to
by
F. C. Gilbert
(A Hebrew Christian)
An autobiography
Some paragraphs have been split for emphasis
Many persons have asked the writer,
“Why are the Jews so bitter towards the gospel of Christ? Why is it that when they hear the name of Jesus, they are so hateful and so ugly? Why is it that when one does become a Christian they wish to persecute him so, and do him bodily harm?”
These questions are troubling thousands of good Christian people, and doubtless because of these feelings of the Jews there are a great many persons who have never yet overcome their prejudices against the Jews, and who are not very sympathetic or patient with the poor lost sheep of the house of Israel.
2. I well remember, on one occasion, a young man who decided to obey the blessed Christ. He seemed in earnest. He stood right up in the mission, and gave his testimony for Christ in the face of a number of other Jewish young men with whom he was well acquainted. Of course this meant much to him, and he did not fully realize at the time what was involved in the step.
3. After a brief consultation with me one night, he decided to go out with one of the colporteurs and do some missionary work among his brethren by giving out tracts. He took a bunch of literature, and started with this worker. He had not gone very far before he was recognized by some Jews with whom he was acquainted. One of the men knocked him down, scattered all his literature, tore up some of the tracts, and left the young man lying in the mud. (p306) He managed to get away from them before they did him any serious injury, and realized that it was a bitter experience for a start. This, however, illustrates the general feeling and tendency among the Jews towards those who are Christians, and who attempt to make acknowledgment of Christ.
4. The Jews are bitter; but is there not a reason from their point of view? I would state right here that what may be written in this chapter is not a justification of the Jew in rejecting the Saviour and His blessed gospel. Indeed not! The only thing that will help the poor Jew, whether he be rich in this world’s goods or whether he be poverty-stricken, is the divine and blessed Christ. He is the true Messiah; He is the Deliverer and Redeemer of Israel. It is, however, designed to call the attention of the reader to certain conditions which have existed among the Jews for nearly eighteen hundred years, and most of which have been brought about by the people who profess to be Christian. It is also hoped that, by knowing these conditions, the reader will have more sympathy for the Jew in his darkened spiritual condition, — more sympathy for him because of his having lost the hope of the Messiah, — and at the same time a desire will be created to bring the pure and blessed truth of the gospel of the Messiah to these people, that they may know Him as He is, the One altogether lovely, the Lily of the valley.[1]
(p307) 5. The largest part of Jewish history during the dark and middle ages has never been written. While glimpses of that period have been recorded, never, till the day of eternity shall open, will the full history of the cruelties, massacres, pillages, barbarities, and horrible atrocities be made known. Scarcely a nation in Europe or Asia but that has washed her hands in the blood of the Jews, and many a city has been repeatedly washed in the torrents of blood which have been shed from the poor Jews. Could the soil but speak, and did the earth have the power of speech and eloquence, a mighty host of voices would be raised to heaven in one united appeal for revenge upon those who have, in the name of the Master, wreaked vengeance upon these people who were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.[2] Most of these horrible tales of woe have been iterated and reiterated from father to son, from rabbi to pupil, from historian to student, as having been done in the name of Christ, in order to have revenge upon that people who put the Master to death. In a number of countries this was the slogan, and tens of thousands of Jews have been mown down as the grass of the field, and millions have been butchered and slaughtered as cattle and sheep for market.
6. While we may refer to the awful disasters of the dark and medieval ages, the horrible persecutions of the Jews in Russia, in Roumania, in Morocco, are still fresh in the minds of thousands of people at the present time. (p308) While America and Europe at present are free from these persecutions, Russia is still piling up her accounts by brutality and murder against the poor son of Abraham, the despised Jew.
7. In nearly all the European countries for centuries the Jew was huddled together in one location, and this place was called the Ghetto. Here he existed as the ruler permitted him, and he was the sport and the mockery of the king, the priest, and the populace. He was regarded as too low to mingle with the Christian, and he would defile the Christian did he come in contact with him. Therefore laws were made by the Christian princes as well as by the popes, forbidding the mingling of Jew and Christian.
8. For instance: Spain made the following law:
“If heretics are unwilling to join the Catholic Church, Catholic girls must not be given to them in marriage; but neither to Jews nor to heretics should they be given, because there can be no association for the faithful with the unbeliever. If parents act contrary to this prohibition, they shall be cut off from communion for five years.”
