The Maccabaean

IT is about fifteen years since I formed one of an audience assembled at the London Jews' College Literary Society. The occasion was the reading of a paper by the late Dr. Asher, the first Secretary of the United Synagogue, London. The library apartments of the Jews' College which then had its locale in Tavistock House,—the historic home of Charles Dickens—were crowded to excess. The literary society was then in the early flush of a successful career. Many of the papers read there were of exceptional merit ; they were scholarly and original and the debates on them were always lively, animated and sometimes entertaining. Looking back on the fifteen years that have passed, one can easily discern that these meetings were the beginning of that renascence which has since made such great strides in the domain of Anglo-Jewish scholarship.

On the evening of which I speak the interest of the crowded rooms was divided between the lecturer — a cultured and brilliant scholar and man of affairs — and two visitors present for the first time in London. Both have since become well known and distinguished. The first of the twain — they both hailed from Roumania — was Solomon Schechter, the accomplished Hebrew professor at Cambridge, a scholar who had found his way to England and had made his debut to the public in a learned article on the Talmud which appeared in the Westminster Review. Schechter in those early days was a striking and picturesque personality. Utterly unconventional in manner, with a shock of hair that made him look like Samson before his locks were shorn, and large dark eyes in whose depths shone the large solemnity of Israel's night, Schechter stood out and moved in an orbit of his own. His face was a perfect study of ever swaying emotions which lit up the power and character of his strongly marked intellectual and emotional features. His speech was an echo from an underworld of Yeshibahs. And his rich racy brogue was strongly redolent of ultra Chassidic circles. Woe to the speaker who misquoted or in any way swerved from the path of accepted scholarship ! Schechter would roll down upon the

unfortunate wight an avalanche of authorities, the Sifra, the Sifri, the Pesikta, the Mechilta, and as much more as the occasion may have demanded.

The other Roumanian whose presence made that gathering so memorable was Dr. Moses Gaster, the present Haham of the Sephardic community in London and the greatest Zionist leader in England. Of brilliant scholarly attainments, he had, although quite young, been appointed to a Professorship in the University of Bucharest and had lectured before the King in person. It was the time when anti-Semitism had crested the waves of European politics, and nowhere more than in Roumania was the old fanatical hatred against the Jews so much inspired by it. The popular and gifted Roumanian scholar was the first to feel its effects, for the government officials were desirous of aiming high and Gaster was chosen as a victim more on account of his talent and position than for any in- termeddling with politics. Gaster came over to England and the story of his exile roused a popular wave of sympathy in his behalf. When he rose to speak, he was received with a tremendous outburst of applause—a demonstration against the tyranny and persecution of the Roumanian Government. In contrast to his compatriot, Gaster spoke with the natural ease and grace of a polished orator. The literary style of his periods, and his choice diction fell upon the ear with an agreeable feeling. But what was more, in every word he spoke there was the spirit and the training of the scholar and all his facts and illustrations were drawn from the rich treasure-store of a well read and cultivated mind.

It was inevitable that Gaster should find an ample field in England for the exercise of his talents, but few there were who would have foretold that the mantle of the ancient Sephardic Rabbinate would fall upon him. The Spanish and Portuguese community in London has lost considerably of its former splendour and virility. They have lost in prestige and decreased in numbers, besides which many of the oldest families have affiliated with the Reform and the united Synagogues. Gaster therefore came into