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THE JEWISH SOUTH. A JOURNAL devoted to the INTERESTS OF JUDAISM. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. HERBERT T. BEDEL, Editor ani Prop, 722 Eapt Main Street. Subscription, One Dollar per annum. Single Copy, Five Cents. Advertising Rate, 24 cents per inch. Entered at tbe Post Office, Richmond, Va., as second class mail matter. Atonement Day. "Let us not idly shirk the task. But face ourselves and boldly ask Our conduct whether it has trod The path of mammon or of God P" "Kippurday," as a day of ter ror is disappearing, but atonement day of earnest devotion, prolonged meditation and self-inquiry is tak ing its place. The day has not lost its hold upon Israel, because one sees now so many who do not fast, but it is changing its character. From being a period of bodily af fliction and mental terror, it has become more a day of spiritual ex clusiveness, when the world, the flesh and the devil being cast aside, I the heart is undisturbedly devoted I to the contemplation of the eter-1 nal treasures of faith. The sweetest thought in connec- j tion with the day lies in its name, | the "day of reconciliation" Sin-1 fulness and godliness can no more I dwell with the same heart, than i can oil and water mix. The presence of the one of an in exorable necessity estranges and drives out the other. The nursing pf evil designs renders impossible the harboring of good motives* and by continual indulgence in the one, the heart becomes alienated from its better and nobler tenden cies. To release the heart from the wrappings of evil and passion, to woo back the estranged impulses for good, to make virtue and truth again the primum mobile of ac tion, is the lesson to be learned on Atonement Day. To the attainment of this must be brought humility, reverence, diligent and truthful self-investiga tion, earnest prayer and hopeful THE JEWISH SOUTH. trust in Him who is long suffering, and full of mercy and pardon. C. A Question Answered. In its issue of September Bth, the American Hebrew says: "The Jewish South is the title of the latest comer in fewish jour nalism. It appears in Richmond, Virginia, and is modest in size and pretensions. We extend it a cor dial welcome, and hope it will be longer lived than some of its prede cessors of the last year or two. Why, however, must our new Jew ish journals select the names of pub lications that either are already in existence in this country, or abroad, or those tjiat have once been issued and failed of success ? " To answer briefly, we would say that our name was chosen for the fact that it was to our mind the best that could be found. A year ago the editor and several friends were mooting the question of founding a Jewish journal. The name "Jewish South " was sug gested, when he was informed that a journal by that name was de funct. We of the South do not use success as our gauge, and the fact that a paper by that name had lived and died was to us but another proof that "great minds l run in the same channel." But seriously speaking, the name j is so eminently appropriate, that,' as is often done in every day life,! .'■■■'■ as a sign of esteem and respect, we j could not resist the temptation of j naming our new venture "after" the old. Judaism and the South (in its broadest sense,) are closely allied in many ways. It was in a southern country that our religion sprang into being and reached its zenith. It was in a southern country that it stood the torture of the inquisi tion. And it was to the South that most of the first Jewish emigrants who landed in America wended their way. Both have been charged with be ing sentimental. But when stern war beckoned, three decades ago, the armies of the South were not a sentiment, but obstinate facts. Like Jews have often been, they were crushed by irresistible but the cause is still alive. Time and again Judaism has lain dor mant, but when occasion required, jiien able and willing to defend it have alwa}'s responded promptly. We do not mean by this that a re vival of the Southern cause is wished for or desirable, but nevertheless its sacredness will be inviolable so long as the sun shines in this fair land of ours. While sectional in name The Jew ish South will not be so in policy, and if broadness and liberality of views signify, no one will have aught to complain of from what ap pears in its columns. "For everything there is a season; and a prop er time for every undertaking under the heavens." (Ecclesiastes 111, 1). The mind can not but be impress ed by two things in connection with the parliament of religions now in session at Chicago. All the reli gions of the world are brought to gether, through their leaders and representatives, in a sublime, spir itual parliament, preceded and ac compained by denominational con gresses of individual creeds. It is j noteworthy, that without any I plan to that end; the first of these congressses was the Jewish. It j was in keeping with the eternal fitness of things that the "mother jof faith," should be now, as she ! was in times gone by, first upon ! the field with her truths and her principles. The second fact is even greater significance. Though the effort was Vnade to have it different, yet the parliament convened dur jingthe"ten days of penitence." This is Israel's own peculiar holy season, the period during which her highest ideals are more abun dantly expressed, and her devotees, more attentive to her claims, than at any other. Israel is only a spiritual existence, a creed and nothing more. That now this crown of the Columbian exposi tion, this triumph of human toler ance and civilization, this gather