ntionally, though not quite accurately, designated as German
Jews, brought over with them the theses _Diaspora_ as against
_Palestine_, and _Religion_ as against _Nationalism_. The immigrants
from Eastern Europe, the children of the Ghetto, who with equal
inaccuracy are termed Russian Jews, carried with them the antitheses
_Palestine_ as against _Diaspora_ and, as represented by the
extremists among them, _Nationalism_ as against _Religion_. The
fanatics of Diaspora Judaism and of Judaism as a pure faith are to be
found exclusively among the "German" Jews. The radical adherents of
Palestine and of Jewish nationalism are recruited entirely from the
ranks of "Russian" Jews.

These issues were of particular and immediate significance for the
Jews in this country; for America has, in less than one generation,
become the second largest center of the Jewish Diaspora, and bids fair
to become the first, instead of the second, within another generation.
No other country in the world offers, even approximately, such a
favorable combination of opportunities for the development of a
Diaspora Judaism, as does America: economic possibilities, vast and
sparsely populated territories, freedom of action, liberty of
conscience, equality of citizenship, appreciation of the fundamentals
of Judaism, variety of population, excluding a rigidly nationalistic
state policy, and other similar factors. It is no wonder, therefore,
that in no other country did Reform Judaism, as the incarnation of
Diaspora Judaism, attain such luxurious growth as it did in America.
It discarded, more radically than in Europe, the national elements
still clinging to Judaism, and it solemnly proclaimed that Judaism was
wholly and exclusively a religious faith, and that America was the
Zion and Washington the Jerusalem of American Israel.

_The Opposition: The Palestinian Sentiment of Russian Jews_

ON the other hand, the emigrants from Russia brought the antithesis on
the scene. They quickly perceived the decomposing effect of American
life upon Jewish doctrine and practice, and they became convinced more
firmly than ever that Diaspora Judaism was a failure, and that the
only antidote was Palestine and nothing but Palestine. The
nationalists among them beheld in the very same factors in which the
German Jews saw the possibilities of a Diaspora Judaism, the chances
for organizing Jewry on purely nationalistic lines. Nowhere else,
except perhaps in Russia, can be f