מאת Dan Senor
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.
Moving from military commanders integrating at-risk youth and people who are neurodiverse into national service, to high performing companies making space for working parents, from dreamers and innovators launching a duct-taped spacecraft to the moon, to bringing better health solutions to people around the world, The Genius of Israel tells the story of a diverse people and society built around the values of service, solidarity, and belonging.
Widely admired for having the world's highest density of high-tech start-ups, Israel's greatest innovation may not be a technology at all, but Israeli society itself. Understanding how a country facing so many challenges can be among the happiest provides surprising insights into how we can confront the crisis of community, human connectedness, and purpose in modern life.
Bold, timely, and insightful, Senor and Singer's latest work shines an important light on the impressive innovative distinctions of Israeli society—and what other communities and countries can learn.
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.
Moving from military commanders integrating at-risk youth and people who are neurodiverse into national service, to high performing companies making space for working parents, from dreamers and innovators launching a duct-taped spacecraft to the moon, to bringing better health solutions to people around the world, The Genius of Israel tells the story of a diverse people and society built around the values of service, solidarity, and belonging.
Widely admired for having the world's highest density of high-tech start-ups, Israel's greatest innovation may not be a technology at all, but Israeli society itself. Understanding how a country facing so many challenges can be among the happiest provides surprising insights into how we can confront the crisis of community, human connectedness, and purpose in modern life.
Bold, timely, and insightful, Senor and Singer's latest work shines an important light on the impressive innovative distinctions of Israeli society—and what other communities and countries can learn.
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November 1, 2023
A portrait of a society that, often seen as fractured and fractious, is surprisingly unified and happy. "Why are Israelis so damn happy?" So asked a commentator on Israeli life, who marveled that, given all the stresses they face in daily life--high prices, congested roads, the constant threat of terrorism and war--Israelis seem quite content. Senor and Singer, co-authors of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, examine some of the manifestations of this contentment. On average, Israelis live longer than almost anyone else in the world; they enjoy cradle-to-grave health care and other social services and are healthy overall; they're well educated. Moreover, they're far younger than the citizenry of most other developed countries--and, as the authors observe, "clearly, a country with more strollers than walkers has a different feel, energy, and excitement about the future." Given the often-remarked penchant for pitched arguments, one might expect high levels of adrenaline and bile in the Israeli bloodstream, but those arguments are carried out with the expectation that they will end with handshakes. What accounts for all this amity? Fundamentally, as a small country, Israel fosters affinities: family, for sure, but also circles of connections at various intersections of life, people who are called hevre--something more than friends, constituting a social network that, one Israeli scholar remarks, "functions as almost a supra-family." Consequently, the authors note, Israelis feel constant solidarity and do not feel alone, unlike so many solitary Americans, particularly among the elderly population. Granted, Senor and Singer acknowledge, there are outliers: the ultra-orthodox who want nothing to do with secular society, or the Arab Israelis who are not wholly part of the nation. For all that, though, "the culture of being together" makes a big difference. A thought-provoking study that non-Israelis will find particularly fascinating.COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
