Part 6

 

THE  AMERICAN  JEW

 

AN  EXPOSE  OF  HIS  CAREER

 

 

by

Telemachus Thomas Timayenis

 

PROFUSELY  ILLUSTRATED

 

“Foul deeds will rise, 

Though earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes”

 

FIRST  EDITION  30,000  COPIES

NEW  YORK

THE  MINERVA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY

10 WEST 23D STREET, CORNER OF FIFTH AVENUE

 

COPYRIGHT, 1888,

BY THE MINERVA PUBLISHING COMPANY

 

Contents

 

 

Introduction.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 His Arrival in America  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter II The New-York Ghetto  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter III The Jew at the Summer Hotel  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter IV The Jew in Wall Street  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter V The Jew in the Tobacco Trade  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter VI The Jew in Politics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter VII The Jew in Journalism  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter VIII “The Great American Journalist.”   . . . . 77

Chapter IX The Jew Lecher  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Chapter X The Criminal Jew  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter XI The Jew in Petroleum  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Chapter XII The Jew in His Relation to the Law  . . . . 135

Chapter XIII Customs and Habits of the Jews

— Religious Doctrines  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter XIV The Jew Summarized  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

 

 

 

CHAPTER XIII.

 

 

 

CUSTOMS AND HABITS OF THE JEWS — RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES.

 

 

“Virginity, virtue, innocence, purity, are only so much capital with the Jew, a capital that one must defend, but which may be regained if lost.” — THE ORIGINAL MR. JACOBS.

 

 

 

“NOT even among the blindest of the heathen, have such base, low, grovelling superstitions and dogmas been discovered, as these accursed Jews have forged for themselves since the dispersion, and collected in the Talmud.”

 

Well may Luther say, — “if a Christian seeks instruction in the Scripture from a Jew, what else is it than seeking sight from the blind, reason from the mad, life from the dead, grace and truth from the devil?”

 

[Page 159]

 

At an early age the young Jew is placed under the instruction of a rabbi; and lest the reader might think that what follows is a malicious invention to bring the Jews into disrepute, we shall give the precise pages of the Talmud from which each selection is taken. The Jews endeavor to deny that they hold these doctrines; but it is nevertheless quite true, that all their learned men who have been converted to Christianity since the time of the Reformation confessed that these dogmas were intimately woven into their belief, and formed its groundwork.

 

The religious books of the Jews teach. that the Talmud is holier than the Scriptures.

“He who goes from the Halacha (the Talmudical teaching) to the Scriptures will have no more luck; [1] and good-luck the Jews prize dearly above all things.”

 

The Talmud teaches, that he who reads only in the Scriptures, and not in the Talmud, is like one who has no God. [2]

 

The Talmud teaches,

“The holy and ever-blessed One can sin; and the greatest sin He has committed was in having created the accursed Nazarene the — Jesu — the idol of the children of Edom;” our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The Jews believe that their rabbis are infallible.

“Knowest thou not that when a rabbi says, ‘This thy’ right hand is thy left, and this thy left hand is thy right,’ thou must believe it, or thou wilt be damned?” [3]

 

---

 

[1] Talmud, tract. Chagiga. fol. x., col. i., Raf. Aschi, the author of the Gamara, a portion of the Talmud.

[2] Talmud, tract. Eruvin.

[3] Tergum upon Deut. xvii. 11.

 

[Page 160]

 

“The word of a rabbi is more to be esteemed than the words of the law; and their words are more beautiful than the words of the prophets, for they are words of the living God.” [1]

 

The Talmud teaches that Christ was the son of an evil woman, who learned sorcery in Egypt, and he hid the sorcery in his flesh, in a wound which he made therein, and with the magic he deceived the people, and turned them from God. He practised idolatry with a baked stone, and prostrated himself before his own idol; and finally, as a fit punishment, he was first stoned to death, upon the eve of the Passover, and then hung upon a cross made of a cabbage-stalk, after which Onkelos, [2] the faIlen Titus’s sister’s son, “conjured him up out of hell.” [3]

 

---

 

[1] Talmud, tract. Sanhedrim.

 

[2] ONKELOS. — It is undetermined among the learned, whether Onkelos was a Jew by birth, or a proselyte who embraced Judaism after having arrived at years of maturity. Some writers have confounded him with Aquila of Pontus, who was first a heathen, afterwards embraced Christianity, and lastly apostatized to Judaism; and after his apostasy produced a version of the Old Testament into Greek, about the year of Christ 130. Others have described him as a nephew of Titus Vespasian, the Roman emperor, proselyted after the destruction of Jerusalem. Others have affirmed that he was a proselyte, contemporary with Jonathan, though considerably younger, and one of the disciples of Hillel and Shammai. His name is considered by some as affording decisive evidence that he was of Gentile race; while others think it altogether incredible that he could have attained the accuracy and elegance which distinguish his composition, unless he had been born and educated a Jew.

 

His work is rather a version than a paraphrase, and has been much admired for its close adherence to the words, and general fidelity to the meaning, of the sacred original. In simplicity and purity of style, it approaches more nearly to the Chaldee of Daniel or Ezra than any other writing now extant. This circumstance affords no slight ground for the conjecture, that it is more ancient than even the Targum of Jonathan on the Prophets. The Jews considered themselves obliged every sabbath day to read the section or lesson for that week once in the original Hebrew, and once in the Targum; a practice which, though in a great measure if not wholly discontinued in this part of the world, is still retained among the Jews in Palestine. Many Jews believe that Onkelos only committed to writing what he had been handed down by tradition from Mount Sinai.

 

[3] “Although the Jews deny that Christ is named in the Talmud, saying that another Jesus is meant, yet Eisenmenger has fully proved the contrary, on the most convincing grounds.” — WILLIAM MEINHOLD.

 

[Page 161]

 

The Talmud teaches that,

“it is impossible to find more detestable Goym than these impure and dumb children of Talvus, these Christian swine.”

