Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-25
CONFIRMATION
At the Jewish Synagogue Corner of
Main and Exchange Streets.

To the Editors of the Appeal
Determining that the reproach of having
eyes yet seeing not should never be mine l
resolved to attend the confirmation services,
which the papers informed me were to take
place on Wednesday morning in the little
synagogue on the corner of Main and Ex-
change streets. l went, and came away, after
rather prolonged sitting of four hours,
impressed with the fact that "there were
more things in heaven and earth than were
dreamed of" in my philosophy, Jewish
confirmation ceremony ranking high among
them.
Those land their name is legion) who in
cline to regard this peculiar people simply in
the light OF so many money coiners, peddlers
and usurers; who see in every Israelitish
face
A POSSIBLE sHYLoCK OR 4 PROBABLE FAGIN,
would do well to seek enlargement of their
own narrowness by following him into the
sanctuary of his holy of holies, where, for
the time being, he forgets the ruling passion
of his race and worships the God of Israel
with an entireness OF soul and simplicity of
form that to me were very impressive.
Never having been able to enter into that
spirit of persecution that has held good from
by-gcne ages down to the present moment,
denying that any good thing can come out
of Nazareth, in a woman's illogical way,
have concluded that l cannot be sure
enough good christian myself. Good chris
tians, you know, are SO fixed in their prin-
ciples, so decided in
THEIR PREJUDICEs
for and against, go unbendable in their su-
periority, and they such a strong solu-
ton of the spirit of intolerance as a sort of
disinfectant whenever they go among sects
that are not as they are, preserving their
convictions and their fixedness and unbend-
ableness so intact, that Pm quite sure Pm
not entitled to a place among them, for
carry about with me in this degenerate bosom
the absolute convictions that there are no
sects in heaven, and that the pure in heart
shall see God, be they immersed or sprinkled,
blessed by priest or rabbi. Thus free from
the shackles of prejudice, [ was prepared to
extract due amount OF serious entertain
ment from the ceremony in question, nor
was /
DISAPPOINTED IN MY EXPECTATIONS.
The synagogue, a small, unpretending
building, was beautifully decorated for the
occasion; the columns that supported the
galleries entwined with ivy and the showy
magnolia blossoms, while potted plants we're
everywhere, noticeable among them the trop-
ical-looking plant which is familiarly and
barbarously called elephant Ears" Hood
was wont to declare, in allusion to the un-
pronounceable botanical names of NEST
plants, that "people did not love their flow
ers or they would not call them such hard
names" Who could have invented such an
outrage as Elephant Esrs?" All the same,
they helped sdorn the synagogue hand
somely. The music was on q rar with the
general run of the church music here, and
attendance was full. The arbbi's remarks
to the confirmation class were interesting and
impressive,
PECULIARLY IMPRESSIVE
in the fact that he denies the act to be sac
rament conferring any special holiness upon
the recipient thereof, simply ranking it as
ceremony which lays certain high moral
obligations upon whosoever shall receive it,
which again / was unorthodox enough to
think a great improvement upon some
christian requirements. The spectacle OF
those white-robed maidens seeking first the
blessing of father and mother before they
bowed them before their spiritual preceptor
was touching in the extreme.
There was but one thing that seemed un-
timely and
WORTHY OF CONDENSATION,
and that was the determination on the part
of some OF the spectators to regard the whole
thing as sort Of peep-show, which they