TACK NKEX 5 108 Hi Domestic Facts and Forces, VII. Intermarriage. A SUNDAY LECTURE BEFORE Congregation Rodeph Shalom Eighth Street, near Perm Avenue PITTSBURG, PA. RABBI J. LEONARD LEVY SERIES 1. SUNDAY, Feb. 23, 1902. No. 18 These Sunday Lectures are distributed FREE OF CHARGE in the Temple to all who attend the Services. Another edition is distributed free throughout the City to friends of liberal religious thought. An extra edition is printed for those wishing to have them mailed to friends residing out of the City. Apply to CHARLES H. JOSEPH, 202 Ferguson Block, Pittsburgh. SUNDAY LECTURES BEFORE CONGREGATION RODEPH SHALOM. SERIES I. 1. For What Do We Stand ? 2. The Consequences of Belief. 3. The Modern Millionaire. 4. The Wandering Jew. 5. A Father's Power. 6. A Mother's Influence. 7. The Child's Realm. 8. The Chosen of the Earth. 9. Atheism and Anarchism. 10. A Jewish View of Jesus. 11. The Doom of Dogma. 12. The Dawn of Truth. 13. Friendships. 14. Zionism. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. Gone, but Not Forgotten. Pleasures and Pastimes. Marriage. Intermarriage. CONGREGATIONAL ACTIVITIES. SUNDAY, MARCH 2nd. 10:30 a. m Service and Lecture 2:30 p. m Congregational School 4:00 p. m .Children's Service 4:30 p. m Teachers' Meeting TUESDAY, MARCH 4tb. 2:30 p. m. , Young Ladies' Sewing Society. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5th. 4:30 p. m Post Graduate Class THURSDAY, MARCH Gth. 4:00 p. m C. J. W. Bible Class SATURDAY, MARCH 8th. 10:30 a. m., Sabbath Service and Ser- Domestic Facts and Forces. VII. Intermarriage. A SUNDAY LECTURE BEFORE Congregation Rodeph Shalom Eighth Street, near Pcnn Avenue PITTSBURG, PA. RABBI J. LEONARD LEVY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1902 8 DOMESTIC FACTS AND FORCES.' VII. INTERMARRIAGE. A SUNDAY LECTURE BEFORK CONGREGATION RODEPH SHALOM, BY RABBI J. LEONARD LEVY. Pittsburg, February zjrd, 1902. And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee : for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. (Ruth I, 16, 17.) A friend once told me a humorous story, which under ordinary circumstances, would not be repeated in the pulpit, but which I feel perfectly justified in relating here this morning. A young clergyman, of Protestant denomination, had received a call to a small church in a little town. His first sermon was full of spiritual truth and couched in the language of the fearless preacher. After the services the trustees of the church called upon him and said to him, that if he would continue speaking as he had spoken that morning, his church would go to pieces. Said one, "You must not speak against the liquor traffic because several members of our church are liquor dealers." Said another, "You must not speak against dancing, because several members of our church are inter- ested in the large dancing hall in this city." Said a third, "You must not speak against the theatre because the building is owned by one of our trustees." Said still another, "You must not speak against yellow literature, because the bookseller in our community is a liberal giver to the church." And so each trustee offered ad- vice to the preacher as to what he should not discuss. When they had ended, the young man turned to his lay helpers and said: "I must not speak on the liquor question, I must not speak against dancing, nor the theatre, nor yellow literature, nor any of the ques- tions which affect the spiritual welfare of my people. Pray, on *Stenographically reported by Caroline Loewenthal. 3 2116949 what subject may I speak?" "Well," said the chief deacon, "you can talk against the Jews, because we have no Jew who is a member of our congregation." Any subject, any accusation, any libel, any false charge might be trumped up against the Jew; there would be none there to defend him. The attitude of that church has practically, with some notable exceptions, been the general attitude of the Christian world toward the Jew. For eighteen hundred years there has been nothing too mean, too vile, too low, too base, to charge against him. Here, in one case he has been called benighted and ignorant, because his poor brain could not see how a God who once said, "I alone am the one God," should change his mind and after many years, add, "by one I mean three." He has been charged with being proud because it has been taught that "salvation is of the Jew." Yet it was not the Jews' Book which taught this; this doctrine is of the New Testament, not the Old. He has been charged with being a money-worshipper, a money-maker. Well, I do not see that my Christian friends, in this or any other community, "take no heed of the morrow"; I do not see that they are not toiling after wealth. I do not see that the Christians of the United