IN DAYS TO COME

"The first childhood memory I have of my father is linked to the destruction of empires - the collapse of a world order that had once seemed eternal."
So begins Avraham Burg's authoritative and deeply personal inquiry into the ambitions and failures of Israel and Judaism worldwide.

Born in 1955, Burg witnessed firsthand many of the most dramatic and critical moments in Israeli history. Here, he chronicles the highs and lows of his country over the last five decades, threading his own journey into the story of his people. He explores the misplaced hopes of religious Zionism through the lens of his conservative upbringing, explains Israel's obsession with military might while relating his own experiences as a paratrooper officer, and probes the country's democratic aspirations, informed by his tenure in the Knesset.

With bravery and candor, Burg lays bare the seismic intellectual shifts that drove the country's political and religious journeys, offering a prophecy of fury and consolation and a vision for a new comprehensive paradigm for Judaism, Israel, and the Middle East.


Avraham Burg was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to one of the most prominent families in Israel. His father, Dr. Josef Burg, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany to Palestine in September 1939 and went on to lead the National Religious Party and serve as a minister in the Israeli government from 1948 to 1988. His mother Rivka was a seventh-generation resident of Hebron and the daughter of the local community rabbi. Avraham Burg first took on a public role during the first Lebanon war in 1982, when he was a leader of the antiwar protests. He went on to serve as adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a member of the Israeli Knesset, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization, and the speaker of the Knesset, among other public positions. Since his voluntary retirement from public life in 2004, Burg has become an outspoken leader of the Israeli left wing. He is the author of numerous books, including (in English) The Holocaust Is Over and Very Near to You. He lives in Nataf, just outside Jerusalem.