BM 
 295 
 
 W521a 
 
 WEST LONDON SYNAGOGUE 
 
 APPEAL OF THE CONGREGA- 
 TION
 
 The Library 
 University of California, Los Angeles
 
 THE APPEAL 
 
 CONGREGATION 
 
 BRITISH JEWS 
 
 BROTHEK-TSEAELITES THROUGHOUT THE 
 UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BT J. WBRTHEIMER AND CO., CIRCUS PLACK, 
 FINSBURY CIRCUS. 
 
 1846.
 
 fe/Vf 
 
 THE APPEAL, 
 
 to. 
 
 FOUR years have now elapsed since the consecration of the 
 West London Synagogue of British Jews ; and during the 
 whole of this period we have, together with our wives and 
 families, experienced, through the Divine permission, the 
 blessings of holy communion in prayer, agreeably to the 
 dictates of conscience. You are aware, brethren, from the 
 beginning, of our earnest desire to render our mode of worship, 
 and the ritual used in the Synagogue, fit to excite the warmest 
 feelings of devotion, and to satisfy the religious wants of the 
 congregation, and at the same time to keep it in perfect har- 
 mony with the principles of our common faith ; and we can 
 gladly declare, that from the hour when our Synagogue was 
 opened for public service, until the present time, no variation 
 has been made in the system with which we commenced, nor 
 has any thing occurred to disappoint our sanguine expectation, 
 that it would fully answer the ends we had in view. 
 
 The establishment of our congregation was not the product 
 of a spirit of rebellion against the ancient law of Israel, nor of 
 a worldly desire to free ourselves from the Divine statutes and 
 ceremonies enjoined upon Israelites. Our movement was the 
 effect of our steady attachment to the Mosaic institutions, an 
 inward regard for which is incompatible with an irreverence 
 for the public worship of the Synagogue. Such a feeling of 
 irreverence was, however, visibly gaining ground to an alarm- 
 ing degree among the liberally educated of the community, 
 in consequence, mainly, of the numerous defects in the anti- 
 quated mode of Synagogue worship, and of the detrimental 
 influence exercised on the established ritual, by the sad vicis- 
 situdes through which our fathers had passed during centuries
 
 of general mental darkness. It was our conviction, that the 
 inroads which infidelity and apostasy were continually making 
 among the Jews of Britain, could be effectually checked, as 
 far as in us lay, only by the adoption of a more simple and 
 scriptural book of prayers, and by the introduction of a purer 
 mode of external devotion within the Synagogue. Notwith- 
 standing the difficulties with which we have had to contend, 
 the short space of four years has sufficed to furnish us with 
 ample evidence of the soundness of our undertaking, and to 
 strengthen our determination not to desist from the good 
 work which we have begun, but to uphold it with all our 
 might, to embellish it, and to preserve it as a sacred bequest 
 to our descendants, and, with the blessing of God, as an 
 object of congratulation for all our brother Israelites. 
 
 Having no other end in view than the amelioration of the 
 matter and the manner of our public worship, we scrupu- 
 lously abstained from effecting any change foreign to this our 
 sacred purpose ; we neither received any dogma not recog- 
 nised by the whole of Israel, nor did we reject the observance 
 of any tenet by which, as Israelites, we are bound to stand or 
 to fall : it was one of our most earnest wishes to preserve 
 unbroken the bond of fraternal unity which has so long, through 
 the course of the most troublous times, held together all the 
 branches of the Israelite family, and for which we have earned 
 the tribute of admiration from the well disposed among our 
 Gentile brethren. We may call you all to witness that it was 
 not we who characterised the establishment of the West London 
 Synagogue as a manifestation of religious dissent among the 
 Jews of England : not we that sounded the tocsin of sectarian 
 strife ; nor did we parade before the world the existence of a 
 section of seceders among the Jews. Secession, religious, social, 
 political, was, is, and ever will be as far from, as odious to our 
 feelings, as the abandonment of whatever is dearest to our 
 souls. The past in which, as Israelites, we glory, belongs to 
 the history of all Israel. We entertain, as a religious body, no 
 hopes for the future which are not shared by the Synagogue 
 all over the world; and though we pant and strive for the
 
 social arid political improvement of our present position, we 
 should be willing to share, if such be the will of God, in the 
 direst persecution inflicted on all ; while we should spurn all 
 imaginable privileges apart from the totality of our brethren 
 in this land. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the purity of our motives, and the 
 absolute necessity for the step we had taken for the purpose 
 of keeping the hearts of our children faithful to the religion 
 of Moses, our honest efforts were from the outset encountered 
 in an uncharitable and persecuting spirit. 
 
