On My Mind: Unbroken Jewish Presence in Israel: Christian Testimonies over the Ages

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May 7, 1993 - I have always wondered how non-Jews see us, and how our most intimate character traits and customs strike them, especially as practiced in Eretz Yisrael. For this reason I have collected a large number of books written over the past 300-400 years, containing travel reports by Christians - Englishmen, Frenchmen, Swedes and Americans - who visited the Holy Land and observed the Jewish population there. Needless to say, such books are an inestimable source of historic information; We read of the number of Jews there, usually higher than we would otherwise estimate; the presence of the Arab population, which was practically non-existent outside of a few cities; religious observance, which was extremely intense and therefore misunderstood by Christians; the extremely harsh political oppression by the Turkish rulers; and the very severe economic conditions.

For this column I have selected excerpts from ten of my books. The earliest, from a trip begun in 1610, almost 400 years ago, describes the conditions shortly after the Kabalists had arrived from Spain and the Ottoman Empire. Travelers reported that Spanish was the spoken language before the influx of the Ashkenazic immigrants. "Spanish in Hebrew letters" refers to Ladino, probably the popular work "Me'am Loez," a commentary on the Bible.

The Swede, Eneman, visited Smyrna before he came to Jerusalem, and had learnt a lot from the followers of Shabatai Tzvi about Kabala. Swedish travelers, influenced by the botanist Carl Linné, were more interested in plants and flowers than in people. The British and Americans who came later were often missionaries, and were on the lookout for opportunities of proselytize among the poor and sick Jews who had come from Russia after the days of the Baal Hatanya and the Vilna Gaon. The exceptional treatment afforded Sir Moses Montefiore shows the suffering, by contrast, which Jews experienced under the Moslems for centuries.

Impressions of Jewish Prayers

It is interesting how consistent the reaction of Christian visitors was to Jewish worship which, with its spontaneity and intimacy with G-d, makes the stiff, formal and impersonal Church services, by contrast, seem arid and stale. It is obvious that the Christians were overcome by this contrast, and being unable to admit the superiority of the Jewish religious experience, pretended that the Jewish format of synagogue worship was "savage," "ridiculous," "barbaric," "outrageous" and "vehement," etc.

Here we have probably the earliest eye-witness accounts of the appearance of the Ashkenazic immigrants, either Chasidim or Mitnagdim, wearing "broad brimmed hats," and "twisting, jerking, wriggling and swinging back and forth like the pendulum of a clock" in prayer. We all recognize the fervor of the davening of our devout Jews, an everyday occurrence in our lives, of which we can be justly proud.

These books offer clear testimony to the strong Jewish claim in the land of Israel, where throughout the centuries Jews lived and died, and where a pulsating Jewish religious life always existed, carried forward by the certainty that a Messianic age would dawn when Jews would be their land and their beloved eternal capital of Jerusalem back again. It is therefore highly significant that in 1783 the Arabs still admitted that the name "El Kuds" for Jerusalem does not at all indicate any "Moslem" sanctity, but strictly refers to the old Jewish Temple, the Beit Hamikdash that stood there and gave the city its sanctity. (El Kuds is an abbreviation of the fuller Arabic term for the Jewish Temple, "al-Bayit al-Mukadash.")

All of the translations which follow are my own:

"A Relation of a Journey Begun in A.D. 1610," Sandys, London, 1615:

In Jerusalem, besides Moors, Greeks and other Christians, there are also some Jews. They inherit no part of the land, but in their own country do live as aliens, a people scattered throughout the whole world and hated by those amongst whom they live, yet suffered, subject to all wrongs and contumelies, which they support with an invincible patience. Many of them have been abused, some of them beaten, yet never saw I a Jew with angry countenance.

Throughout the Turks' dominion they are allowed their synagogues. Their synagogues have in their midst a scaffold, wherein stands he that reads from their law and sings their liturgy. They read in savage tones, and sing in tunes that have no affinity with music, joining voices at the several closes. But their fantastical gestures exceed all barbarism, continually weaving with their bodies, and often jumping upright, as in the manner of dancers, by them esteemed in action of zeal, and figure of spiritual elevation. They pray silently with ridiculous and continual nodding of their heads, not to be seen and not laughed at.

