Roth, Leon
ROTH, LEON
ROTH, LEON (Ḥayyim Judah ; 1896–1963), philosopher; brother of Cecil *Roth. Roth – a pupil of Samuel *Alexander – devoted his early studies and publications to the rationalist tradition in European thought, especially in the 17th century. He held a lectureship in philosophy in Manchester University from 1923 to 1927, at which time he was named as the first incumbent of the newly-established chair of philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. During his tenure of this professorship, Roth served as rector of the university, 1940–43, and as dean of the Faculty of Humanities, 1949–51. In the tensions and internal struggles within the university, Roth was closely allied with Judah L. *Magnes; his views on the direction of Palestinian political life were also close to those of Magnes. In 1948 the establishment of an independent Jewish state and the death of Magnes introduced a new era with which Roth was completely out of sympathy. Accordingly he resigned his professorship in 1951 and returned to England. There Roth concerned himself chiefly with studies of Jewish ethics and biblical subjects. He died suddenly, at Wellington, New Zealand, while on a visit to that country.
As an educator, Roth's major contribution was to establish the school of philosophy in the Hebrew University, a task that was shared by such colleagues as Julius *Guttmann and Samuel Hugo *Bergman. Important to this work was the program of translation of philosophic classics into Hebrew, a program that Roth began. As well as translating, he assumed considerable supervisory and editorial responsibility for the entire series of translations and edited a volume of selections illustrative of post-biblical Jewish ethical and religious thought.
Roth's early preoccupation with 17th-century rationalism, especially as represented by Descartes and Spinoza, remained a central interest of his philosophic studies throughout his later years. In addition, he studied carefully *Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed as his guide to the original and systematic philosophy of Judaism toward which he worked during much of his life. Roth's desire was to explore and understand the inner cohesion of theology, ethics, and biblical hermeneutics in Judaism, and thus to be able to interpret Judaism as a unitary system. He approached this synthesizing statement in his last major work, Judaism, a Portrait (1960).
Roth was also a publicist of Judaism in the non-Jewish world. He contributed Jewish Thought as a Factor in Civilization to the unesco series, "The Race Question and Modern Thought" in 1954. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Roth's major works include Spinoza, Descartes, and Maimonides (1924, repr. 1963); The Science of Morals: An Essay in Method (1928); and Spinoza (1929, repr. 1954).
bibliography:
T.E. Jessop, in: Proceedings of the British Academy, 50 (1965), 317–29, incl. bibl.; R.J. Loewe (ed.), Studies in Rationalism (1966), 1–11, incl. bibl.; jc (April 5, 1963), 40.
[Joseph L. Blau]