Excerpt from David Kaufmann: An Appreciation

Dr. A. S. Isaacs, who has the distinction of having instructed Kaufmann in English, in his admirable ap preciation of the great scholar's career, (fewz's/z Messen ger, July 28th, 1899) gives the following estimate of his worth: Life and light were inseparable from David Kaufmann, whose genius roamed at will in all literatures, with a versatility and thoroughness that were proof of his genius. When I met him for the first time in his early manhood, crowned with semin ary honors, it was his Jewish enthusiasm, no less than his broad culture which made me feel, in the exultant atmosphere of that day-here was a young divinity, a young Goethe of the Ghetto, even-poised, finely bal anced, full ofardent fancy, and dim prophetic longing, keenly critical, and yet impassioned. Teacher and preacher, a Greek and a Hebrew, a recluse among his books and a dreamer among men, a Moravian by birth, and a cosmopolitan in spirit, impetuous and childlike, a bundle of contradictions like most of us, but a man of character and acquirements enough to begin a rev olution in Jewry that would restore and rebuild. And this young Goethe of the Ghetto, this recluse and dreamer, did actually bring about a revolution in Jewry - a revolution that restored and rebuilt along the lines laid down by the pathfinder and pioneer of Jewish science, Leopold Zunz - founder of the Wissen schaft des Judenthums. For David Kaufmann was no mere antiquarian: He was a spirited bookman, not a spiritless bookworm. He realized that there was no pom asinorzim to cross, - no royal road to learning. He knew whereof consisted the function of the true scholar: in work, diligent and laborious, unresting and self-sacrificing. Ohne Hast, ohne Rast might well have been his motto, for while his work showed the patient, plodding, indefatigablestudent, it bore the impress of the master, of the scientist, of the artist. Nothing was produced in haste. What he wrote was finished in the most minute detail, and there was a touch of the sublime in many a preface wherein one could read between the lines the soul-life of this gen ial Polyhistor. N 0 one can persue his biographical fore word to Simon Hock's Familien Prag's without be ing powerfully moved by the charm and pathos of his account of the struggles of a student, and his self-im posed martyrdom. His reverence for scholarship; his fealty to colleagues less talented and accomplished than himself; his ready sympathy with the meanest efl'ort - if honest to uplift Judaism and to promote its usefulness; his generous endorsement of any deserving.

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