Leon Roth: A Philosopher-Teacher (Great TEACHERS IN OUR Lives) (Personal Account‪)‬

DURING MY SCHOOL-YEARS--from kindergarten through university--I had many teachers. They were mostly very good teachers--often dedicated to their vocation beyond and above formal instruction in their specific subjects. Out of the many, two were outstanding--one in the higher classes of my secondary education and another at the university. It is the latter, Professor Leon Roth (1896-1963), who is the subject of this essay. In order to present his personality and performance to the contemporary American reader it is necessary to expound on the context of my experience as a university student. My last four years of secondary education and the subsequent study at the university transpired in Israel--or, strictly speaking, in Palestine under the British Mandate before the establishment of the State. While the political control of the country was in the hands of the High Commissioner, appointed by the British government and responsible to London and not to the population under his rule, he and his administration left the educational institutions--notably those of higher learning--in the hands of the Jewish community. Thus, unlike in India and the various colonies of Great Britain, the ruling power did not educate the native population (if the Jews could be described as such), but left them to their own traditions and devices, to their own ideas, plans and organization. One consequence of this cultural independence was that the language of instruction in the Jewish sector was Hebrew and this encompassed higher education. Thus, in a way, a new system of education and novel institutions of learning emerged: a Hebrew education and research, which encompassed customary subjects of Western Civilization in sciences and humanities, as well as traditional Jewish disciplines--all of these taught in modern Hebrew.