manner it prevents us from being loyal citizens? With as much right he can assert that they who have substituted adult for infant baptism cannot be patriots. He surely cannot wish to set up the monstrous doctrine, that only they who belong to the Established Church can be imbued with love of their country. He surely cannot desire to push his proposition to its logical conclusion, and to brand Nonconformists and Roman Catholics as deficient, if not altogether lacking, in patriotism.
Or does the professor mean to assert that the sacred books, from which the Jewish religion is derived, fail to inculcate the virtue of patriotism? There are no grounds whatever for such a supposition. There was a time when Israel was carried away captive into Babylon, with its king, its priests and its prophets, its officers and artisans. Then there were some among the people—Jeremiah calls them dreamers and diviners—who were anxious to prevent the people from becoming too deeply attached to the country of their adoption, as they were not to abide there for more than seventy years. But the prophet sent them the missive, "Serve the king of Babylon, and live."[1] "Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And seek the welfare of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."[2] And the counsel here given has ever since regulated our course of action. From the time of the second temple, where, as we are told by Philo and Josephus,[3] sacrifices were offered twice every day for Cæsar and for the Roman people, to this day, prayers ascend from every synagogue throughout the globe for the prosperity of the country in which the Jew may dwell, and for the welfare of his sovereign.
And we have proved by our actions that our prayers were not mere vain lip-service. Whenever and wherever the members of this "exclusive race" were permitted to occupy responsible posts in the administration of their country, they devoted their energies loyally and zealously to discharge their functions for the welfare of the State and the ruler they served. We see them faithful to the traditions of their race; we see them treading in the footsteps of Joseph, who was called the "Saviour of the World" by the grateful Egyptian people. We see them following the example of Daniel and his colleagues, of Mordecai, Ezra, and Nehemiah, who served non-Jewish kings with willing allegiance. We read in history that some of the most faithful diplomatic envoys of Charlemagne were Jews.[4] Many of those men who by their writings have shed lustre on Hebrew literature were wise statesmen, ministers for foreign affairs and ministers of finance, who brought prosperity and renown to the countries they served. Rabbi Chisdai ibn Shaprut was the trusted counsellor of the khalif Abdul-Rahman the Third. For nearly thirty years did Samuel ibn Nagrela conduct the diplomatic and military affairs of the kingdom of Granada. His biographer says of him that with equal devotion he served the State, science, his religion and his race—separate interests, each of which had its own claims upon him.[5] In addition to these could be named Don Isaac Abravanel, Don Joseph, Prince of Naxos, and a long list of illustrious statesmen. It could further be easily shown that devoted loyalty was evinced not merely by a few exceptional men who, it might be argued, rose superior to the prejudices of their race, but by the bulk of a Jewish population.
In the declaration to the Commonwealth of England by Manasseh Ben Israel, recently published in the "Miscellany of Hebrew Literature," many an historical illustration is given of the steadfast faithfulness of the Jewish people as subjects. One example may suffice:—
In Spain, the Jews of Burgos, as the chronicles do declare, most generously showed the same fidelity in the time of Don Henry, who, having killed his brother the king, Don Pedro, made himself lord of all his kingdoms, and brought under his obedience all the grandees and people of Spain. Only the Jews of Burgos denied to obey him, and fortified themselves within the city, saying, that God would never have it that they should deny obedience to their natural lord, Don Pedro, or to his rightful successors—a constancy that the prudent king, Don Henry, very much esteemed of, saying, that such vassals as those were, by kings and great men, worthy of much account, seeing they held greater respect to the fidelity they owed to their king, although conquered and dead, than to the present fortune of the conqueror. And a while after, receiving very honorable conditions, they gave themselves over.[6]
- ↑ Jer. xxvii. 17.
- ↑ Jer. xxix. 5, 7.
- ↑ Wars of the Jews, Book II., chap. x., § 4.
- ↑ The authorities for these and the following facts are given in Grätz's "Geschichte des Juden."
- ↑ See "Miscellany of Hebrew Literature," 1st issue, "The Minister Rabbi Samuel ibn Nagrela," by Dr. Grätz.
- ↑ The truth of this fact is attested by a contemporary chronicler, Ayala, in his Cronica for the year 1367, ch. 34, 35.
