THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL

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

[1]

the
Menorah Journal

An Editorial Statement

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[2] 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.[3]

Greetings

From Dr. Cyrus Adler

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[4] 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.

From Louis D. Brandeis

Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs

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.

[5]

From Dr. Richard Gottheil

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[6] 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."

From Joseph Jacobs

From Dr. Kaufman Kohler

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.

From Irving Lehman

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.

From Julian W. Mack

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.

[9]

From Dr. J. L. Magnes

From Dr. Martin A. Meyer

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.

[10]

From Dr. David Philipson

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.

[11]

From Dr. Solomon Schechter

From Jacob H. Schiff

[12]

From Dr. Stephen S. Wise

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!

[13]

A Call to the Educated Jew

By Louis D. Brandeis

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

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[14] 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.

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[15] 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.

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[16] 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[17] 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?

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[18] 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.

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[19] 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.

[20]

Menorah

By William Ellery Leonard

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

[23]

The Jews in the War

By Joseph Jacobs

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

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.

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.

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.

[26]

Jewish Students in European Universities

By Harry Wolfson

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

[27]

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."

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[28] 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.

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.

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.

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[32] 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.

[33]

The Twilight of Hebraic Culture

The Transition from Hebraism to Judaism

By Max L. Margolis

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

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[34] 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 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[36] 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.

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[37] 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 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[38] 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.

[39]

Days of Disillusionment

By Samuel Strauss

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

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,[40] 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.

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.

Why this feeling of distrust? How has it been engendered, what are[42] 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.

It would seem that this argument leads along a straight path towards[43] 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.

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[44] 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.

[45]

Three University Addresses

I

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[46] 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

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[47] 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

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.[49] 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.

[50]

The Menorah Movement

By Henry Hurwitz

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[51] 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.

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.[52]

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.[53]

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[54] 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.

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[55] presenting and discussing every point of view, a forum hospitable in true academic spirit to the open-minded pursuit of truth.

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.

[56]

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.]

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[57] 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[58] 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.

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[60] 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.

[61]

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[62] 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."[63]

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.

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.[64]

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'[65] 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.

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.

During the first year of its existence,[67] 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.

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[69] 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.[70]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

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.

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.

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.

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.

[71]

the
Menorah Journal

For Small Mercies

By Israel Zangwill

[72]

From Across the Seas

From Dr. Max Nordau

From Dr. Moses Gaster

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.

From Norman Bentwich

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[74] 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.

[75]

The Jewish Problem Today

By Jacob H. Schiff

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

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.

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.

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.[77]

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.

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.

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[78] 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.

[79]

Nationality and the Hyphenated American

By Horace M. Kallen

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

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[80] 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.

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[81] 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.

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,[82] 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 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[83] 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.

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[85] 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 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.

Yankee and Jew

[87]

An After-Dinner Address

By G. Stanley Hall

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

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.

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."

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[89] 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.

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[90] 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."

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.

[91]

"Golden Rule" Hillel

By Moses Hyamson

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

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[92] 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.

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.

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 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.

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[95] 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.

[96]

The Quality of Mercy

A Sixth Act to "The Merchant of Venice"

By William M. Blatt

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

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

Scene: A street in Venice.

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

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

[106]

Jewish Students in European Universities

By Harry Wolfson

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[107] and patriotic in their scope, namely, the participation in educational and social work among the indigenous Jews of the French possessions in Africa.

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[108] 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.

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.

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

[111]

Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay

By Marvin M. Lowenthal

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

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[112] 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.

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.

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[114] 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.

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[115] 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.

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.[116] 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 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[117] 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?

[118]

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[119] 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 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[120] 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.

[121]

The Third Annual Convention of the Menorah Societies

I. The Public Meeting

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,[122] I bid you God-speed, and again extend to you the cordial greetings of the University of Cincinnati.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

[125]

II. The Luncheon

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."

Nor would I say an "interesting Menorah Association meeting." That they[126] 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.

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.

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[127] 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.

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.

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.

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[129] 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.

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[130] 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."

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.

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[131] 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.

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.

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.

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![133]

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 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.

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.

[135]

III. The Business Sessions

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.)

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.

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[136] 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[137] 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.

