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Title: The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915

Author: Various

Release date: August 11, 2007 [eBook #22300]
Most recently updated: December 28, 2022

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENORAH JOURNAL, VOLUME 1, 1915 ***

THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL

Volume 1; No. 1; January 1915; Menorah Title Page

Greetings: From Dr. Cyrus Adler, Louis D. Brandeis, Professor Richard Gottheil, Dr. Joseph Jacobs, Dr. Kaufman Kohler, Justice Irving Lehman, Judge Julian W. Mack, Dr. J. L. Magnes, Dr. Martin A. Meyer, Dr. David Philipson, Dr. Solomon Schechter, Jacob H. Schiff, and Dr. Stephen S. Wise

A Call to the Educated Jew
Louis D. Brandeis

Menorah: A Poem
William Ellery Leonard

The Jews in the War
Joseph Jacobs

Jewish Students in European Universities
Harry Wolfson

The Twilight of Hebraic Culture
Max L. Margolis

Days of Disillusionment
Samuel Strauss

Three University Addresses—President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale University,
      Chancellor Elmer E. Brown of New York University,
      President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Cincinnati

The Menorah Movement
Henry Hurwitz

From College and University: Reports from Menorah Societies

Title page decoration bottom

PUBLISHED BY THE INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH ASSOCIATION
600 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK             -:-       -:-      -:-             25 CTS. A COPY

INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH
ASSOCIATION

For the Study and Advancement of
Jewish Culture and Ideals

OFFICERS

Chancellor
HENRY HURWITZ
600 Madison Avenue, New York

President
I. LEO SHARFMAN
University of Michigan

First Vice-President
MOSES BARRON
University of Minnesota      

Second Vice-President
LEON J. ROSENTHAL
Cornell University

Secretary
ISADOR BECKER
University of Michigan

Treasurer
J. K. MILLER
Penn State College

THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL

Composed of Representatives, one each, from every constituent Menorah Society (The Representatives for 1915 will be announced in the next issue of The Menorah Journal)

There are Menorah Societies now at the following Colleges and Universities:

Boston University | University of Colorado
Brown University | University of Denver
Clark University | University of Illinois
College of City of New York       | University of Maine
Columbia University | University of Michigan
Cornell University | University of Minnesota
Harvard University | University of Missouri
Hunter College | University of North Carolina
Johns Hopkins University | University of Omaha
New York University | University of Pennsylvania
Ohio State University | University of Pittsburgh
Penn State College | University of Texas
Radcliffe College | University of Washington
Rutgers College | University of Wisconsin
Tufts College | Valparaiso University
University of California | Western Reserve University
University of Chicago | Yale University
University of Cincinnati

Office of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association
600 Madison Avenue, New York

the
Menorah Journal

VOLUME I                      JANUARY, 1915                     NUMBER 1

An Editorial Statement

THE MENORAH JOURNAL, in its efforts to carry forward the aims and aspirations of the Menorah movement, will necessarily be far more than merely an "official organ" for the Menorah Societies. That function, indeed, becomes increasingly important as the Menorah Societies multiply in number and influence throughout the country. In this special appeal to Menorah members, however, the Journal will be more than a news medium; it will supply important material for study and discussion, and stimulate thinking and active effort in behalf of Menorah ideals. And inasmuch as the furtherance of Menorah ideals means the advancement of American Jewry and the spread of Hebraic culture, the Journal should appeal to every one in America who sympathises with these purposes. The Journal will be conducted with this general appeal always in mind—with the desire, indeed, to make it a model publication dealing with Jewish life and thought. To publish a periodical that shall measure up to this high standard, with its accompanying influence and power, is one of the aspirations of the Menorah movement; and the Menorah auspices and conditions are so peculiarly favorable to the achievement of this ambition as to lend every encouragement to the effort that will be put forth to make the Journal a genuinely significant publication for the whole of American Jewry.

For conceived as it is and nurtured as it must continue to be in the spirit that gave birth to the Menorah idea, the Menorah Journal is under compulsion to be absolutely non-partisan, an expression of all that is best in Judaism and not merely of some particular sect or school or locality or group of special interests; fearless in telling the truth; promoting constructive thought rather than aimless controversy; animated with the vitality and enthusiasm of youth; harking back to the past that we may deal more wisely with the present and the future; recording and appreciating Jewish achievement, not to brag, but to bestir ourselves to emulation and to deepen the consciousness of noblesse oblige; striving always to be sane and level-headed; offering no opinions of its own, but providing an orderly platform for the discussion of mooted questions that really matter; dedicated first and foremost to the fostering of the Jewish "humanities" and the furthering of their influence as a spur to human service.

It will undoubtedly prove necessary on more than one occasion in the future to emphasize again the fact that the Journal is an unqualifiedly non-partisan forum for the discussion of Jewish problems; and that accordingly neither the Menorah Journal nor the Menorah Societies are to be regarded as standing sponsor for the views expressed in these columns by contributors. Nor will the Journal have any editorials expressing the views of its editors or of the Menorah organization,—particularly since the Menorah organization takes no official stand on mooted subjects. The editorial policy will be one of fairness in giving equal hospitality to opposing views; and space will gladly be given to reasonable letters or articles that take exception to statements or opinions published in these pages.

The Journal is singularly fortunate in having enlisted the co-operation of the distinguished leaders of Jewish life and thought who comprise its Board of Consulting Editors. The assurances already in hand of important articles to come from our Consulting Editors and from other notable men and women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, lend strength to the editorial confidence that succeeding issues will more and more repay the public interest. As an incidental but none the less vital aim, the Journal hopes to be instrumental in encouraging our young men and women, particularly in the Menorah membership, to devote themselves to Jewish subjects as worthy of their best literary effort,—with publication in the Menorah Journal as a prize to be eagerly sought for. The Menorah hopes through the incentive of the Journal to develop a "new school" of writers on Jewish topics that shall be distinguished by the thoroughness and clarity of the university-trained mind and inspired by the youthful, searching, unfearing spirit of the Menorah movement.

With these aims and these aspirations, the Menorah Journal bids for the favor of the public. Scholarly when scholarship will be in order, but always endeavoring to be timely, vivacious, readable; keen in the pursuit of truth wherever its source and whatever the consequences; a Jewish forum open to all sides; devoted first and last to bringing out the values of Jewish culture and ideals, of Hebraism and of Judaism, and striving for their advancement—the Menorah Journal hopes not merely to entertain, but to enlighten, in a time when knowledge, thought, and vision are more than ever imperative in Jewish life.

Greetings

From Dr. Cyrus Adler

President of the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, Philadelphia

Cyrus Adler

I AM very glad to be able through this first number of your Journal to send a word of greeting to the Menorah men throughout the United States. An Association which has as its object the promotion in American colleges and universities of the study of Jewish history, culture and problems, and the advancement of Jewish ideals, cannot but fail to command my personal and official interest and support.

The Jewish people have a long and honorable record of literary activity. Our Holy Scriptures, our Rabbinical Literature, our contributions to philosophy, to ethics, to law, our poetry, sacred and secular, our share in the world's history, all become part of the program which you have laid out for yourselves as a means of cultivation. In their due proportion they should (although they do not) form a part of the outfit of every educated man. That they should be especially cultivated by Jewish young people is self-evident, and, for several thousand years, they have been.

You Menorah men have taken the modern form of association for the purpose of carrying on these studies, of cherishing your Jewish ideals along with your general culture or with your chosen profession, and it was high time that you should do so. You already count thousands of young people, and as time goes on you will gradually increase in number. From among your group will come the future leaders of the Jewish people in America, and your main body will form our intellectual backbone. It is my hope and belief that your movement will gradually tend toward the maintenance and promotion of Judaism in this land.

We are now a population of nearly three million souls. That such a vast body should be lost to Judaism or should maintain a Judaism ignorant of its language, its literature or its traditions, is almost unthinkable. Conditions abroad may shift the center of gravity of Judaism and of Jewish learning to the American continent. Your movement is one which will aid in training the group that may be expected to measure up to our new responsibilities.

It has been a source of great personal pleasure to me to meet with your Association in your annual convention and to have the privilege of coming in personal contact with some of your Societies,—at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Boston Universities. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting more of you and to derive more of the stimulus which your enthusiasm gives me in my work. Speaking not only in my own name but in behalf of my colleagues on the Board of Governors and the Faculty of The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, I wish your Association and your Journal success in all of your endeavors.

Signature: Cyrus Adler

From Louis D. Brandeis

Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs

Louis Brandeis

THE formation at Harvard University on October 25, 1906, of the first Menorah Society is a landmark in the Jewish Renaissance. That Renaissance, in which the Society is certain to be a significant factor, is of no less importance to America than to its Jews.

America offers to man his greatest opportunity—liberty amidst peace and large natural resources. But the noble purpose to which America is dedicated cannot be attained unless this high opportunity is fully utilized; and to this end each of the many peoples which she has welcomed to her hospitable shores must contribute the best of which it is capable. To America the contribution of the Jews can be peculiarly large. America's fundamental law seeks to make real the brotherhood of man. That brotherhood became the Jews' fundamental law more than twenty-five hundred years ago. America's twentieth century demand is for social justice. That has been the Jews' striving ages-long. Their religion and their afflictions have prepared them for effective democracy. Persecution made the Jews' law of brotherhood self-enforcing. It taught them the seriousness of life; it broadened their sympathies; it deepened the passion for righteousness; it trained them in patient endurance, in persistence, in self-control, and in self-sacrifice. Furthermore, the widespread study of Jewish law developed the intellect, and made them less subject to preconceptions and more open to reason.

America requires in her sons and daughters these qualities and attainments, which are our natural heritage. Patriotism to America, as well as loyalty to our past, imposes upon us the obligation of claiming this heritage of the Jewish spirit and of carrying forward noble ideals and traditions through lives and deeds worthy of our ancestors. To this end each new generation should be trained in the knowledge and appreciation of their own great past; and the opportunity should be afforded for the further development of Jewish character and culture.

The Menorah Societies and their Journal deserve most generous support in their efforts to perform this noble task.

Signature: Louis D. Brandeis

From Dr. Richard Gottheil

Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages, Columbia University

Dr. Richard Gottheil

I HAVE been asked to say a word of greeting to the readers of the Menorah Journal. I do so with pleasure; indeed with much satisfaction. The Menorah students at our colleges and universities will now be bound together by a new bond, one that will give them a more unified direction and converge their efforts toward the goal which the Menorah has set for itself.

I should like to think that it is not entirely fortuitous that this added impulse is given to our work just at this time. We all feel that the present is a moment when the very foundations of our ethical life—both as individuals and as groups—have received a rude shock. At such a time—more than ever—we need to understand and to bear in mind the great teachings which Jewish sages have given to the world, as their and our contribution to the moral foundations of society. Such teachings were, in most cases, not decked out in the tawdry trappings of a recondite and far-fetched philosophy, nor garnished with the decorations of superlogical terminology, nor even put forth with lusty rhetoric. They were simple and to the point, because they were founded upon deep religious convictions.

One of these teachings occurs to me as I write these lines: "The moral condition of the world depends upon three things—truth, justice and peace." Have we outgrown such teaching? Have the astounding advances made during the last one hundred years in the science of physical living brought us any nearer to the true inwardness of moral living than the ethical principles put forth by these early teachers? As our hearts are rent by the sufferings of those who are caught in the meshes of the terrible war now raging, and as our intellects are befogged by the various excuses advanced in justification of carnage and wholesale destruction, do not the simple words of the old Hebrew sage appear to us as a beacon-light in the surrounding darkness? "Truth, Justice, Peace!"

Many similar lessons are awaiting those who will show some little willingness to learn and to know. They are a part of the patrimony that is ours, and which for the most part we refuse to claim. A voice is crying to us out of our own midst. We do not hear; for our ears are sealed as with wax. The Menorah Societies, which now are to be found in most of our institutions of higher learning, have set themselves the task of bringing our Jewish students to a consciousness of their own past, to a knowledge of their history as members of a great historic people, and to a just appreciation of the teachings of their religion. It is only the knowledge of what we have tried to be that will make us realize fully what we are and will enable us to see what our future may be. The Menorah Journal is intended to bring this knowledge to our young men, to harden their Jewish resolve and to point the way along which lies the consummation of our Jewish hopes. It sends its greeting to every Jewish student, whether or not he be a member of a Menorah Society. We of an older generation look to our university and college men as the Jewish leaders of the future. Let them gather around the Menorah Journal in order to make it a true expression of Jewish ideals, a powerful incentive to join the ranks of those who are active in our cause. The word of the Prophet comes to me again: "Be ye strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded."

Signature: Richard Gottheil

From Joseph Jacobs

Editor of The American Hebrew, New York

Joseph Jacobs

I GREET the appearance of the official organ of the Menorah Societies something in the spirit of Ibsen's Master-Builder, who hears the coming generation knocking at the door. I have long been of the opinion that the future of American Israel lies with the academic Jews of the American universities. The organ that represents them should be, from this point of view, the voice of Israel's future in America. If you can live up to that ideal, you have indeed a great future before you.

Signature: Joseph Jacobs

From Dr. Kaufman Kohler

President of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati

Kaufman Kohler

AS you wander through the ruins of the Forum Romanum and are within sight of the Via Appia at the other end, your attention is riveted by an exquisite white marble arch wonderfully preserved. It is the Arch of Titus erected in memory of Rome's triumph over Judæa Capta. As you look closer at the trophies chiseled on this famous monument, you find there standing out most conspicuously the seven-armed candlestick carried by the Jewish captives, the Menorah, regarded, no doubt, by the proud victor as the most characteristic feature of the destroyed Jewish temple. Yet how strange! It seems to be almost a foreboding of the future dominion of the vanquished over the vanquisher. Israel's state, with its temple, Israel's nationality was trampled under foot by the Roman legions—Israel's religion remained unconquered, the light of its truth remained undimmed; nay, it grew brighter and stronger until the world was filled with its splendor. Little did the Emperor Vespasian dream, when he granted Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, the Jewish maker of learning, the privilege of building a schoolhouse at Jamnia as a substitute for the hall of the judiciary in the temple at Jerusalem, that this sanctuary of the Jewish law and what it represents would by far eclipse all the power and greatness of the Roman civilization. Yet this was symbolized by the Menorah. Whether originally intended or not, it was the emblem of Israel's mission of light. It indicated the task of the Jew, when scattered over the wide globe, to be a light to the nations, the religious luminary to the world. And if we be permitted to give a special meaning to the seven arms of light of the Golden Candlestick, we might find therein a suggestion of the lights of truth, justice and purity, or holiness, on the one side, and the lights of law, literature, and art, or wisdom, on the other, while the light in the center stands for religion, from which all the other lights emanated and for which the Jew throughout the centuries lived, suffered, and died, to preserve intact as mankind's highest treasure to the very end of history.

These ideas I would offer as greeting to the editors and readers of the Menorah Journal. The name "Menorah" was aptly chosen by the founders of the pioneer Menorah Society with a view to the two-fold task of the light-bearer, to enlighten a surrounding world, and to foster self-respect in the hearts of the Jewish students by spreading the light of Jewish knowledge among them. Now, if I understand correctly the purpose of starting a Journal as the organ of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, it is to give to these endeavors a more permanent and classical literary form, and thus successfully defend the cause of Judaism. Wishing this enterprise all success and Godspeed, I venture to express the hope that true to its name Menorah, the Journal will become a real banner-bearer of light not only dispelling clouds of doubt and of prejudice within and outside of our camp, but also aiming to spread the truth of Judaism in all its spiritual force and grandeur. Not nationalism, which in these days of a cruel world-war with its barbarism puts our much-vaunted modern civilization to everlasting shame and which has split the Jewish people also into warring camps, but Judaism as a religion, which notwithstanding the differences of its various wings as to form is in its essentials and fundamentals one, should be the watchword, for it is the light of the Torah that is both law and learning, religion and culture, which is to unify and consolidate all the forces of American Israel.

Signature: Dr. K. Kohler

From Irving Lehman

Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

Irving Lehman

I CONGRATULATE the members of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association upon the fact that in their Journal they are obtaining a new instrument to carry forward their work of bringing to the Jewish youth knowledge of the old ideals and lessons of the Jewish past. During these dreadful days, the Jewish students of almost every country except America have been called from study, and preparation for a life of usefulness, into pitiless war and useless destruction. The oppressed in Russia, the student in Germany, and the free Englishman, all have answered the call to arms of the country in which they live, and each is fighting, firm in the belief that he is defending his Fatherland against foreign aggression. The loyalty shown by our brethren even in those countries where their treatment might well have furnished at least an explanation for disloyalty, is a new demonstration of the ancient spirit of devotion to their ideals which, I believe, has always been the true spirit of the Jews. But the ideal of national physical strength is not the ideal which we Jews had when we were a nation and which we must strive to make the ideal of the modern nations in which we live. Dark though these present days are, yet humanity must progress into the light of a permanent peace, and though the Jews are doing their full share of the fighting in this war brought on by their rulers, we must do more than our share in bringing to its fruition the ancient prophecy: "For the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge many people and rebuke strong nations, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

The voice of this Journal may be only a weak, small voice, but if that voice speaks in the spirit of the prophet and brings home to us the worth of the prophetic ideals, it may well prove an important factor in enabling Israel to fulfill its mission as a messenger of peace to all the nations.

Signature: Irving Lehman

From Julian W. Mack

Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals

Julian Mack

MY hopes are high that the Menorah Journal may prove a valuable means not only of linking together the Menorah Societies of the country but also of bringing to the individual members a clearer conception of the culture, ideals and traditions of the Jews, thereby increasing their interest in all things Jewish.

This would inevitably tend to strengthen the religious faith of the Jewish members and to awaken in all of the members a keener and a more intelligent appreciation of the contribution which Jews and Judaism have made to human progress.

Signature: Julian W. Mack

From Dr. J. L. Magnes

Chairman of Executive Committee, Jewish Community (Kehillah) of New York

J. L. Magnes

I SEND hearty greetings to the members of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association upon the publication of the Journal. If the Journal can be put upon a sound business basis assuring its permanence, its publication will mark an important event in the development of Judaism in America. What we need above all things is sound thinking on Jewish affairs. I have no doubt that proper action will result from sound thinking. The Menorah Journal ought to become the medium for publishing the best thought modern Jewry is capable of. The present catastrophe overwhelming Europe has conferred upon the Jews in America the leadership of Jewry. We can assume this historic obligation only if our theories be clear cut and well thought out.

Signature: J. L. Magnes

From Dr. Martin A. Meyer

Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco

Dr. Martin Meyer

IT is a pleasure to know that a journal is being launched in America for the benefit of thinking Jews, which will stand between the technical journal of the "Quarterly" type and outside of the purlieus of our numerous "Weekly" gossip sheets.

Jewish journalism in America has done little, if anything, to justify the numerous calls which it makes upon the people for support. On the other hand, there is sad need for a journal representative of our best thought, which will be readable and which will represent rather than misrepresent us.

The field of Jewish culture and ideals surely has not been exhausted by our European brethren. No matter what they may have contributed to the exploitation of this field there surely remains ample ground for the American Jew to express himself in the light of the old standards of Jewish conduct and belief.

It goes without saying that your Journal will make its primary appeal to the college man and woman. If successful, it will have saved for Jewry its most valuable elements and enable us to build in the future on a better and broader basis than the purely financial and commercial leadership of the past.

From the far West we join hands with you in the far East and unite in fervent hopes that the new Menorah Journal may grow from strength to strength.

Signature: Martin A. Meyer

From Dr. David Philipson

Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati

Dr. David Philipson

SOME seventy years ago the celebrated Jewish scholar, Abraham Geiger, charged the Jewish intelligenzia of his day with indifference towards Judaism and Jewish interests. This accusation of Geiger's has since been repeated frequently. But a rift is appearing in the cloud. To-day as never before our intelligenzia as defined by university training and education is identifying itself more and more with Jewish life and aspiration in our country. And I feel that due credit should be given the Menorah movement in our colleges for this change of attitude of Jewish students and professors. This movement, still young, has accomplished much in bringing together the young men and women who form our intellectual elite into associations for the study of Jewish history and the consideration of Jewish problems. It has awakened an interest in Jewish matters in many who have been lukewarm and indifferent. It has brought as lecturers to our colleges Jewish men of light and leading from many communities, who have voiced their messages and given food for thought to the future leaders now sitting on university benches.

The call of the ages sounds to the intellectual nobility of our day and generation. Learning has been extolled among Jews from earliest times, and the wise man has been the accredited leader, so that it was declared that "the wise man is greater than the prophet." I would have the learned classes come again into their own. I would have our university men in coming years the staunchest Jews in the community through their intelligent interest in everything that makes for its highest welfare.

To achieve this is the task of our university men. The possibility of this achievement I see in such significant signs as the Menorah movement, the institution of student congregations, and the launching of this magazine by the Intercollegiate Menorah Association. What has been called the "Jewish consciousness," a term which has done yeoman's service during the past decade, is being aroused through these agencies to an even greater degree. This aroused Jewish feeling will, I am sure, be translated into active service more and more as the years pass and the present generation of college men carve out their careers in our communities throughout the country. This is the great Jewish opportunity of the present generation; in this will they reverse, such is my hope and my belief, that condition and that attitude of the Jewish intelligenzia in the past (and still largely in the present) which evoked the statement of Abraham Geiger. May this new undertaking prosper so that the young generation whom this magazine represents may be helped toward a realization of its ideals, and become an inspiration to all Jewry throughout the length and breadth of the land.

Signature: David Philipson

From Dr. Solomon Schechter

President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Dr. Solomon Schechter

I WISH to send my hearty congratulations to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association upon their undertaking the publication of the Menorah Journal, which I have no doubt will prove greatly helpful in promoting the knowledge of Judaism among the Jewish college youth. In a liberal country like ours, with the eagerness of our people for acquiring knowledge, there never was a lack of Jews in our Colleges and Universities. But what the Menorah Association will accomplish with the aid of the Journal is, I hope, to have Judaism also represented in our seats of learning.

Signature: S. Schechter

From Jacob H. Schiff

Jacob H. Schiff

IT is with much satisfaction that I learn of the launching of the Menorah Journal, to provide an opportunity for a more general spread of the high ideals of the Menorah Societies among our college youth. When I received some time ago a copy of the publication entitled "The Menorah Movement," I noted with particular pleasure the progress the Menorah Societies had already made. After an attentive perusal of the contents of this publication, I felt as if a copy ought to be placed in the hands of every Jewish college and university student, and I myself distributed a number of copies for propaganda purposes. The Menorah Societies are to be congratulated upon their new venture in issuing the Journal, upon which I wish them every success. It is to be hoped that the Menorah Journal will help the Jewish student to understand what Judaism means and what as Jews we should strive for to become useful and worthy citizens of this country. We shall have to face increasing problems because of the deplorable war in Europe, which so tragically affects our co-religionists there, and it will require much devotion and understanding on our part to properly deal with the conditions which will necessarily arise. The Menorah Journal should freely discuss these conditions, so as to inspire its readers with the desire to aid and the courage needed in the situation which is facing us. Thus, by "spreading light," the Journal can greatly assist the Menorah movement, and render efficient service in and outside of the university. Let me wish Godspeed to your new publication and its managers.

Signature: Jacob H. Schiff

From Dr. Stephen S. Wise

Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, New York

Dr. Stephen S. Wise

I REJOICE to learn of the establishment of an organ by the Menorah Association. The Menorah Journal will, I take it, serve the threefold purpose of keeping the various groups of the Menorah throughout the universities of the land in constant touch with one another, of interpreting the ideals of the Menorah to widening circles of the Jewish youth, and of confirming anew, from time to time, the loyalty of the Menorah men to the Menorah ideal.

A truly great Jew said about fifteen years ago that a high self-reverence had transformed arme Judenjungen into stolze junge Juden. I believe that the Menorah movement in this land is in part the cause and in other part the token of a transformation among young American Jews to-day parallel to that cited by Theodor Herzl. It marks a sea-change from the self pitying Jewish youth, immeasurably "sorry for himself" because of his exclusion from certain dominantly unfraternal groups, to the Jewish youth self-regarding, in the highest sense of the term, self-knowing, self-revering. That the self-respecting young Jew command the respect of the world without is of minor importance by the side of the outstanding fact that he has ceased to measure himself by the values which he imagined the unfriendly elements of the world without had set upon him.

The Menorah movement is welcome as a proof of a new order in the life of the young college Jew. He has come to see at last that it is comic, in large part, to be shut out from the Greek letter fraternities of the Hellenes and the Barbarians, but that it is tragic, in large part, to shut himself out from the life of his own people. For it is from his own people that he must draw his vision and spiritual sustenance if he is to live a life of self-mastery rather than the life of a contemptible parasite rooted nowhere and chameleonizing everywhere. Time was when their fellow-Jews half excused the college men, who drifted away from the life of Israel, as if the burden of the Jewish bond were too much for the untried and unrobust shoulders of our Jewish college men, as if their intellectual and moral squeamishness led to inevitable revolt against association with their much-despised and wholly misunderstood Jewish fellows. Now we see, and our younger brothers of the Menorah fellowship have caught the vision, that no Jew can be truly cultured who Jewishly uproots himself, that the man who rejects the birthright of inheritance of the traditions of the earliest and virilest of the cultured peoples of earth is impoverishing his very being. The Jew who is a "little Jew" is less of a man.

The Menorah lights the path for the fellowship of young Israel, finely self-reverencing. Long be that rekindled light undimmed!

Signature: Stephen S. Wise

A Call to the Educated Jew

By Louis D. Brandeis

LOUIS D. BRANDEIS LOUIS D. BRANDEIS (born in Louisville, Ky., in 1856), lawyer and publicist, is a distinguished leader in the voluntary profession of "public servant." His extraordinary record of unselfish, genuine achievement in behalf of the public interest—for shorter hours of labor, savings bank insurance, protection against monopoly, against increase in railroad rates, etc.,—gives peculiar aptness to the appeal for community service made in this article, which Mr. Brandeis has prepared from a recent Menorah address. From the beginning Mr. Brandeis has taken a keen interest in the Menorah movement as a promotive force for the ideals he has at heart.

WHILE I was in Cleveland a few weeks ago, a young man who has won distinction on the bench told me this incident from his early life. He was born in a little village of Western Russia where the opportunities for schooling were meagre. When he was thirteen his parents sent him to the nearest city in search of an education. There—in Bialystok—were good secondary schools and good high schools; but the Russian law, which limits the percentage of Jewish pupils in any school, barred his admission. The boy's parents lacked the means to pay for private tuition. He had neither relative nor friend in the city. But soon three men were found who volunteered to give him instruction. None of them was a teacher by profession. One was a newspaper man; another was a chemist; the third, I believe, was a tradesman; all were educated men. And throughout five long years these three men took from their leisure the time necessary to give a stranger an education.

The three men of Bialystok realized that education was not a thing of one's own to do with as one pleases—not a personal privilege to be merely enjoyed by the possessor—but a precious treasure transmitted upon a sacred trust to be held, used and enjoyed, and if possible strengthened—then passed on to others upon the same trust. Yet the treasure which these three men held and the boy received in trust was much more than an education. It included that combination of qualities which enabled and impelled these three men to give and the boy to seek and to acquire an education. These qualities embrace: first, intellectual capacity; second, an appreciation of the value of education; third, indomitable will; fourth, capacity for hard work. It was these qualities which enabled the lad not only to acquire but to so utilize an education that, coming to America, ignorant of our language and of our institutions, he attained in comparatively few years the important office he has so honorably filled.

Now whence comes this combination of qualities of mind, body and character? These are qualities with which every one is familiar, singly and in combination; which you find in friends and relatives, and which others doubtless discover in you. They are qualities possessed by most Jews who have attained distinction or other success; and in combination they may properly be called Jewish qualities. For they have not come to us by accident; they were developed by three thousand years of civilization, and nearly two thousand years of persecution; developed through our religion and spiritual life; through our traditions; and through the social and political conditions under which our ancestors lived. They are, in short, the product of Jewish life.

The Fruit of Three Thousand Years of Civilization

OUR intellectual capacity was developed by the almost continuous training of the mind throughout twenty-five centuries. The Torah led the "People of the Book" to intellectual pursuits at times when most of the Aryan peoples were illiterate. And religion imposed the use of the mind upon the Jews, indirectly as well as directly, and demanded of the Jew not merely the love, but the understanding of God. This necessarily involved a study of the Laws. And the conditions under which the Jews were compelled to live during the last two thousand years also promoted study in a people among whom there was already considerable intellectual attainment. Throughout the centuries of persecution practically the only life open to the Jew which could give satisfaction was the intellectual and spiritual life. Other fields of activity and of distinction which divert men from intellectual pursuits were closed to the Jews. Thus they were protected by their privations from the temptations of material things and worldly ambitions. Driven by circumstances to intellectual pursuits, their mental capacity gradually developed. And as men delight in that which they do well, there was an ever widening appreciation of things intellectual.

Is not the Jews' indomitable will—the power which enables them to resist temptation and, fully utilizing their mental capacity, to overcome obstacles—is not that quality also the result of the conditions under which they lived so long? To live a Jew during the centuries of persecution was to lead a constant struggle for existence. That struggle was so severe that only the fittest could survive. Survival was not possible except where there was strong will—a will both to live and to live a Jew. The weaker ones passed either out of Judaism or out of existence.

And finally, the Jewish capacity for hard work is also the product of Jewish life—a life characterized by temperate, moral living continued throughout the ages, and protected by those marvellous sanitary regulations which were enforced through the religious sanctions. Remember, too, that amidst the hardship to which our ancestors were exposed it was only those with endurance who survived.

So let us not imagine that what we call our achievements are wholly or even largely our own. The phrase "self-made man" is most misleading. We have power to mar; but we alone cannot make. The relatively large success achieved by Jews wherever the door of opportunity is opened to them is due, in the main, to this product of Jewish life—to this treasure which we have acquired by inheritance—and which we are in duty bound to transmit unimpaired, if not augmented, to coming generations.

But our inheritance comprises far more than this combination of qualities making for effectiveness. These are but means by which man may earn a living or achieve other success. Our Jewish trust comprises also that which makes the living worthy and success of value. It brings us that body of moral and intellectual perceptions, the point of view and the ideals, which are expressed in the term Jewish spirit; and therein lies our richest inheritance.

The Kinship of Jewish and American Ideals

IS it not a striking fact that a people coming from Russia, the most autocratic of countries, to America, the most democratic of countries, comes here, not as to a strange land, but as to a home? The ability of the Russian Jew to adjust himself to America's essentially democratic conditions is not to be explained by Jewish adaptability. The explanation lies mainly in the fact that the twentieth century ideals of America have been the ideals of the Jew for more than twenty centuries. We have inherited these ideals of democracy and of social justice as we have the qualities of mind, body and character to which I referred. We have inherited also that fundamental longing for truth on which all science—and so largely the civilization of the twentieth century—rests; although the servility incident to persistent oppression has in some countries obscured its manifestation.

Among the Jews democracy was not an ideal merely. It was a practice—a practice made possible by the existence among them of certain conditions essential to successful democracy, namely:

First: An all-pervading sense of the duty in the citizen. Democratic ideals cannot be attained through emphasis merely upon the rights of man. Even a recognition that every right has a correlative duty will not meet the needs of democracy. Duty must be accepted as the dominant conception in life. Such were the conditions in the early days of the colonies and states of New England, when American democracy reached there its fullest expression; for the Puritans were trained in implicit obedience to stern duty by constant study of the Prophets.

Second: Relatively high intellectual attainments. Democratic ideals cannot be attained by the mentally undeveloped. In a government where everyone is part sovereign, everyone should be competent, if not to govern, at least to understand the problems of government; and to this end education is an essential. The early New Englanders appreciated fully that education is an essential of potential equality. The founding of their common school system was coincident with the founding of the colonies; and even the establishment of institutions for higher education did not lag far behind. Harvard College was founded but six years after the first settlement of Boston.

Third: Submission to leadership as distinguished from authority. Democratic ideals can be attained only where those who govern exercise their power not by alleged divine right or inheritance, but by force of character and intelligence. Such a condition implies the attainment by citizens generally of relatively high moral and intellectual standards; and such a condition actually existed among the Jews. These men who were habitually denied rights, and whose province it has been for centuries "to suffer and to think," learned not only to sympathize with their fellows (which is the essence of democracy and social justice), but also to accept voluntarily the leadership of those highly endowed morally and intellectually.

Fourth: A developed community sense. The sense of duty to which I have referred was particularly effective in promoting democratic ideals among the Jews, because of their deep-seated community feeling. To describe the Jew as an individualist is to state a most misleading half-truth. He has to a rare degree merged his individuality and his interests in the community of which he forms a part. This is evidenced among other things by his attitude toward immortality. Nearly every other people has reconciled this world of suffering with the idea of a beneficent providence by conceiving of immortality for the individual. The individual sufferer bore present ills by regarding this world as merely the preparation for another, in which those living righteously here would find individual reward hereafter. Of all the nations, Israel "takes precedence in suffering"; but, despite our national tragedy, the doctrine of individual immortality found relatively slight lodgment among us. As Ahad Ha-'Am so beautifully said: "Judaism did not turn heavenward and create in Heaven an eternal habitation of souls. It found 'eternal life' on earth, by strengthening the social feeling in the individual; by making him regard himself not as an isolated being with an existence bounded by birth and death, but as part of a larger whole, as a limb of the social body. This conception shifts the center of gravity not from the flesh to the spirit, but from the individual to the community; and concurrently with this shifting, the problem of life becomes a problem not of individual, but of social life. I live for the sake of the perpetuation and happiness of the community of which I am a member; I die to make room for new individuals, who will mould the community afresh and not allow it to stagnate and remain forever in one position. When the individual thus values the community as his own life, and strives after its happiness as though it were his individual well-being, he finds satisfaction, and no longer feels so keenly the bitterness of his individual existence, because he sees the end for which he lives and suffers." Is not that the very essence of the truly triumphant twentieth-century democracy?

The Two-fold Command of Noblesse Oblige

SUCH is our inheritance; such the estate which we hold in trust. And what are the terms of that trust; what the obligations imposed? The short answer is noblesse oblige; and its command is two-fold. It imposes duties upon us in respect to our own conduct as individuals; it imposes no less important duties upon us as part of the Jewish community or race. Self-respect demands that each of us lead individually a life worthy of our great inheritance and of the glorious traditions of the race. But this is demanded also by respect for the rights of others. The Jews have not only been ever known as a "peculiar people"; they were and remain a distinctive and minority people. Now it is one of the necessary incidents of a distinctive and minority people that the act of any one is in some degree attributed to the whole group. A single though inconspicuous instance of dishonorable conduct on the part of a Jew in any trade or profession has far-reaching evil effects extending to the many innocent members of the race. Large as this country is, no Jew can behave badly without injuring each of us in the end. Thus the Rosenthal and the white-slave traffic cases, though local to New York, did incalculable harm to the standing of the Jews throughout the country. The prejudice created may be most unjust, but we may not disregard the fact that such is the result. Since the act of each becomes thus the concern of all, we are perforce our brothers' keepers. Each, as co-trustee for all, must exact even from the lowliest the avoidance of things dishonorable; and we may properly brand the guilty as traitor to the race.

But from the educated Jew far more should be exacted. In view of our inheritance and our present opportunities, self-respect demands that we live not only honorably but worthily; and worthily implies nobly. The educated descendants of a people which in its infancy cast aside the Golden Calf and put its faith in the invisible God cannot worthily in its maturity worship worldly distinction and things material. "Two men he honors and no third," says Carlyle—"the toil-worn craftsman who conquers the earth and him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable."

And yet, though the Jew make his individual life the loftiest, that alone will not fulfill the obligations of his trust. We are bound not only to use worthily our great inheritance, but to preserve and, if possible, augment it; and then transmit it to coming generations. The fruit of three thousand years of civilization and a hundred generations of suffering may not be sacrificed by us. It will be sacrificed if dissipated. Assimilation is national suicide. And assimilation can be prevented only by preserving national characteristics and life as other peoples, large and small, are preserving and developing their national life. Shall we with our inheritance do less than the Irish, the Servians, or the Bulgars? And must we not, like them, have a land where the Jewish life may be naturally led, the Jewish language spoken, and the Jewish spirit prevail? Surely we must, and that land is our fathers' land: it is Palestine.

A Land Where the Jewish Spirit May Prevail

THE undying longing for Zion is a fact of deepest significance—a manifestation in the struggle for existence. Zionism is, of course, not a movement to remove all the Jews of the world compulsorily to Palestine. In the first place, there are in the world about 14,000,000 Jews, and Palestine would not accommodate more than one-fifth of that number. In the second place, this is not a movement to compel anyone to go to Palestine. It is essentially a movement to give to the Jew more, not less, freedom—a movement to enable the Jews to exercise the same right now exercised by practically every other people in the world—to live at their option either in the land of their fathers or in some other country; a right which members of small nations as well as of large—which Irish, Greek, Bulgarian, Servian or Belgian, as well as German or English—may now exercise.

Furthermore, Zionism is not a movement to wrest from the Turk the sovereignty of Palestine. Zionism seeks merely to establish in Palestine for such Jews as choose to go and remain there, and for their descendants, a legally secured home, where they may live together and lead a Jewish life; where they may expect ultimately to constitute a majority of the population, and may look forward to what we should call home rule.

The establishment of the legally secured Jewish home is no longer a dream. For more than a generation brave pioneers have been building the foundations of our new old home. It remains for us to build the superstructure. The Ghetto walls are now falling, Jewish life cannot be preserved and developed, assimilation cannot be averted, unless there be reëstablished in the fatherland a center from which the Jewish spirit may radiate and give to the Jews scattered throughout the world that inspiration which springs from the memories of a great past and the hope of a great future. To accomplish this it is not necessary that the Jewish population of Palestine be large as compared with the whole number of Jews in the world. Throughout centuries when the Jewish influence was great, and it was working out its own, and in large part the world's, destiny during the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman Empires, only a relatively small part of the Jews lived in Palestine; and only a small part of the Jews returned from Babylon when the Temple was rebuilt.

The glorious past can really live only if it becomes the mirror of a glorious future; and to this end the Jewish home in Palestine is essential. We Jews of prosperous America above all need its inspiration. And the Menorah men should be its builders.

Signature: Louis D. Brandeis

THERE are two things necessary in the Jewish life of this country. The one is an heroic attempt to organize the Jews of the country for Jewish things. That can be done, I believe, primarily through the organization of self-conscious Jewish communities throughout the country. The other thing necessary is, that we have vigorous Jewish thinking. We need a theory, a substantial theory, for our Jewish life, just as much as we need Jewish organization. We need to have our college men think their problems through without fear, courageously, by whatever name their theories may be known, be these theories called Zionism or anti-Zionism, Reform Judaism or Orthodox Judaism. We need some vigorous Jewish thinking.—From a Menorah Address by Dr. J. L. Magnes.

Menorah

By William Ellery Leonard

WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD (born in New Jersey in 1876), Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, is the author of several volumes of verse and literary criticism which have won high praise,—notably "Sonnets and Poems," "Byron and Byronism in America," and "The Vaunt of Man."

WE'VE read in legends of the books of old

How deft Bezalel, wisest in his trade,

At the command of veilèd Moses made

The seven-branched candlestick of beaten gold—

The base, the shaft, the cups, the knops, the flowers,

Like almond blossoms—and the lamps were seven.

We know at least that on the templed rock

Of Zion hill, with earth's revolving hours

Under the changing centuries of heaven,

It stood upon the solemn altar block,

By every Gentile who had heard abhorred—

The holy light of Israel of the Lord;

Until that Titus and the legions came

And battered the walls with catapult and fire,

And bore the priests and candlestick away,

And, as memorial of fulfilled desire,

Bade carve upon the arch that bears his name

The stone procession ye may see today

Beyond the Forum on the Sacred Way,

Lifting the golden candlestick of fame.

The city fell, the temple was a heap;

And little children, who had else grown strong

And in their manhood venged the Roman wrong,

Strewed step and chamber, in eternal sleep.

But the great vision of the sevenfold flames

Outlasted the cups wherein at first it sprung.

The Greeks might teach the arts, the Romans law;

The heathen hordes might shout for bread and games;

Still Israel, exalted in the realms of awe,

Guarded the Light in many an alien air,

Along the borders of the midland sea

In hostile cities, spending praise and prayer

And pondering on the larger things to be—

Down through the ages when the Cross uprose

Among the northern Gentiles to oppose:

Then huddled in the ghettos, barred at night,

In lands of unknown trees and fiercer snows,

They watched forevermore the Light, the Light.

The main seas opened to the west. The Nations

Covered new continents with generations

That had their work to do, their thought to say;

And Israel's hosts from bloody towns afar

In the dominions of the ermined Czar,

Seared with the iron, scarred with many a stroke,

Crowded the hollow ships but yesterday

And came to us who are tomorrow's folk.

And the pure Light, however some might doubt

Who mocked their dirt and rags, had not gone out.

The holy Light of Israel hath unfurled

Its tongues of mystic flame around the world.

Empires and Kings and Parliaments have passed;

Rivers and mountain chains from age to age

Become new boundaries for man's politics.

The navies run new ensigns up the mast,

The temples try new creeds, new equipage;

The schools new sciences beyond the six.

And through the lands where many a song hath rung

The people speak no more their fathers' tongue.

Yet in the shifting energies of man

The Light of Israel remains her Light.

And gathered to a splendid caravan

From the four corners of the day and night,

The chosen people—so the prophets hold—

Shall yet return unto the homes of old

Under the hills of Judah. Be it so.

Only the stars and moon and sun can show

A permanence of light to hers akin.

What is that Light? Who is there that shall tell

The purport of the tribe of Israel?—

In the wild welter of races on that earth

Which spins in space where thousand other spin—

The casual offspring of the Cosmic Mirth

Perhaps—what is there any man can win,

Or any nation? Ultimates aside,

Men have their aims, and Israel her pride.

She stands among the rest, austere, aloof,

Still the peculiar people, armed in proof

Of Selfhood, whilst the others merge or die.

She stands among the rest and answers: "I,

Above ye all, must ever gauge success

By ideal types, and know the more and less

Of things as being in the end defined,

For this our human life by righteousness.

And if I base this in Eternal Mind—

Our fathers' God in victory or distress—

I cannot argue for my hardihood,

Save that the thought is in my flesh and blood,

And made me what I was in olden time,

And keeps me what I am today in every clime."

Signature: William Ellery Leonard

The Jews in the War

By Joseph Jacobs

JOSEPH JACOBS JOSEPH JACOBS (born in New South Wales in 1854), noted author and editor, was one of England's well-known scholars and men of letters when he was called to America to become managing editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia. He has held the chair of English literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and is now editor of the American Hebrew. He is the author of many authoritative books, including "Jews of Angevin England," "Studies in Jewish Statistics," "Jewish Ideals," and "Literary Studies."

IT is of course difficult to conjecture what will be the ultimate effect of such a world-cataclysm as the present European war on the fate of the Jews of the world. The chief center of interest naturally lies in the eastern field of the war which happens to rage within the confines of Old Poland. This kingdom, founded by the Jagellons, brought together Roman Catholic Poland and Greek Catholic Lithuania and could not, therefore, apply in full rigor the mediaeval principle that only those could belong to the State who belonged to the State Church. Hence a certain amount of toleration of religious differences, which led to Poland forming the chief asylum of the Jews evicted from Western Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As a consequence here lies the most crowded seat of Jewish population in the world. From it comes the vast majority of the third of a million Jews in the prime of life who are fighting for their native countries and often against their fellow-Jews. Probably three hundred thousand Jewish soldiers are under arms in this district. Besides the inevitable loss by death of many of these and the distress caused by the removal of so many others for an indefinite period from breadwinning for their families, there must be ineffable woe caused by the fact that this district is the scene of strenuous conflicts, which lead to the wholesale destruction of the Jewish homes in a literal sense. When one reflects that one out of every six of the inhabitants of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Poland is a Jew, the extent of the misery thus caused may be imagined. One meets friends whose birth-place changes nationality from week to week, according as the different armies take possession. The Jewish inhabitants of Suwalki, for example, must be doubtful whether they are Germans or Russians, according as Uhlan or Cossack holds control of their city. But whichever wins, for the time being, the non-combatants suffer by the demolition of their houses, the requisition of their property, and above all by the dislocation of their trade. The mass of misery caused by the present war in this way to the Jews of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Poland is incalculable.

Nor is this direct loss and misery compensated for by any hope of improved conditions after the war is concluded. One may dismiss at once the rumor that the Czar has promised his Jewish soldiers any alleviation of their lot, on account of their loyalty and bravery. Such rumors are always spread about when the Russian autocracy needs Jewish blood or money. Besides, we all know the value of the plighted word of the crowned head of the Russian Church; the emasculation of the Duma is sufficient evidence of this. And even if the Czar carries out his promise of giving autonomy to Poland, including any sections of Prussian and Austrian territory which he may acquire by the present war, the Jewish lot will not be ameliorated in the slightest. For, unfortunately, Poles have of recent years turned round on their Jewish fellow sufferers from Russian tyranny somewhat on the principle of the boy at school who "passes on" the blow which he has received from a bigger boy to one smaller yet.

The Probable Strengthening of Anti-Semitic Influences

BUT the chief evil which will result from the present war, whatever its outcome, will be the increased influence of just those circles from whom the anti-Semitic movement has emanated throughout Europe for the past forty years. It is, in my opinion, absurd to think that militarism will be killed or even scotched by the present war; militarism cannot cast out militarism. Even if Germany is defeated, it is impossible to imagine that she will rest content with her defeat, and practically the only change in the situation will be that "La Revanche" will be translated into "Die Rache"; and in Russia, the defeat of Germany will simply increase the prestige and influence of the grand-ducal circles from which the persecution of the Jews has mainly emanated.

In the contrary case, if Germany gets the upper hand, the influence of the Junkers in Germany, with their anti-Semitic tendencies, would be raised to intolerable limits, while the Reaction in Russia, even if it loses prestige, will yet be granted more power in order to carry out the projected revenge.

Diminished Chances of Emigration

ANOTHER unfortunate result for Jews from the present war will be the decreased stream of emigration from Russia and Galicia to this country, so that the escape from the House of Bondage would be still more limited. Many will be so impoverished by the war that they will not be able to afford the minimum sum needed for migration. Death on the battle-field or in the military hospitals will remove many energetic young fellows who would otherwise have come to this country and afterwards have brought their relatives with them. Conditions here too, in the immediate future, are likely to be less attractive for the immigrant from the economic point of view owing to the dislocation of trade caused by the current conflict.

Altogether, as will have been seen from the above enumeration, I am strongly of opinion that the Jews will suffer even more than most peoples concerned in the present war. They have nothing to gain by it; they are sure to lose by it.

Signature: Joseph Jacobs

SURELY a law, the essence of which is mercy and justice to one's fellow men, is not a narrow rule of life, to be discarded by us today on any plea that we have outgrown it; surely a history of thousands of years' devotion to spiritual ideals is not a history to be forgotten. America is a land of divers races and divers religions. Each race and each religion owes to it the duty of bringing to its service all its strength; it derives no added strength from a race which has forgotten the lessons it has learnt in the past, a race which deliberately discards the spiritual strength which it has obtained by devotion to its ideals.—From a Menorah Address by Justice Irving Lehman.

Jewish Students in European Universities

By Harry Wolfson

HARRY WOLFSON HARRY WOLFSON (Harvard A. B. and A. M. 1912), a member of the Harvard Menorah Society since 1908, was the Hebrew poet at the annual Harvard Menorah dinners for four years, and won the Harvard Menorah prize in 1911 for an essay on "Maimonides and Halevi: A Study in Typical Jewish Attitudes Toward Greek Philosophy in the Middle Ages." On graduating from Harvard he received honors in Semitics and Philosophy, and was appointed to a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship. As Sheldon Fellow he spent two years abroad, studying in the University of Berlin and doing research work in the libraries of Munich, Paris, the Vatican, Parma, the British Museum, Oxford and Cambridge. The present article is based upon the impressions he gathered during this period. He is now pursuing graduate studies in Semitics and Philosophy at Harvard.

THE Jewish student is no longer a déraciné. Deeply rooted to the soil of Jewish reality, he is like the best of the academic youth of other nations responsive to the needs of his own people. If in spots he is still groping in the dark, he is no longer a lone, stray wanderer, but is seeking his way out to light in the company of kindred souls. A comprehensive and exhaustive study of native Jewish student bodies in countries like England, Germany, Austria, France and Italy, as well as of the Russian Jewish student colonies strewn all over Western Europe, would bring out, in the most striking manner, contrasting tendencies in modern Jewry. But that is far from the direct purpose of this brief paper. As a student and traveler in various European countries during the years 1912-1914 I had the opportunity of observing Jewish student life and Jewish conditions in general abroad, and it is merely a few random impressions of certain aspects of these European conditions that I have here gathered together for the readers of the Menorah Journal.

In England

JUDAISM in England, though of recent origin, is completely domesticated. The Jewish gentleman is becoming as standardized as the type of English gentleman. But more insular than the island itself, Anglo-Jewry, as a whole, prefers to remain within its natural boundaries, and is disinclined to become the bearer of the white Jew's burden. Two of her great Jews, indeed, had embarked upon a scheme of Jewish empire building. The attempts of both of them, however, ended in a fizzle, for one was an unimaginative philanthropic squire, and the other is an interpreter of the dreamers, himself too wide-awake to become a master of dreams.

Yet within its own narrow limits, Anglo-Jewry is active enough to keep in perfect condition. Over-exertion, however, is avoided. Cricket Judaism is played according to the rules of the game, and the players are quite comfortable in their flannels. The established synagogue of Mulberry Street is as staid and sober as the Church of England, the liberalism preached in Berkeley Street as gentle and unscandalizing as the nonconformity of the City Temple, and the orthodoxy of the United Synagogue as innocuously papish as the last phases of the Oxford movement.

In England it is quite fashionable to admit Judaism into the parlor. Parlor Judaism, to be sure, is not more vital a force nor more creative than kitchen Judaism, but it seems to be more vital than the Judaism restricted to the Temple. At least it is voluntary and personal, and, what is more important, it is engaging. So engrossed in the subject of his discussion was once my host at tea, that while administering the sugar he asked me quite absent-mindedly: "Would you have one or two lumps in your Judaism?" "Thank you, none at all," was my reply. "But I am wont to take my Judaism somewhat stronger, if you please."

Jewish Student Groups at Oxford and Cambridge

AS compared with ourselves, English Jews have a long tradition behind them, in which they glory. That tradition does not at present seem to stand any imminent danger of being interrupted. The younger generation follow in the footprints of the older. Nowhere is there so narrow a rift between Jewish fathers and sons as in England. Hence you do not find there any prominent organization of the young. Last winter an anonymous appeal for the organization of the Jewish students in England ran for several weeks in the Jewish Chronicle, but it seems to have resulted in nothing.

Independent local organizations of Jewish students, however, are to be found in almost every university in England. In Oxford and Cambridge they are organized in congregations, having Synagogues of their own, in which the students assemble for prayer on every Friday night and Saturday morning. In Cambridge they hold two services, an orthodox and a liberal, both well attended. In Oxford they have recently published a special prayer book of their own, suitable for the needs of all kinds of students, it being a medley of orthodoxy and liberalism, which if rather indiscriminate in its theology is, on the whole, made up with good common sense. English liberal Judaism, it should be observed, is markedly different from its corresponding cults in Germany and in the United States. In Germany, reformed Judaism has its nascence in free thought, and it aims to appeal to the intellectual. With us liberalism is stimulated by our pragmatic evaluation of religion, and is held out as a bait to the indifferent. In England it arises from the growing admiration on the part of a certain class of Jews for what they consider the inwardness and the superior morality of Christianity, and is concocted as a cure to those who are so affected. As a result, English liberal Judaism is more truly religious than the German, and more sincerely pious than the American. In a sermon delivered before the Oxford congregation, a young layman of the Liberal Synagogue of London apostrophized liberal Judaism as the safeguard of the modern Jews from the attractiveness of the superior teachings of Christ.

Social Service Work of Jewish Students

ENGLAND is the classic home of old-fashioned begging and of old-fashioned giving. You are stopped for a penny everywhere and by everybody, from the tramp who asks you to buy him a cup of tea, to the hospital which solicits a contribution to its maintenance "for one second." Pavement artists abound in Paris as much as in London, but in Paris it is a Bohemian-looking denizen of the "Quartier" posing as a pinched genius forced to sell his crayon masterpieces for a couple of sous, whereas in London it is always a crippled ex-soldier trying to arouse your pity in chalked words for a "poor man's talent." But England is also the classic home of modern social service of every description. The Salvation Army had its origin in London, where also Toynbee Hall, the first University settlement of its kind, came into existence. Likewise among the Jews, there are, on the one hand, the firmly established old-fashioned charitable institutions to help the "alien" brethren of the East End, and on the other hand, there are also the equally well organized boys' clubs for the "uplifting" of the "alien" little brethren of the same East End.

The Jewish University men in England take an active interest in both these branches of philanthropy. It was a fortunate coincidence that when I came to Oxford the Jewish students there had among them a social worker of the latter type, who had come to make arrangements for the reception of a squad of Whitechapel boys who were under his tutelage. When I afterwards went to Cambridge I found there a delegate of some charitable board of the London Jewish community, seeking to enlist the aid of the Jewish students in his work.

What the Bulletin Boards Told at Berlin

AT the University of Berlin I did not have to go far to find traces of the presence of Jewish students. With their far-famed efficiency the Germans have contrived to turn the large university hall into a medium of information more adequate than our University Bulletins and Registers combined. The bulletin boards covering every vacant spot on the walls told me the story of all the phases of Jewish activities in the University, professional, social, vocational and, if you please, also gastronomical, more fully than the frescoed walls of Dido's temple told their story to pious Æneas. In the announcement of courses by the various faculties, well-known Jewish names stand out quite prominently,—none of them above the rank of Honorar-Professor, to be sure, but in popularity and achievement they are among the foremost. Among the long rows of the variegated Wappen of the Korporationen, the Borussias, Teutonias and Germanias, there hang the insignia of the Jewish students' societies, the yellow and white of the Sprevia and the black and gold of the Hasmonea, both announcing the dates of their Kneipe held in their respective places in the students' quarters around Linienstrasse and Charlottenburg. In another nook of the hall, from the midst of a jumble of little slips of paper enumerating in minute detail in microscopic German script what dishes are offered at the paltry sum of so many pfennig in the various "Privat-Mittagtische" and "bürgerliche-Küche" there looms up unblushingly, proud in the clearness of its square characters, the Hebrew word כשר over the notice of a Lebanon restaurant run by a Palestinian Jew. Still further on the wall, students of unmistakably Jewish names offer instruction in almost all the languages spoken, while a German young lady wants to exchange lessons in Russian with an orthodox Christian and one who hails from the mendacious little country, cautiously states, as an inducement to a prospective pupil in the Roumanian tongue, that the would-be instructor is a true Roumanian. Here you have a picture of Jewish life in the Berlin University, in its outer paraphernalia, in its cosmopolitan character, in its relation to the rest of the student body, in its freedom and restriction, as portrayed in the unjaundiced tales of bulletin boards.

The Opposing Views of Student Societies at Berlin

OF the two Jewish organizations mentioned above, the Hasmonea is a branch of the inter-varsity K. Z. V. (Kartell Zionistischer Verbindungen), whereas the Sprevia belongs to the K.-C. (Kartell-Convent der Tendenzverbindungen deutscher Studenten jüdischen Glaubens). The former, as the name implies, is Zionistic; the latter is opposed to Zionism. Their relation to each other, however, is not like that between the Menorah and the Zionist societies in American colleges. The Hasmonea and the Sprevia are mutually exclusive, rather than complementary to each other. The German Jewish student does not come to the university with a mind open and free as to Judaism. He comes there with definite views on the subject which have already been crystallized under the influence of early training. Judaism, of whatever shade it may happen to be, is more potent a factor in the domestic life of German Jews and in the bringing up of the young than it is with us here. Jewish boys there evince a keener interest in Judaism than do Jewish boys in America. Their intelligent understanding of Judaism is therefore not necessarily preceded by a period of indifference and lack of knowledge. It steadily grows and develops with them from their early youth. And so by the time they enter the university, at an age somewhat older than that of our average freshman, their Jewish consciousness is mature and fixed. They are able to judge whether they can work for or against Zionism, for to them Zionism is the only vital question in present-day Judaism, a question which they are willing to face squarely and once for all determine their position towards it; and it is on this question of Zionism and the future destiny of the Jews as a nation that the two leading student organizations radically differ.

There is another quite as notable distinction between our Menorah and the Jewish students' organizations in Germany. With us the Menorah is primarily an undergraduate society. When graduate Menorah Societies arise, they may be confederated with the undergraduate organization, but they will of course retain their separate character. In Germany this distinction between undergraduate and graduate does not exist. Matriculation in the University, not the taking of a degree in it, introduces one into the society of the educated with its appellative "intellectual" corresponding to our "high-brow" rather than to our "college grad." Joining the membership of a student organization marks the entrance into that large class of "intellectuals." And once you join such an organization you are a member ever after. In Germany, in fact, nobody graduates from a university in the same sense that we do. There the taking of a degree is merely an episode. If you take it, you will thenceforth be addressed as "Herr Doktor"; if you do not take it, you will keep on printing on your visiting card "Kandidat Philosophie" all the rest of your lifetime, and be addressed by the uninitiate as "Herr Doktor" just the same. Thus the achievements generally ascribed to Jewish students' organizations in Germany are in reality the collective work of all the Jewish men of academic training, and not necessarily of students actually engaged in university studies. Read over the names of contributors to publications issued by what are known as "student organizations," and you will notice how loosely that term is used.

Intellectual Problems of the German Jewish Youth

THE Jewish university men in Germany, whom we commonly call Jewish students, take more interest in Jewish life than do our university men in this country. This is chiefly due to the peculiar position of the modern Jews in Germany. German Jewry, by the total disappearance of its laboring class during recent times, has ceased to be a people by itself and has become a part of the middle class of the general German population. Among the native Jews of Germany, if Berlin is to be taken as a typical example of Jewish communities in large cities, there is no organic social body, complete in itself, consisting of various classes, following all imaginable trades, ranging from the chimney-sweep and the cobbler to the merchant prince. Such communities, forming organic wholes in themselves, you may find in Russia, Galicia, Roumania, and in the newer Jewish settlements of England and America. You do not find them in Germany. Higher up in the social scale, Jews are represented everywhere, but lower down you cannot find any native Jew below a shop clerk or master tailor. Being thus interspersed among the middle class of the general population, that part of the population which more than any other sends its children to universities, the number of academically trained men engaged in liberal professions among the German Jews is exceedingly large. These professional Jews encounter greater difficulties in their careers than those engaged in commerce. While the latter are given free range for the development of the native Jewish talents, the former find their road toward recognition blockaded. Consequently they are hurled back upon their Judaism, and their energies not finding vent elsewhere turn into Jewish channels.

The activities of Jewish university men in Germany are chiefly literary and intellectual, for the problem with which they are faced is quite different from that of ours. With us the problem of Americanism and Judaism is in its ultimate analysis the possible conflict between two sets of social duties, in themselves not necessarily contradictory, which can be easily reconciled by a working program adjusting the practical demands of both without curtailing the scope and efficiency of either. For Americanism in the abstract has no existence. The American mind is as yet unknown in its essence; it is only manifest by its functions, of which Jewish activities may form a complementary part. In Germany it is quite different. If Germanism stand for Aryanism and Occidentalism, Judaism must inevitably stand for Semitism and Orientalism,—and can the twain ever meet? That the Jew manifests in his works and actions good practical patriotism does not radically solve the problem; that the Jews are capable of being good patriots is no longer questioned, but can they be genuine ones? Will not the Jews always remain the carriers of an alien culture, unabsorbable and unassimilable, despite their conversion and intermarriage? It is this problem that confronts the Jewish intellectuals in Germany, in the over-hanging shadow of which the "Sorrows of the Jewish Werther" was written, and the martyrdom of Otto Weininger, self-inflicted, was made possible. Hence the great introspective literary activity of the German Jewish youth.

There is, on the one hand, the great, ever-increasing inrush of the Jews into the inmost sanctum of German cultural life, where their Germanic protestations are more vociferous than those of the native Teuton,—and they sometimes have, too, as must be admitted, a false ring. Ludwig Fulda openly proclaims that as to his relation with Judaism there is none: Goethe is his Moses and the German war of liberation is his Exodus; and Jewish "Gymnasium" seniors inundate the columns of the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums with introspective analyses of their Teutonic souls. On the other hand, there are those who, while quite as good Germans as the others, so far as practical patriotism is concerned, do not renounce the intellectual and spiritual heritage which is their own. Their self-imposed task is therefore the cultivation, enrichment, and modernization of Jewish thought and tradition. Hence the great output of highly meritorious literary works on purely Jewish subjects which, if not as scholarly as those of the German Jewish scientists of the past generation, are far more stimulating and of greater educational value.

(To be concluded)

IT may interest you to know that in this country, during the early years of our leading universities, Hebrew not only formed, a subject of instruction, but also appeared upon the Commencement programs. Upon such grandiloquent occasions you will find that side by side with a poem in Greek there figured a speech in Hebrew. What the Hebrew was like that was poured out there I have difficulty in imagining. But that the instruction was of much use to the student, I have grave reasons to doubt. Will you allow me to read to you a note written in regard to that famous professor of Hebrew at Yale towards the end of the eighteenth century—Ezra Stiles. Stiles was a very learned Christian Hebraist. One of his pupils wrote about him: "For Hebrew he possessed a high veneration. He said one of the Psalms he tried to teach us would be the first we should hear sung in Heaven, and that he should be ashamed that any one of his pupils should be entirely ignorant of that holy language."—From a Menorah Address by Professor Richard Gottheil.

The Twilight of Hebraic Culture

The Transition from Hebraism to Judaism

By Max L. Margolis

MAX L. MARGOLIS MAX L. MARGOLIS (born in Merecz, Russia, in 1866), one of the leading Biblical scholars of America, received his education in Russia, Germany, and the United States (Columbia Ph.D. 1891). He has held important professorships of Semitics and Biblical Exegesis at the Hebrew Union College and the University of California,—and since 1909 has filled the chair of Biblical Philology in The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate learning. He has been engaged also, as Editor-in-Chief, in the monumental task of the new English translation of the Bible by American Jewish scholars. He is the author of numerous learned papers and books on Biblical lore and theology.

SO long as Jewish psalms are sung in the cathedrals of Christendom and Jewish visions are rehearsed by Christian catechumens, the Synagogue will continue to hold in veneration the chest where reposes its chiefest glory. Surely a book which thrills the religious emotions of civilized mankind cannot but be an object of pride to the people that produced it. Stupendous as the literary output of the Jewish people has been in post-biblical times, the Scriptures stand on a footing of their own. Throughout the era of the dispersion they have held their unique position and have exercised a most potent influence on the Jewish soul. And the modern man taught by Lowth and Herder, and the modern Jew under the spell of Mendelssohn and the Haskalah, have their minds open to the æsthetic side of the "Bible as literature."

To the Jew, however, the Scriptures are possessed of an interest beyond the religious and literary. They are the record of his achievements in the past when his foot rested firm and steady on native soil, of a long history full of vicissitudes from the time when the invaders battled against the kings of Canaan to the days when the last visionary steeled the nation's endurance in its struggle with the heathen. They are the charter of Jewish nobility, linking those of the present to the wanderer from Ur of the Chaldees.

As a finished product the Hebrew Scriptures came after the period of national independence. When canon-making was in its last stage, Jerusalem was a heap of ruins. The canon was the supreme effort of Judæa—throttled by the legions of Rome—withdrawing to its inner defences. The sword was sheathed and deliverance was looked for from the clouds. The Scriptures were to teach the Jew conduct and prayer, and the chidings of the prophets were listened to in a penitential mood, but also joyfully because of the consolations to which they led. The canon-makers had an eye to the steadying of a vanquished people against the enemy without and the foe within. For there arose teachers who proclaimed that the mission of the Jew was fulfilled: free from the fetters of a narrow nationalism, of a religion bound up with the soil, he was now ready to merge his individuality with the large world when once it accepted that measure of his teaching suited to a wider humanity. The temple that was made with hands was destroyed, and another made without hands was building where men might worship in spirit and truth. The dream was fascinating, the danger of absorption was acute, because it was dressed up with the trappings of an ideal to which many believed the Scriptures themselves pointed.

There was a much larger range of writings in Palestine and a still larger in Egypt. The list included historical works carrying on the story of the people's fortunes beyond Alexander the Great; novelistic tales like that of the heroic Judith luring the enemy of her people to destruction, or that exquisite tale of Jewish family life as exemplified by the pious Israelite captive Tobit; books like the wise sayings of Jesus, son of Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, or the Psalms of Solomon, all modelled after patterns in the canon; midrashic expositions of the law, like the Little Genesis; apocalyptic visions going by the name of Enoch and the Twelve Patriarchs and Moses and Isaiah and Esdras, whose prototype may be sought in the canonical Daniel. Over and above the three parts which the Synagogue accepted there were a fourth and fifth; but by an act of exclusion the canon was concentrated upon the three and the others were cast overboard. The canon was the creation of the Pharisaic doctors, who drew a line at a point of their own choosing, and decreed that writings "from that time onward" did not defile the hands.

The Making of the Canon by the Pharisees

THE Pharisee held the ground when the nation had politically abdicated. The war with Rome had been brought on by the intransigent hotspurs of Galilee and the commune of Jerusalem. John, son of Zakkai, parleyed with the enemy that Jamnia with its House of Study might go unscathed. There the process began which culminated in the gigantic storehouse of legal lore which was to dominate Jewish life and Jewish literature for centuries, commentary being piled upon commentary and code upon code. For in the sum total of Scriptures the Torah was admittedly to be the chief corner-stone, albeit prophecy and wisdom had not lost their appeal; and in moments of relaxation or when addressing their congregations worn out with the strife of the present, the scholars of the wise brought out of the ancient stock many a legend and quaint saying and even apocalyptic vision, transporting the mourners for Zion into the ecstasies of the future redemption. While official Judaism was committed to the dialectics of the Halakah, in the unofficial Haggadah mysticism exercised a potent influence by underground channels, as it were, issuing in later days in Kabbalah and offsetting the rational philosophies borrowed from Hellas. For the time being, however, the dominant note was legistic, Pharisean.

The Pharisees had been lifted by the national catastrophe into the leading position. They had previously been a party among many parties, and their Judaism one of the many varieties. The Sadducees, their chief opponents, had a literature of their own: the day upon which their "Book of Decrees" was consigned to destruction was made a legal holiday upon which fasting was prohibited. But even writings which were lightly touched by the Sadduccee spirit were frowned upon: the Siracide was barely tolerated on the outside because he made light of individual immortality, and believed in the eternity of Israel and the Zadokite priesthood. The Pharisees had been on the opposition during the latter period of the Maccabeans: so with partisan ruthlessness they excluded from the canon the writings commemorative of the valorous deeds of those priest-warriors who freed the people from foreign overlordship and restored the Davidic boundaries of the realm. Because the apocalyptic visions inclined to teachings not acceptable to the dominant opinion, they were declared not only heterodox, heretical, but worthy of destruction. Had the stricter view prevailed, the sceptical Preacher—now, to quote Renan, lost in the canon like a volume of Voltaire among the folios of a theological library—would have shared the fate of Sirach and Wisdom and the other writings which Egypt cherished after Palestine had discarded them. And there were mutterings heard even against the Song, that beautiful remnant of the Anacreontic muse of Judæa. It was then that Akiba stepped into the breach and by bold allegory saved that precious piece of what may be called the secular literature of the ancient Hebrews.

The process concluded by the Pharisees had begun long before. The Pharisee consummated what the scribe before him had commenced, and the scribe in turn had carried to fruition the work inaugurated by the prophet. Just as the Pharisee decreed what limits were to be imposed upon the third part of the Scriptures, the scribe in his day gave sanction to the second, and at a still earlier period the prophet to the wide range of literature current in his days. Sobered by national disaster, the scribe addressed himself to the task of safeguarding the remnant of Judæa in the land of the fathers. There were schisms in the ranks, and all kinds of heresies, chief among which stood the Samaritan. The nation's history was recast in a spirit showing how through the entire past faithful adherence to Mosaism brought in its wake national stability, and conversely a swaying from legitimacy and law was responsible for disaster. With the Torah as a guide, prophecy was forced into the channels of orthodoxy. Heterodox prophets, the "false prophets," were consigned to oblivion. Their opponents alone were given a hearing. Secular history there was to be none; there was room only for the sacred. We may take it for granted that the "prophets of Baal," as their adversaries triumphantly nicknamed them, had their disciples who collected their writings and recorded the deeds of their spirit. But they were one and all suppressed. The political achievements of mighty dynasts had been recorded by annalists; the pious narrators in the so-called historical books of the canon brush them aside, gloss over them with a scant hint or reference; what is of absorbing interest to them is the activity of an Elijah or an Elisha, or the particular pattern of the altar in the Jerusalem sanctuary. In their iconoclastic warfare upon the abomination of Samaria, the prophets gave a partisanly distorted view of conditions in the North which for a long time had been the scene of Hebrew tradition and Hebrew life.

The Death-blow to the Old Hebraic Culture

WHAT these upheavals meant in the history of Hebrew literature and culture can only approximately be gauged. One thing is certain: they all and one dealt the death-blow to the old Hebraic culture. When the excavator sinks his spade beneath the ground of a sleepy Palestinian village, he lays bare to view from under the overlaid strata, Roman and Greek and Jewish and Israelitish, the Canaanite foundation with its mighty walls and marvellous tunnels, its stelæ and statuettes, its entombed infants sacrificed to the abominable Moloch. Similarly if we dig below the surface of the Scriptures, we uncover glimpses of the civilization of the Amorite strong and mighty, which generations of prophets and lawmakers succeeded in destroying root and branch. On the ruins of the Canaanite-Amorite culture rose in the latter days Judaism triumphant; the struggle—prolonged and of varying success—marked the ascendancy of the Hebraic culture which was a midway station between the indigenous Canaanite civilization on the one hand and that mighty spiritual leaven, Mosaism in its beginnings and Judaism in its consummation, on the other. The Hebraic culture was a compromise. It began by absorbing the native civilization. The danger of succumbing to it was there, but it was averted by those whom their adversaries called the disturbers of Israel. And even to the last, when the sway of Judaism was undisputed, the Hebraic culture could not be severed from the soil in which it was rooted. It was part of a world-culture just as it contributed itself thereto.

Whether living in amity or in warfare, nations influence each other to a marked degree. They exchange the products of their soils and their industry—they also give and take spiritual possessions. Culture is a compound product. The factors that are contributory to its make-up are the soil and the racial endowment recoiling against the domination from without which, though not wholly overcome, is resisted with might and main. Cultures are national amidst an international culture. They express themselves in a variety of ways, chiefly in language and literature. For while blood is thicker than water, the pen is mightier than the sword. Out of a mass of myth and legend and worldly wisdom the Hebrews constructed, in accordance with their own bent of mind, their cosmogonies and ballads and collections of proverbs. At every shrine the priests narrated to the throngs of worshippers the marvelous stories of local or national interest.

The Difference Between Hebraic Culture and Judaism

THE chief feature of the Hebraic culture was that it was joyous. The somber seriousness of latter-day Judaism had not yet penetrated it. Israel rejoiced like the nations. The young men and maidens danced and wooed in the precincts of the sanctuaries which dotted the country from Dan to Beersheba. The festivals were seasons of joy, the festivals of the harvest and of the vintage. The prophets called them carousals and dubbed the gentlemen of Samaria drunkards. Probably there were excesses. But life was enjoyed so long as the heavens withdrew not the moisture which the husbandman was in need of. The wars which the Kings waged were the wars of the Lord, and the exploits of the warriors were rehearsed throughout the land—they were spoken of as the Lord's righteous acts. National victories strengthened the national consciousness. Taunt songs were scattered on broadsides. The enemy was lampooned. At the height of national prosperity, when Israel dwelt in safety in a land of corn and wine moistened with the dew of the heavens, the pride of the nation expressed itself in the pæan, "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, a people victorious through the Lord, the shield of thy help, and that is the Sword of thy excellency!" Excellency then meant national independence and welfare. It was the period of the Omrides whose exploits are merely hinted at in our sources, whose sway marked the nascent struggle between Hebraism and Judaism. For the time being, Hebraic culture was on the ascendant, successor to the indigenous Canaanite civilization which it had absorbed, remodelled, developed.

The chief difference between the Hebraic culture and Judaism which supplanted it consists in the fact that, whereas the latter was bookish, transforming its votaries into the "people of the book," the former was the sum total of all that goes to make up the concern of a nation living upon its own soil. Bookishness, literature, has a place in the affairs of a nation, but it contributes only a side in its manifold activities. The spoken word precedes the written. The writer has an eye to aftertimes. He lives in the future. The speaking voice addresses itself to the present and its varied needs. Saints are canonized after death. The act of canonization means the verdict of the survivors who from a distance are able to gauge the merits of past deeds. When a literature is pronounced canonical or classical, it is no more. In its dying moments it is reduced to rule, and its range becomes norm. But normalization is an act of choosing, of accepting and excising. A living literature is far from being normalized. Much that is written serves a temporary purpose, but is none the less effective while it has vogue. However, it is only a part of the national activities, mirroring them and commenting upon them. So is religion another part of the national life. Government policy and legal procedure and the arts and the crafts occupy a nation's living interests. The Hebraic culture meant all that. It is now a thing of the distant past. It speaks to us from beneath the Hebrew Scriptures by which it is overlaid, themselves the remnant of what in times gone by stirred the nation's spirit. A revival of that culture may come, but when it comes it will be tempered by Judaism. And the Hebrew Scriptures which constitute the bridge between them both will act as the peacemaker.

Signature: Max L. Margolis

JEWISH knowledge to me is valuable in the sense in which the word "knowledge" is employed in Hebrew. For "to know" in Hebrew (yada) does not merely mean to conceive intellectually, but expresses at the same time the deepest emotions of the human soul; it also means to care, to cherish, to love. It is remarkable indeed that the only Hebrew expression which in any way approaches what in modern languages we call religion is daath elohim, the knowledge of God. It is no less remarkable that the fundamental concept formulated by one of the greatest thinkers who proceeded from Jewish loins, by Baruch Spinoza, is amor Dei intellectualis, "the intellectual love of God," that is, the mental and yet emotional conception of the Supreme Power that rules the universe. If I were to wish for anything, it would be for an amor Judaismus intellectualis, "an intellectual love of Judaism," not shallow love and hollow self-complacency that cover every sin. We want to be frank about our Judaism, we want to be clear about our faults, we want to remedy our faults whenever we can, but at the same time we want to have the sympathy that goes with knowledge.—From a Menorah Address by Professor Israel Friedlaender.

Days of Disillusionment

By Samuel Strauss

SAMUEL STRAUSS SAMUEL STRAUSS (born in Des Moines, Ia., in 1870), was publisher of the Des Moines Leader from 1895 to 1904, and became publisher of the New York Globe in 1904. Since 1912 he has been associated with the management of the New York Times. Mr. Strauss has taken an active and effective interest in many worthy movements for Jewish betterment. He is a member of the Graduate Advisory Menorah Committee and of the Menorah College of Lecturers. His impressive and stimulating talks have given him marked popularity with the Menorah Societies.

WE are at present witnessing an instance of the truth that a great crisis is always a test for genuineness. Since August 1st a number of things seemingly vital have come tumbling to the ground as mere inflated delusions or comparative trifles formerly viewed out of all perspective. Men are beginning to realize that they have been deceiving themselves, and the immediate effect is disappointment.

What profit will be derived from it all is as yet merely a matter for speculation. Not yet have men been able to think of the conflict in other than negative terms, to see in it other than despair, crippled industry, a fall from civilization, all that belongs on the debit side of the ledger. But there is also a credit side: and to realize that the effects of war are positive as well as negative is by no means to condone war, but only to accept it as a fact.

History teaches us to expect that the positive result of this struggle will be in the nature of a physic—a dissolving away of delusions, and simultaneously a bringing into relief of some essential facts. This clearing of the ground will not wait until the war is over; it has already begun, though men are yet but half-conscious of it, and then only in the guise of profitless disillusionment. This state of mind is understandable enough. The spectacle of thousands going out by trainload to settle differences through slaughter has been a terrible shock. Individuals, having progressed beyond that stage, had assumed that collectively, too, men must share the same aversion to so illogical a method as murder for the solution of differences. This assumption has had root in a justifiable belief in the world's attainment to a higher plane of civilization. The quality of to-day's culture may not be so fine as that of Judæa, of Greece, or Rome, or of the Renaissance, but surely in no period of history has its extent been so great. Never had the entire world been nearer denationalization, never had the economic interdependence of nations been more complete. Jingoism has seemed obsolete, cosmopolitanism had seemed the ideal, as the horizon of an increasing number of individuals broadened out, and prejudice gave way before enlightenment. But now this assumption is suddenly discovered to be mere delusion, and at once much scorn is heaped upon "our alleged civilization." How much justification there is for disappointment over the failure of culture to influence action is difficult to determine. There is much confusion of thought on this point. To conclude that because nations go to war, individuals have therefore made practically no advance from the original state of barbarism is absurd. What should be clear is the danger of generalizations from the individual to groups of the individual—two psychologically different entities. It may be that even as communities we have progressed more than we believe, as some future reaction to this war may indicate, but what is brought to the surface now is the old fact that the progress of groups of men is at snail's pace, however men may forge ahead as individuals.

This refreshed realization is by no means of negative value. It is rather a positive benefit, and should be fixed in the minds of all men who are striving collectively for various ends. For political parties, socialists, suffragists, all and sundry reformers, this realization should be the starting point from which to readjust programs when the cataclysm is over.

For the Jewish people this realization is peculiarly significant. Though the outlines of the general situation the world over are as yet indistinct, some problems of the Jews have already been brought out into sharp relief. Like the rest of mankind, the Jew has had his eyes cruelly opened, and the clear boundary between truth and delusion which this war has made should be stamped upon his memory, to remain vivid after negative feelings of wrongs and disappointments have been forgotten.

The Delusion of Assimilation

IN the past hundred years, the Jew has had more reason than at any time since the dispersal to consider himself assimilated in all save the Slav countries. Not that anti-Semitism had disappeared; but it had seemed to be, and indeed is, so much less important when viewed against the background of the Jew's positive advance to light and freedom. Explained more recently as a survival of many prejudices which do not die overnight, including the old religious differences, physical and mental antipathies, economic jealousies—the force of anti-Semitism was not only weakened by the increasing breadth of vision, the cosmopolitanism on which the world has plumed itself, but dwarfed by the achievement of the Jew himself. He has come out of his Ghetto; softened by a more liberal attitude on the part of his individual neighbor, he has largely laid aside his resentment and his hostility. There was a feeling that adaptation and assimilation had advanced so far that the Jew, by his own progress and with the consent of his neighbor, had become a citizen of his community, differentiated from the rest, if at all, only by what he chose to keep of his religious belief. Those who have most zealously argued for assimilation as the sole solution of the Jewish problem have had little need of late to push their gospel further; the process seemed to be taking excellent care of itself. But after all, it was not real. A drastic crisis like the present one was required to brand it as delusion. The attitude of the occasional individual was construed as the attitude of the entire community. This has been a double-edged delusion. The Jew has not judged himself as a community in relation to his neighbor, and he has misjudged his individual neighbor as a community in relation to himself.

It takes two sides always to make up the full truth, but from both sides, from the Jew and from his neighbor, there is circumstantial evidence in the events of the past five months that gives abundant support to this conclusion.

In this time of crisis the world has thrown aside its pretense, honest and well-intentioned pretense though it may have been, and revealed its underlying feeling toward the Jewish people. Suddenly, without any absolute change in their status, the Jews are singled out and set apart. Special inducements are held out for their support. The Czar, though this was reported upon dubious authority, addresses his "beloved Jews;" a non-commissioned Jewish officer is recommended for the Order of St. George; Dreyfus is decorated in France, his son made Lieutenant; Austria issues a special appeal to the Jews of Poland; an English Jew voices England's hope of their loyalty; in Germany anti-Semitic newspapers suddenly announce their discontinuance.

The Test of Jewish Patriotism

IT is not a new story. Doubt of the Jew's place in time of war has been continuous. Through the centuries there has been report that he has dodged his war tax wherever he could, that he bought soldiers to fill his place in the ranks, that as financier he offered his gold without scruple to the bitterest foes of his own fatherland. How much of this is based on blind prejudice is beside the point. What is important is the effect that this doubting attitude has had on the Jew's normal impulse to render patriotic service. The Jew to-day who feels most keenly the cause of Germany, or of France, or of England in this war, who most unreservedly throws in his lot with his compatriots, glorying in a privilege long withheld, moved to an intense fervor of patriotism, cannot but be disheartened at the spectacle of his neighbors as in one way or another they give evidence of their lack of faith in him.

Why this feeling of distrust? How has it been engendered, what are its roots? Again the answer is to be found both with the Jew himself and with his neighbor.

As far as the present situation is concerned, the Gentile world has had lying dormant in its subconscious mind the notion that the Jew was inferior, and by its own action it has kept this subconscious notion alive. For while the world has admitted the Jew to its political life, while it has modified much its religious and its economic prejudices and jealousies, it has not broken down every barrier. Without fully realizing its attitude, it has still held the Jew to be different and of lower quality. The Jew's neighbors have had an honest sort of delusion about their attitude toward the Semite; because they had discovered the individual Jew, and taken him, as it were, into the arms of their community life, they have fancied that all prejudice, even toward the Jew as a class, had become obsolete. Here again there is evidence of the fact that feeling toward Jews as individuals has been mistaken for feeling toward the Jews as a race group.

This delusion has its base in something more fundamental, to which may be accredited perhaps the distrust against which the Jews have been battling for centuries. It is not the stranger who inspires continued suspicion, for he soon ceases to be a stranger, but it is the wanderer and the gypsy. There is imbedded in human nature a distrust of shifting things and a respect for what is long established in any one place, and it is in the wandering class that the Jew is placed in spite of all talk of assimilation. He has had no point of departure and hence no place of arrival. The French have crossed over the Channel and become Englishmen; one would hardly know that the Romans still live on in the Tyrol; but the Jew has always remained Jew, for he has no established place from which to come and whither to return.

"A People Without A Home"

NOT only have the Jews been looked upon by others as a people without a home; subconsciously they have always regarded themselves as such. To-day a gigantic fund is proposed for the relief of the Jews affected by the present war, by the very ones who have argued most persistently for adaptation and assimilation. Yet this is a relief fund not for Belgian Jews, nor French Jews, nor German Jews, but for all Jews irrespective of the side on which they fight. The Jews are not thinking of themselves in terms of citizens or subjects of this or that country, but only as members of the Jewish race, who have no unity save as members of that race. It is the surest indication that beneath all self-delusion the Jews have subconsciously realized themselves as a homeless people, men without a country. Is it strange that the rest of the world should regard the Jew as alien when he cannot but hold himself as such?

It would seem that this argument leads along a straight path towards Zionism as its conclusion. But practical Zionism, like all other programs of reconstruction, must await a time which will admit of reconstruction, and that is not the present. It may be that when this war is concluded, world conditions will have so completely changed that Zionism and its geographic program will no longer be the answer to the problem of Jewry. All that is certain of it now is its uncertainty. But the spirit of which Zionism is the expression, and which has made of it more than a mere experiment in colonization, still remains, emphasized by the self-realization to which the Jews have been brought in the present conflict.

The Persistence of the Jewish Faith

IN every crisis, even in those which have swept whole nations from existence, the Jew has always found himself with one inalienable possession—his faith. There is something mystifying about the persistence through so many vicissitudes of a religion which commands respect from neighbors who see in it a powerful inspiration, while the Jew himself, especially the Jew more fortunately placed in the general community, endeavors so often to cast it off as outworn and impracticable. It is the Jew himself who has misled the rest of the world into a delusion. He has seemed to consider himself, and the faith with which he is bound up, inferior. In his endeavor to take on the color of his environment, he has sought to lay aside all that was old, and of this the religion of his fathers was a part. But a faith as strong and as far-reaching as Judaism cannot be dropped out of the life into which it has been ingrained, and hence the Jew has been hard put to cover it up, to hide it, or to attempt its modification to fit the fashion in religions. The inevitable reaction on the non-Jewish part of the community has been a feeling of mystification, and, following on that, suspicion and distrust.

It is this which has undermined confidence in the Jews as a people—their negation of that which is their valuable heritage. For Judaism is not merely tradition, a thing to be reverenced as a relic; it is a thing to be put to everyday use. This practical and vitalized Judaism is the real salvation for which the Jews have been groping, all the while under the delusion that it was anywhere but near at hand. Such a rejuvenated faith would mean an end of that homelessness which is accountable for much of the Jew's displacement in the world's life. And though the remedy has been intimate to him these many years he has failed to make positive use of it. It is true that the Zionists have been striving for a geographical base for Judaism. But a geographical base is never more than an outward expression of a people's unity; it is an excellent starting point, but as an end in itself it is nothing. The Jews had a geographical base for their start; thereby they were enabled to build up a unified result, the Jewish spirit. It is this which, if recognized as a positive fact, will take from the Jew his feeling of homelessness, and from his neighbor the notion that the Jew is a member of a tribe forever unestablished and purposeless. It is around a spiritual core that the Jews as a people must build, around that central force which has thus far held them intact.

The Spiritual Service of the Jew

AND never has there been a time, it would seem, when not only the Jews themselves but the world at large were so ready for this reconstruction. If in the very near future, as seems probable, the Jews are again to play a prominent rôle in history, it will be more largely through the pressure exerted by the world outside than through their own initiative. Men are coming more and more to need what the Jewish people, under certain conditions, are peculiarly qualified to bestow. The period of materialism now undoubtedly coming to a close has brought with it a heavy burden of discontent, and there has been a turning from tangible comforts, a reaching out for spiritual consolation. Under the rule of enlightenment religion has gone away, and the world begins to feel its lack. One may not prophesy that religion is soon to return, but the suggestion of its coming is in the air. What the Jew will then be able to furnish may now be an open question, but the great fact of his religion is undeniable. It should be remembered that only in things spiritual has the Jew been able to render world service; in material progress he has been able to do little more than march with the rank and file. Should the Jew again lead in the world, it must be in a time when the things of the spirit are paramount in men's desires. With the hope that such a time is near at hand, the Jew should retrim his lamp, in the faith that it may help to illuminate much that had fallen into darkness.

Signature: Samuel Strauss

Three University Addresses

I

President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale University
Before the Yale Menorah Society, October 14, 1914

Arthur T. Hadley

IT is a great pleasure for me to speak to the Menorah Society, and a double pleasure when I see beside me the Menorah emblem, the emblem of light, "the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace." Jewish history is embodied in a great literature, and a literature which is worthy of deep and earnest study. It is the common heritage of all mankind, and should be studied by every man who lays claim to culture and education.

By studying the literature of the Jewish race, men at Yale and elsewhere can do a great work for the learning and for the inspiration of our country; especially can this Society do a noble and inspiring work. History is in large measure made by the study of the literatures of ancient races. What was it that waked Europe during the dark ages from her apathy and ignorance but the discovery and the revival of the Greek and Latin classics by enthusiastic scholars? In the various centres of learning at the end of what we call the "dark ages," we find groups of earnest young men devoting themselves to this study, and in these groups we find the influence which roused Europe from her period of intellectual torpor.

Classics are the literatures which thus make history; which serve the needs of all peoples, voicing truths of universal application. And though it is to the Greek and Latin that the name classics has been often confined, yet the Hebrew classics are being recognized more and more as worthy of a place beside if not above them. Interest in the Jewish classics never utterly perished. Throughout all ages the theologian kept alive his interest in those writings; but there is something of more than mere professional interest in these studies, something which closely touches every man's development and experience.

It is not for me to attempt to say what these writings mean to humanity. Biblical writings are far above any individual praise. But I may with propriety say the reading of the Hebrew writings in English has meant much to me personally. As a boy I read fewer books than do youngsters of the present day, and among them the Bible was one of extraordinary interest. I read the Psalms and Isaiah as wonderful poetry, and turned to the Bible as to a storehouse of historical literature.

Hebrew history has been of great importance in the early history of our country. The early settlement in America was due to the same causes as the settlement of Canaan by the Hebrews. To the Pilgrim Fathers the Old Testament was a supporting hand and a guide for them in all matters. They took the Jewish theocracy as their model of government and, in the measure that they patterned after a good model, they achieved good results. So largely are the early history and institutions of the United States a copy of Jewish institutions that the spirit of the American people both before and after the Revolution cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of Hebrew literature. These early settlers were imbued with spirit and desire for the best in life by reading the Bible. It was their one book, and "a man of one book makes a strong man." And perhaps it is the Old Testament rather than the New Testament the knowledge of which is of greater consequence for the best understanding of the peculiar conditions of the early American people.

Therefore I welcome your Society first because it represents something which has done much for learning in our great centres of learning, the universities; and second, because as Americans, Jewish history means much to us in understanding the early development of our own country.

II

Chancellor Elmer E. Brown of New York University
Before the Menorah Society of New York University, May 12, 1914

Chancellor Elmer E. Brown

IT seems to me that it is not only of value to the Jewish students, but to the whole university, that there should be a body here devoted to the study of Jewish tradition, Jewish literature and Jewish history. You are emphasizing something that is of permanent value to your associates here in the University who are not of the Jewish race and the Jewish faith. The Christian Church finds in the Jewish Scriptures some of the finest and most precious of the things it cherishes from the religious point of view. Our civilization in these occidental countries is deeply indebted to the history and the literature of the Jewish race. From time to time that indebtedness comes to stronger expression, and we may expect that in the future the sense of that indebtedness of our whole people to that which is the immediate concern of the Menorah Society will be more keenly felt.

If you go back in the history of this country you will find a time when our New Englanders were especially indebted to what they as Christians called the Old Testament. There was a time in Colonial days when the earlier portions of this literature exercised a mighty influence over these new commonwealths. As you read the history of New England you cannot help being profoundly impressed by the influence of the Hebrew literature upon the life of the seventeenth century. The names and references to the Jewish people are all interwoven with New England history. I was thinking of a curious illustration of this fact only a short time ago. You know the old poem of "Darius Green and His Flying Machine" that has come into astonishingly new popularity in modern times. It contains, you will recall, an enumeration of the brothers of Darius, and four of the five names are taken from Hebrew history. The appearance of these Jewish names in such large numbers is coincident with a reappearance of Hebrew spirit in our Colonial times, all modified of course by Christian tradition, but presenting a most important and essential ingredient of the time. This apparently trivial illustration simply shows that which is to be found in our whole culture. It is profoundly significant in regard to our American culture.

