The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and FlowSteiner, Edward Alfred
History
The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow
Steiner, Edward Alfred
United States -- Emigration and immigration
Anything which has even a semblance of idolatry, the slightest suspicion
of Polytheism, must be obnoxious to the Jew; for he has been smitten by
hail, drought and pestilence, and has been led into captivity because
his unregenerate nature delighted in the worship of Baalim, and because
he forsook Jehovah who dwelt between the Cherubim and the Seraphim.
Then, too, the methods used to win the Jew to Christianity have aroused
his opposition. In the Old World, until comparatively recently, he was
forced once a year to attend church and listen to a sermon preached with
the avowed object of his conversion. Needless to say, it rarely, if
ever, converted him.
The modern method as it manifests itself in Jewish Missions is no less
repellent to him; although he is not forced to listen to the
missionaries' sermons. Naturally, the converted Jew, who is an official
converter, is usually under suspicion, although that suspicion is not
always justified.
With this question of race consciousness and habits, the Jew alone can
deal, and he, unfortunately, is not always in the frame of mind required
to adjust himself to the feelings of the Gentiles. He will therefore
have to bear the consequences which lie in the social realm and may soon
reach into the economic.
The task of historic Christianity in its relation to the Jew is not an
easy one. It cannot unmake itself or readily adjust itself to his likes
and dislikes in theology; nor can it recede from its endeavour to make
propaganda for the faith which it believes should be universal.
I have the conviction that when Christ comes fully to His own in the
church, He will also come to His own in the synagogue; certainly no
sooner, and perhaps not much later.
When He emerges from the tangle of Greek philosophy, Roman legalism and
Byzantine traditionalism--when "in deed and in truth" He becomes the
Gentile's Messiah, He will also become the Messiah of the Jew.
As a working basis for the right relation between Jew and Gentile, I
wish to quote Rabbi Sonnenschein, formerly of Des Moines, Iowa, in words
spoken by him to a colleague in the Christian ministry.
"I want to live so, that when you see me, you will say: 'There goes
Rabbi Sonnenschein, who is a Jew; yet he is a better Christian than I
am.' And I want you to live so, that when I see you, I will say: 'That
man is a Christian; but he is a better Jew than I am.'"
XIX
THE JEW IN THE IMMIGRANT PROBLEM
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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