In ancient times, nationality and state were identical. The destruction of the state always involved the destruction of the nationality. This was, in fact, the case with many peoples whose states were destroyed by . Only the Jews are an exception to the rule. The Jewish state was destroyed, the Jewish nationality was not. Even the dispersion of the Jews all over the globe could not destroy and did not destroy the Jewish nationality. On the contrary, the diaspora life of the Jews, with all its evils and troubles, and , sorrows and pains, only served to the national consciousness of the Jews and to strengthen their hopes of national redemption. But the of the governments, always in the habit of with concrete facts, did not take the sentiments of Jewish individuals into consideration. Seeing that the Jews have no homeland, no national sovereignty and not even an intellectual and spiritual centre, they pronounced the Jewish nationality dead forever. From the point of view of this now conception of nationality, the European governments could not be blamed for their attitude toward the Jews as a people, for the orthodox notion of nationality always implies an unit that enjoys national sovereignty, or, at least, is living on its own land, even though it may be dominated by others. The governments, in their attitude toward the Jews as a people, followed a certain principle that had to be maintained as long as no substitute could be found for it. Today it seems that the old principle of nationality has been replaced by another and that the present notion of nationality does not necessarily imply that an ethnic group must either enjoy national sovereignty or live on its own soil. The Jews, who have now been recognized as a nationality not only by Great Britain but, as we have been informed, by several other great powers, are still living in dispersion and have none of the characteristics of the concrete of other nationalities.  
This change was brought about both by the Jews themselves, who for the past thirty or[80] forty years have begun to assert their nationality and to claim the right to which every nationality is entitled, namely, a national homeland, and by the between principle and life. The European governments, following a certain principle, refused to consider the Jews a nationality, but in practical life the Jews were always considered a nationality of their own. While the modern state the Jew on the condition that he himself from Judaism, modern society, on the other hand, refused to admit him just because he was a Jew, and thus and opposed the policy of the government. Modern society is intensely nationalistic and will only recognize those as its true members who belong to it, not only socially and economically, but also nationally and racially. Since the Jews are not Slavs or Teutons or Anglo-Saxons but Jews, they simply were not admitted as full-fledged members in the society of these races and nations, and whenever they made an attempt to into society by force and en masse, they were only too quickly ejected by a wave of anti-Semitism. So that while the states emancipated the Jews, on the condition that they[81] become full-fledged Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Austrians, etc., because it considered the Jewish nationality dead and done for, the nations themselves, being nearer to life and its movements than the of the government chancelleries, felt that the Jews do form a national society of their own and are by no means nationally dead. The official recognition of the Jews as a nationality on the part of a modern state will, we are convinced, put an end to this difference in attitude and policy towards the Jews on the part of the government and of the nation.
 
Besides the national self-assertion of the Jews during the past thirty years, we find that their rôle as intellectual and spiritual factors in history led to the present change of mind of the European governments in regard to Jewish nationality. It is by no means pure accident that two Anglo-Saxon nations and governments, Great Britain and the United States of America, should be the first among the great powers to recognize the right of the Jews to a national homeland of their own and thus to recognize publicly the nationality of the Jews. If the ancient Jewish mind, as it expressed itself in the Bible, ever influ[82]enced a great race and helped to shape its destinies and policies, it was the Anglo-Saxon race that it influenced. For the past four hundred years the greatest production of Jewish genius, the Bible, has been a powerful factor in the life of the Anglo-Saxon race, and as soon as the Anglo-Saxons freed themselves from medievalism, they began to treat the Jews living among them with consideration and fairness, even before they were officially emancipated.
 
Besides, the American Government is the only government of the Great Powers that never pursued any hostile policy against the Jews, because its very establishment was based on emancipation from medievalism. Of all the powers which have now come to recognize the Jewish nationality and its right to a homeland, America is, we dare say, the only one that is inspired by of pure idealism. For America surely has no political interests or ambitions in the Near East and is led only by the unselfish wish that the Jews, after a life of exile of two thousand years, should return to a normal national life and enter the great family of nations on equal terms. In saying this, we by no means wish to imply that the other great powers who have recognized the Jewish nationality have done so from political motives only, and that politics only were instrumental in bringing about their decision to help the Jews establish a homeland in Palestine. We are, moreover, convinced that England and Italy, Russia, and probably France, which, as we have been informed, are now taking a very favorable attitude toward the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, have done so because they recognized that the Jews are a people in themselves and that they are entitled to be given the possibility of living a normal national life. These powers, inspired by noble motives, now say to the Jews, "Go and ............