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How Jews are baptized. I'm a Christian

Crosses (crosses) - those who converted to Christianity from another religion

This term is most often used in relation to baptized Jews and carries negative connotations (despite the fact that the first baptized were the apostles and disciples of Christ). Most modern dictionaries give the word “cross” with the mark “obsolete.”

Jews especially often began to convert to Christianity in the 19th - early years. XX centuries, when religious affiliation with Judaism was no longer strictly identified with national identity, the transition to Christianity removed from the Jew educational and other restrictions that existed in a number of states (in the Russian Empire until 1917). However, gradually some of them spread to crosses. Thus, they did not accept baptisms:
- to the gendarmes,
- have not been ordained priests since the end of the 19th century,
- were not accepted for service in the navy,
- since 1910 they have not been promoted to officers in the army;
- in 1912, the ban on promotion to officers was also extended to children and grandchildren of crosses.
In Russia, Jews often accepted the Lutheran faith, since Lutherans could marry Jewish women.
Crosses often received surnames derived from the names of animals and birds, since a surname is formed by general rule, from a father who bore a Jewish name, they did not want to, but freely choose any surname in Russia for a long time it was impossible.

The crosses were:

The first apostles - disciples of Christ - all were Jews who accepted the new teaching and became the first associates of Christian thought. They left everything and followed Christ. They went and taught the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Arseniy Grek - hieromonk, translator of Greek and Latin books and teacher of the Greek-Latin school.
Arseny also compiled a Slavic-Latin lexicon. He also invented a special handwriting or alphabet, which is still kept in the Moscow Typographic Library and is called the “Arseniev alphabet”.

Ivan Stanislavovich Bliokh - Russian banker, railway concessionaire in the Russian Empire, philanthropist, scientist, activist in the international peace movement.
Born in Warsaw in the family of a Polish Jew. He worked at the Teplica bank in Warsaw, then moved to St. Petersburg. Here he converted to Christianity, namely to Calvinism. At the end of the 1860s, he became involved in railway concessions and was the organizer of a number of railway enterprises, credit and insurance institutions, and took a close part in the affairs of the “Main Society of Russian Railways”. He was appointed a member of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Finance. On November 22, 1883, he was elevated to the dignity of nobility. Bliokh's coat of arms is included in Part 14 of the General Arms of Arms of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire. Under the name of Blokh, several multi-volume works about railways, finance and economic issues. The most famous book published in 1898 is “The Future War and Its Economic Consequences.”

Mordecai Vanunu, 1954 - Israeli nuclear technician who gained fame after disclosing information about Israel's nuclear program in the British press.
Vanunu was born into a Jewish family from Morocco who immigrated to Israel in 1963.
After finishing his service, he entered Tel Aviv University at the preparatory department of exact sciences, but soon, having failed the exams, he was forced to interrupt his studies. He completes the technician course at the nuclear research center and takes up the duties of a dispatcher in workshop No. 2. In 1979, he enters the evening department of Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba at the Faculty of Philosophy and Geography. I saw my name on the list for dismissal, but managed to shoot 57 frames of the secret compartments of the nuclear center in Dimona. Having received severance pay, flies abroad. In Nepal, Vanunu converts to Buddhism, and in Australia he is baptized. In 1986, he announced to the world community that Israel was conducting nuclear program and has nuclear weapons. He was sent to Israel, where he was found guilty of treason in a closed trial.

For six weeks, the Israeli government denied knowledge of Vanunu's whereabouts until then, but he managed to secretly reveal his whereabouts to journalists. Mordechai Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years in prison, of which he spent 11 years in strict isolation.
During his time in prison he was nominated several times as a laureate Nobel Prize world, some universities awarded him the title of honorary doctor. In Israel, Vanunu is considered a traitor by the majority of the population. He is not allowed to leave Israel or approach foreign embassies and is required to report any planned movements. In addition, he is prohibited from using the Internet and mobile communications, as well as communicate with foreign journalists. Currently, Mordechai Vanunu lives on the grounds of the Anglican Church of St. George Jerusalem

Stefan Geller , 1813-1888 - Austrian pianist and composer.
studied in Vienna with Anton Halm, and began actively giving concerts from the age of 14. In 1848 he settled in Paris, where he was closely acquainted with Chopin, Liszt and Berlioz, and was part of Richard Wagner's circle during his stay in Paris. Over the next decade and a half, he toured England several times.
Geller's compositional heritage includes more than 150 numbered opuses, which are almost exclusively piano pieces

Henrietta Julia Hertz (1764 - 1847) - writer of the early romanticism era, owner of the famous Berlin literary salon. Wife of doctor and writer Markus Hertz.
Henrietta was born into a Jewish family and received a good education. When she was 12 years old, she became engaged to the doctor Markus Hertz, and the wedding took place two years later. Markus Hertz gave lectures in his home on Kant's philosophy and led a circle on scientific and philosophical topics. Henrietta, who was fond of literature, soon gathered around her people interested in literature. At a time when her husband received high-ranking politicians and cultural figures, Henrietta led a women’s circle in the next room, focusing mainly on the literature of Sturm und Drang and the work of Goethe. From these two circles emerged the famous Berlin salon, where politicians, scientists, artists, writers and philosophers moved.
Markus Hertz died in 1803. Since 1813, she only gave lessons to poor children, but fame did not leave her. In 1817, Henrietta was baptized and converted to the Protestant religion.

Herman Mayer Solomon Goldschmidt (1802 - 1866) - German astronomer and artist who lived most of his life in France.
Born in Frankfurt, in the family of a Jewish merchant. He moved to Paris to study painting, where he painted a number of paintings, after which he became interested in astronomy. He is credited with the first observations (in 1820) of shadow waves that appear a few minutes before a total solar eclipse. In 1861 he received Gold medal Royal Astronomical Society. The Goldschmidt crater on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 1614 Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt was a cross.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881, ibid.) - English statesman Conservative Party of Great Britain, 40th and 42nd Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1868, member of the House of Lords since 1876, writer, one of the representatives of the “social novel”.
Benjamin was the eldest child in a family of five children. His parents were Jews emigrating to England. Literary success opened the doors of high society salons for Disraeli, where he studied political intrigue and found material for novels. A clear practical mind, resourcefulness, wit, irresistible personal attractiveness, ambition and iron perseverance helped Disraeli make connections in the highest spheres; travel to the East enriches his imagination, broadens his horizons, and a profitable marriage forever frees him from financial difficulties. In their literary works, marked by Byronism, he developed the theory of a “hero” to whom “everything is allowed.” Disraeli's novels were often portraiture: he depicted himself and other political figures in them, which caused a sensation.
After four unsuccessful attempts to enter parliament, Disraeli changed his program and in 1837 was finally elected from the Tory party. In parliament he makes sensational speeches for the Chartists in his time, groups the landed aristocracy around himself, being the soul of the Young England party; then - leader of the opposition, in 1852 - minister, in 1868 - prime minister. It is known that when he was prime minister, having read in the newspaper that the Sultan of Egypt was selling shares in the Suez Canal, Disraeli, without finishing his morning coffee, ran to the bank and took out a loan from state budget by 4 million pounds sterling and bought 100% of the shares, which brought the kingdom significant profits from fees for using the canal.

