“Work Among the Hebrews.” New York Times, April 19, 1893, p. 9.
WORK AMONG THE HEBREWS
WHAT IS SAID OF THE PROSELYTING EFFORTS.
Rabbi Joseph Silverman's Charges Discussed by a Member of the Board of Presbyterian Home Missions — Many Jews, He Claims, Have Been Converted — Mr. Warzarviak's Earnestness Defended — The Rev. Lyman Abbott's Opinion Respecting a Change of Faith.
The charges of proselyting efforts by Christian missionaries in this city among the Jews, which were made in the columns of THE NEW YORK TIMES yesterday by Rabbi Joseph Silverman, and in affidavits collected by A. Benjamin, the agent of the Hebrew United Charities, excited widespread interest. Those who have to do with mission work in the crowded districts of the east side, where the Jewish element is colonized, were especially concerned over these charges and disposed to talk about them freely.
The result of inquiries brought out something in the nature of a counter-charge that one of the persons from whom an affidavit had been obtained had been forced into this act by the pressure of race influence, and had, in consequence, become insane.
There was a general denial that special efforts had been made to convert Jews to Christianity. What the Hebrew papers have had to say upon this subject had been construed by missionaries to indicate uneasiness over undoubted inroads that had been made among the Jews by mission workers. It was not supposed, however, until these charges appeared in printed form, that any intelligent Jew really believed that mission workers had gone into the poor quarters with the deliberate purpose of bringing Jews within the Christian Church, least of all by any form of bribery.
“Now that these charges have been made,” said the Rev. Dr. William C. Roberts of the Board of Presbyterian Home Missions, “I hope that they may be fully ventilated. Let us get to the bottom of them by all means. Church people everywhere will want to know just what has been accomplished in this direction, and they will ask only that the truth be stated.
“The fact is that a great many Jews have been converted. Our mission work in the east side is very effective. This has been especially the case since Mr. Warzarviak began to preach in the De Witt Memorial Church. He is a most wonderful preacher. Himself a convert to Christianity, coming of a fine family in Russia, and intended by his family for the service of the Jewish religion, he embraced Christianity, knowing that the penalties of so doing would be social exile and complete estrangement from his early surroundings. His family disowned and disinherited him when he became a Christian. Even his wife refused to live with him, and he came to this country utterly alone and friendless. The sincerity of his work finally brought his wife to look kindly again upon him, and within a few months she and her children have joined him in this country. He is still a stranger to his father's family, and there is hardly a possibility that they will ever be reconciled.
“The eloquence and earnestness of the man have not failed to impress men, who, while engaged in promoting mission service, are still men of strong practical business sense, and who are not to be deceived in human nature. He has commended himself to the entire approval of Morris K. Jesup, who built the De Witt Memorial Church and presented it to the Presbyterian denomination, but who has retained a most active interest in its affairs. He has watched the Russian preacher very carefully, and if he were not perfectly satisfied that the man is a valuable acquisition to our work a word from him would at any time have been sufficient to discontinue Mr. Warzarviak's labors.
“I shall not undertake to say how many converts to Christianity he has made among the Jews. There are certainly many of them. If he estimates the number at 1,000, it may be safely assumed that he knows what he is saying. It is no wonder that in such a number a few should be found who would desert the new cause, or who perhaps might have pretended to have embraced Christianity for the purpose of hampering the work which the preacher is trying to do. I am convinced that it would be more surprising it there were no bogus converts, and that the only matter for wonder in the present case is that there are so few.
“The services at which he presides are so crowded that it is almost invariably necessary to close the doors upon hundreds of people who would like to attend them. No Jew is compelled to go to these services, and the attendance is purely voluntary. With such audiences to inspire him it seems to me only reasonable to suppose that he must have won converts. A handful of affidavits from people who appeared to yield to his persuasion, possibly with the intention of trying to undermine him by afterward recanting their professions, will strike any fair mind, I should say, as very much outweighted by the evidences of good work which he is doing at that chapel every week. Talk of money bargains for souls is too absurd for discussion.”
At the De Witt Memorial Church in Rivington Street more was learned in regard to the work among the Jews, which Mr. Warzarviak is carrying on. Mr. Luther, who is connected with mission work in that part of the city at another chapel, but who makes his home in the De Witt building, and is a constant observer of what takes place there, said that Mr. Warzarviak had made a most profound impression with the Jewish population in that part or the city.
“He is certainly a most wonderful man,” said Mr. Luther, “and if ever a man was fitted for evangelistic work, he is. Although but twenty-six years old he has the eloquence of mature years coupled with the fervor of youth. His services are held here every Saturday afternoon. It is true that the chapel is not large enough to accommodate the Jews who wish to attend. We are obliged to have doorkeepers and at times they have hard work to prevent overcrowding. The services are prolonged and I have noticed that as people leave them before they are over others from the outside are always ready to take their places, so that the chapel is constantly crowded. This does not look like bribing them to come.