States are the poorest people in the United States, or throughout the world. I do not see that they are the people, who like their master, despise wealth and live a life of poverty. I understand that through the influence fo this city, there has been formed one trust known as the United States Steel Trust, with a capital of much more than one thou- sand million dollars. I doubt very much if the Jews are the largest stockholders in that trust; but it is certain that that single trust could probably buy out all the Jews in the United States. So when people tell me my people are the money-worshippers and money- getters, I am inclined to quote: "You, too; we have no exclusive monopoly in this direction." Men, from the highest to the lowest, of the morrow"; I do not see that they are not toiling for wealth, because as society is to-day organized, wealth is not only the medium of exchange, but also the measure of value, moral as well as economic, unfortunately. Then the Jews have been accused of being uncouth and unpolished. Well, it is true of some Jews, but it is also true of some non-Jews. But what is true of some Jews, in this respect, and I despise their habits, is equally true of millions of non-Jews. It has been said of the Jew that he is not a patriot, that he can- not love his country. That he does not work for his country as other people do, is a base and false charge. In lands where conscription 4 prevails, where men are forced to do military service, he is com- pelled to serve his land. Military service may be regarded as a high form of patriotism, I ut military patriotism, I think is the lowest form that love of country takes. War is only legalized murder, and I cannot, for the life of me, see the truly ethical difference between taking a man's life on the street and on the battlefield, except that the law permits the one and forbids the other. Patriotism mani- fested in this way, nevertheless, has in the armies of the Old World, a large number of Jews on the Continent of Europe where the Jew must serve, yet, it may be news to many, that although the Jews serve in the armies of Continental Europe, yet such lands as Grmany, Russia, Austria and others will not permit them to hold the position of commissioned officers. The Jew must fight for his land; he must die for it, yet, to him, forever are denied the privi- leges of a position of honor. During the Civil War in this land, the Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, has shown, that upwards of ten thousand Jews (and there were not, at that time, in this country, more than two hundred thousand Jews), bore arms. In the recent war with Spain, every State sent among its men, its fair proportion of Jews. Admiral Dewey informed me himself that Jews fought at the battle of Manila fearlessly and courageously, as did other men of other creeds. Far be it from me to applaud the Jew for this. He has simply done his plain duty as he understood it. If military service is the test of patriotism, then the Jew has been a patriot everywhere. But if, as I believe, a law-abiding citizen is the type of the patriot, if a man who protects his home, endeavors to lead a clean life, strives to maintain a high standard of public and private morality, supports his own poor without making them a burden on public taxes, maintains relations with spiritual undertakings, is kindly, gentle, just, if this is to be a patriot, then it is my claim that the Jew has been the highest kind of a patriot. There nave been other charges brought against our people, which to-day we cannot discuss. But we take up that one charge which, to this day, dogs our very steps on the public streets! We are called an exclusive people; we are called a people living within excluding walls; we are said to put up an artificial tariff to keep out foreign importations; we are said to be th believers in the highest kind of religious Protection. We are charged with being narrow and bigoted and small on this question. We are scorned, forsooth, because we believe that the best ends of our faith will be served if we do not marry outside of our faith, although, in some form or other, this is the teaching of every other sect, also. Has 5 the Jew been the excluder or the excluded, is t'he question we would settle here this morning. Did we exclude the world from us, or did the world exclude us from it? We find in the Bible, even after the Ten Con:: andments were given at Sinai, even after Revelation, that Moses : arried out of his faith. In the first in- stance, he married before the Ten Commandments were given, a woman w>ho was a Midianite, not a Hebrew. In the second instance, ho. married a colored woman, an Ethiopian. The story read to you this morning from the Book of Ruth tells how