were this _rapprochement_. We must neither
of us abandon our birthright. We must be the very best Puritan
Anglo-Saxons we possibly can, and you must be the best Jews possible,
for out of these component elements American citizenship is made up.
This country stands for the dropping of old prejudices, such as those
that are inflaming Europe now with war. If we can satisfy each other's
ideals and meet half way the thing is done, and the melting pot which
America stands for has got in its work. I want the Menorah Society to
feel that it is in the van of this movement.

[Illustration: Signature: G. Stanley Hall]

"Golden Rule" Hillel

BY MOSES HYAMSON

[Illustration: _MOSES HYAMSON (born in Suwalki, Russia, in 1863, came
to England in childhood). Rabbi and jurist; educated at Jews' College
and University College of London; for thirteen years Senior Dayan of
the London Beth-Din (Jewish Court of Arbitration), in which capacity,
because of his erudition in both the Jewish and the common law, he
rendered notable service to the British community. In 1913 he accepted
a call from the Congregation Orach Chayim of New York. Besides being a
contributor to the Jewish Quarterly Review and other learned
publications, Dr. Hyamson has published "The Oral Law and Other
Sermons" (1901), and an annotated edition of the medieval "Collatio
Romanorum et Mosaicarum Legum" (1912)._]

As the students and teachers in the famous school of Shemaya and
Abtalion assembled for worship one wintry Sabbath morning, they were
astonished to find their lecture-hall exceptionally dark. On looking
up they descried what seemed to be a human form lying prone across the
skylight. Willing feet ascended the roof and willing hands swept away
the snow from a young lad's half-frozen form. They brought him down,
and although it was the holy Sabbath, kindled a fire to revive the
chilled body. "Worthy is Hillel," they exclaimed, "that the Sabbath
should be desecrated for his sake!"

So runs the Talmudic tale. The incident happened in Palestine in the
century before the common era. The boy Hillel had come from his
obscure home in Babylon, bent upon study at the most famous school in
Palestine, whose teachers, Shemaya and Abtalion, were heads of the
Synhedrion, the Supreme Court of Jurisdiction. Poor and proud, Hillel
supported himself by manual labor while he was securing his education.
Like Abraham Lincoln, he was a woodchopper. One half of the small
amount