may be, it is evident that their influence is much larger than their number warrant, although that influence is not directed into Jewish channels. The number of Jews directly concerned in the upbuilding of Jewish causes, is lamentably inconsequential in view of their activities and their numbers, whether the estimate be 956,400 or over one million. If an investigation were made of the number of Jews actually interested in Jewish matters, it would be found that not over ten percent. were consciously aware of the fact that they were items in the Jewish estimate of the Jewish population.
The American Passport.
NOTHING has been heard during the month of negotiations with Russia for a new Treaty to take the place of the one denounced by the American government. On the American side, quiet and unconcern reign. On the Russian side, however, threats of reprisals, newspaper denunciations of the United States and the regulation Russian method of conducting diplomatic affairs, have taken up a notable part in the foreign news of the American press. The American Jewish Committee has considered its duty well done when the Treaty was denounced, and prefers to let the American government alone until the new Treaty is before the Senate. Until that time arrives, however, it will confine itself to other business of a less controversial nature. It is certain that if the United States remains firm in the stand it has taken and will demand the unqualified recognition of every American passport, then Russia will endeavor to postpone the consideration of a new Treaty, for the absolute recognition of the American passport means the eventual abolition of the passport question in Russia and thus the breaking of the Pale of Settlement. Russia, according to good authority, it is not in a position to inaugurate this reform. Absolutism is still unwilling to abdicate, and while the constitutional forces in the Empire are lacking in leadership and principles, the Czar and his sycophants will certainly not agree to the diminution of their-power.
The Failure of Brainin.
The cessation of Reuben Brainin's Hebrew weekly Haderor, after a brief strug-
gle, is deplored by every one interested in the development of Hebrew in this country. Mr. Brainin started under the most hopeful conditions. His name as an editor attracted hundreds who felt that under his direction the publication would stand for the best in Hebrew literature. Mr. Brainin received the support of all Zionists and could not complain that the workers in our ranks had not been active in the cause he represented. But unfortunately, Mr. Brainin, while generally acknowledged as an able journalistic writer, was unable to be both editor and business manager, and as a result, an enterprise begun under most auspicious conditions, fell after a strenuous effort had been made to continue it, in spite of the fact that its circulation was sufficient to maintain it, and its standing was of the best. The failure of Haderor is the failure of Mr. Brainin, not of the Jewish people to respond to the requirements of the situation. Mr. Brainin has left New York to take up the editorship of a Yiddish daily newspaper published in Montreal.
An Anti-Semitic Play on Broadway.
"THE Return from Jerusalem" by Maurice Donnay, was revived by Mme. Simone, the French actress now playing in English in New York, after a period of somnolence, for no reason that can be discovered except that it provides a part for the talented lady. Played in France after the Dreyfus affair, it created a disturbance because it fanned the embers of the dying Affaire. It contains one scene in which a number of Jews argue in what is considered Jewish fashion, and the leading character is a type which is a confusion of types more or less known among us, but which is seldom found interested in the "future" of their people. Rather, such types are as a rule cosmopolitan, entirely divorced from Jewish interests, and seldom proud of their derivation. Donnay makes his heroine a selfish and unconventional individualist, who prates of ideals that are not defined, but is at the same time tearful when she speaks of her unfortunate people, as she saw them, weeping at the broken Wall in Jerusalem. The impression one receives from the Jews who attend her "salon" is decidedly