“Jews Need No Converting.” New York Times, May 10, 1893, p. 11.

JEWS NEED NO CONVERTING

NEW-YORK PRESBYTERY'S ACTION STRONGLY CONDEMNED.

Money Missions for Them Cost, They Say, Could Be Better Used — Home Board in No Hurry to Give "Special Attention" to the Subject — Has Not Received Presbytery's Request — Dr. Schauffler Says the Aid Was to be for Mr. Faust, in the Allen Street Church.

The decision of the New York Presbytery at Monday's meeting, as reported yesterday in THE NEW-YORK TIMES, to take up active mission work among the Jews in this city, through the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, excited wide and varied comment yesterday. It was recognized as a bold step, in which a fixed purpose to proselyte Hebrews was distinctly avowed. The disclosure of efforts in this direction in THE NEW-YORK TIMES had made longer concealment useless, and the action of the Presbytery was construed to mean that the representatives of the Presbyterian denomination had decided to give formal and emphatic approval to this work in the full light of publicity.

No formal request had been received yesterday afternoon at the office of the Home Board of Missions to give Jewish mission work, in the language of the resolution, "its special attention at this time." Those in charge at that office did not seem in a hurry to get such a request.

Willingness that the subject should be talked about before the Home Board came to the point of sending missionaries to the Jews or spending money in that field was manifested elsewhere also among the Presbyterians.

The Rev. Dr. A. F. Schauffler was specially desirous to have it understood that what he did in the Presbytery was as a member of the Church Extension Committee of that body and as a Presbyterian, and had no bearing upon his management of the City Mission and Tract Society, which is avowedly undenominational and non-sectarian, although in the work it has done among Jews, Dr. Schauffler and the Rev. Dr. Hall have been the chief figures.

"The action of the Presbytery," said Dr. Schauffler yesterday, "had nothing to do with the work among the Jews by Mr. Warzarviak at the De Witt Memorial Church in Rivington Street. This church is maintained by the City Mission and Tract Society, and Mr. Warzarviak is accountable to no other organized body in this city. Subscriptions from various denominations come to the City Mission and Tract Society, and appropriations from the general fund thus created are made for the work among the Jews. This work, however, is in no sense denominational or sectarian, and the Presbyterian Church as such has no control over it, nor did the Presbytery at Monday's meeting intend by asking the Board of Home Missions for assistance that any of such assistance should be extended in this direction."

"Then for whom and what was aid intended?"

"For the Allen Street Church under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Faust, who was formerly a rabbi and became converted to Christianity," Dr. Schauffler replied. "Mission work at this church has heretofore been regarded as simply an adjunct to regular church work, and has had no special recognition from the Presbytery. The present intention is to encourage it by practical help, and the Home Mission Board will accordingly be asked to make a reasonable appropriation for its support."

"What has been Dr. Faust's success?"

"He preaches every Saturday in the Allen Street church, and has a congregation of about 225 men. It is only right, in my opinion, that the Board of Home Missions should sustain this work. I cannot see that in any respect a proposition to establish missions among the Jews is different from a proposition to establish any other class mission."

"Have you met with opposition on the ground that mission work among the Jews must be essentially different from that among other people?"

"That objection to it has been raised," said Dr. Schauffler, "but it will be noticed that the Presbytery, after a discussion of the matter, came to the conclusion that aid ought to be extended in this direction, and that special attention should be given to the work at this time. That conclusion was reached after weighing the facts in the case, and I have do doubt it will stand as the deliberate judgment of the Presbytery."

"Do you assume that Monday's discussion settled the question of the advisability of extending aid to missions for the Jews, and that the Board of Home Missions will be asked for help at once?"

"I do so suppose," said Dr. Schauffler, "although naturally the question is such a broad one that it may again be discussed. The resolution as adopted amounts to a request of the Board of Home Missions to take this subject in hand, and I feel perfectly confident that the aid which is required will be extended."

The proposal of the New-York Presbyterians to establish distinctively denominational missions for the conversion of the Jews has stirred up the rabbis of the city more than anything that has occurred since the Christians began to actively proselyte among the believers in the faith of Israel.

On of those most outspoken in his denunciation of the proselyting Christians in general, and the Presbyterian proselyters in particular, was the Rev. Dr. Bernard Drachman, rabbi of the Synagogue Zichron Ephraim in East Sixty-seventh Street, near Second Avenue.

Rabbi Drachman is the dean of the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary, in Lexington Avenue, at Sixtieth Street. He is one of the prominent young Jews of the city, and is well-known for this progressive and liberal spirit.

"I read with the greatest interest," he said, "the proceedings of the New-York Presbytery at its meeting on Monday. I consider that the who system of Christian missions among the Jews of New-York is an insult to the Jewish community, for the reason that we are placed on a par with the Gilbert Islanders, the Zulus, the Polynesians, and other savage tribes who really need the elevating influence of religion. The Christians as much as say to us that Judaism has not the power to elevate and uplift.

