# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Fourth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1884.   69

practice, while the Emigrant Mission bore the costs. After he had, in
the course of 9 months, earned good testimonials and had generally
been recognized as a person suited to this work, he received from the
Jewish-Mission Committee appointed by the New York local conference a
provisional call as Jewish-mission worker in New York, which he
accepted at the beginning of July 1883. By July 12 he already had a
number of Jews under instruction.

    "For us this was an entirely new kind of mission, for which we at
first had only slight hope. Nevertheless the work began, and it was
chiefly emigrant Jews from Galicia, Hungary, and Poland who turned to
our missionary and were taken under instruction by him. This
instruction differs from the ordinary kind, in that rarely has one
progressed as far in understanding as another, and almost each one
must be taken individually, so that the missionary's work often lasts
from early morning until late evening. Furthermore, it is not even
the hardest work for our missionary to demonstrate that the
prophecies of the Old Testament have already been fulfilled and that
the Lord Christ is the promised Messiah; rather, what matters first is
to completely destroy the teachings of the Talmud and to make the
whole ground shake under the Jews' feet. Once they have gotten that
far, there is more hope of winning them for the Savior. — Instruction
is given in German and Hebrew, especially in the latter language. Once
they have progressed far enough, Pastor König of New York gives them
catechism instruction, which he has taken on with faithfulness,
diligence, and pleasure.

    "By God's grace it has come about that 6 Jews could already be
received into the Christian congregation through holy baptism. At the
examination held beforehand they gave a good account of themselves.
Three others are still under instruction. We confess with thanks to
God and to the joy of the church that in these 10 months the Lord has
richly blessed the work of the Jewish mission, and that Mr. D.
Landsmann carried out his work as a conscientious missionary and a
Lutheran faithful to the confessions. The field of work is very
promising, and there is far more prospect of success than we believed
at first.

    "Only one circumstance is at present quite a hindrance. We do not
mean that we must mostly provide shelter and food for the Jews under
instruction — the rich, after all, are scarcely to be won for the
Kingdom of God — but rather that it is so hard to find work and
employment for them. We may not let them go among the Jews, for a
Jew who comes to us for instruction and does not conceal it severs
all ties with his blood relatives and his people, and the curse of
his people falls upon him. But the Christians, too, are