BM 155 .M49 1907 j 2,1^/0^ ^#* s^ ^i i\\t ®l?fOl0gffa/ ^ '*, '*- PRINCETON, N. J % BM 155 .M49 1907 Meyer, Louis, 1862-1913 The American Jew The American Jew "By^ REV. LOUIS MEYER Ajjijtant Editor of ^he Missionary ^e'VieW of the World PxEPRINTED FROM The Missionary Review of the World DECEMBER, 1907 By Friends of the Chicago Hebrew Mission, 22 Solon Place, Chicago, Illinois FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON IPI.N-AIK SHia'I'IN(, IX Tin. IKWISH OUAKTF.R, NEW VOKK HKtilNNING 3USINESS ON Tin-; KAST SIl NEW YOKK JEWISH FIRMS ESTARLISIIED ON JiliOADWAY. EVERY FLOOR OCCUPIED BY JEWS THE JEWISH ROAD TO WEALTH IN AMERICA 891 THE AMERICAN JEW BY REV. LOL'IS M KVKK Assistant Editor of the Missionary Review ok the World America is i)redominantly a Chris- of Columbus, and when Santangel tian country and we must strive in assured her that the needed seven- every way to bring the Gospel to ev- teen thousand florins were in the ery immig-rant who comes to our treasury,* that she sent Columbus on shores, and to the vast multitudes his journey of discovery. Upon the which are already settled over the caravels which made that eventful wide country. The American Prot- first trip to America were a number estant churches have, to some ex- of Maraiios, prominent among them tent, become aware of their duty to- the physician and the surgeon. It ward the hosts coming from Italy, was a Jewish sailor, Rodrigo de Hungary, Bohemia, Poland and Triana. who from the lookout dis- countries of the Levant, and mis- covered the faint outlines of the sionary work among these Roman longed-for land, at the very moment and Greek Catholic masses has been when despair began to conquer the begun. But one element of this courage of the men. AMien the boat great nation, the large and increas- was low^ered to take ashore men who ing Jewish population, has been for- were to seek the natives and to en- gotten almost entirely, in spite of ter into communication with their the fact that it has become a factor chiefs, Luis de Tores, the Jewish in- of great importance in our national terpreter of Oriental languages, was life. One great reason for this neg- among its crew, and was sent ashore lect is lack of information concern- before the others. Thus the history ing the American Jew and his need of the American Jew begins with of the Gospel. These people should Columbus' discovery of America, not be overlooked. Luis de Tores settled and died in Cuba. The Arrival of the Jew in America t^ <~ x. • • « Four Centunes m America The Jew set foot upon American Jews, chiefly Spanish Jews from soil before Columbus, whose jour- Holland, were on the muster rolls of ney of discovery was made possible soldiers and sailors who were sent out only through the generosity of a from Holland to New Netherlands Maraiio (secret Jew), Luis de Sant- during about the middle of the seven- angel, the Treasurer of Aragon. Queen Isabella did not pawn her jewels to secure the money for the intended trip of exploration. She teenth century. On November 9th, 1654, Jacob Barsimson arrived in the ship Pear Tree in the harbor of New Amsterdam (now New York). Soon declined to aid the eager explorer in after he was followed by a party of any way because there was no twenty-three Spanish Jews, who ar- money in the treasury. It was only rived in the bark St. Catariiia and when Luis de Santangel. and (ia- were fleeing from P.razil. because of briel Sanchez, another Maraiio. urged * 6he never knew what we know to-day, viz U])(>n ller the im])nrtance of tllC plans that Santangel forwarded this money. 892 THE MlSSKJtXAKV REVIEW OF THE WORLD December Portuguese persecution. Peter Stuyve- sant, the sturdy governor, wanted these Jews excluded, but the direct- ors of the Dutch West India Com- pany refused to accede to his re- quest, and on April 26th, 1655, they wrote to him as follows : After many consuhations, we have de- cided and resolved upon a certain pe- tition made by said Portuguese Jews, that they shall have permission to sell and trade in New Netherlands and to live and remain there, provided the poor among them shall not become a buraen to the company, or the community, but be supported by their own nation. Faithfully the Jews of the United States and Canada have adhered to the conditions of this permit during the many years which have passed since it was written. The Jews were not at first permitted to erect a syna- gog. They were excluded from em- ployment in public service, and they were not allowed to open retail shops. Later these strict laws were changed, and in 1664, when New Amsterdam was captured by the English and became New York, more Spanish Jews began to arrive. They gradually made their way into all of the original thirteen colonies, and their number was augmented by German Jews, who began to ar- rive about