v. 1 
 
3 1924 100 
 
 65 327 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 ESSAYS ON JEWISH HISTORY 
 
 AND LITERATURE, AND 
 
 KINDRED SUBJECTS 
 
 GOTTHARD DEUTSCH 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9241 001 65327 
 
Zj^o'-^&C^i,.^!'^ -<y tS-c^i^,,^^ t 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 ESSAYS ON JEWISH HISTORY 
 
 AND LITERATURE, AND 
 
 KINDRED SUBJECTS 
 
 By 
 GOTTHARD DEUTSCH 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 njnj rhi'a rh^ minn 
 
 The Torah was given in single scrolls. 
 
 — Gittin, 60, a. 
 
 ARK PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1917 
 
■^^^'•i»i:. 
 
 'h h^ 
 
 / 
 
 Copyright, 1917 
 
 BY 
 
 ARK PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
DEDICATED TO THE 
 
 ALUMNI OF 
 THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 Philosophy of Jewish History 77 
 
 Minima Curat Historicus 99 
 
 De Minimis Curat Historicus 115 
 
 Everybody Says So 121 
 
 1815 to 1915 127 
 
 History Repeats Itself 145 
 
 The Year 1903 in Jewish History 165 
 
 The Year 5665 189 
 
 The Year 5666 . 203 
 
 Judaism in 5668 213 
 
 The Year 5669 245 
 
 The Year 5670 271 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS collection of essays, which were published 
 within the last twentyfive years, in various 
 periodicals, yearbooks, and similar works, are pre- 
 sented to the public as a specimen vitae humanae. 
 Many of them I would not write today, most of them 
 I would modify, and others, I freely admit, I wish I 
 never had written. The uncertainty in the history 
 of our older literature, and my appreciation of the 
 great loss we have suffered by the absence of correct 
 data about the authors of certain statements in 
 rabbinical literature, make me feel the importance of 
 collecting even the insignificant. The biographer of 
 Charlemagne tells us of a traveling merchant, whom 
 the brilliant emperor used in playing a trick on a 
 greedy bishop. ^ How important would it be to us, 
 did we possess the letters which this man, probably 
 living in Italy, sent to his family, during his journey. 
 Such letters were in those days commonplace, but 
 now they would be a valued source of historic informa- 
 tion. Isaac of Durbalo, in the twelfth century was 
 hardly a genius. He may not have been, even in his 
 day a scholar of note. Yet if he had written some- 
 thing about his journey from France to Olmuetz,^ des- 
 scribing the manner in which he travelled, the business 
 in which he was engaged, the hospitality which was 
 
 iGraetz: Geschichte, V, 182, 3. ed. Freytag: Bilder aus 
 d. deutschen Vergangenheit. 1, 322, Leipsic, 1888. 
 sMahzor Vitry, p. 388, Berlin, 1896-1897. 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 offered to him by his co-reHgionists, we would greet 
 it as an important historic document. 
 
 Nothing more is needed to corroborate this state- 
 ment, than to point to the valuable information which 
 we received through the publication of the memoirs 
 of Glueckel of Hameln,' twenty years ago. The 
 authoress was a woman, undoubtedly of higher at- 
 tainments than the average of her class two hundred 
 years ago, but her mental horizon is limited to petty 
 congregational gossip and family affairs. The same 
 may be said, with some difference as to the character 
 of the author, with regard to the memoirs of Jacob 
 Emden.-* May I not flatter myself, that ideas which 
 I expressed on current topics, since 1877, may, just 
 because they reflect the fleeting ideas of the days in 
 which they were written, prove of more than personal 
 interest. The latter, however, — I freely admit — 
 was the main motive, which guided me in accepting 
 the offer of the Alumni of the Hebrew Union College, 
 to place a sum of money at my disposal on the occasion 
 of my twenty-fifth anniversary as teacher of that 
 institution, and I accepted it for the purpose of 
 collecting for my own satisfaction these scattered 
 products of my pen. 
 
 In old Jewish literature the author disappeared 
 behind his book. Of our mediaeval authors, almost 
 down to the eighteenth century, we may say that 
 their biographies are their books. Of many works, 
 whose time and authorship are of prime importance, 
 the writers' lives are unknown to us. It is cer- 
 tainly a source of regret, that a book, reflecting the 
 
 'Jewish Encyclopedia, vi, 197. 
 ^Megillat Sefer, Warsaw, 1896. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 spirit of the age, and the country where it originated, 
 like Pirke Rabbi EHezer, cannot be fully explained, 
 because we are left to guess its origin. It is, 
 therefore, not personal vanity, which inspired me in 
 prefacing the collection of my essays with a bio- 
 graphical sketch, intended only to serve future 
 generations as a mirror of conditions, in many in- 
 stances representing a remote past, and important 
 because they coincide with an era of transition. 
 
 My nati\e town is Kanitz, or as it is now officially 
 called, Stadt Kanitz, located in the Austrian provmce 
 of Moravia, about ten miles southwest of Bruenn, 
 the capital of the pro^•ince. The latest census gives 
 to the town 3,022 inhabitants. There were hardly 
 any more in the olden times, though it is quite an 
 old city, whose existence can be traced back to the 
 thirteenth century. The Jewish congregation is 
 undoubtedly much younger. The synagogue bears 
 as the date of erection the year 412 A. M., or 1652. 
 The oldest tombstones in the cemetery date from 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century. This, 
 however, is not significant, because owing to the 
 sloping ground and the soft soil, a great number of 
 tombstones, and among them probably the oldest, 
 are buried in the ground. There is, besides, an older 
 cemetery, which in my boyhood days was only 
 known by two illegible tombstones. The probabili- 
 ties are that the Jewish congregation originated, 
 when in 1454, owing to the agitation of the fanatic 
 Franciscan friar, John Capistrano, the Jews were 
 expelled from Bruenn, as well as from other "royal" 
 cities of the province. The fifteenth century was the 
 
10 SCROLLS 
 
 period of expulsions, due to the jealousy of the 
 burghers of the larger cities, who, having obtained 
 an autonomous administration, tried to rid them- 
 selves of their Jewish competitors. We find, there- 
 fore, all over Germany — and Moravia, as part of the 
 kingdom of Bohemia belonged to the German Em- 
 pire — the Jews, expelled from large cities, usually 
 succeeded in getting permission to settle on the estate 
 of some noble in the vicinity of the city from which 
 they were expelled. This probably was the origin 
 of the Jewish settlement in Kanitz. It contained, 
 up to 1848, while the number of Jews was limited 
 by law, 111 Jewish families, which, as the number was 
 often transgressed, represented about six hundred 
 souls. 
 
 My own family, on my father's side, and probably 
 on my mother's side also, was settled there since the 
 seventeenth century. On the mother's side, there 
 is no documentary evidence older than 1795, when 
 her grandfather, Joseph Wiener, died, but the family 
 name would indicate that her ancestors were among 
 the exiles, expelled from Vienna in 1670, and of 
 whom, as we know, the greater part found refuge in 
 Moravia. On the father's side the information is 
 more exact. The Memor Book of the congregation, 
 which was written in 1 765 , but is in its older parts copied 
 from an older book, dating at least from the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, contains as the oldest name 
 of the family, Meir Jacob, the son of Joseph, who died 
 Sivan 4, 466 (May 17, 1706), and of his wife, Schoendl, 
 who died Adar 12, 474 (February 12, 1714). In 
 honor of their memory, their son, Joseph, donated a 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 curtain to the synagogue. This son Joseph who 
 died Nissan 20, 483 (April 15, 1723), is aheady 
 better known. His tombstone, which is well pre- 
 served, praises him as a leader in the service, and as a 
 successful advocate of the congregation. He was 
 one of the elders of the Jewish organization of the 
 province, and his signature is found under some of 
 the resolutions passed at the regular conventions of 
 the provincial Jewry.* He evidently died young, for 
 his wife, Hannah, the daughter of Rabbi Eliezer, 
 survived him fully half a century. She died Ab 12, 
 533 (Aug. 1, 1773). Her father. Rabbi Eliezer, or 
 with his full name, Jacob Eliezer Brunschwig, was the 
 most glorious reminiscence of the family. He was the 
 head of the rabbinical college (Klaus) of Mannheim 
 at the time when it was opened in 1708, afterwards 
 rabbi of Kanitz, and at the end of his life, rabbi of 
 Vienna, where he died on the first day of Passover, 
 489 (April 15, 1729).' Judging by his name and by 
 the fact that he came from Mannheim, before he was 
 rabbi of Kanitz, it would appear probable that he was 
 a native of western Germany. This impression is 
 strengthened by the fact that Samson Wertheimer, 
 the powerful financier, who was a native of Worms, 
 called him to Vienna. As the Jews of Vienna had no 
 corporate rights until 1848, Jacob Eliezer was nomi- 
 nally private chaplain to Samson Wertheimer. He 
 
 *Wolf Die alten Statuten der juedischen Gemeinden in Maeh- 
 ren 1 p. 146, Vienna, 1880, where Tentsch ought to be Teutsch. 
 
 'Kaufmann: Letzte Vertreibung der Juden von Wien, 
 p. 82, Vienna, 1889. Loewenstein: Geschichte der Juden in 
 der Kurpfalz, p. 171, Frankfurt a.M., 1895. Unna: Die 
 Lemle Moses Klausstiftung, p. 9-10, F. a. M., 1908. Lewin: 
 Geschichte der badischen Juden, p. 57, Karlsruhe, 1909. 
 
12 SCROLLS 
 
 was certainly a remarkable Talmudic scholar, and his 
 plan of a Talmudic concordance, a work still found in 
 manuscript in the royal library of Berlin, shows that 
 he had a systematic mind. His son, Joshua Selig, 
 who died October 17, 1762, mentions in an appeal 
 numerous works on rabbinic theology, including 
 Cabbala, which his father left, and which he desired 
 to publish. He did not succeed, and even the 
 authorship of the concordance was denied to R. Eliezer 
 by Steinschneider,' who on the ground of false informa- 
 tion, ascribed it to another Rabbi Eliezer, ofificially 
 called Lazar Fried, who died as rabbi of Kanitz in 
 1819, and was a great grandson of Jacob Eliezer. 
 
 The family name of the son Joshua Selig is unknown 
 to me, and I do not know whether he left any de- 
 scendants. The memory of the ghetto is very short. 
 Jacob Eliezer left various daughters, who were 
 married to rabbinical scholars. One of these was 
 Eliakim Gottschalk Wannefried, who is mentioned in 
 the famous controversy on the heresy charges brought 
 against Jonathan Eybeschuetz. His grandson was 
 Rabbi Lazar Fried, previously mentioned, and 
 another descendant is Phineas Loeb Frieden, who 
 died as Rabbi of Komorn, Hungary, June 11th, 
 1873.^ He represented the orthodox traditions of the 
 family, while a descendant of another daughter, 
 Moses Kunitzer,^ named for the city from which the 
 family originally came, is one of the few rabbis of 
 
 'Katalog der hebr. Handschriften, p. 12, Berlin 1878. 
 'His work Dibre Pene Aryeh, Vienna, 18S9, Duckesz, 
 Chachme A. H, W. p. 142, Hamburg, 1908. 
 
 'Jewish Encycl. vii, 583, and the Title page of Ben Yohai, 
 Vienna, 1815. 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 the old type, who indorsed the reform temple in 
 Hamburg. 
 
 As the name Wannefried points to a city in the 
 province of Hesse-Cassel, so the name Deutsch may 
 be a convenient substitute for a town in western 
 Germany, from which the Bahur derived his name, 
 who married the daughter of the rabbi. The name 
 of the town may have been too difficult for the 
 people of Kanitz to remember, and they called him 
 for short, Deutsch. At any rate, this family name 
 appears as the signature of the man in the congrega- 
 tional records in 1719,^° and also on the tombstone, 
 though legal family names were not introduced in 
 Austria, until 1787. 
 
 Of the sons of Joseph Deutsch one, probably the 
 youngest, Menahem Mandl, survived his father 
 fully eighty years. He died in advanced age, as his 
 tombstone testifies, Kislev 10, 564 (Nov. 25, 1803). 
 He occupied in the little community the office of 
 Dayan, or member of the rabbinical court, who 
 probably acted merely in cases, when such a court was 
 required, especially in probating estates. I possess 
 several books with the German inscription, Mandl 
 Joseph Deutsch, Judenjurist in Kanitz. They pre- 
 sent probably practice in penmanship indulged in by 
 some Bahur, who had learned to read and to write 
 German. Mandl married his cousin, Liebele, 
 the daughter of Hananel, who also was a son-in-law 
 of Rabbi Jacob Eliezer. This Hananel is the son of 
 a Rabbi Judah Loeb, in whom I believe I recognize 
 the rabbi of Hotzenplotz, who was the son of the 
 
 '"Wolf: Die alten Statuten der judischen Gemeinden in 
 Maehren, p. 146, Vienna, 1880. 
 
14 SCROLLS 
 
 famous Cabbalist, Elhanan of Vienna, and the 
 brother of Issachar Baer, rabbi of Frankfurt an der 
 Oder, and of Kremsier, who died in 1701 in Venice on 
 his way to Palestine, where he expected to end his 
 days". 
 
 Mandl had only one son, Zalman Wolf, or with his 
 
 official name, Jekuthiel Zeeb, who was born about 
 
 1755, and died January 13, 1829. Of him I have a 
 
 number of documents in my possession, which have 
 
 escaped the destructive influences of time. As I 
 
 shall say more about him in a German essay, sent to 
 
 Germany at the beginning of the war, I briefly note 
 
 that he studied at the Yeshibah of Rabbi Schmelka 
 
 Horwitz, the brother of the famous Rabbi Phineas 
 
 Horwitz of Frankfort a. M., who held the rabbinical 
 
 position of Nikolsburg, with the chief rabbinate of 
 
 Moravia, from 1773-1778. The letters, written to 
 
 his first wife, when he was engaged to her, to his 
 
 prospective father-in-law, and his marriage contract, 
 
 and finally his record as Mohel are now historic 
 
 documents. He began to practice in 1777 continuing 
 
 for forty-two years. The last entry is the birth of my 
 
 father, and his induction into the covenant of Abraham, 
 
 In my childhood, I remember having seen some 
 
 documents relating to Zalman Wolf's second 
 
 marriage to one Hannah, the daughter of Moses 
 
 of Nachod, Bohemia. Of the five sons, who were 
 
 born of this marriage, the third, named for the 
 
 famous ancestor Eliezer (Lazar) was born December 
 
 22, 1787. He married in 1818 a second cousin, 
 
 Juetel, the daughter of Issachar Baer, officially 
 
 "Frankl-Griin: Geschichte der Juden in Kremsier, I, 81. 
 Breslau, 1896. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 Bernhard Deutsch. This Bernhard Deutsch was a 
 tenant of the large estate owner, Count Salm-Reififer- 
 scheid, of Raitz, Moravia, and therefore called Baer 
 Raitz. Such a tenant "Bestandmann," as he was 
 officially called, or Randar, as he was called more 
 colloquially, was usually a well-to-do man. I re- 
 member various rare books from his library, and 
 glassware with his initials, which was quite a luxury 
 in those days. Baer Raitz died in 1818, shortly 
 after the marriage of his daughter and my father, 
 the first child of his parents, born January 2, 1819, 
 was according to the entry in the Mohel's record of 
 his grandfather, Zalman Wolf, circumcised on the 
 holy Sabbath, the 12th of Tebeth, 579. The old man, 
 as he afterwards told my father, asked for this as a 
 special favor so that he should close his career with 
 the induction of a grandchild into the covenant of 
 Abraham. This entry is the last one in the Mohel's 
 record, which began forty-two years before in 1777. 
 The grandfather remained in the house of his son, and 
 as my father was ten years old, when his grandfather 
 died, he owes to him many recollections of older 
 family history, which he transmitted to me. After 
 the death of the grandfather, adversity began in the 
 household. The right to conduct the tobacco shop, 
 which was, and still is, in Austria a government 
 monopoly, ceased after the death of the man who had 
 received this privilege. My grandfather had begun 
 a wine business, and obtained from the congregation 
 a monopoly for the sale of kosher wine. The rabbi 
 of the congregation, Joseph Spiro (Jew. Enc. xi, 523), 
 a highly interesting character, was opposed to this 
 
16 SCROLLS 
 
 arrangement. His objections were strictly religious. 
 He declared that such a monopoly might induce 
 occasionally a man, who for some reason or other did 
 not wish to patronize the monopolist, to drink wine 
 that was not kosher. In those days dietary laws were 
 far more seriously observed than even in the time 
 of my childhood, when the drinking of wine that was 
 not kosher had already become a pardonable offense. 
 There was, however, another reason which con- 
 tributed to my grandfather's ruin in business. The 
 abrogation of the special Jewish tax, decreed by the 
 humane Emperor Joseph H, had in a certain respect 
 imposed a heavier yoke on the much oppressed 
 Austrian Jews. Instead of the special tax (Schutz- 
 geld) a new tax on all victuals was introduced. The 
 kosher meat, fish and kosher wine, were all sub- 
 ject to excise tax. For all such articles bought, the 
 merchant or, if they were bought in the market, the 
 householder, had to buy a ticket which the contractor 
 of the Jew-tax sold. My grandfather had imported 
 quite a large' consignment of wine from Nikolsburg 
 and failed to pay the excise tax. A coreligionist, as 
 usually was the case in those days, when Jews lived 
 under restrictive laws, reported the matter, and when 
 the consignment of wine arrived at the storehouse, 
 revenue officers were in waiting, and asked for the 
 receipt of the Jew tax. As these receipts could not 
 be produced, the whole consignment was seized and 
 an excessive fine imposed upon my grandfather. 
 He did not pay it at once, but went into litigation, 
 showing that there was an oversight in importing 
 this wine, but in the end the litigation and the reduced 
 fine imposed upon him, broke him up in business. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 and from that time on until the end of his days, he 
 supported himself like all the poor people of our 
 section of the country, peddling in villages, and utiliz- 
 ing his knowledge of rabbinic law, by acting as Shochet 
 in the surrounding villages for the Jews living there. 
 He died March 25, 1856, at the age of sixty-eight. 
 Had he lived to a greater age I might perhaps be in 
 better position to relate some of the incidents of 
 Jewish life in the first part of the nineteenth century. 
 According to my father's report, my grandfather 
 attended the Yeshibah of Jenikau, Bohemia, and was 
 probably a disciple of Marcus Baer Kornfeld, who 
 again was a disciple of Ezekiel Laudau, and is men- 
 tioned in the latter's Responsa.'^ Aaron, the son of 
 Marcus Baer Kornfeld (1795-1881) was the last 
 principal of a Yeshibah in Bohemia," and this fact 
 is so much the more important because the family 
 had maintained a Yeshibah for a number of genera- 
 tions, the principal of the Yeshibah not being a rabbi, 
 but supported himself with a distillery, and a man in 
 fairly good circumstances. With Aaron Kornfeld a 
 generation died out, which marked the last of a long 
 series, probably going back to the twelfth century. 
 Aaron Kornfeld's nephew. Baron Sigmund Kornfeld 
 (1852-1909) was a bank president in Budapest and 
 member of the house of magnates. Though to some 
 extent a conforming Jew, he surely was not in a 
 position any more to preside over a Yeshibah, nor will 
 his children ever be capable of such professional 
 work. 
 
 i^Nodabi-Yehudah, Yoreh Deah, II, 13, 
 "Jewish Encycl. VII, 562, May: Isaac Mayer Wise, 
 28-29, New York, 1916. 
 
18 SCROLLS 
 
 My father was educated already in a somewhat 
 modern fashion. In his very early childhood days, 
 when his parents were, according to the reckoning of 
 their environment, prosperous, he had a private 
 teacher, one of those men, who being educated in 
 Prague, at the Yeshibah, were imbued with the 
 spirit which in this pioneer city of Austrian "Auf- 
 klaerung" worked with almost fanatic zeal for the 
 spreading of secular knowledge, under the guidance 
 of such men as Herz Romberg and Peter Beer. So 
 my father was taught in earliest childhood to read 
 and write German and received instruction in other 
 elementary branches. Naturally at the same time 
 he received thorough Hebrew instruction. When 
 he was eleven years old, the congregation elected a 
 new rabbi, and my grandfather being at that time 
 president of the congregation, took a special interest 
 in this affair, because his boy at the age of eleven was 
 just ripe for higher instruction in Talmudic literature. 
 The man elected was Marcus Trieschet, a disciple of 
 Mordecai Benet, and a son of a rabbi of Maehrisch 
 Weisskirchen, Abraham Reinitz, quoted as such in 
 the few extant responsa of Benet (Har-Hamor, p. 29, 
 Vienna 1862). I have on various occasions in the 
 "Deborah" (1901-1902) and in the "B'nai B'rith 
 News" (1914 et seq.) given some stories about the 
 man's career, whom I knew personally as a child. 
 He died Aug. 6, 1866, at the age of seventy-two. 
 Partly because my father did not make sufficient 
 progress under the new teacher, and partly because 
 it was a general habit, mentioned already in the 
 Talmud at the time Judah Hanasi,^* he was sent to 
 "Yer. Pesahim, III, 7. 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 another place to continue his studies at a Yeshibah. 
 His first college — if we may use this term — was the 
 Yeshibah of Baer Oppenheim in Eibenschuetz, a 
 town about six miles distant from Kanitz. Baer 
 Oppenheim (1790-1859)^5 was a member of the 
 famous rabbinical family of that name, and a lineal 
 descendant of David Oppenheim, chief rabbi of 
 Prague and founder of that marvellous collection of 
 Hebrew books which is still the pride of the Bod- 
 leyan library at Oxford. He is also know^n as the 
 father-in-law of Isaac Hirsch Weiss, and two of his 
 sons, David (1816-1876) and Joachim (1832-1890) 
 have made a reputation in rabbinic literature. Rabbi 
 Baer Oppenheim does not seem to have been in any 
 way a remarkable personality. The life in such a 
 Yeshibah was one of privation. I remember that 
 my father told me that he, like almost every one of 
 those students, subsisted on the free meals given 
 by charitable members of the congregation. As there 
 were, however, more applicants than givers, his meals 
 were restricted to four a week. During the other 
 three days he had to help himself the best he could, 
 mostly subsisting on a weekly loaf of bread, which 
 he received from his home. How grudgingly these 
 meals were given he illustrated by various stories. 
 Of the four meals that he received, two were given 
 by charitable women, always more in sympathy with 
 a child away from home than men, without the 
 knowledge of their husbands, who spent the week 
 peddling in the country. My father told me what 
 terror once reigned, when a child of the family, while 
 
 isjewish Encycl, IX, 410. 
 
20 SCROLLS 
 
 he and another boy were eating, came running in and 
 said, "Mother, send the 'Bocherlech' away; father is 
 coming home." 
 
 The same conditions prevailed in other places, 
 where my father attended the Yeshibah, hke Pohr- 
 Htz and in Nikolsburg. In the latter city he arrived in 
 1834, five years after the death of the most illustrious 
 among the rabbis of the old type, Mordecai Benet, 
 or Marcus Benedikt. The Yeshibah was then al- 
 ready declining, although Benedikt's successor, Nehe- 
 mias Trebitsch," was a man of exactly the same type 
 as his predecessor. Secularism had already seized 
 the population of Moravia, perhaps due to the in- 
 fluences which the French July Revolution of 1830 
 had on all of western Europe, and when I, in 1868, 
 arrived in the same city, where my father attended a 
 Yeshibah that then counted several hundred young 
 men I did not find any trace of it, nor was there any 
 trace of old fashioned rabbinic studies among the 
 Jews in Pohrlitz and other small towns of Moravia. 
 My father did not attend the Yeshibah of the Land- 
 rabbiner Trebitsch, but that of a member of the 
 rabbinate, Dayan Samuel Kohn, whose son, Moses 
 Loeb, occupied the same position, when I first went 
 to Nikolsburg, in 1868. Moses Loeb Kohn, who died 
 May 9, 1890, at the age of sixty-four, was the last 
 representative of the old Nikolsburg rabbinate. He 
 edited and published a few rabbinic works, and was 
 also a contributor to the Hebrew weekly "Hamagid." 
 An idea of old-fashioned rabbinism, as it affected 
 social life, is pictured in the following recollections: 
 My fat her preserved a grateful memory for his 
 "Jewish Encycl. XII, 238. 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 teacher, and when he brought me to Nikolsburg, he 
 called on Rabbi Moses Loeb to introduce himself as 
 one who had been his father's pupil, thirty-four years 
 ago. Moses Loeb received this information with a 
 sneering look and a shrug of the shoulders, peculiar 
 to Beth Hamidrash habits, saying, "Why, thirty-four 
 years ago, you attended my father's Yeshibah. 
 Where was I then? Perhaps not even born." I do 
 not believe that this was done with a desire of insult- 
 ing my father. It was simply the ill manners,- 
 habitual in the Yeshibah, and cultivated on principle 
 by those people of the transition period, who con- 
 sidered good manners a sort of religious reform. 
 After having served, as the Bahur of the Yeshibah 
 usually did, in maturer years, as tutor my father 
 settled in his native town, and married. In 1846 
 marriage was quite a coveted privilege in Moravia. "^^ 
 My father had the advantage of being a first-born 
 son, and in addition marrried the daughter of a man 
 who stood very high in the government circles, 
 which, of course, does not mean very much, because 
 it was usually due to the fact that he was the trans- 
 mitter of bribes to the all-powerful "Oberamtmann." 
 My maternal grandfather, Issachar Baer Halevi, with 
 his official name Benedikt Wiener, who died November 
 27, 1853, at the age of about ninety, was as the name 
 indicates, in all probability a descendant of one of the 
 families that were exiled from Vienna in the expulsion 
 of 1670. His wife, Chajah Leah, who died August 
 30, 1849, was the daughter of one Mendel Ulma, and 
 one Nathan Ulma Kunitz, who died at Berlin in 
 1733, is mentioned as the son-in-law of one of those 
 "See: Jewish Encyclopedia article "Familianten." 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 Vienna exiles who established the Berlin congrega- 
 tion in 1671.^^ The name would indicate that the 
 family originated from those exiles of Ulm, who were 
 expelled in 1499, and are found all over Europe. 
 They may in those days have drifted to Vienna, have 
 gone from there at some later period to the little 
 town of Kanitz, called in Yiddish Kunitz, and have 
 gone back to Vienna, when with the general expulsion 
 they sought, like most of the exiles, the ancient home 
 of their families in the neighboring province of 
 Moravia. This is stated to show how great a loss is 
 suffered by the lack of attention to old family records, 
 and by the neglect to write personal memoirs. My 
 maternal grandparents had sixteen children, fourteen 
 of whom, four sons and ten daughters, grew up to 
 manhood and womanhood, and it is quite interesting 
 to note that there is only one young man living who 
 is the bearer of the family name of Wiener, and he is 
 at present fighting at the front. 
 
 My father lost his first wife a few months after their 
 marriage, and married in 1848, her sister. The three 
 children who were born of this marriage, died in 
 infancy, and their mother followed them to the grave 
 in 1854. In 1856 my father married a third sister, 
 my mother, who survived him for over twenty-one 
 years. My mother's real name, by which she was 
 known as a child, was Liebele, but as long as I can 
 remember, she was called Lisi, and she signed her 
 name "Elise." In the official birth records of the 
 community her name is entered as "Elenora." This, 
 I suppose, was due to the registrar of the congrega- 
 
 "Landshuth: VoUst. Gebets-und Andachtsbuch, Appendix, 
 p. 21, Berlin ,1867. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 tion, Reb Yaykev Shammes, who obeyed the law, 
 dating from Joseph II, which demanded that the 
 Jews should adopt names which would not create 
 such a difficulty in transliteration as did the usual 
 Yiddish names. '^ My mother was born April 5, 
 1819, and died in her ninety-third year. September 
 25, 1911. The first child of this marriage was my 
 only surviving sister, born November 24, 1857, who 
 was named for the grandmother, Chajah Leah, but 
 was always called merely Leah. I, born January 31, 
 1859, was named for my paternal grandfather, 
 Eliezer, and my father, somewhat of a purist in 
 Hebrew, and a romanticist in religion, wished to 
 have my name registered according to the Biblical 
 spelling, but the principal of the Jewish school, 
 Solomon Schuetz, a modernist afterwards principal 
 of the Jewish school of Czernowitz,^° suggested that 
 such a name would stigmatize the child in his future 
 career, and instead of calling me, as my grandfather 
 was officially called, Lazar, the approximate transla- 
 tion into Gotthard, was proposed, and adopted. 
 
 At what age I was sent to school, I do not exactly 
 know, but I was certainly not older than five. I re- 
 member having had a primer, specially bound for me, 
 with a dedication dated 1864, and I also remember 
 that an uncle of my mother "der Vetter Loeb" with 
 his official name, Loebel Samek, who died early in 
 1865, used to supervise my reading of the prayers in 
 the synagog. Vetter Loeb, who was already in the 
 
 "Law of Oct. 11, 1787. Cramer: Gesetzessammlung, etc. 
 p. 256, Prague, 1793. 
 
 ™Israelitsch — Deutsche Schule in Czernowitz. Czernowitz, 
 1905. 
 
24 SCROLLS 
 
 eighties then, was a pious old soul, who always 
 remained in the synagogue on Sabbath morning, 
 when services were over, to do a little extra praying 
 from the optional liturgy, saw to it that I read cor- 
 rectly, and did not "ueberhuppern" (skip). After- 
 wards, when I had done well, he took me to his 
 home, where I received my "Shabbes Obst," which 
 consisted of grapes and plums which he knew 
 to keep during the whole winter. Our Jewish school 
 was founded in 1852 with David Loewy (1821-1902)21, 
 during his last years editor of the "Neuzeit" in Vienna, 
 as principal. Previous to that time, although the 
 law of Joseph II, issued in 1782, demanded that 
 every Jewish child should receive a secular education, 
 the school was conducted in the old Heder fashion, 
 the teacher gathering the children that were entrusted 
 to him, in his home and giving them secular, as well 
 as Hebrew instruction. The year 1848 seems to have 
 stimulated interest in systematic and secular educa- 
 tion, and the congregation erected a school building, 
 which at the same time served to house the rabbi 
 and the principal, and had a room for the ofhce of the 
 congregation which then had, and probably still has, 
 municipal jurisdiction over the former ghetto section 
 of the old town. The palmy days of this congrega- 
 tion were over, when I entered school. The freedom 
 of residence granted in 1848 began to drain the con- 
 gregation, attracting the more enterprising and 
 younger element to the near-by city of Bruenn, where 
 even in former years a great many people made their 
 living as peddlers, and sellers of country produce and 
 the like. Others scattered among villages or went to 
 ^'Deborah, 1902, p. 161-164. 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 some smaller towns, formerly closed to the Jews. 
 A terrible flood which visited our town, February 1, 
 1862, and did great damage in the Jewish quarter, 
 also aided the exodus, for many people, whose homes 
 had been destroyed, preferred to make their homes 
 elsewhere, instead of rebuilding their former homes. 
 So when I entered school, there were hardly more 
 than sixty children enrolled, who were divided into 
 three classes. The beginner's class was in charge of 
 a young man, who received a small salary of 100 
 florins, if I remember correctly, and was given free 
 board, taking his meals alternately every week in 
 one of the more prosperous families. The second 
 grade was in charge of an old-fashioned Melammed, 
 Mandl Brunner, a native of our town, who had the 
 usual career of a Bahur, having attended the Yeshibah 
 of Nikolsburg, of which he retained the proud memory 
 that he was present at the last lecture, delivered by 
 the old Landrabbiner, Markus Benedikt, before he 
 left for Karlsbad, where he died August 13, 1829. 
 Brunner afterwards married, engaged in some busi- 
 ness, failed, and therefore became a teacher. He 
 was an autodidact, spoke German incorrectly, and 
 had the manners of the old-fashioned Melammed, 
 who considered the rod the most efficient instrument of 
 pedagogy. I remember distinctly that we learned a 
 verb was a part of speech which expresses a "Thon oder 
 Lassen." It was always a puzzle to me what kind of 
 a tone a verb represented. We also studied with him 
 the Minor Prophets. No small task for a class of 
 children about eight years old! One of the typical 
 recollections that I have preserved is the translation 
 
26 SCROLLS 
 
 of Hosea 4, 14, "Nur ein unvernuenftiges Volk 
 kann solchen Oberwitz hegen," which was due 
 to a misreading of the translation in Hebrew charac- 
 ters instead of "Aberwitz." The word "Oberwitz," 
 corresponding to the Yiddish "Ober Chochme," was 
 evidently more intelligible to Reb Mandl, than the 
 high German "Aberwitz." It would be an injustice 
 to convey the idea that the teacher was not devoted 
 to his calling. The main trouble was that he was 
 overworked, teaching nine or ten hours a day, and 
 inadequately prepared. The highest grade was in 
 charge of the principal, of whom I remember first a 
 man named Moses Kobler, a kindly intelligent man 
 of the "Maskil" class, who published occasionally 
 some exegetical notes in the then popular periodical 
 "Kokebe Yizhak." After him we had a young, 
 modern man, named Kohut. The instruction in 
 Hebrew formed part of the curriculum, and occupied 
 three or four hours daily. In addition I, whom my 
 father had destined to become a Hebrew scholar, 
 received private instruction, partly by the teacher, 
 and partly by himself. At the age of six, my father 
 began to instruct me in Mishnah. It is a puzzle to 
 me today how a child could grasp the intricate 
 problems of the Mishnah, including the commentary 
 of Bertinoro. But I have since found on my visits 
 to eastern Europe, and also to some of the Talmud- 
 torahs in the United States that boys of eight studied 
 more difficult parts of the Talmud. As a specimen 
 of the instruction I give the following translation of a 
 passage in Bertinoro's commentary to the first chapter 
 of Berakot. f? VOCD K\p NHIIN 3JK ttr6'l2 "Der Tanne 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 laesst mich bei dieser Gelegenheit einen neuen Din 
 hoeren." On my seventh birthday, I was presented 
 as a paragon before an invited audience of friends to 
 recite the first two chapters of the Mishnah. 
 
 At the age of eight, I received instruction, together 
 with a small class of boys, in Talmud from our new 
 rabbi. Dr. M. H. Friedlaender. Our old rabbi, 
 Markus Trieschet who had held his office for thirty-six 
 years, died August 6, 1866, of the cholera, which 
 then ravaged our town, due to the invading Prussian 
 army, which made of the school building a military 
 hospital. I remember the old rabbi quite distinctly, 
 for my father took me usually with him on Sabbath 
 afternoon when the rabbi -held his "Shiur" (lecture) 
 to a circle of six men, all of whom have since died 
 without finding any successors. The rabbi also used 
 to examine me in my Bible lessons, which was done 
 for the sake of encouragement, and I used to bring 
 him every day, the "Neue Freie Presse," usually 
 with the message of the most important news. A 
 daily paper was then a luxury, and as a rule, two or 
 three people formed a club to subscribe for it. My 
 last recollection is that I brought him the message 
 that armistice was declared. 
 
 His successor was elected in the following year. 
 Dr. M. H. Friedlaneder, born in 1839, in Bur St. 
 Georgen, Hungary, is the brother of the well known 
 writer on Hellenistic literature, Moritz Friedlaender. 
 He was naturally the first modern rabbi that we had, 
 and the sign on his door "Dr. M. H. Friedlaender, 
 Rabbiner and Prediger" impressed me very strongly. 
 With him came some reforms. The "Schulrufen," 
 
28 SCROLLS 
 
 which means that the sexton went Friday evening 
 before dark through the ghetto, calling "Kabbolas 
 Shabbos," and on Saturday morning and afternoon 
 calling "In Schul" — had become obnoxious, and was 
 a mere habit, because quite a number of people lived 
 then outside of the ghetto. The daily "Schulkloppen," 
 the knocking at every door to announce the beginning 
 of services on week days, had already been abolished 
 before my time, though I do remember the old 
 Shammes Mordche, who died in 1883, at the age of 
 ninety-eight, and ordered that the wooden hammer, 
 which he had used in announcing the beginning of 
 services, be placed in his coffin. It was to be his 
 credential in heaven. No matter, how much of a 
 sinner he may have been, he had done something good 
 in his life. Another reform was the abrogation of the 
 "Piyutim," against which some of the older elements 
 grumbled, but they finally submitted. A choir of 
 boys had existed already before my time. It seems 
 strange that one who stood for reform, should organize 
 a class in Talmud studies. I do not think, it lasted 
 very long, and at any rate, I was the only one who 
 continued the studies after leaving school. 
 
 The Austrian primary school, up to the reorganiza- 
 tion of the educational system by a new school law, 
 issued in 1868, consisted of four grades. As our school 
 had only three grades, I had to pass an examination at 
 a "Hauptschule," for which Nikolsburg was chosen. 
 The school of Nikolsburg, established in 1839, during 
 the lifetime of the Landrabbiner, Nehemias Trebitsch, 
 of whom Leopold Loew reports that he entered upon 
 his ofifice with a determination, "to weed out the Ger- 
 
__^ INTR ODUCTION 29 
 
 man with the roots, "22 was under the supervision of 
 Dr. Moritz Eisler (1823-1904) well known as a writer 
 on Jewish philosophy. The examination in which a 
 few other boys and girls took part, does not seem to 
 have been a very severe one. I suppose it would have 
 been very unprofessional for Dr. Eisler to "flunk" a 
 class of boys prepared by a Jewish colleague. On the 
 ground of this certificate of examination, I was 
 admitted as a "Privatist" to the Gymnasium of 
 Nikolsburg. Being only nine years old, my father 
 felt that I was too young to be sent away from home, 
 and therefore he made an arrangement with another 
 family in our town, having a boy of about my age, 
 to engage a private teacher, who should prepare us 
 for the semi-annual examinations, which non-resident 
 students had to undergo. The Austrian "Gymnas- 
 ium" had and probably still has eight grades and re- 
 quires semi-annual examinations, of which only the 
 second one is decisive for promotion. Our teacher was 
 Emil Auspitzer, then a student of the seventh grade 
 of the "Gymnasium" at Bruenn, who in addition to 
 teaching us, had to prepare himself for his semi- 
 annual examination. He was the son of an ex-Hazan, 
 Kalman Judah Loew Auspitzer, who was a native of 
 Nikolsburg, and probably a lineal descendant of the 
 heretic by the same name, whom Jacob Emden enum- 
 erates amongst the followers of the Sabbathai Zebi 
 sect in his days. Emil Auspitzer subsequently convert- 
 ed to Roman Catholicism, marrying the daughter of a 
 high government ofificial, and after a brief career in 
 the state service worked for some business organiza- 
 tion as political economist, and to judge by Siegmund 
 22Gesammelte Schriften, II, 204, Szegedins, 1890. 
 
30 SCROLLS 
 
 Mayer's memoirs,^' did not come up to the expectations 
 which his briUiant mind seemed to justify. He died 
 at Tephtz, January 26, 1908, at the age of fifty-seven. 
 While I received this instruction, I naturally continued 
 my Hebrew studies, partly under the guidance of my 
 father and partly under the instruction of our local 
 rabbi. In this way I finished the work of the first 
 two grades of the "Gymnasium," and in the fall of 
 1870 entered the third grade as regular student. 
 
 Nikolsburg, at one time not only the largest 
 congregation of Moravia, numbering 3,400 souls in a 
 population of 8,000, but also one of the most promi- 
 nent congregations of the German empire, was, when 
 I first saw it, already declining. Yet it impressed me 
 as a metropolis, with its ten synagogues, of which 
 in 1868 four were closed. Its Jewish life was intense. 
 It was during the "ten days of pentience" when I 
 first arrived, and the main street of the ghetto was 
 crowded with people going to the evening services. 
 I was also deeply impressed by the really beautiful 
 Altschul with its four-domed ceiling, and its "Almemor" 
 surrounded by four marble pillars, as also by the 
 Hazan, Kalman Loeb Maas, who had a fine baritone 
 voice, and in addition to his office, conducted a jewelry 
 shop. Entirely new to me was also the Beth Hem- 
 idrash, with its three rooms, of which one was re- 
 served to a library of Cabbalistic books, inspiring the 
 boy with awe for the deep mystery which this name 
 conveyed. It was for the sake of this Jewish atmos- 
 phere that my father seleced Nikolsburg, instead of the 
 
 ^Ein Juediseher Kaufmann, 1831-1911. Lebenserrinnerungen 
 Leipsic, 1911. 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 much nearer and more accessible city of Bruenn for 
 my education. 
 
 The "Gymnasium" was then still conducted by a 
 monastic order, the "Piaristen" officially called the 
 "priests of the pious schools of the Mother of God." 
 This order which was established in the seventeenth 
 century, was intended to bring a more liberal spirit 
 into Catholic education and to counteract the narrower 
 principles of the Jesuits, previously possessing almost 
 a monopoly of education. Moravia, as is known 
 through the Moravian Brethern of the United States, 
 was in the seventeenth century, the seat of an active 
 Protestant propaganda. Cardinal Prince Francis von 
 Dietrichstein (1570-1636) was a member of the house 
 which owned the estate of Nikolsburg, and in his 
 influential position as governor of Moravia, after the 
 defeat of the Protestant party, in the battle of the 
 White Mountain, 1620, went to work with the object 
 of suppressing Protestantism. For this purpose, he 
 established the first colony of the new order, outside 
 of Italy in Nikolsburg, feeling that the milder method 
 of the "Piaristen" was more adapted to a re-establish- 
 ment of Catholicism than the rigorous Jesuit discipline. 
 While the "Gymnasium" was a Catholic institution, 
 the Jewish scholars, who formed probably twenty- 
 five per cent of the enrollment, were not treated 
 badly. We then had the usage that at every semi- 
 annual examination, the students of every class were 
 graded , and it often happened that a Jew was ' 'primus. ' ' 
 I also remember that a Jewish boy, the son of a poor 
 tailor, being unable to pay his tuition, was called out 
 of the classroom by the teacher, an old priest, who 
 
32 SCROLLS 
 
 handed him the required sum, and said, "Tell your 
 father to pay me back the money, whenever he shall 
 be able." Secularism, which at that time was very 
 strong in Austria, when the people rebelled against the 
 "Concordat" of 1855, made itself felt in the school 
 management. The practice of the order was to take 
 boys from the school after they had finished the sixth 
 grade, employ them as teachers in the primary schools, 
 afterwards giving them a chance to finish their studies, 
 when they were employed in the secondary schools. 
 They therefore, with but very few exceptions, had 
 not received an academic training. The clerical 
 minister of education. Count Thun, while very active 
 in improving secondary schools, requiring an academic 
 course in the special branch in which the teacher was 
 to give instruction, winked at this situation. The 
 liberal government, which was organized in 1867, 
 insisted on carrying out the law, and in consequence 
 the order was unable to obtain qualified teachers. 
 Therefore, when I entered the "Gymnasium" we had 
 already some lay teachers and — another proof of the 
 liberal spirit then prevailing — in 1873 a Jew, Joseph 
 Frank, born in Leipnik, Moravia, 1849, was appointed 
 temporary teacher of history, in a Catholic institution, 
 maintained by a convent. It was in the same year 
 that the order felt, it was impossible to maintain the 
 institution on the basis of the state's requirements, 
 and it was turned over to the state. The older teach- 
 ers were retained, and the younger ones dismissed 
 in whose place young men possessing a regular certifi- 
 cate, obtained at a university, were appointed. The 
 old principal was retained as teacher, while in his 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 place a layman was entrusted with the supervision 
 of the school. 
 
 My object is not to give a biography, but a picture 
 of conditions, and therefore I shall say nothing of my 
 own records during the six years that I attended the 
 "Gymnasium." The school laws of Austria required 
 instruction in religion as part of the prescribed curricu- 
 lum, both of primary and of secondary schools. This 
 law was introduced in 1852, by the above mentioned 
 minister Count Thun. There was discrimination in 
 favor of the Catholic majority. The teacher of Cath- 
 olic religion was a member of the regular teaching staff, 
 and his hours of instruction were included in the 
 regular curriculum, and graded like the other work, 
 while the Jewish teacher had to be contented with 
 the hours after regular instruction, and had to combine 
 several classes. We also had to pay a special fee for 
 our religious instruction, while the Catholic instruc- 
 tion was paid for out of the regular fund. This sys- 
 tem, however, was changed, while I was still in school, 
 the Jewish teacher being paid a certain sum for each 
 hour per annum. A further change in favor of the 
 recognition of the Jewish religion will be related after- 
 wards. Our teacher was Dr. Moritz Eisler, --' (1823- 
 1904) the principal of the Jewish school. While Dr. 
 Eisler was a real scholar, I cannot say that his official 
 instruction had very much value. My own objection to 
 the present scheme of the Gary system dates back to this 
 early period. In addition to this official instruction 
 I, together with a few other students, received instruc- 
 tion in Talmud. When the Jewish school was 
 established in 1839, a special teacher of Talmud was a 
 2<Jewish Encyclopedia, V. 84. 
 
34 SCROLLS 
 
 member of the Icarhing staff. His name was Joseph 
 Hirsch Knoepfmaclier, a disciple of Marcus Benedikt, 
 who had given him the Morenu title, a distinction, 
 a historic fact quite worthy of note, when I arrived 
 in Nikolsburg forty years after the death of the great 
 rabbi. In addition to his position as tiacher Knoepf- 
 machcr was "Schulrebbe," which means that he 
 preached occasionally at onc> of the smaller synagogues, 
 which he attended. This position he still held, when 
 I arrived, but from his teaching position he had 
 retired. I occasionally enjoyed the distinction that 
 my teacher Simon Koenig, of whom I shall speak later, 
 who was a nephew of the rabbi, would take me to his 
 house on Saturday afternoon, to give me a "Leinen," 
 which means the reading of a Talmudir passage, 
 which I had not studied before. Knoepfmacher 
 died in 1876, at the age of eighty-two, a relic of a long 
 forgotton era. Talmud intruction, however, was 
 still given in three grades, the beginner's class was in 
 charge of one Isaiah Krakauer, called popularly 
 Reb Schaje Rebeller, for reasons unknown to me, the 
 second grade was taught by one Reb Zelig Loeb 
 Hahn, and the third grade by the rabbi. Dr. Maier 
 Feuchtwang. When I came to Nikolsburg, I had 
 sufficient preparation to be assigned to the second 
 grade. 
 
 Our teacher, Reb Zelig Loeb, was like so many 
 others a shifiwrecked business man, who was compelled 
 to fall back on his Talmudic studies. The class which 
 I entered consisted of but four students, who came 
 five times a week after scIkxiI hours to the house of 
 the teacher for two hours of instruction. This fact 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 in itself shows, how the interest in rabbinic studies had 
 dechned during the forty years after the death of 
 Marcus Benedikt, whose Yeshibah is said to have 
 numbered from three to four hundred students. The 
 real Yeshibah seems to have gone out of existence 
 with the death of Rabbi Solomon Quetsch in 1856. 
 Of the four students who formed our class, two were 
 attracted by the chance of winning a stipend of fifty 
 florins coming from the legacy of some pious member of 
 the Nikolsburg congregation. The instruction was 
 given in Yiddish, with all the old-fashioned habits of 
 gesticulation, yelling and chanting, which good old 
 Samuel Haida in the seventeenth century declared 
 essential to the progress of Jewish studies, much to 
 the displeasure of his more enlightened contemporary 
 Jair Hayim Bacharach.^^ The topic that we studied 
 was the second chapter of Kiddushin, hardly very 
 appropriate for boys of eleven to fourteen. I had 
 previously studied under our rabbi at home the 
 first chapter of Pesahim, and strangely enough, the 
 third chapter of Hullin, dealing with the dietary laws, 
 which perhaps the rabbi selected, because he wanted 
 to review them for the sake of his practice. The 
 scholastic year then began on the first of October, 
 and ended with the last of July. I had been on a visit 
 home during the Christmas vacation, and probably 
 on two other similar occasions. The Christmas vaca- 
 tion, I remember particularly on account of the very 
 severe winter, and the brilliant polar light, connected 
 by superstitious people with the Franco-German war. 
 The vacation began on Friday, and as Nikolsburg had 
 no railroads then, we had to make the journey in a 
 ^Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 55. 
 
36 SCROLLS 
 
 sleigh, the driver, a Jew, not being in any hurry, and 
 I remember distinctly that we passed through Pohr- 
 litz, where one of our number had his home, when 
 people were starting for the synagogue. It was night 
 when we arrived at home, received by my father with 
 a severe reprimand to the driver for having come 
 home on Sabbath. My father was not satisfied with 
 the progress of my Talmudic studies, and therefore 
 at the beginning of the new term I was placed in 
 charge of a private teacher, Reb Shimme Koenig, 
 who had been my father's classmate in the Yeshibah 
 of Rabbi Baer Oppenheim in Eibenschuetz about 
 forty years previously. One little incident that the 
 two men discussed at their first meeting after so 
 many years, deserves preservation as typical of the 
 spirit of the time. My father reminded his former 
 schoolmate of an occasion, when Rabbi Baer quoted a 
 Talmudic interpretation of Rabbi Mordecai Benet, 
 disapprovingly, and added: "On the tombstones of 
 such people they write, 'the famous scholar, the 
 brilliant, and learned'." Reb Schimme, then a boy, 
 who had always heard the name of the rabbi of his 
 native town mentioned with a reverence due to a 
 saint, turned pale, and when the recollection was 
 brought back to him he evaded every comment. 
 Reb Schimme was Schammes of the same Schul of 
 which his uncle was rabbi, and occasionally earned 
 a little extra money by some religious job, such as in- 
 spector of the Matzos bakery, the season lasting 
 hardly more than four weeks. During such a season 
 I was handed over temporarily to one of the regular 
 attendants of the Beth Hamidrash, Reb Jossef Loebele 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 Abeles, or Reb Schapse Karpeles. Both seem to 
 have been hired to spend their days in the Beth 
 Hamidrash. The former had the reputation that he 
 knew Cabbala, and I tried to pump him on that 
 subject, which still possessed for me the halo of 
 mystery, but he evaded it, merely declaring that it was 
 a "groisse Wissenschaft." Reb Schapse was one 
 of those noble idealists, which the much misunder- 
 stood ghetto produced. He would come to the 
 Beth Hamidrash long before daybreak, at three or 
 four o'clock in the morning, probably attend the daily 
 penitential services, Shomerim La-Boker, which were 
 introduced by Rabbi David Oppenheim, who left a fund 
 for their maintenance, then study till morning services 
 began, then go home for his frugal breakfast and a 
 little rest, to continue studying until noon time, and 
 after a little siesta, come back and stay till late in 
 the evening. He was a quiet pious soul, unostenta- 
 tious, and deeply devout. Being hard of hearing, he 
 had to retire from business, and was given this modest 
 job, to which was added the income that he received 
 from people who commissioned him "to learn" in the 
 case of a death or "Jahrzeit." Being of a quiet dis- 
 position he was considered stupid. As a type of the 
 ghetto piety which would not speak unfavorably of a 
 Talmudic scholar, I quote the saying verbatim: 
 "Sein Toire ausgenuemmen is er a Beheme." I do 
 not believe that the statement was just. Two in- 
 stances I shall quote, naturally not with a desire to 
 correct a historic error, but to give some information 
 about the inner life and the intimate talk of the 
 ghetto, in its last stages. One of the regular pieces of 
 
38 SCROLLS 
 
 a ghetto inventory is the idiot. I. L. Perez has pre- 
 served us such a picture in his wonderful sketch 
 "Der Meshuggener Batlan." Nikolsburg had such 
 a specimen in a man, then perhaps thirty-five years 
 old, named "Meshugge Itzig." Itzigl, the posthum- 
 ous son of a rabbinical scholar, cousin of the Dajan, 
 Rabbi Moshe Loeb Kohn, and grandson of the his- 
 toric author Abraham Trebitsch,^^ was certainly a 
 mental defective. He had no occupation, and prob- 
 ably lived on such charity jobs, as attending a Minyan 
 and saying Kaddish. Most of his time he spent in 
 the Beth Hamidrash, where he studied the Yiddish 
 books on religious ethics. One of his passions was 
 playing the lottery, which in Austria is a state institu- 
 tion, and allows people to gamble on a very small scale. 
 The combination of numbers which should win in the 
 next drawing was naturally his main concern. While 
 he was sitting in the Beth Hamidrash one evening, 
 studying his Yiddish book at the same table, where 
 I received instruction from Reb Schapse, Reb 
 Gawriele Boehm entered. Reb Gawriele was the 
 exact opposite of Reb Schapse, very ostentatious in 
 his devotion, and always looking out for material 
 advantages, which in his occupation as a religious 
 jobber, certainly did not amount to much. One 
 of his ostentations was that he would not pass by the 
 Beth Hamidrash without entering and devoting a 
 little time to study. He came in, and the first thing 
 that he did was to light another candle, scoffing at 
 Reb Schapse, who was so stingy with the provision 
 made for the Beth Hamidrash. Then he opened a 
 book, an d instead of reading, began to propose to 
 ^sjewish Encyclopedia, XII, 238. 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 Itzigl a scheme how to make sure that he would win 
 in the lottery. Itzigl should wait until eleven at night, 
 when the new moon would appear, then should go out 
 half a mile beyond the limits of the town to recite the 
 prayer for the new moon, and then retire without 
 saying one word, after which he would be sure to have 
 a dream. In which the winning numbers would be 
 revealed to him. Having answered various questions, 
 and feeling that he had sufficiently impressed Itzigl 
 with his advice, Reb Gawriele closed his book and 
 left. Reb Schapse calmly extinguished the unneces- 
 sary candle and said with a smile, "For this study he 
 hardly needed more light." 
 
 Another occasion to illustrate the character of this 
 good old soul is the following. I had an uncle in 
 Nikolsburg, Aaron Eisler, called Reb Ora, whose wife 
 Eva, "The Muhme Chawe," was a sister of my mother, 
 more than twenty years her senior. Aaron Eisler 
 was, measured by the local standard, a very rich man 
 and somewhat miserly, although a strictly observant 
 Jew, who frequented twice a day the "Hasidim Schul," 
 a synagog founded by Rabbi Schmelka Horwitz, 
 about 1775 for the purpose of maintaining the Hasidic 
 ritual. Having no sons, my uncle was very careful 
 to "provide for the salvation of his soul" (Neshome 
 versorgen). He had a beautiful Sefer Torah written, 
 which, while he was living, was kept in his house, and 
 which in his will, he bequeathed to the synagog. 
 Inhiswillwas provided that ten men should come every 
 day to his house, during the thirty days following his 
 death to hold services. During these services one 
 Saturday evening, the people assembled, most of them 
 
40 SCROLLS 
 
 very poor, some plain carriers of burden, anxious that 
 prayers should begin, so that they might go to their 
 work. Reb Schapse, who read the services, was not 
 sure that the Sabbath had ended, and said to the 
 impatient worshippers, "Don't be in a hurry, the time 
 will come, when you will be glad that the services 
 do not begin so early." This was an allusion to the 
 rabbinic belief that the sinners in Gehinnom are at 
 rest on Saturdaj', and do not return to their torments 
 until the services are over. 
 
 Both Reb Shapse and Reb Gawriele are types that 
 by this time surely have gone out of existence in their 
 part of the country. Reb Gawriele especially was 
 a type of the degeneracy of the ghetto. A lineal 
 descendant of the famous Rabbi Loewe Ben Bezalel 
 of Prague, of whose Kiddush cup he was the proud 
 possessor, he died in poverty and obscurity. His 
 picture has by accident been perpetuated in the illus- 
 tration accompanying the article "Nikolsburg" in 
 the Jewish Encyclopedia. 
 
 Reb Schimme had prepared me for the Bar Mitzvah, 
 teaching me a dialectical discourse on the Talmudic 
 law of the obligation of swearing when the defendant 
 admits the claim of the plaintiff in part (Baba Mezia, 
 3 a). I have forgotten all of it except the subject. 
 The audience which understood my discourse when 
 I delivered it at home hardly counted more than four 
 people. I was the last one in my town to celebrate a 
 Bar Mitzvah in this style, but I also delivered the 
 customary German address that I had written myself 
 for this occasion. 
 
 After having been under Reb Schimme's tutelage 
 for about three years, I was enrolled, in the highest 
 
INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 class of the Talmud school in charge of the Rabbi, 
 Dr. Maier Feuchtwang. About three boys came to 
 the rabbi's house three times a week from eleven to 
 twelve. Dr. Feuchtwang, born in Pappenheim, 
 Bavaria, 1814, was elected rabbi of Nikolsburg 
 in 1861, coming from Neutra, Hungary. A pupil of 
 Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger, and Rabbi Seligman Baer 
 Bamberger, he represented the strict German ortho- 
 doxy, which combined with good secular education, 
 was somewhat strange in our old fashioned crude 
 environment. Yet he was highly respected, both on 
 account of his character and his piety, although a few 
 representatives of the old school, under the leadership 
 of the Dajan, Moses Loeb Kohn, antagonized him 
 occasionally with great bitterness, especially when 
 he gave his consent to the introduction of such reforms 
 as a choir of boys, and the abrogation of "Schulklop- 
 pen" and "Schulrufen." These iconoclastic changes 
 had occurred a few years before I arrived in Nikols- 
 burg, and the bitterness of the strife had ceased, when 
 I came. Only once I remember a representative of 
 the old school, who declared in the office of the con- 
 gregation, that the rabbi is "the ruin" (a Shtorz) of 
 the Torah and of the fear of God. The rabbi preached 
 a sermon on holydays, and on one Sabbath a month 
 before the Mussaf services began, which in Nikols- 
 burg, as in all Moravian congregations, started at ten 
 o'clock. This practice had been followed from time 
 immemorial in order to give to those who attended 
 services in another synagog, the opportunity of 
 hearing him. My impressions of Dr. Feuchtwang as 
 a preacher may be colored by youthful enthusiasm, 
 but I do believe him to have been endowed with good 
 
42 SCROLLS 
 
 oratorical gifts. As a pedagogue he was not a great 
 success. The time for instruction was short, because 
 we left school at eleven o'clock, which brought us 
 naturally later to his house, and at twelve o'clock 
 the lesson closed. Occasionally it was interrupted by 
 visitors, or a pressing congregational duty. My father, 
 therefore, finding that I did not make sufficient pro- 
 gress, placed me under the care of the other Dajan 
 Rabbi Joseph Knoepfmacher, who was also "Schul- 
 rebbe" of the Neuschul, the second largest synagogue. 
 Knoepfmacher was a somewhat modern man, who 
 born in 1815, had still attended the course under Rabbi 
 Mordecai Benet, but was a discipleof SolomonQuetsch, 
 when the latter was rabbi of Leipnik. He had in an 
 autodidactic way acquired a solid knowledge of the 
 most important high school studies, and spoke a 
 correct German, different in this respect from his 
 colleague Reb Moshe Loeb, who maintained the Yid- 
 dish in his discourses. Knoepfmacher was a good 
 teacher, and congratulating him on his ninetieth 
 birthday, I could remind him still of the discussion 
 on the principle of conflicting laws which he had taught 
 me (Makkot 17, a). He died in 1909, at the age of 
 ninety-four, the last relic of old rabbinism in the 
 place made famous by so many prominent rabbinic 
 authors like Loewe Ben Bezalel and Lipman Heller. 
 His position was very modest. As Dajan he received 
 a salary of 250 florins (about $100) and as preacher at 
 his synagogue very likely not more. Yet he raised a 
 family of ten children, though his wife, who kept a 
 store, contributed to the maintenance of the house- 
 hold. As another interesting feature of economic 
 
INT RODUCT ION 43 
 
 life, I may add that the tuition that I paid for three 
 hours weekly was four florins a month, while Reb 
 Schimme received only two florins a month for five 
 lessons a week. 
 
