Daniel Gordis Biography of Menachem Begin an Israeli Bestseller
It could be expected that a biography of the man many Israelis consider their country’s most controversial prime minister would itself spark soul-searching in the pages of its literary reviews. This is exactly what happened with this summer’s publication, in Hebrew, of Daniel Gordis’s Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul. A much-discussed volume that hit the bestseller list as soon as it was released, the translation earned a number of reviews in Israel’s leading newspapers, including one authored by one of the most influential historians in the Jewish state. Along the way, it helped shape a current public debate by reevaluating a critical figure from Israel’s past.
Hailed as “thoughtful” in The Wall Street Journal, “engaging” in the Jewish Review of Books, and a “skillful retelling” of a deeply complex life in The Forward, Gordis’s biography of Begin was widely recognized by English-language critics for its original analysis of the effects of Begin’s sense of Jewish identity and peoplehood on his political career. Yet with his new interpretation of the former prime minister’s motivations, Gordis could be said to have struck an Israeli nerve: One reviewer, in Makor Rishon, wondered whether today’s Israeli leaders would have the confidence to stand up to the United States on Iran as Begin did with regard to Iraq. Does an Israeli leader, he muses, need a strongly rooted sense of Jewish purpose to make the right decisions in fateful moments? And what, other reviewers asked, does it even mean to be a “Jewish” leader of the State of Israel? Does the title imply a connection to Jewish tradition, and if so, in what way? These and other questions underlined the spirited discussion of Gordis’s biography, showing that a plumbing of the depths of Israeli history can spur a fruitful conversation about issues confronting the Jewish state today.
