N £ jL*la ^ Vi 1 >1 v JL )> s a a DS 143 .C6 1914a Cohen, Israel, 1879-1961. Jewish life in modern times ♦ 1 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES / S rthitt «k*4 ' o :-UA EXILES KKOM THE TAINTING BY SAMUEL HIKSZENBERC JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1914 TO MY PARENTS s I I \ PREFACE | A HE purpose of this volume is to give a compre¬ hensive account of the conditions of modern Jewry in all their principal manifestations and variations throughout the world. The book was begun some years ago, but its completion has been delayed until now by the exacting demands of other professional work. The delay has not been altogether without advantage, as it has enabled me, during a residence of four years in Germany and visits to other parts of the Continent, to come into closer contact with various aspects of life that I set out to depict, as well as to include some tendencies and developments that are of quite recent origin. The interval that has elapsed since the first chapter was written has witnessed the appearance of several works dealing with Jewish conditions, but each of them has been mainly con¬ cerned with only one aspect of Jewish life and approached its study from a special angle of vision. None of them presents a picture of Jewish life as it is, with all its tra¬ ditional characteristics and customs, its sufferings and its achievements, its foibles and its ideals, and yet without such a portrayal of actual conditions it is scarcely possible fully to appreciate the significance of tendencies and movements that play a leading part in the world of Jewry to-day. One may study the variety of anthropological types among the modern children of Israel, their racial origin and cultural value, their contribution to the ad¬ vancement of modern commerce, and the processes by VII viii JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES which their disintegration as a people is taking place. But unless one is acquainted with the essence of Jewish life, with its primal contents and fundamental bases, one cannot understand the changes that are being wrought in its forms or perceive their significance ; unless one realizes the manifold diversity that distinguishes Jews in regard to political status, economic welfare, and in¬ tellectual activity in different lands, and in regard to religious outlook even in the same land, one must fail to appraise local or transitory phenomena at their true worth and likewise to grasp the pregnant import of a movement of world-wide compass. The purpose of this volume is, therefore, in the first place, to depict the variegated life of the Jewish people at the present day in all its intimacy and intensity, and secondly, to trace the evolution that is being produced by modern forces, or, in other words, to describe the static conditions of Jewry and then to analyse the effects of the dynamic forces to which they are exposed. The widest possible purview has been taken : the whole crowded map of Jewish life has been unfolded, surveyed, and described, with the help of such elucidations from history as are necessary to understand the present situation. First, a General Survey is presented, showing the dis¬ persion and distribution of Jewry in its countless mani¬ festations, its diversity of composition in political and spiritual respects, and the solidarity that unifies its disparate elements. Then follow five main sections, in each of which a leading aspect of life is investigated— the social, the political, the economic, the intellectual, and the religious. Under the Social Aspect are set forth the growth and constitution of the community, the characteristics and customs of the home, social life and amenities, morality and philanthropy, and racial and physical conditions. Under the Political Aspect are PREFACE IX related how one-half of the people acquired civil equality, how the other half is still suffering in bondage, and what services Israel has rendered to so many countries both in their government and their defence. Under the Econ¬ omic Aspect are reviewed the different spheres of commercial, industrial, and professional activity in which Jews are engaged, the contrasts of material welfare and predomin¬ ance of poverty, and the ceaseless currents of migration from the lands of bondage to the havens of refuge. Under the Intellectual Aspect are considered the advance made by secular education among the Jews, the nature of their national intellectual products in modern times, and the contributions they have rendered to the progress and culture of humanity. Under the Religious Aspect are described their ecclesiastical organization and ad¬ ministration, their traditional faith and observance and the growing divergences therefrom, and then the drift and apostasy that are assuming ever more alarming proportions. Finally, the resultant tendency of all the foregoing manifestations is examined under the National Aspect, the strength of the forces of assimilation and absorption is contrasted with the inherent force of con¬ servation, and the realization of the Zionist ideal is urged as the most effective means of ensuring the perpetuation of Israel. A certain amount of overlapping has been inevitable in the composition of this book owing to the peculiar com¬ plexity of Jewish life, but an endeavour has been made to restrict this duplication to the minimum. It has been found impossible to include all the innumerable phases and phenomena of the modern Jewish dispersion, nor would the restricted compass of this volume have permitted such an exhaustive and detailed record ; but I believe that I have brought within the covers of a single book the fullest description yet attempted of all the main aspects X JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES and problems of Jewish life at the present day. Refer¬ ences are given in footnotes to the more important sources that have been consulted, of which the Zeitschrift fur Demographic und Statistik der Juden and the other publica¬ tions of the Berlin Bureau for Jewish Statistics deserve a special meed of acknowledgment, as without them the collation of the latest vital statistics of Jews in different countries would have involved considerable labour. Al¬ though I cannot claim any personal experience of American conditions, I have studied the development of Jewish life in the New World in American books and newspapers for the last fourteen years and owe many items of informa¬ tion to the kindness of Mr. Bernard G. Richards, the Secretary of the New York Jewish Community, which I gladly acknowledge here. The illustrations, with one exception, consist of re¬ productions from the works of eminent Jewish artists, who, through different media, have depicted various phases of Jewish life in modern times. The one ex¬ ception has been made in favour of a photograph of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem, which symbolizes the new spirit that has come over the Holy Land. The diagram and map illustrating respectively the distribution and density of the world’s Jewish population have been prepared upon the basis of my figures and suggestions by Herr Davis Trietsch, of Berlin. In conclusion, I wish to express my cordial thanks to the Rev. S. Levy, M.A., for the scrupulous care he has bestowed upon the reading of the proofs and for many valuable suggestions. August 1914 I. c. CONTENTS BOOK I GENERAL SURVEY CHAP. PAGE Introduction . . . . . i I. Dispersion and Distribution . . .5 II. Diversity of Composition . . . . 15 III. Solidarity . . . . . 23 BOOK II THE SOCIAL ASPECT Introduction . . . . .29 I. The Community . . . . 31 — II. The Family . . . . . .40 III. The Home : External Features . . .48 IV. Home Life and Customs . . . .58 V. Philanthropy . . . . .75 VI. Morality . . . . . .88 VII. Social Life . . . . . .99 —VIII. Racial and Physical Characteristics . .111 — BOOK III THE POLITICAL ASPECT Introduction . . . . . 133 I. The Acquisition of Civil Rights . . .135 II. Sufferings in Bondage .... 145 III. Political Activity and State Service , . 166 XI Xll JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES BOOK IV THE ECONOMIC ASPECT CHAP. PAGE Introduction • • 180 I. Spheres of Economic Activity • • 182 II. Riches and Poverty • • 204 III. Migrations .... • • 214 BOOK V THE INTELLECTUAL. ASPECT Introduction • • 223 I. Education .... • • 225 II. Jewish Culture • • 239 III. Contributions to General Culture and Progress. 254 BOOK VI THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT Introduction • • 267 I. Organization and Administration • • 269 II. Faith and Observance • • 2 77 III. Drift and Apostasy • • 291 BOOK VII THE NATIONAL ASPECT } V Introduction • • 308 I. Assimilation or Conservation • • 310 II. Zionism .... • • 327 APPENDICES I. Statistics of the World’s Jewish Population 345 II. Immigration to North America • 350 III. Bibliography • 352 Index of Subjects . • 357 Index of Names • 370 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Exiles ....... Frontispiece From the painting by Samuel Hirszenberg FACING PAGE The Jewish Quarter in Amsterdam . . .32 From the painting by Prof. Max Liebermann, by permission of Paul Cassirer, Berlin A Jewish Wedding . . . . . -44 From the painting by J osef Israels Sabbath in a Russian Home . . . -54 From the painting by Samuel Hirszenberg The Termination of the Sabbath . . . .66 From an etching by Hermann Struck, by permission of the artist Ghetto Minstrels . . . . . .102 From the drawing by Leonid Pasternak, by permission of the artist Weary Wanderers . . . . . .158 From the painting by Leopold Pilichowski, by permission of the artist A Talmudical College ..... 226 From the painting by Samuel Hirszenberg The Eve of Atonement Day .... 270 From the relief by Henryk Hochman, by permission of the artist The Feast of Tabernacles ..... 284 From the painting by Leopold Pilichowski, by permission of the artist The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem . . . -310 From an etching by Ephraim M. Lilien, by permission of the Neue Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin The Bezalel School in Jerusalem . . . 338 By permission of the Jiidische Zeitung, Vienna Map of the Comparative Density of the Jewish Popu¬ lation ..... End of Book Xlll ONE PEOPLE ARISETH, ANOTHER DISAPPEARETH, BUT ISRAEL ENDURETH FOR EVER.”| Midrash on psalm xxxvi JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES BOOK I A GENERAL SURVEY INTRODUCTION The complexity of Jewish life—The dispersion of Jewry—The cause of dispersion—The diversity of Jewry—Its solidarity—Three main aspects to be examined M ODERN Jewry presents so many aspects of com¬ peting interest that in attempting a comprehensive survey of its life and labour one is faced by the difficulty of fixing upon a convenient point of departure. Its social life is moulded by religious observance and diversified by political forces ; its economic conditions are fashioned by historic development and likewise affected by political milieu ; its intellectual products bear the impress of racial characteristics and national experiences ; and its spiritual tendencies are governed not only by faith and tradition but also by the sure and subtle influence of social, political, and intellectual developments ; whilst the alluring riddle of the future of the Jew—popularly styled “ the Jewish question ”—can only be solved, if solved at all, by a careful study of all these spheres of life and labour. But these various spheres are so closely intertwined with one another that it is difficult to investigate any one in strict isolation, and yet an orderly inquiry demands their separate treatment. We shall be in a better position, however, to embark upon a detailed investigation of each sphere and to i 2 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES address ourselves to the question of the future if we pre¬ viously make a general survey of the vast and variegated world of Jewry, noting its main and most distinctive characteristics. The first impression conveyed by our domain is the ex¬ tensive dispersion of its inhabitants, reaching from one end of the globe to the other. Numerous as the Jewish com¬ munities are in Eastern Europe, numerous as they also are in North America, neither one region nor the other must eclipse from our sight the existence of countless other colonies in all parts of the world. In every country of Europe, in North and South Africa, in most of the countries in Asia from Palestine to Japan, in most of the populous centres of Australasia, and in many of the newly developed states in South America, there are communities, in compact masses or meagre clusters, which still preserve in varying degree a life distinct from that which surrounds them— treasuring the laws of Mount Sinai and hallowing the customs of ancient Judaea. In the swarming Ghetti of Poland, where piety, pathos, and poverty commingle ; in the fashionable suburbs of Paris and New York, Vienna and London, redo¬ lent of wealth and culture, in the ancient cities of Jerusalem and Damascus, Rome and Alexandria, and in the modern cities of Johannesburg and Buenos Ayres, Montreal and Melbourne ; on the banks of the Rhine, the Ganges, and the Missouri, and beneath the mountain ranges of the Andes, the Alps, and the Himalayas ; in the steppes of Siberia, the cave-dwellings of Tripoli, and the backwoods of Australia, in the mining camps of the Transvaal and the prairies of the Argentine ; in all these diverse centres of civilization, old and new, great and small, refined and rude, scattered promiscuously over the face of the earth, the prayers of “ the chosen people ” are still uttered in the language of the Psalms, and the memory of the ancestral deeds of glory and martyrdom is cherished with pride and celebrated with the rites of hoary tradition. The principal cause of this dispersion, which has now attained greater dimensions than at any previous period, has been persecution. The banishment of the Jews from INTRODUCTION 3 their own or their adopted home was the cause of their wanderings in ancient and mediaeval times ; and political oppression in various forms is the chief motor force in their migrations at the present day. In point of numbers their migration in modern times, particularly during the last thirty years, far exceeds that of their previous history, and it is attended by a tragedy not less poignant, if less violent, than that which marked a mediaeval expulsion. In former times the tide of migration flowed from west to east; in our days it flows from east to west. The spirit of enterprise and adventure, which is chiefly responsible for the dis¬ persion of modern nations and the founding of their colonies, has manifested itself only in a minor degree in the annals of Israel. Occasionally it has combined with the force of persecution in directing the footsteps of the Jew away from those lands of liberty, England and the United States, most invaded by his oppressed co-religionists, to remoter havens of refuge in Argentina, South Africa, and Australasia. But the spirit of enterprise, as the sole stimulus of migration, has operated only among those who have long been settled in Western countries and who have been prompted by economic motives to try their fortunes in new and distant lands. Vast as is our domain, it is utterly lacking in homo¬ geneity. To the outward eye all Jews are alike, if not exactly in physical appearance yet by virtue of an indefinable racial trait, pervasive yet elusive. In reality, however, they are marked by a number of differences that sharply divide them into distinct classes. They are differences not merely of social and political status, nor of religious ritual and conformity, nor of spiritual tendency and intellectual outlook, nor of communal organization, nor of the appearance of the individual type, nor of assimilation to environment. The diversity is not confined to any one of these spheres or factors : it prevails in each and every one, and in combinations of all, in varying degrees. The resultant types baffle enumeration, and their number and complexity are increasing from year to year in pro¬ portion to the advance of emigration, education, emanci¬ pation, and assimilation. The chief line of division, roughly 4 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES separating the Jews of the East from those of the West, may be drawn in a semicircle across the map of Europe, with Libau and Tangier as the extremities of the diameter. The Jews of the East, living mostly in lands of oppression and primitive development, are distinguished by their religious and intellectual conservatism; the Jews of the West, in¬ cluding those of the Southern Hemisphere, enjoy varying degrees of political liberty and display different degrees of religious and intellectual liberalism. In addition to these broad differences there is a diversity of attitude towards nationalist aspirations, and as each country is not only differentiated in many respects from other countries but also has its own quota of peculiar types, it is manifest enough that modern Jewry is not a homogeneous organism but an elaborately differentiated society, composed of disparate types and animated by conflicting tendencies. But despite this dispersion and diversity there is a bond of union. It is the racial sentiment, born of the conscious¬ ness of a common origin, a common history, and common sufferings. However acute the divisions may be on the merits of orthodoxy, or on the virtue of the Zionist ideal, they are levelled by the influence of the past which generates a spirit of solidarity, welding the disparate units into a har¬ monious whole. The racial consciousness is keenest in the religious Jew, but long after the prayers and rites of the Synagogue have ceased to make an appeal it still survives and can even be transmitted for a generation or two. In abnormal times, such as the outbreak of a massacre in Russia or of a riot in an Eastern country, it is evinced in the speedy dispatch of aid to the sufferers and in its prompt in¬ vocation of Government intervention. Scattered among all the lands of the earth, without a political centre or spiritual overlord, the Jews are united by a bond of racial solidarity which is tested and strengthened in times of need. Modern Jewish life thus presents three main features : extensive dispersion, diversity of composition, and soli¬ darity. Each of these features will now be examined more fullv. CHAPTER I a DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION Number of Jews in the world and in each continent—Apparent multitude and real paucity in each country—The centre of gravity of Jewry — The Russian Pale — Austria-Hungary, particularly Galicia — Germany, Turkey, Rumania, the British Isles, and the rest of Europe—Asiatic countries—Communities in Africa—The Jews in America—The greatest Jewish city—Settlements in Australasia ^HE total number of Jews in the world at the present day amounts approximately to 13,500,ooo. 1 This is JL the highest figure that they have ever reached in their history, and yet it forms only about a hundred and twentieth of the entire population of the globe. Their numbers are thus out of all proportion to their prominence and significance on the stage of the world. Although Asiatic by origin, with a continuous history of three thousand years on Asiatic soil, they are mostly concentrated in Europe, whither they gravitated after the downfall of Judaea in 70 c.e. In this continent they number 10,068,435, three-fourths of the total Jewish population, whilst in Asia they number only 525,658. Thus, in the continent which gave them birth and which witnessed the first and highest efflorescence of their genius, the Jews are now represented by less than a twenty-fifth of their total number. In the New World, which Columbus discovered with their material aid in the year in which they were expelled from Spain, there are 2,495,805, all of whom, save about 200,000, are inhabitants of the United States. In Africa there are 414,246, and in Australasia 19,415. The most notable feature in their distribution over the 1 See Appendix I, “ Jewish Population Statistics.” 5 6 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES earth’s surface is the unevenness of density. In some regions there are compact and congested communities which seem wholly composed of Jews ; in others the appearance of a J ew is sufficiently rare to be a curiosity. This phenomenon is not confined to any particular continent; it is character¬ istic of nearly every country in the world. The gregarious¬ ness of the Jews, apart from historical and psychological considerations, has given them a position of prominence on the stage of the world far exceeding that proportionate to their numbers. For even in the countries in which their numbers are highest, Russia and Austria-Hungary, they form less than five per cent of the total population; but their residence is mostly confined to a comparatively small part of either country, where political and industrial life is most vigorous, and where public opinion is keenest, and hence their compact solidity in these busy, pulsating centres conveys an impression of numerical magnitude which is utterly belied by their real paucity. In Western Europe too, and in the United States, the Jewish population bears an even smaller proportion to the general population, vary¬ ing from a quarter to three per cent; but here likewise it is largely confined to the capitals and the great cities, whose local problems bulk upon the national horizon to an inor¬ dinate extent, and whose Jewish inhabitants seem to those who mould public opinion to reflect a similar populousness throughout the country. In addition to this physical crowding into the main centres of national life there are special circumstances that make the Jews seem far more numerous than they really are, namely, the inevitable pro¬ minence of a different racial type, and their participation and success in callings, such as the law, politics, the stage, the press, and the stock exchange, which enjoy an undue measure of public attention. The centre of gravity of modern Jewry is in the Russian Pale of Settlement, which contains six million Jews. This region is situated between the Baltic Provinces and the shores of the Black Sea; it comprises the ten provinces of the Kingdom of Poland and fifteen provinces of Lithuania, White Russia, South-Western and Southern Russia; and it DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION 7 has an area of 362,000 square miles, which is equal to three times the size of the United Kingdom. As constituted to¬ day the Pale was established in 1835 ; it is an expansion of a smaller region that was delimited in 1769 for the restricted residence of the J ews ; while the policy of isolation which it embodies was first put into practice by the Muscovite Government in the sixteenth century. The history of the Jews in this country, however, goes back to the earliest times. According to Armenian and Gregorian historians, they were deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Armenia and the Caucasus after the destruction of the first Temple, in 586 b.c. ; and their influence in the eighth century was sufficiently evidenced by the conversion to Judaism of the kingdom of the Chazars, a people inhabiting the region of the lower Don, the Vistula, and the Dnieper, whose independence lasted until 969 a.d. Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century their numbers were comparatively few. The great mass of them came under the sway of the Tsar in consequence of the partition of Poland, whither they had fled for refuge in the Middle Ages from the chronic outbreaks of persecution in Western Europe, and where they had pursued their lives in peace, with little interruption, and even with a measure of communal autonomy. The change of ruler exposed them to the very dangers which had made their forefathers settle in Poland, but the disturbed conditions of the time, com¬ bined with memories of the past and hopes for a brighter future, prevented any wholesale migration back to the Western countries. Thus, the dismemberment of Poland in 1795 placed half of the Jewish race under Russian dominion, and there it has remained unto the present day. The total number of Jews in the Russian Empire, ac¬ cording to the latest estimates (1905), was 6,122,127, which represents a percentage of only 4-6 of the total population. By far the greatest number, 93-9 per cent, live in the Pale, which occupies only a fifth of European Russia and a twenty-fifth of All the Russias. The remainder, who are privileged to live outside it, consisting mainly of merchants of the first guild, members of professions, and master artisans, number less than half a million, which is an 8 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES insignificant proportion ('037 per cent) of the general population. But although the preponderating mass of Russian Jews live in the Pale, they form only ii*6 per cent— less than a ninth—of the entire population of that region. This proportion, however, affords no exact indication of the real conditions, as more than five out of the six millions are concentrated in cities and towns, in consequence of laws passed in 1882 and 1891 against the further settlement of Jews in rural districts. The congestion is thickest in the six north-western provinces, in which they form nearly 60 per cent of the urban population ; whilst even in the least con¬ gested districts, in Southern Russia, they represent a per¬ centage of 28*2. Berditchev, which has a Jewish popu¬ lation of 47,000 in a total of 53,000, a percentage of 87, enjoys the distinction of being the most Jewish town in the world. There are 48 towns with more than 10,000 Jewish inhabitants, 1 of which only five are outside the Pale (Kiev, Riga, St. Petersburg, Rostov on Don, and Kharkov). The city containing the greatest number of Jews is Warsaw with 308,488, whilst Odessa comes next with 170,000 and Lodz with 92,308. Thus, although the number of Jews in the Russian Empire is so small in proportion to the entire popu¬ lation that, if evenly distributed throughout the Tsar’s dominions, their presence would be almost unnoticed, their forced aggregation in the towns of only one-fifth of European Russia has produced an intensity of communal life, pre¬ served intact the orthodox observance of religious customs and the spirit of national culture, and created permanent problems of economic distress. In Austria-Hungary the Jews present a similar pheno¬ menon of uneven distribution. Their total numbers are 1,313,687 in Austria, 2 and 932,416 in Hungary, 3 forming a percentage of only 4*4 of the entire population. But two- thirds of the Jews in Austria are crowded together in the province of Galicia, where they form over 10 per cent of the population. In the province of Bukowina the proportion 1 Die sozialen Verhciltnisse der Juden in Russland, p. 16. 2 Census of 1910. 3 Census of 1910 (Die Welt, 17th January 1913). DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION 9 is a little higher, being nearly 13 per cent. 1 The early history of Galicia belongs to the kingdom of Poland, hence we naturally find there a great aggregation of Jews. In two towns of Galicia, Brody and Buczacz, they form an absolute majority, and in ten they form the relative majority. 2 They also constitute more than a fourth of the inhabitants in seven towns in Hungary. 3 Their highest percentage (67*5) is in Brody, where, however, the total number of Jews is only 14,729. The highest number of Jews in any city in Austria-Hungary is 203,687 in Budapest, where they form nearly a fourth of the inhabitants, whilst in Vienna they number 175,318, and constitute less than a tenth of the inhabitants. Lemberg, Cracow, and Czernowitz are the next three Jewish communities in point of size ranging from 57,387 to 28,613. After Austria-Hungary comes Germany, with a Jewish population of 615,029, 4 which forms less than one per cent of its entire numbers, and of which nearly one-fourth is found in the city of Greater Berlin (142,289). 5 In Turkey, which showed generous hospitality to the Jews upon their expulsion from mediaeval Spain, there are now, in conse¬ quence of the recent loss of territory, only about 95,000,® mostly concentrated in Constantinople. In Rumania there are 250,000, forming about 3*2 per cent of the general population. Here, as in Russia, they have been forbidden by law to live in the country districts; they have been evicted from one village after another and compelled to crowd into the towns. Hence, nearly one-half of their number are cooped up in the four cities of Bucharest, Jassy, Botoschani, and Galatz, comprising half of the population in Jassy and Botoschani. In the British Isles, where a resettlement of the Jews took place under Cromwell after an absence of three centuries and a half, there are 270,000, representing a per¬ centage of *59 of all the inhabitants. More than half of 1 Zeitschrift fur Statistik und Demographie dev Juden, 1912. 2 Ibid., 1913, p. 22. 3 Ibid., 1912, p. 136. 4 Census of 1910. 5 Zeitschrift fur Statistik und Demographie der Juden, 1913, p. 12. 6 Estimate of “Alliance Israelite Universelle.” 10 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES them live in London (160,000), and more than a fourth in the three cities of Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. The total number of Jews in the United Kingdom, however, is less than that in the one city of Warsaw. Holland, which, like Turkey, also welcomed fugitives from Inquisition-ridden Spain and Portugal, has 106,309, 1 —less than the number in Vienna—of whom more than half are confined to Amster¬ dam. France has 100,000, which is less than Odessa, and forms less than one-quarter per cent of the general popu¬ lation, whilst more than half are confined to Paris. Italy has only 45,000, of whom 10,000 live in Rome ; Bulgaria, 50,000, of whom one-fourth live in Sofia and Philippopolis ; Belgium, 15,000, of whom nearly one-half are in Brussels (6500) ; and Switzerland has 19,023. 2 Greece, through its acquisition of Salonica and other Turkish towns, has now about 90,000 Jews, and Servia about 16,000, while the remaining countries of Europe, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal have each less than 4000. The Jews in Asia number only 525,658, an insignificant fraction of the teeming millions in that vast continent. Less than a fourth (100,000) live in Palestine, where they form 14*2 per cent of the general population, a higher propor¬ tion than is to be found in any other country in the world, not even excepting Poland, where they constitute 137 per cent of the population. Fully one-half of the Jews in Palestine live in Jerusalem, where they comprise half of the inhabitants. In Asia Minor there are 60,000, of whom nearly one-half live in Smyrna. In Asiatic Russia there are 120,636; in Syria and Mesopotamia, 100,000; in Persia, 40,000; in Arabia, 30,000; in Afghanistan, 19,000; in India, 20,900, of whom more than a half are in the State of Bombay; in China and Japan, 2000. In Palestine, Asiatic Russia, and J apan, the J ewish population is largely composed of European immigrants who settled in those countries in the latter half of the ninteeenth century. In the other parts of Asia the Jews have formed a constant element since the early centuries of the current era, their first notable migration eastward from Palestine having been 1 Census of 1909. 2 Census of 1910. DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION ii due to deportation after the destruction of the first Temple, more than two thousand years ago. The Jews of Cochin claim to have come to Malabar from Jerusalem soon after its downfall in the year 70, whilst the derelict Jewish colony in Kai-Fung-Foo has a tradition that Jews first entered China under the Han dynasty, during the reign of Han Ming-ti, 58-76 c.e. The Jews in Africa number 414,246, of whom nearly 300,000 inhabit the countries along the north coast. Their settlement in this region, irrespective of the period of bondage in the Egypt of the Pharaohs, took place two thousand years ago. The communities are to be found at their densest in Morocco, which is believed to contain 109,000 Jews, mostfy congregated in Mogador, Tetuan, and Tangier. In Algeria there are 70,271, and in Tunis, 65,213. 1 In Egypt there are 50,000, of whom more than five-sixths are concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria ; and in Tripoli and Cyrenaica, 19,000. Abyssinia contains an ancient community, who trace their history back to the days of the Temple and their origin to the visit paid by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Their numbers have been esti¬ mated by Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch, who has made several explorations of the country since 1904, at 50,000. 2 In the neighbouring territory of the East African Protectorate there is a small colony of fifty Jews, who have recently immigrated thither either direct from Europe or from South Africa. In South Africa itself there is a thriving community of 50,000, consisting almost entirely of immigrants from Europe and their descendants, of whom a third are con¬ centrated in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The founders of this community made their way to the Cape in the early part of the nineteenth century, and were pioneers in the industrial development of nearly the whole interior of the country. 3 The great influx of Jews into this region, however, did not take place until the outbreak of persecu- 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographic der Juden, 1911, p. 48. 2 Dr. J. Faitlovich, Quer durch Ahessinien, p. 173. 3 Cf. “ Jewish Pioneers of South Africa," by Sidney Mendelssohn, in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, vol. vii. pp. 180-205. 12 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES tions in Russia, in the early eighties, and they are now to be found in hundreds of towns throughout British South Africa, extending from the coast to the farthest outposts in the interior. The Jews in America number 2,495,805, and form the second largest continental aggregation. Their connexion with America began even before its discovery, for they were the authors of astronomical works and scientific instruments that helped Columbus to direct his course, they supplied a great deal of the money that made his voyages possible, and at least five persons of Jewish blood accompanied him on his first voyage. It is even now conjectured that Columbus himself was of Jewish blood. The coincidence of his discovery of the New World with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain seems as obvious an act of Providence as any that historians can demonstrate. The phenomenon has often been noted by those who have chronicled the wanderings of Israel, but the first to refer to it was Columbus himself in his journal, a letter written to his Jewish patron, Santangel. The coincidence, striking as it is, should not blind us, however, to the fact that Jews contributed in brains and money to the discovery of their new land of refuge. Moreover, one of their number, Luis de Torres, who accompanied Columbus as an interpreter, is believed to have been the first European to tread the soil of America. The first migration of Jews to the New World took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when exiles from Spain settled in *Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and other parts of South America. A hundred and fifty years later the descendants of other exiles, who had fled to Holland and built up the important community of Amsterdam, emigrated to New Amsterdam, and formed the nucleus of the still more important and numerous community of New York. The wars in Central Europe in the eighteenth century, culminating in the partition of Poland, drove another host of emigrants, mostly from Germany and Poland, across the Atlantic. But all these successive migrations, even down to the middle of the nineteenth DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION 13 century, did not contribute any very considerable addition to the population. Not until 1882, when an epidemic of massacres broke out among the Jews in Russia, did the volume of emigration attain imposing dimensions. From that year down to the present day the tide of Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe has flowed without pause, increasing in strength with every fresh outbreak of per¬ secution. Before the eighties the Jewish population of America was less than half a million : it now amounts to more than four times that number. The inequality that marks the distribution of the Jews in the Old World also characterizes their settlement in the New World. The overwhelming bulk live in the United States, while smaller communities have developed in Canada, Argentine, Mexico, and some of the southern re¬ publics. In the United States the Jewish population may be estimated at 2,300,000 souls, 1 nearly half of whom are con¬ tained in a single city—Greater New York. This city, with its aggregation of a million Jews, possesses the largest Jewish community in the world, and likewise the largest known in the entire annals of history. The dimensions of the vast colony may be appreciated from the fact that it contains as many Jews as the next five largest centres put together, namely, Warsaw, Budapest, Chicago, Vienna, and Odessa. At present the Jews form a little more than a fourth of the general population in New York, and while there is no doubt that their absolute numbers will steadily increase, it is also very probable that with their superior fecundity they will soon surpass their present ratio to the general population. There are several other cities, too, with big Jewish communities: Chicago has 200,000; Philadelphia, 150,000 ; Boston, 75,000 ; Cleveland, 60,000 ; and Baltimore, 50,000. In Canada there are 74,564, nearly half of whom are concentrated in Montreal, 2 while 22,500 live in Toronto, and 14,000 in Winnipeg. In the Argentine there are 100,000, of whom 24,000 are settled in the agricultural colonies established by the Jewish Coloniza- 1 See Appendix I. 2 Census of 1911 (Canadian Jewish Times, 14th March 1913). *4 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES tion Association, and the remainder are in Buenos Ayres and other cities. 1 Mexico has nearly 10,000 Jews, Cuba 4000, and Brazil 3000, while smaller numbers are dis¬ persed in Jamaica, Dutch Guiana, Venezuela, Chile, and other southern states. Australasia, the last of the continents to be colonized, contains only 19,415 Jews, of whom 2128 are inhabitants of New Zealand. The largest community is that of Sydney, which has 6355 Jews, while Melbourne comes next with 5500. In Perth there are 1100, and the numbers in the other towns are even smaller. The settlement of the Jews in Australasia began in the early part of the nineteenth century, but it did not attain considerable proportions— in relation to local conditions—until the discovery of gold in 1851. The earliest immigrants originated from England, and most of the subsequent settlers also pro¬ ceeded from this country, including of late years some Russian Jews, who, finding no prospects of improvement here, sailed for the Antipodes. 