Pictures and Excerpts
He who sees in the growth of the New Jerusalem the fulfillment of some of the visions of the inspired seers has plain scripture with him and the stubborn facts of this new city as it is and is fast...
...They are no doubt the descendants of those exiles who preferred to remain in the land of the strangers after the seventy years of captivity had expired...
...The above is an exact copy of the notice referred to, in English...
...It chanced to me just now to open a letter published in the Cincinnati Gazette, July, 1867, a copy of which I happened to have with me, and this tendency to describe Oriental travel from'an effeminate point of view, is so manifest in it and in all his series, that I am prompted to say a word upon the other side of the question...
...From: Through Bible Lands by Philip Schaff, 1878...
...He simply asks to be let alone, freed from oppression and permitted to enjoy his religion...
...The Museum is working to preserve the collection, catalog it and make it accessible for research...
...Those who are prospered in other lands, will do well to stay where they are...
...There are no street-lamps here or in any city of Syria and Palestine, and it is contrary to law to go out after dark without a light...
...We were surrounded by a motley assembly of all classes, standing, sitting, or reclining in democratic disregard of all rank or distinction, and looking with amazement, not unmin-gled with mirth, at our strange and elaborate mode of eating...
...God will gather in that distant land, those of that race who have been maltreated, and He will blast with the lightnings of His omnipotence those lands on either side of the Atlantic, which have been the instruments of annoyance and harm to that Jewish race, to which belonged Abraham, and David, and Joshua, and Baron Hirsch, and Montefiore, and Paul the Apostle, and Mary the Virgin, and Jesus Christ the Lord...
...Take a person who knows how to mount a horse from the left side, and to load and fire a pistol, one who is in the habit of sleeping soundly after a hearty supper, and every "adventure" described by the reverend gentleman in his twenty-seventh letter is but the commonest frolic...
...The men are tall and vigorous and the women attractive in face and form...
...The state of general intelligence may be inferred from the fact that the boys study the Hebrew in their schools only far enough to enable them to use the letters and pronounce the words of the language, of the meaning of which they remain through life profoundly ignorant...
...The Hebrew language is used in Jerusalem as a conversational language, and there only...
...Two horses carry him and the servant, while a pack-mule carries his two pair of blankets and supply of provisions, say for a week ahead...
...No Jew is allowed to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre...
...The unwonted motion has stimulated his appetite to absolute voracity, but without increasing the amount of his gastric juice or his power of digestion...
...So the railroad from Jerusalem to Joppa, and from Joppa to Damascus, will soon bring all the Holy Land within a few hours of connection...
...There was one in the house, then eleven and a half years of age, who, we were assured, had been married eighteen months...
...Once the Turk gets over his animosity toward his elder brother, the Jew, there will be nothing in the way of the increase of the new city...
...and as there are some places where accommodations are scanty, he should take his own blankets and a moderate supply of provisions...
...On its streets "all sorts and conditions" of Jews and Gentiles meet and pass one another...
...as there are no public conveyances, he must hire his own horses...
...The Israelites now resident in Jerusalem constitute two distinct classes...
...Out in the direction of the so-called king's wine-presses, it is moving slowly, but irresistibly...
...From: Travels in Egypt, Arabia Pet-raea and the Holy Land by Reverend Stephen Olin, 1843...
...THE JEWS...
...From the countenance of the culprit, as he was led forth, I felt satisfied that he was on his way to a well-merited punishment...
...No wonder that "eight dollars a day in gold" (equal to twelve dollars in currency) scarcely covers the bill...
...Does not he get his eight dollars' worth...
...There are no people more worthy of our attention and regard than the people of Israel, God's own chosen race...
...I visited their synagogues, of which there are three, one, the largest and best, being unfinished...
...The boys are trained in a measure of Hebrew learning...
...while the women, who stood apart, were more hushed in their sorrow, and lowly wailed, moving the heart by their sincerity...
...The writer's opinion was that of a man accustomed to a quiet, studious life, dyspeptic in his internal arrangements, to whom a prancing horse is a terror, and the cry of a jackal at midnight as a voice from the dead...
