“This year marks two 70th anniversaries: Israel’s birth and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Loeffler reminds us how entwined the two events were — both for the role Jews played in codifying human rights and for how Zionism was buoyed by these new international values.”
—New York Times

“This superb book is a homage to visionary cosmopolitans dedicated to the creation of human rights in a world too often lacking in humanity.”
—Washington Post

“‘Human rights’ has [become]… a vague term to be dismissed by realists and swooned over by idealists. James Loeffler’s book Rooted Cosmopolitans is a bracing and nuanced attempt to correct this—to restore a grave, complex, powerful idea by tracing it to the people, most of them Jews, who argued it into existence.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“[A] great book … What an extraordinary narrative!”
—Seyla Benhabib, Yale University

“[This] book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in human rights or modern Jewish political thought and history. He marshals remarkable archival research, literary grace, and philosophical insight to recover a forgotten chapter of history (several, actually) and make us think more deeply about political ethics, both Jewish and universal.”
—Jewish Review of Books

“Building on a trove of archival material, this extraordinary book challenges orthodoxies both on the right and on the left.  It has the potential to transform popular understandings of this critical period of history and is a must-read for anyone involved in Jewish communal life or human rights work.”
—Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights