BROTHERS EMANUEL by Ezekiel Emanuel – The Memoir of an American Family

Brash. Articulate. Tenacious. Animated.  Assertive. Loyal.  These are just a few words used to describe three high-achieving men—the outspoken mayor of the third largest U.S. city, a celebrated Hollywood super-agent, and one of the world’s leading bioethicists and oncologists —who also happen to be brothers born into a family of modest means.

So, what did Zeke, Rahm, and Ari’s mom put in the cereal?

In BROTHERS EMANUEL, eldest brother Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel recounts the intertwined histories of these three rambunctious and driven Jewish American boys, each with his own compelling life story.  Set in the tumultuous Chicago of the 1960s and 1970s, Zeke explains the path his youngest brother Ari took from an entrepreneurial kid who suffered from dyslexia to the real-life model for the bold character of Ari Gold on the hit series ‘Entourage’; how the quietest middle brother changed from an underachieving student to become Rahm—one of the most colorful and foul-mouthed figures in American politics; and follows Zeke himself from geeky high school debater to renowned bioethicist and special advisor for health policy in the Obama administration.

Through these defining stories emerges a dramatic portrait of the entire Emanuel family: tough Old World grandparents; a loving father who immigrated to the United States with twenty-five dollars to work as a doctor and who enthralled his boys with tales of his adventures in Israel’s war for independence; and a proud, politically engaged mother who took the boys with her to rallies and protests—including a civil rights march through the streets of Chicago led by Martin Luther King himself.   While the brothers have distinguished themselves as individuals, Zeke credits the bond of the  Emanuel brotherhood as a major influence on the men they grew up to be.