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We alluded last month briefly
to
the resolution of the Portuguese congregation of
New York, to appropriate the annual sum of
twenty-five dollars in aid of the poor of Palestine;
under which term the greater part of the Jewish
population must be comprised. Persons who live under
the sway of constitutionally enacted laws, admitting
even that these bear not rarely hard upon certain
classes, cannot conceive the perfect deadening
influence on the mind, where the will of one man, or
the lawlessness of many, presents an insurmountable
obstacle to improvement of even ordinary enterprise.
To us, the idea of any community requiring foreign
aid, to obtain literally their daily bread,
would appear an absurdity. But were we to see it
realized in the formerly opulent Palestine, were we
to behold want of raiment and food, where are found
evident traces of ancient abundance and splendour,
our astonishment would yield to grief and
vexation,—that human misrule could indeed succeed in
reducing the garden of the Lord to a desert, and
degrade its inhabitants into compulsory dependants
on the cold charity of strangers. In truth, the
Israelites now residing in Palestine are strangers
in the ancient patrimony of their fathers, and they
are subjected to the arbitrary rule of the political
chiefs, who rule there on the one hand, and to the
rapacity of the roving Arabs on the other. Security,
such as we know it in America, is not to be thought
of; you cannot lie down unterrified by the “fears of
the night,” nor of the wrath of the robber, who lies
in wait for you in every hollow of the road, and
among all the groves that skirt your path.
Only in
walled cities, where large numbers
<<338>>congregate, are you safe against the marauder, even
whilst you are subject to the irresistible will of
the pacha sent either from Cairo or Constantinople,
who uses his brief time in which he is permitted to
rule in his pachalic to enrich himself by the
oppression he is permitted to practise against those
subjected to his control. If this be the case with
those who, with the rulers, profess the belief in
the Koran, or those connected with the various
Christian churches, who all enjoy the protection of
the powerful European states and sovereignties: how
much more must the situation of those be deplorable
who have no earthly friends to see them righted, who
are, from their belief, detested by the one and
abhorred by the other party. It is not alone,
therefore, that the Jews of Palestine are maltreated
by the Turks, who are the legitimate rulers of the
land, but they also suffer not rarely from one or
the other of the various Christian sects, who have a
sort of precarious independence in the holy cities,
under the various treaties subsisting between the
Mahomedans and the European Powers.
Still do our people, the small
remnant, we mean, who yet cling to the soil of their
fathers, love the land with an undiminished ardour;
it is there the law of their God formerly flourished
as the abode of a happy and enlightened nation; it
is there that their beautiful language was the
vernacular tongue of poets and orators, whose works
have become the study of the civilized world, whose
words are the standard of eloquence and truth to the
best part of mankind. Nor must it be overlooked that
the Scriptures always point to Palestine as the
scene of the future greatness of Israel; as the land
where the regeneration of man is to see its
principal accomplishment; as the centre of the rule
of the glorious Messiah, under whose sway there
shall be universal peace, a universal knowledge of
the great God of heaven and earth. Prudence might
therefore dictate to the Jews to avoid the land of
Canaan, seeing that in France and England, in
Germany and America, there are so many immunities
which they have not at home; so many comforts which
they must dispense with in the cities of Judah. But
he who knows the spirit which always abided with
us, the unchanging love and the clinging confidence
which always united us to our religion despite of
our sinfulness, will easily comprehend why the
<<339>>devoted souls, who truly believe in the fulfillment of all which the Lord has promised, will
remain attached to the very dust of Palestine, and
love to linger near the ruins of their pristine
glory, near the spot whence light and truth are to
scatter themselves to the ends of the earth. We may
not individually be able to acquire such a faith, to
be masters of such a resignation as to enable us to
yield everything for a principle, for a hope of
which we see no realization, whilst the ills of life
press heavily and constantly upon us. But we at
least admire it in others; let us not withhold from
the devoted of our race, our meed of approbation;
let us not deride their humility, their poverty, and
let us not turn a deaf ear to their earnest appeals
which are constantly wafted to us over the bosom of
the mighty deep.
