The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 15

SECTION 2 THE COTJEIER-JOUEjNAL, LOUISVILLE, tSUKDAY MOENIMx, 1901i 5 JUDAIS NINETEENTH CENTURY, IN THE 1 THE JEWS AND many is honeycombed with societies for the study of Jewish literature; the Hebrew language has been revived, notably In Russia, not only as a form of literary expression, but also as a vehicle of social Intercourse; France has its Society of Jewish Studies; America and England have their Jewish Historical Societies, and their Jewish Chautauqua movements; Jewish national societies have sprung up among the students of German and Austrian universities all influences tending in this one direction. The Twentieth Century. temple (under Kley and Salomon. ISIS), where not only the service was made moro aesthetic and the German language Introduced, but certain prayers referring to the Messianic time were either omitted or altered. No wonder, then, that the Orthodox rabbis in Germany, with the support of the rabbis In various other countries, protested against such a course( The Government even looked askance at these reform proceedings, and in 3S17 and 1S23 ordered a number of these private synagogues to be closed.

A further causa for displeasure was the Introduction in 1814 of tho confirmation of children in German, to replace or supplement the old Barmltzvah, a clear Imitation pf the cere-money In the Protestant Church of Germany. Despite opposition, however, the confirmation found Its way into Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfort, Cassell. Copenhag-en. etc. The great weakness of the reform movement has been-that it has lacked a philosophic basis; and, as In Its flrst beginnings, with the exception of Hamburg, it took little note of the changed point of view from which those who fought for reform looked at the old theological ideas.

Aesthetic reform was the work largely of Individual persons and Individual cpngre-gations. No attempt had been made either to formulate the philosophic basis upon which the reform stood, or to provide a body which, should regulate the form which the new order of things was to take on. Two attempts were made to been lowered among these people, and their general morale has not come out of the trial unscathed. Nor must it be forgotten that the violent dislocation of hundreds of thousands of people, such as has taken place among the Jews during the last quarter of the Nineteenth century, has naturally disturbed existing economic conditions, not only among the Jews themselves, but also among- those Into whose midst they came. The jews of Berlin, Paris.

and New York had their hands full with tho proper care of the needy ones already In their midst. It Is a mistake to suppose that the Jews as a people are rich. Tho proletariat among them Is proportionately much larger than It is among other people: and thus it came about that tho Jewish quarters in all the large cities were already well filled -when they were (almost at a moment'3 notice) called upon, to receive double or triple the number they already held. The actual number of the Jewish poor w-as thereby greatly increased; for many a family that had been wealthy or in easy circumstances In Russia, Gallcia, or Roumanla, had been reduced to want and been compelled to. take Its place among those who needed the help of their brethren.

This nolo, was freely and cheerfully given all the world over. Great sacrifices were made by the richer Jews to meet the pressing needs of the hour, and, with no help from the outside world, excepting the London Mansion House Fund in 1SS2, the thousands and of anti-Judaism, which has been dignified with the name of anti-Semitism. It Is hard for a Jew to speak of these things with composure or with the judicial mind of a mere chronicler of events. Neither emancipation from without-nor Reform from within has been able to stay the hand of the destroyer of Israel's peace. It has been contended that in most countries the Jews were not ready to be emancipation; ti.at in some the non-Jewish population was not sufficiently advanced to make emancipation effective.

The first may be true in regard to the Algerian Jews; the second, in regard to those in Roumanla; but It is not true of the other nations on the European continent. Starting In Germany, perhaps as a political move on the part of Bismarck, nospread into Russia, Gallcia, Austria, Rouman.a and France. In most of these countries It not only found expression in the exclusion of the Jews from ail social Intercourse with their fellows, but in Russia produced the riots of 1SS1 and ISS2; in Austria and Bohemia the turbulent scene In the Reichstag, and even the pillaging of Jewish houses and Jewish synagogues; in Roumanla It received the active support of the Government and reduced the Jews there to practical penury; while in France it showed Itself In accusations against the Jews which for barbarity could match any that were brought against them In the Middle Ages. The charges against the Jews are varied In their character. In Germany they have been blamed for ex- the American continent.

They were In nearly every case of Spanish or Portuguese descent, having come from Holland and Eneland to the possessions which these Powers held on the new continent. In the middle of the Nintrenth century, when the tide of immigration rem Germany was at Its height, a large number of Jews from the Southern States arid the Ehine region found their way to these shores. The Russian atrocities of 1SS2 and the following years enured a greater shifting of the Jewish population westward than can be paralleled at any previous time. It has been estimated that between the years. 1SS2 and 1900 fully one million Russian Jews left their homes In the pale of settlement, finding new dwelling places in England.

Germany and France. The largest number (probably half a million) came to the United States and Canada. Untoward economic conditions existing In Gallcia and the frequent outbreaks of anti-Semitism there, forced out during the Ms a large number of Gakcian Jews; and in 1689 and 1S00 the hostility of the Roumanian Government has made it Impossible for thousands of Jews to remain in a country In which most of them had been born. and. under circumstances the like which has hardly ever before been seen, bands of the Roumanian Jews have been wandering over Europe, seeking the means by which to come to the American continent In order there to establish themselves anew.

There are between ten and eleven million Jews to-day in the world; of these, about nine million live In Europe; one million in the United States and Canada; three hundred and fifty thousand In Africa; three hundred and fifty thousand In Asia, and sixteen thousand in Australasia. Communal Organization. tCopyrlght, 1901. by the Sun Printing and Publishing Association. THB opening- years of the Nineteenth century found the Jew blinded by the light of a new sun, the raya of were beating tipon the Ghetto and were forcing him to off, one by one, the many garments -with which he had clothed himself during the hostile Middle Ages.

The heglnnlng- of the Twentieth century sets him putting- on some of these garments again, and trying to save his own warrath from being lost in the coldness of the outside world. The modern European and American ha3 2iad a hard fight to find its way into its present changed condition; but much harder by far was the task laid upon the Jew; and, whether he has succeeded or not. ho has made an ho'nest fight. Evidences of the struggle abound on every liand, and the road is strewn with many dead hope and many a lost opportunity. The Jew was bound more firmly to ancient traditions, and so interwoven were these findent traditions with his whole being that the new life into which he came had of necessity to be blended with the old.

The tale of the Jew of the Nineteenth century is a record of his endeavor to do justice to the two demands which were made upon, him: the one from the outside world to fit himself to lalte his place worthily and do his work side by side with the other citizen of the State in which he lived; the other from within his own ranks to harmonize h'-s religious belief with his new point of view and to dapt his religious exercise to modern social conditions. Emancipation of the Jews. 1 w.v has been a port. He had to find his way Into Hellenism In Alexandria, into Moorish culture in Spain, Into Slavism In Russia and Poland. When the first wave of the modern spirit commenced to break from Prance eastward over the whole of Europe, it reached tho Jew also.

