P. 1 - The Chicago Tribune in one of its articles writes as follows concerning the spread of ancient Hellenism in Egypt and in other places where Jews were found.

"In the ancient world we witness the meeting of two great peoples - the Jews with their traditions and their religion and the Greeks, representing the greatest intellectual development of those times. In other words, the Jews believed that God works out what is best for man, and the Greeks proved to the world, in themselves, what wonderful, good, great, and lofty things man can accomplish by himself.

"The Greeks belonged to the great Aryan race which established itself both in Asia Minor and all about the Mediterranean. They possessed greater intellectual capability and sense of grace than any other people, and they always sought for truth and beauty. In Greece everything tended toward beauty and enlightenment. The religion of the Greeks was devotion to the arts and to an ideal conception of humanity. The history of Greece abounds in philosophies and in evidence of 2the Greeks' practical ability to accomplish things, and this history of theirs still richly nourishes the nations of the earth to-day. The Greeks established political liberty and founded the science of philology, political science, and philosophies of human life. They attained the highest point in sculpture, in rhetoric, and in general architecture. A distinguished historian says, 'Since the Greeks were the pre-eminent race of the world, the following twenty centuries have contributed very little to our present endowment of intellectual force. Our present-day philology and art flourish only through Hellenic influence.' This is the truth regarding the Greeks.

"As for the Jews, by them religion was held to be of higher importance than education and mental development. Their leaders, the rabbis, regarded the influence of civilization and of philology with deep misgiving and fear. The rabbis taught especially the law and prevented the youth from forgetting it day or night. Only in brief periods of relaxation did they permit the young men to study Greek philology, which nevertheless little by little imbued them with its spirit, and in later times they abandoned Judaism and embraced Hellenic theories and practices.

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"Hellenism among them never ceased to thrive and especially after the invasion of Judea by Greeks, the westward exodus of the Jews, and the translation of the Jewish Bible into Greek the influence of Greek culture fell upon them like sunshine. Palestine was at that time the neutral point from which the kings of the North and the kings of the South directed their expeditions. Naturally many Greek cities were founded about Jerusalem, and in spite of the vigilance of their leaders the Jewish race adopted Greek habits and customs. Thus thoroughly Hellenized, they scattered to various parts of the ancient world and especially to Alexandria, where the largest Jewish colony was established. In that city they practiced their religion with the utmost freedom. The rule of the Ptolemies was tolerant of all religions, and Ptolemy Philadelphus was considered a Jew among Jews, an Egyptian among Egyptians, and a Greek among Greeks. The Alexandrian Jew of that time could no more exist without Hellenic philology and culture than he could exist without air. When he was outside his inner circle of Judaism, he was confronted in every direction by Hellenism. Everywhere the talk of the times was of Greek philology and its excellence. The Jew embraced Euclid, Eratosthenes, Apelles, grammatical erudition, and Socratic philosophy. Great Hellenic intellectual development prevailed among Jews from Jerusalem to Alexandria, and thus they abandoned their original devotion to their racial religion.

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"Gymnasia were established everywhere; Greek athletic exercises were introduced, to which the rabbis turned with zeal, deserting their flocks. The Jews not only imitated the Greeks in habits and customs, but Greek names also were given to their children. Their philology was Hellenized as a result of the translation of their scriptures into Greek. In later years the Jews were so much Hellenized that teaching the Greek language to their children became a matter of necessity and importance. This cosmopolitism of these two great races was mostly attributed to Ptolemy Philadelphus, and it reveals that Greek art and philology were and are attractive to those who are intellectually inclined.

"The Jews, by nature the most religious people on earth, were attracted by Hellenic intellectuality and bent the knee before its colossal influence. Josephus said, 'Greek philology was a power, brilliant, clear, complete, and attractive.'

"Undoubtedly the Jews could have resisted the Hellenic influence, but because of their susceptibility to the charms of learning they could not resist the good and great things emanating from such an influence, and consequently both races were honored. And out of that period Christianity began to evolve."