Leila Ada, the Jewish Convert: An Authentic Memoir

The scholars are divided on the question of whether or not some of the "quasi-autobiographical" (or in some cases, quasi-biographical) conversionist novels of the 19th century were mostly true (with the names changed) or completely made up. Or something in between, perhaps. Some critics don't think the Jewish traditions that are described are accurately depicted; others think that the Jewish characters are too stereotyped to be based on real people.

My own thinking is that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I suspect that Amelia Bristow, despite her negative portrayal of Jewish life, was mostly telling the truth when she said that her fiction was based on real people and real events. Just my gut feeling. But Osborn Trenery Heighway, on the other hand, may very well have been a charlatan, according to the Little Professor.

Osborn Trenery W. Heighway wrote Leila Ada, the Jewish Convert: An Authentic Memoir in 1852. It was first published in London and the next year reprinted by our old friends the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia (remember Maria the "converted Jewess"?). And by the way, we haven't see the last of those Presbyterians.

In the Introduction, the editor Heighway claims that this memoir is based on a true story, and that the words of "Leila Ada" (as portrayed in letters, diary entries, etc.) are unchanged from the original. (Indeed, Heighway makes "sic" notes in the text so as not to change anything at all).

Heighway writes, "Although her language is at some places diffuse and inartificial, we could not feel at liberty to alter it" (p. 9). So is it fiction? That's how libraries have classified it. The fact that the "editor" Heighway later wrote another conversion novel ("Adeline") makes one think that Leila Ada is the same genre of "fictional autobiography" (as opposed to a memoir). Both Nadia Valman and Michael Ragussis comment on Leila Ada, and neither thinks much of its authenticity.

For those who are interested in these things, the story of Leila Ada is also included in the book Narrative of the Conversion and Suffering of Sarah Doherty and the Wonderful Conversions of Two Jewish Maidens.

One possible mark of inauthenticity is that it is extremely doubtful that an educated Jewish girl would use the term "Jehovah" for God (Leila's father also uses it too, more than once). (See the Jewish Encyclopedia at http//www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=206&letter=J for the article on Jehovah).

Heighway doesn't think much of the rabbis and their commentaries and interpretations. He writes that "The Mishna is said to be an oral law, received from the lips of God, and intended as an exponent of his written law. But we should transgress the purity which religion demands, were we to quote from some of its puerile and absurd follies" (p. 18).

And he goes on to criticize and mock the Talmud. Leila Ada also has nothing but contempt for the rabbinical writings, calling them "inane, absurd, debasing.... [and] impure, stupid fabrication, composed by fallen and sinful man" (p. 19). [Dearest Leila, why don't you tell us how you really feel?]

Apparently Leila's father was a bit inconsistent in his views of Judaism:

"Her father, although strictly a Jew in belief and profession, gave himself little trouble about their requirements and observances, and , therefore, was very far from pressing them upon his daughter. But a mind constituted like that of Leila, eagerly thirsting after truth, could not be always content without strictly examining the Old Testament Scriptures; those Scriptures which all her nation believe in, as the pure word of God" (p. 19).

Leila Ada is raised by her father since her mother had died earlier. She is a teenager in this book, but a mature one. (She is about 20 when the book ends). She is a pious and righteous Jew, but Heighway is careful to note that she has a pure heart and is not hypocritical. [And we know what that means, don't we? In conversionist fiction, good Jews almost always end up to be good Christians].

Leila Ada talks a great deal about her sinfulness, even before she becomes a Christian; it almost seems that she is a Calvinist in her theological musings. Heighway telegraphs his intentions when he has Leila Ada say:

"I have also determined to read the book which the Christians call the New Testament. They profess that prophecies in the Old Testament are clearly fulfilled in the New. I intend to see what ground they take. It is true I have heard much, and read much, of the awful character of that book, and am told that a fearful curse rests upon the reading of it. I cannot think this to be true.... Besides, shall I not be a better Jew for reading it? Will it not assist to imbue my mind with the proofs of the dreadful mistake which the Christians commit? I cannot doubt that I am right" (p. 26).

Heighway is so subtle. In this next excerpt he tells us what is about to happen to Leila Ada. Come on, Osborn! Let us enjoy a little suspense for once! Whatever happened to the dramatic climax, the cliffhanging end of the chapter, the thrill of the unknown? Perhaps Heighway thought that proper ladies would swoon if they weren't warned in advance of Leila Ada's every step....

