Israel Is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BESTSELLER

In AD 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed, a handful of visionaries saved Judaism by reinventing it, taking what had been a national religion and turning it into an idea. Whenever a Jew studied—wherever he was—he would be in the holy city, and his faith preserved. But in our own time, Zionists have turned the book back into a temple, and unlike an idea, a temple can be destroyed. With exuberance, humor, and...