"Being of Hebraic stock, being a convert from the Synagogue to the Church as well as from Marx to Christ, it is but natural that my remarks should center upon Jews in particular." - David Goldstein LL.D., 1941
David Goldstein, a man who converted at the turn of the century, became known as "the lay apostle to the man in the street". He spent much of his time lecturing and writing, clearing up the "misapprehensions" about the Church, with the special objective of converting Jews. He was also a Franciscan Tertiary and attended daily Mass. The author of 10 books, he "was a vigorous critic of socialism, bolshevism and birth control". In 1955, three years before his death, Pope Pius XII honored him with the title of "Knight of St. Gregory" for his apologetic work.
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My dear Mr. Isaacs:
I am in receipt of your letter, or rather, I should say your challenge, "to show cause for a Jew to become a Catholic." It will be a pleasure to meet you in a pen-duel, but only insofar as matters of a religious nature are concerned.
In the Messiah,
Letter#2 Reform Judaism Examined
My dear Mr. Isaacs:
It is of import that the Judaism you profess be examined, as I hold that you, not I, have denied the faith of our holy fathers in Israel.
"What is there in my Reform Temple which I could not get in the Unitarian Church down the street?" ("American Israelite," Jan. 14 1937.)
That is why Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Sinai Congregation, Chicago, co-editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, foremost leader of Reform Judaism for four decades, could say -
"If ever we come to consult who are our co-religionists, we will discover that we have much more in common with the Unitarians and the Ethical Culture people than with Orthodox Jews."
If you were to substitute Reform Jew for "circumcised Jew," I would agree with your contention, as no "Reform Jew could consistently (or rather logically) become a Catholic." He would have to be converted to the basic principles of his forefathers in Israel before he could "consistently" become a Catholic. First, because the principles of Judaism proper are unchangeable, as the Jews of old and Catholics believe, and not evolutionary as Reform Judaism holds them to be. Second, a Catholic must believe in miracles, as did the Jews of old, he must believe that God, the Maker of nature, is above and beyond nature. Therefore God can and has acted directly without going through the ordinary, immediate cause leading to an effect, which we designate as natural. Here are ten Old Testament miracles Jews must believe.
Reform Judaism denies these, and other miracles, the denial of which relegates the Old Testament from the reading desks of synagogues, and the pulpits of churches, to the folklore shelves of libraries.
"The statement of some moderns, to the effect that Rabbinism did not hold the belief in a personal Messiah essential, is unscientific and needs no refutation for those who are acquainted with the literature" ("Some Aspects of Jewish Theology," p.110).
From the literature to which Rabbi Schecter refers, I present for your consideration the opinion of Moses Maimonides, the greatest Jewish authority on the Torah during the past eight hundred years. He said -
"One must believe and regard it as true that the Messiah will come. One must not think that his coming will be postponed; if he delays his arrival, wait for him. One must not fix the date, for, nor read into the Bible one's opinion concerning his coming -. One must believe that, in accordance with the predictions of all the prophets from Moses to Malachi, the Messiah will be more exalted and more honored than all the kings that ever existed. Whoever harbors and doubts or whosoever lowers his dignity, such a one denies the Torah.- It is part of this tenet that Israel will have no king except one from the house of David and the progeny of Solomon. And he who opposes this dynasty denies the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the words of his prophets" ("Commentary on M. Sarh," 10, principle 12).
Reform Judaism is a man-made religion; it originated in Germany during the first part of the last century. True Judaism is God-made, it dates back to the covenant made by God with Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees twenty centuries before the Christian ages.
In the Messiah,
Letter#3 Origin of Reform Judaism
My dear Mr. Isaacs:
I am in receipt of letter of recent date, in which you object to my classification of Reform Judaism as "man-made." I hasten to reply thereto, though the answers to your first letter have not yet been completed.
"We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote" (St. John I:45).