 During my last year in Nikolsburg my Talmud stud- 
 ies were neglected, because I needed all my time to 
 prepare for the final examination (Maturitaetspruef- 
 ung), which then was quite severe, partly because of 
 the government's policy of improving the standard 
 of education, and partly because most of our teachers 
 were young men, fresh from the university, inspired 
 by their feeling of power. The examination had two 
 parts, one written examination, which extended over a 
 week, and was followed, four weeks later by an oral 
 examination, lasting one day. It was quite an anxiety 
 when at the close of the day the Landesschulinspektor 
 (superintendent of the provincial school system) who 
 presided at these examinations, announced, "I regret 
 to say that the result of the examination is not as 
 favorable as I would have liked to see it." And then 
 came the list of those who were rejected for one year, 
 and others who had to repeat examination in one 
 subject at the beginning of the fall term. I was 
 among the fortunates, who had passed without 
 a scratch, and so had completed at the age of seventeen 
 my "Gymnasium" education. From July 17, when 
 the examination was held, until the fall term, which 
 began in October, I was free, and spending the vaca- 
 tion at home, my father utilized the time that he 
 could spare from his business, to give me instruction 
 in Talmud, so that I could enter the Breslau Seminary 
 well prepared. The distance from my native town 
 
44 SCROLLS 
 
 to Breslau is probably less than two hundred miles, 
 but the connections were poor, and it took nearly 
 fourteen hours to reach my destination. Our people 
 living in narrow conditions did not travel very often, 
 and Breslau, being beyond the border of Austria, was 
 considered a different world. In order to reach my 
 destination in the day time, I had to leave my home 
 at nine in the evening, and to travel all night until 
 noon next day. Sleepers did not exist and probably 
 if they would have existed, it would have been con- 
 sidered an extravagance to use them. I stopped at a 
 modest Jewish hotel in the old quarter of the town, 
 known to readers of German literature from Gustav 
 Frey tag's "Soil und Haben." I arrived October 6, 
 1876, and on the same afternoon called on my future 
 professors. The "Juedisch-Theologisches Seminar" 
 is a modest apartment building, on the edge of the 
 old inner town as is seen from the name of the street 
 "Wall Strasse." Not far from it was the old powder 
 magazine, whose explosion in 1749 destroyed so many 
 Jewish lives, and is alluded to by Lessing in his play, 
 "Die Juden." One of his characters quotes this fact 
 and the great loss of Jewish lives as proof that Provi- 
 dence does not want so many Jews. The old fortifi- 
 cations were razed after the Napoleonic time, the 
 ditch being retained and adding greatly to the beauty 
 of the place. The little garden in the rear of the 
 building adjoins the "Promenade." On the first floor 
 were three classrooms, the janitor quarters, and the 
 flat of Dr. David Rosin. On the second floor the 
 "Direktor" Dr. Leyser Lazarus lived, while one part 
 was used for the library. On the third floor Graetz 
 
INTRODUCTION 45 
 
 lived, while part of the flat was used as a synagog. 
 On the fourth floor were two flats inhabited by 
 Freudenthal and Zuckermann. On the fifth floor, in 
 the attic, there were two rooms set apart for students, 
 who were given the privilege of free quarters. There 
 were, when I entered the seminary, thirty-four 
 students enrolled, eight of whom were newcomers. 
 Only three of us had graduated from a "Gymnasium," 
 while the others had still to attend the preparatory 
 class, in which also secular subjects were taught in 
 order to prepare them for the university. Among 
 the latter, I may here mention, was Leon Kellner, 
 lately professor of English at the University of Czer- 
 nowitz, and a celebrated author not merely in his 
 special branch, but also as essayist and known as a 
 worker in Zionist circles. 
 
 The seminary had two branches, one in which, as 
 already stated, secular subjects were taught, while 
 the other was devoted to Jewish studies. This again 
 had two grades, distinguished by the preparation in 
 rabbinical studies. It naturally happened very often 
 that the students of the preparatory class were good 
 Talmudic scholars, coming from Polish or Hungarian 
 Yeshibahs, while some of those who had their regular 
 high school education, coming from western Europe, 
 were in the preparatory Talmud class. I was ex- 
 amined by Lazarus in Talmud, and still remember the 
 passage that I had to read. It deals with the question 
 whether it was permitted to bring to the priest on 
 holydays the gifts to which he is entitled (Bezah, 12,b). 
 My examination passed satisfactorily, as I also 
 passed the examination in Bible, at which Rosin gave 
 
46 SCROLLS 
 
 me Psalm 64 to translate and to explain grammat- 
 ically. I still remember that he asked me where the 
 word DIVI was found without suffix. I must 
 admit that I did not know that this was found in 
 II Kings 13, 17, but I have remembered it ever since. 
 Interesting it was to me that Rosin, before pro- 
 nouncing this word, took his velvet skull cap from 
 his pocket, to cover his head. 
 
 The courses in the Seminary began after the 
 holydays, which in that year closed October 13, 
 while the University course did not open until No- 
 vember. The arrangement was such that the courses 
 in the Seminary were given in the morning, while we 
 attended University in the afternoon, when most of 
 the courses in the department of philosophy are given. 
 Exceptionally, we would have a course at eleven 
 o'clock, which according to the habit of the "academic 
 quarter" was to begin at 11.15, but usually did not 
 begin until 11.20, so that we had time to reach the 
 university, when we left the seminary at 11. There 
 was no street car in Breslau with its quarter of a 
 million inhabitants then. Most of the students 
 studied Oriental languages, especially Arabic, at the 
 University. I was one of the exceptions, taking a 
 history course. The men who taught at the Seminary 
 when I entered have all gone to their eternal reward. 
 The last one to survive was Jacob Freudenthal, who, 
 however, having in the meantime been appointed 
 professor ordinarius of philosophy at the University, 
 had left the seminary long before his death. All 
 these men are known in the history of our literature, 
 and it is therefore unnecessary to give a general 
 
INTRODVCT ION 47 
 
 characterization. Lazarus, who is not known as an 
 author, for as far as I remember, his essay on the 
 ethics of the Talmud, pubHshed in the "Jahres- 
 bericht" of 1877 is the only work of his pen extant. 
 He was physically weak, and died while I was in 
 Breslau, April 16, 1879, at the age of fifty-eight. 
 His Talmud course was divided according to the plan 
 introduced by his predecessor, Zechariah Frankel, 
 into three parts, a thorough course (Statarisch) , a 
 cursory course, and one on codes. In addition, he 
 gave one lecture a week on a Talmudic subject. 
 His method was entirely new to me, for he, a disciple 
 of Akiba Eger, was a great admirer of dialecticism as 
 presented in the latest development of rabbinic 
 literature, of which I never had heard anything 
 before. Very often he gave an argument of Akiba 
 Eger, introducing it with the words, "Reb Kiwe has on 
 this subject a brilliant argument." Having been raised 
 in a different environment, I did not even know who 
 this Reb Kiwe was, and naturally thinking of the 
 Rabbi Akiba of the Mishnah, could in spite of my 
 modest preparation in Talmudic literature, not under- 
 stand how Rabbi Akiba could ever have used such 
 an intricate argument. There was hardly any 
 difference between the two courses in Talmud. Laz- 
 arus was too fond of the Pilpulistic method of the 
 Polish school, to allow an opportunity to pass, which 
 suggested the presentation of such a specimen. 
 The same is also true of his lectures on Talmudic 
 topics, though they were intended to give a modern 
 presentation of rabbinic literature. Personally he 
 was a very amiable and kindly man, and possessed a 
 
48 SCROLLS 
 
 great deal of humor. I am indebted to him for a 
 number of anecdotes from old fashioned Jewish life, 
 and of which I shall quote one, because it characterizes 
 the man. Leyser Lazarus, the older brother of the 
 famous philosopher, Moritz Lazarus, was born in 
 Filehne, province of Posen, and reared in the old- 
 fashioned Polish style, as it survived in the first 
 decades of Prussian administration. As a young man 
 he was called to Sondershausen, where he instructed 
 the Landrabbiner Philip Heidenheim (1814-1906), 
 up to that time a teacher, in Talmudic literature, 
 thus acquiring the opportunity of studying at the 
 "Gymnasium". After having finished his university 
 course, he became rabbi of the small provincial town 
 of Prenzlau, in the province of Brandenburg, where 
 he remained for twenty-five years. Having plenty 
 of leisure, he devoted his time to Talmudic studies, 
 and was indeed a Talmudic scholar, ranking with any 
 one of the old school. While he was rabbi in Prenzlau, 
 so he told us, a Polish Jew, who came there on business, 
 spent the Sabbath in town, and having nothing else 
 to do, spent most of the day in the company of the 
 rabbi. He was quite astonished to find a "Datsch a 
 Doktor," who wore no beard, except for a fringe on 
 his cheeks and under his chin, and spoke a correct 
 German, and yet could hold his own by the side of 
 any Polish rabbi. In the afternoon, the visitor ac- 
 companied the rabbi to a class of girls, whom he in- 
 structed in religion, and on the next day he attended 
 a wedding in the synagogue, where the rabbi delivered 
 an address. Taking leave, the visitor said: "Herr 
 Doktor, you ought to come to us in Poland. There 
 
INTRODUCTION 49 
 
 you could be a rabbi, but here they make of you a 
 Melammed, and a Marshalik (buffoon.)" As I al- 
 ready stated, Lazarus' efficiency was considerably 
 hampered by his delicate health, and after his death 
 his place was taken temporarily by a layman, a re- 
 tired business man, named Kuerschner, from Loslau, 
 Silesia. This fact is of importance, because this 
 type of men has completely died out in Germany, and 
 the small congregations in Silesia, which forty years 
 ago still possessed some laymen with considerable 
 Talmudic knowledge, have in most cases also ceased 
 to exist as congregations. 
 
 Of the men composing the faculty of the Seminary 
 in my time, the most illustrious scholar was Graetz. 
 It is unnecessary to characterize him as an author. 
 As a teacher he was more successful by stimulating 
 self-study than by instruction. As a man, he, al- 
 though coming from the poor classes, was an aristocrat 
 but he was even in his home a source of inspiration by 
 his interesting conversation, not merely on his special- 
 ty, but also on current topics and personal matters. 
 As a feature, which is rather unpleasant, but his- 
 torically interesting, I wish to say that he never 
 spoke of Lazarus as the "Herr Direktor" except at 
 the graduation exercises of 1879, when, owing to the 
 sickness of Lazarus, he presided. He was most 
 regular in his habits, an early riser and a hard worker, 
 though he never seemed to be pressed for time. 
 He had twice a week his card party, to which one of 
 the students was usually invited, the third man being 
 Jacob Levy, the author of the Talmudic dictionary, 
 who was living in Breslau as prebendary (Stifts- 
 
50 SCROLLS 
 
 rabbiner). Distinctly aristocratic was professor 
 
 Freudenthal, then just beginning his career as Privat- 
 dozent of philosophy at the University. He was a 
 very handsome, tall man, with a blond beard, suggest- 
 ing more the typically North-German, than the Jew. 
 He was like the others, strictly conforming, attending 
 the synagogue services every Sabbath, and being a 
 Cohen, chanted the priestly benediction in the old- 
 fashioned style on holydays. The synagogue services 
 were held every day in the morning, and it pains me 
 to say, that it was often difficult to obtain Minyan. 
 Even the students who lived in the attic rooms had to 
 be aroused from their beds occasionally. The only 
 regular attendant at the daily services was the 
 "Direktor." Graetz came only on the days, when 
 Torah is read, and rather zealously guarded his 
 privilege of distributing the honors. Needless to say, 
 the radical Bible critic, denounced in the orthodox 
 press as an infidel, laid his Tefillin scrupulously. 
 The most observant Jew of the faculty was Benedikt 
 Zuckermann. A native of Breslau, and educated 
 regularly at the "Gymnasium" and at the university, 
 where he studied mathematics, he was scrupulously 
 observant. A bachelor, living in a household, over 
 which his maiden sister presided, and a man of means, 
 he would attend every day a little synagog in a 
 room in the old ghetto, where his father had lived, 
 but at the same time was fond of social life, liked 
 dancing, and was a witty after dinner speaker. He 
 had an almost cynical attitude to modern theological 
 studies. The students ought to study Talmud and 
 codes. All the rest of "Juedische Wissenschaft" was 
 
INTRODUCTION 51 
 
 "Mumpitz." Personally, he was the kindest of all 
 men, free from all ceremonialism. 
 
 David Rosin was the one member of the faculty, 
 to whom I stood in closest relation. He was the 
 pedagog "par excellence," who prepared his lessons 
 in exegetical and Midrashic literature, very carefully, 
 and did his best to guide the students by personal 
 contact. His home was delightfully domestic, his 
 wife, the type of a German governess, with her blond 
 curls, as you would find them in a fashion journal of 
 seventy years ago, an almost devout admirer of her 
 husband, and aiding him in making students feel at 
 home. Rosin's qualities as a scholar are known from 
 his various works, as his painstaking edition of 
 Abraham Ibn Ezra's poems, and Samuel Ben Meir's 
 Pentateuch commentary. In addition to the subjects 
 mentioned, he taught homiletics. It was the rule 
 that no-one should preach until he had passed four 
 semesters, and then he had to begin in the classroom, 
 to be licensed to preach in the synagogue, when he 
 was considered sufficiently mature. The criticism in 
 the classroom seemed to me even then somewhat 
 pedantic. Rosin had not been a preacher, and his 
 ideal of preaching was that of Michael Sachs (1806- 
 1864) under whom he was superintendent of the re- 
 ligious school in Berlin and whose sermons he edited. 
 Altogether, it seems to me that the seminary had a 
 sort of convent atmosphere, quite apart from the 
 actual life of the congregations, still cherishing the 
 ideal of the first rabbis of modern education, with 
 the conservative views of Zechariah Frankel, who 
 in the twenty years of his administration, had im- 
 
52 SCROLLS 
 
 pressed his strong personality on the course of the 
 seminary. 
 
 Having completed my academic triennium, I left 
 Breslau in the summer of 1879 with the object of 
 obtaining my degree at an Austrian university. Not 
 considering it sufficiently important to analyze my 
 psychology, and not even quite certain that I could 
 do it, I limit myself to saying that I expected to enter 
 a secular calling as teacher of history in a high school. 
 For this purpose I had to take a course of two semes- 
 ters in an Austrian university. It is perhaps neces- 
 sary, in order to avoid misunderstanding, to state that 
 if I had any scruples against entering the rabbinate, 
 they were rather dictated by orthodox motives. 
 I arrived at Vienna in the fall of 1879, and was 
 matriculated at the University, where I took a his- 
 toric course under Max Buedinger (1828-1902), the 
 son of a Jewish teacher and author, who was ap- 
 pointed professor as a Jew, an event which was quite 
 symptomatic of the liberal spirit in those days, but 
 at some unknown moment, converted to Protestant- 
 ism. Whether he was a Jew still in 1879, I do not 
 know, but on the few occasions that he would touch 
 in his lectures on Jewish matters, he seemed to be 
 anxious to avoid the impression, that he was pre- 
 judiced in favor of Judaism. In an essay on the 
 influence of Egyptian ideas on the religion of the 
 Hebrews, printed in the publications of the Imperial 
 Academy of Vienna, he quotes Amos V, 25, stating 
 in a footnote that he gives Ewald's translation, as if 
 he were anxious to avoid the suspicion that he was 
 able to read the original, although my teacher Dr. 
 
INTR ODUCTION 53. 
 
 Feuchtwang told me that he instructed him in 
 Mishnah in Cassel, where his father, Moses Buedinger, 
 was teacher. Personally I had hardly any contact 
 with him, for in a university with 4,000 to 
 5,000 students, there was not that relation between 
 professors and students that we had in Breslau, where 
 I was in very close contact with Professor Jacob Caro, 
 the Jewish professor of history, who, though the son 
 of a Polish rabbi, also kept aloof from all Jewish 
 affairs. 
 
 While I had gone to Vienna for the purpose of 
 pursuing my secular studies, I also attended the course 
 in Talmud given in the Beth Hamidrash by Isaac 
 Hirsch Weiss. This course was attended by very few 
 students, none of whom was a regular university 
 student, as far as I can remember. A few old men, 
 retired from business, and some poor Talmudists, who 
 received a stipend from the Beth Hamidrash, attended 
 the course also. Weiss, though a brilliant scholar was 
 not a teacher. He displayed a very hot temper, 
 and if one dared contradict him, or would offer an 
 explanation of a difficult passage that Weiss did not 
 like, he came in for a volley of abuse. I may state 
 this fact, because I enjoyed the distinction of being 
 a favorite of his, as he showed afterwards, when he 
 gave me a rabbinic diploma, without my asking him. 
 The other lectures, given at the Beth Hamidrash by 
 Meier Friedmann, and by Jellinek, I only attended 
 occasionally as a visitor. Jellinek, however, was very 
 kind to me. Before characterizing him, I wish to 
 relate my first experience when I visited him. I 
 arrived in Vienna during the Sukkoth week, and 
 
54 SCROLLS 
 
 thought it would not be a convenient time to make my 
 first call. Jellinek had heard of my presence and 
 knowing my name, because the rabbi of my native 
 town, Dr. Friedlaender, had written to him about me, 
 and in the previous year, I had received the stipend 
 of 470 florins from the legacy of Baron Jonas von 
 Koenigswarter, on which Jellinek had a decisive vote, 
 and he considered my tardiness in making my appear- 
 ance bad manners. Weiss told me of this fact, and 
 naturally I called at Jellinek's house on the next 
 Sabbath. The services are held in Vienna early, so 
 that about 11 o'clock there usually was a reception, 
 both at the houses of Jellinek and Guedemann. 
 When I was ushered into the parlor, Jellinek took me 
 into an adjoining room, and said in his lively manner, 
 which characterized his speech at home as well as in 
 the pulpit, "You have been in Vienna for two weeks. 
 You know that I voted for you in the case of the 
 Koenigswarter stipend, and you did not find it worth 
 your while to call personally. I call this 'Juedisch.' 
 Now I tell you what I am going to do for you. There 
 is the Jeiteles stipend of 100 florins vacant. You make 
 your application and hand it to me, and I will do the 
 rest. This is the way Dr. Jellinek acts." 
 
 I cannot say that Jellinek ever impressed me as a 
 snob. His vanity was something natural. He had 
 been so blindly admired in Vienna that he took all 
 the tribute of admiration as something entirely 
 natural. He possessed a zeal in trying to help young 
 men. I remember one time having met him on the 
 street in one of these narrow lanes in the old part 
 of the town near the Seitenstettengasse, where the 
 
INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 old synagogue is located, and where Jellinek lived. 
 He approached me in his lively gait, and said in the 
 loud tones, which was his habit, as usually is the 
 habit of most persons hard of hearing, "What is 
 the matter with you? I gave orders to examine the 
 death records, to find whether you are still among 
 the living. Why have I not seen you so long?" I 
 remember today, my feeling of pride seeing a Jewish 
 "Diestmann" (men standing on certain street corners, 
 waiting for a call to take a message somewhere or to 
 carry a burden), who stood all the time with his red 
 cap in his hand, evidently deeply impressed with the 
 importance of the young man, to whom the great 
 preacher spoke in such familiar tones. Jellinek had 
 the pompous attitude of the pulpit, even in his 
 private conversation. A rather short man with his 
 long curled hair, reaching to his shoulders, carefully 
 dressed, he would suggest the actor in his appearance. 
 I saw him for the last time in November, 1891, 
 previous to my coming to America. A few months 
 before, he had offered to me, without any solicitation 
 on my part to suggest my name to a prominent 
 congregation, where the pulpit was vacant. A few- 
 months afterwards, when my election to my present 
 position in Cincinnati was reported in the press, I 
 received again a letter from him, dated from Reichen- 
 hall, in which he said: "You are going to America 
 although you know that Dr. Jellinek's influence 
 would always be at your disposal, but fearing that I 
 will not see you before you leave Europe, I wish you 
 God speed." Making my last visit to Vienna, where 
 I have relatives, I called on him. He was then almost 
 
56 SCROLLS 
 
 completely deaf, and in very poor health. One had 
 to use a speaking tube to talk to him, which was 
 somewhat unpleasant because his hair was very 
 highly perfumed. When he complained of his 
 health, I replied that his regular contributions to the 
 "Neuzeit" did not make the impression that his 
 mental vigor was impaired. He replied, "Oh, this 
 is no work. You know I am an excellent conver- 
 sationalist, and when I talked of current events in the 
 family circle, my wife said, 'You are throwing pearls 
 away.' So we made arrangements to have a sten- 
 ographer present, who takes down my chat." Jelli- 
 nek's fame as a preacher is a matter of historic record. 
 I am guilty of the heresy that I could never become 
 a blind admirer of his. There was something af- 
 fected in his speech, and something intended to 
 captivate the masses. In addition, his use of the 
 old-fashioned methods of a "Maggid" by quoting a 
 Midrash and twisting it altogether out of its meaning, 
 impressed me as an anachronism. While not quite 
 a quarter of a century has passed since his death, his 
 era passed long ago. When he came to Vienna in 
 1856, it was believed that all that was necessary to 
 perpetuate Judaism was correct German, an aes- 
 thetic change of the services, and general culture of 
 the preacher. The fact that his own son, George, a 
 brilliant scholar in international law, converted to 
 Christianity, is, although it happened often enough 
 in strictly orthodox circles, a significant fact. 
 
 Having finished the prescribed course of two 
 semesters at the University of Vienna, I still remained 
 there for a year, being busy with the preparation for 
 
INTRODUCTION 57 
 
 my examination. For examination as teacher of 
 history in a high school, the law demands that one 
 write three papers, one on his major, one on his minor 
 subject and one in pedagogy. My major subject was 
 history, the minor geography, and of the topics which 
 were given to me I remember only distinctly the one 
 on the major subject. It dealt with the status of the 
 Roman citizens in the kingdom of the Langobards, 
 previous to the promulgation of the "Edictus Roth- 
 ari." My topic in geography dealt with the Alps, 
 and that of pedagogy I have completely forgotten. 
 Having barely completed my thesis on the major 
 subject, I resolved to first take examination for the 
 Ph. D. degree. I therefore submitted my thesis for 
 such degree. The law prescribed that after such a 
 thesis was presented and approved, the candidate had 
 to pass examination in one major and two minor 
 subjects. After my thesis had been accepted, I 
 presented myself for examination, selecting as major, 
 as the law prescribed, history, as minors, philosophy 
 and classic philology. My examiners were, for 
 history, Buedinger, for philosophy Robert Zimmer- 
 man (182-1-1898), and for philology Karl Schenkl. 
 It so happened that the main dignitaries connected 
 with the examination and the public conferment of the 
 degrees were historians. The Rector Magnificus of 
 the University for the year was Ottokar Lorenz, and 
 the dean of the department of philosophy Heinrich 
 von Zeissberg, the tutor of Crown Prince Rudolf, who 
 ended so unfortunately. 
 
 My first impression was one of considerable fright. 
 Having been brought up in a little town in modest 
 
58 SCROLLS 
 
 circumstances and taught in the atmosphere of 
 an Austrian "Gymnasium" to look up with awe to 
 anybody in authority, I had failed to introduce 
 myself to some of the examiners. Professor Zimmer- 
 mann, the philosopher, told me in plain language 
 that I had committed a great tactical blunder and 
 Professor Schenkl did the same. The next trouble 
 was that, when Zimmermann asked me, what I had 
 studied, I said I had studied Spinoza. I learned now 
 that the rules of examination for Ph. D. prescribed 
 that the candidate must first name one depart- 
 ment of philosophy, before he can select one special 
 philosopher. This, however, was passed over very 
 soon because Zimmermann himself helped me, 
 saying: "Inasmuch as you say you have studied 
 Spinoza, I take it for granted that you have paid 
 particular attention to ethics." I naturally answered 
 affirmatively, though outside of Spinoza's ethics I 
 had not made any special study in that branch. 
 In history I was well prepared, and as the examiner 
 confined himself to the period with which my thesis 
 dealt, I had no difficulty. When the examination in 
 ethics began, things did not seem to run smoothly. 
 I was asked how many different kinds of ethics I 
 thought there were, and I had to admit my ignorance, 
 but when the examination proceeded along Spinoza's 
 system, and I was not only able to answer the ques- 
 tions, but could quote Spinoza's words fluently in the 
 original Latin, I noticed that Zimmermann's face 
 lit up. I must devote to this man a few remarks 
 because he and Karl Neumann (1823-1880), professor 
 of ancient history in Breslau, were the two men, who, 
 
INTRODUCTION 59 
 
 as far as my memory serves me now, had the most 
 inspiring influence on me during my academic career. 
 Zimmermann's appearance was striking, with his 
 long flowing beard, his locks, and his tightly fitting 
 "German coat." He had only a few notes on his 
 desk, but spoke very fluently, and had a very fine 
 delivery. At the same time his presentation was 
 exceedingly clear, which especially in his lectures on 
 history of philosophy, is not a general experience. 
 Similar was Neumann in Breslau, who came usually 
 with a well prepared "KoUegienheft," but inter- 
 rupted his regular course by remarks which he de- 
 livered, in a highly impressive manner without refer- 
 ing to his manuscript. I remember especially the 
 profound impression, created by his presentation of 
 the struggle for economic betterment led by the 
 Gracchus brothers, and of the corruption of Roman 
 society in the midst of the greatest military triumphs 
 under Scipio the Younger. It sounded like a political 
 address on a question of the day. Neumann was not 
 very active in literature, and his main work was 
 published after his death from the manuscript of his 
 lectures. He put his whole individuality, his abilitj'- 
 and his learning into his academic work, a feature 
 not very common among German university profes- 
 sors. Robert Zimmermann was a similar character. 
 His lectures were polished, clear in thought, and 
 brilliant in diction. 
 
 About two weeks after the examination came the 
 official "Promotion," at which a regular pageant was 
 formed led by the two "Pedells" in uniform bearing 
 maces, the "Rector Magnificus," the dean of the philo- 
 
eo SCFOLLS 
 
 sophic department, and the official "promotor." 
 The details of the ceremony have entirely escaped me. 
 I merely remember that Ottokar Lorenz delivered a 
 commonplace speech, Avhich created the impression 
 that he regarded the whole ceremony as an empty 
 formality. Altogether during his administration he 
 was a disappointment to the students. As this is an 
 incident connected with the development of Austrian 
 politics, and of considerable influence on the position 
 of the Jews. I shall de\ote a few words to it. In 
 1879 Austria amended its constitution. The Reichs- 
 rat, formerly composed of delegates of the various 
 provincial diets, was now elected by the direct vote 
 of the electoral districts. The premier Count Taaffe 
 inaugurated a policy which abandoned the former 
 hegemony of the Germans, trying to establish a 
 harmonious presentation of the various nationalities, 
 and making concessions to the feudal and clerical 
 elements. This aroused the opposition of the Ger- 
 man liberal party, which was in control of the uni- 
 versity-. In some way, which I do not exactly re- 
 member, Professor Lorenz came out with a strong 
 condemnation of the new course, and the University 
 in order to emphasize its endorsement of these views 
 elected him "Rector Magnificus." For the informa- 
 tion of those not familiar with the administration of 
 German universities, I wish to add that the universi- 
 ties are divided into four departments, "Facul- 
 taeten," over each of which a dean, annually elected, 
 presides. As head of the whole university a "Rector 
 Magnificus" is elected, also for a term of one year, the 
 four departments electing one of their men in turn. 
 
INTRODUCTION 61 
 
 Lorenz was elected, although his turn had not come. 
 His inaugural address, dealing with one chapter of 
 Aristotle's politics, was a masterpiece. He began 
 with the humorous hit on the philologists, who had 
 finally established that the sixth chapter of this book 
 ought really to have been the eighth, or something 
 to this effect, and then he proceeded, outlining 
 Aristotle's ^•ie\vs, and showing that the parliamentary 
 form of government, then existing in Austria, could 
 not have been classed by Aristotle as democracy, but 
 as oligarchy. Being considered a representative of 
 liberalism, he created quite a surprise, when on one 
 occasion he seemed to take the opposite stand. The 
 largest student society was the "Akademische Lese- 
 halle," which on some question connected with the 
 school law passed resolutions condemning the policy 
 of the government. The minister of education de- 
 manded that this action be rescinded, and threatened 
 with the dissolution of the society, if his order should 
 not be obeyed. Lorenz met with the students, and 
 pleaded in favor of complying with the order of the 
 government. The hot-headed young men would not 
 listen, and the society was dissolved by the order of 
 the minister. It was in the club rooms of this society 
 that I met Theodor Herzl, a year younger than I, 
 a handsome tall young man, with a slight mustache 
 covering his lip. I regret it now very much, that I 
 did not keep an exact diary in those days, for his 
 remarks on his relation to Judaism would possess now 
 considerable historic interest. I have merely a faint 
 recollection that he spoke of Judaism as something 
 which had no real interest for him. I belonged to the 
 
62 SCROLLS 
 
 minority that opposed the identification of the 
 society with the German Hberal party, and therefore 
 was connected with the non-German nationalities, 
 among whom the Slavonian element was quite 
 prominent. It may be added here that Lorenz after- 
 wards continued in his opposition to popular ideas, 
 and took the part of Professor von Maassen, who 
 taught canonicallaw.and in order to obtain a professor- 
 ship in this subject, had converted from Protestantism 
 to Catholicism, and this created such an indignation 
 amongst the students that Lorenz resigned, leaving 
 Austria and spending the balance of his life in Jena. 
 The opposition to popular ideas, and the desire to 
 show the other side of a question was a typical 
 feature of Lorenz's character, perhaps the true temper 
 of a historian. In his lectures, when referring to the 
 religious struggles of the sixteenth century, he would 
 speak of the "Evangelical Reformed" and the "Tri- 
 den tine Reformed" (Roman Catholic) churches. While 
 he held his office as "Rector Magnificus," Vienna 
 papers reported the annual Corpus Christi procession, 
 which, in Vienna, as in all Catholic countries, is a 
 state's affair, the Emperor himself with all dignitaries 
 of the state, taking part. The papers reported that 
 the "Rector" and the dignitaries of the University 
 were seen in this procession. Lorenz sent a letter to 
 the press, in which he declared that this report was 
 wrong, and could not be true, because through the 
 constitution of 1867, the universities had "finally" 
 become separated from the church. The fact that 
 he found it necessary to make such a statement, and 
 the emphatic word "endlich" showed his view of 
 
INTRODUCTION 63 
 
 this question. It was therefore quite a disappoint- 
 ment to his admirers, that he should have taken the 
 part of the clerical von Maassen. The unconvention- 
 ality of his character was also shown during my 
 examination. Professor Schenkl gave me a passage 
 in Tacitus' "Annals" to interpret. There a word 
 signifying some kind of arms occurred. I only knew 
 that it meant some kind of a spear, but Professor 
 Schenkl wanted to know more about it. I was 
 sorry I could not oblige him. He then accommodated 
 me with philological punctiliousness, giving me a 
 description to which I listened quite attentively, 
 feeling that the more time he consumed, the sooner 
 the half hour assigned to the subject, would pass. 
 Finally I^orenz pulled his colleague's sleeve and said: 
 "Lass sein, schon genug." 
 
 With a feeling of pride, because I had not told my 
 parents the exact date of the examination, I tele- 
 graphed the news home, and had the pleasure of a 
 real vacation during the short time between the 
 examination and the public "promotion." German 
 universities do not have a regular day for the conferr- 
 ing of degrees, but bestow them individually. In 
 Vienna on account of the large number of students 
 several are brought together for the public function, 
 and in my case there were three, of whom I remember 
 only one, a Jew, Siegfried Meckler, who in response 
 to the remarks made by "His Magnificence" made a 
 speech in Latin, for which he had asked our permission. 
 
 My vacation I spent at home, preparatory to taking 
 my position in Bruenn, to which I had been previously 
 elected, with the understanding, that I enter upon 
 
64 SCROLLS 
 
 the duties of my new office at the beginning of the 
 fall term. This position may be described as that of 
 a Sabbath school teacher, although owing to the school 
 system of Austria, it has a different character. This 
 school system provides for religious instruction, as 
 part of the prescribed curriculum, both in primary and 
 secondary schools. Bruenn, measured by European 
 standards, is a very young congregation. The Jews 
 having been expelled in 1454, in connection with the 
 anti-Husitic movement which was led by the Francis- 
 can friar John Capistrano, were not readmitted until 
 the constitution of 1848 abolished the restrictions 
 on the right of residence. Then the congregation 
 grew rapidly and had, when I arrived there in 1881, 
 about 6,000 souls in a total population of 82,000. 
 As the Jews formed a small percentage in the schools, 
 it was necessary to combine the pupils of various 
 schools outside of school hours, on Wednesdays, 
 Saturday afternoons, and Sunday mornings to give 
 them religious instruction. Only in a few schools, 
 where the number of Jewish pupils was large, the 
 instruction was given during the regular school time. 
 The congregation had advertised for a teacher with 
 academic training, and upon my application, I was 
 elected without difficulty. The salary of 600 florins 
 per annum was too small to attract many candidates. 
 The object in electing me to the position was to have 
 a suitable candidate in readiness for the position of 
 religious instructor in the secondary schools, then 
 filled by Daniel Ehrmann,-' whose early retirement 
 was contemplated. Ehrmann was a Bohemian rabbi 
 of the old type, an autodidact in secular studies, and 
 "Jewish Encyclopedia, V, 75. 
 
I NTRODUCTION 65 
 
 had great difficulty in maintaining discipline in the 
 classroom. In one of the schools, where he taught, 
 the Catholic teacher coined the "bon mot" that, 
 when he entered the classroom, Daniel was in the 
 lion's den. He died suddenly, November 15th, 1882, 
 and this being in the middle of the term, the usual 
 proceedure, demanding a public advertisement of 
 the vacancy had to be omitted, and I was recom- 
 mended to the provincial school board, to fill the va- 
 cancy for the balance of theschool year, and appointed. 
 The legal proceedure in filling such positions is this. 
 The appointment rests with the provincial school 
 board, consisting of the superintendents of education, 
 and representatives of churches and other organiza- 
 tions that I do not remember in detail, presided over by 
 the governor. This board, however, is bound to elect 
 one who is previously approved by the representatives 
 of the Jewish community. The salary is paid from 
 the public school fund, but in those days was de- 
 termined annually by the number of hours of in- 
 struction given. I had to teach in three schools, 
 two "Gymnasiums" and one "Realschule" (science 
 high school). There was another "Realschule" which 
 had so few Jewish students that they were sent to 
 the sister institution to receive their instruction. 
 All these schools were German, there being two 
 Slavic (Czech) institutions, one a "Gymnasium" and 
 one a "Realschule," in which during my incumbency 
 of six years, only one student was enrolled. After 
 my year of probation, if I may term it so, I was 
 elected to serve permanently, beginning with the 
 scholastic year of 1883. My experience was a 
 
66 SCROLLS 
 
 pleasant one, although I still expected to enter secular 
 teaching in history. For this purpose I wrote my 
 examination papers in the three subjects previously 
 mentioned, which were approved, but did not pass the 
 oral examination. Conditions had meantime become 
 unfavorable to Jewish candidates. The dearth of 
 properly certified candidates for positions in secondary 
 schools, created by the closing of the institutions 
 under church control, had meantime been followed 
 by an over-supply, and it was not unusual that a 
 candidate had to wait ten years, before he was ap- 
 pointed to a regular position. The clerical element 
 had gained headway, and began a regular attack on 
 the liberal school law of 1868, which the government 
 met by an amended school law of 1883, too intricate 
 to be explained in detail, but intended to work against 
 Jewish teachers without directly altering the consti- 
 tution, and finally my duties and studies kept me so 
 busy that I abandoned the plan altogether. 
 
 My relation with the school authorities was quite 
 pleasant. The member of the provincial school 
 board, to whose department my position was assigned 
 was Dr. Joseph Naacke, a liberal, almost a cynic in 
 religious matters, who to me privately expressed 
 opinions, which very likely he kept to himself, when 
 speaking to the Catholic teachers. When I made my 
 first visit to his office, before receiving my appoint- 
 ment, he said to me: "I shall be frank with you. 
 Personally I am very much in doubt whether re- 
 ligious instruction has any value at all, but if it is 
 given in a manner, as was the case with your prede- 
 cessor, who was unable to keep order in the classroom, 
 
INTRODUCTION 67 
 
 it is directly harmful. In his case, being an old man, 
 we were indulgent, but in the case of a young man, 
 such conditions will not be tolerated." He spoke also 
 freely of the Catholic religion. "When I was a little 
 boy," he said, "and I heard the chant 'Per omnia 
 saecula saeculorum' I was profoundly impressed, but 
 when I had learned enough Latin to know that it was 
 a meaningless tautology, I began to be an infidel, as 
 far as ecclesiastical conception of religion goes." As 
 the two classes of high schoools were assigned to two 
 departments, my course was inspected by two different 
 superintendents. I also had to examine teachers 
 who applied for a certificate in primary schools, 
 religion being one of the subjects in which they were 
 examined. This department was under the super- 
 vision of a third inspector. But my duties in this 
 branch were light. The amended school law of 1883 
 had the effect that both normal schools for men and 
 women were soon deserted by Jewish students. 
 The regular proceedure in appointments was that a 
 graduate of a normal school received his first position 
 in a village. The village schools, usually having 
 only one room, made the teacher principal, and the 
 new law prescribed that the principal should be of 
 the same religion as the majority of the pupils. 
 The consequence was that a Jewish candidate would 
 have to wait until a vacancy occurred in one of the 
 schools of a larger city, which again was autonomous, 
 and would not readily appoint a Jew, and finally if 
 he succeeded in obtaining such an appointment, 
 he could hardly expect to advance to the position of 
 a principal, there being in Austria, with the exception 
 
68 SCROLLS 
 
 of Vienna, hardly any schools having a majority of 
 Jewish children. The main difficulty in my position 
 was that while my appointment was for a life tenure, 
 it was temporary in so far as my salary was fixed from 
 year to year, and I could not lay claim to a pension 
 after thirty years of service, as was the case not only 
 with the teachers of secular subjects, but also with 
 the teachers of the Catholic religion. I made an 
 attempt to have my position placed in the rank of 
 the regular high school professors, laying my claims 
 before the newly appointed minister of education 
 Baron von Gautsch, afterwards premier. He was a 
 young man then, and showed the usual disposition of 
 young men, to favor radical changes, usually avoided 
 by seasoned bureaucrats. The question had to go 
 its regular course, from the provincial authorities to 
 the central administration. My friend. Dr. Naacke, 
 with his usual frankness, told me, "If you hand such a 
 petition to the provincial school board, it will be 
 turned down, because the sentiment is not favorable 
 to the idea of placing Judaism on the same level with 
 the Catholic church, but if you present the matter to 
 the minister directly, and he should show himself 
 favorably inclined, the provincial school board will 
 hardly oppose his view." He added, however, that 
 he did not consider such an eventuality probable. 
 It turned out differently. I went to Vienna during 
 the Christmas vacation of 1885, and laid my request 
 personally before His Excellency. There I learned 
 for the first time something about the usual method 
 of pull, preceding official appointments, but in spite 
 of a comparatively early acquaintance, I have not 
 acquired much liking for it. The minister sent my 
 
INTRODUCTION 69 
 
 application, with a few blue-penciled remarks back 
 to the provincial government, which in bureaucratic 
 language meant that he expected favorable action. 
 It is worth while recording that the Jewish member 
 of the provincial board, Julius von Gomperz, (1823- 
 1909),^* though appointed to support Jewish interests, 
 strongly dissuaded me. He was a type of the 
 "Shtadlan" of old, a Jew almost in name only, and 
 perhaps feeling like his brother, Theodor, professor 
 of philosophy at the University of Vienna, who 
 frankly states in his autobiography that he regretted 
 not having converted to Christianity early in life. 
 Julius von Gomperz, a member of that prominent 
 family, to whose history David Kaufmann has de- 
 voted such painstaking study .^^ was president of the 
 Jewish congregation for many years. He stood very 
 high in public life, being for many years president of 
 the Chamber of Commerce, member of the provincial 
 diet of Moravia, of the Reichsrat, and afterwards of 
 the House of Lords. His attitude to Jewish affairs 
 was rather cold. It seems to have been dictated by 
 the sentiment that Judaism has to be represented by 
 people of high standing, who would make it as in- 
 conspicuous as possible to impress the leading circles 
 with the fundamental article of assimilationism that 
 a Jew is not different from his fellow citizens. In 
 spite of the favorable position taken by the minister, 
 and my personal endorsement by the provincial 
 board of education, no action was taken, until years 
 after I had left Europe. 
 
 2'Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 14. 
 
 ^'Kaufmann und Freudenthal: Die Familic Gomperz, 
 Berlin, 1907. 
 
70 SCROLLS 
 
 This failure to obtain what I considered necessary 
 in order to secure my future, made me change my 
 former resolution not to enter the rabbinate. This 
 was not due to religious scruples, as I have already 
 observed, but rather the reverse. I wished to serve 
 Judaism in an independent position. While in 
 Vienna, though cut loose from theological studies, 
 I was a regular attendant at the services of some 
 orthodox synagog, and strictly observant in all 
 ritualistic matters. I refused a very good offer to 
 become tutor in a wealthy family because of my 
 observance of the dietary laws. While engaged in 
 my philosophical and historical studies, I frequently 
 attended the Beth Hamidrash, and once a week re- 
 mained there until midnight studying Talmud, to- 
 gether with a friend, a young business man. When 
 I came to Bruenn I also attended the services in a 
 little orthodox synagog that had its inception from 
 a time previous to the readmission of the Jews to the 
 city, serving then as a place of worship to those who 
 came on business especially during the fair times, 
 when Jews from all parts of the country had the 
 right to remain in the city even over night. For the 
 sake of my principle, I refused to accept a position 
 as assistant rabbi, although in the last year, when an 
 old Dajan, Veit Frischauer,^" a representative of the 
 old school, had died, I occasionally substituted the 
 rabbi. Dr. Baruch Placzek, at weddings and funerals. 
 Dr. Placzek, born in 1835, was then in the prime of 
 manhood, and when I arrived in Bruenn, his father, 
 Abraham Placzek, rabbi in Boskowitz, a town about 
 thirty miles from Bruenn, was still living. Rabbi 
 
 3"He died May 19, 1886 at the age of 83. 
 
INTRODUCTION 71 
 
 Abraham,^! born in 1799, was a sympathetic repre- 
 sentative of the old school, a good Talmudic scholar, 
 and strictly observant. He was free from fanaticism 
 and, without a fixed standard of how far he would go 
 in accommodating himself to the demands of the new 
 era, was tolerant. He often urged me to enter the 
 rabbinate, and as this is typical for the sentiment of 
 men of his type, I shall relate a story of his own life, 
 as he told it to me, regretting that I cannot give it in 
 his homely conversational Yiddish. "I can under- 
 stand your position," he said. "When I was a young 
 man I prayed that God should spare me the necessity 
 of entering the rabbinate, and when I finally accepted 
 my first position, and people would come, as is cus- 
 tomary, at the two seasons of the year, on Purim and 
 the great holydays, and give me their donations, it 
 fairly burned my fingers. I put it in the drawer, and 
 did not even look at it. By and by I became recon- 
 ciled to my fate, feeling it was God's will that I 
 should be a rabbi." After his death the congregation 
 could not easily decide on a successor. The old man 
 had held his office for forty-five years, and had im- 
 pressed his community with his unique type so that 
 a man of modern training would surely find it difficult 
 to meet the requirements. It was nearly two years 
 after his death, that I was asked to accept the posi- 
 tion. Almost at the same time, again without any 
 solicitation on my part, I was invited to come to 
 Bruex, in Bohemia, with the view of filling the pulpit 
 there. My conditions were that my candidacy 
 should be decided on the day following my trial 
 ^^Jewish Encyclopedia, x, 69. 
 
SC ROLLS 
 
 sermon, This condition was accepted, and I was 
 promptly elected. 
 
 I had now to choose between two positions, if I did 
 not prefer to remain in Bruenn, which some of my 
 well meaning friends considered the proper thing to do. 
 Boskowitz, like all the old Moravian congregations, 
 that owed their existence to the legal restrictions on 
 residence, was declining. In addition, I knew that I 
 had to face an opposition on the part of the small 
 strictly orthodox element, amongst whom was a 
 highly respectable, very wealthy old man, in whose 
 house I had often enjoyed hospitality. He had 
 nothing against me personally, but as someone 
 wittily remarked, he would have a rabbi like the late 
 Abraham Placzek, only a little "frummer." Bruex 
 was a new and rising congregation. Situated in the 
 German north-west of Bohemia, at the foot of Erzge- 
 birge, close to the border of Saxony, and in the center 
 of a flourishing industrial district, it had developed 
 within twenty years from very small beginnings, 
 into a congregation of 120 members. Bruex is a so- 
 called "royal city," which means that under the feudal 
 system it had its autonomous administration, inde- 
 pendent of the lords of manor. Like many such 
 cities, it expelled its Jews, who cannot have been 
 very numerous, in the fifteenth century. From that 
 time on, Jews were not permitted to reside in the city, 
 but came from surrounding villages close by to do 
 business during the day. Perhaps due to the fact 
 that these villages were so close to the city, it took 
 longer until Jews became permanent residents, and 
 it was not until 1868, that a congregation was estab- 
 
INTRODUCTION 73 
 
 lished. The majority of the members had come from 
 two villages, Harreth and Lischnitz, being within a 
 walking distance from the city. It was comical to 
 observe, how the two factions, at least in their older 
 representatives, opposed each other. Harreth, a 
 village of about 300 people, with some twenty Jewish 
 families, considered itself a metropolis. It had its 
 own synagog building, and a well-to-do, compara- 
 tively better educated membership, with a physician 
 in their midst. Lischnitz was smaller, its population 
 poorer, and a garret room served as a synagog. 
 When I arrived in Bruex, Harreth had been com- 
 pletely deserted by its Jewish inhabitants, with the 
 exception of one deaf mute old woman, who lived in a 
 house left to her by her father, but sold under the con- 
 dition that she remain in possession during her life 
 time. Lischnitz had still a handful of Jews, with a 
 "Shochet," a glazier, who had come from Galicia and 
 married a girl of this place. There were, of course, a 
 number of people coming from other villages in the 
 neighborhood, similarly depleted, and others from 
 larger distances. The diversity of habits made the 
 organization of the community difficult, and in the 
 short time of its existence, it had had three rabbis. 
 When I arrived, the process of amalgamation had 
 been developed considerably, due especially to the 
 president, Dr. Joseph Spitz, a prominent lawyer, and a 
 genial personality, who as a young man in the thirties 
 had been elected because it was felt that the old 
 element of the village Kehillahs, were not the proper 
 people to represent the Jewish community. The 
 most interesting type of the old village Kehillah was 
 
74 SCROLLS 
 
 the old Hazan and Schochet, Getsch, or as he was 
 officially called, Karl Stampfer, who had served the 
 community of Harreth for thirty years or so before 
 he came to Bruex with his flock. He had outgrown 
 his usefulness to some extent, and the congregation 
 had elected a modern cantor, while Stampfer officiated 
 as his assistant and as Schochet. Had I taken longer 
 to deliberate on the choice of positions, I would prob- 
 ably have remained in Bruenn, but I wished to make 
 a quick decision, and so I entered upon my new office 
 in September, 1887, a few days before Rosh Hasha- 
 nah. My position was quite pleasant and the duties 
 not too onerous, indeed far more easy than in Bruenn, 
 where I had to rush from one school building to 
 another and to bear the names of more than 400 
 students in my mind, with all the concomitant 
 pastoral duties, when a mother pleaded with me to do 
 something for Arthur, who was threatened with 
 failure in mathematics, or a poor father tried to enlist 
 my assistance in obtaining remission of the tuition 
 fee of Moritz, or when I had to smooth out affairs 
 arising from a breach of discipline, not counting many 
 other similar c?)mmunal duties cast upon a man in a 
 prominent position. A few months, after I had 
 entered upon my position in Bruex, I married, (May 
 10, 1888), and domestic life in a small city of 12,000 
 aided me in overcoming the difficulties of accomo- 
 dating myself to the narrower condition of my en- 
 vironment, and to the social obligations, which in 
 my former position as a government official, I did not 
 have to regard. If there was anything which made 
 me look for a change, it was just the narrowness of 
 
INTRODUCT I ON 75 
 
 conditions, and the desire to study, for wiiich the 
 small town offered no opportunity. I therefore was 
 glad when I read in some German weekly paper an 
 advertisement inviting candidates for the position 
 of professor of history and philosophy in the Hebrew 
 Union College. I had heard of Isaac M. Wise, 
 through a friend of his, Adam Sattler, a retired teacher 
 in my community, who had been serving as teacher 
 in Radnitz, when Dr. Wise officiated there as rabbi. 
 Besides, I had that usual enthusiastic belief in America 
 and its opportunities, and above all, was anxious to 
 devote myself to my specialty. To my letter, 
 addressed to Dr. Wise personally, asking for details, 
 I received a prompt and very kind reply, which 
 practically said that the position was mine, if I would 
 state definitely my desire to accept it. I naturally 
 hesitated because to one used to life in small towns, 
 such a change is a matter of great importance. I 
 wrote accordingly, and received a letter, which seemed 
 to me rather cool, but only three days later I received 
 a second letter, dated July 24, 1891, in which Dr. 
 Wise says: "I forgot in my letter to mention the 
 main point. I shall not present any other candidate, 
 until I hear from you definitely whether you will 
 accept or not, and shall wait until September 1st. 
 It is my wish to see you at this post. While I will 
 not obligate myself to anything which is not in your 
 contract, I can safely say that the College stands 
 firmly like the mountains, and is deeply rooted in the 
 love and respect of the American congregations." 
 My letter of acceptance followed, and on the 17th of 
 August, 1891, I received a cablegram: "Elected, 
 
76 SCROLLS 
 
 come soon, have written." This decided the mat- 
 ter, and on the 20th of November, 1891, I left 
 Cuxhaven on the "Fuerst Bismarck," then the 
 largest and fastest boat afloat, arriving at Hoboken on 
 Saturday, November 28th, and in Cincinnati, on 
 December 2, 1891. The history of the subsequent 
 quarter of a century, I leave to some other writer, if 
 one should find it worth his while, or if I should be 
 granted sufficient leisure, and physical health in 
 years of retirement, I may do so later, adding some 
 features of Jewish "Kulturgeschichte" to those re- 
 lated, and leaving it to posterity to decide, whether 
 they will find my notes as interesting and instructive 
 as those of Leon Modena, of Glueckel von Hameln, 
 and of Jacob Emden, the latter in many ways to me 
 a model of learning and forceful character. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY.* 
 
 HISTORY requires an inductive method. From 
 individual facts one ascends to principles. 
 Facts have to be arranged in a systematic manner. In 
 this respect the historian stands above the chronicler 
 as an archeological museum stands above a second 
 hand shop. On the other hand, the mere philosophist 
 with a stock of high sounding phrases is no historian. 
 First we must know, and afterward we may reason, says 
 the Talmud*. Let us therefore turn to facts at once. 
 On the twentieth of December, 1860 a few intelligent 
 Jews of St. Petersburg founded a society for the dis- 
 semination of enlightenment. This is in itself an 
 unimportant event. The historical character comes 
 from the typical in it. Czar Alexander II. has aband- 
 oned the rigorous despotism of his predecessor Nicho- 
 las I. He is willing to compromise with western ideas. 
 An era of transition seems to be in progress, similar 
 to that of western Europe during the first half of this 
 century. The condition of the Jews is somewhat im- 
 proved. Therefore the more educated class of the 
 Jews feel that they have to do something in order to 
 deserve the good-will of their ruler. The "Chossid" 
 of Volhynia can not become a Russian citizen. He 
 keeps aloof from both the intellectual and the social 
 life of his environment. He speaks a language which 
 is peculiarly his own. He dresses in a garb which has 
 
 * H. U. C. Journal, Vol. IV, pages 166-176, June, 1900. 
 » Sabbath, 63, a. 
 
78 SCROLLS 
 
 become distinctively Jewish. He considers it his rehg- 
 ious duty to remain apart from his surroundings. 
 He believes in a special miraculous gift bestowed upon 
 his saints, he considers scientific education a sin. 
 Shall he become a citizen of the land in which 
 he lives he must amalgamate with it, he must speak 
 its language, he must promote its culture, he must 
 participate in its intellectual life, he must engage in 
 such pursuits as are considered honorable, in agricul- 
 ture, in mechanical arts, and in the learned professions. 
 Unfortunately some individuals who followed that 
 course had drifted away from Judaism altogether, 
 and therefore the Jew of the old type considers partici- 
 pation in modern civilization equal to apostacy from 
 Judaism. He must therefore be shown that his tenac- 
 ity caused that feeling, he must be shown that Juda- 
 ism is compatible with the highest culture of our age, 
 as it was compatible with the highest culture of the 
 1 2th century in Mohammedan Spain or with the highest 
 culture of the first century in Hellenic Alexandria. 
 Culture must be brought to him through the medium 
 of the Hebrew language, by rabbis of modern educa- 
 tion, in the schools where his children acquire their 
 religious knowledge. 
 
 Turning from this individual fact again to general 
 principles we find the philosophy of history based on 
 the ground of the following four empiric facts: 
 
 1. The chief forces of human history are the same 
 in all ages; 
 
 2. The strongest force in shaping history is oppo- 
 sition ; 
 
 3. There is a vis inertiae in spiritual as well as in 
 corporeal life; 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 79 
 
 4. Life is a compromise between ideal and reality, 
 i. e. between theoretic principles and actual conditions. 
 
 We shall now attempt to demonstrate the correct- 
 ness of these principles in Jewish history. 
 
 The chief forces of human history, I said, are the 
 same in all ages. The motives for man's actions are 
 found mainly in his selfishness. Life has also imper- 
 ative demands. Man needs food, needs shelter and 
 loves comfort. In order to satisfy his demands he 
 will become active, energetic, restless, even violent. 
 Man's selfishness and his innate love of comfort will 
 make him ambitious. Why? Simply, because all 
 comfort is relative. A tramp making a trip from 
 Germany to Italy, hiding in an empty freight-car 
 travels in luxurious comfort when he compares his 
 situation with that of the German kings of medieval 
 times, when they went to Rome to receive the crown 
 of the Roman emperors. But he does not see his 
 situation in this light, he will compare it rather with 
 that of the fellow-being who travels in the comfortable 
 waggon de lit, and so will the latter. This comfort 
 comes from the relative judgment. Any tenement 
 in the down-town portion of New York City furnishes 
 more comforts than the mansion of the patrician in 
 the ghetti of Frankfort, Prague or Rome a century 
 ago. It has gas light, it has a hydrant, furnishing 
 water at all times and in any quantity, it has better 
 heating facilities than Maier Amschel Rothschild 
 had ever known. Still the people living in those 
 tenements naturally will compare their situation with 
 those of the dwellers in the aristocratic mansions, and 
 vice versa. Maier Amschel Rothschild felt comfor- 
 
80 SCROLLS 
 
 table in the ghetto because his situation was infinitely 
 superior to that of so many others who breathed the 
 same air with him. 
 
 Ambition and jealousy consequently have reigned 
 all through the ages of the world's history. But there 
 are some people who prefer a portion of herbs in 
 peace to the stalled ox which requires so much care. 
 They feel contented in their resignation. Such people 
 also existed in all ages. 
 
 By the laws of nature parents love their children. 
 They wish to see them happier, wealthier and wiser 
 than they themselves have been. The king on the 
 throne, the peasant behind the plow, the troglodyte 
 in prehistoric times and the financier in the twentieth 
 century, the mechanic in his shop, the pope in his 
 labyrinthian palace have been, are, and will be 
 actuated, by the motive to bequeathe to those nearest 
 them the inheritance which they have received, aug- 
 mented, strengthened and protected against future 
 reverses. 
 
 The modern financier will create a trust for his 
 profligate son in order to secure to him the advantages 
 of the fortune accumulated by his father. A mem- 
 ber of the landed aristocracy in Germany or in Austria 
 will press a bill through legislature making his estate 
 a fideicommisum so that his son might be secure 
 in the undisturbed possession of his immense estates. 
 Napoleon obtained a divorce from the woman he 
 loved because he wished an heir to whom he could 
 transfer the results of his military achievements. 
 Rabbi Judah Ha-nasi made use of his authority by 
 appointing as his successor his son Gamaliel, whom 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 81 
 
 our sources call a small man. The Polish rabbi of our 
 day will do the same, the American rabbi would if he 
 could. 
 
 Great manufacturers introduce bills into legislatures 
 securing high protective tariffs or maritime subsidies 
 in order to advance their commercial interests. 
 The rabbis of Jerusalem in 1509 issued an order that 
 no one should impose any tax on talmudic scholars, 
 no matter how wealthy they might be, and in 1629 
 Yom Tob Lipman Heller, then rabbi of Prague, is 
 accused of favoring the rich in the assessment of 
 taxes. I recently expressed to a member of the 
 Reprasentanten, the congregational board of Berlin, 
 my astonishment at the remarkable fact that such an 
 enlightened body should still be actuated by the false 
 desire to strengthen religion through the assistance of 
 the state. The gentleman replied: The worst of- 
 fenders in this respect are the rabbis. They look 
 with great envy upon the fellow-members of their 
 profession in the German South, where the state 
 guarantees their position. They would like to be 
 appointed by the state, but they would hate to receive 
 their salaries from the state, because they know they 
 are better off when they are paid from congregational 
 coffers. 
 
 2. The strongest force in history, I said, is oppo- 
 sition. This is an undisputable fact, although we are 
 not alwaj's conscious of it. As Jews we are at a 
 loss to define our position so as to do justice to all 
 views on Judaism. The Central Conference of Ameri- 
 can Rabbis in 1898 appointed a committee to frame 
 a set of principles comprising the essential doctrines 
 
82 SCROLLS 
 
 of Judaism. This committee has not reported. Sup- 
 pose it should bring in a report which would have 
 the unanimous approval of all its members, a possi- 
 bility which is by no means a probability. Suppose 
 that all American Judaism including the Portuguese 
 congregations of the ancient type and the orthodox 
 of Russian descent as well as the radicals of the left 
 wing, were to adopt it, would it be approved by the 
 orthodox of Germany of the Hildesheimer type, would 
 it be accepted by the somewhat darker shade of 
 orthodoxy as represented by the school of the late 
 rabbi Seligmann Baer Bamberger of Wuerzburg, 
 would it be acceptable to the Rabbi of Kowno, to the 
 Hasidim community clustered around the saint of 
 Sadagora or to the communities of Tripoli and Moroc- 
 co? Hardly! But one thing all these shades of 
 opinion have in common. It is the consciousness that 
 they are not Christians. 
 
 This feature is by no means unique in Judaism. 
 Take the whole range of religious views comprised 
 under the name of Protestant churches. Here we 
 have the Episcopal church teaching that priests have 
 the right to forgive sins, having in their churches altars, 
 crucifixes, vestments and a number of other features 
 which the Puritans would consider as heathenish or 
 popish ritualism. Here you have the Presbyterian 
 church teaching that every word in the Bible is 
 inspired, there you have ministers and professors in 
 theological seminaries who teach both in their lectures 
 and in their published works that the whole story 
 of Jesus' birth is a mythical fabrication, that his resur- 
 rection was a hallucination, a dream of mystics, that 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 83 
 
 the Pentateuch is composed of many independent 
 fragmentary writings each of which had a different 
 character and represented a different rehgion. We 
 have had evangelical congresses of late at which speakers 
 declared that Jesus was not infallible, that some of the 
 moral principles which he taught were fallacies due 
 to the limitations of his age, while we hear on all 
 street-corners the doctrine preached that society can 
 not be moral, public life can never be sound, individ- 
 uals can never be happy, unless we turn back to the 
 Savior. 
 
 Still all this galaxy of opinions is found in the one 
 Protestant church. What unites them is their 
 opposition to the church of Rome. It is negation 
 not assertion which is the best expression of our ideas. 
 
 Let us leave the field of religious and turn to po- 
 litical history. What could have attracted the sym- 
 pathies of the Irish Roman Catholic population to the 
 Boers who disenfranchised all Roman Catholics? The 
 antagonism to England. Why should the descendants 
 of the Bourbon Kings have rejected the French tri- 
 color and demanded the traditional lilies? Because 
 the tricolor owes its existence to the revolution. The 
 Conservatives in the Prussian diet were opposed to 
 the building of a navy because the first impetus for 
 that innovation had come from the Frankfort Parlia- 
 ment, a revolutionary body. The emperor of Austria, 
 when he found himself obliged to accede to the demand 
 of the revolution and to grant a constitution, the 
 Parliament was to be called not Reichstag but 
 Reichsrath . It was at least in name a victory over 
 revolution. The German Emperor wrote into the 
 
84 SCROLLS 
 
 album of the city of Munich the famous words: The 
 will of the prince is the supreme law. If he cannot 
 write it into the constitution, he will write it into the 
 album that he is opposed to the fundamental principles 
 of the modern state. 
 
 In 1870 pope Pius IX. pressed the passage of the 
 dogma of infallibility. Why? He had been expelled 
 from his city by the revolution which he thought 
 would make him king of a federation of Italy. Re- 
 stored to his throne, he felt that he could not compro- 
 mise with revolutionary forces either in theory, or 
 in practice. So he in 1854 promulgated the doctrine 
 of Immaculate Conception. The council of Trent 
 had still withheld a definition of that doctrine. It was 
 considered wise to have a certain freedom of teaching 
 in the Catholic church. Mary, while a superior 
 personality, whould remain a human being insofar as 
 she had been born in sin and needed salvation by 
 Jesus' death. But the pope was desirous to show to the 
 world that he was not afraid of increasing the great 
 wealth of faith which the Catholic church had stored 
 up in so many canons, bulls and encyclicals. 
 
 In 1858 he perpetrated the greatest crime com- 
 mitted in the 19th century in the name of religion. 
 He tore Edgar Mortara, a child of six years, from the 
 arms of his mother, because a servant girl had con- 
 fessed that she had baptized him. The whole civilized 
 world was stirred with indignation. Catholic sove- 
 reigns raised a voice of warning. But the head of the 
 Catholic church wished to demonstrate to the world 
 that he would not give up one iota of the medieval 
 conception of ecclesiastic authority and even today 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 85 
 
 the church, guided by the principles of Pius and his 
 Jesuit advisers, instead of hiding her shame will 
 parade the poor victim of her crime in order to demon- 
 strate her defiance of what civilization considers the 
 most sacred right of man. 
 
 In 1864 the same pope celebrated the tenth anni- 
 versary of the promulgation of the new dogma. He 
 considered it a good opportunity to show again his 
 defiance of the demands of modern civilization. He 
 published the syllabus of errors, common in our time, 
 and th's syllabus comprised the freedom of worship, 
 the freedom of the press, the equality of all citizens in 
 the eyes of the law. The world was shocked, for the 
 pope announced that he was ready to burn heretics 
 and infidels at the stake and to subject every news- 
 paper to ecclesiastic censorship, if he had the power 
 to do so. He could not reasonably expect that power, 
 but he felt the need of professing before the whole 
 world, as the syllabus declared it, that the pope would 
 never compromise with liberalism. 
 
 In 1870 he crowned his work by the declaration of 
 infallibility. It seemed altogether superfluous, for 
 the pope had in 1854 promulgated a dogma without 
 asking anybody's consent, but another declaration of 
 uncompromising adherence to medievalism was to 
 be made, another cry of defiance was to be uttered, 
 and it was done in spite of the warnings by some of the 
 most prominent prelates of Catholicism, by Ketteler, 
 Rauscher, Dupanloup and Strossmayer. 
 
 These individual instances could be endlessly mul- 
 tiplied. The whole history of religion is an exempli- 
 fication of protest against ecclesiastical tyranny on 
 
86 SCROLLS 
 
 one hand and of protest against revolutionary move- 
 ments on the other. 
 
 Luther protested against the claim of the church 
 that she could pardon sins. The council of Trent 
 protested against all individualism and criticism by 
 the enactment of the doctrine of transsubstantiation, 
 by the definition of the Bible, by its canonization of 
 the Vulgata, by its declaration of the sacramental 
 character of the priesthood and by the whole fabric 
 of the church which was the result of its proceedings. 
 
 The Puritans protested against all ecclesiastic 
 authority. They rejected the book of common 
 prayers, they abhorred crucifixes, altars and vestments, 
 they prohibited the singing of hymns. The word of 
 God alone should be heard in their churches. 
 
 The Quakers protested against priesthood in any 
 form and against the enactment of any laws; even the 
 Puritan Sabbath to them was tyranny. 
 
 Inner Jewish history shows the same principle. We 
 may best illustrate it by instances from the last phase 
 of our history. Covered or uncovered head has been 
 the Shibboleth in both camps of Judaism. Outsiders 
 cannot understand it. Perhaps later centuries will 
 fail to understand it too. Our old codes know of no 
 law which would require of the worshippers to have 
 their heads coveted. The covered head is simply an 
 attitude of decorum for both men and women. As 
 such it is demanded in the worship just as in our 
 days the hats of women and the shoes of men. The 
 famous Jewish scholar Elijah Wilna the Gaon (1721- 
 1797) considers the covered head simply as a matter 
 of public decorum^ Still in our age it has become the 
 ' Jew. Enc. II, 530-533. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 87 
 
 symbol of the Jewish manner of worship, so that even 
 Graetz who was one of the boldest Bible-critics speaks 
 with bitter disapproval of the American synagogue 
 in which the worshippers sit with uncovered heads.* 
 
 Another instance will be a revelation even to very 
 conservative Jews in our country. Since time 
 immemorial it was customary to have the platform 
 in the centre of the synagogue, at least amongst the 
 Ashkenazim, for in the old Portuguese synagogue in 
 Amsterdam I found the Bima near the entrance. 
 When in modern times the sermon began to occupy a 
 more important part in the services, it was found 
 necessary to place the pulpit in the front-end of the 
 synagogues. This could not be called a violation of 
 the law but it was denounced by the orthodox, and one 
 orthodox rabbi David Deutsch^ in Balassa Gyarmath 
 1812-1878 decides that it is a mortal sin to recite Kad- 
 dish in such a synagogue. Why? Because of the 
 opposition to all innovations in worship. 
 
 Was it ever different? Hardly. In a Talmudic 
 law which I would date from the second century we 
 find the statement that a man may divorce his wife, 
 even if she burned his soup. R. Akiba, not satisfied 
 with this example adds: Even though he found 
 another woman which pleases him better. Should R. 
 Akiba, whom tradition has made the hero of a romantic 
 story in which he confessed to owe to his wife all that 
 he had accomplished,' should he have been an advocate 
 of such levity in regard to matrimonial bonds? 
 Hardly. But here again the spirit of opposition is 
 
 * Graetz: Volkstuemliche Geschichte, III, 731. 
 5 Jew. Enc. IV, 547. 
 « Gittin, 90, a. 
 ' Nedarim, SO, a. 
 
88 SCROLLS 
 
 visible. Christianity had taught that no one could 
 put his wife away except for adultery*, as was taught 
 also by the school of Shammai. The school of 
 Hillel objected to it and its opposition took the form 
 of strict denial in the words in which R. Akiba clothed 
 his protest. 
 
 We ought not to wonder if we see in R. Akiba'sexe- 
 getical methods a principle to explain the law not merely 
 in its context, but even every letter or as some antag- 
 onist put it, that R. Akiba built upon the flourishes of 
 every letter heaps upon heaps of laws.'' It was done in 
 opposition to the Christian principle that the laws 
 are merely a symbolic expression of religious ideas. 
 Christianity had further accepted from Hellenistic 
 philosophy the method of an allegoric interpretation 
 of the biblical stories and characters. Rabbi Akiba 
 on the other hand had insisted on the literal character 
 of all biblical narratives, so that his contemporaries 
 accused him of blasphemy.'" 
 
 From the point of view of opposition we can perhaps 
 understand the peculiar law of prohibition of the mix- 
 ture of meat and milk which is first mentioned by the 
 authorities of the second century." The biblical law: 
 Thou shalt not seethe the kid in the milk of its mother, ''^ 
 had been explained by the Alexandrian philosophers'' 
 from humanitarian principles. Man should not 
 harden his feelings. Against this, rabbinical theology 
 
 « Matthew V, 32. 
 1 Menahot, 29, b. 
 "" Hagigah, 14, a. 
 "Hullin, 10.3,b-104, a. 
 " Ex. 23, 19, 34, 26, Deut. t4, 21. 
 
 " Philo, II, 399, Ritter: Philo und die Halacha, 19, Ye.ir- 
 book C. C. A. R. VI, 159, 1897. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 89 
 
 took the stand that God's laws must not be explained 
 from ethical principles but that they are mere decrees." 
 
 Are we not reminded of the Catholic definition of 
 the Lord's supper as laid down in the canons of the 
 council of Trent. 1^ Calvin had taught that the Lord's 
 supper was merely a symbol of Jesus' death. Against 
 this view the Catholic church took a stand insisting 
 that by the consecration the wafer became the flesh, 
 and the wine the blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Rabban Gamaliel had introduced a fixed ritual. 
 Rabbi Eliezer teaches that a fixed formula of prayer 
 can not be called a devotion.'^ Similarly the Catholic 
 church has compiled its order of services for the mass, 
 its formula for all priestly performances, its Rituale 
 Romanum and even its authorized litanies for private 
 devotion, while the Puritans, as already stated, would 
 not permit even hymns to be sung in their churches. 
 
 3. Contrary to these revolutionary forces there is, 
 as I stated, a spirit of mental inertia in man. We 
 hate to leave our places, we hate to change our voca- 
 tions, we hate to arouse a disturbance, because rest 
 is comfort and we love comfort. In this principle 
 are included all the various conditions which we 
 comprise under the name of historical conditions, 
 because they are the result not of laws of nature, nor 
 of logical developments, but of historical facts. 
 That New York has become the greatest seaport of 
 the American continent is the effect of logical causes, 
 but that its language is English and not Spanish or 
 Dutch is merely the effect of historical causes. That 
 
 " Berakot, 33, b. 
 
 " Canonps et Decreta, Sessio XIII, C. VIII. 
 
 16 Berakot, 28, b. 
 
90 SCROLLS 
 
 the Jews in our days live mostly in cities and are never 
 found in large masses in rural communities is the effect 
 of historical conditions which rendered it impossible 
 for them to engage in the tilling of the soil. It was the 
 effect of historical conditions that, from the middle of 
 the fifteenth century down to the middle of this cen- 
 tury, they were mostly found in villages or in small 
 towns. The causes are to be found in the feudal 
 constitution of the medieval ages. Up to the fifteenth 
 century the cities were mostly settlements around the 
 castle of a nobleman. The burghers needed his pro- 
 tection and therefore placed themselves under his 
 jurisdiction. When they had grown strong enough 
 to stand on their own feet and to protect themselves, 
 the Jews, who formerly were kept by the nobleman for 
 the sake of the revenue which he could derive from 
 them, were expelled, because the burghers saw in them 
 competitors in business and did not care for the 
 revenue which not they personally but merely the 
 municipal treasury could derive from them. When 
 from the seventeenth century on the growing central- 
 ization of political power in the hands of the princes 
 or the division of citizens into a ruling class of patri- 
 cians and into a mass of merely tax paying burghers 
 had changed the conditions, the Jews returned to the 
 places whence they had been expelled, and finally 
 when the freedom of residence became universally 
 acknowledged by legislation, the small towns became 
 deserted and the large cities were populated by Jews. 
 It is due to historic conditions that perhaps the 
 majority of all the Jews of the world live in western 
 Russia, in eastern Prussia and in the Austrian pro- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 91 
 
 vinces of Galicia and Bukowina. These provinces 
 are parts of the former kingdom of Poland, whither 
 the Jews had been attracted by the primitive state 
 of its affairs. It had only a nobility and serfs, no 
 middle class of any kind, and so the Jew found here a 
 place as a mediator between producer and consumer, 
 as a pioneer of civilization, as a mechanic and im- 
 porter. Another reason for the marvellous growth of 
 the Jewish population in that country is found in its 
 anatchical form of government. Here they were free 
 from the curse of the law, framed e\"er anew in western 
 Europe with the purpose of ruining them materially, 
 of degrading them socially, and making their lives 
 miserable in every respect. Thither they fled, who 
 had been dragged into churches by furious mobs and 
 had in \iew of cruel death accepted baptism. Thither 
 they fled who had voluntarily abjured their faith and 
 repenting of their act were forced to leave a country 
 where canonical law could not be trifled with and would 
 deliver them to the secular arm with the hypocritical 
 commendation of mercy. Thither they fled who had 
 been warned in time of the terrible rumor that they 
 had dissuaded a prospective Jewish convert to Christ- 
 ianity' from lea^■ing his ancestral faith or that they had 
 pierced a consecrated host which in times of general 
 belief in Transsubstantiation always shed blood, or 
 those who were accused of having stolen a Christian 
 child for the purpose of using its blood in the IVIazzot, 
 or those who had uttered a word of disrespect in 
 regard to Jesus and his mother. Thither went those 
 Christians who had become converts to Judaism and 
 so historical conditions have brought it about that 
 
92 SCROLLS 
 
 there are in the provinces of Kowno and Suwalki 
 perhaps half a million of Jews while perhaps 200,000 
 natives of these provinces will be found in American 
 cities. 
 
 Our internal religious life is also full of evidences of 
 the workings of historic conditions. It is due to such 
 that circumcision has remained a sacred institution, 
 while the laws of levitical purity have gone 
 down to oblivion, that the sacrifices were abolished, 
 while the law of Hallah, the sacrifice of the portion 
 of the dough" became one of the most sacred duties 
 of Jewish women. It is due to historic conditions 
 that the Talmud of Babylonia became the favorite 
 text-book of Jewish students, while the Talmud of 
 Palestine has become a rare specialty of extraordinary 
 scholars. Had Europe been first populated by set- 
 tlers from Palestine, the reverse would have taken place. 
 It is due to historic causes that the Jews of Poland, 
 of south-western Russia and Roumania speak a 
 German Yiddish, while those of Turkey and Morocco 
 speak a Spanish Yiddish and the Jews of Corfu living 
 in the midst of a Greek population speak the Italian. 
 
 Historic conditions are responsible for the rise of 
 the modern reform -movement in Germany, for its 
 growth in the United States of America and for its 
 lack of success in England and its colonies. In Ger- 
 many the Jew was nearest to the culture of his age. 
 His language and his small settlements brought him 
 more in contact with his neighbors. The era of deism, 
 Aufklarungsepoche, influenced him more directly than 
 was the case anywhere else. He felt that he owed a 
 duty of self-emancipation to those who would receive 
 " Yoreh Deah, 322-330. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 93 
 
 him in their midst. But the legal recognition of the 
 congregation which had the right to assess all 
 Jewish inhabitants of a town made it necessary to 
 consider the needs and wishes of the orthodox mi- 
 norities, and therefore reform could not make that 
 progress which it was able to make in America where 
 no state organization supported or protected congre- 
 gations, where religious individualism was the charac- 
 teristic feature of national life. In England on the 
 other hand there seemed to be no need to reform the 
 services of the synagogue in order to improve the 
 political .situation of the Jews. There it was a feature 
 of both national life and of social propriety to be conser- 
 vative in religion. We are children of destiny, the 
 poor tin-ware peddler who came over from Szagarren 
 in the government of Kovno and his son who has 
 become an American lawyer. 
 
 4. Life is a compromise between ideal and practice. 
 This was our fourth thesis. When we can not obtain 
 all our demands we accept part of them. When the 
 emperor of Austria could not rule any more without a 
 legislature elected by the people, he granted a Reichs- 
 rath, congratulating himself that he had freed himself 
 from the phantom of the Reichstag. When King 
 George III. saw that he could not enforce the stamp- 
 tax he accepted as a substitute the duty on tea. It 
 was on one hand an acknowledgement that he had to 
 yield to the wishes of the colonial population, but on 
 the other hand an assertion of his right to raise 
 revenue from the colonies without consulting them. 
 When the crime perpetrated against Dreyfus could 
 not be hushed up any longer, a compromise was 
 
94 SCROLLS 
 
 accepted that he should be retried, convicted and 
 pardoned. 
 
 In religion perhaps longer than in any other depart- 
 ment of spiritual life the claims of the past and the 
 needs of the present will collide and in the end settle 
 their conflicting interests by a compromise. 
 
 A beautiful story is told by Ekkehard, the monk of 
 St. Gallen. The duchess of Suavia wished to see the 
 convent. This was contrary to the rules of St. 
 Benedict, the founder of the order, who had said that 
 no woman should ever set her foot on the threshold of 
 a monastery. But the duchess was a great patroness 
 of the convent and the fathers feared to displease her. 
 So Ekkehard proposed that someone should carry 
 her over the threshold and the compromise between 
 the ideal and the condition was affected. i* 
 
 A recent case published in the Acta Sanctae Sedis^^ 
 
 is another illustration. The Catholic church does 
 
 not permit a divorce, but practical conditions require 
 
 it sometimes, especially in countries where the law of 
 
 the state permits it. A Catholic couple in France had 
 
 separated, the husband had married after the court 
 
 had pronounced a divorce, but the wife, as a good 
 
 Catholic, could not marry. Now the wife applies 
 
 to the pope stating that her mother had forced her 
 
 into that marriage. The mother corroborates the 
 
 testimony of her daughter bj' the assertion that she 
 
 had done so, because she was afraid that her daughter 
 
 might marry a Jewish young man who had been a 
 
 persistent suitor, and as she, the mother, had married 
 
 a Jew, she wished to protect her daughter from a 
 
 " Scheffels' novel: Ekkehard. 
 
 " Vol. XXXII, p. 27-45. Rome, 1899-1900. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 95 
 
 similar fate. This assertion is accepted by the Holy 
 Congregation of the Council, and while divorce cannot 
 be pronounced, the marriage is declared invalid because 
 of coercion which constitutes the lack of consensus. 
 
 Our Jewish Law, sharing with the Catholic the 
 theor\- of unchangeableness, presents ever},-Avhere 
 instances of such compromises. Who does not know 
 the delicious "Shalet" which inspired Heine to the 
 statement that Judaism is the best religion. 
 
 Ihr habt die beste Religion 
 Schalet ist Gotterspeise. 
 
 This dish for gods is the result of a compromise. 
 Cooking is prohibited on the Sabbath, but cooking in 
 the proper sense can be called only the preparation 
 of meals by the medium of fire. If we put our dishes 
 in a warm place on Friday and the hot air cooks them 
 over night, we have not cooked them and may with 
 undisturbed ease of conscience enjoy our warm meal. 
 
 It would be wrong however to treat this part of 
 our subject in its degeneration. That would be a 
 caricature. Compromise is in itself the wisdom of 
 life. We move by steps and not by leaps. The Eng- 
 lish people who have slowh" and b\- degrees developed 
 from a despotic state into a free countr>- have acted 
 more wisely than the French who jumped from despot- 
 ism into a doctrinarian ideal of freedom which was a 
 t\Tanny worse than the autocracy- which it had 
 superseded and finalh" ended in a military dictator- 
 ship. In religion also the proper regard for the right 
 of the historical "das historisch Geu'ordene" is a wise 
 course, and it is the logical method of religious 
 evolution. 
 
96 SCROLLS 
 
 Modern Judaism has everywhere adopted this 
 system. The orthodox ot modern type while 
 adhering to the traditional principle in religious obser- 
 vances, as far as the ritual and the dietary law de- 
 manded, has quietly abandoned the stand-point of 
 his forefathers who condemned secular education and 
 social life of the modern type. He loves instrumental 
 music, he even tolerates vocal music, he no longer 
 believes in the necessity of keeping up the tradition 
 which demanded that the Jew should be distinct from 
 his neighbor in his appearance. The conservative 
 quietly permits the infringement of the most rigorous 
 Sabbath and dietary laws. He will carry and open 
 an umbrella on the Sabbath which once was a mortal 
 sin.^" He would eat the bread of non-Jews, drink their 
 wine and their milk. The liberal, the so-called 
 reformer, will insist on the retention of the Hebrew 
 in the worship, he will not miss the scroll of the law 
 written on parchment, he will retain the ancient for- 
 mula of marriage and the Kaddish for the dead. Even 
 the most radical stops at the Jewish calendar and 
 avails himself of the religious force which "the 
 days of awe" carry with them. 
 
 It has never and nowhere been different. Luther 
 has retained two sacraments which had no more basis 
 in the Bible, his only recognized source of authority, 
 than had the five other sacraments of the Catholic 
 church which he rejected. Calvin retained the belief 
 injTrinity which rests just as much on the authority 
 of i church-councils as the worship of saints which 
 he rejected. 
 
 ™ Ezekiel Landau, Resp. II, Orah Hayyim, 30. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF JEWISH HISTORY 97 
 
 Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, the founder of rab- 
 binical Judaism, while refusing to continue the offering 
 of sacrifices, retained the custom of the priestly 
 benediction pronounced by the sons of Aaron and 
 otherwise arranged the worship of the synagogue 
 according to the tradition of worship in the temple of 
 Jerusalem. 21 Maimonides considers the whole sacrificial 
 cult as a mere concession to heathenish customs.^^ 
 Rabbi Joshua excuses the inconsistency of celebrating 
 all holydays double while Yom-Kippur is only cele- 
 brated one day with the formula: We cannot make 
 laws which the majority of the people could not 
 observe. 2^ Even the Shulhan Aruk otherwise the advo- 
 cate of rigorism has laid down the principle: We can- 
 not enforce the laws of the Thora in uncompromising 
 rigor, 2* and one of the greatest authorities of modern 
 times. Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spector of Kowno (1817- 
 1896) said in regard to one talmudic law that it had 
 become meaningless in the era of telegraph and daily 
 papers. 2^ 
 
 Inconsistency is the result of the unavoidable con- 
 flict between tradition and the requirements of the 
 age. We do not shape our destiny as much as it 
 shapes us. 
 
 Was That wird, folgt dem Zwang von tausend Leben, 
 Was du gethan, ist, was du gesollt. 
 
 21 Weiss: Dor, Dor we— Doreshaw, II, 38-39. 
 
 22 Moreh, II, 32. 
 
 23 Baba Batra, 60, b. 
 
 2^ Hoshen Mishpat, 17, 3. 
 
 25 pnS' py, p. 230, Wilma, 1888. 
 
"MINIMA CURAT HISTORICUS."* 
 
 SOME time ago a remark was made by a man of 
 considerable authority, disparaging the value of 
 historical details by the illustration that &ome people 
 are never happy until they have established beyond 
 a doubt what color the stockings were which Rabbenu 
 Tarn's grandmother wore on Sabbath-'Hanukkah. 
 Humor is a two-edged sword. It is a good weapon 
 against abuses but it may be wielded with the same 
 effect in the wrong place. In a well-drawn caricature 
 you may recognize the person represented, but this 
 does not make the caricature a portrait. 
 
 As in a caricature, so there is some truth in a 
 satire, and also in that satire on historical rag- 
 picking. There are certainly a great number of 
 things published which do not contribute in the least 
 to our knowledge of past ages and persons. The 
 publication of an order issued by his excellency the 
 "Geheimer Hofrath von Goethe" to have the shelves 
 in the grand-duke's library painted brown, does not 
 help us in the least to understand Goethe, his works 
 or his age. This instance, by the way, is chosen from 
 actual occurences. 
 
 Still, occasional aberrations do not prove the falsity 
 of a principle. There are a great many details of con- 
 siderable importance in history, and my studies have 
 shown me so many instances that I thought it a 
 profitable lesson to publish some of the most striking 
 illustrations. 
 *The Reform Advocate, Dec. 31, 1898 and Feb. 4, 1899. 
 
100 SCROLLS 
 
 Was St. Just, the Jacobin and friend of Robes- 
 pierre, in Paris during the night following the second 
 of September, 1792? It seems to be a very trivial 
 question. The fate of Jena or of Waterloo would 
 hardly have been different. The republic would have 
 ended in a military despotism and finally in the res- 
 toration of the Bourbons, no matter whether Saint 
 Just was in Paris during that night or whether he 
 was not. Still this question is of considerable im- 
 portance. Lamartine in his "Histoire des Giron- 
 dins" (ii. 192-193) tells us that Robespierre spent the 
 night, from the second to the third of September, in 
 St. Just's room; that he walked up and down all night 
 or tried to cool his forehead by pressing it against 
 the window-pane, and that Saint Just, when he awoke 
 in the morning was quite astonished to see Robes- 
 pierre in his room, because he thought the latter had 
 gone home and had returned at so early an hour. 
 But Robespierre said: How couid I have slept in a 
 night when thousands of victims will fall under the 
 hands of executioners? Danton slept but I could not. 
 
 This very touching story is evidently meant to 
 show us that Robespierre, the butcher, was at the 
 bottom of his heart the same sentimental disciple of 
 Rousseau as we know him in the national assembly 
 when he denounced capital punishment in the most 
 unmeasured terms. So poor Robespierre was only 
 the victim of a popular craze which saw on every 
 street-corner a traitor ready to sell the dearly bought 
 liberty to any one willing to make an acceptable bid. 
 Perhaps he had been led astray by such unscrupulous 
 demagogues as Danton and Marat. Certainly he 
 
MIXIMA CURAT HISTORICUS 101 
 
 ^^ as not a mere politician, who denounced tyranny 
 only until he had succeeded in erecting his own 
 throne. He had, on the second of September, 1792, 
 not forgotten that on May 30, 1791, he had denounced 
 capital punishment as a most cowardly act of asas- 
 sination, but he acted and spoke under the spell of 
 the delusion that Paris was full of hired traitors. 
 
 Perhaps this was the case; but it is very certain 
 that he did not spend that fatal night in the company 
 of Saint Just, because Saint Just was at that time 
 stumping in Soissons. So the whole touching story 
 is a mythical fabrication, the sort of fiction, the poet 
 needs to bring a tragical character nearer to our 
 understanding by making him more humane. Fleury, 
 who in his "Etudes Revolutionaires," 1.151-156, has 
 taken the trouble to investigate these insignificant 
 details of | Saint Just's whereabouts on a certain date, 
 has well served the cause of histors". 
 
 Leaving the field of the great theater of uni^•ersal 
 history and returning to my own experiences, I can 
 give another striking illustration of the importance 
 which small matters possess in histor\'. \A'hen I 
 went to Breslau, to commence my theological studies 
 (1876), Leyser Lazarus was the director, but Graetz, 
 contrary- to the German usage which gives to every- 
 body his official title, referred to him always as "Herr 
 Doctor Lazarus " Only once he spoke of him as our 
 "director." This was Januan,- 27, 1879, when the 
 seminary celebrated the anniversan.- of Jonas Fraenckel 
 its founder and Graetz, as the dean of the facult}% 
 acted in place of the director then on his deathbed. 
 Even then, when he referred to the sickness of the 
 
102 SCROLLS 
 
 president, he hesitated ; for it evidently choked him 
 to pronounce the -word "director." 
 
 This incident is not told in Graetz's biography, 
 recently published by the Jewish Publication Society. 
 And still to me it seems significant. It shows the 
 smallness of the great man ; and besides it is otherwise 
 of general interest to the student of Jewish history. 
 Zechariah Frankel was the spiritual founder of the 
 Breslau seminary. Such a thing was a novum in 1854. 
 It was indeed a serious question whether it ever would 
 be possible to train Jewish rabbis from the ranks of 
 young men who had gone through a regular course of 
 secular education and to gain for them the religious 
 confidence of the conservative communities. The 
 experiment proved a success, but this to a large extent 
 was due to Frankel 's reputation as a Talmudic scholar 
 and to his conservative principles. He was a rabbi 
 who could stand comparison with anyone in the 
 orthodox camp, and so his signature under a rabbinical 
 diploma would be discounted everywhere. 
 
 After his death, Graetz aspired to the presidency. 
 He certainly was the best known scholar of the faculty, 
 and, perhaps, the best known Jewish scholar in the 
 world. This was not denied, but it was feared that 
 his name would not be of sufficient weight in the 
 Jewish world when he signed a rabbinical diploma, for 
 he was not a master in the labyrinth of legal dialecti- 
 cism. A Jew of the old school might not entrust 
 the decision of a ritual question to a rabbi, who 
 had no other title to such an important office, than 
 a diploma signed by Graetz who, conservative though 
 he was, was denounced as a heretic. And so a rabbi 
 
MINIMA CURAT HISTORICCS 103 
 
 had to be chosen who could be considered an expert 
 in the field of Halakah. 
 
 Still in 1879, after Lazarus' death, Graetz won a 
 partial victory. While he was not made director, 
 the latter office was abolished and a "Seminarrabbiner" 
 was elected, a compromise between the claims of 
 the orthodox who knew of a rabbi only in the sense 
 of an expert in ritual law, and those of the modern 
 school to whom Talmudic literature was only one 
 domain of Je'wish theology of no higher value than 
 liturgical poetry and of less importance than historical 
 literature. 
 
 So this little difference between the "Herr Director" 
 and the "Herr Doctor Lazarus" gives us in a nutshell 
 the evolution of Jewish theology'. The first rabbinical 
 generation of the 19th century represents the uncompro- 
 mising negation of all secular knowledge. The second 
 generation accepts secular education as a comple- 
 ment of Talmudic scholarship. The third generation 
 regards the study of the Talmud merely as the study 
 of the sources of one phase of the religious evolution 
 of Judaism and this Talmudic stud>- has to be eman- 
 cipated from dialecticism to be treated according 
 to the general principles of historical criticism. What 
 the fourth generation is going to do, belongs to the 
 hidden things which are the Lord's our God's and it 
 almost seems as if the emancipation from rabbinical 
 literature would make another stride fonvard. 
 
 II 
 
 Having spoken of Jewish theology' in its inner 
 development, I can prove the same principle of the 
 
104 SCROLLS 
 
 value of small things, in the position which Jewish 
 theology holds in the world. A few years ago a rab- 
 binical seminary was opened in Vienna. The idea 
 to erect a training school for rabbis under the auspices 
 of the government had been conceived at the beginning 
 of the century, and owing to the traditional tardiness 
 of the Austrian government, it required almost four 
 score years to carry it into effect. Finally it was 
 opened under the name of "Israelitisch theologische 
 Lehranstalt." The two letters "k.k." (kaiserlich 
 koniglich), so la\ishly prefixed to all public institu- 
 tions in Austria, are here omitted. The various 
 dioceses are governed by a royal college of canons 
 "kgl. Domkapitel," even that stepchild of the govern- 
 ment, the Protestant church, is governed by a 
 "k.k. evangelischer Oberkirchenrath," and its min- 
 isters receive their instruction in a "k. k. evangelisch- 
 theologische Facultat," but Judaism could not be 
 allowed the attribute "k.k.," for this would have made 
 Judaism a factor, possessing equal rights with Christ- 
 ianity, in public life. For the same reason its 
 ministers could not be trained in a/acwZto/, and there- 
 fore this institution was reduced to the rank of a 
 Lehranstalt, just as the Protestant seminary, while 
 raised to the rank of a k. k. Facultat, was in spite 
 of all efforts on the Protestant side not made part of 
 the university of Vienna. In Tiibingen, in Bonn, in 
 Breslau and elsewhere in Protestant countries, the 
 Catholic church could exercise tolerance and allow a 
 Protestant faculty an equal position in the academic 
 body, but in Catholic Austria the church could never 
 permit its theological professors to be placed on one 
 level with the expounders of heresy. 
 
MINIMA CURAT HISTORICUS 105 
 
 So do not talk of historical minutiae without the 
 proper precaution! "Facult'at" and "Lehranstalt" 
 are synonyms; Jewish theology can be no more 
 imperial and royal than geology or anatomy, but the 
 omission of the "k. k." and the use of the one synonym 
 in preference to the other, gives us in a nutshell an 
 idea of the political position of Judaism in Austria. 
 It cannot be ignored, because it is impossible in our 
 day to spend the money of the taxpayers, to which 
 the Jews undoubtedly contribute more than their 
 pro-rata, in the interest of the Catholic church, with- 
 out giving them some paltry recognition, but still the 
 line must be drawn somewhere. 
 
 And in the general situation in Austria you can 
 prove the same. The custom houses are "k. k.," 
 the military barracks are "k. und k." It grammatical- 
 ly amounts to the same thing. You may divide two 
 adjectives by a comma or join them with a conjunc- 
 tion, but politically it has helped Austria to overcome 
 a serious crisis. The Hungarians, once more on the 
 brink of revolution because of some act of the central 
 government which they considered a violation of 
 their independence, were finally pacified by the con- 
 cession of the little "und," which should prove that 
 the army, while under one command, was only 
 partly Austrian (kaiserlich) but for the rest Hungarian 
 (koniglich). So the little "und" is an emblem of 
 Austria's condition which, like a tottering business- 
 house, makes frantic efforts for a continuance of its 
 existence by occasional concessions to impatient 
 creditors. 
 
 Let us come back to Jewish theology, Some four 
 years ago at the convention of the Union of American 
 
106 SCROLLS 
 
 Hebrew Congregations, one of the representatives 
 assembled there was reported as having said: "The 
 rabbis have to dance as we whistle." If this report 
 be true, I consider it of great importance. 
 While one man is not the union and the union is not 
 Judaism, it clearly shows the prevalent views on the 
 rabbi's position which I will illustrate by a compar- 
 ison with one of Zechariah Frankel's letters addressed 
 to the congregation of Teplitz, where he wished to 
 take up his residence, having been appointed as 
 "Kreisrabbiner." That the reader may understand 
 the situation, I shall state that the government 
 appointed the Kreisrabbiner for all the congregations 
 of the Kreis, and he was at liberty to choose any 
 congregation in the Kreis for his residence, but this 
 congregation was not obliged to acknowledge the 
 Kreisrabbiner as its local rabbi, although as a rule 
 it was done. Frankel, having received his appoint- 
 ment as Kreisrabbiner from the government, addressed 
 a letter to the board of trustees of the congregation 
 of Teplitz, which was the largest in the Kreis, ex- 
 pressing his desire — not making an application — to 
 take up his residence in Teplitz, if the congregation 
 would elect him as Localrabbiner and give him a 
 salary as such, which was later on fixed at 4fl. C. M. 
 ($1.74) per week. The president of the congregation 
 replies that he is quite happy over Frankel's desire 
 to take up his residence in Teplitz and expresses 
 the hope that the new rabbi would do away with some 
 of the antiquated "Alfanzereijen." Frankel, in- 
 stead of asking the president what he meant by 
 "Alfanzereijen," administers to him a sound lecture 
 
MINIMA CURAT HISTORICUS 107 
 
 in which he professed not to know anything in Juda- 
 ism which needed to be abolished, and if there was 
 cause for a change, it was the rabbi's business and 
 did not concern the board of trustees, at all. 
 
 Teplitz today is not one of the world's leading con- 
 gregations, nor was it then. Frankel was then — in 
 1832 — not a man of great weight, but still this corres- 
 pondence throws a remarkable light on the difference 
 which two generations have produced in the position 
 of the rabbi. If a vacancy existed today in Teplitz, 
 the applicant would have to moderate his language, 
 and if he would not, he might be sure to receive a reply 
 worded differenth- from that which Joachim Perutz 
 sent to Frankel. (See the correspondence published 
 in Brann's "Judischer \'olkskalender fur das Jahr. 
 1899 " p. 109 ff.) And what is true of Teplitz is true 
 of the situation of the rabbinate in the entire civilized 
 world. 
 
 It is especially interesting to follow up the corres- 
 pondence between Frankel and Muhr a leading mem- 
 ber of the Berlin congregation, when the latter had 
 elected Frankel as its rabbi. (1843). The congre- 
 gation urged Frankel to accept the position and 
 Frankel refused, because he wished a vocation by the 
 government which the minister of public instruction 
 refused to give. How different is the attitude of the 
 present leaders in Judaism, when we read in Allg. 
 Zeitung des Judenlums an article published by Felix 
 Makower and endorsed by an influential member of 
 the Konigsberg congregation in which the \iew is 
 maintained that the rabbi should have no duties 
 outside of the pulpit, that he must not be even consult- 
 
108 SCROLLS 
 
 ed on doctrinal questions as the German union of rabbis 
 had demanded. 
 
 Felix Makower is not Berlin and Berlin is not 
 Judaism, but the attitude of Makower in 1898 com- 
 pared with that of Muhr in 1843 is a clear illustration 
 of the development of Jewish history. 
 
 Some time ago I heard of a minister who had resigned 
 his pulpit. Asking the president for the reason of the 
 resignation, I learned that he resigned because "he 
 stood no show for re-election." The president is a 
 former cutter in a clothing house who, having become 
 bodily disabled, changed his vocation for the loftier 
 calling of a saloon-keeper. The educational standard 
 of the president is that of the German "Schneider- 
 gesell." Contrast with that fact the other which I 
 can prove from many documents, that fifty years ago 
 no one thought of electing a rabbi for a limited term 
 of years. I have seen e. g. the commission of Rabbi 
 Abraham Placzek (1799-1884),i of Boskowitz dated 
 about 1840. It is stated in it that the rabbi should 
 enter upon the duties of his office on this and that 
 day, and "may his days be an hundred and twenty 
 years." Who would then have thought of limiting 
 the appointment of the rabbi for a number of years 
 and especially, as is done in the small congregations 
 of America, for the mere pleasure of "kicking him 
 out" and electing another victim at the end of the 
 term? 
 
 Going somewhat further back in history we 
 find other illustrations which are more striking. In 
 1706 R. Meshullam Zalman Mirels, rabbi of Altona, 
 died in high old age. Having been an invalid for a 
 
 1 Jew. Enc. X, 69. 
 
MINIMA CURAT HISTORICUS 109 
 
 number of years, Rabbi Mirels was substituted by 
 his son-in-law, Zebi Ashkenazi. Everybody expected 
 that the latter would succeed to the office, but there 
 was an opposition from an influential family, one of 
 whose members had a son-in-law, Moses Rothenburg, 
 who was also a candidate. This opposition was 
 strengthened by the accession to its ranks of Baer 
 Cohen who was — what we would call today — the 
 "boss" of the congregation of Altona. Baer Cohen 
 was a very wealthy man, possessed some talmudical 
 learning and — what in the days of the Jew-laws meant 
 a great deal — a considerable influence with the munici- 
 pal and royal authorities. This man was Zebi Ash- 
 kenazi's bitterest opponent because the latter had 
 administered to him a severe rebuke, when he, out 
 of revenge, had ruined a poor fellow's business through 
 his political influence. The substitute rabbi sent for 
 the nabob on the eve of Yom Kippur and threatened 
 him with divine punishment, if he would persist in 
 making such a use of his power. This humiliation 
 Baer Cohen could never forgive and Zebi Ashkenazi 
 was not elected as rabbi. But when in later years 
 he visited Altona, the "boss" asked his forgiveness and 
 again after Zebi Ashkenazi's death, Baer Cohen 
 sent ten men to his grave in Lemberg to implore 
 his soul for forgiveness, and when the dead rabbi's 
 son, Jacob Emden, visited Altona, he was the guest 
 of the nabob who wished to make amends for his 
 sins against the father. (Megillat Sefer p. 23, ff.) 
 All these facts were and perhaps to some people 
 still are petty local gossip. To me they appear in 
 the light of important historical object lessons. 
 
no SCROLLS 
 
 Would a man of Baer Cohen's station in our days 
 be the host of a young man simply because the latter 
 is the son and grandson of prominent rabbis? Would 
 Hinrichsen who occupies a high municipal office in 
 Hamburg today act towards rabbi Anschel Stern's 
 sons in the same way Baer Cohen acted 150 years 
 ago? And Baer Cohen, while not occupying an official 
 position, was a more influential man than Hinrichsen 
 today. He could free a man from prison, obtain for 
 a protege a peddler's license which meant a man's 
 livelihood and similar things which in our days of 
 legal equality cannot be had. Hospitality extended to 
 a rabbi was in the eighteenth century an honor to the 
 wealthiest house. When in 1783 Nathan Adler of 
 Frankfurt passed through Vienna, he with his "famulus' ' 
 Moses Sofer, were guests in the house of Adam 
 Arnstein, the prominent banker, and when the young 
 zealot Sofer had made himself objectionable to 
 Arnstein's daughter-in-law by giving her a severe 
 lecture for having her hair dressed in modern fashion, 
 and young Mrs. Arnstein peremptorily demanded the 
 expulsion of these overbearing strangers, old Adam 
 asked Nathan Adler's pardon with tears in his eyes.^ 
 The role which the firm of Nathan Adam Arnstein 
 played at the Vienna congress in 1815 was hardly 
 more important than the position of the great com- 
 mercial house of Samson Wertheimer, successor to 
 Samuel Oppenheimer in the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. The Jewish merchant princes, like the 
 princes on the thrones formed an exclusive aristocracy, 
 kept up by intermarriage. One of Wertheimer's 
 daughters was married to a son of the afore-named 
 2 Sol. Schreiber E>()B>»n tOIH p. 5, b. Paks, 1886. 
 
MINIMA C URAT HISTORICUS 111 
 
 Baer Cohen, another to Berusch Eschkeles, the son of 
 Gabriel Eschkeles, rabbi of Metz and later on of 
 Nikolsburg, where he died in 1717, and where one 
 of his descendants, Gabriel Bohm, is still living in 
 high old age, one of the very, very few surviving 
 attendants of the Beth-Hamidrash, while the Esch- 
 keles family, later on associated with the Arnsteins 
 in the banking business, was raised to the baronetcy, 
 and long ago converted to the Catholic church. 
 It seems again a petty family affair, for who would 
 call it a matter of history to note the matrimonial 
 events in the Jewish bankers' families of our days? 
 Still there is a great importance to be attached to 
 these facts. Would a Samson Wertheimer of our 
 days marry his daughter to a young man whose claims 
 on such an aristocratic match rest on the sole basis 
 that his father was rabbi of Metz and a descendant 
 of a long line of rabbinical ancestors? This father 
 invariably signs his name as Gabriel, son of Judah 
 Loeb of Cracow, although his great grandfather was 
 Hayim ben Bezalel of Worms, but Gabriel Eschkeles 
 evidently considers it a greater honor to have been 
 born in Cracow. Would he act in the same way, were 
 he now living, and rabbi of one of our American 
 congregations? Hardly! I only recently saw in two 
 biographies of young American rabbis a very impor- 
 tant historical lesson which is a counterpart to 
 Gabriel Eschkeles' boast of Cracovian birth. Both 
 these rabbis were born in Europe, perhaps not two 
 thousand miles away from Cracow, but our Jewish 
 press transferred the cradle of the one to New York, 
 while of the other it circumlocutionally said that his 
 
112 SCROLLS 
 
 father had lived in Chicago. As an individual fact 
 it may be of little or no consequence, how Gabriel 
 Eschkeles signed his name, or where rabbi A. or 
 B. was born, but as a good indication of the general 
 tendencies of the age it is of a paramount importance 
 that, what was a title of nobility in the eighteenth 
 century, has become a by-word in the nineteenth. 
 Similar is the case of the matrimonial schemes in 
 Samson Wertheimer's family. In our days it is a 
 distinction conferred on a rabbi or a Jewish scholar, 
 if a wealthy banker takes notice of him. If he is 
 present at the wedding of the rabbi's daughter or 
 sends a wedding gift which is more than a veiled 
 charity, he has condescended. In those days the 
 rabbi conferred an honor on the banker by accepting 
 his courtesies, and the banker was raised to a higher 
 rank when the rabbi's son married his daughter, a 
 fact which in our day would be a shocking mesalli- 
 ance. 
 
 The greatest difference between the past and the 
 present is seen in the fact that the rabbi sends for 
 the wealtiest and most influential member of the con- 
 gregation and gives him a lecture about his private 
 conduct. If against that we hold the fact that in an 
 American congregation the president will send for 
 the rabbi occasionally, informing him that it was 
 the wish of the board that the rabbi should preach 
 shorter sermons or use more dignified language, we 
 will see how such trivial affairs illustrate the great 
 strides which we have made in an anti-hierarchical 
 direction. And it is by no means necessary to go to 
 America for the illustration of that change. Even 
 
MINIMA CURAT HISTORICUS 113 
 
 in Europe such a thing in our days would be an im- 
 possibiHty. The chief rabbis of London, Paris or 
 Vienna would very likely be recommended to the 
 attention of some psychiatric authority, if they 
 were to send for one of the aristocratic members of 
 the community and lecture him for the encourage- 
 ment of betting on the races. 
 
 This is partly due to a cessation of the superstitious 
 awe of the rabbi's magic powers, but — why should we 
 deceive ourselves? — also to no small extent to the 
 weakening of the religious sentiment. At all events 
 it shows en miniature the historical development of 
 Judaism. 
 
DE MINIMIS CURAT HISTORICUS.* 
 
 YEARS ago, I published an essay under the same 
 title, and if I do so again, the reason is that 
 quite recently I was called a "chiffonier" (historical 
 rag-picker) for quoting inconvenient though un- 
 deniable facts. French is an aristocratic language. 
 When you wish to say something of which you are 
 ashamed, you say it in French. Father Abraham, 
 a Sancta Clara, the Catholic Billy Sunday of the 17th 
 century, once said that in former years people used 
 to call a wagon, wagon, a crook, crook, and a cour- 
 tisane — he uses a harsher word — courtisane. Now 
 they call a wagon a "karosse," a crook a "politicus," 
 and a courtisane a "maitresse." "Now my dear 
 politicus, take your karosse, place your courtisane by 
 your side, and drive in it to the devil. Amen." 
 
 This is by the way. I shall not mention the place 
 where this unkind remark was made about me, for 
 my object is strictly scientific. I wish to avoid per- 
 sonalities and to impress even the lay reader with the 
 importance of historic accuracy in details. 
 
 The general run of people look upon historic 
 accuracy somewhat in the same light in which one 
 would regard an expert bookkeeper to whom the head 
 of the firm would say: "Look up for me the account 
 of Henry Jones & Co.," and the bookkeeper without 
 consulting his ledger would say: "We rendered him 
 the last account on November 25 and he owed us 
 ♦The American Israelite, Feb. 3, 1916. 
 
116 SCROLLS 
 
 then S824.64." People would look upon such an 
 achievement as a freak, harmless, but of no particular 
 value, in fact rather a waste of mental energy. 
 
 Let us try to illustrate the case in point by a lesson 
 from modern history. Joshua ben Solomon Loeb, 
 rabbi of Lenczna, Poland, died April 26, 1873. As far 
 as my knowledge goes he did not leave any published 
 work nor did his life otherwise deserve any particular 
 notice. One would consider it therefore absolutely 
 immaterial whether Rabbi Joshua died in 1873 or in 
 1875. It so happened, however, that the question 
 assumed considerable importance. During the height 
 of the antisemitic movement in Austria the clerical 
 Vienna daily, "Vaterland," May 11, 1893, published 
 a statement signed by one Paulus Meyer, a converted 
 Jew, who, claimed to have been present at a ritual 
 murder at which this rabbi Joshua ofificiated as priest. 
 Paulus Meyer, originally David Leib Ashkenazi, the 
 son of a Sofer, born about 1862, according to some in 
 Brest Litovsk and according to others in Wlozlawek, 
 was successively a Protestant and a Catholic, trying 
 to make himself useful to anti-semites whom he fur- 
 nished alleged abstracts from rabbinic literature. 
 Having met with reverses, when he tried to prove ritual 
 murder from literature, it was suggested in the clerical 
 office that he furnish a real live up-to-date murder. He 
 filled the order and gave such a vivid description, nam- 
 ing as the date 1875, as the place where it had occurred 
 the town of Ostrov in the government of Lomzha, 
 and naming all the participants, among them promi- 
 nently this rabbi Joshua ben Solomon Loeb. Re- 
 search was instituted and it was found that the rabbi 
 
DE MINIMIS CURAT HISTORICUS 117 
 
 who in 1875 was supposed to have practiced the 
 ancient rite of infant killing had died two years before, 
 and so Paulus Meyer was sent to the penitentiary for 
 eight months, and the editor of the "Vaterland" was 
 fined for publishing this malicious libel. The date 
 of the death of this otherwise insignificant rabbi, 
 therefore, helped to refute one charge, in 1893, and 
 is valuable evidence in all other cases of slander in- 
 stigated by perverts.' 
 
 During an agitation for improvement in the con- 
 dition of the Jews in Germany in the beginning of 
 the 19th century, a series of pamphlets was published, 
 none of which is of any lasting literary value. 
 One of these pamphlets, published anonymously 
 was written by a Jew from Koenigsberg, en- 
 titled "A Friendly Word for the Settlement of the 
 Whole Controversy."^ The author proposes some- 
 thing similar to what Armand Schreiber submitted in 
 Harper's Weekly of January 8th. He proposes that 
 the government enforce intermarriage between Jews 
 and Christians, and that the Christians, being more 
 enlightened than the Jews, should meet the latter 
 by observing the Sabbath instead of Sunday as their 
 weekly day of rest. The pamphlet was published in 
 1804. No one would consider it a matter of any con- 
 sequence whether this ebullition of an unknown 
 author was published a few years earlier or later. 
 Heinrich von Treitschke in his history, discussing the 
 effect of the Prussian law of March 11, 1812, quotes 
 this pamphlet and the suggestion that the Christians 
 
 ijewish papers of 1893 and 1894, esp. Mitteilungen . . . 
 Antisemitismus, consult index. 
 2 Graetz: Geschichte, XI, 263. 
 
118 SCROLLS 
 
 should accomodate themselves to the Jews as proof of 
 the conceit of the Jews, due to their emancipation. 
 The fact that this pamphlet was published eight years 
 before their emancipation, at the time when the 
 Jews of Prussia and especially those of Koenigsberg 
 were subject to the most oppressive disabilities, when 
 in Koenigsberg, for instance, the government would 
 not allow a Jew to make a contract with the city for 
 keeping an ice cream parlor in the municipal theater', 
 surely shows that the author of the pamphlet had not 
 lost his balance by the improvement in the condition 
 of the Jews.'' The exact date of an insignificant 
 event, therefore, in this case has great significance. 
 
 Some time ago the present chief rabbi of London 
 referred to the fact that three reform rabbis had con- 
 verted to Christianity. He preferred not to give the 
 exact number, because he probably had reason to 
 fear the exact memory of those who remembered a 
 previous statement of his that he could fill a book 
 with the names of the disciples of Isaac M. Wise 
 who had become converts to Christianity. The 
 force of the argument was now to be a different one. 
 It never had happened in Israel before — so his "Very 
 Reverence" said — that a rabbi had become a convert 
 to Christianity. I happen to be in possession of a 
 pamphlet, issued by some missionary society, contain- 
 ing the biography of one Ignatz Lichtenstein, who was 
 rabbi in Tapio Szele, Hungary, and had written 
 pamphlets advocating conversion to Christianity 
 while still officiating as rabbi. The statement was 
 
 ' Freund: Die Emanzipation der preuss. Juden, 1, 89-100, 
 Berlin, 1912. 
 
 * H. M. C. (Heinrich Meyer Cohn) in Allg. Zeitg.des Judt., 
 1902, p. 360-380. 
 
DE MINIMIS CURAT HISTORICUS 119 
 
 declared by somebody who had reason to hide him- 
 self behind the cover of anonymity, an invention. 
 My pamphlet, a very insignificant production, re- 
 hashing the usual missionary cant, becomes important 
 in addition to my quotations from various Jewish 
 papers, representing all shades of religious views. 
 In the course of my investigation I came across the 
 fact that this Ignatz Lichtenstein was confounded with 
 a Jehiel Lichtenstein, a former "Wunderrabbi" of 
 Besarabia, who was in the service of the missionary 
 institute of Leipsic, where he died in 1912. We al- 
 ready had two rabbis to refute a statement made by 
 a man upon whose office the world has a right to look 
 as an authority. While it is really of no significance 
 whether a Jew trained in Orthodox environment and 
 possessing rabbinical knowledge does officiate as 
 rabbi or not, it certainly added force to my arguments 
 that a rabbi, Lewin Fraenkel, a nephew of Chief 
 Rabbi Solomon Herschel of London, having been 
 previously i-abbi in Dubienka, and Land-rabbiner of 
 Silesia, became a convert to Roman Catholicism. 
 The man was never of any consequence, but his case 
 becomes an irrefutable argument against the malicious 
 statement that liberal Judaism means a step towards 
 apostacy.* 
 
 The examples could be endlessly multiplied. The 
 platform on which the leaders of the reform movement 
 in America agreed in 1855 at the conference of Cleve- 
 land was certainly different from the one which was 
 presented by some of those surviving in 1895. In 
 1855 the authority of rabbinic Judaism, while not 
 
 * See on the controversy my letter in Jewish Chronicle, 
 June 2, 1911. 
 
120 SCROLLS 
 
 declared infallible, was maintained. In 1895 it was 
 denied unconditionally.' It would require but little 
 effort to prove a similar departure during a shorter 
 period. There is no charge of inconsistency in this 
 statement, for history is the record of inconsistencies, 
 and the exactness of minute facts is indispensable 
 to true history. 
 
 * Philipson: The Reform Movement in Judaism, p. 487- 
 488, New York, 1907. 
 
 ' Yearbook, Central Conference of American Rabbis, V, 52, 
 Cincinnati, 1896. 
 
EVERYBODY SAYS SO.* 
 
 JACOB EAIDEN, born in Altona, June 15, 1696, 
 where he died April 19, 1776, is one of my favorite 
 characters in Jewish histor\'. He was a great scholar, 
 possessed a critical nind, a historical sense which was 
 extremely rare in those days ; he was a man of genuine 
 piety, passionate like all men of genius, too sincere 
 to make many friends, and, in consequence, not very 
 successful. Of the many anecdotes told of him, one 
 is especially characteristic. When the old rabbi of 
 Altona, Ezekiel Katzcnelnbogen, of whom Emden 
 did not think ver>- highly, died, July 19, 1749, the 
 congregation had an eye on Jonathan Eybeschutz, 
 then rabbi of Metz. The son of the late rabbi was 
 charged with the mission of sounding Jacob Emden, 
 He called on him, and after a few introducton,- re- 
 marks, he began: 
 
 "Have you heard that the congregation is very 
 much in favor of extending a call to the rabbi of IMetz?" 
 
 Emden answered with a sort of growl. 
 
 "Well." began the visitor again, "he is reported to 
 be a great Talmudist." 
 
 This roused Emden. "How do you know?" said he. 
 
 "Well," replied Katzenelnbogen, "ever\'body says 
 so." 
 
 "Oh, if }.'ou have no better source," said Emden, 
 "\ou know nothing. Why, didn't everybody say 
 your father was a great Talmudist, and it was not 
 true?" 
 ♦Je-n-ish Comment, Oct. 19, 1900. 
 
