The Republican journal., 1900-06-14
non, and the ground on which it stands

non, and the ground on which it stands
was covered with the sacred dust OF
: Palestine. Ell Transito is much more
magnificent. 1t was built and presented
to his countrymen by Samuel Levi. the
wealthy merchant Jew who became the
treasurer Of Pedro the Cruel, and after
years of faithful service to his royal
master was tortured and put to death.
so that the wicked king could enjoy his
possessions. The walls of Ell Transito
covered with appropriate Hebrew in
scriptions, quotations from the Scrip
lures and the Talmud, are decorated
with sunk patterns, honey comb cornice
and engrailed inches, like the windows
of the Giralda at Seville. The superb
ceiling of Lebanon cedar, carved and
painted and curiously inlaid with tor
toise-shell, mother-of-pearl and ivory. is
supported by coupled shafts of colored
marble. Beneath the arcade broad
band, surrounded with exquisitely COW
cred foliage, contains the arms of Leon
and CASTLE, and is edged with the
eighty-fourth Psalm in Hebrew charac-
acters. Opposite the Holy of Holes is
the gallery for women, with its gilded
lattices, behind which they were CON
cealed from the view of male Worship
pers, according to the universal custom
of the East. The two pulpits Of the
: RohhiC Gifts tho ,x-,llc
twenty feet from the floor and entirely
destitute of onamentation. In 1894
Isabel gave Ell Transito to the Catholic
order of Calatrava; then the holy of
holes was converted into an archive
and the gallery of the Jewesses became
a dwelling for the guardian of the
! church. The exteriors of both these
+, old synagogues are very dilapidated
and have suffered from so many coat
| ings of whitewash that the colors and
many of the stucco designs have been
quite obliterated. All around are mar
row streets, to this day inhabited by
none but Isrealites. Their houses are
so small and so density populated that
| they look more like rat-holes than hui
man habitations, but are said to be
cleaner than anywhere else in Spain
If that be true, may Heaven save us
from sights and smells of the dirtiest,
| The history Of the Jews in Toledo is
peculiarly narrowing. After living in
prosperity and perfect security under
the beneticient reign of the Moors,
their tribulations began when Christ
ians took the city. First they were
taxed thirty pieces of silver per capita,
| the same being the wages of Judas
Iscariot, the betrayer. without whose
| fore-ordained office, according to the
Bible story, it would really seem as if
| the plan of salvation must have fallen
through. In 1887 the Jewish market in
Toledo was suppressed. A few years
later their synagogues We're taken from
| Them In 1870 the followers of the
meek and merciful Jesus, plotting the
further oppression and robbery Of the
Jews, circulated a false story to the
| effect that the rabbis had stolen and
crucified boy named Juan Pasamonte,
| in order to preserve his heart in hOstia
as charm against the Inquisition. The
| absurd tale is COMMUNICATED III a freScO
near the beautiful cloister gate called
| lei Nino Perdido:" and like the similar
story of st. Hugh of Lincoln. is a
1avorite theme with poets and painters.
| In HTS every Jew who had not been
! baptized was put under the ban: and
when the Inquisition was established i'll
| Toledo, 900 Jews became good CathO-
| lies at a single stroke, In 1892 every
| lrnbaptiZed Jew was compelled by Fer
| dinand and Isabella to leave SPAIN and
| upwards 10000 of them We're cruelty
expelled and their property confiscated.
| Thus Spain lost her best citizens; be-
cause, of course, it was only honest men
who chose Punishment and poverty
/ rather than become false to their faath.
AS they went forth from the gates OF
the city which they believed had been
| founded by their ancestors away back
i'll the days of Nebuchadnezzar. they
must have felt that their time Of cap
tivity had come again, and that once
more, as an outcast people, they had to
hang their harps upon the willows.
Jewish persecution ended long ago in
Spain, and now they may worship when
and how they will; but, being descend
ed from those who foreswore their
faith in time of trouble, they are not,
as a rule, the most desirable neighbors
FANNIE B. WARD.