Jewish perseverance : or the jew, at home and abroad : an autobiography.

Front matter

AN ATJTOBIOGBAPHT.

M. LISSACK.

I HAVE BEEN TOUKQ, AND NOW AM OLD, TBT HATE I NOT SEEN THE RIGHTEOUS FORSAKEN, NOR HIS SEED BEGGING BREAD. — Psalm SIXVii. 25.

Preface

THE tendency of our age is decidedly cosmopolitan. Both in the material as well as in the intellectual and moral worlds, the desire and the effort to approximate what has hitherto been separated, to unite what has hitherto been divided, must be apparent even to superficial observers of passing events. In the material world, the achievements in drawing near to one another far distant countries, — countries divided by the vast ocean, — almost surpass belief. The consequences of this success have been increased intercourse and commerce between the different nations of the world, and a better understanding between people who, in past ages, considered it a patriotic duty to entertain national animosities against each another.

As man draws nearer to man, and looks his fellowcreature in the face with lessened and abated prejudices, he discovers in him, notwithstanding some more or less serious differences, a likeness of himself. Though his complexion, his features, the colour of his hair be somewhat different, still there is the human countenance with the stamp of intellect impressed on it ; though he may speak a different language, his ideas and moral sentiments are those of humanity. And here we already stand on intellectual and moral ground.

The great material movements of the age are accompanied by parallel intellectual movements. The two supply and complete each other; while nations exchange their commodities, they also exchange their intellectual products, and the philosopher looks upon them as emanations of the one great human intellect.

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I shall have occasion, in the course of this work, to speak of the effect which this general tendency of our age has produced upon the relation of the different religions and their respective possessors to one another. Judaism and the Jews, have, praise be to God, reaped a goodly share of the benefits and advantages which this moral revolution has conferred, and is still conferring, upon mankind.

But it is hardly to be expected that scarcely half-a-century of progressing enlightenment should have effaced all the traces which centuries of darkness and oppression have left behind them. The Jews still suffer from the wounds inflicted by the bigotry and barbarity of a bygone age, in more than one respect. ISTot only have their potent agencies somewhat influenced the social character of the Jew in a manner not very advantageous ; not only has the degraded rank he formerly occupied socially and politically impaired, though only transiently, the qualifications of the less educated, as useful members of society, but, in addition to these, he is still smarting under the evil prejudices which many of his Christian fellow-men have not yet been able to discard. And, what is most revolting to justice, these prejudices are either totally unfounded, or the result of the former social position of the Jew forced upon him by his oppressors. This is not the place to enter into a detailed examination of the nature of these prejudices, or of the miserable sophistries to which those who hold them are obliged to fly, in order to cloak their case with a semblance of reason. Suffice it to say that, during the recent debates about the Oath Bill, the Jew was still denominated " an infidel and an unbeliever." * This really needs no comment. If the Jews, the acknowledged bearers and propagators of revelation are considered unbelievers, it is somewhat difficult to say who are the believers.

* In one of the petitions against the admission of the Jews into Parliament, presented by Sir R. Inglis to the House of Commons, the petititioners pray " That the House may not admit the Jew, or any other unbeliever or infidel."

PBEFACE. IX

I have considered it necessary to premise these brief considerations, in order to make the twofold purpose of this book more intelligible to the reader. It is addressed to the Christian, and it is addressed to my co-religionists.

A large number of Christians, especially in the country, entertain anything but favourable views of Jews and Judaism. Their notions are the traditionary ones of times gone by. With many, the very name of Jew conveys implicitly the ideas of fraud, deception, and superstition. A Jew, in their opinion, can be nothing else than an individual whose efforts and energies are all concentrated in the desire of making money, lawfully or unlawfully. As to honesty, sincerity, piety, generosity, these virtues, in their estimation, are out of the question in a Jew. To crown all, many of these people really believe that all the vicious propensities which they thus associate with the Jew, are inherent in him, and are sanctioned, if not commanded, by his religion. Alas ! prejudices generally strike a deep root in the human heart, and are but slowly, and with difficulty, eradicated. And, unfortunately, there are men who indeed fill the sacred office of ministers of religion, and whose duty it would therefore be to enlighten those whom they are appointed to guide ; but who make it their purpose to go from village to village, from hamlet to hamlet, confirming the preconceived notions of the people, and preaching those opinions which they must know, or at least could easily know, to be erroneous. Oh ! that such would ponder the sentiment, " Love worketh no ill to his neighbour : therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