 Some months before our Synagogue was opened, the first 
 volume of our prayers, containing the daily and Sabbath 
 services, appeared. It had scarcely issued from the press, 
 when the late Dr. Hirschel, Chief Kabbi of the German Jews, 
 and the Kev. Mr. Meldola, principal of the Beth Din of the 
 Portuguese Synagogue, united with the assistant members of 
 their Beth Dins, in promulgating against the prayer-book a 
 document called a " Caution ;" but which was, in fact, a bull 
 of excommunication, and which was followed by a " Declara- 
 tion" of a similar tendency. It was in vain that we had 
 shewn in a preface to the volume, that our book of prayer 
 was based upon the existing rituals of various Jewish congre- 
 gations, that nothing not strictly consonant with Judaism had 
 been admitted, and that no principle guiding the common 
 faith of Israelites had been excluded : in vain we proved to 
 demonstration, that the Jewish ritual had no claim to a divine 
 or immutable character, but that during a series of ages it 
 had undergone frequent and considerable permutations; in 
 vain we set forth that the two forms of service now in com- 
 mon use amongst the Portuguese and the German Jews dif- 
 fered materially from each other in the wording of almost 
 every prayer, and in the general arrangement of the prayers. 
 Kot one of these stern, stubborn facts was controverted, was 
 even attempted to be argued : the anathema was the only- 
 answer that the ecclesiastical chiefs thought fit to return. 
 A decree of " Herein"* was pronounced, based upon premises 
 
 * Excommunication.
 
 6 
 
 totally opposed to criticism and to fact; the faithful were 
 strictly prohibited from using the book of prayer ; and, to 
 crown all, it was declared that every prayer and supplication 
 addressed to the benignant and merciful Deity from the pages 
 of this book, would fail to find acceptance with the all-seeing 
 God, and would be accounted, even before His throne of grace, 
 as an abomination and a sin.* 
 
 You cannot fail, brethren, to give us credit for the charity 
 and forbearance with which we have acted under provocations 
 such as these. We might have easily exposed the groundless- 
 ness of the excommunication we might have clearly disproved 
 the statement, that all the prayers now in use were composed 
 by, and have been traditionally handed down from, the men 
 of the Great Convocation, by enumerating the many forms of 
 service (comprising by far the larger portion of the mass of 
 prayers, hymns, and the multifarious compositions ranking 
 under those names), which cannot possibly claim a date ante- 
 cedent to the ninth century of the vulgar era further we 
 might have shewn, that since two different forms of prayer 
 are in actual use by the Portuguese and the German Jews, 
 it is a contradiction in terms for the former to set up a claim 
 for the inspiration of their ritual, without denying the privi- 
 lege to the latter, as it must be for the German Jews to assert 
 the inspiration of their forms of service, without admitting, by 
 a parity of argument, that the prayers of their brethren of the 
 Portuguese Synagogues are uninspired. Every man gifted 
 with the power of reason, and capable of distinguishing be- 
 tween hasty assertion and demonstrative proof, must see that 
 the Herem issued against our prayer book by Dr. Hirschel, 
 on the plea of the formulae in common use having been ap- 
 pointed by the "sages of the great convocation, among whom 
 were some of our prophets," and being therefore, justly looked 
 upon as having been plenarily inspired, was not only put forth 
 without sufficient thought or care, but that the foundation on 
 which it was attempted to rest it, utterly failed. 
 -Nor was tJie " Caution," thus totally unsupported by argu- 
 * See the " Caution," printed in Appendix II., No. I.
 
 merit, better warranted by precedent or the practice of other 
 Jewish congregations. Until the date of the document on 
 which we are commenting, it had never, we believe, been 
 maintained that the bare fact of modifying the Ritual, irre- 
 spectively of the nature of such modification, amounted to a 
 defection from Israel. If it had been rightly so considered, 
 how shall we account for the existence, during centuries, of 
 some half dozen of differently constituted prayer books, all 
 simultaneously in use among Israelites in various lands, leav- 
 ing, nevertheless, the unity of Israel unaffected? How shall 
 we account for the discrepancies, in our days and within this 
 very city, between the Rituals of the German and Portuguese 
 congregations, who still remain in undisturbed religious com- 
 munion ? In many towns of Germany our brethren have for 
 some time past adopted in their respective rituals manifold 
 changes, infinitely surpassing in extent and character those ad- 
 mitted by us ; but if each case of such variation were visited, 
 as was done in ours, with a ban of excommunication, Judaism 
 would, with one blow, be broken up into fragments ; it would 
 have to declare itself dissolved in civilised Europe, and thus 
 the rancour of the worst enemies of our ancient faith would 
 be satiated by our own frenzy. That this has not been the 
 result, is owing to the fact that a difference between forms of 
 prayer had never been held sufficient to break up the Jewish 
 communion, or to divide Israel into as many fractions as there 
 are Rituals. 
 
 But again, shall it, perhaps, be contended that the nature of 
 the changes effected by us in the prayers, renders our position 
 different from that of our predecessors in reform ? Well, then, 
 we are perfectly content to abide by the decision of any im- 
 partial mind respecting the spirit which dictated the selection 
 made by us from the German and Portuguese common rituals, 
 in forming our compilation. Let any prayer be shown, really 
 acknowledged by scholars of the orthodox synagogues, to be 
 the bequest of the Great Synod, and it will be found that it 
 is embodied in the prayer book of the West London Syna- 
 gogue ! We have acted with the purpose of presenting in our
 
 devotional guide, the whole of the Jewish dogma, receiving, 
 as we did, without any reserve, the thirteen articles of faith, 
 considered by Maimonides the summary of what has, since the 
 establishment of our religion, been believed by the faithful 
 Israelite. That we have diminished the bulk of the Ritual, 
 is true : but for this we claim acknowledgment, and not con- 
 demnation, since we were therein guided by conscientiousness, 
 not frivolity ; we curtailed such repetitions as were constantly 
 occurring in the old rituals; we considered the impossibility 
 of repeating an accumulated multitude of prayers, the produce 
 of ages, with that fixed attention which the holy occupation 
 of prayer claims throughout, and which ought therefore to be 
 facilitated, but not obstructed; we contemplated the neces- 
 sity of providing for the regular dispensation of pulpit instruc- 
 tion, for which no sufficient space of time could be allotted, 
 unless the prayers were condensed : finally, we thought it our 
 duty to abolish the public recital of formulae existing indeed 
 in our old prayer books, but long ago declared by all those 
 who understood them, to bear no affinity to the character of 
 divine worship, and to be subservient to any purpose rather 
 than to that of adoration or thankgiving !* 
 
 And yet, although the censure cast upon us by Dr. Hirschel's 
 Caution was thus utterly undeserved ; although that document 
 was equally unwarranted by precedent, by the grounds as- 
 signed for it, and by any grounds that could have been assigned, 
 \ve refrained from demonstrating how worthy of blame was 
 the conduct of the joint Beth Dins in pronouncing a malediction 
 upon their fellow-worshippers who had never been heard in 
 their own defence, because we felt sincere compassion for the 
 state of physical and mental decrepitude to which age had 
 reduced the late Dr. Hirschel, at the time when the peri was 
 placed in his hand in order that he might affix his signature 
 to the bull of excommunication. This feeling on our part. 
 was shared by hundreds of our Jewish brethren not attached to 
 our Synagogue : all thinking men, whose tongues were not held 
 
 Sec Preface to the First Volume of the Prayers, used in the West 
 J.omlon S\ iiaxogue of British Jews.
 
 9 
 
 by the bridle of dependence, disapproved of the Herein. But 
 as, from the natural course of things, it was evident that 
 the rabbinical mantle of Dr. Hirschel would soon descend upon 
 the shoulders of his successor, we were counselled by many 
 members of other Synagogues to bear with patience our pre- 
 sent wrongs, since it was certain that the next Chief Rabbi 
 would do us full justice, and remove the anathema from our 
 congregation. 
 
 We yielded to this advice, brethren, especially as the 
 " Herem," although in some instances it severed family 
 ties, and was alleged (particularly by the Portuguese. con- 
 gregation), as a ground for the invasion of vested rights of 
 the most sacred character, was in many other cases treated 
 almost as a non-entity; and therefore did not prove, in 
 its practical operation, so injurious as might have been anti- 
 cipated. It is true that the President of the Board of 
 Deputies, in a manner unworthy of his high character and 
 station, made this excommunication a plea for intercepting 
 from a congregation of his British co-religionists, the privileges 
 of the act of registration for marriages; but the Registrar's 
 Office being open to us, with the option of subsequently solem- 
 ni/ing our marriages either in Synagogue, or at our homes, 
 agreeably to Jewish rites, we were rendered independent of 
 the President of the Board of Deputies. We were content to 
 adopt this course, rather than to publish in a court of justice, 
 or by an appeal to Parliament, that the man who had 
 deservedly earned the esteem of all philanthropists, by leaving 
 his country on a glorious mission to the East on behalf of the 
 oppressed Israelites of Damascus, had yet lent his influence to 
 the persecution of his Jewish brethren at home. 
 
 Beyond this, the " Herem" was, as to a variety of matters that 
 miff/it have been brought within its operation, nearly inno- 
 cuous. Marriages were performed between persons who had 
 attended the West London Synagogue and members of ot hoi- 
 congregations, during the time of Dr. Hirschel's filling tin- 
 office of Chief Rabbi, and durinjr the period subsequent, l<> 
 his death whilst the Dayanim officiated; and so recently a*
 
 10 
 
 within the last six mouths, a marriage was solemnized by 
 the authorities of the Portuguese congregation, between a 
 gentleman connected with that Synagogue, and a lady, a 
 member of the congregation of Burton-street. Nor should 
 we omit to record with satisfaction many acts of fraternity, 
 kindness, and religious -communion which have taken place 
 between ourselves and members of other Synagogues. Secta- 
 rian discord thus dying away, former animosities giving place 
 to charity and brotherly union, Dr. Adler was spoken of by 
 those who promoted his election, as the man who would wipe 
 out every remaining blot of strife, and restore peace and 
 harmony in Israel. 
 
 But, alas, brethren, for the hopes that had been cherished ! 
 Your new spiritual chief has at length manifested his views ; 
 and they are such as must give unfeigned regret to every 
 rational and enlightened Iraelite of Britain. Not only has he 
 announced his intention not to walk in the path of toleration, 
 but he has gone beyond Dr. Hirschel himself, and has been 
 unfortunately induced to give to the excommunication a force 
 with which even its frarners never sought to invest it. Not 
 many weeks ago, application was made to Dr. Adler, to 
 permit a marriage to take place between a member of the 
 Westminster congregation, and a young woman who had 
 attended our Synagogue, under which her father holds an 
 office. Although it is understood that Dr. Adler had at first 
 consented, he afterwards summoned the intended bridegroom 
 and bride to appear before him, and having reprimanded the 
 former for engaging himself to a person who had frequented 
 our Synagogue, required the girl to sign a document, by which 
 she should undertake never again to attend the Synagogue 
 in Burton-street, and to conform henceforth to orthodox laws 
 or usages. The young woman suggested that Dr. Adler 
 should see her father ; but the Chief Rabbi insisted on her 
 compliance ; and having caused to be drawn up the document 
 (of which no copy was furnished to her), he compelled her to 
 aflix her signature as the price of his consent to her marriage 
 taking place.
 
