The Rabbi and the Sects

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12, 25 March 1909, Page 449

The Rabbi and the Sects

Shakespeare readers will remember how, in the Merchant of Venice, Antonio, although

' Tile kindest man, The best-condition' d and unwearied" spirit In doing courtesies,' goes out of his way _to lieap insults and outrages on Shylock — not merely because Shylock is an usurer, but because he is a' JeAv. The latter complains : ' Signior Antonio, many a time and oft, In the Rialto, you have rated me... You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon •my Jewish gaberdine. . . You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me" as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold.' Whereupon Antonio answers : ' I am as like to call thee so again, To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not As to thy friends... , But lend it rather .to thine enemy, Who, if he break, thpu mayest with better face Exact the penalty.' Times have changed since then, 'and the Jew to-day is in serious danger of being inconvenienced by the overfriendliness of at least certain types of Christian. It may not be generally known that amidst the multitude and multiplicity of ' missionary ' organisations established by well-meaning but sometimes ov.er-zealous religionists in Christian London^ there is one — the Society for the Pro-

motion of Christianity amongst the Jews — which has' for its especial object the conversion of the Hebrews of the metropolis and of the United Kingdom to the Church of Ifiugland branch of • ihe reformed religions. It appears that the centenary of this organisation^occurred the other day, and it was decided to mark the occasion and at the same time enlarge the sphere of the society by establishing an auxiliary branch in Sydney. As might have been expected, the Jewish leaders in Sydney are not at all grateful for the solicitude thus displayed in their behalf. ' Their feeling in the matter found expression in a letter of protest addressed to the Sydney Morning Herald by Rabbi Cohen. The Rabbi makes some ' palpable hits ' against the sects, and concludes with the following home-thrust: * Save for one consideration, it would bo ample response to this local attack upon our historicjposition to point out that the warring sects around us woiwa be judicious to agree first among themselves as to what Christianity precisely consists in, before seeking to promote it among another body of people that have all the time a very clear notion t-f their own faith. And when our neighbors shall have finally come to this eminently desirable internal and domestic agreement, they may still discover close by them quite enough merely nominal Christians who make no effort to live the Christian life, to absorb all their missionary energy in fields that have more claim on their endeavors than we who do not at all profess to consider ourselves Christians.'