While In France the new spirit was largely political, Germany It was more spiritual. In its political form as well as in its spiritual form it reacted not only upon the political condition of the Jew, but especially upon his mental attitude. The new spirit was intensely modern, intensely cosmopolitan, intensely Occidental, and Intensely inductive. The Jew had preserved to a great degree his deductive, Oriental, particularistic and ancient mode of thought nnd aspect of life. The two forces were bound to meet.

This great clash of ideas has produced what Is known as the reform movement. It had its origin in Germany under the spiritual Influences of the regeneration of German letters produced by such men as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Lesslng and Mendelssohn, It was aided In a large measure' by the fact that the Go-vernmem in Germany, although distinctly opposed to anything which militates against the established order of things, mixes Itself very seldom In the internal affairs of tho Jewish communities. This reform movement has colored the religious development of Judaism during the three-quarters of the century which Is past. The heat of the controversy is now well nigh spent. At one time it looked as if two distinct bodies of Jews would emerge from the struggle, and the union of Israel be destroyed forever.

A common enemy -anti-Semitism Joined the two forces together for a common defense; and the danger of such a split now is fairly a thing of the past. The latter half of the Eighteenth century found the Jew-s of Middle Europe at the lowest Intellectual and social point they had up till then reached. The effect of the long Jewish Middle Ages was plainly visible. Few great minds lit up the darkness, and an Intellectual torpor seems to have spread Its poll over everything. The Talmud had been the great saving of Judaism In tho past.

In the Intellectual exercise which its study necessitated the mind of the Jew had been given a. field in which it could move at whl. Living apart from the rest of the world, with a wide jurisdiction over his own affairs, Talmudic law in its latest was still the law supreme for the Jew. The Jewish Ghetto had everywhere the same aspect: the language in common use was in all the Ashkenazic communities, the Judeao-German In one of its various forms There was ample time and ample occasion for the practice of all those form3 and ceremonies with which the Judaism of the Middle Ages had willingly and gladly fenced In the law. There had been lit-tie occasion for the practice of the beautiful arts or for the cultivation of letters.

Life In the Ghetto was not necessarby glcomy, but It was solemn The law- was not felt as a burden, but It required the whole individual attention of those who bound themselves by it, from early morn till late at night, from the cradle to the grave There was no place for things come from outside, because there was no time to devote to them. The New European Spirit. for already, In 1825, one of the congregations in Charleston, S. made up almost entirely of Sefardic Jews, had developed "The Reformed Society of Israelites;" and the formation of the society seems to have been, due, not only to the demand, for an aesthetic service, but. to an attempt to formulate a creed which should omit all reference to 'iie coming of the Messiah, the return to Palestine, and the bodily resurrection.

This attempt at formulating a Theistlc Church, however, was unsuccessful; and it was until the advent from Germany in the 50'a and 60 of rabbis who had been influenced by the movement in Germany that reform commenced to make Itself felt here. Merzbacher in New York, Isaac M. Wise in Albany and Cincinnati, S. Hirsch in Philadelphia, David Einhorn in Baltimore, are only a few of the names of those who fought In the thick of the fight. About the year 1S43 the first real Reform congregations were established the Temple Emanu-el in New York and Har Sinai in Baltimore.

It cannot be my purpose here to trace the history of the movement In this country; suffice It to say that the untrammeled freedom which existed here very soon played havoc with most of the institutions of the Jewish religion. Each congregation and each minister, being a law to itself, shortened the service, excised prayers, and did away with observances as it thought beBt. The position of this wing of the Reformed synagogue may best be seen in the declaration of principles which was published by the Pittsburg conference. It declared that Judaism presents the highest conception of the God idea; that the Bible contains the record of the consecration of the Jewish people; that It is a potent Instrument of religious and moral it reveals, however, the prlmL tlve ideas of its own age; that its moral laws only are binding; and that all ceremonies therein ordained which are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization are to be rejected; that all Mosaic and rabbinical laws regulating diet, priestly functions and dress are foreign to our present mental state; that the Jews are no longer a nation, and therefore do not expect a return to Palestine; that Judaism is a progressive religion, always striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason; that the belief in bodily resurrection. In the existence of a hell and a paradise are to be rejected; and that It Is the duty of Jews to participate in the great task of modern times to solve on the basis of justice and righteousness the problems presented by the transitions and evils of the present organization of society.

Such a platform as this could not fall to arouse Intense opposition on the part of the orthodox Jews and to lose for the conference even some of its more conservative adherents. As in Charleston, in 1S25, a platform of theism was here postulated, which was bereft of all distinctively Jewish characteristics, and which practically meant a breaking away from historic Judaism. This position of the advanced reformers is also manifested in the stand which they have taken in regard to the necessity of the Abrahamic covenant. At a meeting of the Central Conference of American (Reformed) Rabbis, held at Baltimore in 1881, a resolution was passed to the effect that no initiatory rite or ceremony was necestary in the cas2 of desiring to enter the Covenant of Israel, and that such a one had merely to declare his or her Intention to worship the one sole and eternal God, to he conscientiously governed in life by God's laws and to to the sacred cause and mission of Israel as marked out In Holy Writ. The service In reform synagogues In the United States has kept pace with this development of doctrine, or rather with this sloughing-off of so much that Is distinctively Jewish.

The observance of the second-day festivals has been entirely abolished, as well as the separation of the sexes and the covering of the head In praver. The ritual has been gradually shortened, the ancient Janguage of prayer (Hebrew) has been pushed further and further Into the background, so that In some congregations the service is altogether English; and in a few congregations an additional service on Sunday, intended for those who cannot azzend upon the regular Sabbath-day. has been introduced. But whatever criticism one might like to offer on the reform movement in the United States, It deserves great praise for the serious attempt it has made to understand its own position and to souare its observance with that position. It has also been most in its moo-em Institutional development.

It has certainly beautified and spiritualized the synagogue service; it has founded a Un.on of American Hebrew Congregations, and a seminary (Hebrew Union College In Cincinnati). It has published a Union Prayer-book and a Union Hymn-book, and has given great care to the development of the confirmation and the bettering the Sunday-school. It has tried to make the synagogue a center for the religious and spiritual development of its members; and It cannot be denied that the very large mass of educated Jews in this country-, insofar as they have any affiliation with the synagogue, belong to the reform wing. But at the same time, it must not be forgotten that there is a very large body of orthodox and conservative Jews, whose number has been greatly increased during the last twenty years through. the influx of Russian.