Reform Judaism is man-made because it was introduced into Jewry by men who had no authority whatsoever to modify the Law that came from God through Moses and the Prophets, for instance, by repudiating belief in a personal Messiah. Jewry has not, and never did have, any more power to repudiate belief in the coming of a personal Messiah than the Catholic Church has to repudiate the belief in His second coming. The Messiah made His first appearance out of Bethlehem Ephrata, as foretold by Micheas (5:2); and the Messiah promised to come again, this time in all His glory.
"Reform Judaism began in Germany in the first quarter of the 19th century, and there particularly under the great leaders, Samuel Holdstein and Abraham Geiger, experienced its largest initial growth and achievement."
It is most important to keep in mind the fact that ancient Judaism was the product of the covenant God made with Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, about the year 2083 B.C.; and that God did not make any covenant with Moses Mendelssohn, Samuel Holdstein, Abraham Geiger, or any American Rabbi, thirty-nine or forty centuries later.
In the Messiah,
Letter#4 Orthodox Judaism
My dear Mr. Isaacs:
You are correct in concluding, from my style of writing, that I purpose to publish my letters. Thus, if I fail to induce you to return to belief in Judaism proper, and then to graduate to Judaism full-blossomed, the letters may be of use to those Jews who will examine the arguments presented in them, with minds that are not obscured by dislike of the writer. It is my love of you, as a soul made in the same image and likeness as mine, and not fear of your expressed hostility towards converts from Judaism to Catholic Christianity, that prompts me to continue. I do not think you are as dangerous as you appear in your letters, save to yourself, for, as a writer once said,
"The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is silent."
You may continue to write in your unrestrained manner, if you so will, with the assurance asked, that your letters will not be published, nor your identity revealed.
"The religion of orthodoxy is more organic than reform, however, for orthodoxy is a way of living, while reform is only a way of talking" ("Judaism at Bay," N.Y. 1934, p.84)
If God has not as yet made the "new covenant" predicted by Jeremiah (31:31); if the thousands of millions of Christians have been in error in believing during nearly twenty centuries, and continuing to believe, that Jesus is the expected of Israel, the Messiah foretold to come by the greatest and holiest Jews, then is Orthodox Judaism the only Judaism of the Torah, despite the many Talmudic additions that have made obedience to its mandates a burden that many in Israel have found to be unbearable.
In the Messiah,
Letter#5 Democratic and Authoritative Religion
My dear Mr. Isaacs:
Looking at my last letter, in order to bring to mind the point dealt with therein, I realized that the closing words were in the nature of a challenge. Hence there was no need of an apology for immediately coming back at me with a reply thereto. It places upon me however the responsibility of dealing with the two points you raise-authority and priesthood instead of continuing to answer some of the points in your first letter, as planned.
"The only reason why government did not suffer dry rot in the Middle Ages under the aristocratic system that then prevailed, was that most of the men who were efficient instruments of government were drawn from the Church--from that great religious body which was then the only Church, that body which is now distinguished from other religious bodies as the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was then, as it is now, a great democracy. There was no peasant so humble that he might not become a priest, and no priest so obscure that he might not become a Pope of Christendom; and every chancellery in Europe, every Court in Europe, was ruled by these learned, trained and accomplished men."
Of course, a man-made church may be as democratic as a social club. It may not only select its own rabbis or ministers, and govern itself by the will of the majority, but it may also shape its principles by vote of its membership, as it often does. But right reasoning compels the conclusion that a God-made Church if such exists, must be governed by the will of God (as defined by its priestly authority) and not by the will of man in a democratic or an autocratic manner.
"All things, therefore, that they (the Scribes and Pharisees) command you, observe and do--for they have sat on the Chair of Moses" (St. Matt. 23:I-3).
The Jewish religious system, as I said, was hierarchical. It had its Sovereign Pontiffs, its High Priests. It had one visible head in the beginning, Moses, who anointed his brother Aaron as the first High Priest, followed by Aaron's son Eleazar, and in turn by successive first sons of the family of Aaron, who sat on the chair of Moses. Jesus, the Messiah, is the High Priest of the New Dispensation. He lives on through His bishops and priests, chief of whom are the occupants of the Chair of Peter, which was instituted by the Messiah. The Jewish priesthood ceased to speak with authority when the Veil in the Temple was rent, for shortly thereafter, on the First Pentecost Day, the Church of the New Dispensation began to function. Yet the Jewish priesthood continued to live a precarious existence, though without divine authority, until the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 A.D. Its "last High Priest," says the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge" (p. 428), "was chosen through political intrigue. He was not of the high-priestly (Aaronic) lineage, nor was he in any way worthy of the office."