It is true there have not been wanting enlightened Christians who have endeavoured to clear the Jewish character of these false accusations ; the Jews have found powerful advocates in the press, who have tried to uproot, by reason and by argument the preconceived opinions entertained against them. But, on the other hand, bigotry and intolerance, mistaken Christianity and ungodly zeal, have also been

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busy to counteract the efforts of the defenders of my co-religionists, and have striven, with might and main, to perpetuate all those false notions which are calculated to injure the Jew in society. Thus the action of Christian writers friendly to the Jews is partly paralysed by those of the opposite party, while, among the sons of Israel, whose number, compared with the population of Great Britain, and with their brethren on the Continent, is but small, there is seldom a champion stepping forward to answer the challenge of their enemies, " In the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel."

I am well aware that I am not endowed with those capacities that would enable me successfully to perform the part of a David against the Goliath of prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, but, during my lengthened abode in a country town, I have been so frequently assailed by anti-Jewish combatants, I have so often had occasion to hear and to read opinions hostile to my brethren in faith, that I thought I might contribute, though perhaps but slightly, to dispel the mists of darkness hanging over my sacred religion and its followers, and to diffuse among my Christian fellow-men notions and views more in accordance with truth and humanity. I shall endeavour to show the groundlessness of the prejudices that are in vogue against my religion ; I shall endeavour to prove that the Jewish religion, far from incapacitating its followers from being good men and useful members of society, tends to enlighten the mind, to ennoble the feelings, in fact, is calculated to advance our moral and intellectual welfare.

As to my Jewish brethren, I indulge in the hope that to them the perusal of this volume will not prove altogether fruitless. I have indicated above, that the traces of past suffering and injustice are still visible in their social position. There are still many difficulties the Jew has to struggle with in his pilgrimage through life — many influences at work calculated to seduce him from his holy faith.

PEEFACE. II

Thanks to the progress of toleration and the increasing influence of milder sentiments, the emancipation of the Jews will, it is to be hoped, soon be complete, at least in the more civilized nations of Europe. The question of Jewish emancipation in this country has ceased to be a question of principle ; it is now a mere matter of form. The energetic steps taken by Baron Eothschild during the last session of Parliament, have driven the opponents of our emancipation back into their last stronghold, if a mere formula in an oath can be called by that name. But even after the last disqualification of the Jews shall have disappeared, much will remain to be done to eradicate the ill feelings which still linger in the minds of many Christians, and great efforts will have to be made by my brethren to raise themselves in the community to a perfect social equality with their Christian brethren.

With a view to these considerations I have felt it my duty to urge upon my co-religionists that moral excellence is the surest means of convincing the world of the shallowness of the prejudices entertained against us ; that, by a strict adherence to our holy faith, by honesty and integrity, by industry arid perseverance in our pursuits and occupations, we shall best be enabled to inspire our fellow-citizens with esteem for the Jewish character. According to the measure with which God has enabled me to act up to these principles myself, I have not failed to win the good opinion of my neighbours ; and it is, perhaps, with pardonable pride, that I gratefully refer to the list of subscribers to this book, in illustration of the remark. The moral emancipation, as I should call it, in contradistinction to the political emancipation, entirely depends on ourselves. Education and religion are the means to this end. The lessons which the latter conveys, both by precept and by example, are so instructive and so necessary that I have interwoven many of them in my narrative, convinced that their influence on the mind is of the most salutary kind.

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I sincerely wish that difference of religious opinions may soon cease to keep up a barrier between man and man, and that all may be pervaded by the liberal sentiment expressed in the following beautiful allegory, which I have translated from the German of Lessing, and inserted here, being fully convinced that the reader will excuse the digression : —

