Report on Special Inquiry into Present Conditions in the Jewish Field. Jewish Mission Committee, United Free Church of Scotland, 1918.

[1]

No. IV.-A.

United Free Church of Scotland

REPORT

ON

Special Inquiry into Present Conditions in the Jewish Field.

SUBMITTED BY

THE JEWISH MISSION COMMITTEE

MAY 1918

THE Deliverance of last General Assembly, instituting the Inquiry, is as follows:—

“The General Assembly, impressed with the present movements in the Jewish world due to the consequences of the war, and realising the opportunities which may hereby present themselves in connection with missionary effort, remit to the Jewish Committee, with the addition of four members appointed ad hoc, to conduct a special inquiry into present conditions in the Jewish field, with a view to advising the Church how best to utilise its present resources for the conversion of the Jews, to reorganise its work meantime suspended, and to take advantage of such openings for extension as may offer themselves in the providence of God, and to report to next General Assembly; the expense connected with such inquiry to be borne by the Jewish Committee, and Mr. J. T. Webster to act temporarily as Secretary of the Committee so constituted ad hoc.”

The four members appointed ad hoc were:—Professor D. W. Forrest, D.D., W. M. Macgregor, D.D., Professor J. Y. Simpson, and Mr. J. H. Oldham. Because of the extent of the remit, the intricate nature of questions arising, and the amount of detail requiring consideration, the Jewish Mission Committee found it advisable to entrust the inquiry to a special Sub-Committee consisting of six of its ordinary members together with the four members appointed by the General Assembly ad hoc.

This Sub-Committee held its first meeting early in July to consider

2

its method of procedure. The Secretary entered at once into communication with the Jewish Mission Committees of other Churches and Societies and with Missionaries of our own and other Churches, and to these the Committee tenders its thanks for valuable information and suggestions, particularly in relation to co-operation, the needs of the Jews, and methods of work. A series of questions was drawn up and sent to our Missionaries for answer; matters relating to the position and future development of our Mission Stations were discussed in detail with the Missionaries at a special meeting of the Sub-Committee. Literature on the Jewish question was provided for members of the Sub-Committee, which at its various meetings considered the results of investigations submitted in memoranda on such subjects as:—The State of the Jews in Russia; Work and Needs at our Mission Stations; Work of other Societies in the same Fields; Co-operative Effort; The General Situation in Jewry; The Divine Purpose for the Jews. The Sub-Committee had also before it the reports drawn up by deputies who visited stations in the years immediately preceding outbreak of war, and the Jewish Mission Committee gave a special session to deliberation upon the report of its Inquiry Sub-Committee.

Attention is earnestly called to the memorandum on the situation, appended to this report.

While thus reporting diligence, the Committee, because of the complex character of the whole Jewish problem, the continuance of the war, the difficulties of communication, the uncertainty regarding the future situation in Palestine, in Russia, and in East Europe generally, the impossibility of obtaining meanwhile a clear view of the after-war position of our Mission Stations or of the cost of their re-equipment, has been unable to complete the inquiry. Accordingly, it cannot at present advise the Church definitely on particular points stated in the remit, but is able to submit a report of only an interim nature and to give in broad outline certain impressions, a statement regarding the situation and needs of our Stations, and a general indication of the lines of policy to be followed. This, however, it believes will suffice to show the Church the need of preparation to undertake greater responsibilities in the work of Jewish evangelisation. -

I.—(1) The liberation of half the world's Jewry by the Russian Revolution, and the declaration in November last of the British Government that it will endeavour to facilitate the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews, are two events which together mark a turning point in Jewish history. Both require the vigilance and the action of the Church. For, on the one hand, wherever Jews have been emancipated there has followed among them a loosening of restraint and a drift into unbelief, and, as even Jews themselves fear that this will

3

follow in greater measure as a consequence of freedom in Russia, there is need that the Church, both for her own sake and for this people's sake, should put forth more effort alike extensively and intensively to seek their salvation. On the other hand, Zionist leaders have not declared for religious liberty or freedom of conscience, the rather compulsory Judaism is being laid down as a ground of admission to citizenship in the proposed Jewish state; with such a basis Jewish Christians could have no rights, and Christian liberty itself would be endangered; accordingly the Church, while declaring that no opposition should be presented to legitimate Jewish national aspirations, demanding that justice to the Jews be done, and urging that the conduct of so-called Christian nations towards them be rectified, must needs maintain the standard of Christian liberty and also have her Mission Stations in Palestine strongly equipped.

(2) The Committee is deeply impressed both by the greatness of the influence wielded by Jews, and by the fact that this influence, at best non-Christian, is being exerted through ever-widening ramifications in almost every sphere in the life of Christian States.

That the moral and spiritual needs of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people are great cannot be doubted, and although there is clear evidence that the Synagogue has been losing its hold on many and that there has been rapid disintegration of Judaism in recent years, many of the effects, when viewed from the standpoint of pure Christianity, cannot be regarded as good.

