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On the evening of the 13th of
November,* these two excellent institutions
celebrated their anniversaries by a joint dinner, at
the Apollo Saloon, in Broadway. Being then in New
York, we were politely furnished with an invitation,
which we accepted the more eagerly because we had
never been present at a public celebration of that
kind, and felt, therefore, naturally a strong desire
to see how such affairs are managed. The
commencement of the festival was announced for six
o’clock, P.M. At that hour we accordingly repaired
to the Apollo, and were shown up into the reception
room, where the various gentlemen, on arrival, were
presented to the president of the evening, Judge
Noah, the worthy presiding officer, for many years,
of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, the
<<512>>doings
of which we have had frequently the pleasure of
laying before our readers. Near him was Mr. Jacob
Stettheimer, the president of the sister
institution. On our first arrival, which apparently
must have been too soon for the generality of the
guests, though we thought precisely at six
meant the hour we went, the number assembled was not
large; still the stewards of Judge Noah’s society
with their rosettes, and those of Mr. Stettheimer’s
association with their badges of gold, red, and
black, the colours of the German nation, which, by
the by, does not yet exist,† were kept pretty busy
in marshalling the new arrivals to the head of the
room for the above-mentioned presentation.
One by one there came up the
Rev. S. M. Isaacs, Rev. A. Leo, Rev. Mr. Samuelson,
Dr. Shlesinger, Dr. Lilienthal, Dr. Merzbacher, Dr.
Raphall, Rev. Mr. Noot, Rev. Mr. Danziger, and Rev.
Mr. Sternberger, the newly elected minister of the
Henry Street Synagogue; besides these Jewish, there
were two Christian ministers, the Rev. Mr. Burchard,
and Rev. Mr. Taylor. Among the laymen, (we would not
use such a word, had the English language another to
express our meaning; there is no such distinction
among the Jews, between ministers and their flocks,
as there is among Christians, and we trust it never
may be,) well then, among the people present, there
were men from all the New York congregations, and a
great number of Christians, as also persons from
various distant places; and, among others, we met
Mr. Moses Ehrlich, the president of the Boston
German congregation.
At about half-past seven the
reception-room was amply crowded, when the guests
were called out by name to repair to the dining
saloon. We found it decorated with the armorial
bearings of the various states of the Union, painted
on shields, and standards bearing the arms of
several nations, which our unacquaintance with
heraldry prevents us from describing. In the gallery
there was stationed a band of music, which
discoursed rather too loudly, though well, the
compositions of various eminent writers. On both the
east and west ends of the hall was erected a raised
platform, on which were seated the presiding
officers of the societies, the ministers, and
several other gentlemen, among whom we noticed the
president of the Elm Street Synagogue, and a former
trustee of the Portuguese congregation. In the
centre of the hall, between the two platforms, were
ranged four tables the whole length of the room,
having merely space enough to pass around the heads
and sides. On the eastern platform, Judge Noah
occupied the centre seat, as the president of the
dinner, supported by Mr. Israel D. Walter, the
vice-president of the German society. On the right
of these gentlemen was seated the Rev. Mr. Leo, and,
on their left, Rev. Mr. Isaacs. On the other
plat<<513>>form, Mr. Stettheimer presided,
supported, by Mr. H. Aaronson, the vice-president of
the Hebrew Benevolent Society. On the left of these,
sat Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, Mr. Sternberger, Drs.
Merzbacher and Shlesinger, on the right, Dr.
Raphall, the Editor of the Occident, and the two
Christian clergymen, named already.
The stewards, having seated all
the guests, who must have amounted to about three
hundred and twenty-five, the president announced
that the Rev. Mr. Leo would ask the blessing, (המוציא)
which having been done, ample justice was executed
on the viands provided, in the shape of a cold-meat
dinner, and copious draughts of wine. Great credit
is due to the managers for the excellence of their
arrangements, and the care they took that every one
should be properly attended to. If anything, they
were too painstaking; since, when people meet for
the object of dispensing charity, the mere eating
and drinking ought not to be even a secondary
consideration with them. But as it was, the opening
of the evening’s proceedings was truly creditable,
and the tables looked as having been arranged with
an eye to appearance as well as comfort.
When the eating had proceeded
to a sufficient length, the president announced that
grace would be said by the Rev. Mr. Sternberger;
and, we must say, that his elegant voice and clear
enunciation (it was the first time we either saw or
heard him), made a good impression upon us, and, we
have no doubt, on all present. When the reverend
gentleman had finished, Judge Noah made a short
statement of the expenditures and receipts of his
society for the past year, which, we learned, were
each about three thousand dollars, and we
subsequently heard that the German brotherhood
received and spent about the same sum.
