In the last number of the American Jewish Chronicle, an English weekly published by Dr. Isaac Straus and edited by the renowned journalist Dr. S. Melamed, there appears an article entitled "The Conversion of the New York East Side to Christianity", by an erstwhile missionary.

The writer, who himself was nearly lost in this impurity [of apostasy] but rescued himself in time, gives a description of the work of those "soul savers" on the East Side which reads, in part, as follows:

"There are many places on the East Side where the gospel of Christ is being preached to the 'forlorn sheep of i by Jews who would have them [their Jewish listeners] converted to Christianity. The services are usually 2held on the Sabbath because the missionaries aim their bait at orthodox Jews. We shall now pay a visit to one of these places.

"Upon entering the hall we are given a grand reception by a humble sexton. He directs us to a seat, and we then await the opening of the services. There are approximately one hundred worshippers, mostly young people, sprinkled with women and children.

"The missionary comes to the pulpit accompanied by a dozen Christians who aid in the service and in rendering the choral selections. The missionary then kneels and utters a prayer in faulty Yiddish. He then reads a few chapters from both the New and Old Testaments. His Hebrew is replete with errors. Some of the worshippers correct him aloud, but ignoring all corrections he continues.

"A Christian boy then recites a prayer in perfect English. He gives the 3Almighty sundry reasons why the church is consecrated to the conversion of Israel to Christianity. In his prayer he mentions everyone from President Wilson down to the most insignificant Jewish girl who has confided to the missionary that she loves to sing Christian songs.

"After singing a few hymns, the missionary then begins to read from a Hebrew text. What does he really say? It is understood that he endeavors to prove by miracles that Moses and all the prophets had prophesied the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, his suffering, and his death, and why the Jews rejected Him. In this manner he continues to interpret the passages. He is often interrupted by questions which expose his ignorance, but disregarding the derision, he continues.

"Finally he stops and wipes the perspiration from his face, and another Hallelujah follows. Then another Christian--a Gentile--takes over the sermon. He utters a few kind words about the Jews, and at the same time, 4unfriendly words, too. The unfriendly jabs in the side are his assertion that the Russian pogroms were prophesied in the Bible as a punishment of the Jews for having killed their own Messiah."

And the erstwhile missionary, who is now a repenter, asks, "Is this not the most heinous anti-Semitism that has ever been preached?" And is it not as nonsensical as it is malicious? Because if what is related about the Nazarene is true, He cried out before His death; "Heavenly Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." If this is true, then how does a Christian dare to say things which, in themselves, demonstrate that the Messiah's prayers were rejected?

This is the work they do on the Sabbath when, in their opinion, the Jew has a Diaspora soul and is more receptive to their doctrine. During the week, however, these fellows are still more sinister than on the Sabbath. He continues:

"The teachers are Christian women who devote their time to only one 5objective: to win over Jewish children to Jesus. For what purpose, they do not reveal, in order not to dismay those who do not wish to hear too much about Jesus. Everything is done to instill Christian teachings into the children and train their minds to be inspired by Christian beauty. The meetings are opened and closed with Christian prayers; passages from the New Testament are read; Hallelujahs are sung; and after laying a carefully prepared foundation, they command the children to surrender their hearts unto Jesus."

You will probably say that "this is naught but an old story." And we say, "Yet unfortunately, it remains new." And this story of Jewish apostates and the traps they set to catch our children does not occur in New York alone, but also in both larger and smaller Jewish communities. If, for instance, we erase from this article the name "New York" and insert the name "Chicago," it will portray a true picture of missionary work in our city. Traps are being set here to catch our children in the same manner 6as in New York. But what should be done?

The only means we can employ is to increase the number of our Sabbath schools and to arouse the interest of our parents to urge their children to attend these schools. Regrettable as it may be, it is customary for us to deprive our girls of a Jewish education--just as if they were not members of our people and future mothers of the coming generation of Jews. The missionaries are aware of this, and Jewish girls therefore fall prey to their traps because of their vague conception of the Jewish religion.

