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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:48:14 -0700 |
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diff --git a/old/22300-8.txt b/old/22300-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..079b2d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/22300-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19846 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 11, 2007 [EBook #22300] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENORAH JOURNAL, VOL. 1, 1915 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + +[Illustration] + + VOLUME I + NO. 1 + + JANUARY + 1915 + + + 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 + + + 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 + Brown University + Clark University + College of City of New York + Columbia University + Cornell University + Harvard University + Hunter College + Johns Hopkins University + New York University + Ohio State University + Penn State College + Radcliffe College + Rutgers College + Tufts College + University of California + University of Chicago + University of Cincinnati + University of Colorado + University of Denver + University of Illinois + University of Maine + University of Michigan + University of Minnesota + University of Missouri + University of North Carolina + University of Omaha + University of Pennsylvania + University of Pittsburgh + University of Texas + University of Washington + University of Wisconsin + Valparaiso University + Western Reserve University + Yale University + + 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_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Cyrus Adler] + + +_From Louis D. Brandeis_ + +_Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist +Affairs_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Louis D. Brandeis] + + +_From Dr. Richard Gottheil_ + +_Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages, +Columbia University_ + +[Illustration] + +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." + +[Illustration: Signature: Richard Gottheil] + + +_From Joseph Jacobs_ + +_Editor of The American Hebrew, New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Joseph Jacobs] + + +_From Dr. Kaufman Kohler_ + +_President of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Dr. K. Kohler] + + +_From Irving Lehman_ + +_Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Irving Lehman] + + +_From Julian W. Mack_ + +_Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Julian W. Mack] + + +_From Dr. J. L. Magnes_ + +_Chairman of Executive Committee, Jewish Community (Kehillah) of New +York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: J. L. Magnes] + + +_From Dr. Martin A. Meyer_ + +_Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Martin A. Meyer] + + +_From Dr. David Philipson_ + +_Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: David Philipson] + + +_From Dr. Solomon Schechter_ + +_President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: S. Schechter] + + +_From Jacob H. Schiff_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + + +[Illustration: Signature: Jacob H. Schiff] + + +_From Dr. Stephen S. Wise_ + +_Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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! + +[Illustration: Signature: Stephen S. Wise] + + + + +A Call to the Educated Jew + +BY LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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." + +[Illustration: Signature: William Ellery Leonard] + + + + +The Jews in the War + +BY JOSEPH JACOBS + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 [Hebrew: kosher] +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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Samuel Strauss] + + + + +Three University Addresses + + +I + +PRESIDENT ARTHUR T. HADLEY _of Yale University_ + +_Before the Yale Menorah Society, October 14, 1914_ + +[Illustration] + +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_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Page 14, "Ayran" changed to "Aryan" (of the Aryan peoples) + +Page 29, in the original text the Hebrew letters were used without a +translation. [Hebrew: kosher] + +Page 35, "Judea" changed to "Judæa" (muse of Judæa) + +Page 44, "ony" changed to "only" (Not only have the) + +This text uses both to-day and today. + + + + + + +THE + +MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME I APRIL, 1915 NUMBER 2 + +[Illustration] + + + + +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. + +[Illustration: 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_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Dr. M. Nordau] + + +_From Dr. Moses Gaster_ + +_Chief Rabbi (Haham) Spanish and Portuguese Congregations of the +British Empire_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: M. Gaster] + + +_From Norman Bentwich_ + +_Professor of International Law, School of Law, Cairo, Egypt_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Norman Bentwich] + + + + +The Jewish Problem Today + +BY JACOB H. SCHIFF + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Jacob H. Schiff] + + + + + +Nationality and the Hyphenated American + +BY HORACE M. KALLEN + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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_ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: G. Stanley Hall] + + + + +"Golden Rule" Hillel + +BY MOSES HYAMSON + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 not 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._) + +[Illustration: 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 "cafe 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 manoeuvre 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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 [Hebrew: kumi +uri] "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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Page 90, "alterative" changed to "alternative" (is an alternative) + +Page 106, "qualite" changed to "qualité" (l'aquérir la qualité) + +This text uses both coöperation and co-operation, as well as today and +to-day. + + + + + + +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 + LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + DR. LEE K. FRANKEL + PROF. FELIX FRANKFURTER + 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 + + * * * * * + + 25 cents a copy. Subscription, $1.00 a year; in Canada, + $1.25; abroad, $1.50 + + _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_ + + + + +Classic Casts of Sculpture + +[Illustration] + + FOR HOME, SCHOOL, LIBRARY + AND CLUBROOM DECORATION + +Michelangelo's MOSES, shown herewith, may be obtained in the following +sizes: + + 1279 3 ft. 1 in. $25.00 + + 1279A 2 ft. 12.00 + + 1279B 1 ft. 7 in. 6.00 + +Special discount from these prices to Menorah Societies and Menorah +Members + + Boston Sculpture Co. + 67 Sudbury St. + Boston Mass. + + + + + =KOHUT SCHOOL= FOR + BOYS + + =254th St. & Independence Ave. Phone 367 Kingsbridge= + =Riverdale-on-Hudson= =New York City= + + _An Ideal Boarding and Day School_ + +ALL DAY IN THE COUNTRY + +Unexcelled Advantages of Refined home + +Physical training, and outdoor sports under rigid supervision + +Resident Masters and House-mother + +Individualized attention in the class-room + +Gardening, Manual Training + +Bible Study and Elementary Hebrew + +For Booklet, Address at School + +=HARRY J. KUGEL, Principal= + +=KAMP KOHUT, A Boys' Summer Camp at Oxford, Maine. Under the personal +direction of GEO. A. KOHUT, Ph.D.= + + + + + =STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, + MANAGEMENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., + REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF + AUGUST 24, 1912= + + _of_ THE MENORAH JOURNAL + + _published_ bi-monthly _at_ New York, N.Y. + _for_ April 1, 1915 + +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.) + +(Signed) Benjamin S. Pouzzner. Sworn to and subscribed before me this +21st day of April, 1915. (Signed) Margaret M. Murphy. (My commission +expires March 30, 1916.) + + =Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers= + + + + + =Cincinnati 1854= =The Oldest and Largest Jewish + Publishing House in America= =New York 1901= + + =BLOCH PUBLISHING CO.