DS 
 149 
 N662d 
 1905 
 
 NOAH 
 
 DISCOURSE ON THE 
 RESTORATION OF THE 
 JEWS 
 
 co g- 
 
 tr 2 
 E; "^ 
 
 9 W 
 
 ^ 5d ^^* 
 
 rS O 
 
 2- ^ > 
 
 5 s 
 
 ^<5 S O
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Mordecai M. Noah's ! Discourse 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Restoration of the Jews 
 
 REPUBLISHED IN EXTRACT 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 BY 
 
 D. S. BLONDHEIM 
 
 THE FRIEDENWALD COMPAlfT 
 BALTIMORE, MD., U. 8. A.
 
 MORDECAI M. NOAH
 
 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS! 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE TABERNACLE, OCT. W AND OBC t, U& 
 
 B? M. M. NOAH. 
 
 C9lt a JBap of t* ar,8 ( E.ratl, 
 
 NEW-YOBK: 
 
 BARPBR * BROTBKB3, 
 
 1845. 
 
 (FAC-8IMILE OF THE TITLE-PAQE OF THE ADDRESS AS FIRST PUBLISHED.)
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE* 
 
 MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH, the author of the following ad- 
 dress, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 14, 1785, and died in 
 New York, May 22, 1851. He was of Portuguese Jewish des- 
 cent, his father having taken an active part in the American 
 Revolution. He engaged in trade, but soon studied law, and, re- 
 moving to Charleston, S. C., he entered politics. He was ap- 
 pointed in 1813 to the important post of Consul-general at Tunis, 
 where he rescued several Americans who were held as slaves, 
 and made an unsuccessful attempt to establish schools for the 
 Jews living there. (See Zunz, G. V ., p. 489.) He traveled ex- 
 tensively in Europe, and, struck with the contrast between the 
 Jews' position in Europe and the freedom he enjoyed in America, 
 he became convinced of the need of a home for his people, who 
 were treated as strangers in the lands of their birth. Returning 
 to New York, he published (1819) a book on his travels, wrote 
 several popular dramas, and edited a number of influential news- 
 papers. He held the positions of surveyor of the port of New 
 York, judge of the court of sessions, and sheriff. Described as 
 a " pundit in Hebrew law, traditions, and customs," he published 
 in 1840 a translation of the " Book of Jasher." 
 
 He advanced projects for the establishment of a Jewish state 
 on three occasions. At the " Consecretion of the Synagogue of 
 the Shearith Israel Congregation in the City of New York," on 
 April 17, 1818, he delivered an address in which he says that 
 " when the signal for breaking the Turkish sceptre in Europe " 
 is given, the Jews, who " hold the purse strings and can wield the 
 sword," and " can bring one hundred thousand men into the 
 field," will " possess themselves once more of Syria, and take 
 rank among the nations of the earth." The second plan he pro- 
 posed was the well-known scheme to open, on Grand Island, near 
 Buffalo, N. Y., upon a site called Ararat (with a play on his own 
 name), a refuge for the Jews pending their final restoration to 
 Palestine. The plan came to naught, after a pompous dedica- 
 tion in an Episcopal church in Buffalo, on September 2, 1825. 
 Finally, on October 28, and December 2, 1844, he delivered the 
 address from which selections follow before large audiences of 
 Jews and Christians. This address, which strikinsgly recalls 
 modern Zionistic projects, attracted much attention, being re- 
 ported at length in the newspapers of the time. 
 
 *This article is reprinted from the Maccabaean of April, 1905. The copy 
 of the original address used by the editor was lent through the courtesy of 
 Mr. Mendes Cohen and Miss Bertha Cohen, of Baltimore, from the library of 
 their uncle, the late Dr. Joshua I. Cohen.
 