...Their sole occupation, we were told, is to pray and to read the Talmud...
...The sanhedrim consists of seventy rabbis, of whom thirty are natives and forty Franks, mostly from Poland, with a few from Spain...
...The first is composed mostly of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, the largest number of whom are natives of the city, and all, or nearly all, natives of the East...
...The congregation is divided into four parts, though all meet in the same synagogue...
...In one of the buildings, about 100 of the sect, from eight years old to eighty, all dressed alike in high fur-bordered hats, and dressing-gowns like coats, and each with a book or scroll and a lamp in his hand, lighting up his well-defined features, were swaying to and fro, murmuring at the most rapid rate the book of Esther, and beating loudly with sticks and stones at the occurrence of the name of Haman,—a part of the performance in which some of the most juvenile Pharisees showed especial zeal...
...No wonder he hears the jackals...
...They are destitute of property or employment, and wholly dependant on charity for their means of subsistence...
...With the support of the National Endowment for Humanities an international search is underway to identify whatever 19th century photographic material depicting the Near East has survived, and to assemble a comprehensive photo archive of the 19th century Near East...
...He is set free only on condition of submission to the practice his soul abhors—of kissing a crucifix of the despised Nazarene, or an image of the Virgin Mary...
...It is no very unusual thing, for instance, as I was told by my Jewish friend, for a Turk who imagines that one of these Israelites walks too minc-ingly, or figures a little too pompously in his way to the synagogue, to compel him to stop in his robes and carry some filth out of the street...
...Do you ask how, then, the tourist should proceed to get the proper information and see the country...
...He received me in a large room, opening on a small court, with a divan in a recess opposite to the door...
...and four separate rooms for worship, of corresponding dimensions, were occupied, at the time of my visit, by very small and rather indevout congregations...
...Read the works of ninety-nine travellers out of a hundred who "do the Holy Land," and would not the reader suppose that there is only one way to visit the Holy Land?—that you must pay a dragoman to kill you with dyspepsia—to drag you hither and thither at his pleasure—to lie to you from hour to hour, and pass off his impudence for bravery...
...Wiseman pointed out another, a mere child in appearance, ten years of age, who had been two years married...
...They were God's chosen people at the first, and He has promised to bring them back to their home, and there is no power in one thousand or five thousand years to make God forget His promises...
...The offal of their slaughter pens is thrown down in the middle of the most frequented streets, and the pedestrian is liable every moment to step into pits full of putrid blood and mire, emitting, of course, the most horrible stench and reeking with plagues of all sorts...
...Scarcely any of even their richest merchants possess capital to the amount of two or three thousand dollars...
...Montefiore, the Israelitish centenarian and philanthropist, and Rothschild the banker, and others of the large-hearted have paid the passage to Palestine, for Many Israelites, [sic] and they have also set apart lands for their culture...
...I reply, very much the same as he would at home...
...It is an hotel sui generis, as well in the mode of entertaining as in the subsequent settlement with its guests...
...The Jewish quarter is squalid and forbidding...
...at whose instigation, indeed, the sport is generally commenced...
...All the fingers of Providence now-a-days are pointing to that resumption of Palestine by the Israelites...
...There is much more of apparent sincerity and fervour among these resident pilgrims than I observed in my visit to the Spanish Synagogue...
...From: Eastern Sketches by Ellen Miller, 1871...
...I know not whether the street police devolves on the Mussulman authorities or upon the occupants of this particular region...
...We had letters to the chief rabbi of the Jews, who came to meet us, and escorted us through labyrinthine streets to the house of Heim Wiseman, a brother Israelite...
...The Jews here are divested of that spirit of trade which is everywhere else their peculiar characteristic...
...They suffer a good deal from the contempt in which they are held by the Mohammedan, no less than by the Christian population...
...The general character of the Jews here for honesty and morality is proverbially bad, which is no matter of wonder when we consider the unkindness of their circumstances...
...The case was fairly but briefly examined by the governor in person, and in a few words the sentence was pronounced...
