followers of the Israelitish confession neither pains, nor tears, nor bitterness.’ The solution of the problem, however, consists in the fact that the Jews are something more than mere ‘followers of a religion,’ namely, they are a race brotherhood, a nation * * * ” (p. 71.)
Hess, like other authoritative Jewish spokesmen, denies that forsaking the faith constitutes a Jew a non-Jew. “* * * Judaism has never excluded anyone. The apostates severed themselves from the bond of Jewry. ‘And not even them has Judaism forsaken/ added a learned rabbi in whose presence I expressed the above-quoted opinion.”
“In reality, Judaism as a nationality has a natural basis which cannot be set aside by mere conversion to another faith, as is the case in other religions. A Jew belongs to his race and consequently also to Judaism, in spite of the fact that he or his ancestors have become apostates.” (pp. 97-98.)