Finally, the work is significant because it seeks to represent the Jew in all lands, to paint Jewish life in all its diversity. Mr. Cohen, an Englishman intimately acquainted with conditions in his own country, travelled extensively on the continent in preparation for his task. But his knowledge of American conditions was derived from study of American books and newspapers, and from correspondence, instead of from personal experience. This accounts for such minor lapses, with regard to American conditions, as the statement that the Jews are "excluded from . . . . the principal hotels on the east coast of the United States" and hence "take their holiday in the well-known resorts of central and southern Europe" (p. 110). On the whole, however, the attempt to describe Jewish life in all its diversity, as it is lived by Jews in all lands, is crowned with marked success, and the author has ample justification for his claim that he has brought "within the covers of a single book the fullest description yet attempted of all the main aspects and problems of Jewish life in the present day."
The Various Aspects of Jewish Life
A MORE detailed statement of the scope and plan of the work may best be given in the author's own words. "First, a General Survey is presented, showing the dispersion and distribution of Jewry in its countless manifestations, its diversity of composition in political and spiritual respects, and the solidarity that unifies its disparate elements. Then follow five main sections, in each of which a leading aspect of life is investigated—the social, the political, the economic, the intellectual, and the religious. Under the Social Aspect are set forth the growth and constitution of the community, the characteristics and customs of the home, social life and amenities, morality and philanthropy, and racial and physical conditions. Under the Political Aspect are related how one-half of the people acquired civil equality, how the other half is still suffering in bondage, and what services Israel has rendered to so many countries in both their government and their defence. Under the Economic Aspect are reviewed the different spheres of commercial, industrial and professional activity in which Jews are engaged, the contrasts of material welfare and predominance of poverty, and the ceaseless currents of migration from the lands of bondage to the havens of refuge. Under the Intellectual Aspect are considered the advance made by secular education among the Jews, the nature of their national intellectual products in modern times, and the contributions they have rendered to the progress and culture of humanity. Under the Religious Aspect are described their ecclesiastical organization and administration, their traditional faith and observance and the growing divergences therefrom, and then the drift and apostasy that are assuming ever more alarming proportions. Finally, the resultant tendency of all the foregoing manifestations is examined under the National Aspect, the strength of the forces of assimilation and absorption is contrasted with the inherent force of conservation, and the realization of the Zionist ideal is urged as the most effective means of ensuring the perpetuation of Israel" (pp. viii-ix).
The purpose of the author is thus seen to be, first, to present the facts of Jewish life, and secondly, to offer an interpretation of them—"to depict the variegated life of the Jewish people at the present day in all its intimacy and intensity, and to trace the evolution that is being produced by modern forces" (p. viii). He is more successful in the first of these objects than he is in the second.
His shortcomings in interpretation, however, are negative rather than positive; they are due to omission rather than to commission. There is inadequate consideration of the philosophy of Jewish life; external description has crowded out internal analysis; the point of view is too largely objective. While, for example, the conclusion is reached that Zionism is the only permanent and adequate solution of the Jewish problem—with which we do not disagree—insufficient stress is laid upon the distinctive Jewish obligation in the Diaspora; the Jewish contributions to general culture and progress which the author enumerates with such concreteness and detail are not distinctively Jewish contributions. Even if Zion is the ultimate destiny of the Jew, he must, in the meantime, justify his separate existence among the nations; if he is to remain a Jew as well as a citizen of the world, his contribution must be that of a Jewish citizen; in addition to the general obligation of his citizenship, he must fulfil the special obligation of his Jewishness. But these deficiencies of interpretation, like the inadequacies of description arising from the impossibility of treating exhaustively so large a field within so narrow a compass, but reflect the inherent limitations of the task set himself by our author.
University of Michigan.
JEWISH STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
An Excerpt from Israel Cohen's Book, "Jewish Life in Modern Times," pages 105-106:
"It was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the Jewish students at any of the principal seats of learning were numerous enough to form a society of their own. The first organization was founded in 1882 in Vienna by Jewish students from Russia, Rumania, and Galicia, who entitled their society Kadimah, which means both 'Eastward' and 'Forward,' as an indication of the ideal of a resettlement in Palestine which they advocated. Since then, partly as a result of the advance of Zionism and partly as a result of the anti-Semitic attitude of the general students' corps on the Continent, separate societies have been formed by the Jewish students at almost every university at which they number at least a dozen, and are now found in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, France, and Holland. Some of these societies owe their existence simply to the exclusion of Jews from the general corporation, and they adopt a passive attitude on Jewish questions, but the majority are animated by the ideal of Jewish nationalism and actively foster the Zionist cause. The Jewish nationalist societies in Germany are grouped into two organizations, the 'Bund Jüdischer Corporationen,' founded in 1901, with a membership of over 600 (graduates and undergraduates), and the smaller, 'Kartell Zionistischer Verbindungen,' founded five years later, with a membership of 250. The Zionist students' societies in Holland were federated in 1908, but those in other Continental countries pursue an unattached existence. Established to assert and promote the principle of Jewish nationalism, these corporations have nevertheless adopted all the methods and conventions of German corporations; they each have their distinctive colors, and they hold 'beer evenings' at which the students sing spirited songs in swelling chorus around tables which they bang with their beer-mugs, presided over by officers who are accoutred in a gorgeous uniform and armed with a sword that does duty alternately as chairman's hammer and conductor's baton. But their songs tell not of Teuton valor but of Jewish hope, breathing the spirit of a rejuvenated people. Besides these convivial gatherings the members cultivate the study of Jewish history, literature, and modern problems, and also practice fencing so as to be prepared for any duel in which they might be involved in vindication of the Jewish name. The Jewish societies at the universities in English-speaking countries are not, like the Continental corps, the inevitable product of an unfriendly environment, but voluntary associations for the study of Jewish questions and for social intercourse. The Jewish students in England, and to a less extent in the United States, join the societies of their university; but their racial sympathies prompt them also to fraternize with one another. Thus, Oxford has its Adler Society and Cambridge its Schechter Society, whilst at both universities there is also a Zionist Society. Moreover, in the United States, 'Menorah' societies for the study of Jewish history and the discussion of Jewish questions have been formed at twenty-five Universities and organized into an Intercollegiate 'Menorah' Association with over 1000 members."