Below is the Table of Contents from David Goldstein's 1943 book, "LETTERS Hebrew-Catholic to Mr. Isaacs", followed by the first five (5) letters. [Other complete chapters can be found on the Catholic Dispatch web site.] These letters were written especially to help Jews, as David Goldstein wrote, "return to belief in Judaism proper, and then to graduate to Judaism full-blossomed", which is Catholicism.
Were David Goldstein to come back from the dead today, he would indeed be horrified, but not surprised, at the wide-spread socialism and the use of birth control. But what he would probably be surprised at is to find that this book, designed especially for Jews, is so valuable for Catholics like it never had been before. Many errors are being spread through the Church today, even by men in the upper hierarchy, which even surpass the judaizing heresies of the early Christian centuries. Learn from one of the best sources - why Jews today are not the Chosen People - that the only relationship Catholicism has with Judaism is an historical one - that rabbis have no religious function whatsoever - that the Jewish priesthood has been extinct since 70 A.D. - and more.
Introduction (Central theme of letters)
1 Fear and Love of God
2 Reform Judaism Examined
3 Origin of Reform Judaism
4 Orthodox Judaism
5 Democratic and Authoritative Religion
6 Conservative Judaism
7 Laicized Judaism
8 Jewish Priests and Sacrifices
9 Are Temple Sacrifices Necessary?
10 Does End of Sacrificial Cult Matter?
11 The Soul of Judaism
12 Soul of Judaism Living On
13 Judaism Before Moses
14 Judaism and Dogmas
15 Israel and a Personal Messiah
16 True and False Messiahs
17 Genealogical Status of Jews
18 Jews Uninterested in Geneologies
19 Do Jews Proselytize?
20 His "Anointed of the Lord"
21 Was Jesus a Jew?
22 The Trinity
23 Divinity of Christ
24 "Our Divine Friend"
25 The People of the Book
26 "My Parents' Religion Is Good Enough for Me"
27 Converts: "Jews" Who Are Not Jews
28 Responsibility to Parents and to God
29 Why did the Jews Reject Jesus?
30 The Crucifixion
31 Sermon on the Mount
32 Jews have Moses: Christians Jesus
33 Faith and Reason
34 The Sabbath
35 The Law Fulfilled
36 The Jewish Name
37 Adam's Fall
38 Effects of Original Sin
39 Original Sin: Baptism
40 Circumcision
41 The Messiah Weeps
42 Divinity of Christ in His Works
43 Baptism: Confirmation
44 Holy Eucharist
45 Penance
46 Holy Orders: Sacrifice of the Mass
47 Sacrament of Matrimony
48 Extreme Unction
49 Did Christ Establish a Church?
50 Distinguishing Characteristics of Christ's Church
51 "We're All Making for the Same Place"
52 Miracles
53 Miracles: The Resurrection
54 Catholic Church a Miracle
55 Gentiles and Jews
56 Infallibility of the Pope
57 The Immaculate Conception
58 The Spanish Inquisition
59 Heresy
60 The Proof of the Pudding
61 Moses Commands Israel to Hear Jesus
62 Closing Note
Address on Brotherhood
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Letter#1 Fear and Love of God
I question not your right to expect a man to be what he pretends to be, especially when he writes and delivers public addresses of a religious and moral nature. But that does not obligate me to discuss my sincerity. Questioning the integrity of converts from the Synagogue to the Church, is as common in Jewry as answers thereto are useless. I will leave that part of the issue you raise to the judgment of God and those who are intimately acquainted with me. Therefore, I kindly ask you to hold your hostility towards me personally in check. Thus may you be enabled to look objectively at the claims of the Catholic Church, as presented by a Christian of Jewish parentage, who prayerfully desires to bring some of his former fellow-religionists to see the Church of the Messiah as she is, the realization of all that is good and great in the teachings and history of Israel.