Nikolay Donin - lived in the 13th century, a Jew who converted to Christianity. Because of his report to the Pope about the contents of the Talmud, persecution of this book began in Europe.
Donin was born and studied under Rabbi Yechiel of Paris. He expressed doubts about the truth of the Oral Torah (Talmud) and for this he was excommunicated from the Jewish community. Over the next 10 years, Donin remained excommunicated, but continued to adhere to Judaism. Gradually his situation begins to oppress him. Donin converts to Christianity (possibly under the influence of Christian missionaries) and joins the Franciscan order.

Zolli, Israel (1881 - 1956) - religious leader of Judaism, then Catholicism.
He was born in the Galician town of Brody into the Zoller family, whose representatives had become rabbis for four centuries. He spent most of his life in Italy. From 1927 to 1938 he was professor of Hebrew at the University of Padua. Since 1939 - Chief Rabbi of Rome. In 1943, Rome was occupied by German troops. In 1943, Colonel Kappler, the chief of the German police in Rome, under threat of deportation, ordered the Jewish community to hand over 50 kg of gold to him within 24 hours. In the evening of that day, only 35 kg were collected, which forced Zolli to turn to Pope Pius XII for help. With the help of the Pope, the gold was collected, but this did not stop the Nazi program of deportations to death camps. Rabbi Zolli received asylum in the Vatican, where he also met with the Pope. In July 1944, a solemn ceremony took place in a Roman synagogue, during which Zolli expressed his gratitude to the Pope for the help provided to Jews during persecution.
On August 15, 1944, addressing the rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dezza, he expressed his decision to convert to Catholicism. On February 13, 1945, Zolli was baptized in the chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli and took the name Eugenio Maria in honor of Pope Pius XII. The family who converted with him were subjected to fierce attacks. Zolli himself and his heirs emphasized that conversion to Christianity does not break with the Jewish people. In 1949, Israel Eugenio Zolli was a professor of Semitic writing and Hebrew at the University of Rome. He was also the author of a number of books and numerous works on biblical exegesis, liturgics, Talmudic literature and the history of the Jewish people, as well as the autobiographical reflections Before the Dawn (1954).
Judas Cyriacus (Quiriac) - a resident of Jerusalem mentioned in apocryphal literature who assisted Empress Helena in her search for the Life-Giving Cross.
According to the Golden Legend, Judas was one of the Jewish sages, among whose ancestors (his father's brothers) were the first martyr Stephen and Nicodemus, the secret disciple of Christ. He, having learned from his father about the location of the Cross, after Elena’s arrival in Jerusalem at the council of elders, declares that the discovery of the Cross will destroy their religion and deprive the Jews of their superiority over Christians. Then the Jews forbade him to inform the empress about the location of the relic, but after Helen threatened to burn them alive, Judas was handed over to her. Helen threw him into a dry well and kept him there for seven days, after which “he came to one place, raised his voice and prayed that a sign would be sent down to him. Immediately the earth began to move in that place, and smoke came out of such amazing sweetness that, feeling it, Judas clapped his hands with joy and exclaimed: “Truly, Jesus Christ, You are the Savior of the world!”
Also in the “Golden Legend” it is reported that Judas, after finding the Cross, was baptized under the name Quiriaca (“belonging to the Lord”) and then becoming the bishop of Jerusalem, accepted martyrdom during the time of Emperor Julian the Apostate.
Marranos or Maranos - the term by which the Christian population of Spain and Portugal called Jews who converted to Christianity and their descendants, regardless of the degree of voluntary conversion (late XIV-XV centuries). The Marranos, who secretly continued to practice Judaism, were the main object of persecution of the Spanish Inquisition, as were the Moriscos (Muslims) - Mudejars who converted to Christianity in a similar situation)
Edgardo Mortara (1851 - 1940) - Catholic priest of Jewish origin. He gained fame due to the fact that at the age of six he was taken away from his parents by the police and raised as a Christian. The Mortara case caused widespread public outcry.

On the evening of June 23, 1858, police arrived at the house of Marianna and Salomon (Momolo) Mortara in the city of Bologna to take away their six-year-old son Edgardo. They acted on the orders of Pope Pius IX. Church authorities learned that a maid in the Mortara house had secretly baptized Edgardo while he was ill. According to her, she was afraid that the boy would die and his soul would go to hell. Bologna was part of a theocratic state - the Papal States. According to the laws, Jews were forbidden to raise a Christian child, even if it was their own child.
Edgardo Mortara was transported to Rome, where he was raised in a home for Catholic Jews. The family was initially banned from having contact with him. Subsequently, visits were allowed, but not in private. Protests were made by various Jewish organizations, as well as famous figures (in particular, Napoleon III and Emperor Franz Joseph). However, Pope Pius IX rejected all demands for the child's return.
After the annexation of the Papal States to Italy in 1870, the pope lost power, and the Mortara family again attempted to return their son. However, by this time Edgardo Mortara, who had reached the age of 19 and became an adult, declared that he was committed to the Catholic faith. That same year he moved to France, where he joined the Augustinian Order. At the age of 23, Mortara became a priest, taking the new name Pius. He was engaged in missionary work in German cities, converting Jews to Catholicism.
Mortara was a supporter of the beatification of Pius IX. In 1912, speaking in support of the pope's beatification, he wrote that nine days later his parents arrived in Rome and visited him daily for a month, persuading him to return. According to him, he had no desire to return home, explaining this by the “power of prayers.” Mortara later restored relations with his family and attended his mother’s funeral. He owned nine foreign languages. Mortara died in Belgium after spending last years life in the monastery.
Apostle Paul (Saul, Saul) - “apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), who was not one of the Twelve Apostles and participated in the persecution of Christians in his youth.
Paul's experience with the risen Jesus Christ led to his conversion and became the basis for his apostolic mission. Paul created numerous Christian communities in Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. Paul's letters to communities and individuals form a significant part of the New Testament and are among the major texts of Christian theology. For spreading the faith Christ's apostle Paul endured much suffering and, as a citizen, was not crucified, but beheaded in Rome under Nero in 64.
Roman Sladkopevets - Christian saint of the 5th-6th centuries, known as the author of hymns called kontakia (in the early meaning of the term), some of which are still used in the worship of the Orthodox Church (for example, “The Virgin today gives birth to the Most Essential”; “My soul, my soul, rise up"). Orthodox Church ranked Roman the Sweet Singer among the saints.
Roman the Sweet Singer was born in the middle of the 5th century into a Jewish family in the city of Emessa, in Syria, was baptized in his youth, served as a deacon in Beirut, under Emperor Anastasia I (491-518) he arrived in Constantinople, here he entered the clergy of the Church of Our Lady and at first, nothing without standing out, he even provoked ridicule. One day, after fervent prayer, he saw in a dream the Mother of God, who, according to legend, handed him a scroll and ordered him to swallow it; waking up and feeling inspired, he sang “Virgin this day,” followed by other songs. In the Greek original, Roman’s hymns had a special poetic meter, called tonic, of which it is considered a distributor. The German Byzantinist Krumbacher, who published the complete collection of Roman's hymns, admits that in terms of poetic talent, animation, depth of feeling and sublimity of language, he surpasses all other Greek hymns.