The Church has failed to cope with the situation, and as a whole has not presented the Gospel to the Jews in adequate degree. The principle on which Christian Missions have been distributed gives rise to great searchings of heart, their general equipment has been insufficient, and the support given to the Committee for their extension has fallen far short both of need and of opportunity. This is the more to be regretted, both because none can doubt that the Jewish people have been preserved of God through persecutions, sufferings, tribulations for some supreme purpose of good to the Gentile world, and because converts from among them, alike in numbers and in quality, are not only encouraging to Christian effort, but are a challenge to faith. Moreover, although the spirit of the Synagogue has not changed but remains as exclusive and defiant as ever, the influence of Christian Missions and of other factors has broken down prejudice to a large degree among many of the people, who are, where well-directed Missions exist, more ready to hear than even a few years ago; and, with the changed circumstances of the Jewish people and the opening of the door in many lands, a day of opportunity for Jewish evangelisation is before the Church, such as she has probably not had since Apostolic times.

These are in outline the general conclusions to which the Committee has come.

4

II.—(1) With regard to the Mission Fields occupied by our Church certain facts should be stated. The estimated numbers of Jews around our Mission Stations are as follows:—At Budapest, with its suburban towns, 250,000; in the rest of Hungary, 700,000; in surrounding territories (excluding Rumania), 1,300,000; at Constantinople, about 70,000; at Tiberias, about 5000 resident, with a further 5000 visitors annually, and 500 resident in neighbouring colonies; at Safed, 15,000 to 18,000; at Hebron, 1200 to 1500; at Jaffa, 8500; and at Glasgow an estimate, based on information given by the officials of Govan Combination Parish, gives about 30,000. The large majority of these Jews are Askenazim, although in Serbia, at Constantinople, and at Hebron the majority are Sephardim.* There is a great diversity in the nationality of the Jews among whom we have been at work, and probably at least twenty languages are spoken by them.

______________

* “Askenazim” is the term used generally to denote Polish and “German” Jews; the “Sephardim” or Spanish Jews are the descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. The two classes keep apart from each other, have different Synagogues with differences in ritual.

______________

Respecting their occupation, in Scotland we find them engaging in cabinet-making, tailoring, shopkeeping, pawnbroking, money-lending, peddling, etc.; in Palestine they are employed in trading, handicrafts, cab-driving, agriculture, but many live on charity; at Constantinople they act as commission agents, clerks, merchants, and a large share of the commerce is in their hands; all the above holds true of East Europe generally, in the cities there they become merchant princes, and in Budapest are the leaders in industry and commercial enterprise of all kinds. Although some belong to the richer classes, and where they are emancipated force their way into good positions and rank well in the professions, including journalism, the vast majority are sunk in dire poverty.

The general moral standard is low; in Budapest and Glasgow only a very small proportion have even seats in the Synagogue; of Tiberias itself, where the moral condition is stated to be “good,” it is confessed that consciences are legalistic and there are few seekers after spiritual things. Where, however, Missions have been established, a totally different atmosphere is created within a short time, a higher moral tone begins to show itself; relations between Jew and Christian change, prejudice breaks down, and the effects of leavening work are everywhere apparent; where schools are developed, the standard of education is raised, and both educational and medical work are effective in overcoming barriers and in opening doors; at certain Stations the direct results have been numerous—at the Budapest Station, for example, where in the ten years prior to outbreak of war the converts numbered almost one and a half times as many as they did in the “Pentecostal days” of the first ten years of its history.

5

But, while the general impression is that our Missions have been effective missionary agencies, all our Missionaries maintain that for lack of more workers the best has not been accomplished; emphasis is laid on the need of new schools and of higher education under competent and qualified teachers, of industrial and boarding establishments; but more emphasis still is laid on the need of direct evangelism, i.e. of workers to visit the people, to keep in personal touch with them, to enter the doors which other branches of labour have already opened, and on the need, particularly in East Europe, for trained evangelists to go out into the great untouched fields. There is common lamentation that, because of the demands of routine work, so little effort along these lines has been possible.

(2) What is required (in addition to the agencies existing before outbreak of war) to make our present Stations fully efficient should be noted in detail. At Budapest a Colporteur-Evangelist and a Bible-woman for work in the city, at least two Colporteur-Evangelists for itineracy, a shorthand-typist and bookkeeper to relieve the pressure of administrative word, are urgently needed; while to complete the educational Institution a Commercial and Housekeeping department should be added, Boys' Schools again started, and a Deaconess Institution opened. At Constantinople a Hebrew-Christian Agent is needed and itineracy should be developed by Colporteur-Evangelists. At Tiberias an assistant Medical Missionary and a trained Headmaster for the Boys' School are required; the whole educational establishment needs reorganising. At Safed, educational work requires re-organisation, an Industrial Institution should be started, and the Girls' Home developed. At Hebron, schools for both boys and girls have still to be started, and a trained Headmistress and a Clerical Missionary or Teacher-Evangelist are needed. At Glasgow the agency could well be increased, a Children's Home should be established, and there would be great advantage if the Mission premises belonged to the Church.

How these requirements are to be provided, the Committee is thus far not in a position to say. Even if provision were made in the lines indicated, it would still remain doubtful whether, in the light of the new circumstances, enough would have been done, and the question of the wider and newly-opened fields and the part which our Church should take in their evangelisation would still remain untouched.