So it seems to me that the Menorah Society has work of two kinds—to bring together our Jewish students on a higher plane of sentiment, and at the same time to put new emphasis, in all parts of the University, on the invaluable things which the Jewish race has contributed to the civilization of the world. So I feel that I may look to you of this organization to bring to New York University a new emphasis upon these great things which are the common heritage of our scholastic society. I trust that you will feel that there is a genuine warmth and a genuine interest in the welcome that I extend to you,—not a welcome to the University alone, but a welcome to this new service in this University, in which every movement such as this has work to do for the good of all.

III

President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Cincinnati
Before the Cincinnati Menorah Society, November 19, 1914

STANDING as it does for the study of the history and culture of the Jewish people, and for the advancement of their ideals, the Menorah Society is welcomed to the University of Cincinnati. This University, of all institutions, should welcome every such organization. The University of Cincinnati claims to represent the idea of the democracy of the higher education, the equality of opportunity for the highest culture in its latest form. The American idea is that the university should be as free to all cultures as our country is free to all races. Standing for this idea more distinctly than any other type of institution among us, the American state university has been called the characteristic institution of the republic. But the municipal university is destined to democratize the higher education even more completely than the state university. The state university makes the higher education free to all who can come to it, but the municipal university takes it to the poorest citizen at his home.

For these reasons, if for no other, we should welcome the Menorah Society into our midst. As I was just informed that the national convention of the Intercollegiate Association is about to take place, let me, on behalf of this University, say to you, Mr. Chancellor, as the representative of the national organization, that we are glad to extend an invitation to your convention to meet in our halls.

There are special reasons, too, why we should welcome the Menorah Association here. We believe that the University and its members need this Society for several reasons. In the first place, a great democratic institution like this can grow only when all the races bring into it their peculiar customs and ideals. I believe the non-Jews need it as well as the Jews. It takes varied elements to make up the democracy, and America, and Cincinnati, and its University all need the spiritual resources of the Jew. I am impressed with the statement of the purposes of the Menorah Society as explained by the Chancellor in the address to which we have just listened.

He tells us first of all that its object is to promote the study of the history of the Jewish race. Your ancient books are the sources of all history; in fact, I cannot conceive of the study of history unless it begins with, or takes up very early, these great historic books of the Bible. They furnish the Ariadne's thread for the wanderer through all history; they are the fountain head also of the philosophy of history. The old Jewish historians always took the teleological view of the world and looked from the effect back to the cause, interpreting human events in the terms of God, the designer, the creator, and the governor of the world. In fact, their great contribution to history was this doctrine of God's hand in human events.

The Jew had also, it seems to me, throughout his whole history, a special talent for theistic truth, for those verities that are eternal. With an insight and a power almost surpassing all other men, he discovered truths which have ever been, and always will be, essential factors in all religion. The first of these ideas is his conception of Jahveh, not only as a sovereign, powerful, and terrible Being, but as a personal, holy, righteous, and good Father, "who pitieth his children." Your Bible, however, nowhere tries to prove the existence of a God; it everywhere assumes it. "It is the fool who says in his heart there is no God," declares the Psalmist.

For the same reason, your great books are the world's text book of comparative religion. I cannot conceive of any one studying religions without going to them, for above all others the Jewish religion is original. For these and many more reasons, we hold that the history, religion and philosophy of the Hebrews is fundamental and indispensable for the student of these subjects—in fact, for all students of the humanities.

It was the Jew who discovered conscience, also, and produced in due time an order of men who made themselves the conscience of their nation. Moses first formed a law declaring the word of God and teaching men their relations to God and to each other. Other nations have had priests and augurs who received the oblations of the people and gave them advice about their affairs, but the Jewish nation was the first to produce real prophets who dared to denounce the sins of the people and remind them of their duty as men and nations. What the world needs today is another line of such prophets.

To the young men assembled here tonight, I would say, therefore, it is your duty to study the history, philosophy and theology presented in these ancient Scriptures, and thus inform yourselves how to instruct this great democratic people. Be prophets like the prophets of old to guide the people into the truth!

The Jews were the first people to uphold the sacred character of patriotism, the patriotism of principle, not of mere power, the patriotism that teaches that it is not might that makes right, but right which makes might. How sadly the European powers need to learn this lesson today! Only "righteousness exalteth the nation" and gives it the power and the right to lead in the world. If nations would seek righteousness as a means of winning leadership, they would never need to go to war, and the exercise of might would never be necessary.

Because this Society proposes to study the great history and literature which teaches these things, we give it a welcome tonight, and pray that the light held up by the Menorah may shine not only for the people of Cincinnati, but for the people of America, and the world, that all the nations may be guided into that righteousness which leads to Peace.

The Menorah Movement

By Henry Hurwitz

Chancellor of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

I

THE MENORAH MOVEMENT is now in its ninth year. Starting at Harvard University, where the first Menorah Society was organized in October, 1906, the idea spread to other colleges and universities in various parts of the country. Societies arose at Columbia, College of the City of New York, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Minnesota, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Before long a common desire was felt for closer relationship and co-operation. This led to the holding of two intercollegiate conferences early in 1912: one, an eastern conference, at Columbia University, in January, with delegates from six Menorah Societies, and another, a western conference, at the University of Chicago, in April, where also six Societies were represented. As a result of these preliminary gatherings, the first national convention of Menorah Societies was called at the University of Chicago, in January, 1913. Delegates of twelve Menorah Societies from universities in both the East and the West came together, and seven other Societies were heard from. At this national convention, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association was formed.

In a period of less than two years since this first convention, the number of Societies has grown from nineteen to thirty-five. There are Societies now at the following colleges and universities: Boston University, Brown, California, Chicago, Cincinnati, College of the City of New York, Clark, Colorado, Columbia, Cornell, Denver, Harvard, Hunter, Illinois, Johns Hopkins, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York University, North Carolina, Ohio State, Omaha, Pennsylvania, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Radcliffe, Rutgers, Texas, Tufts, Valparaiso, Washington, Western Reserve, Wisconsin, and Yale. New Societies are in the process of formation at several other universities.

This development of the Menorah movement has from the very beginning been a natural, unforced growth. The Intercollegiate Menorah Association makes no effort to organize new Menorah Societies; its policy is rather to encourage and assist the efforts of students who, wishing to join in the movement, have undertaken on their own initiative to organize Menorah Societies at their colleges and universities. Hence every Menorah Society is the result of a spontaneous desire among students to organize for Menorah purposes.

The first Menorah Society started with sixteen members. Now the total membership of Menorah Societies approximates 3,000. The Menorah idea is firmly implanted in leading colleges and universities throughout the country, from Massachusetts to California.

II

EVERY Menorah Society is organized to promote at its college or university the study of Jewish history and culture and contemporary Jewish problems. First of all, the Menorah Societies aim to spread a knowledge of the Jewish humanities—Jewish literature, religion, and ideals—and of their influence upon civilization. In other words, the Societies aim to promote a true appreciation of the spirit and achievements of the Jewish people, from ancient to modern times. Particular study is made of contemporary conditions and problems, and of the ways in which Jewish culture may not only be conserved but advanced. To this end, the Menorah Societies strive to inspire the Jewish student with an intelligent and spirited devotion to Jewish ideals, and with the desire to develop and contribute to the community what is best in his Jewish character and endowment.

Thus, in endeavoring to promote knowledge, culture, idealism, the Menorah Societies are in keeping with the university spirit which has helped to call them into existence. The Societies are an expression of the liberality and freedom of American universities. Membership is open to all students and instructors. College and university authorities have heartily welcomed the Menorah Societies, have aided them in carrying out their objects, have enhanced their influence among the students at large, and have been most generous in recognizing the definite contribution which the Societies make to the intellectual and idealistic life of their universities.

Not only the university authorities, but the graduates, too, and other public-spirited men and women outside of the universities, have warmly welcomed the Menorah Movement. They see in it the expression of a spontaneous and earnest desire on the part of growing numbers of Jewish students for Jewish knowledge and idealism, for a realization of the Jewish noblesse oblige; they see, too, that this movement is bound at the same time to help bring about a more just and liberal attitude on the part of university men and women in general toward the character and ideals of their Jewish fellow-citizens.

Through the encouragement and generous support provided by a Graduate Advisory Menorah Committee, under the chairmanship of Justice Irving Lehman of New York, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association is being helped materially in carrying out its objects.

III

WHILE the purposes of all the Menorah Societies are identical, they are free to carry out these purposes in any ways they choose, along lines that best suit their local conditions and are in keeping with the academic and liberal character of the organization. Certain activities, however, are followed in common by most of the Societies.

To begin with, it may be stated that all of the Menorah Societies strongly encourage their members to take the regular courses in Jewish history and literature wherever such courses are a part of the curriculum and are devoted not so much to technical learning as to a liberal and humane study of Jewish culture. Where such courses are not offered—and it is unfortunately true that many institutions are deficient in this regard—the Menorah students are creating a demand which, it is hoped, will be met in time by the offer of appropriate courses. It is even hoped that a number of the leading universities will eventually have special Chairs in Jewish history and culture.

Meanwhile, however, whether to supplement or to take the place of regular courses, the Menorah Society enables its members—or, rather, all the members of the university who so desire—to pursue their interest in Jewish studies in less formal manner. Thus, the Societies have lectures on Jewish subjects by members of the faculties, or by men from outside their universities. In this connection, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has been of considerable service to the various Societies. The Association has established the Menorah College of Lecturers, consisting of a number of Jewish scholars, publicists, and religious leaders, who have undertaken to lecture (for love) before the Societies. Their lectures, which are generally followed by informal discussions, are, as a rule, open to the whole university, and are often held not merely under the auspices of the Menorah Society, but also in conjunction with some department of the university, or with some other student organization. At times, the Menorah lecturers are invited by the university authorities to address the whole student body at assemblies and convocations.

At other Menorah meetings, the members themselves present papers and carry on discussions upon Jewish topics of historic and literary as well as current interest.

Not content, however, with such lectures, papers, and discussions, most of the Societies provide their members with opportunities for intensive and systematic study. Study groups are formed, under the leadership of older students or of competent men from outside the universities, for the purpose of regular study in Jewish history, religion and literature, or contemporary Jewish conditions and problems, or the Hebrew language, or any other special field of interest. The work of these groups is carried on along the lines of a regular class or seminar, though, of course, with less rigor and formality.

IV

AS an incentive to original investigation on the part of the students, several Menorah Societies have been enabled to offer prizes to their universities for the best essays on Jewish subjects. Thus, at Harvard, since 1907, through the generosity of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, of New York, the Menorah Society has offered an annual prize of $100 for the best essay written by any undergraduate on some approved Jewish subject; and similarly, at the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, through the generosity of Mr. Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago, the Menorah Societies are enabled to offer prizes of $100 each to their Universities upon the same terms. (Menorah Prize Essays will be printed from time to time in this Journal.) One or two other Societies have been enabled to offer smaller prizes. All of the Societies are anxious to be of similar service to their universities, and it is hoped that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association may be enabled next year to offer prizes open to the undergraduates of all American colleges and universities. This should help materially to stimulate Jewish study among students throughout the country.

Perhaps the most essential requirement for carrying on Jewish study is an adequate supply of books. Except at the larger institutions, there has been a notable lack of Jewish books at American colleges and universities, mainly, no doubt, because Jewish studies as a whole have been neglected. The Intercollegiate Menorah Association has fortunately been able to remedy these conditions to some extent at the institutions where Menorah Societies exist. With the assistance of the Jewish Publication Society and a number of individuals, the Association has sent Menorah Libraries of Jewish books to the various Menorah Societies. These books are for the use not only of Menorah Societies, but of all the students in their universities. That the Menorah Libraries have helped the work of the Societies, and have added appreciably to the library facilities at the various institutions, is abundantly shown by the gratitude expressed both by students and authorities.

Yet the work of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has only begun. Its field is almost unlimited; and with constantly growing membership, both of undergraduates and of graduates, with the increasing encouragement and support from men and women in all parts of the country, the Association is gathering strength for enterprises that must prove beneficial not to universities alone, but to the community in general. Thus, the Menorah Journal is launched this year in response to a desire not only on the part of the students, but of men and women throughout the country who have been wanting such a Review of Jewish life and literature in America. Other literary enterprises are contemplated for the future. Besides syllabi for the study groups, pamphlet essays, and similar facilities designed especially for students, one large scheme in mind may appropriately be mentioned here as of interest to all the readers of the Journal, namely, the plan for the Menorah Classics. These are to be the selected treasures of the literature of the Jewish people, from the Bible to Bialik, printed in attractively handy form, with translations and notes designed for the general reader as well as for students. In this way, it is hoped to place the gems of the great store of Jewish literature within the reach of all.

V

THE work of the Menorah Societies is not designed to make Jewish scholars of the members. It is meant to gratify their desire to understand their heritage, to stimulate them still further to study that heritage, to help them realize the honor and the responsibility they share as the heirs and trustees of Jewish tradition. And though the earnest work of Menorah Societies partakes largely of the spirit of the class-room and the lecture-hall, the pursuit of Menorah aims expresses itself incidentally in sociable ways as well. Smokers, dinners, pageants, literary and dramatic evenings, testify to the pleasure which the members find in their association together for Menorah purposes.

Menorah Societies, however, do not assume the character of social organizations. Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, not exclusive; they promote democracy, mutual respect, and understanding between different types of Jewish students who have often in the past retained toward one another the prejudices of their elders. The Menorah fellowship expresses and promotes the common sentiment of all students who have come to appreciate Jewish knowledge and ideals, who accept their common Jewish heritage and Jewish hopes. In other words, where in the past snobbery and spinelessness were not lacking among Jewish students at our universities, there has grown up now a spirit of democracy and of manly frankness, which has not escaped the observation of older men, both within and without the universities.

But these qualities in the Jewish students of to-day have merely been revealed by the Menorah movement. The movement has definite moral purposes of its own. The Menorah idea embraces not merely the study but the enhancement of the Jewish heritage. And this requires not moral enthusiasm alone, but vision and action. To accomplish their full purposes, the Menorah Societies endeavor to inspire their members with the will to throw themselves into the heart of Jewish life, to join hands with other men in the active effort to advance its interests and solve its problems.

While this participation in Jewish life must be the personal outcome of Menorah enthusiasm and activity—as indeed has been proven already among students and graduates—the Menorah organization, as such, maintains its non-partisan character. A Menorah Society is neither orthodox nor reform, neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but rather an open forum for presenting and discussing every point of view, a forum hospitable in true academic spirit to the open-minded pursuit of truth.

VI

IN sum, the Menorah movement represents an organization and an idea. If the organization has grown in extent and importance beyond the fondest expectations, it is because the idea, conceived by students and carried out by them, has found a welcome home in the American university. And one of the reasons why the Menorah idea has seized upon the imagination and caught the heart of the university man is because it appeals both to his independence of mind and his pride. A Menorah Society imposes no dogma, no ceremony; the independence of thought so dear to the bosom of youth is given full scope. A Menorah Society aims, first of all, to satisfy an aroused intellectual curiosity with respect to the past and present and possible future of the Jewish race.

But the real source of Menorah strength lies far deeper. Consciously or unconsciously, from the very beginning of his affiliation with a Menorah Society, the Jewish student responds to a call within himself of noblesse oblige. It is pride of race—not vanity or brag, but a pride conscious of its human obligation—that animates Menorah men and women throughout the country. Knowledge and service, which may be regarded as the very cornerstones of Jewish idealism, constitute the twin motives of the Menorah movement.

The Menorah movement is the answer of the Jewish academic youth to the challenge of American democracy. American institutions give us the opportunity to develop all our capacities in freedom. The endeavor of Menorah men is to preserve and enhance, for America and for mankind, the best in us that may flourish in freedom, our Jewish heritage and endowment.

From College and University

Reports from Menorah Societies

[It is not planned to have reports from all the Menorah Societies in any single issue of the Journal. A complete list of Menorah Societies may be found on the inside of the front cover.]

University of California

THE California Menorah Society has begun its fourth year under most promising auspices.

The first meeting of the year, on Monday evening, August 31, was the finest ever held by the Society. It had been announced before the entire student body at the University meeting in Harmon Gymnasium, and all interested were invited to attend. Eighty men and women of the University were present. The theme of the meeting was the Menorah Idea. Mr. Samuel Spring, Harvard, '09, a former member of the Harvard Menorah Society, spoke on "The Menorah and the Community from a Graduate's Standpoint;" Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin of Stockton, now a graduate student in the University, spoke on "The Menorah and the Rabbinate," and the chief speech of the evening was delivered by Dean D.B. Barrows on "The University and the Menorah." Professor Barrows greatly approved of the organization and characterized the California Menorah Society as the most, useful student organization on the campus.

The second general meeting of the Society, held on September 28, was devoted to the topic of Immigration. Professor Ira B. Cross, of the University Economics Department and of the State Industrial Accident Commission, delivered an excellent address on "Streams of Immigration, Past, Present and Future." Mr. R. J. Rosenthal, of the California State Commission on Immigration and Housing, spoke a few words on the Jewish side of the question. A selection from Mary Antin's "The Promised Land" was read. Appropriate literary and musical selections were rendered. About fifty-five members were present.

On Monday evening, October 12, a Study Circle meeting was held. Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin conducted a discussion on "Dominant Notes in Jewish Poetry." Among the poems read were the Song of Deborah, the 23d Psalm, the Wine Song of Gabirol, selections from Emma Lazarus, and "The Jewish Soldier" and "The Sweatshop" of Rosenfeld.

At the general meeting of the Society on Monday evening, October 26, Rabbi Jacob Nieto of San Francisco spoke on "The Modern Viewpoint of the Bible" to an audience of over sixty, including several non-Jews, who were so favorably impressed with the meeting that they declared their intention to be present at future Menorah meetings. Rabbi Nieto's talk stirred up a great deal of discussion among the members. The first chapter of Isaiah and the Song of Moses were read, and there were musical selections.

On Monday evening, November 9, Mr. Harry Hart, Assistant City Attorney, led a discussion in the Study Circle on "Early Jewish Philosophers."

The last general meeting was held on Monday evening, November 30. Professor William Popper gave a most interesting talk on "Jewish Education," in which he traced the history and methods of Jewish pedagogy through the Biblical, post-Biblical and Talmudic periods. Musical and literary numbers were rendered, the "Menorah Quartet" making its debut at this meeting. The attendance was about sixty, of whom ten were non-Jews.

The constitution of the club has been revised to meet the expanding needs of the Society. Three standing committees now exist. The executive committee, composed of the four elected officers and three other members elected by the general body, will be the administrative arm of the club. The club's policy is largely determined by this committee. They decide what business is to be brought before the club members, and they set in motion all innovations looking to the betterment of the club.

The membership committee, composed of a chairman, appointed from the three elected executive committee members by the President, and nine other students, selected from the different colleges of the University, has the duty of increasing the membership roll of the Society. This committee began active operations in the summer. California being a State university, its student body is made up almost entirely of residents of California. Hence through the assistance of Rabbis in different sections of the State, the committee has been enabled to get in touch with many of the newcomers to the University this fall. To them, as well as to the old members of this Society, a circular letter was sent. The aims of the Menorah were briefly outlined, and the dates of monthly meetings stated; the office hours and location of several members of the Society during registration were named, and all freshmen were advised to consult with them for any information or aid desired.

In this way the committee has been able to reach newcomers at the University and impress them with the Menorah idea before the entrant's viewpoint has been beclouded by any false attitude toward a Jewish organization on the campus. After the college year has begun, the committee scours the campus for those Jewish students who have not yet been enlightened as to the work of the Menorah. The California Society does not bow down before numbers, but it feels that the benefits of the Menorah should be enjoyed by the largest possible number of Jewish students.

Upon the third committee, however, the Social committee, which plans the programs, rests the major responsibility for the Club's success. Taking the Harvard plan as a pattern, the California Menorah has created what is for the present called the Menorah Study Circle. This meets bi-weekly. On the other hand, a general meeting of the Society as a whole is held every month. These general meetings are more popular in nature, for the many elements of the Jewish body must here be conciliated, as well as those of non-Jewish faith who are interested in the purposes of the Menorah. Due to the complex and many-sided character of the Jewish student group, a concession to the various interests must be made in the form of a cultural-social program for the evening. Lecturers are secured; informal discussion is encouraged; musical and literary programs are arranged—all, of course, in the effort to present in attractive form such cultural material as the diverse elements in the body of Jewish students can absorb.

The Study Circle meetings have a different viewpoint. They are of a more specialized nature. Through them the serious phases of the club's activity are furthered. The personnel of the Circle is made up of those who are seriously interested in the distinctly intellectual work of the Club. The demand for the Study Circle arose spontaneously from these students. A faculty member, or Rabbi, or outside scholar, is occasionally asked to present an address. Discussion follows. Jewish literary, religious, economic and social problems are thus handled.

The recent arrival of the Menorah Library has greatly pleased the members. The books will be a great aid in the work of the Society. The attention of all the students in the University is being called to the Library by a statement in the Daily Californian and by other means. Efforts are now being made to introduce a Menorah prize for the best essay on a Jewish subject.

Louis I. Newman

University of Cincinnati

THE University of Cincinnati Menorah Society was organized on April 25, 1914. Our first task was to place the Society in the right light on the campus, to emphasize the absolutely unsectarian, academic, cultural nature of a Menorah, and the fact that membership is "invitingly open to all the members of the University," irrespective of creed or sex. We accomplished this by continuous announcements in the University News, by the open character of our meetings, and by the actual composition of our membership.

Though we organized late in the year, we succeeded in having several large meetings at which addresses were delivered by men who are authorities in their respective subjects. At the initial meeting, preliminary to organization, Dr. David Philipson, '83, spoke, and Dean F. W. Chandler of the College of Liberal Arts cordially welcomed the Society. The first meeting after our organization was addressed by Professor Julian Morgenstern of the Hebrew Union College, who spoke on "The Judaism of the Future." Addresses at subsequent meetings were delivered by Mr. A. J. Kinsella of the Greek Department of the University of Cincinnati on "The Greek and the Semite in the World's Civilization;" by Dr. Edward Mack, Professor of Old Testament at the Lane Theological Seminary, on "The Influence of Hebrew Literature on the World's Thought and Literature"; and by Rabbi Louis L. Mann of New Haven, Conn., on "Christian Science and Judaism." These meetings had an average attendance of seventy.

Among the meetings held so far this year the most important was on the evening of November 19th. Chancellor Henry Hurwitz of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association delivered an address on the purposes of the Menorah movement, to which President Charles W. Dabney of the University responded, heartily welcoming the Menorah Society to the University and extending a cordial invitation to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association to hold its next annual Convention at the University. (The address of President Dabney is printed above, page 47). Dr. David Philipson spoke on the significance of the Menorah, and lighted a large Menorah on the platform. Music was rendered by the Girls' Glee Club. Dean F. W. Chandler sent the following greeting:

"With the modern drift of attention away from the classics and away from the Bible, it behooves those of us who would count as the friends of culture to welcome every effort to stimulate interest in either. The Menorah Societies which are finding a place in our chief universities have assumed a laudable task. They are striving to hold before the minds of the youth of this land the fine ideals of the ancient Hebrew literature. In such efforts they should be encouraged by Jew and Gentile alike. For we are all heirs of Hebrew tradition; we are all brothers engaged in a common undertaking. We believe it to be our duty to learn from the past whatever is best, to the end that we may enrich with that knowledge the present and the future. We welcome therefore all that the Menorah Society can give us of inspiration toward making the most of our heritage. We rejoice that through this agency we may be kept constantly aware of what a great people has contributed to our civilization."

The Cincinnati Menorah Society is delighted that the Association has accepted the invitation of President Dabney to hold the next Convention at this University. Preparations are now being made for the Convention and for the entertainment not only of the delegates but of all Menorah men and women who will come. We ardently hope to welcome a large number of our fellow-Menorah members.

It will be of interest to relate that, after reading a copy of "The Menorah Movement," Miss E. McVea, Dean of Women and Assistant Professor of English, suggested the following three subjects for twenty-page essays in one of her English classes: "The Contribution of the Jew to Civilization," "The Integrity of the Jewish Race," and "Zionism."

Early in the year Mr. Louis D. Brandeis of Boston spoke under the auspices of the Menorah Society at a meeting open to the whole University upon "The New Science of Efficiency"—the subject being chosen at the request of President Dabney. In introducing the speaker President Dabney expressed the indebtedness of the Faculty to the Menorah for the pleasure of having Mr. Brandeis at the University.

Abraham J. Feldman

College of the City of New York

DURING the past year the Menorah Society of the College of the City of New York has made very important gains. First, in numbers—from 165, reported at the last Convention, we have increased to 327. There are still about 500 Jewish students who are not yet members, and these we intend to gain over. Second, in prestige—from a position of mere toleration we have gradually risen to the position of the recognized and accepted exponent of Jewish culture in the College, and as such we have set the College its standard of a cultural society. Third, in influence—we have inspired a large number of students, including many who for some reason or other have not yet become members, with a lively interest in things Jewish and a serious desire for collegiate Hebrew instruction. At present the College lacks such instruction; but we hope before long to report progress in remedying this condition. Meanwhile we are attracting the favorable attention of a considerable number of the alumni—men who in their college days would not or could not join the Menorah Society. This is indeed remarkable; that old graduates, who never knew the Menorah, should manifest toward it the highest interest and approbation is a most eloquent sign of the influence of the Menorah idea.

Our plan for the organization of the graduates as associate members is the same as Harvard's. But their dues are disposed of in a different way: out of the two dollars one goes to our Library Fund, and the other is sent to the Menorah Journal as the associate's subscription, for we feel that this is the best way to keep him in touch with Menorah activities. This system has a further advantage in that it spreads the Journal everywhere.

There were held during the past year thirty regular meetings and lectures—one each week. At the meetings the average attendance was 36, at the lectures 155. The principal lecturers were: Professor M. M. Kaplan, "The Menorah Idea"; Professor Richard Gottheil, "Jews in Various Lands"; Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, "Zionism and Jewish Nationality"; Professor A. Marks, "Persecutions of the Jews in the Middle Ages"; Rev. Dr. David de Sola Pool, "Jewish Education"; Professor Israel Davidson, "Hebrew Literature"; Rev. Dr. M. A. Hyamson, "The Mishnah"; Rev. Dr. Harry S. Lewis of London, "The Jews and Democracy"; Rev. Dr. H. P. Mendes, "Traditional Judaism"; Professor Stephen P. Duggan, "Tradition as a Static and Dynamic Force"; Rev. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, "What's Wrong with the Jew?"

There were four courses taught. The average attendance at a course was 16. Rabbi Nathan Blechman led the course in "An Extensive Study of the Bible," Professor M. M. Kaplan taught "Essentials of Judaism," and Rabbi Samuel Margoshes gave the course in "Jewish Philosophy and Literature." At the request of a number of students a course in "Elementary Hebrew" was also given for a time.

Two social meetings were held during the year. The first was a reception in the vestry rooms of the Temple Beth-el tendered us by the Menorah Society of Hunter College (formerly Normal), in recognition of our help in the organization of their Society. The second was a "smoker" held at the College in the Faculty lunch-room. The guests of the occasion were Professor Israel Friedlaender of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Professor A. J. Goldfarb of the College, and Rev. Dr. D. de Sola Pool.

For the first semester this year, four regular Wednesday evening meetings have been scheduled, four public lectures, six study circles, and four courses. The courses—"Modern Movements in Judaism" (one hour), "Elementary Hebrew" (two hours), "Post-Biblical History" (one hour), and an "Extensive Study of the Bible" (one hour)—will be conducted by Rabbis Stephen S. Wise, J. L. Magnes, Max Reichler, Rudolph Grossman, Maurice Harris, C. H. Levy, H. S. Goldstein, and A. Robinson. The study circles, which will meet once a week, under the leadership of Dr. Joseph I. Gorfinkle and Dr. A. Basel, will read the "Essays of Ahad Ha-'Am," Schechter's "Studies in Judaism," the "Book of Job," the "Book of Jeremiah," "Pirke Aboth," and the "Five Scrolls."

With the respect and co-operation of the student body, the faculty, and the alumni, the prestige of our Menorah bids fair to increase until, it is hoped, it will not be exceeded by that of any other City College organization.

George J. Horowitz

Cornell University

THE Cornell Menorah Society has this year issued a prospectus which has met with much favor among undergraduates, graduates and faculty, and has been very helpful in our work. It contains an explanation of "The Menorah Idea," accounts of the history and activities of both the Cornell Society and the Intercollegiate Association, and the address of President Schurman of November 24, 1913, by which he welcomed the Menorah Society to the University. There is also included, besides the general program for the year, the announcement of the Cornell Menorah prizes. These are three prizes of $25.00 each, offered by the Cornell Menorah Society to all the undergraduates of the University for (1) the best essay on any subject relating to the status and problems of the Jews in any country; (2) the best essay on any subject relating to Jewish literature in English; and (3) the best essay or poem in Hebrew.

The first meeting of the year, on October 7, was very successful. It was attended by more than eighty students and several members of the faculty. The meeting was devoted to an exposition of the purposes and ideals of the Menorah movement. Professor W. A. Hurwitz and Professor Hays spoke very enthusiastically of the accomplishments and the hopes of the Cornell Menorah Society. About thirty new members were enrolled, bringing our membership list up to one hundred. This number includes five members of the faculty and about a score of graduates. Several men who had come to the meeting to scoff stayed to enroll. The subsequent meetings have also been well attended. Our organization is gaining greater and greater prestige on the campus.

In the plans for this year, the work of study circles has been particularly emphasized. As compared with two circles last year, meeting more or less irregularly, we have at present six circles meeting very regularly and doing really splendid work. More than half of our members are now enrolled in one or several of these circles. The subjects of study are: (1) Elementary Hebrew, (2) Advanced Hebrew, (3) The Bible, (4) Jewish History, (5) Sociological Problems of the Jews, and (6) Zionism. Though we have been feeling very keenly the need of suitable syllabi and text books, each circle has chosen the texts considered most suitable and available for its purpose. Most of the men have bought their own text books, and have subscribed to various Jewish periodicals. Thus, the beginners in Hebrew are using Manheimer as a text; the members of the advanced Hebrew circle are also using the Bible as a text and have each subscribed to the Hatoren (a Hebrew monthly of New York). The Bible circle is also using the Bible as its text, and the Hebrew and Bible circles contemplate procuring jointly several Jewish Commentaries, like those of Rashi and Kimchi, for general reference in the University Library. The circle in Zionism is using Professor Gottheil's book, and the members have each subscribed to The Maccabæan. The history circle has recently decided to use Dubnow's Essay as a text. It may be mentioned here that the books of the Menorah Library are receiving very good circulation and the standard reference works, such as Graetz, Ginsburg, Schechter, and others, have been of great value to the members of the study circles in their work. It is hoped that a number of Jewish periodicals may also be made available in the University Library.

It is planned to hold meetings of the Cornell Menorah Society in conjunction with one or two other university organizations for several lecturers whom we expect through the courtesy of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association. One meeting in particular that is planned for the future may be noted. Annually, in February, occurs what is known as Farmers' Week in Ithaca. During the week thousands of farmers from all over the country visit the College of Agriculture, where a most elaborate program is arranged for their benefit, consisting of lectures, demonstrations, exhibits, and addresses on the various phases of agriculture and country life. Last year, Mr. Joseph M. Pincus, Editor of The Jewish Farmer, addressed a large audience under the joint auspices of the Menorah Society and the College of Agriculture on "The Jew as a Farmer." The lecture was illustrated with a fine selection of lantern slides, and the meeting as a whole was very successful. In planning for the coming year, we have tried to emphasize even more strongly than last year our part in the program for Farmers' Week. Mr. Pincus has kindly consented to come again, and probably we shall also have Mr. Leonard G. Robinson, General Manager of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, who will speak on "Jewish Agricultural Co-operative Associations."

We are now trying to make arrangements for our Society to take care of an exhibit which will show by charts, photographs, and other suitable material, the activities of the various Jewish agricultural organizations and the progress of Jewish farmers in America within recent years. It may be of interest to add that as a direct result of the Menorah meeting last year during Farmers' Week, one of the students was appointed by the Extension Department of the College of Agriculture to go out with an "educational train" during the summer and carry on certain extension work among the Jewish farmers of New York State.

Leon J. Rosenthal

Harvard University

THE opening meeting of the ninth year of the Harvard Menorah Society was held on October 13, 1914. The meeting was the largest in the history of the Society, over 150 men being present. The purposes of the Society were explained to the new men by the officers, and Le Baron Russell Briggs, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, extended a welcome in behalf of the University. He said in part: "I was present at the foundation of the Harvard Menorah Society in 1906, and was very much impressed by the fine earnestness of the leaders. If I were a Jew, I would be so proud of the history and traditions of my race that I would welcome the opportunity that this Society offers. For this reason I have always taken a great interest in the Menorah Society."

The plans for this year include as usual a series of fortnightly lectures by men of learning and prominence. Among the speakers for the first half year are Dr. Cyrus Adler of Philadelphia, Professor Richard Gottheil of New York, Mr. Samuel Strauss of New York, Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia, Dr. Martin A. Meyer of San Francisco, Dr. D. de Sola Pool and Dr. S. Benderly of New York. In addition, there are planned three study circles, each of which will meet every alternate week. One of these circles is to be devoted to Jewish history, another to the study of the Hebrew language, and the third to the consideration of modern Jewish problems.

The prospects for this year are even brighter than ever before. The enthusiasm is as great as it has ever been, and the membership will undoubtedly exceed all past records.

It is of interest to note that more and more members of Menorah Societies at other Universities all over the country continue their Menorah activities in our Society when they come to study in the graduate departments of Harvard University.

Isadore Levin

Hunter College

THROUGH the influence of the Menorah Society of the College of the City of New York, a Menorah Society was formed at the Normal College of New York (for women), with the approval of the Dean, in May, 1913. Owing to the change of name of the College, it is now known as the Hunter College Menorah.

During the first year of its existence, under the leadership of its first President, Miss Selma Blechman, and the hearty support of its members, the corner-stone for its present greater work was laid. A program of lectures was planned to be held on the third Friday of every month. The lectures were to cover the several periods of Jewish history from ancient to modern times. This was done with great success.

This year, in addition to the lectures, the Society is planning to give courses in (1) Hebrew, (2) Jewish History, and (3) the Bible. This project has met with the hearty approval of both the President and the Dean, and the Menorah hopes to enter soon upon active work in these subjects.

A word about the membership of the Hunter Menorah must be said. When the Society started it had a membership of one hundred, of whom ninety were active members. It now has about twice that number, with an active membership of one hundred.

The Society has acquired such repute that students who are not members attend the lectures and are very enthusiastic about them. Indeed, the Hunter College Menorah sees before it a very rosy future.

At the recent Bazaar given by the College Athletic Association for the Red Cross Relief Fund, the Society had a booth and sold appropriate articles, like brass Menorahs, books and small Hebrew scrolls, objects of Jewish art, and candy and almonds from Palestine, thus adding a considerable sum to the Fund. Besides, the members have contributed over $100 for Jewish relief in Palestine.

Julia Mitchell

University of Michigan

IN 1910 a group of Jewish students at the University of Michigan formed a society and assumed the Menorah name. After a rather checkered course of three years, marked by misunderstood ideals and activities not always well-considered, the organization suddenly became more alive to the consideration of the vital problems which had been the ultimate excuse for its existence. A few men, sacrificing personal ambition for the common welfare, spurred the Society on to more serious and genuine work.

The rejuvenated Menorah Society enjoyed this period of prosperity only for a few months when a new organization for Jewish spiritual development at the University was formed. It calls itself the Jewish Student Congregation, and its aim, as distinguished from the Menorah goal of cultural research, is purely religious. The weekly prayer meeting, marked by sermon and ceremony, is now offered to the Jewish students in addition to the weekly study circle of the cultural society.

However true or untrue may be the oft-repeated statement that the Menorah has blazed the way for the Congregation, it still remains a fact that the new organization was not confronted with the difficulty of gaining a following, such as the parent Jewish society had experienced. Though the attendance of the Congregation shaded off quite considerably the last few months of its first year, there were always enough to show their appreciation by their presence at the services and to guarantee the continuation of the services in the future. One noteworthy fact calls for special mention here—a certain group of students seemed to be more religious than devoted to cultural interests. Only a few of this class, however, were really inspired by a religious zeal; for there were some who expressed this preference because there still rankled in their thoughts the stigma which a few thoughtless pioneers had allowed to attach itself to the Menorah in the early days of its formation.

That the Congregation would appeal to a certain number was evident from the first. The Jewish service was fraught with that sociable spirit which became more lacking in the Menorah the more it devoted itself to its primary motives of research and investigation into Jewish history, culture and ideals. Though there unquestionably exists a strong feeling of fellowship in the Menorah, it cannot compare with the atmosphere of fraternalism in a religious meeting.

Moreover, the student can come to the Congregation to relax. He can sit back passively and draw inspiration from the service. But a Menorah meeting is virtually a class-room lacking a few formalities. There the student must actively discuss the problems placed before him; he must earnestly dig for the Pierian waters before he can hope to quench his thirst.

The average Jewish student comes to Michigan wofully ignorant of matters pertaining to Judaism. Many of them have been reared in small towns, where the efforts of parents to train their children in Jewish ways, if tried at all, barely passes the first two or three pages of the "Siddur"; while those who have been raised in the city are generally the victims of the lax system of Jewish training prevalent there. At the most they have only a superficial knowledge of Jewish culture, of the great Jewish movements of the past and present. The Synagogue or Temple represents to the mind of the average Jewish student all that there is in Jewry; and so, while he will readily and voluntarily support a movement for the establishment of the Jewish church, he will have to be persuaded to help or join an organization devoted to Jewish culture. For in the latter case he must first be made to understand that there are other vital forces in Israel than the Jewish church as it stands to-day in its conventional form.

The Menorah at Michigan faces the problem of attracting that element, forming the big majority of the student body, which, though it proudly upholds the high scholastic standard generally credited to the Jewish student, still has its eyes closed and its brains dulled to many of the vital Jewish problems which press for solution. With the co-operation of the Intercollegiate Menorah office, the Society is gradually molding the sentiment of the individual student toward a more intelligent and favorable attitude. That the Menorah is already a vital force on the campus may be seen from the work being done, the zeal and enthusiasm displayed by the officers and members, many of them among the University leaders. Those who formerly scorned or stood aloof, including some who were in the position to mold student sentiment, have begun to show a sympathetic interest, bordering in many instances on actual participation.

The Jewish Student Congregation does not conflict in any way with the Menorah Society. There is room for both on the campus. Each has its own purpose. Menorah members participate in the conduct and the services of the Congregation.

Jacob Levin

University of Minnesota

JUDGING from the interest and enthusiasm displayed at the opening "get together" meeting, arranged especially for the benefit of new arrivals at the University, the Minnesota Menorah seems certain to make this year the most successful in its history. The meeting, which follows an established custom at Minnesota, was well attended by both students and alumni, and enabled both elements to become better acquainted. The early part of the evening was devoted to a general reception; this was followed by a short entertainment, and then a very interesting discussion of Menorah ideals and duties by various members of the faculty and alumni.

The plans of the Society this year look more than ever before to an intensive study of Jewish subjects by the students themselves. Although various outside speakers will be asked to address the Society, the bulk of the work will rest with the student body.

David London

New York University

THE New York University Menorah Society is unique in its make-up and in the form of its administration. The Society is really two organizations within the one university. This dual composition is necessitated by the division, geographically, of New York University into colleges in the downtown section of New York City, and into colleges in the far uptown section of the Bronx, the distance between these divisions being some twelve miles. It has therefore been found necessary to organize one Menorah Society at University Heights, the Bronx section, and another at Washington Square, the downtown section.

Each of these Societies has its own officers, and each is active in its own section. The Executive Councils of both Societies meet jointly as a Board of Governors at least once in two months. This Board directs Menorah work pertaining to the whole University, at the same time considering the problems arising in the work of each Society.

The University Heights chapter is the older, having been organized December 22, 1913. Its membership is about 75 at this time, and an increase to 100 is expected by the end of the present academic year. Formed by the zeal of some twenty-five men, and looked upon at its inception with indifference by the college community, it has made itself respected at University Heights and has become, young as it is, an institution in the college life.

Its work during the first half-year was directed chiefly to the internal strengthening of the Society, the increasing of its membership and the institution of smooth working machinery of administration. At the same time, however, the Society offered a number of valuable lectures which attracted wide interest. Among the speakers of that half-year may be mentioned Professor Israel Friedlaender, Dr. Madison C. Peters, and Dr. Theodore F. Jones of the faculty.

The activities of the University Heights Menorah Society for this year are extensive. It has arranged a program of lectures, among which may be mentioned the following: "The Talmud," by Dr. Clifton H. Levy; "The Jew in English Literature," by Dean Archibald L. Bouton; "The Jews in Medieval Spain," by Dr. D. de Sola Pool; "Conservative Judaism," by Dr. Jacob Kohn; "Historical Beginnings of Christianity," by Dr. A. H. Limouze; "Reform Judaism," by Dr. Isaac Moses. Besides these lectures, some meetings are devoted to discussions by members of such subjects as Zangwill's "Melting Pot," "Zionism," and others of current interest.

The Society does not limit its work to these meetings. It conducts regularly, every Thursday evening, classes in elementary Hebrew and in Post-Biblical History, and on Tuesday afternoons a class in Advanced Hebrew and the reading of Hebrew Literature. The Thursday evening class in Hebrew is under the direction of Dr. Max Reichler. The course in History is divided into several periods, and as the course proceeds to a new period in the history a different instructor takes the class. Among the men giving the course are Dr. M. H. Harris, Dr. Reichler, Dr. Moses Hyamson, and Dr. Joseph Gorfinkle. The class in Advanced Hebrew is conducted by Mr. Max Kadushin of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Through the kindness of the Jewish Publication Society of America and the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, and by its own additions, the Society has placed a collection of books in the University library, which, according to the Librarian's statement, is used more frequently than is any other collection of books placed in the library by a society.

All these activities have caused favorable interest on the part of the student body, faculty, and college authorities. Aside from these academic efforts, the Society has made its members feel something of a social friendliness toward each other and has brought together men who might otherwise not have come in contact at all.

The Society at Washington Square promises an exceedingly good future. At the present writing it is only several weeks old, but it already has a membership of over one hundred and fifty. Judging from the strong beginning it has made, it is bound to become a factor in its section of the University.

Charles K. Feinberg

Ohio State University

THE year 1913-14, the fourth year of the Menorah at Ohio State University, proved to be the most successful in its history. In accord with the nature and purpose of our organization, we strove to be academic, sociable and non-sectarian, and accomplished this end, even beyond the expectations of the more optimistic. During the year the Society carried on a lecture course in Biblical History, by Professor Morgenstern, of the Hebrew Union College, in such a creditable manner as to attract attention even outside the University. The lectures of Dr. Israel Friedlaender and Dr. H. M. Kallen met with similar success, and after their lectures at the University they addressed large audiences at our local Temples.

The new University library opened its doors this year, and we are greatly indebted to our beloved friend, Mr. Joseph Schonthal, of Columbus, for placing upon the shelves a set of the Jewish Encyclopedia; and to the University, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, and the Jewish Publication Society for books and periodicals. The trustees of the University considered our proposition for the establishment of a chair in Jewish History and Culture, but it was agreed that conditions were not yet ripe for this move. These several undertakings, in connection with the entertainments, held the members steadily interested throughout the year. The bi-monthly meetings, the programs of which were made up by the members themselves, were inspiring and beneficial.

A successful close was marked by a "Farewell Banquet" to the seniors, among whom were several of our best workers—pioneers of our Society. Of the guests present, only our old friend Dean Orton made an address. He was greatly impressed with the work of our Society, and assured us that the faculty is in full sympathy with our aims.

With the passing of a good year we are looking forward to a still better one, and are predicting a big year for Menorah work. Such men as Dr. J. Leonard Levy, Dr. Washington Gladden, Dr. Moses J. Gries, Prof. I. Leo Sharfman, Dr. David Philipson, and Dr. Louis Wolsey are among the speakers this year.

Our program committee has been working up attractive plans, and expect to carry out discussions and studies in Jewish history, literature and problems. The social part of our program is taken care of as the year progresses, and forms only so much of our work as is justifiable to keep the members together.

The Ohio State Menorah takes this opportunity of extending its best wishes to the other Menorah Societies and of expressing its perfect readiness to co-operate with them. The members will eagerly welcome the first number of the Menorah Journal, both for its own sake and as a means of strengthening the bonds with the other Menorahs.

Henry Greenberger

University of Pennsylvania

OUR Menorah at Pennsylvania has passed through a crisis which for a time threatened its welfare, but happily the present internal condition is healthy and assures the new administration the hearty support of the entire membership. Despite difficulties our work has been successful and varied. Last year fourteen regular meetings were held, some devoted to programs by our own members, others to outside speakers.

Among those who addressed us last year were Dr. Cyrus Adler, '83, President of the Dropsie College; Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, Chancellor of the Jewish Chautauqua Society, on the "New Teaching of Religion"; Dr. Henry M. Speaker, Principal of Gratz College, on "Jewish Literature"; Rabbi Haas of the Baron de Hirsch School, on "Woodbine, a Jewish Town"; Dr. Isaac Husik of the Semitic Faculty, on "Philosophic Movements of Medieval Jewry"; and Dr. Henry Malter of the Dropsie College, on "The Written and the Oral Law."

In addition to the regular meetings we have been for the past three years conducting a Jewish Discussion Group, led by Rabbi Marvin Nathan of this city, which has proved very popular. The group meets at the noon hour and attracts also non-Menorah men, women students, and liberal-minded non-Jews. This year in order to accommodate the students whose schedules prevent their attending this group, we expect to institute another to be conducted either like the present or in such a way as to utilize the services of the Rabbis and other prominent Jews of Philadelphia.

Our policy this year concerning new members differs decidedly from that of the past. While we are by no means more restrictive or exclusive than heretofore, we feel that the method of "rushing" men into membership is psychologically wrong. It cheapens the organization in the eyes of non-members and thereby defeats its own end. Instead of attempting to cajole freshmen into joining, we shall endeavor to attract the serious-minded men on the campus by the quality of our programs and the variety of our activities. With the strong men in, the others will follow, and in this way our membership will be one of both quality and quantity.

Another innovation this year will be the acceptance of women students as members. The attitude of the University toward mixed membership in organizations that meet on the campus has been unfavorable and as a result women students have been admitted only to the Discussion Group and to public meetings. Their wholesale application for admission into the Society, however, prompted us to intervene in their behalf, and in view of the seriousness of our purpose the authorities consented to make the exception. Hereafter, therefore, we shall be able to offer membership, on an equal footing, to all students.

Although our attention this year will be directed mainly to intensive work, the Menorah will continue to act unofficially as the medium between the Jewish students here and local communal activities. In a quiet way, also, we intend to exert our influence upon local Jewish organizations so as to induce them to take a more active interest in Jewish affairs. They will be invited to attend our public meetings and assistance will be offered them in arranging programs along Jewish lines. We shall further offer to furnish them with speakers from among our members.

A real need of our Menorah, and probably of other Menorahs, is some extra incentive to induce the writing of Jewish papers. The establishment here of a Menorah Prize would, we feel confident, work wonders in stimulating interest in Jewish problems. We look forward to the early filling of this need.

Of our work this year we are very optimistic. Several papers have already been prepared by members and others are promised. A number of notable men, including Provost Edgar F. Smith, of our University, and Professor David W. Amram, '87, of the Law Faculty, will give us addresses. We are in addition organizing a Menorah Orchestra with the idea primarily of presenting to the public the best Jewish music, and we hope in this way to combine business with pleasure.

Jacob Rubinoff

Penn State College

THE Penn State Menorah was organized on April 27, 1913. Our activities from the beginning were characterized by a willingness on the part of the members to devote a great deal of their time to the mapping and carrying out of our weekly program. The significant fact that the Society has held forty talks during the past year, most of which were delivered by its members, is in itself proof of the conscientiousness and devotion that the men of Penn State bring to the Menorah Society.

As is quite natural, our organization did not at first strike all the Jewish students as something worth while, but in a comparatively short time we found that ninety per cent. of the Jewish students of the College were members, and that our attendance for the past year averaged thirty-five out of a possible forty.

Our meetings are held every Sunday morning from ten to twelve o'clock. Our constitution states that any member who absents himself for three consecutive meetings without a legitimate excuse is automatically expelled. Thus far no man has been expelled. Members of the Menorah Society are excused from the chapel by the Dean, provided they attend all the Menorah meetings.

Our Society has also striven to get desirable lecturers. Owing to our limited treasury, we must depend upon the Intercollegiate Association for support, else we can make but very little headway.

The Menorah Library has proved a big boon, for practically every man is making use of the books for his own reading and in the preparation of papers for our meetings.

We were very fortunate in having been offered the services of Professor O. F. Boucke as a lecturer for the Society and as teacher of a special course of study on the Old Testament. Professor Boucke's assistance is bound to add materially to the prestige of the Menorah on the campus. At an early meeting this year we had a most interesting and inspiring talk by President Sparks, who is taking a deep interest in the Menorah movement.

It is our belief that the Menorahs in colleges and universities that are isolated from the large cities (a good example of which is Penn State) are bound to have by far the greater success, because the students enjoy more opportunity of being together and doing more things in common. In our Menorah Society the Jewish students find their chance not only to study things Jewish in common, but to come together and exchange their thoughts on all subjects in which they are interested.

M. Trumper

University of Texas

THE Menorah Society closed a successful year with a banquet held May 18, 1914, at the Hotel Driskill, Austin. In addition to forty-three students and faculty members, there were present four honored guests: Dean W. J. Battle of the University of Texas, Rabbi Henry Cohen of Galveston, and Messrs. J. Koen and N. Davis of the Austin Jewish community. The opening address was delivered by the President of the Society, Mr. L. W. Moses, who traced the growth of the Menorah Society of Texas from its beginning in 1907 through its affiliation with the Intercollegiate organization and its consequently renewed vigor. Dean Battle, as head of the department of Greek in the University, spoke on "Hellenism and Hebraism," discussing the essential principles of the two cultures and comparing their influence on modern civilization. Mr. H. J. Ettlinger of the University Faculty elected as his subject, "The Menorah in Its Relation to Other Student Activities," and he elaborated on the many reasons why the Jewish student should select the Menorah Society as one of his extra-curricular activities. Rabbi David Rosenbaum of Austin and also of the University faculty, taking excellent advantage of his position as a representative of both the University and the community, gave an instructive talk on "What Judaism Expects of the Student."

Rabbi Henry Cohen, speaking eloquently on "Judaism as a Factor in Modern Life," took up each one of the Ten Commandments and summarized their influence on society to-day. A poem written especially for the occasion was read by Mr. Israel Chasmin, and piano selections were rendered by Miss Beatrice Burg and Miss Minna Rypinski. The program closed with the installation of officers for the year 1914-15.

We lost ten members by graduation last June, but our membership has none the less increased on account of the greater number of Jewish students at the University this year.

The opening meeting of the year was attended by fifty out of the fifty-eight Jewish students. In enthusiasm it resembled a football rally, and the new students caught the spirit of the occasion. Since then a number of other meetings have been held, with an average attendance of forty. At the first meeting, Professor L. M. Keasby of the Department of Institutional History gave an eminently just interpretation of Jewish history from the point of view of the economic development of mankind. At the next meeting, Israel Chasmin reviewed Dubnow's Essay on Jewish History. At the last meeting, Rabbi J. Bornstein of Houston, Texas, spoke on Jewish Music. We are looking forward to an illustrated lecture by Professor Gideon of the Department of Architecture on "The Architecture of the Synagogue, Past and Present."

Through the fund for local speakers which we are raising and through the aid of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, we hope to have a speaker at least every month for the rest of the year.

The Menorah Library which we have received through the Intercollegiate Menorah Association is greatly appreciated by the University and will be of much help in the work of the Society.

H. J. Ettlinger

University of Washington

IN the summer of 1913 several Jewish students met and discussed the feasibility of organizing a Jewish society on the campus. As a result, a meeting was called at the Y. M. H. A. rooms in the first week of the 1913-14 semester. Cards for the meeting had been sent to all men students known to be Jews. There was an enthusiastic discussion of the purposes of the meeting, and it was decided to effect a permanent organization, which should include the Jewish women students as well, and to begin active work. Our purposes were then somewhat different from what they are at present. We felt that if our union could bring about a better understanding between the various Jewish elements in the city of Seattle and throughout the State of Washington, we should be accomplishing something worth while. The fact that the student body itself was composed of these various elements would aid us, it was believed, to bring that result about speedily and effectively.

And so members of the Menorah Society joined the Jewish lodges in Seattle, Jewish synagogues, and the "Modern Hebrew School," so that they might effect their objects both from within as individual members and from without as the Menorah Society. Our members volunteered to teach at the Modern Hebrew School, an orthodox institution, one day in the week. The offer was accepted gladly and greatly appreciated. At the same school, a class was conducted by one of our members for the instruction of Jewish men in the fundamentals of citizenship, and over twelve of this class passed the examinations and secured their citizenship papers. Another member organized an athletic club among Jewish boys, and still another member did much valuable work at the Settlement House.

At the meetings of the Society, which were held in the quarters of Jewish organizations downtown and at members' homes, papers bearing on Jewish questions were read.

During the past summer it was felt that by affiliating with the Intercollegiate Menorah Association greater impetus would be given to our Society, and steps have already been taken for admittance into that body. President Henry Landes of the University has expressed, I believe, the favorable attitude of the whole University toward the Society, as shown in the letter quoted below.

This year we shall devote more time to the study of Jewish culture and ideals. A course of lectures is being arranged which will bring noted Jewish men of the Pacific Coast to our University. It is hoped also that we may have the benefit of speakers from the Intercollegiate Menorah Association. Of course, the work we began last year down town will be kept up, but it will now be done unofficially.

Eimon L. Wienir

From a Letter of Acting President Henry Landes of the University of Washington to the Chancellor of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association:

"In behalf of the University it gives me great pleasure to endorse this movement and to assure you of the satisfactory university standing of the students who are members of the local society. The scholarship of the students is good, several of the number having obtained highest grades in most of their studies. I feel sure that the organization in every way is worthy of recognition by the Intercollegiate Menorah Association and that such recognition will be of great assistance to these and other students in the formation and conservation of the culture and ideals of the Jewish people. The University recognizes the large debt modern culture owes to these ideals and feels assured that the Menorah organization among us will be of the greatest assistance in keeping alive a keener consciousness of this fundamental part of our civilization.

"The University will be glad to assist the Association by permitting it to use University rooms for its meetings, under the usual regulations governing the use of rooms by student associations.

"Personally I shall be glad to co-operate in any way I can to make the work of the local Society successful.

"Henry Landes,
"Acting President"

University of Wisconsin

TO have the student members of the Society furnish the largest part of the program has been the policy of the Wisconsin Menorah for the past two years. Because of its advantages, the same policy has been adopted for the current year.

In the past, the programs have been of a diverse nature, many phases of Hebrew life and letters having been touched upon. The program committee has put forth special efforts to assign to members those subjects in which they have special interest.

The work of the past year came to a close with a large banquet, at which Professor I. Leo Sharfman, Judge Max Pam of Chicago, and Professor Joseph Jastrow and Dr. H. M. Kallen of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin gave short talks.

Although the Wisconsin Menorah may be said to be still in its infancy, there is no doubt that, with its membership, which includes both men and women, steadily increasing, it will soon be ranked high among the Menorah Societies of the Middle West.

Florence J. Ellman

Yale University

AT a meeting held soon after the college opening, the Yale Menorah Society inaugurated what bids fair to be a most successful year. President Arthur T. Hadley addressed the meeting (for the address of President Hadley see above, page 45), as did also Professor Charles F. Kent of the Yale School of Religion.

Professor Kent said:—"It is a great pleasure for me to face the work of the new year with you, and it is a source of congratulation that the Menorah is no longer an innovation but an established institution at Yale. It seems a pity that Jews do not inherit Hebrew as a birthright, but fortunately the study of Hebrew history and ideals can proceed without this knowledge.

"Men must appropriate old ideas and interpret them into the terms of modern life and thought, for in the old we find the germ of the new. It is in Jewish history that we must look for the first true commonwealth or democracy, where the king was chosen by the people and where his authority was derived solely from and rested in the people. This has no ancient parallel, not even in Greece. International peace was also one of the great fundamental teachings of the prophets of Israel.

"Religious education is to be traced directly to the Jews,—and this is one of the great needs of America to-day. Not to the Greeks but to the prophets do we turn for religious education. Hebrew sages were the forerunners of the modern religious education movement, for they devoted their time to developing the moral and spiritual ideals and character of the individual. And then the great teacher of Nazareth was a Rabbi, a Jew. The social motif is exceedingly strong throughout Jewish history and literature. Social justice, social service, and the universal brotherhood of man are the dominant ideas in the Old Testament, and they constitute a heritage of priceless value to the world and to our country to-day.

"All success and joy to you in your work, for the Menorah fills a large gap in the life of the University."

We hold lecture meetings fortnightly. Among the speakers thus far have been Professor Richard Gottheil of Columbia University and Mr. Samuel Strauss of New York. In addition to these regular meetings study groups have been planned under the direction of Rabbi Louis L. Mann of the Temple Mishkan Israel of New Haven.

Mr. Norman Winestine who was last spring elected President for this year has been awarded a fellowship at the Dropsie College of Philadelphia and has therefore left the University. Mr. Charles Cohen has been chosen President to take Mr. Winestine's place.

R. Horchow

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

Third Annual Convention

The Third Annual Convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association took place at the University of Cincinnati on Wednesday and Thursday, December 23 and 24, 1914. A report will be published in the next number of the Journal.

Menorah Prize Awards

The Harvard Menorah Society Prize of $100, established by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff of New York, was awarded last May to Henry Epstein, '16, for an essay on "The Jews of Russia." The judges were Professor David Gordon Lyon of Harvard, chairman; Professor William R. Arnold of Harvard, and President Solomon Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary. This is the seventh award of the Harvard Menorah Society prize since its foundation in 1907-8. (For the list of previous awards, see The Menorah Movement, 1914, page 102.)

The Wisconsin Menorah Society Prize of $100, established in 1911-12 by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago, was awarded for the first time, in 1912, to Marvin M. Lowenthal (adult special student in Letters and Science) for an essay on "The Jew in the American Revolution." There was no competition in 1912-13, but last year the prize was divided into two equal parts and awarded to Hemendra Kisor Rakshir (senior in Letters and Science) for an essay on "The Jews and the Interest Rate in Angevin England," and Percy B. Shostac (senior in Letters and Science) for an essay on "A Short Survey of the Modern Yiddish Stage." The prize for 1913-14 was awarded again to Marvin M. Lowenthal for an essay on "Zionism." The Committee of Award consists of Professor R. E. N. Dodge, chairman, Professor E. B. McGilvary, and Professor M. S. Slaughter, of the University of Wisconsin. The chairman has stated that the Menorah prize is the best prize offered by the University of Wisconsin.

The Michigan Menorah Society Prize of $100 was established in 1912 by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago, but was not awarded the first year. Last year three prizes of $50 each were awarded, one to Paul Blanshard, '14, for an essay on "The Approach of Reformed Judaism to the Unitarian Movement in the United States," one to Miss Judith Ginsburg, '15, for an essay on "Disintegrating Forces in Contemporary Jewish Life," and one to Miss Sadie Robinson, '15, for a general discussion of Jewish problems upon the text of Proverbs 30, 13. The judges were Professor Robert E. Wenly, chairman, and Professor I. Leo Sharfman of the University of Michigan, and Rabbi Leo M. Franklin of Detroit, Mich.

Cornell Menorah Prizes

The Cornell Menorah Society offers this year the following prizes to the undergraduates of the University: a prize of $25 for the best essay on any subject relating to the status and the problems of the Jews in any country; a prize of $25 for the best essay on any subject relating to Jewish literature in English; and a prize of $25 for the best essay or poem in Hebrew. The judges will be Professor Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell University, chairman; Professor M. M. Kaplan of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Professor I. Leo Sharfman of the University of Michigan.

Gift from the Harvard Menorah Society

The Harvard Menorah Society has made a gift of $50 to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association. The sum is taken from the Associate Membership Fund of the Society. This Fund consists of the dues of associate members (graduates), "which shall be used exclusively for the substantive work of the Society" (Harvard Menorah Constitution, Article IV, section 4). The control of this Fund is in the hands of an advisory committee, consisting of the President of the Society and two associate members designated by the Executive Council of the Society.

the
Menorah Journal

VOLUME I                      APRIL, 1915                     NUMBER 2

frontispiece

For Small Mercies

By Israel Zangwill

Thinking of Poland and her tortured Jews,

'Twixt Goth and Cossack hounded, crucified

On either frontier, e'en the Pale denied,

Wand'ring with bloodied staff and broken shoes,

Scarred like their greatest son with stripe and bruise,

Though thrice a hundred thousand fight beside

Their Russian brethren and are glorified

By death for those who flout them and abuse,—

I suddenly was touched to thankful tears.

Not that one wave had ebbed of all this woe,

Not that one heart had softened in "the spheres"[A]

One touch of bureau-malice to forego,

But that amid blind eyes, dumb mouths, deaf ears,

One voice in England[B] said these things were so.

Signature: Israel Zangwill

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Only permissible form of Russian reference to the Tsar and his Counsellors.

[B] The London Nation.

From Across the Seas

From Dr. Max Nordau

Madrid, Spain

Dr. Max Nordau

I HAIL most cordially the appearing of The Menorah Journal with the noble and impressive program which you develop. It shows your consciousness of the new duties of the rich, free and powerful American Jewry, your readiness to assume fully the moral responsibilities which your privileged position imposes upon you, and your comprehension of the needs of the present hour. Your journal seems the promising beginning of that organization in which we are so sorely wanting and without which we will achieve nothing in the forthcoming deep transformations of the old world.

Signature: Dr. M. Nordau

From Dr. Moses Gaster

Chief Rabbi (Haham) Spanish and Portuguese Congregations of the British Empire

Dr. Moses Gaster

I AM glad to see that you have brought out again the Menorah from the corner into which it had been thrust, that you have polished up the old candlestick, nay, even more, that you have trimmed the wick and poured the oil into the cup, that you are kindling a light which is to dissipate the darkness spiritual, more dangerous, more terrible than darkness physical. What our people really want is to be able to see that light of truth, that light of hope, of humanity, of knowledge, of idealism, which has been ours through the ages. We have never allowed our lamp to be extinguished, whether it burned in a remote corner in the ghetto, smoky, ill trimmed, even evil smelling; still there was the light sufficiently strong to illumine the pages of the Torah and the Talmud, even the pages of the writers of philosophy and science. It was quite sufficient if one lamp was kept alight. This is the greatness and the beauty of it,—that from one, one can kindle a thousand.

There is no limit to which the light cannot reach and there will be no limit, I hope, to the light which you will now spread. It will reach the remotest corner of the universities and schools of learning, nay, even more, it will bring everywhere a measure of knowledge and of truth, and above all it will illumine and warm. It will reach the eyes of those who have hitherto refused to see the beauty of their own past and the greatness of their own future. They may then learn to live in the present by the teaching of the past and by the hope of the future. Make both known.

In conclusion, I can only express the wish that you keep steadily and exclusively to Jewish questions, Jewish problems, Jewish learning. Make your readers know what they can find in Jewish literature and make the students of the various universities realize that in the libraries of Europe and America there are vast treasures accumulated which await the hand and the heart of the Jewish scholars. There are great and grave problems which await solution and the field is unlimited. Let them begin to till the ground of our own field, and turn the furrows and sow the seed, and the golden harvest is sure to repay them for their labor in the service of love and truth, and above all of devotion to Judaism.

Signature: M. Gaster

From Norman Bentwich

Professor of International Law, School of Law, Cairo, Egypt

Norman Bentwich

YOU are indeed happy in the moment of your appearance. I am not of those who regard this world war as a terrible catastrophe. I can see in it with God's grace the preparation of a great uplift of humanity and especially the coming of redemption for Israel. But the more glorious the vision of the future the greater the need of light, and more light, to illuminate the present and to enable the young generation to advance steadily towards the vision and make it reality. That is what I believe the function of the Menorah Journal to be, and your first number is an earnest of the sincerity of your aim and the goodness of your means.

The Jewish people stand on the brink of a new era in which they are to resume their true function of the spiritual teacher of mankind. And American Jewry, it is a truism to say, has a vital and a leading part to play in moulding the destiny of the Jewish people. So we may adapt the old Rabbinic saying: "He who saves the soul of a single Jewish student is as though he saved the world." The Menorah Journal in holding up the light of the Jewish spirit to the young men and women of America is doing the work of humanity.

May I express the hope that the Menorah Societies will direct the gaze of their members to the land of promise and the land of the prophets, where the inspiration of Judaism has always come and whither the hopes of Jewry have always turned. Living as I do, in the reflection of Palestine as well as in the shadow of the Pyramids, I am very conscious of the need for a continued Passover from the ideas of the various Egypts that beset the Jewish people to the message that calls us, in spirit if not in body, to the land of our fathers. To-day in Palestine the light has begun to shine brightly again. Judaism has relit there its prophetic lamp, which in centuries of stress and darkness has never been permitted to fade away altogether. In our own time the Menorah has been re-established in the Temple of the land by a new band of Maccabees. But a single branch, so to say, of the seven branches as yet shows its clear light. But if the Jewish youth wills it, the whole Menorah may be lighted and shine full and clear to the world with fresh lustre. In our day there may be a new Hanukka, a rededication of the Hebraic light—if only we will it.

Signature: Norman Bentwich

The Jewish Problem Today

By Jacob H. Schiff

JACOB HENRY SCHIFF JACOB HENRY SCHIFF (born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, in 1847, came to America in 1865), one of the world's leading bankers (senior member of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York), and a prince of philanthropists, noted for his personal devotion and munificent gifts to many causes for human betterment. He was among the first to encourage and befriend the Menorah movement, founding in 1907 the annual Menorah Society Prize at Harvard. The present article forms the approved substance of an interview granted by Mr. Schiff to the Editors of The Menorah Journal on March 4, 1915. Mr. Schiff's statement regarding the need for a separate Jewish Relief Fund is given special significance by the fact that he is Treasurer of the American Red Cross.

IT is hardly possible to exaggerate the horrors of the Jewish conditions in the war-stricken countries, especially in the three Polands. According to the reports we get, conditions in Russian Poland are such that Belgium's plight is a mere bagatelle in comparison. The Jewish people there have been outraged in the most terrible manner, both by the Poles who denounced them to the Russians as enemies and spies and then by the Russians themselves, who treated them as such. It is only after the Russian armies are forced to leave that the Jews are given protection by the Germans. In saying this I do not want to be misjudged, for it is well known that I am a German sympathizer. But the fact is that the Russians and the Poles alike have been inhumane to the Jewish population.

According to the latest reports, the conditions are not being improved in any way. And the relief so far has been entirely inadequate. It has never been adequate. We need millions for the immediate relief of our brethren, and so far only about half a million has been forthcoming from American Jews. This in spite of the fact that all parties and factions in Jewry are acting together in the work of relief, except only one organization, the B'nai B'rith, and for this there is some reason, because the B'nai B'rith have their own lodges abroad and they want evidently to apply their relief to their own members first.

"We Must Have a Jewish Relief Fund of Our Own"

WE must have a Jewish Relief Fund of our own in addition to the Relief Funds for other people in the war-stricken countries, because the Jewish problem forms everywhere a problem of its own. It would be rather hard to say whether, were it not for the specific Jewish Relief Fund, the Jews would get as much relief as the other suffering people, but there is very little doubt that the Jews in the war-stricken districts, especially in Poland, have suffered a great deal more than the rest of the population. The Jews, therefore, need more relief, particularly as the civilian population has been against them.

Beyond the immediate measures for relief we can for the present do nothing. We must act from day to day. As the war goes on we must simply keep on trying to relieve the distress. As to what is in store after the war, I am unable to form a picture, at least so far as Russia is concerned. The hope is expressed that when peace is restored Russia will do better than heretofore for her large Jewish population. But we have been disappointed so often by Russia's promises that we should believe this only when actually done and not before. I have little confidence at all in the assertion that Russia will mend her way in the future.

"There Is Only One Way to Solve the Jewish Problem in Russia"

THERE is only one way to solve the Jewish problem in Russia and that is nothing less than the entire removal of the Pale. We must ever demand this and accept nothing else. When the Jew can go where he pleases, and trade where he pleases, and live where he pleases, the Jewish question in Russia will be solved. It is the government, the governing classes, in Russia that create the enmity towards the Jews. I believe there is no people anywhere who have at present or ever had less anti-Jewish feeling than the mass of Russian people. When once the pressure brought by the bureaucracy is removed and the Jews are permitted to have normal relations with the mass of the Russian population all over the country, the Jewish question will be a thing of the past.

The situation is different in Poland and Roumania, where the people themselves are anti-Semitic. It may appear strange at first that there should be such a difference between the Polish people and the Russian people in their attitude towards the Jews in their midst. But it may be easily explained. People who are oppressed generally become narrow by the oppression. The Poles and the Roumanians have had long to suffer from oppression to a great extent, the Poles from Russia and the Roumanians for many years from Turkey, from whose yoke they were freed only a few decades ago. It is generally a fact that when the servant becomes a master he makes the most intolerant master. Even if a Polish autonomous kingdom should be created, it could not be much worse for the Jewish population than it is now. But the Russian people have been happy. They have gotten used to their despotic government and do not feel it in particular, and they have little prejudice against their still greater oppressed Jewish neighbors.

The great numbers of Jews who have gone into the war and are fighting heroically will, I have no doubt, make a convincing demonstration of Jewish patriotism in every country, and that should make for an improvement of Jewish conditions all over, except possibly in Russia.

"I Am Afraid England Has Been Contaminated By Her Alliance With Russia"

BUT I am afraid that England too has been contaminated by her alliance with Russia, because England doesn't want to do anything that is displeasing to her ally, more through fear to offend her than through respect for her. So far, at least, it has not come true, as it was hoped in certain quarters, that England might apply pressure upon Russia to obtain an improvement in the condition of the Jews. And unfortunately the conditions in England itself affecting the Jews are certainly not as good now as they have been formerly. England has always been our great friend. In England there existed no such thing as anti-Semitism. But now there are, I fear, signs of a change.

In Germany the Jews do not suffer. They have a high standing and occupy many high positions. There has, it is true, always been a certain anti-Semitic tendency in Germany. But I think this war will crush out most of that, in fact all class differences. I am quite convinced that anti-Semitism in Germany is a thing of the past.

"When Peace Negotiations Begin, We Should Take United Action"

WHAT part America and the American Jews should play in the efforts to bring about a permanent betterment of Jewish conditions elsewhere, it is hard to say. America has already gone pretty far by breaking off commercial treaty relations with Russia. Whether the United States could or should go further is difficult to judge at this time. It is certainly clear that the solution of the Jewish problem in Russia along the lines already suggested would solve the passport problem and would pave the way for the resumption of regular treaty and commercial relations between the two countries.

I do not think there is anything to do now for the Jews and for Jewish bodies in America except to work harmoniously together in the raising of relief funds. Of course, we must always be on the alert and ready to take a definite position whenever the proper time arrives. But not now. When peace negotiations begin to be talked about, I think it will be well for such bodies as the American Jewish Committee, possibly the B'nai B'rith and other organizations, to take united action. What action they should take it is hard to say. It is a very difficult question to decide at this moment whether or not it would be advisable to have special Jewish representatives present at the peace negotiations to look after the specific Jewish interests. Whatever influence should be brought to bear at the proper time should originate with the American Jewish Committee, which is the most suitable unifying Jewish agent in America to-day.

"Arouse the Jews of America From Their Apathy"

FOR the present, however, I repeat, what we need is to raise relief funds to a much larger extent than we have done so far. There has been too much apathy among the American Jews. They have done much less than at the time of the Kishineff massacres, when almost a million and a half was raised. Now, with conditions infinitely worse, we have thus far not been able to raise half as much as was readily given then. Unfortunately we have become used to horrors and they do not touch us any more as deeply as they should. Moreover, we have weighty and costly problems of our own at home. We have to expend such enormous sums for home problems that American Jewry seems unable to bear much more. But notwithstanding this more must be forthcoming. We Jews must give until it hurts, until it really becomes self-sacrifice; we must stir up our people to the terrible condition of our brethren abroad. And the Menorah Societies, which represent the most intelligent and idealistic Jewish youth of the land, should do their share in making known the tragic conditions and in arousing the Jews of America from their apathy.

Signature: Jacob H. Schiff

Nationality and the Hyphenated American

By Horace M. Kallen

HORACE MEYER KALLEN HORACE MEYER KALLEN (born in Silesia, Germany, in 1882, came to America in 1887), studied at Harvard (A. B., Ph.D.), Princeton, Oxford, and Paris. He has been assistant and lecturer in philosophy at Harvard, instructor in logic at Clark University, and since 1911 of the faculty of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. At the request of the late William James, he edited his unfinished book on "Some Problems of Modern Philosophy." Besides contributing to philosophical and general periodicals, Dr. Kallen is the author of a recently published book on "William James and Henri Bergson." Dr. Kallen was one of the founders of the Harvard Menorah Society, and has rendered signal service, both by tongue and pen, to the Menorah movement.

THE United States of America are at peace with all the world. Our government is not taking sides in the great war; officially we are the friends of all the embattled powers. And yet—we have but to take up any newspaper, anywhere in America, to find violent praise of one side, violent blame of the other. The sentiment of our country is divided. On all sides, our diverse populations are emphasizing afresh their European origins and background. The German in German-American, the Slav in Slavic-American, the Briton in British-American, have awakened, have become demonstrative and emphatic. The President, observing this, has declared his official and personal boredom with the "hyphenated American," and the conception expressed in this phrase has become an issue in the written and spoken discourse of our country.

Why, in an officially neutral country, has this come to pass? When we look closely to the ground and principle of the division of sentiment in our population, we discover this significant fact: the division is not truly determined by the merits of the European issue; it is determined by the lines of our population's European origin and ancestral allegiance. The Americans of German and Austrian and Magyar ancestry are pro-German; those of French or British or Russian ancestry favor the Allies. Only the Jews seem to be an exception to this rule. Being mainly from Russia, their favor should go to the Russians, but their newspapers, almost without exception, favor the Germans. The case of the Jews, however, is an exception that proves the rule. Although the majority of them came from Russia, they have had no part in the Russian polity; they have been oppressed, persecuted, terrorized, as their brethren still are in Russian territory. As Americans, what portion and what hope have they in Russia that they should desire Russian victory? None. But they are not for this reason in favor of Germany. The headlines of their newspapers do not celebrate German victories, but Russian defeats. The Ghetto's partiality to Germany is a consequence of its loyalty to Jewry. Kinship of blood and race, ancestral allegiance, determine with the Jewish masses in America also, what side they take in this war. Although they have no political background in Europe, and their civil allegiance is absolutely American, they too are hyphenated in sentiment—Jewish-Americans.

Such is the fact. Its significance lies in what it reveals, and what it reveals is a force much deeper and more radical, distinctly more primitive and original, than anything else in the structure of society. It hyphenates English and Germans and Austrians and Russians and Turks no less than it hyphenates Americans, and, in the failure of the external socio-political organization of Europe to give it free play, it is the chief, almost the only, cause of the present unendurable European tragedy. Its name is nationality.

Two Mosaics of Nationalities: A Contrast

NATIONALITY is not nationhood, although it is the most important constituent of nationhood. Many nationalities may compose a nation (such is the case of the British, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires, of the Swiss Republic, of our own Union), and then the relation between the nationalities will determine the strength or the weakness of the nation. Again, a single nationality may be divided among many nations (such is the case of the Poles, of the Serbs and other Slavs, of the Jews), and then the stability of the nations will be largely determined by their effect on the nationalities divided among them.

The Swiss Republic, for example, is a nation composed of three nationalities, two of which belong to powers at war with each other. These are the French and the German; the third is the Italian. Yet the nationhood of Switzerland is the most integral and unified in Europe to-day, because Switzerland is as complete and thorough a democracy as exists in the civilized world, and the efficacious safeguard of nationhood is democracy not only of individuals but of nationalities. The German, French and Italian citizens of the Swiss Republic are to-day under arms to defend the neutrality of their nation from possible violation by German, French or Italian belligerents, and in defending their nation, they are defending also the autonomy of each other's nationality. In Switzerland, nationhood, being democratic, is the safeguard and insurance of nationality.

Contrast Swiss nationhood with Austro-Hungarian nationhood. Austria-Hungary is the immediate and direct occasion of the great war by reason of the fact that, although she is a mosaic of nationalities like Switzerland, her government, instead of being a democracy, has in the long run been directed toward the control and exploitation of many nationalities by one or two. Hungary contains a population of seven million Magyars among twelve million Slavs; yet the Hungarians, having the economic and political upper hand, have sought to Magyarize by force and trickery this almost doubly greater and culturally equal population. They have tried to compel Magyar forms and standards in language, in literature, in history, the arts, the sciences, religion, law, in every intimate or remote concern of the daily life and national genius of their Slavic subjects. The result has been the steady disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian mosaic, the increasing use of force to hold it together, the corresponding increase of restlessness among the subject-peoples, plot and counterplot, the assassination of the Archduke, and the attack on Serbia, which precipitated the war. In this war Austria has come off worst of all the combatants, and for the same reason: the attempt to maintain the unity of a nation of nationalities by the force of one of them instead of by the democratic coöperation of all. In Austria-Hungary, nationality, having been exploited and suppressed, has been the enemy and destroyer of nationhood.

America A Commonwealth of Nationalities

IN this country the whole spirit of those institutions which constitute American nationhood makes for the liberation and harmonious coöperation of nationalities. This spirit is also a part of the Hebraic spirit, a part of the explicit program of our prophets, those champions and vindicators of social justice and international righteousness and peace; and this, significantly, is the spirit that literally inspired the democracy of our America.

For the democracy of America had its first articulate voicing in the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans of New England. These men and women, devoted to the literature of the Old Testament, and upheld by the ancestral memories of the Jews, were moved to undertake their great American adventure by the ideal of nationality. It was not because of an overwhelming oppression of body and soul that the Pilgrims adventured to America. It was not "freedom to worship God" that they sought. They had that in Holland. They sought freedom to be themselves, to realize their national genius in their own individual way. Their English manners, English speech, English history, and English loyalty were, in fact, more important to them than their Hebrew Bible. They used that as the spiritual pabulum which nourished their English corporate life. Their Calvinism was a reinterpretation of its prophetic nationalism expressed in the doctrine of the "chosen people"; their political institutions were a modification of the ideal political order it was supposed to reveal. As Cotton Mather narrates, his grandfather, John Cotton, found, on his arrival in New England, that the population was much exercised over the framing of a "civil constitution." They turned to him for help, begging "that he would, from the laws wherewith God governed his ancient people, form an abstract of such as were of a moral and lasting equity." So "he propounded unto them an endeavor after a theocracy, as near as might be to that which was the glory of Israel." Out of this beginning the democratic mood of America surges; in such conceptions the ideals which express the mood have their origins. These ideals are the conservation of nationality, and the equality of men before the inconceivable supremacy of their God. Hebraism and English nationality—these are the spiritual background of the American commonwealth.

Political freedom in America has tended to generate self-expression of each national group, and our country is to-day, broadly speaking, a great coöperative commonwealth of nationalities, British, French, German, Slavic, Jewish, each freely developing, in so far as it is self-conscious, its national genius, its language, literature and art in its own characteristic way as its best contribution to the civilization of America as a whole,[C] realizing in this way the ideal of the democracy of nationalities, of international comity and coöperation which our prophets were the first to formulate.

American nationhood, thus, is in the way of becoming what Swiss nationhood fully is, the liberator and protector of nationality; its democracy is its strength, and its democracy is "hyphenation." "Hyphenation" may, it is true, become perverse. As an expression of the coöperation of nationality with nationality in the life of the State, it is inevitable and good; as an attempt to subordinate all nationalities to one, to use all for the advantage of one, it is partial, undemocratic, disloyal. Our nation is a democracy of nationalities having for its aim the equal growth and free development of all. It can take no sides. To require it to take sides, German or Anglo-Saxon, Slavic or Jewish, is to be untrue to its spirit and to pervert its ideal.

The Renaissance of Nationality in the Past Century

IT is the attempt of one nationality to dominate and to impose its character, culture and ideals upon others that has been the basis of all the great wars in Europe, of all international injustice from the beginning of history.

The movement in modern history which we call progressive has been a movement toward democracy in both the internal affairs and external relationships of nations. Men did not realize its entire significance until the nineteenth century; only then did it come to full consciousness in fact and idea, urged equally in Greece, in Germany, in Ireland, in Italy. Its great voice is the Italian thinker and patriot, Mazzini. In a marvelous essay entitled "Europe, Its Condition and Its Prospects," he wrote, at a time when the hope of social and international democracy seemed extinguished: "They struggled, they still struggle, for country and liberty; for a word inscribed upon a banner, proclaiming to the world that they also live, think, love and labor for the benefit of all. They speak the same language, they bear about them the impress of consanguinity, they kneel beside the same tombs, they glory in the same tradition; and they demand to associate freely, without obstacles, without foreign domination, in order to elaborate and express their idea, to contribute their stone also to the great pyramid of history. It is something moral which they are seeking; and this moral something is in fact, politically speaking, the most important question in the present state of things. It is the organization of the European task. In principle, nationality ought to be to humanity that which division of labor is in a workshop—the recognized symbol of association; the assertion of the individuality of a human group called by its geographical position, its traditions and its language, to fulfill a special function in the European work of civilization."

Modern Europe saw the overthrow of the Holy Roman Empire, of the imperial aspirations of Louis XIV, and of Napoleon before it realized the natural fact and moral principle which underlay these overthrows, and which finally so successfully asserted themselves as to unify Italy and cast off the Austrian dominion, to liberate Greece, Bulgaria, Roumania and the other Balkan States from the Turk, to unify and create contemporary Germany. The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw the renaissance, often in the face of overwhelming suppression, of the language and cultures of Czechs, Bohemians, Poles, Irish and Jews. It saw the rise of nationalism in the Oriental dependencies of Great Britain. It saw the beginning of an acknowledgment of the full rights of nationalities by both Austria and Great Britain, the grant of local autonomy to the various nationalities in the Austrian Empire, of progressive home rule to India and South Africa and Ireland. The twentieth century seemed to be moving peacefully toward the fulness of democracy—when came the war.

The Present War: Nationality vs. Imperialism

LET no one be deceived into believing that this war is a struggle for the economic domination of the world, springing from commercial rivalry and industrial intrigue. No. Nothing is so international as economic life—we in America know that now to our own cost also—and if commercial interests and capitalistic counsels had had their say, there would have been no war. England was Germany's best customer, France her great creditor, Russia supplied her with unskilled labor. The socialist international was against war, the peace party was against it, the intelligence of the world was against it. When it came, it shattered all these international organizations into national units, it smashed the solidarity of even science and art, which are the most international enterprises in the world. And why? Because its cause was something deeper than economic interest or the other secondary interests. Here is the question that the war is to decide: Is the whole of mankind to be dominated in body and in spirit, without its consent, by a portion of it, and to be compelled "to elaborate and express the idea" of the portion? or is the whole of mankind to be self-governed, in a coöperative commonwealth, each part of which, by elaborating and expressing its own idea, contributes its best to the whole?

This is the issue between the warring powers and each claims that it is defending itself against the aggression of its opponents. Each claims to be fighting for democracy. In the face of these claims, history has the deciding voice. Now, historically, England, more than any other power, has stood for the democratic and coöperative idea. Her colonies have autonomy, her more backward dependencies are encouraged toward autonomy. Since the Boer war, when imperialism passed away, she has moved toward the position of Switzerland. Even Ireland has obtained home rule. "We are a great world-wide, peace-loving partnership," said Mr. Asquith,[D] has reiterated again and again the principle for which all the Allies are fighting: believing that "the preservation of local and national ties, of the genius of a people which has a history of its own, is not only not hostile to or inconsistent with, but on the contrary, fosters and strengthens and stimulates the spirit of a common purpose, of a corporate brotherhood," the Allies seek to defend public right, to find and to keep "room for the independent existence and free development of the smaller nationalities, each with a corporate consciousness of its own . . . and, perhaps, by a slow and gradual process, the substitution for force, for the clash of competing ambitions, for groupings and alliances and a precarious equipoise, of a real European partnership, based on equal right and enforced by a common will."[E]

It is hard to believe that Russia can be fighting for such an end. Fear of Russian barbarism is what brought Germany into the lists, the Germans declare, to defend western ideals and western democracy. Yet Russian government is Prussian in its organization, and it is on the side of the ideal of western democracy that she is explicitly aligned. The contradiction is striking, and it is still more striking when we recall that in her armies are over a quarter of a million of Jews, and that in the other armies there are half as many more. For the Jews the war is more than civil; it is fratricide. On the face of it they have no inevitable personal or political stake in the war's fortune. England has acknowledged their "corporate consciousness" and given them maximal opportunity for "free self-development"; so has France. Russia has oppressed and horribly exploited them; Germany, though infinitely better than Russia, has set them conditions in which "free development" is synonymous with complete Germanization. Austria and Turkey have dealt with them somewhat after the manner of England and France. The contradiction of the Jewish position outdistances that of the Russian. But both contradictions are resolved in the fact that the ideal in question concerns not Russia alone, nor England alone, nor the Jews alone, but the whole of Europe, the whole world. What is at stake is not something local, personal, political, but a universal principle, the goal toward which mankind has been so slowly and deviously crawling from the beginnings of modern history—the principle of democracy in nationality and nationality in democracy.

It is for this that our brethren in the armies are fighting; it is for this that they are undergoing crucifixion in the Pale, for this that our people have suffered and died from the beginnings of our history. Our whole recorded biography is the narrative of a struggle for social justice against the exploitation of class by class within our polity, for nationality against imperialism without. Our statesmen and leaders were the first to formulate the ideal of the coöperative harmony of nationality, and the ideal of international peace.[F] Mr. Asquith is echoing our prophets, and our embattled brethren are engaged in the defence of a principle which is the constituent of the genius of their own nationality.

The Service of Jewish Nationality to Civilization

THE genius of their own nationality! That with all its implications is an issue in the war not only as a principle but as a fact. The Jewish people are the great historic incarnation of the casus belli. In fortune and in disaster, through difficult and terrible centuries, they have cherished their language, their history, their culture, have sustained their "corporate consciousness" and in terms of it have served civilization in all the institutions of civilization. Not freely, not by free development; not because of conditions, but in spite of them. The Bible, whose moral vision inspires the world, we gave the world only as we had or yearned for "independent existence" and "free development." Our best, like the best of every people, has been a function of this "independent existence and free development." We also, scattered among the nations, tortured and oppressed by the mighty and the weak among them, are among "the smaller nationalities" for whose sake the war is being fought. With Serbia, with Belgium, with Poland, we claim our public right and our national security, and we claim it not merely for ourselves, but for the service of all mankind. For as we have had a rôle "in the organization of the European task," so we still have a rôle, and in that division of the labor of civilization in terms of nationality we have our task to accomplish, our service to render. This task, this service, is the expression of the Jewish idea, the flowering and fruitage of the Hebraic spirit, which, rooted in our historic past, planted on our national soil, shall realize in modern terms, in social organization, in religion, in the arts and the sciences, a national future that by its inward excellence will truly make Israel "a light unto the nations."

The indispensable condition for such a realization is autonomous nationality; not nationhood, necessarily, but autonomy. This, more than civil rights among other nationalities, is our stake in this great war. In the last analysis, the Hebraic culture and ideals which our Menorah Societies study, can be advanced, can be a living force in civilization, only as a national force. Our duty to America, inspired by the Hebraic tradition,—our service to the world, in whatever occupation,—both these are conditioned, in so far as we are Jews, upon the conservation of Jewish nationality. That is the potent reality in each of us, our selfhood, and service is the giving of the living self. Let us so serve mankind; as Jews, aware of our great heritage, through it and in it strong to live and labor for mankind's good.

Signature: H. M. Kallen

I THINK I see in your Society a recognition of the real spirit of our country's motto, e pluribus unum. That does not mean a sinking of the differences between us all into absolute uniformity, but rather the harmony that can result from the recognition of these differences and developing our own individualities so that we shall have variety in unity.—From an Address before the Yale Menorah Society by Professor Benjamin W. Bacon of Yale University.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] For a fuller treatment of this point compare in the New York Nation for February 18 and 25, 1915, the author's articles on "Democracy Versus the Melting Pot."

[D] Cardiff Speech, 2d October, 1914.

[E] Dublin Speech, 25th September, 1914.

[F] Cf. Isaiah, II, 2-4; XIX, 23-25; XI, 6-9; LXV, 17-25, etc.

Yankee and Jew

An After-Dinner Address

By G. Stanley Hall

President of Clark University

G. STANLEY HALL G. STANLEY HALL (born in Ashfield, Mass., in 1846), President of Clark University, is a leading authority on education and psychology, and author of a number of important books, notably "Adolescence" (2 vols. 1904). The present address, delivered at a recent dinner of the Clark Menorah Society, has been revised by Dr. Hall for publication in The Menorah Journal.

I FEEL an unwonted embarrassment in speaking to you to-night, first because the light After-Dinner View of Life, which is my theme on your program, is far from being serious enough, and I must totally abandon my plan and speak entirely extemporaneously, although upon a subject in which I have an old and strong interest.

Again, I am always embarrassed in talking to members of your race because I feel a little as Napoleon did when he told his soldiers in Egypt that forty generations looked down on them from the top of the Pyramids. You know your ancestry in general back for thousands of years, and I am rarely fortunate in being able to go back as much as nine or ten generations to the Puritans of the "Mayflower," but there I stop and everything before that is a blank. David Starr Jordan tells us in his book that there is perhaps no man alive who has not kings or queens in his ancestry, but adds that we all have had murderers among our predecessors, too.

There Is Much In Common Between Yankee and Jew

THERE is much in common between the Yankees, whom I represent, and the Jews, and this alone ought to give us a friendly feeling toward one another. We are both misunderstood and caricatured. The Yankee stands for a peculiar sort of closeness in money matters and a shrewdness which has even given its slang name to a neighboring New England State, the "Nutmeg State." Perhaps we have both done too much in the past to deserve this reputation for super-cleverness. One of you has referred to the fact that there are Jews who do not like to acknowledge their race. In that respect we are alike, for there are many Yankees who are ashamed of being known as such. Long years ago, when I was a student in Germany, I was introduced one evening to a young German countess. She said in her broken English, "I am so glad to meet an American. I have heard you have many funny people there, the Dago, the Paddy, the Nigger, and many more; but I have heard that the lowest people there are what they call the 'damn Yankees.' How I would like to see one of them!" This, bear in mind, was soon after our Civil War, and she received her impression of us doubtless from Confederates. I did not have the courage to acknowledge my nationality to her, but diverted the topic to some of the other people she had mentioned.

