"[The book] is highly recommended for anyone interested in Israel and American Jewry, told from the perspective of an intellectual insider who truly cares."
— Steve Linde of the Jerusalem Post.
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"Whether they are about Israel, U.S. politics, anti-Semitism, or other subjects of concern to American Jews, Michael Kotzin's pithy essays are always incisive, level-headed, and blessedly free of liberal cant and conservative bile. His is a calm and thoughtful voice in shrilly opinionated times."
— Hillel Halkin, American-born Israeli author and translator
"Kotzin's elegant and compelling essays are easy to read, thanks to his academic background in literature, and often hard-hitting, thanks to his passion for Israel and the Jewish people. A major Jewish community leader since the late 1970s, Kotzin has functioned as a veritable Zelig — except with a clear moral voice, serving as a firsthand witness-participant regarding almost every major Jewish and Zionist issue for four decades. These wide-ranging essays are also deep, struggling with tensions between the universal and the particular, between the old and the new. But rather than being an absolutist valuing one value over others, Michael Kotzin is a subtle thinker and a "radical centrist" pushing us, one tour de force after another, to synthesize different values creatively, tolerantly, substantively."
— Gil Troy, McGill University
"Michael Kotzin's informed and eminently fair assessment of Jewish communal life, his warnings about new forms of anti-Semitism, and his commitment to a just society make this volume both a cogent testimony to the past and a persuasive guide for the future."
— Amy-Jill Levine, Vanderbilt University
"Kotzin is an extraordinarily gifted writer and analyst of current affairs. Very few possess the creative combination of personal background, educational and professional experience, erudition, intellectual depth and analytical skill that have blessed him with a richly insightful and profound understanding of what it means to be Jewish in America. Reading through his writings of the last quarter of a century is a voyage of intellectual discovery and cultural and social-historical revelation that provides a masterful and illuminating overview of the Jewish American condition and of Israel's changing place in America at the turn of our century."
— Asher Susser, Tel Aviv University
"Michael Kotzin has been a significant leader in the Jewish community for decades. This volume testifies to his wide-ranging concerns and impact, including contemporary forms of anti-Semitism and Christian-Jewish relations. His views remain very relevant for discussion of these critical issues today."
— John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Catholic Theological Union
"For years Kotzin has been one of the most significant links connecting Israel and the American Jewish community. In his prolific writings and his actions, he has built bridges of cooperation and shared values while strengthening this momentous bond. This book encompasses the world of an American-Jewish supporter of Israel who has made it his life's work to bring these two worlds closer together."
— Nachman Shai, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset