Chapter XXIII: Jews, Russians, and Germans

The Jews in Palestine inhabit only the larger towns, where they are engaged in trade and in money transactions. The greater number live in the four holy cities--Jerusalem, Tiberias, Safed, and Hebron; but many are found also in the coast towns of Gaza, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tyre, and Sidon. The number of Jews in Jerusalem was estimated by the Consular reports in 1872 to be 8000, but it has considerably increased since then, owing to the arrival of a large body of Russian and Polish Jews, who fled, it is said, from the conscription in those countries. Whatever be the cause, the fact is undisputed, that the Jews are steadily gathering in Palestine. In Jerusalem they have been encouraged by the munificence of Sir Moses Montefiore, and have formed a sort of building-club for the purpose of erecting houses to the west of the town.

The following facts relating to the Jews are obtained from the best authority--namely, from Dr. Chaplin, the physician of the Jewish hospital in Jerusalem.

The largest section of the Jews in Jerusalem is that of the Ashkenazim, which comprises the fair-haired sallow German Jews, with the Polish, and the gigantic Russian Jews. The Ashkenazim are subdivided into national communities, and also into religious sects, all of the “high church” order, including the Parushim (or Pharisees), the Chasidim (or Assideans of the Book of Maccabees), the Chabad, and the Varshi. These four sects agree in recognising, in various degrees, the authority of the Talmudic law, and the traditions of the elders.

Next in order come the Sephardim, or Spanish Jews, who still wear the black turban originally imposed on them by the laws of the mad Caliph Hâkem; they include also the Mughrabee Jews, who speak Arabic. In their physique, and the dignity of their appearance, the Sephardim are far superior to their European co-religionists; they also belong to the extreme party of the Chasidim and Varshi, in whose synagogues they will pray when not near to one of their own.

The old Sadducean party is now represented only by the Karaites, or “low church” Jews, who discard the authority of the Mishnic or Oral law, and do not admit the authority of the Talmudic commentators. In Jerusalem they have but one small synagogue, and their number in the city is probably not above a hundred; the greater part of the Karaites are now found in Baghdad, Arabia, and Russia.

Many of the Jews are shopkeepers, others are money-changers, and a few are craftsmen and farmers; but a great number live on the Halûkah, or alms, collected from their brethren in Europe to support the poor in Jerusalem. Many are under the protection of the foreign Consulates, and they have of late years gained considerable immunity from Moslem persecution.

The Jews always live in a distinct quarter. The Jewish quarter in Jerusalem in the middle ages was, however, that now occupied by the Moslems. Their streets are not remarkable for cleanliness; thus at Tiberias the “king of the fleas” is said to hold his court, and if one half the stories which have been related to me by trustworthy witnesses were admitted, the Ashkenazim must be the dirtiest people on the face of the earth.

The good qualities of the Jews are numerous: they are energetic and able, very courteous to strangers, and charitable to one another; but they are fanatical to the last degree, and Palestine under the government of Oriental Jews would probably be closed against outer influence even more effectually than it is under the Turks.

The Jewish costume is more curious than picturesque; their weedy figures are clad in the Kumbaz or striped cotton gown, under which they wear a shirt, and white drawers, with cotton stockings. On their feet they have low leather shoes, on their heads a soft felt hat. On feast-days they appear in a fur cap, just like that commonly represented in Rembrandt’s pictures--no doubt the Jewish dress of his own days; and their gabardines are also edged with fur. The Spanish Jews wear a dress not unlike that of the better class of Moslems, and are indeed often only distinguished by their black turbans. The Jewish women wear sometimes the native dress with the Izâr, sometimes European print gowns, with gaudy Manchester shawls over their heads. The men of the Pharisees and other high-church sects, are also distinguished by the love-lock, a long lank curl which hangs down in front of the ear beside the cheek, and is, to the eyes of an European, one of the ugliest and most unmanly fashions which could be invented.

The position of Jewish women is not enviable; they are divorced on the smallest pretext, even for cooking a dinner badly, and they live in constant anxiety. One Jew, whom I met at intervals, had three wives in the course of as many years, and this is, I believe, no uncommon occurrence. The women are extremely superstitious, and I have been told of their mixing their own nail-parings, or locks of hair, in their husband’s food in order to secure their affections.

