While Syrkin’s work is familiar to an older generation …

While Syrkin’s work is familiar to an older generation of American Zionists, Kessner’s extraordinary biography should spark interest in Syrkin’s life and ideas in many new quarters. . . .With Syrkin so deeply involved with so many key world events, from the Stalinist purges to the rise of Hitler, from debates over the Mandate to battles over Arab refugees, her biography reads like a history of the 20th century. But unlike most histories, delivered in the passive voice, Syrkin’s is active and passionate and utterly mesmerizing. Kessner, a long time protege of Syrkin’s, is a talented biographer; not only is her prose graceful and occasionally quite witty, but she understands how to insert the telling quotation, the background detail that clarifies, the right lines from the right poem.