the second quarter of the eighteenth century. At the out- break of the Revolutionary War they had reached positions of honor in commerce and society in a num- ber of communities. During that war the American Jew by his con- duct splendidly contradicted — as he has always done — that cruel, false statement of Renan, "The Jew will never be a patriot ; he simply dwells in the cities of others." There were only a few more than 2,000 Jewish souls in America at the outbreak of the war. Init many of them es- poused the cause of liberty, and more than one hundred Jewish offi- cers and men served during the Rev- olution. From 1 86 1 to 1864 be- tween 7.000 and 8,000 Jews saw ser- vice on both sides, among them nine generals and eighteen colonels, tho there were less than 200,000 Jews in the whole country. During our late conflict with Spain 4,000 Jews were enlisted in our army, while thou- sands more ofifered their services. In the American regular army and navy a considerable number of Jews have always been found, while in the legislative halls and in the institutes of learning, in commerce and in lit- erature, the American Jew, during the nineteenth century, rendered to the country of his adoption or his nativity services which have been largely in excess of his proportionate share. The American Jew of To-day* I. His X limbers and His Distribution The great immigration of Russian Jews commenced in the beginning of the eighties and added a new ele- ment to the few Spanish-Portuguese Jews and to the German-Jewish ele- ment which had been reinforced by Polish-Dutch and Dutch-English tributaries since 1820, and by Hun- garian. Bohemian, Moravian and Polish Jews after 1848. Thus for * We use freely the following books and articles: "The Russian Jew in the United States," edited l>y Charles S. Bernheimer, Ph.D.; "The Great Jewish Invasion," by B. J. Hendrick, in A/cCiure's, January, iqo-j; "Israel Unbound," by James Creelnian, in Pfarsoii's, February and March, 1907; "The Jewi-sh Encyclopedia," and others, besides our own statis- tical figures. 1907 THE AMERICAN" JEW 893 the past twenty-tive years the Jew- ish population in the United States has rapidly increased.''^ The number of Jews in the United States is esti- mated as high as 2,000.000, after all a small number if compared with the total of our population of 80,000,000. But its importance lies in the man- ner of its distribution. These 2,000.- 000 Jews are not scattered over the wide area of our country, but are chiefly settled in certain cities. Thus Greater New York has to-day an es- timated population of 1,000.000. Chi- cago of 180,000, Philadelphia of 100,- 000, Greater Boston of 80,000, St. Louis of 50,000, Greater Pittsburg of 45,000, Baltimore of 35.000, Cleve- land of 35.000, San Francisco of :^^,- 000. Cincinnati of 30,000, Minneapo- lis and St. Paul of 28,000. and so on. In almost all these cities the Jewish masses live voluntarily in certain circumscribed quarters, cities within cities, powers within powers.* The congestion in these Jewish quarters is terrific, but in none is it greater than in the largest and oldest Jew- ish quarter of New York. Upon an * This Russian Jewish element was composed of I^ithuanian, Volhynian, Bessarabian and other con- stituent.s, and of Galician, Polish and Rumanian tributary streams, but it defies analysis. •Thus in New York the 1,000,000 Jews are set- tled in four great Jewish quarters, tho Jews in larger or smaller numbers are found in every part of the great city. The largest and oldest of these quarters is bounded by the East River, Catharine street, the Bowery and Houston Street, and contains 400,000 Jewish :„habitants. The Uptown quarter is bounded by 86tl. Street, Fifth Avenue, 120th Street and the East Ri"er, and contains 200,000 Jews. The Williamsburg quarter contains 150,000 Jews, while the Brownsville quarter is inhabited by 75,000 Jews. Chicago I ewry according to Philip Davis) is scat- te ed all over the south side as far as 63d Street, on the epst and northeast side up to the Lake, the no thwest cide and the west side. Acco'ding to es imates made by Christian workers, there are on the northwest side about 30,000 Jews, while there are at least 75,000 Russian and Polish Jews in a dis- trict bounded by Polk Street, T6th Street, the river and Ashland Avenv-.e. area of less than one s(iuare mile live more than 400,000 Jewish men, women and children. That is equiv- alent to 625 of them to each acre, or, to make the congestion still plainer, if the houses of the district were razed and all the men, women and children placed upon the level ground, each one would have 48 inches square to live and move in. Thus the old Jewish Ghetto of the City of New York is the most densely populated part of the earth. According- to Paulding* there are twenty-eight public schools in that district which, on October ist, 1903, contained 61,103 Jewish children (out of a total of 64,605). It is es- timated that in New York 185,000 Jewish children, in Chicago 40,000, and in Philadelphia 20,000 were en- rolled in the public schools at the be- ginning of the school year, 1907. 