Galiclan and Roumanian It would be outside of my province were I to attempt to criticise either the work or the results of reform Judaism in this country. But it is a question in the minds of some of the leading reformers themselves how far success has been attained In developing the reiig.ous sentiment of their people in the direction of a pure Theism uncolored by any Jew As we look ahead into the century which Is now opening and cast our eye over the forces which the Jews will bring into Its life, we can easily see that these forces tend In various directions. We have first the Orthodox wing of tho Jewish Church, which stands upon the broad basis of what the past has evolved. It holds firmly to the inspiration of tho Biblical word and the divine character of its interpretation as handed down in tha oral law; It tries to regulate its life by Talmudic ordinances as evolved In the latest law books, and is unwilling to make any but aesthetic concessions to changed circumstances, believing that we must adhere strictly to all the time-honored ceremonies of the synagogue. At its slda stand the Conservatives, who are willing to make some concessions to present demands, but believe that these concessions should be most sparingly and grudgingly-made, and who theologically, at least in theory, occupy tho same position as do the Orthodox.

It Is safe to say that tha greater number of Jews in the Western European States belong to this wing of the synagogue. Between the Conservatives, and the Ethical Culturlsts stands the Reform party, more numerous in the United States than anywhere else, whose position is hard to define and in whose midst there are various shades of opinion and of practice. Their Belief in Bible. All the Reformers have openly or tacitly broken with Talmudic Judaism the more conservative among them seem to believe that a new Judaism can be built up upon the Bible, only without Its traditional Interpretation: while the advanced body do not even look upon the Bible as binding, but merely as a starting point for a further development. They do not consider the Bible as inspired in the old-acctpied sense of the term; they welcome biblical criticism as an aid to the understandjig of the early history of their people; they do not believe in the special elect.

on of Israel, and have a well-defined abhorrence of anything like a creed. They are practically Thelsts with a Jewish racial coloring. Nor do they believe in the coming of a personal Messiah; rather, in the advent of a Messianic in which righteousness and good-will shall prevail and all the earth acknowledge the one God. To bring about this time Is, according to them, the mission of the Jew a phase very current in these latter days, the fulfilling of which has been made the pretext for dejudaizlng Judaism, so as to make it acceptable to non-Jews. Mr.

Oswald John Simon, of London, has even gone further. A few years ago he attempted to found a Jewish Theistlc Church, which should in no way be colored by Jewish ceremonial. The movement was, of course, a failure. The 'original attempt, some nineteen hundred years ago, led to the founding of the Christian Church, and Jews themselves have suffered too much from missionaries of other faiths to take to this work with pleasure. But, In addition to these, there is also a large body of Jews whose connection with the synagogue Is purely nominal, and who know of It only when they need the services of Its sanction or the respectability of Its connections.

The hold which the Jewish Church has upon them is small, indeed, and many of them hope, in the Twentieth century, to doff their Jewish gaberdine. The open or concealed pressure of anti-Semitism (particularly on the continent of Europe) which makes it Impossible for the Jew as such to attain to soe'M distinction or political position will drive most of these into tha arms of the dominant church of the country in which they llve In a remarkable article published Intn Deutsche Jahrbucber of October. IM0, a writer who uses fhe nom de plume of Benedictus Lovita openly urges those of his fellow-Jews whe have becomo estranged from the synagogue to have their children baptized, in order that they may not suffer as their parents have, but may become really believing Christians, since their affiliation with the Christian Church has become necessary in the moef-em Christian State. Another German Jew at about the same time advises his brethren to declare themselves "confes-slonslos," so as to become lost, not in Christianity, but in "Deutschtum." A similar request was made to the Jews of Roumanla. In 1900, by the historian Xen-opol, of Bucharest.

There Is little fear that this advice of wholesale apostasy will find many adherents, notwithstanding the fact that an unusually large number of conversions have taken place in Germany and Austria, due wholly to pressure from without rather than to conviction from within. The defection, even of comparatively large numbers, can, however, hardly-affect the Jewish cause as a whole. There can be no doubt that Zionism Is strnnir protest acainst these weak-' lings, and that the coming century will witness tne jews niviaeo into two cniya, not necessarily hostile to each other, tho Zionists and the Non-Zionists those who plead for a conservation of the old energy and the old ideals, and those who look-forward to the of Judai6m and Its gradual passing away into other forces. That Judaism can only conserv Its force If that force is attached to a racial and national basis Is seen clearly In the fact that just those Jews in Germany who have been most loudly clamorous against the Zionists propose to hav now what they call a German "Judentag." which can certainly mean nothing unless It become Zionist In Its tendency. Confident In this hope, we of the House of Israel look calmly into the future.

The message of the prophet of old is full of meaning for us: "Thus faith the r.ord God; behold even both search my sheep and seek them out. as a shepherd seeketh out his flock In the day that he is among his flock which is scattered, and I will deliver them out of all places where thty have been scattered In the cloudy and dark day." We can echo the sentiments expressed by a Christian Zionist, George Elfot, many years ago: "Revive the organic center; let the unity of Israel which has made the growth nnd form of its religion be an outward reality. Looking towards a land and a polity, our dispersed people In tho ends of the earth may share the dlg-nltv of a national life which has a voice among the peoples of the East and tha West which Will plant the wisdom and Fklll of our race so that It may be, as of old a medium of transmission and understanding. Let that come to pass, and tho Hv'ng warmth will spread to the weak ex-femlties of Israel, and superstition will vanth, not in the lawlessness of the renegade but In the illumination of great facts which widen feeling and make ail knowledge alive as the young offspring of beloved memories." RICHARD J. H.

GOTTHEIL. BALLAD THE "HELLO GIBi." Gelett Burgess In tha Criterion. All day long the shutters flap; All day long the girls, a-row. each, with metal cap. Answer to the call, "Hello!" All day long the spring-Jacks flutter.

Red lights flash and voices mutter. As the numbers come and go. All day long she keeps her place. Waiting for her heart to break; Gone the color from her face. Trying to forget the ache.

Well she knows her dream is vani.hca; All her Joys and hopes are banished Nothing left but her disgrace. Matrons scold and merchants bawl. All the switch-board Is a How her weary angers crawii How the bells and buzzera wnirr: Twice the monitor has seen her Slow unworkmanlike demeanor. Plugged In, called and censured cer. Then upon the figured board.

Comes a number "Eighty-three. Stabbing, like a sudden sword. Some one calls and It Is He! Seeking one who has bereft her Of the lover who iuts left her. Shall she hark or let them be? In the row of black-robed girls. One has fallen to the floor: In her heart a tumult whir.s.

Something breaks and all is er! Then a nimble operawr Tnk'-s her place as Snaps a switch and heeds no more. All til ese changed circumstances variously modified the organization of the Jewish communities. Napoleon's attempt in as the result of the Sanhedrin which he had convened In Paris, to found this organization upon a modern basis, dividing the Jews of France Into certain consistories and arrondissements. had an effect not only upon Prance, hut also upon those countries which for a time were under his influence (Holland, Belgium," nnd even upon many of the German States. In 1S08 such consistories were established in Westphalia and Cassel: in lSOy, an Olerrath was created In Baden; and in 1S2S and 1SS1 on Oberkiichenbe-hcerde In Wurtemberg.

