Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 January 1947 — Page 6

THE NATIONAL JEWISH POST

Friday, January 17, ld47

Famous Converts To Judaism Told

PART TWO W'K SHAM, NOT, however, dwell at any length upon the proselytes in the ancient heathen world; for Christian apologetes may say that before the rise of Christianity even Judaism could have appealed to those who were surfeited with paganism. Nor shall we speak of the tribes and kingdoms in Arabia that went over en masse to Judaism, such as the Kendites and the Benu-Kinanah, or of the proselyte kingdom of the Chazzars that held the Russians in subjection. For though the King or Chieftain may embrace Judaism from conviction, his followers are likely to be motivated by a sense of loyalty to their monarch. We shall confine ourselves to individual Christians who voluntarily left their fold to join our own. The list includes even monks and bishops. Early in the 7th century a Palestinian monk, who had spent many years in penance and prayer in a monastery on Mount Sinai, suddenly found his belief in Christian dogma shaken by doubts. After a long spiritual struggle he abandoned the monastery, descended Mt. Sinai, wandered through the desert into Palestine, and reaching Tiberius, submitted to circumcision, adopted the name of Abraham, and became a zealous advocate of Judaism. IN THE DAYS of Emperor Louis the Pious, his spiritual advisor, Bishop Bodo, journeyed to Rome in order to receive the blessing of the Pope, and to make a pilgrimage to the graves of the apostles and the martyrs. There he came to know some scholarly and pious Jews. And when he compared them with the lewd and immoral priests he found in Rome (for at that time the priesthood had deteriorated morally), he was shocked. He continued to make comparLsons and convinced himself of the truth of Judaism. In 938 he gave up his fatherland, his court position and his friends; went to Saragossa where he was circumcized; allowed his beard to grow; assumed the name of Eleazar; and declared himself a Jew. In the eleventh century a German churchman named Wecelinus became a Jew, and wrote a pamphlet in which he held up his former religion to sharp ridicule. This angered the Emperor Henry, and served as a spark to set off a series of persecutions, which culminated in the expulsion of the Jews from Mayence. Later in the same century, in England, a deacon embraced Judaism and was burned at the stake for his apostacy. In the thirteenth century, in London, there was a Dominican friar, Robert de Redingge, who was famed for his eloquence. The Dominican order emphasized the importance of knowing Hebrew to facilitate the conversion of Jews. But the knowledge of Hebrew had the opposite effect upon the preaching friar: his reading of Jewish sources uncovered for him the misinterpretations in the Bible translation and revealed to him the beauties of Judaism. He underwent circumcision; assumed the name of Haggai, and later, in 1275, married a beautiful Jewess. ABOUT the year 1600, a Franciscan monk in Spain, Diego de la Asumcao, began a careful study of

the Bible, a thing which evidently few monks did; and his studies led him to the conviction of the truth of Judaism. He openly expressed his convictions to the other monks of his order; and when the Inquisition learned of it, he w’as thrown into prison. He did not have to be tortured for a confession; he frankly admitted his love of Judaism and revealed that a number of his fellow monks shared his belief. After spending two years in a dungeon he was burnt alive at an auto-da-fe in Lisbon. The fact that a Christian by birth, and a monk, had given his life for the sake of Judaism, made a powerful impreSsion upon apostate Portuguese Jews and induced many to return to the bosom of their ancestral faith; the Inquisition no longer held any terrors for them. Towaids the end of the 17th century a wave of sympathy for Jews and Judaism spread throughout the world. The phenomenon of a people withstanding persecution for so many centuries with unbroken spirit bore testimony to an inner worth deserving of the highest respect. A rich Danish merchant, who had amassed millions, spent his fortune on the hobby of settling Jews in the Holy Land. John Peter Speeth, of Augsburg, went still farther in his enthusiasm; he became a full Jew in Amsterdam and adopted the name, Moses Germanus. He confessed that the extravagant false accusations against Jews filled him with disgust for Christianity, and he abandoned it in order to have no share in such outrages. In one year three other Christians of Amsterdam followed his example. EARLY in the 18th century, Aaron d’Antan, a French soldier, handsome and tall, the son of an army officer, openly embraced Judaism in Amsterdam. It could not be charged that he had been unduly influenced by Jews, for he had never been in contact with Jews until he came to Amsterdam to carry out his plan. He had arrived at his decision as a result of his careful study of the Bible. He could not believe that God’s Chosen People would be rejected, and the christological interpretation of prophecies seemed to him childish and unconvincing. For three years he planned the step; then a serious illness prompted him to carry out his pledge without delay. He traveled through Germany and Italy; but everywhere the Inquisition hounded him. Undaunted, he remained a faithful Jew to the end of his days. In the middle of the 18th century there took place the celebrated conversion of Graf Pototzki. Count Valentin Pototzki, a young Polish nobleman, came to Paris to study. While seated at a table in a Jewish wine shop with a fellow student, he noticed the owner of the tavern, an old bearded man, bent over a volume of the Talmud. They engaged him in a religious discussion and were impressed by his viewpoint. They induced him to teach them Hebrew so that they might undrstand the Bible in the original In six months they mastered Hebrew, and Pototzki decided to become a Jew. He settled incognito in Hye, a suburb of Vilno and, because of his full

By RABBI LOUIS FEINBEBG

• • • • Avondale Synagogue, Cincinnati, O. beard, remained unrecognized by the authorities. One day in the Beth Midrash he scolded a boy for disluibing the worshipers. The father of the boy, in anger, informed the authorities that the stranger in their midst was the missing Count Pototzki. He was arrested. His aged mother and the church authorities begged him to return to his faith; but, in spite of^ the fact that it was a Jew who had be- » trayed him, he was adamant in his determination. In 1749, on the second day of Shavuoth, he was burnt at the stake as a martyr. It was dangerous for a Jew to attend the execution; but a beardless Jew assumed the risk and through bribery succeeded in obtaining the ashes of the martyr, which were later buried in the Jewish cemetery. A pardon from the King arrived too late. Pototzki’s friend of his student days in Paris, Zaremba by name, embraced Judaism, together with his whole family, and spent

the rest of his life in Palestine.