122 SCROLLS 
 
 I doubt the historical truth of this, as I doubt 
 almost every good anecdote, but ne\crlhck'ss there 
 is a great deal of historical truth in it. It is a fact, 
 people will say, and when you ask them, "How do 
 you know?" they will say: "Why, everybody says 
 so; I have heard it; it was in the paper," and so forth. 
 But people who take a deeper interest in historical 
 matters know that things are by no means a fact be- 
 cause people say so or because they read them in 
 the paper. 
 
 A very small matter shall introduce us into a series 
 of such facts. In Dr. Wise's biography, Cincinnati, 
 1900, p. 112, it is stated that he was buried on the 
 26th of March, while he was buried March 29. Sup- 
 pose some one would read that he preached a sermon 
 on March 24, and that he was buried three days after 
 his death, he would be puzzled by the impossibility 
 of this contemporary and supposedly reliable testimony 
 The printer's devil will invert a 9 and make a 6 of it, 
 or a slip of the pen caused the whole confusion, which 
 in cases of remote antiquity, like in deciphering cunei- 
 form inscription, might go into the centuries. 
 
 Another small matter: In I. T. Eisenstadt's "Daat 
 Kedoshim," St. Petersburg, 1897-98, which is a very 
 valuable history of famous Jewish families from the 
 seventeenth century down to our time, it is stated 
 (p. 127) that Samuel Landau, acting chief rabbi of 
 Prague, died Tishri 28, 5598, (October 27, 1837). 
 According to my notes he died in 1834. Investi- 
 gating the matter with the meager resources furnished 
 by our library, I find that, according to Allgemeine 
 Zeitung des Judenthums, 1838, p. 152, Landau's 
 
EVERYBOD Y SAYS so 123 
 
 successor, Samuel Loeb Kauder, died May 6, 1838. 
 after having been four years in office. Tiiis notice 
 hardly admits of any doubt, and therefore I suppose 
 that a misprint caused the change of a n into a n , 
 and Samuel Landau died Tishri 28, 5595, (October 
 31, 1834). I shall grant without a moment's hesita- 
 tion that our telegraph, telephone and railroad systems 
 would not have been in the least affected had the 
 good "Oberjurist" — as they called the chief rabbi — 
 of Prague been spared to us three more years. The 
 trial for ritual murder in Kuttenberg would have taken 
 the same course, and Zangwill's "Children of the 
 Ghetto" would not have been more of a success. 
 Still there might be some difference in Jewish history. 
 April 19, 1837, on the birthday of Ferdinand I, the 
 dedication of the temple for improved service 
 (Tempel fur geregelten Gottesdienst) took place in 
 Prague in the presence of all the State's dignitaries. 
 Suppose one were to study the newspaper reports 
 of this event and would miss amongst the guests the 
 name of Samuel Landau, would he not reason thus: 
 The man was living; this is proven by Eisenstadt. 
 Had old age or sickness prevented him from attend- 
 ing the services, some one would have alluded to the 
 fact. Why, then, is just his name missing? No 
 doubt, the man was a fanatic. He considered a 
 deviation from ritualistic tradition, and were it 
 merely the abandonment of the auction of Mizwot, 
 a mortal sin. Our historian would write it down. 
 The next historian would write a general history of 
 modern Judaism, and would say: While radicals 
 desired to change the synagogue at once into a sort 
 
124 SCROLLS 
 
 of theistic church, the more conservative element 
 understood that progress can only be made by slow 
 steps, and not by leaps. They limited their reforms 
 to an endeavor to make the services decorous. Still 
 some fanatics would not even tolerate that. One 
 of the worst types of that kind was Samuel Landau, 
 the rabbi of Prague. Even the danger of incurring 
 the illwill of the government could not induce him 
 to set his foot on the threshold of a synagogue where 
 the Shammes was not permitted to call out: "Eight- 
 een Groschen for the Kohen! Zum ersten, zum zwei- 
 ten, zum dritten Mol!" Quite a number of assertions 
 in our older history rest on no firmer basis. 
 
 We shall pass over to a matter which is a little 
 more important. In Flathe's "Zeitalter der Restau- 
 ration und Revolution," which forms part of the gi- 
 gantic universal history by Oncken, we read a descrip- 
 tion of the condition in the Papal State under Gregory 
 XVI, which the author sums up with the statement: 
 "The reactionary spirit went so far that the Inquisi- 
 tion gave order to take the Jewish boy Mortara from 
 the house of his parents in 1846 under the plea that 
 he had been baptized by a servant girl" (1. c, p. 478). 
 This act, however, took place in 1858. It was not, 
 as Flathe represents it, one of the causes which 
 led to the revolution against ecclesiastic tyranny in 
 1848, but rather the reverse. It was a challenge of 
 the Pope, restored to his throne, to the civilized world 
 which demanded a slow reform of mediaevalism. 
 
 One more instance from Dr. Wise's biography shall 
 form the climax: On p. 6 of the book a touching 
 story is told — how Rabbi Aaron Kornfeld^of Jenikau, 
 
 1 Jew. Enc. VII, 562. 
 
EVERYBODY SAYS SO 125 
 
 when in 1837 an edict was issued which demanded 
 that every Austrian rabbi should be educated in gym- 
 nasium and university, sat down on the floor and acted 
 as though mourning for some great affliction. The 
 venerable rabbi felt that this law "dealt the death- 
 blow to his yeshibah." 
 
 This touching story has many facts of history 
 against it. The Austrian law, which demands of a 
 rabbi to have passed through a gymnasium, dates 
 from March 21, 1890. The law, however, which re- 
 quired that a rabbi should have made philosophical 
 studies is found in the "Judenpatent" for Bohemia, 
 dated August 3, 1797. (Wolf, "Studien zur Jubel- 
 feier der Wiener Universitaet," p. 123), and was 
 later on, January 29, 1820, extended to include the 
 whole empire (Wertheimer, "Jahrbuch," 1858, p. 
 86). Its tangible result was the rabbinical seminary 
 in Padua, opened November 10, 1829. The "vener- 
 able" Rabbi Aaron Kornfeld, who died October 26, 
 1881, was in 1837 forty-two years of age. A rabbi 
 with a college education was not a thing so unheard 
 of in Bohemia in 1837, for Zechariah Frankel had been 
 rabbi in Teplitz since 1832. The only fact which 
 probably is the kernel of this story is a government's 
 edict issued July 7, 1836, demanding that in Galicia 
 this law should be enforced and that district rabbis 
 be appointed by the government. 
 
1815 TO 1915.* 
 
 A CENTURY is a longer period of time than we 
 -^^ usually imagine. Of this the clearest idea is 
 obtained when we understand that a century ago 
 our great grandfathers, were about of the same age 
 as we are now, and when we further consider that our 
 memory never reaches back to a clear recollection of 
 our great-grandfathers, or that the majority of people 
 hardly know their great-grandfathers by name. 
 Just one hundred years ago Europe was in a con- 
 dition as critical as that in which it is now. On March 
 1, 1815, Napoleon landed at Cannes. On the 10th 
 of the same month he was greeted by the people of 
 Paris with the same enthusiasm that had greeted 
 him before his downfall. While the great hero of 
 battle was in this way regaining his former position, 
 the allies held their conference at Vienna. They had 
 a very good time, dinners, balls, outings, and Napoleon's 
 interruption of this beautiful time was naturally very 
 strongly resented. While preparations for the decisive 
 battle on the territory of Belgium, which a hundred 
 years later was again destined to become the great 
 battlefield of Europe, were going on, the congress 
 finished its labors, issuing its act of June, the 8, 1915. 
 The conditions of the Jews had come up for very 
 serious consideration. During the time of French 
 ascendency territorial changes had so frequently 
 taken place that the condition of the Jews was 
 
 *The American Israelite, July 22, 1915. 
 
128 SCROLLS 
 
 considerably affected. A great part of the territory 
 occupied by the French during the revolutionary period 
 had either laws discriminating against the Jews or 
 such which kept the Jews out entirely. During the 
 French period all these laws were abrogated, and the 
 principle proclaimed by the revolutionary govern- 
 ment, in 1791, which gave to the Jews complete civic 
 and political equality, was proclaimed in these 
 territories. What was now to be done? This was 
 a serious question. One instance may make it clear. 
 The city of Cologne was the residence of the arch- 
 bishop and formed his territory, over which he was 
 at the same time secular ruler. In the rural districts 
 of his territory the Jews were permitted to live under 
 the usual restrictions that had come down from 
 the middle ages and had been modified only in minor 
 points. How far reaching this was the following 
 incident will make clear. The ancestor of the Oppen- 
 heim family, which later on was raised to the baronetcy , 
 and which for the past two or three generations has 
 been Christian, came regularly to Cologne on business. 
 The law stipulated that each time he arrived at the 
 city he was required to report at police headquarters, 
 where a policeman was assigned to accompany and to 
 watch him as long as he was in the city. As a special 
 favor to so prominent a business man, it was permitted 
 that the policeman instead of accompanying him from 
 the police station should meet him at the house of a 
 friend, where he made his headquarters, and stay 
 there, under the supposition that he had watched 
 him. In the year 1798 Cologne became French 
 territory, and a short time thereafter the first Jew 
 
1 8 15 ro 19 1 5 129 
 
 settled there. Others soon followed and a congrega- 
 tion was formed which is now one of the leading 
 congregations of Germany. In the course of the terri- 
 torial changes Cologne became Prussian and naturally 
 the Jews, while not enjoying complete freedom, pos- 
 sessed at least the freedom of residence, and this re- 
 mained unaltered, though their political rights, guar- 
 anteed to them under the French constitution, were 
 not recognized by the new government. The most 
 serious problem was that of the so called free cities. 
 Germany had quite a number of city republics, i. e., 
 municipalities, possessing the right of other sovereign 
 German states. Of these the city of Frankfort had 
 the greatest importance for the Jews. It contained 
 about 4,000 Jewish inhabitants, who lived in a ghetto 
 which consisted of one narrow street. It is simply 
 incomprehensible how they managed to live and how in 
 spite of the many restrictions imposed on their activity 
 they managed to make a livelihood. As a clear illus- 
 tration of the conditions under which they lived, the 
 following story will serve: Elias Loeb Reis was a 
 broker to the Duke of Weimar, and as such had busi- 
 ness there. At one time it was necessary for him 
 to leave the city on Sunday in order to obey a summons 
 of the Duke. The Frankfort law, however, required 
 that Jews remain in the ghetto every Sunday, living 
 there in a regular stockade. Goethe, who was min- 
 ister of the Duke of Weimar, and a native of Frank- 
 fort, wrote to his uncle, who was a member of the 
 Board of Aldermen, a special request that he obtain 
 a special permission for Reis to leave the ghetto on 
 Sunday. But even this powerful protection was not 
 
130 SCROLLS 
 
 enough to obtain an exception in such a case. Another 
 case: The Jews asked for permission to go out on 
 Sunday to enjoy a walk in the fresh air, as the condi- 
 tions in the ghetto were quite oppressive. The Senate, 
 to whom this petition was directed, declined it with 
 the statement that this demand showed the impudence 
 of the Jews and their desire to shake off the mild 
 yoke which Christianity had imposed upon them. 
 Napoleon had made of Frankfort and the surrounding 
 territory a Grandduchy over which he placed Baron 
 von Dalberg, member of one of the most respected 
 German families and a liberal Catholic priest, who 
 in those days had the courage to join the Masonic 
 fraternity. Dalberg, entering upon his duties in 
 1807, decreed that the Jews had the right to take a 
 walk in the park, a privilege, which had formerly 
 been denied them. Goethe's mother was quite in- 
 dignant at the prospect that any Jew might sit next 
 to her on a bench in the park. Four years later the 
 Jews of Frankfort received their full civic and political 
 equality, for which they had to pay the sum of 400,000 
 florins, as compensation for their former special tax. 
 One would imagine that this was a plain contract 
 which bound both parties. As soon, however as the 
 French government had been superseded by the old 
 autonomous city administration, there began an 
 agitation to withdraw from the Jews their rights 
 obtained by public contract. Article sixteen of 
 the act of 1815 had clearly stated that the Jews 
 should retain the rights they had received under the 
 various governments which had succeeded each other 
 during the Napoleonic period, but there was always a 
 
1 8 1 5 ro 19 1 5 131 
 
 way out of it. First in the course of the debate the 
 representatives of the cities offered an amendment 
 to the resolution which stated that the Jews should 
 be kept in the enjoyment of the rights which they had 
 received in the respective states. The amendment 
 was that instead of "in" the respective states, it should 
 be "from the respective states." by which was 
 intended to prove that Jews had no other rights which 
 they could claim except those which they had obtained 
 from the so-called "legitimate" government, but not 
 from the various governments that might have 
 owed their origin to foreign conquest. The senate of 
 Frankfort at once showed its spirit by passing a resolu- 
 tion which declared that it was the duty of every 
 state to so arrange the laws and conditions regulating 
 the affairs of the Jews, that the Christian citizens 
 could make a livelihood. One will easily understand 
 what this means, in the light of subsequent legislation 
 which, for instance, prohibited the Jews from dealing 
 in lumber, from dealing in flour, from dealing in 
 certain goods at wholesale and other goods at retail, 
 according to the well approved principle which we 
 find in the deal between Jacob and Laban, as was the 
 case when Laban observing that Jacob became prosper, 
 ous by the increase of one kind of sheep, he interpreted 
 and amended the former agreement to suit his own 
 convenience. 
 
 Still more decided was the opposition of the city of 
 Luebeck, which was, like Frankfort, a free city, and 
 in middle ages like most cities possessing autonomous 
 rights, kept the Jews out. The philosophy of history, 
 however, expressed by an old rabbi in the Talmud 
 
132 SCROLLS 
 
 (Sanhedrin 87, b), obtains in this case also. Tiie terri- 
 tory of Luebeck was small, and was contiguous to the 
 territory of Denmark. Under the Danish king the Jews 
 had obtained a foothold there during the seventeenth 
 century. They, therefore, would obtain under the 
 treaties existing between the king of Denmark and 
 the city of Luebeck the right to travel and trade there. 
 The city consequently found it more advantageous 
 to have the Jews under its own jurisdiction and there- 
 fore bought from the king of Denmark the small 
 village of Moisling, about five miles from Luebeck, 
 and allowed the Jews to settle there, who were now 
 permitted to come to the city for the day and attend 
 to their business. During the French time, which 
 began in 1811, the Jews were permitted to settle in 
 Luebeck proper and remain there in spite of the protest 
 of the citizens, until the congress of Vienna had fin- 
 ished its labors. Under the often quoted provision of 
 Article 16 the Jews should have been permitted to 
 continue to reside in Luebeck, but the city interpreted 
 this provision differently, declaring that the French 
 government was not a regularly constituted govern- 
 ment, and whatever right might have been given by 
 this government to the Jews was not binding upon 
 the legitimate government that had come into power 
 again. In spite of all protests of the Jews who brought 
 the matter before the congress at Vienna and who had 
 the Frankfort banker, Jacob Baruch, the father of 
 Ludwig Boerne, employed as their agent, they were 
 actually compelled to leave the city and return to their 
 ghetto village a few years later. 
 
 It would be tedious to follow all the ramifications 
 of the legal tyranny that fills the Jewish history of 
 
1 8 15 ro 19 1 5 133 
 
 the next decade. One state, like Bavaria, or Saxe 
 Weimar would insist that the Jews become German- 
 ized, that they read their services in German or that 
 the marriage contract, read at a wedding ceremony, 
 be read in German, while other states, like Prussia, 
 followed the exactly opposite course. They demanded 
 that the Jews remain Jews as long as they are Jews, 
 and that not the slightest deviation from traditional 
 practices in the synagog service be permitted. In one 
 respect they were all of one mind. They all insisted 
 that the Jews should be kept in a state of restriction, 
 as far as their civic rights were concerned. Of 
 political rights, of course, there was no question, 
 unless we except the case of Baden, where a Jew 
 Sigmund Zimmern, was admitted as privatdozent 
 of law at the University of Heidelberg in 1818. 
 However, he soon became aware that he had no 
 chance of being appointed professor, and he 
 removed that obstacle in his path by converting to 
 Christianity. The Grand Duchy of Baden had already 
 a few years previously granted the Jews the right of 
 citizens (Staatsbuerger) , but the fact that they were 
 not "Gemeindebuerger" proved that the whole con- 
 cession was a matter of mere theory. Similar was the 
 case in Hesse Cassel, where the law, issued in 1823 
 emancipated the Jews, but even there so many 
 restrictions were attached to this principle that it was 
 a mere fiction. Nor were the conditions outside of 
 Germany much better. Switzerland, a republic, had 
 severer restrictions on the Jews than almost any 
 of the states of Germany. The only place where they 
 were legally permitted to reside was the canton of 
 
134 SCROLLS 
 
 Aargau, and even there they were Hmited to two vil- 
 lages. Their right do do business on a credit basis, to 
 peddle, to deal in cattle to attend the fairs, was in 
 every respect curtailed by all sorts of intricate re- 
 strictions. In England their condition was fairly 
 tolerable, but as they were excluded from political 
 rights and as many civic rights, for instance the open- 
 ing of a shop in the city of London, were dependent on 
 political rights, they were restricted in civic rights 
 also. The only exception was found in France where 
 the law of 1791 giving to the Jews full civic and political 
 equality, was maintained even under the reactionary 
 Bourbon government and under the government of 
 the Orleans family which followed. 
 
 The year 1830 made a considerable difference. 
 The Revolution in France had at once the effect of 
 causing the petty tyrants of Europe to realize that 
 the settlement of affairs through the congress of 
 Vienna in 1815 was by no means final. It became 
 necessary to make concessions to the modern spirit 
 of the age which demanded a Parliamentary form of 
 government and greater freedom in expression of 
 political opinions by the masses. These principles 
 could not be enacted without reacting in some way 
 on the condition of the Jews, and so in various smaller 
 states the condition of the Jews came up for discussion. 
 Especially was this the case in the Grandduchy of 
 Baden where the principle was expressed that, while 
 the Jews deserved better conditions, these could not 
 be granted unless they receded from their position 
 in religious questions like Sabbath, circumcision and 
 especially in their belief in the Messiah who would 
 
1 8 1 5 ro 1 9 1 5 135 
 
 lead them back to Palestine, all of which was so con- 
 trary to the demand for equal rights in the state in 
 which they lived that it would be necessary to remove 
 these obstacles before other questions could be con- 
 sidered. The events of the year 1848, beginning with 
 another revolution in France, made an end of all 
 this quibbling. The small potentates of Europe 
 considering the dire chance of a fate similar to that of 
 Louis XVI, or at least of Louis Philippe of France, 
 granted at once a constitution. One part of the 
 constitution was that there should be no impediment 
 in the way of obtaining full rights of citizenship for 
 everyone, regardless of religious affiliation, and this 
 in almost every case meant the Jews. Independently 
 we see at the same time political conditions in England 
 progress favorably. The emancipation act of 
 1829, which gave to Roman Catholics and dissenters 
 full freedom, brought up the question of the Jews 
 for discussion and in the typical English way the 
 progress was slow, though marked. The events of 
 1848 did not directly influence English affairs, but at 
 the same time Jews had already obtained the right 
 to hold certain municipal offices and had started the 
 movement for obtaining the right of representation 
 in Parliament. 
 
 In continental Europe, reaction was soon encouraged 
 when the storms of 1848 had passed away and a 
 number of the patriots had either gone to prison or 
 had preferred to seek new homes across the ocean. 
 A judge had to swear the parties that appeared before 
 him. The oath had hot been changed by the con- 
 stitution. The old code of civil laws remained as 
 
136 SCROLLS 
 
 before, and this code prescribed an oath which had a 
 distinctly Christian text. It was therefore argued, 
 that inasmuch as in most instances the Jew, as 
 judge, would have to swear Christian parties and 
 would consequently have to read to them a Christian 
 oath, this would appear to the parties such a mockery 
 that the whole idea of obtaining the truth through re- 
 ligious sentiment would be rather counteracted. The 
 constitution gave the Jew the right to obtain a posi- 
 tion in the public school. The school law, which 
 had not been altered by the constitution, said that 
 the schools had to be conducted in a Christian spirit. 
 Naturally a Jewish teacher was precluded from partic- 
 ipating in this work of education. In Italy, which 
 was split up into a number of small states, the old 
 reactionary conditions prevailed. They were strong- 
 est in the Papal States, where the Jews were kept 
 in the ghetto and subjected to the most ignomin- 
 ious disabilities. From the kingdom of Naples they 
 remained practically excluded, although in the city 
 of Naples, owing to the presence of a member of the 
 Rothschild family, some of these laws were disregarded. 
 In the kingdom of Sardinia, whether due to principles 
 of the government or to a fear that favorable treat- 
 ment of the Jews would estrange the Italian people 
 from the idea of looking to the house of Savoy as 
 the only native dynasty, destined to become the head 
 of a united Italy, restrictions remained. From Spain 
 the Jews still remained excluded, but the prohibition 
 seems to have been a mere theory. The small 
 number of Jews in Portugal, still suffering under 
 great restrictions, also would not excite any particular 
 
1 8 1 5 rO 19 15 137 
 
 interest. Holland retained the freedom given to 
 the Jews during the French rule in 1796, but the 
 great masses of the Jews were so estranged from public 
 life that they did not care for political rights. In 
 Belgium, where Jews had begun to settle in consider- 
 able numbers only after 1830, the question was of no 
 significance. Of the Scandinavian countries, Den- 
 mark had given the Jews full political freedom in 
 1848, while Sweden kept them under restrictions and 
 Norway did not admit them even as temporary resi- 
 dents prior to 1851. The year 1860 in which was 
 created the kingdom of Italy brought a change for 
 the better. Prussia began to admit the Jews to 
 public office, Bavaria in 1861 abolished the disgraceful 
 " M atrikel " law — ^which means restrictions on marriages 
 — Austria abolished all restrictions on civic and 
 political rights in 1867, Sweden followed in 1871 and, 
 strange to say, in 1878 Switzerland, the republic, 
 removed the last restrictions existing in the canton 
 of Aargau. Russia and Roumania remain the plague 
 spots on Jewish history. In both countries the year 
 1878, which marked the complete victory of Jewish 
 claim on justice in western Europe, marked as far as 
 Russia and especially Roumania are concerned, a 
 return to almost mediaeval barbarism, and in Russia, 
 practically to a condition which finds its equal only 
 in the time of the Crusades. Let us hope that the 
 year 1915 will see the end of the present gigantic 
 battle between nations and may also be as epoch making 
 for an improvement of the condition of our brethern 
 in Europe as the year 1815 which marked, in spite of 
 occasional retardation, the new era for the Jews of 
 the European Occident. 
 
138 SCROLLS 
 
 The change of political conditions is also marked 
 by a decided change in the intellectual life of the 
 Jews. This change did not come as suddenly as 
 the political emancipation. No legislation can pro- 
 duce such a marked change in spiritual life as it can 
 in economic or political situations. Up to the end of 
 the eighteenth century secular education was exceed- 
 ingly rare among the Jews, with the exceptions of 
 the Italian Jews and a few cultured Spanish and 
 Portuguese congregations of western Europe, such as 
 London, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. Amongst Ger- 
 man, Polish, and Oriental Jews secular education was 
 absolutely unknown. Very few exceptions are found 
 in the case of physicians. The practice of medicine 
 was, one might say, almost a monopoly among the 
 Jews. At any rate Jews had practiced medicine all 
 through mediaeval times and were extremely popular 
 as practioners, as can be seen from the effort made 
 by their Christian competitors to have them excluded 
 from or restricted in the practice of medicine. In 
 earlier times it seems that Jews acquired the knowledge 
 of medicine simply by practising under an experienced 
 physician. From the 16th century on we find a great 
 number of Polish and German Jews going to Italy, 
 preferably to Padua, to study there. Since the middle 
 of the eighteenth century we find them in constantly 
 growing numbers as students of medicine in German 
 universities. As the universities were autonomous, 
 there was no state law regulating admission to the 
 courses, but it depended entirely on the faculty of a 
 university whether they were willing to admit a 
 student or not. With the growing spirit of toleration. 
 
18 1 5 rO 19 15 139 
 
 due to the Rousseau school, this admission of Jews 
 became more and more common. These men, how- 
 ever, seemed to consider the study of medicine simply 
 as acquisition of knowledge, such as was necessary 
 for business life. As a cultural study nobody yet 
 believed in acquiring a university education 
 
 The broadening tendencies of Berlin society under 
 Frederick the Great, though he was by no means 
 sympathetic to the Jews, had a favorable influence 
 on the development of Jewish life. As early as 1761, 
 Veitel Heine Ephraim and Daniel Itzig, two prom- 
 inent business men of Berlin, asked the government 
 for the right to open a Jewish primary school in Berlin. 
 The right was obtained, but the project never assumed 
 any practical shape for reasons that nobody seems to 
 know. Ephraim was a prominent banker and an 
 ancestor of the novelist and Egyptologist, George 
 Ebers. Daniel Itzig, could, if he returned to earth 
 today, find among his descendants a number of barons 
 and counts and prominent scientists, such as the 
 alienist Hitzig of Halle. It may be that the opposi- 
 tion to the cultural movement by the leading rabbis of 
 that period had a considerable influence on the descen- 
 dants of these people in making them turn away from 
 a religion which to them was absolutely identical with 
 opposition to culture. For the opposition to secular 
 learning we find a number of important proofs 
 in the rabinical literature of that time. Herz 
 Homberg, born in a suburb of Prague in 1759, subse- 
 quently tutor in Moses Mendelssohn's family and 
 superintendent of the Jewish schools in Galicia, tells 
 us that when he was seventeen years old he did not 
 
140 SCROLLS 
 
 know even the German or Latin alphabet, though he 
 was considered quite a proficient Talmudic scholar. 
 He began to acquire the knowledge of reading and 
 writing German while a student at the Yeshibah at 
 Glogau, but he had to do it clandestinely for other- 
 wise he would have forfeited his support, which con- 
 sisted, as was the case in all Yeshibahs, in free meals 
 given to him by the members of the congregation. In 
 1787 the scheme of opening a secular primary school 
 for Jewish children was carried out successfully in 
 Berlin. Rabbinical opposition was strong enough 
 to militate against David Friedlander, the son-in-law 
 of Daniel Itzig, and his brother-in-law Isaac Daniel 
 Itzig, the two leaders of the Berlin congregation. 
 More influential evidently, or perhaps more strongly 
 supported by the leading element of the congregation 
 was the rabbi of Frankfurt am Main, Phineas Horo- 
 witz. When a number of public spirited citizens 
 began a movement for the opening of a secular school 
 in 1794, the rabbi pronounced an excommunication 
 against anyone who would aid or abet in such a heret- 
 ical design, and he carried his point, although the 
 senate of Frankfort prohibited the pronunciation of 
 such a ban, and the rabbi was compelled, at least 
 officially to retract it. 
 
 This suggests a favorite topic of mine namely the 
 insistence on exactness in chronological dates. In 
 1794 the rabbi of Frankfort successfully opposed the 
 opening of a secular school. In 1804 such a school 
 was opened and the rabbi did not dare utter any ob- 
 jections. Another instance will give us a similar 
 illustration of the development of intellectual life. 
 
1 8 15 ro 19 1 5 141 
 
 When Moses Mendelssohn pubHshed his Pentateuch 
 translation in 1783, a number of leading rabbis 
 opposed this as an anti-religious, heretical work. 
 Among those who opposed it most vehemently was the 
 same Phineas Horwitz, rabbi of Frankfurt am Main. 
 Just twenty years later. Wolf Heidenheim published 
 a translation of the holyday ritual with a Hebrew 
 commentary. He, therefore, did actually the same 
 thing that Moses Mendelssohn had done, but while 
 Moses Mendelssohn was severely denounced by the 
 rabbi of Frankfurt am Main, Heidenheim was not 
 merely tolerated but indorsed for doing a noble re- 
 ligious act. This difference in treatment was simply 
 due to the change of sentiment in twenty years. 
 This change becomes more manifest when we look 
 upon the attitude of the rabbis who followed the 
 generation of Phineas Horwitz and held office 
 during the nineteenth century. Prominent amongst 
 them is Akiba Eger (1761-1837). While he was 
 chief rabbi of the important congregation of Posen, 
 the government of Prussia, in 1825, issued an order 
 that every congregation must have a secular school. 
 The leading rabbis protested, Akiba Eger among them, 
 but their protest was of a mild nature. They no 
 longer had any objection to secular instruction, as 
 long as it would be restricted to a few hours in the 
 afternoon. How important this move on the part 
 of a progressive government was, a single instance 
 will suffice to illustrate. In 1808 Napoleon issued 
 a law on the condition of the Jews which among 
 others demanded that every Jew report to the authori- 
 ties the regular family name he would adopt. In 
 
142 SCROLLS 
 
 Reichshofen, Alsace, thirty-seven rnen and forty- 
 seven women reported. Of the thirty-seven men 
 only eleven could sign their names in Latin charac- 
 ters, while the others had to sign in Hebrew. Of 
 the forty-seven women only six could sign their names 
 in Hebrew characters, the rest could not sign their 
 names at all. 
 
 Educational institutions made rapid progress. 
 They were founded in all important cities, as in 
 Prague in 1782, in Breslau in 1791, in Dessau in 
 1799, and soon a goodly number of institutions of 
 higher learning followed, prominent, among them the 
 Jacobsonschule in Seesen, established in 1801 and 
 endowed by the philanthropist Israel Jacobson who 
 also founded a similar institution in Wolfenbuettel, 
 using funds which some years previously had been 
 bequeathed by members of his family for the purpose 
 of maintaining rabbis who should devote all their 
 time to the study of the Talmud. Influential with 
 the Duke of Brunswick, Jacobson obtained from him 
 who naturally was favorable to the secular education 
 of the Jews, the right to use these funds for different 
 purposes. Similar institutions were soon established 
 in Frankfurt am Main, in Hamburg, Halberstadt, 
 and Hanover. The most important move, however, 
 was the establishing of secular schools in the heart of 
 Poland, right in the center of obscurantism, in Brody 
 and Tarnopol, in 1815. The moving spirit in the 
 latter city which then was under Russian control, just 
 as it has been during this year, was Joseph Perl, well 
 known in literature as the author of a brilliant satire 
 on Hasidism, entitled, "The Revealer of Secrets," 
 
1 8 1 5 r 1 9 1 S 143 
 
 and modeled after the famous "Letters of Obscure 
 Men." In this way it is seen how the progressive 
 ideas of western Europe influenced the condition of 
 the Jews in the east of Europe, although it took very 
 long to bring the light to these countries and, in fact, 
 even to this day it is only a minority of the population 
 which accepts secular education as necessary and con- 
 sistent with Jewish ideas. 
 
 The last word on the political emancipation of the 
 Jews of Western Europe was practically spoken on 
 the battlefield of Waterloo in 1815. A century has 
 passed and another serious battle is fought which is 
 bound to have a lasting if not decisive influence on 
 the future development of the world. None of our 
 contemporaries can reasonably expect that he will 
 be able to revie-« the events of another century, nor 
 can one now past middle age expect to even prog- 
 nosticate the effect which the present terrible crisis 
 will have on the world for the next fifty years. But 
 the younger men of the present generation, those who 
 are now students of Jewish history will, let us hope, 
 be privileged to see our optimistic expectations 
 realized. 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.* 
 
 ' I "^HERE is only one way to understand the past. 
 ■*- You must approach its study with the convic- 
 tion that, taken as a whole, people in olden times were 
 neither better nor worse than they are today. The 
 chief motives of human actions, viz.: ambition and 
 indifference, hatred and love, envy and conceit, craft 
 and stupidity, asceticism and gluttony, vanity and 
 modesty, etc., always existed and will continue to 
 exist : 
 
 "Willst du dich selber erkennen, 
 
 Sieh', wie die Anderen es treiben; 
 
 Willst du die Anderen verstehen, 
 
 Blick' in dein eigenes Herz." 
 
 I am almost sure that the existence of this Journal 
 will, in some quarters, be commented on very severely. 
 I doubt not that some will say, "You must till the 
 ground before you can hope to reap its product." 
 I have no desire to express my opinion on this subject, 
 for I am well aware that there are two sides to the 
 question. Early writing may really have the effect 
 of making the writer liable to a life-long immaturity, 
 but it, on the other hand, trains a man to be careful 
 of what he utters, for he knows it is one thing to make 
 a statement in the pulpit, when hardly one out of a 
 hundred will take notice of such a small detail as a 
 misquoted biblical passage, and even this one will 
 forget it by and by, and quite another thing to have 
 such a quotation "engraved with an iron pen and lead 
 *H. U. C. Journal, Vol. I, pages 31-34, November, 1896. 
 
146 SCROLLS 
 
 in the rock forever," though the rock be only a month- 
 ly journal. 
 
 So I leave the decision open, but I know that such a 
 charge is no new thing. In those good old times when 
 there was not the slightest apprehension that a rabbi 
 would study homiletics or receive instruction in elo- 
 cution that he would lecture on bimetallism, on 
 Tom Crogan, or Brahma-Somaj, and similar topics 
 of the day, in those times when lectures were not 
 printed in weekly pamphlets, when no paper with the 
 largest circulation in the North or in the South, in the 
 East or in the West, was ready to publish Rabbi Schrei- 
 hals' latest pulpit effort, with the editorial assurance 
 that the reading public of the whole world had never 
 before been treated to such marvellous intellectual 
 hash — ^even in those good old times we occasionally 
 meet with complaints about immature literary pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 Rabbi Jacob Joshua (died 1756), rabbi in Frankfort 
 on the Main and previously in Metz and Berlin, one 
 of the greatest Talmudic scholars of the eighteenth 
 century, still known as one of the typical representa- 
 tives of rabbinical scholasticism through his work 
 "Pene Jehoshua," complains in the preface to the first 
 volume of this work, published in Amsterdam, 1739, 
 that in his age every boy publishes books, although he 
 would need years of preparation before he would be- 
 come sufficiently qualified for self instruction, not to 
 speak of the instruction of others. Rabbi Joshua was 
 at that time a man of nearly sixty years and it is 
 quite natural that he should have regarded a man of 
 fifty as somewhat immature and a man of forty as a 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF UT 
 
 boy. It is not very long ago that I heard a minister 
 make the statement that it takes twenty years' 
 experience in the pulpit for one to discover what 
 pulpit work really meant. I inquired how long this 
 gentleman had been in the pulpit, and I found that 
 just a week previously he had celebrated the twentieth 
 anniversary of his career. Had I met him five years 
 before, I am quite sure he would have considered 
 fifteen years as the exact time of probation. Inter- 
 esting was the circumstance that I met the same gentle- 
 man in the company of an older member of the pro- 
 fession, a man who had almost reached the three- 
 score-and-ten, and this latter addressed the former 
 in quite a paternal tone: "My young friend, take 
 my advice, you are a young man yet," etc. 
 
 This is exactly what happened in the time of Rabbi 
 Jacob Joshua. I have no doubt but that Rabbi 
 Joshua may have referred to such rising stars as his 
 successor. Rabbi Phineas Horwitz, the author of 
 Hafla-ah, (died 1805), while his predecessor. Rabbi 
 Jacob Poppers from Prague, (died 1740) may have 
 felt just the same about Rabbi Joshua. At least 
 Poppers' contemporary, compatriot and namesake, 
 R. Jacob Reischer, of Metz (died 1733) predicts early 
 death to those who impatiently push themselves for- 
 ward to occupy the places of older men, and main- 
 tains that accordingly, such a young man was called 
 in the Talmud a foetus. And, really, the Talmudic- 
 passage to which Riesser refers seems to indicate the 
 same views. Rab, the religious leader of Babylonian 
 Judaism in the third century, explains the Scriptural! 
 passage, "for she hath cast down many wounded, yea,. 
 
148 SCROLLS 
 
 all her slain are a mighty host," (Prov. VII, 26) 
 to mean : A rabbi who teaches before he has reached 
 his maturity (Sotah 22, a.). Conditions in Sura in 
 the third century were not different from those in 
 Frankfort in the eighteenth. 
 
 So we see that the old Talmudic homilies are true 
 not only psychologically but even historically, or we 
 may say they are true historically because they are 
 true homiletically. An anonymous author in the 
 Talmud says that Nadab and Abihu were punished 
 because when they saw Moses and Aaron at the head 
 of a great multitude they said: "Would that these 
 old men died and we were the leaders of the people." 
 Therefore God said : "Wait and we shall see who shall 
 bury who" (Synhedrin 52, a.). This little homily is 
 not dated, but it is safe to assume that it was written 
 in Palestine not later than the fourth century, for the 
 Babylonian Rabbi Papa (president of the College of 
 Nares, 352-375) comments on it, quoting as Babylon- 
 ian adage: "There are plenty of old camels which are 
 loaded with the hides of young ones." Evidently 
 there were some young camels at the College of Nares 
 anxious to step into the shoes of the old ones. But 
 we are safe in assuming that at the time of Aaron and 
 Moses there were indeed some young men who 
 thought it quite timely for these old fogies to retire, 
 while the latter thought that the age could not yet 
 spare them. 
 
 Last summer, while in Europe, I met an old friend, 
 a rabbi, who said: "It is quite remarkable that, in 
 spite of our rabbinical seminaries, this age does not 
 produce any preachers." My friend is sixty -one, just 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 149 
 
 about the age of Rabbi Jacob Joshua when he pub- 
 Ushed the first part of "Pene Jehoshua." I suppose 
 this was the age of Rabbi Papa when he quoted the 
 Babylonian adage of the old camels and the young, 
 and this may have been the age of the Palestinian 
 Rabbi, who drew up before his audience a picture of 
 Nadab and Abihu impatiently awaiting the death of 
 Moses and Aaron. Maybe it was this very same 
 rabbi who characterizes the age of King David in the 
 following words: "There never existed a worse set 
 of scorners than those who lived in the time of David. 
 What do you think those people did? They knocked 
 at David's window and asked: "Say when will the 
 temple be built?" (Yer. Berakhot 4, b.) So these 
 scorners took advantage of their knowledge of the 
 prophecy of Nathan, who had said that the temple 
 would not be built in the time of David, suggesting to 
 the old King that it was about time for him to retire 
 to his fathers. This same homily is found, with slight 
 changes, in the Babylonian Talmud (Makkot 10, b). 
 Thei'e the scoffers are quoted as having said : "When 
 will this old fellow die and his son Solomon succeed to 
 the throne so that the temple may be built and all 
 enjoy a modern holyday service!" In the Babylonian 
 Talmud this homily is ascribed to Rabbi Joshua ben 
 Levi. It would be easy to prove by the methods of 
 modern Biblical critics that he is the author of the 
 passage in Yerushalmi, for in both places the temple 
 is called the house of divine choice. (Beth Habehi- 
 rah), and furthermore the people in both instances 
 
 begin with the words: "When shall die " 
 
 These same words in Synhedrin are ascribed to Nadab 
 
150 SCROLLS 
 
 and Abihu. Consequently Rabbi Joshua ben Levi 
 is also the author of this Pisqa. Quod erat demon- 
 strandum. 
 
 But this is immaterial. It is more important that 
 King David is always quoted to have replied to the 
 scorners: "I am glad, when they say unto me, let us. 
 go unto the house of the Lord" (Ps. 122, 1.) Rabbi 
 Joshua ben Levi was the son of a declining age, 
 somewhat like Phineas Horwitz, or the latter's son 
 and successor, Zebi Hirsch (died 1815.) The great 
 time of the Tannaim, during which he had attained 
 the age of manhood, had passed, and they remained 
 like erratic stones, in surroundings to which they 
 were strange and in which they were not understood. 
 New men had a'-isen, the Amoraim, who knew all the 
 old generation had known and a good deal more that 
 was of interest to the younger generation, just as 
 people in Frankfort at the beginning of this century 
 preferred Mendelssohn's Phaedon or Wessely's epic 
 to the study of Rabbi Horwitz's scholastic work. 
 Phineas Horwitz felt very bitter about it, but 
 Rabbi Joshua ben Levi consoled himself with the 
 example of David who, when people revelled in the 
 thought of the new era, of a magnificent temple and 
 splendid choir performances and beautifully worded 
 fervent prayers, said : "I am glad when they say unto 
 me, let 'us go unto the house of the Lord." 
 
 I am a contemporary of Graetz, Frankel, Geiger, 
 Joel and Jellinek, and I have seen some of the rabbis 
 of the old school, such as were those who were taught 
 by Phineas Horwitz. I lived in the city where Phin- 
 eas' older brother and revered teacher had officiated 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 151 
 
 as rabbi (Rabbi Shmelke, died in Nikolsburg 1778). 
 I still heard the vivid traditions about this saint's 
 greatness. So I am like Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, a 
 man of the Tannaim age, who lives amongst the Amor- 
 aim; and when I see that Rabbi Johanan and Resh 
 Lakish are upheld as the ideals of our age, who suc- 
 ceeded in doing what neither the Knights of the 
 Round Table, nor their surviving knaves could 
 accomplish — -then I shall say like King David: "Al- 
 though I know I am the victim of this modern evolu- 
 tion, still I am glad when my age calls for others to 
 lead them to the house of the Lord." 
 
 HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.* 
 II 
 
 MY FIRST article on this subject obtained a 
 compliment for me from the Rev. Dr. Szold 
 of Baltimore, a man whom I have called by name 
 and have surnamed him, although I do not know 
 him personally, and saying to myself: "Come and 
 see what a great man has testified in my behalf," 1 
 deemed it proper to continue a talk on the very same 
 topic from a different aspect. 
 
 When you read our religious journals you frequent- 
 ly find polemics of a decidedly factious nature. 
 When you meet prominent rabbis you find them 
 proner to discuss the shctcomings than the accom- 
 plishments of their brother ministers. When you go 
 to a place where several rabbis live together on a 
 basis of equality, you will find them sometimes living 
 *H. U. C. Journal, Vol. L pages 82-86 January, 1897. 
 
152 SCROLLS 
 
 in decided enmity, sometimes in an intentionally 
 cool relationship, as if they wished to avoid too 
 frequent contact which might be followed by an out- 
 break of hostilities. Very rarely, if ever, will you find 
 their mutual relations an illustration of the Psalm- 
 ist's ideal: "How beautiful is it and how pleasant tor 
 brethren to dwell together in unity." I do not 
 allude to any special event in this country, but wish to 
 say that I have found this state of affairs among those 
 who sat in the Beth-Hamidrash in the little town of 
 Nikolsburg. I have seen it in Breslau, in Vienna, 
 in Berlin, in Hamburg, in London, and wherever I 
 found an opportunity to peep through from the out- 
 side. 
 
 Contemporaneous literature furnishes not a few 
 instances of that kind which are not limited to Juda- 
 ism and its theology. De Lagarde, the famous orien- 
 talist, never speaks without passion. He can never 
 quote Spiegel, the great Persian scholar, without 
 calling him, sneeringly, Herr Hofrath. And if one 
 has the misfortune to be a Jew he will certainly never 
 be cited by Mr. De Lagarde without such a charitable 
 attribute as, son of the malodorous ghetto, or any 
 other compliment that will remind the unfortunate 
 son of Israel of the superiority of Aryan-Christian 
 civilization. I know of no Jewish author whom I 
 could compare to De Lagarde for rudeness of tone and 
 utter lack of fairness, though even in our literature 
 unpleasant personalities are not infrequent. Stein- 
 schneider, e. g., speaks of Graetz as a "Compilator." 
 This is certainly unfair, for in spite of Steinschneider's 
 immortal merits in Jewish literature, nobody could 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 153 
 
 ever have studied Jewish history from the "Catalogus 
 Bodlejanae" or from the twenty-two volumes of the 
 Hebraeische Bibliographic. Graetz retaliated, and 
 when he alludes to Steinschneider it is mostly done 
 with a view to disparagement (See e. g. viii-408). 
 Geiger naturally did not like the whole Breslau school, 
 and as far as a principle was involved, there is no 
 objection. He found that the position of both, 
 Graetz and Frankel, was half-hearted, left us say 
 cowardly. In former times I used to think that he 
 was wrong, for it seemed to me that Frankel's atti- 
 tude was the only one that could save Judaism in 
 civilized Europe from the pernicious influence of the 
 Yeshibah. And this merit Breslau did have. As 
 conditions are now, I think that this faltering atti- 
 tude, this dodging of the vital questions of the day, 
 such as the Messianic dogma, did a great deal of 
 harm and is largely responsible for the marasnms 
 which threatens the future of Judaism in Western 
 Europe. However, this may be true, and still Geiger 
 might have shown more justice to his opponents. 
 This we utterly miss when he calls Graetz "Ein 
 Schwindler und Charlatan von der ersten Sorte" 
 (Geiger's L.eben in Briefen", p. 257.) Graetz retal- 
 iated, it is true, and the delight which he displayed 
 when he found out that Geiger committed the un- 
 pardonable mistake of writing "Leon da Modena," 
 instead of simply "Leon Modena" appears to us 
 rather small. 
 
 Very wrong on the part of Graetz was his remark 
 concerning Zunz in the preface to the fifth volume of 
 his histo'-y, where he speaks of Zunz's "Notizenkram," 
 
154 SCROLLS 
 
 as more apt to bedim than to enlighten the reader, 
 although no one can deny the fact that Zunz's books 
 were not written for readers, but for reference-hunters. 
 It is of no use to add other instances, I shall refer only 
 to Melanchthon's famous word of the theological 
 rabies, which he, poor soul, still experienced after 
 his death, when Leonhard Hutter, in a theological 
 disputation, held at Wittenberg in the seventeenth 
 century, threw Melanchthon's picture on the floor and 
 trampled upon it, because Hutter's opponent had dared 
 to quote Melanchthon as a theological authority. 
 
 When we see such things in our day, they appear in 
 a more civilized form, but they are, nevertheless, 
 children of the same spirit. Trees must not be planted 
 too close together, and the taller they are the more they 
 will prove an inconvenience to each other, and the 
 thicker their foliage the likelier it is that their branches 
 will become entangled. 
 
 This is human nature. In the Midrash we find the 
 following remark : ' 'They — Korah and his followers — 
 went down alive into the pit." That means: "They 
 are living even now" (Rabbah Num. xvi, 33). What 
 did the author of this Midrash mean? I think he 
 meant that the generation of Korah, the disturbers of 
 the peace of the community, the "chronic kickers," 
 will never die out. It may be that I am mistaken, and 
 that my interpretation is a Midrash on the Midrash, 
 but I believe that this was really the sense of the 
 author of this saying. But suppose it was not. Is 
 not the story of Korah's rebellion in itself a philosophy 
 of Jewish history. There are Moses and Aaron, two 
 men who sacrificed their best interests to those of 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 155 
 
 the community. Moses held a high position at the 
 court, and no one would ha\e reminded him of that 
 dark spot in his pedigree, had Moses not considered 
 it his duty to protect his unfortunate brethren. This 
 came near costing him his life. He escaped and 
 found a safe refuge in the house of a Midianitic priest, 
 the religious head of a clan, whose hospitality made 
 the stranger a member of the Midianitic gentry. 
 He might have lived there, but it seems he was bound 
 to get himself into trouble for the sake of others. So 
 he returned to Egypt. The rash act of his killing an 
 Egyptian had meantime been forgotten. I suppose 
 it was, after all, considered heroic, and in Egypt a man 
 would no more have been killed for defending a kins- 
 man than a Kentucky jury would find a verdict against 
 a man for shooting one who had called him a liar. 
 So Moses could again have returned to his former 
 position and rise in rank, had he not had the weakness 
 to devote his life to his down-trodden brethren. 
 
 No sooner was his work accomplished than people 
 began to charge that he had enslaved instead of 
 liberating them, and that everything he did was for 
 the purpose of rising to power and providing jobs for 
 his kinsmen and fa\'orites. This is so natural, so 
 regular in history, that the author of the Midrash 
 justly said: They went down alive, and so they are 
 still living. And a popular adage quoted : The sons 
 of Korah died not (Num. xx\i, 2.), in the sense that 
 quarrelsome backbiters ne\er die out. 
 
 Well, Biblical criticism has in these da>s so many 
 folio .vers that it will be necessary to take the views of 
 the critics into consideration. Criticism is a child of 
 
156 SCROLLS 
 
 the era of evolution: The rehgion of Moses could 
 not have been the product of one single intellect, 
 but had undergone a series of changes before it as- 
 sumed the shape of a thoroughly organized hierarchy 
 and before it had developed a minute ritualistic service. 
 So — critics teach — the oldest religious stage was that 
 of domestic sacrifices performed by the head of the 
 clan. The higher civilization developed the clan 
 into the tribe and finally into the nation. So by and 
 by religious practices became a science and its adepts 
 went from one place to another seeking a community 
 which demanded their services. They may have been 
 the descendants of one family; at all events, they 
 formed a guild, within which by and by a certain 
 family rose to prominence. This stirred up a protest 
 from the less favored members ot the tribe, the Levites, 
 who libeled Aaron saying that he had made the golden 
 calf. The Aaronites in turn proved by the story of 
 Korah that God himself had approved of the super- 
 iority of their clan over the others. 
 
 Let us suppose that this hypothesis is correct. 
 It would not change the psychological aspect of 
 the history. No sooner does a man rise to prominence 
 than he becomes the object of envy and the target of 
 slander. 
 
 The prophet Elijah was evidently laboring under 
 the disadvantage of standing outside of the oiificial 
 ranks. He did not belong to the four hundred and 
 fifty which ate at Jezebel's table. He did not dress 
 according to the fashion. The court prophets appear- 
 ed in what was in those days full dress; he wore a 
 mantel of camel-hair and a girdle of leather, and. 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 157 
 
 what was the greatest horror, he had a long beard. 
 Society considered him a"Bollack". Scarcely differ- 
 ent was the case of Jeremiah. Why did he not preach 
 of the great accomplishments of Judean Judaism? 
 Why did he mock at many altars? Why did he ridi- 
 cule the emphatic boasts about the temple of the 
 Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of theLord? 
 Why did he tell of the formidable power of Nebuchad 
 nezar, when people expected of a prophet that he 
 should hold up the belief in Israel's invincibleness 
 So he had himself to blame when the way of the 
 Lord was made a reproach unto him and a derision 
 all the day. But, so or so, the best way to paralyze 
 ' Jeremiah's effort was to prqnounce him a traitor, 
 just as it proved effective, when the prohpets of the 
 Baal said that Elijah was a trouble-maker. 
 
 In rabbinical times it was hardly any better. The 
 Talmud counts as sworn enemies dogs, roosters, 
 sorcerers, lewd women and rabbis (Pesachim 115, b). 
 R. Hanina, of whom we shall speak later, informs us 
 that every rabbi is "singed by the halo of his neighbor. 
 Oh, what a shame! Oh, what a disgrace!" (Baba 
 Bathra, 75, a.). It must have been an experience 
 of his own time, when R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanos ad- 
 vised his disciples to warm themselves at the firesides 
 of rabbis, but to beware of their live coal, lest they 
 be burned, for their bite is the bite of a snake and their 
 sting the sting of a scorpion (Aboth ii, 15.) We shall 
 see later on that R Eliezer, like many other wise men, 
 forgot his admonition when he needed it himself, and 
 his dying words were: "Take heed that you shall 
 not forget the respect which you owe to your friends" 
 
"158 SCROLLS 
 
 (Ber. 28, b). How generally, however, this duty was 
 •disregarded may be clearly seen from the saying that 
 Jerusalem was destroyed for the sin of disrespect to 
 rabbis. (Sabbath 119, b.) A very strong smile is: 
 "Behold harlots beautify each other's complexion, 
 why should not rabbis do the same?" (Sabbath 34 a). 
 Still as is the case with all theories, they are easier 
 and more frequently understood than they are prac- 
 ticed. We find a great number of instances which 
 show that the members of the profession disliked 
 each other, that they had a sharp eye for their neigh- 
 bor's shortcomings, and were blind to his virtues. 
 R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanos was excommunicated. 
 R. Jahuda Hanasi was too liberal for Phineas ben 
 Jair and too orthodox for R. Hija. Rab had not yet 
 arrived in Babylonia when his colleagues, Kama and 
 Samuel, resolved to make it hot for him. Saadya 
 found his colleague, Kohen Zedek siding with his 
 enemy, David ben Zakkai. Abraham ben David 
 called Maimonides a fool and an ignoramus. Jacob 
 Emden was convinced that Jonathan Eybeschuetz 
 was an instrument of Satan, and David Kaufmann in 
 the preface to the autobiography of Glueckel von 
 Hameln informs us that Kayserling spoke of two 
 manuscripts of this work, when he referred to one 
 only. But I shall not go down to contemporary his- 
 tory, else I might get myself into such trouble that 
 I might not have a chance to continue my account of 
 rabbinical rabbi-haters in a later issue. 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 159 
 
 HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.* 
 Ill 
 
 T N MY first article on this subject, I said that the 
 -■■ psychological forces which act as motives in 
 human nature will forever remain the same, and, 
 therefore, when people live closely together, the con- 
 sequence will be a conflict of interest, which will result 
 in enmitj', either by acts, or by words, or by feelings. 
 The more our moral ideals or our desire for outward 
 appearance require the suppression of our actual senti- 
 ments, the stronger they will break out when the 
 accumulated heat has reached the limits of expansion. 
 Wherever there is a community of interests, the diver- 
 sity in methods will be stronger than the fellowship of 
 endeavor. I knew an oid-fashioned Jew, who said: 
 "The best thing for our people would be, if all of them 
 could be made postmasters." _When asked, why he 
 thought so much of this occupation, he said: "It is 
 not because of this occupation, but because every one 
 would live at least ten miles away f "om his neighbor 
 and there would be no opportunity to quarrel." The 
 same is true of rabbis, and therefore we understand 
 why literature furnishes so many instances of disagree- 
 ment, malice and hatred, among the members of the 
 profession. 
 
 At the head of the rabbinical period of Jewish 
 history stands Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai. There 
 is as everywhere in our ancient history, a thick growth 
 of legends around this historical figure; still, we can 
 see this much, that he was an extraordinary character 
 who had both the courage and the power to gather the 
 *H. U. C. Journal Vol.1, pages 103-105, February 1897. 
 
160 SCROLLS 
 
 dispersed forces at a moment so critical as was the 
 time of the destruction of the temple. Such a man 
 had to be an optimist, a man who believed in the 
 mission of Judaism, but this would only suffice to 
 make him the reorganizer of a community. In 
 order to succeed in the latter object he had to be a 
 man of conciliatory spirit. And this lie was. We 
 can see it from his teachings which are undoubtedly 
 better historical sources than any biographical notes 
 wlvch we could glean from the Talmudic legends. 
 He explains the law that an altar should not be built 
 of hewn stones in the following homily: "The stones 
 of the altar which are blind and deaf and mute shall 
 be protected against the pernicious iron, because they 
 bring peace into the world, how much the more shall 
 a man be protected against all evil who regards it as 
 his mission to establish peace and good will on earth." 
 (Mekilta xx, 25.) 
 
 This homily, although it may be spurious, shows 
 us the historical character in the same manner in 
 which the story of the hatchet shows us the historical 
 George Washington. In Jabneh, where he had estab- 
 lished a school which was considered a substitute for 
 the doctrinal authoritv formerly vested in the San- 
 hedrin, it happened for the first time since the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem that New Year's day fell on a Sab- 
 bath. In former times the strictly observant Phar- 
 isees would make a distinction between the temple of 
 Jerusalem and the synagog. The rites of the former, 
 as divinely ordained, were considered obligatory, the 
 services of the latter were a custom, not a duty. 
 Consequently, whenever the latter conflicted with 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 161 
 
 Sabbath observance they were not permitted, while 
 the rites of the temple took preference over the Sab- 
 bath. According to the view of the Pharisees, 
 playing on a musical instrument, although not con- 
 sidered work, was regarded as inconsistent with the 
 Sabbath rest — Sh'buth — and therefore, as long as the 
 temple in Jerusalem existed, the blowing of the horn 
 was allowed in the temple only, not in the synagog. 
 The Pharisees were a low church party. Like all such 
 parties in ecclesiastical history, e. g., the Waldenses 
 and the Methodists, they had little sympathy with 
 ritualism, although they would not attack it directly. 
 So the Pharisees, not objecting to the rites of the tem- 
 ple, emphasized the importance of the synagog. 
 
 Now, after the destruction of the temple, R. 
 Johanan ben Zakkaj thought the time had come to 
 transfer one of the prerogatives of the house which 
 God had chosen, to the housewherehe was worshipped. 
 He decided that in spite of the Sabbath the horn should 
 be blown. The High-church party objected just as 
 the Catholic church objected to services, at which no 
 mass was said. They wished to know what reasons 
 R. Johanan had for his departure from tradition. 
 He, knowing that no theological argument had ever 
 convinced the opponent, said: "Let us discuss the 
 matter after services." After services the opponents 
 approached him, no doubt well provided with ammu- 
 nition for a theological battle, but R. Johanan said: 
 "We cannot afford to risk our authority by the 
 acknowledgment that we may have erred. Practice 
 has decided, and theory must yield." (Rosh ha-shanah 
 29b.) 
 
162 SCROLLS 
 
 R. Johanan succeeded in preventing a religious 
 disturbance. It could not always have been an 
 easy task, for one of his disciples, when asked to 
 state what the most desirable thing for a man was, 
 said: "A good friend." However, during his life- 
 time we hear of no disturbance of the peace of Juda- 
 ism. He must have been a man like Mendelssohn, who 
 could get along with everybody. Mendelssohn who 
 did not ask for R. Hirschel Levin's indorsement for 
 his Pentateuch — translation and commentary, know- 
 ing that he could not get it, but said that he thought his 
 efforts were to insignificant to trouble "the princes of 
 Israel" for an expression of opinion. ' 
 
 The Prussian government wanted a compendium of 
 the Jewish civil law and asked the chief -rabbi, Hirschel 
 Levin to write it. Mendelssohn did it for him,'' and 
 Zunz justly remarked that R. Hirschel was better 
 known through Mendelssohn's than through his own 
 writings,' which remains true even today, although 
 R. Hirschel's notes on theTalmud have meantime been 
 edited. The congregation of Berlin wished to cele- 
 brate some patriotic occasion, Mendelssohn wrote 
 the sermon, and it was published as a translation from 
 the Hebrew, written by the chief-rabbi.'' 
 
