A. KREKEL.
EDITORIAL IN THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL OF SUNDAY,
APRIL 24, 1886.
The Journal published yesterday morning the eighteenth and last of the
series of lectures delivered by Rabbi Krauskopf on "THE JEW AND MOOR
IN SPAIN." From first to last these lectures have been of absorbing
interest. The Synagogue has been crowded on the occasion of their
delivery, and it was with regret that the Rabbi's hearers heard that
the lecture on Friday night was the last of the series.
It is the purpose of Rabbi Krauskopf to have his lectures issued in
book form. They will make an attractive volume, and will no doubt be
widely read. Rabbi Krauskopf is a graphic writer, and his lectures upon
"THE JEW AND MOOR IN SPAIN" are a series of historical occurrences
related in a manner that serves to chain the reader's attention--old
world scenes are accurately and vividly described. The reader is taken
through all the struggles, the defeats and the triumphs of the Jews.
Their arts, their industry, their upright dealings and their steadfast
adherence to their religion through trials and persecutions are related
with a proud belief that they were God's chosen people, working out
their destiny according to His will. The lecturer started with the Jews
as he found them, a prosperous community in southwestern Europe, busily
engaged in transforming Spain into a granery and garden spot of Europe,
respected by their heathen neighbors, happy and contented. He passed
on to the period of persecution in the Sixth Century when Christianity
of a somewhat forcible nature attempted the conversion of the Jews by
persecution; when many were massacred and others driven into exile.
Then came the Arab invasion and during the period of Mohammedan
supremacy the Jews were again allowed to live in peace and the exercise
of their own religious rites. For eight centuries the Jews and the
Moors worked side by side and the once down-trodden people rose to
affluence and high position.
With the decline of Mohammedan power, and the expulsion of the Moors
by the Spaniards, the Jews were again reduced to a pitiable state.
Spain arose to enormous power, but that, too, has waned, and the
population of 30,000,000 people has dwindled to about half that number.
The manufactures, the commerce and the agricultural, the universal
prosperity which the Jews had built up disappeared, and the glory of
Spain departed as rapidly as it had been acquired. In the expulsion of
the Jews and Moors alone does Rabbi Krauskopf attribute the ruin of
Spain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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