AN AMERICAN AMONG JEWS IN HEBRON, 1836 - Part 7

Part 7 of John Lloyd Stephens' account of his stay with Jews in Hebron:

"A more interesting business followed with the old rabbi, probably induced by what had just passed between the Christian [a Copt, the only Christian living in Hebron] and myself. He told me that he had lately had occasion to regret exceedingly the loss of a paper which would now be of great use to him; that he was a Jew of Venice (I can vouch for it that he was no Shylock), and thirty years before had left his native city and come to Hebron with a regular passport; that for many years a European passport was no protection, and, indeed, it had been rather an object with him to lay aside the European character, and identify himself with the Asiatics; that, in consequence, he had been careless of his passport, and had lost it; but that now, since the conquest of Mohammed Ali and the government of Ibrahim Pasha, a European passport was respected, and saved its holder and his family from Turkish impositions. He mourned bitterly over his loss, not, as he said, for himself, for his days were almost ended, and the storms of life could not break over his head more heavily than they had already done; but he mourned for his children and grandchildren..."
[Stephens, p 322]

-----------
One more installment of the Stephens account of Hebron
Coming soon -- a PLO/PA suit-wearing liar exposed by another Arab