Oswald Rufeisen (1922-1998) - Catholic monk of Jewish origin, Carmelite, missionary, translator, polyglot.
Born into a Jewish family living in Poland near Auschwitz. He was raised Jewish and was active in the Zionist youth movement. During the war he took part in actions to save Jews. With his help, hundreds of Jews in the Belarusian city of Mir were saved from being sent to concentration camps. Hiding from the Nazis, in 1942 he ended up in a monastery, where he was voluntarily baptized. After the war, in 1945, Rufeisen returned to Poland, studied to become a priest and became a Carmelite monk.
In 1962, Brother Daniel sought Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. When he was refused on the basis of the “procedural orders” of 01/01/1960, Rufeisen appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court (Case 72/62 Oswald Rufeisen v. Minister of the Interior).
In his appeal, Brother Daniel sought recognition of his right to repatriate to Israel on the basis that he is a Jew - if not by religious affiliation, then by birthright from a Jewish mother. He did not hide the fact that he converted to Christianity out of sincere and deep conviction, but he insisted on his belonging to the Jewish people in the “national plan.” Halacha also sees him as a Jew. Ber-Yehuda's directive, amended in July 1958, and Shapira's "procedural orders" do not correspond to the exact wording of the Law of Return and, therefore, are not legal.
The Supreme Court recognized that Halacha considers converts to be Jews, but did not recognize Halacha as part of Israeli law. The court found that Shapira's "procedural orders" were a low-level departmental instruction that did not comply with Israeli law. The court also recognized that no Israeli law defines the concept of “Jew.”
The Supreme Court ruled that due to the lack of written legislation and based on the secular nature of the Law of Return, the concept of “Jew” should not be interpreted in a strictly halachic sense, but based on the subjective opinion of the majority of the people: according to “how the word sounds in the mouths of the people these days” (Judge Berenzon’s formulation), “as we Jews understand it” (Judge Zilber’s formulation), or simply in accordance with the opinion of a simple Jew “from the street.” Thus, according to Supreme Court,
a Jew is someone whom other Jews consider to be a Jew.
The judges also added that since neither the fathers of Zionism nor any Jew would ever consider a Christian believer to be a Jew, the Law of Return does not apply to persons born Jewish who voluntarily changed their religion. Such a person can certainly apply for the right of residence in Israel like other non-Jews, but he cannot be considered a Jew under the Law of Return and is not entitled to automatic Israeli citizenship or the rights of new immigrants. On this basis, Brother Daniel's claim was rejected.
Judge Chaim Cohen did not agree with the majority opinion, objecting to the subjective-collective criterion (the opinion of the majority of the people) in favor of the subjective-individual one (the plaintiff’s own desire), but remained in the minority.
However, Rufeisen was able to immigrate to Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship through naturalization. Until the end of his days he lived in the Carmelite monastery of Stella Maris in Haifa and was the shepherd of the Jewish Christian community catholic church St. Joseph. His merit is also the creation of a nursing home for the “Righteous Among the Nations” in the city of Nahariya.
Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln (1879-1943) - one of the most famous adventurers of the 20th century.
Born into a family of Orthodox Jews. While studying at the Budapest Academy acting skills I was caught several times for petty thefts. At the age of 18 he went to London, where at Christmas 1899 he converted to Lutheran confession. After graduating from the seminary in Brecklum (Germany), he sailed for missionary work to Canada, where his task was to convert Montreal Jews to Presbyterianism.
Having quarreled with Canadian Presbyterians over the amount of their salary, Trebitsch showed up in London in 1903, where he made acquaintance with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He managed to gain his trust and was appointed canon to the county of Kent. Here his patron was the confectionery magnate Seebohm Rowntree, who convinced him to leave the Anglican Church for a political career.
As a private secretary and confidant of Rowntree (one of the sponsors of the Liberal Party), Trebitsch took part in the elections to the British Parliament, which he won in 1909. However, a brilliant political future did not seduce the 30-year-old adventurer, for whom personal enrichment remained the first issue on the agenda. Instead of attending meetings of the House of Commons, he went to Bucharest, where he hoped to hit the jackpot with clever investments in the Romanian oil industry.
With the outbreak of World War I, the failed oil baron declared bankruptcy and returned to London, where he offered his services to British intelligence. Having been refused, he crossed the English Channel and was recruited as a German spy in the Netherlands. In 1915, he tried to establish cooperation with Franz von Papen, the German military attaché in the United States, but the latter did not want to have anything to do with the rogue. Finding himself penniless, Trebitsch published a scandalous material in a New York newspaper under the heading “Revelations of a Member of the British Parliament Recruited as a Spy.”
The British government hired Pinkerton detectives to hush up the scandal and demanded Trebitsch's extradition from the United States on fraud charges. After various legal delays, he was finally handed over to the British and spent the next three years in prison on the Isle of Wight. Upon his release, Trebitsch decided to no longer deal with the Anglo-Saxons and moved to the Weimar Republic, where he took an active part in the preparation and implementation of the Kapp Putsch, receiving an appointment as a censor for this.
After the suppression of the putsch, Trebitsch fled first to Munich and then to Vienna, where he trumped his acquaintance with such far-right politicians as Erich Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler. Eventually he managed to get a place in the White International, an international political organization red-brown color. As soon as the secret archive of the reactionaries came into his possession, Trebitsch was quick to sell it to the secret services of several countries at once. Accused of treason, the swindler was deported from Austria and went to seek his fortune in the East.
In the mid-1920s, Trebitsch's trace was discovered in China, where he alternately served in the service of various political groups until he finally declared astral insight and took monastic vows. In 1931, he established his own monastery in Shanghai and spent last decades his life, extorting property from novices and seducing young Shanghainese women. During the Japanese invasion of China (1937), they found a loyal ally in the Buddhist elder Zhao Kong (Chinese: 照空, pinyin Zhào Kōng) (as Trebitsch now called himself). He asked to convey to Himmler and Hess about his readiness to raise millions of Buddhists to fight the British and even planned to take a trip to Tibet for this, but died before this mission began.
Rachel Farnhagen von Enze (German Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, nee Levin, also Rahel Robert or Robert-Tornow, Friederike Antonia (baptismal name), 1771 - 1833 - German writer of Jewish origin. Rahel Farnhagen belongs to the era of romanticism and the European Enlightenment. She advocated rights of Jews and women.
Daniil Avraamovich (Ab Ramovich) Khvolson (1819, Vilna - 1911, St. Petersburg) - Russian orientalist, historian, linguist, Semitologist, Hebraist, corresponding member of the Imperial RAS in the category of oriental languages. Works on the history of the East and peoples of Eastern Europe, on the history of Christianity, on the history of writing (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), the Hebrew language, Assyriology, etc. One of the editors of the scientific translation of the Bible into Russian.
The son of a poor Jew from Lithuania, he received a religious Jewish education, studied the Tanakh, Talmud and commentators on the Talmud. He later taught himself German, French and Russian by himself. Took a course at the University of Breslau. He received his PhD from the University of Leipzig for his dissertation: “Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus”. Returned to Russia. The result of his research was an extensive work published in St. Petersburg in 1856 under the same title. He converted to Orthodoxy and from 1855 occupied the department of Jewish, Syriac and Chaldean literature at the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg. University.
The phrase is attributed to Khvolson
It is better to be a professor in St. Petersburg than a melamed in Vilna.
From 1858 to 1883 - professor in St. Petersburg. Orthodox Theological Academy. Taught Hebrew language and biblical archeology from 1858 to 1884 at the St. Petersburg Roman Catholic Academy.
Khvolson's son, Orestes, became a famous physicist. Khvolson never refused to help Jews, sheltering in his home Jews whom the law prohibited from living outside the Pale of Settlement.