It may be said that we have
distress enough to relieve among ourselves; that the
situation of Europe will force many to emigrate, who
will seek this country with very limited means, or
perhaps in entire destitution; and that hence we can
ill spare the charity which has to be sent away,
beyond the limits of the States. But herein is in
error which calm reflection will readily correct.
The poor of Palestine do not expect to be supported
by the charity of the western world alone; but they
appeal to all Israelites for aid, as all are
interested in the Holy Land. It has been customary
for many centuries to make an annual collection on
the eve of Purim, under the name of “the half
shekel” contribution; in addition to this, offerings
were made on occasion of marriages and other festive
meetings; so also in Synagogue, it has been allowed
to make especial Mi-sheberach to that effect;
and when from time to time missionaries came to
collect these various periodical contributions,
additional donations were made by those having the
means.
It is evident that with all this the amount
of relief for each individual residing in the four
holy cities, as they are called, Jerusalem, Hebron,
Tiberias and Zafeth, must have been small, merely to
furnish the commonest necessaries of life, bread and
humble clothing, as luxuries could not be thought
of; since much that was destined for the general
relief had to go to pay the expenses of the
collectors, as the distance they had to traverse,
and the long time their journeys, by the former
comparatively slow methods of travelling, occupied,
necessarily caused the requisite outlay to consume
an undue <<340>>portion of the relief fund. We do
not know that we are correct in our surmise, but we
will hazard the opinion that this circumstance in
part, moved the pious Rabbi Hirsch Lehren, a
merchant of Amsterdam, to devote his time to collect
the Palestine funds through the Netherlands and
Germany, and to remit them himself to Jerusalem
without the intervention of collecting agents.
Similar views swayed the authors of the Hebra
תרומת הקדש in New
York, about sixteen years ago, to enter into an
association to take charge of any donations which
might be devoted from time to time, either derived
through the annual subscription of the members or
from other sources, and to remit them to the
above-named learned gentleman, who, notwithstanding
that some fault has occasionally been found with his
mode of distribution, (his honesty and faithfulness
never having been called in question,) has displayed
throughout, and for so many years, a devotion to his
benevolent purpose which no one can help admiring. A
member of a wealthy mercantile firm, with business
which cannot be neglected devolving upon it every
day, he has found time to travel at his own expense,
and to correspond extensively, even to this
country, in behalf of the sufferers in the land of
Israel, and to excite and keep alive the sympathy
which their wants demand,—setting an example of
disinterested charity which many may envy, but few
can hope to imitate.
Thus matters stood for a number
of years; the relief, small as it was, came
regularly from the numerous congregations of Russia,
Poland, Austria, and Germany: when the commercial
revulsions, political disturbances, and tyrannical
oppressions, acting as they did separately and
conjointly, to impoverish many individuals and
congregations, caused the annual relief sum to
become smaller and smaller; and when you superadd to
this that the dearth of provisions in Palestine,
owing to short crops, made the acquisition of food
daily more precarious, you can easily form a picture
of the distress which must have prevailed among the
poor; and in fact, so well did our active enemies,
the missionaries, understand this, that they
endeavoured to make the poverty of the people the
means of their conversion. The hospital at
Jerusalem, belonging to the London Society for
Evangelizing the Jews, which is presided over by the
highest prelates and nobles of Great Britain (it is
immaterial to specify names), <<341>>with its
excellent medical attendants, apothecaries, and
nurses, affording all the necessary comforts,
supplied as it is by the wellfilled missionary
purse in the capital of England, was made a decoy to
draw within its healing shade the unwary children
of Abraham; and though the Rabbins pronounced a sort
of Herem against persons going there, still
their necessities drove them constantly, to the
amount of about forty per month, to seek relief from
those whose avowed object in coming was to destroy
their faith.
The Jewish Intelligence, the organ of
the society, was formerly in the habit of giving a
monthly tabular statement of the persons received
into the hospital; hence our information is drawn
from an authentic source. The complaints against the
prohibition of the Rabbis were loud and frequent;
and the complaisance expressed at the futility of
the interdicts appeared not the less earnest.