 

The Talmud teaches that it is permitted to rob the Christians, and to despoil them of their goods.

“Wherefore are we the selected people if we could not despoil the children of Edom [the Christians]? They are our slaves, for we have gold, and they have none.” [1]

 

Children of Edom, children of harlots, swine, dogs, abominations, worshippers of the crucified, idolaters — such are the titles freely given to Christians by the rabbis.

 

---

 

[1] Tract.Bava Mezia.

 

[Page 162]

 

The religious books of the Jews teach, and it is expressly stated in the Parascha Bereschith, that:

“It is permitted to the just to deal deceitfully, even as Jacob dealt; and if our fathers of blessed memory acted thus, we were fools indeed not to skin the Christian dogs, and flog them to the death. Curse on the unclean swine!”

 

The Talmud teaches that a Jew can swear falsely against a Christian.

“Hereupon the blessed Rabbi Akkiva took the oath with his lips, but in his heart he abjured it.” [1]

 

The Talmud sanctions the violation of the marriage vow, “with the wives of the unclean Christian dogs.”

 

“Wherefore not?” says the Talmud. For Moses saith (Lev. xx. 10), “He who committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife shall be put to death.” So, saith the Talmud, the wives of others are excepted; and Rabbi Solomon expressly states on this passage, that under the word “others,” the wives of Goym, or the Christian dogs, are meant. [2]

 

 

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[1] Talmud, tract. Calla.

 

[2] Talmud, tract. Sanhedrin.

 

[Page 163]

 

The Talmud enjoins upon every Jew to curse the Christians three times daily.

“Your duty is to curse them three times daily. Then wilt thou be recompensed threefold when the Messiah comes, and the fine dishes and the fine clothes will grow out of the blessed earth of themselves, that it will be a pleasure to see them.” [1]

The Talmud expressly says, “The accursed swine, the Christians, will not partake of the blessings” which, by the way, consist of precious stones and of abundant food which are promised to the Jews “when the Messiah comes.” The Christians are called “accursed swine,” because;

“they eat swine’s flesh, and believe on the Talvus [our Lord Jesus Christ], who deceived the people through his sorceries.” [2]

 

The Talmud says:

“It is commanded to slay those of Israel who deny the law and the prophets. If the power is in our hands, then they are to be killed publicly; if not, then we must seek by craft or deceit to accomplish their death.” [3]

 

The rabbis do not allow those persons who apostatize from Judaism to Christianity time for consideration or repentance. Apostasy is deemed to require immediate extermination; they pronounce it to be the duty of all faithful Israelites not to suffer an apostate to die a natural death, but to hurry him, either by public execution or private assassination, into those torments which await him in another state.

 

---

 

[1] Eisenmenger quotes a prayer-book of the Jews on this subject, called The Great Tephilla.

 

[2] An extract from the horrible Book of Curses against the Saviour, the Toledoth Joscher, is given in Eisenmenger; the entire extract is printed in Dr. Wagenseil’s Tela Ignea Satanae.

 

[3] This passage is cited in the original Hebrew, and accompanied with an English version, in Frey’s narrative, pp. 110, 111. See also Abarb. Bosh. Amuna, fol. 5, col. 1.

 

[Page 164]

 

Abarbinel says:

“If any man do not believe all these articles in a right manner, he is already excluded from the sum [that is, Israel]; such a person denies the foundation, and … it is our duty to hate, despise, and destroy him.”

 

In countries blessed with a regular and vigilant police, the justice of human laws may deter Jews from proceeding to this murderous extremity. But the spirit of the generality of the Jewish people is sufficiently manifest in the reproachful appellations by which they designate their brethren who have embraced Christianity, and in the curses with which the mention of an ex-Jew seldom fails to be accompanied by the disciples of the Talmud. One of their most common terms of reproach is Meshummad, which signifies a person ruined and destroyed; and the imprecation that generally follows is, Jemach Shemo Vesicro, — let his name and memory be blotted out. “Let his name be blotted out,” is a curse they discharge also against a Christian.

 

To show the hatred which the Jews entertain toward the Christians, it suffices to state that the Jewish faith, while it teaches;

“that the pious among the heathens will be partakers of future happiness,” expressly says that “even the pious among the Christians will be damned.”

 

Examine the Jew in any light, whether from a religious or simply human standpoint, and the one conclusion is arrived at, that the Jew is a vampire feeding on the blood of Christians, and that the Jew is the sworn enemy of the Gentiles.

 

[Page 165]

 

The rabbis have employed all the means which enmity and ingenuity could supply, to perpetuate and strengthen the prejudices of their nation against the Christian religion. Among other acts of hostility, they have left no artifice untried to render the very name of its Founder an object of abhorrence. Finding his character unimpeachable by the testimony of truth, they have adopted the nefarious policy of his Pharisaic and Sadduceean persecutors, of resorting to the fabrications of falsehood. Unable to disprove or invalidate the histories of the Evangelists, they have endeavored to supplant them; and spurious narratives, which pretend to recount the circumstances of the birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, have been imposed upon the deluded members of the synagogue from age to age down to the present day. In imitation of the superscription of St. Matthew’s Gospel, one of — these productions has been entitled “Sepher Toldoth Yeshu or Jeshu,” the Book of the Generation of Jesus. Another book, written with the same design, and bearing the same title, but differing from the former in various particulars, has been published in a small volume, accompanied with a Latin version and a refutation by Huldric.

