Die Welt

Published every Friday.

Editorial Office and Administration: VIENNA IX., Türkenstrasse No. 9. Telephone 14199.

Communications are to be addressed not to individual persons but to the Editorial Office or the Administration: Vienna, IX., Türkenstrasse No. 9.

Unstamped letters are not accepted, and manuscripts are not returned.

The Editorial Office receives callers daily from half past eleven to half past twelve.

Advertisement rates: The four-column petit line, 20 Heller. The advertising section closes on Tuesday evening. Single numbers 30 Heller.

Subscription rates: Austria-Hungary: yearly Kr. 12.—, half-yearly Kr. 6.—, quarterly Kr. 3.—. Abroad: Germany yearly Mk. 13.70, half-yearly Mk. 6.85, quarterly Mk. 3.45; England yearly Shg. 14.—, half-yearly Shg. 7.—, quarterly Shg. 3.10; Russia yearly R. 7.—, half-yearly R. 3.50, quarterly R. 1.75; Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey, Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, Egypt yearly Frcs. 17.—, half-yearly Frcs. 8.50, quarterly Frcs. 4.25; America yearly Doll. 3.40, half-yearly Doll. 1.70, quarterly Doll. —.85

No. 8. Vienna, 21 February 1902. 6th Year.

Vienna, 20 February 1902.

In response to an invitation, Dr. Herzl travelled to Constantinople at the end of last week. On this journey he was accompanied by Mr. Joseph Cowen, one of the Governors of the Jewish Colonial Trust in London. For the duration of his stay in Constantinople Dr. Herzl was the guest of the Sultan.

Jewish Literature and Science.

Address delivered at the Fifth Congress by N. Sokolow, Editor of the "Hazefirah," Warsaw.

With the awakening of Jewish consciousness there manifests itself once more a powerful feeling for our intellectual individuality; a mighty urge towards knowledge is beginning to stir vigorously, in order to illuminate the innermost core of our being. It would be lamentably simple-minded to let the great problems of the Jewish soul be swallowed up by the cares of every day, or to dissolve them into allegories. They press to the fore, independently of our will, with an elemental superiority against which every attempt to wrest ourselves free would be fruitless. We stand upon the ground of the national intelligence, and we receive our spiritual nourishment from the historical traditions and from the moral culture of our race. Regarded from this point of view, with clear eyes, the Science of Judaism, however remote from the turmoil of the day, appears to us in the clear light of a vital national question. I should like to treat this great subject with great seriousness. Above all, in order fully to appreciate the depth and the compass of the subject, a clear definition must first be set forth.

"Science of Judaism"! What does this mean? And is there within it an inner, urgent, fermenting vital force? Much abuse has been made of this designation. Whoever has gathered a few forgotten grains from the granary of Judaism, has collected some forgotten materials, has had an old and often insignificant manuscript printed, flings the words "Science of Judaism" proudly about, so that this fine term threatens almost to fall into disrepute. This, called by its plain name, is archaeology. Others, again, scornfully deny the existence of any such science at all. Many a modern Jew holds all the talk about Jewish science to be a mere figment of the brain, and from his standpoint he is right. Since his thinking and his willing bring him into immediate contact with no part of this science, he sees no trace of it. Theology and jurisprudence, as is well known, are denied the character of a science altogether; at most they are allowed a scientific treatment, since both have only to work over given and strictly formulated material systematically and, at most, critically, whereas system and criticism, though they belong to science, are not themselves science. Judaism, however, is no theology and no jurisprudence, even though both are contained in it. Every science must have something given in itself, namely an object: natural science, for example, has given, self-contained objects which are subject to its treatment. Is Judaism something given? To this the answer was given long ago: Judaism is a great historical phenomenon, which has proceeded in constant development and has its great phases — Mosaism, Prophetism, Talmudism, Rabbinism, and the present epoch within the life of modern culture. Judaism has, moreover, a great ideal content, which it has kept in constant unfolding; but it has also realised this ideal content in law and right, in the life of a people, and from thence in the life of a great part of the human race. As such a phenomenon it appears, even in its first origin and in its documents, not as