Now every one who knows
anything of the aversion which Jews naturally feel
against apostates, (and with a refinement of cruelty
the missionaries at Jerusalem and the apothecary and
his assistants are nearly all selected from the
renegados, whom the society has purchased and
pensioned from time to time,) will readily
acknowledge that it must be absolute necessity which
could drive even the poor to disregard the
prohibition of their spiritual chiefs, and to accept
aid and comfort from such as these we speak of. We
acknowledge, that owing to the philanthropy and
piety of Sir Moses Montefiore, a physician has been
enabled to reside at Jerusalem, for several years
past; we refer to Dr. Frankel, who devotes his time
and talents to the relief of his distressed
brothers. But he has no hospital at his command, no
apothecary, no nurses, as has the missionary doctor,
Macgowan, and hence he is nearly inefficient, whilst
the other party is able to render great services
though the object is anything but charitable.
To us it appears a little more
than singular, that Christians should make such
gigantic efforts to uproot Judaism in the place of
its greatest glory, whilst the Jews stand idly by
and see the mischief perpetrated for all that they
do to check it. But it must be said in praise of the
sufferers that all the arts of seduction have
hitherto failed. Some few, misnamed in the
missionary reports as Rabbis, no doubt, however,
some men “to fame and fortune unknown,” without
education as much as without prin<<342>>ciple, may
have been enticed to forsake for a space their
religion; but a success, deserving the name, has
hitherto been totally wanting; and this could be
proved, were we to reprint the whole of the
successful perversions with the attendant
circumstances, as detailed in the monthly reports of
the Intelligence. It appears, however, from the
whole, that the land of Palestine is of the greatest
interest to the Christians, those of England
especially, who maintain there a bishop, and have
lately erected there a church, where they profane
the name of our God by a Hebrew ritual and the
endowment of a set of pensioned apostates; but alas!
that we should say it, the Jews as a body have of
late appeared perfectly quiescent whilst all this
was transacted under their very eyes, as we may say
without any exaggeration.
Again we acknowledge that an
effort was made about six years ago by Dr. Louis
Philipson, the Rabbi of Magdeburg, in Prussian
Saxony, and editor of the Universal Jewish Gazette,
to awaken the public attention and to establish a
Jewish hospital and school of industry at Jerusalem;
in which he was aided by Mr. J. A. Franklin, of
London, then the editor of the Voice of Jacob; it is
also true that the house of Rothschild offered one
hundred thousand francs towards it; but the project
failed; why? we cannot say: some indeed averred
that the opposition came from Jerusalem itself: of
this we know nothing; but fail it did, and the
distress of the people has been progressing ever
since, and no effort has been made to lend a helping
hand.
Even, now, however, Sir Moses
Montefiore has repaired to Palestine, but altogether
on his own responsibility, and on his own means to
endeavour to establish agricultural colonies of the
resident Israelites. But we fear that his benevolent
efforts will fail for the present, for one simple
but all-powerful reason—“there is no security for
personal property in Palestine beyond the walls of
large cities”—and even there the rapacious Arab,
except in Jerusalem, not rarely leaves the mark of
his savage and untameable nature. What the
Midianites were in ancient times, that are the Arab
Bedouins now. We extract from Judges vi. 3-5: “And
so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites
came up with the Amalekites and the children of the
east—and they encamped against them, and destroyed
the increase of the earth—and left no sustenance
for Israel, neither <<343>>sheep, nor ox, nor ass.”
And to this day the wandering tribes make the whole
of the country between the Euphrates and the
Mediterranean insecure by their constant incursions;
and devastated fields, and burnt towns, and ruined
dwellings, only too well testify where the bands of
the desert have swept by like the destructive simoom
of their own deserts.
And no country is more laid
open to their incursions than is the present unhappy
Palestine; and we cannot imagine how agriculture can
be successfully pursued by the sparse population
which is now found there. Say even the inhabitants
of the cities should scatter themselves over the
fields; still were their number tenfold, their
ignorance of husbandry, their absolute
unacquaintance with agricultural implements, their
inexperience in the use of arms, yes, in the art of
destroying life, would in the first place render
their labours painful and unproductive, and in the
other expose them without defence to the assault of
the robbers.
