Untitled

Mission Fields of Jewry. Edinburgh; Glasgow: United Free Church of Scotland Jewish Missions, 1922.

United Free Church of Scotland

JEWISH MISSIONS

Mission Fields of Jewry

PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

121 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH

232 ST. VINCENT STREET, GLASGOW

[49]

MISSION FIELDS OF JEWRY

as described by

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

Rev. WILLIAM BEVERIDGE, M.A., Budapest.

Rev. W. M. CHRISTIE, D.D., Glasgow.

Mr. JOHN MORRISON, Constantinople.

And the Editors: Rev. J. MACDONALD WEBSTER and Rev. W. J. COUPER, M.A.

INTRODUCTION.

EVERY kind of missionary enterprise has its own difficulties. These difficulties range from the heathen darkness and corruption of savage lands up through the ignorance of China, the pride of Japan and the contempt of Mohammedans, to the refined philosophies of India. Jewish evangelisation has also its peculiar difficulties. The Christian preacher has to surmount not merely the apparent reasonableness of a faith that is centred in the unity of God and that insists on the sinfulness of sin and the need of reconciliation with God; he has not only to minimise the traditional splendours of the past and to prove that they have been outshone, but he has also to overcome centuries of misunderstanding and hatred. Before he can find even an entrance to anything he has to say he has to break down the prejudice which years of illusage and intolerance have fostered. He has thus to make a treble conquest: he has to create confidence in himself as a valid instructor; he has to show the inadequacy of the faith that is cherished, and he has to convince his possible convert of the desirability of the faith he would instil.

Geographical Distribution.

Perhaps no small part of the difficulty of Jewish Missions is just the geographical distribution of the race. Generally they are gathered together in lands that already are nominally Christian, and it is difficult to persuade some that there is therefore any need for special missions among them. It is argued that they are coming daily under Christian influences and in contact with Christian men. Should these not be allowed to work their leavening processes? Is it not probable that time will favour the gradual absorption of the Jews among the Christian population? Is there any reason to suppose that as a race they are immune from the influences that have welded the tribes of Britain into a people at least nominally Christian and as the motley population of America is at present being moulded into a single race with Christianity as the predominating faith?

The answer is twofold. The Jews have shown a remarkable power of resisting that very assimilation which is depended on. For centuries they have succeeded in maintaining a separate existence where other races would have disappeared long ago. It is true that there have been multitudes of Jews that have vanished into the heart of Christian peoples, but the centre of the citadel in the main stands intact. And the Christian Church does not believe in the all-efficient power of the surrounding Christianity to win the Jews for Christ. If it did, our own Church would not now have missions in Budapest or in Glasgow. Neither the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland nor the United Presbyterian Church would have troubled to send missionaries to London. Nor does the Presbyterian Church of America consider her

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The Jewish Register. Vol. IV. No. 16. December 1922.—One Shilling per annum.

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neighbourhood sufficient for the millions of Jews in the United States: she is busily organising special missions to her "Jewish Neighbours."

A Scattered Nation.

The mere Dispersion of the Jews also creates another difficulty. With perhaps the exception of the British they are the most widely scattered people on the face of the earth. They have gone wherever the British flag has been unfurled, and they are to be found in many other lands in addition. The difference between the British wanderer and the Jewish is this: The Briton has created a state and sovereignty wherever he has gone; the Jew has been content to live under the rule of some alien people, visited now and again, perhaps, with the dream of a restored and imperial Israel. The Jew is here, there and everywhere, and he has nowhere been able to set up an organised community where his culture and his faith are alone in the transcendent. He is mobile, indefinite and without distinct boundaries. It is true that he has seized upon certain localities in our great cities and there set up ghettos that are more or less emancipated from the thraldoms of the past; but even in such places he is not bound to the soil. He continues to be movable and incoherent, and missions to him there must always be under the strain of possibly missing the mark.

Ghetto Walls Demolished.

Before the War great areas could be pointed out as the Jew's special habitat but these have been modified by the marching of armies, and there is no saying what the future may still have in store for them. Poland and the surrounding regions with the State of New York may be said to be at present the twin foci of the race. In the one case missionary work has been all along inadequate in quantity: in the other it has barely been begun as an organised enterprise. In the one region law is not used to suppress and oppress: in the other law and custom and tradition are all employed to make the Jew's lot unhappy. While therefore the Jew may have achieved a greater liberty and may count himself a freer man than he was a dozen years ago, his liberty makes him more than ever a citizen of the world rather than a citizen of any special State. And that in its turn increases the difficulty of approach to him and consequently the difficulty of evangelising him.

The United Free Church has as yet escaped much of the danger arising from the migratory instincts of those whom she seeks to bring to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, though she has suffered in one or two cases in the past. At present she is settled in places where the Jew is more or less permanent and for that reason, if for no other, her outlook is hopeful and encouraging. With her limited resources she is making sure that her efforts are not being wasted on the outskirts of the problem, while its centre is left untouched. The present issue of the Jewish Register is intended to show how wide and varied her field is and how she is doing the best that lies to her hand. Palestine was dealt with in a former issue.

UNOCCUPIED FIELDS.

By the Rev. W. S. MATHESON, M.A., Galashiels.

LET us take a journey through Jewry that we may see its condition from a missionary point of view. That we may the better visualize the situation let us break up the field into three sections, take but a brief survey of the first two and then concentrate attention on the third which is by far the most important.

Where are Jews to be found? The answer is in every land. There are probably 14,000,000 throughout the world, and they are distributed in every continent and in almost every country.

America.

(1) The Jews in the United States of America and Canada number over 3,500,000,

nearly all of whom are in the States. The Churches of both lands are now awakening to the fact that in their large cities there are large numbers of non-Christian peoples for whom but little organised missionary work has been done. A new start has been made, and in particular the Presbyterian Churches, both of the United States and of Canada, have been organising agencies to occupy these hitherto fallow fields. We may be sure that our American brethren will deal with the problem in a large statesmanlike way.

