are islands of social jollity in the desert of urban strife.

In bold contrast to these ardent devotees of nationalism, the Jew, the
man of no country and of all countries, is an American immigrant still
to be considered. By force of circumstance he became a city dweller;
he came from the European city; he remained in the American city; and
all attempts to colonize Jews on the land have failed. The doors of
this country have always been open to him. At the time of the
Revolution several thousand Jews dwelt in American towns. By 1850 the
number had increased to 50,000 and by the time of the Civil War to
150,000. The persecutions of Czar Alexander III in the eighties
swelled the number to over 400,000, and the political reactions of the
nineties added over one million. Today at least one fifth of the ten
million Jews in the world live in American cities.

The first to seek a new Zion in this land were the Spanish-Portuguese
Jews, who came as early as 1655. They remain a select aristocracy
among their race, clinging to certain ritualistic characteristics and
retaining much of the pride which their long contact with the Spaniard
has engendered. They are found almost exclusively in the eastern
cities, as successful bankers, merchants, and professional men. There
next came on the wave of the great German immigration the German Jews.
They are to be found in every city, large and small, engaged in
mercantile pursuits, especially in the drygoods and the clothing
business. Nearly all of the prominent Jews in America have come from
this stock--the great bankers, financiers, lawyers, merchants, rabbis,
scholars, and public men. It was, indeed, from their broad-minded
scholars that there originated the widespread liberal Judaism which
has become a potent ethical force in our great cities.