Author of New Biography of Ben Gurion to Speak January 15th

BOSTON - Jan. 12, 2015 - PRLog -- 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 in 1948 immediately following Israel’s declaration of independence. 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 created the Israeli state.

"I read this fascinating book with both intellectual and emotional thrill.”—Amos Oz, author of A Tale of Love and Darkness

Anita Shapira is professor emerita at Tel Aviv University, where she has served as dean of the Faculty of Humanities and held the Ruben Merenfeld Chair for the Study of Zionism. She is a recipient of the prestigious Israel Prize and her most recent book, in English, Israel: A History, won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award