411 give the/e Baoks
for the founding of a College in this Colony'
DEPOSITED BY THE
LINONIAN AND BROTHERS LIBRARY
} KAiV*'
The Modern
The Modern Jew
By
Arnold White
Author of " Problems of a Great City "
"English Democracy," &c.
" Israel hath cast off the thing that is good;
the enemy shall pursue him "
Hosica viii. 3
New York
Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers
1 899
Printed by
Ballantyne, Hanson &= Co.
London
-J ((A .
-t)0 " Ji>
<
This Edition is for sale in the United
States of America only, and is
not to he imported into Countries
signatory to the Berne Treaty.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
WHAT IS A JEW? I
THE PROBLEM IN RUSSIA 9
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 65
THE JEW IN AMERICA 93
THE JEW IN FRANCE IOl
THE JEW IN ENGLAND 115
THE JEW IN THE ARGENTINE COLONIES . . 129
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 137
MONEY LENDERS 163
THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN . . . 177
ZIONISM 211
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 221
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 237
JEWISH HUMOUR 261
CONCLUSION 271
APPENDIX 281
PREFACE
During the last ten years I have written on the subject
of the Modern Jew for various periodicals—notably in
the Nineteenth Century, Contemporary Review, Chambers's
Journal, and North American Review. With the excep¬
tion of the Statistics relating to the Russian Jews—for
the republication of which I have to thank the Editor
of the Contemporary Review—the following pages now
see the light for the first time.
In the course of my investigations I have received
much assistance from friends and others. I desire
especially to acknowledge the aid of Major Sharp
Hume and of Mr. Randolph L. Hodgson. To the
latter's knowledge of Austrian peasant life I am
indebted. I also wish to thank Mr. W. Heinemann,
my publisher, for his courtesy in kindly seeing the
book through the press during my absence abroad
beyond the reach of posts.
Careful study of the Dreyfus affair convinces me
viii PREFACE
that in its main issues it illustrates the decadence of
France rather than the phenomena of modern Israel ;
and I have not, therefore, included any examination
of the question in the following pages—the more
especially as all unprejudiced people, who agree
on the facts, are of one mind. Captain Dreyfus as a
hero and a man adds one more to the long line of
Jewish worthies whose annals adorn the history of
the race.
INTRODUCTION
Amid the rivalries and quarrels of Europe there is one
subject of common interest to the nations of Christen¬
dom which threatens to master and mate other ques¬
tions of international concern. I speak of the waxing
power of the Jewish race, their aloofness from the
nations among whom they dwell, and the waning
patience of the people among whom they settle. Con¬
tinental antipathy towards the Hebrew race would be
of little importance to the British Empire but for the
fact that the United Kingdom, with its traditions of
freedom and the right of asylum, is marked by destiny
as the sanctuary for oppressed Jews flying from political
violence or religious persecution in other lands. On
former occasions England's open door has admitted
the hunted quarry of Continental oppression not only
with immunity from evil results, but with advantage to
her trade, and with the certainty of enrichment to her
national life. Students of English history are unable to
place their finger upon a single instance where the prac¬
tice of the right of asylum has hitherto proved anything
but beneficial to the British Empire. Still, the circum-
X
INTRODUCTION
stances under which the wealth, the power, and the
numbers of the Jewish race domiciled in this country
are likely to be indefinitely increased seem to call for
more prescience and thought at the hands of our
rulers than have yet been bestowed upon them.
Anti-Semitism is palpably on the increase. As will
be shown in future chapters, there are no grounds for
anticipating any diminution in the intensity of repug¬
nance displayed by the populations and rulers of
Europe towards Israel in exile. That the Jews princi¬
pally affected themselves perceive their danger is shown
by the fever and force with which the Zionist move¬
ment has sprung from nothing to maturity. In France
hostility to the Jews has become synonymous with
loyalty to the patrie, although France was the pioneer
of Jewish emancipation. Government after govern¬
ment continues the work of oppression, and at the
present time the large tolerance of Napoleon is ex¬
changed for a general display of horror and hatred
towards the Hebrew race. In Germany, Hungary,
and Austria, where the Jews have acquired by mort¬
gages over the land so fast a grip of national life
that nothing but revolution would shake it off, the
Jew hatred is as bitter, though expressed in more
measured fashion, as in Fran'ce. In Russia the Govern¬
ment itself organises and executes an anti-Semitic
policy, with the result that in the sixteen provinces
of the Pale and the ten provinces of Poland, in
which the Jews are confined as in a pinfold, seething
discontent, over-crowding, organised humiliations,
misery, and squalor presage inevitable changes in the
near future.
INTRODUCTION
XI
Amid the muttering of popular enmity on the
Continent England has pursued her even way. The
immigration into this country of the poor of other lands
is now almost entirely restricted to persons of the
Jewish race. The legislation contemplated by the
Marquis of Salisbury when in Opposition has not been
brought forward by his Government when in power.
Whatever may have been the reasons for the abstention
of Lord Salisbury's Government from dealing with the
Destitute Alien Question, there is no doubt that their
decision was a prudent one, unless they were prepared
to deal with the Jewish Question, and to be governed
by the facts of the situation. The present immigration
of debased and impoverished Jews from the slums of
the Russian Ghetto, however undesirable and hurtful
to the English people, has not yet attained dimensions
sufficient to lift the controversy out of the arena of
party strife. When, however, the manifest destiny of
the French people, the insurrection of the peasantry
and gentry of Central Europe against non-moral
capitalist domination, and the bursting of the bonds in
the Russian Pale have liberated a torrent of Jews who
must fly for safety, it should not be forgotten that
England is the one reservoir available for refugees. It
is because our rulers and statesmen generally do not
appear to have given serious thought to the conse¬
quences of the coming invasion that I have attempted
to set forth in this book some of the facts of the case.
To make the people of England think is the object
of this book. If they refuse to think betimes, they will
wake up one morning only to discover that they have
parted with the realities of national life, and arc domi-
Xll
INTRODUCTION
nated by cosmopolitan and materialist influences fatal
to the existence of the English nation.
Dangers may be predicted from facts which may be
unwelcome but cannot be denied. Each immigrant
foreign Jew settling in this country joins, not the
English community as the Huguenots and Hollander
refugees from the Roman Catholic prosecutions of the
seventeenth century joined us, but a community
proudly separate, racially distinct, and existing prefer¬
entially aloof. Members of this community for succes¬
sive generations, except in rare instances, decline to
intermarry with non-Jews, maintain a different Sabbath,
consume a different food, and are tied to alien com¬
munities of their own race and faith in other lands by
closer bonds than any that unite them to the country of
their adoption. This Jewish island in the sea of
English life is small to-day. Few trades, interests, or
classes are so directly affected by it as to create mis¬
giving in the public mind that a danger menacing to
national life has begun in our midst, is growing, and
must be abated if sinister consequences are to be
avoided. There are two methods, and only two, in
which the evil results of a Jewish imperium inside the
English Empire can be obviated. It can be destroyed
and its members expelled as was done in the thirteenth
century in most countries in Europe, including England,
and is likely to be done over again in France before
many years have passed, or the Jewish community,
frankly recognising the peril that besets them, must
review their conduct and heartily work for instead of
against the process of absorption which in two genera¬
tions made French Protestants of the day of Louis XIV.
INTRODUCTION
Xllt
an integral part of the English people. So far the
enormous majority of them have resolutely declined
even to consider methods which they allege would
obliterate their racial entity as Jews. Except among
the Jewish aristocracy, they refuse to intermarry, and
while seeking no proselytes to their own faith, their
proudest consciousness lies in the conviction that Jeho¬
vah has set them apart among the nations and destines
them to a future more glorious and responsible than
any that awaits the less gifted and favoured followers
of the Nazarene. They have, they say, a mission and
a message to the Gentiles.
England, therefore, is in this dilemma : She is either
compelled to abandon her secular practice of com¬
placent acceptance of every human being choosing to
settle on these shores, or to face the certainty of the
Jews becoming stronger, richer, and vastly more
numerous; with the corresponding certainty of the
press being captured as it has been captured on the
Continent, and the national life stifled by the substitu¬
tion of material aims for those which, however faultily,
have formed the unselfish and imperial objects of the
Englishmen who have made the Empire. If it be
objected that the Jews of the future are no less likely
than the Englishmen of the past to govern England
well, unselfishly, and with a high ideal for our national
life, the answer is simple. Jews are not likely to con¬
sider or treat the English with greater tenderness than
they have considered and treated their own brethren
under dire persecution. When Russia girded up her
loins, like Pharaoh, to smite the Children of Israel, and
inflicted burdens grievous to be borne upon the
xiv
INTRODUCTION
wretched denizens of the poverty stricken Pale, the
rich Jews of Europe, with few important exceptions,
chose that opportunity to lend Russia the money that
enabled her, among other things, to rivet the chains of
ascendency on her Jewish subjects. Humanity does
not change its spirit in a day, a week, or a century, and
we English have no right, therefore, to anticipate that
when the Jews arrive at the position in Great Britain
which they occupy in France to-day, the conduct
of the bulk of them will be more humane, enlightened,
or unselfish towards us than it has been towards the
French or still more towards their six million co¬
religionists in the Russian Ghetto.
Those who are only acquainted with the faultless
civic and social life of Anglicised Jewish subjects of the
Queen are scarcely in a position to judge of the dangers
which menace us as a nation, and which menace the
English Jews along with the rest of their fellow
subjects. In all countries and throughout the centuries,
recurrent phenomena attending the protection, equality,
popularity, strength, vices, and final ejection of the
Jewish community are constant; and seem to forma
code of inexorable law which, to be understood, must
be examined. The mild spirit of Christian forbearance
has promoted the undue economic predominance of a
more powerful and intolerant race. When the spirit
of Christianity began to wane in France, the religious
indifference which followed the Revolution removed
the checks to Jewish prosperity, and there, whether by
Christian forbearance or religious indifference, no im¬
pediment to the aloofness of Israel exists. The intoler¬
ance of Christendom towards the Jews is reflected by
INTRODUCTION
xv
an intolerance even deeper and more lasting of Judaism
towards non-Jews. They resemble the Roman Catholic
Church in this, that until they have obtained freedom
and equality they are humbler, more suppliant, and
meeker than other men ; but when once equality is
accorded, the spiritual despotism of Rome herself is not
more absolute than the iron intolerance of the prosper¬
ous but non-spiritual Jew.
So long as one-half of Europe worships a Jew, and
the other half a Jewess ; while the engine of inter¬
national finance is under Jewish control, and while
public opinion is medicated by Jewish influence over
the European press, the Jews will continue to be in
the future, as they have been in the past, the most
interesting people in the world. A race that baffled f
the Pharaohs, foiled Nebuchadnezzar, thwarted Rome,
defeated feudalism, circumvented the Romanoffs,
baulked the Kaiser, and undermined the Third French
Republic presents ample material for legitimate curi¬
osity. Secular exposure to the persecutions of ignorant
peoples and a sullen priesthood, Jewish tribulation,
and Jewish triumphs alternately compel the attention
of mankind. For many centuries the persecution of
the Jews assumed a religious form. Christian rulers,
at the instance of sacerdotal apprehensions, argued that
their own faith was so manifestly the right one, and the
creed of Israel so plainly wrong, that it was held to be
impossible that any Jew could be sincere in his religious
belief. For many generations the Jewish Question
assumed this form. Modern liberalism, which is often
but a synonym for the decay of faith, has dispelled the
fog that enveloped both Jews and Gentiles when Israel
xvi
INTRODUCTION
was brought into collision with the Familiars of the
Spanish Inquisition. Later on, when the French Revo¬
lution had crystallised in men's minds their dormant
longings for visible equality, the Jewish Question once
more changed. Hebrew prosperity attracted hostility,
hitherto directed against the lineal descendants of the
murderers of Christ because of the participation of
their ancestors in the greatest crime recorded in
history.
The virtue of prosperity is temperance ; the virtue of
adversity is fortitude. Prosperity is the blessing of the
Old Testament, as Bacon reminds us ; adversity is the
blessing of the New. i But the Jew, who through all
ages has rivalled the Spartan in fortitude, has never
acquired the grace of bearing prosperity with temper¬
ance. The virtues of Israel, discovered during long
stretches of calamity, bid fair to be forgotten by the
nations, in view of the vices exhibited by a few revellers
in the boundless prosperity of material success.
Notwithstanding, the Jews are increasing by leaps
and bounds, in numbers, in wealth, in sorrows, in
calamity, and poverty. If the antipathy of the Middle
Ages, inspired by their denial of the Founder of the
faith of Christendom, has passed away, it has been
succeeded by antagonism partly nourished from the
ranks of the Jews themselves. At the end of the
nineteenth century the nations are beginning to feel
the presence of a new and growing power in their
midst. Intellectual superiority, Oriental subtlety, and
the training of sorrow accredit the Jews with a complex
and mysterious power denied to any other living race.
They are found in all nations, but, like the Gulf Stream,
INTRODUCTION
xv u
they remain apart from the mass of the ocean around
them. They are found in every range of social and
intellectual development. The Jew of the Russian
Pale differs from the Jew Anglicised for three genera¬
tions as the Circassian differs from a Spaniard. Although
the only true cosmopolitan people in the world, with
the exception of the Gitanos, they reflect, like the
chameleon, the texture and the tint of the rock on
which they rest. They are divided into as many classes
as the Christians. Their education, employments,
habits, politics, and ideals vary as widely as among the
Gentiles. They are too often credited with a general
solidarity to which they can lay no claim. Unanimity
of view is like one form of crystallisation : it is some¬
times the result of pressure. When the pressure of
persecution is removed, as in England or America,
Jewish unity may be sought for in vain on those subjects
upon which the English and American people differ
among themselves. Universal agreement on minor
matters among a race so quick witted and somewhat
quarrelsome is not to be expected. Still, in spite of
their differences of opinion, and although scattered
over the face of the earth, the Jews maintain a secret
and indissoluble bond of common interest. When
attacked from outside, Jewry presents a single front to
the enemy.
Notwithstanding the solidarity and aloofness of the
Jewish race, many of the leading exponents of Israelite
opinion constantly deny the existence of a Jewish
Question. It is my object in the following pages to
describe it.
b
I
WHAT IS A JEW?
A
WHAT IS A JEW?
The term Jew, meaning a descendant of Judah, strictly
speaking only applies to the Tribe of Judah. The term
is now applicable to all the seed of Israel. In recent
years the significance of the word has become modified.
Formerly it was employed as a term of contempt, like
Whig, Tory, Gueux, Quaker, Sea Beggar, Roundhead,
or Jingo. Many Jews, even to-day, are chary in using
the name. Israelite is the term they employ by prefer¬
ence. Zionism, and the revival of the national feeling,
have restored the term "Jew" to favour, while
"Israelite" or "Hebrew" is more rarely employed,
except within the confines of the community itself.
But this definition does not answer the question—
What is a Jew ? He may be of the seed of Abraham,
pur sang, and yet have adopted English habits and the
Christian faith, or, as Hue and Gabet described in
their celebrated journey through China to Thibet, half
a century ago, " have become Chinese in habit and
Confucian in faith, while retaining the racial traits and
the physiognomy of their ancestry."
The religious Jew recognises as Jewish no kinship
with those who have abandoned the Hebrew faith, and
he denies to perverts the proud title of "Jew." To
4 THE MODERN JEW
Israel is committed a mission to the nations and a
message to the Gentiles. It is only in fulfilment of
this duty that the Semite of Western Asia retains his
title to the promises and predictions of the prophecies.
Thus the "Froom," or pious Jew.
The average man, however, recognises no essential
tie between faith and race, and knows Jewry by its
descent rather than its creed. Indeed, the peculiar
characteristics usually associated with the Hebrew
community are not religious, but racial. The quarrel
of un-Christlike Christendom with the Judaism that has
broken with Moses is not a question of faith ; it is a
matter of character and habit engendered partly by
Oriental origin and Semitic exclusiveness and partly,
perhaps principally, by qualities acquired by the race
through centuries of persecution and cruelty at the
hands of the followers of the Nazarene under the
operation of the first law of Nature—the wish to live.
Still, neither origin, race, nor faith is sufficient to
constitute a satisfactory reply to the question—What is
a Jew ? The Jews of England, for example, may be
divided naturally into four classes, each of them sepa¬
rated from the other three by an almost impassable
chasm. First, there is the Jewish aristocracy, a type
unrepresented in America or in Russia. Patrician
Jews differ from their Christian peers mostly by more
strenuous and uniform patriotism, by more systematic
and larger benevolence, by quickness and by a nim-
bleness and rapidity of intellect and sensitiveness to
public opinion, which is not a common characteristic
of nobles of recent creation. In the princely homes
of the Jewish aristocracy the most brilliant society
WHAT IS A JEW ?
5
assembles. Invitations to the great Jewish houses are
openly sought; to be included in their circle of friends
is in itself a cachet; exclusion or expulsion is a social
calamity. There is one feature, however, in the society
encountered in Jewish palaces—one never meets a Jew
unless it be an aristocrat. The connection maintained
between the Hebrew patrician and his co-religionists of
the bourgeoisie is either official or philanthropic. The
tastes of the Jews who have risen are as frankly Greek
as the rest of the world, while their appreciation of the
beautiful and their repugnance to things unbeautiful
are equal. Neither Plato nor Goethe has anything to
teach them.
Of the Jewish aristocrat I do not speak in this book.
The advantages reaped by England from the Hebrew
aristocracy, not only material, but intellectual and
artistic, require no comment. They are notorious.
It is the presence of this class which has done most
to prevent the outbreak of anti-Semitism in England,
to allay impatience and postpone action to restrict the
ever-increasing horde of undesirable foreigners who
are pouring into this country. In America the Jew is
openly despised and laughed at. He is caricatured in
the comic papers, excluded from society, and is accu¬
mulating trouble. The difference between the English
and the American treatment of the Hebrew community
is almost entirely due to the absence of a wise and
capable Jewish aristocracy in America, as devotedly
attached to the great Republic as*tfie great Jewish houses
of England are attached to their Queen and country.
It should not be forgotten that the identification of
the Jewish aristocracy with English history has been
6 THE MODERN JEW
consolidated, if not accomplished, by their readiness to
intermarry with Christians—thereby setting an example
to their co-religionists which is not yet followed.
The second class into which the modern Jew natur¬
ally falls differs little from the patricians except in their
resolute refusal to permit their daughters to intermarry
with Englishmen. The pride of race, the teachings of
the Talmud, and the consciousness of consecration to
the mission with which they have been entrusted
combine to maintain, in highly educated religious Jews,
the aloofness which is at the root of everything to
which the nations of Christendom can legitimately
object. To this class of Jews belongs the highly
educated and anglicised Hebrew, who has practically
relinquished his faith without abandoning the racial
characteristics of which I shall speak later on. The
professions are thronged with this class, and their con¬
tributions to our national life are of great value and
not to be spared without inflicting heavy loss on the
national welfare and on British institutions. The good
anglicised Jew springs from three or four generations
settled in England, and is as proud of the traditions of
Trafalgar or of the sovereignty of Shakespeare as any
of the legitimate descendants of the people whose
names are written in the Domesday Book. The whole
of the class of which I am speaking are not only notori¬
ously better citizens than the average Englishmen, but
they are sedulous in the fulfilment of their duties to
their poor co-religionists. These are they whose names
are found on the innumerable committees and in the
mangement of beneficent societies which have rendered
Jewish charity in England one of the few unchallenged
WHAT IS A JEW? 7
triumphs of modern civilisation. With the single
exception of the general refusal to intermarry with
their fellow subjects outside the Jewish community,
thus tending to maintain Israel as a caste apart from
other Englishmen, there is nothing to distinguish them
from the rest of their fellow subjects.
The third class of Jews resident in England is less
easy to describe. I sincerely wish to avoid wounding
the feelings of any one, but in the concentrated and
relentless pursuit of material gain, in the profession
and practice of an ignoble cosmopolitanism, in the
avoidance of patriotic and even of communal duties,
is to be found the raw material of revolutionary out¬
break. These are the Jews who leave to a compara¬
tively small class of their co-religionists the duty of
grappling with the almost overwhelming difficulties of
providing for their own poor and a constant influx of
immigrants—a situation that must become worse before
it is better.* Jews of the Sephardim are rarely found
in this class. They are very largely recruited from the
Aschkenasim.t The personal habits of these cosmopo-
* ANGLO-JEWISH ASSOCIATION.—With reference to Mr. I. L.
Bril's letter on the Anglo-Jewish Association, in our last week's issue,
we are requested by Mr. B. Kisch to state that by "Jews of Foreign
extraction who ought to subscribe but do not," he meant not the poor
immigrants at the East End, whose subscriptions would have to be
collected in weekly pence, but the well-to-do, and, in many cases,
wealthy Jews, residing mostly in the north and north-west of London,
who evade their fair share of communal burdens. There is probably
no one concerned with the work of any of our charities who is not
aware of the existence of a large number of persons of the class
referred to.—Jewish Chronicle, January 27, 1899.
f A term applied to the Jews of German-speaking and Slavonic
countries as distinguished from the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
8 THE MODERN JEW
lites now involve their exclusion from many clubs, and
arouse an unpopularity which is blindly and unjustly
visited upon the whole Jewish community. It is un¬
necessary to dwell upon these unlovable people, and it
is sufficient to say that it is against them that the
growing repugnance to prosperous Jews is mainly due.
Successful foreigners who have renounced Germany
without embracing England cannot expect popularity
even if their manners were charming and their methods
of life such as to cause admiration and inspire respect.
This class of Jew, however, seems to be impregnable
to those considerations which require a certain minimum
of refinement on the part of every one who undertakes
to mix with his fellow men. As a rule these foreign Jews
are well-to-do. They deny themselves nothing. They
spend freely the gains which they have acquired by
superior sharpness over the native born. The descend¬
ants of those who rolled back the invasion of Senna¬
cherib from the walls of Jerusalem fill the stalls of every
fashionable theatre, occupy the best rooms at the best
hotels, indulge in every pastime and are present at every
spectacle that can add to their pleasure and enhance
their joy in the material side of life. This is the class
which is the cause of coming danger; and the peril
arises, not from their enjoyment of life, nor from their
capture of the good things that are going, but from their
hide-bound refusal to discharge the responsibilities as
well as accept the privileges of money-making. In times
of public turmoil, should they arise, this is the class that
will be weighed in the balance and found wanting.
The fourth class of Jew in this country is the Desti¬
tute Alien. To him I devote a chapter by himself.
II
THE PROBLEM IN RUSSIA
THE PROBLEM IN RUSSIA
I
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW
Before the recent outbreak of anti-Semitism in
France the serious character of the Jewish Question in
Russia was known to those who closely watched the
phases of its development. To the predecessors and
colleagues of M. Pobedonosteff the problem is insoluble.
The administration is on the horns of a dilemma. The
extermination of millions of Jews, whether by massacre
or pestilence, is impracticable on the verge of the
twentieth century, while the destruction of the
Russian State, in the opinion of patriot Slavs, would be
the direct and sinister consequence of Jewish emanci¬
pation, and is equally out of the region of practical
politics. From this impasse there is 110 escape visible
to the Tchinovnik. In the course of inquiries in the
year 1897 I met with fourteen instances of alleged ill-
treatment of the Jews in Russia. In two cases of
spoliation and brutality that occurred at Schpola and
at Kantakonzene, in the Government of Kherson, the
evidence obtainable by me was corroborated by sepa¬
rate, secret, and independent inquiry. The fourteen
12 THE MODERN JEW
instances of ill-treatment which became known to me
were but typical of thousands of cruel acts of tyranny
of which no human being outside Russia is likely to
hear. According to the Minister of the Interior,
M. Goremykine, the authenticated evidence of cruelty
and pillage inflicted on certain Jews, which I placed
before him, was neither to be denied nor excused.
The trouble arose from the delay in the arrival of
troops. Orthodox peasants, infuriated with the
rapacity of individuals, had attacked the whole Jewish
community. Since it is impossible to garrison every
village with the force of soldiers required for the resto¬
ration of order in the incessant quarrels between the
Jews and the peasantry, troops have to be obtained
from the great towns. Railway communication is
scanty, and hence regrettable delay constantly arises
before order is re-established. Thus the Minister
explains the sporadic outbreaks which make Jewish
existence in Russia a tragedy.
One of the saddest features of the situation in
Russian Jewry is the moral and physical degeneration
of its inhabitants. Nearly two thousand years of slum
life have modified the original characteristics of the
majority of the race. I have seen specimens of
Hebrew agriculturists in the colonies established by
the Emperor Nicholas who would have done credit
to any race in Europe. If the Jew be essentially
parasitic in character and habits ; if he can only live
by exploiting the vices or preying on the weaknesses
of others; to whom existence is impossible when
forced to face life as other men face it, with the
strength of his own right arm ; to whom the sweetest
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 13
of music is the rustling of bank notes and the chinking
of coin ; then the conclusion is irresistible that the
Jew is not only a bad Russian citizen, but that the race
is disqualified from settlement among civilised commu¬
nities on any portion of the earth's surface. There is
no escape from the logic of this position. If the
indictments brought against the Chosen People by
Madame de Novikoff and M. Drumont can be sustained
by sound evidence, then the more rapidly that French
and Russian methods are adopted by Christendom and
make an end of Israel the better for the non-Jewish
inhabitants of the planet. Moreover, it is manifestly
unfair to Russia and to France for England and America
to leave to them the solitary responsibility for action.
If there be grave reason to believe that Russia will be
devoured by a locust swarm of non-moral and mer¬
cenary Hebrews, it is high time for other nations to
smite the Chosen People hip and thigh and to join
Holy Russia in her artless effort to revenge the tragedy
at Calvary, and maintain the Slav ideals in their purity.
On the other hand, it is equally clear that if Russian
methods of dealing with the Jewish Question are fatal
to economics and to morals, then the Russian persecu¬
tion of the Jews is only to be characterised, in the
language of Mr. Lecky, as "that most hideous story of
our century."
Is there, however, any solid foundation for the belief
that the Jews are merely parasites ; that except as
middleman, money-lenders, and higglers of the market
they cannot exist ? The allegation is universal through¬
out Russia, and, for the present, the French mob is of
the same opinion. But is it true ? There is doubtless
14 THE MODERN JEW
a good deal to be said for the charge as it stands ; on
the other hand, a suppression of the material facts that
tell against it is essential before it can be sustained. Is
it true that international finance has fallen captive to
Jewish energy and skill ? In London, Paris, Vienna, and
Berlin the Jew banker is easily first among the merchants
in money. In England the fall of the Barings has
given a lonely supremacy to a Jewish banking-house
with princely traditions. But money trading is not the
only walk of life in which the Jew has been found to
take the highest place. Wherever material comfort
and personal safety are obtainable, there are nimble
brain, deft finger, and sensitive organisation found on
the topmost rung of the ladder. Medicine, music,
law, surgery, politics, journalism, and art are being
progressively officered by men of the Jewish race.
The intellectual pre-eminence of the Jew is not to be
regretted by the Anglo-Saxon race, itself built up from
materials thrown out by other nations. Stupid and
self-indulgent people who are passed in the race of life
by earnest and clever men, whether Jew or Gentile,
naturally join the ranks of the anti-Semites ; but there
is another class of Jew-hater, who is not so much con¬
cerned with the alleged parasitism of the Jew as with
the mental and spiritual effects of the worship of the
modern equivalent of the Golden Calf. It can scarcely
be denied by the warmest advocates of equality and
freedom for all, even among the more enlightened
Jews themselves, that from modern Israel a river of
materialism emerges. Russian statesmen perceive that
the decay of faith in England, France, and Central
Europe leaves the ground open for the operation of a
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 15
new social morality. They dread the modern demo¬
cracy, acknowledging neither God nor master, that has
ceased to hold in reverence the ideals its fathers wor¬
shipped, and they attribute to Jewish materialism a
large responsibility for the evil. In Western Europe
all things are in the crucible. The decay of faith has
raised the desire for physical comfort to the highest
place, and while destroying the motive for resignation
in trouble, it has replaced belief in either religion or
duty by a sense of injustice to those who enjoy the
good things of this life. Democracy, sitting at the feet
of the Hebrew Marx and Lasalle, intends to take its
share of the banquet of life whoever may want. It is
against these waves of materialism that the pasteboard
rock of Russian orthodoxy presents so firm a front.
Russia is honest in this matter. Men like M. Pobedono-
steff hold the doctrine that it is better for dissenters
from orthodoxy to lose a limb or an eye than to enter
whole into hell fire. Russia does not affect to love the
Jew. She believes him to be to-day as he was in the
time of Moses—the ardent worshipper of the Golden
Calf. By safe-guarding the promotion and careers of
her orthodox officials, who are compelled to take the
communion at stated intervals, she preserves Russia
for the Slav, and chastens the Jew for his soul's good,
as the Dominican Torquemada smote and racked
Hebrew rebels to the Church in the time of Philip.
Russia considers the Jew's faith an insult to her own,
his presence a menace to her unity, and his ideal of a
chosen people with a message to the nation an outrage
upon her national life.
Although the statistics I am about to give of the
i6 THE MODERN JEW
actual position of the Jewish people in Russia are
taken from official sources, they have never, so far as I
know, been available to the English or the Russian
public. I am indebted to the researches of MM.
Oulenikoff and Soubotin for the opportunity of setting
forth in a concise form the existing economic and vital
effects of the Jews in Russia on the general population
of the Empire.
The following table, compiled not from Jewish but
from official sources, shows the relative condition of
the population in the fifteen provinces constituting the
Pale of Settlement, the twelve provinces adjacent to the
Pale, the twenty-three remaining provinces, and the
whole of Russia, respectively :
FIFTEEN
JEWISH
PROVINCES.
THE PALE.
TWELVE
ADJACENT
PROVINCES.
TWENTY-
THREE
OTHER
PROVINCES.
ALL
RUSSIA.
The annual mor¬
tality per 1000 in¬
habitants for the
period 1867-1885.
36.6
40.3
41.1
No returns.
Annual increase of
population 1867-
1883.
1.72 p.c.
1.47 P-c.
No returns
1.28 p.c.
Arrears of land tax
from peasant pro¬
prietors in 1882,
the last year of
official returns.
11.7 p.c.
26.6 p.c.
44.3 p.c.
27 p.c.
Number of cattle
per 1000 dessiat-
ines* of arable land
1883 (no later re¬
turns published).
639
O
00
"3-
54i
539
* The dessiatine equals 2.69972 English acres.
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 17
FIFTEEN
JEWISH
PROVINCES.
THE PALE.
TWELVE
ADJACENT
PROVINCES.
TVVENTV-
THKF.E
OTIIER
PROVINCES.
ALL
RUSSIA.
Increase of horses
in 14 years, 1874-
188S.
11G p.c.
11 p.c.
6 p.c.
27 p.c.
Ditto cattle.
26 p.c.
11 p.c.
17 p.c.
19 p.c.
Capital owned by
village communi¬
ties per 1000 pea¬
sants, 1S87.
681 roubles
403 roubles
No returns
521 roubles
Consumption of al¬
cohol per 100 in¬
habitants, 1888.
30.6 vedro*
27.7 vedro
27.2 vedro
28.0 vedro
Deaths from drunk¬
enness in 1887, per
1,000,000 inhabi¬
tants.
12.0
G1.0
77.0
50.0
Houses of ill-fame,
per 100,000 of town
population.
57-°
109.0
80.0
77.0
Incendiary fires
(per 1000 fires) for
1883-1887.
7.0
15.0
11.0
11.0
Commercial li¬
cences per 1000 in¬
habitants, 1887.
9-5
10.2
z7-3
—
* The vedro equals 2.707 imperial gallons.
SPACE
Jews may inhabit ..... 912,000 square versts, or
19 per cent.
Jews are forbidden to trespass 011 . . 3,858,000 square versts, or
81 per cent.
(Not including Siberia, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor.)
The number of agricultural Jews is . 64,000.
15
i8
THE MODERN JEW
COMMERCE
In the Jewish Pale, or the fifteen provinces
The number of Jewish merchants was
in 1886 ......
The capital employed by Jewish mer
chants was in 1S86
Average turnover per Jewish merchant
Average turnover per Gentile merchant
Number of Jewish traders per 10,000
Jews .....
Number of Gentile traders per 10,000
Gentiles (excluding peasants)
Jewish retail traders in 1SS4 .
In the hands of the Jews in 1SS6—
brandy distilleries
brandy stores ....
retail establishments.
Number of Jew manufactories in 1SS6
Value of their manufactures in 1S86
Average value of products per Jew manu
factories .....
Annual value of products per Gentile
manufactories ....
Number of Jew artisans, 1886
Land leased by Jews, 18S5
11,468 or 55 per cent.
437,000,000 roubles, or 47.1
per cent.
38,000 roubles.
53,Goo roubles.
34-i-
18.8
60,729 or 67 per cent.
2.5 per 1000 or 55 per cent.
1.8 ,, ,, 89 ,,
37-7-
1460 or 31 per cent.
47,300,000 roubles, or 16
per cent.
32,000 roubles.
78,000 roubles.
293,000.
1,993,000dessiatines, or 4.14
per cent.
CRIMINAL STATISTICS
In all Russia, the average number of Jews and non-Jews convicted of
crime for the period 1S75-85, per annum, was as follows :
Jews (per 100,000 Jews) .... 259.
Non-Jews (per 100,000 non-Jews) . . 426.
The proportion of Jews convicted of
political crime was, for the years 1881-
1885 13 per cent, of the whole.
And for 1886-1887 ..... 14 per cent, of the whole.
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 19
Those who will take the trouble to examine the fore¬
going statistics will discover that the popular notion of
the evil effect of Jewish influence is not supported by
facts. It must be borne in mind that the figures given
are taken only from official sources. It is true that the
Government has ceased to publish the statistics, but I
can only assume that it has done so because the
evidence they contained is so palpably in favour of
the Jews that the official embitterment of their lives
acquires no justification from the real facts of the
case.
Seeing that the Russian Empire comprises one-
seventh of the land surface of the globe, stretches from
Germany to the Pacific, and covers an area of nearly
nine million square miles, the exclusion of the Jews
from the higher ranks of the Administration, notwith¬
standing their admitted abilities, is the most extravagant
compliment ever paid by one race to another. With
the tremendous task undertaken by the Tsar and his
Ministers of Russifying Asia, and in the absence of an
educated middle class of the population, it is difficult
to understand from what source Russia is to draw
administrative material for the biggest job ever under¬
taken by a dreamy and inaccurate people if she ex¬
cludes the ablest in the land. No Jew is allowed to
enter Siberia. Jews may not settle at Port Arthur. It
is incredible that, in a backward and undeveloped
country like Russia, the presence of one Jew in eight
hundred of the population would prove dangerous to
the State.
The cry against the Russian Jews that they are not
agriculturists is equivalent to charging a man with
20 THE MODERN JEW
inability to swim when he is forcibly prevented during
the whole of his life from entering the water. Under
Russian law a Jew may not farm or become a miller or
a fisherman ; he may not buy, sell, lease or rent land ;
but the Jews of Galicia, the Jews of the Nicholas
colonies in South Russia, and the Jews of Bohemia are
found to be good farmers and many of them good
landowners. Severed from the soil and estranged
from the plough, the present generation of students of
the Talmud have naturally become incapable of bearing
the physical strain of agricultural life. Sunshine and
sweat for one generation would restore the traditions
of the time when Israel was both a pastoral and an
agricultural people. No conditions of life sweeten and
purify human beings so much as hard work on the soil
under the blue sky. The truth of this proposition
exists in Russia itself. The physical change to be
remarked in the second and third generations of the
handful of Jews who were planted on the soil by Tsar
Alexander I. is most remarkable. When they first
reached the site of the colonies they were physically
weak, exhausted by exertion and travel, and ignorant
of agriculture. They died like flies. According to
Prince Demidoff San Donato : " The position of the
first Jewish settlers, who belonged chiefly to the most
destitute members of the Jewish communities, was
most deplorable." In 1810 so great was the mortality
that the experiments were dropped. In 1834 they were
resumed, and in 1846 the Emperor Nicholas extended
them still further.
I have visited these colonies and have conversed with
the old and young. They told me of the hardships
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 21
they had to encounter—greater even than those usually
attendant on the initial stages of colonisation.
The administration was composed of retired military
men who, for the most part, were more occupied with
their own interest than with the development of the
prosperity of the colonies. The houses, such as they
were, being built of green bricks, collapsed in the first
rains, and they were erected so far from water that
many of them were never occupied. The agricultural
implements were worthless. The discipline imposed
on these luckless farmers was of the utmost severity.
The idle were flogged or imprisoned, and many were
sent to Siberia for lack of enthusiasm in their work.
Irksome administrative rules checked the development
of the colonies, and, while they increased the distaste of
those already engaged in cultivating the soil, deterred
others from pursuing a similar career. In the archives
of the Bessarabian Board of Administration, kept at
Cherson, it is stated in an official document that the
hovels prepared for the poor Jews from Mariapol and
Berdicheff were built of frozen materials during severe
frost by half-frozen workmen. Before they were
occupied, many of them fell to pieces, and instead of
habitations the Jews only found ruins. With the irony
prevalent in these regions, the Provincial Board
accused the immigrants of not keeping their tenements
in good repair ! Cold, damp, and lack of proper food
brought on scurvy, and many died a miserable death.
Medical attendance they had none, and a more direful
lot than fell to these Jewish settlers was not borne even
by the English settlers sent by Lord Liverpool in icS2o
to the Cape Colony.
22
THE MODERN JEW
These Jewish settlers have succeeded well. They are
tanned with the sun, are good riders, sober, industrious
agriculturists, and as fitted to be their country's pride
as any peasantry in Europe.
The following are recent testimonials of responsible
Russian proprietors and others to the agricultural
capacity of the Russian Jews which I obtained during
my visit to the colonies in question.
(1) Living continuously for twenty-three years on my
property near the village of Sergnewka, in the district of
Cherson, at a distance of three versts from the Jewish colony
of Romanowka, I can with truth certify that the Jews of that
colony occupy themselves personally with the cultivation of
the ground and the rearing of cattle.
They also engage themselves for harvest work to the farmers
round. In a word, they occupy themselves in the same way
as do the farmers who hire them.—(Signed) Proprietaire,
gentleman, Chrisanophe Aleksandrowich Petrowski ;
Proprietaire, Goustaw Henri Chowiez Faltz.
(2) Living on my estate in the district of Cherson for
twenty-five years, close to the Jewish colony of Novopoltawka,
I can testify that for all this time I have been content with
their conduct as neighbours, and that there has never been a
quarrel or misunderstanding between us. I can also testify
that the majority of the inhabitants of this colony occupy
themselves personally with agriculture, and have procured of
late years the best machinery for agricultural purposes, for
which they have also plenty of horses and cattle.—(Signed)
Proprietaire, honorary citizen, Petre Petrowiez Zuritzin.
(3) February 18, 1892.—I certify that my neighbours, the
Jewish colonists of Novopoltawka, grow successfully different
kinds of corn, as well as carry on all the usual occupations of
an agricultural life, as for example, gardening, rearing of cattle,
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 23
horses, &c.—{Signed) Proprietaire, in the district of Cherson,
Nicolas Pawloff Lougowski.
(4) Living on my property in the district of Cherson for
twenty-five years, I have had occasion to observe closely the
Jewish colonies of Novopoltawka, and I can declare that they
occupy themselves really with agriculture, doing the hardest
work themselves. Some of them are retired farmers. I ought
to add that I have always found them good neighbours.—
(Signed) Sozonte Petrowiez Sanegoroff, February 22,
1S92.
(5) Living for four years not far from the Jewish colony of
Novopoltawka, with which I am in frequent relation, I can
affirm from my own observations that the Jewish colonists of
Novopoltawka occupy themselves with agriculture, and hire
themselves for field work to the neighbouring proprietors.—-
(Signed) Alexis Nicolaiviez, captain of the 2nd regiment
rank. February 12, 1892, Ekaterinowka village.
(6) The farm of Nicolas Nicolaewiez of Lacour, Gorojono
village, February 20, 1892.—I certify that the Jews of Novo¬
poltawka, whose lands join mine, occupy themselves with
agriculture and other field work.—(Signed) Cornette De
Lacour, landed proprietor.
(7) (Certificate.)—The farm of Kaspar Nicolaewski offers
to certify that the Jewish colonists of "Efengar" and "Dobroie,"
in the district of Cherson, are hired every year, by the above-
mentioned farms, as labourers, to sow the winter and the
spring wheat, and the work in certain fields is confided to
them alone, tilling, sowing, &c., and they acquit themselves
very well as skilled agriculturists. Further, full of resources
for supporting themselves and their families, they do in winter
all that there is to be done. They cut fuel, put the sheafs in
ricks, carry straw and fodder, drive and convey goods from
the station to the farm—in a word, there is not any field work
that they do not carry out honestly and carefully during all
24 THE MODERN JEW
the year, for more than twenty years. February 20, 1892.
J. Boutowiez, landed proprietor.
(8) January 1892.—We, the undersigned German village
agriculturists and Russian peasants, neighbours to the Jewish
colonies of the rural department " Grafski," in the government
of Ekaterinoslaw, seeing the request of the provost of the rural
(Schultz) colonies of Grafski, of Trondolonbouwka, Beer
Ziroulski, of Netzaiewka, Leiba Schnukal de Grafski Beer
Komissaruk, of Selenaia Pole Aisik Schwidler, of Nadejnaia
Piesach Swirski, and of Sladkowodnaia, Isaac Gueberowiez
deliver this to the effect to testify that the Jews of the above-
mentioned colonies occupy themselves with agriculture with
energy, cultivate their lands on the same footing as the peasant
proprietors of the same class, are in character moral, temperate,
and honest. In support of which we add our names.—
(Signed) D. Schmidt and G. Schmidt, proprietors; Aixenti
Buriak, T. Satzerkliany, peasants of the village of
Federowka; A. Bondarenko, proprietor; Kostenko Antone
G. Boretz, peasant of the village of Ganzolo; I. Kocic,
proprietor of Renfield and the Starosta of Renfield Frei.
Truly the Jewish agriculturists of the colonies of Grasskaia,
Nadejnaia, Sladkowodnaia, and Telenaia Pole, in the depart¬
ment of Grafski, work with their own hands as agriculturists,
and cultivate the ground which has been granted to them by
Government on an equal footing with their Greek, German, and
Russian neighbours. In proof of this I add the administrative
seal, February 6, 1892.—(Signed) the Chief of the District
(Zemski Naczalnik) Wladimir Michailowiez Koro-
stowezeff.
(9) (Certificate.)—Ministry of the Interior—Government of
Ekaterinoslaw, District of Alexandrowsk, Administration of
the Commune of Temirof, No. 72.—Delivered by the Admin¬
istration of the Commune of Temirof to attest the fact that
the agricultural Jews in the neighbouring colonies of Priontnaia,
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 25
Roskoschnaio, Bogadarowka, and Gorkaia, in the Department
Priontinski, in the district of Alexandrowsk, occupy them¬
selves really with agriculture, and cultivate with their own
hands the lots of arable land with the same diligence as our
own rural population; each one possesses enough good
utensils and instruments, and cattle for work and for breeding
as well as horses ; they lead a quiet and irreproachable life.
In proof of which we sign with the, seal of administration.—
{Signed) for the Starosta, A. Parchomenko, clerk.
(10) (Certificate.)—Ministry of the Interior, Government
Ekaterinoslaw, Administration of the Commune Tourkenof,
District of Alexandrowsk, February 9, 1892.—No 330.
Delivered by the Administration of the Community of Tour¬
kenof, to the effect, &c.—(Signed) Provosts of the village
(Selski Starosta), J. Schinkorenko, A. Zourtzenko ;
M. Molosowiez, clerk.
(n) (Certificate.)—January 24, 1892. We the undersigned
neighbouring proprietors of the Jewish colonies of Novo-
Slatopol, Weselaia, and Mejeritz, in the Department Slatopolsk,
in the district of Alexandrowsk, in the government of Ekater¬
inoslaw, offer to certify that to our knowledge the Jewish
agriculturists of the said colonies occupy themselves with
agriculture with great energy, and yield nothing in field work
to the peasant farmers of the same class. They have a fairly
good number of agricultural instruments, and of cattle for
labour and breeding; as to moral character they live an irre¬
proachable life. In witness of this we sign ourselves. (Here
follow the signatures of the Russian proprietors.)
Certificates in the same sense for the colonies of
Ekaterinoslaw are also given by the Russian proprietors,
Ladoga, Solotarenko, Leueff, Proba, F. Maier, E. Priba,
and S. Priba.
With this evidence it may fairly be asserted that
26 THE MODERN JEW
given proper treatment, and placed on the soil under
fair conditions, the Jew is no more inherently parasitic
by nature than the Russian Grand Dukes, whose
palaces on the Neva quays are the admiration of
Christians from all parts of the world.
In this connection I may here record the admirable
and dignified appeal of the late Baron de Hirsch to
M. Pobedonosteff on behalf of his co-religionists. In
this letter, dated Paris, May 7, 1891, to M. Pobedono¬
steff—after introducing me to his Excellency—he
writes :—
" Perhaps your Excellency has learnt that I am occcupying
myself in finding on the other side of the ocean, especially in
the Argentine Republic, some large tracts of territory for the
purpose of settling some of my co-religionists who are Russian
subjects. I have sent with this object to Buenos Ayres money
and authority to proceed with the establishment of all things
that are necessary for the preliminary organisation of the
colonies which I have determined to start, but notwithstand¬
ing the speed with which I am carrying on these operations,
they involve, as your Excellency may well understand without
difficulty, considerable delays, and there must elapse a certain
time before they can be actually accomplished.