 II 
 
 We place on record this simple statement of i'acts; for 
 further details as to which your attention is solicited to the 
 subjoined correspondence. It causes us unfeigned regret, 
 brethren, to be compelled to take the present means of laying 
 our case before you, and thus to incur the risk of exposing the 
 dissensions of Israelites to the public .gaze. But the course 
 which the Chief Rabbi has thought fit to pursue towards us 
 has left us no other resource, consistent with our duty. It is a 
 matter of necessity, not of choice. From the annexed cor- 
 respondence it will be seen, that when we became acquainted 
 with the statement of Jane Angel, we addressed a respectful 
 letter to the Chief Rabbi, praying him to inform us in writ- 
 ing, whether the young woman's version of the matter were 
 correct or otherwise ; and further, that he would please to 
 furnish us with a copy of the declaration or test, which she 
 was required to subscribe. But the reverend gentleman 
 having refused to comply with either request, you will perceive 
 that we were obliged either to sit down quietly under a sense 
 of persecution on the grounds of conscience, or to submit our 
 case to the impartial judgment of our British co-religionists. 
 We chose the latter alternative, keenly feeling the wrongs 
 inflicted on us, and relying on your sympathy. We do, there- 
 fore, by this our appeal, call the Chief Rabbi before the 
 tribunal of the opinion of the congregations over which he pre- 
 sides. Not by way of defiance, but in discharge of our duty to 
 ourselves, we summon him to afford to you, brethren, the great 
 body of British Jews, an explanation of his conduct, which he 
 has absolutely refused to give to us ; and if he fail to vindicate 
 his proceedings, he will tacitly admit the injustice of the treat- 
 ment which we have endured. 
 
 We ask him whether he be prepared to avow and support 
 the statements contained in the " Caution," for which he has 
 made himself responsible by acting upon it. We refer him 
 to the paragraph upon which all the rest of the document is 
 grounded, and which asserts, " that the prayers and blessings 
 which we (the Jews) address to the Creator, have been 
 arranged and appointed by our sages of the Great Convocation,
 
 12 
 
 among whom were some of our Prophets, and that these forms 
 have been adhered to by the whole house of Israel, from 
 generation to generation, for more than two thousand years." 
 
 Of this paragraph, the former part (which asserts that the 
 prayers and blessings in use among the Jews, were arranged 
 and appointed by the sages of the Great Convocation) is known 
 by every scholar to be directly opposed to fact ; the utter in- 
 accuracy of the latter part (which affirms that the same forms 
 of prayer have been adhered to by the whole house of Israel), 
 every man, whether scholar or not, who is possessed of the 
 gift of sight may perceive, if he will examine the prayer books 
 used by the German and the Portuguese Jews (the presiding 
 authorities of which united in signing the very paper in ques- 
 tion), and will note their manifold diversities. 
 
 Will the Chief Rabbi maintain that to be true, which is 
 thus manifestly replete with fallacies ? If he will, how does 
 he make out its truth? If he will not, how does he justifv 
 his enforcing (and that too even beyond the intent of its 
 original framers), a document thus founded and built upon 
 the grossest error? 
 
 How again can Dr. Adler reconcile his conduct with the 
 fact, that whilst Dr. Hirschel was Chief Rabbi, a marriage 
 of precisely the same character as that which has been re- 
 cently forbidden unless the intended bride would renounce 
 the West London Synagogue, was permitted without objec- 
 tion? If, instead of selecting Dr. Adler, whom his supporters 
 stated to be of an eminently conciliatory disposition, the 
 Jewish congregations had chosen some Rabbi distinguished 
 among his compeers by the heat and fierceness of his bigotry, 
 such a man might have been expected to say, " Where my 
 predecessor excommunicated, I will bow to his authority. 
 Where he was bigoted, 1 will follow in his footsteps : but 1 
 will look upon him as an authority no longer, 1 will treat his 
 conduct as the result of feebleness and error, if I find him 
 betraying any symptom of a tolerant spirit, if I mark him 
 failing to carry into effect his own excommunicating proclama- 
 tion with thy same determined bitterness, the same unflinch-
 
 1:3 
 
 ing consistency in persecution, which I pride myself on being 
 the first to introduce among the Jews of Britain." But prin- 
 ciples such as these, the present Chief Rabbi will assuredly 
 never avow; and we are, therefore, at a loss to conceive how 
 he will explain the course which he has taken. 
 