Though the tone of your letter is uncharitable, there runs through the confused concepts you have placed into my hand a spirit which, rightly tempered, would bless you with an understanding of "how a circumcised Jew can consistently become a Catholic"; a spirit of another Saul who might, God willing, become a Paul, at least insofar as realizing the error of his religious concepts is concerned. With that hope in my heart, I take up the task of answering your challenge.
Considering that you believe in God, our start is easy. I am assuming, of course, that you believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whom I as a Catholic worship. Yet, even here, it were well to realize that when a Jew becomes a Catholic he gets a deeper and broader concept of God. That is because Catholics conceive God to be something more than the Creator of the world; a jealous God of an exclusive people, the children of Israel, with emphasis upon fear rather than love. God is looked upon by Catholics primarily as a loving Father of mankind. The emphasis of Catholics is upon the love of God, confidence in Him, and gratitude towards Him for all things, believing that the cross He permits them to bear is an opportunity to gain a crown. Catholic love of God leads the faithful to a realization of obligation to their fellowman irrespective of his racial, national and religious affiliation, to a degree unknown to Judaism. In a word, Catholic fear of God is secondary to love of God.
While fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, it is not the end thereof which is love. Yet filial fear of God, like love, is a grace wrought in the soul by God. This to me is very important, as it was the beginning of my realization that Judaism, as a whole, is a negative whereas Christianity is a positive approach to God. One of the striking characteristics of the Christian religion, that follows from its concept of God, is its universality, whereas Judaism is primarily for the descendants of Jacob. That is one of the reasons why the Church of the Messiah is called Catholic.
My daily task, as a campaigner for Christ, will necessitate proceeding slowly in replying to the many points you thrust at me in your letter. Yet I promise to cover every one of them in between my engagements to address audiences in the streets, squares and parks of our country. My objective will be to make plain that affiliation of Jews with the Catholic Church is not a denial of the faith of their fathers of old in Israel. On the contrary, it is an affirmation of their belief in the religion of Judaism of old; the realization of the great spiritual inheritance which the holy writings of Moses and the prophets foretold would come to those children of Israel who follow the faith of their fathers to its fulfillment in the coming of the Son of David.
This is the belief that led the Apostles, Jews, all of them, to follow Jesus as their Messiah at the cost of martyrdom.
This is the belief that brought three thousand circumcised Jews, through baptism, into the Catholic Church on her birthday, the First Pentecost Day.
This is the belief that converted Saul into St. Paul, for which he willingly bore forty stripes less one, was imprisoned, stoned, suffered shipwreck, and joyfully permitted himself to be beheaded.
This is the belief that, ever since the coming of the Messiah, caused the conversion of lovers of the faith of their fathers into an understanding that the Old Dispensation of Israel is fulfilled in the New Dispensation of Jesus. Pray God that Mr. Isaacs will be the next to be listed.
D..... G.........
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You are a Reform Jew. That being so, then you have ceased to be an Old Testament Jew, if ever you were one; then are you not governed by the Law of Moses as set forth in his Books, The Torah, as understood by our forefathers. Reform Judaism is as far from the Mosaic religion in the Old Testament as Unitarianism is from the religion of Christ in the New Testament. This is said because Reform Judaism and Unitarianism are alike in principle. That is why Alfred Segal, the Jewish columnist, asked -