Palestine.

(2) The Jews in Palestine form a field by themselves, and there is a strong sentiment in the heart of every follower of Jesus Christ to see that land not only outwardly but wholly under the banner of the Cross. In the whole of Palestine there are approximately only 100,000 Jews, even allowing for the increase since Britain under the Mandate took over the direction of affairs, but there are more mission stations for them than exist among the whole massed millions of Jews in Eastern Europe. The stations are not by any means fully equipped but they are doing a wonderful work and influencing great numbers for Jesus Christ. Practically the whole land is now mapped out for missionary activity.

Eastern Europe.

(3) From the Baltic to the Bosphorus, throughout Poland and the smaller contiguous states of Czecho-Slovakia, the Ukraine, Rumania, Hungary, Turkey, etc., there are between eight and nine million Jews. A journey through the lands they occupy will not prove happy. It will sadden to see their condition and to learn of the darkness in which they are living. They dwell in lands which have suffered most from the ravages of war; where in the past they were confined within a Pale, in a ghetto life; where superstition, prejudice and hatred of Christ and the Christian have been most pronounced; and where through cruelty, persecution, suffering and death the Jew has been most exposed to savage cruelty—the very lands that most need the healing, the light and the peace of the Gospel.

The Pacity of Missions.

From Danzig to Constantinople only three fully organised mission stations are carrying the Gospel to these darkened millions. Three! only three!—just the number we as a Church had in Palestine to work among some 12,000 Jews. These three stations are situated at widely scattered centres—Budapest, where our own Church is at work; Bucharest, where the London Jews' Society is abundant in its service; and Constantinople, where joint work is carried on by the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland. Six million Jews dwell in Poland and the Ukraine, yet there are but five or six mission stations among them, and these are slenderly equipped, some being manned by a single individual only. Czecho-Slovakia has 360,000 Jews and no work at all is being done for their evangelisation. In Transylvania there is a quarter of a million Jews and again no mission or mission worker is found among them. Our Church has been asked to commence work among them and have been promised assistance from the local Presbyterians. Jugo-Slavia and Greece have 300,000 Jews between them and in neither country has a mission been devoted to them. Not one of these fallow fields but is loudly calling for the presence and work of the Christian Church.

One most important point must be noted about Eastern Europe. It is the storm centre of the world at the moment. More than any other portion of the earth it is urgently needing the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The best help the Church of Christ can bring to it is to strengthen and uphold the Protestant Churches which are found in it. No better way of doing this can be found than by placing in their midst missionary institutions for the conversion of the Jew. The happy relationship which exists between the Reformed Church of Hungary and our own Church is the best proof of the possibility of blessing.

At Home.

At home we have the same problem. There are 40,000 Jews in the Glasgow area. These are official calculations, not missionary surmisings. Among them all there is but one organised mission, that of our Church under the direction of the Glasgow Presbytery assisted by the Home and Jewish Mission Committees. One mission and that but slenderly equipped! What is that among the thousands in our Western Metropolis? Is there not a field not fully occupied at our very doors? Does it not call for more interest, more labour, more prayer?

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GLASGOW.

By the Rev. W. M. CHRISTIE, D.D., Glasgow.

IN a city like Glasgow work among the Jews has its own peculiar difficulties, and the methods available are limited. The Church's missions in other lands can command the aid of medical and educational resources, while other missionary societies, both at home and abroad, seek to help inquirers and converts by means of industrial departments. But none of these agencies, nor any substitute for them, can be placed at our disposal. We have no inducements to offer, and all we can do is to present the Gospel on its own merits.

Some Difficulties.

We are sometimes told that the Jew is anxious to be looked upon as a Gentile, and that very often he seeks to conceal his origin under one of our own surnames. The inference is then drawn that this attitude of non-hostility ought to make him the more accessible. We admit what is said as to change of names, and can give examples that to the ordinary mind would be unimaginable. But with it all the Jew who has any religion at all looks upon himself as the "pet" of his God, as a member of "the chosen race," and thinks all Gentile things as unworthy of consideration.

Official Judaism seeks to control, and keep in hand every Jew. They associate him with benefit societies, and separation from these means material loss. He is forbidden to associate with any person or thing that is Christian. His neighbours are encouraged to spy upon him, and disobedience to authority means persecution. The workman at his work is controlled, and if need be oppressed. No complaint or appeal can avail, for the man himself can be compelled to declare that no threat has been made. This state of matters is universal in our city.

The Jew knows that "Christian" prejudice is against him, and that in Glasgow it is bitter indeed. No one can tell a better story, or better appreciate a joke against himself than can the Jew, but when on the one hand he is treated to a sneer, or on the other to patronage, then his resentment is roused and he can think bitter things about Christians. He must be treated as a brother-man.

Another difficulty is that within the British Isles more perhaps than anywhere else, the word "mission" has to the Jew an evil savour. This has come about by what the Jew considers an undue influence in persuading to baptism, and an indiscreet use of charitable assistance, a matter which is easily transformed by Official Judaism into charges of "bribery." Accordingly mission premises are to be avoided, for attendance there means contamination. Many a Glasgow Jew has repeatedly declared to us, "I will meet and talk over matters with you anywhere, but I will never enter a mission hail."

The Attractions.

On the other hand a good many respectable parents would rather see their children spending their evenings with us than playing on the streets. When the age of 14 or 15 is reached, however, they are considered "too old" to continue. Mothers then begin to dress up their daughters, the boys have to go to work, and neither can run risks. A further barrier has recently been set up

in the case of the boys, who, it is said, "must attend the Hebrew School."

The bigger girls (up to the age named) are willing to attend Sewing Classes, and so are the mothers, but the inveterate greed of the latter is most irritating. By shuffling they would fain finish off and carry home a garment every night. They are "stiff" in the matter of our teaching, and we cannot but consider their case as the most hopeless. They come for what they think they can get, and the matter ends there. When we consider the nature of those with whom we have to deal, we must admit that material assistance ought to be strictly limited, and dealt out with knowledge, care and discretion.

