The Russian revolution, with its boon of freedom to oppressed nationalities, will mark, we hope, an epoch in the struggle of the Jewish masses for the right to live freely in the political and economic sense. But history and experience warn us against believing too readily that salvation has come. However that may be, Jewish nationality, as we said above, in no way depends on the political status and the position of the Jews in various countries. This question may be left entirely out of consideration. In dealing with Jewish nationality, we are concerned only with those predicates which are based upon the _natio_, that is the origin and the spirit or type of the race in question. The Jewish national idea is not merely an historical tradition, it is a programme for outward as well as inward use. Outwardly it manifests itself in an energetic struggle for its own existence, in the development of its self-consciousness, in an active regard for its own interests; inwardly as a union of the Jews of all countries, rites, grades of culture and political parties on all questions which affect Jews and Judaism (though it is and must be set on one side in all non-Jewish questions relating to the State). As in the _natio_ the fact of being at one with the race is the really characteristic feature, it is necessary to regard all Jews as members of the Jewish nationality without reference to their religious opinions or points of view. This is the meaning of the _Talmudic_ dictum:―― אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא סנהדרין דף מד ע׳א׃¹ ¹ Although he sinned he is an Israelite.――Sanhedrin 44ᵃ. Nationality has nothing to do with the differences of theological opinion between the various sections of Jewry; it is based simply upon oneness with the race. The endeavour to form this union is the foundation of the national idea. By those who do not understand it the Jewish national idea is reproached with constituting an antithesis to the idea of the State and of citizenship on the one hand, and to the spiritual and the _Torah_ on the other. This reproach has no foundation: Jewish nationality cannot find expression in political citizenship in the Diaspora, simply because it lies outside that sphere. On the other hand, from the point of view of the inner, spiritual strength of Jewry, the sense of nationality is a source of vitality, and produces a fusion which transcends all parties. It is folly to regard it as a degradation of the spiritual character of Judaism.