Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

September 6, 2023

A British Philosopher Recalls Talking about King David and Churchill with David Ben-Gurion

“Socrates, gurus, rebbes—same thing, no difference, deep wisdom.”

In 1986, the Jewish Quarterly Review celebrated the centenary of David Ben-Gurion’s birth by publishing the Russian-born Anglo-Jewish philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s recollections of their personal encounters. The second of these took place in New York City during World War II, when Berlin, seeking the American Zionist activist Ben Cohen, knocked on a hotel-room door and found himself greeted by a surprised pajama-clad Ben-Gurion.

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