Visitation.

Getting into the homes has at times been easy, at times difficult. Visitation has, in the interests of those visited, to be done as unobtrusively as possible. From time to time there is an outcry against those that receive us. Neighbours think they have a right to interfere with neighbours, and the visitor is informed when he calls: "the eyes of the authorities are upon us and we may lose our work." Visitation and Tract Distribution from door to door, if carried on directly from the mission, is to be strongly deprecated. We have known an ignorant visitor shut more doors in an afternoon than the whole mission staff could open in a year. Still this work can be done.

Something of our methods is apparent from what has been already said. Six nights in the week something is done, and at our meetings we get representatively at all classes. In addition we try to make ourselves useful to every alien with whom we can speak when they lie sick in our hospitals. Jews who "will not enter a mission hall" gladly meet us in places of public resort, and there we sometimes spend hours more profitably than at indoor work. Gorbals Cross is the great meeting place of Glasgow Jewry, and a regular congregation welcomes us there Sunday after Sunday during the summer months.

Hopes for the Future.

Many of the difficulties of the past will still be with us in the future, but the passing of the work to the New Joint Board of the church will remove some of them. "Use and wont" counts for a great deal with the Jew, and the practice of the Home Mission Worker would justify us in setting before our visitors a cup of tea and a biscuit, without risk of a charge of bribery, or without the thought of pauperising, for it would only be a return for what they offer us when we visit them. This may lead to the development of the Reading Room. There, however, the Jew must be provided with the things in which he is interested, and which he cannot get elsewhere—home and foreign papers and magazines—and so compel him to come in.

The lack of support from which the Mission has suffered ought now to pass away. The local churches have their prescribed mission districts, and jointly are responsible for all our ground. There has been aloofness in the past as if such churches had no responsibility for the Jews. Now they should stand in, and indeed it ought to be a source of satisfaction that they have the opportunity of aiding uniquely qualified agents in this all-important field. A colporteur might even go round offering books for sale, and in connection therewith discreetly distributing literature. The Jew is always ready to appreciate "beeznis."

Perhaps it might be well for the Mission as such to take up the Pauline position, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." The fear of baptism and the memory of Papal persecution in the sprinkling of "holy water" frighten the Jew from approaching church or mission. In a city like Glasgow men, who wish to enter the church, ought to be sent to seek entrance somewhere beyond the district. Generally a baptism in the hall or neighbourhood destroys the work for several years. As it is we believe that the great mass of the Jewish. people in Glasgow have a pretty clear understanding of our purpose and our

message, and when the agencies and the resourcefulness at the disposal of the Presbytery and Home Mission Committee are brought to bear on the situation we may well hope the reaping time will not be far distant. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that this may be so.

BUDAPEST.

By the Rev. WILLIAM BEVERIDGE, M.A., Budapest.

THE Mission to the Jews in Budapest is 81 years old, and the fact ought not to be forgotten. Its beginning is one of the many religious romances in the story of the Church of Christ, and the day is long past when one requires to furnish an apologia for it, although ignorance about its workings and influence is sometimes surprising. It is therefore necessary to remind the Church both of the needs confronting all such Missions and the way in which the Budapest Mission in particular is meeting that need.

The Budapest Jew.

The population of Budapest is roughly a million and of this number over 200,000 are Jews. The city is the centre of Jewry in Hungary. To influence in any real way the Jewish population of the whole State which before the War was nearly a million, it is necessary to work from this centre. Jews in Budapest have no special characteristics or needs. As in the large centres of Hungary generally, they occupy commercial positions of every variety and degree; some are in the professions; some are wealthy; some are extraordinarily poor; some are orthodox; some are intellectuals or neologues. In the Jewish quarters where the Mission is placed, all the types, varieties and degrees are to be found. It cannot be said that Budapest is without prejudice against Jewry, and recent revolutionary and communistic movements have deepened the feeling. Jews in Budapest, as elsewhere, are a restless, visionary element in the population. But they do undoubtedly respond to many of the best influences that can be brought to bear on them. They respond to education and to culture. They respond to sympathy and to goodwill. There can be little doubt that the work of Relief in Budapest and in Hungary, which was extended to Jew and Gentile alike, modified the feeling of Jewish antagonism to the religion of Jesus Christ, and has helped to break down dividing walls, a process which the Great War indirectly did so much to accelerate.

The Mission in Budapest is trying to get at the heart of Jewry. We recognize the vast intellectual and religious force latent in the Jew, a force which may become a menace, We wish to win it for Jesus Christ.

Mission Methods.

How, then, it will be asked, is the Mission in Budapest trying to meet the needs of Jewry? Religious services are conducted every Sabbath. There is a large Sabbath School, the teachers of which are mainly the regular teachers in the Mission Schools. It is an undoubted fact that the work done in this direction has given an impulse to the whole Hungarian Church. A Ladies' Association with a membership consisting of old friends and pupils meets weekly and provides quantities of garments for the necessitous in and around the district. A colporteur is also employed to distribute literature and come into daily contact with the people. It is found that personal influence of this kind has far-reaching effects.

The Educational work of the Mission is extensive. The day schools are limited to girls and almost 500 are now in attendance, almost three out of every four being Jewesses. Twelve teachers carry on the work, and part of their duty is to impart religious instruction daily. An extension course is conducted for 29 pupils all of whom are Jews except one—more cannot be accommodated. In addition Evening Classes for lessons in English have been begun and 80 students attend from all parts of the city. A Home or Boarding School is also maintained and it is full to overflowing.

Besides having the agencies thus summarised the Mission has been able to do much in alleviating distress through the Relief Funds, and opportunities are to be given for meeting with Jews in social intercourse or through lantern or other lectures.

Results.

