How will the presence and the activity of this new neighbor react on the Russian mind? Will the presence of the Jews in the midst of the Great Russians result in the development of friendship or will the reverse be the case? And if a new crisis should break out in Russia, and a Russian Government should need a scapegoat to save its neck, will it or will it not pick out the Jews to serve as the scapegoat? Russia is a land of unlimited possibilities for good and for bad; there are no prophets nowadays to predict future happenings, especially since the mind of the Russian people is still a question mark. Thus, besides the eternal cycle and besides the necessary ups and downs in history, we have now a special reason to be careful in our judgment and to moderate our optimism. But even taking for granted that the Jewish development in Russia will be unhampered, does it already mean that the Jewish question is solved? Does the Jewish question consist of bread and butter and human rights? Can the ideal of a people as old as the Jews be satisfied with just being permitted to live as individuals? Can it be the meaning and aim of 4000 years of Jewish history that the zenith of our development as a people should consist in being permitted to live among the people with mere civic equality? Is that what we have struggled for during the centuries? Greater and more civilized people than the Russians have not succeeded in solving the Jewish question. Why then should we expect that from Russia will come the salvation, especially as only one-quarter of our people is today living in Russia? The Jewish question can become simplified when we are liberated by the one people or the other, but it can be solved entirely only by the Jewish people itself. The Russian Revolution means for the Jews freedom to breathe and to move, freedom from prison and captivity, but even the free man has his own problem to solve. Life only begins when the prison-doors open. JEWS AND RACE CONSCIOUSNESS At the beginning of the war there were many who ascribed the world conflagration to a conflict of races. At present there are many who would either belittle the rôle of race as a factor in history or eliminate it altogether. These people describe the theories of race as "race mythology" and consider them the invention of scholars rather than facts of objective reality. Among a certain section of the Jewish people this negation of race theories is very popular. If there are not races in this world, then assimilation is the easiest and best way to solve the Jewish question. It may or may not be true that race is a biological category, but it is true beyond a doubt that the consciousness of race among all peoples always was and will be an historic factor of prime importance. Therefore, it matters little whether or not race is a biological fact. History and its interpretation are concerned only with consciousness of race.