work of Menorah Societies partakes largely of the spirit
of the class-room and the lecture-hall, the pursuit of Menorah aims
expresses itself incidentally in sociable ways as well. Smokers,
dinners, pageants, literary and dramatic evenings, testify to the
pleasure which the members find in their association together for
Menorah purposes.

Menorah Societies, however, do not assume the character of social
organizations. Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, not exclusive;
they promote democracy, mutual respect, and understanding between
different types of Jewish students who have often in the past retained
toward one another the prejudices of their elders. The Menorah
fellowship expresses and promotes the common sentiment of all students
who have come to appreciate Jewish knowledge and ideals, who accept
their common Jewish heritage and Jewish hopes. In other words, where
in the past snobbery and spinelessness were not lacking among Jewish
students at our universities, there has grown up now a spirit of
democracy and of manly frankness, which has not escaped the
observation of older men, both within and without the universities.

But these qualities in the Jewish students of to-day have merely been
revealed by the Menorah movement. The movement has definite moral
purposes of its own. The Menorah idea embraces not merely the study
but the enhancement of the Jewish heritage. And this requires not
moral enthusiasm alone, but vision and action. To accomplish their
full purposes, the Menorah Societies endeavor to inspire their members
with the will to throw themselves into the heart of Jewish life, to
join hands with other men in the active effort to advance its
interests and solve its problems.

While this participation in Jewish life must be the personal outcome
of Menorah enthusiasm and activity--as indeed has been proven already
among students and graduates--the Menorah organization, as such,
maintains its non-partisan character. A Menorah Society is neither
orthodox nor reform, neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but rather an
open forum for presenting and discussing every point of view, a forum
hospitable in true academic spirit to the open-minded pursuit of
truth.

VI

IN sum, the Menorah movement represents an organization and an idea.
If the organization has grown in extent and importance beyond the
fondest expectations, it is because the idea, conceived by students
and carried out by them, has found a welcome