_From Dr. Max Nordau_
_Madrid, Spain_
[Illustration]
I hail most cordially the appearing of THE MENORAH JOURNAL with the
noble and impressive program which you develop. It shows your
consciousness of the new duties of the rich, free and powerful
American Jewry, your readiness to assume fully the moral
responsibilities which your privileged position imposes upon you, and
your comprehension of the needs of the present hour. Your journal
seems the promising beginning of that organization in which we are so
sorely wanting and without which we will achieve nothing in the
forthcoming deep transformations of the old world.
[Illustration: Signature: Dr. M. Nordau]
_From Dr. Moses Gaster_
_Chief Rabbi (Haham) Spanish and Portuguese Congregations of the
British Empire_
[Illustration]
I am glad to see that you have brought out again the Menorah from the
corner into which it had been thrust, that you have polished up the
old candlestick, nay, even more, that you have trimmed the wick and
poured the oil into the cup, that you are kindling a light which is to
dissipate the darkness spiritual, more dangerous, more terrible than
darkness physical. What our people really want is to be able to see
that light of truth, that light of hope, of humanity, of knowledge, of
idealism, which has been ours through the ages. We have never allowed
our lamp to be extinguished, whether it burned in a remote corner in
the ghetto, smoky, ill trimmed, even evil smelling; still there was
the light sufficiently strong to illumine the pages of the Torah and
the Talmud, even the pages of the writers of philosophy and science.
It was quite sufficient if one lamp was kept alight. This is the
greatness and the beauty of it,--that from one, one can kindle a
thousand.
There is no limit to which the light cannot reach and there will be no
limit, I hope, to the light which you will now spread. It will reach
the remotest corner of the universities and schools of learning, nay,
even more, it will bring everywhere a measure of knowledge and of
truth, and above all it will illumine and warm. It will reach the eyes
of those who have hitherto refused to see the beauty of their own past
and the greatness of their own future. They may then learn to live in
the present by the teaching of the past and by the hope of the future.
Make both known.
In conclusion, I can only express the wish that you keep steadily and
exclusively to Jewish questions, Jewish problems, Jewish learning.
Make your readers know what they can find in Jewish literature and
make the students of the various universities realize that in the
libraries of Europe and America there are vast treasures accumulated
which await the hand and the heart of the Jewish scholars. There are
great and grave problems which await solution and the field is
unlimited. Let them begin to till the ground of our own field, and
turn the furrows and sow the seed, and the golden harvest is sure to
repay them for their labor in the service of love and truth, and above
all of devotion to Judaism.
[Illustration: Signature: M. Gaster]
_From Norman Bentwich_
_Professor of International Law, School of Law, Cairo, Egypt_
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You are indeed happy in the moment of your appearance. I am not of
those who regard this world war as a terrible catastrophe. I can see
in it with God's grace the preparation of a great uplift of humanity
and especially the coming of redemption for Israel. But the more
glorious the vision of the future the greater the need of light, and
more light, to illuminate the present and to enable the young
generation to advance steadily towards the vision and make it reality.
That is what I believe the function of THE MENORAH JOURNAL to be, and
your first number is an earnest of the sincerity of your aim and the
goodness of your means.
The Jewish people stand on the brink of a new era in which they are to
resume their true function of the spiritual teacher of mankind. And
American Jewry, it is a truism to say, has a vital and a leading part
to play in moulding the destiny of the Jewish people. So we may adapt
the old Rabbinic saying: "He who saves the soul of a single Jewish
student is as though he saved the world." THE MENORAH JOURNAL in
holding up the light of the Jewish spirit to the young men and women
of America is doing the work of humanity.
May I express the hope that the Menorah Societies will direct the gaze
of their members to the land of promise and the land of the prophets,
where the inspiration of Judaism has always come and whither the hopes
of Jewry have always turned. Living as I do, in the reflection of
Palestine as well as in the shadow of the Pyramids, I am very
conscious of the need for a continued Passover from the ideas of the
various Egypts that beset the Jewish people to the message that calls
us, in spirit if not in body, to the land of our fathers. To-day in
Palestine the light has begun to shine brightly again. Judaism has
relit there its prophetic lamp, which in centuries of stress and
darkness has never been permitted to fade away altogether. In our own
time the Menorah has been re-established in the Temple of the land by
a new band of Maccabees. But a single branch, so to say, of the seven
branches as yet shows its clear light. But if the Jewish youth wills
it, the whole Menorah may be lighted and shine full and clear to the
world with fresh lustre. In our day there may be a new Hanukka, a
rededication of the Hebraic light--if only we will it.
[Illustration: Signature: Norman Bentwich]