[1] In 2015 he was an Open Society Fellow, while writing a book about the political impact of immigration.
[2] His first book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, was published in 2010.
[3] His second book, Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy, was published in 2017.
[4] After graduating from Brown University, where he wrote for The College Hill Independent, Polakow-Suransky was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in modern history.
[5][6] He is the younger brother of Shael Polakow-Suransky; both are the children of Valerie Polakow and Leonard Suransky, South African Jews[7] who were anti-apartheid activists in South Africa before emigrating to the United States in 1973 to avoid possible arrest.