III.—But on the broad question of policy to be pursued, the Committee would put forward these general considerations:—(1) Central Stations should be established only at strategic points, should be strongly equipped, and work be so directed from them that the Jews in surrounding territory will be regularly evangelised; (2) as it is impossible to plant stations in every town, there should be great extension of itineracy through

6

Evangelists and Colporteurs, and, to make their work effective, the supply of fresh and abundant literature should be regarded as a regular branch of missionary enterprise and be provided for in the annual budget; (3) without curtailing institutional work, much greater provision should be made for direct evangelism and more emphasis laid on the preaching of the Gospel; (4) where schools are established they should be thoroughly equipped and put in such a position as will enable them to provide better education than is given in other schools in the same place; (5) provision should be made for the training of Jewish Mission workers to enable them to specialise among the very diverse types of Jews, and particular heed should be given to the training of women agents to evangelise the woefully-neglected field among Jewish women; (6) effort should without question be made to extend Mission work into the great untouched fields, where there are towns and cities with tens or hundreds of thousands of Jews with scarcely a Mission worker, or in very many cases none at all, and to this end it is supremely desirable that there should be a certain delimitation of sphere between Societies, and that there should be co-operation with others engaged in Jewish Mission enterprise—a scheme in the development of which hopeful steps have already been taken; e.g. Inter-Society production of literature is already being attempted; from the Inter-Presbyterian Conference, held in Glasgow in January, some measure of co-ordination between all the Presbyterian Stations in the Near East may be expected; friendly conference between representatives of the Committee with representatives of the London Jews Society has given the prospect of joint schools being established at Safed and of delimitation of sphere elsewhere; and co-operation with the Church of Scotland, already begun at Jaffa, might be developed at Constantinople and Glasgow; (7) movements in Jewry ought to be carefully watched and studied, and the Committee strongly recommends that Ministers give more attention to literature published on the Jewish Question; (8) and, as a matter of prime and immediate importance, more effort should be expended to instruct the whole Church on Zionist claims, on the needs and claims of the Jewish Mission field, and on the greatness of the issues and the vital nature of this enterprise for the Church herself.

In conclusion, the Committee would state its clear conviction that there is a widely opened door and an unparalleled opportunity with new elements of urgency in it before the Church for Jewish evangelisation. It is also conscious that there is a special call to our Church to go forward, because of the rising tide of interest among our people, whose hopes will fail if we hold hack, because of the position held by our Church among those who are labouring to evangelise the Jewish people, and because of the example and the vision of world-wide Jewish evangelisation given by

7

those who founded our Jewish Missions and whose action stirred the heart and imagination of the Christian world eighty years ago. Others look to us for guidance and leadership. But because of the great complexity of the whole Jewish problem, the still unsettled state of the world, and the necessity for reviewing the financial aspects of questions raised in this report, and for other reasons, the Committee considers further study needful, and would respectfully propose to the Assembly that the Committee be instructed to continue the Inquiry, with powers, if it see fit and the way should open, to send out a Commission to investigate questions on the spot.

By authority of the Committee,

W. S. MATHESON, Convener.

JAS. T. WEBSTER, Secretary pro tem.

_____

MEMBERS OF THE INQUIRY SUB-COMMITTEE.

Appointed by the General Assembly—

Rev. Professor D. W. Forrest, D.D., Glasgow.

Rev. W. M. Macgregor, D.D., Edinburgh.

Rev. Professor J. Y. Simpson, D.Sc., Edinburgh.

Mr. J. H. Oldham, Edinburgh.

Rev. J. T. Webster, Edinburgh.

Appointed by the Jewish Mission Committee—

Rev. W. S. Matheson, M.A., Galashiels.

Rev. W. J. Couper, M.A., Glasgow.

Rev. John Hall, Edinburgh.

Mr. Lake Falconer, Blairgowrie.

Mr. Robert Steel, Dunfermline.

8

APPENDIX

MEMORANDUM ON THE JEWISH SITUATION.

By JAMES T. WEBSTER.

For some years prior to the outbreak of war the Jewish Question was engaging the attention of an increasing number of thinkers, politicians, and publicists not only in European countries, but also in America, where the number of Jews had increased from a few thousands to almost two and a half millions within a century. Some were moved by the oppressive measures adopted by Russia and Roumania towards this people; others were concerned about the materialistic and Socialistic influence exerted by them in centres of industry where they were strongly in evidence; some few were also raising questions regarding the mission of the Jew among the other peoples of the world. The Zionist Movement, initiated by Herzl twenty years ago, was an attempt to find a solution for one part of the problem; while the movement made little headway with the bulk of Jews, the periodic Zionist Congresses brought the subject ever anew before the public, and in the Press of Europe articles appeared frequently on various aspects of the Jewish situation; further, although the actual number of Jews in Palestine was exceedingly small,—less than may be found in many a European city—the increasing number of Jewish colonists, and the success of their efforts were regarded as indicative of a new factor in the life of Jewry. Assimilation versus Nationalism was keenly debated in the Jewish Press in many languages, and also in a large number of publications of a weightier nature. Many Jewish writers were startled by the inroads being made by modern thought on the one hand, and by Christianity on the other, into the age-long solidarity of Jewry, and various measures were suggested to underpile the fabric of Judaism, which was and is undoubtedly threatened.