"Under these circumstances, I have thought myself able to
appeal to your Excellency's feelings and generosity that you
would be good enough to apply your high influence with the
authorities concerned in order to obtain a suspension in the
execution of the measures recently decided with regard to the
Israelites established in certain parts of the Russian Empire.
I am not in any way invoking your Excellency's intervention
for the withdrawal of these measures, knowing well that such
a step on my part would be denounced beforehand and would
have no chance of success, but the terrible effects which the
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 27
suspension of the May Laws will produce suggest that their
execution should be at least in part relaxed in such a way as
to allow a certain number of these unhappy people to obtain
the conditions of a new life in the colonies which I am now
engaged in preparing for them, and also to spare them in the
interval the existence of privations, a life of mendicancy, and
the frightful misery to which they will be subjected in the
absence of any resources and any assured domicile.
" I venture to count on your Excellency not to refuse your
most powerful assistance in this work of humanity, and I pray
you in this hope to believe in the assurance of my high con¬
sideration."
The case for the Jews of Russia would be incomplete
without a recapitulation of a few of the special laws in
force against them.
RESTRICTIONS ON RESIDENCE
1. The Jews of Russia have long been compelled—
with certain exceptions only—to reside either in Poland
or in the towns within the adjoining provinces known
as the "Pale of Jewish Settlement," but which contain
comparatively few towns.
2. They may not live within fifty versts (about thirty-
three miles) of the frontier. The effect is to prevent
them carrying on trade with neighbouring countries.
EXPULSIONS FROM VILLAGES
3. Under the May Laws, which prohibit Jews from
settling "outside of cities and towns," those settled in
villages since May 1882 are expelled therefrom, and
driven into the over-crowded towns of the Pale.
4. Under certain decisions of the Senate, Jews settled
28 THE MODERN JEW
in villages before May 1882 have the right of remain¬
ing there, but only provided they do not move there¬
from. Many have been driven out who had settled
there because their names had not been inscribed as
villagers, or because they had temporarily left the
village, in some cases to perform their military duty.
5. Suburbs of towns and small towns have been in
many cases declared villages, and the Jews have been
expelled therefrom.
6. Under the May Laws, Jews are prohibited from
owning or holding on lease or even managing land,
nor can they take a mortgage of land. Those, therefore,
who have the right to remain villagers, in consequence
of the settlement before 1882, cannot find a livelihood,
and must migrate to the over-crowded towns of the
Pale.
EXPULSIONS
7. Until lately Jews of all classes were allowed to
reside in the Grand Duchy of Finland and in Courland.
Since last year all who were not artisans or merchants
of the First Guild have been expelled and driven into
the Pale.
8. Jews have lately been also expelled in large
numbers from certain important commercial centres
outside the Pale, such as Rostoff on the Don, Tomsk
in Siberia, and other towns, where, for commercial
reasons, they had hitherto been allowed to settle;
also from the Trans-Caspian provinces, and from
Batoum and other Asiatic places formerly owned bv
Turkey.
9. In all these cases of expulsion the Jews have to
find the means of removal by selling off their goods
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 29
and chattels, as they cannot collect debts when they
are known to be under orders to leave. If they then
are unable to find money to pay for removal, they are
forwarded to the Pale of Settlement, however distant
that may be, by ctapc—i.e., in chains—by the side of
condemned criminals, and under the guard of prison
wardens. Jewesses are, however, allowed to remain if
they will apply for a yellow ticket and become enrolled
as prostitutes.
10. The result of all these expulsions is not only to
deprive of their livelihood the persons expelled, but
also to injure the original inhabitants of the towns of
the Pale, who have to sustain the grinding competition
of new arrivals, to incur the burden of a crowd of
pauperised people, and to find them house-space within
limits that were already too contracted.
11. Beside expulsions from Russia proper into the
Jewish Pale, a very large number of expulsions of
foreign Jews have taken place, not only from Russia
proper, but from the Pale itself. Any Jew unable to
prove the place of his birth may be prosecuted, and, as
registration was formerly a lax institution in Russia,
prosecutions and expulsions of Jews, as alien vagrants,
or as rogues and vagabonds (brodyags), are of no rare
occurrence.
RESTRICTIONS ON EDUCATION
12. The attainment by a Jew of the highest degree
in any university faculty entitles him to the privilege
of residing outside the Pale. A large number of Jews
have hitherto been candidates for university distinc¬
tions ; but recent laws have limited admission not only
3° THE MODERN JEW
to the universities but to the gymnasia, the proportion
fixed being ten per cent, in the Pale, five per cent,
outside it, and three per cent, in St. Petersburg and
Moscow. The Jews are not allowed schools of their
own. In the special technical schools built and
endowed by certain rich Jews, the proportion of Jews
is limited just as if they had been established by the
Government.
13. Jewish children attending the public schools are
required to be present on the Jewish Sabbath.
ARTISANS' PRIVILEGES RESCINDED
14. Skilled artisans and their families have hitherto
been allowed to reside outside the Pale of Settlement.
Under recent laws, if the Jewish artisans residing in
Russia proper are found inefficient in their trade, or
not actually in work, or past work by reason of age,
they are expelled.
15. Skilled artisans, who formerly held the right of
permanent residence in Moscow and St. Petersburg,
have lately been deprived of that right by an arbitrary
and summary administrative order.
16. The definition of "skilled artisan" has been con¬
tracted for the purpose of excluding Jews. It has
lately been declared that bakers, vinegar makers,
glaziers, printers' compositors, and other workers in
like occupations, are not artisans, and Jews carrying on
these trades have been expelled from towns in Russia
proper.
RESTRICTIONS ON OCCUPATIONS
17. Jews are not allowed to sell intoxicants except
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 31
in houses which they own. Jewish waiters may be
employed only by Jews.
18. Jews are not allowed to engage in any mining
industry, or to hold mining shares, or to act as agents
for persons engaged in mining.
19. Those Jews who, as high graduates of a uni¬
versity, or as merchants of the First Guild (men paying
at least 1000 roubles taxation annually), are allowed to
reside outside the Pale, may have 110 more than two
Jewish employes in their service. (A privileged Jew,
who wishes his aged parents to reside with him outside
the Pale, frequently registers the one as his valet and
the other as his cook.)
20. Jews are prohibited from forwarding goods, as
agents or employes, from the frontier custom houses
to localities outside the Pale.
PROFESSIONS AND PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS
21. Jews are not allowed to occupy any government
or public appointment. They have accordingly been
dismissed from railway and post-office service, from
the posts of schoolmaster, and from notarial offices.
They may no longer be appointed doctors, or even
veterinary surgeons, in the army. No Jew may become
an advocate, though fully qualified by examination,
without the special sanction of the Minister of the
Interior, which has not once been given. No dentist
or apothecary of Jewish extraction is to receive a
licence to practise. No Jew may become an officer in
the army, though bound to serve in the rank and file,
like all other Russians. The penalty of evading military
32 THE MODERN JEW
service is higher for the Jew than for others. No Jew
may serve in the navy.
22. No Jew may be elected mayor, councillor, or
police magistrate, nor may he hold any other town
office. The law says, " The duties of judges cannot be
entrusted to Jews with convenience or decency."
SPECIAL TxVXES ON FOOD, ETC.
23. There is a special tax called the " box tax," levied
on the animals killed according to Jewish ritual law—
a tax payable 011 the slaughter of the animal, and
another on its retail sale. There are also special taxes
on house property owned by Jews, 011 business profits
of Jews, on the skull-caps used by Jews during domestic
prayer, and on the Sabbath candles used by the Jews.
DIRECT RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS
24. Jews on reaching their fourteenth year may be
received into the Orthodox Church, notwithstanding
the objection of their parents. All Jews, on conver¬
sion, receive from the State a considerable subvention,
and are thenceforth free from all disqualifications.
25. Synagogues are only allowed in places where
there are no fewer than eighty Jewish houses. Jews
holding divine worship in their houses without official
permission are punished by law.
ALIENATED AND BLACKMAILED
26. The Russian law declares all Jews "to be aliens
whose several rights are regulated by special ordinances."
This law and the mass of special ordinances cause the
jews to be regarded as a pariah caste.
THE CASE FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW 33
27. The minute legal restrictions which hem in every
action of the Jew, and compel him to obtain police
sanction for everything he requires to do, render him
a ready subject for blackmail, and he can only live by
bribing. The property of the bulk of the Jews has
now reached that stage where bribery is impossible.
Hence, these restrictive laws are now enforced with all
possible rigour.
c
II
THE CASE FOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM
The press of England and the United States, largely
under the instigation of Hebrew proprietors and
writers, suffers from a periodic fever of indignation
against Russian dealings with the Hebrew population
of Russia. The average interval is about ten years.
The last occasion on which it woke up to the infamy
of Muscovite persecution of the Chosen People was in
1891-1892. The new enforcement of the May Laws,
the result of a phenomenally rapid increase in the
Jewish population, in conjunction with the accession
to power of M. Pobedonosteff, produced an explosion
in humanitarian feeling from Stockholm to Cape Town
and from London to Melbourne. The reasons why
Russian Ministers deliberately persecute Jews are not
generally understood in England or in the United
States of America. But it must not be supposed that
they have no case of their own, both to justify a policy
of anti-Semitism, and to vindicate the righteousness of
any measures necessary to scotch Jewish power in
Russia.
It is easy for irresponsible and large-hearted Western
THE CASE FOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 35
lovers of mankind, profoundly imbued with a sense
of other men's sins, dwelling in freedom under consti¬
tutional law, to condemn the Muscovite method of
dealing with the Jewish difficulty. Critics of Russian
polity, however, rarely attempt to place themselves in
the standpoint of those they condemn and to examine
the problem with detachment of mind. Looked at
through Russian spectacles the confinement of the
Jews in the sixteen provinces of Western Russia known
as the Pale, and in the ten provinces of Poland, is not
only an act of reasonable statesmanship, but 110 other
policy is compatible with the development of Holy
Russia on national lines.
Let 11s look at the facts. When Russia in the last
century took part in the division of Poland, that
country with Galicia had long been the head-quarters
of the Jews of the world. Into these regions they had
spread from Hungary, Moravia, and even from England
after the expulsion of 1292. Some of them had taken
refuge from the atrocities perpetrated by the early
Crusaders, some had settled after fleeing from perse¬
cutions by the Flagellants. The paternal government
of Casimir the Great in the fourteenth century attracted
a large Jewish population to what is now the Ghetto
of Europe. His enlightened rule secured to the
Jews their privileges and their rights, and set forth
their duties as subjects. He had the good sense to
appreciate the value of trade and industry to the wealth
and happiness of the country. The reason for this
flash of enlightenment in the dark ages is attributed to
the influence on Casimir of a beautiful Jewish mistress
named Esther. Other circumstances concurred in
36 THE MODERN JEW
securing immunity from persecution to the Jews, and
with security their numbers, wealth, and influence
multiplied in the centre of Europe.
If Poland were formerly hospitable, Russia proper
from ancient times has always set her face against the
Children of Israel. The Russians have always hated
them. Many reasons combine to inspire the Tsar's
subjects with the antipathy that has been so dramati¬
cally displayed by his Imperial Government in recent
times. In the wars with the Turks the Jews were
accused of having perfidiously supplied the enemy
with iron artillery, a charge which strangely enough
was repeated by Wellington three centuries later. To
the end of his life the Iron Duke barely tolerated the
Jews because he believed that Jewish financiers resident
in England had furnished Napoleon with ordnance
which was used against the English. Another reason
for Russian Jew hatred is found in the fact that in the
fifteenth century an important Jewish sect effected an
entrance to Russian society. Crypto-Judaism long
smouldered in the bosom of the Russian Church.
Whether it is extinguished even to-day is a matter of
doubt. Eor political, theological, racial, social, and reli¬
gious reasons the Russians have long hated Judaism.
In the following centuries Russia never abandoned
her inveterate dislike of the Jews, but nevertheless her
passion for territorial expansion brought about the very
result that the persistent intolerance of centuries of
statesmanship had attempted to avert. As Russia
gained province after province of her western frontier
the wealthiest inhabitants were of the Jewish race.
Her stern and exclusive policy was necessarily modified
THE CASE FOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 37
when the partition of Poland added at least half a
million Jews to the otherwise homogeneous race sub¬
ject to the Tsar. To-day the irony of fate decrees that
half the Jews in existence are subject to the rule of the
one Great Power whose secular policy it has been to
separate her own people from the descendants of the
Children of the Dispersion. It is thus evident that,
when Russia became the chief accomplice in the
murder of Polish liberty and received her share of the
plunder, with the territory she coveted, the poisonous
Jewish Question infected her life-blood. She acquired
the disease in a peculiarly intractable form. However
the partition of Poland may be characterised, whether
it was wise or foolish, wicked or necessary, it was not
the act of this generation. It is futile to speculate on
what might have been if Russian statesmanship had
foreseen the sinister issues with which the act of Polish
annexation was inseparably fraught.
The Polish Jews are prolific beyond record. For a
hundred years they have multiplied as no people on
earth have multiplied ; if they have not waxed mighty
they are increasing at four times the rate of the
Russians, who themselves are the most prolific nation
in Christendom. Russian statesmen of to-day, when
reflecting on these facts, are compelled to regard
themselves as trustees for a peasantry—intellectually
undeveloped and numbering a hundred million souls—
who are as backward in civilisation as the English of
the seventeenth century. Education has not touched
them with her finger tip. Superstitious as West African
negroes the Russian peasant, especially in his cups,
falls an easy prey to the astute and temperate Oriental
38 THE MODERN JEW
race which exploits his vices and plays with ease upon
his superstitions and his prejudices for the purpose of
gain. These peasants, if ignorant and credulous, are
industrious, faithful, and devoted to their Emperor.
The Jews, on the other hand, in the eyes of Russian
Ministers are cosmopolitans—Russian neither in blood,
religion, nor instinct. The moujik delights in manual
labour, in vodka, in the worship of icons. The Jew
detests manual labour, shuns the open air, is temperate
like other Oriental races, abhors the worship of images,
pictures, or relics, while despising the people who adore
them. Jewish vices are as abhorrent to the generous
Russians as Jewish virtues. Confinement in the
Ghettos of Europe for nearly two thousand years has
cured the Jews of their taste for the pastoral theocracy
which cradled their race and has driven those who
combine the dreams of the Ghetto with a career to
become middlemen and money-lenders. Statesmen
have to deal with what exists, not to speculate on
what might have been if something had happened
which as a matter of fact never did happen.
Whatever may be the cause of the moral deteriora¬
tion of the Jewish inhabitants of the Russian Pale,
there is 110 doubt that the Russian view of their general
character is largely held by impartial persons who best
know the Russian Jews but are not themselves
Russians. Consul H. P. Smith, of Odessa, in his
Report to the British Foreign Office, dated January
1898, writes as follows :
A word of warning ought to be given to all manufacturers
to avoid doing business with Jews who seek credit in this
THE CASE EOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 39
branch (agricultural machinery). Experience teaches that
they take up this trade with the original intention of sooner or
later defrauding those firms who are induced to give them
credit, and I would seriously advise all British firms to avoid
doing business with them upon credit terms.
Consul Smith's official remarks greatly injured him
from a business point of view, owing to the millionaire
Jews of Kieff using their influence against him at the
local banks. The episode illustrates (a) the solidarity
of the Jewish community when individual members of
it are attacked from outside, and (b) the justification
for Russian anti-Semitism, so far as the trade in
agricultural machinery is concerned.
Readers who have had the patience to follow this
recapitulation of the main factors of the Russo-Jewish
problem will admit that the case presented to Russian
statesmen is by no means so simple as it seems to slap¬
dash Western philanthropy. But there is still another
element which the rulers of Russia are constrained to
take into their consideration. The intellect of the Jew
is masterful. 1 His assiduity, his deadly resolve to get
on, his self-denial and ambition surmount all natural
obstacles.1 If all careers in the Russian Empire were
thrown open to the Russian Jew, not a decade would
go by before the whole Russian administration from
Port Arthur to Eydtkuhnen and from Archangel to
Yalta must pass into Hebraic hands. This is a sober
statement of fact. The Russian nature is self-indulgent,
impulsive, kind-hearted, generous, and passionate.
Russians would have no chance of survival against the
cold determination of a people that exists only when
4o THE MODERN JEW
living as a parasitic growth on another race. What
Tsar in his senses, what sane Russian Minister would
permit his country to commit suicide by ceding the
civil administration to a Jewish minority ? England
does not invest the Bengali with power in India
because he passes difficult examinations with the
greatest ease. But this is precisely what is involved in
the antidotes of education and equality so glibly pre¬
scribed by Anglo-Saxon doctrinaires, who condemn
Russia without understanding the difficulties with
which she has to deal, and who do not treat their own
racial problems on abstract principles.
The Russian Government do not attach so much
importance to the so-called impartial reports on the
Jewish Question which have appeared in English and
American books and newspapers. The journey of
Messrs. Ivempster and Weber, the American Commis¬
sioners on the causes of immigration to the United
States of America, was undertaken and carried out by
men who had made up their minds before any of the
facts had been examined. No doubt Messrs. Ivempster
and Weber are accurate and conscientious observers,
but from conversations held with these gentlemen in
St. Petersburg before they set out on their journey
through Russia to collect facts, it was evident to me
what their report would be, and I do not think that it
deserves the attention that should only be paid to a
judicial examination of facts undertaken by competent
observers whose minds are open to both sides of the
case.
With regard to the late Mr. Harold Frederic, whose
work " The New Exodus," is quoted as an authority by
THE CASE EOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 41
Mr. Lecky in his " Democracy and Liberty," as one
"founded 011 close personal investigation," it is said, and
I believe truly, in Russia that Mr. Frederic was only
travelling in the country for a few weeks, that he never
left the main line of tourist travel, and that first-class
carriages and the reports of interested persons are not
the materials that constitute a claim for universal
credence. Russians, at all events, may be excused if
they regard with indifference attacks on their system
which wholly ignore anything that is to be said on the
other side of the case.
In 1891 the Lord Mayor of London, and many
eminent, wise, and wealthy men, met in mass meeting at
the Guildhall, London, to appeal to the Tsar to miti¬
gate the laws enforced against his Majesty's Jewish
subjects. The fragrance of sentiment filled the air.
Sympathy cost nothing, involved no responsibility, no
outlay of cash or energy. The nobility of the humane
sentiments thus rhetorically expressed was remarkable.
Their practical effect was nil. The Guildhall resolve
was sent by the Lord Mayor to the Emperor
Alexander III. His Majesty, looking upon his
Hebrew subjects as the lineal descendants of the
murderers of Christ, was not favourably impressed by
the invasion of British emotion into the domain of
high Imperial policy. His Majesty was unable to
appreciate the connection between Russian State
policy and the unreformed Corporation of the City
of London. Accordingly the Guildhall resolution was
replaced in an envelope by the Russian Ambassador
at the Court of St. James's, and sent without comment
to the British Foreigh Office, from whence it was
42 THE MODERN JEW
passed on to the Lord Mayor, who had no power,
good easy man, to resent the insult. Snubbed by the
Tsar, Guildhall philanthropy harboured no resentment.
By the time that the Lord Mayor's resolution embody¬
ing the humanitarian instincts of all men who are not
devils was flung back in his face the philanthropists
were already thinking of something else. To-day these
very men are screaming for a Russian alliance,
although nothing has been done for the Jews. Jews of
the Pale, on whose behalf Englishmen felt too strongly
to act discreetly, were no better off than if the Guildhall
meeting had never been held. Possibly, indeed, their
condition is even worse than ever. Still, for a time, the
Jews of Western Europe and the United States affected
to carry on a serious agitation on behalf of their
brethren. They published a journal in the English
language entitled Darkest Russia, and for a time
real indignation was exhibited by the good Jews of
the world against the persecutor of their co-religion¬
ists. Darkest Russia recommended that travelling
Russians should be boycotted. M. Pobedonosteff was
compared to Torquemada. Jewish pens were dipped
in gall, and if ink in gallons and paper in reams could
have converted Russia from the error of her ways,
there is no doubt that by now her Jewish subjects
would have begun to oust Russian administrators.
As a matter of fact Russia went on her way rejoicing.
She did nothing, absolutely nothing, and to-day the
condition of the Jews of the Pale is worse than it was
at the time when the Guildhall meeting was held. The
Jews have multiplied. The means of existence have
not increased. Two pieces of black bread and one
THE CASE FOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 43
herring have to go farther to-day than was necessary
ten years ago. Russia is, however, protected against
the Jewish peril, so far as the May Laws can protect
her.
If a tithe of the unanswered charges made against
the Russian Government in respect of their anti-
Semitic policy were true, the attitude of the great
Jewish banking-houses in their financial dealings with
Russia is incomprehensible. No one could have con¬
ceived it possible that during the appearance of
Darkest Russia, the wealthier Hebrew banks of the
West would consent to supply the persecutor of their
race with funds, partly to be employed in paying the
administration that humiliates, debases, and tyrannises
over their co-religionists. In 1892 the publication
known as Darkest Russia suddenly ceased. I11 the
interests of the suffering victims of Russian administra¬
tive conditions there may have been reasons why this
publication should never have been commenced. The
reason for its suppression, however, shortly became
apparent.
By those who knew the calamitous meaning of Jewish
suffering in the Pale it was naturally supposed that the
moment of Russia's pecuniary extremity would supply
the racial opportunity for the richer Jews to intervene
on behalf of their persecuted brethren. It was open
to them, before lending money to Russia, to impose
upon the Tsar's Ministers such conditions as would
secure for the Jews of the Pale some immunity from
needlessly hostile treatment at the hands of the tchi-
novniks and adequate protection from the equally
hostile peasantry. Nothing of the kind was done. In
44 THE MODERN JEW
1894 the development of her policy in the Ear East,
the completion of the great Siberian Railway, the cost
of acquiring warm water ports in the Pacific, the
development of the Manchurian policy, and the neces¬
sity for the re-arming of the infantry obliged the
Russian Minister of Finance to look abroad for cash.
He went a-borrowing, and as the finances of Europe
are in the hands of the Jews, to the Jews he accordingly
applied. In 1894 Hebrew capitalists held Holy Russia
in the hollow of their hands. It was Israel's psycho¬
logical hour. They could have boycotted the Tsar ;
they could have insisted on the Holy Synod mending
its ways and relaxing its grip upon the frightened and
hungry Children of the Ghetto. They did nothing of
the kind—the Hebrew capitalists resisted the almost
overpowering temptation to come to the rescue of their
suffering race with a force that, in the long run, is
mightier than the sword, and at all times is mightier
than the pen of the pressman.
There is no reason why the motives of these capi¬
talists should be questioned. They might have been
the noblest imaginable. In the case of prominent
Hebrew English capitalists concerned, I believe that
the amount of the loan for which they were responsible
was of trifling importance, that the profits derived
from lending money to Russia on that occasion and
for that purpose were paltry, and that, so far as they
were concerned, it is not the fact that the desire of gain
in this specific transaction was the motive that induced
them to associate themselves with the affair. Other
and not unreasonable explanations were forthcoming.
Still the fact remains that the Russian loan was made
THE CASE FOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 45
by Jewish capitalists; that the loan thus made by
Jewish capitalists was guaranteed and taken firm by
them, and that not only was the money lent, but
responsibility for the unsubscribed portions of the
loan, if any, was guaranteed by Jewish lenders. And,
finally, when the loan was actually placed, no specific
conditions of any kind were made that would have
redeemed the wretched Jewish population herded in
the slum cities of the Pale. In Russia I was told by
responsible authorities in the administrative sphere
that no private conditions were made. The Jewish
press remained dumb as to the cruelty of the transac¬
tion, or exulted in it by defending the capitalists.
Darkest Russia had ceased to appear. No Jewish
voice of weight was raised, so far as I know, to beseech
the millionaires in the name of humanity to desist
from money-lending to the assassin of their race, and
helping to perpetuate u that most hideous story of our
century." The propertied Jews in the West of Europe
and in the United States were dumb, and when a
protest in the name and for the interests of the suffer¬
ing millions of the Pale was raised by a non-Jew, the
defence of the great money-lenders was ostentatiously
undertaken by the Jewish press. Russia got her loan,
the lenders received their profits, and in some myste¬
rious fashion word was passed around that the lot of
the Russian Jews was ameliorated. There was not
a word of truth in this report. The condition of the
Russian Jews to-day is what it was in 1891, with the
additional embarrassment that the fecundity of the
Jews exceeds that of other children of men. They
are worse off to-day because their numbers are
46 THE MODERN JEW
greater. The golden opportunity was lost, never to
return.
Under the circumstances described, is it surprising
that Russians deny, on the one hand, the existence of
any serious grievances on the part of the Jew, and
assert, 011 the other hand, that the administrative regula¬
tions that are put in force are no more than is necessary
to effect the separation of the Orthodox Russian from
the lineal descendants of the murderers of Christ ?
The following statement, which was submitted to the
late Emperor by the then Minister of the Court, Count
Vorontzoff-Dashkoff, is not without interest. With the
exception of the agricultural and technical training
schools, the requests contained in this memorandum
were granted by the Russian Government, a tolerable
proof that there is no inherent desire to injure the Jews
without cause :
St. Petersburg,
June 16-28, 1891.
Having regard to the abnormal situation of the Russian
Jews, to the fact that many of them are vagabond and half fed,
seeking homes wherever they can find outlets, and to the fact
that hitherto the effort to escape has been a disorganised flight,
without guidance, aim or reason, the Baron de Hirsch (deeply
moved for his co-religionists) has asked me to study in Russia
the question of Jewish colonisation, and to seek from the
Government their effectual support to a coherent and well-
organised plan for settling the poorer Jews in Argentina.
In pursuit of that object I have journeyed through Russia,
and have found good material for the colonies, in the shape of
sober, hard-working, and moral men and women, glad to engage
in agriculture, and I consider, therefore, with the aid of the
THE CASE EOR RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITISM 47
Government in regard to the following four points, the success
of the Baron's scheme is assured. Without that aid I see no
means of organising a plan designed to end the present state
of confusion and distress, the more especially among the little
children.
The following arc the four points on which Government aid
is needed :
(1) Permission is required to obtain good local advice.
Emigration committees, composed of worthy and respected
Jews, are required in each town in order—
(a) To select families for emigration ;
(b) To spend the money remitted by Baron de Hirsch;
(c) To control, organise, and superintend the assembly and
departure of emigrant parties ;
(d) To act as channels of communication between the
Government, Baron de Hirsch, and the emigrants.
A central committee in St. Petersburg will also be needed.
Under existing laws the Jews must either organise their
emigration arrangements secretly or not at all. If Govern¬
ment grant permission to form committees, they would require
to be represented on those committees in order that disloyal
persons may be excluded and to see that the committees are
not used for purposes not contemplated by the Government.
(2) The passport system as it affects the emigrant Jews
needs revision. A door must be open or shut. The Russian
door is shut. It is necessary therefore to modify the costly
and onerous passport system and to replace it by free emigra¬
tion certificates. The holders of these certificates should be
deprived of all rights and exempted from all duties as Russian
citizens after the frontier is crossed. No extra penalty of
additional military service ought to be imposed on the Jews
who remain in Russia.
(3) Gratuitous railway transport to the Russian frontier
48 THE MODERN JEW
should be granted to all poor holders of emigration certifi¬
cates.
(4) Baron de Hirsch's scheme will require years to perfect.
We must look ahead. After the first corps d'elite is started as
the pioneer body, we shall have a second-rate, ignorant popu¬
lation with which to deal. Some of the young Jews ought
therefore to be trained in manual labour and in agriculture.
Artisan and agricultural schools should therefore be started.
There is no danger in this. Nihilists arc the result of uni¬
versity training and empty stomachs. With hard manual
labour and out-door field-work the Jews will be moralised,
strengthened, and prepared for colonisation.
To sum up, we ask :
(1) Power to appoint emigration committees ;
(2) Gratuitous certificates of emigration ;
(3) Railway transport to frontier ;
(4) Liberty to form agricultural and technical training
schools.
(Signed) Arnold White.
Ill
THE JEW IN RUSSIA: THEIR NUMBERS
The first complete census of the Russian Empire was
taken in February 1897. The figures are not yet com¬
plete, but the Central Statistical Commission of the
Minister of the Interior annually publishes figures of the
rate of increase of the Russian population which
demonstrate the overwhelming importance of the
Jewish Question to the ruler and people of Russia.
In most of the text-books published on the subject
of the Jewish population in the world the number of
Jews in Russia is greatly under-rated. The late Sir
Robert Morier, G.C.B., as British Ambassador for
many years at St. Petersburg, gave great attention
to the subject. In 1891 he was of opinion that the
Jewish population in Russia was about 5,250,000,
the figures being arrived at by the statistics of birth¬
rate, death-rate, and conscription. The totals of
the deaths, births, and marriages of the various re¬
ligions in European Russia supply the absolute data.
These figures have been elaborated by Mr. E. J. Dillon.*
The figures of the birth- and death-rates, when com¬
pared, establish the ratio between the two. For every
* Fortnightly Review. January 1898.
D
50 THE MODERN JEW
100 Russian Jews who died during the decade ending
1892, the number born was 171.42. The number of
Orthodox Christians per cent, born in Russia during
the same period was only 138.14 per cent. This fecun¬
dity of the Jewish race is attributable to the universal
practice of marriage, and to the phenomenally low
death-rate ; 407 Orthodox Russian infants died out of
every thousand. Only 232 Jewish children died. But
these figures do not really indicate the rapidity with
which the Jewish population is growing. Military
service is immensely unpopular among the Jews, and
they resort to many devices in order to free their sons
from liability to serve in the army. One method is the
concealment of the births of their children, and the
number of Jews is, therefore, greater, and the death-
rate is, therefore, lower, than the official statistics
actually show.
This relatively small death-rate of the Jews is notice¬
able, not only in Russia, but also in New York and in
Roumania. The Jews form but one-fifth of the urban
population of Roumania, but they contribute no less
than 63 per cent, of the entire annual increase,
whereas the Orthodox Christians, who amount to 72
per cent, of the inhabitants of the towns and Cities,
contribute no more than 39.9 per cent, to the total
annual increase.
Both in Russia and Roumania the Jewish element is
better fitted for the struggle for existence than any of
the Christian sects. The devotion bestowed by Jewish
parents on their children, the respect and tenderness
paid to women during the critical events of their
family life, enable the Jewish element in Poland to
THE JEW IN RUSSIA 51
increase twice as rapidly as the Christian sects. One-
third of the population of Warsaw is Jewish, but the
Hebrew increase is equal to that of the Christians who
form two-thirds of the population. The more Jews
there are in a city the smaller the death-rate among
children. In Warsaw the Jews are one-third of the
population, and the death-rate of 1000 children during
the first year of their lives is only 187. In Moscow,
where the Jews are only 2 per cent., the death-rate of
infants is 391.*
The Russian people, with the exception of the Jews,
have the highest birth-rate and the highest death-rate
of all the peoples of Europe. Of all the races and
religious faiths professed in Russia the Jewish element
is the most fruitful. In the cities and towns of the
sixteen provinces which constitute the Jewish Pale, the
Israelitish increase is four times more rapid than that
of their Christian fellow subjects. Their net annual
increase amounts to 71.4 as compared with that of all
the Christian denominations, which is only 17 souls.
Their annual increase appears to amount to 80,000 a
year, a rate which will continue to increase in the
absence of pestilence, famine, or extermination.
* Reclus states that the Jewish element in Hungary has increased
by eight times its number during the past hundred years. During the
years 1S68-1870 the death-rate of the various religions in Budapest was :
among Catholics, 48.0; Calvinists, 33.7; Lutherans, 4G.6 ; and Jews
only x8.2 per thousand souls.
IV
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST
On the first occasion of my visiting St. Petersburg to
examine the Jewish Question, and negotiate with
Russian Ministers on behalf of Baron de Hirsch, two
sentences of M. Probedonosteff's conversation at our
first interview indicated the insolubility of the Jewish
Question (according to the Russian view) by means of
colonisation or migration. He stated in reply to a
suggestion that colonisation was a possible means of
providing for the natural increase of the Jewish popu¬
lation, provided sufficient money and Anglo-Saxon
management were provided, that he was of a different
opinion. He proceeded to declare that the parasitic
characteristics of the Jewish race were a permanent
bar to settlement or colonisation on their own account.
"Take them," he said, "off the living organism to
which they cling, put them on a rock, and they die.
They cannot cultivate the soil. They are hereditary
middlemen." I suggested that they were an agricultural
theocracy originally, and that although a few genera¬
tions might be required to recover agricultural or
pastoral aptitudes, the germ was not extinct. The
Procurator of the Holy Synod denied this, contending
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 53
that the Jewish artisans are not artisans, that they are
only colourably artisans, and that their hearts and
brains are engaged indissolubly and for all time in
broking and middleman traffic. He instanced a case
of thirty watchmakers, out of whom only two were
acquainted with the trade they ostensibly professed ; he
referred to the influence of the Jews on the drinking
habits of the Russian people and the amount of capital
and influence expended by them in the exploitation of
the grosser vices among Russian people. The industry
and temperance of the Jews, while fatal to the im¬
pulsive and undeveloped character of the mass of the
population, did not add to the strength of the nation,
because these virtues were devoted to the extraction of
profit from the industry of others and not to the increase
in wealth of the country. He described how the land
was mapped out for exploitation by the Jews, but the
cry of the peasants, the call of the Church, and the
need for maintaining, in its purity and strength, Russian
nationality, required measures of restriction that must
be inexorable, and cannot be relaxed if they are to
succeed.
I cite this view of a Russian statesman who has
passed the whole of his life since manhood in the
centre of affairs, and who has probably wielded a
greater influence over the whole Empire, albeit partially
indirect, than any other Minister. It cannot be denied
that, with one exception, such experiments as have
been tried with Jewish colonisation are not of a promis¬
ing nature, and yield little satisfaction to their pro¬
moters. The exception to which 1 refer is the attempt
of the Emperor Nicholas I., at the beginning of the
54 THE MODERN JEW
century, to establish Jewish colonies in the Province of
Kherson.
As I saw for myself the actual condition of the
Nicholas colonies, the following account of them may
not be devoid of interest.
In examining the condition of the Jews planted on
the soil I visited the agricultural Jewish colonies of
Dobraye, Yeffingar, Novaia Poltavka, Nicolaieff,
Ekaterinoslaw, Kremenchug, Homel, Minsk, and
Wilna.
I had advantages in my journey. M. Pobedonosteff
kindly gave me an autograph letter describing my
mission, and the Minister of the Interior accredited me
to all the governors of the provinces concerned. It
will be apparent from this that I enjoyed exceptional
advantages in learning the official view of the case. I
must say that although I found the higher officials
frank, charming, and courteous, they, with a few
exceptions, took their colour from St. Petersburg,
and I attached, therefore, more importance to the views
of Tchinovniks not so highly placed as to come under
the direct influence of the capital.
The Jews also gave me the best credentials. Every¬
where I went I met the most respectable Jews, I also
saw the most downtrodden and the poorest. By this
means I not only sifted the Government evidence in
the Israelite sieve, but was also able to weigh the value
of the Hebrew evidence in Russian scales. I examined
over two hundred witnesses, whose testimony, together
with my own careful observations, led me to the follow¬
ing conclusions. During the journey I was accom¬
panied by a Russian-Jewish gentleman, who speaks the
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 55
"jargon "—half Hebrew and half German—of the
Chosen People, and to whose loyal help and ever ready
energy I am deeply indebted.
Assuming two things, first, that the Jewish population
of Russia amounts to over 5,000,000 ; and, second,
that the Jews I saw are a fair sample of the Jews I did
not see—I do not consider more than 20 per cent,
of the adult males, at the present time, to be physically
lit to bear the strain inseparable from settlement in
a new country, under strange conditions, and with
physical hardships to endure. As a whole, the
sedentary Jews are physically inferior to the sedentary
Russians, while the out-of-door Jews are but a handful.
Indeed, I can remember no country in Europe the
town population of which does not excel, in physique,
the poor Russian-Jew townsman. When, however, I
contrast the Jew townsmen with the Jews settled by the
Emperor Nicholas in the Government of Kherson, the
difference is amazing. I found the latter an active,
well set-up, sunburnt, muscular agricultural popula¬
tion, marked by all the characteristics of a peasantry
of high character. There are 30,000 of these
people : a mere drop in the bucket, it is true, but
enough to show what stuff is in Israel. So far as I
could learn from the neighbouring proprietors—
Russians—who employed them, they have no vice,
unless early, improvident, and inordinately fruitful
marriages are to be deemed a vice.
Besides these agriculturists there is a population of
300,000 able-bodied men who are engaged in arduous
manual labour in or about the towns. As instances
of this class I may cite the 10,000 labourers and
56 THE MODERN JEW
artisans of Berdicheff, the wharf labourers of Odessa,
the corn porters of Nicolaieff, and the agricultural
labourers of Kremenchug, of whom at least 4000 are
hired out at harvest time by neighbouring proprietors.
All these men are fit for colonisation, though all are
not equally fit.
But as a set-off against the physical inferiority to
which reference has been made, two elements must be
taken into consideration in any analysis of the worth
of the Jew as a colonist, which, in my opinion,
more than compensate for his poverty in muscle. The
first of these elements is the highly nervous tempera¬
ment of the average Jew, which is not only the source
of all the accusations of cowardice brought against
him, but at the same time gives him an astounding
capacity to sustain exertion for lengthy periods of time
impossible to the stolid, beer-drinking Englishman or
equally self-indulgent Russ. This quality of "last"
is an atonement Nature has made to the Russian
Jew for denying him a coarser fibre and a larger
build.
The second element in the problem is a factor the
value of which can only be assessed by those who have
actually undergone the heart-breaking task of plant¬
ing poor unemployed Englishmen on unemployed
colonial acres. I refer to the high moral tone of the
average Jew. With one exception, the whole of my
evidence points to the fact that the Jew is habitually
temperate—he rarely drinks alcohol, rarely smokes; he
is a good husband, father, son ; he is not addicted to
the use of lilthy or blasphemous language; he is patient
in trouble, and is most industrious in his work. Faults
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 57
he undoubtedly has, but they are not of a nature that
enter seriously into the question of colonisation.
Of the typical Jew, as I so often heard him described
in St. Petersburg—a compound of thief and usurer—
I have not met one instance in the agricultural colonies.
Of course, many such men exist, or how could the
fiction have been floated ? The fact is, the St. Peters¬
burg conception of a Jew is evolved from the inner
consciousness of certain Orthodox statesmen, and has
no existence in fact. In Russia the Jew has been
forced into commerce, and, being clever, has made
a success of the only callings available to him. The
only thing to moralise him, and to make him like otlier
people, is to restore him to the land. That he can be
moralised by sunshine and sweat is shown by the
conspicuous success of the Emperor Nicholas' colonies,
of which I cannot speak too highly.
So far as my observations go, the Russian Jew and
his children have not enough to eat. Until I see what
good nourishing food will do for him, it is impossible
to say what proportion of the adult male population will
eventually be capable of outdoor work. At present,
dejection clouds the life of the whole Jewish popula¬
tion. But their misery is not, as yet, the parent of
crime, on a large scale. The pressure of existence, the
uncertainty of the future, and the actual want of tens
of thousands under the present state of affairs, are an
excellent criterion by which to judge the bearing and
character of the Jews when under the stress of strain
and struggle that will be incidental to the early years
of the colonising scheme, in common with every other
since the history of the world began.
5§ THE MODERN JEW
In short, if courage—moral courage—hope, patience,
temperance, are fine qualities, then the best Jews of
Russia are a fine people. Such a people, under wise
direction, is destined to make a success of any well-
organised plan of colonisation. Nowhere is the truth
of this statement more clearly demonstrated on a large
scale than in the 60,000 hectares of land cultivated by
Jews, situated in the governments of Kherson and
Ekaterinoslaw. The population of 30,000 persons
subsists almost entirely by agriculture. In the twenty-
one colonies but one man cultivates fruit. The staple
product is wheat, which grows freely, and in five years
out of six is a profitable crop. The first of these Jew
colonies was founded in 1804, but the bulk of them
were established by the Emperor Nicholas in 1846, and
to this day reflect lustre on his foresight and his states¬
manship as showing by unanswerable demonstration
the true method tic moraliser les Juifs. Notwithstand¬
ing the onerous conditions under which the land is
held, the population continues to increase, showing
that with all the drawbacks attaching to a system under
which the Jews may neither buy, sell, nor mortgage
land, there is no inherent repugnance towards agri¬
culture on the part of the Jewish people. The land
belongs to the Crown, and the tenure is that of
perpetual quit-rent. In the twenty-one colonies are
thirteen schools. There is no drunkenness or serious
crime, and the domestic virtues are nowhere seen to
greater advantage than among the Hebrew peasantry
who are rooted in the soil. Where the land is good
the people succeed well and are contented ; but the
families rapidly increase, and distress from over-
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 59
population is already a marked feature. Only thirty
dessiatines—about eighty acres—are allotted to each
family, and as in some cases the families reach fifty
souls it is easy to see that the pressure of existence is
extremely hard. Every system of colonisation that
provides no reserves of land for future increase of
population is doomed to experience the same diffi¬
culties as those with which we are familiar in Ireland.
In these Russian colonies the large families pay taxes
on each member, but have no greater earning capacity
than the smaller families, because they have no more
land, an anomaly bitterly complained of.
I was told by one of the Rabbis that twenty years
ago some of the people worked badly, but that since
then, and especially since the Odessa riots of 1882,
they have laboured with assiduity and courage.
Another witness, the Christian intendant of a large
Russian proprietor, stated that one objection to the
poor agricultural Jews was that they took such tender
care of their women that they would not allow them
to work in the fields. I found, however, after careful
investigation, that among the poorest families the
women and girls work out of doors exactly as the
French and Italian women are wont to do. Those
families, however, in easier circumstances not only
regard it as shameful to allow their females to undergo
severe exertion in the fields, and therefore restrict them
to household duties, but are morally sustained in their
action by the value attached to child life, and the fear
of inflicting irreparable injury 011 a woman who maybe
the mother of the Messiah.
It is not too much to say that the colonies I
60 THE MODERN JEW
am describing are the direct result of Sir Moses
Montefiore's visit to the Emperor Nicholas in 1846,
as the policy of assimilation and Russification was the
direct result of the influence obtained by that great
and good man over the mind and the conscience
of a monarch more usually associated with the
vices of Ivan the Terrible than with the virtues of
Alexander II.
I was much concerned to ascertain the behaviour
and actions of the Jewish colonists, most of whom
came from Minsk, Grodno, and Wilna in 1846, during
the early years of their installation. The following are
the words of a great landowner of the neighbourhood,
a Russian of the Orthodox faith: u From the first I can
give them the highest character, but in the early days
they wanted practice; but the people soon settled
down, and the land moralised the men." On being
asked what he meant by this, he said: "At first the
great towns magnetised the weak souls, but in a short
time the town taint was eradicated, and the land
sweetened and purified the people." The whole of my
evidence on this point was unanimous as to the
absolute elimination of the evil characteristics generally
attributed to town Jews when first rooted on the soil.
This landowner's last words were : " Some of these
Jew colonists are so good, so honest, and so skilled, it
would be well if all the Christian colonists were like
them." The girls do not go out as servants, as do our
English lasses of a similar class, but remain at home
until they are married.
It is said that there is no law so carefully drafted
that a Jew cannot evade it. Nothing can be more
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 61
stringent than the May Laws of General Ignatieff,
designed to prevent the Jews from acquiring land.
The manner in which this law is evaded is a signal
comment on the success with which the General
induced his Sovereign in 1882 to revert to the thought
and practice of the sixteenth century. The Jew
obtains land from proprietors 011 his word of honour—
en parole—from sheer force of his character. I know
of many owners—one of them is a Russian Minister
now in high office—whose land is let to a Jew on his
word only, and without the exchange of a com¬
promising document. Such a people is surely capable
of being put to a better use than being huddled up in
the slums of Polish towns, and deprived of all pride
and title in the land in which they live and for which
they fight.
A few particulars of some of the colonies may not
be without interest.
I arrived at the colony of Dobraye at sundown on
June 16. The straggling village consisted of 104
houses, many of them neat and substantial; others
were in a state of decay, which gave an untidy air
to the streets. On inquiry, however, I found that
the uninhabited and tumbledown cottages were those
originally inhabited by colonists who had outgrown
their modest habitations, and who had prospered
sufficiently to provide more ambitious residences.
The population of the village amounted to 500
souls. That night I took the evidence of fifteen
men, clad in long frock coats; serious, stalwart,
sunburnt fellows. Among them was Visnawata, a
blacksmith, of forty-two years of age, married, and
62 THE MODERN JEW
the father of three children. He had been thirty-seven
years in Dobraye, was capable of making ploughs and
carts, including the wheels. His hands were hard, and
the work he turned out, though not equal to that of
Ransomes and Sims or Howard of Bedford, was service¬
able and good. His income in good years amounted
to 800 roubles. Zadik Passil, a man of forty, married,
with six children, lived on his land—thirty dessiatines.
He uses horses, four or six in the team, which are his
own property. Except for the eternal frock coat his
bearing was that of a capable small farmer. Zessi
Liptaski, twenty-six, bachelor, worked for his father on
his allotment. He is one of four brothers who, with
the parent, gain a living from the thirty dessiatines.
Land is hired on parole from a neighbouring proprietor.
