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by Isaac Leeser
The Israelites of America, both continental and
insular, although uniformly in a more happy state of political
independence than their brothers in the majority of the Eastern
Hemisphere, are nevertheless exposed as regards their religion to many
more dangers than they are elsewhere. We have alluded before this to the
fact that they are scattered all over North America and the West India
Islands, and in part too over South America, and in but few places do
they form communities respectable for numbers and influence. They are
therefore surrounded by an unhealthy influence from without, which is
constantly pressing against their religious adherence, and happy indeed
are those who are able to resist the contagious atmosphere which
environs them. In the larger communities too the evil is but little
less; for there also they see the large mass whose opinions and conduct
are so greatly varying from the Jewish standard of belief and custom,
and can consequently not escape the influence, though it be silent,
which the acts of great numbers necessarily exercise over their minds.
We do not believe that there is a single Jew in all
America, who is given in the least to reflection, but must acknowledge
the truth of what we day, and feel that we owe it to ourselves to do
something in the premises. But “the how?” is the question, and
consequently day after day is allowed to elapse and we are found in
nearly the same position as in the beginning. All, we speak of those who
actually care for the well-being of their religion, deplore what they
see daily before them, and still the remedy is very difficult to be
discovered.
Perhaps some may gloss over the unfortunate state
of religion among us, and think that we sound a useless alarm; but this
is not the proper way of either devising a remedy or of applying it
after it has been found. We ought, on the contrary, to survey the field
with strict impartiality and unflagging courage, not imagine that we are
better than we are, nor believe that there are insurmountable obstacles
to our progress, because we may happen to discover some things which
have a threatening aspect. But if we look with the impartiality thus
mentioned into our state, we will easily see that the Jewish life, which
formerly distinguished us, has in too many instances given way to
another mode, which is far from being in consonance with the law. Let
any man pass through the cities and villages of America on a Sabbath
day, and see the many, whose places of business are opened in violation
of the day of rest, and he will have to acknowledge that many live
unjewishly in this regard. Let any one who is strict in his domestic
relations, who abominate those things which the Lord has separated for
him as unclean, be invited to a Jewish house, and he will be compelled
to make himself acquainted beforehand whether or not his host abides by
the dietetic Laws of our faith. Let the inquiry be made in town and
country concerning some Christian families, whose features resemble
strongly those of our race, and he will be told that they are descended
from Jews either by the male or female line. We will not specify minor
matters, it is useless to point out little grievances where many great
transgressions strike our view, when we cannot hide our faces from the
deformities of the times, if we even would do so. It is not, however, to
be imagined that our American brothers are indifferent to religion; many
there are certainly who are guilty of absolute indifference; but the
majority of those who transgress feel they are doing wrong, and deplore
not unfrequently their backslidings. Many of those, for instance, who
have intermarried with strangers express their contrition for the
irrevocable act by which they have exposed themselves to the anti-Jewish
influence in their domestic circle, and some have even gone so far as to
dissuade others, on the point of taking a gentile wife or husband, from
following in their own footsteps. What does this prove? but that the
sinners themselves have by experience found that the way of the
transgressor is hard. In the moment of excitement of the passions or
disappointment, a man hastens to seek the alliance which our laws
condemn; the woman is asked in marriage by one whom she has been taught
to regard as a friend, or whose rank or wealth will confer on her a
higher position than as a simple Jewess she could attain, and she yields
him her heart, and becomes the wife of the man who is a stranger to our
laws. But when the excitement has worn away, when reason again rules
uncontrolled by any selfish influence, the man soon discovers the fatal
gully into which he has been plunged; his wife is not a Jewess, he feels
it daily more, and should children at length cement their union he will
experience a twofold grief when his wife refuses to have them educated
as Jews or actually trains them in her own religion. Even if at the time
of marriage both parties were indifferent to religion, still the Jew’s
heart cannot be long callous to his eternal concerns; he awakens, but it
is too late, his fate is linked with one who cannot sympathize with his
soul; and she too awakens; early impressions or untoward influences make
her sensible that she owes allegiance to a religion which her husband
ridicules or abhors; and hence she will be doubly intent upon educating
her children at least, in the Christian manner.