IN 1785, the court in the town of Nikolai in Upper Silesia was informed that the city magistrate (Rathmann) Joseph Steblitzki, had gone over to Judaism. Since an old law on the statute books made this a “crime,” tile court opened an investigation. It heard the testimony of the wife and the son, and finally of Steblitzki himself. From their testimony it was learned that Joseph Steblitzki had always been a reader of the Bible. For two years he had studied in a Jesuit Seminary, and for four years more in two other schools. But he was assailed by doubts and for twenty years leaned towarrds Judaism. He had observed the Sabbath by abstaining from work, long befoue he became a full Jew, and was selective in food. Ohe day shortly before Rosh Hashanah, or shortly before Michaelis-feast, as the wife put it, he disappeared. Three weeks later he returned, a sick man, and took to his bed. He told no one of the family where he had been or what was wrong with him. After two weeks he was perfectly well. He had gone to Cracow to go through circumcision. The Jews of Cracow sent him a Mohel who taught him the process of circumcision and, according to his own testimony, he performed the

operation upon himself.

From that time on he said his prayers with covered head and Tefillin, and spent the Sabbath in the company of Jews. He drank only milk and coffee at home and ate one meat meal daily at the home of the widow Salomon. He did not shave, but trimmed his beard with scissors. He no longer had sex relations with his wife, because it is forbidden for a Jew to live with a non-Jewess. Neither wife nor son had a word of blame for his conduct. He was not a fanatic, did not seek to foist his beliefs upon others, and never spoke with contempt of his former religion. He went about the business of living the life of a pious Jew quietly and unobtrusively. The authorities refused to punish the offender, because that ancient law was not in accord with the modem spirit.

(To Be Concluded)

HARRY RUDOLPH, 67, OLDEST JEWISH VET OF WORLD WAR II, OLDEST GI OVERSEAS Special NEW YORK—Harry Rudolph, 07, of CatskUl, N. Y., hi the oldest Jewish war veteran of World War II, It was learned this week by the Bureau of War Records of the National Jewish Welfare Board. A veteran also of the Spanish-American War and World War I, Mr. Rudolph not only has the distinction of serving In three wars and of being the oldest Jewish war veteran, bat he Is also reputed to be the oldest enlisted man In the U. S. Army to go overseas In World War II. Enlisting on June S, 1942, he saw service as a staff sergeant with the 2bth Air Force in Guam. He was honorably discharged on October 11, 1945. During the Spanish-American War, he served under General Arthur MacArthur, the father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and helped put down the Philippine Insurrection. He served in the infantry In World War I, and saw liaison duty overseas. A past commander of the Jack Weinstein Post of Jewish War Veterans, Mr. Rudolph is also a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, United Spanish War Veterans, the Zionist Organization of America, and the Elks.

The sum of $11,680,000 largest budgetary appropriation in a single month since the founding of the Joint Distribution Committee in 1914- has been voted by the J. D. C.

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Mizrachi Hails Congress Actions Special NEW YORK—Leaders of the American Mizrachi delegation to the World Zionist Congress hailed the sessions as rising “to necessary historic heights in fashioning a new, clear, militant political line which opens new vistas and perspectives lor the future.” The “new era in Zionism” was heralded by a huge audience attending a public rally and reception. Leon Gellman, national president of the Mizrachi Organization of America, declared that the two greatest achievements of the Congress were the repudiation of the old leadership "whose political policies were outmoded” and the refusal to attend the proposed London Conference “under present circumstances."

1 In Every 25 GIs Jewish, Says Hershey NEW YORK- One of every 25 members of the U. S. armed forces was Jewish and their records are typical of America’s participation in World War H, Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of the Selective Service, said this week, addressing a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria to mark the completion of the gathering of statistics on Jewish participation in the last war, which will appear this Spring in two volumes entitled "American Jews in World War II.” The data gathered by committees in Jewish communities throughout the country under the direction of the Jewish Welfare Board’s Bureau of War Records shows that more than 500,000 Jewish men and women served in the U. S. armed forces. Additional data and supplementary statistics are still being gathered.

Two Artists Win Top Honors Special BALTIMORE—Edward Rosenfeld and Jacob Glushakow carried off the top honors at the fifteenth annual Maryland Artists Show at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Mr. Rosenfeld’s winning painting was entitled “Dead Tree.”” Mr.

Glushakow’s prize winner is an oil entitled "Lexington Market."

Princeton To Get Hillel Special PHILADELPHIA — Plans to establish a Hillel Foundation at Princeton University were revealed at a meeting of Hillel leaders who met here last Sunday.

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