exercise itself. I shall now try to tell how it successfully
resisted complete annihilation.

When, in 1876, Felix Adler returned from his studies
as a rabbi in Europe, and Temple Emanu-El--the most
important Jewish congregation in the United States--
was ready to welcome him to its pulpit, he found that it
would not coincide with his views to follow in the foot-
steps of his father, who had been connected with that
synagogue for forty years. The son's researches had led
him to the conclusion that forms, ceremonies, and customs
did not make a religion when pursued in new and entirely
different surroundings. Dr. Adler hoped that the time
had come when the real spiritual essentials of the Jewish
religion--its system of ethics--could be developed, ap-
preciated, and enforced, and that the American Jews could
adjust themselves to the land in which they were living
and drop all that they had had to adhere to in Ghettoized
Europe. He came back filled with an enthusiastic desire
to remedy the glaring evils, not only of the Jews, but of
the entire community: he could diagnose our ills and pre-
scribe a remedy.

This appeal found a wonderful response amongst the
flower of the reformed Jews and some Christians of New
York, who formed the Society for Ethical Culture, of
which the then leading Jew of America, Joseph Seligman,
was elected president. All these felt the need of re-
adjustment to fit their new surroundings. Some of those
religious habits were imposed upon them while their an-
cestors were suppressed people. Few, if any, would
adopt Christianity, but all were ready to subscribe to the
aims of a society which are most clearly stated in their
present invitation to members:

Our Society is distinctly a religious body, interpreting the word
"religion" to mean fervent devotion to the highest moral ends. But

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