' These men, like their companions, gave one the
impression of a natural dignity born of duties done
and a consciousness of natural power of mind. The
little community is governed by ten old men, with a
chairman appointed by Government. They enjoy
power to inflict fines up to thirty roubles. There is no
crime and no robbery in the village. The policeman
was the weakest and most incapable man conceivable,
and his physical infirmities formed a silent tribute to
the virtues of the people. On my remarking the
absence of trees or flowers round the houses, they
admitted the defect, but said that for the last few years
they were afraid of making improvements which might
at any time be confiscated by the Government, but as
a matter of fact some of them had begun to plant
trees. One excellent feature in Dobraye was the
existence of a mutual insurance society, in which no
THE JEW AS AGRICULTURIST 63
loss exceeding 400 roubles was recoverable. The
average earnings of heads of families amounted to 400
roubles, a very small income for large families. On
inquiring into the question of money-lending, I found
that, while there were no usurers among the Jewish
population, some of the poorest were apt to borrow
money at 36 per cent, from a neighbouring Russian
peasant, thus giving a Muscovite version of the fable of
the wolf and the lamb.
Next day I visited a number of the colonists in their
own homes. I paid surprise visits at random, and
found the cleanliness and self-respect universal. The
Rabbi had great influence, and if ever I saw practical
religion carried into daily life it was among those grave
and sober Hebrew ploughmen.
Three-furrow ploughs, reapers, rollers of fluted stone,
were all made in the place. The blacksmiths and the
ploughmen, the miller and the haymakers all exhibited
their skill and strength, and I was not surprised to learn
from neighbouring proprietors that they prefer Jewish
labourers in harvest time to Russians or to Germans.
Vodka has no charms for the former.
Space will not allow me to describe the other colonies
I visited, where I found results even more favourable
to the Jewish population. There is a hunger and thirst
for knowledge which is almost pathetic. All the
children are educated, and apparently there were no
black sheep. It is true that the cultivation is not good
to English eyes. Charlock is too plentiful in the young
wheat. The potatoes are not "hilled up." The
furrows are not straight. Roads are unmended. But
the Russian proprietors do no better, if as well, and the
64 THE MODERN JEW
Government studiously neglects this splendid popula¬
tion. Well led and well organised, they are susceptible
of great development. To a trained eye, however, their
moral and physical condition is full of promise.
In the colony of Novaia Poltavka I found 185
houses, inhabited by 1634 souls in all, cultivating 2850
dessiatines. To the profits ofi agriculture they added
horse breeding. The young men rode like Cossacks of
the Don, and on my proposing some races, and
offering a few roubles as prizes, there were twenty-eight
entries in live minutes. The first race—which we
called the Prix du Baron de Hirsch—was most eagerly
contested by eight-and-twenty lads, catch weights,
riding without saddles or stirrups, and the winner was
warmly congratulated on all sides. At last I heard
a Russian Jew laugh, and even cheer. For when I left
these line fellows they rode by the side of the cart, and
gave me a good salvo of Hebrew cheers, which showed
that the gloom and sombre silence of the Jewish popu¬
lation of Russia is removable by sunshine and toil.
Ill
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA
E
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA
I
Austria-Hungary contains more Jews than any other
country in Europe, with the exception of Russia.
The total population of the Dual Monarchy amounted
in the year 1885 to 41,056,206, of which total 1,648,000
were returned as Jews. In 1895 it had increased to
44,448,474, of which 1,873,000 were Jews. In other
words, in the year 1885, out of every 1000 persons
40 were Jews; in the year 1895, out of every 1000
persons 42 were Jews. From these figures we find
that the actual increase of Jews in the ten years
exceeds their proportionate increase to that of the
total population by 88,897.
The foregoing figures, however, by no means repre¬
sent the total strength of the Hebrew element, for in
many parts of the Empire the Jews have become
merged in the native population. To take an example :
" It is a well-known fact that about 25 per cent,
of the Jews in Hungary have gradually become
Hungarians, and adopted names of Magyar character ;
these do not figure in the statistical columns as
68 THE MODERN JEW
Jews at all."* This applies particularly to Buda¬
pest.
In the year 1890 there were 118,495 Jews in Vienna
out of 1,214,363 inhabitants. In one district of the city
—the Leopoklstadt, the " Ghetto " of Vienna—there
were 49,098 Jews against 104,934 Roman Catholics.
The rapid increase in the number of Jews in the capital
is shown by the fact that whereas in the year 1857
there were but 32 Jews for every 1000 inhabitants,
the proportion had risen to 122 in 1890. Budapest
contains some 150,000 Jews ; Prague possesses more
than thirty synagogues.
Though there are still many Jews in the wilds of
Galicia and Hungary, each year sees a large influx of
these to the great cities ; it is in the towns that the
Hebrew finds the best scope for his undoubted
talents.
The proportion of Jews in the Austrian universities
is far in excess of what might be expected from their
actual numbers in the country. Though they form
hardly 5 per cent, of the total population, out of the
15,362 students at Austrian universities in the winter of
1887-88, 19.3 per cent, were Jews. Similarly in the
year 1890-91 among the 42,624 boys of the communal
schools of Vienna (Stadtischc Volkschulen) 5600 in
round numbers were Jews. On the other hand, of the
6274 pupils at the technical schools (Gewerbeschiile 11),
which draw their pupils from the communal schools,
only no were Jews, a proof of how little they take to
the handicrafts as a means of livelihood.
The Jew of Austria-Hungary, like his brethren all
* " The Realm of the Habsburgs," by Sidney Whitman.
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 69
the world over, is an adept in the art of " getting
on."
"They have certainly all the money, and most of the
brains," is a common saying in Austria. " Industry
is either in the hands of enterprising scions of the
nobility, foreigners (Germans or Englishmen), or Jews,"
writes Mr. Sidney Whitman in his " Realm of the Habs-
burgs." But were it not for the kindly assistance of
Jewish bankers most of the noble manufacturers could
not carry 011 their business at all.
In fact the Jews are ail-powerfully represented in
every walk in life that leads to influence and fortune.
In the professions of law, medicine, and literature
their numbers are out of all proportion to their quota
of the population. Finance and commerce are
practically in their hands. The great business houses,
the banks, the railways that do not belong to the State,
are all controlled by them. " The Produce Exchange,
and of course the Bourse at Vienna, Prague, or Buda¬
pest, are deserted on Jewish holidays."* The press,
with the exception of the Czech organs, is almost
exclusively in the hands of Jews.
"Have you any Christians on your staff?" Mr. I.
Zangwill asked the editor of the great Budapest news¬
paper, the Pesther Lloyd.
" I think we have one," was the editor's reply.f
It says much for the skill with which the Jew caters
for the public and for his intellectual abilities in this
fact. Every shade of thought in Austria speaks through
the mouth, or rather pen, of the Hebrew. In Vienna
* " The Realm of the Habsburgs."
f " Without Prejudice," by I. Zangwill.
7© THE MODERN JEW
newspaper reading is a serious business. Every cafe
swarms with eager readers from morning till night.
Does the thought ever occur to them that they are held
in bondage—intellectual though the bonds may be—
by the race that they affect to despise, the hated
J ews ?
To turn to the Jews in the country districts.
Here the Jews are equally successful in making a
livelihood. Mr. Randolph Hodgson, who knows Austria
thoroughly—from Tyrol to Hungary, from Bohemia to
Dalmatia—declares that he has never seen a poverty-
stricken Jew.
On the contrary [he says] it is the native population
that is poverty-stricken. And for this the Jews are largely
responsible.
Certain writers have endeavoured to show that the Jews
are not so unscrupulous as they have been painted. But it is
to be feared that these optimists—pleasing though their ideas
would be were they but true—have not seen the conditions of
village life in Austria-Hungary.
Where there are Jews there is misery ; where there are no
Jews there is comparative prosperity.
To particularise.
In almost every village in Bohemia one finds a Jew. He
keeps the village shop, at which the peasants buy their humble
requisites. He also keeps a cheap spirit, which the peasant
finds comforting in the cold winter. To a new customer the
Jew is ever ready to give "free drinks " and liberal credit; but
the victim once in the toils he shows no mercy. It must be
the pound of flesh and something over.
Galicia and parts of Hungary contain scores of villages
where the peasants' houses are nothing better than hovels, and
where the native population are clothed in rags. Above the
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 71
dirt and squalor rises a beautiful synagogue, where sleek Jews,
in their long gowns and with greasy locks hanging on either
side of their grimy faces, gather together on their Sabbath—
human leeches nourished in very truth on human blood.
Nothing can be bought or sold without the assent of the
Jewish "factor"—the people belong body and soul to their
Hebrew creditors. Should any Christian have the hardihood
to set up in business the Jews combine to ruin him, under¬
selling him until the wretched man is forced to give up in
despair. Even a worm will turn, and sometimes the peasants,
goaded to madness, rise against their persecutors. When they
do so, their vengeance is apt to be summary.
Look at this picture !
It is evening—winter. A tearing wind from the north
howls and moans over the Puzsta, driving the snow before it
in powdering dust that finds its way into every nook and
crevice. A miserable hovel stands by the roadway, its rickety
door secured with a massive padlock. The few poor sticks of
furniture—even the miserable bed upon which its occupant
lay—have been seized by the Jew to whom she is in debt;
and the door is closed against her. Food she has none. She
is old, friendless, and ill, and has no strength to drag herself
to the village. So she sinks down in the snow to die! In
the morning she is a frozen corpse.
This is no fancy sketch but a fact. The sequel is still to
be told.
The peasants, furious at the man's cruelty, surrounded the
Jew's bouse the next night. Having caught and bound him,
they flayed him alive ! Then they burnt him to death.
And thus the weary circle of Jewish extortion and
Christian revenge is traversed in Austria as in every
country where Jews and Gentiles have lived together
since the Dispersion.
II
There is only one country in the world where the Jews
are hated as much as they are in Austria. And this
prejudice exists alike in every branch of society, from
the highest to the lowest. All political parties, too,
combine in their dislike of the Jews. Thus, though the
Judenhetze has been generally associated with the anti-
Semitic groups of the German party, we find "Down
with the Jews !" as much the watchword of the Czechs
in the recent riots as was " Down with the Germans ! "
The Austrian nobility is proverbially exclusive. The
Jewish millionaire, and, indeed, the parvenu of any
nationality, may knock in vain at the door of Austrian
" Society." An aristocracy which retains the ideas and
traditions of the days of chivalry, which prides itself on its
pedigree and sixteen quarterings of noble birth, has still
much of the creed of its ancestors of the Crusades, that
the bitterest enemies of the Christians are the Jews. An
Austrian lady—one of the leaders of Society—on being
asked for her opinion of the Jewish Question, writes :
Of course no Jews are received in Society. The only
exceptions are the Rothschilds, but even they are never treated
as if they were really members of Society. A few years ago
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 73
they did not even go to Court, and they have been made to
feel again and again that they are on sufferance. Nobody is
really intimate with them, and up to now, no young girl of the
aristocracy ever dreamed of marrying one of them—even of the
richest. The aristocracy of Vienna would never have received
Baron Hirsch, and his neighbours did not know him.
A year or so ago there was great excitement in
Austrian Society for twenty-four hours. It arose thus.
Three Austrian noblemen, of the highest position and
rank, were awaiting a summons to the audience
chamber of the Emperor. Standing alone in one
corner of the ante-room was one of the Baron
Rothschilds. The door opened, a chamberlain entered
the room, and Prince , as first in rank, stepped
forward to follow him into the presence of his Majesty.
But the official called for Baron Rothschild. " Whatf "
exclaimed Prince . " You are making a mistake !"
he added. " No," replied the man, " I was to ask for
Baron Rothschild." So in went the Jew, whilst the
three noblemen were left waiting. But " some one had
blundered," and next day ample apologies were sent.
The story of Prince F. and the Prince of Wales is
well known. The Prince of Wales was invited to shoot
with Baron Hirsch, and suggested coming on from
St. Johann to Prince F.'s. " I should be glad to receive
you on any other occasion," said Prince F., " but not
when coming from that Jew's ! "
A young Austrian aristocrat was to meet a young
Rothschild in England. They had known each other
in childhood, and the former's great fear was that the
Jew might address him with the familiar "thou" (du).
" What shall I say if he does ?" he wailed. But
74 THE MODERN JEW
Rothschild, fortunately for his silly vanity and peace of
mind, only spoke in English.
It is among the middle classes that, perhaps, the
greatest hatred of the Jew exists. The cause of this
may be partially traced to the superior business
qualities, and, therefore, corresponding prosperity of
the Jews. In other words it is jealousy.
The difference between the Austrian and Jewish
tradesmen is most marked. Enter a shop kept by the
former, and one comes out disgusted with the off-
handedness and incivility one meets with. It is as if
the assistant who serves one were conferring a great
favour upon his customer. The Jew, on the other hand,
is civil and obliging, often obsequious. But this is far
preferable to downright rudeness.
In commerce and money-making generally the Jew
beats the Austrian all along the line. His strength is
the Austrian's weakness. The Jew keeps his object
always in view and goes steadily on. The Austrian
loses ground through indolent nonchalance.
One sees this weakness in every phase of life
in Austria, it seems ingrained in the character of
the people. It is enough to walk along the street
between eight and ten in the morning. No one is in
a hurry. Business will wait ! The office will not
run away ! If you see a man walking fast look
well at him—he is a Jew ! Lack of energy is the
strongest defect in the character of the Austrian.
In such an atmosphere of enervation small wonder
that the industrious and determined Israelite reaps
a rich harvest !
The Austrian revenges himself on the Hebrew by
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 75
hatred and abuse. He perceives that he is hopelessly
out-distanced, but he cannot or will not see the real
cause. The Jew is eiu Strcbcr, he says ; an unscrupulous
" striver," a cheating trickster, a man who will use
any means, foul or fair, to "get on." All this must be
taken with a grain of salt, however. It is even doubt¬
ful whether—in the towns at least—the Jew is more
grasping than the Christian. Both are animated with
the same natural desire to succeed ; but the Jew has both
the will and the energy to follow up his object in life.
To gauge the feelings of the native peasantry towards
the Jews is a matter of difficulty, since it is impossible
to be precise in generalities. Some 65 per cent, of the
total population of Austria-Hungary may be considered
as dependant upon the cultivation of the soil. This
enormous number is made up of so many various nation¬
alities, and their occupation is carried on under such
varying conditions, that what applies to one race or
country is totally inapplicable to another. Townspeople
have thoughts and ideas in common all the world over :
it is in the country that one finds the social chacteristics
fully developed.
Probably, throughout Austria-Hungary there exists a
certain antipathy among the peasants towards the Jews.
But in some parts of the Dual Monarchy (e.g., Tyrol to
Salzburg) one finds few or 110 Jews, and in these districts
the feeling is merely a passive sentiment. Bohemia, Hun¬
gary, and Galicia are the countries where the Jew is most
in evidence in village life. This fact rather tends to imply
that the Slav and Magyar form a more easy prey to the
Jewish harpy than the more thrifty German stock. Anti-
Semitism in Galicia, however, is notoriously prevalent.
Ill
" Die Judenfrage in Oesterreich" ("The Jewish Question
in Austria"), a pamphlet by Ernst Vergani, editor of the
Vienna newspaper Deiitscheu Volksblattes, gives some
statistics with regard to the number of Jews in Hungary
and Galicia.
In Hungary there were, under Joseph II., 25,000
Jews ; at the end of the last century there were 50,000 ;
in 1830, 100,000; in 1847, 270,000; in 1870, 500,000;
in 1883,700,000; whilst at the present time the number
has reached 1,000,000.*
In Galicia the Jews have not diminished in numbers,
in spite of the fact that many annually leave the
country. On the contrary, they have increased in the
last twenty years 34 per cent. In Silesia they have
increased 64 per cent, in the same time ; and in the
Bukowina 74 per cent. The Jews now form 11.7 per
cent, of the population of Galicia, 12.8 per cent, of
* The same pamphlet gives the number of Jews in Austria as
1,143,305. Thus the total number of Jews in Austria-Hungary, accord¬
ing to these figures, amounts to 2,143,305. The figures already given
(1,872,000) are taken from Whitaker's Almanac for 1898.
It is probable that the official census of Jews in Austria greatly under¬
rates the actual number.
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 77
the inhabitants of the Bukowina, and 16 per cent, of
the population of Silesia.
A fifth part of the land in Galicia belongs to Jews.
In the Bukowina 22 per cent, of the great landed
proprietors are Jews, and the remaining landed
property is mostly involved in debt to the Jews.
The Budapest University numbered 3679 students in
1888-1889 J I]:94 were Jews. A third of the professors
are of Jewish origin. The Budapest Polytechnic in
1888-89 had 578 scholars, of whom 201 were Jews, the
Commerce Academy (Handclsakcdemie) 599 scholars,
of whom 480 were Jews. In the Gymnasium and
Practical Schools (Realschulcn) of Hungary 20 per
cent, were Jews, though but 4.5 per cent, of the popula¬
tion were Jews.
IV
The peasantry of Austria-Hungary up to 1848 were
little better than serfs ; and the freedom that they now
enjoy has placed them, in many parts of the Empire, in
a worse position than they were in before. As the
goods and chattels of a powerful territorial nobleman
they were able to look to their master at all times, to
rely upon an even-handed, if somewhat rough, sense of
justice. The patriarchal instinct exists, even now, to
some extent, and certain great landowners still take a
kind-hearted and almost fatherly interest in the well-
being of the humble tillers of the soil. But, in some
districts, the yoke of slavery has fallen from the neck
of the peasant only to be more firmly fixed there by
the hands of the Jew. Education has yet to spread,
the lessons of thrift and self-help have still to be learnt,
and till these follow in the steps of their newly-gained
liberty the peasants may groan in vain beneath the
relentless greed of their Hebrew creditors.
Bohemia is the richest and most fertile of the many
countries that form the Austrian Empire. Here the
ordinary wages of an agricultural labourer amount to
60 kreutzer (is.) a day, whilst the daily wage for female
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 79
field-labour is 6d. Winter, with its deep pall of snow
and biting frost, often throws the Bohemian out of
work for months together, and during this time the
necessities of life must be obtained on credit from the
Jew shopkeeper, since no Czech peasant was ever
known to lay by even the smallest trifle for the
proverbial rainy day. This accommodation has to be
dearly paid for the next summer. Thus the burden of
debt goes on from year to year. Pinching poverty,
rags, and dirt, if not absolute ruin and starvation,
form the lot of but too many of the Bohemian
peasantry. Austrians allege that there is much of the
bully in the nature of the Hebrew. To the more
prosperous classes he cringes, to the poverty-stricken
peasants he is inexorable as Fate.
On the wall of a certain Bohemian castle there
hangs the portrait of its builder, a boy count of the
seventeenth century. When a mere child he thrashed
a young Jew of about his own age. The Jews com¬
plained to the young count's parents, and the boy was
severely punished. Then and there he swore that
when he came to man's estate he would drive all the
Jews from his possessions. This resolve he faithfully
kept, and, as his successors followed his example, until
the year '48, when the Revolution swept away most of
the privileges and power of the aristocracy, no Jew was
to be found on a property that embraced the greater
portion of Northern Bohemia. The peasants in that
part of the country still speak regretfully of those pre-
'48 days, when their "worst enemies," the Jews, were
not !
8o
THE MODERN JEW
ADDITIONAL STATISTICS
from "Die Judenfrage in Oesterreich."
Jews in Austria at various times (exclusive of Hungary).
Maria Theresa's reign
1830
1850
1SG9
1S80
1890
In Vienna one person in ten is a Jew.
200,000
355.000
476,000
822,000
1,000,000
1.143.305
In the Vienna University in 1887-88 out of 6350 students
there were 2500 Jews—i.e., 40 per cent. In the various
schools, &c., of Vienna the percentage of Jews in 1887-88
was as follows :
Technical School (TechniJi)
Commerce Academy (Handelsakademie)
Practical Schools (Realschulen) .
Practical Gymnasium (Realgymnasien)
Gymnasien .....
National and Town Schools (Volks mid BurgcrschuUn)
27
24
26
48
29
13
In all the Austrian Gymnasien and Practical Schools of that
year they formed 18.5 per cent. In the Middle Class Schools
(Mitte/sc/iule) only 22 per cent, were Christians and 77 per
cent. Jews. Of 280 teachers in the Vienna University in 1888
about 30 per cent, were of Jewish origin.
At the end of 1887 out of 660 qualified attorneys in Vienna
350 were Jews, and out of 360 attorney-" candidates " (candi¬
dateft) 310 were Jews. At the end of 1889, of 999 members
of the Vienna Stock Exchange elected by vote, 883 were Jews.
Of the Vienna houses of the old parish district 40 per cent,
are directly (reckoning the mortgages 70 per cent.) the property
THE JEW IN AUSTRIA 81
of Jews. Since 1867, 1000 Jews have, on the average, annually
changed their Polish-Jewish names to Magyar names. Of
military doctors in 1S77, 7 per cent, were Jews; in 1889,
23 per cent.;* whilst of the new doctors entering in 1889,
39 per cent.
* Two hundred and fifteen out of 930.
F
V
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT
The financial revival which followed the Franco-German
war of 1870 threw the Jewish element into marked relief, and
gave rise to a protest against the sordid and realistic tendencies
of the time which gradually fastened on the Jews. People
began to denounce them as the chief demoralising force at
work in the transformation of society. The idea was, of
course, a grotesque exaggeration, but it found considerable
support, partly because it had a large body of latent prejudice
to appeal to, and partly because it was a convenient safety-
valve for agitators who were discontented with the whole
social fabric. Thus the new anti-Semitic movement was
founded.*
Such is Mr. Lucien Wolf's account of the origin of a
movement which has made no greater progress in the
countries of Europe than in Austria.
At the present time there are two parties in Austria
which designate themselves as anti-Semites : the Chris¬
tian Socialists, with Dr. Lueger at their head, and the
Clerical Germans. With regard to the Jews, however,
their tenets are practically identical, so it is more con-
' The Jewish Year Book," 1897-98, pp. 334, 335.
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT 83
venient to class both parties under the general title of
anti-Semites.
Dr. Lueger, formerly Burgermeister of Vienna, is a
man of great personal charm. He has been idolised
by the Viennese, and is, without doubt, thoroughly
honest in his convictions. But he is an idealist,
and (like most Austrians) lacking in business qualities.
By no means a rich man, he is now in great straits
financially. His salary as Burgermeister amounted
to only £1600 a year (20,000 florins), with an addition
of ^350 (4000 florins) to defray the expense of
a carriage. Thus it is difficult for him to withstand
the financial war that the Jews are waging against
him.
It is impossible to trace the various steps in the deal¬
ings of the Emperor with Lueger, since the true feelings
of the Emperor were not, and are not, known. Lueger
was repeatedly elected Burgermeister in 1896. His
election was refused by the Emperor, and Herr Stro-
bacli was ultimately elected (May 6). In 1897 the same
events were repeated. At length, however, Lueger's
election was confirmed.
This may be safely said. The Emperor is a
thoroughly broad-minded man, who, though he might
respect the zeal of an honest reformer, would not will¬
ingly see a one-sided bigot raised to the position of
Burgermeister. When thoroughly assured of the wish
of the majority—perhaps advised that, besides his own
personal popularity, the stability of the Throne was at
stake—he yielded. There is little doubt that the
Emperor, as a statesman and a Christian, personally
disapproves of the anti-Semitic movement. The Arch-
84 THE MODERN JEW
duke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the crown, is
believed to encourage it.
The movement finds most favour among the younger
members of society. Indeed, the students may be said
to form its backbone.
The anti-Semites deny that they attack the Jewish
religion. It is against the Semites that their efforts are
directed, they say—against the race, not the religion.
They even affirm that the Jewish persecutions of the
Middle Ages were political rather than religious.
The cause of the people's fury against the Jews in the
Middle Ages, as at all times, was the unlawful usury and the
profit made from all classes of people by Jewish intrigue and
cunning. Numerous grievances were at that time addressed
by the citizens of various towns to the Government, and the
outcry of the present day shows it clearly. Only in those days
people were not clear about this—that in the Jews they had to
deal with a foreign nation and a foreign race, and therefore
religion had to be used as a characteristic.*
What the anti-Semites are really aiming at may be
best given in their own words.
They want to see the Jewish influx in various districts
limited by lawful means, because they feel it to be hurtful.
They try, therefore, to obtain a revision of the law, by which
the Jews should experience certain restrictions. Further, they
wish, first of all, to work upon the true nature of Judaism,
warning against the busy cunning and intrigue of former days,
and supporting all reform which would contribute to the moral,
intellectual, and economical well-being of our nation, f
* " Antisemiten-Katechismus," von Theodor Fritsch.
f Ibid.
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT 85
The Austro-Hvulgarian anti-Semites' case against
the Jews is as follows :
The Jews under the mantle of "religion " form in reality a
political, social, and commercial company, which, guided by
the same principles and with secret understanding between
themselves, aims at the subjugation of, and profiting by, non-
Jesvish people. The Jews of all countries and all languages are
in this aim one, and work for its accomplishment unanimously.
Therefore it is impossible for the Jews in the country where
they happen to dwell ever to take an honest interest in the lot
of their non-Jewish compatriots. In short, a Jew can never
cherish an honest patriotism : he is ever, and before all, con¬
scious of being a member of the ' chosen ' Jewish nation; and
if he poses as German, French, or English it is at most a well
calculated hypocrisy. In his peculiar community the Jew
looks upon all Gentiles as his enemies, whom he has to
combat with cunning and treachery. By his peculiar moral
law the Jew considers himself above all other codes, and
holds himself prepared to transgress all laws of the land, but
ever in such a manner that the abuse cannot be brought home
to him. The Jews consider themselves in their blindness the
" natural aristocracy" of mankind, and believe on this ground
that they should be masters of the world. This position they
seek, not by deeds of bravery or superior energy, but by craft
and fraud and money. . . .
By the practice of usury they have completely ruined
many peasants, tradesmen, clerks, officers, and others, and
brought about not only their material but their moral ruin.
They have by dishonourable means and secret co-opera¬
tion so undermined established trades and industries, and
have got so many branches of business into their own hands,
that honest non-Jewish tradesmen can scarcely remain in them
any longer.
86 THE MODERN JEW
They have so completely annihilated honest handiwork
that the heretofore independent master has become to-day the
hired slave of the Jewish shopkeeper, for whom he works at
starvation wages.
They have so lowered the labour-wage and the price of all
produce that it has become impossible for any one to make a
living by honest work. Social misery and social discontent by
this means become ever greater and the danger of a blood¬
thirsty uprising draws ever nearer.
"They have obtained possession of the public press and use
it for their own purposes—to deceive the people as to the real
motive of this general state of distress, and to turn off this
discontent in a false direction (to the Government, clergy,
nobility, police, &c.). By this also they stir up, through
undermining all authority, social revolution, whilst they cun¬
ningly think to keep themselves in the shade.
They wrong by their command of money and unconscion¬
able greed the social verlodderung in every respect. Every¬
thing they make purchasable—office, tithes, names, honours,
&c. They are besides, among the female growth of our
people, the cause of unheard-of moral ruin. The base sensual
nature of the Jews and their want of shame and conscience
make them the most audacious corruptors. Girls who in
large towns enter into menial situations mostly fall in moral
ruin. One would scarcely assert too much if one said that the
majority of unfortunate girls who form the prostitutes of the
larger towns have fallen through Jewish depravity: also that
the notorious " girl commerce " will soon be carried on ex¬
clusively by the Jews.*
These sweeping charges, exaggerated as they are, yet
contain more than a modicum of truth.
Major Osman Bey reports in his book, "The Con-
* " Antisemiten-Katechismus."
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT 87
quest of the World by the Jews," how a prominent Jew,
at a gathering of the Jewish elders at Cracow, in the
year 1840, said : " So long as we do not have the news¬
papers of the whole world in our hands to deceive and
blind the people our mastery remains a chimera."*
When, in the year 1852, the Jew Cremieux (he who,
in 1870, set a price 011 the German Emperor's head,
and whose death is celebrated in the Jewish synagogues
of Germany) issued a summons to the founding of
"The Israelitish Alliance," he called it in these
words :
Our nationality is the religion of our fathers—we know no
other. The Jewish doctrine must one day fill the whole world.
Success is certain. Every day will the net which Israel casts
over the world spread itself. Let us make use of all opportuni¬
ties—our power is great, let us learn to employ it. What have
we to fear? The day is not far off when the wealth of the
world will belong exclusively to the Jews.f
The prophecy of Cremieux appears to be well on its
way to fulfilment as far as the Dual Empire is con¬
cerned.
That the Austrian opinion holds that the Jews do
constitute a real danger to Austria needs little demon¬
stration. The following quotation from a Berlin paper
may be cited as a fair example :
To put the case. France thinks the proper time has come
to declare war with Germany. So it rests in the powerful
hands of Rothschild to drive our ally Austria to instant bank¬
ruptcy and financial ruin if she does not submit to Rothschild's
political dictates. To bring about such a catastrophe nothing
* " Antisemiten-Katechismus."
f " Die Judenfrage in Oesterreich."
88 THE MODERN JEW
more is wanted than to throw Rothschild's holding of Austrian
stocks suddenly on the market, to lower them 500, half, or
even less, and to add a couple of hundred million Austrian
and Hungarian Rentes. Now one can see the effect of such
a highly simple operation. Then follow immediately the
untold thousand millions in other Rentes, stocks, industries,
mortgages, cSre., and the war-whoops and fury of the shattered
counterplots accomplish the rest. We have allowed things
with these Government funds and influence to go much too
far. We have already long ago called attention to these
specially fabricated Rothschild weapons, and, somewhat too
late, it is patent to every one on what a dangerous mine
Europe is standing, and in whose hand is the match for
kindling it.*
When one finds the wealth, the commerce, the
industry of a nation in the hands of a foreign anti¬
pathetic race, it augurs ill for the future of that country,
and speaks badly for the resisting power of its people.
The danger lies not so much in the successes of the
Jews, as in the failure of the native population to hold
their own. It is not as if Jew and Austrian started level,
with a fair field and no favour ; the Jew has the con¬
centrated hatred and prejudice of centuries against him
and yet he succeeds ! " Only a dead nation is afraid
of foreigners," writes Mr. Zangwill. But Austria is
worse than dead, she is a house divided against itself—
a conglomeration of races fighting one against another,
with no united national feelings. Hungary, on the
other hand, is a nation in the true sense of the word
—brimful of patriotic sentiment, and almost bursting
with the sense of her own importance. When a
* " Die Judenfrage in Oesterreich."
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT 89
Hungarian magnate was tolcl that an English nobleman
was yachting in the Mediterranean, he gravely made
the remark : " Why there ? He should come to the
Platten See ! " That is the spirit of the Hungarians—
Hungary first, the rest of the world nowhere. It is
this sentiment that is enabling Hungary to absorb the
Jewish element, especially in the capital. The Jew
of Budapest is as ardent a Hungarian as the Magyar,
and he changes his Semitic name to a Magyar one in
consequence. There is nothing of this sort in Vienna.
The Jews are looked upon as enemies and treated as
such—forced back upon their own nationality as it
were. The Jew conceals his feelings, and laughs in his
sleeve, for he knows that these simple Viennese cannot
do without him. He is their banker, their doctor, their
dentist, their lawyer ; he rules their money market; he
directs their industries ; and he writes their newspapers
for them wherein he abuses himself. But by all this
he makes his fortune, so what matters a little abuse ?
The anti-Semite may whine and rage, and talk of
" bloody upheavals " ; but the Jew knows better. Such
things may happen in Paris, but they will not take
place in gay, pleasure-loving Vienna.
There is a strange compound of Social Democracy
and the priestly power of Rome in anti-Semitism. The
Socialist sees an immense pile of wealth, some of which
may fall to his share if he can but destroy the Jewish
owners thereof;; the priest would divert some of it to
the coffers of the Holy Church ; he whispers insidiously
into the ear of the anti-Semite his blessing 011 the
destruction of the unbelievers, whilst he himself remains
discreetly hidden.
9© THE MODERN JEW
The anti-Semites have formed no plans or ideas as
to what will become of the Jews should their hopes
succeed.
That is not our concern, they say. The Jew who has
robbed the peasant of his shirt and turned him out of house
and home does not ask what will become of the peasant. He
turns him on the highway and does not concern himself about
him—whether he starves, becomes a thief, or takes his own
life rather than die in a mad-house. He insists upon his
" bond," claims " his just right " to the letter, and thinks him¬
self exempted from all duties towards his fellow-men.*
To which argument the Jew may justly reply in
quoqiie.
At the same time the constant impoverishment of the
native population is manifest to all, and that something
must be done, and done quickly, to prevent the
peasantry in certain districts from being brought to
absolute beggary is very evident.
The anti-Semites of Austria-Hungary have manifestly
taken the wrong turn. Had they attempted to fight
the Jews on their own ground, to rouse a spirit of
emulation and energy among their own people, to
inculcate the principles of thrift and self-help among
the peasantry, and raise them from the slough of
despond into which they have in many districts fallen,
they would at least have deserved well of their
country.
At present the Jew is the victor, and until Europe as
a whole deals with the Jewish Question in a spirit of
constructive statesmanship, the problem in Austria-
* " Antisemiten-Katechismus.
THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT 91
Hungary is unlikely to be solved by the deposition of
the Jew from the place he has legally won for himself
under competitive conditions.
But the trouble grows as the years roll by, and the
time is not far distant when Jewish ascendency in
Austria will bring new forces of resistance into being.*
IV
THE JEW IN AMERICA
THE JEW IN AMERICA
After the King of Portugal's two Commissions of
Inquiry had decided against the acceptance of Colum¬
bus' offers (1484) Columbus found his way to Seville
and prevailed upon the Duke of Medina Celi to fit
out an expedition for him. Before the preparations
were finished (probably in the late autumn of 1585)
the Duke sent an account of Columbus' project to
Cardinal Mendoza, the Prime Minister, and asked
him to obtain the King's and Queen's consent to
the expedition. Further particulars were requested
and furnished by the Duke ; and he was then requested
to send Columbus himself to Court (January 1586)
and informed that if the affair were taken in hand
at all it must be on account of the Crown, the
Duke being promised a share 111 the proceeds if
it were successful. Columbus arrived at Cordova
on January 20, 1586. (Las Casas is wrong when
he says 1585.) Las Casas says :
There [that is, at Cordova] he with his amiability made
friends with persons who thought well of his project. Amongst
these was Luis de San Angel, an Aragonese gentleman, Clerk
of the Ration of the Royal Household, a person of great
wisdom and capacity, who took up the project warmly. He it
96 THE MODERN JEW
was who spoke to the King about it, and urged him to allow
the admiral to demonstrate to him the possibility of his
plans.
This Aragonese noble—who was Treasurer of the
Household, and also Finance Minister when Ferdinand
was absent from Aragon—was of Jewish blood.*
Columbus had been waiting in Cordova from
January until May 1586 before he could gain an
audience (the King being away at the wars most of
the time) and the Jewish treasurer it was who at
length obtained for him admission to the sovereigns.
The matter was referred to a commission which
derided and rejected the plans of Columbus, and
for a time they fell through. Through the next three
years, although the country was desolated with war
in every part, and the King and Queen constantly
on the move, Columbus' friends, amongst whom the
most active were San Angel and another Aragonese
noble of Jewish blood, named Gabriel Sanchez, High
Treasurer of Aragon, were urging Ferdinand and
Isabella to take up the project. Columbus again saw
the sovereigns before Granada some time late in 1591,
but money was short, his demands were preposterous,
and, as it turned out, impossible of fulfilment. Once
again he failed to persuade Ferdinand, although Isabel,
thinking of the religious aspect, was more sympathetic.
Columbus left the Court (at Santa Fe) and was on his
way home heart-broken, when a messenger summoned
him to return. This is what Las Casas says about this
turning point of the plan when Columbus had been
finally dismissed :
* Father Mir's " Influencia de las Aragonese en el discuvrimento de
America."
THE JEW IN AMERICA 97
Amongst those who had helped him was Luis de San
Angel, who was as deeply grieved at this second and final
repulse as if he himself had been deeply concerned therein
and his life depended upon it. Unable to bear the thought
of the loss they would suffer if any other prince carried
Columbus' plans to a successful issue, trusting in God and his
influence with the sovereigns, he (San Angel) went to the
Queen.
(Here Las Casas gives a long speech delivered by San
Angel to the Queen fervently begging her to allow him
to recall Columbus, which Isabel at last consented
to do.)
After infinite negotiation and unheard-of demands
by Columbus the agreement was finally signed (April
1592). The exchequer of Castile was nearly empty,
and the matter would have again fallen through but
for the Jews, San Angel and Sanchez. Columbus' son,
Hernando, in the " Life of the Admiral," says : " San
Angel told the Queen that it would be but a small
service he would do the King and her in lending her
the million maravedis necessary." Oviedo, in his
"History of the Indies," says: "And as there was a
lack of money for the expedition in consequence of
the war, the funds were lent by Luis de San Angel,
the Clerk of the Rations." Other contemporaries
confirm this, although the Aragonese writers try to
make out that San Angel did not lend the money out
of his own pocket, but out of the Aragonese treasury.
Certain it is in any case that San Angel received the
money he lent from another Jewish noble, Gabriel
Sanchez, the High Treasurer of Aragon, but whether
it was national money or his own is not clear. There
c
98 THE MODERN JEW
is at Simancas an account-book of San Angel's which
seems to me to prove that San Angel actually lent the
money out of his own pocket, and was promptly repaid
by Sanchez out of the Aragonese treasury, a view con¬
firmed by another account-book, also at Simancas, in
which there is an entry under May 5, 1592 :
Paid to Luis de San Angel . . . 2,640,000 viaravedis, of which
1,500,000 is to be paid Isaac Abraham for his loan to their
Highnesses for expenses of the war and for the amount he lent
to pay for the caravels sent to the Indies and for Christopher
Columbus who goes in the expedition.
The first letters written by Columbus giving an
account of his discovery were addressed in duplicate
to Gabriel Sanchez and Luis de San Angel. The letter
was written by Columbus as soon as he landed in
Lisbon from his first voyage, and has been translated
into every language.
It will thus be seen that even in Spain in the fifteenth
century nothing could be done without a Jew inter¬
mediary. This point about America, so far as I know,
has never yet been mentioned by any one.
Both San Angel and Sanchez were unquestionably
of Jewish blood, and it will be remarked that they both
had to do with finance.
It is interesting to note that the cruelty of Spain
and the Dominicans towards the Jews in the fifteenth
century enlisted the sympathies of pious Jews through¬
out the civilised world with the United States in the
recent Spanish-American war. They remembered how,
in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, a house was sold
for an ass and a vineyard for a few yards of cloth when
THE JEW IN AMERICA 99
the Jews were expelled from Spain. They recalled how
the Jews, under pretence of being shipped to some
foreign part, were taken out to sea and drowned in
cold blood. Jews have long memories, and as a race
are not unjust. The capture and destruction of the
Spanish fleet appealed to their historical imagination,
and satisfied them that though the mills of God grind
slowly the ruin of Spain was an equitable adjustment
of her debt to the Jews.
The Sephardim, who alone suffered from the mur¬
derous tyranny of the Inquisition, were not singular
in shouting their joy at the approaching downfall of
Spain. Other classes of Jews caught the enthusiasm of
the hour. Deep down in their hearts was nourished a
lingering, if passive, enmity to Spain for what she had
done to their ancestors.
V
THE JEW IN FRANCE
THE JEW IN FRANCE
The lot of the Jews in France was, if anything, worse
than that of their co-religionists across the Channel.
Their sojourn in that country was a constant succession
of persecutions, banishments, and returns. We find
the French kings banishing the Jews from their
dominions, only to recall them a few years later to
provide the money necessary for the administration
of Government or for a Crusade. Philip Augustus,
Louis IX., and Philip the Fair, after expelling the race,
were obliged to welcome them back. Without the
Jews, the French monarchy would have become bank¬
rupt. The poverty of the early Capets, and to a certain
extent also of the House of Valois, was owing to the
fact that the monarchy was surrounded by powerful
vassals, each one of whom was little inferior in power
to the king himself, who defied the latter when it
suited his pleasure, and who collected the taxes of his
county or dukedom and coined money with as much
freedom as did the king at Paris. There were many
periods in the history of mediaeval France when a duke
of Normandy or a count of Flanders or a duke of
Burgundy eclipsed his sovereign in resources and
military strength. Such being the case French kings
io4 THE MODERN JEW
had not at their disposal the resources of their country
as had the kings of England. The strong rule of the
Conqueror and his sons had set limits to the power of
feudalism, which the early Capets were too weak to
restrain, and had thus secured to their successors a
compact well-ordered kingdom prepared to second
with its resources the sovereign when he went to war.
The hand of the Angevin and Plantagenet was felt in
Wales and on the Scottish marches as the hand of the
Capet was never felt in Flanders or in Aquitaine. Thus
the Jews were the only ready source of money available
to the central government. Philip Augustus is said to
have used them as a sponge to suck up the money of
his subjects and to have squeezed them of every farthing
they possessed after completion of the absorbing
process.
The causes of Jewish unpopularity in France seem
to have been much the same as those which influenced
their expulsion from England. They were the bankers,
the money lenders, the sharp business men. In the
reign of Philip Augustus they were possessed of
extensive landed property, a form of wealth, however,
which they did not long retain, as popular discontent
compelled the king to prohibit the tenure of land by
Jews.
Surprising as is the hardihood in the endurance of
persecution of the Jewish race in England, much more
extraordinary is the same phenomenon in France.
Persecutions and massacres came thick and fast upon
the unfortunate race. They were expelled from the
country. They were deprived of liberty. They were
despoiled of their riches. Notwithstanding these dis-
THE JEW IN FRANCE 105
advantages, which would have destroyed a race
possessed of less vitality than the Hebrews, they are
mentioned by historians as enjoying prosperity at many
periods. Thus in the thirteenth century the Jews of
Languedoc had in their possession many hundreds of
Christian slaves.* No doubt the arrogance of the
Hebrew when he ceases for a moment to undergo the
chastening influence of persecution had excited the
antipathy of the Government, for the same century
witnessed the issue of an edict forbidding the Jews to
oppress their Christian debtors and compelling them to
give up their Christian slaves.
Religious fanaticism played a more important part
than in England as a cause of hatred towards Jews.
No country was so deeply imbued with the crusading
fever as was France ; no country sent forth so many
of her sons to die in the deserts of Palestine. Rich
and poor, noble and peasant, men of every age and of
every degree, flocked to market place and cathedral in
order to hear the story of sufferings undergone by the
followers of Christ in the Holy City, and to take the
vow which bound them to set out eastward to rescue
the Sepulchre of our Lord from the hands of the
infidel. The host of mail-clad knights who followed
Godfrey de Bouillon and Philip Augustus to Syria
were enabled to perform their vow, as far as warfare
with the Moslem was concerned. Not so, however,
with the swarm of labourers and peasants who had
forsaken vineyard and plough's tail at the bidding of
the clergy, and who were massed together with the
vague object of marching against Saladin. Their
• Slave dealing was a favourite trade of the Jews in the Dark Ages.
106 THE MODERN JEW
poverty and lack of organisation prevented them from
becoming anything but a scourge to the countryside.
Papal authority was powerless in dealing with them.
Too often their enthusiasm for warfare against the
infidel was diverted into the channel of a massacre of
Jews. The old, old story was repeated in all its sicken¬
ing detail of cant and intolerance. It was the Jewish
race, they argued, who crucified the Redeemer, and it
would be doing God service to revenge the death of
His Son even as their lords were doing Him service in
warring against the Turk in far-off Asia. Besides these
pious motives, cupidity and ignorant suspicion played
an important part in influencing the action of these
peasant fanatics. A well-known instance of this class
of Jewish massacre is found in the reign of St. Louis,
when a band of peasantry collected for the purpose of
rescuing the king from his captivity in Egypt fell on
the Jews and plundered their property. The above
case is one of a hundred.
It may be observed that the tendency of the Govern¬
ment was more inclined to lenity in treatment of the
Jews than was that of the lower classes. The ruined
shopkeeper of Orleans or Rouen had experience of the
merciless behaviour of Jewish creditors to the unfor¬
tunates who fell into their clutches. Thus when the
cry "Down with the Jews!" was heard at the street
corners no one was quicker in snatching up his arms,
or was more bloodthirsty in the massacre, than debtors
of the citizen or peasant class. On the other hand, the
king and his advisers had no personal experience of
Jewish usury. To them the race was the source from
which they could obtain money. There was none of
THE JEW IN FRANCE 107
the furious hatred with which Jews were regarded by
the inferior classes.
Ignorance, superstition, and credulity were causes of
Jewish massacres in France, as they were in England.
The wildest rumours found credence among a people
debased in the deepest abyss of ignorance. Thus the
statement that the Jews were responsible for a pesti¬
lence which swept over France in 1348 caused a
massacre of the unfortunate race by the credulous
serfs.
Charges of poisoning wells and of crucifying
Christian children were circulated alike in France and
England.
At the end of the fourteenth century a final edict,
that of Charles VI., banished the Jews from French
soil. Until the monarchy had passed away, and
until France was labouring in the travail of her Revo¬
lution, the Hebrew race were strangers within her
territory.
Buonaparte desired to better the position of the Jews.
If France has forfeited in the latter portion of the century
the esteem and respect of humanity after the terrible per¬
fidy, duplicity, and moral degradation exhibited by the
staff of the army, by the judges, by the Government and
the people of France, it must never be forgotten that
the modern toleration of the Chosen People began in
France. It is alleged that Napoleon, by summoning a
grand Sanhedrin of the Jews, contemplated both com¬
mercial and military advantages. He is said to have
hoped to turn to his own advantage the wonderful
system of information possessed by the Jews which
enabled them not only to command the supply of the
108 THE MODERN JEW
precious metals, but also to control much of the
internal traffic of Europe in spite of the Continental
system which was then in full force. The opinion of
Dean Milman that the reconstruction of the kingdom
of Poland and the help that the Jews might be in
accomplishing that object was also one of the considera¬
tions that affected the mind of Napoleon. However
this may be, and whatever the Napoleonic motives were,
the fact remains that to France and France alone is
due the large toleration towards the Jews in which she
was the European pioneer. What is not so well
known, however, is that before Napoleon ameliorated
the condition of the Jews in France and gave them
equal citizenship he invited replies to twelve questions.