It was due also to Napoleon that in France and Germany the Jews were obliged to adopt family names, they having, in most cases, still retained the Oriental custom of simply adding to their own praenomen that of their father. Prussia was the only one of the German States which was not so affected. There the State exercises a supervisory influence, compelling all the Jews to be members of the Jewish community, but In no way further regulating the commercial life. When the Reform tendencies commenced to make themselves felt in the larger Jewish communities, the Orthodox uiombers safe-guarded their own by making use of th law passl in 1ST3. iTainly through the effurts of the Jew Lasker, which enabled the people to declare themselves "confes-sionsios" and form their own synagogues, thus nearing in a measure the system fallowed in English -speaking countries.

Ji England and America no such organization was effected, as the State does not there take cognizance of the religious belief of the people. In both these countries attempts have been made by the Jews themselves to organize under one head upon a purely religious basis, but without much success. In France there is a Chief Rabbi of the Jews who is recognized by the State as their rabbi and head. But the Chief Rabbi of the Jews In the British Emnire. though he is nominally the head of the Jews in the kingdom, has no actual position as sujch, and is even not recognized bv certain schools of Jews themselves.

The Sefardim, or descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, have al-wavs kept themselves distinct, and have their own Chief Rabbi, or Haham. In the vear 1S40, the more liberal-minded element among the London Jews cut themselves loose from the United Synagogue and formed a Reform party, their example bs-ing followed In Manchester and Bradford. Neither thev nor the recent immigrants from "who have formed their own "TTpmrinn of recognize the authority of the Chief Rabbi. This more conCTpratjonaXjjvmJia earned to ItTutmosTimits In the United States. where each congregation is a law uno itself and absolutely rejects any interference on the part of any larger bedy.

From time to time a desire ha? been manifested to supersede this purely congregational ay cm by ome form of union. The late Dr. Isaac M. Wise, of Cincinnati had at various times attempted to bring the Jews of the United States together with an authoritative synod ot the'r head. Out of this and other attempts have come the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of American Congregations (founded In 1R73).

which now comprises about ninety-one congregations. These organizations, however do not bv any means represent eitner all of the Jewish mlnk'tf-rs or all of the Jewish congregations, and the Union it-col" merely a deliberative body hav-W no power to do anything In the affairs of one of its constituent cvnogngu'es. Since the union of American Jewh concroga tiers comprises only such a 'tand upon'a reform platform, a union of orthodox congregations was formed in New York two or three years ago, and It 1 hoped that this organization will do much towards binding together the very congregations of those who adhere strVtlv to traditional Judaism. But the organization of Jews as a church has not been found sufficient. Rn-ead over so larce a pcrticn of the earth and coming under such varying -influence" it- was inevitable that the differences which already existed should grow apace, and a grea clea-v--ire be made between the orthodox an The reform of the synagogue.

Ii. was early felt that some more secular bond must bo found wh.ch snculd up te ihejews of various persuasions for ard concerted action. The first attempt In this direction was nobly made bv -arclFe Leven, Eugene kmamiej. cWu4 Nettcr and a few others in founu-irg (1S30) the "Alliance Israelite Umver-lelle' in Paris, whose object It was to fin removing Jewish disabilities wherever thev might exist, and to the iniritual" condition of their co-rehgion-ff. in Northern Africa, Eastern Europe and Western Asia by the founding of From these small beginnings the alliance has grown to be an rtart f-i.

to- in the conservation of Jow.sh interest Faithful to Its orogramras. it has rblhed a large number of elementary ard technical schools, and has intervened SciivSv in Algeria. Morocco the Turkish Eniplr- and Persia whenever Jews or Jew -fh inte-ests were in any woy threatened. 1, Vtempt. however, to represent tne whole' Jewish people has not been successful for the reason that it has been allied too SoVelv with French national inter-l and side by side with the "AlHanw Frrnciiso" it been an active prop- I'i'dsr Busch.

Julius Bicn and 'others, ivn iv form a union of ws, whers Ihco ocicil diforenc-s would be eUml-'fj But tnouph this order. 1ms in the United States and Cana-d- has established i'self in such coun-r'-: a Germany, Houmnma. Austria, AI-i-eV'a Bulgaria and and despite work it Vrn.Sn It from standing forth as ne mrwentative of International Jewry Yhe-e then, nnd in w-liat manner, is such a body be found? Economic Conditions. The economic condition of the Jews in the W-e Eastern European Ghettos Is, naturallv. extremely bad.

Huddled together either in certain districts of large towns 'or in villages where they form the pri-ater part of the population, thty are compelled to live off and on each other. Crowded into certain walks of life by legislation or anti-Jewish few of them can iraln more man to keep body and soul together. In (Valicla it has been estimated that live thousand Jews nerish every year from ty-phuo-fever The failure of the harvests 'n Southern Russia during the last few vears has reduced the waEC-earnc-rs in that part of the country to the position of dependents upon the charity cf others: but the Jews who live there in such large numbers do not even benefit from the as-tance sent by the Government. Similar conditions prevail almost continually in the rest of the Russian pale and in Roumanla The standard of life has naturaliy Fr'bVcutuVe in the East. This of its work Is best seen In the fact that bv its side sim'lar organ ipit.ox.s bpPn created in other At rncimc It was hoped that the nai The struggle of the Jews in the various European countries for civil rights and for equality before the law was long drawn out, and was marked by varying fortunes dependent upon the political conditions of tVwse countries.

Though it Is true that a beginning- was made in Germany and Austria (1750 and 1TS1), to France belongs the of having been the first to really do ttway -with the mass of anti-Jewish legislation which the centuries preceding had piled up. On the 7th of September, 1TS1. the NationaJ Assembly at one stroke removed all the disabilities under which the Jews bad been living distinctive dress, special Jew's oath, Jew's tax, forced residence In certain "localities, etc. From France, and under the Influence which country then exercistd, the emancipation of the Jews spread to Belgium and Holland, and to some of the States of Germany; but the rest of Europe was not yet ready for this emancipation. The reaction which marks the period between and 1S4S made Itself felt upon the Jews, restoring, in many places, the disabilities under which they had formerly lived.

The "Judengaesen" becama once more Inhabited, and the principles of freedom and liberty for all members of the State seemed to have been well-nigh for-Konen. The Revolution of 1S30 stayed the downward course in Fome of the German States; but it -was not until ISiS that the pecond preat period in Jewish emancipation came about. In the breaking down of old Institutions It was natural that the exceptional laws against the Jews should go also. The German Parliament of 1S4S, at TYankfort, forcefully proclaimed the doctrine of religious liberty; and of this Parliament a Jf-w. GabrieT Paesser, was Vice President.