So also with the Jewish woman who marries out of
her faith. She speedily discovers that she has hunted a phantom in
pretending to secure the love of a man without religious sanction; her
religion, if ever so little be in her soul, she would gladly cherish,
but her husband naturally forbids it, for why should he be made
uncomfortable by his wife’s scruples? and she will soon be made to
feel, that the wealth, distinction and love she has purchased by her
severing herself from the Synagogue have been obtained at the cost of a
life of regret; for her children will not be suffered to enter the
covenant of Israel; her daughters will not arise and bless the Lord, the
one Eternal; and despite of the tender cares of a devoted husband she
will every day have ample cause to look back upon her youthful days and
wish that the step she then took could be recalled. We will not speak of
unhappy unions where domestic strife or poverty adds bitterness to the
compunction of conscience; not even of the religious classes whose
sensibility is strongly urged by the knowledge of any small
transgression; we only allude to cases where the house is one of peace
and affluence, and where but few religious impressions remain in the
mind of the transgressor. Still we can assert with safety that in nearly
all, if even not all, cases, the natural result must be that regret will
spring from the mixed marriages; and hence it is not at all surprising
that persons so circumstanced should be the first to warn others from
following their example. For knowing themselves how unsatisfactory has
proved to them the dark prospect of a connexion without a union of
souls, of children strangers to the God they themselves worship in their
spirit, no matter how much their outward acts may belie their inmost
heart, of a smiling countenance to the world whilst the conscience is
constantly racked with remorse for the past and dread apprehension of
the future, they will not willingly see a brother or a sister plunge
onward into the same gulf which pride, prejudice, or love of ease may
open before their feet; they experience an inward pleasure in making
this atonement for their transgression to alarm others to the danger
which they have themselves experienced, and to snatch them as a brand
from the burning, though they cannot themselves escape from the
entanglement in which they are involved.
There are indeed examples where the wife or husband
has joined the religion of Israel, after the marriage with the stranger;
and of some of these we may say that they were true proselytes and
steadfast adherents of our religion. But in other instances the
conversion was but temporary, and after the death of the Israelitish
parent the other relapsed into Christianity, and the children grew up as
Christians, though educated superficially in our faith. Other instances
again have occurred where the Israelite embraced Christianity, outwardly
at least, to please the husband or wife; and thus severed completely the
bonds which united him to our race. We have also occasionally seen the
children educated as Jews though the Christian parent adhered to
Christianity; but far more frequently than all have we witnessed that
the children were educated as Christians at once, though no conversion
took place in father or mother as the case may be. We speak from our
knowledge, and therefore with more certainty than any theorists could
who have not investigated the matter. Nay we even know of cases where
men united in religious meetings to avow their faith, whilst they did
not prevent their wives from educating openly their children as
Christians. Who therefore can be an advocate for such unions when the
fruits are so injurious to the parties themselves no less than their
descendants?
In America there are no legal restraints upon mixed
marriages, the law knows of no distinction between Jew and Christian;
parents may bring up their children to a positive religion or not, as
they may choose; there are no restrictions therefore which could compel
a Jew to embrace Christianity if he wishes to espouse a Christian.
Still, with all that, a marriage of the kind is tantamount to an
apostacy in most instances; though, as we said above, an abiding regret
should take up its abode in the soul of the transgressor, he has passed
beyond the pale of Judaism as soon as he is allied to foreign blood, not
by any act of his friends or church, but simply from the necessity of
the case; he has new associations, new feelings to gratify, and thus
virtually places himself beyond the reach of his religious teachers,
granting even they were present to admonish him from time to time. We do
not conceive how it can be possible for a man to pretend to an adherence
to Judaism whose wife is not of our faith; he cannot expect that his
household should be managed after Jewish customs, nor can his children
be educated as Jews, except under rare and favourable circumstances.
There are, as we said on a former occasion, some honourable exceptions,
where Jewish fathers have educated their children according to our
principles and introduced them legally into our congregations; but these
exceptions prove the dangerous tendencies to which the rule is liable.
Enough, we have suffered severely and for many years constantly from
these connexions. Gladly would we see among us some of the German
theorists who are so anxious that government should grant the Jews
permission to intermarry with Christians without previously forswearing
their religion. Let them come among us, and we would point out to them
persons hurrying to every religious meeting of one or the other
Christian sect, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists,
Methodists, &c., who are descended from Jews, and who became so not
by the apostacy of their parents, but by the effect of a mixed marriage.