During the time of service their heads are veiled in linen, fringed with knots, in number answerable to the number of their laws, which they carry in procession. They have it stuck in the jambs of their doors and covered with glass, written by their chacham and signed with the name of their G-d, they kiss next their hearts in their going forth and in their returns.

Ladino Spoken

Many of their books are in the Spanish tongue and Hebrew characters. Their only studies are Divinity and physics. Their occupation is brokerage and usury, yet take they no interest in one another nor lend but upon pawns, which once forfeited are unredeemable.

They live through the Turks' dominions, and when they die, and the flesh is consumed in the grave, they dig up the bones of those that are of their families, whereof who shipfuls not seldom do arrive in Jaffa, to be conveyed and again interred at Jerusalem.

"Relation Fidele du Voyage de la Terre Sainte," Franciscan Traveler, Paris 1699 (translated from the French):

The Jews are divided into two sects, one whose followers observe purely the law of Moses, and another which considers the first of heretics. Both parties hate Jews who coming from Europe, have had contact with Christians. However they all get along with one another in business for they all have correspondents in all parts of the world.

Description of Jewish Holidays and Hospitality

In their religion they have three main holidays which are celebrated with great solemnity; One is the Passover, when each family pulls out a lamb according to the law of Moses. There is another holiday for which they assemble in the Galilee, the small town of Safed where they believe the Messiah will arrive. The feast of Tabernacles is also celebrated with great solemnity.

On October 15, 1699, I was at Scide in Syria, where there is a great number of Jews. I entered one of their Spanish-speaking synagogues and observed that its walls were beautifully decorated with branches of trees. I was received with great courtesy, as was the Spanish priest who accompanied me. The venerable elders of the community got up from their seats and offered their seats to us. There was a platform elevated some ten feet, where a cantor and eight small boys cried like possessed by demons, their bodies shaking and moving back and forth as the pendulum of a clock.

Although the Jews are dispersed throughout the world, they consider Jerusalem their native city. That is why a large number of them come there to die and to be buried in the soil of their ancestors.

A Swede Describes 'Gilgul' and 'Shechina'

"Resa I Orienten," M. Eneman, Stockholm, 1711 (translated from old Swedish):

The Jews believe in what they gall gilgul. Their bodies will somehow arrive in the Holy Land through dales and mountains, rocks and rivers, till they arrive in Jerusalem to be present when the Messiah (who Christians believe will never come) arrives. Those who go through the sufferings of this gilgul, instead of enjoying tranquility and good days in other countries, believe that they will be rewarded by being treated like princes and noblemen in the realm of the Messiah...

Those who come to the Holy Land want to see the Shechina with their own eyes, which they believe still wells at Kotel Hamaaravi, the last part of the Temple, where they pray incessantly. When I asked an old Jew there why the Messiah is tarrying for so long, he smiled and quoted to me a verse from the Song of Songs, indicating that he is about to come; "Lo, he stands behind our wall (kotel) and looks through the window" (Songs 2:9).

The Jews venerate several old sacred sites, such as the Toms of Kings, Absholom's and Zacharia's Tombs, those of Hagai and Malachi on Mt. Olives, and also the Prophet Elijah's tomb. They also go day and night to a site in Bethlehem, to pray there. In Jerusalem they have two synagogues, one called the German Jews' synagogue, the other, the Frankish or Italian synagogue, also used by Spanish refugees.

They send out emissaries throughout the world to collect alms for the Jews in Hebron, Safed and Bethulia, near Tiberias. The Jews are not engaged in any commerce, but maintain a few soap making shops.

"Voyages and Travels in the Levant," Frederick Hasselquist, Sweden, 1749:

Tiberias is a little town, half of it is inhabited by Arabs, who are the masters, and the other half by Jews, who pay taxes to the former. The Christians have no liberty here. We saw Bethulia or Saphet, whither the Jews go out of devotion to spend their vacant time.

"Stora Swenska Herrars Rese-Beskriving," 1783 (translated from old Swedish):

In Jerusalem, where the Holy Sepulchre Church is located, there is in front of it a marble-covered square, on which no Jew is allowed to step. The city is rather well populated, partly by Moslems, partly by Christians, partly by Jews who come here in their advanced age to die and be buried in the valley of Joshafat.

Jerusalem is called in Arabic "Beit al-Mokdesh," for the Holy House of the Temple that stood there.

