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Article OUR JEWISH BRETHREN. Page 1 of 2 Article OUR JEWISH BRETHREN. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Our Jewish Brethren.
OUR JEWISH BRETHREN .
EEASONS why Jews should bo enthusiastic Masons are obvious to every member of tho Fraternity , for upon the traditions , history and religion of their race the Order is founded . To them we are indebted for our idea of one Supremo Being as contradistinguished from the many gods of heathen worship . The Old Testament , in
nil its grandeur and sublimity , is their conception . Its teachings rolative both to our temporal and eternal destinies are the foundation of our religion , as well as of the mysteries of our Craft . The sacred volume , never closed in open Lodge , with all its light and wisdom , the
first object the eyes of tho Entered Apprentice behold , the rule and guide to our faith through every grade of life , they gave us . To their wise king , Solomon , the first Grand Master of the Order , Lodges were originally
dedicated , and to his genius is ascribed much of the moral work of Speculative Masonry . With the erection and adornment of his splendid Temple is associated every rite and ceromony of the Ancient Craft , as now exemplified in our mysteries .
Springing from Palestine , but one-sixth the territorial size of England and scarcely larger in area than the State of Massachusetts , this nation , for centuries without a country , remains numerically small , numbering in all considerablv less than six million five hundred thousand
souls , whereof between one-third and one-halt now inhabit Russia , one-fourth Austria and Hungary , rather more than one-twelfth Germany , somewhat moro than sixty thousand each France and England , and considerably less than two hundred and fifty thousand the United States .
The mythical wanderer , known as the Wandering Jew , the insulter of Christ in His humiliation and suffering , whether regarded as Cartaphilus , the door-keeper of Pilate on the occasion of Christ ' s trial , or as Ahasuerus the scoffing shoemaker of Jerusalem , is but a symbol of the
Jewish people . Alleged to have witnessed tho crucifixion at the age of thirty , the legend depicts him as doomed to reach the age of one hundred years , then to faint , revive as at thirty , and so on and on , until the day of judgment ,
always with the Saviour s curse upon him , never resting , not permitted to dio or forget , remorseful , hopeless of forgiveness , ever moving , never advancing , such is the moral of the fable .
Solomon having died , the Temple having fallen , the Babylonian captivity began , and the chosen people who had been the victims of Egyptaiu persecution were again slaves , and still later worse than slaves under the dominion
of the Church of Rome , so continuing until the Reformation came to improve their condition . Even then they wore little more than tolerated sojourners in strange lands , until the New World offered them their , first real home in
welcome , on terms of equality with other races , und their disabilities were grudgingly but finally removed in England , after more than a thousand years of restless wandering , interspersed with brief periods of peace and comfort in different countries and under different rulers .
True , but a small proportion of their numbers have sought a sanctuary here , a large majority continuing to bear their burden of snffering , in a greater or less degree , in various parts of the Old World , their condition mitigated , now and then , by the efforts and influence of leaders amoDg them , who have been also leaders in the affairs of Europe .
Through all , even in the Dark Ages , they retained their intellectual strength as a race , fostering aud transmitting knowledge they could not at once apply . Tho powers of mind of their educated men , even amidst universal
ignorance , were never suffered to decline . -Herein they possessed an element of continuing advantage over more warlike and turbulent nations snrronnding aud engulfing them .
They never excelled as builders . The beauty and grandeur of the Temple were due to the skill of the architects and workmen of Tyre . Nor have they been distinguished in art as sculptors or painters , perhaps owing to the traditional prohibition of Moses against making
graven images and likenesses . Originally they were an agricultural and pastoral race , though long being deprived of the ownership of lands in many parts of Europe , they
lost this primitive character , and survived as small dealers and money lenders . They early acquired and now have a reputation for shrewdness and sharpness , though it is doubtful whether these qualities are more deserving of
Our Jewish Brethren.
emphasis , as applied to them , than in the case of the genuine Yankee whose wits have been honed on New England granite from generation to generation . Genial Charles Lamb was hardly in entire sympath y with them , for ho says : " I have , in the abstract , no
disrespect for Jews . They are a piece of stubborn antiquity compared with which Stonehenge is in its nonage . They date beyond the Pyramids . But I should not care to ho in habits of familiar intercourse with any of that nation .
