The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-09-26
[For the VALLEY VIRG1NIANl
The Israel1tes.

OPENING A sYNAGoGUE-INTERE
CEREMONIES ELOQUENT DISCOURSE
OF THE RABBI.
Lynchburg, 1878.
The opening Of che Jewish Synagogue in
this city few days since, afforded most
impressive and novel entertainment to our
people. and was fully attended by the He
brew families, and many invited guests,
comprising the clergy, city officers, members
of the Press and medical fraternity, etc.,
There are in Lynchbnrg about hundred
Israelites, mostly heads Of families, nearly
all of them sober, Industrious, law-abiding
and prosperous, as is customary with this
sspeculiar people, everywhere.
Hitherto they have not been able to afford
a tabernacle, and have only had occasional
services at the houses of some Of the faith
full, but of late, without any Fairs, or other
begging or swindling methods of obtaining
funds, they have organized their society,
and leased the Odd Fellows Hall for u term
of years, for religious purposes. The hall
has been very handsomely re1itted, painted
in white and gold, the slightly brited walls
decorated with the Ten Cominandme
and various texts from Holy Writ. in gilt,
letters in the Hebrew tongue. The pulpit
and pews are Of dark polished wood, the
curtains and pulpit hangings of crimson
damask.
For this occasion the Hall was beautifully
adorned with flowers and evergreens. The
general arrangement is much what we are
accustomed to see in christian churches, ex-
cept that folding doors with crimson cur
tains between, back of the desk, showed the
entrance to the receptacle for the Ark. This
portion of the building is strictly nodded af-
ter the form prescribed in the Lentical law,
and contains the Ark wherein repose, ex-
cept during the services, the scrolls con-
tanning the books written by Moses.
Opposite the pulpit, and on the seat for
the choir, hung a banner displaying in let
Lord our God, The Lord is one.''
The audience consisted OF one of those
curious mixtures of races and nationalties
so often met in America, and supposed to
betoken the approaching millennium, in the
mingling of tongues and people. There
were many Gentiles present, nearly every Jew
IN Lynchburg. hailing, as is common to the
''nation without country" from many
lands and various chimes, and few Negroes.
nurses holding Jewish children in their arms,
or servants who had aided in the prepara-
tons, and were permitted to remain as spec
tators.
The Jewish women, were mostly dressed
in the extreme of fashion, the men being
usually in mercantile pursuits, giving the
female portion facilities for obtaining the Ia
| test fashions, as well as the dry goods where
with to display them, not always possessed
| by their Gentle sisters. As party of He
| brew ladies, deliberately arrayed, their long
trains sweeping the floor. decked with pro-
fusion OF ornaments, their hair dressed in
the height of the style, and surmounted by
the extremely unbecoming bonnets of the
present day, burthened with flowers, feath-
ers. bugles and laces, l could but feel that
these moderen daughters of Zion," no less
| than those Of ancient times, stood in danger
of the prophetic denunciation of those who
wore ''the chains, and the bracelets, and the
muff1es, the bonnets and the ornaments, the
head bands, the mantles, the primples and
the crisping pins" Doubtless in Palestine Of
old, as in every moderen land, women were
tempted by worldly vanities, from the pur-
suit of knowledge and useful occupations.
We sat long awaiting the entrance of the
s'Elders," and l could but realize the
strangeness Of the scene abouG me, when
according to our belief, almost nineteen GEN.
turtles after the advent Of the promised Mes
siah, here in this new country, so far from
the land of their forefathers, this feeble
remnant of the Sons of Abraham, were or
ganizing their worship after the manner Of
their people in old Judea, long ages back.