2. Raf^id Increase in Xumbcrs This large Jewish population which has come to our shores mostly during the last twenty-five years, continues to increase rapidly. In 1899, 37.41 S Jewish immigrants en- tered; in 1903, 76,203; in 1904, 106,- 236; in 1905, 125,000; in 1906, 150,- 846 (in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore alone) ; and in 1907 (the year closes on July 1) about 200,000. Thus there has been a rapid increase of the Jewish population, especially in New York, where 65 per cent, of all Jewish immigrants have settled. Attempts are now being made to in- duce our Jewish newcomers to settle in new fields and to scatter over the country, but we doubt the success of these attempts. * Quoted in Bernheim's book. 8y4 THE MISSION. \RV RKVIF.W' OF THE WORLD |l)eceiul)cr 3. Grozciiig IiiHiiciicc and Pozcer The Jewish element has not only increased in influence and ^)o\ver in proportion to its increasing" num- bers, but the American Jew has reached a position of influence which is far beyond that which is propor- tionate to his numbers. To the stu- dent of the Jewish character there is nothing" strange in this achieve- ment, for the two great characteris- tics of the Jewish race throughout the world, but especially in Amer- ica, are ambitious perseverance and tenacity, and thus it comes that a greater percentage of Jews reaches positions of influence and power than of any other race represented in our great commonwealth. This becomes first apparent in the spheres of education and of learning. (i) /;; Science and Learning. Of the large numbers of Jews in the public schools of our cities, a sur- prizingly large number graduate and enter into the high schools and col- leges, where they reach a high level of scholarship and carry off a large number of the honors. The propor- tion of Jewish students in almost all our higher institutions of learning is large, and in New York the Jewish students sometimes outnumber the Gentile. For instance, 75 per cent, of the students in the College of the City of New York are Jews, wliile more than 75 per cent, of the stu- dents in the Normal College of New York are Jewesses. In Columl)ia University the Jews formed nearly half of the university body of stu- dents in February. 1907. In one class forty-five out of less than a hundred students were Jews.* A * New York Stni. February i6tli, 11107. large proportion of these Jewish stu- dents. in the higher schools of learn- ing, on account of their hunger for knowledge, their ambition, and their persevering tenacity, graduate with highest honors and step into posi- tions of trust. Creelman states that there are about 3,000 Jewish hnvyers and nearly a thousand Jewish physi- cians in New York. Among the law- yers is found the great Samuel Unt- ermeyer while five Hebrews are members of the New York Supreme Court.* Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, of the Court of General Sessions of New York (Criminal), furnishes a splendid example of the rapid rise of a Russian Jew, for he carried a bas- ket as a butcher's boy only seven- teen years ago. But the American Jew comes to prominence not only in the City and the State of New York, for in almost every state of the Union they are found in posi- tions of high honor and trust and show themselves worth's'. Many professorships in universi- ties and colleges are occupied by Jews, for we find in Johns Hopkins two, in Columbia three, in Univer- sity of New^ York one, in University of Pennsylvania two. in University of WTscor.sin one, in University of Chicago s'x, in Harvard one, in Uni- versity of California two. in Univer- sity of Missouri out-, in I'niversitv of Minnesota one. in University of Michigan one, while a still larger number are assistant professors or instructors. Hut enough has been written to pro\e that an extraordi- nary large proportion of our Jewish population has risen into prominence in educational circles. * Justices r,evintritt, Newberger. Eriaiiger, Greeii- baiim and Hirschbero. iyo7j THE AMERICAN JEW 895 (2) Poxvcr in Commerce. In the business world the success of the Jew can scarcely be surpassed. In cities small and large he has settled, has entered into commerce and in many places now rules the trade. In Philadelphia three out of five of the largest department stores are under Jewish control, in Chicago all but two. But in New York the tremen- dous power of the American Jew in commerce becomes the most appar- ent. Along both sides of Broadway for a mile and a half, in the down- town business district, Jewish