"I firmly believe that these Christian missions are productive of very grievous injury to family life. Take the case where one member of a family has been induced by the efforts of the missionaries to embrace Christianity. Think of the result! The family tie is broken. Religion, after all, is the basis of all harmonious family life. Where one member is an apostate, the rest of the family are not happy. I know of several cases where the apostasy of a child from Judaism to Christianity has driven the parents into an untimely grave.

"This was the case of Edgar Mortara of Rome. He was an Italian Jew boy who was baptized a Roman Catholic in infancy by a domestic, unknown to the boy's parents. The child was obtained possession of by the Roman Catholic Church and was seized and held. The father devoted his life to the recovery of the child and failed. Both parents died of a broken heart. The boy is now a priest, and of course he looks on his parents as having died heretics.

"The work of proselyting the Jews is superfluous—entirely superfluous. Judaism certainly offers every opportunity which is afforded by Christianity for moral perfection and spiritual elevation. I hardly think that in this day there are many so bigoted as to hold that the eternal salvation of man depends on a creed of Christianity.

"Judaism teaches that heaven is open to the righteous of every nation and of every faith. We do not believe nor do we teach that a good man or woman will be damned because of ignorance of the revelation. I consider that these Christian missions are directly promotive of duplicity and dishonesty. The majority of the so-called converts, not absolutely every one, but 99 out of 100, have become such simply because they are either in great want or are ambitious to live without honest labor and find material benefit in this alleged conversion.

"There are many well-to-do and high-class Jews on the east side, but the vat majority of the Jews there are poor and uneducated. It is among them that the Christians have planted their mission. These poor Jews are ignorant of the conditions which surround them, and many of them do not even know who and what the missionaries are. Some of them are not morally strong.

"We accept proselytes to Judaism. I have myself officiated at the reception of several proselytes. But we receive and accept converts only if they themselves voluntarily come. We do not actively attempt to seduce man from their religious alliances, and we would consider such a course very wrongful.

"The maintenance of these Christian missions is a sinful waste of means which might be devoted to a much better purpose.

"The missions to the Jews of New-York swallow up vast sums of money and produce nothing except a few worthless renegades, playing the part of missionaries, and some other unscrupulous or destitute persons pretending to a change of heart which is very rarely genuine. If the Christians would use their money in catering to objects of real utility, by promoting the welfare of the poor and suffering, they would certainly do better work.

"It would be well if Christians would recognize the fact that Judaism is a faith, and not only a faith by name, but one which is enthusiastically upheld by many millions of people in different parts of the world. These efforts to withdraw the allegiance of the Jews from Judaism will be futile.

"I believe not in proselyting but in civilizing. It should be a social and not a religious movement. Our work among the unfortunate Jews of our city is fully effective of itself. We support schools and maintain other elevating and educational influences, and we rise to every emergency of the situation. Our work is not merely charitable, but is religious and educational also. We have between 12,000 and 15,000 people in our schools who are educated absolutely free of cost. We support three hospitals and a home for chronic invalids, and Christians are admitted freely to all of them.

"The mission of Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, the Mohammedan, to this country is unjust, but not more so than the missions of the Christians to the Mohammedans and the Jews."

Prof. Felix Adler of the Society of Ethical Culture was not disposed to discuss the question. It gave him no concern, he said.

"There can be no objection," said Prof. Adler, "to a tactful presentation of the creed of any religion. In olden times there were many Christians proselyted to Judaism, and the church at Antioch really led the way to Christianity."

Rabbi Moses Maisher [?—hard to read—JMH ed.] of the Synagogue Adas Israel, in East Fifty-seventh Street, near First Avenue, was as outspoken as Rabbi Drachman.

"I agree with the Rev. Dr. John Hall," he said. "It is useless for the Christians to maintain their missions in this city. Judaism is the mother of Christianity, and it is the regular law for the children to obey the parents and not for the parents to obey the children. There is no reason why a believer in Judaism should embrace another faith. He cannot in reason do so from principle.

"We do not try to convert the Christians. We preach our religion and keep our faith, but we do not proselyte. We rather refuse converts, except when they come to us under circumstances which leave absolutely no room for doubt of the sincerity of the motives. The Presbyterians are making a special effort to convert us. They have about a dozen converts a year, they say. I have understood that each convert costs them about $10,000. They come high, and they are not honest converts even at that price.

"The Jewish religion is as good as the Christian religion. We have sufficient faith in the idea of an Unity not to accept the doctrine of a Trinity. All Jews are deists, whether they are orthodox or reformed. There is no difference between the orthodox and reformed Jews except one of ceremonials.

"On of the converts made by the Missionary Freshman was a Jew named Faust. Our congregations supported him for a considerable time. He was always complaining, and kept insisting on better support. Finally, two days before the Passover, in May, 1892, he came to me and got fifty pounds of unfermented bread, which only Jews may eat, and went away. Two days later he was 'converted' by Freshman and was baptized a Christian."