I subjoin the questions and the answers, which are
placed together for the sake of conciseness. They were
as follows :
I. Is polygamy allowed among the Jews?
Polygamy is forbidden, according to a decree of the Synod
of Worms, in 1030.
II. Is divorce recognised by the Jewish law?
Divorce is allowed, but in this respect the Jews recognise
the authority of the civil law of the land in which they live.
III. Can Jews intermarry with Christians?
Intermarriages with Christians are not forbidden, though
difficulties aris^ from the different forms of marriage.
IV. Will the French people be esteemed by the Jews as
strangers or as brethren ?
The Jews of France recognise in the fullest sense the French
people as their brethren
THE JEW IN FRANCE 109
V. In what relation, according to the Jewish law, would the
Jews stand towards the French?
The relation of the Jew to the Frenchman is the same as
of Jew to Jew. The only distinction is in their religion.
VI. Uo Jews born in France consider it their native country ?
Are they bound to obey the laws and customs of the land ?
The Jews acknowledged France as their country when
oppressed—how much more must they when admitted to
civil rights !
VII. Who elect the Rabbins.
The election of the Rabbins is neither defined nor uniform.
It usually rests with the heads of each family in the com¬
munity.
VIII. What are the legal powers of the Rabbins ?
The Rabbins have no judicial power; the Sanhedrin is the
only legal tribunal. The Jews of France and Italy being
subject to the equal laws of the land, whatever power they
might otherwise exercise is annulled.
IX. Are the election and authority of the Rabbins grounded
on law or custom ?
The election and powers of the Rabbins rest solely on
usage.
X. Is there any kind of business in which the Jews may not
be engaged ?
All business is permitted to the Jews.
XI. Is usury to their brethren forbidden by the Law ?
The Mosiac institute forbids unlawful interest; but this was
the law of an agricultural people.
XII. Is it permitted or forbidden to practise usury with
strangers ?
The Talmud allows legal interest to be taken from brethren
and strangers ; it forbids usury.
no THE MODERN JEW
No impartial mind examining the answers given by
the Jews to the questions of Napoleon, on reviewing
the history of the last ninety-three years, is able to aver
that the Jews as a whole have kept their side of the
bargain. The Reinach scandals, the disasters of
Panama, bribed deputies, general aloofness, and in¬
veterate money-lending are recorded against them,
and however despicable and unthinking French anti-
Semitism has become, it cannot be truthfully alleged
that there is no ground for resentment at the manner
in which French hospitality has been used by the Jews.
But it must be remarked that in France, as in England,
Austria, and Russia, the evil that has been done is not
the work of the religious Jew; it is wrought by the Jew
who, while refusing to accept the burdens of citizenship
along with its rights, has renounced his faith in favour
of a materialism which has always excited the ungover¬
nable passions of the European peoples, and will
doubtless continue to excite them whenever the evils
reach such a point as to be intolerable.
The attitude of the French Jews towards the Franco-
Russian Alliance was frankly described by the organ
of the Jewish community, Darkest Russia, to which
previous allusion has been made. It was declared
authoritatively by this organ on February 12, 1892,
that
the Russian loan was coldly met by French investors, and
the scanty measure of support that it received was obtained
under pressure of the most influential kind on a small number
of very large capitalists and credit societies, whose honesty
may be gauged by the false statement they published to the
world that the loan was covered seven times over.
THE JEW IN FRANCE hi
Since these very large capitalists and credit societies
were almost exclusively Jewish, it is evident that the
subscription to the Russian loan of 1892 was the
turning point in the history of modern Judaism, so far
as it is affected by the policy of France and Russia,
and it is idle to pretend after this admission by the
authoritative and well-informed organ of Jewish
opinion that the loan to Russia could not have been
refused had the pity and humanity of the great banking
money-lenders risen superior to their desire for profit.
If has been alleged that, if the Jews had remained aloof,
the French public would have subscribed the loan
over and over again and that no good would have
resulted from Jewish abstention. But here we have a
definite statement on the part of the most responsible,
well-informed, and humane portion of the Jewish
community to the effect that the Russian loan was
obtained only under pressure of the most influential
kind from "very large capitalists and credit societies,"
who are roundly charged by their co-religionists with
dishonesty for publishing the false statement that the
loan was covered seven times over.
When the terrible collapse of French justice and
humanity, as displayed in the history of the now historic
Dreyfus case, is considered, the action of a portion
of the French-Jewish community must not be forgotten.
The Panama scandal, the disgrace of Reinach and other
prominent Jews, stimulated the anti-Semitic movement
and encouraged its main supporters, in a way which
even in 1892 was not anticipated by the most far-seeing
of Jewish writers. It is true that many of the great
families in France are connected by marriage with the
ii2 THE MODERN JEW
Jewish race. For instance, the Prince de Wagram
married a Miss Rothschild, and the Prince de Ligne
another ; while the Duchesse de Gramont was also a
Miss Rothschild. One of the Furtado-Heines married
the Due de Rivoli, another Prince Murat. The
Duchesse de Richelieu and the Duchesse d'Elchingen
also belonged to the family of the Heines. The two
heiresses of old M. Cohen of Antwerp married the
Marquis de Taillyand the Prince de Lucinge Faucigny
respectively. The Oppenheimers also married their
daughters to sprigs of the aristocracy. The Duchesse
de Castries was a Miss Sina, as was also the Comtesse
d'Harcourt. Miss Haber married the Marquis de
Grouchy, Miss Lowenheim bears the old name of
Duchesse de Fitz-James, and Miss Mires is now Prin-
cesse de Polignac, while many others, too numerous
to mention, have married well-known French noble¬
men.
It would be a mistake, therefore, to consider that
the Catholic and military influence was entirely unani¬
mous against the Jews. Such strength, however, as
the Dreyfusard side received from the great families
was surreptitious and never was allowed to leak out.
The Jews, however, were naturally unfriendly to the
Franco-Russian alliance. It was pointed out to them
that, on the political side, France had consistently been
the foe of Russia. It was no accidental combination
that brought England and France together in the
Crimea. It was not merely the memory of ancient
wars which France had waged against the Empire of
the North. Old-time enmities no doubt there are to
warn the French against accepting the Russian's
THE JEW IN FRANCE 113
proffered friendship with alacrity. The Silesian wars,
the terrible disaster at Moscow, the fact that Russia at
the time of the Revolution consituted itself the patron
of the exiled royalties of France, would perhaps fade
away from the thoughts of a generous nation ; but
France can never forget that she stood forth in the past
as the champion of Polish liberty, and resisted the
partition of Poland in 1772. As I have attempted to
show in the chapter on Russian Jews that the criminal
tri-partite partition of Poland is the origin of Russian-
Jewish troubles, it is instructive to remark that it was
only when France condoned the action of Russia in
that historic event, that the case of the Jews in Europe
acquired its present grimly miserable condition, and that
the Government of France sank to the lowest depths
of moral degradation ever reached by a Great Power.
Writing on this subject on February 12, 1892,
Darkest Russia, the authoritative organ of that por¬
tion of the Jewish community which was really hostile
to the Russian persecutions, spoke out as follows :
Least of all can France bear a helping hand to an
organised religious persecution. Tolerance is the keynote of
modern civilisation, and this note has been sounded more
clearly and frequently by France than by any other nation of
Europe, our own excepted. If France can claim to have
practised the doctrines that she preached, if France would
point to the clinching proof that she maintained indeed the
principles to which she gave verbal utterance, then she may
well ask Europe to examine her fraternal treatment of the
Jews. The love of the French Jews for their country has, on
the other hand, well kept pace with this love of their country
for them. Nay, at the present juncture the French Jews have
11
ii4
THE MODERN JEW
designedly refrained from public and combined denunciation
of the Russian policy towards the Jews solely out of patriotic
regard for the exigencies of the foreign situation. Even the
French Catholics do not find much to admire in the Orthodox
Russian Church. The persecution of the Catholics of Poland
by successive Russian emperors must ever remain an indelible
grievance, deeply graven on the memory of Catholic France.
When France once more gives free rein to her generous
enthusiasm for humanity, the Jewish question will not be long
in finding its solution. This much is certain—that no alliance
can last that rests solely on common enmity, and that no
freedom-loving people can long subject itself to a political
policy that involves a sacrifice of its conscience and all its
innermost convictions. No diplomatic considerations were
able to restrain the outspoken condemnation of Russia passed
by American public opinion and by the President of the United
States. No such considerations prevented the House of
Representatives from postponing sine die the question of offer¬
ing assistance to Russia in her present distress. And certain
it is that no such considerations will defer the awakening of
France to a sense of what she owes to her past, and of what
Europe expects of her at this crisis in the history of a great
struggle between religious persecution and religious freedom.
It will be obvious to those who appreciate the
partnership in anti-Semitism involved by the Franco-
Russian alliance that French persecution and the appre¬
hension of a Jewish exodus from France necessarily
throws Jewish influence, interests, and sympathy, so far
as they exist, on the side of England and the United
States ; and while, therefore, increasing the value of
British protection to the persecuted Hebrew, imposes on
the race of Israel the gravest obligations not to injure the
hand stretched out to help them in their hour of need.
VI
THE JEW IN ENGLAND
THE JEW IN ENGLAND
I
It is difficult to ascertain the exact period of the arrival
of the Jews in England. William the Conqueror found
them settled in large numbers. His son Rufus showed
himself favourable to them, encouraging them to dis¬
pute with the clergy, whom he hated, and raising them
to a powerful position in society, so much so that the
reign of Rufus may be regarded as the golden age of
Hebrew prosperity in this country. Some idea of
Jewish wealth may be gained from the fact that in the
year 1188 they contributed £60,000 towards the French
war, as against £70,000, the total share borne by the
Christian community. Such a contribution, however,
may indicate rather exactions by the Government than
patriotism or wealth on the part of the Jews.
The persecutions undergone by the Hebrew race in
this country arc due to the same causes as have
affected it elsewhere. First among them is the fact
that Jewish wealth excited the covetousness of a rude
and warlike people, not overburdened themselves
either with sensitive scrupulousness or with worldly
118 THE MODERN JEW
riches. Six centuries back Jews were, as now, the
backbone of the trade in money. Financial operations
were entirely in their hands, and so completely had
they monopolised the manufactures, that the sacred
vessels used in the service of the church were supplied
by Jewish goldsmiths. The English armies in
Normandy and Gascony contained no Jewish archers
or javelin men ; no Jew was found in the train of
knight or baron ; they grew rich and prospered at
home while the blood of Norman nobles and English
men-at-arms was fertilising the plains of France.
Such being the case, their unpopularity among men of
action is not surprising. They were tolerated simply
as the mechanical sources of money. Nor was the fault
of this state of things simply on the side of the English.
The Jew, in his capacity of money-lender, cannot
reasonably have been expected to forego his pound of
flesh with unvarying persistency. Money-lenders are
always few and debtors invariably in the majority.
Lenders, as a class, have never succeeded in acquiring
popularity among borrowers. Lord James of Hereford's
Bill against money-lenders enshrines a view of the
favourite trade of the Hebrew race which has pre¬
vailed in England since Jews settled here. When they
are of different religion and race, creditors are still
further separated from their debtors. A memorable
example of this hatred and desire for the plunder of
opulent Hebrews is found at the coronation of Richard
Coeur de Lion. .Jews were excluded from this pageant
at Westminster/Abbey. Sorife few of them, impelled
by Oriental curiosity, still characteristic of their race,
slipped in with the crowd. They were discovered. A
THE JEW IN ENGLAND 119
line and cry was raised and the Jews were chased out
of the Abbey by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Not content with mere expulsion, religious fervour was
quickly reinforced by a desire for loot. The London
citizens hunted their prey into the Jewry and revelled
in the sack of Hebrew merchandise precisely as the
Russian or Galician populace hunts and robs them to¬
day. Frightful atrocities were committed on the
inmates of Jewry. The roar of flames mingled with the
screams of tortured Israelites until the murderers drew
off, sated with blood and plunder. This is but a single
instance of the Jewish massacres which occurred
periodically throughout England, and exemplifies the
pushful inquisitiveness of a race which to this day is,
for the most part, honestly oblivious to the chief causes
of its unpopularity.
Another cause of the dislike they early inspired
among our ancestors was the practice of a different
religion from their Christian brethren. Religious fana¬
ticism was never so strong as at the beginning of the
first Crusade, when the burning words of Peter the
Hermit induced Godfrey de Bouillon and his fellow
Crusaders to plan the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
A wave of religious emotion swept from Lisbon to
Vienna and from Newcastle to Syracuse. Abortive but
spontaneous movements for the invasion of Palestine
arose among the peasantry of Europe. Without leaders,
without money or equipments, these movements were
doomed to failure. The death or ruin of those who
took part in them was inevitable. The crusade of
Walter the Penniless is an example of this miscalculated
religious fanaticism which overtook the lower orders of
120 THE MODERN JEW
France and the Empire at this time. Too often, in
their hatred of the infidel, that is of him who is un¬
faithful to the religion of Jesus Christ, the peasant
armies fell on the Jews for the love of Him whose first
lesson was to teach them to love their enemies. In
default of Saracen or Turk the hated Jew fell a victim
to the billhooks of the crusading peasantry. These
tragedies abroad found an echo in England, thus
showing the essential solidarity of the Jewish Question
in those days. Massacres of Jews took place on the
ground that one of the hated race had insulted the
Host as it passed down the street to the bedside of the
dying. This charge, it may be observed, was not
always devoid of foundation. An instance of religious
fanaticism mingled with desire for plunder is found at
the massacre of the Jews at York. An anti-Semitic
riot had arisen. The Jewish community were closely
besieged in the castle, where they had taken refuge.
As the assault progressed a canon of York cathedral,
dressed in full canonicals, was seen to put himself at
the head of the stormers and to incite the besiegers
to the massacre of "the enemies of Jesus Christ."
"Enemy of God," "murderer of our Lord," were
favourite cries in London and the other towns of
England throughout the Middle Ages. The practice of
the Christian faith had not then .reached its full
development. c' j 1
It must be remembered that a mediaeval butchery of
the Jews is rarely to be attributed to a single cause. A
trivial incident may have given rise to it, such as the
insulting behaviour of a Jewish child to a Christian
priest, but the motives which actuated the anti-Semite
THE JEW IN ENGLAND 121
mob of the Middle Ages were a mixture of blind
unspiritual fanaticism, boorish ignorance, childish
suspicion, and a perennial appetite for loot, precisely
as the Russian mob and soldiery attack them for the
same reasons in the present day.
A third cause of Jewish unpopularity was brutal
ignorance and almost insane fdncies on the part of the
lower orders. At a time when learning was confined
to the monastery and the bishop's palace, the common
people being steeped in ignorance as profound as that
of the Russian peasantry of to-day, it is not surprising
that the wildest stories against the Hebrew race
found implicit credence among them. Accusations
against Jews for poisoning wells, crucifying Christian
children, and other charges of nameless horror were
constantly levelled at their heads. Tovey, in his " Anglia
Judaica," has given the several instances which are
upon record of these charges against the Jews, which,
he observes, they were never accused of, "but at such
times as the king was manifestly in great want of
money." The repetition of a wild rumour such as one
of the above led to a Jew hunt in the streets of Lincoln.
In no case does history record the substantiation of
these charges against the Tews of England in the
Middle Ages.
Although persecution was general throughout medi¬
aeval England, more hospitality was then accorded to
the Jewish race in this country than was the case of
France or in Spain. With all the crimes of our
ancestors, they never produced an Anglican equiva¬
lent to Torquemada, nor an institution such as the
Holy Inquisition.
122 THE MODERN JEW
Two further causes of English aversion to Jews in
Plantagenet times may here be mentioned. One is the
fact that Jews formed a community apart from the rest
of the population, and held themselves resolutely aloof
from the common life of the English. There was little,
if any, inter-marriage. Englishman and Jew then lived
separate lives. Between the Oriental Dives and the
Anglo-Saxon Lazarus there was a great gulf fixed. The
second cause is the antipathy too often felt by white
men for Asiatics. The Jews are Asiatics, and English¬
men did not then regard alien immigrants from the
hinterland of an obscure country on the seaboard of
the Eastern Mediterranean with fraternal affection.
Ultimately the cumulative effects of Jewish power,
riches, and unpopularity culminated in the issue by
Edwnrd I. of an edict in 1290 commanding the Jews
to leave the shores of England—16,511 persons crossed
the Channel. Persecution attended them even in their
exodus. They were deprived of all they possessed, even
the pitiful sum retained by them for the expenses of the
journey, being in many cases robbed by the chivalrous
sailors of the Cinque Ports. There are many instances
of the drollery of Jew-drowning in the annals of monkish
historians. A captain of the Cinque Ports, says Walter
de Hemingford, persuaded a company of Jews whom
he had on his ship to walk on the sands at low tide.
He left them there until the tide rose and, notwith¬
standing their prayers, declined to help them, and
watched them drown. This took place before the
exodus of 1290. But the story shows how Jews were
regarded hardly as human beings, the drowning of a
batch of them being matter for hilarious laughter.
II
THE JEW IN THE ELIZABETHAN ERA
Historians of the Elizabethan era, great and small,
seem to have neglected all consideration of the effect
which the Jewish exodus from Britain of 1292 had
upon the golden period of English arms, explorations,
and letters. Elizabethan glory was attained in the
absence of the Chosen People. Unselfish ideas
animated Englishmen of varying characters, dissimilar
aims, and widely different careers. Perhaps the dis¬
tinctive note of the Elizabethan era, amid much that
was brutal and even sordid, was the unselfish courage
and imagination thrown by all sorts and conditions of
men into undertakings never dreamed of by previous
generations. It is true that the motives of Elizabeth
herself, no less than those of Drake, Raleigh, Frobisher,
and Hawkins, and lesser men, were disfigured by
covetousness ; still their greed was that of the gambler
playing for high stakes at great personal risk, not the
middleman's grasp of profits won by skill and in¬
trepidity not his own. In Drake's theft of the church
plate from the cathedral of Lima—one of the worst
bits of English filibustering on record—however
blameworthy, the risks were enormous, and neither
124 THE MODERN JEW
Drake nor his syndicate of dare-clevils even considered
the personal danger to which they were exposed.
Rash exploits and occasionally great losses, but more
often triumphant successes, wrought in a large and
generous spirit, distinguished the Elizabethan era.
Syndicates existed in the days of the Virgin Queen no
less than in those of Victoria, and the syndicates
formed in those days for the realisation of colonial
aspirations were manifestly animated by something
deeper than a love of gain. Chartered companies
received the sanction of the Crown. In some of them
Elizabeth herself was a shareholder. They were
purely English ; no Jew is known to have taken part
in these enterprises, and the essential difference
between the colonial ventures organised in the latter
part of the sixteenth century, and those with which we
of this epoch are familiar, is marked by features too
significant to ignore. Three hundred years ago the
capital embarked in a foreign venture was what it was
represented to be. The watering of shares was a
foreign process yet to be imported. It is an exotic
which has been brought by immigrants to our
country.
The other point in Elizabethan enterprises which
may be noted with interest is that the various enter¬
prises promoted by the great explorers and statesmen
of the Tudor Queen were really what they represented
themselves to be ; they were undertaken in the interests
of the English people. Against the Spaniard, robbery,
ruin, even torture was inflicted ; public morality was at
too low an ebb to exact a high standard of altruism in
dealing with the foreigner ; but it can never be said
THE JEW IN THE ELIZABETHAN ERA 125
that the British public of that day was stripped or
despoiled as cosmopolitan financiers bleed, gull, and
rob the investing public of to-day.
It is interesting further to note that although one of
the most celebrated Shakesperian dramas has a Jew for
its central figure, Shakespeare resorted to a foreign
country for his type. It is scarcely possible that
Doctor Roderigo Lopez, the Jewish physician to Queen
Elizabeth, was the original of Shylock. Mr. Sidney
Lee, I am aware, holds a contrary view, and Mr.
Erederick Hawkins has declared that Shakespeare was
induced to write the play with special reference to an
outbreak of intolerance caused by the fear of an erup¬
tion of Israelites into London about the year 1594. It
is not known that Shakespeare ever visited Venice.
The play was first produced in 1598, and it is possible
that the large tolerance of Shakespeare's genius desired
to divert public attention from the revolting character
of Barabbas, the Jew of Malta, portrayed by the frankly
anti-Semitic Marlowe.
The genius of Shakespeare is rarely displayed in so
triumphant a form as in his portraiture of Shylock.
The dignity, the pathos, the domestic affections of the
old moneylender personify the Jewish character more
accurately than the travesty which has been presented
by the writer of the Venesyon Comedy or by Kit
Marlowe. Shakespeare could scarcely have known in
person sufficient Jews to enable him to form a type of
the Jew, not only in his own era, but for all time.
That he did it is due, not only to his genius, but to the
fact that he had recourse to the type which existed on
the Continent, though scarcely in England herself.
126 THE MODERN JEW
Although it might he unjust to attribute everything,
some contributory element, at all events, of Elizabethan
vigour, imperialism, and ideals is due to the absence of
the Jewish money-lending element from the shores of
England, and it must not be forgotten that although
many nations during a portion of their history have
been able to contrast their progress and development
in the absence of the Jews, with periods when the
Hebrew element was allowed free play, no nation has
yet witnessed the final result of unchecked Jewish
energy after full freedom has been accorded for three
generations to their abilities, acquisitiveness, aloofness,
and ambition.
Of all countries in the world, England is the one to
which the Jews owe an idelible debt of gratitude. As
has often happened in our history, England was tardy
in accepting the principles of freedom which now form
the commonplace of all political parties. England was
the first, it is true, in 1293, to eject the Jew from her
shores. Her example was copied by her neighbours
with equal savagery, though perhaps with no greater
vigour. When a softer era dawned, England was not
the first to receive the Jew on terms of equality.
France, as the acknowledged leader of ideas in Europe,
was beforehand with the phlegmatic justice of the
English race. Not until later was Jewish emancipation
finally accomplished. It is too soon to speak of its
result. Agricultural decay, imported food, industrial
inflation, a democracy impotent to provide its own
means of subsistence, form a soil upon which the Jews
have flourished. If the natural increase of British
Israelites had been the only factor in the problem,
THE JEW IN THE ELIZABETHAN ERA T27
there is no reason to doubt that, sooner or later, the
Anglicisation of the Jewish community would have
been accomplished perhaps by this time as effectively as
that of the Huguenots who fled here in thousands after
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The French
immigrants of 1685 are now completely absorbed in
the population ; as much cannot be said of the bulk of
the English Jews. A few families remarkable for their
public spirit, refinement, dignity, patriotism, and wealth
have given to Englishmen some idea of what the Jew
may become when rooted in this country by interests,
affections, and patriotism. It had been well both for
England and the Jews if the right of ingress had done
no more than keep pace with the capacity of the
country to absorb them. Unfortunately this has not
been the case.
VII
THE JEW IN THE ARGENTINE
COLONIES
i
THE JEW IN THE ARGENTINE
COLONIES
The project of diminishing the Jewish population of
Russia by transportation across the shoulder of the
world to South America was one that excited enthu¬
siasm among every one ignorant of the conditions under
which the transference of a community from one part
of the world to the other can be successfully conducted.
Apparently nothing was wanted that could make the
scheme a success, except the things that were essential.
Money was provided in profusion ; engineering and
military skill were not wanting. Agricultural experts
prepared voluminous reports on all the conditions
affecting the climate of Argentina. The soil was
analysed, machinery was shipped, laws and bye-laws
were drawn up.
The population for various colonies was of various
kinds. Some of them were carefully selected from the
Jewish agricultural population of the Kherson colonies
and others, but a larger proportion were refugees from
the illiberal and stringent government of the Russian
Pale. Two things were wanting. Firstly, the capacity
for physical toil involved in the successful cultiva¬
tion of wheat at the prices which have ruled during the
132 THE MODERN JEW
present decade ; and secondly, the willingness of the
population thus transshipped to endure the change of
life, and to suffer under new heavens and on a new
earth an existence for which they had been unfitted by
nearly two thousand years of life in the poorer quarters
of great European cities.
Baron de Hirsch was more than liberal in his pre¬
parations. Nothing was stinted. On his death he
confided the care of the Argentine emigrants to the
directors of the Jewish Colonisation Association. The
labours of these gentlemen are of an international
character, but neither their methods nor their manage¬
ment can be criticised, as they do not permit the
presence of the independent press at their annual
meeting ; while their annual report gives no record of
the cost incurred in the administration of the project
entrusted to them. Generalities instead of details are
published. It is known, however, that they sent a
Commission to Russia with the object of asking the
Chief of the Holy Synod to sanction what he had
already refused—viz., liberty to conduct and to colonise
within the limits of Holy Russia itself.
It is not too much to say that the colonisation
experiments hitherto made on behalf of the Jews are
practically failures. The feeling of perseverance is
lacking among the colonists. A considerable number
drift back to Russia and prefer the evils which they
know to prospective advantages which, under the best
colonising system in the world, can only accrue to
their children, and then only if they alter their trading
instincts and intuitive taste for middlemanship into
manly resolve to face the severe trials and gambling
THE JEW IN THE ARGENTINE COLONIES 133
uncertainties of agricultural life. To make a true
peasant, generations are needed. The fact that Jewish
townsmen can in time be converted into a contented
and moderately successful peasantry is proved by the
results after the third generation of the Nicholas
colonies at Kherson. On July 15, 1898, the total
number of Jewish colonists in the Argentine Republic
was said to be only 6904, or 200 less than in the
previous year. Colonisation under the most favourable
conditions is one of the most difficult things in the
world. The average colonist who is sent out at the
charge of philanthropy is necessarily indifferent to his
unseen and unknown benefactor ; separated from him
by space and by mental unconsciousness, the immigrant
is, however, keenly sensible of his rights, and not over
sensitive as to his duties. Since every Jew colonist is
commercially minded by training and instinct, the
administration of a Jewish colony is a more difficult
undertaking even than that of a robust Anglo-Saxon
community. In the case of the Argentine colonies
founded by Baron de Hirsch the power of the press
was freely availed of by the colonists for the purpose
of extorting from the administrators greater liberality
and better terms than would have been given under
the conditions of the contract. One letter, which is
dated Moisesville, June 15, 1898, published in the
Courier de la Plata, informs the party to whom it is
addressed that nothing in the world can be worse than
the situation in the colonies. The writer observes that in
the wilds of Africa and in the days of the Inquisition
matters could not be worse, and that the colonists are
broken in spirit and heart by their treatment. This
134 THE MODERN JEW
spirit of discontent is familiar to every one who has
had anything to do with colonisation, but hundreds of
similar letters might be cited to show, not the incom¬
petence of the administration but the discontent of
the Jewish colonists with their lot. A few, of course,
have succeeded, but the idea that colonisation in the
Argentine is a solution of the Jewish population question
in Central Europe is the visionary desire of generous
and imaginative but unpractical minds. I have had
myself too much experience of practical colonisation
to attach the least importance to the incessant com¬
plaints of the Jewish emigrants. I have known a
Christian colonist, an Englishman, and a communicant
of the Church of England, who afterwards succeeded
in life, write home to his friends with the statement :
" I have not had fresh butter for a fortnight and the
thought of it almost breaks me down." Mere discontent
is no criterion of the impracticability of a colonising
scheme; but there are two conditions which are
absolutely essential for success—one is, that the
colonist must be by training and heredity able and
willing to work hard ; and the other is, that the colonist
must enter upon his new life with the determination to
be absorbed by and become part of the community
which he joins. Neither of these conditions is com¬
plied with by the Jews. Until they are, no Jewish
colonisation to distant lands will do much to solve the
Jewish problem.
Another element of feebleness in Jewish Argentine
colonies—a difficulty that enters into every colonising
experiment, without one exception, that is known to
me—is the inability to enforce the payment of debt.
THE JEW IN THE ARGENTINE COLONIES 135
According to the Jewish Chronicle (July 15, 1898) not a
single instalment has been paid during the seven years
of the existence of the colonies, although there have
been some good years which made some attempt at
payment perfectly feasible. The expenditure of two
millions of money, or the interest of it, the manufacture
of inefficient paupers and a multiplication of dishonest
colonists at great cost form a questionable contribution
to the solution of the difficulty. It is probable that the
future history of the Argentine colonies will followclosely
that of their predecessors in the Kherson provinces.
For the first twenty years of that experiment miserable
failure was the only result. Bacon has wisely said in his
"Essay on Plantations" that twenty years must pass
before we can look for a profit. Although some
future success may reasonably be looked for from the
second and third generations of the Jewish colonists in
Argentina, the immediate outlook is not a hopeful one,
but under the best possible conditions reasonably to be
expected, it is impossible to regard colonisation in
South America as affording any greater solution of the
Jewish question than the colonisation of Palestine or
Zionism itself.
VIII
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL
Champions of the Chosen People, when joining
issue with critics who charge them with the habits of
isolation commonly imputed to the working-class Jews
of all nations, usually rejoin that the alien character of
their co-religionists does not really exist, and that the
charge is a figment of anti-Semitic imagination. Jewish
champions in this country are wont to compare them¬
selves and their co-religionists with the descendants of
French Huguenots who emigrated to England more
than two centuries ago. No Englishman of to-day
would dream of imputing alienage to the posterity of
the refugees who settled in England after the Revoca¬
tion of the Edict of Nantes. Englishmen who trace
their descent back to Norman, Saxon, French, Dutch,
or even Russian origin are English in every sense of
the word, because the marriages of their ancestors, and
the general adoption of English food, language, habits,
and conditions of life, quickly obliterated the distinctive
and alien type originally introduced by the first French
Protestants who settled in this country. The English
race, to use a homely simile, is not unlike a tureen of
soup comprising various materials, such as meat with
its bone and gristle, herbs, wine, spices, flour, fish,
14° THE MODERN JEW
sauces, and other ingredients simmering under such
conditions of heat and time as are required to produce
a homogeneous and appetising whole. No matter
what may be the original stuff of the various materials
employed in making the soup, the result is pottage
with a definite entity marked by certain known and
recognisable qualities. The difference between the
Jewish element in the soup of our national life and
every other constituent nationality consists in the fact
that whereas all the others freely intermarry, talk,
worship, eat with us, and fight for us, the stricter Jews
(that is the bulk of them) will do none of these things ;
they remain aloof; they preserve their tribal customs ;
they are too proud of their origin and their destiny not
to feel contemptuously towards the people by whom
they are sheltered and on whom they exist.
In an article in the Contemporary Review, dated
January 1898, alleged to be by Mr. J. Dyche, a Jewish
alien workman, are the following words :
Any one who is even a little acquainted with the life of the
foreign Jews in this country will often hear them say that the
" yokel " (the name by which the Englishman is known amongst
them) can live on much less than they do. A close acquaint¬
ance with their lives confirms this. In a Jewish family the
husband is the sole bread-winner. . . .
Contrast this with the action of the British workman, who
exploits the labour of his wife and children, and who began
to exploit the labour of the latter at the age of six when he was
allowed to do so.
The Jewish workman possesses the quality of his race—
he is an artist, and if his work sometimes lacks strength and
durability, it is never wanting in taste or finish. The English
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 141
workman is in this respect a mere labourer. Plis work is like
his temperament, drink, and diet—strong, solid, and durable,
but at the same time rough, coarse, and tasteless. In matters
of style and taste the English workman can only follow the
foreigner.
There is no need of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children so far as the Jews are concerned. The Jewish
workman, at the worst, cares for his family only, which absorbs
all his cares and attention ■ but very often he lives for his
relatives, religion, or race. The heart of the average British
workman never throbs with any such sentiments; I doubt
whether it beats at all, except, perhaps, when he is engaged in
rabbit-coursing, dog-fighting, or other such noble and instruc¬
tive amusements. Poor innocent creature! Imagine him
being demoralised by a drunken Jew or a loose Jewish woman !
Is not every one aware that the Jews are a sober people, and
have, therefore, no teetotalers—the greatest evil drink has
produced—amongst them, and that their women are proverbial
for their chastity, except, perhaps, in cases where they become
thoroughly Anglicised ? I came across a Jewish woman who
drank and had acquired a large and varied stock of English
expletives. This remarkable phenomenon was explained to
me by her neighbours as due to the fact that she had been
brought up among " yokels," and was married to a pure-blooded
Briton. And yet people complain that we do not become
Anglicised! Who ever heard among foreign Jews of those
brutal fights, vicious language, and disgraceful scenes with
which the British workman enlivens the monotony of his
Sabbath ? Why, some of what were the most dangerous
places in the East of London, such as Flower and Dean Street,
Brady Street, and others, have become, since the foreign Jews
settled there, the quietest, peacefullest places in London,
where one can go to bed at any time and not be kept awake
all night by the drunken orgies of English men and women.
142 THE MODERN JEW
I am speaking now of my experience when I lived in Spital-
fields a few years ago, in a street inhabited mostly by true-
born Britons. In Whitechapel the contrast between the native
and foreign population is most striking. On one hand you
find people who are at as low a grade of drunkenness and vice
as it is possible for human beings to come to. On the other,
sober, peaceful, and industrious people, from whose lips will
never fall an expression that can offend the most sensitive
lady, but who are poor—an unpardonable offence in England,
especially for a foreigner.
Are we a "dead-weight on progress"? On whose progress
are we a dead-weight ? Certainly not the British workman's,
for I do not think there could be a greater dead-weight on
progress than the British working man himself.
The Chief Rabbi, Dr. Herman Adler, wrote as
follows on March 10, 1887 :
It is an admitted fact that in former years one rarely, if ever,
heard of an unchaste Hebrew maiden in this country. I
grieve to be obliged to say that this happy state of things no
longer exists. The extension of the social evil to my com¬
munity may be directly traced to the overstocked labour
market, and to the Russian persecutions, continuing to this
day, which cause thousands of Jewish girls to arrive at these
shores without any means of subsistence.
Dr. Aciler afterwards withdrew this statement, but it
is difficult to understand that it could have been made
without a strong foundation of fact, at least as regards
the destitution of immigrants, many of whom were
employed in the clothing trade. Mr. Dyche himself
declares " the Jewish woman" to be "idle, wasteful,
and extravagant"—an element that impartial persons
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 143
may regard as an addition of questionable value to our
thriftless population.
When it is asserted that the standard of comfort in
" the life of the foreign Jews of this country " is higher
than that of Englishmen, the weight of evidence does
not sustain the assertion. Comparison between dis¬
solute, ignorant, and improvident British labourers and
thrifty, well-paid foreign Jewish artisans of the higher
class would no doubt confirm the contention. For
more than controversial purposes, however, such com¬
parison would be useless. The only proper comparison
is to be made between people of the same class.
Nobody denies that some British workmen drink, and
that the homes of drunkards are debased. The average
Jewish "greener" is not a highly paid artisan.
An accurate description of the mode in which these
miserable folk live in London was given by Mr. Lake-
man, one of our factory inspectors, in his evidence
before the Sweating Commission, and affords an
instance of aloofness undesirable from every point of
view :
The habits of these people are very, very dirty; they seem
almost to revel in dirt rather than in cleanliness. Going into
some workshops, you find a filthy bed, on which garments
which are made are laid ; children perfectly naked lying about
the floor and on the beds ; frying pans and all sorts of dirty
utensils, with food of various descriptions, on the bed, under
the bed, over the bed—everywhere; clothes hanging on a line,
with a large gas stove to dry them, the ashes all falling about,
and the atmosphere so dense that you get ill after a night's
work there. The temperature, as tested by me, was found to
be 90 degrees.
144 THE MODERN JEW
Besides the social and racial aloofness of the foreign
immigrants there is a further element which differen¬
tiates the most Anglicised Jew who remains loyal to
his faith from all other foreigners. This element in the
problem is the fact of his close connection both by
blood and religion with a kindred community in every
foreign country. This is seen whenever the question
of the good or evil conduct of a Jew is discussed in the
public press. At the outset of the recent Dreyfus case
Jews believed Dreyfus to be innocent for the same
reason that the crazy anti-Semites believed him to be
guilty, the judgment in both cases being arrived at
without one tittle of evidence on either side, although
the illegality of the trial was not in question. There is
not a synagogue or a Jewish congregation in Poland,
Lithuania, or Galicia which does not in case of need
justly exercise over humane Jews in Western Christen¬
dom a stronger influence than any of the social or
religious forces of the country in which they are
domiciled. Under the stress of persecution, or even of
criticism, the solidarity of the modern Jews is complete,
and it is completer between Jews of different nationali¬
ties than between the Jewish community of a given
country and the native inhabitants when persecution
and criticism are absent. Jews quarrel among them¬
selves as ferociously as the most exemplary Christians.
Whatever an Englishman may or may not be, it is
clear that the members of no race or fragment of a race
can be deemed English when their diet is foreign, their
origin Oriental, when their ties with alien co-religionists
in other lands are closer than with Britons, and when,
for successive generations, they have proudly declined to
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 145
intermarry with the people of their adopted country.
It is 110 answer to say that some of the richest, the most
enlightened and Anglicised of the Jews have married
Christians, and will do so again. The fact is indisputable,
and is greatly to the advantage both of Christendom and
of Jewry. The proportion of mixed marriages, however,
between Jews and non-Jews is so small as to constitute
an immaterial factor in the problem, while Jewesses
who marry Christians are looked on by the bulk of
their own people, even in the middle classes, as the
victims of mesalliance.
A brilliant but sinister novel, "Dr. Phillips,"* written
by a Jewess, throws light on this point. A number of
Jewish middle class matrons are discussing the
prospect of a daughter of one of them marrying a
Christian :
Mrs. Collings said she would rather see one of her children
dead than married to a Christian. Mrs. Detmar would not go
quite as far as that; only she would, certainly, rather see hers
married to the poorest Jew that ever walked, even to an
absolute pauper. Mrs. Jeddington said she did not think
things were as bad as that; she would rather see Soph married
to "one of their own people," of course, but she did not think
her father would mind either way.
Mrs. Montague Levy said: "Mixed marriages never came
to any good," and instances were cited (p. 165).
Speaking of the quality of aloofness in the middle
class Jews, the talented authoress of "Dr. Phillips"
continues :
Theirs is a society worth describing before, as must be in
* Vizetelly & Co.
K
146 THE MODERN JEW
the natural order of things, it decays or amalgamates. It is a
fact little understood that here, in the heart of a great and
cosmopolitan city, sharing in, and appropriating its riches,
there is a whole nation dwelling apart in an inviolable seclu¬
sion, which they at once cultivate, boast of, and are ashamed
at. There are houses upon houses in the West Central districts,
in Maida Vale, in the City, which are barred to Christians, to
which the very name of Jew is an open sesame.
All the burning questions of the hour are to them a dead
letter ; art, literature, and politics exist not for them. They
have but one aim, the acquisition of wealth. Playing cards at
each other's houses is their sole experience of the charms of
social intercourse; their interests are bounded by their homes
and those of their neighbouring brethren (p. 168).
In a sort of jealous exclusiveness these Jews lived by and
among themselves. They fancied they did so from choice.
It was nut so ; it was a remnant of the time when the yellow
cap and curiously shaped gaberdine marked them out as lepers
in the crowd. The garb had been discarded, but the shrinking
feeling of generations was still lingering. There is a certain
pride in these people ; they are at once the creatures and the
outcasts of civilisation. The difference between Jew and
Gentile was once one of religion. Now it is a difference that
it will take as many centuries of intermarriage to bring about.
The Jews feel this acutely. They remember the leper mark
that has been taken from them, and they shrink from accentu¬
ating the remembrance by association with the people whose
ancestors affixed it
Put two strange Jews, one from London and one from the
Antipodes, amid a hundred people of other nationalities, and
in a quarter of an hour they will have recognised their kinship,
and have gravitated towards each other in unconscious
Ishmaelitism against the rest of the company.
Sections of them are trying very hard to struggle against
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 147
this race barrier, and with a modicum of success. But they
have much to contend against (p. 60).
It is unnecessary, however, to have recourse to the
pages of a novel to probe the inner mind of a modern
Jew 011 the subject of mixed marriages. Occasionally
the London magistrates are invited to adjudicate 011
cases which illustrate the objection referred to.
The following is an instance of a Jewish objection to
a Christian wife and appeared in the London papers of
August 18, 1898 :
At the Thames Police-court, yesterday, a foreign Jew applied
to Mr. Mead for advice about his wife. She had married him
under false pretences.
Mr. Mead : How is that ?
Applicant: She has fooled me.
Mr. Mead : How has she fooled you ?
Applicant: I married her thinking she was a Jewish woman.
She said she was, and now I find out she is a Christian.
Mr. Mead : Do you mean Christian by descent or of the
Christian religion ?
Applicant: I find it out, and I cannot live with a Christian
woman.
Mr. Mead : Why not ?
Applicant : I am a Jew.
Mr. Mead : She may be of Jewish descent.
Applicant: No. I can tell. I spoke to her many times,
and find that she is no Jewess. The man who signed her
marriage paper as her father is not her father at all.
Mr. Mead advised applicant to go to the Chief Rabbi, who
possessed extraordinary powers of divorce. He was not pre¬
pared to say whether the marriage was valid or not. If it
were not he would have to go to the Divorce Court for a
148 THE MODERN JEW
decree of nullity of marriage. If applicant could prove that
the alleged father or the wife had made a false declaration he
(Mr. Mead) would grant a summons.
In a remarkable letter from Mr. Alfred G. Henriques
{J civish Chronicle, October 14, 1898) is the following
passage :
They [i.e., the Jews] hold the aggressive belief that they are
the chosen people of the Most High ; and they also believe in
the sinfulness of mixed marriages. I beg a patient considera¬
tion of these two points, and I ask—is it possible to arouse
resentment among other peoples more thoroughly than by
insistence on those two doctrines? The Jews have gone in
for separation, their legislation emphasises difference as the first
object of their peculiar laws. The result could only be as it
is. Of course there are other practices, needless to refer to,
that further accentuate difference, and complete the separation
effectually.
Mr. Henriques concludes by asking his co-religionists
to abandon the two doctrines of the Chosen People
and the sinfulness of mixed marriages. In doing so he
raised a storm which lifted the curtain that usually hides
the communal attitude towards Gentiles and their ways.
Mr. Henriques is told that he is inviting the abandon¬
ment of " the principles of Judaism " ; that he is " suffer¬
ing from the utter lack of Jewish religious faith," and
that he is " outraging the feelings of those not similarly
perplexed, but who are enjoying the comfort of sincere
belief in the Holy Scriptures " ; and he is invited to
cease from "further insults to his fellow Jews by
launching his profane anathemas against their cherished
religion."
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 149
Should we renounce [asks another writer] our glorious
heritage as world teachers and witnesses of God's providence
for the sake of a paltry unpopularity almost beneath our notice,
and that has been caused in Western Europe at least by the
faults and failings of apostatised and disloyal Jews themselves ?
This most interesting correspondence attracted no
attention in the newspapers and current literature of
the day. Nevertheless it is worth noting that loyal and
observant Jews claim the promises of Isaiah and the
injunctions of Ezra on the subjects of separation and
intermarriage with aliens to be as valid to-day as at the
hour of their utterance. Pious Jews claim to be the
Chosen People, and regard intermarriage as sinful. Even
those who, like the writer, view with foreboding the future
effect of these doctrines on the Jewish community and
English democracy alike, cannot fail to recognise the
steadfast faith and spiritual elevation of those Jews who
cling to the ancient ways for conscience' sake.
Another matter that leads to the aloofness of Israel
is the fondness of poor Jewish parents for the
Chedorim, or elementary school, in which children are
taught the elements of Hebrew and religion. The
pedagogic principles employed are very primitive,
instruction being merely an exercise in memory. The
sanitary conditions also often leave much to be desired.
In civilised communities, the tendency has been to
replace these Chedorim by schools on more modern
principles, which include secular subjects in their
curriculum. (" Jewish Year Book." 1898-1899.)
Lord Rothschild has sent the following circular
letter (in English and Yiddish) to the parents of every
male pupil in the Jews' Free School :
THE MODERN JEW
Jews' Free School,
Bell Lane, Spitalfields, E.
December 1898.
Dear Friend,—I desire to address you on a subject of
very great importance concerning the health and well-being of
your sons, and affecting their future development, physical and
intellectual.
I know what love and devotion Jewish parents feel for their
children, how hard they work for them and what sacrifices
they submit to in order to promote their welfare. I know also
how ardently they desire to see their children brought up in
the doctrines of our holy religion, and that they should be
properly instructed in Hebrew and in the tenets of our sacred
faith.
But it has long seemed to me that you may be doing your
children harm by the over-zeal which prompts you to send
them to the Chedorim for so many hours a day. Visitors
have noticed how pale and tired the boys attending the free
school look, and how their weariness increases with each hour
of the day. This was particularly noticed by H.M. Inspector
during a recent visit. He was impressed by the appearance of
fatigue so noticeable among the boys. At first he thought
they might be underfed, or that they suffered from some form
of home neglect. But being assured that the children were
well looked after by their parents, he questioned them and
then discovered the true cause of their tired looks. He found
that many boys attend the Chedorim as early as 7 o'clock in
the morning and remain there till it is time to go to school.
Immediately school is over, they return to the Chedorim and
stay there till 8 or 9 o'clock at night. They thus spend twelve
or thirteen hours a day in their studies, a large proportion of
this time being passed among insanitary surroundings.
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 151
In consequence of this over-pressure, H.M. Inspector has
strongly urged the committee of the free school to shorten the
school hours. The committee have this matter now under
their serious consideration. There is little doubt they will
carry out the suggestion of H.M. Inspector. The inevitable
result of such a change will be that you will have to keep your
children longer at school than you do at present, and you will
thus be deprived of their services at a time when you can ill
afford to spare them.