= + + "_The Jewish Book Concern_" + + * * * * * + +=SOME RECENT AND POPULAR PUBLICATIONS= + + +=JEWISH CLASSICS.= Three volumes I. Sufferings of the Jews in the +Middle Ages, by L. Zunz; II. Hebrew Tales, by H. Hurwitz; III. Sayings +of the Jewish Fathers (Pirke Aboth) by J.I. Gorfinkle. Per volume +=.50= + +=JEWISH QUESTIONS.= By Dr. Ignatz Zollschan =.25= + +=THE CRUCIFIXION.= From a Jewish standpoint, by Dr. Emil G. Hirsch. +=.25= + +=LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE.= By Harry S. Lewis. Six lectures +=$1.00= + +=OUTLINES OF LIBERAL JUDAISM.= By Claude G. Montefiore. (Special) +=.65= + +=WHAT IS JUDAISM?= A survey of Jewish Life, Thought and Achievement. +By Dr. Abram S. Isaacs. =.75= + +=JUSTICE TO THE JEW.= By Madison C. Peters. New edition =$1.00= + +=Any book of Jewish interest supplied by us. Send for our catalogues +and price lists of Religious School Books, Bibles, Prayer Books, +Plays, Dictionaries, Rare and out-of-print works and General Judaica= +(English). + + * * * * * + + + =Union Square= =40 East 14th Street= =New York= + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Curtis & Cameron_ + +The Frieze of The Prophets--By Sargent. _Mural decoration in the +Boston Public Library_. Four sizes: 17 x 93 inches, $20.00; 10 x 55 +inches, $10.00; 6-1/2 x 35 inches, $5.00; 4-1/2 x 25 inches, $2.50. +The frieze may also be obtained in five separate panels in each of the +sizes--priced, according to size, $4.50, $2.50, $1.00, and 50 cts.] + +=The Copley Prints= + + =For 20 years a Hall-Mark of Good Taste in + Pictures--Unsurpassed for Home, School, and Club + Decoration= + + At Art Stores, or sent on approval. $1.00 to $100.00. + + =Illustrated Catalogue=, practically a Handbook of + American Art, =sent on receipt of 25 cents= (stamps + accepted) this cost deducted from subsequent purchase + of Prints. + + =Also a distinguished new series= + + =The Copley Etchings= + + _Mention The Menorah Journal when you write to us._ + + =CURTIS & CAMERON= =Boston Salesroom: Pierce Building, + opposite Public Library= + =77 Harcourt St., BOSTON= =New York Salesroom: Craftsman Building, + 6 E. 39th Street= + + + * * * * * + + Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + + + +_Forthcoming issues of The Menorah Journal will contain articles by_ + + +_=Lord Bryce=_ + +_=Dr. Max Nordau=_ + +_=Hon. Oscar S. Straus=_ + +_=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 + +="Jewish Women of the Eighteenth Century Salons"= + +="The Jew in Modern Drama and Acting"= + + +_As The Menorah Journal is published only during the academic year, +the next number will appear in October._ + +________________________________________________________________________ + + + + +SUBSCRIPTION BLANK + + + THE MENORAH JOURNAL + 600 Madison Avenue, New York + +I enclose $1.00, for which kindly send me The Menorah Journal for the +current year. + + (Signed)___________________________________________________ + + Address____________________________________________________ + + ____________________________________________________ + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME I JUNE, 1915 NUMBER 3 + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Potency of the Jewish Race + +BY CHARLES W. ELIOT + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Charles W. Eliot] + + + + +Israel and Medicine + +BY SIR WILLIAM OSLER + + +[Illustration: _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 foetus. +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." + +[Illustration: Signature: Wm Osler] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Richard Gottheil] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[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._ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: D.W. Amram] + + + + + +The Jewish Genius in Literature + +_A Study of Three Modern Men of Letters_ + +BY EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Edward Chauncey Baldwin] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote C: _Song of Songs_, 1:15-2:2.] + +[Footnote 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).] + +[Footnote 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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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_) + + +[Sidenote: _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." + +[Illustration: 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: + +[Footnote 1: I. Friedlaender, _The Political Ideals of the Prophets_ +(pamphlet) (Baltimore, 1910), p. 10.] + +[Footnote 2: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Graetz."] + +[Footnote 3: Ahad Ha-'Am, "Pinsker and His Brochure" (pamphlet) (New +York, 1911), p. 5.] + +[Footnote 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.] + +[Footnote 5: Zollschan, _Das Rassenproblem_, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 6: H. M. Kallen, "Judaism, Hebraism and Zionism," _The +American Hebrew_, vol. 87, p. 181.] + +[Footnote 7: _Idem_, p. 182.] + +[Footnote 8: R. C. Conder, "Zionists," _Blackwood's_, vol. 163, p. +598.] + +[Footnote 9: Max Nordau, _Zionism_ (New York, 1911), p. 11.] + +[Footnote 10: _The Maccabaean_, "Theodor Herzl in His Writings," vol. +23, p. 229.] + +[Footnote 11: Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," _Living Age_, +vol. 265, p. 663.] + +[Footnote 12: Ahad Ha-'Am, _Selected Essays_ (Philadelphia, 1912), p. +253 et seq.] + +[Footnote 13: _Idem_, p. 290.] + +[Footnote 14: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 15: _The Survey_, "The Tenth Zionist Congress," vol. 25, p. +845.] + +[Footnote F: This Essay was written before Mr. Wolffsohn's death.] + +[Footnote 16: _The American Hebrew_, "Dr. Max Nordau on Herzl's +Policies," vol. 93, p. 403.] + +[Footnote 17: _American Jewish Year Book_, 1910-11, "Events of the +Year." I. Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," _Living Age_, vol. +265, p. 668.] + +[Footnote 18: L. Lipsky, "Results of the Eleventh Congress," _The +Maccabaean_, vol. 23, p. 250.] + +[Footnote 19: Franz Oppenheimer, _Merchavia_ (New York, 1914), p. +1-13. "Life Work of Franz Oppenheimer," _The Maccabaean_, vol. 24, p. +12.] + +[Footnote 20: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Zionism--Party +Organization."] + +[Footnote 21: _Idem_, under "Jewish Colonial Trust." Cohen, _Zionist +Work in Palestine_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 22: _Idem_, p. 127.] + +[Footnote 23: _Idem_, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 24: _Idem_, p. 203.] + +[Footnote 25: _Idem_, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 26: _American Jewish Year Book_, 1913-14, p. 203.] + +[Footnote 27: H. Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 28: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 195.] + +[Footnote 29: _Jewish Chronicle_ (London), No. 2348, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 30: Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 31: H. F. Ward, "Palestine for the Jews," _The World Today_, +vol. 17, p. 1062.] + +[Footnote 32: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 86.] + +[Footnote 33: Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 34: _Idem._] + +[Footnote 35: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Arbanel Library."] + +[Footnote 36: _The Maccabaean_, vol. 23, p. 263.] + +[Footnote 37: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Zionism."] + +[Footnote 38: C. S. Bernheimer, "The Russian Jew in the United +States." (Philadelphia, 1905), p. 232.] + +[Footnote 39: _Idem_, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 40: _Idem_, p. 168.] + +[Footnote 41: _Idem_, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 42: _Idem_, p. 181.] + +[Footnote 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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +This text uses both co-operation and coöperation, as well as both to-day +and today. + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page ii, "commissiom" changed to "commission" (My commission expires) + + +[Illustration: THE SPOILS OF JERUSALEM, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS] + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME 1 OCTOBER, 1915 NUMBER 4 + +[Illustration] + +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. + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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."_ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 [Hebrew: +YHWH AHD yud-hey-vav-hey aleph-chet-dalet Transliteration: Adonai +echad]; 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.'" + +[Illustration: Signature: Morris J. Escoll] + + + + +The Romance of Rabbi Akiba + +BY GEORGE J. HOROWITZ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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." + +[Illustration: 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 [Hebrew: tzadee-dalet-kuf-hey; transliteration: +tzedakah] (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. + + _University of Wisconsin_ + +[Illustration: Signature: H. M. Kallen] + + +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. + + _University of Pennsylvania_ + +[Illustration: Signature: Isaac Husik] + + +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. + + _University of Michigan._ + +[Illustration: Signature: I. Leo Sharfman] + + +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" ([Hebrew: nun-resh; +Transliteration: ner])--candle or light, embodied, of course, in the +word Menorah ([Hebrew: mem-nun-vav-resh-hey; Transliteration: +menorah])--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 [Hebrew: yud-hey-yud aleph-vav-resh; Transliteration: y'hi +or], "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. + +[Illustration: 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? + +[Illustration: 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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +This text uses both today and to-day. Also used were Roumania and +Rumania. + + + + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + +[Illustration] + + VOLUME I December + No. 5 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= + =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 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 + Brown University: Ismar Baruch + Clark University: Max Smelensky + College of the City of New York: G. J. Horowitz + Columbia University: M. D. Hoffman + Cornell University: Leon J. Rosenthal + Harvard University: Ralph A. Newman + Hunter College: Sarah R. Friedman + Johns Hopkins University: Millard Eiseman + New York University: Charles K. Feinberg + Ohio State University: Samuel Lesser + Penn State College: J. K. Miller + Radcliffe College: Anna Rogovin + Rutgers College: Louis B. Gittleman + Tufts College: Philip Marzynski + University of California: Louis I. Newman + University of Chicago: David Levy + University of Cincinnati: Abraham J. Feldman + University of Colorado: Morris Baskin + University of Denver: Jacob Butcher + University of Illinois: Sidney Casner + University of Maine: Lewis H. Kriger + University of Michigan: Jacob Levin + University of Minnesota: Moses Barron + University of Missouri: J. L. Ellman + University of North Carolina: Albert Oettinger + University of Omaha: Jacques Rieur + University of Pennsylvania: Jacob Rubinoff + University of Pittsburgh: A. Jerome Levy + University of Texas: H. J. Ettlinger + University of Washington: Roy Rosenthal + University of Wisconsin: H. M. Kallen + Valparaiso University: Florence Turner + Western Reserve University: Benjamin Roth + Yale University: Reuben Horchow + 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 + LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + DR. LEE K. FRANKEL + PROF. FELIX FRANKFURTER + PROF. ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER + PROF. RICHARD GOTTHEIL + DR. MAX HELLER + DR. JOSEPH JACOBS + DR. KAUFMANN 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 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 324 + + INDEX _to Volume I of THE MENORAH JOURNAL_ 333 + + * * * * * + + 25 cents a copy. Subscription, $1.00 a year; in + Canada, $1.25; abroad, $1.50 + + _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_ + + +[Illustration] + + =DIEGES & CLUST= + =20 JOHN STREET= + =NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.= + + * * * * * + + =Manufacturing Jewelers + for the Leading Colleges + Schools and Associations= + +_=Class, Fraternity, Club and Society Pins, Medals and Badges, Loving +Cups, Plaques and Trophies of All Descriptions, Diamonds, Watches, +Jewelry, Silverware.=_ + + * * * * * + + =FOR= + =KOHUT SCHOOL= =BOYS= + =254th St. & Independence Ave. Phone 367 Kingsbridge= + =Riverdale-on-Hudson New York City= + +_An Ideal Boarding and Day School_ + +ALL DAY IN THE COUNTRY + +Unexcelled Advantages of Refined home Physical training, and outdoor +sports under rigid supervision + +Resident Masters and House-mother + +Individualized attention in the class-room + +Gardening, Manual Training + +Bible Study and Elementary Hebrew + +For Booklet, Address at School + +=HARRY J. KUGEL, Principal.= + + +=KAMP KOHUT, A Boys' Summer Camp at Oxford, Maine. Under the personal +direction of GEO. A. KOHUT, Ph.D.= + + * * * * * + +The Jews of Russia and Poland + +=A Bird's-Eye View of their History and Culture= + + =By Israel Friedlaender, Ph.D.= + Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America + +=12^o. With a Map. $1.25 net= + +A popular account of the Polish and Russian Jews whose Pale of +Settlement is the battleground of Teuton and Slav. It elucidates the +problem of Russian Jewry which, at the termination of the world +struggle, will claim alike the attention of statesman and +humanitarian. It interprets the complex psychology of the Russian Jew +who is becoming an important factor in the life of America. + +_ALL BOOKSELLERS_ + + =G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS= + =NEW YORK, 2-6 West 45th Street LONDON, 24 Bedford Street= + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + +=Until January 15, 1916= + +The Menorah Journal will present as a special gift to all new and +renewing subscribers (on request) a copy of the Portrait of Theodor +Herzl from the autographed etching by Hermann Struck (the frontispiece +to this issue), printed on art paper, and admirably suited for +framing. The Portrait will be sent, carefully wrapped, to any address +desired. Present subscribers may secure this gift by remitting now for +an extension of their subscription for one year, regardless of the +date when their present subscription expires. For each subscription +secured from friends, moreover, we will gladly send a copy of the +Portrait either to the subscriber or the sender. Give specific +instructions, and address The Menorah Journal, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, +New York. + + * * * * * + + +=You Would, Wouldn't You--?= + +If you knew that there was a tiny little book, just large enough to +slip into your pocket, that you could read through in a few +trolley-car or train rides--and when you got through have an +intelligent, broad, philosophic grasp of the entire history of the +Jews--not just a lot of names and dates, you know, but the big vital +facts that count and that you can remember and talk about, and never +be embarrassed by ignorance,--and best of all, if you could get a +little wonder book like that for just 40 cents, you'd send for it +quick, wouldn't you? + +Well we have just such a book, all ready for you--Paul Goodman's +little "_History of the Jews_"--in the Temple Classics (the little +books, you remember, that made Shakespere famous)--beautifully bound, +a joy to handle, and a greater joy to read. Just write your name and +address on this ad, tear it out, and mail to The Menorah Journal, 52 +Vanderbilt Avenue, New York (with 40 cents in stamps for each copy you +want--you can have as many as you like--they make dandy little +gifts,--we'll send the other copies direct, if you like, to the +addresses you give us). + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Kranich & Bach] + +_Ultra-Quality_ Pianos _and_ Player Pianos + +The Choice of Cultured Musicians + +Of all the beautiful possessions with which the refined home is +adorned, none other is so indicative of the owner's culture and +musical taste as a GRAND Piano. Those first impressions of +discriminating taste, instantly aroused by the simple beauty of the +Kranich & Bach Grand, are confirmed and enhanced by the exquisite tone +of this matchless instrument. + +[Illustration: Small Grand + +Price $700 + +(Freight and handling added) + +Deferred Payments Practically at Your Convenience.] + +Words can convey little conception of the artistic superiority of the +Kranich & Bach Small Grand. Although only 5'4" long it produces, in a +manner almost unbelievable, all the magnificent qualities of tone that +make "grands" infinitely more satisfying than "upright" pianos. With +its new full-tone scale and the marvelous "Isotonic Pedal," this +superb instrument IS the Small Grand leader of the world--_supreme and +incomparable_. + + _Golden Anniversary Booklet Mailed on Request._ + KRANICH & BACH, 233-243 E. 23d St., New York + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + +A WAR-TIME BOOK BARGAIN + + =The Greatest Word Master in All Literature= + + =Six Attractive Cloth-Bound Volumes to a Set= + + =Good Bible Paper, Large, Clear Type, Gold + Decorations, Duotone Illustrations= + +[Illustration: Photograph, Greatly Reduced] + +IMPORTED HUGO SETS + +Buy these sets today + +=$1.60= + +The European War in destroying the book market of England made +possible this great opportunity for you. Nelsons, the famous Bible +publishers over-stocked with new editions, turned to this country for +buyers, and sold the sets for the mere cost of paper and binding. The +opportunity is most unusual--the books are a real bargain--but the +offer is limited, and to get the sets you must act promptly. + + +=EXTRA SPECIAL!= In connection with our Extraordinary Hugo Offer +above, we announce a limited number of six-volume sets of Famous +Authors, including: + + =Kipling= + =Dumas= + =Poe= + =Shakespeare= + =Stevenson= + =Lincoln= + =Scott= + =Dickens= + +The binding, paper, type and size of these Standard sets are uniform +with the Hugo sets, and the same price--per set including delivery +charges--will prevail as long as the sets on hand last. + + +=SIX BOOKS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE--ACT NOW= + +=STUDENTS!= This is an exceptional opportunity to commence compiling +your library. A good start is half the race won. Fill your empty +book-case with fifty-four volumes of the complete works. + + +=A SENSIBLE GIFT= + +No better gift can be made that will bring a higher sense of +appreciation and be more lasting and a constant reminder of the +generous giver. Your gift portrays your character. Send us your +instructions, when and to whom you want your books sent. The receipt +of your check and instructions will be acknowledged by us, and carried +out with the utmost care and deliberation. Buy one set or the complete +collection of the world famous authors. + +The =number of sets on hand is limited=. The readers who send for +these sets may count themselves =lucky=. Six cloth-bound volumes are +offered at a price which is just about what you would ordinarily pay +for _=One Volume=_. + +=BUY IT TODAY--Place your order before they are all gone= + +_=Grasp this Opportunity Today!=_ + +=Tear Off Coupon, Fill in, and Sent to Us Now= + +[Illustration: Pointing hand] + + +THE CLASSICS LIBRARY COMPANY 52 Vanderbilt Ave., N. Y. Enclosed find +$______(money order, check, or currency), for which please send me +______ Cloth Bound Sets of Booklovers' Library, checked below: + + ______Dickens ______Dumas ______Stevenson + ______Hugo ______Kipling ______Shakespeare + ______Scott ______Poe ______Lincoln + + Name________________________ + Address________________________ + +Send all charges prepaid. Select one or more sets on this coupon NOW + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + + _A Message to Representatives, + Present and Prospective, + of The Menorah Journal_ + +=RIGHT NOW is Your Opportunity!--= + +--An opportunity to make money--make it easily and pleasantly--and +render _yourself_, _your friends_, and THE MENORAH JOURNAL a +beneficent service. + +If you have already tried your hand at subscription-getting for THE +MENORAH JOURNAL, you know how agreeable it is to meet men and women of +the class we desire for subscribers, and how quickly their interest is +awakened when you hand them a copy and they see for themselves the +distinction, beauty, and editorial "meat" of THE JOURNAL. + + The special gift of the Portrait of Theodor Herzl from + the Struck etching, which we are now offering with all + new and renewal subscriptions received before January + 15, 1916 (see announcement on page iii of this issue), + gives you an extra advantage just now in urging your + prospect to subscribe immediately. Work this for all + you are worth between now and January 15th, and you + will add a substantial sum to your financial + resources. _You_ need the money--and _we_ need the + subscriptions. The indubitable fact that lots of men + and women in your neighborhood really need THE MENORAH + JOURNAL makes the prospects for both of us exceedingly + bright. + +Cash in! The chance is yours for the asking and the taking. + +The time is short. Every day you let go by means money lost. Write to +THE MENORAH JOURNAL, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, for sample +copies, terms, etc.--but meanwhile read the announcement (in the front +pages) of the good things THE JOURNAL will have in 1916,--and begin +seeing your friends _at once_. + +_P. 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While +they last copies may be procured on request by those who send in their +subscriptions to The Menorah Journal directly to the office of the +Journal, 600 Madison Avenue, New York. + + * * * * * + +HOTEL LENOX + +=Corner Boylston and Exeter Sts., Boston, Mass.= + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + +Columbia + +[Illustration] + +Double-Disc Records + +The finest silver thread of music spun by the wizard bow of Ysaye--the +tears and feeling in the tender depths of Fremstad's noble voice--the +sheer magnificence of a thrilling orchestral _finale_--all these +elusive tonal beauties are caught and expressed in Columbia Records, +from the faintest whisper to the vastest tidal wave of sound. + +Volume--TONE--feeling--the most delicate shading of a theme are +perfectly preserved and supremely present in every Columbia Record--an +exquisite tone-perfection that does not vanish with use. + +You can test these exclusive qualities in a series of home recitals +such as no concert audience is ever privileged to hear. Arrange your +first recital _to-day_. + + =Columbia Graphophone Company= + =Woolworth Building, New York= + + =_Prices in Canada Plus Duty_= + +[Illustration: _Grafonola 110_ + +_Price $110_] + +[Illustration: Columbia + +Note the Notes] + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: signature: Dr Theodor Herzl + +_From an Etching by Hermann Struck, Autographed by Theodor Herzl._ + +_Reproduced from the Original by Courtesy of the Berlin Photographic +Co._ + + _Frontispiece_ + THE MENORAH JOURNAL + _December, 1915_] + + + + +THE + +MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME I DECEMBER, 1915 NUMBER 5 + +[Illustration] + + +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. + +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. + + + + +The Present Crisis in American Jewry + +_A Plea for Reconciliation_ + +BY ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Israel Friedlaender] + + + + +Our Spiritual Inheritance + +BY IRVING LEHMAN + + +[Illustration: _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." + +[Illustration: 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: + +[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 + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Louis Anspacher] + + + + +Sholom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant + +_A Menorah Prize Essay_ + +BY PERCY B. SHOSTAC + + +[Illustration: _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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Joseph Jacobs] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 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).] + +[Footnote C: See Ellen Key, "Rahel Lewin."] + +[Footnote 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.] + +[Footnote 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."] + +[Footnote 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._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[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 + +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_ (Jan.) + _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.) 