...A considerable number of men are engaged in collecting funds for their support in all parts of Europe, as well as in Turkey, and large sums are annually contributed for this purpose, of which only an inconsiderable portion is believed, by those who possess favourable means of forming a correct opinion upon the subject, to be devoted to the relief of the abounding and pressing wants of these truly degraded people...
...And there they resort at all times, but particularly on Friday, to weep and lament that their Temple is no more...
...A trifling circumstance will show in what thraldom the Jews are held...
...The unmarried wear the hair exposed, but the married women studiously conceal it...
...In gabardines, with broad and narrow phylacteries, some of them embroidered, the men were reading or rather chanting, or rather screaming and shouting, the lamentations of Jeremias—all the time swaying their bodies to and fro with a regular and monotonous movement...
...and, indeed, should one be seen even passing through the court, he is instantly attacked by an infuriated mob of Christians, who if they allow him to escape with his life, he has great occasion to thank them, as they are fully empowered to kill him by express firman of the Sultan...
...He needs no expensive dragoman, or tents, or cuisine, or any nonsense of the sort...
...The horses' hoofs stumbling and slipping on the round paving-stones, and the voice of Ali or Abdullah cheering on the animals, rung hollow through the narrow, dark, and often vaulted streets, whose mysterious corners and recesses were half-revealed by the passing gleam of the lantern...
...Jerusalem, thy prayer is heard: HIS BLOOD IS ON THY HEAD...
...This practice, as will readily be conceived, gives a peculiar appearance to the assembly...
...Peter, built on the traditionary spot of one of the miracles of our Lord...
...Many come to be buried on holy ground, and outside of the Eastern wall on the slopes of the valley of the Kedron, which are covered with tombstones...
...If he travels alone, which is perfectly safe and pleasant, he wants an intelligent fellow who knows enough English to give him the names of places, etc., and is willing to be his servant...
...Returning from witnessing this ludicrous ceremony, which is yearly performed under the title of 'Beating Haman,' we found ourselves picking our way, by the joint aid of the moon, and the lamp in front carried by a servant, among the pitfalls and dirt of some of the back alleys of Jerusalem...
...The houses are not only small, but in a more dilapidated condition than those occupied by Turks or Christians...
...The Jew wants to come...
...They are divided into three sects—the Seph-ardim, of Spanish and Portuguese origin, the Askenazim, from Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, and a small number of Karaites, who adhere strictly to the letter of the written law and discard the rabbinical traditions...
...They are all orthodox, but mostly poor and dependent on the charity of their brethren in Europe...
...The newest child of technology, the camera, was recording these lands, their ancient monuments, tribes, and customs just as confrontation with technology was about to change and "modernize" them...
...Is not that "something" the hand of Providence...
...They would be foolish to leave their prosperities in our American cities where they are among our best citizens, and cross two seas to begin life over again in a strange land...
...From: Talmage on Palestine by Thomas de Witt Talmage, 1890...
...The rabbis stated that controversial matters of discipline among Jews, all over the world, are referred to this sanhedrim...
...That book, Burckhardt says, declares that creation will return to primitive chaos if prayers are not addressed to the God of Israel at least twice a week in the four holy cities...
...Still I can but suspect that these effects of the persecutions and contempt to which Jews have so long been subjected have become efficient, if not principal causes in perpetuating prejudices and impositions, which, in these days of increasing intelligence and political melioration, have everywhere, even under Turkish and Egyptian misrule, a tendency to decay...
...Thus the new Jerusalem grows by accessions from every part of the globe...
...They still look forward to the restoration of their race and country...
...and it was not without awe that we rode, as we did once or twice, late in the evening, through some of these empty places...
...No wonder these things are expensive...
...The land of the new city is ready for him...
...They are also people of means and on the large tract of land they have purchased, almost a mile north of the New Gate, are erecting some residences that would be an ornament to any city...
...They spend a large part of their time in the synagogue, having nothing else to do...
...If three such travellers go together, it need not cost them more than two dollars a day for each...