1. The Ten plagues of Egypt - Exodus, chapters,7,8,9,10,12.
2. Parting of the waters of the Red Sea - Exodus,14.
3. Feeding with manna - Exodus,16.
4. Death of Cor, Dathan and Abiram for rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron - Numbers,16.
5. Budding of Aaron's rod, as sign that he was God's priest- Numbers,17.
6. Feeding of one hundred men by Elisha with twenty loaves-4th Kings, 4.
7. Resurrection from the dead by touching the bones of Elisha -4th K.,13.
8. Deliverance of three children from the fiery furnace - Daniel,3.
9. Deliverance of Daniel from lions - Daniel,6.
10. Deliverance of Jonah from sea monster - Jonas,2.
Again, Reform Judaism denies belief in a personal Messiah. This in itself is an utter denial of the divine promise around which the Judaism of our fathers of old in Israel centered. Belief in a personal Messiah is the central hope of Israel, for which all true Jews have prayed morning, noon and night throughout the Jewish ages. That is why Rabbi Schecter said, while president of the Jewish Seminary of America,
Thus it ought to be plainly evident to you, Mr. Isaacs, that when it comes to things basic to Judaism - its unchangeable principles, miracles, and belief in a personal Messiah - I, a "circumcised Jew" transformed into a Catholic Christian, am in harmony with the faith of our saintly fathers of old in Israel from Abraham to Moses to Malachi. On the other hand, you are in harmony with Rabbis Samuel Holdheim and Abraham Geiger, of Germany, the ex-Orthodox Jews, who originated Reform Judaism, and not with the faith of the Torah Jews of old.
D..... G.........
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My declaration is so firmly an established fact, that it surprises me to have you ask, "Is not ancient Judaism 'man-made' according to your line reasoning? Did not the understanding of it come through a man? Is it not called the Mosaic Law?" It is so designated, yet it is not man-made, as Moses was not the author, and has never been so declared in Israel. He was only the human instrumental agent through whom God placed His Law in the keeping of the Children of Israel. It was to be obeyed, and carried forth by Israel, until the "Prophet God will raise up" Cain, as Moses said, whom "though shalt hear" (Deut. 18:15). He came. He is the Messiah, Jesus, whom you refuse to hear as God said you should. Converts from the Synagogue to the Church giving Him ear, cry out, as did Nathaniel, who became St. Bartholomew the Apostle,
While Reform Judaism claims Moses Mendelssohn (Berlin, 1729-1786) as its progenitor, its real existence as a Judaic sect is due to the work of the two German modernized Rabbis mentioned in my last letter. As proof of its human origin, I herewith present a quotation from the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge" (N.Y., 1934, p. 267) -
Its importance lies in that the only religion man is morally obligated to obey is a God-made religion. Ancient, and not modern Judaism is therefore the religion to which man is duty-bound to submit his will for direction in matters of faith and morals, IF the Law of Judaism has not been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, and the establishment by Him of the Church to take place of the Temple and the Synagogues.
My desire to follow the will of God would lead me prayerfully to wear the tephillin* in the Synagogue today, instead of praying with beads in the Church, IF the King of the Jews, predicted to come, had not come and had not substituted one spiritual society for the other.
D..... G.........
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Now that another obstacle to an examination of the matter at issue has been brushed aside, a return may be made to the question of Judaism.
You no doubt know, that, when speaking favorably of the religion of Israel, I have in mind the Judaism of old, which has been called Orthodox since the days of the Paris Sanhedrin assembled by Napoleon I. It represents the major portion of the synagogued Jews. Its voice on the platform, through the etheric waves, and in the press, is not as loud as the number of Orthodox Jews, relative to the number of Reform Jews, warrants, as the Rabbis in the limelight are, with a few exceptions, of the Reform variety. Perhaps that is why Professor Horace M. Kallen, the active Zionist member of the American Jewish Congress, said:
Of course, to hold any Judaism to be true Torah Judaism, as is sincerely believed by members of synagogues, is an unsound notion. First, because ancient Judaism was a divinely instituted, authoritative religion. Its authority centered in its priesthood. Its high priest was, as Vallentine's Jewish Encyclopedia says, "the supreme ecclesiastical authority and chief representative of Israel before God" (London, 1938,p.284). This priesthood exists no more. The worship of ancient Judaism centered in divinely ordered sacrifices, which are no more, as there are no priests to offer the oblation called for in the Torah. Besides the Temple, the single central sanctuary, where "the burnt offerings and sacrifices and tithes" were commanded in Dueteronomy 12 to be offered has not existed since the days of Titus nineteen centuries ago.