But it was not until the formation of the German Empire, in that the emancipation of the Jews, which had graduallv made its way in the various States, was carried through for the whoie of that In 1SG7. a decree was Issued In Austria by virtue of which ail citizens were declared equal before the law, and in 1S70 the walls of the Gnetio fell In Rome. In 1S74. Jews were admitted to the rank of citizen? In Switzerland. In the Congress of Berlin, the leading- spirit of which (Disraeli) was of the Jewish race, demanded equal rights for the Jews living in the Balkan Pcnin-eula.

These rights were accorded by the various States there, with the exception of Roumanla, which, in spite of the treaty and fir- spite of-the prmsts uiuuij aL the time, still continues to refuse to attow the Jews living -within Its borders to become citizens or to treat them as an Inte-pral part of the population. In Turkey the laws which put certain restrictions upon non-Mohammedan citizens were fensiblv changed" in 3S39; so that the Jews living- in the dominions of the Sultan suffer no exceptional legislation. The cause of Jewish emancipation In England suffered no such sudden changes as It did on the Continent. It proceeded by regular stages through the abrogation of the Act of Test In the admission of Jews as citizens of London in 1S30, as Sheriffs In 1N5. as Magistrates In t45.

and in 1SSS as members of Parliament by the removal of the words, "upon the faith of a Christian." in the oath taken by th members. There can be no doubt that the emancipation in England, though long drawn out nnd fiercely contested, wa more effective than anywhere else, owing to the fact that It was progressive In character and based upon the idea of rights demanded, and not upon that of favors granted The whole continental legislation regarding them, from the time of Kapoleon on, bad on the part of the legislators onlv one object in view to break jp the cohesion of the Jews as a body and to pave the way for their disappearance as a distinctive group. The idea that emancipation was a favor and not a right brought it about -that the Jews themselves aided in their own disir.ttgrat.on. Though Jews have sat in the Parliaments of various continental States, they have with few exceptions steadfastly rerused to acknowledge themselves to he in any war representatives of their brethren, and in "some cases (notably in France during the last few vears have either remained eupinely indifferent when Jewish questions were before their several Parliaments, or have even aided those whni niritation was directed against their fellow-Jews. In England, on the contrary, the Jewish members of Parliament nave never forgotten that, in addition to their interests as citizens of England, they have a duty to perform to the Jews, wnom they also represent, and trey have, therefore, been able, while giving their best services to the State, to be also useful to their coreligionists.

In addition to Rouraan Russia if rractlcallv the or.ly country which has refused to enter the European concert, nnd which by means of laws nnd crdi: nances represents still the dark period ot the Middle Ages. It lias turned me piov-inces on its western borders into a tremendous ghetto, and driven the Jews to exile bv making life within that pals practical! impossible. Even Portuaai in 1S21. and Spain in 1S0S (the two countries from which the had. beer, banished for a great number of years) opened their doors to them once more, though few Jews have ventured to return to the peninsula, despite the fact that in a committee was formed in Madrid for tnc promotion cf Jewish immigration into Spain.

The Wandering Jew. The Wandering Jew is not the Jew of legend, but the Jewish people of history. The dislocation of large Jewish bodies-, which was characteristic cf the Middle Ages, has been kept up during Nineteenth century; and this dislocation as in former times, profoundly modified Judaism in the various countri From the Fifteenth century on to the Nineteenth, hostile U-ijiution on the part of Western Europe ber-n cuniinnally drlving the Jews to the East. The expulsion from Spain and Portugal at the nd of the Fifteenth ceiuury forced several hundred thousand into Turkey; while the hardships which they had to euffer in the smaller German States md In Austria caused lanre number? to si ek a refuge in Poland aiui Kusi-i. tide commenced to turn westward the middle of the Eighteenth century, though bands of Jews from Poland had been driven Into Germany.

Italy Holland the terrible years of the Chmclnicki ptr-eecutions OGiS-1651). The readmissicn cf Jews Into England, the relative kindness cf Frederick William of Prussia of Frederick the aided a certain slow but continuous Infiltration into Polar d. co that at the er.d of the Eighteenth or the first half of the Nineteenth century these Polish Jews were to be found in parts of Germany. Holland and England. This slow migration back again to Western Europe took on.

however, much larger proportions in the latter part of the IClneteenth century; but before this could happen a strong movement stilt farther westward had already taken place. Jews were among the earliest settlers on BENJAMIN DISRAELI. LORD BEA-CONSFIELD. ploltlng the agricultural class and for serving the interests of the Liberal party, forgetting that Leo and Stahl, the founders of the Orthodox party in Prussia, were themselves Jews, and that Dlraeli England was born of the same race. The most foolish accusations on almost every conceivable subject have been lodged ag.i'r.st them bv such men as Ahlwart, Stocker Lueger'and Drumont; and in late vears the old and foolish charge that the Jews use the blood of Christian children In making of Passover bread- has been revived in order to Infuriate the populace; despite the fact that popes, ecclesiastics and hosts of Christian professors have declared the accusation to be purely imaginary and malignant.

The false charge that Jewish officer in France had be-traved secrets of his Government was sufficient to unloosen the most savage attacks upon' the Jews which the modern Th fact which stands out In the whole agitation is not that the charges have been made, in most cases by men who sought in some way or other to flsh in troubled waters, but that these charges And a ready echo and a ready response among the people at large. It emphasizes so clearly that the Jews are a defenseless people, with no means of effectually warding off attacks; and though in Germany and Austria societies ot Christians have been formed for the of combating anti-Semitism there Is i. r.ff.-etimllv enter the i llsts-In their behalf. Among tne lew nngni cyues world's chart are those countries inhabited by the Anglo-Saxon rare. Anti-Semitism unknown in England (though tne attempt has been made to fix the u.ame for the Boer war upon the Jews): and tho of the United States have up till now prevented the entrance here of the disease, though in the mild form ot social anti-Semitism which debars Jewish children from private schools and Jewish people from clubs and summer hotels it has insinuated itself into some pt the Eastern cities, notably into New York.

Zionism. There can be no doubt that next to the reform movement the profoundest modification of the forces within Judaism has come about during the last years ot the ecnturv through the rise and progress of the Zionist movement. It has been Eald by some that Zionism is the expression of Jewish pessimism, by others that it is the highest form of Jewish optimism. I venture to say that it is both. The emancipation of the Jews 1ms not been able to do away with anti-Semitism; history has repeated itself time and time again.

