Is it capable of development in the future? Today humanity does not think in terms of religion; modern philosophers do not think _more theologico_ but _more biologico_; the synagogue in the country where Jews are free is not isolated as was the case in the past, nor is Jewish life isolated. Unlike the Jews of the past, the modern Jew in these countries is actuated not by religious but by economic and social motives and he has little time to give thought to Judaism. To the average Jew in the liberal countries, Judaism is either an unwelcome heritage or at best a synagogal duty. In eastern Europe there are two sorts of Jews, as far as religion is concerned. There are either rabbinic Jews, who are pious and naive, or there are Jews whose views practically amount to a superficial atheism. Under these conditions, it is hard to tell how the Jewish religion is to develop in the Diaspora, or what its future may be. The Reformers, of course, would point to the work of Geiger and Holdheim. But is the work of these men really proof of organic development in Jewish religion? Does the destruction of the bases of a religion indicate development? Reform Judaism not only did away with rabbinism, but it would also deprive the Bible of its religious character, denying the divinity of its source and in addition arbitrarily abolishing fundamental biblical laws for the convenience of its practioners. Is there any intelligent Jew, with a fair knowledge of Judaism, perhaps with the exception of a few Reform rabbis, who will maintain that in these changes there is a trace of development? If Reform Judaism can do no more than destroy what others have built, it is not progress in Jewish religion, as its leaders assert, but merely a ruthless iconoclasm. We do not say that Reform Judaism is created by malice or by the wanton desire to destroy, but only that it serves as proof that from present conditions the Jewish religion seems to have no future in the Diaspora, once it has come into contact with modern life. The Jewish religion, a product of national genius, can live and thrive only on its own soil. It can live and thrive only if it is part and parcel of the whole life of the nation, because the Jewish religion, in contradistinction to the universal religions, is distinctly national in character and wherever the Jewish nation is hampered in its movements (as it is, everywhere, in the Diaspora), the Jewish religion is also hampered and condemned to stagnation. The stronger and more intense the life surrounding the Jews, the weaker becomes their own religious impulse. This is well known to the Reform rabbis. We do not know how they conceive the future of Judaism in the Diaspora, but we do know that the only possibility for a Jewish religious revival lies in a national life for the Jewish people. THE MIGRATIONS OF JEWISH LITERATURE