“Converts for Revenue Only.” New York Times, April 18, 1893, p.1-2.

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CONVERTS FOR REVENUE ONLY

LODGING, CLOTHING, AND WAGES FOR “CHRISTIANIZED” JEWS.

Charges Made by Rabbis and Other Leading Hebrews of the City — Affidavits from Proselytes as to the Methods Pursued by the Missionaries — Rivalry in Securing Conversions — The Work Done in the Schools for Poor Children Strenuously Objected To.

The Jews of New-York are thoroughly aroused over the vigorous efforts which are being made by the various Protestant denominations to secure proselytes from their ancient faith. The feeling on the subject has been gradually growing among all classes of educated Hebrews, and already plans are being put into operation for checkmating the Christians and nullifying the work of the “converted” Hebrews who are employed by the Protestants to carry on the conversions.

It is the methods of proselyting which the Christians have adopted, and not the mere proselyting itself, over which the Jews are most excited, and which they chiefly denounce. It is alleged by prominent Hebrew rabbis and by agents of the United Hebrew Charities and others that these methods of proselyting are unchristianlike and corrupt, and inevitably result in turning the proselyted Jews into heretics and hypocrites instead of converting them into Christians.

The entire Jewish community is interesting itself in the question, and orthodox and reformed Jews alike are turning their undivided attention toward the subject. The Hebrew religious papers are taking the matter up, the more prominent rabbis have begun to denounce in the synagogues the scheme for converting the people of their race, and the matter is becoming the leading subject of discussion in the Hebrew clubs and social organizations. A strong prejudice has sprung up against the “converted” Jews, who are the active agents in the work of conversion, and many hard names are being applied to them on every hand.

The Rev. Dr. Joseph Silverman took up the cudgel against the Protestants on Sunday at Temple Emanu-El. Rabbi Gottheil had used vigorous language on the preceding Sabbath in dealing with the same question, but Rabbi Silverman went a little further in Sunday's discourse, and boldly charged corruption in the methods by which the Protestants are seeking to proselyte the Jews.

“I am not yet ready,” said Rabbi Silverman yesterday, “to be drawn into a public discussion on this subject, but the charges which I make against the Christians I can prove, and if the Protestant organizations which are devoting themselves to this work of so-called conversion will come forward and deny my general charges I will produce the facts on which my allegations rest specifically and in detail.

“The Christians of New-York have gone in to convert the Jews by wholesale. They are making a regular business of it. The Christian missionaries and the so-called `converted' Jews are paid commissions for making converts, and in order to make their business brisk and produce a good showing they divide their commissions with their `converts.'

“Look at the spectacle of a Christian Church bribing Jewish children to go to their Christian `conversion' schools by gifts of cake and candy, and look on that other spectacle of a rival `conversion' school competing with the first named by offering bribes of shoes and clothing. These are recent and frequent spectacles in this city. They fain would make converts by oppressing workingmen on the one hand and by tempting them to turn from their religion by offering them remunerative labor. Converts are made by social ostracism, by legal prosecution, by persecution, and by force.

“The Christians of New-York are being bamboozled by their missionaries in this work of proselyting the Jews. Those who are giving their money for this purpose are throwing it away. It is being utterly wasted. They might just as well toss it into the street for the rabble to run after and fight over.

“I charge that these `converted' Jewish missionaries who are hired by the Christians are corrupt. There are some of the missionaries of the Christians who are undoubtedly sincere, but the so-called `converted' Jews are men of another stripe. They are neither honest nor sincere.

“A converted Jew! Bah! there is not one genuine converted Christian Jew in New-York to-day. In return for the hundreds of thousands of dollars which the deluded New-York Christians have spent in this work, what have they? Only a small band of mercenary, unfortunate, low-caste hypocrites who fawn on the Christians and draw from them money, board, and clothes. They are all Jews at heart—such of them as are not infidels.

The `converted' Jews are living at the expense of the Christians. There is more corruption in this business than the people have any idea of. A Jew cannot become a Christian. It is against his grain. If he says he is a Christian he is really an infidel.