"We are now brought to the most interesting portion of Leila's life -- her conversion to Christianity. It has already appeared that her belief in the tenets of Judaism had received an irremediable shock; the absurd fables of the Talmud were cast aside as unworthy of a thought, and the trammels of rabbinical authority completely burst asunder. On her return to England she was only waiting for more instruction in the articles of the Chrsitian belief, to dispose her to embrace it with all her heart. One of her first objects, therefore, was, she says, "to find a company of simple, earnest Chrsitians" (p. 82).

Leila Ada begins to attend church services. She says in her diary:

"I want to take the word of God just as it is. This is the faith of the New Testament: this is the faith God requires, and will have, in order to my salvation. Lord, save me! increase my faith; increase it largely -- mightily; confirm my hope, and fan my love for thee into a mighty flame!" She was an earnest and humble seeker of the truth as it is in Jesus. Her heart had now become intent upon one great business -- the salvation of her soul...." ... "O, my Father, I thank thee; I adore and praise thy holy name, that thou hast removed from my heart that dark, impervious veil...." (p. 84).

And more from the alleged diary:

"Christ Jesus is mine, full and perfect salvation ... Lord, I do believe; help thou my unbelief. Blessed Jesus, my hope is in thee! take up thy abode in my heart; there reign, and direct my every thought and act. Father, forgive my manifold sins and offences against thee! my rest is on thy mercy, through the atonement of my Lord Jesus Christ..." And in a very little time after this she was enabled to rejoice in the God of her salvation; her heart was filled with joy and gladness, and her mouth with praise. This delightful change took place while receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, after having been dedicated to God in baptism" (p. 85-86).

Leila later remarks in her "diary":

"I have this night laid a letter on my father's dressing-table; in it I have detailed the change which has taken place in my soul; in it I have avowed my belief in Jesus of Nazareth, and the joy and peace which I experience in believing. O, that it may do him the good I ardently pray for -- that it may lead him to embrace the gospel of Christ.... This whole night do I intend to devote to special wrestling with thee, for the salvation of my dear father" (p. 89).

In her letter, which is included in whole, she tells her father about her newfound faith, that "all [her] sins are forgiven through Chrsit Jesus," (p. 93), how she came to this faith, her acknowledgement of her own sin, the inferiority of Judaism, the absurdities of the Talmud, etc. She goes on for pages detailing why her father should also believe. She ends the letter by begging him "O do, do begin to serve Jesus. I cannot write any more; my paper is moistened with tears they are tears of mingled prayer and praise" (p. 120).

Her father's response?

"What have you done, Leila? How can you expect me to kiss you? Can you imagine the night I have spent? Is it for this I have had you instructed in the law of the God of Israel, that you should mock at it, and cast it behind your back? Is it for this that I have withheld no means of knowledge from you, that your learning should become a snare to you? ... Now... tell me who it is that has poisoned you; let me know who it was made you a proselyte from the faith of your father Abraham. To think that one of my kindred should have become an apostate -- a Christian -- ... tell me how your ... innocent heart has been misled. The arms of our religion are as wide open to you as ever, if you will return now; and I need not tell you that I shall love you better than before" (p. 122).

And Leila gives her rejoinder:

"O, my dear father,... no one has abused my judgment; indeed, it is God has of his mercy opened my eyes" (p. 122).

They argue for a while and then, when it is apparent to the father that she will not recant, he sends her away to her uncle, who is very strict in his observance of Judaism. [That will teach Leila a lesson!] Leila and her uncle get into a disputation about Jesus, and Leila says to him "from experence I know that neither you, or any of our nation, have any solid joy, or hope, or peace, or even comfort, in your religion. You reject Christ Jesus, the saviour; what will you do for an atonement? You have none" (p. 135).

Her uncle forbids her to speak of her new faith, and at first Leila obeys, but it starts to bother her that she has to "hide her light under a bushel" (p. 140). Although at first they had all been kind to Leila, her uncle's family and servants begin to treat her cruelly, to mock her, to scorn her. All except for one of her cousins (Isaac), who talks with her a great deal about the Bible and the Messiah and who eventually also comes to faith in Jesus. This enrages her uncle and aunt even more.

Eventually Leila is confronted at dinner by two rabbis, several elders, and other members of the Jewish community. Their meeting with Leila lasts for 7 hours, and ends with the rabbis and elders raging against her, calling her a "blaspheming apostate," spitting in her face, pronouncing a curse on her (actually many curses), and excommunicating her. "Then," said the rabbi, "I pronounce that your name is cut off from your nation; that it is blotted from under heaven.... I pronounce thee excommunicated" (p. 156).

