Current reading: как миссионер в синагоге проповедовал

Книга Ярона Хареля "Intrigue and Revolution in the Jewish Communities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Baghdad, 1774-1914" в принципе полна открытий чудных, поскольку, положа руку на сердце, об этих общинах мы практически ничего не знаем, а интуитивные представления, как водятся, часто оказываются не совсем веррными или даже совсвм неверными. Но одна история, случившаяся в Алеппо в начале ХХ века, кажется, удивила даже автора:

Joseph Segall, a Jewish apostate who had become a Protestant missionary, was sent to Aleppo by the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. In his account of his mission he notes that in 1907 the great synagogue in Aleppo was his principal meeting place for talking to Jews who wished to learn about Christianity. According to Segall, the synagogue beadle, upon seeing the large number of Jews who were coming to see the missionary, opened the synagogue to him and even allowed Segall and his assistant Boutros to present the books of the New Testament there. The missionaries, of course, snapped up this opportunity to preach Christianity in the most sacred place for Aleppo Jews.

Segall himself noted that the sight of numerous Jews coming to the synagogue every morning to study Christian literature and discuss it with him was a strange one in a place of Jewish worship.22 Reports of this activity reached the ears of the chief rabbi, and one morning he came to see with his own eyes what was going on there. Joseph Segall describes this visit as follows:

Suddenly [the chief rabbi] appeared on the scene with his silver-headed staff of office, and accompanied by his kavass [guard] and secretary. I must confess that I felt somewhat anxious when, in the middle of one of my addresses, my attention was drawn to his sudden appearance. In approaching me, he had to pass by the bookstall first; and Boutros innocently offered him a New Testament and some tracts which, I noticed, he carefully stowed away in the folds of his inner garment.
As may be supposed, he did not quite relish our doings in the synagogue; but he was
of a gentle disposition, and too well-bred and courteous to cause an open disturbance. He took me aside and began gently to remonstrate with me.23

There was a surprising conclusion to this visit, which also proves that the missionary was speaking the truth: once the rabbi realized that Segall was equipped with a camera, he asked him to photograph him with his guard and secretary. The reason for this was that, a few days earlier, the rabbi had received a letter from the editor of a Jewish newspaper in the United States asking for a photograph of himself and the great synagogue for publication in the paper. Segall did as he was asked, and from that time on—by his ownaccount—Rabbi Dweck Hakohen became very friendly towards him.

Segall visited the chief rabbi a number of times in his home and, according to him, took the opportunity provided by these visits to teach the gospel to the chief rabbi and to the many other Jews who gathered at his home. The rabbi even allowed Segall to photograph the greatest treasure of the community, the famous Bible manuscript known in English as the Aleppo Codex and in Hebrew as the Keter Aram Zovah. This precious text was most carefully preserved and was kept under lock and key; even members of the community were only allowed to view it on rare occasions, so its display to a stranger was a notable event.24

Для тех, кто заподозрит: упомянутый главный раввин (хахам баши) Алеппо, Хаим-Шауль Двек а-Коэн, ни в каком "реформизме" замечен не был, религиозных взглядов придерживался достаточно консервативных (в частности, в отличие от некоторых других османских раввинов, был не лучшего мнения о педагогической деятельность "Альянса" (Alliance Israélite Universelle), и даже предпринимал специальные меры, чтобы ограничить влияние миссионеров в еврейской общине (например, просил у Альянса открыть в городе бесплатную школу для еврейких девочек, чтобы те не шли учиться к миссионерам).
В общем, в высшей степени необычная история.