 Mendelssohn, when engaged to Fromet Guggenheim, 
 visited Hamburg, and paid his respects to the chief- 
 rabbi, Jonathan Eybeschitz. The latter felt highly 
 flattered, and expressed regret that local traditions did 
 not permit him to confer on such a distinguished 
 
 1 Kayserling: Moses Mendelssohn, page 289, Leipsic, 1862. 
 
 2 ib. 280-281. 
 
 ' Zunz: Die Monatstage des Kalenderjahres, page 47. Ber- 
 lin, 1872. 
 
 ■■ Kayserling, I.e. 120. 
 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 163 
 
 visitor the D. D. (Morenu)/ Jacob Emden de- 
 manded Mendelssohn's assistance in his efforts to have 
 a law repealed which prohibited the early burial 
 custom among the Jews. Mendelssohn refused, and 
 was promptly given to understand that he was a 
 heretic.^ He did not reply. Eybeschutz's successor 
 Raphael Kohen intended to pronounce excommuni-, 
 cation upon all who studied Mendelssohn's Pentateuch. 
 The latter applied to a friend , who obtained for his work 
 the subscription of the Danish court. R. Raphael 
 dared not condemn a book which the court had so 
 highly honored, and Mendelssohn was satisfied.' 
 So, he never wrote a line against any of his rabbinical 
 antagonists, not even against Ezekiel Landau, who 
 had proven that R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanos had, in his 
 prophetic spirit, 1650 years before Mendelssohn's 
 Pentateuch was published, declared this book to be 
 dangerous.* So, Mendelssohn was privileged to 
 give to Judaism a new direction, and was saved from 
 the usual lot of reformers. He lived and died in 
 peace. Similar to his, was the character of R. 
 Johanan ben Zakkai. But a conflict may be avoided 
 by a man. It cannot be avoided by a cause. And 
 this was the experience which was in store for Rabban 
 Gamaliel, R. Johanan's successor, as it fell to the lot 
 of Aaron Chorin and Abraham Geiger who continued 
 the work of Mendelssohn. 
 
 ' KeremHemed, III, 224. Graetz,Geschichte,X,397.3rd.ed. 
 
 * Kayserling, 1. c. 277. 
 
 ' Graetz, Geschichte, XI, 48. 
 
 8 Zelah ad Berakot, 28, b. Prague, 1791. 
 
THE YEAR 1903 IN JEWISH HISTORY.* 
 
 WRITING history of our own age fills us with the 
 importance of the historian's task. It teaches 
 us the difficulty of gathering reliable information, of 
 properly grouping and of scientifically selecting the 
 facts which make history. Official documents always 
 speak with a view of the public and not with regard 
 to the information of posterity. W^here a resignation 
 from a pulpit is tendered with heavy heart because of 
 ill health and accepted with great reluctance, the 
 whole procedure is often a kind way of kicking out 
 the man, although the minutes of the congregation, 
 a first-class contemporan.- source, state the contrary. 
 On the other hand, people in a position to know with- 
 hold the facts, partly because they are interested in 
 keeping the matter quiet, partly because they would 
 get themselves into trouble, and so even from con- 
 temporary sources we learn a great deal with is not true 
 and are kept in ignorance of many things which are 
 true. I enw people who are so positive about the 
 reasons for R. Eliezer ben H3-rcanus' excommunica- 
 tion .^ for I know a man who was discharged from a 
 charitable institution because of serious breach of 
 morality, while officially he had resigned, considering 
 it incompatible with his religious views that chil- 
 dren under his care should be permitted to write on 
 Sabbath. 
 
 *From Hebrew Union College Annual, 1904. 
 iBaba Mezia, 59 b. 
 
166 SCROLLS 
 
 This premise was necessary in order to find an excuse 
 for my own shortcomings. Often enough in teach- 
 ing and writing I hear Mephistopheles whisper: 
 
 Habt Ihr von Gott, der Welt und was sich drin 
 
 bewegt, 
 Definitionen nicht mit grosser Kraft gegeben? 
 Und wollt Ihr recht ins Innre gehen, 
 Habt Ihr davon, Ihr muesst es grad' gestehen, 
 So viel als von Herrn Schwerdtleins Tod gewusst! 
 
 There is, however, another great difficulty in writing 
 Jewish history. It extends over so vast a territory 
 and embraces such a variety of subjects that one must 
 be posted on the political economy of Hungary, as well 
 as on the police laws of Russia, in order to do justice 
 to the task. Careful reading of the papers of all 
 countries, coupled with an extensive correspondence, 
 would be necessary in order to obtain correct infor- 
 mation on the facts which go to make history of the 
 Jews. One man could not do it; it would require 
 a seminar with some means at its command in order 
 to prepare the material for the future historian. Let 
 us hope that this annual will pave the way. 
 
 Till Eulenspiegel, when asked how a wise man 
 should act, answered: See how the fools are acting 
 and do the opposite. If we understand this advice 
 not literally but merely in the sense that the conscious- 
 ness of failure is the first step toward imp"ovement, 
 this rule A^ill apply to Jewish historiography. Our 
 historians have been accustomed to look upon Jewish 
 history too much from the rabbinical point of view. 
 Graetz closes his "Vokstuemliche Geschichte der 
 Juden" with the establishment of the rabbinical 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 167 
 
 seminaries to which he ascribes the task assigned to 
 the prophet Ehjah in the Talmud, « viz., to solve all 
 difficulties. He therefore sees in the rabbinical sem- 
 inaries the fulfilment of the Messanic prophecies. 
 To me the admission of Lionel de Rothschild to the 
 English Parliament means a great deal more, and 
 Jews' College is merely a slow consequence of that 
 fact. In 1782 Loeb Cohen, or, as he was officially 
 called, Levi Barent Cohen, Lionel de Rothschilds' 
 grandfather, addressed a letter to Ezekiel Landau, 
 chief rabbi of Prague, asking him whether it was per- 
 missible to open an umbrella on the Sabbath, which the 
 rabbi of course denied.^ With men of Loeb Cohen's 
 type as leading laymen, rabbis like Tebele Schiff or 
 Solomon Herschell were in full harmony, while with 
 Lionel de Rothschild as Pavnas a rabbi had to be a man 
 of German academic training, so long as Jewish min- 
 isters of English education could not be obtained, and 
 so Alfred L. Cohen, Loeb's great-grandson, quite 
 consistently founded a prize for the students of Jews' 
 College showing the greatest proficiency, not in the 
 solution of ritual questions, but in English literature.'' 
 
 Similarly Graetz dexoted a disproportionately large 
 space to the contro\-ersy between Jacob Emden and 
 Jonathan Eybeschuetz, while he does not mention the 
 important part which the Jews at that time played 
 as farmers of the tobacco monopoly and as pioneer 
 manufacturers. 
 
 If we do not wish to fall into the same error, we 
 must look upon Jewish history from the point of view 
 
 ^Eduyoth VIII, 7. 
 
 ' Xoda Bi-Yehudah, 2d collection, Orach Chajim, Xo. 40. 
 
 •* Jewish Chronicle, Dec. 1903, p. 8. 
 
168 SCROLLS 
 
 of the Jewish people. In this respect the year 1903 
 will rank next to 1096 and 1648, The massacres of the 
 crusades and of the Cossacks have been repeated with 
 only such changes as the twentieth century accomp- 
 lishments, like the telegraph, newspaper, international 
 politics, etc., required. The slaughter of Kishineff, 
 April 19-20 and its sequel at Homel, September 14, 
 will be as black spots on the pages of Russia n history as 
 the St. Bartholomew was for France, and the 
 Inquisition for Spain. On Kishineff we have quite 
 a literature,* and concerning Homel information is 
 given in the Jewish Encyclopedia. It is needless to 
 repeat here the horrible details. The fact remains that 
 in a large city with a military garrison the authorities 
 allowed the mob for two days full freedom of murder- 
 ing, pillaging and raping. No attempt at white- 
 washing will ever free the Russian government from 
 the responsibility for this outrage. The government 
 had been informed that the violent diatribes of Krush- 
 evan in his two papers, the Besarabetz of Kishineff and 
 the Znamiya of St. Petersburg, incited the populace to 
 bloodshed; the local governor was invoked by the 
 Jews in time to prevent the imminent massacre, but 
 the government seems to have thought that a little 
 Jew-killing would be a good means to cool the passions 
 
 5 W. C. Stiles: Out of Kishineff, New York, 1903; H, Dagan: 
 Les Massacres de Kishinet et la situation des proletaires juifs en 
 Russie in Cahiers de la quinzaine, Paris, 1903; Leo Errera: Les 
 massacres de Kishinef, Brussels, 1903; Michael Davitt: Within 
 the Pale. A true story of anti-semitic persecution in Russia. 
 Philadelphia & New York, 1903; Told: Die Judenmassacres in 
 Kischinew, Berlin, n. d.; Wladimir Korolenko: Haus 13. Eine 
 Episode aus dem Kischinewer Massacre, Berlin, 1904; Isidore 
 Singer: Russia at the bar of the American people. A memorial 
 of Kishinef, New York, 1904; The voice of America on Kishinef, 
 edited by Cyrus Adier, Philadelphia, 1904. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 169 
 
 of the mob, and to turn theni away from revolutionary 
 movements. The best proof for the truth of this is 
 the Easter season of 1904, which was absolutely free 
 from the usual holiday celebrations of the Russian 
 mob, although the war in the East must have consider- 
 ably reduced the military forces, and although political 
 agitators spread the old calumny, recurring in every 
 war since medieval times, that the Jews aided the 
 enemy. The pompous edict of the Czar, issued March 
 12, which proclaimed religious liberty, while not moder- 
 ating the least of the disabilities under which Jews and 
 Christian dissenters are suffering, shows clearly that 
 the world was to be deceived by the pretense that the 
 mob was beyond control of the authorities in its justi- 
 fied provocation by the usurious practices of the Jews, 
 a statement given prominence by Count Cassini, the 
 Russian ambassador to the United States, although, as 
 the reception of the delegates of representative Jewish 
 bodies by President Roosevelt and Secretary of State 
 Hay June 15, proves the trick had no effect. 
 
 The general policy of the Russian administration 
 with regard to the Jews had not been unfavorable. 
 Within the Pale of Settlement, where, according to 
 the law of May 3 (15), 1882, residence in the villages 
 is prohibited to the Jews, 101 villages were raised 
 to the rank of towns, May 23,^ and about fifty others 
 have been added to the list since. In individual 
 instances Jewish students were permitted to enter 
 colleges beyond the limit fixed by law, and the Senate, 
 often appealed to in the numerous difificulties which 
 the restrictive laws against the Jews offer to interpre- 
 tation, has in general taken a more liberal view. 
 6 Hazefirah, No. 119. 
 
170 SCROLLS 
 
 W'hile the Senate, being a court, is not officially an 
 exponent of the government's policy, it hardly seems 
 to admit of any doubt that there is a desire on the 
 part of the government to have the law interpreted 
 in a more liberal way. A decided improvement can 
 not, of course, be expected unless Russia changes her 
 entire system of government, which under present 
 conditions seems not unlikely. The Talmud says: 
 The ring which Ahasverus handed to Haman had a 
 greater effect than the preaching of the forty-eight 
 prophets and seven prophetesses who arose in Israel,' 
 which means that a national disaster has more effect 
 than any sermon in removing inveterate evils. The 
 battle of Jena, 1806, brought regeneration to Prussia, 
 and to the Jews the declaration in the edict of March 
 11, 1812, that they are "Buerger imd Einlaender." 
 The battle of Koeniggraetz, 1866, brought to Austria 
 the "Staatsgrundgesetze" of December 21, 1867, 
 which removed the last disabilities of the Jews. The 
 blowing up of the Petropavlovsk and the crossing of 
 the Yalu river may have the same result for theRussian 
 Jews. 
 
 Conditions in the East show us what an immense 
 amount of labor is awaiting us, when once the Jewish 
 question in Russia has been settled. Persia and 
 Morocco present precisely the same picture which 
 conditions in Europe showed at the time of the 
 crusades. About Persia the only source ot information 
 comes through the reports of the principals of the 
 schools maintained by the Alliance Israelite Universel- 
 le. It is the same monotonous,, sad story of Jewish 
 peddlers murdered in the villages, where they are 
 'Megillah, 14, a. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 171 
 
 transacting their business, of occasional outbreaks of 
 mob violence against the whole population of a town, 
 of an unwillingness and, often enough, of the inability 
 of the authorities to put a stop to such outrages, 
 while the spiritual life of the Jews is one of utter 
 degradation which manifests itself in incredible super- 
 stition and laziness. Morocco had her usual riots. 
 Jewish shops were looted in Mekinez April 4, and the 
 whole Jewish population of Staat had to flee for their 
 lives November 17, to Casablanca, where the British 
 consul took them under his protection. The defeat 
 of the pretender Bu Hamara, January 30, evidently 
 had not the expected effect of pacifying the country. 
 Savages have among other prejudices also the belief 
 that they are not beaten until they are killed, and it 
 seems as if only European intervention would be able 
 to produce a change in Morocco, as was the case in 
 Egypt. The latter country, however, had the Easter 
 excesses which localities where there is a strong 
 Greek element seem to require for the proper cele- 
 bration of the miracle of Resurrection. The popu- 
 lation of Port Said committed excesses against the 
 Jews March 25, which, however, were soon suppressed. 
 Roumania has of late seemed inclined to at least partly 
 redeem the pledges given at the Berlin congress of 
 1878, but it remains to be seen whether this is not 
 merely a ruse for the sake of winning the good will of 
 European financiers or at best a temporary measure 
 in the interest of the country's finances. Some of the 
 measures decreed during the last year were exceedingh- 
 harsh. The president of the Bucharest police pro- 
 hibited the selling of souvenir postal cards by Jews, 
 
172 SCROLLS 
 
 and said to a committee who told him this measure 
 meant starvation for them: Either hang yourself or 
 emigrate. Of importance perhaps is an essay pub- 
 lished by Judge Mandrea in a law-journal in which 
 citizenship was claimed for Jews born on Roumanian 
 soil who had served in the Roumanian army. 
 
 While in Roumania conditions seem to be improving 
 Bulgaria, which before its independence was almost 
 unknown in Jewish history, begins to work for a place 
 in Greek Christian civilization. Serious excesses 
 occurred in Sophia June 14, and grave complications 
 may be apprehended if the country, which is a political 
 volcano, should see another outbreak. Matters of 
 that kind come suddenly in the Balkan territory, as 
 events in Servia have proven. The blood accusation 
 is just as indispensable there as in all the other Greek 
 Catholic countries, and Bechor Chididji was on trial 
 for five years under such an accusation, until his case 
 was finally dismissed, March 26. 
 
 The necrology of this year must prominently men- 
 tion Pope Leo XIII. who died in his ninety-fourth 
 year, July 21. His Pontificate lasted twenty-five years 
 and was, no doubt, the most powerful one in the his- 
 tory of the nineteenth century. He was a master 
 of the art of diplomacy, and has used anti-semitism 
 just the same as any other political factor by which the 
 Church could profit. He denied the request of Madame 
 Dreyfus to say a word in behalf of her husband; he 
 refused to utter a word against the blood accusation, 
 although he was approached by important personal- 
 ities, like Sir Horace Rumbolt,* at that time English 
 ambassador in Vienna, but on the other hand, he 
 ' London Times, June 10, 1903. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 173 
 
 repeated to Madame Severine the usual anti-semitic 
 cant that the Jews own all the wealth of the world, and 
 he repeatedly decorated anti-semitic leaders, as it was 
 with his sanction that Drumont in Paris and Lueger in 
 Vienna received the heartiest support of ecclesiastic 
 orders and dignitaries. His successor will not be 
 different, although he received Dr. Herzl in private 
 audience. The policy of the Roman Catholic Church 
 will always be that of Innocent III., who said that 
 the Jews must be kept in the state of oppression, so 
 that their misery might be a testimony to the glory 
 of Christ. Still the twentieth of September, 1870, is a 
 historic fact, and the recent visit of President Loubet 
 to the Quirinal is something which cannot entirely be 
 lost as an example to other Catholic sovereigns, al- 
 though the Pope of today like the ten successors who 
 shall rule after him, according to the prophecy of 
 St. Malachias, will proclaim with Heine: 
 
 Das alte Canossa ist laengstens untergegangen. 
 Wir moechten ein neues bauen, 
 Docht fehlt dazu das Beste, 
 Die Marmorsteine, die Quadern 
 Und die gekroenten Gaeste. 
 
 The difference between the time of the Pope-King 
 and that of the present kingdom of Italy cannot better 
 be characterized than by the fact that Signer Luzzatti 
 has been for the fifth time called to the ministry of 
 Finance, November 3, while Giuseppe Ottolenghi, 
 who in the former ministry had occupied the post of 
 Minister of War, has been given the command of an 
 army corps. 
 
174 SCROLLS 
 
 France, fighting clericalism, has become the natural 
 ally of Italy and, strange to say the rabbinical philos- 
 ophy of history has again been justified in this case. 
 "Every tyrannical government has hated Israel and 
 oppressed it."' As long as France was in the clutches 
 of clericalism, which is the most dangerous form of 
 tyranny the world has ever known, it had to have a 
 Jewish victim. The collapse of the monstrous clerical 
 intrigue, the victim of which was Captain Dreyfus, 
 seems to bring the improvement. The socialistic 
 deputy Jaures reopened the Dreyfus case in Parliament, 
 April 6 and the Minister of War, M. Andre, promised 
 an investigation. The petition of the Captain to have 
 his trial reopened has meantime received favorable 
 consideration, and there is reasonable hope that the 
 cause of justice will finally triumph. 
 
 Algeria, at one time the center of the anti-semitic 
 movement, has seen an anti-Jewish riot at Medeasa, 
 June 6, but, while one victim was killed and three 
 others wounded, it hardly can be considered significant. 
 The rioters were Mohammedans who have not yet 
 become reconciled to the French rule in the seventy- 
 five years of its existence, and have not learned the 
 lessons of civilization. Nor do the new ordinances 
 for the election of the Algerian consistory, issued 
 September 21, deserve any particular notice. It will 
 never do to introduce a hierarchical system into Juda- 
 ism, and therefore the whole consistorial constitu- 
 tion, now almost a century old, will never be more 
 than a stage scenery, and especially so in the Orient, 
 where the natives look upon a European Jew as a 
 sort of heathen of Jewish descent. 
 « Leviticus Rabbah, Ch. 13. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 17S 
 
 England, for over two centuries the haven of refuge 
 for persecuted Jews, seems to be on the eve of changing 
 her traditional policy of hospitality to the oppressed. 
 The Alien Immigration Commission which was in 
 session in 1902, finished its labors and handed its 
 reports to the Home Secretary, August 11. The par- 
 liamentary debates now in progress hardly leave any 
 doubt that some restrictive measures against immi- 
 gration will be passed, and that they are aimed 
 against Russian Jews. Difficulties are also encounter- 
 ed by Jewish immigrants in the colonies of South 
 Africa where new laws of a restrictive nature have 
 been passed, and even those who had left Europe 
 before the passage of the new laws, arriving in Cape- 
 town after their enactment, were refused landing, 
 February 2. In this connection the generous offer by 
 the British government of a large territory to Jewish 
 colonists in Central Africa must be mentioned. The 
 Zionist congress, held in Basle, August 23-30, was 
 startled by the Offer of Uganda. The offer created 
 quite a stir. While a majority adopted it, and while 
 the minority accepted the decision, a strong opposition 
 arose later on, chiefly under the leadership of Engineer 
 Ussischkin, and a conference of Russian Zionists 
 held in Charkov, protested against the proposed 
 Uganda colony as a sort of treachery to the Zionist 
 cause. Meantime a compromise seems to have been 
 reached at the meeting of the Greater Actions Com- 
 mittee in Vienna, and the question will be studied. 
 There have already been heard within that territory 
 voices of strong protest against the settlement of 
 Jews who would make of it a "Jewganda," and even 
 
176 SCROLLS 
 
 if adopted, it remains to be seen whether the success 
 of this scheme will be any greater than that in Argen- 
 tine, especially when the settlers go there with the 
 conviction that their new home is merely a "night's 
 lodging" and a "way station on the march to Pales- 
 tine," as one of the leaders said in Basle. At all 
 events it is a pity that the Jewish Colonization Asso- 
 ciation should have refused to co-operate with the 
 Zionists in the consideration of the British govern- 
 ments' offer and declined to enter into any consider- 
 ation of Herzl's request to assist in defraying the cost 
 of a commission to be sent to Africa. 
 
 The anti-semitic agitation in Germany seems to be 
 waning, which, however, does not mean that the 
 political condition of the Jews has in any way been 
 improved. The elections to the Reichstag, held 
 June 16, brought victory to only one anti-semitic 
 candidate; the by-elections which decide the contest 
 between the two candidates who received the highest 
 vote, if none received the majority of all votes cast, 
 took place June 26. They resulted in the return of 
 eight additional delegates, who thus form an anti- 
 semitic party of nine members, split into two factions. 
 Thus their number is by no means formidable, al- 
 though they have received two additional mandates 
 in special elections held since. On the other hand, 
 there are different factors which must be considered. 
 A number of members, belonging to other parties, 
 are in sympathy with the anti-semites, and even the 
 liberals, pressed to the wall by the growing power of 
 the socialists, are unwilling as a rule to expose them- 
 selves in advocating the cause of the Jews. Anti- 
 semitic in their sympathies are also the clericals, 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IX 1903 177 
 
 although they are careful not to show it. In Hoch- 
 felden, Alsace, excesses were committed against the 
 Jews, June 28, because they were considered to be 
 the cause of the defeat of the clerical candidate. 
 The King of Saxon\- even went so far as to congratu- 
 late IVIr. Graefe, the anti-semitic delegate for Bautzen- 
 Kamenz, upon his victory. This congratulation was, 
 of course, meant more for the victors- over the socialist, 
 but it remains a fact that His Majesty would rather 
 have an anti-semite than a socialist. 
 
 The heir-presumptive to the diminutive throne of 
 Schwarzburg called on Mr. Graefe to express to him 
 his gratification at the v'ictorj^ of the national cause. 
 \'^arious interesting lessons are to be learned from this 
 little incident. The principality.- of Schwarzburg was 
 one of those where the Jews were "civilized" by a pater- 
 nal government. It appointed for them a Land- 
 rabbiner, the venerable Philip Heidenheim, who will 
 complete his ninetieth year June 14-, and who holds 
 the record for the longest term of office in any com- 
 munity', having preached his sixty-seventh Pesach 
 sermon on Passover last. The same government 
 recommended to its beloved Jewish subjects the sub- 
 scription to the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 
 when it first appeared in 1837, but still its next ruler, 
 although all his Jewish subjects know how to read 
 German now, and have stopped peddling, descends 
 from his prospective throne to call on an humble 
 Herr Graefe, because the latter as anti-semite will 
 save the fatherland. 
 
 Sadly interesting is the fact that to Mr. Graefe's dist- 
 rict belongs the city of Kamenz, where one hundred 
 
178 SCROLLS 
 
 and seventy-five years ago Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 
 the author of "Nathan der Weise," was born. The 
 citizens of Kamenz have not done great honor to their 
 famous countryman. 
 
 Elections to the Prussian diet, held November 19, 
 resulted in the return of two anti-semites and seven 
 Jews, the latter not known to be anti Semites, a state- 
 ment which, as will be seen later, is not entirely super- 
 fluous. This difference, so much the more astonish- 
 ing, when we learn that in the Reichstag outside of 
 the socialistic party no Jewish candidate is elected, 
 becomes clear when we remember that the mode of 
 election is entirely different, as in the Prussian diet the 
 middle classes possess the franchise exclusively, and 
 the Jews naturally are there as a considerable factor 
 willing to support the candidate of the liberals with- 
 out demanding any service in return. How far the 
 Jews will go in their self abnegation is shown by the 
 fact that in Schlochau three Jews with the local 
 "Prediger" at the head came out in favor of the 
 anti-semitic candidate Boeckler, editor of the anti- 
 semitic paper "Staatsbuergerzeitung," who had been 
 sentenced to one year in jail for libeling the authorities, 
 as shielding the Jews at the ritual murder trial of 
 Konitz. This was supposed to demonstrate the 
 unselfish patriotism of the Jews who would rather see 
 an anti-semite than a socialist elected. Similarly, 
 Mr. Wolfskehl of Darmstadt came out in support of 
 the anti-semitic candidate, although his liberal friends 
 had kicked him out of the diet of Hesse, of which he 
 had been a member, in order to oblige their anti- 
 semitically inclined followers. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 19 03 179 
 
 The actions of the authorities are in no wise more 
 favorable to the Jews than that of the political 
 parties. It is an open secret that a Jew cannot be 
 appointed an officer in the German army, with the 
 exception of the Bavarian contingent. Graduates of 
 higher institutions have the right to serve only one 
 year instead of two and after the completion of their 
 term of service the\- are, if capable, promoted to the 
 rank of officers in the reserve. To Jews this dis- 
 tinction is denied. An especially interesting fact was 
 publich- discussed through the publication of a letter 
 addressed to the Kaiser b>- the Breslau attorney 
 Justizrath Feige, October 10. Mr. Feige's son had 
 serv'ed as volunteer and had been refused admission 
 to the officers' examination. His father, who had 
 served in the Franco-Prussian war and had been pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant, which even then was 
 a Aer\- rare distinction for a Jew, wrote to the Kaiser 
 complaining that as far as Jews are concerned the 
 equality of all citizens before the law is a dead letter. 
 The emperor's Kabinetskanzlei (office of private 
 secretary) replied that young Mr. Feige was dealt 
 with according to his merit, whereupon Mr. Feige 
 justly called attention to the fact that, although Jews 
 supply a large percentage of the volunteers, none of 
 them is appointed officer in the reserve. Once in a 
 while an officer will let the cat out of the bag. So it 
 happened to a \'oung man named Hauptmann in 
 Breslau who wanted to enter as volunteer for two 
 years. While in such a case the volunteer has to 
 serve the same length of time as the regularly con- 
 scripted men, he has the advantage of finishing his term. 
 
180 SCROLLS 
 
 of service sooner. Decision in such a case rests with 
 the captain of the company into which the volunteer 
 wishes to enter. The captain received Mr. Haupt- 
 mann very cordially, but a few days later he received 
 notice that Jewish volunteers are not wanted, and 
 that the promise was made before he knew that the 
 applicant was a Jew. The matter was brought to the 
 notice of the authorities who regretted the form in 
 which the refusal had been expressed, but the matter 
 itself was not remedied. The practical exclusion of 
 Jews from public offices was discussed in the Prussian 
 diet March 9. The liberals condemned this policy, 
 the minister of course denied any knowledge of it, 
 while the conservatives insisted on the theory of the 
 Christian state, an idea first advocated by the convert 
 Friedrich Julius Stahl. This time it was another con- 
 vert, Professor Friedberg, who ridiculed the idea, but 
 the fact that he is a convert to Christianity shows that 
 he knows well enough that the idea of the state as 
 strictly secular is a mere theory. In Bavaria, where 
 the clericals form the majority, the minister declared 
 himself openly against the appointment of Jews as 
 teachers, and the protest of the council of Nuremberg 
 had no effect, February 17. 
 
 The saddest result of the anti-semitic agitation was 
 the cruel murder of Abraham Levi, a Polish typesetter 
 in Stegers, a village of West Prussia, September 28. 
 The facts of this case have never been fully made clear. 
 Stegers is in the neighborhood of Konitz, where the 
 murder of the high school boy Ernst Winter, March 1 1 , 
 1900, has created an excitement which is not yet over. 
 Levi, who came to the village inn, was teased by the 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 19 03 181 
 
 people present, who asked him whether he had come 
 for the sake of obtaining Christian blood. He is said 
 to have answered with a remark insulting the Christian 
 religion. The real facts cannot be ascertained, for 
 Levi was so mercilessly beaten that next morning he 
 was found dead, and the murderers naturally had to 
 make an attempt to excuse their brutality. It shows 
 a disheartening condition of public morality that one 
 of the murderers escaped punishment, while the 
 other was sentenced to one year in jail. One year in 
 jail for killing a man! while Moritz Lewy was sentenced 
 to four years in the penitentiary for alleged perjury 
 which, if he had been guilty of it, could not have been 
 intended to harm anybody, nor could any come out of 
 it. Moritz Lewy, out of anti-semitic motives, had 
 been suspected of the murder, but he succeeded in 
 proving an alibi which was beyond question. During 
 his trial, however, he had sworn that he never knew 
 Winter, while several persons testified that they had 
 seen them together, which he admitted as possible, 
 saying that he might have talked to him occasionally 
 without knowing him by name. In spite of the 
 probability of this statement and in spite of the fact 
 that the only motive for such perjury, if he should 
 have committed it, could have been the fear of im- 
 plicating himself by such an admission, Lewy was 
 sentenced to four years in the penitentiary, and was 
 only pardoned October 11, after having serv^ed half 
 his time. Of late the authorities have been a little 
 more rigorous in the prosecution of anti-semitic 
 excesses, and for such a libel Paul Koch was sent to 
 jail for six months, January 31, while Count Pueckler, 
 who constantly delivers the wildest harangues against 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 the Jews, was merely fined 450 marks for saying that 
 the Jews had hired an assassin to poison him, when he 
 was touring in Switzerland, January 7. The Count 
 who openly preaches violence and murder against the 
 Jews, and among other things recently advised the 
 German soldiers to shoot their Jewish officers, if ever 
 such should be appointed, is decidedly insane; but the 
 people will have it that the treatment of a count is 
 different from that of any ordinary mortal. An illus- 
 tration of this is the punishment of editor Wittenberg, 
 who was sent to jail for three months, October 8, 
 because he called Pastor Kroesell a hog-priest, although 
 he actually could prove that Pastor Kroesell lived in 
 concubinage with his housekeeper and was otherwisean 
 immoral character. This pastor, who has meantime 
 been discharged from the ministry because of his 
 immoral conduct, is a classical type of the advantages 
 which anti-semitism offers to Catilinarian existences, 
 an experience which the Talmud'" puts into the 
 mouth of the arch-anti-semite Titus. The affair of 
 Konitz suggested to him the idea of lecturing on the 
 Talmud and on the depravity of the Jews, and today he 
 is a member of the Reichstag. The ecclesiastic author- 
 ities should remember that such men cannot possibly 
 advance the interests of the mission to the Jews, and 
 that of them the words of Luther with regard to the 
 Papists will hold good, that had he been born a Jew 
 and had seen how some of these Christians act, he 
 would rather have turned a hog than a Christian." 
 
 And, indeed, the General Synod of the Protestant 
 Church has issued a circular in Prussia to the consis- 
 
 i» Gittin, 56, b. 
 
 " Graetz, Gesch. ix, 197, 3d ed. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 183 
 
 tories to be careful with regard to the conversion of 
 Jews; the reason however is somewhat different. 
 Professor Ladenburg in Breslau, a chemist, had said in 
 a lecture that his laboratory furnished him no evidence 
 of the existence of a soul. Ladenburg, the son of one 
 of the most active workers for the cause of emanci- 
 pation, the Oberrath Leopold Ladenburg of Mann- 
 heim, is a convert to Christianity. The synod of 
 which Stoecker is one of the leading members naturally 
 does not remember that Haeckel and Buechner were 
 born Christians, and that David Friedrich Strauss 
 was even a Protestant theologian. Every evil must 
 come from Judaism, and thus the Protestant Church 
 will be protected against infidels, if she is more care- 
 ful with the conversion of Jews. Another infidel is not 
 only a born Christian and the son of the leading "posi- 
 tive theologian," but even, as it appears, a mild sort 
 of anti-semite. Friedrich Delitzsch delivered a new 
 address on his favorite topic "Babel and Bible" in 
 the presence of the Emperor and the Empress, Jan- 
 uary 12. His expressions were somewhat stronger 
 than on former occasions. He spoke of the God of the 
 Old Testament as eating veal cutlets, and said that 
 he had not found much monotheism in the Hebrew 
 Bible. A case like this could not be remedied by a 
 circular addressed to the consistories, and some 
 "positive" Christians complained that the emperor 
 encouraged infidelity. His Majesty found it necessary 
 to write a long theological letter to Admiral Hollmann, 
 January 15, in which he said that Delitzsch was not so 
 bad, and his views could be heard by any Christian 
 with impunity, "although some of the halo of the 
 chosen people would disappear" owing to his discover- 
 
184 SCROLLS 
 
 ies. So it seems after all that the chief object of 
 the famous Assyriologist and the reason for the em- 
 peror's interest in Assyriology are to be found in the 
 desire to make the Semitic tinge of the Teutonic race 
 disappear. 
 
 A decadent community has always been hostile 
 to Israel, as we can see from the time of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes. The brutality of the weak, unable to 
 crush its powerful enemies, seeks its victims among 
 the weaker. This experience is demonstrated again 
 in the case of Austria. There anti-semitism shows it- 
 self in two different characteristics. In the civilized 
 west of the empire the mob satisfies its brutality with 
 speeches, while in the half-Asiatic east the old fashion 
 of bloodshed and destruction of property are resorted 
 to. Burgomaster Lueger of Vienna, who has been 
 re-elected at every term since 1896, said at his last 
 inauguration, April 16, that peace reigned in the city, 
 but this peace is the peace of merciless boycott against 
 the Jewish citizens of the Austrian capital, numbering 
 about 150,000. How far this boycott goes is evident 
 from an interpellation addressed in the Reichsrath 
 to the minister of education, von Hartel, why the 
 Jewish playwright Arthur Schnitzler was given the 
 Bauernfeld prize. Von Hartel had the courage to 
 answer that such prizes are given for literary merit 
 More in line with time-honored traditions is anti- 
 semitism in Galicia, that part of Poland which was 
 annexed to Austria. In Zablotow the Jews were 
 mobbed September 1 1 ; a number of them were serious- 
 ly wounded and a great deal of property was destroyed. 
 The mob leaders, among whom was a revenue officer, 
 received ridiculously mild sentences and the case 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 185 
 
 against the revenue officer who led the charge in his 
 uniform with drawn sword in his hands was even dis- 
 missed . The ohgarchy of Pohsh noblemen who actually 
 control the government has, however, more modern 
 and effective means at its command, and so they 
 passed a strict Sunday law which means economic 
 ruin to the great mass of observant Jews in the 
 province. A committee of Galician Jews who waited 
 upon the prime minister, requesting him to make an 
 exception in favor of those Jews who observe Sabbath, 
 March 22, had no success. A similar measure was 
 enacted in Hungary, where anti-semitism is latent. 
 The minister of finance decreed, April 5, that tobacco 
 dealers who are under his jurisdiction, as tobacco is 
 the government's monopoly, must keep their entire 
 shops open on Sabbath, while formerly they had been 
 permitted to sell tobacco through a window, handing 
 this business over to a Christian for the day, while 
 their store remained closed. Small as is this matter, 
 it shows the tendency of the government which became 
 still more manifest in the debates in the diet on the 
 immigration of Jews, which is especially large in the 
 northern district, bordering on the overpopulated 
 Galicia, where the condition of the Jews is incredibly 
 pitiful. 
 
 Having already overstepped the limit of the space 
 accorded me, I can only briefly refer to the internal 
 condition of Judaism. To us the most prominent 
 facts in this respect are the opening of the new building 
 of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 
 New York, April 26 and the installation of Dr. Kohler 
 as president of the Hebrew Union College in Cincin- 
 nati, October 18. Both institutions are splendidly 
 
186 SCROLLS 
 
 endowed, compared with the condition of the older 
 European seminaries. New York has half a million 
 dollars and a splendid modern building, while Cin- 
 cinnati has nearly $400,000. Still when I mention 
 this fact at the end of my sketch I do it in a sense 
 entirely different from the motives which actuated my 
 revered teacher Graetz. I feel that "Jewish Science" 
 occupies the last place in the range of Jewish com- 
 munal activities and aspirations. While the whole 
 country has in about thirty years created two insti- 
 tutions, the city of New York alone has succeeded in 
 raising the enormous sum of $2,500,000 for the splend- 
 id Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago will shortly raise 
 $800,000 for a new hospital building, and Cincinnati 
 will spend $100,000 for hospital improvements. 
 Baroness Julie Cohn-Oppenheim the daughter of 
 Baron Moritz Cohn, the banker of old Kaiser Wilhelm, 
 left upon her death, January 5, 3,000,000 marks each 
 to the city and the Jewish congregation of Dessau. 
 We therefore must admit that the liberality manifested 
 in the erection and the endowment of the two Jewish 
 institutions of learning in America is due less to in- 
 terest in the cause of "Jewish Science" than to the 
 proverbial generosity of the Jews of whom the Talmud'^ 
 says: You can never fathom the character of this 
 nation ; they are asked to give for the golden calf and 
 they give, they are asked to give for the tabernacle and 
 they give, too. It would be unjustified optimism to 
 see in it a genuine enthusiasm for the spiritual cause 
 of Judaism. The best proof of this fact is that the 
 theological students mostly come from the ranks of 
 the poor, and what is more significant, from the famil- 
 '" Yerushalmi Shekalim, I, 1, fol. 45, d. 
 
JEWISH HISTORY IN 1903 187 
 
 ies of Polish and Russian immigrants. Both are in 
 themselves no misfortune. "Take care of the children 
 of the poor, says already the Talmud^' for from them 
 shall go forth the law," and students from Polish or- 
 thodox families bring into their academic study the 
 advantage of an acquaintance with the practical law, 
 and consequently a good Hebrew \'ocabulary. On 
 the other hand, it is highly significant that our con- 
 gregations with magnificent temple structures, while 
 they furnish the funds for theological instruction, 
 are unable to furnish the necessary material of students 
 and even if the king of Sodom said it, it would have 
 been Abraham's policy under the same condition: 
 Give me the persons and the goods keep for th}-self.''' 
 Still it must be gratefully acknowledged that some of 
 our wealthy brethren are willing to support the cause, 
 which, after all, is the only safeguard of Israel's 
 existence, \^'e feel it so much the more keenly when 
 we consider how great our losses are in the rank of 
 our wealthiest coreligionist. A typical case was that 
 of Lord Pirbright, formerly Baron de Worms (died 
 January' 9), the grandson of the Frankfort "Schutz- 
 jude" Benedict Worms and the great-grandson of 
 MaT,er Amschel Rothschild, who surprised the world 
 by his request to be buried in a Christian cemeter3\ 
 Perhaps this distribution of means on one side and 
 men on the other is a typically Jewish condition. The 
 power was given to Moses, say the rabbis," and the 
 honor to Joshua, for if both had been given to Joshua 
 the equilibrium of society- would have been disturbed. 
 
 " Nedarim, 81, a. 
 
 " Gen. xiv, 21. 
 
 •' Sifre ad Deut. xxxiii, 17, ed. Friedmann, p. 146, b. 
 
THE YEAR 5665.* 
 
 ' I 'HE POLITICAL horizon of the year now draw- 
 -■• ing to its close is, as far as Jews are concerned, 
 overhung with dark clouds. In countries, where me- 
 dievalism prevails, and the life and the property of the 
 Jews are at the mercy of the mob, political constellations 
 are ill-foreboding; in countries, where the Jews theo- 
 retically possess full equality, administrative practice or 
 a legislation, shaped to hurt the Jew without naming 
 him, are combining to take with the left hand what 
 was given by the right, and in countries, where actually 
 the Jew was treated with perfect equity, grumblings 
 are heard which threaten to become more disti;ict. 
 A dark cloud is overhanging Morocco. It is, with 
 the exception of Tripoli, the last territory of the North 
 African coast, not yet under European control. 
 France and England seem to have had an under- 
 standing about its destiny, but the Kaiser, in his usual 
 style of acting as deus ex machina, spoiled the game. 
 The proposed understanding between the two rival 
 countries has as yet not materialized. Meantime 
 murder and pillage go on as ever, and no one can fore- 
 see what will be the future of the hundreds of thousands 
 of Jews, when, with the inevitable European inter- 
 vention, the religious and national fanaticism of the 
 Arabs will call a holy war against the French and all 
 Christians. It is clear that the Jews will be at the 
 mercy of the savage patriots. 
 *The American Israelite, September 28. 1905. 
 
190 SCROLLS 
 
 A crisis of lesser magnitude is shaping itself in 
 Arabia. The common religion can not bridge over the 
 national hatred of Turks and Arabs. The numerous 
 Jews of Yemen leave in ever increasing numbers the 
 country where their ancestors had lived before Mo- 
 hammed had proclaimed himself Allah's prophet, 
 and go mostly to Jerusalem, where these swarthy, 
 little fellows with their corkscrew Peoth give additional 
 coloring to the picturesque international community of 
 the Holy City and add also to its most thrifty, although 
 unfortunately no less to its most needy population. 
 Persia remains stationary and perhaps presents today 
 the aspect which it presented at the time when, about 
 1,700 years ago, Abba Areka returned from Palestine 
 to his home on the banks of the Euphrates and when 
 Ardeshir had restored the worship of the Zoroastrian 
 religion. A Jewish peddler is occasionally killed, a 
 Jewish house pillaged, and the neighbors take it as 
 they take the appearance of cholera or as we in civil- 
 ized countries take a case of typhoid fever. 
 
 Roumania for a change has a conservative ministry. 
 It means that another gang of political vultures has 
 gotten a chance of preying on public funds, while 
 the former were so voracious that they had been chased 
 away from the shambles. Both are equally interested 
 in inciting the mob against the Jews with the cry of 
 "stop thief" and so giving to somebody else the privi- 
 lege of a free ride in the patrol wagon sent to accom- 
 modate them. The problem of Roumania, however, 
 is not so very grave, and if Russia did not absorb 
 all the energies of the Jewish organizations, the 240,- 
 000 Jews of Roumania could at the present rate of 
 
THE YEAR S(,(,S , 191 
 
 emigration be disposed of. The great difficulty lies 
 in Russia. With an emigration of about 100,000 a 
 year the congestion and the poverty in the Pale remain 
 appalling. The government instead of lending a hand 
 to relieve the misery does its utmost to aggravate it. 
 The bureaucracy knows no interest except its own. 
 It wishes to keep the Jew in a state of misery, because 
 the wealthy and intelligent Jew is an addition to the 
 forces of liberalism. The miserable Jew is further 
 an easy prey of mobs which must be humored with 
 an occasional fete of pillage, and finally the Jew who 
 clearly sees that there is no hope for him under the 
 czar's government naturally joins the revolutionary 
 forces, and thus on the one hand furnishes an excuse 
 for his persecution, and on the other a support to the 
 old lie of all tyrants that the population is fully con- 
 tented with the present form of government, and that 
 it is only the cosmopolitan Jew, lacking all sense of 
 patriotism, who is making trouble. This is the secret 
 of all the pogroms which have become alarmingly 
 numerous. Mohilew, Zhitomir Brest Litovsk, Feodo- 
 sia, Melitopol, Baku, Warsaw, Minsk, Duenaburg, and 
 lately the horrors of Bialystok recall to us the Cossack 
 massacres of 1648. The bulk of the Russian statesmen 
 are indeed still on that plane of civilization on which 
 their predecessors stood when Peter the First, opened 
 the window in the Tartar wall dividing Russia from 
 Europe. An authority like Dr. E. J. Dillon wrote in 
 the April number of the Contemporary Review, that the 
 Russian bureaucracy tries to preserve itself by 
 hounding one party of her subjects against the other. 
 The trials of those accused of participation in the 
 Homel and in the Kishineff riots of 1903 dragged 
 
192 SCROLLS 
 
 until this spring. The manner in which the trials 
 were conducted and the sentences imposed upon the 
 murderers, pillagers and rapists was such as to put 
 a premium on these acts. The cry of the prophet, 
 "How long wilt thou not have mercy?" is still heavy 
 on our mind. The restoration of peace leaves auto- 
 cracy free to fight the rebellious element at home. 
 The population, including the opponents of autocracy, 
 is not in sympathy with the Jews. The latter have 
 been so pauperized and degraded by centuries of ill- 
 treatment that it will take a long time and will require 
 a wholesouled devotion based on passionate sympathy 
 to create in the Jewry of the Pale even tolerable con- 
 ditions. The intercession of representative American 
 Jews with Sergius Witte, Russian plenipotentiary, at 
 the peace convention, has been ridiculed by fault- 
 finders and has been judged useless by serious people. 
 If any one expected that immediately following these 
 conferences the restrictions on the Russian Jews would 
 be removed, he has himself to blame for his dissapoint- 
 ment. A Polish nobleman, who is a Roman Catholic, 
 and with whom I discussed the situation, said to me: 
 "The Russian always says 'da' — in Russian 'yes' and 
 in Polish 'he gives' — but he never does 'da'." On 
 the other hand it is a positive fact that the Russian 
 statesmen want the good will of the American people 
 and the money of Jewish financiers. If Messrs. 
 Straus, Schiff, Seligman and Kraus in their conversa- 
 tion and Mr. Wolf in his letter impressed Mr. Witte 
 with their determination to organize a Russian boycott 
 among the great financiers, Russia will positively 
 yield. 
 
THE YEA R S(,(>5 193 
 
 Is pressure the proper thing to win out in the end? 
 This question has been raised in the case of Melvil 
 Dewey, the state Hbrarian at Albany, N. Y., who upon 
 the complaints brought by Louis Marshall, Jacob H. 
 Schiff and others was reprimanded and will be re- 
 moved from ofhce for his anti-Semitic principles 
 expressed in the management of the summer hotel 
 at Lake Placid, N. Y., Without touching upon the 
 merits of this case which hinges on the question, 
 whether the conduct of an ofScial in his private life, 
 as long as he performs his duties impartially, should 
 be subject to such severe censure, the only proper 
 answer was the one given by Mr. Marshall to Dr. 
 Funk, who advised the Jews from their own interest 
 to be as quiet as possible. This medicine has been 
 tried long enough, Mr. Marshall said, and has been 
 found ineffective. The letter of Dr. Funk, the de- 
 meanor of Mr. Dewey and more so the obtrusive 
 speeches of political gangsters before Jewish audiences 
 about the exemplary virtues of the Jewish citizen 
 prove how far distant we are even here from the ideal 
 which we have been dreaming of since the French 
 revolution, viz., that the Jew should be considered 
 merely as a citizen, regardless of his religion and de- 
 scent. 
 
 France herself in the best example of the tardiness 
 in the realization of ideals. The final revision of the 
 Dreyfus trial has not yet taken place, for it seems that 
 even the present anti-clerical government adheres to 
 the principle of quieta non movere. There are still Jews 
 in prominent public positions, and one of their number 
 has even been appointed a general in the army, but 
 
194 SCROLLS 
 
 clerical agitation is bound to reappear when the party- 
 shall have recovered from the shock sustained by the 
 separation of church and state, and when the radicals, 
 now in power, shall, as every party is bound to do at 
 some time, have compromised themselves through 
 corruption or by loss of prestige in foreign relations. 
 This separation of church and state means also a 
 serious internal problem for French Judaism. The 
 habit of relying on state authority for nearly a cen- 
 tury (since 1808) and on financial assistance by the 
 state (since 1831) has had the effect of weakening the 
 self-reliance of the French Jews, and perhaps in Algeria 
 the imported French rabbis will disappear and with 
 them their civilizing influence, although in Tunis, 
 which under the so-called French protectorate still 
 preserves the ancient laws, the Jews are only too eager 
 to obtain the status of French citizens and to be freed 
 from the rabbinical tribunal. 
 
 England, so long the haven of refuge for the perse- 
 cuted of all countries, found her patience exhausted by 
 the contemplation of a continued influx of Russian 
 Jews. The new alien bill has been introduced by 
 Balfour upon the urgent agitation of the opposition 
 and has become a law. While its individual features 
 are the same that existed in America for years, exclud- 
 ing criminals, diseased persons and such as are apt 
 to become public charges, the spirit of that law has 
 been aptly characterized by Mr. T. Dundass Pallans, 
 who said it was a British edition of continental anti- 
 Semitism. There is no doubt, however, that laws can 
 do nothing against economic conditions. My native 
 province, Moravia, furnishes the best illustration. 
 
THE YEAR 5 66 5 195 
 
 Up to 1848 the restriction of marriage and residence 
 was mercilessly executed, but the Jews increased, 
 while now they have decreased in spite of the freedom, 
 and even the Jews of overpopulated Galicia do not 
 immigrate there. Similar conditions prevail in Bavar- 
 ia, where these restrictions were in force up to 1861 
 On the other hand, the best law can not operate against 
 ill-will. The Jews of Limerick, Ireland, are still 
 suffering from the boycott decreed against them by 
 Father Creagh. One-third of their number have left 
 the place, and only recently their minister was stoned 
 by a few boys who shouted: "There is a Jew man, 
 let's kill him?" This is again a strong proof of the 
 great practical ^'alue which the ethics of the gospel 
 possess in our day. That Germany should continue 
 the policy of latent anti-Semitism is not surprising, 
 as long as England almost leads the way. The Prussian 
 minister of justice declared in the diet (January 30) 
 quite plainly that he could not appoint Jews to judge- 
 ships beyond a certain limited number, while the min- 
 ister of war, in answering the charges that positions 
 as officers are closed to the Jews, denied all knowledge 
 of it, and when a certain case was quoted as evidence, 
 he had the answer ready that the officers of the par- 
 ticular regiment had voted against this applicant, and 
 that he had no right to inquire into their reasons 
 for so voting. It was said at one time that the young 
 Baron von Goldschmidt Rothschild, the grandson of 
 Baron Willy von Rothschild, had been appointed an 
 imperial page in order to open to him the exclusive 
 circles of the Herrn von Pudewitz and Aon Strudewitz, 
 but the report was not confirmed. The debate had. 
 
196 SCROLLS 
 
 however, one good effect. The anti-Semitic leader, 
 Herr von Liebermann, was forced to admit in pubHc 
 that he had gratuitously slandered a Jewish veteran, 
 Moses Bier, whom General von Loe had called an 
 exemplary soldier, and that he had refused to do 
 him justice, and further, that another veteran had 
 proved to him that he, with three of his brothers, 
 had fought in the wars of 1864-71, and that two 
 of them had been decorated for valor in action. 
 
 The authorities, however, so arrange matters that 
 the spirit and even the letter of the law are deftly 
 set aside where the Jew is concerned. Count Pueckler, 
 the demented Anti-Semitic agitator, finally was 
 sentenced to six months in jail for his seditious 
 speeches, which incite the masses to murder and pillage 
 the Jews, but the sentence will never be carried out; 
 while for a cavalry charge on potato diggers on a 
 neighboring farm, which resulted in so frightening 
 a woman that she was confined to her bed for four 
 weeks, the Count was fined a few hundred marks. 
 One M. Levy, of Frankfort, however, who became 
 mixed up in a scrap with the Count in a Berlin hotel, 
 was mercilessly sent to jail for three months (June 
 2d.) 
 
 Conditions in Austria are naturally worse. Here 
 the combined powerful reactionary forces of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy and the titled aristocracy are 
 aided by unscrupulous demagogs like Lueger, the 
 mayor of Vienna, and by the scum of ward-heelers like 
 Schneider, who said that the only baptism of the 
 Jews in which he believed was one with sulphuric 
 acid (October 12th). Rowdyism in the populace 
 
THE YEA R 5(,(,S 197 
 
 and annoyances like the prohibition of Shehitah by 
 the Vienna board of aldermen, set aside by the 
 minister as illegal, are small matters compared with 
 the grave complications which may arise from the 
 fights in the next elections to the Reichsrath, in which 
 all parties seem to cater to the anti-Jewish vote. 
 This Shehitah prohibition has become a humanitarian 
 fad, and the same people who would baptize Jewish 
 babies with sulphuric acid are filled with compassion 
 at the idea of an ox whose agony might be prolonged 
 for two minutes. In Saxony and in Switzerland 
 Shehitah has been prohibited for years. In Prussia 
 the law compels the use of the city abattoir whenever 
 the. city enacts such an ordinance, and the city may 
 declare a certain mode of killing animals obligatory. 
 So in Potsdam Shehitah has been prohibited, and the 
 offer of the Jewish congregation to build an abattoir 
 at its own expense was refused. Even in England 
 such an attack has been made by the admiralty. 
 It is interesting to watch how Shehitah is often the 
 cement that holds congregations together. In Lon- 
 don the Polish Congregation Machzike Hadass sepa- 
 rated from the rest of the congregation, but the 
 United Synagog, being stronger, had ordered its 
 Shochetim to kill poultry free of charge, and the 
 Machzike who could not afford it had to come to 
 terms, and so the chickens actually served as a 
 "Kapporeh" (atonement.) 
 
 While thus the Russian and Polish element furn- 
 ishes the extremists of the right wing, it also furnishes 
 the radical free-thinkers. Both in London and in Leeds 
 a street fight broke out on account of the provocation 
 
198 SCROLLS 
 
 of the observant Jews by the Socialists, the latter 
 in London offering free meals on Yom Kippur. 
 Otherwise liberalism has gained a victory of more 
 than local import in the elections for the congrega- 
 tional board of Berlin, to which a majority of liberals 
 were returned, while at the last elections the majority 
 had been conservative. The cause was extraordinary 
 at the last election, because the issue then was the 
 introduction of Sunday services, on which point the 
 conscience of the Berlin Jew is very sensitive. This, 
 however, does not prevent the conversion to Chris- 
 tianity of 300 Berlin Jews every year, and if figures 
 could be obtained of the baptism of children whose 
 parents remain Jews the total would undoubtedly be 
 much larger, as may be concluded from the fact that 
 of the children of mixed marriages, not one-half, 
 but only one-fourth, are brought up as Jews. In 
 Vienna, conditions are still worse, and the number 
 of conversions to Christianity reached last year the 
 shocking figure of 615. Within the religious camp 
 there is a great deal of stagnation. In Tunis, at the 
 dedication of a new synagog, a portion of the Zohar 
 is recited, just as in the sixteenth century. In 
 Constantinople the Chacham Bashi opposes the 
 rabbinical seminary because educated rabbis will 
 be heretics. Neither synod nor creed nor the Sab- 
 bath question were decided by the last convention 
 of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, for 
 the vote in favor of the traditional Sabbath is, after 
 all, an empty demonstration. The all-absorbing 
 question is that of the political and the economic 
 position of the Jews, and in this respect the Seventh 
 
THE YEA R 566 5 199 
 
 Zionist Congress, so well attended from the stand- 
 point of quality as of quantity, is a striking evidence. 
 The split which divided the Zion's Zionists from the 
 Territorialists is a serious matter, because it is not 
 proven that the former can do more than the old 
 lovers of Zion, who in twenty-odd years have suc- 
 ceeded in settling about 5,000 colonists in Palestine 
 who still draw considerable sums annually from 
 Uncle Rothschild, and the latter will have to prove 
 that they can do better than Baron Hirsch has done 
 in Argentine — not somewhat better, but so that the 
 "Judenelend" should disappear within some reasonable 
 time. 
 
 The matter is so serious that every proposition 
 must be given its opportunity. It view of the 
 critical position of the masses it is encouraging to 
 see that in every civilized country individual Jews 
 have attained high eminence. Prof. Hollander, of 
 Baltimore, has been appointed special commissioner 
 for San Domingo, E. E. von Raalte has been ap- 
 pointed minister of justice in Holland, Matthew L. 
 Moss minister without portfolio in Western Australia, 
 M. Levay was made peer of Hungary, M. Neumann 
 of Austria, two Jewish senators were added to the 
 Italian house of lords, the baronetcy was conferred 
 on Mr. Herbert Stern and the knighthood on Mr. 
 Isidore Spielmann, Mr. James Simon and Mr. Albert 
 Ballin (two of the kaiser's favorites) were decorated 
 with high orders; Auckland and Palmerston, in New 
 Zealand, as well as Cape Town, have Jewish mayors, 
 and Johannesburg, where the Jews up to three years 
 ago were aliens, has Jewish councilrrien, the university 
 
200 SCROLLS 
 
 of Czernowitz has a Jew as its rector magnificus, and 
 this list is by no means complete, nor could it be 
 without becoming a dry catalog of names and dates. 
 
 The large necrology of this year is also a proof of 
 the vast amount of civic and intellectual labor per- 
 formed by the Jews, even if we limit ourselves to the 
 most important names. In communal workers we 
 lost Haim Guedalla, of London, the champion of the 
 repatriation of the Spanish Jews (October 2d) ; 
 Lazar Brodsky, the philanthropist of Kiew (Septem- 
 ber 28th); Willy Bambus, the devoted Zionist (No- 
 vember 4th at Berlin); Frederick David Mocatta, of 
 London, philanthropist, and Maecenas, a man 
 doubly valuable as a proof of the vitality of the 
 Reform element (January 16th); Moritz Simon, of 
 Hanover, the indefatigable worker for the spreading 
 of agriculture among the Jews (January 29th;) Meyer 
 Guggenheim, of New York (March 16th) ; Alphonse 
 de Rothschild, of Paris (May 26th), and Nathaniel de 
 Rothschild, of Vienna (June 12th), all of whom made 
 noble use of princely fortunes, and Moses A. Dropsie, 
 of Philadelphia (July 8th), who has made the greatest 
 bequest known in history for the cause of Jewish 
 learning. 
 
 Of men prominent in public life we lost General 
 Giuseppe Ottolenghi (November 2d), at one time 
 Italian minister of war; Edwin Einstein, former con- 
 gressman of New York (January 24th) ; Sir Benjamin 
 Benjamin (March 7th), at one time mayor of Mel- 
 bourne and member of the legislature; Camille 
 Dreyfus (April 1st), once Frency deputy; Moritz 
 Elstaetter (June 14th), who was for 25 years minister 
 
THE YEAR56(,Z 201 
 
 of finance in Baden, the only Jew who held such an 
 office in Germany; Max Hirsch (June 26th), German 
 parliamentarian and noted political economist, and 
 Tullo Massarani (August 4th), Italian senator. 
 
