to be
that, no matter where the races have lived or are now living, no
matter what stage of civilization they have passed through or have
reached now, no matter what influence non-Semitic races have exercised
upon them, they remain essentially the same. What are these features?
Who will formulate the precise standard by which a descendant of Shem
is unfailingly known and set apart from those of Ham or Japhet? When
we consider that we are pointed back for the meaning of Semite to
antediluvian times, that is to say, to one of the oldest myths of the
world, we must admit that it would indeed be the wonder of wonders if
a large section of mankind have a family likeness so clear that they
are marked off from the rest. And this, despite the long ages that
have passed since the supposed separation of the sons of Noah and
their wide dispersion; despite their triumphs and defeats in wars, in
state building, and church formation; despite the wide diversity
between them in their literature, their philosophy, their art, their
trades and industries. Are the Semites still characterized by the same
gifts and tendencies of mind and heart, ruled by the same passions,
subject to the same limitations, as were their ancestors in all their
generations?

Among them there is a fraction, and that fraction again scattered over
vast areas, in various states of civilization, and under diversified
kinds of governments, enjoying liberty and rights of citizenship in
the one, and groaning under relentless oppression in the other,--are
they still none other than Semites? Are they so permeated with Semitic
features that they can never amalgamate with their surroundings and
become full-weighted citizens of the state where they pitch their
tents,--offer them what inducements you may,--but must be kept at
arms length and treated as suspects? Has nature lost all her power in
this instance and become faithless to herself? Will the Hebrew child
not love the land of its birth and feel the kinship with the people
whose language and mode of life become its own? But why heap up
improbabilities and impossibilities? The designation fastened upon us
as a stigma was a fraud from the beginning, a conscious fraud and a
malicious invention. It was "conceived in mischief and brought forth
in iniquity." What was meant was not anti-Semitism, but
_anti-Judaism_; but that name had to be avoided because it implies
hostility to a religion and a creed; and that, again, might