The Hope of Israel. The English Translation by Moses Wall, 1652. Edited, with Introduction and Notes by Henry Méchoulan and Gérard Nahon (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

In The Hope of Israel , originally published in Spanish and Latin in 1650, Rabbi Menachem ben Israel, one of the most notable figures of Amsterdam's Jewish community, argued from Scripture that Messianic redemption would not come to the Jewish people until they were scattered in all corners of the earth. When it was first published in 1652, the English translation aroused great interest, and played a leading part in the discussions in the Commonwealth under Cromwell leading to the readmission of the Jews in 1656. This edition of that English text includes a new introduction and notes which place the work in the intellectual context of its time.