Philip Rubenstein
David Ben-Gurion, Part 2: The Old Man
Summary
David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) could be harsh, stubborn, petty, and sensitive to even the smallest of slights. Yet no other Jewish leader combined his vision with the iron will to create an independent homeland for the Jewish people and ensure that the new state could survive and thrive. Ben-Gurion set the tone for Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbours, affirmed Jerusalem as the country’s eternal capital, crafted a religious status quo, drove a massive program of immigration, steered the nation through one economic crisis after another, built the IDF, and secured the nation’s nuclear capability.
Philip Rubenstein
Philip Rubenstein was director of the Parliamentary War Crimes Group, which, in the mid-to-late 1980s, campaigned to bring Nazi war criminals living in the UK to justice. Philip was also the founder-director of the Holocaust Educational Trust and played a role in getting the study of the Shoah onto the national school’s curriculum in the UK. These days, he works with family businesses, advising on governance and continuity from one generation to the next.