"The Land and Book," W.M. Thoompson, New York, 1834;

My cicerone took me to a large synagogue in Jerusalem which was crowded with worshippers. There was something inexpressibly sad in the features, deportment and costume of these children of Abraham, as they grope about the ruins of their once joyous city.

The Jews come to Jerusalem to die, which accounts for the ever-increasing multitude of their graves, which are gradually covering the side of (the Mount of) Olives. A community gathering for that specific purpose will note be particularly gay, nor very careful about appearances.

The behavior of the worshippers was very peculiar and somewhat ridiculous. The men, with broad-brimmed hats, or whatever other headdress they possessed, were reading or muttering prayers, and while doing so twisted, jerked and wriggled about incessantly, and at times with great vehemence, so that "all their bones should praise the L-rd," as one of them explained to me. When they began what as understood to be singing, it was the most outrageous concert of harsh nasal sounds I ever heard. It was Hebrew, too, but if David thus "praises the L-rd," I should never have thought of calling him the "sweet singer of Israel."

Important Population Figures

As to Safed, it is prosperity in entirely owning to the constant influx of foreign Jews, drawn hither by the sanctity of the place. The population is about 5000, more than half of them Jews.

"Narrative," Church of Scotland, 1839"

The Turkish Governor of Jerusalem allowed Sir Moses Montefiore and his attendants to enter the tomb of David upon Mount Zion, and to pray over it, a privilege not granted to a Jew for many centuries. The Jews recited for a long form of prayer and read many Psalms, such as the 15th, 72nd and 76th chapters, over the tomb of the sweet singer of Israel. It was a solemn and affecting scene.

The British Consul, Mr. Young, gave the following statistics of the Jews in the Holy Land:

Jerusalem	6000		Kaipha	200
Nablus	200		Sido	300
Tiberias	800		Tyre	150
Safed	2000		Jaffa	60
Acco	200		Villages of Galilee	580

On the whole, Mr. Young reckoned that there are in round numbers about 10,000 Jews in the whole of Palestine. There is without doubt a constant influx of Jews into this country.

"The City and Environs of Jerusalem," W.H. Barlett, London, 1942:

Christians and Jews live side by side within her walls, in nearly equal numbers, of from four to five thousand each. The Jews occupy the rugged slope of Mt. Zion, over against the Temple. Once can divide them into classes; those who are natives, descendants of Jews banished from Europe by Charles V, and who are in more comfortable circumstances; and a crowd of Polish and German exiles, wholly without resources, except contributions gathered for them in Europe and Turkey. They are described as more fervent in their devotion to the Holy City than their native brethren, they pass much of their time in the synagogue and their rabbis are possessed of a larger share of the peculiar learning of their sect that those born on the spot.

Jewish Workshops

"Palestina," W. F. Palmblad, 1842 (translated from Swedish):

Jerusalem has nine soap-making shops, nine sesame oil presses, one large tannery, but otherwise no factories, no export except for antiquities, and no commerce. However, during Easter, the pilgrims stream here and traders from Damascus come here to sell their ware. The city which in the days of Alexander counted some 120,000 inhabitants, up to one million during the Passover, in our own days has some 12,000 inhabitants, of which 4500 are Moslems, 3000 Jews, 130 Armenian, 460 Greek Orthodox, 260 Catholic and the rest are Christians of various denominations.

"Those Holy Fields," Samuel Manning, London 1846:

We come to the Wailing Place of the Jews. It is closer to the Jewish quarter, the foulest, most squalid and wretched part of the city. The masonry here is the finest and in the best preservation, of any part of the enclosure. Many of the stones are twenty-five feet in length and apparently have remained undisturbed since the time of the first builders. Here the Jews assemble every Friday to mourn over the fallen state.

These travel accounts, eve if colored by Christian bias, are testimony to the devout Jews who, under very difficult political and economic conditions, overcame very hardship and sacrifice just to live and die on the ancestral soil of the Land of Israel. Through the deep impression these Jews made on these chance observers, they left behind a lasting heritage to stand their descendants good stead centuries later. They were links in the unbroken chain of permanent Jewish presence on our holy soil, which none of our enemies can deny. The eternal love of Jews for Jerusalem is beautifully expressed by the Franciscan priest 300 years ago: "Although the Jews are dispersed throughout the world, they consider Jerusalem their native city."

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