Israel Shamir (b. 1947, Novosibirsk) - Russian-Israeli writer, translator and anti-Zionist publicist. Orthodox Christian. He also published under the names Israel Adam Shamir and Robert David.
Shamir's critics accuse him of anti-Semitism and call him a "self-hater."
Shamir graduated from a physics and mathematics school, then studied at the Faculty of Mathematics at Novosibirsk University, as well as at the Faculty of Law of the Novosibirsk branch of the Sverdlovsk Law Institute. In his youth he joined the dissident movement. In 1969 he repatriated to Israel and participated in the Yom Kippur War (1973). He served in an elite parachute unit and fought on the Egyptian front. Later, as a correspondent for the Voice of Israel radio station, he worked in countries South-East Asia(Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos). Since 1975 he has lived outside of Israel (Great Britain, Japan). Shamir himself claims that he worked in the Russian service of the BBC.
In 1980, Shamir returned to Israel. Shamir is a Swedish citizen, some sources claim that his family lives there. In 2003, journalists working for Monitor magazine, as well as the Swedish anti-racist non-profit organization Expo, citing data they had collected, reported that Shamir was living in Sweden under the name Göran Ermas and presented a corresponding photo Swedish passport with the last name Ermas with a photo of Shamir.
Other critics of Shamir believe that he lives alternately in Israel and Sweden.
According to Shamir himself, he currently lives in Israel in Jaffa. This version is confirmed by some reports.
Pavel Vasilievich Shein (often erroneously Shein) (1826, Mogilev - 1900, Riga) - self-taught ethnographer and linguist, collector of Russian and Belarusian songs, expert in the life and dialects of the North-Western region, successor to the works of Afanasyev, Bessonov, Hilferding, Dahl, Kireevsky, Rybnikov, Yakushkina.
Born in 1826 in the family of Mogilev Jewish merchant Mofit Shein. Weak from birth, as a result of which he remained crippled for life, the boy could not even graduate from Jewish school and studied almost independently, using the advice of melamed. The future ethnographer became interested in the Hebrew language and literature. Shane's father admitted his son to one of the city hospitals in Moscow; and stayed with his son to prepare kosher food for him. Shane spent three years here. One Jew taught the boy to speak and read Russian, the German residents taught him the German language, and soon he met the best German poets. In imitation of German poets, he composed poems in Yiddish, pursuing views that reconciled Jewry with Christianity. The consequence of this acquaintance was Shane’s quite conscious transition to Lutheranism, tearing him away forever from his family and environment. Having entered the orphanage department of the Lutheran Church of St. Mikhail, he was so successful that after graduating from school he could teach Russian in the preparatory department.
He became close to his teacher F.B. Miller, and this gave impetus to Shane's cultural aspirations; he joined a circle of writers and artists who lived in Moscow (F. Glinka, M. Dmitriev, Raich, Ramazanov, Avdeev, etc.). He gave lessons to the families of landowners, met Russian peasants and, succumbing to the general passion for folk literature, he himself began to collect songs, first in the Simbirsk province. Bodyansky invited him to publish this material, and Shane’s first printed work dates back to 1859: “Russians folk epics and songs.” Shane’s subsequent life is full of wanderings, material hardships and family failures; he taught at a Sunday school in Moscow, then at L. Tolstoy’s Yasnaya Polyana school, at district schools (1861-1881) in Tula and Epifani, finally got a place at the Vitebsk gymnasium, then in Shuya, Zaraysk, Kaluga, etc.
At the same time, the collection of ethnographic materials was underway. Shane typed his notes and articles.
In 1881 he retired and settled in St. Petersburg. On behalf of J. Grot, from 1886 he participated in the compilation of an academic dictionary of Russian literary language. He introduced folk phraseology into it. With a lack of philological education, thanks to his energy and love of work, Shane was able to publish seven large books during his lifetime. The collector himself called himself only a "laborer" in science, and his works - "minor", which is explained rather by his modesty.
Dorothea Schlegel (Brendel Mendelssohn; 1764 - 1839) - eldest daughter Moses Mendelssohn. She gained fame as a literary critic, writer, life partner and wife of Friedrich Schlegel. One of the most famous women of Jewish origin who converted to Christianity. In 1778, at the age of 14, Brendel became engaged to businessman Simon Feith, who was 10 years older than her, and married him. They had four sons, of whom only two survived. Soon she met the young Friedrich Schlegel. On January 11, 1799, Brendel divorced her husband in a Jewish religious court, while undertaking not to remarry, not to be baptized, or to encourage her children to convert to Christianity. Brendel and Friedrich Schlegel began to live together openly. Friedrich Schlegel's novel Lucinda, scandalous at the time, reflects this life together.
In 1804, Brendel converted to Protestantism and married Friedrich Schlegel. In 1808, she changed her religion again, this time, together with Friedrich Schlegel, converting to Catholicism. Schlegel's Protestant family placed all the blame for this step on Dorothea. Dorothea baptized her two sons according to the Catholic rite.
Edith Stein (1891 - 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp), also known by the monastic name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was a German philosopher, Catholic saint, and Carmelite nun who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp because of her Jewish origin. Beatified by the Catholic Church on May 1, 1987, canonized on October 11, 1998 by Pope John Paul II. Edith Stein received an excellent education, she studied German, philosophy, psychology and history at the universities of Breslau, Göttingen and Freiburg. After defending her PhD thesis, she became research fellow with his scientific supervisor, the outstanding philosopher Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. She served as a sister of mercy for two years, and later returned to philosophical studies, and it was then that she began to be interested in the phenomenon of religion.
Gradually Edith realized that her interest in religion went beyond ordinary curiosity. In 1922, Edith decided to be baptized in the Catholic Church. In 1932, she received the right to freely teach in Münster, at the Higher German Scientific and Pedagogical Institute, but in 1933 Hitler banned Jews from holding any public positions.
That same year, Edith Stein took monastic vows and became a Carmelite. In 1938, due to the outbreak of persecution of Jews in Germany, Sister Teresa was transferred to Holland, to a monastery in the city of Echte. In 1939, Edith completed a book about St. John of the Cross entitled "Scientia Crucis" (Science of the Cross). It was hers last book. In August 1942, Sister Teresa was sent to Auschwitz along with other Dutch Christians of Jewish origin and died in the gas chamber.
In 1998 she was canonized by Pope John Paul II. The saint's memory is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on August 8.