The old New England Puritan taught sternly. He was a patriarchal head of his family. In my boyhood, Saturday evening or perhaps better Thanksgiving Day, when their descendants all gathered together as long as either of the grandparents lived, we had an illustration of something very like Heine's touching picture of an old Jewish peddler who worked hard through the week, but on Friday night put on his long black coat and his three-cornered hat, lit the seven candles at the table, and told his children and grandchildren how Jehovah had led His people through the wilderness, and how the Egyptians and all the other naughty people who persecuted them were long since dead, while the chosen race survived. And so happy in his race was this poor peddler and so proud of his pedigree that, as Heine says, had the great Rothschild entered at that moment and asked him what favor he could do, he would reply simply: "Stand out of my light, that I may finish telling the law to my children."

The Eugenics of the Jewish Race

WE Puritans were brought up on the Old Testament, the spirit of which, far more than that of the New, pervaded the life of old New England. Every day after breakfast, no matter how busy the season or how late the breakfast, my grandfather read to the assembled family a chapter from the Old Testament, and perhaps remarked upon certain passages. After graduating from college and when I became a tutor in a prominent Hebrew family in New York, and especially when I had to teach the children their Sunday school lessons and freshen up the small knowledge of the Hebrew language that I had, I realized very keenly how closely related were the Jews to the Yankees,—with this tremendous difference, that you are increasing in numbers while we are decreasing.

As I read the Old Testament, the substance of the covenant with Abraham was that if he kept Jehovah's law, his seed would be multiplied like the stars of Heaven. This placed society and life in that early day squarely on a eugenic basis, for it makes the number and success of good children the supreme test of every human institution, activity, and every kind of culture. This I take it is one of the chief characteristics of your race, and I hope it may long be so.

I am going to avail myself of this opportunity to say a few words about a topic that has for centuries been a point of the very greatest difference and tension between your people and mine, namely, the character and work of Jesus. Please do not be shocked till you hear what I have to say. Such of us psychologists as have recently been interested in the psychological aspect of Jesus' life and work understand, as had never been understood before, how purely Jewish he was. Scholars have lately given to his figure a radically new interpretation.

"An Extremely Representative Man of Your Race"

ACCORDING to many conceptions the chief trait of Jesus was a strong and deep enthusiasm for the loftiest things of life. He was a little ecstatic all the time, illustrating the higher powers of man. His soul was unconquerable by misfortune and disaster, like that of the Jewish race itself. He was also organizing victory out of defeat, and his greatest triumph was over death itself. Some think that his youthful dreams and ideals were to be an agrarian lord of a manor, or a grand country gentleman of the Jewish order, making contracts with servants, leasing out farms and vineyards, giving feasts, and the like, for more than half the parables pertain directly or indirectly to such a vocation. But this youthful dream he was unable on account of poverty and his station in life to realize; so two very natural changes took place in his soul. He came to hate the rich because they were wasting their opportunities and never doing anything; but far more important, he developed from these juvenile reveries his world-transforming ideas of the kingdom, which created the church, visible and invisible, and re-made society.

The Jews are never beaten; if checked in their aspirations they, like the prophets in the days of captivity, strike out in higher and nobler ways. Thus you ought to be proud of Jesus for, as he is now being understood, he was an extremely representative man of your race. The real enemies of the Jews are now claiming that no such man ever lived, which is the view of Drews and his school, some holding that he was a deliberate invention of the early decades of the first century, and others, like Jensen, that he was a revived Babylonian myth. But these new views show that Jesus was not an Aryan, as a few of the pan-Germanists have claimed, but a typical Semite. It does look now, in view of the teachings of such men as Gobineau and various of his successors, that the Aryans are the highest and best people in the world and that the Germans are the very best of all the Aryans, that it is Germany that has come to consider itself the chosen people, the elite, superior race. But certainly Germany is not very Christian. It was only converted in the thirteenth century, and Luther soon threw off the fully developed Christianity of Rome. Since then we have had the Tübingen School, that resolved everything into myth, and the very many other negative points of view expressed in Nietzsche's supremest condemnation of Jesus as a wretched degenerate, while Wagner's deliberate slogan was, "Das Deutschtum muss das Christentum siegen."

The Rapprochement of Jew and Gentile in America

I WONDER if the time is not near at hand when your people will reconstruct your conceptions so much as to recognize Jesus as a typical, golden, Jewish youth, worthy of being an ideal for young men. We certainly do have in his life as now interpreted exactly what youth needs above all things,—ambition, enthusiasm, idealism, all of them absorbing, all of them diverting physical and sensuous energy into the very highest culture sphere, sublimating desire, and making us understand that youth is not complete without a great effort at achievement. The very essence of youth is excitement. There must be tension, strain, a tiptoe attitude, a strong "Excelsior"-like ambition to climb, and a corresponding horror of inferiority, Miderwertigkeit. Youth is an age of idealism, and the tension decade of adolescence needs a regimen and an idealization all its own, to set back-fires to temptation. Instead of the current altogether too plain talk on sex hygiene and teaching, we must realize that every enthusiasm or real interest, be it in the multiplication table or in literature, debate, athletics, is an alternative. It reduces temptation and stores up energy as the great reservoirs in the middle west store up the floods that come down from the mountains, so that they shall irrigate and not devastate the land. Jesus, in the new interpretation of Holzmann and Baumann, stands for this kind of enthusiasm.

I cannot but wonder, therefore, whether, in view of these new conceptions, Jew and Gentile are not going to meet in this country and even agree about Jesus. It is difficult at least to see which of us would change most if there were this rapprochement. We must neither of us abandon our birthright. We must be the very best Puritan Anglo-Saxons we possibly can, and you must be the best Jews possible, for out of these component elements American citizenship is made up. This country stands for the dropping of old prejudices, such as those that are inflaming Europe now with war. If we can satisfy each other's ideals and meet half way the thing is done, and the melting pot which America stands for has got in its work. I want the Menorah Society to feel that it is in the van of this movement.

Signature: G. Stanley Hall

"Golden Rule" Hillel

By Moses Hyamson

MOSES HYAMSON MOSES HYAMSON (born in Suwalki, Russia, in 1863, came to England in childhood). Rabbi and jurist; educated at Jews' College and University College of London; for thirteen years Senior Dayan of the London Beth-Din (Jewish Court of Arbitration), in which capacity, because of his erudition in both the Jewish and the common law, he rendered notable service to the British community. In 1913 he accepted a call from the Congregation Orach Chayim of New York. Besides being a contributor to the Jewish Quarterly Review and other learned publications, Dr. Hyamson has published "The Oral Law and Other Sermons" (1901), and an annotated edition of the medieval "Collatio Romanorum et Mosaicarum Legum" (1912).

AS the students and teachers in the famous school of Shemaya and Abtalion assembled for worship one wintry Sabbath morning, they were astonished to find their lecture-hall exceptionally dark. On looking up they descried what seemed to be a human form lying prone across the skylight. Willing feet ascended the roof and willing hands swept away the snow from a young lad's half-frozen form. They brought him down, and although it was the holy Sabbath, kindled a fire to revive the chilled body. "Worthy is Hillel," they exclaimed, "that the Sabbath should be desecrated for his sake!"

So runs the Talmudic tale. The incident happened in Palestine in the century before the common era. The boy Hillel had come from his obscure home in Babylon, bent upon study at the most famous school in Palestine, whose teachers, Shemaya and Abtalion, were heads of the Synhedrion, the Supreme Court of Jurisdiction. Poor and proud, Hillel supported himself by manual labor while he was securing his education. Like Abraham Lincoln, he was a woodchopper. One half of the small amount he earned daily served for his meals, and the other half he paid to the porter at the college for his admission in the evening. On this short Friday in mid-winter he had been able to earn nothing, and in his keen anxiety not to miss the lecture and discussion, he clambered to the roof of the college hall, braving snow and cold for the words of the living God as expounded by his teachers.

Within a few short years Hillel himself had succeeded his teachers as the head of this famous school, and also as President of the Synhedrion. Hillel's career is a shining example of the democratic principle which has always prevailed in Jewish life, of the opportunity open to all men of talents, however humble their origin, to achieve position in the republic of Jewish learning. And learning combined with noble character, as in the case of the great Hillel, carried authority in Jewish life. It is true that Hillel was not without letters patent of nobility; though he came from poverty and obscurity and from an alien land, he was, according to tradition, of the blood of David. It is not, however, to this accident of birth, known only later, that Hillel owed his quick rise and supreme eminence in Jewish life, but to his distinguished attainments, to his profound learning not only in the Jewish Law but in many secular fields of knowledge, to his bold and original mind combined with a pious devotion to tradition, to his indomitable energy and industry, his nobility of character, his sympathy with the people and his understanding of their needs.

"What To Thee Is Hateful Do Not Unto Another"

IT was Hillel who first enunciated the Golden Rule, although in negative form. The story that is told in the Talmud is one of the most familiar; yet no repetition can lessen its point and charm. A heathen, it is related, came to Shammai, the leader of a rival school, requesting to be received into Judaism and instructed in the whole of the religion while he stood upon one leg. Shammai, an architect by profession, threatened the heathen with his builder's measuring rod and drove him out. The man went to Hillel with the same request. Hillel, gentle, patient, democratic, received the man hospitably and answered: "The whole of Judaism can be summarized in one short sentence: 'What to thee is hateful do not unto another.' That is the essence of the whole Torah; the rest is commentary."

And in the interpretation of that "commentary" which, together with the Torah itself, enshrined the spirit of Judaism and made it a throbbing reality in the life of the nation, Hillel brought out the humanity of every regulation, the true intent behind it, whenever literal enforcement would have worked hardship or might have defeated its true intent because of the changed circumstances since its enactment. While keeping faithfully within the spirit of Jewish tradition, Hillel struck out into innovations, new precedents and legal institutions, which testified at once to the remarkable insight and boldness of his mind as a jurist and to his tact and sympathy as a leader of the people. Some of his innovations anticipate in a striking way the developments under similar circumstances of the common law of England and the United States many centuries later.

Hillel As A Jurist: His Sense of Social Justice

FOR example, it happened that the first year after Herod's accession was a Sabbatical year, which, according to the Deuteronomic provision (Deut. 15, 2), set up a Statute of Limitations and effectively barred the recovery of all debts. The people, impoverished by the exactions of the Government and by the failure of the harvest, were compelled to have recourse to money lenders. But those who were able to accommodate the needy were reluctant to do so on account of the imminence of the Sabbatical year and its legal bar to the recovery of past debts. Hillel's keen mind and sympathetic heart found a way out of this difficulty. He set up the institution of the Prosbul, by which a creditor received the right, when making a loan, to register the debt in court. In this way the great jurist anticipated in a remarkable manner a principle accepted so many centuries later in the common law of England and America, namely, that the Statute of Limitations does not apply to recorded judgments. Such judgments can always be sued on and recovered. And so the new ordinance established by Hillel removed the hardship of the Biblical enactment, the purpose of which was humanitarian. By Hillel's innovation, the true spirit of that law was maintained, and applied in accordance with its real intent in an age when the economic conditions were vastly different from the time when the law itself was established. Our modern lawyers and reformers in this country may well take a leaf out of this progressive conservatism of our great democratic teacher Hillel.

Other decisions of Hillel equally significant could be cited. To lawyers especially, the study of them is fascinating; they are full of startling relevancy in the present time of unrest and agitation for legal reform in this country. And not without reason. What we are keen for now is a greater measure of social justice in a democratic community. A study of Hillel's jurisprudence—both the theory and the decisions affecting the workaday life of the people—will give one an appreciation not only of the beautiful spirituality of the master, his erudition and his imagination, but the characteristic coalition of letter and spirit, the emphatic sense of social justice, which has prevailed in the whole system of Jewish law.

Hillel's Public Spirit and Humanity

THUS Hillel, while head of his famous school of instruction, became the founder of a school in another sense—a school of interpretation of the Torah. This school, as already indicated, was marked by a leniency and elasticity of interpretation of the traditional law quite in contrast to the harshness and rigidity of the contemporary school of Shammai; it is the school of Hillel, leaning to the spiritual and the humane, that has prevailed ever since in Jewish law. Hillel made the people realize the truth of the famous text about the Torah: "It is a tree of life to them that grasp it, and of them that uphold it, everyone is rendered happy. Its paths are paths of pleasantness and all its ways are peace." Those who have mistakenly conceived the Jewish law as something dour and rigid, unlovable, unspiritual, should study the decisions and dicta of this great master.

Hillel's character is illustrated by a number of pregnant sayings of his that have been recorded in the Talmud. "Do not separate yourself from the community," was one of his characteristic sayings which genuinely expressed his public spirit. His sense of individual and social responsibility is summed up in his three famous questions: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?" His peace-loving nature and humanity found voice in his counsel: "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, loving God's creatures and bringing them near to the knowledge of the Law." His disinterestedness, his liberal pursuit of the Law, that is, of knowledge, made him confidently say: "He who aggrandizes his name, his name shall perish. He who does not add to his store of learning and good deeds will suffer diminution. He who does not teach deserves death. He who uses the crown of the Law for selfish needs and personal advancement will be destroyed." Who had a better right than Hillel, graduate of poverty, to warn his contemporaries: "Do not say I shall learn when I will have leisure; perhaps you never will have leisure." And in every case, even when the conduct of a man seems most reprehensible, as when one of his colleagues Menahem left the Synhedrion to take service under the tyrant Herod, Hillel holds to this advice: "Judge not thy neighbor until thou art in his place."

Many a tale is narrated of Hillel's patience, unfailing courtesy and tact, tolerance and humility, even under the greatest provocation. The man who bet 400 Zuz that he would break Hillel's patience by silly and far-fetched questions lost his own temper at the consideration with which he was treated. And so the proverb became current, "Patience is worth 400 Zuz." And other tales are told of Hillel's considerate dealing with heathens who wished to embrace Judaism, in contrast to the harsh treatment meted out to them by his contemporary Shammai.

Sage and Saint

HIS perfect consideration and charity had in it even something of the quixotic. When a man came to him for assistance, he was wont to help him according to his previous position in life. Thus, in one instance where a man had formerly enjoyed great wealth but had suffered reverses, Hillel not only provided for him according to his previous standard of living but, it is related, even hired a horse for the man to ride on and a footman to run before him. It is added that on one occasion, when Hillel could not obtain a runner, he himself served in that capacity.

His wife, we learn, was a fit helpmeet to the sage and saint. Their domestic life was a perfect harmony. Once on returning from a journey Hillel heard a sound of quarreling in the neighborhood of his house. "I am certain," said he, "that this noise does not proceed from my home." On another occasion Hillel sent his wife a message to prepare a sumptuous meal for an honored guest. At the appointed hour Hillel and his guest arrived. But the meal was not ready. "Why so late?" asked Hillel. "I prepared a banquet," the wife replied, "according to your desire. But I learned that a couple were to be wedded to-day and they were too poor to provide a marriage feast, so I gave them our meal for their wedding banquet." "Ah, my dear wife, I guessed as much."

But the greatest and most constant hospitality was shown by Hillel to a guest who was always with him and uppermost in his thoughts. Every day it was his habit to withdraw for a while for private meditation. "Whither art thou going?" asked his colleagues and disciples. "I have a guest to whom I must show attention." "Who is this guest?" "My soul," was the solemn reply; "to-day it is with me, to-morrow the heavenly visitant may be departed and returned home."

Is it any wonder that, after forty years of activity in the Patriarchate, when Hillel died (in the year 10 of the common era), men said of him: "Meek and humble-minded, a saint has departed from among us, a disciple of Ezra the Scribe." The title fitted his career, for he came like Ezra from Babylon to Palestine and like Ezra he restored the Law when it was threatened with destruction. Great as a student, he was great also as an inspirer of other students. He left eighty distinguished disciples, of whom the youngest was that famous Jochanan ben Zakkai who became the savior of Judaism at the destruction of the second Temple.

Signature: M. Hyamson

Editors' Note—Dr. Hyamson's portrait of Hillel is the first in a series of character sketches of Jewish Worthies to appear in The Menorah Journal. The second paper will be on Hillel's disciple, Jochanan ben Zakkai.

The Quality of Mercy

A Sixth Act to "The Merchant of Venice"

By William M. Blatt

William M. Blatt William M. Blatt (born in Orange, N.J., in 1876) was educated in the public schools of Boston, and received his degree of LL.B. from Boston University Law School in 1897. Besides being engaged with the law in Boston and contributing to a number of legal periodicals, Mr. Blatt is also devoted to letters and has published a number of plays, including "Husbands on Approval," and many one-act playlets, including "The Danger of Ideals," which have been given professional performance.

Characters: Shylock, Jessica, Antonio, Gratiano, Portia, Isaac, a servant of Shylock.

Scene: A street in Venice.

Time: An afternoon, two years after the last act of "The Merchant of Venice."

As curtain rises, Portia and Gratiano discovered standing and looking down the street, Gratiano pointing.

Gratiano
Now Lady Portia look a long way off
And see if you can recognize a friend.

Portia
A friend? One person only do I see—
A man, quite old, who hobbles with a staff.

Gratiano
He is the one I mean. Now look again
And try to recognize his face, his beard.

Portia
Why, is it not old Shylock? Sure it is.
And met most opportunely, on my word.
Now, dear Gratiano, with this icy heart
We must needs waste a score or two of words.                     

Gratiano
To make him help his daughter Jessica?

Portia
That is the task.

Gratiano
Too much for Hercules.

(Enter Shylock.)

Portia
A moment, Shylock, of your precious time.
You must remember meeting me before.

Shylock
Remember, nay then, how could I forget
The noble judge who spoke so clean and fair
And took away on quibbles all I owned.

Portia
Not all, good Shylock, half of it remained.

Shylock
Oh, true, I thank you for the half you left.
I thank that kindly merchant, him that begged
The Duke to quite remit the City's fine
Which never would have done him any good—
I thank him for accepting what was all
He could have claimed, the half of my estate.

Portia
In trust——

Shylock
I know. In trust until I die.
And trust Antonio to eat it up.
Is it not known that when he takes a risk
Of more than common danger and doth lose,
He makes a record that he did invest
A part of my belongings in the venture?
Belike by now there's not a ducat left.
For that however I have naught but joy
Because it means that she who was my daughter
And that Lorenzo who's her paramour
Will, when I die, inherit penury.

Gratiano
But if Antonio's trust should disappear
They still would come by all you leave yourself;
'Twas thus the Duke decreed.

Shylock
I know a thing
Or two that I could tell and make the face
Of son Lorenzo somewhat longer grow.

Gratiano
Faith, often did Lorenzo say to us
"The Jew will find a way to cheat me yet."

Shylock
To cheat him out of what? The gold he earned
By robbing me, debauching my—my child?

Portia
Nay, let us not be quarreling, old man,
I have a message that I want to give.

Shylock
No message from my daughter—none to me.

Portia
I meant not message, what I have is news.
Poor Jessica has come to sorry straits.
Her husband, having heard of what you spoke,
The loss of what Antonio received,
The tricks you have been playing with your own,
Fell out with Jessica; they came to words;
From words, they say, to blows. And so it seems
He left her in a pitiable state.

Shylock
(laughing wildly) Good, good, good, good. I prithee tell me more.

Gratiano
The fiends fly off with thee. Hast thou a heart
And canst thou hear the sorrows of thy child
In laughter and with joy?

Shylock
She is no child
Of mine. She is a wench who lied and stole
Repaid my love with treason. Broke my heart
And left me weakened for mine enemies
To ruin and to taunt. Tell me the rest,
Leave not a portion out. Describe her pain,
Her hunger, her remorse. I would know all.

Portia
The font has failed to change thy cruel soul;
Thou art a Christian, Shylock, but in name.

Shylock
Well, blame thy sacred water. Blame not me.

Gratiano
And so poor Jessica must starve and die?

Shylock
Why, no. For you and she (pointing to Portia) should be her friends.
You Christians will not let a Christian fall.

Gratiano
Now there we cut the venom from thy tongue
For Jessica will not accept our aid.

Portia
Indeed, old man, we know not where she is.
We told you, that you might go search for her.
Bassanio did offer her employment
But she refused, belike because her shame
Would not permit that we should see her shame.
And so she fled.

Gratiano
And may yet be alive.

Shylock
These circumstances you should tell unto
Lorenzo. 'Twas he took her upon himself
For better or for worse. Fare you well.
I have affairs that interest me more.

Gratiano
Come, Lady Portia. 'Tis a waste of time.
The Bible says that God did choose the Jews
But says not what it was He chose them for.
Our ancient friend hath made it clear to me
That they were chosen by our gracious Lord
To be a kind of warning and example
Of what a misbeliever may become.

Portia
Thou wilt not save thy daughter?

Shylock
Lady fair,
In this peculiar and imperfect world
The virtues are divided into parts:
For instance, mercy. Some do practice it,
And some do merely preach. A third there are
Whose only contribution is to be
The text from which the second sermons preach;
They neither preach nor practice. Such am I.
Farewell.

Gratiano
We but insult ourselves to stay. (Exit Portia and Gratiano. Shylock looks after them. Enter Antonio, sees Shylock, walks over to him and touches him with his stick. Shylock turns.)

Antonio
Hebrew, have I found thee out at last?
Once more thy promises are broken, eh?

Shylock
Yes, yes. I pray you——

Antonio
Pray me nothing more.

Shylock
Signor Antonio, wait another day.

Antonio
Another day. For what? Until you hide
A bag of ducats or a jewel case?
Your bonds are by a fortnight overdue
And day by day your fortune dwindles down.
If I should sell the roof above your head
And all your land and chattels, they would bring
Less than enough to pay me what you owe.

Shylock
I prithee not so loud. But you alone
Are cognizant of my disastrous state.
My name is good. Perchance I may obtain
A temporary loan to tide me through.
But if my losses come to other ears
Before my kinsmen and my ship arrive
A bankrupt's ending stares me in the face.
Wait, wait Antonio, surely he will come,
My cousin Issachar who sailed away.

Antonio
Thy cousin Issachar will come no more.
He promised to return three weeks ago.

Shylock
But think, remember, good Antonio,
The vessel could not founder. 'Twas my best,
Held in reserve, the last one of my fleet.
Issachar swore he knew the very spot
Where dusky natives mined the laughing gold
And that if I would furnish men and ships
The moiety of the cargo would be mine.
Perhaps he is a little while delayed.

Antonio
Perhaps another theory will fit.
Perhaps your kinsman filled the ship with gold
And then did point his helm another way.
Perhaps in England now he lives at ease
And deems the whole is better than a half.
Consider, sir, your kinsman is a Jew.

Shylock
He will not fail me, for he is my friend.
Patience, good sir, patience a day or two.
Deal with me kindly as so oft before
You treated many an unfortunate.

Antonio
Let's have no whining. See you pay my bills
No later than to-day. Expect no further time.
I have done more than doth in truth become
A Christian to oblige a Jew withal.
Think not to share the leniency I give
To men of Venice of my faith and blood.
This case is different.

Shylock
But did thy Lord
Not preach a creed of brotherhood and love
And bid thee treat thy neighbor as thyself?

Antonio
He meant our Christian neighbors who reside
By right of law and ancient heritage
Within the land, but not the tribe who do
Usurp the places of their betters. No!

Shylock
I am a Christian, made so by your Church.
Your own priest said so and it must be true.

Antonio
'Twas but a form to bend thy haughty will.
In heart and manner thou art still a Jew.
They should be glad that they can here remain
To practice sacrilege, and cheat, and fawn.
I marvel we can be so tolerant.

Shylock
The God who made this land and you and me
Mocks at your selfish, mean, philosophy.
When you or yours can build a mountain peak
Or add a grain unto the universe
Then talk of this fair ground as your domain.
The earth is one and rests within His hand;
The great and small His erring children are,
But we who from Yisrael claim descent
Are now the eldest of the family.
The God of Justice never slumbereth.
Jehovah is His name; His will be done.

Antonio
Mumble thy prayers if that affords relief,
But if by sundown I am not repaid
Another Moses must thou be and bring
Another set of miracles from heaven
Or lose the very coat from off thy back.
By sundown—but a few short minutes hence. (Exit Antonio)

Shylock
Finished—almost finished—almost done.
I see the wave that soon above my hopes,
My fears, my sorrows, and my broken heart,
Will roll in cruel triumph. I'm content.
A long and troubled record I shall leave
Of struggles in the dark 'gainst many foes.
I begged for light to see my duty clear
To see the purpose of my suffering
To see the end that my Creator served
In heaping hills of torment on my head.
The light has never come. But now ere long
I must be called where all shall be made clear.
Till then a few weeks more of faith in Him
A few weeks more with an unfalt'ring tongue
To praise His wisdom though its end be hid.
A few weeks more to walk within His law.

(Starts to walk off. Enter Jessica in disordered dress and manner.)

Jessica
Father!

Shylock
Back! Away! Dare not to touch me.

Jessica
A word, a single word and I will go.

Shylock
(trying to wrest his arm from her grasp)
Let be I say.

Jessica
Nay, but I cannot leave.
I know not how much time I have to live.
I marvel that this body thin and frail
Has so long stood th' innumerable shocks
Which in my married life it hath endured.
Death must be near, it stretcheth out its arms,
And I in answer have extended mine.

Shylock
Come not to me for money. Had I all
The wealth of Sheba's mines I would not pay
A mite to save thy fallen soul from hell.
The potter's field may have thy rotten bones
And owls and jackals pray for thy repose.

Jessica
'Tis not for gold I beg but for thy love.
I threw it from me like an orange sucked
And turned to grasp the shining fruit that he,
Lorenzo, pictured to mine eyes. Ah me,
How bitter, hard and worthless to the taste
Hath been that substitute. The marriage moon
Had scarce grown full before my body bore
The marks of coward blows.

Shylock
Ha! Ha! That's well.

Jessica
I have not known a single kindly word,
I scarce have heard him call me by my name
Since less than four weeks after we were wed.

Shylock
(gloatingly rubbing his hands) Hm!

Jessica
Oh father, why was I not told before
That we and all our people are accurst;
That those to whom we give our love and trust
Curse us and loathe us with a dreadful hate,
A hate that neither reason can assuage
Nor conduct make amends for. Awful fate,
That makes the very children of the street
With circle eyes point at us in contempt,
And people who have never heard our names
Thirst for our blood and menace us with death!

Shylock
So thou didst think a priestly comedy
Could make Lorenzo love his Jewish wife?

Jessica
I could have died for him. For him I fled
And stole your wealth and helped your enemies.
Why could he not have been a little kind?

Shylock
(chuckling) Come tell me how he beat you. Tell me that.

Jessica
Have pity, father.

Shylock
Tell me how he swore.

Jessica
Oh, torture me no further. Take me back.
Love me not now, but let me win your love
A little at a time. No day shall pass
But in it I shall do some tiny act
That will in time make up a wealth of deeds,
And if we both are living long enough
The balance will be as it was before.

Shylock
Thy pleadings are but wasted, Jessica,
Thou canst not gain the end that thou dost seek.
For even if I have the foolish will
(And I assure thee that I have it not)
To bring thee back to all the luxury,
The silken clothes, the soft and perfumed beds,
The shining jewels of thy girlhood days,
I could not. I am almost penniless.

Jessica
Poor, and alone, and old! Nay, father dear,
Thou couldst not drive me from thee after this
Hadst thou the strength of ten. Let us go forth
And find a little corner of the earth
Where I may work and you may live at peace.

Shylock
I need no aid. I want no help from thee.

Jessica
Then give me thine. I starve for sympathy.
I shall go mad. I saw my baby die
And all around me were my husband's friends
Who spoke in terms of polished elegance.
With formal platitudes and commonplace
Regarding me as something curious,
A vulgar, noisy creature, lacking taste
And proper self-control. While on its bier
Lay all the joy that life in promise held.
Dead, and my heart within it.(Weeps)

(Shylock turns to go, looks back after a step or two, and returns)

Shylock
I did not know the little one was dead.
Was it a pretty child?

Jessica
A pretty child!
A cherub could not be more beautiful.
Blue eyes and golden hair. A tiny mouth
A dimple in her chin. (Shylock puts his arm around Jessica)

Shylock
Thy mother's face belike. So did she look.
And how old when it—died?

Jessica
A year, a year.

(Enter Antonio and Gratiano. Antonio touches Shylock on the shoulder)

Antonio
Well, let us have an end. The time is up.
I now demand the payment of my bonds.

Shylock
I have not moved since last you spoke to me.

Antonio
All's one for that. You had no move to make.
Your whole estate is in the bailiff's hands
And you yourself may come along with me.

Shylock
Where would you take me?

Antonio
Why, before the Duke.

Shylock
What need of trials? Freely I confess
The debts I owe you. Take what you can find.
Take ev'ry rag and counter. Take them all.
Myself and Jessica must go away.

Antonio
Not quite so fast. The law expressly states
That I may put you in the debtor's gaol
And so I mean to do.

Shylock
But good Signor—

Antonio
No protest will avail. I know you Jews.
You hang together in calamity
And help each other while the Christians starve.
Let them redeem you and repay my loss.

Shylock
Good sir, my kin are very far away
And poor as I.

Antonio
'Twill do no good to lie.
Write letters. I will see them promptly sent.

Shylock
I swear to you Antonio—

Gratiano
Wait a while.
First tell us if the oath thou art to make
Is sworn as Christian or in Hebrew style;
Though truly which to give the preference
Is matter to discuss. A Jewish oath
Thou canst not take for thou hast been baptised,
And sooth to say I have a sort of doubt
About thy reverence for Christian forms.

Shylock
By that great Power who can humble both
Hebrew and Christian, I do swear to you
That not in all this universe's span
Have I a claim on friends or relatives
As large as this. Much more have I the right
To claim assistance from Antonio
Who though he found me keen for my revenge
And steadfast in assertion of my rights
Can bring no accusation on my head
Of underhanded trickery or crime.

Gratiano
Because we watch you pretty carefully.

Shylock
What say you, sir? You will not keep us here?

Antonio
I warned thee once cajoling will not serve.
Write out the letters. That's the only way.
I'll see that while you tarry in the gaol
Your comfort shall not be too much disturbed.
Your food shall be according to your wish
And other things in reason you may have.

Jessica
Good sir, I think you know me, do you not?

Antonio
Why, are you not my friend Lorenzo's wife?

Jessica
I am the Jessica who married him,
But not his wife if wifehood is a state
That presupposes more than legal rights.
I and Lorenzo are as strangers now
And less than strangers, less than enemies.

Antonio
I grieve to hear it.

Jessica
I would have your grief
Not for myself but for my father here.
He speaks the truth. He has no more to give.

Antonio
Then let him call upon his wealthy friends,
The other Jews will trust him if he asks.

Jessica
You heard him say he knows not where to sue.

Antonio
O, that was but the cunning of his race.

Jessica
Unfeeling man! If his deserts are dumb
What of your obligation due to me?
The Court's decree as you no doubt recall
Was that the half of his estate should go
To you to hold in trust for me and mine.
I charge you now upon your Christian faith
To give my father all the residue
That will be mine when he shall pass away
Or take it for yourself and let him go.

Antonio
Three obstacles prevent your sacrifice.
The first is that though my intent was fair
By bad investments more than half the fund
Has disappeared, and all that doth remain
Would not suffice to satisfy the bonds.
The second, that the sum is payable
Upon your father's death, which is not yet.
But third and most of all the money goes
To you and to your husband, not to you.
The gift is joint and neither can alone
Claim all himself or any several part.
Indeed, I own it frankly, my desire
In asking that the Duke should so decree
Was not to benefit Lorenzo's wife,
A Jewess, who was never aught to me,
But solely to befriend Lorenzo's self
My coreligionist and distant kin.
To give you anything of Shylock's gold
Without Lorenzo's will would be a wrong,
A breach of trust, a patent injury.
And if your separation from his love,
As shrewdly I suspect, be fault of yours
And growing from thy Jewish wilfulness,
It would be most unfaithful and untrue
That I should thus reward inconstancy.
You see, in honor and before the law
I must refuse to do as you request.

Jessica
I see that Jesus died in vain for you.
His Jewish heart, with pity for the low
And meek and humble broke upon the cross
And for a time the magic of his words
Restrained the beast in Gentile followers,
But soon the kindly Stoic lost his sway
And cruel bigots in his Jewish name,
By his offenceless, mild authority
Took fire and sword and hatred for their flag.

Antonio
My girl, there is a law 'gainst blasphemy.

Gratiano
Why stand we here and listen to her spleen?
Away with Shylock. Take him to the gaol.

Antonio
Come on.

Jessica
No! No!

Shylock
Resist no more, my child.

Jessica
Oh, father, we may never meet again;
Your age and suffering cannot endure
The shock of this disgrace.

Shylock
'Tis better so.
I pray for death. It cannot come too soon.
Farewell.

Jessica
Farewell. (Throws her arms around him)
Yet not a long farewell,
I shall not far survive. It is no sin
To end a life of misery and shame.

Isaac
(behind scenes) Where is my master? Where has Shylock gone? (Enter Isaac.)

Gratiano
Here fellow, here he is. With Jessica
He poses like a model for the arts.

Isaac
Great news and wonderful. His ship is here
And laden full of gold. The mine is found
And Issachar and he are princely rich.
This cargo is the greatest that has come
To Venice since the city first began.

Antonio
I do rejoice to hear it. Truly Jew
I have no wish to do thy body harm
But thou and thy relations are well known
To be so deep in craft and villainy
That to recover what is justly due
We Christians must resort to rigid means.
Go freely with thy daughter. Later on
When ev'rything's in order I'll return
And you may pay me what the balance is.

(Exit Antonio and Gratiano, followed by Isaac. Shylock still stands expressionless with Jessica's arms around him.)

Signature: Wmln. Blatt

Jewish Students in European Universities

By Harry Wolfson

(Concluded)

Judaism and Jewish Students in France

THE decadence of native Judaism in France has become proverbial. The original French Jews never amounted to much; and the Alsatian immigrants, while still supplying rabbis for the pulpits, have of late begun to disappear from the pews. You may state it is an axiom that the synagogue will have to go a-begging for a quorum wherever church-going is unpopular. But French Judaism has recently been gaining reinforcement by the influx of newcomers from Eastern Europe. Paris might be considered next to London the greatest centre of Jewish immigration in Europe. In fact, Paris as well as some large cities in the Low Countries, and to some extent even London, have since the beginning of the Jewish movement towards the United States, become the refuge of a considerable number who straggled behind the migratory columns and were unable to reach their final destination. Free from any official molestations and rather welcomed by the native Jews, the foreign Jewish community in Paris has flourished in its own way. It numbers by this time about twenty-five thousand souls, a large proportion of whom were born and brought up in the French capital.

It is these young French Jews of immigrant parentage, students and professional men, who organized themselves, about two years ago, in an "Association des Jeunes Juifs," known by its initials as A. J. J. The aim of that organization, which is non-partisan in Jewish affairs, is both cultural and practical. It publishes a monthly by the name of "Les Pionniers," and occasionally holds debates and lectures on various Jewish topics. It also carries on a program of social work among the immigrant Jews. I might perhaps give a clearer idea of the object of the A. J. J. by reproducing their following declaration: "Notre But.—Nous voulons nous affirmer 'Juifs' sans forfanterie, mais avec fermeté; cultiver, développer parmis nous, faire connaître au dehors, l'âme juive; nous éduquer mutuellement; demander, par les voies légales, le respect, la justice pour tous,—fussent-ils juifs; aider nos frères émigrés à l'aquérir la qualité de citoyen; inculquer à nos membres les principes de solidarité et de mutualité." In the summer of 1913, Dr. Nahum Slouszch of the Sorbonne submitted to the society a scheme for more extensive activities, both Jewish and patriotic in their scope, namely, the participation in educational and social work among the indigenous Jews of the French possessions in Africa.

The Jew of the Roman Ghetto

IT is a pity that so little is known to us about the life of the Jewish masses in Italy. The fame of the Nathans and Luzzattis has led us to believe that in Italy Jews form the class of society from which mayors and statesmen are recruited. But in Italy the majority of Jews still live in social and economic conditions not far advanced above those of their ancestors in centuries past. Italy is the only country in Europe outside those in the Eastern part where the so-called ghettoes are populated by native Jews. Their political emancipation has not raised them from the bottom of the social structure over the heads of their Gentile neighbors. Nowhere is the average Jew so much like the non-Jew in appearance, language, manners, and vocation than the inhabitant of the Roman Ghetto on the bank of the Tiber. He is engaged there in the petty trades of selling his olives, peaches, and figs, and hires out as a journeyman in and outside his country. He hawks with "cartiloni" and "ricordi di Roma" in front of the café terraces, and his street waifs accost the foreigners for a "soldi." Even at the door of his old-clothes shop you can hardly recognize in him the Jew. It is this, more than the paucity of the number of Jews in Italy, that explains the absence of anti-Jewish feeling there. For the name Sacerdote by which Italian Cohens call themselves does not suggest affluence, and the cognomen Levi does not necessarily designate one's business.

In his religious life the Jew of the Roman Ghetto resembles the Lithuanian rather than the Western European. His religious activity, to be sure, is restricted to the prayer services of the Temple, but his Temple is more like a Beth Midrash than a symphony hall and lyceum. Living within a Catholic environment, his religion has been preserved as something positive, tangible, and powerful; and if it is no longer an inspiring influence within him, it exists at least as a reality outside of him. The religious institutions and instrumentalities are looked upon by him as something hallowed and consecrate. The synagogue is spoken of as the "sacro tempio" and the rabbi, referred to by the Hebrew words "Morenu Harav," is looked up to in matters religious as if he were the incumbent of the throne of Moses. The place of worship is opened three times a day for the traditional number of the daily public prayers, and young men as well as old, unwashed and in their working garments, repair there directly from their work to hear the "sacra messa," as the services are sometimes termed by them. Most of the younger Jews are unable to read the Hebrew prayers, some read without understanding them; but they all know a few selected prayers by heart which they recite aloud with many interesting gesticulations and genuflections, while in the pulpit the Chasan reads the services from a prayer-book printed in Livorno, chanting them in a monotonous sing-song not unlike what one often hears in the chapels of St. Peter.

Societies of Jewish Youth in Italy

RACIAL consciousness is strong among these Jews of the Roman Ghetto. They are to themselves, in common parlance, "Ibrim" or "Yahudim," which they utter not without pride, and the Gentile is looked down upon as a mere "goi," while the passing priest is pointed out as a "komer." If you ever happen to be in Rome, I should advise you take one afternoon off, and ordering a "café noro" at some café house on the Piazza Venezia, sit down quietly at a table on the terrace and try to look Jewish. You will soon be assailed by a number of postal-card venders coming one after another, until one importunate youth, discovering your identity, will of a sudden change his attitude, and, his obsequiousness gone, will enter with you into an intimate conversation. He will tell you his name, his pedigree, and of the "tempio," and of the street where many Jews live. He will no longer entreat you to buy his goods; and if you do so, he will mumble out his "grazie" rather perfunctorily. For are not all Israel of the same descent?—and if they are not all princes, at least none of them is better than a postal-card vender in Rome.

It is therefore not surprising that among the native Italian Jews there should arise on the part of the young educated elements a desire to convert that latent Jewish sentiment into some form of practical and useful activity. A society of Jewish youth in Italy has already existed for about three years during which time two conventions were held. A number of commendable resolutions were passed about the improvement of Jewish education among the Italian Jews and especially the advancement of the study of the Hebrew language among them. Zionism was warmly endorsed, though the society as a whole did not commit itself officially to the cause. Like the A. J. J. of Paris, the Italian organization also purports to act as intermediaries between the Italian government and the native Jewish population of Tripoli. In Rome there is a local organization of Jewish students, devoted to the study of Hebrew literature, and is rather of cosmopolitan complexion, being composed of Italian, Greek, German, and Russian Jews. The moving spirit of that circle was a brilliant Russian Jew, who had graduated in law from the University of Rome.

Conclusion: The Growing National Spirit Among Jewish Students

A CLOSE observation of European Jewish students, both as individuals and as groups, leads one to the realization of a growing consciousness among them of national unity, and of an increasing belief on their part of the imperishability of the Jews as a race. That morbid feeling of national decay and the imminent disappearance of the race, which had preyed upon the minds of Jewish men in the past generation, and which is reflected in the literature of that time, has been everywhere displaced by one of confidence and hope. Desertion from Judaism, to be sure, may sporadically make its appearance here and there as a convenient escape from material disadvantages; indifference towards it may likewise in some quarters still survive as a relic of the past,—but these are rather unusual and isolated phenomena, emphasizing all the more the universal fidelity and attachment to all things Jewish.

The enthusiasm for Judaism, everywhere in a process of growth, manifests itself in its early stages in study and self-cultivation; it assumes a more concrete form, in its later stages, of some communal or social activity; and if that development keeps on uninterruptedly it finally consummates in Zionism. This development, it must be admitted, is not a spontaneous and self-directive movement. In no small measure, it is everywhere stimulated by the growing tendency on the part of non-Jews in almost every country to appraise the Jew according to his racial origin, an appraisal which results in a feeling not necessarily hostile, but in most cases neutral and sometimes even favoring the racial and cultural peculiarity, indestructible and impermiscible, of the Jewish element. It is this external stimulus, rather than any internal impulse, that is responsible for the unfolding of the national spirit among Jewish students and the assertion of their selfhood.

None the less, their self-assertion has nowhere reached the extreme of spiritual alienation from their environment. There is nothing more remarkable in the character of Jewish youth of the present day, even among those who were born and raised in East European ghettos, than the spiritual and intellectual snugness in which they find themselves, in what should have been expected to remain to them a foreign environment. The residual estrangement of the Jewish soul from everything that is non-Jewish, which our forefathers in the past had figuratively designated with what Jewish mysticism called the "Captivity of the Shekinah," has totally disappeared. The individual Jew of to-day, while sharing in the sublimated consciousness of the race as a whole, does not in any conscious or subliminal way feel himself to be personally identified with it; whence the hesitation on the part of the majority of Jewish students to participate actively in Zionism even though they would all admit it to be the logical sequel of Jewish history.

For Zionism to them can never become a personal ideal, something requisite for the salvation of their souls. It can at its best appeal to them, in so far as they are consciously Jewish, as the cause of the nation as a whole; and consequently the mere suspicion that their affiliation with the movement might be held up against them as an impugnment of their loyalty to the land of their birth and abode is sufficient to keep them aloof from it. It was very interesting for me to notice how everywhere, after a long manœuvre of Zionist discussions with good Jewish young men, they would finally halt at their unshakable position that Zionists might arouse the suspicion of their Gentile neighbors as to the loyalty and patriotism of the Jews. Where people are obsessed by the fear of being misunderstood in doing what they otherwise think to be good and impeccable, no arguments, of course, can avail. They are in this respect characteristically Jewish. In their Brand-like racial frame of mind, the Jews could never stop midway between the two antipodes of roving world-citizenry and hidebound mono-patriotism. It is probable that their attitude will change as soon as it is generally realized that personal devotion and loyalty to two causes are not psychologically a self-deception, and that the serving of two masters is not a moral anomaly unless, as in the original adage, one of the masters be Satanic.

Signature: Harry Wolfson

Extract from a letter received from William Chadwick, President of the Hebrew Congregation and the Adler Society, Oxford University, England, commenting on the section devoted to England in Mr. Wolfson's article in our January number: "The remarks of Mr. Wolfson, whom we remember very well, concerning Oxford, were very apt for the time; but in Oxford, one particular type of Judaism never remains for long; Judaism here is in a state of perpetual flux, and to seize upon any one moment and represent that view as a type of Oxford's Judaism is very erroneous. I am sure that if Mr. Wolfson were here now, he would not recognize the services or the attitude now prevalent. I doubt if he would now hear Liberal Judaism apostrophised 'as the safeguard of modern Jews from the attractiveness of the superior teachings of Christ.'"

Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay

By Marvin M. Lowenthal

MARVIN M. LOWENTHAL MARVIN M. LOWENTHAL (born in Bradford, Pa., in 1890) is at present a Senior in the University of Wisconsin. He has won the Wisconsin Menorah Society Prize twice—in 1912 for an essay on "The Jew in the American Revolution," and in 1914 for the essay on "Zionism" here published for the first time. Mr. Lowenthal is now the President of the Wisconsin Zionist Society.

AT the head of an alley-way hard by the Place of the Temple, the Haram-esh-Sherif, in Jerusalem, a long wall built in rough-hewn courses lifts itself above the squalor of the Moghrebin quarter to an eastern sky from which a sun that seldom sleeps bakes the grey stones, bares every detail of a crumbling ruin, and intensifies the wistful odor of decay. This, the remnant of Solomon's glory, is the Wailing Wall of the Jews. Clad in sackcloth and covered with ashes, patriarchal figures sway to and fro, press their lips to the hot granite, beat now their chests and now the wall, and today, as every day for eighteen hundreds of years, wail in the words of the Psalmist:

"Oh God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance;

Thy holy Temple have they defiled;

They have laid Jerusalem in heaps."[1]

This picture reveals the typical and traditional attitude of the Jew toward the land of his forefathers. Taught as children in the Cheder to turn their thoughts and desires toward Palestine; devoting themselves as men to the study of the Law and the Prophets and to the building upon this study of the vast Talmudic structure, until a spiritual Land of the Book may be said to have been created wherein they continually dwelt; crystallizing and adopting the Restoration as a dogma of the faith; commemorating with solemn fasts the Ninth of Ab as the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple by Titus; and repeating at each Passover with the pitiful hope of a child, "Next year in Jerusalem," the Jews have bound the memory of Palestine as a sign upon their hands and as frontlets between their eyes. They have indeed written it upon the door-posts of their houses and upon their gates, to the end—that they have wept and prayed. The vision of the prophets, which created and sustained this passionate ideal, itself inhibited the realization by emphasizing the redemption as miraculous, as a consummation to come in its own time without man's effort, and indeed in spite of man's will. And so, except for the sporadic and meteoric fiascos of mock-Messiahs, the Jews—this most practical of people—continued in hope and prayer to watch the centuries creep by. Frequently the hope flowered into the songs of a Judah Halevi or Ibn Gabirol, songs as sweet as have blossomed in the medieval garden; and the prayer found expression in a poignancy attributable only to the racial genius which created the Psalms; but until the nineteenth century the dream preserved all the qualities of a dream.

A Crusade for A Birthright

ON August 29, 1897, a congress convened in Basel, Switzerland, comparable in Jewry to the Council of Clermont; for in this congress two hundred and four Jews, acting as delegates of their people from half the countries in the world, assembled at the call of Theodor Herzl to go crusading for the recovery of Palestine. This difference, among others, may be apparent—the Christians sought the recovery of a grave; the Jews, of a cradle. Palestine was to be a cradle in two senses; this Congress, the first body representative of all Jewry to be convened in the Diaspora, claimed the land of Israel not by virtue of a death, but as a birthright, and furthermore hoped to find its recovery the opportunity for the rejuvenation of a people.

Quoting from his book, "The Jewish State"[2]—a book journalistic in style, but trumpet-toned in the note it sounded for political Zionism—Theodor Herzl offered the following definition of Zionism after the first Zionist Congress (1897): "Zionism has for its object the creation of a home, secured by public rights, for those Jews who either cannot or will not be assimilated in the country of their adoption."[3] Zionism, in a word, is not the last truism in a weary debate, nor a new verse to an old song; it is, on the contrary, a definite answer to a perplexing and imperative question. What are these Jews who cannot or will not be assimilated, and why cannot or will not they be assimilated? This question constitutes what is known as the Jewish problem, or, for those who deny or dislike the term, the Jewish position; and this question must first be fully stated before the Zionist or any other answer can be intelligible.

The Isolation of Medieval Jewry

THE Jews in the Middle Ages were considered by themselves, their few friends, and their many enemies, as a twice separated nation—a people separated from those among whom they dwelt and separated from the land in which they originated. They were governed by their own law—the Lex Judæorum—which was recognized by the authorities of the land in which they lived as peculiar and proper to them;[4] they dwelt in communal groups which were bound together by common interests; they observed their own customs and nourished their own culture; they were held to be foreigners, and in a comparison of their own with the Christian civilization, they readily acknowledged this status. The force of persecution without and the religious conviction of superiority, separateness, and nationality within, preserved and constantly increased this solidarity.[5]

That the existence of a separate, recalcitrant, and even obnoxious nation within a nation did not constitute a problem for the medievals may be attributable to two reasons: (1) the medieval theory of life accentuated a hierarchical order of existence—a theory that found expression in feudalism, in Church organization, and in guild and craft life; in pursuance of this theory, the Jews were accorded a recognized and distinct status; (2) furthermore, the Jews were an economic necessity in the times when a ban was laid on money-lending, and they constituted an important economic facility at a little later period when capital could indeed be worked but when rivalry and hatreds rendered communication uncertain.[6] To the maintenance of Jewish solidarity and the preservation of things Jewish qua Jewish, sacrifices culminating in the surrender of life bequeathed to the race a comprehensive martyrology.[7]

Ernest Renan defines a nation as "a great solidarity constituted by the sentiment of the sacrifices that its citizens have made and those they feel prepared to make once more. It implies a past, but is summed up in the present by a tangible fact—the clearly expressed desire to live a common life." In sum, the Jews throughout the Middle Ages, which was prolonged for them until a little less than two hundred years ago, comprised a nation as virtual in point of their own claim and its recognition by other nations as in the days when they were established in Palestine. Renaissance, Reformation, and the rediscovery of the world by science failed to make an impression on the thick ghetto walls; and Jewish isolation, even as late as the eighteenth century, may be vividly realized by thinking of Rousseau and Voltaire in contrast with the contemporary lights of Jewry—Elijah Gaon and Israel Besht,[8] men as medieval as a gargoyle.

The French Revolution with its early philosophy of naturalism and humanism and its later political expression in liberty, equality, and fraternity, razed the physical and spiritual walls of the ghetto and set up the "Jewish problem." Following the Revolution, four currents of thought and action, working both simultaneously and successively, causing, reacting upon, and intermingling with one another, affecting the Jews now favorably and now unfavorably, went into the making of this problem. To deal with Emancipation, Enlightenment, Nationalism, and Anti-Semitism in detail would consume a volume, but an outline of their bearing on the present situation is essential.

Emancipation and Enlightenment

EMANCIPATION may be defined as the removal of the civil disabilities from the Jews, following the acceptance of liberal principles by the European governments. The process was a gradual one. In 1791 the French Assembly passed the vote for the complete emancipation of the Jews, which procedure was ratified and firmly established by the Napoleonic regime. Belgium (1830), England (1846), Sweden (1848), Denmark and Greece (1849), Prussia (1850), Austria (1867), Spain (1868), Italy (1870), and Switzerland (1874) followed the lead of France. The Balkan States in the treaty of Berlin (1878), upon pressure from Disraeli, agreed to the emancipation of the Jews as one of the conditions for securing their own freedom; Roumania has been notoriously delinquent, however, in adhering to the terms nominated in the bond.[9] The removal of civil disabilities brought the Jew into a wide contact with the Christian. This resulted for the Jews in liberalization of outlook and liberation of capacities and talents, in an abandonment of the "jargon" for the national tongues, in a precipitation into the Haskalah movement (to be described in the next paragraph), and in a restatement of their leading religious doctrines, which amounted to a surrender in theory of their nationality and their destiny as a Chosen People to be restored to Palestine. For the Christians the removal of Jewish disabilities resulted in the necessity of either accepting or rejecting the Jew's claim to be an equal and a fellow-countryman.

The Enlightenment, or Haskalah movement, broadly speaking, comprises the Jewish absorption of secular learning, particularly in literature and science, the abandonment of the study of the Talmud for modern subjects, and the adoption of farm and craft life.[10] Moses Mendelssohn in Germany and Lilienthal in Russia were the first great protagonists of these radical departures; and the movement, which in part led to the demand for Emancipation and in part resulted from it, further removed the differences between Jew and non-Jew, at least from the standpoint of the former, and further removed him from his religious and historical past, perceptibly weakening and in many cases practically destroying the medieval sense of solidarity. Each Jew adopted the culture of his native country, and so one Jew became virtually a foreigner to another. Haskalah, in a word, is a looking outward on the part of the Jew; for all its virtues this movement had the consequence of blunting racial consciousness and blurring racial identity.

Nationalism and Anti-Semitism

ALL might have been well but for the presence of a third and conflicting element. While the Jew became infected with the universalism of the Revolutionary spirit, the majority of Europeans were absorbing and developing the particularistic implications of '89. Nationalism is the self-consciousness of a people, and it found its European expression in the creation of the modern States of Germany, Italy, Hungary, Greece, and the small Balkans. It is a race's recognition of itself, a looking inward, and it leads to the pursuit of racial ideals and development of racial qualities—an inward expansion which, indifferent to the charge of chauvinism, can only be secured by an outward discrimination. The Jew and the Christian had changed places since medieval times: the Jew now stood for a universal society and a universal church, and the Christian for exclusion and separation upon racial bases. Emancipation thus brought the conflict directly to the attention of the strong majority, namely, the Christians, and anti-Semitism was their answer.

In its restricted sense, anti-Semitism is a scientific stick used to beat the Jewish dog with. After impartial, impersonal scientific investigation, French and German scholars[11] demonstrated the racial inferiority of the Semite to the Aryan, enumerated the inherent Semitic qualities as greed, special aptitude for money-making, aversion to hard work, clannishness, obstrusiveness, lack of social tact and of patriotism, the tendency to exploit and not to be overly honest. Ernest Renan adequately sums up the anti-Semite position when he claims for the Aryans all the great military, political, and intellectual movements of history.[12] The Semites never had a comprehension of civilization in the sense in which the Aryan understands the word; they were at no time public-spirited.[13] In fact, intolerance was the natural consequence of Semitic monotheism.[14]

In the wider sense,[15] anti-Semitism is the modern word for the old and apparently ineradicable hatred of the Jew, partly dependent, as G. F. Abbott well shows,[16] not only upon Christian faith, but upon the Christian frame of mind and feeling—a hatred to which the Nationalism of the nineteenth century furnished a reasonable fuel, which found a social expression in ostracism and rioting[17] and a political expression in the formation of the Christian Socialist Party in Germany (1878), and similar parties in Austria and Hungary (1882-99), seeking the suppression of equal rights for Jews, the Dreyfus affair in France (1895), and the open, violent persecutions in Roumania—all aimed at annulling the privileges granted by the Emancipation. Clerical, economic, and social opposition to the Jews combined to support the nationalistic contention summed up in the words of Heinrich von Treitschke (Professor of History, University of Berlin): "Die Juden sind unser Unglück."[18] This essay is not concerned with the truth of the contention; suffice that it is advanced, supported, and acted upon.

The Jewish Situation in the Four Zones

A REVIEW of the Jewish situation is now possible. But before presenting this review, a definition of two words which will be frequently used may not be irrelevant. The Jewish problem is taken to mean an immediate concrete maladjustment where life and property are imperiled, much as we speak of the Mexican problem. The Jewish position, on the other hand, is taken to mean a social, cultural, or spiritual disharmony or repression, much as we speak of the position of the Poles in Galicia and Russia.

The Jewish situation falls naturally into four geographical zones. The first, which contains the problem in its most serious aspect, is Eastern Europe, including Russia, Poland, and Roumania, where are settled six of the twelve million Jews of the world.[19] In this zone, the Jews are for the most part maintaining medieval solidarity and separation, are suffering from medieval repression and persecution; but on the other hand, (and this appears to be the determining factor in the gravity of the problem), the Russian Jew is by no means a necessity to the Russian in any way similar to that in which the medieval Jew was a necessity to the medieval Christian. The eastern Jew is beginning to expand with the leaven of the Haskalah, and is simultaneously strangling for lack of the release and exercise of his powers afforded by Emancipation. The Russian and Roumanian, in what they believe to be the preservation of Nationalism, are determined on crippling or destroying the inimical and unassimilative factor in their population; and although the Russian is politically medieval, he is economically modern and considers himself restrained by no need of Jewish money.[20] The outcome for the Jews is economic impoverishment, social persecution, political enslavement, and spiritual degeneration.[21]

The second zone includes Austria, Germany, and to a minor degree France, where are settled approximately three millions of Jews. Save in Galicia, where political and racial turmoil is constantly giving the Jewish situation the sombre tinge of a problem, the Jews are finding themselves, for the most part, in a precarious position. Nationalism demands that they surrender their racial identity and proclivities; anti-Semitism declares upon the verdict of science that such surrender is impossible, and substitutes repression, assimilation, or extinction. The Jews in attempting to satisfy the conditions by entering fully into all the activities of national life arouse through their success only greater hostility; and the situation becomes converted into a vicious circle.

France to a large degree and England comprise the third zone, where the Jewish position is identical with that of the fourth zone, the United States, save in one important detail. The Jews in these two zones, numbering only one-and-a-half million, have entered freely into the national life about them, and, except for minor social disabilities which can only make the judicious smile, have been accorded equality, with the result that the Jew qua Jew is exposed to complete assimilation. The distinction between the third and fourth zone is that in England and France, anti-Semitism based on Nationalism is a potentiality (though the recent Aliens Bill and Chesterton trial would suggest that it might be more than this), whereas the open-door theory of settlement which created the United States militates basically against race-discrimination. The Jew of England and America does not face persecution nor repression, but a gradual and apparently pleasant extinction.

The medieval Jew found himself a necessary, well-paying, if not honored, guest in the households of Europe; but the day when the Jew resolved on adopting the life and manners of his host, the host resolved on drawing tightly the family lines. The modern Jew has discovered it necessary either to convince the obdurate host, who points to a scientifically certified chart of the family-tree, that he too is of blood germane, or take himself to lodgings in the cellarage. And yet—a third possibility here insinuates itself—why may not the Jew set up housekeeping for himself?

The Vain Effort of Reform Judaism

THE medieval Jew would have accepted without hope the unfortunate predicament; the modern Jew, nerved with a distillation of the Revolutionary "rights of men" and confident that he was not combating the implacability of a religious hatred, adopted expedient and remedial measures, the chief of which, since they form the opposition to Zionism, will be outlined.

To justify Emancipation before and after it was secured, assimilative doctrines of a peculiar type, known as Reform Judaism,[22] whereby the essentials of Jewish life were to be separated and saved, constituted the main attempt of the Jew to demonstrate that he was a member of the households of Europe and not an intruder. Reform Judaism began as a result of the Haskalah by simplifying and beautifying, according to European standards, the Orthodox religious service (Germany 1810-20), and ended by abandoning the Messianic Restoration, the doctrine that Israel is in exile and that the prophecies are literally to be fulfilled. The expediency of these measures is apparent. To refute the anti-Semitic charge of racial inferiority, the existence of the race as a separate entity was denied, and the necessary scientific backing has lately been secured.[23] To meet the Nationalists, Israel's national hopes were declared void, and it was strongly urged that the basis of a modern nation is citizenship and not race.

The Reformers proceeded further and maintained that the Jewish people were themselves the Messiah, whose mission was "to spread by its fortitude and loyalty the monotheistic truth all over the earth, and to be an example of rectitude to all others,"[24] whose goal was "not a national Messianic State, but the realization in society of the principles of righteousness as enunciated by the prophets;"[25] wherefore, it was not only just that they receive citizenship, but religious duty compelled the Jew to demand it.

The Jewish religion was considered the essential possession of the Jewish people—so essential that it was to be maintained at the sacrifice of assimilation; but nowhere is it made apparent how a religion can be maintained without a people, how a people can be maintained without separation, and how separation can be maintained without abandoning the no-race, no-nation propositions. If these are abandoned, the Jews are precisely where they began—another circle whose viciousness is becoming obvious and is resulting in the constant discarding of Jewish rite and form, until the religion which was to be prized and saved is fast becoming a watery Unitarianism, and its adherents are allowing themselves, where permitted, to become completely assimilated. Reform Judaism which began as a compromise is ending as a surrender. The final and unanswerable objection to Reform Judaism as a solution is that the majority of Jews will not even in theory accept it. The devotion to race, religion, and separation is too strong. The Gentile in asking the Jew to assimilate is undoubtedly right; the refusal of the Jew undoubtedly is not wrong; and the ring of true tragedy becomes audible.

The Palliative Measures of Philanthropy

CONTEMPORARY with the unsuccessful attempt at clearing up the Jewish position in western Europe, palliative measures were undertaken to solve the problem in eastern Europe. In 1860 the Alliance Israelite Universelle was founded at Paris with the following purposes in chief:[26]

1. To work everywhere for the emancipation and moral progress of the Jew.

2. To give effectual support to those who are suffering persecution because they are Jews.

The Alliance began by distributing pamphlets and calling the attention of western governments to eastern injustice; it gradually, however, undertook practical work. Influenced by Rabbi Kalischer, religious enthusiast, a farm school (Mikveh Israel) was established at Jaffa; and after the Russian persecutions of 1880-82, active colonization for the relief of refugees became the chief work, in which the Alliance received substantial aid from Baron de Rothschild. Meanwhile Baron de Hirsch, another philanthropist of international proportions, dedicated millions to the foundation of colonies in Argentine and Palestine. In the latter place the Hirsch activities were incorporated under the title of the Jewish Colonization Association ("IKA", 1891), working in harmony of aim with the Alliance and with still a third movement—one more of the people—styled Chovevei-Zion (Lovers of Zion). The only activities of the Chovevei-Zion, a general term attached to small and ardent semi-affiliated societies throughout Europe and America, with which we are here concerned are the philanthropic; and their services in this respect were haphazard and negligible.[27]

To cast up briefly the sum of practical work accomplished by 1898: 94 schools in Asia and Africa,[28] and 25 colonies in Palestine supporting 5,000 Jews.[29] Such philanthropy is to be considered an attempt, however valiant and noble, to empty the sea with a pail—with a leaking pail.

Thus, upon a review of the situation, three alternatives present themselves: (1) Maintenance of the status quo with its dull round of persecution and degradation on one hand, and the soul-destroying life in the Fool's Paradise of Reform Judaism on the other; (2) Amalgamation with the surrounding peoples—a grim race-suicide; (3) Re-establishment of a national center where, perhaps not the entire people, but a remnant can be saved.

(To be concluded)

AS Greece stands for art and Rome stands for law and order, so Judaea stands for morality, and so it occupies an exalted position in history. The Menorah Society comes to the University with a challenge and defies us to ignore at our peril that which Judaism has contributed to civilization and which we have derived from it. We have derived our own religion from it, and that spirit of Puritanism which was so closely connected with the settlement of the new world.—From an Address before the Cornell Menorah Society by President Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell University.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Psalm 79.

[2] Der Judenstaat (Vienna, 1906); English translation, edited by J. de Haas.

[3] Theodor Herzl, "The Zionist Congress," Contemporary Review, v. 27, p. 587.

[4] I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1897), p. 49.

[5] Jacob S. Raisin, The Haskalah Movement (Philadelphia, 1913), p. 33.

[6] James H. Robinson, History of Western Europe (Boston, 1904, 2 vols.), vol. 1, p. 246. Addison & Steele, The Spectator (London, 1823), No. 495, p. 710.

[7] L. Zunz, The Sufferings of the Jews During the Middle Ages (New York, 1907).

[8] S. M. Dubnow, Jewish History (Philadelphia, 1903), p. 156.

[9] Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish History (London, 1888), p. 301 et seq.

[10] Raisin, The Haskalah Movement, Chap. III.

[11] S. Phillippson, Weltbegerende Fragen (Leipsic, 1868) Edouard Drumont, La France Juive (Paris, 1886).

[12] Ernest Renan, Études d'Histoire Religieuse (Paris, 1862), p. 85.

[13] Idem, p. 88.

[14] Idem, p. 87.

[15] H. Graetz, History of the Jews (Philadelphia, 1891), 5 vols., vol. V., p. 318 et seq.

[16] G. F. Abbott, "The Jewish Problem," Fortnightly Review, vol. 93, p. 742.

[17] The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1901, 10 vols.), under "Anti-Semitism."

[18] Idem. and ibid., quoting from Preussiche Jahrbücher, 1879.

[19] American Jewish Year Book (Philadelphia, 1913-14), p. 215.

[20] Arnold White, "Europe and the Jews," Contemporary Review, vol. 72, p. 738.

[21] American Jewish Year Book, 1906-07, p. 24-90. Tables showing, for period of 3 years in Russia (1903-06), 254 pogroms, in which 3,973 Jews were killed and 14,034 wounded. C. R. Conder, "Zionists," Blackwood, vol. 163, p. 598, states on authority of Dr. Farbstein that 70 per cent. of Galician Jews are beggars and 50 per cent. of Russian Jews are paupers.

[22] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Reform Judaism."

[23] Maurice Fishberg, "The Jews" (New York, 1911).

[24] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Reform Judaism."

[25] Idem.

[26] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Alliance Israelite Universelle."

[27] Cohen, Zionist Work in Palestine, p. 157.

[28] Idem.

[29] Idem, under "Agricultural Colonies in Palestine."

The Third Annual Convention of the Menorah Societies

I. The Public Meeting

THE Third Annual Convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association was held at the University of Cincinnati, in the city of Cincinnati, on Wednesday and Thursday, December 23 and 24, 1914. The third session, on Wednesday evening, was a public meeting in the University auditorium. Abraham J. Feldman, President of the University of Cincinnati Menorah Society, formally welcomed the convention, and introduced Chancellor Henry Hurwitz as the Chairman of the evening. Mayor F. S. Spiegel brought the greetings and welcome of the city of Cincinnati. Dean Joseph E. Harry extended a welcome in behalf of the University, and Dr. Kaufman Kohler, President of Hebrew Union College, welcomed the convention in behalf of his institution and of the Jewish community. Professor I. Leo Sharfman of the University of Michigan, President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, spoke on "The Menorah Movement," and Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin delivered an address on "The Jews and the War." For the substance of Dr. Kallen's address see his article on page 79. The other speakers spoke in part as follows:

Dean J. E. Harry

IN behalf of the University of Cincinnati, I bid you welcome. I confess that I can agree with the statement made in your declaration of the nature and purpose of the Menorah Societies, that modern civilization is chiefly a product of three ancient cultures, or to be more exact, I should prefer to say two, since the Roman is but a continuation of the Greek, and we cannot understand ourselves without understanding and having direct reference to the character and work of both the Greek and the Hebrew minds.

Two principal elements have entered into the spiritual life of the modern world. The past and the present are one and inseparable, and you cannot destroy the former without doing positive damage to the latter. The roots of our civilization lie in the soil of antiquity, and you cannot destroy and disentangle the fibers of the growing tree of civilization from the far-off centuries that are gone, without injuring the whole organism. "If we were to wipe out all the records of the past, what a series of inexplicable riddles would our own history present, and if we were to blot out entirely every reference to ancient writers, or were to blow away all the perfume that has been shaken down from the vestments of those writers, how blurred and how scentless would the fairest and most fragrant pages of our own great poets and historians appear!"

What we need to-day, what our country needs more than anything else, is thorough, really liberally educated men, and not merely men who are supposed by the general public to be educated, simply because they have passed through a college, because in some quarters the business of education has, alas, fallen into the hands of men who are not themselves liberally educated; and so as an ardent advocate of the humanities, with hope that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association will contribute to the laying of greater stress upon the value of the study of the humanities in our college curriculum, I bid you God-speed, and again extend to you the cordial greetings of the University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Kaufman Kohler

I DO not know whether you have observed that Cincinnati is somewhat akin to the city of Rome as well as to the holy city of Jerusalem—it is a city with many hills. On this hill here, facing one another for friendly and harmonious coöperation, the two institutions of learning in which we especially, the Jewish community, take particular pride—the University of Cincinnati, which so prominently and in ever expanding proportion stands for the humanities, for classical culture, for the professional and scientific branches of secular knowledge, and on the other hand, the Hebrew Union College, which stands for the mother religion of civilized humanity and for the progressive spirit of Judaism and of Americanism. In this rather insignificant incident the Jewish community may well find a great principle expressed. With his face towards the East from which issues the light of day, where was cradled the faith of Israel, the Jew, ever beholding in classical wisdom and knowledge the sister of his faith, proceeded with the westward march of civilization in order to make religion, by the reason and research of the ages, a great, progressive power, ever regenerating his spiritual heritage and rejuvenating that religion of his own as it goes on through the centuries.

This fact, however, of a continual intellectual and spiritual progress of Judaism, is altogether too rarely recognized by the surrounding Christian world, even by its men of light and leading or by its seats of learning, because the New Testament is looked upon by altogether too many as the death warrant of the Old Testament, as if the sun of civilization had stood still over Israel ever since its seers and singers and sages of yore voiced the Divine message. Nor does the Jewish man of culture and college training as a rule appreciate the wondrous achievements of the Jewish genius since the very dawn of history until our day, in the whole domain of learning and science, or of ethical and religious culture.

It is therefore a highly laudable endeavor undertaken by the Intercollegiate Menorah Association to arouse the dormant spirit of self-respect in the academic Jewish youth, to stir in him the ambition to study and know this matchless history and literature, and to kindle in his soul anew that idealism which made the Jew throughout all the ages endure and brave the onslaughts of the empires and churches and the persecuting mobs, so that even to-day he is as young and as vigorous as any of the youngest races and nations in the world.

The Importance of Israel's Religion

THIS past, I say, cannot but appeal to every high-minded American, whether Christian or Jew, and your study of it will certainly meet with our warmest support and encouragement. Only, in my opinion, one thing you need, young as your association is, young in years and young in experience, and that is, a full comprehension and keen realization of the subject you have in view and a wise and right direction towards it. No one doubts or questions the sincerity of your motives or the praiseworthiness of your aims and purposes when you place on your program the study of Jewish history, culture and problems, and the advancement of Jewish ideals, but you omit that which is most essential, which is the all-encompassing force and factor of Jewish life, the real, peculiar and genuine product of the Jewish genius—religion. We have got a religion which, as has been put by Matthew Arnold, has fashioned four-fifths of the world's civilization. In omitting the idea, as expressed by Matthew Arnold, of the power that maketh for righteousness, in declaring your movement as being altogether non-religious, you run the risk of making of your endeavor an inevitable and certain failure.[G] Let me quote to you from an address delivered recently before a Jewish society in London on "Israel and Medicine" by Professor Osler, sentences that are remarkable and worth repeating. He says:

"In estimating the position of Israel in the human values, one must remember that the quest for righteousness is Oriental, the quest for knowledge, Occidental. With the great prophets of the East—Moses, Isaiah, Mahomet [he might have included Jesus of Nazareth], the word was 'Thus saith the Lord.' With the seers of the West, from Aristotle to Darwin, it was 'What says nature?' Modern civilization is the outcome of the two great movements of the mind of man, who is to-day ruled in heart and head by Israel and by Greece. From the one he has learned responsibility to a Supreme Being and love for his neighbor, in which are embraced the law and the prophets. From the other he has gathered the promise of Eden, to have dominion over the earth in which he lives."

Now let me add to this that whatever the Jew claims or possesses of culture he has borrowed from the nations and civilizations around him, whether it be architecture, the art or the mode of writing, philosophy and science, the modes of social and industrial life, all of which he has taken and assimilated into his own life.

Not so with his religious truth. This is all his own, his peculiar and genuine contribution to humanity. Thereby he has given human life its eternal value, its purpose, its goal and hope for all time.

Now it seems to me that you may as well expect of the blind to depict for you his impressions of the prismatic glories of the rainbow, or of the deaf to orate on the beauties of a Beethoven symphony, as to expect of one who lacks the sense of religion, the spirit of faith, to expound, or even to understand, the ideals of the Jew, whose history throughout the past was but one continuous glorification of the only one God, by the master works of its hundreds and thousands of men of learning and the unparalleled martyrdom of the whole people, and whose future is humanity made one by the belief in the only one God and Father. Therefore, let me give you, delegates and members of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, the advice to continue as you started, as an academic, cosmopolitan association, yet at the same time let it be linked to the synagogue of each city as the center of the faith. Let your watch-word be true to the symbol of קומי אורי "arise and shine," and give light to all the nations. Let your inspiration and your power of enlightening the world ever come fresh from the sanctuary of faith, as of yore, and you will not only be all the more honored for this loyalty to the spirit of the past and the spirit of the American people which is religious, but the sweetest delight that comes from the classic world of beauty will reflect only the brighter light of the holiness, the beauty of holiness, that comes from Israel's one God.

Prof. I. Leo Sharfman

WE want all that is worthy in the Jewish past to be made a potent force in the American life of the present. You men and women who are students at our universities cannot perform your full duty to your universities unless you add to the richness of the university life, to the variety of its content, to its genuineness and versatility. And in the larger American community we Jews cannot perform our full duty unless we place at the disposal of our country the best fruits of the Jewish spirit. Our Menorah allegiance, then, rests on the foundation of Americanism. And insofar as, through the Menorah movement, we are succeeding in uniting by a common bond men and women who have been brought up under a great variety of circumstances and conditions, we are increasing the democratic spirit of our universities and of the larger life beyond the academic gates. Within the universities, too, the broadening effect of the Menorah idea is not limited to the student body. I can bear witness from personal experience that the university authorities, both faculty members and administrative officers, are not merely tolerating, or even mildly accepting, the work of our Menorah Societies in their midst, but are themselves being led to a better understanding of the place which the Jewish problem occupies in the larger problem of their universities and of the American community for whose service they are training the youth of the land.

Menorah and Religion

I HAVE said that the aim of the Menorah movement is the study and advancement of Hebraic culture and ideals. The culture of a people is but the permanent expression of its ideals in the various activities of life. Religion constitutes one of the most important of human activities, and we in the Menorah Societies are fully cognizant of its fundamental importance. Indeed, we recognize that the ideals of the Jewish people are perhaps expressed more truly, more profoundly, more eloquently in our religious literature than in any other manifestation of the Jewish genius. We should not be charged with excluding religion, merely because we aim to include more than religion in our purposes and activities.

I happen at the present time to be teaching at the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. We have there a Menorah Society, devoted to the general object to which all our Menorah Societies are devoted. We listen to speakers and engage in discussions on Jewish history, Jewish literature, Jewish religion, and current Jewish social, economic and political problems. Side by side with the Menorah Society there exists a Jewish Student Congregation, a body of men and women of which I feel it a privilege to have been one of the organizers and to be a member at the present time, which devotes itself entirely to religious activity, to regular weekly worship. The two organizations do not conflict in any way. It is significant that about ninety-five per cent, if not more, of the members of the Michigan Menorah Society attend regularly the services of the Jewish Student Congregation. Unfortunately, not so large a percentage of the members of the congregation attend the meetings or are members of the Michigan Menorah Society. In the course of time, the relationship between the two organizations will doubtless be adjusted more satisfactorily. But in the experience at Michigan we have a concrete illustration of the spur to religion which Menorah men derive from their participation in Menorah work.

The ideal of the Menorah Societies is a non-partisan ideal. We do not stand for Zionism or anti-Zionism; we do not urge the acceptance of reform Judaism or conservative Judaism or orthodox Judaism; we do not favor the German Jew as against the Russian Jew, or vice versa, nor do we appeal to one social class as against another. We want the Menorah ideal to be broad enough to include every Jew. We do not exclude religion as such from the scope of our interests; we but exclude any insistence upon a particular sect or branch or kind of Judaism. We avoid all partisan activity which may tend to disorganize our Jewish students, which may tend to divide them. That is all.

A Plea for Tolerance

I BELIEVE that what we need in our universities, what we need in the Jewish community, is more insistence upon Judaism and more light upon the inspiration which Judaism can bring us, and less insistence upon the particular kind of Judaism which you or I or some one else may consider the acme of truth. Indifference to religion and not error in religion is the great danger of these modern times. If we really want religion, if we want to stir again the Jew's traditional passion for religion, if we want to inspire once more the Jew's genius for religion, let us try to understand all aspects and all manifestations of it, let us bend our efforts to a renaissance of religious influence. The future of the Jew in this country will not be determined by the theories or the practices of any one group or sect of Jews. The result will be a composite result, to which the reform Jew and the Zionist, the orthodox Jew and the anti-Zionist, will alike contribute. Let us leave it to the growing generation to determine for itself the content of the theory of life best suited to the future destiny of the Jew. At least, within our university walls let us be tolerant, let us be liberal-minded, let us listen to and understand every man's point of view.

Mr. Hurwitz

IN the free and honest expression of adverse views which we have heard to-night, this, indeed, has been a characteristic Menorah meeting. It may fittingly be closed by a word from one of our staunchest friends, one of our staunchest friends because he is an ardent and public-spirited Jew and a patriotic American, Justice Irving Lehman of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the Chairman of the Graduate Menorah Committee. He addresses this word to the convention:

"I am very sorry that I am unable to attend the convention of the Association this year. I feel that during the past year we have made some progress upon which you have reason to congratulate yourselves, but we must remember that our movement is still far from having the force and power which I think it deserves. We have a great and difficult task to perform if we are to succeed in bringing back to the Jewish youth a pride in their Jewish heritage and a knowledge of their Jewish past, and I know that such work is worthy of all effort. I trust that your convention may possess the spirit and the wisdom necessary to further the work, and I wish to renew to you my assurance of willing co-operation."

II. The Luncheon

THE fifth session of the Convention was a luncheon in the Hotel Gibson, attended by the delegates, university students and graduates in Cincinnati, and members of the Faculties of the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College. Prof. I. Leo Sharfman, President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, was the Toastmaster. Chancellor Hurwitz spoke for five minutes upon the purposes and progress of the Menorah movement. President Abraham J. Feldman of the University of Cincinnati Menorah Society expressed gratification at the honor accorded to his Menorah Society by the Convention and appealed to the graduates and prominent members of the community present for support in the work of the Cincinnati Menorah Society. The other speakers were Dean Joseph E. Harry of the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Moses Barron, Representative from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Louis Grossmann of Hebrew Union College, Dr. Samuel Iglauer, graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Walter M. Shohl, graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Kaufman Kohler, President of Hebrew Union College, Prof. Julian Morgenstern of Hebrew Union College, Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. David Philipson of Hebrew Union College. Following are somewhat abridged reports of the speeches:

Dean J. E. Harry

I DID not know that I was going to be called upon today, or I should certainly have tried to fortify myself, as the old darky in Virginia said when his master sent him down to another part of the plantation to see if the rebels were fortifying the place: "Massa, they am not only fortyfying it; they am fiftyfying it!"

I am glad that our Chancellor here to my right said that the speeches were to be brief. I think that an after-dinner speaker who makes a long speech ought to have about the same punishment that the member of parliament mentioned when he introduced a bill, "The only way to stop suicide is to make it a capital offense, punishable by death."

But I have always tried to avoid redundancy of expression. I would never say a "wealthy plumber," nor a "poor poet," nor for that matter a "poor professor."

"Vessels of wrath, we pedagogues;

Better we were dead,

Who, by the wrath of Peleus' son,

Must earn our daily bread."

Nor would I say an "interesting Menorah Association meeting." That they are interesting goes without saying, if we can judge from the one we had last night.

I am exceedingly interested in real culture, and being an American, and knowing, as I do, what the Jews in America can do for the advancement of learning, of knowledge and of the humanities, I am interested in the Menorah movement, which will tend to bring this about; and it is when we reflect upon the war in Europe today, with all its sickening horrors and what that means to culture (we can hardly comprehend it yet), what an obstacle to learning, that we may exclaim with that old bibliophile, Richard de Bury:

"O pacis auctor et amator altissime! dissipa gentes bella volentes quæ super omnes pestilentias libris nocent."

And by "libris" he meant culture.

Dr. Moses Barron

MINNESOTA brings its greeting to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association as one of the very earliest Menorah Societies. It was really originated in 1903, when a handful of students in the University found it desirable to satisfy certain longings by taking up the study of Jewish history and literature. Some of us had found that it was of little avail to cry over the ashes of the past, and we thought that it would be much more proper to try and study the history, the literature, the ideals of the past for the inspiration to be found there, which might better fit us to cope with the problems of the present and the future. Our Society has grown from a mere handful to an enthusiastic company, so that we have from fifty to seventy-five, and even a hundred, attending our regular meetings. I give this fact simply to show what a profound influence the work of the Menorah has been, what an influence it necessarily must have in the future, in promulgating Jewish culture, Jewish thought and ideals.

Dr. Louis Grossmann

I AM reminded by our Chairman of the time when he was still a student at Harvard, in the earliest days of the Menorah movement, when I addressed the Menorah Society there. It was in the room of the Chancellor, unless I am mistaken, and there were a number of students. They were grouped about, some in chairs, some sitting on the floor, some perched on window sills, while others improvised seats on the furniture. I felt myself patriarchal in the midst of these young men. It was a remarkable scene and it was a remarkably helpful evening, helpful and refreshing to me. The pulses of youth always beat high and I caught the elation of it. Who would not have been touched by it? Some of these young men have since become leaders in thought and action, and I am not surprised.

Let me make a confession as to that evening. I not only felt a thrill but made also some observations. These young men had their ideals, but they had also their difficulties. And they spoke of them. We had an exchange of thought and of candor such as comes to a man in the ministry and to a teacher of students but rarely. They told me of their doubts. Young men, serious young minds, always will have their doubts. They want to earn their convictions. I hope the day will never come when young men will not insist on seeing things. These young men were quick-witted and ready with repartee and counter-argument, and I saw in each eye a glint of an ideal. The debate was strong, but the ideals were stronger.

The Power of Ideals

IDEALS are pulses that beat in their own way. An ideal is a fact of the soul; it is more than a definition or an argument. An ideal is always very certain and nobody wants to disprove it, nor can.

I notice the Menorah Association has for its aim the cultivation of ideals. It is natural that young men, with red blood in them, should hold dear the precious dreams of what might and should be. As I look upon ideals now, through the perspective of years, I see they have both strength as well as limitations. But I know that, however much life and experience challenges them, they are the best force in us. I respect and value them so much that I deplore the waste of the least of them. An ideal is a moral ambition, a great wish of a true, even if a bit naive, soul. And it should have the right of way.

Every work in life implies stern necessity and a fine wish. I am reminded of a bridge in Berlin which the Germans have built with inimitable art and truth. There are four groups, each at a corner. On one an elderly man stands erect and writing. It is History, stern and real. At his side stands a boy, lithe and graceful. There are ideals just as much as Law in the affairs of men. On the other side of the bridge stands another symbol of the two forces in Life: a man carrying a bundle, a bent man, who has borne the brunt of the pioneer days, and next to him also a youth. Commerce, however sordid, still implies morality and the generous side of man. On the third side stands the solemn figure of Religion, sober and haggard, the symbol of Faith and martyrdom. And the young man, next to it, seems sprightly and strong. Why must Religion be interpreted as dispensing comfort alone? Should it not also give strength and joy? In the last corner stands Pestalozzi, the teacher, and a boy looks up into his kind face. We crave for action and capability more than for knowledge and facts. And we crave for love more than for truth, and the real truth brings affections and enthusiasm.

In the meetings of your Association you speak often of ideals, you speak of them fervently. But ideals are not merely academic. They are personal. An ideal becomes yourself, if it is yours at all. It is a dynamic force within you. It pervades your whole being. It is an unseen but a very telling strength. It directs you, and it sends you on your errand of life. You cannot rest satisfied merely to know your ideal and to speculate about it. It is the engine of warfare in your career. Study ideals, not to contemplate and analyze, but to emulate them and to fill yourself with them. You have work to do. And work is more insistent than philosophy. You have work to do which no one else can do for you, or may do for you. An ideal is your Self at the highest power.

You with fresh energies, you with the clear eye of healthy youth, you with unoppressed hearts, you at the beginning of life, you should go at your work splendidly, directly, forcefully. The real idealist is a man of action, of untiring activity. Do things and you verify what you plan. You have the privilege of youth. Have also the pride of youth. Keep it sweet, but keep it also strong.

Dr. Samuel Iglauer

THE Menorah Society appeals to me as a college graduate not only for many of its positive virtues but also for some of its negative merits. It is not in any sense a social organization, and above all it is not a secret society. Now I have my own peculiar views about secret societies in universities, and I do not believe that they tend to promote college spirit and college unity. It has been well said that in these societies those who are in any particular societies are brothers, while every one else who belongs to another society, or to no society whatever, is just a step-brother. To my mind that is not a good spirit in an American institution.

It seems to me that, having in this city a Hebrew Union College with a gifted faculty, we should establish at our University a Department of Semitics. Since the University is a public school, an institution supported by public taxation, it certainly could not affiliate directly with a sectarian institution, but I see no reason why the professors in the Hebrew College, if they are not already overworked like the students, should not be able to conduct courses at the University itself, and I believe such courses would promote the Menorah movement more than anything else you could do. I think you would attract students from far and wide to the University of Cincinnati, and you would thereby achieve one of the ends for which you are working.

Mr. Walter M. Shohl

IT is gratifying to me to attend this meeting of the Menorah, because, as the Chairman has said, I heard the flapping of the wings of the stork at its birth. I recall very well the preliminary meetings that we had when the organization of the Menorah Society at Cambridge was first spoken of. At that time I was one of the doubters; I held back. There were in Cambridge a number of societies, social primarily, that did not desire members of our faith among their number. I felt that a movement which was composed entirely of Jewish men would be mistaken for an effort at a Jewish fraternity that was to take the place of the fraternities in which we were not welcome. The other men, however, felt that we could have a society the purposes of which had nothing to do with social matters, and that we could bring out all that was good in Jewish matters of culture and develop a society to promote those interests. So at first somewhat reluctantly, I joined in with the movement, and the result has justified their farsightedness, and I am sorry now that I was only a "trailer" in the beginning.

The position of the Menorah movement and what it stands for calls to mind a story that was told in Montreal a couple of years ago by Lord Haldane, who came to America to attend a meeting of the American Bar Association. A part of the story was recited in verse (which I do not recall exactly) and had to do with an Englishman who was taken prisoner in one of the countries of the Far East, and was offered his choice between conversion to the religion of his captors or death. He was a man who had no particular religious feelings; he was not religious when at home. However, he felt that first and foremost he was an Englishman and that if he were to do anything base it would reflect upon all those ideals which were so dear to him, and therefore he cast in his lot and chose against the change of religion. So, too, with some of us who perhaps are not religious in a formal way; the realization of the great things that have been accomplished in the past by Jews, the Jewish historical background, is in itself a shield to us, and the realization of what Judaism is and stands for must act to prevent us from doing something that would be unworthy of ourselves and of the religion of which we are a part.

Dr. Kaufman Kohler

THIS comes rather unawares, but I wish to be very brief in stating that, while I listened to the very interesting and suggestive remarks that were made all along this table, and also on recalling what we heard last night, I feel glad, after all, from the point of view of the Hebrew Union College, that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has come here to make propaganda for its work, at the same time receiving perhaps new direction and new ideas about the work they have so nobly begun. The fact that the work—started, as we heard, at Harvard in 1906—has made such progress shows that at least there was something in the young Jewish student at the colleges that called for the creation of such an association and such kind of work. Perhaps I may say that those who had their misgivings as to the tendencies of the Menorah Association are now at least informed that some of these misgivings or suspicions were not well founded. I personally will say that I had the impression that there was too much of nationalism or Zionism behind the movement, and that the movement was not, from the point of view of the Hebrew Union College or my humble self, one deserving encouragement and support. I have learned to change some of my views and some of my impressions as to the purpose and intention of this movement. There is a well-known quotation, for those who know a little German:

"Das sind die Weisen,

Die vom Irrtum zur Wahrheit reisen;

Das sind die Narren,

Die beim Irrtum beharren."

I am not one of those who insist on views once maintained though later found faulty. I am rather ready to change my views, especially after what I heard today from my honored neighbor (Prof. I. L. Sharfman) and from what he said last night that the religious idea of Judaism is not ignored but is held in view.

All Jews who are Jews must believe that Judaism stands for an uncompromising monotheistic truth, while the world around us has compromised the same. Therefore we, as Jews, must always insist upon the maintenance of the pure monotheistic idea for which we suffered and struggled, and for which our fathers died. We must maintain this as the mainstay and vital principle of Judaism. For this very reason, and for no other, we insist, especially from the point of view of a Jewish theological college, that this idea of a pure Jewish religion, the pure monotheistic idea, must be held unshakenly and without any change or any concession. And for that very reason we could not and will not say that race is everything. We cannot admit that a pure race is the best, and that a pure Jew is he who has maintained solely everything Jewish and not allowed the Greek culture to be assimilated in order to sublimate and spiritualize and idealize the truth inherited. For Ruppin and the Nationalists who follow him, the poor Jews, the ghetto Jews, of Russia who speak Yiddish and live only an exclusive narrow life, are five-fifths Jews, while the Jews in free and civilized lands are only half Jews. Now against this, we of the Hebrew Union College, we who represent progressive or reformed Judaism, must protest. We must insist that the Jewish race, the Jewish people or nation, if you want to call it so, can form only the body; Judaism, the Jewish religion, is the soul. And we will always stand not merely for the body, not merely for the material side, not merely for race, which is the lowest kind of life, but for the spirit, the soul of Judaism, and that is its religious truth.

Prof. Julian Morgenstern

I BELIEVE that it is one of the positive aims of the Menorah Society to recognize the Jewish side of much that enters, or should enter, into our daily life, to develop our full consciousness of all that is essentially and fundamentally Jewish, and thus enable us to live positive and constructive Jewish lives. It is a noble aim, to which I unrestrictedly subscribe. Whenever I hear public speakers or writers pat Jews and Judaism on the back, and patronizingly tell us, "Oh, you Jews are all right," I am, as no doubt most of us are, deeply chagrined, to use a mild expression. What we want is not that others should appreciate us and tell us that we are all right. What we want, and what we need, is that we should appreciate ourselves and that we should take ourselves seriously and at our full value. Not that we should over-appreciate ourselves and think ourselves alone the salt of the earth. There is such a thing as over-appreciation that must in the end lead to futility and vanity. But equally, there is such a thing as self-depreciation, and to a certain extent I cannot but feel that we Jews have been more or less guilty of that in the past, have more or less, particularly in our college and university life, assumed a deprecating attitude, apologizing as it were for our existence as Jews, and, probably unconsciously, have kept the fact of our Judaism in the background, and suffered our education and our culture to influence almost everything but our Jewish knowledge and our Jewish life.

For right appreciation, which shall be neither over-appreciation nor under-appreciation, but true appreciation, based upon a correct estimation of all essentials, the first requisite is knowledge, thorough knowledge of all conditions, forces and influences. And the second requisite is pride, pride in this knowledge and in the object of this knowledge. And this, translated into the Menorah language, means, as I understand it, correct knowledge of Judaism, of our Jewish history, our Jewish past, our Jewish heritage, our Jewish religion, and pride in all this Judaism—a knowledge and pride that alone can enable us to know what Judaism truly is, and what its work and its mission for the present and the future must be, that alone can enable us to live positively and constructively as Jews and perpetuate our Judaism for the blessing of ourselves, our children, and all mankind. So I interpret the Menorah movement. And I heartily welcome such a movement, whose aim is the awakening of our Jewish college young men and women to a wholesome and genuine appreciation of themselves, of the Jewish side of their lives, of their Jewish consciousness and Jewish obligations, of the full meaning and responsibility imposed upon them by their subscribing to the name Jew, and their adherence to the religion of our fathers. We must look to our college-bred Jewish men and women to become the guiding spirits in our Judaism of to-morrow and of all the future. And I say, "Thank God for any movement that must surely lead to this goal."

