This paper explains that Baruch Spinoza, the first Jewish pantheist, rejected the monopoly held by the clergy over the political
power in the Jewish community, was a champion of
intellectual freedom and had followers including members of the Islamic community. The author points out that Spinoza was one of the first philosophers to marry Jewish thought with the emerging ideas of the Enlightenment and was more receptive to
contemporary Western thought than any Jewish philosopher since Maimonides. The paper relates that Spinoza went to Constantinople, where Jews were emancipated; the community in Constantinople contributed to Spinoza's ideas of intellectual freedom and, in 1664, Spinoza published the "Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being" marrying Jewish scripture to contemporary philosophy.