...The rabbins of this synagogue are, as I was informed, unlearned men, quite destitute even of the peculiar literature of their own religion...
...In reading the Pentateuch, the rabbi and congregation bowed their heads very low at the occurrence of every emphatic word—indeed, of almost every word, the better to mark and impress upon their minds its solemn import...
...It was again tendered, and again declined, when the attendant made some exclamation, which reached the ears of the governor, who thereupon turned abruptly round, and sharply called out, "Drink it...
...The tones of the men were loud and almost querulous with complaint...
...They are now beginning to come to Jerusalem in great numbers...
...Unlike the Turkish and the Arab women, they sometimes wear stockings...
...They have no idea that a man can see anything in the Holy Land unless he has a dragoman, with tents, an army of horses, a cuisine or kitchen apparatus, and all the appliances of civilized life...
...There may be justice in this apology...
...A great many of them have yellow or sandy beards, which are permitted to grow in the Eastern style, with little care for trimming or cleansing...
...Their synagogues are poor, mean, dirty places, and I have not often seen a religious assembly which exhibited so many marks of poverty and degradation...
...At the same time, the ground is so favourable to draining that the labour of half an hour with a spade would often be sufficient to dry up these pest holes and disinfect the poisoned atmosphere...
...and it is only a beginning of the fulfilment of divine prophecy, when these people shall take possession of the Holy Land...
...In a book which was shown to us we read the following gentle insinuation:—"I beg the gentlemen arriving at my house that, at their departure, they will have the goodness to give me, in my hands, what they please...
...The "dangers of travel" are simply bosh...
...I have already referred to the peculiar wretchedness of the quarter which they occupy upon the eastern part of Zion...
...But let the Israelites who are depreciated, and attacked and persecuted turn their faces towards the rising sun of their deliverance...
...If to the former, the manifest neglect and abounding filth afford proof of their utter disregard and even contempt for this persecuted race...
...I was much impressed, however, as I always am in a synagogue, with the profound respect shown for the Book of the Law...
...Their devotions are characterised by much apparent earnestness and fervour...
...There are about three hundred families, or one thousand Jews, in this town...
...Baron Rothschild and Sir Moses Mon-tefiore have done much for them by building hospitals and lodg-inghouses...
...Taken in the 1860's and 70's they now represent an unparalleled source of visual documentation of the lands of Semitic culture...
...deeply wailing, deeply wailing that the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers...
...Their costume is about half Oriental and half European—a tattered, flowing robe, often made of black silk, with threadbare, greasy trousers, and a slouching, broad-brimmed wool hat...
...Oppression has certainly had much to do in reducing this people to their present state of deep degradation...
...It ought to be burned down and built anew...
...In each synagogue was an octagon recess, where the Pentateuch and other sacred works were kept...
...I vow that when I have heard and seen the things to which travellers submit in this country from their hired servants, I have felt that in emancipating American slaves, public opinion stopped only half-way: the slavery to dragomen is worse...
...It is likewise written in bad Italian and worse Spanish...
...as a besieged city...
...Jewish colonization societies in England and Russia, are gathering money for the transportation of the Israelites to Palestine and for the purchase for them of lands and farming implements, and so Many Desire to Go, that it is decided by lot as to which families shall go first...
...Only within a few years have any of them been seen within the limits of their ancient city...
...As soon as the sun sets the bazaars are closed, and the streets deserted...
...As we pass out and on we find about eight hundred acres belonging to the Universal Israelitish Alliance...
...If it is by their own fault that the Jews dwell in the midst of such abominations, it must be taken as the highest evidence of the depth of their degradation, and they well deserve the retribution which is visited upon them in the forms of annual pestilence, and of the general abhorrence of their fellow-men...
...The second synagogue visited was that of the Holy Pharisees, a smaller body, and in a poorer building...
...They have abandoned their native country for the purpose of laying their bones in the land of their forefathers, and are certainly the refuse of the Jewish population at home...
