noon
All the better , some one will say . Alas ! alas ! It is making the wealthy Jews forsake the synagogue for the opera-house , or the gentility chapel , in which a disciple of Mr. Platitude , in a white surplice , preaches a sermon at noon - day from a desk , on each side of which is a flaming taper . It is making them abandon their ancient literature , their `` Mischna , '' their `` Gemara , '' their `` Zohar , '' for gentility novels , `` The Young Duke , '' the most unexceptionably genteel book ever written , being the principal favourite . It makes the young Jew ashamed of the young Jewess , it makes her ashamed of the young Jew . The young Jew marries an opera dancer , or if the dancer will not have him , as is frequently the case , the cast-off Miss of the Honourable Spencer So-and-so .