The conference of scholars last week in Paris could best be described as unexpected, and perhaps even improbable. The meeting honored the medieval genius Maimonides, one of history's greatest Jewish thinkers, and the host was UNESCO, the troubled United Nations cultural organization, which has upset Jews by frequently denouncing Israel. The World Jewish Congress co-sponsored the gathering, and one of its American leaders, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, even ventured that the conference might indicate "a reformed UNESCO." Sponsoring nations for UNESCO's Maimonides year, the 850th anniversary of his birth, include Pakistan, India, Cuba and Spain, which refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Israel, and the Soviet Union, whose mistreatment of Jews is an international issue.
The strange mixture of participants underscored the unusual cross-cultural impact of Maimonides, who is also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, "the Rambam" (an acronym) and the "second Moses." Religious sage, philosopher, community leader and physician, the Rambam was also culturally complex--a Jew steeped in ancient Greek philosophy who spent his life among Muslims and influenced Christian Europe. As Soviet Scholar Vitali Naumkin told the Paris meeting, "Maimonides is perhaps the only philosopher in the Middle Ages, perhaps even now, who symbolizes a confluence of four cultures: Greco-Roman, Arab, Jewish and Western."
/ Other experts in Paris laid their own cultural claims. "I regard him first and foremost as an Arab thinker," said Muslim Professor Abderrahmane Badawi of Kuwait University. Huseyin Atay, who teaches religious thought in Saudi Arabia, agreed: "If you didn't know he was Jewish, you might easily make the mistake of saying that a Muslim was writing." Israeli Historian Shlomo Pines said, "Maimonides is the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages and quite possibly of all time."
Within Judaism, Maimonides is held in high regard by the Orthodox, who frequently quote his sayings and avidly study the Mishneh Torah* (Repetition of the Law), his magisterial systematization of biblical commandments and the Talmud. Many Orthodox ignore his philosophical masterpiece, The Guide of the Perplexed, which continues to inspire secularized Jews and is required reading in the Jewish studies departments that are proliferating in U.S. universities.
Maimonides was born on Passover eve in the Spanish city of Cordoba in 1135 and died in Egypt in 1204. He was 13 when the Almohades, a fanatical Muslim movement, seized control of his hometown. The Almohades gave Jews the choice of death, conversion or exile. The Maimon family, choosing to depart, wandered for a decade before settling in Fez, then the capital of Morocco. Maimonides, educated by his father and other local rabbis, soon began his first major project, a commentary on the Mishnah, which is part of the Talmud, the massive and authoritative compilation of Jewish law. Maimonides' work contained the 13 Articles of Faith, to this day part of synagogue ritual.