 

[Page 166]

 

The Jews have been exceedingly careful to conceal these books from the eyes of Christians; and since copies of them have been obtained, and published to the world, they have very generally disowned them. But a writer thoroughly familiar with the inner life of the Jews says:

“The ‘Toldoth Yeshu’ is in universal circulation among the Jews; in fact, their children are taught it as they are taught nursery-tales, and thence imbibe that inveterate prejudice against the historical relations of the Gospels, which is so difficult to eradicate from their minds in more advanced years. For the answer is always the same: ‘You believe all this, but we know better: we have the real history of Jesus, and it contains such things as we must not mention.’” Elsewhere the same writer says, “The Jews are anxious to make the Christian public believe that they place no reliance upon these publications; but it is notorious that throughout Europe they are in general circulation, though covertly; and even where the books themselves are not known, the narrations they contain are received and transmitted by tradition as authentic.”

 

“On the evening preceding the 25th of December,” says one who was born a Jew and educated in the religion of the Talmud;

“it being supposed that Christ was born on that evening, the Jews do not study any thing sacred; but our teacher always made us read a little book called ‘Toldoth Jeshu, the Generation of Jesus,’ which contains the most horrid blasphemies, and is calculated to fill any person who believes it with prejudice, disgust, and hatred against Jesus and his followers.”

 

[Page 167]

 

Last year, on Dec. 25, in New York, in a certain synagogue in Fifth Avenue, the Jews read passages from “Sepher Toldoth Yeshu or Jeshu,” and pronounced anathemas against the enemies of the Jews. Still there are Gentile voters who cast their ballot for the Jews. There are men to be found in this country, who by their influence enable the Jews to occupy prominent judicial and political positions!

 

The Jew is an enemy of our country, of our laws, of our habits, of our institutions, in a word, of every thing founded upon Christian doctrines and principles. No one familiar with Jewish history and traditions can deny this. Only he who is ignorant of the inner life of the Jews, only he, may shrug his shoulders and disbelieve. But let such a one take pains to study the Talmud, that book of Jewish blasphemy and vituperation; let him make himself familiar with the life of the Jews, even the most prominent of the race; let him look into their past, and he will, far from casting his vote to elect a Jew, even to the humblest public position, join the movement to have special laws passed prohibiting any candidate known to have a drop of Jewish blood in his veins from filling any public office.

 

[Page 168]

 

The only real danger against which we must guard lies in the Jew.

 

* * * * * * * * *

 

Let us now describe a few of the ceremonies of this strange and mysterious people.

 

When a Jewish woman is pregnant, and the period of her delivery is at hand, her chamber is to be decently prepared, and furnished with all things necessary for the occasion. The Jewish canons strictly forbid the employment of a Christian midwife, except in cases of necessity, or unless such Christian midwife be surrounded by several Jewesses.

 

If the woman be safely delivered of a son, it is an occasion of great joy to the family; and it is the custom of some, on the evening of the sabbath following the birth of a boy, to hold a feast which they call Jeslma Haben, “the safety of the son” to give expression to their joy that a son is born into the world, The next object of attention is to provide for the solemn feast of the circumcision, by procuring dainties of all kinds, fish, flesh, and fowl, and wines. During these preparations the guests are invited, who must not be fewer than ten in number, and who must all have passed the thirteenth year of their age.

 

The circumciser must be a Jew; a man of experience, vigilance, and industry. Women, because they are not circumcised themselves are excluded from this office.

 

[Page 169]

 

Inexperienced circumcisers are not easily admitted to circumcise the children of wealthy Jews, who are afraid of novices, and seldom consent to run the danger of the first experiment. This is generally tried upon the son of some poor Jew, whose consent is obtained by money. A circumciser is distinguished from others by the very long and sharp nails with which both his thumbs are adorned, as the badge of his profession.

 

The instrument used may be of any material adapted for cutting, as stone, glass, or wood; but generally a steel knife — very sharp, like a surgeon’s lancet — is employed. Among the richer Jews, the haft is sometimes carved silver, embellished with jewels.

 

In due season must also be provided a person whom the rabbis call baal-berith, “the godfather,” and both he and the operator are required to be men of piety, probity, and industry; a most difficult combination, indeed, to discover in Israel, requiring an extensive search by a most alert Diogenes armed with a more than ordinarily well-trimmed lantern. The individuals selected, and who are alleged to be endowed with these requisite qualities, are to act as masters of ceremony, and are to see that every thing is performed with due precision.

 

[Page 170]

 

The proper day for the circumcision is the eighth. it must never be sooner than the eighth; it may, in some instances, be the ninth, tenth, eleventh, or even twelfth, but never later, except in cases of illness. Circumcision is never performed at night, but generally in the morning, while the infant is fasting, because then the wound is believed to bleed less than when food has been taken into the stomach. And attention to this rite at an early hour is considered as testifying an alacrity and promptitude in observing the Divine precepts.

 

The preparations for the ceremony are all conducted in the most splendid style that the circumstances of the father enable him to attain.

 

First of all they provide two seats or chairs, or one with a division in the middle supplying the place of two, adorned, when it can be afforded, with beautiful coverings and silken cushions.

 

The ceremony is performed either in the synagogue or in small room of the father’s house.

“Then in the synagogue, the scat or seats must be placed near the chest in which the book of the law is deposited, a precinct esteemed peculiarly sacred.”

 

[Page 171]

 

Then the baal-berith approaches the chair, and near him stand the circumciser. The other Jews follow, one of whom calls with a loud voice for every thing requisite to he brought. Then enter some boys, one of them carrying a large torch consisting of twelve wax-tapers, in allusion to the twelve tribes. Others follow, bearing in their hands jugs or bowls of red wine. Then comes another with the knife, another with a plate of sand; and lastly another brings a platter with olive-oil, in which pieces of clean, fine, and delicate linen lie steeping, to be laid upon the wound. All draw close together, and place themselves as near as possible to the circumciser, in order to see and learn every thing, for the sake of which experience it is not unusual for boys who aspire to become circumcisers to pay money. Some of the attendants are also provided with sweetmeats and wine, cloves, cinnamon, and other spices, in readiness for the father, or baal-berith, or other friends, if any of them happen to faint at the anguish of the infant. When they are all assembled, the baal-beritlt, as master of the ceremony, seats himself in one of the chairs, or in one part of the double chair; and the circumciser sits over against him, and with a loud voice sings the song which the children of Israel sang after their passage through the Red Sea, and after that, several other songs. Next to him stands the father, to signify that the circumciser is his deputy or representative.