Since war broke out the whole question has, for many reasons, become more acute, and scarcely a week passes without the appearance of a book1 or pamphlet dealing with the problem. In so far as these are of Jewish origin, they are mostly of a highly controversial nature, for, although it is generally realised that the Jews have come to the crisis of their history, there is not only diversity of opinion but also keen dissension among their leading men regarding the issues and the lines of solution. The whole problem is a very vital one for the Church, yet discussion has been left for the most part to those who have no concern with, or, at best, have only an indirect interest in the Christian religion, and in all that has been written on the subject in recent years there is practically nothing to show that the mind of the Church, as a whole, has been turned to the question, although in the final issue, the Jewish problem is her problem. This Memorandum is an attempt to present, in brief outline, some of the main facts relative to the situation.

_____

1 See Note A.

_____

I.—THE JEWS IN GENERAL: PRE-WAR CONDITIONS.

Diversity of the Jews.—None can study the Jewish Question deeply without being profoundly struck with the diversity existing among the Jewish people. They are scattered among all peoples in all parts of the world, and none take on more readily the characteristics of those among whom they live. Indeed, it may be said generally, that as these peoples are, so are the Jews in their midst, and the

9

Jews, as a whole, have become so mixed with other peoples that they can scarcely be regarded as a distinct race; it is equally impossible to hold that there is any purely typical or characteristic Jew, even in outward appearance.

In round figures, their numbers may be put at 13,525,000 and, before the war, these were distributed as follows:—

UNDER RULE OF

__________

1 See Note B.

__________

It becomes immediately apparent that among the Jews there is great diversity of citizenship, but when it is remembered that in these Empires and States there are many different nations and peoples, all influencing the Jews amongst them, other and more vital differences appear. They exhibit wide diversity in language, education, political allegiance, intellectual attainment, character, and in the social sphere. They are in all grades of civilisation,—from certain low types up to those in the highest stages of European culture. In religion also they are very diverse; it is a profound mistake to regard them as forming a religious unity, for in Jewry there is almost as great sectarian variety as is found in Christendom, and while some are sunk in the depths of superstition, there are others who, still professing to be Jews, are openly and confessedly agnostic and atheistic.

Civil and political disabilities.—Only in quite recent times have Jews received a measure of civil and political rights; for these rights they have struggled for centuries, but it is doubtful if they suffered more than other peoples in the fight for liberty. It is also very doubtful whether religious hatred has been much of an element in modern anti-Semitism; its origins lie rather in the grasping spirit shown by many of them, in their willingness to pander to the vices of others, in their irreverence, vulgarity, and exclusiveness, and in the feeling thus created that they form a foreign element in the body politic.

Before outbreak of war, half their total number was still unemancipated. The countries where treatment of them had been best are Great Britain, Hungary, America, and Turkey. The worst treatment has been meted out to them by Russia and Roumania, where they were denied rights as a matter of deliberate State policy. The restrictions imposed by Russia were galling in the extreme, and in their essence immoral. Ninety-five per cent. of Russian Jewry was confined to one two-thousandth part of the Empire—to the fifteen governments of Western and South-Western Russia and to the ten governments of Poland. Jews were confined to this “Pale of Settlement,” and not allowed to step outside it unless they belonged to one of the few privileged classes; even within the Pale itself right of travel and change of residence were restricted; a fearful congestion was the result. The privileged five per cent. consisted of artisans, merchants who paid special taxes, certain graduates, and prostitutes. The public service was closed to Jews; the

10

buying, selling, leasing or managing of land outside the Pale, or outside the city limits within the Pale, was forbidden to them; artisans could, under no circumstances, own their homes; Jewish ownership of mines and oil-fields were also prohibited. Special taxes had to be borne. There were severe educational restrictions. Although forced to serve in the army, Jews could not advance beyond the rank of corporal. In Roumania conditions were not dissimilar. In Poland the treatment of the Jews was even worse than in Russia proper.

Influence.—Although the great bulk of the Jews throughout the world are sunk in the deepest poverty, and only relatively small numbers of them possess even moderate means, and although it is entirely false to regard them as a wealthy people, it nevertheless remains true that they certainly wield an influence in civilised States out of all proportion to their numbers. Whenever they get a chance their adaptability, resourcefulness, their pushing, masterful spirit, their self-confidence and organising talents, their unconventionality, their linguistic ability, and the lack of social restraints among them, enables them to attain relative ascendency in positions open to them. In the lands of their emancipation they attain eminence as lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers, financiers; they hold high positions in civic and political life; they exercise great power in the public press in Europe; and in social, historical, and philosophic study, their influence increases. Not inaptly have they been called a “Conquering People.”