“After the service in the chapel the preacher invites those who wish to profess Christianity, or to make serious inquiry of him, to meet him in rooms at the back of the building known as `inquiry rooms.' Those rooms also are crowded after every service. He is careful in extending invitations to people to meet him in the inquiry rooms to say that no one is wanted there unless he may seriously think of embracing Christianity.
“It is an interesting sight to watch the Jews at these services. They become intensely earnest over them. Mr. Warzarviak preaches to them in the way to which they have become accustomed in the synagogue. He believes that he can show them from the Old Testament that Christ is the Messiah promised to their race. All of his preaching is based upon that belief. Occasionally in the service a Jew will rise to argue a point with the preacher. Such interruptions are never unwelcome, for they give the preacher an opportunity to persuade and convince, and that he regards as his special mission. When the open meetings in the chapel are ended, the congregation will file out and remain on the street for an hour or more discussing what has taken place in the meeting. I have seen so many of them engaged in this way that they completely filled the sidewalk for the length of the block from Cannon Street to Columbia Street. Sidewalk discussion is usually very plain-spoken, and at times the preacher and his doctrines are handled with blunt language. The fact remains, however, and is apparent, that he has made a profound impression, and that is what he seeks to do.
“Once in a great while an orthodox Jew attending the service and becoming incensed over something that may be said rises and calls upon all true Jews in the congregation to remember their faith and to leave the place. Several stampedes have occurred at such times, for the Jews are naturally a timid people. I have never known the chapel to be emptied, however, even in the most exciting services, and when stampedes have occurred the people waiting on the outside have quickly taken the places of those who departed, filling the chapel again almost immediately.
“It is not at all surprising that a string of affidavits should be produced to show that some of the converts have renounced the new faith in favor of the old. It is quite possible that a few of them professed Christianity with a view of injuring our work. On the other hand, I am satisfied that others, who are now heralded as bogus converts, were really forced into abjuring the Christian faith. It requires more than ordinary courage for a Jew to become a Christian. The undertaking is one of great danger to him socially [?—obscured—JMH ed.] and in his family relations. Everything that threats or entreaties can do to dissuade him from this course is employed.
“We have had reason to suspect that some of the so-called converts were not sincere. This man Ziegler, who confesses in his affidavit that he was a bogus convert, was under suspicion by us for a long time. He had charge of the door, and we believe that he allowed Agent Benjamin to enter the meeting knowing that Benjamin intended to do all he could to break it up. Benjamin would come here, and besides disturbing the meeting he wrote articles for Jewish papers which were intended to stop this movement and to embarrass and terrify those who had any part in it. It seems plain now that Ziegler had arranged with Benjamin to assist in this undertaking.
“With reference to Max Winterling, who signs one of the other affidavits, I shall never believe that he was not sincere in his professions of Christianity. He attended the Moody School at Mount Herman, Northfield, Mass., when I was a student there. He was thoroughly devoted to his work and seemed as earnest in it as any man I have ever seen. We knew when he attended that school that he was constantly beset by people of his race to return to the Jewish faith. When the vacation season came he left Mount Herman to spend some time in this city. He did not return to the school. His friends there were very sorry that he had to discontinue studies in which he had been so much interested, especially as it was understood that he had come under Jewish influence at home, which actually forced him into the abandonment of a project that was dearest to his heart.
“There were various rumors at the school with reference to him, and among others we heard that the home pressure upon him had been so great that he was worried into sickness, and that his family or friends sent him to Hungary, where he became insane. It was said at the school that the worry and disappointment over the discontinuance of his studies had brought about not only his illness, but his insanity.
“We have had evidence of almost superhuman efforts of Jewish families to prevent converts to the Christian faith. They will go to any length to keep their relatives and friends from abandoning the religion of the Jews. One of the most touching stories that Mr. Warzaviak tells is that of the privations and sufferings which he endured to become a Christian. His uncle is a rabbi, and to him he was sent to complete his education, with the special view of making him also a preacher of the Jewish faith. It was while he was studying with his uncle that certain dogmas of that faith impressed him as not to be reconciled with the teachings of the Old Testament, and he was thereby led into giving up his purpose to become a religious teacher of the Jews. When he left his uncle he went to England, where of his own accord he continued his studies and embraced Christianity. Then came the social and domestic exile for him of which you know. Now that his wife has joined him, he has prevailed upon her to attend the services at our chapel. She still clings to the old faith, but I hear that signs have appeared on her part of a desire to investigate Christianity, and he is perfectly confident that upon investigation she also will become a convert.