 

Then the women come to the door of the room or synagogue with the infant. Before this the child must have been bathed in a temperate bath, well washed. and carefully cleansed from all impurity, and wrapped in a swath, that it may be clean during the ceremony: otherwise it is not allowable to say any prayers over it; and if, while they are proceeding, the infant happen to befoul itself, the prayers must be suspended till it is again cleansed.

 

[Page 172]

 

The baal-berith then lays the infant on his knees. The circumciser loosens the swath with which the child is bound, seizes the prepuce,. passes back the glans, fixes the prepuce in a kind of pincers, and then rubs the prepuce till the sensation is so much blunted that the child can have very little feeling of the wound when it is inflicted. Then taking the knife he offers a prayer, and cuts off a small piece at the extremity of the prepuce, and throws it into a plate of sand. Then, taking a bowl, he fills his mouth with wine, of which he sprinkles part upon the wound, and spurts part upon the infant’s face, especially if he perceive any signs of debility in the child.

 

In New York is a man who sells wine on commission, and makes a specialty of circumcising free of charge, in consideration of his receiving an order for the wine of the house which he represents. Owing to the feasting and rejoicing which are going on at the period of circumcision, it is an excellent time to sell wine to the family of the circumcisee, if the expression may be used; and this worthy and enterprising wine-salesman drives a large trade. As he discharges the wine from his mouth over the child’s person, he is wont to smack his lips in a business-like way, as in expressive appreciation of the quality, of the wine which has just rested upon his palate Just imagine it! Free circumcision thrown in as a bonus upon an order for a dozen bottles of wine! Would it not be a clever business some enterprising Gentile wine-house to engage a Jew salesman, accomplished alike as a drummer and a circumciser? Or, with each bottle sold, a ticket might be given away, bearing on its face the information that the holder of one dozen of these tickets would be entitled to one first-class circumcision free of charge.

 

[Page 173]

 

Before the blood has covered the wound, or as soon as its effusion has a little diminished, the circumciser applies his thumb-nails to the remainder of the cuticle which still covers part of the glans; and, pressing it apart, rolls it back, so that it forms a kind of ring round the glans. This operation is called periah, and the pains it occasions to the infant are far more acute than those of circumcision itself. In the next place, to draw out all the extravasated blood, to stop the hemorrhage, and to prevent inflammation, the circumciser sucks the blood into his mouth, and then spits it out into one of the cups, or into the sand-plate. After this he takes some of the linen moistened with oil, and binds it three or four times over the wound, and then wraps up the infants again in swaths. The ceremony concludes with a long prayer containing petitions for the child.

 

The birth of a girl is attended with little feasting or jollity. No ceremonies are used; but at the end of the month, when the mother goes to the synagogue, the chassan or prayer-reader pronounces a benediction over the child, and gives her the name selected by the father.

 

[Page 174]

 

The law of Moses exacts forty days for the purification of a woman after the birth of a son, and eighty days after the birth of a daughter. The rabbis have abolished the distinction, and limited the time to forty days in each case. During this period her husband is to abstain from all intercourse with her; he is not allowed to touch her with a finger, or to eat of the same dish. Nor is the interdiction removed till she has undergone the cusry ablution which is required to be performed with a particularity which it would be tedious to describe.

 

The education of Jewish children varies in many particulars in different countries, and according to the external circumstances of the parents; but among those who are esteemed by their brethren as the best members of the community, their daughters are generally taught to read the Hebrew prayer-book, that is, merely to pronounce the words without under standing the meaning of a single sentence. Beyond this acquisition their religious education is very rarely known to extend. Their sons begin to learn the Hebrew alphabet soon after they are able to speak; and at an early age they are taught to read the law, the Mishna, and the Gamara, as well as the prayer-book. But their principal attention is devoted to the Talmud, which they reckon “the foundation of all, and the best study.”

 

[Page 175]

 

Jewish girls are accounted of full age at twelve years and a day old, and in some countries at twelve years and a half. Boys are of age at thirteen years and a day.

 

If any Jew who has embraced or professed Christianity wishes to return to Judaism, and to be again acknowledged by his brethren, he must lie down with his face to the earth on the threshold of the synagogue during a considerable space of time, in order that his brethren, as they enter and leave it, may wipe their feet on his clothes, and spit and trample on his body. On such occasion the returning Jew invariably wears very old clothes.

 

The Jews are not permitted to taste the flesh of any four-footed animals but those which both chew the cud and are split-hoofed, such as sheep, oxen, and goats; they must not eat rabbits, hares, or swine. They are to eat no fish but such as have both scales and fins; no birds of prey, nor any reptile. They are required to abstain from all the species of birds or fowls prohibited by the law, but are at liberty to make use of any others.

 

They are not to eat the blood of any beast or bird, nor to partake of the flesh of any beast or bird whose throat has not been cut in order to drain off its blood.

 

[Page 176]

 

Cattle for their use are required to be slaughtered by a Jew, duly qualified, and specially appointed for that purpose. After an animal is killed, the Jewish butcher examines whether the inward parts are perfectly sound. If he finds the least blemish of any kind, the whole carcass is rejected as unfit for Jewish tables. If it is found to be in the state required, he affixes to it a leaden seal, on one side of which is the word Casher, which signifies right; and on the other, the day of the week in Hebrew characters. At every Christian butcher’s who sells meat to the Jews, there is a Jew stationed, who is appointed by the rulers of the synagogue to see that the Jewish laws are carried out. When the carcass is cut up, he is also to seal the respective pieces of those beasts which are allowed. They are not to eat the hind-quarters, unless the sinew of the thigh is taken out, which is a troublesome and expensive operation, requiring a person duly qualified and specially appointed for that particular purpose, and therefore it is rarely eaten.