A Religious People.—Of most of them it may still be said that in a sense they are “religious,” but there is much confusion among Christian people with regard to that word as applied to Jews; the content of the word is different as applied, and it has not the same connotation as a Christian would give. The Jews in the mass do not know the Bible, only a small proportion understand it as it is read in the Synagogues; similarly of the Jewish prayer-book. Their “religion “ is legalistic formalism, traditionalism, ceremonialism, more or less strict adherence to the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the law as interpreted by the Talmud or the Rabbis; it frequently becomes in consequence a rank superstition. Among the orthodox it is a matter of greater honour for a man to be versed in the Talmud, and to be a successful hairsplitting disputant, than to be an honest merchant or workman. Segregation in the Ghetto has emphasised these aspects of their “religion.” There is little, if any, sense that Scripture is a revelation of the Spirit of God; those who would follow the liberty of the Spirit are regarded as destroyers of Israel. Morals and religion are separate, or, otherwise, morality as much as religion consists in keeping the precepts formally; Jews who keep the precepts, and are therefore “religious “ or “pious,” may yet, without a qualm, do what would revolt the moral sense of even a low-grade type of Christian. Very few believe in a Messiah, or in a Redeemer and Mediator. Sin becomes merely the omission to fulfill the precepts; the summary of the way of salvation is formal prayer, formal repentance, and almsgiving. Among most Reform or Liberal Jews there is no belief, for example, in any future life, yet they have perhaps more of real religion, in the accepted Christian sense, than is found in orthodoxy. On the other hand, speaking generally, all Jews have a consciousness that they are a people chosen for a mission in the world. In light hereof they may be said to have a “religious sense,” more perhaps than any other people.

Religious Disintegration.—Even before outbreak of war, Jewish leaders had become greatly concerned about the manifestly rapid disintegration of Judaism. The Synagogue was patently fearful for the future. Ruppin divides Jews into four classes, and gives round figures as follows:—

50 per cent. Orthodox, Russian and Galician Jews generally;

25 per cent. Liberal, Settlers in England, America, Roumania;

11

16 per cent. Freethinking, “German” Jews generally;

9 per cent. Agnostic, rich Jews everywhere and Jews with University education.

Statements were made that at the present rate of disintegration, Jews would have ceased to be, as Jews, after another two centuries. So serious in Ruppin's mind was the upbreak, that he regards Zionism as “the last desperate stand of the Jews against annihilation.” It was a common outcry that the intellectuals were leaving the Synagogue. In all the Christian centuries, masses of Jews have passed into the Church; in more recent years the stream had swollen greatly. Careful computation has shown that relatively a greater proportion of Jews become Christian than of other non-Christian peoples. Very many Jews, even of those who are far from being “religious,” are cut to the quick by the fact that their brethren who enter the Christian Church become lost to the Jews as a people.

The rapid disintegration may be accepted as a fact. Its causes are various. Christian Missions and the interest of certain Churches in the Jews exerted a more extensive influence than many suppose. The movement initiated by Mendelssohn a hundred and forty years ago opened the door of the Ghetto, and led to contact between Christian Missions and Jews. Modern industrial and commercial developments have had an effect; Socialism and higher education have helped; the desire for social position, inter-marriage (practically all children of mixed marriages become Christians), the removal of civil and political disabilities, have fostered a general assimilative tendency and led to revolt against the Synagogal tyranny, and to liberalising movements in Jewry itself, which in the main have been but half-way houses to the Church. To all observers, Jew and Gentile, the opportunity which this disintegration was giving to Christian Missions was patent, but the Church as a whole seemed unconscious of the situation.

II. WAR'S EFFECTS.

The Jews in the World-War.—Since the time of the Babylonian Captivity the majority of Jews have lived, not in Palestine, but scattered amid the nations; it was so before, during, and after the time of Christ. It is accordingly not surprising that in all these centuries they have never as a people been at war. There were incidents in Jewish history like the Maccabeean wars in the second century B.C., the war with the Romans, ending with the fall of Jerusalem, and the revolt under Bar-Cochba in the second century A.D., but in all only a section of Jewry was involved. For the first time in five-and-twenty centuries the present world-struggle has drawn them as a whole into war. Probably about a million of them have either been conscripted or have volunteered to fight in the various armies and navies. Courage and bravery have characterised them as soldiers, as much as the men of any of the nations; the old military spirit seems to have revived among them, and their valour has been recognised by all the governments.

Suffering.—The sufferings which the war has brought upon civilian Jews have been horrible in the extreme; there is no need for detail here; it is sufficient to say that the horrors in Belgium and Armenia have not surpassed those inflicted on the Jews, the majority of whom lived within the war-zones, or in territories overrun time and again with vast armies. Hundreds of thousands have perished, and as many are fugitives. Russia herself, although using half a million Jews in her armies, perpetrated nameless barbarities and the most brutal outrages on her Jewish population.

Emancipation.—War's events in their relation to the Jews have created a new interest among Christian States and peoples in the Jewish Question. There is a common feeling that they deserve greater recognition of their claims to wider civil and political liberty. Expected changes in the Turkish Empire have awakened the

12

hope in many that a permanent homeland will be secured. The Revolution in Russia startled Jews throughout the world more perhaps than it did any people, inasmuch as with it came the promise to the millions of Russian Jews of full religious, civil, and political equality; Jews regard the Revolution in as far as it affects their own people as a miracle, although it causes many of them great searchings of heart also. It is now reported that the Roumanian Government is at last to grant complete equality of rights to the Jews—a condition laid down by the Berlin Congress of 1878 for, but never yet fulfilled by, Roumania. That their rights are to come to the Jews is not to be doubted; many matters of detail may still have to be struggled for, but it may be expected that after war the whole of the world's Jewry will at last have become emancipated.