“All churches help their poor. There has been nothing done here for Jewish converts which is not ordinarily done. If bogus converts `worked' the Church for revenue, that is their misfortune rather than that of the Church, and at best it seems to have yielded only small returns.”
The Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, pastor of Plymouth Church, and editor of the Christian Union, was asked yesterday for an expression of his views on the subject of aggressive proselyting work among the Jews by members of Christian churches, and especially by so-called “Christianized” Jewish “missionaries.”
Dr. Abbott read the article printed in yesterday's NEW YORK TIMES carefully and then said:
“Now, I don't believe that this state of things can exist. In the first place, why are the rabbis so troubled and the whole body of orthodox Jews so stirred up about defections from the faith if the missionaries are such unworthy men as is represented! I have little personal knowledge of the subject, because I have never given special attention to the work of proselyting which is carried on among the Jews. I think it is a fact, however, that the Christian faith receives small but steady accessions from the Jews, and that the number of professed Christians who turn to the Jewish faith is practically nil.
“I have never been a sympathizer with that sentiment which regards a man's change of belief as cutting him off from my sympathy or regard. Orthodox Christians become Unitarians, and vice versa; Episcopalians become Congregationalists, Roman Catholics become Episcopalians, Congregationalists find their ideas to have changed, and therefore they go into some other body of Christians. Am I thereby offended? Why should I be? Understand, I do not say I think it a matter of no consequence what a man believes, provided he believes something. I do think it a matter of great importance. But because my friend who has been a Congregationalist with me, finds that his ideas have so changed that he wishes to become a Unitarian, I should think myself a very poor Christian if I said, `Oh, he has fallen away, he is apostate, I never want to hear his name again.' I cannot sympathize with those men, Christians or Jews, who regard a change of faith as sufficient reason for regarding the convert a castaway.”
“Do you not believe in proselyting, then?”
“Certainly I do. It is simple enough. If the Jew's faith is right the Christian's is not right, and so the other way. Now, I, believing in Christ and his teachings, have a plain duty to do what I can to offer my faith to my neighbor the Jew, for instance, and urge him to believe as I do. He would be a poor stick of a tariff reformer, wouldn't he, who said, “Yes, I believe that the tariff needs revising, but I will not say so to any of my high-tariff friends lest thereby I should make him uncomfortable in his ideas, or maybe cause him to think me a bore?' A man should have the courage of his convictions. To spread the truth, as we see and believe it, is what we are all preaching for. But I do not at all believe in offering material considerations to Jews for attendance at Christian churches, and so far as I know, this is not done in Brooklyn.”
“What about the proselyting work of Christians among the Jews here in Brooklyn? Rabbi Joseph Silverman denounced strongly in the Temple Emanu-El on Sunday the methods used by Protestants in New-York in their efforts to proselyte among the Jews, and said: `A converted Jew? Bah! There is not one genuine converted Jew in New-York to-day.' How is it here? Is there a genuine converted Jew in Brooklyn?”
“Certainly there is, and more than one—a considerable number of them. I do not mean `considerable' in proportion to the whole population of the city, but there are scores of them. At the last meeting of the New-York and Brooklyn Congregational Association, the pastor of a Brooklyn church, whose name I have forgotten, spoke to me of the interest shown in his services by Jews. Beginning with one or two attendants at his church, the number of Jews who came with more or less regularity increased so considerably that some members of his congregation complained to him of their presence. This clergyman told his people that so long as he remained pastor of the church its doors should be open to Jews as well as Christians, if they came in the right spirit and appeared to wish to hear the Gospel preached.
“Personally, as I said, I know little about the work of Christians among the Jews here in Brooklyn, although I believe I am a Vice President or a committeeman of some sort in a department of the Brooklyn City Mission Society, which has for its object this work among the Jews. The Rev. Mr. Le Lacheur is the Secretary of that society, and I believe it has done some effectual work of that kind. Among the missionaries in the society are some converted Jews, whom I have every reason to believe sincere. They came with letters and recommendations which I found to be all right as represented, and I have no reason to question the sincerity of their work or its good results.”
Mr. A. Benjamin of the United Hebrew Charities, whose statements were published in THE NEW YORK TIMES, said yesterday: “I wish to have it understood that I am not hostile to Christians. I regard the Christian religion as closely related to our own faith, and my only aim in speaking out about the work of the missionaries among the Jews is to render assistance by exposing the true state of affairs.
“I have been attacked on all sides, and on one or two occasions I have been threatened with prosecution, but I have always met my opponents fairly and invited the closest scrutiny as to my statements.
“I simply claim that the true nature of the results accomplished by the missionaries is grossly misunderstood. I also suggest that if proselyting is to he done among us, the Christians give the missionaries sent among us as careful training at least as those receive who go among the heathen.”
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