FROM JUDAISM to
CHRISTIANITY
by
F. C. Gilbert
CHAPTER XXII
THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
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.
(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.
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.
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.
On to chapter
twenty-three
EXPLANATORY NOTES
paragraph 10
(a). — “Old European
Jewries.”
Song of Solomon 2:1. I am the rose of Sharon, and
the lily of the valleys.
Matthew 9:36.
But when he saw the
multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were
scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Matthew 23:34.
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and
wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and
some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute
them from city to city: 35 That
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew
between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come
upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not!
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