The Jews venerate the tombs of many of their ancestors. Thus at Tiberias the tomb of the great Moses ben Maimon, or Rambam, commonly known as Maimonides, is shown together with several other sepulchres of famous Rabbis; at Meirûn in Galilee the sepulchre of Simeon bar Jochai, the builder of twenty-five synagogues, is yearly the scene of a curious festival; at Shechem the Jews visit Joseph’s tomb, and make sacrifices of gold-lace, shawls, and other articles, as they do also at Meirûn; in Jerusalem the sepulchre of Simon the Just is also the scene of an annual feast.

The Jewish attitude in prayer is one of the most extraordinary peculiarities of the nation. The prescribed key, for intonation of the prayers, is high and nasal, and they sway their bodies backwards and forwards with much energy, as they sing. The scene thus presented in a synagogue is almost ludicrous, and no one ignorant of the language, would give the worshippers credit for their beautiful and affecting liturgy, which has influenced our own far more than we are ourselves, as a rule, aware.

And now turning from the native population to the foreign element in the country, a few words may be devoted first to the Russian pilgrims.

The reasons which induce the Russian Government to promote pilgrimages to Palestine are best known to themselves; the fact remains that the pilgrims receive Government help. The great hospice on the west side of Jerusalem, capable of accommodating 1000 persons, was founded in 1860, and includes the Russian cathedral; at Easter this large building is quite full, and the town swarms with Russian men and women. The strength and endurance of these peasants is wonderful: old women of sixty or seventy trudge on foot from Jaffa to Jerusalem, a distance of thirty-five miles by road; they undergo the fatigues of the crowded Easter ceremonies, and then walk down again to the coast. The savings of a whole life are sometimes expended on such a pilgrimage, and the only reward is the bunch of wax candles which, together perhaps with a coarse lithograph of some saint, the pilgrim brings back to his native village, where he enjoys henceforth the reputation for sanctity which the pilgrimage ensures.

The scene in the Russian cathedral at Easter time, is striking and instructive. The building is of modern Byzantine architecture, with a fine peal of bells. The walls are painted salmon-colour, with an intricate arabesque in blue and red; the screen in front of the apses is of light oak, with pictures let in and brightly coloured on gold backgrounds; the central gate in this screen is of brass, with silver lamps and candlesticks placed in front.

The congregation generally consists principally of women, but to the right stand the men, unkempt and uncombed, their furrowed features peering out from shaggy locks and long beards, their clothes of dull colours and thickly padded, their feet and legs cased in huge knee-boots. The women wear the same neutral tints, and knee-boots; they have heavy shawls over their heads. The priests are also bearded, with hair down to their shoulders--truly a barbarous priesthood, with a barbarous congregation. The Saviour is represented in Russian pictures with a similar beard and hair.

The religious ecstasy of the congregation was always intense. They took no part in the service, but continued to cross themselves, and knelt at intervals to kiss the floor, many knocking their heads so hard against it as to be heard at the other end of the church. Small tapers were burnt on the great silver candlesticks, and those who stood near the door passed the taper to those in front, each person bowing to the one who handed it, until those near the screen received it; it was then lighted, and when half burnt was put out, and left for its owner to claim.

The ritual was impressive; six choristers in ordinary dress stood round a great lectern just outside the screen, at the top of the steps leading up to it. The bass voice was fine, and the tenor very sweet; the service is frequently attended by Europeans in Jerusalem for the sake of the music.

A tall priest in a rich robe of cloth-of-gold and dark red velvet, stood before the brass gates, a crown on his head, a censer in his hand. His intoned sentences were answered by the responses of the choir. Presently the gates opened, and three priests came out of the mysterious sanctuary, where the golden candlestick and reliquaries could be seen on the altar. The Archimandrite, in flowing robes of black satin, with a broad stole of cloth-of-gold, his head veiled, and his long grey beard covering his breast, swept down the steps; he was preceded by black-robed acolytes, and followed by two other priests scarcely less magnificently dressed. The Gospel was read at a lectern in the middle of the congregation, the censer was swung, and the great bells boomed out during the lesson.

