and lastly the Arab. And yet the active force is the Jew, 1. as the defender of Masada; 2, as the defeated of the Cypriote rebellion; 3, the victim of the Bar Cochba rising; 4, the revolutionist of 161; 5, the demarker of the boundaries; 6, the Galilean insurgent of 337; 7, the possible up- builder of the Temple in 362; 8, and aiding the Persian army in 614.
Here are eight events—six struggles after the fall of Jerusalem accomplished in 534 years and which cost at least 3,000,000 Jewish lives. They signify that at the end of the sixth century the Jew did not
feel that his nation was dead; six times on greater or smaller scales he fought for his independence; on one occasion he believed that he owned the land and on the other that he was able to restore its glories peaceably. If there is a blood sanction, it sanctifies Israel to Palestine; if there is a blood ownership, it is that of the Jew of Zion. True, the history that follows is the record of the Crusades and of the Moslem owners. But the Crusades passed away, and the Moslems stagnated. Palestine was, is—the Jew was, is—Destiny has put a seal on both—one day their union will take place and the light of the old Shechina will rest on both.
FROM the point of view of Jewish membership the present British House of Commons is the largest in the history of Great Britain. Since the completion of Jewish emancipation and the election to Parliament of Baron Lionel de Rothschild and Sir David Salamons, the House of Commons has never been without its Jewish members and each succeeding Parliament has seen their numbers slowly increase. The present Parliament, the first of the reign, opened with nine members who professed the Jewish faith. The General Election took place about five years ago and in that period three recruits have been made to the band. In addition one member, Mr. G. W. Wolff, of Jewish birth, although no longer a member of the community, was elected to Parliament as long ago as 1892.
*This article was written last September, but had to be delayed owing to a typographical accident. The recent elections have considerably changed the shape of the English Parliament. This article, however, has retained its former interest, presenting, as it does, a striking picture of Anglo-Jewish conditions,—THE EDITORS,
At the time of Jewish emancipation the overwhelming majority of English Jews belonged to the Liberal Party. A feeling of gratitude, justifiable or unjustifiable, to that party kept Anglo-Jewry within its ranks for a generation and Jewish candidates for parliamentary honours were invariable supporters of Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston. The policy of no party is ever immobile and in the course of time changes took place on both sides. The influence of Disraeli, the kinsman of all the great Anglo-Jewish families, was strong in the direction of the other party, that of the Conservatives, and in its support worked that powerful instinct of conservatism that is one of the fundamentals of Judaism and of Jewry. Still, it was not until 1874 that the first Jewish Conservative member of Parliament was elected in the person of Mr. Saul Isaac, for Nottingham and there are men still living who were among the solitary dozen Jewish Conservatives that the City of London, now a hotbed of Conservatism, Jewish and Non-Jewish, contained. Anglo-Jewry has travelled far since 1874. Of the nine members of Parliament elected five years ago, seven