THE J E113 HS K PHTJUOT mnnasoN cpeters LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Oats THE JEW AS A PATRIOT By MADISON C. PETERS Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY H. PERI ERA MENDES i2mo, cloth, - - $1.00 The Jew as a Patriot WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY OSCAR S. STRAUS i2tno, cloth, - - $1.00 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT BY MADISON C. PETERS WITH AN INTROD UCTOR Y ESS A Y BY OSCAR S. STRAUS NEW YORK THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 33-37 East Seventeenth Street 1902 Copyright, 1902, BV THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY ROBERT DRUMMOND PRINTER, NEW YORK, TO Hatban Straus WHOSE VARIED AND MULTIPLIED LABORS IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY HAVE MADE HIS NAME A HOUSEHOLD WORD AMONG THE POOR OF NEW YORK THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED ASA TOKEN OF ESTEEM AND FRIENDSHIP BY THE AUTHOR 14M "Coward? not he who faces death, Who singly against worlds has fought, For what? A name he may not breathe, For liberty of prayer and thought." vi FOREWORD Renan said, "A Jew will never be a citizen; he will simply live in the cities of others." This implies that the Jew is never a patriot. Such, in substance, is the indict- ment brought against the race by the Anti- Semites of Europe and America. Mark Twain said, in a magazine article, " Concern- ing the Jews " : " By his make and his ways he is substantially a foreigner wherever he may be, and even the angels dislike a foreigner." Then, he repeats an accusation against the Jew often heard: " The Jew is charged with a patriotic disinclination to stand by the flag as a soldier like the Christian Quaker." Sub- sequently, the great humorist looked up some chapters of American-Jewish history and dis- covered that the Jew has a military record; viii FOREWORD therefore, in a very brief postscript added to the essay, since published in the collection, entitled " The Man Who Corrupted Hadley- burg," he makes the following frank confes- sion: "When I published the article in Harper's Magazine I was ignorant, like the rest of the Christian world, of the fact that the Jew had a record as a soldier. I have since seen the official statistics, and I find that he furnished soldiers and high officers in the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Mex- ican War." After reviewing the conspicuous services, rendered by the Jews in the Civil War, he confesses that any slur upon the Jew's patriotism is a slander, a slander "that has done its work, done it long and faithfully and with high approval. It ought to be pen- sioned off now, and retired from active ser- vice." That Christians may know more concern- ing the Jews as fighters, patriots, and citizens, and that Jews, themselves, may become more familiar with their people's records are the FOREWORD ix purposes of the author in the publication of the following chapters, the substance of sev- eral lectures, given before many universities, Chautauquas, synods, conferences, minis- ters' meetings, synagogues, etc. Descent from Jewish stock determines, with the author, who is to be regarded as a Jew. The almost incredible, narrow-minded illiberality and antagonism to Jewish in- terests, of which the modern Anti-Semites are still giving the world too frequent and too infamous exhibitions, accounts, for instance, for the descendants of Moses Mendelssohn, having abandoned Judaism and professed Christianity. Such eminent men as Heine, Moscheles, Joachim, Rubinstein, Disraeli, y^ i#,HerckeV and other distinguished German, English, Polish, Hungarian, and Russian- Jewish musicians, poets, painters, literati, scientists, and statesmen, finding that faithful- ness to their ancient creed would interfere with the free exercise of their professional career, renounced its practice, and professed x FOREWORD the dominant religion of their native country. This, at once, removed every obstruction, all restriction and the religious prejudice, from which they would otherwise have suffered. I have gathered the facts for these chap- ters from every available source; and, where I fail to give credit, it is because I do not know where to bestow it. I do wish, how- ever, to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Jewish Year Book, the Jewish Chronicle, but, especially, to the Hon. Simon Wolf's " The Jew as an American Citizen, Soldier, and Patriot." In this volume, Mr. Wolf gives nearly eight thousand names of Jews, who served on both sides during the Civil War. What I have written in these pages gives only a meagre, but general idea of the part the Jews have taken in the past and are, at present, taking in the world as soldiers, patriots, and citizens. Instead of responding to many urgent re- quests for a new and revised edition of " Jus- tice to the Jew," the author has incorporated FOREWORD xi some of its pages into this book. He has also made use of some of the facts and figures in " Justice to the Jew," and the most painstak- ing care possible has been exercised to verify every statement and to bring all the facts up to date. M. C. P. SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY ESSAY PAGB The Hebrew Commonwealth the Model for the American Republic. By Oscar S. Straus xvii CHAPTER I JEWS IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA Not Isabella's Jewels, but Jews, the Real Financial Basis of the First Expedition of Columbus. Dr. Kayser- ling's Investigations. Emilio Castelar quoted. With- out the Scientific Achievements of the Jews, Colum- bus' Wonderfully Well-planned Voyages would have been Impossible. The First White Man to Set Foot on American Soil a Jew 35 CHAPTER II JEWS IN THE WARS OF THE REPUBLIC New York the First State Actually Granting Full Relig- ious Liberty to the Jews. The Part the Jews took in the Colonial Cause prior to the Revolution. Haym Salomon and other Jews who Sacrificed their Fortunes for Independence. Noted Hebrews who Served with Distinction Throughout the Revolution- ary War. Jewish Patriotism in the Mexican War. Honorable Record in the Regular Army and Navy. The Conspicuous Part which the Jews took in the Civil War. Jews and the American Antislavery Movement. Jews who Served in the American Armies during the War with Spain 51 CHAPTER III JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN THE ARMIES OF EUROPE The Spiritual Courage it Required for the Race to Survive at all. The Old European Ghettoes. Jews in the xiv SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS PACK Spanish Battles. The Brave Defense of the Polish Territory. Jews in the Austrian Armies. The Franco-Prussian War. Patriotism of the Jews of Germany. Great German Soldiers and Distinguished Statesmen who by Birth and Inherited Genius are Jews. The Hungarian Revolution. Jewish Soldiers in the Grseco- Turkish War. Jews in the Italian, Roumanian, and Russian Armies. The Good Beha- vior of the Jews during the French Revolution. The Promptness with which they Rallied under the Banner of the Empire and the Republic when the Safety of their Country was Imperiled. The Dreyfus Affair. Blue-blooded Jews in France. Distinguished Eng- lish Soldiers. The Contribution of Jews to the Fighting Forces in the British War with the Boers. The Proportion of Jews among the Soldiers of Europe Greater than that of any other Race 83 CHAPTER IV THE JEW IN POLITICS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The High Rank which the Jews take even in Anti-Semitic Germany. The Rapid Rise of the Jews in Italian, French, English, and American Politics 133 CHAPTER V THE NUMBER OF JEWS THE WORLD OVER Jews in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Total Immigration to the United States. The Distribution of our Jewish Population 167 CHAPTER VI THE WORLD'S INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEW The Need of Knowledge. The Genius of the Jew. The Jew in Finance a Creator and not a Puller-down. The Longevity of the Jews. Their Law-abiding Spirit and Activity in Charity. Jewish Wit and Humor. Anti-Semitism in America. Why the Jew Wins. The Love of Money the Curse of Jew and Gentile alike. Our Debt to the Jews for the Bible. . . 179 Introductory Essay The Hebrew Commonwealth the Model for the American Republic BY OSCAR S. STRAUS The whole year 1789 contains the germ of Hebraism. The idea of right and social justice is an Israelitish idea. The advent of justice on this earth has been the dream of our people. To find the first source of man's rights, we must go back farther than the Reform or the Renaissance, farther back even than antiquity or the Gospel, as far back as the Bible, the Thora, and the prophets. Our rabbis, the Isaiahs and Jeremiahs, were the first revolutionists. . . . From our Bible came the Reformation. From it came the inspirations of the poor wretches of the Low Countries. Puritans in Eng- land and America appropriated the language of our judges and prophets. To the Bible belongs the suc- cess of those revolutions, of those Anglo-Saxons who boast of being your masters. That superiority they owe to a better acquaintance with Israel. The Huguenots and the Bible would have triumphed in France if only the Revolution had burst forth a century earlier, and in that event it would have had a different issue. . . . In teaching that all men descended from one Adam and one Eve the Bible proclaimed that all were free, equal, and brothers. So in the principles of the Revo- lution our hopes are the same. For this unity, this fraternity, our prophets show us, have been ours in the past, as they must be in the future. They were Israel's ideals. The Revolution with its hopes is in its issue nothing more than the actual testamentary execu- tion of the will of Isaiah. Social renovation, equality of rights, the uplifting of the lowly, the suppression of privileges, of class barriers, the brotherhood of races, everything aimed at or dreamed of by the Revolution, was proclaimed some twenty-five centuries ago by our own true believers. Words which M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, the emi- nent Frenchman, puts in the mouth of an Israelite who is supposably present at a banquet celebrating the cen- tenary of 1789. *vi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY OSCAR S. STRAUS It is remarkable that, of the many histo- rians who have written so ably and minutely of the history of the United States, none should have observed in his writings the rela- tionship between our republic and the com- monwealth of the Hebrews, especially in the light of the earliest constitutions of several of the New England colonies expressly framed upon the model of the Mosaic code as a guide, and of the frequent references thereto made by the ministers in their political ser- mons, who constantly drew their civil creed from the history of those times, and held up this ancient form of government as a model xvii xviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY inspired under the guidance of the Most High. Samuel Langdon, D.D., the President of Harvard College, who, through the influence of John Hancock, was installed in that office as the successor of Samuel Locke, and who afterwards, in 1788, was a member of the New Hampshire convention when the constitution came before that body for adoption, in his election sermon * entitled " The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the American States," before the " Honorable Congress of Massachusetts Bay " on the 31st of May, 1775 taking as his text the passage in Isaiah i. 26: "And I will restore thy judge as at the * The pulpit in Colonial times occupied a more gen- eral sphere and exerted more general influence than to-day. Ministers preached politics as well as religion. As early as 1633, the governor and assistants in the New England colonies began to appoint the most eloquent and distinguished ministers to preach on the day of the general election. This sermon was styled the election sermon. The sermon was printed and dis- tributed throughout the colonies, and these sermons contributed much to the moral force that brought our independence. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xix first," etc. delivered a most eloquent dis- course, wherein he traces the history of government from the first recorded begin- ning, and defines its functions and preroga- tives with a logic that proves him to have been well versed in the doctrines of civil liberty as handed down through the writings of Sidney, Milton, Hoadley, and his eminent predecessor, Locke. These are his words: " The Jewish government, according to the original constitution which was divinely es- tablished, if considered merely in a civil view, was a perfect republic. And let them who cry up the divine right of kings consider that the form of government which had a proper claim to a divine establishment was so far from in- cluding the idea of a king that it was a high crime for Israel to ask to be in this respect like other nations, and when they were thus gratified it was rather as a just punishment for their folly. Every nation, when able and agreed, has a right to set up over itself any form of government which to it may appear xx INTRODUCTORY ESSAY most conducive to its common welfare. The civil polity of Israel is doubtless an excellent general model, allowing for some peculiari- ties ; at least, some principal laws and orders of it may be copied in more modern estab- lishments." By a special vote Dr. Langdon's sermon was ordered to be printed and sent to each minister in the colony and to each member of the Congress. What effect such words as these had upon the minds of the people in general in preparing them for independence, as well as upon the founders of our republic, each and all of whom doubtless read this ser- mon, is scarcely a matter of conjecture when we take into consideration that he was not only a ripe scholar occupying the most impor- tant literary position in America, as President of Harvard College, but one of the foremost ministers and pulpit orators, as well as an acknowledged authority in the science of government. The eminent divine attached a note to this sermon, saying that soon after INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxi its delivery the convention of the State of New Hampshire met (June 21st) and adopted the United States Constitution, thus making the requisite two-thirds, the number of States necessary for its adoption. On the 17th of May, 1776, which was kept as a national fast, George Duffield, the minis- ter of the Third Presbyterian Church in Phil- adelphia, with John Adams as a listener, drew a parallel between George III. and Pharaoh, and inferred that the same providence of God which had rescued the Israelites from Egyp- tian bondage intended to free the colonies. The election sermon of the following year was preached on the 29th of May, 1776, some forty days before the Declaration of Inde- pendence, before " the Honorable Council and the Honorable House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay," by the Rev. Samuel West. He was not behind his professional brethren in zeal for the welfare and liberty of his country. He was a member of the convention for forming the constitu- xxii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY tion of Massachusetts, and of that of 1788, which ratified the Constitution of the United States. He took his text from Isaiah i. 26, the same as was taken by Dr. Langdon above quoted. He discusses the entire political situation of the times. " We are to remem- ber that all men being by nature equal, they have a right to make such regulation as they deem necessary for the good of all; that magistrates have no authority but what they derive from the people." The election sermon in 1780 was delivered before the same body, the Council and House of Representatives of the State of Massachu- setts, by Rev. Simeon Howard, who suc- ceeded Dr. Mayhew as pastor of the West Church of Boston. Among his hearers were Robert Treat Paine and Samuel Adams. The latter submitted to Rev. Mr. Howard the resolution of both Houses of the General As- sembly, containing an expression of thanks, and requesting a copy for the press. Taking as his text Exodus xviii. 21 "Thou shalt INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxiii provide out of all thy people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetous- ness; and place such over them to be ruler" he divides his sermon under four heads: 1st. Necessity of civil government; 2d. The right of the people to choose their own rulers; 3d. The business of rulers; and 4th. The qualifications as pointed out in the text as necessary for civil rulers. His sermon is almost entirely devoted to the exposition of the Hebrew Commonwealth under Moses; that it was a government by the people under the guidance of God Almighty ; and the rulers were not appointed, but elected. His words are: "This is asserted by Josephus and plainly intimated by Moses in his recapitula- tory discourses, and indeed the Jews always exercised the right of choosing their own rulers ; even Saul and David and all their suc- cessors on the throne were made kings by the voice of the people." On May 8, 1783, at Hartford, before " His Excellency Governor Trumbull and the xxiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut," the election sermon was preached by the eminent President of Yale College, Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles, who, as early as 1760, predicted that " the imperial domin- ion will subvert as it ought in election." Dr. Stiles, taking for his text Deut. xxvi. 19 " And to make thee high above all nations which he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor," etc. delivered a discourse entitled " The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor." This sermon takes up one hundred and twenty closely printed pages, and assumes the proportions of a treatise on government from the Hebrew Theocracy down to the then present, showing by illus- tration and history that the culmination of popular government had been reached in America, transplanted by divine hands in ful- fillment of biblical prophecy from the days of Moses to the land of Washington; and dis- cussing from an historical point of view " the reasons rendering it probable that the United INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxv States will, by the ordering of Heaven, event- ually become this people." His words are: " Here (at the foot of Mount Nebo) the man of God, Moses, assembled three millions of people the number of the United States, recapitulated and gave them a second pub- lication of the sacred Jural Institute, delivered thirty-eight years before under the most awful solemnity at Mt. Sinai. He foresaw indeed their rejection of God, whence Moses and the prophets, by divine direction, inter- spersed their writings with promises that when the ends of God's moral government should be answered, he would recover and gather them [quoting Deut. xxx. 3 : * from all the nations whither God had scattered them ']. Then the words of Moses, hitherto accomplished but in part, will be literally ful- filled. I shall," he continues, ' enlarge no further upon the primary sense and literal accomplishment of this and numerous other prophecies respecting both Jews and Gentiles in the latter-day glory of the church; for I xxvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY have assumed the text only as introductory to a discourse upon the political welfare of God's American Israel, and as allusively prophetic of the future prosperity and splen- dor of the United States." Referring to the success of our armies under Washington, whereby the independence and sovereignty of the United States was established and recognized by Great Britain herself in less than eight years, he says : " Whereupon Congress put at the head of the spirited army the only man on whom the eyes of all Israel were placed. Posterity, incredulous as they may be, will yet acknowledge that this Amer- ican Joshua was raised up by God for the great work of leading the armies of this American Joseph (now separated from his brethren), and conducting these people to liberty and independence." Unfortunately, we have in most instances only skeleton reports of proceedings and de- bates of the Federal and State conventions on the adoption of the Constitution. Doubt- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxvii less the model of the ancient commonwealth, its history and lessons, were frequently em- ployed by the distinguished representatives; the meagreness of the records leaves this to conjecture only. In the legislatures of the various States before whom the Constitution came for adoption, the delegates again and again referred to this original model of pop- ular government. In New York, for instance, Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of the State, refers to it ; so also John Lansing, who, in his speech urging its adoption, says : " Sir, the instances from the history of the Jewish Theocracy evince that there are certain situ- ations in communities which will unavoidably lead to results similar to those we experience. The Israelites were unsuccessful in war ; they were sometimes defeated by their enemies. Instead of reflecting that these calamities were occasioned by their sins, they sought relief in the appointment of a king, in imita- tion of their neighbors. ,, So also the Hon. Mr. John Smith, who quotes in full the ad- xxviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY monition of Samuel to the children of Israel, describing the manner in which a king would rule over them. In short, again and again, in and out of our halls of legislation, was the history of the Hebrew Commonwealth re- ferred to, narrated, rehearsed, and analogies drawn therefrom by the advocates of a repub- lican form of government in answer to those who favored monarchy, so that the ad- monitions of Samuel were as familiar to the people of America as the words of the Lord's Prayer. In the light of these facts it is not at all sur- prising that the committee which was ap- pointed on the same day the Declaration of Independence was adopted, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson, to prepare a device for a seal for the United States, should, as they did, have proposed as such device Pharaoh sitting in an open char- iot, a crown on his head and a sword in his hand, passing through the dividing waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites ; with INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxix rays from a pillar of fire beaming on Moses, who is represented as standing on the shore extending his hand over the sea, causing it to overwhelm Pharaoh; and underneath the motto, " Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Through more than a century and a half the Puritan ministers never tired of dwelling upon the trials, sufferings, and fortitude of the children of Israel during their long and weary wanderings from the land of their op- pressors until the organization of popular government on the banks of the Jordan. To what extent these teachings and preach- ings served as an inspiring incentive to the American people in their heroic struggle for civil and religious liberty, and to what degree the oft-quoted warnings of the last Judge of Israel, followed by the corroborating revela- tions of scriptural history, supplied the argu- ment that battered down the enslaving doc- trine of the " Divine Right of Kings " and its corollaries, " Unlimited Submission " and xxx INTRODUCTORY ESSAY " Non-Resistance," we leave for the reader to draw his own conclusion. We neither claim nor wish to be under- stood as inferring that the structural parts of our form of government were derived from what was believed to be the components of the Hebrew Commonwealth, but only that this scriptural model of government, which was democratic, as distinguished from kingly rule, had a deep influence upon the founders of our government and prepared the minds of the people, especially in the New England colonies, so that they not only longed for, but would not content themselves with any other form of government than that form which had the divine sanction, the government of the Hebrews under the Judges. Looking backward over a period of nearly three hundred years it may be difficult for us in this age to understand why the early Puri- tans should have gone back nearly three thousand years for their form of government, but we must not forget the intense religious INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxi spirit of Puritanism, which was a Protestant renaissance of the Old Testament and a rever- sion to biblical precedents for the regulation of the minutest details of daily life. They were not content even to administer justice by the civil or the common law, but regulated the punishment of crimes by the Pentateuch, and in framing their criminal code every sec- tion cited the biblical chapter and verse. Through the windows of the Puritan churches of New England the new West looked back to the old East. VI Jews in the Discovery of America THE JEW AS A PATRIOT CHAPTER I JEWS IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA The great majority of Americans, Jews and non-Jews, are but little acquainted with the part the Jews played in the discovery and early settlement of the United States. With the same hand and the same pen, and on the same day, on which Ferdinand and Isabella signed that infamous edict, which drove more than two hundred thousand Jews from the land of their birth, because they de- clined to have Christianity forced upon them, they also signed the articles of agreement that authorized Cristobal Colon, as the Span- 35 36 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT iards called Columbus, to go forth in search of another world, where, in the words of Cas- telar, the distinguished Spanish publicist, " Creation should be new-born, a haven be af- forded to the quickening principle of human liberty, and a temple be reared to the God of enfranchised and redeemed conscience." Dr. Moses Kayserling, of Buda-Pesth, for years the acknowledged master of Spanish- Jewish history, has made a thorough search of the Spanish archives and records, including those of the Inquisition, which had never be- fore been open to such a Jewish investigator. The result is his valuable work, entitled " Christopher Columbus and the Participa- tion of the Jews in the Spanish and the Por- tuguese Discoveries." Although an English translation has been published, the work is so heavy and so specialized that very few people seem to have read the book. Since that time, Prof. Herbert B. Adams, in one of the valu- able series of historical studies, published by the Johns Hopkins University, has said, "Not JEWS IN EARLY AMERICA 37 Jewels, but Jews, were the real financial basis of the first expedition of Columbus." Dr. Kayserling has, beyond a doubt, pointed out that two Marranos, or secret Jews, Luis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez, the former the chancellor of the royal household and comptroller-general in Arra- gon, and the latter, chief treasurer of Arragon enormously rich merchants, who enjoyed the favor of Ferdinand and Isabella, supplied the funds needed