It will always be difficult to tabulate results from work such as has been thus roughly described. Girls leave the schools and go out into the world—to all parts of Hungary and to other lands. They carry with them the impressions and influences of the Mission, and it is impossible to tabulate what is thus known only to God. But it is certain that the Mission has had a far-reaching influence—notably on the Hungarian Reformed Church under whose protection its work is carried on. Testimonies to this effect are warm and continuous. One may be noted. The eager desire of the Transylvanian Church to have work begun in Kolozsv��r on the lines of the Budapest Mission is in itself a witness to the impression made. The Mission has also created in Hungary and in neighbouring states a deepened interest in, and sympathy with, the children of Israel; and it has fostered the desire to bring them to Christ. Since 1918 there have been in the Mission itself 648 baptisms of Jews, and of these Jews 40 are known to have been pupils in the Mission Schools.

Desiderata.

The work in Budapest is not by any means perfect, nor should it be supposed that the needs of Jewry are as yet adequately met. Much remains to be done in the way of sympathetic and personal contact with individuals, as well as in the equipment of our schools and in educational work. It is highly desirable that the girls trained in the Mission Schools should have educational facilities beyond the age of 14 and that we should be able to retain a hold on them till they are 18 years of age, which can be done only in a Commercial School or in a Gymnasium. Much remains, also, to be done by way of propaganda. A monthly paper ought to be published in the mission itself, as indeed was done before the War. Finally, while religious services are faithfully carried on, it has become clear that more weight must be thrown into vigorous evangelistic and aggressive work. Weeks of meetings and addresses must be carefully and prayerfully arranged, with every means at the disposal of the mission to give them publicity. This, indeed, is being done as the present winter's work begins. The most complete equipment on work of this kind can never be wasted. The turning of the Jews to Christ must mean for the whole world an incalculable good.

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CONSTANTINOPLE.

By JOHN MORRISON, Constantinople.

[MR. MORRISON was asked to supply an article descriptive of his mission work, but the disturbed condition of the city and his manifold duties in the crisis have prevented him furnishing anything but this poignant communication. Perhaps nothing could have better shown the constant faith, courage and devotion of our missionary. It should elicit deep sympathy with, and earnest prayer for, all our missionaries and the jeopardy in which they and our work now stand.]

The whole situation in Constantinople at the present moment is one of gloom. Trade is at a complete standstill, and all scholastic and mission activities are faced with a regime which will make it impossible for them to exist unless the possible Treaty of Lausanne is quite other than the attitude of the Allies indicate. Up to the present our work has been carried on successfully and has not been interfered with by the Kemalists, but how long this state of affairs will continue it is difficult to say. In spite of everything, the school attendance averages 300, and the children seem eager and keen to be in their places every day. Our Girl Guides and Boy Scouts still continue their

activities and our motto is "carry on" until stopped.

The Situation.

It is perfectly evident that in the near future we shall be confronted with serious restrictions and difficulties in both our religious and scholastic work, for it is clear that the Angora Government is determined to make the existence of foreign, and more especially Christian institutions a practical impossibility, if it be within their power. Already the Armenian orphans, succoured by the Lord Mayor Fund, and the Friends' Mission, established here for thirty-six years, have been transferred to Corfu at the urgent advice of our High Commission. Official information states that more than seventy thousand Christians have left Constantinople since the first of November, not taking into account those who may have departed in unofficial ways. Practically all British women and children have left the city, some proceeding to Malta and others to the United Kingdom.

A Baptism.

An item of considerable interest and joy to us all at the Mission was the baptism of Miss Marjory Luxemberg. This young lady was an inmate of our home before the war, and during the war period attended Dr. Frew's Church with great regularity. Her employers having decided to leave Constantinople for Paris, she made up her mind to be baptised before accompanying them. The ceremony took place in Dr. Frew's house on the 16th November. Her great ambition is to train as a hospital nurse in order to enter the mission field, and she hopes to have an opportunity to do so in the near future.

Generous gifts of money from home especially destined for children have made it possible for us to start giving substantial dinners to pool children in the school.

The enforced absence of Miss MacMordie has been a serious handicap to the school, and our work has been much hampered by illness amongst the staff. We have been fortunate in securing the use of a sports ground for one day per week, and the boys and girls thoroughly enjoy their outings. Although it may seem useless at the moment to make a request, sporting gear of any description, such as old footballs, hockey clubs, and spare cricket gear, would be most acceptable gifts from friends at home. Tile moral and disciplinary effect of games upon the children in this part of the world cannot be over-estimated.

Gifts and Requests.

The typewriter presented by Princes Street United Free Church Congregation, Port-Glasgow, arrived last week, but has not been cleared because the Turkish Customs Authorities demand practically its value in custom duties. The school books and equipment ordered during the summer holidays are expected to arrive in a day or two, but it is very doubtful if we shall be able to get them without paying very heavy duty. The Angora Government, in spite of the fact that the Allies occupy the city, make whatever restrictions or impositions they wish.

A new subject in our curriculum is the Turkish Language. It is by no means a popular subject and is at present optional. It must eventually be obligatory.

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"BEYOND THE FOREST."

THE English reader may have difficulty in thinking of the words "Beyond the Forest" as a name. Yet they form the name of one of the most picturesque and historically interesting lands of Europe. For it we use the Latin—Transylvania, the German calls it "The Land of the Seven Fortresses," but the Magyar and the Rumanian retain the idea of forest in their designation of it. Forests it has—dense, extensive, towering over mountain-tops. But it has also its broad straths, its deep glens, its rushing rivers, and in many respects it is not unlike parts of Scotland.

Its history begins before the days of the Roman Emperor Trajan, who finally overcame its Dacian King, Decebalus. A thousand years ago, when it was practically without population, Magyars settled in it. Its Magyar princes were the great protagonists in Europe of civil and religious liberty, and first in the world's history Transylvania proclaimed religious liberty and freedom of conscience. A large body of its people is Presbyterian, and they, like the Presbyterians of Scotland, have a love of education, and their schools and colleges have become famous. But to-day they are in sore distress and isolation, for under the Peace Treaties their old connection with Hungary has been severed and they are under the dominion of an oriental power—Rumania.

