of the tongue has been altered by Jewish use so that its
spiritual quality has taken on the quality of the race that uses the
tongue, and its literary kinship has become Hebraic.

Again, there is this whole mass of neo-English, neo-Russian,
neo-German literatures which, written by Jews, deal with the life of
the Jews, with their interests and character. This is not religious.
What is its relation to Jewry? Yet again, there is any number of
Jewish individuals, among whom I must count myself, who find it
impossible to adjust their consciences with any official type of
theological doctrine, who are interested in discovering the truth, and
are compelled to acknowledge that no truth has been discovered
finally, once and for all; there are hundreds and thousands such. What
is to be their relation to their people if Jews are to be considered
members merely of Judaistic sects? Yet Jews they are, and if they do
not contribute directly to Judaism, they do contribute to Hebraism.

Hebraism stands not for that particular expression of the Jewish mind,
religion, but for all that has appeared in Jewish history, both
religious and secular. The term Judaism stands for that partial
expression of the Jewish genius which is religious.

_The Ethical Motive of Judaism_

It has been said that the genius of the Jew is entirely religious. I
do not think that that is historically a demonstrable proposition. For
the dominant motive even in Judaism is not a religious motive. It is
an ethical motive. Judaism does not conceive its God as requiring man
to be damned for his glory. It conceives its God as an instrument by
the worship of whom "thy days may be lengthened in the land."
Righteousness and not salvation is the aim even of the Jewish
religion. Hebraism is the name for this living spirit which demands
righteousness, expressed in all the different interests in which Jews,
as Jews, have a share--in art, science, philosophy and social
organization and in religion. Hebraism, hence, is a wider term than
religion and its continuity embraces, but is not embraced by, the
continuity of religion.

Now the Harvard Menorah Society, taking this fact into consideration,
made use, because of the tradition of English usage, of the term
"Hebraic." It recognized that since Hebraism is more comprehensive
than Judaism, many people might be Hebraists who are not and need not
be Judaists. It refused to exclude them from a share in Jewish life
and an opport