Jabotinsky

An insightful biography of the most controversial and perhaps most fervent of all Zionist political figures A beautifully written short biography of an exceedingly interesting man: a novelist, translator, poet, playwright, journalist, polemicist, and probably the most remarkable public speaker in modern Jewish life. Halkins account of him is credible and vivid.Avishai Margalit, New York Review of Books Vladimir Jabotinsky (18801940) was a man of huge paradoxes and contradictions and has been the most misunderstood of all Zionist politiciansa first-rate novelist, a celebrated Russian journalist, and the founder of the branch of Zionism now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This biography, the first in English in nearly two decades, undertakes to answer central questions about Jabotinsky as a writer, a political thinker, and a leader. Hillel Halkin sets aside the stereotypes to which Jabotinsky has been reduced by his would-be followers and detractors alike. Halkin explains the importance of Odessa, Jabotinskys native city, in molding his character and outlook; discusses his novels and short stories, showing the sometimes hidden connections between them and Jabotinskys political thought, and studies a political career that ended in tragic failure. Halkin also addresses Jabotinskys position, unique among the great figures of Zionist history, as both a territorial maximalist and a principled believer in democracy. The author inquires why Jabotinsky was often accused of fascist tendencies though he abhorred authoritarian and totalitarian politics, and investigates the many opposed aspects of his personality and conduct while asking whether or not they had an ultimate coherence. Few figures in twentieth-century Jewish life were quite so admired and loathed, and Halkins splendid, subtle book explores him with empathy and lucidity.