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.[138]

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."

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

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.

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.)

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:[139]

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:

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

This Constitution shall take effect January 2, 1913.

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

[140]

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

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."

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."

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.

[i]

The MENORAH JOURNAL

CONTENTS

[ii]

Classic Casts of Sculpture 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.

(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.)

[iii]

Copyright by Curtis & Cameron

[iv]

the
Menorah Journal

[141]

The Potency of the Jewish Race

By Charles W. Eliot

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

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[142] 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 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.

[145]

Israel and Medicine

By Sir William Osler

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

[146]

[148]

"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."

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."

[150]

The War from a Jewish Standpoint

By Richard Gottheil

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

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.

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[153] 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]

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[155] 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.

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[156] 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.

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."

[158]

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.

[159]

"Paths of Pleasantness"

The Study of the Jewish Law

By David Werner Amram

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

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[160] 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.

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[161] 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 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[162] 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.

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[163] 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:

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.

[164]

The Jewish Genius in Literature

A Study of Three Modern Men of Letters

By Edward Chauncey Baldwin

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

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:

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:

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]

"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[169] 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.

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[170] 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,—

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,

[171]

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.

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[172] 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.

[173]

Jochanan ben Zakkai

By Abraham M. Simon

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

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.

"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."[175]

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.

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.

In this manner Rabbi Jochanan explained many laws and rendered[177] 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."

"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.[178]

"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.

[179]

Zionism: A Menorah Prize Essay

By Marvin M. Lowenthal

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]

[181]

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.

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.

[182]

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]

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.

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[184] 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.

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.

[185]

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 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[186] 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]

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[187] 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.

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.

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]

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.

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]

[190]

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.

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[191] 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.

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[192] 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.

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[193] 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."

[194]

From College and University

Activities of Menorah Societies

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.

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[195] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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".

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.

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".

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.

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.

[200]

Notes

Of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association

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.

The Menorah Journal has received a gift of $50 from the Cornell Menorah Society.

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.

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.

The elections of the following presidents of Menorah Societies for next year have been reported: Brown, Abraham J. Burt; California, Stanley M. Arndt (re-elected); Clark, Abraham J. Levensohn; Cincinnati, Philip L. Wascerwitz; College of the City of New York, Moses H. Gitelson; Cornell, Aaron Bodanski; Harvard, Fred F. Greenman; Hunter, Sarah Berenson; Johns Hopkins, Jonas Friedenwald; Illinois, Karl Epstein; Maine, Lewis H. Kriger (re-elected); Michigan, A. J. Levin; North Carolina, Alfred M. Lindau; New York University, Michael Stavitsky (University Heights) and Bernard J. Reis (Washington Square); Pennsylvania, Jacob Rubinoff (re-elected); Radcliffe, Hannah R. London; Wisconsin, Charles Lebowsky.

the
Menorah Journal

[201]

The Arch of Titus

THE SPOILS OF JERUSALEM, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS

[202]

The Duty of the Hour

By Max Nordau

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 [203]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.

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[204] 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.

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 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,[207] 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.

[208]

What Judaism Is Not

By Mordecai M. Kaplan

MORDECAI M. KAPLAN (born in Russia in 1881, came to America in 1889), studied at College of the City of New York (A. B. 1900), Columbia (M. A. 1902) and Jewish Theological Seminary (Rabbi, 1902); held Rabbinical position in New York, 1903-1909; Principal since 1909 of the Teachers' Institute, and Professor of Homiletics since 1910 in the Jewish Theological Seminary. Fearless and original in thought, and exceptionally stimulating as a Menorah lecturer, Professor Kaplan has won the deep respect and friendship of Menorah students at the various universities where he has lectured on Jewish Religion and Education.

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[209] 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.

What is fundamentally wrong with the above definition and with the entire class of formulations of which it is an instance? The[210] 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.

[211] 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.

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[212] 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.

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[213] 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.

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.[214]

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.

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.

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[216] 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.