Further Religious Disintegration.—The war itself has led to what a Jewish writer calls “the irruption of Jewry.” The strict dietry and ritual laws have had to be disregarded, as never before Jew and Christian have been thrown together in a common cause, the Ghetto walls have fallen, centres of Jewish life and culture have been laid waste, and the communal life has been disrupted. Following on this has come the manumission of the great masses in East Europe. As a consequence the Synagogue is shaken to its very foundations. Jewish leaders express frankly and openly their fears for the whole future of Judaism. The people are free, moving away from their Ghetto and the Synagogue, with its old restraints and traditions, into contact for the first time in their history with modern conditions. One competent Jewish writer, taking account of the results of emancipation elsewhere, considers that liberty to Russia's Jews will end with them breaking away from Judaism and Jewry; Russia will no longer be the undefiled source of Orthodoxy, from which the empty Synagogues of the West can be filled. Another states that he considers the religion of the Jews to be doomed, and that he would consistently oppose freedom to his fellow Jews as their greatest danger! Many others write in similar strain, and they clearly see the opportunity before the Church. It has been said that the fall of the Jewish State before Nebuchadnezzar was in its effects the greatest step since the Exodus towards Christianity; the present war may well prove to be, if the Church awakens, the greatest step towards the Christianisation of the Jewish people.

Nationalism.—But that event will not come of itself, nor of a sudden; the Synagogue (Official Judaism) will fight against it to the last as in the day of Christ, and in the early years of the Christian Church. During the years of war Jewish Nationalism has undoubtedly revived among many and the demand is made, partly of right, partly by appeal to Christian sentiment, that in some form or other Palestine shall become a Jewish State. To this end and to get the ear of politicians, Jewish Nationality is spoken of to show parallelism between the Jews and other “smaller nationalities” to whom rights have been promised. The Synagogue sees in the propagation of these claims its opportunity to effect the re-entrenchment of Judaism, and to recover the loss to itself which emancipation and freedom will undoubtedly bring. For the same purpose the word Zionism is frequently used (and generally loosely used in the non-Jewish Press) to cover the concept of nationality, and the endeavour is now made to put a religious content into the word, although as launched twenty years ago Zionism did not mean to take any account of religion. To those who follow developments closely the aim is clear—that Jewish Nationality and Judaism in Palestine shall become co-extensive. On this account many of the emancipated Jews, and these the most progressive, Israel's deepest thinkers, who have done with the tyranny of the Synagogue, and have approached most nearly to the Christian ideal and concept of spiritual freedom, repudiate the very idea of a national Jewish State in Palestine and regard it as almost a curse to Jewry. No Zionist has declared for freedom of conscience or religious equality.

The Problem before the Church in relation to the situation now created is two-fold:—

(1) We are not immediately concerned with the political aspects of the questions referred to, save in so far as every step that will lead to a cessation of tyranny and effect liberty for the Jew is to be welcomed. But unless we be on guard, the religious and political bearing of these questions will be so mixed up together that the Church will find the door shut in her face. For let it be remembered that the Synagogue is to-day as illiberal1 and defiant as ever, and as its concern is with an exclusive Judaism, and not with a free Jewry, it sees its only hope of absolutist power in a re-entrenched Judaism. This is the real reason for the urgency engendered by it regarding the Jewish State, for which independence in matters of education, religion, and local government is being demanded, and the endeavour made to have compulsory Judaism the test of citizenship in Palestine. If this should come about, it requires no argument to show that the practical teaching of Christianity would be ruled out, the Jewish-Christian would be denied a place, and liberty itself would suffer—disasters which no guarantees about non-interference with the so-called “Holy Places” or with “the various Churches” in dealing with their own (i.e. Gentile) peoples would make good. But the Jewish State in Palestine may be welcomed, provided always that strict guarantees are given of full religious equality, not only for Gentile Christians but also for Jewish Christians or a Jewish Christian Church, with the full right secured to the Christian Church, as such, to propagate Christianity among all the inhabitants. This it is for the Christian Church to enforce, and to help make her position secure and her work effective, she must needs also strengthen her missionary institutions in the Holy Land by every means in her power.

__________

1 See Note C.

__________

(2) On the other hand, the march of progress among the liberated masses will not be stayed. Whatever extremists for Judaism may attempt, the bulk of the people will seek to use their freedom, and may be expected in the main to follow the example of those emancipated elsewhere. But here again a danger threatens the Church. Not only did emancipation of the Jews in other lands mean loss to the Synagogue, it enabled those Jews to develop their materialistic instincts, and as the Church largely left them alone, rationalism and irreligion developed among them, and they, by their example, influence, and teaching, fostered similar irreligion among their neighbours, and so added to the difficulties facing the Church. This is the plain teaching of experience. The emancipation of the Jews in East Europe not only gives the Church a new and great opportunity for Jewish evangelisation, but challenges her for her own life's sake to extend missionary activity among them.

III—IMPORTANCE OF SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH QUESTION.

The Jewish Question is essentially a religious question, and apart from Christian teaching, no real solution of it can be expected. Matters already noted bear indication of the importance of a solution being found, but some other elements may be noted.

