The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
In the same spirit he conducts "The Israelite," a weekly paper. "Liberty
of Conscience--Humanity the object of Religion," is the title of one
article in the number before us, and it expresses the whole aim and
tendency of the movement which the editor leads. Nothing is more
probable than that soon the observance of Saturday will be abolished,
and that of Sunday substituted. It is impossible that the enlightened
Jews of Cincinnati can continue to attach importance to a distinction
which is at once so trivial and so inconvenient. Indeed, we hear that
some of the Jews of Baltimore have begun the change by holding their
Sabbath schools on Sunday. Who knows but that some rabbi, bold and wise,
shall appear, who will lead his people to withdraw the bar from
intermarriage with Christians, and that at last this patient and
long-suffering race shall cease to be "peculiar," and merge themselves
in mankind?
The golden rule seems to run in the very blood of the best Jews. One of
the publications of Dr. Lilienthal is a History of the Israelites from
the days of Alexander to the present time. He recounts the sufferings of
his ancestors from blind and merciless bigotry; and then states in a few
words the revenge which his people propose to take for fifteen hundred
years of infamy, isolation, and outrage.
"We have accompanied," he says, "the poor exile through centuries of
agony and misery; we have heard his groaning and his lamentations. The
dark clouds of misery and persecution have passed away; the bloody axe
of the executioner, the rack and stake of a fanatic inquisition and
clergy, were compelled to give way to reason and humanity; the roar of
prejudice and blind hatred had to cease before the sweet voice of
justice and kindness. Israel stands, while his enemies have vanished
away from the arena of history; their endeavors to make Israel faithless
to his God and his creed have proved futile and abortive. Israel has
conquered politically and religiously. Day after day witnesses the
crumbling to pieces of the barriers that have secluded them from
intercourse with their fellow-citizens; the old code of laws has become
obsolete, and on the new pages is inscribed the name of the Jew, not
only enjoying all rights and privileges with his Christian brethren, but
fully deserving them, and excelling in every department of life in which
he now is allowed and willing to engage. And his religion--the holy
doctrine of an indivisible Unity of God, of man's creation in the image
of God, of our destination, to become by virtue, justice, and charity
contented in this, and happy in after life--is daily gaining more ground
as the only religion complying with the demands of reason and our
destination on earth. And Israel does not falter in the accomplishment
of its holy mission,--to be the redeeming Messiah to all mankind, to
become a nation of priests, teaching and preaching the truth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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