70, (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, + (June) 145, (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, + 145, (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 + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: CARUSO & HIS HARDMAN PIANO] + +[Illustration: + + New York, April 13th, 1914. + +Messers. Hardman, Peck & Company, #433 Fifth Avenue, New York City. + +Dear Mr. Peck:-- + +The five foot Hardman Grand which you have sent for my use to my +apartment is certainly a beautiful piano. I was surprised how your +factory was able to produce such a wonderful tone in such a small +Grand. + +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.= + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Steinway] + +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. + +_We shall be glad to send you, free, illustrated literature, with the +name of the Steinway dealer nearest you._ + + STEINWAY & SONS, STEINWAY HALL + _107-109 East Fourteenth Street, New York_ + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page i, "321" changed to "322" in table of contents. + +Page i, "324" changed to "325" in table of contents. + +Page vii, "contributon" changed to "contribution". (a distinct +contribution) + +Page 319, "Leon Guerard" changed to "Léon Guérard" (Albert Leon +Guérard) + +Page 333, "Jan." changed to "Apr." under the reference for "Bacon, +Benjamin W." + +Page 333, "Jan." changed to "Oct." under the reference for "Arch of +Titus, The: Frontispiece" + +Page 333, "70" changed to "56" under the reference for "Intercollegiate +Menorah Societies" + +Page 334, "Maupaussant" changed to "Maupassant" (The Jewish +Maupassant) + +Page 334, 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. + +This text uses both today and to-day. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENORAH JOURNAL, VOL. 1, 1915 *** + +***** This file should be named 22300-8.txt or 22300-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/3/0/22300/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 11, 2007 [EBook #22300] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENORAH JOURNAL, VOL. 1, 1915 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + +[Illustration] + + VOLUME I + NO. 1 + + JANUARY + 1915 + + + 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 + + + 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 + Brown University + Clark University + College of City of New York + Columbia University + Cornell University + Harvard University + Hunter College + Johns Hopkins University + New York University + Ohio State University + Penn State College + Radcliffe College + Rutgers College + Tufts College + University of California + University of Chicago + University of Cincinnati + University of Colorado + University of Denver + University of Illinois + University of Maine + University of Michigan + University of Minnesota + University of Missouri + University of North Carolina + University of Omaha + University of Pennsylvania + University of Pittsburgh + University of Texas + University of Washington + University of Wisconsin + Valparaiso University + Western Reserve University + Yale University + + 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_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Cyrus Adler] + + +_From Louis D. Brandeis_ + +_Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist +Affairs_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Louis D. Brandeis] + + +_From Dr. Richard Gottheil_ + +_Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages, +Columbia University_ + +[Illustration] + +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." + +[Illustration: Signature: Richard Gottheil] + + +_From Joseph Jacobs_ + +_Editor of The American Hebrew, New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Joseph Jacobs] + + +_From Dr. Kaufman Kohler_ + +_President of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati_ + +[Illustration] + +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 _Judaea 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Dr. K. Kohler] + + +_From Irving Lehman_ + +_Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Irving Lehman] + + +_From Julian W. Mack_ + +_Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Julian W. Mack] + + +_From Dr. J. L. Magnes_ + +_Chairman of Executive Committee, Jewish Community (Kehillah) of New +York_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: J. L. Magnes] + + +_From Dr. Martin A. Meyer_ + +_Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Martin A. Meyer] + + +_From Dr. David Philipson_ + +_Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: David Philipson] + + +_From Dr. Solomon Schechter_ + +_President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: S. Schechter] + + +_From Jacob H. Schiff_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + + +[Illustration: Signature: Jacob H. Schiff] + + +_From Dr. Stephen S. Wise_ + +_Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, New York_ + +[Illustration] + +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! + +[Illustration: Signature: Stephen S. Wise] + + + + +A Call to the Educated Jew + +BY LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + + +[Illustration: _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 reestablished 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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 veiled 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." + +[Illustration: Signature: William Ellery Leonard] + + + + +The Jews in the War + +BY JOSEPH JACOBS + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 _deracine_. 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 AEneas. 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 "buergerliche-Kueche" there looms up unblushingly, proud in the +clearness of its square characters, the Hebrew word [Hebrew: kosher] +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 juedischen +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 + + +[Illustration: _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 aesthetic 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 +Judaea--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 Judaea. 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 Judaea 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 stelae 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 paean, +"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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 Judaea, 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 role 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Samuel Strauss] + + + + +Three University Addresses + + +I + +PRESIDENT ARTHUR T. HADLEY _of Yale University_ + +_Before the Yale Menorah Society, October 14, 1914_ + +[Illustration] + +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_ + +[Illustration] + +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 Maccabaean_. 