...But so down-trodden, impotent, and helpless are they, that it is no uncommon thing for "certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," of Turkish, Arab, and Christian pedigree, so to annoy them, that they are glad to ensconce themselves in their crowded and comfortless tenements on Mount Zion...
...One privilege, however, is granted the poor Jew of Jerusalem, upon which he places inestimable value: that of performing his devotions close by the remains of the magnificent walls that once surrounded the Temple...
...The Jews constitute, in every point of view, the most interesting portion of the population of the Holy City...
...It is preserved in a case of wood—an ark my companion called it—behind a splendid curtain of velvet...
...They, however, have some degree of industry and a hold upon the little business which exists in Jerusalem...
...The road from Joppa to Jerusalem, and all the roads leading to Nazareth and Galilee we saw lined with processions of Jews, going to the sacred places, either on a holy pilgrimage, or as settlers...
...The only differences are that if he cannot speak the language, he must have an interpreter...
...The photographs on these pages are reproducedfrom original 19th century albumen prints in the collection of The Semitic Museum, Harvard University...
...Their rabbins also possess some measure of learning, and professedly devote themselves to the study of the Law and the Talmud, and to the worship of Jehovah...
...Their dress is.a boddice, a short, narrow-skirted gown, and pantalettes gathered at the ankles...
...And the most erroneous impression conveyed by such writers is in regard to the expense of travel...
...and their dress and general appearance indicate the possession of a certain measure of competence, though never of affluence...
...I visited their synagogue in company with a converted Prussian Jew, well acquainted with the condition and character of his compatriots in the holy city, and was gratified at the general appearance of some, though certainly a very low measure of comfort and self-respect in their dress, as well as in the style, furniture, and condition of their place of worship...
...In the evening we visited several of the synagogues...
...The Polish and German Jews, who are numerous at this time in Jerusalem, constitute a distinct and, apparently, very inferior class...
...such as a poor old Jew being pelted with stones by the little Turkish boys in the street...
...The whole assembly rose, and before the reading of the lessons, the sacred parchment, covered with a white cloth, was carried around to be reverently kissed by the worshippers...
...Their number in Jerusalem is growing rapidly and amounts fully to one third of the whole population...
...These arc a superior looking people, being of much finer physique than their brethren from the west...
...The Spanish and Portuguese Jews, whose ancestors emigrated after their expulsion from Spain under Isabella I. (1497), still speak a Spanish patois...
...The enormous "fatigues" of which they speak so lamentably as the harder incidents of travel, were simply those of men who probably never mounted a horse before...
...The latter made her complaint shortly after my entrance...
...Yet they are quite happy and contented, so long as they enjoy the privilege of treading the land of their forefathers, and living on the sacred soil of their beloved Mount Zion...
...They ought to buy Palestine and administer it on principles of civil and religious liberty...
...He who sees in the growth of the New Jerusalem the fulfillment of some of the visions of the inspired seers has plain scripture with him and the stubborn facts of this new city as it is and is fast becoming...
...Many fields between the last colony and the "presses" are still in the hands of the husbandman, but ten years more of progress, such as has been witnessed during the last decade will see Zechariah's prediction realized...
...Our apartment, which was at once our parlour, eating-room, and chamber, was the rendezvous of the curious, and, it seemed to us, also, of all the Arab camel and mule-drivers in the town...
...The dearness and scarcity of timber have led to the fashion of forming the roofs of even public edifices by arches of masonry, four or five of which, such was the unskilfulness of the architect, were necessary to cover this humble temple...
...After the sherbet was handed round to all, including many dirty Arabs, it was tendered to him...
...Thus topography assists in the development of prophecy...
...I saw a good many Hebrew books, much worn and very dirty, in all parts of the synagogues...
...The colony of Jews from Bokhara is the latest addition to the new city, and, taking everything into consideration, the most attractive and promising...
...There are no reform Jews or rationalists in Jerusalem...
...The poor Jew, agitated and trembling, carried it to his lips, where he held it for a moment, when, perceiving the attention of the governor to be diverted, he put down the untasted goblet...
