Page 111 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

Jewry and Politics

Historical overview

One of the many lies of our times that is eagerly spread by
Jews and defenders of Jews consists in the opinion that only in the
present time can the Jewish nation act politically, that only in the
present time are they taken into consideration. The falsehood that
again, like many others in the past, aims at cultivating compassion
for the "innocently persecuted" and "oppressed" people of Jewry
must finally stop conducting its mischief.
For, though the Jews were also spread throughout the world
(it is to be noted, through their own impulse), they maintained a
very close community not only where they lived together abroad
but also stood in constant connection with their fellow tribesmen in
the most distant lands: merchant ships and caravans brought news
of all sorts from all the places of the world and conducted back
such.
In this way were the Jews informed not only of the events
in their own community and nation but no less of the commercial
and political conditions of all countries, which ensured them an
advantage over other peoples in every relationship.
We have got correspondences which offer convincing
evidence for the constant international connection of the Jews. Thus
there lived in Barcelona in the 13 th century one of the best-known
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Talmudists of his time, Salomon ben Adereth. His name was
spread through distant lands by Jewish travellers and the rabbis of
their communities directed questions of all kinds to the wise man in
Spain. His "responses", altogether 6000 in number, show that he
was in immediate written correspondence with the Jews in Portugal,
France, Bohemia, Germany, indeed stood in connection even with
Constantinople and the cities of Asia and North Africa."Glancing
through these responses one cannot avoid astonishment", says a
Jewish historian, "at the remarkable means ofcommunication which

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[Solomon or Shlomo ben Aderet (1235-1310) was a well-known Sephardic
banker and rabbi.]
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