Menachem Begin’s Uniquely Jewish Statesmanship

On the Hebrew calendar, today is the 32nd anniversary of the death of Menachem Begin, the founder and longtime leader of the Likud party and, from 1977 to 1983, Israel’s sixth prime minister. Born in a Polish-Russian shtetl famous for its rabbis (and, according to legend, once home to a Jewish dignitary who was king of Poland for a day), Begin was active in the Zionist movement as a young man. He spent part of World War II in the Soviet gulag, and then traveled with a contingent of the Polish army via Persia to Palestine. There he joined the Irgun and began his political career. This remarkable figure’s “life, legacy, and uniquely Jewish statesmanship” are the subject of a new limited-series podcast by Meir Soloveichik. You can subscribe at the link below.