Israel in Europe

There was much in Cromwell’s followers to dispose them favourably towards Israel. Their history, their theology, their character, their morals, and their ideals were all as Hebraic as anything could be that had not had its birth in Asia. The Puritans boasted, as the Jews had always done, that they themselves were the only pure Church, and hated all others as idolaters. They believed, as the Jews had always done, that they were the favourite people of Heaven, selected by the Almighty to bear testimony to His unity, to fight His battles and to exterminate His enemies: “Destroy the Amalekites, root and branch, hip and thigh,” was the burden of the Puritan preachers. They dreamed of a Theocracy, as the Jews had always done; of a state in which the civil should be subordinated to religious authority. The spiritual arrogance of the Jew met with its other half in the spiritual arrogance of the Puritan. If the Jew held that for him Jehovah had spoken on Mount Sinai, the Puritan was equally certain that for him God had suffered on the hill of Calvary. If the Jew applied to himself the prophecies of the Old Testament, the Puritan was as eager to appropriate the fulfilments of the New. They both walked with their heads in the skies, but with their feet firm upon solid earth. The daily contemplation of eternal interests did not disqualify either of them for the successful pursuit of temporal ends. Spiritual at once and practical, they saw in material prosperity a proof of divine approbation. Believing, as they did, that “thrift is blessing,” they strove to earn the fruits of thrift by excessive piety. And, while they established their own rule, they had no doubt that they were promoting the Kingdom of God.

The resemblance can be traced to the minutest details. The Puritan’s detestation of the fine arts, of ecclesiastical decoration, and of sacerdotal foppery was not less sincere than that of the Jew. Equally strong was the hatred entertained by both sects towards public amusements. Under the reign of the Puritans the playhouses were closed, masques were anathematised, maypoles demolished; all beauty was denounced as a sin, all pleasure punished as a crime. Even so at the same period (about 1660) a Rabbi of Venice expressed his horror at the establishment of theatres by Venetian Jews, wherein men, women, and children of the chosen people assisted at frivolous performances, and regretted his inability to suppress the graceless and godless gatherings. Both Jews and Puritans in the seventeenth century were ready to subscribe to the words of the Talmudic sage of the first: “I give thanks to thee, O Lord, my God and God of my fathers, that thou hast placed my portion among those who sit in the House of Learning and the House of Prayer, and didst not cast my lot among those who frequent theatres and circuses. For I labour, and they labour; I wait, and they wait; I to inherit paradise, they the pit of destruction.”131

Lastly, both Puritans and Jews had suffered sorely for dissent, and they had both made others suffer as sorely for the same reason. The heroic fortitude of both sects under affliction was disgraced by their fierce intolerance when in power.

This close similarity in temperament and ideas found expression in many ways, more or less marvellous, more or less amusing. It originated that partiality to the Old Testament which was responsible for most of the Puritans’ peculiarities and sins. The Lord’s Day in their mouths became the Sabbath; their children were baptized by the uncouth names of ancient Hebrew patriarchs and prophets; their everyday conversation was a compound of sanctity and Semitism. Hebrew was revered as the primitive tongue of mankind, and it was held that a child brought up in solitude would naturally speak Hebrew at four years of age. Not only were their notions on social and moral questions derived from the code of Moses, but even in matters judicial that code was gravely recommended as a substitute for English jurisprudence, and the extreme Puritans, who migrated to America, actually adopted the Mosaic law in Massachusetts, acted Hebrew masquerades in the island of Rhode, and called the members of the Constitutional Committee of New Haven “The seven pillars hewn out for the House of Wisdom.” Last, but most important of all, Cromwell’s Ironsides found in the Old Testament precedent and sanction for deeds which are utterly abhorrent to the teaching of the New.

