Zion listening 'midst her ruins lifts her haggard face and wan,

Queries: lives the recollection martyr-years have handed on?

Think they of the vows that echo from the brooks of Babylon?

Whose the shame, and whose the sorrow? Men and ages we condemn,

Cavil at the courtly cities, rail against the tents of Shem;

Whose the blame, if in our bosoms dwells a dead SAMUEL GORDON.

Jerusalem?

RING

The Seder

OING in the glorious festal-tide
That dawns o'er land and sea,
Proclaim the story far and wide
That made a people free.

A wondrous tale and often told,
Yet never dim it grows,
And now as in the days of old
No fading light it knows.

But ever fresh and bright it comes
Across the moving years,
And gayly in our festive homes
Rings welcome in our ears.

A table set in spotless white
With gladsome hearts around,
A hallowed scene of joy and light
As nowhere else is found.

The symbols of our feast in line
Before our view are spread,
The bitter herb and mystic wine,
The Paschal meat and bread.

Then from the book of ancient lore
The tale again is told,

With heightened tone and full rich store
Of legend quaint and old.

How Israel came to Egypt's land
And through long years did bide,
How on them Pharaoh laid his hand
In all his godless pride.

Till God, He heard their bitter cry,
And swift His vengeance wrought,
'Mid signs and wonders from on high
The tyrant low was brought.

God led them on to victory:
Freedom crowned their day,

They marched away a people free
With banners high and gay.

And so with praise to God and song,

Israel far and wide

Remembers through the ages long
This happy festal-tide.

J. F.

Seder-Night

PROSAIC miles of streets stretch all round,
Astir with restless, hurried life and spanned
By arches that with thund'rous trains resound,
And throbbing wires that galvanize the land;
Gin-palaces in tawdry splendor stand;

The newsboys shriek of mangled bodies found;
The last burlesque is playing in the Strand—
In modern prose all poetry seems drowned.
Yet in ten thousand homes this April night
An ancient People celebrates its birth

To Freedom, with a reverential mirth, With customs quaint and many a hoary rite, Waiting until, its tarnished glories bright, Its God shall be the God of all the earth.'' ISRAEL ZANGWILL.

Passover

FROM Egypt once, 'mid storm and flame,
Redeemed the hosts of Judah came.

What hymns triumphant did they raise
The God of freedom high to praise.

As 'mid the parting waters' flow

In terror sank the wily foe!

We break the bread, we drink the wine,
In memory of that olden time.

We sing the festal melodies

That swell along the centuries.

The snow-white cloth, the lights are here,
All peace and joy-love's atmosphere.

O Judah, cherish long the thought
That not for feasting was this wrought;

But ever struggling to be free,

In Pesach's fragrant text for thee!

Be free, no spirit bondage more!

Be free-and burst the prison door!

Be free-no hypocrite lies!

Be free no empty mockeries.

Dost hear again the word divine?
"Set free the spirit-it is Mine."

ABRAM S. ISAACS.

A Passover Hymn from the Haggada

(El Beneh)

!speed'ly build Thy temple shrine,
Thy holy House restore,

And send again Thy light divine,
As in the days of yore.

O Thou! whose special care we are
Where'er our lot be cast
Become again our guiding star
As in the distant past.

O! build again a firmer throne
For Judah's royal race,
And give his sceptre rule alone
And pour on him Thy grace,
His sons ingather to their fold,
Far scattered and away,
And in his realm let Justice hold
Her firm triumphant sway!

But more than Temple, shrine, or dome,
Within our hearts build sure

For Thee, O Lord, a dwelling home
Predestined to endure.

And vouchsafe, Lord, the world all o'er,
A brighter day to shine,

And in one bond, forever more

THE

All humankind entwine.

Passover

The First Declaration of Independence

J. F.

'HE sullen ice has crept from sunny fields,
The conflict of the elements is passed!

Again the spring its wealth of verdure yields,
The probing sun has conquered frost at last!

'Tis the Passover of reviving earth,

The longed for resurrection of its charms,
Each peeping bud a type of Freedom's birth,-
A conquest each o'er winter's dread alarms.

All, all the sunny joys till now concealed,
Are prototypes of Liberty's blest morn

When Israel's rescue first that truth revealed,"To free and equal rights all men are born!" Infallible as Nature in her round

Emancipates herself from winter's reign,
So shall the clarion note of Freedom sound
And all the world the burden proud sustain.

Oh mankind hear!-and to all those proclaim
Who languish for the light of Freedom's sun,-
Let all the Nations join the glad acclaim,-
"Our God is One-Humanity is One!"

DEBORAH KLEINERT JANOWITZ.

By the Red Sea

(Hymn for the Seventh Day of Passover)

WHEN as a wall the sea

In heaps uplifted lay,

A new song unto Thee

Sang the redeemed that day.

Thou didst in his deceit,
Overwhelm the Egyptian's feet,
While Israel's footsteps fleet

How beautiful were they.

Jeshurun! All who see
Thy glory cry to Thee:
"Who like thy God can be?"
Thus even our foes did say.