to fit out Columbus' caravels. Isabella did not sell her valuable jewels to fit out Columbus for his voyage. It is generally supposed that she had already pawned or sold them to defray the expenses of the wars then devastating her country. Dr. Kayserling clearly shows that the jewel story is false and mythical, a fact previously proved by an- other Jew, that great authority on Colum- bus, Henry Harrisse. Justin Winsor, in his " Christopher Columbus," has this to say of the jewel story: " But Harrisse finds no war- rant for it, and judges the advance of funds to 38 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT have been made by Santangel from his pri- vate revenues and in the interests of Castile only. And this seems to be proved by the invariable exclusion of Ferdinand's subjects from participating in the advantages of trade in the new lands, unless an exception was made for some signal service. This rule, in- deed, prevailed even after Ferdinand began to reign alone." Dr. Kayserling cites high Spanish authority from original account- books and records, and narrates Santangel's interview with the Queen as follows : u Sant- angel, the story continues, was much de- lighted at the Queen's resolve, and declared that it was not necessary for her to pledge her jewels; he would be pleased, he said, to ad- vance the money necessary for the expedition, and would be glad of the opportunity to per- form so small a service for her and for his master the King." Columbus' son, Fernando, and Oviedo give similar accounts of the in- terview. Dr. Kayserling continues : " At that time neither Arragon nor Castile, neither JEWS Itt EARLY AMERICA & Ferdinand nor Isabella, had at their disposal enough money to equip a fleet. Santangel, who was always ready to oblige the Crown, advanced 17,000 florins nearly 5,000,000 maravedis. The Queen's jewels were not demanded as security; all of them were not, in fact, in her possession at that time, for she had pledged her necklace during the late war. Santangel's extraordinary services in this matter are clearly demonstrated by the excessive praise which Ferdinand accorded his ' well-beloved ' Luis de Santangel, and by the many proofs of gratitude which the King gave him. That he advanced this money out of his own pocket is proved beyond question by the original account-books which were formerly in the archives of Simancas, and which are still preserved in the Archivo de Indias in Seville. In the account-book of Luis de Santangel and the treasurer, Fran- cisco Pinelo, extending from 1491 to 1493, Santangel is credited with an item of 1,400,- 000 maravedis which he gave to the Bishop 40 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT of Avila for Columbus' expedition. In an- other account-book, that of Garcia Martinez and Pedro de Montemayor, there is the fol- lowing item : * Alonso de las Calezas, treas- urer of war in the bishopric of Badajoz, by or- der of the Archbishop of Granada, dated May 5, 1492, paid to Alonso de Angelo for Luis ae Santangel, the King's escribano de racion, whose authorization was presented with the aforesaid order, 2,640,000 maravedis, to wit, 1,500,000 in payment to Isaac Abravanel for money which he had lent their Majesties in the Moorish war, and the remaining 1,140,- 000 maravedis in payment to the aforesaid escribano de racion of money which he ad- vanced to equip the caravels ordered by their Majesties for the expedition to the Indies, and to pay Christopher Columbus, the ad- miral of that fleet.' On May 20, 1493, on which day Ferdinand was particularly occu- pied with Columbus and his expedition, the King ordered his treasurer-general, Gabriel Sanchez, to pay 30,000 florins in gold to i his JEWS IN EARLY AMERICA 41 beloved councillor and escribano de racion, Luis de Santangel.' This sum certainly in- cluded the remainder of the loan." Emilio Castelar, the Spanish statesman and orator, already quoted, has given us the facts, as to Columbus' long and futile efforts to interest the Spanish sovereigns in his project, as well as to Columbus' actual departure from the Spanish Court, discouraged and turning to France : " Quin- tanilla had opened to Columbus the path- way to the court, Santangelo [as Cas- telar names Luis de Santangel] opened the road to Palos. Of a family of converts, himself but recently a Christian, one of those antique Jews who have so greatly helped to enlighten the Christian world, like the Cara- genas of Burgos, for instance, he joined, as is the nature and tendency of his race, the love of the ideal, appropriate to the prophets divinely inspired of the Lord, to the reflective calculations of the schemer and the mathema- tician. It is a historical fact that one day Fer- 4'2 iTH E JEW AS A PATRIOf dinand V., on his way from Arragon to Cas- tile, and needing some ready cash, as often happened, owing to the impoverishment of those kingdoms, halted his horse at the door of Santangel's house in Calatayud, and, dis- mounting, entered and obtained a consider- able sum from the latter's inexhaustible pri- vate coffers. He must have enjoyed great power, for although some of his near kinsfolk took part in the immolation of Pedro Arbues, the first inquisitor, who was slain in the cathedral of Saragossa in the frenzy of a pop- ular uprising, no harm came to Ferdinand's treasurer, neither did he fall from royal favor nor incur the usual penalty of infamy. As soon as Santangelo heard of the flight of Columbus he went to the Queen's cham- ber and implored her to order him to re- turn, being supported in this by the Marchioness of Maya. And when the Queen complained of the exorbitant demands of the discoverer, he reminded her that the cost would be but a trifling consideration if the JEWS IN ARLY AMERICA 43 attempt succeeded, and if it failed could be reduced to next to nothing. When to this cogent reasoning the Queen objected the emptiness of the Castilian treasury and the need of again pawning her jewels to raise the means, Santangelo unhesitatingly assured her of the flourishing state of the Arragonese finances, doubtless because of the revenues yielded by the expulsion of the Jews, and of the resources there available, promising at the same time to win over the perplexed and inert mind of Ferdinand the Catholic. There- upon messengers were sent post-haste who stopped Columbus at a neighboring bridge some two leagues away, and made him turn back to Granada, where, in April, 1492, the articles of agreement known as the capitula- tions of Santa Fe were signed, granting Columbus all he asked." The maps, which Columbus used, were drawn up by Jafuda or Jehuda Cresques, known also as Mestre Jaime Ribes, the " Map-Jew," or " Compass-Jew," who was 44 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT director of the Portuguese Academy at Sayres and instructor in the art of navigation and the manufacturer of nautical instruments and maps, while he made many improvements in the compass and in the application of astronomy to navigation, which alone made possible Columbus' wonderfully well-planned voyages. Columbus derived much value from the astronomical tables of Abraham Zacuto. These tables were translated from the Hebrew into Latin and Spanish by Joseph Vecincho, Zacuto's pupil, another Jew, dis- tinguished as a physician, cosmographer, and mathematician ; and it was he who presented a copy to the Genoese navigator, which Columbus found of great service on his voy- ages. This copy, with notes and glosses in Columbus' handwriting, still exists in Spain. Without these Jewish inventions, the dis- coveries of Columbus would have been im- possible. Columbus wrote : " I have had constant relations with many learned men, clergy and JEWS IN EARLY AMERICA 45 laymen, Jews and Moors and many others." In his will, Columbus refers to one of these Jews, whose identity is unknown. Washing- ton Irving says that this legacy of a half-mark of silver to a poor Jew who lived in Lisbon was probably a trivial debt of conscience or reward for some service received. Rodrigo Sanchez, a cousin of Gabriel San- chez, was designated to accompany the ex- pedition as veedor, or superintendent, at the special request of Queen Isabella. The ship- physician, Maestre Bernal, the surgeon, Marco, and a sailor, Alonso de la Calle, were Jews. It was a Jew, Rodrigo de Triana, who first saw the land, and another Jew, Luis de Torres, taken along because he understood Hebrew, Chaldee, and some Arabic, as inter- preter in the Oriental lands which Columbus expected to reach, who was the first white man to set foot on American soil, having been sent ashore to greet the Grand Khan of India, whose country Columbus believed he had reached by a new route. Torres was 46 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT also the first European to discover the use of tobacco. Columbus in his Journal, writing of his first voyage of discovery as coincident with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, has the following suggestive sentence : " So, after having expelled the Jews from your dominions, your Highnesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said regions of India." Castelar, commenting on this point, writes : " It chanced that one of the last vessels transporting into exile the Jews expelled from Spain by the religious in- tolerance of which the recently created and odious Tribunal of the Faith was the embodi- ment, passed by the little fleet bound in Search of another world. As though the sun were not to shine for all, as though the will of Heaven had not made us equal, the assured spirit of reaction was wreaking one of its stupendous and futile crimes in that very hour when the genius of liberty was search- ing the waves for the land that must needs JEWS IN EARLY AMERICA 47 arise to offer an unstained abode for the ideals of progress. Following their narrow views, the powers of the Middle Ages denied even light and warmth to the Jews at the same time that they revealed a new creation for a new order of society, that was predestined by Providence to put an end to all intolerance, and to dedicate an infinite continent to modern democracy." Jews in the Wars of the Republic The patriotism of the Jew is to me his greatest virtue. In this he stands peerless in the mighty tomes of his- tory. To be a patriot to a country that degrades, to love a people that despises, is divine. Of such a divine nature was, and still is, the patriotism of the Jews. He loves the country in which are clustered the proudest reminiscences of the history of his race, but more, much more, the country where his home is, where his dear ones live or lie buried. Where his home is, there his heart is, and where his heart is, there his love is, and where his heart and home and love are, there is his patriotism, and let the treatment accorded him by his country be ever so cruel, and the ignominies heaped upon him by his fellow men be ever so degrading. No matter what the treatment, he still obeys the words of Jeremiah addressed to the Jewish captives at Babylon: " Build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat fruit of them. Seek the peace of every city whither you are carried as captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." No matter what the law, he still obeys the lesson taught by the great teacher Mar Samuel, "to hold the law of the country in which he lives as the highest law." No matter how cruel the government, he prays for its welfare week after week. No matter how ill his patriotism is repaid, the duties of patriotism are impressed upon his children, in their religious school, year after year. Joseph Krauskopf. 50 CHAPTER II JEWS IN THE WARS OF THE REPUBLIC The Jews in New York were not on a footing of political equality with Chris- tians until the adoption of the first constitu- tion of the State of New York, in 1777, New York having been the first state actually granting full religious liberty to the Jews. Even in Maryland, to which Bancroft has re- ferred as among the first colonies, which " adopted religious freedom as the basis of the State," religious freedom was limited to those who believed in Jesus Christ, and accom- panied by a proviso, which declared that any person who denied the Trinity should be punished with death. Even after the Revo- 52 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT lution, though under the Constitution of the United States, a Jew was eligible to any office, no one could hold any office under the government of Maryland without signing a declaration that he believed in the Christian religion. These intolerant provisions were not re- pealed in Maryland until February 26, 1825. Though subjected to civil disabilities and un- reasonable demands in most of the States, where they had settled prior to the Revolu- ton, yet the Colonial cause found among the Jews its stanchest friends. Freely, they gave their lives for independence and aided, with their money, to equip and maintain the armies of the Revolution. The Non-Importation Resolution in 1765, the first organized movement in the agitation for separation from the mother country, a document still preserved in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, contains the following Jewish names: Benjamin Levy, Samson Levy, Joseph Jacobs, Hyman Levy, Jr., David JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 53 Franks, Mathias Bush, Michael Gratz, Bar- nard Gratz, and Moses Mordecai. In 1769, a corps of volunteer infantry com- posed chiefly of Hebrews under command of Captain Lushington, was raised in Charles- ton, South Carolina. These soldiers after- ward fought with great bravery under Gen- eral Moultrie at Beaufort. The decision, reached in New York, in 1770, to make more stringent the Non-Im- portation Agreement which the colonists had adopted to bring England to terms on the taxation question, had among its signers Samuel Judah, Hayman Levy, Jacob Moses, Jacob Meyers, Jonas Phillips, and Isaac Seixas. At a time, when the sinews of war were es- sential to success, Haym Salomon, of Phil- adelphia, the countryman and intimate asso- ciate of Pulaski and Kosciusko, responded to Robert Morris' appeal with $300,000; and it is variously estimated that he gave, all told, $600,000, not a penny of which has ever been 54 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT repaid to the heirs of the philanthropist and patriot. The late Judge Charles P. Daly (" History of Jews in North America," page 58) sum- marizes the character of Haym Salomon thus : " He was a man of large private for- tune, engaged in commercial pursuits, of great financial resources and ability, and of the highest personal integrity. He espoused the cause of the Colonies with great ardor, and supplied the government from his own means with a large amount of money at the most critical periods of the struggle. As ap- peared from documentary evidence afterward submitted to Congress, he advanced to the government altogether $658,007.13, an enor- mous sum at that period for a private individ- ual, when all commerce and business were prostrated. " But in addition to this he supported dele- gates to Congress and officers of the army and of the government with the means of defraying their ordinary expenses, among JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 55 whom were Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Steuben, Mifflin, St. Clair, Wilson, Monroe, and Mer- cer. After reciting Salomon's unselfish patriot- ism in refusing all interest or recompense, of his capture by the British, and of his long im- prisonment in New York in a jail called the Prevot, Judge Daly says : " He died before he had taken any steps to secure a reimburse- ment by the government of the large amount he had loaned it, and left a wife and four small children, to use the language of the Congres- sional report : ' to hazard and neglect/ Ap- plications have been made to Congress by his heirs for the repayment of the amount loaned, or at least for some part of it. These applica- tions led to the most thorough searches in the archives of the government and among the papers of Robert Morris, but nothing was found showing that any portion of the amount had ever been repaid. Madison in 1827 urged that the memorialists might be indemnified, and reports in their favor have 56 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT frequently been made by Congressional com- mittees, but down to 1864 not a dollar had been repaid to them a fact, I regret to say, which affords support to the oft-repeated observation of the ingrati- tude of republic." Jared Sparks wrote many years ago that Salomon's associations with Robert Morris 11 were very close and intimate, and that a great part of the success that Mr. Morris at- tained in his financial schemes was due to the skill and ability of Haym Salomon.*' Prof. Herbert B. Adams and Dr. Hollan- der, both of Johns Hopkins University, have shown that Salomon was the negotiator of the war subsidies obtained from France and Holland, which he endorsed and sold in bills to the merchants in America at a credit of two or three months " on his own personal security," without the loss of a cent to the country and receiving only one quarter of one per cent., and that he was appointed by the French government paymaster-general of the JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS $7 troops in America, which trust he executed free of charge. The secret support of Charles III. of Spain is alleged to have been due partly to his ef- forts. He maintained from his own private purse Don Francisco Rendon, the secret am- bassador of that monarch, for nearly two years, or up to the time of Mr. Salomon's death. On the accession of the Count de la Luzerne to the embassy from France, Mr. Salomon was made the banker of that govern- ment. A letter from Count Vergennes, minister of Spain, to De la Luzerne, ambas- sador to this country, states that in two years 150,000,000 livres were disbursed in this country through Mr. Salomon. But Haym Salomon was not the only Jew, who sacrificed his fortune for independence, for we find that among the signers of the bills of credit for the Continental Congress, in 1776, were Benjamin Levy of Philadelphia and Benjamin Jacobs of New York. Samuel 58 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Lyon of New York was among the signers of similar bills in 1779. Isaac Moses, of Phil- adelphia, contributed $15,000 to the Colonial Treasury, and Herman Levy, another Phil- adelphian, repeatedly advanced considerable sums for the support of the army in the field. Manuel Mordecai Noah of South Carolina not only served in the army as an officer on Washington's staff, and likewise with General Marion, but gave $100,000 to further the cause in which he was enlisted. Cyrus Adler recently called attention to the following incident. His information was based on an unpublished letter of Jared Sparks : " At the outbreak of the Revolu- tionary War a Mr. Gomez, of New York, proposed to a member of the Continental Congress that he form a company of soldiers for service. The member of Congress remon- strated with Mr. Gomez on the score of age, he then being sixty-eight, to which Mr. Gomez replied that he 'could stop a bullet as well as a younger man.' " JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 59 Among the patriots of the South none worked more unselfishly than Mordecai Shef- tall, " Chairman of the Rebel Parochial Com- mittee," organized to regulate the internal affairs of Savannah and composed of patriots, opposed to the royal government, and who, after active hostilities were begun in the South, was appointed Commissary-General to the troops of Georgia in July, 1777, and soon thereafter was also appointed commis- sary to the Continental troops ; and when the British attacked Savannah in December, 1778, Shef tail's name appears not only fore- most among the patriot defenders of that city and as one who advanced considerable money to the cause, but as one who was placed on board the prison ships because of his refusal to flock to the royal standard. In 1780, when the British authorities passed the disqualify- ing act, we find the name of Mordecai Shef- tall near the head of the list with the most prominent patriot names of Georgia. Colonel Isaac Franks became aide-de-camp r l .,. 60 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT to Washington, holding the rank of colonel on his staff; and this noted Hebrew served with distinction throughout the war. Major Benjamin Nones, a native of Bor- deaux, France, who came to America in 1777, served on the staffs of both Lafayette and Washington. He entered service under Pu- laski, as a private ; and, as he writes, " Fought in almost every action which took place in Carolina, and in the disastrous affair of Savannah shared the hardships of that san- guinary day." He became major of a legion of four hundred men, attached to Baron de Kalb's command and composed in part of Hebrews. And when the brave De Kalb fell mortally wounded, Major Nones, Captain Jacob de la Motta, and Captain Jacob de Leon carried their chief from the field. Colonel David S. Franks of Montreal openly sympathized with and aided the Amer- icans under Generals Montgomery and Ar- nold during their invasion of Canada, and was forced to flee from Canada in 1776, when the JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 61 Amercan forces abandoned the country. The name of David S. Franks appeared on Gov- ernor Carleton's list of twenty-nine persons, sent to the British Ministry early in 1777, " being the principal persons settled in the province who very zealously served the rebels in the winter of 1 775-1 776, and fled upon their leaving it." Franks, who left Canada with the intention of joining the American army, although his course in this matter re- sulted in heavy pecuniary losses in his busi- ness affairs and also alienated him from his father, became aide-de-camp to Arnold, the intrepid, zealous, and able soldier that he was, until jealousy, extravagance, and spite led him to take up the traitor's role. Franks gave testimony to Mrs. Arnold's in- nocence of all complicity in her husband's treason. Suspicions were aroused against Franks on account of Arnold's treason; nevertheless, after a searching inquiry into his conduct, he was not only acquitted, but he was sent to Europe with impor- 62 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT tant dispatches to Jay and Franklin, with in- structions to await their orders. In a letter from Robert Morris to Franklin, dated Phil- adelphia, July 13, 1 78 1, we read : " The bearer of the letter, Major Franks, formerly an aide- de-camp to General Arnold, and honorably acquitted of all connection with him after a full and impartial inquiry, will be able to give you our public news more particularly than I could relate them." Philip Moses Russell, in the spring of 1775, enlisted as a surgeon's mate under command of General Lee. After the British occupation of Philadelphia in September, 1777, he be- came surgeon's mate to Surgeon Norman of the Second Virginia Regiment. Russell went into winter quarters with the army at Valley Forge, 1 777-1 778. Sickness forced him to resign in August, 1780. He received a letter of commendation from General Washington " for his assiduous and faithful attentions to the sick and wounded." Solomon Bush, Emanuel de la Motta, Ben- JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 63 jamin Ezekiel, Jason Sampson, Solonel Jacob de la Motta, Ascher Levy, Nathaniel Levy, David Hays and his son, Jacob, Reuben Et- ting, Jacob I. Cohen, Major Lewis Bush, Aaron Benjamin, Joseph Bloomfield, Moses Bloomfield, Isaac Israel, and Benjamin Moses are the names of a few of the other Jews who distinguished themselves upon the battle-fields of the Revolution. The commemoration of the first battle-field of the Revolutionary War was made possible through a Jew. Upon learning that Amos Lawrence of Boston had pledged himself to give $10,000 to complete the Bunker Hill monument, if any other person could be found to give. a like amount, Judah Touro, of New Orleans, who came to the aid of Andrew Jackson during the memorable defense of that city, immediately sent a check for the amount. In the History of the Bunker Hill Monument, which was published by George Washington Warren, appears the following tribute to Judah Touro : " He was one of 64 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT that smallest of all classes into which man- kind can be divided of men who accumulate wealth without ever doing a wrong, taking an advantage, or making an enemy; who be- come rich without being avaricious ; who deny themselves the comforts of life that they may acquire the means of promoting the comfort and elevating the condition of their fellow men." At a dinner given at Faneuil Hall on June 17, 1843, to celebrate the completion of the monument, the two great benefactors of the association were remembered by the fol- lowing toasts: " Amos and Judah, venerated names, Patriarch and Prophet press their equal claims; Like generous coursers running ' neck and neck,' Each aids the work by giving it a check. Christian and Jew, they carry out one plan, For though of different faiths, each is in heart a MAN." THE MEXICAN WAR At the time of the Mexican War, in 1846, the Jewish population was perhaps 15,000. General David de Leon twice took the JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 65 place of commanding officers who had been killed or disabled by wounds, and twice re- ceived the thanks of the United States Con- gress for his gallantry and ability. Surgeon- General Moses Albert Levy, Colonel Leon Dyer, quartermaster-general under General Winfield Scott, Lieutenant Henry Seeligson, who was sent for by General Taylor and by him complimented for his conspicuous bra- very at Monterey, Major Alfred Mordecai, Sergeant Jacob Davis, Sergeant Samuel Henry, and Corporal Jacob Hirschborn are a few of the sons of Israel who left valuable evidences of their patriotism in the Mexican War. IN THE REGULAR ARMY AND NAVY From the earliest period of the republic to the present time the Jew has been a conspic- uous figure in our regular army and navy; and, in every branch of the service, he has made an honorable record. Major Alfred Mordecai is a recognized au- 66 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT thority in the military world, in the field of scientific research, and in the practical appli- cation of mechanical deduction to war uses. His son and namesake has been an instructor at West Point. Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy at the time of his death, 1862, was the highest ranking officer (flag officer) in our navy, and upon his tombstone at Cypress Hills is recorded this fact, " He was the father of the law for the abolition of the bar- barous practice of corporal punishment in the United States navy." IN THE CIVIL WAR In the Civil War, the part the Jews took is so conspicuous that it is difficult to pick out the most prominent men in the conflict. Mayer Asch, Nathan D. Menken, and Louis H. Mayer served on the staff of General Pope, Mayer serving also with Generals Rosecrans and Grant. Dr. Morris J. Asch served on the staff of General Sheridan. Major Lully, who during the Hungarian Rev- JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 67 olution served on Kossuth's staff, rendered valuable service under the direction of the Secretary of War. Captain Dessauer, killed at Chancellorsville, and Newman Borchard served on the staff of General Howard. Max Cornheim and M. Szegley served on the staff of General Sigel. Jewish staff officers in the Confederate army and navy are equally conspicuous, showing the spirit of Hebrew loyalty to conviction; for it should always be re- membered that while the Jews of the North outnumbered the Jews of the South, they were for the most part immigrants of a recent date, while the Southern Jews were either na- tives or citizens of long influential standing, and therefore more interested in the outcome of the conflict. Mr. Wolf tells us that North Carolina sent six Cohen brothers, South Carolina five Moses brothers; Georgia, Raphael Moses and his three sons ; while yet another Moses brother came from Alabama ; Arkansas furnished three Cohen brothers; 68 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Virginia sent out three Levy brothers; Louisiana's muster-rolls also contain three brothers of the same name; while still an- other trio of Goldsmiths, went forth from the South, two from Georgia and one from South Carolina. Mississippi provided five Jonas brothers, Edward, fighting in the Fiftieth Il- linois against his four Confederate brothers, one of whom was Benjamin F. Jonas, former United States Senator from Louisiana. On the Union side New York alone fur- nished 1,996 soldiers, among them the five Wenk brothers, Colonel Simon Levy and his three sons Captain Benjamin C, Lieutenant Alfred, and Captain Ferdinand, former regis- ter of New York City. The Feder brothers also came from New York. From Ohio, which furnished the next largest quota, 1,004, in the War for the Union, we have the three Koch brothers; while Pennsylvania, which sent 527 Hebrews, also sent three Jewish brothers Emanuel. Thus, fourteen Jewish families sent 53 men to both armies ; and ac- JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 69 cording to the Hon. Simon Wolf, 7,884 Jewish soldiers served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, although there were only 150,000 Jews in the country at that time. Among the Hebrew officers in the Union army who achieved high distinction I may mention Frederick Knefler, a native of Hungary, who attained the highest rank reached by any Hebrew during the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in the Seventy-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and fought his way up to the colonelcy of his regiment, soon rising to the rank of brigadier-general, and then brevet major-general for meritorious services at the battle of Chickamauga. He fought gallantly in all the principal battles of the Army of the Cumberland, under Generals Rosecrans, Thomas, and Grant, and took part in all the conflicts of Sherman's march to the sea. Edward S. Solomon, colonel of the Eighty- second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, fought at ;o THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Mission- ary Ridge, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and throughout all the campaign in the South- west, and was brevetted brigadier-general. He was for four years governor of Washing- ton Territory by the appointment of Presi- dent Grant. Leopold Blumenberg, a Baltimore mer- chant, a native of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, decorated for meritorious service rendered the Prussian army in the Prussian-Danish war of 1848, abandoned his business when Fort Sumter was fired upon, and helped to or- ganize the Fifth Regiment, Maryland Infan- try, of which he was appointed major. His regiment was engaged in the battle of Antie- tam under him as colonel. He was brevetted brigadier-general, and died in 1876, the result of the wound that he had received at Antie- tam. Philip J. Joachimsen helped to organize the Fifty-ninth New York Volunteer Regiment, and went to the front with it as lieutenant- JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS ft colonel. A fall from his horse disqualified him for military duty. He rendered great ser- vices, while stationed at Fortress Monroe, as United States paymaster, and for his assist- ance to General B. F. Butler at New Orleans, Governor Fenton of New York, in acknowl- edgment of his eminent services, appointed him brevet brigadier-general. Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel, of the One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Infantry, who died before he could receive the promotion to a brigadier-generalship, for which his su- perior officers recommended him for bravery at Vicksburg and Snaggy Point; Max Ein- stein, colonel of the Twenty-seventh Regi- ment of Pennsylvania Volunteers; Colonel Max Freedman, of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry ; Lieutenant-Colonel Israel Moses, of Sickels' Brigade; Isaac Moses, adjutant-gen- eral of the Third Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac ; Colonel H. A. Seligson, of Ver- mont; Lieutenant-Colonel Leopold C. New- man, to whose dying bed President Lincoln 72 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT brought his commission promoting him to the rank of brigadier-general ; Colonel Ansel Hamberg, of the Twelfth Pennsylvania In- fantry; Abraham Hart, brigade adjutant- general of the Seventy-third Pennsylvania In- fantry; Elias Leon Hyneman, of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry; Captain Joseph B. Greenhut, of Illinois, who owns the control- ling interest in the Siegel-Cooper Co. ; Lieu- tenant Max Sachs, who was killed at Bowling Green; Colonel H. Newbold, of the Four- teenth Iowa, killed at Red River; Adolph A. Meyer, inspector-general, by special appoint- ment of President Lincoln, transferred from New Mexico to Pennsylvania; David Man- heim, colonel First Nevada Cavalry ; Herman Bendell, surgeon Eighty-sixth New York In- fantry, brevetted lieutenant-colonel for meri- torious and honorable conduct; Adjutant Abraham Cohn, of New Hampshire ; Captain A. Goldman, of Maine; Sergeant Leopold Karpelles, of Massachusetts; Sergeant Major Alexander M. Appel, of Iowa; David JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 73 A. Brauski, Henry Heller, Abraham Gum- wait, and Isaac Gans, of Ohio, are a few of the Jews who distinguished themselves upon the battle-fields of the War for the Union. Major-General O. O. Howard, after speak- ing of one of his Jewish staff officers as being " of the bravest and best," and of another killed at Chancellorsville as being " a true friend and a brave officer," and highly prais- ing two Jewish brigadier-generals, said: " In- trinsically there are no more patriotic men to be found in the country than those who claim to be of Hebrew descent and who served with me in parallel command or directly under my JEWS AND THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT In the political movements for the abolition of slavery, the Jews took a leading part in creating public opinion. As early as 1853, a fugitive negro, arrested by a United States marshal, was liberated by a crowd of citizens, 74 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT led by Michael Greenbaum ; and, on the eve- ning of the same day, a big meeting was held to ratify that act. The first official call to or- ganize the abolition movement was signed by George Schneider, Adolph Loeb, Julius Rosenthal, Leopold Mayer, and a cigar- dealer, named Hanson, four Jews among the five leaders of the German population of Chicago in a great political movement. In the columns of the New York Tribune Michael Heilprin, who had previous to his coming to America shown his love of liberty as a member of Kossuth's civil staff during the Hungarian Revolution, vigorously exon- erated the Old Testament from favoring slavery. Dr. Edward Moritz, of the Philadel- phia Demokrat; Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs, as preacher and editor of the Jewish Messenger; Rabbi Liebman Adler, in Detroit; Dr. Hor- witz, in Cleveland; and Dr. Felsenthal, in Chicago, were sowing the seeds of liberty. Rabbi Sobato Morais, on account of his antislavery sentiments, was elected an hono- JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 75 rary member of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, an honor shared with Rev. Dr. David Einhorn, who, in 1856, came to pro- slavery Baltimore from Austria, where his temple had been closed against him by the imperial government on account of his al- leged revolutionary utterances. From the sacred desk of the Har Sinai Congregation, with fiery eloquence, and in his Sinai, a Ger- man monthly, in unanswerable arguments, Dr. Einhorn poured forth shot and shell from the Old Testament armory into the ranks of the advocates of slavery and the time-serving attitude of the churches, until driven out of the city and his return prohibited under mar- tial law. Dr. Einhorn, in Baltimore and later in Phil- adelphia, did as much as any man of his day to create the public sentiment which shivered that colossal iniquity. In New York, Judge Philip J. Joachimsen, as Assistant United States District Attorney, vigorously prose- cuted certain slave-dealers. Moritz Pinner, 76 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT on January i, 1859, began the issue of an abolitionist paper, the Kansas Post, at Kansas City. As delegate to the National Repub- lican Convention, he with other Jews, like Judge Dittenhoefer of New York, worked earnestly among the Germans for the nomi- nation of Abraham Lincoln. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR The Jezvish Year Book for 1901 has had the records of the War Department searched, and publishes the names of over 4,000 Jewish soldiers, who served in the American armies during the war with Spain. The first man to volunteer was a Jew, and the first American to be killed in battle was a Jew. So eager were the Jews to prove their loyalty to the United States that 5,000 Jews of New York offered their services to the Governor, through Nathan Straus, and as chaplain of the Ninth Regiment, N. G. N. Y., I can testify to the eagerness with which the Jews JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 77 came to enlist and demonstrate their patriot- ism when war was declared. A careful pe- rusal of the rolls by States, as published in the Jewish Year Book, ought to be sufficient evi- dence to refute the assertion made by certain uninformed and perjudiced persons that the Jewish people were not patriotic Americans. The slur upon the patriotism of the Jew can- not hold up its head in the presence of the records of the War Department, which rati- fied more than 4,000 furloughs, which were granted to such soldiers as desired to cele- brate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at home. " When war was declared," Captain A. W. Murray says, " the Jewish press throughout the country reminded their people of the wanton persecution of the Hebrews by Spain, covering many years. They had been driven from their country and deprived of their prop- erty by the cruel, unjust Spaniards. The young Hebrew men did not require urging. Their love for America alone was enough, and 78 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT they flocked to the standard of liberty, the Stars and Stripes." It is a matter of history that they fought as bravely before Manila and Santiago de Cuba as they did at Leipsic and Waterloo; under Kossuth and Garibaldi; before Sebas- topol, Sadowa, and Sedan. The first man to fall in the attack on Manila was Sergeant Maurice Justh, of the First California Volun- teers (which regiment numbered ioo Jews). Theodore Roosevelt, the intrepid leader of the Rough Riders, declared that in that brave regiment, which has challenged the admira- tion of the world, the most astonishing cour- age was displayed by the seven Jewish Rough Riders, one of whom became a lieutenant. The Astor Battery numbered ten Jews among their ninety-nine men. Fifteen Jews went down to death in the Maine, de- stroyed in the harbor of Havana; and there was not an engagement during the war with Spain, in which Hebrews did not take part. Many Jewish names appear on the list of JEWS IN AMERICAN WARS 79 killed and wounded, while the much-maligned Russian Jews furnished more than double their share of volunteers. Commander Adolph Marix, of the navy, a Hebrew, was Judge Advocate of the Maine Disaster Board of Inquiry, and many cases could be cited where Americans of Hebrew extraction per- formed gallant and meritorious service under the flag in Porto Rico, Cuba, and in the Philippines. Jews as Soldiers in the Armies of Europe Love of people for the country in which they dwell, and love of the country for the people that dwell in it, make the patriots. Where were such Jewish patriots made? Name the countries of the Old World which, during the eighteen centuries that the Jews dwelt among them, dearly loved them, sacredly protected their rights, promoted their good, ruled them with just laws, made no distinction between them and their citi- zens of other faiths, imposed no burdensome duty upon them, and conscientiously strove to further the peace and good will between their Jewish and non-Jewish people. Tell me, I pray you, whether the treatment the world accorded to the Jew, to the homeless and friend- less, and to the weary and innocently suffering fugitive, was of a nature to make his heart and soul and mind all aglow with the most passionate patriotism? Name, I pray you, the country that has ever made patriots of people whom it lowered to the filth of the earth, from whom it tore every human right, upon whom it visited barbarous cruelties, from whose contact it shrunk as if they were the stalking pestilence, whom it hated with the hatred of a devil, and whom it persecuted with the relentless wrath of a fiend. . . . Deny them the right of citizenship, treat them as chattels of the state, enact especially degrading laws for them, impose humiliating burdens upon them, prohibit them all intercourse with their Christian fellow men, refuse them justice, protec- tion, forbid them entrance to the seats of learning, deny them the right of following any of the higher vocations of life, compel them to pursue the most contemptible trades, brand them publicly by compelling them to wear the degrading gaberdine, make them the target of the people's jeers and derision and abuse, do this, treat that people as the Old World has treated the Jews during the eighteen centuries, and then tell me how many patriots such treatment has ripened. Joseph Krauskopf. to CHAPTER III JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN THE ARMIES OF EUROPE Goldwin Smith some years ago wrote: " The Jews have now been everywhere made voters; to make them patriots while they re- main genuine Jews is beyond the legislator's power." Until very recently, during the present cen- tury, the Jews were rarely ever permitted the opportunity of fighting for their country ; but, whenever they have been allowed to enter the lists, they have proved that the contumely heaped upon them has not quenched their manhood. What spiritual courage it required for the whole race to survive at all, during fif- teen centuries of the most relentless and dia- bolical persecution and burnings at the stake 83 84 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT which might have been avoided by the simple act of baptism! I wish that every American could read the stories of the old European Ghettos. Excluded from civic privileges and from political office; not admitted into any military organization; denied the power to own any real estate; shut out from all trades and industrial branches, so that Moses Mendelssohn, a hundred years ago, pithily responded to the reproach, " Our hands are bound, and we are blamed for not using them " ; forced to pay liberally for the privilege of residence in the city, and, as their proximity to a church was looked upon as a contamination and a desecration, com- pelled to huddle together in a street set aside for them ; shut up like marked creatures in a pen; shut off from conversation with others, as though their touch was unholy and their presence a curse ; locked in every night, so that all intercourse between them and the Christians might be impossible, in these prison-like tenements for well-nigh four hun- JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 85 dred years, their bodies and minds were stunted. They were forbidden not only to live in the locality, which they might prefer, but, denied the sidewalk in the daytime, they had to take to the middle of the street ; they had to remove their hats to every passer-by, who would call out, " Jew, make your bow " ; they were denied even fresh air, a right not denied to the beasts for in Frankfort the Jews were not permitted even to walk in the squares surrounded with trees and flowers: they might walk in the path leading to them. One general rule was : " No Jew allowed on a green spot." The public squares of the city they dared not walk upon. If a Jew presumed to walk upon any of these for- bidden places, passers-by would snatch their hats from their heads. The only day the Jews were tolerated even on the side of the space on which the City Hall stood was on New Year's Day, when they came to the City Hall, with their gift of fine spices, which they were expected to give to every councilman, to ex- 86 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT press their allegiance to the city fathers and convey their gratitude for the privilege of living in the worst spot in the city. This was the only occasion when the Jew dared to enter the City Hall from the front ; if, at any other time, he had any business, he had to come in through the back door; and, when the town council showed themselves power- less to guard the Jews, their protection re- verted to the Emperor and they became his private property. What was true of Frankfort was true of Prague. During the Crusades, mobs fell upon the Jewish communities, dragged them to baptism, carnage and plunder fell upon those who resisted. The story is the same all over Europe. Read the awful scenes enacted, and you will be thrilled with admiration for the constancy, heroism, and bravery, which the hundreds of thousands of Jews endured in the dark years and centuries, in which they with- stood horrors, which make our blood chill to think of. JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 87 In Rome, where the Jews lived only on suf- ferance, one of the greatest indignities to which they were subjected, was their compul- sory participation in the races on the Corso at the Carnival, and amid the gibes and jeers of the attendants Jews were forced to race with asses, buffaloes, and Barbary horses. Russia's treatment of the Jew is the foulest stain on her blotched escutcheon. Can the Jew be a patriot? Let a Jew, Dr. Krauskopf, answer : " Ask Egypt, Babylon, Syria, Rome, and listen to their accounts of Jewish patriotism; seek out among the na- tions of the earth another people that, though but small in numbers, dares to strug- gle for a national existence, for political inde- pendence, against a whole world in arms, and though a thousand times defeated, though a thousand times crushed to earth, though suffering as no other nation before or since was ever called upon to suffer, though driven from their native soil, though made to pine in a thousand dungeons, and made to 88 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT furnish murderous sport to the wild beasts of a thousand Colosseums, though made to fur- nish food for the flames of a thousand pyres and stakes to appease the appetites of a thousand bloodthirsty mobs, still refuses to surrender, still struggles on for national exist- ence, for political independence; find such a nation, outside the Jewish people, and we shall relinquish forever any claim of patriot- ism for the Jews. Find a more passionate, a more fervent patriotism than that which breathes through the Lamentations of Jere- miah, than that which silenced the harps and songs of Judea's captive sons and daughters by the streams of Babylon, than that which makes Israel wish that their right hand should wither at their side, and their tongue cleave to the roof of their mouth, if ever they should forget Jerusalem; that makes the orthodox pious Jew wish even to-day, after eigh- teen centuries of expulsion, to be buried with his head turned toward Jerusalem, and if pos- sible, to have a pillow filled with Palestin- JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 89 ian sand under his head; that leads him to turn his face in prayer toward Jerusalem, that makes him repeat at each anniversary of the Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage the profoundest longing of his heart that the coming year might find him restored in Jeru- salem; find a love of fatherland, a patriot- ism, equal to this, and never a word shall we again breathe about the Jewish patriotism. ,, NO REFUGE BUT THE GRAVE In the Middle Ages the Jews had no refuge but the grave. You can hardly expect a race to love a country in which they were op- pressed, robbed, and murdered. And yet in those benighted ages the Jews were not want- ing in patriotism in those countries where the governments occasionally treated them as human beings. In the Spanish battles they fought as bravest knights. Forty thousand were ar- rayed against Alphonso VI., while he had as many Jews fighting on his side. They also 90 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT fought valiantly for Alphonso VIII. Al- phonso X. of Castile rewarded them en masse for their assistance against Seville, and gave them, when the enemy's land was divided, a village which was called Aldea de los Judeos. They fought heroically for Don Pedro, even after the Black Prince had forsaken him, de- fending Burgos to the last man, saying that " God would never have it that they should deny obedience to their natural lord, Don Pedro, or to his rightful successor " a constancy that the prudent king, Don En- rico, very much esteemed, saying: " Such vassals as those were, by kings and great men, worthy of much account, seeing they held greater respect to the fidelity they owed to their king, although conquered and dead, than to the present fortune of the con- queror." And awhile after, receiving very honorable conditions, they gave themselves over, and Don Enrico recognized publicly their patriotism. King Philip, the Handsome, of France, is JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 91 said to have had 30,000 Jews in his army, in his expedition (1297) against Count Guy of Flanders, who had renounced his allegiance to him. Notwithstanding the light of the Reforma- tion, pillages and expulsions of the Jews con- tinued to be the order of the day. But always and everywhere, where the Jew found a friend in his country, the country found a friend in him. History does not tell the story of braver defense than that of the Polish territory, a mighty struggle maintained by Jews during the onslaught of the Cossacks into Poland during the Thirty Years' War. A writer in the Jewish World points to Prague as holding the oldest Jewish military record, for in the Alten Synagogue is still shown the much-worn flag of Ferdinand III., given the Jews in 1648 for their coura- geous defense of Prague against the Swedes. The Jews were permitted to serve in the Aus- trian army as far back as 1781 ; and amongst the Austrians, who served in the international 92 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT war of the first decade of the century was Emanuel Eppinger, who received decorations from the hands of two emperors. A record of 1866 mentions the bravery of Moses Weber, who, after completing service, volun- teered and fought at Skalitz. A comrade, Puchreiner, was wounded in both legs. Weber, amid a rain of bullets, drew him out of the lines and, throwing him over his shoul- ders, carried him to the rear, and then re- turned to the battle, where, the officers being shot down, he gallantly took command of his company. In 1893, there were 40,344 Jewish privates and 2,179 Jewish officers in the Aus- tro-Hungarian army, a figure equal to 3.9 per cent, of the total force. Heinrich Porges, a Jewish colonel of the standing infantry, was recently raised to the rank of general-major and entrusted with the responsible post of commanding the important fortress of Prze- mysl in Galicia. At the same time a Jew was appointed director-general of the army med- ical department the highest military medical JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 93 position in Austria. Colonel Edward von Schweitzer, commandant of the 26th Regi- ment of Infantry, is one of Austria's most dis- tinguished officers, who was received at St. Petersburg in audience with the Tsar, who decorated him with a high order. Of the numerous famous Jewish officers in the Hapsburg monarchy, I will mention only one more name, that of the former com- mandant of militia at the Briinn garrison, Colonel Alexander von Eisz. This officer, a favorite of Kaiser Franz-Joseph, distinguished himself so greatly in the various campaigns he has gone through, that his breast is thickly covered with orders of the highest rank. Be- sides the large golden medal " for valor " and several other insignia, he possesses also the Russian Order of the Crown. On one oc- casion he was to have received the Marie- Theresa Cross, given only for most distin- guished bravery. Not more than six soldiers in Austria at present possess this, the highest military decoration. But Queen Marie- 94 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Theresa inserted in the statutes, founding the Order, a clause that it should be bestowed on Christians alone ; and for this reason von Eisz did not receive it. He was told that if he al- lowed himself to be baptized he would obtain it, but this suggestion he promptly refused to follow. The Franco-Prussian War was, of course, the great European war in which most Jews were engaged, and where they showed their love of the Fatherland in an unexampled de- gree. Phillipson, in his " Memoirs," has col- lected a list of 2,531 Jewish soldiers in this war, and this list did not include the reports from the largest Jewish communities, Berlin, Breslau, Posen, and Frankfort. Germany had already, in 1866, in the war with Austria, 1,025 Jews who saw active ser- vice, and a large number of these were promoted for bravery and good conduct ; but in 1870-71 no less than 4,492 Jews took part in the various battles. These represented 1,101 Jewish congregations. Ten per cent., JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 95 or, to be accurate, 448, were wounded or killed, and 373 received the Iron Cross or decorations equal in importance to the medal. EQUAL RIGHTS MAKE GOOD CITIZENS Cremieux said : " If you persecute, you make slaves; only by declaring equal rights for all will you make good citizens." King Frederick William III. had no sooner given the Jews of Prussia equality with their Chris- tian fellow citizens, in 1812, than they re- sponded readily to the summons of their king. According to the Prussian " Military Gazette " of 1843, there served in the cam- paigns of 1813-14, out