“Expense of Converting Jews.” New York Times, May 9, 1893, p. 9.

EXPENSE OF CONVERTING JEWS.

Mr. Benjamin Critically Studies Mr. Warzarviak's Reports.

Mr. A. Benjamin, the Hebrew teacher who has taken an active part recently in the controversy regarding the work of Christian missionaries among the Jews, scouts the claim of Missionary Warzarviak that over 2,000 converts have been recruited from Judaism in three years by the Protestants engaged in this city in the work of proselytism. He analyzes the annual reports of the City Mission in search of material to support his position, and proclaims his view in the following communication:

To the Editor of the New-York Times:

The reason for claiming that my antagonists are themselves substantiating my accusations is based upon the following:

Missionary Warzarviak asserts in the Sun of March 26, "In the past three years over 2,000 of these Jews have become converted to the Christian faith." The absurdity of this claim is proven by the same Warzarviak, who in the annual report of the city mission for 1890 says: "We have baptized only one Jew." In the annual report of 1891 Warzarviak says: "We have baptized eight Jews during the year." In the annual report of 1892 Warzarviak says: "Fifty Jews, direct fruits of our mission, have confessed the Lord Jesus Christ by baptism."

How fifty-nine heads of converts could be evolved into 2,000 is beyond my arithmetic.

I will now branch off to Warzarviak's aides de camp. Thus, in last Friday's TIMES, Brother Goodhart, the mouthpiece of his godfather Warzarviak, depicts me as a lunatic, while Warzarviak himself christened me an atheist. But why wrangle about my religious proclivities when both Warzarviak and Goodheart could easily convert me to a full-fledged Christian by simply answering correctly one question in the New Testament, as proposed by me in last Friday's TIMES?

But now comes Miss Mabel B. Atwater, who, in order to deny the sworn statement of David Josephthal that Miss Atwater pays money to the Jewish children for singing Christian hymns, actually confirms the charges by stating in last Friday's TIMES, "I distribute a few dollars of my own every now and then among the girls that they may buy candy and other things that little girls love."

For further demonstration of the Jewish missionaries' inconsistency, we need but glance at how Goodheart introduces Miss Atwater to the readers of the TIMES, as follows: "She devotes her entire time to the work of Christianizing Jewish woman and girls"; while she herself says: "I am not so much concerned about whether my little girls are Christians or Jews. All I want them to be is good little girls, and I try to help them to be so by teaching them that the Church is their friend. If I do that they will be Christians when their judgment shall be matured."

After convincing the readers of THE TIMES of the huge inconsistency prevailing among the Jewish missionaries, I ask, what would the Christians say if their little darlings were enticed by long-bearded Jewish rabbis and trained to learn the law of Judaism?

Yet, Dr. A. F. Schauffler is devotedly demanding no less than $8,000 annually to enable Warzarviak, Goodheart, and Miss Atwater to save the Jewish soul. But, pray, dear doctor, why not avail yourself of the easy terms arranged by me in last Friday's TIMES, when a select party of converts could be secured "without money and without price"?

According to what Christ said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," I and my scholarly Russian friends ought to be fit subjects for Christianity. Still, not only are we rejected, but $8,000 is necessary to buy such converts as are neither a loss to Judaism nor a gain to Christianity, as they all make affidavits.

A. BENJAMIN

NEW-YORK, May 7, 1893.