Dr. H. M. Kallen

SINCE this seems to be the occasion for reminiscence, I want to take the liberty of recalling for you an episode of the formation of the Menorah Society at Harvard. It turned on the question of the right form of stating the object of the Society and you will remember perhaps that the object is stated in these terms: "The Harvard Menorah Society for the study and advancement of Hebraic culture and ideals"—not Jewish, not Judaistic, but Hebraic. The persons who agitated the use of the term Hebraic had certain very definite literary and historic and social relationships in mind.

To begin with, the word Judaism, in the English language, stands exclusively for a religion. It is co-ordinate with the word Christianity, the word Buddhism, the word Zoroastrianism, with any word that stands exclusively for a religion. Now in the history of the Jewish people, there was a time when Judaism did not exist, and if I understand the gentlemen who represent the Reform sect correctly—I speak under correction—the intention of the Reform movement is a reversion in fact to the religious attitude of the pre-Judaistic period in the history of the religion of the Jewish people. It is "prophetic" or "progressive Judaism" for which they stand, I gather, in contrast with the "Talmudical Judaism," of the larger orthodox sect. But the period of the great prophets is not the period of Judaism, and strictly speaking, the term Judaism excludes the prophetic element as an active force in Jewish life. This is significant, and to me the significance seems tremendous, for so far as my personal sympathies are concerned they go entirely with the prophetic aspects of Judaism, or better, of Hebraism.

Hebraism and Judaism

HEBRAISM and Judaism are words now in the English language and their usage is determined for us entirely by the writers who become authoritative either by their style or through the weight of their opinion, and this usage has given the term Hebraism a meaning such that it stands for the entire spirit of the Jew, not only in religion but in all that is Jewish; in English the term Hebraism covers the total biography of the Jewish soul, while the term Judaism stands only for a portion of it. Now the Jewish soul is the important thing, but no one has ever met a soul without a body (at least the people who claim they have met it are still required, for belief, to show evidence more than they have thus far shown); generally speaking, soul and body are co-ordinate and mutually imply each other. You cannot have one without the other. This is even more the case when you are dealing not with an individual but with a people. Hence it is the history of the Jewish body-politic with which Hebraism and its components, including Judaism, co-ordinate.

For this reason the gentlemen who stated the object of the Society in the constitution of the Harvard Menorah Society were compelled to take into consideration the following historic fact: There was a time in the history of mankind when religion and life were coincident. You know that the prophets were reformers. The orthodox religion which they fought was the religion of the land. They were progressive religionists, just as the gentlemen who are in the Reform sect to-day claim to be progressive religionists. When they established their religion, it became the religion of the whole nationality, for all ancient religion is national religion. Religion for the Greeks, and religion for the Jews, and religion for the Syrians, and for the Babylonians, and the Romans, was essentially national and political, and the political nationalism of religion in the time of the Roman Empire was the immediate basis for the persecution of the Jews by the Romans. The latter persecuted the Jews not primarily because they disliked the Jews, but because the Jews were a political danger in their refusal to worship the representative of the State in the shape of the Emperor. But in the development of civilization, religion became detached from the totality of civilized living. In the progressive division of labor religion became specialized. The priestly group learned to confine itself more and more to the "things of the spirit"—cult, ritual, dogma, while the other elements in civilization loomed larger and larger. Religion remained social, but society was no longer religious. Life was secularized. I think that the representatives of the Reform sect, in one of their conferences, declared that America is not a Christian country. In so doing they acknowledged this fact.

Continuity of the Jewish Spirit

THROUGHOUT the history of the Jewish people, there is a continuity of spirit which is very different from the continuity of form that attends both the secular and the religious developments of Jewish life. This is the same in both these aspects of Jewish life—in the secular Jewish poetry and thought of the middle ages and up to the present day. Even a Bergson, ostensibly a Frenchman, expresses in his philosophy what is essentially the Hebraic conception of the nature of reality and the destiny of man. From Amos through Job, through the philosophers of the middle ages, to Ahad Ha-'Am there is a clear and accountable continuity. Finally, there is the development of the whole of the secular life of modern Jewry, in Yiddish and in Hebrew. Yiddish may be unpleasant, but Yiddish is no less the speech of the Jews than English, no less the speech of the Jews than Aramaic, and Arabic and Ladino, and all of these have acquired literary and qualitative characteristics which are identical as expressions of the spirit of the Jew, of the Hebraic spirit.

This may be seen generally in the case of Yiddish alone. Yiddish, as you know, is a German dialect; it is middle high German in its base, and German is an inflected language; its rhythms are essentially long, periodic, indeterminate, radically different from the rhythms of Hebrew, involving a different kind of co-ordination and mode. But compare Yiddish with German, and you find quite an antagonistic literary quality. Yiddish reads like the Psalms, and the Bible, and the Talmud; it doesn't read like German until it is Germanized. The whole genius of the tongue has been altered by Jewish use so that its spiritual quality has taken on the quality of the race that uses the tongue, and its literary kinship has become Hebraic.

Again, there is this whole mass of neo-English, neo-Russian, neo-German literatures which, written by Jews, deal with the life of the Jews, with their interests and character. This is not religious. What is its relation to Jewry? Yet again, there is any number of Jewish individuals, among whom I must count myself, who find it impossible to adjust their consciences with any official type of theological doctrine, who are interested in discovering the truth, and are compelled to acknowledge that no truth has been discovered finally, once and for all; there are hundreds and thousands such. What is to be their relation to their people if Jews are to be considered members merely of Judaistic sects? Yet Jews they are, and if they do not contribute directly to Judaism, they do contribute to Hebraism.

Hebraism stands not for that particular expression of the Jewish mind, religion, but for all that has appeared in Jewish history, both religious and secular. The term Judaism stands for that partial expression of the Jewish genius which is religious.

The Ethical Motive of Judaism

IT has been said that the genius of the Jew is entirely religious. I do not think that that is historically a demonstrable proposition. For the dominant motive even in Judaism is not a religious motive. It is an ethical motive. Judaism does not conceive its God as requiring man to be damned for his glory. It conceives its God as an instrument by the worship of whom "thy days may be lengthened in the land." Righteousness and not salvation is the aim even of the Jewish religion. Hebraism is the name for this living spirit which demands righteousness, expressed in all the different interests in which Jews, as Jews, have a share—in art, science, philosophy and social organization and in religion. Hebraism, hence, is a wider term than religion and its continuity embraces, but is not embraced by, the continuity of religion.

Now the Harvard Menorah Society, taking this fact into consideration, made use, because of the tradition of English usage, of the term "Hebraic." It recognized that since Hebraism is more comprehensive than Judaism, many people might be Hebraists who are not and need not be Judaists. It refused to exclude them from a share in Jewish life and an opportunity for Jewish service. The organization goes on the principle—both the Intercollegiate and the constituent Societies—that nothing Jewish is alien to it. For this reason the Menorah takes no sides; for this reason it is Hebraic and not Judaistic. For this reason it welcomes everything Jewish without exception—theological and secular, Russian, German, French, English. It requires only that a thing shall be Jewish, that it shall be a possible part of the organic total we call Hebraism.

Hebraism is the flower and fruit of the whole of Jewish life. Its root is the ethnic nationality of the Jewish people, and with this also the secularizing reformers agree when they prohibit and discourage the marriage of Jew with Gentile.

Many of us, however, are not content with merely the status quo. Throughout the nineteenth century it has thrown us into a series of dishonorable compromises. We want a condition—I speak now for myself and not for the Menorah—we want a condition in which the genius of the Jew, the Hebraic spirit, may express itself without any need of compromise. The orthodox Jew, at least, retains his integrity with his darkness. But we are in danger of losing our integrity. We concede to our environment point after point. But we are not liberated in spirit by these concessions; we are merely turned into amateur Gentiles. The orthodox sectary makes no concession to environment, and tends to petrify and die. The reformed sectary makes too many, and tends to dissolve and die. This is the penalty for the status quo.

Life, to be sure, consists of compromise and concession. But for integral living we must make them as masters, not serfs. There must be one place where the ancestral spirit of the Jew will not need to adapt itself to the world, but will, like the English or French spirit, adapt the world to itself. That place is determined nationally, just as the places of all European culture are determined nationally and racially.

The Aspiration for a Jewish State

PRIDE in ancestry is not pride of race, but pride in the spirit of the race, and pride of ancestry is not pride merely of background, but pride in the obligations that ancestry sets. All aristocrats have one motto—it is noblesse oblige. This must be the motto of the Jew. We must hence carry our obligation in the spirit of the prophets, which is not primarily a theological spirit, but a purely humane spirit, for which the necessity of man determines the invocation of God; in which the ideal of a free and happy humanity, in a just and democratic society, is the dominating ideal; in which a righteous Jewish state is a persistent aspiration. This is the Hebraism which must underly all the activities of the Menorah Association.

This Hebraism, academically realized through study, must be realized in the lives of individuals through work, as Dr. Grossmann has well said, and in the life of the great Jewish mass in a free Jewish state. Every ideal we acquire from the past must be turned into a fact of the present. Noblesse oblige!

Dr. David Philipson

I AM reminded that this day marks the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent—one hundred years of peace between English-speaking peoples. I need to be reminded of this after the speech that has just been made, because much that was said has quite fired my fighting spirit—but this is a day of peace and it might not be quite in the spirit of this anniversary day to say all I might otherwise say in answer to the points that have been made and with which I differ radically.

There are some things in Dr. Kallen's eloquent address that I do believe, but there are many more things with which I do not agree. But let that be as it may, I was very much interested in his remark, that the "Reform sect," as he is pleased to call us, harks back to the prophets. This has been claimed frequently by the reformers themselves, but he puts a new interpretation upon it; he says the prophets were pre-Judaistic. This is the Christian point of view. They claim that Judaism was the growth of the post-exilic period, but we reformers interpret the term Judaism altogether differently.

The Significance of Reform Judaism

JUDAISM means for us the Jewish religion and all that this implies; if the Reform movement in its beginnings went back to prophetism it was simply for this reason—that the pioneers of the Reform movement recognized that the Jews had fallen into the very condition that Dr. Kallen deprecates, namely, they had gotten away from life inasmuch as they had been confined to the ghetto where they had been excluded from the currents of contemporary life. Judaism had become a ghetto religion, and because of this divorce between life and religion the Reform movement arose. The Reform movement is not simply a matter of creed. It affects the whole life of the Jew. One of its basic principles is that the religion of the Jew must square with his life; the needs of the Jew in the modern environment must be taken into consideration by Jewish leaders; Reform Judaism, far from making a separation and raising a barrier between the Jew and life, as those who call us reformed sectarians like to say—quite to the contrary, reconciles the Jew to the civilization in which he is living and wherein his children are growing up. This, to my mind, is the great significance of the Reform movement, and I believe that all those who truly understand it look upon it in that way.

The Reform movement, as the movement for religious emancipation, was the accompaniment of similar emancipatory movements affecting the Jews at the close of the eighteenth century. First there was the linguistic emancipation when under the leadership of Moses Mendelssohn the Jews of Germany discarded the use of the German-Jewish jargon or Yiddish, the language of the Jew's degradation, (for there would have been no such thing as Yiddish had the Jew not been degraded and excluded as he was in the countries of Europe) and began the employment of pure German. Secondly, there was the educational emancipation. The Jews had been educated in chedarim where they received instruction only in Hebrew branches and no so-called secular education whatsoever. This separated the Jew from the culture of the world. At the close of the eighteenth century German Jews began to attend schools and universities. Gradually this took place also in other countries. Thirdly, there was the civil or political emancipation, when after the French Revolution the countries of western Europe, one after the other, accorded the Jews the rights of men. The Reform movement or, in other words, the religious emancipation, is simply the result of great world forces, as embodied in these various aspects of emancipation, and for this reason the Reform movement, far from being simply a matter of creed or theological belief, made the Jew a citizen of the world and fitted him for the modern environment.

The "Body and Soul" of Jewry

NOW there is one other point made by the previous speaker to which I feel that I must refer and that is the matter of "body and soul." This is a favorite phrase of Zionist writers and speakers as emphasizing the difference between Zionists and reformers. We reformers also believe that the body Jewish is necessary, but in a sense different from the Zionistic claim that the Jewish nation must be re-established. I as a reformer and a non-Zionist also use the term "the Jewish people," but in the sense of a "religious people," not a "political people." This involves a vital distinction—the distinction between religionism and nationalism. Yes, I also believe that the body, the religious community, is necessary. The reform rabbinical conference declared against intermarriage for the very reason that it is all important that the Jewish people, the mamleket kohanim, the goy kadosh, be the vessel embodying the religious idea, the spirit. But let it be understood clearly that nationally we are poles apart from the Zionists. Nationally I am an American. I also feel that we ought not to have hyphenated Americans, but Americans pure and simple. In that sense I am nationally an American without a hyphen. Religiously I am a Jew, and religiously I am part and parcel of the Jewish people with whom my religious fortunes are intertwined. Further, I feel very much as Dr. Kallen does in regard to our duty towards the Jews made destitute by the murderous European war. They have none else to look to and we must help them; for whatever may be our differences, we must stand united in this pressing duty of the hour, this work of mercy. But may God speed the day when the Jews in Poland, Russia and Roumania will receive full rights so that nationally they may be considered Poles, Russians or Roumanians as are all others in those lands, as is the case here in free America. To my mind this is the only effective solution to the so-called Jewish problem in those countries.

Freedom is the Messiah that is still to come to the Jews in the lands where they are oppressed, so that everywhere they may be at one in the rights of citizenship with their fellow countrymen, differing from them in their religion alone. This is the great distinction I desired to draw between the Jew nationally and the Jew as a member of a religious people; this "religious people" is the body of which Judaism is the soul.

Prof. Sharfman

I AM constrained to close this meeting with a statement similar to that made by our Chancellor at the conclusion of the public meeting last evening. This was a typical Menorah discussion. We are an open forum for all points of view. We are glad to hear Dr. Kallen's opinions; we are glad to hear Dr. Philipson's opinions. I am sure that out of this clash of views will come a better understanding of the Menorah idea, a truer and deeper realization of the strivings of our Menorah movement.

III. The Business Sessions

First Session

CALLED to order in the Faculty Room, McMicken Hall, at 11 A.M., by President I. Leo Sharfman. N. M. Lyon, of the University of Cincinnati, was appointed Secretary pro tem.

Upon the presentation of credentials, the following were seated as the Representatives of their respective Menorah Societies in the Administrative Council: College of the City of New York, George J. Horowitz; Columbia University, M. David Hoffman; University of Illinois, Sidney Casner; University of Michigan, Jacob Levin; University of Minnesota, Dr. Moses Barron; Ohio State University, Herman Lebeson; University of Wisconsin, Dr. Horace M. Kallen. And the following were seated as Deputies: Clark University, Philip Wascerwitz; Harvard University, George A. Dreyfous; Johns Hopkins University, Jerome Mark; New York University, S. Felix Mendelson; University of North Carolina, N. M. Lyon; University of Pennsylvania, Joseph Salesky; Penn State College, H. L. Lavender; University of Texas, Jacob Marcus; Western Reserve University, Sol Landman.

The applications for admission into the Association of the Menorah Societies at Brown University, University of Cincinnati, Hunter College, University of Maine, the Universities in the City of Omaha, Radcliffe College, Valparaiso University, and University of Washington were presented. After due consideration of the facts in each case and the statements of the University authorities, all of the applications were accepted and the Menorah Societies named were formally admitted into the Association by the unanimous vote of the Administrative Council.

Upon the presentation of their credentials, the following were seated as Representatives: University of Cincinnati, Abraham J. Feldman; the Universities in the City of Omaha, Jacques Rieur; Valparaiso University, Florence Turner. And the following were seated as Deputies: Radcliffe College, S. Marie Pichel; Hunter College, Naomi Rasinsky.

The role of Representatives and Deputies was read by the Secretary, and the dues of the several Menorah Societies to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association for 1915 were paid.

Chancellor Henry Hurwitz read a letter of greeting to the Convention from Justice Irving Lehman of New York, Chairman of the Graduate Advisory Menorah Committee. (See page 125.)

Second Session

Called to order by President Sharfman at 3 P.M. in the Faculty Room, McMicken Hall. Chancellor Hurwitz delivered the report of the Officers for 1914.

Abstract of Officers' Report for 1914

In his report in behalf of the Officers, the Chancellor referred to the organization in the past year of the eight Menorah Societies which were admitted into the Intercollegiate Menorah Association at the previous session of the Convention, making in all thirty-five constituent Societies, every one having arisen spontaneously at its college or university, with the full approval and encouragement of the authorities. Additional Societies are in the process of formation at several other universities.

With reference to the organization of Graduate Menorah Societies, the time was deemed inopportune to proceed definitely in the matter, the war situation absorbing the attention and energies of so many of those who would otherwise be interested in the idea of Graduate Menorah organization, and it was recommended that detailed consideration of the question be laid over another year. But a beginning of Graduate organization has already been made in Scranton, Pa., where a Graduate Menorah Society has been formed.

The Intercollegiate Menorah Association has been very cordially invited to join the Corda Fratres International Federation of Students, whose objects are: "To unite student movements and organizations throughout the world, to study student problems of every nature, and to promote among students closer international relations, mutual understandings and friendship; to encourage the study of international relations and problems; to stimulate a sympathetic appreciation of the character, problems and intellectual currents of other nations; to facilitate foreign study, and to increase its value and fruitfulness. The movement is neutral in all special religious, political and economic principles." (From the official declaration of principles.) The Corda Fratres at present comprises the following national organizations as its constituents: Consulates of Corda Fratres in Italy, Holland, Hungary and Greece; the Association Generale des Etudiants de Paris, and the Union Nationale des Associations des Etudiants de France; the Verband der Internationalen Studentenverein in Germany; the Liga de Estudiantes Americanos, including student organizations in the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and other countries in South America; and the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs in North America. Thus, at present, the sole United States constituent is the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs. It was recommended that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association accept the invitation to join Corda Fratres as a unit co-ordinate with the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, it being understood that the Menorah Association, while thus expressing its approval of the purposes and spirit of Corda Fratres and desiring to aid in its influence and to contribute the element of Jewish culture and ideals to its spiritual constituency, would not be qualified in any way as to its autonomy, purposes, and activities.

During the past year the Association continued its lecture system, and genuine thanks are due to all the speakers, members of the Menorah College of Lecturers, who have so generously given of their time and effort to the Menorah Societies.

Similarly, the Association has been enabled to continue sending Menorah Libraries to its constituent Societies. In most cases these books have been placed at the disposal of all the members of the university no less than of the members of the Menorah Societies, and the authorities have expressed their warmest gratitude for these contributions to their library facilities, even though the books remained the property of the Jewish Publication Society of America.

The presence of the books has done a great deal to stimulate actual reading and study on the part of Menorah members, and the work of the study groups has notably increased during the past year. This is a most gratifying evidence of the seriousness with which the students are taking hold of the Menorah idea. They are still hampered by lack of suitable syllabi, the preparation of which has been unfortunately delayed on account of the impaired health of the scholar who had undertaken to prepare them, but it was hoped that the syllabi would be made available before long.

The chief visible product of the administration the past year was the 180-page booklet entitled "The Menorah Movement," which contains a full and official exposition of the nature and purposes of the Menorah movement, a detailed history of the several Societies as well as of the Intercollegiate organization, including reports of the conferences and conventions, besides other material illustrating the attitude of the university authorities and the general community towards the Menorah movement. Its preparation took several months of labor on the part of the Officers of the Association (special credit being due to the Secretary, Mr. Isador Becker), assisted by the various Societies. An edition of five thousand, of which only a comparatively small number of copies remain, was distributed all over the country among the members of the Societies, other students, university authorities, alumni, and the interested public. It served to arouse both the academic and lay interest in the movement and to spread authoritative information about the nature and purposes of the Menorah Societies.

This publication also prepared the way for the issue of the permanent and periodical Journal of the Menorah Association, the desirability of which has been felt almost from the beginning of the Intercollegiate organization and reaffirmed at the last Convention. It had been hoped that the first number of The Menorah Journal would appear in time for this Convention, but the demands of an initial number that should in every way be worthy of the Menorah ideal of the Journal required a little more time, and the first issue could not appear before January, 1915.

The Menorah Journal, it was hoped, would not only spread interesting and authoritative information about the activities of the Menorah Societies and stimulate their work further in the future, but would itself be a potent means of promoting Jewish knowledge and literature. The Journal was meant to appeal not to Menorah members alone nor to students only, but to all within and without the universities who were interested in the literary treatment of Jewish life and aspiration. The Journal was extremely fortunate in having the counsel and literary co-operation of many leaders of Jewish thought and action of all parties (for list of Consulting Editors see Contents Page), the Journal itself, like the Menorah Societies, being non-partisan, a forum for the free expression of variant views.

Upon the success of the Journal will largely depend the future progress of the Menorah movement and its other literary enterprises contemplated, e. g., pamphlet essays and Menorah Classics, which for the present should be postponed, all energies having to be devoted to the Journal.

The gratifying encouragement given to the Journal enterprise by many men in the community is but a specific application of the co-operation of the Graduate Menorah Committee, headed by Justice Irving Lehman, which has continued during the past year to assist the Association generously and in the most admirable spirit, the committee reposing absolutely perfect confidence in the officers of the Association. To that co-operation and spirit of confidence the Association owes a great deal which it can repay only by continued effective devotion to the cause which is equally dear to the students and the graduates. It was deemed advisable that for the present the Graduate Menorah Committee should continue as an informal body.

A gratifying evidence of the mutual co-operation of the Menorah Societies in a material way during the past year was shown in the appropriation of fifty dollars by the Harvard Menorah Society for the Association.

All in all, the Association during the past year may be said to have advanced satisfactorily, though the Officers are conscious of the great opportunities which still remain before the organization. Indeed, the Menorah work is still in its beginnings. With the loyal co-operation of the students and the graduates, the Association looks forward confidently to a bright and big future.

Resolutions

After due consideration and discussion, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, organized for the promotion in American Colleges and Universities of the study of Jewish history, culture and problems, and the advancement of Jewish ideals, affiliate with the "Corda Fratres" International Federation of Students. Note: This resolution was adopted upon the conditions (1) that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association be received into the International Federation of Students as a unit co-ordinate with the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, and (2) that the autonomy, purposes and activities of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association shall nowise be qualified by such affiliation.[H]

Resolved, That the fifty dollars contributed by the Harvard Menorah Society to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association be devoted to The Menorah Journal.

Resolved, That the Officers be constituted a committee to investigate the nature and work of student organizations analogous to the Menorah in other parts of the world and to submit a report thereon at the next Intercollegiate Menorah Convention. (Readopted from the last Convention.)

Resolved, That the Officers be constituted a committee to consider and draw up definite plans for "Menorah insignia and distinctions."

Third Session

The third session was a public meeting held at 8.15 P.M. in McMicken Auditorium, University of Cincinnati. (For report see page 121.)

Fourth Session

Called to order on Thursday, December 24th, at 9.15 A.M., in the Faculty Room, McMicken Hall, by President Sharfman.

After due consideration and discussion the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the incoming Officers investigate the problem of the organization of Graduate Menorah Societies and prepare a report with recommendations for submission to the constituent Societies at the beginning of the next academic year(1915-16).

The Administrative Council, in session assembled, hereby expresses its hearty approval of the relationship that has arisen and has been maintained between the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, through its Officers, and a body of representative Jewish citizens of public spirit, known as a Graduate Advisory Committee, and gratefully records its deep appreciation of the wise counsel and generous assistance of this Graduate Advisory Committee in the prosecution of the Menorah purposes, and

Resolves, First, that these informal relations between the Intercollegiate Menorah Association and the Graduate Advisory Committee be permitted to continue as heretofore, and second, that the incoming Officers of the Association present plans looking to the permanent organization of this Graduate Advisory Committee, at the next mid-winter meeting of the Administrative Council. (Readopted from the last Convention.)

The Intercollegiate Menorah Convention extends its cordial greetings to Justice Irving Lehman and acknowledges with warm appreciation his welcome message and his generous assurance of willing co-operation. The Association is encouraged to carry forward with renewed vigor and inspiration its work of promoting the study of Jewish history and culture at American Colleges and Universities and of advancing Jewish ideals; to merit the confidence and support of the Graduate Advisory Committee.

Resolved, That each constituent Menorah Society should be bound to seek the advice and consent of the Officers of the Association before soliciting assistance from any source. (Readopted from the last Convention.)

Resolved, That the Administrative Council of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, in annual meeting assembled, hereby enthusiastically expresses its entire confidence and trust in the work done by the Officers of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association and its appreciation of the able and efficient manner in which they conducted and supervised the work of the organization during the past year.

The oral reports of the several Menorah Societies, in amplification of their written reports, were presented and discussed.

Fifth Session

The fifth session was an informal luncheon held in the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Gibson, Cincinnati, at 1 P.M. (For a report of the addresses, see page 125.)

Sixth Session

Immediately following the luncheon, at 4 P.M., the sixth session was convened in the private auditorium of the Hotel Gibson.

The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the Officers of the Association take steps to provide Menorah Societies with syllabi of courses in Jewish history, Jewish literature, and contemporaneous Jewish problems. (Readopted from the last Convention.)

Upon proceeding to the choice of Officers of the Association for 1915, the following were elected: Chancellor, Henry Hurwitz of Boston, Mass. (re-elected by acclamation); President, I. Leo Sharfman of the University of Michigan (re-elected by acclamation); First Vice-President, Isadore Levin, of Harvard University; Second Vice-President, Milton D. Sapiro of the University of California; Third Vice-President, Abraham J. Feldman of the University of Cincinnati; Treasurer, N. Morais Lyon of the University of Cincinnati; and Secretary, Charles K. Feinberg of New York University.

After some discussion as to the advisability of deciding immediately upon the place of the next Annual Convention, it was

Resolved, That the place of meeting for the next Annual Convention be left to the judgment of the Officers of the Association.

After passing unanimously a Resolution thanking the University of Cincinnati, the Hebrew Union College, the Cincinnati Menorah Society, and the city of Cincinnati for the cordial reception accorded to the Convention, adjournment was had at 5.45 P.M.

N. M. Lyon, Secretary pro tem.

Note: In the course of the convention, several amendments to the Constitution of the Association were proposed and adopted. The Constitution as amended follows:

CONSTITUTION

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

Article I: Name

The name of this organization shall be the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

Article Ii: Object

The object of this Association shall be the promotion, in American colleges and universities, of the study of Jewish history, culture, and problems, and the advancement of Jewish ideals.

Article III: Membership

Sec. 1.—Menorah Societies in American colleges and universities, having the object defined in Article II, shall be eligible for membership in this Association, provided that membership in such Societies is open to all members of their respective colleges or universities so far as the efficient pursuit of the object may permit.

Sec. 2.—The Administrative Council (provided for in Article IV) shall have power to elect such honorary members as it may deem fit.

Sec. 3.—One constituent Society may be composed of members of two or more neighboring colleges or universities.

Sec. 4.—All eligible Societies which adopt this constitution by January 3, 1913, shall constitute the charter members of this Association.

Sec. 5.—Other Societies which are formed and eligible, or may be formed and become eligible, for membership in this Association, shall be admitted into this Association by the Administrative Council, and shall become members upon adopting this Constitution.

Sec. 6.—By a two-thirds vote of the Administrative Council, that body, in session, shall have power to deprive of membership any Society which may not be carrying out the object of the Association, or may be employing methods prejudicial to its spirit.

Article IV: Administration

Sec. 1.—The administration of this Association shall be in the hands of the Administrative Council.

Sec. 2.—Every constituent Society shall delegate one member to be its Representative in the Council who shall, at the time of his election, be directly connected with the college or the university as a student or as a member of the Faculty.

Sec. 3.—The Administrative Council shall elect annually at its mid-winter meeting the following Officers of the Association: Chancellor, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Third Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary.

(a) Officers who are not Representatives shall ex-officio be members of the Administrative Council.

Sec. 4.—The Administrative Council shall hold a meeting during the mid-winter recess, when and where it shall please a majority of the Council. Other meetings of the Council may be called upon the request of a majority of its members, and held when and where it shall please a majority. Notice of every meeting shall be sent to each member at least four weeks beforehand. A copy of the minutes of each meeting shall be duly sent by the Secretary to each constituent Society.

Sec. 5.—In case the Representative of a Society is unable to attend a meeting of the Council, his Society may send a duly accredited and instructed Deputy[I] who is not already the Representative or Deputy of another Society.

Sec. 6.—A quorum of the Administrative Council shall consist of the Representatives or Deputies from two-thirds of the constituent Societies.

(Note:—It is understood that a term of office of a Representative or Officer shall be one year, from one mid-winter meeting to the next).

Article V: Dues

Sec. 1.—The annual dues from each constituent Society shall be five dollars, which shall be paid to the Treasurer before the first meeting of the Administrative Council.

Sec. 2.—If a Society be admitted into membership after such date, its dues shall be paid upon admission.

Sec. 3.—Societies whose dues remain unpaid after the time set shall lose their vote in the Administrative Council until payment is made. Neglect to pay for two years may be a cause for dismissal from the Association by the Administrative Council.

Article VI: Date of Effect

This Constitution shall take effect January 2, 1913.

Article VII: Amendments

An amendment to this Constitution may be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the Administrative Council.

FOOTNOTES:

[G] See Prof. Sharfman's address, page 124, and Dr. Kohler's remarks at the Convention luncheon, page 128.

[H] The Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, at its Convention at Ohio State University on Dec. 26-30, 1914, passed a resolution of greeting and welcome to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

[I] How, and to what extent, a Deputy shall be instructed, depends upon the will of the Society which accredits him. (This was the sense of the Constituent Convention.)

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

Brown Menorah Dedication Exercises

The Brown Menorah Society held its dedication exercises in the auditorium of the Brown Union on January 16, 1915. The Chairman was Maurice J. Siff, '15, President of the Society. Morris J. Wessel, '11, spoke of the need of the Menorah from the graduate's point of view. Chancellor Henry Hurwitz brought the greetings of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association and explained the purposes of the Menorah movement. President W. H. P. Faunce of the University, in his response, welcomed the Menorah Society to Brown. Rabbi Nathan Stern, of Providence, spoke upon the significance of the Menorah, and unveiled and lit a brass Menorah which he presented to the Society. Dean Otis E. Randall spoke upon "The Educational Value of College Organizations," and expressed the hope that the new Menorah Society would contribute to the uplift of the student body.

President Faunce said, in part: "This Society must justify itself by making better Brown men than ever before. Most especially among its duties it must strive for a type of Brown man that cultivates the best there is in himself, a man who respects himself, soul, body and spirit, the type of man who flings himself gladly into whatever he believes in. And so I hope to-night that every member of this Society will cherish the finest things in the history of his own people if he is a member of the Jewish nation—that he will cultivate everything that is worthy and noble and try to help his brethren throughout the world."

The Thirty-Sixth Menorah Society

A Menorah Society has recently been organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston. The meeting preliminary to definite organization was held in the Technology Union on March 9. Isadore Levin of the Harvard Menorah Society, First Vice-President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, brought the greetings of the Association and explained the Menorah purposes and procedure. Leo I. Dana, '16, was elected President.

In a communication to the Chancellor of the Menorah Association, Dean Alfred E. Burton of the Institute writes: "I take pleasure in stating that we shall be glad to have a branch of the Menorah Society formed among our undergraduates, and I can endorse the names of the officers who have been chosen. They are all earnest students in good standing at the Institute and I am sure they will be able to establish a branch of the Menorah Society that will be a credit to the general intercollegiate organization."

The first lecture before the Society was delivered on April 5 by Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin. The subject was "Hebraism and Nationality."

Menorah Dinners

The Menorah Society of Clark University held its "First Annual Banquet" on December 17, 1914. President Max Smelensky, '15, introduced the toastmaster, Samuel Resnick, '13. The speakers were President G. Stanley Hall of the University, President Edmund C. Sanford of the College, Dean James P. Porter, Rabbi H. H. Rubenovitz of Boston, A. W. Hillman, '07, Joseph Talamo, '14, and Chancellor Hurwitz. (For the substance of President Hall's address see page 87.)

The Ohio State Menorah Society held its Annual Banquet on February 21. The toastmaster was Harry M. Udovitch, '14. (Mr. Udovitch was last year President of the Corda Fratres Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs). The speakers were Professor Joseph A. Leighton, Professor Ludwig Lewisohn, President Henry Greenberger, '15, of the Society, Herman Lebeson, '15, Ohio State Representative to the Intercollegiate Administrative Council, Rabbi Morris N. Taxon of Columbus, Dr. Sylvester Goodman, '06, and Helman Rosenthal, '12.

The Harvard Menorah Society will hold its seventh annual dinner on May 3.

The MENORAH JOURNAL

Published Bi-monthly During the Academic Year By
The Intercollegiate Menorah Association
"For the Study and Advancement of Jewish Culture and Ideals"
600 Madison Avenue, New York

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Louis D. Brandeis
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Prof. Israel Friedlaender
Prof. Richard Gottheil
Dr. Max Heller
Dr. Joseph Jacobs

Dr. Kaufman Kohler
Justice Irving Lehman
Judge Julian W. Mack
Dr. J. L. Magnes
Prof. Max L. Margolis
Dr. H. Pereira Mendes
Dr. Martin A. Meyer
Dr. David Philipson

Dr. Solomon Schechter
Hon. Oscar S. Straus
Samuel Strauss
Judge Mayer Sulzberger
Miss Henrietta Szold
Felix M. Warburg
Dr. Stephen S. Wise

VOLUME I                      JUNE, 1915                     NUMBER 3

CONTENTS

THE POTENCY OF THE JEWISH RACE | Charles W. Eliot | 141
ISRAEL AND MEDICINE | Sir William Osler | 145
THE WAR FROM A JEWISH STANDPOINT | Richard Gottheil | 150
O SWEET ANEMONES: A Song | Jessie E. Sampler | 158
"PATHS OF PLEASANTNESS" | David Werner Amram | 159
THE JEWISH GENIUS IN LITERATURE | Edward Chauncey Baldwin | 164
JEWISH WORTHIES: JOCHANAN BEN ZAKKAI | Abraham M. Simon | 173
ZIONISM: A MENORAH PRIZE ESSAY | Marvin M. Lowenthal | 179
FROM COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY: Activities of Menorah Societies | 194
NOTES of The Intercollegiate Menorah Association | 200

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Entered as second class matter January 6, 1915, at the New York Post Office, under the Act of March 3, 1879

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published bi-monthly at New York, N.Y.
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Editor-in-chief, Henry Hurwitz, 600 Madison Ave., New York City; Associate Editor, I. Leo Sharfman, 1607 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, Mich.; Managing Editor, Hyman Askowith, North Pelham, N. Y.; Business Manager, Benjamin S. Pouzzner, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York City. Publisher, Intercollegiate Menorah Association, 600 Madison Ave., New York City. Owners: (If a corporation, give its name and the names and addresses of stockholders holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of stock. If not a corporation, give names and addresses of individual owners.) Intercollegiate Menorah Association, 600 Madison Ave., New York City. An organization composed of thirty-five societies in as many colleges and universities in the country, having a total membership of about 3000, "For the Study and Advancement of Jewish Culture and Ideals." The officers of the Association are: Chancellor, Henry Hurwitz, 600 Madison Ave., New York City; President, I. Leo Sharfman, Ann Arbor, Mich.; First Vice-President, Isadore Levin, Cambridge, Mass.; Second Vice-President, Milton D. Sapiro, Berkeley, Cal.; Third Vice-President, Abraham J. Feldman, Cincinnati, O.; Treasurer, N. M. Lyon, Cincinnati, O.; Secretary, Chas. K. Feinberg, New York University, University Heights, New York City; Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding one per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: (If there are none, so state.) None. Average number of copies of each issue of this publication sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during the six months preceding the date shown above. (This information is required from daily newspapers only.)

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Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Judge Julian W. Mack, Dr. Solomon Schechter, Prof. Felix Frankfurter, Prof. Israel Friedlaender, Dr. J. L. Magnes, Prof. Norman Bentwich, Rabbi Max Heller, Dr. Martin A. Meyer.

Among other articles to appear in future issues may be named:

Dr. Stephen S. Wise—"The College Man and Jewish Life"

Dr. George Alexander Kohut—"Some Curiosities of Jewish Literature"

Dr. Solomon Solis Cohen—"The Poetry of Jehudah Ha-Levi"

"Phases of Jewish Thinking in American Universities"—A Menorah Prize Essay

Maurice Wertheim—"Americanism and Judaism"

Louis Weinberg—"The Jew in The Industrial and Fine Arts"

Dr. I. L. Kandel of the Carnegie Foundation—"The Development of Jewish Education"

"Jewish Worthies"—A series of portrait sketches of the most notable personalities in the history of Jewish life and thought

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"The Jew in Modern Drama and Acting"

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the
Menorah Journal

VOLUME I                      JUNE, 1915                     NUMBER 3

menorah

The Potency of the Jewish Race

By Charles W. Eliot

Charles William Eliot CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (born in Boston, 1834), preëminent as educator and publicist; for forty years President of Harvard University; revered not only by Harvard men but by all Americans as a great leader of thought and opinion. Dr. Eliot warmly welcomed the organization of the first Menorah Society at Harvard, in 1906; and to his encouragement is due in large measure the growth of the Menorah movement. At a time when the problems and lessons of the war are absorbing his attention, Dr. Eliot has generously shown his continued sympathy with the Menorah aims and his interest in the Menorah Journal by preparing this article.

FOR many centuries the Jews have had no country of their own or even national headquarters. They have been scattered among many nations, all more or less unfriendly, and some cruelly oppressive; yet they have retained, under the most adverse circumstances, the capacity to earn their livelihood, to bring up families, and to maintain the great traditions of their race. The main reason for the indestructibility of the Jews is that they early embraced certain invaluable ideals, and have struggled towards them indomitably for thousands of years.

Races and Ideals

THE principal difference between races is difference of ideals. Whenever several distinct races come to live side by side on the same territory in the bonds of a peaceful and coöperative fellowship for all common public purposes, it will be found that they have all reached common political and social ideals, although in regard to many racial attributes and even in regard to religious beliefs they remain distinct.

The assimilation of different races can be brought about only by a gradual acceptance of the same ideals and aspirations. For several centuries this process of assimilation has been going on in many parts of the earth, and is now going on at an accelerated pace, resulting in larger conceptions of nationality and larger political or governmental units.

The Influence of Lofty Ideals on the Jewish Race

THE Jewish race affords the strongest instance of the influence on a human stock of lofty ideals, persistently held wherever on the face of the earth a fragment of the race has planted itself. In all generations and in all environments the Jews have succeeded in competition with other races to a remarkable degree. Among a poor population they are less poor than their neighbors; among a free and prosperous population the Jews become richer and more prosperous than the average. Confined in unwholesome Ghettos, they retain to an astonishing degree their health and vitality, helped doubtless by the dietary and sanitary directions given in their ancient Scriptures. Deprived of the right to bear arms in many countries, and, therefore, unable to resist savage attack, they remain inextinguishable. Wherever they become prosperous they develop an extraordinary community feeling, and take care of their own poor or unfortunate. In short, in all generations and in all their various environments they have exhibited, and still exhibit, a remarkable racial tenacity and vigor. It is manifest that this normal success of the race is not due to any especially favorable material conditions, but to the rare strength and significance of its ideals.

"The Noblest of Human Ideals": Jewish Monotheism

WHAT are these ideals? What have they been for thousands of years? The first of the Jewish ideals has been that of one God—the noblest of all human ideals—early attained, and persistently clung to by the whole race. Mohammedan monotheism is noble, and is the main source of the strength of those races which have embraced the religion of Mahomet; but the Mohammedan doctrine of One God arrived thousands of years after the Jewish, and never was so pure. The most significant sentence in the English speech is the first sentence of the Hebrew Bible—"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That is the first of the Jewish ideals, to which the race has been true in all environments, in weal and in woe; and that belief has delivered it from many sorts of enfeebling and degrading terrors and superstitions.

The Ideal of the Family

ANOTHER Jewish ideal which has counted for much in the history of the race is the ideal of the family—pure, honorable, and sacred. The veneration of ancestors, which has been an important part of the religion of China and Japan, is only an undue exaggeration of the Hebrew commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother." The Jewish race has seen fulfilled the promise which is the last phrase of that commandment, "that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," although in many lands and not in any land of their own. The organized human society most likely to prove durable or permanent is that which possesses and maintains in theory and practise a lofty ideal of the family. The reverence shown by children toward their parents and the devotion of parents to their children, which prevail in Jewish families, are both more intense than is usual in Christian families. These sentiments yield infinite good in any human society; they produce, and pass on from generation to generation, purity of life, family honor, and a real consecration of the best human affections. That is the second potent Jewish ideal.

The Ethical Ideal of the Ten Commandments

THE third effective ideal is the ethical teaching contained in the Ten Commandments, the most compact and yet comprehensive code of morals ever written. These ethical principles have been held before the Jewish race for thousands of years wherever it has lived, in good times and bad, an ideal toward which the race has always struggled, though with frequent lapses. This code contains the institution of the Sabbath Day, which by itself accounts for much of the extraordinary endurance of the race.

The Jews have always been distinguished for their respect for learning and their zeal for education. In the Ghettos of Europe, under the most discouraging conditions, their Rabbis kept alive the ancient learning, and through many centuries gave the elite of the rising generation some mental training, when no instruction was to be had by the masses of mankind. A persecuted race, provided it retains its vitality and elasticity, receives admirable training in loyalty to its ideals. In the case of the Jews this was a loyalty not only to race, but to religion; and religious loyalty is the finest and most sustaining of all loyalties. The religion of the Jews emphasizes an ideal to which the Jewish mind and heart have responded ardently from the earliest times—the ideal of righteousness. Loyalty to this ideal includes loyalty to race, family, religion, and all righteous persons. The Jews believe that righteousness alone exalteth a nation, a family, or a man.

Will the Jewish Race Meet the Test of Liberty?

FOR two thousand years the Jews have led their daily lives under exposure to bodily harm, injustice, and all sorts of disaster, and under such grievous trials have preserved their ideals. The race is now to be put to another and severer test. In the free countries of Europe and America the Jews enjoy complete political and industrial liberty. They were for centuries excluded from most professions, arts, and industries, and were driven into trade and money-lending. Now all callings are open to them. In the Middle Ages there were only a few directions in which a successful Jew could safely spend his money. Now he can spend it in any direction—wisely and beneficently, or foolishly and ostentatiously. Will the race bear liberty as well as it has borne oppression? The liberty, which is the only atmosphere in which the strongest men and women can develop, often causes the downfall of weak-willed human beings. Rich Jews, like other rich people, are in danger of becoming luxurious—the more so because the race has been cut off from military service, and has not been addicted to out-of-door sports. The worst destroyer of sound family and national life is luxury. If the race is to meet successfully the test of liberty, it will get over its apparent tendency of the moment towards materialism and reliance on the power of money, hold fast to its social and artistic idealism, and press steadily towards its intellectual and religious ideals.

Signature: Charles W. Eliot

Israel and Medicine

By Sir William Osler

SIR WILLIAM OSLER SIR WILLIAM OSLER (born in Ontario, Canada, in 1849) Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford and one of the world's leading medical authorities; distinguished not merely as investigator, teacher, and practitioner, but also as essayist and ethical teacher of singular grace and humanity, as shown in the volumes entitled "Aequanimitas" and "Counsels and Ideals." The present address, delivered in London at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Jewish Historical Society of England, is here given its first publication in this country, with Sir William's special authorization.

IN estimating the position of Israel in the human values we must remember that the quest for righteousness is Oriental, the quest for knowledge Occidental. With the great prophets of the East—Moses, Isaiah, Mahomet—the word was, "Thus saith the Lord"; with the great seers of the West, from Thales and Aristotle to Archimedes and Lucretius, it was "What says Nature?" They illustrate two opposite views of man and his destiny—in the one he is an "angelus sepultus" in a muddy vesture of decay; in the other, he is the "young light-hearted master" of the world, in it to know it, and by knowing to conquer. Modern civilization is the outcome of these two great movements of the mind of man, who to-day is ruled in heart and head by Israel and by Greece. From the one he has learned responsibility to a Supreme Being, and the love of his neighbor, in which are embraced both the Law and the Prophets; from the other he has gathered the promise of Eden to have dominion over the earth on which he lives. Not that Israel is all heart, nor Greece all head, for in estimating the human value of the two races, intellect and science are found in Jerusalem and beauty and truth at Athens, but in different proportions.

Medicine in the Talmud

IT is a striking fact that there is no great Oriental name in science—not one to be put in the same class with Aristotle, with Hippocrates, or with a score of Grecians. We do not go to the Bible for science, though we may go to Moses for instruction in some of the best methods in hygiene. Nor is the Talmud a fountain-head in which men seek inspiration to-day as in the works of Aristotle. I do not forget the saying:

"In uns'rem Talmud kann man Jedes lesen,

Und Alles ist schon einmal dagewesen."

With much of intense interest for the physician, and in spite of some brave sayings about the value of science, there is not in it the spirit of Aristotle or of Galen. It is true we find there one of the earliest instances in literature of an accurate diagnosis confirmed post mortem. A sheep of the Rabbi Chabiba had paralysis of the hind legs. Rabbi Jemar diagnosed ischias, or arthritis, but Rabbina, who was called in, said that the disease was in the spinal marrow. To settle the dispute the sheep was killed, and Rabbina's diagnosis was confirmed.

The Role of Jewish Physicians in the Middle Ages

IN the early Middle Ages the Jewish physicians played a role of the first importance as preservers and transmitters of ancient knowledge. With the fall of Rome the broad stream of Greek science in western Europe entered the sud of mediævalism. It filtered through in three streams—one in South Italy, the other in Byzantium, and a third through Islam. At the great school of Salernum in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, we find important Jewish teachers; Copho II wrote the Anatomia Porci, and Rebecca wrote on fevers and the fœtus. Jews were valued councillors at the court of the great Emperor Frederick. With the Byzantine stream the Jews seem to have had little to do, but the broad, clear stream which ran through Islam is dotted thickly with Hebrew names. In the eastern and western Caliphates and in North Africa were men who to-day are the glory of Israel, and bright stars in the medical firmament. Three of these stand out preëminent. The writings of Isaac Judæus, known in the Middle Ages as Monarcha Medicorum, were prized for more than four centuries. He had a Hippocratic belief in the powers of nature and in the superiority of prevention to cure. He was an optimist and held strongly to the Talmudic precept that the physician who takes nothing is worth nothing. Rabbi ben Ezra was a universal genius and wanderer, whose travels brought him as far as England. His philosophy of life Browning has depicted in the well-known poem, whose beauty of diction and clarity of thought atone for countless muddy folios.

Maimonides: Prince Among Physicians

BUT the prince among Jewish physicians, whose fame as such has been overshadowed by his reputation as a Talmudist and philosopher, is the Doctor Perplexorum—dux, director, demonstrator, neutrorum dubitantium et errantium!—Moses Maimonides. Cordova boasts of three of the greatest names in the history of Arabian medicine: Avenzoar, Albucasis, and Averroes (Avenzoar is indeed claimed to be a Jew). Great as is the fame of Averroes as the commentator and transmitter of Aristotle to scholastic Europe, his fame is enhanced as the teacher and inspirer of Moses ben Maimon. Exiled from Spain, this great teacher became in Egypt the Thomas Aquinas of Jewry, the conciliator of the Bible and the Talmud with the philosophy of Aristotle. He remains one of Israel's great prophets, and while devoted to theology and philosophy, he was a distinguished and successful practitioner of medicine and the author of many works highly prized for nearly five centuries, some of which are still reprinted. He says pathetically, "Although from my youth Torah was betrothed to me and continues to live by me as the wife of my youth, in whose love I find a constant delight, strange women, whom I took at first into my house as her handmaids, have become her rivals and absorbed part of my time." The spirit of the man is manifest in his famous prayer, one of the precious documents of our profession, worthy to be placed beside the Hippocratic oath. It ends with: "In suffering let me always see only my fellow creature."[A]

Jewish Physicians and Medieval Popes

IN the revival of learning in the thirteenth century, which led to the foundation of so many of the universities, Hebrew physicians took a prominent part, particularly in the great schools of Montpelier and of Paris; and for the next two or three centuries in Italy, in France, and in Germany, Hebrew physicians were greatly prized. But too often the tribulations of Israel were their lot. As one reads of the grievous persecutions they suffered, there comes to mind the truth of Zunz' words: "Wenn es eine Stufenleiter von Leiden giebt, so hat Israel die hochste Staffel erstiegen." Their checkered career is well illustrated by the relations with the Popes, some of whom uttered official bulls and fulminations against them, others seem to have had a special fondness for them as body physicians. Paul III was for years in charge of Jacob Montino, a distinguished Jewish physician, who translated extensively from the Arabic and Hebrew into Latin, and his edition of Averroes is dedicated to Pope Leo X. In my library there is a copy of the letter of Pope Gregory XIII, dated March 30th, 1581, and printed in 1584, confirming the decrees of Paul IV and Pius V, which he regrets were by no means held in observance, "but that there are still many among Christian persons who desiring the infirmities of their bodies be cured by illicit means, and especially by the service of Jews and other infidels. . . ." It was at Mantua that a Jewish physician, Abraham Conath, established a printing press, from which the first Hebrew works were issued.

Names of Distinction in Later Centuries

THROUGHOUT the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in France, Germany, and Italy we meet many distinguished names in the profession, and in his Geschichte der Jüdischen Aertz Landau pays a very just tribute to their work. Only a few are met with in England. Isaac Abendana, a Spaniard, practised in Oxford and lectured on Hebrew at Magdalen College. We have at the Bodleian Jewish almanacs which lie issued at the end of the seventeenth century, and a great Latin translation of Mishnah. He afterwards migrated to Cambridge. A more important author was Jacob de Castro Sarmento, a Portuguese Jew, who became licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1725, and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1730. There is in the Bodleian an interesting broadsheet from the Register of the London Synagogues respecting charges made when his name was proposed at the Royal Society. He contributed many papers to the Philosophical Transactions, and was the author of several works. In the eighteenth century Jean Baptiste de Silva, of a Portuguese Jewish family, became one of the leading physicians of Paris, consulting physician to Louis XV, and the friend of Voltaire, who remarks, "C'était un de ces médecins que Moliere n'eut ni pu ni osé rendre ridicules." One of the special treasures of my library is a volume of the Henriade superbly bound by Padeloup, and a presentation copy from Voltaire to de Silva, given me when I left Baltimore by my messmates in "The Ship of Fools" (a dining club). Voltaire's inscription reads as follows:

"A Monsieur Silva, Esculape François. Recevez cet hommage de votre frère en Apollon. Ce Dieu vous a laissé son plus bel héritage, tous les Dons de l'esprit, tous ceux de la raison, et je n'eus que des Vers, hélas, pour mon partage."

The Achievement of Recent Years

IN the nineteenth century, with the removal of the vexatious restrictions, the Jew had a chance of reaching his full development, and he has taken a position in the medical profession comparable to that occupied in the palmy Arabian days of Cordova and Bagdad. In Germany particularly, the last half of the century witnessed a remarkable outburst of scientific activity. Traube, who may well be called the father of experimental pathology; Henle, the distinguished anatomist and pathologist; Valentin, the physiologist; Lebert, Remak, Romberg, Ebstein, Henoch, have been among the clinical physicians of the very first rank. Cohnheim was the most brilliant pathologist of his day; to Weigert pathological histology owes an enormous debt, and, to crown all, the man whose ideas have revolutionized modern pathology, Paul Ehrlich, is a Jew. In America Hebrew members of our profession for many years occupied a very prominent position. The father of the profession to-day, a man universally beloved, is Abraham Jacobi, full of years and honors; and the two most brilliant representatives in physiology and pathology, Simon Flexner and Jacques Loeb, carry out the splendid traditions of Traube and Henle.

I have always had a warm affection for my Jewish students, and the friendships I have made with them have been among the special pleasures of my life. Their success has always been a great gratification, as it has been the just reward of earnestness and tenacity of purpose and devotion to high ideals in science; and, I may add, a dedication of themselves as practitioners to everything that could promote the welfare of their patients. In the medical profession the Jews had a long and honorable record, and among no people is all that is best in our science and art more warmly appreciated; none in the community take more to heart the admonition of the son of Sirach, "Give place to the physician, let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him."

Signature: Wm Osler

FOOTNOTE:

[A] I am told by authorities that the attribution of this prayer to Maimonides is doubtful. Where is the original?

The War from a Jewish Standpoint

By Richard Gottheil

RICHARD GOTTHEIL RICHARD GOTTHEIL (born in Manchester, England, in 1862; came to New York in 1873), educated at Columbia and at German Universities; since 1887 Professor of Semitic Languages and Rabbinical Literature at Columbia. Apart from his scholarly labors, Professor Gottheil has devoted himself body and soul to many Jewish causes, notably Zionism, in which he has been a leader in America from the beginning. He was among the first to extend an encouraging hand to the Menorah movement and has responded generously to repeated calls to lecture before Menorah Societies. The present article is based upon an address recently delivered before the Cornell Menorah Society.

THE war in Europe presents problems for the Jews which must be faced no matter what the consequences may be. These problems are of two kinds, due to the fact that we are members of a race that is scattered over the whole earth, and the units of which are to be found in the four corners of the globe. In this way a double set of duties is entailed upon us. On the one hand, we have to take our rightful place as citizens of the different countries in which we live: to accept all the burdens that go with such citizenship, and to partake of the joys and sorrows that are its inevitable accompaniment—in a word, to take the advice of the Rabbis of old and "seek the welfare" of the country in which we live. But this obligation is so self-evident, and the problems raised by it solve themselves so naturally, that they need no further thought. In point of fact, the patriotism of the Jews for the lands in which they live has been demonstrated on so many occasions that only blind ignorance or wilful misrepresentation can call it into question. At the present moment, in all the armies that are at the front, our brethren are doing service even beyond their numerical proportion.

The Toll Paid by the Jew

IT is to the second set of problems that I venture to call attention—those Jewish problems that concern ourselves in particular, that deal with our relations to and with our fellow Jews—problems which I am afraid are not always present in our minds. For one reason or another, they are apt to be forgotten, to slip into the background through sheer negligence. Indeed, in many cases we are fain to put them intentionally into a corner and remove them discreetly from sight. It has needed a great world event at this time, as it has in the past, to bring many of us to reason and to a realization of our duty. The titanic struggle in which so many of the nations of the world are engaged has come to remind us also of our position as Jews and to recall to us our relations with the past, our connections with the present, and our hopes for the future. It is indeed true that none of the great political movements that have affected the world have passed by without in some special manner affecting the Jewish people. As we look back through history and allow our thoughts to run down the highway of the ages, we perceive the effects such struggles have had upon the Jew. We think of the time when ancient Babylonia stretched out its arm from the East to gain a foothold on the Mediterranean and to grasp the power of the world. What was the effect upon the Jews? The Babylonian captivity. Many hundreds of years after, Rome—the Babylonia of the West—lunged out toward the East in the same search for universal dominion; and we still observe the Ninth of Ab in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. Again some centuries passed us by, and we come to the inevitable conflict between Christianity and the rising power of Islam. Who was it but our own Jews who suffered most as the crusading hordes moved through Europe—our own Jews who were driven before them from the Rhine into what at a later time became the great national Ghetto in Poland? And now in this twentieth century, as a people, and in proportion to its numbers, which body of men, women and children is paying the most exacting toll to the forces of destiny? Again it is the Jew.

"The Belgians of All History"

WE all have the greatest possible sympathy for the Belgian people and for the Belgian land. Yet how much greater has been the suffering of the Jewish people—the Belgians not of a day but of all history? In Eastern Europe, in Poland, in Galicia and in parts of Russia, at least two or three millions of Jews have suffered from the ravages of a war waged with a bitterness that exceeds all bounds. Invading armies have passed and re-passed over their homes—miserable as they were even in times of peace. False accusations have been launched against them so that they have been regarded as enemies by both sides and treated as such. Thousands have been driven from their homes to congest villages already filled to overflowing or to increase the want and suffering indigenous to towns and cities. An amount of anguish and pain has been caused such as the Jews have never known in all their long tramp through the ages. What have we done, we Jews in America, to assuage even a part of this pain? What measures have we in view, when once the war shall be over, to regain for these people the possibility of living, to bring back for them a little of that which they have lost through no fault of their own and in no cause which is theirs? In most cases the only right permitted to them is the right to suffer, and they must in addition pay the price of that suffering. As we think of all these circumstances, is it not proper and meet that we should ponder the whole situation in which we Jews find ourselves today?

I believe that it is eminently the moment to do so. We refuse to believe that the great waste of human life and energy now going on in Europe is a waste pure and simple. We refuse to believe that some purification is not to result from the fire through which mankind is passing, and that some sanity in handling human affairs is not to follow the evident insanity with which we are now confronted. Something a little more stable because a little more reasonable must appear at the end to replace the inconstancy and unrest which have up to now characterized the relations of peoples to each other. And as we hope this for the world at large, we are hopeful too that full attention will be given to those problems which concern the Jews specifically. I wish then to indicate the chief among these problems, in order that we may ourselves see clearly the road that must be taken.

The Prospect in Russia and Poland

FIRST and foremost, of course, rank the questions that concern the Jews in Russia. Quite apart from any consideration of the general problems affecting that country, the case of the Jews in Russia and Poland demands a settlement that shall make existence bearable for them, and which at the same time shall not run counter to the real and vital interests of the Russian people. Nay more; such existence must not only be bearable. It must be of a kind that will place the Jews upon a level with the other inhabitants of the Empire and will give them the necessary opportunity to develop whatever talents or capabilities they possess. It is not for us to prescribe in what manner and by what means this shall be accomplished; and I use the word "must" not in the sense that any compulsion is to be applied to Russia in this respect, but rather as an expression of the certainty that the trial through which the Czar's land is now passing is of such a kind as to purge her necessarily of all traces of national and religious intolerance. This feeling cannot be expressed in better words than those used by M. Bourtzeff, the well-known reactionary, when he said, "We are convinced that after this war there will no longer be any room for political reaction and Russia will be associated with the existing group of cultured and civilized countries."

Proof that such feelings are making their way among the most intelligent portion of the Russian population is shown by the remarkable document put forth some weeks ago over the signatures of noted Christian professors, litterateurs, and members of the Duma, in which the plea is made for the removal of all restrictions that at present shackle the Jews. "Let us understand," they say, "that the welfare and the power of Russia are inseparably bound up with the welfare and liberties of all the nationalities that constitute the whole Empire. Let us then conceive this truth. Let us act in accordance with our intelligence and our conscience, and then we are sure that the disappearance of all kinds of persecution of the Jews and their complete emancipation, so as to be our equals in all rights of citizenship, will form one of the conditions of a real constructive imperial policy." And we are the more persuaded that these views will prevail when we remember that Russia has been brought into closer contact with just those nations of Europe where Jewish emancipation has been most perfect and has brought forth the best fruits. It is unthinkable that these nations should fail to put their influence on the side of Jewish freedom in Russia when European accounts are finally balanced.[B]

The Broken Faith of Roumania

IN the second place, any regulation of the Jewish status in Europe must of necessity include Roumania. The injustice of the Government's attitude in that country is even more pronounced than it is in Russia. For Roumania is bound to a certain course by a "scrap of paper." At the Berlin Congress of 1878, one of the conditions upon which statehood was granted to Roumania was that the rights of free citizenship should be conferred upon the Jewish inhabitants in the principality—who, it may be remarked in passing, were among the oldest residents there. Roumania gave her solemn promise to carry out this condition; but by political subterfuge of the most brazen kind she has circumvented the whole spirit of the demand. The Roumanian Chamber passed a law to the effect that only Jews who had been naturalized by it were entitled to citizenship; and as the Chamber refused to naturalize more than a handful each year, the provisions of the Berlin Treaty have been as good as void. When quite recently—in 1913—during the progress of the last Balkan War and prior to the intervention of Roumania, the Roumanian Jews volunteered to serve in large numbers, the proposal was brought forward to grant the rights of citizenship to all Jews who had entered the army. Yet this proposal was voted down; and the condition of the Jews has remained as it was prior to 1878. They are inhabitants in a country, subject to its laws, liable to all duties placed upon citizens—but they are themselves prohibited from becoming citizens. It is intolerable that such a condition should be allowed to continue; and if right is to take the place of might in the inevitable re-arrangement of the community of European nations, the status of the Roumanian Jews must be one of the Jewish problems to be solved.

The Hope of Regaining Palestine

THERE is a third Jewish problem the importance of which perhaps even transcends the two just mentioned; transcends because of the interest that attaches to it and because of its vital import to every Jew the world over. I refer to the problem of Palestine, which is wrapt up with the very existence of the Jews and which symbolizes the hopes that have been nurtured throughout the centuries. We know that the Jew in his inevitable march westward has kept his face turned towards the East; that in prayer and in meditation his gaze has rested upon that country which enshrined at one and the same time his origin and his future aspirations. It is true that up to within some forty years that aspiration remained in large part a pious wish; and that though it was cherished as coming to realization "quickly and in our day," very few attempts were put through to arm the Almighty with human effort. At best, God-fearing and pious Jews removed to Palestine, either to immerse themselves there in study and contemplation, or to end their days in the odor of sanctity.

But the last twenty-five years have witnessed a conscious effort to make of Palestine a rallying point for the Jewish people, a place where Jewish life may be lived to its fullest extent and which may serve as a beacon light to all parts of the Diaspora. Many a waste place has been made to blossom again; and much of the culture and learning acquired by the Jews in the long centuries of toil and effort has been made available to revivify the Land of Promise. With infinite pains and untold sacrifices the Jewish pioneers went forward in their peaceful effort to regain the soil of their forefathers. Colonies have been founded there; primary schools, high schools and technical institutions have been established, and many of the forces have been started that make the foundation for a permanent settlement. This conscious effort can not have been put forth in vain. Palestine represents the goal of our endeavor. And any settlement after the war that has in view the general problems involved will be forced to take cognizance of the just hopes that we Jews place in the future of that country and the just rights that the Jewish people believe they possess and have acquired there. The form in which such rights shall be expressed is not a matter for discussion at present. The fact alone is of importance. In the past the world has applauded the fight made by the Poles for their national existence; it has followed with interest the Greek War of Independence, the Italian striving for unity, the Irish endeavors for racial autonomy, and the Alsatian effort after independent expression. It must and will appreciate and esteem the attempt made by the Jews to re-fashion their anomalous status and to re-create the statehood that they lost nearly two thousand years ago.

The Collapse of Principles Held Sacred by the Jews

OUR concern, however, in the present world conflict goes further than our own immediate affairs, and meets those interests which we have in common with the rest of humankind. Much as we deplore the wanton destruction of property, much as we bewail the reckless loss of life, we mourn especially the diminution of ethical standards and the perversion of our whole outlook on life. For this means the lapse of much for which our own teachers have stood, the forfeit of many a principle which has been dear to the Jewish heart. Let me touch lightly upon three points out of the many that come to mind.

First of all, what we must deplore most is the defiance to law and to its reign which has become so marked a characteristic during the present war. The agreements arrived at in conventions, the bases of treaties, the binding character of compacts, and the sanctity of engagements—all seem to have been thrown into one melting pot. The mere fact that the expression "a scrap of paper" has become a household word, bandied about by orators and scribblers, shows the distance we have descended into the abyss. The whole structure of our international relations seems to have fallen to the ground and the labored work of centuries to have been undone in a few months. Now, the Jews have been from the earliest times a people that have laid the greatest possible stress upon the rule of law; so much so, that their own laws were supposed to have divine sanction. In olden Jewish times everything was regulated by law—man's relation to his fellow men, to the state, and to God; to such a degree that we have been blamed often for being a law-ridden people. We cannot, therefore, remain oblivious to the fact that the sanctity of law has now been rudely called into question and its authority greatly weakened. As Jews we must be deeply concerned in assisting the European world back to a full consciousness of the majesty and eminence of the rule of law.

But more than that, it was part of our earliest teaching that "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." What clouds of hatred have not been blown from one line of trenches to the other! What volumes of spleen have not been sent from one country to the other! In countless speeches, in newspapers and in books, the doctrines of dislike, of animosity, of deepest malice have been preached. Men have been taught to look upon certain neighbors as born enemies, to see in those who do not speak their own tongue not only a stranger but an enemy. Back of the soldiers under arms, back of the cannons with their deadly missiles, stand millions of loathing men and women shooting darts of odium that reach further than any shell and that are more poisonous than any gas. When shall we be able once again to preach the beautiful teaching of the prophet, "Have we not all one Father; hath not one God created us all?"

And lastly, we must bear in mind that the Jews have been opposed from of old to the rule and reign of might as represented by the God of War. In a syllabus on the history of the Peace Movement just published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, it is passing strange to find that the Old Testament is entirely overlooked and that from the first point, "The Cosmopolitan Ideal among the Greek Philosophers," the jump is made at once to the second, "Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace." And yet we know that in the outlook of our greatest teachers and philosophers the vision of peace loomed large and powerful. "Ye shall not teach war any more," said one of our greatest. And for another the true sign of his prophetic mission is that he preached peace. How sadly these teachings have been belied in the present war we know only too well.

Is War Necessary and Good?

IN many circles it has been held that development is possible for the human race only with the concomitance of war. What wonder—when modern teachers have preached just such a necessity? Even so great a religious leader as Luther said, "War is a business divine in itself, and is as necessary as eating or drinking or any other work." Should we then wonder that a historian such as von Treitschke has added, "War is the last revealer of power. God will see to it that war always recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race,"—or that another historian, Delbrueck, should have said, "What beauty was to the Greek, holiness to the Hebrew, government to the Romans; what liberty is to the Englishman, war is to the Prussian." Nietzsche, one of the greatest of modern apostles, has based many of his theories upon "a violent repudiation of any faith or tradition which recognizes a power of right and justice lying beyond our impulsive nature; an identification of self-restraint with degeneracy and of self-assertion with health; a search for happiness in the conquest of others rather than in self-conquest; a substitution of the Will to Power for the Darwinian Will to Live, with the consequent intensification of the unconscious and instinctive struggle for existence into a battle for conscious mastery; and a sharpening of the competition of life, with its self-observed rules of fair play or its traditionally imposed limitations, into a glorification of war as the supreme test of strength, obtaining its justification in success."

In a very remarkable article which appeared in the Nineteenth Century for last September, written by a man evidently most religiously minded, appears the following: "Is the heart of England still strong to bear and to resolve and to endure? How shall we know? By the test? What test? That which God has given for the trial of people—the test of war. The real court, the only court in which this case can and will be tried, is the court of God. This twentieth century will see that trial, and whichever people shall have in it the greater soul of righteousness will be the victor. The discovery that Christianity is incompatible with the military spirit is made only among decaying people. While the nation is still vigorous, while its population is expanding, while the blood in its veins is strong, then on this hope no scruples are felt. But when its energies begin to wither, when self-indulgence takes the place of self-sacrifice, when its sons and daughters become degenerate, then it is that a spurious and bastard humanitarianism masquerading as religion declares war to be an anachronism and a barbaric sin."

The Jewish Answer

THE Jewish attitude in regard to this great problem before the world can be dealt with in a very few words. These words have already been given to us in the twentieth chapter of Exodus: "If thou wilt make an altar, thou shalt not wave thy sword over it; for if thou wavest thy sword over it thou hast polluted it." It has been emphasized by the prophet Jeremiah when he said, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord who exerciseth loving kindness, judgment and righteousness on the earth." To this I will add only one single word of the Rabbis: "The whole Torah exists solely for the sake of the ways of peace." This ideal of peace has been the guiding star of Israel for which the Jew has prayed morning, noon and night, and I trust that the young men of the Menorah will be true to that which the Menorah typifies, and will assist in the spreading of its light by upholding the reign of law, the reign of love, and the reign of peace.

Signature: Richard Gottheil

FOOTNOTE:

[B] In the last number of The Menorah Journal, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff ventured to suggest the reverse influence, and to intimate that the association of England with Russia was having an adverse effect upon the Jews in England. While Mr. Schiff does not tell us upon what evidence he bases his views, I venture to guess that it consists largely of the mistrust and ill-will caused in England by a small coterie of German-born bankers and their following. But Mr. Schiff must know that this ill-will is in no way connected with the fact that the men referred to are members of the Jewish race. Most of them have never taken the least interest in Jewish affairs, some even have ostentatiously kept themselves quite apart from any connection with them. And what is more, the feeling against them is shared by Jews as well as by non-Jews in England.

Perhaps more serious still is Mr. Schiff's presentment concerning German anti-Semitism. To speak simply of "a certain anti-Semitic tendency in Germany" is to coat the truth with so much honey as almost to reverse its meaning. Anti-Semitism in Germany, and especially in Prussia, has kept the Jews far from any positions of importance in university life, on the bench, and in all state and military affairs. And to add that the war "will crush out most of this anti-Semitic tendency" is to fly in the very face of well-ascertained and authenticated facts of very recent occurrence. In Harper's Weekly for February 6th of this year (p. 122), a series of such facts is adduced. Nor can Mr. Schiff forget that forced conversion away from the Jewish faith and communion has nowhere taken on the dangerous proportions it has in the Fatherland. Russia, it is true, has martyred many Jewish bodies; German "Kultur" has quenched too many Jewish souls. History will have to decide which has done the greater hurt to the Jewish cause.

O Sweet Anemones

By Jessie E. Sampter

This Song is one of a series put into the mouth of a nationalist Pharisee of Jerusalem living through the times of the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem and the later development or perversion of Jesus' ideals by Paul.

O sweet anemones on Sharon's plain,

Light dancing seraphim of sun and rain,

Was he not one of us, was he not ours?

And yet he saved not us, O crimson flowers!

As stars that bloom in heaven, full-bloom and still,

As native stags that leap from hill to hill,

As you, dear blossom-stars, on native plains,

So planted here, with God, our home remains.

I, too, would perish here, where he has died,

But felled by horse and spear, not crucified;

I, man of peace, would pour, O Rock of God,

My freedom or my blood on Zion's sod.

When pagans sweep thy fields with withering blast,

My heart is sanctified to death at last;

Its taste is honey-sweet within my mouth,

For we that drink with God can dread no drouth.

O sweet anemones on Sharon's plain,

A spring shall come for us, to bloom again,—

To God a day, to us a thousand years,—

Who still remembers, lives, refreshed with tears.

"Paths of Pleasantness"

The Study of the Jewish Law

By David Werner Amram

"Her paths are paths of pleasantness, and all her ways are peace. She is a tree of life to those that lay fast hold on her, and happy is every one that retaineth her."—Prov. 3:17, 18.

DAVID WERNER AMRAM DAVID WERNER AMRAM (born in Philadelphia, 1866), educated at the University of Pennsylvania, has been Lecturer and since 1912 Professor of Law in the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Professor Amram has published books and articles not only on common law topics but on interesting subjects in Jewish legal lore and belles-lettres, among his books being: "The Jewish Law of Divorce," "Leading Cases in the Bible," and "The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy."

ONE of the methods by which the Jewish people managed to survive endless misery and persecution during eighteen centuries of dispersion and protect themselves from the continuous bombardment of their social and moral citadels was by taking refuge in the study of the law. The study and observance of the law, both civil and religious, saved the Jews from degeneration and vulgarization, and preserved for them the humanizing memories of the thoughts and deeds of their forebears. Through their common interest in the law and its study they kept in touch with one another throughout the lands of their dispersion, they kept alive their feeling of brotherhood and the memory of their ancient independence, and translated this memory into a hope for the re-establishment of the State, a hope which has never died.

"The People of the Law"

THE term "the people of the law" has often been applied to the Jews in the opprobrious sense that they are a people who deal according to hard and strict rules, untouched by the qualities of love and mercy.

Properly understood, however, the term "the people of the law" is a title of honor, one of which we may well be proud. As used in our literature and by our people, "law" signifies something more than civil and criminal jurisprudence. It is our word "Torah," meaning doctrine, teaching, including not only what is generally known as law but also what is known as ethics. The people of the law is the people that studies the great thoughts of its great men of all times, and adopts them as rules of life which it becomes a duty and a pleasure to obey. The people of the law is the people that in the midst of a world of chaos in which nation fought nation with the weapons of death, sat in communion with a past world from which came such messages as this: "Attend to me, O my people: and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light to the peoples. . . . . Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye dismayed at their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever and my salvation unto all generations." Righteousness was the aspect of Deity that appealed to the second Isaiah, and it was he that spoke words of comfort to our people in all the days of their endless tribulations. The certain faith in the ultimate success of right sustained them throughout the centuries and constitutes their strength to-day. This is the law that was handed down to them from of old, the law of right, which though often broken, often forgotten, was always found again and cherished as the one thing worth while in a world torn by the brutal instincts in man—instincts which the law had chained and sought to make harmless.

So we may well cling to our title of the people of the law, remembering that it does not mean merely Nomos, as the Hellenized Jews mistranslated Torah, but legal and ethical doctrine and knowledge in its broadest sense, and that it is the people of the law that have always shown their love of knowledge and found it "a tree of life to those that lay fast hold on it." Some ancient Jewish mystic said that the sword and the book came out of heaven together and Israel had to choose. Israel did choose and thereafter dreamed of days when swords would be beaten into ploughshares.

How the Heritage of the Law Was Preserved

THE reading of the law has since time immemorial been an established part of the synagogue service, thus educating the people to know their law, the very phrases of which by constant reference and repetition became part of their daily vocabulary. The origin of this custom of reading the law in the synagogue may probably be found in the Biblical references to the great convocations when King and scribe read the law to the assembled people.

The effect of the dispersion of the Jews was to give a peculiar sacredness to the law as the sole heritage of their earlier and happier days. In most of the lands of their dispersion, the Jews dwelt a race apart, separated from the rest of the community by mutual prejudices and antagonisms. The soil on which they dwelt was so far as ultimate overlordship was concerned the land of the stranger, but nevertheless in a very definite and special sense it was the Jews' own land. For it was a land in which the law of the stranger was not the law. The law of the land of their dispersion was not the law of the owner of the soil but the law of the Jews. In this sense the Ghettos of Italy and the Gassen of Germany were not so much Italian and German soil as they were Jewish. As by the modern fiction of extraterritoriality the home of an Ambassador is considered part of his own national territory, so these exclusively Jewish settlements were colonies of Judæa planted on foreign soil. They were separated from the rest of the land by visible or invisible walls, and within these walls, hardly touched by the influences that were at work shaping the life around them, the ancient law of the Jews was preserved and handed down from generation to generation. Hence during the Middle Ages the student of the law became the most important member of the community, and all the energy of the community that was not required to outwit the constant menace of brutal force and religious persecution was devoted to the cultivation of the law and of the literature that it gave rise to.

It should be noted, however, that since the beginning of the Talmudic period, the civil law developed in certain directions only, because after all the Jewish people had no land of their own in the usual sense and no central authority and were constantly moving from place to place, always subject to persecution. Some branches of their law were entirely neglected and others abnormally developed.

The Schools of the Law

IN the Talmudic period, the judges, members of the Synhedrion, and professors of the law schools, received a long professional training. The course of study lasted seven years, at the end of which, having passed their examination successfully, the graduates were eligible to assignment as judges in the lower courts, from which they were promoted to act as associate judges in the great Synhedrion and eventually might hope to attain the dignity of full synhedrial membership. These judicial dignitaries were obliged to be well versed in the languages, law and customs of the contemporary peoples, especially in the laws of the Greeks and Romans. Great academies of the law flourished in Palestine and still greater ones in Babylonia, the latter eventually supplanting the former. These academies called for the enthusiastic encomium of one Talmudist who said, "God created these academies in order that the promise might be fulfilled that the word of God should not depart from Israel's mouth."

The law students met twice a year in assembly for examination. Their studies were pursued at home, except in the months of Elul and Adar when they went up to the Assembly. Here they were arranged in classes and under the direction of their masters heard lectures and discussed the subject matter presented to them topically. At these Assemblies actual questions of law were submitted from Jewish communities all over the Jewish world, and the solutions to these problems were prepared and forwarded by the great masters. In addition to these professional schools there were everywhere general schools or, as we might say, high schools connected with the synagogues. It is a tribute to the importance that was ascribed to the high schools in later generations that their origin was projected back to the days of the Flood when Shem and Eber established a law school in which subsequently Isaac, Jacob, and Rebecca heard lectures. It will be noted that according to this bit of folklore Rebecca was the first woman law student. The same fancy which invented this most ancient of the schools, also invented the law school which Judah built for Jacob in Egypt, and the school established by Moses in which he and Aaron were the professors and Joshua was the janitor.

The Study of the Law "the Chief End of Man"

THE fancy of the people associated nearly all of its great men with the study of the law. The entire tribe of Issachar was said to have devoted itself to the study of the law, the merchant tribe of Zebulon furnishing the means of support. God himself, according to another mystic, was a professor in the celestial law school in which He taught the law to the souls of all the righteous, in that heaven which they conceived of as a place where the law might be perpetually studied; and even while the Temple was still standing and sacrifices were being offered, the Jewish teachers used to say that God does not require burnt offerings but the study of His law.

From all of these traditions it will be seen that to the ancients the study of the law was the chief end of man. The Jew never considered ignorance to be bliss and has little sympathy with the religious ideal of many non-Jewish people that religion is more important than knowledge. One of the great masters even went so far as to say that the ignorant man cannot be pious. It was Simon the Just, one of the survivors of the Men of the Great Synagogue, who said that the world stands upon three things, the law, the service of God, and charity, and he put the law first, for the first duty of a man is to observe the law. He must be just before he can be charitable.

At one time it was sought to place some limitations upon the right to become a student of law, and herein the schools of Hillel and Shammai differed. Hillel was the democrat who held that all persons, without exception, should enjoy the privilege of studying law; Shammai was the intellectual aristocrat who sought to limit this privilege to those who were wise, modest, of ample means and of goodly parentage, thereby establishing rules similar to those that obtain in the best modern law schools, which require a collegiate education as a preliminary to admission; but Shammai went further in that he required the students to be wise and modest as well as persons of good breeding and of ample fortune. Just how many of our modern law students could meet these requirements is a question upon which I have no statistics. On this very matter of the proper qualifications for admission to the privilege of studying law, we have heard much in our time. Perhaps a contribution to the subject from the old and somewhat neglected Code of the Mishnah would not be inappropriate. The Mishnah says:

"Eight and Forty Qualifications for the Law"

"THE law is greater than priesthood and royalty, for royalty is acquired by thirty qualifications, priesthood by four and twenty, but the law by eight and forty, and they are as follows: Study, attention, utterance, understanding, reverence, veneration, modesty, cheerfulness and purity, service of the wise, choice of associates, debate with fellow students, deliberation in study of Bible and Mishnah, a minimum of business, a minimum of worldly pursuits, a minimum of pleasure, a minimum of sleep, a minimum of talk, a minimum of jesting, forbearance, kindliness, faith in the wise, resignation in suffering, knowing one's place, satisfaction with one's lot, bridling one's words, refraining from self-complacency, amiability, loving the Creator, loving His creatures, loving righteousness, loving equity, loving reproof, eschewing worldly honor, not being puffed up by learning nor delighting in laying down the law, helping one's neighbor bear the yoke, inclining toward a favorable judgment of others, steadfast in the truth, steadfast for peace, concentration in study, asking, answering, listening, enlarging, learning with a view to teach, learning with a view to act, enabling one's teacher to become wiser, thoroughly understanding what one hears, and repeating every dictum in the name of him who uttered it." I recommend this list of qualifications to the consideration of modern teachers and students as well as to those who are concerned with the preparation of a code of legal ethics for the profession.

The Jews loved the law and respected it and they honored its expounders and administrators. They do not believe that the world can be made over or made better by any man or by any preaching. They are by instinct conservative, holding on with tenacity to the ideas and institutions that have grown up in past times and that are expressions of the needs of society and of its adjustment to the forces that play upon it. This is why the law, which is the embodiment of these conservative forces, meets with their respect and allegiance, why its study was cultivated with such zeal in the past, and why in our own day it still finds so large a percentage of votaries among the sons of our people.

Signature: D.W. Amram

The Jewish Genius in Literature

A Study of Three Modern Men of Letters

By Edward Chauncey Baldwin

EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN (born in Cornwall, Conn., 1870), Assistant Professor of English in the University of Illinois, has taken a special and scholarly interest in the contributions of the Jews to civilization, on which subject he has written a notable book entitled "Our Modern Debt to Israel," besides articles in various periodicals. He is an honorary member of the Illinois Menorah Society, evincing a warm sympathy with the Menorah aims and actively coöperating in the Menorah work.

A STUDY of great Jewish names in modern literature has impressed me with the fact that every Jewish man of letters has attained his fame by virtue of qualities that are essentially Jewish. In other words, we cannot fully understand the work of even modern Jewish literary men unless we know the fundamental qualities of Jewish genius. To illustrate what is meant by this assertion, we may consider briefly the work of three nineteenth century Jewish authors—Heine, Beaconsfield, and Zangwill. These men are apparently wholly different; and yet they attained literary eminence through qualities or mind and heart which we have learned to associate with the race from which they sprang.

Heinrich Heine: A Jew at Heart

HEINRICH Heine is the one writer of the first rank that Germany can boast between the death of Goethe in 1832 and the advent of the younger generation of dramatists, Sudermann, Hauptmann, and the rest, sixty years later. To free himself from such a limitation as his Jewish birth seemed to him to be, and with the more specific object, it is said, of securing a government position in Prussia, Heine allowed himself to become a convert to Christianity. "Judaism," he said, "is not a religion; it is a misfortune." His conversion, however, failed to profit him. He lost the fellowship of his own people, and was contemptuously called "the Jew" by his enemies. In a sense, the designation was entirely just. A Jew at heart Heine remained to the day of his death. On his death bed, speaking of the Jews he said: "Queer people this! Downtrodden for thousands of years, weeping always, suffering always, abandoned always by its God, yet clinging to him tenaciously, loyally, as no other under the sun. Oh, if martyrdom, patience, and faith in spite of trial can confer a patent of nobility, then this people is noble beyond any other. It would have been absurd and petty if, as people accuse me, I had been ashamed of being a Jew."

Not only was Heine a Jew in his instinctive racial sympathies, but his work bears the indelible impress of Judaism. It is a distinctively Jewish product. In it appear the buoyancy of spirit which sustained him under suffering that would have crushed a less resilient temper; the intellectual arrogance; the proneness to censure rather than to commend; and especially the excessive self-consciousness;—all these distinctively Jewish traits were in him exaggerated and helped to make his work what it was. It is his self-consciousness, in particular, that made his Buch der Lieder his best production. In that remarkable collection of lyrics Heine appears at his best, because the ability to compose songs that are the spontaneous utterance of emotion, at one and the same time personal and representative, is a Hebrew heritage. The Hebrew genius was essentially lyric, rather than epic or dramatic; and in consequence, the lyrics of ancient Hebrew literature are its chief glory. In proof of this, we have but to recall the dirges and triumph songs, the reflective lyrics, and the liturgical hymns that compose the collection we know as the Psalms. The excellence of both the old Hebrew lyrics and of Heine's Lieder is to be found in the extraordinary subjectivity of the Hebrew temper—the racial fondness for impassioned, yet artistic, self-expression.

Yet Heine's Jewish traits are evident not only in the subjectivity of his lyrics, but in the new and richer character that he gave to the German Lied. This, hitherto vague and dreamy, became in his hands startlingly concrete and definite. And this is true even when he expresses the most subtle feelings. Always the most evanescent Stimmung, not less than moods more primitively simple, find expression in metaphors so sensuously material as to recall Solomon's Song. Compare a typical lyric of Heine, such as the following:

Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne

Die liebt' ich alle in Liebeswonne,

Ich lieb' sie nicht mehr, ich liebe allein

Die Kleine, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine;

Sie selber, aller Liebe Bronne,

Ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne

with the love lyric sung by one of Israel's nameless singers:

Behold thou art fair, my love;

Behold thou art fair;

Thine eyes are as doves.

Behold thou art fair, my beloved

Yea, thou art pleasant:

And our couch is green.

The beams of our house are cedars,

And our rafters are firs.

I am a rose of Sharon,

A lily of the valleys.

As a lily among thorns,

So is my love among the daughters.[C]

Even so brief a comparison may illustrate, though it may not prove, that for the ultimate source of Heine's Oriental exuberance and materialization, so new to German literature, we must look in Jewish not in European culture.

The Spiritual Depth of Heine

PERHAPS because Heine was in spirit an Oriental, the Germans never have known exactly what to make of him. Professor Francke says (History of German Literature, p. 526) that Heine "produced hardly a single poem which fathoms the depths of life." This assertion seems scarcely defensible in view of such poems as the following:

Wo wird einst des Wandermüden

Letzte Ruhestatte sein?

Unter Palmen in dem Süden?

Unter Linden an dem Rhein?

Werd' ich wo in einer Wüste

Eingescharrt von fremder Hand?

Oder ruh' ich an der Küste

Eines Meeres in dem Sand?

Immerhin! Mich wird umgeben

Gotteshimmel, dort wie hier,

Und als Todtenlampen schweben

Nachts die Sterne über mir.

To find an equally beautiful expression of faith in God as a universal spiritual presence that transcends all space relations, we must go back to the anonymous Jewish poet who wrote the psalm in which occur the lines:

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit?

And whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me,

And thy right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me,

And the light about me shall be night;

Even the darkness hideth me not from thee;

But the night shineth as the day.

For the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

As a matter of fact, both poems are to be accounted for as equally the product of a rarely gifted people—a people with a unique genius for religion.[D]

Disraeli and His Oriental Imagination

BENJAMIN DISRAELI belonged to a family who left Spain in the fifteenth century to avoid the horrors of the Inquisition. Upon their escape, in gratitude to the God of Jacob who had sustained them through unheard of trials, they adopted the name Disraeli, in order that their race might be forever recognized. Of such a family Benjamin Disraeli was a worthy representative. He never was ashamed of his race. On the contrary, he gloried in it, and lost no opportunity to put forth the claim of his people to be the true aristocracy of the earth. "Has not the Jew the oldest blood and the finest genius of the world?" he asks. And again, in one of his books (Tancred, 1847), he says, "The Jews are of the purest race; the chosen people; they are the aristocracy of nature."

It is Disraeli's Jewish characteristics that have bewildered and sometimes offended his critics. He has been charged with insincerity because he was so clever, and because he wrote with a kind of Oriental exuberance that was to him entirely natural and a part of his Jewish heritage. Gilfillan is the only critic, so far as I know, who has recognized that Disraeli's excellences, and his defects as well, were racial rather than individual. Speaking of his Oriental fancy and cleverness, Gilfillan says: "Disraeli has a fine fancy, soaring up at intervals into high imagination, and making him a genuine child of that nation from whom came forth the loftiest, richest, and most impassioned songs the earth has ever witnessed—the nation of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Solomon, and Job. He has little humor, but a vast deal of diamond-pointed wit."[E]

Disraeli's Wit: A Purely Jewish Product

DISRAELI'S wit, which made him so many enemies, is a purely Jewish product. It is satiric. Now satire was the form taken by Jewish wit in the Middle Ages as a result of the hard conditions under which the Jews lived. As one modern Jew has said, "The Jews seized the weapon of wit, since they were interdicted the use of every other weapon." With every door closed in hostility against them, there was little they could do but laugh with bitter irony at their fate, and with savage satire at their oppressors. With such an ancestry as this behind him, it is not to be wondered at that Disraeli's wit is scornful, and that he excelled in personal satire and invective. It was never, however, unprovoked. Disraeli never indulged in personal satire or invective except in his own defence. For example, his mockingly ironical reply to the attack of a member of the House of Commons named Roebuck, which was one of the most effective rejoinders Disraeli ever made, was in answer to a most virulent arraignment of his political motives. "I have always felt," he said, "that in this world you must bear a great deal, and that even in this indulgent, though dignified, assembly, where we endeavor so far as possible to carry on public affairs without any unnecessary acerbity—still we must occasionally submit to some things which the rules of this house do not permit. I could, no doubt, have vindicated my character; but that would only have made the honorable member from Bath speak once or twice more, and really I have never any wish to hear him. I have had the most corrupt motives imputed to me. But I know how true it is that a tree must produce its fruit—that a crab-tree will bring forth crab apples, and that a man of meagre and acid mind, who writes a pamphlet or makes a speech, must make a meagre and acid pamphlet or a poor and sour speech. Let things, then, take their course."

Disraeli's Fondness for Allegory

ANOTHER striking peculiarity of Disraeli was his fondness for veiled allusion. Nearly all of his most popular novels—and this was one of the main reasons for their phenomenal popularity—were thinly veiled representations of Disraeli's own contemporaries, who were easily recognizable by the reading public. Take, for instance, the admirable burlesque entitled Ixion in Heaven, where the author tells how Ixion, king of Thessaly, having fallen into disrepute on earth, was taken up into heaven by Jupiter and feasted by the gods. Here Jupiter is really George the Fourth and Apollo is the poet Byron. The latter's pose of gloomy misanthropy, as well as his habit of fasting to keep from growing fat, are admirably satirized in the following dialogue:

"You eat nothing, Apollo," said Ceres.

"Nor drink," said Neptune.

"To eat, to drink, what is it but to live; and what is life but death. . . . I refresh myself now only with soda-water and biscuits. Ganymede, bring some."

Now this fondness for veiled allusion is distinctly a Hebrew characteristic. The Arabs today have a saying, "as fond of a veiled allusion as a Hebrew." This has always been a Hebrew trait. I suppose no literature of any people consists so largely of allegory, in proportion to its bulk, as does the Hebrew. In proof of this assertion, one needs but to allude to the vogue in post-exilic Judaism of the Apocalypse, in which contemporary history was presented in the form of allegory, and to the Rabbinical fondness for the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures. So it would not be difficult to show that not only these qualities I have mentioned, but all the qualities that made Disraeli admired or feared were his by virtue of his Jewish inheritance.

Zangwill's Prophetic Spirit in "The War God"

ISRAEL ZANGWILL knows the Jews, not as George Eliot did, through a process of philosophic induction, but at first hand, because he is a Jew by birth and breeding. He, unlike Heine, has never tried to conceal the fact that he is a Jew. In Israel Zangwill all the tenderness and sympathy, all the tenacity, the suppleness and adaptability, and it may be added, the baffling inconsistencies of his race appear.

Inconsistent he certainly is. He has been an ardent Zionist, and in his story "Transitional" (from They That Walk in Darkness) he seems to hold that assimilation will never solve the Jewish problem; yet in The Melting Pot he obviously regards assimilation as the inevitable and desirable end of Judaism.