 Of scientific celebrities we lost the historian, 
 Jacob Caro, of Breslau (December 12th), son of a 
 Polish rabbi; Emil Szanto, the philologist, of Vienna 
 (December 14th); Ignatius N. Baxt, of St. Peters- 
 burg (December 26th), a noted physiologist who re- 
 mained true to Judaism under the trying conditions 
 of Russian life; the botanist, Leo Errerra, of Brussels 
 (August 1), and the Assyriologist, Jules Oppert 
 (August 20) were also devoted to the cause of Judaism. 
 Finally we mention the workers for the spiritual cause 
 of Israel the ghetto novelist, Solomon Kohn (Nov- 
 ember 6th), of Prague; Eude Lolli, of Padua, a 
 relic of Luzzatto's time (December 15th) ; Hayim 
 Hezekiah Medini, of Hebron (December 2d), the 
 most prolific rabbinical author of our time; Kasriel 
 H. Sarason, of New York (January 12th), the founder 
 of Yiddish journalism in America; E. A. Astruc, 
 formerly rabbi of Brussels (February 23d) ; E. D- 
 Rabinovitz-Tumim, the coadjutor of the German 
 chief rabbi of Jerusalem (February 8th), who is 
 survived by the nonogenarian whom he was to 
 succeed; Meyer Kayserling, the historian, of Buda- 
 pest (April 21st); the celebrated historian of the 
 Talmud, Isaac H. Weiss, of Vienna (May 30th), and 
 Joseph Ezekiel, of Bombay (July 1st), the spiritual 
 chief of the Beni Israel community. In this con- 
 nection we must mention the seventh centenary of 
 the death of Maimonides, and the eighth centenary 
 
202 SCROLLS 
 
 of the death of Rashi, the first centenary of the death 
 of Napthali Herz Wesel, the Hebrew poet and worker 
 for spiritual emancipation, the first centenary of the 
 birth of Lord Beaconsfield, who, although a convert 
 to Christianity, is an example of Jewish self-respect, 
 and, finally, the semi-centenary of the Breslau 
 seminary, all of which impress us with the greatness 
 of Israel's history; and when we think especially of 
 Rashi, whose works eight hundred years after his 
 death are still text books for thousands and thousands, 
 we feel that an institution which has outlived so 
 many centuries, and overcome such vicissitudes, will 
 have many, many new years to add to its glorious 
 past. 
 
THE YEAR 5666.* 
 
 npHE BLOODIEST days in Jewish history have a 
 -^ sequel in the terrifying experiences of the 
 Russian Jews during the past year. Had all lovers 
 of humanity believed that the Kishineff of 1903 was 
 the climax of the provocation which a doomed des- 
 potism would dare to offer to civilized humanity, this 
 year disappointed them in their optimism. On 
 October 30 the announcement of a parliamentary 
 form of government was made, and on the following 
 day the so-called Black Hundred, encouraged and 
 assisted by both civil and military authorities, began 
 a regular slaughter of the Jews, especially in the 
 Southern part of the empire. Over two hundred 
 places were affected, thousands were killed, tens of 
 thousands maimed, and hundreds of thousands 
 reduced to misery. The civilized world was seized 
 with horror. Various parliaments, such as the 
 Congress of America, and the parliaments of Hungary, 
 England and Austria, passed resolutions of sympathy 
 with the victims and of condemnation of the outrages. 
 Charity showed itself in its noblest form, even in 
 benevolent Christians like Mr. Carnegie, and in 
 clergymen like the Bishops of Bamberg and Cologne, 
 but naturally the misery could not be properly 
 alleviated. Its cause lies deeper and with genuine 
 horror do we apprehend further acts of barbarism, 
 such as were witnessed in the days of Homel, on 
 January 21; Bialystok, June 14, and Siedlce, Sep- 
 *The American Israelite, September 20, 1906. 
 
204 SCROLLS 
 
 tember 8, and which may be instigated at any time 
 by the desperate Cossack government and its sym- 
 pathizers in order to maintain an unrestricted auto- 
 cracy. 
 
 Another sore spot on the body of Israel is the con- 
 dition in Morocco, although by no means as grave as 
 that in Russia. A conference of the powers held last 
 spring in Algeciras discussed the means of establishing 
 order in this mediaeval country. Mr. White, the 
 representative of America, supported by Duke 
 Almadovar del Rios, the representative of Spain, 
 and Marquis Visconti Venosti, the representative of 
 Italy, introduced a resolution that the Jews should 
 be effectively protected by his Sherifian Majesty. 
 This resolution will read well in the proceedings of 
 the conference, while his majesty, even if he did 
 take a genuine interest in the cause of the Jews, 
 could hardly do justice to the wishes of Mr. White, 
 inasmuch as he has his hands full in fighting the 
 pretender, Bu Hamara, who has been utterly routed 
 any number of times in the cable dispatches, but 
 who is still holding his own. 
 
 The precarious health of the Shah of Persia and 
 of the Sultan of Turkey is also a matter of great con- 
 cern to the Jews. In countries where everything 
 depends on the whim of the ruler and where his 
 death is apt to plunge the country into complete 
 anarchy, nobody can tell what may happen in the 
 event of the death of either of these two rulers. 
 
 The grave concern which the acts in Russia and 
 the conditions in the other countries mentioned 
 signify for the Jews, overshadows all minor difficulties. 
 
THE YEA R Stdt 205 
 
 Roumania, for a long time a serious problem for the 
 Jews, has now grown uninteresting. A so-called 
 liberal ministry has succeeded the conservative 
 body, but to the Jews this is of no consequence. 
 It is merely a question which of the two packs of 
 wolves will prey on the treasury, and ingratiate 
 themselves with the masses by harrassing the Jews. 
 Still, it is worthy of mention that Brociner, the ad- 
 ministrator of the king's treasury, has been pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. 
 
 More serious seems to be the condition in Bulgaria. 
 This principality appears to be the storm center on 
 the European horizon. At present Greeks and Slavs 
 are fighting there and at any moment their troubles 
 may cause a crisis in European politics. Under 
 such conditions the Jews are apt to suffer, especially 
 as occasional accusations of ritual murder and the 
 unpunished kidnapping of Jewish girls for the sake 
 of baptizing them, justify grave apprehensions in 
 case internal troubles should precipitate disaster. 
 
 Egypt, while under English control, is still con- 
 siderably oriental and an attack on the Jews by the 
 mob, on the occasion of a pilgrimage to Damanhur, 
 while not very seriouS in its consequences and 
 suppressed promptly, shows that even there, with two 
 hostile factions, the Greek Catholic and the Moham- 
 medan, conditions are not quite satisfactory. 
 
 Turning to the countries where civic and political 
 equality are granted to the Jews, we must first 
 mention the 2S0th anniversary of the settlement of 
 the Jews in America, which was coincident with a 
 similar celebration in England. In both countries 
 the history of the Jews shows a constant advance 
 
206 SCROLLS 
 
 in importance and attainments. In America we 
 must mention the various strong expressions of con- 
 demnation of the Russian autocracy in Congress 
 by Mr. Sulzer, December 11, Mr. Towne, February 
 12, and Mr. MacDermott, April 11. It is also very 
 gratifying to know that the restriction on immigration, 
 which would have proved particularly hard for the 
 Russian Jews, was defeated by the efforts of Speaker 
 Cannon, June 25. The appointments and election 
 of Jews to prominent ofhces are too numerous to be 
 mentioned. 
 
 England, the land of freedom, has finally adopted 
 a law restricting immigration. It went into effect 
 January 1st, and while not very rigorously enforced, 
 it still entails hardship on unfortunate fugitives 
 from lands of unbearable tyranny. The present 
 liberal ministry inherited this legislation from its 
 conservative predecessor, and therefore can disclaim 
 all responsibility. There are, however, among the 
 people, very serious indications of anti-semitic feeling, 
 and in Limerick, Ireland, where a Catholic priest 
 two years ago organized a boycott against the Jews, 
 conditions have not improved. The mayor's court 
 still refuses to entertain any claim of a Jewish mer- 
 chant against a Christian debtor. Occasional at- 
 tacks in English periodical literature, as well as in 
 books, are also matters which can not be viewed 
 with absolute indifference. It is certainly quite 
 grievous when a radical like Mr. Labouchere makes 
 his paper the mouthpiece of aspersions on the Jews. 
 On the other hand, it must be admitted that the con- 
 ditions in general are rather satisfactory than other- 
 wise. The government of the Cape Colony has 
 
THE YEARS666 2C7 
 
 finally declared that Yiddish shall be considered a 
 European language, so that Jewish immigrants who 
 can read and write that language will not suffer from 
 the restrictions of the educational test. It is further 
 a matter of pride to record that at the last parlia- 
 mentary election sixteen Jews were returned, of 
 whom twelve are liberals. This is the largest number 
 of Jews ever sitting in the English Parliament and 
 is quite an achievement in view of the fact that it is 
 only forty-eight j'ears since Jews were admitted to 
 the body. Individual honors are also to be men- 
 tioned with satisfaction. Sir Herbert Stern has been 
 raised to the peerage, he being the fourth Jew to 
 enjoy that proud distinction. ]\Ir. Benjamin S. 
 Cohen and Mr. Edward Speyer have been raised to 
 the baronetcy. Mr. William Segal has been elected 
 mayor of Kimberley, and Israel GoUancz and Charles 
 Meyers were appointed professors in London Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Holland, where Jewish affairs are running quite 
 smoothly, has a new member of parliament, Mr. 
 S. van der Bergh, whose brother already is a member 
 of that body. 
 
 From Italy we are not accustomed to hear anything 
 exciting. The present Secretan,- of the Treasury is 
 filling that post for the sixth time. He has received 
 great distinction through a decoration which the 
 Kaiser has bestowed on him. Signer Alessandro 
 d'Ancona, a well known politician and scholar, has 
 been elected mayor of Pisa. Louis Philippson, of 
 Hamburg, was called to the chair of dermatology at 
 the University of Palermo. It is interesting to 
 obser\-e in this connection that since the expulsion 
 
208 SCROLLS 
 
 of the Jews from Sicily no congregation has been 
 formed there, and the only Jews living in that country 
 are government officials. It is hard to say whether, 
 if the present Pope permits the Catholics to participate 
 in elections, as he seems inclined to do, antisemitism 
 will not appear in Italy. In a small way it does 
 creep up occasionally, as was the case this year at 
 the municipal election of Monticello d'Ondigno. 
 
 France has made decided progress by the promul- 
 gation of the law declaring the separation of State 
 and Church, December 9, and the expectations of the 
 clerical party that the government would be defeated 
 in the parliamentary elections were not realized. 
 The policy, inaugurated by M. Combes, evidently 
 has won the approval of the people. It took the 
 Pope fully eight months to come out with a con- 
 demnation of that law, in his Encyclical "Gravissimi 
 Officii" of August 10th. The effect of this condition 
 on the status of the Jews is certainly noticeable in 
 the final vindication of Captain Dreyfus, July 12, 
 who was promoted to the rank of major and decorated 
 with the Legion of Honor, July 21. At the parlia- 
 mentary elections four Jews were returned, among 
 them, Joseph Reinach, who had lost his seat on 
 account of his advocacy of Dreyfus' innocence. 
 Of the numerous appointments of Jews to prominent 
 places, special mention may be made of that of Col. 
 Francfort to the rank of general, and of the appoint- 
 ment of Gen. Naquet-Laroque, as inspector of the 
 entire coast defense. 
 
 In Germany Jews have enjoyed full political 
 equality since 1869; still the theory is not sincerely 
 put into practice. The government and its sup- 
 
THE YEA R 5666 209 
 
 porters in the conservative ranks consider it their 
 duty to keep the Jews out of official positions. Their 
 sentiments are indicated in a speech made by Herr 
 von Richthofen in the Reichstag, March 15, when 
 he defended the educational policy of the govern- 
 ment in the African Colonies. Herr von Richthofen 
 said that the presence of Mohammedans in the 
 African schools was no less reprehensible than the 
 presence of Jews in the mother country. It is not 
 much to be proud of when a fair-minded conservative 
 politician like Herr von Kardorff talks of the possi- 
 bility of anti-Jewish riots in Germany similar to 
 those of Russia. Nor is the administration of justice 
 in the courts always free from anti-Semitic bias. 
 The statement by a judge in open court that pre- 
 nuptial relations between a Jew and a Christian 
 woman are a proof of the insanity of the latter, 
 shows that a hymn on "Koschere Justiz," composed 
 by a judge in Breslau and sung by a "society of 
 Christian judges," is more than a convivial joke. 
 Clearer proof of antisemitic inclinations are the 
 cruel expulsions of self-supporting Russian Jews 
 from Prussia, and the school law which reduces the 
 Jewish children to a condition which can only be 
 characterized as toleration. 
 
 In Bavaria, where the clericals form the majority 
 in the Diet, agitation against the appointment of 
 Jews as judges and army officers is frequently ex- 
 pressed in the language of the beer-saloon crowd. 
 The prohibition of Shehitah in various communities 
 undoubtedly shows a desire to annoy the Jewish 
 citizens. What antisemitic agitators may do with 
 impunity is illustrated by the crazy Count Pueckler 
 
210 SCROLLS 
 
 and the ex-pastor Kroesell. The former, who calls 
 occasionally on the blacksmiths of Berlin to imitate 
 the Black Hundred of Russia, is sentenced to prison 
 for his incendiary speeches. His sentence is com- 
 muted to detention in a fortress and he is paroled 
 on account of important business, which leave of 
 absence he utilizes to continue his speech-making in 
 Berlin. Pastor Kroesell published in his sheet a 
 story that the rabbi of Breslau sent by express to 
 the rabbi of Bromberg a Christian boy, bound, 
 gagged, and chloroformed. There is no way of 
 making the courts act in such cases as promptly as 
 they do in any case of Lese Majesty, or in any al- 
 leged insult to the army or the government. Still, 
 some individual occurences may be chronicled with 
 satisfaction. Two Jews were elected to the Diet of 
 Baden, and one to each of the diets of Prussia and 
 Hesse. Twojews were promoted to the rank of Ober- 
 landes gerichsrat in Prussia. P'or the first time in his- 
 tory a Jew has been appointed Landgerichtsratin Wiir- 
 temberg. Mr. Eugene Fuchs was made a member 
 of the board of examiners of judges. Professor 
 Hcinrich Silbergleit was placed at the head of the 
 bureau of statistics in Berlin, and Alfred Philippson 
 was made professor of history in Halle. 
 
 Conditions in Austria have remained unchanged. 
 The agitation for the extension of the franchise to 
 the Reichstag resulted in attacks on Jews. In 
 Galicia the clergy declared the Jews to be enemies 
 of the Poles for their advocacy of a liberal law. 
 Burgomaster Lueger even went so far as to indicate 
 in an address the possibility that the massacres Of 
 Odessa might be repeated in the Austrian capital 
 
THE YE A R 5666 211 
 
 while his followers shamed the country and the 
 civilization of the twentieth century by using the 
 vilest language against the Jews. It is really comical 
 when one of them says that religious toleration has 
 gone too far in Austria. Some noble minded people 
 have made attempts to vindicate poor Hilsner, who 
 has been in prison for seven years for a supposed 
 ritual murder, of which he is entirely innocent. 
 The antisemites at once raised the cry of a Jewish 
 syndicate and have succeeded in cowing the govern- 
 ment. On the Jewish side these conditions have created 
 some ridiculous demands, like that of a national 
 Jewish autonomy. 
 
 Hungary has passed through a severe crisis and 
 the new ministry is uniting the various political 
 parties, who are in favor of Hungarian independence, 
 and in spite of the fact that the clericals are repre- 
 sented by two members in the new cabinet, the 
 Austrian antisemites always speak of the Judaeo- 
 Magyar alliance. On the other hand, it is to be 
 recorded with satisfaction that the new parliament 
 contains twenty-three Jewish members, the highest 
 number ever found in any parliament. The dififi- 
 rulties created for Austria by the affiliation with 
 Hungary are, to some extent, duplicated in the 
 relations between Hungary and Croatia. In the 
 latter country, where Jews are not very numerous, 
 antisemitic sentiment seems to be growing and for 
 the first time in manv vears the Croatian parliament 
 has no Jewish member, the only candidate for election 
 having been defeated. 
 
 The difficulties in Russia have resulted in great 
 interest in the plans for colonization. The Zionists. 
 
212 SCROLLS 
 
 have, so it seems, given up their former aversion 
 to colonization without charter. The orthodox of 
 Austria and Hungary have formed a society, Schlaum 
 Hoir, for the advancement of the interests of the 
 orthodox colonists. Somewhat original is the scheme 
 for colonizing an island in the Parana River, in 
 Paraguay, which savors somewhat humorously of 
 Mordecai M. Noah's "state" on Great Island in the 
 Niagara River. Of more tangible value is the 
 endorsement of the I to by Lord Selborne and other 
 prominent Jews and non-Jews. In this connection 
 the attempt of regaining the Falashas, in Abyssinia, 
 may be mentioned. The beginnings of this mission 
 work are small, but at least two young men are being 
 educated in the Alliance School at Paris. The reform 
 community in Paris has not yet materialized and the 
 Mekize Nirdamim Society for the publication of old 
 Hebrew works had to be abandoned. 
 
 On the other hand, we point with proud satisfac- 
 tion to the numerous philanthropic activities by men 
 in the Jewish fold, but to mention all the important 
 donations would be impossible. Merely as specimens 
 of their distribution and their catholicity, we record 
 a donation of S50,000, by Mr. James S. Speyer, of 
 New York, for an American chair in the University 
 of Berlin; of 3,000,000 Marks by Julius Schottlaender, 
 of Breslau, for various charitable purposes; of 2,000,- 
 000 Francs by M. Raphael Bishoffsheim, of Paris, 
 for educational purposes; of 500,000 Marks by Mr. 
 Herschel of Mannheim, for a public bath; of 500,000 
 Crowns by Mr. Philipp Hertz, of Lipto Szt. Miklos, 
 a man who was certainly not as wealthy as Russell 
 Sage, of New York. 
 
JUDAISM IN 5668.* 
 
 Ty EVIEWING the history of this year from the 
 -*• *■ point of view of the events in Judaism, makes 
 one feel what Isaiah must have felt when he said that 
 "it shall come to pass in that day that the glory of 
 Jacob shall be made thin." With deep humiliation 
 must we admit how little our great grandfathers could 
 have believed in the realization of such a prophecy 
 when the French Revolution first emancipated the 
 Jews. 
 
 Fortunately we the citizens of the free republic of 
 the United States enjoy the liberty to worship God 
 according to the dictates of our conscience. Still we 
 can not enjoy the satisfaction that this theory, laid 
 down by the fathers of this country, is a reality in the 
 minds of the vast majority of our non-Jewish fellow- 
 citizens when it is a question of applying it to the 
 Jews. Scarcely a week passes without some symptoms 
 of anti-Jewish feeling coming to our notice in the 
 newspapers, in addresses by prominent people, in 
 utterances of officials, or of men of prominent social 
 standing, and finally in acts of social snobbery. What 
 an amount of ugly comment has been passed on the 
 action of certain Jews in New York, who desired to do 
 away with the sectarian character of the Christmas 
 celebration in public schools! Loudest of all were 
 naturally the Protestant ministers and the organiza- 
 tions who hide their un-American tendencies under 
 the mask of patriotism, some of whom protested 
 *The American Israelite, September 24, 1908. 
 
214 SCROLLS 
 
 against what they called the "Hebrew dictating to us 
 in our public schools." Even the Catholics, who 
 bitterly oppose the reading of the Bible and the so- 
 called non-sectarian religious exercises in the public 
 schools, felt on this occasion the necessity of "ad- 
 monishing our people to watch the Jew." 
 
 Another outbreak of antisemitic feelings is the 
 constantly repeated charge of criminality against the 
 Jews. Mr. William H. Corbin, in an address before 
 the Chenango County Society of New York, spoke of 
 the Jews in almost Russian fashion as "crowding the 
 schools and high schools, ready to work at the most 
 menial tasks with inherited sense of want and neces- 
 sity but with low ideals and practice." This address 
 was ably refuted by Louis Marshall, but unfortu- 
 nately we are not optimistic enough to believe that 
 such refutations, strong as they are, strike home where 
 they ought to. The terrible conflagration at Chelsea, 
 Mass., gave opportunity for a minister of the gospel 
 to charge the Jews with responsibility for this fire, 
 although it has never been proven up to this day that 
 it was of incendiary origin nor that a Jew was re- 
 sponsible for it, while it is beyond doubt that the vast 
 majority of the Jewish inhabitants of Chelsea were 
 heavy losers in this calamity. The attempt on the 
 life of the Chicago chief of police by Lazarus Auerbach, 
 a young Russian Jew, was another signal for the out- 
 cry against the Russian Jew as a habitual criminal 
 and especially as an enemy of social order and in- 
 directly against the Jew as a citizen. The facts in 
 the case were best characterized by that noble hu- 
 manitarian, Jane Addams, when she said: "The old 
 
JUDA IS M IN 5 668 215 
 
 antisemitic feeling held sway, encouraged and sus- 
 tained by the sense that to indulge in it was to put 
 down anarchy." The unfortunate boy's lips, which 
 alone could have testified in his own behalf, are 
 closed, but the feeling will not be quieted that he was 
 a victim of either cunning or of a misunderstanding. 
 Yet the feeling against the Jew as an anarchist has 
 again been aroused by the terrible crime of Spring- 
 field, 111. In the home of Lincoln, negroes were 
 killed, robbed and hounded out of the city. It took 
 a large mob to do this dastardly work, which is a 
 disgrace to American civilization. But again here 
 the Jew seems to be picked out for a scapegoat. 
 The chief of police claims that Abraham Raymer, a 
 Russian boy, was one of the ring leaders. At this 
 moment it is impossible to say whether or not the 
 charge is based on fact, but one thing is certain that 
 the statement of the chief of police that the trouble 
 was due to "green foreigners" is intended to shield 
 the American element of the population, while, if 
 anything, negro lynching is certainly a genuine Ameri- 
 can product. 
 
 Compared with this it seems small to point to the 
 constantly repeated insults to respectable Jews, found 
 in such advertisements as that of a summer resort 
 which announced, "No Hebrews or people with pul- 
 monary troubles entertained," or of the "Catskill 
 Evening Line," that "Dogs and Jews are not ad- 
 mitted" to some of the hotels in the mountains. Nor 
 would it seem of much consequence when in an 
 aristocratic apartment house in New York, owned 
 by William Waldorf Astor, "Jews are not accepted as 
 
216 SCROLLS 
 
 tenants." In this particular case it would appear 
 as if the indignation of the Jews was directed to the 
 wrong address. It is certainly a matter of complete 
 indifference to Mr. Astor who pays him interest on his 
 investments, so long as this investment is profitable. 
 He lives in England and the American dollar coming 
 from a Jew has as little odor to him as a denar derived 
 from the sewer tax had to Vespasian, the inventor 
 of the first "Jew tax." The rule adopted by the 
 administrator of the Astor real estate can only tell 
 against a certain class of high-toned American 
 citizens. Nor would the remarks of J. C. Van Dyke 
 who accuses the Jews of "commercializing law and 
 medicine" and thus places himself on one level with 
 his colleagues in the universities of Germany of the 
 type of Treitschke and de Lagarde, mean very much. 
 It is very serious, however, when a man in the position 
 o f the New York commissioner of police or when a 
 judge on the bench, like Judge Dike in Brooklyn 
 makes a statement to the effect that two-thirds of the 
 law-breakers are Jews. (1) Neither of these gentle- 
 men has in any way given us information of how he 
 arrived at such statistics, inasmuch as the police 
 entries do not specify the religion of the people 
 arrested or convicted, nor has he proven that such 
 misdemeanors as the killing of a chicken on Sunday, 
 for which a New York Shochet was recently arrested, 
 are excluded and separately accounted. In countries 
 where there are available exact statistics of the re- 
 ligion of criminals, like Austria and Germany, such 
 figures have always proven that the Jew makes a 
 rather favorable showing in the criminal statistics 
 
JUDAISM IN 5 668 217 
 
 and that at all events he is not worse than others of 
 his class, occupation, and education. It is highly im- 
 probable that the Jew of America should in this respect 
 differ from his co-religionists in other countries. 
 
 The only political question in American Jewish 
 affairs, is the old question of the passports of American 
 citizens of the Jewish persuasion. The American 
 government has in this respect always been yielding 
 to an injustice done to her citizens by Russia. Al- 
 though both great parties have in their last platforms 
 declared themselves in favor of the only logical in- 
 terpretation of treaty rights which demand that all 
 American citizens shall be treated equally, Russia 
 continues to disregard the rights of American Jewish 
 citizens. Three years ago the writer of this review 
 had such an experience. Assistant Secretary of 
 State Alvey A. Adee at that time said that negotia- 
 tions were in progress which would settle the question 
 but these negotiations have not only not led to any 
 satisfactory result, but our department of state even 
 went so far as to issue a circular in which it was 
 stated that former Russian sujects and Jews can not 
 enter Russia without special permission from the 
 Russian government. This circular, issued March 28, 
 1907, was upon protest in Congress and upon proof 
 of its illegality, withdrawn January 25, 1908. The 
 main point, however, is that such a circular could 
 have been issued by an kdministration elected on a 
 party platform, which had pledged itself to an act 
 of justice which ought to be self evident. It is small 
 consolation that other countries adopted the same 
 invertebrate policy with regard to their Jewish citizens. 
 
218 SCROLLS 
 
 The government of Bavaria accommodated Russia in 
 so far as to enter the religion on passports issued to 
 Jews, while this is not done on passports issued to 
 other citizens. This practice was discontinued upon 
 the protest of the Jews, but the matter is by no means 
 changed. In Prussia the Oppeln Chamber of Com- 
 merce complained that German Jewish merchants 
 traveling in Russia were discriminated against. The 
 minister coolly replied that as long as it can not be 
 proven that Russia treated Jewish citizens of other 
 countries differently, he can not provide any remedy. 
 While the legal position of the Jews in all of Western 
 Europe and in all civilized countries of other conti- 
 nents is and has been for many years clearly defined 
 as one of absolute equality with their fellow-citizens, 
 the practice is considerably different. Germany may 
 in this respect be mentioned in the first place. A 
 judge in Frankfurt am Main said in the court room 
 to a Jewish witness who refused to sign his testimony 
 on the Sabbath: "You Jews demand all rights but 
 do not wish to comply with the law of the state." 
 The remark was certainly improper, as the Jew was 
 in this case not an official who refused to do his duty, 
 and the superior court decided in this sense. The 
 court in Berlin decided a libel case which is very 
 typical. A visitor to a Berlin exposition had been 
 refused a certain request by a Jewish employe. He 
 wrote a letter to the management of the exposition in 
 which he complained of improper treatment by a 
 "youth of Hebrew descent." The young man re- 
 ferred to sued for libel, but the court decided that by 
 this remark the plaintiff was only characterized and 
 
JUDAISM IX 5668 21Q 
 
 not insulted. At a teachers' convention in Posen 
 the principal of a gymnasium spoke of the Jews as 
 lacking in the love of home. A complaint was lodged 
 with the minister of education who decided that there 
 was no cause for action on his part. One can not 
 wonder under these conditions that men and societies, 
 not being under restraint by their position, express 
 these sentiments in stronger words. Thus the Ger- 
 man National Association of Clerks issued a cam- 
 paign document in which they said that a Jew born 
 in Germany was no more a German than a donkey 
 born in the Fatherland. Unfortunately it appears 
 that even liberal politicians, while theoretically op- 
 posed to all discriminations on the ground of religion, 
 are in practice not free from anti-Jewish bias. A 
 strong case in point is the recent defeat of Dr. Land- 
 mann as candidate for the office of mayor of Mann- 
 heim, although he was admitted to be the most 
 logical man for the place. 
 
 Events in France which are treated further along 
 indicate the still prevailing feeling in spite of the un- 
 deniable victory of liberalism, by the undisturbed 
 carrying out of the policy of separation of state and 
 church. 
 
 To speak of Austria in this connection would be 
 impossible, for Austrian antisemitism is simply the 
 record of the history of the Jews of that country 
 during the past year. It would be necessan.- to 
 write a chronicle of the transactions in the Reichsrat 
 in the diet of Lower Austria, in the city council of 
 Vienna and a good deal of the public business trans- 
 acted in other parts of the country, were we to give 
 
220 SCROLLS 
 
 an adequate presentation of its antisemitism. It is, 
 however, to the point to note two small incidents in the 
 Transvaal colony which show that European coloni- 
 zation brings in the wake of its civilizing influences 
 antisemitism into newly opened territories. From 
 Johannesburg comes the report that Jews are insulted 
 on street cars and from Pretoria the news is reported 
 that the Boers at a convention passed a resolution 
 censuring the government for employing Jews in the 
 postal and telegraph service. The fact of the matter 
 is that Jews living in isolated rural districts and min- 
 ing camps as storekeepers act without remuneration 
 in the service of the postal telegraph department by 
 forwarding letters and telegrams to the nearest 
 station and thus are performing a service to the 
 government. (2.) 
 
 The Jews in countries where what we call medieval 
 conditions prevail and are still prevailing seem to 
 face a grave crisis. In Morocco just now the victory 
 of the pretender Mulai Hafid over his brother, the 
 legitimate sultan, Abdul Asis, seems to be decided, 
 although telegraphic reports from this part of the 
 globe are never quite reliable, and by the time that 
 this review appears in print things may have changed 
 entirely. To the Jews this change would hardly be 
 of consequence. The pretender has levied a tax of 
 one-third of the value of houses owned by the Jews 
 in the district which he occupied with his troops; the 
 legitim.ate sultan would have done likewise if he could 
 The troops of the pretender butchered the Jews of 
 Statt; those of the legitimate sultan did the same 
 thing in individual instances. The establishment of 
 
JUDA ISM IN 5668 221 
 
 peace and order seems now further away than a year 
 ago, when it appeared almost certain that France 
 would protect Morocco as it has been doing with 
 Tunis for the last twenty-seven years. A European 
 administration is the only safeguard for the Jews of 
 Morocco and their only hope of escape from the 
 conditions of barbarous oppression under which they 
 are living now as they have been living ever since 
 there has been any record of their history in that 
 country. Similarly unsettled are the conditions in 
 Persia. The Shah does not know where to turn, 
 Russia and England are watching each other jealously, 
 lest one power gain a stronger influence than the other, 
 and meantime the country is torn by internal strife. 
 The unsafety of life and property to which the Persian 
 Jews have been habituated from the days of Haman 
 continues as heretofore and is reaching a rather 
 critical stage owing to the fact that in every internal 
 disorder the Jew is the first sufferer. Turkey has 
 since July fourteenth a constitutional form of govern- 
 ment. Here Jews had no reason to complain of any 
 hostile treatment on the part of the government. 
 They were rather favorites of the sultan, for they 
 possessed the least political ambition of his majesty's 
 subjects. They did not conspire like the Armenians, 
 Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanese; they did not at- 
 tempt to establish an independent country like the 
 Arabs, and they were far safer as taxpayers than the 
 Kurds. It may be that this change will affect them 
 considerably, and especially will this be the case in 
 Palestine. It is hardly possible that a well-ordered 
 government will allow generations of Jews, grown up 
 
222 SCROLLS 
 
 in the country, to remain foreign subjects, wiiile, on 
 the other hand, commercial and industrial activity 
 as well as agricultural development, will undoubtedly 
 progress. The Alliance Israelite, and in Palestine 
 the Zionist organizations and the German Hilfs- 
 verein are each contributing a share to the preparation 
 for better times in these lands of oppression, although 
 the effects of education on the economic status will 
 not so readily be noticeable. 
 
 The agrarian revolts in Roumania, which, in March, 
 1907, brought such misery upon the Jews, were 
 quelled by the government, which is a government of 
 and for the landed proprietors, but the policy of these 
 Bojars to divert the attention of their victims from 
 the real source of their trouble by alUowing them the 
 pastime of persecuting the Jews, is continuing. The 
 most typical case was the trial of Colonel Marasescu, 
 who had treated Jewish soldiers with a brutality 
 worthy of a Spanish conquistador, having given orders 
 to strip them naked in the presence of the whole 
 company and to beat them into insensibility. There 
 was not the slightest excuse nor any provocation for 
 this act of brutality, so that even the minister of war 
 condemned it, still the case against this fiend was dis- 
 missed by the court of Jassy, February 28. Under 
 these conditions it is somewhat surprising that Prof. 
 Jorga, an antisemitic politician, advocated a special 
 tax to be imposed upon the Jews in lieu of military 
 service. The suggestion was hardly meant seriously, 
 for, as another antisemitic politician, A. C. Cuza, 
 plainly confessed, the policy of his party with regard 
 to the Jews must be one of "blood and fraud." 
 
JUDAISM IN 5668 223 
 
 In Russia, government by execution and imprison- 
 ment, as it is now successfully carried on by Mr. 
 Stolypin, means to the Jews the abandonment of all 
 hope of an improvement of their condition. If there 
 were any doubts as to the views of the heads of the 
 administration, the trial of the rioters at the various 
 pogroms would dispel it. The most typical of these 
 was the trial of the Bialystok rioters, which began 
 June 8, and resulted — after weeks of tedious proceed- 
 ings, made interesting by the efforts of the prosecutor 
 to suppress all evidence of guilt of the officials — in 
 the dismissal of most of the accused, while the few 
 who were convicted received ridiculously light sen- 
 tences and were promptly pardoned by the Czar. 
 The league of the Black Hundred frankly claimed 
 this fact as the proof that its views are those of the 
 court. One must not forget that at these massacres 
 in a provincial town seventy-eight Jews were killed, 
 and that the same government which pardoned these 
 assassins mercilessly executes one who attacks a 
 policeman or robs a postofi&ce. The administration 
 policy of the government is in full harmony with 
 these principles. Without previous warning the 
 Jews of Wladiwostok were expelled on four days' 
 notice, and only to property holders two more weeks 
 were granted. The reason for this order is said to 
 have been an adverse criticism of Secretary Taft on 
 the fortifications of the harbor, and, as somebody had 
 to be blamed for it, the Jews were expelled. The 
 restrictions on the right of residence are enforced with 
 a zeal which excels that of von Plehve. Jewish 
 laborers working for the canning houses in the fishing 
 
224 SCROLLS 
 
 industry at Astrachan are expelled. The health 
 resorts of the Caucasus are closed to Jews, and only 
 after a discussion in the Duma exceptions are made 
 under humiliating and aggravating conditions. From 
 Moscow even those are expelled who were left un- 
 disturbed when Grand Duke Sergius was governor. 
 The percentage of school attendance is restricted to 
 the status which existed previous to 1905, and the law 
 proclaiming liberty of conscience which a gullible 
 American press greeted with an outburst of enthusiasm 
 is a dead letter. When the rabbi of St. Petersburg 
 wanted directions for the reconversion of Jews who 
 had converted to Christianity, he was told that the 
 details would have to be settled later. Needless to 
 say, they are not settled yet. At the same time this 
 government takes great interest in the spiritual welfare 
 of the Jews and announces the convocation of a 
 rabbinical conference, for which preparations are 
 already being made by conventions of the rabbis of 
 various provinces. That in a country like Russia the 
 courts are merely part of the government's machinery 
 is manifested by the wholesale executions, and the 
 Jews are made to feel this fact. The senate, the 
 Russian supreme court, works heels over head in 
 construing daily the old laws in the narrowest possible 
 sense. One Jew, in order to escape the constant 
 persecution by the authorities, becomes a Protestant, 
 and so his Christian faith should protect him from 
 annoyances by the police. But far from it! The 
 senate finds that as long as his wife is not converted 
 to Christianity, he is only half a Christian, and only a 
 full Christian may live outside of the Pale. A Jewish 
 
JUDA ISM IN 5668 225 
 
 student has under great difficulties obtained the right 
 to matriculate at the University of St. Petersburg or 
 Kiev or Charkov. The parents rejoiced and moved 
 to the same place to keep house for him, but the senate 
 says, that while children are part of the household of 
 the parents, the rule does not work the other way. 
 One Jew has under great difficulties obtained a 
 diploma as a master mechanic, but he is not a member 
 of the guild and of course is excluded from living out- 
 side of the Pale. The Duma takes the hint and passes 
 a resolution demanding that the diplomas granted 
 by technical schools should not entitle the holder to 
 the privileges of a master mechanic. Finally one 
 master mechanic succeeds in living undisturbed in one 
 of the prohibited cities and employs a townsman or a 
 relative in his shop. The poor fellow is honestly 
 working at his trade, but the senate decided that he 
 is a laborer, not possessing a certificate, and his 
 Jewish master can not employ him. A Jewish manu- 
 facturer paying the highest rate of taxes may live 
 outside of the Pale and may employ Jewish clerks. 
 But it so happens that a Jew is president of a stock 
 company engaged in manufacture. The senate de- 
 cides that a corporation is not an individual and, 
 therefore, can not employ Jewish clerks. The Duma 
 is the last place from which the Jews could expect any 
 relief. There are two Jewish members in this body, 
 while the first Duma had twelve, but aside from the 
 fact that they are powerless and that the reactionaries 
 are in the majority, even the liberals do not intend 
 risking their popularity by working for justice to the 
 Jews. A sociahst who tried to discuss the disabilities 
 
226 SCROLLS 
 
 of the Jews was called to order. The reactionaries 
 clamor against the slightest concessions, and like their 
 Roumanian sympathizers they demand that the Jews 
 be excluded from the army and be subjected to a 
 special tax instead. A typical incident, illustrating 
 the sentiment of the Duma, is the following: A res- 
 taurant keeper, a man of blameless political record, 
 something which is not easily obtained in Russia, 72 
 years old, and having the title of a privy councilor, was 
 asked by a governor who visited his place why he 
 did not keep one of the reactionary newspapers. He 
 promptly replied that he did not do so because he 
 condemned the policy of violence and hatred. For 
 this unpatriotic view he was expelled. The case was 
 brought before the Duma and the latter approved 
 the governor's action. 
 
 Without denying that the condition of the Russian 
 Jews might be considered an ideal one, if it could be 
 brought up to the level of their coreligionists in 
 Austria, the latter country affords strong proof of the 
 difficulty to overcome by legislation the effects of 
 centuries of tyranny, both ecclesiastical and political. 
 It has already been stated that it would require a 
 volume of abstracts from the proceedings of parlia- 
 mentary bodies and city councils in order to record 
 all anti-Jewish speeches, resolutions, and acts. How 
 far things may go under a constitutional government 
 is best proven by the brutal killing of the Jewish 
 recruit, Michael Herschkowitz, by his sergeant. 
 The Austrian secretary of war, when the matter was 
 brought up in the Reichsrat, declared it to be a case 
 of cold-blooded murder, but the criminal escaped 
 with a light sentence. While here the desire of main- 
 
JUDA IS M IN 5 668 227 
 
 taining military discipline may have acted as an 
 excuse for such a miscarriage of justice, some of the 
 speeches in parliament indicated a purely Russian 
 spirit. A Christian socialist member introduced a 
 resolution which demanded the restriction of the 
 number of Jewish students in accordance with their 
 proportion to the population. The resolution was 
 defeated by a vote of 162 to 205. It is natural that 
 in such a parliament a clear violation of international 
 treaty rights, when the victim was a Jew, would be 
 condoned. The engineer, Benno Kohn, an Austrian 
 subject, employed in a mine in Prussia, was expelled 
 from the country for no other reason than that he was 
 a Jew. The matter was discussed in the ' Reichsrat 
 but received no majority although the Poles out of 
 hatred for Prussia voted for a censure of the govern- 
 ment, but the minister declared just as in the case 
 of the Russian passports, that as long as Prussia 
 treated all foreign Jews alike, he could not protest 
 against the decision. One is moved to wonder that 
 in such a parliament blood accusations should not 
 be discussed. Indeed, the Reichsrat did not miss 
 such an opportunity for disgracing itself in the history 
 of twentieth century civilization. A feeble-minded 
 Christian boy of Zwittau, sent on an errand, lost his 
 way and died in the woods from exposure. There 
 was no sign of any violent death, nor was any Jew 
 connected with the matter at all, but the party which 
 calls itself Christian took this opportunity of bringing 
 the matter into the Reichsrat in the form of an inter- 
 pellation, with the only object in view to have the 
 newspapers print it without incurring a libel suit. 
 Very amusing is the fact that the Jews were brought 
 
228 SCROLLS 
 
 into a controversy on two occasions with which they 
 had nothing to do, save as indirect victims. The 
 Vienna burgomaster, Karl Lueger, in spite of his 
 infirmity still the recognized leader and the brains 
 of the clerical party, addressed a Catholic convention 
 in Vienna and in the course of his remarks, evidently 
 forgetting his usual prudence, said: "We have con- 
 quered the elementary schools but we shall not stop 
 until we have conquered the universities." The only 
 possible interpretation of these words was that the 
 universities were to be conducted in a clerical spirit. 
 When, however, these words had elicited protests 
 from Austrian universities regardless of nationality 
 and from students, professors and politicians, in- 
 cluding those of antisemitic convictions, the words 
 of Lueger were interpreted to have been directed aginst 
 the Jews, because there were actually seven Jews, 
 three of whom were not baptized, appointed as pro- 
 fessors at the Vienna University. This cheap excuse 
 did not work, and the insincerity of it soon became 
 manifest. Ludwig Wahrmund, professor of ecclesi- 
 astic law at the University of Innsbruck, delivered a 
 lecture, later on published in pamphlet form, in which 
 he attacked the main dogmas of the Catholic Church. 
 Wahrmund was at one time a candidate on the 
 Christian socialist ticket; his father, a professor at the 
 University of Vienna, is an antisemitic author, but in 
 spite of all that he was attacked as a Jew because, so 
 the clerical leaders said, only a man of Jewish blood 
 could have exhibited such a hatred of the Catholic 
 Church. As he possessed the sympathy of the Ger- 
 man nationalists, who are anticlerical, he could not 
 be removed from his position, while a Jewish professor 
 
JU D A IS M IN S(>(>9, 220 
 
 suffered this fate for a much lighter oflfense. Sigmund 
 Feilbogen, professor at a commercial academy of 
 Vienna, was in Rome on Easter Sunday and visited 
 the Sistine Chapel, together with his wife and his 
 sister-in-law. Receiving the sacrament from the hands 
 of the Pope, the sister-in-law for some unexplained 
 reason is said to have taken the holy wafer out of her 
 mouth. As according to the Catholic Church, the 
 consecrated wafer is the body of Jesus, such an act 
 is a sacrilege and a hundred years ago the lady 
 would have made atonement for it at the stake. As 
 Rome, however, is not under papal government and 
 as the world has adopted somewhat more civilized 
 methods in dealing with criminals, the effect of the 
 case was that Prof. Feilbogen was discharged. He 
 is said, however, meantime to have converted to 
 Catholicism and perhaps there will be the rejoicing 
 attendant upon the repentance of the one sinner as 
 against the ninety-nine righteous people, and Prof. 
 Feilbogen will get another job. Quite a number of 
 his fellow-countrymen are taking matters by the 
 forelock and the list of apostates in Vienna will reach 
 a record number this year. In spite of all this the 
 Catholic Church is still hungry for souls, and in 
 Galicia the kidnapping of young girls and their de- 
 tention in monasteries is a matter so frequent that 
 our American coreligionists take such little notice of 
 it that they prefer a convent to the best and most in- 
 telligently conducted secular institution, for the edu- 
 cation of their daughters. 
 
 The advanced age of Emperor Francis Joseph is 
 bound to fill the Austrian statesmen with great appre- 
 hensions. It is possible enough that the rupture 
 
230 SCROLLS 
 
 between Austria and Hungary, which seemed im- 
 minent two years ago, may take place when the 
 aged emperor leaves this world. For the present 
 the somewhat unnatural union between Hungarian 
 clericals and liberals, cemented under great difficulties, 
 still lasts, but there are no Jewish affairs of consequence 
 to be recorded. The Jewish congregations continue 
 to have their internal fights, and on the other hand 
 the leading Jews, backed by the Magyar politicians, 
 including the clerical minister of education and 
 worship, Count Apponyi, are making strenuous 
 efforts to bring about a union of all Jewish congrega- 
 tions, regardless of their religious differences. This 
 union, desired by the Magyars in order to bring the 
 Jews over to their cause and by the Jewish politicians 
 in order to obtain political influence, is strongly opposed 
 by the Orthodox, in spite of the fact that Count 
 Apponyi declared himself strongly in favor of such a 
 union, when he received a Jewish committee, Febru- 
 ary 11. The country at large shows the same wide 
 differences which the Jewish communities show. 
 As the latter have Jews of modern culture, authors, 
 artists, and satesmen, while in some parts of the 
 country the "Wunderrabbi" still has a great follow- 
 ing, so Hungary has in spite of all the liberalism of her 
 leading statesmen, occasionally blood accusations 
 and mob riots, but her steady progress is beyond 
 doubt. 
 
 By their language the Magyars and the Finns are 
 related and together with the Turks form philo- 
 logically an isolated tribe among the European 
 nationalities. As Finland is an independent state 
 
JUDAISM IN 5 6 68 231 
 
 under the rule of the Czar of Russia, so Hungary is an 
 independent state under the rule of the Austrian 
 emperor. Otherwise as far as Jewish affairs are con- 
 cerned there is no comparison. Finland has guarded 
 her Swedish traditions, forgotten in Sweden since 
 1870, and has adopted the Russian policy of dis- 
 crimination against the Jews. Under various sub- 
 terfuges and unavoidable exceptions which all in- 
 human laws carry with them, some Jews have found a 
 home in Finland although the law of March 29, 1889, 
 prohibits their residence in the country, as was the 
 case in all of Sweden up to the end of the eighteenth 
 century. Under the new order of things which re- 
 established Finnish autonomy, the Jews hoped and 
 are still hoping to enjoy the liberty which the Finns 
 demand for themselves. It seems, however, that the 
 Finns, Protestant Christians though they are, do not 
 care to live up to the rule that one should do to others 
 as he wishes that others should do unto him. In this 
 predicament the Jews of Finland sent a committee of 
 three to wait on George Brandes. the famous Danish 
 author, requesting him to use his strong influence in 
 their behalf. He answered evasively, and only the 
 complaint of these three men in the press at his 
 unkind attitude drew him out. He pleaded in the 
 "Frankfurter Zeitung" the cause of his coreligionists 
 but declared at the same time that the word co- 
 religionists was a misnomer in his case. He does not 
 desire to be known as a Jew, he is even irritated at 
 the fact that the Finnish papers flatteringly referred 
 to him as a strong argument against the cruel laws 
 discriminating against the Jews. He declares that 
 
232 SCROLLS 
 
 whatever he may be, least of all is he a Jew, and yet 
 he is a lineal descendant of an orthodox rabbi. 
 
 Germany is further strong evidence of the fact that 
 constitutional liberty neither does away with popular 
 prejudice nor does it mean enforcement of organized 
 principles in practice. The Reichstag twice dis- 
 cussed the fact that no Jew has for years been ap- 
 pointed an officer in the army. While those who 
 serve their year as volunteers are in many cases 
 appointed officers in the reserve, this distinction is 
 denied to Jews and only the Bavarian contingent, over 
 which the prince regent of Bavaria has unlimited 
 authority, is an exception. It was pointed out in the 
 Reichstag that it was absolutely impossible that of 
 the many Jews who serve in the army, not one should 
 have been considered good enough to be made an 
 officer, but the secretary of war replied that he knew 
 of no rule discriminating against the Jews. Shortly 
 afterwards the newspapers reported that an imperial 
 order had been issued condemning the discrimination 
 against the Jews. The matter was later on corrected: 
 the rule was merely meant to protect the Catholic 
 interests because a young officer had been forced to 
 resign on account of his conversion from Protestant- 
 ism to Roman Catholicism. Catholics who control 
 105 out of 397 votes in the Reichstag are a power, 
 Jews are not. It may be safely assumed that the 
 emperor, in spite of his religious liberalism, which he 
 repeatedly manifested by his sympathy for Harnack 
 and Delitzsch, and in spite of his personally friendly 
 relations to some Jewish financiers, is in sympathy 
 with the policy which strengthens the military spirit. 
 
JU D A ISM IN 5 6 68 U?, 
 
 Of political conditions in the various states of 
 Germany, the debate on antiseniitism in the diet of 
 the Grand Duchy of Hesse deserves notice. This 
 state is the hotbed of antisemitism. About eighteen 
 years ago, when this movement made itself strongly 
 felt, the government tried in various ways to check 
 its progress. Church and school authorities used 
 their influence against it, and the minister of state 
 warned all state officials against participation in this 
 agitation. This circular, issued in 1892, is a thorn 
 in the side of the antisemites, and it seems that the 
 Jews themselves do not consider it of any value. 
 The government, however, refused to accede to the 
 demand for its repeal because this might be inter- 
 preted as a change of policy. In Prussia, where anti- 
 semitism is, if not coddled, at least treated with con- 
 siderable delicacy by the authorities, a member of 
 the upper house complained of the scandalous affairs 
 at the seashore resort of Borkum, where antisemites 
 have been in the habit of insulting every Jewish 
 visitor in order to keep Jews away from the island. 
 The minister of the interior, von Moltke, declared 
 that he condemned such rudeness. Still this official 
 expression will hardly have great effect. There can 
 be no doubt that prohibitions of Shehitah, which are 
 possible owing to the fact that each city has a right 
 to establish its own abattoir and make it compulsory 
 for butchers to ha^•e the killing of animals done there, 
 are inspired by the desire to annoy the Jews. Such 
 prohibitions have occurred in various Prussian cities 
 and in some small German states. Even little 
 Schaumburg, of whose existence on the map only 
 
23-!: SCROLLS 
 
 specialists in geography have any knowledge, found 
 it necessary to protect her oxen against inhuman 
 treatment on the part of the Jews, while the small 
 German states in the south, like Bavaria and Wur- 
 temberg, have in this respect exhibited a strong 
 regard for Jewish sentiment, t-efusing to entertain 
 any suggestions to restrict the religious liberty of 
 their Jewish citizens. In Bavaria, where the clericals 
 have the majo-ity, there is manifest desire to show 
 an interest in the protection of the Jewish religion. 
 Clerical members of the Bavarian diet, advocated 
 legal provision in the interest of the Orthodox minori- 
 ties of the large congregations like Munich and Nurem- 
 berg and a state subsidy for the Jewish normal school 
 at Wurzburg, an appropriation from the funds of the 
 state for teachers of Jewish religion in the public 
 schools. The government, while not ready to g''ant 
 these requests, considers it its duty to protect re- 
 ligious interests and an order which defines the mutual 
 relations of rabbi and Hazan in Zweibrucken is some- 
 what comically suggestive of the patriarchal time of 
 autocracy some eighty years ago, when old King 
 Ludwig, the deeply religious f'-iend of Lola Montez, 
 was graciously pleased to indorse a German transla- 
 tion of the Jewish prayerbook. 
 
 Even Prussia, which always maintained the tra- 
 ditional policy of not interfering with internal Jewish 
 affairs, a policy which was not carried out consist- 
 ently when the liberal movement in the synagogue 
 was to be kept down, has of late shown an interest 
 in promoting Jewish education. The new school law 
 issued July 28, 1906, which went into effect April 1, 
 
JVD A IS M IN S(,()i 235 
 
 1908, provides for state subsidy for Jewish schools. 
 This of course was not done in the interest of the 
 Jews, but rather with a desire to make a display of 
 fairness when the school system was remodeled to 
 suit the clericals of both Christian churches. In this 
 way it is rendered easier to insist on the Christian 
 character of the public schools. 
 
 In England, the liberal government of Mr. Balfour, 
 which came into power fight after the enactment of 
 the anti-alien legislation, does not seem to be unwilling 
 to accept the heritage of its conservative predecessor. 
 There can be no doubt that the movement against 
 alien immigration is chiefly directed against Russian 
 Jews. The liberal government with Mr. Gladstone 
 as home secretary, continues to carrj' out the pro- 
 visions of this law which the liberals denounced when 
 they were in the minority. Mr. Winston Churchill, 
 when appointed to a place in the cabinet, had to seek 
 re-election in North Manchester. The Jewish voters 
 of his district asked him for his views on the change 
 of anti-alien legislation. He expressed himself as 
 favoring this law and was defeated. The conserva- 
 tives used this opportunity of interpellating the 
 government on its attitude towards such a departure 
 from the policy inaugurated by the conservatives, but 
 received only evasive replies. It is evident that even 
 the liberal government is afraid of losing its popularity 
 by expressing itself in favor of the liberal treatment 
 of aliens. The Sunday closing bill, although not 
 passed, seems to have good chances and the excep- 
 tions in favor of Sabbath observing Jews are not 
 receiving very strong support. The British Jews had 
 
236 SCROLLS 
 
 the proud privilege of celebrating the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the admission of the Jews to Parliament 
 and they may indeed look back upon this half century 
 with just pride. No Parliament elected during this 
 period was without Jews, there having served thirty- 
 four members of the Jewish community in the House 
 of Commons and five were members of the House of 
 Lords. The present Parliament holds the record, 
 having four Jews in the upper house and sixteen in the 
 lower house. 
 
 Another semi-centenary which was not duly com- 
 memorated was that of the kidnapping of Edgar 
 Mortara, who as a child of six years was, by order of 
 Pope Pius IX, taken from the house of his parents in 
 Bologna and educated as a Catholic. He is a monk 
 of the Augustine Order now, and has occasionally 
 made himself heard in this country as well as in 
 Europe, blaming Providence for the crime committed 
 by Pius IX in the name of Christianity. Who knows 
 whether or not this abominable deed will be counted 
 as one item of the reasons for the beatification of the 
 first infallible Pope. The Jews of Italy have good 
 reason to look back with satisfaction on the last half 
 century, wh-on in the very Rome where such a c-rime 
 was ordered, the Jew, Ernest Nathan, was elected 
 mayor of the Eternal City. In other ways Italy 
 shows the traits of what is considered the ideal in 
 countries and in women. It is the best country for 
 the Jews from which least is to be reported. France, 
 the first country which gave to the Jews full civic and 
 political equality, now has a liberal government. 
 Separation of state and church is being carried out 
 
JUDA ISM /iV 5668 237 
 
 consistently; the monastery in the Rue de Sevres, 
 where St. Expeditus, the result of a misunderstood 
 remark on an express package, and Our Lady of Easy 
 Deliverance were worshipped, was closed without 
 precipitating any revolution. St. Expeditus, al- 
 though not recognized in the calendar of saints, may 
 have found another shrine, and there can be no doubt 
 but that the spirit which made such worship popular, 
 continues in spite of the literary activity of Father 
 Loisy, the infidel who, in spite of his excommunica- 
 tion, still considers himself a good Catholic priest. 
 Two instances in the chamber, when the brothers, 
 Joseph and Theodore Reinach, were insulted, show 
 just as did the attempt on the life of Major Dreyfus, 
 that the spirit which created the Dreyfus affair has 
 not died out. A strange confirmation of a psycholog- 
 ical observation made by the ancient rabbis is 
 presented in the case of the ensign, Benjamin Ullmo, 
 convicted of high treason. The rabbis say that 
 Jacob would not accept any consolation after the 
 supposed death of Joseph because we could not accept 
 consolation after a fictitious loss. Thus the real 
 treason of Ullmo passed by without any considerable 
 effect, while the false accusation against Dreyfus 
 shook the country for years to its foundation. Of the 
 French colonies, Tunis is of great interest in Jewish 
 affairs. The country is a protectorate, nominally 
 under a native ruler, practically a French colony. 
 The Jews there are subject to the obsolete laws of the 
 rabbinical codes and to the whims of the native 
 Tunisian tribunals. Quite a number of them are 
 men with European culture. They demand a change 
 
238 SCROLLS 
 
 but the French administration is afraid of arousing 
 the enmity of the Mohammedan element, as was the 
 case in Algeria. It seems that, warned by the effects 
 of the edict, issued by Cremieux in 1870, which gave 
 to the Jews of Algeria the rights of citizens, the 
 government will move more slowly in the case of the 
 Tunisian Jews, but a remedj' is looked for with 
 certainty. 
 
 The growth of antisemitism and particularly the 
 Dreyfus affair, seriously impeded religious progress 
 There can be no doubt that Reform was considered 
 useless from the point of view of bringing about a 
 closer union of Jews and liberal Christians and the 
 chauvinistic principles of Zionism contributed to 
 this development. If the signs of the times are read 
 aright, the prospects are beginning to look more 
 favorable just now. In Paris the "Union Liberale 
 Israelite" opened a synagog with Sunday services, 
 December 1st, 1907; the Jews of the Grand Duchy of 
 Baden, where the Orthodox won an overwhelming 
 victory at the last election to the synod, March 15, 
 1908, formed a liberal union, and so did the Jews of 
 Bavaria in Nuremberg, when a concession had to be 
 made to the Orthodox of Munich, and in May a 
 liberal union of the Jews of Germany was founded in 
 Berlin. 
 
 The great political change which has come over 
 Turkey will undoubtedly affect the prospects of 
 Zionism, although it is too early to say in which sense 
 this will be the case. The movement places on 
 record two very important events. The one is 
 rather unfavorable. A London court decided, May 
 
JUD A IS M IN 5668 239 
 
 4, that the constitution of the National Fund can not 
 be changed so as to be made exclusively applicable to 
 the acquisition of territory in Palestine. The suit 
 was occasioned by the Ito, founded in 1905, when 
 the project of acquiring land in East Africa was 
 voted down at the congress of Basle, by the majority 
 of Zionists who wanted Palestine or nothing, and the 
 administration desired to express this will in the 
 constitution. Zangwill in the nsime of the Territor- 
 ialists, opposed it in order that the National Fund 
 might be made available for any other territory, and 
 he actually won this important victory. The second 
 event of importance is the visit of David Wolffsohn 
 to St. Petersburg, July 10th, where he was received by 
 Premier Stolypin and by Iswolski, the minister of 
 justice. Considering the difficulties in securing the 
 admission of foreign Jews into Russia, this is no small 
 achievement, although Wolffsohn being a native of 
 Russia, may perhaps still be a Russian subject and 
 travel on a Russian passport. What effect this event 
 will have on the development of Zionism nobody can 
 say before an authentic report of the audience shall 
 have been given. For the present it does not seem 
 that the restrictions on Zionist propaganda have been 
 removed. The Territorialists who represent the 
 heretical wing of Zionism have made no tangible 
 progress, although an expedition is under way for the 
 purpose of exploring some country, intended to be 
 the much-desired autonomous Jewish colony. Zang- 
 will was very guarded in his address, but it seems that 
 the promised land is south of Morocco, where, if we 
 are not mistaken, the Vienna journalist, Theodore 
 
240 SCROLLS 
 
 Hertzka, in 1890, tried to establish a co-operative 
 commonwealth, which, however, failed. Mr. Zang- 
 will has a perfect right to be given the benefit of the 
 doubt until his plans are brought out distinctly before 
 the public. 
 
