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by Isaac Leeser
We
are not illiberal, and far from entertaining sectarian feelings; but we
cannot shut our eyes to the dangerous tendency of placing Jewish
children under the exclusive care of gentile teachers, be the persuasion
of these what it may. We speak especially of young children, whose
character is not yet formed, and whose plastic mind is but too apt to
receive readily any impression which a skilful hand may feel inclined to
stamp upon it. Let us examine for a moment what the cause is of the immense variety of sentiments which we trace in every part of
the world, among all classes of persons. We require not the learning of
the scholar, nor the investigation of the philosopher, to feel
convinced, that it is education only which can make one people venerate
a crowned head, whom another nation would regard, with patriotic horror,
as the greatest affliction which a country could suffer; equally so can
it be education only which causes one people to worship a multitude of
gods, another to follow the philosophy of Confucius, another the Koran
of Mahomed, and another to obey implicitly the dictates of an old man,
who wields the power of the Roman pontificate. It is barely possible
that many persons thus educated will ever forsake their once formed
opinions; they have imbibed them from their infancy, and they
consequently perceive no absurdity in positions which to most others bear the impress of error and
unreasonableness. Whatever defects there may have been in the inception
of such views, are carefully polished away by gradual impression upon
the youthful intellect, which is not capable of tracing and detecting
the errors of positions and the incongruities or dogmas which are
presented piecemeal, and one by one for its acceptance. Time progresses,
and there is no leisure to learn any thing else; new pursuits and new
cares make personal investigation onerous, and the difficulty of
obtaining access to contrary opinions renders comparison almost
impossible. It is, therefore, owing to the first and early impressions
that the thoughts and feelings of after years are as we find them, and
it shows but little knowledge of human nature to be over much astonished
at the variety of sentiments on political and religious subjects every
where to be met with; since the greater part of mankind has not received
from the Creator the power of instituting and conducting investigations
independently of extraneous influences; and the few who might be able to
throw off the shackles of early education and youthful training, are
disinclined to do so from various causes and influences, of which they
themselves are scarcely conscious.
There
is no necessity in the present instance to dilate upon the subject at
greater length, our intention being merely to lay down some broad
principles which are too self-evident to be disputed. In short, the
ideas which most men possess are not of their own invention, but those
which they have made their own by the slow but sure progress of daily
acquisition through instruction, friendly intercourse, and the equally
efficacious method of observation. It is the province of very few indeed
to tear themselves loose from the habits of thought of the masses around
them, and to establish a new train of ideas, and to acquire this as
their field of thinking. The Christian community unity is well aware of
this fact; and as the popular religion is not likely to be acquired by
mere inheritance, every thing is resorted to impress it early upon
the tender mind, before other impressions have taken root therein.
Children are drawn to the churches by the display of magnificence and
the enchanting strain of music. Books are written admirably calculated
for the calibre of their understanding; the engraver lends enchantment
to the fairy page; and the binder must contribute his share in making
the exterior pleasing to the eye. Stories connected with their intended
religion are graphically presented to them in a variety of shapes, and
pictures presenting the images of the great ones among their churches,
the likenesses of their so-called called saints, together with the
ceremonies, and not rarely the IDEAS of their worship, constantly tend to fix the lessons which are taught at home and at school so
strongly in the memory and the imagination, that it at length appears as
though no other facts and ideas could be founded in truth. The
Christian, therefore, when he arrives at the age of maturity, may
probably be not as able to give a satisfactory reason for his belief, as
the educated Jew can; but this is nothing when he is viewed as an
adherent of his church; if a Protestant, he will take his sacrament with
fear and reverence without troubling his mind with the probable origin
of this simple Jewish ordinance, which we at every festival behold at
our tables and in our Synagogues; if a Catholic, he will resort to his
chapel to hear mass read, and at particular periods, make confessions to
his priest, in obedience to the mandates of his faith, without inquiring
whether there is any necessity for these acts of worship and duty; and
all denominations with but one exception, quietly submit to keep a day
of rest not ordained in the Bible, simply because they have been taught
that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day.
But
how stands the case with Jews? Have their children the same gradual
introduction to their religion? or do not rather their private education
and their public instruction teach very different lessons? At home they
are taught, and justly so, to believe in but one, eternal, and immortal
Deity, and it is impressed on their minds (we speak of religious
families) that this is the truth which our fathers received from God
himself. But they are dismissed from the domestic fireside to a public
or a private school which is essentially Christian; they hear prayers
recited in which the name of a mediator is invoked; they hear a book
read as an authority equal if not superior to the received word of God;
and you wonder that the impressions they have received at home are
weakened daily? that their religious convictions become confused and
uncertain? that infidelity at times takes the place of confiding belief
amidst the conflict which the contrariety of sentiments produces in the
human soul?—Besides all this, we are in a great error if we suppose
that Christian teachers do not endeavour to influence actively the
sentiments of their Jewish pupils; there are some, at least, who take
especial pains to warp the mind and to implant the peculiar tenets of
Christianity clandestinely; instead of attending to the development of
the intellect, by a classical and scientific course of instruction.