Few indeed, comparatively speaking, are the Jews who are so descended,
but many, more so than people imagine, the Christians who boast of a
partially Jewish descent. We know several of the most respectable
families in different parts of the Union who have Jewish blood in their
veins, and no doubt there are in the interior hundreds who have sprung
from some emigrant Jews who settled singly in some distant settlements,
where they had no intercourse with any of their co-religionists.
If then we wish to preserve our race, we will not
say unmixed, for proselytes are as much of Israel as we are, but still
if we wish to preserve our race in our religion, and do not wish to see
them incorporated with all or any one of the many denominations of
Christians, we must endeavour to prevent, if possible, any of our
members from intermarrying with Christians or persons indifferent to any
faith. Let us state, in passing, that our using the term Christians must
not be ascribed to any illiberality, as though we had a particular
objection to them only; on the contrary we employ the word merely
because we are surrounded by them on all sides, and even they who
believe in no religious system whatever, are nominally reckoned among
Christians; and we use therefore this comprehensive term as denoting all
dissentients from Judaism.—But
to proceed, we ought to counteract the tendency occasionally exhibited
to seek for matrimonial alliances with those not of our faith. We know
we touch upon a tender point, since unfortunately many families have
members who have acted in violation of the law of which we are speaking.
But we cannot be correct to keep silence for fear of wounding the
feelings of friends, when it concerns the highest interests of our
souls, our heaven-born religion. We have noticed that many of our people
in this country have continued relations of friendship with those who
have seceded through marriage, and even countenanced the connexion by
styling the non-Jewish wife or husband by the common terms of endearment
so beautiful in domestic life. But all this is wrong, radically wrong.
There should be a penalty in public opinion against all such
transgressors, and then only can the evil be radically cured. Whilst the
sinner merely exposes himself to a temporary displeasure of a parent, of
a brother, or guardian, to be then again received into favour, or even
to become an inmate of the house: another, seeing the penalty no
greater, will be very apt to follow in the same track. The remorse and
sorrow, we spoke of above, are at best but after-occurrences, and can
therefore have no very great influence in deterring those especially
whose religion is not very strongly rooted; “experience being,” as
we read lately in some paper, “like the stern-lights of a ship, which
illuminate the path we have gone over already.” We must have something
more than a doubtful future to assist us in correcting backsliding,—there must be
immediate effects which will result as a tangible consequence from the
transgression, and sure we are that if they are constantly exhibited
they will go far to preserve our people from the dangerous intermixture
with persons strangers to our religious belief.—We
may be, perhaps, accused of fanaticism, and of asking of parents that
against which the heart revolts. But we will merely say, that if we are
acquainted at all with out own nature, there is no fanaticism in our
disposition; we were educated among Christians for nearly five years,
and had for more than two years exclusively Catholic priests or
candidates as teachers in the school where we studied; we have had many
valuable and esteemed friends among several classes of Christians, and
hope ever to cherish the most kindly relations with all denominations.
But this does not say that we are to love our religion less because we
love mankind in general; on the contrary, we wish to aid in keeping
erect the standard under which our allegiance has been claimed since the
revelation at Sinai, by all the means in our power; and because we
believe that the love for gentile women is so dangerous to our religion,
do we now so earnestly appeal to our people to discountenance any such
alliances.—Parents
also are not asked any thing which their heart should revolt if they are
true to their faith; they can love their children, but they must love
God more. It is easy enough to speak of the love of God, whilst it costs
no sacrifices, whilst we from a full exuberance of plenty give, for
instance, money to the poor, or offer to the stranger hospitable
entertainment under our roof. But when the soul is sorely tried by the
sacrifice demanded of us, then will true religion be distinguished from
its dangerous counterfeit,—then
will it be seen whether we indeed “love our God with all our heart,
with all our soul, and with all our might.” If, therefore, a child
should forget his allegiance to his God by espousing a non-Israelite, it
is at once the duty of parents to withdraw from his fellowship; and his
brothers and sisters, and other relations, should follow in the same
path, and not recognise the person brought into their family without the
sanction of the Jewish laws, by the terms which the world applies in
such cases. We again repeat, the measure is a severe one; but we see no
middle course between giving a tacit consent to such acts of
dereliction, and condemning them utterly and significantly in the manner
just indicated. And though to act so may appear
a cruelty to the offender, it will act as a blessing to the remainder of
the family. For, suppose the mother of several children receives her
daughter after she has plighted her faith to a man in a Christian church
in her house, and even goes so far as to give her a festive
entertainment, what does she but invite her other daughters to go and do
likewise? Suppose she excuses herself by saying: “She is my child,—she has broken my heart,—I
would sooner have followed her to the grave, than behold her united to a
person who does not believe with us; but what can I do? she is my child,
the past cannot be recalled; I must save her from sinking lower!”