 Colonization in Palestine is meantime progressing, 
 and a new and valuable element has made its appear- 
 ance in a colony founded by the warlike Jews of the 
 Caucasian mountains. The old colonies, however, are 
 not beyond the stage of experiment and their success 
 is by no means assured. The report of the J. C. A. 
 shows progress in Argentina, and while this report 
 may be colored, it seems beyond any doubt that the 
 population of the colonies is increasing, as is the 
 prosperity of the older settlers. Still, as a solution of 
 the Jewish problem, it is of no consequence whether 
 since August 10, 1891, when Baron de Hirsh bought 
 the first tract of land from the Argentine republic, 
 ten to fifteen thousand Jews were settled in the 
 country or not. The same lack of success must be de- 
 plored in the attempt to establish agricultural colonies 
 in the United States. The serious strike of the 
 students of the school at Woodbine, N. J., is hardly 
 suggestive of favorable prospects, if success is to be 
 understood, not in the sense of leading some Jews 
 to agricultural pursuits, but in the sense of depleting 
 the Ghetto and counteracting the evils of the sweat- 
 shop. It is too early to decide whether the movement 
 to lead the mass of the Jewish immigrants to Galveston 
 in order to drain the crowded settlements on the 
 Atlantic seashore will have an appreciable effect. 
 The question has two sides, as the large Jewish settle- 
 
JVDA IS -M IX S66S 241 
 
 ments no doubt mean considerable political weight 
 and create avenues of support which are only possible 
 in large cities. 
 
 It is manifestly impossible and beyond the range 
 of this review to give several hundreds of titles of 
 books of Jewish interest that have been published 
 during the last year. The difficult^" is increased 
 by the fact that but few of these books are published 
 with Hebrew dates, and it can not be said which 
 books bearing the dates of 1907 should be noticed here. 
 Of general interest are only two works published 
 in that time. They are the Hebrew Dictionary,-, by 
 Ben Jehuda, of which at this writing seven parts of 
 the first volume, reaching to page 336, hsLve been 
 pubUshed. It is indeed a momentous and much- 
 needed work, covering the whole historic development 
 of the Hebrew language, and may be compared to 
 Murray's English Dictionary'. Another important 
 work in Hebrew is the Hebrew Encyclopedia, publish- 
 ed by Eisenstein, of Xew York, of which so far two 
 volumes have appeared. \\'hile ni}- name appears 
 among the editors on the title page, I unfortunately 
 was not able to do so much for it that it would be 
 self-laudation to recommend this work of the inde- 
 fatigable scholar as one of the most far-reaching 
 literary enterprises in the Jewish world. 
 
 Of general interest is the publication of the first 
 volume of a work on Maimonides by the society.' for 
 the promotion of the "science of Judaism," although 
 the publication of independent essa\-s is hardh- the thing 
 which was to be expected from the start. To the same 
 line of work belongs Xeumark's "Geschichte der 
 
242 SCROLLS 
 
 Juedischen Philosophic des Mittelalters," which goes 
 beyond the limits of its title, including, as it does, 
 Bible and Talmud. Of similar largeness of scope 
 is Martin Philippson's "Neueste Geschichte des 
 Judischen Volkes," covering a field that requires a 
 trained historian. To friends of the rabbinical 
 literature, who are unable to read the rabbinical 
 works in the original, August Wuensche's new anthol- 
 ogy of Midrashim, in German translation, of which 
 two volumes have appeared, will be welcome. They 
 are an addition to his former works along the same 
 line. The attacks made on Judaism, directly and 
 indirectly, by Christian theologians have brought out 
 quite a number of Jewish works on the essentials in 
 Judaism. We mention Abrahams' "Judaism," Gold- 
 schmidt's "Wesen des Judenthums," and Obermeier's^ 
 pungent sarcasm on modern Judaism, reviewed at 
 length in this paper. A special place must be reserved 
 for Friedrich Delitzsch's "Zur Weiterbildung de^ 
 Religion." In connection with the apology for 
 Judaism two works on the criminalty of the Jews, one 
 by von Liszt and one by Wassermann, deserve partic- 
 ular mention. To this category belongs also Abbot's 
 "Israel in Europe." We might even count as an 
 apology for Judaism Lea's "History of the Inquisi- 
 tion," of which the fourth volume has appeared, 
 although the work deals only partly with matters of 
 Jewish interest. This history of a Jewish family and, 
 indirectly, a specimen of the achievements of Jews 
 in the world of commerce, industry and letters, is 
 presented to us in the "Familie Gomperz," edited 
 from the manuscript of the lamented Prof, Kaufmann 
 ' Modernes Judentumim Morgen-und Abendlande. Vienna, 1907. 
 
JU DA IS M IN 5668 243 
 
 In- Rabbi Freudenthal. Biography and autobiog- 
 raphy are represented by the charming memoirs of 
 Julius Rodenberg and the thorough biography of 
 Berthold Auerbach by Bettelheim. It would be 
 unjust to close this review without making some 
 mention of American literary productions, of which 
 ma>' be noted as a healthful sign of promise, Raisin's 
 "Sect, Creed and Custom" and Martin Meyer's 
 "History of the City of Gaza." Finally, Shechter's 
 second volume of "Studies in Judaism" deserves 
 special mention, although it merely represents a 
 reprint of articles which have appeared in various 
 periodicals. The Jewish Publication Society here 
 has shown good judgment in collecting readable 
 essays, scattered and inaccessible to the public at 
 large. Although the witer can not entirely withhold 
 certain important differences of opinion, as his 
 objection to the presentation of Hassdismasa spiritual- 
 izing force, while it is largely a degeneracy into a 
 superstition nearing the Fetich worship, it nmst be 
 admitted that the essays are brilliantly written and 
 have the merit of originality. 
 
 To the readers, if they have followed me so far, 
 I ofTer m>- sincere apology for the length of this review, 
 and in grateful recognition of their kindness I wish 
 that with all the righteous they may be promptly 
 inscribed into the Book of Life on the first day of Rosh 
 Hashanah. 
 
THE YEAR 5669* 
 
 MANY American Jews who have forgotten that 
 there are fast days besides Yom Kippur, or who 
 do not remember them when they come around, are 
 unaware of their orthodoxy. We are hving in a time 
 when, from the most rigorous point of view in the 
 observance of the law, these fast da^-s may be ignored, 
 for the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah, 18 b.) says: In 
 times when there is neither persecution nor perfect 
 peace, the fast days may or may not be observed. 
 This expresses exactly the situation of the Jewish 
 community in the year that has just drawn to a close. 
 \Ye did not experience such persecutions as had 
 aroused us to the seriousness of our situation three and 
 four years ago, but on the other hand, our position is 
 not just what we should like it to be, and what we 
 would be entitled to, if the ideas of our noblest minds 
 had become the property' of the masses. Legal 
 restrictions in barbarous countries and pett>- social 
 discriminations in countries of freedom, with an 
 antipathy which can not always be proven by clear 
 facts, but is nevertheless a certainty in our feelings, 
 are patent to the observer of the Jewish situation 
 when he reviews the events of the year just closed. 
 
 Beginning with the United States, in the matter of 
 Antisemitism, our community was treated to such 
 an expenence in the article which former Police 
 ComiTiissioner of Xew York, Theodore Bingham, 
 published in the "North American Review" of 
 *The American Israelite, September 16, 1909. 
 
246 SCROLLS 
 
 September, 1908, giving us a reminder on the occasion 
 of the new year that still calls for introspection. 
 Bingham said that half the criminals in New York 
 are Jews, and added insult to injury by stating that 
 the Jewish criminals, in addition to being devoid of 
 all sense of morality, lack courage. The allegation 
 was so patently untrue that its author had to re- 
 tract it, but the injury is done, and it may fairly be 
 assumed that Bingham has a number of sympathizers 
 among men in leading public positions whose pre- 
 judice against the Jews seeks only for an excuse, that 
 is always found when wanted, whether borne out by 
 facts or not. Sydney Reid admitted this sentiment 
 frankly in an article, entitled "Because You Are a 
 Jew," which was published in the "Independent" 
 (New York) of November 26, a periodical which 
 showed its true colors three years ago when it published 
 an article from the venomous pen of Goldwin Smith, 
 full of invectives against the Jews, and refused to give 
 the Jewish side a hearing. It might appear like overesti- 
 mating the importance of an insignificant incident 
 when, in this connection, it is reported that Recorder 
 Mara, of Bayonne, N. J., stated at the trial of a 
 Jewish storekeeper who was accused by an Irish 
 woman of having stolen her purse , "Do not go to a 
 Jew's store," but one must remember that similar 
 sentiments are sufficiently frequent to make such a 
 little incident unfortunately rather typical. The 
 same must be said of the frequent attacks voiced in 
 Christian denominational papers and at ecclesiastic 
 gatherings. The demand of the Jews to keep Chris- 
 tian religious exercises out of public schools was 
 
JUD A IS M IN 5669 247 
 
 denounced by the "Congregationalist and Christian 
 World" as tactless and as ingratitude on the part of 
 the Jews who have "received a cordial welcome to 
 this country." At a conference of the Methodist 
 Church, South, the cause of prohibition was agitated 
 by an attack on "negroes, Jews and yellow-dog 
 democrats," although in the cause of prohibition the 
 Jews are in no way responsible for its lack of success. 
 Rev. David J. Burrell, a Presbyterian minister of 
 New York, is agitated over the popularity of the 
 Sunday theater and he knows of no stronger argu- 
 ment than an attack on the "Jewish theatrical syn- 
 dicate as responsible for that agnosticism which fills 
 the theaters and empties the churches." 
 
 Seeing such sentiments in countries where antisem- 
 itism never was a political force, we must not worden 
 at events which make us blush for our age in countries 
 where the ambitious politician finds in antisemitism a 
 smooth road to political success. 
 
 This is particularly the case in Austria and Germany 
 In Austria, where the fight between the Germans and 
 the Sla^■s is the center of public interest, antisemitism 
 is a handy weapon for all parties, and each party 
 tries to purge itself of the suspicion that it is furthering 
 the cause of the Jews. This feeling led to a bloody 
 fight between Jewish and non-Jewish fraternities of 
 the University of \'ienna, November 10. While 
 youth may be excused for its hotheadedness. it is very 
 discouraging to note like manifestations in bodies 
 which, by the nature of their official character, should 
 be free from childish demonstrations. The city 
 council of Eger passed a resolution refusing space to 
 
24S SCROLLS 
 
 Jewish merchants at the fairs. The city council 
 of Teschen even prohibited the use of the municipal 
 bathhouse to the Jews. The second case is a return 
 to medieval ecclesiastic legislation based on the 
 principle that social intercourse between Jews and 
 Christians must be prohibited, and the former goes 
 even beyond medieval ideas, for in times of the worst 
 persecutions the German federal law allowed Jews 
 free access to fairs, even in places where they had 
 no right of residence. The Austrian Reichsrat has 
 for more than twenty years been the regular theater 
 for the rudest antisemitic attacks, and this has gone 
 so far that even the liberal parties refused to allow a 
 Jew in their ranks. Camill Kuranda, speaking in 
 the Reichsrat on the commercial interests of Austria 
 in the Orient, was interrupted with the shout, "Salz- 
 gries," which is a street in Vienna in which Jewish 
 merchants are prominent. One must consider the 
 fact that Kuranda occupied a prominent position in 
 the ministry, that his father was a leading politician 
 and publicist, who nearly half a century ago was 
 elected a member of the Reichsrat by the diet of 
 Lower Austria, in order to understand how conditions 
 have deteriorated. The same sad deduction may be 
 made from a remark in the Reichsrat by the liberal 
 member, Pergelt, when during an address he was 
 interrupted by a Czech clerical, who said to him, 
 "Your party is a party of Jews," and the liberal 
 replied, "I am willing to make you a present of the 
 Jews." 
 
 Germany has exactly the same conditions, although 
 the basis of the antisemitic sentiment is not found in 
 
JUD A IS M IX 5669 249 
 
 national antagonism, but in reactionary tendencies, 
 on one hand, and in the desire of the Hberals to 
 maintain their position against conservatives, clericals 
 and socialists, on the other. There antisemitism 
 receives official encouragement. Repeatedly the 
 ciuestion, why Jews are not appointed as officers in the 
 army, has been discussed in the Reichstag. The min- 
 ister declared that there was no legal ground for such 
 discrimination, but it is, nevertheless, officially 
 tolerated and encouraged by the highest authorities. 
 The ill-treatment of the Jewish soldier, Maxim Bloch, 
 by his captain. Count Gerstorff, which led to the 
 soldier's suicide, made it manifest to the most con- 
 firmed optimist why Jews are denied their con- 
 stitutional rights in the German army. It will 
 certainly be interpreted by the antisemites as an 
 official recognition of their views when the court 
 of Bamberg decided that an antisemite had a right 
 to challenge a Jewish expert as partial. The Prussian 
 law on education, which went into effect last year, 
 discriminates against Jewish teachers more than 
 was the case before, which means a great deal, and 
 the sentiments prevailing in the teaching staff are 
 illustrated by a teacher in the night school of Berlin, 
 who compelled his pupils to write down the statement 
 that the Berlin city government is rotten because it 
 muzzles antisemites in the city council. In Breslau 
 an antisemitic member of the city council complained 
 of the relatively large number of Jewish girls in the 
 city library, a fact which is easily explained, because for 
 such positions a teachers' certificate is required and 
 Jewish girls, even when they possess such certificates, 
 
250 SCROLLS 
 
 can hardly hope to obtain emplo>ment in schools. 
 Discrimination against Jewish teachers is even com- 
 plained of in England, although in that case it is 
 difficult to ascertain the fact. France, however with 
 her boast that she was the first countr\- in Europe to 
 grant to the Jews equality and, in spite of the fact 
 that the Jews there are an insignificant minority still 
 harbors an antisemitic sentiment which as in Austria 
 is a convenient weapon in the hands of clericalism. 
 The mutilation, in Paris, of the monument of von 
 Scheurer-Kestner the noble and courageous champion 
 of Dreyfus and of Bernard Lazare, in Ximes, and 
 finally, the ovation given Gregory on the occasion of 
 the anniversary of his attempt on the life of Dreyfus, 
 show that the final settlement of the Dreyfus affair 
 and the separation of state and church have not as 
 \'e disposed of the polic\' inaugurated under clerical 
 auspices by Drumont in 1886, a sad commentary on 
 the boast of Renan, made in 1883, that the so-called 
 Jewish question had been definitely settled by France 
 in 1701. 
 
 It is rather discouraging that even in countries which 
 ha\e a very small Jewish population, and in others 
 which are still open to Jewish immigration anti- 
 Jewish sentiment is occasionalh' found. An officer 
 in Johannesburg told a native who had a disagreement 
 with a Jewish merchant from whom he had bought a 
 wagon "Next time you ought to go to a decent place 
 of business and not to a Jew-shop." Similar senti- 
 ments are occasionally expressed in the local papers of 
 South Africa, and, while not \ery important, they 
 show that in a country where the Jew is no more of 
 
JUD A IS M IN 5669 251 
 
 an alien than any other white man, and were the influx 
 of the white population should be greeted with 
 satisfaction, the Jew is still considered as an intruder 
 The same is the case in Argentina, where the Jews 
 were denounced as socialists because some of them 
 participated in a socialist parade, and even in Brazil, 
 where the Jewish population is very insignificant in 
 numbers and, as far as known, not organized into 
 congregations, a German paper denounced the 
 presidential candidate, David Mortizsohn Campista, 
 as a Jew, which is not even known to be a fact. 
 Even little Denmark, with its 3,000 Jews, in a popu- 
 lation of 2,600,000, witnessed an agitation against 
 overcrowding in the poor Jewish quarter of Copen- 
 hagen. 
 
 It would be wrong, however, to dwell on the 
 unpleasant side of last year's history without em- 
 phasizing the many features which show that we have 
 a full right to believe that humanity is, after all, 
 marching onward. Congress made an attempt to 
 prove that the pledge to secure for American citizens 
 freedom of travel in Russia was meant seriously by 
 passing a resolution (March 3) to enforce this demand, 
 and a similar resolution, introduced in the Legislature 
 of Rhode Island by Mr. Harry Cutler, shows that 
 energetic action on the part of the Jews will help to 
 remove a condition which is a disgrace, perhaps even 
 more to the government of the United States than to 
 the Jewish citizens. The appointment of Mr. Oscar 
 S. Straus as minister to Turkey, a position which he 
 had held twice before and the appearance of President 
 Taft in Temple "Rodef Shalom," of Pittsburgh, 
 
252 SCROLLS 
 
 testify to the progress made by the Jewish community 
 in this country, which will keep up with the constant 
 progress in numbers and in culture, apparent every 
 day. The difficulties placed in the way of immigrants 
 by Conmiissioner Williams, which appea*- in the large 
 number of rejections and in the arbitrary rule that 
 everv immigrant must possess $25, works hardship on 
 Jews, although it was not devised to keep them out. 
 Aside from the influence of organized labor, it was very 
 likely the vicious element among the Italians, promi- 
 nent in many cases of murder and blackmail, which 
 gave moral justification to the rigorous policy in 
 dealing with immigrants. The efforts of Jewish 
 representatives, among them that tried veteran, Simon 
 Wolf, have already been in part successful in checking 
 the zeal of Mr. Williams. 
 
 Canada shows a somewhat less satisfactory state. 
 In the province of Quebec the school question works 
 hardships on the Jews, although it is bound to be 
 solved, sooner or later, with the increasing population. 
 The present status, which divides the schools into a 
 Catholic and a Protestant system, thereby making 
 Jewish pupils appear as merely tolerated, and bars 
 Jews from serving on the school board, is bound to 
 cease as the Jewish population increases and a native 
 element grows up. The difficulty is chiefly due to the 
 clerical aspirations of the French element which, also 
 in other ways, is hostile to Jews. It would, however, 
 be unjustifiable pessimism to look upon Canada 
 otherwise than as a land of promise for the Jews. 
 
 Honors bestowed on individuals were not wanting 
 even in times of the worst persecution, but it is a mat- 
 
JU DA ISM IN 5669 253 
 
 ter of historic significance that the year 5669 wit- 
 nessed in England the first Jew enter His Majesty's 
 cabinet and thus add another Hnk to the chain of 
 progress marked by the election of David Salomons as 
 sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1835, and by the 
 entrance of Baron Lionel de Rothschild into the 
 House of Commons in 1858. Even the fact that 
 Chief Rabbi Adler, on his seventieth birthday anni- 
 versary, was decorated by the king with the royal 
 Victorian order, and was given the honorary title of 
 doctor of letters by the LTniversity of Oxford, is to be 
 recorded with satisfaction and is something to cheer 
 us up at a time when the antialien movement is con- 
 tinued with the evident desire of checking Jewish 
 immigration, and when, on the occasion of an anarch- 
 istic crime, a motion for new antialien legislation was 
 introduced in the House of Commons (February 25.) 
 The historic habit which traces every imaginable ill 
 back to the Jews, has not been absent in France this 
 year. The criminal career of Madame Steinheil, 
 which seemed to transform the most fanciful inven- 
 tions of the yellow novel into reality, was seized upon 
 by the anti-Dreyfus element as a convenient occasion 
 to return to their old game. President Faure had 
 died in the presence of Madame Steinheil, his hand 
 grasping the hair of his lady friend. This matter which 
 was suppressed at the time on account of its compromis- 
 ing effect on the President's character, was now freely 
 published. It gave at once to the anti-Dreyfus ele- 
 ment an opportunity for saying that Faure had been 
 assassinated by order of the Dreyfus syndicate because 
 he would not consent to a reopening of the case. 
 
254 SCROLLS 
 
 The persistence of that charge is rather disheartening 
 and, coupled with some minor incidents Uke the chal- 
 lenging of Jewish judges by the antisemite Delahaye 
 (June 25), taking us back to the early days of antisem- 
 itic agitation in Germany, and an attack made on a 
 Jewish official in the department of the navy, show 
 that reactionaries still figure on the efficacy of the cry, 
 "A bas les Juifs!" Considering the fickleness of the 
 French character, already observed by Julius Caesar, 
 the student of Jewish history must not treat such 
 incidents too lightly. Of the French colonies, 
 Algeria has been absolutely quiet during the past year, 
 and the days of the gutter politicians, who were 
 responsible for the riots of 1899, seem to be over for 
 the present. In Tunis, however, conditions are less 
 certain. It would not be fair to make much capital 
 of an attack on the Jews of Susa in December, as such 
 cases of disorder are apt to crop out at any time in 
 countries that have a semi-savage population chafing 
 under foreign rule, but the question of the naturali- 
 zation of the Jews, which is bound to come up sooner 
 or later, may create other serious complications, for, 
 even if the French government should not grant 
 to the Jews wholesale naturalization as it did in 
 Algeria in 1870, the Jew as an assimilative element 
 will become a political factor, while the native Arab 
 will never submit to French domination. 
 
 The political conditions in Germany did not pro- 
 duce anything remarkable beyond the discussion in 
 the Reichstag, on the unconstitutional exclusion of 
 Jews from the position of army officers (April 17-20) 
 which has been already noticed. The retirement of 
 
JU DA IS M IN 5669 25S 
 
 Chancellor von Buelow does not affect the Jews 
 directly, although indirectly it was due to the success 
 of a combination formed by the conservatives and 
 the clericals, of whom the former are open, and the 
 latter secret enemies of the Jews, and as such it is 
 rather unfavorable. His successor, von Bethman- 
 HoUweg, was — one might almost say — denounced as 
 a Jew. This was subsequently disproven, but it is to 
 be chronicled with satisfaction that as minister of the 
 interior he ordered that the annoyance of Jewish 
 guests at the seashore resort of Borkum must cease. 
 In the various German states the relation of the state 
 to Jewish religious affairs came up for action in 
 several cases. A liberal member of the Prussian diet 
 demanded an increase of the state subsidy for instruc- 
 tion in Jewish religion, which was also demanded by 
 the Union of German Congregations, but was refused. 
 Of more significance is it that a conservative member 
 in the Prussian diet told the Liberal, Gothein, who 
 succeeded the late Theodore Barth as president of 
 the society' for combatting antisemitism, that he 
 ought to sell his liberalism to his Jewish friends as 
 junk. W'hile this rudeness on the part of a man 
 who is known for his rowdy manners is of no conse- 
 quence, it does contain some truth. Developments of 
 the last thirty >ears, so impressively presented by 
 Sudermann in his "Sturmgeselle Sokrates," seem to 
 indicate that liberalism is fast waning, and that the 
 powers which are fighting for supremacy in German 
 politics are clerical conservatism on one hand and 
 radical socialism on the other. The governments are, 
 to put it mildly, not directly sympathetic to the 
 
256 SCROLLS 
 
 Jews, and the expulsion of inoffensive Galician Jews 
 who made a Hving as peddlers in Magdeburg, and an 
 agitation against foreign, mostly Galician Jews, who are 
 working in cigar factories in Offenbach, are as clearly 
 violations of international ethics as they are manifes- 
 tations of anti-Jewish sentiment. A peculiar con- 
 trast to this attitude is found in the paternal interest 
 taken by the governments of the smaller states in the 
 spiritual affairs of the Jews. The government of 
 Bavaria advertising the vacancy of the rabbineate 
 of Duerckheim, inserted the clause that the candidate 
 should belong to a "Zeitgemaess liberale Richtung," 
 a rather comical reminder of the struggles for eman- 
 cipation in 1838, when the government met the claims 
 for civic and political equality with the demand that 
 the Jews should first assimilate with western civiliza- 
 tion. In the Grand Duchy of Baden the police 
 arrested a Jewish boy for not attending the religious 
 instruction to which the father, as an orthodox, object- 
 ed on the ground of conscientious scruples. 
 
 While there is not the slighest outlook for radical 
 improvement of conditions in Austria, as long as 
 clericalism occupies such a powerful position, there is 
 hardly any reason for complaint. The government 
 evidently tries to reconcile all factions of the popula- 
 tion with occasional concessions. It appointed a Jew 
 as adviser to the minister of worship, but as usually is 
 the case, in the shape of a compromise. The ap- 
 pointee Dr. Solomon Frankfurter, who was an 
 official of the Vienna public library, was transferred 
 to the ministry "for temporary employment," and 
 thus the Jews received the compliment that like the 
 
JUDAISM IN 56 (,<) 257 
 
 Catholics and Protestants they have a representative 
 in the ministry and the clericals are spared the 
 humiliation of having Judaism put on an equal footing 
 with Catholicism, because Dr. Frankfurter is still a 
 librarian and not a ministerial councillor. There were 
 other appointments to prominent positions in the 
 postal service, in the ministries and on the bench, 
 gazetted during the last year, which show that even 
 the antisemites are satisfied with the theoretical 
 denunciation of the power of the Jews in politics. 
 The sore on the body politic of the Austrian Jews is the 
 condition of their coreligionists in Galicia. The 
 government has finally announced the summoning 
 of a commission to deliberate on the causes of the 
 terrible distress prevailing among the Galician 
 Jews, in spite of the fact that for more than forty 
 years they possessed what is the dream of the Russian 
 Jews, full political and civic equality. This is per- 
 haps an installment concession to the frequent com- 
 plaints that the rights of the Galician Jews exist only 
 on paper. Such proved to be the case in the town 
 of Hruszow. The Jews were excluded from the use 
 of the municipal forest and pasture, and the provincial 
 authorities confirmed this clearly illegal act, so that 
 it required an appeal to the supreme court to guarantee 
 the rights which the constitution vouchsafes to Jew- 
 ish citizens. The cases of kidnaping girls and taking 
 them to monasteries where the parents can not recover 
 them, in spite of the fact that such an act is a crime 
 punishable with a sentence of five years in the peni- 
 tentiary, are so frequent that it is not worth while 
 recording them. As a fitting counterpiece it may be 
 
258 SCROLLS 
 
 quoted that a Jewish boy, the son of a Jewish mother 
 and a Christian father, who was brought up as a Jew, 
 but according to the law could not declare himself a 
 Jew until he was fourteen years old, was refused this 
 permission by an official who, like most members of 
 his class, belongs to the nobility which is hand in 
 glove with the Jesuits. At the foundling asylum of 
 Bobrek, which is maintained with provincial funds, 
 Jewish children are raised as Christians, and all 
 protests thereto have been unavailing. Hungary has 
 not yet passed the new electoral bill which is to en- 
 large the franchise, but opposition to it is already 
 being voiced, for by the preference given to those who 
 know the Magyar language, the Jews will gain out 
 of all proportion to the rest of the population. There 
 is also a decision wanting in the case of the Jews of 
 Bosnia. After the annexation of this province 
 to Austria, a representative form of government was 
 promised, composed of representatives of the various 
 elements of the population grouped according to their 
 religion. Contradictory reports had it at one time 
 that Jews were to be excluded, at another that they 
 were to have one or two representatives. The matter 
 has not yet been decided , but the government has reason 
 for reconciling all elements of the population, par- 
 ticularly because the Roman Catholics are, as usual, 
 oblivious to all political considerations in furthering 
 their own interests. Thus the archbishop of Ser- 
 ajewo has repeatedly been guilty of abetting the forc- 
 ible conversion of Mohammedan girls to Christianity. 
 In Galicia, when the victims are Jews, this is an 
 easy matter, but in Bosnia, with a Mohammedan 
 
JUDAISM IN 5669 259 
 
 population which is apt to cause serious trouble, the 
 matter is not so simple. 
 
 The Talmudic motto quoted in the opening para- 
 graph of this review can be nowhere better adapted 
 than to conditions in Russia, where we have neither 
 cases of persecution, to which we have become ac- 
 customed periodically for the last twenty-eight years 
 nor any signs of progress to record. To the memorial, 
 to the council of ministers on the condition of the 
 Jews, written in 1906 and only recently published, we 
 need not refer. It is a dead letter and would not 
 have helped materially even if its mild suggestions 
 of improvement would have been carried into effect. 
 A really important document is a book on anti- 
 semitism published by Count I wan Tolstoy, the former 
 minister of education. This book shows that there 
 are even in the circles of the Russian bureaucracy 
 statesmen of wide vision and of sound information 
 Count Tolstoy, who is far removed from the morbid 
 sentimentality of his famous namesake, the novelist 
 bluntly says that restrictive laws are in one way in- 
 effective and in another directly harmful. People 
 of his caliber, however, must be very rare, to judge 
 from the real conditions which have existed in Russia 
 during the past year. The existing restrictions were 
 maintained in individual instances with unnecessary 
 rigor, and among the population there is noticeable 
 no sign of a broader conception of the right of the 
 Jews as human beings. The Jews of Bokhara who, 
 at the time of the annexation of their territory, were 
 given freedom of travel and have done a great deal 
 for the advancement of the commercial interests of 
 
260 SCROLLS 
 
 Russia in Central Asia, are now being placed on the 
 same \eye\ with other Russian Jews. The restrictions 
 on the right of residence of Jews in Kiev and other 
 places ha^■e been carried out with that inhumanity 
 against which even the antisemite, Arnold White 
 protested at one time in a conversation with Pobied- 
 noszoff, and the laws restricting the residence of 
 Jews in the rural districts have been so interpreted 
 that Jews of Kiev and of Riga are not permitted to 
 spend the summer in the resorts on the outskirts of 
 the city of their residence. Even health resorts in the 
 Causasus were closed entirely to the Jews, and only 
 after great efforts were made accessible to them under 
 the most oppressive and humiliating restrictions. 
 The percentage of Jewish students in secondary and 
 academic institutions is not only maintained but is 
 interpreted in the narrowest sense possible. Jewish 
 actors and musicians are not allowed to appear outside 
 the Pale of residence, and in this way a ^'olume could 
 be filled with regulations that remind one of the dark 
 ages. Bureaucracy occasionally assumes an attitude 
 of regret, the minister of commerce, Timiriazeff, de- 
 claring that these measures are due to the revolution- 
 ary inclinations of the Jews. How far this inter- 
 pretation goes is illustrated by a term of seven years 
 in the reformatory given to a boy of fourteen, who 
 was found guilty of being a member of the Poale 
 Zion Society. It must be admitted with satisfaction 
 that the government is at least fair in one respect. 
 It treats liberals and orthodox alike. The Orthodox 
 Congregational Union, "Keneset Israel," which was 
 founded for the purpose of maintaining the traditions 
 
JUDA ISM IN 5669 261 
 
 in the education of the youth, and which condemned 
 the sympathy of the young people for the revolution, 
 was also dissolved. The authorities are remarkably 
 sensitive when their fairness to the Jews is called into 
 question. Mr. Iwanowicki, the government rabbi of 
 Odessa, made a public statement opposing the charges 
 brought against the Jewish community, saying that 
 such charges might lead to bloody riots. The gov- 
 ernor of the city sentenced him to three days' deten- 
 tion at his home for having libeled the Russian nation 
 by suggesting that a Russian could ever be guilty of 
 an act of violence against a Jew. This impudent atti- 
 tude perhaps underlies the regular practice of the 
 Czar, who quashes the light sentences imposed on 
 such as are convicted of participation in the porgoms 
 of 1905. The conception of the courts in such cases 
 is somewhat humorously brought home to the ob- 
 server by a finding in the trial of the pogrom riotres 
 of Mariopol, where the court declared that the 
 fact whether there was a pogrom four years ago could 
 not be ascertained. It was indeed proven that the 
 thirty Jews who were killed at that time were still 
 dead, while the demolished houses had been repaired. 
 The Duma does not seem to have the courage to take 
 up the question of the Jews, and what little has been 
 discussed about Jewish affairs, is of a very hostile 
 nature. The representatives of the "Black Hundred" 
 attacked the constitutionality of the order issued by 
 Stolypin in 1907, to leave Jews who reside outside 
 of the Pale undisturbed until the question should be 
 settled by law, and other attacks were made on the 
 Jews for dodging military service and for engaging 
 
262 SCROLLS 
 
 in white slave traffic. Finland, which now has 
 autonomy, has not yet passed the promised bill on 
 the rights of the Jews, and whatever is heard con- 
 cerning the measure is rather discouraging. The 
 only measure which has become law is the prohibition 
 of Shehitah, for which a Finnish woman made propa- 
 ganda at the congress for the prevention of cruelt\' 
 to animals, in London, declaring the framers of this 
 measure to have been actuated entirely by humane 
 motives. 
 
 Rumania presents exactly the same conditions as 
 Russia. There is no improvement, and politicians 
 still carry on an agitation against the Jews. Premier 
 Bratiano, the son of the statesman who guided 
 Rumania's destinies in 1879, when Europe forced the 
 newly created state to grant her Jews equal rights, 
 gave one decision in their favor when he annulled 
 the order of expulsion from the rural communities of 
 the district of Bacau, promulgated by the local 
 prefect. It must also be recorded with some satis- 
 faction that the Jewish sufferers from the agrarian 
 riots in 1907 were awarded damages, and in this 
 respect the\- are more fortunate than their Russian 
 brothers, who were alwa\s refused damages by the 
 courts in pogrom trials. On the other hand, a govern- 
 ment chemist, who was notoriously unfair in his 
 dealings with Jewish wine merchants, obtained a 
 judgment on the plea of defamation against Jewish 
 merchants who had completely established their 
 case. The plea made by the president of the Chamber 
 of Commerce in Jassy, that the exclusion of Jews from 
 the chamber was harmful to the interests of commerce. 
 
JUD A ISM IN 5669 263 
 
 had no practical result, and the audience which the 
 Queen granted to Fraeulein Bertha Pappenheim, of 
 Frankfurt-a-M., when she visited Rumania on her 
 mission to suppress the white slave traffic, is of no con- 
 sequence. The crowned poetess, for political reasons, 
 indorses the antisemitic acts of her government, for 
 if she were to do otherwise the throne of King Charles 
 would be no more secure than is the crown of his 
 neighbor. King Peter of Servia. 
 
 Turkey and the States of the Balkans are passing 
 through a period of transition. It is a matter of 
 satisfaction that the Turkish Parliament has four 
 Jewish members, and that other Jews have obtained 
 prominent positions in the government service, but 
 it would scarcely be too pessimistic to regard develop- 
 ments with some doubt. In Greece there was an 
 attack on the Jews of Janina, therefore the Greeks 
 in Macedonia, Asia Minor and Bulgaria give good 
 cause for apprehension by their attitude toward the 
 Jews. Bulgaria occasionally furnishes us a small 
 riot and an antisemitic speech in Parliament, while 
 the newly-made King continues to display great 
 courtesy in dealing with Jews, just as in Turkey the 
 Grand Rabbi has been treated with a great deal of 
 distinction by the new Sultan and the authorities. 
 In Palestine, however, the prohibition of immigration 
 which, although promulgated in 1882, has remained a 
 dead letter, continues in spite of assurances that the 
 new constitution will not discriminate against Jews, 
 foreign or native, in any way. The developments in 
 Morocco also indicate a state of latent rebellion. 
 Occasionally expressions of good will toward the 
 
264 SCROLLS 
 
 Jews by the grand vizier and some of the governors 
 are evidently made merely for the purpose of showing 
 that Morocco is civilized. These savages are shrewd 
 enough to understand that the same governments 
 which do not treat their own Jews with fairness would 
 be willing to seize the opportunity of encroaching 
 upon the sovereignity of Morocco on behalf of human- 
 ity when Jews are mobbed. Mulai Hafid is by no 
 means sure of his throne, although the so-called 
 "Reef pirates" are giving the Spaniards a hard fight. 
 Spain, in spite of the queer fancy of Senator Pulido, 
 who wishes to repatriate all Jews of Spanish descent, 
 will not fight for the sake of the Jews, and within her 
 own boundary lines their lot would not be very 
 pleasant if Senator Pulido's fancy should ever be 
 realized, for it has already provoked a protest on the 
 clerical side. Persia is at present in the throes of 
 a crisis such that the condition of the Jews is abso- 
 lutely unascertainable. Experiences that go back 
 to the third century show, however, that with every 
 reawakening of chauvinism in Persia a persecution 
 of the Jews has occurred. 
 
 It may be a more favorable sign of the times 
 that during the last two years greater activity has 
 prevailed within the Jewish fold. Both Liberals and 
 Orthodox are trying to strengthen their position. 
 The most notable fact in America is the founding 
 of two teachers' seminaries, one in New York and 
 one in Cincinnati. The real Orthodox also display 
 considerable activity in establishing charitable and edu- 
 cational institutions, and their Talmud-torahs, par- 
 ticularly in the large cities, show great improvement. 
 
JUDAISM IN 5669 ?65 
 
 It is also a matter worth recording that the scheme 
 of holding a convention of Talmudtorah teachers was 
 at least publicly discussed. 
 
 Lord Swaythling is in earnest in his appointment of 
 an Orthodox chief rabbi, and just before retiring from 
 the presidency of the Board of Shehitah, he declared 
 he would spend $25,000 in fighting all attempts to 
 break the authority of that board. How much he 
 has actually spent is not known, but it is a fact that 
 the opposition was once again broken. In Germany 
 the attempt to establish an organization of Jewish 
 communities, the equivalent of the Protestant 
 "Landeskirche," seems definitely buried. At the last 
 convention of the Union of German Jewish Congre- 
 gations, held May 16, another draft of a bill for 
 the establishment of such an organization was finally 
 disposed of, although the opponents had the courtesy 
 to refer it to a committee together with a resolution 
 that the question be studied as to how such a union 
 might be established without interfering with the 
 autonomy of the congregations, which is equivalent 
 to the problem in the German proverb, to manu- 
 facture a knife without a blade, of which the handle 
 is missing. There does not seem to be any better 
 prospect of such a congregational union in Austria, 
 where it also has been advocated, although the 
 Austrian government is not so strongly opposed to 
 the strengthening of Jewish organizations as is the 
 Prussian. The mistake made in Austria was that the 
 promoters of this scheme wished to make it com- 
 pulsory, to which the Orthodox minority objected 
 and, under present conditions, with two antisemites 
 
266 SCROLLS 
 
 in the ministry, there is hardly any hope that the 
 government will introduce legislative measures to 
 create such an organization, which it avoided in 1890, 
 when the law on the Jewish communities, at present 
 in force, was passed. In Hungary, we find a like 
 condition. The Liberals would have a Jewish 
 organization which could speak officially in the name 
 of all the Jews of the country, but the Orthodox are 
 bitterly opposed to it. The minister of worship, 
 Count Apponyi, is a Clerical, and naturally his sym- 
 pathies are rather on the Orthodox side, and in this 
 instance quite properly. It is strange that the 
 Liberals have not learned the lesson taught by the 
 congress of 1868, which resulted in an open schism, 
 where formerly there were only parties. France is 
 more fortunate, owing to the separation of State 
 and Church, and the Jews, who, before this principle 
 became a law, also antagonized it, are now quite 
 satisfied with it. The separation seems to have made 
 for the strengthening of liberalism. The Liberal 
 community gives signs of vigorous life, while an 
 Orthodox synagog, established in the fashionable 
 quarter for the purpose of counteracting the influence 
 of the Liberal union, will have to be closed. The 
 official Jewish community, however, remains Ortho- 
 dox, and the last rabbinical convention was unable 
 to pass a vote on the most urgently needed reforms 
 of the marriage law. 
 
 It is rather to the credit of the Russian Jew that 
 the rabbinical convention held at Wilna, May 3-11, 
 showed a complete grasp of the situation in the reso- 
 lutions which it passed, and also in the fact that the 
 
JUDA ISM IN 5669 267 
 
 Hasidic element went hand in hand with their bitterest 
 opponents, the representatives of rabbinic Orthodoxy. 
 A severe crisis always has the beneficial result of 
 uniting different elements. 
 
 Zionism is passing through a great trial. It is not 
 becoming an observer to be a partisan, but even 
 Zionists will not deny the fact that the constitution 
 granted in Turkey has placed them face to face with 
 a very grave problem. The idea of autonomy for a 
 Jewish state — or by whatever name it may be called — 
 in Palestine is, as far as present indications go, with- 
 out any prospect of realization. Some Zionist leaders 
 have indeed declared that the charter was not essen- 
 tial, but if they should settle in Palestine as individuals 
 and — as has been demanded by leading Turkish 
 politicians, both Jews and Mohammedans — without 
 any political aspirations, then this movement would 
 be merely a move toward emigration into countries 
 offering favorable conditions. Not even the most 
 chauvinistic Zionist will claim that from an economic 
 point of view the present conditions in Palestine are 
 favorable to immigration, and consequently the ques- 
 tion would simply have to be judged from the political 
 point of view. That in this respect Palestine is more 
 attractive than America, South Africa, or Australia 
 can surely not be maintained. The calling of the next 
 Zionist congress to Constantinople, now abandoned, 
 carried with it the idea of a demonstration, and it will 
 be wise to await the results. 
 
 The Territorialists have profited from the em- 
 barrassment of their Zionist opponents. The scheme 
 of a settlement in Tripoli, for which, rather strangely 
 
268 SCROLLS 
 
 and perhaps for the sake of euphemism, the ancient 
 appellation of Cyrenaica was used, has been definitely 
 abandoned. The latest favorite scheme is the open- 
 ing of Mesopotamia. The Turkish resolution not to 
 complicate political difficulties by the creation of a 
 new national question applies to this scheme just as 
 well as it does to that of Palestine. It has, however 
 the advantage of greater economic promises, although 
 in such questions experience has taught us that 
 forecasters may be swayed just as well by unjustified 
 optimism as by unjustified pessimism. It is for- 
 tunate at least that for the present the conditions 
 requiring a new area of settlement are not as acute 
 as they were up to two years ago. 
 
 Considering the just complaint about the lack of 
 interest shown by Jews in literary productions, it is 
 rather remarkable to record the literature of one year. 
 To the reviewer who has to condense his observations 
 into the space of one article, this becomes impossible. 
 Even the enumeration of several hundred titles would 
 make a catalog and not a review, therefore we have to 
 limit ourselves to matters of general interest. The 
 most gratifying fact is the continuation of Ben 
 Jehuda's great dictionary, of which the first volume 
 has appeared. Another inportant announcement is 
 the revival of the "Mekize Nirdamim Society," which 
 will, as heretofore, publish old works from manu- 
 script. The influence of progressive ideas on Ortho- 
 doxy is noted with satisfaction from the regular pub- 
 lications of the Juedische Literarische Gesellschaft in 
 Frankfurt-a-M. which, while biased by apologetic 
 tendencies in some parts, has given us in its year 
 
JUD A IS M IN 5 6 6 9 269 
 
 books very valuable monographs. Of many produc- 
 tions of specific character, two may be mentioned 
 particularly. The sons of the late Prof, della Torre 
 have published the collected writings of their father 
 in two splendidly edited volumes, and Dr. M. S. 
 Zuckermandel has published a work in two volumes of 
 500 pages each on the Tosefta. Zuckermandel began 
 work on this subject nearly forty years ago, and the 
 fact that a man in advanced years is striving so hard 
 for the elucidation of what is, after all, a minor ques- 
 tion in Jewish literature, is a splendid proof of the 
 undying idealism of which Israel's history is an un- 
 surpassed example. There could be no more appro- 
 priate New Year's greeting than this fact, which as 
 the guiding thought of the past, gives assurance for 
 the future. 
 
THE YEAR 5670.* 
 
 THE year just passed was a leap year of 3S3 days, 
 and, therefore, the events to be considered in 
 this re\"iew occup\- much more space than usual. 
 In importance, however, this year has hardly left 
 anything as a lasting heritage to histon,-, unless it is 
 the fact that a Jew for the first time has been ap- 
 pointed premier. The most serious problem before 
 Jewr\-, the Russian situation, remains unaltered, 
 with a tendency towards deterioration. Reactionary- 
 movements in countries where Jews possess freedom 
 have not materially progressed, and in the internal 
 life of Judaism no change of any consequence has 
 occurred. The liberals have become somewhat more 
 active, and have stimulated the orthodox camp into 
 action on their part, but it would be unjustified 
 optimism to say that the problem of battling vrith 
 indifference or of harmonizing the ideas of the age 
 with Je\s-ish tradition has been either solved or brought 
 nearer solution. 
 
 It may be justly said, in speaking of the relation 
 of the outside work to the Jews, that to us applies 
 the Talmudic statement,^ "We are neither enjoying 
 the prosperit\" of the wicked, nor the tribulations of 
 the righteous."' 
 
 In countries where law and practice give to Jews 
 
 unrestricted equality- with their fellow-citizens, we 
 
 can, if we are sufficientK" attentive to the signs of 
 
 *The American Israelite, September 29, 1910. 
 lAbot. 4, 15. 
 
272 SCROLLS 
 
 the times, still discover that historic feeling which 
 considers the Jew an inferior. It would be unjusti- 
 fied pessimism to view such incidents with alarm, but 
 it would be conceit to pass them by with absolute 
 indifference. When Judge Cochran, of Wilmington,, 
 Delaware, says to a Jew from the bench, "This sounds 
 like a Jew trick," and when the factory hands in a 
 carpet mill in Newburg, New York, declare a strike 
 because a Jew had been given a job, these facts reveal 
 a certain mental attitude, both amongst classes as 
 amongst masses. Similarly significant are incidents 
 reported from the Transvaal, where houses are offered 
 for sale with the proviso that no Jew need apply. 
 Particularly virulent seems to be the agitation in 
 Canada, most of all in Montreal, with its large French 
 Roman Catholic population, which has received quite 
 a number of its leaders from the French monks, 
 forced to leave France on account of the law of sep- 
 aration, and who continue the agitation which was a 
 failure at home, in their new country. A depth of 
 brutality is demonstrated in the case of a Canadian 
 Catholic, who assaulted a man on the street without 
 provocation, because he thought him to be a Jew. 
 The judge sentenced the man to three months' hard 
 labor and gave him a severe lecture. Not all judges 
 seem to understand their duty so fully, for Judge 
 Forges, of St. John, N. B., who tried some thieves 
 who had sold stolen goods to a Jewish junk dealer, 
 denounced in the trial, not the thieves, but the Jews 
 who are in the habit of buying stolen goods, and in 
 this way make fortune so quickly that they can 
 afford to buy mansions. 
 
THE YEA R 561 Q ITS- 
 
 France proper seems to have overcome the anti- 
 semitic agitation. The last elections to the Chamber 
 showed an ignominious defeat of the clericals, who 
 had hoped to retrieve their fortunes. In social life 
 however, antisemitism has not died out, and it is. 
 quite significant that a number of professors of the 
 law department of the University of Paris refused to 
 vote for the re-election of M. Lyon-Caen as dean, 
 and that the students made a demonstration against 
 him. England has always been politically too ma- 
 ture, and, besides, was so imbued with the spirit of 
 freedom, dating back to medieval times, that it 
 understands that antisemitism can not be a political 
 program. The case of Hilaire Belloc, with his queer 
 notion that the mediaeval papal bulls should be 
 revived and made part of the constitution, placing 
 the Jews on the basis of outlaws, is too absurd to 
 deserve any serious attention, but that such ideas 
 should exist in free England, even exceptionally, is 
 far from gratifying. When an English minister, like 
 the Rev. Evan Morgan, preaching in Shanghai, says 
 that the Jews are a menace, such an incident must 
 not be entirely overlooked. Orthodox Christianity 
 is bound to look upon the crucifixion as the greatest 
 crime ever committed, and, consequently, the Jews 
 must suffer for it. It is not likely that the same man 
 who preached the story of the divine punishment 
 for the cry, "Crucify him!" actually meant to revive 
 the events of the Crusades, but this stock in trade 
 can not be entirely dispensed with. This review of 
 events in countries of freedom, most of which are 
 open to immigration, and some of which ought to- 
 
274 SCROLLS 
 
 welcome it from whatever part it comes, give us 
 evidence that the time is still distant when the hopes 
 of the revolutionary era of the end of the 18th century 
 will be realized. 
 
 It is natural that in countries in which remnants 
 of the feudal states survive, if not in the constitution, 
 at least in their traditions, the position of the Jew 
 is not quite satisfactory. In Germany, and particu- 
 larly in Prussia, where bureaucracy is a great power, 
 the Jew is still discriminated against in public and 
 in social life. Officials, and more so army ofificers, use 
 all possible opportunities to show that the constitu- 
 tion, as far as they are concerned, is a dead letter. 
 Significant in this respect is an incident at a con- 
 vention of German dentists. The minister of edu- 
 cation, von Studt, had been invited to attend the con- 
 vention, and replied he would do so if a Jew was 
 not elected presiding officer, for "the prominence of 
 the Jews is not looked upon with satisfaction in the 
 higher circles." When interviewed as to the truth 
 of this rumor, he, as a correct official, refused to 
 either affirm or deny it. The Kaiser, in spite of his 
 friendship for some Jews prominent in the financial 
 world, certainly spoke his mind when he declared 
 at Marienburg, August 29, that Christianitj^ and 
 German nationalism are inseparably connected. Still 
 more clearly defined was the position of the crown 
 prince, when he asserted that instead of criticising 
 our internal conditions, "we Germans should strength- 
 en our national (voelkisch) life," and he deservedly 
 earned the applause of the antisemites, whose argot 
 he adopted. The case of the Bavarian soldier, 
 
THE YEAR 5 670 275 
 
 Raphael Frank, who was injured by a Heutenant, 
 bearing the appropriate name of Rohe, is also signifi- 
 cant. The man appeared as witness against the 
 officer before a court-martial and was grossly insulted 
 by the presiding judge, who said to him, "We are 
 no cattle dealers, and we do not talk with our hands." 
 The officer was given a nominal punishment under 
 the assumption that the injuries of the man whom 
 he had ridden over were accidental. The gentry, 
 consisting of landed proprietors and former army 
 officers, who furnish the bulk of the members of the 
 conservative party in the diet of Prussia, showed their 
 spirit in one of their typical jokes. The socialist, 
 Liebknecht, had complained of the curtailing of the 
 liberty of students, and his remarks were greeted 
 with an outburst of laughter by the conservatives, 
 who shouted: "Curtailing (beschneiden) is good!" 
 The same spirit prevails in the circles of the high 
 school teachers. The administration, which is so 
 strict in matters of discipline, allows the students to 
 form fraternities for the cultivation of sport, from 
 which the Jews are excluded, and still these fraterni- 
 ties are officially recognized insofar as the principal is 
 an honorary member and the government grants 
 them subsidies. A high official in the province of 
 Posen, Councilor Herr, wrote a book entitled "Ost- 
 maerkische Staid tepolitik," in which he repeated the 
 usual cant of the pernicious influence of the Jews in 
 the Polish provinces. At the same time the Polish 
 papers do their best to boycott the Jews as an element 
 which strengthens the policy of Germanization. In 
 this case the government did not treat such an 
 
276 SCROLLS 
 
 agitation indifferently, and in one case the offender 
 was promptly transferred to a different post. More 
 serious was a case in the hospital of Britz, in the 
 province of Brandenburg. This hospital is supported 
 by the county and therefore ought to be accessible 
 to all citizens. Nevertheless the managing physician 
 refused to accept Jews as internes on the plea that 
 the other internes refuse to treat them on a basis 
 of social equality. The matter was brought up for 
 discussion at the Kreistag and in the diet. In the 
 former body the Landrat declared that there was no 
 ground for action. In the diet, where the matter was 
 discussed twice, the minister was a little more con- 
 ciliatory. He regretted the action, but declared that 
 inasmuch as the hospital administration was inde- 
 pendent in internal affairs, he could not interfere. 
 A similar case happened in Luebeck, where a Jewish 
 interne, upon his application, was engaged because 
 his name did not indicate that he was a Jew, but 
 after he had made his appearance he was told that 
 he was not wanted. 
 
 It must be said, however, that antisemitism as a 
 political program seems to be steadily losing ground. 
 To the Reichstag, at the last election, held in 1910, 17 
 antisemitic members, divided into three groups, were 
 returned. Of these seventeen seats four became 
 vacant during the last three years, and in each case 
 the antisemites were defeated. In three instances the 
 socialists were the victors, and in one case the national 
 liberals carried the election. The victory of the 
 socialist element is especially significant in a district 
 of Saxony, which formerly was represented by the 
 
THE YEARS610 277 
 
 antisemitic leader, Oswald Zimmerman. This seat, 
 now in the hands of the socialists shows that the 
 strength of the antisemites comes largely from the 
 fear of socialism, because a great many votes go to 
 the antisemites in order to defeat the socialist candi- 
 date. It is also interesting that this successful 
 socialist candidate is a former pastor, who began his 
 political career on the basis of Christian socialism, 
 even if he was not a regular member of that party. 
 Far stronger is the position of the antisemites in 
 Austria, because their national chauvinism adds 
 strength to the agitation and clericalism backs it. 
 The Bohemian socialist, Myslivec, who is a member 
 of the Reichsrat and of the city council of Prague, 
 said in the latter body that it would be best to remove 
 the tombstones of the old cemetery and the Altneu- 
 schul from their present site and to transfer them, if 
 the Jews wish to preserve them, to the new cemetery. 
 One must remember that both, the cemetery and the 
 old synagog, are amongst the most interesting sights 
 of Prague, visited by numerous tourists. The 
 rudeness of this remark and the indifference to the 
 archeological interests show how far fanaticism will 
 go. It is natural that officials, army officers and high 
 school teachers in a country with bureaucratic and 
 clerical powers in the lead will furnish occasional 
 excesses against the Jews. A tvpical instance was 
 the case of the prominent oculist. Prof. Ernst Fuchs, 
 in Vienna, who said to a Galician patient that he did 
 not treat any Jews in his private practice. The 
 matter was brought before the court, and the court 
 decided justly that the professor could not be com- 
 
SCROLLS 
 
 pelled to treat any patient outside of the clinic, and 
 while the professor could also justlj' claim, that the 
 presence of Polish Jews in his waiting room is in- 
 jurious to his practice, it is evident that the prejudice 
 rests with him and with the members of the circle 
 to which he belongs. How far antisemites in Austria 
 may go without fearing the public prosecutor, other- 
 wise so watchful in regard to excesses of the press, is 
 seen by a supposed joke in the humorous paper, 
 "Kikeriki," which said that the best anti Semitic pro- 
 gram was a pogrom. 
 
 Hungary shows more favorable conditions, owing 
 to the fact that the Jews are strong supporters of the 
 Magyar element. Antisemitic tendencies however, 
 are very strong in aristocratic circles. There is in 
 Budapest an exclusive club, called Park Club, to 
 which the former minister. Baron Daniel, belongs. 
 His wife proposed her daughter-in-law as a member, 
 and met with strong opposition, because the lady, 
 although converted to Catholicism was of Jewish 
 birth. The matter created such strong feeling that 
 the president, Count Szapari, resigned, and a number 
 of those who had protested against the election of the 
 new member seceded, and formed another exclusive 
 club, which will not allow persons of Jewish descent to 
 become members . The clergy, which has not forgot- 
 ten the loss of its privileges, uses every possible oppor- 
 tunity to antagonize the Jews. A very rude case of 
 this kind was a parade held in Maria Potsch, where a 
 young peasant dressed like a Polish Jew, and with 
 Talis and Tefillin, marched through the streets, 
 singing antisemitic songs. The government ofScially 
 
THE YEA R 567 279 
 
 does not coutenance antisemitism, but a Jew who 
 applied for a teaching position was told by an official 
 in the ministry of education, who as accident would 
 have it, is a converted Jew himself, that Jews are not 
 wanted. 
 
 The most important problem for American Jews 
 is that of immigration, and intimately connected with 
 it, the relation to the Russian question. The latter 
 was officially broached by the resolution, introduced 
 by F. B. Harrison, of the House of Representatives, 
 in which he protested against the tortures perpetrated 
 on the Russian Jews. April 29. President Taft 
 received in this connection Judge Goldfogle, and 
 promised to give the matter his attention. June 9. 
 It may be in direct connection with this fact that 
 Oscar Hammerstein, the theatrical manager, was 
 refused a passport vise when he wished to go to 
 Russia to engage a prima donna, as was reported on 
 the same day. Russia evidently wishes to show that 
 she is not afraid of public opinion, nor of any action 
 of foreign governments, in matters which she declares 
 to be her own concern, and it may be that for the 
 very same reason Mr. Oscar S. Straus, although 
 protected by the rights of a diplomat, had to demand 
 special permission to enter Russia. It would be 
 interesting to know the exact text of the indorse- 
 ment of his passport, which, when issued to a Jew 
 states the bearer's religion . Firebrands may denounce 
 our government and attack individuals for submitting 
 to these inhuman regulations, but a practical solution 
 is not so easy. One would imagine that the terrible 
 sanitary condition in Russia with a regular outbreak 
 
280 SCROLLS 
 
 of plague and cholera would be sufficient ground for 
 the government to adopt such quarantine measures 
 against Russian commerce that Russia would be 
 forced to terms. Unfortunately our labor agitation 
 and the regard of the party in power for the labor vote, 
 which distrusts both the Republican party and 
 President Taft, leads to an unfriendly attitude towards 
 immigration. Proofs of this attitude were seen in 
 two recent decisions on the immigration to Galveston, 
 and also in the action of the commission on immigra- 
 tion, although the House postponed a definite 
 decision, March 15. The passing of the Hayes bill, 
 which allowed the naturalization of Syrians, Armen- 
 ians, Asiatic Jews, not classifying them with other 
 Asiatic immigration, is a logical attitude and shows 
 fairness. May 2. But the action of Secretary 
 Nagel, in the case of thirty-four immigrants who 
 landed in Galveston on July 15, and of one hundred 
 immigrants, who landed there on August 7, is decided- 
 ly biased. The decision of the secretary rests on the 
 supposition that the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society 
 stimulates immigration and that the people who are 
 advised by this society are subsidized immigrants. 
 The matter was jubilantly taken up by the narrow- 
 minded Protestant clericals, of whom the Baptist 
 paper, "Journal and Messenger," is a typical specimen, 
 and the cry was raised that the Jews wish to evade the 
 laws, and to overrun the country with an undesirable 
 element. The statement is downright slander. Im- 
 migration is bound to continue as long as the unbear- 
 able conditions of Russia continue. Emigrants will 
 often be exploited by sharks, and therefore the bureau 
 
THE YEA i? 56 7 281 
 
 was established to give tham all the necessary infor- 
 mation and to protect them against exploitation. It 
 was also devised to turn immigration toward Galves- 
 ton, not in order to evade a supposedly stricter 
 inspection in eastern ports, but to turn immigration 
 away from the overcrowded slum districts in seaport 
 cities, to the more thinly populated west. If is im- 
 possible that anybody, desirous of being informed, 
 could misunderstand the situation, and therefore the 
 outcry against the flooding of the country with Jews 
 is gratuitous calumny. No one can charge the 
 administration of President Taft personally, with any 
 anti-Jewish bias. The presence of the President at 
 the banquet of the Independent Order B'nai B'rith at 
 the constitutional grand lodge in Washington, April 6, 
 and the addresses made by him, by ex-Secretary 
 Foster, by Speaker Cannon, and Admiral Schley, 
 clearly show that the Jew is a factor in public life, 
 and that the national leaders recognize and appreciate 
 it. A case in point is the brave action taken by Mayor 
 Gaynor of New York, when he refused to license 
 street preaching by missionaries on the East Side, 
 declaring that this would irritate the Jewish people 
 and cause trouble. This statement would have been 
 sufficient as a reason for the refusal, but the brave 
 mayor went further and declared frankly that he 
 saw no cause why the Jews should be treated like 
 heathens and savages, when their religion was as 
 good as any other. 
 
