Lucien Wolf (1857‒1930) was undoubtedly an interesting personality, influencing different fields of Jewish life. The book reviewed here analyses his activity during the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference, when the Minorities Treaties were prepared. Mark Levene opens his book with a comment on an apparent paradox: diplomacy ‘would normally be considered the prerogative and function of sovereign states’ (p. 1). The Jews had no sovereign state and no territory of their own, nor even an internationally acknowledged authority such as the Holy See. It was, however, possible to speak of Jewish diplomacy, and Lucien Wolf was one of the most significant personalities in this field. It should be remarked that the story of the efforts undertaken by Wolf was by no means a unique case of diplomacy without a state. Similar to some extent was nineteenth-century Polish diplomacy when the country was divided among three big powers. The First World War also inspired Czech and Slovak diplomatic efforts; in the crucial year, 1919, there were Belarusian and Ukrainian diplomacies as well, all undertaken without the backing of sovereign states. Probably the existence of a national diplomacy without a state was a characteristic feature of east central European nations, and the Jews belonged to this category as well.

The presentation of the diplomatic efforts of Lucien Wolf required a thorough analysis of the situation of Jews in Great Britain as well as the international activity of the Jewish representatives from several countries. Levene mainly discusses the problems faced by the British Jews and their efforts to help their coreligionists in other countries. The first part of the book deals with these problems before and at the beginning of the war. The next part confronts Britain's traditional Jewish policy with the growing influence of Zionism. The problems connected with the recognition of Jews as a national minority in east central Europe are discussed in the third part of the book. The fourth and last part deals with diplomatic activity aimed at including adequate clauses in the Peace Treaty and the Minorities Treaties in 1919.