Instances are innumerable; but we will be content for the present with
extracting the following from Dr. Philippson's paper of the 13th
of May last:
"A.
Jewish boy, fourteen years old, the child of wealthy, honest, and
religious parents, had been sent for several years past to the Catholic
pastor of their place of residence, Gesecke, the district of Paderborn,
to receive instruction in the languages. The parents being themselves
unable to examine him in what he learned, were much pleased with his
supposed progress, and believed nothing else than that their son was
well versed in Latin and French. How greatly did they, therefore, feel
disappointed, when they were lately informed that the above pastor had
instructed their son principally in the tenets of the Catholic religion,
in place of giving him instruction in the languages, and had so corrupted him, that he denied
the true state of things to his parents. These, in their perplexity,
sent their child to their relatives in Werl, about sixteen miles from
Gesecke, to place him at a distance from the source of his error. The
pastor at Gesecke, in the meantime, gave the boy, privately, a letter of
recommendation to the Catholic pastor at Werl, who managed to continue
the affair in secret, in accordance with his well-known inquisitorial
zeal, inasmuch as he abducted the boy from the custody of the relatives,
and baptized him on the 15th inst., (probably April,) despite
of all the remonstrances of his parents. These, though deeply grieved,
did not seek the best advice, and they kept the cause of their sorrow a
secret, from an ill-grounded aversion of publicity, till the open
interference of the Werler pastor, which was a few days prior to the
baptizing. It was then that they applied to the chief (Jewish)
President, Hellwitz, at Soest, who took a very active part in the
matter. He in vain sought the assistance of the police; he obtained,
nevertheless, from the ecclesiastical authority, the Bishop of
Paderborn, an edict to suspend the baptism till farther orders. The
edict arrived at Werl by express just as the pastor had repaired to the
church, where it was delivered to him; he, however, left it unopened
till the service of the church was over, and the baptism had been
accomplished."
The
remainder of the article, which relates to the report that an
investigation is to take place concerning the stealing of the above
child against the two pastors, and remarks as to local matters of the
congregation at Gesecke, we omit; as it was merely our intention of
showing by an example the danger of leaving Jewish pupils under the
charge of men or women who have the means and disposition to corrupt our
children. We may probably be met with the assertion, that in America,
England, and the West Indies, such a transaction could not have taken
place. Perhaps not; but let us not be told that the influences are less
pernicious in countries where the Jews are free, than they are in
Germany, where they have yet to suffer much injustice without a chance
of redress. The minds of several have been poisoned—we speak from
actual knowledge—and several instances of apostasy nave come to light,
all owing to the same fruitful cause of evil. Let us be believed as
asserting only the truth, that even in this country and England the rage
for proselyte-making is as rife as ever, and means which a Jew would
shrink from employing are resorted to effect the spread of
Christianity: we allude to the secret instruction, private conversation,
and show of arguments to very young persons, who arc not sufficiently
acquainted with their religion to answer all the objections started. If
even open apostasy does not follow, there is unfortunately a divided
heart, not very favourable to the growth of healthful religion.
What
is the remedy? Diffusion of religious knowledge in the full sense of the
words; it would be best to establish Jewish elementary schools in every
district where there are sufficient children to occupy the time of a
teacher, who should be both religiously and scientifically qualified to
instruct his charges in the way they ought to walk, and in the things it
behooves them to know. And where this is impracticable, as we fear is the
case in many places, the parents watch closely over the progress of
their children, and the course of conduct pursued towards them by their
Christian teachers; they must not suffer, on any account, that the young
Israelites should be instructed in matters of religion belonging to
another creed, and, if possible, require that they be allowed to be
absent when prayers are recited in which a mediator is invoked. Farther,
the teachers should on no account be permitted to speak disrespectfully
of Jews and their faith; since they are not engaged for the purpose of
teaching doctrinal matters, but the principles of a scientific
education.
We
break off in the midst of our subject, merely wishing to cause parents
and guardians well on the magnitude of the responsibility they incur by
placing Jewish children under gentile teachers without preparing them
sufficiently by a thorough religious education to guard themselves
against the insidious or open attacks of the enemies of our blessed
faith. |
