mberlain; I have read with horror of the
Russian pogroms. You, who have suffered for ages under the fierce
contempt and hatred of fanatics, you who have at last reached this
haven of democracy and justice, let not the lesson of past sufferings
be lost; do not forget your brethren still in bondage; and your
brethren are those who are persecuted, all the world over, even as you
were persecuted. You ought to be foremost among those who labor for
equality and freedom. We have a right to count upon you in the fight
against all prejudices--prejudices of race and color, of class and
country, of caste and religion. The emancipated Jew must be an
emancipator.

I welcome the Menorah Society because, though devoted primarily to the
tradition of your people, it does not look exclusively towards the
past. Be rightly proud of the most unique and entrancing tradition in
the history of the world. Cherish it, hold fast to it, as a title of
nobility. The world has no respect for the man who does not respect
himself in his forefathers. The call to American citizenship does not
in the least imply the duty of forgetting that you are Jews: it is the
best Jews that will make the best Americans. But do not be hypnotized
by your past; be worthy of your ancestors by continuing their spirit
rather than aping their habits. Think of the problems of to-day and
to-morrow. Apply to human affairs your Biblical test of righteousness.
Then you will find that, with a slightly different coloring perhaps,
your aspirations are ours; our diverse evolutions, after centuries of
estrangement and conflict, tend towards the same goal; and in the
Menorah I see a sign of the coming harmony of sects and creeds, each
remaining passionately attached to its own past, but all working in
common towards the same future.

Finally, I cannot drive away from my thought the shambles of Europe.
Your co-religionists are fighting under all the belligerent flags, as
bravely, as loyally, as their fellow-citizens of a different creed;
and they have suffered more heavily in Poland than even the Belgian
martyrs. When one thinks of the carnival of murder to which the
idolatry of territorial, political patriotism has led, one cannot but
wonder whether the Jewish people throughout the world might not afford
an example for all to follow. In Judaism we have tradition, culture
and race dissociated from any special habitat or from any political
form; and this nation without a land, this nat