In course of time population has increased, but it has become mixed. Besides the Magyars, there are many Saxons, many Rumanians, considerable numbers of Serbs, Bulgars, some Turks, and about a quarter of a million Jews. Among these Jews a measure of work was carried on in pre-war years from our Budapest centre, but to-day such contact is impossible and no missionary is at work among them. Moved, however, by their spiritual needs and by a natural desire for closer relationship with our Church, the Presbyterians of Transylvania have invited us to establish a Jewish Mission in their midst, and with the invitation they offer their moral support and the free use of buildings for mission and missionary. Two-thirds of the world's Jews live in Eastern Europe. Among them, apart from a few isolated labourers, there are only two organised missions. Here is the opportunity prepared, and with every prospect of success, for another. Are we to take it? Dare we be deaf to the cry from Transylvania?

The Jewish Mission Committee has declared its conviction that God's call to our Church is to be heard in this invitation, and the General Assembly has cordially approved its decision to start a mission in Transylvania, earnestly commending the proposal to the liberality of the Church. Individuals like Mr. Beveridge, Dr. Fleming, and Professor Curtis, who have seen the land, its people, their needs, and the opportunities, foresee Christian influence, making for peace, enlightenment, and evangelical religion, radiating through the whole of South Eastern Europe, if we will but begin. An anonymous donor has promised ?200 per annum for ten years, others have sent in smaller donations and promises of help. Twenty gifts of ?20 each for five years, or eighty of ?5 a year, would meet the need, but donations large or small will be welcomed and may be sent, marked "Transylvania," to Mr. J. T. S. Watson, C.A., General Treasurer, 121 George Street, Edinburgh. Will you therefore help to bring the gospel to our Lord's brethren dwelling in the land "Beyond the Forest"?

NEWS FROM OUR MISSION FIELDS.

THE situation in Turkey has resulted in much anxiety for our work and workers in Constantinople. Before things became critical all our agents had returned to their Station after the summer holiday with the exception of Miss McMordie, who got only as far as Budapest on her way out and has had perforce to stay there. By the middle of October most of the English-speaking women and children had left the Turkish Capital for home, and the English-speaking ladies on the Mission Staff were permitted to leave if they wished, but they bravely decided to remain by the work. The strain upon them has, however, been severe. In the city rowdy processions have been the order of the day, and these have been kept in check only by the presence of a British armoured car following in the rear with machine guns ready to open fire. Since the Kemalists took charge matters have gone from bad to worse. The responsibilities resting on Mr. Morrison, both in regard to the Mission and to the British community, have been heavy indeed. Our own authorities have put him in charge of the Galata

section of the British colony, which implies that he has had to advise them and make all arrangements for their speedy evacuation, if need for that should arise. The case of the native ladies on the staff has caused grave concern, for the fate that would meet them, if they had to be left, is horrible to contemplate. For the event of evacuation, Mr. Morrison has been endeavouring to secure British protection for them and their dependents, and to make that possible the Joint Committee decided at an emergency meeting to guarantee assistance if they should have to come to Britain. It is to be hoped that the Lausanne Conference will effect a peaceful settlement, but, as a spark will set things at Constantinople ablaze, it may be that our workers shall have had to flee before this appears in print. Whichever way it may prove to be, we bespeak the sympathy and earnest prayers of the Church on their behalf. At time of writing the Mission work continues. In the Junior Department 188 pupils are enrolled, and in the Senior Department 151—a total of 339, of whom 62 per cent. are Jewish boys and girls.

From our East European Field the news is of a brighter nature in respect of both educational and evangelistic activity. With 590 pupils on the rolls, our Budapest Schools are fuller than have ever been. Of the total some 70 per cent. are Jewish, and a considerable proportion are Jewish-Christians. In the Continuation Course only one pupil is not of Jewish extraction. New teachers have had to be found, and the latest additions to the Staff are Miss Sophia Victor, daughter of the headmaster in the elementary school, and Mr. Livingstone, a Scotsman, who is also lecturer in English at the University. The Girls' Home has likewise its full complement, and many applications for places had to be declined.

Evangelistic work has received a great uplift. Mr. Beveridge arranged for the commencement of the winter's operations a series of special evangelistic meetings, in which he had the help of Bishop Ravasz and some of the theological professors. Night after night the large hall was crowded and on occasion hundreds had to be turned away for lack of room. The ordinary regular evangelistic meetings are drawing much larger attendances, and the Sunday morning service in Hungarian has been resumed after a break of eight years. The Women's Association has, also for the first time during a like period, been able to restart its social activities among the very poor, by giving a free "Coffee Festival." Besides Dr. Nagy, Mr. Ladislaus Horv��th has been appointed to assist with evangelism.

Regarding our Galilee Mission various matters of interest fall to be noted. Chief among them is the fact that Dr. W. M. Christie, who has been labouring in Glasgow these past eleven years, has been appointed by the Jewish Mission Committee to co-ordinate all our evangelistic work in Galilee, develop activity in the rapidly increasing Jewish Colonies, and supervise colportage and Bible work. This appointment has greatly cheered our other missionaries in Northern Palestine, for they are so burdened with medical and educational service that they have little time left for direct evangelism. Dr. Christie expects to arrive in Palestine along with his wife and daughter about New Year. In this connection it should be noted that colportage in the villages has been resumed—a man having been appointed to go round on donkey-back, but Dr. Christie's work and that of the Missionaries generally will be greatly facilitated by the motor car which has been generously presented by the donor of the motor ambulance referred to in our last issue.

Another item of much importance in the development of our Galilee Mission relates to Safed in particular. To make the needed extension of our educational work possible, the Jewish Mission Committee has purchased the admirably suitable buildings of the London Jews Society, which has left the field in Galilee to our Church. A special appeal for funds to meet the cost of these buildings and to secure the work in Galilee is to be issued after New Year. At Tiberias our workers have had a very trying summer

and autumn. There has been abnormal heat and for months no rain fell. In the end of October many people were attacked by malignant malaria, among them being Dr. D. W. Torrance himself and some members of the staff. These have recovered, but the Governor of Tiberias, Mr. Broatch, who was a close friend, of the Mission, was carried away by the disease. For whatever reason the Zionist Hospital has had to close its doors, but our two Hospitals have been full, and Dr. Herbert Torrance and the nurses have been exercising their ministry of healing almost literally night and day.

