The San Francisco call., 1899-07-24

Mason street. was filled to stand
ing room only with the audience
that gathered yesterday afternoon
To listen to the address Of H. Weinstock,
who had come down from his home
in Sacramento for the express purpose of
delivering his celebrated lecture, Jesus
the Jew
To the observer it was not the magni-
tude Of the audience, great as that was,
that struck him most forcibly. 1t was its
composition. Jewish rabbi and Christian
minister sat side by side and listened to
a discourse that evoked repeated bursts
OF applause from appreciative Catholic,
Protestant and Hebrew. All creeds were
represented and every sect found some
thing in the mastery and liberal lecture
to approve Of and indorse.
Mr.. WeinstOck spoke to the followers
of no particular religion; he appealed to
the communicates OF no particular faith;
his efforts were directed alike TO Jew and
gentle, and his object was to plead for
the universal brotherhood of man, with
but one God 10 watch over and he wor-
SHIPPED by all. Mr.. Weinstock spoke as
follows:
Looking back into my early boyhood
DAYS the picture is wildly brought 10 my
mind OF the old rabbi under whose m
structiOn l received my religious training
I recall upon one occasion how one OF
the pupils in some way brought into the
religious school a book containing the
name Of Jesus. ! remember when TINS
was made known by some other lad VINO
had noticed il with what indignation the
rabbi spoke, and how ne regarded the act
IS most sacrilegiOus and deserving OF the
SeVeTeSJ CenSure.
| remember how aroused and tmpas-
stoned he became while recoun1ng the
frightful sunerings and caIamltleS Wnicn
had been visited upon the Jews, Tor all OF
which in his opinion, Jesus was prl-
marily responsible. How, then, he con-
cluded could any seIf-respecting, loyal
~1l r4~F n FrglT- n m
tanning the name Of Jesus? How could
the name Of Jesus he thought OF without
connecting 1t in the mind OF the Jew with
the centuries OF lnhuIndn outrage ana
persecution visited upon him by the toI-
lowers Of Jesus?'
Jesus Christ os q Jew.
For many years these utterances and
teachings clung to ny mind, and doubt
less had their influence in warping my
thoughts and coloring my opinions. [
could not but sympathize with the feel
ings and sentiments of my people. and in
common with my orthodox teacher feel
within my heart and soul that the badge
of suffering had been placed upon the
Jew by the words and acts OF Jesus al
this I felt before | had had an oppOrJu-
nifty to read and to think for myself be-
fore the words and the deeds and the SEN
timents of the Nazarene. We're known to
me. In time the life OF the man from
Galilee became to me of profound inter
est: I read the story of his life as told IN
the New Testament; l read the conception
of Jesus as portrayed by some of the
ablest modern Jewish and Christian
scholars; I carefully studied his utter
ances as presented in the gospels: and
the picture of this great and wonderful
character grew TO me to be a very diff
ferent one from that painted by my Ven
erable and pious but uniformed Hebrew
teacher. I found that, according TO New
Testament traditions. Jesus was born a
Jew, lived a Jew, died Jew. | found that
he preached nothing but Judaism in its
purest and simplest form. I found that
the thought Of establishing a new belief,
or even a new sect. was fartheSt from his
mind, that his aim was not to follow
after the heathens. but to seek out the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. | found
that his mission seemed TO be to upl1ft
the lOwly and to expose wickedness in
high places found that he gave his
heart his soul, and his very being to the
poor, to the sick and to the needy. He
said: I am not come to heal the sound :;
] have been sent unto the sick I found
that he was a man of unbounded Sympa-
thies and Of great moral courage, that he
was simply striving to practice and to
preach the moral code established by
Moses and the prophets, and to literally
put into practice in his daily life the great
Iaw-giver's precept of love thy neighbor
sisted chiefly in preaching:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are they that mourn.
BLESSED are the meek.
Blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
blessed are the peaCemakers.
blessed are they which are prosecuted
for righteousness sake
| found these were all Jewish teachings
reduced TO a clear and simple form, which
the most orthodox and pious Jew could
not but accept as part Of his own faith.
Why, then, was it that, as the outcome
of such ethical Jewish utterances, the
Jew should have been so mistreated by
the followers of Jesus and Jesus so much
contemned by the Jews?
Then followed, on my part, study Of
Christianity and the causes which led to
Jewish persecution. II took but little
reading to learn that Paul, the GreCian
Jew, and not Jesus, was the real founder
of Christianity; that Paul was the man
who conceived the idea of spreading Juda-
ism among the gentiles by preaching the
God Of Israel and the man Jesus the son