" There once lived a man in the east who possessed a ring of great and peculiar value. The stone of the ring was an opal, reflecting a great many most beautiful colours, and it possessed the mysterious power of making him who wore it beloved by God and man, provided the wearer had full confidence in its effect. Need we be surprised to hear that the man in the east never took the ring off his finger, and made arrangements that it should ever remain hereditary in his family. He left the ring to the dearest of his sons, on the condition that the son, in his turn, should bequeath it to his most beloved son, and that the heir, solely by force of the ring, should always be the head of the house. Thus the ring descended from father to son, through many generations, till it happened at last to come into the possession of a father of three sons, who were all equally obedient and dear to their parent. Only now and then, when he was alone with the one or the other of them, each in his turn seemed the most deserving of the ring, and the good father had the weakness to promise it to each. At last the hour of his death drew near. It grieved him to think that he must disappoint two of his beloved sons ; but what was to be done? He sent secretly for a jeweller, whom he ordered to make two rings exactly like the pattern, and he was told to spare neither expense nor trouble in executing this work. The jeweller succeeded so well that the father himself could not distinguish the model from the imitations. Full of joy he called to him each of his sons separately, gave him his blessing and his ring, and then — died. Scarcely was the father dead when each produced his ring, and, in virtue of it, claimed to be the chief of the house. They examine, investigate, dispute — all in vain ; the true ring could not be proved ! At last they went before the judge. Each of the brothers affirmed upon an oath, that he had received the ring directly from his father's hand, having had the promise long before to enjoy, one day, the privilege of possessing it. ' It was impossible,' said each, ' the father could have intended to deceive him, and, rather than believe that, he would accuse his brothers of false play, however unwilling to think ill of them. He would try to prove them traitors, and would know how to take his revenge.' The judge replied, that, if they were unable to bring their father before the tribunal, he should be obliged to dismiss them, as it was not his function to solve riddles, and it was not likely that the true ring would open its mouth and decide the question. ' But stop,' the judge continued, after a little meditation, ' Did you not tell me that the genuine ring had the miraculous power of rendering its wearer beloved by God and man ? Now, the false rings cannot have this effect. Which of you, then, is most beloved

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by his two brothers? Well, speak! You hesitate— you are silent. Oh, I see, the rings have only exercised an influence upon your own selves, and not upon others. You are all three deceived deceivers. The true ring very probably was lost, and, in order to conceal the loss, yonr father ordered three to be made instead of one. Now, if you will take my advice, let each of you believe his ring to be the genuine one. Your father loved you all, and would not favour one to the disadvantage of the two others. Let each of you rival his brothers with unprejudiced love, to manifest the power of the stone in his ring, using gentleness and beneficence towards each other, and confidence in God, as the means to this end. And if the powers of those precious stones become manifest in your children's children, then, after thousands of years, let them appear again before this tribunal, when one wiser than I am, will preside here, and give judgment.'"

Before concluding these prefatory remarks, I think it necessary briefly to state the reasons why I have chosen the form of an autobiography. From the preceding observations it may easily be inferred that the autobiographical part is merely secondary — that it has principally been used as a means to the primary and chief object of this volume. I thought the reflections and meditations on Judaism and religion in general, on humanity and toleration, on the practical virtues of honesty, industry, and perseverance, would convey greater force if they were brought out in connexion with the realities of life. Being anxious to avoid the form of a treatise or dissertation, I considered it advisable to clothe the substance of the book in the form of an autobiography. The events of my past life have not been sufficiently varying or adventurous to afford me gratification and self-complacency in relating them. Pride and vanity cannot, therefore, have had any share in inducing me to choose that form.

But mature reflection on the subject has convinced me that the very fact of the actions and movements of my life lying within a humble sphere of society, might increase and enhance the practical influence of the volume, and, on the other hand, might go some way to convince many of my Christian fellow-men that the sentiments of the Jews, in humbler ranks of life, towards their Christian brethren, and

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their notions of honesty and morality, are not of that kind so generally imputed to them.

In addition to these considerations there was another point which confirmed me in my intention of using the autobiographical form as the medium to convey my sentiments and opinions, in preference to a fictitious or real biography of another personage. The more we reflect on the knowledge of mankind, the greater its difficulties appear to be. To enter fully and truly into the motives and sentiments by which others are actuated, is a task, as it appears to me, requiring the endowments of uncommon genius. We are but too apt to substitute our own motives and feelings for those of others, and judge them accordingly. It is quite certain that he who pretends to a knowledge of mankind, must have closely watched and examined his own heart first, and, however difficult self-knowledge may be, the knowledge of others is certainly much more so. The difficulties, therefore, I should have had to encounter in giving a true biographical narrative of another person, determined me to give an account of my own life.

To those who know me, I confidently feel that I need not apologize, but I would beg those to whom I am not known personaEy, to receive the facts here related, in the spirit in which they are offered, viz. : with sincerity and impartiality. In one point particularly — with respect to the remarks I have so frequently made about baptized Jews, I would wish to eradicate from the minds of my readers the idea that I am actuated by bad feeling towards them. The truth is, that I was anxious to lay before the public a true picture of the Jew as he is, because I know that many receive all the information they possess about my co-religionists from what I cannot but regard as an impure and troubled source. To illustrate these views I will give an extract from a letter by a baptized Jew, a missionary, addressed to a clergyman in Northamptonshire, shortly after the Revolution in Prussia in 1849.