In spite of his inconsistencies, Zangwill is one in whom the ancient ideals of Israel live again. It is in the spirit of the prophets that he wrote The War God (1912). This play, with all its faults as an acting drama, is nevertheless a remarkable document, voicing, as it does, on the very eve of the breaking down of European civilization, the old prophetic protest against the brutality and waste of war.

This protest dates back to at least the ninth century b.c. It may not be generally known that it was a Hebrew prophet who first advocated the humane treatment of prisoners of war. The story is told in the Second Book of Kings that when a band of marauding Syrians were corralled in Samaria, the "king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, 'My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them?' And he answered, 'Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite those whom thou has taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.' And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel" (2 Kings 6:1-23). Again, Amos, in the eighth century, in his arraignment of the sins of the nations, pronounces God's severest judgments upon Damascus, Edom, Ammon, and Moab for their cruelty in war. The charge against Edom, for example, is that "he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever." And the later prophets' visions of the Messianic age include as the brightest feature of that wished-for time the prediction that then "the nations shall not learn war any more."

Of such a spirit Mr. Zangwill's play The War God is an expression. It is a satire upon militarism, but a satire without exaggeration. The arguments employed to justify the maintenance of a huge army and navy are not a whit more absurd than the fallacies which have been put forth for a generation by those who would justify the maintenance of armaments. These so-called arguments are presented by "the Chancellor" who represents Bismarck, and by the king of Gothia, in whom we may easily recognize the Russian Czar. "Dominance," roars the Chancellor,—

"There rings the password of the universe.

Who knows it, he is free of every camp.

Equality, your level, endless cornfield,

However fat and fair and golden-stalked,

Would set us pining for the snow-topped peaks

And barren glaciers. Life is fight, thank God!

Take war away and men would sink to molluscs,

Limpets that wait the tide to wash them food.

The nations would grow foul with lazy feeling.

What heaven loves is breeds with life a-tingle,

Swift-gliding, flashing, darting death at rivals,

Men fearing God and with no other fear.

Thus were the Albans, now the turn is ours

To be the chosen people of Jehovah."

And the King endorses such sentiments with the sage observation,

"No doubt we must protect our growing commerce."

In opposition to such militarists stands Count Frithiof, in whom we may easily see the lineaments of Tolstoi. His motto is, "Resist not evil, but reform yourself." In answer to the Chancellor's declaration, "To safeguard peace, we must prepare for war," he replies,

"I know that maxim; it was forged in hell.

This wealth of ships and guns inflames the vulgar

And makes the very war it guards against.

How often, as the mighty master said, the sight

Of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done."

A Voice for Social Justice

QUITE outside the dramatic action of the play stands the Jew, Blum, the Chancellor's secretary. Through his astuteness in managing the Chancellor, he has hitherto moulded public policy according to his own will. Finally, near the end of the play, he denounces Christian civilization in a passage worthy of quotation:

"Man wins the realm of air and might have been

An eagle with a soul; you make him harpy,

More murderous than dragons of the ooze.

I tell you, we outsiders see the game,

We Jews, who bidden rise beyond the code

Of eye for eye, must rub both eyes to see

Not e'en eye-justice done in Christendom,

Whose cannon thunder 'gainst both God and Christ."

So might have spoken one of the ancient prophets of his race. Indeed Amos, amid the orgies of the autumn festival at Bethel, did speak in the same spirit when he denounced the formal service of worshippers who ignored the claims of social justice. "Seek good and not evil," cries Amos, "that ye may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye say. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment (justice) in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph."

So it is evident that even the literary work of modern Jews can be understood and appreciated only as an expression of the characteristics of the Jewish race. In this modern Jewish literature appears the exuberance, the emotional intensity, and the love of social justice that were characteristic also of ancient Hebrew literature as written by prophet, priest, and sage.

The Role of Israel in Human Emancipation

FAR greater, however, than the work of these three authors, far greater, indeed, than Israel's literature as a whole, of which they are a part, is the life of this people, of which their literature is the record. We speak of a nation's literature as great if it possesses three or four tragedies that are classics. Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear would, for example, be sufficient to justify the title "great" as applied to English literature. What shall we say, then, as some one has suggested, of this people who for more than twenty centuries have lived a tragedy more pathetic than any the world's literature can show? Job has always seemed to me a type of the Jewish race. We recall that majestic picture in the thirty-first chapter, where Job stands up on his ash-mound, robbed of his wealth, bereaved of his children, deserted by his wife, suffering the agonies of a loathsome and incurable disease, and cast off, as it seems to him, by the very God in whom he trusted, and yet, in the face of poverty, and bereavement, and mortal pain, and bewildered isolation, asserts his own unchanged and unalterable belief that righteousness is salvation.

Similarly Israel, through the long centuries of its tragic history, has stood on the ash-mound of its national humiliation. Plundered, vilified, and persecuted, a nation of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, from whom men have hid their faces in aversion not concealed, Israel has yet clung with a grip that nothing could weaken nor dislodge to the fundamental idea that religion—the right relation of man to God—was not creed nor ritual, but simply doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

We have been looking backward at the literary accomplishment of three Jewish men of genius. It is, I believe, a fault of modern Judaism to look backward instead of forward, as if the glory of Israel had indeed departed, and as if nothing were left but to look back with pride and regret upon what has passed like a dream away. But I believe Jews may look forward now with confident hope toward the years that are to be. That Israel has completely played its role—that it has finished its service to the world—cannot for a moment entertain. Surely no one who believes in a philosophy of history, who sees in human history more than a meaningless and unrelated succession of events, can think that Israel has been preserved through centuries of discipline for no end whatever. On the contrary, we must believe that Israel has still a mission. What that mission is to be we cannot now foretell. We of this generation are looking upon the breaking down of European civilization. Some of us hope and expect that when the smoke of battle has cleared away there will gradually be built up a new and better social order. In this constructive work of rebuilding, who is better fitted to take a prominent part than the Jew, with his noble heritage of ideals, his passion for social justice? Jews may well rejoice as they reflect upon what individual members of their race have through literature contributed to the emancipation of the human spirit. And they may rejoice also in the hope of what Israel may yet accomplish in the years that are to be.

Signature: Edward Chauncey Baldwin

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Song of Songs, 1:15-2:2.

[D] An adequate and sympathetic treatment of Heine's work as a Jewish poet may be found in Heinrich Heine als Dichter Judentums von Georg J. Plotke (Dresden, 1913).

[E] George Gilfillan, Third Gallery of Literary Portraits, p. 360.

[The Second in a Series of Sketches of Jewish Worthies]

Jochanan ben Zakkai

By Abraham M. Simon

ABRAHAM M. SIMON ABRAHAM M. SIMON (born in Kalvaria, Russian-Poland, in 1886; came to America in 1904) received his A.B. with honors from Harvard College in 1910, and his M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911. During 1910-11 he was a Fellow in the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning of Philadelphia, and he spent the summer of 1911 at the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, reading and copying Arabic manuscripts. In 1913 he won his Ph.D. in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Simon was one of the original members of the Harvard Menorah Society, and read a Hebrew poem Ner Yisrael ("The Light of Israel") at the dedicatory exercises of the Society.

THE Jewish commonwealth was dissolved; the Jewish nation disrupted. Jerusalem was taken; the Temple had become a ruin. The last vestige of independence seemed to have been wiped out. All who had taken up arms were either dead, or enslaved, or banished. The infuriated Roman conquerors had spared neither the women nor the children. It seemed as if Judaism had breathed her last in that terrible year 70. Sadduceeism was annihilated; the Zealots were exterminated; the austere sentiment of the Pharisees, continually looking back to ancient customs and institutions, tried to assert itself. It is no longer permitted, they announced, to eat meat or drink wine, now that the Temple has fallen, because animals can no longer be sacrificed on the holy altars, nor wine offered there as a drink-offering. By such asceticism, these Pharisees of the strict school would have caused the destruction of Judaism. But there was a Hillelite still alive—a man who had inherited the spirit of Hillel, who rated conviction higher than ceremony, and consulted the times more than the ancient forms. It was he who kept the remnants together in close union, and did not permit the spirit to vanish, although the material bond was broken. This Hillelite was Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai.

The Disciple and Favorite of Hillel

OF the eighty disciples moulded by the great Hillel to continue his policy, Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai was especially distinguished. Before his death, Hillel is said to have designated Jochanan as "the father of wisdom," and "the father of the coming generation." Tradition divides Jochanan's life, like Hillel's, into three periods of forty years each. The first forty years were spent in mercantile pursuits; in the second he studied; and in the third he taught and managed the affairs of the Jewish spiritual community.

Even before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jochanan's fame had spread far and wide. He was a member of the Synhedrion and taught the holy law within the shadow of the Temple. His school was called the "Great House," and was the scene of many incidents which formed the subjects for anecdote and legend. He was the first man who successfully combatted the Sadducees, and who knew how to refute their arguments, which were partly religious and partly juridical. But Jochanan's great fame was chiefly due to the influence which he afterwards exercised at Jabneh.

Jochanan's Escape from Jerusalem

OWING to his peaceful character, Rabbi Jochanan had joined the party of peace when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and on several occasions urged the nation, and in particular his nephew, ben Betiach, the leader of the Zealots, to surrender the city. "Why do you desire to destroy the city, and give up the Temple to the flames?" said he to the leaders of the revolution. But his well meant admonitions were disregarded by the "war party." When he saw the end approaching, and recognized that all was lost, he determined to leave the doomed city. He counselled with his foremost disciples, Eliezer ben Hyrkanos, Joshua ben Chananja and others. It was decided that Rabbi Jochanan should leave the city, go to the Roman general, and plead for those people who had no share in the rebellion. But to depart from the city was extremely dangerous, as the Zealots kept up a constant watch and slew all who attempted to leave. Rabbi Jochanan, therefore, caused a rumor to be spread of his sudden sickness and later of his death. Having been placed in a coffin he was carried to the city gates, at the hour of sunset, by his pupils Eliezer and Joshua. When the funeral procession approached, it was stopped at the gate within.

"Whose body do you carry here?" asked the Hebrew guard.

"We are carrying the crown of Israel, the body of our master, Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai," they answered in tears.

The captain of the guards was affected.

"Open the gates, men, and let them pass," the captain ordered.

"Are you sure, captain, that Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai is dead?" exclaimed one of the soldiers. "Maybe they are taking away a living traitor. I will make sure that he is dead."

He raised his dagger to strike at the shrouded form of the Rabbi.

"Hold, soldier!" cried the captain; "to dishonor the body of the saint would be a sin for which all Israel would have to atone. Open the gates and let them pass in peace."

The fanatic reluctantly desisted; the gate was opened and the procession passed through.

Vespasian received the fugitive in a friendly manner, the more since, like Josephus, Jochanan prophesied imperial honors for the general. Asked to name the favor he desired, Rabbi Jochanan, instead of seeking personal gain, requested permission to establish a school at Jabneh (or, as the place is sometimes called, Jamnia), where he could continue to give his lectures to his disciples. The request was granted, and thereupon Jochanan settled with his disciples in Jabneh, there to await the issue of events.

What could Vespasian have thought of Rabbi Jochanan when he made his request? Any one else bearing such prophecies might have asked for gold, honor, great political preferments, while this Hebrew sage asked simply for a corner where he could study undisturbed. How could the Hebrew nation exist when the leaders, their great men, lacked ambition? Little did Vespasian dream that his granting of the Rabbi's modest request would undo the whole work of the Roman conquest.

The Fall of the Temple: Jabneh Succeeds Jerusalem

IN Jabneh, surrounded by his disciples, Rabbi Jochanan received the terrible news of the fall of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple. Although he had foreseen the calamity, yet the news crushed the soul of the great master. He and his disciples tore their garments and for seven days wept and mourned in sackcloth and ashes. Jochanan, however, did not despair, for he recognized the truth that Judaism was not indissolubly bound with its Temple and its altar. He saw a new spiritual Temple emerge from the ruins and smoke of the old one; he beheld Judaism rising to a higher plane, offering faith, love, truth and happiness to all humanity. He comforted his colleagues and disciples by reminding them that Judaism still existed. "My children," he said, "weep not, and dry your tears; the Romans have destroyed the material Temple, but the true altar of God, the true place of forgiveness, they could not destroy, and it is with us yet. Would you know where? Behold, in the homes of the poor, there is the altar; love, charity, mercy, and justice are the offerings, the sweet incense which pleases the Lord more than any sacrifice, as it is written: For I take pleasure in mercy and not in burnt offerings." The next step taken by Rabbi Jochanan and his friends was to convoke a Synhedrion at Jabneh, of which he was at once chosen president. With no opposition, Jabneh took the place of Jerusalem, and became the religious national center for the dispersed community. It enjoyed the same religious privileges as Jerusalem. All the important functions of the Synhedrion, by which it exercised a judicial and uniting power over the distant congregations, proceeded from Jabneh.

Rabbi Jochanan's motto was: "If thou hast learnt much Torah, ascribe not any merit to thyself, for thereunto wast thou created." He found his real calling in the study of the Law. His knowledge was spoken of reverently as though it included the whole cycle of Jewish learning. And not only the Law but many languages of the Gentiles occupied the active mind of Rabbi Jochanan. The following description of him is handed down to us by tradition: "He had never been known to engage in any profane conversation. He had always been the first to enter the Academy. He never allowed himself, wittingly or unwittingly, to be overtaken by sleep while in the Academy. He had never gone a distance of four cubits without meditating on the Torah and without phylacteries. No one ever found him engaged in anything but study. He always lectured in person to his pupils. He never taught anything which he did not hear from his masters. He had never been heard to say that it was time to leave the Academy." He advised a certain family in Jerusalem, the members of which died young, to occupy itself with the study of the Torah, so as to mitigate the curse of dying in the prime of life.

Rabbi Jochanan as Teacher and Commentator

RABBI Jochanan ben Zakkai may be designated as the representative of Halachic Judaism, founded by the great master Hillel, rather than as an originator or independent thinker. Hillel, the most respected of all the teachers of the Law, had given to Judaism a special garb and form. He had drawn the Law from the midst of contending sects into the quiet precincts of the Beth-Hamidrash, and labored to bring into harmony those precepts which were apparently opposed to one another in the Law. Rabbi Jochanan employed and developed Hillel's method. Like Hillel, he was also liberal in his general views. Thus he seems to have frequently engaged in discussions with heathens. And such was his general affability and courtesy to all that no man was ever known to have anticipated his salutations. The Haggadic tradition connects numerous and various sayings with the name of Rabbi Jochanan. The Haggadah was a peculiarly fascinating branch of study. Abounding in brilliant sallies, displays of ingenuity, and wonderful stories, it gave special scope for the cleverness and the rich imagination of the lecturers. By it a Halachah might be illustrated, or a passage of Scripture commented upon in a novel fashion. Without binding himself to any strict exegetical principles, the Haggadist would bring almost anything out of the text, and interweave his comment with legends. At the same time, the Haggadah remained only the personal saying of the individual teacher, and its value depended upon his learning and reputation, or upon the names which he could quote in support of his statements.

In this manner Rabbi Jochanan explained many laws and rendered them comprehensible, when they seemed obscure or extraordinary. Rabbi Jochanan's view of piety corresponded with his teaching that Job's piety was not based on the love of God, but on the fear of God. To love God; to serve Him out of love and not out of fear; to study the law continually, and to have a good heart—these were the essentials of a pious man. He once saw the daughter of Nakdimon ben Gurion picking up a scanty nourishment of barley-corn from among the hoofs of the horses of the enemy. When he recognized the woman, he broke out in tears and told his companion how he had signed her marriage contract as a witness when her father gave her one million golden dinars, besides the wealth she received from her father-in-law. Then the old sage exclaimed: "Unhappy nation, you would not serve God, therefore you must serve your enemies; you would not offer half a shekel for the Temple, therefore you must pay thirty times as much to the institutions of your conquerors; you refused to keep the woods and paths in order for the pilgrims, therefore you must build roads and bridges for the Roman soldiers; and in you is fulfilled the prophecy: Because thou servest not the Lord with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things."

Jochanan's Spirit in Affliction and in Death

RABBI Jochanan had domestic as well as national troubles. A dearly beloved son was taken from him by death, and the soul of the father was filled with grief. His five famous scholars came to offer sympathy and consolation. One recalled the sorrow that Adam had endured when he looked at the body of his murdered son. Another one urged the example of Job; a third, that of Aaron, the brother of Moses; a fourth, that of David, King of Israel.

"My sons," said the stricken father, "how can the sufferings of others alleviate my sorrow?" But Eliezer ben Aroch, the most famous of his scholars, then spoke to him and said:

"A certain man had a priceless jewel entrusted to him. He watched it by day and by night for its safe keeping, but was always troubled by the thought that he might lose it. When, therefore, the owner of the jewel came to take it back, the man was happy, because he no longer had to fear for the safety of the precious jewel. Even so, dear master, thou shouldst rejoice when thou hast given thy son to God, who trusted thee with him, since thou hast returned him in his innocence as thou didst first receive him."

"My son," said the master, "thou hast truly comforted me."

When Rabbi Jochanan was nigh to death, his colleagues and disciples gathered round him in sorrow and trembling.

"Master, Light of Israel!" they exclaimed. "Why weepest thou?"

And the master answered: "If they were about to lead me before a king of flesh and blood, who today is and tomorrow is in the grave—if he were wroth with me, his wrath were not eternal; if he should put me in chains, his chains were not eternal; if he should put me to death, that death would not be eternal; I might appease him with words or bribe him with gifts. But now they are about to lead me before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who lives and remains through all eternity. If He is wroth with me, His wrath is eternal; if He casts me into chains, His chains are eternal; if He puts me to death, it is eternal death; Him no words can appease, no gifts soften. And further, there are two ways—one to hell, one to Paradise; and I know not which way they will lead me. Is there not cause for tears?"

Asked to give his disciples a last blessing, he told them:

"Fear God even as ye fear men."

His disciples seemed disappointed, whereupon he added:

"He who would commit a sin first looks around to discover whether any man sees him; so take ye heed that God's all seeing eye see not the sinful thought in your heart."

His death occurred only a few years after the destruction of the Temple. But in that short time he saved Judaism, and the impress he left upon Israel is evident from the famous dictum of the Talmud: "With the death of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai the light of wisdom was quenched." And many still believe that none like him—scholar and diplomat—has since arisen in Israel.

Signature: Abraham M. Simon

Editors' Note.—The first sketch in this series on Jewish Worthies, Dr. Moses Hyamson's study of "Golden-Rule Hillel," appeared in our April number. The third in the series will be on Rabbi Akiba.

Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay

By Marvin M. Lowenthal

(Concluded)

This Essay was awarded the Menorah Prize at the University of Wisconsin last year. In the first part, printed in our April issue, the author reviews the status of the Jews in medieval Europe and describes the effects upon the Jews of the razing of the Ghetto walls and the play of the modern forces of Emancipation, Enlightenment, Nationalism, and Anti-Semitism. In the situation resulting, the author distinguishes between the "Jewish problem" ("an immediate concrete maladjustment where life and property are imperiled"), existing chiefly in Eastern Europe, and the "Jewish position" ("a social, cultural, or spiritual disharmony or repression"), prevailing in Western Europe and America. After rejecting Reform Judaism and the "palliative measures" of philanthropy as answers to the situation, the author proceeds in this concluding instalment to a consideration of the third alternative, namely, "re-establishment of a national center where, perhaps not the entire people, but a remnant can be saved."

THAT the effort to ameliorate the conditions through charity, and the effort to assimilate and yet keep the essentials apart, are ineffectual has been shown. There remains the third possibility—Zionism. To a consideration of its theoretic background this section will be devoted. Although a natural commingling is unavoidable, Zionism presents three distinguishable aspects—as (1) a creative vision, (2) a solution, (3) a fulfillment.

The National Ideal

IN its first aspect, Zionism applies the sauce of the proverbial goose to the proverbial gander. Nationalism is the partial cause, or at least the excuse, for making the modern position of the Jew in Europe untenable; nationalism for the Jew becomes a means of evacuating the position. Europe has intimated to the Jew that it can get along without him; the Jew now proposes to show that he can get along without Europe. Nationalism is nothing new to the Jew; from the final dispersion in 70 C. E., through the universalism of the Roman Empire and later of the Roman Church, the national ideal, as indicated in our introduction, was religiously preserved; but its modern practical form first arose among the leaders of the Chovevei Zion movement in the middle of the last century. The "Rom und Jerusalem" of Moses Hess (1862), "Die Verjüngen des Jüdischen Stammes" of Graetz, the Jewish historian (1864), the "Hashachar" of Smolenskin (1869), the "Auto-Emancipation"
of Dr. Leo Pinsker (1882) clearly foreshadowed the final and effective
expression of political Zionism—namely, "The Jewish State," published by Herzl in 1896.

The Vision of a Jewish State

BASING its structure on the formulas of the prophets,[1] who proclaimed that polity was indispensable for effecting the true mission of Israel—for the realization of the religious, social, or ethical ideal; conceiving Israel, as did Reform Judaism, to be its own Messiah, not fated, however, to remain a minutely scattered leaven among nations who condemned or destroyed it, but destined according to the prophetic promise to re-establish itself upon Zion;[2] convinced that a true assimilating of the fruits of emancipation in contradistinction to an imitating of Gentile culture could only be effected by an emancipation from within, by an auto-emancipation;[3] the vision of a Jewish State grew into outline. To the consummation of the picture, a wealth of economic, scientific, and cultural inspiration has been devoted. Herzl and his predecessors selected the stone which had been rejected by the philanthropists and the earnest, but mistaken, builders of Reform Judaism in their efforts to create a fit habitation for the European Jew; and lo! it has become the chief corner-stone.

To assure the foundation, to justify the conception of a Jewish State, a number of powerful arguments other than above indicated have been brought to bear. The problem of race was attacked,[4] and a consequent demolition of the basis of Reform Judaism undertaken, whereby the racial identity of the Jew became demonstrated and a comparative racial purity established. In turn, the claim of the anti-Semites that the Jewish race indeed existed, but to the peril of Western civilization, received scientific annihilation. At the most, the Aryan race was proclaimed a myth and Teutonic superiority a lie;[5] at the least, a justification of the Jewish race was achieved upon its contribution to civilization: in metaphysics, of the vision of reality in flux; in morals, the conception of the value of the individual; in religion, the conception of Jehovah as a moral-arbiter; in culture, a literature of basic inspiration for the western world.[6]

The Moral Right of the Jewish Race to Survival

THAT this race, definable in identity and valuable in content, is being either crushed by force or dissipated by freedom, raises on one hand the next question for creative Zionism, and constitutes on the other the problem which Zionism in its aspect as a "solution" assails. The question: Has this race, facing destruction, a moral right to survival? is in the instinctive, Darwinian sense unnecessary. Every race has a right to survive if it can prove its right by surviving; however, like most evolutionary thinking, this is tautological. Nevertheless, an affirmative answer[7] has been advanced, based on the conception of values recognized since Aristotle; whereby was demonstrated the intrinsic value of the Jews as witnessed by their virility and capacity for an intelligent enjoyment of life, which their social customs, religious ideals, and cultural ethos have created for them, and which have won for them the title "Am Olam," the perpetual people; and their instrumental value in the preservation and enrichment of life for the Western world at large, as witnessed by their contributions to civilization outlined above.

To the final question: How may the destruction facing a race, worth the saving, be averted? the Zionists, as already shown, answer: Let us establish a Jewish State. It now remains to explain how this answer can be made effective.

The Program of the First Zionist Congress

ALTHOUGH Herzl, like Pinsker, at first was indifferent as to the location of the State, Palestine was decided upon at the First Zionist Congress for the following practical reasons:[8]

1. Palestine is, of inhabitable and sufficiently uninhabited lands, the nearest to Russia and Roumania, where the greatest number of Jews are undergoing physical suffering.

2. It is not ruled by Christians, and penal discriminatory laws against Jews are not there in force.

3. Conditions of Oriental life are in accord with the stage and condition of life reached by Jews in Eastern Europe.

4. The country is already somewhat of a Jewish center.

5. Jews are more familiar with the language spoken there than with any West European language.

6. Palestine for sentimental reasons has a power of attraction that would operate practically upon Jews wishing to emigrate, and a power of inspiration which would flower in equally practical works when once Jews were established there.

Zionism, as a "solution," sets forth, in the program of this Congress, four ways to achieve its object:[9]

1. To promote the settlement of Jewish agriculturalists, handicraftsmen, industrialists, and professional men. This would offer an asylum for the persecuted Jew and assure him of an independent livelihood, and so simultaneously relieve suffering, starving Jewry—the immediate phase of the problem—and afford a substantial basis for the prosperity and ensuing civilization of the State.

2. To centralize the Jewish people by means of general institutions agreeable to the laws of the land. By institutions are meant banking-houses, schools, etc., which would promote the welfare of the people and render the growth of a culture more unconstrained.

3. To strengthen Jewish national self-consciousness and national sentiment;—this to be accomplished by the establishment of newspapers and societies throughout the world, so as to secure the aid or interest of the Jew who does not want to assimilate in behalf of a national center, and offer a road of return to the Jew who has become assimilated at the cost of his spiritual happiness.

4. To obtain the sanctions of Governments necessary for carrying out the objects of Zionism. This demand for legal assurances, for a charter if possible, distinguishes political Zionism in the matter of means from the mere small-scale colonizing efforts of the philanthropists and the Chovevei Zion societies, precisely as the very conception of a State distinguishes it in the matter of ends. In the words of Herzl, "We do not wish to smuggle in any settlers, and above all, we do not wish to bring about any 'accomplished facts' without preliminary agreement. We have absolutely no interest in bringing about an economic strengthening of Turkey without a corresponding compensation. The whole thing is to be accomplished according to the simplest usage in the world: 'do ut des.' We Zionists think it more foolish than noble to settle colonists without any legal and political guarantees."[10]

The Variant Views of Zionist Groups

BESIDE the political Zionists, a large group can be distinguished as Opportunist Zionists, the chief representative of whom is Israel Zangwill,[11] who in his eagerness to relieve the Jewish problem has become impatient with the slow and seemingly fruitless political progress, and who desires to lead his people to any vacant, habitable territory rather than wait for a charter in Zion. Other leaders in the movement, such as Ussischkin, contend that until the charter is granted, colonization in Palestine should continue, both to satisfy the Jewish demand for emigration and to give weight to the justice and necessity for autonomy.

In sum, the establishing of Zion, while in process, will rescue the sorely oppressed, magnetize and concentrate the interests of Jewry at large, and force the issue of suicide or salvation upon the race; and the establishment of the State, once accomplished, will rejuvenate a people. "They shall revive as the grain and blossom as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." (Hosea 14.7). In the Zionist vision, assured not by the prophecies, but by the achievements of a glorious past, this new wine, ripening and enriching its flavor in a cup that had long been bitter, will be partaken of by the nations, Jew and Gentile. Jewish culture in its widest sense, embracing the realization of ethical, social, and artistic ideals, nourished by a people living again a homogeneous, autonomous, national life free as it has not been for eighteen centuries from outward pressure—a life imperative for the production of culture—will go forth as a pure vintage, taking its place with the vintages of other nations, to satisfy the soul in dry places and make strong the bones; and over this new wine a new Kiddush may perhaps be spoken. The Reform Jew, the "assimilated" Jew, who finds himself to-day in what we have nominated a position, in a conscious or unconscious inspiration and pride induced by the resurrection of a motherland, as the German in America is inspired by his national unity in Europe, will indeed find his soul satisfied in dry places, and can more generously and effectively contribute to the welfare of the fatherland of which he is a citizen. The Jew who walks in the darkness of a Russia, where his situation is a problem and where existence itself is threatened, will discover in this reawakened motherland a hope and possibly a material aid which will make strong his bones that he may endure until emancipation.

The Communistic Aims of the Social Zionists

UNDER the stimulus of a new creative vision, many poets, practical or otherwise, have brought their own tints to add to the rosy prospect, and these we have designated to be Zionism as a "fulfillment." Just prior to the birth of these United States, Thomas Paine, who in a few respects was the Herzl of the new republic, rapturously exclaimed in his pamphlet Commonsense: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah!" Stimulated by the potentialities of an empty country and a great race eager to reoccupy it, modern theorists have likewise, and with some reason, discovered in Palestine a land of promise.

Basing their faith in the inherent demand for social justice which racial genius, as witnessed in the Deuteronomic experiment and the whole social trend of the prophetic writings, has created as a permanent characteristic of the Jew and which the injustice of centuries has accentuated, a group of Jewish socialists have entered the Zionist cause in the hope of establishing a form of the communistic principle as a foundation for the new society. The communistic ownership of land is particularly urged. Past experiments of this nature—the Brook Farm and the French Commune as a small and a large example—have failed partly for lack of scientific guidance and sufficient exact knowledge of actual conditions, and partly because of the social unfitness of the participants. Social Zionism, however, has secured for its director an acknowledged authority in communistic economics, Dr. Franz Oppenheimer of the University of Berlin; and it is counting on the Jewish heritage of social instinct to furnish the proper human material for its purpose. Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, who came down from his mountain in 750 B. C. to storm at the capitalistic greed of Israel, raised the first plea in history for social justice. The successful consummation of the prophet's ideal in the new Israel would be a contribution to the world distinctly Hebraic and possibly the most valuable of the modern Jew.

The Yearning for a Spiritual Revival

TO Ahad Ha-'Am,[12] the leading writer of to-day in Hebrew, a "spiritual revival" should be the desideratum of the Zionists. Spiritual is of course not used in the restricted religious sense, but as the opposite of material. Although Ahad Ha-'Am concedes the establishment of a center in Palestine to be a necessity, he considers it only a means to the end of an "awakening" of spiritual forces in art, morals, and national consciousness among Jewry at large; and, to hasten this end, he urges the establishment of a University, an art-school, and bands of workers in the spirit—poets, painters, and all manner of creators—for he conceives the Jews not to be a young race who must climb from satisfying the needs of the belly to the needs of the brain, but an old people who can and must satisfy both demands together.[13]

Finally, the great mass of European Jewry, who weep on the Ninth of Ab, who send their pittance to the Jews of the Holy City in order that they may devote their days to lamenting at the old Wall, who pray each Passover "next year at Jerusalem," and who treasure their little casket of Palestinian earth, which some day will be placed over their shroud, look to Zionism as a "fulfillment" in its literal, Biblical meaning. Although the yearning for such a fulfillment may never be satisfied, it constitutes the impelling force, the prime motive, behind the people who are to settle once again in Canaan, and who are the stuff of which the philosophers' dreams are to be made.

The opportunists who work for the day when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, the politicals who plan that the house of Jacob may possess its possessions, the culturals who behold upon the mountain the feet of him who bringeth glad tidings, the socialists who strive to draw righteousness and peace within kissing distance, and the devout who pray that out of Zion shall go forth the Law, are all intermingling composites of the Zionist dream. That the dream is not in vain, there is no positive assurance; but somewhere it is written that Palestine is the Land of Promise.

The Organization of Zionism

SOPHISTICATION makes for sluggishness of action; and a sophisticated, practical people, such as the Jews, surrounded by an equally sophisticated world, have not marched upon Jerusalem with the flag-flying alacrity of the Crusaders. However, their sophistication has substituted for speed a broad measure of surety; and a summary of the organization of the movement and the work accomplished within and without Palestine gives promise that, if the will behind Zionism be sustained, the Jews who wail at the Wall may profitably direct their energies elsewhere.

The Zionist organization comprises all Jews who subscribe to the Zionist program and pay the annual contribution, known as a shekel, varying from 15 cents to 25 cents in different countries. The program is that formulated at the First Zionist Congress (Basel, 1897): "to obtain for the Jewish people a publicly recognized and legally assured home in Palestine." The members are grouped in local societies which, in turn, are organized into national federations, to be found at present in Argentina, Belgium, Bukowina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia-Slavonia-Herzegovina, Egypt, England, France, Galicia, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Roumania, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. Unfederated societies exist in Palestine, Morocco, Servia, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, China, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.[14] In short, the atlas is practically exhausted. With a representation proportional to the number of shekel-payers, a Congress convenes bi-annually in a central European city (usually Basel), resolves, and prosecutes all work incumbent upon the furtherance of Zionist purpose. The executive power, although formerly invested in a president, is now exercised, since the death of Herzl (1904) and the resignation of Wolffsohn, by a commission of five, acting as the head of a committee of twenty-five, who constitute a permanent body meeting at intervals between the sessions of Congress.[15] The Congress itself is divided into party-groups, based on policy, and representative of the different theoretic elements that guide the movement.

The original Government party, which stood shoulder to Herzl in his brilliant but unsuccessful diplomatic schemes to secure a charter from the Sultan, upon the overthrow of the autocracy in Turkey (1908), has abandoned purely political Zionism, for the expedient reason that the Young Turk government has naturally been reticent in the granting of broad concessions. Political Zionism, of which Max Nordau and David Wolffsohn[F] are the leading protagonists, has through the accidents of Turkish politics been rendered ineffective; and the actual work of Zionism rests now upon the policies of the Opportunist wing, although the creation of a State, autonomous in as great a degree as possible, is the cardinal aim of the Zionists, and must be, in order to distinguish the movement from a large-scale philanthropy.[16]

Parties in Zionism

THE Opportunists were divided into two groups—the followers of Zangwill who urged immediate colonization anywhere, and the Ziyyone Zionists (Zionists toward Zion) who favored immediate settlement in Palestine. The first party broke from the Zionist movement at the Seventh Congress, instituted the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO), and have vainly devoted their energies toward securing lands in North, East, and West Africa, Mesapotamia, and Australia.[17] The Ziyyone Zionists, however, possess the controlling vote, and in the last Congress (1913) annulled the Basel program, temporarily at least, by securing from the Congress a recognition of the work of settlement in Palestine as the primary task.[18]

Socialistic Zionism is represented by the Po'ale Zion, a small but vigorous group, who are endeavoring to secure at least the adoption of the communistic ownership of land in the pursuance of the Opportunist program.

Dr. Franz Oppenheimer, lecturer in economics at the University of Berlin, has recently issued a pamphlet disclosing the success of the Merchavia Colony, a co-operative settlement near Nazareth, and demonstrating that the only practical method of achieving large-scale colonization is by this means.[19]

Strong in numbers and in influence, the Mizrachi party represents the orthodox wing of Jewry, who "believe a faithful adherence to the Torah and Tradition in all matters pertaining to Jewish life constitute the duty of the Jewish people."[20] In the assemblage of futurists, the Mizrachi stands as the spirit of the past, to whom all plans must be justified, and whose power has its source in the religious fervor of the majority of eastern Jews.

Finally, the Cultural Zionists may be said to find representation in all parties, for the furtherance of spirituality is inseparably bound up in the aims of every Zionist.

The Financial Institutions of Zionism

THE financial instruments by which the practical Zionist aims are seeking accomplishment are (1) the Jewish Colonial Trust,[21] incorporated as a limited company in London (1899) with a capital stock of $20,000,000 and a paid-up capital of $1,324,000; (2) the Anglo-Palestine Company,[22] an offshoot of the Colonial Trust, with a paid-up capital of $500,000, which finances Zionist undertakings in Palestine, and declares annual dividends of 4 1-6 per cent.; (3) the Anglo-Levantine Banking Company,[23] the financial institution of the Zionists devoted to their undertakings in the remainder of Turkey, with a capital of $125,000 declaring 6 per cent. returns; (4) the Jewish National Fund,[24] whose object is to acquire land in Palestine as the inalienable property of the entire Jewish people, with a capital of $650,000 raised by individual contributions; (5) the Palestine Land Development Company,[25] with a registered capital of $87,500, organized for the purpose of (a) acquiring, improving, and dividing into small holdings large Palestinian estates, (b) laying out and cultivating intensive crops, (c) systematically settling and training agricultural laborers in Palestine.

Of late the Jewish Colonization Association, which is backed by the forty-million dollar fund of Baron de Hirsch, is co-operating with the Zionists in the purchase of Palestinian land to be administered by the Palestine Land Development Company.[26]

The actual achievements, which these instruments have been the means of effecting, may be summarized in two classes—Palestinian and non-Palestinian. In both fields, the several branches of Zionist aims have borne fruit.

What Zionism Has Accomplished in Palestine

PALESTINE in 1880 contained 30,000 Jews, who studied the Law, wailed at the Wall, and lived miserably on the alms (the Chalukah) of pious Jewry at large. In 1911 the Jews comprised 100,000 out of a total population of 700,000. In Jerusalem are 50,000 Jews, 7,000 at Tiberias, 8,000 at Safed, and 10,000 at Jaffa. A large proportion, it is true, are settlers of the Ghetto type, but the young generation is rapidly being changed by the growing school-system.[27]

Numbering about fifty, Jewish agricultural colonies extend the length of the Holy Land and support some 5,000 Jews in their yield of olives, dates, wine, sugar, cotton, grain, and cattle. Broad streets, clean homes with gardens, and orchard land characterize the standard of living in the colonies, as machinery and agricultural school students characterize their modern standard of gaining their livelihood.[28] A constantly increasing number of emigrants are streaming into the Holy Land, although the Zionists are devoting their main endeavors toward firmly establishing the resident inhabitants and bettering their condition. On April 3, 1914, the London Jewish Chronicle reported the emigration from the single port of Odessa as numbering 250 persons a week.[29]

In 1886, $1,800,000 of trade passed out through Jaffa, the port of Palestine; in 1909, the value of the exports rose to $7,500,000.[30] Rischon-le-Zion, the oldest colony and containing 500 inhabitants, annually produces, alone, more than a million gallons of wine.[31]

The schools of the older class—Talmud Torah and Yeshibah—still dominate; but, following the example of the Alliance Israelite, a modern type of school with a modern curriculum taught in Hebrew has been established in every colony, and culminates in a Gymnasium at Jaffa as the principal national educational institution. The attendance of the colonial schools number about 1,500, and in the Talmudic schools number several thousands. The Mikveh Israel Agricultural School, near Jaffa, is the center of vocational instruction in Palestine, and aids materially the work of the colonists. Funds for a Hygienic and Technical Institute have likewise been started to further practical education.[32]

The Revival of Jewish Culture

THE cultural revival in Palestine is plainly apparent in the excellent work of the Bezalel,[33] the school of arts and crafts in Jerusalem, named after the builder of the first tabernacle in the wilderness, where are devised carpentry, copperware, wood-carving, basketry, painting, and sculpture "of cunning workmanship" and of distinctly Hebraic design. Another sign of great hope springs from the widespread revival of ancient Hebrew as a living tongue, which has become an awkward necessity among the older Jews gathered from many different nations, and the free and natural expression of the children. Several weeklies and monthlies are published in Hebrew.[34] A National Jewish Library, soon to be housed in a fireproof building at Jerusalem, was founded by Dr. Joseph Chazanowicz, a Zionist leader in Russia, who devoted his entire income to it. In 1910 the Library contained something over 15,000 volumes.[35] Finally, the Eleventh Congress (1913), convened on the 2,500th anniversary of the destruction of the old temple on Mount Moriah, witnessed the pledging of $100,000 to the building of a Jewish National University at Jerusalem—a new temple of culture and science.[36]

Precisely as the roots are more important than the blossoms in the growth of a plant, the accomplishments without Palestine are more significant than within. To-day the Golus (Diaspora) is the root, and Palestine the stalk; some day the Zionists hope to reverse the simile—this, in short, is the essence of the entire movement.

The Accomplishments of Zionism Beyond Palestine

ZIONISM'S chief aims without Palestine are two: (1) Revival of national consciousness, (2) Relief of the persecuted. In regard to the second, the Zionist organization, constantly working to shift emigration from West to East, has in a measure focused it upon Palestine; and more important, it is rapidly perfecting adequate machinery, which once securing the motive power of money in such quantities as is now devoted to the Jewish Colonization Association, will appreciably lessen the gravity of the Jewish problem.

In regard to the awakening of the national consciousness, the Zionist societies, which number in the thousands, constitute centers for the dissemination of propaganda and the stimulation of study in all things Jewish; and the Zionist press, comprising one hundred newspapers and periodicals, the official of which is Die Welt, and the leading American representative, The Maccabaean, materially aid this preaching of Zion gospel. Under the stimulus of the movement, numerous student societies have sprung up abroad, promoting and crystallizing a national sentiment and a race interest, while older societies of this order, such as the Kadimah, have received a renewed impetus. Women's societies of a literary, educational, and social character—the Benoth Zion (Sofia and New York) and the Hadassah (Vienna and New York) for example—have taken a place in the general revival.[37]

The effect of Zionism in large centers of population is ably shown by Charles S. Bernheimer in his study of the Russian Jew in the United States, and his findings may be taken as typical. In general, the Zionist societies have formed the chief social centers of the ghetto,[38] have opened religious schools[39] and libraries,[40] have brought the radicals in religion under the influence of the national idea,[41] and so prevented the loss of religion from being followed by a loss of race-consciousness, and have "enlisted the sympathies of the older people. The young people have grasped the great significance of Zionism, and have taken a renewed interest in religion, education, and culture."[42]

A renaissance of art is following that of culture; in painting Ephraim Lilien, Lesser Ury, Judah Epstein, and Hermann Struck, and in marble and bronze Boris Schatz (the founder and director of Bezalel), Frederick Beer, and Alfred Nossig are receiving their inspiration from Zionism.

The primary enthusiasm for the movement has long ago been expended; and the present interest is deep, healthy, and likely to abide. However, the sustainment of this interest appears to be the primary duty and task of Zionism; in a movement that is a long, dull, slow pull, every moment is a critical moment.

Misconceptions of Zionism

TO the modern Jew who lacks the gift of prophecy, the outcome of an undertaking must be determined by a consideration not only of the force propelling the movement, but of the opposition confronting it. A consideration of this opposition will afford an opportunity, moreover, for a clear and summarizing definition of what the movement is, and, equally important, of what it is not. Opposition to Zionism divides itself into three categories—ignorant; theoretic; practical. One is reminded of Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the servant, and Geshem the Arabian, who mocked and threatened Nehemiah when he undertook to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Ignorant opposition assails Zionism with arguments that are incontrovertible, but totally irrelevant; it busies itself with destroying claims which the Zionists have never made. A trio may be taken as representative. It is pointed out with cogency that Palestine is not capable of supporting the twelve million of Jews who inhabit our world; and more conclusively, the twelve million of Jews do not wish to go to Palestine. Briefly, the Zionists in seeking a home for the Jew in Canaan no more expect all the Jews to congregate within its bounds than a man who builds himself a house expects that all his posterity will live in it. As a matter of history, more Jews after the fall of the first Temple have lived without Palestine than within. Only a remnant returned after the captivity; and Babylon, Alexandria, and Rome contained a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem. Throughout the dispersion, the majority of the Jews lived apart from the nation center—whether that center was the Mesapotamia of Talmudic times, the Spain of the Middle Ages, or the Poland of the early modern period. The Zionist object is only to secure such a national center (free from outward pressure) as a ganglion radiating Hebraic culture, which can preserve Jewish unity and identity and inspire Jewish culture elsewhere, precisely as the Judæa of old rendered similar service;[43] and the modern Palestine with a soil capable of supporting a million inhabitants without extensive irrigation amply satisfies the Zionist purpose.

Zionism Leaves the Status of the Jew Uninjured

CLOSELY allied to this argument is the claim that Zionism constitutes an abandonment by the European Jew of his hard-earned Emancipation, and a traitorous retreat from the position of brother and fellow-countryman which he is now claiming in the several nations. In sum, renationalization in the East spells de-nationalization in the West, and the return of the Jew to the status of alien. Such a conclusion follows as inevitably as it follows that the unification of Germany in 1870 rendered alien the Germans of America who emigrated here in the '40s, that the French Revolution denationalized the refugee Huguenot population of Prussia, that the unification of Italy disfranchised the Italian Swiss, or that the Irish Home Rule Bill will transform the populace of Boston into undesirable citizens. On the contrary, the Zionists are convinced that the re-establishment of a Jewish nation will strengthen, for example, the claim of the German Jew that he is a German by distinctly separating the national from the universal Jew—the sheep from the goats, if you will—and will render his status less precarious because it will be more definable. Moreover, such a national center will increase Jewish self-respect with the consequence of increasing Christian respect. Jewish "aloofness" need no longer be a reproach, because it may safely be abandoned; with Zion itself preserving Hebraism in the East, the Jew in the West may throw himself unreservedly into the life about him; and a flourishing of Jewish culture will make his contribution the more valuable.

Finally, the third objection is formulated in the question, "What is the use?" Whether it be grounded in self-satisfied indifference, hostility, or a sense of hopelessness, it forms the most insidious opposition, because it betrays a lack of racial consciousness that cannot be supplied by argument, and exposes a weakness that cannot be remedied by emotional appeal. It is a weakness amounting to an absence, a literal lack, of the very functions through which a cure could be effected. An Englishman asking, "Why preserve the English?" a Scandinavian asking, "Of what use are the Scandinavians?" a Swiss asking, "Why maintain Switzerland?" is inconceivable. Answers indeed can be found, but the point is that to put the question indicates that the interrogator is beyond a comprehension of the reply. He is like a congenital blindman, who asks: "Of what use is seeing?" The question was, indeed, propounded in the third section of this paper, but only as the hypothetical question of an outsider, much as an Englishman might ask, "Of what value are the Chinese?" to secure an external, historical justification of their existence. However, if the great majority of Jews ever seriously question the need of preserving their own race, the answer becomes immediate and conclusive; there is no need, for there is no longer a race.

Zionism Has No Insuperable Obstacles

THEORETIC opposition is determined on one hand by racial questions, and on the other by religious dogmas. That the Jews are no longer a race, that their preservation need not be undertaken because they do not exist, is, laying aside the scientific disputations, in one sense begging the question. Whether the Jews are a racial unit, and whether their preservation will result in a distinct racial culture, is precisely what a successful consummation of the Zionist object will prove or disprove with finality; and until such consummation, even scientific theorizing on the subject will expose itself to the unscientific process of working without the check of laboratory experiment. To the scientist, Zionism offers Palestine as such a laboratory. The religious opposition offered by Reform Judaism has been previously discussed; however, it may be summed up in three statements. An appeal to the implied meaning of the Scriptures can only be authoritatively settled by the author. Granting, nevertheless, that a suffering Israel and a missionary Israel are essentials in a Divine plan, the establishment of a national center does not dogmatically preclude Israel from continuing to suffer elsewhere, nor forbid Israel from pursuing her missionary project of acting as a model example and shining light to the nations. Quite the reverse; inasmuch as the Dispersion is fast becoming a Destruction, which Zionism is attempting to avert, the preservation of Reform Judaism itself demands the success of Zionism.

Practical opposition is indeed ponderous, but not necessarily insuperable. The majority of Palestinian obstacles, such as the difficulties which the confusion of national tongues, culture, and habits will impose on unification, the precarious chance of ultimately securing legal recognition from Turkey, the possible obstructions amounting even to conflict to be offered by the native Arabian population, are distant bridges which the far-seeing may fear, but which, the wise will not attempt to cross until reached. However, three urgent perplexities and impediments are imminent in the danger of securing only a low class of settlers, of suffering from insufficient means, and of failing from diminution of interest. At bottom, the three are one, and amount to the necessity of keeping up the old heart and inspiring new hearts.

With a sufficiency of interest, the necessary money and the proper men will find their way to Palestine; in a word, only a people can save themselves, and, failing to do so, aside from scientific argument and religious dogma, they remain no more a people. That this people may not so perish, the Zionists are not only furnishing the vision; but with back and arm, they are working to rebuild the Wall where men have wailed the centuries by. To the captious, the hostile, and the persistently heedless, their cue is to say with Nehemiah of old: "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down."

Signature: Marvin M. Lowenthal.

THE Jewish students form so distinctive and gifted an element in the life of all our colleges that their self-expression should serve a valuable purpose. Through becoming articulate in such a publication as The Menorah Journal, the first issue of which is full of promise, they may well bring to pass not only a fuller realization of the part they are to play in American society, but also a better understanding of that part by the entire community to which they belong. Without such better understandings there is small hope for the community as a whole.—From an Editorial in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, March 17, 1915.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I. Friedlaender, The Political Ideals of the Prophets (pamphlet) (Baltimore, 1910), p. 10.

[2] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Graetz."

[3] Ahad Ha-'Am, "Pinsker and His Brochure" (pamphlet) (New York, 1911), p. 5.

[4] Ignaz Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem (Leipsic, 1911). G. Pollack, "Jewish Race," The Nation, vol. 94, p. 609, in review of the above book. A. S. Waldstein, "A Study of the Jews," The Maccabaean, vol. 21, p. 41. M. Waxman, "The Ethnic Character of the Jews" (New York, 1910). The American Hebrew, "The Jewish Race Problem," vol. 90, p. 435.

[5] Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem, p. 140.

[6] H. M. Kallen, "Judaism, Hebraism and Zionism," The American Hebrew, vol. 87, p. 181.

[7] Idem, p. 182.

[8] R. C. Conder, "Zionists," Blackwood's, vol. 163, p. 598.

[9] Max Nordau, Zionism (New York, 1911), p. 11.

[10] The Maccabaean, "Theodor Herzl in His Writings," vol. 23, p. 229.

[11] Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," Living Age, vol. 265, p. 663.

[12] Ahad Ha-'Am, Selected Essays (Philadelphia, 1912), p. 253 et seq.

[13] Idem, p. 290.

[14] Cohen, Zionist Work in Palestine, p. 198.

[15] The Survey, "The Tenth Zionist Congress," vol. 25, p. 845.

[F] This Essay was written before Mr. Wolffsohn's death.

[16] The American Hebrew, "Dr. Max Nordau on Herzl's Policies," vol. 93, p. 403.

[17] American Jewish Year Book, 1910-11, "Events of the Year." I. Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," Living Age, vol. 265, p. 668.

[18] L. Lipsky, "Results of the Eleventh Congress," The Maccabaean, vol. 23, p. 250.

[19] Franz Oppenheimer, Merchavia (New York, 1914), p. 1-13. "Life Work of Franz Oppenheimer," The Maccabaean, vol. 24, p. 12.

[20] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Zionism—Party Organization."

[21] Idem, under "Jewish Colonial Trust." Cohen, Zionist Work in Palestine, p. 198.

[22] Idem, p. 127.

[23] Idem, p. 199.

[24] Idem, p. 203.

[25] Idem, p. 199.

[26] American Jewish Year Book, 1913-14, p. 203.

[27] H. Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," Fortnightly Review, vol. 96, p. 136.

[28] Cohen, Zionist Work in Palestine, p. 195.

[29] Jewish Chronicle (London), No. 2348, p. 34.

[30] Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," Fortnightly Review, vol. 96, p. 136.

[31] H. F. Ward, "Palestine for the Jews," The World Today, vol. 17, p. 1062.

[32] Cohen, Zionist Work in Palestine, p. 86.

[33] Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," Fortnightly Review, vol. 96, p. 136.

[34] Idem.

[35] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Arbanel Library."

[36] The Maccabaean, vol. 23, p. 263.

[37] Jewish Encyclopedia under "Zionism."

[38] C. S. Bernheimer, "The Russian Jew in the United States." (Philadelphia, 1905), p. 232.

[39] Idem, p. 180.

[40] Idem, p. 168.

[41] Idem, p. 155.

[42] Idem, p. 181.

[43] M. Waxman, "The Importance of Palestine for the Jews in the Diaspora," The Maccabaean, vol. 23, p. 232. A succinct detailing of this service.

From College and University

Activities of Menorah Societies

Brown University

The need of some organization based on ideals that would tend to promote a closer relationship among the Jewish students at Brown University had long been felt on the campus. To meet this need there has even been an attempt at uniting the Jewish men by ties not necessarily Jewish in spirit; happily this attempt failed. Early in this college year the Menorah movement was brought to the attention of the Jewish students and its aims at once appealed as very worthy of the serious consideration of Brown men.

An informal meeting was held and almost unanimous favor was exhibited for the establishment of a Menorah Society at Brown. Whereupon a committee was elected to interview the authorities of the University concerning this matter, and their attitude was found to be all that could be desired. Steps were then taken for formal organization, and on the evening of January 6, 1915, a dedicatory meeting was held, and the Brown Menorah Society was launched on its career. (For an account of this meeting, see the April Menorah Journal, page 140.)

Shortly afterwards the Executive Council formulated a program of activities for the rest of the year, a program which has now been successfully carried through. On February 17, Prof. Richard Gottheil of Columbia University gave a very interesting lecture on Zionism. Several members of the Faculty were present and took part in the general discussion that followed the lecture. At the meeting of March 17, Prof. A. T. Fowler of the Biblical Department of the University and a member of the Advisory Board of the Society, spoke on "The Bible as a Literary Document." On April 21, Prof. David G. Lyon of Harvard University gave an illustrated lecture on "The Samarian Excavations." This lecture was given in one of the largest halls of the University and was open to the public.

The other meetings of the year were either business meetings or study councils. At the study councils topics of Jewish interest were discussed. An informal supper on the evening of May 20, with election of officers for the following year, completed the activities of this year.

Abraham J. Burt

University of Chicago

AFTER lying practically dormant for about one and one-half years, the Menorah Society at Chicago has awakened during this last year.

The first meeting of the year was held October 26, 1914, at which officers for the quarter were elected. Then at varying intervals there were addresses by Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. A. A. Neuman of the Dropsie College, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch of Sinai Temple of Chicago (who gave a series of two lectures on Jewish history), and Mr. Louis D. Brandeis of Boston. The inspiring address of Mr. Brandeis, held November 19, 1914, was the biggest event of the year, the meeting being largely attended by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rabbis Stolz and Cohon, representing the Chicago Rabbinical Society, also delivered short talks.

Hitherto, the Menorah Society has been unknown to have other than quite formal lectures. No attempt has been made to make the members feel at home and more sociable at the meetings. An innovation was tried when, at the meeting on May 10, there was an informal talk by Dr. Joseph Stolz, of the Isaiah Temple of Chicago, on Hillel, which was followed not only by discussion but also by refreshments. This meeting was a complete success. It was followed by another informal meeting on Maimonides.

The last meeting was a "get-together" meeting of the Society to discuss plans for the next year. Suggestions were accepted to interest incoming freshmen by personal letters and visits and "get-acquainted" and "enthusiasm" gatherings. It is reasonable to hope from the increasing membership and the suggestions for future action that the Menorah will become more and more powerful on the campus, especially with the encouragement and the aid of the alumni in Chicago, who are planning to have also a graduate Menorah organization.

Ethel Jacobs

Clark University

The second year, just closed, of the Clark Menorah Society has been most successful. At the weekly meetings, papers were given by various members on such subjects as Reform Judaism, Orthodoxy, Zionism, Assimilation, which were followed by entertaining and instructive discussions. Reports were also given by members on current books of Jewish interest, among them being: Fishberg's "The Jews," Ruppin's "The Jews of Today," and Israel Cohen's "Jewish Life in Modern Times." Current magazine articles of Jewish interest were also reviewed and discussed.

Members of the Faculty and outside speakers, including Rabbi M. M. Eichler and Jacob de Haas of Boston, gave addresses at various times and Rabbi H. H. Rubenovitz of Boston delivered a series of lectures on "The Maccabees."

The first banquet of the Society, held December 17, 1914, was a great success and helped stir up much interest among the students in the Menorah. (For a note on this dinner see the April Menorah Journal, page 140; for the after-dinner address of President G. Stanley Hall see the April Journal, page 87).

A program for the next year has already been made and the forecast for the future is most promising.

Isador Lubin

University of Colorado

THE academic year 1914-1915 opened auspiciously for the University of Colorado Menorah Society. The old men returned with new and greater enthusiasm, and the new men quickly caught the same spirit. Our first meeting was a get-together affair where acquaintances were renewed and new acquaintances made.

The meetings of the first semester were addressed entirely by the members of the Society who chose their material from the excellent Menorah Library. Those of the second semester were addressed in part by outside men and in part by members. During the year two meetings were held in Denver in conjunction with the University of Denver Menorah. These were well attended and the principal addresses given by the heads of the two universities.

Michael Idelson

Columbia University

THE past year has been a year of steady progress for the Columbia Menorah Society and of increasing interest in its activities. At the first meeting of the year the members were greatly stimulated by an address by Dr. H. G. Enelow on the work of Menorah Societies. At other meetings held during the year, Mr. Samuel Strauss spoke on "Some Delusions Now in the Testing," Professor Talcott Williams, dean of the School of Journalism, on "The War and Race Prejudice," Rabbi Rudolph I. Coffee, of Pittsburg, Pa., on "The College Graduate in Jewish Affairs," Professor Israel Friedlaender, on "Jewry, East and West." At a smoker given in February, Rev. Dr. Jacob Kohn spoke on "Jewish Ceremonialism," Mr. Henry Hurwitz spoke on the work of other Menorah Societies, and Mr. M. David Hoffman, the Representative of the Columbia Society in the Administrative Council of the Intercollegiate Association, presented an interesting report of the Menorah Convention of Cincinnati.

Although the Society is not satisfied with the number of its members, that number is one which would probably be deemed large at many another university. The Society is becoming more and more active and acquiring ever greater prestige among the Jewish students, as well as in the University in general. It has aroused interest on the part of not a few who have heretofore been indifferent to Jewish affairs.

Harry Wilk

University of Illinois

AT the beginning of this year conditions were somewhat abnormal for the Illinois Menorah Society. The preceding graduating class had taken an extraordinarily heavy toll from our members and, as the number of Juniors left was small, we had few veterans remaining. But, to offset our loss, we were compensated by an unusually large number of promising freshmen.

We started the year with a reception to the new students at which over one hundred were present. Our customary smoker was dispensed with on account of the increased number of Jewish co-eds, there being about fifteen at present. At our next meeting, at which we formally welcomed the new students to our Society, Dr. David S. Blondheim of our Faculty explained the nature of the work we are doing and gave some practical advice, and Dr. Jacob Zeitlin of our Faculty spoke on the Jewish problems of the present. Since then we have had many regular meetings, every other Sunday, student programs alternating with outside speakers. Among the latter have been Professor I. Leo Sharfman of Michigan, who spoke on "Jewish Ideals," Rabbi A. A. Neuman of the Dropsie College, who talked on "Life Among Medieval Spanish Jews," and Dr. H. M. Kallen of Wisconsin on "The Meaning of Hebraism." Mrs. E. F. Nickoley, who has traveled extensively in Palestine, gave an interesting talk on the Jews in the Holy Land. Professor Simon Litman of our Faculty spoke on "Jews and Modern Capitalism." Professor E. C. Baldwin of our English department, in speaking on "Prayer," roused a lively interest in the question as to whether prayer is decadent among the Jews. Professor Albert H. Lybyer lectured on "Jews as the Transmitters of Culture from the Moslems to the Christians"; Professor Boyd H. Bode discussed "What the Jew Contributes to American Ideals," and Dr. A. R. Vail spoke on "The Influence of the Hebrew Prophets as the Teachers of Moral Law."

Nor have we had a dearth of student talks and readings, among them the following: Herbert B. Rosenberg on the Falashas, Louis Ribback on the Chinese Jews, Jesse Block on the Spanish Jews, S. J. Lurie on Maimonides, Julius Cohen on "The Jewish Messianic Idea," L. J. Greengard on "Prophecy," Karl Epstein on Jewish Nationalism. Current events were given during the year by Bertha Bing, Julius Cohen, and William A. Grossman.

Early in February a study circle was formed, under the leadership of Mrs. Simon Litman, for the study of post-Biblical Jewish history. Ten members of the Society enrolled and met weekly at the home of Professor and Mrs. Litman. Portions of Vol. II of Graetz and of Riggs' "History of the Jews" were read and amplified by the excellent lectures of the leader. The discussions also furnished very valuable instruction.

Karl Epstein

University of Maine

DURING the past year the conditions on the campus were such that it made all of the Jewish students feel the necessity of the right kind of Jewish organization. Clubs had been formed time after time, each of a different nature; yet none of them could fulfill the need and they all sooner or later broke up. Thus things dragged along, each one feeling that something ought to be done, yet no one knowing what remedy was needed, until a report came of the Menorah movement. After a hastily gathered meeting one Saturday night, the matter was presented to the Jewish students for discussion. Great enthusiasm was displayed and everybody was heartily in favor of organizing a Menorah Society.

With the aid of the Menorah catalogue ("The Menorah Movement"), and Mr. Joseph Spear, of our Faculty, a former member of the Harvard Menorah Society, a constitution was drawn up and presented at the next meeting, when it was accepted. It was also submitted to President Aley, who approved it and congratulated us most heartily upon the formation of the Society.

Our first task was to place the Society in the right light on the campus by emphasizing the absolutely unsectarian, academic, cultural nature of the Menorah Society and the fact that membership is invitingly open to all members of the University. In this we were greatly helped by the visit of Chancellor Henry Hurwitz who addressed the whole student body in Chapel on the morning of May 5th, after being introduced by President Aley, upon the nature and purposes of the Menorah movement; and he addressed a public meeting of the Society in the evening, which was also attended by President Aley, on "Jewish Ideals."

During the course of the year we have succeeded in holding several other enthusiastic meetings besides. We have had frank and inspiring talks by President Aley and Professor Huddleston. At other meetings our own members gave talks and discussions. Thus, Samuel Rudman gave a splendid talk on "The Attitude of Jewish Young Men towards Jewish Religion", which was warmly discussed. Another paper was delivered by A. I. Schwey on "Hebrew Literature."

Through the kindness of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, into which we were admitted at the Cincinnati Convention, we have secured a Menorah Library, which has been put in a conspicuous place in the reading room of the University library, for the benefit of all the students. But the Menorah members especially intend to make good use of the books in the preparation of papers and in regular study. We have also been fortunate in securing a set of the Jewish Encyclopedia from Mr. Cyrus L. Sulzberger of New York for presentation to the University library. The coming of the Encyclopedia and the Menorah Library has been greatly appreciated by the authorities, and the Maine Menorah Society is happy to have been able already to be of concrete service to the University. All of our activities have caused favorable interest on the part of both the student body and the college authorities, and a great change has come about in the attitude towards the Jewish men. We look forward to even greater progress as well as hard work in the future.

A. I. Schwey

University of Missouri

OUR Menorah Society this year has done at least two things. First, it has definitely held to a program of work; secondly, it has become accredited as representative of the Jewish students to the Jewish students themselves, and even more to the non-Jews. The opposition that some of the students manifested in other years has not been so active, and the Society drew a large proportion of them, sometimes all of them, to its meetings. The non-Jews, especially among the Faculty, have exhibited an actively interested and helpful attitude. In this connection, our thanks are due Prof. J. E. Wrench, of the History department, whose presence at all of our meetings greatly stimulated profitable discussion.

Of the Jewish faculty men, Dr. Henry M. Sheffer, of the Philosophy department, one of the founders of the Harvard Menorah Society, took a particularly active interest in the work, especially in the preparation of our programs. The program for the second semester was on "Typical Hebraic Ideals", as follows:

I. | Transitional:
|   1. Hellenism | J. Sholtz
|   2. Emancipation | J. L. Ellman
II. | Contemporary:
| (a) Religious
|   1. Orthodoxy | Wm. Stone
|   2. Reform | Robert Burnett
| (b) National
|   1. Assimilationism | A. Hertzmark
|   2. Zionism | D. A. Glushek
| (c) Literary
|   1. Yiddish | M. Glazer
|   2. Neo-Hebrew | C. Goldberg
III. | Prospective:
| The New Hebraism      | Dr. H. M. Sheffer

This program was devised with the idea of creating a definite reaction to Hebraism. So, the papers on Hellenism and Emancipation tried by the contrast of transitional periods to make Hebraic ideals as a whole stand out. The meeting on Reform and Orthodoxy was devoted to an historical analysis of the forces underlying the present situation in Judaism. The papers on Zionism and Assimilation, again, summed up from another angle the characteristics of Hebraic aspiration. And at the two last meetings, present Jewish life and ideals were discussed in terms of their literary and philosophical expression.

Along with these meetings we had several lectures by Dr. H. M. Sheffer, Rabbi A. A. Neuman of the Dropsie College, and Dr. H. M. Kallen of Wisconsin. These meetings were in every case productive of great enthusiasm. Prof. J. E. Wrench addressed a meeting composed in numbers equally of Jews and non-Jews on "The Jew and Christian in the Middle Ages", and we also had an address by Dr. A. T. Olmstead, Professor of Ancient History, on the "Book of Kings".

John Sholtz

University of North Carolina

THE Menorah Society at our University is in a unique position. The number of Jews in North Carolina is the smallest of any in the Southern States. Only in a few places is there any organized Jewish life. The Jewish students come chiefly from such places where the number of Jews is very small. Under these circumstances, it can readily be seen how difficult it was at first to implant the idea of a Jewish society for the purpose of the study of Jewish subjects of which the majority of the students were greatly ignorant. The Society, however, has now passed far beyond the experimental stage. All the Jewish students at North Carolina now show a great deal of interest and enthusiasm in the Menorah work.

From the fact that our Society can look to very little in the way of help from any Jewish community in the State, and that it is far from any Jewish cultural center in the South, it can be perceived how hard it was at first to carry on our work in comparison with our sister Societies located in more favorable localities. A review of our work of the last term will show, however, gratifying results. Our method was similar to that of the class room. A text book on Jewish history was taken as the basis for study, supplemented by additional information from the Jewish Encyclopedia and other books on Judaica from the University Library and the Menorah Library. The value of our study of Jewish history may be educed from the fact that most of us had but the faintest knowledge of our glorious past. When a thorough knowledge of the text was acquired, discussions and studies of different phases and movements in Judaism were taken up. In this work the Menorah Library proved an especially valuable aid.

While our Society is not a religious organization, it endeavors to surround our work with ethical and religious aims. The Society tries to be here for the Jewish students what the Y. M. C. A. is in a measure for our Christian fellow-students, and we can say that it has succeeded in its endeavor. The relation of the Menorah Society here with the Y. M. C. A. is one of heartiest co-operation.

Samuel R. Newman

Universities in Omaha

THE Omaha Menorah Society, covering both the University of Omaha and Creighton University, was founded in September, 1914. At the organization meeting, Rabbi Frederic Cohn spoke on the Menorah movement, and letters of endorsement from President D. E. Jenkins of the University of Omaha and from President E. A. Magevney of Creighton University were read. A discussion of principles of the Menorah movement followed.

Among the speakers of the year were Dr. I. Dansky, Dr. A. Greenberg, Dr. R. Farber of S. Joseph, Professor Nathan Bernstein, Mr. Isador Rees of the Omaha High School, Professor F. P. Ramsay, and Professor Walter Halsey. In addition to their valuable addresses, discussions on important Jewish topics were held by the members of the Society—a phase of Menorah work which is being steadily accentuated.

The largest meeting of the year took place in Jacobs Memorial Hall, on the evening of May 11th, at which over 300 people were present. The speakers on this occasion were President D. E. Jenkins of the University of Omaha on "Idealism in Education" and Rabbi Samuel Cohen of Kansas City, who spoke on "The Functions and Genesis of Ceremonials".

Jacques Rieur

Radcliffe College

DURING the month of December, 1914, the Radcliffe Menorah Society was organized with a membership of twenty. On January 7, 1915, the purposes of the Society were outlined to the members by Mr. Henry Hurwitz; and Mr. Ralph A. Newman, President of the Harvard Menorah, extended greetings and welcome from that Society. Dean Bertha Boody showed her interest and approval by her presence.

Since the Radcliffe Menorah was not organized until well after the college calendar had been arranged, it was difficult to formulate definite plans for the time which remained. Lectures, however, have been given at open meetings by Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin and Mr. Maurice Wertheim of New York; and plans are now under way for the formation of a study circle devoted to the study of the Hebrew language.

The interest and enthusiasm of the members—more than half of whom are first year students—gives promise for work of greater scope in the future.

Lillian H. Rosenblum

New York University

IN the first number of The Menorah Journal it was reported that because of the division of New York University into uptown and downtown colleges, it was found necessary to organize an additional Menorah Society at Washington Square, the downtown section. This Washington Square Society has for its sphere the professional schools of New York University, whereas the University Heights Society has the Schools of Art and Applied Science.

Organized in October, 1914, the Washington Square Society can already boast of a membership of 160. Over eighty percent of the members are young men and women who work during the day and devote five evenings a week to school.

The Society has conducted under its auspices in the past year about ten lectures, at which the attendance averaged seventy-five members. The lectures covered many phases of Jewish culture and were greatly appreciated. It is expected that study circles will be held during the next academic year, even though it may be necessary in most instances to hold them after 9:30 p. m.

Among the lectures during the past year were the following: Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. H. G. Enelow of Temple Emanu-El, Mr. Samuel Strauss of The New York Times, and Chief Justice Isaac Franklin Russell of the New York Court of Special Sessions.

To celebrate the completion of one year's active work, a dinner was held on the evening of April 30th at the Broadway Central Hotel, at which there were present about 100 members. The Toastmaster was E. Schwartz, and the speakers of the evening included Dr. Bernard Drachman, Israel N. Thurman, Hyman Askowith, Louis Weinstein, the outgoing President, and Chancellor Henry Hurwitz.

Bernard J. Reis

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

Menorah Prize Awards

The Harvard Menorah Prize of $100 has this year been divided into two equal parts and awarded to Benjamin I. Goldberg, '16, for an essay on "Maimonides as a Scientist", and Leonard L. Levy, '17, for an essay on "The Modern Jewish National Movement". (This essay also won the second undergraduate Bowdoin Prize at Harvard.) Honorable mention was given to Henry Epstein, '16. The judges were Prof. David Gordon Lyon, chairman, and Prof. J. R. Jewett of Harvard University, and President Solomon Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The Wisconsin Menorah Prize of $100 has this year been awarded to Percy B. Shoshtac, '15, for an essay on Scholom Asch, the Yiddish novelist and dramatist. The judges were Prof. R. E. N. Dodge, chairman, Prof. E. B. McGilvary, and Prof. M. S. Slaughter of the University of Wisconsin.

Of the three prizes of $25 each, offered by the Cornell Menorah Society this year, only one was awarded ("for the best essay on any subject relating to the status and problems of the Jews in any one country"). The winning essay was by Morris J. Escoll, '16 (College of Agriculture) upon "Phases of Jewish Thinking in American Universities." For the prize in Hebrew there was no competition; for the prize "on any subject relating to Jewish literature in English", no essay was deemed of sufficient merit. The judges were Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell, chairman, Prof. I. Leo Sharfman of the University of Michigan, and Prof. M. M. Kaplan of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Gift from the Cornell Menorah Society

The Menorah Journal has received a gift of $50 from the Cornell Menorah Society.

Harvard Menorah Dinner

The seventh annual Dinner of the Harvard Menorah Society was held on May 3, 1915, in the Hotel Lenox, Boston. It was the largest and most successful dinner in the history of the Society, some 200 men, including a number of graduate members, being present. The toastmaster was President Ralph A. Newman, and toasts were responded to by Prof. D. G. Lyon, Prof. G. F. Moore, Prof. Felix Frankfurter, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Mr. Maurice Wertheim, Mr. Joseph L. Cohen (of Cambridge University, England), Mr. Hyman Askowith, and Chancellor Henry Hurwitz. The winners of the Harvard Menorah Prizes, announced by Prof. Lyon, gave summaries of their essays.

Wisconsin Menorah Banquet

The fourth annual Banquet of the Wisconsin Menorah Society was held on May 22, 1915, in the Women's Building of the University. President Harry Hersh was toastmaster, and toasts were responded to by Judge Julian W. Mack, Prof. I. Leo Sharfman, Mrs. Joseph Jastrow, Dr. H. M. Kallen, and Dr. C. S. Levi of Milwaukee.

Incoming Menorah Presidents

The elections of the following presidents of Menorah Societies for next year have been reported: Brown, Abraham J. Burt; California, Stanley M. Arndt (re-elected); Clark, Abraham J. Levensohn; Cincinnati, Philip L. Wascerwitz; College of the City of New York, Moses H. Gitelson; Cornell, Aaron Bodanski; Harvard, Fred F. Greenman; Hunter, Sarah Berenson; Johns Hopkins, Jonas Friedenwald; Illinois, Karl Epstein; Maine, Lewis H. Kriger (re-elected); Michigan, A. J. Levin; North Carolina, Alfred M. Lindau; New York University, Michael Stavitsky (University Heights) and Bernard J. Reis (Washington Square); Pennsylvania, Jacob Rubinoff (re-elected); Radcliffe, Hannah R. London; Wisconsin, Charles Lebowsky.

the
Menorah Journal

VOLUME I                      OCTOBER, 1915                     NUMBER 4

Menorah

The Arch of Titus

Done into English by H. M. K. from the Hebrew of H. A. W.[A]

Crumbling, age-worn, in Rome the eternal

Stands the arch of Titus' triumph,

With its carven Jewish captives

Stooped before the holy Menorah.

And each nightfall, when the turmoil

Of the Petrine clangor ceaseth,

Seven flames the arch illumine,

Mystic burnings, glowing strangely.

Then cast off their graven shackles

Judah's sons of beaten marble;

Living step they from the ruin

Living stride they to the Jordan.

They are healèd in its waters,

Till the freshness of each dawning;

Then resume their ancient sorrow,

Perfect marble, whole and holy.

Dust of dust the wheeling seasons,

Grind that mighty archèd splendor,

Raze the Gaul and raze the Roman,

Grind away their fame and glory,

The shackled Jews alone withstand them,

Stooped before the holy Menorah.

THE SPOILS OF JERUSALEM, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS THE SPOILS OF JERUSALEM, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS

MAX NORDAU

MAX NORDAU (born in Budapest, 1849), world-famous neurologist, author, and publicist, a Nestor among Jewish leaders, and since Herzl's death the President of the International Zionist Congresses. His books on "Degeneration," "Paradoxes," and other volumes of social studies, have evoked world-wide discussion. In sending the present article to The Menorah Journal from Madrid, where he is now sojourning on account of the War, Dr. Nordau writes: "I wish my words may not be dropped into deaf ears. You can do much to bring them home to the consciousness and the conscience of leading American Jews."

The Duty of the Hour

By Max Nordau

WE are the people of the Messiah. We feel, we think Messianic. In all situations of life, and particularly in the critical ones, we hope for a miraculous event which will fulfill all our yearnings, and in this hope we feel delivered of the manly duty to work for the realization of our ideals, to prepare our salvation by our own efforts.

At this moment a large portion of Israel dreams once more a particularly lively Messianic dream. Hundreds of thousands, millions of Jews, indeed, have abandoned themselves to the expectation that at the conclusion of the peace which will put a stop to the world's war, the destiny of the Jewish people must take a miraculous turn. The plenipotentiaries of the belligerent powers will assemble in a conference or a congress to treat of the conditions of peace. The conquerors will exact of the vanquished the price of their sacrifices and return home with their booty in the shape of territorial acquisitions and indemnities. And in the course of these transactions the miracle will happen that a share will be apportioned to the Jewish people too. Palestine will be offered them, either as an area for colonization or, still better, as a full property under the protectorate of a great power. They will be accorded also entire equality of rights in Russia and Roumania.

The Basis of Jewish Hopes: (1) The Self-Interest of the Powers

WE may plead reasons or excuses for indulging in this dream. Utterances of leading personalities of the big nations which will necessarily be represented at the peace conference have become publicly known which permit the conclusion, without intentional self-beguiling, that some governments at least, if not all of them, are occupying themselves earnestly with the Jewish problem and examining the question whether it might not be worth trying to settle the Jews in search of a homestead in Palestine, under international and local legal conditions vouchsafing them full freedom of economic, intellectual, and moral development.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that the situation of the six millions of Russian Jews occupies a certain place in the thoughts and cares of the governments. Several countries have an interest in turning away from their frontiers the ever more violently swelling stream of Jewish emigration, and doing so otherwise than with the brutal method of locking up their boundaries and posting a police watch before them. Others have the well-being of Russia at heart; they understand that the sufferings and the despair of her six millions of Jews are a source of dire evils and that the emancipation of this hard-working and highly gifted population will bring about the material prosperity, the general progress, and the powerful strengthening of Russia. Other countries again, the statesmen of which are more farseeing than the average and have been able to rise to the conception of a political world hygiene, are aware that the systematic crushing of six millions of intellectual and strong-feeling people driven to despair must create a hotbed of the most dangerous anarchistic and revolutionary epidemics, the spreading of which cannot easily be limited to the spot of their origin. Lastly, even the most irreclaimable pessimist will admit at least the possibility that governments may not be entirely inaccessible to purely humane sentiments of pity and justice, and may regard the treatment of the Jews of Russia and Roumania as an indictment against the civilization and the ruling religion of white mankind.

(2) The Precedent of 1878

THE hope of the peace conference resulting in great achievements for the Jewish people, moreover, can evoke an historical precedent. The Berlin Congress of 1878 which brought the Russo-Turkish war to an end, created the Bulgarian state, raised Roumania to the rank of an independent kingdom, and gave Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary, found time to occupy itself with a Jewish matter and to introduce into the treaty condensing its decisions the well known article obliging the new kingdom of Roumania to bestow on her Jews equality of civil franchises. It is not the fault of the Berlin Congress that this article has remained to this day a dead letter. The case, at any rate, is of a nature to encourage Jewish optimism against those sceptics who sneer: "A diplomatic conference distributes no presents; complacency and liberality play no part there; there are only such interests enforced which are backed by a victorious army or at least by an army which still inspires some fears." Well, in 1878, too, the Jewish people had no country, no army, no government, no accredited ambassador, and yet two of the most influential members of the Berlin Congress, the representative of Great Britain, Earl Beaconsfield, and that of France, Waddington, were ready to step forward as advocates of the Jewish cause, and the president of the Congress, Prince Bismarck, evidently favored their action.

But We Ignore a Valuable Lesson

I HAVE produced everything capable of justifying the expectations with which many Jews look forward to the future peace congress. But I do not notice that the Jewish people keep in view the lessons taught by the historic example of 1878. Beaconsfield and Waddington did not plead for the Roumanian Jews at the Berlin Congress from impulses of their own or in consequence of a sudden inspiration from on high. The Paris Alliance Israelite Universelle, the London Anglo-Jewish Association, the Berlin Verband der deutschen Juden, had done serious and efficient preparatory work, memorialized their several governments, informed them of the facts, solicited their intervention. It was due to their efforts that the position of the Roumanian Jews came up for consideration at the Berlin Congress. They showed the way the Jewish people must follow if they wish to obtain anything of governments in congress. What are the Jewish people waiting for in order to act now as their fathers acted thirty-seven years ago?

The war is raging, in a hundred battlefields uncounted brave men shed their blood for the future of their nation, Jewish soldiers fight and fall side by side with their non-Jewish countrymen and comrades, but their heroic sacrifices are utterly useless for their own people. In every country, even in Russia, the military excellence, the patriotism, the contempt of danger and death of the Jewish soldiers, will be rewarded more or less lavishly and liberally with distinctions and preferment, but experience teaches us that their glorious conduct is forgotten very soon after the war by everybody but themselves and their brethren, and that it certainly does not change in the least the status of the Jewish people among the nations. At any rate the consideration of the merits and military virtues of the Jewish soldiers will not by itself stimulate to action the diplomatists at the peace congress, unless they are insistently recalled to their memory. All this requires preparation and arrangements, of which as yet there is scarcely any trace to be seen.

Who Could Accept Palestine for the Jews?

THERE is another point to which attention must be drawn. Let us admit the most favorable case: the congress will really open up Palestine to the Jewish people for colonization with self-government and autonomous local institutions. To whom will it be in a position to make such a concession? To whom will it deliver Palestine? The Jewish people is a concept, but it is not a political and administrative individuality, it is not a body with a head and vital organs. There is actually not one man who could present himself to the governments assembled in congress, receive Palestine from their hands, and offer them the guarantee that he will lead into the land of their ancestors those Jews that yearn for a new home and national life on an historic soil, and that he will undertake the implanting of modern culture, the maintaining of order, and the economic development of the country. An offer of the congress would fall flat, nobody having the moral right and the material capacity to accept it in the name and in behalf of the Jewish people.

Let Dreaming Give Way to Organizing! The Task for American Jewry

ALL this points to the necessity of an adequate preparation for coming events. The Messianic dream does not suffice. Mere wishes and hopes are vain. We must work. We must organize ourselves without further loss of time. We must create a body with men of authority at its head, and the living forces of the Jewish people, or at least a considerable portion of them, at its back. The forces and the men do exist. They have only to be gathered, united and grouped.

Who is to do this organizing work? My reply is unhesitating: American Jewry. I should be happy to say: here is a task for the Zionists' organization which exists, which lives, which is prepared for work of this kind, and which has to consider its carrying out as its natural function; but I shrink back from giving this near-lying answer. Many pre-eminent and influential Jews whose good Jewish sentiments no one has a right to doubt, persist in considering Zionism as a party tendency against which they raise objections. Now the representations of the Jewish people before the governments must not be a party affair, but ought to be the cause of the entire people and must embrace all its parts. The invitation must therefore be issued by personalities who repel nobody at the outset by their pronounced party color. Moreover, these personalities must necessarily belong to a neutral country, so as to leave no room for the argument that according to the political definition of the hour they are enemies and to co-operate with them would mean disloyalty to one's own country. Only in the case, which I hope will not be realized, of the United States also precipitating itself into the whirlpool of the war, would they be bound to transfer their initiative to the Swiss or the Dutch Jewry. The first labor of the initiators should consist in inviting the existing Jewish organizations of all countries to have themselves represented by a delegation on a permanent board or committee. It would be a matter of regret if they refused, but this ought by no means to be a reason for discouragement nor for discontinuing further endeavors. In this case the initiators would simply have to do fundamental work and try to fall back on elements that at present stand outside, or intentionally keep aloof from, existing organizations. It would be the business of the permanent board to secure financial co-operation that could be called upon under given circumstances, and to cause Jews of standing in every great country to approach their government, to submit to it in time the aspirations of the Jewish people, and to procure its approval and sympathy for them.

"Not an Instant to Lose if We Wish to Prepare"

OUT of the peace which must follow the present horrible war, a new Europe, a new world will be born. It depends on us whether in this new world there is to be a place, "a place in the sun," for the Jewish people. We have not an instant to lose if we wish to prepare for the grand opportunity. Should we miss this occasion we should have to resign all our national hopes, I am afraid, for a very long time, if not for ever. We may, of course, continue to dream our Messianic dream, but this will then ever remain a dream till the dreamer disappears and his dream with him.

Signature: Dr M. Nordau

FOOTNOTE:

[A] Original and translation read at a dinner of the Harvard Menorah Society.

What Judaism Is Not

By Mordecai M. Kaplan

"Every man who has seen the world knows that
nothing is so useless as a general maxim."
Macaulay, in Essay on "Machiavelli."

MORDECAI M. KAPLAN MORDECAI M. KAPLAN (born in Russia in 1881, came to America in 1889), studied at College of the City of New York (A. B. 1900), Columbia (M. A. 1902) and Jewish Theological Seminary (Rabbi, 1902); held Rabbinical position in New York, 1903-1909; Principal since 1909 of the Teachers' Institute, and Professor of Homiletics since 1910 in the Jewish Theological Seminary. Fearless and original in thought, and exceptionally stimulating as a Menorah lecturer, Professor Kaplan has won the deep respect and friendship of Menorah students at the various universities where he has lectured on Jewish Religion and Education.

MOST of the pain, which according to Koheleth comes with the increase of knowledge, is in the unlearning of the old rather than in the learning of the new. Once an idea has become imbedded in the mind, it cannot be removed without causing a mental upheaval. Blessed are the young to whom unlearning is easy, or who have not much to unlearn. Whether our Jewish young men know much or little about Judaism, they are certain, as a rule, to have formed notions about it of which they must be disabused, if Judaism is to constitute an important factor in their lives. Strange to say, they have obtained these notions not from sources hostile to Judaism, but on the contrary from sources distinctly intended to inculcate both a love and an understanding of the Jewish religion,—such as catechisms and text-books used in our religious schools, and articles in encyclopedias meant for the enlightenment of the general public. The view of Judaism that one gets in this manner is not only a distorted one, but it has the effect of bringing all further reflection to a standstill. It lands one in a blind alley. The conclusion which a person generally arrives at when he consults these sources for information about the Jewish religion is that, whatever else Judaism might be, it certainly offers no field for the exercise of deep insight or broad vision. This largely accounts for the manifest sterility and uncreativeness of present-day Judaism. To give new impetus to fruitful and creative thinking in Jewish life, it is necessary, in the first place, to counteract the paralyzing spell of these routine and conventional interpretations of Judaism.

To be concrete, let us take a typical instance of the kind of instruction that has been in vogue for more than a century. Here are a few sentences from the article on Judaism in Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics: "Judaism may be defined as the strictest form of monotheistic belief; but it is something more than a bare mental belief. It is the effect which such a belief, with all its logical consequences, exerts on life, that is to say, on thought and conduct. . . . . A formal and precise definition of Judaism is a matter of some difficulty, because it raises the question, What is the absolute and irreducible minimum of conformity? . . . . Judaism denounces idolatry and polytheism. It believes in a universal God, but it is not exclusive. It believes that this world is good, and that man is capable of perfection. He possesses free will, and is responsible for his actions. Judaism rejects any mediator and any cosmic force for evil. Man is free. He is not subject to Satan; nor are his material gifts of life inherently bad. Wealth might be a blessing as well as a curse," etc., etc.

In an encyclopedia we do not expect to find original or striking views. It is not the particular article from which this excerpt is taken that fault is found with. That article is selected simply as representative of the kind of information that is expected to help one grasp the meaning of Judaism. It is typical of the baffling glibness with which Jewish teachers and preachers usually talk about the Jewish religion. One who reads or listens to such statements finds that somehow or other little has been added to his stock of knowledge about Judaism. He experiences how irritating words can be when they either hide thought or betray its absence.

Mistaking the Shadow for the Thing Itself

IN the instance quoted, it is both amusing and painful to follow the author's vacillating description of Judaism. At first Judaism is a form of belief. Then it becomes the effect of that belief upon thought and conduct. From that it evolves into some irreducible minimum of conformity, if we can only get hold of it. This being difficult, it gets to be a series of colorless platitudes. Such a definition calls up the image of a streamlet, now leaping over rocks and boulders, now meandering upon level ground, and finally losing itself in the marshes. The fitfulness and inconsistency of the formulation, the picking up of the different threads of thought without following out any one of them to its conclusion, are characteristic of this type of definitions. They are as devoid of vitality as a long drawn-out yawn, and their want of logic is exasperating. The merest tyro can see that one can profess the principles they embody without being a Jew. There are many sects that would heartily subscribe to all of them. Universalists, Deists, Theists, Unitarians, and even Ethical Culturists hold these doctrines. As matters stand at present, these sects engage more actively in spreading them than we do.

What is fundamentally wrong with the above definition and with the entire class of formulations of which it is an instance? The tendency to mistake the shadow of a thing for the thing itself. The main cause for misapprehending the true character of Judaism is the proneness to regard it merely as a form of truth, or, at best, as the effect of a truth upon thought and conduct, and to overlook entirely the fact that it is a living reality, a very strand of the primal moving forces of the world. "Judaism is the truest form of truth," says one writer. "Judaism gives, to truth the most truthful shape," says another. Now and then they speak of it as a "form" of life, but it turns out to be only a lip service, or a homiletical phrase. They fail to follow up the clue which is more than once suggested to them by the difficulty of expounding Judaism as a form of truth. That being a Jew has always involved conforming to certain principles and modes of life is a truism. But these principles or observances by themselves constitute only the outward expression of Judaism. The mathematical formula which states the law of gravitation is not the same as the force of gravitation itself. It is conceivable that further experimentation might make it necessary to qualify the mathematical formula. But the force of gravitation will ever be the same as it has been. The change from looking upon Judaism as a form of truth to that of regarding it as of the very substance of reality calls for a complete transformation in our mode of thinking, or what has been termed "a psychological change of front." We must break completely with the habit of identifying the whole of the Jewish religion with merely certain beliefs and duties, while ignoring completely the living energy which has operated to produce them. They are only the static residue of something that is essentially dynamic.

The Jewish Aversion to Creeds and Formulas

THE change in attitude which is here advocated is not a departure from all that has gone before in Jewish life. If it were that, Judaism could not possibly survive under it. The fact is that we are only bringing to the fore and translating into modern phraseology an attitude that in one form or another has always asserted itself in Judaism. Simultaneously with the tendency to compress Judaism within certain formulas, there has always shown itself a strong aversion to gathering Judaism within creeds and minima of conformity. To-day that aversion, which has hitherto remained a matter of feeling and intuition, can make itself articulate by availing itself of the results of recent research in the fields of religion. It need no longer entertain the fear of being charged with spiritual anarchy. Discountenancing dogmas in Judaism is not synonymous with intellectual libertinism. It is rather a protest against shallowness and superficiality, much like the chagrin of the artist at having his knowledge of drawing praised and the soul of the picture missed.

We can give in this connection a few cursory examples of the anti-summarizing tendency. The Torah itself, in one instance, seems to set out with a view of reducing Judaism to a minimum, but scarcely finds itself able to do so. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of thy Lord and the statutes, which I command thee this day, for thine own good?" "Is this a small matter?" asks the Talmud, in evident surprise at the hugeness of the program. When the would-be proselyte came to Shammai and requested him to sum up the entire Torah in one principle, he received no better treatment than he deserved, when he was made to take to his heels. That Hillel did not rebuff him and gave him the principle, "What is hateful to thee do not do unto thy neighbor," proves that Hillel knew how to be patient and tactful, but not that the Talmud looks upon that summary, or any other, as expressive of the essence of Judaism. The same applies to religious practices, concerning which the Mishnah announces the maxim that it is not for us to estimate which are more important than others. We are told that the custom obtained at one time of having the Ten Commandments read as part of the daily service; but that as soon as it gave rise to the impression that the Ten Commandments were more essential than the rest of the Torah, it was discontinued. It is true that Philo reduces the teachings of Judaism to five essential doctrines, but that was because Judaism to Philo was Platonism divinely revealed.

As Shown by Judah Ha-Levi

THE movement to formulate the fundamental teachings of Judaism first gained headway at the beginning of the eleventh century with the Karaites, whose entire conception of Judaism was such as to render their sect hopelessly stagnant and doomed to dwindle. Still, even they would never have thought of emphasizing certain dogmas as indispensable, had they not discerned in the teachings of Mohammedanism a dangerous challenge to Judaism. Thus the dogma-making tendency in Judaism arose during the Middle Ages not as an indigenous product but as a retort to the dominant religions of the time. What might be called the application of the synoptic method to the Jewish religion remained confined mostly to the part of Jewry which came, directly or indirectly, under the influence of Aristotelian intellectualism.

