ing in the
forthcoming deep transformations of the old world.

[Illustration: Signature: Dr. M. Nordau]

_From Dr. Moses Gaster_

_Chief Rabbi (Haham) Spanish and Portuguese Congregations of the
British Empire_

[Illustration]

I am glad to see that you have brought out again the Menorah from the
corner into which it had been thrust, that you have polished up the
old candlestick, nay, even more, that you have trimmed the wick and
poured the oil into the cup, that you are kindling a light which is to
dissipate the darkness spiritual, more dangerous, more terrible than
darkness physical. What our people really want is to be able to see
that light of truth, that light of hope, of humanity, of knowledge, of
idealism, which has been ours through the ages. We have never allowed
our lamp to be extinguished, whether it burned in a remote corner in
the ghetto, smoky, ill trimmed, even evil smelling; still there was
the light sufficiently strong to illumine the pages of the Torah and
the Talmud, even the pages of the writers of philosophy and science.
It was quite sufficient if one lamp was kept alight. This is the
greatness and the beauty of it,--that from one, one can kindle a
thousand.

There is no limit to which the light cannot reach and there will be no
limit, I hope, to the light which you will now spread. It will reach
the remotest corner of the universities and schools of learning, nay,
even more, it will bring everywhere a measure of knowledge and of
truth, and above all it will illumine and warm. It will reach the eyes
of those who have hitherto refused to see the beauty of their own past
and the greatness of their own future. They may then learn to live in
the present by the teaching of the past and by the hope of the future.
Make both known.

In conclusion, I can only express the wish that you keep steadily and
exclusively to Jewish questions, Jewish problems, Jewish learning.
Make your readers know what they can find in Jewish literature and
make the students of the various universities realize that in the
libraries of Europe and America there are vast treasures accumulated
which await the hand and the heart of the Jewish scholars. There are
great and grave problems which await solution and the field is
unlimited. Let them begin to till the ground of our own field, and
turn the furrows and sow the seed, and the golden harvest is sure to
repay them for their labor in the service of love and truth, and abo