les had to yield, and persecution
found itself powerless. His talent to grasp and appreciate the true and
the beautiful rendered him the oracle of the thousands who, to this day,
are proud to call themselves his disciples. To him Haskalah was not
merely acquaintance with general culture, or even its acquisition. It
was the realization of one's individuality as a Jew and a man. Gordon's
advice, to be a Jew at home and a man abroad, found little favor in his
estimation; for Haskalah meant the evolution of a Jewish man _sui
generis_. He equally abhorred the fanaticism of the benighted orthodox
and the Laodicean lukewarmness of the advanced Maskilim. To fight and,
if possible, eradicate both, he undertook the publication of The Dawn
(Ha-Shahar, Vienna, 1869), a magazine in which he declared "war against
the darkness of the Middle Ages and war against the indifference of
to-day!"

Not like the former days are these days, he says in his foreword
to Ha-Shahar. Thirty or twenty years ago we had to fight the
enemy within. Sanctimonious fanatics with their power of
darkness sought to persecute us, lest their folly or knavery be
exposed to the light of day.... Now that they, who hitherto have
walked in darkness, are beginning to discern the error of their
ways, lo and behold, those who have seen the light are closing
their eyes against it.... Therefore let them know beforehand
that, as I have stretched out my hand against those who, under
the cloak of holiness, endeavor to exclude enlightenment from
the house of Jacob, even so will I lift up my hand against the
other hypocrites who, under the pretext of tolerance, strive to
alienate the children of Israel from the heritage of their
fathers!

That the salvation of the Jews lies in their distinctiveness, and that
renationalization will prove the only solution of the Jewish problem, is
the central thought of Smolenskin's journalistic efforts. Jews are
disliked, he maintains, not because of their religious persuasion, nor
for their reputed wealth, but because they are weak and defenceless.
What they need is strength and courage, but these they will never regain
save in a land of their own. Twelve years before the tornado of
persecution broke out in Russia he had predicted it, and even welcomed
it as a means of arousing the Jews to their duties as a people and their
place as a nation, and that his conclusion was correct, the awa