9. Again:
“If, then, any ecclesiastic or any of the faithful partakes of food with Jews, he shall be deprived of communion, so that this may be corrected.”
In the thirteenth century the following legislation was made against the Jew in Poland:
“Since the land of Poland is a new acquisition in the body of Christianity, lest perchance the Christian people be, on this account, the more easily infected with the superstition and depraved morals of the Jews dwelling among them, . . . we command that the Jews dwelling in this province . . . shall not live among the Christians, but shall have their houses near or next to one another in some sequestered part of the state or town. . .”
(p309) 10. In the fourteenth century the general church council of Basle passed the following legislation:
“That too great converse with them [Jews] may be avoided, they shall be compelled to live in certain places in the cities and towns, separated from the dwelling-place of the Christians, and as far from the churches as possible.” (a)
11. Many more illustrations might be cited of this same class of legislation by the so-called Christian and church people, and these instances reveal how the Jew was regarded by the so-called Christian. All this legislation was in fact done for the benefit of Christianity, and by those who called themselves followers of Christ. This class of legislation also reveals another reason why the Jews congregate as they do in the large cities. Every city has its Ghetto, and this because for centuries they were compelled to live this way, the conditions having been forced upon them by the professed Christian people.
12. There were times when the Jew was public as well as private property. He belonged to popes, bishops, and kings, and often these princes found the Jew a very useful article of gain. When a king wanted to raise money, and had no other source of revenue, he would pay off his debts by taxing the Jews. Similar things were done by the leaders in church life, and the Jews were obliged to submit to such treatment. But all this conduct was under the name of the Christian religion; for in the middle ages everything was Christian, and everything was done by the church and for the church.
(p310) 13. Another form of persecution carried on against the Jews by the church was the cruel edict by Pope Innocent III, which compelled every Jew to wear a piece of yellow cloth, that every one might know he was a Jew. This was done in every European country where the church held sway. In England, France, Germany, and other countries, the Jew begged and plead that he might be saved from such a dire disgrace; but the church had said it, and that was the end. When the Jews were given their quarters in which to exist many of the European countries, through the bishops and the popes, had high walls and thick gates made to keep the Jews within, and every night at the set of the sun the Jews were driven into their pens, and the gates were barred and locked till sunrise the next morning.
14. One writer, in speaking of this experience, states that
“In the city of Cologne the records for the year thirteen hundred forty-one show that the officer of the town was to have the keys to the Jews’ gates. The gates were to be locked at sundown, they were to be unlocked at sunrise, and for this service the Jews had to pay this official every year twenty marks.” See Stobb’s “Die Yuden in Deutschland” p. 94.
15. The reader of history is familiar with the fanatical cry which resounded all through Europe at the time of the crusades:
“Exterminate the enemies of Christ here at home before fighting against them in the far East.”
And tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered. They were pillaged, they were plundered, their places of abode were burned and sacked. This meant the Christian religion to the Jew.
16. Who has not read the awful tale of the Spanish Inquisition, and the part it acted against the Jews? (p311) Who does not know that thousands of Jews were killed, were brutally treated, were sold as slaves, were let loose upon the waters in boats and in ships, during the days of Spain’s power, in Spain as well as in Morocco. Many have read how the streets flowed with Jewish blood, and this because the church did not want the Jew there. The Jew must be exterminated, and the Jew has never forgotten this. How sad it is that the church has left such a record! True it is that this was the apostate church. True it is that this was not the church of Jesus Christ, but rather it was the synagogue of Satan. True it is that all these things were done by those who were instigated by the power of the enemy, but the Jew was taught that this was done in the name of the Christian religion and by the followers of Jesus.
17. Could the Jews only have seen the future as the blessed Master saw it the day when He plead with Israel to accept Him, how differently they would have felt towards Him and towards His followers, and how differently the Christian religion would have been known to them.[3] But Satan did all in his power to misrepresent the blessed Christ and His religion, and thus a terrible blot was placed upon it by these, His professed followers, and the Jew was led to believe that this was the religion of Jesus.
18. Who does not recall the strange innovation that Pope Gregory XIII introduced when he compelled all the Jews in Rome to attend church once a week to hear a sermon on the gospel, in order that they might be converted to the religion of Jesus. (p312) What a strange sight it must have been to see the police and the priests open the gates of the Ghetto every Saturday afternoon, and let the men, women, and children over twelve years of age, pass through the gates like a flock of sheep, and then give diligent watch to see that none escaped, but that all went into the house of God. This was done because the bishops thought that the Jews’ attending synagogue Sabbath morning would be but a preparation for them to hear a sermon on the gospel, to convince them of the superiority of the Christian religion over the Jewish.