names predominate upon the signs, and Weston, in "The Present Condition of the Jews 1904," states that "in dry- goods there are 514 Jewish firms rating $58,000,000; in clothing 264 firms with a rating of $34,000,000 ; while the rating of 2,018 general firms is $207,388,000. Fifth Avenue, the former aristocratic thorough- fare, has become a thoroughly Jew- ish business street from 14th to 23d Street. Hendrick states that in the last five years not far from $15,000,- 000 has been invested in new Fifth Avenue buildings to provide accom- modations for hundreds of Jewish clothing manufacturers, who, a few- years ago, started in the dingy Jew- ish (piarter on the east side. The Jew controls the clothing trade ab- solutely in New York, and employs 175,000 men, who annually turn out more than one-half of all the wear- ing apparel in the United States — a ])roduct valued at $300,000,000. In New York there are thirty-five Jewish banking houses, while in the stock exchange a host of Jewish men stand high. In the real estate field the Jew has outdistanced all his compet- itors, as Hendrick has well shown. "Not far from 1,000 apartments and tenements are built in New York every year, involving an investment of about $60,000,000. This enormous business is almost entirely in Jewish hands." Haskin has made the state- ment that the Jews own $900,000,- 000 worth of property in New York alone, and that the Jewish whole- sale houses do a yearly business of more than a billion. There are now at least one hundred and fifteen Jew- ish millionaires in America, a num- ber slightly above the ratio of popu- lation. In the section of New York ^ from 60th to 90th Street, and froni Lexington to Park Avenue, there are said to be at least five hundred Rus- sian and Polish Jews whose fortunes range anywhere from $100,000 to $1,000,000. In the shopping district of Sixth Avenue, New York, all the larger de- partment stores belong to Jewish capitalists, while the American the- ater can be called "controlled" b>' such Jewish men as Klaw and Er- langer, Belasco and Frohmann. Many distilleries of America are in the hands of Jewish owners, and Weston states that $50,000,000 of Jewish capital is employed in the New York jewelry trade, and also that with this money full thirtv- three per cent, of all the business done is tran.sacted. Thus, in com- merce and finance, the American Jew holds a commanding position. (3) In the Public Press. Eighty- two Jewish periodicals were pub- lished in the United States in 1904, and a number of Yiddish daily pa- pers are printed in the larger cities. Five of the daily newspapers are published in New York, and the combined circulation of all the Yid- 896 THl'. MlSSioXARV REVIEW Ol" THE WORLD | DeceniDer dish newspapers is estimated at 350,000 copies. Many of the great dailies of our country are owned by Jews. Adolph Ochs, a few years ago a poor boy in Chattanooga, owns the Philadelphia Public Ledger, the New York Times, and the Chattanooga Times. The Hungarian, Joseph Pulitzer, owns the New York World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The New York Press is owned by Henry Einstein, the Balti- more Neivs by Franklin, the Omaha Bee by the heirs of Rosewater, the San Francisco C//ro;;/r/t' by De Young, and so forth. The daily press of our country in a remarkable degree de- • pends upon Jewish editors and re- porters, who are brilliant and pa- triotic writers of great versatility, but of whom naturally no Christian sen- timent can be expected in their wri- tings. (4) In American Politics. The American Jew has had a brilliant record in politics in the United States. Six Jews have been in the United States Senate since the Gov- ernment was founded, viz : Yulee from Florida, Benjamin from Louis- iana, Jonas from Louisiana, Simon from Oregon, Rayner from Mary- land and Guggenheim from Colorado. The last two are serving now. In the 57th Congress of the United States were five Jewish members, viz : Gold- fogle, Kahn, Knopf, Littauer and Meyer, while in many of the state legislatures are Jews. Oscar S. Straus is now Secretary of Commerce and Labor and is the first Jew in the United States to hold a Cabinet portfolio, while William Loeb, secretary to the President, exerts probably as much power as a member of the Cabinet. More than 2.000 Jews are in t)ie em- ploy of the Government. Samuel (jompers, the labor leader, is also a Jew. In our larger cities the Jewish pop- ulations have become great factors in politics, and they are conscious of their power. There are, however, no Jewish leaders who could deliver the Jewish ballot under certain conditions, for the Jew is singularly independent. But the racial instinct is so great, the same feeling dominates the Jewish hearts so much, that only in rare cases the Jew- ish vote is divided. These cases where it has become