of the then small Jewish population, 263 volunteers and 80 reg- ulars. In 181 5, when the Prussian army had its fullest strength and the Jewish soldiers were more numerous, Hardenberg, the Prus- sian Chancellor, in a letter to Count von Grote dated January 4th, gave the Jews the following testimony: 96 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT " The history of our late war with France shows already that the Jews have, by their faithful allegiance to the state conferring equal rights on them, proved worthy of it. The young men of the Jewish faith were the military comrades of their Christian fellow citizens, of whom we can present instances of true heroism and glorious braving of the dan- gers of war. The rest of the Jewish inhab- itants, especially the ladies, vied with the Christians in all kinds of patriotic sacrifices." And what reward did the Jews receive for their sacrifices to the country? They were denied public employment. They could not get appointments as teachers, serve as jurors, nor practice law, unless they submitted to bap- tism. They were not even allowed to be drug- gists. In the newly won French provinces the same laws were made to apply. At Frankfort-on-the-Main, the Jews, in an address published in 1832, made the following complaint : " In the war called by them [the despots] JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 97 the war of independence we, too, have borne arms. Before that war, we of Frankfort, as everywhere else in Germany where the French law was ruling, enjoyed equal rights with our Christian fellow citizens. When we returned from the battle-fields, however, we met our fathers and brothers, whom we had left as free citizens, again as serfs, and such we have been until to-day. They have assumed over us the right of the past, viz., to diminish our population, as they do not let us contract more than fifteen marriages a year, though we number five thousand. They now advance against us that we came from the Orient and were strangers in the land, and that we con- sidered even our Christian countrymen as such. However, this is our creed, this the doctrine inherited from our fathers : * When God created the world, he created man and woman, not master and slave, Jews and Christians, rich and poor/ Borne wrote in 1819: 'After the overthrow of Napoleon the Jewish liberties were here and there de- 98 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT cried as pernicious to the state. The Jews were also suspected of being friendly to the French dominion. Their peculiarities were such that their haters would not tolerate them as citizens. Only Germans, such as, according to Tacitus, came forth from the woods with red hair and light-blue eyes, were in their opinion entitled to civil rights, whereas the dark-complexioned Jews con- trasted too disagreeably with them/ " Their participation in the war for indepen- dence availed the Jews nothing. The " Mili- tary Gazette " has put their number enlisted from 1814 to 1842, at 3,314. The Constituent Assembly at Berlin, in 1848, had declared all civil and political rights independent of any religious denomination, whereby the Jews also gained their liberties. But a reaction set in and once more they had to fight for their liberties. It was not until 1869 that the law of the North German Con- federacy delivered them from the mediaeval yoke they had so long borne. Political JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 99 equality is sanctioned by law, but is still far from being an accomplished fact. Four thousand seven hundred and three Jews of Germany have been traced by name and address, who served against France in 1870-71; and 411 were decorated for distin- guished gallantry. There are in the German army to-day over 6,000 Jews. Germans have no right to ask, " Are there any Jewish officers? " since Jewish subjects of Germany are refused the right of having their services in the army rewarded in the same manner as their Christian comrades. If the principle prevailed in the German army, " Equal rights for all," we would undoubtedly find as many qualified officers of the Jewish faith as exist in the other European countries. Can the Jew be a patriot? Moses Men- delssohn, the illustrious philosopher, to whose hospitable home flocked Nicolai, Lessing, Goethe, Herder, Wieland, Hemmings, Abt, Moritz, Camp, etc., one of the greatest thinkers since Socrates, any nation's orrici- ioo THE JEW AS A PATRIOT ment, was merely tolerated as the " Shop- man," of a Berlin merchant, Bernhard, his coreligionist, and whose name was struck by Frederick the Great from the list of can- didates for membership in the Academy of Berlin ; and yet no German ever pleaded with intenser patriotism than did this eminent Jewish genius for the emancipation of Ger- man literature and thought from the yoke of French dilettanteism. He cries out with in- dignation : " Werden denn die Deutschen niemals ihren Eigner erkennen? Wollen sie ewig ihr Gold fur das Flittergold ihrer Nach- barn umtauschen? " Heine was despised in the land of his birth because he was a Jew; yet the despised and exiled Jew sheds tears of homesickness and sorrow when thinking of Germany, his beloved Father- land, whose literature he had so nobly enriched. And though for twenty-five years resident in Paris, and thoroughly in sym- pathy with everything French, he never for- got that he was a German, and never lost his JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 101 love for the fatherland, as these well-known lines testify: " I am a German poet Of goodly German fame, Where their best names are spoken My own they are sure to name." Bismarck had Jewish blood in his veins. His mother's father, Anastasius Menken, one of the favorite bureaucrats of Frederick the Great, was of Hebrew parentage. The He- brew banker of Berlin, Baron von Bleichroe- der, was Bismarck's most trusted confidant. Indeed, while in office he was so disposed towards the Jews that he even discussed the advisability of marrying his sons to Jewesses, on the ground that it would not only bring money into the family again, but likewise im- prove morally and physically the Bismarck breed. The late Count von Blumenthal, one of the most distinguished strategists of modern Ger- many, was by birth and by inherited genius a Jew. He was on the general staff of 102 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT General von Bonin in the Schleswig-Holstein army. He soon became famous for brilliant capabilities, and was rapidly promoted, viz. : general staff officer of the Mobile Division in the Electorate of Hesse ; major in the grand general staff; adjutant of Prince Frederick Charles, one of the great commanders of the Franco-German War ; colonel in command of a regiment, and chief of the staff of the Third Army Corps. In 1864 he was promoted to be major-general. In the Austrian War of 1866 he was chief of the general staff of the Second Army of the Crown Prince. In the Franco- German War he was in supreme command of the Third Army. He was made a count in 1883, and a field-marshal in 1888. Several times he was intrusted with important mis- sions to England, and his decorations were numerous, including the Ordre Pour le Merite, one of the rarest distinctions in the army. Colonel von Mossier, Aide-de-Camp of Em- peror William, is a Jew both by birth and faith. JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 103 Colonel von Mossier commands the favorite regiment of Hussars of Emperor William, and he was ennobled by the latter in 1890. His father's family name was Moses. In the Hungarian Revolution there were no less than 35,000 Israelites. As by magic they were drawn toward Kossuth, who preached liberty and equality and at whose hands they expected redemption from civil and political degradation. The first soldiers that stormed Plevna were Roumanian Jews, and the generals on both sides were Jews. In the last war between Turkey and Greece, Giuseppe Misan, a Jew, received the first wound.* * The Sultan of Turkey has gone on record as saying that there is not one of his Jewish subjects, upon whom he can fail to rely in time of war. When the war with Greece broke out, Jews from all over the Turkish Empire volunteered their services, as they did in the war with Russia. Forty Jewish soldiers were rewarded by the Sultan with medals in special recognition of their gallantry on the field during the Graeco-Turkish War. 104 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT IN THE ITALIAN ARMY The Jews were first permitted to enter the Italian army in 1848, and immediately 235 volunteered, while, the year following, five Jews fell in the defense of Rome against the French. There were Italian Jews in the Crimean War, and 250 were fighting as volunteers in 1859, and a large number were decorated. Of the 36,000 Jews in Italy in 1866, there were 380 who took to arms. A few of these Italian-Jewish soldiers had re- markable careers. The commandant at the fortress of Turin, Lieutenant-General Gui- seppe Ottolenghi, was trained in the military profession. He was wounded in i860 at the siege of Gaete and, though wounded, he re- ceived the silver medal for hunting the brigand band of Malacarne out of Basilicata. In 1866 he received the then highest medal, the Cross of Savoy, and represented Italy in the commission which demarcated the fron- tiers of Turkey and Montenegro. Colonel JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 10$ Enrico Guastalla, who started as a volunteer in 1848, was a friend of Mazzini, and joined Garibaldi; after being laid up for a month from a wound received at Voturno, he re- turned to his regiment and fought at Como, Brescia, Lonato, Salo, and Deserzana in 1886. In Italy 1.4 per cent, of all Italian Jews are in the army, against 1.1 of all Italians. And out of every five Jews serving in the Italian army, one is an officer, against one in twelve in the Italian army as a whole. JEWS IN THE ROUMANIAN AND RUSSIAN ARMIES No Jewish soldier in the Roumanian army can be promoted to a commission, however brave and loyal he may be. Even if he enlists for a second term of service, he does not, like others, who do so, earn a pension thereby. An army surgeon, if he be a Jew, only ranks as a common soldier, whereas his professional inferiors rank as officers. No Jews are ad- mitted into the military schools, and, how- io6 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT ever high the scholastic or university distinc- tions and grades of a Jew, he has to serve as a N ranker " for three years instead of being let off as a " volontaire " with one year's service. Such is the treatment accorded to the 30,000 Jews belonging to the active army and re- serves of the Roumanian State. There are at least 75,000 Jews in the Rus- sian army in active service; and under the most adverse circumstances we hear oc- casionally of a Jew even in the Russian army achieving distinction, like the late Prof. Schapiro, who took an honorable part in the Russo-Turkish War in 1871, and so distin- guished himself in the medical service of the army that he was appointed assistant profes- sor at the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy. He became there very popular as a lecturer, and wrote extensively on scientific subjects. In 1898 he was rewarded with the title of professor a very rare honor for a Jew in Russia. The general who conquered the Central Asian provinces which belong to Rus- JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 107 sia was a Jew by birth. A Jewish soldier of the Russian Eleventh Infantry Regiment re- cently arrived in London after nine months' service with the Russian troops in China. He estimates that there were about 5,000 Jews amongst the Russian soldiers. His own brigade contained about 580 Jews, 18 of whom were killed in different engagements, besides a number wounded. THE JEWS IN FRANCE The year 1793 guaranteed to the Jews of France equality with French citizens ; but, as the Dreyfus affair shows, the liberty of and justice to the Jew have not even yet passed from the statute into reality. Still, in spite of all, the Jews of France rallied with equal promptness under the banner of the empire and the republic, when the safety of their country was imperilled. How did the Jews in Paris behave themselves in the midst of the excesses that characterized the Reign of Terror? They did not signalize their eman- io8 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT cipation by any of those excesses of which the revolutionary period was fruitful. If they figured whenever they might proclaim their aspirations towards liberty, they were never seen where such aspirations assumed a vio- lent and irregular character. In 1790, a Jew, Ravel de Terney, served with honor in the National Guard, where he commanded the fourth division. In 1791 Dael de Tacin, bour- geois, was among the fourteen electors chosen by the section of the Temple for the department of Paris, and Berthe Pere was among the 33 electors in the Quatre-Na- tions. In 1792 two Jews named Berthe were captains, one in the First Legion, the other in the Second Legion, of the National Guard. The Ravel de Tacin, mentioned above, also fulfilled the functions of Assessor to Justice of the Peace in the Section of the Temple, as did Jacobs, a jeweller, in the Section of Thermes de Julien. The succeeding years saw an increase of Jewish Assessors to magis- trates and of electors. In 1794 Fribourg was JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 109 a Lieutenant of the Gendarmes ; and a certain Jacob, Commissary of Police for the Section of La Reunion, a very careful writer, has pointed out that while thus occupying impor- tant positions in the militia, the municipal bodies, and the magistrates, not a single one figured among the members of the Commit- tee of Public Safety or of the Revolutionary Tribunal. " There was only one exception to the gen- eral good behavior of the Jews. Eight Jews were implicated in an act of theft of an ag- gravated character. Two of them were ac- tually guilty and expiated their crime, one (a native of London) by death, the other by eighteen years' imprisonment. But on the whole the conduct of the Jews during the Revolution was irreproachable; when the country was in danger they were to be seen in the path of honor and of military glory, shed- ding their blood in the legitimate defense of their country's frontiers and attracting by their bravery the admiration even of their no THE JEW AS A PATRIOT enemies. When tranquillity was restored they were the first to devote themselves to in- dustry, contributing by their activity toward the effacement of the sanguinary period and seeking by the dignity of their lives to over- come the most hostile opinions." Even Napoleon, whose marshals, Soult, Ney, and Massena (whose real name was Manasseh) were Jews, the last named being one of Napoleon's principal generals and by him surnamed " the child of victory," did not regard the Jews as citizens until 1806. He then declared : " The Jews are not in the same category with the Christians. We have to judge them by the political, not the civil right, for they are no citizens." He had, however, the earnest desire to make citizens of them. For this purpose he called together a number of Jewish deputies in 1806, charg- ing them to state and explain truly the ob- stacles, if there were any, to Jewish citizen- ship emanating from their religion. One of the questions put to that body was : " Do the JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE in Jews born in France, and considered by the law as her citizens, regard this country as theirs even so far as to be obliged to defend her?" They solemnly answered: "People who choose for themselves a Fatherland, liv- ing therein since many centuries, and who, even under oppressive laws, felt such an at- tachment to it that they did rather forego the enjoyment of civil liberties than quit it, such cannot but think themselves Frenchmen in France, and the obligation to defend her is to them an honorable and a precious one. " Love of country is such a natural and pro- found sentiment among the Jews, and so cor- respondent to their religious belief, that a French Jew would think himself a stranger in English territory, even in his intercourse with coreligionists, the same being true of English Jews in France. " This sentiment prevails among them in such a measure that in the late wars one could frequently see French Jews fight with fierce animosity against the Jews in the hostile ii2 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT ranks. Many of them are now beset with scars as the glorious marks of their patriotic devotion, and others have been praised and distinguished for their bravery on the field of honor." The French records for the same periods are not wanting in picturesque elements. Jean Louis May and Simon Mayer, who both took part in Napoleon's Sanhedrin, served in the earlier campaigns. The former received the Legion of Honor, and the latter became an inspector of the conscript elections. In 1808, Napoleon had 797 Jews in his army of 77,000 men. This is a large proportion, more than ten in a thousand. But the French record is exceptionally good for 1821 ; a Jew, Baron Woolf, held the rank of general. The records of twenty-four French-Jewish officers who served in the Crimean campaign are given in an interesting German work, " The Jews as Soldiers.'' Fourteen of them received different grades of the Legion of Honor, one being decorated by Napoleon in prison. JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 113 THE DREYFUS AFFAIR The vile men, who concocted the odius con- spiracy against Dreyfus, could find no fault in this patriot, except that he was a Jew, and, therefore, certain to be condemned without evidence; and the more they lied, perjured, and forged, the more they convinced the World of the absolute innocence of Dreyfus. The thousands marching down the streets of Paris screaming, " Down with the Jews! " scattering handbills all over the city cursing the Jew, asking the people to buy nothing of a Jew and why? The Jews, though number- ing only 80,000 in all France, have come to the top in many professions; they possess more wealth than their Non-Jewish neighbors, drive the best horses, and inhabit the most splendid mansions. This is at the bottom of the present Anti-Semitic agitation in France, and, stirring at the bottom, behind the army, are the clergy, who caused this outbreak of barbarous ferocity in a supposed civilized 114 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT community. The Jew is persecuted in France, simply because he is a Jew. Dreyfus, according to the provision of the French army law, was assigned for duty on the general staff, because he displayed th~e greatest proficiency during his course of study at the Military College. Dreyfus was the first Jew so honored, but not the first Jewish officer in the French army. In 1895 there were in the active army 9 colonels, 9 lieutenant-colonels, 46 majors, 90 captains, 89 lieutenants, and 104 sub-lieutenants, who were Jews. This is just ten times as many as the proportion between Jewish and Gentile Frenchmen would show to be owing to their country. Among the Jewish generals in the French army may be named Generals See, Brisac, Lambert, Alsares, Abraham, Fri- bourg, and the present General of Brigade and President of the Committee of Experts on Firing at Versailles, Samuel Paul Naquet- Loroque. During the past year or so some interesting military appointments affecting JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 115 Jews have been gazetted. M. Dulaurens, chief of a squadron of artillery, has been appointed chief of the staff of the governor of Toul ; M. Achille See, chief of a squadron on the retired list, government commissary at the court- martial in Amiens, has been given a similar post at the second court-martial of Paris; and First Lieutenant Raymond Weill, of the Fifth Regiment of Engineers at Ver- sailles, has been promoted captain of en- gineers at Brest. M. Abraham Bergel, a mer- chant of Marseilles, has been appointed com- mander of the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic. The grade of commander in the Legion of Honor has been conferred on M. Arthur Thiel, commissioner-general for Sweden at the Paris Exhibition. A writer in Pearson's Weekly, describes an excited Anti-Semitic demonstration which took place in Paris as an outcome of the Dreyfus affair, when a corporal was seen coming in their direction. Before he could pass them by he was seized and, with cries of u6 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT " Long live the Army! " raised him shoulder- high, and, with further cries for the army and vociferations against the Jews, carried him to the end of the thoroughfare. Here, it was suddenly discovered that the corporal himself was a Jew, and the disgusted Anti-Semites placed him upon his legs and left him as quickly as they could. BLUE-BLOODED JEWS French hostilities against the Jews will never take foothold among the nobility. The masses, united by the greed for wealth, may display a craze for annihilating the Jewish people; but in the veins of the nobility of France flows a goodly portion of Jewish blood. In fact, aristocracy all over the world has Hebrew affiliation. The International has published some very interesting facts on this subject: " The first Hebrew to be ennobled in France was a man named Simon Marchault, who re- ceived an hereditary title from the Valois King JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 117 Charles VI. To-day there is scarcely a single family of the old French aristocracy, either in the Faubourg St. Germain at Paris or in the provinces, which does not include members of the predestined race among its more or less remote ancestors. Indeed, many of the bear- ers of the grandest and most illustrious names in France have either Jewish mothers or wives. The Duke of Gramont is married to the daughter of one of the Frankfort Roths- childs, the Prince de Wagram to another, while the Duke of Richelieu's mother is a daughter of the Hebrew banker Michael Heine, of New Orleans and Paris. The Duke of Levis-Mirepoix claims to be able to trace his genealogical descent in direct line from the founder of the Jewish tribe of Levi, and among his family pictures there is one repre- senting the Virgin Mary in the act of ad- dressing a former Duke of Levis-Mirepoix with the words: ' Pray put your hat on, cousin.' The late Marquis de Mores, the heir of the Duke of Vallambrosa, was married to n8 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT the daughter of a German Israelite banker es- tablished in New York, and was dependent on his father-in-law's shekels for his mainte- nance. The Duchess de Rivoli is a daughter of the Hebrew banker Charles Heine, and the adopted child of the well-known Jewish philanthropist, the late Mme. Furtardo, of Paris. The Princes Poniatowski are the grandchildren of a Jewess named Zoe Mos- selman, who, as Comtesse Le Hon, acquired much notoriety of a disagreeable character at Paris during the early days of the third Napoleon's reign. The grand old ducal house of Polignac has likewise among its members an Israelite in the person of Princess Alp- house de Polignac, who was the daughter of the Hebrew financier Mires. The latter, it may be remembered, played an important role under Napoleon III. "In the same way the ducal house of Noailles, which dates back to the first cru- sades, included among its most popular mem- bers the younger daughter of a Hebrew liquor JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 119 dealer of Moscow, Lachmann by name. In 1868 she married the Marquis de Noailles, now French ambassador at Berlin, and brother of the late duke, and before her death she figured with much brilliancy and eclat as French ambassadress at Washington, Con- stantinople, and Rome. " The heir and younger brother of the fat and good-humored Duke of Massa is wedded to a Jewish lady of the name of Coppens, who is as much famed for the beauty of her voice as her husband for his talent as a dramatist. The young Duchess de Maille is of Hebrew descent, as is also the enormously wealthy Comte de Creffulhe, who is married to the charming Princess de Chimay, so noted at Paris for her Wagnerian enthusiasm. The Duchess of Fitz-James, whose husband like- wise bears the titles of Duke of Berwick and Duke of Liria and who is descended from the illegitimate son of King James II. of Eng- land and of Arabella Churchill, sister of the first Duke of Marlborough is of Hebrew 120 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT parentage. So, too, is the mother of the present little Duke of Decazes, who married one of the daughters of Mr. Singer of sewing- machine fame. " The young Duke of Brissac is the son of a lady of Hebrew parentage who now bears the name of Vicomtesse de Tredern. The viscountess is famous not only as possessing the finest amateur contralto voice in Paris, but also in connection with the valuable sup- port which she gave to General Boulanger. Her sister is the wife of the oldest son and heir of the Duke of Broglie. u The Duchess de Castries, sister-in-law of the late Marshal MacMahon, and who, since the death of her first husband, has married Viscount Emmanuel d'Harcourt, a member of the ducal house of that name, is the daugh- ter of the enormously wealthy Austro-Jewish banker, Baron Sina." JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 121 THE JEWS OF ENGLAND On the 31st of August, 1290, Edward I. banished all the Jews, numbering 16,511, from England; they were pitilessly driven from a country inhabited by their ances- tors as far back as the eighth century. You could hardly expect them to love England; and yet no sooner had favor- able legislation restored them to citizenship than they proved their love of country. The complete emancipation of the Jews in Eng- land was not brought about until 1858, when Parliament resolved to admit Jews without the obligation to subscribe the oath " on the faith of a true Christian." Then their practical persecution was ended. For, as Macaulay said, " Persecution it is to inflict penalties on account of religious opinions." Down to this time, many eminent lawyers and judges doubted whether a Jew could lawfully hold real estate in England. Forty-two years have elapsed since the English Jews were fully 122 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT emancipated. Macaulay, champion of hu- manity, who did so much to remove their dis- abilities, declared it was unfair " till we have tried the experiment, whether by making Englishmen of them they will not become members of the community." The Jewish race has produced a major- general, Albert Goldsmid, who had two horses shot under him at Waterloo, and two lieutenant-generals, Sir Jacob Adolphus and Sir David Ximines, while Sir Alexander Shornberg distinguished himself in the British navy. More than nine hundred Jews have taken part in the Boer campaign, and in pro- portion to their number in the empire they have borne much more than their share in their contribution to the fighting forces in the present war with the Boers. Major-General Sir William Penn Symons, killed in the South African war, was by descent and