“Absolute and sworn proof of the corrupt character and practices of the `converted' Jew missionaries, and of the methods by which they obtained converts, was recently submitted to the Rev. Dr. John Hall, who is one of the ecclesiastical leaders in the movement to proselyte the Jews, but he refused to examine the charges or to hold a conference with their author. The latter was Mr. A. Benjamin, an agent of the United Hebrew Charities. Mr. Benjamin ha given the subject special study, and his charges are supported by affidavits.

“The Christians have pushed their work of proselyting the Jews to such an extent that they sent their missionary agents around to the various public schools in the Jewish quarters of the city. These agents stood in front of the public schools and tempted the Jew children with cake and candy, and with promises of shoes and clothes. We appealed to the Board of Education to stop this practice, and they have issued a peremptory order to this effect.

“The Protestants have set up what they call `missionary' schools for the conversion of the Jews. There is a sign on one of these schools on the lower east side which says, `Missionary school for Jewish children.' They give candy and cake, shoes and clothes to such of the Jew children as can be induced to attend, and they extend aid to the Jew parents when such aid is solicited. These gifts of money and clothes and food are not charity to the Jews, and are not intended as such. The Jews do not need to depend on the Christians for support. The Jewish charity is broad enough to take care of every deserving Jew. The Protestant organizations of a purely charitable character fully understand this and turn over to us every case of a deserving Jew which comes within their observation or is thrust on their attention. There is no reason why any poor Jew should beg from a Christian and if a poor Jew begs from a Christian he is an impostor.

“The gifts which are given to the Jews by the missionaries are not in charity's

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name but for the purpose of making converts. The methods on which these `missionary' schools are conducted are an outrage on humanity and a travesty on religion.

“One of these so-called `converted' Jew missionaries has already been driven out of the city by the revelations concerning him, and we have abundant evidence concerning the character, motives, and habits of others.

“The missionaries and their agents tempt the little Jew children into the missionary schools and take advantage of their youth to teach them Christian doctrines. They tell them that the Jews killed Christ. The little children are seldom affected by the teachings of the missionaries, because when they go home and tell their parents that they have been taught that the Jews killed Christ, the parents at once set them right on Jewish doctrines. The result of this conflict of precepts in many instances is that the children become scoffers and hypocrites.

“The effect of the labors of the missionaries on adult Jews is equally pernicious. By their methods they attract those of the Jews who lack moral courage or are in peculiarly unfortunate circumstances, and by their promises and gifts they convert these poor people into hypocrites, not into Christians. By the easy scheme for obtaining bribes which the missionaries have introduced, they have brought corruption among our own people. No worthy Jews have been converted, as there are affidavits tending to show.

“I will give you a recent illustration. A well-known Christian minister received a letter from a Jew expressing a desire to embrace Christianity. The minister looked up the Jew, became interested in him, extended help, and took him to his fold. In due time the Jew became `converted,' was baptized and, a day was set for him to take part in the communion service. A day or so before the communion the Jew wrote to the minister saying that he would not be able to attend because he had not suitable clothes in which to present himself at the altar. Touched by this evidence of pious reserve, the minister sent the Jew an order on a well-known ready-made clothing house for a twenty-five-dollar suit of clothes. The next day the minister received a bill from the clothing establishment and paid it. The day of the communion came, but the Jew did not appear. The minister went to the clothing establishment, and found that the Jew had bought a ten-dollar suit of clothes and pocketed $15 in cash. When this minister told his experience with the Jew to a rabbi, the latter laughed at him and gave him some good advice.

“Not long ago a Jew came to my door and wanted $100. I questioned him and offered him $10, whereupon he grew angry and said: `If you do not give me $100 I will go to the Christian missionaries and get it and become converted. They will pay me well.' I shut the door in the face of that Jew.

