Note 40 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

During my residence at New York, this time and in the two next years, I was frequently in company with Jews. I was informed among other things, that these people never boiled any meat for themselves on saturday, but that they always did it the day before; and that in winter they kept a fire during the whole saturday. They commonly eat no pork; yet I have been told by several men of credit, that many of them (especially among the young Jews) when travelling, did not not make the least difficulty about eating this, or any other meat that was put before them; even though they were in company with christians. I was in their synagogue last evening for the first time, and this day at noon I visited it again, and each time I was put into a particular seat which was set apart for strangers or christians. A young Rabbi read the divine service, which was partly in Hebrew, and partly in the Rabinical dialect. Both men and women were dressed entirely in the English fashion; the former had all of them their hats on, and did not once take them off during service. The galleries, I observed, were appropriated to the ladies, while the men sat below. During prayers the men spread a white cloth over their heads; which perhaps is to represent sack cloth. But I observed that the wealthier sort of people had a much richer cloth than the poorer ones. Many of the men had Hebrew books, in which they sang and read alternately. The Rabbi stood in the middle of the synagogue, and read with his face turned towards the east; he spoke however so fast, as to make it almost impossible for any one to understand what he said.40