 Nor is it less difficult to see how that course is consistent 
 with the solemnization of a marriage within the last few 
 months, by the authorities of the Portuguese Synagogue, 
 between a member of that Synagogue and a lady of the 
 West London Congregation. Does Dr. AclJer assert that 
 the faithful are become faithless? Does he declare the con- 
 duct of his brother Rabbies to be unorthodox? Does he pro- 
 nounce that they were wrong in permitting the marriage just 
 referred to ? If he does, what becomes of the value of ecclesi- 
 astical authority, on which so much stress is laid by those 
 who condemn our proceedings, when we find that the leading 
 individuals among them differ on so important a point? 
 Surely it must be manifest, that there is an urgent necessity 
 for the revocation of documents in the interpretation of which 
 some of their promulgators cannot agree with the successor 
 of another; which, however interpreted, throw discredit on 
 the Synagogues of whose laws they are treated as forming 
 part, by the inaccuracy of their assertions, and the bitterness 
 of their spirit; and which prevent the existence of concord 
 among the followers of the same religion. 
 
 Neither you, brethren, nor the Chief Rabbi, will have for- 
 gotten that the regulations framed with reference to his 
 election, contained a provision that he should not have the 
 power to issue any new excommunication a provision which 
 implied pretty distinctly, that the congregations appointing 
 him did not approve of the last exercise that had been made 
 of the power in question ; although, as it was found that .the 
 proclamations which we are discussing had not produced as 
 much mischief as might have been apprehended, their revo- 
 cation was not insisted on. 
 
 But to prevent the issue of new excommunications is now 
 no longer sufficient, when you see that those which' are in
 
 14 
 
 existence are regarded by your Chief Rabbi as having a binding 
 and active force, and are put into execution in a manner that 
 it is impossible to justify, except by the plea that we are not 
 Jews. Brethren, we ask you whether you share in this 
 opinion? Are you prepared to pronounce us, who are faith- 
 ful to the law& of Moses ; who rigidly observe the covenant of 
 Abraham, the institution of the Sabbath, and of the Festivals 
 as they are commanded by Scripture ; who sedulously devote our- 
 selves, and strive to conform to the precepts of our holy faith ; 
 are you, we repeat, prepared for the sake of minor dis- 
 tinctions to pronounce us without the pale of Judaism? Are 
 you prepared to maintain the " Caution" and " Declaration;" 
 to follow out the consequences which Dr. Adler deduces 
 from them ; and to refuse to take our sons for your daughters, 
 and to give your daughters to our sons ? To this, brethren, 
 or to the solemnization of all such marriages in our congre- 
 gation it must come, if the course of the Chief Rabbi be 
 persisted in ; for rest assured that in this age, when Parlia- 
 ment has repealed one test after another, no high-minded 
 Englishman will ever permit his son or daughter, and no 
 English youth or maiden who has a proper feeling of self- 
 respect will consent, to submit to a new test instituted by Dr. 
 Adler, and a test, too, implying the assertion that we do not 
 deserve the name of Israelites. 
 
 We ask you to judge, brethren, whether such an assertion 
 be correct. Listen to the worship in our House of God, to 
 the teachings from our pulpit, and judge for yourselves 
 whether the faith of Israel, or that of a strange religion, 
 animate the souls of those congregated within the sacred 
 precincts of our Synagogue ! Judge for yourselves, all who 
 doubt the Judaism that is observed by the West London 
 Synagogue ! Judge for yourselves ; and do not exhibit to the 
 present century and to England, the distressing, the almost 
 incredible spectacle of a large community deterred from the 
 exercise of tolerance towards their brethren, by a bull of ex- 
 communication wrung by a few zealots from the weakness of 
 the late Chief Rabbi in the last days of his tottering existence,
 
 15 
 
 while suffering alike in body and mind from protracted 
 ailments and accumulated years ! Judge for yourselves, as 
 others have done since the promulgation of these "Cautions" or 
 " Herems," and, like them, you will not fail to recognise and 
 duly to characterise the spirit which dictated the prohibition 
 "to every one that is called by the name of Israelite", of 
 taking up or in any manner acknowledging this prayer book of 
 the West London congregation ; you will know what to think of 
 the Declaration which accounts us of those who "cannot be 
 permitted to have any communion with Israelites in any 
 religious rite or sacred act." 
 
 Brethren, we are fulfilling a solemn duty in earnestly 
 calling upon you to express your sympathy with our sense of the 
 wrongs hitherto inflicted on us, by your plain protest against 
 any further encroachments upon our privileges as members of 
 the Jewish community of Great Britain. We invite your 
 declaration for the revocation of the Herem still in force (and 
 so lately acted upon) which, but for the enlightenment of the 
 age and of the people in and among which it is our happy 
 lot to have been born, could not but be fraught with conse- 
 quences most disastrous 'to our common welfare, but which, 
 as it is, materially tends to tarnish the fair name of the Jewish 
 community in the estimation of the world. We are not im- 
 pelled to this step by any narrow consideration for our personal 
 and immediate interests : these, as you are well aware, are 
 safe by the existing laws of this realm, from being in the 
 least affected by the operation of a hundred ecclesiastical 
 excommunications. We are actuated by the desire to uphold 
 the honour of the race to which we belong, and by the wish 
 to preserve or to re-establish peace and cordiality between our 
 congregation and the general body with whom, at the expense 
 of every worldly interest, we would live on terms of perfect 
 concord. 
 