I ask you, are you not expecting too much of children of
tender age? Do not these long hours seriously injure their
health ? Some time ago, Dr. Schorstein stated publicly that
his experience at the London Hospital showed him that the
Chedorim were ruining the health of the children attending
them, that the bodies and minds of your little ones became
enfeebled, and that in consequence they were less able
to withstand the various illnesses to which children are
subject.
While appreciating your motives, I would beg to point out
to you how unwise is your action. Far be it from me to
under-value the religious instruction your children should
receive, but I venture to think, that sufficient teaching in this
most important subject is given at the free school, where the
Hebrew and religious syllabus, issued and sanctioned by the
Chief Rabbi, is thoroughly well taught. A great many hours a
week are given to Hebrew reading, translation, Bible history,
Hebrew grammar, the observances of the Calendar, and last
but not least, to Ethics and the Moral Law. Surely, this
instruction should prove sufficient.
By the course you are pursuing you are positively injuring
the future prospects of your children, for, if they come to
school tired and unrefreshed, how can they do themselves
justice in their secular studies? Their progress is hindered,
and either you must keep them at school more years than
J52
THE MODERN JEW
would otherwise be necessary, or, if you take them away at the
legal age, they are not sufficiently educated to acquit them¬
selves well in the battle of life. Instead of rising in the
industrial world, they sink into the ruck of ill-paid and
over-crowded occupations and remain the mere drudges of
society.
I earnestly beg of you, therefore, to take my words to heart
and withdraw your children from the Chedorim altogether, or
at least reduce the hours during which they attend. They will
then grow up healthy and strong, fitted in every way to pursue
an honourable career, and with a reasonable prospect of
becoming good and worthy English citizens.
I am,
Very truly yours,
Rothschild.
Another instance of the separation of the Jews from
their Gentile fellow subjects is to be discovered in the
recent claims of the Cohanim, or priestly class, for
exemption from service at inquests. In consequence
of their priestly descent the Cohens claim certain
privileges, and among others, under the command of
Leviticus xxi. i, 3, refuse to contaminate themselves
by being in the same place as the dead.*
* Lev. xxi. 1, 3 : "And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the
priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be
defiled for the dead among his people : And for his sister a virgin, that
is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband, for her he may be
defiled."
Cohenism at Inquests.—Jewish Chronicle, November n, 1898.—
Mr. Frederick Shiers, of Halliwell Lane, Cheetham, who was sum¬
moned to serve upon a jury at the Manchester City Coroner's Court on
Friday last, asked to be relieved of the duty on Scriptural grounds.
The Bible, he said, told him that he was not to be in the same apart¬
ment as a dead person. He handed to the Coroner (Mr. Sidney Smelt)
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL
T53
A further symptom of the gradual growth of Jewish
power in England, and the success with which privi¬
leges denied to other races and to every other form of
a letter from the Rev. Dr. Salomon, Minister of the Manchester Great
Synagogue.
The Coroner : It is a mistaken idea altogether. I have read the
Bible very carefully, and commentaries also, with a view to discovering
whether there is any authority for such an objection as yours, but I fail
to find it. The Bible says that anybody who touches a dead body is
unclean, but it says nothing against anybody looking at a body. If I
touch such a body I am unclean, and so is anybody else, whether a son
of Aaron or not, until he washes himself. We do not want you to
touch a body. I shall respect any reasonable interpretation of the
Bible. Assuming that you are a son of Aaron—and it will require
a rather long pedigree to prove that—I shall not accept a strained
interpretation of the text with the object of your avoiding a service
which other gentlemen living in this country and governed by our laws
have to fulfil.
Shiers persisted that his religious convictions precluded him from
such a service. He had never been in a house where there was a dead
person, and he did not intend to go into one. The letter from
Dr. Salomon contained proof that he was a son of Aaron.
The Coroner, who did not peruse the letter, said he could not accept
that as evidence. He wanted to know how Shiers claimed to be a
descendant of Aaron.
Shiers : My father taught me so, and I am carrying out his wishes.
I'm sorry I cannot view the body.
The Coroner: You must sit down. You will have to take your
turn with the rest. That is my determination.
Shiers : I am sorry to object, but I cannot do it, dare not do it, and
shall not do it.
The Coroner : You will have to do it.
Shiers repeated that he would not view any bodies ; he would not
even see the bodies of relatives, and he dared not go into a burial
ground. He thought it very wrong of the Coroner to persist in his
going to see a body when he objected.
The Coroner again pointed out that he did not know of any text in the
Bible in support of Shiers' argument.
Shiers : Perhaps you are not so well acquainted with the Bible as
our Rabbi.
The Coroner : I have discussed the matter with Dr. Salomon, and
x54
THE MODERN JEW
religion except the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presby¬
terian, and Wesleyan bodies, which number millions,
not thousands, among their followers, are granted to
the Jews, is the expenditure of State funds in the
he has not thrown any new light upon it. When you live in England
you must be prepared to obey the English laws.
Shiers : I do as far as I am allowed to do.
The Coroner (handing a Bible to Shiers) : Take that into a corner
of the Court and find the place where it says that a descendant of
Aaron must not view the body of a dead person. If you find it you can
go, but you don't leave this room without permission.
Shiers took the Bible, but again said he would not see the bodies.
He would sit in the Court the whole day if the Coroner wished it.
The Coroner : I say without fear of contradiction that the interpre¬
tation you are putting on the Bible is a strained one.
When the business of the Court, which consisted of several inquests,
had been concluded the Coroner asked Shiers if he had found any
Scriptural justification for his refusal to view a body, and the juryman
thereupon pointed to the first verse of the twenty-first chapter of the
Book of Leviticus, which reads : " And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak
unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none
be defiled for the dead among his people."
The Coroner said this could scarcely be held to apply as Shiers was
not a high priest. Then, as to another quotation which Shiers made,
to the effect that a man was unclean if he touched anything dead, the
Coroner pointed out that to it was added, " unless he wash his flesh with
water." That was only a practical truth. If a man was clean by
washing after he had touched the body, what could be required of him
if he merely looked at it ? Shiers would have to take his turn in future,
and if he did not the consequence would be serious. The custom of
viewing bodies was practically a useless one, but it had to be done in
the present state of the law.
Shiers, who had not been actually sitting upon the jury, and therefore
was not required to view the bodies, was discharged by the Coroner.
The Rev. Dr. Salomon, minister of the Manchester Great Synagogue,
and the Rev. I. Simon, minister of the South Manchester Synagogue,
wrote to the Manchester Guardian to explain the Jewish law and tradi¬
tion on the subject of Cohanim and defilement by contact with dead
bodies.
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 155
erection of synagogues at Wormwood Scrubs,* Park-
hurst, and Pentonville Prisons. Government have
apparently admitted the right of Jewish prisoners to
separate worship at the public expense.
The refusal to intermarry, the maintenance of sepa¬
ration as a Chosen People, the different diet, the non-
observance of Sunday, the claims of the Cohanim to
evade civic duties, the Talmudic education given in the
Chedorim or elementary schools, the religious claims
of prisoners for synagogues at the public expense, are
examples of the separate tendencies of the Jewish
people domiciled in England.
* House of Commons.
Thursday, April 28, 1898.
JEWS IN WORMWOOD SCRUBS.
Mr. Pickersgill (Bethnal Green, S.W.) asked the Secretary of State
for the Home Department whether he was aware that a synagogue was
being erected in Wormwood Scrubs Prison; whether the number of
Jews in that prison was sufficient to justify this expenditure ; and
whether the average number of Jews in the prison population had
largely increased in recent years.
Mr. Cohen (Islington, E.) asked whether it was usual to give public
information as to the number of prisoners of any particular denomina¬
tion in prison.
Sir M. W. Ridley (Lancashire, Blackpool): The answer to the first
two paragraphs is in the affirmative. The building is being erected to
supply a long-standing need and remedy what has been felt to be a
grievance by the Jewish community. I have no definite information on
the point raised in the last paragraph, but the number on Monday last
was thirty-seven. It is obviously inexpedient to supply information
about the decrease or otherwise of any religious persuasion, but for the
purpose of the hon. member I think I have given him all the informa¬
tion.
Since the Home Secretary's reply to Mr. Pickersgill the Prison Com¬
missioners inform me (March iS, 1899) that it is the intention to forma
synagogue at Pentonville Prison during the next financial year.
156 THE MODERN JEW
What is true of the middle-class Jew in England is
even more pronounced in the destitute and recent
immigrants from Russia or Poland, who form, with
their descendants, the bulk of the Jewish colonists in
Great Britain and Ireland. Assiduous, supple, tem¬
perate, many of them succeed in shaking off the chains
of their poverty. In the second or third generation
individuals among their descendants may become
successful in letters or in art. But the language em¬
ployed by the authoress of " Dr. Phillips" is applicable
to the poorer classes of the Jews to an even greater
extent than to those above them in social rank.
In the words of a German writer (Robert Hessen,
PrcussiscJie Jarbucher, November 1889): "As long as
the Jews do not find it to their advantage to become
national in their feelings, so long every exhortation and
every measure will be in vain."
One of the chief difficulties in the way of nationalis¬
ing and absorbing the Jewish element is the persistence
with which they adhere to the dietary system laid down
by Moses. It is true that the conditions that existed
in the days of the great Hebrew legislator were totally
different from those prevailing to-day. Still, the general
immunity of the Jewish race from zymotic disease is
probably due, to a large extent, to the purity of the
materials composing their repasts, and the special care
taken in the examination and preparation of the flesh
of animals. Since hygiene has become in all civilised
countries the object of a national and municipal care,
the necessity for separate diet, demanded and insisted
on by the stricter class of Jews—which practically
includes the best members of the community—has
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 157
completely passed away. There is no religious signi¬
ficance in separate food; its provision is neither a
Mosaic nor a Talmudic command, the breach of which
constitutes a breach of the law. Still, the aloofness of
the Jews is largely due to the unwillingness of the vast
majority of them to eat with Christians. In some
cases this tendency is carried to an absurd point. One
of the most eminent Rabbis in Russia, the late Isaac of
Mohilieff, recently visited this country. Looking upon
the preparation of food even in the kitchens of his
co-religionists as not complying with the canon pre¬
valent among the strict Jews in Russia, he ate and
drank nothing during the whole of his sojourn in this
country except bread and wine.
A recent instance of Jewish aloofness in the matter
of diet is afforded in the applications made to the
authorities of one of our public schools to arrange for
special cooking for the Jewish boys attending that
school. This request was refused, and I understand
with the full assent of the more liberal, progressive, and
Anglicised members of the community in this country.
Since the Jewish Question is by no means a question
merely of race rivalry or of " bread envy," there are no
greater enemies of Judaism than the idealists among
the Jews themselves, who encourage aloofness and
separation in matters of 110 importance. Prejudice
and envy alone could never have produced the anti-
Semitic feeling now universal throughout the world.
Money is 110 longer merely earned. It is won as the
result of a struggle which stands in closer relation to
war itself than to the exchange or sale of commodities.
It is 110 longer necessary that fortunes should be
158 THE MODERN JEW
gained by industry, although it is true that this quality
is important. There is another element which seems
to be almost universal in the Semitic race—viz., the
inborn proclivity to perceive with lightning glance the
right moment to " corner " the market. During the
present century, therefore, the evolution of a new
influence may be detected—that of the self-made
millionaire.
Under existing conditions it is impossible that any
man, however clever or able, can honestly make a
million sterling within the space of a year or two, and
if he succeed in doing so, his triumph is attained at the
expense of others ; not by making two blades of grass
grow where one grew before, nor by fulfilling the
useful function of intermediary between individuals
and communities. As a promoter or as an expert in
the flotation of companies, in deluding the public by
inflating worthless securities with an artificial and
effervescent value, and in the art of hypnotising large
communities of shareholders into the belief that some¬
thing is to be made out of nothing, or that vast risks
and the hundred to one chances may be taken with
impunity, there is no equal to the Jew. His success is
almost imperial, and has introduced, as I have said, a
completely new and dangerous element into modern
society. The nabobs of the last century were laughed
at. They may have raised the wages of the neighbour¬
hood and made themselves remarkable for vulgarity
and display, but at no previous period in the history of
Europe has the provision of " rigging the markets"
assumed its present alarming influence and strength.
In London, during the season, ihe family mansions of
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 159
the old nobility, who by reason of the agricultural
decay are obliged to let their houses, are not seldom
inhabited by persons of this class. Eager competitors
in the struggle for financial life, the capacity of Jewish
exploiters to set duller brains to work for them, and to
beguile the simple of their savings, is almost without a
rival. It is, I believe, a fact that in the town of
Johannesburg itself among the firms that have acquired
vast wealth from the sale of shares in gold mining to
the public of Europe, there is but one non-Jewish firm
which may be counted among the successful. The
whole of the others are Jewish. This is a phenomenon
that adds to the aloofness of Israel, and causes masses
of the community to regard the whole race with silent
aversion.
The self-assurance and patience under blame,
criticism, or contumely, or even insult, is of immense
assistance to the Jew in his race for wealth, since the
art of self-advertisement is unattainable without these
qualities. In public life it is more and more the case
that men of refinement and cultivation decline to
undergo the humiliation entailed upon them by the
compulsory self-advertisement that is almost indispen¬
sable to success. The non-religious cosmopolitan Jew
is an advertiser of the first rank. He perceives with
an alertness of apprehension, far in advance of that of
the rest of the community, the dormant tendencies of
the public mind. With his hand always on the pulse
of public opinion, he diagnoses the fever and the unrest
afflicting the nation he honours with his presence with
clinical success and also with the detachment of mind
peculiar to the race. Self-assurance, capacity for self-
160 THE MODERN JEW
advertisement, and the accuracy with which the Jew
leads public opinion supply further reasons for the
aloofness of the Hebrew race. Notwithstanding the
social stigma under which he suffers in continental
countries and in the United States, where no Jew is
allowed to enter what is technically termed " Society,"
his appetite for social recognition, for titles, decorations,
and honours has been fully illustrated during the last
ten years, especially in the annals of French anti-
Semitism. A mot current in Paris during the Reinach
scandal concisely expresses the unpopularity of the
rich Hebrews thus afflicted with indifference to honour
and hunger for honours : "In former days it was said
that they put the thief on the cross ; under the Third
Republic they placed the cross on the thief."
Consulships, as is well known, are much sought after
and largely filled by Jews. The tenure of office,
although unpaid or remunerated with a pittance under
a Great Power, carries with it a certain amount of social
distinction, which is, after money, the one thing most
eagerly sought after by many of the children of Israel.
Great Britain was recently represented at Frankfort,
Vienna, and Berlin by foreign Jews, who were paid
wholly inadequate salaries for the duties they had to
perform. While on this subject it may be said that
little good will be done in the extension of British
trade while so many of the Consulates are filled by
foreigners. It is tolerably certain that when Parlia¬
ment accepts this view, and insists on the Consulates
being filled by men of British birth, the number of
Jews displaced from office will be sufficient to raise the
cry that their supersession is the result, not of necessary
THE ALOOFNESS OF ISRAEL 161
trade policy, but of anti-Semitism, a charge that will
be wholly without foundation.
But after all that has been said about the causes that
separate the Jews from the Gentiles, it is impossible for
the impartial student of the position in Europe to-day
to resist the conclusion that the wealth and the power
of the Jews on the Continent, in England, and in the
United States are the result of their exceptional fitness
in the face of heavy odds for the battle of life. Having
attempted to survey the Jewish Question in all the
principal countries of the world, I am unable to avoid
the conclusion that where the nations are being
destroyed by the Jews they deserve to be destroyed ;
that weakness, self-indulgence, stupidity, want of
proper education and of common foresight, and in¬
difference to the trust that each generation holds for
its successor, are the real reasons why the Jews are
victorious and the non-Jews are the vanquished. There
are some States and races against whom the Jew is
powerless to act. On the Yankee of the Eastern States,
the Auvergnat, the Scotchman, the Armenian, and on
the Greek mercantile community, he makes no impres¬
sion : he bites a file.
IX
MONEY LENDERS
MONEY LENDERS
The attraction of Jews to traffic in money has led
many people erroneously to suppose that money-
lending is not as obnoxious to good Jews as to good
Christians. It can scarcely have escaped attention,
however, that the evidence on the money-lending system
examined by a Select Committee of the House of
Commons, which made the most thorough exposure
of its ramifications and most completely aroused
public opinion, was supplied by Sir George Lewis,
himself of Hebrew race. Before speaking, therefore,
on the connection between money-lending and Jews,
common justice requires me to state that the anti¬
pathy which prevails in a certain portion of the Jewish
community towards money-lenders and their methods
is certainly as strong as that in any other section of
the public. There are many Anglicised Jews who
nourish unsleeping antipathy towards Jewish money¬
lenders. If Gentiles were to treat unscrupulous
money-lenders as they are treated by some of their
fellow Jews much of the evil of which the nation has
had so many examples would never have occurred.
It is within common knowledge that Englishmen of
standing and public reputation now accept money-
166 THE MODERN JEW
lenders' hospitality. At the beginning of the century
few English gentlemen would condescend to be the
guest of a Jew usurer, however rich or socially
ambitious he may have been. Still, with all the
righteous indignation of the Jewish community and
the Jewish press against the Jewish money-lender, the
hard facts of the situation cannot be ignored. Hundreds
and even thousands of the Jewish aliens who settle in
this country become, or hope to become, traffickers in
money. All the avenues leading to the money-lending
trade are crowded with Jews.
This tendency in the race is recognised in the rules
and regulations laid down for the conduct of the in¬
mates of Jewish charitable institutions. At the Hamp-
stead Convalescent Home for Jews, founded by the
Baroness de Hirsch, the patients are expressly enjoined
to abstain from traffic, barter, or trade. Jewish lawyers
in growing numbers have adopted the legal profession
because their fathers or their relatives were money¬
lenders, and because profitable business can, therefore,
be placed in their hands. Sometimes arrangements
are made between father and son which are
occasionally revealed to the public in open court,
and with the father as a money-lender and the
son as a solicitor the combination is effective against
the thoughtless, pleasure-loving, or hard-driven Anglo-
Saxon. The effects of this system on the legal
profession and on the nation are conspicuously
objectionable.
These evils are so apparent to thoughtful and
Anglicised Jews that it has been said by more than one
of them that the time is coming in this country when
MONEY LENDERS
167
110 self-respecting Jew will-allow his son to embark 011
a financial career, not because such a life is not reput¬
able, but because it is found in practice that such
connections lower the reputation of the Jewish race.
Every writ against a defaulting debtor brings £2 13s.
to the legal mill, and young Jewish lawyers, red-hot
from their examinations and hungry for business, are
unable to resist the whisperings of cupidity. Fees are
wrung from the exhausted debtor, and while the
usurer's hands encircle the throat of his victim, the
lash of the lawyer's whip falls heavily and mercilessly
on the wretched man.
This partnership of Jew lawyer and Jew money¬
lender is one of the most fruitful fields from which
the harvest of legitimate anti-Semitism is gathered
and garnered. It is undoubtedly true that the
legal jackal to the Jewish money-lender who is
willing to sail near the wind, to indulge in question¬
able practices, and to press on the confines of illegality,
is more numerous to-day than he was ten years
ago, and is likely to be more numerous still ten years
hence.
Sir George Lewis divides usurers into two classes :
Londoners, and those who spread a network through¬
out the country.
Dealing with the latter class first, the legislation he
suggested was as follows :
Whosoever being a professional money-lender, or his
manager, clerk, or agent, shall circulate or publish or concur
in the circulation or publishing any written statement that he
should know to be false, with intent to deceive or injure or
168
THE MODERN JEW
defraud any person who may enter into any contract for a loan
of money, shall be guilty of misdemeanour.
It is believed that if a clause of that sort were passed
the whole system of issuing false prospectuses and
circulars would collapse.
The next proposal is directed against the amount of
interest usurers charged for their loans. The usual
interest is about 60 per cent. With default interest
the evidence showed that it sometimes amounts to
2000 per cent. Sir George Lewis is in favour of giving
to her Majesty's judges and registrars of county
courts and registrars in bankruptcy the right to fix a
fair rate of interest, whatever the contract made with
the money-lender. It is an open question, however,
whether the advantage to be derived from rescuing
foolish or vicious people who have involved themselves
with money-lenders is not more than counter-balanced
by investing judges with a dispensing power, and by
giving legislative sanction to a further invasion of the
sanctity of private contract which will infalliby be cited
later on by enterprising collectivists and other enemies
of existing social order as a reason for hurrying the
Deluge.
The following is an extract from the evidence before
the Committee :
Mr. Ascroft : Do you know of bills of sale given for large
sums ?
Sir George Lewis : Yes. I know of a case in which a lady
gave a bill of sale for £5000. The furniture was worth more
than that sum, but the lender, after charging £50 for preparing
an inventory (for which he should not have received more
MONEY LENDERS 169
than ^5), declined to lend the ^"5000 unless the lady's
jewellery and plate were included in the bill of sale. In my
judgment, the lady was cheated out of this ^5o.
The witness complained in particular of the transac¬
tions of such firms as that of Samuel Lewis.
He regretted to say that although there were some
Christian money-lenders, the bulk of them were Jews.
He could say, however, that the Jewish community
loathed and despised these men, and refused to allow
them to hold any position in their ranks. They were
utterly ignored.
Jewish clergymen preached against them and their
usurious practices in the synagogue. He thought he
might be allowed to make these observations because
he knew the circumstances of his own knowledge, he
himself being a Jew.
Men [he went on] come over here from Poland and Jeru¬
salem and other places and carry on their usurious practices,
and I can assure you they are loathed by the Jewish com¬
munity. We should be only too glad to see them put down,
punished, and imprisoned.
Cases have come before me in which the firm of Samuel
Lewis have discounted bills for young men (giving part money
and part jewellery) at 60 per cent, or more.
The meaning of that is, that if they discounted a bill for
^500 and charged 60 per cent, and deducted 5 per cent, from
the bill, and then gave the remaining half in jewellery (on
which a profit of 50 per cent, would be charged) the money¬
lenders would make about ^110 per cent.
The first thing the usurers do is to find out the father or
relatives of the young borrower, and what is the chance of
screwing the money out of them, and the money is lent very
170 THE MODERN JEW
often with the perfect knowledge that the chances are that the
father will have to pay.
In the Spender-Clay case we had a young man who had
just come into a fortune, and his bills were discounted at
40 per cent, because a young nobleman presented them.
Transactions to the amount of ,£100,000 had taken place.
Fancy what that means at the rate of 40 per cent, for what¬
ever period the bills were given for. Is there anything sur¬
prising in a young man being ruined by such transactions?
He had never, in the whole of his long and varied
experience, known an instance in which a borrower
had obtained an advantage by borrowing, but he had
seen many instances in which money-lenders had
become rich.
Take the case of Isaac Gordon. He had come to
this country from Poland without a shilling, and now,
after a very few years, was lending .£45,000.
But for the facilities which were given to usurers, and
the way in which debtors became entangled in their
meshes, so that escape was impossible, the crime for
which a young nobleman was now suffering imprison¬
ment would not have been committed.
It is probably well known that no satisfactory
definition of the term " money-lender " has ever yet
been suggested, but the term is used by money-lenders
and the public as a term well understood by everybody.
After right consideration the Select Committee of the
House of Commons came to the conclusion that the
transactions will be sufficiently distinguished by the
expression : "Transactions with persons carrying on
the business of a money-lender, or in the course of
such business."
MONEY LENDERS
The two fundamental proposals made to the Select
Committee for remedying the evils were :
(1) That Parliament should treat interest above a
certain rate on loans advanced by professional money¬
lenders as irrecoverable at law ; or
(2) That the court should have power to go behind
any contract with a money-lender to inquire into all
the circumstances of the original loan and of the
subsequent transactions, and to make such order as
may be considered reasonable.
The Committee, with much good sense, refrained
from recommending any statutory limitation of
interest.
They recommended, however, that all transactions,
by whatever name they may be called, or whatever
their form may be, which are in substance transactions
with persons carrying on the business of a money¬
lender in the course of such business, should be open
to complete judicial review. This conclusion is sup¬
ported by the views of a large number of the Indian
judges and high officials in India, who have recently
been consulted by the Indian Government on the
subject of usury, and are in favour of giving discretion
to the courts rather than limiting interest or laying
down any hard and fast rule.
The registration of money-lenders under conditions
set forth is a further recommendation of the Select
Committee.
Seeing that the kites and pigeons are unlikely to
change their respective natures in consequence of
legislation, and that the brains and astuteness of the
money-lenders and the necessities of borrowers will
172 THE MODERN JEW
drive a coach and four through any Act of Parliament
designed to deal with their repulsive trade, it is unlikely
that legislation by a mainly Gentile House of Commons
will result in any permanent advantage to the com¬
munity. Reduction in the numbers of the money¬
lenders and the purification of their character will be
brought about, if at all, by other means than legislation,
while any considerable addition to the number of Jews
already in this country will necessarily increase the
number of persons dependent for a livelihood upon
the money-lending trade. It is the fashion to treat
Jewish emigration as though the emigrants were
Huguenots, but if we are to grapple with facts, un¬
fortunately true, the larger proportion of the incomers
from Polish and Russian Ghettos are money-lenders by
taste and heredity. They only lack opportunity to
enter a trade which has done more to injure the Jews,
both modern and ancient, than any other occupation
they are accustomed to follow.
However great or small the evil of Jewish money-
lending in Europe may be, it is a growing evil, and
especially in England, public opinion, even Jewish
public opinion, has little or no effect upon Jewish
money-lenders. Instances have been known when
congregations of certain synagogues have refused to
permit professional money-lenders to worship in their
midst. All honour to such lofty followers of the faith
of Moses. But for one Jewish money-lender who is
converted from the error of his ways by exclusion from
a public synagogue, there are many willing to take any
spiritual risk that may be going in order to obtain a fair
share of material profits from impecunious Gentiles.
MONEY LENDERS 173
After thus noting the close connection between the
Jews and money-lending, even in England, where they
are free to follow all careers, notwithstanding the dis¬
couragement of certain members of their community,
it is interesting to recall the debate in the House of
Commons of April 5, 1830, on the introduction of the
first Bill to repeal the civil disabilities affecting British
born subjects professing the Jewish religion. Nobody
now exists who doubts that England acted rightly,
though tardily, in finally repealing Jewish disabilities,
but the opinions expressed by the opponents of the
Bill of 1830, however little in harmony with current
thought, were founded on historical facts which cannot
be explained away by imputations of ignorance or
fanaticism, or excused on the plea that because good
Jews abound in free England and the United States
bad Jews should be silently suffered to injure their
adopted country. Sir Robert Inglis, Member for
Oxford University, in the debate of 1830 resisted
Jewish emancipation on the ground that the Jews were
not patriots. He said : " It was well known that they
importantly facilitated the retreat of Napoleon after
his campaign in Russia ;" also " that while we were at
war with France the Jews of London had furnished
Napoleon with a loan to enable him to carry on the
most determined hostility." After eighty or ninety
years of peace it is easy to condemn these utterances
as reactionary and illiberal, but the debate took place
only fifteen years after the battle of Waterloo, when
the events referred to were fresh in men's minds. And
it is not certain that if similar practices were to be
revealed during a future war with France—a con-
174 THE MODERN JEW
tingency not wholly outside the arena of practical
politics—cosmopolitan financiers who amassed wealth
by ministering to the wants of our enemies would find
Demos less indifferent to the fact than the men of
family who governed the country during the last great
struggle with France.
In the same debate Mr. Harrison Babley expressed
some apprehension as to the political power that would
quickly accumulate in Jewish hands. He predicted
that "twenty-five Jews would obtain seats in the
Commons House of Parliament, and a few of the
leading men among them would soon obtain as much
influence there as they had already possessed over
the 3 per cent. Consols." The latter part of the pre¬
diction has already been fulfilled; but, it must be
admitted, without visible disadvantage to the com¬
munity, unless the overwhelming influence of the great
Jewish financiers over foreign affairs may be regarded
as prejudicial to the higher interests of Britain.
Mr. Percival ignored the money-lending proclivities
of the Chosen People and resisted the Bill on religious
grounds. He entreated the House "in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ to preserve the religion of Christianity
—the religion of the State—from being defiled by the
introduction of the Bill now proposed." In this line
of policy he was supported by the Solicitor-General,
Sir Nicholas Tindall, who quoted Lord Coke : "They
married not with Christians, and entered not into any
of those relations with the rest of the community which
constituted family ties and were the real bonds of
society."
On reviewing this debate, after the lapse of nearly
MONEY LENDERS
T75
three-quarters of a century of time, the illiberality and
hypocrisy of the religious arguments urged for the
exclusion of the Jews from public affairs stand out in
vivid contrast with the sincerity and force of the pleas
founded on the money-lending proclivities of the race
—having regard to the time when they were uttered.
The Duke of Wellington, who was Prime Minister,
exercised a dominant influence over the public mind,
and was what would now be described as an anti-
Semite, on the ground of his experience and belief
that the loaning and love of money replaced patriotism
in the Jewish character. While the Jews were excluded
from English citizenship, however, it seems unfair to
blame them for feeding the power of Napoleon, espe¬
cially as he was the only prince in Europe who had
begun to do them justice. Oppression and persecution
had destroyed their moral tone of character. That it
can be revived on regaining the opinion of their fellow-
men is plain to all who know something of the Angli¬
cised and Americanised Jews, and the patriotic spirit
developed by the magic of freedom and sympathy.
On the other hand, it may fairly be urged that free
admission to State rights involves the abandonment of
such practices as those reprobated by the Duke of
Wellington and Sir Robert Inglis. In one of the
wars of the last century the Jews were expelled from
Bohemia because they had assisted an invading army
against their lawful sovereign. Similar outbreaks will
assuredly recur in the future if the democracy is con¬
fronted with evidence of similar treachery—all excuse
for treachery having been removed—no matter whether
the assistance given to the enemy be in money or kind.
176 THE MODERN JEW
England and America will remain friendly to the Jews
only 011 condition that the enemies of Anglo-Saxons
are not subsidised and aided in time of war from Jewish
sources. Although Christianity is part and parcel of
the constitution, Parliament is now indifferent to the
sworn enemies of Christianity, whether Atheist, Mono-
theist, or Polytheist. But no Parliament can be
indifferent to the considerations which rendered the
great Duke of Wellington a convinced, if belated,
opponent of Jewish emancipation, considerations
which, unfortunately, can scarcely be dismissed as
chimerical. There is no danger that good citizens
will betray their country, but that bad citizens will
bring dishonour upon their race in time of war for the
sake of gain, precisely as they have done in time of
peace, is a probability of the future that should be
anticipated and provided against by the legislature.
X
THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN
GREAT BRITAIN
M
THE DESTITUTE ALIEN IN
GREAT BRITAIN
In foreign and domestic affairs the inhabitants of all
countries suffer from the incapacity of their rulers to
foresee and provide for meeting dangers that if not
palpable at least loom on the horizon. The professional
politician in civilised lands, especially when in office, is
too much occupied in satisfying the immediate calls 011
his time in each succeeding day to arrange for the
settlement of difficulties which are not of immediate
and pressing moment. In Great Britain we have had
many instances of the kind. The Destitute Alien
Question is one of those subjects which does not lend
itself to statistics, and is incapable of being dealt with
suddenly or by a rapid and dramatic piece of legisla¬
tion ; and, moreover, it does not injuriously affect the
main body of the community. The evil results of
alien immigration into this country are concentrated
for the present on a small and uncomplaining class,
and comparatively few British-born subjects, unless
among the poorest aad most nomadic of the dwellers
in our great cities, can be said to be the sufferers by the
present system. The growth of population and the
pressure of existence within these islands, the increasing
180 THE MODERN JEW
size of the great towns, and the diminution of the agri¬
cultural population, have long occasioned anxiety
among the students of sociology who are in search of
remedies for the evil conditions under which handi¬
craftsmen and their families are compelled to toil.
The moral, physical, and economical effects of foreign
labour—principally of Russian and Polish Jews—in the
densely populated and generally overcrowded towns
has not received adequate or dispassionate examina¬
tion.
Thanks to the Huguenots, to the traditions that
cluster round the doctrine of the right of asylum, and
to the great advantages which our population has
derived from previous admixtures of foreign blood,
England is the last country in all the world to question
the absurd doctrine that the uninterruped entry of
foreign men and women, without reference to quality,
health, morals, attainments, or condition is advantageous
to her national life. Within the last few years, how¬
ever, the reign of this dogma has not remained
unchallenged. England notes that free immigration
has now ceased in the United States under the provi¬
sions of successive Acts of Congress. In other
countries the diseased, the anarchist, the criminal, and
the pauper are not admitted. In British colonies
themselves the class of foreigners from Polish and
Russian slums accepted by London, Leeds, and other
large cities every week, would be refused entry. Every
effort on the part of the mother country to enforce on
the colonies the ingress of people destitute of those
virile qualities that make a nation, except genius in
fiction and assiduity as intermediaries, would be re-
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 181
sisted, if necessary, by insurrection. No one would
dream of asking Australians to accept immigrants
rejected by the United States of America. In Great
Britain ten years ago a House of Commons Committee
on Foreign Immigration touched the mere fringe of
the subject. The late Mr. Bradlaugh, who on that
occasion practically acted as counsel for the Jews, and
whose intellectual supremacy and force of will in
resisting evidence he disliked were never more con¬
spicuously exhibited than on that occasion, was more
concerned in demonstrating that those who wished to
regulate immigration were intent on destroying the
civil and religious liberty now happily accorded to the
Jews, than in bringing out the physical and moral dis¬
advantages of the system now followed in England.
The Sweating Committee of the House of Lords
which sat at the same time refused to accept direct
evidence bearing on the subject. The peers were
reluctant to trench on the rights and privileges of the
Commons Committee, which, in its turn, was con¬
currently animated by a similar delicacy in regard to
the privileges of the Upper House. The consequence
of these inter-Parliamentary courtesies was that while
the country believes the subject to have been fairly
considered, practically nothing took place of any value
but an aimless wrangle on the surface of the Jewish
Question. In 1892 I published a book * on the subject,
in which I endeavoured to show that the evil was
neither slight nor temporary. Since then much has
* "The Destitute Alien in Great Britain : a Series of Papers dealing
with the subject of Foreign Pauper Immigration." London : Swan
Sonnenschein & Co.
182 THE MODERN JEW
happened. A society was formed to check the free
entry of destitute aliens into Great Britain. Destitute
aliens continued to enter without check or limit. When
in Opposition the Marquis of Salisbury brought in a
Bill in which the question of destitute alien immigra¬
tion was skilfully entangled with that of the right of
asylum given to foreign anarchists, who on our soil
are free to plot villainy and to arrange for crime to be
subsequently perpetrated in the territory of the Queen's
allies. Furthermore, the Labour Department of the
Board of Trade took up the question of the statistics of
foreign immigration ; and on the strength of these
figures a school of economists and statisticians, among
whom Mr. Charles Booth and Sir Robert Giffen may
be named as the most distinguished representatives,
scouted the idea of there being any immaterial danger
to the working classes of this country from the free
entry of Polish and Russian Jews into the ghettos of
our great towns. " Let the alarmist sleep easy on his
bed," writes Mr. Charles Booth in the first volume of
his monumental work on the " Labour and Life of the
People." He continues : " Whatever may have been
the cause of alarm presented by the immigration of the
Jews it is all over now—at least, for the present." In
another portion of the same work, however, there is a
significant reference to the aloofness of the Jew which
would seem to indicate that there is an element in
alien immigration that is not explained away by the
figures given by the Board of Trade. He says :
The newcomers have gradually replaced the English popula¬
tion in whole districts which were formerly outside the Jewish
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 183
quarter. Formerly in Whitechapel, Commercial Street roughly
divided the Jewish haunts of Petticoat Lane and Goulston
Street from the rougher English quarter lying to the East.
Now (1889) the Jews have flowed across the line; Hanbury
Street, Fashion Street, Pelham Street, Booth Street, Old
Montague Street, and many other streets and lanes and alleys
have fallen before them; they fill whole blocks of model
dwellings ; they have introduced new trades as well as new
habits; and they live and crowd together and work and meet
their fate almost independent of the great stream of London
life surging round them.
Since 1889 further streets and districts have been in¬
vaded and occupied by the foreigner, who has neither
improved his habits nor abandoned his aloofness.
English Departmental Reports are generally accepted
as colourless and impartial statements of facts, untinged
by political 01* economic prejudice, and at all events
free from anti-Semite tendencies. For these reasons
the Blue Book on Alien Immigration and the published
figures of the Board of Trade have been generally
received by the public as though they were utterances
from Mount Sinai, and the case for the regulation of
alien immigration has been so completely destroyed
that any one desiring the total stoppage of Russian and
Polish Jewish invalids or criminals should be thrust
through with a dart or stoned. The fact is, however,
that even in so august a sphere as the Labour Depart¬
ment of the Board of Trade a trace of human nature
still lingers among occultist statisticians who look to
Sir Robert Giffen as the inhabitants of Thibet regard
the Grand Llama. If the proper function of a State
bureau is to present one side of the case in a strong
184 THE MODERN JEW
light, the Labour Department has done its work well.
There is, however, one drawback to this method of
supplying the public with the facts and figures necessary
in order to form a just opinion as to the character of
the immigration. This drawback consists in the fact
that it proves too much. If the Board of Trade figures
are accurate, the poor English girls, who believe that
they are hungry because they have been replaced by
foreigners who have taken their work at lower pay, are
misguided victims of mere hallucination. Not only,
says the Blue Book in effect, is there no competition
to speak of between the English people and the Polish
and Russian Jews, but the latter form a valuable element
in our population, and are to be encouraged rather
than excluded, since they have brought us cheap
clothing, bad furniture, and worse boots, just as uie
Huguenots introduced good felt hats, excellent ox-tail
soup, and salads in the seventeenth century.
After carefully examining the evidence on both sides
I have come to the conclusion that while, on the one
hand, the advocates of restriction have been guilty of
exaggeration, at all events during the early years of the
agitation, the Labour Department of the Board of Trade,
on the other hand, has been guilty of something worse.
The Department has wholly suppressed, or wilfully
ignored, evidence that tells against the conclusion to
which it is committed. There is ample material to
furnish a prima-facic case for further inquiry as to the
results of the ever-growing ghettos in our large towns
on the welfare of the indigenous population of Great
Britain.
With regard, for example, to the numbers of the
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 185
immigrants about which the dispute has continually
raged, although the matter is one that does not depend
upon the immigration being great or small, because,
as Mr. Booth wisely says, the newcomers live and
crowd together, and work and meet their fate almost
independent of the great stream of London life surging
around them. The evils of immigration, therefore, if
any, are cumulative, if it can be proved that the in¬
comers are not absorbed into the general mass of the
community. That they are not absorbed is shown in
another part of this work.
With regard to the figures, however, there are five
sources of error in the Board of Trade methods of
preparing statistics, each of which tells in the direction
of artificially " sweating down the figures," to use an
expression employed by Lord Salisbury when intro¬
ducing a Bill into the House of Lords, which he has not
found convenient to reintroduce since his accession to
power, presumably in consequence of the Jewish veto
placed on legislation of the kind :
1. The want of exact returns of immigrant aliens
involves resort to guess work (of which the Board of
Trade freely avails itself) in order to decide whether
the bulk of the aliens leaving us are of the poorest
class—and, therefore, fairly to be deducted from the
numbers of the immigrants arriving in any given year—
or whether they are persons in better circumstances.
Thus, on pages 8 and 22 of the Blue Book, the
33,188 immigrants arriving without through tickets are
reduced to less than 6000, partly by the unsupported
assumption that the persons leaving are identical with
those arriving. If Divesand Lazarusare both foreigners,
i86 THE MODERN JEW
it vitiates the statistics of destitute alien immigration
to count Dives when he emigrates as being identical
with Lazarus who has just arrived. The Board of
Trade does not attempt to prove that the emigrant
foreigners are not comparatively well-to-do, and the
contrary assumption begs the question at issue.
2. The Department deducts from the gross immigra¬
tion "all the foreign seamen who come to this country
as passengers and ship again as crews." According
to this no foreign seaman is ever out of work in
England, nor do any of them remain here.
3. Recent labour troubles in the United States and
elsewhere have largely swollen the number of destitute
aliens, who work their passage over here as cattle
helpers, cooks, or odd men, and who are discharged,
destitute, at the port of arrival. I can nowhere dis¬
cover that these persons are included in the Board of
Trade statistics.
4. The census returns of Russians and Poles are
worthless, if, as I am credibly informed is the case, the
enumeration was not performed by census officials,
but was entrusted to an unchecked and irresponsible
body of Jews. The fear of extortion and conscription
among the Semitic populations of Eastern Europe is
notorious, and it is inconceivable that they suddenly
lose this characteristic by settling in British ghettos.
5. The figures themselves are not collected by the
Board of Trade. No administrative responsibility is
exercised by the Department, and from the results of
private checks instituted at various times on incoming
vessels at my own cost I have reasonable ground for
doubting the accuracy of the figures obtained.
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 187
Turning now to material suppressions of fact, it is
extraordinary that a Blue Book ostensibly giving the
public an impartial view of the alien question should
refrain from all mention of the contradiction involved
between the Board of Trade assertion that immigration
is so small as to be not worth notice, and the fact of a
marked increase of alien destitution in this country.
The Jewish Board of Guardians admit the task of
relieving the Jewish poor "grows heavier and heavier,"
and that " the duties cast upon it are more than its
present resources and staff and premises enable it
adequately and efficiently to discharge." The late
Baroness de Hirsch, a foreigner, thinks it necessary
to leave -£120,000 to the Jewish Board of Guardians in
London. This is a fact full of significance.
A second example of suppressed facts of material
importance is scarcely to be explained on the plea of
inadvertence. Vessels are boarded at Gravesend by a
customs officer and by a medical officer of the Port
Sanitary Authority. Two lists are made out. One of
these lists includes the names of those who are unusu¬
ally revolting in appearance. Why does the Board of
Trade suppress the numbers and details of the aliens
who are so filthy on arrival as to be recorded 011 a roll
of dishonour ? There is such a list ; why are its
lessons not published ? The reason is obvious: it
would tell against the official theory.
I will not dwell upon the suppression of Mr. Burnett
from the recent Blue Book, but his report of 3 888,
which then attracted so much attention, has never yet
been answered, and his views there expressed have not,
to my knowledge, been withdrawn.
188 THE MODERN JEW
Suppressions of fact are even less serious than state¬
ments that are not true. The Board of Trade raises
public sympathy with the undesirable mendicants and
middlemen who come here, by expressly stating
(p. 13) that the "certain residuum, principally of
Jewish refugees," remains here. All Englishmen wish
to maintain England as the asylum of the bond fide
refugee. But the idea that the dregs of Russian cities
who remain here are mainly refugees is a fiction con¬
cocted in the Labour Department of the Board of
Trade. A Royal Commission, or other impartial
inquiry, would at once ascertain that not one immigrant
in ten even claims to be a refugee. The bulk of immi¬
grants come here, not because Russians persecute
them, but because they are hungry and the English
are charitable. Russian Jews quickly learn that
£120,000 is left in one legacy to a Jewish body in
London. The last Jewish loan to Russia is a proof
that the heads of the community do not regard as
serious the theory of persecution being the cause of
immigration. But, in any case, I contend that England
is unwise to extend national hospitality to persons
belonging to the submerged tenth of other countries,
who refuse absorption into our community ; and the
device of the Board of Trade in calling them "refugees "
is an unusual departure from the best traditions of
English public offices.
Mr. Votier, member of the Council of the National
Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, has authorised me
to say that the evidence that he gave to the Board of
Trade while the Blue Book was in preparation has
been entirely suppressed. He regards it as " a piece
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 189
of clever but wholly inaccurate fiction as regards my
branch of the boot and shoe trade.
" As these details challenging the accuracy of the
Board of Trade Blue Book have been publicly made
in at least two journals of the first rank, as well as in
many speeches, without eliciting any reply, I confess
that up to the present time I have concluded that they
have remained unanswered because the Department is
unable to do so. Until these statements are met with
something more explicit than the mere ipse dixit of
some partisan in the Board of Trade, it is only fair to
ask candidates for Parliament on both sides, pending
further inquiry, to withhold credit from the assertions
and conclusions of the recent volume of Gladstonian
leaflets, which is numbered C7, 406, in the series of
official English Blue Books."
With regard to the quality of the destitute alien, the
Russian Jew—who is by no means generally the sort
of person who would be considered as a desirable
addition to any community—there are, of course, many
industrious, even over-industrious, persons who seek a
livelihood in this over-populated country ; but there
are thousands of others who prefer existence without
physical exertion, and who are content to live on others
untrammelled by considerations of honesty or truth.
Certain economic benefits bestowed on Great Britain
by the invasion of the Russian Jews may be admitted ;
but the question for statesmen is whether those advan¬
tages are equal to the benefit that the country would
derive from the total cessation of the immigration of
professional paupers, anarchists, and thieves, who also
manage to obtain a footing in this country under a
190 THE MODERN JEW
strained interpretation of the doctrine of the right of
asylum.
A well-known expert, Mr. N. S. Joseph, who is one
of the ablest, as he is certainly one of the most kind-
hearted and broad-minded members of the Russo-
Jewish Committee, a few years ago addressed the
Visiting and Bureau Department of that charity in
terms that deserve public and Parliamentary attention.
