The author loves his adopted homeland without ignoring its blemishes. He treats the most contested episodes in Israeli history, such as the plight of both Arab and Jewish refugees during the 1948 War of Independence, honestly and fairly.” — Wall Street Journal

“Gordis is determined to do his best to provide some to those who don’t know as much about Israel as they think they know, or as much as they need to know.” — New York Post

“You will enjoy the fluid motion of Gordis’s writing style, which somehow condenses thousands of details into memorable, thought-provoking passages. . .. Gordis grants us more than a peek at the past and present.” — San Francisco Book Review

“Gordis brings to life the colorful patchwork of Israeli society and all those whose work helped shape it. . . . His writerly feat is in making so much so vivid through straightforward prose. . . . Certain to become a standard work.” — Commentary

“Gordis guides readers through all of this and much more, with a blend of energy and grace, brain and heart in mutual embrace.” — Jewish Book Council

“A welcome new primer, just in time for a new generation of English-speakers who are interested in Israel, to learn about the country and its struggles.” — Jerusalem Post

“Gordis crafts an elegant, personal narrative. . . . a readable, concise history that effectively captures the sense of grand ideas in Israel’s identity.” — Kirkus

“This will serve as a fine introduction to this tiny but vitally important nation.” — Booklist

“An excellent introduction for anyone with a new or ongoing interest in Israel. A comprehensive bibliography serves as a guide to further reading.” — Library Journal

As the title promises, he delivers a concise, readable history that celebrates its subject without idealizing it. It’s a book that belongs on the shelf of every believer in the Zionist dream.” — Atlanta Jewish Times

“Israel . . . captures the clamorous freedom, cultural effervescence, and economic prosperity that mark Israel today.” — Hoover Institution

“Gordis has an ability to get to the core of issues and to discuss them in straightforward language that nevertheless conveys sophisticated analysis. . . . Gordis’s concise history of Israel fills an urgent need.” — Washington Free Beacon Review

“Gordis shows how Israel has battled the odds for decades.” — The American Thinker

“Like Israel itself, Daniel Gordis’ Israel is audacious, intensive and unique. It tells the breathtaking story of the third Jewish commonwealth from the very beginning to today. Anyone interested in the history of Zionism will find priceless information and profound insight in this much needed, fair and balanced book.” — Ari Shavit, author of My Promised Land

“Gordis has written a luminous history that tells the story of Israel not only through its statesmen and warriors but its artists and writers and poets. Gordis gives us the soul of Israel, and helps explain why the most hated country on the planet is also among the most beloved.” — Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation

“A fascinating, accessible, nuanced, and smart account of a complex story, this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand this complicated corner of the world.” — Deborah Lipstadt, author of Denial: Holocaust History on Trial and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University

“Gordis captures the essence of who Israel is, where it has come from, and why the Jewish state will—and must—continue to exist. When I am asked “Is there one book to read about Israel?”, I now have an answer.” — Ambassador Dennis Ross, Special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton and author of The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace

“Israel the book is an extraordinary reminder that Israel the county, with its new language, secular culture and unparalleled achievements, is nothing short of a man-made miracle.” — Talia Carner, author Hotel Moscow and Jerusalem Maiden

“Daniel Gordis combines encyclopedic knowledge with the writing talent of a novelist. He makes complex historical events accessible as he spans the whole sweep of Israel’s history, explaining how and why the rebuilding of the Jewish state in the twentieth century has transformed Jewish history forever.” — Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of Jewish Literacy, A Code of Jewish Ethics, and Rebbe

“Gordis weaves anecdote with historic judgment, and effectively uses both literary sources and introductions to Israel’s formative personalities to reflect on Israel’s history, its politics and especially, its soul. Israel is vibrant, articulate, and replete with wisdom.” — Ilan Troen, President of the Association for Israel Studies

You will enjoy the fluid motion of Gordis’s writing style, which somehow condenses thousands of details into memorable, thought-provoking passages. . .. Gordis grants us more than a peek at the past and present.

A welcome new primer, just in time for a new generation of English-speakers who are interested in Israel, to learn about the country and its struggles.

As the title promises, he delivers a concise, readable history that celebrates its subject without idealizing it. It’s a book that belongs on the shelf of every believer in the Zionist dream.

Gordis is determined to do his best to provide some to those who don’t know as much about Israel as they think they know, or as much as they need to know.

This will serve as a fine introduction to this tiny but vitally important nation.

Gordis brings to life the colorful patchwork of Israeli society and all those whose work helped shape it. . . . His writerly feat is in making so much so vivid through straightforward prose. . . . Certain to become a standard work.

Gordis guides readers through all of this and much more, with a blend of energy and grace, brain and heart in mutual embrace.

The author loves his adopted homeland without ignoring its blemishes. He treats the most contested episodes in Israeli history, such as the plight of both Arab and Jewish refugees during the 1948 War of Independence, honestly and fairly.