19. And the people had to listen to the sermon. There was a watchman, not only at the gate to see that the people went into the church, but one or more men stood among the people to see that they were not overcome by the power of sleep. For should the sermon not be so interesting or instructive as it might be, the Jew must still keep awake. If he should fall under the influence of sleep, he would be quickly aroused by the crack of the whip coming over his head and body. This was done in the church under the name of the Christian religion. Is it to be wondered at that the Jew feels as he does towards the Christian religion? Is it surprising that to him the Christian religion is contrary to the Bible and to the teachings of the word of God? Sad, oh, so sad, to think that the blessed truths of the pure and undiluted gospel, and the divine and lovely character of the kind and spotless Christ, the divine fulness of pity and kindness, should be so misrepresented!
(p313) 20. What a terrible stir those persecutions in Russia created among the people of America and other foreign lands! Think of the horrible pogroms which took place between the years 1903 and 1906. In the latter year the press of America had the following in its news columns, purporting to be part of an address of one of the prominent Russian people:
“In the name of our Emperor I bless you. The holy Russian cause is the extermination of rebels. You know where they are, and where to find them. . . Go ahead, brothers; death to the rebels and the Jews.”
Soon after the speaker’s train departed, a band of three hundred Russians went through the principal parts of the city, crying:
“Death to the rebels! Death to the Jews!”
Thousands and tens of thousands of Jews were cruelly and coldly butchered by the officials of the government and through the influence of the church. Think of Bialystock, Lodz, Odessa, Kiev, Moscow, and Kishineff. In one month alone there were more than twenty-five thousand Jews killed. The Jew believes that Russia is one of the most Christian countries in the world. Every Russian will talk about Christ, will think about Christ, will worship Christ, and will slaughter for Christ. With the Russian everything is Christ but living His life. And the conduct of the Russian to the Jew is the Christian way of doing things. We might recite many individual experiences of horrible cruelties which were perpetrated upon the Jews by the Russians, but to many of the readers these memories are still a living green. I will quote part of a letter from a Jewish Christian lady of Kishineff, the center of some of the most cruel persecutions. (p314) She was the daughter of the renowned Mr. Rabbinowitz, the great Jewish lawyer and scholar, who finally became a Christian. This letter was written to a friend:
“Your kind letter of November 14 we received all right. . . . As regards your question whether Christian Jews were suffering as the unChristian Jews are, I can tell you that at the most terrible bloody October days the Russian beast-like mobs made no difference then whether it was a Christian or not. They only thirsted for Jewish blood. . . I know of hundreds of Jewish families in Kishineff and in other small places in Bessarabia that are simply starving in this most bitterly cold winter weather.
21. “The beastly cruel Russian mobs and ‘huligans’ destroyed their houses, their belongings, their all. There is a small town near Kishineff called Kalarsch, where was a terrible massacre; all the Jewish houses were burned down, and the Jews, men, women, and children were killed by Russian peasants. A great many Jews perished in the burning houses. Some of our people, a Christian Jewish family, had just a narrow escape. Now this family is compelled to leave Kalarsch, where they resided for twenty years, as they are threatened to be killed. . . The constant fear and panic makes one’s nerves strained, but the Lord is strengthening us to bear all our troubles.
22. “On the twentieth of October we spent a most terrible night and day, as the Russian mobs threatened to set on fire all the houses in our part of the town. Thank God, it was only threatenings. Several nights we were all up, and the children slept in their clothes to be ready in case of any danger. (p315) There were many Jews killed and wounded in Kishineff. The fear and panic amongst the Jews is still very great, and so is also the poverty and the need. . .
“Rachel Kimm.”
23. With these few facts before you, we hope that your sympathy will now be more keenly felt in behalf of the Jew. If he is not susceptible to the efforts of the gospel at first, let him know that what he has been taught as the Christian religion is no part of the gospel of God. We are sure the Spirit of God will impress the Jew with the beauty of holiness as it is in Christ, and after having done the will of God, if we have patience in sowing the seed, we shall see the results of the toil and labor.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
paragraph 10 (a). — “Old European Jewries.”