1 Jewish Chronicle, 29th May 1914. CHAPTER II DIVERSITY OF COMPOSITION Diversity the result of dispersion—The main difference dis¬ tinguishing the Jews of the East from those of the West—The vigour and complexity of Jewish life in the West—Differences be¬ tween Eastern and Western Europe—Characteristics of Eastern Europe—Religious tendencies in Western Europe and America— Zionism and other forms of Nationalist aspiration—Forces of dissolution : in economic, political, social, and intellectual life HE great diversity that characterizes modern Jewry is the natural result of its dispersion throughout the globe. Although united by community of religion and culture, the Jews present notable differences of physical type and intellectual ten¬ dency. This differentiation is produced by the influence of their several environments, which vary from one another in physical, political, and intellectual conditions, and effect corresponding variations among their Jewish denizens. But the Jews of any particular country, although exposed to the same general influences, are not moulded into a uniform pattern. Having settled in the land at different periods, and having brought from their previous homes different modes of life and different degrees of conservatism, they resist the surrounding influences with unequal will and strength and exhibit varying grades of assimilation to the general population. In each individual country, therefore, there is a series of classes or types of Jews, shaded off from one another, and thus the multiplicity of types in the world forms an almost endless series. The main difference is that which distinguishes the Jews of the East from those of the West, though these 15 i6 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES terms must not be taken in a strictly geographical sense. The Jews of the East are those living in the countries of Asia, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Settled in lands that have known little or no progress for the last two thousand years, cut off from the stimulating forces of modern thought and civilization, they have remained for the most part in the same stage of culture as their remote ancestors. The Jews of Asia Minor, Persia, and Arabia, probably differ in physiognomy only in a faint degree from the contemporaries of Judas Maccabaeus, while those settled along the southern shore of the Mediterranean can also have undergone little change owing to their living in compact, congested communities. From the days when the Rabbis of the schools of Babylon mapped out minutely the religious life of the Jew, these Eastern communities have shown unswerving loyalty to Talmudic law and traditional custom. Only once, in the eighth century, did a revolt break out against the Rabbinical code, but the sectarians, who proclaimed their adhesion to the letter of the Scriptures and are known as Karaites, were never numerous. Their numbers are estimated at the present day at 12,000, of whom 10,000 are in Russia. But the bulk of eastern Jewry remained stationary and stagnant, save for its natural increase, until aroused from its long slumber fifty years ago by the educational efforts of the “ Alliance Israelite Universelle,” supplemented later by the Anglo-Jewish Association and the “ Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden.” Quite a different spectacle is presented by the Jews of the West, who have continuously displayed intellectual activity for the last twelve hundred years. Not only have they produced a voluminous literature of theology, poetry, and philosophy, besides works of travel, history, satire, and imagination, but even in the days of political out¬ lawry they distinguished themselves as devotees of science, particularly in the realm of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. At the present day, in every country of Western Europe, in America, and in the British possessions, Jews are participating in the general life of their environ- DIVERSITY OF COMPOSITION 17 ment, in its social and political affairs, its industrial and commercial activity, and its intellectual aspirations. It is just because their share in the national life of their country, especially where they enjoy complete emancipation, has developed to such a high degree, that a complexity has been wrought in their own life. Moulded by an infinitude of competing influences in their several centres, despite their inherited instincts and ideas, they acquire a varied outlook upon Judaism, develop differences of religious creed and conformity and maintain different views upon their duty towards their race and upon its destiny. An exhaustive enumeration of all the types and tend¬ encies among Western Jewry would be impossible in a preliminary survey : the utmost that can be attempted is to trace the main forces making either for the absorption or the preservation of the race. Such a survey is best conducted from east to west, from Eastern Europe, where political bondage has caused the social isolation of Jewry, to Western Europe and other parts of the world where political equality has been followed by a liberal inter¬ mingling with non-Jews. By Eastern Europe is meant primarily the Russian Empire, in which, with insignificant exceptions, Jews are denied the ordinary rights of citizen¬ ship and are confined to the Pale of Settlement. The exclusion of the Jews from political and civic life, on the one hand, and their aggregation in towns in which they form the majority, on the other hand, have had the in¬ evitable effect of intensifying their communal life and strengthening their solidarity. They have produced a Jewish environment in a non-Jewish land, an environment affording most of the essential conditions for a strict observance of religious rites, for the preservation of ancient traditions, the fostering of a separate culture, and the pursuit of distinctive ideals. They have contributed to the development of a modern Jewish literature, press, and drama, to the maintenance of separate schools and libraries, to the formation of countless societies for intellectual or philanthropic purposes, and even to the creation of specifi¬ cally Jewish industries. The atmosphere thus created in 2 18 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the Russian Pale is reproduced in the neighbouring territory of Galicia ; it prevails likewise in Rumania and Turkey, and it is also found, in greater or less measure, modified by liberal conditions and tinctured by the local spirit, in the great Ghettos that have arisen in Western Europe and America. This atmosphere is permeated and dominated by the sentiment of religion : it fills a world that revolves about an axis of orthodox faith, whose poles have been fixed by the laws of the Talmud. Not all the inhabitants of this world are attached with equal fervour to the ancient traditions, but all are under the influence of the spirit of Rabbinical Judaism which has held dominion in their midst for more than a thousand years. The most orthodox regulate every day in their lives, from the cradle to the grave, by the minute and comprehensive laws of the medi¬ aeval codex, the Shulchan Aruch (“ Table Prepared ”), based and elaborated upon the decisions of the Talmud, which, in turn, are derived from the laws of Moses. Settled though the Jews have been in Poland, Lithuania, and Galicia, for hundreds of years, their minds are still steeped in the lore of their ancestors who lived in Babylon in the early centuries after the destruction of the Temple. To them the traditions handed down by their ancestors are as dear and as divinely inspired as the commandments thundered forth from Sinai. They study them, and all ancient Hebrew literature embodying them, with touching piety; they initiate their children into religious rites from their earliest lisp ; and they hold the day imperfect on which they have not uttered a hundred benedictions. Three times a day they turn their faces towards Jerusalem, their prayers re-echoing with the yearning for the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of Zion. As we travel westward we reach a more temperate zone, which merges in places even into frigidity ; but so complex is the diversity of modern Jewry that even in lands that have witnessed the furthest extreme of reform, such as Germany and the United States, there are numerous strongholds of orthodoxy. The general feature that DIVERSITY OF COMPOSITION *9 distinguishes Western Jewry is moderation in devotion and in the observance of traditional customs. The pre¬ valent and growing tendency, due to social and economic forces, is to divorce religious practice from daily life, to exclude the former more and more from the home and to confine it to the synagogue. The synagogues are more imposing and ornate than in the East, but, except for New Year and the Day of Atonement, they mostly present a doleful array of deserted benches. In matters of ritual Western Jewry is divided into Ashkenazim or “ German,” and Sephardim or “ Spaniards,” a distinction which dates from mediaeval times, when Germany and Spain formed the two most important centres of Jewish life and which consists, apart from the question of ritual, in a different pronunciation of Hebrew and different intonation of the prayers. In matters of principle, Western Jewry is divided into two camps—Orthodoxy and Reform—the division being based on a difference of conception of Israel’s destiny. The Orthodox regard the dispersion of Jewry as a divine punishment for past transgression, and they believe in the coming of a personal Messiah and in the restoration of Israel to Palestine. The Reformers, on the other hand, regard dispersion as Israel’s final lot and as the divinely appointed means for universalizing the teachings of Juda- ism. These differences of principle are reflected in the ritual and other external forms, but neither Orthodoxy nor Reform presents an aspect of complete uniformity. In recent years a new development of the Reform school has arisen under the name of Liberal Judaism, a movement which has made further sacrifices of traditional rites and provides services in the vernacular on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning for those who cannot or will not attend the synagogue on the Sabbath. The conflict of views upon the destiny of Israel is also reflected in the varying attitude towards the Zionist move¬ ment, which aims at re-establishing Jewish national life in Palestine. Zionism draws the greatest proportion of its followers from the Orthodox camp, but there are many in it who are opposed to Zionism on the ground that the 20 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES restoration of Israel to the Holy Land must await the advent of the Messiah; while there are Reformers who, though discarding the belief in a Messiah, look upon the regeneration of Judaea as the best means of fulfilling the Jewish mission. In this cross-division we may note that the two principal forces in the conservation of Judaism are the orthodox synagogue and the Zionist movement. The synagogue is a passive force, which is being slowly and subtly undermined by the adverse influences of Western civilization ; the Zionist movement is the only active force which is endeavouring to counteract these corroding influences. There are two other forms of nationalist aspiration of a feebler character. The one is the theory propounded by the Russo-Jewish historian, Dubnow, that national Jewish culture and autonomy should be developed in the various lands of dispersion, a theory which fails to take into account the diverse and adverse influences exercised by varied environments, resulting in different types of Judaism. The other tendency is embodied in the aim of the Jewish Territorial Organization to found a home for the Jewish people in any land on the face of the earth. This Organization, created in 1905 by seceders from the Zionist movement, at a time when the world re-echoed with the groans of the victims of Russian pogroms, found much sympathy and support at first; but its quest for a land has so far been fruitless, and its positive activity has been limited to the transplanting of ten thousand Russian emigrants via Galveston to the United States. Opposed to the agencies consciously striving for the conservation of Jewry are innumerable forces working for its dissolution. In every country in the Western world there is an open advocacy of the doctrine of assimilation, that Jews should regard themselves as distinguished from their fellow-citizens merely in respect of religion, but that otherwise they should merge themselves completely in the general life of the nation in whose midst they dwell. The practice of this doctrine, often preached from radical pulpits, inevitably leads to mixed marriages and apostasy. But the forces of dissolution operate for the most part DIVERSITY OF COMPOSITION 21 unconsciously : they arise from the very nature of the environment, which, impregnated with the spirit of science and dominated by industrial competition, is inimical to the cultivation of an Oriental faith. Even the Jews in Eastern Europe are also exposed to corroding influences, for political persecution drives them to seek refuge in baptism or else to remove their homes to a land where man’s highest energies are devoted to the amassing of wealth. Thus the soul of Israel among the nations is nowhere immune from insidious assault. The exigencies of the economic world react upon all strata of Jewry, and cause widespread neglect of the Sabbath. The attractions of the political and the distractions of the social world influence those of comfortable material status, who seek further outlets for their ambition, and in the process they gradually become estranged from the synagogue and sometimes, even in the course of a generation or two, from their faith. But more subtle and penetrating in its effects than all these forces is the general intellectual atmosphere of the countries of dispersion. Born in the homelands of modern civilization, reared in Western schools and universities, and nurtured upon non-Jewish lore, the Jews tend to become alienated from their own historic culture. Their thoughts and ideas are apt to be inspired and fashioned less by the intellectual traditions of their race than by the intellectual agencies of their native land; and the less of Judaism they have imbibed in their youth the more easily are they moulded into the prevalent national type. This spiritual metamorphosis, aided and impelled by countless unseen forces, precipitates the detachment of Jews from their race and faith and their gradual absorption by the nations. Nor do they remain mere passive creatures of their environment, but actively assist in moulding it anew. In science and art, in literature and politics, in music and the drama, and in various spheres of the academic world, their achievements are remarkable not only in relation to the short time they have engaged in European culture, but in virtue of their own intrinsic worth. They are among the keenest and most 22 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES trenchant critics of literature, among the most fertile com¬ posers and brilliant executants of music; among the leading specialists in medical science, and the doughtiest champions of political and ethical movements. And the thoroughness with which they have thrown themselves into the intellectual ferment of modern times is evidenced by the fact that the Jewish origin of many celebrities often passes unnoticed, so utterly denuded is their work of any element reminiscent of their racial descent, religious faith, or historic culture. CHAPTER III SOLIDARITY The springs of solidarity, and its forms of expression—The growth of the community and its institutions—The cultivation of solidarity—The work of philanthropic associations—The National¬ ist movement—The potentialities of solidarity and its limitations A MID the welter of conflicting movements and divergent tendencies that characterize modernjewry, there is one unifying element : the sentiment of solidarity. Not only among those languishing in the lands of persecution, but also among those thriving in the lands of freedom, the feeling still prevails that “ all Israel are brethren.” The strength of this feeling is a witness to the continued vitality of the historic consciousness in this age of increasing assimilation; its universality is a consequence and a reflection of the world-wide dispersion of Jewry. The concrete form in which it is normally manifested is the spontaneous organization of communities in whatever part of the globe Jews may settle. The special forms in which it finds expression are the measures adopted for the relief of distress and the defence of Jewish interests, and, most notably, in the projects launched for the solution of the Jewish Question. The simplest and commonest form of Jewish solidarity is the organized community, which will be found in any town containing even a handful of Jews. The motor force in its organization is the desire for public worship, which cannot be properly conducted according to religious law without a minimum of ten adult males. The primary force is thus religious, and its external expression gradually materializes into a Synagogue. This institution forms the 23 24 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES pivot and centre of communal life throughout Jewry, and its establishment is followed by the growth of a cluster of other institutions, each answering some definite social need or aspiration : a school for the education of the young in the tenets of Judaism and the Hebrew language, a com¬ mittee or board of guardians for the relief of the poor, a society for the furtherance of Jewish knowledge by lectures and debates, and for the provision of social entertainment. An indispensable adjunct of every community is also a separate cemetery consecrated for the reception of the dead. The town communities are often linked together by association with a central body in the metropolis, either for religious or secular purposes, particularly in the Western world. The religious body acts as the ecclesiastical authority, the secular body as the guardian of civil and political interests. Some communities contain such an abundance and elaboration of institutions, answering not only to a variety of tendencies and rites in the religious domain, and to every conceivable social, philanthropic, and intellectual purpose, but also to separate industrial and professional interests, and to rival political aspirations, that they form complete social organisms in themselves. Cognate in origin, allied by the same traditions and customs, these communities give to modern Jewry the semblance of a vast network of autonomous settlements. The enlightened Jew, in whatever part of the globe he may live, is conscious of this world-wide dispersion. He has acquired this consciousness from his earliest youth, with his initiation into the history of his people ; nay, from his early childhood, when he first heard stories of their perse¬ cution in barbarous lands told in hushed breath at the family hearth. The knowledge is fostered by his press, which takes as its sphere of interest the conditions of Jewry throughout the world ; it is stimulated by contact with fellow-Jews arriving from other lands ; it is sustained by the frequent dispersion of the members of a single family, particularly from Russia, to all corners of the globe. The average Jew of to-day, therefore, has a wide range of interests, an extensive area of vision. His sympathy finds SOLIDARITY 25 points of contact in every latitude ; his mental horizon en¬ compasses the whole globe. But there are more concrete and substantial media for the manifestation and cultivation of solidarity. They consist in the great philanthropic associations founded by the Jews of the West for the benefit of their brethren in the East, and, above all, in the organization aiming at the restoration of Jewish national life in Palestine. The philan¬ thropic associations are to be found in all the great capitals of Europe, and their activity is confined for the most part to ameliorating the intellectual and economic conditions of the Jews in Eastern Europe and the Orient. Earliest in foundation was the “ Alliance Israelite Universelle, ” which was established in i860, in Paris, to relieve the social misery and intellectual stagnation of the Jews in the Near East, brought to light by the ritual murder accusation of Dam¬ ascus. Its plan of operation was to found schools in which the children should receive a modern training to equip them for the battle of life. Eleven years later the Anglo- Jewish Association was established in London to aid in this work, and soon after the “ Israelitische Allianz ” was formed in Vienna to deal similarly with the needs of the swarming populace of Galicia. The most recent founda¬ tion is the “ Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden ” of Berlin, which not only aims at improving the conditions of the Jews of the East, but also protects and assists the hosts of Russian emigrants who yearly pass through Germany in quest of a land of refuge. The activity of these bodies is solely philanthropic, but it assumes somewhat of a political colouring when the lives and property of their countless wards are threatened by riots or persecution, for then they solicit the goodwill of their respective governments on their behalf. But this political activity—if such it may be called—is prompted solely by a crisis, and it is wholly con¬ fined to overcoming the crisis. Richer in resources and wider in its area of activity is the Jewish Colonization Association, which owes its existence and its funds entirely to one man, Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Founded in Paris, in 1891, for the relief of the Jews in Russia by settling them 26 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES in agricultural colonies in Argentina, it soon expanded in scope, establishing farmsteads in North and South America, undertaking the supervision of the colonies in Palestine created by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and adopting various practical measures for improving the status of the Jews in Eastern Europe and the neighbouring lands of Asia. The most impressive manifestation of solidarity is afforded by the Zionist movement, which aims at re¬ storing Jewish national life in the Holy Land. It is the only movement of a political character which binds the scattered members of Israel together. Its ideals, espoused in every country of the world, provide the only common platform upon which Jews of different environment and upbringing can meet, for they are directed not to the amelioration of any section but to the advance¬ ment of the welfare of the whole people. The Zionist Congresses have contributed more to enabling Jews of different lands and languages to understand one another and to levelling down environmental prejudices than any other factor in modern times. By rousing the historic consciousness, by promoting the use of Hebrew as a spoken language and fostering its literature, by bringing the vision of a regenerated Judaea from the mystic region of Messianic ideals to the terrestrial sphere of modern politics, and by focusing effort upon the practical rejuvenation of Palestine, Zionism has contributed in an unparalleled degree to the strengthening of racial solidarity. Its offspring, the Jewish Territorial Organization, which aims at finding a land of refuge anywhere, is also an expression of solidarity, but its main activity is that of an emigration agency, and hence it more properly belongs to the philanthropic category. Apart from the regular work performed by these various associations, exceptional measures of relief have to be adopted from time to time. The Jewish people are peculiarly exposed to chronic catastrophes—a pogrom in Russia, a fire in a Turkish Ghetto, or a famine in the Holy Land ; and the cry of distress that then rings through the Western world finds immediate response. If funds are SOLIDARITY 27 wanted, they are sent quickly and liberally ; if political protection is needed, it is immediately sought from the Government that has the greatest influence in the country affected. So promptly do the leaders of Western Jewry act that a threatened disaster is often averted, and how¬ ever great and urgent the demand for monetary aid may be they can easily satisfy it. In acts of charity they are unsurpassed, exercising unsleeping vigilance over their brethren in bondage, but they have not yet learned that prevention is better than cure. No practical attempt has yet been made to unite the various organizations in order to devise measures for diminishing the possibility of misfortunes in the future. Co-operation of a certain kind does, indeed, take place, especially in regard to the educa¬ tional work in the East and the protection of the emigrants who wander across half the globe in search of a home. International conferences have also been held, in Paris, Berlin, Frankfort, and Brussels, but they were summoned, with one exception, to deal with an urgent crisis—a mass¬ acre in Russia, a sudden exodus from Rumania. They fulfilled their function, they afforded temporary measures of relief, but they achieved nothing permanent. The only attempt, at Brussels in 1906, to create a general organiza¬ tion comprising representatives of all the existing bodies, to deal with the chronic evils of the Jewish situation, proved abortive. The imaginative Anti-Semite has long babbled of an international Jewish syndicate hatching dark, political plots, but little does he dream how Jews in authority recoil from the mere hint of a cosmopolitan organization. A scheme was actually proposed a few years ago for the creation of a standing committee of representatives of the philanthropic and political bodies of Europe and America, to meet at regular intervals, but it was received with scant sympathy in influential quarters. Even an alternative scheme, to facilitate rapidity of inter¬ communication and co-operation in cases of emergency, met with divided approval; and although it has been recently revived, the only result was a union of some of the philanthropic organizations to carry out the relief of 28 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the Jewish victims of the Balkan War. The obstacles to permanent concerted action exist partly in the personal factor, and partly in the policy represented by most of the organizations, that each country has its own individual Jewish question which must be solved separately and locally. The only body that has had the sagacity to perceive the organic connexion of the Jewish problems in the various lands of dispersion, and which has projected a solution upon a far-reaching scale, is the Zionist Organiza¬ tion. But the Zionists form only a fraction of the Jewish people, and their present resources are painfully meagre in relation to the stupendous task before them. A union of the ideals and policy of Zionism with the funds and influence of the philanthropic associations, aided by the combined capital of the great Jewish financial houses, would provide the most potent and promising basis for achieving a speedy solution of the Jewish question. But a practical manifestation of catholic solidarity of such magnitude, embracing the sum total of Jewish power and Jewish idealism, and consecrated to the realization of Israel’s highest destinies, remains a dream of the future. BOOK II THE SOCIAL ASPECT INTRODUCTION A study of the Social Aspect must precede that of other aspects -The sequence of social phenomena to be studied AVING made a survey of the far-spreading map of modern Jewry and considered its three dominant features, we shall now pursue a series of detailed investigations into the main aspects of Jewish life, with a view to revealing more precisely and intimately the conditions which it assumes in different parts of the world. Our first inquiry will be into the Social Aspect, because this will take us into the very midst and heart of the people themselves and make us familiar with the human material which is variously moulded by the political and economic forces, and by the intellectual and religious influences, which will be con¬ sidered later. It is true that the social conditions of the Jews are largely affected by political and economic cir¬ cumstances, and it might therefore be expected that the latter should be treated first; but it will lead to a better appreciation of both if we first study the lives of the Jews in their homes and communities before examining their relations to the State and to the question of occupa¬ tion and livelihood. Moreover, owing partly to the fact that many features of their social life are fashioned primarily by religious laws and traditions, and partly to the fact that over two and a half million natives of Eastern Europe have settled in masses in other parts of the world during the last thirty years, there is a greater and more widespread 29 30 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES uniformity in their social life—regarded in its widest sense—than in any other aspect of Jewish life. But al¬ though the Social Aspect has a just claim to be treated first, its exposition will inevitably be interspersed with references and allusions to other aspects so far as necessary ; for in Jewish life all aspects are more or less closely inter¬ mingled and cannot be shut off into water-tight com¬ partments. In the ensuing survey we shall deal, first of all, with the constitution of the Jewish community, with the forces that have contributed to its development and determined its particular character in different countries, and with the principal features that distinguish one community from another. We shall then describe the characteristics of the family, the features and customs of home life, philan¬ thropic activity, morality, social recreation, and, finally, the racial and physical characteristics of the Jew. CHAPTER I THE COMMUNITY The community as the conservator of Jewish life—Variations among modern communities—Factors determining the character of a community—Origin of Eastern communities and their character —Differences between Eastern communities—The voluntary character of Western communities—Their heterogeneity—The Western Ghetto—The Western Ghetto, a half-way house T HE corporate life of the Jewish people for nearly two thousand years has been founded upon a communal basis. Exiled from the land in which they had developed their national life, and dispersed in the process of ages unto the four corners of the earth, they have succeeded in preserving most of the distinctive traits of a separate people. The survival of these traits through an endless cycle of wanderings and persecutions is one of those strange phenomena that challenge the analytic power of the scientific historian and that are popularly attributed to the favour of Providence. But this riddle of the Jewish per¬ sistence can be explained by forces and factors of a human order. Those forces were twofold, internal and external. The internal force was the attachment to a religion whose innumerable prescriptions controlled and coloured the life of every day and necessitated close congregation ; the external force was the oppression which compelled the Jews to live in isolation in the various lands of their dispersion. In some countries the isolation was only social, due to the prevalence of religious prejudice and the feudal system ; in others it assumed the form of a special Jews’ quarter, or Ghetto, bounded by tall gloomy walls and barred by an iron gate. Within the communities in which they thus dwelt, especially in Central Europe, they enjoyed a certain measure of 31 32 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES autonomy and consolidated their social organization. They conserved their religious rites and customs, they developed particular institutions, and they kept alive the traditional culture, the racial consciousness, and the national genius of their people. As they have lived throughout their dispersion, so, for the most part, they live at the present day—in communities. These communities are, with very few exceptions, of an urban character ; those of a rural character comprise little more than a quarter of a million Jews altogether. They exist in every part of the globe, forming an integral factor in the social fabric of different countries, and sometimes, in Eastern Europe, occupying the greater part of a town and giving it its dominant character. In these settlements, differing in external structure and internal character, the specific life of Jewry manifests itself in countless forms and with varying intensity. Where the Jewish pulse beats most vigorously, there the people lead a life distinct from that of the surrounding nation, not merely in religious observance, but in every other sphere of human endeavour and aspira¬ tion. They confine their social intercourse for the most part to themselves; they organize their own education, industries, and charities; pursue their own intellectual ideals, and combine occasionally for self-defence in the political arena, though into their midst inevitably penetrate echoes and elements of the national life around them. Even where Jewish life is at its lowest ebb there will be found a synagogue which provides a bond of union among those who still wish to remain within the fold. Where there is no synagogue nor any attempt to provide a substitute there may, indeed, be Jews, but there is no Jewish life : the Jews become so many indistinguishable atoms in the general social mass. The most important factor determining the constitution and character of a Jewish community is environment, and next to this is the density of the Jewish population. Either of these factors is sufficient in itself to engender a robust communal spirit ; where the two are combined, the ideal conditions are present for a vigorous communal life in its countless ramifications. These ideal conditions are found THE JEWISH QUARTER IN AMSTERDAM FROM THE PAINTING BY PROF. MAX LIEBERMANN . ' THE COMMUNITY 33 throughout the lands of the East, in Asia and North Africa, as well as in Eastern Europe, where political despotism and religious fervour or fanaticism provide a favourable soil for separatist settlements. But in the lands of the West, whether in Europe, America, or the British Colonies, where the Jews enjoy civil and political freedom in varying degree and are not excluded by legal barriers from social inter¬ course with their neighbours, a certain compactness of population alone can give substance and strength to com¬ munal life. Thus, in the East the adhesion to separate communities is mostly compulsory, in the West it is entirely voluntary. Even in the countries of Central Europe, where the congregations are under a sort of State supervision, every Jew can please himself whether he joins one or not. In the lands of the East the communities owed their establishment to differences of religion, to the sentiment of national separateness, and to the position of political servitude, to which, with occasional intervals of clemency, the Jews were mostly condemned. The forces that brought them into being in the early ages, and which preserved them throughout the mediaeval tribulations, serve to maintain them intact at the present day. The religious differences have lost little of their acuteness in the process of centuries ; the sentiment of national separateness has been deepened by the accumulated memories and traditions of the past ; while the political despotism of mediaeval days continues for the most part to hold uninterrupted sway. The countries in which these conditions prevail in varying degrees contain far more than half of the Jewish people : they comprise Russia, Rumania, Turkey and its depend¬ encies, Morocco, Persia, and Afghanistan. In the Ottoman Empire the establishment of constitutional government has removed one of the main forces favourable to segregation, but the effects of centuries of political bondage cannot easily be annulled. In the other countries, however, the Jews still live in a state of outlawry, unrelieved by the revolutions that have taken place in Russia, Morocco, and Persia. In Russia they are mostly confined to the Pale of Settlement, where again they are limited to the towns ; in Rumania too 3 34 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES they are confined to the towns ; and in Morocco, Persia, and Afghanistan they must live in Ghettos. Sundered from the national life both by legal and physical barriers they are thrown back upon themselves and concentrate their energy upon their own communal interests. Jewish life in these Eastern countries has all the intensity and distinctiveness of the life of an independent nation. Not only is it distinguished by its own traditions, customs, and institutions, by its home life and social intercourse, but also by language and occasionally even by dress. By reason of their historic migrations and communal isolation, the Jews have developed new languages or dialects of their own which are written in Hebrew characters. The most widely spoken of these idioms is Yiddish or Judeo-German, the development of the language which they took with them from Germany on their eastward migration in the sixteenth century, which they cultivated on Slavic soil with graftings from Hebrew, and which is now spoken not only through¬ out the Russian Pale of Settlement and adjacent lands, but also in every part of the world in which Russian Jews have settled. In the greater part of the Ottoman Empire, as well as in Bulgaria and Servia, they speak Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, the development of the language which they carried away on their expulsion from Spain in 1492, and which they cultivated on Turkish soil, likewise with graftings from Hebrew. In Arabic-speaking countries, from Morocco to Mesopotomia, they have developed a peculiar form of Arabic ; in Persia, of Persian, and in Bokhara, of Bokharan. The distinction of dress is by no means so marked or so prevalent as that of language. In Morocco the Jews must arrange the folds of their outer garment so as to leave only the left hand free ; in Persia they are not allowed to wear the kolah, the national head-dress. In Poland and Galicia they voluntarily wear long gaberdines and round fur hats, whilst those who belong to the sect of Chassidim also wear white socks into which they tuck the bottom of their trousers. There are two other features which Eastern communities have in common and which distinguish them from con¬ ditions in the West—their homogeneity and their poverty. THE COMMUNITY 35 The population of the Eastern communities is mostly of one kind : it is an indigenous population, whose history dates back many hundreds of years and in some cases, such as Damascus and Cairo, more than two thousand years. It is mainly in Palestine that the Jewish population comprises different elements, originating not only from neighbouring countries but also from Russia and other parts of the world. As for the poverty, that is a natural product of the political despotism and chronic persecutions that hold sway in these Eastern regions. Similar in the various features just enumerated, the communities of Eastern Europe differ notably from those of the Orient in some intellectual and physical respects. The former are distinguished by intellectual vitality and physical mobility ; the latter by intellectual stagnation and physical inertia. The mental torpor of the East has been gradually stirred by the educational labours conducted in its midst by Western J ewry ; and the immobility of its masses has also undergone a change of late, particularly in Morocco, where the ravages of civil war have inflicted terrible sufferings upon the Jews, forcing many of them to seek a home in Algeria, Egypt, and Palestine. But mental and physical inertia are still the general characteristics of Eastern Jewry. On the other hand, Jews in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, have manifested a vigorous intellectual activity by their production of a literature, press, and drama of their own ; while their mobility is one of the most dominant factors in modern life. For close upon thirty years the current of migration has flowed steadily from Russia and Rumania westward, leaving a deposit in its course. The primal impetus was an outbreak of persecution ; but op¬ pression is now such a normal phenomenon that the stream of migration flows unceasingly. The communities of Eastern Europe are not undergoing a depletion of numbers, however, as the loss through emigration is more than compensated by the natural increase. 1 The most favoured lands of 1 The annual increase of the Jews in Russia is about 120,000 (2 per cent), while the annual emigration is estimated at 100,000 (Mr. Benjamin Grad in Jewish Chronicle, 10th April 1914). 