The Genius of Israel

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.

A portrait of a society that, often seen as fractured and fractious, is surprisingly unified. . . . A thought-provoking study that non-Israelis will find particularly fascinating Kirkus Reviews
How has the tiny country of Israel, beset by external foes and internal strife, stayed so resilient? This book offers big ideas for how all of us, not just Israelis, can tackle the central challenges of our times -- Walter Isaacson
Senor and Singer are shrewd observers Critic
An absorbing read Jewish Chronicle

Dan Senor is an executive at Elliott Management and co-author of the best-seller 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, New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post. He lives in New York City.

Saul Singer is the co-author of the best-selling 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 U.S. Members of Congress and on the staffs of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs and Senate Banking Committees. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.

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