The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World

How has a small nation of 9 million people, forced to fight for its existence and security since its founding and riven by ethnic, religious, and economic divides, proven resistant to so many of the societal ills plaguing other wealthy democracies?

Why do Israelis have among the world's highest life expectancies and lowest rates of "deaths of despair" from suicide and substance abuse? Why is Israel's population young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking? How can it be that Israel, according to a United Nations ranking, is the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why do Israelis tend to look to the future with hope, optimism, and purpose while the rest of the West struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline?

Dan Senor and Saul Singer, the writers behind the international bestseller Start-Up Nation, have long been students of the global innovation race. But as they spent time with Israel's entrepreneurs and political leaders, soldiers and students, scientists and activists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Tel Aviv techies, and Israeli Arabs, they realized that they had missed what really sets Israel apart.

Moving from military commanders integrating at-risk youth and people who are neurodiverse into national service, to high performing companies making space for working parents, from dreamers and innovators launching a duct-taped spacecraft to the moon, to bringing better health solutions to people around the world, The Genius of Israel tells the story of a diverse people and society built around the values of service, solidarity, and belonging.

Widely admired for having the world's highest density of high-tech start-ups, Israel's greatest innovation may not be a technology at all, but Israeli society itself. Understanding how a country facing so many challenges can be among the happiest provides surprising insights into how we can confront the crisis of community, human connectedness, and purpose in modern life.

Bold, timely, and insightful, Senor and Singer's latest work shines an important light on the impressive innovative distinctions of Israeli society--and what other communities and countries can learn.

Author: Dan Senor, Saul Singer
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 11/07/2023
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.30w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781982115760

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2023

About the Author
Saul Singer is the coauthor of the bestselling book Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. He is a former Editorial Page Editor and columnist at the Jerusalem Post. In Israel, Singer has briefed visiting executives from or spoken at the Israeli headquarters of companies such as: Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Xerox, General Electric, IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, and DuPont. Before moving to Israel in 1994, he served for ten years as an advisor to different US Members of Congress and on the staffs of the US House Foreign Affairs and Senate Banking Committees. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.

Dan Senor is an executive at Elliott Management and coauthor of the bestseller Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. He was a senior advisor to Paul Ryan's 2012 campaign for vice president and foreign policy advisor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns. A former Defense Department official, Senor has been based in Baghdad and at US Central Command in Qatar, and was a US Senate aide in the 1990s. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA TODAY, and The Washington Post.