enorah movement
may be considered as supplementary to the University
Addresses printed in Part II of_ THE MENORAH MOVEMENT
(1914) _and in the first number_ (_January_, 1915)
_of_ THE MENORAH JOURNAL.

PROFESSOR ALBERT LEON GUERARD OF THE RICE INSTITUTE

_Before the Rice Institute Menorah Society, November 29, 1915_

IT is my privilege to welcome the Menorah Society in the name of the
non-Jewish element and of the Faculty of the Rice Institute. When I
was requested to do so, I accepted at once and with pleasure. I am in
hearty sympathy with the purpose of the Menorah Society. I am a
teacher of French; but I should consider myself unworthy of my calling
if, behind the words of a foreign language, I did not attempt to show
the civilization of a people, their soul, their ideal. Now, what I am
attempting to do for French, the Menorah plans to do for the
traditions, the problems, the aspirations of the Jewish race. And
although I believe that the people which gave to the world Saint
Louis, Joan of Arc, Calvin, Descartes, Pascal, Rousseau, Pasteur,
Victor Hugo has left its imperial imprint upon the whole of modern
civilization, yet I cannot but be conscious of the prior and higher
claims of that strange family of whose blood Moses, Jesus and Spinoza
were born. Judaism and Hellenism, said Renan, are the twin miracles of
human history. The artistic and philosophical primacy of the Greeks is
not so striking as the religious primacy of the Hebrews. The worship
of beauty is a less vital element than the undying quest for
righteousness. The whole fabric of our culture rests on those
Judeo-Hellenic foundations. And surely a university would be false to
its name if it did not include among its courses the study of Jewish
literature and Jewish history. The Rice Institute is young, and will
not reach its full stature for many a decade; all branches of
knowledge cannot be taken up at the same time. But the place which
Judaic studies ought by right to have in the curriculum will be at
least indicated and kept in mind by your Menorah Society.

I heartily welcome the Menorah because, open to Jews and Gentiles
alike, it will help us break down the barrier of prejudices which
still separates the two elements. I have seen with my own eyes the
tragic effects of such prejudices: I was in Paris at the time of the
Dreyfus case; I have seen how they warped the thought of scholarly
men, like Houston Stewart Cha