917 1678 PREFACE On taking up the work as Chairman of the Committee on Religious Schools of the National Council of Jewish Women, the compiler found that there was room for a collection of the sort here presented. The object is to provide material for home reading and for recitations in Jewish Religious Schools, Junior Sections of the Council of Jewish Women, and other Jewish organizations. It includes a number of short, simple verses for the younger children, and also some material familiar to the past generation, which will well bear repetition. The youthful verses of Mrs. Hemans, Ruskin, and the Davidson sisters have been included, not for any intrinsic literary value, but to show children the trend of thought of others of their age. Not only poems on Biblical subjects have been included, but also selections that inculcate some moral truth, and tend to rouse healthful thought in the child mind. When more than one selection on the same subject is given, it is to provide a number from which to choose, to allow the teacher to arrange a symposium on the subject, or show how different authors treat the same theme. It is for the latter reason that three versions of Psalm cxlviii are given. 943959 to roll-call, or as subjects for informal talks between teacher and pupils. The selections have been graded A, B, C, D, according to the degree of difficulty. We trust that the children into whose hands this volume falls will be stimulated to a further study of the authors here represented, and that the vivid descriptions of Biblical scenes will send them with renewed ardor to that well-spring of knowledge, the Bible itself. Providence, R. I., 1910. MARION L. MISCH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The thanks of the compiler and publishers of this volume are due, and are hereby tendered, to the following authors, publishers, and others who have kindly permitted the use of copyrighted material: TO JACOB G. ASCHER, FRANK FOXCROFT, DEBORAH KLEINERT JANOWITZ, GEORGE ALEXANDER KOHUT, MARTIN LEHMAYER, RABBI JOSEPH LEISER, JUDGE MAX MEYERHARDT, Rabbi IsıDORE MYERS, and RABBI LOUIS STERN, who have permitted the use of original poems and translations. TO ALICE STONE Blackwell for poems from her “Songs of Russia," and for translations from "Songs of Grief and Gladness," and also to EZEKIEL LEAVITT, the author of the latter book. To L. FREEMAN CLARKE for "The Answer," by his father, Dr. James Freeman Clarke; to MISS MARIE BLAKE for Ransom," by her mother, Mary Elizabeth Blake; to SAMUEL H. JACOBS for poems by his father, Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs; to Professor Richard GOTTHEIL and G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, the publishers of his "Hymns and Anthems," for poems and translations by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil; to MRS. O. COHEN for poems of her grandaunt, Penina Moïse (P. M.), and to MRS. ALICE HYNEMAN SOTHERAN for poems of her aunt, Rebecca Hyneman. 66 66 TO HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY for "A Turkish Legend," by Thos. Bailey Aldrich; A Short Sermon," by Alice Cary; Suppose," by Phoebe Cary; "The Feast of Lights," "Exile," and "Gifts," by Emma Lazarus; “Psalm of Life," by Henry W. Longfellow; and "Opportunity," by Edward Rowland Sill. TO FUNK AND WAGNALLS for "The Hebrew's Friday Night" and "Seder-Night," from "Blind Children," by Israel Zangwill. TO CHAS. SCRIBNER'S SONS for the extract entitled "The Fall of Jericho," from "The Spell of Ashtaroth," by Duffield Osborne. 66 TO LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, for six poems by Sir Edwin Arnold, "The Making of Man," Nimrud and the Gnat," Abraham's Offence," "Moses and the Angel,” "Solomon and the Ant," and "Solomon's Signet." To the PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY for "Abram and Zimri," by Clarence Cook; "Belshazzar's Feast," by Minnie L. Sellers; "The Death of Moses," by Jessie G. M'Cartee; "The Morning Psalm," by Marianne Farningham; "The Princess and the Rabbi," by W. L. Gardiner; and "The Story of Rebekah," by Thomas M. Armstrong; these from “One Hundred Choice Selections"; also for "Brave and True," by Henry Downton, and "Loveliness," by Maria Lacey, from "Young Folks' Recitations." To the UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR for "Trust," by Mary Frances Butts. To the AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION for "Solomon and the Sower," by N. L. Frothingham. To the COLONIAL PRESS for “Hymn for Pentecost," "Hymn for Tabernacles," "My King," "Sanctification," and "God, Whom Shall I Compare to Thee," translations from the Hebrew by Mrs. Henry Lucas, taken from their volume "Hebrew Literature." To E. P. DUTTON for "There Is No God," by Sophie M. Almon-Hensley; "The Mercy of God,” by Matthew Richey Knight; "Rizpah," by John Reade; all from "A Treasury of Canadian Verse." To the MASSACHUSETTS NEW CHURCH UNION for poems by John Westall. The selections from the Talmud in the “Memory Gems,” with the exception of those in verse, are from "Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud," and are used with the permission of the compiler, REVEREND DOCTOR MADISON C. PETERS, and |