I have attended many religious services, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem, but none more remarkable for barbaric grandeur and pomp. The songs of Latin monks, the shrill nasal clamour of the Armenians, the Jewish gesticulation, are all far less dignified than the solemn chants of the Russian cathedral. The fanaticism of the pilgrims, drawn from the lowest and most ignorant peasant class, surpasses anything in Christendom, and is only equalled by that of the Moslems.

Another large section of the Easter pilgrims in Jerusalem is formed by the wealthy and powerful Armenian sect, to whom the church of St. James on Zion belongs--a very interesting building, carpeted with rich rugs, and lined with tiles and tortoise-shell. The visitor is here sprinkled with rose-water, and valuable jewelled missals are presented for the congregation to kiss.

The remaining nationalities found in Palestine may be briefly dismissed. On Carmel, and in Upper Galilee, the Druses form a large percentage of the population; but their life and habits have been discussed by well-informed writers, and there is no space to enlarge here on their curious admixture of Aryan and Semitic ideas, or on their belief in the duality of the Divine nature, and in incarnations of the Deity. There are also gipsies in Palestine, who engage in the usual occupations of gipsies, and who are called Naury. They have almost forgotten their own language, and speak Arabic as a rule. At sea-side towns there is a curious mixture of mongrel nationalities--Maltese, Greeks, Slavs, and Levantines, with stray specimens of most European nations--a class as uninteresting as they are degraded.

We may now consider the history of the rise and progress of the two German colonies which have obtained a footing in Palestine; for without some account of these enterprises the sketch of the inhabitants of the Holy Land would be incomplete.

The German colonists belong to a religious society known as the “Temple,” which originated among the Pietists of Wurtemburg, who, without leaving the Lutheran Church, separated themselves from the world, and engaged in Sunday meetings for prayer and edification. The Pietists accept as their standard the explanation given by Dr. J. A. Bengel (in his Gnomon of the New Testament), of the prophecies in the Revelation. Among the friends and disciples of Bengel was a certain Dr. Hoffmann, who obtained from Frederick, the eccentric King of Wurtemburg, a tract of barren land at Kornthal, where his disciples established a Pietist colony, which he intended to transplant later to Palestine. Hoffmann, however, died, and his followers remained contentedly on their lands; but Hoffmann’s son was not forgetful of his father’s designs, and instituted a new colony at Kirschenhardthof, with a special view to its final removal to the Holy Land. Among his earliest disciples was Herr G. D. Hardegg, who became in time a leader among the Temple Pietists.

The younger Hoffmann (Christopher) visited Palestine about 1858, and, in 1867, a small trial expedition of twelve men was sent out. They settled in reed huts near Semûnieh, on the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon, west of Nazareth; and in spite of the warning of friends who knew the unhealthy climate of that place, they remained in the malarious atmosphere of the low ground near the springs, until they all died of fever.

On the 6th of August, 1868, Christopher Hoffmann and G. D. Hardegg left Kirschenhardthof, and in October they reached Palestine; after visiting various places, they resolved on settling at Haifa and Jaffa, and bought land in both places. The Haifa colony was the first founded, that at Jaffa being some six months younger. Hardegg became president of the former, and Hoffmann of the latter.

The religious views of the colonists are not easily understood, and I believe that most of them have rather vague ideas of their own intentions. Their main motive for establishing colonies in Palestine, is the promotion of conditions favourable to the fulfilment (which they expect to occur shortly) of the prophecies of the Revelation and of Zechariah. They suppose it to be a duty to separate themselves from the world, and to set an example of a community living, as closely as possible, on the model of the Apostolic age. The spread of infidelity in Germany appears to be the main cause of this separative tendency among the Pietists.

The tenets of the Temple Society are probably best summarised in the “Profession of Faith of the Temple,” published by Herr Hoffmann, and including five articles as below:

“First. To prepare for the great and terrible day of the second coming of Jesus Christ, which, from the signs of the times, is near. This preparation is made by the building of a spiritual temple in all lands, specially in Jerusalem.

“Secondly. This temple is composed of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 4), which make the true Church, and every one should strive to possess them.

