In the West Hartlepool police court at Durham a Jew who refused to be sworn on a Bible containing the New Testament and for whom a copy of the Old Testament alone could not be found was sworn, with the irritated consent of the court, as a Scotsman. The oath of a Scotsman is good enough not to require a legally sacred book. The Jew is Jacob Barnett, of Church Street, who was bringing a charge of common assault and wilful damage against one Edmund W. Anderson, a butcher of the same street.
Attaches of the court asserted that not in at least twenty years had a principal or witness in a case refused to swear on the Bible for any reason. In a mild explanation of his attitude, Mr. Barnett said to the magistrate: “I am very sorry, but I am a Jew. I keep to my religion and I have nothing against any other religion. Everybody has a right to act according to his religion, and why shouldn’t I take the oath according to my religion?”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
