“From the Converted Jews' Side.” New York Times, April 22, 1893, p. 4.

FROM THE CONVERTED JEWS' SIDE.

Charges Made by the Rabbis Discussed at Mr. Freshman's Prayer Meeting.

The subject of Jewish conversions to Christianity which is agitating both the churches and synagogues cane to the front last night at the Hebrew Christian Church in St. Mark's Place. Members of the church had gathered in the chapel for the weekly prayer meeting. The pastor, the Rev. Jacob Freshman, invited members to give their experiences, as is the custom at these meetings.

Immediately a young man rose with a paper in his hand and begged to be allowed to say something that perhaps needed to be excused at a meeting of this kind.

“I wish to speak,” he began, “about some of the things that have been said lately against the conversion of the Jews to Christianity. It is but natural that rabbis of the Jewish faith should feel aggrieved that persons born in that faith are deserting it for a better one. So I find no fault with the Rev. Dr. Silverman when he complains of the conversions that have taken place.

“But when he says that all of these conversions are tainted with bribery, I most solemnly protest. I had to-night an appointment of great personal importance to me, which I abandoned in order to come here to declare myself upon this subject.

“It is now three years or perhaps more since I became a Christian. I thought I knew of the work that had been going on to convert Jews to Christianity, of the men who have been engaged in that work, and of the methods which they have employed. Yet I must say that this is the first time that I have heard of bribery. If it had been going on at all it seems that something ought to have been said about it before this. I wish someone could come forward now to try to prove these charges, because any such attempt, I am confident, would result in their entire rejection.

“It does not become me to attempt to speak as a pillar of the Church, but when Dr. Silverman says that it is against the Jewish grain to become a Christian and that there is no such thing as a Christian Jew, and when he says that Rabbi Gottheil agrees with him, I must confess to my amazement. It would take stronger testimony than the mere declaration of Dr. Silverman to make me believe that Rabbi Gottheil shares these sentiments in any degree. On the contrary, I do not believe he shares them, for he has a brother in Germany who is a pillar of the Christian Church.

“The Rev. Mr. Gottheil, the Christian missionary at Stuttgart, has done splendid work for Christianity, and he enjoys the respect in Germany of people of all creeds, for he is a thoroughly good man and a great Christian worker.”

“I had not expected that this matter would come up at our prayer meeting,” said the Rev. Mr. Freshman. “It is quite likely that we all feel as does our brother who has just spoken. This is not the beginning, however, of the oppression which persons high in the Jewish faith have sought to put upon the work we are doing. I have felt in the ten years that I have been working in this city, that it was my duty and the duty of my Church, to disregard criticism from this quarter and to go right on with our work, leaving everything to God.

“We may be tempted to remember at a time like this that we are not children, and that it is becoming in us to defend ourselves. But, after all, we have a great work before us. Our religion teaches us to love our enemies. We do not need to enter into any disputes that arise because of the work we are doing. It is work which satisfies us and which brings its abundant reward. I think it better that we should let this controversy alone and go on with the Lord's work. In the experiences which others are to give this evening I trust that we may hear only what the Lord has been doing for us, and not what we have been trying to do against us.”

The subject having been started, it was not so easy to be put down as the pastor hoped, and in the experiences that were subsequently given nearly every one had some allusion to make to the charges of bribery and to the reflections that were cast upon the people who had professed Christianity.