“Thirdly. The means to obtain these is to seek the Kingdom of God, as described by the prophets (Isaiah ii. 2, xix. 25; Ezek. xl. 48).

“Fourthly. The Temple of Jerusalem is not a building of dead, but of lively stones; of men of every nation (1 Pet ii. 4-10) united in the worship of God in spirit and truth.

“Fifthly. The Temple service consists of sacrifices such as are described in the New Testament” (Rom. xii. 1; Heb. xiii. 15, 16; James i. 27).

The writings of Hardegg are far more diffuse and mystic. The main peculiarity which I have been able to extract from them, is the belief that it is not to the Jews, but to the true Israel (by which he apparently understands the Temple Society to be intended), that prophecies of a return to Palestine are to be supposed to refer.

I have stated as far as possible the apparent religious beliefs of the community, but there seem to be many shades of doctrine among them; all, however, agree in an expectancy of some immediate change in the world’s affairs, in the arrival of Armageddon and the Millennium, and in the fulfilment of all prophecy.

In 1875 I had the opportunity of attending one of the Sunday services, in the colony at Haifa. The congregation was devout and earnest; the service was simple and free from extravagance of any kind. The president offered up a long prayer in German, a hymn was sung with the usual musical good taste of Germans, and a chapter of the prophecy of Zechariah read. The president then delivered an exhortation, announcing the immediate advent of the Saviour, who would “suddenly come to His temple.” Other elders followed, speaking with much earnestness, and another hymn was sung, after which the congregation quietly dispersed from the bare schoolroom in which they had assembled. A discussion of the affairs of the colony often immediately succeeds the religious services.

Of the history of the Jaffa colony we gathered comparatively little. They have two settlements--one called Sarôna, about two and a half miles north of the town, consisting, in 1872, of ten houses; the second, nearer the walls of Jaffa, was bought from the surviving members of an American colony which came to grief, and this settlement included thirteen houses, with a school and an hotel, the latter kept by Hardegg’s son who also represents the German Government in Jaffa.

In 1872 the Jaffa colony numbered one hundred men, seventy women, and thirty-five children: two of the colonists were doctors, and some twenty were mechanics, the rest being farmers. They employed a few natives, and cultivated 400 acres of corn-land, paying the ordinary taxes to the Turks. The children are taught Arabic, and European languages, also Latin and Greek. The houses are clean, airy, and well built, and the colony wears an aspect of industry and enterprise, which contrasts with the squalor and decay of the native villages.

With the Haifa colony we became more intimately acquainted, by living in one of the houses for three months, during the winter of 1872-3, and again in the hotel of the colony, for about two months, during 1875, when we saw a good deal of the working of the community.

In 1872 the colonists numbered 254--forty single and forty-seven married men, thirty-two single and fifty-one married women (four widows), and eighty-four children. There were about fifty mechanics, and the settlement consisted of thirty-one dwelling-houses. The land was 450 acres of arable ground, with 140 olive-trees, and 17 acres of vineyard.

In the first three years of its existence only seven deaths occurred in the colony, but the mortality increased later; in 1872 there were eighteen deaths among the 205 colonists at Jaffa, which were due principally to fever, but such a death-rate has never yet occurred at Haifa.

The little village of well-built stone houses is situate west of the walled town of Haifa, under the shadow of the Carmel range. A broad street runs up from the shore towards the mountain, and the greater number of the buildings stand, in their gardens, on either side. Close to the beach is the Carmel Hotel, kept by a most obliging and moderate landlord, and a little farther up are the school and meeting-house, in one building. Mr. Hardegg’s dwelling, farther east, is the largest house in the colony. The total number is stated at eighty-five, including buildings for agricultural purposes.

In 1875 the colonists numbered 311, having been reinforced principally by new arrivals from Germany; the increase of accommodation since 1872 was thus far greater than that of settlers. The land had also increased, in the same period, to 600 acres, with 100 acres of vineyards and gardens; but the soil of the newly-acquired property near Tîreh, in the plain west of Carmel, is of very poor quality, and the Germans have not yet succeeded in their favourite scheme of obtaining grounds on the top of the mountain, where the climate and soil are both good.

