nations in whose midst they lived,
modern Jews were ready, and thought they were compelled, to deny the
national character of Judaism. The Jews were now labelled as Germans
or Frenchmen of the Mosaic persuasion, who were divided from their
fellow-citizens by the purely spiritual affiliations of religious
faith--the same affiliations which divided the Christian population.
Here, too, Reform Judaism was quick to meet the demands of practical
life. It began to chop off all the elements in Judaism which betrayed
a national character, both in the domain of doctrine and of practice,
though it halted half way, and down to this day still acknowledges, in
flagrant contradiction with its own theory, a number of rites and
ceremonies which bear an unmistakable racial imprint.

This transformation of Judaism, or rather this transformation of
Jewish terminology--for, in many cases, it was merely a question of
terms--was greatly stimulated by the development of nationalism in
Western Europe, where the structure of the modern state excluded, or
was thought to exclude, a diversity of nationalities, while the
principle of religious toleration left enough room for a variety of
religious beliefs. As a result, those Jews who lost their religious
affiliations were bound to feel that they were outcasts in the
religious community of Israel: they became either _konfessionslos_ or,
by a curious perversion of logic and conscience, became members of the
dominant faith.

_The Rapprochement of Religionists and Nationalists_

THE thesis "Judaism as Religion" was followed by the antithesis
"Judaism as Nationalism." It is interesting to observe that the
antithesis came from the Jews of Eastern Europe who, in their
overwhelming majority, were adherents of strict orthodoxy. Those Jews
of Russia and Poland who had drifted away from their religious
moorings were neither psychologically nor physically in a position to
abandon Judaism: psychologically, because they were too strongly
saturated with Jewish culture and Jewish associations to tear
themselves away from the influence of Judaism; physically, because
they were excluded from participating in the life of the environment
and were forced to remain within the fold. Living as the Eastern Jews
did in compact masses, they found it easier, both in theory and in
practice, to emphasize the national aspect of the Jewish community. As
a result, a doctrine sprang up which looked upon Jewry as an
essentially