On the other hand, were our Jewish girls to attend our Sabbath schools where they would learn how to sing Jewish hymns and study Jewish history and tradition, they could no longer be duped by [these] missionary classes, where they are being robbed not only of their God and their people, but also of their parents.

In speaking of Christianity, we also want to discuss an interesting article which appeared last week in the American Hebrew, written by the Jewish scholar Dr. Isadore Singer and bearing the odd title "Ask for a Jewish Biography of Jesus".

You may ask what value this would have. And Dr. Singer says: "The world is in need of such a biography written from a Jewish standpoint because if we are true to ourselves, so long as we do not once and for all refute the condemnations imposed upon our ancestors and upon our own heads by myopic and spiteful Christian theologians and clerical writers; so long as we have not convinced the world that Christianity is no more than a phase in the religious evolution of the human race, and that the virtues inherent in it were introduced by Jews, and from Jewish sources; then, so long as all this is not done, we will be looked upon with contempt, not only in Greek Orthodox Russia and in Roman Catholic Austria, but also in this blessed land of freedom where the church is divorced from the state, but where society is Christian throughout."

Dr. Singer is of the opinion that the only one suited for such an undertaking was the late Jewish educator, Professor Schechter. He believes that Schechter could have become the Jewish Renan by compiling such data. It would have been more valuable than his essays on "The Wisdom of Israel"; his "The Way Pointed Out By Our Fathers", and his writings about Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.

But now that Professor Schechter is dead, we pose these questions: Who can take his place? Who can undertake such a great job, and upon whom can we rely? And Dr. Singer says, "As far as I know, there is only one man who is capable of handling this work, and that is Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago."

Mr. Baruchow is writing in the Yiddisher Kaempfer (Jewish Fighter) a series of articles on the economic development of the Jewish people, and expresses 9the following opinion on Jewish economics:

"Just as a relentless historical whip has driven the Jews farther and farther from the soil and nature and into thin social air, so does a bitter historical conspiracy keep the Jews in the bonds of economic slavery, driving them farther and farther from the soil.

"Instead of penetrating the sound and powerful center of economic life, the Jewish masses are whirling on its periphery. The fate of society does not depend one iota upon the needle industry, the baking industry, or tobacco production. All forms of labor originate from the central trades: agriculture, cattle raising, mining, and fishing, and extend far below the surface of social life and into the market of the finished industrial product.

"This is the historical disease of Jewish economics, and to perpetuate this disease is the desire of those who strive to fetter the Jewish people to the 10thin air of the Diaspora."

Here we might ask Mr. Baruchow why is Jewish economics a disease, if it is mostly exemplified by the needle rather than by the plow? Why should we be such sick people, and draw up theories to the effect that the fate of society does not depend one iota upon the needle industry, the baking industry and tobacco production? If people walked around like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we would fully agree with Mr. Baruchow that Jewish economics must remain in the background, because there will soon come a day when we shall no longer need any clothes. We believe, however, that we need not feel so humiliated because we Jews are tailors and not shoemakers, because we are shoemakers and not blacksmiths, because we are blacksmiths and not farmers, etc. Every person is peculiar unto himself, and every society is distinctive in itself. We Jews have developed certain trades which are beneficial to the world, and of which we need not feel ashamed or conclude that the Jewish economics is unsound.

At the present moment, it would probably be of greater importance for the development of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, if we had in Jerusalem or in Jaffa a few good garment factories, where the Jews could actually push their needle industry further, rather than follow the plow for which they are in general not suited.

We are now living in a time when industry occupies the most prominent place in society. The plows are now being melted down and made over into needles and other industrial tools. The worker who is afforded the opportunity leaves the plow and learns a trade, or enters business. This is obvious in America, and is even noticeable recently in such a backward industrial land as Russia. To lament Jewish economics, or to berate it in the form of some theory that it is unsound--we say--is also a sickness.