PREFACE. IV

" O happy England ! If England did but know and rightly appreciated the privileges and blessings which God has bestowed on her ! And though the Commons are going headlong with the revolution, I was rejoiced to find that the Lords had wisdom, courage, and Christian principle enough left to throw out that infidel measure, at least for a season, (for I fear they will be inundated at last,) which would have levelled England with the ungodly Continent. Are our people in England so blind as not to perceive the bitter fruits this anti-Christian policy has already borne on the Continent ? Do they not know that to wedge the Jews in, where God will not have them to be, is a revolt against Him ? Making them legislators for a Christian land is bare-faced infidelity, the spirit of the age, the child and offspring and fruit of the revolution, wherever it has taken place ! ! And what would the rulers of this land not give could they retrograde their steps, and make undone what is pregnant with so much and so serious mischief, to both Jews and Christians ! But, alas ! alas ! I fear dear England will finally suffer herself to be beguiled by the enemy, and thereby fall from that elevation on which God has placed her, because she has hitherto acknowledged Him in her national and commercial institutions, however much imperfection and sin may have been mixed up with it. I fear England has already imbibed too much of the bitter infidelity of the Continent. If our rulers would but be wise ! !''*

Now, it is not difficult to perceive here a spirit of the most unchristian intolerance in the mind of the writer. In this happy country such sentiments have little influence, but in countries where the Jew is still labouring under the yoke of oppression — in countries where the treatment of our race is such as we have read in the pages of Scott and others, where the dark days of the feudal system are not a mere subject for legend, and the son of Israel maintains his religion at the peril of his life, his home, and his happiness— my readers will not be surprised when I tell them that they are very mischievous to the Jew, inasmuch as the despotic rulers of such countries are thereby furnished with arguments from the lips of Jewish proselytes for the continued degradation of their own brethren in the flesh.

And now I lay this volume before the public, with the fervent hope that it may be productive of some good, both among my Christian and Jewish brethren. May it be judged leniently ! It would be sadly over-estimating my

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feeble powers were I to expect great results from it. But, if there should be here and there a Christian brother who, after the perusal of this work, should lay aside a prejudice against the wronged sons of Israel, if here and there feelings hostile to my co-religionists should give way to kindlier sentiments, if, among the brethren of my own sacred faith, there should only be one stimulated to honest exertions, and to steady perseverance, then I shall consider my labours crowned with a joyful success, and shall feel compensated by the pleasing consciousness of having effected some real good among my fellow-creatures.

BEDFOBD, April, 1851.

JEWISH PERSEVERANCE.

Chapter I

" Train up a child in the way he should go : and when he is old he will not depart from it." — Prov. xxii. 6.

AMONG the manifold created beings which people this globe, man stands aloft singled out as it were to give soul and meaning to all around him, and to pursue an end to which all other productions seem but subservient means. For this great purpose, the Creator of the universe has, in His unerring wisdom, graciously fitted his favourite, and has set him so much over the rest of the animal creation that he is, indeed, only " a little lower than the angels/'

It is one of the great distinctions of man, that he is essentially a reflecting being. The brute lives and works without consciousness. The ox that is yoked to the plough plods along the gleby furrows without considering that he is employed to prepare food for hundreds. But man can feel in his heart what his hands are doing. At every act of his life, at every occurrence in his days, he can stand still to reflect, to derive lessons, and to teach them to others. In this respect the life of an individual, however humble that individual be, may become a source of information for his fellow-beings ; and it is with such a view that I have penned the following outline of my career.

I was born in the town of Shwerin-on-the-Wartha, in the grand duchy of Posen, on the 24th of May, 1814. My father, a corn merchant, who had been trained in, and ever scrupulously adhered to, the principles of orthodox Judaism, had earned his fortune by the indefatigable labour of his hands; and it was his most anxious desire that his children should imbibe, as early as the mind was capable of receiving any lasting impression, those maxims of immutable integrity and unceasing industry which had been his own guides through the vicissitudes of life, and which are so distinctly and powerfully enjoined by the sacred religion he professed. All that I recollect of my mother is the reputation which long survived her, that " she stretched out her hand to the poor, and reached forth her hands to the needy " No one ever entered our house hungry but that he left it satisfied. Her attentions, however, knew no bounds, when they were bestowed upon individuals who, besides their indigence, had the additional recommendation of remarkable piety or distinguished learning. Like the good Shunamite in the Bible, when she perceived in any one that " he was an holy man of God," she had ever " a bed, and a table, and a stool" ready for him.