The toasts were next announced,
Judge Noah giving them in English, and Mr.
Stettheimer repeating them in German, at the other
table. We regretted to observe, that, in the
progress of the evening, the good order observed at
the opening greatly relaxed, which could hardly have
been prevented among such a crowd of persons, add to
which, that the activity of the stewards, and the
running about of the waiters, did not contribute to
deepen the silence. Hence it was that we could not
catch clearly the toasts as they were read from the
chair, and, not having been furnished with a copy,
we cannot insert them in our report. When the usual
toast on Charity was given, “as blessing him who
gives no less than him who receives,” Mr. Isaacs, by
appointment, addressed the meeting in English, and
was followed by Dr. Lilienthal, in German.
The former gentleman, with his
usual fervour; spoke of the necessity of elevating
the poor from their lowly condition, of supplying
them with the means of improving their condition;
and he urged his hearers to the
<<514>>work, by the
well-known fact, that a timely assistance may enable
the humble often to rise to distinction, and that
the mighty men of the earth, and the great in all
callings, have sprung from humble parentage, often
raised to a high position by the helping hand of
charity. He feelingly alluded to a case happening in
his own family, where a timely succour enabled a
father to educate a large family, to be themselves
the dispensers of good to others, and to stand forth
as the teachers of Israel in many and distant lands,
carrying the tidings of peace abroad, in England,
America, and even the distant Australia, thus
practically proving that the bread will be found
when cast on the waters in the process of many days.
This is but a brief and
unsatisfactory sketch of the reverend gentleman’s
remarks, which were received with reiterated and
loud applause. When he had sat down, Dr. Lilienthal
spoke from the other platform, and feelingly alluded
to the great demands and constantly increasing
applications made upon the charity funds of all the
societies in the commercial capital of the United
States. He stated, in eloquent terms, how the late
commotions in Europe [the 1848 German Revolution]
will banish hither many a guiltless man, deprived of
his all for the share he may have taken in the
struggle for liberty, which was lately so
universally witnessed on the other side of the
ocean.
“The Jews,” said Dr.
Lilienthal, “felt their hearts beat high at the call
of liberty, and in the field, in council, and with
the pen, they started up as its defenders. They, who
had for ages been oppressed, now hoped to see their
chains broken for ever; their native lands needed
their service, and they, true to their descent, were
ready to give it. But the struggle ended in favour
of power; and the friends of freedom must,
therefore, be wanderers. And shall they,” he asked,
“not be received with a hearty welcome, with ready
assistance, if they are thrown, bereft of all, upon
these shores?” He adduced several feeling instances
to prove the usefulness of the two charities for
which he was pleading; how they helped strangers in
distress, how they provided physician and medicine
for the sick, and how they were ministering to the
comfort of the needy.
And then he reverted again to
the political state of Europe, which will urge many
hither, where they need not fear a tyrant’s frown,
and spoke of one whose arrival we may expect, the
General Preczel, (pronounced Pretzel,) whose Jewish
name he stated to be Rabbi Mosheh Ben Peretz; “he
was a brave associate,” spoke Dr. Lilienthal, “of
Kossuth, executing in the field what the other
proposed in council; he remained faithful to the
standard of his unfortunate country, while
resistance was practicable; and when all was lost,
he followed his heroic chief into exile, upon the
Turkish territory; and, when the bigotry of
<<515>>the Turk, seconded as it was by that of
Austria and Russia, urged the fugitives at Widdin to
embrace the Islam as the price of the protection
afforded them, Preczel nobly seconded his leader in
refusing the disgraceful boon. And then, added Dr.
Lilienthal, “Now, perhaps, he soon may ask the
shelter which is denied to none in America, with the
great Kossuth; and will you Israelites not be ready,
with ample means, to aid him in his exile?”
And after a few more words of
earnest appeal Dr. Lilienthal closed one of the best
orations we ever listened to. It was the first time
we ever heard him address an audience in his native
tongue, the elegant and flexible language of
Germany; and we can freely say, that he fully
confirmed to our mind the reputation which induced
the community at Riga, in Russia, to send for him as
their preacher, and also justified Uwarow, the
minister of education of Nicholas, to consult with
him on Jewish affairs.
But we must not speak of
persons, as we were to write only about the dinner.
