r at
hand. Such a rejuvenated faith would mean an end of that homelessness
which is accountable for much of the Jew's displacement in the world's
life. And though the remedy has been intimate to him these many years
he has failed to make positive use of it. It is true that the Zionists
have been striving for a geographical base for Judaism. But a
geographical base is never more than an outward expression of a
people's unity; it is an excellent starting point, but as an end in
itself it is nothing. The Jews had a geographical base for their
start; thereby they were enabled to build up a unified result, the
Jewish spirit. It is this which, if recognized as a positive fact,
will take from the Jew his feeling of homelessness, and from his
neighbor the notion that the Jew is a member of a tribe forever
unestablished and purposeless. It is around a spiritual core that the
Jews as a people must build, around that central force which has thus
far held them intact.

_The Spiritual Service of the Jew_

AND never has there been a time, it would seem, when not only the Jews
themselves but the world at large were so ready for this
reconstruction. If in the very near future, as seems probable, the
Jews are again to play a prominent role in history, it will be more
largely through the pressure exerted by the world outside than through
their own initiative. Men are coming more and more to need what the
Jewish people, under certain conditions, are peculiarly qualified to
bestow. The period of materialism now undoubtedly coming to a close
has brought with it a heavy burden of discontent, and there has been a
turning from tangible comforts, a reaching out for spiritual
consolation. Under the rule of enlightenment religion has gone away,
and the world begins to feel its lack. One may not prophesy that
religion is soon to return, but the suggestion of its coming is in the
air. What the Jew will then be able to furnish may now be an open
question, but the great fact of his religion is undeniable. It should
be remembered that only in things spiritual has the Jew been able to
render world service; in material progress he has been able to do
little more than march with the rank and file. Should the Jew again
lead in the world, it must be in a time when the things of the spirit
are paramount in men's desires. With the hope that such a time is near
at hand, the Jew should retrim his lamp, in the faith that it may help
to illuminate much that