Linde was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, to Jewish parents, Roseve (Saacks) and Hilyer Samuel Linde, and grew up in Durban, South Africa. At the age of 15, he attended a four-month "ulpan" study program at Jerusalem’s Kiryat Moriah with other South African Jewish students, which he said "cemented my love of Israel forever." He matriculated in 1977 from Carmel College in Durban, where he was head boy and earned an honors blazer with colors in academics, athletics, rugby and debating. After a one-year program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Rothberg International School, he received a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University, where he won a scholarship from the Daily Dispatch newspaper. He went on to earn graduate degrees in sociology from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban and journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. He wrote his sociology thesis on the emergence of Mohandas Gandhi as a charismatic leader in South Africa (under the supervision of Fatima Meer), and his journalism thesis on the homeless in Berkeley (under the supervision of Ben Bagdikian).
