In The Genius of Judaism Europe’s foremost philosopher and activist confronts his own spiritual roots and the religion that has always inspired and shaped him - but that he has never fully reckoned with. The result is a breathtaking new vision and understanding of Judaism and what it means to be a Jew, a vision rooted in Talmudic traditions of argument and conflict, rather than Biblical commandment. A vision borne out by struggle and study, not blind observance. A vision based on an obligation to the other, to the dispossessed, and to the forgotten: a vision that Levy himself sought to embody over decades of championing “lost causes,” from Bosnia, to Africa’s forgotten wars, to Libya, and to the Kurdish Peshmerga’s desperate fight against ISIL, a battle raging as we speak.

Taking us from a fresh, surprising critique of an Anti-Semitism Levy sees on the rise, in a new and stealthy form, to a provocative defense of Israel from the left, to a secret history of the Jewish roots of Western democratic ideals, and a call to confront the current Islamist threat while intellectually dismantling it, Levy explains how Jews are not a “chosen people” but a “treasure” whose spirit continues to - and must - inform moral thinking and courage today.