historical site, but as a living entity that shapes her daily reality. She describes Jerusalem as a place where the divine and the ordinary constantly intersect. For her, the title refers to small, fleeting moments of human connection and beauty that persist despite the surrounding darkness. These moments, she says, are often overlooked when attention focuses solely on headlines or major events.

The author’s personal life anchors the narrative. She is a single mother to three children: an 18-year-old daughter, a 16-year-old son, and a four-year-old son with special needs. Her youngest child features prominently in the text. Raising a neurodivergent child has altered her perception of the city’s rhythms, sounds, and textures. The book details the exhaustion and tenderness of this dynamic, illustrating how small, repeated interactions create a unique sense of sacred geography for her family.

The decision to write the book was suggested by Rabbi Menachem Creditor after the explosion. He proposed writing as a method to process the trauma and grief. Tuttle-Singer accepted the challenge, and the project evolved into a broader meditation on survival and belonging. She notes that the experience of losing her home changed her understanding of what it means to belong to a place. Belonging, she argues, is defined by relationships, such as a shopkeeper who remembers a customer’s coffee order, rather than just the physical structure of a house.

Tuttle-Singer’s connection to Jerusalem began in 1997 during a summer program. She made aliyah in 2010 with her then-husband and two children. After their marriage ended, she remained in Israel and settled in Jerusalem. In 2016, she spent a year living in the four quarters of the Old City, residing for approximately three months in the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian sections. This period of immersive research led to her 2018 book, “Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered.”

The new memoir continues that trajectory of observation. It captures the intimacy of a city where residents from diverse backgrounds share daily life. Tuttle-Singer aims to document the complexity of these interactions, showing how people connect across differences. The book reflects her ongoing discovery of the city’s nature, acknowledging that multiple truths can exist simultaneously without requiring anyone to surrender their own perspective.