Benjamin Disraeli has been the only Jew to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Author Adam Kirsch illustrates how Disraeli turned his Jewishness from a social handicap into the source of his personal allure and enduring political vision.

Adam Kirsch is a book critic for the New York Sun. He is a published poet and author whose work regularly appears in publications such as The New Yorker and The New Republic.

Recorded Sunday, October 19, 2008 at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies.