Returning to Germany we behold the leading Jews at last awakened to the
necessity of energetic measures to check the wide-spread disaffection
that was thinning out their ranks. Hitherto the liturgy of the synagogue
had not been affected by the growing tendency to change. An attempt in
this direction was initiated by Israel Jacobsohn, the financial agent
of the Duke of Brunswick, a man of wealth, culture, and generous
disposition. He was shocked by the scenes of disorder, the utter lack of
decorum, that disgraced the public worship; he was resolved as far as
in his power lay to correct the abuses which had been allowed to grow up
unrestrained in the gloomy period of mediaeval persecution, and to
win back to the faith those whose affections had been estranged by
the barbarous form in which it appeared to view. He erected at his own
expense, and dedicated on July 17, 1810, in the town of Seesen, a new
temple,* at the same time introducing certain radical modifications into
the service which we shall presently take occasion to consider.
* The term Temple has since been used by the Reformers in
contradistinction to the orthodox Synagogue.
Being appointed to the Presidency of the Consistory of Cassel, during
the reign of Jerome Bonaparte, he took advantage of his official
position to urge his innovations upon the congregations under his
charge. In 1815 he transplanted the "new fashion in religion" to Berlin,
and in 1818 assisted in founding the temple at Hamburg, which soon
became one of the leading strongholds of Reform. A provisional service
on the same plan was likewise instituted at Leipsic,* during the
period of the annual fair, and tidings of the reform were thus rapidly
transmitted to distant parts of Germany. The main changes introduced by
Jacobsohn, and copied by others, may be briefly summed up as follows:
The introduction of regular weekly sermons, which had not previously
been customary; of prayers in the vernacular by the side of the Hebrew;
of choir singing with organ accompaniment, and the confirmation of young
children. These innovations implied a revolution in the character of the
public worship.
* Dr. Zunz was appointed preacher, and the composer
Meyerbeer directed the musical services.
The Jewish people had been wont to regard themselves individually and
collectively, as soldiers in the army of their God, commissioned to wage
warfare against every species of false religion. A spirit of martial
discipline, as it were, pervaded their ranks. The repetition of prayers
and benedictions by day and night in the privacy of domestic life, on
the public square and by the roadside, was a species of drill intended
to keep alive in them the consciousness of their mission, and to prepare
them for the emergencies of actual conflict. Thrice a day they mustered
in their synagogues, and renewed their oath of allegiance in the
presence of their spiritual king. The term Jewish Church, though in
frequent use, is a misnomer based upon false analogy. The difference
between the synagogue and the church is as clearly marked as that
between Judaism and Christianity themselves. The sentimental element,
using the word in its nobler signification, which is distinctive of the
latter, is almost entirely lacking in the former. Both make it their
aim to elevate the moral life in man, but while Judaism acts through
the will upon the affections, Christianity places the affections in the
foreground and seeks by their means to persuade and captivate the will.
It cannot be denied that the Reformers had in some measure modified the
traditional character of Jewish worship. The purely emotional element
acquired a prominence which it had never had before, the very word
employed to designate the purpose of the temple service--"Erbauung,"
edification--was foreign to the ancient vocabulary of Judaism. In
another direction, too, they transgressed the limits prescribed
by time-honored usage. We have referred above to the ceremony of
confirmation, which has since been generally adopted by congregations
of the Reform school. On some festival or Sabbath--the Feast of Weeks,
celebrated about Whitsuntide, being commonly preferred--boys and girls
of thirteen or fourteen are assembled in the temple, where, after having
undergone an examination in the chief tenets of their religion, they
are required to repeat aloud a confession of faith. The ceremony usually
attracts a large congregation, and is one of the few institutions
introduced by the Reformers that have strongly seized upon the popular
heart.
The natural concern of parents for the welfare of their offspring lends
a solemn interest to the occasion. At an age when the child's character
begins to assume definite outlines, when the reason unfolds, and the
perils and temptations that attend every pilgrim on the valley road of
life, approach near, an instinctive prompting of the human heart leads
us to forecast the future of sons and daughters, and to embrace with
joy whatever means are placed at our disposal to guard them against
aberration and misfortune. To utilize the impressiveness of a great
public gathering, the sympathetic presence of parents and friends, the
earnest monitions of a wise and revered teacher, in order to confirm
them in every virtuous endeavor and high resolve, is therefore fit and
proper.*
* It deserves to be noted that the ceremony of confirmation
among the Jews took its origin in the schools of Seesen,
Frankfort-on-the-Main, etc. Indeed, the first Reformed
congregations were formed by natural accretion about these
schools. The influence of schools in giving character and
stability to new religious movements is a subject of
sufficient importance to deserve separate treatment.