 MORDECAI M. NOAH'S DISCOURSE ON 
 THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS 
 
 I HAVE long desired, my friends and countrymen, for an oppor- 
 tunity to appear before you in behalf of a venerable people, whose 
 history, whose sufferings, and whose extraordinary destiny have, 
 for a period of 4000 years, filled the world with awe and astonish- 
 ment: a people at once the most favored and most neglected, the 
 most beloved, and yet the most persecuted ; a people under whose 
 salutary laws all the civilized nations of the earth now repose ; a 
 people whose origin may date from the cradle of creation, and 
 who are likely to be preserved to the last moment of recorded 
 time 
 
 Where can we plead the cause of independence for the children 
 of Israel with greater confidence than in the cradle of American 
 liberty? Where ask for toleration and kindness for the seed of 
 Abraham, if we find it not among the descendants of the Pil- 
 grims ? Here we can unfurl the standard, and seventeen millions 
 of people will say, " God is with you ; we are with you : in his 
 name, and in the name of civil and religious liberty, go forth and 
 repossess the land of your fathers. We have advocated the inde- 
 pendence of the South American republics, we have given a 
 home to our red brethren beyond the Mississippi, we have com- 
 bated for the independence of Greece, we have restored the 
 African to his native land. If these nations were entitled to 
 our sympathies, how much more powerful and irrepressible are 
 the claims of that beloved people, before whom the Almighty 
 walked like a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night ; who 
 spoke to them words of comfort and salvation, of promise, of 
 hope, of consolation and protection ; who swore they should be 
 His people, and he would be their God ; who, for their protection 
 and final restoration, dispersed them among the nations of the 
 earth, without confounding them with any " 
 
 Within the last twenty-five years great revolutions have oc- 
 curred in the East, affecting in a peculiar manner the destiny of 
 the followers of Mohammed, and distinctly marking the advance- 
 ment of the Christian power. Turkey has been deprived of 
 Greece, after a fearful and sanguinary struggle, and the land of 
 warriors and sages has become sovereign and independent. 
 Egypt conquered and occupied Syria, and her fierce pacha had 
 thrown off allegiance to the Sultan. Menaced, however, by the 
 superior power of the Ottoman Porte, Mehemet AH was com- 
 
 2117584
 
 pelled to submit to the commander of the faithful, reconveying 
 Syria to Turkey, and was content to accept the hereditary pos- 
 session of Egypt 
 
 Russia, with a steady glance and firm step, approaches Turkey 
 in Europe, and when her railroads are completed to the Black 
 Sea, will pour in her Cossacks from the Don and the Vistula, and 
 Constantinople will be occupied by the descendants of the Tartar 
 dynasty, and all Turkey in Europe, united to Greece, will con- 
 stitute either an independent empire, or be occupied by Russia 
 who, with one arm on the Mediterranean, and the other on the 
 North Sea, will nearly embrace all Europe. The counterbalance 
 of this gigantic power will be a firm and liberal union of Austria 
 with all Italy and the Roman States, down to the borders of 
 Gaul : but the revolution will not end here. England must pos- 
 sess Egypt, as affording the only secure route to her possessions 
 in India through the Red Sea; then Palestine, thus placed be- 
 tween the Russian possessions and Egypt, reverts to its legitimate 
 proprietors, and for the safety of the surrounding nations, a 
 powerful, wealthy, independent and enterprising people are 
 placed there by and with the consent of the Christian powers, 
 and with their aid and agency the land of Israel passes once 
 more into the possession of the descendants of Abraham. The 
 ports of the Mediterranean will be again opened to the busy hum 
 of commerce ; the fields will again bear the fruitful harvest, and 
 the Christian and Jew will together, on Mount Zion, raise their 
 voices in praise of Him whose covenant with Abraham was to en- 
 dure forever, and in whose seed all the nations of the earth are 
 to be blessed. This is our destiny. Every attempt to colonize 
 the Jews in other countries has failed ; their eye has steadily 
 rested on their own beloved Jerusalem, and they have said, " The 
 time will come, the promise will be fulfilled." 
 
