SMBx11FF14_4

TRIBUTE OF RESPECT TO THE MEMORY OF MISS BLUMA HART, DELIVERED BY REV. S. MORAIS AT HER FUNERAL JULY 3d, 1884-5644. Pleasurable, though melancholy, is the task which death assigns to the servant of religion, when bending over the mortal remains of a righteous being. The officiating minister, facing a multitude, needs not then measure each word, lest, in his anxiety to console the bereaved, his utterances transcend the bounds of truth. Nor does he fear that the outpourings of his soul be regarded as a studied oration intended for effect. He knows that the eulogy he is about to pronounce will commend itself to the approval of all his hearers. He is encouraged to speak by a certainty that his sentiments, flowing from sincerity, will mingle with feelings swelling up in other breasts. Say, sympathetic brethren, am I not thus pleasurably situated, however sorrowfully, at the present moment? The Jewess, whose body we shall accompany to its final abode, guided her steps, while on earth, in the direct line marked out by the God of nature, that is, the Lawgiver of Israel. She was seen at home engaged in the full exercise of filial dutifulness: aiding her early-widowed mother in promoting the welfare of the entire household, administering to maternal wants when ailments were superadded to the advanced age of her parent, and honoring the memory of her to whom she owed her existence and training, conformably to the requirements of the Hebrew faith.

The standard which Bluma Hart followed, as a sister, was modeled after the promptings of innate affection. To the youngest and least fortunate of her mother's children, she showed a tenderness which sweetens even a bitter portion allotted by the inscrutable dispensation of Providence. She exhibited an abiding care that blunts the keen edge of ills born with one's birth. To her brothers, the good Jewess was loving, and, I have reason to believe, considerately discreet under varying circumstances, according to the dictates of that Supreme Wisdom " whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all whose paths are peace." I forbear pointing out the evidences of her durable friendsbip. They were obvious in their practicalness, brightly visible to all who, like myself, visited the dwelling of comfort, whence that which is perishable of Bluma Hart must now be taken. In that spot, where many of her own blood received an honored burial, there will we convey, amidst prayers and blessings, the receptacle of a generous soul. But it becomes me notably to refer to her activity in the field of human beneficence; for had this Jewess narrowed down her obligations within the limits of her home-had she thought exclusively of her immediate kindred and of some intimate acquaintances, I might have kept silent altogether. I hold that to practice such virtues as those to which I have passingly alluded is simply to respond to inborn instinets. To turn a deaf ear to them is to do violence to our nature. But we rise in the seale of humanity when we go in search of the unhappy, and draw nigh to the sufferers among mankind. To relieve poverty and lessen the pains of sickness is to be god-like —"little lower than angels," while clothed in flesh. That conduct deserves a public and lasting panegyrie. Now, my mind can recall the days in which my sister in faith presided over a large assemblage of women of Israel, plying the needle for the sake of creatures who stood in need of coverings. Worthily she occupied the chair at the sewing meetings; nor were her endeavors less effective when she made room for others to fill the leading position. It was, however, as a member of the Southern Committee of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society, that her goodness had principally full scope and development. In that capacity she entered the hovel of misery and

dispensed alms, but charity therewith, for real charity was the counsel accompanying the gift; the gentle admonition which strove to remove squalor, which recommended neatness, and awakened in the destitute a sense of self-respect and self-dependence. The law of kindness is on her tongue," has always appeared to me the highest encomium bestowed on the typical woman of the Scriptures, as portrayed in the last chapter of the incomparable book of Proverbs. And because Bluma Hart employed her tongue mercifully to the last week of her existence, when that organ refused its accustomed office, therefore do I deem my task at this hour pleasurable, though confessedly sad-aye, very sad; for in proportion as the character of persons who leave our midst is entitled to commendation, so is the loss which the community experiences at their departure deeply felt and not easily supplied. The indigent, whom this good Jewess cared for in the name of the venerable institution she represented, will lament her absence; the congregation, doomed to add another to the list of the many whose decease it has recently deplored, will sensibly feel the new void created. Still, to the family of the upright one, the memory of her righteous deeds will be a soothing balm at this moment of their poignant grief, and always, hereafter, will it remain a cause of their just boast, and joy, and glory on earth, and a rainbow of promise of a blessed reunion in heaven. O everlasting Father! Pour down thy celestial consolations, and let them abide with a bereaved household. May peace be enthroned in their midst; tranquility dwell in their hearts; and for the dear object who has departed hence, we beseech thee, O compassionate Lord! as her body will be hidden from sight, so may her shortcomings be covered up beneath the ample folds of thy paternal benignity. But let her virtues as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, as a dispenser of charity, stand eternally before thy presence, and win for her undying spirit the delights of Paradise. May the living, recalling the life of thy handmaid, Bluma Hart, reverently exclaim: "Gracefulness is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruits of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." AMEN.

