Jerusalem

ASHER KAUFMAN IS A PROFESSOR of Middle East history who first got interested in Lebanon during Israel’s 1982 war when he was a 19-year-old infantryman stationed over the border. He hasn’t returned to Lebanon since then, but his academic work has kept him close to the country, and his book, Reviving Phoenicia, has served to reconstruct aspects of the country’s history sometimes lost even to the Lebanese themselves. We met briefly before he headed back to the United States, where he teaches at Notre Dame. “Anyone who cares about Lebanon has to be concerned right now for its future,” he said.