Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1886-07-12
BEvlS MARKS SYNAGOGUE
An Old Building I'm London of Hlsto-
ricaI Interest Threatened
with Destruction.

est IN England Wnlcn tne jews can
boast, is at the present moment threat
ened with destruction at the hands Of
portion of its own governing body, to
the dismay of the majority of its con-
gregants and of the community in gen
eral-at least of those of them who pre-
fer sentiment and old associations to
merely money considerations and con-
venience. "Bevis Marks" is not, as
many enormously suppose, the first
synagogue ever founded here. The
Jews, who settled in England about A.
ID. 750, are known to have possessed
one in Old Jewry in the earlier portion
of the twelfth century, but the build
ing, together with all the other traces
of Hebrew settlement, was swept away
when, a little more than century
later, at the instance of the pope, the
whole Jewish colony, numbering near
ly 1900 persons, was banished the
country. In 1886 Sixtus " rescinded
the edict against the Jews, but it was
not till 1860, or $40 years after their ex-
lie that they ventured to return. The
permission to resettle was accorded, or
at any rate not withheld, by Oliver
Cromwell, the Jews great benefactor
of the time, in answer to the prayer of
Menasseh ben Israel, rabbi much es-
teemed by the protector, who q few
years later granted him a pension.
No sooner was the new colony founded
than they set about establishing syna-
gogue in King street, Dukes place;
but after forty years service the build
ing, being found insufficient for its pur-
pose, was pulled down and was replac-
ed by the present large and quaint edi-
flee in Bevis Marks.
The section of the Jewish communi-
ty who thus succeeded in gaining foot
hold in England consisted almost ex-
clusively of Hebrew ''aristocracy''-
learned, large-minded men who had
been merchant princes, philosophers,
and doctors in Spain and Portugal,
trusted and honored by their respective
countries before they too were thrown
into exile; and they trace back their no
BILE line of descent,-for no one is
more proud of birth and blood than
your Spanish or Portuguese Jew,-and
point out with pride how their ances-
tors were men of light or leading, and
power, too when their brethren of Ger
many and Poland-the later importa-
ton into Germany-were traficking as
peddlers and mOney-lenders and such
other miserable occupations as the per-
secution OF their Oppressors graciously
permitted them to carry on.
thus the present synagogue of Bevis
Marks Originally Burle's Marks, the
spot occupied by the abbots of Bury) is
the chief, and indeed the only, monu-
ment of Anglo-Judica worth preserv-
ing on account of its interesting his
torical associations, the only link bind
ing the latter. day Jew to his much
beloved past In 1893, or thereabouts,
the building was began; its main-bcam
at one time the mast of a frigate of
the fleet-was presented as an unprece-
dented mark of royal favor, and appre-
ciated as such, by Queen Anne. From
the ceiling were suspended the lamps
and chandeliers which, together with
some of the benches, had belonged to
the old King Street synagogue, and
which had been brought over from
Holland many years before. In 1902
the building, constructed to accommo-
date about six hundred worshipers,
was consecrated for divine worship:
and some years later Benjamin Mendez
da Costa, a wealthy merchant, whose
ancestor had been physician to Queen
Catherine of Braganza, purchased the
freehold and transferred it to the "Holv
Congrega of the Gates of Heaven.h
Among the members of this svna-
gogue in days gone by, names honored
and revered by the community, are the
IN