There is space for only a brief word about Glasgow. It is no easy matter to estimate the influence for good which Dr. Christie has exercised there, and he will be missed. But the work is left in the good hands of Dr. Sinnreich and Miss Stewart. The former has been greatly encouraged by the increasing success of the open-air meetings conducted by him at Gorbals Cross on Sunday evenings.

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MATTERS OF MOMENT.

Glasgow Missionary Congress.

The Missionary Congress held in Glasgow in October was undoubtedly a great event in the history of missions in the Scottish Churches, and Dr. Fraser and those associated with him are to be congratulated alike on the venture and on its success. The meetings themselves were an inspiration, and many an address rang clear in its testimony to the power of the gospel to win men of all colours and conditions. But some things were missed. It was natural and expected that we should hear much of Africa, India, and China. It was well to have the Near East and South America so ably dealt with. But of Europe, despite its welter, its sorrows, its racial antipathies, and its crying need of spiritual regeneration, the programme had no mention. Yet, in light of Europe's call to the Churches of Britain, can missionary statesmanship leave Europe out of account? Or, can even missionary strategy set Europe aside in face of the position of European peoples in the world at large? An address on the European Situation from men like Dr. J. R. Fleming, Mr. John Hall, Professor Curtis, or Mr. Frank Knight would have come as a revelation to the Congress and have set the other statements and discussions in proper focus. Nor was the Jewish question brought in any adequate way before the Congress proper, although it touches every part of the Church's work and is the most acute missionary problem of our time. True, Jewish Missions were discussed at an afternoon gathering by Dr. Ewing, Mr. Macdonald Webster, and Professor A. R. S. Kennedy, but at an hour when four other meetings were being held. The place given on the programme to the Jews, although probably quite accidental, caused many a smile—they were jammed between Outcasts and Lepers! It is to be hoped that at future Conferences both the European Situation and the Jewish Problem will be brought more to the fore, not alone because of their intense interest, but also on account of their crucial importance in world evangelisation.

Jewish Congregations in Scotland.

In recent years the number of Jews in Scotland has been increasing. It is not known how many there actually are, for in Britain the census takes no account of a person's religion. But Jews may now be met with in out-of-the-way places in Scotland, and at least nine of our towns and cities have resident Jewish populations. These are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayr, Greenock, Falkirk, Dunfermline, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Inverness. Glasgow has now no fewer than nine Synagogues, Edinburgh has two, and the other places have one each, except Dunfermline and Falkirk where

regular places of public worship do not seem yet to have been established. For most of these towns the "Jewish Year Book" gives no estimate of the Jewish population, but it is of interest to note that Inverness is stated to have eighteen families or two families more than Aberdeen is credited with. The Church is bound to give heed to this increase and spread of a non-Christian population. It becomes part of her Home Mission problem. And it gives point to one of the recommendations of the "Inquiry Report" presented by the Jewish Mission Committee to the General Assembly in May last. That recommendation is to the effect that the Christianisation of these Jews in our midst should be regarded as part of the regular work of the ministry and of congregational or other Home Mission agencies, and that the Presbyteries of the Church should direct closer attention to the evangelisation of the Jews within their bounds. The Presbytery of Glasgow and its Home Mission Committee are acting in the line of that recommendation in connection with the reorganisation of our Jewish mission work in that city. May other Presbyteries follow Glasgow's lead.

Proposed Anti-Missionary Committee.

The Deputies of British Jews, a body representative of Jews throughout the United Kingdom, had a meeting in London on Sunday, 22nd October. Notice had been given of a motion calling for the appointment of a Committee to deal with "Conversionist activities" and to bring forward recommendations to "combat the evil" of Christian Missions to Jews. The motion was moved and seconded. Medical missions and work among children were held to be particularly objectionable. But Rabbi Daiches of Leeds proposed the rejection of the motion. He was backed by the President of the Deputies and other speakers, who did not think any good would come of the motion. It was finally defeated by one vote. The very fact that such a motion was brought forward and was thrown out by so bare a majority on what were merely grounds of expediency, shows that at least Jews themselves are alive to the success of Jewish Missions. So workers may feel encouraged.

Nationalism and the Jewish Christian.

The leading organ of Jewry in this country wrote the other day, "There can be nothing in Judaism altogether outside the Jewish faith and the Jewish creed, and assuredly not Jewish Nationalism, which has its chief justification, its very essence and being, in the Jewish religious faith....There are limits outside which a Jew cannot travel, without thereby in effect proclaiming himself outside the pale of Judaism." Dr. Gaster expresses the same sentiments in these words, "Faith and nationality go hand in hand....Abandonment of the faith carries with it 'excision,' complete uprooting from the community. A Jew who changes his faith is torn up by the roots. There is no longer any connection between him and other Jews. He is practically dead....As long as a Jew has not publicly renounced his faith and embraced another, he belongs to the Jewish nation."

Every person who accepts any phase of Jewish belief or unbelief has his place in the nation—the only condition is that he must not have publicly repudiated his Judaism and accepted something else. Apart from that he may be what he likes. One has met Jews who confessed they had no faith, who declared they did not believe in a Higher Power, and yet they were respected Synagogue officials. Leading Jews neglect the Abrahamic Covenant and describe it as a "sign of barbarism," but still they are Jews. A man may conduct his business seven days in the week, live upon usury, and eat pork, but he dare not possess a New Testament, or inquire into the meaning of Messianic Prophecy without being denounced, and if he shows a desire to become acquainted with the faith of the Christians, he runs the risk of persecution and "excision."