After stating that "there remain in London at present
an enormous number of these immigrants constantly
demanding our sympathy and assistance," Mr. Joseph
proceeded as follows :
The first difficulty arises from the heterogeneous nature of
the refugees. There are some thoroughly capable and indus¬
trious, who only need a friendly directing hand to guide them
to the means of earning a livelihood ; others wholly incapable
and idle, and who, perhaps, rarely did a day's work in their own
country. There are some fine sturdy specimens of humanity,
physically and morally fit subjects for emigration ; others
perhaps, fully as deserving of a fresh start in a new country,
but so attenuated and weakened by privation and suffering as
to be physically unfit for emigration. There are, unfortunately,
a large number of poor widows and orphans, and, to our
disgrace, it must be added, there are also many deserted wives
and children. There are many men who occupied high social,
professional, or commercial positions in their own country,
and who have arrived here absolutely without means, and
there are thousands of immigrants who cannot be called refugees
at all, but who, chronic incurable paupers, have come from Russia
or Poland in the hope of getting something from the Russo-
Jewish fund, of which they have heard such exaggerated accounts.
Then there are many who in Russia belonged to trades which
have practically no existence here, and a still larger number
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 191
who were only hawkers and petty dealers. Then there are the
sick and the aged, who might or might not have been driven
out of their native place. Moreover, there are, as might be
expected, the differences resulting from variations in mental
and moral constitution and development, the cultured and the
semi-barbarous, the truthful and the untruthful, the honest and
the dishonest, the intelligent and the unreceptive.
I can, from personal knowledge, corroborate Mr.
Joseph's views, and although naturally unwilling to
say one word that might hamper the noble efforts of
philanthropists, I distinctly assert that neither the
House of Commons nor the country has hitherto been
frankly dealt with, in reference to the class of Russian
who is now settling in London under the shelter of
the title u refugee."
The quality of the typical alien immigrant is to a
great extent a matter of controversy. His Honour,
Judge Bacon, the County Court Judge of Whitechapel,
who is concerned in a larger number of cases in which
aliens are both defendant and plaintiff than any other
judge in the country, has repeatedly complained that
false evidence is given in the majority of cases that
come before him. In a recent Whitechapel case, in
which both parties were Jews, an interesting revelation
was made to the public, that they had tried to settle
their differences before the Chief Rabbi, who had failed,
however, as arbitrator, because the defendant declined
to pay the sum awarded. It seems that Dr. Adler is
frequently called upon to arbitrate in disputes between
foreign Jews, and Judge Bacon approves the practice,
because, as he says, the oath administered by the Chief
Rabbi is apparently regarded by the foreigners as
I ()2
THE MODERN JEW
more binding than that administered in the Whitechapel
County Court.
It is often stated that the increase in the number of
aliens is a fiction devised by the opponents of the
emigration of destitute aliens. At the St. George's-in-
the-East Revision Court in the autumn of 1898, the
revising barrister had before him a case which proved
very plainly the large increase of the alien—viz., the
Jewish population in the district. A successive claim
was made by one Charles McCarthy. It was objected
to because of the number of the street in which he had
recently resided (John Street) not being given. The
Liberal gentleman said it was impossible to do this,
though formerly John Street was the centre of a large
Irish population, but latterly the Irishmen had been
ousted by the Jews, who were now in possession of the
place. The latter, not content with this, defaced the
numbering of the streets by taking off the plates from
the street doors, and in their stead substituting figures
in chalk and even meat tickets.
The undigested mass of East End Jews must not,
however, be judged by the settlement of their quarrels
in civil actions before the County Court Judge. In a
recent number of the Contemporary Review (January
1898) a Jewish tailor's machinist contributes an
admirably written article in which he perhaps uncon¬
sciously exhibits some of the qualities of the u typical
alien immigrant" which he claims to be. Ten years
ago such an article would not have been written.
To-day the growing power of the Jews is shown by
the contemptuous tone of a successful and represen¬
tative Jew workman towards English artisans. Ten
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 193
years hence the Anglo-Saxon will begin to appreciate
the consequences of neglecting the indiscriminate entry
of undesirable foreigners into these over-populated
islands.
The Earl of Hardwicke has introduced a new Bill
for the prevention of a destitute alien emigration. Sub¬
stantially, it is the same measure as that introduced by
Lord Salisbury in 1894. The provisions of the Bill,
which are not reproduced, dealt with persons dangerous
to the country as an organised, political and social
community. The arguments employed by the Earl of
Hardwicke are more or less of an academic character,
as for some years past it has been evident that no
legislative measures purporting to deal with the question
of alien emigration to this country have the slightest
chance of reaching the Statute Book unless either the
consent and goodwill of the representatives of the
Jewish community are first obtained, or the Jewish
Question is raised as a whole. The Jewish community
in England, though not numerically strong, control so
large a portion of the financial and journalistic power
of the country that any Ministry undertaking a joust
against the consolidated strength of the Jews would be
infallibly unhorsed. Few subjects produce unanimity
among the Jews of free England, but the stoppage of
alien emigration is one of them. Many interests are
concerned. In the first place, there is the cheap
labour employed by the sweating masters of the East
End of London and the great towns of England. Many
of these men have votes ; machinery exists for natu¬
ralising them and placing them on the register of voters.
The representatives of the Jews in Parliament are far
N
194 THE MODERN JEW
more numerous than the numbers of their co-religion¬
ists would warrant, but the Jewish voters, though few,
are concentrated, and possess the power in many con¬
stituencies to upset or to destroy the chances of the
sitting member.
Another influence that is brought to bear against
dealing with the destitute alien question is the public
opinion of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe.
Synagogue opinion in Poland, Galicia, and the provinces
of the Russian Pale is definite and clear. The popula¬
tion knows that if the worst comes to the worst they
can always turn to England for a home. Everyone in
the congested district named has heard of the Jewish
Board of Guardians, and the reputation of English
charity has spread throughout the villages. If any
serious attempt, therefore, were made by an English
Premier to deal with alien, viz., with Jewish, emigration,
a large number of the subterranean and invisible
influences would be brought to bear upon the situation,
and the Jews of England would stand solid against it,
no less at the bidding than at the entreaty of every
poor synagogue in Europe.
Another influence that stands in the path of legisla¬
tion is that the more Jews arriving in England the
greater the power of the Jewish community. Already,
as I have shown elsewhere, their influence is out of all
proportion to their numbers, while the process that is
now going on in Whitechapel and St. George's-in-the-
East is one that must necessarily spread from parish to
parish, from one constituency to another, until the
political influence of the Jewish phalanx in the House
of Commons on all such matters as they may be agreed
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 195
on will transcend anything that has been known in the
history of this country.
It is always a thankless task to speak in warning
notes even of the red smoke emerging from a neigh¬
bour's chimney, but the constant and growing feeling
against the Jews that exists among the English popula¬
tion in the East is a sentiment that no statesman with
a claim to prescience can possibly ignore.
When the subject of destitute alien emigration was
discussed in the House of Lords in 1894, the peers
admitted the principle contained in the Bill, but
opposed its further progress on the ground that the
emigration complained of was both small and decreas¬
ing. The tendency since then has been towards ex¬
pansion, and this country is now the receptacle of a
residuum of the least capable and least efficient citizens
of Eastern Europe. If the new arrivals were to spread
out over the country in equal proportion, if they were
to intermarry with the native born English, and if they
did not despise the population among which they
settle, their presence would be a matter of comparative
unimportance. Concentration in certain districts,
refusal to intermarry, separate habits, separate food,
separate customs, and a separate day of worship invest
the increase of the Jewish community in this country
with ominous possibilities.
The following is the draft Bill which I propose
should be adopted by Parliament :
An Act to amend the Act for the registration of Aliens passed
in the sixth and seventh years of his late Majesty William
the Fourth.
Whereas it is expedient, without in any way impairing the
196
THE MODERN JEW
protection and asylum hitherto accorded to political and
religious refugees from other countries, to prohibit the coming
into this realm of such alien, unskilled, diseased or incapable
paupers as are likely to become a public or private charge, and
for that purpose to amend and extend the provisions of the
Act for the registration of aliens passed in the sixth and
seventh years of his late Majesty William the Fourth, chapter
eleven, hereinafter called the principal Act.
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent
Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament
assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows :
1. The master of any vessel which, after the commencement
of this Act, shall arrive in this realm from foreign parts, shall
not permit the landing of any alien from such vessel at any
place within the realm until the said master shall have given to
the chief officer of Customs at the port of arrival the declara¬
tion in writing required by the second section of the principal
Act, nor until he shall have received from the said chief officer
permission to allow the landing of the said alien.
2. When the chief officer of Customs has reason to think or
suspect that among the aliens on board any such ship there
are any unskilled, diseased or incapable paupers or persons
likely to become a public or private charge, he shall inquire
into the present and probable future means of living of every
such alien, and if the result of such inquiry shall satisfy such
chief officer of Customs that any such alien will not be able
to support himself within the realm by his own means or labour,
but that he is from incapacity, disease or any other cause what¬
soever likely to become a public or private charge, then the
chief officer of Customs shall refuse to permit the landing of
such alien pauper, and thereupon it shall be unlawful for the
said alien to land or for the master of the vessel to permit him
to land in any part of the realm or to permit him to go on
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 197
board any other vessel for the purpose of being landed in any
part of the realm.
3. Any master of a vessel arriving in this realm from foreign
parts who shall contravene any of the provisions of this Act
shall be liable for every offence to a penalty not exceeding
^100 nor less than ^20, and every person, corporation or
company knowingly aiding or abetting the commission of any
such offence, shall be liable to a penalty of like amount.
4. All offences against this Act shall be prosecuted and all
penalties enforceable and recoverable within the time and in
the manner prescribed by the principal Act with respect to
offences against that Act, and the burden of proving that any
person declared by the master of the vessel to be an alien is
not such shall be as in the principal Act is prescribed.
5. This Act shall not apply to any fugitive criminal who is
exempted from extradition by the Extradition Acts of 1870
and 1873, not to any person who has been expelled from his
country or home on account of his religious faith or who has
been threatened with persecution on account of such faith, not
to any member of the family of any such person accompanying
him.
6. The Secretary of State shall appoint some suitable person
of the Hebrew faith to act as assessor to the chief officer of the
Customs in London. The assessor shall have power to visit
any vessel whose destination is London and on board of which
any such aliens shall have been declared to be, and may
inquire into the main character and history of any such alien,
and it shall be for the assessor to determine whether any alien
of the Hebrew faith on board who claims to come within the
provisions of section five of this Act docs come within such
section or not. The determination of the assessor on this
point shall for the purposes of this Act he final and con¬
clusive.
7. An assessor to the chief officer of Customs at Hull, and
198 THE MODERN JEW
an assessor to the chief officer of Customs at Liverpool, and an
assessor to the chief officer of Customs at Leith shall also be
appointed by the Secretary of State. Each of such assessors
shall be of die Hebrew faith, and shall have as to vessels whose
destinations are Hull, Liverpool and Leith respectively and as
to aliens on board such vessels, the same powers of visiting
and determining as by the sixth section are conferred upon the
assessor to the chief officer of Customs in London.
8. In the case of any alien on board any such vessel as
aforesaid who is not of the Hebrew faith and who claims to be
allowed to land as coming within the provisions of sectioa five,
the chief officer of Customs shall require from any such alien
full particulars of his name, nationality and last place of abode,
and also of the fact or facts by reason of which he claims to
come within the said section. Upon such particulars being
furnished to him, the chief officer shall permit the landing of
the said alien.
Frenchmen, oblivious of Napoleon's teaching, have
caught the contagion of Jew-hatred from their recent
Russian ally. The microbe of anti-Semitism, though
dormant in France for many years, is now in full
activity. Media)val robbery and massacre have dis¬
graced the chief city of Algeria. Antipathy towards
the Jew in France, once apostrophised by Victor Hugo
as the Christ of nations, has led to the immolation of
liberty, the destruction of equality, and sacrifice of
fraternal kindness. In the United States, the spacious
opportunities afforded to all the inhabitants of the
Republic have arrested the growth of dangerous anti-
Semitism ; still the feeling is there. American comic
papers teem with gibes at the rapacity, the ugliness,
and the bad taste of Jewish citizens of the United
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 199
Stales. Taunts and insults are levelled against them,
which would be brooked by the men of no other race.
Jews are excluded from the crane de la ere me of New
York society, although many Hebrew capitalists, men
of science, and others are among the most worthy and
generous citizens of the Republic.
In Morocco and Persia misery is the normal condi¬
tion of existence for the Hebrew population.
Probably 110 less than eight millions of the Hebrew
population of the world drag out an existence of
tribulation and anguish. Their numbers are steadily
increasing. Extermination, as a remedy for the waxing
mighty of the House of Israel, is out of date. Exile is
impossible to a people who, wherever they may live,
are already exiles.
In contrast to the sea of human woe, in which the
destitute Jews of two continents are plunged, is the
phenomenon of a well-nigh omnipotent community of
opulent Hebrews in all the capitals of Europe.
Supreme in international finance, no nation can take
any serious step without first securing the concurrence
of Israel. When Germany demanded the control of
Greek finance, the Concert of Europe, if unanimous
about nought else, were agreed in placing the finances
of Greece under what is virtually Jewish control.
Financial considerations underlie most of the great
actions of nations. Cosmopolitan finance is the pre¬
dominant interest that determines international ques¬
tions. Cosmopolitan finance is only another name for
Jewish finance. No first-rate Christian firm dealing
with international finance has existed since the fall of
the house of Baring conferred upon the house of
200 THE MODERN JEW
Rothschild a lonely supremacy. In South Africa, the
name of no Christian is found in the ranks of those
who have amassed large fortunes. Johannesburg is an
Anglo-Israelite town. The march of the great lew
houses towards the capture of the wealth of the world
advances in geometrical procession, and the day is not
far distant when the nations of Europe may suddenly
discover that everything belongs to their Jewish fellow
subjects ; and that, in working, democracy has igno-
rantly laboured for Jewish supremacy, and has lost the
capacity for maintaining a separate national existence.
The beginnings of modern anti-Semitism are due to
the new appreciation of the growing financial power of
the Jewish race.
In England, it is true, the imputation of anti-Semitism
is still greatly dreaded, while the charge of being anti-
English is regarded as complimentary—being merely
equivalent to the imputation of cosmopolitan sympa¬
thies. English and American public men are so
anxious to avoid the imputation of anti-Semitism, that
they never refer to any matter with which the Jews are
concerned, such as immigration, education, or charities,
without going out of their way to express a sense of the
extraordinary value of the Jewish element in the popu¬
lation. Not in all cases are these protestations sincere.
Of late years anti-Semitic sentiments are occasionally
expressed in English society, when no Jew is present,
as in Russia, Roumania, or Paris itself. The avowedly
anti-Semitic element in English society is but small.
But it is growing. It is scarcely articulate ; it has no
organ in the press. Still the dislike of the Jews,
jealousy of their power, and a sense of the appalling
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 201
vigour of their competition, have already combined to
produce a state of hostility in Great Britain which
runs into many channels of our national life.
Considering the small number of Jews in England—
probably not more than 120,000 or 130,000—the
influence which they have obtained is an accurate
measure of their extraordinary abilities. Ability with¬
out manners is the raw material of unpopularity. A
recenl American writer has quoted the principal of a
down-town, east side, primary school in New York, as
saying that the children of the Russian and Polish Jews
are astonishingly clever :
I have never met such memories [she says] in any other race.
They can learn anything, and apparently without much effort.
Little children who have never been to school before come in
here to me and pick up the beginnings of an education in two
or three days. I never cease to marvel at them. But they
have absolutely no manners, and no conception of them.
This combination of brains and boorishness is no
essential element in the Jewish character. Persecution
tends to the degeneration of a race, though perhaps to
the refinement of individuals. Cowper declares that
roughness is the "grain of British natures," and if, on
the continent, the English have acquired a reputation
for bluff discourtesy, which is too often the effect of
prosperity on unrefined natures, the same quality so
generally marked as existing in the Hebrew community
will yield to influences which are already beginning to
soften English manners. Education,travel, the constant
flow of new ideas conduced by a cheap and well-
conducted press, have revolutionised the behaviour of
202 THE MODERN JEW
British crowds within the last quarter of a century.
There is hope that the introduction of similar educa¬
tional influences will yield no less favourable results in
the case of the Jewish people. At present, however,
the signs of softened manners among the Hebrew
population are not conspicuous.
The various considerations affecting the popularity
of the Jews set forth in the foregoing pages have not
escaped the notice of Jewish writers and teachers.
The question "Are Jews Unpopular? If so, Why?"
has been publicly discussed in the Jewish press. The
interest of the discussion arises from the fact that the
statements made are with a single exception—that of
the contribution of the present writer—those of Jews
themselves.
There is little doubt [says the editor of Young Israel,
May 1898], however, that the average Jew is not liked by the
average Gentile. For this there must be a reason, and our
people have always, in the general way, set the reason to the
detriment of the Gentile. Our correspondent, who writes with
authority, offers a different version, and at least a reasonable
one.
The following is the material portion of the letter
referred to :
There are, of course, notable exceptions, but it is mere
commonplace amongst Christians to say that the ordinary
behaviour of the average Jew is atrocious. He is bumptious,
self-conceited, arrogant, pushing, loud-mouthed and over¬
bearing, whilst his manners are generally clumsy, gauche and
unrefined. These are awkward characteristics to be possessed
by a people who freely mingle with those who pride themselves
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 203
upon their good nature and their good breeding according to
their lights. These then possibly might account for some
contempt or disdain felt towards the Jew, but even they do
not account for the sort of dislike which animates the average
Gentile. For, of course, these are but surface defects, which
education and polish will in time remedy.
There are deeper reasons. In the first place, the charac¬
teristic Jew, in his trading operations, or in his professional
practice—if professional he be—is universally found by
Christians to be none too scrupulous. I know it is easy
enough to retort, and to say that there arc black sheep in
every flock, and that Jews do not give an excessive pro¬
portion of those made amenable to the law for fraudulent
practices. But the sort of unscrupulousness which is com¬
plained about is not always that of which the law can take
cognisance.' It consists, in the main, in a kind of sharp
practice, in a total ignoring of those amenities of honourable
understanding between man and man, the nice give and take,
which form a code, albeit unwritten, often more stringently
binding upon the consciences of right-seeing people than the
strict laws of the land. For instance, let one happen to make
a bargain with a Jew which turns out to be to the Jew's dis¬
advantage. The Jew will wriggle and contrive, and delve and
devise all and every means for backing out of it. But let the
same bargain be to the Jew's advantage and to the other's
disadvantage, the Jew then will hear nothing of misunder¬
standings or mistakes, and care nothing for ignorance or weak¬
ness or stress of circumstances ; a bargain is a bargain then, and
must be adhered to. Hence it follows that the Jew's word is not
found to be quite as good as his bond, and his bond only
worth what you can strictly hold him to. This is, perhaps,
graving the characteristics in deep lines; but this same spirit
—get out of a bad bargain, stick like a limpet to a good one,
throwing every other consideration of means and circumstances
204 THE MODERN JEW
and conditions to the winds—is the spirit that animates the
Jew—more or less and in varying degrees, of course—in all his
relations whereby he earns whatever income he makes. This
disposition, as I say, may take various forms. In the money¬
lender it takes one, in the vendor of spurious jewellery it takes
another, in the sweater it takes another, and in the blackleg
workman it takes another; but, whatever the form, the spring-
root of sharp practice is traceable. I doubt not most of your
readers, being Jews, will think this denunciation of their earn¬
ing practices all too severe. I shall not be surprised if they
do, because they cannot know much about it. For the Jew,
in the main, prefers not to deal with the Jew; and, when he
does, he behaves quite differently from when he deals with the
non-Jew. The non-Jew he always sets down as fair game for
spoil.
There are other causes for unpopularity, and, although I
note them, I do not altogether sympathise with them, and I
mention them only because I think that great good might be
done by mitigating and modifying them, as far as we can con¬
sistently with our loyalty to our faith. Gentiles, of course,
cannot regard with feelings of geniality a people who hold
themselves not alone ostentatiously separate, but who also
hold Christians with a sort of lofty contempt. I was present
the other day when a lady wrote a refusal to an invitation that
had been sent to her daughters to a party to a Christian
friend's. I asked her why she had refused to let her daughters
go, and she had no better objection than this: "No, thank
you. I don't let my girls go out dancing with a lot of Christian
young men. They always take too much to drink at supper
you know." This is but an example of the manner in which
the Jew regards the Christian socially ; but it finds its counter¬
part in many other directions. For instance, in our prayers
we find such phases as " He hath not made us like the nations
of other lands, and hath not placed us like other families of
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 205
the earth. He hath not assigned unto us a portion like theirs,
nor made our lot like all their multitude." I have selected
this, since it is taken from the prayer which is, perhaps, more
frequently recited than any other; but it is only one instance
of much written in the same spirit that runs through our
Liturgy. I know that the average Jew, since he says this in
Hebrew, either does not understand what he says, or says it
so mechanically as net to realise its true import; but the
Christian cannot take account of this. He finds it in the
Jewish Prayer-book, and he naturally supposes that the Jew,
when he utters it, means what he says, and says it with devo¬
tion and spiritual energy. Can we be surprised if Gentiles do
not feel a loving regard for a people who thus show their desire
to monopolise the whole of God to themselves, a crassness in
so localising to themselves His infinite powers, or who evince
.such a reckless disregard of altered conditions as is shown, by
way of further example, once a year during the Passover Home
Service, in the "impolicy of the Open Door"?
"An English Jew" contributes the following to the
discussion :
Jews are certainly unpopular. I would differentiate between
the unpopularity that arises from historical compelling causes
over which we have had little control and the unpopularity
which is but the mirror of the community as it is.
When the Jewish nationality broke up and the race was
distributed, among other places, all over the continent of
Europe, Jews were unpopular for the following inevitable
reasons: (1) They were intruders. (2) They were associated
with the responsibility for the martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth,
upon the tragedy of which was founded the Christian faith in
the countries where they sought a refuge. (3) They remained
Oriental in the Western World. (4) They were exclusive and
cliquey. (5) What little desire there was on their part to
206 THE MODERN JEW
associate and assimilate was crushed out of their hearts by the
cruel repressive legislation with which they were everywhere
met.
, The whole of the modern question can be gathered into the
scope of a nutshell if, looking at these five points, we realise
that the world has largely outgrown the feeling that prompted
the first four on my list and the Jew has not recovered the
partly excusible effects of the cruelty referred to in my fifth
contention.
Having been forced into narrow grooves of unpopular occu¬
pation, Jews have kept to the unpopular occupations to a large
extent when the necessity of confining themselves to them has
passed away, notoriously in the matter of money-lending and
usury. I am convinced that if we could get rid of the stigma
of usurious money-lending, we should rid ourselves of the
greatest cause of Jewish unpopularity. Unfortunately litera*.
ture has made the picture of the usurious Jew lasting, in some
cases immortal, but we could effect something like a change
for the better if we took up a bold stand against the money-
lending which, though not confined to our community,
besmirches us infinitely out of proportion to the share that
Jews really have in this most noxious of occupations. It may
be, sir, that a community has no power to interfere with the
private affairs or the public character of individuals. But I
regret to have to say that we Jews are so fond of money that
we cannot pluck up the courage to denounce its possessors,
and to refrain from giving them honours that make the
Christian onlooker sometimes inclined to think that the pro¬
secution of a nefarious trade is almost a qualification for the
conferment by the synagogue of office and honours. . . .
I will, after having taken up already so much of your
valuable space, advert to but one more phase of Jewish un¬
popularity. Why are so many Jews so ostentatiously and
vulgarly showy ? Why do people give noisy card parties and
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN
207
dances on Sundays? Why do Jews wear so many diamonds
in the stalls of the theatres, all the Jews; all the showy dress,
and all the showy diamonds congregating together on one
spot, as it were? Why do so many Jews go to Margate in the
summer ? Why, when there, do they sit in all their finery at
their open windows? Why do they talk so loudly everywhere
about their money and their dress, and (faugh !) about their
food? Why is it possible to tell a Jewish boarding-house on a
Sunday, not by the Mezuzzah on the door, but by the noise
within, and the card playing for many hours, with all the
blinds up and all the lights on ? Why—but I have asked
enough for once. When these questions are answered I will
ask more.
" Kaffa " gives a fresh view :
When I say there is a prejudice against foreign Jews, I do
not mean the victims of persecutions, many of whom shed
lustre on the Jewish name, but rather the German Jews,
possessed of some means, who come over here and set up in
some already overcrowded business.
It may seem a strong statement, but I do not think there
is a more objectionable creature on the face of the earth than
the average German Jew who comes to settle in England.
The explanation is not difficult. It is only those who do
not get on at home who come over here. We are made a sort
of sanitary dust-bin. I have had exceptional opportunities
of seeing every class of Jews under all sorts of circumstances,
and my impression is, that Jews, born of English parents, have
much the same virtues and vices as any other Englishmen of
the same social position.
Another writes :
The difference in religion has nothing whatever to do with
the unpopularity of the Jew. The Christian respects the
208
THE MODERN JEW
observant Jew. It is only those who, while professing Judaism,
bring disgrace on the community by their practice of no
religion who receive and merit his contempt.
My own contribution to the discussion was as
follows :
I was somewhat surprised at receiving an invitation from the
editor to contribute to the discussion on " Are Jews unpopular?
If so, Why ? " The question is as unanswerable as " Are Women
Truthful?" or "Do Doctors understand Disease?" The
question seems to me to be one that will never be settled by
public discussion. Every one will form his own opinion.
Within the limits of such knowledge as I have on the subject
I should say that Jews, as a class, are unpopular, but that
much of their unpopularity is due to no fault of their own ;
and many Jews are highly popular. People who are successful,
sedentary, and of alien origin, could scarcely be any thing but
unpopular amongst insular, thriftless, active, full-blooded, and
meat-eating Englishmen, lacking precisely the qualities in
which the Jewish community generally excels. "The Aloof¬
ness of Israel," as I have ventured to term one characteristic
of the Hebrew community, is another reason why popularity
has not been obtained. Different diet, unwillingness to inter¬
marry with Gentiles, and separate worship, are three further
reasons for the failure of the bulk of the Jewish element in our
national life to obtain popularity. Racial pride not seldom
leads good Jews of the poorer classes to show contempt for
the people by whom they are surrounded. Mr. Dyche's article
in the January Contemporary Revieiv is a case in point. The
close connection, both by blood and faith, of English Jews
with an alien community in other countries is another bar to
popularity. The English are historically averse to foreign
influence. To sum up: popularity is not accorded by the
common English people to a race or a portion of a race whose
THE ALIEN IN GREAT BRITAIN 209
diet is different to their own, whose origin is Oriental, and
whose ties with co-religionists of the same race inhabiting
other countries are closer than with Britons, and who, except
in the comfortable classes, for successive generations have de¬
clined to intermarry with the nationals of their adopted country.
On the other hand, the powerful and interesting letter of
J. E. W, seems to me unjust, inasmuch as the reasons given
by the writer for Jewish unpopularity are not set off against the
reasons for Jewish popularity. These are many, and should
always be stated whenever the opposite view is set forth. I
have met in my time many anti-Semites, but I rarely discuss
the Jewish question with any of them without hearing an ad¬
mission from their lips that, although antipathetic to the race,
some bosom friend is sure to be a Jew or a Jewess. There
are, therefore, a large number of Jews whose sympathy, ex¬
quisite refinement of mind, delicate perception, intellectual
power, and social charm make them the most delightful of
human beings, and distinguish them among people of a coarser
fibre. The number of such Jews is palpably on the increase
in England as education spreads and the spirit of the Jewish
religion is shed abroad. I have always looked to the absorp¬
tion of the Jewish element in English national life as essential
both to the welfare of England and to the popularity of the
Jews, for I regard the outbreak of further anti-Semitic trouble
on the Continent as certain to convert England into a sanc¬
tuary for the persecuted Jewish race all over the world. If
the Jews will consent to be absorbed and to mingle their blood
with ours, all will be well; but if not, the unpopularity of the
foreign Jews is likely to increase. The strength of the Jewish
community in proportion to their numbers is already great,
and should Jewish influence grow rapidly, its wealth increase,
and numbers multiply owing to greatly increased immigration,
I should not be surprised to watch unpopularity ripen into
jealousy, and even hate, among the common people.
o
210 THE MODERN JEW
It would hardly be fair to close even these few words on
Jewish unpopularity without referring to the splendid services,
both to England and to Israel, performed by Sir George Lewis
in his stand-up fight against the money-lending sharks. The
action of Sir George Lewis—skilled, courageous, timely—has,
to my knowledge, made a deep impression upon many persons
of influence with whom the Jews were unpopular. For a man
in Sir George Lewis' position to throw himself almost single-
handed against a great national abuse is a service to his
fellow countrymen which is not likely to be forgotten. If only
Sir George Lewis, and those who think with him, could over¬
come the aloofness of nine-tenths of the Jewish immigrants
of the last thirty years, there would be no Jewish Question
brewing in England.
XI
ZIONISM
ZIONISM
The colonisation of Palestine has long been a dream
of idealistic Jews, and has recently, in the form of
Zionism, taken a more or less practical shape. A few
small colonies in the Holy Land have been established
at great cost by the liberality of Jewish millionaires,
but the practical result of all that has been done to
restore the Jews to the Holy Land is really nothing.
Until thirty years ago the Jews in Palestine were very
few in number, probably to be reckoned by hundreds
rather than thousands, but the Russian persecutions
have increased the Jewish element in the population
to such a point that visitors to Jerusalem are surrounded
by an impoverished and mendicant Jewish crowd.
The Holy Land is an arid and comparatively unfruitful
country, not much larger than Wales. Jewish colonists
who mostly depend on agriculture for a living must,
therefore, be placed in proximity to a market or a port.
Jerusalem and the larger towns are already over¬
crowded by destitute Jews, who cling to centres of
populations with hereditary tenacity. Communica¬
tions in the Holy Land are deficient, and, unless
railways and canals are supplied, it is impossible that
colonists can either raise their products at a low price
2I4
THE MODERN JEW
or export them with profit. In time, when the increase
in population of towns raises a demand for manufac¬
tured goods, industries for which there is now no
demand would possibly grow up, but before any
systematic settlement of Jews in Palestine can be
accomplished the construction of roads and railways
must precede them.
No colonisation has passed completely beyond the
charitable or experimental stage until the colonists are
self-supporting. I do not know any Jewish colony
which ever has become fully self-supporting, as there
are outstanding debts even on the colonies of Ekater-
inoslaw. The political differences in the way of a
restoration of Israel to the Holy Land are by no
means the least of the obstacles to be encountered.
Jewish emigration is again forbidden by the Sultan
Abdul Hamed, and although Moslem power, since the
expulsion from Spain, has proved kinder to the Jews
than the Christianised Russians, it is evident that the
future of the Holy Land is destined to undergo con¬
siderable changes which may not be favourable to
the growth of an Israelitish population. The increasing
poverty of the Turkish dominions, the panting ambi¬
tions of Germany for an outlet for her redundant
population, and the known antipathy of the Emperor
William to the Jews, all tend to this view.*
But Germany is not the only Great Power with its
eye on the reversion of the Holy Land. France claims
* It is within my knowledge that during a visit to Cowes the Emperor
William refused permission to the Prince of Wales to present to his
Imperial Majesty a Jewish gentleman, who was not only a personal
friend of his Royal Highness, but was actually in the room waiting to
be presented.
ZIONISM 215
to be hereditarily the protector of Eastern Christians,
while Russia will certainly never yield the custody of
the Holy Place to a rival, or even to a partner, without
a struggle. With the exception of Kieff, there is no
sacred shrine for the orthodox of the Greek Church
other than that of Jerusalem. The pilgrimage to
Jerusalem and to Kieff is almost as obligatory upon
the members of the Russian branch of the Eastern
Church as the Haj to Mecca is binding on the faithful
Moslem.
The stir and enthusiasm that has been raised
throughout Europe among the poorer Jews in favour
of a restoration of the scattered tribes to their ancient
home is still, therefore, but a Ghetto dream. Resolu¬
tions are passed, enthusiasm is aroused, a bank is pro¬
jected, subscriptions invited, but all to no purpose.
Rich Jews are hostile to an idea which would wrench
them from their positions of comfort and luxury and
surround them with the society they most eagerly
shun. The palaces of the wealthiest Jews may be
searched in vain for humble Hebrew guests, and in
the event of a Jewish State being established the appli¬
cations for the appointment of Jewish ambassadorships
in London and Paris would be embarrassing to the
Executive.
The only ray of light apparently visible for the hopes
of those poor Jews whose home instincts have been
touched by their own exceeding misery and the
enchanting prospects opened out to them by Dr. Hertzl
and Dr. Nordau is in the neutralisation of Palestine
after Armageddon has taken place.
That the national idea is an essestial and an integral
o
216 THE MODERN JEW
part of the Zionist movement, and that it is the duty
of all Jews to unite in order to secure a legally safe¬
guarded resettlement of the Jewish nation in Palestine,
is the principle eagerly accepted by the continental,
American, and English Zionists, and is earnestly
rejected and opposed both by the rich Jews, who are
content with their adopted countries, and by the
religious idealists, who look on Judaism purely from a
spiritual and not from a racial point of view.
The political movement inaugurated by Dr. Hertzl
and Dr. Nordau for the restoration of the Jews to the
Holy Land, which continues to be the subject of
serious division between the well-to-do and the
destitute Jews, seems likely to have further develop¬
ments early in the new century. The first Congress
was held at Basle on August 29, 1897, and the second
on August 28, 1898. Some two hundred European
delegates were present.
In his " Dreamers of the Ghetto " Mr. I. Zangwill
has painted a masterly pen-picture of the Congress of
1897 :
A strangely assorted set of leaders, but all with that ink-
mark on the brow which is as much on the Continent the
badge of action as it is in England the symbol of sterility, all
believing, more or less naively, that the pen is mightier than
the millionaire's gold.
Only one of them hitherto has really stirred the world with
his pen-point—a prophet of the modern, preaching " Woe !
woe!" by psycho-physiology; in himself a breezy, burly
undegenerate, with a great grey head marvellously crammed
with facts and languages, now to prove himself golden-hearted
and golden-mouthed, an orator touching equally to tears or
ZIONISM 217
laughter. In striking contrast with this quasi-Teutonic figure
shows the leonine head, with its tossing black mane and
shoulders, of the Russian leader, Apollo turned Berserker,
beautiful, overpowering, from whose resplendent mouth roll in
mountain thunder the barbarous Russian syllables.
And even as no two of the leaders are alike, so do the rank
and file fail to resemble one another. Writers and journalists,
poets and novelists and merchants, professors and men of
professions—types that once sought to slough their Jewish
skins, and mimic, on Darwinian principles, the colours of the
environment, but that now, with some tardy sense of futility or
stir of pride, proclaim their brotherhood in Zion—they are
come from many places ; from far lands and from near, from
uncouth, unknown villages of Bukowina and the Caucasus,
and from the great European capitals ; thickliest from the pales
of persecution, in rare units from the free realms of England
and America—a strange phantasmagoria of faces. A small,
sallow Pole, with high check-bones; a blonde Hungarian, with
a flaxen moustache ; a brown, hatchet-faced Roumanian ; a
fresh-coloured Frenchman, with eyeglasses ; a dark, Marrano-
descended Dutchman; a chubby German; a fiery-eyed Rus¬
sian, tugging at his own hair with excitement, perhaps in
prescience of the prison awaiting his return ; a dusky Egyptian,
with the close-cropped curly black hair and all but the nose
of a negro; a yellow-bearded Swede; a courtly Viennese
lawyer; a German student, with proud duel slashes across his
cheek; a Viennese student, first fighter in the University, with
a coloured band across his shirt front; a dandy, smelling of
the best St. Petersburg circles; and one solitary caftan-Jew,
with ear-locks and skull-cap, wafting into the nineteenth cen¬
tury the cabalistic mysticism of the Carpathian Messiah.
Who speaks of the Jewish type?
The political Zionist movement in London has met
2l8
THE MODERN JEW
with extraordinary success among immigrant foreign
Jews. A meeting at Mile End Assembly Hall, at which
resolutions were enthusiastically passed, has attracted
much attention and created further division in Jewish
ranks. The resolution passed at the Zionist meeting
by more than six thousand foreigners was represented
to be the opinion of English Jews, although the English
and Anglicised element was conspicuously absent
and the assemblage was obviously composed of aliens.
Much complaint was aroused against the circle of the
Jewish community by the attempt to make it appear
that seven thousand Englishmen were prepared to follow
Dr. Hertzl. Whether English or foreign, however, the
present condition of Zionism in England has passed
the stage of doubt. Notwithstanding all the enthusiasm
aroused by the eloquence and sincerity of its founders,
the political Zionistic movement is irretrievably doomed.
The Zionistic heart beats tumultuously and hands are
stretched out to seize the Promised Land, while the
coming Canaan is floated among the Chosen People in
£i shares.*
" The financial experts decline to treat the prospectus of the Trust
seriously, and dismiss it contemptuously. The objections are pretty
well summarised in the following remarks made by the Financial News :
" Failing the aid of the Jews whose names are synonymous with
financial and administrative capacity, the Jewish Colonial Trust is
headed by a strange assembly of bankers and manufacturers from Pinsk
and Dwinsk and Jassy, and other remote places undistinguished as
centres of light and leading. Excellent men they are, no doubt, full of
racial enthusias n; but they are not the persons to be entrusted with
£2,000,000 of English capital, or even a tithe of the sum. There is no
guarantee that they are capable of administering such sums, no proof
that they can prevent the corrupt use of the money. You cannot
govern a colony whose nucleus has had its wora/^undermined by years
of subsistence on charity, through directors dotted over inconsiderable
ZIONISM
219
The publicity accorded to this movement has aroused
the apprehension of the Turkish Government. The
Sultan is alarmed. With much rigour Abdul Hamed
is now enforcing restrictive measures against the Jews
entering Palestine. The Ottoman Government refuses
registration of title deeds of land held by Jews. The
operations of the great philanthropist, Baron Edmund
de Rothschild, are alleged to be impeded. If Palestine
ever had a small outlet for the alleviation of Jewish
suffering it has been closed, and the endeavour to
snatch at political shadows has gone far to destroy the
only substance that Jewish migration to the Holy Land
ever possessed. Whenever the Jews return to Palestine
or its Hinterland, it will only be with the goodwill of
nations which are now ready to fly at each other's
throats. Turkish apprehension, Russian antipathy,
towns in Russia or Roumania, even though there be a head office in
London. Nor does the council of twenty give any stronger security,
drawn, as it is, from New York to Warsaw, from Paris to Ekaterinoslaw,
and from towns in Galicia whose names are as unfamiliar, even if they
are not so unpronounceable, as those of the councillors themselves.
The promoters do not attempt to demonstrate that profitable industries
can be acclimatised in Palestine, and their programme is as vague as
their sentiments are fantastic. If money is to be spent for the succour
of poor Jews, either in Palestine or elsewhere, we should prefer to sec it
administered through the agency of the Anglo-Jewish Association or the
Alliance Israelite, which are frankly charitable. Were it not that the
Jews who find the sinews of war for these beneficent organisations know
the futility of this Jewish Colonial Trust, there might be some anxiety
lest their sources of supply might be interfered with by the promotion ;
but that risk is small. The Trust will fade away like other dreams,
leaving the burden of Jewish philanthropy on the old shoulders. It is
a pity that the Jewish people should be misrepresented, as they arc, by
the hairbrained and irresponsible promoters of this ridiculous Trust.
No one can take seriously this request that Gentiles should subscribe to
transport Jews wholesale to where they cannot earn a livelihood, and
may be the cause of endless political complications."
220 THE MODERN JEW
German ambitions, French suspicions, and British
interests at present work against the embodiment of
the Jewish dream.
The magnificent vision of a Jewish State seems to
have confused the originators of the Zionist scheme.
Dr. Hertzl's religious detachment enables him to speak
with scorn of the spiritual aspect of Jewish separateness,
which constitutes to the religious Jews the most attractive
feature of their faith. With the Jewish message to the
nations political Zionism has no sympathy. They do
not look upon Israel as a spiritual force. The Basle
scheme is looked on purely as a check to the Drumonts
and the Stockers. The Jews who cheer Dr. Hertzl
have no ambition to be the despised dependants of a
predominant Islam. In their heart of hearts they seek
a State as well as a home. The Jewish State has been
for all time the butt of Jewish wit among the well-to-do.
When six thousand foreign Jews gathered in the great
hall of the East End of London to hear the Modern
Joshua, the Jews of Belgrave Square and Piccadilly,
the inhabitants of Maida Vale, the Chief Rabbi, and
the upper-class Hebrews were absent with one consent.
It was a gathering of the masses, a foreign throng, and
still remains an alien movement.
XII
" DARKEST RUSSIA"
" DARKEST RUSSIA"
Darkest Russia was a paper brought out between
July 15, 1891, and August 11, 1893, and was the organ
of the Jewish community of Western Europe for the
purpose of protesting against the treatment of the
Russian Jews by their Emperor and Government. It
is questionable as to how far public opinion in Europe
and America was formed and guided by the journal in
question. Its historic interest, however, is undoubted,
for its columns contained downright denunciations of
Russia and the Russians written with full knowledge
and signal ability by men who felt as they ought to
feel on the subject of the oppression and degradation
of their race.
Six numbers of this remarkable periodical appeared
in 1891 ; six in 1892 ; after that there were no more
published until February 1, 1893. The two final issues
were 011 June 1, 1893, and on August 11 in the same
year. The peculiarity of the situation consists in the
fact that Darkest Russia was entitled " a journal of
persecution," and was issued by a committee consisting
of some of the most enlightened and influential Jewish
bankers and business men in Western Europe. The
journal was
224 the modern jew
published periodically with the object of bringing to the civilised
world authentic facts relating to Russia's persecution of her
Jewish and other nonconformist subjects. It is hoped that
public opinion, which has already freely expressed itself in
words of solemn protest, may continue to exercise its potent
influence and tend to alleviate and eventually stay those cruel
deeds of persecution which disgrace the present age.
Darkest Russia is suspended, and public opinion is
more intent on friendship with the Russian Govern¬
ment than desirous of reprobating the treatment of the
Tsar's Jewish subjects.
If only the uncompromising attitude of the Western
Jews had steadfastly maintained until to-day its influ¬
ence on public opinion, there is little doubt that the
persecutions of the Jewish community in the Pale
would by this time have been materially affected for
the better. Russia could have borrowed no money,
and Jewish bankers would have been ashamed to make
fresh loans to the secular enemy of their race. The
fascinations of profit, however, were too great for them
to resist, and by a curious coincidence the protest came
to an end just at the time when loan-mongering was
resumed.
The outburst of Jewish indignation at Russian
tyranny was no less surprising than severe. Denuncia¬
tion of Russia by rich Jewish bankers and others was
in itself a courageous act; to have followed up anony¬
mous denunciation and the effusion of ink by a finan¬
cial boycott would have been a form of intrepidity for
which there is no record in the annals of cosmopolitan
finance.
The following extracts from this remarkable publica-
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 225
tion are of permanent interest for two reasons : firstly,
because they are the authentic and deliberate opinions
of the best representatives of Western Judaism ; and,
secondly, because the evils described and denounced
not only continue unchecked until this hour, but are
aggravated by the increasing pressure of a population
which has grown apace since the day when Darkest
Russia was discontinued.
What should be the attitude of the civilised world [asks
Darkest Russia—the representative of the Russo-Jewish Com¬
mittee] in the presence of the cruel war of extermination
waged against these unarmed millions of human beings ? It
should be an attitude of disgust and indignation. Public
opinion in every enlightend nation should regard Holy Russia
as the enemy of humanity, the bane of progress, the destroyer
of true religion.
Russia has posed as the harbinger of civilisation in the
East, while she herself has not the bare elements of civilisation
even in her own capital. . . .
What sort of civilisation she would bring in her wake if
suffered to spread eastward, westward and southward, at her
own sweet will, we may discern within her own frontiers. For
the Russian war against the Jews is no isolated act of barbarism.
She persecutes the Lutherans, though to a less degree, for she
fears the rage of Lutheran Germany. . . .
She defies all principles of mercy and justice by her atroci¬
ties in Siberia, murdering in cold blood defenceless prisoners,
and flogging to death noble-hearted, tenderly nurtured women.
Russia then must be regarded as the standing menace to
civilisation and progress and the world must wage a crusade
against her. Her sons, wherever met, must be reminded that
in spite of this thin veneer of Parisian culture, they are
members of a barbaric community, that their government is
p
226 THE MODERN JEW
the incarnation of inhumanity, intolerance and irreligion, and
that their institutions and laws are subjects of loathing and
contempt to the civilised mind. This should be the attitude of
the world to Russia and the Russians.
These sentiments, however fleeting, reflect honour
upon the heart and common sense of the Jewish com¬
munity. They were not, however, found to be incon¬
sistent with a large Jewish loan to "the incarnation of
inhumanity, intolerance and irreligion," and the com¬
plete cessation of any attack upon the " barbaric com¬
munity " who are still persecuting with equal rigour a
larger number of helpless Jewish families than in 1891.
The emotions of the Western Jews, however—
bankers and philanthropists—were not exhausted by
an appeal to the civilised world for a social boycott
against the Muscovite race. They continue in Cambyses
vein :
Perhaps the iniquity of the Muscovite is not yet full. But
the day will come when statesmen will ask, " Why should
Russia exist ? " At the next Berlin Congress, after the great
impending struggle, when the unwieldy Empire of the North
will lie prostrate in the dust, her finances bankrupt, the bubble
of her prestige burst, that will be the question.
The significance of these sentences is scarcely to be
overrated. Darkest Russia was not an ordinary news¬
paper. It was the organ, as I have said, of the master
spirits of the Jewish community. They knew what
they were writing about. The ghastly subject of the
persecutions was familiar to them. The first article
that was published was probably carefully considered
by a committee. Whether this was so or not the
" DARKEST RUSSIA"
worthies of the Russo-Jcwish Committee were respon¬
sible for these words. They were acquainted with the
political and international situation. They knew that
the Russian Empire was unwieldy, that her prestige is
a bubble, that her finances would break down under
the strain of a great war, that she would lie prostrate in
the dust, that her destiny is to be beaten in conflict
with any first-class Power ; and yet, knowing all these
things, they suffered the bankers and high money¬
lenders to bolster up the Power that was then and now
is busy in procuring the degradation and the destruc¬
tion of unarmed millions of defenceless Jews. It was
not that the Western Jews did not feel the iniquity of
the Russian loan. Many of them were cut to the
quick by the sufferings of their co-religionists. They
were silent when the time came to decide whether
their brave words should be followed up by effective
deeds because of the solidarity that binds the Jewish
community with a force derived from two millenniums
of united action.
