rests in the necessity of some control and agreement between all the elements of modern Israel. Four such ideas, as, say, assimilation, Zionism, Itoism and local autonomy, can only fight one another to a standstill, if they really fought. We need a parliament to make a peace pact or to regulate the right of way. All Jewish congresses are merely spokes in a hubless wheel. We lose sight of the fact that
all general (non-Jewish) congresses, subconsciously at least, recognize and are dependent upon regular governments for the practical results which they seek to achieve. In the absence of that, all Jewish gatherings remain either passive or partisan in effect. Decidedly, support should be forthcoming for the parliament idea, if only to regulate the position of autonomies in Jewish economics and politics.
P A S S O V E R
A Talk to Our Boys, by S. P. ABELOW.
PASSOVER is the oldest Jewish holiday. It is associated with the beginning of Jewish history. It commemorates the successful struggle of the Jews against the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh of Egypt.
About 3,300 years ago the Jews lived in Egypt. They were treated like slaves by the Egyptians. They were forced to do hard work. Their children, the boys especially, were taken from them and killed. The king tried to crush their spirit as well as their bodies.
This condition of affairs lasted until there arose Jews and Jewesses who were determined to free their people and themselves from such slavery. Among these people were the brothers, Moses and Aaron, and their sister, Miriam. Night and day, regardless of their personal safety, did these pioneers of liberty work for the cause of Jewish salvation. And they succeeded in leading the Jews out of the land of oppression into a land of freedom and happiness.
Everyone is familiar with the events associated with this exodus. Every lover of liberty is and should be. Was not the American Revolution of 1775 an echo of that event? Were not the revolutionary movements which disturbed western Europe during the nineteenth century expressions of that event? Is not the present Russian revolution a manifestation of that spirit which moved our forefathers to raise the standard of liberty and equality against despotism ?
Passover is a beautiful holiday. It occurs
at a time when we break through our winter confinement and begin to feel the sweet influences of spring. It is a time when the housewife must make a general cleaning; old dishes must be replaced by new; every nook and corner of the house must be made spotless. It is a time of renewed joyfulness in life.
Alas for the irony of fate! The finest holiday has brought the Jew terrible times. From the middle of the thirteenth century to the present century the Jew has been accused of needing the blood of Christians with which to celebrate Passover. In 1255, in England, eighteen Jews were executed on such a charge. In Hungary, in 1529, thirty Jews were executed, and the child whom they were supposed to have killed for ritual purposes was returned after the execution. During the nineteenth century the Jews were accused of such charges thirty-seven different times. From 1144 to 1900, they have been accused one hundred and twenty-one different times.
Think of such terrible charges! Do you need Christian blood with which to celebrate your Passover? Did your father or grandfather or great grandfather need it?
The Jew and his Passover live and will live. Now, more than at any other time since the destruction of the second temple, does he feel and know the significance of this Passover. The Jew throughout the world has caught the spirit of his forefathers, of Miriam, of Aaron and of Moses. With a happy heart and a beaming countenance will he sit at the table and say, "The coming year in Jerusalem."