To the Protestant Church, which stands pre-eminently for freedom and an open Bible, and is essentially opposed to the obscurantism of the Jewish, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholic Churches, the finding of the solution is important. Numbers of Jews have for various reasons entered the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, but, speaking generally, this has not been for real religious motives; by the mass of Jews both are viewed with violent antipathy. Although it cannot be maintained that these Churches have been the cause of modern anti-Semitism, properly so called, both of them, because the peoples of the lands where Jews have suffered most, Russia, Roumania, and Poland, belong to one or other of these

14

Churches, are regarded as representatives of oppression, and at the same time as representatively “Christian.” The Synagogue does not, when the question of the Christian appeal to the Jewish people or the influence of Christian Missions is referred to, distinguish between Church and Church, but seeks by every means, even by direct intimidation, to prevent the people coming to know and understand that there are Christians of another type. It lies to the Protestant Church to show in greater measure what the real spirit of Christ is, and to redeem the name “Christian” in the eyes of the Jewish people. There is the greater hope of this being accomplished through purposeful action, because to emancipated, fair-minded, thinking Jews, who still retain a sense of religion, the Protestant Church does appeal. For example, leading Jews of the Hungarian Plain (where the people are practically all Presbyterian) stated to the writer, with a smile at his ignorance, but in answer to a direct question, that the reason why they were so different in character and bearing from the Jews in the north (where the inhabitants are Roman Catholic) was solely “because we live in the midst of the Calvinists.” There is evidence also that the distribution of relief in name of the Protestant Church these past three years has opened the mind of many, who hitherto knew only Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, to some understanding of a purer Christian religion. That may be followed up to the benefit of our common Christianity and to the increase of Protestant missionary influence.

To the World at large benefit would accrue from a solution. One has but to think of the vitality of the Jews, their power, their adaptability, intellectuality, and tenacity to be convinced that they are worth winning. If their talents and abilities were directed into Christian channels the result would be for the world's good. But it may not be forgotten that meanwhile they stand as non-Christian and anti-Christian force in the midst of Christian nations. To win them would effect the removal of a great disintegrating factor from the life of peoples and would also be the greatest possible apologetic for the Christian faith.

For World-evangelisation the issue is momentous. After study of the Jews has been exhausted in every other aspect, there still remains one which persists before us: it is the aspect presented by Holy Scripture, which declares them to be the people of God, and to them we as Christians owe an indisputable debt. We should do well to have the mind of the Church turned to consideration of the Jewish question from the Scriptural standpoint. Although fanciful, strained, mechanical, and materialistic interpretations of Scripture should be guarded against, it cannot be denied that there are prophecies about the Jewish people which remain still unfulfilled. The fact that this people, whom God chose to be the organs of His preparatory revelation, have had a marvellous and continuous history throughout the centuries, and that in spite of ill-will, persecution, and oppression they increase in numbers and are a more potent force to-day than they ever were before, cannot but be regarded as indicating that God is preserving them for some high purpose in furthering the consummation of His kingdom. Paul's contention is that gifts and a calling have been given them of God, who has not repented thereof, and that the receiving of them is to be life from the dead, Among themselves a consciousness of Mission, of a calling, and of a great destiny increases, and if we as Christians cannot believe that that destiny will be fulfilled apart from Christ, neither can we doubt that the fulfilment may be as much retarded by unbelief in the Gentile about the Jew as by unbelief in the Jew himself. The first duty is accordingly to bring to them the knowledge of the crucified Christ. That accomplished, may not their mission and calling be recognised to be that of making God known in all the earth and converted Israel become the evangelist of the nations? Certainly we cannot deny, unless we have become too wise in our own conceits, that somehow the winning of the world is bound up with the winning of the Jews, whom such as Edwards of Breslau regarded as “God's reserves.”

15

IV.—CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

Spiritual need of the Jews.—In Section I. indication has been given of what Jewish religion is. The spiritual needs of the bulk of the Jewish people can scarcely be over-emphasised; none can go about them in East Europe and not realise the density of their spiritual darkness and the bondage of age-long Synagogal tyranny in which they have been held. It should not be thought that they are against the Christ, for in the main that is not so; they are against certain forms of Christianity, but that is a different thing. It is truer to say that they simply do not know Christ; great masses of them never heard of the Saviour.

Distribution.—It almost follows, it is certainly true, that Christian missions have been distributed on a false principle. They have not been placed where the need has been greatest. In some parts there is something like congestion; other parts are left bare, or practically so. Seventy per cent. of the Jewish population of the world is in East Europe, yet of the number of mission stations only 14 per cent. are there—only some 30 out of a total of 220, or thereby, throughout the world. Even of the thirty, many are staffed only by one individual; only two have a larger organisation—that of the London Jewish Society at Bucharest, and our own at Budapest. Only the last-mentioned is Presbyterian. It was not always so. At one time the Scottish Jewish Mission was represented by a number of stations in East Europe, but unfortunately and shortsightedly they were given up.

Results.—In general it may be said that no mission gives richer reward to the labour and faith of the Church; the surprise is that Christian people should doubt the Gospel's power to win the Jew. In quality and worth the converts surpass those from any other people; in Great Britain alone, for example, there are over three hundred ministers of the Gospel who are Jewish converts; in Europe there are another three hundred such. The converts are in the forefront in the work of the Church in all its various branches; and, although the fact is all too little known, in missions to heathen and Mohammedan many are the pioneers of the fields, giving a foretaste of the promised “life from the dead.”

