THIS BOOK WON’T NEED MY PRAISE to find readers. It will speak to anyone who doesn’t regard with indifference how powers of thought can develop in a human mind under even the most oppressive conditions, and how a true drive for knowledge can’t be scared off by obstacles that seem impossible to overcome.
What gives the book additional value is its balanced, broad-minded account of Jewry and Judaism, which is in fact the first of its kind. At a time like now, when the cultural education and enlightenment of the Jewish people has become a special topic of reflection, it is a work that warrants close attention.
Depicted in a true and unsparing light are the consequences of ignorance in a land roiled by its taking the first steps toward true culture. Indeed, the facts that one reads here may do more good than an extensive treatise on this matter.
The author’s story will allow the reader to experience the place where—and the people among whom—he happened to be born, and where reason enabled his mind to reach a state of development that created intellectual needs that could only be met elsewhere, forcing him to leave.
And it is certainly remarkable how intellectual needs can intensify to the point where material lack and even the most extreme scarcity that the body can bear mean little, as long as those higher needs are met.
Such episodes are important not only for the particular fate of a single individual, but also because they shed light on the dignity of human nature and should inspire our reason to be confident in its powers as it strives upward.