[217]

The Jewish Student in Our Universities

A Menorah Prize Essay

By Morris J. Escoll

MORRIS J. ESCOLL (born in Russia, 1893, came to America in 1896), graduate of Stuyvesant High School, New York (1910), student at Columbia (1910-'12) where he won the Peithologian Medal for a Freshman Essay; worked as farm hand; and since 1914 a student in the Cornell College of Agriculture. The present paper is a somewhat revised version of the Essay with which he won the Cornell Menorah Prize last June.

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?

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.[220]

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 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.

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,[222] 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.

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[224] 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.

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[225] devotion they have evolved to the unity of things, the אחד חוחי; perhaps it is only a certain sadness of suffering, a certain depth of sympathy they have evolved for all suffering and sorrow, but at any rate it is a racial momentum which our ancestors for four thousand years have been forging and refining in the hottest fires;" and whether it be conceit or inspiration, he adds, "and think not that we, to-day, in the comfortable lassitude of American life, can destroy it." The spirit is greater than the man; the Jew may be lost or be assimilated, but the Jewish race, not yet.

"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.[226]

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.

[227]

The Romance of Rabbi Akiba

By George J. Horowitz

GEORGE JACOB HOROWITZ (born in New York, 1894), educated in the Public Schools of New York, College of the City of New York (A. B. 1915), Talmud Torah, and Teachers' Institute of Jewish Theological Seminary; President (1915) of Menorah Society of City College of New York; now a graduate student in Romance Languages at Columbia.

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[228] 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.

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.

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[230] 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.

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.

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[233] 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.

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!"

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[235] 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.

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[236] 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.

[237]

Aspects of Jewish Life and Letters

As Revealed in Four Noteworthy Books

I

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.

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."

University of Illinois

II

"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[239] 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."

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[240] 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.

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

[241]

III

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.

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.

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[243] 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.

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[244] 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

IV

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.

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 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.

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[247] 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."

[248]

The Symbolism of the Menorah[F]

By Hyman Askowith

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 word Menorah, it is worth noting, is among exclusively Hebrew words the only one which would be readily understood by any considerable[249] 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.

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[250] 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.

There would be little difficulty, of course, in extending this symbolistic catalogue ad infinitum. We could easily and perhaps profitably select Seven Wonders of Hebraic history or achievement, seven great epochs in the development of Hebraic culture, seven great leaders of the race, etc. We might also say that the seven lights represent the seven chief studies which make up a liberal education—the Trivium and Quadrivium of the Middle Ages, substantially the foundation of the university curriculum of today[3].

The words יהי אור, "Let there be light," just above the Menorah on our seal, are not only reminiscent of the first great word of God, pregnant in meaning for humanity, but stand also for the purpose of this Society—the relighting of the Menorah in order that it may shed its ancient lustre and once again illumine the minds of men with the glory and uplift of Hebraic ideals.

[251]

REPRODUCTION (ONE-FOURTH THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF THE MEMBERSHIP SHINGLE OF THE HARVARD MENORAH SOCIETY, ADOPTED IN ITS FIRST YEAR
(1906-07)

[252]

[253]

The Decennial of the Menorah
Movement

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.

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.[256]

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.

[257]

Menorah Notes and News

"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[258] 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."

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[259] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There was informal discussion of the activities of the various Societies, the progress of The Menorah Journal, the program of the next Intercollegiate Convention, and the development of the graduate phase of the Menorah movement.

THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL

[i]

The MENORAH JOURNAL

CONTENTS

[ii]

DIEGES & CLUST

20 JOHN STREET
NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.

[iii]

[iv]

and Player Pianos

Small Grand
Price $700
(Freight and handling added)
Deferred Payments Practically
at Your Convenience.

[v]

A WAR-TIME BOOK BARGAIN

Photograph, Greatly Reduced

IMPORTED HUGO SETS

$1.60

SIX BOOKS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE—ACT NOW

A SENSIBLE GIFT

[vi]

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.

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.