Opportunity.—New fields open up. The Revolution has opened up the field in Russia; even street-preaching has become a possibility. The gates of Mesopotamia have been opened. Opportunity will unfold itself after the war in the Balkans; there are key-points there without a witness. Entry may now be had into Egypt and the Yemen. The Jews of Bohemia and of Italy and of France wait for the missionary. New possibilities dawn for the Holy Land. And what of the Jews of Siberia, China, India, and North Africa? Much fallow ground has already been broken up; with after-war freedom and accessibility the whole field becomes both wider and more hopeful than ever.

V.—PRESENT PREPARATIONS.

If the opportunities are to be seized, preparations must be made now. These may be carried out on certain lines at once.

Needs must be studied. It may be necessary to consider questions affecting institutional (medical and educational) work in itself, and over against the claims of wide-spread evangelism. In the main, institutional work opens doors; workers are needed to enter these. These workers must be got and trained for the very distinctive work of Jewish Missions, and in the light of the revival of Hebrew as a living language. There will undoubtedly be a need for extension of colportage and of itineracy. Literature must be provided. In the future regard must be had

16

for the needs of Jewish women; they have hitherto been woefully neglected in missionary enterprise: workers should be specially trained and set apart for work among them. There will be a demand in certain parts for higher education; mission schools are of relatively little use unless they are in a position to do all and a bit more than other schools attempt. Industrial institutions for inquirers and converts will be wanted, particularly in the Holy Land. In light of what the Jews propose for Palestine, a Hebrew Christian College or University, such as those colleges we have in India, China, and elsewhere, may be a demand, and would promise success.

Co-operation.—The best is not likely to be accomplished without a measure of co-operation with others, or without co-ordination of effort in the field as a whole. The British Jews' Society expresses its readiness to co-operate with us; the London Jews' Society has already taken steps to the same end. The English and Irish Presbyterian Churches may be expected to help in co-ordinating effort. With the Church of Scotland a beginning in co-operation has already been made in connection with the Jaffa Mission; might not co-ordination at Constantinople be effected? There is ground for believing that some method of co-operating with us at Glasgow would be welcomed.

Home-work.—Very few people have any real understanding of the actualities of the Jewish situation, or knowledge of even very simple matters relating to the Jews; many are to be found who, for example, think that Zionists are Jews who accept Christ! There is accordingly urgent need to instruct the Church on the whole situation, and on the duty and the opportunity regarding Jewish missions. For ourselves definite organising of interest in our Jewish mission enterprise should be attended to by those competent to do so; a scheme to develop the financial resources for the enterprise should be devised and launched; and careful consideration should be given to the application of existing or prospective resources. Effective co-operation would set money free for expansion in new fields or development at existing stations. But over and above all this, the situation in the Jewish world and the claims of the Jewish field ought to be brought before the public at large, and before the Free Churches of England in particular—Baptist, Wesleyan, Congregationalist, who take no part in Jewish evangelisation. The endeavour should be made to have some joint committee or conference of all the Churches and societies interested to meet periodically for consideration of common interests, the needs of the field, etc.

Special Call to the United Free Church.—The old minute books of this Committee give evidence that those who began the Scottish Jewish Mission enterprise had a world-wide vision; their aim was not restricted to a mere handful of stations, but had in view the Jews as a whole. There are references, for example, to and inquiries made regarding Jews in England, Holland, France, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Galicia, Hungary, Corfu, Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria, Malta, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, India, Cochin, etc. In many of these stations were opened, at others schools were subsidised, or other action was taken to evangelise the Jews in the lands mentioned. If that world-wide vision had been kept before the Church greater things would have been seen in Jewish evangelisation. Unfortunately interest throughout the Church had declined in recent years, although in the response made during the past three years to appeals on behalf of the Jews a rising tide of interest is seen again. That ought to be followed up and consolidated. But, furthermore, it is this Committee—the first Committee to be appointed by the Assembly of 1843—which is the pioneer Committee in Presbyterian Jewish Missions, and for its organisation and enterprise it still ranks as second amid the bodies engaged in Jewish evangelisation. This fact should be better known than it is, as should also be the other fact that it was the Mission of Inquiry sent out by the Church of Scotland in 1839 that gave the great impetus to Jewish mission

17

effort, not only in Scotland but throughout Christendom. We, the lineal descendants and heirs of that Commission, hold a place of honour, and it is for our Church to maintain it. If in past years there has been a falling away, in light of the present-day situation there ought to be a lengthening of our cords and a strengthening of our stakes, together with a realisation of the call to our Church to lead.

Note A.

List of some Works on the Jewish Question.

Etc. Etc.

Note B.

The following figures show the approximate distribution of the Jews before outbreak of war:—

18

Note C.

In thinking of the Jews it is always well to distinguish between the common people and the Synagogue. Jewish writers generally, while confessing that large numbers of Jews are entering the Church, use most opprobrious terms in referring to Jewish Missions. The spirit which animates Official Judaism towards the Church of Christ is sufficiently indicated by the following epithets applied quite recently by Jewish papers published in England to those who seek to bring a knowledge of Christ to the Jewish people:—They are “impudent,” “perverters,” “soul-harpies,” “soul snatchers,” “of diseased minds,” “mad, bigoted zealots,” a “gang of blackguards,” “narrow-minded brutes,” and are accused of “brazen, unblushing impudence, and damnable hypocrisy,” etc.