versation that while they do not care for the Judaism of sect and synagogue, they are Jews spiritually, nevertheless. There is an intellectual searching among them. They want something large—something ideal. This search for the ideal shows moral growth. In this search the Jews are bound to forget that they are Roumanian, Russian, German, Galician or Austrian Jews. They will become just Jews and will be one people. Then they will be ready to do big things. The men of culture will show the masses the way to culture, and in this way the level will be raised. I expect a great deal from America. Everything is done on such a large scale as the country is so large. No one can tell what America will do next. It is a new country with enormous possibilities. Of course the Jews in America, in addition to doing things for themselves, must help the Jew in other lands. They must help create a cultural center in Palestine. There is new life in that part of the world and the Jews are going to play an important role there. The Jews in America ought to help the Jews who desire to establish institutions which shall convince the Young Turks that they need the Jew in the regeneration of their country.
The larger future of the Jews consists in his keeping his identity. There is something original, something peculiarly Jewish that the Jews can and must contribute to the world’s culture. It can only be done if the Jews preserve their identity as a people. So much Jewish genius goes to waste in the effort to adapt themselves to various cultures. If we had a culture of our own we could do a great deal more for humanity. By working in our own vineyards we would help the world at large. By improving ourselves we would improve humanity. The Jew must become a man and the man must become a Jew. America, where the Jew is a free citizen, must show the way toward the realization of this ideal. America can do it better than any other country.
Death of Benno Leon
A tragedy is concealed in the following notice:
"Benno Leon, a native of Jerusalem, who came from the Holy Land about three years ago to attend the Hebrew Union College, but who, owing to a nervous breakdown, had been confined in the Jewish Hospital for several weeks, died in Cincinnati last week. Leon contributed a series of very fine descriptive articles of Palestine to THE MACCABAEAN, and was also an occasional contributor to The American Hebrew. He was an ardent Zionist."
Mr. Leon is the second student of this institution who has suffered from neglect, isolation, poor physical condition, and finally, mental decay and death within a year. The conditions that have helped these young men to an early grave are still unchanged, even in the slightest degree—and Has veshalom!
According to the Mosaic Law, if a man were found dead near a Jewish community, the elders were forced to testify, "Our hands have not shed this blood and our eyes have not seen it." (Deut. xxi, 7). And Jewish tradition adds this explanation: "Is it reasonable to suppose that elders of a court would shed blood? The point is not that they had not neglected the unfortunate after their attention had been called to his needs."
No doubt the elders of the College can say "Yadenu lo' shaphehu et ha-dam ha-sch" although they have recently held themselves out as responsible for his actions to the extent that they could even refuse him, as a student, permission to speak at a Zionist meeting on that basis. Though I truly hope that they will never lose their right to proclaim their innocence, there is an unconscious but solemn warning in a letter addressed to me by Mr. Leon a few days before his death, perhaps the last letter he ever wrote. After describing how his health had been wasting away, largely as a result of some delusion of his