faith a Jew, and named after a Quaker. Colonel A. E. W. Goldsmid, chief of staff to General Kelly-Kenny at Alder- JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 123 shot, and of the Sixth Division under the same general, which cornered Cronje at Paar- deburg, where two shots wounded his horse, a third smashed his water-bottle, and a fourth penetrated into his saddlebag, and after or- ganizing transport columns became comman- dant at Naaupoort, and later on Inspector of the Western Section of the Lines of Commu- nication, is a Jew ; Colonel Harris, who com- manded that regiment of crack shots, the Kimberley Rifles, is also a Jew. Lieutenant F. N. Raphael, of the First South Lancashire Regiment, killed at Spion Kop, while trying to rescue one of his own men, a private soldier, who had been badly wounded, was likewise a Jew. Major W. D. Karri-Davis, of the Im- perial Light Horse, and his partner, Woods W. Samson, both Jews, were kept in jail by the Boer authorities for a long time because they refused to give their parole not to fight ; and when they finally got into the fighting ranks, at their own expense raised and equipped the Imperial Light Horse. Karri- 124 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Davis was badly wounded at Ladysmith, and seven other Jews fighting with him were killed there. He was one of the first to enter Johannesburg, and the first to ride into Mafe- king. Have you not read the thrilling story of Lieutenant Give Behrens, who, just after his marriage to Evelina Rothschild, went to the front with his corps, the Royal Horse Ar- tillery? Mrs. Behrens is the only daughter of Lord Rothschild, head of the great house of bankers, director of wealth estimated at two billions; but, with no thought of the power of her fortune, Mrs. Behrens made no attempt to protect her husband with her mil- lions from the bullets of the Boers, and made herself a sister in self-sacrifice and suspense to the wife of the poor private of the British army. Alfred Brown (ex-captain in the First Royal Fusiliers Volunteers and brigade sig- nalling officer in General Trotter's staff), who was residing in Johannesburg at the outbreak of hostilities, joined Thorneycroft's Mounted JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 125 Infantry. Captain Brown was wounded in the first engagement on the Mooi River, and re- joined his regiment after recovery. A recur- rence of the lameness necessitated a further rest, however, and on recovery again Captain Brown once more presented himself at the front. The commanding officer would not sanction his rejoining till his health was fully restored. Major Karri-Davis (who, though an Australian, has long been a resident in the Transvaal) had conferred on him by the King the decoration of Companion of the Order of the Bath, and that of Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George on Lieutenant- Colonel David Harris, V.D., of the Kimber- ley Town Guard. Both officers were men- tioned in Lord Roberts' despatches as deserv- ing recognition for their services in connec- tion with the war. Captain J. W. Cohen, of the Thirteenth Middlesex Volunteer Rifles, equipped by him and his father at their ex- pense; Captain E. C. Arnold, Seventh Bat- talion Royal Fusiliers, who on the outbreak 126 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT of war volunteered for service, and who has been commanding the Details of the Middle- sex Regiment at Woolwich, Acting- Adjutant of the new Third and Fourth Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment; Captain Robinson and Captain Barrett of the Welsh Yeomanry ; Captain Frielander, of Kitchener's Fighting Scouts; Sergeant Alfred A. Asher, Sergeant Michael Asher, and Private Henry Asher, who have the unique distinction of being the only three brothers (Jews) serving in one regi- ment, viz., the Middlesex Yeomanry; Major S. Weil, Imperial Transport Service, men- tioned for meritorious service in Lord Roberts' " honors despatch " ; Captain E. S. D. Goldschmidt, Lieutenant-Colonel F. P. Lousada, and Captain Claude L. Marks, are only a few of the twenty-two captains, forty lieutenants, sixty-two second lieutenants, be- sides medical officers nurses, and 900 pri- vates in England's South African War. Perhaps no more striking testimony to the prominent part, borne in the war, not only by JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 127 English and South African Jews, but by their brethren in all parts of the empire, may be gathered from the jest generally current in New South Wales, where the contingent of fighting men sent to the front are humorously referred to as Cohentin gents. The Jews all over the empire arose one in heart and in- terest with the Imperial people, among whom their lot was cast, indistinguishable in aims and character from the race, with whom their fortunes were united; and by sharing with England's bravest and best the danger and the glory of war, they triumphantly repu- diated the charge that the Jews " cannot be patriots while they remain genuine Jews." " For the Jew has heart and hand, O Mother England, And they both are thine to-day Thine for life and thine for death, yea, for ever! Wilt thou take them as we give them, freely, gladly, England? say! " And yet such is the ignorance of the patriotism of the Jew, that while hundreds of Jews in England and the Colonies were mak- 128 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT ing contributions to the national defense, and volunteering for and dying in South Africa in defense of the Fatherland, even while all this was going on, about six months ago, a well-known Englishman, supporting the action of the mobs in attacking the Jews in Whitechapel, had this to say : " Race riots are deplorable, but there is undoubtedly cause for feeling against the Jews just at this period of England's trials. " The Jews make money here in London. They share our prosperity and do not share our dangers. A Jew will cheerfully take a contract to supply the British army in Africa at a profit. What Jew would take up a gun or a sword on behalf of the nation that shelters him? What Jew has figured in England's wars? " One would think that the facts mentioned, which speak volumes for the patriotism of the Jew, and serve as an object lesson to the world of the success, which waits upon a policy of wise toleration and justice, would JEWS AS SOLDIERS IN EUROPE 129 make such Anti-Semites blush, if shame were not dead. The eight millions of Jews in Europe fur- nish about 350,000 men to the war strength of European armies; that is to say, the pro- portion of Jews among the soldiers of Europe is greater than that of any other race. The Jew in Politics In the Nineteenth Century CHAPTER IV THE JEW IN POLITICS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Even in Anti-Semitic Germany, we find the Jew in politics takes front rank. Ferdinand Lassalle, the founder of the German Social Democracy, the darling of the German work- ing classes, jurist, economist, orator, philos- opher and poet, made Socialism a force in European politics; and when he died in a duel in 1863, at the age of thirty-eight, Bis- marck and he were considered the two fore- most men of the Fatherland. Edward Lasker, another idol of the Ger- man working people, was born in Jarocin, in Posen, Prussian Poland, October 14, 1829. He became known as a statesman by his 133 134 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT work on the constitutional history of Prussia, as a member of the Prussian Chamber, and subsequently of the North German and Ger- man Imperial Parliament. He was one of the founders of the National Liberal Party, although on more than one occasion he voted with the Progressive Party. He was a mem- ber of his political party just so long as it up- held justice. He was a prompter of the union of the Southern and Northern States of Ger- many. He was for years the acknowledged leader in the Reichstag. He was for a long time a powerful supporter of Bismarck, until the latter's administration introduced a bill which aimed to limit the freedom of speech in Parliament. Thenceforth Lasker became Bismarck's decided antagonist. In 1848 Herr J. Mannheimer was elected to the Presidency of the Austrian Diet. The famous Gabriel Riesser, the same year, was elected Minister of State to the Prince Pro- tector of Germany, John of Austria. Ludwig Bamberger, for many years a THE JEW IN POLITICS 135 member of the Reichstag, and author of a number of works on history and political economy, was one of the makers of modern Germany. He was, at one time, one of the leaders of the National Liberal Party and an adversary of the late Prince Bismarck. In the revolution of 1848, he became one of the leaders of the popular movement, and took an active part in the insurrection of 1849, tne object of which was the establishment of a constitutional government for Rhenish Bavaria. He eventually sought refuge in Switzerland, and, during his absence, he was sentenced to death by the Bavarian Assizes. Establishing himself in Paris, he was engaged in the banking business from 1853 to 1867* He returned to his native town after the amnesty decree which followed the Austro- Prussian war of 1866, permitted him to do so, and was elected to the Reichstag in 1871. At the outbreak of the war between France and Prussia, he devoted himself to the defense of German national interests, and, on account of 136 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT his ability as a journalist and long familiarity with the affairs of France, he was assigned by Prince Bismarck to the general staff and later to the staff of the Governor of Alsace, in order to assist the latter in the political ad- ministration of that province. In the Reichstag, Herr Bamberger became one of the chiefs of the National Liberal Party and assumed an important place as a financial orator. Later he distinguished himself in the ranks of the Progressive Party as one of the adversaries of Bismarck. Dr. Wilhelm Cahn, Privy Councilor of Legation, was recently, at his own request, relieved of his post as one of the legal advisers of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He was the only Jew in the Imperial Chancellery, and was publicly commended by Bismarck for having refused to abjure his religion in order to gain advancement. At the time of the out- break of the Franco-German War, Dr. Cahn was in Paris as Councilor of the Bavarian Legation ; he remained there throughout the THE JEW IN POLITICS 13; war, under the protection of the Swiss Lega- tion, and he did not leave his post even in the terrible days of the Commune. Max Hirsch, Anton Ree, Ludwig Lowe, Leopold Sonneman, Max Kayser, and E. Singer have fearlessly expressed their opin- ions in the German Reichstag. Moses Godefroi, the Dutch advocate, in i860 was appointed Minister of Justice by the King of Holland. A Jew, who has had much influence on the educational progress of Denmark, is Herman Trier, who was recently chosen to the office of Speaker of the Danish House of Commons. His parents were of German descent, but he himself is thoroughly Danish. He is a warm advocate of wood-working as a part of the curriculum, and it was through his efforts that this important mechanical study has become part of the programme of most of the Boys' Schools in Denmark. The Sultan has recently promoted to the grade of General of Division Vice-Admiral, 138 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Dr. Isaac Molho Pasha, Sanitary Inspector of the Imperial Navy. Dr. Pasha is a brother of Daoud Effendi Molho, First Dragoman of the Imperial Palace. The King of Greece has conferred the in- signia of the Saviour on Robert Effendi Mis- rahi, Director of Political Affairs for the Vilayet and Department of Adrianople. In the discharge of his delicate functions, Robert Effendi Misrahi has displayed a far-seeing mind, quick to grasp the most complicated questions, which excellent qualities have gained for him repeated marks of Imperial favor, as well as decorations from several foreign governments. JEWS IN ITALIAN POLITICS It is not much more than sixty-seven years since the Jews were permitted any liberties in Italy. Yet under the most adverse circum- stances, Isaac Pesaro Maurogonato became " an athlete in parliamentary debate/' He was born in Venice, November 15, 181 7. THE JEW IN POLITICS 139 After having achieved great success as a lawyer he turned his attention to politics. In 1848 he became Postmaster-General of Venice, and in 1849, Minister of Finance and Commerce. In the discharge of his duties in the latter office his business qualities were so conspicuously manifested that after the fall of the Provisional Government and the return of the Austrians to Venice, one of the authori- ties, rinding the office so skillfully conducted, and every payment carefully accounted for, exclaimed : " I never would have thought that these republican rebels could be so honest." When Venice became a part of the kingdom of Italy, in i860, Maurogonato was elected a deputy to Parliament, a position which he rilled so agreeably that for many years he ranked among the life-senators of his native country. In this connection, we must mention Dr. Manin (1804-57), tne Italian patriot and defender of Venice. Only since the establishment of the King- dom under Victor Emmanuel II. have Italian- 140 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT born Jews enjoyed equal civil and political rights with their fellow countrymen. Yet the people who were considered the lowest have by their talents and character reached with astounding rapidity the highest round in the ladder of political fame. The brilliant services of Signor Luigi Luz- zatti, in more than one Cabinet of recent years, have not been forgotten. When polit- ical events caused a change of government, the first ministry formed in the reign of King Victor Emmanuel, contained another Jew, Signor Leone Wollemborg, who was given the office of Minister of Finance, a post for which he was well fitted by his past expe- rience, acquired while Under-Secretary of State for the Treasury in the Sirocco Minis- try. Signor Wollemborg, who is of German extraction, was born at Padua in 1859, and took his degree in Laws in 1878. He has sat in three Parliaments as member for Cit- tadella, and is extremely popular among the working classes, having been, like Signor THE JEW IN POLITICS 141 Luzzatti, one of the earliest advocates of co- operative societies. After holding this port- folio for a few months, Signor Wollemborg resigned, when insurmountable difficulties presented themselves to his wide-reaching scheme for the reform of taxation. Some of his colleagues in the cabinet were opposed to his plan, and when Signor Wollemborg saw that his scheme could not be realized, rather than agree to the objections of his fel- low ministers he laid down the reins of office. Cavaliere de Polacco, Councilor to the Italian Embassy in Paris, has recently been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary for Italy in Bulgaria. Many years ago, Italy set the example of giving posts to Jews in the dip- lomatic service, when it appointed the late Signor Isacco Artour as Minister to Den- mark. Within recent years, another Jew, Sig- nor Segre, has been Italian Minister at Lima (Peru). Count Hierschel di Minerbi, who was until a year or two ago Councilor of the Italian Etnbassy in London, more than once 142 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT discharged the functions of Ambassador dur- ing the absence of his chief from England. One of the most illustrious careers in Italian politics came to a close at Rome a short time since, by the death of Senator Artom. In 1855 ne received an appointment at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The famous statesman, Count Cavour, recognized his profound genius; and, in 1858, he ap- pointed Artom to his private Cabinet. He was successively Secretary of Legation at Paris, Minister Plenipotentiary to Copenhagen, and Chief of the Private Cabinet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count Giuseppe Pasolini. In 1865, Artom was sent to Paris as Italian Plenipotentiary at the Monetary Conference ; and, in 1866, he, together with General Mena- brea, took part in the peace negotiations at Vienna. He visited Vienna again in 1870, on a diplomatic mission; and, in the same year, he was appointed by the Marquis Vis- cinti Venosta to the responsible post of Gen- eral Secretary at the Ministry for Foreign THE JEW IN POLITICS 143 Affairs, a post subsequently held by another Jew, Signor Giacomo Malvano. He con- tinued in this office until 1876, in which year he was created a Senator of the King- dom. Signor Artom soon became one of the principal authorities in that branch of the Legislature on finance and foreign politics, and his abilities were recognized by his elec- tion to important offices in the Senate. It is needless to multiply instances; in municipal and national affairs, the Jews are everywhere recognized as among the first citizens of the kingdom. THE JEWS IN FRENCH POLITICS France was the first of all countries to grant to the Jews civil and political rights at the time of the great revolution in 1793. The Jewish religion is one of the three religions recognized in France and supported by the State, being on the same footing with Catholicism and Protestantism. Since 1793, Jews in France are both electors and eligi- 144 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT bles, and no office whatever has been closed to them. In the forties there was a Jewish Minister of Finance, the famous Goudchaux. Even so learned a man of affairs as Arch- bishop Ireland, at the time of the Dreyfus affair, was quoted in an interview as saying that all French Hebrews are recent immi- grants in France. Bordeaux, Avignon, and Nimes have had Jewish communities for cen- turies ; and many of the Jews of France are of better French stock than some of the great families, which have played a prominent part in history, like the De Broglies, who came from Piedmont; the MacMahons, who were Irish ; like the people of Alsace-Lorraine, who belonged to France only since 1648, and like Bonaparte, or Buonaparte, the name of the family which has given to modern France its imperial dynasty, who were Italians. There died in Paris, about two years ago, one of the highest Magistrates of the Court of Cassation, M. Bedavrides, a Jew whose an- cestry could be traced back to an old family THE JEW IN POLITICS 145 of Provence. Until Drumont published his violent book, in 1886, there was no Jew-bait- ing worth mentioning in France. Only once before in the nineteenth century had the Jews been attacked, when Toussenel, in 1846, published " The Jews Kings of the Century." We have already referred to the fact how commonly the Jews are mixed up with the names of the old nobility in France. When French nobles have been unable to find American heiresses, who were fools enough to support them, they have married rich Jewesses. After the war of 1870, Eugene Manuel, a distinguished university professor and a Jew, proved himself next to Paul Deroulede as a patriot Tyrtaeus. In politics, the Jews in France have been powerful out of all proportion to their num- bers. There are only 80,000 Jews in France to-day, and it is simply astonishing how many ministers their race has furnished to France. Isaac Adolphe Cremieux (1796-1881), 146 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT whose eloquence and thorough legal knowl- edge soon brought him to public notice, be- came a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1842. He encouraged the Revolution of 1848 and advised Louis Philippe to quit France. Under the Provisional Government, he held the important office of Minister of Justice. After the surrender of Napoleon III. at Sedan, he again became Minister of Justice. His own donation toward the pay- ment of the war debt to Germany was one hundred thousand francs. After serving faith- fully in the National Assembly, the land of his birth made him a life-senator. Achille Fould (1800-67), under the presi- dency of Louis Napoleon, was four times Minister of Finance. His disagreement with the President led him twice to retire from office, but he was each time reappointed. In 1852, he was made Senator and Minister of State, and was created a Commander of the Legion of Honor. The great ultra-liberal, Gambetta (1838-1882), was of Genoese- THE JEW IN POLITICS 147 Jewish descent. David Reynal of Bordeaux became Senator, and, under Ferry and Cas- simir-Perier, Minister of Public Works and Minister of the Interior the real ruler of the French Republic, ninety years after the emancipation of the Jews; E. B. Millaud, Senator and Minister of Public Works under Goblet; Jules Simon, Minister of Education and Religion under Thiers; Camille See, the successful champion of female education; Lockroy, heir and relative of Victor Hugo, Secretary of the Navy during a recent minis- try; M. Naquet, friend and adviser of Boulan- ger, are a few of the Jews, who have distin- guished themselves in French politics. ENGLISH JEWS IN POLITICS The first gleam of hope for civil and relig- ious liberty in England was the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828. This first decisive move in the right direction was re- ceived with exultation by Roman Catholics, Christian dissenters, and British Jews. But 148 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT the clause " On the true faith of a Christian," appended to the Oath of Abjuration, a clause intended as a protection against any mental reservation on the part of Roman Catholics to jurisdiction in England, although not in- tended to affect Jews, Jew-baiters used this unintentional clause in the new declaration as a bar to the Jews' admission to Parliament, to offices under the crown, and all municipal and corporation offices. Many attempts were made to relieve the Jews from the political and civil disabilities from which they were then suffering. In 1835, David Salomons was elected Sheriff of London and Middlesex; and to enable him to serve the office without subscribing to the declaration " On the true faith of a Christian," a bill was passed entitled "The Sheriff's Declaration Act." In the same year, Mr. Salomons was elected Alder- man of the Ward of Aldgate; but, being unable to take the Abjuration Oath, he could not accept the office, which was declared vacant and a Christian elected. Various THE JEW IN POLITICS 149 emancipation bills were placed before Parlia- ment, but failed to remove the disabilities which then affected the Jews in England, so that the efforts of the friends of equal rights were directed toward removing the disabili- ties gradually by successive efforts. In 1837 Moses Montefiore was elected Sheriff of Lon- don and Middlesex, and received the honor of knighthood from Queen Victoria upon her first visit to London. In the same year David Salomons was defeated in the Borough of Shoreham, this being the first attempt of any Jew to enter Parliament. In 1844 David Salomons was for the second time elected an alderman for the City of London, but was again prevented from accepting the office, because he could not subscribe to the oath which he was bound to take. In this same year British Jews were relieved from the ob- ligation to subscribe to the oath " On the faith of a true Christian," upon being elected to municipal offices. In 1846 Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Anthony de Rothschild ISO THE JEW AS A PATRIOT were made baronets of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1847 Baron Lionel de Rothschild was sent to Parliament by the Liberal electors of London, but, unable to take the oath " On the faith of a true Chris- tian," he was not permitted to take his seat. The contrast between Parliament and the peo- ple was proven by Baron Rothschild's re-elec- tion for the City of London in the years 1849, 1852, and 1857. In 185 1 Alderman Salomons was returned to Parliament as a member for Greenwich. He insisted on taking the oath upon the Old Testament, and, omitting the declaration, " On the faith of a true Chris- tian," concluded with " So help me God!" He took his seat, voted, and spoke three times on the very question of his right to remain in the House, but he was compelled to with- draw. An action was brought against him to recover from him three penalties of five hun- dred pounds for sitting and speaking three times and voting in three divisions in the House of Commons without having taken the THE JEW IN POLITICS 151 oath. The affair led to long legal proceedings before the Court of Exchequer. In 1855 Mr. Salomons was elected Lord Mayor of Lon- don, becoming not only the first Jewish Lord Mayor, but the first Jewish member of the Privy Council. In 1857 Baron Lionel de Rothschild, having resigned his seat in the House of Commons, was again re-elected. The Liberal electors of London were deter- mined never to cease electing a Jew to Par- liament until their efforts were crowned with having him seated. Through all these years, bills removing the disabilities of the Jews passed the House of Commons, and were as regularly rejected by the House of Lords. In 1858 a new oaths bill, applying only to Jews, was carried in the House of Commons and referred to the House of Lords, and was passed with certain amendments, which were not approved by the House of Commons. A conference of both Houses was consequently appointed, and Baron Lionel de Rothschild was named to serve on the committee. To 152 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT the surprise of his brother Lords, the Earl of Lucan gave notice that he would introduce a bill authorizing either House of Parliament to admit Jews by resolution without the obligation to subscribe to the words " On the faith of a true Christian." This bill afterward passed the House of Lords on the 16th of July, 1858, and the House of Commons on the 21st of the same month, and on the 23d, it received royal assent ; and Baron de Roths- child took his seat in the House of Com- mons on the 26th of July. The year follow- ing, Mr. Alderman Salomons was for the second time returned to Parliament and given his seat. In this year, Benjamin Phillips was elected Sheriff of London and Middlesex. In i860, Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bart., Q.C., was returned for Reading. From this time on- ward, Jews became conspicuous in English politics. In 1864, Mr. John Simon was made a sergeant-at-law, he being the first Jew to receive that ancient legal rank. In this same year, Sir Benjamin Phillips was elected Lord THE JEW IN POLITICS 153 Mayor of London; and for the creditable manner in which he filled this office he re- ceived from Her Majesty the honor of knight- hood on the recommendation of the then Premier, the Earl of Derby. Since then the following distinguished men have served in Parliament: Sir Francis Goldsmid, Baron Meyer de Rothschild, Mr. Nathaniel de Rothschild, Mr. Frederick de Goldsmid, Mr. Joseph de Aguilar Samuda, Sir George Jessel, Sir John Simon, Sir Nathaniel Meyer de Rothschild, Mr. Julian Goldsmid, Mr. Saul Isaac, Mr. Arthur Cohen, Baron Henry de Worms, Mr. Sydney Woolf, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, the Hon. Walter Lionel de Rothschild, who was elected without opposi- tion to succeed his uncle, the late Baron James de Rothschild, Sir Edward Sasson, who is also a major in the Duke of Cambridge's Hussars Yeomanry, Sir Samuel Montagu and Mr. Stuart Montagu Samuel, Mr. Harry Simon Samuel, Mr. Benjamin L. Cohen, and Capt. Herbert M. Jessel. 