About the Book
In The Future of the Jews, Stuart E. Eizenstat, a senior diplomat of international reputation, surveys the major geopolitical, economic, and security challenges facing the world in general, and the Jewish world and the United States in particular. These forces include the shift of power and influence from the United States and Europe to the emerging powers in Asia and Latin America; globalization and the new information age; the battle for the direction of the Muslim world; nontraditional security threats; changing demographics, which pose a particular challenge for Jews worldwide and the rise of a new anti-Semitism that seeks to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state. He also discusses the enduring nature of and challenges to the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel. Eizenstat’s provocative analysis will be of interest to everyone concerned about the future of Jews worldwide and in Israel and the United States’ role in a world that is confronting unprecedented simultaneous, cataclysmic changes.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Martin Gilbert
Uncharted Waters Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Historic Shift of Power from the West to the Emerging Nations of the East and South: A New Multipolar World
Chapter 2: Globalization: A More Integrated World
Chapter 3: The Struggle for the Direction of Islam: The Rise of Islamic Extremism
Chapter 4: Non-Traditional Global Security Risks
Chapter 5: Israel and the New Challenge of Delegitimization
Chapter 6: The Future of the U.S.-Israeli Relationship
About the Author :
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat has held senior U.S. government positions in three presidential administrations, from the White House to the State Department, from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. At the same time, he has been a leader in the Jewish community, having led American and international Jewish groups and institutions, and received numerous awards from Jewish organizations and academic institutions. He is the author of Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II.
Review :
The fact that Stuart E. Eizenstat is truly 'the epitome of the history of his own family' places both his decades of public service and his outstanding book, The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States, in historical context and perspective. It is precisely because Eizenstat writes as a committed Jew who has always been guided by Jewish ethical and religious values that The Future of the Jews is, in the words of the former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Itamar Rabinovich, 'mandatory reading for Jews and Israelis who must adapt old policies and institutions to new conditions and for non-Jews who want to understand the concern of an unusually successful yet vulnerable people.'
Ambassador Eizenstat has written an important book that cogently describes the global processes, trends and shifts that are shaping our world, and will undoubtedly impact the State of Israel and the Jewish people, as we move further into the 21st century. With keen intelligence and the wisdom that comes with a lifetime of public service, Eizenstat gives the reader an undiluted account of where we are now and what we are likely to experience in the coming years.
As enormous changes unfold around us, we need Stu Eizenstat’s keen insight into the forces of opportunity and upheaval shaping the future. Thanks to the breadth and clarity of his vision, The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and its Relationship with the United States is a valuable aid to our own understanding.
Ready or not, the future is coming. I am grateful to Stuart Eizenstat for laying out such a nuanced picture of what the Jewish people can expect the future to bring, and for raising such insightful and compelling recommendations for how we might better prepare for it. His preface, aptly entitled “Uncharted Waters,” supplies an eagle-eyed context for anyone trying to make sense of this unfolding, historic moment in the Middle East.
Stu Eizenstat has produced a valuable and prophetic book. The Future of the Jews is sure to challenge assumptions and—amidst the sudden extraordinary changes unfolding today in the Middle East and beyond—to inspire the kind of creative thought necessary for the Jewish community worldwide to seize the opportunities and weather the inevitable challenges that are sure to emerge in the years ahead.
Stuart Eizenstat is the right person to write a book on the impact of world trends on the Jewish people. His combined experience of working at the highest levels of the US government and as Chairman of the Jewish People Policy Institute prepared him well for this task. And he hasn't disappointed.
His book is a balanced, insightful, sober but ultimately optimistic assessment of the Jewish future in the face of a rapidly changing world. This book is an effective response to the doomsayers as well as to those who see smooth sailing ahead. It should serve as a useful guide for discussions about the Jewish future for years to come.
We stand at a time when the familiar certainties of the Cold War world have been engulfed by new, unforeseen challenges. Eizenstat’s remarkable book is a brilliant, insightful and illuminating analysis of the global trends that are poised to have a particularly devastating impact on America, Israel and the West. The Future of the Jews is a deeply-reasoned and provocative work, worthy of serious attention.