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that, while the persecution of Papists and Episcopalians was at its highest in England, the public attitude towards the Jews should have undergone a marked change for the better. Members of the race were already established in London, though secretly. On January 5, 1649, two inhabitants of Amsterdam presented to Fairfax and the Army a petition for the repeal of the banishment of the Jews under Edward I., and they must have found the public mind not unprepared for their request. The question of the rehabilitation of the Jews formed about this time the subject of earnest consideration in certain circles. Edward Nicholas, ex-Secretary to Parliament, advocated it with fervour and biblical erudition, declaring his belief that the tribulations which England had endured for a generation were a punishment for the expulsion of God’s people. A newspaper, published on May 6, 1652, contains the account of a visit to a synagogue in Leghorn by a friendly sailor, ending with the appeal, “Shall they be tolerated by the Pope, and by the Duke of Florence, by the Turks, and by the Barbarians and others, and shall England still have laws in force against them?”132 ♦1652♦ When Dr. John Owen drew up his scheme for a national Church and submitted it to Parliament, Major Butler and some others attacked it as not liberal enough. Not only did they denounce interference on the part of the State in matters spiritual and doctrinal, but they asked: “Is it not the duty of magistrates to permit the Jews, whose conversion we look for, to live freely and peaceably amongst us?” Roger Williams was strongly on the same side, and so was Whalley, the gallant Major of Naseby fame, both on religious and on practical grounds.

As a result of this agitation in favour of Israel, four conferences were publicly held for a discussion of the matter. The last of these occurred on Wednesday, December 12th, 1655, at Whitehall, under the presidency of the Protector. It was a great event, and it created a deep sensation throughout the country. All the highest authorities of the Church and the State assisted at the consultation, and argued out the question whether the Jews should be permitted to settle and trade in England again.

The proposer was Manasseh Ben Israel, a Rabbi of Amsterdam, the son of a Marrano of Lisbon, who had suffered at the hands of the Inquisition. Manasseh was a true patriot: rich in nothing but Rabbinical and Cabbalistic lore, a fluent speaker, and a prolific writer; withal a firm believer in the approaching advent of the Messiah, and in his own divinely appointed mission to promote that advent. Indeed, he had a family interest in the matter; for he had married a descendant of the House of David, and entertained hopes that, in accordance with the ancient prophecies, the King of Israel might be among his own offspring. Manasseh, thinking that the establishment of the Puritan Commonwealth and of liberty of conscience in England, as well as the enormous attention paid by the European world at that time to questions of biblical prophecy, afforded an opportunity for the readmission of his co-religionists, had already approached the English Puritans and Millennarians, and had made several attempts to obtain a hearing of Parliament; but he had failed until Cromwell’s accession to the head of affairs. Manasseh, in his declaration to the Commonwealth of England, dwelt at great length and with great historical knowledge on the loyalty shown by the Jewish people in the countries where they were treated kindly. Among other examples he quoted the heroic fidelity of the Jews of Burgos to the fallen King of Castile, Don Pedro.133 But his principal argument was that by the admission of the Jews into England the biblical prophecies concerning the Messianic era—namely, that it would not dawn until the Israelites had been dispersed through all the nations of the earth—would be fulfilled, and thus the era itself brought materially nearer. It was an argument well calculated to appeal to an audience thirsting for the Millennium and the Fifth Monarchy of the Apocalypse, and terribly anxious to pave the way for the Redeemer.

Cromwell himself—whether influenced by Messianic expectations, by the desire to win over the Jews to Christianity through kindness, by broad principles of religious toleration, or by the less aërial motive of making use of the Jews as a means of obtaining intelligence on international affairs and of profiting by their wealth and commercial ability—was earnestly in favour of Manasseh’s proposal, and supported it with great eloquence. But it was not to be. Though the conference decided that there was no legal obstacle to the settlement of Jews in England, public opinion, and religious sentiment more especially, were not yet ripe for so revolutionary a measure. Despite the enlightened example of leaders like Cromwell and Milton, the majority thought otherwise. Liberty of conscience? they said. Yes, but within certain limits. So, after a long and wearisome controversy, in which prophecies and statutes were solemnly quoted by both sides, weighed and rejected, prejudice prevailed over reason and Christian charity; and Manasseh Ben Israel was obliged to depart—not quite empty-handed; for Cromwell rewarded his labours in the good cause with an annual allowance of one hundred pounds, which, however, the rabbi did not live to enjoy. He died on the way to Amsterdam; like Moses, denied the satisfaction of witnessing the fruit of his zeal. For, though a public and general admission of his co-religionists was found impracticable, it was understood that individual members of the race could settle in the country by Cromwell’s private permission. Many availed themselves of this privilege, in the teeth of strong opposition on the part of the Christian merchants of the city, and soon a humble synagogue and a Jewish cemetery were seen in London—nearly four hundred years after their confiscation by Edward I. ♦1657♦ This return is still celebrated by English Jews as Re-settlement Day, its anniversary constituting one of the few “red-letter days” in their calendar. Nor is the man forgotten who practically secured the boon. Manasseh’s memory is held in deservedly high honour among Hebrews, and the English Jewish community in 1904 celebrated the 300th anniversary of his birth.

