We have frequently paused at the difference between Jewish life there, - across the Atlantic, in the cities and villages of Russia, Poland, and Galicia, and Jewish life here, - in the communities of the wealthy, democratic America. And yet, the Jews there, the impoverished and oppressed, always appear beyond comparison in a brighter mood than the Jews here. More sympathy in relation to the individual and more sincere devotion to the interests of all exist there.

We have a recurrence of a phenomenon which is an original creation of the Jewish genius on American soil. A strike, carried on by 2Jewish teachers in all Hebrew schools, is now going on in New York. When I first read about the strike, I refused to believe that our educators, so to speak, have sunk to such abyss that the teachers and disseminators of Jewish knowledge are given the alternative of either teaching and starving, or striking and starving.

I have already witnessed many strikes in various industrial branches. I have understood them, that is, both parties, the employer and striker. Here we are facing two fiendish social elements, with diametrically opposing interests which must carry on the struggle as long as the existence of one group is dependent upon the subordinate condition of the other, as long as the edifice of wealth and power is supported by the foundation of submissiveness.

But in this particular strife, in the conflict between the teachers and the president and directors of the Hebrew schools, where is the division that renders this conflict necessary? Regardless of how much thought I have given this, how much I meditate over it, I can not find any justification for the strike.

After all, our Hebrew schools are not factories established by private people in order to profit from accumulated commodities. After all, Jewish education is one of the most necessary requirements of Jewish social life. The primary duty of an organized group is to provide for the education of the rising youth, who will become the bearers of the national flag, defenders of old traditions, 4fighters for posterity, lest national suicide is committed.

And I can recollect how sacred and beloved was the maintenance of children's education in the cities and villages of Europe. Was there anyone who did not send his child to Cheder (Hebrew school)? They retrenched on food, clothing and other necessaries of life in order to educate the child, so that he would not remain illiterate. The word 'ignoramus' was the greatest insult, a reflection upon the family, humiliation to the community. They used to pawn the most important things of the household in order to pay a tuition fee. A family jubilee was the day when the child, enwrapped in a prayer shawl was brought to Cheder, and when he uttered the first words of Torah (knowledge) he acquired, tears of joy flowed from the eyes of the parents; the whole community rejoiced because the child "shall not disgrace his people who sacrificed for its education".

If one were poor, having nothing to economize on, the community provided for his child's education. It was considered an obligation, because the Jews are responsible for each other, and what greater responsibility can there be than caring for the welfare of our children?

That life was poor, but beautiful. The antiquated educational methods were deficient, but the thing itself was sacred, surrounded by devotion and conscientiousness, illuminated by rays of high ideals. Strikes were impossible under such conditions.

Here, amidst wealth and freedom, things are entirely different. Ignorance is not ignominious. Self-consciousness and self-recognition are items for which there is no need of sacrifice. This is the position of many parents and even of those who govern the few 6educational institutions that exist among us.

There is no organized body to safeguard the educational interests of the community here. It is the personal initiative of individuals that accentuate Judaism. As individuals, they have their views on education which are applied to a social undertaking.

This abnormal condition is responsible for the teacher's strike in New York. Perhaps this strike, which is distinguished from all others, will open the eyes of the masses to the national disgrace which is reflected upon all of us including the president and directors of the New York institutions.

Let us see that education is not a dissolute thing, not a privately 7endowed undertaking, but a social obligation, organized, supported, controlled, and carried on by the entire community, which is under obligation to provide for the education of children.

A special educational society should be established with subdivisions throughout the country. Such a society could establish order in the midst of prevailing anarchy, elaborate a coherent program, create educational methods, a teacher's college, and everything necessary to place Jewish education on a proper basis.

This would eliminate licentiousness and illiteracy, give us a generation of better children who would guide their parents, be more responsible to society and to the past, which does not begin with an American factory, but a beautiful sunny land where we speak to nature and see God.

There in the Old World, we were instinctively aware of it and it influenced life. Here in the New World, we forget about it. And this forgetfulness is the cause of many evils in our life, the teachers strike included.