From Dr. Kaufman Kohler
President of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati
AS you wander through the ruins of the Forum Romanum and are within sight of the Via Appia at the other end, your attention is riveted by an exquisite white marble arch wonderfully preserved. It is the Arch of Titus erected in memory of Rome's triumph over Judæa Capta. As you look closer at the trophies chiseled on this famous monument, you find there standing out most conspicuously the seven-armed candlestick carried by the Jewish captives, the Menorah, regarded, no doubt, by the proud victor as the most characteristic feature of the destroyed Jewish temple. Yet how strange! It seems to be almost a foreboding of the future dominion of the vanquished over the vanquisher. Israel's state, with its temple, Israel's nationality was trampled under foot by the Roman legions—Israel's religion remained unconquered, the light of its truth remained undimmed; nay, it grew brighter and stronger until the world was filled with its splendor. Little did the Emperor Vespasian dream, when he granted Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, the Jewish maker of learning, the privilege of building a schoolhouse at Jamnia as a substitute for the hall of the judiciary in the temple at Jerusalem, that this sanctuary of the Jewish law and what it represents would by far eclipse all the power and greatness of the Roman civilization. Yet this was symbolized by the Menorah. Whether originally intended or not, it was the emblem of Israel's mission of light. It indicated the task of the Jew, when scattered over the wide globe, to be a light to the nations, the religious luminary to the world. And if we be permitted to give a special meaning to the seven arms of light of the Golden Candlestick, we might find therein a suggestion of the lights of truth, justice and purity, or holiness, on the one side, and the lights of law, literature, and art, or wisdom, on the other, while the light in the center stands for religion, from which all the other lights emanated and for which the Jew throughout the centuries lived, suffered, and died, to preserve intact as mankind's highest treasure to the very end of history.
These ideas I would offer as greeting to the editors and readers of the Menorah Journal. The name "Menorah" was aptly chosen by the founders of the pioneer Menorah Society with a view to the two-fold task of the light-bearer, to enlighten a surrounding world, and to foster self-respect in the hearts of the Jewish students by spreading the light of Jewish knowledge among them. Now, if I understand correctly the purpose of starting a Journal as the organ of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, it is to give to these endeavors a more permanent and classical literary form, and thus successfully defend the cause of Judaism. Wishing this enterprise all success and Godspeed, I venture to express the hope that true to its name Menorah, the Journal will become a real banner-bearer of light not only dispelling clouds of doubt and of prejudice within and outside of our camp, but also aiming to spread the truth of Judaism in all its spiritual force and grandeur. Not nationalism, which in these days of a cruel world-war with its barbarism puts our much-vaunted modern civilization to everlasting shame and which has split the Jewish people also into warring camps, but Judaism as a religion, which notwithstanding the differences of its various wings as to form is in its essentials and fundamentals one, should be the watchword, for it is the light of the Torah that is both law and learning, religion and culture, which is to unify and consolidate all the forces of American Israel.
From Irving Lehman
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