“Crossover” today is perceived as an outdated term. This is how people who converted to Orthodoxy from another religion were called in pre-revolutionary Russia. Most often this was the name given to baptized Jews.

History of crosses in Russia

The first mentions of the conversion of Jews to Christianity in Rus' date back to the 11th century. Chronicles testify that the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk preached the teachings of Jesus Christ among the Kyiv Jews.
In the fall of 1648, Patriarch Paisiy of Jerusalem baptized several thousand Ukrainian Jews. The Monk Paisiy Velichkovsky was the great-grandson of the Jewish merchant Mandi, who converted to Orthodoxy in the 17th century.
Jews began to convert to Christianity especially often in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when religious affiliation was no longer clearly correlated with nationality. In the Russian Empire, until the revolution, there were restrictions on education and other rights for Jews. Back in the era of Nicholas I, about 30,000 Jews converted to Christianity. Under Nicholas II, about 1,000 Jews became Orthodox every year.
By royal decree of August 26, 1827, Yiddish-speaking Jews living within the Pale of Settlement began to be drafted into the army and sent to cantonist schools. They underwent the rite of baptism, receiving Orthodox names according to the calendar, as well as surnames godparents: for example, Petr Ivanov, Grigory Stepanov. However, after retirement, some of them again accepted the Jewish faith.
In other cases, crosses often received surnames derived from the names of animals and birds - Galkin, Sinichkin, Volkov, Kotin, Zaitsev - whereas in pre-revolutionary Russia people of ordinary rank most often received surnames after their father's name. Baptized Jews did not want their surname to indicate Jewish origin.
However, since 1850, arbitrary changes of surnames for crosses have been prohibited. They began to receive christian names- Pavel, Mikhail, Nikolai, but the surnames remained “family” - Abramovich, Rabinovich, Zilberstein, etc.
However, certain restrictions were also imposed on crosses. For example, they could not serve in the gendarmerie or the navy, and from the end of the 19th century they were forbidden to be ordained priests. In 1910, a ban was introduced on officer ranks for baptized Jews, and in 1912 it also extended to their children and grandchildren.

Which famous people were crosses?

Despite the restrictions, there are many known converts who have reached high positions and titles, including spiritual ones. Thus, Archimandrite Nathanael (Kuznetsky), a former cantonist, was called Itska (Isaac) Borodin from birth. He actively preached Orthodoxy among the Jews and converted about three thousand Jews to this faith.
The grandfather of the famous Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein also converted to Orthodoxy. He not only was baptized himself, but also convinced other members of his large family to do so.
Already in mature age Having received his doctorate, Daniil Khvolson became Orthodox, teaching Jewish language and biblical archeology at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. He did a great deal of work on the synodal translation of the Old Testament books from Hebrew.
The famous historian Solomon Lurie was baptized while a student at St. Petersburg University. The adoption of Orthodoxy allowed Lurie to remain at the university as a “professorial fellow.”
A baptized Jew was a deputy of the pre-revolutionary State Duma II convocation from the Kharkov province Moses Derevyanko, who came from cantonist peasants.
The Russian sculptor Mark Antokolsky had to be baptized, otherwise he would not have been accepted into the Academy of Arts. But at the same time he continued to observe the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
At the age of 10, the poet Sasha Cherny (Alexander Glikman) was baptized.

How did the Jews convert to Orthodoxy?

To convert to Orthodoxy at a conscious age, a Jew had to first study the catechism. At baptism, he had to publicly declare his faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sake of delivering all mankind from sins, and also recognize him as his personal savior. After baptism, Jews had to behave in the same way as Orthodox Christians: wear pectoral crosses, pray, overshadow oneself sign of the cross, attend worship services. Crosses were also buried according to Orthodox rite in Christian cemeteries.
Since sometimes it turned out that the transition to Christian faith was only a formality and was done, for example, for career reasons, but in fact the person secretly continued to profess Judaism, the 8th rule VII was adopted Ecumenical Council, which stated that a Jew can be recognized as Orthodox only if he accepts Orthodox faith from the bottom of his heart and solemnly renounce the Jewish religion, recognizing it as false. So, in addition to baptism, the Jew also had to undergo a special rite of renunciation of Judaism.