The propriety of exacting a formal confession of faith, however, has
been hotly disputed both by the orthodox and the more advanced liberals.
It is urged that Judaism is a practical, rather than a dogmatical
religion. Even the existence of a God is rather presupposed as a fact
than asserted as a matter of belief. Apart from this it is claimed that
a child at thirteen can hardly be prepared to comprehend the fundamental
questions of religion, much less to express convictions on problems so
grave and difficult. The age of reflection and consequently of doubt is
yet to come, nor can any child on the day of its confirmation answer for
its convictions ten years thereafter.
The progress of the Reform movement was thus of a character to awaken
distrust and fierce contention at every step. The conservative party
were enraged at what they considered unwarrantable encroachments upon
the traditions of an immemorial past. The radicals were dissatisfied
with the lack of substance and vitality in the teachings of the
Reformers, the shallow moralizing tone of their preachers, the
superficial views of Judaism which they scattered among the multitude.
It may indeed be asked how could better things have been expected at
that time. The great facts of Jewish history were not yet clearly known,
the philosophy of Judaism was proportionately vague and uncertain. No
Jewish author had ever undertaken to write out the annals of his people;
chaotic confusion reigned in their chronicles. To know what Judaism
might be it seemed necessary to ascertain in the first instance what it
had been; the past would prove the index of the future. Untoward events
that happened at this period gave a powerful impulse to historical
research, and led to fruitful investigations in the domain of Judaism.
"HEP-HEP."
The great battles of 1813 and 1815, in which the German people regained
their independence, effected a marvellous change in the spirits and
sentiments of the nation.
Accustomed for a long time to endure in silence the insults and
arrogance of a foreign despot, they had learned to despair of
themselves; a deadly lethargy held their energies in bondage and in
the fairy visions of poetry and the daring dreams of metaphysical
speculation they sought consolation for the pains and burdens of
reality. The victories of Leipsic and Waterloo completely altered the
tone of their feelings. It is a not uncommon fact that individuals
usually the reverse of self-asserting exhibit, on occasions, an
overweening self-consciousness, which is all the more pointed and
aggressive because of their secret and habitual self-distrust. We note
with curious interest the recurrence of the same obnoxious trait in the
life of a great nation. The novel sense of power intoxicated them, the
German mind for the moment lost its poise; Romanticism flourished, the
violence of the Middle Ages was mistaken for manhood, and held up to the
emulation of the present generation. Whatever was German was therefore
esteemed good; whatever was foreign was therefore despised, or at best
ignored.
The Jews were made to feel the sharp sting of this feverish vanity;
their Asiatic origin was cast up against them, though it might have been
supposed that a residence of fifteen centuries had given them some claim
to dwell at peace with the children of the soil. In the year 1819 the
assassination of Kotzebue added fresh fuel to the fervor of Teutonic
passion. In August of that year a professor of Wurzburg, who had written
in defence of the Jews, was publicly insulted by the students. A tumult
ensued, the cry "Hep-Hep"* arose on every side, and "Death to the Jews"
was the watchword. On the next day the magistrate ordered them to leave
Wurzburg, and four hundred in number they were driven beyond the city's
limits. Similar excesses occurred in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Meiningen,
Carlsruhe, and elsewhere. Inflammatory pamphlets contributed to
increase the excitement.
* "Hep-Hep" has been explained as an abbreviation of the
words "Hierosolyma est perdita" (Jerusalem is perished).
Probably it is no more than one of those meaningless
exclamations which are not infrequent in college jargon.
Grattenauer, Runs, Fries, had written to good effect. All the old
falsehoods were revived, the fable of the use of Christian blood at
Passover among the rest. It seemed as though the genius of chivalry
which the Romantic school had invoked had returned with its grim
attendant train to renew the orgies of mediaeval persecution in the
full light of the nineteenth century. In November appeared the
"Judenspiegel," by Hundt-Radowsky. In this the author argues that
the murder of a Jew is neither criminal nor sinful. In order to avoid
unnecessary bloodshed however, he proposes a more peaceful means of
ridding the German people of "these vermin." His propositions, couched
in plain language and delivered in sober earnest, are simply these:
the men to be castrated, and sold as slaves to the East Indies; the
women--but the pen refuses to record the fiendish suggestion. It
is mortifying to reflect that this infamous publication was widely
circulated and eagerly read.*