I have worked in the White House with Stu Eizenstat on some of the most difficult issues facing the United States and the world. He is one of the most outstanding public servants I have ever been associated with, and demonstrates his accumulated knowledge and wisdom in three American administrations in this remarkable book. The scope, brilliance, and power of this book makes it essential reading for everyone interested in understanding the major global challenges facing the United States, as well as the Jewish people and Israel in the 21st century, and how to meet them successfully. As Israel's major ally, Stu compellingly makes the case that a strong America is an indispensable ingredient to a more secure Israel.
The fate of the Jews has always been influenced by their interaction with the global and regional environments. What will be the fate of the Jewish people and the Jewish state in the 21st century? Stuart Eizenstat’s masterful, horizons broadening and deeply thought analysis of the Global Forces impacting on Western civilizations and the Jewish future is an eye opener for anyone interested in the fate of the Jewish people and Israel, and is an invitation for innovative action to those who wish to impact on the Jewish fate in the 21st century.
Stuart Eizenstat provides an insightful and sober analysis of recent seismic changes that will challenge the world community well into the 21st century. Benefiting from his unique vantage point as a well-travelled American ambassador on the world stage and as a leader of major Jewish organizations in the United States and Israel, his book reads as a call to action for Israel and the Jewish people worldwide and charts a course to help its leaders navigate the troubled waters that lay ahead. An impressive grasp of the issues, powerfully and masterfully argued, this book should be required reading.
This is a remarkable book. For almost four decades Stuart Eizenstat has had an exceptional impact in several arenas As a senior White House aide, US ambassador, a prominent Washington lawyer and public leader and a prominent Jewish leader concerned with obtaining justice foe holocaust victims and the welfare of Israel and its relationship with the US and the Jewish Diaspora. From his perch as Chairman of The Jewish People's Policy Institute he can think and stimulate thinking about the state of the Jewish people in a rapidly changing world. This book illustrates what can be accomplished when the keen mind of the intellectual and the rich perspective of the practitioner are put together in order to reflect on the state of the Jewish people and to offer thought and advice on the challenges presented to them by the new world order. It is mandatory reading for Jews and Israelis who must adapt old policies and institutions to new conditions and for non-Jews who want to understand the concern of an unusually successful yet vulnerable people.
A great and timely book. As dramatic changes engulf the world scene in general and the Middle East in particular, nobody is better qualified than Stuart Eizenstat to assess their impact on the Jewish people and Israel. As American statesman and diplomat, Jewish leader and close observer and supporter of Israel, Eizenstat has the experience, commitment and sophisticated understanding needed for such a project. In bold strokes, combined with meticulous knowledge of politics, economics and technological innovations, he paints the major challenges ahead, offering sober, wise and measured advice, deeply anchored in his awareness of world trends as well as major Jewish concerns. A book for all who realize that Israel is not a people that dwelleth alone and know that its future and well-being are inextricably bound with global developments impacting the United States, world Jewry as well as its immediate neighborhood.
Eizenstat cogently analyzes the forces that shape our contemporary geopolitical reality, from the globalization of not just commerce but human interaction generally to what he calls the “battle for the direction of Islam” and the challenge posed by the ever-increasing efforts to isolate and delegitimize the State of Israel in the international arena. “If there is a silver lining for Israel and the Jewish people in the Arab Spring,” he writes, “it is that over time, if the Arab Middle East can genuinely develop democratic values – and that is a big “if” – this will ultimately unleash the creative abilities of the Muslim peoples of the area and embed them in a globalized society with a stake in a stable, prosperous world.”
(From the Washington Post Online, 12/27/2012)
“…Surveys the major geopolitical, economic and security challenges facing the world in general and the Jewish world and the United States in particular. Eizenstat has held senior U.S. government positions in three presidential administrations and is a recipient of the Courage and Conscience Award from the government of Israel”
Overall, this is a book by a devoted Jew with intimate knowledge of the places and players, and who gives a generally balanced and hopeful view of the problems which the Jewish people and Israel face. His presentation of a huge amount of factual material is truly impressive. This is an important book, and a valuable contribution to the subject.
Once Jimmy Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser, he has held a number of other high posts in the American government, but he also serves as cochairman of the Jewish People Policy Institute, has long been involved in Jewish public affairs, and is deeply familiar with Israel. His recent book The Future of the Jewsconsiders the place of Israel in a world changing all around it, one in which the nations of the Far East, particularly China, loom larger and larger.
