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.

Index to Complete Volume One