154 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT The remarkable rise of the British Jew in politics reached its highest point in Benjamin Disraeli (1805-81), Earl of Beaconsfield, Premier of Great Britain, who without help or friends pushed his way up through the middle classes, up through the upper classes until he swayed the sceptre of England for twenty-five years and became one of the con- trolling powers in European affairs. Scoffed, ridiculed, rebuffed, hissed from the House of Commons, he simply said, " The time will come when you will hear me." After three defeats in Parliamentary elections, he was not the least daunted, for he knew his day would come. Lord Melbourne, the great Prime Minister, when the young man was intro- duced to him asked him what he wished to be. " Prime Minister of England," was his audacious reply. When an aristocrat, oppos- ing him for Parliament, loftily declared that he " Stood on his family name and broad acres," Disraeli replied, " I stand on my head." Imagine England's surprise, with her THE JEW IN POLITICS 155 contempt for self-made men, to see this man, sprung from a hated and persecuted race, virtually her ruler. The late Lord Herschell, chairman of the Anglo-American Joint High Commissioners from Great Britain, twice Lord High Chan- cellor during the Gladstonian ministries, and former Chancellor of the London University, whose death at Washington, D. C, March 1, 1899, caused such profound sorrow, the Su- preme Court of the United States adjourning for a day as a mark of respect, and who a few days before his death was complimented with a seat on that high bench a compliment which had been extended only once pre- viously, in the instance of the then Lord Chief Justice of England was of Jewish descent. George Faudel-Phillips, the fourth of his faith who became Lord Mayor of London; Sir Joseph Wolff Drummond, the English Minis- ter to Turkey; Sir Otto Jafre, former Lord Mayor of Belfast; and Mr. Louis S. Cohen, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, are only a few 156 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT among scores of distinguished Jews in the municipal and national politics of England in our day. That the Jews are gaining political power in England was recently evidenced by the fact that for the first time in England's history, the proclamation of the sovereign at the meeting of the Privy Council was signed by Jews, viz.: Lord Pirbright, Sir George Fau- dell-Phillips, and Sir Marcus Samuel. The late Sir Julius Vogel, the former Premier and Agent-General of New Zealand, was, in a small way, the DTsraeli of the island colony. He, together with men like Sir Saul Samuel and Sir Julian Solomon, of New South Wales, and Maurice Salom, of South Australia, has helped to maintain the pres- tige of the Jews in the politics of the island- continent. The new men, like Isaac A. Isaacs of Victoria, are worthy of the older ones, and they are doing good work. THE JEW IN POLITICS 157 THE JEW IN AMERICAN POLITICS Perhaps the first Jew elected to office in this country was Colonel Frederick Phillips, of Westchester County, who was elected to the General Assembly of New York. On September 23, 1737, the General Assembly resolved that Jews could neither vote for rep- resentatives nor be admitted as-witnesses. Colonel Phillips was denied his seat. JEWISH CONGRESSMEN Israel Jacobs was the first Hebrew member of Congress from Pennsylvania, 1791 to 1793. Michael W. Ash was a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, 1835 to 1837. David S. Kauffman, after serving as speaker of the Texas Assembly, represented his State in Congress from 1847 to 1857. In 1845 Lewis C. Levin was sent to Congress from Philadel- phia, and was twice re-elected. Meyer Strouse was Congressman from Pennsylvania, 1848 to 1852, and Philip Phillips from Ala- 158 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT bama, 1853 to l8 55- Emanuel B. Hart, of New York, was elected to Congress in 1857; after serving his first term he was made Sur- veyor of the Port of New York. Henry M. Phillips, of Philadelphia, in his day one of the best constitutional lawyers in the country, was elected to Congress in 1856. Leonard Meyers of Philadelphia represented the Third District from 1863 to 1875. Meyer Strouse, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, served in Congress from 1863 to 1867; Edwin Ein- stein, of New York City, from 1876-78. Isidor Straus, one of New York City's public- spirited citizens, was sent to Congress in 1892, declining a re-election. Among other Jewish Congressmen may be named Leo- pold Morse of Boston; Nathan Frank of St. Louis; Adolph Meyer of Louisiana; Jef- ferson M. Levy, Mitchell May, and Lucius M. Littauer of New York; Julius Kahn of San Francisco ; and last, but not least, Isidor Ray- ner, of Baltimore, the present Attorney- General of Maryland and counsel for Rear- THE JEW IN POLITICS 159 Admiral Schley, whose three hours' speech at the close of the investigation made him nationally famous as an orator, the mingled irony, invective, lively humor, and passionate appeal recalling the fervid periods of Henry, Calhoun, and Clay. IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE Judah P. Benjamin, who declined President Pierce's offer of a judgeship of the Supreme Court bench on account of his extensive pri- vate business, but who, in 1852, was chosen United States Senator from Louisiana, was the ablest legal advocate slavery ever had. On one occasion, he appeared against Daniel Webster in the United States Supreme Court. Webster talked for three hours and made one of his finest efforts. Then came Benjamin, a little weazened, dried-up man with a thin and hollow voice, and talked for twenty minutes, when the Chief Justice turned to his colleagues and whispered: " Great heavens! that little man 160 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT has stated Webster out of court in twenty minutes." On his withdrawal from the United States Senate, on February 4, i860, he was at once appointed Attorney-General in the Provi- sional government of the Southern Con- federacy. In the following August he was appointed Acting Secretary of War; subse- quently he became Secretary of State, which position he held until the downfall of the Southern Confederacy. He was, in truth, the brains of the Southern Confederacy. When Richmond fell, Benjamin fled with other members of the Cabinet. He was separated from them and escaped from the east coast of Florida to the Bahamas in an open boat. From there he made his way to Nassau, reaching Liverpool in 1865. He had little money. He was fifty-five years old. He entered Lincoln's Inn as a student, having previously devoted himself to English law. In the following summer he was called to the bar. THE JEW IN POLITICS 161 London refused to notice him. He turned to journalism to make a living. His "Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property " is to this day the authority on the subject in English law. Then the fame and practice of Benjamin grew rapidly. He was recognized at the time of his death as the leader of the English bar, and one of the great legal minds of the world. When failing health compelled him to retire, in 1883, a great banquet was given to him in the hall of the Inner Temple in London, where gathered all the foremost men in England a tribute such as few men have ever received. Other Jewish United States Senators have been David L. Yulee of Florida; B. F. Jonas, from Louisiana; and at present Joseph Simon of Oregon. Joseph Seligman declined, for personal reasons, the Secretaryship of the Treasury in President Grant's cabinet, and Isidor Straus declined the Postmaster-Generalship in Presi- dent Cleveland's cabinet. i62 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT JEWISH JUDGES The following are some of the Hebrews who have held important judgeships : Moses Levy, whose admission to the Bar of Philadel- phia dates as far back as March 19, 1778, after occupying various offices became Presiding Judge of " the District Court for the City and County of Philadelphia." Mayer Isaac Franks has been mentioned as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, but the ex- act time when he served cannot be de- termined. Franklin J. Moses (1804-77) was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Cali- fornia in 185 1. Among the Supreme Court judges of New York, we can recall Joseph E. Newburger, W. N. Cohen, David Levintritt, Samuel Greenbaum, and Alfred Steckler. JEWISH DIPLOMATS During the first decade of the present cen- tury, Soloman B. Nones was Consul-General to Portugal. President Madison appointed THE JEW IN POLITICS 163 Mordecai M. Noah Consul-General to Tunis. Colonel Max Einstein was appointed by President Lincoln Consul at Nuremberg, Germany. B. F. Peixotto was Consul at Lyons during the administrations of Presi- dents Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur. Marcus Otterbourg, of New York, was the first American Hebrew to occupy the high office of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni- potentiary to Mexico. Oscar Straus was President Cleveland's and President McKin- ley's Minister to Turkey. Solomon Hirsch was President Harrison's Minister to Turkey. Robert Etting, of Philadelphia, first captain of the Independent Blues in 1798, was ap- pointed by President Thomas Jefferson United States Marshal for the State of Mary- land in 1 801. By appointment of President Pierce, Isaac Phillips was made General Appraiser of the Port of New York, a position which he occu- pied for fifteen years. Colonel Louis Fleisch- ner and Edward Hirsch have been State 164 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Treasurers of Oregon. Edward Kanter has been State Treasurer of Michigan. Simon Wolf, appointed by President Grant Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia ; S. W. Rosendale, formerly Attorney-General of New York; Randolph Guggenheimer ; Jacob A. Cantor, President of the Borough of Man- hattan; the Seligmans; and Theo. W. Myers, formerly Controller of the City of New York, these are only a few of hundreds of Jews, who might be named in every section of our country, whose courageous and persistent advocacy of righteousness in politics have made the Jew a mighty power for good in municipal, State, and national life. The Number of Jews the World Over Where are now the great and famous monarchies (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Syro-Macedonia, and Rome) which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God? Are they not vanished as a dream, and not only their power, but their very names lost in the earth? Nay, not only nations have been punished for their cruelties to the Jews, but divine vengeance hath pursued even single persons who have been their persecutors and oppressors. Besides many individual Jewish oppressors who came to an untimely end may be named Antiochus Epiphanes and Herod, who, after having become intolerable to themselves and their at- tendants, died in great agony; Nebuchadnezzar, who was stricken with insanity; Flaccus, governor of Egypt, who was banished and murdered; and Caligula, who was also murdered in the flower of his age, after a wicked short reign. And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those who, at any time or upon any occasion, are for raising a clamor ancl perse- cution against them. Bishop Newton, " Dissertations o- the Prophecies." 1 66 CHAPTER V THE NUMBER OF JEWS THE WORLD OVER Austria-Hungary has 1,866,837 Jews; Germany 567,884, of whom 379,716 live in Prussia. In the British Empire there are 227,447, distributed as follows : England and Wales 138,000 Scotland 4,000 Ireland 3*769 Australasia 16,000 Canada and British Columbia . . 30,000 Barbadoes 21 Trinidad 31 Jamaica 200 India 17,500 Transvaal Colony 10,000 167, 168 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Cape Colony 3,009 Orange River Colony 113 Gibraltar 1,000 Malta 173 Aden 2,826 Cyprus 127 Hong Kong 143 Straits Settlements 535 Holland has 97,324 Jews, one half of whom are to be found in Amsterdam; France, 80,000, of whom three-fourths live in Paris; Italy, 50,000, of whom the majority inhabit the northern and middle portions of the coun- try. There are 8,069 Jews in Switzerland; in Belgium, 4,000; Denmark, 4,080; Swe- den and Norway, 3,402; Luxemburg, 1,054; Spain, 402 ; and in Portugal hardly any, where prior to the fifteenth century there lived over half a million Jews. In Eastern Europe, in addition to Rou- mania with 269,015, there are Turkey with 350,000; Greece, 5,792, most of them in THE NUMBER OF JEWS 169 Corfu; Bulgaria, 28,307; Servia, 5,102. In Asia, the cradle of their race, we find in Turkey in Asia, 150,000; Persia, 35,000; Russia, 5,700,000 more Jews than all the rest of Europe together, so that half of the descendants of Abraham are still subject to special laws and denied the rights of citizen- ship; Turkestan and Afghanistan, 14,000, and China, 300. In Africa, where they had colonized before the Christian era, we find in Egypt, 25,200; Abyssinia (Falashas), 120,000; Tunis, 45,000; Algeria, 43,000; Morocco, 150,000. In other countries we find in the Argentine Republic, 7,015; Costa Rica, 35; Bosnia, Herzegovina, 8,215; Mexico, 1,000; Curagoa, 831; Surinam, 1,250; Peru, 489; Crete, 726, and Venezuela, 411. In Jerusalem there are about 23,000 Jews ; and while we hope for the day when the Holy Land will be restored to the Jew, we cannot believe that Zionism is the ultimate exalta- tion of the Jew. The whole of Palestine could i^o THE JEW AS A PATRIOT not contain the Jewish population of the world, about 11,000,000, for it is no bigger than Wales. Palestine has very little to com- mend it to the Jew except its Biblical asso- ciations. America, and not Palestine, is be- coming the Jewish Mecca. America is the Zion from which will go forth the law. Here is liberty enlightening the world. The total Jewish immigration to the United States, through the ports of New York, Phil- adelphia, and Baltimore, from 1881 to July 1, 1901, was 644,966. This does not take into account immigration through Canada or at ports other than those mentioned above. The immigration at the port of New York from July 1, 1899, to June 30, 1900, was as follows: Austrians 13,004 Danes 1 Dutch 25 English 125 French 55 Germans 289 THE NUMBER OF JEWS 171 Roumanians 5>6i3 Russians 24,927 Swedes 15 Turks 147 Irish 5 Norwegians 2 Total 44>2o8 At the port of Philadelphia, the immigra- tion for the year ending November 1, 1900, was 3870, against 1649 f r tne preceding year. At the port of Baltimore the immigration from July 1, 1900, to June 30, 1901, was 1343. At the time of the Revolution, the Jewish population in the United States was about 700 families. Mordecai M. Noah in 1 818 e s- timated the Jewish population of the United States as 3/xx); after the Revolution many returned to England, others went to the West Indies. Isaac Harby in 1826 estimated that 172 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT there were not over 6,000 Jews in the United States. The " American Almanac " in 1840 gives the number as 15,000, while M. A. Berk in his " History of the Jews," published in 1848, puts down 50,000 as the number of Jews in the United States, 12,000 residing in New York and 4,000 in Philadelphia. Throughout the period of the Napoleonic wars, many obstacles hindered the departure of the German Jews, and for a time afterward, in view of the great political concessions, which they gained from the German rulers in return for their valor and heroic sacrifices of life and substance for the Fatherland, there was little immigration. It was not until the beginning of steam navigation on the Atlan- tic that any considerable Jewish immigration was made to this country. At the time of the Civil War there were about 150,000 Jews in the United States. In September, 1880, the Union of Hebrew Con- gregations published 221,064 as the number of Jews then in the United States. In 1897, THE NUMBER OF JEWS 173 according to the estimate of David Sulz- berger, our Jewish population was 937,800, while the American Jewish Year Book for 1901 gives 1,045,555 as the number, distrib- uted as follows: Alabama 7,000 Arizona 2,000 Arkansas 4,000 California 25,000 Colorado 8,000 Connecticut 15,000 North and South Dakota 3>500 Delaware 1,200 District of Columbia 3>5 Florida 3,000 Georgia 6,000 Hawaiian Islands 20 Idaho 300 Illinois 75,ooo Indiana 25,000 Iowa 5,000 Kansas 3,000 174 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT Kentucky 12,000 Maine 5,000 Maryland 35,ooo Massachusetts 60,000 Michigan 9,000 Minnesota 10,000 Mississippi 3,000 Missouri 50,000 Montana 2,500 Nebraska 3,000 Nevada 300 New Hampshire 1,000 New Jersey 25,000 New Mexico 1,500 New York 400,000 North California 6,000 Ohio 50,000 Oklahoma 1,000 Oregon 5,000 Pennsylvania 95,ooo Porto Rico 100 Rhode Island 3>50 South Carolina 2,500 THE NUMBER OF JEWS 175 Tennessee 10,000 Texas 1 5,000 Utah 5,000 Vermont 700 Virginia 15,000 Washington 2,800 West Virginia 1,500 Wisconsin 15,000 Wyoming 1,000 In all the world, there are probably 1 1,000,- 000 Jews, 4,000,000 more than there were in the time of David. Lord Beaconsfield has well said : " The world has by this time dis- covered that it is impossible to destroy the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most favorable auspices and on the largest scale; the most consider- able means that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this object for the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian pharaohs, Assyrian kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic 176 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT princes, and holy inquisitors have alike de- voted their energies to the fulfillment of this common purpose. Expatriation, exile, cap- tivity, confiscation, torture on the most in- genious and massacre on the most extensive scale ; a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws which would have broken the heart of another people, have been tried and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, probably more numerous at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are found in all lands, and prospering in most. All which proves that it is in vain for man to attempt to barBe the inexorable law of Nature, which has decreed that a su- perior race shall never be destroyed or ab- sorbed by an inferior." The World's Indebtedness to the Jews If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent, of the human race. It suggests a nebu- lous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly -the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of pro- portion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian arose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dreamstuflf and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew, all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? Mark Twain, " Concerning the Jews." 178 CHAPTER VI THE WORLD'S INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS NEED OF KNOWLEDGE Oliver Wendell Holmes in his " Over- the Teacups " says : " If the creeds of man- kind would try to understand each other be- fore attempting" mutual extermination, they would be sure to find a meaning in beliefs which are different from their own." Chris- tians have many things in common with the Jews. We can readily agree with Lessing, when he makes the Christian monk say to the Jewish Nathan: " Heaven bless us! That makes me to you a Christian Makes you to me a Jew." It was said of Sydney Smith that he would not read a book which he was to review, 179 i8o THE JEW AS A PATRIOT reading it might prejudice his judgment. When Charles Lamb was berating an enemy, some one said to him, " Why, you don't know him." Lamb replied, " I don't want to know him, for fear I should like him." Christians and Jews make ignorance of each other a claim for judgment, and seem to be afraid to become acquainted for fear that they might like each other. Few Christians know the relatively enor- mous part taken by the Jews, emancipated but a few decades, in the civilization of mankind. Lord Beaconsfield when taunted in the House of Lords for his Jewish extrac- tion exclaimed, " I can well afford to be called a Jew." When the modern Jew en- lightens himself upon the achievements of his race, practices the virtues and avoids the faults of his ancestors, he will prepare the way for a glorious future for himself and his descendants. When an impartial historian shall write the wonderful achievements of the geniuses of INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 181 the nineteenth century, Jewish names will be found on every page, and the Jewish people might well take to heart Goethe's true lines : "Willst du immer weiter schweifen? Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah." Long before Socrates taught philosophy or before Herodotus wrote history, Israel was an organized civilization. They had literature before most nations had letters and art, while other nations knew only war and savagery. Draper quotes Cabanis as saying that "they " the Jews " were our factors and bankers before we knew how to read." While the ancestors of European kings and nobles were reveling in coarseness or igno- rantly bending their backs to the commands of their superiors, the Jews were the torch- bearers of the world. Talk about pedigree! What are your Sons and Daughters of the Revolution, or your Sons of the Crusaders compared to the Levys, Sons of the Levites, and the numerous Cahens, Cohens, Kohns, 182 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT and Coehns, whose undisputed ancestors are the Cohanim, priests of the synagogue, who burned incense before Jehovah preparatory to going in the shade of Babel to discuss the origin of the world with the augurs of Chaldea and the magi of Iran. At a dinner-party, two or three men got into a somewhat tiresome talk about the an- tiquity of their families. Disraeli turned to a friend and said : "Think of these fellows talk- ing about the antiquity of their families to me to me, whose ancestor was the accepted lover of the Queen of Sheba." It is related that when Sir Moses Montefiore was taunted by a political opponent with the memory of Calvary and described as one who sprang from the murderers who crucified the world's Redeemer, the next morning the Jewish phi- lanthropist, whom Christendom has learned to honor, called upon his assailant and showed him the record of his ancestors which had been kept for two thousand years, and which showed that their home had been in INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 183 Spain for two hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth was born! NO APOLOGY NEEDED FOR THE JEW No man needs to apologize for belonging to a race which has produced such poets as Jehudah Halevi, whose soul-stirring "'Elegy of Zion," according to Schleiden, has not been surpassed in the whole compass of religious poetry, Milton's not excepted; Heinrich Heine, whom Mathew Arnold termed " the most important successor and continuator of Goethe in Goethe's most important line of activity " ; and Holger Drachmann, the pres- ent-day Minnesinger of the North, who is rated by the greatest living Danish poet, Bjornson, as the greatest living lyric poet, Scandinavian or Danish, and whom the critics of Europe pronounce a poet the equal of Byron in poetic instinct, and comparable to Tennyson for splendor and facility of rhythm ; such novelists as Auerbach, whose thrilling descriptions of German village life, so remark- 184 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT able for their philosophical reflection and poetic feeling, have been translated into the principal languages of Europe; Benjamin Dis- raeli, whose " Vivian Grey," published when the author was but twenty-two years of age, the originality, virility, and wit of which made it the most celebrated book of the day in all Europe; A. Bernstein, the first novelist to popularize science; and Israel Zangwill, born in one of the poorest hovels of the White- chapel Ghetto, who at thirty-eight years of age stands acknowledged one of the fore- most writers and critics of the day ; such lit- terateurs, of the essayist type, as Ludwig Borne, Gabriel Riesser, and Karl Blind ; such literary critics as Isaac Disraeli, Michael Ber- nays, and George Brandes ; such antiquarians as M. A. Levy, one of the chief authorities in ancient epigraphy ; J. L. Klein, who has given us the most voluminous work in the drama ever written; and Solomon Schechter, for- merly of the ancient University of Cambridge and the University of London, now of the INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 185 Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the great discoverer not only of ancient cities, but of ancient manuscripts, and whose universal acquaintance not only with Hebrew but with universal literature has made him for years the dominant figure in the most bril- liant university circles; such dramatists as Abraham Millaud, Halevy, the composer's nephew, who in opera, comedy, and vaude- ville proved himself, next to D'Ennery, an- other Jew, the most prolific of French dram- atists; Kalisch, Jacobson, Fulda, and Schles- singer among the Germans ; Von Weilen and Burger among the Austrians ; and Mordecai M. Noah, Sydney Rosenfeld, David Belasco, and Martha Morton among Americans; such actors as Adolph Ritter von Sonnen- thal, the dramatic idol of the Austrian capital; Ludwig Barnay, the great German; and John Braham, whose dramatic genius was equalled by his peerless voice; such actresses as Rachel, whose wonderful im- personation of lofty classical heroines, fine 186 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT delineation of the fiercer emotions, and magnetism of gestures and voice, made her the most renowned artist of her day, and whose only rival in European fame is an- other Jewess, Sara Bernhardt, the astonish- ing Sara, apostrophized by Edmond Rostand as " Queen of Attitude and Princess of Gestures " ; such singers as that original genius, Pauline Lucca, " the transcendentally human " ; Caroline Gomperz-Bettelheim, the famous Austrian court contralto ; and Emma Calve, Lilli Lehmann, Melba, Patti, Marcella Sembrich, and the De Reszkes, who have at least a few Jewish corpuscles in their veins; such musical geniuses as Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Halevy, Offenbach, Goldmark, Strauss, Moscheles, Cowen, Benedict, Costa, the Damrosches, the Strakosches, Rubin- stein, Rosenthal, Joachim, Joseffy, and Hoff- mann ; such artists as Israels, the delineator of Dutch fisher-life; Solomon J. Solomon, who stands among the first of English artists ; A. Solomon, once celebrated for his painting INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 187 " Waiting for the Verdict " ; S. A. Hart, the first Jewish Royal Academician; the French brothers Lehman, E. Levy, H. L. Levy, R. Ulmann, and J. Worms; the Germans, F. E. Meyerheim