When the Jews of a country were few In' number and of little influence they led a tolerably secure existence, but as soon as their number Increased and their Influence commenced to be felt anti-Semitism was the effective weapon in the hands of their opponents. In so far. then, as Zionism takes account of this fact It Is pessimistic, for conditions In the future will hardly differ from those in the past. It sees the Wandering Jew of history continuing stl.I his drearv march through the ages, never at rest and never able to effect a quiet nd even development of his own forces. It explains this phenomenon from the fact that Israel has in all the charged circumstances striven to maintain Its racial Identity, and.

as this racial identity has a religious side as well, that the two combined may well be called a separate national existence: that a people holding tenaciously to this separate existence, but having no home of its own, must become, when occasion demands, the scapegoat and plav-bal! of oiher forces. It recognizes anti-Semitism-as continually existent, and in so far the opponents of Zionism may be right in saying that Its rise la the result of the anti-Jewish movement. It Is the Jewish answer from-the Jewish point of view. On the other hand, Zionism Is optimistic in believing that real help for the Jws can only come from within their own body and that the Jewish question will only be solved when the Jews return to that point In their history whence they set out on their wanderings and again found a permanent home, to which all the persecuted can llee, and from which a light will go forth to every' nook and corner of Jewry. It does not hope that all Jews will return to Palestine, but it believes that only In a national centre can the centrifugal force be found which will hold the Jews together In the various countries of their sojourn.

The Zionist congresses (which have now been held during four successive years) have found the platform, so often sought for In vain during the Nineteenth cen-turv. upon which all Jews, regardless of theological opinions and economic theories, cari stand. They represent the old unity of Israel; for orthodox, conservative, reform and even the purely racial Jew are to be found there as well as in the Zionist societies which have grown up in every Jewish community, whether In Europe or Africa, in North or in South America, even In the distant Philippines. Tho orthodox Jew must be, by his very profession, a Zionist; but he often doubts whether the plan as formulated by Jr. Herzl Is feasible, an.l holds himself aloof, waiting for the realization of his hopes at the hands of others, or for some supernatural sign of divine assistance.

The very fact that the Jew.sn opponents of Zionism 'and they are tin- only opponents it has) come from various parts of the Jewish camp is in Itself ji proof of the above statement. The orthodox com-nla'n that of the leaders cf the movement are not sufficiently Jewish: the reform that some are too lh.it this opposition is exceedingly stronrr can-rot denied. The drmard made that the Jew should nsert himself llrst and foremc-Jt as a Jew been distasteful to manv who were- sor.r.ng in the mystic hazes of univerfaiism. or wno had hoped to gt out of Judaism as it were by the back door, without being seer, by the WBut e1ve1nr'n' those circles which do not formally affiliate with Zionism or who at times even oppose it. has of la.e vears been a very strong rev.vai of Jewish feeling and a movement towards a stronger expression of that fecl.ng.

Oer- THE LATE BARON HIRSCH. remedy these evils, one to the other. both closely related The "Science of Judaism." The first was crystallized In what is now-known as the "Science of Judaism," by which Is meant the untrammelled, scientific Investigation of the past history of the Jews, The want of this was severely felt just In those centers where reform had taken up its abode: and those who as- slsted at Its birth did so with the avowed purpose of getting at the real kernel of Judaism by such investigation, and of i freeing that kernel from the accretions of ages. They saw also that some means had to be found by which the result of these researches could be brought before the people. The Mendelssohn period had also felt this, but its organ had been written in Hebrew, and could not, therefore, appeal to those who wished for the lntel-! lectual advancement of the Jews upon i modern lines.

The Society of Culture and the Science of Judaism in Berlin (founded i 1819) started a journal, with L. Zunz as Though it only lived during the years 1S22 and 1S23, It "was the forerunner and the model for many of Its kind that followed after. In lts35 appeared Geiger's Scientific Journal for Jewish Theology, and in 1S37 a regular weekly was estab-I llshed by L. PhilIppon, the Allegemelne Zettung des Judenthuins. Around these and other journals which quickly sprang 1 up there gathered a coterie of historians, philologists and students of literature fryhlcta in the fifty years between 1S30 and built up' a science which has expended its investigations into every corner of.

Jewish life In' the past, and has followed to their sources the various lines of development which have appeared from tima to. time. A full estimate of what has been done will be apparent or.ly when the great 1 Jewish Encyclopedia will be ready Is now in course cf publication in New York. Zunz. Geiger, Krochmal, Ranopcrt, 1 Frankel, Low, Steinschneider, Luzzatto and Reggio are only a few of the names of those who gave up their lives to this work.

Most of the early labor of these men was not dry-as-dust investigation pure and simple, but was intended to have a bearing upon tne actual me, upon tne burning questions which were then agitating Jewish thought. This is clearly seen in the journal of which Zunz was editor, and in his Gottesdienstliche Vor-traege. the basis of nearly all the work done after him, but which was evidently written to give the history of preaching in the synagogue in order to justify the shortening of the ritual and the introduction of the German sermon. The second attempt was to found or create some central body which would remove the purely personal element out of the reform movement. In 1S37 Geiger had called his friends to a conference at Wiesbaden for the purpose of formulating what they considered to be the essence of Judaism.

In 1S44 a second such rabbinical conference was held in Brunswick, largely at the suggestion of L. Phillppson. Similar conferences were heid at Frankfort in 1SI5, and at Breslau in 1S4G; for In the meantime the Reform Genossenschaft had been created at Berlin, which went beyond all previous attempts- and demanded some positive statement of the theological position which it and its friends occupied. The Frankfort assembly not proving satisfactory, tho Berlin society went ahead to establish its own synagogue; added a Sunday sen-ice (which in a short while became the only service), and under the guidance of S. Holdhelm definitely broke with traditional Judaism, removing nearly all the.

Hebrew from Its service, abbreviating the prayer-book still further, and diminishing the number of observances. In Europe this reform synagogue in Berlin has gone to the furthest extreme; and though It has in a measure kept Its members within the pale of Judaism, It has neither been a great power nor has It found imitators. In 1359 a synod was, indeed, held at Leip-sic, attended by eighty-one members; and In 1871 at Augsburg, attended by fifty-two, both under the presidency of M. Lazarus. These synods dealt.

In a spirit of moderate reform, with questions relating to the ritual, synagogue observance, the admission of proselytes, etc. The general stand there taken would to-day be looked upon as conservative; dogmatic questions were hardly touched upon excepting so-far as they recognized the principle of development in Judaism both as a religious belief and as a form of religious ex-ere!" It was fondly hoped that these synods would become a court, which would define and regulate whatever questions might arise. But it was not to be. The synod represented only a of trie Jewish world even in Germany. Not only did the large body of the orthodox stand aside, but even the so-called conservatives left the conferences, as they could not agree with some of the resolutions accepted there.

In addition to this, the Franco-Pru-ssian war diverted the attention of all German citizens; and ten years later the movement succeeded In driving the Jew back Into himself. Jewish religious life in Germany has. therefore, remained, stationary since that time, the orthodox, and conservative parties being largely in the ascendant, leaving to another land America-the task of carrying further the work which it had commenced. Yet. in spite of this arrested development, the reform movement has had a great influence also upon orthodox Jews In Germanv.