 

Previous to boiling any meat, they are required to let it lie half an hour in water, and an hour in salt, and then to rinse off the salt with clean water. This is designed to draw out any remaining blood.

 

They must not kill a cow and her calf, a ewe and her lamb, or a she-goat and her kid, on the same day. This is the law.

 

[Page 177]

 

The following extract, taken from a letter of the Paris correspondent of the San Francisco “Chronicle,” may be found of interest, describing, as it does, in detail the operations of the Jew butcher: —

“Now and then I go to watch the slaughtering at the abattoirs of La Villette. In that quarter of Paris, just at the edge of the city, and separated from it by the broad canal, are situated the great abattoirs, in which are killed and prepared for market all the meats eaten in Paris. These abattoirs form a city in themselves, having their broad avenues and cross-streets, with their own police and fire department, a military guard, and a special octroi to collect the city tax on the meat as fast as it is carried out of the gates into Paris.

There are several thousand butchers constantly employed there. Among these alert and stalwart butchers, who sing and laugh as they rush through the fact that they do not proceed as do the others. These are the Jewish sacrificers. There are four of them at the central abattoir. They are, according to usage, designated or appointed by the grand rabbi after a previous examination; for there are for them certain formulas to observe, and, as we know, the Israelitish race does not easily separate itself from its old customs.”

 

[Page 178]

 

Every animal intended for the nourishment of the Jews must be killed by the cutting of its throat, and cannot, under any pretext whatever, be previously stunned, and knocked in the head. This their work, there are some who attract attention from method, which pertains to the religious customs of their faith, is criticised by many people having other forms of belief, as being cruel. As soon as the beast is dead, it must be opened and examined with care, for if it is impure it cannot be delivered to the people of God. Leviticus, chap. xxii., has enumerated all the causes which demand the rejection of meat intended for food. Formerly the Jews never ate the thighs of animals, as a remembrance of the wrestling of Jacob with the angel at Penuel, when Jacob had his thighbone put out of joint by the being with whom he contended. As is said in Genesis, chap. xxii. ver. 32: ‘And for this cause, even unto this day, the children eat not of the tendon which is found at the joint of the hip, because he [the angel] touched the hip of Jacob.’ The Italian Jews were the first who violated this injunction, and ate of the forbidden tendon; and now no portion of the animal is abandoned to the Christians.

 

[Page 179]

 

“The animal about to be sacrificed must be, according to the ancient usages of the Jews, fastened together by its four feet, in remembrance of the manner in which Isaac was bound by his father, Abraham, upon the altar of twigs to be sacrificed. When the animal is firmly fixed to the ring, the butcher passes a running slip-noose to each of the front legs; the cord is attached to a rope worked by a windlass; by two revolutions of the wheel the animal is thrown upon the ground, extended upon its side. A butcher places one knee on its shoulder, seizes it by the horns, and draws it violently backward. As you stand witnessing one of these spectacles, you think involuntarily of the pieces of sculpture commemorative of the worship of Mithras. Meanwhile the slicer is standing by; he holds his damas in his hand. This is a cutlass with a very short handle, a long straight blade, rounded at the point. He runs carefully his nail twice across the edge, in order to assure himself that it is not nicked; for the Jews believe that if the blade should have a nick, no matter how slight it might be, the animal might be frightened, and in that event the blood would become coagulated in the heart, from whence it would not flow.

The sacrificateur advances then; as he approaches, he should. say mentally, Blessed be the Lord God, who has judged us worthy of his precepts, and has prescribed to us the slaughtering.’ As he reaches the animal be stoops down, seizes the dewlap, and with a single stroke cuts his throat; he springs backward instantly to avoid the jet of blood which spouts forth; he rises up. and twice again passes his thumb-nail across the edge of the knife to assure himself that he has not touched the spinal column, for in that event the meat would be impure. I do not know if it was a matter of chance, but all the animals which I saw sacrificed thus were turned in the direction of the east, the ideal direction toward which so many religious beliefs incline, unknown to themselves and under various pretexts, as if they still retained souvenirs of the worship of the sun.”

 

[Page 180]

 

Equal nicety is required in the slaughter and subsequent examination of birds or fowls, as of beasts. The knife used on all these occasions is to be very sharp, and free from notches.

 

Marriage is accounted the indispensable duty of every Jew. The time which the rabbis have assigned as the most proper for discharging this obligation is the age of eighteen; and men who remain in celibacy long after are considered as living in sin. Polygamy is sanctioned by the Talmud, and is sometimes practised by the Jews in the East, but has long been discontinued among their brethren in Europe.

 

When a marriage is agreed upon, the promise is made before witnesses; the parties continue betrothed sometimes six months, sometimes a year, before the union is consummated.

 

On the day fixed for the solemnization of the nuptials, the bride and bridegroom are conducted to the place appointed for the celebration. The bride is escorted by women, and the bridegroom by men. The company is generally large, including most or all of their friends and acquaintance. Ten men, at least, must be present, or the marriage is null and void.

 

[Page 181]

 

The chief rabbi and chassan of the synagogue form part of the company.

 

A velvet canopy is brought into the room, and extended on four long poles. The bride and bridegroom are led to their station under this canopy, the bridegroom by two men, and the bride by two women, her face being covered with a veil. These two men and two women are always, if they happen to be living, the parents of the bride and bridegroom; otherwise this office is performed by their nearest kindred, a man and his wife for the bride, and another man and his wife for the groom, the bridegroom being led by the men, and the bride by the women. The parties are placed opposite to each other, and then a prayer is offered.

