Page 217 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Articles

nation exist when torn away from its soil, scattered all over the
Roman Empire from the Tiber to the Baltic shores? It was due to the
foresight of ben Zakkai who, seeing the masonry of the fortress of
Jerusalem tottering, founded a spiritual fortress in the bet hamidrash,
and thus saved the race from utter assimilation.
In the period of the Saracens the Jews produced some of the
ablest leaders, not only for themselves, but for the Saracens also they
were a blessing—and much is due to those leaders that this noble
race reached the pinnacle in education, learning and art. When it is
said that it took the Moors, at the point of the lance, to civilize
Western Europe, that lance was the learned Jews who wandered onto
the continent—and to the present day they are the missionaries of
ideals.
Moses Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish philosophers, was
in his era the leader of Jewish ideals, saving the race from superstition
and from becoming assimilated into their surroundings. The Jewish
religion at that time was beginning to absorb the superstitions,
mysticism, and all the religious fairy tales of the Middle Ages. He also
saved the situation by creating and defining a philosophy fitting the
Jewish religion.
A few centuries later, when Jewish learning was flourishing in
Spain, the circumstances called for a political leader. The race
produced Isaac Abarbanel, who gained the title of Don, and was the
financial minister of mighty Spain. Perhaps, if it had not been for that
learned Jew, the race would have been entirely destroyed. In the
Cromwellian era, Menasseh ben Israel, an exponent of Jewish rights,
was the first to ask for equal rights for the Jewish people in the
British Empire. In Germany, Moses Mendelssohn and Moses Hess
were able religious and political leaders, fighting for Jewish rights.
And in Russia, in the last century, the Gaon of Vilna, who dominated
Jewish learning, and many other less popular political leaders, did
great things for their brethren in Russia.
One of our greatest men, who will remain in our history as a
second Moses, is Dr. Theodor Herzl. He was our first international
diplomat, and has stirred the race from one end of the world to the
other. He has united the Jews in the fight for a homeland, and
awakened in their consciousness a self-respect and a desire to live a
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