It produced the so-oa led historical school, which has the Breslau Theological Seminary for its center; and ft called forth by way of opposition the neo-orthodoxv of S. R. Hirseh. of 1' ranK-fort. which fecks rlthir.to understand the depths of the law than simply to follow It in compliant obedience.

a Beform Movement Developed. It was in the United States that the Reform movement developed its full capacity and bore Its most perfect fruit, in a new land, which was untrammeled by traditions of the past, and where the congregational system became the basis of Jewish communal life, the Ideas which the German Reformers had sown had a most fruitful ground in which to grow. It can not he said that the Reform movement here was actually started by the Germans, THE LATE RABBI ISAAC M. WISE. tens of thousands of immigrants were cared for.

The Jewish charitable organizations the development of which has ben during the latter half of the Nineteenth century' the brightest spot in Jewish communal life, rose to tho demands of tho occasion, and the more than pr.ncc-lv munificence of Baron and Baroness de HIrsch in regard to the Russian Jews, mav justly be looked upon with pride. New ghettos, however, were formed In ncarlv all the cities to which these immigrants came; and this name for the habitat of the poorer Jews became again familinr, aided by the popularity which some modern novelists had given to It. In the Ages and down to our own time the Jews had been forced by the State to live apart In such ghettos; sometimes for their own protection, sometimes to preserve the outside world from contact with them. The modern ghetto Is a voluntary gathering of the Jews for the purpose ot mutual neip anu nuiu ing of reciprocal obligations. The sweat- ir.g system (which in one form cr another Is to be rouna in an tnee Kiien.ei3 a dreadful incentive toward grinding the face of the poor; and the results cf too sreat a hoarding are often quite apparent so that the general morality of the Jews In these ghettos has sutfeivd in consequence.

A peopl? ignorant 01 the lamruage of their new home are a prey to the evil-intended, who make use of their ignorance for their own commercial and political advancement. This has been notnhlv seen the city ul where "a lax citv governme.it has permit-ted th? vampires of society to fasten I their faniJ-s upon the ghetto and to pro- duce condtiions which, call for the active interference cf all those forces which seek to stamp out crime and vice. But, on the other hand, to one who Is acquaint- c-d with the Inr.cr life ot tne gneno. me virtues which have hitherto characterized the industry and sobriety are still to be found there. Its members are as industrious lis bees in a hive; and thougn extrtmelv litigations, drunkenness Is unknown and actual crime Is comparatively order to correct the abuses of the ghetto, two things are absolutely necessary the increase of the actual number of Jews there must be stopped, and the crowding into certain distinct fields of work must be brought to an end.

A determined effort has already been made to force the nev immigrants into less crowned parts of the land to which they come. In country this is being done by the United Hebrew Charities, and notably by the Ii'rith. That the Jew has taken by preference to certain branches of tr-de and work is due to the fact that anti-Jewish legislation has for centuries manv walks of life to him. and the guild organisations excluded him rlgor-ouslv from many spheres of activity. Then.

too. his richly developed home life has Induced a certain distaste for occupations which take the wage-earner out of his home and away from his family. That, however, these inherited instincts can casllv be overcome is clearly seen whenever the occasion offers. Even in where three-fourths of the diamond industry is in the hands of Jews, there aro to be found Jewish cobblers. eigarmAkcrs.

plumbers, carpet weavers, mattrsss-makers. watchmakers, etc. In the East End of London there are, it Is true, ten thousand Jews who are engaged in the clothes-making trades, but the rest of the forty thousand Jewish wage-earners of this quarter are scattered over all possible branches of work masonry, nu-tal-worklng. textile industries, furniture-making, cap-making and the like. The same is true of New York, where, although the number of Jews employed In the tailoring Industries Is disproportionately large, the following list of Hebrew uniens shows how far afield the Jewish workman has gone: Cap-makers, Cap Bloekcrs.

Shirtmakers, Mattress-makers, Puree-makers. Liberty Musical Union, Jewish Chorus Union, Jewelers' Union. Tinsmithcrs' Union, Bill-posters. 'Waiters' Alliance, Architectural Ironworkers, Hebrew-Typographical Union, Tobacco Cutters. Papermakers, Bookbinders.

The same Is relatively true of all other countries where Jews live in. large numbers. It is also a popular misconception that the Jew has an Innate distaste for agriculture. His continued commercial life, forced upon him for many centuries, has, it is true, disaccustomed the Jew to the life of a tiller of the soil. But the Jewish state was largely an agricultural one; the legislation of the Bible and the later Law Books was clearly intended for an agricultural people; and Jews have never shown ar.

unwillingness to return, again to the soil. In Southern Russia there are to-day 2- Jewish colonies with a population cf ICO.OCJ). In Palestine there are now more than twenty colonies, with a population of more than 5,000, and similar agricultural colonies have been established at various times in the United States, Canada and the Argentine Republic. It cannot be denied that a goodly part of the Jewish proletariat belongs to the Socialist party. The whole Biblical system is In Itself not without a Socialist tinge: and the two great founders of the modern system, Lasalle and Marx, were Jews.

It is no wonder that In Russia manv c-f the leading anarchists were of the "Jewish race, for the Jew suffered there from the evils which Nihilism was Intended to correct ten times more than did his fellow-Russian. But the Jew- is bv nature peace-loving; and under more favorable circumstances, and with the opportunity of a greater development of his faculties. Socialism in his midst has no verv active life: the Jew very soon becoming an ardent partisan of the existing state cf affairs. Internal Eeligious Development. The facility with which the Jews attach themselves to changed circumstances stands out characteristically through their whoie history.

It might, indeed, be said with some shoiv of truth that this pliability Is the weak side of the Jewish character. The readiness of the Jew to be almost anything ar.d not simply his own self has been one of the factors pio-duclng a certail ill will against him. Disraeli was the most jingo of all Imperialists in England; Lasker, the most ardent advocate of the newly constituted German Empire. This pliability is the result of the wandering life he has led and the various civilizations of which he But the new European spirit In Its French political form was knocking hard at the gates of the Ghetto. Little by little It made Its way here and there, Into all sorts of nooks and corners.

It was bound in time to be heard by some of those living behind these gates. The name, of Moses Mendelssohn is indissolubly connected with the history of German Judaism during the latter part of the Eighteenth' century. It was due to him that a vehicle was found which the new spirit could use. Himself a strictly observant Jew he felt the pulse of the new era. The friend ot Lesslng and of Nlcolal, he entered fullv into the revival which was then making itself felt.