“The Jews whom the Christians are converting are of the type just described. Follow up every one of these converts and you will find low-class Jews, who are hypocrites and beggars. They themselves laugh up their sleeves at the missionaries and the Christians. Every rabbi in New-York has been approached by one of these Jews with a demand for money and a threat that, if not supplied by a rabbi, it could be gotten from a missionary.

“We Jews do not fear the secessions from the Jews because of this proselyting scheme. There will be no secession. These missionaries are injuring the Christian Church far more than they are hurting us. It is a notorious fact that the missionaries give money to their converts.”

The affidavits referred to by Dr. Silverman in his charge of corruption against the missionaries are in the custody of A. Benjamin.

There are five of the affidavits, all by young Jews, and they relate to the two “converted” Jew missionaries, Mr. Warzarviak and Mr. Freshman.

One of the affidavits is by Jacob Lee of 90 Division Street. Lee says that soon after coming to New-York from abroad he was approached by Mr. Warzarviak of the De Witt Memorial Church. Warzarviak told Lee to take his advice and not bother about work, as Warzarviak would support him if he would submit to baptism as a Christian. For six months, Lee says, he was supported by Mr. Warzarviak, and gave frequent testimony in public of his alleged conversion to Christianity. He became, he declares, a “pet” of Mr. Warzarviak and the Rev. Dr. A. F. Schauffler. Soon after Lee's baptism Mr. Warzarviak wrote an encouraging letter about him to Dr. Schauffler, and Dr. Schauffler gave Lee $15, and paid him $3 per week for eight weeks. Mr. Warzarviak stopped Lee's allowance when Lee stopped testifying to his conversion.

Lee also “testified” for eight weeks at the rival missionary chapel run by Mr. Freshman, under the name of the Hebrew Christian Church, receiving $1 per week.

Max Winterling of 17 St. Mark's Place is the author of another of the affidavits. He says that soon after he came in contact with Mr. Freshman the latter baptized him and sent him to a Christian school at Mount Herman, Mass. He staid at the school one year, and was allowed $5 per week during vacation, and also free lodgings.

“All the other Jewish converts,” says Winterling, “are hypocrites like me, but they lack the moral courage to express themselves openly. I apologize to a Christian community for cheating them out of their money and good will.”

Another affidavit is made by Isaac Long of 73 Division Street. Long says that he began his course as a bogus Christian in London, where he allowed himself to be baptized by missionary, and received 30s. after the ceremony was performed. On coming to New-York, Long drifted into Mr. Freshman's church, and was made a salaried assistant in the Suffolk Street branch. One night after giving a public testimony of his “conversion,” the missionary took him into the basement and gave him $3. He earned $14 in one week by giving public testimonies as to his conversion. Then he was approached by Mr. Warzarviak, whom he describes as the rival of Mr. Freshman in the work of converting Jews. Mr. Warzarviak, Long alleges, offered him liberal pay to “jump on” Mr. Freshman in public, but the offer was declined.

Gustav S. Ziegler of 315 East Third Street alleges that he was another bogus convert to Christianity. While playing his part at Mr. Warzarviak's church he helped another bogus convert to eject Mr. Benjamin from the De Witt Memorial Church at 280 Rivington Street, and also from the Home at 65 Avenue D. Ziegler says that, although Mr. Warzarviak claims to have converted 1,000 Jews, he has not “converted” fifty.

The fifth affidavit is made by Albert Klopfer, a journalist. Klopfer lives at 128 East Seventh Street. He says that soon after he came to this country Mr. Freshman made him promising offers of aid if he would submit to be baptized as a Christian. Accordingly, he was baptized, and received $5 per week and free clothes and lodgings as a missionary and “testifier.”

Klopfer makes serious allegations against the character of several of the converted Jew missionaries, and says that one of them was a card player. Another he found betting on horse races in an upper Broadway resort, and when Klopfer remonstrated with him he laughed, said something about piety, and declared that the money that kept him going as a missionary came from Scotland and was not drawn from New-York Christians, and that therefore they had nothing to do with him. One of the missionaries asked Klopfer to make a public exposure of another missionary engaged in converting Jews.