In view of all this, the question is most pertinent as to the place of the Christian Jew in his own land. Racially he stands in the same position as the most orthodox Jew, and socially and nationally he ought to have equal rights, but official Judaism denies him everything. Suppose a Jew has vested interests in one of the Palestine colonies but is convinced of the claims of Jesus of Nazareth and makes profession, what of his interests? How will he be treated by an officialism which maintains its tyrannical attitude as of yore? In face of such an attitude on the part of the Jewish Authorities, can we be expected to give whole-hearted support to the establishment of a National Home in Palestine? And is not the designation itself false, if a large section of the nation is to be without recognition?

—Observer.

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SIDE-LIGHTS ON JUDAISM.

The Supremacy of the Cross.

Some months ago Dr. Weizmann, the Zionist leader, addressed a huge meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow. The number of Jews and their friends present was stated to be 3,500, which is somewhat of an inflation, but which nevertheless indicates the hold Jewry has on the Western Capital. Prof. Glaister, a member of the Congregational Church, occupied the Chair, but the vast majority of the audience were of the Jewish faith, and the demonstration could rightly be looked upon as a gathering of Israel. Part of the decoration of the Hall consists of the coats-of-arms of cities placed on the front of the gallery which sweeps round its three sides. This front was ornamented with flags hung over it—chiefly the Union Jack and the Zionist colours. Was it chance that left one of the coats-of-arms uncovered, and was it chance that that coat displayed Christ on the Cross? Was it not Julian, the Apostate, who cried, as he fell in his vain struggle against Jesus of Nazareth, "Thou has conquered, O Galilean!"?

Rejoicing for the Law.

Jewish worshippers have a special day, which they call "Simchat Torah." It marks the end of one cycle of reading the Law and is made the occasion of rejoicing on that account as well as of thanksgiving for the Law itself. The Jew does not then, as one writer puts it, "confine his glad sentiments either to the books of Moses which normally constitute the Law, or even to the Bible in which the Law is comprised. For him the Law is at once something actual and something typical or symptomatic. He rejoices in the gift to his people of what is known as the Torah. He is thankful that it has been preserved through all the ages and can be enjoyed at this season. He rejoices that he is chosen as one of those who, being a Jew, must take upon himself its obligations and implications. But again it is not merely the actual claims upon him by the Law in which he glories, nor the fulfilling of which is the pride of his life. The Jewish Law and its claims upon the Jew stand as a symbol for Law and Order in the world. They are typical of all that is antithetical to mere chaotic existence. They typify right, and righteous living. The Jew thus looks upon the Law and its obligations as an infinite privilege, because he knows that they are the foundation of all for which life is worth living. For him Law is veritably his life. Without Law life would be something worse than a living death." Yet, with all this well-meaning sentiment, the devout Jew has missed the main fact for which he would have most reason to bless the Law. Paul discovered it: the Law "was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith."

Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice."

That Jews should be anxious to shift from their race the odium of Shylock's

conduct is easily understood. Here is a recent attempt. "Over and over again Jews have been the innocent victims of lying accusations. Even the conception of Shylock is a perversion. As a matter of fact, in the original story on which Shakespeare based his, the Christian, and not the Jew, is the cruel persecutor. The story goes that in Rome, in the year 1586, a Christian, Paul Maria Sechi, informed a Jew, Samson Ceneda, that Sir Francis Drake had captured San Domingo. The Jew expressed his doubt, whereupon the Christian bet him a thousand scudi against a pound of flesh that it was true. The Jew entered into the bargain, and when in due course Sechi came to demand his pound of flesh, insisting on his bond, the Jew appealed to the Governor, who took the matter to Pope Sixtus V. Sixtus voiced the judgment which Shakespeare afterwards put into the mouth of Portia. The Christian might have his pound of flesh, but he was to cut no more and no less. Of course, the case failed, and the Pope ordered both parties to be cast into prison. Eventually they were released on paying a fine of 2,000 scudi each, the Christian for having entered into an arrangement which was tantamount to manslaughter, and the Jew for having endangered a life which by right belonged to the Pope." The writer concludes by saying that Shakespeare's picture was "a lie. In the actual event it was the Christian who was cruel hearted." It is to be feared that Shakespeare's sources go back beyond 1586. And besides, why should Jews object to a Jewish villain? Cruel hearted men are not confined to one race, even in Shakespeare's pages. Are there not Lady Macbeth, a Scotswoman; Richard III., an Englishman; Iago, an Italian; and many other scoundrels of varied nationalities?

A New Promised Land.

In spite of the fact that the aspirations of Zionists are set upon Palestine as their National Home, even Zionists are not averse from considering other settlements for large numbers of their people. Everybody knows that Zangwill had another location for the National Home than the Holy Land, but his compatriots refused to look at it. Jews have received invitations to settle in various parts of the world, and the latest of these comes from Mexico. 64,000 square miles are offered to them by the Government free on certain conditions. These include the immediate acceptance of Mexican citizenship by the immigrants and exemption from the $250 per capita tax demanded of all entrants. Free transport within the country is assured as well as a guarantee for the immigrants' "moral and political integrity." The offer is primarily made to the Jews of Eastern Europe, and the plan is looked upon with favour by those in authority. It is perhaps only "the old simple prescription of 'moving on,'" which has so often been applied as the remedy for Israel's ills. But it may lead to a cure of "that festering sore of want and dependence that is being created, not slowly but surely, of Jews, victims of the war, victims of pogroms, chiefest of all victims of the fact that they are Jews who are now eking out a miserable existence in Eastern Europe."

The Mission of the Jewish People.