Through his translation of the Pentateuch etc.) into High-German, he prepared the way for the further introduction of German writings to the Jewish masses. This was bound to bring with It a larger culture and a greater freedom of though.rr,Many of his friends, such as Wessely, Hertz-Hom-bcrc and David Friedlander, stood by side In tWs work. With the IntrcWuctlon of the German language and Germarliy erature. better and more modet-u suiilvi were needed in which secular education should so hand in hand with the fornier one-sided religious training. David Fr ed-lander was the first to found a school in he modern sense of the term: and he was followed by Jacobson in 1S0I.

at Secsen, Westphalia, and at Cassel, and by Johl-son. at Frankfort, In 1S14 Ufween the vears 13 and sucn modern Jewish schools arose In Germany, Austria Denmark, France, and even hi Poland Literature was cultivated and the first Jewish journal (though still In Hebrew) was published in Konlgsberg. 17S3 (HamJassef-the Collector) Ge- fin in l-k was distinctly intended for the spread of this modern culture; yet Mendelssohn's own position was quite an untenable one. He was a-thorough Orthodox Jew in practice, but his mental attitude was that of a modern German. lie as and he was not a reformer He held that It mattered little what philosophical position a Jew held, the Jew must observe pll the ceremonies connected with the faith: these were binding, upon him by he mere fact ot his having been born into the Covenant.

It Is, therefore, no wonder that his translation was put under the ban in Hamburg. Altona, Fuerth, Pp-'en etc His friend Friedlander wished to make of the synagogue a sort of ethical culture society; and Jacobson's preaching fn Berlin contained very little of wlwt was distinctly Jewish. The salons of Berlin, Konlg-berg and Vienna, which were presided over bv brilliant women, who were or less" immediate disciples of Mendelssohn nurtured the cosmopolitan splr. It which' was bound to be destructive of practical Judaism. That this fruit on the tree of knowledge ripened too quickly is seen from the fact that all the descend- ants of Mencieissonu, rucumuuv.

ers, led astray by this cosmopolitan spirit and the philosophic presentation of Christianity by Schlelermacher, have all become devo ed members of the Lutheran Church and have been completely lost to Juda- 1STt'was natural that these new Influences should influence also the training of the modern rabbis. Secular education had been introduced into primary schools, and in some places-as, for instance, Lombar-dy In lS20the Government demanded a certain amount of secular knowledge from the candidates for rabbinical positions. The Jew also desired that his leadera should have the same training as he gave his children, that they should be educated In the same atmosphere in which ho hlmqelf had grown up. The old rabbinical semfnarlesror Yeshlbot, In which the instruction was entirely on Talmudic lines, had already run their course; the study h-id been found insufficient by the pupils themselves and the schools of Frankfort, Fuerth Metz. Hamburg and Halberstadt had all been closed for want of students.

The need of a modern seminary was felt quite early during the century; and in 1S09, Lehrer-Semlnar was founded in Cassel. The earliest regular seminary for the tralriug of rabbis, however, was founded in Padua in 1S2H. In Germany attempts had been made In the year ISM, but these attempts were unsuccessful. The flrst modern seminary was not founded In Germany until the year 1851 (Breslau). Then followed Berlin.

In IS72: Cincinnati, in 1S73; Budapc'-t-in 1S7G. Similar institutions exist now 'n London, Paris and Vienna. In the flrst convulsions of the Mendelssohn period the way was paved for tho second period of the reform movement which covers the first quarter of the Nineteenth century. The real Issues touched the central point of Jewish the synagogue. It Is Interesting to note that during this period the chief questions were not so much theological as aesthetic.

Contact with the outside world created and fostered this sense, and the influences of the writings of such men as Leasing and Mendelssohn was largely in this direction. As this aesthetic sense mpde its wav Into the homos, so also did It carve out its way into the synagogue. Demands were heard for a shorter service- for the organ to accompany tho cha'ntlng of the reader; for the German language In some of the prayers and for the German sermon. Each point was bitterly contested; for the orthodox had before it the wholesale apostasy of tne Salon Jews. In order to Introduce the vernacular into the service and into the ermon private synagogues were opened bv small coteries In Cassel (IS00), Seesen (1S10), Dessau (1S12) and Berlin (ISIS).

In Southern Germany the use of the vernacular was Introduced between the years 1S17 and ISIS, also in Hungary through the influence of Abraham Chorin. In somo countries the government gave its active aid. In Vienna, In 1S20, German was made obligatory, and as early as ISH Danish in Copenhagen. The greatest changes, however, were made in the Hamburg ish, or, as tney can it, jiiciai Reform Judaism without some centrifugal force-Is bound to continue on the rond it has once taken. The logical outcome of the principles formulated at Oie Pittsburg conference Is a gradual development Into an ethical theism witnout any Jewish coloring.

The leader of advanced Reform Judaism in this country has recently Eaid that Judaism must be recast along the lines of a universal ethical religion; that then all distinctive Jewish elements of the synagogue sym-holism will pass away, and that such a denationalized Jewish temple will seek a closer alliance with Unltarianism and Theism and with them, perhaps In a few decades, will form a new church and a now religion for united humanity. That such a tendency is Inherent In Reform Judaism is seen also In the formation of tho Society of Ethical Culture In New-York The society does not even bear the name Jewish, but with a certain leaning toward liberal Christianity tries to find a basis for the morality and ethics ol the old synagogue outside the sphere of supernatural religion. While the Ethical Culture Socletv has been quite a power in certain lines of charitable and educational work, it may reasonably be questioned whether it has any future as a form of church organization. The Inborn longing of man for some hold upon things w-nlcn aro supernatural will lead many of its members to seek satisfaction elsewhere That they will seek It In the Je-l3h synagogue is hardly probable, seeing now tho racial and other ties have been broken or at least greatly loosened. They or their children will glide rather Into some form of the dominant church, possibly, In the swinging of the pendulum.

Into somo orthodox form ot that church. I cannot help quoting the words of an intelligent outside observer of the Jewish question, the Right Hon. James Bryce, M. "lr Judaism becomes merely Theism, there will bo little to distinguish Its professors from the persons, now pretty numerous, who while Christian in name, sit loose to Christian doctrine. The children of Jewish Thelsts will be almost as apt as the children of other Thelsts to be caught up by the movement which carries the sons and daughters of Evangelical Anglicans nnd of Nonconformists towards, or all the wav to, the.

Church of Where then. Is this centrifugal force to be found, which will hold together the various elements in Israel, no matter what their theological opinions may be? Anti-Semitism. Before attempting to answer this question, a word must be said In regard to the 'anti-Semitic movement, the recrudescence of which has so profoundly affected the Jewish people during the last twenty years of the Nineteenth century. A word only because the facts aro of too recent d-te' to need a detailed statement here. The Brat master-mind, Zunz, writing In Germany in 1S32.

believed that persecution for religious belief could not withstand the onslaughts of the new era. Theodore Reinach. some fifty years later asserted that anti-Semitism was imposs.ble in France. How sadly has a dementi been given to the hopes thus expressed, especially in these two countries! I pass over the outbreaks against the Jews during the early years of the Nineteenth century, even the Damascus blood-accusation in 1S40, and the forcible baptism of little Edgar Mortara In ISoo. I confine myself simply to the rnouern form.