[vii]

ALL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN

IS CONCENTRATED IN

[viii]

Make Your Dollar Produce More in a New York City Hotel

———TWO SPECIALTIES———

$2.50 per day A pleasant room with private bath, facing large, open court. (Not one room, but one hundred of them.) Also Attractive Rooms, Without Bath, $1.50 Per Day. The restaurant prices are most moderate. 600 ROOMS

$3.00 per day An excellent room with private bath, facing street, Southern exposure. (Not one room, but eighty-seven of them.) The most central location in NEW YORK, equally convenient for amusements, shopping or business. 400 BATHS

HOTEL MARTINIQUE

The Only Grand Prize (Highest Award) given to Dictionaries at the Panama-Pacific Exposition was granted to WEBSTER'S NEW INTERNATIONAL For Superiority of Educational Merit. This new creation answers with final authority all kinds of puzzling questions such as "How is Przemysl pronounced?" "Where is Flanders?" "What is a continuous voyage?" "What is a howitzer?" "What is white coal?" and thousands of others. More than 400,000 Vocabulary Terms. 30,000 Geographical Subjects. 12,000 Biographical Entries. 6000 Illustrations. 2700 Pages. The only dictionary with the divided page—a stroke of genius. REGULAR and INDIA-PAPER EDITIONS. Write for specimen pages, illustrations, etc. Free, a set of Pocket Maps if you name this paper. G. & C. MERRIAM CO., Springfield, Mass.

Member of American Museum of Natural History B. B. Amrom Collector and Expert Repairer of Antiques Chippendale, Sheraton, Heppelwhite, Adams, Jacobean Furniture, Works of Art and Decorations, Sheffield Plate, Bric-a-Brac Pewter Historical Plates, Door Knockers and Curiosities Jewish Domestic and Ceremonial Objects INTERIOR DECORATOR AND UPHOLSTERER FINE CABINET WORK 728 Lexington Ave.        New York Telephone—Plaza 854

[ix]

Hotel Cumberland

New York

S. W. Corner Broadway at 54th Street "Broadway" Cars from Grand Central Depot Kept by a College Man Headquarters for College Men Ten minutes' walk to forty theatres. Rooms, with bath, $2.50 and up. New, modern and fireproof. Special Rates for College Teams and Students H A R R Y    P.    S T I M S O N,    M a n a g e r The Cumberland does more college business than any other New York Hotel

HEADQUARTERS FOR STUDENTS

[x]

Grafonola 110
Price $110

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

[261]

the
Menorah Journal

	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[262] 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[263] 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,[264] 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.

[265]

The Present Crisis in American Jewry

By Israel Friedlaender

ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER (born in Russia, 1876), attended the Universities of Berlin and Strassburg (Ph.D., 1901); called to the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1903, where he is now the Sabato Morais Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. Professor Friedlaender is not only the author, editor, and translator of a number of scholarly works but his wide observation of Jewish life in various countries, coupled with his broad historic knowledge, have enabled him to write and speak on present Jewish problems with exceptional authority and insight, as for example in his new book, "The Jews of Russia and Poland." His lectures before Menorah Societies have been particularly stimulating and have made him a great favorite with University students.

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[266] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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[272] 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.

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[273] 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.

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[274] 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.

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[275] 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.

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.

[277]

Our Spiritual Inheritance

By Irving Lehman

IRVING LEHMAN (born in New York, 1876), educated at Columbia (A.B., 1896; A.M., 1897; LL.B., 1898). Justice of the Supreme Court of New York; associated with a number of Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Y. M. H. & Kindred Associations. Justice Lehman has taken a particularly keen interest in Jewish University students, and as Chairman of the Graduate Menorah Committee since the formation of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, he has been generously helpful in promoting the ideals which the Menorah movement embodies. Devoted Jew and public-spirited American, his personal example has been an inspiration to Menorah men all over the country.

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[278] 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.

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.

We have discarded, as I have said and as I firmly believe, the ancient[279] 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.

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.[280]

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.

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[281] "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.

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."

[282]

Lyrics

By Louis K. Anspacher

LOUIS K. ANSPACHER, poet and playwright, whose most recent plays, "Our Children" and "The Unchastened Woman," have won recognition for him as one of the most original and powerful dramatists of the present day. Born in Cincinnati in 1878, and educated at City College of New York, and Columbia University (A.M., LL.B.), he occupied the vestry pulpit of Temple Emanu-El, New York, for several years, and has lectured on ethics and the drama. A volume of his poems, to be published soon, will show more completely the depth and resourcefulness of the lyric power revealed in the accompanying verses. The portrait is from an oil painting by Franzen.