 The Jews are in a most favorable position to repossess them- 
 selves of the promised land, and organize a free and liberal gov- 
 ernment ; they are at this time zealously and strenuously engaged 
 in advancing the cause of education. In Poland, Moldavia, 
 Wallachia, on the Rhine and Danube, and wherever the liberality 
 of the governments have not interposed obstacles, they are prac- 
 tical farmers. Agriculture was once their natural employment; 
 the land is now desolate, according to the prediction of the 
 prophets, but it is full of hope and promise. The soil is rich, 
 loamy, and everywhere indicates fruitfulness, and the magnificent 
 cedars of Lebanon show the strength of the soil on the highest 
 elevations ; the climate is mild and salubrious, and double crops 
 in the lowlands may be annually anticipated. Everything is pro- 
 duced in the greatest variety. Wheat, barley, rye, corn, oats, 
 and the cotton plant are raised in great abundance. The sugar 
 cane is cultivated with success ; tobacco grows plentifully on the 
 mountains ; indigo is produced in abundance on the banks of the 
 Jordan ; olives and olive oil are everywhere found ; the mulberry
 
 almost grows wild, out of which the most beautiful silk is made ; 
 grapes of the largest kind flourish everywhere, cochineal is pro- 
 cured in abundance on the coast, and can be most profitably cul- 
 tivated. The coffee-tree grows almost spontaneously ; and oranges, 
 figs, dates, pomegranates, peaches, apples, plums, nectarines, 
 pineapples, and all the tropical fruits known to us, flourish every- 
 where throughout Syria. The several ports in the Mediterranean 
 which formerly carried on a most valuable commerce can be ad- 
 vantageously reoccupied. Manufacturers of wool, cotton, and 
 silk could furnish all the Levant and the islands of Mediterranean 
 with useful fabrics. In a circumference within twenty days' 
 travel of the Holy City, two millions of Jews reside. Of the 
 two and a half tribes which removed east of the trans- Jordanic 
 cities, Judah and Benjamin, and half Manasseh, I compute the 
 number in every part of the world as exceeding six millions. Of 
 the missing nine and a half tribes, part of which are in Turkey, 
 China, Hindostan, Persia, and on this continent, it is impossible 
 
 to ascertain the numerical force The whole sect are in 
 
 a position, as far as intelligence, education, industry, undivided 
 enterprise, variety of pursuits, science, a love of the arts, political 
 economy, and wealth could desire, to adopt the initiatory steps for 
 the organization of a free government in Syria, as I have before 
 said, by, and with the consent, and under the protection of the 
 Christian powers. I propose, therefore, for all the Christian 
 societies who take an interest in the fate of Israel, to assist in 
 their restoration by aiding to colonize the Jews in Judea ; the 
 
 progress may be slow, but the result will be certain The 
 
 first step is to solicit from the Sultan of Turkey permission for 
 the Jews to purchase and to hold land ; to build nouses, and to 
 follow any occupation they may desire, without molestation and 
 in perfect security. There is no difficulty in securing this privi- 
 lege for them. The moment the Christian powers feel an interest 
 in behalf of the Jewish people, the Turkish government will 
 secure and carry out their views. The moment the Sultan issues 
 his Hatti Scherif, allowing the Jews to purchase and hold land 
 in Syria, subject to the same laws and limitations which govern 
 Mussulmans, the whole territory surrounding Jerusalem, includ- 
 ing the villages Hebron, Safat, Tyre, also Beyroot, Jaffa, and 
 other ports of the Mediterranean, will be occupied by enterprising 
 Jews. The valleys of the Jordan will be filled by agriculturists 
 from the north of Germany, Poland, and Russia. Merchants will 
 occupy the seaports, and the commanding positions within the 
 walls of Jerusalem will be purchased by the wealthy and pious of 
 our brethren. Those who desire to reside in the Holy Land, and 
 have not the means, may be aided by those societies to reach 
 their desired haven of repose. Christians can thus give impetus 
 to this important movement ; and emigration flowing in, and 
 actively engaged in every laudable pursuit, will soon become con- 
 solidated, and lay the foundation for the elements of government
 
 and the triumph of restoration. This, my friends, may be the 
 glorious result of any liberal movement you may be disposed to 
 make in promoting the final destiny of the chosen people. 
 
