source, we must also show their pragmatic value for us to-day, and we must implant the love of them in the hearts of our children. We must not do as those
Bible critics who study the Bible for archaeology, anthropology, history or literature, and forget that the Bible is primarily not a work of science, of history, or of literature in the narrower sense, but of religion. The demands of the subject in Bible-study are that the Bible be taught from the religious point of view, while the child's demands are that it be closely co-related with his every-day life.
I have so far spoken only of the work of instruction in our Hebrew schools, but the school must do more than instruct. As in the house, so in the school, there must be an all-pervading Jewish atmosphere. The pictures on the walls should be on Jewish subjects, preferably by Jewish artists, and invariably in accord with Jewish conceptions. Due attention should be paid to the participation of the children in the public celebration of Jewish holidays with the appropriate ceremonies. The teachers should come into close personal contact with their pupils; should be come their confidants in the various difficulties which life among gentiles presents, and should encourage spontaneous expressions of their Jewish interests in the formation of junior Zionist societies, study circles and the like.
Above all, the school should try to keep its children as long as possible. At present we have no Jewish education that corresponds to the secular education in our secondary schools. This is most deplorable. During adolescence, when our boys and girls are most susceptible to all influences, good or bad, when the birth of new instincts in them demands a new adjustment in their ideals; when they are, so to speak, wandering in a spiritual maze and seeking a spiritual home, then it is that we turn them away from us. In so doing we are not only losing our opportunity of leading into Jewish channels that great access of energy and enthusiasm which is the glory of the youth, but we are forcing it into alien and frequently
hostile channels, where it may wipe out all that we have at so great an expense of time and effort impressed upon the plastic soul of the child.
But let us turn our attention now from the Hebrew school to some of our other educational agencies. The two that we have thus far considered, the home and the school, have exerted their greatest potency on the child; the next has been the greatest educational factor in the life of the adult. I refer to the synagogue. The synagogue has held this high position because it was the chief repository of Jewish culture and the center of Jewish social life; but the synagogue, like the school, has suffered from the inroads of alien culture, and in large part has lost its hold on the community. Not only has the assimilation movement which calls itself Reformed Judaism exercised the utmost vandalism in abolishing the Hebrew language, the readings from the Torah, the poetry, philosophy and religion of the Jewish liturgy, the wealth of ceremonial and ritual that has made the Jewish service so impressive, but it has introduced imitations of foreign worship, and has made the synagogue a sort of vestibule to the Unitarian Church. If the synagogue is to regain its ancient prestige, it must become once more the repository of Jewish culture that it was of old; nor this alone, but it must become Zionistic. For it is apparent that in order to preserve our Jewish identity in America, we cannot simply follow the path of least resistance, and, if we wish our people to persevere in the path of greater resistance, we must give them the hope of ultimate success. Naught else can give this hope than Zionism.
And this suggests the part that Zionist societies can play in the movement for a more vital Jewish education. Our Zionist societies ought not be content, as too many are, with being mere collection agencies for the Federation. They must give a forum for the discussion of all important Jewish problems of the day, and do their utmost to disseminate Jewish culture in all its forms. They should encourage the organization of societies for the cultivation