It is owing to the Jews themselves, the rich Jews of
the West, that the sentiment of Western Europe against
persecuting Russia has died out. Russia is guilty of
deeds of the same class and in the same rank as those
which are held by British Liberals to disgrace the
unspeakable Turk. Mr. Gladstone in August 1891
advised " those who are responsible for these pages,"
that is, Darkest Russia, to present in proper form the
facts of the persecution and to deliver their artillery
against "the citadel of wrong." The artillery was
duly delivered, but was withdrawn at the moment when
the breach was about to become practicable.
228 THE MODERN JEW
Mr. Gladstone's advice was taken by the Jewish com¬
munity. The following language was issued to the
world as a form in which the Jewish protest was to be
taken :
But how can the strong pressure of public opinion be
applied? This time the "sick man " is not an effete monarchy.
The " sick man " is, in the present instance, not only strong
and vigorous, but he vaunts his brute force as superior to all
other Powers in the world. The owner of a million and a half
of fighting men may well be allowed to boast, though there is
an inherent weakness in armies of such unwieldy magnitude,
especially under a regime of peculation and corruption. But
even to Russia brute force is not everything. No nation,
however powerful, can live in isolation. She must have allies,
if not for self-defence, at least for friendly concert.
Russia is no exception to this rule. Curiously enough, she
seeks her friends, not among despotisms like her own, but in
the homes of free republics. It would seem as if Nature, true
to her far-reaching principles of polarity, whereby extremes and
opposites unite, seeks to strike a golden mean between the wild
will of the people and the mad will of the autocrat. Else why
the Platonic friendship between Russia and the two great
Republics of France and the United States? Not for self-
defence ; for neither would lift hand or sword to save the
other in the day of peril. The civilities of Cronstadt will
count for little in the day of tribulation, when the fate of a
nation trembles in the balance.
No, even barbarian Russia has a sentiment. She must have
friends. She desires to be considered as other nations. Hence
she has institutions for education and culture apart from
civilised States, exotic perhaps just now, but yet with fair
promise for the future, when she shall have outgrown the
barbarism of her wild youth. Hence she is sensitive, too
" DARKEST RUSSIA'
229
sensitive perhaps, of foreign regard, and the opinion of
the outer world is to her what conscience is to civilised
nations.
When, therefore, Mr. Gladstone expresses the hope that
public opinion, in regard to the persecution, may operate on
the sentiment of Russia and of its government, it is because he
knows full well how deeply, in spite of her delarations to the
contrary, she feels the force of external opinion, and how
greatly she resents the imputation that she is still in a barbaric
stage of existence.
There remains yet another point in Mr. Gladstone's letter
which possesses great significance. He declares that " it is on
the Continent that opinion has more need of being helped
onwards than in England." This is unfortunately but too
true, and it applies first and foremost to France. In England
there is but one opinion as to the persecutions, and that opinion
has been expressed in no uncertain voice. But Russia has
always regarded this country as her hereditary foe, so she
cannot be expected to lend a willing ear to her counsels or
remonstrances. Germany is only just emerging from a wave
of anti-Semitism which has disgraced her, so it would ill become
her to preach to her neighbour to avoid the excesses to which
she herself was lately addicted. The German Press has not
failed in its duty to humanity, and the Austrian Press has been
loud in its denunciation of the wrongs inflicted by Russia on
the Jews. But the German and Austrian Press counts for
little in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where anything spoken or
written in the hated German tongue is regarded as an insult.
But with France and the French it is different. Let the em¬
braces of Cronstadt bear testimony.
France can do much to quell the persecution of the Russian
Jews. She can point out the significant fact that it was by the
act of Napoleon I., when absolute, that the Jews of France
were emancipated, after a fair and impartial inquiry as to their
230 THE MODERN JEW
creed, their customs, their manners, their morals, and their
attitude to the State. She can tell the Tsar that she has never
had cause to regret the admission of the Jews to equal rights,
and she can show fair evidence of the benefit they have con¬
ferred upon the State.
It is the privilege of friendship to be frank and truthful.
Will France do the part of the candid friend, and represent to
Russia that persecution is not compatible with civilisation ?
It fell to my lot to proceed to Russia as Baron
Hirsch's representative, to conduct the negotiations
with the Tsar's Government which led to free permis¬
sion being accorded to the Jewish subjects of Russia to
leave the country and reside in colonies prepared for
them through a munificence unparalleled in the history
of charities.
In the course of my negotiations a fact became appa¬
rent which any one might have known beforehand,
that the unmeasured verbal abuse of Russia by the
Jewish community in England, and a futile meeting
they had persuaded the then Lord Mayor to convene
at the Guildhall, so far from assisting, retarded and
hindered the negotiations. I accordingly represented
strongly the unwisdom of continuing the denunciation
of Russia at the very moment when favours were being
asked of the Tsar's Government on behalf of his Jewish
subjects ; but the fine fury of the Western Jews against
Russia was too sincere and irrepressible to suffer
abatement in consequence of diplomatic considera¬
tions. They refused to remain silent, although the
publication in which their diatribes appeared was not
allowed to pass the Russian frontier. When asked
to cease this publication, at all events temporarily,
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 231
in the interests of the sufferers, what was the an¬
swer ?
No. The Russia which at the moment governs the vast
empire must learn the opinion which enlightened humanity
entertains of her acts. She must be told that no Christian
nation can grasp her hand while she persecutes her subjects
and expels her aliens in the sacred name of religion ; that
civilised men regard war against defenceless multitudes as a
curse, and that the amenities of international intercourse will
not be for her until she mends her ways.
Russia did not mend her ways ; but, nevertheless,
such "amenities of international intercourse" as are
provided by a great cash loan were placed at her dis¬
posal by members of the very community who had
protested with so much force and sincerity against
persecutions that remain unabated and unchecked
to-day.
The Annual Register for 1891 (p. 309) refers to the
first loan as follows :
In April the Ministry of Finance endeavoured to raise a
3 per cent. Conversion Loan, but the attempt failed, owing to
the opposition of Messrs. Rothschild, who refused to have any
further dealings with a State which had roused the indignation
of the world by its barbarous treatment of their co-religionists.
It was believed that the policy which M. Vischnegratsky, the
Russian Minister of Finance, had induced his Imperial master
to accept, was that Russia should silently continue her war
preparations, obtaining the necessary funds by successive so-
called conversion loans. This policy had now received a
check, and the friends of peace rejoiced accordingly. But
their triumph did not last long. In September M. Vischne¬
gratsky resumed negotiations in Paris for a loan of 500,000,000
232 THE MODERN JEW
francs, and, although the whole of the amount was not sub¬
scribed, a sufficient sum was obtained for the more pressing
needs of the Russian Treasury, and further supplies were pro¬
cured by the issue of 50,000,000 roubles in paper money.
With a thorough knowledge of Russia and her
Government, the conductors of Darkest Russia on
December 18, 1891, wrote as follows :
Almost every police agent and other government official has
his hand ever open to receive a bribe in hard cash, and in
bureaucratic Russia so numerous are the means of annoyance
in the power of the petty officials that many of the people's
hard-earned roubles are thus wrung from them.
Nor is this corruption peculiar to the petty employes, for
frequent public trials for bribery, embezzlement of public funds,
and misappropriation of land show that a tendency to dis¬
honesty permeates the whole official class. The greed and
meanness of Russian officials may be imagined, when it is
stated by those in a position to know, that of the money and
grain devoted by the Government to the relief of the sufferers
from famine but little is likely to reach those for whom it is
intended. In a country where the whole bureaucracy is corrupt,
it may well be asked, " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ? "
One of the latest theories of modern science is that the
structure of an organism is largely the result of the function it
performs; and if the Russian Government takes persecution
for one of its most cherished functions it will soon develop the
structure most suited to its purpose.
Little by little the Russian official, hardly yet completely
emerged from savagery, will revert to his primitive barbarism,
and the survivors of famine and pestilence will find themselves
subjects, not of a Russian but of a Tartar Government. There
is little chance of happiness for the unfortunate Russian nation,
and less chance of its progress, until it is blessed with a bene-
" DARKEST RUSSIA'
233
ficent government in place of the careless bureaucrats who rule
hut cannot govern, who fail to protect life and property, who
expel peaceful citizens from their homes, and deprive them of
the fruits of their labours.
The sole hope of Russia would seem to be that the Tsar
may be brought to recognise the fact that the purpose of a true
government is the welfare of the people, and that he will
replace the crowd of hungry officials now fattening on his
subjects by those who really have at heart the people's good.
The Tsar is credited with a keen desire for peace. Let him
give his people peace at home, and remove from Russia the
reproach of being the plague-spot of Europe. Under such
conditions, his subjects, Orthodox, Dissenters, Jews, living in
harmony, in perfect loyalty, protected and not harassed by the
law, may yet attain a happy and dignified national life, pro¬
moting the aggrandisement of the empire and the civilisation of
the world of which it forms so large a part.
The conductors of Darkest Russia vindicated the
campaign they were conducting in dignified language.
They said that " Russia had truly reason to fear the
power of publicity to injure her prestige, and to do
more solid harm to her diplomatic position." The
publication of a journal like Darkest Russia, specially
intended to keep Russia's misdeeds prominently before
the world, was not without effect.
It cannot be in vain [it said] that over 25,000 copies of this
journal are sent to all courts, embassies and consulates, to the
chief newspapers and clubs in Europe, India and the United
States, and to all personages of influence and public position
throughout the world. We are wielding the only weapon of
defence that can be raised to protect the persecuted millions of
Israelites in Russia when we are calling to their aid the power
of publicity.
234 THE MODERN JEW
In August 1893 Darkest Russia returned to the
charge. The Tsar's Government wanted more money.
Public opinion was appealed to as follows :
WHILE THE RUSSIAN RACE IS DEGENERATING
THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT IS BORROW¬
ING MONEY FOR ARMAMENTS.
But equally indispensable is the new foreign loan, and
necessity, which is so often found to be the Mother of Inven¬
tion, is likewise very often the source of conviction.
To sober-minded men these precipitous movements back¬
wards and forwards, these sweeping accusations and servile
eulogiums, appear in their true light as desperate attempts to
raise money with the goading knowledge that the problem is
growing more and more arduous. And the money is wanted
to obtain the means to break the peace of Europe. " If
Russia can find the money," says the official Moskovskia
Vedomosti-—" and find it she will whenever it is needed—what
will the present increase of the German army signify in com¬
parison with Russia's forces ? " And now, apparently, the time
has come when it is needed, for new regiments are being
organised, and a Mediterranean squadron of the Russian fleet is,
we are told, about to be formed; several new line-of-battle
ships and belted cruisers are being laid down to supply the
place of those taken from the Black Sea. Such are the cares
of the Government whose people are miserably perishing of
hunger ! " In Europe and in civilised countries of the whole
world," exclaims one of the best journalists of St. Petersburg,
" there is no people poorer or more illiterate than the Russian,
no people housed in more primitive dwellings, no people who
till the soil with more wretched agricultural implements. Even
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 235
heathen countries, like China and Japan, with their dense
population able to read and write, and their superior agricul¬
tural methods, are far in advance of our Russian people. . . .
Professor Janson, in his ' Comparative Statistics,' insists on
the deplorable fact that ' the great Russian race is degenerating
even as compared with the alien populations in its midst. The
one powerful and gifted stock of Slavonic colonisers which
created one of the most mighty empires is now degenerating
into a diseased and feeble race which is losing even the capacity
for progress.'' "*
GENERAL VIEW OF THE CONDITION
OF RUSSIAN SOLVENCY.
Summing up the facts, then, we find that Russian finances
are based exclusively upon the solvency of the agricultural
population of the country ; that these unfortunate people are
hopelessly insolvent, and are kept in a state of chronic starva¬
tion ; that the corn indispensable to their existence is exported
abroad; that they live for half the year in the open air, sleep¬
ing on the bare ground, and for the other half in hideous
hovels; that they are obliged to sell iheir cattle, and to burn
the straw of their roofs, in order to prolong this horrible life,
and that they are physically degenerating and becoming unfit
for manual labour; that the Government, instead of attempting
to improve their miserable lot, blithely continues to augment
its budget in inverse proportion to their insolvency, flogging
them for arrears until they raise money at 6000 per cent,
interest; that even under the most favourable circumstances
agriculture is absolutely unremunerative ; that Russia does not
produce a single grain of superfluous corn, and that mis¬
management has brought about such an abnormal state of
* Cf. Nedclya, N. 43.
236 THE MODERN JEW
things in the Empire that a good harvest is more ruinous than
a failure of the crops. Lastly, that they who lend Russia
money, in the teeth of these indubitable facts, are not only
making a financially unsound investment, but are rendering
themselves morally responsible for the untold misery of a
hundred millions of their fellow men.
XIII
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS
Implanted more deeply in human nature than any
passion—other than the perpetuation of one's own
species—is the desire to propagate one's own opinion,
and to show one's political and religious opponents
that they are in the wrong. With Hooliganism and
heathenism rampant in the great towns, with thousands
of Christian children annually relapsing into illiteracy,
the conversion of the Jews to Christianity by Anglo-
Saxons is a process no less costly than inexplicable
and hopeless—none the less because it is the con¬
ventional form of anti-Semitism adopted by
Christendom.
There are at least a dozen recognised societies in
Great Britain seeking the conversion of the Jews,
besides a large number both on the Continent and in
America. Figures are given freely, although a change
of heart scarcely seems to lend itself to accurate
statistical treatment. The number of proselytes in all
the churches from Judaism was estimated by the late
Dr. Delitzsch to be over 100,000. Sanguine believers
in missions suppose it to be more now. The Church
fiiiics, so far back as August 17, 1883, says : "There is
reason to believe that there is 110 family of the human
240 THE MODERN JEW
race which, on the whole, and in proportion to its size,
yields more converts to Christianity." Also in "The
Church and the Jew" by Rev. R. W. Harden, p. 22, we
read:
It is the testimony of one entitled to speak with authority,
when missionary statistics are in question, that the converts
from Judaism to Christianity in the present age are more
numerous in proportion to population than those from among
the heathen. And this is fully endorsed by the well-known
fact—one which we have no reason to question—that in the
present century no fewer than 100,coo Jews have embraced
Christianity ; and also that the number of conversions from
Judaism to Christianity going on at present may be fairly
estimated at 1000 a year at least.
It is surprising that the claim for so many converts
should never have been challenged by Christians of
accurate tastes, when the difficulties and hindrances
experienced by a Jew when he embraces Christianity
are taken into consideration. He loses caste, often
loses the means of earning a living, and breaks with his
nearest and dearest relations.
It is probable that few Christians have ever investi¬
gated the statistics of conversion claimed by the various
missionary societies, while members of the Hebrew
faith regard with too much contempt the business of
proselytism conducted on the system adopted by the
existing Christian societies. Serious Jewish thinkers
and statesmen have learned to distrust all Christians
having the least connection, pecuniary or otherwise,
with the societies established for their conversion. In
a note to this chapter I give two instances which have
THE CONVERSION OE THE JEWS 241
occurred during recent years of a gigantic and fraudulent
fabric of misrepresentation and dishonesty, which have
been exposed in one case by the honourable action of
the editor of the Christian, and in the other by the
resolute determination of Dr. Christian Ginsburg, the
distinguished Hebraist and scholar. I have endeavoured
to arrive at an impartial and just conclusion on all the
evidence for and against the Christian Missions for the
conversion of the Jews which has passed through my
hands. The result is not favourable to the societies.
Their publications give hints which, followed up, show
that payment and other advantages accrue to inquirers,
and that prospective converts soon discover intimate
association between their soul's health and their bodily
comfort.
The Mildmay Mission, the Barbican Mission, and
nearly a score of others are conduits for many pay¬
ments to inquirers. The periodicals, like the Jewish
Intelligencer, indicate the close connection between the
hunger of proselyte souls and the nourishment of
converts' bodies.
Other potent engines for the manufacture of Jewish
proselytes are discovered in the Homes for Inquirers,
"the Medical Missions," and other undertakings which
enable convertible Hebrews to make the best of both
worlds.
Conversion is not seldom followed by relapse, and
reconversion becomes at once a spiritual and profitable
necessity. One man named Arnstein, after exhausting
Christian resources of charity, reverted to Judaism and
attempted to trade upon his pretended return to the
People of the Dispersion and to gain a living denied to
Q
242 THE MODERN JEW
him in the Christian camp. His ardour was damped
by the frank refusal of one of the most charitable and
clear-sighted of his co-religionists to allow him to soil
the faith lie disgraced by drawing dishonest alms.
He returned, accordingly, to Christianity and once
more belongs to the faith he had previously
renounced.
If orthodox Israelites are hostile to false converts,
who are the trenchermen of a propaganda conducted
by the paid agents of credulous Christians, they are
also somewhat shy of missionaries to Jews. It is found
that the paid agents of the missionary societies make
much capital and advertisement at the May Meetings
and on the platform of local societies all the year
round owing to the prejudice and hostility of the Jews
against them. The result is, so far as 1 am able to get
at the facts, that the claim for converts, which formerly
used to be made annually in the public reports, but
which is now for the most part suppressed in print, is
enormously exaggerated; that it is a question as to
whether the Jews claimed as converts are more than a
decimal fraction of the people whose lives are really
changed by the missionary influence brought to bear
upon them. Well may a learned and saintly Hebrew
gentleman writing to me on the subject say :
It is a question for Christians how much longer will they be
content to be swindled out of the enormous sums which are
much needed for objects that ought to be much nearer and
dearer to the heart of God-fearing men ? The conversion of
the South London roughs is. one of these objects that occurs to
me at the moment.
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 243
The Jewish population is computed to be about
10,000,000. It is contended by the supporters of
Jewish Missions that the Jewish mission field—which
is world-wide—has only a small number of labourers.
The London Society for Promoting Christianity
amongst the Jews, has an income of about -£40,000 a
year and 154 agents. "There are not in the whole
earth more than about 250 missionaries to the Jews,
yet the living converts to Christianity are about
100,000."*
To gain an insight into the results of missions to the
Jews from the point of view of the societies, an
examination of the operations of one or two amongst
the various agencies for mission work for the Jews,
with facts and figures, will be of value. The contrast
between the Jewish and the Christian point of view
will thus be defined.
Leaving aside schools, homes, hospitals, &c., for the
help of Jews, there are four chief societies in England
for preaching the Gospel to the Chosen People. These
are, first, the British Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel among the Jews, founded in 1842. Twenty-
four missionaries and many unpaid assistants are
employed in visiting and instructing Jews and in
distributing among them the sacred Scriptures and
tracts. Second, the London Society for Promoting
Christianity amongst the Jews (1809) maintains 21
ordained missionaries, 25 unordained missionary agents,
86 colporteurs, scripture-readers, &c. (77 of whom are
Christian Israelites), distributed among 41 stations in
* "Reasoning with the Jews," by Rev. Prebendary J. W. Reynolds.
P. 22.
244 THE MODERN JEW
Europe, Asia, and Africa. Income for year ending
March 1895 was ^35,492 ; expenditure ^38,561.
Third, the Mildmay Mission to the Jews (1876)
embraces a variety of charitable agencies for the
benefit of Jews. Fourth, the Parochial and Foreign
Missions to the Jews' Fund (1876) promotes mission
work among the Jews by providing in those parts
where Jews more especially find their habitation,
incumbents and additional curates specially trained
for the work.
The London Society for Promoting Christianity
amongst the Jews is the alma mater of other societies.
It was founded in 1809, and, as its name implies, for
the Jews of London. But it soon extended its scope
of work, and now has missions in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and wherever the people of Israel are to be found. Of
late years stations have been established at Leeds,
Dublin, Hebron, Cork, Toronto, and in many Roman
and Greek Catholic and Mohammedan lands. The
following figures show the growth of the income of the
society during a period of eighty years :
£ s■ d-
1895 39.393 6 9
1S55 28,780 13 3
1815 ....... 8,791 17 8
Nearly 250,000 copies of the New Testament, more
than 600,000 copies of the Old Testament, and nearly
5,000,000 missionary publications have been placed in
the hands of Jews.
This organisation believes in the " Forward Move¬
ment," and lately has modified its home missions in
order to break up new ground and to develop its work
in the East.
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 245
According to the Rev. J. M. Eppstein :
There are over 250 converted Jews, or sons of such, ordained
clergymen in the Church of England, and more than double
that number in the Nonconformist bodies at home, in the
Continental Churches, and in America.
It is asserted, and, I believe with truth, that as each Lord's
Day comes round, the Gospel is proclaimed in more than
600 pulpits of Europe by Jewish lips. Over 350 of the recog¬
nised ministers of Christ in Great Britain are stated to be
Hebrew Christians. Can such a record be shown in the
returns of missions to the heathen ? Doubtless there are in
heathen lands, native heathen, many of them, ordained to the
ministry of the Gospel. But where, in Western Europe, is the
Church of Christ reaping from its labour in heathen lands the
rich reward resulting from her poor, despised, much-derided
mission to the Jew.*
In reply to the assertion that few English Jews
embrace Christianity, one prominent Christian mission¬
ary writes as follows :
I have instructed and baptized twenty English Jewish
families, composed of ninety-three souls, and twenty-nine other
members of the English community. How many more may
have been baptized from the commencement of the Society's
labours, in London and the country, cannot easily be ascer¬
tained. The number, however, must be considerable. Many
of the clergymen of Jewish origin are English-born Jews, and
have received an English University education.
Baptized Jews [writes another missionary] are so numerous
in Vienna that they are found in all ranks of society, from the
Minister of State, the merchant prince, the ennobled banker
* " The Church and the Jew," by Rev. R. W. Harden. 1896. P. 3,
246 THE MODERN JEW
and influential senator, down to the commercial clerk, shopman
and pedlar.
The following table shows in the first column the
number of Jews in the nine original provinces of
Prussia who have joined the State Church, and in the
second colu
embraced Ju
In 1S75
1876
1877
1S7S
1879
1880
1881
1882
1SS3
1885
1S8G
1111 the number of Christians who have
laism in recent years :
Total
54
50
57
74
76
120
122
136
157
134
iG3
170
240
34S
1901
19
10
7
5
7
16
5
16
i35
Thus over 1900 Jews became Christians from
1875-1888, while 135 adherents of the Protestant
State Church went over to Judaism. It is gratifying
to propagandists to find the number of conversions
increasing sixfold in fourteen years, while the opposite
shows a steady decrease. But the Jews do not seek or
welcome converts. One of the complaints, however,
of the German anti-Semites is that "the fruits of
Christian labour are harvested by the Jews ; capital is
concentrated in Jewish hands." The New York Tribune
of February 1880, in an article entitled "The Anti-
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 247
Jewish Movement in Germany," said, "The rapid rise
of the Jewish nation to leadership is the great problem
of the future for East Germany."
Can the Church produce from among her heathen converts
any whose work, in extent, magnitude, and permanence, will
match with that of only a few of her distinguished Jewish
proselytes ? Whom will you set in Bible work against the Jew
Schereschowsky, the translator of the Chinese Bible ? Who
for missionary labours to be compared to such Hebrews as
Wolff or Stern ? Or, for the wealth of the study, with Hebrew
proselytes like Neander, 01 Christlieb, or Cassel, or Edersheim,
or Saphir ? *
The comparison of Jews with heathen is in accord¬
ance with the Collect for Good Friday in the Anglican
Liturgy, but not with the canons of good breeding,
seeing how much Jewish hospitality is dispensed to
Christians.
The " Jewish Year-book " (1897) gives a list of Jewish
celebrities of the nineteenth century, which is, how¬
ever, not exhaustive. It is of Christian interest as the
names of "Converted Jews" are included; amongst
them we find the well-known names of Sir Julius Bene¬
dict, Sarah Bernhardt, Sir M. Costa, Da Costa, Isaac
and Benjamin Disraeli, the Halevys, the Heines, the
Herschells, the Mendelsohns, Moses Margoliouth,
Dr. Neander, Sir F. C. Palgrave, A. G. Rubenstein,
Sir Moses Salvador, Vambery ; besides the missionaries
Dr. Biesenthal, Dr. Paulus Cassel, Dr. Joseph Wolff.
In addition to these are the names of Jules Simon,
Senor Castelar, Pere Hyacinthe, Dr. Capadose, Prof.
* " The Church and the Jew," by Rev. R. W. Harden. Paper i. P. 3.
248 THE MODERN JEW
Christlieb, Dr. Howard Crosby (of New York), Dr.
Edersheim, Samuda and Mocatta, and Bishops Alex¬
ander and Schereschowsky, Dr. Saphir, Dr. Stern,
Rabbi Sehwartzenburg, Professors Benfey, Heydemann
and Stahl.
It is not very long ago that the Jewish press em¬
phatically and persistently denied even the possibility
of Jewish conversions. But it is different now. Herr
Emil Lehman, one of the foremost representatives of
advanced Judaism in Germany, mourning over the
numerous defections from the ranks of the Synagogue,
says : " It cannot be denied that Jewish baptisms are
of very frequent occurrence in these days among our co¬
religionists, who are pre-eminent for mental culture,
affluence, and propriety of conduct."
On the whole, therefore, the societies may be held
to promote a knowledge of Christianity among the
Jews, and it is a fact, while—thanks to the activities of
anti-Semites—many Christians are better acquainted
with certain extracts from the Talmud than they
are with the Gospels, the majority of Jews are more
familiar with the doctrines and sayings of the New
Testament than they are with the Talmud and the
Pentateuch.
Conversions of Jews took place in the early ages.
St. Jerome says that the Church of the Jewish Christians
" continued and was numerous in his own time." St.
Jerome died about 420. He says particularly, that
they rejected the traditions of the Rabbis, and believed
in the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See St. Jer.
Epist. 80 ad August.) We read of the conversion of
the Jews in Candia in the fifth century (Basnage,
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 249
Book VI. XV. 4) ; in the sixth, of the Jewish inhabi¬
tants of Borium, in Africa (Basnage, VI. XXI. 4); in
the seventh, of the Jews in Cyprus and other places ;
in the ninth century, of some in France ; in the
eleventh, in Germany; in the twelfth, in Germany,
Spain, Normandy, and England. In the reign of
Henry III. the names of 500 Jewish "converts" are
recorded. Two of the most learned men of the
fourteenth century were converted Jews : Paul of
Burgos and Nicholas de Lyra, the latter really being
the great precursor of the Reformation, for from him
both Wycliffe and Luther learned the true mode of
interpreting the Bible. In Queen Anne's reign also
an Act of Parliament was passed for the purpose of
enabling young Hebrew Christians to claim a main¬
tenance from their parents, and the mere passing of
such an Act proves that conversions from Judaism to
Christianity were far from rare in those days.
The contrast between the spirit of Christianity and
the spirit of Judaism in respect of missionary effort
may be illustrated by two quotations :
New Testament.—" Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark xvi. 15, 16).
Talmud.—" The Gentile who occupies himself with
the Law is guilty of death. For it is said (Deut. xxxiii.
4), 'that Moses commanded us a law even the inherit¬
ance.' For us an inheritance, and not for them"
(Talm. Bab. Sanhedrin, 59a). Cf. I. Thessalonians ii. 16,
" Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might
be saved." But the charity of the Jews, especially
among their own people, is well known, and it is not
250 THE MODERN JEW
surprising to find a long list of benevolent institutions
which are supported by them. The total expenditure
of those in the metropolis alone amounted last year to
no less than -£86,688, which, if the number of Jews in
London be reckoned as 70,000, shows an average con¬
tribution of about 25s. per head by every member of
the community, rich or poor. In a list of Jewish
celebrities who have lived in various lands during the
present century, and who have occupied a foremost
place among their fellow-men, it is not a little remark¬
able that no fewer than 58, or 14 per cent, of the whole
number, are marked as having been " converted," that
is had embraced the Christian faith. It is often objected
that mission work among Jews deals only with the
lowest and least religious and intelligent class, and that
converts are bought and do not become such from
conviction. Still the fact remains that a surprisingly
large proportion of the noblest intellects of the Jewish
race have found satisfaction for their spiritual longings
in the Christian faith.
On the other hand a missionary of the London
Society writes about his work in East London :
As a rule, the less educated Jews of to-day, as in the early
days of Christianity, hear the truth more gladly than the better
classes. Dealing with the latter is very hard. ... I meet
with much kindness in the homes of the more well-to-do Jews,
but also with a deep-seated self-righteousness.
And another writes from Jerusalem :
Another class, too, have come—American English-speaking
Jews—but the few to whom I have spoken seem almost
infidels. One day I offered a book to a working man, and
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 251
never, since I have worked among the Jews, have I heard such
blasphemous language as he used, after tearing up the book,
the Epistle to the Hebrews, in my face. Among both
these, the well-to-do and the American Jews, it is difficult to
find an entrance ; but 011 the other hand I have had a warm
welcome from my old friends, the poor, among the German-
speaking Jews. . . . The Russian Jews especially are open to
conversation, and are less prejudiced than the Jerusalem Jews.
In reference to our own time there are doubtless
difficulties and mistakes in this important branch of
mission work. There are many and increasing small
societies and independent efforts, and from these rival¬
ries and jealousies spring. But Mr. A. Lukyn Williams,
M.A., says in his book " Missions to the Jews " :
It is doubtless some realisation of the worst side of all
religious effort that gives to objections to Jewish missions their
piquant force. Yet, quite apart from converts ... we cannot
affect to pretend that missions have been a failure. ... By their
very existence they have quickened the Church and have
brought to the Jew fresh interest in Christianity. . . . The
individual Jew . . . has learned much more of the spiritual
nature ... of Christianity.
A few facts of the London Society's work at the
different centres will be helpful as showing the results
attained.
In the home field there are nine stations. In
London the parishes of Spitalfields and Whitechapel
form the Jewish quarter. The Jews are chiefly Polish.
Their numbers (at present about 80,000) are continually
increased by fresh arrivals from Eastern Europe.
" The evils we have to face are ignorance and indiffer-
252 THE MODERN JEW
ence, entrenched behind superstition, and with a back¬
ground of ineradicable hatred against Christianity." *
During the years 1809-1895 there were 1842 Jewish
baptisms. In Liverpool important work is carried on
amongst the Jews at the Emigrants' Lodgings. At
Bristol, Birmingham, and Hull the Jewish populations
are visited and addresses given. The society has
stations at Dublin and Cork.
In the European field there are thirteen stations and
forty-four missionary agents. In Austria the Gospel
has reached a good many Jews, though a missionary is
greatly needed for Vienna. In France the work
is carried on in a mission hall, and visits are made to
Rouen, Havre, and other towns for work amongst
resident and emigrant Jews.
The stations in Germany are now but few. In 1850
Frederick William IV. removed all the civil disabilities
of the Jews ; but the spread of anti-Semitism in recent
years shows that the spirit of Jew hatred is not yet a
thing of the past. The Rev. Dr. Cassel baptized 133
Jews and Jewesses during the last five years of his
ministry (1886-1890). The number of Jews in Berlin
is very large, and many of them occupy influential
positions as merchants, financiers, professional men,
and politicians. The mission work among them is of
peculiar difficulty. The Rev. Professor Cassel, the
society's missionary, finds the majority of his Jewish
brethren ignorant of their own religion, careless and
unbelieving. The condition of the Jews in Germany,
and the feeling in regard to them, is still unsatisfactory.
In a letter addressed last year to the visitors sent by
* Annual Report. 1896. P. 18.
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 253
the Committee to Berlin, Dr. Cassel refers to the great
changes which have occurred in Germany during the
last fifty years. Society and culture, he remarked, have
assumed quite a different aspect. The Jews have
changed. They are no longer in the Ghetto ; their
Oriental dress has been laid aside. The Talmud is 110
longer their only study. They are everywhere and
take part in everything. They are not merely rich, but
they are educated. The Talmud has, in many instances,
become to them an unknown book; but they take an
interest in the culture of the nineteenth century. He
thinks that the anti-Semitic movement in Germany
has inflicted a wound upon the foreign missions of
the Evangelical Church of that country, as well as upon
its missions to the Jews, because the interests of the
one are so closely connected with those of the
other.
Anti-Semitism [he says] resembles the spirit of Haman. It
exhibits hate, whilst the missionary spirit manifests love. . . .
I have baptized sixty Jews. Only one has fallen away,
although some others have caused me much anxiety. Among
them are doctors, authors, merchants, nearly all educated
men. . . . But the success of mission work cannot be measured
by statistics, although statistics have some meaning. . . .
Taken as a nation the Jews resist Christianity.
The Jews are a peculiar people; but in nothing is their
peculiarity more strikingly exhibited than in the successful
resistance which, as a nation, they have hitherto offered to the
aggressive influence of Christianity and their absorption by the
Church. No attentive student of history can fail to be arrested
by the strange phenomenon presented by that people in the
254
THE MODERN JEW
face of the triumphant and all subduing progress of the Gospel.
I say, as a nation, advisedly ; for there has scarcely ever been a
time when Judaism and the Jews have not been more or less
affected by Christianity and Christian history. . . . But the fact
remains, that the Jews, though forming originally the exclusive
field of labour occupied by our Lord Himself and His
Apostles, and though residing in the midst of Christendom, are
the only nation who have not been absorbed by it. . . .*
Although the Jews in England probably do not
exceed 100,000, the deference paid to them by her
Majesty's Government is indicated by the action taken
by the Home Secretary in the Office of Works with
reference to the erection of Jewish synagogues in
prisons. In Wormwood Scrubs and in two other
prisons synagogues have been recently erected on the
specific ground that the number of Jewish prisoners
was sufficient to justify the expenditure. The Home
Secretary found himself unable to reply to a question
put by Mr. Pickersgill, member of Parliament for
Bethnal Green, as to whether the number of Jews in
the population had largely increased in recent years.
The numbers of the Protestant and Roman Catholic
prisoners, respectively, are well known, and the mystery
that surrounds the Jewish prisoners is merely one
more tribute to the growing influence of this body in
our midst.
Funds which are collected all over England from
good but silly people who are really deluded into the
idea that they are promoting the salvation of souls are
really wasted. I know of nothing in our generation
* " The Influence of Christianity and Christian History upon
Judaism and the Jews," Rev. M. Wolkenberg, Society's House, 1875.
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 255
which is such a deplorable waste of money and energy
and such a huge delusion. Many persons concerned
pursue the work from the purest intentions. There is
something quite pathetic in reading the various litera¬
ture on the subject. It is appalling to observe the
utter lack of knowledge of present day Jews and of the
Jewish faith which is displayed by those who fancy
they can make them Christians. There is an impres¬
sion that Hebrew is their vernacular and that they
could not read the New Testament in English, so they
go to the expense of translating the New Testament
into Hebrew. It would be grotesque, if it were not
melancholy, to see vast sums of money, urgently
needed for the general poor and hospitals, squandered
on the manufacture of hypocrisy. The money is
obviously spent in elaborate organisation in various
forms among the least worthy sections of the com¬
munity. Every sensible Christian ridicules in his
heart this preposterous and impudent interference with
the Jewish religion, and it is surprising that no one
of them has yet denounced it publicly.
While English Christians spend .£130,000 on the
conversion of the Jews, they do not spend one penny
on the conversion of Unitarians, whose theological
views are substantially the same.
Note A.—HERMANN WARSZAWIAK.
The most notorious recent case of swindling on a large scale
by a Hebrew Christian missionary is that exposed a few months
ago. The scamp, named Warszawiak, succeeded in obtaining
nearly ^6000 from one lady in 1894. As is usual in these
256 THE MODERN JEW
cases his cause was championed by ardent but careless contro¬
versialists long after the proof of his scoundrelism was apparent
to laymen. Mr. Varley, the well-known evangelist, sturdily
championed the false missionary's cause in America. When
he became convinced that he was the victim of a flagrant
deception he admitted his error in the following manly and
straightforward letter to Dr. Schauffler, who was one of the
first to expose the rascal:
" I was influenced by the wily glosses with which I now see
Warszawiak invested his statements, especially those that had
reference to yourself. I never heard of any one who can more
cleverly distort and misrepresent statements and persons.
Seeing that the Presbytery will deal with his appeal, I need not
further allude to that phase of this painful case.
" I cannot, however, remain silent after the intelligence just
received from England. The case of the lady from whom
H. Warszawiak succeeded in obtaining nearly $30,000 (^6000)
in 1894, and which is likely to be the subject of judicial in¬
vestigation, leaves no room to doubt that Warszawiak cannot
be regarded as worthy of confidence. Believing the statements
made to me in October last by H. W., that both he and his
wife had been unjustly treated, and that the Jewish mission
work in his hands had been grossly misrepresented, I wrote
strongly in his defence. It was not for his character only, but
much more for the work in his care among the Jews in New
York that I did so.
" I have now to confess that I was deceived, and led to
write that which reflected unjustly upon yourself, Mr. Jesup,
and Mr. Anthony Comstock. I, therefore, withdraw that
which was written, and express my deep regret, my sincere
apologies, that I was induced to defend one whose conduct I
now see has merited severe censure. Interested in our Jewish
brethren in New York, I fear this unhappy case will set back
the work there seriously. It is some cause for thankfulness
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 257
that the Lord has overruled my mistake, and that the conclu¬
sive facts which have come to light will aid in showing that
Hermann Warszawiak is unworthy the confidence of Christians
interested in Jewish missions in New York and elsewhere."
3n addition to other defalcations the sum of ^4200 was sent
to Warszawiak in two drafts of ^"2100 each. The drafts still
exist bearing Warszawialc's signature, also his receipt for the
money, proving that the cash passed into his hands. It never
seems to have passed out of them. As a gambler he obtained
some notoriety.
Under these circumstances the Christian of February 3,
1898, very prudently cautioned friends against supplying this
interesting propagandist with any further funds. Generous
Christians had, however, unfortunately responded largely to
his plausible importunities.
Note B.—REV. J. E. SALKINSON.
The Rev. J. E. Salkinson, who was engaged in missionary
work for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
among the Jews, was commissioned to make a Hebrew version
of the " Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation," which he did,
and it was published in 1858. At the request of Dr. Ginsburg
he translated Milton's " Paradise Lost" into Hebrew, as well
as various other pieces which were widely circulated by almost
all the Jewish missionary societies. But he was accused of
falsifying some parts of his Hebrew translation of Milton's
" Paradise Lost," of being unfit to translate the New Testament
into Hebrew, and of making false reports to the committee
about his missionary work. These grave accusations were
brought against him by an individual called Dr. Joseffy, who
was engaged as a Jewish missionary in connection with the
English Presbyterian Church. This Jew was really an impostor,
but said he was Rabbi of Vienna, and had given up everything
R
258 THE MODERN JEW
for Christ's sake on his conversion. A remarkable account of
Dr. Joseffy's life and conversion was given in The Messenger
and Missionary Record of the Presbyterian Church of England,
November 1, 1878. He was highly spoken of in this
report, and the Rabbi, Dr. Joseffy, was stated now to be a
Christian missionary, preaching the faith he formerly denied.
He was said to have suffered many things on his conversion.
After his baptism in Stuttgart he preached to his brethren for
the society. In the Weekly Review, April 26, 1879, notice is
given that the committee had resolved that Dr. Joseffy was
qualified by Christian character and ability to carry the Gospel of
Christ to God's ancient people. On January 19, 1879, the Rev.
J. Salkinson received, to his surprise, a letter from Dr. C. D.
Ginsburg, from which he learned of the accusations against
him about the translations, which emanated, as Dr. Ginsburg
told him, from that Dr. Joseffy who was engaged by the
English Presbyterian Society, and as Joseffy had represented
himself as being Rabbi of Vienna, and having made enormous
sacrifices both of wealth and office for Christ's sake, his state¬
ments were believed. Dr. Ginsburg went to see Joseffy, and
though they argued together, the latter could not be shaken.
However, in April Mr. Salkinson made inquiries, and when
Dr. Ginsburg came to Vienna communicated to him the things
he had heard of Dr. Joseffy. When these inquiries were
made, the people who were thoroughly acquainted with his
antecedents and manner of life, were honourable members
of the Jewish community, and did not know that he had
embraced Christianity. They, one and all, described him as
a vagabond and an abandoned character, always changing the
aspect of his faith according to circumstances.
In May, Mr. Palotta, a Christian Israelite, had seen in the
Weekly Reviezv a marvellous account of this Dr. Joseffy, who
had been appointed missionary to the Jews in Vienna, and, in
conjunction with another minister in the city, determined to
THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS 259
write to Dr. Graham, Moderator of the English Presbyterian
Church, on the subject, as, knowing Joseffy's antecedents, he
was convinced that if such a man came as a missionary to
Vienna, where his character was known, it would damage
evangelical work in that important town. It was learnt through
Mr. Palotta that Joseffy was no doctor, he was never Rabbi of
Vienna, and instead of having been deprived of his property
by his wife for becoming a Christian, as was stated, he had
deserted her and was living with another woman.
Unwilling to admit themselves in the wrong now that the
true facts were known, some members of the committee
endeavoured to make out that Dr. Ginsburg and Mr. Salkinson
had made the minister and Mr. Palotta write these letters
against Joseffy. Dr. Ginsburg, on his return to England,
informed the society that the accounts which Dr. Joseffy gave
of himself were false from beginning to end. Although the
proofs were incontrovertible, as Dr. Ginsburg said on writing
to Salkinson, "The two Scotch members of the committee, as
well as the secretary, have Joseffy on the brain, and are pre¬
pared to sacrifice any one who utters a word against him."
On May 20, 1879, Dr. Ginsburg received notice from the
Committee of the Jewish Mission of the Presbyterian Church
of England that he should give an unconditional withdrawal
of his charges against Joseffy. Meanwhile, inquiries had been
instituted, and on June 27, 1879, Dr. Ivaufmann, Professor
of the Rabbinic College at Pesth, wrote that he had searched
in every nook and every recess for an advocate for Joseffy,
" but found none to speak a word in favour of that man."
From reliable sources it was found that Joseffy practised
bigamy, and no place could bear him long. Also Dr. Braun,
of Vienna, wrote on July 13, 1879, that at Neusatz, in Hungary,
Joseffy had been imprisoned for an offence. His wife was
separated from him (1860-64) because he was leading an
abandoned life, and the letter ends with " I only regret that it
260 THE MODERN JEW
is impossible for me to point out one shining feature in the
life of Mr. Joseffy."
On July 16 it was agreed that no reference should henceforth
be made to Dr. Joseffy's past life, and the charges were with¬
drawn. But more trouble arose, as the statements were only
withdrawn, not recanted, as was given out in the Jewish Herald,
August i, 1879, p. 96. The document containing the withdrawal
of the charges was simply laid before the committee, and no
comment was made on it, which was nothing more nor less
than misrepresenting the whole case, for no reference was
made to Dr. Joseffy's abject confession of his wrong and false
accusations against Mr. Salkinson, his apology to Dr. Ginsburg,
and this silence about everything that would go against Joseffy
can only be characterised as despicable conduct.
On October 3, 1879, letters from such sources as Dr. Luzzatto,
of Padua, Dr. Frankl, Secretary of the Jewish Council of Public
Worship, Dr. Goldschmid, Rabbi of Leipzig, Rev. R. Koenig,
Minister of the Presbyterian Free Church and Missionary to
the Jews at Pesth, prove beyond a doubt that Joseffy was a
scoundrel of the deepest dye. He never was Rabbi of Vienna,
he never possessed wealth, fame, or power, never left behind
him any good reputation anywhere, was divorced from his wife
in 1864, married a second time in 1865, was again divorced in
1867, and married a third wife. The proofs are all in the
register at Pesth.
Thus the exposure of the imposture of a brother Jew, who
was defended in the face of all proof by the society, caused
the resignation of Mr. Salkinson, as the society preferred to
believe the word of Joseffy, and refused to admit themselves in
the wrong.
XIV
JEWISH HUMOUR
JEWISH HUMOUR
Carlyle's aversion to the Jews was Teutonic in its
intensity, and his opinion, therefore, on any subject
connected with the Chosen People was marked by a
bias fatal to sound judgment. He declared that the
Jews had no humour, and showed no trace of it at any
period of their history. This, says Mr. Froude, was
" a fatal defect in Carlyle's eyes, who regarded no man
or people as good for anything who were without a
genial sympathy with the under side." Renan says
very much the same thing in his great work on the
" History of the Semitic Languages." At a lecture de¬
livered at the London Institution, January 5, 1893,
Dr. Adler, the Chief Rabbi, set himself to deny the
assertion that the Jew has little perception of the
ludicrous, and quotes Isaiah's description of the manu¬
facture of an idol as an example of " genuine humour."
Dr. Adler's able and scholarly article is in itself a
demonstration of the lack of humour in one of the
foremost and most respected of modern Jews. Heine
and Zangwill have done something to redeem the race
from the charge brought against them, but the former
was a convert to Christianity, while the latter, gifted
with a faculty of subtle and somewhat sardonic humour,
264 THE MODERN JEW
never bubbles over with fun. Mr. Zangwill's humour
increases the impression of the strenuousness and
intense purpose of the race. The claim of the modern
Jew to a sense of humour rests almost entirely on
Heine's reputation, but his line of activity was that of a
soldier in the war of liberation of humanity, and his
wit was mordant rather than genial. Merciless in
attack, Heine's genius is marked by sarcasm rather
than by humour, while the last eight years of his life
were passed on a couch where he lay helpless, the use
of his limbs gone, and suffering at short intervals
paroxysms of nervous agony, it is scarcely surprising
that his laughter was hardly ever without the note of
tragedy. Matthew Arnold accords to Heine that which
Carlyle and Renan deny to the race, but even the
prodigality of Heine's wit is rarely expressed in any
but the minor key.
