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Since our last, Rabbi Jechiel Cohen has arrived in
this city, and from conversation with him, we learn that the Israelites
in the Holy City have but one building especially erected for public
worship, besides the small structure Beth El, which it is proposed to
enlarge and to rebuild. We have also inspected the letter accrediting
him to the various American congregations, in which the chiefs of the
<<524>>congregation, at the head of whom is the name of the late Grand Rabbi,
Abraham Hayim Gagin, deceased since Rabbi J.’s departure, deeply deplore
the want of space for the worshippers, now felt in the increased
population of Jews, inasmuch as the structure in question will barely
hold forty persons. We also learn that all the congregations in
Jerusalem worship in mere rooms, with the exception of the Portuguese,
and these, as said, have but one other Synagogue besides the above;
whereas the Turks, Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants, have all fine
buildings, raised chiefly by the contributions brought thither from all
countries by the various followers of the different creeds. The Jews
alone are strangers on the soil given to their fathers as a divine gift;
and even the contemplated building will have to pay a tax to the
government before the people can be permitted to erect it. Still they
have resolved to commence, with a firm reliance on divine aid, and they
sent Rabbi Jechiel hither to appeal to the pious feelings of the
American Israelites to aid them in their purpose to glorify becomingly
the name of the Great King. Every little contribution will be welcome to
a community suffering under poverty and oppression; and we hope that
wherever Rabbi Jechiel will make his appeal, he will be listened to with
attention; as it will be a beautiful idea, that through the aid of the
outcasts of Israel in the western world, a worthy house of God should be
reared in the ancient capital of our once powerful kingdom, which we
trust will be restored under Him to whom the government belongs, and in
whose day there will be peace over all the earth, and knowledge of God
in every heart.
We have received a printed copy of Judge Noah’s
address, delivered on November 23d, in the Synagogue Shearith Israel, of
New York; after the delivery of which a handsome collection was taken up
for the object under question;—but the articles demanding admittance
this month preclude us from noticing the benevolent gentleman’s
production in extenso. But the subject can bear delay, and we hope to
recur to it hereafter:—By the by, we see, in the New York Journal of
Commerce, as coming from Judge N., some interesting details concerning a
discovery made by Mr. James Nathan, an Israelite, Mr. Catherwood, and
others, under the mosque Aksa, partly on the site of the ancient temple,
which clearly, prove that the whole of the building was never destroyed.
We will refer Judge N., for the present, merely to Lamentations, 2:9:
“Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her
bars;” which proves a sinking of the building, not a destruction
absolute and final.—This occasion is again one where we have cause to
regret the small compass of our magazine, and the unpleasant
<<525>>long
interval which must elapse ere we again appear. But this is all
unavoidable; and hence our readers, as well as we, must be satisfied as
well as we can with what is at present at our command. |
