The Maccabaean

Thanks to Mr. Zangwill, we all know now that America is the "melting pot" of nationalities. Many and varied are the races and languages which find shelter within her hospitable shores. For a while they may live on side by side together amicably; but their adopted country is all the time subjecting them to some subtle alchemy which gradually renders them indistinguishable from each other, fuses them into a common amalgam and imprints on all the stamp and title of American. And, says Mr. Zangwill, speaking particularly on behalf of the Jews, this is entirely as it should be; and the more readily they concur in this melting process and its results, the better it will be for them and for America.

Let us examine a little more closely the nature of this alchemy.

Unquestionably the chief element is it—if one may say so without offence— is the DOLLAR, the instrument of material comfort and well-being, and of the power to assist others. America is essentially a ‘‘dollar chasing” country, and the race for dollars is open to all entrants on much more equal terms than in any European country. In this field America offers on the whole la car- riere onverte aun talente, and we might say (to copy the words of Napoleon) that every clerk carries a millionaire’s bank book in his coat pocket. Small wonder, then, that everyone joins in the race, and that no false pride is exhibited in concealing or distorting the fact.

To characterize America as a "dollar chasing" country is not to cast any slur upon it or to assign to it any inferiority to the countries of Europe. To make the chasing of dollars the first object of the national life certainly implies a materialistic outlook; but it is consistent with a very high stage of humanity and civilization—two assets in which America undoubtedly shows a marked superiority over Europe. This, the higher side of American life, is secured to her by her religion. The im-

mense variety of sects in America may be in some of its manifestations a subject of merriment, but it shows the deep fund of religious feeling that exists in the people. And the fact that this divergence of sects has not in any way disturbed the peace of the country, or led to any bitterness or dissension, shows that all the churches must be agreed on some fundamental principle, by the side of which the points in which they differ are of minor importance. This principle, it is easy to see, is that of Theism or Unitarianism, the belief that God exists, and that there is only one God. Broadly speaking, this belief is held with much greater force throughout America than the other tracts which accompany it in the various churches; it is the thing on which preachers lay stress, and forms the great spiritual bond of union of the American people—the second great element in the alchemy of assimilation. Not unjustly does the American dollar bear the legend "In God we trust." The ethical principle is no less diffused through the nation than the material symbol, and is no less potent an influence in the national life.

How stands it with the Jews in the face of this assimilative pressure? Are they capable of being fused into the amalgam, and if so, is this the highest ideal that they can propose to themselves in the New World? To answer this question it is necessary first to divide the Jews of America into two main classes, according as the country of their origin is Germany or Russia. The Jews who have immigrated into America from Germany during the first half century have, as a rule, brought with them both the capacity and the desire to assimilate. They have on the one hand achieved considerable success in the hunt for dollars, and they have, in American Reformed Judaism, developed a kind of Theism which is fully worthy of the country, and in its ethical value quite on a level with the Theism of the Christian Church. The average "tem-