 The discovery and application of steam will be found to be a 
 great auxiliary in the promotion of this interesting experiment. 
 Steam packets to Alexandria leave England every fortnight ; a 
 line of packets are established between Marseilles and Constanti- 
 nople, stopping at the Italian ports, and at Athens and Smyrna, 
 thus bringing the Jewish people within a few days' travel of 
 Jerusalem. Our Mediterranean and Levant trade, hitherto much 
 neglected, will be revived, affording facilities to reach Palestine 
 
 from this country direct It is your duty, men and 
 
 Christians, to aid us peaceably, tranquilly, and triumphantly to 
 repossess the land of our fathers, to which we have a legal, 
 equitable, perpetual right, by a covenant which the whole civilized 
 world acknowledges. That power and glory which were once 
 our own, you now possess ; the banner of the Crescent floats 
 where the standard of Judah was once displayed ; it is for you to 
 unfurl it again on Mount Zion. It will redound to your honor 
 it will perpetuate your glory. 
 
 Since the period of the reformation we have enjoyed compara- 
 tive tranquility. But free by law, we are not so by public opinion. 
 Prejudice still scowls upon us, denying us that estimation, that 
 influence, that portion of worldly honors and rights which should 
 appertain to the citizen of every faith. We are not fully incor- 
 porated in the family of mankind. The afflictions under which 
 the chosen people have suffered have entailed an awful responsi- 
 bility upon Christians Where is the warrant for this 
 
 persecution of the Jews this innate feeling of hostility and pre- 
 judice against them on the part of Christians? We have lost 
 all country, government, kingdom and power. You have it 
 all it is yours. It was once ours it is again to be restored to 
 us. Dismiss, therefore, from your hearts all prejudice which still 
 lurks there against the favored people of God, and consider their 
 miraculous preservation as a light and beacon for the great events 
 which are to follow. They are worthy of your love, your confi- 
 dence and respect Is it nothing, my friends, to have 
 
 outlived all the nations on earth, and to have survived all who 
 sought to ruin and destroy us? Where are those who fought at 
 Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea? Where are the generals of 
 Alexander the mighty myriads of Xerxes? Where are the 
 bones of those which once whitened the plains of Troy? We 
 only hear of them in the pages of history. But if you ask where 
 are the descendants of the million of brave souls who fell under 
 the triple walls of Jerusalem? Where are the subjects of David 
 and Solomon, and the brethren of Jesus? I must answer, here. 
 Here we are miraculously preserved the pure and unmixed 
 blood of the Hebrews, having the law for our light, and God for 
 our Redeemer. How we have suffered, my friends, for steadily
 
 adhering to a belief in his unity, I need not pain you by recapitu- 
 lating. Even to this day persecution has not sheathed its bloody 
 sword. But if the Jews for eighteen hundred years have been 
 assailed by the sword, by the rack and the Inquisition, their great, 
 and abiding, and absorbing faith has sustained them in the midst 
 
 of those trials Countrymen and citizens, thank God, 
 
 your hands and hearts are free from the stains of such iniquity. 
 If you have wronged Israel, it has arisen only from 
 the prejudices of early education. Dismiss such feelings ; 
 be better acquainted with the Jew, and learn to estimate 
 his virtues. See him in the bosom of his family, the 
 best of fathers, and truest of friends. See children dutiful, affec- 
 tionate, and devotedly attached, supporting their parents with 
 pride and exultation. See wives the most faithful, mothers the 
 most devoted. Go with me into the haunts of misery, where the 
 daughters of misfortune walk the streets of this great city, and 
 see if among them you find one Jewess. Come with me to the 
 prisons, where crime, riots, and vice abound, and examine whether 
 a Jew is the tenant of a dungeon. Go into your almshouses, and 
 ascertain how many Jews are recioients of your bounty. See 
 them all, the friends of virtue and of temperance, obedient to the 
 laws and devoted to the country that protects them. Are we not, 
 then, worthy of your confidence and esteem, discharging, as we 
 do, every moral obligation imposed upon us? 
 
