In one of his more whimsical short stories, the late Israeli satirist Efraim Kishon pits two characters against one another in a game of “Jewish poker,” a game “played without cards, in your head, as befits the People of the Book.” The rules are simple: Whoever thinks of a higher number wins the round. In the end, one character, sure of his triumph, reports that he has thought of infinity. The other, not to be outdone, cries, “Ben-Gurion!” and takes the pot. Both players accept that there can be no higher.
In a concise new biography, Anita Shapira, professor emerita of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University and doyenne of Israeli historians, expertly charts David Ben-Gurion’s transformation from labor leader (as secretary-general of the Histadrut, or General Federation of Jewish Labor, 1921-35) to national figure (as prime minister, 1948-53, and minister of defense, 1955-63). Along the way, she gives us the materials to understand why Israel’s founding father remains, in the eyes of many Israelis, both the ne plus ultra of statesmanship and an enduring presence in the country’s political imagination.
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