Introduction

Benjamin disraeli used to say that he was born in a library because his father, isaac, was a famous writer and intellectual. To what extent was that true of you, too, mister nerton? Are you because your father, benzion, was an historian, arly editor of the encyclopaedia hebraica or something else? I grew up in a historian's library. For so e was surrounded by books, and i was surrounded by my father. It also shaped my mission. There is no point in being in politics, as far as i'm concerned. In order to sit there, you are either charged with a historical mission or you're