divided have served only to reveal its tremendous influence. New York politicians have confirmed our opinion that Hearst's defeat in the election of November 6th, 1906, came to pass largely because the Jewish vote was divided, a large number of the common people following the leader- ship of the Yiddish press and support- ing that party to which the President belongs, who had shown such tender consideration of their race by an- nouncing that he would make Mr. Straus a member of his Cabinet on January ist, 1907. (5) hi Benevolent JVork. No other single race spends as much money for the poor in proportion to their number as the Jewish. In New York alone the total assessed value of Jewish asylums, hospitals, educational institu- tions and religious buildings is more than $10,000,000. The United Hebrew charities in almost all our larger cities are model institutions and Jewish set- tlement work is well organized. Kin- dergartens and sewing-classes are established everywhere, and aids to self-improvement are liberally pro- vided for the poor. The American Jew is a liberal giver, not so much, we believe, because he is more benevolent 1907] THE AiMERICAX JEW 897 than others by nature, but because charity is intimately connected with his rehgion. 4. American Judaism It is impossible to give a complete description and definition of American Judaism in a brief space. To the Christian, American Jewry presents a wonderful fulfilment of Hosea iii. 4, 5. The landless and the kingless nation abides without a knowledge of the Prince of Peace, without repentance, without conviction and forgiveness of sin, and in spiritual blindness. American Reform Judaism is a mix- ture of Unitarianism and intellectual Rationalism, which elevates philosophy above religion. It clings, at least out- wardly, to the great Jewish Holy Sea- sons, to the name Jew, and in the ma- jority of its followers to circumcision. Its adherents expect the coming of the Messianic age (not of a Messiah), when justice will reign supreme and love will bind man to man. In many of its prayer-books all sacrificial pray- ers are omitted, and laws and statutes are set down according to the present time. American Orthodox Judaism has its adherents mainly among those who not long ago came to our shores from the densely populated Jewish districts of Eastern Europe where Talmudism still has a strong hold upon the people. Tenaciously it clings to the letter of the Law, and the Old Testament is crowded out by the Talmud. It wastes its strength, as has been well said, in laborious triflings and unprofitable acuteness, for which the Talmud alone is responsible. The six hundred and thirteen precepts, contained in the Tal- mud, control and govern the life of the Orthodox lew and decide even c|ues- tions of the highest moment for him. Orthodox Judaism, as well as Reform Judaism, undoubtedly teaches salva- tion by good works, for the adherents of both are taught that fasting, prayer and alms take the place of sacrifices. While thus the older Jewish ele- ment in America still adheres, to some extent, to the tenets of Orthodox or Reform Judaism, a pitiful state of af- fairs predominates among the younger element in the larger cities. There is, according to Bernheimer, a very ap- preciable number of fairly well edu- cated young people who have left the Jewish religion of their Orthodox parents. To them, and also to the nu- merous more ignorant and cynical ele- ment of the Jewish population, the Jewish faith, with its ceremonies and restrictions, is ridiculous and con- temptible. "Pleasure, and not duty, being their watchword, all that ham- pers freedom or self-indulgence, is a kill-joy to be avoided. Therefore, the dance hall, the vaudeville theater, the card game, the prize fight are places of frequent resort. The synagog, the lecture hall, the concert room, the de- bating club, are not visited to any ex- tent by this particular portion of Young Israel." Thus the religious state of large masses of young Amer- ican Jews is pitiful. 5. The Dark Side of the Picture A decline of a religion which con- tains as much truth as Orthodox Juda- ism, must be accompanied by moral decay, and thus, while a proportion- ately large number of American Jews has risen during the last decade, vice and crime have entered among them where hitherto they were little known. At the thirty-third annual meeting of the Young- Men's Hebrew Association, 898 THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD | December held at g2d Street and Lexington Ave- nue, New York, on January 24th, 1907, Judge Otto A. Rosalsky stated that he had observed that crime was largely increasing among the young folks of his race. "I am sending more and more young rascals to jail," he said. And thus he uncovered the piti- ful state of the younger Jewish people. Bernheimer states: "Thirty years ago the conviction of a Jew for a felony was almost unheard of in the city of New York. To-day there is not one penal institution within the area of Greater New York which does not harbor some offenders of the Jewish people." "Eight per cent, of the pris- oners at Blackwell's Island Peniten- tiary are Jews. At the workhouse at Blackwell's Island less than 2 per cent, of the 2,ooo inmates are Jews." "In the House of Refuge on Randall's Island, there were two hundred and sixty Jewish boys and girls in Novem- ber, 1904. In the Juvenile Asylum there are two hundred and sixty-two Jewish children under sixteen years." What is true of the criminal institu- tions of New York is true of most of the criminal institutions throughout our land. Compared with the ratio of Jewish population in the different l)arts of the United States, it still re- mains an uncontrovertible fact that the ratio of Jewish criminals is consider- ably lower than that of the general population, 1)ut the cause for alarm lies in the fact that the Jewish popula- tion of our ccnmtry, to whom legal misdemeanors were in the past almost unknown, is beginning to fall into moral decay. Bernheimer thinks that the crowded life of the streets, the absence of proper home training, and the loss of religion, are the reasons for this decay, and he pleads for "a leader possessing eloquence and personal magnetism and the power of teaching by example the value of a religious life as interpreted by the teachings of Judaism in its modern form." While we agree with the reasons assigned in Doctor Bern- heimer's work, we disagree with him concerning the remedy. Judaism can not lift these fallen ones up, neither Orthodox nor Reform Judaism. A rigid preaching of and adherence to the Ten Commandments can lift men to a very high pinnacle of morality, but it can not save them. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet of- fend in one point, he is guilty of all." By faith in Christ only, are men, whether Jews or Gentiles, saved. But we must touch a still more pain- ful subject, viz: the tremendous in- crease of prostitution among the Jew- ish girls in our larger cities. We will not detain our readers with a discus- sion of the reasons for this degrada- tion, except that we call' their attention to a remarkable statement made by Turner,* in which he names as one of the four interests concerned in the ex- ploitation of prostitution in Chicago "the men— largely Russian Jews — who deal in women for the trade." He also says : "The largest regular busi- ness in furnishing women, however, is done by a company of men, largely- composed of Russian Jews, who sup- ply women of that nationality to the trade. These men have a sort of loosely organized association extend- ing through the large cities of the country, their chief centers being New York, Boston, Chicago and New Or- leans. In Chicago they now furnish the great majority of the prostitutes in * See article, ' Tlie City of Chicago," in A/rC'/un April, 1907. 1907 THE AMERICAN' Il'AV 89(; the cheaper district of tlie west side levee, their women having driven out the EngHsh-speaking women in the last ten years." We hesitate to accept the statement of some slum-workers that prostitu- tion increases among the American Jewesses at a higher rate than among the women of any other nationality in our country, but we. and every close observer of the life in the crowded Jewish tenement districts of our larger cities, must acknowledge the existence of a large number of Jewish prostitutes in the United States. Reader, nothing but the Gospel of Jesus Christ can lift them up from a life of shame and save them. 6. TJic American Jc:^' and Chrisfianify (I) Attitude of the Leaders. We must carefully discern between the at- titude of the leaders and the attitude of the common people toward Christ and Christianity. The attitude of the leaders in gen- eral is one of some peculiarity. They praise Jesus, are proud of his Jewish birth, and speak of the doctrines con- tained in his speeches and parables as ideal, but they deny his divinity and thus make him an impostor. Christianity to most of them is noth- ing but a system of doctrines devel- oped by Paul, and they reject its tenets. They are bitterly opposed to the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews, reiterating continually that we live in a free country and that Chris- tians have no right to disturb their peace by the establishment of missions among them. The Jewish leaders deny the fundamental truth that ours is a Christian country and that our in- stitutions are Christian. They there- fore oppose the reading of the Bible in the ])ublic schools by distributing broadcast their pamphlet, "Why the Bible Should not be Read in the Public Schools." They are determined in their efforts to have all Christmas