MOSES LÖB LILIENBLUM (1843-1910) " " 280




PREFACE


To the lover of mankind the history of the Russo-Jewish renaissance is
an encouraging and inspiring phenomenon. Seldom has a people made such
rapid strides forward as the Russian Jews. From the melancholy
regularity that marked their existence a little more than two
generations ago, from the darkness of the Middle Ages in which they were
steeped until the time of Alexander II, they emerged suddenly into the
life and light of the West, and some of the most intrepid devotees of
latter-day culture, both in Europe and in America, have come from among
them. Destitute of everything that makes for enlightenment, and under
the dominion of a Government which sought to extinguish the few
rushlights that scattered the shadows around them, they nevertheless
snatched victory from defeat, sloughed off medieval superstition, and,
disregarding the Dejanira shirt of modern disabilities, compelled their
countrymen to admit more than once that

Tho' I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am!

Similar movements were started in Germany during the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and in Austria, notably Galicia, at the beginning of