declare Yiddish the national language all those shouts would be of no avail, for you cannot by proclaiming and crowning it to be supreme put a language on the throne. A national language rises by itself and from the work of generations which it embodies."
RACE CONSCIOUSNESS AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Dr. Franz Oppenheimer, the noted economist and Zionist, who is widely known as the champion of co-operative colonies, and whose plan for the establishment of a series of such colonies was adopted .at the last Zionist Congress, has just stirred up a lively controversy in the Zionist ‘world by an article published in Die Welt, under the title of “Stammesbeuwust sein und Volksbewustsein.” This article, which has brought forth a number of replies and protests from various leading Zionists, starts out with the proposition that the attitude towards Zionism of the Jews of Western Europe and the cultured countries where they enjoy equal rights, is entirely different from the attitude of the Jews of Eastern Europe, in. other words, the Jews of Russia and Roumania. The Jews of Eastern Europe, he thinks, are nationalist Jews because the nations among which they dwell do not accept them as brethren. The Jews of the West are only race Jews. They belong to the Jews racially, but nationally are identified with the nations with which they are politically affiliated. This race-consciousness can en- ‘dure much longer or will remain forever when one is a member of another nation. The American of German descent continues to be proud of his race, but nationally he is an American, and would even fight for America against Germany, though his race-consciousness makes him a friend of ‘the German Empire, and under ordinary circumstances imbues him with pride in his Gefman ancestry. Thus, Englishmen become Frenchmen and Frenchmen Englishmen, patriots of the people to which
they now belong, but proud of the ancestry and culture of the race from which they spring.
N METIOT Dr. Oppenheimer maintains that the race Jews of the free lands are Zionists not for themselves, but for the Russian or national Jews; they wish to ameliorate the conditions of those persecuted and ostracised Jew who, because of their sufferings, retain their nationality; but they themselves, that is, the race Jews, form no part of this nation, and only wish to help those others because those. others belong to the same race from which they sprang. This, he says, is not the despised, old-time philanthropic Zionism, for the race consciousness is strong enough to bring botlı kinds of Jews in close unity under such circumstances. He goes a step further, and declares that it would be for the best interests of the movement: if the Russian Zionists would accept this theory and publicly declare that Zionism need not and cannot do everything for the German, Frenchh English or American Jews. Should the Zionists agree to this, heavers, the Jews of all cultured lands would become Zionists; and, as a matter of fact, they are such already if one accepts the proposition that Zionism is only for the Jews of Eastern Europe.
Naturally, the publication of Dr. Oppenheimer’s theory has brought forth a large number of replies and refutations, and Die Welt continues to publish articles on the subject. As it was to be expected, most of the writers have opposed Dr. Oppenheimer’s new definition of Zionism. Among others, Dr. Max Nordau has written to Die Welt on the subject, and he stated .in unmistakeable terms that there is not and cannot be any difference between the Zionism of the Russian Jews and the Zionism of the Jews of Western Europe. _
LILIENBLUM ON RELIGION.
A recent number of Ha-Olam was entirely devoted to appreciations of the great champion of Jewish nationalism and dis-