 We do in no wise implore your intercession on our behalf 
 as an act of mercy or of indulgence : we claim it as a measure 
 of justice due to yourselves no less than to us. We remind 
 you of the imminent danger with which the precedent afforded 

 
 16 
 
 by the course pursued towards the West London Synagogue 
 is fraught to our common liberties as Englishmen ; of the 
 indignation which we have all loudly expressed against the 
 imposition of a test on a brother Jew by a Prussian or 
 Russian despot, whenever such tests interfered with the 
 Israelite's freedom of belief. Nay more, we ask you whether 
 you can continue, as boldly as you have heretofore done, to 
 claim from your fellow-citizens an exemption from tyrannical 
 attempts upon your consciences, whilst you concur in, or 
 calmly permit endeavours of a similar character towards a 
 minority of your own co-religionists, brethren in country, in 
 race, and in faith ? Remember the many lessons taught by 
 the history of sectarian contentions ; call to mind the innu- 
 merable examples where the efforts of intolerance have 
 recoiled with retributive force on the oppressors. To you, 
 therefore, Jewish brethren and compatriots, we address our 
 earnest appeal. We call upon you by every tie that can 
 endear one Israelite to another, to protest energetically against 
 this violation of the rights of conscience, and to shew that you 
 are no participators in the work of persecution. 
 
 Our cause is now before you : we leave it in your hands, 
 confiding in the sympathy you will shew us, and in that ardent 
 love of religious freedom which, as you are Englishmen, must 
 be inherent in your breasts.
 
 17 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 / 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Goldsmid to Rev. Dr. Adler. 
 
 5, Stone-buildings, Lincoln's-inn, 
 17th December, 5606 (1845). 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 I beg to transmit to you a copy of a statement which has 
 been made to me respecting certain circumstances alleged to 
 have preceded the recent marriage of Morrice Hyman with 
 Jane Angel. 
 
 The facts reported seemed to me so singular, that, when 
 they were first communicated to me through a third party, I 
 supposed that the statement must have arisen from misappre- 
 hension. But as the circumstances have since been repeated 
 to me by Jane Angel personally, whose narrative I took down 
 in writing, as you will find it in the accompanying paper and 
 as the occurrences referred to, if they really took place, would 
 probably impose upon the congregation of which I have the 
 honour to be one of the Wardens, the necessity of adopting 
 steps for their vindication it has appeared to the Council of 
 Founders that they can pursue no other course than that of 
 forwarding to you the statement made to me, and requesting 
 that you will have the kindness to inform them, through me,
 
 18 
 
 whether it be accurate so far as you are concerned ; and if not, 
 in what respects it is incorrect. 
 
 If it be true that Jane Angel was required to sign a paper, 
 I have further to request, that you will favour me with a copy 
 of the document. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 FRANCIS H. GOLDSMID, 
 
 Junior Warden of the West London 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Adler, Synagogue of British Jews, 
 
 etc. etc. 
 
 No. 2. 
 Jane Angel's Statement. 
 
 2nd Dec. 5606 (1845). 
 
 ON Saturday, November 22, Morrice Hyman (who had 
 previously applied to Mr. Kisch, secretary of the Westminster 
 Synagogue, to make arrangements for his marriage with Jane 
 Angel, daughter of Daniel Angel, keeper of the burial ground 
 of the West London Synagogue, on Wednesday the 10th of 
 December) was informed by Mr. Kisch, that he (Hyman) and 
 his intended wife must attend on Sunday, November 23, be- 
 fore Dr. Adler. 
 
 They attended accordingly, and Dr. Adler stated to Hyman 
 that he had done very wrong; that he must know that the 
 Burton-street Synagogue was in Herem, and not an acknow- 
 ledged Synagogue; that he (Dr. Adler) desired to keep peace 
 with that congregation; but that this was the first case in 
 which the question of marrying a member of that synagogue 
 had come before him ; and that if he did so now, he would be 
 asked to do so on future occasions. 
 
 Having inquired of Jane Angel whether she had attended 
 the West London Synagogue, and been told that she had,
 
 19 
 
 Dr. Adler stated that he could not perform the ceremony of 
 marriage himself, unless Daniel Angel would come back to 
 the old synagogue ; but that he would allow the marriage to 
 be performed by Mr. Henry, the minister of the Westminster 
 Synagogue, if Jane Angel would sign a paper, promising 
 never again to attend the West London Synagogue, and to 
 conduct herself henceforth as a good Jewish woman. Jane 
 Angel remarked, that she thought she al\\ f ays had been so, and 
 inquired whether he would like to see her father, who held a 
 situation in that synagogue. Dr. Adler replied that he did 
 not wish to see her father on that occasion, although at a 
 future time he should have no objection to do so ; and a 
 paper having been drawn up in an adjoining room, to which 
 Dr. Adler retired, and brought in, and read over by Dr. Adler 
 to her, which she believes was to the effect, that she would 
 never again go to the synagogue in Burton-street, and would 
 conform to orthodox laws or customs; and Dr. Adler having 
 stated that, if she would not sign the paper, he would have 
 nothing further to do with the matter; and Hyman having 
 represented to her (during Dr. Adler's absence) that if she did 
 not make up her mind to do so, the arrangements for the 
 marriage would be interfered with, and probably broken off; 
 she consented to sign, and did sign the paper. 
 