We who live so securely, who imagine
that every road can be traversed with safety, may
not believe that beyond the walls of Jerusalem the
plunderer plies his trade without fear of the civil
arm; but so it is, and unless a more energetic
government is established there, it is likely to
continue so for an indefinite period. All travellers
agree that the valleys are as fertile as ever, the
shrubbery and flowers beautiful beyond description,
the climate as healthy as it ever was; but there are
desolation, and waste, and ruin, just as Moses
predicted in the 29th of Deuteronomy, and the curse
of God for our disobedience seems to brood over all.
We do not say by this that all efforts at
improvement should be omitted; far from it: man must
do his own and leave the remainder to Providence; we
only say what we do to warn our readers against
being disappointed, should Sir Moses return without
effecting anything. Could a different government be organised; were military stations established in
every short distance, so as to overawe the Arabs,
something might be done; people would have a little
peace, and by degrees they might become used to the
labours of husbandry, and the wilderness might again
be made to blossom like a rose; but under the
present misrule of the Turkish governors little or
nothing can be done. We should be agreeably
disappointed to see our apprehensions falsified by
the event; and then we should be able to hail Sir
Moses as the true <<344>>benefactor of his brothers;
as the one who, under God, had been permitted to
break their chains, and endow them with the means of
self-dependence, so that they might be able to do
without others’ aid.
Still, whilst the sufferings of
the Palestinian Jews last, shall nothing be done to
relieve their distress? No one expects that we in
this country can do all that is required, or that we
shall do so much as to disable us from relieving the
distress we have now or may hereafter have among us.
But we can surely aid in the matter; and it would be
well, if each congregation were to set apart an
annual sum, devoted to the support of the poor of
Palestine, at least while they are unable to help
themselves. Should Providence hereafter favour the
land of our fathers, and give enlargement to its
inhabitants, the grant may stop, or be devoted to
some local charity; but in the mean time we know of
no timehonoured custom more deserving of attention,
than the ancient relief given to the distressed of
the land of Israel.
Since our last number, in which
we announced the act of the Portuguese congregation
of New York, we had the pleasure of becoming
personally acquainted with
Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, a
native of Floss, in Bavaria, but for near twenty
years a resident of Jerusalem. He has been sent
hither in company with Rabbi Zadok Levy, to make an
appeal to the Israelites of this country, to do
something active for those who still linger in the
land of their fathers; and to obviate, by a regular
contribution, the necessity of sending out in future
messengers, the expense of, which procedure is, as
we have already stated, onerous in the extreme.
Besides, communication by steam-packets has made
every country easily accessible, and commercial
connexions have now been formed all over the world,
so that remittance can be made promptly from here to
Palestine, in a manner formerly impossible. We lay
before our readers the circular which has been
addressed to the various American congregations, by
the two Rabbis already mentioned, and we trust that
the appeal will not be in vain. There are more than
forty organized congregations in the country, and
if each gives only from ten to twentyfive dollars
per annum, it would form a relief fund much larger
than ever has been devoted from America hitherto,
except on some special occasion and urgent
necessity.
Now we believe <<345>>that there is
hardly a single community that could not easily give
the lowest sum mentioned, that of ten dollars; and
we hope that the will may not be wanting to
protect the poor of Palestine, and to snatch them
from the necessity of receiving aid from the
missionaries, those inveterate foes of our religion.
As regards the messengers from Palestine whom we
have hitherto met with, we have but one
opinion,—that they are men every way trustworthy,
and that the congregations must be respectable and
worthy of all aid when they can find such men among
them to plead abroad in their behalf. The gentlemen
in question require not our praise; but we cannot
in justice to them help expressing our full
conviction of their trustworthiness; and we hope
that their appeal will be maturely reflected on, and
that they will receive an answer from all to whom
the circular has been sent.
This is about the time of the
annual meetings of the congregations, and we hope
that the respective officers will not fail to call
the attention of their congregations to this
subject. The circular speaks for itself, and if
anything has been omitted, every one can easily
supply the defect. It tells, however, a plain tale
of sufferings; and let those who are more favoured
not forsake the poor in their distress; and let
them, whilst they invoke the aid of Heaven, and ask
of God the forgiveness of their sins, aid those who
so severely suffer whilst they persevere to practise
and teach the religion of their fathers.
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