CHAPTER XXV. THE JEWS. THE first company of Jews in this country came from Brazil in 1654. The first synagogue was established in Mill Street, New York City, now known as Broad Street. It was called the Shearith Israel (Remnant of Israel), and the society is still in active existence, occupying a building on West Nineteenth Street. As according to custom ten males above the age of thirteen can form a Jewish congregation, it is quite probable that there was Jewish worship before the first synagogue was opened, although it was doubtless conducted with some secrecy, as a petition to the authorities of New Amsterdam in 1685 for the privilege of exercising the rites of the Jewish religion was denied. "No public worship," so ran the reply, "is tolerated by act of assembly but to those that profess faith in Christ." Later some of the Jews in New York removed to Newport, R. I., and there held regular services, securing in 1763 a synagogue, to which the chief contributors were sons of the minister of the congregation, the Rev. Isaac Touro. One of these sons, Abraham Touro, gave $10,000 for the completion of the Bunker Hill monument. Jewish congregations were organized in Savannah, Ga., in 1733; in Lancaster, Pa., in 1776; in Philadelphia in 1780 and 1782; and in Charleston, S. C., in 1791. Of these congregations those in the South and one of those in Phila delphia used the ritual of the Portuguese Jews, the others that of the German Jews. Each The Jews of America have no religious head. congregation is autonomous, and responsible to its members only. It is said that an effort in New York to bring the Orthodox congregations under the care of a chief rabbi is not wholly satisfactory. The statistics of Jewish congregations are not frequently or periodically gathered, as is the custom of most religious denominations; but twice at least in the last forty years efforts have been made to ascertain the number of Jewish congregations in the United States, once in 1854 and again in 1880. According to the earlier report there were in 1854 97 regularly organized congregations, of which 30 were in the State of New York. The latter count was made under the auspices of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Union of Hebrew Congregations, and it required several years to complete the compilation. The results, which have been regarded as quite accurate, indicated the existence of 270 congregations, with 12,546 members, or about 50,000 communicants. The value of the real estate held by the congregations was returned at $4,706,700, with other property aggregating $1,497,878, or a total of $6,204,578, exclusive of burying-grounds. The tables presented herewith show that there are 533 congregations of Orthodox and Reformed Jews, with 130,496 communicants. It should be noted that in Jewish congregations the head of a family only is counted. The members of the family are represented by one person. The number given as communicants, therefore, does not indicate the number of members of a synagogue. Mem bers of families may, on attaining their majority, rent a pew and be counted as a member of a synagogue or temple, but they seldom do so until they have a household of their own. 1. THE ORTHODOX JEWS. There are two branches or schools of thought in the Jewish religion, commonly designated the Orthodox and the Reformed. The attempt is here made to tabulate the statistics in accordance with this classification. It is difficult, however, in some cases to know how to draw the lines. Under the above heading those congregations are embraced which adhere to the ancient rites and ceremonies, observing the Bible as expounded and expanded by the prophets and rabbis. The Orthodox Jews accept the Schulchan Aruch as authoritative in all its requirements. It is a codification, made by Rabbi Joseph Karo in the middle of the sixteenth century, of the laws and ceremonies expounded by the rabbis of the Talmud and handed down from generation to generation by tradition. It provides for the minutest details of Jewish life, and those who accept it consider it as binding as the law of Moses itself. Halls to the number of 193, with a seating capacity of 24,847, are occupied as places of worship. The average seating capacity of the churches is 384, and the average value $22,967. Under this classification are included all Jewish congregations which do not recognize as absolute the authority of the Schulchan Aruch. In some cases the departure from orthodoxy is slight, as in worshiping with the hat off, the mingling of the sexes in the synagogue or temple, and the introduction of the organ and female choir. There |