Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
The establishment of the legally secured Jewish home is no longer a
dream. For more than a generation brave pioneers have been building
the foundations of our new old home. It remains for us to build the
superstructure. The Ghetto walls are now falling, Jewish life cannot
be preserved and developed, assimilation cannot be averted, unless
there be reëstablished in the fatherland a center from which the
Jewish spirit may radiate and give to the Jews scattered throughout
the world that inspiration which springs from the memories of a great
past and the hope of a great future. To accomplish this it is not
necessary that the Jewish population of Palestine be large as compared
with the whole number of Jews in the world. Throughout centuries when
the Jewish influence was great, and it was working out its own, and in
large part the world's, destiny during the Persian, the Greek, and
the Roman Empires, only a relatively small part of the Jews lived in
Palestine; and only a small part of the Jews returned from Babylon
when the Temple was rebuilt.
The glorious past can really live only if it becomes the mirror of a
glorious future; and to this end the Jewish home in Palestine is
essential. We Jews of prosperous America above all need its
inspiration. And the Menorah men should be its builders.
[Illustration: Signature: Louis D. Brandeis]
_THERE are two things necessary in the Jewish life of
this country. The one is an heroic attempt to organize
the Jews of the country for Jewish things. That can be
done, I believe, primarily through the organization of
self-conscious Jewish communities throughout the
country. The other thing necessary is, that we have
vigorous Jewish thinking. We need a theory, a
substantial theory, for our Jewish life, just as much
as we need Jewish organization. We need to have our
college men think their problems through without fear,
courageously, by whatever name their theories may be
known, be these theories called Zionism or
anti-Zionism, Reform Judaism or Orthodox Judaism. We
need some vigorous Jewish thinking._--_From a Menorah
Address by Dr. J. L. Magnes._
Menorah
By WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD
[Illustration: _WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD (born in New Jersey in 1876),
Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, is the
author of several volumes of verse and literary criticism which have
won high praise,--notably "Sonnets and Poems," "Byron and Byronism in
America," and "The Vaunt of Man."_]
WE'VE read in legends of the books of old
How deft Bezalel, wisest in his trade,
At the command of veilèd Moses made
The seven-branched candlestick of beaten gold--
The base, the shaft, the cups, the knops, the flowers,
Like almond blossoms--and the lamps were seven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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