36 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES refuge are England, America, and the British Colonies, in which populous and thriving Jewish centres have arisen. The most important feature that distinguishes the com¬ munities of the West from those of the East is their voluntary character. There is no legal power that isolates Jewry from its surroundings, although in several countries on the continent of Europe the ecclesiastical administration of the community is to a certain extent still under the supervision of the State. The spontaneous character of Jewish settle¬ ments is exemplified most forcibly in those that have sprung up in the latter half of the nineteenth century in England, the United States, and the British Colonies. The forces that have contributed to their foundation were mainly the racial and the religious consciousness, and a supple¬ mentary cause was the foreign origin of the founders of the community, which impelled them to form some sort of separate association in the beginning. But foreign origin alone would not have sufficed to preserve a separate com¬ munity, for prolonged residence and commercial intercourse tend to assimilate its members to the dominant nationality. The vital factors in its preservation were the historic con¬ sciousness that differentiated it from the people around it, and the religious consciousness that needed for its mani¬ festation a place of worship and subsidiary institutions. The strength of these factors is shown in the size and solidity of numberless communities in the lands of freedom, made up of a variety of special institutions. Of these the first in point of time and importance is the synagogue, after which come the school and the cemetery, followed by societies for charitable, social, intellectual, professional, and even political purposes, according as the numbers and needs of the community increase and its problems develop. Communal life in the West is thus built up on a voluntary basis, and is independent of the concentrated settlement which is an invariable feature of all Jewries in Eastern countries, although this feature is also found very fre¬ quently, particularly in the larger and old-established centres. Western communities differ markedly from Eastern in THE COMMUNITY 37 another respect, as they generally comprise two main sections—the native and the foreign, the latter consisting mostly of immigrants from Russia, Rumania, and Galicia, whilst including representatives from many other countries in the East. The native section lived in some sort of con¬ centration in the early history of their community, within a convenient distance of the synagogue and the kosher butcher-shop ; but a rise in material prosperity would be followed by removal to a better district, where a new Jewish area might be created, though one less distinguished from its environment by external tokens. The foreign section, however, live in a state of dense concentration. Their poverty makes them settle in a poor quarter of the town, where they reproduce the social conditions in which they have been born and bred, so far as the new environ¬ ment will allow. They have been accustomed to live as one large family, speaking the same tongue and breathing the same air, and all revolving around the synagogue, which is for them not merely a house of worship and religious instruction, but a centre of charity and of social intercourse ; and although they are now free to settle wherever they please, they cannot easily break away from the engrained habits of generations. The Ghetto in the East may be a symbol of political bondage; but in the West the only bondage that it typifies is that exercised by sentiment and tradition. To a large extent the modern Ghetto is neces¬ sitated by the precepts and practices of orthodox Judaism, by the need of dwelling within easy reach of the synagogue, the schoolroom, and the ritual bath, the kosher butcher- shop and the kosher dairy. But even for those who are indifferent to religious observances and ritual practices, residence in the Ghetto is necessitated by social and economic circumstances. Ignorance of the language of the new country, of its labour conditions, and of its general habits and ways of thought, as well as the natural timidity of a fugitive from a land of persecution, compels the immigrant Jew to settle in the colony of his co-religionists. Among them he is perfectly at home : he finds the path of employ¬ ment comparatively smooth, and if his effort to attain it be 38 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES delayed he is helped in the interval by charity from a dozen hands. The modern Ghetto is found in most of the large cities of Western Europe, America, and South Africa, its rise being due to the chronic persecution of the last thirty years in Russia and Rumania. In dimensions it is generally equal to, and occasionally greater than, its Eastern prototype, the Ghetto of New York being the largest in the world. There is more of the colour and intensity of Jewish life in the Ghetto than in the rest of the community. Innumerable blocks of mean houses, covering a wide area, are wholly inhabited by immigrant Jews, who swarm into the streets, talking their strange tongue, and sometimes still clad in the peaked hat and top-boots of their native countries. The streets are lined with shops and restaurants bearing foreign names and Hebrew signs ; the walls are covered with multi-coloured posters in Yiddish; the gutters are occupied by rows of stalls and barrows, laden with exotic wares. In the larger centres there are special market-places which present a scene of tremendous bustle on the eve of Sabbaths and festivals, when every Jewish housewife lays in a store of fish and fowl to celebrate the sacred day with fitting honours. Newsboys rush through the motley crowd, crying the names of Yiddish papers ; a stringed band at a street corner discourses some haunting Hebrew melody ; a poor woman, with a child at her breast, sings a Yiddish song of sadness ; a blind man offers for sale the little four- cornered fringed garments prescribed in Deuteronomy ; a peripatetic bookseller proffers religious code-books and sensational romances ; a labour agitator harangues a knot of workmen ; an unctuous missionary quotes the New Testament in Yiddish and seeks to lure his hearers to apostasy ; a Zionist orator waxes eloquent over the glories of a rejuvenated Judaea. Synagogues great and small, houses of Talmudic study, big religious seminaries that resound with boyish voices chanting the Torah, and little private schools tucked away in fifth-floor back-rooms, religious " courts of judgment ” and libraries, baths, hospitals, and dispensaries, clubs, theatres, and dancing- THE COMMUNITY 39 halls, asylums for newly-arrived immigrants, for the poor and the aged—these and countless other institutions make up the compact variegated fabric of the modern Ghetto. But the inhabitants of the Western Ghetto are never permanent inmates ; they use it at most as a half-way house, as a transitional stage between East and West. The influences from without penetrate slowly and subtly, luring the Jew into the outer world. By dint of industry, sobriety, and thrift he improves his worldly position and moves to a more spacious quarter. By that time he will have mastered the vernacular and become pretty familiar with the principal conditions of his adopted fatherland. He possesses a here¬ ditary gift for adaptability, which is stimulated by his native co-religionists, who make " Anglicization ” or “ American¬ ization/’ or whatever else the local term may be, a cardinal principle in their communal policy. 1 The actual immigrant from the East who settles in a Western Ghetto may, by reason of age, poverty, or prejudice, remain there and die there. But his children very seldom, perhaps never, do so : their modern education weakens the sentimental attachment to the Ghetto, and they prefer to live farther afield and enjoy a sense of actual equality with their non-Jewish neighbours. This steady migration of the children of the Ghetto into the outer circle of the communal area exercises a conservative influence upon religious conformity and Jewish life in general, which are everywhere exposed to the corroding effects of a Western environment. But simultaneously with the outflow from the Ghetto there is a regular influx from Eastern Europe, which is impelled by the forces of oppression and will continue as long as those forces prevail. Nothing but the grant of complete equality to the Jews of Eastern Europe can check the current of migration and the growth of Western Ghettos. Such an act of justice would have far-reaching results : it would ensure the material advance¬ ment of those who have hitherto been downtrodden, but it would also deprive Western Jewry of those successive bands of pietists who contribute so greatly to its conservation. 1 Cf. “The Problems of Anglicisation," by the Rev. S. Levy, M. A., in Pro¬ ceedings of the Second Conference of Anglo-Jewish Ministers, London, 1911- CHAPTER II TEIE FAMILY The importance, of the family in Jewry—The age of marriage— Marriages in the East and in the West—Betrothal—Religious celebrations—The legal aspect—The social celebration—The desire for children—Customs at birth—Religious rites at birth—The ceremony of “ confirmation ” t |~^HE family possesses more than ordinary import- ■ ance in Jewish life, for it is the bond of cohesion JL which has safeguarded the purity of the race and the continuity of religious tradition. It is the stronghold of Jewish sentiment, in which Jewish life unfolds itself in its most typical forms and intimate phases. To found a family is regarded not merely as a social ideal but as a religious duty. The Rabbis declared that the first affirma¬ tive precept in the Bible was the injunction “ Be fruitful and multiply,” and they invested marriage with the highest communal significance. They despised the bachelor and pitied the spinster. Only he who had founded a house in Israel was worthy to be considered a full-fledged member of the community ; only she who had become a mother in Israel had realized her destiny. This view has become modified in modern times, though family life still enjoys much of its traditional importance in Jewry. The Rabbis of ancient times prescribed the eighteenth year as the age for marriage. This principle is still followed in the Russian Pale, in Galicia and in Palestine, while in other Eastern countries, Morocco, Persia, and India, marriage often takes place even earlier. In Russia political conditions have combined with moral considerations to produce early marriages, for married men are exempt 40 THE FAMILY 4i from military service, and the father who has a dowry for his daughter seeks to secure her marriage before the dot can be imperilled by a riot. In Western countries, how¬ ever, early marriages are rendered less frequent by pru¬ dential considerations, though the traditional ideal of family life acts as a check upon a distant postponement. In orthodox circles early marriages, particularly of the daughters, are fairly frequent, but in households long established in a Western environment the age for marriage approximates to that among the general population. In Eastern countries, such as Morocco, Persia, and India, the marriage is arranged by the parents of the young couple, who submissively acquiesce in their fate. In Eastern Europe the parental negotiations are preceded by the activity of a matrimonial agent, who is rendered neces¬ sary by the segregation of the sexes still observed in most of the communities in Eastern Europe. The Shadchan, as he is called, is a prized visitor in the home of every marriageable girl, whose chances depend, apart from natural charms, upon the size of her dowry and the family reputation for piety, learning, and philanthropy. The highest virtue of the bridegroom is excellence in Talmudic study, which surpasses in value a splendid pedigree or a dazzling income bedimmed with ignorance. In most of the teeming communities of Russian and Galician Jewry the father still regards sacred learning as the noblest pos¬ session in a son-in-law, and if he can ally his daughter to a budding Rabbi he believes the union will find especial grace in Heaven. The lack of worldly means on the part of the bridegroom forms no deterrent, for it is customary for the father of the bride to keep his son-in-law in his own house for the first two years after marriage, and then to set him up in a home and business of his own. The services of the Shadchan are in constant demand : his area of operations extends throughout the Russian Pale and even across the frontier into Galicia, Rumania, and more distant lands. The couples whom he brings together hardly know one another before marriage and sometimes see each other for the first time on their wedding-day, but 42 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES their happiness is generally assured by their youth, the absence of a previous attachment, and the fact that marriage affords them the first opportunity of cultivating the senti¬ ment of love. In the West the arrangement of marriages tends to vary approximately in accordance with local customs and conditions, the freedom of intercourse between the sexes allowing of the natural development of personal affinities. The Talmudic scholarship of a young man enjoys little or no importance in the marriage-market : its place is taken by secular scholarship and scientific distinction, particu¬ larly in Austria and Germany. But the decisive element in the bridegroom’s eligibility is his worldly position and prospects, whilst the bride must, like her sister in the Russian Pale, be provided with a dowry. Despite the free conditions of the West and the vogue of matrimonial advertisements in German countries, the Shadchan still plays an important part, and in America he is even insured by the contracting parties against a breach of promise. But, on the whole, Western Jewry is divided from Eastern Jewry in the facility of marriages of affection as well as in the care exercised to prevent improvident unions. In the East the religious importance attaching to marriage, the stigma attaching to celibacy, and the deep-rooted faith in God as the bountiful Provider of daily needs, usually outweigh material considerations, but in the West the material sustenance of wedded life must first be assured. This difference of attitude results not only in the postpone¬ ment of marriage in the West, but also in the increase of celibacy, a tendency which is favoured by the sense of independence acquired by women who earn their own living and who find therein a source of consolation or distraction not open to their sisters in the East. Thus, the economic conditions of the modern world tend to modify profoundly the traditional ideals of family life. In ancient times the ceremony of betrothal (erusin) consisted in the signing of a contract which could be set aside only by formal divorce, and it was followed twelve months after by marriage ( nissuin , “ home-taking ”). But THE FAMILY 43 when the Jews became dispersed among the nations they found this custom inexpedient, and so combined the two ceremonies in the marriage service. A Jewish betrothal now, therefore, is simply the ordinary engagement in the West, though it receives a religious sanction in the syna¬ gogue, in which the bridegroom, on the Sabbath following, is called up to the reading of the Law. Should the promise of marriage be unfulfilled, the girl who desires compensation must resort to the law of the land ; but she is generally restrained from such a step by modesty and prudence, as her plight would become the talk of the community. The religious solemnization of marriage is, in its essential features, the same in all communities ; its festive celebra¬ tion differs very widely according to environment. In orthodox circles the bride takes a ritual bath the day before the marriage, and both the bride and bridegroom fast on their wedding-day until the festal repast, in expiation of their sins. The scene of the nuptial ceremony is usually in the synagogue, where the rule as to the separation of the sexes is relaxed for the nonce. The young couple take their places beneath a canopy ( chuppah) before the Ark of the Law, supported by their respective sponsors, who are known as Unterfiihrer, and accompanied in Western countries by such conventional auxiliaries as best man, bridesmaids, and even page-boys. The Rabbi recites the marriage-benediction, offers a cup of wine to bride and bridegroom, and then the latter, placing a ring upon the bride’s finger, makes the declaration : “ Lo, thou art dedi¬ cated unto me by this ring according to the Law of Moses and Israel.” The marriage contract, which is an Aramaic composition on parchment, is read; the celebrant utters seven blessings over a second cup of wine ; the bridegroom crushes a glass under his foot as a symbol of grief for the loss of Zion ; and the celebrant pronounces the benediction. Compliance with the marriage law of the land is naturally insisted upon by the religious authorities, but in very poor circles in Eastern Europe the act of marriage is sometimes confined to a private ceremony (stille Chasunah) at home, which is solemnized by an impecunious Rabbi, and the 44 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES legal formality of registration is omitted. Such marriages, however, are on the decrease owing to a growing knowledge of the perils involved by illegitimacy. No alliance may take place between a member of the Jewish faith and a Gentile, unless the latter previously becomes a proselyte; nor between a member of the priestly caste (a Cohen) and a widow or a divorced woman. Marriage with a brother’s widow, which, when there was no issue, was regarded as obligatory in the Bible times (Deut. xxv. 5, 6), is generally discountenanced, and the ceremony for evad¬ ing the obligation (halizah, “-taking off the shoe”)is observed pretty widely (Deut. xxv. 7-10), except in Reform circles. In Oriental countries the wedding festivities continue several days, and the bride is led to the home of her husband amid the gladsome acclaim of an animated throng. In Russia and Galicia, particularly in the townlets with a tense Jewish atmosphere, the feast is prolonged to a late hour, while profound discourses on Talmudic themes are delivered not only by the Rabbis present, but also by the bridegroom, who, apparently, is expected to be so free from the exciting emotions of his new estate as to be able to hold forth for an hour upon some controversial theological topic. Entertainment of a lighter kind is provided by a party of fiddlers ( Klesmer ), one of whom, the jester (Badhan or Marschalik), improvises songs and japes, and addresses the bride in a mock-serious oration which reduces her to tears by depicting the trials awaiting the virtuous house¬ wife in Israel. In Western countries a dinner and ball are considered in the middle classes the requisite features of a fashionable celebration, and in each locality a recognized code or ritual is scrupulously observed. On the Continent, particularly in Germany, it is customary to perform an amateur play gently satirizing the foibles of the young couple and their families. The honeymoon, which is un¬ known in Eastern Jewry, is cultivated throughout the West by all whose means allow them the luxury, but in conforming families it is postponed until after the Sabbath following the wedding, as a domestic celebration, known as the “ Seven Blessings,” is observed on the Day of Rest. A JEWISH WEDDING FROM THE PAINTING BY JOSEF ISRAELS THE FAMILY 45 No marriage is considered blessed that has no issue ; no family is considered complete without children. The maternal instinct of the Jewess is not only a natural emotion, but a traditional ideal, illustrated in the prayer of Hannah. The simple and essential conditions of domestic bliss are picturesquely phrased by the Psalmist : “ Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of thine house : thy children like olive plants, round about thy table.” A husband is entitled to a divorce after ten years if the marriage has been childless, and hence among the poor pious classes in Eastern Europe a childless wife will perform all manner of virtuous deeds to secure the favour of motherhood and even consult a “ good Jew,” a man versed in Cabbalistic lore and reputed to possess the miraculous power of the Baal Shem, the founder of the Chassidic sect in the eighteenth century. 1 There is also a religious reason for desiring an heir, for it is the duty of a son to honour his parents’ memory after death by reciting a special prayer (Kaddish, “sanctification”) to which profound—and almost superstitious—importance is attached. The desire for children is generally gratified, often in an abundant measure, though large families are becoming infrequent in the West, where prudential con¬ siderations prevail. The birth of a child is attended by a number of customs, partly religious and partly superstitious, though the latter are confined mostly to communities in Eastern Europe and the Orient. In ignorant families there still prevails a belief in the power of Lilith over new-born babes, and her sinister influence is exorcised by a display of charms and amulets on the walls of the sick-chamber. These charms are mostly in the form of Hebrew leaflets, bearing verses from the Psalms and an invocation to the guardian angels, which are hung near the door or window. During the first eight days of its life, and in some places even for the first thirty days, the child is protected from benemmerin 1 Israel b. Eliezer, of Miedzyboz (Poland), 1700-1760, who was credited with the power of working miracles by the name of God, and hence was known as the Baal Shem Tob (“ Master of the Good Name ”). 46 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES (“ pixies ”) by a group of young school-children who recite the evening prayers in the lying-in chamber under the supervision of a teacher. In parts of Germany, in Ru¬ mania, the Caucasus, and the Orient there are other peculiar customs for the protection of mother and child. The birth of a boy is usually greeted with greater joy than that of a girl. The reasons are partly social, partly religious, and partly economic. The Oriental view of the inferiority of woman still largely colours the philosophy of Eastern Jewry. The religious pre-eminence of man consists in his being able to perform so many more com¬ mandments, Scriptural and Rabbinical, than the woman ; and his economic advantage is particularly enhanced in a community in which the arrival of every daughter involves the saving up of a dowry. The principal custom connected with the birth of a male child is the “ Covenant of the circumcision,’’ which takes place on the eighth day at home, but in orthodox circles occasionally in the synagogue, when the day falls on the New Year or the Day of Atone¬ ment. The operation requires expert surgical skill, and hence in Western countries a Jewish doctor is pre¬ ferred to a Mohel, or practitioner, who only possesses an ecclesiastical licence. The infant is borne from its mother’s room by its godmother, who places it on the lap of its god¬ father, where the operation is performed and the child is named. The ceremony is celebrated by a breakfast, at which in orthodox circles the speeches often take the form of Talmudical discourses. A first-born son is liable to a further ceremony, for on the thirty-first day of his birth (Ex. xiii. 2, and Num. xviii. 16), he must be re¬ deemed from a hypothetical sanctification to God by the payment of five selaim or silver coins (reckoned at fifteen shillings) by the father to a Cohen , or priest. The “ re¬ demption of the son ” is made the occasion of a happy gathering, generally in the evening, and the money received by the Cohen is usually devoted to charity. In comparison with these various customs the formal reception of a female child into the community is simplicity itself. It consists of an announcement of her birth and Hebrew name THE FAMILY 47 in the synagogue on the following Sabbath morning. But even this simple custom is falling into desuetude in Western Jewry, and the registration of the birth at the office of the civil authority is frequently deemed sufficient. There is still another family celebration, when a boy on completing his thirteenth year publicly assumes religious responsibility, and is styled a “ Son of the commandment ” (Bar Mitzvah). The rite, known in Western countries as “ Confirmation,” is of an essentially religious character, but its domestic celebration enjoys at least equal if not greater importance. On the Sabbath after his thirteenth birthday, the boy is called up to the reading of the Law in the synagogue, and cantillates a portion in the traditional melody ; while his father offers up a benediction for being exempted from future responsibility for the lad’s religious conformity. The event is celebrated at home mostly by a breakfast, at which many speeches are delivered, including one by the boy himself, which, in orthodox families, consists of a Talmudical discourse learned by rote. In Western countries, the traditional breakfast has given way to an afternoon reception, at which the boy’s presents are displayed. Orthodoxy knows of no counterpart to this ceremony in the case of a girl, but the Reformers have instituted confirmation services for girls, who are dressed for the occasion in a white frock, and in some countries also in a bridal wreath and train, and who receive gifts from relations and friends in honour of the event. CHAPTER III THE HOME : EXTERNAL FEATURES The atmosphere in the home—Distinctive symbols—Pictures— Books—Kitchen arrangements—Dietary regulations—Peculiarities of the cuisine—The cuisine as a distinctive element in Jewish life —Distinctions of dress and of hair T HE essential qualities of Jewish life are seen in their purest and most intimate form in the privacy of the home. The atmosphere of a Jewish abode of the traditional type is diffused primarily by the precepts and practices of religion, which colour and control most of the daily activities of the Jew and surround him with con¬ crete tokens of his faith. Many of his domestic customs and observances are prescribed in the Shulchan Aruch, the code of orthodoxy, and thus bear a religious impress ; but they are for the most part the social habits of a people which has preserved a distinct individuality through centuries of exile. This distinct individuality is embodied in matters both material and intellectual, such as the kitchen and table arrangements, food and dress, pictures and books, speech and song. It is found in the fullest degree in the com¬ munities of Eastern Europe, as well as in those Western centres where traditional orthodoxy still holds sway. But it appears in a very attenuated degree in the houses of a great and growing mass of Western Jews, who tend to suppress the signs and symbols of their Judaism and to mould their lives after the prevalent fashion. The picture that will be drawn here will be that of a home in which most of the salient features of traditional Jewish life find normal expression. The first distinctive symbol greets one at the very 48 THE HOME: EXTERNAL FEATURES 49 threshold, namely, the Mezuzah {lit., “ door-post ”), a small tubular case of wood or metal, fixed slantwise on the upper part of the right-hand door-post. The case contains a rolled piece of parchment on which are written Scriptural verses enjoining the love of God and obedience to His commandments (Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21), and there is a small opening showing the word Shaddai {“ Almighty ”) written on the back of the scroll. This symbol is prescribed in the words : “ And thou shalt write them on the door¬ posts of thy house, and upon thy gates ” (Deut. vi. 9, xi. 20). It is fixed not only on the street door, but on the door of every living room in the house, and whenever the pious pass the Mezuzah, they touch it and kiss their fingers. The conforming J ew celebrates his entry into a new house by a religious ceremony of dedication, accompanied by a friendly reunion at which a Talmudical discourse is held. Sometimes he will leave an unpapered patch 011 one of the walls as a sign of grief for the destruction of Jerusalem, and he may nail a round piece of Matzah {“ Passover cake ”) above the mantelpiece as a constant reminder of the Exodus (Deut. xvi. 3). Various articles for ritual purposes are also displayed—the glistening candlesticks to welcome Sabbaths and festivals, the plaited taper and artistically wrought spice-box used in the service for ushering them out, the goblet of gold or silver or baser metal for the benedictions over wine essential to these holy days, and the eight-branched candlestick for the Feast of Dedication (Chanucah). Another conspicuous feature is the charity-box nailed to the wall in aid either of local phil¬ anthropy, or one of the many charities in Palestine. In recent years the “ Jewish National Fund ” box, distributed by the Zionist Organization for the collection of money to buy land in Palestine, has also become a familiar object. The walls are adorned with designs and pictures re¬ flecting a cherished tradition or illustrating a hallowed scene or revered personality. A favourite design con¬ sists of two intertwined triangles, called the " Shield of David ” (Magen David), and employed both in domestic and synagogue adornment. The usual decorations par- 4 50 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES ticularly in Eastern Europe, are legendary portraits of Moses and Aaron, crudely coloured views of Palestine, a permanent Hebrew calendar of perplexing elaborateness, a Jahrzeit tablet in simple black frame recording in Hebrew the anniversary of a parent’s death, and a micrographic representation either of Moses with horned forehead, or of the Cave of Machpelah, or of some other revered person or place. Portraits of distinguished Rabbis and of eminent Jews who have laboured for the salvation of their people, such as Sir Moses Montefiore, Baron Maurice de Hirsch, and Dr. Theodor Herzl, likewise have an honoured place even in the humblest home ; and the innate patriotism of the Jew finds expression even in the land of bondage, for in the abode of nearly every Russian Jew is a portrait of the Tsar. In Germany some of the most familiar pictures are scenes of Jewish domestic life and religious celebration drawn by the eighteenth-century artist Oppenheim, and in recent years there has been a steady increase of pictures portraying modern Jewish life in all its phases. The books have also a character of their own. The nucleus of every library in a typical orthodox household is a Hebrew collection consisting primarily of prayer- books for various occasions and Pentateuchs, worn with use and seared with age. The usual edition of the Torah or Pentateuch is in five volumes, each containing the Aramaic Targum and an array of mediaeval commentaries. The other Hebrew works are the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Mishnah, and the Shulchan Aruch, each in several volumes ; whilst a larger collection will comprise books in every branch of theological lore and religious legislation. The favourite volume of the orthodox Jewess of Eastern Europe is a Yiddish paraphrase of the Penta¬ teuch, called Teutsch-Chumesh or Zeenah Ureenah , 1 em¬ bodying many legends and homilies. There are also secular works in Hebrew and Yiddish comprising history, science, fiction, and poetry ; whilst the library of the scholar also contains many modern scientific works in various languages on Jewish history, literature, theology, and sociology. 1 ileb., " Go ye forth and see ” (Canticles iii. n). THE HOME : EXTERNAL FEATURES 5i A salient feature in the orthodox household consists of the arrangements in the kitchen, which are subject to special dietary laws. All meat foods must be kept strictly separate from milk-foods, as the contact of one with the other^-such as meat with milk, butter, or cheese—would render both unfit for consumption. This regulation in¬ volves the use of two sets of utensils, both for cooking and eating, the one set being reserved for meat dishes, and the other for milk or butter dishes, and the crockery and cutlery of the one set being kept rigorously apart from those of the other. This separation of things fleischig (“ meaty ”) from things milchig (“ milky ”) is observed by the strict housewife in every conceivable direction : there are separate tablecloths and napkins, separate cruets, separate basins for washing the crockery, and separate towels for drying ; and in more elaborate kitchens there are even separate cooking-ranges, dressers, and sinks. There is a special utensil for the preparation of meat, from which the blood must be drained in accord¬ ance with the Biblical command (Gen. ix. 4; Lev. iii. 17). It is a slanting board or piece of wicker-work, upon which the meat, after having been soaked in water half an hour, is besprinkled with salt; after another hour the salt is rinsed away, and the meat is ready for cooking. On the Feast of Passover special crockery and cutlery must be used, and as separate sets are necessary for meat and milk the orthodox household must be provided in all with four sets of cooking and eating vessels. The Passover sets are usually stored in some out-of-the-way place, where they are safe from contamination by any¬ thing “ leavened/’ i.e. the customary food of the rest of the year. The kitchen of the orthodox Jew is distinguished not only by the formal arrangements for storing, cooking, and eating food, but even more so by the nature of the food admitted. He strictly adheres to the prescriptions in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Leviticus as to the animals, birds, and fish that he may consume. He refrains from eating the flesh of any beasts except those that are cloven- 52 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES footed, and that chew the cud, and hence pork, bacon, and ham are taboo in his home. He refrains from eating any of the birds forbidden in that chapter, any fish that have not fins and scales, such as the eel, and " all creeping things that creep upon the earth,” such as snails, oysters, crabs, and lobsters. It is not enough that the flesh which he eats is of beasts or birds that are permitted, but these must have been killed by Jewish slaughterers in accordance with the regulations of Rabbinic law (Shechita) in order that the meat shall be kosher. Hence the Jewish housewife must obtain her meat from a butcher licensed by the ecclesiastical authori¬ ties, and after bringing it home she must remove the blood in the manner described before cooking it. The law of Shechita applies only to cattle, beasts, and birds ; there is no ordinance regarding the killing of fish, and hence the latter may be obtained from any purveyor. The strict housewife will also be particular about the fitness of the milk, butter, and cheese that she buys, and invariably procures them from a Jewish dairyman who holds a licence from the ecclesiastical authority, or upon whose scrupulous observ¬ ance of the ritual law she can rely. Dairy produce from a non-Jewish purveyor may have come into contact with some forbidden matter, such as lard, or may have been con¬ veyed in vessels ritually unclean, and hence it is suspect. A similar precaution is also taken in regard to bread and pastry, which must not be baked with forbidden fats : and hence the housewife will procure these commodities from a baker who observes the ritual law. In very orthodox centres the licensed baker affixes to each loaf a small label, which certifies to its being kosher, and states the name of the Rabbi responsible for its kashrus, whilst occasionally it even bears the baker’s portrait and a registered number. The frugal housewife, however, bakes her own bread, at least two twisted loaves in honour of the Sabbath, and performs a deed of religious merit in sacrificing a handful of dough ( challah ) upon the fire, a survival of the offering made to the priest in Temple times (Num. xv. 20). The bread is baked either at home, or more often at the local baker’s, and hence in Jewish districts on a Friday afternoon, or on the eve of a THE HOME : EXTERNAL FEATURES 53 festival, one may frequently see girls carrying home the Sabbath loaves in their aprons. The peculiar dishes of most nations are largely deter¬ mined by the natural products of the country, and by the taste formed by climatic conditions. The peculiar dishes of the Jewish cuisine are only partly determined by these circumstances : they have been mainly evolved by the elaborate legislation which prescribes what food is per¬ mitted, prohibits certain kinds of food at certain periods, and expressly forbids the act of cooking on the Sabbath. The eating of meat is subjected to more restrictions than any other commodity : the animal must be killed in accord¬ ance with Rabbinical law, the meat must be drained of its blood, and it must not be cooked with milk or butter. Moreover, during the first nine days of Ab (August) it may not be eaten at all, except on the Sabbath, as a token of grief for the destruction of Jerusalem. These restrictions have caused fish to become an article of very frequent consump¬ tion among even the poorest Jews, and it is recommended by the religious code as an essential dish on Sabbaths and festivals. Its popularity has tended to develop a fertile ingenuity in its preparation, the principal modes being frying, stewing, and “ filling.” The third mode (gefullter fisch) is peculiar to the Jews of Eastern Europe : the fish is prepared very much like a rissole, except that the pieces are covered with the skin and cooked in boiling water. The most distinctive dish is that due to the in¬ ability to cook on the Sabbath and to the desire neverthe¬ less to have hot food on that day. It is known as shalet, the virtues of which have been sung in a panegyric by Heine in his Prinzessin Sabbath. It consists usually of meat stewed with potatoes and fat, or with peas, beans, and barley. The pot containing it is generally put into another and larger pot containing hot water, and the whole is placed into the oven or upon the stove on Friday after¬ noon ; thus the dish requires no further attention, and it is quite hot enough when served for the midday meal on the Sabbath. The term shalet, which is prevalent in German-speaking countries, has undergone local variations, 54 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES being known as sholent or tcholent in Russia, and shulet in Bohemia. Its etymology has been explained in various fanciful ways, but the word is doubtless derived from the Old French chauld (“ warm’ ’), and thus points to the ancient origin of the popular dish. A common form of shalet is known as kugel, a kind of pudding, in which flour, fat, and raisins are usual ingredients. The law that has evolved this peculiar dish is also responsible for the extensive use of the samovar in orthodox homes. Water may not be boiled nor tea brewed on the Sabbath, but if the tea is prepared in the samovar before the incoming of the Sabbath, and a cup therefrom drunk, the beverage may be kept hot throughout the holy day without any infringement of the law. The various kinds of soups prepared by the Jewish housewife are also distinctive. The commonest is that served with lokshen, long strips of dough made of flour and eggs, like macaroni. The strips are sometimes cut into small squares, which are known as jarfil. There is also a variety of sour soups, called borschtsh, the most popular of which are made of beetroot mixed with the yolk of eggs. A peculiar aspect of the cuisine consists in the fact that special dishes are sacred to certain festivals or seasons of the year. The most important instance is the Feast of Passover, upon which no leavened bread may be eaten. The unleavened bread, in the form of large, thin, round biscuits, is not only a staple article of diet, but also an ingredient in most of the other dishes of the Passover week. The unleavened bread is ground into meal, with which little dumplings, called kneidlach (Ger., knodel) or matzakleis, are made and eaten with soup ; and the meal is also the chief ingredient in various sorts of puddings and pancakes. A dish sacred to three occasions in the year—the Feast of Purim, the eve of the Day of Atonement, and the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles—is known as kreplech, con¬ sisting of little triangular meat-patties served with soup. Another delicacy peculiar to Purim is the Haman-Tasche, a kind of turnover filled with honey and black poppy-seed. On the day preceding the Fast of Ab the conventional dish is milchige lokshen , home-made macaroni boiled in milk ; SABBATH IN A RUSSIAN HOME FROM THE PAINTING BY SAMUEL HIRSZENBERG THE HOME : EXTERNAL, FEATURES 55 and on the Feast of Chanucah (in December) the special dainties are pancakes, called latkies, and fried scraps of the skin of a fowl, known as gribenes. The foregoing description is merely a summary of the peculiarities of Jewish cookery, but it suffices to show that the cuisine in Jewry is as distinctive an element in its social life as in that of any nation living in a land of its own. Apart from his own peculiar dishes, the observant Jew also adopts those of his native country so far as they can be allowed by his dietary laws, and he imports them into any land to which he may emigrate. Thus, in the Jewish quarter of a Western city, one may see displayed in the shop- windows the large dark-brown loaves reminiscent of the Russian Pale, the kegs of olives, cucumbers and gherkins that hail from Holland, and the tureens of sauerkraut and variegated sausages that owe their origin to Germany. But he who has departed from the religion of his fore¬ fathers is prone to adopt the cuisine of his environment without reserve, and to indulge in all the forbidden meats that are anathema to the faithful. The disregard of the dietary laws, as a rule, is no sudden process, but undergoes a sort of development often occupying three or four genera¬ tions, the first generation being merely lax about the dietary laws without committing any wilful transgression, the second disregarding the laws about the preparation of per¬ mitted meat and the mixture of meat and butter, the third indulging in forbidden dishes only at restaurants, and the fourth introducing them upon the table at home. Outward distinction of dress is confined to countries which are either geographically or morally Eastern. In Poland and Galicia the Jews cling with religious devotion to the sixteenth-century Polish costume of the long gaber¬ dine, tied round with a girdle, and the round fur hat. Even boys of a tender age wear the gaberdine, while instead of the fur hat they have a peculiar cap with a glazed peak. The well-to-do members of the community honour the Sabbath and festivals with a gaberdine of silk or satin and a hat of the finest fur ; but there is no local variation in the costume of the Jewish women in those districts. There are certain 56 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES distinctions in regard to dress, however, which are observed by orthodox Jews in all parts of the world. They will not wear a garment made of the mixed fabric forbidden by the Mosaic law and known as shaatnez, such as a mixture of linen and wool (Lev. xix. 19). Under their vest they wear a small praying-shawl (Talith katon) in the shape of a chest-protector, made of cotton or wool, with a woollen fringe inserted in each of the four corners and arranged according to special regulations elaborated by the Rabbis from the Pentateuch (Num.xv. 37-41). This garment is also called arba kanfoth (“ four corners”), or, more popularly still, zizith (“ fringes ”), and it is worn by a boy from his earliest years. The pious Jew regards it as irreverent to be bareheaded, and hence always wears a skull-cap at home, a custom rendered further necessary by frequent prayers and sacred study, for both of which the head must be covered. To prevent the possibility of being bareheaded even for a moment he wears the skull-cap throughout the day and places over it his hat for outdoor wear when he leaves the house. Law and custom also regulate the dressing of the hair in orthodox circles. The Mosaic prohibition of shaving, in Lev. xix. 27 (“ Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard ”), is rigidly upheld, but is regarded as applying only to the operation with a razor. Those who wish to remove the hair without infringing the law use scissors, clippers, or a chemical depilatory ; but the complete removal of the beard, by whatever means, is regarded by staunch adherents of orthodoxy as a revolt from Rabbinical Judaism. In many parts of Eastern Europe, particularly Russia and Galicia, the hair is allowed to grow on both sides of the head and to hang down in curls or ringlets, in strict conformity with the Levitical rule. In 1845 Nicholas I of Russia decreed that his Jewish subjects should discard this custom, together with their Polish costume ; but ear-locks ( peoth) are still worn extensively in Eastern Europe, even by boys of a tender age, and they may be seen adorning the cheeks of pious Jews from the East who have migrated to a Western THE HOME : EXTERNAL FEATURES 57 city. Married women are required by Rabbinical law not to expose their hair, on pain of being regarded wanton. Hence orthodox Jewesses after marriage wear a wig which completely covers their hair, while in the Orient they don a kerchief. In the Western world, however, both men and women for the most part disregard these customs and follow the local fashion. HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS The formative forces in home life—The religious factor in the daily regimen—Preparations for the Sabbath—At home on Friday night—The Sabbath day—Festival observances : Passover—Taber¬ nacles—Other feasts—Fasts—Historical and local factors—The position of woman—Linguistic features—Last scene of all T HE conditions and character of home life are determined by three main forces. The first consists of religious regulations, the second of historical development, and the third of local environment. The religious regulations are those embodied in the Shulchan A ruck (“ Table Prepared ”), the digest compiled by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century upon the basis of the Talmud and its many commentaries. This mediaeval code controls and colours every movement in the daily life of the orthodox Jew; it governs every step in his earthly pilgrimage from the cradle to the grave. It prescribes with elaborate minuteness the varied observances for Sabbaths, feasts, and fasts, the customs and ceremonies for the principal events of human life, the relations that should prevail between husband and wife, between man and his neighbours. Prayer, diet, dress, charity, morality, and the functions of nature are all subjects of precise regulation. The Shulchan Aruch has thus imparted a fundamental uniformity to the scattered communities which would else have become diversified by local conditions, though its authority is no longer recognized so universally, nor are its ordinances followed so scrupulously as in days gone by. The historic factor in domestic life has arisen from the growth and experiences of the community ; it comprises social con- HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 59 ventions, pastimes, folk-lore, and the peculiar amenities of family life. It prevails mostly in the old-established settle¬ ments in Eastern Europe, but on being transplanted by emigrants to the lands of the West it is gradually dissolved in an alien atmosphere. The influence of local environment is naturally restricted in point of extent, but it operates with a growing degree of intensity, for throughout the lands of the West, and in a lesser degree even in the East, local habits and fashions tend to invade the home and to com¬ pete with the characteristic features of historic Judaism, triumphing over them where no conscious resistance is offered. The preceding chapters have already afforded illustrations of the religious factors in home life, but they form only a fraction of the rites and observances that endow it with its specific character. Let us follow the daily movements of a conforming Jew, as enjoyed by the Shul-chan Aruch, which prescribes that he shall utter a hundred benedictions a day. No sooner does he wake in the morning than he pours water three times over each hand, for his hands are regarded as ritually unclean after the night’s sleep, and he may not touch his face nor walk more than “ four cubits ” (about six feet) before performing the ablution. Nor may he walk beyond this limit with uncovered head or without wearing his garment of fringes, for he must ever be filled with a feeling of reverence for the Creator. The first important duty of the day is to offer up his prayers, but before he may do this he must cleanse himself by discharging his natural functions and bless the Creator for having fashioned him with the organs necessary for health. He then completes his toilet and proceeds from cleanliness to godliness. If he can he attends morning service in the synagogue and hurries thither to symbolize his zeal; otherwise he offers up his prayers at home, together with his sons. For twenty minutes or half an hour the room has the appearance of a miniature syna¬ gogue, the worshippers wearing the talith (‘‘praying-shawl”) and tephillin (“phylacteries”) and voicing their Hebrew prayers in a quaint traditional cadence. Only after completing his devotions may he take his 6o JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES breakfast, which, like every other meal, is attended with a ritual of benediction. He pours water three times over his hands, and while drying them blesses “ the King of the Universe, who hath sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to cleanse the hands.” He then says grace before meat : “ Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth,” and breaks bread. Brief as is this grace before the meal, that which comes after it is appreciably long, and then the members of the family disperse to their various occu¬ pations. In the Western world, where trains wait for no man, the morning devotions and grace are often sadly mutilated by the necessity of punctuality at office, factory, or school, but a compensating leisureliness may be observed in the devotions of the evening. An orthodox Jew tries to attend the evening service at the synagogue not alone because of the religious virtue attaching thereto, but also because he may join a class of amateur students—tradesmen, artisans, pedlars, and the like—in their nightly study of the Talmud under the guidance of the Rabbi. But even if he should be unable to go to the house of prayer, he will never fail in his devotions at home, and he will round off the pro¬ gramme of the day by studying a page of the Talmud, utter¬ ing the complicated argument in a peculiar chant-like air in the midst of the family circle. His leisure moments are devoted to the reading of Hebrew works, primarily those of religious lore, and he always finds time to con a news¬ paper, being as interested in international as in purely local affairs. Before retiring to bed he offers up a night- prayer in which he fervently declares : " Into Thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth,” and thrice repeats: “Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.” The preparations for the Sabbath day are important not only because honour must be shown to it by special dishes, but still more because no cooking may be done on that day ; and hence the Jewish housewife is busy market¬ ing, cooking, and cleaning from Thursday morning till the setting of the sun on the following day. The kitchen HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 61 presents a scene of bustle ; there is the baking of the twisted loaves, sprinkled with poppy-seed in memory of the ancient manna, and of a large family cake ; the chop¬ ping of fish to make the boiled rissoles known as gefullter ftsch, and the frying in oil of other fish ; the preparing of the lockschen or macaroni for soup ; the plucking of a hen, killed by a ritual slaughterer, and its disembowelling, salting, and cooking ; and finally the cooking of the all- important Shalet. Add to these the sweets and sauces which the ingenuity of a diligent housewife may provide, and remember the rigid separation she must observe between meat and butter, and then one may acquire some notion of her task in preparing an orthodox welcome for the “ Sabbath bride/’ The course of her labours may be suddenly interrupted by the discovery of a pin in the bowels of the hen, or some other ritual blemish, whereupon she must send the fowl to the Rabbi to inquire whether it is kosher. An adverse decision causes only passing irrita¬ tion, for much more serious than the sacrifice of the fowl would have been the sin of eating it; and, besides, the forbid¬ den bird can be sold to a Gentile neighbour. The housewife may also be interrupted by the calls of poor women, begging for the wherewithal to celebrate the Sabbath, and she gives them each a couple of candles to light in honour of the holy day. In addition to cooking there is the work of cleaning and dusting to make the house look bright and festive : the Sabbath candlesticks, the cutlery, and the boots all receive a vigorous polish. In many a humble home these arduous preparations have to be carried out alone by the zealous housewife, burdened perchance with the cares of infant children, though her husband accounts it a religious virtue to help. He distils the raisin wine for the sanctification of the Sabbath, brews the tea in the samovar, and drinks the first cup so that he and his family may lawfully enjoy the hot beverage during the day of rest. So absorbing are these various tasks—for no work of any kind may be done from sunset on Friday for the next twenty-four hours—that there is hardly time to eat ; and indeed the upholders of tradition designedly eat little 62 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES during the day so that they may develop a keen appetite for the evening repast. The conforming Jew also takes a hot bath, trims his hair, pares his nails, and dons his best clothes. With a feeling of relief the mistress of the house applies herself to her final duty-—the decking of the table. She covers it with a white linen cloth, places at the head the two twisted loaves, symbolical of the double portion of manna gathered in the Wilderness of Sinai on the Sabbath eve, and covers them with a fancy cloth, generally of dark red velvet with a Hebrew design or benediction embroidered in yellow. She puts the bottle of raisin wine or some superior decoction near the bread, and the candlesticks of brass or copper or silver, sometimes two and sometimes four, containing wax candles, at the opposite end. Then she lights the wicks, and covering her eyes with her palms she offers up the Hebrew prayer : “ Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Sabbath light.’’ Thus she welcomes the day of rest, and with her daughters she awaits the return of her husband and sons from the synagogue, whither they have gone to join in the service of psalmody from which naught but sickness can excuse their absence. An air of peace and contentment fills even the humblest home on Friday night. The snow-white cloth, illumined by the sacred lights and adorned with the velvet mantle of the twin loaves and the wine of sanctification, changes the lowly abode into a place of delight, from which all the toil and turmoil of the week are banished : the genial scene is infused with a spiritual glow and touched with an Eastern glamour. Amid joyous greetings of “ Good Sabbath ! ” the husband and sons are welcomed home, and the ties of family affection are drawn still closer by poetic ceremonial. The father, placing his hands on the heads of his children, pronounces a blessing in Biblical diction, in¬ voking the favour of God to make his sons “ like Ephraim and Manasseh,” and his daughters like “ Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, and Leah.” And he sings the praises of his wife in the glowing panegyric of the Book of Proverbs (xxxi.), HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 63 fashioned as an acrostic on the Hebrew alphabet, to a tradi¬ tional air : “A virtuous woman who can find ? for her price is far above rubies.” And then, the family gathered round the table, he recites the sanctification over the wine, in which he recalls how God “ rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made, and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.” He drinks of the wine, and passes the cup round the table ; and after laving his hands in the ritual manner and saying grace, he cuts one of the loaves and distributes a piece to all present. The family circle often includes a poor stranger, a Sabbath guest, who has been invited home from synagogue in accordance with the ethical precept of “ hospitality to wayfarers.” The guest is soon put at his ease and joins in the conversation, and if he be a Russian or Rumanian immigrant seeking asylum in a Western land, he regales his hosts with stories of his sad experiences. Between the courses there is a brief inter¬ lude for the singing of hymns, with spirited refrains, which proclaim the duties and pleasures of Sabbath observance. Grace after meat is recited with many melodious passages, in some of which the whole company joins, and the house is filled with the joyous strains of Hebrew minstrelsy. Presently the sound of sacred song is heard again, for the father of the household chants the current portion of the Pentateuch to a quaint Oriental air, in which his sons occasionally join. It is the one night of the week when, in many circles, all the members of the family gather together to indulge in the pleasures of conversation. They may not perform on a musical instrument or smoke, but they may diversify the evening by a game of chess, though as a rule the conversa¬ tion is sustained with sufficient vigour to dispense with adventitious pastimes. Even in homes where the ritual of the Sabbath is not strictly kept, the night is regarded as sacred to domestic intercourse, and the family circle is not broken up even by the most tempting attractions outside. For the orthodox visits to places of public amusement are out of the question, as they would involve the handling of money, and perhaps the use of a vehicle, both acts that are 64 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES forbidden on the sacred day. But those who are keen upon seeing a play avoid transgressing the letter of the law by booking seats in advance and walking to and from the theatre, although conscious that they are departing from the traditional observance of the day. They, however, who remain at home help to conserve the spirit of the ages, the genius of the Sabbath as celebrated in diverse climes through the changing centuries. Nought can compare with the feeling of cheerfulness and intimacy that fills the peaceful household on this night, the hallowed candles shedding their beaming rays and making playful shadows, the samovar steaming invitingly on the table, and the ambrosial fragrance of the morrow’s shalet diffusing a sense of delicious contentment. And in harmony with the genial scene is the theme of conversation, parents telling their children tales of the olden days when Israel had a kingdom of his own, or of the mediaeval times when he was doomed to the dungeon and the stake, or stories of the wise men in the past; or the older members of the group may engage in a discussion on a Talmudical problem or the destinies of their people, all heedless of which the young¬ sters slowly drop off to sleep. And the pleasant discourse flows on unruffled until the servant enters to put out the lights, for no Jew may kindle or extinguish fire on the holy day (Ex. xxxv. 3). But the Sabbath candles must not be touched : they are left to burn unto the end, and the conversation is often continued until the last feeble flicker of the dying wick leaves all in the gloom that enwraps the future. The prohibition to handle fire on the Sabbath has produced a special character, the Shabbos-goyah or ‘‘Sabbath Gentile,” who, in houses where there is no non-Jewish servant, attends to the lights and fires and performs any other domestic work forbidden to the Jew. These functions are usually discharged by the charwoman who has helped in the preparations earlier in the day ; but there are hundreds of thousands of homes where even a charwoman on a week-day is a luxury. But on the Sabbath Gentile assistance is necessary for all who would keep the Law, HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 65 and hence even the poorest home cannot dispense with a “ fire-woman/’ as she is called in English parlance. The “ fire-woman ” usually looks after a number of houses in the same district, and her charge, which is called “ fire- money,” is quite moderate, amounting to only a few pence for the day. Early on the Sabbath morning the observant Jew wends his way to synagogue, to attend a service that lasts from two to three hours. He goes breakfastless, for he may eat no food until he has offered up his prayers ; the only refreshment he takes is a glass of tea from the inex¬ haustible samovar. As it is almost noon before he is home again, he often combines breakfast with dinner, eating the joint repast with becoming leisureliness, and chanting with contentment the Sabbath hymns after consuming the succulent shalet. In the afternoon he indulges in a nap, examines the progress of his young sons in their Hebrew studies, and very often listens to a long Talmudical dis¬ course, which follows the afternoon service in the synagogue. Morning sermons are not the fashion in his house of prayer, for no Derasha (“ discourse ”) worthy of the name can be delivered under an hour and a half, and to prolong the morning service to such an extent would arouse the pangs of hunger even among the most zealous, and so violate the tranquil spirit of the day. Even if there be no Talmudic homily to detain him, he often lingers in the house of prayer to engage in mundane converse until the concluding prayers of the Sabbath at sunset, for to him and all his circle the synagogue is also a social rendezvous. But in the long summer afternoons he returns home to take a third meal, for the code ordains that he shall eat three meals in honour of the Sabbath, a sumptuary law which he will not willingly transgress. When the final service of the day, begun in the thickening shadows and concluded amid the lighting of lamps, is over, he wends his way home, greets the family with Gut Woch (“ Good week”), and ushers out the sacred day with the ceremony of Habdalah (“ Separation ”) just enacted in the synagogue, which indicates the transition to the working 5 66 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES day. He pours wine into a cup, lets it flow over to sym¬ bolize the Divine bounty which he wishes to enjoy in the coming week, and utters a benediction. He takes a spice- box, shakes it, and inhales the pungent fragrance, to typify the “ additional soul ” with which the Sabbath, according to tradition, has endowed him. He places his hands against a plaited wax-light, generally held by a younger son (who is jestingly admonished to hold it higher if he desires a tall bride), and bending the fingers inwards, he marks the contrast between the shadow within and the light without and blesses “ the Creator of the light of fire.” And in a closing benediction he blesses the King of the Universe for having made a distinction “ between the holy and the profane, between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between the seventh day and the six days of creation.” He sips the wine and passes it round to the males 1 ; he extinguishes the taper in the ruddy overflow in the plate. The day of rest is over and the week of work has begun again, and he meets its cares and troubles with a lilting hymn and a glad refrain : “ He who profane from holy parts, Our sins He will forgive ; Our seed, our means He will increase Like sand, like stars of night. My voice, let not be turned aside ; The gate of favour ope. My head with dew doth overflow. My locks with drops of night. Lord, in Thine hand we are like clay ; Forgive the light and grave. For speech day utters unto day, And night to ev’ry night.” Life in the home presents the same general features on festivals as on the Sabbath, with differences of cere¬ monial and diet due to each special occasion. The most striking differences are those connected with the Feast of Passover and Tabernacles, which are both observed 1 Women do not partake of the wine of Habdalah, as they are supposed to have less personal interest in the resumption of work. THE TERMINATION OF THE SABBATH FROM AN ETCHING BY HERMANN STRUCK HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 67 with rites in which historic memories, poetic symbolism, and religious legalism are all intertwined. Passover involves a culinary revolution, for all leavened food must be removed from the house, the crockery and cutlery used throughout the year must be replaced by the special sets reserved for the festival, and a staple factor of the week’s diet is the brittle unleavened bread first baked by the Israelites on their flight from Egypt. The dis¬ tinguishing feature of the celebration, which is peculiarly rich in picturesque ceremonial, is the service of praise and prayer offered up on the first two nights around the festive table, upon which, beside the gleaming candles, are the dishes that symbolize the Egyptian bondage and the Divine redemption. The Sabbath loaves are replaced by three cakes of unleavened bread, representing the “ bread of affliction.” A bowl of bitter herbs recalls the bitterness of the Pharaonic oppression ; a pasty confection of almonds and spices, into which the bitter herbs are dipped before they are eaten, typifies the mortar wherewith the cities of Pithom and Rameses were built; the shankbone of a lamb represents the Paschal offering of Temple days ; and a roasted egg stands for the private offering made by every Jew on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year in the romantic past. And before each member of the family group is a glass of wine which must be filled and emptied four times at fixed intervals in the service, in memory of the fourfold utterance in which the Almighty announced the redemption. 1 An extra cup of wine is kept ready for any possible guest, and is called “ the cup of Elijah,” as the guest most desired is Elijah, the fore¬ runner of the Messiah. The prayers narrate the history of the departure from Egypt and explain the meaning of the several rites con¬ nected with the celebration, and hence they are called Haggadah (“recital”). The order of the service is known 1 Ex. vi. 6, 7 : “ And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgements ; and I will take you to me for a people.” 68 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES as Seder or “ Order/’ and the first two evenings of Passover are called “ Seder evenings.” This domestic celebration is in many cases the only occasion of a family reunion throughout the year, and thus serves other than purely religious objects ; whilst the interest of the children is aroused by assigning to the youngest present the duty of asking four questions in regard to the distinguishing features of the evening. It is the custom on the Feast of Tabernacles to live as much as possible in a tabernacle or booth for seven days, in memory of the tents in which the children of Israel dwelt during their wanderings in the wilderness. The booth is a small temporary structure of wood, built generally at the back of the house, with a roof of rushes that lets in the daylight. The duty of “ dwelling ” therein is interpreted by staunch pietists to include not only eating but sleeping; but as the festival falls at the end of Sep¬ tember, when cold nights in the Western world would make sleep in such an abode uncomfortable, the great majority of the orthodox fold are content simply to have their meals and receive their friends there. The booth is generally home-made, and all members of the family, especially the younger ones, take a delight in helping in its erection. The interior is decorated with pictures, religious emblems and Hebrew mottoes, and from the roof hang clusters of fruit, which give to the rude structure the appearance of a rustic bower in an Eastern land, and recall “ the feast of ingathering ” in ancient Palestine which the festival also commemorates. At nightfall, when the booth is lit up by the candles that have been blessed by the housewife, and the family are gathered around the table, the pious paterfamilias raises his voice in tuneful melody as he intones the sanctification over the wine, quickly to be followed by his neighbours in the tabernacles near by, and thus a chorus of Hebrew thanksgiving rises unto the star-lit heavens throughout the globe four thousand years after the wandering tribe dwelt in booths in the Wilderness of Sinai. The other festivals have also a domestic side to their HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 69 observance, though not to such an impressive extent. Pentecost, the second of the three pilgrim feasts, is the least endowed with special ceremonial: the only custom is that of sitting up the greater part of the first night and reading passages from the Scriptures and the Talmud, for the festival commemorates the giving of the Law. New Year is the occasion for an effusive exchange of friendly wishes, which are communicated in Western lands largely through the medium of private cards and the columns of the Press ; whilst the festive repast is begun with a sweet apple dipped in honey, to typify the year of sweetness for which everybody prays. The final meal on the Eve of the Day of Atonement is consumed with an air of solemnity, the grace being uttered in a tearful voice ; whilst the fast is broken with a meal ac¬ companied by every sign of joy and festivity. The Feast of Dedication (Chanucah), which commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians, is a feast of light and song, which makes a potent appeal to children. On the first night one light, and on each succeeding evening a further light must be kindled, so that a row of eight beaming lights illumines the home on the last night; and the children, who have helped in the kindling, join in the gleeful hymn which tells of the re-dedication of the Temple after its pollution by the Syrian foe. Spending-money {Chanucah Geld) is given to the youngsters, who also demand a similar bounty on Purim [Purim Geld), wherewith to celebrate the downfall of Haman with fitting rejoicing. The latter festival is the occasion, particularly in Eastern Europe, of amateur theatricals, the favourite performance being a Hebrew or Yiddish play, with Esther and Mordecai as the heroes and Haman as the villain. A simpler form of entertainment is provided by two or three minstrels, who generally go in some sort of disguise from house to house, fiddling and singing all manner of merry songs. Three-cornered turnovers filled with honey and black poppy-seed, and known as Hamantaschen, are eaten; modest gifts are exchanged between friends in accordance with the custom prescribed in the Book of Esther ; and 70 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the youngsters make a rollicking din with their rattles to proclaim anew the discomfiture of the wicked Haman. It is an occasion when merry-making amounts to a duty, and a liberal indulgence in strong drink is even recom¬ mended by the orthodox code, a counsel faithfully adopted by those who would make a virtue of their failings. The fasts of the calendar likewise find external ex¬ pression in the home, since no food or drink may be taken by anybody above the age of thirteen, the year in which religious responsibility is attained. The house is often closed on the Day of Atonement, for the whole family are in the synagogue from early morn till sunset. On the four fast days kept in commemoration of events connected with the fall of Jerusalem (Zech. viii. 19) the Jew may attend to his ordinary work, and the home almost presents its usual aspect, save for the absence of meals. But on the ninth of Ab (August), the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, he may not wear boots or shoes of leather, nor greet his friends, in token of the sadness of the day. Prominent as these national and religious anniversaries are in moulding and colouring home life in J ewry, they do not dominate it to the exclusion of other factors, for there are also features due to historical development and local environment. To the former category belong the peculiar¬ ities of language employed by Jews, their peculiar greetings, expletives, idioms, proverbs, folk-songs—all the elements of the distinctive culture evolved through the centuries. The features due to local environment are as varied as the environments themselves. They prevail predominantly, but not exclusively, in Western lands, and in proportion as they invade and dominate the Jewish home, the latter loses its distinctive character. The home is the dominion of the Jewish woman : hers is the duty of safeguarding its purity religiously, morally, and ritually, a task which demands unceasing vigilance and leaves little leisure for extra-domestic labours. The Jewish woman is trained in the ways of modesty and taught that chastity is the highest virtue. This lesson is enforced upon the eve of marriage by the custom of replacing her HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 7 i maiden tresses by a matronly wig, to avert admiration from any other but her husband. Even before marriage she may not be in the company of men, except under the closest chaperonage, and at social gatherings she and her sisters must entertain themselves in one room, whilst the men are in another. She dances with her own sex too, or if she dances with a man she may not touch his hand, but holds one end of a handkerchief while he holds another, and thus they trip it decorously. This rigorous separation of the sexes prevails only in certain circles in Russia, Galicia, and the lands of the East, though even in Western countries the pious look askance at social intercourse be¬ tween men and women. But the tendency to discard these habits of the Orient is steadily progressing. The Jewish woman upon marriage abandons any occupation she may have followed for a living, in order to devote herself com¬ pletely to her wifely duties ; and if her husband be too poor to allow this sacrifice she gives up her work at least as soon as she looks forward to motherhood. Her natural instinct to give utterance to her emotions in song is dis¬ couraged by the puritanical rule of the Talmud : “A voice in a woman is lewdness,” but it is too strong and primeval to be suppressed by law. She sings lullabies and folk-songs, simple Yiddish compositions that have all the qualities of popular ballads, inspired by traditional ideals and echoing with national sorrows. She sings to her baby- boy of the study of the Torah and the pursuit of trade, the twin ideal of the Eastern Jew ; and croons over her baby-girl a ditty in which she pictures her already as a mother, revealing the insistent sense of maternity that animates the women of her race. No insipid rhymes about mythical monsters are her cradle-songs, but serious re¬ flections on daily life. “ A little while together we will play. And then to school the child must quickly go, Where he will learn the Torah’s happy way, And good reports to us will daily flow.” Thus from the cradle does the child inhale a spirit of earnestness. 72 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES This distinctive influence of the nursery prevails only in those communities that have evolved a specifically Jewish culture, namely, in the East, whilst it has extended to the Western Ghettos to which this culture is transplanted. It is part of the general intellectual atmosphere, of which the language spoken, whether Yiddish or Ladino, with all its peculiarities of speech and current idioms, forms so im¬ portant an element. For the Jew born and bred in the strongholds of Jewish tradition has his own individual way of expressing himself, his own peculiar greetings, oaths, and proverbs. He has a primitive mode of nomenclature, addressing his neighbours by their forename, with a title of respect, such as “ Reb Samuel ” (Mr. Samuel-) or “ Reb David,” or denominating them by some physical or social characteristic such as “ the red Michael,” “ the tall Archik,” “ the Lomzha Melammed ” (teacher), or “ Chaye die Shmaye ” (the gossip). If he is ignorant of a man’s name he addresses him simply as “ Landsmann ” (countryman) or, somewhat whimsically, as “ Reb Yid” (Mr. Jew). His time-honoured Hebrew greeting is “ Shalom aleichem ” (Peace unto you), to which his friend responds with “ Aleichem shalom .” But this salutation is generally used only upon seeing a friend after a long absence, the more customary greeting being in Yiddish : “ Was macht ihy ? ” (How are you ?). “ Good day ” and “Good evening” have their literal equivalents, “a gaten Tog,” “ a guten Ovend ” (Ger. Abend), though the latter are often shortened to simply “ a guten ! ” On the Sabbath the greeting is “ Gut Shabbos ” (Good Sabbath), or among the Sephardim, “ Shabbat Shalom ” (A Sabbath of peace) ; on the festivals, “ Gut Yomtov’ > (Good holy day); and at the close of Sabbaths and festivals, “ Gut Woch ” (Good week). Should a person visit his friend whilst the latter is seated at table, he exclaims in Hebrew : “Blessed is he that sitteth! ” and should one of them sneeze, the other calls out, “ Asusah ” or “ Zu Gesund ” (Good health !). The usual formula of congratulation is “ Mazzol Tov /” (Good luck), while in drinking a toast the wish expressed is “ Lee hay im ! ” (For life). These are but the commonest HOME LIFE AND CUSTOMS 73 forms of greeting in the course of daily conversation, which contains a multitude of idioms. We come now to the last scene of all, and the panorama of domestic life will be complete. The Jew beholds the approach of the shadow of Death into his home with poignant grief, for his family affection is strong and deep-rooted. He does not lightly reconcile himself to the loss of his flesh and blood ; he offers up Psalms in a wailing voice by the bedside or in an adjoining room, hoping that the Almighty will hear and have mercy. He selects verses from the alphabetical Ps. cxix. that correspond to the letters of the name of the stricken one, believing that this acrostic of propitiation will work with potent charm. And when he sees that the breath grows feebler, and the deathly pallor deeper, and that all hope is vain, he utters the declaration of faith for the dying to repeat : “ Shema —Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Blessed be the name of His glorious Kingdom for ever and ever. The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God/’ For some moments he refrains from touching the body, to make sure that life is extinct, and then he closes the eyes and covers the face of the dead. He makes a rent in his garment, as also do the other members of the family, and all who hear of the sad news respond : " Blessed be the true Judge.” The body is washed by the members of a “ Holy Brotherhood ” with traditional rites, and a talith (“praying-shawl”)—symbol of the faith of the synagogue—is wrapped around it before it is laid into the coffin. Many relatives and friends join in the funeral procession, for to accompany the dead to their last resting-place is a deed of enduring merit. An oil-wick is lit in memory of the soul that has fled, and is kept alight for a whole week. When the mourners return home the father and brothers of the departed, first laving their hands before entering, exchange their leathern footgear for slippers of cloth, and sit on low stools in token of sorrow. They break their fast with a modest meal of bread and hard-boiled eggs, which typify by their lack of an opening the sealed lips of the mourner. The frugal repast is prepared by a neighbour, for the 74 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES mourners may not eat of their own cooking at the first meal after the burial. For seven days (Shiva) they sit at home and mourn, abstaining from work and even from a careful toilet. Three times a day they hold divine service, in which friends and members of their synagogue join, and they offer up the prayer of Kaddish (“ sanctification ”) in honour of the memory of the departed. They study the pages of Holy Writ, above all the Book of Job, to solace their grief, and of an evening the Rabbi expounds a page of the Talmud or a chapter of the Scriptures to the friends who come to console and remain to pray. “ May the Omnipresent comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem ! ” is the consolation uttered by visitors as they leave the house, the words in which the precentor on the Sabbath eve welcomes the mourners back to the synagogue. And whenever the name of the dead is mentioned henceforth it is coupled with the pious invocation : “ Peace upon him ! ” and upon every anniversary of the event (Jahrzeit) an oil-wick is lit in the home and the Kaddish prayer is offered up by the nearest relative in the synagogue. CHAPTER V PHILANTHROPY “ For the poor shall never cease out of the land : therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.”