and Heinrich Schlessinger; and, among Americans, Constant Meyer, Henry Mossier, Jacob H. Lazarus, and Ben Aus- trian, whose " A Day's Hunt," an exquisite game piece, sold for $2500, the largest sum ever paid for a still-life painting in America, and whose latest triumph, " A Golden Har- vest," a painting of seed-corn against a weather-stained old barn upon which it hangs, is natural enough to make a farmer lift his hat and wipe his eyes; such sculptors as Moses J. Ezekiel, whose works have been exhibited in all the art centers of Europe, and Anto- kalski, Russia's greatest sculptor ; such phi- losophers as Philo, one of the ornaments of the Hellenic literature in the first half of the first century a.d. ; Maimonides, the most powerful light of the middle ages, the teacher of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, 188 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT the master minds of the Roman Catholic Church; Spinoza, to whom Schleiermacher gave the strange but suggestive name " God- intoxicated man " ; and Moses Mendelssohn, one of the pioneers of modern German clas- sical literature ; such historians as Neander, whose original name was David Mendel and whose father was a Jewish peddler, and Eders- heim, whose Life of Christ is the greatest and most faithful representation ever written, de- fending the orthodox dogma of Jesus against the theories of Strauss; G. F. Herzberg, the German Greek historian; S. Rowanin, the historian of Venice and Hungary; and Lud- wig Geiger, the leading authority on the Renaissance; such economists as Ricardo, Marx, and Lassalle, and M. de Bloch, the Russian banker, whose book on the cost of modern warefare has been translated into all European languages and is believed to have given the impetus to the Tsar for the conven- tion of the Peace Conference at the Hague; such original thinkers as Cesare Lombroso, INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 189 and Max Nordau, the apostles of the theory of degeneracy, whose arguments and sub- mitted proofs have startled the world and al- ready are accepted as the new gospel whose light discloses the hidden springs of crime; such mathematicians as Sylvester, the co- founder with his friend Cayler of the modern higher Algebra, and Jacobi, after whom cer- tain intricate functions are termed Jacobians; such explorers as Emin Pasha, Gustav Op- pert, and Ed. Glaser ; such astronomers as the Herschels, Goldschmidt, the discoverer of more than fourteen asteroids between 1852 and 1861, and who pointed out more than 10,000 stars that were wanting in the maps of the Academy at Berlin, and W. Beer, the composer Meyerbeer's brother and the first cartographist of the moon ; such philologists as Benfey, who holds the same position in Germany that Max Muller did in England; Ollendorf, who invented the method by which the modern languages are taught; Michael Breal, one of the leading authorities on com- 190 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT parative mythology and philology in France ; the classic philologist, M. Bernhardy, the famous historian of Greek and Roman liter- ature ; and Jules Oppert, after Rawlinson the greatest Assyriologist ; such higher critics as Simon Ben Lachish, who appeared in the middle of the third century as the first higher critic, declaring that Job was simply the prod- uct of a noble poem, and that the names of angels were borrowed by the Jews from a foreign people while they were in exile, and Abraham Ibn Ezra, who, in the twelfth cen- tury, published a critical commentary on Isaiah which is up to date with Cheyne, Briggs, and Abbott; such physicians as Traube, a name in medicine standing second to none; Valentine, whose knife is still used by specialists; the Liebreichs, one the in- ventor of the eye-mirror, the other the dis- coverer of chloral hydrate as an anaesthetic and hypnotic; Dr. Koller, the discoverer of the use of cocaine; Virchow and Koch, the tuberculosis specialists; such botanists as INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 191 Cohn and Pringsheim, among the greatest names in German botany ; Bernstein, Rosen- thal, and Cohnheim, specialists in the physi- ology of the nerves ; P. J. Reiss, the physicist and first Jew to enter the Berlin Academy, and Semmelweis, who first discovered the true cause of puerperal infection (child-bed fever) ; such jurists as Edward Gans, the associate of Hegel; Edward Lasker, who gave to the world an erudite work on the Constitutional History of Prussia; and Judah P. Benjamin, who, after having attained eminence in the United States Senate and as a Cabinet officer in the Confederate Government, resumed the practice of law in England and was acknowl- edged by Sir Henry James and Sir Charles Russell the leader of the English bar at the time of his death; such statesmen as Cremieux, Raynal, and Millaud in France; Luzzatti, the Italian Minister of Finance ; and Disraeli, who pushed his way up through the middle classes, up through the upper classes, until he stood self-poised upon the topmost 192 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT round of political and social power, forcing his leadership upon that very party whose prejudices were deepest against his hated race, and for twenty years was one of the con- trolling powers in European affairs. To be- long to such a race, which has produced pro- portionately a greater number of great men than any other race of whom history bears record, any man ought to be proud proud both to be called and to look like a Jew! THE JEW IN FINANCE In finance the Jew has for four hundred years been the factor that supplied the nations of the earth with money. The financial system of the world, its inven- tions and perfection, we owe to the Roths- childs, who were the first to make national loans popular. The Jew in finance is inva- riably a creator and not a puller-down. Many of the great fortunes which have been made, notably in America, have been made by INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 193 wrecking railroads and other established and incorporated industries. The Jews, with com- paratively few exceptions, made their money as manufacturers and merchants. Poliakoff, the Russian railway king; the Pereres, the French railway kings; and the Rothschilds are among the few exceptions. Capital and Jew are not synonymous terms; the leading spirits of the antagonistic forces capital and labor are Jews. There are financiers like the Rothschilds, and there are socialistic Jews like Lassalle, Marx, and Singer. The capi- talists cannot curse the Jews, and the social- ists cannot dynamite the Jews, without aban- doning their very leaders. Six hundred thousand Jews living in Africa and Asia are poor. Four and one-half mil- lions who live in the east of Europe are only just raised above pauperism, while a goodly proportion are sunk below even that level. Among the four millions of Russian Jews only a few names, like Gunsburg, Iseman, Kronenberg, Posnanski, Bregman, Zucker- i 9 4 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT man, the Zabludowskis, Raffalovitch, Polia- koff, Ephrussi, Brodsky, de Bloch, and Roth- stein rise above the general level of hard- working poverty. On the Continent, besides the Rothschilds we find not more than twenty Jewish capitalists. Among the more than twelve hundred millionaires of New York City there cannot be found more than about thirty of Jewish names, and not over seventy- five among the four thousand millionaires in the country at large. Surely this is a small proportion for so great a population. Originally the Jews were an agricultural people and their civil policy was framed spe- cially for this state of things. The sons of Shem built their first cities remote from the channels of trade, while the race of Ham and Japheth built upon the seashore and the banks of the great rivers. But the misfortunes of persecution made traders of them. Denied citizenship, subject at any time to spoliation and expulsion, their only possible chance of living was in traffic, in which they soon be- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 195 came skilled. They naturally followed the great channels of commerce the world over. Gentile persecution kept them on the go, and to protect their property against Gentile thieves their wealth had to be portable, and so they frequently turned it into jewels, be- cause they could be most securely and most secretly kept and, in case of flight, most easily removed; this accounts for their prominence in the jewelry business from early times, and hence, too, their introduction of bills of ex- change. Prevented in many countries from holding land, they had no inducement to settle in the country. Besides, their religious enactments require that the sacred functions of public worship be performed in the presence of not less than twelve males above the age of thirteen, the minimum for a congregation; this requires that at least forty souls shall dwell within accessible distance. This may explain the fact that so few Jews dwell in small villages. That the Jews tend toward 196 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT large cities is not peculiar to them. It is a constant feature of modern statistics. The Jew is everywhere pioneering and building up states. " Commerce and the dif- fusion of civilization are most closely allied. Follow all the tides of modern civilization, and wherever you see the prosperous con- ditions of commerce you see civilization on the boom. Jewish commerce centered around the great cities the world over, and thus opened the gates for Christianity. The flourishing trade of the Jews, which made Spain the focus of mediaeval culture, fur- nished not only the great discoverers with the key to unlock the new worlds with their in- exhaustible treasures, but exercised its in- fluence on entire Christianity.' , "Jewish com- merce," says Lecky in his " History of Rationalism," " liberated mankind from the thraldom of the Church, giving the world the much-needed lesson of sound practical com- mon sense." The Jew, we are told, is only a middleman. INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 197 Men cannot eat their own manufactures as a general thing engines, shovels, linens and woolens, boots and gloves, useful as they are in their way, are failures as articles of diet. The merchant or even the peddler who takes these inedible things and disposes of them is as important a cogwheel in the machinery of society as the railroad which takes the wheat or the cotton, the coal or the iron ore, from regions where it cannot be worked up into shape, and places them where the manufac- tory or the consumer awaits them. THE LONGEVITY OF THE JEWS Quakers, who, in the simplicity of their ordinary life, may be supposed to conform more closely to religious precepts than most religious bodies, are the longest-lived people of whom we have record. Next to them come the Jews. The average term of life among the Gentiles is twenty-six years. Among the Jews it is thirty-seven. The life-insurance companies, who have made the science of 198 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT statistics a profession as the basis of commer- cial computation, will tell you that the life of the average Jew is more than forty per cent, more valuable than that of any other people, except Quakers and preachers. A writer in the Western Medical Review declares that in spite of the social conditions which surround the mass of the Hebrew popu- lation of the world, and especially in the large cities of America, where they form a large percentage of the population, the death rate among the Jewish inhabitants is but little over half of that of the average American population. Professor William Z. Ripley, in his papers on the racial geography of Europe in the Popular Science Monthly, discusses this question very fully. He states that if two groups of ioo infants each, one Jewish and one of average American parentage, be born upon the same day, one-half of the Jews will not succumb to disease before the expiration of seventy-one years. According to Lombroso, of 1,000 Jews V J INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 199 born, 217 die before the age of seven years, while 453 Christians, more than twice as many, are likely to die within the same period. In London, according to the testi- mony of Dr. Behrend, consumption is less frequent among the Jews in the most squalid dens of Whitechapel than among the Chris- tians. Alcoholism is very rare among Jews. During the six years ending May 31, 1890, alcoholism caused in each 100,000 persons of each race in New York 31 deaths annually among the Irish, 10 among the Germans, 9 among the Americans, 6 among the negroes, 3 among the Italians, and only 1 among the Jews (Russian and Polish). Why are the Jews so much less subject to consumption, cholera, croup, typhus, and scrofula? Since it is sometimes necessary to kill a dozen hogs before a sound pair of lungs can be found, it does not seem strange that consumption is so prevalent among the eaters of swine. Close investigations have disclosed the fact that nearly one-half the animals 200 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT killed are not kosher, or fit to be eaten. Our way of killing meat is, through its proneness to become tuberculous, perhaps the cause of more disease than all other agencies com- bined. A LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE The Jews are a law-abiding people. Thirty- five years ago the prisons hardly knew of the existence of the Jew ; and while no race has a monopoly of virtue or a monopoly of vice, the Jews to-day, notwithstanding the tremendous immigration in recent years, have the best record of any race or religion in America. Not more than one or two Jews have been hanged in America, although I have known several whom a little hanging might improve. When Mordecai M. Noah, on his accession to the office of Sheriff of New York, was taunted with the remark, " Pity Christians have to be hanged by a Jew! " he replied, " Pity Chris- tians require hanging at all! " M. de Bloch has published a series of statis- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 201 tics on the Jews in Russia, 4,000,000 people scattered among ignorant, fanatical, and demoralized moujiks (peasants) who rob and plunder at their will. The schools are closed against the Jews, lucrative professions are for- bidden them, and they are huddled together in the least productive provinces of the Tsar's realm, their only means of subsistence trading with the ignorant masses; yet, as de Bloch shows, there is only one Jewish criminal to every 2,170 individuals, whereas among non- Jews the proportion is one to every 715. In the Pale the arrears of taxes are less than in governments which are free from Jews, and in the twenty-five governments of the Pale every year eight million roubles less are spent in drink, a saving which enables the peasants to improve their land and pay their taxes. In regard to trade, Jews are mostly engaged in petty commerce. The Jews in the Pale who carry on business form more than half of the trading population, but the total value of their income is 436 million roubles against 202 the: jew as a patriot 489 million of the Christian minority. The great majority of Jews are small retail dealers, who earn from sixty to eighty kopeks a day, and in order to make this minute profit they have to carry on business from twelve to sixteen hours daily. M. de Bloch estimates the number of Jewish handicraftsmen in the Pale at 3,101,560, which is nearly eighty per cent, of the entire number of workingmen, al- though they constitute only twenty per cent, of the whole population. When I think of the tales, tragedies, and tyrannies the Jews have endured in Russia for over two hundred years, I feel like bowing in reverence before them, especially when I recall that within the past fifty years, in spite of the crimes and barbarities which stain the pages of Russian history, this synagogue Jew has produced an Antokolski, whose fiftieth birthday was recently celebrated by artists all over the world ; an Anton Rubinstein, in whom the piano found its greatest master; a Nato- witch, editor of the most literary and influen- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 205 tial Russian paper, Novosti. What scholar has not heard of the greatest Russian, Orien- tal, and European linguists, Professor Khwol- son and Dr. Abraham Harkavi? Or what man of affairs has not heard of Sachs, the superintendent of the Russian railroads; or de Bloch, already quoted, the greatest au- thority on finance and economics in that Slavonic empire? What student of medicine has not heard of Dr. Haffkin, who has lately drawn the world's attention to his medical discoveries, was rewarded with medals by various sovereigns, and who suffered from Russian tyranny in his younger days? THE JEW IN CHARITY In charity shine conspicuously not only the names of Sir Moses Montefiore and the Baron and Baroness de Hirsch, whose gener- osity while living made their names fragrant throughout the world, and the latter when dying left $100,000,000 to be expended in carrying on the various charities founded and 2o 4 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT fostered by the baron and baroness ; but if the bigoted authorities of New Amsterdam who gave their permission to a few Hebrews to settle in their city, " upon condition that they should always support their own poor," could see how well they have kept the promise, made more than two hundred years ago, those old burghers would open their eyes in surprise at the many and magnificent benev- olent institutions, covering every conceivable case of need, which testify to the inborn kind- ness of the Hebrew's heart. The Jews of New York alone for their twelve leading charities contribute upwards of $800,000 a year. Jacob H. Setoff, who has been called by his business associates " the white man of Wall Street; Nathan Straus, who gives his charity with his principles al- ways in view : " Do not pauperize or degrade those whom you benefit. Do not permit your generosity to lower them in their own estima- tion " ; and the beloved Mrs. Esther Herman are only a few of the many Jews in New York INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 205 we could name who are famed for their prac- tical and constant philanthropy. And as I mingle with these people, and breathe the spirit that animates them, and feel their enthusiasm for humanity stirring my own pulses, and see that they are as intent as Christians are to do all the good they can, to all the people they can, in all the ways they can, I cannot help but feel that their Father is our Father, and that the spiritual Christ, the essential Christ, must be their Lord as well as ours ; and while having no sympathy with those who would proselyte them, they practice the gospel of love as preached by Christianity, I can take the good Jew by the hand, with my heart in it, and call him brother! The almshouse has no need to provide for the Jew. If one Jew gets into trouble, all the others stand by him. The divorce court sel- dom hears of him. He is domestic above all men. Drunkenness is not a Jewish vice. The only occupation that does not thrive among 2o6 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT the Jews is that of the saloonkeeper. To the Potter's Field the Jew is absolutely unknown. With the Jew, next to the respect for the living comes the veneration for the dead. JEWISH WIT AND HUMOR Now let us take a little mental rest by step- ping aside for a while from our serious dis- cussion and contemplate the Jew as a wit and humorist. Carlyle declared that the Jews had no humor and showed no trace of it in any period of their history. Renan says very much the same thing in his " History of the Semitic Languages." Disraeli's " Ixion in Heaven " has been pronounced by many good judges one of the best pieces of humor in the English language. Have you never read Ludovic Halevy's Dream of his friend Raoul, who married his friend Gaston's widow, and the widow's confusion when she found herself be- tween her two husbands in the definite union above in heaven? a dream founded on the INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 207 closing words of the officiating priest's ad- dress: " Be then united on earth until you are definitely united in heaven." Are you fond of humor and have never read Saphir on Money? "What is money? Money is a goodly lump which the Lord God attaches to insignificant people so as not to lose sight of them in his creation, as a good housekeeper puts a big label on a little key. " What is money? Money is a figure which grows in importance as there is a cipher at- tached to it. " What is money? Money is a metal heel under the boots of little people to make them appear as tall as others. " What is money? Money is an indemnity which God gives to a certain number of per- sons on condition that they will not make bold to acquire any such goods as Intellect or Genius. " What is money? Money is the mysteri- ous essence of a being which defines its ego 208 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT in the following words: ' If I were not what I have, I should not have what I am.' " But what is no-money? No-money? No- money? u No-money is a thing of which all pockets are full. " No-money is the alibi of a being which should testify to our presence in this world. " No-money is a gentle invitation of nature to incur debts, and a peremptory command not to pay them. " No-money is an irresistible inclination to melancholy on the part of our purse caused by hopeless love to an unattainable object. u No-money is an ^position of no money at all, a proposition in abstract philosophy, a fit position for a minister of finance, and a happy exposition for platonic love. u No-money is a vulgar ballad which com- mon people sing aloud on the streets, but the more refined only hum between their lips within doors. INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 209 " No-money is the watchword of extreme radicalism and the art of making oneself pop- ular at a low price." In " Concerning a Coat " Saphir writes : " There are coat artists in the world, men who have so long hung their coat according to the wind, that the order has become re- versed and the coat hangs its man in the wind. The expression * Den Mantel nach dem Winde hangen ' (' One must hang one's coat according to the wind ') is alto- gether improper. It ought to read as fol- lows : One should hang his coat in the wind to see where the wind blows, and then hang himself according to the wind. The coat must be stronger than the man; otherwise the coat would remain hanging according to the wind, but not the man. In reality what is meant by the proverb " One must hang one's coat according to the wind ' is only that 1 one must hang himself according to the wind/ for man in his corporeality is only the mantle that envelops his soul, and all the 210 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT good, weak, and curious souls always hang their mantle according to the wind. w I have known men who had no coat at all, and yet were so skillful in hanging their coat according to the wind that they were at home in all the coat-roles, and were genuine chil- dren of Coat-Fortune. " Other men are still more unhandy and hang their coat according to the contrary wind. With these everything goes contrary, for even if they themselves believe that they take the coat along, in reality it is the coat that takes them along. " There are lots of people who, because they hang their coat according to the wind, hang their words in the coat, and hang around every word, every phrase, a little mantle which so bemantles all their talking and their doing that whatever they say is spoken in the wind. " There are many who owe their happiest hours to a coat of mourning ; many who carry an aching heart under a comedian's cloak, INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 211 " There are people who under the cloak of sanctimoniousness cover the cloven hoof; others again who under the cloak of Christian charity to one's neighbor take away from their neighbor his cloak and coat. " I have known men who were very one- sided and yet carried their coat on both sides ; still another class of people hang their coats according to the wind only to display the fur- ring. All this and more of what still remains in my coat I thought, as I took it down again for the first time that fall ; I quickly involved myself in it and muttered, l This is an in- volved affair.' " Literature hardly affords any parallel to Heinrich Heine's wit and humor: " The certificate of baptism is the admis- sion ticket to European culture. " B. If I were of the tribe that gave birth to our Saviour, I should glory rather in the fact than be ashamed of it. 212 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT " A. So would I, if our Saviour were the only offspring of the tribe; but since then there has been an issue of so many vulgar dogs that acknowledgment of the relation- ship has become a risky affair." " Much praise is continually bestowed upon the playwright who knows how to draw tears ; but the most miserable onion has that coveted gift, and he must share his laurels with that interesting vegetables." " Guizot's most prominent feature is his pride. If he should ever see his Maker in heaven, he will compliment him upon having created him." " Rothschild, too, could build a Walhalla, if the fancy took him a Pantheon of all princes, that went to him a-borrowing." A story of M. Adolphe D'Ennery, the French dramatist, is excellent. INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 213 One of his rivals once remarked, " This D'Ennery is a true Jew ; that is why he never produces a play without interest." " Ah," re- marked D'Ennery, " what a good Christian he must be! " Could anything be wittier for a banker than the following reply of Baron Rothschild, told by Arsene Houssaye? One of his friends, a sort of banker, came to borrow two thou- sand dollars. " Here it is," said the Baron, " but remember that as a rule I only lend to crowned heads." Rothschild never dreamed of seeing his money again, but, wonderful to relate, at the end of a month the borrower came back with his two thousand dollars. The Baron could scarcely believe his eyes; but he foreboded that this was not the end. Sure enough, a month later the borrower re- appeared, asking for the loan of four thousand dollars. " No, no," said the Baron, " you dis- appointed me once by paying me that money. I do not want to be disappointed again." 