celebrations or entertainments relative to the day prohibited in the public schools. Jewish members of the Cal- ifornia Legislature liave succeeded in barring the name of Christ from the prayers of the chaplain,'^' while the two Jewish members of the Colorado Legislature failed in a similar at- tempt. f Thus by their acts the Amer- ican Jewish leaders contradict their oft-repeated saying, with which they oppose Christian missions to the Jews, "Leave us alone, for we are leaving you alone." Well, w-e have left them very much alone, for we have only played at Jewish missions. But have they left us alone? (2) The Common People. While some Jews, especially those wdio have come from lands like Russia and Ru- mania only lately, are still filled w'ith tremendous prejudices against Christ and Christianity, it can be well said that, in general, the attitude of the large Jewish masses in the United States is an attitude of inquiry. They have tried Judaism, and were not satisfied in the bondage of Talmudism, nor did they find satisfaction of heart in the rationalistic teachings of the reform rabbis. They have tried social- ism and philosophy, but in their hearts there remains an unsatisfied longing for something better. Thus they eagerly accept and read suitable Chris- tian literature and Old and New Testa- ments in their language. The prejudices of the masses against Christian missions to the Jews have *New York H'oy/if. Januarj' iS, 1907. t New York World, February 19, 1907. ()00 THE MISSIOXARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD Jecenibei greatly decreased during the past ten years. All Jewish missions in the United States — alas, there are but few of them — report crowded meetings for men and serious attention to the preaching of the Gospel. The women's and the children's classes are also well attended. In short, it is the old story of the time of Christ. "The common people heard him gladly." Naturally this attitude of inquiry leads to more frequent conversions and baptisms among the American Jews. In regard to these conversions Oscar S. Straus * made recently the following statement : "The very few Jews who change their religion do so from unworthy motives." Mr. Straus thereby gave expression to a statement contradicted by figures and by facts. Some years ago '■' we showed that 5,208 Jews were baptized in the United States and Canada between 1870 and 1900, while from 1895 to 1901 the number of Jewish baptisms in the same countries was 1,072. As far as ascertainable, 2)2?) Jews were baptized in 1905, and 376 in 1906 in America. These figures are by no means small, tho they must be incomplete in a coun- try where baptisms are not officially recorded. In regard to the unworthy motives, we scarcely need to contradict such slander. The American Jew can not gain any temporal advantage by join- ing the Christian Church, for baptism does not enhance social condition in this free country. The Hebrew Chris- tian in America gains to some extent the ill will of his Jewish kindred and in some cases their bitter persecutions. He is met with sneers and insinuations by the Jewish leaders, and he is met * In an interview published in the Cincinnati Timn Slar, October 26, 1906. * MissioN.\RY Review, December, 1002. with suspicion by the great mass of Gentile Christians, until he has proved himself. Thus, only the grace of God can cause a Jew to face the difficulties and profess Jesus Christ before the world. There may be some who are moved by unworthy motives, but they soon turn back and their names are found upon the rolls of Christian churches a short time only. The present ecclesiastical statistics disprove Mr. Straus' statement, for eighty-nine He- brew Christians, men who were con- verted when of age, are to-day or- dained ministers of Protestant de- nominations in America, while four- teen Hebrew Christians serve the j\Jaster in the foreign field as mission- aries employed by American mission- ary boards. "By their fruits ye shall know them." In Conclusion We have tried to present the Amer- ican Jew with his virtues and with his faults. He is a man and sinner, even as others, but he has not received Christ and His Gospel and, therefore, is without eternal life. Think of his virtues and his power : what a desir- able member he would make of the Church of Christ ! Think of his faults and of his degradation, and remember that only Christ can overcome them. Think of the multitudes of Jews coming to America, to be added to those masses already here, and re- member that unto you and me the Lord has given the wonderful privilege and the great commission to preach the Gospel to every creature. That command includes the Jew. Remem- ber that the Gospel of Christ "is the power of God unto salvation to ever} one that believeth ; to the Jczv first, and also t(^ the Greek."