— Deut. xv. ii. Charity a basic principle of Jewish life—Administration in ancient and mediaeval times—Modern principles of administration —Local organizations—Methods of relief—Personal service— The financial burden—Orphanages, hospitals, and almshouses -—The relief of Eastern Jewry—Emigration and exceptional calamities HE practice of charity is a basic principle of Jewish life, and forms a prominent feature of every JL communal organization. Ordained in the Penta¬ teuch as a commandment, and emphasized throughout the Bible as a social duty, the relief of the poor has from the earliest times always received the ready aid of the in¬ dividual and the zealous care of the community. In all the centuries of gloom and oppression that have lain so heavily upon the people of Israel, the cry of the needy has never failed to be heard. Wealth was considered as a trust from God, of which a just stewardship required the giving of a portion to the poor who stood under His especial protection. The corner of the field, the gleanings of the harvest, the forgotten sheaf, and the growth of the seventh year, were all, according to the law of Moses, to be left to the poor. The lofty place accorded to charity in the Jewish scale of ethical virtues is best attested by its Hebrew equivalent, zedakah, which means “ righteousness.” The giving of alms formed the supreme factor of a righteous life in ancient Israel, and many were 75 76 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the Biblical maxims that were interpreted by the sages of the Talmud in this sense, and many the doctrines and parables uttered by them in enforcement of the virtue. “ Righteousness delivereth from death” (Prov. xi. 4) meant “ Charity delivereth from death,” an interpretation that found expression in the custom that still prevails of collecting alms at a funeral in a box styled “ the zedakah box.” The potency thus ascribed to charity is also pro¬ claimed in pregnant terms in the synagogue ritual of the New Year and Day of Atonement : “ Repentance, prayer, and charity avert the evil decree,” a doctrine that still pro¬ duces an effusive display of benevolence on the eve of those solemn festivals. Nor is it enough merely to give alms, but personal kindness must also be shown, as in hospitality to wayfarers, visiting the sick, and dowering the bride. So highly was the attribute of personal kindness esteemed by the Rabbis of ancient times that, according to Simon the Just, 1 it formed with the Torah and divine worship the tripod upon which the world rested. Moreover, it is the kindness shown in bestowing alms which, according to another sage, decides a man’s final reward. 2 The particular needs of the poor must be studied and suitably relieved—such was the meaning of the Psalmist in de¬ claring : “ Blessed is he that considereth the poor ” (xli. 2). The feelings of the poor man must also be respected, and hence “ giving in secret ” is the most estimable method of help. Charity became a matter of public administration in Jewry in the earliest centuries of the Christian era, and the following branches of benevolent activity are enum¬ erated in Rabbinical literature 3 : feeding the hungry and giving the thirsty to drink, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, burying the dead and comforting the mourners, redeeming the captives, educating the fatherless and sheltering the homeless, and providing poor maidens with dowries. In every community there was a charity-box (kuppah) from which every Friday doles were given to 1 Aboth., i. 2. 2 Succah, 49 b. 3 Moed Kat., 27 b ; Semahot, xii. PHILANTHROPY 77 the poor of the town for their meals during the following week and for clothing, and likewise to needy wayfarers ; and there was also a charity-bowl (tamhui) containing victuals needed for immediate relief. The funds for the charity-box were collected by two trustworthy men, and administered b}' three overseers, styled gabba’e zedakah or parnassim (from Trpovoos), who were chosen from the fore¬ most members of the community and who once included in their number the martyr Rabbi Akiba. 1 The overseers of the poor, anticipating the methods of a modern charity board, decided upon the merits and claims of the applicants before granting them aid : a woman was given precedence before a man, and a student of the law before an ignoramus, whilst care was taken not to put anyone to shame. In addition to the distribution of alms there was in the early and mediaeval centuries a communal hostel where the poor traveller obtained food and shelter, and also an asylum (hekdesh) which served both as a home for the poor and as a hospital for the sick and aged. In the course of time the primitive charity-bowl was superseded by private hospitality or communal kitchens and by the activity of benevolent societies, whilst the relief from the charity-box gradually developed into the manifold activity of a properly organized charitable society. In the Middle Ages such societies were already at work in every Jewish community in Europe for maintaining and clothing the poor, for educating the children of the poor, endowing poor maidens, rearing and educating orphans, visiting the sick, aiding sick and lying-in women, sheltering the aged, giving the poor a free burial, and ransoming prisoners. 2 This last branch of benevolent activity was the product of the tribulations to which the Jews were exposed by their frequent expulsions in mediaeval times, and exacted especial efforts from the Spanish and Italian Jews owing to the repeated captures of their brethren by corsairs of the Mediterranean. 1 Kidd., 28 a. 2 See I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, chaps, xvii. xviii. (London, 1896). 78 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES All the methods of charity practised in ancient and mediaeval Jewry are observed with undiminished zeal at the present day, with the exception of the ransoming of prisoners, for which there has been no call since the end of the eighteenth century. They have, moreover, under¬ gone a considerable expansion and development in con¬ sequence of the changed conditions of modern times, which have produced additional needs, whilst the system of administration has been adapted to modern principles and is conducted by a voluntary committee aided by paid trained officials. Nay, in certain respects, such as the granting of loans without interest and the provision of medical relief, the organization of charity in Jewry may be said to have anticipated the methods of philanthropy in the world at large. So instinctive is the exercise of benevolence among a people that has suffered more than all other peoples in history that its societies for this purpose invariably outnumber the communal associations for any other object. When the Jews in 1654 first settled in New York, then called New Netherlands, and the governor, Peter Stuyvesant, wished to expel them, the directors of the Dutch West Indies Company instructed him that they were to have permission to remain there “ provided the poor among them shall not become a burden to the company or the community, but be supported by their own nation.” This stipulation simply accorded with the traditional principle of communal administration in Jewry, which has always looked after the relief of its own poor. But although the Jews have voluntarily assumed this task, a burden that is readily though not easily borne in every country, they do not by any means confine their benevolence to their own community, but are also usually among the first and most generous donors in every cause of humanity, such as the support of hospitals or the relief of the victims of some extraordinary catastrophe—a fire, an earthquake, a shipwreck, or a war. It would be impossible here to trace the history and organization of the principal charitable bodies in the leading centres of Jewry : such a task would demand a PHILANTHROPY 79 volume for itself. It must suffice to refer briefly to the establishment of some of the foremost institutions of this kind, and to give a general survey of the main branches of charitable work conducted in modern Jewry. Many of the institutions in London date from the middle of the eighteenth century ; there were special almshouses already in 1823, and the famous Orphan Asylum was founded in 1831. The Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor, which superseded a number of synagogue committees, was founded in 1859, although the parallel Board of the older Sephardic community has been active since 1837. In Paris the various societies were amalga¬ mated as early as 1809 as the Comite de Bienfaisance Israelite de Paris, which, in addition to providing relief in money and kind, promptly established a complete hospital service for the poor. In most of the large cities on the Continent, such as Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and War¬ saw, the relief of the poor is administered not by an in¬ dependent board, as in London and Paris, but by a com¬ mission of the Communal Council, representing a union of the synagogues, which levies a special tax for the purpose. In the younger community of New York the first important charitable society, the German Hebrew Benevolent Society, was founded in 1859, an d a few years later the Independent Order Bnei Brith established a number of hospitals, orphan asylums, and homes for the Jewish poor in various cities of the United States. Similar in character to the London Board of Guardians, though of course more restricted in scope, are the boards that are found in almost every Jewish centre in the British Empire ; and to the same category belong the United Hebrew Charities of New York, the premier charitable agency of that city, and the principal benevolent associations in all the Jewish com¬ munities of the United States. 1 But whilst all these central bodies grant relief of all kinds to all needy members of the local community, there are hosts of other agencies which afford some special kind of aid to a more limited 1 Since 1899 the Jewish charities in the United States hold a biennial convention. 8 o JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES circle, such as the distribution of food and clothing and the dowering of poor marriageable girls. In New York alone there are over one thousand philanthropic societies in the Jewish community ministering to every conceivable need of the helpless, and in the much smaller community of London there are close upon eighty. A distinctive feature of many of these subsidiary societies, notably in the British Empire and America, is that they are formed by immigrants hailing from the same country or even the same town, who no sooner find themselves on a sure footing in their adopted home than they organize measures for the aid of their fellow-countrymen or townsmen, their former companions in distress. Apart from all this organized benevolence there is an untold amount of private charity, even among the working classes themselves : it is no unusual phenomenpn in an English town to see a couple of respectably dressed men or women on a Sunday collecting small gifts from door to door in aid of a dis¬ tressed family. And in most Jewish homes of the tra¬ ditional type there is a charity-box on the wall for some pious object in the Holy Land. The principle by which the leading Jewish charities are guided, such as the Board of Guardians in London and the United Hebrew Charities in New York, is to assist the poor to become self-supporting and useful members of society. Each case is carefully investigated before relief is given so as to prevent imposture or pauperization, the object of the administrators being to inculcate the ideal of self-help. The great bulk of the applicants for relief in England and America consists of immigrants from Eastern Europe, who, in most cases, have sold up their homes to procure the means for their costly journey, and who, on arriving in the new land, have not the wherewithal to set up a home or to keep them afloat until they can find work or start a business. The commonest form of aid, therefore, is a weekly allowance, which is continued until the recipient is able to earn a living. But very often the aid takes the form of a loan, which is granted without interest and is repaid in weekly instalments, the PHILANTHROPY 81 margin of loss incurred being surprisingly small. 1 It is by means of such a loan that many an immigrant obtains his first start in the struggle that faces him in his new world, and which, by dint of perseverance and thrift, he over¬ comes so successfully that he not only repays the debt but becomes a subscriber to the charity that helped him. In more serious cases, such as that of a widow with a family dependent upon her, or a man disabled from work by age or infirmity, a fixed allowance or pension is granted. A great amount of relief is also given in kind, in the form of food (bread, meat, groceries), clothing, and coal, as well as through the medium of soup-kitchens, which exist in most large cities—London, Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw, and other centres. A special occasion for the distribution of victuals is the eve of the Passover, when matzos (“ unleavened bread ”) and flour are given to the poor for the proper celebration of this important festival; though the observance of the other festivals, too, and indeed of the Sabbath itself, which involves somewhat more than a frugal fare, often necessitates a special dis¬ tribution of food. Besides aid in money and in kind many important charities provide day nurseries to look after the children of mothers who have to work away from home ; they maintain workrooms for unskilled women and girls who learn sufficient of a simple trade, sewing or embroidery, to be able afterwards to earn a living by work at home; they conduct employment bureaus ; they apprentice boys to manual trades and afterwards supply them with tools ; they give special allowances in cases of maternity ; they conduct dispensaries where free medicine is given, almshouses where the aged needy have a peaceful retreat, and besides there are homes for the incurable, for the convalescent, and for the deaf and dumb. There is, indeed, no want of the deserving poor which is not attended to with thoughtful consideration and relieved in the most fitting manner. 1 The loan committee of the London Board of Guardians states in the Annual Report for 1913 that in the forty-seven years of its activity the bad debts have not exceeded 2f percent. The amount lent in 1913 was/21,617. 6 82 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES The assistance is not confined to material aid, but is supplemented by personal visitation, in accordance with the traditional Jewish practice of bestowing kindness (gemiluth hesed), organized upon systematic lines. This system of giving personal advice and kindly help by volun¬ tary visitors, mainly women, in the homes of the poor is practised in almost all the large Jewish centres in Western Europe and America, and forms a valuable factor in preventing pauperization. In America these visitors are organized as “ sisterhoods,” and they are so welcome among those to whom they minister that they are called “ mothers of the poor.” The principle underlying this system has also suggested the formation of mothers’ meetings and girls’ clubs, where friendly talks are held or instruction is given in domestic management, hygiene, and simple accomplishments (such as embroidery or drawing), so that the poor may forget their poverty, or at least suffer the least hurt therefrom. But should all the aids available in a city fail to make a recipient of relief self-supporting, he is given the means to travel to some other Jewish centre where his prospects of finding remunerative work are better, and where, on arrival, he is lodged in a temporary shelter. Thanks to the friendly co-operation between the charity boards of different towns, a Jewish vagrant is an extremely rare phenomenon. The local charitable bodies in the leading cities of the Western world effect their purpose on the whole in helping to render the poor immigrant independent of support after a few years : both in London and New York the fre¬ quency of application for aid by the arrivals of any par¬ ticular year diminishes in every succeeding year. 1 And a still more notable indication of the gradual rise in welfare of the poor immigrant consists in the recent diminution 1 Of 1000 families who had originally applied to the United Hebrew Charities, in New York, for assistance in October 1894, as many as 602 no longer applied after December 1894, an d only 23 were still obtaining assistance in October 1904 (The Immigrant Jew in America, p. 66). PHILANTHROPY 83 of cases for relief dealt with by the Board of Guardians in London and the United Hebrew Charities in New York. 1 This diminution of relief is only partly due to a decline in the volume of immigration from the lands of oppression : it is in the main due to the industry, perseverance, and thrift of the poor themselves, which are further evidenced in the growing number of mutual loan societies and friendly benefit societies in all English-speaking countries. The burden of poor relief, however, is heavy enough. The London Board has disbursed an average of £27,690 per annum in direct relief (exclusive of the cost of administra¬ tion) during the last few years, the New York institution distributed over £51,620 in the year 1911-12, and the Paris Comile do Bienfaisance £28,750 in 1912-13. The Vienna community spent a total of £39,230 upon its poor and hospital in 1912-13, while the richer Berlin community spent £64,530 upon its poor and hospitals in 1913-14. The funds for charitable purposes in English-speaking countries are derived almost exclusively from voluntary subscriptions and bequests, whilst in most Continental countries the major portion of the funds is supplied by a communal tax. The particular care of the community has always been bestowed upon the orphan, the sick, and the aged. Special asylums for orphan children, in which they were sheltered, clothed, and educated, were founded as early as the eigh¬ teenth century, and they now exist in nearly every country with a considerable Jewish population. The Orphan Asylum in London was founded in 1795, and it now con¬ tains 400 children. In Paris there are three orphanages, one of which is maintained entirely by the Rothschild family, and in Vienna there are also three. In Germany 1 Cases dealt with by— ( a ) The London Board OF ( b ) The New York Hebrew Guardians. Charities. 1909 . • 4859 (1062 new cases) 1910 . • 5655 (i 59 i new cases) 1910 . • 4359 ( 897 „ „ ) 1911 . . 5177 (1703 »> »» ) 1911 . . 4039 ( 800 „ „ ) 1912 . • 4589 (1369 >> i > ) 1912 . . 3746 ( 827 „ „ ) 1913 • • 3348 ( 772 „ » ) 8 4 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES there are over forty such institutions, mostly on a smaller scale, eleven of which are in Berlin alone, whilst in the United States there are nearly twenty, distributed in all the large cities, two of which in New York contain about iooo children each. Apart from these asylums, orphan children are in many cases boarded with private families at the expense of the community. Jewish hospitals exist likewise in all the leading centres, both in the East and the West, in which the dietary laws are observed and the patients are able to conform with the practices of their religion. They are found in Paris and Amsterdam, in Berlin and Vienna, in Tunis and Constantinople, in New York and Jerusalem. In the United States alone there are twelve, a third being in New York ; in Germany there are over thirty, Berlin and Frankfort having three each ; and in Russia there are a hundred and twelve, the larger ones being in the southern and south-western provinces. In England, at present, there is only one Jewish hospital, in Manchester, but there is also a project on foot for the establishment of one in the East End of London, where the large Jewish population, speaking mainly Yiddish and faithfully devoted to the precepts of their faith, renders such an institution a necessity. Many of the hospitals have a dispensary service for out-patients’ relief, and in connection with some of them there is also a training school for nurses. Like the orphan and the sick the aged needy, too, enjoy the special care of the community, which does not permit them to wander into the cold and alien atmosphere of a public workhouse, but provides them with comfortable accommodation in a special home. Such homes or almshouses, as they are sometimes called, have been established in England, France, Germany (where there are over twenty), the United States, and other com¬ munities. And when the poor have been released at last from all their earthly sufferings, they are laid to rest at the communal expense. Manifold and generous as is the charity dispensed by the Jews in Western countries for the relief of their dis¬ tressed brethren at home, it forms but a part of their PHILANTHROPY 85 benevolent activity, which is equally extended to their oppressed brethren in the East. Indeed, one of the most distinguishing features of modern Jewish philanthropy is the solicitude and munificence devoted by the Jews of the West to the aid of their harried co-religionists in the East. Persecution in Russia and Rumania, economic misery in Galicia, outlawry in Persia and Morocco, fire and plague in Turkey, these and a succession of other evils make one-half of the Jewish people a permanent charge upon the other. To cope with this vast amount of suffering there are elaborate and efficient organizations in the leading capitals of Europe, each of which has a definite sphere of labour, whilst all act in co-operation in periods of exceptional crisis. They devote considerable attention fo the furtherance of primary education, so that the children of the East may be in a better position than their fathers to help themselves. The “ Alliance Israelite ” of Paris, the Anglo-Jewish Association of London, and the “ Hilfsverein ” of Berlin have provided the communities of the Orient with a comprehensive network of schools, the Jewish Colonization Association subventions a great many schools in Russia and Rumania, and the “ Israelitische Allianz ” of Vienna assists schools in Galicia and Bukowina. These elementary institutions are supplemented by an array of technical schools, mainly in Russia and Galicia, at which young Jews and Jewesses are taught a trade that enables them to earn a living. 1 But the principal aid is of a material kind, and consists partly in large grants to the agricultural colonies in Russia, advances to the mutual loan banks in Russia and Galicia, and subventions for local charitable objects, and partly in the establishment of agricultural colonies in America. The Jewish Coloniza¬ tion Association has advanced over seven millions sterling to the furtherance of Jewish agriculture in Russia, it has pro¬ vided the capital necessary for 688 loan-banks in Russia, and 24 (with 39 branches) in Galicia, but it devotes its main 1 The Jewish Colonization Association maintains 19 technical schools for boys, and 16 for girls, besides evening courses for artisans, in Russia, and also 4 agricultural schools in Russia, and 1 in Galicia. 86 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES energy and the better part of its capital of ten millions to the promotion of its colonies in the Argentine and Brazil, which have been peopled with the victims of Russian barbarity and now number 24,000 souls. Between the relief of distress in the Old World and the settlement of the distressed in the New, lies the great problem of emigration, whose solution demands the unflagging and concerted activity of a dozen organizations. Since 1904 there has been a Central Bureau for the affairs of Jewish emigration in Berlin under the management of the “ Hilfs- verein," which deals with the brunt of the work involved by the, exodus of 100,000 Jews a year from Eastern Europe to the free lands across the seas, most of whom pass through Germany. This organization is assisted by thirty-two committees at all the frontier stations, harbours, and rail¬ way junctions of Germany ; it procures reduced fares from the shipping companies and facilities from Government and local authorities ; and it provides the emigrants on the way with food, clothing, shelter, medical aid, and information and help of every kind. Its efforts are supplemented by the Jewish Colonization Association, which has a central bureau in St. Petersburg, and 450 local offices in all parts of Russia ; by the “ Israelitische Allianz/' which assumed special charge of emigrants from Galicia and Rumania; by the Jewish Territorial Organization, which deflects the tide of American-bound emigration to a certain extent to Galveston ; and by special committees in Antwerp and Rotterdam, Basle and Copenhagen, London and New York. From his misery-stricken townlet in the Pale of Settlement to the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour the Jewish emigrant is sedulously aided at every stage in his long and toilsome journey to reach the goal of his desire ; nor does help cease on his arrival in the “ land of promise," for, besides a host of charities in every city, there is in New York, and likewise in Montreal, a wealthy foundation endowed by the late Baron de Hirsch, which relieves the new-comer by providing free instruction in English, by teaching him a trade and supporting him during his training, by transport¬ ing him to his relatives or to a place where his employment PHILANTHROPY 87 prospects are better, or by advancing him a loan to settle on a farm. In no other sphere of philanthropic endeavour is the solidarity of the Jewish people so clearly manifested as in the comprehensive measures adopted to secure the emigrant’s welfare. One exception, indeed, there is, namely, in cases of extraordinary calamity, when spontaneous efforts are made by all the leading organizations, and by a multitude of subsidiary bodies too, to bring speedy relief to the sufferers. Then, as when the Russian pogroms 1 of 1905 swept away thousands of lives and desolated thousands of homes, or when the Balkan War plunged tens of thousands of families into ruin, the Jews of the Old World work hand in hand with their brethren across the ocean to bring aid and solace to the sorrowing victims. 2 1 The word ‘'pogrom,” which means “riot,” is Russia’s latest gift to the English language. 2 The total amount raised by all the Jewish philanthropic organizations for the relief of the victims of the pogroms in 1905-06, was ^500,000. The amount expended by the Jewish organizations upon the relief of the Jewish victims of the Balkan Wars was ^40,000. CHAPTER VI MORALITY The morality of the family—Jewish wrongdoing exaggerated— Protective and preventive measures—The rate of criminality in Jewry lower than among the general population—Jewish crimin¬ ality determined by economic conditions—Ratio of criminality corresponds to relative ratio of Jews in affected trade—Comparative rarity of crimes of violence j ^ HE importance of right living is insisted upon with singular emphasis throughout the literature of the L Jewish people. Purity both in private and public life is the keynote of the laws and statutes of the Pentateuch and of the glowing exhortations of Prophets and Psalmists ; it forms the recurring refrain in the monumental tomes of the Talmud and the dominant note in all the legal codes and ethical works of the Middle Ages. The contents of the Decalogue afford the surest testimony to the moral sense of ancient Israel : the ranging of perjury and covetousness along with the grosser crimes of murder and theft bespeaks a deep insight into human nature and a high standard of social conduct. The moral consciousness of ancient Israel has been transmitted unimpaired to modern Jewry, rendered more sensitive, if anything, by the experience of centuries of wrongs at the hands of the nations. It finds its simplest and readiest expression in the family circle, in the relations between husband and wife, between parents and children. The moral purity of the home has been characteristic of Jewish life from time immemorial; marital infidelity is com¬ paratively unknown in Eastern Europe, and is much less frequent among Jews than among non-Jews in the Western world. Similarly, the harmony of filial relations and the support of aged parents by children obtain in much greater 88 § MORALITY 89 degree in Jewish than in non-Jewish families. The divergency in these respects that has manifested itself in recent years is mainly due to the fugitive wanderings which Jews are compelled to make to foreign lands. The husband who leaves his wife in Russia with the object of founding a better home in America occasionally succumbs to the charms of another woman in his new surroundings and abandons his lawful wife to her fate ; such phenomena add to the tragedy of Jewish dispersion, but on the whole the cases are few in relation to the vast tide of migration that surges across the Atlantic every year. And the lessened respect shown by the children of immigrants in America for their Russian-born parents is the result of the modern education that is suddenly thrust upon them and which induces a feeling of contempt—as heartless as it is un¬ justifiable—for the uncouth ways and speech of their elders. But despite these blemishes the morality of the Jewish family/ in the West as well as in the East, compares very favourably in regard to chastity, sobriety, and general temperance with the ethical standard of its environment. Imbued from childhood with sound moral doctrines, the Jew is, nevertheless, but human—and it is human to err. The frailties of the individual, however, are often exaggerated by prejudiced critics, who visit the sins of the few upon the nation at large, and thus attempt to prove the inferior morality of Jewry. The appearance of a Jew in a police court attracts more than ordinary attention because of his difference of type and the occasional necessity of an in¬ terpreter ; the sensation-loving press seizes upon each case and decks it out with striking head-lines for the delectation of its readers ; and hence arises the impression of enormous iniquity on the part of the Jew. But the very prominence given to Jewish cases of wrongdoing only serves to emphasize their comparative infrequency. The magistrates at British and American courts have often borne public testimony to the law-abiding character of the Jew when having to pass judgment upon a Jewish offender, and it is no rare practice for them to refer cases, in which both parties are Jews, to the local Rabbi for peaceful settlement. The Rabbis, 90 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES either individually or through the local Beth Din (Ecclesiasti¬ cal Court), exert every effort to prevent Jewish litigants from airing their plaints in the public courts when these relate merely to civil matters, and their arbitration is very often accepted. They are animated in these endeavours by their jealousy for the repute of their community and by the desire to prevent a “ profanation of the Name ”—an expression commonly applied to a scandal which casts a shadow upon the fair fame of the Jewish people. The innate sobriety of the Jew, however, combined with his industry and family devotion, protects him from vices that afflict his Christian neighbour : drunkenness is a very rare phenomenon in Jewish districts, and its natural products, wife-beating, street-brawling, and acts of personal violence, are equally rare. No more convincing illustration of the superior conduct of the Jewish poor could be advanced than the transformation that has taken place within the last twenty years in certain streets in the East of London, which, once the dangerous haunt of native thieves and murderers and the scene of daily brawls, have become, since their occupation by hard-working Jewish immigrants, quiet and orderly thoroughfares that can well dispense with the supervision of the police. 1 The modern Ghetto is, as a rule, the most peaceful quarter in a Western town, and the Jewish authorities are always on the alert to stamp out any evil in its midst. Systematic measures are adopted in particular to suppress the white slave traffic in every country afflicted by the pest, and effective co-operation was rendered by the London Board of Deputies in securing the recent parliamentary Act for the prompter arrest and severer punishment of those who batten on this traffic. 2 The dangers to which women and girls travelling alone from Eastern Europe to England, America, or some other land of refuge, are 1 See The Jew in London, by C. Russell and H. S. Lewis, p. 176; and Minutes of Evidence and Report of Royal Commission on Alien Immigration (1903). 2 The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912, which facilitates the apprehension of the procurer and authorizes the infliction of a flogging upon conviction. MORALITY 9 i peculiarly exposed, have called into existence a special Association in England, which combines with similar bodies on the Continent and in America to protect these unsuspect¬ ing travellers from the snares and pitfalls around them. In London, New York, and other large centres there are homes where they are lodged and looked after until they can be handed over to their friends, or where those who have already been led astray can be reclaimed to the path of virtue. Cognate with this activity are the efforts made for the reformation of delinquents, young and old. Until recent years juvenile crime was unheard of in the Jewish community, but it has now made its unwelcome appearance in the big cities in consequence of the congestion and bad housing conditions in poor quarters. The children are forced to play in the streets, or engage in the selling of news¬ papers and matches to eke out the slender family budget, and are thus contaminated by the vicious influences of street life. The communal authorities endeavour to counteract this noxious tendency by apprenticing boys to a trade after they leave school, and by providing clubs which will shield them from the temptations of card¬ gambling and horse-betting rampant around them. But despite these preventive measures, or because they are not radical and comprehensive enough, boys fall into evil ways and call for redemption. An Industrial School for Jewish boys has been founded at Hayes (Middlesex), at which the inmates are taught useful trades by which they can afterwards earn an honest living. There is a similar institution in New York, known as a Protectory, and way¬ ward children in that and other cities in America are also committed to the care of probationary or “ parole ” officers. Delinquents of an older age are visited in prison by the local Rabbi, who tries to win them back to the path of honest industry, and they are helped after their release to obtain employment or to reach relatives or friends in another country by special societies in London, 1 New York, and other large cities. 1 The United Synagogue Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society assisted 170 discharged prisoners in the year 1913, of whom 68 were reported later 92 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES The Jews have always laid claim to possessing a record as law-abiding citizens, and their claim is proved by all the statistics available. In Russia, which contains nearly half of the Jews in the world, only 4277 Jews were con¬ victed in 1907, forming only 2*97 per cent of the total number of persons convicted in the country in that year. 1 The Jews at the last Russian census in 1897 formed 4*13 per cent of the total population, but owing to the large dimensions of their emigration, which has probably counter¬ balanced their natural increase, and owing to the un¬ affected increase of the general population, they probably now form only 4 per cent of the total population. Hence, according to this ratio they should provide 400 convicted persons per 10,000, whereas the number they actually pro¬ vided in the last year for which figures are available was only 297. This favourable result is all the more remark¬ able in view of the host of exceptional laws in force against them, and the barbarous severity with which they are applied. Still more instructive is the record of the Jews in other countries based upon a larger series of years. In Austria, in the period 1880-1902, the Jews had a crimin¬ ality of 100 among 100,000 Jews as compared with 122 for the Christian population. 2 In Hungary, in the period 1906- 09, there were 1106-8 convictions among 100,000 Jews, against 1679 among 100,000 Christians ; the Jews pro¬ vided only 3*36 per cent of the total convictions, although they form 5-02 of the population. 3 In Germany the annual proportion of Jewish convictions in the years 1903- 06 was 830*2 per 100,000 as compared with 854*1 per 100,000 of the Christian population 4 ; whilst in Prussia, in 1910, there were only 1128 convictions among 100,000 Jews above the age of 12 as compared with 1214 among 100,000 Christians of the same punishable age. 5 In Holland to be doing well and a great number were lost sight of, whilst only 15 were re-arrested. 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographie . und Statistik der Juden, 1912, " Zur Kriminalitat der Juden in Russland,” pp. 127-131. 2 Dr. J. Thon, Die Juden in Oesterreich (1908), p. 141. 3 Zeitschrift f. Demog., No. 4, 1911. 4 Ibid., 1909, p. 50. 6 Ibid., 1913, p. 87. MORALITY 93 the proportion of convictions in 1898-1902 was 182*7 P er 100,000 Jews as against 297*8 per 100,000 Christians. 1 The statistics published in the United States show similar conditions : thus, the number of Jewish inmates in the four State prisons of New York, on 3rd December 1913, was 457 out of a total of 4639, which is only 9*4 per cent, whereas the Jewish population of the State of New York is about 1,200,000 in a total of 9,000,000, or about 13 per cent. “ On the same date the number of Jewish inmates in the Tombs, penitentiary, and workhouse—the prisons of New York City—was 494 out of 3403, being 17*5 per cent, whilst the Jewish population of the city is about 20 per cent of the whole. If we eliminate the Tombs, in which are confined persons who have not been brought to trial, and many of whom are no doubt innocent, we find that there were in the penitentiary and workhouse 223 Jews out of a total of 2309 inmates, being less than 10 per cent.” 2 In England there has been a steady decline in the number of Jews imprisoned in the Metropolis since 1904, although the Jewish popu¬ lation increases from year to year both naturally and by means of immigration. The decline has been as follows: 3 * — Jews imprisoned in Wandsworth, Pentonville, Wormwood Scrubbs, and Holloway Prisons 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 7W 7 I 5 5i3 434 4 S 9 433 358 286 342 324 During the last few years the number of Jews in these prisons, together with Parkhurst, at the end of each year has been as follows :— On 31st December 1908 . 121 On 31st December 1911 . 62 ,, „ 1909 • 104 „ „ 1912 . 67 „ „ 1910 . 84 ,, „ 1913 . 97 / In the year 1911 the proportion of convictions among 1 Zeitschrift f. Demog., No. 2, 1905. 2 American Hebrew, 12th December 1913, p. 200. 3 Report of the Visitation Committee of the United Synagogue, 1913. These figures include persons who served terms of imprisonment pending payment of, or in default of paying, fines (including judgment debtors). 94 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the general population in the United Kingdom was 439 per 100,000, whereas among the 160,000 Jews in Greater London (who form three-fifths of the Jews in the United Kingdom) the number of convictions was only 286, which corresponds to 178 per 100,000. Criminality among the Jews in the United Kingdom is thus less than half as frequent as among the general population. These facts deserve to be pondered by those who allege that the im¬ migration of Jews into Britain brings an undesirable element into the country. The low record of Jewish convictions is all the more notable as the Jews are pre-eminently an urban people, among whom crime is generally more rife than among a population distributed over rural as well as urban dis¬ tricts. Moreover, in examining the nature of their crimin¬ ality, we must bear in mind the conditions of their environ¬ ment, the character of their occupations, and their general intellectual status. The statistical investigations made in the principal countries on the Continent, Russia, Austria- Hungary, and Germany, have shown that Jewish crime is practised far more against property than against persons, that it more often takes the form of fraud than of violence or brutality. These investigations only bear out what one would naturally expect of a highly cultured people, namely, that they should sin more with their brains than with their hands. The wrongdoing of the Jew is usually characteristic of his particular occupation, and must be considered in connexion with the general liability of those engaged in that occupation to transgress the laws affecting it. The majority of Jewish offences are committed in the # exercise of the various branches of trade and commerce as a result of their undue preponderance in these occupations. Thus, in Russia, although the Jews form only 4 per cent of the total population, they contributed 27-12 per cent to the convictions for trade and commercial trespasses (in 1907). But 38*65 per cent of the Jews are engaged in trade as compared with only 3-77 of the rest of the population, that is, Jews are proportionately ten times more numerously represented in trade than non-Jews. Hence, if Jewish MORALITY 95 merchants had sinned to the same degree as their Russian colleagues, their percentage of the trade offences would have been 40 instead of 27-12. 