She returns home to her father, who welcomes her with kindness and with outrage at the way that she was treated by her uncle and by the rabbis and elders. But soon Leila gets quite sick. She continues to preach to her father, even while her illness makes her weaker and weaker. In the end, her father becomes a Christian, and Leila dies from her illness. As we have discovered, this is a common ending for fictionalized Jewish converts to Christianity. As a Christian martyr, Leila Ada died for a good cause. Though she only lived to be 20 years old, her short life brought two other Jewish converts to Christianity: her cousin Isaac, and her father. Sleep well, Leila Ada. (Leila tov, Leila Ada).

The Jewess in Nineteenth-Century British Literary Culture

Cambridge University Press recently published The Jewess in Nineteenth-Century British Literary Culture by Nadia Valman, a British scholar who comments throughout the book on conversionist novels and the women who populate them (and the women who wrote them).

Valman covers a few of the 19th century conversionist authors, including some that have been exposed to the light of the Internet on these pages, such as Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Madame Brendlah, and Amelia Bristow. Here is a representative excerpt from the book:

"Conversionist fiction developed between the 1820s and the 1840s into a complex expression of middle-class women's aspirations and frustrations. In their writing, Evangelical authors deployed the rhetoric of gender in order to articulate the distinction between Christianity and its Other, Judaism. In these texts, Judaism is represented as ritualistic, legalistic, materialistic, archaic and, crucially, masculine. At the same time, however, the distinctive philosemitism of Evangelical theology embedded in English culture a particular attachment to Jews. In Evangelical women's writing, this was expressed in the idealised figure of the Jewess."

I haven't seen any reviews yet, but from my lightning fast perusal of the book I would say that Valman seems to be a careful researcher with keen analytic insights. Worth a read, I'd say.

Annie and Miriam; or, The Christian and the Jewess

Annie and Miriam; or, The Christian and the Jewess is a short tract, published by the London Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1852, that describes the friendship between Annie Rivers, a young Christian girl, and Miriam, a sickly young Jewish girl. Miriam, who is about two years older than Annie, goes to live with Annie because her poor father cannot afford to give her decent medical care, good food, good water, etc.

The pamphlet gently chastises Christians for their lack of kindness in regard to the Jews. Annie asks her mother, "Is that a Jew, mamma?" "Yes, Annie; and as a Jew he is entitled to a degree of tenderness which Christians do not always show" (p. 7).

Annie's mother, Mrs. Rivers, is a serious Christian, and she believes that all men, even those of other religions, need to believe in Jesus. Yet she feels like she should not take advantage of the situation to bring about Miriam's conversion to Christ. Miriam's father's parting words were "We are Hebrews" (p. 16) so she knows that he does not want her to try to convert the child. Yet as a Christian she felt like she should say something. She decides to talk to the father about it. That day, Annie asks her what was worrying her, and she replies thusly:

"I have been thinking, my dear, whether it can be right to let this sweet Jewess girl dwell among us so long without speaking to her of the Saviour whom her fathers slew, whom her people still reject." "And why do you not do so, mamma?" "Because I fear her father would be displeased, or might think I took an unfair advantage of the charity I offered this child. Oh! Annie, it is sad to think that if our interesting Miriam learned to love Christ, her father and her father's people would probably cease to love her."

But it turns out that our child heroine Annie, sweet naive, innocent Annie, all along has been quietly proselytizing Miriam. Annie contrasts Miriam's (Jewish) picture of God as a "hard God" who is "a great, mighty, terrible Being" (p. 18) with her own Christian view of God as love and as redeemer.

Annie reads to Miriam from the New Testament, and then Miriam starts reading it herself.
Mrs. Rivers decides not to intervene with Miriam and Annie, and also not to talk to Miriam directly about Christ, but to bring up the subject with Miriam's father. She discovers that Miriam's father is "unhappy, seeking rest, and finding none; unwilling to renounce the faith of his forefathers, yet finding no satisfaction in it" (p. 22).

"She tried to show him that she was far from wishing him to renounce that faith, but only wanted him to perceive and believe in its accomplishment" (p. 22). That the Old Testament was incomplete without the New Testament, and "that she did not want him to renounce his faith as a Jew, but to experience its fulfilment in the faith of a Christian" (p. 22).... "Mrs. Rivers offered the old Jew a New Testament, and begged him candidly to read it, and ask the God of faithful Abraham to enable him to understand it" (p 23).