 After the paper had been signed, Dr. Adler told Hyman 
 and Jane Angel that they were to attend on the next day, 
 between eleven and one, before the Dayanim, in order that 
 she might make a declaration to the same effect as the paper, 
 and that he would then give permission for the marriage. 
 
 On Monday, the 24th, they attended accordingly, and Jane 
 Angel having been asked by one of the Dayanim whether she 
 would make again the declaration she had made on the pre- 
 ceding day, and she having said that she would, Dr. Adler 
 read over the paper, and stated, that the permission for the 
 marriage should be given. 
 
 The same remark, as to her being henceforth a good Jewish 
 woman, was made on this day as on the Sunday. 
 
 JANE ANGEL.
 
 NO. a 
 
 Letter from the Rev. Dr. Adler to Mr. Goldsmid. 
 
 Office of Chief Rabbi, 
 London, December 19, 5606. 
 
 DEAK SIR, 
 
 I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 
 17th instant, with its accompanying document, bearing date 
 the 2nd of December, and shall feel obliged by your honour- 
 ing me with a personal interview on the subject. With the 
 exception of next Sunday, I shall endeavour to be at your 
 disposal at any time you may please to appoint. 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 N. ADLER, DR. 
 
 Francis H. Goldsmid, Esq., Chief Rabbi, 
 
 etc. etc. etc. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Goldsmid to llev. Dr. Adler. 
 
 5, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, 
 
 21st December, 5606 (1845). 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th 
 instant, proposing a personal interview on the subject of my 
 recent communication to you on behalf of the West London 
 Synagogue of British Jews. 
 
 To this suggestion I am happy to accede. But as the 
 statement which accompanied my letter was laid in writing 
 before the Council of Founders of that Synagogue, and as it 
 may not be certain that any mere verbal information with 
 which you may favour me (and in communicating which to 
 the gentlemen with whom I have the pleasure of acting, there
 
 might be inevitable mis-apprehension) will be entirely satis- 
 factory, I should wish it to be understood, that if we should 
 unfortunately not be able to concur as to the course to be 
 pursued, my having had the honour of seeing you will not 
 interfere with the line of conduct which the West London 
 Synagogue may think it advisable to adopt. 
 
 I propose to wait upon you at any time to-morrow (Monday), 
 from a quarter past four to five, that you may be pleased to 
 appoint, if that hour should be convenient to you. 
 
 I regret much that I am not able to offer a greater choice 
 of hours, or to give you longer notice. But an accidental 
 delay took place in your letter reaching my hand ; and I am 
 about to leave town for some days on Tuesday. 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 F. H. GOLDSMID, 
 
 Junior Warden of the West London 
 
 Synagogue of British Jews. 
 Rev. Dr. Adler, etc. etc. 
 
 f ftdt to r;; 
 
 No. 5. 
 Letter from the Rev. Dr. Adler to Mr. Goldsmid. 
 
 Office of the Chief Rabbi, 
 London, December 21st, 5606. 
 
 Dr. Adler presents his compliments to Mr. Francis Gold- 
 smid, and will be happy to see him to-morrow at a quarter 
 past four in the afternoon. 
 
 Sunday Evening, 17, South Street. 
 
 In consequence of the preceding letters, an interview took 
 place between the Reverend Dr. Adler and Mr. Goldsmid ; 
 and this having had no satisfactory result, Mr. Goldsmid 
 addressed to Dr. Adler the following letter.
 
 22 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 5, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, 
 
 23rd December, 5606 (1845). 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 Our conference of yesterday having led to no satisfactory 
 result, the friends whom I have had an opportunity of con- 
 sulting agree with me in thinking that, in order to avoid the 
 possibility of mis-apprehension, it would not be advisable that 
 in taking any public steps which the West London Syna- 
 gogue may think it expedient to adopt for their own vindi- 
 cation, they should depend on my understanding of our 
 conversation, although you authorised me to communicate its 
 substance to the gentlemen with whom I am acting. 
 
 I am, therefore, under the necessity of respectfully re- 
 questing that you will favour me with a written reply to my 
 communication of the 17th instant. 
 
 I have the honour to remain. 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 FRANCIS H. GOLDSMID, 
 
 Junior Warden of the West London 
 
 Synagogue of British Jews. 
 Rev. Dr. Adler, etc. etc. 
 
 No. 7. 
 Letter from the Rev. Dr. Adler to Mr. Goldsmid. 
 
 Office of the Chief Rabbi, 
 London, December 24th, 5606. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 In reply to your communication of the 23rd instant, I beg 
 to state that so long as the union which I so anxiously desire 
 has not been effected amongst us, I do not feel myself justified 
 in engaging in any official correspondence on the subject in 
 question. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 Your very faithful servant, 
 
 N. ADLER, DR., 
 
 Chief Rabbi. 
 To F. II. Goldsmid, Esq.
 
 No. 8. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Goldsmid to the Rev. Dr. Adler. 
 
 The Wick, Brighton, 
 28th December, 5606 (1845). 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 Your letter of the 24th instant has been forwarded to me 
 at this place. 
 
 My absence from London will prevent me from laying it 
 before a meeting of the West London Synagogue until next 
 
 week. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 FRANCIS H. GOLDSMID, 
 
 Junior Warden of the West London 
 
 Synagogue of British Jews. 
 Rev. Dr. Adler, etc. etc. 
 
