culties, and stimulating them to new endeavor, new achievement, the case is simple. Here Judaism is life, a real force, an element in the progress of man, a beacon of civilization, whether it institutionalizes itself in a chevrah, meeting-room, or in a magnificent temple. That there are some of whom this can be truthfully said is beyond cavil; but it is also true that the proportion of Jews of whom it can be said now is less than the proportion of ten years ago, which was less than that of twenty years ago, just as the proportion of today is undoubtedly greater than it will be ten years hence. We are confronted with a clear case of "diminishing returns." Not only is Judaism, regarded as such a force occupying each year a smaller and smaller segment of the whole, but it finds a lodgment in the least forceful or living elements of the people.
As for those who are caught by Judaism, as it were by an inescapable accident, ¢hey are the dying embers of what was once a devouring flame. They are not altogether without warmth, they have not been reduced to lifeless and inert ash; endeed, on occasion they can be fanned imo the semblance of a flame, but they are a spent fofce, whose future leads inevitably to the still and the motionless. As the field of golus Judaism contracts, the dying performs its only activity,—it stretches forth to occupy the ground abandoned. And tt is just among those in the throes of Jewish dissolution that the greatest capacity for civilization exists.
For the world at large Judaism has neither the full life of the one nor the fading warmth of the other. Were it not for the problems that the Jews present, Judaism could and would be ignored. The world averts its head, persuaded that it can lose nothing, and there is not sufficient force in Jewish ranks to arrest its attention. Our spiritual reserves are dry. We are on the way to silence. We cannot even praise the Lord.
One with some detachment of view could see in the recent spiritual history of the Jews the application of this analysis, however pessimistic it may appear. Modern culture threw itself across the path of ancient Judaism and blocked its way, though a stream trickled through here and there, and modern machiavellism sti- tiel Jewish body and soul for its own mean purposes. The close observer could have seen the marks of decay, if not of dissolution, writ large upon Jewish life and aspiration in every land. Judaism's propelling force had vanished; there was nothing to keep its movement ahead.
“Had vanished,”—yes; but vanished no longer. The decay has been arrested, and not by new doctrine, nor by access of religious inspiration, not by a new view of life, nor by atavistic 07, but simply through the gift of renewed energy, by the return of vigor. The renewed life is the contribution of Zionism, which has stayed the drooping Jewish spirit and made it militant. Never mind that it has not found itself religiously, or, in spots, may appear irreligious. It is young and healthy. Its very: superabundance of life betrays it into extravagance. It has growing pains. The stimulus 00 action is so great that it must act whether it knows how or not.
What a tremendous change is all this life from the previous peaceful and almost unobserved dissolutuion! Of the moribund nothing is to be expected, but for the living there is hope. A Jewish people fired with the passion and the faculty of life can achieve the impossible, can take its place among the factors of civilization, whereas failing powers only show the way to an inglorious tomorrow.
This is the great contribution of Zionism, life abundant, vigor, hope, strength, spontaneity, creative energy, and out of the strong may yet come forth honey.
It is no small thing to make a people live again.