A fascinating, accessible, nuanced, and smart account of a complex story, this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand this complicated corner of the world.

Gordis captures the essence of who Israel is, where it has come from, and why the Jewish state will—and must—continue to exist. When I am asked “Is there one book to read about Israel?”, I now have an answer.

Daniel Gordis combines encyclopedic knowledge with the writing talent of a novelist. He makes complex historical events accessible as he spans the whole sweep of Israel’s history, explaining how and why the rebuilding of the Jewish state in the twentieth century has transformed Jewish history forever.

Like Israel itself, Daniel Gordis’ Israel is audacious, intensive and unique. It tells the breathtaking story of the third Jewish commonwealth from the very beginning to today. Anyone interested in the history of Zionism will find priceless information and profound insight in this much needed, fair and balanced book.

Israel the book is an extraordinary reminder that Israel the county, with its new language, secular culture and unparalleled achievements, is nothing short of a man-made miracle.

Israel . . . captures the clamorous freedom, cultural effervescence, and economic prosperity that mark Israel today.

Gordis has an ability to get to the core of issues and to discuss them in straightforward language that nevertheless conveys sophisticated analysis. . . . Gordis’s concise history of Israel fills an urgent need.

Gordis has written a luminous history that tells the story of Israel not only through its statesmen and warriors but its artists and writers and poets. Gordis gives us the soul of Israel, and helps explain why the most hated country on the planet is also among the most beloved.

Gordis shows how Israel has battled the odds for decades.

Gordis weaves anecdote with historic judgment, and effectively uses both literary sources and introductions to Israel’s formative personalities to reflect on Israel’s history, its politics and especially, its soul. Israel is vibrant, articulate, and replete with wisdom.

This will serve as a fine introduction to this tiny but vitally important nation.

Gordis is determined to do his best to provide some to those who don’t know as much about Israel as they think they know, or as much as they need to know.

The author loves his adopted homeland without ignoring its blemishes. He treats the most contested episodes in Israeli history, such as the plight of both Arab and Jewish refugees during the 1948 War of Independence, honestly and fairly.

10/01/2016
American Israeli author (The Promise of Israel) and scholar (senior vice president, Koret Distinguished Fellow, Shalem Coll., Jerusalem) Gordis derives a relatively brief history of Israel and Zionism from hundreds of previously published histories, biographies, memoirs, and journalistic works. The author mines sources, which include interviews with contemporary Israelis, for details of the major events of Jewish history from 2000 BCE to the present day in an effort to inform readers how the modern State of Israel came into being and how the country developed its political stances. While new books about Israel and its history are published each year, most seem directed to readers who have an ongoing interest in Middle East affairs or who have aligned themselves with one faction or another. Gordis largely succeeds in introducing Israel to those recently taking an interest, offering footnotes and glossaries to define or explain important people, places, and institutions. VERDICT An excellent introduction for anyone with a new or ongoing interest in Israel. A comprehensive bibliography serves as a guide to further reading.—Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA

2016-08-03
A thematic one-volume survey of Israel delineating the evolution of late-19th-century Zionism through the tumultuous defense of the nascent state to today’s rise of the religious right.Fair-handed in dealing with the Palestinian question though definitely written with an Israeli bias, this solid work by Israeli author Gordis (Senior Vice President/Shalem Coll; Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul, 201, etc.) thankfully keeps concision in mind, but the author does not sacrifice veracity. By asking big questions—e.g., what was behind this “grand human story”—he gets at the broad contours of the founding of the state of Israel. Gordis begins with the importance of the writings of Moses Hess, Leon Pinsker, and Theodor Herzl in articulating the need for a Jewish homeland to combat perennial anti-Semitism. The dream entailed the pursuit of a secular political plan—sparked, in part, by the Russian pogrom at Kishinev in 1903—financed by well-connected Jews of the Diaspora, sanctioned by the Balfour Declaration, and followed by the “entirely legal” purchase of land in Palestine, which “aroused the concern of both the Ottomans and the local Arabs.” Gordis crafts an elegant, personal narrative, and he ably captures the existential crisis during the Nazi era with the tragic stories of three different refugee ships full of Jews fleeing Europe. From the challenges of early statehood, including its cast of colorful characters like David Ben-Gurion, and combating rivalrous Arab neighbors with the buildup of a massive military, Israel became an international player. Yet the 1967 Six Day War brought euphoria as well as the long-term burden of the occupation of Palestinian territories, which would alter the founding vision irreparably. Gordis gives a good bit of space to the marginalized Mizrahi “revolution” of the 1970s, culminating in Menachem Begin’s Likud victory of 1977. Moreover, the author concludes that “the ideology of classic Zionism was beginning to crack,” allowing the more religious Jews to find their place. A readable, concise history that effectively captures the sense of grand ideas in Israel’s identity.