The Exodus Story Retold in Seattle
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Melvin G. Winstock delivers a sermon on Moses and the birth of a nation during Passover services.
The Hebrews of the city held a Passover service in the synagogue yesterday morning at which Melvin G. Winstock, deputy prosecuting attorney of this county, delivered an address on the exodus of the Jews, under the title of 'The Birth of a Nation.' The synagogue was thronged with people of all denominations, and many could not gain admittance. Winstock traced the history of the patriarchs and the slavery of the heirs of the patriarchs in Egypt, weaving his story around the career of Moses. He gave a rational explanation of the strange things traditionally called miracles and highlighted the work of Moses in the wilderness, noting that the leader used not the sword or force, but intelligence, reason, love, education, and law. The speaker praised Moses for constructing a nation out of former slaves, and noted that the Mosaic code retains a permanent value acknowledged by learned men today. In his concluding remarks, Winstock confronted the modern Jew with the Mosaic conception of manhood, warning against an insatiate greed for gold and indifference to religious truth.
“The wonder of the work of Moses lay in the fact that he used not the sword or force, but intelligence, reason, love, education and law.”
This 1893 sermon highlights the early presence of the Jewish community in Seattle and the public role of figures like Winstock in the city's civic life. It serves as a reminder that Seattle's religious diversity has been a public conversation since the city's founding.
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