Secret of Survival
"We are living in a time today when the survival of the Jewish community is being threatened once again in various parts of the world. It is critical that we find the elements that bind us together and give us whatever strengths we can have as a unified community. Nothing is more important in this regard than the study of the Jewish vision and the Jewish religion and the study of the Torah."
Thus spoke Mortimer Zuckerman, the real estate tycoon and newspaper publisher currently exploring the idea of running for the U.S. Senate this year, in an interview published in the American Jewish Spirit magazine some four years ago.
Along with his observation about Jewish survival depending on Torah study, Zuckerman told the story of his first visit as a secular Jew to a yeshiva.
"I was absolutely knocked out by it," he said of his visit to the Lakewood Yeshiva. "It was the single most intellectually active, energetic, fascinating environment I had ever witnessed. It made Harvard Law School, which I happen to have attended, look like a kindergarten."
A moving testimonial to Torah study as the guarantee of Israel forever.