The live stock consisted of 75 head of cattle, 250 sheep, goats, and pigs, and 8 teams of horses. A superior American threshing-machine had been imported. The trades followed are stone-cutting and masons’ work, carpentry and waggon-making. Blacksmiths, coppersmiths, tinsmiths, joiners, shoemakers, tailors, butchers, harness-makers, turners, soap-makers, vintners, and quarrymen, are also found among the colonists. There has been an attempt to trade in soap, olive-oil, and olive-wood articles, but, for these undertakings, more capital is required than the Germans at present possess. A good wind-mill, and an olive-press, have been brought from England. A tannery was also being put up in 1875, and a general shop exists, which the natives, as well as the Germans, frequent.

The colonists were many of them employed on the English orphanage at Nazareth, which Mr. Shumacher designed and built; and all the masons’ and carpenters’ work was executed by the Germans. The colonists also have done much to clear the road from Haifa to Nazareth, though they have not _made_ it, considering that, from a professional point of view, it is not yet a made road at all. Their waggons are now driven between the two places, and the natives employ them for moving grain.

The schools in the colony, for the children and younger men, are two in number. In the upper school, Arabic, English, French and German, arithmetic, drawing, geography, history, mathematics, and music are taught; in the lower, Arabic and German, writing, arithmetic, and singing; in both religious instruction is given; and the girls are taught knitting, sewing, and embroidery.

The colony has thus been sketched in its religious and practical aspects. Though much talk has been expended on the question of colonising the Holy Land, there is no other practical attempt which can compare in importance with that of the Temple Society. It remains to be seen what the success of the undertaking will be.

The colonists belong entirely to the peasant and mechanical classes, and even their leaders are men comparatively uneducated. As a rule they are hard-working, sober, honest, and sturdy; and, however mystic their religious notions may be, they are essentially shrewd and practical in their dealings with the world. They are a pious and God-fearing people, and their natural domesticity renders it highly improbable that they will ever split on the rock which wrecked the former American colony, whose President, it appears, endeavoured to follow the example of Brigham Young by introducing polygamy. The German colonists have also a fine field for enterprise, in the introduction into Palestine of European improvements, which are more or less appreciated by the natives; and, as they have no other community to compete with, they might be able to make capital of their civilised education. The wine which they sell is comparatively excellent, and finds a ready market, as do also many of their manufactured articles.

Such is one side of the picture, but when we turn to the other, we find elements of weakness, which seem to threaten the existence of the colony.

In the first place, there is apparently no man in the community of sufficiently superior talent or education, or with the energy and force of character, which would be required to control and develop the enterprise. The genius of Brigham Young triumphed over the almost insuperable difficulties of his audacious undertaking, despite even the prejudice which the establishment of polygamy naturally raised against his disciples. However superior in piety and purity of motive the leaders of the Haifa colony may be, they cannot compare with the Mormon chief in the qualities to which his success was due.

In the second place, the colonists are divided among themselves. In 1875 we found that Herr Hardegg had been deposed (temporarily, I understood, till he changed his views) from the leadership of the colony, and he had been succeeded by Herr Shumacher, a master-stonemason and architect, who is, moreover, the representative of the American Government at Haifa. This deposition of the original leader had caused dissensions among the Germans, and several of the influential members did not attend the Sunday meetings.

To internal troubles external ones were added. The colonists are not favourites either with natives or with Europeans, with Moslems or with Christians. The Turkish Government is quite incapable of appreciating their real motives in colonisation, and cannot see any reason, beyond a political one, for the settlement of Europeans in the country. The colonists therefore have never obtained title-deeds to the lands they have bought, and there can be little doubt that should the Turks deem it expedient, they would entirely deny the right of the Germans to hold their property. Not only do they extend no favour to the colony, though its presence has been most beneficial to the neighbourhood, but the inferior officials, indignant at the attempts of the Germans to obtain justice, in the courts, without any regard to the “custom of the country” (that is, to bribery), have thrown every obstacle they can devise in the way of the community, both individually and collectively.

The difficulties of the colonists are also increased by the jealousy of the Carmelite monks. The Fathers possess good lands, gradually extending along Carmel round their fortress monastery; they look with disfavour on the encroachments of the Germans, and all the subtlety of Italians is directed against the German interests.

