Star-Spangled Zionism

This is the story of how Zionism, supported by Americanism, created a modern miracle—told through the little-known stories of eight individuals who collectively changed history.

Star-Spangled Zionism presents eight historic figures—four from Europe (Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Abba Eban) and four from America (Louis D. Brandeis, Golda Meir, Ben Hecht, and Ron Dermer)—who reflect the intellectual and social revolutions that Zionism and Americanism brought to the world.

In some cases, the stories have been forgotten; in other cases, misrepresented; in still others, not yet given their full due. But they are central to the miraculous recovery of the Jewish people in the twentieth century. Taken together, they recount both a people's return to its place among the nations and the impact on history that a single individual can make.

More than a century ago, after studying the early Zionist texts, Brandeis concluded that Jews were the "trustees" of their history, charged to "carry forward what others, in the past, have borne so well." The stories in this book—recording the extraordinary efforts of extraordinary individuals that created the modern state of Israel and then sustained it—reinforce Brandeis's observation for our own time.

The story of Zionism, and its interaction with Americanism, is a continuing one. This book is not only about the past, but the present and future as well.