Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) was one of the most learned and prolific rabbis in Amsterdam's Jewish community. His 1650 work, The Hope of Israel, argues from scripture that Messianic redemption would not come to the Jewish people until they were scattered to all corners of the earth and that only the return of the Jews to England was needed to complete the dispersal. Translated into English in 1652--and here with a new introduction and explicit notes--this book aroused great interest and helped lead to the readmission of Jews under Cromwell in 1656.
