[1] The son of a well-known rabbi and Talmudist, Kirzner was born in London and reached the United States by way of South Africa.

summa cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1954, and an MBA in 1955 and Ph.D. in 1957 from New York University, where he studied under Ludwig von Mises.

Kirzner's work integrating entrepreneurial action into neoclassical economics has been more widely accepted than nearly any other Austrian idea of the late twentieth century.

Honorary Doctoral Degrees at Universidad Francisco Marroquín UFM also named its Kirzner Entrepreneurship Center in his honor.

[6][7] Liberty Fund is currently publishing Israel Kizner's Collected Works in ten volumes under the supervision of Peter Boettke and Frederic Sautet.