 

Next the marriage contract is read, which specifies that the bridegroom agrees to take the bride as his lawful wife, according to the law of Moses and Israel; and that he will keep, maintain, honor, and cherish her, according to the manner of all the Jews who honor, keep, maintain, and cherish their wives; and that he will keep her in clothing decently, according to the custom of the world. This instrument also specifies what sum he settles upon her in case of his death; and he enjoins his heirs, executors, and administrators to pay the same to her out of the first proceeds of his effects.

 

After the reading of this instrument, the person performing the ceremony takes a glass of wine, and repeats seven benedictions. Then the bride and bridegroom drink the wine, after which the empty glass is laid on the floor, and the bridegroom, stamping on it, breaks it to pieces. This part of the ceremony is intended to typify the fatality of life. Then all the company shout, “Good luck to you!” The nuptial feast that follows is as sumptuous as the parties can afford, and continues for seven days.

 

[Page 182]

 

But even the sacred and romantic bond of matrimony the Jew is wont to look upon as simply an occasion for traffic, a question of barter and sale, a matter of dollars and cents. A large percentage of Jewish marriages are effected through the agency of a broker; a sort of commission-merchant, and general dealer in connubial bliss. These Jew marriage-brokers go about hawking the marriageable clientele on their books, in much about the same fashion as their brethren of the Ghetto hawk their rotten fish and decaying vegetables.

 

For instance, a Jewish father has a daughter who has arrived at marriageable age, but who somehow does not “go off the hooks,” to use an expressive term much in vogue among the Jews in this connection, quite as fast as he could desire. He thereupon repairs to a marriage-broker of his accursed race, and places the girl on the latter’s books, duly describing, and often with downright indecent minuteness, her personal charms, her angelic temperament, her manifold accomplishments, and, last but not least, how much money he is going to give with her.

 

[Page 183]

 

Then the marriage-broker runs over his list of eligible males, and starts out on a peddling tour among them. The negotiations are carried on somewhat after this fashion. Approaching a possible client, the marriage-broker will thus open the match-making campaign: —

“Say, Salomon, you doan’ know vot I got for you. I vos der best fren’d you ever haf. You know del’ Lumpenfeiner’s dochter? VeIl, I t’ink I merry you to her. She vas yoost der sweetest yirl you ever see, unt her fader geef mit her ten thousand thalers. Ten thousand thalers; yoost t’ink of it, Salomon!!!”

 

And hoisting up his shoulders, and extending his hands with the palms upward, in the famous Hebrew attitude made familiar by Frank Bush, the marriage broker anxiously awaits results, while he mentally computes his brokerage fee.

“Vot vas she like, Isaacs?” inquires Salomon, with a leer.

 

Then the marriage-broker launches out into a rapturous description of the proffered maiden, lauding her, with Jew extravagance and mendacity, as a vision of beauty and a marvel of good manners and good health.

 

[Page 184]

 

“I guess, Isaacs, I will go und take a look at her,” says Salomon finally, just as if it were a question of looking over a calf or a pig that had been offered him for sale.

 

Salomon, accompanied by the marriage-broker, goes and “looks her over.” He finds, perchance, that the father and Isaacs have lied; that the girl is not by any means what she was described to be physically; that what he is being offered is simply bleached muslin instead of fine silk. But, mayhap, the money that “goes with her” is an inducement, and he feels like trading.

 

Then ensues a scene of haggling and dispute. The maiden has a wart on her neck, or a disfiguring scar on her face; or her nose, in its aggressive curvature, awakens suggestions of the, tower of Lebanon. These, defects Salomon unhesitatingly and unsparingly points out.

“Look at dot great pig vart! Vot you call dot pig hole in her faze? Ach! mein gracious, mein gracious! bot vot for a nose she has, dot girl!”

 

And for each of these defects, real or alleged, Salomon demands an increase in the money that “goes with her.” The father, on his side, will protest that the wart is but a mole, the scar nothing short of a beauty-spot, and that rarely if ever before has a nose of such perfect contour cast its shadow in Judaea. And thus they quarrel and barter, haggle and dispute; the father, over the amount he must part with for his child’s sake; the suitor, over the precise number of dollars and cents his bride will bring him — without one thought of affection, without one reference to love, that noblest of human emotions, which sheds its golden aureola of romance over this matter-of-fact, sorrow burdened world, and ennobles alike the cottager and the king.

 

[Page 185]

 

Before drawing the curtain over the disgusting spectacle of this debasing bargain, let us, lest the above statements be questioned or contradicted, cite a sample case which recently came up in the Brooklyn courts, in consequence of a dispute arising as to the payment of the marriage-broker’s fee. The following is from the New-York “Times” of May 24, 1888: —

“Lehman Weill, a shrewd watchmaker, and, as was shown yesterday, a shrewder matchmaker, was the plaintiff yesterday in a suit before Judge Engle in Brooklyn, to recover one hundred dollars from Rosa Salomon, of 90 Humboldt Street, and her pretty daughter, Brunette Salomon. The services rendered by the plaintiff, and which he valued at one hundred dollars, consisted in procuring for the daughter a protector for life in the person of Joseph Cohen, a clerk in a New-York clothing house. Mr. Weill alleged that Mrs. Salomon: anxious for the future of her daughter, confided in him, and asked him to use his influence in procuring Brunette a husband. Mr. Weill paid a visit to the Salomon home, viewed the prize, and ran over in his mind the list of his marriageable acquaintances.”

 

[Page 186]

 

“He picked out Mr. Cohen as the proper sort of a husband for such a beautiful girl as Miss Salomon, and began his assault upon Mr. Cohen’s heart. By soft words and suave manners, he made Mr. Cohen believe that all he wanted in the world to make him happy was a wife. Then the broker took him to Miss Salomon, .the result being the announcement a month ago of the engagement of Miss Salomon and Mr. Cohen. The next day Broker Weill sent in a bill for one hundred dollars, which was not paid; and, as the wedding is now only three weeks off, he became anxious, and yesterday began suit. The trial will take place in a few days.”

