The Jewish advance., August 16, 1878, Page 4, Image 4

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The Jewish Advance.
84 & 8G FIFTH AVENUE.
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HENRY GERSONI, - - Editor.
MAX STERN, Publisher. .
Chicago, August lGtli, 1878.
What Does it Mean? Disinte
gration, or Rejuvenation ?
In two former articles of this jour
nal (No. 5 and No. 8) it was stated that
the number of intermarriages between
Jews and non-Jews is constantly in
creasing and that this intermarrying
will work as a powerful destructive ele
ment within Judaism, if wise measures
will not be taken in time to counteract
them.
We know that not every Israelite will,
with regard to mixed marriages, look so
pessimistically into the future of Israel.
There are no doubt some Jewish theolo
gians who will refer us to the old Jewish
cannonical law, according to which child
ren, in regard to their religious affiliation,
will follow the religious status of their
mother
and
who will insist that at least in such
mixed families where the mother is a
Jewess, the children will remain within
the Jewish fold. But, gentlemen, daily
experience contradicts all your book
learning. Practical life does not care a
whit for your old canonical laws. In
99 cases out of a 100, the descendants
of mixed couples, even of such in which
the mother is, or was, an Israelite, have
lost all adherence to, all knowledge of,
all connection with Judaism. We could
in proof of this, give illustrations from
facts that happened and still happen in
our own city of Chicago.
There is another old canonical stutute
of Judaism, that a Jew never ceases to
be a Jew, and is, legally, to be treated as
a Jew, even if he explicitly joins another
religious denomination
A pious and law-;
abiding Jew would never have offered to I
a Jewish apostate a piece of pork, would
never have given him Chametz to eat
on Passover, would never have asked
him to kindle a fire on the holy Sab
bath ; because in his eyes snch an apos
tate was yet looked upon as a Jew, of
whom to demand the transgression of
any ceremonial law was not allowed.
liut how obsolete appears the princi
ple in the sight of our totally changed
situation ! Prof. Neander, the renowned
historian of the Christian Church, or
Kirchenrath Stahl, a piller of the Christ
licit- Germanische Deutschland, would
have laughed at our claim that they
remained to be Jews, even in the latter
period of their lives.
There was a time when there was
good and sound sense in the doctrine
that once a Jew, tdicays a Jew. When
a Jew was understood to be a member
of a distinct nation or tribe, he could
not cease to be a Jew by having a few
drops of water sprinkled upon his head.
But Judaism divests itself daily more
and more of its tribal garb. It becomes
daily more and more denationalized. It
enters evidently more and more into a
new phase of its history, when it will be
transformed inio a religious community,
and lay aside its national garments. The
process of denationalization will be great
ly hastened on by the rapidly increasing
number of intermarriages.
We cannot stop these intermarriages
by our prohibiting them. Our young
people will not care for our prohibitions.
They will laugh at our ipse dixi. They
will go to Justices of the Peace to have
their marriages legalized, if the Rabbis
should decline to sanctify them, and if
they should answer their requests by a
clerical non possumus. Consider, ye
Rabbis, whether, under the altered cir
cumstances of a new order of things, it
would not be wise to sanction by a re
ligious act marriages between Jews and
Gentiles, provided a promise is given
that the children to be born in such a
wedlock shall be brought up as Is
raelites.*
While our nationality is about being
lost in Western Europe and in America,
our duty is now to see to it that our
religion shall . remain as a mighty
spiritual power in the world, and that
our own kinsman, our children and
grandchildren shall be kept within the
Jewish bounderies. And our hope is,
that the denationalization of Judaism
will in the end prove to be one of the
great blessings of mankind,—the trans
formation of Judaism into a world
conquering religion. * *
*The‘ mosaic law, Deut. 7, prohibits
intermarriage with the seven Canaanite
nations, and as a reason for this prohi
bition the apprehension that in conse
quence of such marriages, idolatry may
spread among the Israelitish people.
If the law
giver would not have felt such appre
hensions, he would not have thought
of inhibiting the marriages with the
brethren.
ORTHODOXY, REFORM AND
SUPERSTITION.
II.
A person having been raised in super
stition, and having learned to perform
certain ceremonies without knowing
their meaning and significance, becomes
impressed with a mere outward form of
religion, while the spirit which should
elevate his heart is unknown to him. The
consequences are, that when he ceased
to find consolation and pleasure in the
performance of those ceremonies, there
is nothing in the world which may raise
his drooping spirit or prevent him from
throwing oft- all truly human bonds of
right and justice. By mere ceremonial
services of the Divinity, that person be
comes used to the idea that he makes
barter with God ; he performs a certain
work in consideration of certain favors.
If the remuneration which he expects
does not come, he considers himself
I wronged
"he becomes wrath and blasphemes his
King and his God. ’ The savage pun
ishes his idol, an Egyptian king threw
his spear against the Nile, a Persian
king had the Hellespont lashed, because
they did not give him that which they
imagined they had deserved at the hands
of those divinities.