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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Page 14, "Ayran" changed to "Aryan" (of the Aryan peoples) + +Page 29, in the original text the Hebrew letters were used without a +translation. [Hebrew: kosher] + +Page 35, "Judea" changed to "Judaea" (muse of Judaea) + +Page 44, "ony" changed to "only" (Not only have the) + +This text uses both to-day and today. + + + + + + +THE + +MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME I APRIL, 1915 NUMBER 2 + +[Illustration] + + + + +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. + +[Illustration: 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_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Dr. M. Nordau] + + +_From Dr. Moses Gaster_ + +_Chief Rabbi (Haham) Spanish and Portuguese Congregations of the +British Empire_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: M. Gaster] + + +_From Norman Bentwich_ + +_Professor of International Law, School of Law, Cairo, Egypt_ + +[Illustration] + +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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Norman Bentwich] + + + + +The Jewish Problem Today + +BY JACOB H. SCHIFF + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Jacob H. Schiff] + + + + + +Nationality and the Hyphenated American + +BY HORACE M. KALLEN + + +[Illustration: _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 cooeperation 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 +cooeperation 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 cooeperative 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 +cooeperation 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 cooeperation 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 cooeperative 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 cooeperative 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 cooeperative 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 role "in the organization of the +European task," so we still have a role, 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. + +[Illustration: 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_ + + +[Illustration: _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 Tuebingen 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: G. Stanley Hall] + + + + +"Golden Rule" Hillel + +BY MOSES HYAMSON + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 not 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._) + +[Illustration: 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 fermete; cultiver, developper parmis nous, faire connaitre au +dehors, l'ame juive; nous eduquer mutuellement; demander, par les +voies legales, le respect, la justice pour tous,--fussent-ils juifs; +aider nos freres emigres a l'aquerir la qualite de citoyen; inculquer +a nos membres les principes de solidarite et de mutualite." 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 cafe +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 "cafe noro" at some cafe 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 manoeuvre 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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 Judaeorum--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 Unglueck."[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, _Etudes 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 Jahrbuecher, 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 cooeperation, 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 [Hebrew: kumi +uri] "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 quae +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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Page 90, "alterative" changed to "alternative" (is an alternative) + +Page 106, "qualite" changed to "qualite" (l'aquerir la qualite) + +This text uses both cooeperation and co-operation, as well as today and +to-day. + + + + + + +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 + LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + DR. LEE K. FRANKEL + PROF. FELIX FRANKFURTER + 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. 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Oscar S. Straus=_ + +_=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 + +="Jewish Women of the Eighteenth Century Salons"= + +="The Jew in Modern Drama and Acting"= + + +_As The Menorah Journal is published only during the academic year, +the next number will appear in October._ + +________________________________________________________________________ + + + + +SUBSCRIPTION BLANK + + + THE MENORAH JOURNAL + 600 Madison Avenue, New York + +I enclose $1.00, for which kindly send me The Menorah Journal for the +current year. + + (Signed)___________________________________________________ + + Address____________________________________________________ + + ____________________________________________________ + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME I JUNE, 1915 NUMBER 3 + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Potency of the Jewish Race + +BY CHARLES W. ELIOT + + +[Illustration: _CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (born in Boston, 1834), +preeminent 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 cooeperative 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Charles W. Eliot] + + + + +Israel and Medicine + +BY SIR WILLIAM OSLER + + +[Illustration: _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 mediaevalism. 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 foetus. +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 +preeminent. The writings of Isaac Judaeus, 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 Juedischen 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'etait un de ces medecins que +Moliere n'eut ni pu ni ose 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 Francois. Recevez cet hommage de votre +frere en Apollon. Ce Dieu vous a laisse son plus bel heritage, tous +les Dons de l'esprit, tous ceux de la raison, et je n'eus que des +Vers, helas, 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." + +[Illustration: Signature: Wm Osler] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[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 + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Richard Gottheil] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[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._ + + +[Illustration: _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 Judaea 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: D.W. Amram] + + + + + +The Jewish Genius in Literature + +_A Study of Three Modern Men of Letters_ + +BY EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN + + +[Illustration: _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 +cooeperating 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 Wandermueden + Letzte Ruhestatte sein? + Unter Palmen in dem Sueden? + Unter Linden an dem Rhein? + + Werd' ich wo in einer Wueste + Eingescharrt von fremder Hand? + Oder ruh' ich an der Kueste + Eines Meeres in dem Sand? + + Immerhin! Mich wird umgeben + Gotteshimmel, dort wie hier, + Und als Todtenlampen schweben + Nachts die Sterne ueber 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Edward Chauncey Baldwin] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote C: _Song of Songs_, 1:15-2:2.] + +[Footnote 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).] + +[Footnote 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 +Bibliotheque 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. + +[Illustration: 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_) + + +[Sidenote: _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 Verjuengen des Juedischen 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 Judaea 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." + +[Illustration: 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: + +[Footnote 1: I. Friedlaender, _The Political Ideals of the Prophets_ +(pamphlet) (Baltimore, 1910), p. 10.] + +[Footnote 2: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Graetz."] + +[Footnote 3: Ahad Ha-'Am, "Pinsker and His Brochure" (pamphlet) (New +York, 1911), p. 5.] + +[Footnote 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.] + +[Footnote 5: Zollschan, _Das Rassenproblem_, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 6: H. M. Kallen, "Judaism, Hebraism and Zionism," _The +American Hebrew_, vol. 87, p. 181.] + +[Footnote 7: _Idem_, p. 182.] + +[Footnote 8: R. C. Conder, "Zionists," _Blackwood's_, vol. 163, p. +598.] + +[Footnote 9: Max Nordau, _Zionism_ (New York, 1911), p. 11.] + +[Footnote 10: _The Maccabaean_, "Theodor Herzl in His Writings," vol. +23, p. 229.] + +[Footnote 11: Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," _Living Age_, +vol. 265, p. 663.] + +[Footnote 12: Ahad Ha-'Am, _Selected Essays_ (Philadelphia, 1912), p. +253 et