These three holy things, basic to the Mosaic religion - priests, sacrifices, and Temples- being of the historic past, the Orthodox Judaism of today is but a reflection of what has "gone glimmering through the dream of things that were."
If reasons in the minds of Jews for adhering to Orthodox Judaism, or any other present-day Judaism, were as plentiful as blackberries in the summer season, it would be a difficult task to find one sound among them with which to refute the last two paragraphs of this letter.
D..... G.........
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You want "democracy in religion, and not a religion governed by a priesthood that claims divine authority." I regret your failure to see that the issue is not what you want, but rather what Old Testament Jewry calls for. Yet your demand will no doubt be seconded by many persons who do not discriminate between a God-made and a man-made religion, your viewpoint will no doubt be applauded during these times when the battle is on for the "four freedoms" that totalitarianism denies. That is because many persons fail to discriminate between the authority of the Church, which comes from above, and the exercise of the authority of the state which rightly comes through the consent of the populace. While all power comes from God, the authority of the persons who exercise such power, in a God-made spiritual society, is made known to man through revelation. It was set forth by Moses, and defined, as occasion necessitated, by the high priests and Sanhedrin (the high court) for the Jews, and by Jesus Christ, and the Church to which He delegated His power, for all the people of the world from the time the sojourn of Christ on earth ended. The exercise of the power of the State in the U.S.A., is by the consent of the governed, as defined in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
The Jewish priesthood was an aristocratic caste of the tribe of Levi. Supreme authority centered in the house of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, the office of High Priest, when vacant, being assumed by the eldest son, if he had the qualifications. This hereditary, genealogical priestly caste, was displaced by the priesthood without genealogy, in the Catholic Church; It is democratic insofar as the men ordained for service at the Altar of the Catholic Church are selected solely on the basis of their moral, intellectual and physical fitness, irrespective of their racial, national, or social status, or lineage. This democracy of the Catholic Church was recognized by President Woodrow Wilson, who said in his "New Freedom,"
There is but one Infinite God, hence there can be but one Church of God, especially when that Church is the Body of the Lord Jesus, as St. Paul declared the Church of Christ to be (Eph. 1:23). There was but one spiritual society of God's making before the thirty-third year of Christian reckoning, and that was the Church of the Jews. It ceased to be of God when it ceased to have a priesthood, sacrifices, and a Temple, though many Jews believed, and still sincerely believe, otherwise. Only one organic, visible, spiritual society of God's making has existed since then; that is the Catholic Church, the one and the only Christian Church that dates back historically to the first century of the Christian era. And the Catholic Church would cease to exist if the existence of her priesthood and sacrifice were no more, if that were possible.
Members of such God-made spiritual societies know that true religion is of God. They are governed by divinely revealed principles which bind man to God; as from God man came, and his primary purpose in life is to attain to an eternity of happiness with God. Ancient Judaism, like the Catholic religion, held God to have willed that man be directed and served through His ordained priesthood. Its head in the Old Law was Moses who lived on through Aaron and his successors in the high priesthood. That is why Jesus, the Messiah, said to the crowd and the disciples,
A Jewish religion without a divine priesthood, such as it had when the high priest functioned, as commanded in the Torah, is like a horse without a bridle, there is no telling into what doctrinal road it will run. It is lack of coherent, priestly authority in Jewry that accounts for its doctrinal intellectual chaos. It fails today to agree on the simple primary questions, "What is a Jew?" "What is Judaism?" My prayerful hope is that you will get a proper understanding of the faith of your fathers of old in Israel. Then will you realize that the Judaism which added glory to Israel; the Judaism of the priestly days of Israel, is no more, as it was divinely displaced by the priesthood and Church of the "New Covenant." Then will you understand that when a Jew enters the Catholic Church, he continues his religious life with the God of Israel, under the guidance of the priesthood of the Messiah.
In the Messiah,
D..... G.........