Dr. Adler concluded his lecture with the three
following anecdotes :
A dialogue overheard at the Stock Exchange 011 a frosty
winter's morning :
"Mr. Moses, what would you advise me to buy to-day?"
" Thermometers, of course, they are very low at present, and
are sure to rise."
A Mr. Goldsmith became a convert to Christianity. He
thought it advisable to adopt a name with a more Gentile
ring, and dubbed himself Mr. Smith.
" What a fool ! " exclaimed a member of the congregation
on hearing of the change; " this is the first Jew who has
thrown away his gold."
At a festive banquet, representatives of the Protestant?
Catholic, and Jewish clergy had been invited, and were en-
JEWISH HUMOUR 265
gaged in pleasant converse. The Rabbi, faithful to the dietary
precepts of his religion, partook of only a few of the dishes.
An appetising joint of roast pork was set on the table. The
Catholic priest turned to his neighbour, and asked, " When
will the time come that I may have the privilege of serving you
with a slice of this delicious meat ?" " When I have the
gratification of assisting at your reverence's wedding," the
Rabbi rejoined, with a courteous bow. . . .
In the belief that the alleged deficiency of humour in
the Jewish character was a charge repeated from mouth
to mouth without due investigation, I have gone to
some expense and trouble to ascertain the facts so far
as the contents of the British Museum enabled me to
do so. The following anecdotes from Jewish sources
are all that I received in return for an expenditure of
^30 on an investigation of thousands of Jewish news¬
papers and books and a heavy correspondence with
everybody likely to help me in my search. It will be
observed that nearly all the anecdotes in this chapter
relate to money, a subject upon which the modern Jew
still jokes with difficulty. I think it will be admitted
on the facts that whatever may be thought of Isaiah
and the ancients, the modern Jew is not a humourist.
Jewish Society, 1890.
J ews have of late years entertained royalty somewhat largely.
I fancy the first Jew to entertain a member of the English royal
family was the famous Abraham Goldsmid. He had a house
at Morden, and it is related that one day King George III.,
during a drive with Queen Charlotte, alighted from his carriage
for a stroll, and stopped to admire some fine trees enclosed
within a gentleman's park. In answer to an inquiry his
266 THE MODERN JEW
Majesty was told that the estate belonged to Abraham Goldsmid
the Jew.
"What, what! My Abraham?" exclaimed the King; "I
must see to it. Go and tell Mr. Goldsmid to get some luncheon
ready for us, and we shall go to him at once."
King George's commands were obeyed, and the vast re¬
sources of the household of the great loan contractor were
called into requisition. A sumptuous repast was laid before
their Majesties, who sat down, while Goldsmid and his family
remained standing, like dutiful subjects.
" Come, Goldsmid," said the King, observing this, " if you
don't sit down to luncheon I shall stand up too."
The King was not a Lucullus, but he loved good cheer, and
he seldom enjoyed a repast more than the one in which, side
by side with the financier, he tasted the delicacies of the
season.
Jewish Record, August 17, 1871.
Here is an anecdote going the round of the German papers.
Prince Bismarck, after a long conversation with the able and
learned Jewish lawyer, Lasker, about different important
subjects of the day, remarks :
" We must yet become close colleagues."
" Will your Excellency become a lawyer?" was the immediate
rejoinder of Lasker. He meant to say that, as a Jew, he is
excluded from every higher State office.
An American paper furnished a contrast to the
foregoing, in the form of an anecdote related by King
Louis Philippe to an old friend :
I intended to appoint, as peers, all the celebrities of different
professions and creeds, and among them also a Jew. I thought
of General Wolff, who distinguished himself in the war and
was very popular in the army. I proposed him to the Ministers,
JEWISH HUMOUR 267
but was informed that General Wolff, at the time he used to
play whist with the Duchess of Berry, turned I-Kian.
Eh, bien ! I could not appoint General Wolff a peer, as he
was no Jew.
Jewish Society, 18go.
Jakey : " Father, if I take a half-crown out of somebody's
pocket; that's stealing it, ain't it?"
Mr. Isaacs : " Certainly."
Jakey: " And if I bet a half-crown and win his half-crown,
that's gambling ? "
Isaacs : " Of course."
Jakey : " And if I've got something worth only a half-crown
and sell it to him for five shillings, what is that ? "
Isaacs : " That ? Oh, my boy, that's business, Jakey, simply
business."
CHARLES LAMB AND THE JEWS.
Jewish Record, August 18, 1871.
Charles Lamb described the Jew as a person who was once
contemplated with much horror, but who in his day had nothing
in him lovely.
We have tamed the claws of the beast, and pared its nails,
and now we take it to our arms, fondle it, write plays to flatter
it; it is visited by princes, affects a taste, patronises the
arts, and is the only liberal and gentlemanlike thing in
Christendom.
Jewish Society, 1890.
A good story has been going the rounds about Baron Roth¬
schild of Paris, who, as is well known, possessed almost fabulous
wealth. Having occasion to enter an omnibus, in a fit of
abstraction he was about going away without paying. The
driver stopped him and demanded his fare. Rothschild felt in
268 THE MODERN JEW
his pocket, but he had not a copper in change. The driver
was very wroth.
"Well, what did you get in for if you could not pay? You
must have known that you had no money."
" I am Baron Rothschild," exclaimed the great capitalist,
" and here is my card."
The driver threw the card into the gutter.
"Never heard of you before," said the driver, "and I do not
want to see you again. But I want my fare, and I must
have it."
The great banker was in haste.
"I have only an order," he said ; "give me change." And
he proffered a coupon for ten thousand francs.
The conductor stared, and the passengers set up a hoarse
laugh. Just then a friend passed by, and the Baron borrowed
of him the necessary six sous, thus releasing himself from a
most unpleasant predicament.
Jewish Standard, January 9, 1891.
A curious request was made to me the other day through
the medium of a third party. A certain aged but ardent lover
wished to be married. Unfortunately, as is often the case, he was
too poor to marry. He could just defray the synagogue fees
at one of the higher synagogues, but he had not enough money
in the world to purchase a high hat. Would I lend him mine?
Those learned in the subject informed me that a marriage
without a high hat would not be a legal one. I had known
that the Almighty did not listen to the Sabbath prayers of any
worshipper who did not wear a high hat, but this was a new
point. I had a vague sort of suspicion that somewhere in the
remote past I had purchased or stolen a sober funnel of the
necessary order, and my heart (despite the teachings of political
economy) was moved to pity by the thought of the sorrows
JEWISH HUMOUR 269
of lovers kept apart by a high hat. After much ransack¬
ing of my memory and my wardrobe, I discovered a queer
sort of rustic cylinder. Determined that the path of true
love should run smooth, I brushed it till it became more
respectable than I shall ever be myself, and sent it to the
expectant bridegroom, together with a copy of the famous
volume, " How to be Happy, Though Married."
And now I have a letter from him, full of gushing gratitude
and incorrect spelling, telling how blissfully he is honeymooning
in the South of London. It is perhaps the first time that
Cupid, like a conjurer, has borrowed a high hat. And it is
very certain that my pauper Benedick is the only man who will
ever be married in my high hat.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Anatole Le Roy Beaulieu states his opinion to be
that the Jews will amalgamate with any nation which
gives them a chance. The statement is surprising.
No confirmation is given by history to the assertion,
unless the absorption of the Lost Tribes be cited as a
case where the aloofness of Israel has been overcome.
On the contrary, the whole tendency of history is to
prove that either the Jews are held down by a series of
special regulations, as in England formerly, and in
Russia to-day, or that they became predominant to an
alarming extent, partly by their abilities and partly by
the indifference of many of them to the ethical laws
which govern the relations between man and man ;
laws which, in fact, in the shape of the Ten Command¬
ments, form the unseen foundations of society. Since
the numbers of the Jews are largely on the increase,
and their wealth and power have enormously developed,
the prospects for the future are not encouraging either
for them or for Christendom. The comparatively small
minority of Jews who are honestly absorbed in the
various nationalities of their adoption are too few to
do more than delay a crisis seemingly inevitable and
now within the arena of practical politics. In the
s
274 THE MODERN JEW
twenty years that succeeded the expulsion of the Jews
from England in 1292, every country, with the exception
of Poland, followed British example. After the lapse
of 600 years a new unrest is perceptible throughout
the civilised world on the subject of the Jewish
Question, while the problem in Russia is no longer
soluble by mere administrative restrictions. The
conclusion, therefore, seems obvious that either the
situation must be dealt with—i.e., by Europe as a
whole—or an alarming outbreak against the race, the
members of which are always in exile and strangers in
the land of their adoption, will result, and the clock of
civilisation will thus be thrown back for a hundred
years. The Jewish Question, however difficult, is not
insoluble. During the last century the Hebrew com¬
munities throughout Europe have had every oppor¬
tunity for exhibiting their capacity for complete and
honest absorption. They have neglected to use this
opportunity with the exception of a few of the richer
families, exempted from the necessity for toil, to whom
it is unnecessary again to refer, and who, needless to
say, are not touched by what I am about to state.
Since the Hebrew race, after a century of trial,
under fairly good conditions, at all events for sixty or
seventy years of the time, have persistently refused to
unite with other nationalities, no other alternative is
possible than to discover some territory which should
be Oriental, at no great distance from Europe, and
associated, if possible, directly or indirectly with
Palestine. Such a territory exists in Armenia between
the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is the
cradle of the race. The depopulation of Armenia by
CONCLUSION 275
Turkish massacres has made a considerable portion of
the country available for resettlement. The over¬
crowding of the Russian Pale renders action by the
Tsar inevitable at no very distant date. That action
can only take one of two forms—massacre, or the
provision of more territory for settlement. From
careful inquiries I have made in Russia among all
classes of society, it is unlikely that the Tsar's Ministers
will permit the Jews to occupy a larger portion of the
Russian Empire than that in which they already drag
on the saddest existence. If, therefore, Russia transfers
or migrates a portion of her Jewish political and
financial population, necessities require that the site
shall be in some land near by, controlled by the Tsar,
inhabited by non-Slavs, and separated if possible from
Russia proper by natural barriers. There is no territory
that so completely answers these requirements as
Turkish Armenia. The Armenians themselves are of
Semitic origin. No injury will be inflicted upon them
by contact with the Russian Jews. The nearness of
Armenia avoids most of the insuperable obstacles
presented by systematic immigration to the Argentine
Republic, to South Africa, or elsewhere across the
ocean. A mountain range divides Russia from
Armenia. Russian Armenia, formerly Persian, forms
the north-east part of old Armenia Major, and
includes the governments of Erivan, Elizabetpol, and
Kars, as also parts of the government of Tiflis. Persia
holds the south-east corner of Armenia Major in the
province of Azerbigan. The racial qualities of the
Armenians are singularly akin to those of the Jew. In
their essential national cohesion and persistency of
276 THE MODERN JEW
national type they resemble the Israelite. Like the
Jew the Armenians are dispersed all over the world,
and their quick adaptive intelligence and arrested
ethical development specially qualify them for success
in trade. As money changers, merchants, and bankers,
the Armenians hold their own with the Jews. Their
number in Armenia itself in 1888 was estimated at
1,000,000 at the utmost, and recent raids of nomadic
Kurds, massacres of official Turks, and consequent
emigration have probably reduced that number by
250,000. The break up of the Turkish Empire will
give Russia a free hand in Turkish Armenia, and the
significant concentration of Russian troops on the
frontier suggests the possibility of effective occupation
whenever a suitable opportunity arises.
That the idea of transferring to Armenia a portion of
the Russian Jews of the Pale has already occurred to
Russian Ministers I can personally testify. When I
was engaged in negotiations on behalf of Baron de
Hirsch for the relief of the Russian Jews, the late M.
De Giers, then Foreign Minister (himself believed to
be of Jewish origin), on several occasions sent for me
to the Foreign Office at a late hour of the night in
order to discuss the possibilities of the Jewish Question.
Although the matter was not officially in his Excel¬
lency's department, his extreme concern for harassed
Israel made a powerful impression on me. On one
occasion the good old man was melted to tears at the
description of some Jewish children in the hospital at
Homel, deprived of proper food and medicine bv the
exactions of the Imperial Russian police. M. de Giers
agreed with me that more territory for settlement was
CONCLUSION 277
essential if the lives of the Jewish subjects of the Tsar
were to be saved ; and while he predicted failure for
the Argentine project of Baron de Hirsch, his Excel¬
lency on more than one occasion referred in a mys¬
terious way to the possible provision of land elsewhere
for the overcrowded Jews of the Pale. I did not at
the time attach great importance to the matter, but in
subsequent conversations with two of the Imperial
Ministers references pointedly made to Armenia and
the Armenians in relation to the Jews suggested the
probability of a possible destination for the superfluous
Jewish population of Poland and the Pale being dis¬
covered in Armenia.
It is needless to point out that if anything of the
kind should be done—and the revival of the Jewish
Question in a new and intenser form is rendered
inevitable by the natural increase of the people—the
Jews planted in Armenia would find themselves in the
Hinterland of Palestine. It would not be long before
Jewish influence would make its way to the sea, and
with a Jewish population already numbering some
40,000 in the Holy Land, the fulfilment of prophecy
would come about by the operation of natural and
economic law.*
* The United States Consul at Beirut describes, in a report which has
lately been issued by the Department of State in Washington, the con¬
dition of the numerous Jewish colonies in Palestine. The population
of the country is about 200,000, of which 40,000 are Jews, as compared
with 14,000 twenty years ago. Jerusalem alone contains 22,000
Jews, half of whom have emigrated from Europe and America, and
are called Aschkenazim, the Oriental Jews being known as the Sephar-
dists. About 5000 Jews, in 960 families, inhabit 22 colonies in Pales¬
tine which have been founded by European associations. The "Jacob
Memorial" is the largest of these colonies. It contains 1000 persons,
278
THE MODERN JEW
The chief hope for the solution of the Jewish Ques¬
tion lies in the recognition by Europe, and especially
by Russia, that the only effective means by which the
lot of Israel can be alleviated is by the provision of
adequate territory in the near East for the sustenance
of families for whom 110 provision is possible in their
present localities. Still the Jewish Question in Europe
and America is likely to grow more intractable before a
Jewish State is founded in Armenia, or an asylum is
provided by the chief Jew-baiting Power of Christen¬
dom. Signs are not wanting that the patience of
and has 4000 acres under cultivation, the rearing of silkworms being
the chief industry. The " First to Zion" colony owns 2000 acres, and
grows a vast quantity of grapes, olives, almonds, and other fruits. It
also possesses famous wine cellars. The " Hope of Israel," in the
plains of Sharon, has a large agricultural school, and the "Head
Corner-stone," in the hills beyond Tiberias, at the foot of Hermon, is
also very prosperous; for, being near the source of the Jordan, water
is plentiful, and the situation above the Lake of Gennesareth is healthy.
The Consul thinks that, whether the Zionist movement succeeds in its
special aim or not, the agitation aids in the development of Palestine—
a country " which will generously respond to modern influences." The
Sultan is disposed to grant railway, harbour, and other concessions, and
the projected Jewish Colonial Bank may be able to play an important
part in the development of Palestine. The Zionist movement, also, is
said to be bringing out new qualities in the Jews inhabiting the
country ; they are no longer content with studying the Talmud and
living on charity, but are beginning to act on the principle that "to
till the ground is to worship God." Peace and prosperity, however,
are not yet wholly their lot. Quite lately a Jewish colony near El
Mzerib, on the caravan route from Damascus to Mecca, was destroyed
by predatory Beduins, the very road made by the colonists to connect
their settlements with others in Galilee being partially obliterated.
Taxes are more oppressive than ever; officials are corrupt, and pro¬
hibitive regulations against immigration are still in existence, though
they have proved ineffective. But, on the whole, the Consul thinks
" the prospects are brighter than ever for the Jews in Palestine and for
Palestine itself. European influence has obtained a foothold in the
country, and the tide of modern ideas cannot be long debarred."
CONCLUSION 279
Anglo-Saxons, after six decades of practical toleration
and equality before the law, is beginning to give way.
The Money-Lending Bill of Lord James of Hereford
is purely anti-Semitic in its effects. The agitation
against the Jewish house-fanners of the East End is
unlikely to disappear until the wrongs complained of
by the poorer class of tenants are redressed by the
legislature. In the United States the situation is much
the same as in Great Britain, where modern Imperialism
has been largely availed of by Jewish capitalists of no
great delicacy to promote schemes for filling their own
pockets, which are neither imperial in character nor
just to the community. From these evils it is difficult
to perceive any issue, unless it be in the growing
weight and importance of women's influence in poli¬
tical and social life. While experience and the teach¬
ings of history combine to deter the lawgiver from
giving to women in the older countries of the world
complete political equality with man, the alarming
growth of Jewish materialism and cosmopolitan indif¬
ference to family and national development seems to
call for redress from a source that is neither to be
bought nor influenced. In the growth of the woman's
movement I look for the healthiest antidote to Jewish
materialism.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
PROPHECIES
In the course of investigation for the purpose of writing this
book I quickly discovered that very large numbers of Christians
consider that the unfulfilled prophecies respecting the Jews are
about to be fulfilled. Having no acquaintance whatever with
hermeneutics, I asked my father, the late Reverend Edward
White, the author of "Life in Christ" and "Conditional
Immortality," to give me a brief conspectus of the present
state of scholarship on the subject. He said (Oct. 14,
1897):
"People who are fulfilling the ancient Jewish prophecies are
seldom aware of the fact that they are so occupied, which
makes the fulfilment all the more remarkable. The history of
the civilised world since the rise of the Babylonian Empire
(i.e., b.c. 626) has been one long series of such 'fulfilments,'
as anybody who will study Birks' ' Four Empires ' will discover.
(Birks was a Mill Hill boy, and afterwards Master, and then
Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, and wrote the best and most
learned extant books on the prophecies in English.)
" On these prophetic grounds of belief, I consider that we
now have arrived at, or near, the end of the ' Seven Times of
the Gentiles,' or 7 x 360—(2520 years) since the rise of the
Babylonian Empire in b.c. 626, during all of which time it
was foretold that the Jews should be subject to those Powers,
284
APPENDIX
and mostly 'scattered.' But they are to be 'brought back' at
the end, and settled in Palestine.
" I am not surprised, therefore, that on quite natural and
national grounds, the question of Jewish settlement has come
up now, and that the Sultan will act a friendly part to his fellow
anti-Christian Monotheists. But then things will be brought
about by people who have no faith in ' Hebrew Prophecies' (as
it was in relation to the manifestation and history of Christ
1900 years ago).
" Only those who have followed carefully what has been
called the whole ' Calendar of Prophecy' can appreciate the
astonishing conformity of Asiatic, European, and Jewish
history to those predictions during these ' Seven Times of the
Gentiles.' The fulfilled prophecies of the appearance of
Christ, when He arose in Palestine, were only one section of a
wider series, which series has now to be treated in its entirety
and in relation to European history and power—the world¬
wide overthrow of paganism and superstition and the recon¬
struction of Asia. The fortunes of the Jews are in the Bible
mixed up with those of the whole quadruple series of Gentile
predictions. So called ' Miracles' have ceased, but the
miraculous evidence of prophecy has always been steadily on
the advance.
" I don't know whether you have my book on the ' Mystery
of Growth.' If you have, you will find a note on these
subjects affixed to the end of a lecture on the ' Great Asiatic
Revolution in the days of Nebuchadnezzar,' which was written
just thirty years ago, but to which I adhere at the end of this
long interval, and at the end of so much subsequent study.
"That which gives so marvellous an interest to this Jewish
re-occupation of Palestine is, that one part of the prophecies
concerned affirms the reappearance of Christ to the restored
nation—' His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of
Olives' (Zechariah xiv. 4), as if the Jewish nation is to be
APPENDIX 285
converted to the faith (like St. Paul) by a visible reappearance
of the Messiah, so long rejected.
"Now I have given you gratis a brief conspectus of my belief
on these matters, to which I was driven from more popular
views by a connected study of the books concerned, and a
connected study of part fulfilments."
THE SEVEN TIMES OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.
" Seven times shall pass over him."—Daniel II.
" Eighteen years ago (in the year 1848), I addressed a letter to
the proposing some chronological questions bearing on
the then prevalent and much-promulgated doctrine that the
Popedom would come to an end in the present year 1866, or
thereabouts. The general revival of this expectation under
the sanction of some respectable names lends perhaps sufficient
interest to the interpretation of the chronological prophecies to
permit of the repetition of the conjectural statements offered
in my former letter. As a partial excuse for this repetition, I
may plead the request of some well-known scholars, who have
thought the conjectures worthy of notice at the present time.
" All things considered, one naturally shrinks from the ill-
repute attached to an appearance ' among the prophets '; but
when I say that the object of this communication is not to
offer any predictions, but only to direct attention to the fact
that, assuming the validity of the general principles of the
' year-day' school of interpreters, those principles are suscep¬
tible of another, and, perhaps, better application than that
which brings all things to a crisis in 1866, the utility of such
conjectures will be admitted; especially by those who reflect
that, should the next few years pass, as I apprehend that they
will, without bringing us to the ' end,' there will still be no
reason for a violent sceptical reaction against historical and
286
APPENDIX
chronological prophecy, but much reason for still 'waiting'
patiently the promised arrival of a better time.
" The general principles to which I have referred, and which,
although open to much objection on the part of learned oppo¬
nents, I shall assume for the present object to be defensible
against all comers, are these. I. The reality of definite
historical prophecy, in contradistinction to the scheme of
I)r. Arnold, Professor Godwin, and Mr. Porter. II. The
correctness of the ' year-day theory,' in virtue of which the
' seven times' that 'passed over' Nebuchadnezzar in his bestial
transformation are regarded as typical of ' the times of the
Gentiles,' and as designed to represent two periods of three
times and a half each, or twice 1260 years (2520 years), of
which the latter is identical with the 1260 days (so often
spoken of in the Book of Daniel and the Apocalypse) whose
end is synchronous with the downfall of God's enemies on
earth.
" I shall not trouble the reader with any detailed account of
the more usual application of these two general principles.
Let it suffice to say that from the days of Mede and Newton,
down to those of Fleming, Faber, Elliot, Birks, Wylie, and
Cumming, interpreters have been sorely put to it to discover
a good beginning for the longer period of 2520 years, as well
as for the second moiety of that period, the 1260 years whose
termination is to see the end of the ' apostasy.' They have
placed the beginning of the ' seven times ' at different points
in the history of the old Assyrian Empire, and the beginning
of the latter 1260 years at the era of some obscure edict of the
Emperor Phocas, in the year a.d. 606, with the result of
bringing their 'calendar ' to a conclusion in 1866 or 1867.
" My object is to show that, while retaining the fundamental
idea that the ' seven times ' of Nebuchadnezzar's bestial degra¬
dation are typical of 2520 years of the Gentile dominions,
represented in vision under the emblem of four 'wild beasts,'
APPENDIX 287
and that their termination will witness the end of the present
4 age,' there may be conjectured a better beginning, a better
middle, and a better end of this great secular period, than those
which are now believed in by the generality of prophetical
interpreters.
"The conjecture which I have to propose is this, that if
the ' seven times' of Nebuchadnezzar's degradation symbolise
the period during which the four great empires, resembling
' wild beasts,' should dominate over the world and oppress the
Church of God, then it is probable that the commencement
of those seven times is to be reckoned from the era of the rise
of the first of the four empires, the Babylonian. In the
measure in which it is probable that that era is the true start¬
ing-point of the chronological prophecies (a matter in which
each reader must judge for himself according to his general
views), in the same measure it is probable that we can deter¬
mine the bisection, the commencement of the second 1260
years, and the termination of the whole series.
" I ask then, is the year of the rise of the Babylonian
Empire known with any degree of certainty, and, above all>
is it a year in any way noted in the historical or prophetic
Scriptures themselves as an era of great and world-wide revolu¬
tion and change? For it seems to be probable that if the
'year-day' theory be divinely true, the point of departure in
the secular prophecies would be noted in the Word of God as
well as on the page of history.
"Now, the year of the destruction of Nineveh, and with it
of the old Assyrian Empire, conforms to these conditions. It
is the year B.C. 626. In that year, beyond any doubt, as may
be seen in the most recent works of Mr. Layard and of the
Rev. George Rawlinson, the Assyrian Empire fell by the
conflagration of its capital and the slaughter of its rulers.
The agent of these awful judgments of Heaven was Nabopo-
lassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and the first emperor of
288
APPENDIX
independent Babylon. From having been a satrap of the Assyrian
Empire he became its conqueror, and made Babylon the capital
of a new sovereignty.
"This great year, 626 b.c., which is known to have been
the year of the rise of the Babylonian kingdom, both from
historical and monumental evidence, is the same year in which
Jeremiah was called to the prophetic office, with a speciality
in his vocation as 'prophet of the kingdoms.' It was 'the
thirteenth year of Josiah,' as may be seen by consulting any
corrected table of the kings of Judah. ' The word of the Lord
came to him,' he says in his first chapter, ' in the thirteenth
year of the reign of Josiah, son of Anion'; and these are the
words of his great commission, ' See, I have this day set thee
over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to
pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build,
and to plant,' Jeremiah i. 10. It would seem, therefore, that
Jeremiah was appointed to his office in the very year which saw
the great revolution involved in the downfall of the Assyrian
Empire, through the rise of the Babylonian power. Those who
will read his 25th chapter will see how extended were to be the
political results of that revolution.
"The same year, b c. 626, was the fortieth year before the
destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem by the Baby¬
lonians ; thus forming apparently the first year of Ezekiel's
forty years' prophetic ' siege' of the holy city.
"The year b.c. 626 is thus marked, both in history and
Scripture, as an era of remarkable importance.
"Now, if we reckon from this year ' seven times' of years
(seven times three hundred and sixty years) or 2520 years, we
reach, not 1866, but 1894; and the point of bisection, and
consequent commencement of the second ' three times and a
half,' or 1260 years, is a.d. 634-35. This was the era of the
conquest of Jerusalem by Omar and the Saracens—a consum¬
mation marked by the exclamation of the Christian patriarch
APPENDIX 289
of Jerusalem, as Gibbon relates, 'Now the abomination stands
in the holy place !'
" I must now note one or two ' curious coincidences,' which
will, I hope; experience some toleration, at least from those
who have discovered so many others pointing to 1866 as the
year of destiny.
" 1. The carrying captive of Judah, and the commencement
of the seventy years' migration to Babylon, was in the year
b.c. 606, twenty years later than the era which I conjecture
to be the starting-point of the 'seven times.' Now, from the
year b.c. 606 to 1894 is exactly Fifty Jiibilees. There are
those who will see nothing but that which is accidental in this
coincidence; there are others who will be inclined to think
that the termination of such a jubilee of jubilees will witness
the end of the ' scattering of the power of the holy people'
and their ' return to their inheritance.'
'• 2. Daniel adds seventy-five 'days' to the end of the 1260
during which God's enemies triumph, making ' 1335 days.'
He adds, ' Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the
thirteen hundred and thirty-five days.' Is it possible that these
seventy-five years form a period of reconstruction of political
power, both Jewish and Gentile, and of revelation, answerable
to the seventy-five years that elapsed from the birth of John
the Baptist to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans?
Be this as it may, let me direct attention to the circumstance
that if we add seventy-five years to 1894, the conjectured end
of the 'seven times,' we reach a.d. 1969.
" The coincidence to which I refer is one that relates to this
year 1969, and is derived from the study of the vision of the
ram and the he-goat in the eighth chapter of Daniel. There
has been great controversy respecting the true meaning of the
' little horn ' in this chapter. I shall assume that its meaning
was germinant, and was not exhausted in the history of
Antiochus. The vision commences by representing the de-
t
290 appendix
struction of the Persian Empire by the Macedonian power, and
it is for many 'days.' Its views extend over a period described
as '2300 mornings or evenings.' I shall again, without dis¬
cussion, assume the application of the year-day theory to this
number. The year in which the ''great horn,' representing the
' first king' of the ' he-goat' empire (Alexander the Great)
' Smote the ram,' conquered Darius in the battle of Arbela,
and burnt Persepolis, was b.c. 331.
"If you reckon 2300 years from this year, b.c. 331, you
reach a.d. 1969, the same year which is obtained by a wholly
different series of calculations, founded on the seven times, and
the addition of seventy-five years to their sum, according to the
suggestion in the last chapter of Daniel. I may add that
Daniel declares that the ' cleansing of the sanctuary ' will then
occur ; and it is synchronous with the time of ' blessedness'
mentioned as following the ' 1335 days.'
" Let us end these assumptions (at which I know many able
and worthy persons will smile serene derision) by saying that,
'if' these conjectural interpretations of chronological prophecy
are correct, ' Babylon' will not fall in 1866, nor until 1894;
and that then will occur also the return of the Jews ('if' they
are to return to Palestine), and the beginning of the European
' end,' the centenary and frightful democratic completion of
the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. And up till
that period we may expect no great crisis in European affairs,
no permanent downfall of the Popedom (which has had many
falls and many resurrections), no victory of either faith or
infidelity, but only the ' growth' of all things, good and bad,
' until the harvest,' when the witnesses for truth and right will
undergo a temporary defeat from the same victorious ' Beast'
who will make ' Babylon ' desolate, to be succeeded by a final
and enduring triumph of righteousness on earth. I am not at
all certain that my ' predictions' are correct, but I submit
them to your readers as, perhaps, deserving of a little attention
APPENDIX
291
at the present time. If the year passes without unfolding
any remarkable passages in the page of history perhaps these
suggestions may acquire progressive value in the years that
follow.
"EDWARD WHITE.
"February 12, 1866."
PROPHECIES ABOUT THEIR DISPERSION AND
CONTINUED EXISTENCE.
By Moses (Neh. i., 8)
Dispersion and desolation of country
Yet not cast away ....
(Not to be reckoned among the nations)
Scattered among the nations
Into all the kingdoms of the earth
Smitten with blindness
To be oppressed and spoiled .
Objects of scorn and contempt
The siege of Jerusalem (a.d. 70)
Scattered from one end of the earth even
unto the other ....
Wandering and restless state
By the Prophets.
Cities wasted without inhabitant
Universal dispersion
A reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a
curse .....
Persecution, &c. ....
Punished but not destroyed
Dispersion ....
Without royal or religious privileges .
Wanderers among the nations .
Sifted among all nations, but preserved
Not consumed ....
Lev. xxvi. 33
„ xxvi. 44, 45
Num.xxiii. 9
Deut. iv. 27
25
28
xxvlll.
xxviii.
xxviii.
xxviii.
29
37
xxviii. 49-57
„ xxviii. 64
,, xxviii. 65
Isa. vi. 11
Jer. ix. 16 xv. 4
„ xxiv. 9
„ xxix. 18
,, xlvi. 27, 28
Ezek. v, 10 xii-15
Hos. iii. 4
ix. 17
Amos ix. 9
Mai. iii. 6
292
APPENDIX
By our Lord.
Their vineyard let out to others . . Mat. xxi. 41
Desolation xxiii. 38
The city to be razed .... Luke xix. 44
Led captive into all nations, Jerusalem
trodden down, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled xxi. 24
Restoration to their own Land.*
Prayer : Turn again our captivity, O Lord Ps. cxxvi. 4
Promise: I shall bring again their captivity jer. xxxi. 23
Zeph. iii. 20
Rejoicings at restoration ....
Ps.
liii.
6
„ cxxvi.
1
" Every man to his land,"
Jer.
xii.
15
I will assemble all of thee
Micah
ii.
12 -
Again, the " second " time
Isa.
xi.
II:
,12
Amos
ix.
14'
Tabernacle of David to be rebuilt
Acts
xv.
16
Amos
ix.
11
To inherit the land for ever
Isa.
lx.
21
To be no more pulled up out .
Amos
ix.
15
A delightsome land .....
Mai.
iii.
12 -
Cf Dan.
viii.
9
Judges of the restored tribes
Matt.
xix.
28
Luke
xxii.
29,
. 3°
Other Prophecies.
Lev. xxvi. 40-45 ; Deut. xxx. 1-5 ; Isa.
xiv. 1
; lviii.
12;
xi. 21 ; Jer. iii. 16-18 ; xvi. 14-15 ; xxiii. 3
i> 5-8;
xxx.
3'
18 ■
* Some of these Prophecies were fulfilled at the first Restoration,
B.C. 536 ; but, as that was only partial and temporary, and the Jews are
again in dispersion, these passages probably await a complete and
lasting fulfilment.
APPENDIX 293
xxxi. 10-14; xxxii. 37-44; xxxiii. 7, 10, 11; xlvi. 27, 28;
Ezek. xi. 17; xvi. 53; xx. 34, 42; xxviii. 25, 26; xxxiv. 13;
xxxvi. 34; xxxvii; Joel iii. 1. 20; Zach. i. 17.
THEIR FUTURE NATIONAL CONVERSION.
" In His Days" (Jer. xxiii.
5) 6).
The receiving of them ....
Rom. xi.
i5
All Israel shall be saved ....
xi.
26
Isa. lix.
20, 21
They shall look upon Him
Zech. xii.
10
Rev. i.
7
Comforted and redeemed
Isa. Iii.
9
A cleansed nation .....
Jer. xxxiii.
8
Ezek. xxxvi
co
1
tt"
Pardoned ......
Micah vii.
19-20
All righteous ......
Isa. lx.
21
A new spirit within them ....
Ezek. xi.
!9
God is with them .....
Zech. viii.
8
The new covenant .....
Jer, xxxi.
31" 34
„ xxxii.
37-4o
Ezek. xvi.
60
Heb. viii.
7-i3
Saved from their enemies
Luke i. 71, 74, 75
The kingdom to come to ...
Acts i.
6
Micah iv.
8
Their welcome to their King .
Luke xiii.
35
Isa. xxv.
9
They shall fear Him ....
Hos. iii.
5
He shall reign over them for ever
Micah iv.
7
He shall reign before His ancients glori¬
ously ......
Isa. xxiv.
23
No end to this Kingdom ....
Luke i.
32-33
Isa. ix.
6-7
294 APPENDIX
The glory of His people Israel .
Luke
ii.
32
Isa.
lxii.
2
Zach.
xiv.
9
All nations call them blessed .
Mai.
iii.
12
Isa.
lxi.
9
Zeph.
iii.
19
Gentiles rejoice with them
Rom.
xv.
10
Symbolical number of the redeemed nation
Rev.
vii.
4-8
Times of refreshing and restitution .
Acts
iii.
19-21
Jews to he a Blessing to the World.
(Deut. xxxiii. 29.)
Gen. xii., 3 ; xviii., 18; xxii., 18 ; xxvi., 4 ; xxviii., 14; Acts
iii. 25 ; Gal. iii., 7-9, 16.
Ye shall be a blessing .
Isa.
xix.
24
Zech.
viii.
*3
Shall fill the face of the world with fruit
Isa. xxvii.
6
As dew from the Lord
Mi call
v.
7
Ministers of our God
Isa.
lxi.
6
Shall declare His glory to the Gentiles
55
lxvi.
*9
All flesh shall worship before Him .
5 5
lxvi.
23
We will go with you
Zech.
viii.
23
Life from the dead ....
Rom.
xi.
i5*
St. Petersburg, June 27th, 1891.
Dear Baron de Hirsch,
I arrived yesterday back in St. Petersburg after a tour
of inspection and investigation, the object of which was to
study the capacity of the Russian Jew for agriculture and
colonisation, and, incidentally, to see with my own eyes what
* Missions to Jews : Rev. W. T. Gidney, M.A.
APPENDIX
295
the effect has been on the Jewish population of the recent
events.
In pursuing these studies I have visited the following
places :
I had great advantages in my journey. M. Pobedonosteff
gave me an autograph letter describing my mission and your
objects, and the Minister of the Interior wrote to all the
governors. You will see from this that I enjoyed exceptional
advantages in learning the official view of the case. I must
say that, although I found the higher officials very frank and
courteous, they—with a few exceptions—took their colour
from St. Petersburg, and I attach, therefore, more importance
to the views of tchinovniks not so highly placed as to come
under the direct influence of the capital. These latter almost
invariably spoke the whole truth. The others told part of the
truth—which, after all, is what one expects from a witness
personally interested in a case.
The Jews also gave me the best credentials, and everywhere
I went I met the most respectable Jews, and I also tried to see
the worst and poorest. By this means I not only sifted the
Government evidence in the Israelite sieve, but also was able
to weigh the value of the Hebrew evidence in the Government
scales. I examined over two hundred witnesses, whose test! -
Moscow
Varoshba
Baromla
Bolrovo
Kieff
Berdicheff
Odessa
Kherson
The Agricultural Colonies of
1 )olraye
Yeffingar
Novaia Boltavka
Nicolaieff
Ekaterinoslaw
Homel
Minsk
Wilna
Kremenschug
296 APPENDIX
mony, together with my own careful observations, lead me to
the following conclusions. I think it better to give you at
once a rough precis of the views I have formed than to let you
wait for an elaborate report. During the journey I was
accompanied by a Russian-Jewish gentleman named Feinberg,
who speaks the "jargon "—half Hebrew and half German—of
the Chosen People, and to whose loyal help and ever ready
energy I am deeply indebted. I quite expected that he would
often be insulted, but this only occurred once, at Kieff, where
he was ordered to quit the hotel on the ground of his religion.
I am bound to say that even on that occasion a visit to the
Governor soon put matters right.
Assuming two things—(1st) That the Jewish population of
Russia amounts to 5,000,000; and (2nd) that the Jews I
have seen are a fair sample of the Jews I have not seen. I do
not consider more than 20 per cent, of the adult males, at the
present time, to be physically fit to bear the strain inseparable
from settlement in a new country, under strange conditions,
and with physical hardships to endure. As a whole, the
sedentary Jews are physically inferior to the sedentary Russians.
Indeed, I can remember no country in Europe the town popu¬
lation of which does not excel, in physique, the poor Russian
Jew townsmen. When, however, I contrast the Jew townsmen
with the Jews settled by the Emperor Nicholas in the Govern¬
ment of Kherson, the difference is amazing. I found them an
active, well set-up, sunburnt, muscular agricultural population,
marked by all the characteristics of a peasantry of the highest
character. There are 30,000 of these people. So far as I
could learn from the neighbouring proprietors—Russians who
employed them—they have no vice, unless early, improvident,
and fruitful marriages can be deemed a vice.
Besides these agriculturists, there is a population of 300,000
able-bodied men who are engaged in arduous manual labour
in or about the towns. As instances of this class I may cite
APPENDIX 297
the 10,000 labourers and artisans of Berdicheff, the wharf
labourers of Odessa, the corn porters of Nicolaieff, and the
agricultural labourers of Kremenschug, of whom at least 4000
are hired out at harvest time by neighbouring proprietors. All
these men are fit for colonisation, though all are not equally
fit.
But as a set-off against the physical inferiority to which
reference has been made, two elements must be taken into
consideration in any analysis of the worth of the Jew as a
colonist, and which, in my opinion, more than compensate for
his poverty in muscle. The first of these elements is the highly
nervous temperament of the average Jew, which is not only the
source of all the accusations of cowardice brought against him,
but at the same time gives him an astounding capacity to sustain
exertion for lengthy periods of time impossible to the stolid
beer-drinking Englishman, or equally self-indulgent Russ.
This quality of "last" is an atonement Nature has made to the
Jew for denying him a coarser fibre and a larger build.
The second element in the problem is a factor the value of
which can only be assessed by those who have actually under¬
gone the heart-breaking task of planting poor unemployed
Englishmen on unemployed colonial acres. I refer to the high
moral tone of the average Jew. With one exception (Admiral
Selenen, Governor of Odessa), the whole of my evidence points
to the fact that the Jew is habitually temperate ; he rarely drinks
alcohol, rarely smokes; he is a good husband, father, son; he
is not addicted to the use of filthy or blasphemous language;
he is patient in trouble, and is most industrious in his work.
Eaults he undoubtedly has, but they are not of a nature that
enter seriously into the question of colonisation, provided the
dilemma of " work or die" is sternly presented to him, and
provided he is not surrounded by a well-to-do population of an
alien faith and of another race.
Of the typical Jew, as I so often heard him described in
298 APPENDIX
St. Petersburg—a compound of thief, usurer, and pimp, I have
not met an instance—of course many such men must exist or
how could the fiction have been floated ? M. Pobedonosteff
said to me in one of our conversations : "The Jew is a parasite
—remove him from the living organism in which, and on
which, he exists, and put this parasite on a rock, and he will
die." The fact is M. Pobedonosteff has created for himself a
Frankenstein of a Jew in his own imagination. He has been
very civil and kind to me, and I certainly shall never abuse
him behind his back, but he really does not know what he is
talking about when he calls the Jew a helpless parasite. I
shall tell him this to his face, if I have a chance, for it is better
to do this than to retire to a safe distance, and there to
institute invidious comparisons between M. Pobedonosteff and
Caligula. The fact is, that in Russia the Jew has been forced
into commerce, and, being clever, has made a success of the
only callings available to him. The only thing to moralise
him and to make him like other people is to restore him to the
land. That he can be moralised by sunshine and sweat is
shown by the conspicuous success of the Emperor Nicholas'
colonies, of which I cannot speak too highly.
So far as my obversations go, the Russian Jew and his
children have not enough to eat. Until I see what good
nourishing food will do for him, it is impossible to say what
proportion of the adult male population will eventually be
capable of outdoor work. At present, dejection clouds the
life of the whole Jewish population. But their misery is not,
as yet, the parent of crime on a large scale. The pressure of
existence, the uncertainty of the future, and the actual want of
tens of thousands under the present state of affairs, is an
excellent criterion by which to judge the bearing and character
of the Jews when under the stress of strain and struggle that
will be incident to the early years of your colonising scheme,
in common with every other since the history of the world began.
APPENDIX 299
In short, if courage — moral courage — hope, patience,
temperance, are fine qualities, then the Jews are a fine people.
Such a people, under wise direction, is destined to make a
success of any well-organised plan of colonisation, whether in
Argentina, Siberia, or South Africa.
But the difficulties in the way are many, and I do not think
that you will eriectually grapple with them unless the public
and cordial assistance of the Russian Government is given.
Your first detachment must be a corps cT elite, for unless you
make a success of the first detachment, future success is
improbable. Nothing must be left to chance. I should
advise your taking your first detachment from the agricultural
colonies of the Emperor Nicholas, where the families have
not only outgrown the capacity of the land to support them,
but where the Government has withdrawn ten dessiatines from
each cultivator. There is distress even there. The following-
four points, on which the assistance of the Russian Government
is of the first importance, I recommend to your notice:
1. In order to organise the emigrant parties, you must
positively have local advice. In other words, there must be
Emigration Committees composed of the most worthy and
respected Jews in each town. Their duties would be :
a. To choose emigrants.
b. To disburse funds.
c. To control and arrange the departure of parties.
d. To communicate with Government on behalf of emi¬
grants.
e. To form a centre of communication between you, the
Government, and the emigrants.
A head committee will be required in St. Petersburg, to
control the subordinate committees.
Under the present laws the Jews must either organise their
emigration in secret or not at all, and unless the Government
gives its consent to the formation of these committees, I do
3°°
APPENDIX
not see how you can organise your scheme with any success.
Of course the Government will probably want to be represented
on these committees, and this is only right, in order that
the permission given is loyally used, and not turned to pur¬
poses which would not be allowed or contemplated by the
Government.
It is obvious that only Jews of the highest character and
good position should be appointed to these committees.
2. The present passport system is most impossible. A door
must be open or shut. So therefore it is necessary to modify
the costly and onerous passport system, and replace it by some
system of gratuitous certificates of emigration, which shall carry
with them the renunciation of rights, and the exemption from
duties as Russian citizens, after the frontier is crossed. No
extra burden of military or other service ought to be imposed
on the Jews who remain in consequence of the emigrant Jews
quitting the country. In other words, open the Russian door
under conditions that shall for ever disembarrass the Russian
Goverment of the Jews who avail of your scheme.
3. I think the Russian Government might give gratuitous
transport to all poor holders of emigration certificates. It
would not cost them much, and would give a very good im¬
pression in Europe.
4. Your scheme will take years to work out, therefore we
must look ahead. The young Jews ought to be trained in
manual labour and in agriculture. Nihilism comes from empty
stomachs and University training. Make the young people
work with their hands, and thus prepare them for the future
life in the colony, and you will make a new and valuable state.
Therefore, I think you should ask for permission to start
agricultural schools, where handicrafts will be taught. If this
is not done, you will have a very ignorant population to deal
with after you have started your corps d'"elite.
This, briefly, dear Baron, is what I have to say, though there
APPENDIX
3OT
is an enormous mass of detail to communicate. But I cannot
conclude this brief report without a word on the suffering of
the children, to which I have been a witness. I saw the India
famine of 1878 ; and I have seen much trouble and sadness in
different parts of the world. But nothing has ever touched
my heart like the suffering of these Jewish children. They
are not yet thieves, usurers, exploiters, pimps, malingerers, or
parasites. They are inarticulate. They cannot plead their
own case. Life is hard for them, and they wonder why it is
hard. It grows harder every day. From all I can learn, I do
believe that if the suffering of these innocent Jewish babies
were known to the Emperor, he would at least grant us per¬
mission to organise openly, and at leisure, measures for the
relief of these children and their parents. For the burden that
is laid upon them is more than they can bear.
I am, dear Baron de Hirsch,
Yours very truly,
ARNOLD WHITE.
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson 6° Co.
London <5^ Edinburgh
Date Issued
YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
3 9002 08450 4464