So let us then proceed. When Dr. Lilienthal had
finished, one of the stewards, Mr. Mawison, read off
the donations which had been offered during the
evening, and after proceeding with this for some
time the toasts were resumed, when, a sentiment on
education having been offered, Dr. Raphall addressed
the company, according to previous arrangement. He
dwelt on the benefits derived from the training of
the youthful mind, and then adverted to the superior
happiness enjoyed by the inhabitants of the United
States, and referred it to the fact of the universal
diffusion of knowledge among all classes of the
people, and their superior enlightenment above the
masses of Europeans, instancing the large number of
persons, even in France and England, who are unable
to sign even their name. He at last came upon Hebrew
education as such, and enforced the necessity of
making a strong effort to render our ancient
language familiar to all Jewish children, inasmuch
as the Hebrew Bible only, and not any authorized
translation of it, no matter how well executed, can
become the standard of faith to Israelites. He
adverted to the fact that he himself was a
translator of Scripture (having at one time,
associated with Rev. David De Sola, undertaken to
issue a revised translation of the Scriptures, of
which the book of Genesis is before the public);
“but,” said he, “there is a sublimity or force in
the glowing language of Israel which no cold
European tongue can equal.” He also adverted to the
fact, that Hebrew literature has gradually become
the legacy of all civilized men, who all speak
familiarly of the events told in our story; hence,
then, the greater necessity that we, who are the
original possessors of the Bible, should preserve it
in its purity, and enable our successors to
understand it in its original <<516>>words, and
hence, then, he hoped that no effort would be deemed
too great which would cause the foundation of a
seminary of learning, on Jewish principles, by those
to whom he appealed to bestow the blessing of
education.
This is but a meagre extract of
what the truly eloquent preacher advanced. His
manner is so solemn and impressive, his words,
though extemporaneous, drop so slowly and easily
from his mouth, without confusion of ideas, or
incorrectness of grammatical structure, that he must
be heard to be truly appreciated, and we hope that
many of our readers will have the opportunity of
doing this in the course of the winter. We had no
opportunity of taking notes; hence we give only what
the addresses left impressed on our memory; and, we
need not say, how little one can recall, after the
lapse of a week, of what has been heard but once,
and that not under the most favourable
circumstances. Suffice that all the three speakers
were listened to with marked attention, and were
frequently interrupted by tumultuous applause.
When Dr. R. finished, it was
past ten o’clock; and then two gentlemen resumed
reading off the donations. At one time Judge N. was
reading a letter from Daniel Webster, in reply to an
invitation; but we could only catch a phrase here
and there, consequently we cannot report it. So,
also, there was a letter from Senator Seward, which
we think had no chance of being heard. We remained
about a quarter to eleven, when we left, as the
interest in the proceedings of the night had ceased
with the speech of Dr. R.
There was an expectation
entertained that some other gentleman would speak,
but it became entirely impossible; and this was
chiefly owing to the proclaiming aloud of the
donations, which consumed, we think, more than an
hour; and as it was of little importance to the
guests, it was not to be expected that strict order
could be preserved. It strikes us that some mode
might be devised to make the offerings public and
known, which they are not by the reading system. We
think that, were a regular list of donations printed
in one or the other Jewish papers; or some other
public vehicle, and a copy furnished to each donor,
it would answer a great deal better, besides
leaving more time for addresses on various subjects,
and keeping up more the decorum of the meeting.
However, as far as the object of the dinner was
concerned, the offerings amply responded to the
expectations of the managers, as we hear they
amounted in the evening to $3,800, and enough more
donations are expected to swell the whole to $4,000,
thus enabling the societies to dispense many
benefits during the year.
The officers, in addition to
those already named; were:—Treasurers, John Levy and
Joseph Ochs; Directors, G. Bernstein, Jacob Mack,
<<517>>M. A. King, A. H. Lissack, Geo. S. Mawson, E.
Hart, Abm. Kastor, H. M. Ritterbaud,
J. Dittenhoeffer, E. A. Stern, Morris Wilson, Dr.
Lehwess, H. Bernheimer, Hy. Jones, L. Laderer,
and M. Cooper; Henry Goldsmith and Gustave Bernhard,
Secretaries. And though we have frankly found fault
with some parts of the doings of that evening, we
cannot in justice otherwise say that the
preparations for the festival were on the most ample
and liberal scale; there was enough for everybody,
and the stewards exerted themselves to the utmost to
give satisfaction, so that none could be more
zealous than they were during a long evening, and
they must have laboured hard for days before to
accomplish all that was done; and the poor will have
ample cause to thank their kind benefactors for the
means they have heaped up to relieve the calls of
the distressed. May they all be richly rewarded. |