“Mrs. Salomon says that she never employed Mr. Weill in any capacity. He called one evening, and introduced Mr. Cohen as he would any other friend, and Mr. Cohen naturally fell in love with the charming daughter.”

 

A Jew is at liberty to divorce his wife at any time, for any cause, or for no substantial cause at all; he himself being the sole judge of the sufficiency of his reasons. To prevent divorces from taking place during sudden sallies of passion, the synagogue has ordained several formalities to be observed on such occasions, the execution of which causes considerable delay, and so allows opportunity for a consideration of the matter, before the separation actually takes place.

 

[Page 187]

 

The man or woman are not allowed to be married to each other again, nor to be together alone. If the woman has been divorced for adultery, she is prohibited from marrying the object of the criminal intrigue. With these exceptions, the parties are both at liberty to marry whomsoever they please.

 

A man who is at a distance from his wife, in another country, or beyond the sea, may send her a bill of divorce by a messenger.

 

Jews sometimes betroth their children when very young. A girl betrothed under ten years of age to a man she dislikes, is entitled to a divorce at any time before she is twelve years and a day old. She is only required to declare that she will not be married to such a man, before two witnesses who commit her declaration to writing, and deliver to her what is called a “divorcement of dislike.” She is then at liberty to marry whomsoever she pleases.

 

 

* * * * * * *

 

 

The Jewish liturgies include prayers for the sick. There is one curious custom resorted to in cases of extreme sickness. When a person is believed to be dangerously ill, it is customary to change his name, with the professed hope of evading or averting the sentence of death, which it is apprehended may have been passed against him in the heavenly court.

 

[Page 188]

 

When a Jew dies, all the water in his and the adjoining houses is instantly thrown away, and no priest must, upon any account, remain in any of these houses till the corpse is removed. Immediately on his decease, the body is stripped and laid upon the floor, with clean straw under it; and it thus remains, watched by a Jew, until the ceremony of cleansing with warm water has been performed. Part of this ceremony is to hold up the body erect, and pour over it three successive ablutions. During the operation some one must place his hand on the mouth of the corpse, that no water may enter it.

 

Near the body are placed a lighted taper, a basin of water, and a clean towel; that the soul of the deceased may have an opportunity of cleansing itself from the defilements contracted during life. These things are kept in the room for thirty days and nights, and the water is changed every morning. This ordinance is esteemed peculiarly sacred; and some members of the synagogue being too poor to purchase these things, a society was established a few years ago to defray these expenses and perform other services in cases of sickness and death among indigent brethren.

 

The Jews do not use closed coffins, but usually four plain boards, loosely joined together; and the rabbis declare that the bottom should only consist of laths, in order that the worms may destroy the body so much the sooner.

 

[Page 189]

 

When the body is carried to the place of interment, the coffin is opened, and some earth alleged to have been imported from Jerusalem is placed under the head in a small bag, or strewed about the body. The relations and friends of the deceased then approach the corpse, one after another, holding one of its big toes in each hand, at the same time imploring the deceased to pardon all the offences they had committed against him in his lifetime, and not to report evil against them in the other world; and the nearest relations rend their garments.

 

When the coffin is placed in the ground, each of the relatives throws some earth upon it; and, as soon as the grave is filled, the persons who have conducted the interment all turn and run away as fast as possible, as if pursued by the angel of darkness.

 

When the relatives return from the funeral, they all sit down upon the floor; and a chair is placed before them, with eggs boiled hard, a little salt, and a small loaf, a portion of which is eaten by each of them in order to break the fast which they profess to have kept from the moment of the decease; and ten Jews, who have passed the age of thirteen, repeat prayers for the dead, morning and evening; and at the close of these prayers, the sons of the deceased, or his nearest male relatives, repeat the Kodesh, — a prayer which is considered as having sufficient efficacy to deliver the deceased from hell.

 

[Page 190]

 

One of the tokens of sorrow among the Jews for the death of their relatives is rending their garments. On the decease of a brother or sister, wife, daughter, or son, they take a knife, and, holding the blade downward, give the coat, or other upper garment, a cut on the right side, and then rend it about a hand’s-breadth in length. On the decease of a father or mother, the rent is made in the same manner on the left side in all the garments.

 

The interment is succeeded by the mourning, which lasts for seven days, during which the mourners are not to go out of doors or transact any business, but to sit upon the ground, without shoes, receiving the condolences of their brethren, which are generally numerous; for during these seven days, there is free access to every visitant, whether friend or stranger. They are not allowed to shave their beards, cut their nails, or wash themselves, for thirty days. Just think of their sanitary condition!

 

Speaking of not washing themselves for thirty days, it is an actual fact that the Jews are a filthy race, more filthy than the Chinese, or any people upon the face of the earth. It has been demonstrated that all epidemics that from time to time break out in different parts of the world spring from the Jews, who literally drip disease and filth with every step they take. Visit the New-York Ghetto, or any place where these half-human and half-bestial creatures live, and you will not fail to acknowledge the truth of this assertion.

 

[Page 191]

 

Their Jewish customs convey disgust, and are the outgrowth of a carnally minded, brutish, and ignorant people. We repeat it once again: this country is in danger on account of the rapid growth of the Jews among us. Their number is daily increasing in New York, and the same is the case in everyone of the large cities in America.

 

We warn all against the Jew. We are in danger from the hideous swarms of Jews, who besiege us like famished wolves, and who crowd every business, every channel of commerce, in this country.

 

It is high time for the people of this country to arouse themselves, and to realize what it has cost them to welcome to this home of the Aryan race the disgusting pariahs of Israel.

 

There are to-day over a million Jews who gnaw the resources of the United States. Remember that there is always a limit to the wealth of a country, however rich she may be.

 

These Jews, whether financiers, doctors, judges, journalists, booksellers, managers, lawyers, brokers, keepers of pawnshops, receivers of stolen goods, professors, or rabbis, one and all, secretly and tenaciously agree among themselves in striving to fill every post of honor and responsibility, with one of their co-religionists.