 The United States, the only country which has given civil and 
 religious rights to the Jews equal with all other sects ; the only 
 country which has not persecuted them, has been selected and 
 pointedly distinguished in prophecy as the nation which, at a 
 proper time, shall present to the Lord his chosen and trodden- 
 down people, and pave the way for their restoration to Zion. 
 But will they go, I am asked, when the day of redemption arrives? 
 All will go who feel the oppressor's yoke. We may repose where 
 we are free and happy, but those will go who, bowed to the earth 
 by oppression, would gladly exchange a condition of vassalage 
 for the hope of freedom : that hope the Jews can never surrender ; 
 they cannot stand up against the prediction of our prophets, 
 against the promises of God ; they cease to be a nation, a people, 
 a sect, when they do so. Let the people go point out the path 
 for them in safety, and they will go, not all, but sufficient to con- 
 stitute the elements of a powerful government : and those who are 
 happy here may cast their eyes towards the sun as it rises, and 
 know that it rises on a free and happy people beyond the moun- 
 tains of Judea, and feel doubly happy in the conviction that God 
 
 has redeemed all his promises to Jacob I should think 
 
 that the very idea, the hope, the prospect, and above all, the cer- 
 tainty of restoring Israel to his own ard promised land, would 
 arouse the whole civilized world to a cordial and happy co-opera- 
 tion 
 
 Let me therefore impress upon your minds the important fact,
 
 that the liberty and independence of the Jewish nation may grow 
 out of a single effort which this country may make in their behalf. 
 That effort is to procure for them a permission to purchase and 
 hold land in security and peace; their titles and possessions con- 
 firmed; their fields and flocks undisturbed. They want only 
 protection, and the work is accomplished. The Turkish govern- 
 ment cannot be insensible to the fact that clouds are gathering 
 around them, and destiny, in which they wholly confide, teaches 
 them to await the day of trouble and dismemberment. It is their 
 interest to draw around them the friendly aid and co-operation of 
 the Jewish people throughout the world, by conferring these rea- 
 sonable and just privileges upon them, and when Christianity 
 exerts its powerful agency, and stretches forth its friendly hand, 
 the rights solicited will be cheerfully conferred. When the Jew- 
 ish people can return to Palestine, and feel that in their persons 
 and property they are as safe from danger as they are under 
 Christian governments, they will make their purchases of select 
 positions, and occupy them peaceably and prosperously; confi- 
 dence will with them take the place of distrust and, by degrees, 
 the population in every part of Syria being greatly increased, will 
 become consolidated, and ready to unfold the standard when 
 political events shall demonstrate to them that the time has ar- 
 rived Remember, my countrymen, you whose aid is 
 
 invoked to assist in the restoration, that we are to return as we 
 went forth ; to bring back to Zion the faith we carried away with 
 us. The temple under Solomon, which we built as Jews, we 
 
 must again erect as the chosen people For two thousand 
 
 years we have been pursued and persecuted, and we are yet here ; 
 assemblages of men have formed communities, built cities, estab- 
 lished governments, rose, prospered, decayed, and fell, and yet 
 we are here. Rome conquered Greece, and she was no longer 
 Greece. Rome, in turn, became conquered, and there are but 
 few traces now of the once mistress of the world ; yet we are 
 still here, like the fabled Phoenix, ever springing from its ashes, 
 or, more beautifully typical, like the bush of Moses, which ever 
 
 burns, yet never consumes Come therefore to our aid, 
 
 and take the lead in this great work of restoration. Let the first 
 movement for the emancipation of the Jewish nation come from 
 this free and liberal country. Call to mind that Moses was the 
 first founder of a republican form of government, and that the 
 first settlers on this continent adopted the Mosaic laws as their 
 code, and strictly enforced them.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 

 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 r . OCT. 1 
 
 L a . iomed^ei LibrarV 
 
 URL 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 HAY 3 2004
 
 3 1158 00306 7377 
 
 A 001 241 145 o