this young Moabite woman haa married a Hebrew, ,and, at his death, married another member ot the same race by the name of Boaz. i'he Bible ap- parently approves this, bee-.: :o, we are told, in the Talmud that because of the fidelity of Ruth, and because of her saying the words, "Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God," she was rewarded by becoming the maternal ancestor of King David. We find also that Samson, a judge in Israel, married Delilah, a Philis- tine woman. We shall celebrate in a few weeks, the festival of Furim, which came into existence, bcause, among other things, our sister Esther married a Persian king, not of Hebrew birth. Throughout the Scripture you read of Hebrews marrying out of their faith. We read that when the Hebrews went out of Egypt, they brought a mixed multitude with them. We read in the days ot Mordecai, t'hat large numbers of the people of the land became Jews because "respect for Mordcai was upon them." When we come to the Talmud we find that Biblical laws of respect for the stranger were strictly enforced. The stranger was to become as the home-born, in the presence of the law; that there should be one law for the Jew and for the non-Jew; that if a non-Jew desired to join the faith of Israel, ne might do so if he followed certain rites, just as other faiths demand, to this day, in the case of converts. To be regarded as a true Christian one must be confirmed or at least baptized in the faith, and similar rites were laid down by the Rabbis of old for all desiring to enter the Jewish fold. The treat- ment of the stranger or non-Jew, according to Rabbinical principle, is one involving the highest consideration and the finest ethical ideals. " Who so deceives a non-Jew does greater wrong than one who deceives a Jew;" in relation with strangers it was the law that our "yea should be yea and our nay nay;" that our acts should be marked by the strictest sense of honesty, benevolence and justice. This was not something invented by the Talmud. It was the spirit of the Jewish faith, nurtured by the Bible which said, " Vex not, oppress not the stranger; love the stranger as thyself, 6 I for thou knowest the feelings of the stranger seeing that ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." I would not have you imagine for a moment that there were no proscriptions against intermarriage in the Scriptures. It was expressly forbidden for the Hebrews to wed' members of the seven tribes of Canaan, who were idolaters and pagans of the lowest order. When removed from Palestine the Jews married Babylonians and Ezra strove most zealously to overcome the influence of the introduction of Babylonian thought among his people. The Rabbis of the Talmud strove to keep Israel a people of pure ideals, extended, in some respects, the prohibition of intermarriage with heathens, other than the seven tribes of Canaan; yet set laws for the admission of proselytes, all of whom were to be carefully warned of the burdens they assumed by joining the ranks of Israel. It is only during the past fifteen hundred years that the most embittered dislike and distaste for general intermarriage has been engendered and promulgated, and if we turn the pages of history we shall find the reasons clearly demonstrated. In the year 320 C. E. Bishop Osius (Hosius) of Cordova, who had sat in the Council of Nice, convoked a council at Illiberis (Elvira, near Granada), and succeeded in passing a resolution which prohibited Christians, under pain of excommunication, from trading with Jews, contracting marriages with them, or causing them to bless the produce of their fields. In 339 C. E. marriage between Jews and Christian women, which appear to have been of not infre- quent occurrence, were punished with death, under the Emperor Constantius. In 589 C. E. the Spanish King, Recarred, prohibited, at the instigation of the Holy Synod, Jews from contracting mar- riage with Christians, and decided that children born of intermar- riages were to be forcibly baptized. On November 30, 1215 C. E. Pope Innocent III. and the Fourth Council assembled at Rome ordered that, from the twelfth year of their age, all Jews were to wear a peculiar color as a badge of their race, the men, on their hats; the women, on their veils; and this was resorted to in order to prevent intermarriage between Jews and Christians. In 1232 C. E. Pope Gregory IX. compelled Andreas of Hungary to refuse to admit Jews to office, to forbid mixed marriages, and to compel Jews to wear the yellow badge of shame and humiliation. Alfonso of Spain drew up laws (1257-1266 C. E.) in which it was made a capital offense for a Christian to accept Judaism, and in which Jews were prohibited from building new synagogues, from having Christian