JERUSALEM by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 6, 1898

JERUSALEM

By W. N. G.

The Old Story of Persecution.

It is still literally true in Jerusalem that men are put out of the synagogs and otherwise persecuted for believing in Jesus of Nazareth. We have before mentioned the Christian Union Mission, conducted by the noted Jewish Christian, A. Ben-Oliel, and several assistants. This mission is especially the object of bitter enmity on the part of the rabbis. They often placard the gates of synagogs and schools, and even the doors of private houses, with interdicts full of curses and threatenings against all Jews who go to the mission schools, the hospital, or near the missionaries; but the strongest of these are against the work of the “pervert” Ben-Oliel.

All who persist in listening to his teaching have been threatened with the publication of their names by placard, expulsion from the Jewish community, and all sorts of bad consequences. Spies were set around this mission to note all who would go in. Jewish friends of the mission tore down some of these placards, but they were soon replaced. While this

species of persecution was at its height, says a correspondent, “the only papers published in all Palestine (and both are in Hebrew) contained leading articles, letters and comments, on these rabbinic interdicts—all, of course, upholding the authority of the rabbis. One leading article was headed, ‘What Shall We Do against the Missions?’ and the answer practically is, ‘Send us larger sums of money, that we may entice them away from the missionaries.’”

While this excitement was running high, a quite prominent rabbi went to the Ben-Oliel Mission and had a long conversation on the subject of the Messiah. He was detected by the spies and called before the rabbinic court, where he was severely censured and made to promise that he would not go there again. The general result, however, is that while some are turned away for a while, more new-comers are reported than before.

Nabi Mussa Pilgrimage.

Unlike the olden time, Jerusalem is now holy ground to the followers of Mohammed, as well as to the Jews, and some classes of professed Christians. To the Mohammedans Jerusalem is second only to Mecca or Medina, to which cities they flock in thousands every year as pilgrims. A press correspondent says:—

Not far from Jericho, and overlooking the Dead Sea, there is a chapel on the top of a hill to which Moslem tradition points as Pisgah, the burial-place of Moses. To this hill they resort yearly in large numbers during Passover week. The procession starts from Jerusalem accompanied by the governor, soldiers on foot and on horseback, military bands, and the sheiks (holy men) of the city. It is a grand display, and almost all the Moslem inhabitants—men, women, and children—clad in their best, go and sit on the declivities of Mount Moriah, facing Olivet, to witness it start. I saw it last spring, and heard the military salute from cannon brought out for the purpose.

This Nabi Mussa pilgrimage is a sort of open-air picnic, and it is said that, contrary to the Koran prohibition, strong drinks are indulged in, especially on the return journey. Apprehensions of this kind have not been infrequent of late, particularly when the army reserves or militia have been called out to assemble in the outskirts of the city.

W. N. G.