ABSTRACT
Anti-Semitism on the one hand and tendencies to assimilation and even fusion with the Christians among cultured Jews on the other, have made some thoughtful Jews take note of the dangers threatening Judaism. The fear of the disintegration of Judaism which is at the bottom of Zionism had already been indicated by Spinoza, who stated that the emancipation of Jews must inevitably lead to extinction of Judaism wherever the process is extended beyond the political to the social sphere. A study of the history of the Jews in dispersion up to the end of the eighteenth century shows that as long as religion was part and parcel of the European states the Jews were undoubtedly a nation. In ancient Greece and Rome they demanded and received perfect political and civil autonomy. The denationalization of the Jews has gone too far during the two thousand years to admit of speedy renationalization.
