Work Among the Jews by F. C. Gilbert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 23, 1914

Work Among the Jews

By F. C. Gilbert

ALTHOUGH it has been some time since we have reported the progress of the work among the Jewish people, we are glad to say that there have been some advancements made in this work during the past winter. While we should have been glad to do more than has been done, we are thankful to God that we see omens which indicate that the Spirit of the Lord is working upon the hearts of the Jews.

As a people, they are greatly divided in their religious views. Every man is a law unto himself. While the synagogues are uniting, while the newspapers are joining forces, while the Young Men's Hebrew Associations are combining, one needs but to read the Jewish publications to feel the influence of disintegration, and, from a religious viewpoint, there seems to be a strong tendency downward.

The rising generation is rapidly drifting away from everything Biblical and traditional. The orthodox Jews, those that remain, are crying out against the tendencies of the times, but the work of disintegration goes on. The reformed Jews are increasing in numbers; the orthodox Jews are decreasing; the younger class of Jews are breaking away almost altogether from things Jewish. One of the leading rabbis of the country in a recent address advocated the idea of doing away with the Yiddish, and substituting English for the vernacular of the Jews. Other rabbis are advocating marriages with the Gentiles, and it is surprising to note the number of Jews and Jewesses in our cities and towns who are married to Gentiles.

These conditions are not mere happenings; we believe that back of them all there is an overruling Providence. The Jew has come to see that there is something wrong with his religion. The last few decades have brought to him much information, and he has come to see that rabbinical Judaism is not true. He is in a condition to receive something different from what he has; but where can he get it? We are glad that the Lord never leaves a man unsatisfied who has an appetite for the truth.

Many letters have come to us this winter from different parts of the land telling of Jews who are interested in the truth or who have accepted the message, and from those who are inquiring for the ways of the Lord. It seems like a revelation to the Jew to learn about the Seventh-day Adventists, and when he hears our message, he is ready to tell his friends and neighbors.

Not long ago we learned of a Jewish family in Portland, Oregon, who was baptized into the truth. The father and husband wrote us a very encouraging letter, thanking God that he ever met Adventists. Not long since we learned of a young man in Chicago who accepted the Saviour, and recently a Jew in Scranton, Pa., asked for prayers at one of our Sabbath meetings.

While holding meetings in New York during the absence of Elder Everson, I noticed a number of Jews in attendance. Some of them came ten and twelve miles to hear the message. At the close of the service one night, an appeal was made for the unconverted to give themselves to the Lord, and a young Jewish woman who had been an infidel, raised her hand for prayers.

We held an open-air meeting a while ago in East Boston, and after the meeting a young man followed us. He went with us several miles to attend our services, and since then he has been at the Good Tidings Home twice. He was to have been married to a young Jewish lady a short time ago, but the girl's people learned that he was not so strict in his Judaism as a Jew is expected to be. It was a question of giving up the truth he had learned or giving up his fiancée. He gave her up, and is now on his way to the kingdom. He was at the Good Tidings Home a short time ago, and just before he left I asked him what he was going to do with the truth. He replied, "I suppose I shall have to accept it." He put a dollar in the Sabbath school collection, and seems quite happy to be among this people.

There are several things necessary to make more rapid strides, we believe, in this work among the Jews. They should know more about us as a denomination. The quicker we can devise plans to make known to them the views of this denomination, the sooner they will be ready to listen to the pure gospel message for this time, and we are confident that this kind of educational work among the Jews will accomplish far more than thousands of dollars would accomplish in holding meetings in halls or missions or in other methods of work.

The Jew is bitterly prejudiced against Christianity, but he loves Moses and the prophets. He loves the law, and he loves the Sabbath. He loves the divinely ordained oracles of God. Although he feels that he cannot live up to his religion, and is rapidly losing it, he loves it when he hears others speak of it, and this is especially true if he hears it from a Gentile. But he will not go to church or to a hall to hear it. He feels that to go into a church is wrong, and he feels condemned when he goes into a hall to hear about Jesus; but he is willing to listen to some one who preaches about the Sabbath and the prophets and what the Lord told the prophets. But to the Jew the prophets have nothing to do with Jesus, and the law has nothing to do with Sunday. He hates and despises missionaries and missionary work, because of what has been done to him by those who claim to be followers of Jesus, and because these same professed followers of Christ have largely repudiated the Old Testament.

It must be apparent, therefore, that if the Jew can be made to see that the Christian religion is associated with the Sabbath, and the Messiahship of Jesus with the law of God, they will mean much to him. If our dear people everywhere could only appreciate what this means to our work among the Jews, greater efforts would be put forth to make our views known to the Jewish people everywhere, and there would be an arousing on the part of the Jews to make further investigations into this truth. For this we are hoping and praying.

We need more literature to carry on our work, and we need more workers. Our workers need to study how to gain access to the hearts of the Jews, and we believe that many Jews would respond. May God hasten the day when we shall see hundreds of Jews coming to the light of the blessed message of present truth. We hope that our people will pray for the work and the workers among this people. We need your prayers and your cooperation in this branch of the work of the Lord.

Our people would be helped much if they would read the Good Tidings of the Messiah, which is published to help them reach the Jews. Send for sample copies to Good Tidings, Concord, Mass., or to your tract society. A year's subscription is only twenty-five cents. Get some Jewish literature, and give it to the Jews. They will read it, and some will find their way back to their own Messiah.

May the Lord help us all to remember these poor lost sheep of Israel, and help bring many back into the fold of Christ.

F. C. GILBERT.