seq.] + +[Footnote 13: _Idem_, p. 290.] + +[Footnote 14: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 15: _The Survey_, "The Tenth Zionist Congress," vol. 25, p. +845.] + +[Footnote F: This Essay was written before Mr. Wolffsohn's death.] + +[Footnote 16: _The American Hebrew_, "Dr. Max Nordau on Herzl's +Policies," vol. 93, p. 403.] + +[Footnote 17: _American Jewish Year Book_, 1910-11, "Events of the +Year." I. Zangwill, "Zionism and Territorialism," _Living Age_, vol. +265, p. 668.] + +[Footnote 18: L. Lipsky, "Results of the Eleventh Congress," _The +Maccabaean_, vol. 23, p. 250.] + +[Footnote 19: Franz Oppenheimer, _Merchavia_ (New York, 1914), p. +1-13. "Life Work of Franz Oppenheimer," _The Maccabaean_, vol. 24, p. +12.] + +[Footnote 20: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Zionism--Party +Organization."] + +[Footnote 21: _Idem_, under "Jewish Colonial Trust." Cohen, _Zionist +Work in Palestine_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 22: _Idem_, p. 127.] + +[Footnote 23: _Idem_, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 24: _Idem_, p. 203.] + +[Footnote 25: _Idem_, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 26: _American Jewish Year Book_, 1913-14, p. 203.] + +[Footnote 27: H. Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 28: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 195.] + +[Footnote 29: _Jewish Chronicle_ (London), No. 2348, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 30: Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 31: H. F. Ward, "Palestine for the Jews," _The World Today_, +vol. 17, p. 1062.] + +[Footnote 32: Cohen, _Zionist Work in Palestine_, p. 86.] + +[Footnote 33: Bentwich, "The Jewish Renaissance in Palestine," +_Fortnightly Review_, vol. 96, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 34: _Idem._] + +[Footnote 35: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Arbanel Library."] + +[Footnote 36: _The Maccabaean_, vol. 23, p. 263.] + +[Footnote 37: _Jewish Encyclopedia_ under "Zionism."] + +[Footnote 38: C. S. Bernheimer, "The Russian Jew in the United +States." (Philadelphia, 1905), p. 232.] + +[Footnote 39: _Idem_, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 40: _Idem_, p. 168.] + +[Footnote 41: _Idem_, p. 155.] + +[Footnote 42: _Idem_, p. 181.] + +[Footnote 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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +This text uses both co-operation and cooeperation, as well as both to-day +and today. + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page ii, "commissiom" changed to "commission" (My commission expires) + + +[Illustration: THE SPOILS OF JERUSALEM, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS] + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + + VOLUME 1 OCTOBER, 1915 NUMBER 4 + +[Illustration] + +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 healed 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 arched 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. + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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."_ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 +AEneas 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 [Hebrew: +YHWH AHD yud-hey-vav-hey aleph-chet-dalet Transliteration: Adonai +echad]; 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.'" + +[Illustration: Signature: Morris J. Escoll] + + + + +The Romance of Rabbi Akiba + +BY GEORGE J. HOROWITZ + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: 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." + +[Illustration: 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 [Hebrew: tzadee-dalet-kuf-hey; transliteration: +tzedakah] (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. + + _University of Wisconsin_ + +[Illustration: Signature: H. M. Kallen] + + +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 Graeco-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 aesthetic 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. + + _University of Pennsylvania_ + +[Illustration: Signature: Isaac Husik] + + +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. + + _University of Michigan._ + +[Illustration: Signature: I. Leo Sharfman] + + +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 Juedischer 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" ([Hebrew: nun-resh; +Transliteration: ner])--candle or light, embodied, of course, in the +word Menorah ([Hebrew: mem-nun-vav-resh-hey; Transliteration: +menorah])--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 [Hebrew: yud-hey-yud aleph-vav-resh; Transliteration: y'hi +or], "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. + +[Illustration: 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? + +[Illustration: 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. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +This text uses both today and to-day. Also used were Roumania and +Rumania. + + + + + + + +THE MENORAH JOURNAL + +[Illustration] + + VOLUME I December + No. 5 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= + =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 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 + Brown University: Ismar Baruch + Clark University: Max Smelensky + College of the City of New York: G. J. Horowitz + Columbia University: M. D. Hoffman + Cornell University: Leon J. Rosenthal + Harvard University: Ralph A. Newman + Hunter College: Sarah R. Friedman + Johns Hopkins University: Millard Eiseman + New York University: Charles K. Feinberg + Ohio State University: Samuel Lesser + Penn State College: J. K. Miller + Radcliffe College: Anna Rogovin + Rutgers College: Louis B. Gittleman + Tufts College: Philip Marzynski + University of California: Louis I. Newman + University of Chicago: David Levy + University of Cincinnati: Abraham J. Feldman + University of Colorado: Morris Baskin + University of Denver: Jacob Butcher + University of Illinois: Sidney Casner + University of Maine: Lewis H. Kriger + University of Michigan: Jacob Levin + University of Minnesota: Moses Barron + University of Missouri: J. L. Ellman + University of North Carolina: Albert Oettinger + University of Omaha: Jacques Rieur + University of Pennsylvania: Jacob Rubinoff + University of Pittsburgh: A. Jerome Levy + University of Texas: H. J. Ettlinger + University of Washington: Roy Rosenthal + University of Wisconsin: H. M. Kallen + Valparaiso University: Florence Turner + Western Reserve University: Benjamin Roth + Yale University: Reuben Horchow + 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 + LOUIS D. BRANDEIS + DR. LEE K. FRANKEL + PROF. FELIX FRANKFURTER + PROF. ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER + PROF. RICHARD GOTTHEIL + DR. MAX HELLER + DR. JOSEPH JACOBS + DR. KAUFMANN 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 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 324 + + INDEX _to Volume I of THE MENORAH JOURNAL_ 333 + + * * * * * + + 25 cents a copy. Subscription, $1.00 a year; in + Canada, $1.25; abroad, $1.50 + + _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_ + + +[Illustration] + + =DIEGES & CLUST= + =20 JOHN STREET= + =NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.= + + * * * * * + + =Manufacturing Jewelers + for the Leading Colleges + Schools and Associations= + +_=Class, Fraternity, Club and Society Pins, Medals and Badges, Loving +Cups, Plaques and Trophies of All Descriptions, Diamonds, Watches, +Jewelry, Silverware.=_ + + * * * * * + + =FOR= + =KOHUT SCHOOL= =BOYS= + =254th St. & Independence Ave. Phone 367 Kingsbridge= + =Riverdale-on-Hudson New York City= + +_An Ideal Boarding and Day School_ + +ALL DAY IN THE COUNTRY + +Unexcelled Advantages of Refined home Physical training, and outdoor +sports under rigid supervision + +Resident Masters and House-mother + +Individualized attention in the class-room + +Gardening, Manual Training + +Bible Study and Elementary Hebrew + +For Booklet, Address at School + +=HARRY J. KUGEL, Principal.= + + +=KAMP KOHUT, A Boys' Summer Camp at Oxford, Maine. Under the personal +direction of GEO. A. KOHUT, Ph.D.