modern Puritans and defenders of the submerged exemplars of social justice that will give us a new repute as the linear descendants of the great Prophets. We have come out of Egypt, out of the ghetto; we have emerged from many stages of servitude. Hearken also to the Prophet's cry to "return, oh, backsliding Israel!" I would say to the Jews, at the one end, "We cannot be saved by assimilation." I would say to the Jews at the other, "We cannot be saved by culture." Let us listen again to the old summons. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, the servants whom I have chosen to be a light to the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring from the prison those who sit in the darkness." As a mission, we need ask no more than that; with less than that let us never, never be satisfied.
The Ghetto-Jew
I marked in the midst of the glittering throngA figure all bent and retreating;His raiment was shabby, and bearded his face,His gaze was bewildered and fleeting;And they whose drossiness glared through the giltGuffawed a contemptuous greeting.
Intently I peered in his time-lined faceAnd read there his marvelous story:His brows were large with the wisdom of pain,His locks by affliction made hoary;A memory lurked in the depth of his eyes,A prayer and a vision of glory.
A mem'ry aglow with the splendors of old, A prayer of patience and yearning; And a vision of Home that gleamed in the dark Through ages of weary sojourning; Yet they of the gilded and glittering throng Had naught but derision and spurning!
He folded a dream to his quivering heartAnd nursed it through vigils of ages;He gave it the blood of his life to absorb,Yet mockery now is his wages!Shall this be the word his story to close?A jeer be the last of its pages?