The Maccabaean

In these days of stupendous happenings, and of rapidly advancing universal progress, when mankind has begun to demand respect for human life and its inalienable rights, and when Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum becomes the watchword of civilized nations, the Jews find themselves passing through one of the most momentous periods in the history of the Diaspora. It is a time which has been unequalled in importance since the destruction of the Temple and the birth of Christianity,—a time in which it behooves us to review carefully our past history, analyze our present conditions, and find, if possible, its solution.

In retrospect one sees only a long history overflowing with pain, insane cruelties at the hands ot ınnumerable Torauemads, and the never-dying embers of auto-da-fes. One sees the Jew enduring foreign subjection and foreign oppression, which the history of no other nation can equal in atrocity. But, happily. one finds that “Behold a people dwelling by themselves, not counting themselves among the Gentiles” is as true to-day, after four thousand vears. as it was when Israel first pitched his tents on the mountain of Sinai. Upon reference to the history of the world. one finds that Israel alone may claim the endowment of that extraordinary individuality which has enabled him to withstand storms far greater than those which have threatened other peoples. now only memories of the past. For. older than anv of the existing nations of civilization, the Jews have kept themselves alive and maintained an

individuality for so many centuries of a homeless existence, amidst conditions the most adverse, only part of which would have sufficed to crush and annihilate the strongest of races. The great powers of the East, the centers of civilization in the ancient world, have passed from potent factors into nothingness. The Babylonian and his Persian successor, the world's former masters, have passed omt of existence. Rome, later, conquered the seemingly indomitable Greece. and there was no longer Greece. In turn, Rome was trampled upon, and forced to number herselt among the deceased nations of the world. And yet, although still deeplv smarting from the wounds inflicted upon him, and still bending beneath the yoke of never-dying oppressors, Israel remains to-day a nation in the full meaning of the term, except for the possession of a land. No one, unbiased and impvartial, can honestly and consistently deny this, and all assertions to the contrary have long since been exploded.

With archaeologist, ethnographer, religionist, and non-religionist alike, this miracle of Israel's preservation during a period of three thousand years, throughout a sequence of at least a hundred generations, has never ceased to arouse interest and admiration. That he has proven himself a nation during that time, survived the crucifixion of centuries, is surely not accidental. God's spirit still rests on history. The mission of Israel is at the root of the whole matter, and it is not too much to say that that ancient seat of our fathers, Palestine, with the infini-