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 ’’The Missionary 
 Problem" 
 
 
 A Reply to "The Jewish 
 Comment" 
 
 By 
 
 Philip Sidersky 
 
 The Yiddish 
 Evangelic 
 
 Baltimore, Maryland 
 November, 1909 
 
" iKxssimtartJ Problem.” 
 
 A very lengthy article, occupying more 
 than two pages in space and with large 
 head-lines on its first page, entitled “The 
 Missionary Problem,” appeared in a re- 
 cent issue of the Jewish Comment, one 
 of the leading Jewish weekly papers in 
 America. 
 
 The very fact that a prominent Jewish 
 paper should give so much of its valuable 
 space to discuss such a subject — “The 
 Missionary Problem” — is in itself a 
 proof that some of the leaders of Juda- 
 ism are realizing that the activities of 
 Christian Missions to the Jews are mak- 
 ing a great inroad among the Jews of 
 this country, and that it is impossible for 
 them to ignore it altogether. That Chris- 
 tianity has been and is plucking some of 
 the flowers of Judaism is being proven 
 without a doubt. 
 
 In reading over that lengthy and con- 
 spicuous article I notice that it does not 
 contain any defence of Judaism against 
 
Christ, cither Biblical or National, but 
 it merely contains many misconstrued 
 statements about Missions to the Jews 
 and Hebrew Christians in general. 
 
 The writer of that article seems to 
 have spent some time to gather his care- 
 less statements at England, from where 
 he claims to have recently hailed. 
 
 In the first place, he seems to be greatly 
 concerned about the great activity of the 
 Church of England in spending a great 
 deal of money in their efforts to give the 
 Gospel to the Jews, but leaves out the 
 fact that the Episcopal Church has been 
 blessed with three of its Bishops as 
 Hebrew Christians, and many prominent 
 clergymen and professors in that Church 
 came from the Jewish fold. On the 
 other hand, the Jewish writer of that ar- 
 ticle seems to overlook the fact that 
 thousands of dollars are spent by wealthy 
 Jews in this country by building very 
 elegant Synagogues, paying very large 
 sums to Rabbis and fine choirs (and in 
 some instances hiring Gentile singers), 
 and how many Jewish men do we find 
 there at an ordinary service on Saturday 
 
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mornings (the Jewish Sabbaths)? No 
 true Christian would take this up as a 
 leading argument against the Jews, and 
 I simply bring this up to call the atten- 
 tion of the Jewish Comment to the 
 old saying: “He that lives in a glass 
 house shall not throw a stone.” 
 
 Secondly, that article seems to criti- 
 cize some of the methods used in the ef- 
 forts to reach the Jews with the Gospel. 
 Every true Christian admits that the 
 Christian Church is not up to perfection, 
 but are all the methods in the modern 
 Synagogue perfect ? Are there not many 
 Jews to-day who are not in sympathy 
 with some of the methods in the modern 
 Synagogue ? 
 
 Thirdly, I am very sorry to see the 
 very bitter spirit shown in that article 
 towards those Jews who have been led 
 to follow the dictates of their consciences 
 by accepting and endeavoring to follow 
 the teachings of Jesus, which were pre- 
 dicted in the Old Testament and fulfilled 
 in the New Testament. 
 
 The Jewish people should be the last 
 to allow prejudice to be a hindrance to 
 
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their religious advancement, because 
 they have themselves suffered greatly 
 through the prejudices of other races and 
 religions. 
 
 The New Testament was written by 
 Jews. This fact should make the Jews 
 anxious to read the New Testament for 
 themselves, and not take their informa- 
 tion second-hand. 
 
 The writer in that lengthy article on 
 the “Missionary Problem” says: “The 
 
 Meshumed (renegade, Jewish name for 
 a Jew who follows the dictates of his 
 conscience by accepting the life and 
 teachings of Jesus) is a standing dis- 
 grace, which the church militant has 
 imposed on the Jewish people.” I will 
 call the attention of the writer of that 
 sentence to the following item, which is 
 taken from the New York Times of Au- 
 gust 13th, 1909: 
 
 “ Emma Goldman cast anathemas at 
 the Police Department, at all Govern- 
 ments, at all religions, at militarism, at 
 those who oppose strikes, at Philistines, 
 and at self-satisfied members of the mid- 
 dle class, at Kings, and at Presidents, at 
 
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the postponed Anarchist meeting which 
 took place at Terrace Lyceum, 206 East 
 Broadway, last night. Seldom has this 
 leader of the anarchistic forces ex- 
 pressed herself so volubly. 
 
