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154 most enterprising, the most intelligent, the wealthiest section of the community.

Not only is the Jewish problem the most important and the most urgent of all Russian political problems, it is also the most difficult. Russian reactionaries invariably assume that it concerns Russia alone. Unfortunately it concerns the whole wide world. It is impossible to discuss the position of the Jew in the Empire of the Tsar apart from his position in Europe and America. Nor is it possible to understand the present legal status of the Jew without recalling the outstanding facts of Jewish history. The following brief analysis is, therefore, indispensable to a clear intelligence of the question.

II

Kingdom of Israel is the most ancient kingdom in the world, and withal the most universal and the most exclusive, the most powerful and the most perplexing. The annals of the Jews go back to the dawn of human history, and their records constitute the sacred literature of all Christian nations. They are dispersed over the habitable globe. They were dispersed before the birth of Christ. The