Jews are never weary of proclaiming that they stand out among the races of the world as having a peculiar message to the world as a whole. They justify their separateness and the tenacity with which they maintain it by the obligation under which they lie to proclaim their message. Some Jews would declare that this Mission to the World cannot be carried out without their existence as a nation in a Jewish land. Hence they are Zionist first of all. Others believe that it can be realised without such material aspirations. The Jew who takes neither position is denounced. "If he nourish neither of these ideals, as is the way with thousands and thousands of Jews, then the raison d'��tre of his existence is nil, the part he plays in the world is a mirage. He is a mere parasite, and he justifies nothing so much as the indictment that is made by some enemies of our people." What is the message that Jews have for the world? It "comprises our weaning other

peoples away from error of thought and sin of action to a true conception of God. It means that we have to urge the breaking up of all idols and securing allegiance alone to the Almighty Governor of the universe." How have the Jews fulfilled their duty? "However commendable individual Jews may be, whatever service individual Jews may have done for the world and for civilisation—and Dr. Joseph Jacobs left a posthumous work showing how great had been the service of individual Jews in that respect—as a people Jews contribute nothing to the service of mankind. We do not cultivate a Jewish culture; we are not known for any great or enduring office which we perform." The quotations are from the words of a devout Jew, and they commend themselves by their refreshing candour.

The Jew's Responsibility for the Death of Jesus.

Jewish writers have always fiercely denied that it was through Jewish machinations that Jesus suffered on Calvary. They feel the disgrace that has fallen upon the race through the alleged malevolence, cruelty and injustice that led to the Crucifixion, and they do their best to repudiate responsibility. The latest opportunity of contradicting the New Testament statements is due to the revived performance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau. One of the recent meetings was attended by Dr. M. Epstein and he gives his impressions in the Jewish Chronicle. Among other things he says: "As long as Jesus was looked upon as a religious teacher, he was of no interest to the Romans. But when, rightly or wrongly men began to speak of the King of the Jews, the Roman power gave short shrift to the Pretender. An honest scrutiny of the facts must go to show that the death of Jesus was due entirely to the Roman authorities in Judaea. In Oberammergau thousands of people, for some twenty weeks of the year, had brought home to them again the century-old lie of the responsibility of the Jews for the death of the founder of Christianity. It is conceivable that in the olden days each presentation of the Passion Play might easily have led to a pogrom." It is to be feared that the Jewish desire to be counted innocent of that great tragedy arises from a perception of its malignant and atrocious accompaniments, and not from an impartial study of the facts.

A Hebrew Christian Church.

The London Jews have become alarmed at the success of Christian propaganda among them, and have taken note of the fact that the Bishop of Stepney has declared that "not until there is a body of Hebrew Christians with their own rites in their own language will there be much progress in the evangelisation of the Jews." Special reference is made to a paper read recently on the subject which gave a history of the movement. Its sinister character, from the Jewish point of view, was illustrated from what took place at a meeting of Hebrew and Gentile Christians. On that occasion, it is related, the Rev. Paul Levertoff, a man of wide learning, was given a commission to lay the foundations of a Hebrew Church by preparing a Liturgy in the Hebrew tongue. The Society of the Faith appointed a Committee, with Cannon Box as chairman, to undertake the necessary work of literary research. On the Gentile side, as it were, a certain amount of literary and historical work has been done, and the time has now come when the small group interested in the movement feel that an autocephalous Hebrew Church can be organised on the lines of the autocephalous Churches of the East. By this means it is hoped that many of the difficulties which a Jew feels about Christianity will be disposed of. So many at present feel that they can only become Christians by giving up their own people and becoming apostates. Mr. Levertoff witnessed to the desire of Jews in many parts of the world for such a Church, in which they could worship as Jewish Christians and retain some of their beautiful Scriptural rites, which Jews have used for many centuries, and which are in no way incompatible with Christianity.

The Ten Commandments.

It has always been a matter for wonder why Jews should generally be held in such low esteem, and a variety of explanations of the fact have been given—their greed, their craft, their unscrupulousness, as well as other reasons which reach back to medieval times. Not so many reasons have been advanced why the dislike and prejudice are fundamentally unreasonable, and it is accordingly all the more refreshing to have the following little poem from the pen of a young Jew, Isaac Rosenberg of London who fell in the War. It is entitled "The Jew," and is taken from a volume of his poetry recently published:

Moses, from whose loins I sprung,

Lit by a lamp in his blood

Ten immutable rules, a moon

For mutable lampless men.

The blonde, the bronze, the ruddy,

With the same heaving blood,

Keep tide to the moon of Moses.

Then why do they sneer at me?

Is not the reply to be found somewhere in the neighbourhood of the text—" The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

The Jewish New Year.

The Jewish New Year began this year on Saturday, September 23, the date being 5682 anno mundi. An interesting custom is the publication in the Jewish press of friends' greetings to friends to the number of many columns. The occasion seems to have been regarded this year as of special hopefulness—a hopefulness which found expression in a little poem, the "Shofar," otherwise the trumpet that is blown to signalise the opening of the year. The poem is preceded by the text from Amos—"Shall the Shofar resound in the city and the people be not afraid?"

At the cross roads we stand and we tremble,

With the past as a warrant for fear;

And we look for a sign and we listen

At the turn of the year.

And the trumpet resounds like a bugle

Yet more shrill and more weird than of yore,

When the armies passed burning and slaying—

We fleeing before.

More dread and more awesome the summons;

It is not the grim augur of death!

But its notes speak of hope and of courage

And life is its breath.

We stand at the cross roads and listen;

No more are we downcast, dismayed;

"Fear God," is the call of the trumpet,

"And be unafraid!"

Would that His people could realise that in Christ alone is hope not made ashamed!

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NOTICE.

IT is with considerable regret that the announcement is made that this is the last issue of the Jewish Register. There can be no doubt of the useful work that the little journal has done, but the cost of production has proved too great for the limited resources of the Jewish Committee. Some consolation may be derived from the fact that the propaganda it was meant to encourage will not altogether be abandoned. More space is to be given to Jewish intelligence in the Record and a special section of Other Lands is to be devoted to the same object. In thanking all those who in any way have aided in our enterprise we would ask them to transfer their interest to these journals.

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THE "REGISTER FUND."—Since last issue, in addition to the Annual Subscription, the following sums have been received as donations in aid of the circulation:—Miss McMordie and Miss Thomson, 1/6.