The superstitous persons of our times
have similar notions. An Israelite who
has been taught to lay his tephilin every
morning, to eat nothing but what the
rabbinical authorities of past times have
declared fit, or Kosher, if he is once pre
vented from performing the former and
no thunderbolt comes from heaven and
strikes him down, or if he once eats
what is not Kosher and he is not choked
by the first morsel—he declares every
thing “humbug.” In order to keep him
self within the pale of society, he says
he is a reformer. But the fact is, he
knows as much of form or reform as he
ever knew of religion in general. The
fear and veneration of the ceremonies
have departed, and it suits his conven
ience not to burden himself any longer ;
he has found out that no punishment is
inflicted for omissions of this kind and
the religious principles underlying the
ceremonies he has never known.
His superstition however, he has not
given up altogether. He is afraid of his
shadow on the days of Rosh-ha-shanah
and Jom-Kippur because they occur
only once a year ; but he knows nothing
of the Sabbath. Is the feast of Rosh
ha-Shanah more important than the
Sabbath? No. But once a year a per
son .can yield his convenience, and once
every week it would be hard to do so.
Some reformers have a superstitious
dread for certain days in the year, others
for certain acts and ceremonies—and
most of them have the utmost contempt
against all that is religious in spirit and
in truth. It is therefore, that they are
so callous and indifferent to every effort
which is made to raise Judaism to a
standard of glory. Not only are they
indifferent, but by their sophistical rea
soning they discourage those who might
do something toward that end. They
care not to give religion to their children
while they would be unfortunate if they
had not recited a Kaddish (and listlessly
too, for they know not what that is) on
their Jahrzeit.
The superstitious person who culls
himself orthodox simply trades with
God. He believes in the efficacy of cer
tain ceremonies. In most cases he can
not and does not perform them himself.
But he wants to know them performed
by others for fear lest the heavens fall
down and crush the earth and he might
suffer by it. He must be at his store or
workshop on the Sabbath, but if his min
ister should omit Pitum ha Ketores at
the synagogue, he is an unfortunate be
ing—the minister a villain.—He is often
times inspired with foolish notions which
are absolutely un-Jewish, and vague
recollections of ancient usages which
he had not understood even at the time
♦hen he heard them, will make him a
strong advocate of unspeakable absurdi
ties. A reform minister is often ad
dressed with questions like these :
‘‘ Do you not believe that Rabbi So
and-So could perform miracles? ”
“ Do you not consider it a great sin to
wear shoes in the synagogue on Jom
Kippur? ” And many other questions
to that effect, and worse still.
Upon an answer to the negative, he is
declared an unbeliever, and heaven
knows what not. Reason does not avail
learning docs not help, honesty makes
no difference—he does not believe in the
miracles of Rabbi So-and-So. and says
that a person may wear shoes on Jom
Ivippur, he is consequently no Jew. If*
the same minister should advocate the
religious instruction of the young, or the
observance of the Sabbath, the pious
orthodox (so-called) will shrug his
shoulders with a sneer.
“ He told me himself that it is no sin
to wear shoes on Jom-Kippur, how then
can he tell me what is right about other
religious matters?”
Thus the superstitious person, calling
himself reformer or orthodox, stands in
the way of every religious advancement.
He creates the wide chasm between the
intelligent reformed and orthodox par
ties. He baffles all plans which are de
vised for reconciliation or rather for a
mutual understanding He paralyzes
all efforts which are made for the gener
al good. The one and the other never
come to a house of worship to learn
what they do not know, but they remain
secluded within themselves with their
awkward notion and reason always from
their own point of view, without think
ing that others are equally as justified, to
their opinions, and that only by a fair
exchange of opinions concord between
man and man can be gained. The more
they reason, the more do they become
involved in their foolish webs; the more
do they persist in their notions, the
more are they in the way of union and
of harmony,
THE SURGEON’S KNIFE.
He wounds with the surgeon’s knife and cures
with a healing plaster.
“The Illustrated ] Cebrew Alma
nac for THE YEAR 5639,” edited by Mr.
Louis Schnabel, of New York, is a new
feature in the American Jewish litera
ture. As far as we know no Jewish
almanacs have as yet been published in
this country. The almanac is, in gen
eral, a very useful institution. In a
book which is used for references the
whole year round, useful information is
given on general topics, historical events,
adages and sketches, words of wisdom
and ethies. Thus some knowledge of
a higher order is brought home to those
who are not in the habit of reading books.
In a Jewish American almanac we have
aright to expect good information on
Jewish matters, for Israelites who know
all about the pic-nics, parties, bar-miz
vahs, weddings, private theatricals, mus
ical entertainments and even about love
stories and adventures, and about the
personal attacks on some congregational
chieftains, about the great feats of schol
arship and dignity of our Revs., Lrs.,
Rabbis, with which our weekly papers
are filled. Some knowledge of real merit
should be given in an almnac, in a pop
ular style corresponding with the char
acter, and adapted to the state and taste
of our people and country. Astrological
observations, lists of fortunate days,
prediction of the weather and stories of
saints and of demons, would not do for
a popular American almanac. Regula
tions of synagogue services, laws, usages
and ceremonies to be observed on occa
sions of child-birth, sickness, weddings,
deaths, burials, mourning, Jahrzeit, etc.’
perhaps with the addition of the forms
01
and
would
hardly be practicable tor an American
Jewish almanac. To the credit of Mr.