This page is blank

Philanthropy Praised. Words spoken over the Remains of Simon Muhr, by S. Morais [...] I stand here, the spokesman of thousands of my brethren in faith, who sought a home of safety in Philadelphia. Through me, refugees from the land of oppression utter lamentations. A generous friend, ready to overlook faults and plead for kindness, was he that has gone from their midst. Never would he allow pressing occupations to so engross his thoughts, as to deafen his ears against the cry of Russian exiles, asking for counsel and protection. In his counting-house and in his own domicile, the humblest had free access to Simon Muhr. Unweariedly he listened, so that wrongs, which prejudice commits against the powerless, might be redressed. The influence that riches lend their possessor, he made the agent of his humanity.

Could all whom the working of that influence benefited now raise their voices, a sound would be heard which seldom echoes forth from a funeral hall. Families against whom a rigorous law might have shut the gates of this asylum of the persecuted, would call Simon Muhr "our protector;" youths led astray by older offenders, but now restored to honest industry, would proclaim him "our deliverer." His judgment may not have been faultless in every instance--and what mortal can boast of an infallible mind?--but his heart throbbed on all occasions with the tenderest compassion.

Our city journals have done Simon Muhr the justice he deserved. They recognized the unquestionable fact that misery did not appeal to him in vain; that charitable institutions could reckon upon his liberal impulses for financial aid and personal endeavors. The press has admitted that, if he was naturally drawn more closely to a limited circle comprising fellow-Israelites, he nevertheless did very often bid his feelings broaden and reach far and wide.

One of the numerous acts which mirrored forth the innate love of that Hebrew for all mankind, must have been embalmed in the memory of Philadelphians. The sea-captain who labored heroically to rescue many from a watery grave, was not born in the faith of Abraham, nor were they Jews whom that gallant deliverer of voyagers in an imperiled ship restored to their agonized families, but Simon Muhr responded to the instincts which ennoble human nature, when he rewarded compassionate bravery with a costly gift—a memento of our common brotherhood.

I refer to that circumstance, because it created an indelible impression, whereas of Simon Muhr's daily acts of kindness, of his constant and unstinted benevolence, society at large could not become aware so as to commensurately appreciate.

We, Israelites, who were wont to meet him where orphans are trained to utilize their education to communal advantage; we, who saw him where the necessitous look for solace in their declining years; we, who found him busy, wherever his brother Jew suffers from want, from neglect, from the absence of opportunities to rise equal to his fellow-being of other creeds, we need not be reminded by eulogistic words of the qualities which adorned his character, but an act that was not single--yet signal--may, without impropriety, be cited as a tribute of respect to a philanthropist, summoned away from the sphere of his activity.

To me personally, however, the most luminous trait in the character of Simon Muhr, is not what all indisputably admit, because true; namely, that he was large-hearted; that he bestowed upon the afflicted much of that which he had acquired by unflagging energy; that he was a son upon whom his parents could absolutely rely for the discharge of filial obligations, for tokens of reverential affection. What I love exceedingly, what I appreciate profoundly is a trait, the lack of which in some who have gained wealth, turns me away from them with aversion--their overweening self-assertion, thinking, if not saying it, that men upon whom the sun of prosperity had not smiled, men unsuccessful in their undertakings, ought to bow and scrape and pay the rich obeisance.

Simon Muhr did not belong to that caste of upstarts, who make for themselves "gods of silver and gods of gold." He did not hide his lowly beginning. He confessed that when his mother urged him to work, he was a very young lad with no human help, save his own determined will to rise by dint of unabated exertions.

The remembrance of the past was the strongest incentive to goodness. Unconsciously he acted upon the principle laid down in the Hebrew Scriptures. Whenever we are Divinely asked the performance of practical religion, our legislator reminds us of the historical circumstance, that we were once strangers, even slaves in the land of Egypt, wherefore we should treat none disdainfully; we should enslave none. To recall our own suffering, is to melt with compassion for the sufferers.

Simon Muhr, thankful to the country of his adoption, which, under God's blessings, offers a vast reward to industry, showed his gratitude by becoming a public-spirited citizen, always humble-minded, helpful to the destitute who struggle on to attain self-elevation.

Philadelphia, and notably its Jewish community, have obvious reasons to lament his untimely death. Freed from besetting duties, which business relations imposed, he could have responded even more readily than heretofore to the promptings of his generous nature. I bewail his loss, thousands bewail it with me. But will that allay the anguish of the old mother, to whom her Simon was the light of her eyes, the soul of her existence? . . . . Almighty God! Lift her above this crushing trial. Open for her fresh springs of consolation within the bounds of her dwelling place. May not her grey hair go down in sorrow to the grave. And for the dear departed I beseech Thee, O Sovereign Lord! May his benefactions walk before him and prepare for his spirit an entrance into realms of beatitude. Oh! bid angels of charity thus welcome among the blessed, the Hebrew who served Thee by charity: "thy trangressions are cleansed away, thy sins have been forgiven. Rest in eternal bliss, be imparadised in the contemplation of the Merciful Creator and Universal Saviour."