Before human rights was a universally accepted concept, and before there was Israel, there were prominent Jews who supported both. Some would contribute to the evolution of modern human rights concepts and conventions in place today.

James Loeffler's Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, tells the story of human rights pioneers and how their commitment grew out of the Jewish diaspora experience.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.