...When it comes, the poor fellow, half-witted by starvation, eats a meal of soup, fish, meats, and dessert, that a healthy ploughman could scarcely digest, and immediately afterward, worn out by fatigue and the intolerable delay, goes to bed, to contend, through a long night, with nightmare and apoplexy...
...There were no women visible on either occasion: we must suppose that woman among the Jews is incapable of performing the part of a Pharisee...
...Their condition is a sad and wonderful verification of the sure word of prophecy, which long ago doomed them to their present state of degradation and woe...
...Ther Polish Jews look dirty and shabby, and wear curls, which give them an effeminate appearance...
...Several grave and venerable rabbins went in a company to remove it to the reading desk...
...Rothschild, of London, lately transmitted two hundred and fifty pounds to aid in its completion...
...Here, too, assemble multitudes of the matrons and maids of Israel, to pour forth their bitter lamentations and scalding tears through the crevices of that portion of the wall nearest the site of their beloved but unapproachable Temple...
...Tibaria, April 7, 1845...
...Strange that a Jew should point out to a Christian the place where the Messiah, whom the first denies and the last believes in, established his church upon a rock...
...It is commonly alleged, as an apology for these disgusting scenes, and for the almost universal neglect of personal and domestic cleanliness on the part of the Jews, that they are compelled to seek for protection against robbery and persecution under these degrading manifestations of poverty and wretchedness...
...From: Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea by William Francis Lynch, 1849...
...The Museum, founded in 1889 "to promote sound knowledge of Semitic languages and history," acquired the prints in 1889 and the 1890's, as "views" of the Holy Land and related areas, for study...
...Why, look at it...
...Many would gladly return to Europe, but they lack the means, and are, moreover, deterred from making the attempt by the disgrace always incurred by such a measure in the eyes of their brethren, who suspect them of infidelity to their religion, and denounce them as spies who bring up an evil report from the promised land...
...Justice was administered with all the promptitude and simplicity of the East...
...THE JEWS...
...After twenty-five hundred years something moves them to return to the homes of their fathers...
...The females marry very early...
...For this favour, they at one time paid an enormous price to the Turks, who own not only this spot, but nearly all of the Holy City...
...And those inhabiting Jerusalem claim not only our serious consideration, but most heartfelt pity...
...Wiseman led me to a vaulted chapel dedicated to St...
...They are loud in the public worship, bending their heads very low, and more vehemently than their seniors, and pronounce the responses upon a higher key...
...The heart of the lover MS of Israel is often made to bleed when witnessing instances of the tyranny exercised over them by their despotic lords, the Turks...
...It being necessary to adjust and fix the rate of our instruments, we rented part of a house in town,—many being proffered for our accommodation,—indicative alike of the hospitality of the people and the unprosperous condition of the place...
...In all other directions growth is prevented by deep valleys...
...On our entrance, he meekly sat down on the floor, some distance from the divan...
...On my way, I had been exasperated almost to the point of striking him, by a half-grown boy beating an elderly woman, who proved to be his mother...
...It was impressive yet melancholy to witness the fervid zeal of the worshippers...
...Arrived at his camping-ground, he waits almost crazed with hunger until eight or even nine o'clock at night for his dinner, for "five courses" cannot be prepared in a minute...
...Our landlord, Heim Wiseman, had been kind enough to show me the way to the governor's...
...The Polish Jews are decidedly the worst-looking class of this usually handsome race...
...I saw on Good Friday a large number, old and young, male and female, venerable rabbis with patriarchal beards and young men kissing the stone wall and watering it with their tears...
...It is unfortunate, in one respect, that nearly all published communications concerning the Holy Land are from the pens of the clergy...
...The rest is absorbed by the travelling agents and the rabbins to whom the management of this ill-concerted bounty is intrusted at Jerusalem...
...I do not take it that the prospered Israelites of other lands are to go there...
...the first proposition made you by one of these first-class dragomen, when bargaining with you, is that he will give you "five courses for dinner...
...The "noisy contests" of the natives are only clamors in their own unmusical tongue for backsheesh, clamors which it only needs a sharp and stern denial to stop, and to rid one's self of the pack at a word...