To this trend Judah Ha-Levi (1085-1140) stands out as a notable exception. In him the disapproval of having Judaism subsumed under formulas of a philosophic stamp comes again to the surface. His being a poet even more than a philosopher enabled him to get a better insight into the inwardness of Judaism than that obtained by the intellectualists with their analytic scalpels. This is apparent in his well-known "Al-Khazari." The story goes that the Khazar king, after consulting a philosopher, a Mohammedan, and a Christian as to what he should believe and do, finally turned to a Jewish rabbi. When the king asked him about the Jewish religion, the rabbi replied, "I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, who fed them in the desert, and gave them the land. . . . . Our belief is comprised in the Torah, a very large domain." Upon hearing this, the king grew indignant, and said to the rabbi, "Shouldst thou, O Jew, not have said that thou believest in the Creator of the world, its Governor and Guide, and in Him who created and keeps thee, and such attributes which serve as evidence for every believer?" But the rabbi persists in his mode of stating Judaism. He parries successfully the king's efforts to draw out of him some definition of Judaism in terms of speculative theology. The king in time becomes a convert to Judaism, and it is only then, according to Judah Ha-Levi, that he succeeds in getting the rabbi to teach him concerning the attributes of God, as if to imply that one has first to be a Jew before indulging in any abstract or philosophic study of Judaism. The keynote of Ha-Levi's thought is that the essence of Judaism is not merely to give assent to any general belief, but to belong to Israel and share in its experiences.

By Maimonides and by Abravanel

EVEN Maimonides (1135-1204), who is usually represented as the chief sponsor of the systematizing and speculative tendency in Judaism, is far from having attached as much significance to the Creed he formulated as the fact of its presence in the prayer book might indicate. He himself strongly deprecates attaching more importance to one part of the Torah than to another. "The Ten Commandments and the Shema in the Torah," he says in the very same chapter of his commentary on the Mishnah which contains the Creed, "are no holier than any of the genealogies that are found in it." Albo (1380-1444) reduces the essence of Judaism to three, yet inconsistently declares that he who denies other articles of faith which are of minor importance is no less a heretic than he who denies any of the essential ones. In fact, he admits that there are as many articles of faith as commandments in the Torah.

Abravanel (1437-1508), though an admirer of scholasticism, and practically the last of the line of Jewish Aristotelians, considers the thirteen Articles of Maimonides' Creed gratuitous, and as not representative of the maturer views of Maimonides. His opinion is that they properly belonged to the commentary on the Mishnah, which was the work of his youth; and that as he ripened intellectually, he changed his mind about their value. We miss them in the Code and in the "Guide to the Perplexed," where we should most of all have expected to find them. In the same connection, Abravanel adds that the fashion of laying down creeds as fundamental in Judaism owes its origin to the method employed in the secular studies which always started with certain indisputable axioms.

The same resistance to the effort to extract Judaism from a few source principles is encountered in Jewish mysticism. Whatever we may think of the particular form which mysticism took on in the Jewish religion, we cannot but regard it as the outbreak of a longing that forms a part of all vital religion. We have good reason, therefore, to treat with respect its opinion of the intellectualizing process of Jewish philosophy. Although it was also addicted to speculative categories and developed a theosophy instead of a theology, it approached Judaism from an entirely different angle. Being impressionistic in its trend, it was bound to look elsewhere than to abstract concepts for the core of Judaism. To put Judaism into the form of a creed appeared to the mystics like combining pure gold with a baser metal, in order to mint it for circulation.

And More Recently by Mendelssohn

IN modern times the anti-dogmatizing tendency found a vigorous exponent in Mendelssohn. Yet, somehow or other, he has been singled out for attack, as though he had advocated a dry formalism, unredeemed by any inner principle or inspiration. He is charged with having been under the influence of the shallow deism of the English philosophers. The truth is that Mendelssohn only repeats in his way what Judah Ha-Levi had taught before him. He distinctly emphasizes the belief in the existence of God, in providence and in retribution as the sine qua non of Judaism, but he is clear-minded enough to realize that they constitute what he calls "the universal religion of mankind," and not Judaism.

Mendelssohn did not succeed in developing a constructive view of Judaism, whereby it might be enabled to withstand the shock of modernism; nevertheless, he does not deserve the treatment accorded him because of his alleged attitude towards creeds. His position as to the relation of creeds to Judaism is the only tenable one. He maintains that creeds can only be of two kinds; either they oppose reason, and should therefore find no place in Judaism, or are so self-evident that they are not confined to Judaism. This does not mean that to be a Jew one can believe whatever he likes, or not believe at all. It does not mean that Judaism only demands outward conformity. Mendelssohn was aware that certain "Hobot ha-Lebabot," Duties of the Heart, are indispensable to Judaism. But he refused to make of Judaism a mutilated philosophy.

Judaism Needs Working Principles—Not Abstract Dogmas

NO sphere of life can be maintained intelligently without some basic principles, particularly so exalted a sphere as religion. Who counts upon any art attaining a high degree of development by mere rule of thumb? Is anything so characteristic of modern life as emphasis upon the mutual interrelation of theory and practice? All our strivings to rehabilitate Judaism are bound to prove futile unless they are made to center about some definite conception of its aims and methods. We need principles, yea dogmas, in Judaism as we need working hypotheses in any great undertaking. But dogmas, in the sense of abstract principles, regarded as immutable, are both superfluous and dangerous. If such dogmas are nothing more than the common denominator of all that has been identified with Judaism in the course of its history, they are sure to be banal and colorless. If they are to be fixed and unalterable, they are bound in time to clash with reason and experience, and to sap the religion of its vitality. Judaism needs principles that can help it to withstand danger, that can give it a lease upon life. This is the criterion to be applied to any articulate conception of Judaism. Can the principles which the text-books on Judaism declare to be fundamental render this service? The reply is an unequivocal No. Hence they are worse than useless.

But we cannot afford to stop at this point. Knowing what Judaism is not, is only half-knowledge, and therefore quite dangerous. We must apply ourselves anew to the task of pondering over the problem of Judaism. We may indulge to our heart's content in lauding the past when one could be a Jew without troubling his head about the question, "What is Judaism?" We may sigh in regret for those days when a Jew upon being asked about his religion was able to reply, "I have no religion; I am a Jew." The danger of the entire economy of the Jewish soul going to pieces is too imminent to permit us to lull ourselves into that blissful unconsciousness, the praises of which Carlyle sang quite consciously. We are treading the narrow ledge of a precipice. Men like Zollschan, Ruppin, and Theilhaber have pointed out the awful chasm that threatens to engulf us. It requires not a little courage to maintain our nerve and avoid being seized with the vertigo. But courage alone is not enough. We must take into account the narrowness of the path and tread over it warily.

We Must Face the Real Problem of Judaism

WE Jews must do some very hard thinking, of a kind, perhaps, that we have not been called upon to do before. That task dare not be shirked. We must not give in to that tendency which breaks out whenever we have something very difficult to do, of turning to anything except that which we know demands peremptory attention. A task that is thus neglected revenges itself by haunting us and upsetting whatever we undertake. Instead of giving to the problem of Judaism the careful deliberation that it requires, we get busy with a thousand and one things, whereby we hope to escape the need of concentrated attention. We have become fussy and fidgety. We are divided into committees and sub-committees. In place of clearness of thought we have a confusion of tongues. Our case illustrates the truth which Pascal enunciated, that most of the evils in the world can be traced to the inability of a person to sit in his room and think.

Without deprecating any of the undertakings to bring order out of the social chaos in Jewish life, we must place at the present time chief emphasis upon the serious consideration of our inner problem, the problem of the Jewish soul and of the Jewish spirit, the problem of Judaism. We may well envy the thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of Europe to whom it is a joy to meet death for the sake of their respective flags. Each of them has a cause to die for. Most of us, by reason of our Jewish descent, find life, particularly in the higher sense of the word, to be a keener struggle for existence than our neighbors do. Yet it would not be half so wearing if our difficulties were consecrated by an inspiring cause or by a thrilling loyalty. Why need we be poverty-stricken in spirit, bereft of everything that makes struggle sweet and suffering endurable? We must put the very question, What is Judaism? in a new way and in a different spirit. We must have the definite purpose in mind, of so understanding it as to know what to do next, and to strive for that vigorously, so as not to drift like helpless flotsam and jetsam. We need strong beliefs which, as Bagehot puts it, win strong men, and then make them stronger.

Judaism Must Speak to Us in the Language of Today

IN the Talmud we find the principle enunciated that the Torah adopted the style of language that men were wont to use. A condition indispensable to a religion being an active force in human life is that it speak to men in terms of their own experience. Judaism, to be significant to modern man or woman, can no longer afford to speak in the language of theology. Psychology and social science, history and human experience, have revealed new worlds in the domain of the spirit. The language of theology might have a certain quaintness and charm to the ears of those to whom religion is a kind of dreamy romanticism. But to those who want to find in Judaism a way of life and a higher ambition, it must address itself in the language of concrete and verifiable experience.

The ideas in which Judaism was wont to spell itself out in the past are no longer at home in the Weltanschauung of the modern man. What prevented the Reform movement from becoming a real reformation and a vitalization of Judaism was that it sought to adjust Judaism to a Weltanschauung which had already begun to grow obsolete. We have to reckon with all that has been learned in the meantime concerning human society and the place of religion in it. When one comes to a strange land, and has with him only the coin of his native country, he must calculate in terms of the currency of the land he is in, if he wants to know whether or not he has enough to live on. Can we Jews afford to live spiritually upon our heritage? That can only be answered if we learn what that heritage is equivalent to in the current mental coin of the modern man. If we do not wish to be cut off from the stream of living thought, if we do not want to be spiritually starved, we Jews must know not so much what Judaism meant twenty centuries ago, nor even a century ago, but what it is to mean to us of today.

Signature: MMKaplan

Editors' Note.—In articles to follow, Professor Kaplan will give his conception of "What Judaism Is."

The Jewish Student in Our Universities

A Menorah Prize Essay

By Morris J. Escoll

MORRIS J. ESCOLL MORRIS J. ESCOLL (born in Russia, 1893, came to America in 1896), graduate of Stuyvesant High School, New York (1910), student at Columbia (1910-'12) where he won the Peithologian Medal for a Freshman Essay; worked as farm hand; and since 1914 a student in the Cornell College of Agriculture. The present paper is a somewhat revised version of the Essay with which he won the Cornell Menorah Prize last June.

THE remarkable adaptability of the Jew to his environment has been at once his strength and his weakness. His strength, in that it provided a variable cloak to shelter him in storm on the one hand,—on the other, to deck him seasonably, as it were, for the onward journey, when days were fair; his weakness, in that it has often led him to forget that the cloak was but raiment;—"and is not the body more than raiment?" Of strength in storm we have had example enough for twenty centuries—such example as is unique in history; of what is more rare, strength in days of fair weather, we are to expect a supreme example today, and in America, in the American Universities let us say, where the cloak of adaptability is most free and seasonable—a supreme example of strength, or of weakness.

The Cloak of Adaptability

ONE is at first reluctant to single out the Jew from his fellows at college. He seems in no manner different from them. He studies with them, eats with them, plays ball with them. He writes editorials for the college paper; he competes in the oratorical contests. One, for example, is a member of the school orchestra; another, perhaps the son or the grandson of an immigrant from Germany, leads the cheers at the track meet; another, himself an immigrant from Russia, plays on the chess team and is one of the brilliant scholars in his class. This last does, at present, have something of the stranger about him, but before long, no doubt, his speech will have become more smooth, his trousers will have begun to show a crease; he will have become quite an interesting and regular figure at the various reform and ethical club meetings at the university, and he will begin to be seen quite frequently in the company of his gentile classmates—even in the company of his German-Jewish cousin. Wonderful, indeed, the country that can so readily attire its adopted children, and, as the saying goes, make them feel at home; wonderful, perhaps, the race that, through centuries of degradation, has kept alive, though often latent indeed, the potentialities of equal partnership with the most enlightened peoples of a twentieth century civilization.

What though it has no long past, America is the great land of the future. Here let the Jew lay aside his burden of the time that has gone and build anew into the time to come. Shall we regret, then, that the Jewish student has taken on the polite address, the proud carriage, the heartiness and the chuckle of his Yankee comrade? Should he now keep the gabardine of his forefathers, yes, and the credulities and ceremonies of a circumscribed and persecuted people? Why not absorb that wholesome ruddiness, denied him so long, that breathes of open American prairies, fair play, and the Declaration of Independence?

"The Goal of Twenty Centuries of Wandering"

"FOXES have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head." Of whom did the great prophet speak more fittingly than of the children of his own race? Homeless for two thousand years, persecuted, ostracized, their backs have become bent and in the eyes of many they have become a nation of religious fanatics and usurers, wily, unkempt. The Jewish youth of to-day cannot look back upon his history of exile and say, as did Æneas of old after seven long years of wandering: "It will be pleasant to remember"—"forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit"; his trials have been but too real and he has not recovered sufficiently to have any desire to recall them. Blame him not then, if, when others from obscure and semi-civilized quarters of the globe hail with pride their ancestry, he alone, with the proudest traditions in history, will sometimes seek to hide his descent. He still feels, moreover, some of the old "wiliness" and "unkemptness" within himself; he thinks they are of the Jews and of none others—and he wants to get rid of them. He still feels some of the old usury in his bones, the clannishness, the distrust of the world, which the squalid ghetto walls the Middle Ages had built around his fathers have bequeathed to him, and he wants to get rid of those. Shall we look askance at him then, if when the American University welcomes him to her hearth—Ithaca, for example, with her kindly professors and laughing girl students, her ball games, her neat cottages and rolling hills that drink Cayuga's stream beside—in the excess of eagerness he should sometimes break with, yes, even forget his past, and dream new things? (Hills, cottages, home and country; superfluous concepts were these to other men, elementary satisfactions which they are born into and take for granted as their inevitable heritage.) Eagerly, therefore, greedily, perhaps, he sees new things; the goal of twenty centuries of wandering stands revealed before him. The Irish have found a home in America, the Germans, the Italians, the Poles, and why not the neediest of all, the Jews? The American University typifies the ideals of the great democracy where "race, creed and previous conditions" are forgotten. Here all men forget their prejudices. All men become brothers.

But Not Yet Are All Men Brothers

BUT hold, have we not been expressing a wish rather than a fact? We look into our own hearts, and strife and jealousy and racial antagonism are still there. Can we expect that man who has but lately begun to think of brotherhood can already feel it in his blood; that the age-long superstition against the Jew can be obliterated with a new geographical boundary—though that boundary be indeed serene as the all-washing, all-embracing Atlantic? Oh, that "reality does not correspond to our conceptions," exclaims Wilhelm Meister.

For centuries the Jews had a respected and comfortable home in Spain, but then came the fearful Inquisition, and the ninth day of Ab 1492 saw 300,000 of them exiled out of the country they had helped grow to culture and wealth. There was the Declaration of the Rights of Man during the French Revolution, but then came the Dreyfus affair a century later. There was science and enlightenment in United Germany, but never was anti-Semitism more pronounced, more scientific than there between 1875 and '80. In 1881 the May Laws were passed in Russia. In 1882 there was a ritual murder trial in Hungary. Our statutes and sciences, after all, are but ways and means, improved ways and means, to what?—often to unimproved ends, it seems. Our learning and knowledge are what?—but channels to educate, to lead out (e-duco) the noble qualities in man? yes; perhaps also his jealousies and hatreds. And thus there comes a time of doubt. The courtesies and learning of this university life, reflects the Jewish student, perhaps but cover up these jealousies and hatreds, make them more polite, and all the more painful therefore. However much he will not, he sees cliques and denominational clubs all about him: Catholic clubs, Lutheran clubs, Jewish clubs; in the lecture room the gentiles form their groups and the Jews form theirs; in the election of class officers the Jews have been slighted; at the class dinner a Jew was insulted; one fellow was refused accommodations at a student rooming-house because he was a Jew; and the sensitive young man begins to feel as though there were but two divisions of people at the University after all: Jews and everybody else.

The Perennial Burden of the Jew

BUT it is unfair and ungrateful to speak thus of the American University. All superstition and prejudice may not have disappeared here; enough it is that they tend to disappear so rapidly. But what of the large country outside the university? What of the growing Jewries in our cities? What of the Jew in the little hamlet carrying his pack of tinware from door to door; he is so eager to earn an honest dollar for a wife, a daughter, perhaps for a son at college; so eager to find him a home like that of the earlier non-Jewish immigrants who buy his wares; yet why must he overstrain his virtues before them, break through the ice, as the saying goes, and clear himself—why? for being a Jew. Evidently, others are taken as good until they prove themselves bad; the Jew is bad until he proves himself good. Should some other Jewish trader come to the same locality and commit some wrong, overcharge a shilling on the price of a kettle, for example, the first Jew must be made to feel ashamed of it, for it was not the other man who did the wrong, but the "Jew in him." Evidently, again, the Jewish problem is not of the individual, but of the race. Must the Wandering Jew bear a perennial burden?

But even if this problem were solved (it is possible for all the Jews in America to be in time regarded on equal terms with their neighbors or even to be assimilated altogether with them), what of the Jews in Russia, in Roumania, in Galicia? How long must we wait for them to assimilate or to become free and equal sons of a fatherland? Surely we shall not suggest that it is well for them to continue forever an alien people in those lands. And even if this problem too were solved, if the Jews of Russia, Roumania, and Galicia were to become free and equal sons of a fatherland, if the Jews all over the world were to be taken in as brothers by their neighbors, is it enough? Are we to be satisfied with this alone? "Hills, cottages, home and country"—is not all this but raiment? What of the body, what of the Jewish soul?

The Three Types of Jewish Students: (1) The "No-Jew"

WITH his problems thus put, how shall the Jewish youth face them? Shall he consider body and raiment equally, shall he put body above raiment, or shall he put raiment above body and forget the body? To put it crudely into other words, shall his ready adaptation to American University life tend to make him less of a Jew, more of a Jew, or no Jew at all, and thus tending, to repeat our original thought, wherein will it be for weakness, wherein for strength? Each Jewish student, no doubt, in varying measure, responds to all three of these tendencies; yet, insofar as the response towards one or another of these is more marked in certain individuals than in others, let us group the individuals together accordingly, and for the convenience of our discussion divide them into three separate types.

The no-Jew type is common on the campus. His presence pleases us, perhaps even flatters us. He is carefree, boyish. He makes heroes of the gridiron athletes; he delights in the comedy shows that come to town; he joins his non-Jewish friends in outdoor play in that easy laughter of theirs that bubbles over at a trifle;—and we were beginning to think the Jew had forgotten to play and laugh. We saw him after sundown once, single in a canoe, paddling across the wide unruffled lake and far where purple sky and purple water seem to commingle, and we thought we saw the primitive Indian again, the wholesome child of nature plying those waters as of old. Sail on, brave youth, we are glad to see thee still a lover of the wild, the simple, the calm; we are glad there is still in the Jew something of the wholesome child, the adventurer, the savage, shall we call it? We are almost tempted to say we are glad to have him forget his past, to sail thus away, as it were, from his troubled brethren, away across the unruffled lake where purple wave and purple cloud in peace commingle,—so long have we waited for the mind of the Jewish youth to be youthful, for the moist gleam in the eye of a sorrowful children to disappear.

"Neither Fish, Nor Flesh, Nor Fowl"

BUT not always is this drifting out of Jewish life so comely. There is another individual in this type in whom it appears very much strained. The first merges within the American tradition, the second obtrudes into it; the first unconsciously, the second painfully aware of his effort; the first because he has so much of the tradition within him, the second, we are afraid, because he has so little. The second individual is generally of more recent arrival to this country than the first; he considers his Jewishness a misfortune which must be gotten rid of. Both are, indeed, self-centred, unmindful of their people, but the first is more boyish—and a boy should be self-centred. Both put the raiment above the body, and in this there is weakness; but in the first there is not much of body, the roots of Jewish growth have found no depth or proper sap in him, and if in him there is not strength of body, there is at least grace of raiment; in the second there is neither grace nor strength,—he may acquire the superstructure of American character, but where the foundation to build it on? Where is there strength when it is ever a getting and never a giving?

Judaism weighs most heavily upon this latter individual. He will often deny his race, we regret to say, and play for the affection of members of other races. But they somehow will discover his "misfortune" and despise him all the more for hiding it. All this prejudice, he explains, is due to "those other Jews." If they would only learn modesty from the gentile,—not talk so, not walk so, and not keep hanging around the professor's desk after the lecture with all sorts of fool questions,—why then, there would be no more of "this prejudice thing" and he could devote his time to more important problems. (We half suspect those problems would be superficial ones. We would also perhaps give more heed to his urging us to modesty, if only the urging were more modest.) He may even become eloquent and tell us that the Jews do not appreciate the generosities and liberties of American life, that they ought to forget their old religious superstitions and realize that in free America we don't need any religions, for all men are brothers. (Here again we would perhaps give more heed to his sentiment for its boundless idealism, were we not afraid it was but a cover for boundless egotism.)

And which brotherly organization, which fraternity do you belong to up here? We ask, not to criticize those boyish aristocracies but rather to embarrass him, we confess, for we know he must name a Jewish fraternity or none at all. The other fraternities are indeed fraternal—but not to Jews, not even to those who would get away from Judaism. We speak without malice of this individual; we regret only that he gets so little out of the great American tradition. The raiment becomes him badly. Speaking in slang and following the baseball scores does not make an American. If he sells his birthright let it be for something more than a mess of pottage. Even if he should succeed in assimilating himself with the other races, whether it be by the accumulation of wealth or baptism or successful denial of his origin, yet we doubt whether he can become really happy—for he is neither fish nor flesh nor fowl. Again, what can he receive when he has nothing to give? And thus we must leave him, perhaps even now laughing in the company of his non-Jewish acquaintances at some caricature of the Jew presented for their entertainment—that is of one of "those other Jews"—a type for which we are sorry, a coin that is spurious and does not ring true.

The Second Type: "An American of Jewish Ancestry"

OUR second type considers body and raiment as of equal weight; he will make them as one. He will become less of a Jew and more of an American, a better American for being a Jew. Unlike the first type, he sees a little beyond himself. Americanism is good enough for him, but there are other Jews not in America, he realizes, and there are Jews within America who have not reached, perhaps never can reach, his position of comfortable participation in American life, and what of them? There may be more pressing, more important problems in the world, but who else will solve that particular one of the Jew if he doesn't? He therefore will not run away from Judaism; he will try to modify it, of course, to fit in with American progress, but, for the sake of his people, he will stay a Jew, or better an American of Jewish ancestry. This type is the son of the big-hearted givers among Israel. His father subscribes generously to charitable organizations, is a member of a Reform Temple, and owes much indeed to the opportunities of the American republic. The son, therefore, is an American patriot, and what though it seem at times overtaxed, his patriotism, unlike that of the individual under our first type, is genuine, for it is not primarily self-seeking. When he speaks of ideals, it is not to say we have no need of religions at all, but rather that we all in America have more or less the same belief only that we choose to express it differently, each according to his ancestral traditions. The three rings, says Nathan der Weise, may all be true or all be false according to the conduct of those that wear them. "But are there no peculiar values of conduct," we ask him, "bequeathed by the peculiar traditions of the Jew?" "Yes," he answers, "but those values may now be found in the cosmopolitan civilization of America." "We are getting away from peculiar things," he further adds; "we must learn to break down barriers and distinctions and work all together, not as Jews or Americans or anything else, but simply as men. Our only problem is to get the Jews treated everywhere as men." "But aside from that," we go on to ask, "isn't there a something that binds together certain groups of people that have had a common history, a common religion or any such thing in common?" "Yes," he replies, "but that something is the common intellect. The accident of birth does not make us friends; though I must help the Jew in far-off Russia, yet I am more closely identified with my Anglo-Saxon classmate. For me to co-operate with the Jew simply because he is a Jew is as logical as for me to co-operate with a man simply because he has the same shade of brown hair that I have." Words that command our thought—but yet it seems to us the speaker feels better than he knows. Why then did his heart quicken when one Friday night we passed the window of that Galician Jew, the erstwhile butt of many a jest between us, our college second-hand clothes man, and saw the flicker of his Sabbath candles? No flicker within the home of a brown-haired man would move him so. And even while he is speaking to us, though the length of our acquaintanceship is short, we detect an unwonted relaxation in his manner, a confidence that has found understanding and seeks to lay itself bare. Is it not because both of us are Jews?

Be that as it may, the words of this type are sincere. If he forgets his ancestry it is because he thinks of posterity. By blending his thoughts and aspirations with those of free and generous America, he will bequeath to his children a happier heritage than was left him by his forefathers. As for ideals, why call them Jewish rather than American; what though they originated in Judea, cannot they be distributed from America? His Zion therefore will be in Washington. The Jewish soul and the American soul will become as one. He does not deny the soul, then—the raiment has not been put above the body, the flesh above the spirit; and the adaptation of this type to the American environment can therefore make for strength, for a better humanity.

The Third Type: "More, Not Less, of a Jew"

WHAT room have we now for a third type? But there does appear one among his brethren, an extremist, who is not to be satisfied with the promised strength of his fellows of this last type. There may be strength among them, he thinks, but strength not enough. Greater strength is there in becoming not a non-Jew, nor less of a Jew, but simply more of a Jew. Judaism to him is not a mere peculiar thing, but a peculiar great thing, and only by keeping it peculiar can he enhance its greatness. The Jewish genius cannot blend with that of America without loss to its individuality; however much it may borrow from America in outer accoutrement, in "wholesome ruddiness," "fair play," "polite address," and so forth—(and it should borrow what it can to improve its appearance), yet the accoutrement must remain but raiment,—and the body is more than raiment. Apparently he is a very narrow-minded person—and he is; yet he believes with Ahad Ha-'Am that "greatness is not a matter of breadth only, but of depth."

We have found this extremist in the dark-eyed dreamer who came to us but recently from a Russian university, but also in the glad-eyed youth who wears his Americanism most gracefully, it being handed down to him for several generations. Judaism in this case, at any rate, to use a homely expression, does not vary with the length of the nose. This type is small in numbers, but the Jews have never made much of numbers, and even as we observe him we are minded of the words of Joel, "—and in the remnant shall be deliverance." Does he shun the American garment then? No, on the contrary, he evermore seeks it and strives to make it attire him more gracefully. He loves the American tradition; he has much to gather from its sunniness—his fathers had been kept in the dark so long. But, at the breaking of day, when the angel who wrestled with him through the night would let him go, he will say, as did Jacob of old, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me"; America must bless him so that in the light of modern day his people may once again be called "no more Jacob but Israel."

"Many and great are the gifts of the gentile world," he tells us, "but that peculiar greatness within the character of the Jews as a people, it has not. Some have called it religion, some morality; perhaps it is the devotion they have evolved to the unity of things, the אחד חוחי; perhaps it is only a certain sadness of suffering, a certain depth of sympathy they have evolved for all suffering and sorrow, but at any rate it is a racial momentum which our ancestors for four thousand years have been forging and refining in the hottest fires;" and whether it be conceit or inspiration, he adds, "and think not that we, to-day, in the comfortable lassitude of American life, can destroy it." The spirit is greater than the man; the Jew may be lost or be assimilated, but the Jewish race, not yet.

A Spiritual Vision and Aspiration

"BUT consider," we say very plainly to him, "the great bulk of the Jews who seem to have lost that old spirit of religion; they pray in a language they scarce understand as though 'they shall be heard for their much speaking'; when you want the Hebrew Bible, moreover, it seems you must go to the gentiles, and have not these added thereto the sublime teachings of Christ?"

"Yes," replies our Jewish friend, with more of grief than of censure in his voice, "and to-day the Christian world is awarding the Iron Cross for excellence in killing. And our people it has made to loathe the name of Christ, because it was his image that was in the hand of the priest who led the mob to massacre at the Inquisition and at Kishineff; though all the time it was that very persecuted people that was itself living the principles and the martyrdom of its greatest prophet." And he continues, and tells us brusquely how he went once to church with a Methodist young lady and how when he was rapt in the music of a Psalm that was being sung, she whispered giddily to him: "Don't that remind you somewhat of the one-step music?" "No," he tells us he replied, "it reminds me that I am the only Christian in this audience."

And we understand in his reply he was not thinking of himself alone (for extremist though he was, he must have known there was many another devout listener in that audience) but rather of his race, of those very Jews of the bended backs, "wily, unkempt," who were elsewhere chanting that same Psalm in a language, 'tis true, they scarce understood, yet with a spiritual zeal and forgetfulness of the "treasures upon earth" which was the very soul of the teachings of Christ. Could his Methodist friend, could even he, with all his university training and American ruddiness, but have the noble spirit of his unlettered grandmother he remembered weeping so bitterly in the old synagogue on Yom Kippur, as though weeping for the sins of all humanity,—Rachel weeping for her children. No, it was not the religion put on and off with the phylacteries that distinguished his fathers; it was never the raiment, but the body. Even in the darkness of the Middle Ages it was the Malkuth Shaddai, the kingdom of righteousness, that the old Jew prayed for on his sacred days.

Narrow-minded, indeed, is this last type of Jew; but yet when rays are concentrated to a narrow radius, the outlook through the lens may be wide and far-reaching. We understand that he, too, thinks of posterity as does his cousin, but only as mistress within its own household does he believe the Jewish race can bequeath great strength to its posterity and the posterity of the world,—not as intruder into the home of others, nor even as their welcome guest. The Bible was the work of a narrow, provincial Israel; the Talmud their work when scattered among the nations.

"To Make Strong the Spirit of the Prophets"

"WE have made too much," concludes our young friend, "of the cosmopolitan likenesses among nations and men; we must promote their differences, and respect for those differences. That is in the path of peace; it is war, as you know, that levels distinctions. The harmony of an autumn sunset is in its many colors. Our own little handful of people does not wish to make itself great in possessions or strong in arms. We have ever been the meekest among men; while many a Christian nation was taking an eye for an eve, it is we that were turning the other cheek. Yes, we think we have outgrown that boyish fascination for brutal brawn a little more than they. Today, Israel wishes but to express its pent-up soul, to make strong the spirit of its prophets and teachers, its Moses, its Isaiah, its Hillel, so that it may be 'for a light to the Gentiles, (and bear) salvation unto the end of the earth.'"

Signature: Morris J. Escoll

The Romance of Rabbi Akiba

By George J. Horowitz

GEORGE JACOB HOROWITZ GEORGE JACOB HOROWITZ (born in New York, 1894), educated in the Public Schools of New York, College of the City of New York (A. B. 1915), Talmud Torah, and Teachers' Institute of Jewish Theological Seminary; President (1915) of Menorah Society of City College of New York; now a graduate student in Romance Languages at Columbia.

AKIBA ben Joseph, deservedly called the father of Rabbinical Judaism, was one of the most original and the most talented of all the great galaxy of ancient Rabbis. In him was typified the great ideal of a Jewish Rabbi—a man of heart, of hand, and of head. But Akiba is still more remarkable for the charm and romance of his life. He is indeed the one Rabbi with a great romance. The story of his life, stripped of all exaggeration or literary artifice, reads more like a tale of "knight and lady" than like the simple facts of a scholar's life. His great love, his sudden rise from the humblest obscurity, his brilliant intellectual and spiritual achievements, and his glorious death, make up the successive scenes of one of the most inspiring chapters in Jewish history.

His Youth and Romantic Marriage

AKIBA was born about the year 50, at a time when the Roman Empire at its height was about to turn all its mighty forces against his people, the little state of Judea; and he died a martyr to his faith, in about the year 132, on the eve of the last great rebellion against Roman domination. His origin and early years are shrouded in darkness. We know that he was an unlettered shepherd in his youth and mistrustful of Rabbis and their learning. His master, Kalba Sabua—so the story goes—was one of the richest men in Jerusalem, one of the three wealthy philanthropists who offered to prevent the famine occasioned by the last great siege of Jerusalem.

While in the service of Kalba Sabua, young Akiba made the acquaintance of his daughter Rachel. They were immediately drawn to one another, he attracted by her great beauty, and she by his innate refinement and superiority. A deep attachment soon sprang up between them. Akiba was still an illiterate man, however, and Rachel made him promise that if she were betrothed unto him he would go to the Beth Hamidrash to study. In those days this was equivalent to acquiring education and culture. To this Akiba assented and there followed a secret marriage. When her father learned of what she had done, he became furious. He disinherited her, and cast her off, leaving her without a roof over her head and absolutely penniless, and he swore that as long as Akiba remained her husband she would receive no help from her father. Then set in a period of bitter poverty for the young pair. Akiba's heart was rent with pain to see his young wife, who had been accustomed from earliest youth to a home of luxury, pass her days in a miserable hovel, with the barest necessities and sometimes even lacking bread to eat. In winter they slept on a pallet and Akiba would pick the straws out of her wonderfully long and beautiful hair. She was beautiful even in her rags and tatters, and once Akiba was moved to exclaim: "Oh, that I had a fitting ornament for thee: a golden image of Jerusalem the Holy City!" Both indeed were nearest his heart. Once a man came to the door of their hut and asked for some straw, saying that his wife was confined to child-bed and he had no couch for her. "Ah, see," said Akiba to his wife, "there are those even poorer than we. This man has not even straw to lie on." This seeming poor man, the Rabbis say, was none other than Elijah, who had come to comfort them in their misery.

Struggles and Sacrifices for an Education

THE incident did indeed give them new heart, for until then Akiba could not summon enough resolution to go off and study while his wife remained behind in such abject circumstances. Nor could she insist. But now her old strength came back to her, and she reminded Akiba of his promise: "Go thou, and study in the Beth-Hamidrash." She must have felt undoubtedly that there were great possibilities in him, and in truth she was not mistaken. Akiba, however, in his modesty, had no confidence that he could master the intricate subtleties of Rabbinic law. How could he, who had now reached forty years of age without once attending even an elementary school, hope to make any progress at all so late in life? One day, musing thus, as he stood by the village well, his interest was suddenly roused by observing that one of the stones had a deep hollow, caused probably by the drippings of the buckets. "Who hollowed out this stone?" he asked; and he was answered: "Canst thou not read Scripture, Akiba? 'The waters wear the stones,'—the water, that falls on it continually day after day, has hollowed out the stone." Immediately Akiba argued a fortiori (Kal Vahomer) with respect to himself. "If what is soft can cut what is hard, then the words of the Torah, which are as hard as iron, will surely impress themselves upon my heart, which is only flesh and blood." So Akiba repaired forthwith to a Melammed Tinokoth, a teacher of children, and, seated beside his own little son, he began learning his letters. Akiba held one end of the A. B. C. board and his son the other.

The elements once mastered, the next step was the Rabbinical academy. Bitter poverty, however, would not permit Akiba to leave home, and he would probably have remained in his little village for the rest of his life, an obscure and unknown man, if it were not for his wife. It was her noble self-sacrifice that enabled him to become the greatest Rabbi of his time and perhaps of all time. Unknown to him, she stole out into the market-place and sold all that beautiful hair of hers, so that he might continue his studies. Indeed no sacrifice, no self-abnegation, was too great for her. She sent Akiba away and for twelve long years dwelt alone in sorrow and in want, a "living widow," and at the end of that period she crowned it with a renewal of the same great sacrifice. As Akiba was crossing the threshold, home again after twelve years of study, he overheard Rachel talking with a neighbor. "It served thee right," said the neighbor, "for marrying a man so far beneath thee. Now he has gone off and forsaken thee." "If he hearkened to me," was Rachel's reply, "he would stay away another twelve years." At these words Akiba exclaimed: "Since she gives me permission, I will go back to my studies,"—and he went and stayed away another twelve years. Such was the noble renunciation of Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiba, for his sake and for the sake of the Torah.

Akiba's Rise to Recognition and Fame

AKIBA studied assiduously at the schools of R. Nahum of Geniso and of R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, both renowned teachers, who in their youth had been favorite pupils of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai. It is illuminating to consider Akiba's general method of study. He had the habit, the Talmud tells us, of going alone to meditate over every Halakah (law) that he learned. After this bit of hard thinking, as we would call it, he usually came back with some very difficult questions. Only when these questions were answered did he feel satisfied that he knew the Halakah. That this thorough method of study bore fruitful results Akiba's subsequent achievements showed. At first, however, his genius was not evident and R. Eliezer paid no attention to him. But one day Akiba gave him his first answer and R. Eliezer was astounded at its profundity. Said R. Joshua then to R. Eliezer, in a slightly modified Scriptural phrase, "Is not this he whom thou hast despised? Go thou now and contend with him." From that time on Akiba was acknowledged a master of Rabbinic law.

All that confused mass of traditional rules, precepts, laws, discussions and opinions which composed the Oral Law, and which it usually took a lifetime to master, Akiba made his own within the space of a few years, and at an age when the mind is no longer fresh and impressionable. Akiba's genius showed itself even more brilliantly in his subsequent labors in the same field, which were marked by three great achievements. These were his arrangement of the Oral Law into a systematic code, the Mishnah (substantially as later edited by R. Judah Ha-Nasi), his establishment of a logical foundation for each Halakah, and his discovery and formulation of new and original methods of hermeneutics and exegesis. To appreciate the magnitude of these achievements, we must remember that up to and for some time after Akiba's day, instruction in the rabbinical academies was oral. Each teacher taught, as well as he could recall, exactly what he had heard from the lips of his master, and his pupils in their turn did likewise. Every great Rabbi therefore had his own set of Halakic traditions, his own Mishnah.

The results of this system or rather lack of system were mainly two: the reasons for many of the Halakoth were forgotten, and of the laws that were taught an immense number were uncoordinated, confused and often contradictory. The greatest fault, however, of these early Mishnayoth (Mishnayoth Rishonoth) was their general lack of arrangement. The Halakoth were usually strung together without connection and without any logical grouping. It was Akiba who first organized them into an orderly system. He put all the Halakoth dealing with one particular subject in one group, and then he divided the groups into the six general divisions that our Mishnah has today. Besides this he introduced number mneumonics wherever possible, in order to facilitate memorization. The second work that we owe to Akiba's influence is the Tosephta or Supplement to the Mishnah, as later edited by his pupil R. Nehemiah. Akiba's purpose in this Supplement was to give explanatory matter on the Halakoth of the Mishnah in the form of citations of cases, discussions, and opinions. Here there was more room for originality than in the first work, for when the reason for any law had been forgotten Akiba discovered it again.

"The Third Founder of Judaism after Moses and Ezra"

THE achievement, however, in which Akiba's mind revealed itself in all its brilliant originality, and which more than anything else delighted and astonished his colleagues, was his new system of Biblical, or rather Pentateuchal, interpretation, his Midrash ha-Torah. The importance of these new methods cannot be overestimated. The Oral Law is nothing more than the Jewish interpretation of the Torah, and consequently new methods of Pentateuchal exegesis meant the further growth and development of the Oral Law. Akiba thus gave Judaism the capacity for vigorous further development. He was indeed a firm believer in the principle that the Oral Law, even as life itself, is always in process of evolution—"immer in Werden," as the Germans put it—but never completed. His main exegetical principle is quite simple. The language of the Torah is not like the language of an ordinary book. In the Torah every syllable, every letter is fraught with meaning. It is all essence. Hence every detail in the Torah must be interpreted. There is absolutely nothing superfluous. It was these exegetical methods that excited the unbounded admiration of his fellow-rabbis. They said of him that things that were not even revealed to Moses were revealed unto Akiba. By his preservation of the old Halakoth in the Mishnah and by his stimulation of newer developments with his exegesis, Akiba laid the foundations of Talmudic and Rabbinic learning, and truly earned for himself the title of third founder of Judaism after Moses and Ezra.

Akiba's method of teaching also was extraordinary. The order and system that he had brought into the Rabbinic curriculum coupled with his novel methods of exegesis rendered his lectures clear, simple and most interesting. Multitudes flocked to hear him. With hardly an exception all the prominent Rabbis of the following generation attended Akiba's academy. Notable amongst them was R. Meir, who handed down Akiba's Mishnah to R. Judah Ha-Nasi and through him to posterity.

Happiness and Affluence

TOWARDS the end of the twenty-four years thus devoted to study, Akiba turned his steps homewards, accompanied by a large band of disciples, which tradition numbers in the thousands. At the rumor that a great Rabbi was coming, Rachel's heart was all aflutter with hope and expectation. Perhaps it was he at last! The whole village went out to meet him, she with the rest. When she saw that it was indeed he, she fell on her knees before him sobbing and began kissing his feet. The pupils surrounding Akiba wanted to push her aside, but he said, "Let her be. What knowledge I possess and what knowledge you possess belongs to her." When Kalba Sabua heard that a great Rabbi had come to town, not dreaming that it was his son-in-law, he made up his mind to go to him and have his vow absolved, for at the sight of his daughter's misery his heart had softened, and but for his vow he would long since have taken her back. He came to the Rabbi and the Rabbi said to him, "If thou hadst known that her husband would one day be a great scholar, wouldst thou have vowed?" "If he knew even one chapter or even one Halakah, I would not have vowed," was the reply. "I am he," said Akiba simply. At these words Kalba Sabua stared in amazement, and then fell at his feet and begged pardon for all his past unkindness towards both Akiba and Rachel. To make more substantial amends he gave them half his fortune and they lived in comfort ever after. The affluence in which Akiba henceforth lived, contrasted with the poverty of his student days when he used to cut wood for a living, is thus quaintly described in the Talmud: "When he was a student Akiba used to fetch a bundle of wood every day. Half he sold for food and half for clothing. But before Akiba departed from this world, he had tables of silver and of gold, and he climbed into his bed on golden ladders." His wife too had the satisfaction of receiving from him and wearing the "Golden Jerusalem," that Akiba had wished he could give her in the days of their poverty. Indeed the magnificence of Rachel's jewels called forth a protest on the part of the students of Akiba's academy. "Thou hast put us to shame before our wives," they said, "for our wives do not possess any such precious ornaments." "Ah, yes," said Akiba, "but she has suffered much with me in the Torah."

Akiba's Virile Ethics and Philosophy

AKIBA'S philosophical speculations were no less famous than his Halakic activities. Just about this time all sorts of hybrid religions made up of decadent Greek philosophy and of dying Pagan creeds were in vogue—the various forms of Gnosticism. Christianity—Jewish Gnosticism, that is—was only one of the many perversions that Judaism had to combat. These religions exercised a particular fascination because they dealt largely in esoteric doctrines and in theosophic speculation. There was great danger that Jewish minds might be led astray, as in fact some were. Of the four great Rabbis, who the Talmud says entered upon theosophic studies, only Akiba came through safely. Upon ben Azzai and ben Zoma, both brilliant young students, and upon Aher (Elisha ben Abuya) it had disastrous effects. Ben Azzai died young. Ben Zoma went mad and Elisha ben Abuyah repudiated Judaism. Wherefore the Rabbis never mentioned his name but always spoke of him as "Aher" ("the Other").

Akiba's philosophy and ethics are revealed in the following sayings:

"Labor is honorable to man."

"They err who say I will sin now and repent after. The day of atonement brings no forgiveness to the insincere." This saying is strikingly similar to Dante's famous line in the Inferno: "No one can repent and will at once."

The eternal problem why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper is answered by Akiba in this way. The righteous are punished in this world for their few sins, so that in the next world they may receive only reward. The wicked on the other hand are rewarded here for what little good they do, so that in the next world they may receive only punishment.

"Beloved are Israel, for they are called children of the All-present, as it is said, 'Ye are children unto the Lord your God.' Beloved are Israel for unto them was given the desirable instrument by which the world was created, as it is written 'For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my Torah.'" Israel is therefore the Chosen People. Nay more. In another place Akiba says, "Even the poorest of Israel are looked upon as nobles," and even R. Ishmael agreed with him that "Every Jew is a royal prince." Our motto to-day of "noblesse oblige" is the same thought in a strange tongue. "By which the world was created" means that Akiba identified the Torah with "Wisdom," which is described in Proverbs, in that famous chapter beginning "Doth not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice?" as having been "set up from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was." Adapting the opening verse of John, Akiba could very well have said, "In the beginning was the Torah and the Torah was with God," but he certainly would not have said, "and the Torah was God."

"Everything is foreseen," Akiba goes on to say, "yet freedom of choice is given; and the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to the amount of work." His doctrine of "grace" and "works" was that "grace" is acquired through works, or in non-theological language, God's favor goes to the man of good deeds. This was in opposition to the Christian teaching that "grace" came through faith alone. God's justice is tempered with mercy; yet even divine mercy is dealt out fairly, says Akiba. He had such a strong sense of right that he even condemned the action of the Israelites in despoiling the Egyptians. "It is equally wrong to deceive a heathen as to deceive an Israelite," he said. Akiba agreed with Hillel that the chief commandment of the Torah is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. XIX, 18), which again is nothing more than an application of the principle of justice in our dealings with our fellow-men.

A Man of the People

IN spite of his great fame Akiba was the most modest of men. While still a student at Jamnia Akiba was noted for his humility. R. Jochanan ben Nuri told how he had occasion several times to complain of Akiba to the Patriarch and how each time Akiba took his reprimand meekly. Nay more. Despite these reproofs Akiba was all the more affectionate towards R. Jochanan, so that the latter was moved to exclaim in admiration, "Reprove a wise man and he will love thee!" (Prov. IX, 8.) Another notable example of Akiba's modesty is his speech at the funeral of his son, which was attended by a great gathering of men, women, and children from all parts of Palestine. "Brethren of Israel," said Akiba, "listen to me. Not because I am a learned man have ye appeared here so numerously. There are those here more learned than I. Nor because I am a rich man. There are those here far richer than I. The people of the South know Akiba; but whence should the people of Galilee know him? The men know him; but whence should the women and children that I see here know him? But I know full well that ye have not given yourselves the trouble to come but for the sake of fulfilling a religious precept and to do honor to the Torah, and your reward will indeed be great." Practising it as he did, Akiba did not fail likewise to preach modesty. "He who esteems himself highly on account of his knowledge," said he, "is like a corpse lying at the wayside; the traveler turns his head away in disgust and walks quickly by." Again, in words almost identical with Luke (XIV, 8-11), Akiba says: "Take thou a seat a few places below thy rank until thou art bidden to take a higher place, for it is better that they should say to thee: 'Come up higher' than that they should bid thee 'Go down lower.'"

Akiba was likewise famous for his kindness and charity. He was a man of the people. His heart was full of charity and affection for the multitude. His interest in their welfare was so deep and genuine that he ultimately came to be called the "Hand of the Poor." As overseer of the poor, Akiba made many long and arduous journeys to collect funds for their relief. It was his opinion that the funds of charity ought not to be invested, in order that ready money might always be at hand, should a poor man present himself. Once Akiba received some money from R. Tarphon, for the purpose of buying some land. But instead Akiba distributed the money to the poor. When Tarphon asked him where the property was, Akiba showed him the verse in Psalms, "He hath scattered, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth forever; his horn shall be exalted with honor." Thereupon Tarphon kissed Akiba on the forehead and exclaimed, "My master and my guide!"

His Fervent Patriotism

FOR us to-day, however, the most striking thing about Akiba is his nationalism. Other Rabbis were men of great intellect, other Rabbis were learned, modest, and benevolent, other Rabbis lived, worked and died for Judaism, but no other Rabbi was conspicuously and so zealously a nationalist. Akiba loved "Eretz Yisrael" passionately, not only with the visionary fervor of the pious Jew, but with the practical idealism of a patriot. In all his extended journeys for the collection of alms, he took care to spread and keep alive in the breast of his fellow-Jews the desire for the rebuilding of Zion as a practical and immediate reality.

It was Akiba's spirit that inspired and animated the last great rebellion against Rome. This "final polemos," as the Talmud calls it, was preparing for a number of years. Akiba openly acknowledged Bar Kochba, who was to be the leader of the revolt, as the promised Messiah, as "the star that would come out of Jacob." All the great influence, therefore, of Akiba's moral support was behind Bar Kochba's military preparations. The Jews had indeed much to complain of. Hadrian had broken faith with them; he had failed to rebuild their Temple as he had promised, and now (about the year 130), to make matters worse, he was beginning a systematic persecution of their religion. He forbade circumcision, the study of the Torah, the keeping of the Sabbath, the ordination of disciples, in short everything that went to express the Jewish religion. The Jews determined upon war. But even before the outbreak of hostilities their greatest loss occurred. Akiba and several other great Rabbis were captured by the Romans, imprisoned, condemned to death, and executed. Their crime was simply that they had continued teaching the Torah in spite of the Imperial decree.

"Even Unto Death"

THIS was the manner of Akiba's death. When he heard that the renowned R. Ishmael and a certain Simon were captured, he was stirred all the more to persevere in his teaching. "Prepare ye for death, for terrible days are awaiting us," said Akiba to his pupils. A certain Pappos ben Judah met Akiba assembling the people and teaching the Torah in public. "Dost thou not fear the Government?" said Pappos. "Thou art considered a wise man, Pappos," answered Akiba, "but verily thou art but a fool. I shall give thee a parable to the matter. Once a fox was walking along the edge of a stream. He saw the fishes in commotion, hurrying hither and thither. 'Before what do ye flee?' said he to them. 'We are fleeing before the nets of the fishermen that are cast out to catch us.' 'Would ye be willing to come up on dry land and live with me, even as your fathers and my fathers were wont to live?' 'Art thou he who is called the most discerning among beasts? Verily thou art but a fool. If even in the element that means life to us, we are fearful of death, how much more so in the element that means our death.' Even so are we. If even in the time that we are occupied with the Torah, of which it is said, 'For it is thy life and the length of thy days,' we are fearful of death, how much more so if even for a moment we cease its study." Not many days later Akiba was captured and thrown into prison. Pappos ben Judah also found himself imprisoned with Akiba. "How camest thou here?" asked Akiba. "Happy art thou," replied Pappos, "that thou hast been taken prisoner for the sake of the Torah; woe is me, Pappos, that I have been taken prisoner for vain things."

When they led Akiba out to execution it was the hour of the reading of the "Shema." Tinnius Rufus, the governor, caused his skin to be torn off with hot irons; but Akiba was directing his heart towards accepting the yoke of God's kingdom, that he might accept it with love. He recited the "Shema" with a peaceful smile on his face. Rufus, astounded at his insensibility to pain, asked him whether he was a sorcerer. "I am no sorcerer," replied Akiba. "All the days of my life have I grieved that I could not carry out the commandment, 'Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might,'—even unto death. But now that I am able to fulfill it shall I not rejoice?" And with the last syllable of the "Shema"—Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One—Akiba expired.

Signature: George J. Horowitz

Editors' Note.—This is the third in a series of sketches of "Jewish Worthies," of which the fourth will have "Judah the Prince" for its subject.

HEBREWS willingly neglectful of their own inheritance cannot hope to be of much value as Americans. Nor is the republic interested in suppressing this or any other valuable legacy from the past. Our "assimilative process" is far off from being the terrible thing which European critics sometimes charge against us. We do reshape peoples who come to us from the old world, but not at the cost of the things they cherish or of the gifts they bring. Our civilization is enriched, not impoverished, by these diverse race traits, loyalty to which helps to make a loyalty worth having. If the future world order is to be founded on the harmonization of ethnic differences, there should be place enough for such differences in our own peace-aspiring republic.—From an Editorial in The Boston Herald.

Aspects of Jewish Life and Letters

As Revealed in Four Noteworthy Books

I

A Sympathetic Study of Pharisaism[B]

AS a rule, Jewish readers approach the works of Christian writers upon Jewish subjects with distrust. They are accustomed to find in them either the misrepresentations of Anti-Semitic hatred or the misrepresentations of conversionist love. The present book, based upon lectures delivered at Oxford upon the Hibbert foundation, is a representative of the rare group of studies belonging to neither class. It embodies an earnest and surprisingly successful attempt to depict justly the religious life of the Jews in the time of the Talmud. The writer is well prepared for his task by thirty years' devoted study of Rabbinical literature; he is known as the author of a careful and scholarly work on "Christianity in Talmud and Midrash."

The book includes a preliminary historical sketch, a study of what the Rabbis meant by Torah, indicating the true nature of Pharisaic legalism, chapters on the attitude of Jesus and of Paul toward the Pharisees, and two final chapters on the Pharisaic theology. The book is valuable as a Christian reply to Weber, the German author of a learned, widely-used, and thoroughly unfair presentation of Jewish theology. Mr. Herford frankly confesses that he is an apologist of the Pharisees, but his book is in no sense an iconoclastic attack upon the ideas received among Christians as to the character of the Pharisees. He freely admits, as any fair-minded Jew would, the dangers of the Pharisaic system, but he is likewise careful to point out that these dangers were by no means destructive of true spiritual life. It is most refreshing to find a book of this sort included in the Crown Theological Library, along with the erudite but anti-Jewish works of Bousset and Harnack.

The Truth About the Pharisees

MR. HERFORD aims to set forth the truth about the Pharisees rather than to present new ideas or conclusions. Nevertheless, his book contains here and there new suggestions. His theory that the men of the Great Synagogue were identical with the Soferim, though it has a certain plausibility, is hardly supported by any great weight of historical evidence. It is interesting to learn that the Synagogue represents the oldest form of congregational worship, and is the oldest human institution that has survived without interruption. The parallel between the Hassidim and the Saints of Cromwell's time (p. 38) is curious. Mr. Herford has the somewhat strange notion (pp. 44-5) that there is a sign of "mutual distrust" in the weeping of the High Priest and the representatives of the Beth Din after the former had taken the oath to observe the regulations concerning the Day of Atonement. To the ordinary reader of the Mishnah the tears seem a perfectly natural expression of the emotional strain under which all the people labored on the great day.

It is hard to part from Mr. Herford's admirable book without quoting a very fine tribute which he pays to the Jewish people. In speaking of the influence of Ezra's ideals, he says (p. 55): "The Talmud is the witness to show how some of his countrymen, some of the bravest, some of the ablest, some of the most pious and saintly, and a host of unnamed faithful, were true to those ideals and clung to those hopes; and how, through good report and ill report, through shocks of disaster and the ruin of their state, ground down by persecution, or torn by faction, steadily facing enemies within, they held on to the religion of the Torah."

Signature: D.S. Blonsheim

University of Illinois

II

Judaism and Philanthropy[C]

SOME years ago I met a certain Russian Jew at a conference called to discuss various problems of education. He was an immigrant who had made his fortune through speculation in real estate, and with his rise in fortune he had, it was evident, thrown off, one after another, the social habits, the religious outlook, and the organization of the daily life which were the heritage he had brought with him from Russia. He was at that time, he told me, president of a large Jewish congregation, whose pillars of support were men like himself. He complained bitterly of their backwardness and illiberality. They would not introduce an organ and refused to change the prayer book or to secure an "advanced" rabbi. For himself, he did not care whether they had a synagogue—I mean temple—at all. He retained no longer any of the superstitions or narrowness of his colleagues, and if it were not for the fact that he felt himself out of place among members of the radically reformed temple he would have attended that long ago. He was a member of it, of course. His wife had made him join some years ago. It was a double expense, to be sure, but his wife wanted to be active in the Women's Council, and the children met other nice children in the Sunday School. He did not think anyhow that synagogal affiliation made any difference.

"I am," he said, "a good Jew. I give charity."

The remark took me aback, yet the logical development to the point of view that he expressed was inevitable. In an environment where the call of ambition is generally a call toward de-Judaization, the connection between Jews who prosper and the great masses of the Jewish people becomes, perforce, an external and artificial one. It is notorious that the temple has thus far had no appeal to and no message for the Jewish masses, that its membership is recruited from the well-to-do and the successful, and that its relation to the great groups which are destined never to be well-to-do or successful becomes purely a relation of philanthropy. The elements of brotherhood, of a common consciousness and a common purpose, fade or get submerged. Where the masses are concerned the whole corporate essence of reformed Judaism becomes concentrated in the word "charity."

Justice vs. Charity in the Jewish Ideal

YET it is significant that in Hebrew there is no special word for charity. The term צדקה (Zedakah) meant originally righteousness, and the righteousness which the prophets advocated was the substance of social justice. It was incorporated into the fundamental law of the Jewish state, which differed from that of other ancient states in the fact that its intention was to secure freedom and "life" for each individual man. Charity, as we now understand the word, had no place in the social conceptions of the prophets and was not acknowledged in the Law. The three codes which are preserved to us in the Bible from the covenant in Exodus to the extraordinarily profound legislation of Leviticus express an evolution of the social sense founded on a right appreciation of social justice and democracy. "Life," and its sustenance food, and shelter were regarded as the rights of each and every man and not as gifts from one man to another. The law concerning the tenure of land is particularly significant for its insight into the economic basis of social justice, and the laws concerning indebtedness and slavery only less so. Charity appears only when the state disintegrates. It is coincident with the decay of the social organization and the consequent failings of the sense of corporate responsibility, and consists substantially of the conversion of a right into a gift. This change is registered in the new meaning which the word "Zedakah" receives. For a state in which social justice prevails there is no room for charity, while a social order which involves charity is not one which maintains justice. Thus it may be said that the prophets, because they operated in terms of the reorganization of the whole of society and not of the incidental correction of piecemeal evils, were humanists. Their program was constructive and aimed at the enfranchisement of manhood. The rabbis, on the other hand, were (relatively only) philanthropists. Their program was remedial, and they aimed rather at the relief of suffering than the realization and perfection of human potentialities.

To-day the term "charity" has given way to a new equivalent, with a somewhat different connotation. This new equivalent is "social service." That it should be urged, as Mr. Lewis urges it, upon liberal Judaism is simply another indication of the evanescing adherence of that sect to the corporate life of the Jewish people. Although "social service" carries with it more of the sense of justice than the term charity, it is still, in intention, a charitable thing. It is not a thing done through the inevitable forms of right social organization, but through the gracious good will of a kindly individual. It still maintains the Christian quality of "grace" which is a condescension, a going down, a philanthropy. It stands in contrast to law, which knows no such qualities, and the call which Mr. Lewis makes to liberal Judaists for a special kind of social service is itself a demonstration that "liberal Judaism" thus far has little in common with the substance of Jewish life. Indeed his whole book is a demonstration of this fact, for of the six chapters that it contains only one has anything to say of social service as such in the present day, while four are analyses, not of charity, but of the law of righteousness as it operated in the Jewish polity, both in Palestine and in the Diaspora. Even the actual charity of the Middle Ages carries a quality of obligation and socially ordained necessity which is derived from the basic law of the Jewish people.

The Hope of Liberal Judaism

BUT to-day, while the great Jewish masses still live, more or less adequately under the basic law and exercise such righteousness as they may in the division of obligation which the laws of the Galuth lands compel, the classes are divorced from its rule altogether. The call with which Mr. Lewis closes his book,—

"We must teach the masses of our people, upon whom the Judaism of yesterday has lost hold, that their salvation lies in liberal Judaism, which is beginning to find itself to-day and which will become the Judaism of to-morrow,"

—is the best indication of this. Liberal Judaism has not touched the minds or hearts of the masses. The radicals despise it as a capitalistic system of compromise with the social environment. To the rest of the working classes, it makes thus far no appeal whatever. It is only upon the radicals that the "Judaism of yesterday" has lost its hold, and to them liberal Judaism can have no appeal. To the rest of the Jewish people it can be significant and really developed into the "Judaism of to-morrow" only in so far as it can succeed in reincorporating itself into the common life. I am an old social service person, and I am prepared to deny categorically that such a reincorporation is possible through social service. What is needed is sympathetic intelligence, insight into the life and aspirations of the masses, return of the classes to the masses, participation in their ideals, their traditions, and their common life. It is not by a cutting off from the past, but by a development out of it that such a reincorporation can be consummated.

If liberal Judaism is to be a living and growing force at all, it can become so only by accepting the inevitable conditions which govern all life. Life is organic; religion is only one of the many organs of human society, even Jewish society. Its health and vitality are dependent upon the health and vitality of the social residuum. The hope of liberal Judaism lies in a reincorporated national life for the Jews. That alone can preserve the Jewish religion, either from petrifying as orthodoxy through resistance against environmental pressure, or from evaporating as reform through submission to environmental pressure.

Signature: H. M. Kallen

University of Wisconsin

III

The Hebrew Genius[D]

THIS little volume is five years old, but its review is always timely; and for The Menorah Journal very appropriate. The English language is extremely poor in popular, yet scholarly and well-written books and essays on Jewish literature. A great many of those who are thoroughly versed in Hebrew literature, who regard the study of the original Rabbinic sources as a work of love if not a profession and a life work, have not a sufficient command of English or of systematic exposition to be able to present the spirit of these writings in acceptable form to the lay reader. The few scientific scholars in our seminaries and colleges who could if they chose write authoritatively and withal in an interesting manner concerning the course of Jewish thought during the past two or three millenia, prefer to devote their time and energy to the more technical aspects of the subject, which are not designed for the uninitiated reader. And the men of journalistic calibre and inclination, even if we had them, are not the most desirable purveyors of Jewish knowledge. The truth of the matter is, in the words of Nietzsche, that ears are still growing for the intelligent American Jewish people so far as Jewish literature—Hebrew classical literature—is concerned.

The cause of the paucity of works in English on Jewish literary subjects is really economic. There is no lack of young men among the people of the Book whose ideal of a well-spent life is one of complete devotion to a scholarly career in the service of our ancient and medieval classics. But unfortunately the very young men who give promise of presenting in a creditable manner our intellectual heritage for the benefit of the majority otherwise occupied, have no means of their own, and yet are not ready (as it should not be expected of them that they should be) to take the vow of poverty and celibacy and form a Jewish monastic order of St. Haninah. Accordingly not a few of these choose the Rabbinic career as the most likely profession to enable them to keep in touch with Jewish learning—more or less a disappointed hope to the real scholar who has no other fitness for the modern Rabbinate except his scholarship. Others are completely side-tracked and lost to Jewish scholarship.

Thus the lack of interest in Jewish learning and scholarship keeps promising young men away from these unpromising studies. The result is that the field in English remains uncultivated, which reacts again unfavorably in a diminution of interest, and the vicious circle is complete.

The Need of Encouragement to Jewish Learning

I HAVE used my text in good old fashion as a pretext for a little sermon to the intelligent lay reader of The Menorah Journal who may be an influential member of the American Jewish community, pointing out that we are sorely in need of a great many such books as the present one, treating various "aspects of the Hebrew Genius"; and they are sure to come just as soon as there is a real demand for them. The Jewish students in our colleges and universities whose number is rapidly increasing have in their midst a great many talented young men who only need encouragement to devote their best energies to Jewish learning. These will serve as a leaven to raise the entire Jewish community of America to a more intelligent Jewish level. What we need is liberal endowments for Jewish chairs in our universities and for the promotion of Jewish education generally.

And now to proceed to my proper topic: Aspects of Hebrew Genius is a very creditable volume consisting of eight well-written essays on several topics of Jewish history and thought. Norman Bentwich contributes an article in which he gives an interesting sketch of the Jewish Alexandrian period of the first two centuries B. C., whose thought activities culminated in the works of Philo, the first man in history who attempted an amalgamation of Hebraism and Hellenism. It was not a success so far as Judaism is concerned, as is evidenced by the fact that he was neglected and forgotten by his Jewish successors. He was made use of, however, by the early Christian writers in the formulation of the Trinitarian dogma, and by early Christian apologists and theologians in presenting the doctrines of the new religion in a form likely to appeal to the Græco-Roman world, which trained as it was in philosophical thought would have been repelled by the simple narratives of Scripture and the Gospels.

Representative Men and Tendencies in Jewish Thought

THE next essay by M. Simon deals with the second and more successful attempt to enrich Jewish literature by infusing into it the spirit of rationalistic inquiry originally derived from Greece. This time, in the ninth and tenth centuries, the scene is placed in Babylonia. The place of the Greeks is now taken by their medieval successors, the Mohammedan Arabs, upon whom fell a part of the Hellenic mantle, that represented by Greek science and philosophy. The æsthetic and literary aspects of the Greek genius were left severely alone by the Arabs. The man about whom this sketch centers is the famous Gaon of Sura, Saadiah. And Mr. Simon lays great stress upon his achievements in Biblical exegesis. As the Septuagint was the first Jewish translation of the Bible, so Saadiah's Arabic translation was the second, and it was enriched by introductions and a commentary in which Saadiah leads his co-religionists, the Rabbanite Jews, from the Talmud back to an appreciation of the Bible.

The period of systematic and rationalistic effort culminated in the legal and philosophical works of Maimonides, the greatest Jew of the middle ages. The Rev. H. S. Lewis gives a readable and sympathetic sketch of this pre-eminent Jewish systematizer and rationalist. He defends him against the strictures of Luzzatto and Graetz and points out the great influence his thinking had on Judaism and Jews of his own and subsequent ages, and even on the Christian scholastics.

The following four essays are devoted not to representative men but to brief and interesting sketches of tendencies in Jewish thought and departments of Jewish literature. The Rabbinic legalistic lore of the Mishnah and Talmud, which finds no general treatment in the volume, is partly represented by the article of Dr. S. Daiches, who gives a popular account of the post-Talmudic attempts to codify the immense legal material scattered in Mishnah and Talmud and in later additions. Maimonides' code naturally occupies an important place in this sketch, and a novel feature is the important place assigned to Jacob ben Asher (1280-1340), the author of the Turim, who superseded Maimonides and is popularized by Joseph Caro in his Shulchan Aruch.

Jewish Rationalism and Mysticism

THE title of the next paper, written by the competent hand of Dr. A. Wolf, versed in philosophy as well as in Jewish literature, sounds novel; and as the author says, is the first effort of the kind so far made. It is well known that the philosophic movement in medieval Jewry is characterized with few exceptions by the more or less faithful adaptation of Aristotelian thought as represented in the Arabic translations of his works and in the compendia and expositions made by such ardent disciples of the Stagirite as Al Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Dr. Wolf undertakes briefly and readably to indicate how much the Jewish medieval philosophers owed to the Greek sage and what their attitude to him was, and interestingly summarizes the Aristotelian point of view by the one word rationalism, as distinguished from dogmatism and mysticism. He rightly points out that while the specific doctrines borrowed from Aristotle and read into the Bible by his ardent Jewish disciples are for the most part obsolete, the spirit of systematic inquiry, the use of the reason in elucidating disputed problems, "the exalted conception of the place and function of human thought, the hallowing of intellectual effort," which was the product of this philosophical activity, is a gain of inestimable value for all time.

Rationalism and dogmatism, however, do not exhaust the aspects of Jewish thought and literary endeavor. Parallel with the development of Mishnah and Talmud and philosophy, there is visible, at first feebly and in the background, and later, as circumstances favored it, more aggressively and in full view, the mystic outlook upon life and religion in its various phases. H. Sperling in a very interesting and sympathetic manner traces this mystic element in Jewish literature from the Prophets of the Bible, through the "Maase Bereshit" and "Maase Merkaba" of the Haggadah down to the Sefer Yezira and the Zohar and its successors.

There is no treatment of Jewish medieval poetry, and the volume closes with a brief account of the more critical and historical treatment of Jewish literature created in the nineteenth century by such men as Krochmal, Rapaport, Luzzatto, Zunz, Geiger and others. Rev. M. H. Segal gives a brief but illuminating account of this latest phase of Jewish writing, which is not yet closed, and is likely to stay with us for a long while.

E. M. Adler contributes an eloquent introduction by way of connecting the necessarily independent essays and emphasizing the unity which the collection in a great measure possesses.

The volume, as we are told in the Preface, "owes its appearance to the Union of Jewish Literary Societies" in London, and it does credit to their earnestness and loyalty to the cause of Jewish learning. Let us hope it may serve as an example and incentive to the revival of Jewish interests in this country. It is well that all should read this useful little book and many others of the kind which we hope will follow. But it is more important that such reading shall inspire the student with a desire to study at first hand the original depositories of Jewish thought. For this purpose a serious study of Hebrew is imperative. And let us cherish the hope that we may witness a revival of, and a wide-spread interest in, Jewish literature in this country where next to Russia the greatest number of Jews are found and where, moreover, they enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Signature: Isaac Husik

University of Pennsylvania

IV

A General Survey of Jewish Life[E]

THROUGH his Jewish Life in Modern Times Israel Cohen has made a notable contribution to the literature of Jewish life and thought. In a single volume of scarce 350 pages of text there is presented a description and estimate of the Jewish position in the modern world which may well be considered among the most comprehensive and the most authoritative now available in the English language.

Taken as a whole, the volume is noteworthy because of three commendable characteristics. It deals with Jewish life as it appears in modern times, not as it should be in the light of the literature of the ancient Hebrews. It presents Jewish life in all its important aspects and complexities, not on the basis of the theory so widely prevalent that religion, of all human activities, constitutes the sole binding force and the only distinguishing characteristic of the separate Jewish existence. Finally, it aims to picture the life of the Jews in all corners of the Diaspora, and not their problems and activities in a single country or section of the globe.

Jewish Life Not Synonymous With Jewish Religion

AN exposition of Jewish life as it is actually lived in modern times helps to clarify a much-beclouded situation. It enables the Jew the better to know himself; it presents to the outside world a clearer outline of a figure who must ever, to some extent, remain "strange" and "unknowable." Moreover, the reader's sense of proportion is adjusted by a work which does not make Jewish life synonymous with Jewish religion. Whether there is sufficient evidence of a biological and anthropological character to support the claim of those who look upon the Jews as a separate race, whether the Jewish people in their dispersion may properly be considered as a distinct national group in spite of the absence of a government and a territory of their own, it is certainly difficult, in all intellectual honesty, to maintain that the Jews are merely a religious community. One of our brilliant young philosophers has strikingly said that a Jew can change his religion, but that he cannot change his grandfather; nor, he might have added can he destroy his more general antecedents, that complex of customs, traditions and ideals which have manifested themselves in the course of thirty-five centuries of recorded history and which create within him an ineradicable historic consciousness. Jewish solidarity is not grounded in religion alone, and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people manifests itself in activities other than religion.

A work which like the present aims to present the Jew in every important phase of life, which describes the social, political, economic, and intellectual aspects of Jewish life, as well as the religious, deserves commendation because of its mere scope and completeness. But Mr. Cohen has gone further. He has not fallen into the error of many of the spokesmen for the cultural or historical unity of Jewry of denying or even minimizing the potency of religion as a factor in Jewish survival. Indeed, he everywhere recognizes that the primary or motor force in the organization of the Jewish community, which is the concrete expression of Jewish solidarity, is religious, springing from the desire for public worship. But while religion is the underlying factor, it is not the only factor. There is a sane coordination of the leading aspects of Jewish life, a clear grasp of the relationship between them.

Finally, the work is significant because it seeks to represent the Jew in all lands, to paint Jewish life in all its diversity. Mr. Cohen, an Englishman intimately acquainted with conditions in his own country, travelled extensively on the continent in preparation for his task. But his knowledge of American conditions was derived from study of American books and newspapers, and from correspondence, instead of from personal experience. This accounts for such minor lapses, with regard to American conditions, as the statement that the Jews are "excluded from . . . . the principal hotels on the east coast of the United States" and hence "take their holiday in the well-known resorts of central and southern Europe" (p. 110). On the whole, however, the attempt to describe Jewish life in all its diversity, as it is lived by Jews in all lands, is crowned with marked success, and the author has ample justification for his claim that he has brought "within the covers of a single book the fullest description yet attempted of all the main aspects and problems of Jewish life in the present day."

The Various Aspects of Jewish Life

A MORE detailed statement of the scope and plan of the work may best be given in the author's own words. "First, a General Survey is presented, showing the dispersion and distribution of Jewry in its countless manifestations, its diversity of composition in political and spiritual respects, and the solidarity that unifies its disparate elements. Then follow five main sections, in each of which a leading aspect of life is investigated—the social, the political, the economic, the intellectual, and the religious. Under the Social Aspect are set forth the growth and constitution of the community, the characteristics and customs of the home, social life and amenities, morality and philanthropy, and racial and physical conditions. Under the Political Aspect are related how one-half of the people acquired civil equality, how the other half is still suffering in bondage, and what services Israel has rendered to so many countries in both their government and their defence. Under the Economic Aspect are reviewed the different spheres of commercial, industrial and professional activity in which Jews are engaged, the contrasts of material welfare and predominance of poverty, and the ceaseless currents of migration from the lands of bondage to the havens of refuge. Under the Intellectual Aspect are considered the advance made by secular education among the Jews, the nature of their national intellectual products in modern times, and the contributions they have rendered to the progress and culture of humanity. Under the Religious Aspect are described their ecclesiastical organization and administration, their traditional faith and observance and the growing divergences therefrom, and then the drift and apostasy that are assuming ever more alarming proportions. Finally, the resultant tendency of all the foregoing manifestations is examined under the National Aspect, the strength of the forces of assimilation and absorption is contrasted with the inherent force of conservation, and the realization of the Zionist ideal is urged as the most effective means of ensuring the perpetuation of Israel" (pp. viii-ix).

The purpose of the author is thus seen to be, first, to present the facts of Jewish life, and secondly, to offer an interpretation of them—"to depict the variegated life of the Jewish people at the present day in all its intimacy and intensity, and to trace the evolution that is being produced by modern forces" (p. viii). He is more successful in the first of these objects than he is in the second.

His shortcomings in interpretation, however, are negative rather than positive; they are due to omission rather than to commission. There is inadequate consideration of the philosophy of Jewish life; external description has crowded out internal analysis; the point of view is too largely objective. While, for example, the conclusion is reached that Zionism is the only permanent and adequate solution of the Jewish problem—with which we do not disagree—insufficient stress is laid upon the distinctive Jewish obligation in the Diaspora; the Jewish contributions to general culture and progress which the author enumerates with such concreteness and detail are not distinctively Jewish contributions. Even if Zion is the ultimate destiny of the Jew, he must, in the meantime, justify his separate existence among the nations; if he is to remain a Jew as well as a citizen of the world, his contribution must be that of a Jewish citizen; in addition to the general obligation of his citizenship, he must fulfil the special obligation of his Jewishness. But these deficiencies of interpretation, like the inadequacies of description arising from the impossibility of treating exhaustively so large a field within so narrow a compass, but reflect the inherent limitations of the task set himself by our author.

Signature: I. Leo Sharfman

University of Michigan.

JEWISH STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

An Excerpt from Israel Cohen's Book, "Jewish Life in Modern Times," pages 105-106:

"It was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the Jewish students at any of the principal seats of learning were numerous enough to form a society of their own. The first organization was founded in 1882 in Vienna by Jewish students from Russia, Rumania, and Galicia, who entitled their society Kadimah, which means both 'Eastward' and 'Forward,' as an indication of the ideal of a resettlement in Palestine which they advocated. Since then, partly as a result of the advance of Zionism and partly as a result of the anti-Semitic attitude of the general students' corps on the Continent, separate societies have been formed by the Jewish students at almost every university at which they number at least a dozen, and are now found in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, France, and Holland. Some of these societies owe their existence simply to the exclusion of Jews from the general corporation, and they adopt a passive attitude on Jewish questions, but the majority are animated by the ideal of Jewish nationalism and actively foster the Zionist cause. The Jewish nationalist societies in Germany are grouped into two organizations, the 'Bund Jüdischer Corporationen,' founded in 1901, with a membership of over 600 (graduates and undergraduates), and the smaller, 'Kartell Zionistischer Verbindungen,' founded five years later, with a membership of 250. The Zionist students' societies in Holland were federated in 1908, but those in other Continental countries pursue an unattached existence. Established to assert and promote the principle of Jewish nationalism, these corporations have nevertheless adopted all the methods and conventions of German corporations; they each have their distinctive colors, and they hold 'beer evenings' at which the students sing spirited songs in swelling chorus around tables which they bang with their beer-mugs, presided over by officers who are accoutred in a gorgeous uniform and armed with a sword that does duty alternately as chairman's hammer and conductor's baton. But their songs tell not of Teuton valor but of Jewish hope, breathing the spirit of a rejuvenated people. Besides these convivial gatherings the members cultivate the study of Jewish history, literature, and modern problems, and also practice fencing so as to be prepared for any duel in which they might be involved in vindication of the Jewish name. The Jewish societies at the universities in English-speaking countries are not, like the Continental corps, the inevitable product of an unfriendly environment, but voluntary associations for the study of Jewish questions and for social intercourse. The Jewish students in England, and to a less extent in the United States, join the societies of their university; but their racial sympathies prompt them also to fraternize with one another. Thus, Oxford has its Adler Society and Cambridge its Schechter Society, whilst at both universities there is also a Zionist Society. Moreover, in the United States, 'Menorah' societies for the study of Jewish history and the discussion of Jewish questions have been formed at twenty-five Universities and organized into an Intercollegiate 'Menorah' Association with over 1000 members."

[There are now 37 Menorah Societies, with an approximate membership of 3,000.—Ed.]

FOOTNOTES:

[B] R. Travers Herford: Pharisaism, Its Aim and Method. London, Williams and Norgate; New York, Putnam. $1.50. (Any of the books reviewed in this article may be ordered through The Menorah Journal.)

[C] Harry S. Lewis, M.A.: Liberal Judaism and Social Service. New York, Bloch Publishing Co. (The Lewisohn Lectures.) $1.00.

[D] Leon Simon, Editor: Aspects of the Hebrew Genius. Essays by Elkan Adler, Norman Bentwich, H. S. Lewis, S. Daiches, A. Wolf, H. Sperling, M. Simon, M. H. Segal. London, Routledge. $1.00.

[E] Israel Cohen: Jewish Life in Modern Times. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $3.00.

The Symbolism of the Menorah[F]

By Hyman Askowith

AFTER the severe and constantly-expanding test of nearly a decade, the founders of the first Menorah Society may be permitted to felicitate themselves on their choice of the name. For it was far truer of the Menorah than it is of most organizations that the choice of a name was of vital moment, and the founders were impressed by a number of considerations which we can all fully appreciate even today. They were bent upon choosing a name which would not deter any Jewish student from enrolling under it with avidity; which would not excite opposition from any source; which would command respect and reverence, increasing respect and reverence, both from the University public and the general public; which would be voluntarily adopted by similar societies in other Universities in preference to any other that might be suggested; and finally, a name with enough charm and euphony and significant symbolism to stand constant repetition, to bear living with day by day, and all the while grow in our imaginations and yield new beauteous meaning through the years.

From a descriptive standpoint, it would be difficult to find a more appropriate name for a University society devoted to Hebraic culture than the name Menorah. For there is hardly another available word in the entire range of Hebraic history and learning which is so freighted with sentiment and so symbolic of all that Israel stands for.

The Most Expressive of All Hebraic Symbols

TAKEN in a general sense, it is evident that the Menorah or seven-branched candelabrum, being the distinctive lamp or light of the ancient Hebrews, serves more distinctively than would the classic torch or the conventional oil lamp to represent Hebrew enlightenment. Our aim being to spread the light of Hebraic culture, it is clearly fitting that we should employ the Hebraic lamp. It should be more effective, too, inasmuch as its light is sevenfold, and our efforts are illuminated with a sevenfold splendor.

The word Menorah, it is worth noting, is among exclusively Hebrew words the only one which would be readily understood by any considerable number of people aside from students or readers of Hebrew. It has been made familiar to all by the representation of the captured Menorah on the Arch of Titus (see Frontispiece).

According to the Bible, the original Menorah was of divine pattern. It was ordained by God in his instructions to Moses for the sacred paraphernalia of the Holy Tabernacle (Exodus XXV, 31 et seq.). The Menorah was thus among the first instruments or tokens of the Hebrew religion, and the only one which in any sense is in our possession today—the only one which can be perpetuated. The divine pattern is still with us and we are repeatedly modeling new copies from it. The Menorah is today, therefore, the most expressive of all concrete symbols of the Hebrew race and religion.

A Favorite Object of Metaphor and Poetic Sentiment

A HALO of symbolism—almost kaleidoscopic in its manifold beauty—surrounds the Menorah in Hebraic literature and tradition. Both the single light or candle, and the distinctive combination of seven, are the favorite objects of metaphor, interpretation, and poetic sentiment. In the Bible the word "ner" (נר)—candle or light, embodied, of course, in the word Menorah (מנורה )—is used metaphorically in many significant senses. God is a light—enlightening, comforting and honoring his people. The rational understanding and conscience are lights which search, inform, direct and judge us. A profession of faith is called a lamp, which renders men shining and useful and instructors of others. The last two interpretations certainly cast an appropriate reflection on our choice of Menorah.

For the number 7, as we all know, the ancient Hebrews had a singular fondness, attributing to it a magic potency. This may have arisen from the traditional story of the seven days of Creation, and the institution of the Sabbath—without a doubt the most important of Hebrew institutions. This certainly enhanced the reverence for the number 7, which soon became the most sacred Hebrew number, bearing nearly always the connotation of holiness and sanctity or mystic perfection. The acts of atonement and purification were accompanied by a sevenfold sprinkling. There were seven trumpets, seven priests that sounded them seven days around Jericho, seven lamps, seven seals, etc. The seventh day was the Sabbath, the seventh year was the Sabbatical (still observed to the well-earned emolument of our professors in the Universities), and seven times seven years brought on the Jubilee. The seventh month was the holiest month of the year (which we appreciate now by regarding September as an auspicious month in which to return to college studies). The number seven soon came to be used also conventionally as an indefinite or round number, indicating abundance, completeness, perfection.[1] Cicero calls seven the knot and cement of all things, as being that by which the natural and spiritual world are comprehended in one idea.

The Manifold Symbolism of the Seven Lamps

BE that as it may, our ancestral learned men seem to have found no end of significant meanings in the seven lamps of the Menorah. Generally it was held to represent the creation of the universe in seven days, the center light symbolizing the Sabbath. Again, the seven branches are the seven continents of the earth and the seven heavens, guided by the light of God. According to Philo and others, the seven lights represent the seven planets which, regarded as the eyes of God, behold everything.[2] The light in the center, which is especially distinguished, would signify the sun, as the chief of the planets. With this was combined the mystic conception of a celestial tree, with leaves reaching to the sky and fruit typifying the planets.

There would be little difficulty, of course, in extending this symbolistic catalogue ad infinitum. We could easily and perhaps profitably select Seven Wonders of Hebraic history or achievement, seven great epochs in the development of Hebraic culture, seven great leaders of the race, etc. We might also say that the seven lights represent the seven chief studies which make up a liberal education—the Trivium and Quadrivium of the Middle Ages, substantially the foundation of the university curriculum of today[3].

The words יהי אור, "Let there be light," just above the Menorah on our seal, are not only reminiscent of the first great word of God, pregnant in meaning for humanity, but stand also for the purpose of this Society—the relighting of the Menorah in order that it may shed its ancient lustre and once again illumine the minds of men with the glory and uplift of Hebraic ideals.

REPRODUCTION (ONE-FOURTH THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF THE MEMBERSHIP SHINGLE OF THE HARVARD MENORAH SOCIETY, ADOPTED IN ITS FIRST YEAR (1906-07) REPRODUCTION (ONE-FOURTH THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF THE MEMBERSHIP SHINGLE OF THE HARVARD MENORAH SOCIETY, ADOPTED IN ITS FIRST YEAR
(1906-07)

The Symbolism of Palm and Olive Branch

THE seal as originally drawn for the Harvard Menorah Society (see accompanying illustration of membership shingle) bears two or three other symbols which deserve a word of interpretation. Below the Menorah appears the so-called Star of David—lately revived by the Zionist movement as the only exclusively Jewish figure or geometric symbol of any national meaning. Entwined below the seal proper are an olive branch and a date palm, both of which are intimately associated with the history of the race in Palestine. They are the two most characteristic trees of the promised land, and provided the chief staple foods of the Hebrews during their occupation of the country. The olive, moreover, gave the oil with which the Menorah was lit. There is also much fascinating symbolism in the olive tree and the palm. Both are evergreens—standing for the persistency of the Hebrew race. The date palm, we are told, has a slender and very yielding stem, so that in a storm it sways back and forth but does not break; and throughout its length it bears scars showing where leaves have fallen off. Could anything be more beautifully expressive of the career of the Jewish nation? Finally, the olive branch has always stood for peace—one of the most cherished and distinctive Hebraic ideals; and the palm has always stood for intellectual achievement—and who would deny the palm to the race that gave the world its Bible and all that it stands for?

Signature: Hyman Askowith

FOOTNOTES:

[F] This article is based upon a paper delivered at the Seventh Annual Banquet of the Harvard Menorah Society last May.

[1] Cf. Gen. vii, 2; xxi, 28-30; I Kings xviii, 43; Deut. xvi, 9; Ezek. xl, 22; xli, 3.

[2] Cf. Zech. iv, 10.

[3] In the form in which this paper was read before the Harvard Menorah Society, the following paragraphs of a more local interest were added at this point:

"And it certainly adds to the eternal fitness of things that there should be just seven letters in the word MENORAH, just seven letters in the word HARVARD, and just seven letters in the word SOCIETY;—the whole name of the society thus forming three times seven, or a majority.

"That there is something much more Hebraic in Harvard than the mere mechanical coincidence of seven letters in the name, is well known to every one who is at all aware of the part played by Hebrew ideals in the founding, organization and early history of Harvard. The fact that Harvard took root in Hebraic culture and traditions is a welcome and gratifying encouragement to this effort to replant the Hebraic influence on Harvard ground."

The Decennial of the Menorah
Movement

THE Menorah movement enters upon its decennial with the beginning of the present academic year, the first Menorah Society having been organized at Harvard University in 1906.[G] From this Society with an original membership of sixteen, the Menorah movement has grown throughout the country so that at the close of the last academic year there were Societies at thirty-seven colleges and universities with a membership of some three thousand. Every Society has arisen upon the initiative of the students themselves, inspired by a desire to pursue the objects embodied in the Menorah. In January, 1913, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association was formed for the purpose of mutual encouragement and co-operation among the several Societies, and also to carry out enterprises beyond the scope and power of any individual Society—such as the publication of The Menorah Journal.

On the threshold of the decennial, and especially since the present number of the Journal will come into the hands of many new students and readers, it may not be amiss again, in brief terms, to review the purposes of the movement.

The Three-Fold Purpose of the Menorah Organization

THE Menorah Societies have been organized by the students in response to their desire first of all to know more about the history, literature, religion—in a word, the culture and ideals of the Jewish people, and the conditions and problems which confront the Jews in the world today. Being thus educational in primary purpose, every Menorah Society is open to all the members of its university who have an interest in Jewish life and thought. And inasmuch as the great majority, if not all, of the students who have such an interest in Jewish knowledge and Jewish aspirations are themselves Jews, the Menorah organization cherishes the second purpose of strengthening the Jewish idealism and noblesse oblige of the Jewish students, so that by understanding and carrying forward their Jewish inheritance they may become better men and women by becoming better Jews. And from this moral aim there flows still a third purpose, that of patriotic service to the Republic; for by enriching the common treasury of American culture and ideals with the spiritual resources of the Jewish people, the educated Jews of the country may serve America to the profoundest degree. Animated thus with the spirit and broad purposes of our universities, the Menorah Societies have been warmly welcomed and generously assisted by the university authorities.

The Distinction Between Menorah and Other Student Societies

THE purposes of the Menorah movement will appear in greater relief by comparison with the objects of other types of Jewish organization—social, political, religious—that have arisen at our colleges and universities. The Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, non-partisan, non-sectarian. Hence they are to be distinguished in the first place from the exclusive social organizations, such as the Greek letter or Hebrew letter fraternities. Being rather educational in spirit and purpose, the Menorah Societies make no social test for membership, nor do they pursue any convivial activities except such as are deemed desirable for the most agreeable and efficient pursuit of the Menorah objects. Again, the Menorah Societies are clearly distinguishable from the Zionist Societies, which were united last June in the Intercollegiate Zionist Association of America; whereas the Zionist Societies are devoted to a specific political program in confronting the so-called Jewish Question, the Menorah Societies, being non-partisan, are neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but perfectly free and open forums for the discussion of all points of view. The Menorah membership consists of men and women of divers convictions, as well as of those who have not yet made up their minds but come to the Menorah for enlightenment and inspiration. Finally, just because the Menorah appeals to every student who has a liberal interest in Jewish life and thought—to every Jewish student particularly, whatever his present beliefs and ideas—the Menorah Societies are not to be regarded as specifically religious organizations. Therefore the observance of religious services and practices is left to those students who desire them, individually or in appropriate organizations, such as the Jewish Students' Congregation organized recently under reform auspices at the University of Michigan. The Menorah Societies are neither reform, conservative nor orthodox but broadly inclusive of all elements.

The Catholicity and Comradeship of the Menorah

INDEED, next to the Menorah idea—the sum of Menorah purposes—the peculiar strength of the Menorah Societies lies in this catholic spirit which determines the Menorah "open door." Thereby the Menorah Societies are enabled to perform more and more an incidental but most important service apart from the objects to which they are formally dedicated. With the growth of various Jewish organizations in our universities—which, whatever the opinion as to their value and propriety, tend to divide the Jewish students rather than to unite them—a most important service performed by the all-inclusive Menorah Societies is to bring the students together, in spite of their various differences, on a common high plane. As stated over a year ago in the Association's book on The Menorah Movement: "Where, as in almost all large universities, there are Jewish students of diverse antecedents, it is one of the most important functions of a non-partisan organization like the Menorah Society to bring all classes and parties together upon an academic plane, in order that they may learn each other's points of view, in order that their prejudices against one another which are founded on misunderstanding and snobbishness may wither away, and in order that they may pursue in generous comradeship the knowledge of their common tradition and the hope of their common future."

The Graduate Phase of the Menorah Movement

IT is becoming increasingly evident, moreover, that such a unifying force is called for outside of the universities among the graduates and other educated Jews; and it is hoped that through the graduate phase of the Menorah movement, this need may be subserved by graduate Menorah groups in various communities. To quote once more from The Menorah Movement: "Such graduate Menorah organizations, while academic and non-partisan in their nature, like the university Menorah Societies, might yet, if properly constituted and conducted, be of practical as well as of ideal service to their communities. They could bring together, upon the lofty basis of Jewish idealism, men of different views in the community, who approach practical Jewish problems in different, sometimes in mutually antagonistic, ways. Devoid itself of any sectarian or fraternal or political bias, a graduate Menorah organization should be ideally fitted to serve as a kind of intellectual clearing house of the Jewish community, and thus promote on all sides a deeper understanding of one another, a clearer vision of the common problems, a greater concord in Jewish life."

In any event, it is hoped during the present year to bring the graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens into closer touch with the activities and aspirations of the students. At the fourth annual Convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association to be held during the coming midwinter recess, the idea of graduate Menorah committees and other forms of possible graduate association with the Menorah movement will be carefully considered.

The Year Ahead

IT may be added that at this Convention, which promises to be the most important thus far held by the Menorah Societies, there will also be given a full review of the activities of the Menorah organization since its inception and a survey of the present opportunities and demands for Menorah work throughout the country. More and more emphasis will be laid upon the quality of accomplishment of every Menorah Society; upon the active participation by all Menorah members in one phase or another of Jewish study and labor; and, in general, upon an even greater utilization of the lectures, libraries, study courses, and other means provided for the accomplishment of Menorah ends.

In this terrible time for Jewry, amid the general catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Jewish young men are offering their lives heroically in the contending armies, the members of the Menorah Societies in this favored country cannot but enter upon the new year with a solemn sense of added responsibility. More than ever in this decennial year of the Menorah movement is intellectual and moral consecration to Jewish ideals demanded of Jewish students in America.

