Rather than telling the story of the state of Israel through waves of migrations, wars, or diplomacy, this course will focus on some of its outstanding figures, using Rick Richman’s book And None Shall Make Them Afraid as its guide. This work presents the stories of eight historic personalities—four from Europe (Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Abba Eban) and four from America (Louis D. Brandeis, Golda Meir, Ben Hecht, and Ron Dermer). Their stories reflect the cultural, intellectual, and social revolutions they lived through, and from which modern Zionism emerged. The lives of these outstanding individuals are central to understanding the miraculous recovery of the Jewish people in the 20th century. Taken together, they recount both a people’s return to its place among the nations and the impact on history that a single individual can make.