Centuries of injury , contempt , and hate on the one stcteof cloaked revenge , dissimulation , and hate on the other , between our and their fathers , must and ought to affect the blood of the children . I cannot believe it can run clear
iind kindly yet ; or that a few fine words , such as candour , liberality , the light of the nineteenth century , can close up the breach of so deadly a division . "
One of their own blood , Felix Adler , says of and for fchem : " The Jews have certain peculiarities of disposition ; they have Asiatic blood in their veins . Among the high bred members of the race the traces of their Oriental
origin are revealed in noble qualities , in versatility of thought , brilliancy of imagination , flashing humour , in what the French call esprit ; these , too , in powerful lyrical outpourings , in impassioned eloquence , in the power of experiencing and uttering profound emotions . The samo
tendencies among tho uneducated and illiterate give rise to unlovely and nnpleasing idiosyncrasies , a certain restlessness , loudness of manner , fondness of display , a lack of dignity , reserve , repose . And since one loud person
attracts greater attention than twenty who are modest and refined , it has come about that the whole race is often condemned because of the follies of some of the . coarsest and least representative of its members . "
It is far more agreeable , and more just , to judge them by the standard of their history , and by what they have withstood and done as a race , than by individual examples of unworthy men among them . Four centuries before Cromwell ' s time they had been
driven from British soil , through bloodshed and ignominy , to Holland , Poland , and Russia , and wherever they could find rest for their weary feet , and even he . with all his power , could not welcome their return , much as he doubtless wished to do so , and it was not until tho Restoration
that they ventured back in any considerable number , and but , little more than thirty years ago that their legal disabilities were entirely removed there by Act of Parliament , since when tho world ' s chief empire has been governed
with dignity and distinguished ability , for many years , by that remarkable-parliamentary orator and brainy statesman , Benjamin Disraeli , Lord Bonconsfield , of Jowish lineage .
In France , too , their experience has been a varied pne , now welcomed by Church and State , dwelling in caso and opulence , exerting a powerful influence , undisturbed by prejudice , enriching Paris and Marseilles with their wealth , holding large landed possessions , niding the
progress of trade with their capital , then shorn of their substance , their libraries burned , themselves murdered or driven from the country like the Huguenots , to return in perfect freedom only amidst the horrors of the Revolution . It was at the command of the great Napoleon that thoro
was held in Paris , in 1807 , that grand convocation of Jews , the first assembly of the . kind which , had occurred since the dispersion of the Israelites on the capture of Jerusalem , says Alison , the object being to provide for their reunion and settlement in France , the emperor desiring their
support in the struggles in which he was engaged with Prussia and Russia . The historian says : " For seventeen hundred years the children of Israel had sojourned as strangers in foreign realms , reviled , oppressed , persecuted , without a capital , without a government , without a home ;
far from the tombs of their forefathers , banished from tho land of their ancestors ; but preserving unimpaired , amidst all their calamities , their traditions , their usages , their faith : exhibiting in every nation of the earth a lasting miracle to attest the verity of the Christian
prophecies . On this occasion the great Sanhedrim , or assembly , published the result of their deliberations in a variety of statutes and declarations , calculated to remove from the Israelites a portion of that odium under which
they bad so long laboured in all the nations of Christendom ; and Napoleon , in return , took them under his protection , aud , under certain modifications , admitted them to the privileges of his empire . " The Third Republic of France has produced no moreTemarkable man than Leon Gambetta ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Our Jewish Brethren.
OUR JEWISH BRETHREN .
EEASONS why Jews should bo enthusiastic Masons are obvious to every member of tho Fraternity , for upon the traditions , history and religion of their race the Order is founded . To them we are indebted for our idea of one Supremo Being as contradistinguished from the many gods of heathen worship . The Old Testament , in
nil its grandeur and sublimity , is their conception . Its teachings rolative both to our temporal and eternal destinies are the foundation of our religion , as well as of the mysteries of our Craft . The sacred volume , never closed in open Lodge , with all its light and wisdom , the
first object the eyes of tho Entered Apprentice behold , the rule and guide to our faith through every grade of life , they gave us . To their wise king , Solomon , the first Grand Master of the Order , Lodges were originally
dedicated , and to his genius is ascribed much of the moral work of Speculative Masonry . With the erection and adornment of his splendid Temple is associated every rite and ceromony of the Ancient Craft , as now exemplified in our mysteries .
Springing from Palestine , but one-sixth the territorial size of England and scarcely larger in area than the State of Massachusetts , this nation , for centuries without a country , remains numerically small , numbering in all considerablv less than six million five hundred thousand
souls , whereof between one-third and one-halt now inhabit Russia , one-fourth Austria and Hungary , rather more than one-twelfth Germany , somewhat moro than sixty thousand each France and England , and considerably less than two hundred and fifty thousand the United States .
The mythical wanderer , known as the Wandering Jew , the insulter of Christ in His humiliation and suffering , whether regarded as Cartaphilus , the door-keeper of Pilate on the occasion of Christ ' s trial , or as Ahasuerus the scoffing shoemaker of Jerusalem , is but a symbol of the
Jewish people . Alleged to have witnessed tho crucifixion at the age of thirty , the legend depicts him as doomed to reach the age of one hundred years , then to faint , revive as at thirty , and so on and on , until the day of judgment ,
always with the Saviour s curse upon him , never resting , not permitted to dio or forget , remorseful , hopeless of forgiveness , ever moving , never advancing , such is the moral of the fable .
Solomon having died , the Temple having fallen , the Babylonian captivity began , and the chosen people who had been the victims of Egyptaiu persecution were again slaves , and still later worse than slaves under the dominion
of the Church of Rome , so continuing until the Reformation came to improve their condition . Even then they wore little more than tolerated sojourners in strange lands , until the New World offered them their , first real home in
welcome , on terms of equality with other races , und their disabilities were grudgingly but finally removed in England , after more than a thousand years of restless wandering , interspersed with brief periods of peace and comfort in different countries and under different rulers .