 

In the streets, in the theatres, in the restaurants, in the hotels, one smells the Jews everywhere and on all sides.

 

[Page 192]

 

Our newspapers are full of them. Weird spectacle, indeed, these sons of Israel seeking to mould public opinion!

 

The industrial crisis which at this time. prevails throughout Europe, and to some extent in this country, the intellectual and moral suffocation, so to speak, which we feel and yet we cannot define, arises simply from the Jew who triumphs. His triumph is our ruin.

 

It is high time to put a stop to the disembarking of the rapacious hordes of Israel who swarm to our shores.

 

There should be a loyal exchange between the immigrant and the native.

 

In the case of the Jew there has never been any loyal exchange; in fact, there has been no exchange at all. He takes all, gives nothing.

 

One million of Jewish mouths — and what mouths! — a million mouths of parasites!

 

The Jews are different from us in all matters.

 

They differ from us in all moral and social qualities. What we regard as vice, they regard as virtue; what we deem dishonest, they deem honest.

 

The Jew of to-day lives and acts precisely as the Jew of old described in their sacred books. These books, despoiled of their mystic form of expression, are only a narrative of customs and habits, a study of character; a novel, as written to-day by men of the school of Emile Zola.

 

[Page 193]

 

As in times of old, so at the present day, usurers, malefactors, counterfeiters, thieves, mainly spring from the ranks of Israel. Examine the career of the Jews in London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, or in the United States, and you will not fail to discover, the truth of this declaration.

 

Consult Jewish history past and present, and you will not fail to find that in every city where the Jew arrives, within a given time the ordinary state of things undergoes a lamentable change. The Jew is a nomad who has nothing to live upon, and who thirsts for every thing. By reason of his destiny, or for some mysterious and unaccountable reason, he is the creature of crimes, of outrage; “a fisher in troubled waters.”

 

The God of the Jews, as described in the Talmud, is a cruel, bloody, exterminating God. He is a God of extermination, of murder, and of wicked counsel. Need we bring any examples?

 

Phinees, son of the great priest Eleazar, having assassinated Zambri, chief of a tribe of Simeon, the lover of a Madianite woman, appeases by this murder the wrath of the God of the Jews, and receives as a. reward for himself and his posterity the promise of sacerdotal office. No matter whether one is an assassin, a perjurer, a liar, a thief, he will not fail to appease the wrath of Jehovah. The God of the Jews is never so content, as when acts of carnage, pillage, infamy, treason, and cowardice have been committed.

 

[Page 194]

 

If we assume the mythology of a people to be an indication of the character of a race, or an expression of the tendencies or desires of certain human family, it is well to note that the God of the Christians lives in heaven, where all the beautiful and noble actions of devotedness, abnegation, humanity, and disinterestedness receive an eternal reward.

 

Hence our ideas of God are diametrically opposed to those entertained in Israel as to its God. The question of our God coming from the Jewish race would demand too extended a study to be treated of in this volume. For the present it may suffice to observe that the idea of the immortality of the soul, a prevailing idea among us, has come to us from the philosophy of the Greeks far more than from Jewish mythology, a mythology historically without soul, without sky, fixed upon the earth, in a terrestrial paradise only, dispensing only earthly rewards, sanctioning all acts of violence and deceit, acts peculiar to the Jews. Jehovah is the God of this mythology.

 

[Page 195]

 

The Jew is a slave to this mythology; and what he has done in the past, he does now, and he will do in the future. The massacres of Sichem; the lies of Jacob; the deceits of Laban; the foolish pride of Joseph, and his institution of monopoly in Egypt; the infamy of old Mardocheus, deriving benefit for himself and his own from the morbid charms of the beautiful Esther; the strangling of the first-born in Egypt; the murders of Judith, Dalaiah, Deborah; the extermination of the Chanaanites; the construction of the Tower of Babel, — all, all, constitute an eternal whole which is the destiny of the Jew, that destiny of pariah, of a thief, of an assassin, personified strongly in the modern Jew, who constitutes a permanent danger, and whom we must all join in thwarting, and reducing to his proper sphere.

 

We have not done with the Jews in this book. From time to time, we shall send out to the world an account of their doings throughout the United States ; and as much as it lies in our power, we shall guard, defend, and warn the people of this country against them. Neither their threats of boycott nor their mutterings of personal danger have any weight with us. We are ready to lay down even life for a principle; and if harm is to befall us, we cannot imagine a more worthy cause in which to encounter it than in disclosing the designs of the Jew against our countrymen.

 

[Page 196]

 

 

 

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Notes

 

The cover, the ‘Le Happy Merchant’ image and Table of Contents are not part of the original book.

• Notes enclosed in [square brackets] and marked with an asterisk (*) symbol are not in the original text.

• On page 55 on the original scan half the text is missing. If anyone has the complete text please paste it in the comment section of my blog. Thanks.

• Page numbers in this document are the page numbers in the original book.

 

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The American Jew – Part 1: His Arrival in America — The New-York Ghetto — The Jew at the Summer Hotel

The American Jew – Part 2: The Jew in Wall Street — The Jew in the Tobacco Trade

The American Jew – Part 3: The Jew in Politics — The Jew in Journalism — “The Great American Journalist.” — The Jew Lecher

The American Jew – Part 4: The Criminal Jew

The American Jew – Part 5: The Jew in Petroleum — The Jew in His Relation to the Law

The American Jew – Part 6: Customs and Habits of the Jews — Religious Doctrines

The American Jew – Part 7: The Jew Summarized

 

 

 

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The American Jew — An Expose of His Career (1888) – Part 6

 

 

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Version 4: Jun 6, 2020 — Re-uploaded images and PDF for katana17.com/wp/ version.

 

Version 3: Dec 4, 2016 — improved formatting.

 

Version 2: Jun 18, 2015 — improved formatting.