How did Jews and Orthodox Christians feel about baptisms?

The Jews themselves called such people “meshumadi” (“destroyed”). The concept had a negative connotation, since the baptism of a Jew was usually accompanied by his break with the Jewish community. After all, a baptized Jew ceased to observe Jewish traditions, such as kashrut and Shabbat.
There were cases when a baptized Jew broke not only with the community, but also with his family. Thus, the famous Jewish historian Sh. Dubnov broke off relations with his daughter Olga, who married the Social Democrat M. Ivanov and was forced to be baptized so that she could marry a Russian.
The fate of Jews who converted to Orthodoxy was often difficult. The Jews considered them religious apostates and even sometimes anti-Semites, and Orthodox Christians of Russian origin also did not recognize them as “their own” because of their Jewish nationality. That is why many of them so willingly accepted revolutionary ideas preaching the rejection of any religion at all.

משומד ‎, meshumad, plural meshumadi; letters “destroyed”) and carries negative connotations (despite the fact that the first baptized were the apostles and disciples of Christ). Most modern dictionaries list the word “cross” as “obsolete.”

Synonyms in the dictionary of V. I. Dahl: cross, rebaptized, newly baptized, baptized Jew, Muslim or pagan and verbs baptize, baptize, baptize, baptize and others .

Jews especially often began to convert to Christianity in the 19th - early years. centuries, when religious affiliation with Judaism was no longer strictly identified with national identity, the transition to Christianity removed from the Jew educational and other restrictions that existed in a number of states (in the Russian Empire before). However, gradually some of them spread to crosses. Thus, converts were not accepted into the gendarmes, since the end of the 19th century they were not ordained priests, they were not taken into service in the navy, and since 1910 they were not promoted to officers in the army; in 1912, the ban on promotion to officers was also extended to children and grandchildren of baptisms.

In Russia, Jews often accepted the Lutheran faith, since Lutherans could marry Jewish women, while the children remained Jews (see criteria for Jewishness).

Crosses often received surnames derived from the names of animals and birds, since they did not want to form a surname according to the general rule from a father who bore a Jewish name, and for a long time it was impossible to freely choose any surname in Russia.

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “crosses” are in other dictionaries:

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Converted Jews in Tsarist Russia

Solomon Dinkevich, New Jersey

We publish excerpts from the new volume of Solomon Dinkevich’s book “Jews, Judaism, Israel”

ASSIMILATION

The impetus for the baptism of Anton (1829 - 1899) and Nikolai (1835 - 1881) Rubinsteins, Jews on their father's side, the merchant of the first guild Grigory Rubinstein and Germans on their mother's side, Kaleria from Prussia, were outstanding musicians who founded the St. Petersburg (Anton, 1862) and Moscow (Nikolai, 1860) ) The conservatory was inspired, according to their mother, by the decree of Nicholas I on the conscription of Jewish children (cantonists) for 25 years military service. “Jews call me a Christian, Christians call me a Jew, Germans call me Russian, Russians call me German,” said Anton Rubinshetein.

The poet Sasha Cherny (Alexander Glikman, 1860-1932) was baptized at the age of 10. It is unlikely that Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) was baptized, otherwise he would not have needed to leave Moscow in 1891, when his brother became Governor General of Moscow Alexandra III Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who expelled Jews from Moscow. As for Mark Antokolsky (1843-1902), then, according to Marina Luzhikova, the great-great-great-granddaughter of his sister, he was baptized, because otherwise the Academy of Arts would have been closed to him. “At the same time,” she adds, “Antokolsky never worked on the Sabbath and observed Jewish holidays” (Call of Zion magazine and article by Maya Bass in Spectrum magazine).

“We have Jews and professors, some of whom were baptized into Christianity (for example, academician A.F. Ioffe, who converted to Lutheranism - S.D.), but with all their spirit and sympathies they belong to the Jewry that was native to them and raised them... (they) stand morally no lower than people of Christian culture,” wrote Nikolai Leskov.

In 1903, Theodor Herzl (1860-1907) visited Russia. Police Minister Plehve explained to him the policy of the tsarist government on Jewish question: “We will shoot a third of the Jews (revolutionaries), expel a third from the country, and force a third to assimilate through baptism.”

At this time, 4 million Jews were locked in the Pale of Settlement. About 100 thousand Jews (~ 2.5%) lived outside it. These were professors, merchants of the first guild, artisans of the highest ranks, former Nicholas soldiers. For getting higher education Jewish youth were limited to 5% as the norm, and in both capitals - only 3%. When Tsar Alexander II was assassinated on March 1, 1881, Jewish pogroms swept across the country, which were then periodically repeated in the western and southern provinces.

“After the assassination of Alexander II, the Russian authorities began to persecute Jews even more intensely. They were driven from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, from the Volga, from Russian villages. But not only were Jews driven into a physical ghetto, an even more painful and more oppressive ghetto was formed - economic, political, spiritual, scientific... To break through these bars that separated the Jewish world from the non-Jewish, it was not enough to have talent, money, good connections"(Osip Dymov).

Justifying the government’s “legal measures” against Jews, A. I. Solzhenitsyn wrote in the 2-volume “Two Hundred Years Together” (M., “Russian Way”, 2001 and 2002) that “the transition (of Jews) to Christianity, especially in Lutheranism (which did not require regular attendance at religious services - S.D.),... immediately opened up all paths of life...".

Indeed, what’s easier, renounce your parents, renounce all Jewry, and you will be a full-fledged citizen of the Russian Empire. But this is what Osip Dymov writes in his book of memoirs “What I Remember” (Israel, 2011).

Let me first note that Osip Dymov (Osip Isidorovich Perelman, 1878-1959), the elder brother of the brilliant popularizer of mathematics, physics and astronomy Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (1882-1942), was a famous Russian writer, one of the authors of the famous “General History”, published by Satyricon (1911). His plays were successfully performed in theaters in St. Petersburg, Moscow and the provinces until the October Revolution of 1917. Back in 1913, he left Russia forever and continued to publish in emigrant publications, first in Europe and then in America. In America he published mainly in Yiddish. In the USSR, his name was completely hushed up.