...From: Hadji in Syria by Sarah Barclay Johnson, 1858...
...They repeat from their well-worn Hebrew Bibles and Prayer-books, the Lamentations of Jeremiah and suitable Psalms...
...The streets are the narrowest as well as the foullest, beyond all comparison, in Jerusalem...
...In comparing my own experiences with those of the Reverend this and the Reverend that, whose books fill my shelves, I marvel to see how different they have been...
...Every look and motion connected with this part of their worship was expressive of the profoundest reverence...
...To make up for it, the heads of the latter were profusely ornamented with coins and gems and any quantity of another's hair, the prohibition only extending to their own...
...I took every opportunity to obtain information with regard to their real condition, and had reason for concluding that even these, the most favoured class of Jews, are generally poor...
...The little scamps are greatly amused with the sport...
...Hence the Jews all over the world are liberal in their contributions...
...Aword about the Jews...
...They have four holy cities in Palestine: Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, and Hebron...
...Every traveller ought to visit the "Wailing Place of the Jews" at the cyclopean foundation wall of the temple, just outside the enclosure of the mosque El Aska and near "Robinson's Arch...
...On our return, Mr...
...These gentlemen, unaccustomed to physical hardships, give pictures colored with hues drawn from their own fancies, rather than the facts...
...Here, one evening, we visited two of the Pharisees' synagogues, at the time of their Feast of Purim...
...I say, look at it...
...A dyspeptic little clergyman gets on his horse at Beyrout, almost the first time he ever straddled one, and rides eight hours, to the vicinity of Sidon...
...But the outrages heaped upon them in Russia, and the insults offered them in Germany, will soon quadruple and centuple the procession of Israelites from Russia to Palestine...
...It seems incredible...
...The boddice is open in front, and the breasts are held, but not restrained, by loose open pockets of thin white gauze...
...and are supported while there mainly by contributions from abroad, amounting to the miserable pittance of a few paras a day for each person...
...And no wonder that the tourist hears the jackal scream at midnight, and sees "blood and thunder" upon the countenance of every Arab he meets...
...With a good fowling-piece for game, a good reference Bible in his pocket, an easy conscience and digestion, a man may thus see the Holy Land upon three dollars a day, and fare like a (Syrian) lord...
...He is anxious to buy a plot of ground and build him a home in or near the city of his fathers...
...They are descendants of Jews who were banished from Western Europe by the successors of Charles V. A considerable share of the trade of Jerusalem is carried on by them...
...Friday, April 7. In the course of the day, I returned the visit of the governor...
...It was a rigid fast-day with his tribe, the eve of the feast of the azymes, and he declined it...
...The German, Austrian, Polish, and Russian Jews speak a corrupt German...
...They may be strangers to each other and ignorant of the part they are playing, but I cannot resist the belief that each is doing his part in God's plan for the rebuilding of the city and its enlargement far beyond the borders it has occupied in the past...
...Whatever they may be in worldly matters, the Jews are no hypocrites in the article of faith...
...and, instead of meeting with a severe rebuke, they are rewarded with encouragement from their seniors...
...The government does not oppress them, though it is commonly very indifferent and tardy in redressing their grievances...
...From: Freemasonry in the Holy Land by Robert Morris, 1872...
...There the Jews assemble every Friday afternoon and on festivals to bewail the downfall of the holy city...
...Facilities for Getting There will be multiplied, not only in the railroad from Joppa to Jerusalem, to which I referred last Sabbath as being built, but permission for a road from Damascus to the Bay of Acre has been obtained, and that will connect with Joppa, and make one great ocean-shore railroad...
...and they are in the habit of relying upon themselves rather than upon the scanty as well as degrading resources of charity...
...In reading, the rabbi who officiated pointed to the line with a silver stylus...
...Now look at the other side...
...From: Jerusalem the Holy by Edwin Sherman Wallace, 1898...
...There was an earnest expression of countenance that could not have been feigned...
Vol. 3 • October 1978 • No. 10