Suppose you hear such an argument, will this satisfy you? does it
satisfy the mother herself? Certainly not; it is merely endeavouring to
deceive the holy Spirit of our heavenly Father, thus to gloss over acts
of daring wickedness. If you wish to preserve your families from
contamination, act consistently. Your children, it is true, live, as
yourselves do, in a free country; they have a power to choose between
you and their new connexions; but be earnest with them, and tell them at
once, that they MUST choose either you or these new connexions; and that
if they choose the latter, they are no longer sons and daughters of
yours. Let them understand, should unfortunately one of them disobey you
in this essential particular, by your utter refusal to hold any personal
intercourse with the culprit and the new connexion, that you are in
serious earnest in your love for your God, who bids you to teach his law
to your children; and nothing is more likely than that your well-timed
rigour will save the others from the snare which the allurements of the
world spread for their inexperienced feet.
We wish our readers to reflect how dangerous our
position is in all America by the unrestricted intercourse open to us
with all classes of citizens. Direct apostacy would shock the most
careless Jew; but the quiet yielding of his religion to the seductive
influence of a beloved female, or the acquiescence in unlawful practices
in deference for a dear friend’s wishes, is something which is not so
revolting to the majority of persons. Let it not be imagined that any
new matrimonial connexion of the kind we have been speaking of will
result more fortunately than all prior ones; they have been hitherto,
and will continue in all times to come, detrimental in the highest
degree to the religion of the weak party—to wit, the Jews.
Nevertheless, many such marriages have constantly taken place, and at
times under circumstances the most cruel and revolting; and still
parents have often forgiven, and friends have given countenance by not
refusing to associate with the delinquents. Now we put the question to
all parents: “Do you wish to preserve your children in the religion in
which you have been educated?” If so, do something, or at least
resolve on something, which will prove to yourselves that your hearts do
not vibrate between two extremes. Tell your offspring, especially you
who live in fashionable circles, and whose children are surrounded by
the seductive influence of silly admirers and flatterers, such as the
fashionable world has but too many of, that they must not expect any
home in your houses, nor any love and support out of them, if they ever
dare to embrace the stranger in wedlock. There must be no hesitation,
and sure we are that the tendency to rush into this sin will be checked.—Perhaps
some may fear that by cutting off a child, he will apostatize
altogether. But we again reply, there can be little good derived from
keeping a diseased branch in our communion, one whose fruit necessarily
will fall a prey to the stranger. The fruit, as we have shown, will, in
all probability, be lost; let the branch go with it. Glad would we be
indeed to preserve to Israel all its members, even the greatest sinners;
but when such would carry disease to the unaffected, and corrupt by
their presence our vitality, let them join those whom they cannot
benefit, and leave us healthier and purer by their absence. A friend of
ours once told us, “The root of the tree of Israel is indestructible;
but many of the branches are diseased, and we would be much better off
were we to lop off the diseased branches, even cut down to the root, so
that this be left to shoot up anew a more healthy stem, and more healthy
branches than were the first.” We all agree in this, that the root of
Israel can never be destroyed; dangers even cannot well reach the stem,
nor easily the old branches that stand out as the giant arms of the oak
tree; but the younger twigs and tendrils which cling and entwine
themselves amidst the neighbouring trees, these are in danger of
corruption themselves, and of injuring their neighbours. If, therefore,
necessity calls, let them be cut off, though our eye weeps whilst we
apply the axe; but it is a sacred duty we owe to the good, venerable
tree, and let it then be done, though we ourselves are suffering all the
while. Only let us be of good courage, and we will feel blest after the
sacrifice is consummated, and our peace of mind will be a glorious
reward, because that we have been firm in the hour of trial. |