Henry Hurwitz, Chancellor
I. Leo Sharfman, President

FOOTNOTE:

[G] It should be noted that in 1903 a Jewish literary society was founded at the University of Minnesota which was later changed to a Menorah Society and is now one of the constituents of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

Menorah Notes and News

The International Students' Reunion

THE Intercollegiate Menorah Association was represented at the International Students' Reunion, which was held in connection with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, the University of California, and Leland Stanford University, under the auspices of Corda Fratres Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, from August 16th to 21st, 1915. Intercollegiate Vice-President Milton D. Sapiro read a paper at the session in the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, on "The Purposes of the Menorah Movement," submitted by the Chancellor. Dr. Horace M. Kallen, of the University of Wisconsin, delivered a discourse at the session at Stanford University on "The Hebraic Spirit." The following is an abstract of his address:

Dr. Kallen on "The Hebraic Spirit"

"A people's spirit is its character, considered not as a cluster of qualities, but as a spring and form of action—action that expresses itself in social institutions, in political and economic organization, in art, in religion and in philosophy; in short, in all that expressive part of human life we call culture. A people's culture is organic. However varied its form and media, the varieties springing from a single source possess an identical and unique quality which is the quality of that source. They express and reveal it, as generative power, a force of creation, having good or evil bearing upon the residual civilization. The process of such revelation is a people's total history; just as the process of revelation of an individual's character is his total biography. To find the Hebraic spirit we must seek its substantial development in the culture and ideals of the Jewish people—in the unfoldment, in the history of their common attitude toward the world and toward man, in their theory of life.

"The Jewish theory of life involves three fundamental conceptions, interdependent, and forming a unit which has no near parallel in civilization.

"The first of these conceptions defines the nature of God. What is significant about it is the fact that it makes no distinction between God and Nature. God is Nature and Nature is God. The two are related to each other as a force and its operation, and what difference there exists between them is a difference in completeness and self-sufficiency, not in kind. God reveals himself thus in and as the cause of Nature, the whirlwind, the process of life and decay, the development of history. His essence is Change, Force, Time. There is hence no Hebrew word for eternal; God's attitude is everlasting. That is, that which changes yet retains its identity, as a man changes from infancy to manhood, yet retains his identity.

"God is one, all-inclusive, everlastingly creative. In consequence, there exists a real distinction between God and man, such that the one cannot be defined in analogy with anything human. Neither wisdom, nor goodness, nor justice apply to him; yet the goodness, wisdom and justice of man depend upon him. Man is a finite speck set over against divine infinitude. His life is a constant struggle for survival with forces which have each an equal claim on divine regard with man. Man's salvation, herein, consists in knowing these facts, in understanding, using them, and guarding against them. The fear of the Lord, sings the chorus in Job, is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

"To depart from evil is to act as a social being, to be righteous. Righteousness is acknowledgment of the value and integrity of other persons. It is the application of justice in all fields of human endeavor, particularly in fundamental economics. Thus the three historic constitutions of the Jewish state, the Covenant, Deuteronomy and the Levitical code, are all directed toward making impossible other than natural inequalities within the state. Their intention is a social democracy; and all Jewish law, departing from this fundamental intention, aims, under various conditions, to realize it. The prophets, from Amos to Isaiah, preach it; and men like Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marx, Jean de Bloch, simply enhance their tradition.

"The Hebraic spirit carries the principle of democracy beyond the individual to the group. Men having a common ancestry, history, culture and ideals, living a common life, have definite contribution to make to civilization as a group. They constitute a nationality and the principles of justice that apply among individuals must apply equally among nationalities. Hence Hebraism, through its prophets, formulates the conception of an internationalism, consisting of a co-operative democracy of nationalities, under conditions of universal peace. The great Isaiah, who flourished in the fifth century B. C., is the first to formulate this national vision. His people have never departed from it. In terms of it, they have been the foremost protagonists of a constructive internationalism, in every land and at all times. Recently, as they have begun to find that their service to civilization as a people grows more and more impaired by the Diaspora, they have formulated a program of national reconcentration in Palestine, and of the free development there of Hebraic culture and ideals such as all European peoples carry out in their own homelands of their culture and ideals. This program is called Zionism. It is the practical and most expressive incarnation of the Hebraic Spirit."

California Menorah Society

THE California Menorah Society met on Monday evening, August 30th, for its first meeting of the college year. There was an attendance of 125. Mr. Louis I. Newman gave a short talk on the aims of the Menorah movement. Milton D. Sapiro, first President of the California Menorah and now the second Vice-President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, spoke on the history of the movement, tracing the development of the Menorah idea and the formation of the Intercollegiate body; and in closing he presented Stanley Arndt, now President of the Society, with a bronze Menorah, which is to be handed down from President to President each year. President Arndt, in accepting the Menorah, said that it suggested the great problem that the Jews are now facing. The great question at the present time is whether this Menorah will be a mere symbol of the past glories, the past achievements of the Jews, whether it is to be a mere monument of a dying race, or the living emblem of a living race, the soul of a living people. As an exponent of the latter doctrine, he introduced Dr. Horace M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, Intercollegiate Menorah Lecturer.

Dr. Kallen spoke on "The Jews and the Great War." He pointed out that democracy in its essence was the liberation of individuality; that by being most one's self, a person or a nation does the most for his neighbors. First of all, therefore, we should know ourselves. Dr. Kallen then took up the condition of the Jews in Russia. He discussed the frightful persecutions there as the result of a great anti-Jewish conspiracy to cover up the graft, the corruption and the inefficiency of the government. He spoke on the great drive of the Jews from the Pale by the military authorities and then the drive back again by the civil authorities. This, he pointed out, involved not only a Jewish problem, but a great international one besides. The second phase of the Jewish question was that of a free Jewish life in Palestine. There the Jewish colonists have practically an autonomy of their own; they have established a Jewish stage, Jewish art, Jewish music; and the colonies were founded upon a social democratic basis, upon the same fundamental conceptions of social democracy that the Hebrew Prophets had preached. Dr. Kallen concluded with a plea for the Jew's double responsibility. The Jew commits a crime hot only as a citizen but as a Jew. The Jews who in length of service to the world are surely an aristocracy must carry this responsibility.

In the discussion which followed, Professor Simon Litman of Illinois, who was present, took part.

A Menorah prize of $50. was announced at this meeting. The judges will be Professor William Popper and Dr. Martin A. Meyer of the Semitics Department of the University, and Judge Max Sloss of the Supreme Court of California.

A musical program, followed by an informal reception to the new members, completed the evening.

N. M. Lyon, the Treasurer of the Intercollegiate, formerly of Cincinnati, is now a student at California and a member of the California Menorah.

Dr. Kallen on the Pacific Coast

BESIDES his address at the opening meeting of the California Menorah Society and other informal talks with the students, Dr. Kallen delivered a series of three addresses at the University of California, under the auspices of the Department of Philosophy, on the general subject: "The Hebraic Tradition in Europe." On August 31st, he lectured upon "The Rise and Significance of the Hebraic Tradition"; on September 1st, "Hebraism and Democracy"; and September 2nd, "Hebraism and Art."

On August 30th, Dr. Kallen met a company of graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens in San Francisco at luncheon and explained the purposes and activities of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

Dr. Kallen addressed the Menorah Society of the University of Washington in Seattle on August 14th, on "The Jewish Question and the Great War." He also met at a dinner a company of graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens in Seattle, and explained to them the purposes and activities of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

Dr. Harry Wolfson of Harvard

HARRY AUSTRYN WOLFSON, the author of the articles on "Jewish Students in European Universities," published in the first two numbers of the Journal, has been appointed Instructor in Jewish Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard last June in the field of Semitic Philology, his thesis subject being "Crescas on the Problems of Infinity and Divine Attributes."

During the ensuing year he will give the following courses: Post-Biblical Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic, Jewish Literature and Life From the Second to the End of the Seventeenth Century, and An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy.

Cornell Summer Meeting

ON August 8, 1915, the Cornell Menorah Society held a meeting for the summer students. There was an attendance of about 50, both Jews and non-Jews. Rev. Dr. H. P. Mendes, of New York, gave an address on "Bible Ideals in Modern Times," and Professor Frank Carney of Denison University, Professor of Industrial Geography in the Cornell Summer School, spoke on "The Inorganic Basis of the Hebrew Contribution to the World." Professor W.A. Hurwitz of Cornell spoke briefly on the scope of the Menorah movement, and Dr. L. L. Silverman played Kol Nidre on the violin.

Hunter Menorah Society

THE Menorah Society of Hunter College, in New York City, begins its third year with a marked increase in the enthusiasm and the number of its members. A program dealing with various phases of Hebrew culture has been planned for the regular monthly meetings, comprising lectures on the Bible, the Talmud, Medieval Hebrew Poetry, Modern Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Music, and Hebrew Art. In addition, the Society hopes to present a pageant and a reception to freshmen in February (for Hunter College admits two classes during the year). The lectures will be preceded by refreshments, and the singing of Hebrew songs by the Menorah Glee Club.

Besides the regular monthly meetings, the Society is organizing courses in conversational Hebrew, Bible Study, and Zionism—the first to meet weekly, the others on alternate weeks.

It is also hoped to have a general informal meeting every week to discuss modern Jewish problems in connection with the reading of various newspapers and periodicals.

College of the City of New York

THE Menorah Society of the College of the City of New York closed its activities during the past year with a very interesting meeting held on May 20, 1915. Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes spoke on "Jewish Ideals of Peace," and he was introduced by the new President of the College, Dr. Sidney Edward Mezes, who presided. Dr. Mezes has come to City College from the University of Texas, and it is gratifying to note that he had already been made familiar with the Menorah work through the Texas Menorah Society.

The new year was opened with a forum meeting on September 21st, in the Menorah alcove, when the Chancellor addressed a number of new men as well as old, upon the significance and the increasing scope of the Menorah movement. The week beginning October 3rd will be known as "Menorah Week" at the College. On Monday, October 4th, the study circles will meet for the first time; on Tuesday there will be another meeting of the Menorah forum; on Wednesday a semi-annual smoker will be held in the City College Club; and on Thursday, Mr. Marcus M. Marks, President of the Borough of Manhattan, will deliver a lecture to the student body under the auspices of the Menorah Society.

Fourth Annual Convention

IMPORTANT matters touching the development of Intercollegiate activities, the work and membership of the constituent Societies, the association of graduates with the Intercollegiate body, the problems and plans of The Menorah Journal, will be among the subjects presented for discussion and decision at the Fourth Menorah Convention, to be held during the coming mid-winter recess. The precise days and place of the Convention will shortly be decided by the Administrative Council, in accordance with Article II, Section 4, of the Intercollegiate Constitution. In addition to the business sessions there will also be a formal dinner and an academic session devoted to the reading of papers by eminent scholars. It is hoped that a large number of Menorah men and women from all parts of the country will be able to attend. Further details will be published in the next number of the Journal.

Informal Gathering of Menorah Officers

ON June 21, 1915, there was an informal gathering at the headquarters of the Intercollegiate Association, 600 Madison Avenue, New York City, of Menorah officers who happened to be in New York. There were present, besides the Chancellor, President I. Leo Sharfman, Vice-President Abraham J. Feldman, and Secretary Charles K. Feinberg of the Association, President Stanley Arndt of California, President Jacob Rubinoff of Pennsylvania, ex-President Leon J. Rosenthal of Cornell, ex-President George J. Horowitz, President Moses H. Gitelson, Treasurer Herman I. Trachman of College of the City of New York, President Bernard J. Reis of New York University (Washington Square), ex-President Samuel Sussman of Columbia, President Sarah Berenson, Vice-President Babette Reinhardt, Treasurer Minnie Weiss, and Secretary Ernestine P. Franklin and ex-Secretary Julia Mitchell of Hunter, and Dr. H. M. Kallen of Wisconsin.

There was informal discussion of the activities of the various Societies, the progress of The Menorah Journal, the program of the next Intercollegiate Convention, and the development of the graduate phase of the Menorah movement.

THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL

Volume I, No. 5, December 1915

Frontispiece: Theodor Herzl | Etching by Hermann Struck
The Menorah | Theodor Herzl
The Present Crisis in American Jewry | Israel Friedlaender
Our Spiritual Inheritance | Irving Lehman
Adam Prometheus, and Other Lyrics | Louis K. Anspacher
Sholom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant          | Percy B. Shostac
A Menorah Prize Essay
Liberalism and the Jews | Joseph Jacobs
What Is Judaism? | Mordecai M. Kaplan
University Menorah Addresses
Activities of Menorah Societies

PUBLISHED BY THE INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH ASSOCIATION
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INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH ASSOCIATION

For the Study and Advancement of
Jewish Culture and Ideals

OFFICERS

Chancellor
HENRY HURWITZ
600 Madison Ave., New York
President
I. LEO SHARFMAN
University of Michigan

First Vice-President
ISADORE LEVIN
Harvard University
Second Vice-President
MILTON D. SAPIRO
University of California
Third Vice-President
ABRAHAM J. FELDMAN
University of Cincinnati

Treasurer
N. MORAIS LYON
University of California
Secretary
CHARLES K. FEINBERG
New York University

THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL

Boston University: Maurice Horblit | University of Colorado: Morris Baskin
Brown University: Ismar Baruch | University of Denver: Jacob Butcher
Clark University: Max Smelensky | University of Illinois: Sidney Casner
College of the City of New York: G. J. Horowitz | University of Maine: Lewis H. Kriger
Columbia University: M. D. Hoffman | University of Michigan: Jacob Levin
Cornell University: Leon J. Rosenthal | University of Minnesota: Moses Barron
Harvard University: Ralph A. Newman | University of Missouri: J. L. Ellman
Hunter College: Sarah R. Friedman | University of North Carolina: Albert Oettinger
Johns Hopkins University: Millard Eiseman | University of Omaha: Jacques Rieur
New York University: Charles K. Feinberg | University of Pennsylvania: Jacob Rubinoff
Ohio State University: Samuel Lesser | University of Pittsburgh: A. Jerome Levy
Penn State College: J. K. Miller | University of Texas: H. J. Ettlinger
Radcliffe College: Anna Rogovin | University of Washington: Roy Rosenthal
Rutgers College: Louis B. Gittleman | University of Wisconsin: H. M. Kallen
Tufts College: Philip Marzynski | Valparaiso University: Florence Turner
University of California: Louis I. Newman | Western Reserve University: Benjamin Roth
University of Chicago: David Levy | Yale University: Reuben Horchow
University of Cincinnati: Abraham J. Feldman          | and the officers

Office of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association
600 Madison Avenue, New York

The MENORAH JOURNAL

Published Bi-monthly During the Academic Year By
The Intercollegiate Menorah Association
"For the Study and Advancement of Jewish Culture and Ideals"
600 Madison Avenue, New York

Editor-in-Chief
Henry Hurwitz
Associate Editor
I. Leo Sharfman
Managing Editor
H. Askowith
Business Manager
B. S. Pouzzner

Board of Consulting Editors

Dr. Cyrus Adler | Dr. Kaufmann Kohler | Dr. Solomon Schechter
Louis D. Brandeis | Justice Irving Lehman | Hon. Oscar S. Straus
Dr. Lee K. Frankel | Judge Julian W. Mack | Samuel Strauss
Prof. Felix Frankfurter | Dr. J. L. Magnes | Judge Mayer Sulzberger
Prof. Israel Friedlaender          | Prof. Max L. Margolis | Miss Henrietta Szold
Prof. Richard Gottheil | Dr. H. Pereira Mendes          | Felix M. Warburg
Dr. Max Heller | Dr. Martin A. Meyer | Dr. Stephen S. Wise
Dr. Joseph Jacobs | Dr. David Philipson

VOLUME I                      DECEMBER, 1915                     NUMBER 5

CONTENTS

page
Frontispiece: THEODOR HERZL | From an Etching by Hermann Struck
THE MENORAH | Theodor Herzl | 261
Translation by Bessie London Pouzzner
THE PRESENT CRISIS IN AMERICAN JEWRY | Israel Friedlaender | 265
OUR SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE | Irving Lehman | 277
ADAM PROMETHEUS, and OTHER LYRICS | Louis K. Anspacher | 282
SHOLOM ASCH: THE JEWISH MAUPASSANT | Percy B. Shostac | 285
A Menorah Prize Essay
LIBERALISM AND THE JEWS | Joseph Jacobs | 298
WHAT IS JUDAISM? Second Paper | Mordecai M. Kaplan | 309
UNIVERSITY MENORAH ADDRESSES | 319
INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH NOTES | 322
ACTIVITIES OF MENORAH SOCIETIES | 325
INDEX to Volume I of The Menorah Journal | 333

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Copyright, 1915, by The Intercollegiate Menorah Association. All rights reserved
Entered as second class matter January 6, 1915, at the New York Post Office, under the Act of March 3, 1879

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The Menorah Journal
December, 1915

the
Menorah Journal

VOLUME I                      DECEMBER, 1915                     NUMBER 5

Decoration Top

Decoration Left

The Menorah

By Theodor Herzl

Translated from the German by Bessie London Pouzzner

DEEP in his soul he began to feel the need of being a Jew. His circumstances were not unsatisfactory; he enjoyed an ample income and a profession that permitted him to do whatever his heart desired. For he was an artist. His Jewish origin and the faith of his fathers had long since ceased to trouble him, when suddenly the old hatred came to the surface again in a new mob-cry. With many others he believed that this flood would shortly subside. But there was no change for the better; in fact, things went from bad to worse; and every blow, even though not aimed directly at him, struck him with fresh pain, till little by little his soul became one bleeding wound. These sorrows, buried deep in his heart and silenced there, evoked thoughts of their origin and of his Judaism, and now he did something he could not perhaps have done in the old days because he was then so alien to it—he began to love this Judaism with an intense fervor. Although in his own eyes he could not, at first, clearly justify this new yearning, it became so powerful at length that it crystallized from vague emotions into a definite idea which he must needs express. It was the conviction that there was only one solution for this Judennot—the return to Judaism.

When this came to the knowledge of his closest friends, similarly situated though they were, they shook their heads gravely and even feared for his reason. For how could that be a remedy which merely sharpened and intensified the evil? It seemed to him, on the other hand, that their moral distress was so acute because the Jew of to-day had lost the poise which was his father's very being. They ridiculed him for this when his back was turned—many even laughed openly in his face; yet he did not allow himself to be misled by the banalities of these people whose acuteness of judgment had never before inspired his respect, and he bore their witticisms and their sneers with equal indifference. And since, in all other respects, he acted like a man in his senses, they suffered him gradually to indulge in his infatuation, which a number of them soon began to call by a harsher term than idée fixe.

He continued, however, with characteristic persistence to develop one idea after another from his fundamental conviction. At this time he was profoundly moved by several instances of apostasy, though his pride would not permit him to betray it. As a man and as an artist of the modern school, he had, of course, acquired many non-Jewish habits and his study of the cultures of successive civilizations had left an indelible impress upon him. How was this to be reconciled with his return to Judaism? Often doubts assailed him as to the soundness of his guiding thought, his "idée maîtresse," as a French thinker calls it. Perhaps this generation, having grown up under the influence of alien cultures, was no longer capable of that return which he had perceived to be their redemption. But the new generation would be capable of it, if it were only given the right direction early enough. He resolved, therefore, that his own children, at least, should be shown the proper path. They should be trained as Jews in their own home.

Decoration Right

Decoration Left

Hitherto he had permitted to pass by unobserved the holiday which the wonderful apparition of the Maccabees had illumined for thousands of years with the glow of miniature lights. Now, however, he made this holiday an opportunity to prepare something beautiful which should be forever commemorated in the minds of his children. In their young souls should be implanted early a steadfast devotion to their ancient people. He bought a Menorah, and when he held this nine-branched candlestick in his hands for the first time, a strange mood came over him. In his father's house also, the lights had once burned in his youth, now far away, and the recollection gave him a sad and tender feeling for home. The tradition was neither cold nor dead,—thus it had passed through the ages, one light kindling another. Moreover, the ancient form of the Menorah had excited his interest. When was the primitive structure of this candlestick fashioned? Clearly the design was suggested by the tree—in the centre the sturdy trunk, on right and left four branches, one below the other, in one plane, and all of equal height. A later symbolism brought with it the short ninth branch, which projects in front and functions as a servant. What mystery had the generations which followed one another read into this form of art, at once so simple and natural? And our artist wondered to himself if it were not possible to animate again the withered form of the Menorah, to water its roots, as one would a tree. The mere sound of the name, which he now pronounced every evening to his children, gave him great pleasure. There was a lovable ring to the word when it came from the lips of little children.

On the first night the candle was lit and the origin of the holiday explained. The wonderful incident of the lights that strangely remained burning so long, the story of the return from the Babylonian exile, the second Temple, the Maccabees—our friend told his children all he knew. It was not very much, to be sure, but it served. When the second candle was lit, they repeated what he had told them, and though it had all been learned from him, it seemed to him quite new and beautiful. In the days that followed he waited keenly for the evenings, which became ever brighter. Candle after candle stood in the Menorah, and the father mused on the little candles with his children, till at length his reflections became too deep to be uttered before them.

When he had resolved to return to his people and to make open acknowledgment of his return, he had only thought he would be doing the honorable and rational thing. But he had never dreamed that he would find in it a gratification of his yearning for the beautiful. Yet nothing less was his good fortune. The Menorah with its many lights became a thing of beauty to inspire lofty thought. So, with his practised hand, he drew a plan for a Menorah to present to his children the following year. He made free use of the motif of the eight branching arms projecting right and left in one plane from the central stem. He did not hold himself bound by the rigid traditional form, but created directly from nature, unconcerned by other symbolisms also seeking expression. He was on the search for living beauty. Yet, though he gave the withered branch new life, he conformed to the law, to the gentle dignity, of its being. It was a tree with slender branches; its ends were moulded into flower calyxes which would hold the lights.

The week passed with this absorbing labor. Then came the eighth day, when the whole row burns, even the faithful ninth, the servant, which on other nights is used only for the lighting of the others. A great splendor streamed from the Menorah. The children's eyes glistened. But for our friend all this was the symbol of the enkindling of a nation. When there is but one light all is still dark, and the solitary light looks melancholy. Soon it finds one companion, then another, and another. The darkness must retreat. The light comes first to the young and the poor,—then others join them who love Justice, Truth, Liberty, Progress, Humanity, and Beauty. When all the candles burn, then we must all stand and rejoice over the achievement. And no office can be more blessed than that of a Servant of the Light.

Decoration Right

Decoration Bottom

The Present Crisis in American Jewry

A Plea for Reconciliation

By Israel Friedlaender

ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER (born in Russia, 1876), attended the Universities of Berlin and Strassburg (Ph.D., 1901); called to the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1903, where he is now the Sabato Morais Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. Professor Friedlaender is not only the author, editor, and translator of a number of scholarly works but his wide observation of Jewish life in various countries, coupled with his broad historic knowledge, have enabled him to write and speak on present Jewish problems with exceptional authority and insight, as for example in his new book, "The Jews of Russia and Poland." His lectures before Menorah Societies have been particularly stimulating and have made him a great favorite with University students.

VARIOUS occurrences of recent date have revealed a rift in American Jewry which if not healed in time is likely to result in a permanent schism. The agitation centering around the question of a Jewish Congress is not the cause of this rift; it is rather an effect or a symptom betokening the profound difference of opinion and sentiment which at present divides the Jews of America. In the realignment of American Jewry which this struggle is calling forth, the Zionists and the non-Zionists of this country—the former centering around their local organization, the latter represented by the American Jewish Committee—have been taking opposite sides. Those of us whose Judaism is broad enough to embrace with equal loyalty the ideals of Zionism and the interests of American Judaism, cannot but view with the deepest concern the possibility of a permanent conflict between these two sections of American Jewry, a conflict fraught with the gravest consequences, not only for the Jewish cause in this country in general but also for the Zionist movement—a conflict, moreover, in which no victory achieved by either side can be anything but a Pyrrhic victory.

The situation is one that demands careful thought and delicate action. Only a few of us are in a position to influence the course of events by acting, but many of us may help to clarify the situation by thinking. A correct diagnosis is an indispensable preliminary to a cure, and it is only by finding out whether the issues underlying the present struggle represent a chronic and perhaps irremediable conflict, or are rather the effect of an acute and therefore curable misunderstanding, that a proper solution may be discovered and proposed. It is from this point of view that an attempt is here made to analyze the present situation in American Jewry, to trace the causes which have produced it, and to point out the consequences which are unavoidable unless a remedy be applied in time.

The Two Issues in American Jewry

TO my mind there are two fundamental issues which separate the two groups in American Jewry from one another. They may be expressed in the following terms: 1, Diaspora versus Palestine; 2, Religion versus Nationalism.

Without any desire to lose myself in philosophic subtleties, I shall, for the sake of brevity, adopt the Hegelian language and explain the development of these issues on the principle of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis, i. e., of the initial prevalence of one extreme, of its yielding subsequently to the opposite extreme, and of the final harmonization of the two in a higher unity, combining the essential features of both. I shall endeavor to point out that the Synthesis forms the ground on which both parties may cooperate, without sacrificing an iota of their respective convictions.

The first issue, expressed in the formula "Diaspora versus Palestine," hinges on the question as to whether the Jewish people finds its best opportunities for development in the Diaspora, i. e., as an integral part of the nations in whose midst it lives, or, away from the other nations, as a separate entity, on its own soil in Palestine.

The Rise and Fall of "Diaspora Judaism"

WHEN modern Jewry, after the isolation of centuries, suddenly emerged from the Ghetto to seek a place in the sun in the midst of the Christian environment, the thesis adopted by it was Diaspora. Consumed with the desire for emancipation, for sharing the benefits and attractions of the new life around them, the Jews discarded the hope for an independent national existence in Palestine, which had been their lode-star throughout the ages. Diaspora as opposed to Palestine, and as exclusive of it, became the slogan of emancipated Jewry. The Jewish religion was refitted to harmonize with this new striving for material and cultural progress. Reform Judaism arose, the main object of which was to break down the previous separateness of the Jews; and the theory of a "Jewish mission" sprang into life, not as a spontaneous growth of Jewish tradition, but as a forced hothouse product of practical life—a theory which proclaimed that an isolated Jewish existence in Palestine was subversive of the very essence of Judaism, that the mission of the Jewish people was to propagate monotheism among the nations of the earth, and that this mission could only be carried out in the Dispersion, in the midst of the nations which were to be the objects of that mission.

As time progressed, however, the "Diaspora" thesis gradually lost its force. Emancipation failed to fulfill the ardent hopes attached to it. The nations refused to allow the Jews to participate fully and unrestrictedly in the general life of the country. Anti-Semitism, manifesting itself in the crude form of hatred, or under the subtle guise of prejudice, turned, in many cases, the liberties previously granted to the Jews into a scrap of paper. On the other hand, the dangers of this extreme Diaspora Judaism, at first little thought of, began to loom larger and larger. The rush for emancipation threatened not only to disrupt the unity of the Jewish people throughout the world, which had been maintained during the ages of suffering and persecution, but it also led large and important sections of Jewry to assimilation, that is, to complete absorption.

The Antithesis "Palestine" and Its Inadequacy

AS a protest against the thesis "Diaspora," its opposite came to life, the antithesis "Palestine." Political Zionism sprang into being, loudly proclaiming that emancipation was a failure; that Judaism had no chance of life in the Dispersion, and that the only salvation of Jewry lay in being transferred to Palestine. Zionism or assimilation was the alternative placed before the Jewish people. All efforts of Jewry, as the last attempt to escape annihilation, were to be focused on the obtaining of a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine. All Jewish endeavors in the Diaspora were deprecated, because consecrated to a cause which was foredoomed to failure.

It was not long before the antithesis, too, began to reveal its deficiencies. The difficulties of reaching the Zionist goal very soon proved far greater than had been anticipated in the blissful ecstasy of the Zionist honeymoon. The ultimate consummation of the national hope receded further and further before the longing gaze of the Jewish people, and no longer held out an immediate remedy for the pressing needs of suffering Jewry. The conviction also gradually gained ground that, even under the most favorable of circumstances, Palestine could only harbor a fraction of the Jewish, people, and that the vast bulk of Jews would still remain in the lands of the Diaspora. Zionists who were looking reality in the face could not accept the view of the extremists, who were ready to save a small portion of the Jewish people at the cost of abandoning to its fate the enormous majority thereof.

Opposing Ideals Fused Into Spiritual Zionism

AS a result, a new formula asserted itself: Diaspora plus Palestine. It was the combination between the two extremes of Diaspora existence and Palestine existence. This synthesis, generally called Cultural or Spiritual Zionism, proclaimed that Palestine was indispensable for the continuation of Judaism, for it was the only spot where the spirit of Judaism, undisturbed by conflicting influences, could develop normally and unfold all its hidden possibilities, and the only bond of unity which could save the scattered members of the race from falling asunder into disjointed fragments. The Diaspora, on the other hand, as the dwelling place of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people, had problems of its own which clamored equally for solution.

Hence the Jewish task became a double one: the Jews in every country, while participating to the full in the life of their environment—for the return to the Ghetto was neither desirable nor possible—had to endeavor to secure a maximum of elbowroom for the development of their own section of Jewry, while as part of universal Israel they had to keep up their contact with the Jews throughout the world and labor with them for the realization of the common Jewish hope, that of a spiritual center in the historic land of Judaism. Diaspora without Palestine was impossible, because without the refreshing breath of a healthy Jewish life in Palestine it was bound to wither and dry up. Palestine without the Diaspora was equally impossible, because it lacked the backing of the people as a whole, and was in danger of becoming a petty and obscure corner in the vast expanse of the Jewish Dispersion, a sort of Jewish Nigeria.

This synthesis was not a pale cast of thought, the flimsy product of an imaginative brain. It had its prototype in the actual facts of history. For during several centuries preceding the dissolution of the Jewish state, Palestine was the spiritual center of Judaism, in the sense just indicated. The Jews outside of Palestine were superior, not only in numbers, but also in wealth and influence, to those of Palestine. The Jews of Egypt, and the same applies to other countries of that period, were closely associated with the cultural and material aspirations of their environment. Philo was one of the most illustrious representatives of the Hellenic culture of his age; these Diaspora Jews even found it necessary to translate the Holy Writings into Greek. Yet they were, at the same time, loyal to Palestine. They paid their Shekel, they made their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and looked upon the Holy Land as the spiritual center of all Jewry.

The Second Issue: Religion vs. Nationalism

THE other fundamental issue on which Jewish opinion is divided is closely associated with the preceding one; it hinges on the formula Religion versus Nationalism. From its earliest beginnings down to the time of modern emancipation, Judaism represented an indissoluble combination of nationalism and religion. Though ultimately intended to appeal to the whole of humanity, Judaism was essentially a national religion. Its bearer was a national community which zealously guarded its racial purity, and its external manifestations assumed the forms of a national life. Again the Jewish people was, first and foremost, a religious nation. Its sole reason for existence was, in the belief of every one of its members, "to know the Lord" and to make Him known to others. A Jew who did not believe in the fundamentals of the Jewish creed or who did not observe the fundamentals of the Jewish ceremonial was as much of a monstrosity as the Jew who denied the common racial descent of the Jews in the past, or their common national destiny in the future.

The departure of the Jews from the Ghetto and their entrance into modern life marked a turning point also in this direction. Filled with the desire of becoming part of the nations in whose midst they lived, modern Jews were ready, and thought they were compelled, to deny the national character of Judaism. The Jews were now labelled as Germans or Frenchmen of the Mosaic persuasion, who were divided from their fellow-citizens by the purely spiritual affiliations of religious faith—the same affiliations which divided the Christian population. Here, too, Reform Judaism was quick to meet the demands of practical life. It began to chop off all the elements in Judaism which betrayed a national character, both in the domain of doctrine and of practice, though it halted half way, and down to this day still acknowledges, in flagrant contradiction with its own theory, a number of rites and ceremonies which bear an unmistakable racial imprint.

This transformation of Judaism, or rather this transformation of Jewish terminology—for, in many cases, it was merely a question of terms—was greatly stimulated by the development of nationalism in Western Europe, where the structure of the modern state excluded, or was thought to exclude, a diversity of nationalities, while the principle of religious toleration left enough room for a variety of religious beliefs. As a result, those Jews who lost their religious affiliations were bound to feel that they were outcasts in the religious community of Israel: they became either konfessionslos or, by a curious perversion of logic and conscience, became members of the dominant faith.

The Rapprochement of Religionists and Nationalists

THE thesis "Judaism as Religion" was followed by the antithesis "Judaism as Nationalism." It is interesting to observe that the antithesis came from the Jews of Eastern Europe who, in their overwhelming majority, were adherents of strict orthodoxy. Those Jews of Russia and Poland who had drifted away from their religious moorings were neither psychologically nor physically in a position to abandon Judaism: psychologically, because they were too strongly saturated with Jewish culture and Jewish associations to tear themselves away from the influence of Judaism; physically, because they were excluded from participating in the life of the environment and were forced to remain within the fold. Living as the Eastern Jews did in compact masses, they found it easier, both in theory and in practice, to emphasize the national aspect of the Jewish community. As a result, a doctrine sprang up which looked upon Jewry as an essentially racial or national entity, in which religion was merely one of the many passing phases of its historical development. If among the champions of the thesis "Religion" there were Jews who celebrated the Ninth of Ab as a holiday because it marked, in their eyes, the end of Jewry as a nation, there were, among the others, the adherents of the antithesis "Nationalism," Jews who arranged entertainments on the Day of Atonement, as a public protest against the religious character ascribed to Judaism.

Here, too, however, the synthesis was gradually paving its way, and the formula "Religion plus Nationalism" was supplanting the thesis "Judaism as Religion" and the antithesis "Judaism as Nationalism." The religionists, that is, the believers in the purely religious character of Judaism, began to realize the devastating effect of their doctrine on Jewish life and development, while the nationalists, without sacrificing their convictions—for religion, least of all sentiments, can be forced on modern men—began to appreciate the overwhelming influence of the Jewish religion as a historic factor in the life of the Jewish people, and were ready to acknowledge the difficulty and the danger of squeezing an officially nationalistic Jewry into the narrow frame of the modern Nationalstaat.

This mutual rapprochement resulted, gradually, in a tacit agreement—an agreement far more durable than a legal compact, because founded on sentiment rather than on law—which implied the recognition of Judaism as composed of Religion and Nationalism, but left sufficient room to include the two extreme types of Jews: those whose loyalty to Judaism was entirely fed from the fountain of religion, and those whose devotion to Judaism was altogether grounded in race consciousness.

The Growth of Diaspora Judaism in America

THIS development, which may be traced in various countries of modern Europe, nowhere assumed such huge proportions and such striking manifestations as it did in America. The struggle, hinging on the two opposite doctrines, was nowhere else so well defined and nowhere else fraught with so many tangible consequences as in America, for the reason that American Jewry, as no other Jewry in the world, was made up of two different elements, sharply divided in their traditions and associations, as well as in their mental and psychological complexion. The Jews hailing from the lands of emancipation in Western Europe, who are conventionally, though not quite accurately, designated as German Jews, brought over with them the theses Diaspora as against Palestine, and Religion as against Nationalism. The immigrants from Eastern Europe, the children of the Ghetto, who with equal inaccuracy are termed Russian Jews, carried with them the antitheses Palestine as against Diaspora and, as represented by the extremists among them, Nationalism as against Religion. The fanatics of Diaspora Judaism and of Judaism as a pure faith are to be found exclusively among the "German" Jews. The radical adherents of Palestine and of Jewish nationalism are recruited entirely from the ranks of "Russian" Jews.

These issues were of particular and immediate significance for the Jews in this country; for America has, in less than one generation, become the second largest center of the Jewish Diaspora, and bids fair to become the first, instead of the second, within another generation. No other country in the world offers, even approximately, such a favorable combination of opportunities for the development of a Diaspora Judaism, as does America: economic possibilities, vast and sparsely populated territories, freedom of action, liberty of conscience, equality of citizenship, appreciation of the fundamentals of Judaism, variety of population, excluding a rigidly nationalistic state policy, and other similar factors. It is no wonder, therefore, that in no other country did Reform Judaism, as the incarnation of Diaspora Judaism, attain such luxurious growth as it did in America. It discarded, more radically than in Europe, the national elements still clinging to Judaism, and it solemnly proclaimed that Judaism was wholly and exclusively a religious faith, and that America was the Zion and Washington the Jerusalem of American Israel.

The Opposition: The Palestinian Sentiment of Russian Jews

ON the other hand, the emigrants from Russia brought the antithesis on the scene. They quickly perceived the decomposing effect of American life upon Jewish doctrine and practice, and they became convinced more firmly than ever that Diaspora Judaism was a failure, and that the only antidote was Palestine and nothing but Palestine. The nationalists among them beheld in the very same factors in which the German Jews saw the possibilities of a Diaspora Judaism, the chances for organizing Jewry on purely nationalistic lines. Nowhere else, except perhaps in Russia, can be found a greater amount of Palestinian sentiment, as well as a larger manifestation of a one-sided Jewish nationalism, than is to be met with in this country.

This conflict of ideas became extraordinarily aggravated by numerous influences of a personal character. The division between the so-called German Jews and the so-called Russian Jews was not limited to a difference in theory. It was equally nourished by far-reaching differences in economic and social position and in the entire range of mental development. The German Jews were the natives; the Russian Jews were the newcomers. The German Jews were the rich; the Russian Jews were the poor. The German Jews were the dispensers of charity; the Russian Jews were the receivers of it. The German Jews were the employers; the Russian Jews were the employees. The German Jews were deliberate, reserved, practical, sticklers for formalities, with a marked ability for organization; the Russian Jews were quick-tempered, emotional, theorizing, haters of formalities, with a decided bent toward individualism. An enormous amount of explosives had been accumulating between the two sections, which if lit by a spark might have disrupted the edifice of American Israel, still in the process of construction.

The Promise of Union and Harmony

AND yet, not only was the conflict averted, but the impending struggle gave way to hearty and extensive cooperation, such as cannot be witnessed elsewhere in the whole Jewish world (one recalls particularly the analogy of England) where East and West seem never to meet. As the two sections came into closer contact with one another, they learned to understand one another and to appreciate their respective points of view. This cooperation was not founded upon the flimsy framework of political expediency. It was grounded in that synthesis of Jewish life which combines in a higher unity the essential elements of the doctrines formerly believed to be exclusive of one another. The German Jews, while emphasizing the needs of Diaspora Judaism and anxious to build up its largest manifestation in America, learned to appreciate the quickening and ennobling effect upon the Diaspora of a normal Hebrew life in Palestine, and became interested in the regeneration of the Holy Land. The Russian Jews, on the other hand, though laying particular stress on the possibilities of Judaism in Palestine, put their shoulder to the wheel and were ready to assist in rearing the great structure of Judaism in America. The so-called religionists, while looking upon Judaism as a faith, were yet disinclined to repudiate the purely nationalistic Jews, whose enthusiasm and devotion they admired even though it flowed from a source they did not officially acknowledge. The so-called nationalists, basing their Judaism on race consciousness, realized that a common foundation of Judaism in this country could only be laid along the lines of religious affiliation.

This cooperation found tangible expression in the recent participation of American Jews in the upbuilding of Palestine, a participation which one will vainly look for in a similar group (I am not speaking of isolated individuals) in other countries. The same desire for a better understanding was further embodied in the movement toward Kehillah organization, which, though centering around the Jewish religion, still clearly implied the national element in Judaism.

There was every reason to hope that this cooperation, which had been so happily inaugurated between the two sections, would become more intimate and more extensive, and that the interaction of the heterogeneous elements of American Jewish life would resolve itself in a great and strong harmony. America bade fair to become an ideal Jewish center, where the practical wisdom of emancipated Jewry and the idealistic intensity of Ghetto Jewry would be merged in one united Jewish community, fully conscious of its duty as the future leader of the Jewish Diaspora and acknowledging its indebtedness to the center of all Jews in the land of our Fathers.

The Old Conflict Revived

SUDDENLY, however, a reaction seems to have set in, which threatens to disrupt the harmony hitherto prevailing. This reaction, which is fraught with grave consequences for the future of American Judaism no less than for the Zionist movement, dates from, or at least coincides with, the struggle centering around the Haifa Technikum. This is not the place to enter into an analysis of that momentous issue. It is enough to state that the bond of unity was disrupted with rude hands, and the old conflict hinging on the issues of Diaspora and Nationalism broke out with new fury. Again we see Diaspora Judaism pitched against Palestinian Judaism, and Religion against Nationalism. Reason has given way to passion, and discrimination to generalization. The Jews of the new Palestine, who have given of their life-blood to the rejuvenation of our homeland, are sweepingly declared to be "anarchists," while, on the other hand, American Jews who, with single-hearted devotion, have been the builders of the great Jewish center in the New World, are contemptuously sneered at as "assimilationists."

In this mood of distrust and prejudice, American Jewry was overtaken by the great crisis resulting from the World War, and the disharmony prevailing between the two factions soon found tangible expression in the struggle over a Jewish Congress. The two elements of American Jewry were clearly divided on the issue: the German or native Jews, represented by leading members of the American Jewish Committee, were opposed to the calling of a congress, while the Russian or immigrant Jews, speaking largely through the Zionist organization, clamored for it.

From what has preceded I believe it may be safely concluded that this demand for a congress on the one hand, and the opposition to it on the other, are not rooted in diametrically opposed and deeply implanted theories of Judaism but are rather the expression of different moods or temperaments. The immigrant Jews who were directly concerned in the war, since its horrors affected their homelands and the kin they left behind, and who were impulsive and sentimental, felt the burning need of crying out in their despair, and were ready to face the consequences which might result from this outcry. The native Jews, whose sympathy with their far-off brethren, profound though it was, could hardly, in the nature of the case, be more than indirect and whose accustomed reserve and self-restraint enabled them to judge the issues more calmly, shrunk from the risks which in their opinion were implied in an open protest of the Jewish people before the inflamed public opinion of the non-Jewish world. It is not my intention, nor is it my function, to render judgment in so momentous an hour on an issue concerning which Jewish opinion is diametrically yet honestly divided. But it is necessary to point out that whichever side may be in the right: serious as may be the dangers of holding a congress or not, the dangers involved in a split over this question are incalculably more serious. Such a split may not only result in permanent and perhaps irreparable injury to the Jewish cause in America and to the Zionist movement in this country, but may also, by aligning the two sections of American Jewry against one another, spell nothing short of disaster to the Jewish people as a whole. The stakes involved in this conflict are infinitely greater than the issue which has given rise to it.

The Structure of American Judaism Endangered

SO far as American Judaism is concerned, the practical results of this strife between Zionists and non-Zionists in America,—to leave aside all theoretical considerations,—may prove to be fatal. It will reopen the gap between the two elements of American Jewry which had been almost filled. The work of American Judaism has been done by both elements. Prominent non-Zionists and even anti-Zionists have frequently and gratefully acknowledged the debt which American Israel owes to the cooperation of the Zionists. The institutions of American Jewry depend to a large extent for their existence upon the non-Zionists, who may now by the force of reaction be driven into anti-Zionism. But the progress of these institutions just as largely depends upon those who are Zionists. The withdrawal of the Zionists from American Jewish work—and such withdrawal may become a moral duty for the Zionists who are loyal to the movement and respect their convictions—might mean a complete standstill in the life of American Jewry. Perhaps there are a few among us who are skeptical about the fate of American Judaism, and who therefore see no harm in hastening its disintegration. But those of us who are profoundly concerned about the future of the two and one-half million Jews who are now in America, and of twice that number who may one day be here, cannot but view with the utmost anxiety the danger of wrecking what promises to become the greatest Jewish center in the history of the Jews since their dispersion.

As for the Zionist movement, one cannot help doubting whether Zionism, even if it succeeded in defeating its opponents, would thereby obtain its object. I am not speaking of the very considerable material injury which the movement will suffer from the indifference and hostility of the other side. I am rather thinking of the dangers incurred by Zionism itself if, having repulsed the so-called classes, it becomes a one-sided movement of the masses. Of course, no Zionist can be otherwise than deeply gratified by the prospect of Zionism becoming a cause of the people, but unless it manages to preserve the balance of power within the Jewish community, it will be exposed to risks from another source. Zionism is beset with so many difficulties that it dare not burden itself with problems extraneous to it. The injection of political or economic issues into the movement is fraught with incalculable consequences for the future of the movement in this country. These issues are so extensive in their bearings and so vital in their manifestations that if superimposed on the delicate structure of Zionism they may crush it, never to rise again.

Zionism must, therefore, remain neutral. While including all Jews, it dare not identify itself with any section of them. It dare not be either a movement of the classes or of the masses. While holding scrupulously aloof from the issues which divide modern Jewry as part of modern humanity, it must keep its eye fixed on one point, the securing of a Jewish center for the Jewish people as a whole, in which the ills that afflict humanity may be cured in the prophetic spirit of justice and righteousness.

A Plea for Peace and Cooperation

THE practical conclusion of these considerations is clear. It is a plea for reconciliation, for a return to that Synthesis which was on the point of becoming the common ground of all American Israel. American Judaism needs peace to carry out the great task confronting it. Zionism is no less in need of peace in order to gain the hearts of those whose hearts are still Jewish. The very possibility of a conflict has bred a spirit of suspicion and unfriendliness which falls like a blight upon every attempt at united action. The non-Zionists may succeed in defeating their opponents; they can never dispense with Zionism which is a driving force in American Jewish life. The victory may perch on the banners of the Zionists but they can never forego the assistance of the non-Zionists who still form the backbone of American Jewry. Representing the common longings of the Jewish people throughout the world, Zionism should serve as a leaven, quickening and stimulating the Jewish activities of this country, and rescue them from the greatest danger of Diaspora Judaism, the danger of provincialism, of falling away from the main body of universal Israel. In the particular situation confronting us Zionism ought to assert the claims of Palestine, in addition to those of the Diaspora. But the Zionists cannot replace the present agencies of American Jewish life, nor can they dispense with the cooperation of the non-Zionists. Such cooperation, based on the synthesis Palestine plus Diaspora, would be of equal benefit to both parties. Zionism and non-Zionism have only one real enemy: it is Assimilation, which preaches the suicide of Judaism. But all those who are concerned about the preservation of Judaism, in whatever shape or by whatever means, have the right to be recognized, if not as fellow workers in Zion, at least as fellow workers in Israel.

The Supreme Test for the Jews of America

LASTLY, if cooperation and harmony between the Zionists and the non-Zionists be permanently needed for the welfare of American Judaism, they are needed a thousandfold now when the catastrophe which has overwhelmed the ancient centers of Jewry has turned the eyes and the hopes of the whole Jewish world toward the Jews of this country. Ever since the Jews of Russia, fleeing from the wrath of the oppressor, began to wend their steps toward these hospitable shores, thoughtful European Jews have been looking upon America as the future center of the Jewish Diaspora. And as time progressed, as the numbers and the energies of the Old Jewish World assembled more and more in the New, American Jewry has been steadily advancing toward this exalted position of Jewish hegemony. But what, in the natural course of events, might have been the fruit of slow and gradual ripening, has now been thrust upon us as the sudden result of the World War. Crippled European Jewry is now looking, and will look more and more, to the Jewry of America not only for comfort and support, but also for light and leading, for spiritual advice and guidance, and the Jewry of America, the only Jewry of consequence unscathed by the world struggle, cannot but assume the responsibility.

Nor is the Jewry of America at liberty to choose. There is an ancient Jewish legend which, with a subtle touch of sarcasm, tells us that when the Lord, having descended upon Mount Sinai, was about to bestow the Torah upon the Jews, the latter, shrinking from the obligations imposed by it, made an attempt to refuse the proffered gift. Thereupon the Lord lifted the mountain over their heads and angrily exclaimed: "If ye accept my Law, well and good. If not, ye shall be crushed on the spot!" And the Jews, yielding no less to the promptings of duty than to the dictates of wisdom, quickly recanted and declared: "We will do and obey!" American Jewry will either be the leader of Jewry or it will not be. Let it fail to respond to the great call of history,—and it will unfailingly relapse into the obscurity and sluggishness of its former parochialism. This great world crisis will be either the making or the unmaking of American Jewry, and no Jew whose mind is unclouded by the ephemeral passions of party strife can do aught except ardently pray that the Jews of America may emerge in triumph from their supreme test.

Signature: Israel Friedlaender

Our Spiritual Inheritance

By Irving Lehman

IRVING LEHMAN IRVING LEHMAN (born in New York, 1876), educated at Columbia (A.B., 1896; A.M., 1897; LL.B., 1898). Justice of the Supreme Court of New York; associated with a number of Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Y. M. H. & Kindred Associations. Justice Lehman has taken a particularly keen interest in Jewish University students, and as Chairman of the Graduate Menorah Committee since the formation of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, he has been generously helpful in promoting the ideals which the Menorah movement embodies. Devoted Jew and public-spirited American, his personal example has been an inspiration to Menorah men all over the country.

IF a Jew of the Middle Ages, or even a Jew living to-day in almost medieval conditions in Poland, were present to-night,[A] he would certainly say, "What sort of a conference of rabbis is this, at which a layman is presiding, another layman is to speak on 'The Religion of the Hebrews,' and a third layman is to speak on a social movement?"

To the old-time Jew a conference of rabbis meant a conference of men learned in the law and its authoritative interpretation in the Talmud—men whose duty it was to teach this law and who would confer among themselves upon the application of its abstruse and technical rules to the daily needs of their congregations. But they could recognize no questions and no problems not fully covered by that law; consequently they could recognize no right in any person not an authority on that law to take any part in such a conference except to ask for the advice of the rabbis appointed to teach the law. That was the attitude of our ancient leaders, and it met with the full and unqualified approval of the Jewish laymen, because it fulfilled all the requirements of our medieval condition. Until recent times we were a people apart, living among the nations of the world, but not a part of them. We had no right to join in the general civic life. Our life consisted in the memory of a national past and in the dreams of a national future. So far as the present was concerned, we were perforce interested only in the maintenance of our identity and in the preservation of our ancient law, so that we might be in a position some day to realize our dreams and to reëstablish our national state, founded on this ancient law. Deprived as we were of all right to live in the present, we could justify our existence and continuance as a separate people and a separate religion only by laying stress on the importance of our ancient law, and striving to hand it down, pure and unaltered, to future generations. Therefore in those days the rabbis were naturally our only leaders, and their right to leadership depended solely upon their knowledge of the law. The observance of the Torah embraced all the limits of the life of the Jew.

New Opportunities and New Obligations

TO-DAY all this has changed. The Jew of to-day is living in the present, and the observance of the minutiæ of Jewish law is to the man active in civic and business life of slight if any importance.

Inconceivable as it would be to a medieval Jew that at a conference of Jewish rabbis a layman should preside and laymen should make formal addresses, it would be equally inconceivable to such a Jew that among the laymen who might make such addresses, there could be a professor at a great university, a worker in the general social activities of the city, and a judge. These changed conditions, this wide life now opened to the Jews, have produced new problems, and we demand of our rabbis, if they are indeed to remain the teachers and leaders in Israel, that they help us solve these problems.

As soon as opportunities were offered to us, we eagerly grasped them. We are too eager, too ambitious, too practical a people to continue to live in dreams of the past and visions of the future, when the present is thrown open to us. We have definitely and forever discarded the concept that we are a peculiar people, the "chosen of the Lord," in so far as that concept cuts us off from free participation in the life of the nations among which we live, or from serving in the cause of the general advance of humanity. We have demanded the opportunity to exercise civic rights, and as those rights have been granted, we have recognized that the opportunity confers also an obligation—the obligation to exercise those rights in no narrow spirit, but for the benefit of the whole people of which we are now a part.

Why the Jew Remains a Jew

AS a result of this change, we no longer take our Judaism for granted, but day by day perforce are asking ourselves three questions: What does Judaism mean, and why are we Jews? Will the maintenance of Judaism be of benefit to the countries in which we live and to humanity at large? How can Judaism be maintained, since now we not only live among the nations of the world, but the individual Jew has become a part of these nations?

We have discarded, as I have said and as I firmly believe, the ancient concept that Judaism means membership in a peculiar people, the chosen of the Lord, except possibly in the sense that we have a peculiar obligation imposed upon us to demonstrate to the world the power and worth of a spiritual ideal. We Reform Jews have discarded the view that in any literal sense the Lord revealed himself unto Moses and gave unto him the tablets of stone. The words "Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is One, the Lord is One," are still dear to us, but many who call themselves Jews deny even the existence of a personal God. Why then do we still remain Jews, why do not those so-called Jews, who deny the existence of the Lord, frankly join the ranks of so-called universal philosophers while the rest of us join the Unitarians?

The answer comes not only from our heads, but from our hearts. Most of us could not renounce Judaism because deep down in our consciousness, aside from reason or logic, we know we are not as other men; we know we are Jews. We hear the cry of the suffering in Belgium and we answer to that cry because we are men and nothing human is alien to us,—but when we hear the cry of the suffering Jew in Poland and Palestine, then the true Jew answers that cry as the cry not only of a fellow human being, but as the cry of a brother.

A Nation Founded on a Spiritual Ideal

IS Judaism then a matter of race? Are we after all and regardless of our beliefs and special obligations, a peculiar people, perhaps even a separate nation? The answer to this question lies, I think, in the study of our history. For centuries past the Jew has been persecuted, driven from one country to another, despoiled, massacred, and at best despised and forced to live in the Ghetto clothed in the badges of disdain. All of this the Jew has suffered and yet survived and kept his religion intact; willing at all times to remain a man apart because he knew that in the past the Jews had been a nation founded on a spiritual ideal; because his tradition taught him that on the slopes of Mount Sinai, the Lord had entered into a covenant with his fathers—and not only with them stood there that day, but also "with him that was not there that day" but who came after them; and that by virtue of this covenant, Israel became unto the Lord a kingdom of priests and a holy people; and because the value of this tradition, the force of this spiritual ideal was greater to him than the security, the right to live and work freely among his fellow men, which he could have obtained only by discarding his Judaism.

During all the centuries since the dispersal, the Jews have had a common history, a common tradition, a common spiritual ideal, and they have survived by reason of the force of this common inheritance. It is this common inheritance of a past founded on a spiritual force that to-day, in my opinion, constitutes Judaism.

America Demands Adherence to our Spiritual Ideals

RACIAL Judaism is in one sense, but in the sense of a race that has stood for a spiritual ideal and is bound together by traditions of the value of that ideal, and not simply a race that is bound together by ties of common descent. At all times and in all places a Jew meant not merely a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not merely a descendant of the people who once ruled over the promised land, but one who considered himself bound by the covenant of his fathers, at least to the extent that he would be true to his spiritual ideals, whatever these ideals might be. Judaism is in that sense a racial religion, but it is and at all times must be a religion and not simply a race. True, we now differ among ourselves as to the content of our religion. True, many of us now deny that that covenant which has kept alive our race and religion was ever in fact made, but we cannot deny our history and our past. We cannot deny that by virtue of the tradition of that covenant our fathers considered themselves under a peculiar obligation, and that by virtue of that tradition they sought to become a kingdom of priests and a holy people.

That tradition at least is our own heritage, and he only is a Jew who recognizes the force of spiritual ideals, and by virtue of that inheritance also for himself assumes the obligation involved in being a member of a nation of priests and a holy people.

If that spiritual concept and not merely race constitutes the basis and the essential content of Judaism, then surely the question of whether the maintenance of Judaism will be a benefit to the country in which we live answers itself. In all civic matters we must work and be as one with our fellow-citizens, but America demands that each citizen give to its service the best of which he is capable.

Since Judaism means the recognition of a peculiar obligation imposed upon us by our past; since Judaism is founded upon a spiritual ideal,—adherence to our ancient faith and endeavor to live up to our past must be to us a source of greater moral and spiritual strength—strength that we must bring to the service of our country.

The Spiritual Value of a New Zion

OUR problem then becomes really one of how we can maintain Judaism and keep it alive now that it has become a part and not as formerly the whole of our lives. Some say that this can be done only by recognizing that we are not simply a racial religion but actually a nation, and that we must reëstablish that nation and its capital upon the hills of Zion.

This is neither the time nor the place to discuss such a matter. For myself, I wish to say that if in the country where through our fathers the world first learnt the value of spiritual ideals, where it was prophesied that "the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem—" and "nations shall no longer lift up sword against nations neither shall they learn war any more," a community of Jews shall be again established who shall represent and contribute to the fulfillment of the prophecy, such a community would be from a spiritual standpoint a living force to keep Judaism alive throughout the world.

"Nationally We Are Americans and Americans Only"

BUT I wish also to state that I cannot for an instant recognize that the Jews as such constitute a nation in any sense in which that word is recognized in political science, or that a national basis is a possible concept for modern Judaism. We Jews in America, bound to the Jews of other lands by our common faith, constituting our common inheritance, cannot as American citizens feel any bond to them as members of a nation, for nationally we are Americans and American only, and in political and civic matters we cannot recognize any other ties. We must therefore look for the maintenance of Judaism to those spiritual concepts which constitute Judaism.

And it is the duty of our rabbis in the present just as it was in the past to lead us and strengthen us in our Judaism. A conference of rabbis to-day properly recognizes that Judaism consists no longer in the minute observances of the law; that the Jewish people are asking for the inner meaning of their religion, and not for dry formulas. In all humility as a layman, I say to them that the Jewish people again needs to be taught that what the Lord requires of them is "to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God."

Signature: Irving Lehman

I AM very much pleased with the excellence of The Menorah Journal, which grows better with every number. It is conceived in a fine spirit and has a high educational value for the Jewish young men in the universities throughout the country.

The American spirit and the Jewish spirit are in entire accord, in fact they supplement one another. The Puritan ideals of democracy which lie at the foundation of our Government were derived principally from the Jewish ideals of democracy, and I cannot imagine any American being less an American for being a good Jew. On the contrary, he will be a better American for being a good Jew, more ready at all times to make every sacrifice for his country in peace and in war.—Hon. Oscar S. Straus, in a Letter to The Menorah Journal.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] This address was delivered at the opening session of the Eastern Conference of Reform Rabbis, Temple Emanu-El, November 7, 1915, at which Justice Lehman presided.

Lyrics

By Louis K. Anspacher

LOUIS K. ANSPACHER LOUIS K. ANSPACHER, poet and playwright, whose most recent plays, "Our Children" and "The Unchastened Woman," have won recognition for him as one of the most original and powerful dramatists of the present day. Born in Cincinnati in 1878, and educated at City College of New York, and Columbia University (A.M., LL.B.), he occupied the vestry pulpit of Temple Emanu-El, New York, for several years, and has lectured on ethics and the drama. A volume of his poems, to be published soon, will show more completely the depth and resourcefulness of the lyric power revealed in the accompanying verses. The portrait is from an oil painting by Franzen.

Adam Prometheus

I

In olden books 'tis written,

That he that would discern

The secret'st truth of things

Lost paradise eterne.

He was the first that fed

On fruit that knowledge brings;

Exiled from joys, he fled

And flaming swords did burn

Behind his path, which led

To miseries.

II

Great God, vouchsafe me truth:

For I am one that smitten

With the deep mystery of things,

In learned lore uncouth,

Out of pure wonder sings

In harmonies.

III

Great God, forfend the tooth

Of deep remorse, and stings

Of joys that I did spurn:

Oh, spare the gnawing ruth

Of memories' torturings,

Yea proudly did I turn

From earth to snatch at wings

To soar and ne'er return

To life's lees.

IV

Great God, I too am cursed;

A destiny from birth,

Of all dread fates the worst,

Drives me unrestful, flings

Me from my Eden bliss,

Over a barren earth,

To impious search for things

Whose heart is an abyss.

I too am one that clings.

In lust for a knowledge kiss,

Upon my knees.

V

Great God, I've given o'er

My paradise of ease,

Allowed my soul to soar

To mysteries high or deep

At the world's core;

Oh, quench its ardent thirst,

Its hunger, God, appease:—

Or if Thou dost ignore

The soul that Thou hast nursed,

Then smite me as I leap,

And let Thy rages roar

On me as in the first

That fell on sulphur seas.

Yea, down Hell's sliffy steep

Thy molten lightnings pour

Till darkness be immersed;

Yet know I will not creep

Though all Thy thunders burst

In penalties.

My Psalm of Life

I cannot grow as men would have me grow,

By ordered plodding to a life complete;

Climbing the path with slow and heavy beat

Of tedious footsteps from the world below.

I cannot like a visible circle flow

Until by measured compass I can meet

The place I started from with weary feet.

That proudly point the obvious path they go.

Ah no,—mine be the instinct given to trust

That all will in the outcome fall aright.

Like a migrant swan still wandering since I must,

I'll fill a life's full cycle in my flight:

Though I soar into the clouds or sink to dust,

My orb will come around; I'll reach my height.

The Vocal Memnon to the Sphynx

The sands of time drift round me, and within

There is the knell of passing and decay:

The sun-smit vastness of the world doth weigh

Upon my riddling soul like hidden sin,

And bids it speak. Thou desert art my kin!

I crumble to thee, waning day by day;

But I am cursed with questions that betray

The end of life before death's hours begin,

My eyes are staring, yet their sight is blind.

My ears are hollow, yet they hear no sound.

My knees are buried and my body sinks.

The stars weave fates that they themselves unwind,

Traversing the same cycles round and round;

While I sit gazing at the silent Sphynx.

Louise Anspacher

Sholom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant

A Menorah Prize Essay

By Percy B. Shostac

PERCY B. SHOSTAC PERCY B. SHOSTAC, born in 1892, in New York City, where he attended the Ethical Culture School and High School; graduate of the University of Wisconsin (1915), where he was an active member of the Wisconsin Dramatic Society and contributed frequently to the Wisconsin Play-Book. He is now teaching English at the University of Kansas. The present Essay was awarded the Wisconsin Menorah Prize for 1915.

I

The Man and His Work

IT was in the little parlor of a four-room New York flat. The room was furnished sparsely: a table and a few chairs of bamboo, a long row of books on the yellow floor along one wall, some Chinese ornaments and plants, a few Russian embroideries, a rich Persian covering on the couch, and candles—many candles burning and flickering on their rest of saucer or glazed clay candlestick. Our hostess seemed part of her room; she was a Russian Jewess, decidedly Oriental in type, rare in her beauty and still more rare in her personality and charm.

Sholom Asch sat opposite me smoking his cigarette and sipping his coffee—a big man of thirty-five, with broad shoulders and a frame sturdy and substantial; thick black hair, a high forehead, a characteristically Jewish nose, a firm mouth, a little black moustache, and deep brown eyes—eyes that at times would seem to be unaware of anything surrounding them, yet one felt that they saw everything and understood everything. His complexion was that of a ruddy boy, yet his large handsome features had the sensitiveness which classed him unmistakably as an artist.

He was talking in Yiddish. His voice was soft and his sentences followed each other in musical cadence and beauty.

"YES," Asch was saying, "he was the best Jew I ever met. I always think of him as 'The Light of Damascus.' I was in Damascus last year. The most beautiful city in the world! The houses on the winding streets are centuries old. The people seem older than the houses. For hours I stood in the market-place watching the camels and the asses pass by. Some had the dust of the desert on their feet and some had mud and dirt. Each went slowly on its way with its turbaned rider sitting still as a figure of stone on its back.

"Through the kindness of a friend we entered a house on one of the strange streets. Like most of the old houses its front was plain and unattractive. We went through a court and on to a balcony overlooking an enclosed garden. Such a garden I had never seen! It seemed a picture transported from the 'Thousand and One Nights.' In the center was a fountain of extraordinary workmanship, so inlaid with gems that after the water had gushed out it seemed to splash down again in a shower of ruby and amethyst. About the fountain were palms and fig trees. The flowers were more wondrous than the jewelled water or the many-colored mosaics of the walls and arches.

"On the grass sat a grey-bearded Mohammedan. He smoked his hookah in silence. Suddenly we heard voices. Three young women came from the house and bathed in the fountain. Their lord and husband sat stoically and smoked. They laughed and played in the splashing waters. And as I watched this old man and these beautiful women, I thought myself back in the ancient Damascus, in the city that I had thought was dead for a thousand years.

"THAT evening I was walking in the city. Suddenly I saw a light before me. To my surprise it was an electric bulb—the only one in Damascus. It was fastened to the head of a donkey and illuminated a painted advertisement attached to his back. By following the wires I found they led to a large wholesale warehouse. It hurt me to find this electric light in Damascus. I was still more hurt when I found that the man who had installed it was a Jew, a Russian Jew who had come to the city some years before.

"The next day I visited a shop where hammered gold and silver, for which Damascus is famous, was sold. With the permission of the proprietor I went upstairs to the workroom. What I saw there I shall never forget.

"I found myself in a long but very narrow room, dimly lighted by a few dirty windows. In two long rows in front of two long tables sat fifty or sixty little girls huddled so close together that they touched one another. Each child was bent over the table and each held a little hammer. She was tapping on a piece of metal. The tapping was never-ending—a sharp clicking sound like the falling of hail. The children never spoke nor smiled. Near me sat a little girl. She was not more than eight years old. Her hammer had stopped tapping and her eyes were closed. She was asleep. The girl next to her, evidently her elder sister, seeing the foreman approach, pinched the child sharply. She opened her eyes and dully began her tapping. As I left this room of darkness my eyes were wet with tears.

"I found out that only little girls were employed in this industry: that they began when eight or nine years old. When they were sixteen they usually were dead from the metal that had entered their lungs. The children were mostly Jewish, for you must know that when the Jews become part of a slow Eastern civilization they sink yet lower and become yet more phlegmatic and listless than the people among whom they have settled. I was indignant and asked if nothing was being done to remedy this terrible evil. Then I was told that there was one man who was devoting his life to freeing these children. It was the Jewish merchant who used the only electric light in Damascus. He gave every cent he earned to this work. He maintained an industrial school for Jewish children and was trying to interest the Jews of the world in the movement. And then I blessed this man's electric light. I think of him always as 'The Light of Damascus.'"

AND thus Sholom Asch talked. I cannot reproduce his words; I have only tried to give the spirit of them. He talked in the finished style of a Maupassant, with all the imagination and all the strength of that great master. I saw then, before I had read his work, that his title of "The Jewish Maupassant" was not extravagant. And I saw also that here was an artist with human sympathy immeasurable, and yet not lacking sensuous imagery and elemental strength and beauty.

Sholom Asch was born and brought up in a little town in Poland, Kuttnow, near Lodz. His father was a merchant on a small scale. He bought sheep and oxen from the peasants and shipped them to be marketed in Lodz, in Germany, in France. He rode about the country and sometimes took Sholom with him, whom he loved especially because he studied so well. Sholom liked the sheep and the cattle, and he loved the melancholy Polish landscape—mystic, fearful.

His father was a healthy, normal, honorable Jew; not fanatical but deeply religious. He was philosophic toward life, he cared nothing for money and was content without it. His mother, on the other hand, was nervous and worldly. She was dependent on the externals of life and to her no money was misery. There was a big house with much food, many new clothes, much hospitality, and many big brothers and sisters; something like eleven children. The ceremonies of the Jewish faith were observed beautifully, the holidays kept happily. There was substance and spirit.

AND Sholom absorbed this atmosphere of the old religious rites, and the paganism of the cattle and nature, and spoke little. When he was six he was sent to the Jewish school. This was in session from eight in the morning until five in the evening. He and the other children used to watch the sun shine on certain spots and know the time. How they waited for the moment of freedom, little knowing how well one of their number was to picture for the world each intimate emotion and thought of their imprisoned souls.

One day a peasant came to his house and Sholom went with him on his wagon. That was a wonderful day; he played hookey. The next day the rabbi, who believed in corporal punishment, expressed his views on the matter of absence.

Asch was extremely clever at learning the Talmud and the old history and philosophy of the Jews. He learned to reason from the Talmud and to-day he says, "Art is logic. There must be an 'Urkraft' (elemental strength) behind a man's work." And if there is one outstanding characteristic of Asch's work, it is this elemental, this passionately strong and elemental vein.

Max Reinhardt, whom Asch calls "Ein Dichter im Theater," loves Asch dearly. In his Deutsches Theater, the most artistic and best equipped theatre in the world, he produced Asch's God of Vengeance. This was a marked success and is still a most popular play in Germany, Russia, and in the Yiddish theatres of New York. Asch was only twenty-four years at this time. From this play he made much money and a whole village was made happy an entire summer.

Since then his income from his writings has increased steadily. Much of his work is now translated into Russian and German, but as yet not into English. The income from his translations far exceeds that from his Yiddish publications, and he is able to support his wife and four children in ease and comfort. Although he has been to America a few times during the last six years, it is only several months ago that his wife and children arrived from Poland and he settled here permanently.

AN important happening in the history of Jewish literature occurred in the beginning of April. Perez, the intellectual father of the new movement, died. Asch and Perez were deep friends. Of all living writers Perez has had most influence on Asch, both as writer and as man. When Asch brought him his first story, Perez gave him a volume of his poems. He said of Asch, "A bird is breaking through the shell—who knows, is it an eagle or a crow?" It proved to be an eagle. Perez was a revolutionist, a poet, a dramatist, the defender of the weak, the inspiration of the talented. A little story of his, "Bonchi the Silent," about a Jewish workingman who never complained and who took all his misfortunes as a matter of course, whose desires and hopes were so thoroughly crushed out of him that on reaching Heaven and being asked by God to request what he desired most, he said, "I want a piece of white bread every Friday"—that story, more than any one influence, caused the formation of the "Bund of the Russian Revolution." It made the intelligenzia of Russia feel that it was their duty to teach the workingman to demand the earth.

And now since Perez's death, on Asch's shoulders has fallen the responsibility of being the greatest Jewish writer living to-day. He is assuming the added duty of revolutionist as well as artist. For the serious Jewish writer is a sort of rabbi to his people. Ethically he stands for the old Jewish ideals. To these Asch has added the beauty of paganism and the vision of anarchistic communism.

In Paris once he came to a meeting of Zionists. He spoke against the Zionist idea and was not listened to with great deference. Another writer, Abraham Raisin, coming in shouted, "Hear! Listen to a great Jew." Asch was given the floor and finished the speech.

Asch feels that only now is he beginning to drop his Jewish past as material for his work. He is going out into the future: he is becoming impressed with a vision of the America to be—the ideal democracy. And his work is showing it. He is planning a poetic industrial drama, he is finishing a gripping war play. His deep understanding of the industrial slavery of our times is shown wonderfully in his novel, Motke the Scamp, which is now appearing in serial form in the New York Yiddish Forward. He begins with Motke's infancy. His mother's milk is sold to the rich man's baby; Motke is cheated of everything. Picture after picture of sordid Polish ghetto life follows—intermixed with wood and river sunshine as only Asch can do it. One feels the sun resting eternally over all, while man with his laughter and tenderness and pain struggles toward perfection.

ASCH is becoming an exposer and a prophet, but with great beauty of style and purity of emotion. He is decidedly modern, decidedly Russian, decidedly Hebraic, and eternally universal. He is bringing the message of beauty and freedom to the American Yiddish working man. Asch is not a socialist; he is a real individualist. With a sincere contribution to the happiness of the world he believes that every human being is entitled to all the joy of the world, no matter what form his contribution may assume; shirts, street cleaning, cooking, a painting, dishes, a poem. He does not preach eight hours and a dollar more, he demands joy in labor. He wants people to play—to be happy at their work. He demands freedom in one's personal life and beauty in mind and body. He is an industrialist plus an artist.

Asch has traveled through Russia talking on various subjects to Jewish gatherings, not for money but for love of his race. He has visited Palestine, but with a keen interest in the growth and development of the Jew—not from a nationalistic standpoint but from a world point of view.

And this is why he admires America—because it brings to him a vision of a perfect race, the result of the mixture of all races, perpetuating the fine traits of all. He is immensely interested in the public school. He believes in democracy and thinks we have it in America.

For artists, however, he says this country is not good. The newspapers in Europe, he says, print what Tolstoi eats and how he sleeps. Here Rockefeller is the national hero. The artist here lacks artistic obstinacy; he succumbs to money, he leaves starvation and his Kunst.

ASCH loves Shakespere above all other writers; he is his master. For months he went each night to the Berlin theatres and often, with his eyes shut, would listen to the words and cadences of Shakespere's lines. Hamlet he considers the greatest play ever written. Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet are two of his favorites. From the ghost scene in Hamlet he can trace Maeterlinck and all the modern mystics. He says that Shakespere is universal in his appeal and that his work in translation, when done by a master like Schlegel, takes on the peculiar flavor of the tongue and people into which it is translated and loses none of its intrinsic worth.

He loves Gogol and Tolstoi. Faust is one of his favorite dramas. He loves the old masters Greco and Rembrandt; among the moderns, Cézanne, Puvis de Chavannes, Manet. In opera he does not care for Wagner, but he is very fond of The Magic Flute, of Madame Butterfly, of Pagliacci. He loves music and the theatre. Asch reads in many languages, German, French, Russian, Polish, Hebrew, and a little English. But to everybody he talks in Yiddish. He has no ear for other languages except English, which he says is like his mother tongue!

In the spring Asch goes out to the country and works, in the summer he loafs, in the winter he lives among his friends. He writes all the time, being chock full of energy—for work, for love, for friendship, for happiness. As he says, "I am thankful to God for three things: first that he gave me life, second that he gave me my talent, third for my love for you" (this to whomever the lady happens to be).

Like all the artists he is erratic, original, attractive, all-seeing. But unlike most he has much strength of character and a brilliant logical faculty that makes him check up his personal relations. He has much affection in him and a great honesty and integrity which wins him admiration and respect, and he has many friends among many kinds of people in many parts of the world.

Sholom Asch is a philosopher, a novelist, a poet, and a dramatist. He loves the clouds and the sea, he truly loves mankind. Always through all he writes one feels a deep and elemental strength, an elemental belief in nature and truth. He is not ahead of his time; he is rather an interpreter and inspirer of his own day. This makes him the happy person that he is. He is greatly honored in Russia and in Germany, and by all writers in Europe.

II

Asch as a Novelist and Short-Story Writer

WITH this brief sketch of Sholom Asch the man, I shall turn to a consideration of a few of his most important works. As Sir Walter Raleigh, the eminent English critic, has said, the best way to form a judgment of an author is to quote his good passages. Accordingly I have been as liberal as space would allow in my insertion of translated passages. The most recent works, mentioned in the early part of this essay, I shall not treat, as it was impossible for me to procure them at the time of writing. I shall take up each work individually before making generalizations.

DIE Jüngsten is a novel by Asch in which he tries to portray the character and the influences at work on the younger generation of Jews in Russia. The plot can be simply set forth. The younger generation is represented by five characters of three social classes. Mery Lipskaja is the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish manufacturer—in other words, she is of the middle or bourgeois class. She has completed her gymnasium (high-school) education and has absorbed the prevalent ideas about women and emancipation, and a desire for higher education, for a broader life, for St. Petersburg. Kowalski is an artist. He, like Mery, is not interested in the class struggle; all that vitally concerns him is his art and "living." David and Rahel Lazarus are the children of a physician who is giving his life to the people of the "Grube" or ghetto. They have grown up among the suppressed and impoverished Jews and they are filled with the spirit of the revolution; David actively and Rahel passively. Mischa, the cousin of Mery, is a member of the middle class. He has become aware of the conditions in the Grube and his struggle lies between his middle class environmental influence, which includes his love for Mery, and his desire to join the revolution.

At the beginning of the novel Mery has just returned from the gymnasium. She is oppressed and dissatisfied with her provincial surroundings and longs to go to the university at St. Petersburg. Mischa, in love with Mery, has also just completed work at the gymnasium, and they plan to go to St. Petersburg together. The artist Kowalski now comes to the little south Russian village and soon Mery is in love with him. Mischa is much distressed and suffers greatly. Kowalski leaves, promising to meet Mery at St. Petersburg.

The second part of the novel opens with Mischa and Mery in St. Petersburg. The climate does not agree with Mery and Mischa arranges that they go to a Finnish village. Here they grow very dear to each other and Mischa is about to propose when Kowalski melodramatically appears. Kowalski and Mery now give expression to their love. Mischa returns to St. Petersburg but cannot pursue his studies because the revolutionary disturbances have closed the university. Kowalski and Mery return to St. Petersburg soon after and are admitted to the bohemian life there. Kowalski meanwhile has become famous. The lovers gradually grow apart and when the revolution breaks out Mery returns to her home for safety, leaving Kowalski never to see him again. Mischa has returned home also. After a massacre of the Jews in the Grube in which Rahel, the sister of David, is outraged, he sees that in marrying her lies his only means of becoming one of the Jews whom he was so desirous of helping. So despite the fact that he still loves Mery and she is now willing to be his wife, he marries Rahel. Mery after a period of restlessness in the little town returns to St. Petersburg to join the bohemian group there.

THE outstanding excellence of the novel lies in its characterization. The characters live before us and we see the workings of their minds and emotions with remarkable clarity. The mental struggles of Mischa between his love for Mery and his desire to help the oppressed Jews, always inhibited by inherited powerlessness to act; the carefree, art-centered, egotistical Kowalski; the adolescent romanticism and sympathetic insight of Mery; the cynically idealistic and self-sacrificing Dr. Lazarus—these constitute the real substance and artistic worth of the book. The pictures of contemporary Russian Jewish life are of marked interest, especially to the western reader. The following passages are descriptive of the Grube or ghetto and characterize the condition of the poorer Jews in the towns throughout Russia:

"The sun seldom shone into the valley. Old people lost their vision early and the percentage of child mortality was enormous. But even those who remained alive under these conditions were weak, sick, half crippled people; impoverished figures with crooked legs, large heads and weak arms crept through the streets.

"And in spite of everything the inhabitants never left their grave (Grube) and made no attempt to find a better, more healthy home. A sort of sick love bound them to their unfortunate homes, and like a curse it rested on each who was born in the valley—that he could not free himself from it and that until the end of his days he must eke out his sad existence there."

After the massacre Mischa walks through the Grube:

"The murmur of prayers re-echoed to his ears. From the little windows of the synagogue came the soft gleam of candles. He entered. Deep as in a cellar, as miserable and abandoned as themselves, lay the little house of prayer of the wretched inhabitants of the Grube. The walls were bare. The Ark of the Covenant was hung with only a piece of coarse linen. In front of the broken 'altar' stood an old man in a torn prayer shawl and prayed before the small penny candles. The room was full of worshippers, all inhabitants of the Grube. Their prayer was a groaning, and sighing, and screaming, out of tormented hearts. It rose up to the low ceiling and hung over them all like a heavy black cloud."

And then Mischa knew his people:

"He felt his strength to bear everything; sorrow and misery and persecution. He saw his people doing the work of servants through the centuries, from the farthest past to the present day. He saw the bare walls of the synagogue, the wretched Ark of the Covenant, he heard the sad melody of their prayers which grew to despairing screams. . . . He had the feeling that he was with his people in a large ship. For eternities this ship was on a voyage of searching. It landed at harbors always new and strange: Egypt, Palestine, Babylon, Arabia, Spain, at Turkey, at Holland and Russia. And to-day is also a test day for the Jews. And also this day will end, and many, many, but the ship will always sail on, will carry them all to new harbors into the farthest future."

BEFORE leaving Die Jüngsten, I cannot refrain from translating two passages concerning Kowalski—the first his longing for the open country after his long stay in St. Petersburg, and the other his remarks on clouds:

"St. Petersburg had become sickening to him. For loneliness he longed, for solitude. Solitude, with his brush behind the mountains, in the deep woods. To see every day sun, mountains, and water! The water that pushes blocks of ice before it, and to see the cloud shadows which camp on the wide snow fields. To live again in the little room with his comrade the Lithuanian peasant with whom he studied in the academy! To have no money. To eat bread; much good black bread with honey which his comrade's father would send from the village. For whole days to wander about and paint clouds!"

Mery discovers him at work, and looking at his painting he says:

"Everything is clouds—the warmth that I feel, the warmth— . . . and do you see the pride that such a cloud has, the pride, the formality? 'The cloud is no small thing,' my fat professor used to say. It is no small thing to paint a cloud, for then one must feel eternity. As lovingly as a girl's body must one model a cloud. And warmth and pride must come to expression. To paint a cloud means to step into Heaven, into the middle of Heaven and to see a new world which we do not know here at all. Such a nobody as I wishes to paint a cloud, a Heaven—wishes to have seen God and create Him anew with his little art! That is an impudence, isn't it?

"There you see what I have painted. It is nothing—it is worthless—something is lacking." He looked amusedly at the picture. "Love is lacking. So it is as my professor with the fat belly loved to say, 'To paint a real cloud one must love.' Yes, yes, to be able to create something good one must be in love or—do you know what? Or to feel a great sin in one's soul. Yes, yes, with a burning sin in one's heart one can create big things. When one has entirely fallen. . . ."

BILDER aus dem Ghetto is a series of sketches dealing with Jewish life. Many Jewish characters are pictured in dramatic situations but with very little plot. The characters are all poor; fishmongers, children of the Ghetto, a Jewish farmer, two mothers, an old married couple. A few typical plots follow.

"Ein Eilbotte" is really a prose poem describing a sunrise, a storm, and the reappearing sun—more properly perhaps a series of paintings, of symphonic word canvases. Let me translate the opening passages:

"Behind the town ruin which stands on a small hill like a national monument, flaming and fiery rises the red of the morning and floods with its glow the gray clouds that hang in the horizon. It brings a son of the sun into the world. The day tears itself from the lap of the mother Night.

"In the little town life is beginning to stir. Here and there one sees a peasant wagon on which the dew drops of the night are still hanging. Here and there a Jew, eyes heavy with sleep. The show windows and house doors are for the most part locked. For many of the inhabitants the day has not yet begun. . . . This day shall be like yesterday, like to-morrow."

A storm rushes over the woods. The storm comes like a mighty giant that wishes to swallow the world or it seems as though God himself were spreading out His black mantle: "The end of the world! Neither heaven nor earth, neither beginning nor end! Black, ominous, dull, empty. . . . Suddenly Heaven opens for a second. . . . A blinding light has torn the clouds. Stabbed by a flaming dagger the giant dies—a confused moaning fills the air. It rains." But the storm passes. "The Heaven is clear and blue as if nothing had happened. The air is clearer and purer, the earth washed clean by the water."

"DIE Mutter." It is in a little Hebrew school in a small town in Russia. The rabbi has gone to say the evening prayer, leaving the small boys to study. Instead they begin to talk of various subjects. Mothers are discussed and each boy praised his most highly. One pale little chap with large eyes says, "My mother also . . ." and then stops. One of the boys laughs uncontrolledly and then there is an embarrassing silence. The teacher returns. The little Josek, however, cannot keep his attention on the book:

"The 'crazy Trajna' stands life-like before him. Out there at the well she stands. . . . He sees her plainly. . . . All too well he knows that dirty sun-burned face plowed through by a thousand wrinkles, those great blood-shot eyes with the swollen, sore lids. . . .

"He remembers her, yes, he remembers. . . . He was still a little boy then, when the teacher carried him to school in his arms. He cried then and hung tightly with both hands to the apron of his mother.

"Mother! . . . this woman his mother?"

And so the emotions of the boy are set forth in memories telling us of his mother before she was insane and now, when she is known to all the village as the "crazy Trajna." The time when he found her insane is described. It was raining and he was hurrying home from school. Suddenly he sees his mother near his father's house:

"There at the corner she stands. . . . Trembling for cold she seeks protection under any roof. . . . The boy stands as rooted to the ground, without turning his gaze from her. The water flows in streams from his coat. She has turned her glassy eyes on him. Slowly as though following some inner force she comes closer to him. He is not able to move from the spot; something unspeakable gleams in those glassy eyes. . . .

"Now he feels in her the mother. . . . His heart beats as though to break. Always closer to him she comes. A hot wave of blood flows through all his limbs and rises to his head. He trembles as in fever.

"Suddenly all fear leaves him. He assumes a waiting position and looks directly into her eyes.

"Now she stands close before him. She looks at him. Away! These eyes! this look! He wishes to fall weeping into her arms. . . . To weep, yes, to weep . . . to weep and to kiss.

"He is in the impulse to carry out his purpose when she suddenly takes his hand. With a quick push he tears himself from her embrace and runs away as rapidly as he can.

"It seems as though she ran after him with outstretched arms and blowing hair, always faster and faster, always grasping more heavily. It seemed to him as though he heard her terrible voice, hoarse with weariness, calling 'Joselle,' 'Joselle' . . ."

The father has taken a new wife and the "crazy Trajna" is no longer a member of the household but is driven about the streets. And as he leaves the schoolroom this evening, Josek is consumed with indignation and sorrow and resolves not to flee from his mother the next time he meets her. On his way home he meets her. The tears flow from her eyes; when she embraces him he again runs away. But that evening he steals a plate of meat from his home and brings it to her. That night he does not sleep. The next noon, coming home from school he sees Trajna standing near the well surrounded by street urchins:

"One pulls her bonnet from her head. Another jerks at her apron. A third tears the prayer book from her hand. Some boys cry loudly,

"'Hurrah! The crazy one, the crazy one!'

"She looks at her son in surprise. Josek can stand it no longer; he goes to his mother and with his fists drives away the urchins that torment her.

"They have run away. Without saying a word Josek reaches out both his hands. His face is deathly pale. His eyes gleam with fever. The boys laugh. . . . Their loud calls press themselves to his ears. . . . Another moment and the hands of his mother reach around him as in a cramp.

"The 'crazy one' hugs him, kisses him, now laughing, now crying. Suddenly she clutches him and begins to dance with him. 'Hurrah! Hurrah! The crazy one is dancing with her son!'

"Josek casts a confused glance at the urchins. He draws himself together, tears himself from the embrace of his mother with a quick movement and runs away. He does not even think of the cap which remains in her hand.

"Even from a distance he hears the calls, 'Hurrah! Hurrah! The crazy one dances with her son!'"

"DER Wunderrabbi." He is a very stupid shepherd boy. He will not learn his Hebrew lessons nor prayers. When in the fields he often feels near to God—and whistles. He is taken to the synagogue on a holiday. His parents are ashamed of him. He cannot repeat the prayers from the prayerbook, yet he feels a great desire to praise God. To the consternation of his parents he walks to the altar, and placing two fingers in his mouth he voices his praise in a loud, shrill whistle.

"All stand as though struck by lightning. Who dared to whistle in this holy place? The father is about to grasp the boy and lead him out, the people clench their fists threateningly. But the rabbi turns from his place at the east of the synagogue and asks in a loud voice, 'Where is the saint? Where is the miracle-worker who destroyed the evil forces hanging above us, who bored through heaven that our prayers might easily penetrate the black clouds to the throne of God?'

"There is no sign of the miracle-worker. He has slipped out of the house of prayer and with his shoes and stockings over his shoulder is running as fast as he can toward the village."

"EIN Jüdisch Kind." She is about to be married but will not comply with the Talmudic law requiring married women to cut off their hair and wear wigs. She loves her hair and will not part with it. She is married. Weeks go by and her husband is ostracised. He and his wife have become more and more estranged and they speak to each other hardly at all. One day he comes home and with loving words induces her to let him cut off her black braids.

"When Chanele awoke the next morning, she looked at herself in the mirror that hung opposite her bed. Terror seized her and she thought that she had become mad and that she lay in the hospital. On the table near her bed lay the dead braids. The soul that had lived in these braids when they were on her head was dead, and they reminded her of death . . . She hid her face in both her hands and heart-breaking sobs filled the quiet room."

And there are other "Wortbilder" which I shall not treat. This book of sketches shows Asch at his very best. For the form—one without plot dealing with character and nature description—is decidedly fitted to the elemental, passion-laden flow of his style. It is a great wonder to me that these gems of artistic word portraiture have not yet been translated into English. In my opinion they rank equal in worth with the similar work of Daudet, Maupassant, Tchekoff and Turgenieff.

DAS Städtchen is also a book of sketches. In this, however, the different high points—the Sabbath eve, the holidays, the marriage ceremony and others in Russian Jewish village life, are treated. Character is not emphasized, although one man appears through all the sketches. The book does not come up to Die Bilder aus dem Ghetto.

Asch is essentially a dramatist. In his sketches, in his novels and in his stories, the dramatic point of view is not lost. His plays consequently always move, are always full of action and tense situation. The same elemental strength and purity of emotion that is found in his prose is always present in his dramas. In the concluding part of this essay, I shall touch upon five of his plays in the order of their importance.

Editors' Note—The third and concluding part of Mr. Shostac's prize essay, dealing with Shalom Asch as a Dramatist, will appear in the next issue.

THOSE of us in England who know how much harshness and injustice the Jews have had to suffer will join in your hopes that after the war some means may be found of permanently ameliorating their lot. You may feel the more sure of our sympathy in this because, as you know, England is the European country in which, since Oliver Cromwell sanctioned their return nearly three centuries ago, the Jews have been best treated, being freely admitted to all posts of power and honor, and not exposed to any sort of social disparagement. They have held places in our Cabinets and been among the most eminent lawyers and judges. Such a one was Sir George Jessel, the famous Master of the Rolls. We have no more patriotic citizens, nor more generous benefactors to works of charity and to public purposes supported by private liberality. With those members of the race who have suffered injustice or violence in other countries, there has always been a warm sympathy in Great Britain.—Viscount Bryce, in a Letter to The Menorah Journal.

Liberalism and the Jews

By Joseph Jacobs

JOSEPH JACOBS JOSEPH JACOBS JOSEPH JACOBS (born in New South Wales in 1854), one of our leading scholars and men of letters; managing editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia; author of many authoritative books on Jewish subjects, including "Jews of Angevin England," "Studies in Jewish Statistics," "Jewish Ideals," etc. The present article is adapted from a chapter in Dr. Jacobs' forthcoming book which will deal comprehensively with the contribution of the Jew to modern progress.

THE eighteenth century was the era of the "benevolent despots," like Frederick II, Joseph II, Catherine II, who adopted the ruling principle of the Welfare-State—that the object of government should be the good of the people—but considered that it could only be carried out for the people, not by them. The weakness of the principle consisted in the difficulty of securing a heritable succession of capable benevolence, and the collapse of Prussia at Jena and of Joseph II's well-meant but unreflective reforms led, in the nineteenth century, to the triumph of the principle first enunciated in America and carried out in France—of government for the people by the people. The transition to the next stage, from religious toleration to religious liberty, is marked, as regards the Jews, by the tolerance edict of Joseph II, in 1781, which for the first time threw open service in the army to the Jews and placed them to some extent on the same level with other dissenters from the State-Church of Austria.

