torehouse of historical
literature.

Hebrew history has been of great importance in the early history of
our country. The early settlement in America was due to the same
causes as the settlement of Canaan by the Hebrews. To the Pilgrim
Fathers the Old Testament was a supporting hand and a guide for them
in all matters. They took the Jewish theocracy as their model of
government and, in the measure that they patterned after a good model,
they achieved good results. So largely are the early history and
institutions of the United States a copy of Jewish institutions that
the spirit of the American people both before and after the Revolution
cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of Hebrew literature.
These early settlers were imbued with spirit and desire for the best
in life by reading the Bible. It was their one book, and "a man of one
book makes a strong man." And perhaps it is the Old Testament rather
than the New Testament the knowledge of which is of greater
consequence for the best understanding of the peculiar conditions of
the early American people.

Therefore I welcome your Society first because it represents something
which has done much for learning in our great centres of learning, the
universities; and second, because as Americans, Jewish history means
much to us in understanding the early development of our own country.

II

CHANCELLOR ELMER E. BROWN _of New York University_

_Before the Menorah Society of New York University, May 12, 1914_

[Illustration]

IT seems to me that it is not only of value to the Jewish students,
but to the whole university, that there should be a body here devoted
to the study of Jewish tradition, Jewish literature and Jewish
history. You are emphasizing something that is of permanent value to
your associates here in the University who are not of the Jewish race
and the Jewish faith. The Christian Church finds in the Jewish
Scriptures some of the finest and most precious of the things it
cherishes from the religious point of view. Our civilization in these
occidental countries is deeply indebted to the history and the
literature of the Jewish race. From time to time that indebtedness
comes to stronger expression, and we may expect that in the future the
sense of that indebtedness of our whole people to that which is the
immediate concern of the Menorah Society will be more keenly felt.

If you go back in the history of this country you will find a time
when o