The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-09-05
new YEAR
Services at Progress Hall
Last Night
Interesting Lecture on The Jew" by Leon
Strauss The Sery ces for
Today.

"Rosh Ashona," the Jewish New
Year, commenced at O'Clock last even
ing, and it will be generally observed
today by those of the orthodox faith.
At Progress hall last evening there
was a good-siZed congregation, who
listened to Mr. Leon Strauss lecture
on The Jew" Among the audience
were many people belonging to other
churches in the city. The proceedings
closed with few remarks by the pres
ident.
Mr.. Straus said:
To-day, my friends, marks in the
history of the people of Israel another
year passed in the revolution of the
wheel of time and today in every
country under Gods mighty sky the
chosen of God, as He Himself has
called them, gather together in rooms
or temples dedicated to His holy
name TO offer up their humble prayer
and Thanksgiving for all the blessings
of love and plenty He has in His all
powerful and all-embracing wisdom
showered upon them; nor can the Jew
of today offer prayer enough TO Him,
as we of today look back into the CEN
turtles that have passed and read in the
evolution of time the strange fate of
the Jew-a fate that is pushing this
chosen one forward to IA full accom-
plishment of Gods mighty design,
which will see its end when man lives
in peace with his fellow-man; when
the lion and lamb shall lie side by side,
an end intended by God which can
only be perfected by those He has
chosen, only by the Jew. What a fate
it is What he has suffered in his
endless wandering to finish the work
his Father bade him do, and can we,
looking into the past and present,
doubt for an instant that he is the
only one who, in no far distant day,
will finish his Masters work.
so strange is and has been the fate
of the Jew: he has ever been the
simultaneously despised and dreaded
and distinguished of mankind; ever at
one and the same time a low, hated
peddler and a high, courted Lord Bea-
cOnSheld; ever at one and the same
time the scum and sage; ever at one
and the same time despised for his
meanness, dreaded for his sagacity
deified for his moral and spiritual
grandeur. Name the cruelty, name the
ignOminy which the Jew has not suf-
fered and endured; name me a coun-
try in which he has lived in peace
without having ignorance point the fin
ger of scOrn at him! Why? Because he
is a Jew. Where he has been ever has
it been said to him: The hand of man
shall be against thee and thy hand
shall be pOwerlesS to resist our blows:
where others dwell thou shalft not
dwell; where others walk, thou shalt
not walk; our laws, our occupations,
dress, speech and all that make life
worth the living shall not be yours;
thou shalt be compelled to reside in
the filthieSt quarters OF our cities,
there to be exposed to insult and pill
lage; thou shalt be compelled to pur-
sue degraded callings and then be des
pissed for not entering higher vOca-
tions.s And what was his crime that
brought so cruel punishment upon
him? What was his guilt? What his
transgressons? He is guilty of being
a Jew; he is guilty of the crime of
giving the world God before whom
| half humanity bends it's knee today:
| he is guilty of the crime of having
given to the world a Bible, a Sabbath,
| the DecalOgue, the Golden Rule, of
| having been the first to proclaim the
| Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of
Man, the first to enjoin peace and good
| on earth. He is guilty of the crime of
| having given the world prophets, bards
and law-givers, to whom the whole
| civilized world does homage. He is
| guilty of the crime of furnishing the
| greatest number of stars to the galaX-
les of the worlds greatest lights. He
is guilty of the crime of being among
| the most peaceful, lawabiding, indus
trious, temperate, loyal and patriotic
of men that live in any land. The
| prison scarcely knows him; the gal
lows. speak of him as a stranger; the
| divorce courts know him not; the in
ebriate homes never saw him; no
| almshouse need feed or care for him.
| He is the noblest, father, husband,
/ brother and friend; but yet he is called
| in accents of contempt and sheer, A
| Jew, The public schools rank him
| among the most gifted; the UNIVERSE
| ties among the most learned; the pro-
| fesSiOnS among the most capable; the
| arts among the most Skillful: the
| sciences among the most advanced
Name the leaders of parliaments and
peoples, the advance guards of thought
and progress, the heroes and pets and
idols of the people, and you must name
an overwhelming proportion of Gods
chosen people-the Jews, you must
name the Rabbi of Nazareth and his
precepts, in whose name so many Jews
| have gone down to a martyrs death
| because ignorance and prieStcraft could
not and would not interpret Alright his
Jewish teaching; you must name the
| SpinOzas, the MendelSSohnS, the Dis
raelis and the Laskers, the Richardos
and the Lassalles, the Heines, the Mey.
~,
and the Bernhardts, the Sir Nose:
Montefiores, and the Zangwills. He i.
further guilty of being clannish, fol
which centuries. of compulsory eXclu
sive accusations only with his owl
down-trodden people on vile ghetto
built by ignorance and hate, have OBJ
| scured his day. He is greedy an(