But this was still toleration and not liberty, and it was soon cast into the background by the full religious liberty granted by the French Revolution in 1791, in imitation of the American constitution of 1787, which entirely separated State and Church. The granting of full religious liberty to the Jews had previously been advocated by Mirabeau, and though Rousseau's influence, which was all-important in the Revolution, still retained a touch of Genevan intolerance, Jews came within his religious requirements for citizenship by their belief in Providence and in future rewards and punishment. It has to be remembered that in spirit, if not in will-power or influence, Louis XVI was of the school of the benevolent despots, and it was he who signed the edict of November 13, 1791, which for the first time in European history placed Jews on the same level as the adherents of all other creeds as regards civil and political qualifications. Holland was appropriately the first country to grant the same religious equality to its Jews.[B]

The French Revolution, from our present standpoint, is the more remarkable inasmuch as it is the only great European movement on which Jews had absolutely no influence, direct or indirect, owing to their inappreciable numbers and insecure position in the chief centers, Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles. The Revolution principles spread into the neighboring countries with the advance of the French arms. In Venice, the walls of the original Ghetto, from which all the rest received their name, fell at once on the entry of Napoleon's troops. No wonder they welcomed with fervor the victories of the French troops; we can catch, in Heine, echoes of the enthusiasm with which Napoleon was acclaimed the Liberator.

Napoleon's Recognition of the Jews

NAPOLEON'S own attitude was not so uniformly friendly to Jews. On his way back from Austerlitz in 1805 he learnt at Strassburg of the wide distress caused in Alsace by the exactions of certain Jewish usurers in that province, and on his return to Paris issued edicts directed against the Alsatian Jews, restricting their usurious activity. It is fair to add that these enactments were obviously directed against the usury of the Alsatian Jews, and not against the Jews in general, since they were specifically declared not to apply to the Jews of Bordeaux in the South or Northern Italy, then under Napoleon's control. It would indeed have been against the whole tendency of his career to have made the Jews an exception to that principle of the "carrière ouverte aux talents," which was the key-note of his whole policy, as it is logically to all war-lords. It was by no accident that similar indifference toward the creed of their soldiers, or civil servants, was shown by William the Silent, Wallenstein, Cromwell, William III, and Frederick the Great.

Napoleon's attention having thus been drawn to the Jewish Question, he proceeded with characteristic energy to solve it by summoning to Paris a representative assembly of the Jews of France, Germany and Italy, who should determine on what terms Jews could be admitted into a modern Country-State, which had been freed from the shackles of the medieval Church-State and only recognized a certain prerogative in the Church to which the majority of Frenchmen belonged (the Concordat of 1802). After summoning an assembly of Jewish Notables for a preliminary inquiry, in 1806, a more formal Sanhedrin was summoned in the following year, to which twelve test questions were submitted,—among them, whether the French Jews could regard France as their Fatherland and Frenchmen as their brothers, and the laws of the State as binding upon them. Further points were raised as to polygamy, divorce, and mixed marriages; other questions related to the position of Rabbis and the Jewish laws about usury.

All these problems were decided to the satisfaction of Napoleon, though some of them aroused much searching of heart among the more strictly orthodox. The outcome legally recognized that there was nothing in Jewish law or faith which prevented its adherents from being legitimate and full members of a modern State which, at that time, practically recognized Catholicism as the State-Church. The significance of the decision was far-reaching not alone for the Jews but for the whole European State system; it was a practical recognition that the Country, not the Faith, was the foundation of a nation and thus gave the final blow to the conception of a Church-Empire, which had upheld the contrary principle. It was not without significance that simultaneously the Emperor of Austria agreed to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Liberalism Draws the Jews to Its Ranks

BUT though the Jews had had no influence on the French Revolution and no share in Napoleon's revolutionary reorganization of West Europe, the benefit they reaped from both movements was second only to that of the serfs. For the Jews and the serfs were the two most oppressed classes under the feudal system still surviving. And so the Jews imbibed with enthusiasm the libertarian principles of the Revolution and the "open career" administration of Napoleon. They threw off with avidity most of the shackles which prevented their joining in general European culture, and Jewish parents of means immediately began giving their sons and, what is more, their daughters, the secular education which would adapt them to the careers now seemingly open to them, as publicists, lawyers, and civil servants. When the reaction came, under the Holy Alliance, with its attempt to revive the Church-State and the closed career of prerogative, Jews everywhere in Western Europe joined the Liberal forces, from whose triumph alone they could hope for a dispersal of the clouds which once more obscured the sun of liberty in which they had basked for a few short years. Jews soon ranked among the intellectual leaders of continental Liberalism, and from 1815 to 1848 exercised an appreciable influence on the course of public opinion. In particular a brilliant band of Jewish litterateurs in Germany helped to mediate between French Liberalism and German public opinion, and practically led the movement known as Young Germany, which opposed the cosmopolitan tendencies of the eighteenth century to the narrow nationalism of the Reaction and advocated the Revolution principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, as against the revival of the claims of Authority and Privilege by the Holy Alliance. Boerne and Heine, Hartmann and Saphir, Jacoby and Karl Marx, are recognized by friends and foes alike as among the leading influences which led ultimately to the downfall of Metternich and his school.

The Salons of Jewish Women and Their Liberalizing Influence

THEY were aided in their Liberal tendencies by a remarkable group of emancipated Jewesses, who introduced into Germany the vogue of the political Salon after the manner of Madame Roland and Madame de Staël. They were mostly from the Berlin Circle, which had arisen around Moses Mendelssohn, and carried his tendencies towards rationalism and culture to extreme limits. His two daughters Dorothea and Henriette, and their friends Henriette Herz and Rahel Lewin, created salons to which were attracted some of the more liberal spirits of the cultured world of Berlin. Dorothea Mendelssohn ultimately married Friedrich von Schlegel and became one of the Muses of the German Romantic School. Publicists of distinction like Wilhelm von Humboldt and Friedrich von Gentz formed, with Dorothea and others of her circle, a "Bond of Virtue" (Tugendbund) which according to all appearance was named on the principle of locus a non lucendo. Rahel, "the little woman with a great soul," as Goethe called her, was even a more striking personality. She numbered, among her friends, men of such different types as Schelling and Schleiermacher, the Prince de Ligne, and Fichte, Schlegel and Gutzkow, Prince Louis Ferdinand, Frederick the Great's nephew, and Fouqué, Gentz, and the Humboldts, and she finally married Varnhagen van Ense. She was the first to appreciate, in its full extent, the multiform genius of Goethe, and helped the rise to fame of Boerne, Heine, and Victor Hugo. She was undoubtedly the most striking personality among the women of her age in Germany, and she is nowadays regarded as one of the chief forerunners of the Feminist movement.[C]

These salons had an air of cultured Bohemianism, which attracted many men of rank in Mid-Europe who were beginning to be repelled by the exactions of social gathering in which all associations were determined by armorial bearings. A similar salon was held in Vienna by Baroness von Arnstein, in whose mansion all the diplomats of the Congress of Vienna met as on neutral ground. Such gatherings, while helping to liberalize good society in Mid-Europe, also brought the position of Jews to the notice of the ruling classes and, in many cases, aroused a determination to repair their wrongs. You cannot accept a man socially yet refuse him the most elementary rights politically.[D]

The Liberal Leadership of Heine and Boerne

THE Revolution of 1830 brought into European prominence the two most brilliant members of Rahel's coterie, Ludwig Boerne and Heinrich Heine. Both had made their mark as litterateurs in the preceding decade, but Boerne's "Letters from Paris" and Heine's "French Conditions" (contributed to the Augsburger Zeitung) drew the attention of all liberal Germany to the new hopes aroused by the downfall of the absolutist monarchy in France. Henceforth they were the dominating voices in arousing among the German Liberals the hope of similar liberty, while in France itself they helped to make known to French culture the deeper currents of German thought and literature. In particular their brilliant wit and incisive sarcasm set the tone for the feuilleton literature of all Mid-Europe. By their very isolation they were enabled to regard men and affairs with a certain detachment, and both wrote with an iridescent insolence which can only be described by the Jewish technical word Chutzpah. Treitschke complained of their frequent irreverences and flippancies but in both respects Heine, "the wittiest Frenchman since Voltaire," was merely following in the footsteps of his predecessor, and Boerne, like Diderot, knew that the most effective weapon against authority is sarcasm.

Under the leadership of Heine and Boerne a whole school of liberal journalists arose in Germany and Austria, many of them Jews like Saphir and Hartmann, and they gave a tone to Mid-European journalism which has lasted to the present day. They thus helped to internationalize Liberalism of the French form, with its rather vague and indefinite strivings after liberty, equality, and fraternity, as contrasted with the Liberalism of the English type dominated by Jeremy Bentham, which aimed at constitutional, economic, and social reforms of a definite character. Young Germany, as represented by Heine and Boerne, left the latter type of Liberalism severely alone.

Yet in the struggle for constitutional liberty, which led to the revolutions of 1848, Jews took a considerable part on the more practical side. Everywhere during that critical year Jews had a hand in the upheaval against absolutism.[E]

Among the Conservatives: Stahl and Disraeli

BUT Jews were not altogether unrepresented among the Conservative forces, counting indeed two of the chief leaders, F. J. Stahl in Prussia and Benjamin Disraeli in England. Disraeli's is the better known name, but it is probable Stahl was equally influential. Stahl is described by Sir A. W. Ward in the Cambridge Modern History, xi. 395, as "the intellectual leader of the conservative aristocratic party and the most remarkable brain in the Upper Chamber. . . . He largely supplied the ruling party with the learning and wealth of ideas on which to found their claims. Their organ was the Kreuzzeitung, and the party was called by its name." Bluntschli calls him, "after Hegel the most important representative of the philosophical theory of the State. He, in many ways, advanced political science by his dialectical and critical ability in founding new points of view." (The Theory of the State, p. 73). But Stahl's historic influence will probably rest on his connection with Bismarck at the formative period of his career, when the future chancellor was also a member of the Kreuzzeitung party.

Disraeli's career and influence is far better known and need not be further adverted to in this place. The fact that both were converts has little significance from our present point of view, since many of the Jewish leaders on the Liberal side had also adopted Christianity. It is more pertinent to remark that one cannot trace their conservatism to their Judaism since there was everything in the Jewish position of their time to range Jews on the Liberal side. Stahl and Disraeli are, therefore, to be regarded merely as examples of Jewish ability. There is nothing specifically Jewish in their influence unless we regard the socialistic strain in Disraeli's conception of "Young England" as a part of the Jewish sympathy with the "under dog," which can be attributed to their own experiences and to the traditions of the Prophets.

The Contribution of the Jews to Socialism

CERTAINLY we find a strong Jewish participation throughout the socialistic movement which, from its inception up to the present day, has been largely dominated by Jewish influences. Although modern socialism can be traced back to St. Simon, the whole movement would have collapsed at the death of the master but for the organizing ability of Olinde Rodrigues and the religious enthusiasm of his brother Eugene. A practical turn was also given by their cousins, Isaac and Jacob Pereire, who, as bankers, had thought out the best means of carrying out the principles of the school into practical life. An extension of the facilities for banking would lower the rate of interest and therefore leave more to be distributed to the workers, while the development of railways would reduce the cost of transportation and thus lower the cost of living and raise real wages. Accordingly the Pereires devoted themselves, with religious enthusiasm, to creating the Credit Foncier, and later the Credit Mobilier, and were the chief agents in developing the railway system of Northern France, incidentally making themselves multi-millionaires in the process, though they never lost their enthusiasm for the socialistic ideals.[F]

Most of these left the St. Simonian Church when it diverged into the sexual vagaries of Enfantin, though one of his creeds was, "I believe that God has raised up Saint Simon to teach the Father (Enfantin) through Rodrigues." Felicien David the musician, however, accompanied Enfantin on his epoch-making journey to Egypt, during which he implanted the idea of the Suez Canal in the minds of Mehemet Ali and Ferdinand de Lesseps, and Gustave d'Eichthal devoted his enthusiasm and energies to creating, out of the ideas of St. Simon and Enfantin, a new religion which should revert to the socialism of the Prophets, while denying or ignoring, like them, any other life than this. It is said that he consulted Heine as to the best means of founding such a religion. "Get crucified and rise again on the third day," was Heine's caustic reply. The socialistic tone of J. S. Mill's Principles of Political Economy, which differentiates it from its Ricardian predecessors, is undoubtedly due in large measure to his intercourse with d'Eichthal. Enfantin's vagaries, while they destroyed any direct practical outcome for St. Simonism, drew wide attention to its views, and Jews helped to spread them throughout Europe, Moritz Veit performing that function in Germany, and M. Parma in Italy. The cosmopolitan position of Jews is seen at its best in such propagandism, and it is not surprising that they should have been attracted by views of which the kernel is in the Prophets of Israel, whom indeed Renan, in his Histoire d'Israel, brilliantly characterized as socialistic preachers.

The later stages of socialism in Europe were, as is well known, dominated by Karl Marx, who based upon Ricardo's "iron law" of wages the imposing edifice of Das Kapital, for long the gospel of advanced socialism. The brilliant Ferdinand Lassalle introduced its principles into German politics, and the most recent stages of German socialism have been controlled by the opportunism of E. Bernstein, while among its most prominent leaders have been V. Adler and Paul Singer.

The Struggle for Political Emancipation

THIS participation of Jewish intellect and sympathies with the Liberal current in European politics made Jewish emancipation a part of the Liberal creed throughout Europe. Jews were fighting for themselves in fighting for the general liberties, and their position in the forefront of the struggle was thus justified by the representative principle at the root of modern Liberalism. Jewish disabilities were the last stronghold of the old Church-State conception, and the struggle on the side of the Reaction to retain this fundamental principle was the more intense. If Jews were granted full civil and political rights it could no longer be contended that Christianity was a fundamental principle of the State (or, as the English obiter dictum put it, "Christianity is a parcel of the common law"). Hence the extreme violence of the defense which seems, at first sight, out of all proportion to the interests or numbers involved. Thus the struggle was as embittered in Switzerland as anywhere, though the Jews there only constituted a handful, and the traditions of the country were in favor of toleration.

From this aspect the fight in England is typical. As soon as the Catholics had obtained emancipation in 1828 (the Jews had stood aside in order not to complicate the question), Jewish emancipation became part of the Liberal creed, and the struggle was waged in Parliament, or rather in the House of Lords, for the ensuing thirty years. England was the home of toleration, and her Toleration Act, passed as early as 1689, formed the third stage in the European progress towards religious liberty. Yet the more conservative elements in English life fought against the removal of Jewish disabilities because it meant the visible proof of the secularization of English politics. It is perhaps characteristic that the Tory resistance was mainly broken down by Disraeli, of Jewish, and by Lord George Bentinck, of Dutch, descent.

The High Tide of Liberalism

WITH Jewish emancipation in England Liberalism reached its acme about 1860. Complete civil and religious liberty was gained for Jews throughout Western Europe during the next decade,—in the German confederation and in Switzerland, 1866, in Austria and Hungary, 1867, and in the German Empire, 1871, while even in Spain the expulsion order was practically repealed and toleration, if not liberty, was given to Jews there in 1869. By that time Liberalism, both in the French sense of liberty and equality before the law and in the English sense of constitutional government and free-trade, had gained its fullest triumph and had spent its force. Its negative work had been most valuable; it had freed the human spirit from intolerable shackles and thrown into the lumber-room the clogging survivals of medieval feudalism. But to the human spirit thus freed it had little instruction to give of a constructive kind; its slogan seemed to be, "Go as you please," or, to use its own formula, "laissez faire, laissez aller." It was rather superficial in its treatment of national and social forces and made no appeal to the more generous imaginative emotions. It was inevitable that a reaction should set in if only to fill the void. Nationalism which had given vitality to France under Napoleon, and in Spain, Russia and Prussia had brought down his downfall, was opposed to Liberal cosmopolitanism. Protection to native industry, which had, only for a moment and in England, lost its hold, replaced free trade, and the strong individualism of "Manchestertum" was drowned in the rising flood of Collectivism, whether in the more formal guise of socialism or in the vaguer tendencies of philanthropy. In none of these currents of opinion had Jews a prominent voice except, as we have seen, in the latter, though there they were mainly effective in opposition and criticism.

Bismarck and the Forces of Reaction

ALL these tendencies, which may roughly be summed up as the Counter-Revolution, found a home in victorious Prussia and a voice in Otto von Bismarck, its representative statesman. As we have seen, his views on the nature of the State had been influenced in his formative period by F. J. Stahl, and his socialistic sympathies may possibly have been aroused by Ferdinand Lassalle, but he was of too independent a character to submit much to external influences, and the tendencies he represented, Junkertum and Militarism, were entirely opposed to Jewish Liberalism. For some fifteen years he found it convenient to work with the National Liberal party, to which all German Jews belonged, and among whose leaders the most prominent were two Jews, Eduard Lasker and Ludwig Bamberger. But in 1878 he broke with the party and let loose the forces of "Anti-Semitism" as a means of discrediting them. The movement, thus encouraged by Bismarck, soon spread to Austria and was transformed in Russia into the pogroms of 1881. In France the Royalists and Jesuits conceived hopes of reviving the Church-State and adopted anti-Semitism as a means of discrediting not alone Jews but also Protestants and other opponents of Catholicism. Their adherents, the French nobility, were especially embittered against the Jews by the bankruptcy of the Union Générale, a banking establishment in which all their money had been placed in the hope of wresting the control of French finance from the hands of the Rothschilds. Their chief hope lay in getting control of the General Staff, by filling its posts with young men of noble birth, trained by Jesuits. In order to attain this they schemed to remove all Jews and Protestants from the Staff and thought they had found a rare chance in their perverse persecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Their scheme recoiled on their own heads, and the final result of the Dreyfus Affaire was to break the alliance of clericalism and militarism, at least in France.

The Dreyfus Affaire was specially significant as bringing into play, at one time, all the forces that have given vitality to anti-Semitism. The New Nationalism, based not on Country but on Race and fostered by chauvinistic anthropologists as well as historians; the revived Church spirit, which sees in the National Church not so much the guardian of Christian truth as a spiritual bond of national unity; the New Collectivism which sees in capitalism the chief anti-social force, and the revived militaristic spirit which glorifies war as the regenerator of the nation; all these movements combine to regard the Jew—considered as alien, infidel, capitalist, and pacificist—as the representative enemy. All the reactionary forces regard a revival of the medieval Church-State as both the means and the end of their strivings, and naturally find the position of the Jew, both theoretically and practically, one of the chief stumbling-blocks in their way.

Church-State versus Welfare-State

IT remains to be seen whether the ideals of religious and political liberty, which have been gained through so much blood and tears, will be preserved intact against the rising forces of the Reaction and Counter-Revolution which are, at bottom, an attempt at a revival of the Church-Empire. The slogan "One God, one king, one people," has again been raised, and armies that are nations in arms are in movement to the cry. Anti-Semitism is largely the result of this reaction, and while it is dominant in the councils of certain nations Jews must once more take up their rôle of martyrs to the wider truth. Nowadays however they do not fight alone, and it is scarcely possible that in Western Europe and in lands dominated by Western European ideals they can be reinterned into their ghetti. But the Colossus of the North still retains the medieval ideal of the Church-Empire, and while that controls Russian State policy Jews will have to suffer, in All the Russias, indignities and disabilities from which they have been freed in the lands of true civilization and religious liberty.

The ideal of the unified Church-State has been shattered by the assaults of modern criticism and the growth of true religious liberty. But the conception of all the citizens of a compact territory animated by the same ideals still retains its attraction; only the unification nowadays is with regard to the goal rather than to the roads that lead to it. In other words, the Welfare-State (interpreting Welfare as spiritual as well as material) is taking the place of the Church-State of the Middle Ages and of Reformation times. What then is to become of the separate churches or religious bodies which are found in profusion in modern States? That is the sole ecclesiastical problem which the modern statesman has to face. Except among the extreme parties, such as the Ultramontagnes, the obvious solution would seem to be that given by the modern Federal constitution in which each State (in this case Church) has a corporate life of its own over which it has autonomous control, except in any case where this conflicts with the general Federal ideals. The Jewish Synagogue may rightly claim its place among these churches within the State as having its part in promoting the general welfare.

The Rôle of the Jews in European Progress

OWING to their medieval disabilities Jews, though sharing as we have seen in the higher life and in the commerce of Europe, were yet kept in a kind of enclave in each of the European nations, and thus acted, both intellectually and economically, as a separate body with distinctive tendencies caused by their isolation and disabilities. Accordingly we are able to estimate roughly the part taken by the Jews as a body in the various movements which have made European civilization what it is to-day. In all these movements (except possibly one, the French Revolution) the Jews have contributed towards European culture while sharing in it themselves. Their monotheistic views and liturgic practices were the foundation of the medieval Church, both in creed and deed. By their connection with their brethren in the East and their tolerated existence, both in Islam and in Christendom, they helped towards that transmission of Oriental thought, science and commerce, which had so large an influence on the Middle Ages and led on to the Renaissance and the Reform, in both of which movements Jews had their direct part to play. So, too, in the struggle for religious liberty and in the different stages of toleration which lay at the root of political liberty, Jews had their part to play, and when freed from their shackles by the French Revolution took a leading rôle both in Nineteenth Century Liberalism and in the Collectivism which has now replaced it.

But when fully emancipated, Jews no longer acted in the European world of ideas collectively but as individuals, often choosing opposite ideals and in most cases applying the talents thus let free to objects apart from the general political or religious movements of the time. Great as has been the influence of Jews in their collective capacity on the development of European thought and culture up to the present day, it is possible that their influence as individuals, during the past fifty years, has been even more extensive though less discernible, owing to the absence of any general direction to Jewish intellectuality.

Signature: Joseph Jacobs

FOOTNOTES:

[B] It is perhaps worth while remarking that one of the most prominent leaders on the Jewish side in Holland, Herz Bromet, had lived as a free Burgher in Surinam for a long time, and that the example of America, especially New York State, was adduced in favor of the movement. (Graetz xi, 230-1).

[C] See Ellen Key, "Rahel Lewin."

[D] Similar salons were held later by distinguished Jewesses like Countess Waldegrave, in London, and Madame Raffalovitch in Paris; and the Rothschilds have, throughout, made their houses centers of the most cultured influence.

[E] No adequate or connected account has yet been given of the part taken by the Jews in the revolution of 1848. Incidentally a good deal of information is contained in the last volume of Georg Brandes, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, vi, "Young Germany."

[F] They got their altruistic tendencies from their family connections. Their uncle Jacob Rodrigues Pereire (1750-80) was the first teacher of deaf mutes.

[The second in a series of articles on The Meaning of Judaism]

What Is Judaism?

By Mordecai M. Kaplan

WHAT is Judaism if not an ethical monotheism? The answer is that it is not an "ism" at all, despite the last syllable in its name. It is a living soul or consciousness; it is the soul or consciousness of the Jewish people. We are not interested in names, and we should not quibble about terms; it is reality that we are after. We want to know what is involved in being a Jew and living a Jewish life. The main reason for our finding fault with the usual presentation of Judaism is that it does not enlighten or inspire us. If the term Judaism does not direct our minds at once to the living energy that operates in the Jewish people, if it has not the power to launch us upon the stream of Israel's active thought and spiritual striving, then it is a word without content, and had better be deleted from our vocabulary. We did well enough without it until very recently, and should it prove an insuperable obstacle to the solution of our spiritual problems, we shall have to throw it into the scrap-heap of obsolete terminology. We shall begin to call our religion "Jewishness" instead of Judaism. The former designation has at least the advantage of connoting consciousness, and nothing is so important for understanding the essence of any religion as the identification of it with a form or state of consciousness. If Jewishness will mean to us Jewish consciousness and not merely "gefillte fisch" or some other Jewish dish, it will serve our purpose.

Let us not lose sight of the main issue in these discussions. We Jews refuse to have our life quest confined to the satisfaction of our material needs. Our souls are hungry; and whether we call it Jewishness or Judaism, what we want is religion that will help us get our bearings in the world, that will keep down the beast in us and spur us on to worthy endeavor in the field of thought and action. Under normal conditions we should find all this in the faith of our fathers. But, unfortunately, all that most of us know about that faith is what we acquired from some old-fashioned "rabbi" who taught us when we were small children and who made us recite Hebrew by the page. At home our parents would insist upon our conforming to routine observances and ceremonies which meant nothing to us. When we grew older and occasionally asked questions about the Bible, we met with cold and evasive replies. No wonder that later on, when we entered the academic world, we grew accustomed to look upon Judaism as out of touch with the realities of life, and far removed from the elemental needs that agitate the masses of active, enterprising humanity. We could see no connection between the few humble ceremonies in our homes or in our synagogues with the social, political and industrial problems upon which was riveted the attention of the men of light and leading. To most of us the faith of our fathers seemed little more than a medley of needless restraints, other-worldliness, and hostility to all progress.

Religion Indispensable to the Human Race

BUT a change has come over us. We have begun to realize that Judaism could not have transformed the spiritual history of mankind, as it did, if it were the negligible and insignificant thing we thought it was. We have been unable to discern its true character, because we did not know how to probe beneath the outward and often unattractive surface which it presented to us in the limited circle in which we moved. We have begun to surmise that the Jewish life we are familiar with is nothing more than a devitalized fragment of what, under auspicious circumstances, becomes a life that is spiritually healthful, joyous and invigorating. We have at last learned to take into consideration the inevitable difference in mental scope and outlook that must mark two generations, one of which had its life formed amidst the oppressive atmosphere of Eastern Europe, and the other in the bracing atmosphere of America. This being the case, nothing could be more unreasonable than to expect that the spiritual heritage be transmitted from father to child with ease and naturalness. But who is in a better position to smooth out the roughness and overcome the angularities—father or child? Should we demand of our elders, who are burdened by numerous cares, and whose lives are for the most part hurried and difficult, that they adapt themselves to our attitude of mind? Is it not meet that we, who still retain the plasticity of youth, make advances? Without surrendering an iota of our own individuality we might cultivate that sympathetic insight that would reveal the inestimable worth of our spiritual heritage. Not merely reverence for the past, but a regard for our own future prompts us to achieve a proper understanding of Judaism.

It is well to realize at the outset that the problem of religion is not confined to the Jews alone. Every great world-faith experiences nowadays the throes of transformation and readjustment. Mistaking them for the final struggle, the believer wrings his hands in despair over the impending doom, and the doubter contemplates a religionless future with a great deal of glee. But both will be disappointed in their reckoning. Religion, as we shall see, is entirely too inherent in human life to be dispensable. The belief that it has served its purpose in the evolution of the race, and that it can only survive as a troublesome vestige in the organism of human society, is based upon a misunderstanding of its function. In view of the deeper insight into human nature that has been acquired of late, as a result of the progress made in psychological and social research, there is good reason to believe that a better understanding is not far distant. These investigations have not merely led to new theories about religion, but have essentially changed the method of approach. They have rendered superfluous the subtleties and refinements of metaphysical arguments. A new reservoir in human nature has been tapped, and discovered to be the inexhaustible fount of religion.

The Adaptation of Judaism to Changing Conditions

THIS new way of looking at the problem of religion gives promise of helping us also to get a better comprehension of Judaism. We shall find by means of it that there is much more substantial nourishment to the faith of our fathers than can be obtained from the tabloid form in which the textbooks mete it out to us. The previous article on "What Judaism Is Not"[G] did not argue that Judaism could forego such doctrines as the unity of God, the brotherhood of man and similar principles, or that it should glory in remaining vague and inarticulate. The main objection to the ordinary way of conceiving Judaism was that it lacked the means of preventing its teachings from degenerating into dull platitudes. But if Judaism is essentially the self-consciousness of the Jewish people, these doctrines will be viewed as some of its characteristic expressions. As such they forthwith become instinct with life. To be a religious Jew, accordingly, means not merely to profess the unity of God in cold philosophical fashion, but to live over again by means of thought and symbol the divine intuition, the backslidings, the temptations, the defiance, the threats, the tortures and the final victory implied in the "Shema Yisroel." The Jew who does not thrill with exaltation when he sings the world's most stirring paean, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!" is either ignorant or has the blood of a fish.

Whether Judaism is an ethical monotheism or the consciousness of Israel is not merely an academic question. These two conceptions represent widely divergent ways of dealing with the practical problems of self-adjustment to the novel situation with which Judaism is confronted. Whether the one or the other view shall prevail will make a difference in the fight for existence. We protest that if Judaism will be armed with nothing stronger than the conventional platitudes, it must succumb. By knowing itself for what it really is, Judaism will muster new heart and strength. The need for self-adjustment is not of today; Judaism has been going through that process ever since it saw the light. But during the past hundred and fifty years, Judaism has been wrestling with the problem of self-adaptation which both the redistribution of Jewry and the incursions of materialistic secularism have called into being. In this comparatively short period of a century and a half, Judaism has lived through all that the other religions have experienced within the last three or four centuries. If we were to compare the different stages in the process of Jewish self-adjustment we should find them analogous to those through which European religion in general has passed. These different steps in the process seem to have been unavoidable because they are the concomitant of the natural development of the human spirit. A review of the salient phases in the self-adaptation of religion to the changing conditions of life and thought will throw light upon the significance of that vital method of viewing Judaism which has of late worked its way into Jewish life—for the most part unawares.

The Storm and Stress Period in Religion

WHEN we refer to the self-adjustment of religion to modern conditions, our concern is not with the vast hinterland of ignorance and superstition that is still inhabited by large numbers of the unthinking of all creeds, Jewish as well as Christian. The destiny of religion is, primarily, in the hands of those who are in the vanguard of intellectual progress, and as long as its place in their lives is a problematic one its future is uncertain. Since the days of the Renaissance, religion has practically been busy adjusting itself to the ever enlarging human experience. It was otherwise during the middle ages, when the men of intellect threw the weight of their influence on the side of tradition and authority. They devoted their mental powers to the support of truths that were accepted at their face value without further scrutiny and analysis. All the resources of intellect were spent in interpreting the few facts they had in their possession. Many centuries elapsed before the cry was raised for more facts; but when, at last, the cry was answered, and new knowledge concerning the world in which men lived began to pour in, the foundations of tradition were shaken. Since then the religion of the intellectuals has no longer been marked by the naiveté and self-assurance of its earlier years. Its existence has been one of storm and stress. It has resisted all attempts to crowd it out from the new world that man has conquered for himself, and in order to be accorded a place in that world it has submitted to considerable change and self-adjustment. We may note three distinct stages in these efforts of religion to accommodate itself to life, corresponding in a large measure with the great thought movements of the eighteenth, the nineteenth, and the twentieth centuries respectively.

The first stage in the process was the rationalistic. With Copernicus and Galileo defeated by the Vatican, with Descartes having to defend his orthodoxy, it seemed to the English and French philosophers of the eighteenth century that the only way man could save his spiritual nature from falling a prey to animalism or materialism was by consigning to destruction the special forms in which religion existed in the established faiths. The dreamers and the visionaries of that day, who were moved by a sincere desire to further man's higher life, entertained the hope that natural religion would revive with the downfall of revealed religion. But human events have taken a different turn. Life does not adapt itself to preconceived logical systems. The rationalistic method of adjusting religion to life failed because it was based upon a false reconstruction of the rise and growth of religion. However logical and plausible such a reconstruction might have appeared, the fact that it could not be verified by study and observation of religious phenomena invalidated the practical inferences drawn from it.

The Failure of the Rationalistic School

ALTHOUGH by that time science had made sufficient strides to know how futile it was to reconstruct fact by means of reason, the territory of religion was still considered exempt from the need of resorting to experience. The thinkers of the rationalistic age were to a certain extent still under the dominance of the medieval regard for abstract reasoning, and applied it to man's spiritual existence. They reasoned thus: The human being is naturally gifted with an intuition that enables him to discover for himself the truth about God and his relation to the world. If man had only been left alone and had not had the stream of his ideas muddied by outside interference, he would have continued professing a religion that would have been both pure and simple. But human depravity did not permit the natural religion of primitive life to continue. The fanatics with their delusions and the priests with their love of power distorted man's primitive faith in God. They invented dogmas and practices by means of which they could hold the masses in subjection. In course of time these extraneous elements came to be looked upon as the main content of revealed religion. The various established faiths and revealed religions were little more than wilful fabrications that were bound to crumble before the onslaughts of reason. Thus, by bringing the established cults into disrepute, men like Voltaire and Hume hoped to restore religion to its original state of purity and simplicity, bare of all artificialities of forms and institutions.

However superficial the rationalistic method may appear to us, nothing but supercilious ingratitude could prompt us to disparage the service it has rendered. The rationalists are the men to whom the world is indebted for being the pioneers in the work of breaking down the impassable barrier of hatred and disdain which divided the followers of one faith from those of another. Rationalism began to lift the curse of intolerance and persecution which lay heavily upon the human race. No one who values the freedom to live his own life in his own way should cast aspersions upon the influence of that school of thought. Though they argued erroneously about the nature and essence of religion, we must not forget that they emancipated the human soul from the shackles of spiritual bondage.

On the other hand, our gratitude to them cannot blind us to their superficiality and inexperience in the matter of religion. Nineteenth century thought, with its emphasis upon historic development, exposed the fallacies and weaknesses of the method they employed to interpret religious phenomena. The distinction between natural and revealed religion was an arbitrary one, and the conception of priestly fabrications a mere figment of the imagination. Historical research has established that all the great world faiths or revealed religions have followed laws of development that have been in accord with the circumstances and mentality of those who professed them, and in that sense have been perfectly natural. Instead of being the product of fraud and wilful deceit, the established religions were seen to be the outcome of a healthy enthusiasm and deep sincerity. The limitations of knowledge and experience, which marked the earlier expressions of religious life, were, from the historical point of view, more than atoned for by the inner worth and sincerity that had prevailed in former days. In fact, so far did the historical conception change men's attitude that, upon finding themselves sophisticated and torn by doubt, they looked back longingly to former ages, when religion had brought inward calm and serenity. As a consequence of this reaction to the disintegrating tendencies of eighteenth century rationalism, a renewed appreciation for the religion of the past made itself felt among the circles of the cultured, particularly those of Germany and England, and the institutions in which the spirit of the past clothed itself were given a new lease of life.

The Historic Method Is Found Wanting

THE adoption by religion of the historic method thus represents the second stage in its process of self-adjustment. It now appealed to man's natural desire not to allow his past to sink into oblivion. Nothing is so humanizing as memory. He that is engrossed only in the future and would make it the only standard of value, he who has no patience with anything that interferes with practical utility—and memory is certainly a source of such interference—lacks the main ingredient of humanity and has something beaverish about him. Thus taught the historical school during the nineteenth century, and the rationalistic ideal that would have destroyed the established faiths no longer held sway.

But while the historic method stemmed the tide of rationalism, it failed to give back to religion its native vigor. It removed forever the stigma of insincerity that was attached to the origin and development of the dominant faiths; it illumined the past and incorporated it into man's spiritual life; but it was unable to restore to religion its most important function, that of shaping the future. The fundamental paradox which the historic method harbors, and which has prevented it from contributing adequately to the process of adjustment, is the fact that the spiritual experiences of the past, which it asks us to love and revere, were at the time of their enactment not memories, but vital responses to immediate and pressing needs. In the past religion dealt with its own present. That at all times the past did play an important rôle cannot be denied; but in all effective religion it can only be a means to an end. The historic method, on the other hand, succeeds in nothing but in revitalizing the past for its own sake. It provides no guidance for the future. A religion must not only write history—it must make history. This is why the historic method has been found wanting and has had to be supplemented by a new method of adjustment, which for want of a better term we may designate the socio-psychological.

The New Way—the Social and Psychological Viewpoint

BUT little attention has so far been paid to this new method of self-adjustment. Though it is still inchoate and uncrystallized, it forms the best part of every endeavor that makes for the rehabilitation of religion. The remarkable feature about the new mode of adjustment is that it did not come about directly, through a desire on the part of the teachers of religion to make good the inadequacy of previous methods. It was arrived at indirectly from a source that at first seemed hostile, and to some extent is still considered so, namely, social science. Not alone religion, but government and education, as well as history, economics and psychology, have been revolutionized as a result of the new way of approaching the problems of human life. So recent is the change that we have hardly had time to appraise it. The modern point of view toward human society has worked a change in all our thinking, comparable only to the one which resulted when the true purport of the concept "evolution" became apparent. The human race has lived through the forces generated by social existence without having been aware of them, even as it went on living for thousands of years without knowing the numerous forces that were latent in the earth, air and sea. It will probably take a much longer time for man to estimate at their worth the forces that are at work in social life than it took him to perceive the forces that dominate the physical world.

With all that, it is now generally established that the study of any phase of human life, whether for theoretical or for practical purposes, must be based upon the recognition that man is not merely a social animal, as Aristotle put it, but that his being more than an animal is due entirely to his leading a social life. In opposition to the older point of view, which prevailed in the more materialistic schools of thought during the nineteenth century, social science has proved that the forces that operate in human life are not merely those that are derived from the physical environment, but also those which are of a mental character. These psychical forces operate with a uniformity and power in no way inferior to those of the physical world. Social science is gradually accustoming us to regard human society not merely as an aggregate of individuals but as a psychical entity, as a mind not less but more real than the mind of any of the individuals that constitute it. The perennial source of error has been the fallacy of considering the individual human mind as an entity apart from the social environment. Whatever significance the study of the mind, as detached from its social environment, may have for metaphysical inquiry, it can throw no light upon the practical problems with which the mind has to deal—problems that arise solely from the interaction of the individual with his fellows. The individual human being is as much the product of his social environment as the angle is of the sides that bound it.

This new method of studying mental life both in the race and in the individual has revealed not merely the true significance of religion, but the way in which it functions and the conditions which affect its career. We now know that those phenomena in life which we call religious are primarily the expression of the collective life of a social group, after it has attained a degree of consciousness which is analogous to the self-consciousness of the individual. When a collective life becomes self-knowing we have a religion, which may therefore be considered the flowering stage in the organic growth of the tree of social life. The problem of religious adjustment is at bottom that of maintaining in a social group the psychical or spiritual energy which expresses itself in beliefs, ideals, customs and standards of conduct. Accordingly, when a religion is passing through a crisis, what is really happening is not so much that certain accepted truths or traditional habits are threatened with obsolescence, as that the social group with whose life it has been identified is on the point of dissolution. Whatever interest we have in the cultivation of the spiritual life must go towards conserving this kind of social energy. To have roses we must take care of the tree on which they grow, and not content ourselves with having a bouquet of them put into a vase filled with water. This newer conception of the religious life is fraught with far-reaching consequences, some of which we shall have to point out in a later article.

In Judaism we encounter the same three stages in the process of self-adjustment, though less clearly defined, by reason of much overlapping. What is known as the Haskalah movement represents the application of the rationalistic method to the spiritual problems of Jewish life. Having taken place in Russia, it was bound to be delayed in its coming for nearly a century. It received the first setback in its career when the pogroms broke out in the early "eighties," and the Russian Government inaugurated its policy of hounding and repression. The type which the Haskalah movement produced is the "Maskil," a man who curls his lip at ceremony and tradition, who lacks a sense of history and dabbles in cosmopolitanism. Not having had the courage to be thoroughgoing in his principles, or realizing that it was futile to be so, he tolerated what was distinctively Jewish so long as it was kept indoors and withdrawn from public gaze. In practice, however, "Haskalah" moved in the same direction as eighteenth century rationalism which made for the abrogation of the historic faiths.

Judaism in the Rationalistic and Historic Stages

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with the rise and development of the Haskalah movement in Russia, Jewry in the German-speaking countries tested the validity both of the rationalistic and of the historic method. The Reform movement was at first, like the Haskalah movement, little more than a diluted cosmopolitanism. A typical case is that of David Friedlander and his friends, who began by reforming the worship in harmony with modern ideas and the changed social position of the Jews, and ended in offering to accept Christianity, if they would not be required to believe in Jesus and could be exempted from the observance of certain ceremonies. Influenced by the general reaction against rationalistic tendencies and by the rise of Jewish Wissenschaft, the Reform movement has had to reckon with the historic method of adjustment. But that influence has not been strong enough to overcome its early rationalistic bias from which it suffers to this very day.

The historic method was applied with far more thoroughness and consistency by the advocates of Historical Judaism. Zunz, Frankel, Graetz, Herzfeld, Luzzatto and Joel drew the line between adaptation and assimilation. They laid down the principle that it was fatuous to speak of a religion adjusting itself when it breaks so completely with the past as to be unrecognizable. In our anxiety to have Judaism conform to the needs of the age, we must take care lest we create an altogether new religion and label it Judaism. Intellectual honesty demands that we give due heed to the principle of identity, so that the sameness in our Judaism and that of our fathers be greater than the difference between them. They therefore applied themselves to the task of reconstructing the past by dint not of logic and phrase-mongering, but of patient, plodding search after facts strewn in the most out-of-the-way by-paths of literature, with the consequence that they discovered an impassable gulf between the Judaism of history and the Judaism of the Reform movement. We shall never be able to discharge fully our debt of gratitude to these Jewish scholars and historians who have given us, in place of a few vague and detached memories, a past rich in content and inspiration. But what they did was only to lay the foundation of the Judaism of the future. A foundation affords poor shelter against the hail and sleet of a bleak wintry day. Of what avail is it to keep on forever hugging the cold foundation stones, when we should be engaged in building the house of Israel?

Judaism and the Jewish Soul

AS soon as we begin to experience the need not merely of giving consent to certain abstract truths or of contemplating the past, but of helping to build the house of Israel as a means to our spiritual well-being, Judaism enters through us upon the third stage in the process of self-adjustment. This is the case with all those who rebel against the pulverizing and granulating tendencies of Judaized Protestantisms which ignore the "Kenneseth-Israel" in the effort to mete out salvation to the individual soul. This is true of all who refuse to allow Judaism to provincialize itself by applying for naturalization papers wherever it finds a habitat. To this class also belong those who see in Zionism not what its opponents make it out to be, a sulking, sullen Chauvinism, but a method of regeneration to which Judaism has been led by divine intuition. Dr. Schechter, who has contributed to Judaism the concept of catholicity, has this to say of Zionism: "While it is constantly winning souls for the present, it is at the same time preparing us for the future, which will be a Jewish future. Only when Judaism has found itself, when the Jewish soul has been redeemed from the Galuth, can Judaism hope to resume its mission in the world." How significant the apposition in which the author places Judaism and the Jewish soul! What a pity to spoil a poetic insight of that kind by applying to it so barbarous a term as socio-psychological. Yet in that insight is echoed the modern conception of religion as the self-consciousness of the group, a conception which the very conditions of life have forced the Jew to adopt. Whatever vitality Judaism still displays may be traced to a general presentiment that it is a social mind and not a system of abstract truths. We should not, however, permit such a principle to remain merely a vague presentiment. The task that devolves upon us is to render articulate both in theory and in practice all that is implied in the intuition that Judaism is the soul of Israel.

Editors' Note.—Prof. Kaplan will continue to develop his conception of the true meaning of Judaism in articles to appear in subsequent issues.

FOOTNOTE:

[G] In The Menorah Journal for October, 1915.

University Menorah Addresses

The following addresses indicating the attitude of University authorities towards the Menorah movement may be considered as supplementary to the University Addresses printed in Part II of The Menorah Movement (1914) and in the first number (January, 1915) of The Menorah Journal.

Professor Albert Léon Guérard of The Rice Institute

Before the Rice Institute Menorah Society, November 29, 1915

IT is my privilege to welcome the Menorah Society in the name of the non-Jewish element and of the Faculty of the Rice Institute. When I was requested to do so, I accepted at once and with pleasure. I am in hearty sympathy with the purpose of the Menorah Society. I am a teacher of French; but I should consider myself unworthy of my calling if, behind the words of a foreign language, I did not attempt to show the civilization of a people, their soul, their ideal. Now, what I am attempting to do for French, the Menorah plans to do for the traditions, the problems, the aspirations of the Jewish race. And although I believe that the people which gave to the world Saint Louis, Joan of Arc, Calvin, Descartes, Pascal, Rousseau, Pasteur, Victor Hugo has left its imperial imprint upon the whole of modern civilization, yet I cannot but be conscious of the prior and higher claims of that strange family of whose blood Moses, Jesus and Spinoza were born. Judaism and Hellenism, said Renan, are the twin miracles of human history. The artistic and philosophical primacy of the Greeks is not so striking as the religious primacy of the Hebrews. The worship of beauty is a less vital element than the undying quest for righteousness. The whole fabric of our culture rests on those Judeo-Hellenic foundations. And surely a university would be false to its name if it did not include among its courses the study of Jewish literature and Jewish history. The Rice Institute is young, and will not reach its full stature for many a decade; all branches of knowledge cannot be taken up at the same time. But the place which Judaic studies ought by right to have in the curriculum will be at least indicated and kept in mind by your Menorah Society.

I heartily welcome the Menorah because, open to Jews and Gentiles alike, it will help us break down the barrier of prejudices which still separates the two elements. I have seen with my own eyes the tragic effects of such prejudices: I was in Paris at the time of the Dreyfus case; I have seen how they warped the thought of scholarly men, like Houston Stewart Chamberlain; I have read with horror of the Russian pogroms. You, who have suffered for ages under the fierce contempt and hatred of fanatics, you who have at last reached this haven of democracy and justice, let not the lesson of past sufferings be lost; do not forget your brethren still in bondage; and your brethren are those who are persecuted, all the world over, even as you were persecuted. You ought to be foremost among those who labor for equality and freedom. We have a right to count upon you in the fight against all prejudices—prejudices of race and color, of class and country, of caste and religion. The emancipated Jew must be an emancipator.

I welcome the Menorah Society because, though devoted primarily to the tradition of your people, it does not look exclusively towards the past. Be rightly proud of the most unique and entrancing tradition in the history of the world. Cherish it, hold fast to it, as a title of nobility. The world has no respect for the man who does not respect himself in his forefathers. The call to American citizenship does not in the least imply the duty of forgetting that you are Jews: it is the best Jews that will make the best Americans. But do not be hypnotized by your past; be worthy of your ancestors by continuing their spirit rather than aping their habits. Think of the problems of to-day and to-morrow. Apply to human affairs your Biblical test of righteousness. Then you will find that, with a slightly different coloring perhaps, your aspirations are ours; our diverse evolutions, after centuries of estrangement and conflict, tend towards the same goal; and in the Menorah I see a sign of the coming harmony of sects and creeds, each remaining passionately attached to its own past, but all working in common towards the same future.

Finally, I cannot drive away from my thought the shambles of Europe. Your co-religionists are fighting under all the belligerent flags, as bravely, as loyally, as their fellow-citizens of a different creed; and they have suffered more heavily in Poland than even the Belgian martyrs. When one thinks of the carnival of murder to which the idolatry of territorial, political patriotism has led, one cannot but wonder whether the Jewish people throughout the world might not afford an example for all to follow. In Judaism we have tradition, culture and race dissociated from any special habitat or from any political form; and this nation without a land, this nation without a king, is developing, prospering, unconquerable. I wonder whether the territorial state, which has led to such monstrous aberrations, is not a last idol and doomed to disappear as an ethical factor; and whether the future might not belong to universal, interpenetrating communities;—freely expanding, untrammelled by physical boundaries, unable to use force, and free from the fear of force, communities of which Judaism to-day might be the prototype. But I do not want to dwell at any length on a mere hypothesis or perhaps on a flight of fancy. I have said enough, I hope, to convince you of my hearty sympathy with the work of the Menorah Society. May it long prosper—an increasing element of strength in our Institute!

Professor Philip B. Kennedy, Director of the Day Division of the School of Commerce, New York University

Before the New York University (Washington Square) Menorah Society, November 3, 1915

I AM very glad to be present this morning at the opening meeting of the Menorah Society. I believe that any people should make the most of traditions which they have behind them. Personally, I always feel more confidence in a man of any race when he stands up for the best of his race traditions.

The Hebrew race is a very ancient one and should contribute to the civilization of this country. Students of this race who are in our colleges are the ones who may rightfully take the lead in making these traditions count.

The Menorah Society, I believe, is proceeding along the right lines. I hope to learn more of the work of this Society as it continues its work in the School of Commerce; and I am especially glad to have the opportunity of being with you at the beginning of the year. I trust that the year will be a very successful one. Personally, I shall attempt to back up the Society in every way that I can.

Dean Alfred E. Burton, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Before the M. I. T. Menorah Society, October 22, 1915

THE Menorah Society has appealed to me especially because of its high purpose. We who are not of the Jewish race realize what an important factor the Jews have been in civilization. Jewish culture has played an important part particularly here in the foundation of New England. Puritan life and thought drew its chief inspiration from the Old Testament. From the earliest times Jewish men have, been leaders in science and letters. Among the Americans and the English there is a growing tendency towards a better appreciation of Jewish ideals.

It is important that all Jewish men have pride in their race. If you don't, others will not. Some Jewish students do not seem to realize that they have a great inheritance. Many Jewish students with whom I have talked have been inclined to self-depreciation, and they also felt that everyone was against them. In contrast, Irish students have always impressed me with their self-confidence.

Bring non-Jewish students to your meetings. Try to increase your members. I shall do all I can to foster and promote your work. I would also urgently advocate a joint Menorah banquet between Harvard and Technology. This banquet would not only tend to tie Technology and Harvard students closer together, but would be of great benefit to your Society.

The study of Jewish culture and ideals will help you to think of other things than those immediately connected with your school work, and it will, furthermore, instill in you a feeling of dignity for your heritage.

Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Secretary of Yale University

Substance of Address before the Yale Menorah Society, October 27, 1915

MR. Stokes spoke of three reasons why Jewish students of the right type were welcome to Yale University:

1. They showed themselves capable of the highest scholarship; the large number of prize awards won by Jewish students was evidence of this. The speaker expressed the hope that some of the Jewish students would go in for scholarly life careers. With so many Jewish students of high scholarship it seemed strange that relatively few pursued graduate studies outside of the various professions.

2. They made their contribution to the life and thought of a democratic American university. A university like Yale is, he said, a melting pot of democracy. One of its main advantages is that it brings together Orient and Occident, North and South, Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, and makes each understand the point of view of the other.

3. The presence of Jewish students at the University tends to attract to Yale gifts in the interest of Semitic studies. The contribution of Judaism to religious and ethical ideals was so important that no university could afford to fail in supplying adequate courses of Semitic instruction. Several recent gifts to the University in the interest of Jewish scholarship from prominent Jewish citizens indicates that they had been impressed with the fair treatment of Jewish boys at Yale. He spoke with appreciation of a recent gift of a rabbinic library of several thousand volumes of large value.

Mr. Stokes spoke with much appreciation of the Menorah Society because of what it was doing in bringing together Jewish students in the interest of high intellectual and ethical ideals, and hoped that it would not forget that its mission was not only to interest Jewish students but also Christian students in Jewish culture.

Intercollegiate Menorah Notes

Fourth Annual Menorah Convention

AT the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, December 27, 28, 29 and 30, 1915.

Announcements

All members of Menorah Societies are cordially invited to attend the Convention. Though the right to vote is enjoyed only by duly accredited Representatives and Deputies of constituent Menorah Societies, all Menorah members may be given the privilege of the floor at the business sessions. Graduates also, especially former members of Menorah Societies, are invited to attend.

All business sessions, unless otherwise indicated, will take place at College Hall, University of Pennsylvania.

A reception will be given to the delegates and other Menorah members by a Committee of graduates and leading Jewish men and women of Philadelphia, at the Y. M. H. A., on Monday evening, at 8.

By invitation from the President of the Dropsie College, Dr. Cyrus Adler, one of the meetings, the "Scholars' Evening," will be held at The Dropsie College, corner Broad and York Sts., Philadelphia, on Tuesday evening, December 28, at 8.15 P. M. This meeting will be open to the public.

The Convention Dinner, at the Hotel Adelphia, Philadelphia, on Wednesday evening, December 29, at 6.30 P. M., will be open to Representatives and Deputies, all other Menorah members, all graduates, and invited guests. Menorah members who desire their friends to be invited will please send their names and addresses immediately to the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, 600 Madison Avenue, New York. The subscription will be $3.00 a cover.

Program

Monday, December 27.

10. A. M. Opening session. Submission of credentials by Representatives and Deputies, and written reports of their respective Menorah Societies (unless previously sent to the Chancellor of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association); payment of Society dues to the Association for 1916; seating of Representatives and Deputies; presentation of the applications of new Menorah Societies for admission into the Association and action thereon.

1. P. M. Informal luncheon to delegates and visiting Menorah members.

2. P. M. Presentation of reports of Intercollegiate Officers for 1915, covering (1) roster of Menorah Societies and census of Menorah members; (2) extension of the Menorah movement during 1915; (3) the Menorah College of Lecturers; (4) Menorah courses of study and syllabi; (5) Menorah Libraries; (6) Menorah Prizes; (7) The Menorah Journal; (8) Menorah Classics; (9) Graduate Menorah Committees; (10) The graduate phase of the movement; (11) Relations of the Menorah with other organizations, etc. Questions regarding the activities of the Association and the policy of the Administration during 1916.

8. P. M. Formal reception to the delegates and visiting Menorah students, given by University alumni of Philadelphia at the Y. M. H. A.

Tuesday, December 28th.

9.30 A. M. Discussion of the Intercollegiate reports submitted the previous afternoon, with special reference to The Menorah Journal. Resolutions.

1. P. M. Informal luncheon.

2. P. M. Discussion continued of the Intercollegiate reports, with special reference to the question of the affiliation of graduates with the movement. Resolutions.

8. P. M. "Scholars' Evening" at The Dropsie College. Papers by Professor Max L. Margolis of The Dropsie College, Professor Israel Friedlaender of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Professor Julian Morgenstern of the Hebrew Union College. Informal memorial to the late Dr. Schechter by President Cyrus Adler of The Dropsie College.

Wednesday, December 29th.

9.30 A. M. Submission of 10 minute oral reports of Menorah Societies by their respective Representatives or Deputies, in summary of the written reports previously submitted.

2. P. M. Discussion of the activities and problems of the Menorah Societies and the ways in which Menorah work may be still further advanced in the Colleges and Universities of the country.

4. P. M. Election of Intercollegiate Officers for 1916.

6.30 P. M. Convention Dinner at the Hotel Adelphia for Representatives and Deputies, all other Menorah members, graduates, friends and invited guests. Toasts.

Thursday, December 30th.

9.30 A. M. Discussion continued of Menorah activities in Colleges and Universities. Resolutions.

2. P. M. Unfinished business.

Items of Interest

Death of Dr. Schechter

Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, died suddenly on November 19. Dr. Schechter was a member of the Board of Consulting Editors of The Journal, and from the first an inspiring friend of the Menorah movement. The Journal was shortly to have received his promised article. Endeavor will be made in an early issue to give worthy appreciation of Dr. Schechter as scholar and humanist and Jewish leader. Meantime, it may be noted that several of his leading works are to be found in Menorah libraries: "Studies in Judaism" and "Aspects of Rabbinic Theology." Attention may also be called to Dr. Schechter's last book, published only recently, entitled "Seminary Papers and Addresses."

Relief of Jewish Students in Switzerland

Menorah members have sent the following amounts through the Intercollegiate Menorah Association for the relief of Russian Jewish students at present in Switzerland: $38 from the University of Pennsylvania; $23.50 from the University of Valparaiso; $18 from The Johns Hopkins University; $9.50 from Temple University (Philadelphia); and $6 from the University of North Carolina. The students at Harvard sent approximately $100.

Syllabus of Jewish History

By special arrangement with the University of London, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has been enabled to provide Menorah Study Circles with a Syllabus of Jewish History from Mendelssohn to Herzl, prepared by ten Jewish authorities in England as an Extension Course of the University of London.

New Menorah Societies

New Menorah Societies have been organized since the opening of this academic year at a number of Colleges and Universities, including Alabama, George Washington (Washington, D. C.), Rice Institute (Houston, Texas), Temple, Vanderbilt, and Washington (St. Louis). Menorah Societies are now in process of formation at a number of other Universities.

The Graduate Phase

A graduate Menorah Society was organized last year in Scranton, Pa., with Dr. Elias G. Roos as President.

A number of former members of the Menorah Society of New York University organized last month into "The Menorah Alumni of New York University," with Louis Weinstein as temporary President.

A Graduate Menorah Society has recently been formed in Montgomery, Ala., with Harry Weil as President.

A Graduate Menorah Advisory Committee has been formed in Cincinnati, with Mr. S. Marcus Fechheimer as Chairman.

Joint Menorah Meetings in New York

Continuing the pleasant practice originated last year, the Menorah Societies in New York—at the College of the City of New York, Columbia University, Hunter College and New York University, in company with the newly organized "Menorah Alumni of New York University"—held their first joint meeting of this year in the Auditorium of Hunter College, the Hunter Menorah acting as hostess. It was a most successful meeting, with an attendance of about 700 Menorah members and friends.

Miss Sarah Berenson, President of the Hunter Menorah, introduced the Chancellor as the chairman. The speakers were Miss Tamar Hirschensohn of the Hunter College Faculty, and Mrs. Benjamin S. Pouzzner, Radcliffe, 1912. Miss Hirschensohn drew a comparative picture of a great Hebrew friendship celebrated in the Bible, that of David and Jonathan, and notable friendships in the Greek and Latin classics—Achilles and Patroclus and Euryalus and Nisus. Mrs. Pouzzner spoke upon the Jewish women of the German Salons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Chancellor read communications to The Menorah Journal from Viscount Bryce and Hon. Oscar S. Straus (see pages 281 and 297). After the speaking the Hunter Menorah held an informal reception for the members of the other Menorah Societies.

The next joint meeting of the Menorah Societies of New York will be held at Columbia University on Sunday afternoon, December 26. The principal speaker will be Mr. Louis Weinberg, artist and lecturer at the Metropolitan Art Museum and the College of the City of New York. The subject will be "Culture and Nationalism." Besides the members of the Menorah Societies in New York, members of Menorah Societies at other Colleges and Universities home for their vacation are invited to be present. It is hoped also that a number of delegates from various parts of the country to the Menorah Convention which meets the next morning in Philadelphia will be able to attend.

Activities of Menorah Societies

Clark College

THE third year of the Clark College Menorah Society opened on September 24 with every Jewish member of the college present. The membership is larger than ever before, and all things forecast a most prosperous year, one which will be fully in keeping with the decennial year of the Menorah movement.

A program has been made by the executive committee and the subjects for the year have been mapped out, as follows:

(1) Jewish Literature;

(2) The Messiah Idea in Jewish History;

(3) Aspects of Hebrew Genius;

(4) Jewish History;

(5) Stories and Pictures;

(6) The Haskalah Movement;

(7) Songs of Exile;

(8) Judah Ha-Levi;

(9) Zionism;

(10) Ahad Ha-'Amism;

(11) The Bible as Literature;

(12) The Jewish Language;

(13) Reform vs. Orthodoxy;

(14) Nationality and the Hyphenated American;

(15) Anti-Semitism;

(16) Justice and Mercy.

These topics are assigned to the various members of the Society and reports are given at the meetings. Discussion follows usually and great interest has been manifested by all members.

The second annual banquet of the Society is to be held in January and plans have already been under way for the past few weeks, efforts being made to hold a banquet surpassed by no other Society in point of stirring interest for the Menorah among all the students and faculty.

Isador Lubin

College of the City of New York

THE beginning of the academic year 1915-1916 marked the adoption of a new policy in the history of the C. C. N. Y. Menorah Society. During the past five years, Menorah activities have been mainly extensive, the purpose being to interest as large a number of students as possible. But now that the Menorah has come to exert such a wide influence in C. C. N. Y., greater prominence is being given to work of a more intensive nature, and emphasis is laid on the quality rather than the quantity of the membership.

Our program of Menorah activities may be divided into extensive work and intensive work. At the basis of the extensive work are the public lectures which are intended not only for Menorah members but for the entire student body. The first of these public lectures was held on October 7 when Dr. Sidney E. Goldstein of the Free Synagogue delivered an enthusiastic and inspiring address on "Social Service and the Jew" before an audience of over 150 students. At the suggestion of Dr. Goldstein a number of students present volunteered to form a group for the study of social problems in the Jewish community of New York City in connection with actual social service work. The second public lecture, held on October 21, was delivered by the Hon. Marcus M. Marks, Borough President of Manhattan. Over 200 students were present, and about 150 more were turned away after the doors were shut.

The weekly forums constitute the second part of the extensive work of the Society. At these Forums, talks followed by discussions are given by members of the Faculty, Menorah alumni and others. The first Forum meeting of the semester, with which Menorah activities were formally opened, was held on September 21, and was led by Chancellor Henry Hurwitz, who spoke on "The Meaning of the Menorah Movement." Other Forum speakers have been Professor William B. Guthrie of the Department of Political Science; Professor John P. Turner of the Philosophy Department; Mr. George J. Horowitz, an ex-president of the Menorah; Rabbi Aaron Robison, Director of the Y. M. H. A.; Mr. Isadore Berkson, an alumnus and ex-president of the Menorah; Professor H. D. Marsh of the Philosophy Department; and Mr. Julius Drachsler, Secretary of the School of Jewish Communal Workers.

The study circles comprise the intensive work of the Menorah and constitute its most important activity. At these study circles a group of not more than ten students come together once a week for one hour to study and discuss questions of Jewish interest. The work in the study circles is done entirely by the students themselves. Up to the present, eleven study circles have been organized and these meet regularly every week. Some of the subjects taken up are: Modern Jewish Movements, Current Events in Jewry, Schechter's "Essays in Judaism," Present Day Problems in Judaism, Jewish Biography, The Philosophy of Ahad Ha-'am.

In addition to all these activities, "regular" meetings of the Society are held. On the evening of October 6 the annual smoker took place at the City College Club, with Mr. M. S. Levussove of the Faculty, Mr. Julius Hyman, an alumnus, and Chancellor Hurwitz among the speakers. On October 23 George J. Horowitz read an interesting paper on "Judaism and Christianity," which was followed by a spirited discussion. On Saturday evening, November 13, there was held a joint meeting of the students of the day college and of the evening college for the purpose of organizing a Menorah Society among the students of the evening college. Professor I. Leo Sharfman of Michigan addressed the meeting on "A Few Facts About the Menorah." The men of the night college were very enthusiastic about the idea of the Menorah and the prospects of a successful Menorah among them are very favorable.

The membership of the C. C. N. Y. Menorah is constantly growing, although in every case application for membership is always spontaneous and voluntary.

William E. Austin

Hunter College

SINCE its first meeting of the season, the Hunter College Menorah Society has more than trebled its membership. Ten per cent of the entire student body have joined our ranks. We hope for even greater members before the end of the year. Our freshman "At Home" was pronounced the most enjoyable welcome to freshmen given by any society. A large audience, including several members of the Faculty, attended our first regular meeting, which was addressed by Professor Israel Friedlaender of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Between our regular meetings, we hold weekly noon-time Forums. Besides, the three study circles organized by the Society meet weekly and are attended by between twenty and twenty-five members. The Society arranged for the very successful joint meeting of all the Menorah Societies in the city, which was held at Hunter on Sunday evening, November 21, with an attendance of about 700.

The members of the Society have shown their appreciation of the privileges arising from membership not only by voting almost unanimously to double the annual dues but also by undertaking a catalogue, on the basis of subject matter, of the contents of books which might be of interest to students of Hebraic culture. This work will cover finally, we hope, all such books in English and the leading modern foreign languages and should prove a lasting help to students everywhere.

Ernestine P. Franklin

Johns Hopkins University

A DISTINCT Menorah revival has taken place this year at the Johns Hopkins University. Having for several years led a rather aimless and nomadic existence, the Menorah Society has at last affiliated itself definitely with the University. At the beginning of the present collegiate year, application was made to the authorities of the University for permission to hold meetings in one of the college buildings. The permission was very graciously granted, and, in addition, the Dean of the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Murray Peabody Brush, accepted our imitation to say a few words of welcome to the Jewish students at the inaugural meeting of the Society for the year 1915-16.

This meeting was held in McCoy Hall, on the evening of October 18, and was comparatively well attended. Dr. Brush, in a talk that was brief but to the point, congratulated both the Menorah Society and the University upon the closer relations into which the two organizations were entering. The University must benefit, he said, from all student activities not directly connected with the curricula of studies, as a more unselfish love for the institution is thereby fostered in the student. The Menorah Society must prove of advantage to us, as students, in that it tends to broaden our outlook and encourages us to enter fields of study that we might otherwise never approach. Finally, the Society fulfills a definite purpose for the Jewish students in particular by keeping fresh in their minds all the great ideals and achievements which distinguish their history. The Dean closed his talk with a hearty welcome from the authorities of the University to the Johns Hopkins Menorah Society. Dr. Brush was followed by the Chancellor of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, who urged the assembled students to give the Society a strong impetus this year, now that it has definitely found a habitat in the University. He explained the need that is filled in the life of the student by the Menorah Society, and outlined a mode of conduct for the Hopkins organization.

In accordance with Mr. Hurwitz's suggestion, a study circle, aiming to take up modern Jewish history since the time of Moses Mendelssohn, was formed on the spot. The Society has been fortunate enough to procure the services of Mr. Elias N. Rabinowitz, a member of the Semitic department of the Johns Hopkins University, as leader of the study circle. The group consists of close to twenty students and meets weekly in one of the rooms of the University library. It bids fair to prove of genuine good to the students interested in it.

At the second meeting of the Society, November 1, the speaker was Rabbi Eugene Kohn, of Baltimore, whose interesting talk on "The Elements of Stability and Progress in Judaism" elicited warm discussion. The Society hopes to have regular monthly meetings, for which attractive programs have been arranged by the Executive Committee.

Aaron Schaffer

New York University
(University Heights)

FORMED in December, 1913, forced to cope at first with many opposing and discouraging elements, the New York University Menorah Society at University Heights has rapidly mounted the ladder of success and has entered upon a banner year. We have set two great aims before us for this year: first, to make the Society strong internally, and, secondly, to bring the purposes and ideals of the Menorah movement before the alumni of New York University.

Various plans are being utilized for the fulfillment of the first aim. The Executive committee succeeded during the summer in getting together an excellent list of prominent men to lecture before the Society on current topics of Jewish interest. A prospectus was issued in the first week of the college year, containing, in brief, a discussion of the Menorah Idea, a history of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, a resume of the New York University Menorah Society, a speech by Chancellor Elmer E. Brown delivered before the Menorah Society, a word about Associate membership and about Menorah Prizes, and the program for the year. Using this prospectus as a means of introduction to those unacquainted with the movement, a vigorous campaign was conducted by a well organized committee to increase the membership. A doubled membership in two weeks was the result of this. Another means towards getting the new men to join was the Freshmen Reception, held on October 14, at which Dean Bouton of the College of Arts and Chancellor Hurwitz were the speakers. This reception proved a great success.

Besides attending the regular bi-weekly lectures of the Society, each member is urged to join one of the eight study circles in modern Jewish History and Hebrew (elementary and advanced). A well organized committee has charge of these study circles. It has been successful in signing up nearly a hundred men. The study circles are conducted by several members who are also Seminary students and by several rabbis of the city. These study circles are proving of first importance in our general plans, because it is really in these that the men acquire a little "Jewish culture and ideals and an independence of thought and action in things Jewish." Several members of these classes have become so enthused with the newer Jewish spirit that they devote a good part of their time lecturing on Jewish topics to Young Judaean organizations and Young People's Synagogues in and about New York City.

To stimulate still further individual research and study of Jewish problems it has been decided to offer one or two Menorah prizes for papers on various Jewish topics. In order to raise a substantial amount of money for that purpose two committees are working on separate plans. One of these committees, by a special arrangement with the Business Manager of The Menorah Journal, has started a campaign to get two hundred subscriptions for The Journal, thereby netting the Society fifty dollars for one prize. This committee, backed by the entire membership, is gaining speed daily, and looks forward to the accomplishment of its object before the Convention. Another committee is circularizing the alumni outside of New York City to get their support. The result of this work, though incomplete as yet, looks most promising.

The above is a brief resume of our year's plans. We realize the importance not only of having plans but of carrying them through successfully, as we are determined they shall be. The work is being done systematically, not by one man nor by two or three men, but by an efficient, earnest executive committee backed by almost every man in the Menorah Society. It is our aim to tell a pretty tale at the Intercollegiate Menorah Convention.

M. A. Stavitsky

Ohio State University

OUR annual freshmen reception this year saw very little of the conventional "stiffshirt" formalities, nor did it hear much of the honey-soaked praises of Jewish loyalty and patriotism. Instead of this we had a simple, all-student affair where everyone found satisfaction in merely meeting and getting acquainted with the rest of the Jewish students. A short talk on the purpose of the Menorah, several selections of Jewish music and refreshments made up the rest of the program. This year's Freshmen, both men and women, are especially promising for the Menorah.

At the second meeting the members displayed an excellent Menorah spirit by adopting a resolution to include the subscription fee of The Menorah Journal in the membership dues and thus making the Journal receivable by every member as a matter of course.

At a later meeting there was a lecture by Professor Brooder of the Sociology Department on "The Anthropology of the Jew," which was followed by a general discussion. At another meeting the writer read a paper on the Jewish Congress movement.

Our meetings have thus far been unusually well attended and highly spirited. It must be admitted, however, that the work was rather spontaneous and not the product of previous planning. This is to be remedied soon by a plan, now under consideration, systematizing the entire year's work.

Samuel Lesser

Radcliffe College

THE Radcliffe Menorah, which was organized in December, 1914, did not accomplish very much last year; there was no study circle, although attempts to form one were made, and the members did little or no concerted work. This year, however, a much stronger group spirit is being shown. A study circle in Jewish history, lead by Dr. Harry Wolfson of Harvard, has been formed; and a petition for a regular course in Jewish Literature has been drawn up.

We have had two lecture meetings. At the first, Mr. Henry Hurwitz spoke on the imperative need for concerted action among American Jews in the attempt to ameliorate the conditions among the Jews of Europe. He said the Menorah Society should ultimately help towards this concerted effort by bringing home the realization of the conditions to Jewish young men and women who, through lack of interest or education, have not yet become conscious of them. At the second meeting, Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, President of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, spoke on Reform Judaism: its history, meaning, and purpose. Reform Judaism has its being, stated the speaker, not in the desire of the Jew for an easier, less irksome mode of cooking and praying, but in his acute need of adapting himself to the manners and customs of the country in which he lives. Not only is the spirit of Judaism not lost, it is reinforced through the casting off of the form which might obscure it. At the same meeting, Mr. Frederick F. Greenman, President of the Harvard Menorah, spoke about the possibility of co-operation between the Harvard and Radcliffe Societies.

While there are few new members of the Radcliffe Menorah, it is expected that the year will be an active one.

Ruth Jane Mack

Tufts College

THE Menorah Society of Tufts College began its activities for the third year with an enthusiastic reception to the Freshman class. A marked increase of enthusiasm came along with the new members. Our Society, which three years ago began with four members, has now a membership of sixty, all enthusiastic about the Menorah work. A shingle has been designed and adopted. A Menorah prize which was offered last year for 1915-1916 was announced at the first meeting and it looks as if a keen competition will take place. Courses have been organized in Jewish History, Philosophy and Bible study, the feature of the study circles being that a different member conducts each meeting and the man who obtains the highest mark (each student being rated by the presiding member) will receive a prize of a set of books. All in all, the outlook is for the most successful year in the history of the Tufts Menorah.

H. L. Katz

University of Illinois

THE Illinois Menorah is looking forward to a most successful year, with efficient officers, enthusiastic members, and the usual interest and co-operation of the Faculty members. A definite attempt is to be made to foster a spirit of friendliness and co-operation among all the Jewish students.

The year was formally opened on October 10 by a reception to the new students. After an opening talk by President Karl Epstein, the students were addressed by Professor E. C. Baldwin, Dr. Jacob Zeitlin and Mr. Samuel Abrams, a former president. The meeting was attended by 110 students. At later meetings Dr. David S. Blondheim spoke on "The Jewish Congress," Dr. Simon Litman on "The Jew of To-day," and Professor B. H. Bode on "The Hyphenated Jewish-American."

The work of our Menorah is augmented by the Menorah Study Circle, under the leadership of Mrs. Simon Litman. The class is doing intensive work in Jewish post-exilic history. Throughout, the bearing of our past history upon present day problems is emphasized. Judging from the enthusiasm of the members of the class, the Study Circle is going to become a permanent feature of our Menorah activities.

Anita Libman

University of Michigan

SOMEONE once said that he could lift the world if he could find a place to stand on. The Menorah Society at Michigan is still working to rear a strong foundation which will bear the weight of a large and beautiful superstructure.

Our Society began its current year with a "Teruah Gedolah." The trumpet blast was sounded loud and long: and the children of Israel came out from their tents. Through advertisement in the Michigan Daily, through posters and personal contact with the students on the campus, a large attendance was procured for the first meeting. Professor Sharfman was on hand to inspire enthusiasm into the men and women. An excellent musical program had been provided for. The meeting was highly successful and brought tidings for a banner year. Some previously discordant strings were brought to the proper tune. There had been some friction between the Students' Congregation and the Menorah last year. This friction arose for two reasons: first, some Menorah men felt that the Congregation was "cutting out" the Menorah, that the Congregation was entering upon the Menorah's field of action. Of course, there is absolutely no reason for such an objection. The Menorah supplies the intellectual needs of the Jewish students; the Congregation exists for religious inspiration only. True enough, the two overlap to a small degree; but not sufficiently to be termed "encroachment." The second reason was a technical one. The Menorah men were greatly vexed because the time of the Congregation conflicted with our time. The Menorah began at 8 p. m. on Sunday evening; but the Congregation did not adjourn often until 8.15 or 8.30. The Congregation itself was not to blame, for they could not always foresee that a Rabbi would become so overheated in discussing the war situation that he would ignore the element of time in the make-up of our universe. At the beginning of this semester we determined to put an end to all friction, though trivial, between the two organizations. There is no worldly reason for discord between the two Jewish organizations. We held a consultation with the President of the Congregation who assured us of all possible support; and in turn the Menorah assured the Congregation of support. Indeed, the Menorah conceded a point by moving our meeting time fifteen minutes; and the President of the Congregation, who is also a Menorah member, was given the floor at the first meeting to enlighten the audience on the meaning of the Congregation to student life. A goodly number of Congregation men and women are Menorah members and vice versa. The two organizations are now working in entire harmony and we are accomplishing the more for it.

Our second meeting was held on October 31. Professor Leroy Waterman, the new head of the Semitics Department, led the discussion with an address on "The Religious Problems of To-day in the Light of Early Jewish History and Literature."

On November 28, Mr. Fred M. Butzel, an alumnus of Michigan and President of the United Jewish Charities in Detroit, led the discussion with a talk on "Some Tendencies in the Social Work of the Jews." Through the Intercollegiate Menorah Association we were enabled to procure Professor Edward Chauncey Baldwin of the University of Illinois to speak before us on December 12 on "Job." Also through the Association we expect to have Professor Julian Morgenstern of the Hebrew Union College.

We have this year more members than ever before, and they are enthusiastic. But it is not in numbers alone that we must put our trust. We should never worry—I know that some do—when the Menorah has a small meeting if only it is successful. I think that we never had a better meeting than when Dr. Kallen addressed fourteen members two years ago. Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Shearith Yisrael, the remnant of Israel, applies to our Menorah problem. The few will redeem the many; they will uphold the ideals and culture of the Jewish race.

But no matter how successful the semester will be, we shall only be able to say that we have added but one stone to the pedestal which is to be the permanent and deep foundation of the Menorah at Michigan.

Abraham J. Levin

University of Minnesota

WITH an attendance that broke all records, and a display of enthusiasm and interest that augurs well for the Society, the Minnesota Menorah opened its year of activities on October 1, with the annual "Get-Together" reception. During the evening, members of the freshman class were introduced to members of the Faculty, alumni and upperclass men and women. A short program entertained the assembly, which was followed by a brief address by President H. W. Davis, expressing the aims and purposes of the Society.

Following the plan adopted last year of centralizing the subjects of study and discussion, our Program Committee has for this year again divided the work of the Society into two divisions. The first semester will be devoted to a presentation and discussion of some of the Jewish problems, viz., anti-Semitism and certain social, economic, and religious problems, while the second semester will be devoted to proposed solutions of these problems through Zionism, Socialism, Assimilation, etc. Students and representative members of the community will alternate in the presentation of the various subjects to the Society. Greater emphasis than ever before will be given to general discussion by all the members of the Society at each meeting.

After careful consideration, the Minnesota Menorah has decided to withdraw its campaign to bring the Intercollegiate Convention to Minnesota this year, yielding in favor of the East and Philadelphia. We wish, however, to thank the members of the Administrative Council who had pledged us their support, and we take this opportunity to announce that at this Convention Minnesota will earnestly urge the delegates to fix the place for the Convention of 1916, and it is for that Convention that Minnesota will put in its strongest bid.

David London

University of Wisconsin

THE academic year 1915-16 opened very auspiciously for the Menorah at Wisconsin. Fully 100 attended the first meeting, at Lathrop parlors, on October 4. Twenty-four new members were added, swelling the total membership to fifty-six. President Charles A. Lebowsky welcomed the freshmen into the Society, and explained the broad and liberal basis upon which the Menorah rested. Professor Dodge, Chairman of the Menorah Prize Committee, announced the Menorah prize of $100 (the largest individual prize in the University of Wisconsin), and urged all members to try for it. The closing speech of the evening was given by Dr. H. M. Kallen, mentor of the organization. Dr. Kallen spoke on "The Menorah Movement—Its Relation to Jewish Academic Life." After the meeting a general mixer was held, refreshments served, and the members became acquainted with each other.

At the second meeting of the year, on October 18, Mr. Alexander Aaronsohn of Palestine, brother of the famous agronomist, addressed an enthusiastic audience upon the subject of "Jewish Colonization in Palestine." The speaker had but recently arrived from that land, after many thrilling adventures, and his talk was most inspiring. Mr. Aaronsohn emphasized the fact that while formerly, since time immemorial, it has been the custom, and in fact the ambition, of every Jew to return to Palestine that he might die there, to-day, it was not to die, but to live, that the Jew returned to the land of his fathers. At the following meeting the Society discussed the Russian situation; Mr. Zigmund Salit gave an interesting paper describing his own experiences in that land of suffering. Mr. Milton Moses delivered an oration on "The Wandering Jew."

On November 15, Rev. C. A. Greenman, of the First Unitarian Church of Milwaukee, addressed us on a striking theme, "The Relationship Between Judaism and Unitarianism." Other speakers to follow are Justice Hugo Pam, of the Chicago Appellate Court, Rabbi Joseph Stolz, and Dr. Horace J. Bridges, of the Chicago Ethical Culture Society, besides members of our own Faculty.

In order to arouse even more enthusiasm for the Menorah idea, the executive committee has arranged to hold a number of informal dinners. Since these dinners are given primarily for members of the Society, no outside speakers will be invited. Short and snappy toasts will be given by members, the alumni will be called upon if any happen to be present, and the Menorah Song will be rendered by the ensemble. If the first dinner proves to be successful, and there is every reason to believe that it will, these affairs will become an established part of the Menorah program at Wisconsin.

Charles A. Lebowsky

Western Reserve University

THE opening of the scholastic year 1915-16 marked a radical change in the policy hitherto followed by the Western Reserve Menorah Society. During the first few years of its existence membership was open only to the male students of the university and attendance was necessarily small. Interest in the Society itself began to dwindle until finally it became clear that some radical step would have to be taken if the Society was to remain intact and worthy of the name.

Accordingly, at a meeting of the executive committee held shortly after the opening of college in the fall, it was decided that hereafter membership would be open to both the men and the women of the university. Seventy-five students gathered for the opening meeting held on October 24. At later meetings, Dr. Lamberton, of the Faculty, lectured on "The Influence of Hellenism on Hebraic Culture," and Dr. Daniel A. Huebsch, noted art critic and lecturer, spoke on "The Neglect of the Old Testament." Dr. Huebsch urged that inasmuch as the Menorah Society was devoted to Jewish study, it was the proper place for a revival of interest particularly in Biblical literature and other Hebrew writings. These works were distinctively the Jews' own and should not be neglected by them as the younger generation was inclined to do. Both lectures were well attended and followed by interesting discussions. A later meeting was devoted almost entirely to a lively as well as an intensely interesting discussion of Zionism.

The Western Reserve Menorah Society may well look forward to a banner year. Having overcome the obstacles that face every new organization, we are now prepared and eager to carry on the aggressive work of the Menorah. Passing as we are through a period fraught with epoch-making events, an endless number of problems spring up on every side, each one clamoring for attention. Upon the solution of many of these problems rests the future welfare of the Jewish race. Having been awakened to a realization of the seriousness of the situation, the Western Reserve Menorah Society will compass every effort to do its share in the movement for enlightenment and progress.

Benjamin F. Roth

INDEX

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CARUSO & HIS HARDMAN PIANO CARUSO & HIS HARDMAN PIANO

New York, April 13th, 1914.
Messers. Hardman, Peck & Company,
#433 Fifth Avenue,
New York City.

Dear Mr. Peck:—

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Accept my congratulations for your success.

Sincerely,

Signature: Enrico Caruso

The New
HARDMAN Five-Foot Grand

The perfect small Grand Piano, exquisite in its artistic lines and marvelous in tone.

Caruso

uses one himself and calls its tone "wonderful."

Price, $650

We cordially invite you to visit our warerooms and hear this marvelous little Grand, without placing you under any obligation to buy.

HARDMAN, PECK & COMPANY

BROOKLYN STORE
524 Fulton Street
Near Hanover Place       

(Founded 1842)   
HARDMAN HOUSE
433 Fifth Avenue
Bet. 38th & 39th Sts.

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Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers

Steinway

THE purchase of a Steinway for the home means the selection of the ideal piano, tone and workmanship being of first importance.

It is the price of the Steinway which makes possible its supreme musical qualities, but you will find that the Steinway costs only a trifle more than many so-called "good" pianos.

Style V, the new Upright, and Style M, the smallest Steinway Grand, offer a special advantage in price. They embody all the distinct Steinway features, but, being of a reduced size to meet the requirements of the modern home or apartment, are offered at very moderate prices.

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STEINWAY & SONS, STEINWAY HALL
107-109 East Fourteenth Street, New York

Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers

THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL

Volume I, 1915

INDEX

To Volume I of The Menorah Journal
January—December, 1915

Authors' names in Small Capitals; Titles of Articles in Italics

Adam Prometheus, and Other Lyrics (Dec.) 282
Adler, Dr. Cyrus, Greeting from, (Jan.) 3
Akiba, The Romance of Rabbi. (Oct.) 227
American Jewry, The Present Crisis in (Dec.) 265
Amram, David Werner: "Paths of Pleasantness," The Study of the Jewish Law (June) 159
Anspacher, Louis K.: Adam Prometheus, and Other Lyrics. (Dec.) 282
Arch of Titus, The: A Poem (Oct.) 201
Arch of Titus, The: Frontispiece (Oct.)
Asch, Sholom: The Jewish Maupassant (Dec.) 285
Askowith, Hyman: The Symbolism of the Menorah (Oct.) 248
Aspects of Jewish Life and Letters: Reviews of Books (Oct.) 237
Bacon, Benjamin W.: From a Menorah Address (Apr.) 86
Baldwin, Edward Chauncey: The Jewish Genius in Literature, (June) 164
Bentwich, Norman, Greeting from, (Apr.) 73
Blatt, William M.: The Quality of Mercy: A Sixth Act to "The Merchant of Venice" (Apr.) 96
Blondheim, D. S.: Review of Herford's "Pharisaism" (Oct.) 237
Book Reviews: Aspects of Jewish Life and Letters (Oct.) 237
Brandeis, Louis D., Greeting from, (Jan.) 4
A Call to the Educated Jew (Jan.) 13
Brown, Elmer E.: Menorah Address (Jan.) 46
Bryce, Viscount: Letter from. (Dec.) 297
Call to the Educated Jew, A (Jan.) 13
Colleges and Universities: See Menorah Societies.
Dabney, Charles W.: Menorah Address (Jan.) 47
Days of Disillusionment (Jan.) 39
Decennial of the Menorah Movement, The (Oct.) 253
Duty of the Hour, The (Oct.) 202
Editorial Statement (Jan.) 1
Eliot, Charles W.: The Potency of the Jewish Race (June) 141
Escoll, Morris J.: The Jewish Student in Our Universities (Oct.) 217
European Universities, Jewish Students in (Jan.) 26, (Apr.) 106
Friedlaender, Israel: From a Menorah Address (Jan.) 38
The Present Crisis in American Jewry (Dec.) 265
Gaster, Moses, Greeting from. (Apr.) 72
Gottheil, Richard, Greeting from, (Jan.) 5
From a Menorah Address (Jan.) 32
The War from a Jewish Standpoint (June) 150
Greetings (Jan.) 3, (Apr.) 72
Guérard, Albert Léon: Menorah Address (Dec.) 319
Hadley, Arthur T.: Menorah Address (Jan.) 45
Hall, G. Stanley: Yankee and Jew (Apr.) 87
Harvard Menorah Society Shingle (Oct.) 251
Hebraic Culture, The Twilight of (Jan.) 33
Herzl, Theodor: The Menorah, (Dec.) 261
Herzl, Theodor, Etching by Hermann Struck, Frontispiece (Dec.)
Hillel, "Golden Rule" (Apr.) 91
Horowitz, George J.: The Romance of Rabbi Akiba (Oct.) 227
Hurwitz, Henry: The Menorah Movement (Jan.) 50
The Decennial of the Menorah Movement (Oct.) 253
Husik, Isaac: Review of "Aspects of the Hebrew Genius" (Oct.) 241
Hyamson, Moses: "Golden Rule" Hillel (Apr.) 91
Intercollegiate Menorah Association Notes (Jan.) 56, (Apr.) 140, (June) 200, (Oct.) 257, (Dec.) 322
Third Annual Convention (Apr.) 121
Fourth Annual Convention (Dec.) 322
Israel and Medicine (June) 145
Jacobs, Joseph, Greeting from (Jan.) 6
The Jews in the War (Jan.) 23
Liberalism and the Jews (Dec.) 298
Jew, Yankee and (Apr.) 87
Jewish Genius in Literature, The, (June) 164
Jewish Problem Today, The (Apr.) 75
Jewish Race, The Potency of (June) 141
Jewish Student in Our Universities, The (Oct.) 217
Jewish Students in European Universities (Jan.) 26, (Apr.) 106
Jewish Student Organisations (Oct.) 246
Jewish Worthies: See Hillel, Jochanan ben Zakkai, Akiba.
Jochanan ben Zakkai (June) 173
Judaism—What Judaism Is Not, (Oct.) 208
What Is Judaism? (Dec.) 309
Kallen, Horace M.: Nationality and the Hyphenated American (Apr.) 79
Review of Lewis' "Liberal Judaism" (Oct.) 238
Kaplan, Mordecai M.:
What Judaism Is Not (Oct.) 208
What Is Judaism? (Dec.) 309
Kohler, Kaufmann, Greeting from (Jan.) 6
Lehman, Irving, Greeting from (Jan.) 7
From a Menorah Address (Jan.) 25
Our Spiritual Inheritance (Dec.) 277
Leonard, William Ellery: Menorah: A Poem (Jan.) 20
Liberalism and the Jews (Dec.) 298
Literature, The Jewish Genius in, (June) 164
Lowenthal, Marvin M.: Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay (Apr.) 111, (June) 179
Mack, Julian W., Greeting from, (Jan.) 8
Magnes, J. L., Greeting from (Jan.) 9
From a Menorah Address (Jan.) 19
Margolis, Max L.: The Twilight of Hebraic Culture (Jan.) 33
Medicine, Israel and (June) 145
Menorah: A Poem (Jan.) 20
Menorah, The (Herzl) (Dec.) 261
Menorah Addresses, Extracts from, (Jan.) 19, 25, 32, 38, (Apr.) 86, 120
Menorah Addresses, Third Convention (Apr.) 121
Menorah Addresses by University Authorities (Jan.) 45, (Apr.) 121, (Dec.) 319
See also Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
Menorah Movement, The (Jan.) 50
Menorah Movement, The Decennial of the (Oct.) 253
Menorah Prize Essays:
Zionism (Apr.) 111
The Jewish Student in Our Universities (Oct.) 217
Shalom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant (Dec.) 285
Menorah Societies, Activities of, (Jan.) 56, (June) 194 (Oct.) 257, (Dec.) 325
See also Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
Menorah, The Symbolism of the, (Oct.) 248
"Merchant of Venice, The": A Sixth Act to (Apr.) 96
Meyer, Martin A., Greeting from, (Jan.) 9
Nationality and the Hyphenated American (Apr.) 79
Nordau, Max, Greeting from (Apr.) 72
The Duty of the Hour (Oct.) 202
Osler, Sir William: Israel and Medicine (June) 145
"Paths of Pleasantness," The Study of the Jewish Law (June) 159
Philipson, David, Greeting from, (Jan.) 10
Poetry (Jan.) 20, (Apr.) 71, 96, (June) 158, (Oct.) 201, (Dec.) 282
Potency of the Jewish Race, The (June) 141
Pouzzner, Bessie L., translator: The Menorah, by Theodor Herzl, (Dec.) 261
Prize Essays: See Menorah Prize Essays.
Quality of Mercy, The: A Sixth Act to "The Merchant of Venice," (Apr.) 96
Romance of Rabbi Akiba, The (Oct.) 227
Sampter, Jessie E., O Sweet Anemones: A Poem (June) 158
Schechter, Solomon, Greeting from (Jan.) 11
Schiff, Jacob H., Greeting from (Jan.) 11
The Jewish Problem Today (Apr.) 75
Schurman, Jacob Gould, From a Menorah Address (Apr.) 120
Sharfman, I. Leo: Review of Cohen's "Jewish Life in Modern Times," (Oct.) 244
The Decennial of the Menorah Movement (Oct.) 253
Shostac, Percy B.: Sholom Asch, the Jewish Maupassant (Dec.) 285
Simon, Abraham M.: Jochanan ben Zakkai (June) 173
Strauss, Samuel: Days of Disillusionment (Jan.) 39
Straus, Oscar S., Letter from (Dec.) 281
Struck, Hermann: Etching of Theodor Herzl, Frontispiece (Dec.)
Students: See Jewish Students.
Symbolism, The, of the Menorah, (Oct.) 248
University Authorities, Menorah Addresses by (Jan.) 45, (Apr.) 121, (Dec.) 319
War, The Present:
The Jews in the War (Jan.) 23
The Jewish Problem Today (Apr.) 75
Nationality and the Hyphenated American (Apr.) 79
The War from a Jewish Standpoint (June) 150
What Is Judaism? (Dec.) 309
What Judaism Is Not (Oct.) 208
Wise, Stephen S., Greeting from (Jan.) 12
Wolfson, Harry: Jewish Students in European Universities (Jan.) 26
(Apr.) 106
Yankee and Jew (Apr.) 87
Zangwill, Israel: For Small Mercies: A Sonnet (Apr.) 71
Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay (Apr.) 111, (June) 179

January

April

June

October

December

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

The reference to page 145 under the "Menorah Addresses by University Authorities" was deleted as the April edition has no page 145 and the June edition has no such section. This was also deleted from "University Authorities, Menorah Addresses by" for the same reason.

The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will appear.

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