 No. 9. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Goldsmid to the Rev. Dr. Adler. 
 
 5, Stor/e Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, 
 8th January, 5606 (1846). 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 I have laid your letter of 24th December before a meeting 
 of the members of the West London Synagogue of British 
 Jews. 
 
 As you have declined to avail yourself of the opportunity 
 which was offered to you of contradicting the statements con- 
 tained in the paper signed by Jane Angel, of which I had the 
 honour to transmit to you a copy, the members of the West
 
 24 
 
 London Synagogue are compelled to arrive at the conclusion 
 that these statements are substantially correct, and must act 
 upon that conclusion in the steps which they may deem it 
 their duty to take in reference to this subject. I regret! to 
 add, that the course which you have thought it proper to adopt, 
 appeared to the meeting but little calculated to promote the 
 union which you state that you desire. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 FRANCIS H. GOLDSMID, 
 
 Junior Warden of the West London 
 
 Synagogue of British Jews. 
 Rev. Dr. Adler, etc. etc.
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 A Caution to all who bear the name of Israel, from the Chief 
 Rabbi, and the Beth Din of the several Congregations of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 OUR BRETHREN, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHO PURSUE 
 JUSTICE, AND SEEK THE LORD ! 
 
 Incline your ears to the words of righteousness ; hearken, 
 that your souls may live. 
 
 It is known throughout the dispersions of Israel, that the 
 Prayers and Blessings which we address to the Creator of the 
 world (blessed be His holy name !) have been arranged and 
 appointed by our Sages of the Great Convocation, among 
 whom were some of our Prophets ; and that these forms have 
 been adhered to by the whole House of Israel, from generation 
 to generation, for more than two thousand years. 
 
 But now, behold, we have seen innovations newly springing 
 up, and a new Book of Prayer, called fTPDnn 12D Forms of 
 Prayer used in the West London Synagogue of British Jews, 
 edited by D. W. Marks, printed by J. Wertheimer and Co., 
 5601, A.M.; in which it is evident to the eyes of all, that the 
 manner and order of our Prayers and Blessings have been 
 curtailed and altered, and otherwise arranged, not in accord- 
 ance with the Oral Law, by which we have so long been 
 guided in the performance of the precepts of the Lord, and of 
 which it is acknowledged, " That whoso rejecteth the authority
 
 26 
 
 of -the Oral Law, . opposeth thereby the Holy Law handed 
 down to us on Mount Sinai by Moses, the servant of the 
 Lord ;" and without which, it is also admitted, that we should 
 have no true knowledge of the Written Law. 
 
 Seeing this evil, we have risen and strengthened ourselves 
 for the service of God, in order to remove and set aside this 
 stumbling-block from the path of our brethren, the Sons of 
 Israel: and hereby we admonish every person professing the 
 faith of Israel, and having the fear of God in his heart, that 
 he do not use, or in any manner recognise, the said Book of 
 Prayer, because it is not in accordance with our Holy Law : 
 and whosoever shall use it for the purpose of prayer will be 
 accounted sinful ; for the wisest of men has said, " That he 
 who turneth away his ear from hearing the Law, even his 
 prayer shall be an abomination;" but he who regardeth his 
 soul will avoid the iniquitous course thereby attempted, and 
 pursue the righteous path so long trodden by our ancestors. 
 And we supplicate the Lord God of our fathers to incline 
 and unite our hearts, that we may all serve Him with one 
 accord, and that He may bring peace and brotherly love 
 among us, and that the Redeemer may speedily come to 
 Zion. These are the words of Truth and Justice ! 
 
 S. HIRSCHEL, Chief Rabbi. 
 
 DAVID MELDOLA. 
 
 A. HALIVA. 
 
 ISRAEL LEVY. 
 
 AARON LEVY. 
 
 A. L. BARNETT. 
 
 London, 9 Chesvan, 5602.
 
 No. II. 
 DECLARATION. 
 
 23, Bur? Court, 
 24th Elul, 5601, A.M. 
 
 Information having reached me, from which it appears that 
 certain Persons calling themselves British Jews, publicly, and 
 in their published Book of Prayer, reject the Oral Law, I 
 deem it my duty to declare that, according to the Laws and 
 Statutes held sacred by the whole House of Israel, any person 
 or persons publicly declaring that he or they reject and do not 
 believe in the authority of the Oral Law, cannot be permitted 
 to have any communion with us Israelites in any religious rite 
 or sacred act: I therefore earnestly entreat and exhort all 
 God-fearing Jews, especially Parents, to caution and instruct 
 all persons belonging to our Faith, that they be careful to 
 attend to this Declaration, and that they be not induced to 
 depart from our Holy Laws. 
 
 S. HIRSCHEL, 
 
 Chief Rabbi. 
 
 We, the undersigned, fully concurring in the foregoing 
 Doctrines, as set forth by the Reverend Solomon Hirschel, 
 certify such our concurrence under 5ur hands, this Twenty- 
 fourth of Elul, 5601, A.M. 
 
 DAVID MELDOLA. 
 
 A. HALIVA. 
 
 I. LEVY. 
 
 A. LEVY. 
 
 A. L. BARNETT.
 
 
 
 
 
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