The idea that aroused the imagination of Emma Lazarus was a restored and independent nationality and the repatriation of the Jews in Palestine. In an article on the “Jewish Problem,” she wrote:―― “I am fully persuaded that all suggested solutions other than this of the Jewish problem are but temporary palliatives.¹ ¹ _Century_, February, 1883, _p._ 610. “The idea formulated by George Eliot has already sunk into the minds of many Jewish enthusiasts, and it germinates with miraculous rapidity. ‘The idea that I am possessed with,’ says Mordecai, ‘is that of restoring a political existence to my people, making them a nation again, giving them a national centre, such as the English have, though they, too, are scattered over the face of the globe. That is a task which presents itself to me as a duty.... I am resolved to devote my life to it. At the least, I may awaken a movement in other minds such as has been awakened in my own.’” Could the noble poetess who wrote these words have lived until to-day, she would have been astonished at the flame which her torch has kindled and the practical shape which the movement brought to public notice by her has begun to assume. In November, 1882, her first _Epistle to the Hebrews_ appeared as one of a series of articles written for the _American Hebrew_. Addressing herself to a Jewish audience, she unfolded her views and hopes for Judaism without reserve, on the one hand passionately urging its claims and its high ideals, and on the other dispassionately describing the shortcomings and peculiarities of her race. She says: “Every student of the _Hebrew_ language is aware that we have in conjugation of our verbs a mode known as the _intensive voice_, which, by means of an almost imperceptible modification of vowel-points, intensifies the meaning of the primitive root. A similar significance seems to attach to the Jews themselves in connection with the people among whom they dwell. They are the _intensive form_ of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt.... Influenced by the same causes, they represent the same results: but the deeper lights and shadows of the Oriental temperament throw their failings, as well as their virtues, into more prominent relief.” In drawing the Epistles to a close,¹ she summarized the special objects she had in view: “My chief aim has been to contribute my mite towards arousing that spirit of Jewish enthusiasm which might manifest itself:―― ¹ February 24, 1883. “_First._ In a return to the world pursuits and broad asylum of physical and intellectual education adopted by our ancestors: “_Second._ In a more fraternal and practical movement towards alleviating the sufferings of oppressed Jews in countries less favoured than our own: