George Prochnik, in a vivid and compelling mix of biography and personal memoir, traces the life and thought of the visionary founder of the modern study of Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, from his alienated childhood in Berlin, to his emigration to the land of his dreams, where he finds himself once more a ‘stranger in a strange land’.

George Prochnik’s essays, poetry, and fiction have appeared in numerous journals. He has taught English and American literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, writes regularly for The New Yorker and is editor-at-large for Cabinet. He won the National Jewish Book Award for The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World.

Zvi Leshem is Director of the Gershom Scholem Collection at the National Library of Israel, where he also is the Judaica reference librarian. He served for several decades in higher Jewish education and as a community rabbi.