Publication Date: Jul 2020
RRP: $39.95
ISBN: 9781925835809
Format: Hardback
Size: 153mm x 234mm
Pages: 280
Category: Jewish, Politics

The Powerbroker

Mark Leibler, an Australian Jewish Life

Michael Gawenda

Also available as an ebook from your favourite retailer.


‘He taught me about power. How to get it, and how to use it’
Noel Pearson


From the ashes of the darkest event in human history, Australian Jews built a thriving community, one with proportionally more Holocaust survivors than anywhere else in the world bar Israel. Mark Leibler grew up in this community, and in time became a leader of it. This book shows how Leibler rose to a position of immense influence in Australian public life by skilfully entwining his roles as a Zionist leader and a tax lawyer to some of the country’s richest people.

The book vividly paints a cast of Australian characters – among them Paul Keating, John Howard, Julia Gillard and Noel Pearson – who came to know Leibler and to call him a friend, along with people like Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr, who see Leibler as no friend at all. Finally, the book charts the surprise turn in Leibler’s life, when a social and political conservative became a committed advocate for radical reform on behalf of Australia’s Indigenous people.

This many-layered book is a portrait of Jewish life in Australia, of the interaction between private wealth and politics, and of a man whose energy, formidable work habits and forcefulness that often tips into pugnacity have made him a highly effective player in Australian affairs.

‘He taught me about power – how to get it and how to use it,’ says Noel Pearson. Through one man’s story, this book shows how power works in Australia.