Miriam believes in Jesus and is baptized. She witnesses to her father of her newfound faith. Then Dad gets sick and the Grim Reaper comes calling. Mrs. Rivers urges Mr. Jewish Dad on his deathbed to believe in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he responds:

"I ought not, perhaps, to have been silent so long, for my child's sake, at least; I am a Christian! I believe that the Messiah has once come; that Jesus of Nazareth was he; I believe that he is the promised Saviour of the world, for whom our fathers looked, for whom our tribes still vainly look; I believe he will be my Saviour and my God." "The old Jew raised up his clasped hands, and cried with fervour, in the words of Nathaniel, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God! thou art the king of Israel!"

And then he died.

Perhaps this short story should have been titled, And A Little Child Shall Lead Them. Like many other conversionist tales of the 1800s, the strongest Christian (and the one who leads the Jews to Christ) is but a child.

Grace Aguilar

The English writer (and Sephardic Jew) Grace Aguilar did not take kindly to the conversionary novels of her fellow countrywomen. In Women of Israel (1845), she writes that the works of Amelia Bristow and other

"narrations which portray some members of a Jewish family in a favorable light, that they may conclude by making them Christians, and the other members as so stern, harsh, and oppressive, that they bear no resemblance whatever to any Israelite, except the Israelite of a Gentile's imagination.... [These works] never fail to impress the minds of Christian readers with the unalterable conviction, that whenever spirituality, amiability and gentleness, kindliness and love, are inmates of a Hebrew heart, it is an unanswerable proof that that heart is verging on Christianity, and will very speedily embrace that faith" (p. 309).

Aguilar touches on a common theme among the 19th century conversionist novelists (and their 20th century descendants), that of the good-hearted, amiable, noble Jew who often (in these works of fiction) converts to Christianity. It is rare that a grouchy, ugly, deceitful Jew will ever convert in these books. Too bad, because that misses the whole point of the Christian message: that God's grace can change even the worst criminal and turn him or her into a kind and upstanding citizen. It shouldn't matter to the conversionist novelists whether the (pre-Christian) Jewish characters are kind-hearted or mean. But it does. And that destroys their credibility as much as anything else.

Aaron's Rod; or the Young Jewess: A Tale

Mary Elizabeth Lee was a poet who was born and lived (and died) in Charleston, South Carolina, 1813-1849. In 1846, the Southern Literary Messenger serialized her short story, "Aaron's Rod; or the Young Jewess: A Tale," in two parts. We learn from the byline that the story was translated from the German, so it's not clear if Lee was the author or the translator. It seems more likely that she was the translator.

The characters in "Aaron's Rod," set in 19th century Germany, are as follows: Augustus Halm, a young Christian man who falls in love with a young Jewish woman, Esther Aaron; Mr. and Mrs. Aaron, Esther's parents; and the Aaron's other daughter, Abigail.

Augustus' father had died, so he and his widowed mother decide to rent a house from a Jewish family, the Aarons. The Aaron's daughter Abigail falls sick and dies, and soon after Mrs. Aaron, consumed by grief, also expires. Mr. Aaron and his remaining daughter, Esther, are forced because of war to move into their country home where the Halms are living. The two young people fall in love, and Esther becomes a Christian (due to the influence of Mrs. Halm as well as some events that occurred when Esther was a child). But she is afraid to tell her father because it would break his heart.

Esther recalls a childhood event when a Christian friend of hers, Mary Lessing, brought her to a church during Easter, where a Passion play was being presented. Esther is stung by the accusation that her nation killed Christ, and that "whoever denies the Saviour, or insists that his teachings are not from God, drives the spear into his sacred side, and helps to nail him to the cruel cross." She is also hurt by Mary's assertion that Esther's mother would still be alive if she had become a Christian. This seems a strange way to be seduced by a new religion, but that is how Esther's transformation from Jew to Christian is portrayed.

We learn that as a girl of ten years old, Esther had become a secret Christian. Later, at age 19, when her father tries to marry her off to men in the Jewish community, she refuses, and he suspects that her faith attachments to Judaism may have changed. Mr. Aaron tries to pay Augustus to advise Esther to marry one of these men, but when he refuses Mr. Aaron realizes that he is in love with his daughter. So the Aarons move away and Augustus is heartbroken.

