Q. 4. Do you consider him to have been a Jewish prophet? If so, would you indicate in what order he would stand, in your judgment, respecting the earlier prophets?
Q. 5. Is there a growing interest among Jews in the study of the sayings and life of Jesus?
Q. 6. Is there a growing willingness in Judaism, as says Dr. Kohler, to reclaim Jesus as one of her greatest sons?
Answers to Questions.
| Name. | Question 1. | Question 2. | Question 3. | Question 4. | Question 5. | Question 6. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. Zangwill, English novelist and critic. London, Eng. | Not a daybreak, but a burst of sunshine. | Yes. | Only among the liberal thinkers. | Yes, among some of those thinkers, but not in one or two whose thinking is characteristically Jewish. | ||
| I. L. Leucht, Rabbi of Touro Synagog, New Orleans, La. | I do. | I recognize in him, one sent by God, like every man that uttereth a truth, is a messenger of God. | Christ intended to popularize monotheism among the heathens, and I believe that Christianity has been a great help. | I do not consider Jesus a Jewish prophet in the sense your question indicates. | Yes. | Yes. |
| M. Gaster, Chief Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of England. London. | No. | No. | He has been of advantage in making known to the Gentile world the God of Abraham. | I do not consider him to have been a Jewish prophet. | No. | No. |
| G. J. Emanuel, Rabbi of Birmingham Synagog, Birmingham, England. | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. | Yes, following Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekel, Amos and Micah. | Yes. | Yes. |
| Max Landsberg, Ph.D., Rabbi, Rochester, N. Y. | I do not. | I do esteem him to have been “sent of God” in the same sense as hundreds of other Jewish teachers. | I agree with Maimonides, who holds that Christianity and Mohammedanism have aided in spreading the purer God ideas. | I do not consider him to have been a Jewish prophet, but a Jewish teacher and preacher. | There is a growing interest among all men in the study of comparative religion, in which the Jews participate. | The Jewish prejudice against the very name of Jesus has been caused by the long persecution of Jews carried on for his sake. |
| Moïse Schwab, Librarian at Bibliothèque Nationale, translator into French of the Talmud Yerushalmi, Paris, France. | Yes, but Jesus, professing doctrines contrary to the Sanhedrin, whose authority he recognized (Matt. xxiii. 2) was subject to the severity of the Mosaic law (Deut. xvii. 8-14). | In spite of the sympathy of the Jew for the personality of Jesus, he, worshiping God alone, refuses to see in Jesus a son of God, or His envoy in a supernatural sense. | Yes, without doubt; his religious mission has become the greatest blessing for the entire world. | Jesus may well be, as Jewish prophet, the equal even of Isaiah, and placed above those other Jewish prophets whose spiritual horizon is not so broad. | The enlightened Jews regard Jesus as an illustrious co-religionist and a disciple of the rabbis; and take consequently an interest in the study of his life and his influence on the world. | See answer to Question 5. |
From SIMON WOLF, LL.D., former Consul of the United States to Egypt, Vice-President of Order B’ne B’rith, Washington, D. C.:
I have not had the time nor the desire to investigate the alleged divinity of the Christian Savior. I have, however, recognized the great influence his character and labors have exercised throughout the world. If properly understood and if properly construed, I have no doubt whatsoever that what he aimed at and labored for would prove of great benefit to every human being. I look upon him, in short, as a great teacher and reformer, one who aimed at the uplifting of suffering humanity, whose every motive was kindness, mercy, charity, and justice, and if his wise teaching and example have not always been followed, the blame should not be his, but rather those who have claimed to be his followers. I have the very highest regard for him as a man who reflects in his sayings the divine Spirit, which after all is nothing more or less than a reflex of the Jewish ethics in which he was so well grounded.
October 9, 1899.