Marek Halter (born 27 January 1936) is a Polish-born French writer, artist, and human rights activist, who is best known for his historical novels, which have been translated into many languages.

He and his parents fled to the Soviet Union[2] spending the remainder of the war in Ukraine and Uzbekistan,[4] where he learned to speak the Uzbek language.

[3] In 1945, as a member of Uzbekistan's "Young Pioneers", Marek was selected to go to Moscow to present flowers to Joseph Stalin.

[5] In 1946 the family returned to Poland, but, experiencing a great deal of antisemitism,[3] they emigrated to France, taking up residence in Paris in 1950.

[3] Embarking upon a career in painting,[4] his first international exhibition was in 1955 in Buenos Aires, and he remained in that city for two years, returning to France in 1957, where he engaged in political journalism and advocacy.

[3] In 1968, he founded together with his wife, Clara Halter, the magazine Élements, which published works by Israeli, Palestinian, and other Arab writers.

His novels include The Messiah; The Mysteries of Jerusalem; The Book of Abraham (1986) and its sequel, The Children of Abraham (1990); The Wind of the Khazars (2003) — a piece of historical fiction about the Khazars, a nomadic kingdom of Turkic people in the Caucasus who converted to Judaism;[citation needed] Sarah (2004), a bestseller which was adapted into a TV series;[6] Zipporah (2005); Lilah (2006); and Mary of Nazareth (2008).

Halter and his wife, Clara, traced around 200 such Gentiles, creating many hours of videotape and around 1,000 pages of interview transcripts.

[11] In 1967, Halter founded a committee for a negotiated peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis, playing a significant role in arranging the first official meetings between the two groups.