The peculiar views of the colonists, moreover, cause them to be regarded with disfavour by influential Europeans in the country, who might do much to help them. They are avoided as religious visionaries, whose want of worldly wisdom might, at any time, embroil their protectors in difficulties not easily smoothed over.

The community has thus to struggle with a positively hostile government, while it receives no very vigorous support from any one. The difficulties are perfectly well known to the native peasantry, who, with the characteristic meanness of the Syrians, take the opportunity to treat with insolence people whom they believe they can insult with impunity. The property of the colonists is disregarded, the native goatherds drive their beasts into the corn, and several riots have occurred, which resulted in trials from which the colonists got no satisfaction.

The indiscretion of the younger men has brought greater difficulties on the community; they have repaid insolence with summary punishment, and finding no help from the Government, have in many instances taken the law into their own hands. Thus the colony finds itself at feud with the surrounding villages, and the hostile feeling is not unlikely to lead to very serious difficulties on some occasion of popular excitement.

There are other reasons which militate against the idea of the final success of the colony. The Syrian climate is not adapted to Europeans; and year by year it must infallibly tell on the Germans, exposed as they are to sun and miasma. It is true that Haifa is, perhaps, the healthiest place in Palestine, yet even here they suffer from fever and dysentery, and if they should attempt to spread inland, they will find their difficulties from climate increase tenfold.

The children of the present generation will probably, like those of the Crusading settlers in Palestine, be inferior in physique and power of endurance to their fathers. Cases of intermarriage with natives have, I believe, already occurred; the children of such marriages are not unlikely to combine the bad qualities of both nations, and may be compared to the Pullani of Crusading times. It seems to me, that it is only by constant reinforcements from Germany that the original character of the colony can be maintained; and the whole community, in Palestine and in Germany, is said not to number more than 5000 persons.

The expectation of the immediate fulfilment of prophecy has also resulted in the ruin of many of the poorer members of the colony, who, living on their capital, have exhausted it before that fulfilment has occurred. The colony is thus in danger of dissolution, by the gradual absorption of the property into the hands of those who originally possessed the most capital; and in any case it is very likely to lose its original character of Apostolic simplicity, some of the members becoming the servants and hired labourers of others.

The natural desire of those members who find themselves without money, is to make a livelihood by any means in their power. Where every man is thus working separately for himself, the progress of the colony, as a whole, is not unlikely to be forgotten, and the members may very probably be dispersed over Palestine, following their various trades where best they can make money.

Such are the elements of weakness in the society. In ten years it has made comparatively little progress, and ten more may perhaps see the colony decaying. Meantime the settlers might be examples to the natives (if Syrians would condescend to learn) of the advantages of European habits of industry and enterprise under very adverse circumstances. The little village of red-cheeked, flaxen-haired peasants, with cheery salutations, and honest smiling faces, is a pleasant place to visit; the women in their short skirts and brown straw hats, and the men in felt wideawakes and grey cloth, contrast most favourably with the dirty, squalid, lying Fellahîn. On the Sunday moonlight nights the sounds of the fine old German hymn tunes may be heard, softened by distance, along the beach, as the rings of men and boys stand chanting in the cool night air. A fresh sea-breeze blows all day among the acacia trees which flank the dusty street. The long heavy carts come rumbling by, the horses, harnessed with high-peaked yokes, looking rather light in comparison with German cart-horses in Europe. The flags of the Consulates are hoisted on Sundays, and the whole colony is seen soberly marching down to the meeting-house, where they are weekly comforted with the assurance that the end will soon come, and the Temple Colony be acknowledged, by God and man, to be the example of the whole world, and the true heir of the Holy Land and of Jerusalem.

The colonists freely allow the difficulties which beset their path. Meanwhile, should European attention be ever generally turned to Syria, it may be a matter of no little importance, that men acquainted with the language and the people, and, at the same time, trustworthy and honest, are to be found, who could render material assistance to new-comers, even though not attracted to the land by the belief that it is the natural inheritance of a true Israel, composed of any other nationality except the Jews.