Seven flames the arch illumine,
Mystic burnings, glowing strangely.

Then cast off their graven shackles
Judah's sons of beaten marble;
Living step they from the ruin
Living stride they to the Jordan.

They are healed in its waters,
Till the freshness of each dawning;
Then resume their ancient sorrow,
Perfect marble, whole and holy.

Dust of dust the wheeling seasons,
Grind that mighty arched splendor,
Raze the Gaul and raze the Roman,
Grind away their fame and glory,
The shackled Jews alone withstand them,
Stooped before the holy Menorah.

[Illustration: _MAX NORDAU (born in Budapest, 1849), world-famous
neurologist, author, and publicist, a Nestor among Jewish leaders, and
since Herzl's death the President of the International Zionist
Congresses. His books on "Degeneration," "Paradoxes," and other
volumes of social studies, have evoked world-wide discussion. In
sending the present article to The Menorah Journal from Madrid, where
he is now sojourning on account of the War, Dr. Nordau writes: "I wish
my words may not be dropped into deaf ears. You can do much to bring
them home to the consciousness and the conscience of leading American
Jews."_]

The Duty of the Hour

BY MAX NORDAU

WE are the people of the Messiah. We feel, we think Messianic. In all
situations of life, and particularly in the critical ones, we hope for
a miraculous event which will fulfill all our yearnings, and in this
hope we feel delivered of the manly duty to work for the realization
of our ideals, to prepare our salvation by our own efforts.

At this moment a large portion of Israel dreams once more a
particularly lively Messianic dream. Hundreds of thousands, millions
of Jews, indeed, have abandoned themselves to the expectation that at
the conclusion of the peace which will put a stop to the world's war,
the destiny of the Jewish people must take a miraculous turn. The
plenipotentiaries of the belligerent powers will assemble in a
conference or a congress to treat of the conditions of peace. The
conquerors will exact of the vanquished the price of their sacrifices
and return home with their booty in the shape of territorial
acquisitions and indemnities. And in the course of these transactions
the miracle will happen that a share will be apportioned to the Jewish
people to