Introduction: Giant Figures

The difficult circumstances of Jewish life in medieval Europe required the creation of
cohesive Jewish communities, which the Jews of Europe successfully fashioned. These
communities in turn needed inspired leadership, which in fact emerged. All across medieval
Europe, giant Jewish leaders came to the fore.

These leaders provided guidance for the everyday
affairs of the Jewish communities in which they lived. At the same time, they addressed the
pressing spiritual and religious problems of their times. In order to extend their leadership beyond
the confines of their immediate environment, they put their insights into writings that were
disseminated and treasured all across medieval Europe and down through the centuries.

These writings continue to be influential in the twentieth-first-century Jewish world.