Every one who is only a somewhat close observer of life, must have observed that common occurrences which have in themselves nothing extraordinary whatever, strike us with a peculiar force, and become significant and momentous when they happen at a time when our mind is more than usually excited. It was natural then, that it could not pass altogether unnoticed when, at the very instant of my birth, my father received a letter from his agent at Berlin, informing him of the loss of several thousand dollars which had attended one of his speculations. The singularity of this coincidence became, however, more remarkable when, a week after, on the day on which, according to the Jewish rite, the ceremony of circumcision was performed, another letter arrived apprising my father of the success of some other speculation, the profit of which more than compensated for the loss sustained. These incidents, indeed, resulted from very natural causes, but my father "observed the saying;" and, during my boyhood, I often heard him remark, " I think the life of my son Moses/' this being my name, "will be fraught with a great many changes and vicissitudes." And then he would speak about the two letters that arrived in so rapid a succession, and brought such different tidings.

The first week of my earthly existence had thus exhibited the picture of the various and ever-changing fortunes of life — of profit and loss, success and failure, pleasure and disappointment, prosperity and adversity — changes exemplified by our daily experience and to which the career of most men, and mine in particular, bears ample testimony.

The most active industry and the most rigorous probity of a father, and the gentle and benevolent disposition of a mother, were well calculated to impress my mind with a deep sense of these virtues, which I continually saw practised around me, and the theory of which I was taught in the precepts of my holy faith. But not long was I to look on this fair union of what was right and good; soon the crown of glory which encircled the paternal house was to be robbed of one of its brightest gems. I had not yet exceeded the days of cheerful boyhood, I numbered but ten years when the arm of death carried off my beloved mother. It was my first misfortune, and I was just old enough to feel the extent of the loss which I sustained. Hitherto I had sported heedlessly on the flowery paths of childhood, favoured by the smiles of an unclouded heaven. Suddenly that sky darkened, I heard the rolling of the thunder, saw the flash of the lightning, and I stood awed and amazed. The aspect of a dying mother, the announcement that she had expired, the funeral with all its heart-rending and impressive ceremonies, it is true, had too much of novelty for the boy to make me feel very distinctly the sad affliction of the son who sees his parent sink into the grave. But a few days after the funeral, when I awoke to the calm perception that my mother really was no more, when every hour of the day, every corner of the house, reminded me that I had lost her for ever, and that that loss was irreparable; then my grief broke forth with all its keenness, and verified the words of the Psalmist : " All the night make I my bed to swim ; I water my couch with my tears."

From this period my education, properly so called, commenced. With the generality of the Jews the overruling feature of education then was, and now, for the most part, is, the religious principle. And justly so ; for the Jewish religion is one which, more than any other, perhaps, stretches its veins through all the actions of life. The religious system followed by the descendants of Abraham is a most perfect and almost literal realization of the divine words, "My statutes and my judgments, which a man shall do, and live in them." The Jew can truly be said to live in his religion. From his rising in the morning to his going to rest at night he can not perform a single act, whether relating to the cleanliness of his body or to the nourishing of the same by refreshments, but that some religious ceremony — some short prayer — is connected with it.

But the first requisite towards the right fulfilment of these religious duties, most undeniably is to know them and to understand their meaning and purport. Hence the high estimation in which the study of the law is held by the Jews. " An ignorant man cannot be a pious man/' is an observation used in the Mishna, signifying that a sound inquiry into the right meaning of the divine precepts must, of necessity, precede the accurate practice of these precepts. The Talmud abounds in passages recommending the study of the law, and "to meditate therein day and night," as a meritorious action, well pleasing in the sight of the Lord, and one which is sure to lead us to the conscientious fulfilment of our duties as men and Israelites. It was this idea, and not a depreciation of good moral actions, which led the rabbis of the Talmud to set so high a value on the researches of holy writ; because they were convinced that the natural and inevitable consequence of such an occupation would be the practical application of the commandments contained in those sacred writings. This reflection is beautifully illustrated in the allegorical saying of our sages : " A good action, compared to the study of the law, is like a single lamp compared to the sun." It would be very erroneous to imagine that these wise men valued the theory more than the practice : but they valued the theory as being naturally conducive to the practice; and, as the sun is the source of all light, and, therefore, infinitely superior to a single effluence of its substance, so did they consider, and justly consider, the study of the law, pursued with prayer and humility, as the source of all good actions which could not but result from it.