1 In all the other categories of offences in which the Jewish percentage exceeds the Jewish ratio of the population in Russia, this percentage is even less than half of the normal 40, which provides a convincing testimony to the honesty of the Jewish business¬ man in Russia. The Jewish trespasses against Government and local ordinances amounted to 17-10 per cent, and are the result mainly of administrative decrees relating to the restriction of the rights of domicile and school attendance which are issued in far greater number against the Jews than against any other section of the population, and which inevitably provoke revolt. Similarly the Jews accounted for 12-42 per cent of the convictions for in¬ fringing the laws regarding public security : most of these laws relate to the prevention of pogroms, the incitement to which could certainly not be favoured by Jews, but they also include severe and capricious press by-laws, the in¬ fraction of which inevitably follows from the struggle for liberty. The attitude of hostility forced upon the Jews also accounts for their providing io-6 per cent of those condemned for State crimes. On the other hand, the Jews show a percentage below their ratio to the general population in every kind of theft and robbery (2-41) and burglary (1*48), whilst their record is even lower still as regards personal assault (ri2) and murder (m). The general features of Jewish criminality as manifested in Russia are paralleled by the conditions in Western Europe and America, except, of course, that crimes against the State are not by any means as prominent. Dr. Ruppin sets forth in tabular form the crimes in which Jews are proportionately represented in a higher degree than Christians, and also those in which Christians are repre- 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, 1912. It is instructive to note that the total convictions of Jews in Germany in 1 903—06 would be reduced from 830'2 to 6o8'2 per 100,000 Jews if all trade offences were eliminated, whilst a similar elimination in the case of Christian convictions would only reduce them from 854' 1 to 802'8 per 100,000 Christians [ibid., 1909, p. 52). 96 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES sented in a higher degree, upon the basis of the statistical reports of Germany (1903-06), Austria (1898-1902), Hungary (1904), and Holland (1902). 1 An examination of this table shows that the penal offences of which the Jews are convicted in a higher degree are those of usury, fraudulent bankruptcy, fraud, disseminating immoral publications, blackmail, evasion of conscription, frustrating legal executions, forgery, libel, and duelling. On the other hand, the penal offences of which Christians are convicted in a higher degree are defiance of State authority, theft, robbery, burglary, injury to property, arson, injury to persons, and murder (including homicide through negligence and abortion). It will be seen that most of the categories in which the Jews are more liable to trans¬ gress are connected with commercial occupations in which they are proportionately more numerously engaged than their Christian fellow-citizens. Thus, in Germany, in 1903- 06, and also in 1909-10, the ratio of convictions for fraudulent bankruptcy was *5 per 100,000 among Jews and *i among Christians ; but whilst over 55 per cent of the Jews in Germany are engaged in various forms of business, only 13-4 per cent of the general population are devoted to such pursuits, and hence the higher ratio of fraudulent bankruptcies among Jews fairly corresponds to the higher ratio of Jews in commerce. 2 In Austria the ratio of Jews convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy in 1880- 1902 was eight times the ratio among Christians ; but the ratio of Jews engaged in business in that country is twelve times the ratio of Christians. 3 The degree of delinquency on the part of Jews can only be properly estimated by a comparison of the ratio they provide in different occupations with their ratio of corresponding trade offences, and these two ratios fairly equalize one another. 4 There are, moreover, special circumstances to 1 Die Juden dev Gegenwart (2nd edition, 1911), p. 223. 2 Dr. J. Segall, Die beruflichen und sozialen V erhaltnisse der Juden in Deutschland, p. 26. 3 J. Thon, Die Juden in Oesterreich, p. 144. 4 Die Juden der Gegenwart, p. 226. MORALITY 97 account for the higher degree of delinquency among Jews in regard to certain offences. Thus, the proportion of Jews in Germany convicted in 1903-06 of infringing the Sunday closing laws was 129*4 per 100,000, as compared with only 17 among the Christian population. 1 This is obviously due to the inability of the Jew who strictly observes the Sabbath from sunset on Friday until Saturday night to sacrifice the Sunday also by keeping his shop or warehouse closed. It is probable that the ratio of con¬ victions for this offence is somewhat similar among the Jews in England and America, but no statistical record is available. But of a cognate character are the frequent convictions for infringing some local traffic by-law, to which the numerous J ewish hawkers and pedlars in London and New York are liable, owing partly to their ignorance of the law and partly to the assiduity with which they pursue their vocation. It is also of interest to note that the convictions for the evasion of military service in Germany in 1909-10 amounted to 25*3 per 100,000 among Jews as against 9*9 among Christians, 2 —a disproportion due to the greater tendency of Jews to emigrate as well as to their utter lack of prospects in the German army. Jews have also been punished one and a half times as often as their neighbours in Prussia for duelling (the proportion being *3 as against *2 per 100,000), doubtless owing to the inordinately large proportion of Jews among university students, who regard the duel as the only honourable method of settling disputes, and owing to the frequency of such disputes between Jews and Christians in an Anti- Semitic atmosphere. But the absolute figures are fifty- nine duels among Christians, and only one duel among Jews. 3 On the other hand, as we have seen in the case of Russia, crimes involving violence, whether against property or the person, such as robbery, assault, manslaughter, and murder, are much rarer among Jews than among Christians. In Germany (1903-06) arson and theft were committed thrice more by Christians than by Jews, robbery nine times more, 1 Zeitschrift fiir Demographie und Statistik, 1909, p. 51. 2 Ibid., 1913, p. 92. 3 Ibid., 1913, p. 88. 7 g8 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES injurious assault thrice more, and murder seven times more. 1 In Hungary (1906-09) arson was committed half as often again by Christians as by Jews, theft and robbery were committed twice as often, injurious assault nearly six times, and murder seven times as often. 2 In Austria (1880-1902) arson was committed more than twice as often by Christians as by Jews, robbery nearly thrice as often, injurious assault more than thrice, and murder more than twice as often. 3 On the other hand, the Jews in Amsterdam (1901-04) showed a slightly higher ratio of convictions for violent assault, 18*7 per cent of all Jewish convictions being due to this offence as compared with 15*2 among the general population. 4 The superior frequency of crimes of violence among the Jews in Amsterdam as compared with their brethren in other parts is doubtless due to their being largely employed as artisans in the diamond industry, the predisposition to settle quarrels by a resort to fisticuffs naturally obtaining more strongly among the working classes than among a predominantly commercial population such as the Jews in Germany. On the whole, therefore, we see that the delinquency of the Jews consists mainly of breaches of the laws and regulations governing the business pursuits in which they are engaged, and generally corresponds to the ratio by which they are represented in them. It springs, for the most part, from the nature of their economic situation, and is eminently free from the vice and brutality that account for the grossest crimes in the world of human iniquity. 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographic und Stat. 2 Ibid., 1911, p. 59. 3 J. Thon, Die Juden in Oesterreich, p. 144. 4 Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Stat., 1907, p. 190. CHAPTER VII SOCIAL LIFE Domestic diversion—Family festivities and indoor games— Social clubs, literary societies, and public functions—Fraternal orders and benefit societies—Students’ unions—Athletic sports— Theatres—Cafes—Summer resorts H AVING surveyed the Social Aspect of Modern Jewry from every main angle of vision, we now come to a review of social life in its more con¬ ventional and intimate sense, to a description of the forms and fashions in which Jewry spends its leisure and seeks recreation and amusement—its domestic diversions and festivities; its games and pastimes; its clubs, institutes, and public functions; its fraternal orders, students’ unions, and athletic associations ; and, last but not least, the frequenting of theatres and the flocking to summer resorts. The typical Jew of the modern as of the mediaeval Ghetto finds his most congenial recreation in the study of the Talmud. When the toil of the day is over and the evening repast is finished and the grace has been devoutly said, he takes down from his shelf of Hebrew literature a heavy leather-bound tome of the Talmud, frayed at the edges from years of use, and in the glow of the lamp he cons a page from some treatise on festival services in the Temple or on ethical virtues, reading the text aloud in a quaint traditional sing-song and accompanying the solemn argument with nods of the head and downward scoops of the outstretched thumb, all heedless of the world without and its crowd of fleeting pleasures. Wrapped in the lore of his ancestors he moves in a sphere of the 99 100 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES highest bliss, whilst at his side, meek and devoted, sits his wife, diligently plying a needle or perchance bending likewise over a Yiddish version of the Pentateuch, full of legends, parables, and pious reflections. She listens lovingly to the voice of her husband, vainly striving ever and anon to follow the sacred mysteries, but venturing not to interrupt the trend of thought or flow of argument. Yet if a neighbour looks in they both readily break off their diversion and give him a cordial welcome, eagerly entering into a discussion of domestic or communal affairs— the last letter from a son in South Africa, a rumoured engagement, or the forthcoming appointment of a new Rabbi—which occasionally wanders into the more turbulent region of Weltpolitik. The lady bestirs herself to offer the guest a glass of tea with lemon, or if the cause of his visit be of joyous moment she sets a bottle of wine or whisky with glasses upon the table, and a dish of home-made beetroot jam, dispensing a kindly hospitality which serves to gratify her taste for gossip. She is always “ at home,” unlike her rich sister in the more fashionable part of the city, who receives only on fixed days, the second Sunday and fourth Thursday, and who gives occasional dinner¬ parties, card-parties, or garden-parties, and otherwise faithfully observes the latest conventions of modern society. The placid hours of domestic life in the Ghetto are sufficiently varied by festivals and fasts, with their ex¬ acting requirements of dietary and house-cleaning, to banish all thought or desire for outside pleasures, whilst a series of family celebrations—circumcision, redemption of the first-born, Bar-mitzvah, betrothals, and weddings —supply all the merriment that is wished for in these modest circles. It is at the weddings of their children or of their relatives or friends that the pious old folks hear, as a rule, the only music and see the only dancing that enliven the even tenor of their days ; and the Jewish folk-melodies (wistfully recalling half-forgotten scenes of long ago in their native townlet in Russia or Galicia), the measured dances (innocent of the degenerations of an SOCIAL LIFE ioi immodest age), and the learned or witty speeches at the long and many-coursed dinner, leave a happy impression that remains for months. A daughter in the home gener¬ ally involves the acquisition of a piano, for she will not be outshone by her friends in social accomplishments, and although the father, with his serious view of life, may oppose the introduction of the instrument, the indulgent mother, with an eye to the conquest of a desirable young man, encourages the girl’s ambition and secures its gratifi¬ cation. Only upon one occasion in the year are the sounds of unusual revelry heard beneath the family roof, namely, upon the feast of Purim, when everybody must make so merry and drink so freely that he “ cannot dis¬ tinguish between Haman and Mordecai,” and when a group of masked minstrels ( Badchanim ) go from house to house to sing jovial songs to the strains of a rickety violin or to perform a short comic play. But these minstrels, though still surviving in Eastern communities, are met with more and more rarely in the Western world, where theatre and music-hall develop a too critical taste. Similarly, a traditional feature of Chanucah, the game of trendel, a teetotum with Hebrew letters on its four faces, which is played upon this festival in Eastern Europe, has failed to maintain itself in the West, though games with nuts may still be seen played by children in the Passover week in the streets of the modern Ghettos. No pastime of former days, however, can compare with the fascinating attractions of chess or the tempting allurements of cards. The indulgence in cards, often played for high stakes, is found among all classes, but is pursued here and there to pernicious excess, leading to occasional reproof from the Rabbi in his Sabbath sermon. But chess enjoys a deep- rooted and widespread affection in intellectual circles, dating from mediaeval times, and is even allowed on the Sabbath, whilst the abnormally high proportion of champions contributed by modern Jews affords the best testimony of the skill they have achieved in the game. The social life of the community in the mass takes on a host of varied forms, reflecting the ideals, interests, and 102 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES pleasures of different classes. A cluster of clubs and societies attract different elements, offering a varied programme of entertainment and instruction, much of which is concentrated upon the Saturday and Sunday nights of the winter months, alternating with rambles and picnics in the summer. In the large centres there are not only clubs for working-men, often with a membership of over a thousand, and likewise for boys, in the management of which the leisured class take an active part, but also clubs for girls, who are taught both useful and ornamental accomplishments and give occasional entertainments for the benefit of their parents and friends. The clubs in English-speaking countries are furnished with all the means of amusement and recreation—billiard-tables, chess, draughts, and dominoes, with a reading-room and library for those more studiously inclined; lectures and debates are held upon Jewish and general topics ; concerts and theatrical performances give budding talents an opportunity of display, and the indispensable balls and soirees provoke cordial relations between members and their lady friends. The “ social and literary societies/’ having, as a rule, no permanent premises of their own like the clubs, meet in synagogue council-chambers, hotels, concert-halls, or even in private houses ; they generally have more important debates and a superior list of lectures, some of which are given by speakers from other cities or other countries, whose visits, if they be well-known personages, occasion the delivery of a weighty message, perchance of a propa¬ gandist nature, and often attract an overflowing audience. Such visits have in recent years become of increasing occurrence. They are exchanged between the Jewries of England and America, and also between them and those of the Continent, serving to improve a mutual under¬ standing and to fortify the sentiment of solidarity. In many large cities, in America as well as in Europe, the social and intellectual life of the working class revolves round an institute modelled on Toynbee Hall; in Berlin and Vienna, in Lemberg and Cracow, it is actually called the Jewish Toynbee Hall, in London it is the Jewish GHETTO MINSTRELS FROM THE DRAWING BY I.EONID PASTERNAK SOCIAL LIFE 103 Institute, in Paris the Jewish Popular University, in New York the Hebrew Educational Alliance. These institutions comprise a library and reading-room in which books and newspapers of Jewish interest form the main feature. Free popular lectures and concerts are held, whilst sometimes courses are given in the language of the country for immi¬ grants. Public dinners are held now and again to promote some worthy cause or celebrate some important event, bringing together a large circle of interested persons in convivial array who listen to the speeches with sympathy tempered by an irrepressible tendency to criticize ; or the institution or movement to be furthered may be aided by a bazaar, to which titled magnates of the community, and just as readily the Mayor of the city himself, lend their patronage, and in which the wives of prominent members, with their husband-hunting daughters, vie with one another in their personal co-operation. Gifts in kind are there received not only from shopkeepers great and small, but also from a score of “ Dorcas ” and needlework guilds, which meet alternately in the homes of members to sew useful undergarments and discuss the latest gossip over tea. Once a year the children of the communal schools and classes assemble in their best attire for the prize dis¬ tribution, when they go through a programme of songs, recitations, and musical drill to the delight of their admiring parents, and the chairman delivers himself of his views upon current educational problems. And remote from all the motley hubbub of the Ghetto, broken ever and anon by the strident bells of a cyclists’ corps out for a Sunday run, or the martial band of a lads’ brigade swinging along with spirited step,—seated in the quiet seclusion of a humble synagogue the faithful followers of the Talmud, parents and greybeards, pursue their pious study under the guidance of a hoary Rabbi and celebrate the com¬ pletion (Siyum) of a treatise with a humble feast in the selfsame scene, where mundane discourse freely com¬ mingles with spiritual themes. Jewish life since the latter part of the nineteenth century is also distinguished by three other forms of io4 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES organization for social purposes : the fraternal order or friendly society, the university students’ union, and the athletic association. The fraternal orders, whose origin is traced to the Chema Kadisha (Holy Society) or burial society mentioned in the Talmud, 1 are particularly numerous, far exceeding the clubs and literary societies; they abound in thousands in all parts of the world, and flourish especially in English-speaking countries. The oldest, most important, and most widely ramified of these organizations is the Independent Order Bnei Brith (Sons of the Covenant), which was founded in 1843 in New York by a number of German Jews under the lead of Henry Jones, and which now comprises over 400 lodges with a membership exceeding 34,000, drawn from the middle and upper classes and scattered over the United States, England, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Rumania, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine. Founded to inculcute the principles of charity, benevolence, and brotherly love, and barring from its meetings all political and religious controversy, the Bnei Brith Order has not only strengthened the bonds of solidarity between the dispersed communities of Israel, but has also accomplished a great amount of social and philanthropic work : it has established hospitals, orphan asylums, schools, and libraries in the United States, and rendered valuable relief to the persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe. Most of the lodges have premises of their own, some of them exceedingly commodious and sumptuous, which not only serve as a social rendezvous but constitute a fertile source of humanitarian effort. But among the larger class less favoured by fortune the fraternal order enjoys an even greater popularity, for, apart from its social attractions, it provides cheap insurance against sickness or unemployment, and sundry money benefits, and is very often simply called a benefit society. Orders of this kind have sprung up in great number in England 2 and America during the last thirty years and are still on 1 Moed Katon, 27 b. 2 Over thirteen pages in the Jewish Year Book for 1914 (pp. 67-80) are devoted to an enumeration of these societies in England. SOCIAL LIFE 105 the increase from year to year, drawing their membership almost exclusively from the ranks of the immigrants from Eastern Europe and owing their multiplicity to the love of the Russian and Galician Jew for society-formation and to local patriotism. Several of these orders in America have over a hundred lodges each, the largest being the Brith Abraham, with 684 lodges and 185,000 members, and a number of them have recently combined to create a national Jewish Fraternal Congress with a membership of 600,000. The largest organization in England, the Grand Order of Israel, has sixty-two lodges, eight of them situated in South Africa and Canada. Besides the large orders, some of which bear a purely Jewish name, whilst others are designated “ Hebrew Order of Druids ” or “ Oddfellows,” there is a host of unattached friendly societies, many of which are called after the native town of the original members. The students’ unions at universities are of somewhat later development, for it was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the Jewish students at any of the principal seats of learning were numerous enough to form a society of their own. The first organiza¬ tion was founded in 1882 in Vienna by Jewish students from Russia, Rumania, and Galicia, who entitled their society Kadimah, which means both “ Eastward ” and “ Forward,” as an indication of the ideal of a resettlement in Palestine which they advocated. Since then, partly as a result of the advance of Zionism and partly as a result of the Anti-Semitic attitude of the general students’ corps on the Continent, separate societies have been formed by the Jewish students at almost every university at which they number at least a dozen, and are now found in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, France, and Holland. Some of these societies owe their existence simply to the exclusion of Jews from the general corporation, and they adopt a passive attitude on Jewish questions, but the majority are animated by the ideal of Jewish nationalism and actively foster the Zionist cause. The Jewish nationalist societies in Germany are grouped 106 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES into two organizations, the “ Bund Jiidischer Corpora- tionen,” founded in 1901, with a membership of over 600 (graduates and undergraduates), and the smaller “ Kartell Zionistischer Verbindungen,” founded five years later, with a membership of 250. The Zionist students' societies in Holland were federated in 1908, but those in other Continental countries pursue an unattached existence. Established to assert and promote the principle of Jewish nationalism these corporations have nevertheless adopted all the methods and conventions of German corporations : they each have their distinctive colours and they hold “ beer evenings ” at which the students sing spirited songs in swelling chorus around tables which they bang with their beer-mugs, presided over by officers who are accoutred in a gorgeous uniform and armed with a sword that does duty alternately as chairman’s hammer and conductor’s baton. But their songs tell not of Teuton valour but of Jewish hope, breathing the spirit of a rejuvenated people. Besides these convivial gatherings the members cultivate the study of Jewish history, literature, and modern problems, and also practise fencing so as to be prepared for any duel in which they might be involved in vindication of the Jewish name. The Jewish societies at the universities in English-speaking countries are not, like the Continental corps, the inevitable product of an unfriendly, environment, but voluntary associations for the study of Jewish questions and for social intercourse. The Jewish students in England, and to a less extent in the United States, join the societies of their university; but their racial sympathies prompt them also to fraternize with one another. Thus, Oxford has its Adler Society and Cambridge its Schechter Society, whilst at both universities there is also a Zionist Society. Moreover, in the United States, “Menorah” societies for the study of Jewish history and the discussion of Jewish questions have been formed at twenty-five Universities and organized into an Intercollegiate “ Menorah ” Associa¬ tion with over 1000 members. A more remarkable development than either the SOCIAL LIFE 107 fraternal orders or students’ societies are the Jewish athletic and gymnastic societies that have sprung up during the last twenty years. The love of sport, a conception almost entirely foreign to the Jew of former times, has been fostered in the modern generation in its schooldays and has led to the participation of Jews in all branches of athletics, in some of which they have achieved distinction. Jewish pugilists in England had already acquired a reputa¬ tion a hundred years ago, but they formed a somewhat abnormal phenomenon in the life of the time. To-day the cultivation of sport has become an essential feature of Jewish life, and the “ Ghetto bend ” in Western countries can only be seen on the backs of immigrants. Cricket and football clubs now occupy a regular place in the list of communal organizations, and matches take place as a rule on Sunday, the sanctity of the Sabbath not permitting them on a Saturday. The large number of these clubs in London has led to the formation of a Jewish Athletic Association. The importance of swimming was urged over sixteen centuries ago by a sage in the Talmud and is universally recognized in Jewry at the present day. No Jew has yet swum the English Channel, but Captain Webb, who was the first to perform the feat, had a Jewish trainer, Marquis Bibbero ; and Jabez Wolffe has more than once very nearly completed the coveted achievement. On the Continent the love of sport has manifested itself most extensively in the cultiva¬ tion of gymnastics. Stimulated by the new spirit of Zionism, which appreciated the value of mens sana in corpore sano, gymnastic societies were formed in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, drawing their most enthusiastic adherents from the ranks of university students and comprising women as well as men. There are nearly forty such societies altogether, federated into a single association (“ Judische Turnerschaft ”), with headquarters in Berlin ; it comprises over 5000 members and has an organ of its own besides a special song-book. Rambling and rowing have also been taken up with ardour, and on the Spree, the Elbe, io8 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES and the Danube may be seen competing crews with distinctive Jewish colours and badges. Particularly interesting is the recent progress of the gymnastic move¬ ment among the Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The Maccabee Gymnastic Society in Constantinople has found so many imitators in Syria and Palestine that it has organized them into a league comprising about 1000 members, with Hebrew as the language of command. In Palestine alone there are already a dozen societies in all the leading colonies, urban and rural, and the first Gymnastic Conference in the autumn of 1912 was a significant event of the Jewish renaissance in the Holy Land. Cognate with the enthusiasm for outdoor sports is the success that has attended the development of the Jewish Lads’ Brigade in England, which, founded in 1895 by the late Colonel Albert Goldsmid, now comprises nearly 2000 members and holds a northern and southern camp every year. The boy scouts’ movement has also found many followers among the younger generation. In the centre of Jewish affections stands the theatre, to the modern development of which Jewish genius—dramatic and histrionic—has contributed so much. Jews are most ardent theatre-goers in every country, attending premieres with almost religious zeal, and managers are so dependent upon their patronage that they must reckon with their susceptibilities in deciding upon new productions. Satur¬ day nights and the evenings after the close of festivals are generally spent in a theatre, in which the daughters of Israel are occasionally lavish in their display of jewels—or does not their darker and more pronounced type attract more atten¬ tion to their personal adornments than is bestowed upon the rest of the feminine audience ? Frequent in their attend¬ ance at the playhouse the Jews have a fine critical faculty and often determine the fate of a play. They are passionate lovers of good music, prominent among the admirers of every star in the musical firmament ; while they show particular generosity in facilitating the debut of every fresh genius among their people, which is peculiarly prolific of prodigies. The denizens of the Ghetto have theatres of SOCIAL LIFE 109 their own, with their own dramas and operas in Yiddish, and their own local stars and favourites. In Warsaw and Odessa, in Lemberg and Bucharest, and in London and New York there are permanent Yiddish theatres—three in New York alone—at which the operas of Abraham Goldfaden and the dramas of J acob Gordin, not to mention the works of lesser lights, are played before crowded audiences, who are as tempestuous in their disapproval as they are lavish in their applause. Most of the operas are based upon episodes of Jewish history, whilst the dramas, which mainly deal with problems of modern Jewish life, are frequently given a musical setting. But a great many Yiddish plays are simply adaptations of non-Jewish dramas, a weakness being shown for those of a sensational nature ; and as the numerical limitations of the Ghetto public involve a frequent change of bill, which means a trying task for the actors’ memory, the prompter’s box is unfortunately a con¬ spicuous feature of the stage. An hour or two after the theatre, apart from the hours of the rest of the day, are spent in a cafe, of which the Jews, with their love of discussion, are among the most regular devotees. In all the large cities, from Amsterdam to Con¬ stantinople, Jews may be seen in animated conversation at particular coffee-houses, and, just like the rest of the popu¬ lation, different sections or parties within the Jewish communityforegather in different cafes as in different camps, discussing the latest events of communal or political interest and fashioning their future policy. Thus Cafe Monopol in Berlin is sacred to the Zionists, whilst the Jews of ** liberal ” tendency prefer to drink their coffee in the neighbouring Cafes Bauer and Victoria. The same phenomenon is mani¬ fest in the Jewish quarter of New York, where the Zionists, the Socialists, and the Territorialists, and the satellites of various local authors, actors, poets, and pundits, each have their favourite resort for the leisure hours before midnight —and after. Following in the footsteps of fashion the Jews flock every year, in ever-increasing numbers, to the world’s leading watering-places, seeking recuperation for body and no JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES mind. Excluded from the summer resorts of Russia and likewise from the principal hotels on the east coast of the United States, the Jewish inhabitants of both these countries take their holiday in the well-known resorts of Central and Southern Europe, from Scheveningen to Lucerne and from Carlsbad to Venice. The liability of Jews to various forms of dyspepsia and rheumatism causes them to repair in hosts to all the mineral wells to drink the waters, and Carlsbad and Marienbad in particular present the aspect of an annual reunion of the scattered sons of Israel. The promenades are filled with a kaleidoscopic crowd of Jewish types talking in a dozen tongues—well-fed merchants from England, savants with slashed cheeks from Germany and Austria, spruce Reform Rabbis in tourist dress from America, orthodox Rabbis with flowing white beards and solemn mien from Russia, a Chassidic miracle-maker in silk gaberdine and fur hat from Galicia, stalwart, black-bearded Jews from the Caucasus in conical astrakhan hats, and olive- complexioned Jews from the Orient in fez and turban. Even the most exacting of the ultra-orthodox suffer no hardship in these resorts in respect of diet and lodging, for there are kosher boarding-houses and restaurants galore to accommodate them all, and the strict routine of the cure is relieved by divine service three times a day and Talmudic disputations at all hours. Drawn together from their dispersion by their bodily ills, the children of Israel discuss the malady of their people while seeking their own personal healing, and then return to their thousand tents. CHAPTER VIII RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Anthropological and physiological characteristics—The Jewish type predominantly brunette and brachycephalic — Historical evidence upon racial purity—Uniformity of Jewish type—Causes of physiological characteristics—Factors contributing to good health : Dietary and hygienic laws—Temperance—Low rate of mortality in general and of infants in particular—Causes of low mortality— Liability to contagious diseases, bronchitis, heart-disease, hemor¬ rhoids, cancer—Liability to consumption, diseases of digestive organs, of the eye and skin—Morbidity of children—Nervous diseases—Suicides—Inferiority of birth-rate—Decline of marriage- rate—Decline of natural increase T HE Jew has many distinguishing characteristics both of an anthropological and a physiological nature. Their origin is to be sought partly in the racial stock to which he belongs, partly in the endless vicissitudes through which he has passed, partly in the environment in which he has dwelt, and partly in the mode of life that he has followed. His anthropological characteristics are due to the racial factor, and they owe their preservation in approximately their original condition to the social isolation in which he has for the most part lived since the days of his dispersion. His physiological characteristics are due in greatest measure to the hygienic laws which he has observed as part of his religion, and likewise to the sufferings which his people has endured in its struggle for existence, and the effects of which, both beneficial and detrimental, he has inherited as a national legacy. The characteristics of both kinds will be found in their fullest extent among the Jews who live in compact settlements, particularly in Eastern Europe and in the hi 112 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Western communities composed of those who have them¬ selves migrated from the East. The anthropological traits have a longer and stronger persistence than those of a purely physiological order : they are rooted in the blood and will even reassert themselves in the grandchildren of those who have married outside the Jewish pale and with¬ drawn from the Jewish community. The peculiarities of a physiological nature are dependent upon more governable factors, and they become weaker or disappear in pro¬ portion as the individual Jew abandons the habits and customs of centuries and adopts the mode of life of his non-Jewish neighbours. The distinctive features of the Jewish type consists of dark hair and eyes, and hence, owing to the preponderance of this feature, the Jews belong to the brunette group of the human race, or, more particularly, to the brunette group (Melanochroes) of the white race. The blond type, consisting of fair hair and blue eyes, and the mixed type consisting of fair hair with dark eyes or dark hair with light eyes, are also found in small and varying proportions in different countries. The prevalence of this blond type has been explained by some anthropologists as the result of intermixture with the native populations, but this view is contradicted by the presence of fair-haired Jews in the north of Africa and in Syria, which are not inhabited by blond peoples, as well as by the presence of blond types among the Samaritan Jews who have scrupulously safe¬ guarded their racial purity. The causes of these diverse types among Jews must not be sought in their kinship or supposed intermixture with alien races, but in the forces of nature that originally determined the genesis of these respective types among other groups of the human race. The differentiation of pigmentation, as Dr. Zollschan has shown, 1 is the effect of varied climatic and geographical conditions : it is a protective measure of nature against the injurious chemical and calorific effects of the fierce rays of the sun. The other main characteristic of the Jewish 1 Dr. Ignaz Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem (Vienna, 3rd edition, 1912), p. 123. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 113 type is short-headedness (brachycephaly), the cephalic index of the majority of Jews being estimated by Dr. Judt as ranging from 80 to 83*6. 1 There are, however, many representatives of the long-headed or dolichocephalic type, as in Arabia, Morocco, and Algeria. This diversity of head-form is advanced by Dr. Fishberg 2 as his principal reason for disputing the racial purity of the Jews, as he maintains that changes in the form of the head can be produced only by racial intermixture. But Professor Franz Boas, 3 who has taken measurements of 30,000 immigrants and descendants in New York, has shown that the change of environment from Europe to America has a potent influence upon such racial traits as stature, head-form, and complexion. East-European Jews with brachy- cephalic heads become long-headed and also increase in stature and weight. A similar phenomenon may also be observed among the immigrants and their descendants in London. Moreover, Nystrom 4 has shown that the shape of the skull can be differently influenced by the pose of the body involved by one’s daily occupation and mode of life, and that the increased pressure of brain and blood caused by intense intellectual activity tends to produce brachycephaly. Thus, changes of head-form afford no proof of racial intermixture. It had long been supposed that the hook-nose is also a salient—if not the most dis¬ tinctive feature—of the Jewish type, but careful observa¬ tion among the Jews of Russia and Galicia has shown that from 60 to 80 per cent possess straight or “ Greek ” noses. The Jewish hook-nose thrives only in the comic papers. That which constitutes the peculiarity of the Jewish nose is not its shape or profile, but, as Joseph Jacobs was the first to point out, “ the accentuation and flexibility of the nostrils,” a view with which Ripley agrees. 5 1 Judische Statistik (Berlin, 1903), p. 421. 2 Dr. M. Fishberg, The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment (London, 1911). 3 Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants (Washing¬ ton, 1910). 4 Dr. Ignaz Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem, p. 90. 