Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated producer, and author of the bestselling book, Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Yardena's book received glowing reviews in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary Magazine, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, and many other publications. Yardena has been a featured guest on numerous podcasts, including Dan Senor's Call me Back, Eylon Levy's State of a Nation, The Jewish People's Podcast, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

From 2013 to 2023 Yardena was based in Israel, where she reported for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, The Economist, New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and NBC News, among others. She has also reported from Morocco, Nepal, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, and the United States.

Yardena previously worked at NBC News, including stints at The Today Show, Nightly News, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011, earned an Emmy nomination in 2013, and an RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting in 2016. Ghosts of a Holy War is Yardena's first book.

Originally from New Jersey, Yardena made Aliyah in 2013. She now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband and children.