So, Osip Dymov: “In St. Petersburg, where I arrived from Bialystok in 1897, I came into contact with a new type of Jews that I had not met before: baptized and assimilated children of Israel, modern Marans - a distant, but in their own way close echo (of the Spanish ) Maranos during the Inquisition." Here is one of his stories.

“The incident with the photographer Shapiro, a Jew, an expert in the Hebrew language, and a poet, remains in my memory. His poems in Hebrew were widely known. When the persecution of Jews intensified, Shapiro was forced to be baptized. With anguish in his heart, clenching his teeth so as not to scream in pain, he entered the church as a Jew and came out of there... an unhappy Jew. But the inscription written in fresh ink on his passport read: “Orthodox.”

Shapiro's photo studio was located on Nevsky Prospekt just opposite the magnificent Kazan Cathedral. Shapiro's photographs were known throughout Russia not only because of their artistic value, but mainly because he was a former Jew and now an Orthodox Christian who had the right to photograph the Tsar and his family. To be able to engage in this activity, he was forced to be baptized.

Shapiro continued to write poetry in Hebrew, went to the synagogue, and was a member of Jewish organizations. He admired Russian literature, which he knew well and highly valued, and was proud that the best, most talented representatives of Russian literature were photographed by him.

At night his torment began. IN certain hour, when it was still dark on the street - and the St. Petersburg night was long - the hundred-pound bells of the Kazan Cathedral, which, as already mentioned, was located just opposite his home, began to ring. For many years Shapiro lived in this house and did not hear the bells, but after baptism he suddenly discovered that they existed. Their heavy metallic ringing woke him up every night, every dark night at the same time. No matter how deeply he slept, the first metal “boom” was like a blow to the head, like a sharp prick in the heart, and he woke up, frightened, confused and trampled by the iron blows, the sounds of which fell on him.

“Do you remember,” the bells reminded, “do you remember that morning when we rang for you in the church, and the priest turned to you and commanded that you cross yourself, and you, with dead lips, with hatred, shame and trembling in your heart, repeated the words priest? The words were in Old Church Slavonic, but you, knowing this language, nevertheless did not understand what they were talking about we're talking about».

“Boom-bum... boom-bum!” - the bells continued to ring, and again the scene that he, a poet who wrote in Hebrew, he, a Jewish nationalist, experienced came to mind. It is still ongoing, it did not end there, in the church, where the priest said prayers over him and shaded his face with a cross. In doing so, he used a liquid as viscous as sunflower oil, which is called myrrh, heavy drops fell on the pale face of the convert. Instinctively, he tried to wipe them away, but the priest did not allow him.

“Boom-boom... boom-boom!” - the bells tormented him. Their metallic sound penetrated through the windows and walls, filled the room, the whole house, his brain and tore his Jewish, now certainly Jewish, heart into pieces.

And this happened every night. Every night he walked the same martyr's path again and again, every night while the city slept and the bells rang, he, a poet who wrote in Hebrew, and a photographer for the king, was baptized. Not once, but dozens and dozens of times he renounced the “false faith of the rabbis and sages,” as the priest forced him to repeat. Not once, but dozens of times he abandoned his father and mother... But the more often he was baptized at night, the more Jewish he became. And the more often the bells “bombed” over his unfortunate head and called him to church, the further he wanted to run away from it. Where to run? Where can you hide?

Of course, he could have moved to another home where the bells would not have been heard. But how can you take with you a photographic studio, a glass roof, tools and an address, this address on Nevsky Prospekt that has been well known to everyone for many years? And he was forced to stay in the same place, in the city center.

But Shapiro could not stand it and, in the end, still escaped. He sold his home, his business, gave up the honor of being “His Majesty’s photographer” and moved to a quiet corner, far from the center, where no one knew him and he knew no one. Here he died alone, surrounded by his books and manuscripts in Hebrew.

Naturally, he was buried in a Christian cemetery, and the sad ringing of bells saw him off on his last journey, but he no longer heard them. Or - who knows? - maybe you heard?..”

And here is another - tragicomic - story by Osip Dymov, a typical Sholom Aleichem laughter through tears. I’m afraid that our children, and even more so our grandchildren, will not understand this: for them it is a pathology.

“In Moscow there lived a Jew named Medvetsky. He lived a quiet life and had two daughters who did well in school. He was a tailor, that is, a craftsman. Craftsmen assigned to a specific workshop had the right to live in “white stone,” as Moscow was lovingly called. Medvetsky was not God knows what kind of tailor, his eyesight was weak, and, apparently, he had few orders. What kind of money, then, did he use to maintain a house of six rooms, in which there was an expensive piano, rich carpets on the floor and which was decorated with paintings and upholstered furniture?

For Medvetsky, tailoring was a side activity, nothing more than a boring duty. His real income, which paid for paintings, furniture, a piano, etc., was that he constantly underwent the rite of baptism. What does this strange thing mean?

When, for example, some Rabinovich from Minsk really needed to come and stay in Moscow, he contacted Medvetsky. So, they say, and so, Mr. Medvetsky, I would like to become a Christian, that is, I don’t want to, but I have to... To this Medvetsky asked him in a letter: what kind of Christian do you want to become, Mr. Rabinovich? If you are Orthodox, it will cost you 600 rubles, if you are a Catholic - 400, if you are a Lutheran - a hundred rubles. After - depending on the client’s wishes and the required amount - the form of Christianity was settled, Rabinovich sent his documents to Medvetsky in Moscow. From the moment they were received, Medvetsky ceased to be Medvetsky and became Rabinovich. The new Rabinovich went to a Russian priest (if 600 rubles) or to a Catholic priest (if only 400), and the priest or priest studied the catechism with him. Medvetsky-Rabinovich pretended that he was hearing everything he was taught for the first time - well, how could it be otherwise?

After the catechism was mastered, Medvetsky went to the church or church and underwent the rite of baptism. Then he sent the documents back to Minsk with the newly acquired addition regarding religion. A few days later, the real Mr. Rabinovich, a full-fledged Christian, appeared in Moscow... No one touched him there.

This was the case with Rabinovich from Minsk, with Levin from Odessa, with Rosenblum from Pinsk... Medvetsky had a fairly large clientele: one recommended him to another... Did Medvetsky experience remorse? Was his conscience tormenting him? But did he himself undergo the baptismal ceremony? It was Rabinovich, Levin or Rosenblum, not him! He, Medvetsky, remained a Jew, but they became Christians, these vile bastards, so sick of them! Well, how did Rabinovich or Levin feel? What exactly were they supposed to feel? Did they go to the priest? They did not study the catechism and had never been to church in their lives. This scoundrel from Moscow, Medvetsky, did everything to make him sick, this Jew who sold his soul!..