When, a few years after the settlement, the Commonwealth was overthrown by the Restoration, the Jewish community survived their protector. Charles II., too needy to despise the Jews, not bigoted enough to persecute them, followed the tolerant policy of his great predecessor, and, though from entirely different motives, granted to them the benefit of an unmolested, if legally unrecognised, residence in his dominions. Mr. Pepys visited their synagogue in London on October 13th, 1663, and seems to have been greatly amazed, amused, and scandalised by what he saw therein:

“After dinner my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson’s conduct, to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles, and the women behind a lettice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear the Priest do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that every one desires to have the carrying of it, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a prayer for the King, in which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew.

“But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more; and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.”

Such was the impression which the Jewish congregation produced on that keen observer of the surface of things.

The inference to be drawn from these sprightly comments is that the Jew was far from having outlived his unpopularity. Though the doctrine of toleration, for which Cromwell had fought and Milton suffered, was still preached by divines like Taylor and expounded by philosophers like Locke, the English public was far from recognising every man’s right to think, act and worship as seemed good to him. So hard it is even for the faintest ray of light to pierce the mists of prejudice.

To Mr. Pepys we also owe a curious glimpse of the vigour with which the Messianic Utopia was cherished at this time amongst us. The fame of Sabbataï Zebi had reached England, and the Prophet of Smyrna found adherents even in the city of London. We are in 1666, on the eve of the mystic era fixed by enthusiasts as the year that was to see the restoration of Israel to the Holy Land. Under date February 19th, Mr. Pepys makes the following entry in his Diary;—“I am told for certain, what I have heard once or twice already, of a Jew in town, that in the name of the rest do offer to give any man £10 to be paid £100, if a certain person now at Smyrna be within these two years owned by all the Princes of the East, and particularly the Grand Segnor, as the King of the world, in the same manner we do the King of England here, and that this man is the true Messiah. One named a friend of his that had received ten pieces in gold upon this score, and says that the Jew hath disposed of £1,100 in this manner, which is very strange; and certainly this year of 1666 will be a year of great action; but what the consequences of it will be, God knows!”

But the Messiah did not come; and twenty-four years later, under William and Mary, an attempt was made to fleece the unpopular race in London. It was proposed in the Commons that £100,000 should be exacted from the Jews; and the proposition impressed the House as tempting. But the Jews presented a petition pleading their inability to comply and declaring that they would rather leave the kingdom than submit to such treatment. Their protest was seconded by statesmen who, be their personal feelings towards the Jews what they might, objected to the measure as contrary to the spirit of the British Constitution; and after some discussion the project was abandoned, though not the prejudice which had made such a proposal possible.

Sober Protestantism did not in the least share the Puritan preference for Hebrew ideals. If the Spectator may be taken as a mirror of public opinion on the subject, in the reign of Queen Anne, English Protestants objected to “the Multiplicity of Ceremonies in the Jewish Religion, as Washings, Dresses, Meats, Purgations, and the like.” Addison states that the reason for these minute observances, adduced by the Jews, was their anxiety to create as many occasions as possible of showing their love to God, by doing in all circumstances of life something to please Him. However, this explanation does not seem convincing to the critic, who goes on to remark that Roman Catholic apologists use similar arguments in defence of their own rites, and concludes, “But, notwithstanding the plausible Reason with which both the Jew and the Roman Catholick would excuse their respective Superstitions, it is certain there is something in them very pernicious to Mankind, and destructive to Religion.”134 Accordingly, a statute of Queen Anne encouraged conversion to Christianity by compelling Jewish parents to support their apostate children.

