, but in inland towns, where the number of Israelite families is
limited, it becomes an impossibility to observe them. Nor do they deem
it necessary that all the ceremonies that time has collected around the
Jewish religion should be strictly observed. Those Israelites who
soonest adopt the customs of their new country soonest enjoy the
benefits which a free and liberty-loving nation offers."

Hirsch Bensef shook his head, doubtingly.

"Then you mean to imply that it becomes necessary to abolish those
usages in which one's heart and soul are wrapped!" he said.

"Not at all," answered the American. "There are thousands of Jews in
America as observant of the ordinances as the most pious in Kief. Yet it
seems to me that a Jew can remain a Jew even if he neglect some of those
ceremonials which have very little to do with Judaism pure and simple.
Some are remnants of an oriental symbolism, others comparatively recent
additions to the creed, which ought to give way before civilization.
What possible harm can it do you or your religion if you shave your
beard or abandon your jargon for the language of the people among whom
you live?"

"It would make us undistinguishable from the _goyim_," answered Bensef.

"The sooner such a distinction falls the better," said Philip. "You may
recollect reading in history that in the time of Peter the Great the
Russian nobility wore beards and the Czar's efforts to make them shave
their faces provoked more animosity than did all the massacres of Ivan
the Terrible. Now a nobleman would sooner go to prison than wear a
beard."

"We never read history," interposed the childish treble of Mendel. "If
we did we should know more about the great world."

"That is indeed a misfortune," said Philip, sadly. "Every effort to
develop the Jewish mind is checked, not by the gentiles, but by the Jews
themselves. Had I been allowed full liberty to study what and how I
pleased, I should never have been guilty of the excesses which drove me
from home. A knowledge of the history of the world, an insight into
modern science, will teach us why and wherefore all our laws were given
and how we can best obey, not the letter but the spirit of God's
commands."

The faces of the little group fell visibly. This was rank heresy. God
forbid that it should ever take root in Israel. Mendel alone appeared
satisfied. He was absorbed in all the stranger had to say. This new
doctrine was a revelation to him. But Philip di