They say that Medvetsky accepted Christianity in its various forms forty-two times, depending on the wishes of his clients. His two Jewish daughters had already graduated from high school and became brides. My wife went to Carlsbad “for water”. In his house, instead of one maid, there were already two. But Medvetsky continued to be baptized and, of course, remained a Jew.

And since he continued to remain a Jew, the feeling gradually grew in him that difficulties had begun in his sewing workshop. The Governor General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the Tsar’s uncle, carried out a “cleansing” of the workshops to get rid of the Jews.

One fine morning (although for Berko Medvetsky it could not be called beautiful) the bailiff said that he had to leave Moscow, the city of “forty forties,” as it was called among the people.

“I’m finished,” muttered Medvetsky, heartbroken. -Where am I going to go? Why should I leave?

Listen to me, Berko,” the bailiff wanted to help him, “a certain Rabinovich from Minsk lives on my site. He is a Christian, Orthodox, and I don’t touch him. Why don't you do the same?

Rabinovich? I know him well! - Medvetsky could not restrain himself. - Corrupt soul, he never respected his people, his religion! He can be baptized if he wants, but I can never! No, Mr. Bailiff, not me, Berko Medvetsky!

And no matter how much the bailiff convinced him, Medvetsky stood his ground: he is a Jew and will remain a Jew, and there is no force in the world that could force him to retreat.

It ended with Medvetsky having to leave Moscow, “the city of forty forties,” to leave his cozy house with six rooms and a piano - everything he could have only here and in no other place.”

It is impossible not to mention the pre-revolutionary Russian Jewish converts who became self-haters - such as Manusevich-Manuilov, who had a hand in creating the false “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (see vol. 2, pp. 87 - 92) or Lenin’s maternal grandfather Moshe Blank. Soon after his baptism, he wrote two letters to Tsar Nicholas I (June 7, 1845 and September 18, 1846), in which he accused the Jews of hating Christianity and called for strict measures to be taken against these evil enemies of the fatherland.

The cross-Jew V. A. Gringmut was one of the editors of the Black Hundred newspaper “Moscow News”, the author of the “Manual of the Black Hundred Monarchist” and a friend of the famous Jews-eater Purishkevich. Igor Guberman said this about them:

Jew of the Slavic spill -
Anti-Semite without foreskin.

As a Jew, I can tell you that the word “baptism” conjures up terrible images for my people. WITH early years Catholicism forced Jews to be baptized as Christians. Sometimes under the threat of death. In other times, the consequence for those who were not baptized was eviction from their home and country. For example, the Spanish Inquisition at one time ruled that Jews who did not convert to Catholicism (and, of course, were not baptized) must leave Spain.

In other cases, Jews were kidnapped and forcibly baptized, as was the case with the son of a rabbi in 1762. This happened in Russia just two centuries ago. The Russian Empire took Jewish boys from the age of 12 to serve in the army. “Involuntary, almost always forced, baptisms probably outnumbered any similar cases in other countries throughout history.”

What-what was he doing?

Because of such openly gangster stories, Jews shudder at the mere word “baptism.” When they hear the news about a Jew who came to faith in Yeshua and was voluntarily baptized, they are simply disgusted. And this is understandable, this disgust is based on historical facts. But, you know, it wasn't always like this.

who can forbid them to be baptized with water...? (Acts of the Holy Apostles 10:47)

Who are “they” and who is saying this? These are the words of the Jewish apostle Shimon Peter, and he is talking about the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. There was a serious controversy about the baptism of Gentiles as believers in Yeshua. After all, this has never happened before. For the first nine years, the Gospel was preached exclusively to Jews.

Shimon Peter, after a vision and a word from the Lord (chapter 10 of Acts), slightly embarrassed, goes to the house of the Roman military man and shares the news about Yeshua with the people in this house. The Holy Spirit comes upon people in the midst of fellowship. The Jewish believers who witnessed this are stunned - the Gentiles are receiving the Holy Spirit!!!

Shimon Peter said: “Who can forbid those who, like us, have received the Holy Spirit to be baptized with water?” This became a major point of contention that was not resolved for the next ten years (Acts 15).

Reverse dispute

But since when did Gentile baptism become controversial? Can you imagine the accusations against... The First Baptist Church for baptizing non-Jews? It would be funny. However, if they baptize a large number of Jews, this will still raise a wave.

What most people—Jews and non-Jews alike—don’t know is that baptism (or immersion) is originally Jewish. Long before Queen Isabella forced the Jews of Spain to convert and be baptized, the Jews of Israel were familiar with the waters of immersion.

When John the Baptist, the Jewish prophet, came to preach repentance through baptism, we find no record of outrage: “What is this strange new tradition you are introducing?”. Water diving has already happened significant part Judaism. The Torah taught that priests were to be immersed in water as part of their sanctification (Exodus 29:2-5). Before any Jew could offer a sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, he had to immerse himself in the mikveh, a water tank for ablution, thereby symbolizing the ritual of purification.

How to immerse three thousand people in water without a river?

Have you ever wondered how Shimon Peter and the apostles managed to immerse three thousand Jewish men in one day in Jerusalem? Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv or a city in Galilee where you can use the Mediterranean Sea or the Jordan River. Jerusalem is on a mountain. And there are no lakes, rivers or seas nearby. However, archaeologists have excavated about 50 mikvahs—water immersion tanks—that were used in Temple services. 50 tanks, each holding 60 people - three thousand people could take a water dive in a few hours. Without these Jewish mikvahs this would not have been possible.

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Today, the combination of Judaism with the act of immersion - what we see among the New Testament Jews - is like an attempt to combine oil and water. But this was not the case in the first century. The problem of those days was the question of what to do with the baptism not of Jews, but of Gentiles! And Shimon Peter immediately heard what other Jews thought about him, as soon as he did the “unthinkable” - he baptized and immersed the pagans into the Body of Yeshua.

1. The Apostles and brothers who were in Judea heard that the pagans had also received the word of God.
2. And when Peter came to Jerusalem, the circumcision rebuked him,
3. saying, “You went to the uncircumcised people and ate with them.”
(Acts of the Holy Apostles 11:1-3)

Strange, isn't it?

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