We think it high time to approach this question and to try to answer it from a purely objective point of view. Before we ask whether the Jewish religion has any future in the Diaspora, let us see whether it has had any development in the past. It is known to every intelligent Jew that since the appearance of Maimonides, with the exception of the pathological phenomenon of "Sabbathai Zevi" and of Hassidism, the Jewish religion has not developed in the least. The rabbinic literature of the last 800 years consists mainly of legal responses to which nobody will attribute religious significance, because religion and legalism are two different things. The rabinnic Jew has the same views on God, on the relations between God and man, and on immortality, as prevailed among Jews 800 years ago. Even the synagogue and the Jewish ritual have undergone few changes in this period. Many attribute this fact of religious stagnation to the predominant legal element in the Jewish religion, while others maintain that, even without this element, the Jewish religion would not have undergone changes because of its existence in the Diaspora. Religion, like any other phase of spiritual life, must draw from life itself and if the source is polluted stagnation must set in. Many people seek to prove that the Jewish religion is capable of development in the Diaspora, and as proof they point to Hassidism. But even they must agree that Hassidism itself failed to develop and that it resulted finally in a form of Judaism which is objectionable even on æsthetic grounds. Hassidism, which claims to have a greater freedom of movement than Mithnagdism, is today even more stagnant than Mithnagdism. In addition, it is questionable whether the pantheistic element in Hassidism is altogether compatible with the traditional Jewish conception of God. All in all, Hassidism affords no proof that the Jewish religion has developed in the last 800 years. It would be no exaggeration to say that ever since Jewish religious philosophy chose the path of Aristotelianism, it has been favored only with the slightest development. One must bear in mind that in the past the Jewish religion, though more persecuted than at present, had better chances of development than in our own day. The Gentiles surrounding the Jews lived a more intense spiritual life than is the case today and in addition they thought in terms of religion as the mediaeval philosophers thought _more theologico_. Judaism and Christianity were absolutely separated and regarded each other with hostility. The intense religious feeling of the Middle Ages, the thinking in terms of religion on the part of the Gentile masses, the hostility of the Church to the Synagogue, the isolation of Jewish life and the persecution which must have intensified the religious feeling, were all factors conducive to religious development. However, the fact remains that since Maimonides, the Jewish religion has not undergone notable development.