True , but a small proportion of their numbers have sought a sanctuary here , a large majority continuing to bear their burden of snffering , in a greater or less degree , in various parts of the Old World , their condition mitigated , now and then , by the efforts and influence of leaders amoDg them , who have been also leaders in the affairs of Europe .
Through all , even in the Dark Ages , they retained their intellectual strength as a race , fostering aud transmitting knowledge they could not at once apply . Tho powers of mind of their educated men , even amidst universal
ignorance , were never suffered to decline . -Herein they possessed an element of continuing advantage over more warlike and turbulent nations snrronnding aud engulfing them .
They never excelled as builders . The beauty and grandeur of the Temple were due to the skill of the architects and workmen of Tyre . Nor have they been distinguished in art as sculptors or painters , perhaps owing to the traditional prohibition of Moses against making
graven images and likenesses . Originally they were an agricultural and pastoral race , though long being deprived of the ownership of lands in many parts of Europe , they
lost this primitive character , and survived as small dealers and money lenders . They early acquired and now have a reputation for shrewdness and sharpness , though it is doubtful whether these qualities are more deserving of
Our Jewish Brethren.
emphasis , as applied to them , than in the case of the genuine Yankee whose wits have been honed on New England granite from generation to generation . Genial Charles Lamb was hardly in entire sympath y with them , for ho says : " I have , in the abstract , no
disrespect for Jews . They are a piece of stubborn antiquity compared with which Stonehenge is in its nonage . They date beyond the Pyramids . But I should not care to ho in habits of familiar intercourse with any of that nation .
Centuries of injury , contempt , and hate on the one stcteof cloaked revenge , dissimulation , and hate on the other , between our and their fathers , must and ought to affect the blood of the children . I cannot believe it can run clear
iind kindly yet ; or that a few fine words , such as candour , liberality , the light of the nineteenth century , can close up the breach of so deadly a division . "
One of their own blood , Felix Adler , says of and for fchem : " The Jews have certain peculiarities of disposition ; they have Asiatic blood in their veins . Among the high bred members of the race the traces of their Oriental
origin are revealed in noble qualities , in versatility of thought , brilliancy of imagination , flashing humour , in what the French call esprit ; these , too , in powerful lyrical outpourings , in impassioned eloquence , in the power of experiencing and uttering profound emotions . The samo
tendencies among tho uneducated and illiterate give rise to unlovely and nnpleasing idiosyncrasies , a certain restlessness , loudness of manner , fondness of display , a lack of dignity , reserve , repose . And since one loud person
attracts greater attention than twenty who are modest and refined , it has come about that the whole race is often condemned because of the follies of some of the . coarsest and least representative of its members . "
It is far more agreeable , and more just , to judge them by the standard of their history , and by what they have withstood and done as a race , than by individual examples of unworthy men among them . Four centuries before Cromwell ' s time they had been
driven from British soil , through bloodshed and ignominy , to Holland , Poland , and Russia , and wherever they could find rest for their weary feet , and even he . with all his power , could not welcome their return , much as he doubtless wished to do so , and it was not until tho Restoration
that they ventured back in any considerable number , and but , little more than thirty years ago that their legal disabilities were entirely removed there by Act of Parliament , since when tho world ' s chief empire has been governed
with dignity and distinguished ability , for many years , by that remarkable-parliamentary orator and brainy statesman , Benjamin Disraeli , Lord Bonconsfield , of Jowish lineage .
In France , too , their experience has been a varied pne , now welcomed by Church and State , dwelling in caso and opulence , exerting a powerful influence , undisturbed by prejudice , enriching Paris and Marseilles with their wealth , holding large landed possessions , niding the
progress of trade with their capital , then shorn of their substance , their libraries burned , themselves murdered or driven from the country like the Huguenots , to return in perfect freedom only amidst the horrors of the Revolution . It was at the command of the great Napoleon that thoro
was held in Paris , in 1807 , that grand convocation of Jews , the first assembly of the . kind which , had occurred since the dispersion of the Israelites on the capture of Jerusalem , says Alison , the object being to provide for their reunion and settlement in France , the emperor desiring their
support in the struggles in which he was engaged with Prussia and Russia . The historian says : " For seventeen hundred years the children of Israel had sojourned as strangers in foreign realms , reviled , oppressed , persecuted , without a capital , without a government , without a home ;
far from the tombs of their forefathers , banished from tho land of their ancestors ; but preserving unimpaired , amidst all their calamities , their traditions , their usages , their faith : exhibiting in every nation of the earth a lasting miracle to attest the verity of the Christian
prophecies . On this occasion the great Sanhedrim , or assembly , published the result of their deliberations in a variety of statutes and declarations , calculated to remove from the Israelites a portion of that odium under which
they bad so long laboured in all the nations of Christendom ; and Napoleon , in return , took them under his protection , aud , under certain modifications , admitted them to the privileges of his empire . " The Third Republic of France has produced no moreTemarkable man than Leon Gambetta ,