214 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT A man who was once talking with the late Sir Moses Montefiore at a reception found the conversation so entertaining that he com- pletely forgot the race of his companion and made some uncomplimentary remark about the Jewish features of a lady who was passing by. The mistake was no sooner made than it was perceived. The unhappy man began to apologize profusely. " I ask a thousand par- dons. It was so stupid of me to forget. You look angry enough to eat me. I beg you not to devour me." " Sir," replied Sir Moses, " it is impossible. My religion forbids." A very clever Chicago society lady, who rather hated that her hostess had been the one to give the function in Mr. Zangwill's honor, made up her mind to let fly a bit of her wit at the distinguished author to prove to those within hearing that at times his re- partee might fail him. So she approached Zangwill, and raising her lorgnette, surveyed him. INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 215 " Mr. Zangwill," said she, " do you care for pig's feet? " Those around her held their breath. The author bit his lip. A little snicker passed through the group. Zangwell adjusted his eyeglasses, and look- ing down upon the woman, replied with a smile of singular sweetness : " Not particu- larly, madam; but I like pig's feet, prepared in any way or not prepared at all, better than I like tongue." ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA In America the Jew has a double claim to recognition, the claim of the man under the wide tolerance of the twentieth century, and the claim of the American citizen under the broad spirit of the American Constitution. Has he received the treatment he merits as a man, and the rights he deserves as a citizen? He is caricatured in the comic papers ; in our social, professional, and even political clubs the Jew is blackballed. The wealthy Jewish 216 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT merchant looking for a summer resort will be handed a circular bearing the foot-note, " No Jews taken," and I have seen many circulars which added, " Dogs not allowed/' The Jew is excluded from society. Hosts apologize for the stranger by assuring you that " he is a good fellow, if he is a Jew." Mass-meetings have recently been held in several cities for the purpose of protesting against the con- tinual ill-treatment and persecution to which the poor Jews in general and Jewish peddlers in particular are subjected, not only by the hoodlums, but by the school children. Re- cently in Detroit, the Mayor had to make a special appeal to the police to prevent vio- lence and injustice. In Chicago, Mayor Har- rison sent a request to the President of the Board of Education, the result of which was that the Superintendent of Schools issued in- structions to the principals of all the schools to warn their pupils against calling offensive names, throwing stones, or otherwise injur- ing poor Jews. These instructions were car- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 217 ried out by means of the principals. Arch- bishop Feehan was also approached on the subject. I have seen Jewish children go home from our public schools in tears because of the of- fensive names with which they were taunted. Outrages are frequently perpetrated upon the Jews on the east side of New York under the very noses of the police outrages which are a disgrace to the Metropolis of the Re- public. Russian and Roumanian immigrants who are striving with might and main to earn a livelihood in New York meet with a recep- tion from the denizens of the streets not at all creditable to the citizens. A writer in the Mail and Express witnessed the following in- cident : " He stood on the Broadway walk in front of Trinity churchyard a Roumanian Jew, with collar-buttons and shoe-laceS to sell. Biff, came a bundle of yellow slips, thrown by a messenger-boy, striking him in the eye. He turned, blinking with pain, but he could not 218 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT run after the miscreant, who, with his fellows, in glee was dodging into the crowd. He could leave neither his wares nor catch the boys. " This is something that happens every day. The lives of vendors on the streets are made miserable by the small boy. The police- man, too, takes his share of fruit, of the best on the stand, always. The small boy grabs. Both are thieves and work with impunity. " Out of some pity at the outrage, and maybe curiosity, a passer-by asked the peddler if his eye pained him badly. It was so injured as to be bloodshot, and the tears streamed down the poor man's face. Some collar-buttons were bought, and the man for- got his pain. He had been in America a year, but was not a citizen and could not vote. How much did he make in a day? ' Fifty cents, sometimes sixty/ " ' Wife and children? ' 1 In Roumania.' " The fellow was surprised at being spoken INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 219 to, but he was grateful. There was a very human look of thanks in his uninjured eye. The other looked indignant still." It is not to the credit of the rich and influ- ential Jews of our cities that they do not seek to right these wrongs heaped upon their poorer brethren. These toiling coreligionists are worthy of the influence and assistance of their more fortunate brethren. The non- Jewish world has only contempt for the Jew who does not seek to make the name of Jew respected throughout every nook and corner of the nation. The merchant who cheats his creditor or rivals his competitor, if he comes of Hebrew blood, has " Jew! " hissed at him. Judaism is made responsible for every trick in trade. Do we not derive all our notions of integrity from the Jew, who first taught the world, "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness "? " It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest." It is just as unreasonable to use the word 220 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT " Yankee " for all that meanness which, it is said, would cheat in the measurement if given the right to sell out the Atlantic Ocean by the pint, as to make of the word " Jew " a verb to designate taking advantage in trade. I have seen some mean Yankees who, in the words of another, " with a jack-knife and a pine shingle could in two hours' time whittle the smartest Jew in New York out of his homestead in the Abrahamic Covenant." But to despise all New Englanders, among whom are the largest-hearted and biggest-brained people on earth, on account of the proverbial meanness and trickery of some, is certainly unreasonable prejudice. In Marlowe's " Jew of Malta," Barabbas is made to say: " Some Jews are wicked as some Christians are; But say the tribe that I descended of Were all in general cast away for sin, Shall I be tried for their transgression? The man that dealeth righteously shall live." Never was a truer word spoken ; every Jew INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 221 has been made responsible for the acts of every other Jew. Lord Macaulay has truly said, " The Jew is what we made him." Leroy-Beaulieu forcibly says : " Their virtues are their own, their vices are our making. Their virtues are the result of Judaic teaching; their vices are the results of circumstances which we have massed about their life." Or to use the words of the late Senator Vance: " If the Jew is a bad job, in all honesty we should con- template him as the handiwork of our own civilization." In one of the finest passages of Cumber- land's "The Jew," Sheva answers Sir Stephen, who cannot conceive that a Jew cannot lend even a small sum without the desire of doubling : " What has Sheva done to be called a vil- lain? I am a Jew; what then? Is that a reason none of my tribe should have a sense of pity? You have no great deal of pity your- self, but I know many noble British mer- 222 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT chants that do abound in pity, therefore I do not abuse your tribe." The prejudice that still exists against the Jew must be traced to this as one of the lead- ing causes. One is made responsible for all, and all are made responsible for one. Paul and Iscariot were both Jews, and yet many a Christian execrates the nation from whom the betrayer of the Master sprung, and seems to forget altogether that from the same nation sprang Paul, the great apostle. The teaching of the Bible can only produce good. Why should not the Ten Command- ments promulgated through Moses have as powerful and as purifying a grasp upon the conscience of the Jew as upon that of the Gentile? Is it fair to let prejudice against in- dividuals develop into prejudice against a race? Let the reproach be cast where it belongs, upon the individual and not upon the race. Alexandre Dumas said: " When I found out that I was black, I determined to live so white as to force men to look beneath my skin." INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 223 That ought to be the spirit and ambition of every man who belongs to a persecuted race. I believe that Judaism has a mission, and if I were a Jew I would be proud of it. Heine said : " The history of the Jews is beautiful ; but our modern Jews are standing in the light of the ancient ones, who certainly deserve to be held in greater esteem than either Greeks or Romans. I believe if the race as such was extinct, and a rumor got abroad that there was a specimen of that people living some- where, they would travel a hundred miles to see that individual and shake hands with him and now they are shunning us! " But people will not shun you if you are a good Jew. If I were a Jew, I would stand up for my rights; I would be neither uppish nor iconoclastic; I would not sneer at the syna- gogue, nor reject all the traditions and cus- toms of Judaism; I would not be close and hard in business ; I would never take advan- tage in a bargain ; I would not higgle for the lowest penny when paying, or the highest 224 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT when making a sale ; I would not pay a min- imum of wages and exact the maximum of work; I would not be suspicious of any one's honesty; I would not be small-souled, selfish, grasping, narrow-spirited, envious, and jeal- ous ; I would be large-hearted, noble-spirited, generous to the very utmost of self-sacrifice ; I would seek to have my life one unflawed crystal, to make weighty my influence for truth and nobleness ; I would, in short, make the word Jew stand for all that is great, good, and grand in character. Judaism, the mother of Christianity, is still a living force, and he is the best Jew whose heart beats with the purest pulse towards God and man, and not he whose head spins the finest theological cobwebs. "'Tis not the wise phylactery, nor stubborn taste, nor stated prayers That makes us saints: we judge the tree by what it bears." In their dealings Jews are as honorable as other men. At a meeting in New York of INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 225 the Association of Credit Men, at which but a few Jews were present, the late Hon. Wil- liam L. Strong, former mayor of the city, said : " I have lost less money selling goods to men who were not worth anything than in selling goods to wealthy concerns. I have a case in mind of one who began buying on credit of me one case of goods. In two years his credit with us amounted to $30,000. He was a Jew. In sixteen years he divided $250,000 with his partner. I am about one-fourth Jew myself. That is, I have more faith in Jews paying than I have in Gentiles doing so. We have lost four times with the latter to one of the former ; and of Jews who failed, ten have paid 100 cents on the dollar to one of the Gen- tiles." This was not said at a gathering of Jews, but given as a fact of value to be borne in mind by credit men in arriving at decisions. The social standards of the Jews are just as low and just as fine as other peopled in corresponding position. Money often gets ahead of the manners of Jew and Gentile 226 HE JEW AS A PATRIOT alike. Where do you not find the parvenu in American society? How many people do you know who have had two generations of continuous wealth and the conditions of re- fined society? Israel Zangwill has well said: " Possibly some few Jews who have gained money before they have had time to gain cul- ture may be a little loud and a little unpleas- ing to many gentlemanly Americans of the same income. But exclusion carries with it such tremendous dangers and such peril of resuscitating the old mediaeval savagery which Americans came to overthrow, that this deadly weapon of social excommunica- tion should be resorted to only whenever any other method fails. And as one who has closely studied the Jewish character in its shades as well as its lights, as one who has always written without fear or favor, I can assure our squeamish and impatient Amer- ican aristocrats that the disappearance of any unpleasant social taints in the Jew is only a question of one generation. INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 227 " The most offensive Jew who has made money is humbly anxious for his children to have better social advantages than he had. And from the strident and assertive Jews who have grown coarse in the struggle for exist- ence will come the quiet and cultivated ladies and gentlemen who will be an enormous force for good in the America of to-morrow. The same is true of Americans at large, not merely Jews." THE ANTI-SEMITE A COWARD The anti-Semite is a coward. The cry of the Jew-hater is the cry of the beaten man. The best man, as a rule, wins. If you want to know why the Jews win, read the names pub- lished annually of the public-school children who have passed the examinations for en- trance to the subfreshman class of the Col- lege of the City of New York. There are the Cohens, Cosinskys, Levys, Greenbaums, Sesmorskys, Shapiros, Fleishers, Bernsteins, Rosenbergs, Goldsteins, Kopfsteins, Czar- 228 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT kowskis, and other names of unmistak- able Jewish families from Germany and from Russia, and very few names of children of American descent. Fifty per cent, of the students in Columbia University are Jews; they are busy qualifying themselves for suc- cess, and while we are reviling them they are broadening their minds. With the exception of Russia, the Jews are more hated in Austria than in any other country on earth. Although the Jews form hardly five per cent, of the total population of the Austrian Kingdom, they contribute more than nineteen per cent, to the students at the Austrian univer- sities. In the Vienna University forty per cent, of the students are Jews and thirty per cent, of the teachers are Jews. In the Buda- pest University a third of the professors are of Jewish origin. In the classical and high schools of Hungary twenty per cent, of the pupils are Jews, although they constitute but little more than four per cent, of the popula- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 229 tion. In the intermediate schools of Austria yy per cent, are Jews. Eighty-five per cent, of the successful lawyers of Berlin are Jews, and the percentage is about the same of the great and lucrative business of all sorts in Germany. In Germany the business is in the hands of the Jews; they are pushing the Christian to the wall, therefore the Jew must be banished. Only a decadent race need fear the Jew, and if the German or the French- man is afraid of him, so much the worse for the German or the Frenchman. We hear this same cry in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other cities that the banks, the newspapers, the theatres, the great mercantile and manufac- turing interests, business of the high value and the small, are in the hands of the Jew. Now, why is the Jew getting on? I recently spent a few clays in some libraries on the east side of New York libraries patronized largely by Russian and Polish Hebrews. Any librarian in the city will tell you that these 230 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT young Jews are the most remarkable readers in the city they read, and devour American history and biography, philosophy and science. There is little call for books in their own language. The desire appears to be to leave foreign literature behind when the old country is abandoned. Everywhere the Jew is disciplining his reasoning powers, and learning how to do better work which insures that success which clamor and complaining never win. It is not strange that the Jew is winning; it were strange if he did not win. If the Jew continues as he has begun, he will hold the future. THE LOVE OF GOLD The inordinate love of gold is the sin of our day and one of the grave perils of our civiliza- tion. The jingle of coin is the snare of all religious creeds and races alike. If we loved God as we love gold, we should soon be lifted into angelhood. The almost frenzied strife to get money is never-ceasing, and to obtain INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 231 it many a Christian imperils alike his body and his soul; and no matter how despicable the man may be, if he gets money, by hook or by crook, and either of them is far from being straight, he will be idolized, though mentally deficient, vulgar in person, ugly in features, and coarse in language. Let us remember this truth when we sit in judgment upon the Jewish people. The love of money is the curse of Jew and Gentile alike. Is not the Chris- tian to blame for the money-lending char- acteristics of the Jew? Did not the Chris- tian drive him from all other branches of trade with a price on his head, and place his home at the mercy of others? Is it right now to insult his race and religion, because of that fact, in sneeringly calling him a Jew? You can throw a stone into any of our Chris- tian churches and hit a Shylock. The Jew knows how to deal in money, but the Chris- tian gave him the points in the game of usury. Yes, Jews love money, and so do Chris- 232 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT tians. Look at our American Congress and our State legislatures and tell me if those who sell their votes to the corporations for class legislation are Jews. Are all who have monopolized the lands, watered the railroad stocks, and cornered the homes, are they all Jews? Who owns the mortgage on your house? Nine times out of ten it is a Chris- tian. Ask him to be lenient with you and he will demand his pound of flesh, and go old Shylock one better by sucking the blood along with it. Among Jews, as among Christians, there are those who think more of the man with bonds in his pockets than of the man with bonds on his feet and hands. Among Jews and Christians alike you find vulgar, loud- mouthed, money-inflated, offensive snobs who fill you with insufferable disgust. OUR DEBT TO THE JEWS FOR THE BIBLE The Jew has given to the world the knowl- edge of the only true and living God. He INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 233 has given Moses, who in the twelve United States of Israel gave to the world the first Republic, and whose laws after thirty-three hundred years still form the basis of the civil- ized world's jurisprudence. Jesus, the ideal of the race; Jesus, whom Spinoza called " the symbol of divine wis- dom " ; whom Kant and Jacobi held up as the " symbol of ideal perfection " ; of whom Strauss said " he remains the highest model of religion within our thoughts," and Renan declared "whatever will be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed " this Jesus was a Jew. Dr. Max Nordau voices the more cultured Jewish sentiment of our day concerning Christ when he says: " Jesus is soul of our soul, even as he is flesh of our flesh. Who, then, could think of excluding him from the people of Israel? St. Peter will remain the only Jew who has said of the Son of David, ' I know not the man/ Putting aside the Messianic mission, this man is ours. He honors our race, and we claim him as we 234 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT claim the Gospels flowers of Jewish litera- ture, and only Jewish." Our Bible, the Old as well as the New Tes- tament, was written by Jews. What would the world have been without the Bible? The countries which are indisputably the foremost and most enlightened among the nations are Bible nations. Where the Bible prevails in- telligence rules. In every country where the Bible does not rule you find man in a semi- barbarous condition. The most highly civil- ized and most intelligent people, the most just and reasonable laws, humane and chari- table institutions are to be found only in those countries where the Jewish Bible rules. Where there is no Bible there is no liberty. To it we owe more liberty and civilization than to any source or power. Ours is the only flag that has in reality written upon it " Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," and this great Republic was founded by Bible be- lievers. This Book, translated 1604-11, spread through England and inspired the re- INDEBTEDNESS TO THE JEWS 235 volt against Charles I. in 1642. Its " To your tents, O Israel " quickened the Puritans into action, and its inspiration caused them to ride into battle singing its psalms. It was the Bible which lifted the people of Europe into a civilized condition and made nations of them. All the beneficent changes in the world have occurred under the dominion of the Bible. The Reformation one of the sublimest up- risings in the whole history of the human race, which developed the human mind, promoted civilization, liberalized men, de- stroyed in a measure superstition, revolution- ized religious beliefs, and changed the forms of governments was the outgrowth of the study of the Bible by Martin Luther under Nicholas de Lyra, the Jew. " Si Lyra non lyr asset, Luther us non sal t asset." Liberty, charity, and brotherhood find their only place of abode in Bible countries. They thrive upon the Bible. Their sustenance is the Bible. They worship at its august shrine, and 236 THE JEW AS A PATRIOT bow with imperial grandeur before its majes- tic throne. This Book which attends us in our sickness and when the fever of the world is on us, tempers our grief to finer issues, enables us with a bright eye and without fear to take the death-angel by the hand, to tread the way through the dark valley, bidding farewell to wife and babes and home, in the consolation of meeting in gladness beyond the tomb ; this book on which men rest their dearest hopes, and which tells us of earthly duties and in- spires us with heavenly rest and heavenly reunion, for this Book we are indebted to the Jews. PUBLICATIONS OF THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., Publishers and Booksellers, 33-37 EAST SEVENTEENTH ST., NEW YORK WIT AND WISDOM OF THE TALMUD. By Rev. Madison C. Peteks. With an Introduction by Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.00. "The Talmud is one of the most ungetatable masses of literature in the world, both because of its bulk and the variety of its dialects. It has never been translated as a whole, translations of parts are rare, and yet it is a repertory of pithy sayings and affords a rich harvest of quotations that ought to be familiar, but are not. For proof of this we would refer the reader to 'Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud.' " New York Churchman "The book is distinctly a valuable one for all literary workers." Hartford Courant. " An attractive reference book. It is a repository of ancient gold." School Journal. "Shows judgment and good taste in the choice of its material." American Hebrew. "It is a most enjoyable book, and the compiler is to be felicitated on having discharged his task so discriminatingly." Memphis Commercial Appeal. 1 ' An attractive reference book of apt quotations. Dr. Peters has done a good work by broadening the horizon of the Christian and giving this glimpse into the Jewish scriptures." Chicago Chronicle. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., PUBLISHERS, 33-37 E. 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York. THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. 1 2mo, cloth, 75 cents This work is especially addressed to the ministry of the world. Regardless of sect, it must interest thinking religious people everywhere. In it Dr. Strong works on this theme : There were great religious awakenings in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In each instance these great awakenings came in connec- tion with the preaching of a neglected scriptural truth or truths, which were peculiarly adapted to the needs of the times. The beginning of the twentieth century naturally suggests to the churches a new forward movement. The need of a great religious awakening is felt and preparation for it is being made. When will it come ? The writer thinks that a study of the revivals of the past four hundred years justifies the conclusion that the next great awakening will come when certain neglected scriptural truths, peculiarly adapted to the needs of our times, are faithfully proclaimed. These truths he points out. The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Square North, New York THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., Author of "Our Country,'* "Religious Movements for Social Betterment'* "Twentieth- Century City," "Expansion" etc. i2mo, cloth, net 75 cents Dr. Strong takes up the profound changes which have come about within the memory of living men, both in the physical world and in the world of ideas. He shows what were the causes of these changes, and points out the results which have (lowed from them already, together with established tendencies which are prophetic of future changes, thus interpreting the times in which we live. He discusses the great social laws which must be obeyed if social ills are to cease, and enables the young man to make a practical application of these laws to the solu- tion of his own personal problems, such as the choice of an occupation, his education, his relation to athletics, personal expenditure and the like. In short, the book is a brief and simple philosophy of life, intended to help the young steer a safe and successful course amid the conflicting and perplexing currents of modem change a work which all persons engaged in any capacity with the guidance of youth would be glad to see in the hands of their charges. The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Square North, New York A New Illustrated Edition of THE SALT-BOX HOUSE By Jane de Forest Shelton Eigbteentb-Century Life in a New England Hill Town i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated, net $1.50 Beautifully illustrated with six full-page drawings by John Henderson Betts, of Philadelphia. The success of Miss Shelton's book led the publishers to add to its literary charm some sketches which greatly increase the Colonial atmosphere of the book. From the very first Miss Shelton's work was received by all students of Colonial history and lovers of Colonial customs with the warmest ap- proval. " Deserves more than cursory mention. The style and man- ner of the work are quiet and peaceful, and the matter of the narrative is touched with an almost breathless rev- erence. So simple is the commentary, so sweet and gentle its slightest utterance, that at times it reaches the highest art of expression." New York Public Opinion. "Is full of atmosphere and reality, and enlightened with many graceful and humorous touches." Philadelphia Public Ledger. "An entertaining as well as faithful picture of eighteenth- century life, and we heartily recommend it." Boston Transcript. " The reading of this book is a pure delight." Church Standard. The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Sq. North, N. Y. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. SEi* 3 1937 MAR 1 1 1970 4 8 r\ ^ C\ -z. /tf*-7>> Ci KOi v i M w ADD a j^ WR 6ffi LD 21-5ro-6,'37