The project of the present volume had contemplated a lesser number of pages than it now includes, but it has been restricted to its present bounds only by eliminating much that was germane to its subject. The grand fabric of Jewish charity, whose broad expanse extends throughout the land, compassing every element of society, responsive to every call of humanity, expressive of every trait of civilization and conducive to every avenue of culture, has been adverted to but incidentally. In the field of philanthropic effort the Jewish citizens of the American Union may unhesitatingly claim to have built for themselves monuments more numerous and larger by far than their proportionate share; in this field the historic spirit of Judaism continues even increasingly to manifest itself. In this field and in this alone the Jewish spirit has been materialistic. Its forces have been directed not to saving souls by a change of creed, but by bettering the conditions of human existence. The great ideals of Judaism, the universal fatherhood of God, the universal brotherhood of men, and the direct responsibility of every human being to the Maker of all, have steadfastly been upheld, but its forces have not been exerted in striving to make good the seeming shortcomings of the Divine nature, but in striving to make good the essential shortcomings of our human nature, by alleviating the distresses arising from the constitution of society and by lessening the sufferings that are inevitably incident to the conditions of life. To this end the American Jewish citizens have organized a widely diversified system of relief for the sick and the needy, and while so doing have not restricted their efforts within denominational bounds, but have opened their doors and stretched out their hands to all humanity. Not alone, however, in dealing with conditions that are inseparable from the social system, but furthermore in dealing with such as are removable, in educating and lifting up those of the community who are in need of fostering care, in furthering the spread of intelligence and in raising the standard of citizenship, the Jewish people have been unceasingly active, and especially so in free America, where, as the foregoing pages have recorded, they have stood from the very beginning "shoulder to shoulder" with their fellow citizens of every creed, in every movement that has made for freedom and for liberty, for culture and for charity. And well they might. To no others of the Old World denizens was the New World more completely new; for no other people has the promise of the Columbian epoch been more completely fulfilled than for the Jews.

And, therefore, more especially while the closing years of the nineteenth century have seen its brilliant promise darkened by a broad shadow of the Middle Ages; while the ghastly tragedy that marked in Spain the opening year of American discovery is being rehearsed in Russia with all the effects of modern aggrandizement, we may not better close this book than with the grand apostrophe of the Columbian year that has been left us by the Jewish poetess, Emma Lazarus: