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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
About six o'clock on the morning of Oct. 12th, 1914, the Porto di Rodi dropped anchor off Jaffa. No one with a particle of historical imagination can look for the first time without a thrill on the scene that spread itself out before us in the long luxurious roll of the Mediterranean and the easy flowing lines of the distant hills. The little city stood opposite us black against the morning sunshine, which came pouring over the mountains and into the Philistine plain. On such a day some two thousand years ago a man had gone up to a house-top in that city. It was also at the sixth hour, though, being Jewish reckoning, this meant the dazzle of the noon. The man did not notice the sky effects. His attention was concentrated upon a curious phenomenon. An object like a great sheet seemed to be descending out of the sky. As it reached the level of the house-top and he was enabled to look into it, he found it full of all sorts of squirming things, every one of them unclean and very offensive. Disgusted at the sight, he was about to turn away when a command came from somewhere: “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” “But I cannot,” the man said. “I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” “What God hath cleansed make not thou common,” replied the voice. While the man stood wondering at the strange experience, there was a loud knocking at the door, and he was informed that a certain Cornelius, centurion of the Italian cohort, wished to speak to him about a matter touching the welfare of his soul!
1 The Jews of Today. Henry Holt & Co.
2 Encyclopædia Britannica, XV, p. 406.
3 Philipson, The Reform Movement in Judaism, pp. 26 ff. Many of the facts in what follows I owe to this book and to newspaper clippings from the files of Dr. Philipson which he has kindly placed at my disposal.
4 Cf. the anonymous article on Zionism in the Fortnightly Review, November, 1916.
5 Philipson, p. 492.
6 The above citations are interesting reflections of the way in which the present war is aggravating the theological differences of Judaism. Already the possible effects of the peace settlement upon the future of Palestine have become an absorbing question for all Jews. It may also be noticed in passing that not a few among the orthodox have also been suspicious of the Zionist propaganda. The reason is partly theological, and is expressed in the following extract from a letter of Mr. Jacob Schiff to the American Hebrew of Sept. 22, 1907: “The political doctrine of Zionism has nothing in common with the Jewish Messianic hope. There is no Scripture warrant for attempting to establish the Jewish nation by human endeavor. To attempt to force the hand of Providence is always unprofitable.”
7 The history of the Mendelssohn family is the classical illustration of the influence of modern education upon the Jew. Moses Mendelssohn was the champion of modern learning, and his translation of the Old Testament into German did for the Jew what Luther's translation did for the German. But while Mendelssohn himself remained true to the Law his descendants became Christians.
8 Ruppin, p. 159, n. 1.
9 Temperamentally it may be compared to the Pusey movement in the Anglican Church.