= + + * * * * * + +The Jews of Russia and Poland + +=A Bird's-Eye View of their History and Culture= + + =By Israel Friedlaender, Ph.D.= + Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America + +=12^o. With a Map. $1.25 net= + +A popular account of the Polish and Russian Jews whose Pale of +Settlement is the battleground of Teuton and Slav. It elucidates the +problem of Russian Jewry which, at the termination of the world +struggle, will claim alike the attention of statesman and +humanitarian. It interprets the complex psychology of the Russian Jew +who is becoming an important factor in the life of America. + +_ALL BOOKSELLERS_ + + =G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS= + =NEW YORK, 2-6 West 45th Street LONDON, 24 Bedford Street= + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + +=Until January 15, 1916= + +The Menorah Journal will present as a special gift to all new and +renewing subscribers (on request) a copy of the Portrait of Theodor +Herzl from the autographed etching by Hermann Struck (the frontispiece +to this issue), printed on art paper, and admirably suited for +framing. The Portrait will be sent, carefully wrapped, to any address +desired. Present subscribers may secure this gift by remitting now for +an extension of their subscription for one year, regardless of the +date when their present subscription expires. For each subscription +secured from friends, moreover, we will gladly send a copy of the +Portrait either to the subscriber or the sender. Give specific +instructions, and address The Menorah Journal, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, +New York. + + * * * * * + + +=You Would, Wouldn't You--?= + +If you knew that there was a tiny little book, just large enough to +slip into your pocket, that you could read through in a few +trolley-car or train rides--and when you got through have an +intelligent, broad, philosophic grasp of the entire history of the +Jews--not just a lot of names and dates, you know, but the big vital +facts that count and that you can remember and talk about, and never +be embarrassed by ignorance,--and best of all, if you could get a +little wonder book like that for just 40 cents, you'd send for it +quick, wouldn't you? + +Well we have just such a book, all ready for you--Paul Goodman's +little "_History of the Jews_"--in the Temple Classics (the little +books, you remember, that made Shakespere famous)--beautifully bound, +a joy to handle, and a greater joy to read. Just write your name and +address on this ad, tear it out, and mail to The Menorah Journal, 52 +Vanderbilt Avenue, New York (with 40 cents in stamps for each copy you +want--you can have as many as you like--they make dandy little +gifts,--we'll send the other copies direct, if you like, to the +addresses you give us). + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Kranich & Bach] + +_Ultra-Quality_ Pianos _and_ Player Pianos + +The Choice of Cultured Musicians + +Of all the beautiful possessions with which the refined home is +adorned, none other is so indicative of the owner's culture and +musical taste as a GRAND Piano. 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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 _idee +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 "idee maitresse," 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. + +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. + + + + +The Present Crisis in American Jewry + +_A Plea for Reconciliation_ + +BY ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER + + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Israel Friedlaender] + + + + +Our Spiritual Inheritance + +BY IRVING LEHMAN + + +[Illustration: _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 reestablish 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 minutiae 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 reestablish 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." + +[Illustration: 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: + +[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 + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Illustration: Louis Anspacher] + + + + +Sholom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant + +_A Menorah Prize Essay_ + +BY PERCY B. SHOSTAC + + +[Illustration: _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, Cezanne, +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 Juengsten_ 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 Juengsten_, 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 Juedisch 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 Staedtchen_ 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 + + +[Illustration: _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 "carriere +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 Stael. +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 Fouque, 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 Generale, 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 role 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 Role 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 role 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. + +[Illustration: Signature: Joseph Jacobs] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 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).] + +[Footnote C: See Ellen Key, "Rahel Lewin."] + +[Footnote 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.] + +[Footnote 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."] + +[Footnote 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 naivete 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 role 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._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[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 LEON GUERARD 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 + +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_ (Jan.) + _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 + GUERARD, ALBERT LEON: 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.) 70, (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, + (June) 145, (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, + 145, (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 + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: CARUSO & HIS HARDMAN PIANO] + +[Illustration: + + New York, April 13th, 1914. + +Messers. Hardman, Peck & Company, #433 Fifth Avenue, New York City. + +Dear Mr. Peck:-- + +The five foot Hardman Grand which you have sent for my use to my +apartment is certainly a beautiful piano. I was surprised how your +factory was able to produce such a wonderful tone in such a small +Grand. + +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.= + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Steinway] + +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. + +_We shall be glad to send you, free, illustrated literature, with the +name of the Steinway dealer nearest you._ + + STEINWAY & SONS, STEINWAY HALL + _107-109 East Fourteenth Street, New York_ + + * * * * * + +Kindly mention The Menorah Journal when writing to advertisers + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page i, "321" changed to "322" in table of contents. + +Page i, "324" changed to "325" in table of contents. + +Page vii, "contributon" changed to "contribution". (a distinct +contribution) + +Page 319, "Leon Guerard" changed to "Leon Guerard" (Albert Leon +Guerard) + +Page 333, "Jan." changed to "Apr." under the reference for "Bacon, +Benjamin W." + +Page 333, "Jan." changed to "Oct." under the reference for "Arch of +Titus, The: Frontispiece" + +Page 333, "70" changed to "56" under the reference for "Intercollegiate +Menorah Societies" + +Page 334, "Maupaussant" changed to "Maupassant" (The Jewish +Maupassant) + +Page 334, 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. + +This text uses both today and to-day. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MENORAH JOURNAL, VOL. 1, 1915 *** + +***** This file should be named 22300.txt or 22300.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/3/0/22300/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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