 The event alluded to in the introduction places Italy 
 in the front rank of Jewish history during the past 
 year. Giuseppe Luzzatti, who six times had held 
 
282 SCROLLS 
 
 the position of minister of finance, was on December 
 10, appointed secretary of agriculture, and in March 
 entrusted with the formation of a cabinet, whose 
 presiding officer he has been ever since. This is the 
 first case of its kind known in history. It might be 
 appropriate on this occasion to refer to the usual 
 exaggeration of the status of Jews in the Middle ages. 
 It is said that in Spain under Moslem government 
 such cases have happened before. This is not true. 
 Jews occupied during mediaeval times occasionally 
 very important positions as financial advisers and 
 here and there as literary assistants of the diplomatic 
 corps, but they were never members of a government. 
 This was excluded by the fundamental principle of 
 the mediaeval state, both in Mohammedan and in 
 Christian countries. Luzzatti is not a very strong 
 Jew in the sense of synagog affiliation. He said at 
 one time in reply to a newspaper attack, that he feels 
 only as a Jew, when he is attacked as such, and 
 occasionally in his works he showed an obtrusive 
 admiration for "the blonde Rabbi of Nazareth," the 
 blondness evidently being a necessary feature in the 
 opinion of those who wish to make Jesus an Aryan. 
 But Luzatti was never converted to Christianity 
 and is therefore in the eyes of the world, a full-fledged 
 Jew. It is quite interesting to observe that the 
 placing of a Jew at the head of a cabinet did not 
 cause a ripple in Italy, whose population, nominally 
 at least, is 99 per cent Roman Catholic. It is also 
 interesting that a Catholic committee demanded of 
 the Jewish premier protection against annoyance by 
 mobs, and that he cooly replied, "Catholics shall have 
 
THE YE A R 567 283 
 
 all the protection which the law grants to every law- 
 abiding citizen." Of lasting merit in his administra- 
 tion will be the law of compulsory education, which 
 he introduced in Parliament and which was passed in 
 spite of the clerical agitation for its defeat. By the 
 side of the overtowering importance of this appoint- 
 ment, the appointment of two Jews, Prof. Polacco 
 and Luigi Mortara, as members of the Senate, is 
 comparatively insignificant, but it is worth while 
 noting that there are at present eleven members in 
 the Italian Senate. In view of the difficulties 
 that confront Jews in diplomatic service in Christian 
 countries, the appointment of Salvatore Barzilai, as 
 ambassador to China, deserves notice. 
 
 The main political question that confronts the 
 Jews in England is the same as in America, the ques- 
 tion of immigration. The anti-alien immigration 
 law which was passed by the conservative ministry 
 as a last, though futile, attempt to maintain itself in 
 power, was inherited by the present liberal ministry, 
 but the latter seems to be quite satisfied with its 
 existence. Mr. Winston Churchill, who, during the 
 campaign, promised to work for the alteration of the 
 most oppressive features, has not kept his promise, 
 although quite recently in a letter, addressed to the 
 Board of Guardians, May 4, he repeated his promise. 
 In some respects the treatment of the immigrants is 
 worse in England than it is in America. A case in 
 which some immigrants were kept on board of ships 
 in a condition which would be a disgrace, if it were 
 allowed in a penal institution, was brought to public 
 attention and, although denied in part, discloses a 
 
284 SCROLLS 
 
 ven- unfriendly attitude toward immigration. One 
 can hardly include the audience, granted by the new 
 king to representatives Jews, June 22. in the list of 
 events that affect the condition of the Je\\s. More 
 important, however, is that j\Ir. Herbert S. Samuel, 
 to whose lot it fell to be the first Jewish member of the 
 king's cabinet, as chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 
 caster, was made postmaster general, and is at the 
 head of a department in which Sir Matthew Nathan, 
 formerly governor of Xatal, also occupies a prominent 
 position. Other important appointments include 
 Mr. Edwin S. Samuel, who was made under-secretary 
 for India, and Mr. Rufus Isaacs, subsequently 
 knighted, as solicitor general. The new king, besides 
 conferring the knighthood on Mr. Rufus Isaacs, has 
 raised three Jews, ]\Ir. Karl Aleyer, Mr. Alfred Mond, 
 and Mr. Adolph Tuck to the baronetcy, the latter 
 the son of an immigrant froiti a small town in the 
 province of Posen, and the head of the greatest art 
 publishing firm in England, is also an active member of 
 the Jewish community. Of similar importance are 
 some elections of Jews to important municipal offices, 
 like that of Jacob Moser, zealous worker in Zionist cir- 
 cles , L ord M ayor of B radf ord , of Philip Dresner, as bailie 
 of Leith, and finally the election of ele\-en Jews, 
 amongst whom Miss Nettie Adler, daughter of 
 the chief rabbi, as members of the London county 
 council. In internal life, the conference of Jewish 
 ministers, the first of its kind, held December 26-28, 
 is a matter of historic importance, inasmuch as it is 
 the first official action which shows the untenable 
 condition of the chief rabbinate with its episcopal 
 
THE YEA R 561Q 285 
 
 power, and while predictions as to the future are 
 somewhat risky, it would seem that this event will 
 inaugurate a new era, when the ofifice of chief rabbi is 
 filled by a person not possessing the prestige of the 
 present aged incumbent. 
 
 Of the Scandinavian countries, with their scanty 
 Jewish population, only Denmark came into public 
 notice during the last year through two appointments 
 Mr. Edward Brandes was for a short time minister of 
 finance, and the first Jew holding an office in the 
 cabinet, and Mr. Herman Trier was called to the 
 Landsthing, the upper House. Mr. Trier has held 
 important positions before. He was presiding officer 
 of the city council, and Speaker of the Folksthing, 
 the House of Representatives. Internal conditions 
 seem to be less satisfactory. Edward Brandes years 
 ago severed his connection with the Jewish community 
 and his brother, the famous literary critic, George 
 Brandes, has done so lately in connection with the 
 discharge of the chief rabbi of Copenhagen, whose 
 orthodoxy seems to have been too much for the 
 Jewish community. In this case, as elsewhere, 
 radicalism and orthodoxy joined hands. George 
 Brandes, while he still paid dues to the Jewish com- 
 munity, had declared repeatedly that he did not con- 
 sider himself a Jew, and in the case of the Jews of 
 Finland, although he later modified his remarks, he 
 showed an absolutely indifferent attitude when he 
 was asked to interest himself on their behalf. 
 
 The constitution of the North German Federation 
 was amended July 3, 1869, by a resolution which 
 provided that no state of the federation could make 
 
286 SCROLLS 
 
 any law discriminating against any citizen on the 
 ground of his religion. This resolution which was dir- 
 ected against Mecklenburg, which at that time still had 
 discriminating laws on its statute books, was embodied 
 in the constitution of the new empire in 1871. Al- 
 though the empire will shortly celebrate the fortieth 
 anniversary of its foundation, this constitutional 
 provision is a dead-letter, as far as appointment of 
 Jews to certain classes of official positions, and par- 
 ticularly to the army is concerned. For about thirty 
 years no Jew has attained the rank of an officer in 
 the army, and even before that time appointments 
 were merely made to the reserve corps. As Germany 
 has compulsory military service, there are about 
 l.S,000 Jews in the army, among whom, owing to 
 the fact that Jews form a very large percentage, six 
 or eight times their pro rata, in high schools, a great 
 number of volunteers are found. It is customary that 
 these volunteers, after having served their year are ad- 
 mitted to an examination which enables them to 
 obtain the rank of a lieutenant in the reserve. To 
 Jews this privilege has for the last thirty years been 
 persistently denied, with the exception of the Bavarian 
 contingent which is under separate administration. 
 The matter has been repeatedly discussed in the 
 Reichstag, and again this year, when the liberal 
 member, Gothein, who is president of the society 
 against antisemitism, quoted statistical data, showing 
 beyond any doubt that the authorities discriminated 
 against the Jews, February 10. Minister von Her- 
 ringen, who is at the head of the war department, 
 replied that there was no law barring the Jews from 
 
THE YEAR 567 287 
 
 such appointments, and that if a Jew were proposed 
 for such a position by a reginaent to which he made 
 apphcation, the emperor would, beyond any doubt, con- 
 firm him. His Excellenc\" seems to have been afraid 
 that this admission might be interpreted in the 
 sense that such a possibilit>' was Hkeh" to arise and 
 he added that in addition to other quahfications, an 
 officer must be a man who can command respect 
 (achtung-gebietende Persoenhchkeit.) A similar an- 
 swer he gave to the "Verband der Deutschen Juden," 
 who complained about a remark made by a judge in 
 the course of the trial of Captain Count Gersdorff, 
 charged with ill-treatment of a Jewish soldier. The 
 judge had said that it is well known that it never 
 has been an advantage to anybody in the arm\- to be 
 a Jew. The minister replied that the remark was 
 ill-advised, but that it ga^e him no ground for official 
 action. The first part of the answer clearly defines 
 the condition. A spontaneous satire of history' 
 brought some ver\- peculiar instances to light, which 
 showed what kind of "achtung-gebietende Persoen- 
 hchkeit" is occasionally found amongst the officers of 
 the German army. The same Count Gersdorff, who 
 drove the Jewish \-olunteer to suicide, and who would 
 certainly never have given to any Jewish soldier a 
 character that would entitle him to a commission, 
 was the hero of a ven,- unpleasant incident. His 
 wife's sister, married to another Captain, Count 
 Pfeil, sued for di\"orce and told in the court the most 
 shameful stories of the indignities, to which she had 
 been subjected by her husband. In the course of the 
 trial the fact that her sister. Countess von Gersdorff, 
 
2SS SCROLLS 
 
 had committed suicide was jnentioned. Countess 
 von Pfeil was asked the cause of her sister's suicide, 
 and said, "She committed the deed because she 
 was married to just such a scamp as m>- husband 
 is." In another case a chronique scandaleuse was 
 re\-ealed in the conduct of a general, which showed a 
 degree of moral perversity which could not even 
 remotely be told in a respectable paper. Of the 
 various branches of the German administration, it is 
 only the judiciary in which the Jews are permitted 
 to occupy positions of any consequence, but e\-en 
 there they are limited. The judge of the Alsatian 
 superior court, Levi, was proposed for appointment 
 to the federal supreme court, but was not accepted, 
 although he possesses rare qualification, both as a 
 jurist and in his social standing. His father, Simon 
 Le^•i, as a member of the Bavarian diet, urged in 
 1870 that Bavaria join the North German F~edera- 
 tion in the war against France, when the clericals who 
 were opposed to the hegemony of a Protestant state 
 opposed the motion. Levi was not appointed because 
 the supreme court must retain its exclusi\e Teutonic 
 character. The antise.mitic member of the Reichstag, 
 Werner, congratulated the minister on his stand, 
 January 20, but the latter found it advisable not to 
 acknowledge the compliment. A government, dis- 
 criminating against its own citizens at home, will not 
 go out of its way to urge their right to be treated on 
 equal footing with other Germans, when they travel 
 in Russia. The matter was discussed in the Reichstag 
 ]\Lirch 15, but will not lead to any result. Under 
 these conditions it is regrettable that at a Jewish 
 
THE YE A R 567 28Q 
 
 gathering a great tactical error was committed. The 
 Union of German Congregations held its annual 
 meeting at Breslau, October 16-18. The governor of 
 the province, von Zedlitz-Truetzschler, was present. 
 Rabbi Guttmann delivered an address on Judaism 
 and Christianity, in which he made some remarks, 
 correct in themselves, but surely apt to give offense 
 to a devout Christian, who, being an invited guest, 
 had a right to feel offended, and he gave expression 
 to his feeling in a protest against these remarks. The 
 publication of Harnack's "Christianity" about ten 
 years ago, has stimulated Jewish apologetics and pro- 
 duced some very good works. Guttmann is a very 
 sound scholar and has done very meritorious work 
 in the line of systematic theology, but if a con- 
 vention of the character of the Union of Congrega- 
 tions is to hear some theological address, it certainly 
 ought to exclude everything of a polemical nature. 
 
 The relation of state and church in Germany does 
 not come within the jurisdiction of the federal govern- 
 ment, but is reserved to the states. Therefore the 
 states deal largely with the questions of Jewish 
 congregational life. This is especially the case in the 
 small states, which have considered it their duty to 
 "educate the Jews and to raise them to a higher level 
 of citizenship" by lending the state's support to 
 communal organizations. Prussia, by far the largest 
 of the German states, has never recognized Judaism 
 as a religion entitled to the same privileges as the 
 Protestant and Catholic churches. It is in keeping 
 with this tradition that a judge in Koschmin of the 
 province of Posen wanted to force a Jew to answer 
 
290 SCROLLS 
 
 summons on Sabbath and when the Jew asked for 
 a postponement of the case, the judge said that this 
 was a Christian country, and even a Jew had to obey 
 Christian authorities. A complaint lodged with the 
 minister resulted in a declaration that this remark 
 was tactless. More serious is the treatment of 
 foreign Jews. In spite of the constitutional equality, 
 which in Prussia dates back to 1848, the government 
 considers it still its duty to discriminate against 
 foreign Jews. The matter came up before the city 
 council of Posen, where it was proven that foreign 
 Protestants coming from Poland are naturalized, 
 while to foreign Jews naturalization is persistently 
 denied. 
 
 In the years following the battle of Waterloo, the 
 German states, which had been under French rule, 
 retained the Napoleonic law of 1808, which dis- 
 criminated against Jewish merchants in credit opera- 
 tions, when the same law had been abandoned in 
 France long ago. Now there is a phenomenon of a 
 directly opposite character. France declared the 
 separation of state and church, while in Alsace, which 
 for forty years was under German administration, the 
 state still subsidizes the various churches, and upholds 
 the hierarchical constitution of the consistory, not 
 found in any other German state. The diet of 
 Alsace passed a law which redistricts the rabbinates 
 and reduces them from 40 to 31, March 19. The 
 measure became necessary because during these forty 
 years the number of Jews in Alsace has constantly 
 decreased, and particularly the congregations in the 
 villages were affected by the movement of the popu- 
 
THE YEA R 561 f) 291 
 
 lation. It was a touching tribute to the worth of a 
 man that one congregation was maintained out of 
 regard for the aged rabbi, who did not wish to change 
 his position. It is the congregation of Sennheim, of 
 which Solomon Bamberger, the son of the illustrious 
 rabbi of Wuerzburg, has been minister for many years. 
 The government wished to transfer the seat of the 
 rabbinate from this place, too, but in the diet members 
 insisted that during the lifetime of the present in- 
 cumbent the status should remain unchanged. The 
 little principality of Birkenfeld, found it also necessary 
 to amend the laws on the rights and duties of the 
 Landrabbiner, who is to guard the spiritual welfare 
 of about 500 souls. The little Duchy of Anhalt, 
 which in spite of a large legacy left to it by the late 
 Baroness Cohn-Oppenheim, is constantly losing its 
 Jewish population, issued an ordinance by which 
 pupils are excused from attending school on holydays. 
 The Grand Duchy of Baden, which is the classic 
 country for state supervision of the Jewish religion, 
 with its Oberrat and its synod, also issued detailed 
 regulations for instruction of religion in public 
 schools. The main question, however, on the rights 
 of the orthodox, who refuse to send their children to 
 the official instruction in religion, was not touched. 
 This internal strife between the orthodox and the 
 liberal elements is particularly intense and com- 
 plicated in Bavaria. The legal basis of the religious 
 organization there is still the law of 1813, which 
 recognizes only one congregation in one city. In the 
 Grand Duchy of Baden, it was the orthodox party 
 which protested against this coercion and obtained 
 
292 SCROLLS 
 
 — the first case in Germany — in 1869 a court decision 
 perrnitting the secession of the orthodox element. 
 Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Hesse followed in 
 1876. In Ba^aria the orthodox rabbis are not in 
 favor of the separation, perhaps because in the 
 majority of congregations the orthodox are in power, 
 and do not wish congregational life to be weakened 
 by the right of resignation. The matter was dis- 
 cussed in the diet. May 31, and the minister declared 
 that he would gi\'e to the question his earnest attention. 
 Meantime they are having a great deal of fun in the 
 controversies. The orthodox in Munich protested 
 against the religious instruction given in the city 
 schools, because the teacher does not cover his head. 
 The government rendered a decision which again was 
 not satisfactory to the liberal element. The latter, 
 which is in power in Nuremberg, protested against 
 the granting of the privilege of the school rooms for 
 the instruction of the children of orthodox parents, 
 who on the ground of conscientious scruples, do not 
 attend the regular instruction in religion. This 
 interest in internal affairs does not by any means 
 prove that the political situation of the Jews is any 
 better. The Bavarian government showed its desire 
 to accommodate Russia by the order demanding the 
 removal of Fabiansky's pogrom picture from the art 
 exhibition in Munich, and councillor von Schaetz 
 said to an official who complained about the disregard 
 of his constitutional rights — the details were not 
 given in the newspaper report — that constitutional 
 rights did not amount to much, for according to the 
 constitution the Jews ought to have access to all 
 
Tim I ■/•;.! R 5 (1 7 293 
 
 official positions, "but wc do not appoint them." 
 WiuMi the matter w as made piibhc, the man naturally 
 denied liaxing made this remark, and as no witness 
 was present, it can not be proN'en which of the two 
 told the truth, but Minister \on Wehner, when 
 asked wh\' Jews had nexer been appointed as teachers 
 at ("■> luuasiums, made an e\asi\e reply in the diet, 
 May 24. BaAaria, on the other hand, presents a 
 more faxorable picture in arm>' appointments, for 
 in a discussion in the diet on discrimination against 
 Jews in the aniu', June 21-2,\ the minister pointed to 
 the fact that there wee 208 Jews who held the rank 
 of officers in the Ba\-arian arm>-, most of them in 
 the medical ser\ice, but quite lateh' one, Samuel 
 Zucker, was appointed lieutenant in the reserve. 
 In the actixe force no Jew hokis such a position which, 
 howexer, ma\' be accidental, as a n\ilitar\' career, 
 under the present conditions, will hardh' appeal to a 
 Jew. Of the smaller slates in Southern Germanx', 
 the Grand Duchx' of Hesse presents a faxorable 
 situation. The i;oxernment there alxxaxs took a 
 strong- stand against actixe antisemitism, but recog- 
 nized the niox-ement silently bx' not appointing Jews 
 to positions on the bench or in the school serxice. 
 Of late this principle has been abandoned, and for 
 the lirst time a Jew, Dr. Max-, xxas appointed judge 
 in Osthofen, and a x\-oman, Frau Dr. Schapiro, in 
 Maxence, xxas gixen the first appointment on the 
 police force exer obtaineil bx' a xxonian. 
 
 The reign of Francis Joseph, xx'ho holds the record 
 in the long historx- of the house of Hapsburg-Loth- 
 rigen, both as to age and x-e<u-s of rule, is epoch- 
 
204 SCROLLS 
 
 making in Jewish history. \\'ith the exception of the 
 provisional constitution, issued in April, 184S, the 
 marvelous change in the condition of the Jews is the 
 work of his government. From the almost mediaeval 
 condition before 1848, when Jews were treated as 
 political outlaws, until now, when the\- possess full 
 equality, great progress has been made. The em- 
 peror is a very devout Catholic, but filled with a sense 
 of justice to all of his subjects, including the Jews. 
 The political situation, however, is not entirelj' 
 dependent on a monarch's personal views, and in 
 Austria clericalism is a trump card. In some respects 
 the logic of history makes itself felt. In spite of the 
 power which clericalism wields, Jews have obtained 
 high positions. There were during the last year si.\ 
 Jews appointed to high positions on the bench (Ober- 
 landesgerichtsrat). It was not until 1868, that a Jew 
 was appointed as judge, and that promotion now com- 
 parati\ely frequent was not obtained by any Jew 
 until 1899. The only position which, as it seems, is 
 still denied to the Jew, in the judicary career, is that 
 of judge of the supreme court. There, is one Jew, a 
 member of this body, but he is merely assigned to do 
 service there temporarily, being still kept on the roster 
 of the Oberlandesgericht. Another important ap- 
 pointment is that of the manufacturer and contractor, 
 Bernhard Wetzel, as member of the House of Lords. 
 In this respect Austria stands on equal footing with 
 England and Italy. Prussia has no Jew in the House 
 of Lords, while Austria has at present si.x. It is 
 strange that the ministry was attacked for this ap- 
 pointment in Parliament not by antisemites, but by 
 
THE YEAR5(>1Q 295 
 
 Jews who claimed that Wetzler had bought his honor 
 by corrupt practices, another illustration of the 
 supposed clannishness of Jews. The ministry has in 
 its midst two outspoken antisemites, and needs the 
 support of the Christian Socialist party, which is 
 bound to be antisemitic, and now more than ever, 
 because the death of the leader of the party, Karl 
 Lueger, the mayor of Vienna, March 10, seriously 
 impaired the discipline in the formerly so well organ- 
 ized body. Various scandals have come to light, 
 showing that this party, which was founded as an 
 anti-corruptionist organization, is corrupt to the core, 
 and its leaders are shameless grafters. In order to 
 paralyze the influence of these exposures, something 
 had to be done, and this something took the shape 
 of an order prohibiting peddling in Vienna. By this 
 measure, which will ruin many poor Jews, the narrow- 
 minded Vienna shopkeeper is to be kept in line. 
 The city council presided over by a mediocre man, 
 disgraced itself before the whole civilized world, by 
 ignoring the eightieth birthday of the great composer, 
 Karl Goldmark. Lueger had a better sense of pro- 
 priety, when he paid a just tribute to the memory 
 of the great tragedian, Adolph von Sonnenthal, and 
 when he spoke words of appreciation in the Jewish 
 cemetery at the funeral of Theodore vonGoldschmidt, 
 a member of the city council. The Jews have shown 
 some sound political judgment by defeating a con- 
 verted Jew who was a candidate for the city council. 
 Apostasy in still -very frequent in Vienna, although 
 it seems that the total for this year will fall below 
 that of last year. The Jewish papers published the 
 
296 SCROLLS 
 
 names of the apostates and it is strange that the 
 Socialists introduced a motion into the Reichsrat to 
 prohibit this practice as a boycott. The Reichsrat 
 is very often the theater of the most scandalous out- 
 breaks of rudeness. The Czech clerical, Wenzel 
 Mysliwec, who was provoked at the compliments 
 which Roosevelt paid to the Hungarians, called him 
 a Jew and predicted a pogrom, if the Jews did not 
 moderate their antagonism to the church. This 
 antagonism on the part of the Jews to the churcli is, 
 of course, a mere antisemitic fabrication. Austria 
 has still some mediaeval laws on her statute books, 
 among which is the prohibition of divorce for Catholics 
 The courts recognize merely the right of separation, 
 but do not allow such practically divorced Catholics 
 to remarry. A society was formed to obtain legis- 
 lation which will remedy this evil. There is another 
 agitation by Catholics on foot against the coercion 
 exercised by the school authorities to compel school 
 children to go to confession and to attend mass. 
 Jews are only remotely connected with such move- 
 ments as members of societies agitating a change in 
 the law, but it suits the policy of the clericals to make 
 the Jews responsible for anything which displeases 
 them. The talk of pogrom is an empty demonstra- 
 tion, and it must be said that the Jews on their part 
 are guilty of similar, although not so wicked, offenses, 
 a case in point being the foolish act of a Jewish 
 lawyer who sent a brief in Yiddish to the courts, and 
 carried the matter to the supreme court which decided 
 that Yiddish was not a recognized language (landesue- 
 bliche Sprache) in Austria, October 28. As always 
 
THE YEA K 5 67 297 
 
 is the case, the clerical government likes to coquet with 
 Jewish orthodoxy, and to this desire is due an order 
 of the minister of commerce, that observant Jews have 
 a right to demand that registered letters and packages 
 shall not be delivered to them on their Sabbath. 
 An important political decision was reached in the 
 province of Bukowina, where a new bill for the 
 elections to the diet provided that delegates should 
 be elected by national groups. The Jews demanded 
 to be recognized as such a national group, and the 
 government was for a time willing to grant this 
 request, until the opposition of the Jews in western 
 Austria caused the government to reconsider the 
 action, and to assign the Jewish electors to the German 
 group, with some provision that they should receive 
 proper representation, October 5. A special repre- 
 sentation of the Jews in the diet has been granted to 
 the Jewish population in the newly annexed province 
 of Bosnia, where all delegates are elected according to 
 their religious affiliation, there being groups of Moham- 
 medans, Greek — and Roman-Catholics. The Jews 
 are represented there by the chief rabbi of the Sefar- 
 dic community of Serajewo, and by an elected member, 
 who this time was also selected from the Sefardic com- 
 munity, which represents the settlers living there 
 from the time of the Turkish government. The most 
 serious problem of the Austrian Jews arises from the 
 economic condition of the Jews of Galicia. The 
 province is over-populated, lacks industrial activity, 
 and the Hasidic influence also contributes to the 
 backwardness of the population. A change of the 
 old Polish law which gave to the nobles the privilege 
 
298 SC ROLLS 
 
 of distilleries on their estates, and which was mostly 
 farrned out to Jews, will affect thousands of poor 
 people, who, losing their former business, are suddenly 
 deprived of the means of earning a living. The 
 government called a conference for September 19, to 
 consider their condition, and that of the Galician 
 Jews in general. At the time of this writing reports 
 are not at hand, but it can easily be foreseen that 
 whatever action is taken, is bound to prove inadequate. 
 The ruling party, which consists of a combination of 
 the nobles, and the Catholic clergy, is naturally 
 hostile to the Jews. A number of minor instances 
 in the practice of officials illustrates this daily. Asa 
 trifling affair, but at the same time a good illustration, 
 the fact may be quoted that the postmaster of 
 Przemysl, a city of about 50,000 inhabitants, of whom 
 perhaps the majority are Jews, refuses to sell 3-heller 
 stamps at the time of Rosh Hashanah, claiming that 
 his supply was exhausted. It is simply a ruse to 
 force the Jews to pay higher postage for their New 
 Year's cards. The utter disregard for public opinion 
 is seen in the sentence, passed by the court of Cracow 
 on Esther Frisch, who keeps a grocery in that city. 
 She was sentenced to seven days in jail January 3, 
 for having insulted the Catholic church, b}' wrapping 
 groceries in waste-paper, which had the "Sacred 
 Heart" on it, although she bought this paper legiti- 
 mately at the Jesuit Convent, which is publishing 
 the "Sacred Heart Magazine." The central authori- 
 ties seem to have been ashamed of this fact and 
 reco.mmended to the emperor the pardon of this 
 "criminal." Less fortunate was a Polish Jew who 
 
THE YE A R S6T 299 
 
 happened to meet a church procession, being hemnned 
 in by the crowd so that he could not avoid it. He 
 refused to take off his hat and had to serve a term in 
 prison for this insult to the Catholic church. In 
 Hungary the clerical party was disappointed in its 
 hope of carrying the election to the diet with the 
 aid of extreme nationalists. The cabinet of Count 
 Khuen-Hedervary is now firmly established and the 
 new diet has eleven Jewish members, a much smaller 
 number than the last diet, which counted twenty-three 
 Jews. The premier was interviewed during the 
 campaign, on his attitude to the antisemitic move- 
 ment inaugurated by the Catholic party, and he gave 
 the perfectly correct reply, that to answer this 
 question would be an insult, since he had taken the 
 oath of office, to obey the constitution. In one 
 respect, however, even the present cabinet shows dis- 
 crimination against the Jews by the persecution of Gal- 
 ician Jews, who seem to be quite numerous in the 
 northern part of the country. It may be, however, 
 due to the consideration that the increase of this 
 population is retarding the process of amalgamation 
 of the Jews with the Magyar element. A rather 
 curious feature of this policy is the refusal of the 
 government to allow the organization of Zionist 
 societies. More important is an incident in municipal 
 life. In the city of Satoralya-Ujhely, the Jew, Dr. 
 Solomon Reicher, was elected mayor but the clergy 
 started such a fierce agitation that he was forced to 
 resign. 
 
 Belgium has an insignificant Jewish population 
 and in spite of the predominance of the clerical ele- 
 
300 SCROLLS 
 
 ment, conditions seem favorable. There is an organi- 
 zation of the Jews on the basis of the French consistor- 
 ial organization, and the new king, upon his ascension 
 to the throne received a committee of the Jews in the 
 same way he granted audience to other bodies. The 
 young king of Portugal on his visit to London, 
 granted an audience to the representatives of the 
 Spanish and Portuguesejewish congregations, Nov. 14, 
 who greeted him as a sovereign of the country from 
 which they originally came, when the congregation 
 was organized 250 years ago. The same demon- 
 stration was made when King Alphonse of Spain 
 visited London five years ago. At that time the 
 Zionists were quite indignant at this act of self-humili- 
 ation, as they called it, in which two of their prom- 
 inent members, chief rabbi Gaster, and Sir Francis 
 H. Montefiore, participated. The latter was hissed 
 in the Congress of Basel, and the former preferred not 
 to appear on the platform. The whole thing is an 
 innocent pastime, and King Manuel has harder 
 problems to deal with than the question of such 
 courtesies, although he may indeed be impressed with 
 the idea that, had his country adopted the broad 
 policy of England, he would not be facing such a 
 crisis now. A really important event is presented in 
 Spain, where for the first ti.me in history, a Jew, the 
 banker, Gustave Bauer, was elected member of the 
 Cortes, and while the number of Jews in Spain is by 
 far too insignificant to figure in the political life of the 
 nation, the law which granted freedom of public wor- 
 ship is a historic event in Judaism too. Another 
 interesting event is the granting of a subsidy for 
 
THE YEARZblO 301 
 
 Jewish religious instruction in Greece. The number 
 of Jews in that country is still insignificant, with the 
 exception of the island of Corfu. The Greeks were 
 always hostile to the Jews from the time of Alexander 
 the Great, and only under Turkish, Venetian, and 
 Norman rule, were Jewish communities established 
 in Greece, many of whom emigrated when Greece be- 
 came independent. King George stated to a Jewish 
 committee in Corfu, in 1879, that he would consider 
 it a happy event if he were to see the first Jew as a 
 member of the Parliament. That time seems far 
 distant, judging from the spirit shown by the Greek 
 population. Last year came near furnishing us with 
 a repetition of the events of 1891 in Corfu, when in 
 the island of Crete a blood-accusation was spread. 
 It was fortunate that the girl, supposed to have been 
 murdered, turned up in due time. 
 
 The change from an Oriental into a somewhat 
 Occidental form of government was certainly a mis- 
 fortune for the Jews of Rumania. Their martyrdom 
 began from the moment when they passed under the 
 rule of the socalled "French of the Orient." The 
 most serious feature of their condition is that it 
 shows, how even an international intervention is useless 
 unless it is backed by the force of arms. The Berlin 
 Congress adopted, in 1878, as part of the conditions 
 under which Rumania should be granted independence, 
 the abolition of all restrictions, based on religious be- 
 lief. Rumania submitted, but, declaring the Jews 
 to be foreigners, including those who were born in 
 the country and had served in the army, she treated 
 them as outlaws. One must consider it an act of mock- 
 
302 SCROLLS 
 
 ery , when during the past year fifteen Jews received their 
 naturalization, which makes a total of 200 naturaliza- 
 tions granted since 1878. Figuring that these 200 
 naturalizations affect 1,000 souls, it means that 99.75 
 percent of the Jewish population are treated as 
 foreigners, without a home of their own. This act 
 of grace to the fifteen parties was perhaps devised as an 
 offset to another ruinous measure directed against the 
 Jewish population. A new law grants state subsi- 
 dies to manufacturers who employ domestic labor to 
 the extent of 80 per cent, calculated on the basis of 
 wages paid. It means that Jews are excluded from 
 working in factories and even from holding clerical 
 positions in a manufacturing establishment. The 
 protest of the Jews was unavailing. By the side of 
 this measure the petty persecutions continue. Expul- 
 sions from villages and arbitrary acts of officials are 
 of daily occurrence. The brutal act of a high army 
 officer, who slapped a man's face in a street car, 
 because he believed him to be a Jew, shows the 
 spirit prevalent in the upper classes. It is interesting 
 that with all the anti-foreign agitation, one of the 
 leaders of the movement. Professor Jorga, is himself 
 the son of a Bulgarian father and a Greek mother, 
 and the grandson of a Russian. This Jorga inter- 
 pellated Premier Bratiano, the son of the statesman 
 who invented the plan of frustrating the Berlin treaty, 
 on the question of a Jewish congress, which was to be 
 held in Rumania. The premier replied that Rumania 
 was a free country, where everybody had the right of 
 public assembly but this privilege does not include 
 foreigners, February 4. The premier happened to be: 
 
THE YEA R 5670 303 
 
 indignant, because some papers which employ Jews 
 on their staff, had exposed the graft of which he had 
 been guilty. The king himself is powerless, and he 
 undoubtedly spoke the truth, when he said in an 
 interview granted to a correspondent of the "Neue 
 Freie Presse," May 5, that no statesman could carry 
 out a policy against the will of the country. The 
 country, in this case means the landed proprietors, 
 and those affiliated with them, who, although a small 
 minority, manage the affairs of the country. 
 
 The sore spot on the Jewish body politic is the 
 condition in Russia, which was best characterized 
 in the Duma March 5 by the Jewish member, Fried- 
 man, when he said that, aside from the absence of 
 pogroms, the condition of the Jew is far worse than it 
 was before the constitution had been promulgated. 
 An insight into the general condition of the country 
 is gained through the fact that during the year 1909, 
 1,435 death sentences were passed in the country, 
 and the number of known executions reaches 549. 
 There are in all likelihood more, because the govern- 
 ment does not publish any statistics of them and the 
 statistics gathered from newspaper reports are natur- 
 ally incomplete. Reaction is in full swing. The 
 Czar received a Jewish deputation in Odessa, and 
 replied to their adress of homage in a few cold words, 
 October 20. His own sentiment is clearly demon- 
 strated by the honor he bestowed on Prince Meshts- 
 cherski, the editor of the antisemitic paper, "Grazh- 
 danin," on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary, 
 when he handed him his portrait with the autographic 
 dedication, "To the indefatigable worker for the preser- 
 
304 SCROLLS 
 
 \ation of the Russian empire." By the side of these 
 official facts, of which there is documentary evidence, 
 the rumors of proposed reforms mean A"tr>- httle. One 
 of these may be mentioned because it \\'as exploded in 
 time. Various papers reported that Premier Stolypin 
 received a Jewish committee in the government of 
 Kovno and promised an improvement of the political 
 condition of the Jews, pro\ided the latter would 
 change their political attitude. The fact underhing 
 this report was, upon later investigation, pro^■ed to be 
 this: Stolypin spent the summer on his estate, near 
 Lida, Government of Kovno. One Sunday as he 
 was going to church, the people greeted him, and he, 
 like the squire of the good, olden times, had a few kind 
 words for those whom he knew. Amongst others, he 
 hailed a Jewish teamster, Hirsch Goldberg, with the 
 humorous remark, "W'ell, Hirsch, how is the smuggling 
 trade, are you still at it?" Hirsch fell in with the 
 joke and said: "Thanks, Your Excellency; fine!" 
 whereupon Stohpin said: "Next time you had better 
 be careful when you speak to the premier." F2ver>'- 
 body took this as a joke, but poor Hirsch was to learn 
 the serious part of it, for, a few months later, he 
 received an order of expulsion from the border 
 district as a professional smuggler. His real attitude 
 Stolypin showed in recei^'ing a committee of the 
 rabbinical conference March 29, which, convened by 
 the government, met in St. Petersburg March 15 to 
 April 17. Although the committee was received in 
 audience by appointment, they had to wait for nearly 
 two hours before they were admitted, and in reph' to 
 their request for an impro\'ement of the condition 
 
THE YEA R 561 305 
 
 of the Jews Stolypin said that he could not make any 
 definite promises, but improvement would have to be 
 slow, because the Jews took a disproportionately 
 large part in the revolution, and before their condition 
 can be bettered they must show their loyalty to the 
 Czar and the country. The convention itself was 
 quite a remarkable event, inasmuch as it comprised 
 all shades of Russian Jews, from the Hasidic rabbi, 
 Schneirsohn, to the very liberal lawyers, who rep- 
 resented the St. Petersburg community. Whether it 
 will have any effect remains to be seen. The same 
 government which treats the Jews as a class regardless 
 of their differences of education and political standing 
 demands that the Jews should amalgamate with the 
 Russian population. The commissioner of the govern- 
 ment at the conference objected to the use of the term 
 "Obschtchina" (community), and demanded that 
 the term "Prichod" (congregation) should be used. 
 Similar motives inspired the various actions taken 
 against Zionist societies. The Senate decided that 
 such societies are bound to widen the breach between 
 Jews and non-Jews, but, on the other hand, this breach 
 is widened by the same authorities when some of them 
 will not allow Jewish students to coach Christian 
 students, and, in one instance, a principal of a gym- 
 nasium in the Government of Kieff threatened a 
 Christian student with expulsion for tutoring a 
 Jewish family. A hot-bed of antisemitism is Odessa, 
 where the real leader of the government is the city 
 governor, Tolmatchoff. The most typical Russian 
 case was the annullment of the election of the lawyer, 
 Arcadius Brodski, October 11, on the ground that 
 
306 SCROLLS 
 
 his real name was Aaron Brodski. He was fined 100 
 rubles for assuming a false name and the Senate 
 refused to publish his election, so that he preferred to 
 resign his seat December 12. The City Council, not 
 being able to defeat the Jewish candidate, passed a 
 resolution to petition the Emperor to withdraw the 
 electoral franchise from the Jews. This TolmatchofF 
 is really ingenious in his inventions of measures of 
 persecution. At one time he demanded that ail 
 synagogs must have the imperial crown with the cross 
 on it over their portals, so that they can use it for 
 illumination on national holidays. In another in- 
 stance he considered it a disgrace to see a cross in a 
 Jewish place. A Jewish stone mason, who had made 
 monuments for Christians, was, upon the order of the 
 Governor, charged with violating the law which 
 prohibits the dealing in articles of Christian worship 
 by Jews, and, while Tolmatchoff wishes a cross over 
 the entrance of a synagog, the Governor of Smolensk 
 orders the synagog to be torn down, because it had a 
 dome resembling that of the Christian churches. 
 With great difficulty the congregation obtained from 
 the Minister a repeal of the order, under the promise 
 that the roof would be altered. The contradictory 
 nature of the government's policy appears in many 
 ways. One one hand, police and administrative 
 authorities prohibit the use of Yiddish in literary 
 societies; on the other hand, some authorities will not 
 allow Jews to beco,me Christians. The Lutheran con- 
 sistory received an order not to convert any Jews, and 
 a similar order was issued to the Armenian patriarch, 
 for, if Jews are to convert, they must convert to the 
 
THE YEAR561Q 307' 
 
 Greek Catholic Church. Reactionaries find the Jews 
 a convenient scapegoat. The great hero of the 
 Japanese War, Alexis Kuropatkin, in a recently 
 published book, "Russia for the Russians," pleads for 
 the exclusion of the Jews from the army. Unfortu- 
 nately we can not say that this hostile sentiment is 
 confined to the bureaucratic circles. The sessions 
 of the Duma present often a very sad spectacle. 
 Whatever legislative measures were taken for the 
 Jews were hostile. A bill, which introduced auto- 
 nomous county administration in the territory of the 
 former Kingdom of Poland, excluded the. Jews from 
 representation in the elections for theZemstvos, June 
 10. A committee on this bill went even one step 
 further by introducing a report to exclude the Jews 
 from holding offices under the Zemstvos, a motion 
 which was directed chiefly against Jewish physicians 
 in county hospitals. This report failed to receive the 
 necessary majority because even Nationalists declared 
 it impossible to dispense with Jewish physicians, 
 June 6. The same hostile spirit was manifest in a 
 debate on the Sunday law, which was made so drastic 
 in order to deprive the Jews of the very poor suste- 
 ance which they obtain from shopkeeping in the towns 
 of the Pale. In the course of this debate. May 13-14, 
 Nikolski, the spokesman of the cadets, said: "If 
 the Jew keeps his religion, he is denounced; if he is a 
 liberal in religion, he is denounced again." A motion 
 of the most rabid antisemite, Markoff, who wanted 
 to exclude the Jews from holding office as Justices of 
 the Peace, failed to pass, because the conservative 
 Octobrists declared that the Jewish question must be 
 
308 SCROLLS 
 
 treated separately. This, however, does not mean 
 that the Jews rnay hold such offices. It merely means 
 that the law does not give or deny them the right 
 expressly. In the same way the Duma refused to pass 
 an amendment by the Jewish member, Friedman, to 
 a new building code. The code provides that persons 
 not having the right of residence in a city can not 
 build any houses there. Friedman amended this 
 provision so that it should not apply to Jews, but his 
 motion was lost, April 16. Another motion to recog- 
 nize Yiddish as a language in the schools of the Pale 
 in the sa.me way in which the languages of other 
 nationalities are recognized failed to pass. The 
 strangest thing is that the government, with all the 
 complaints against the Jews as being an economic evil 
 discourages all attempts at taking up agriculture. 
 The few colonies that exist from the time of Nicholas I, 
 are in every possible way persecuted by the authori- 
 ties. They are not permitted to participate in bids for 
 the rent of government land, and even that land which 
 they hold, exceptionally under special grants as 
 soldiers who fought in the Japanese War, is taken 
 from them upon the expiration of their lease. The 
 worst persecution of all, however, exists in the school 
 system. Minister Schwartz is prolific in devising 
 laws, discriminating against the Jews. The worst 
 of all is the recent enactment that private schools 
 must keep within the percent limit. The condition is 
 this: When the restrictions on school attendance 
 were introduced in 1887, Jews would send their 
 children to existing private schools, or establish 
 new Jewish schools. The minister is afraid that this 
 
THE YE A R 567 309 
 
 may lead to an evasion of the law, although onlj' the 
 prosperous classes could avail themselves of such an 
 opportunity. He therefore declared that all private 
 schools, if they wish to share the privileges of public 
 schools in recognition at the universities, must 
 introduce the percent limit. In another order he 
 applied a strict limit to commercial schools, which is 
 a greater hardship still, for, while in the case of the 
 high schools, the objection would be that the Jews 
 would in time form too large a percentage in the 
 universities and in the professions, there can be no 
 such objections to commercial schools which prepare 
 their pupils for practical life. Another order demand- 
 ed that within three years the percent limit must be 
 strictly enforced. By the side of these rulings some 
 other measures, oppressive as they are, sink into 
 comparative insignificance. Thus the privilege grant- 
 ed in 1905 to the children of soldiers who had fought 
 in the war, admitting them regardless of the percent 
 limit is now withdrawn. In excursions of students 
 Jews can not take part, unless the minister grants a 
 special permit. These constant rules and orders 
 and interpretations lead to such confusion that the 
 courts, including the Senate, are perplexed in giving 
 decisions. It is perhaps due to this condition that 
 the bill declaring the abrogation of the so-called Pale, 
 which was introduced June 13 by the Jewish member, 
 Fried.man, in' the Duma, received 166 signatures, 
 amongst them even from members of the reactionary 
 party. A type of this confusion is found in a decla- 
 ration of the Senate on the question, whether Jews, 
 living outside of the Pale, have a right to spend the 
 
310 SCROLLS 
 
 summer in a village. This question was brought 
 before the Senate by the Minister of the Interior, 
 who thereby declared that he did not know the law 
 on that point. The Senate began to discuss this 
 question April 1, and on May 20, having devoted 
 four sessions to the discussion, declared itself incom- 
 petent to solve it. Another proof of the confusion is 
 a recent ruling of the Senate that the police may 
 demand from every Jewish merchant living outside 
 of the Pale documentary evidence that he did not 
 exhaust the time of six months, which the law allows 
 him every year. That means that a commercial 
 traveler must present, upon coming to St. Petersburg, 
 a certified list of the towns which he visited and the 
 time he spent in each town. The enforcement of the 
 law on the restriction of residence was particularly 
 severe in Kieff , and the daily press published for a time 
 almost daily stories of horrors. American authorities 
 were even approached with a request to interfere in 
 this matter. Unfortunately — one almost feels com- 
 pelled to say — the incident was not as bad as rumor 
 had it. Kieff is situated within the Pale, but the city 
 itself is not open to Jews. In spite of this fact, a large 
 number of Jews reside there. Some on the ground 
 of exceptional privilege, others in definance of the law, 
 and in most instances with the toleration of the police 
 A liberal member in the Duma said properly: "The 
 restrictive laws serve two purposes; one to provide 
 the police with graft by being violated, and another 
 giving them a chance to rise as a reward for their 
 zeal in enforcing them." Kieff had a large number of 
 these cases, and some active official began to show his 
 patriotism by ordering expulsions, which began May 
 
THE YEARSdIO 311 
 
 14. A condition which was far worse was a case in 
 Moscow, in which a man had the right of residence as 
 a clerk in a large business house and his wife had the 
 right of residence as a midwife, and yet the police 
 ordered the expulsion of their three children, who 
 were of the ages of 4 to 10 years. In this case the 
 Senate reversed the decision of the police, April 8. 
 One can easily understand what such complicated 
 laws on the most primitive rights of human beings 
 mean for the individual. They are now being carried 
 out with a barbarity that baffles description, and the 
 autonomous bodies like city councils and Zemstvos 
 fall in line, the most ingenious and disgraceful decis- 
 ion being that of a mayor who introduced a percent 
 limit applying to Jewish cattle of which only a certain 
 percentage is permitted on the village pasture. The 
 Russian statesmen seem to derive satisfaction from the 
 fact that in Finland the condition of the Jews is still 
 worse. Suvoroff published a book, which was also 
 translated into German, in which he attacks the 
 Finns for demanding autonomy when they oppress 
 the Jews far more than does Russia. It is true that 
 Finnish law maintains old Swedish regulations dating 
 from the eighteenth century, which exclude the Jews 
 entirely. The Finnish diet adopted a more liberal 
 measure at its last session, November 17-18. The 
 bill, however, could not be made a law, because the 
 diet was dissolved on the following day. A new bill 
 in preparation already becomes characteristic by the 
 title, "On Jews and Gypsies." 
 
 The introduction of a parliamentary form of govern- 
 ment in Persia and the changes in Morocco have not 
 in the slightest way improved the condition of the 
 
312 SCROLLS 
 
 Jews. Their status continues there, just exactly as 
 it was in the era of the Crusades in Europe. One 
 official, in order to blackmail the Jews, makes a num- 
 ber of them prisoners and forces them to work on 
 Rosh Hashanah. Another who demands of the 
 Jewish butchers a special tribute in the shape of meat 
 for his hounds, punishes those who refuse to furnish 
 what he demands, by imprisoning them on Yom Kip- 
 pur. The only remedy lies with representatives of the 
 Alliance Israelite, who are appealed to in such cases. 
 They either go directly to the grand vizier or report 
 their complaints to headquarters in Paris, whereupon 
 the French ambassador is requested to use his good 
 offices with the sultan, and the result is a word of 
 assurance that the case will be investigated and the 
 guilty official punished, but conditions remain just 
 as they were. Exactly the same is the condition in 
 Persia. The central government is powerless, and the 
 governors in the provinces deal with their Jewish 
 subjects as they please, and even if occasionally they 
 should try to prevent murder and pillage, they are 
 afraid of the priests, who preach violence. The last 
 year brought us a brutal case of murder in Sannah 
 April 30, where a rich Jew was cruelly murdered under 
 the charge that he held illicit relations with a Moham- 
 medan woman, while the actual cause was that he 
 refused to yield to blackmail. Another case of pillage, 
 which assumed very grave importance, occurred in 
 Hamadan, May 9. 
 
 The ideals of the Zionists seem to be just as remote 
 from realization as ever. Nasim Bey, the leader of 
 the Young Turks, declared himself strongly against 
 Zionism, and the government is not by any means 
 
THE YEA R 5 67 313 
 
 more favorable to it. There is, ho\ve\-er, a more 
 serious condition revealed by the fact that the prom- 
 ised impro^'ements are slow to come. Neither roads, 
 nor harbor improvements, nor water works, nor a 
 clearly defined right of acquiring real estate has been 
 promulgated. The only event which may be chron- 
 icled as an improvement is a grant from public funds 
 to a Jewish hospital. On the other hand, police 
 excesses in Salonica, and in Adrianople, June 20, 
 show that the Turkish official can no more be trusted 
 than his colleague in Persia. The prohibition of 
 immigration to Palestine continues in force and, while 
 it is easily evaded, there are far more serious obstacles 
 in the growing hostility of the Arabic peasants, from 
 which the Jewish colonists are suffering severely. An 
 important event in the way of progress was the 
 election of three Jews to the city council of Jerusalem, 
 so that for the first time in 1,840 years Jews have again 
 a voice in the administration of their ancient capital. 
 In this connection Tunis may be mentioned, although 
 it is practically a French province. After years of 
 controversy the French government adopted one 
 progressive measure. The law of April 15 allows the 
 naturalization of Jews who have served in the French 
 army. In this way the arbitrary rule of Mohamme- 
 dan courts, to which Jews were subjected in dealing 
 with Mohammedans, and the inadequate rabbinical 
 law, to which they had to have recourse in their 
 internal affeirs, are replaced by a more modern 
 condition. 
 
 The hopes placed in the possibilities of Argentina 
 by Baron de Hirsch have by no means been realized. 
 The last report of the lea gives us the number of 
 
314 SCROLLS 
 
 Jews in the Argentina colonies as 13,000, and the 
 number of parties settled last year as 297. At this 
 rate it would take a hundred years before the popu- 
 lation would reach 100,000, and, therefore, the only 
 tangible result of the large benefactions of the great 
 philanthropist is to have opened up a new country 
 and shown the way for newcomers. A solution of the 
 problem of emigration the country certainly is not. 
 It is unfortunate that a hostile attitude is noticeable 
 in the native population. A demonstration of some 
 anarchists, on the occasion of the centenary of 
 Argentina's independence, against the "Russos," 
 was probably inspired by anti-Jewish feelings, and so 
 in all likelihood the prohibition of the Heders, although 
 this is claimed to be necessary as an educational 
 measure. Ill-foreboding are also some cases of 
 assassination in the colonies. A more promising land 
 seems to be South Africa, which recently followed Can- 
 ada and Australia by forming a federation. The 
 number of Jews who were called to municipal honors- 
 is quite gratifying, most prominent amongst them, 
 the election of Harry Graumann as mayor of Johannes- 
 burg, an impressive piece of news when it is considered 
 that only ten years ago he could not even vote at a 
 municipal election. 
 
 Zionism has certainly had a bad year. This is 
 stated from the point of view of the calm historic 
 observer, without the slighest desire to greet the fact 
 as welcome. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
 convention of Kattowitz was celebrated on November 
 7, but even an enthusiast will not say that the rapid 
 progress made since that time has not been followed 
 
THE YEA R 5(,1 Q 315 
 
 by signs of decay. The congress held in Hamburg, 
 December 26-31, was certainly a failure. If for no 
 reason then because it failed to elect its ofificers. The 
 subsequent split in the English Zionist Federation, 
 July 17, and the resignation of President Dreyfus, who 
 plainly stated that the movement did not interest 
 him any more, is another serious blow. The Berlin 
 conference of Zionist leaders, June 27-28, with the 
 subsequent announcement of Nordau and Warburg 
 that they could not accept office, shows a state of 
 decomposition. The political situation in Turkey 
 and the economic situation in Palestine have not 
 improved in the sense in which Zionists must wish 
 it. Mr. Zangwill, in his brilliant article in the "Fort- 
 nightly Review," pleads for Western Austrailia and it 
 must be recognized that if the Zionists are right in 
 their assertion, that the solution of the Jewish prob- 
 lem can only be worked out by the creation of a 
 Jewish state, then Zangwill is right by calling atten- 
 tion to the fact that Palestine is, for the present at 
 least, an impossibility, and Zionists must look else- 
 where. This, of course, does not in any way prove 
 that Territorialists would be more successful than the 
 lea was in Argentina, although they have a perfect 
 right to ask that they be given a chance. Similarly 
 undecided are religious conditions. In the forefront 
 of the movement stands the Jewish Religious Union of 
 England, with Mr. Montefiore at its head. The 
 success of this movement is not merely emphasized by 
 the acquisition of a synagog building, but still more 
 by the effect which it has had on other organiztions. 
 The old Reform congregation, the West London 
 
316 SCROLLS 
 
 Synagog of British Jews, appointed a committee to 
 consider the introduction of English into the services, 
 and similar reforms. Even the Orthodox United 
 Synagog introduced Sabbath afternoon services with 
 English prayers, sermons and choral singing. Ham- 
 burg, the pioneer Reform congregation, has gone a 
 step further and introduced Sunday lectures, although 
 with an emphatic protestation against the idea that 
 these lectures are services. Germany held a con- 
 vention of the Liberal Union at Nuremberg, and 
 Judaism was represented at the congress of liberal 
 religions at Berlin. Of the French Liberal Union 
 nothing has been heard, and the very interesting 
 Russian movement seems to be entirely abandoned. 
 The teacher of Jewish religion in St. Petersburg high 
 schools, Dr. Nahum Pereferkovitch, published an 
 appeal in a St. Petersburg daily, September 26, to 
 form a liberal congregation, but nothing came of it. 
 America had during the year past two meetings of the 
 Central Conference of American Rabbis, The first 
 gave orthodoxy a good opportunity for denouncing the 
 liberal wing as infidels, but aside from the exchange 
 of such courtesies, communal life has not shown any 
 decided change. 
 
 Of about three hundred new books that came 
 within the range of the observation of the reviewer 
 during the last year, only a few can be mentioned by 
 title, and none in any way adequately discussed. 
 Attention may be called to the publication of an 
 encyclopedia on Islam, and to the rapid progress of 
 the Catholic Encyclopedia, while the self-sacrificing 
 zeal of J. D. Eisenstein resulted in the publishing of 
 
THE YEA i? 5670 317 
 
 the fourth volume of his Hebrew encyclopedia, and 
 Ben Jehuda's general Hebrew dictionary has pro- 
 gressed to the letter "Dalet," but the indefatigable 
 zeal of Isidore Singer does not seem to have succeeded 
 in bringing out the meritorious work of an anthology 
 of the whole Jewish literature in English. To 
 attempt an outline of literary works that have 
 appeared is a task for which the space of a newspaper 
 would not suffice. In illustrating this point it may 
 be said that the works comprise a range of twenty- 
 five centuries. S. Daiches gave us an interesting 
 investigation of the Jews in Babylonia, and Ludwig 
 Geiger a volume on the towering personality of his 
 father, Abraham Geiger. Of American authors who 
 have the first claim on our attention, Ginzberg's 
 "The Legends of the Jews," Margolis' Aramaic Gram- 
 mar, Amram's Old Italian Prints, de Sola Pool's 
 Treatise on the Kaddish, Sulzberger's original demon- 
 stration of a parliament in ancient Israel, must be 
 mentioned. A German work of more than average 
 interest, written by an American author, is Kohler's 
 systematic theology, a much needed and long-looked- 
 for work on this important subject. In Hebrew we 
 have the very interesting travels of Selikovitsch and 
 a volume of poems by Ezekiel Leavitt and in Yiddish 
 the inimitable humor of Zevin presented to us with 
 brilliant sketches of Russian life in America. It is 
 impossible to give a complete list of historical works 
 on certain parts of Jewish history, such as Oppen- 
 heim's excellent sketch of early Jewish History in 
 New York, the valuable, though cumberso.me, 
 history of the Jews of Baden, by Levin; of Posnanski's 
 
318 SCROLLS 
 
 short, but valuable, treatise onrnodern Karaiticlitera- 
 ture, or the presentation of the legal status of the Jews 
 in Prussia, by Michaelis; in England, by Henriques; 
 in Wuertemberg, by Gunzenhauser. The great 
 variety in Jewish literature is exemplified by Ludwig 
 Geiger's "Jews in German Literature," and by 
 Debre's essay on the Jew in modern French fiction; 
 still more by Mr. Montefiore's radical, though 
 scholarly, book on the synoptic gospels; by the still 
 more radical "Orpheus," of Solomon Reinach, and, 
 as a counterpiece, the responsa of the late rabbi of 
 Pressburg, Bunem Schreiber, with the discussion of the 
 subtleties of rabbinical law, showing how Judaism 
 is world-wide, not merely in its geographical dis- 
 tribution, but also in its thought.