 “It was also stated that Commissioner 
 Baker had asked what Miss Goldman 
 intended to say upon this occasion. This 
 information was not vouchsafed to him, 
 but he was assured that Miss Goldman 
 would be perfectly willing to personally 
 take the consequences of anything she 
 said. So that she might live up to this 
 she spoke in English in order that the 
 policemen in the back of the room could 
 have their ears easily burned, in spite of 
 the fact that many of those present only 
 understood Yiddish.” 
 
 The question arises: Why does not 
 the Jewish Comment give some of its 
 space to attack Emma Goldman, who is 
 misleading many Jews, and who is the 
 only real disgrace to the Jews in Amer- 
 ica? Last year Emma Goldman spoke 
 in Baltimore to over one thousand Jews 
 in the Yiddish language. A great por- 
 tion of her audience was compQsed of 
 
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recently arrived Jews from Europe, into 
 whose minds she has inculcated very 
 dangerous ideas. The Chief of Police of 
 Baltimore tried his best to stop that 
 meeting, but could not find a law in ex- 
 istence to help him out. Then why did 
 not the Jczi’ish Comment, which is pub- 
 lished in Baltimore, work up a petition 
 against her speaking in Baltimore, the 
 way it did in trying to stop me from 
 preaching the Gospel to the Jews in the 
 open air, by devoting a great deal of 
 space in agitation against my preaching 
 the Gospel of peace and love towards all 
 men ? 
 
 The very bitter attitude of some of the 
 Jewish leaders towards us, because we 
 have accepted Jesus, confirms us in our 
 faith, for we find in Luke 21 :iy, the 
 words of our Saviour: “ And ye shall be 
 hated for My name’s sake.” 
 
 But it is very blessed to realize that the 
 Gospel is a power to every one that be- 
 lieves it, and it is also very blessed to 
 realize that as we study history we find 
 that hundreds of Hebrew Christians 
 have notably preached, convincingly 
 
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taught and earnestly written, on behalf 
 of the faith “once delivered to the saints” 
 during the last one hundred years, and 
 among some of them we may refer 
 to the yeoman service in the cause of 
 Christ which has been rendered by He- 
 brew Christians, who have dedicated 
 their knowledge of foreign tongues to 
 the work of translating the Scriptures 
 into other languages, or else of opening 
 up the treasures of the Word of God 
 through commentaries. In this, Hebrew 
 Christians have been zealous to use their 
 powerful pens as ready writers, as the 
 following names testify: 
 
 Dr. Habershon; Dr. Alfred Eder- 
 sheim, Grinfield Lecturer on the LXX in 
 • the University of Oxford, and author of 
 works of world-wide fame, such as 
 “The Temple, its Ministry and Ser- 
 vices;” “The History of the Jewish 
 Nation;” and “Life and Times of Jesus 
 the Messiah,” the latter of which has 
 passed through eight editions ; Dr. 
 Adolph Saphir, a man like Apollos, 
 “mighty in the Scriptures;” Paul Isaac 
 Hershon, Dr. C. H. A. Kalker, Dr. Lcit- 
 
 8 
 
ncr, Professor Caspari, the Danish Theo- 
 logian ; Professor Th. Benfey, Professor 
 Heydemann, Dr. H. Crosby of N ew York, 
 Lichtenstein of Budapest, and Rabino- 
 witz of Kischineff, whose writings have 
 influenced many thousands of Russian 
 Jews; Rabbi Sclnvartzenburg, Dr. Veit 
 of Austria, Dr. Capadose of Amsterdam, 
 physician, statesman and divine ; Dr. 
 Moses Margoliouth of the British Mu- 
 seum, and J. H. Bisenthal, the great Bib- 
 lical commentator. 
 
 Various Bible Societies are indebted 
 for the translations of the Scriptures to 
 the labours of Hebrew Christians, such 
 as Aaron Bernstein, G. LI. Handler, Isaac 
 Salkinson, James Adler, Marcus Berg- 
 man, Herschonshon, and C. D. Ginsburg. 
 The last named is the author of possibly 
 the greatest Biblical work of the age — 
 “Massoreth ha Massorah” — in three folio 
 volumes, a work considered so valuable 
 that Queen Victoria allowed one of her 
 own special messengers, as a safety, to 
 take the MS. to the printers in Vienna. 
 It was said of him at the time of the Re- 
 vision of the Bible in 1881, that he was 
 
 9 
 
the soul of the “Revisers.” The Rev. Pro- 
 fessor David Margoliouth, whose mar- 
 velous intellect has ever been used in the 
 cause of the “faith once delivered to the 
 saints his successes at Oxford Uni- 
 versity have never been approached by 
 any other man. In 1878 he was both 
 Hertford and Ireland scholar; the fol- 
 lowing year saw him gain the Gaisford 
 Prize, as well as becoming Pusey and 
 Ellerton scholar. In 1880 he won the 
 Houghton Syriac Prize ; the next year he 
 was made Boden Sanscrit scholar; win- 
 ning also the Craven scholarship. Two 
 years later he was Kennicott Hebrew 
 scholar and Derby scholar. In 1887 he 
 gained the Senior Kennicott. At last the 
 University offered him $1,000.00 (One 
 Thousand Dollars) as a special honor, a 
 sum of money which he devoted to a visit 
 to Arabia, in order to ga’n a knowledge 
 of colloquial Arabic. Today he is Laudian 
 Professor of Arabic. 
 
 Another Hebrew Christian — one of 
 the heroes of the last century — was Sam- 
 uel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop 
 of Shanghai in the American Episcopal 
 Church, who died October 15, 1906. His 
 labors in translation work were truly 
 “more abundant.” He translated the 
 whole Bible into Mandarin, the lan- 
 guage of the people, which version is 
 
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used by the American and British and 
 Foreign Bible Society. He also made a 
 translation of the whole of the Scriptures 
 into Wenli, the classical language of 
 China, so that some three hundred mil- 
 lions of the Chinese nation have the 
 Word of God today in a ‘‘language un- 
 derstood of the people.” 
 
 Great Missionary heroism was exhibi- 
 ted by a Hebrew Christian, Rev. Albert 
 J. Nathan, who died on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, 1909. Mr. Nathan, the great 
 missionary, was well known through his 
 connection with the rescue of Ellen Stone, 
 who was held by Macedonian bandits, at 
 the risk of hk own life. 
 
 Nor has it been only in the cause of 
 Biblical truth that the Christian Jew has 
 proved himself a power, as the following 
 names show in the school of historical 
 research : 
 
 George Ebers, whose history of Egypt 
 was in his day the greatest work that had 
 then appeared,/ and is still used as a 
 mine for more modern writers to dip into 
 for accurate information , Dr. Samuel 
 A. Binnon, whose two elaborate folio 
 volumes on “Ancient Egypt, or Miz- 
 raim,” are masterpieces on the art and 
 archaeology of that wonderful land : he 
 was an Italian Jew, of whom it was 
 stated that he knew over sixty languages. 
 
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Isaac de Costa, Professor P. Jaffe, and 
 many other Hebrew Christians have also 
 enriched the world by their historical 
 writings. 
 
 We might also mention the name of 
 Blowitz, the late Correspondent of the 
 London Times in Paris, a diplomat of 
 the first order, who averted war in 1875 
 between France and Germany, and later 
 on brought about peace between the two 
 countries, by not writing what he kneu' 
 and might have done. Also Baron Reu- 
 ter, the pioneer of telegraphic news 
 agencies; and Felix Mendelssohn, the 
 great musical composer, and many oth- 
 ers who are an honor to the Jewish race 
 and a blessing to the Christian Church. 
 
 Gospel literature for the Jews in the 
 Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, can be 
 had from Philip Sidersky, 300 North 
 Eden street, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 The expenses for printing this Gospel 
 literature for the Jews is not provided 
 by any of the Denominational Mission 
 Boards, but by voluntary contributions 
 from Christians of all denominations, 
 therefore any one who is interested in 
 helping to spread the Gospel among the 
 Jews can have some share in helping 
 towards the expenses of printing Gospel 
 literature for the Jews. 
 
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