6 Art. “ Nose,” in Jewish Encyclopedia, ix. 8 ii4 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES The predominance of the brachycephalic type among the Jews has led to a revision of the traditional view as regards their Semitic origin, since the peoples of the so- called Semitic stock were dolichocephalic. Even Jewish writers who are in favour of Jewish nationalist aspirations, such as Dr. Zollschan and Dr. Judt, have discarded the conventional theory of the origin of their people. Dr. Zollschan has pointed out that it is absurd to speak of the Semitic race at all, as this term, like the collateral expression Aryan, simply applies to a family group of languages, but affords no indication of the racial kinship of those among whom they are spoken. According to Zollschan the Jews, at the time of their entry upon the arena of history, were the product of an amalgamation of the peoples of North Africa with those of South-Western Asia, and they were particularly influenced by the Assyrian and Babylonian elements among the latter as regards their complexion. Judt, on the other hand, believes that the Hittites formed the physical nucleus of the Jews, who owe to them their distinctive physiognomical traits, whilst according to Professor von Luschan the three principal elements in the composition of the Jewish type were the Semites, the Aryan Amorites, and the Hittites. But although it is impossible to establish with exactitude the genesis of the Jewish type, since anthropological science still provides a field of heated conflict, it is sufficient to know that according to unbiassed authorities the racial amalgamation of which the J ews are the product took place some four thousand years ago and that the Jewish type has been preserved intact to the present day. The evidence of history strongly supports the view that the Jewish race did not suffer any appreciable influx of alien blood in Europe. The Jewish community in almost every town was both locally and socially segregated from the rest of the population. There was a widespread feeling of hostility between Jews and Gentiles throughout the Middle Ages, which afforded little encouragement to mixed marriages, and both Synagogue and Church strictly forbade such unions. Moreover, the Rabbis discouraged pro- RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 115 selytism, and the records of conversion show that the Jewish community lost far more in deserters than it gained in proselytes. The only notable exception consisted of the Chazars, a people of Turkish origin, who formed an independent kingdom in the south of Russia from the seventh to the eleventh century, and whose ruling classes embraced Judaism in 620. 1 But the descendants of these Jewish converts were subsequently absorbed among the Karaites, who do not intermarry with orthodox Jews, and thus they cannot form an argument against the purity of the Jewish race. In any case the amount of the inter¬ marriage with Jews is known not to have been great, and its physical effects must have been eliminated in the course of a few generations as small admixtures from an alien stock leave no anthropological trace behind them. Mixed marriages, so far as has been ascertained, are less fertile than purely Jewish marriages, owing either to racial incon¬ gruity or to the characteristics of the social stratum in which they mostly take place, and all but a tenth of the offspring of such unions go over to Christianity. 2 It may therefore be safely concluded that the Jews are com¬ paratively free from any strain of alien blood derived from the nations of Europe, whatever admixture they may have themselves contributed to these nations. Beyond the zone of the Western world, however, there are indeed three historic cases of alien intermixture with Jewish blood : the Jews of Abyssinia, known as Falashas, who claim descent from the retinue of Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and who present a negroid type ; the Black Jews of India, and the small and dwindling colony of Chinese Jews at Kai-Fung-Foo. But these abnormal types are comparatively few in number, and, owing to their remoteness and isolation, they cannot be considered as affecting the purity of the general body of the Jewish race. If we desire a concrete and impartial testimony that the Jewish type has not undergone any appreciable alteration 1 According to A. Harkavy, Meassef Niddahim, i. ; other authorities give 740 as the date of conversion. 2 Cf. bk. vi. chap, iii., “ Drift and Apostasy.” n6 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES in Europe during the last two thousand years, we shall find it in the imposing monuments that have been brought to light from the buried cities of Babylonia. The bas-reliefs of Hebrew prisoners taken by Shishak in 973 b.c.e., and of the inhabitants of Lachish who submitted to Sennacherib in 701 b.c.e. , present a striking resemblance to the pre¬ dominant Jewish type of the present day. The preservation of this type from so remote a period is due primarily to racial evolution and successive centuries of inbreeding, but it is not less due to common national experiences which have endowed it with specific qualities of a physical and moral order. Behind the walls of the Ghetto the Jewish type was carefully protected from the influence of its alien environ¬ ment, and there it also received a special impress, the product of exile and oppression. The chronic outbreaks of massacre and banishment, the unceasing reign of petty despotism, economic misery and nervous alarm, have wrought traces upon the organism of the Jew ; they have bent and stunted his body, whilst they have sharpened his mind and brightened his eye ; they have given him a narrow chest, feeble muscles, and pale complexion ; they have stamped his visage with a look of pensive sadness, as though ever brooding upon the wrongs of ages. But the frame that has endured and sur¬ vived so much suffering is also endowed with a high degree of resistance. In the remotest regions there may be found Jews of a similar type, as in Aden and Galicia, in Egypt and Persia, in Samarcand and Palestine, 1 and yet we cannot assert that there is a single uniform type at the present day. A few hours’ careful observation among the Jewish inhabitants of a Western city, or even a few moments’ scrutiny among the delegates at a Zionist Congress, would soon reveal the ex¬ istence of varied types. The cause of this variation is not far to seek ; it consists in the influence of local environment, which forces upon the Jewish physiognomy some of the traits of the predominant type, a process favoured in 1 W. Z. Ripley, in The Races of Europe (New York, 1899), has published photographs showing the similarity between Jewish types of Russia, Caucasus, Arabia, Syria, Tunis, Bokhara, and India. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 117 Western countries by the increase of social intercourse with non-Jews as well as by the preference of the non-Jewish type for marriage both by Jew and Jewess. Thus it is that several eminent Jews of the last fifty years have had little similarity to the average racial type ; Cesare Lombroso in Italy, Sir Julian Goldsmid in England, George Brandes in Denmark, Baron Maurice de Hirsch in France, have all shown a marked resemblance to the characteristic type of their native country, whilst Dr. Theodor Herzl, on the other hand, recalled the majestic presence of an Assyrian emperor. But although these types show a divergence from what is popularly called the Jewish type, there is no ground for denying the existence of the latter as is done by some writers, since the majority of Jews present—to use a mathematical term—the highest common factor of physical and physiog¬ nomical characteristics distinguishing them from non- Jews. The truest statement of the position would be that there is a variety of Jewish types, each possessing an un¬ mistakable Jewish factor and yet presenting a certain resemblance to the predominant local type which results from the unconscious mimicry of muscular movements. This difference has been characterized as a difference in the social type of Jewry, which helps us to read in the face of each Jew the land of his origin, and to see whether he is a native of Russia, Germany, England, or America. That which is popularly known as the Jewish expression is found mostly among those who live in or originate from Eastern communities, and it has even been observed to develop at a later age in the case of some who have not had it in their youth, but, on the whole, it diminishes among those who have constant intercourse with non-Jews and who live beyond the influence of a Jewish atmosphere. The physiological characteristics of the Jew are not due to any organic peculiarities of a racial origin, but to social, historic, and economic causes. Having dwelt for nearly two thousand years in towns, and for the greater period in the most insalubrious and congested quarters, and having been compelled to endure all manner of persecution in his struggle for existence, he possesses a constitution that com- ii8 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES bines a poor muscular development with a highly developed nervous system. His average height in Eastern Europe is five feet three or four inches, whilst that of the Jewish immigrants in the United States is five feet five inches 1 ; but the native Jews both of New York and London are taller than their foreign parents and thus demonstrate how sus¬ ceptible is the physique of the Jew to the influence of environment. The inferiority of the Eastern Jew in chest development is still more striking. Among healthy and normally developed people the girth of the chest equals or even exceeds half the stature, but this proportion is far from common among the Jewish masses of Russia, who present a larger percentage of military recruits with deficient chest-measurement than any other subject-people of the Tsar. Investigations spread over twelve years (1886-97) have shown that among every 1000 Jewish conscripts there were 491 whose chest-measurement was less than half their height, whilst among 1000 Christian conscripts there were only 128. 2 Dr. Max Mandelstamm, of Kiev, who had exceptional facilities for studying the physical conditions of the Jews in the Russian Pale, cites without reservation the testimony of military physicians that 60 per cent of the Jewish recruits have a deficient chest circumference. 3 The Russian military authorities have accordingly lowered the standard of their requirements for Jewish subjects. Despite his pallid face and feeble frame the Jew displays a remarkable strength in resisting disease. Cooped up in the poorest, the most crowded and insanitary districts of great cities, where the air is foul and the light is bad, he succeeds in living to a great and even venerable age. Denied the boon of invigorating his stock with the blood of a country- bred element, an advantage open to all other nations, he nevertheless succeeds in perpetuating his line to a fourth and fifth generation. The secret of his health and longevity lies wholly in his mode of life, which is prescribed and 1 The Immigrant Jew in America, p. 282 (New York, 1907). 2 JiXdische Statistik, p. 306. 3 Report of Physical Condition of the Jews, Fourth Zionist Congress, London, 1900. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 119 fashioned by law and custom. But some of his immunity from certain diseases may rightly be referred to heredity, for a stock that has survived the perils and persecutions of many ages must have inevitably become stiffened in the process. The most tangible grounds of the good health of the Jew, however, consist in the dietary and Itygienic laws which he observes as faithfully as the Ten Commandments, in his notable sobriety, in the weekly Sabbath rest, and in the quietude and purity of his family life. The legislation of the Bible and the Talmud was directed to secure the physical as well as the spiritual welfare of mankind, and all the religious codes accepted by orthodox Jewry preserve and emphasize this principle. The prohibition of certain beasts, birds and fish, as unclean for food, the careful examination of animals after slaughter to see that they are free from any disease of the lungs or pleura, and the draining of the blood from meat before cooking, combine to protect the body from elements that might be injurious and diminish the liability to contract such maladies as bovine tuberculosis, trichiniasis, and typhoid fever. The cleanliness of the person is secured by a strict insistence upon the use of baths and ablutions as almost a religious duty. The hands and face must be washed in the morning before any food is touched ; the hands must always be washed after relieving nature and after touching any part of the body that is usually covered, and they must likewise be washed before every meal. The Jew, moreover, laves his hands again after the meal, before uttering grace. A bath is prescribed before Sabbaths and festivals, and the Mikvah or ritual bath (which must contain at least 120 gallons of water) must be visited by every woman at least once a month. 1 The ritual observance of these practices is slowly falling into desuetude in Western countries, but it is faithfully upheld in Eastern communities. The cleanliness of the home is secured by the scrubbing and cleaning of the living rooms on the eve of every Sabbath and festival, and by the thorough scouring 1 In Germany, of 1400 Jewish communities, 772 have a Mikvah. In Russia there is hardly a single community without one (Z. /. Dem. ii.Stat., 1912, p. 87). In Western countries it is being replaced by the domestic bath. 120 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES and scraping of every nook and cranny in the house-walls, woodwork, floors, furniture, on the eve of Passover, the latter process being more thorough, if anything, than the usual English spring cleaning. The salutary effect of these dietary and hygienic re¬ gulations is supplemented by moderation in alcoholic indulgence, for although the Jew drinks wine for the cere¬ monial of sanctification on Sabbaths and feasts and takes spirits on all festive occasions, he knows how to set a dis¬ creet limit to his appetite. There are no temperance leagues in Jewry, and yet in no other community is the number of drunkards or of those suffering from alcoholic excess so small in proportion. The perfect repose both of body and mind secured by the Sabbath and by the more important festivals, which amount to thirteen days in the year, affords an excellent means of recuperation from toil and worry, for these religious celebrations are free from those drinking bouts which desecrate what should be the solemn days of other communities. And a further series of im¬ portant factors consist in the early age of marriage, the sanctity of the family tie, and the devotion which parents lavish upon the upbringing of children. Finally, the whole philosophy of the Jew is coloured by the view that life is a very precious thing, and that everything may be sacrificed to its preservation. The guiding principle of the Rabbis, based on the dictum of the Pentateuch (Lev. xviii. 5), was that the laws and statutes of the Bible were given that man might live by them and not die through them. 1 Hence they declared that in case of danger to life one might commit any transgression except idolatry, murder, and adultery ; 2 and the relaxation they allowed had special application to the Sabbath, on which the doctor might heal the sick, though all other work was forbidden. In the light of this hygienic dispensation it is not sur¬ prising that the Jews everywhere have a lower rate of mor¬ tality than the people among whom they live, even though they generally dwell in the most crowded and insanitary districts. In no country that has been investigated does their 1 Talmud, Yoma, 85b. 2 Pesachim, 25a. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 121 annual mortality exceed 20 per 1000. Between 1876 and 1910 their mortality in Prussia, Bavaria, and Hesse declined from 17*8 to 13*8 per 1000, and in 1911 their mortality in Prussia was 14*1, whilst that of the Christian population was I7-4. 1 In Hungary their death-rate in 1911 was 15*3, as compared with 25*i per 1000 of the general population ; 2 and in Vienna, in 1908, it was only 12*4, contrasting with a mortality of 18*1 per 1000 of the general population. 3 They enjoy the same advantage in Eastern Europe too. Thus, in 1903, in Russia, they had a mortality of only 14-5, whilst that of the Orthodox Russians was 32*2, and that of the Mohammedans 24*3 per 1000 ; and in Poland they had a death-rate of 15*8, whilst that of the Catholics was 23d Similarly, the average death-rate of the Jews in Bulgaria declined between 1891-95 and 1901-04 from 23*10 to 15*49 P er whilst that of the general popu¬ lation only declined from 27*86 to 22*68 ; 5 and in Ru¬ mania the Jewish death-rate between 1907 and 1910 de¬ clined from 18*94 to 16*85, whilst that of the general popu¬ lation only declined from 26*4 to 25*38. 6 The same phenomenon has been corroborated among the Jews in London, Manchester, and New York. In Whitechapel, according to Dr. J. Loane, who gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration in 1902, the death-rate of the district in the period 1880-1900, when the Jews settled there in large numbers, declined from 26 to 18 per 1000, and the foreigners have a death-rate of 156 as against the native rate of 20 ; 7 in Manchester during the years 1900-02, the death-rate for the entire city was 21*78, whilst in the Jewish district of Cheetham it was only 16*99 ; 8 and in New York during the six years ending 31st May 1890, the Jews had a mortality of only 14*85 per 1000, which was lower than that of any other rate in the city. 9 1 Zeitschrift filr Demographie und Statistih dev Juden, 1913, January and September. 2 Ibid., p. 118. 3 Ibid., 1911, p. 118. 4 Ibid., pp. 39-44. 5 Ibid., p. 17. 6 Ibid., 1912, p. 16. 7 Minutes of Evidence (1903), 4538-55. 8 Ibid., p. 799. 9 J. S. Billings, Vital Statistics of the Jews in the United States (1890), 122 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES The favourable position of the Jews in regard to mortality in general is exemplified very strikingly by the rate of in¬ fantile mortality, which everywhere forms a good proportion of the general mortality. Thus according to the evidence given before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, the infant mortality increased in London in the period 1886-1900 from 153 to 161 per 1000 births, whilst the Whitechapel district showed a decline from 170 to 144 ; and in Manchester, in 1898-1901, the infant death-rate was lowest in Cheetham, the figures in 1899 being 104 for this Jewish district and 205 for the whole city. 1 Similarly, investigations have proved that those districts which are mostly inhabited by Jews in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston, although the most overcrowded and insanitary, have the lowest rate of child mortality. 2 In the Grand Duchy of Hesse the average rate of infant mor¬ tality in 1906-10 was 129 per 1000 of the Christian popu¬ lation, but among the Jews it was only 72 ; 3 and in Hun¬ gary, in 1910, the mortality of Jewish children under seven years of age formed 35*8 per cent of all Jewish deaths, whilst among the Protestants it was 42*1, and among the Catholics 49*7 per cent. 4 Moreover, in Russia, according to the census of 1897, the infant mortality was 150 per 1000 births among the Jews, whilst it was 154*2 among the Catholics, and 274*3 among the Greek Orthodox ; 5 and in Cracow, which is typical of Galicia, the corresponding average rate for 1894-96 was 155 for the Jews, but 171 for the Christians. 6 The low death-rate of Jewish children is due to the scrupulous care of the mothers in rearing their offspring. Throughout Eastern Europe Jewesses after marriage very rarely work in factories or at home ; they invariably nurse their children at the breast ; and in all parts of the world they are known to display an excessive solicitude about 1 Minutes of Evidence, 3960, 21742-46. 2 The Immigrant Jew in America. 3 Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, 1913, p. 7. 4 Ibid., 1912, p. 78. 6 Die sozialen Verhaltnissc der Juden in Russland, p. 29. 6 Die Juden in Oesterreich, p. 33. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 123 the health of their children and to seek the best medical advice on the least suspicion that anything is wrong. The low rate of the general mortality must be also attributed partly, in addition to the factors previously mentioned, to the nature of the occupations in which Jews engage. The large majority, particularly in Eastern Europe, are mer¬ chants or small traders or engage in indoor occupations, and thus belong to the long-lived class. Their avoidance of dangerous trades, such as mining, building, and railway employment, is due not to any deliberate precaution but, for the most part, to the fact that such occupations would involve, more seriously than others, regular isolation from the Jewish community and violation of the Sabbath. We are thus ledto the conclusion that the low mortality of Jewry is due in the mainto its specific social, hygienic, and economic conditions, a view that is supported by the fact that the death-rate of the Jews is smallest where they live apart, whilst it increases where they freely intermingle with their non-Jewish neighbours. 1 But apart from all these con¬ siderations it is only natural that the Jews, who have waged such a long and stubborn fight against the forces of destruc¬ tion, should have acquired a certain ingenuity in the art of defeating Death. The favourable conditions of health enjoyed by the Jews may be illustrated by examining the degree of their liability to various diseases. Contagious maladies, which work with such rapid and pernicious effects among most peoples, do not attack them at all so seriously, despite the apparent opportunities offered by a Ghetto environment. 2 In 1909 there was an outbreak of cholera in Vitebsk, in the Russian Pale, which (according to the census of 1897) contains 34,420 Jews and 31,299 non-Jews, but whilst 472 non-Jews were attacked, of whom 219 died, only 186 Jews were attacked, of whom 70 died. The morbidity of 1 Among American Jews the death-rate of the native-born is 9*16 per cent, but that of the foreign-born 7‘6 i per cent (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix., art. “ Mortality ”). 2 In the Middle Ages the Black Death, which carried away so many thousands of people, left the Jews almost untouched, and hence they were accused of causing the death of others by poisoning the wells. 124 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the Jews was thus only 5, and that of their neighbours 15 per 1000. 1 The Jews are also more immune than their neighbours from typhoid fever. Thus in Budapest, in 1886, their mortality from this disease was only 46 per 100,000, whilst that of the Catholics was 66, and of the Lutherans 76. 2 And in New York, during the six years ending 31st May 1900, their mortality from typhoid was only 9-19 per 100,000, a lower rate than that of any other people. They suffer less from smallpox, as they practise vaccination regularly, and in the epidemic of 1900-03 in New York they were almost completely immune, as they were in the outbreak in Manchester in 1902. 3 They are less liable to pneumonia as their indoor occupations do not expose them to the rigours of the weather or the chilling of the body ; and as they are not habitual drunkards they can offer a more effective resistance to the disease. On the other hand, owing to their being mostly townsfolk with indoor occupations, they are very liable to chronic bronchitis and asthma ; and heart disease claims a great number of victims, owing partly to their unusually severe struggle for existence and partly to their containing a large proportion of old persons, who are naturally liable to the malady. In the United States the Jewish mortality from heart disease is double that of the general population. Rheumatism is also common, and so are varicose veins, especially among women, owing to their sedentary habits and their frequent pregnancy. A special form of the latter affection consists of hemorrhoids, which are more prevalent among Jews than among other people. This malady is particularly common among the Jews of Eastern Europe : its causation is due to a sedentary life, and is generally attributed to sitting nearly the whole day on the hard benches of the Beth Hamidrash, studying the Talmud. Cancer is believed to be less frequent among 1 Zeitschrift filr Demographie und Statistik der Juden, 1912, p. 63. 2 J. von Korosi in Publikationen des Statistischen Bureaus, Budapest (Berlin, 189S). 3 Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, 21,794. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 125 Jews than among non-Jews, though among the former it is more liable to attack the gastro-intestinal organs ; on the other hand, cancer of the breast is less frequent among Jewish than non-Jewish women. Whether Jews show any particular immunity in regard to consumption is still a matter of dispute, though the bulk of the evidence would seem to be in their favour. Investigations made in Russia, New South Wales, and London show that the Jews are less liable than their neighbours to this disease. In 1897 the Jewish Board of Guardians of London appointed a committee to inquire into the alleged increasing prevalence of consumption among the Jewish poor with a view to adopting preventive measures, but the inquiry established the fact that there had not been any increase of this disease during the previous fifteen years. 1 Dr. J. S. Billings has shown that the death-rate from consumption in New York and Brook¬ lyn for the six years ending 31st May 1900 was lowest among the Jewish population, a result confirmed by Dr. M. Fishberg, who has made investigations in the New York Ghetto, showing that the death-rate from this disease was 565*06 per 100,000 among non-Jews, but only 110*56 among Jews. 2 The pursuit of sedentary occupations, such as tailoring and boot-making, in the crowded dwellings of congested districts in big cities, would lead one to expect a greater frequency of this malady among Jews, but there are counteracting factors in the careful inspection of their meat, the rarity of alcoholism, the regular cleaning of the house, and their general employment in trades that do not expose them to the inclemency of the weather. The eating of kosher meat and the moderate indulgence in intoxicants would seem to be the two chief causes for checking the ravages of consumption. On the other hand, diseases of the digestive organs, such as nervous dyspepsia and diabetes, are rather frequent causes of death, being due largely to excessive anxiety and a lack of proper exercise. Whether Jews are more often attacked 1 British Medical Journal, 2nd July, 1898. 2 The Immigrant Jew in America, p. 329. 126 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES by diabetes than their neighbours is another moot point, but Dr. Fishberg has shown that it is mostly a question of the nativity of the Jews, those in Germany falling easier victims to the malady than their co-religionists in Russia, France, or England. 1 The extent to which Jews are liable to diseases of the digestive organs is evidenced by the large numbers in which they flock every summer to such watering-places on the Continent as Carlsbad and Marienbad. Of eye diseases trachoma is rather frequent among the Jews of Eastern Europe, owing to their insanitary surroundings, but effective measures of prevention and healing have been adopted in recent years in consequence of this ailment being a ground for the exclusion of immigrants seeking to enter England or America. Of skin diseases eczema is said to be more common among Jews than among non-Jews, a phenomenon also due to an insanitary environment. Sexual diseases are notably less common, the comparative immunity being due partly to superiority in moral relations, partly to moderation in intoxicants, and partly to circumcision ; but the favourable position of the Jew in this respect is slowly receding in Western countries in which there is increasing intercourse with the non-Jewish population. The position of the Jewish child in regard to disease, as can be deduced from its comparatively low death-rate, is strikingly favourable and is due to the greater devotion and care exercised by the mother both before and after birth. Jewish children succumb less frequently than others to diphtheria, croup, measles, and whooping-cough, but they more often die from scarlet fever. They show a better resistance to infantile diarrhoea, the mortality from which is only about a third of that among non-Jewish infants. They are also less liable to rickets, atrophy, and scrofula. Striking evidence on this point was given before the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration by Dr. W. Hall of Leeds, who found 50 per cent of the Christian children in a poor school suffering from rickets, but only 8 per cent of the children in a school 1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. iv„ art. “ Diabetes/’ RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 127 of the better class, whereas in a Jewish school of poor children he found only 7 per cent attacked by this ailment. 1 The liability of the Jews to nervous diseases is a subject of peculiar and pathetic interest. Distinguished by the superiority of their nervous over their muscular system, they are more prone to mental affections than other people in whom the nervous system is relatively less highly developed. According to various authorities the frequency of mental diseases among Jews is four to five times higher than among non-Jews. It is chiefly nervous diseases of a functional order, however, to which they are subject, particularly neurasthenia and hysteria, the latter being found among males to a notable degree. Raymond has actually asserted that the Jewish population of Warsaw forms an inexhaustible source of supply of hysterical males for the clinics of the whole Continent. 2 On the other hand, Jews are less liable to organic nervous diseases than non-Jews, thanks to the comparative infrequency among them of alcoholism and syphilis. Their peculiar position in respect to these dis¬ orders is due to a combination of historic and social factors. They have had to endure an endless cycle of persecutions ever since their exile from Palestine ; they have been almost exclusively denizens of towns throughout that period, denied the stimulating influx of country blood ; and they have largely been engaged in intellectual or com¬ mercial pursuits and been exposed to the worry and anxiety incidental thereto. These factors, operating for so long a period and over so wide an area, have rendered the Jewish nervous system peculiarly susceptible of attack, and they continue to exert undiminished sway to the present day throughout Eastern Europe. The persistent espionage and oppression, the chronic pogroms and the daily fear of their recurrence, to which the Jews in Russia are exposed have wrought disastrous effects among them— driving hundreds, nay thousands, into an incurable state of insanity. According to the Russian census of 1897 1 Jewish Chronicle, 19th August, 1904. 2 L’Etude des Maladies du Systbme Nerveux en Russie, p. 71 (Paris, 1889). 128 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the Jews had g'84 mentally diseased in every 10,000, whilst the Russians had only 9*54 and the Poles 8*51. 1 This un¬ favourable proportion has probably since become worse in consequence of the wholesale massacres of Jews in the autumn of 1905 and the sporadic outrages that broke out in the following year, the type of affection to which they are subject being more frequently melancholia rather than mania. In addition to these factors one must also take into consideration the early age at which the Jewish child begins his education ; his religious, if not his secular education, begins as early as the age of four or five, and throughout the greater part of Eastern Europe it is con¬ ducted mostly in an overcrowded and ill-ventilated room which often forms the entire home of the teacher. An important point that must be borne in mind, however, in regard to the comparative frequency of insanity among Jews is that they are almost exclusively an urban population, whilst almost half of the non-Jewish world lives in the country : thus a Jewish lunatic must invariably be brought into a public asylum, a necessity that operates to a less degree in the case of Gentile lunatics, and hence the disproportion between recorded Jewish and non-Jewish lunatics can to a certain extent be discounted. Despite the relatively high degree, however, in which J ews are attacked by nervous ailments, they are comparatively free from the severer or fatal forms of these diseases. Thus the mortality of the Russian Jews in New York from nervous maladies in the six years ending 31st May 1890 was ii7’68 per 100,000, 2 whilst that of the Bohemians was 33676, of the white Americans 293’48, and of the Irish 242'44. Although insanity is the most potent predisposing cause of suicide, self-destruction is on the whole comparatively rare among the Jews. The reason is to be sought in the controlling influence of religion, which is a recognized deterrent of self-murder, as well as in the traditional view of the Jew in looking upon life as something sacred. Throughout the crowded Jewish centres in Eastern Europe, 1 Die sozialen Verhdltnisse dev Juden in Russland, p. G8 (Berlin, 1906). 2 The Immigrant Jew in America, p. 299. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 129 where orthodoxy has its stronghold, suicide is a very infrequent phenomenon : only in periods of pogroms, when Jewish wives are dishonoured and Jewish girls are outraged, is there a notable manifestation of suicidal tendency. The cause is certainly sufficient. There is an appreciable difference, however, in the rate of suicide among different grades of Jewish society, its incidence being much more frequent among the rich than among the poor. Thus, in Austria, where the economic position of the Jews is low, the number of suicides is 20 per 100,000; and in Galicia, where the Jews are even worse off, it is 10 per 100,000; whilst in Baden and Bavaria, where they are on the whole in comfortable circumstances, the rate is is 140. 1 The most significant feature in regard to self- murder among the Jews is its comparative increase in Western Europe and America, thus displaying one of the deleterious influences of modern civilization upon Jewish life. In these Western lands, where the struggle of life is keener and the bases of faith are weaker, the despair of the Jew finds a quicker outlet in self-destruc¬ tion than in the Jewish centres of Eastern Europe, where there is not only a stronger faith in Providence, but where also the social stigma attaching to the family of a suicide acts as a potent deterrent. The increase in the rate of suicide in Western Jewry has become most striking during the last fifty years, the period that has witnessed the growth of emancipation and westward migration ; and it is particularly noteworthy in Prussia, where the statistics of the ten years 1890-1901 show that whilst the rate among the non-Jewish population of that country has re¬ mained almost stationary, it has increased among the Jews from 18 to 32 per 100,000. Although modern Jewry has such a favourable record in regard to mortality and disease, it has a remarkably diminishing birth-rate, which is lower than the birth-rate of the general population in all the countries of Europe. Thus, in Prussia, Bavaria, and Hesse together the average Jewish birth-rate sank from 31*6 per 1000 in 1876-80 to 1 Jewish Encyclopcedia, vol. xi., art. “ Suicide.” 9 130 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES 17*6 in igoi-io, and in Prussia alone, in 1911, it was as low as 15 *4. 1 This contrasts very unfavourably not only with the Christian birth-rate in Prussia, 29*7 per 1000, and with the general birth-rate for Germany, 287, but also with that of France in 1911, 18'9, which is commonly re¬ garded as the lowest birth-rate in Europe. In Austria the Jewish birth-rate declined between 1899 and 1909 from 3572 to 28*80 per 1000, and in Hungary between 1901-05 and 1906-10 from 31*4 to 28*6, falling again in 1911 to 26*9 (compared with 35*1 per 1000 of the general popula¬ tion). 2 Even in the countries farther east, where traditional piety still has its stronghold, the ancient ideal of being fruitful and multiplying is steadily waning. Thus, in Galicia the Jewish births between 1899 and 1909 declined from 41*41 to 34*40 per 1000 (probably partly due to the large emigration) ; and in Rumania, between 1903 and 1910, they declined from 32*29 to 29*33, whilst the birth¬ rate of the general population increased from 40*14 to 50*11 3 ; and in Bulgaria, between 1891-95 and 1907, they declined from 37*58 to 32*27, whilst the birth-rate of the general population rose from 37*49 to 43*85. 4 The same phenomenon has also manifested itself in Russia, where between 1900 and 1903 the Jewish birth-rate declined from 36*14 to 29*13, which contrasts strikingly with the birth¬ rate of the Greek Orthodox, 51*3 per 1000 ; 5 and in Poland likewise the Jews have the lowest birth-rate of any denomination, 30, that of the Greek Orthodox being 43*26 per 1000. This diminution of the birth-rate has altered the com¬ position of the Jewish family, for whilst most families con¬ tained four to six children even as recently as twenty years ago, they now have only two to four, and there is an increasing tendency to restrict the number to two. The cause of this diminution is mainly to be found in the increase of celibacy and the postponement of marriage, with the 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, 1913, January and September. 2 Ibid., 1912, pp. 78 and 135 ; 1913, p. 118. 3 Ibid., 1911, p. 17. 4 Ibid., 1911, pp. 39-44. 6 Ibid., 1912, p. 16. RACIAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 131 consequent curtailment of the period of fertility, due to the increased standard of comfort and education ; whilst a subsidiary cause consists in the prudential restraints and the sterilizing effect of nervous irritability prevalent among educated classes. These causes operate, it is true, amongst nearly all town-dwellers, Jewish or Gentile ; but the Jews are almost exclusively a town-people, whereas the Christians are to a large extent a rural folk whose high birth-rate counter-balances the low birth-rate of the town population. To such a degree has celibacy now spread in modern Jewry that its marriage-rate has sunk below that of the Christian population almost throughout Europe. In Germany, in 1911, the marriage-rate of the general population was 7-80 per 1000, but that of the Jews was only 7-08 ; and in Hun¬ gary, in the same years, the figures were respectively 9-2 and 8-3 per 1000. 1 The same phenomenon has also mani¬ fested itself farther east. Thus, in Bulgaria, in 1907, the marriage-rate of the general population was 9-88 per 1000, but that of the Jews only 7-13 2 ; and in Rumania, in 1910, the figures were respectively 9^44 and 6-09 per 1000. 3 In Russia too the traditional ideal of founding a family is on the wane ; thus in 1903, whilst the marriage-rate of the Mohammedans was 11-4 per 1000 and that of the Greek Orthodox 9*2, that of the Jews was only 7-2, and in Poland it was as low as 6*i. 4 The diminishing birth-rate of the Jews is partly counter¬ balanced by their low rate of mortality, but the advantage that they possess in this respect is limited in effect, and the net result is a lower rate of natural increase than that of the general population. Thus, in Germany, in 1905-10, the general population increased by 7-06 per cent (the Protest¬ ants by 6*23 and the Catholics by 7-74 per cent), whilst the Jews increased only by 1*17 per cent. 5 In Holland, in 1899-1909, the general population increased by 1477 per cent, but the Jews only by 1*12 per cent. 6 Similarly, in Austria (1901-10) the addition to the general population 1 Zeitschvift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, 1913, p. 119. 2 Ibid., 1911, p. 17. 3 Ibid., 1912, p. 16. 4 Ibid., 1911, pp. 39-44. 6 Ibid., 1912, p. 160. 6 Ibid., 1911, p. 166. 