Isi Liebler was a major player on the world Jewish stage for over six decades. As the leading Jewish leader in Australia, he was a key figure in placing the issue of Soviet Union Jewry on the world agenda and in establishing diplomatic ties between the State of Israel and China and India.

His personal biography is fascinating. Liebler came to Australia as a refugee and grew up in the shadow of the memory of the Holocaust. He abandoned his dream of becoming an Israeli diplomat when his father died in his twenties and he was required to manage the family diamond business. Along the way, he built one of the largest travel companies in the world, and also weaved an extensive network of connections: heads of government in Australia were among his closest friends, He also maintained close ties with all the Prime Ministers of Israel from Yitzhak Rabin to Benjamin Netanyahu - and sometimes told them what they didn't like to hear. Later Liebler built his house in Israel, and became one of the most influential opinion leaders in the Jewish world.

In the years after World War II, when Australia began to emerge from the shadow of Great Britain, Liebler guided continental Jewry to take part and influence global Jewish issues. Liebler was one of the key figures in the World Jewish Congress, but was not afraid to expose corruption at the top of its leadership. Isi Liebler, a true man, was a friend of heads of state, dissidents, Cold War fighters and diplomats. He used these connections to promote the leadership of his community, save Soviet Jewry, support the State of Israel and fight anti-Semitism.

This book, translated from the English original, tells the story of Isi Liebler, which is also the story of the generation that accompanied Israel's rise from the ashes of the Holocaust for more than half a century.

Prof. (emerita) Suzanne Rutland, from the University of Sydney, is a renowned Jewish-Australian historian. Rutland has published extensively on the history of the Jewish community in Australia. Her book, The Jews in Australia, was published in 2005 (Chicago). Her book Let My People Go: The Untold Story of Australia and Soviet Jews, 1959-1989 (Cambridge 2015, together with Sam Lipsky) won the Australian Prime Minister's Award for Australian History. In 2008, Prof. Rutland received the Medal of the Order of Australia from the Australian government, for her contribution to Jewish post-secondary education and interfaith dialogue.