The Denver Jewish news., 1923-03-07
by GERsHoN AGRoNsKY

NNSps''e"'
".All things are possible In New
York" Is what every Jew has been
saying since Tuesday when the news
papers printed that account Of the con-
fessed renegade and defnmer whose
Rabbinical mask was ripped off Monday
afternoon In the offices of the Agudath
Hnrabonim. "Everything's possible in
America" Is probably being said thru
out the country, wherever the wires
or the malls have carried the story.
And, no doubt. in all Jewry. wherever
the report of this impostOr's denuncin-
tiOn has reached, people are resignetlly
shaking their heads and saying. We'll,
what will you? It's America -
Before the wave of disgust subsidies,
and the volume of old wOmen's curses
is exhausted and the last of the salvos
of rabbinical imprecations is fired. 1t
is well perhaps to review briefly the
elements OF the breath-halting story :
A promising Jewish lad named Ye-
huda Tillinger. coming of n moderately
poor family in Galicia il expected by
his fond parents to become Rabbi
in Israel To this end his family IA
cilitated his journey to Vienna scrimp-
ing. probably, at home that the boy
may pursue his studies abroad. A
change comes over the small town
student. Engulfed by the big city, lur-
ed by its alternating lights and shad-
Ows, overwhelmed by the number OF
things to he learned outside his pre-
scriled studies. he failed. Vague re-
f. ports of these things reach. his par
cnts Mt Zalaotwa. HIS pittanee Il di-
minished. discontinued. ludel's ca
reer at the Jewish Theological Semin-
ary IL checkered. A good enough
student perhaps. he does not behave.
and he leaves, probably after being
asked to leave. What is to become Of
Yutlel? The inevitable kind Christian
prelate' appears on the scene. He
helps the boy to his feet and the boy
makes rash promise: He will re-
ward the prelate's Kindness by embrac-
ing Christianity. Yudel accordingly he
comes an eminentiy fitting candidate for
Greek-Orthodox orders. And Yudel is
metamorphOsed into Father Stanislas
Tillinger.
All this. according to his contem-
poraries, about twenty-five years ago.
Tillinger had gone the way Of all ines
humo,iim" Nothing is heard Of him
until the Hilsner ritual murder trial
in Prague in 1899. He then issues
forth as the author Of articles IN o
Jesuit paper in Lemberg supporting
this Christian charge. His testimony
was ssigniAcant-had he not been a Rab-
binical student and were not his ar
ticles literally sprinkled with Talmudic
passages? ... And so it came about
that whenever Christian in Austria,
in C..iicia or in Poland, wanted to in
suit or wound Jew. he would call
him "Tilsner."
Austrian and Polish Jews have, there
fore. good reason for remembering
Tillnger
Soon. Tillinger apparently tires OF
preaching Christ Crucified" and makes
some sort of an attempt to re-enter the
Jewish fold. Some Jews in Lemberg
were willing to let bygones be bygones.
But there was one who said in effect,
Take back an apostate? Perhaps. But
n treacherOus libcller, defamer and
backbiter? Never" The Jew who
spoke to this effect il Gershon Bader,
Jewish journalist of New York to
whose accurate recording of the Till.
niger affair the unmasking and un
frocking of the impostor is largely due
Whether Yudel Tillinger prOsperetl
thereafter as Father Stanislas is of nc
immediate concern. What is known Is
this, that in 1920 he came to New York
looked up his Jewish boyhood friends
begging them to assist him to find a
Jewish position" Some recoiled, 9TH
ers pitied him, but all of them warned
him not to try to gain a foothold in q
Jewish institution. But Tillinger was
in no mood for friendly advice. He is
next heard of as an "orthodox Rabbi
in Easton. Pa, then as a candidate fol
a similar post in Trenton. N. j.. and
later as rabbi In Youngstown, Ohio
There, it seems, one man had recosniZ
ed him and Tillinger disappeared be