servants and from intermarriage with Christians. Luther, 7 to whom we naturally look for a great breadth and tolerance, said, " Treat the Jews as gypsies and cut out the tongues of their Rabbis." In the year 1619 C. E. even in the liberal Netherlands Prince Maurice of Orange, who, to his credit be it said, personally dis- approved the action, was forced to consent to a law that intercourse between Jews and Christian women was to be strictly forbidden. (See Graetz' "History of the Jews," volume II., pages 620, 576; volume III., pages 46, 511, 521; volume IV., page 674.) Who has been the excluder; who the excluded? This may be to many a new view. It may not be generally known that it was the Jews who were thrust out of society by the laws of the Church and the State, that on the statute books of Europe there have been these and hundreds of other harsh, inhuman, degrading proscrip- tions. The influence of eighteen hundred years cannot be overcome in one age. You cannot expect people who have thus been ill treated, a people whose most cherished treasures have been scorned and whose dearest hopes have been frustrated, a people who for ages have been refused the most elementary human rights, a people whose pride has been lowered to the dust, and whose minds have the results of those acts conserved and stored up in them, to deal with such a question as intermarriage thoughtlessly or frivolously. You cannot expect a people whose sole existence today depends upon a religious motive to discuss marriage, the most important event in life, by excluding religion from the consideration. It is my personal view, as stated here last Sunday, that mar- riage means heart going out to heart, hand seeking hand, life join- ing life for all existence, here and beyond. Marriage means the union of two kindred souls, attracted to each other by none but spiritual considerations. Marriage means the satisfaction of all the powers within us. Marriage means the hallowing of all the instincts and all the intuitions we have within us, for self-preserva- tion and race-preservation. Marriage requires love. Love is the poetry of existence, the music of life. And where you find man and woman bound by these ties, in harmony with the civil laws we make and with due regard for the demands of religion, there you find marriage. Outside of this there may be marriage before man, but not before God. When two people desjre to enter into the bonds of matrimony we find most often that lort is a much stronger force than religion. We find that Cupid is infinitely stronger than Faith. We find Venus a much more graceful goddess to be worshiped than Jehovah the God of grace. You may keep lovers apart, but lovers will break down bolts and bars and the heart will seek the heart and the soul will go out to soul in spite of restrictions, in spite of all the obsta- cles we place in the path of those who yearn for each other. When a young man and a young woman love each other, when they feel they are absolutely necessary to each other, when life without each other means living death, then you may set up all the rules of the church, all the dicta of religion you will not keep these people apart. You may preach to them, you may tell them of expediency, you may tell them of experience, but when love has inflamed a man and a woman, these things are as nothing to them. What are people to do when they love each other and they are of opposing faiths? This is a very important question. It is a question which confronts every person today, especially in modern communities, where social intercourse between Jews and non-Jews is largely unrestricted. It is one of the gravest questions in this beginning of the twentieth century. I am of the opinion that where people have no regard for religion they have no right to go to a preacher or a Rabbi and ask him to marry them. Where a man, from the beginning to the end of the year, has no respect for God and holy things and by his attitude shows himself in opposi- tion to the teaching of his faith, or the faith v of his fathers, it is absurd for him to ask the benediction of the church on his nuptials. A man, if he be born a Jew, who observes no Sabbath, no Day of Atonement, reads and debates no religious book, attends no religious service, identifies himself with no religious organization, may be called a thousand times a Jew because his parents happen to be Jews, but to me he is the worst enemy known to the Jews. A Jew must regard himself as being consecrated by birth to live in Juda- ism as long as his self-respect and his reason cannot rebel against it. If he leaves the ranks because his people are downtrodden and oppressed, then he is such a coward that they are better off for his having left them. Where a man by his attitude and life shows that he has no respect for religion, seeks no religion, wants no religion, then it is the veriest hypocrisy for him to ask a Rabbi to go through a ceremony which means nothing to him. It is making a mockery of holy things. It is reducing a sacred ceremony to an absurdity. Where people have no regard for religion they should not seek religion to bless their marriage. A civil contract could be entered into, and that will prove sufficient. Where people, on the other hand, have a high regard for religion, where people respect the faith of thir fathers, yet happen to be of opposing faiths, what then? Then we have, by usage, an 9 open door. According to Jewish teaching, any man or woman who is willing to accept Jewish doctrine, who is willing to promise to live a Jewish life, to investigate Jewish princples, to accept, in harmony with Jewish experience, the Jewish view of life and duty, is welcome to become a member of the Jewish faith and can as such receive the benediction of the church upon marriage. But, suppos- ing these people have, without the benediction of the church, sought marriage, what then? It is my belief that before marriage takes place every effort should be made in the direction of harmonizing the opposing beliefs. But marriage having once taken place, it is the solemn duty of parents who love their children to endeavor to harmonize after marriage. The parents who love the child, who has made what so often proves to be a mistake, and yet permits the religious barrier to create greater differences between people who have weddd, simply add to the burden of life of their own child. Hence, where people are opposed in faith but have no use for religion, then let them do without it if they so decide. Where people are opposed in religion, yet decide to wed, let them, if possible, become of the same faith before marriage as the surest means of maintain- ing the nearest approach to harmony in wedded life. Supposing, however, a man or a woman says, ' I am too high- minded, 1 love this woman or man too much to demand that she or he should go back upon the religion of their fathers." What then? Here is the gravest question that confronts us. These people wed, and if they wed in the fear of God, therei will be raised, in all prob- ability, a little later on, a young family. The child is born, and its advent is a blessing. The two souls stand as two trees parted, yet joined by the trailing ivy of child life. That ctiild is a moral being. It 'has a right to demand religious training. The child looks to the father and the mother, as it grows, for religious ex- ample. It sees churches built throughout the land. It asks the meaning of these buildings. The father says they mean one thing; the mother says they signify another thing. The mother says: "I will take my child to my church." The father says: "I will take the child to my church." Supposing the case of the father being a Jew, and supposing he is one of those careless Jews who pretend tlhat all religions are alike. He permits his child to go to the church of the mother. It must be very pleasant for that father a few years later to hear that child say, "All Jews are damned, because the Jews killed Christ. The Jews must suffer eternal pun- ishment. Mother and I will go to heaven, but you, father, you wfoo have striven, sacrificed, labored to give me the protection of home 10 and education, you, father, because you killed Christ, you must go to eternal damnation." The child that should unite parents, the child that s'hould bind, rends asunder. This is the question; not what the woman and man will do together; they may perhaps agree to disagree; but what shall they do with the child? That little child, born innocent of the lines drawn by the sects and creeds; that little child that may yearn for spiritual faith, what is that child to do when it seeks a religion and finds its own parents dis- agreed? With Jews, religion is the most serious problem of life. Re- ligion is the most important function of our whole existence. Re- ligion is the one vital question of our daily experience, or it should be. Religion is the sole excuse we have for remaining what we are. Religion to us means our life. Our whole "history is a com- mentary on this fact. The experiences of thei Jewish people tell you they have suffered all, dared all, endured all, for their religion. We cannot conceive from the Jewish standpoint, that it is the proper thing for one parent to go to one sectarian institution and the other parent to go to another. This may seem proper to some, but we have not been able to bring ourselves to believe that the har- mony of the home could be maintained if one parent goes in one direction and the other parent in another. That