Historian Anita Shapira on David Ben-Gurion
Rebecca Keys
Casting a great shadow during his lifetime, David Ben-Gurion's legacy continues as one of the most important Zionist icons and the founder of modern Israel. As we prepare to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary of statehood, explore the story of Ben-Gurion's life anew with master historian Anita Shapira and gain new insights into his experience leading the new state of Israel through its early years, focusing on the personal qualities that defined his political leadership.
This program was hosted by Park Avenue Synagogue and the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.
By Anita Shapira
Published November 25, 2014
288 pages
“A beautiful portrayal” —Shimon Peres, President of Israel (2007-2014)
An insightful study of the inner life of the Zionist leader responsible for the creation of the state of Israel
David Ben-Gurion cast a great shadow during his lifetime, and his legacy continues to be sharply debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira strives to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of the new Jewish nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period after 1948, during the first years of statehood. As a result of her extensive research and singular access to Ben-Gurion’s personal archives, the author provides fascinating and original insights into his personal qualities and those that defined his political leadership. As Shapira writes, “Ben-Gurion liked to argue that history is made by the masses, not individuals. But just as Lenin brought the Bolshevik Revolution into the world and Churchill delivered a fighting Britain, so with Ben-Gurion and the Jewish state. He knew how to create and exploit the circumstances that made its birth possible.” Shapira’s portrait reveals the flesh-and-blood man who more than anyone else realized the Israeli state.