Augustus' mother dies, and a few years later he goes looking for Esther. A Jewish man (who was upset about Esther's apostasy) who had purchased Mr. Aaron's old house deceives Augustus into thinking that Esther had married a member of the Jewish community. But then Augustus discovers that Esther is actually unmarried and living in that very town, and that she is (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!) about to be baptized.

Augustus meets her at the church and discovers that before his death Mr. Aaron had given his blessing to Esther to live out freely her newfound faith. Thus Augustus and Esther (whose baptized name is Mary, ironically) are married and have children "in whose faces are softly blended the traits of the Christian and Jewish races."

This story contains many of the themes of 19th century conversionary fiction. We have the influence of a Christian friend, the childhood conversion, the secretive nature of the conversion for fear of reprisal, the deceptive Jewish characters, the untimely deaths of family members, the reversal of fortune, and the romance between Jew and Christian. Many of these themes repeat themselves in the revival of the conversionist genre in the late 20th century, as we shall see the coming months.

Backhanded Philosemitism

Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake (1809-1893) was the daughter and sister of physicians. She lived for two years in Russia which undoubtedly informed some of her writings. Lady Eastlake was an amateur painter and art critic, but is best known for her criticism of Charlotte Bronte in an article in the Quarterly Review.

In 1846, Lady Eastlake published Livonian Tales, a collection of three stories set in the Baltics (probably Finland). The third story, entitled "The Jewess," concerns a Jewish woman named Rose, the wife of a Russian Jewish peddlar. The Cossacks overrun their town and Rose is forced to give up her little son, Matvei, to a kindly Christian woman to keep the boy safe.

Rose, heartbroken by her loss, finds herself on a ship and responds to an anti-semitic remark: "And what do you know of the Hebrews? There are as many Hebrews as little like what you call Jews, as there are Christians who act not up to the creed they profess; and if you Christians think your religion the better of the two, more's the shame. I have found those the best Christians who were kindest to the Israelite" (p. 173).

Rose is reunited with her son somewhat later in the story. She expresses great gratitude toward God and toward the Christians who saved her and rescued her son. One of them (Maddis) says: "... and Jewess though she be, nobody better deserves to become a Christian. I'm not sure she is not one already." [The narrator continues...] We cannot quite vouch for the truth of good Maddis's surmise, but this we can assert, that Rose never quitted her benefactress, and that the little Matvei was baptized a fortnight afterwards at the village church" (p. 178).

So the moral of the story seems to be this: Christians, be kind to the Jews, for thusly you will win them into the kingdom. Lady Eastlake's story fits into the genre of what I like to call "backhanded evangelical philosemitism" (love the Jews but hope and pray that they convert to Christianity), yet without the flagrant evangelism that is present in many other works of the day.

Matilda, the Little Jewess

Matilda, the Little Jewess was published in London in 1844. This short pamphlet, only 8 pages long, tells the story of a little Jewish girl who is spiritually needy and eventually accepts Jesus as her Savior.

Her parents are quite anxious about Matilda's Jewish identity and religious affiliation. They

"begged that she might not be allowed to hear anything about the Christian religion. But Matilda was so anxious to be saved, and such love to her Saviour had filled her heart, that no one could hinder her any longer.... Matilda's parents now began to be quite afraid that their little girl would finish by becoming a Christian. They would not allow her to go to school anymore, and her father gave her lessons himself instead" (p. 4).

Ah, men may scheme and plot and plan, but God decides what will happen in the end! (or if not God, then the anonymous author of this fictional melodrama gets to make that decision).

Matilda's father beats her when he learns what she is interested in and that she wants to go to church with her Christian friend (who is a servant in the same house). Matilda's father should have known that violence will get you nowhere when it comes to matters of the soul. In fact, these beatings probably had the opposite effect, as we shall soon see.

When Matilda's parents learn what she is being taught in church, they forbid her from talking to her Christian friend, "and she was sent every day to visit some Jewish children" (p. 6). No, mom and dad (or should we say, abba and ema), that's not going to keep Matilda out of the kingdom either. In fact, nothing you do will keep your daughter from apostasy and a lifetime of misery. Get used to it. She is going to be despised and rejected of men, at least Jewish men (not to say anything of Jewish women). But on some level she will still be happy..... or not.

Eventually, as we suspected, Matilda becomes a Christian. In the end, sadly (but not surprisingly), she dies, but now "she [i]s at rest in the arms of her Saviour" (p. 7). That's the way it always ends, isn't it? They either die or they become missionaries. Either way they get their eternal reward.