Addison, elsewhere, recognises the advantages, commercial and other, which the world owes to the Jews’ dispersion through the nations of the earth; but he quaintly observes: “They are like the Pegs and Nails in a great Building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole Frame together.”135 He is impressed by the multitude of the Jews, despite the decimations and persecutions to which they had been exposed for so many centuries, no less than by their world-wide dissemination and firm adherence to their religion; and he endeavours to explain these remarkable phenomena by several reflections which deserve to be quoted, not only on account of the intrinsic sound sense of some of them, but also for the sake of the picture which they present of the Jewish nation in the early days of the eighteenth century, as it appeared to a highly cultured Gentile, and of the highly cultured Gentile’s attitude towards the nation:

“I can,” says the Spectator, “in the first place attribute their numbers to nothing but their constant Employment, their Abstinence, their Exemption from Wars, and, above all, their frequent Marriages; for they look on Celibacy as an accursed State, and generally are married before Twenty, as hoping the Messiah may descend from them.”

Their dispersion is explained as follows:

“They were always in Rebellions and Tumults while they had the Temple and Holy City in View, for which reason they have often been driven out of their old Habitations in the Land of Promise. They have as often been banished out of most other Places where they have settled.... Besides, the whole People is now a Race of such Merchants as are Wanderers by Profession, and, at the same time, are in most if not all Places incapable of either Lands or Offices, that might engage them to make any part of the World their Home. This Dispersion would probably have lost their Religion had it not been secured by the Strength of its Constitution: For they are to live all in a Body, and generally within the same Enclosure; to marry among themselves, and to eat no Meats that are not killed or prepared their own way. This shuts them out from all Table Conversation, and the most agreeable Intercourses of Life; and, by consequence, excludes them from the most probable Means of Conversion.

“If, in the last place, we consider what Providential Reason may be assigned for these three Particulars, we shall find that their Numbers, Dispersion, and Adherence to their Religion, have furnished every Age, and every Nation of the World, with the strongest Arguments for the Christian Faith, not only as these very Particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the Depositories of these and all the other Prophecies, which tend to their own Confusion. Their Number furnishes us with a sufficient Cloud of Witnesses that attest the Truth of the Old Bible. Their Dispersion spreads these Witnesses thro’ all parts of the World. The Adherence to their Religion makes their Testimony unquestionable. Had the whole Body of the Jews been converted to Christianity, we should certainly have thought all the Prophecies of the Old Testament, that relate to the Coming and History of our Blessed Saviour, forged by Christians, and have looked upon them, with the Prophecies of the Sybils, as made many Years after the Events they pretended to foretell.”

This cold-blooded habit of drawing from the sufferings of fellow-men an assurance of our own salvation is still cultivated by many good Christians. It is a comfortable doctrine, though not particularly complimentary to Providence.

But if the progress of reason is slow, it is sure. A few years after the publication of Addison’s essay, the Jews already established in England were recognised as British subjects. ♦1725♦ Two years later a Jewish mathematician was made Fellow of the Royal Society, and not long after a Jew became secretary and librarian of the Society. Judges also refrained from summoning Jewish witnesses on the Sabbath. ♦1753♦ The concession of 1723 was followed, thirty years later, by the right of naturalisation. But, even then, though the Commons passed the Bill, the Lords and the Bishops endorsed it, and King George II. ratified it, so loud an outcry from traders and theologians arose thereat that the gift had to be revoked. “No more Jews, no wooden shoes,” was the elegant refrain in which the British public sang its sentiments on the subject, and the effigy of an enlightened Deacon, who had defended the Act, was burnt publicly at Bristol. England, which in the Middle Ages had been induced to persecute and expel the Jews by the example of the Continent, was once more to be influenced by the Continental attitude towards the race. Fortunately, this influence was now of a different kind.