What is a Jew? The question
is not at all as odd as it seems. Let us see what kind of peculiar creature of
the Jew is, which all the rulers and all the nations have together and
separately like abused and molested, oppressed and persecuted, trampled and butchered,
burned and hanged -and in spite of all this is yet alive?
What is the Jew, who has
never allowed himself to be let astray by all the earthly possessions which his
oppressors and persecutors constantly offered him in order that he should
change his faith and forsake his own religion? The Jew is that sacred being who
has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire and has illuminated with it
the entire world.
He is the religious source,
spring and fountain out of which all the rest of the people have drawn their
beliefs and their religions.
The Jew is the pioneer of
liberty…
The Jew is the pioneer of
civilization…
The Jew is the emblem of
civil and religious toleration…
The Jew is the emblem of
eternity…
-Leo Tolstoy
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