The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-01
JEWISH INNOVATION.
The Ancient Race Keeping up with the
Progress Of the Age.

The Jews are NOTING with the rest of
the world. They find they must, or be
forever stranded upon the shOal of some
past time. They have as keen money
interest in the world as any other people
or sect, and this will eventually drift
them into the current of affairs passing
before them, and bring them into sympa-
thy with the age in which they live.
The Jews have many ancient religious
customs, rites and ohservances which have
been transmitted from generation to gen
Grafton so long that they seem like a
packet Of old jewelry-Out of fashion,
and very inconvenient to take care Of
Fashions have changed, and they cannot
be worn as the world goes, but they have
them still to carry about in their march
to the promised land. Many of these
customs have become burdensome. They
belong no more to the Jews; the Jews be-
long to them, and such transposition of
ownership makes great difference in the
spirit and temper of the observances
themselves. The present orthOrdCx and
reformed divisions of the Jewish church
very naturally grew out of the religious
and civic situation. 1t is also natural
that these divisions should drift wider
and wider apart. Sweeping changes are
constantly taking place in the ritual of
the reformed Jewish church. They have
their separate temples for worship, sepa-
rate teachers and newspaper organs. In
the old Jewish synagogue the men sat
covered in the body of the church, and
the women were slowed away in the gal
leries. In the reformed temple both
sexes sit together and enjoy equal privi-
leges of place. The men also deem it not
only polite, but find it comfortable 10
take off their hats in the house.
These are very small things, perhaps,
but they constitute a departure. The
reformed church has dropped some of its
cumbersome ancient Hebrew load, and is
running lighter than the orthodox purists.
The members of it may also have given
themselves more license in the matter of
diet than the old code prescribed Many
things good to eat have been discovered
since Moses issued his bill of fare. The
Christian world took a notion to discard
the original Jewish Sabbath and estab-
lish day of rest for itself In Christian
countries the Jews find it very inconve-
nient, in a business point of view, to
observe their own Sabbath on religious
grounds and the Christian Sunday upon
cOmpulsiOn, because no regular business
is doing around them on that day. The
Reformed Jews may have to make an
other compromise with the general con-
ditions which surround them on all
sides, and so they will go drifting away
from their old landmarks, but lighter and
livelier at every step.
A few days ago another of the twenty |
six Jewish congregations in New York |
ranked itself upon the heterodOx or re-
formed side of the Jewish question. 1t |
was the B'nai Jeshurun. The synagogue |
had been remodeled and threw open its
doors to a mixed congregation, male and |
female, who occupied family pews just as
people do in any other church. While |
the improvementswe in progress one old |
Jew lifted up his voice in the courts,
protesting against the innovation as a
of his rights as a pew-hOlders
and submitting that the changes were
immOdest, unchaste, unlawful, and con-
trary to the rules of said congregation"
The court silenced him by deciding that
the society had the right to make changes
in the mode of worship, and left
the question to be decided by the con-
OF course the conscientious
old fellow was ruled out, and 50 much of
the world as worshipped in that house
went past him-,H. LOuis Republican.