religion should fulfill its best and highest function it is essential that there should be unity on religious questions. You may tell me, "After all you too, go back to the old theme of your "racial" Judaism. You, too, speak of Judaism as if the Jews are, after all, nothing but a race, a survival of four thousand years. ifou are nothing but a small tribe scattered over the face of the earth. You are nothing but a Semitic anachromism and unfit to mingle with the' great Teutonic race or other members of the Aryan family who are right to look down upon you." Some day we will take up this question of Aryan and Semite, and I hope I shall be able to prove to you that there 1 is no such thing on the earth to-day as an Aryan or Semitic race. Expert ethnologists and anthropolo- gists have clearly demonstrated that the supposed glories of the Aryan races are a table, and that the 1 degrading attributes applied to S-ernitic peopies are as fallacious as a pure Semitic race is a myth. In this general destruction of old beliefs the fable of a pure Jewish race also breaks down. There is a Jewish religion, but no Jewish race. We are not to-day contending for the perpetuation of a race. I am not pleading with you to marry within the ranks of our an- il cestral faith, merely to keep up some physical traits and traditions. i the Messiah? 7. The Rule of Right. S. Forever and Forever. 9. Are Women Superstitious? 10. Are Reform Jews becoming Christians? 11. The Survival of the Republic. 12. Reformers, Deformers and Defamers. 13. An Easter Vision. 14. After the Winter, Spring. \:->. True Till Death. Series B, 1894-1895. 1. Masters of the Situation. >. The Greatest Living Wonder. 5. Criminal Curiosity and Cowardly Con- sistency. 1. Has Satan Conquered God? The Greater Lights. r >. I. The Light of the World Moses and th> Prophets. i'i. A Night in the Slums. 7. II The Light of the Orient Confucius. 8. A Parent's BU ssing. 9. III. The Light of Asia Buddha. 10. Heroes and Hero : ne. 11. IV. The Light of Iran Zoroaster. ' 12. V. The Liaht of Christendom Jesus. lr>. VI. The Light of Arabia Mohammed. 14. The Holy Catholic Chuich. 1"). Sunday Newspapers. Series C, 1895 J 896. 1. The New Jew. 2. Put Yourself in his Place. .'',. Home. 4. A Pilgrim's Journey to Mt. Zion. Modern Society. (). America and England. 7. Our Girls and Boys. 8. Orthodox Saints and Reform Sinners. 9. The Church and the State. 10. Being Dead, They Yet Speak. 11. The Radicals Appeal. 12. At the Grave of Jesus. 13. Overcoming Obstacles. 1 1. A Common-Sense View of Religion. Series D, 1896 J897. 1. Some Questions of the Day. 2. The Greatest Work Ever Written. 3. Success and Failure. 4. Syria and Palestine. 5. The Most Remarkable Work Ever Written. C>. The Jewish Man. 7 The Jewish Woman. s. The Jewish Youth Is Judaism Catholic? 10. Songs without Words. 11. Anti-Semitism, its Cause and Cure. 12. " My God, my God, why hast Thou for- saken me?" 13. See that the Repu' lie receive no harm. Series E, 18971898. 1. Dare the Clergy Tell the Truth ? 2. Are Our Cities in Danger ? 3. " The School for Scandal." 4. \Vhere did Religion come from ? because Mother told me so." 6. " Weighed in the Balance." 7. Custom and Conscience. 8. Are we Jews? 9. Unrequited Affection. 10. Which Sabbath ought we Observe ? 11. What good has Ingersollism done ? 12. What advantage has the Jew? 13. The Altar at the Hearth. Series F, 18981899. 1. The Fi-st Doubt. 2. " What Will People Say?" 3. The Basis of Matrimony. 4. The Rivals. 5. A Child's Blessing. t>. The Dawn of the New Era. 7. Nursery Rhymes and Superstitions. ood Literature. 9. The Lessons of History. 10. The Struggle for Liberty. 11. What Art May Do. 12. The Lost Paradise. 13. The Risen Jew, or Paradise Regained. 14. Nature as a Teacher. 15. The Drama. Series G, 18991900. 1. " New Lamps for Old Ones ;" or The Children of the Ghetto. 2. The Jew and the Gentile. 3. The Truth. 4. Home Life among the Jews. 5. Israel's Immortals. 6. "Onward and Upward." 7 The Sin Against Love. . Fool's Paradise. <'. " Logic taught by Love." 10. The Jew and the Synagogue. A'cman. A Purim Sermon. 12. Man's Inhumanity to Man. 13. The Moth and the Flame. 14. The Best is Yet to Come. Series H, 19001901. 1. Fashion and Reality. The Reign of Law." 3. Religion in the Nineteenth Century. 4. The Bible in the Nineteenth Century. ">, The Jew in the Nineteenth Century. 6. " Our Kin Across the Sea." 7. Science in the Nineteenth Century. s. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. 9. The Greatest Discovery of the Nineteenth Century. 10. The Jew's Revenge. 11. The Heart's Best Love. 12. Retrospect and Prospect. The above Lectures can be obtained at 5 cts. per copy. Apply to CHARLES H. JOSEPH, 202 Ferguson Block, Pittsburg, Pa. UTHERNREGIONALUBRARVFAaUTY