L’educatore Israelita: A Newspaper of Readings for Jewish Families. Compiled by the Teachers Giuseppe Levi and Esdra Pontremoli

Preface

We have already offered a glimpse, in our program, into the nature of this publication. Yet the desire to open our heart, especially to those benevolent people who have looked favorably upon our initiative, induces us to begin this volume with a fuller explanation of our thoughts.

In this publication we do not propose to create or present things that are out of the ordinary or new, or to present ourselves as messengers or apostles of new religious ideas. Even a genius in our century would possibly fail in such a mission, as it is beyond our capacity and far from our intention. We seek only to follow the paths of the teachers, to repeat what is known to the sages, that which all the teachers know how to teach to their students, and to complete that humble task with youth who are far away, a task which throughout the year we carry out with the youth who are entrusted to us.

We are not unaware that by adopting an idea that is not ambitious but rather humble and simple, especially well known and old, without the trappings of the kind of novelty that in so sweet a fashion tickles the fancy of the soul, we run the risk of stirring up at the very outset in many of our coreligionists, the various characters and affections not always apt to encourage us in our endeavor. Among our coreligionists, as in all the other confessions, there are numerous levels with respect to faith, from the most rigorous and blind Orthodoxy, [ . . . ] to the most reckless Philosophy. In this diverse spectrum of thinkers and believers, how few indeed will greet this publication with joy and hope! The indifferent, that class of people who are largely destructive because they are numb and bereft of strong feelings, barely move their pallid lips in a faint snicker and go on. The incredulous people look down from the height of their astonishment and, between scorn and disdain, turn their gaze away from us after looking upon us with great indifference. The believer himself, as with regard to something that is good yet useless and dangerous, shrugs warily, between suspicion and hope.

Even though we suppose that there will be so little interest on the part of many of our coreligionists, we would like to hope that, once we have begun some steps in this direction, little by little these clouded expressions will grow serene, harsh faces will be calmed, and hostile, suspicious and uncertain people will become friendly and open. The first reaction is mired in uncertainty and suspicion, but through drawn-out conversations friends are made and they explain things to each other and arrive at an understanding.

In order to hastily bring about this reconciliation we want to open our hearts and make our idea known in its entirety.

It is the bad habit of some (for reasons that are more or less unjust and which I do not want to discuss) to associate the idea of religion with a divorce from all forms of human progress, from the marvels of the human mind. For them religion entails a return to the past, a repudiation of the present and the future.

We wish to protest this by showing that we do not accept this divorce between religion and progress. As sons of this century, we admire its glories and creations and feel their greatness. We do not look back to past centuries, the images of which we are fleeing but which we regret. We fully embrace the progress of the present and the hope of the future, and we irrevocably desire to leave behind those centuries of strife and blood and recognize the sublime law made by God for man to explain in an ever greater way the power of the mind and the heart, as a testimony to that infinite science of which it is but a pallid reflection.

Yet if the needs of the material presented find easier and fuller satisfaction in the new wealth that is made available thanks to human industriousness, if the mind is sublimated in the marvelous creations of science, if the heart itself opens with trust and joy to the mildest customs of the present, there are nonetheless, in the soul, secret, indistinct and powerful aspirations, needs, desires and hopes for which science has no words and for which all the miracles of the century do not suffice to satisfy or satiate.