132 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES was 9-26 per 1000, whilst the Jewish increase was only 7*25, and in Galicia, in the same decade, the Greek and Roman Catholics increased by 8-67 and 11-64 P er cent, whilst the Jewish increase was only 7-62 per cent ; in Rumania (1910) the figures were 14-82 and 12*13 respectively ; and in Russia (1903) the addition to the Greek Orthodox popu¬ lation was 19 per 1000, whilst that of the Jewish population was only 14*8 per 1000. The effect of this diminishing rate of increase is that the Jews form a diminishing proportion of the general population in many European countries where there is no powerful stream of immigration. In Germany, in 1870, there were 125 Jews in every 10,000 of the popu¬ lation, but in 1910 there were only 95. This diminution was also partly due to apostasy and emigration, and it would even have assumed larger proportions but for the influx of Jews from Eastern Europe. Similarly, in Austria, in 1890, there were 478 Jews in every 10,000 of the population, but in 1910 the proportion had fallen to 459 1 ; and in Italy, between 1861 and 1901 the proportion fell from 13-31 to 10-96 per 10,000 of the total population. 2 The declining rate of increase of the Jews is in itself an ominous sign for the future ; whilst the diminishing proportion which they form of the general population in so many countries is a further disquieting factor, as it exposes them in a steadily increasing measure to the forces of assimilation. 1 Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, October 1912. i Ibid,., January 1905. BOOK III THE POLITICAL ASPECT INTRODUCTION The diversity of political status and its consequences L ESS than one-lialf of the Jews in the world are in possession of the same civil rights as their non-Jewish neighbours ; the majority are still in bondage. This simple statement sums up the political status of modern Jewry and illustrates the ethical justice of modern Christen¬ dom. “ Peace and goodwill unto all ” was the gladsome message of the Saviour that Christendom owes to Jewry, but war and ill-will were the sinister policy practised by the nations against the Jews for eighteen centuries thereafter. The relentless foe of the Jews through¬ out the Middle Ages was the Church, which dominated the destinies of the State in almost every country in which they were settled, and which regarded all who stood outside her fold as the fit prey of humiliating restrictions and ruinous taxation. They owed their first breath of liberty in Europe, not to any clemency on the part of the Church, but to a movement which swept her power away and set up in her place the goddess of Reason. It was the French Revolution which first released the people of Israel from the shackles of medisevalism and endowed them with the rights of human beings, though this act of liberalism was even anticipated by the United States by a few years. The step was too bold and revolutionary to be followed immediately by other countries : most of them, after protracted internal struggles, did not admit their Jewish subjects to the rights of citizen- 133 134 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES ship until the middle of the nineteenth century, the order in which they effected this measure reflecting the march of the idea of toleration. But although we are now in the second decade of the twentieth century, the principle of toleration, acclaimed as the crowning virtue of modern civilization, has not yet penetrated through the frontiers of Russia and Rumania. Six million human beings are there condemned to a state of servitude to which the annals of history offer no parallel, their only crime being that they were born Jews. Their sole escape from the mediaeval barbarity of their modern oppressors is in emigration, and to this one hundred thousand are compelled to resort every year. Had it not been for the ceaseless persecution in Russia and Rumania the Jewish communities in England, America, and the British Colonies would still have been insignificant in numbers, for the Jew loves his native land and does not leave it to seek a home elsewhere unless he is driven by necessity. The fears and suspicions formerly entertained by the countries that have emancipated their Jewish sub¬ jects have long been dispelled, for the latter have universally proved a benefit to the State and manifested their patriotism in abundant measure: they have contributed to the advance¬ ment of their country’s welfare in the arts of peace, they have fought its battles (repeatedly arrayed against one another), they have actively participated in its civic and political life, and they have risen to positions of eminence in its Government councils. But although they are legally endowed with civil and political rights their enjoyment of them in some countries is restricted by official hostility or embittered by social prejudice. The complete emanci¬ pation of the Jewish people is an ideal still hidden beyond the range of prophetic vision. CHAPTER I THE ACQUISITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS Mediaeval disabilities—The liberating effects of the French Revolution—Napoleon and the Paris Sanhedrin—Emancipation in Italy and in Holland—Protracted struggle in Germany—Austria- Hungary—The struggle in England—The United States and British Colonies—Other Countries ,HE first serious attempt to liberate the Jews from the civil and political disabilities imposed upon them in the greater part of mediaeval Europe began in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Their disabilities varied in different countries in kind and severity, but they all agreed in so far as the Jews were denied the ordinary rights of citizenship. They were restricted in domicile, in trade, and in the practice of public worship ; they could not own land ; they were excluded from schools and universities and denied any share in civil and political affairs ; they were subjected to a poll-tax which was exacted whenever they passed from one province into another, and they were mulcted in taxes by kings and bishops, in return for a protection which was constantly threatened by the populace. In short, they had no right except the right to exist, and this was exposed to so many wrongs that it was felt as a burden itself. Their disabilities in England were not so galling or burdensome as on the Continent, for here they enjoyed liberty of domicile from their resettlement in 1655 and were free from the humiliation of a poll-tax ; but the spirit of toleration in England a hundred and sixty years ago was still in such a primitive condition that an Act for the naturalization of the Jews passed in 135 136 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES 1753 had to be repealed the same year owing to a fierce storm of protest all over the kingdom. The first country in which the Jews in Europe were granted complete civil equality was France. As early as 1748 Montesquieu had raised his voice on behalf of the Marannos or “ secret Jews ” in Portugal, and it was in his country that the seed of toleration, assiduously sown by the philosophers of reason, first ripened into fruit. The initial stage in the process of liberation was the removal of the commercial disabilities to which the Jews of Alsace were exposed in addition to the burdens of tribute that pressed heavily upon all the Jews of France alike. Confined to particular districts and restricted in the matter of trade to dealing in cattle and jewellery, the Jews of Alsace were compelled to engage in money-lending, and the unwillingness or inability of the Christian borrowers to repay their loans provoked a popular agitation against the Jews. Hence the latter, in 1780, presented a petition to Louis XVI for the removal of their trade disabilities, which was granted ; and four years later a decree was issued for the abolition of the poll-tax and the conferment of free choice of domicile. But it was not until 1789 that freedom of religious worship was accorded by the National Assembly in response to the powerful advocacy of Mirabeau and Abbe Gregoire, who pleaded for the extension of the Rights of Man to the Jew. Within the last two weeks of that memorable year the question arose of admitting all citizens, without distinction of creed, to the public service. Again Mirabeau and Gregoire championed the cause of the Jews, but as the Alsatian deputies offered violent opposition a compromise was agreed upon. The Portuguese Jews of Avignon, who had hitherto enjoyed civil rights as naturalized Frenchmen, and against whom there was no hostility, were endowed with full political rights on 28th January 1790. Their brethren in Alsace had to content themselves for a while with a law assuring them protection and the abolition of all special taxes ; but on 27th September 1791, after an ardent appeal by Talleyrand, only a few days before dissolution of the THE ACQUISITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS 137 National Assembly, the complete rights of citizenship were conferred upon the 60,000 Jews of France, who were thus the first Jews in Europe to be placed on a political equality with their neighbours. The emancipation of the Jews of France was confirmed by Napoleon, who also brought the first taste of liberty to their brethren in Germany and Italy. There was, indeed, a moment in Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign when he was fired by the ambition of restoring Palestine to its ancient owners, but this glorious prospect was made dependent upon the Jews of Africa and Asia enrolling themselves under his banner, and is to-day merely a theme for historic speculation. The Jewish question in France was re-opened by the guild merchants and religious reactionaries of Alsace, who exploited the inability of the peasants of this province to repay their debts to the Jews by petitioning Napoleon to abrogate the civil rights of the Jews. The conqueror resolved to submit the question to the consideration of the Jews themselves. He convened an Assembly of Jewish Notables of France, Germany, and Italy, in order to ascertain whether the principles of Judaism were compatible with the require¬ ments of citizenship, as he wished to fuse the Jewish element with the dominant population. The Assembly, consisting of m deputies, met in the Town Hall of Paris on 25th July 1806, and was required to frame replies to twelve questions relating mainly to the possibility of Jewish patriotism, the permissibility of intermarriage between Jew and non-Jew, and the legality of usury. So pleased was Napoleon with the pronouncements of the Assembly that he summoned a Sanhedrin after the model of the ancient council of Jerusalem to convert them into the decrees of a legislative body. The San¬ hedrin, comprising 71 deputies from France, Germany, Holland, and Italy, met under the presidency of Rabbi Sinzheim, of Strassburg, on 9th February 1807, and adopted a sort of charter which exhorted the Jews to look upon France as their fatherland, to regard its citizens as their brethren, and to speak its language, and which also ex- 138 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES pressed toleration of marriages between Jews and Chris¬ tians while declaring that they could not be sanctioned by the synagogue. In order to give legal effect to the decision of the Sanhedrin, Napoleon by special decree (17th March 1808) instituted a system of consistories for regulating the constitution of the Jewish community. This system remained in force in France until the passing of the Separation Law in 1905, and still survives in Belgium and Alsace. The culmination of Jewish emancipation in France was reached in 1831, when it was resolved that synagogues and Rabbis, like churches and priests, should be supported by the national treasury. The Jews of France thus owed no extension of their rights to Napoleon but merely a confirmation of them. Their brethren in other lands, however, owed him a more substantial debt of gratitude. In the new Kingdom of Westphalia, which was under the rule of his brother, Jerome, the Jews were granted complete civil equality in 1808, whilst those in the Hanseatic towns of Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bremen, were conceded their rights under French pressure in 1811. A similar boon fell to the lot of the Jews of Italy, but both in that country and in the Hanseatic towns it was only of brief duration, for with the downfall of Napoleon there set in a general reaction. Pope Pius VII brought the Inquisition to life again, denuded his Jewish subjects of every freedom, thrust them back again into the Ghetto, and compelled those who lived in Rome to listen to proselytizing sermons. Not until the Revolution of 1848, which shook the founda¬ tions of Europe, did this mediaeval servitude come to an end. Even then there was a temporary reaction. But when the Papal States in 1859 became the United Kingdom of Italy under Victor Emanuel II, the Jews at last obtained their full emancipation. Not so those in the city of Rome, who had to wait until 1870 before they were released by the Italian legions from Papal bondage. The only other country in Europe besides France in which the Jews secured their civil emancipation before the end of the eighteenth century was Holland. Upon THE ACQUISITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS 139 the establishment of the Batavian Republic in 1795 the more energetic members of the Jewish community pressed for a removal of the many disabilities under which they laboured. They were compelled to exist as small cor¬ porations, so that careful vigilance might be exercised over them ; they were excluded from the trades sacred to the guilds ; they had to contribute to the support of the Church and its schools, from which they received no benefit ; and they had to pay double fees for the registration of marriages. Some of these disabilities were removed in response to vigorous agitation, but the demand for the full rights of citizenship made by the progressive Jews was at first, strangely enough, opposed by the leaders of the Amsterdam community, who feared that civil equality would militate against the conserva¬ tion of Judaism and declared that their co-religionists renounced their rights of citizenship in obedience to the dictates of their faith. Hence, although the Jews were invited to take part in the elections to the Batavian National Assembly, very few ventured to disobey the prohibition of their leaders. But undeterred by this official opposition a disciple of the school of Mendelssohn, David Friedrichsfeld, wrote an eloquent plea for the enfranchisement of his brethren, and six distinguished Jews presented a petition for the purpose to the National Assembly. The petition, despite a stormy protest, triumphed, and on 2nd September 1796 the National Assembly decreed the complete equality of the Jews in the Batavian Republic. In the following year two Jews were elected as deputies for Amsterdam, and any lingering aversion to Jewish emancipation disappeared when one of them, Isaac da Costa Atias, was appointed in 1798 to the high office of President of the Assembly. The speedy and peaceful attainment of equality in France and Holland forms a striking contrast to the long and bitter struggle that was necessary in Germany. The struggle began in the days of Frederick the Great, who, despite his reputed liberalism of thought, manifested a bigoted hostility to his Jewish subjects. He severely 140 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES restricted their numbers in his dominions, limited their marriages, debarred them from the most skilled trades and liberal professions, and exacted heavy taxes for the privi¬ lege of his special protection. The high achievements of Moses Mendelssohn in the world of letters, the eloquent tribute of Lessing’s Nathan the Wise to Jewish char¬ acter, the vigorous advocacy of J ewish rights by Christian William Dohm in 1781, all failed to make any impression upon the prejudiced monarch. Dohm’s pamphlet met with a readier response from a more enlightened monarch, Joseph II of Austria, who abolished many imposts on Jews, allowed them free choice of trades and professions, admitted them to universities and academies, and founded Jewish schools ; but unfortunately this spell of toleration terminated with the life of the royal reformer. The first measure of relief secured in Prussia was the removal in 1787 of the poll-tax, and a similar step followed in the Rhineland and Bavaria ; but the prevalent hostility to the Jews, from which even the poet Goethe and the philo¬ sopher Fichte were not immune, retarded the cause of en¬ franchisement. It was not until Napoleon broke down the feudal barriers of Central Europe that the dawn of freedom came to the long-suffering communities of Israel. Besides the emancipation of the Jews in Westphalia and the Hanseatic towns, a restricted measure of liberty was given to those in Baden, whilst in the Duchy of Frankfort civil equality was granted at the price of 440,000 florins in 1811. More important still, Frederick William III of Prussia abolished the system of “protected Jews” and in 1812 conceded civil equality, modified by the exclusion of Jews from State offices. In Bavaria and Austria no rights of any kind were granted, and Jews who entered Vienna were subjected to a new poll-tax. In Saxony only a few privileged Jews were allowed in Dresden and Leipzig, and they were heavily taxed and forbidden to build a synagogue. But even the scanty liberties thus hardly wrung were lost as soon as the star of Napoleon sank. Despite the sacrifices made by the Jews in the wars for the emancipation of Prussia they were thrust back into THE ACQUISITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS 141 their former servitude and were even deprived of the com¬ missions they had won in the army. A new foe arose in the form of Christian Germanism, which wished to identify the State and nation with the dominant religion, and the historian Riihs even advocated the restoration of the medi¬ aeval badge. At the Congress of Vienna promises were made to improve the Jewish condition, but they remained mere promises, and a worse reaction set in. The Hanse towns expelled the Jews, Frankfort (after pocketing the half¬ million florins) imposed restrictive laws, and then Austria too enacted special decrees, and Prussia followed suit. Tyrol and parts of Bohemia and Moravia were closed to the Jews ; liberty of trade and residence in the country was hampered ; and the Ghetto reappeared. The climax was reached in 1819 when a series of riots broke out against the Jews, accompanied by pillage, massacre, and expulsion, which spread from Wurzburg to Copenhagen. And yet, so varied was the feeling in the country, the Grand Duchy of Hesse enfranchised its Jews in 1820, whilst from 1815 to 1847 there were twenty-one anomalous laws restricting Jewish liberty in the eight provinces of Prussia. Not until 1848, when Europe was visited by a cycle of Revolutions, was the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews in Prussia, in which Gabriel Riesser, a Jewish lawyer of Hamburg, played the most prominent part, brought to a successful issue by a decree of the National Parliament at Frankfort. The Jews in Hanover and Nassau were granted equality later in the same year, but those in Wur- temberg had to wait until 1861, in Baden until 1862, and in Saxony until 1868. Upon the establishment of the North German Confederation in 1869 all religious dis¬ abilities were abolished, and the principles of civil equality was extended to all parts of the German Empire upon its foundation in 1870. The Revolution of 1848 also ushered in the emancipa¬ tion of the Jews in Austria, and the first parliament that assembled in Vienna after the stirring events of that year contained five Jewish deputies. But upon the abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand in the same year and the acces- 142 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES sion of Francis Joseph, a reaction set in, fomented by the clerical party. Jews were expelled from many cities; their right to hold property was cancelled ; they were forbidden to keep Christian servants ; they were excluded from positions as teachers in public schools ; and they were prohibited to establish congregations in Lower Austria. But the defeat of Austria in the Italian war of 1859 brought it to its senses. Early in i860 a new legislation was promul¬ gated which conferred upon the Jews of most of the Aus¬ trian provinces the right to hold property ; but it was not until the end of 1867 that the complete enfranchisement of Jewry was established both in Austria and Hungary, although it was only as late as 1896 that Judaism was declared by the Parliament of Budapest to be a legally recognized religion. The tardiness with which the states in Central Europe admitted their Jewish subjects to the full rights of citizen¬ ship also characterized the attitude of England. The position of the Jews in this country since their readmission by Oliver Cromwell was, it is true, more favourable than that of their brethren on the Continent inasmuch as they were not subjected to such degrading hardships as the poll- tax and restriction of residence ; but they suffered under a number of disabilities which cramped and crippled their civil status, and which were only gradually abolished by 1870. At the beginning of the nineteenth century they could be debarred from voting at parliamentary elections if the returning officers wished to exercise their powers ; they could be excluded from the Bar if the Inns of Court objected ; they were forbidden to trade within the City of London ; and they were shut out from Parliament, from high commissions in the army and navy, from degrees and scholarships at the University of Cambridge, and even from attendance at the University of Oxford. The battle for the removal of these disabilities began immediately after the emancipation of the Catholics in 1829, an d was vigor¬ ously continued for forty years until the Jew was placed upon the same level as his Christian fellow-citizen. In 1831 the Corporation of London opened its boundaries to Jewish THE ACQUISITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS 143 traders ; in 1833 the first Jew (Francis Goldsmid) was called to the Bar; and two years later an Act was passed that relieved all voters of the necessity of taking the Oath of Abjuration and thus permitted Jewish electors to exercise the franchise. The efforts of the Jews were directed simul¬ taneously to obtaining the right to hold municipal office and the right to sit in Parliament. They succeeded much earlier in regard to the former right by adopting the tactics of first securing the election of a Jew to office and then procur¬ ing the sanction of Parliament for an accomplished fact. Thus, in 1835, David Salomons was elected and allowed to act as Sheriff of London ; ten years later, after he had repeatedly been elected alderman, he was permitted to hold this office too ; and another ten years later, 1855, this un¬ tiring champion of Jewish rights was acclaimed Lord Mayor of London. The acquisition of the right to sit in Parlia¬ ment proved a much more stubborn and protracted pro¬ cess. In 1830 the first Bill for this purpose only passed a first reading in the House of Commons, and from 1833 Bill after Bill was passed by the Commons but rejected by the Lords for a quarter of a century. In 1847 the same tactics were adopted as in the campaign for securing municipal office, but although Baron Lionel de Rothschild was elected member for the City of London in that year and again in 1850, and although David Salomons was elected for Green¬ wich in 1851 and actually spoke in the House, it was not until 26th July 1858 that the former was able, as the first Jew, to take his seat in the House of Commons by virtue of a resolution to permit Jewish members to omit the words “ on the true faith of a Christian ” from the oath. In 1870 the University Tests Act enabled Jews to graduate and hold scholarships at the ancient universitsies ; and in 1885, Sir Nathaniel Rothschild, a son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild, was made a peer, and, as Lord Rothschild, was the first Jew to sit in the House of Lords. Not until 1890, how¬ ever, was it formally established that all positions in the British Empire, with the sole exception of that of monarch, are open to Jews. 1 1 A. M. Hyamson, A History of the Jews in England, pp. 333-334. 144 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES It is not a little curious that England was the last of English-speaking countries to enfranchise its Jews ; but the distinction of being the first country in the world to endow its Jewish subjects with the full rights of citizenship like¬ wise belongs to an English state, namely, the United States of America, the Constitution of which, adopted in 1787, declares that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any public office or public trust/’ This law of equality was promptly adopted by all the federal states, with the exception of Maryland, where civil rights were not secured until 1820. In Canada these rights were granted in 1832, after an agitation of twenty-five years following the election of a Jew (Ezekiel Hart) to Parlia¬ ment, which was declared invalid ; in South Africa, in the colonization of which Jews have played a notable part as pioneers, complete equality has prevailed since 1820 ; and in Australia, which Jews have likewise helped to develop, they have enjoyed equality since their settlement. There remain but a few other countries that claim attention. In Belgium the Jews acquired emancipation in 1815, under the influence of the French Revolution ; in Denmark they were granted equality by the Constitution of 1849 ; in Norway they have enjoyed equality since 1851, when a law forbidding their residence in the country was repealed ; in Sweden they were given the franchise in 1865 and the right of election to Parliament in 1870, but they are still excluded from the Council of State and the Ministry ; and in Switzerland the Federal Government, under outside pressure, decreed the enfranchisement of all its citizens in 1865. Spain in 1858 repealed its edict of expulsion of more than three and a half centuries before, and has recently shown a touching interest in the return of the Sephardim to its borders, whilst Portugal enacted freedom of religion as early as 1825. The Jews of Algeria were made French citizens at a single stroke by a decree of Cremieux in 1870. The Treaty of Berlin in 1878 brought the Jews of Bulgaria and Servia their civil emancipation, and the Turkish Constitution of 1908 conferred equality upon all the Jewish subjects of the Ottoman Empire. CHAPTER II SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE Conditions in the Orient—Persecution in Russia—The limi¬ tation of the right of domicile—The brutality of expulsion— Limitations in education—Limitations in public service and liberal professions—The duty of military service—Chronic oppression— Pogroms—Rumania and the Jews—Violating the Berlin Treaty— A record of disabilities—Present position and outlook T HE saddest feature of the present conditions of the Jewish people consists in the state of bondage to which one-half of its numbers is condemned in Russia and Rumania. Their sufferings in these countries are far more galling and desperate than those of the Jews in certain Oriental lands, as they are caused by laws deliberately enacted by the Government for their degradation and extermination, whereas the misery of the Jews in the other regions mainly arises from the impotence of the Government to protect them from the attacks of the populace. Until the recent establishment of the French and Spanish protectorate in Morocco the Jews in that country were treated as outlaws, cooped up in a Mellah or Ghetto, and exposed to frequent outrages on the part of the fanatical mob or rebel troops, who spared neither property nor life ; but they now enjoy the blessings of security and justice, and their social and economic con¬ ditions are gradually improving. In Persia, rent by civil war and haunted by roving bands, the Jews are a prey to degrading disabilities and chronic outrages and are scarcely likely to improve their lot if Russia increases her influence in that decaying dominion. Distressing, too, is the plight of those Jews in Yemen, who have no redress from the daily io 146 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES assaults to which they are exposed, and who have had to pay the penalty of their loyalty to the Ottoman Govern¬ ment in its recent campaign against the rebel Imam by being condemned by the latter to fresh taxation. 1 But terrible as is the misery in these Eastern lands it is alto¬ gether overshadowed by the barbarous oppression inflicted upon the six million Jews within the confines of civilized Europe. The bondage of the Jews in Russia consists in a multi¬ plicity of laws which rob them of all liberty in the choice of domicile and occupation, which cripple their oppor¬ tunities of education, limit their right to own property, exclude them from State and municipal service, and impose heavy burdens upon them in regard to military duty. Cruel as all these restrictive laws are they are applied with such caprice and chicanery that the Jews are reduced to a condition of constant panic, from which they cannot always secure intervals of relief even by bribery ; whilst the hostile attitude of the Government breeds a spirit of antagonism in the masses too, which finds vent in that diabolical product of Muscovite culture—the pogrom. Established in the dominions of the Tsar for more than two thousand years, ever since the destruction of the first Temple, the Jews have been the sport of a pitiless fate which has made them taste every form of human intolerance and State persecution. From the sixteenth century the dominant policy of the Government towards them has been one of hostility, relieved only by a few intervals of repose. Their oppression first assumed a serious form in the reign of Catherine I (1725-27), who issued a decree of expulsion; under Paul I (1796-1801) and Alexander I (1801-25), they enjoyed a spell of toleration; under Nicholas I (1825-55) the rod of persecution fell heavily upon them—systematic measures were adopted to force them to conversion, and boys from the age of eight were 1 A moving description of the sufferings of these Jews in South Arabia, settled there for over two thousand years, is given in a pamphlet, The Yemenite Jews, by Joshua Feldmann (Speaight & Sons, 1913), who describes their recent emigration to Palestine. SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE i 47 torn from their parents to become soldiers of the Tsar ; under Alexander II (1855-81) they were again allowed to breathe freely and awaited the dawn of their emancipation, but after his assassination they were, under Alexander III plunged once more into the gloom of the mediaeval ages, which has settled about them even thicker and heavier during the reign of his son, Nicholas II, despite the mock Constitution proclaimed in 1904. At no period of their histoiy were their hardships so numerous and so burden¬ some^ so degrading and so hopeless, as at present. Let us examine their main features—a detailed survey would demand several volumes—and we may be able to appreciate something of the bitterness of the bondage imposed without shame 01 scruple by a modern Government upon its innocent subjects. The most harassing of all the laws that blast the lives of the Jews in Russia are those which limit their right of domicile and clog their liberty of movement. They are confined to a Pale of Settlement which was created in 1769, under the reign of Catherine II, and extended after the final partition of Poland in 1795, when another million Jews came under the iron hand of Russian rule. The Pale of Settlement, as it exists to-day, was substantially fixed in 1835 : it comprises the ten governments or pro¬ vinces of Poland and fifteen provinces of Lithuania, White Russia, South-Western and Southern Russia, the regions in which the great bulk of the Jews were concentrated and where they were decreed to remain. Later legislation also permitted the native Jews of Courland and parts of Livonia, of the Caucasus and Turkestan, to retain their domicile. By subsequent decrees the Pale of Settlement was curtailed : thus in 1887 the industrial district of Rostoff was cut off, and a few years later the health- resort of Yalta was also declared to be outside the per¬ mitted area. The Pale forms about a twenty-fourth of the area of the Russian Empire, whilst the Jews form an almost similar proportion (4*13 per cent) of the total population. The area assigned for Jewish residence, however, is much smaller than that contained within the 148 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES boundaries of the Pale, for since May 1882, according to the so-called Temporary May Laws of Count Ignatieff, no further Jews were allowed to settle in the villages in the Pale, and once a Jew left his village he could not return to it or settle in another village and was thus compelled to remove to a town. Moreover, many townlets were later converted, by a mere stroke of a governor’s pen, into villages, and thus involved the expulsion of the Jew. The consequence is that fully 95 per cent of the Jews in Russia are crowded into the towns of the Pale, forming as much as two-thirds of the population in many districts, where they are compelled to struggle against all manner of economic evils to keep body and soul together. The small percentage who are privileged to live in any part of the Empire according to the liberal laws of Alexander II, belong to the following four categories :— “ (1) Discharged soldiers, after serving their full time; (2) merchants of the first Guild (paying a business licence of 800 to 1000 roubles) after having paid that tax within the Pale for five consecutive years, and if they still belong to the first Guild after settling outside the Pale (according to the law also, the merchants may each take with them one Jewish clerk and domestic servants up to four persons) ; (3) graduates of universities and higher institutions of learning in general, as well as students of these institutions, apothecaries and apothecaries’ assistants, certificated dentists, non-graduate surgeons, and midwives with their respective assistants and students in these branches; (4) mechanics, distillers, brewers, and artisans generally while pursuing their own callings, as well as artisans’ apprentices serving their time, but in order to obtain their passport, which has to be renewed periodically, they must produce a certificate of their vocation in accordance with the rules established by law for that purpose.” 1 The privileges accorded to these various classes, however, 1 The Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia, edited by Lucien Wolf, p. 31 (T. Fisher Unwin, 1912). This is the latest and best survey of the Jewish disabilities in Russia, and forms the principal authority for the present account. SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 149 have, since 1882, been considerably curtailed and even rendered nugatory by harsh interpretations of the laws on the part of the Central Government and the provincial Governors, as well as by reason of the despotic action of the local police. Thus, in 1885, the privilege of the discharged soldiers was declared to be limited to the “ Nicholas ” soldiers, namely, those who had served prior to 1874, a class that is dying out; and hence the 18,000 Jewish soldiers who are drafted into the Russian army every year must go back to the Pale after completing several years’ service, and are even forbidden to spend their leave outside its borders—a prohibition that makes most of them forgo their furlough. The law which per¬ mitted the merchants to “ take with them ” Jewish clerks was capriciously interpreted later to mean that no merchant had a right to employ clerks who had not actually accom¬ panied him on his removal from the Pale to the interior provinces, and thus hundreds of Jewish clerks appointed later were torn from their positions and banished back to the Pale, whilst the merchants were allowed only one or two clerks—an absurdly small number in relation to their business. The members of the academic category were also subjected to various disqualifications. Graduates who had obtained their degree abroad were not allowed to live outside the Pale, whilst students at a Russian university were only permitted to live in their own university town. Female private teachers, not being specifically mentioned in the law, are refused the universal right of residence, and surgeons, dentists, and midwives, who do not actually exercise their profession—whether because of infirmity or because they have found a better opening—must return to the Pale. Artisans are subjected to even harsher regulations. Not only must they furnish themselves with certificates of proficiency in their craft, which are dear and difficult to get, but they are placed under supervision to ensure that they practise their trade, they are allowed to live in the interior provinces only so long as they exercise their trade, they must not sell any articles not directly connected with their handicraft nor 150 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES sell their own products outside their town, and they must not give a night’s shelter to any non-privileged person— even a near relative. If they wish to exchange their trade they must go back to the Pale to qualify over again, a process that means heavy expense, long delay, and a ruinous holiday ; when they become old and infirm and can no longer work they lose their right of residence ; and if an artisan dies at his work and his wife is unable to carry on his trade, she and her children are driven back to the Pale. Moreover, many trades have been struck off the privileged list during the last thirty years, such as tobacco - workers, fish-curers, stonemasons, carpenters, butchers, etc., and even the privileged artisan is now denied access to vast regions of the Empire—the Don Territory, Yalta, the government of Moscow, Siberia, and part of the Caucasus. How grudgingly the Government allows even these few privileged classes to live outside the Pale is seen in the inhuman provision which permits children to remain with their parents only until they come of age and then compels them either to qualify independ¬ ently or else to wander back alone to the Pale. Similarly, a married daughter whose husband has no right to live outside the Pale forfeits the right to visit her parents in the interior provinces. Still worse, the children of a certificated midwife are not allowed to live with their mother beyond the Pale unless their father also possesses the privilege independently. The Russian Government has the same fear of infants as the Pharaoh “who knew not Joseph.” It is also, as has already been observed, very severe towards women, who find it more difficult than men to acquire an independent privilege of residence. To only one class of women is the entire Russian Empire open—the prostitute : an exception that throws a lurid light upon the moral calibre of the Russian legislator. And should a Jewess take the prostitute’s “ yellow ticket ” —happily a rare phenomenon—with the object of pursuing her studies or teaching outside the Pale, she is reprimanded for not following her “ certified profession ” and is sent back home for “ transgressing the law.” The restric- SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 151 tions of residence are also extended to foreign Jews. Any foreign Jew who is the representative of a recognized commercial firm may obtain permission through a Russian consulate to dwell in Russia three months ; but all other foreign Jews who wish to visit Russia, whether for private reasons or in order to attend a scientific congress, must procure the special authorization of the Minister of the Interior, which is in most cases refused or granted only under humiliating conditions. 1 The measures adopted by the Government and the local authorities to enforce all these restrictions are marked by wanton brutality. Orders are periodically sent from St. Petersburg or from some provincial centre to investigate the residential rights of Jews in particular towns, and they are carried out by the local police with a zeal that knows no shame. The police seize Jews in the streets, force their way into their homes, and, worst of all, make midnight raids, dragging men and women, old and young, out of their beds to see whether they are committing the crime of living out¬ side the Pale without the legal permit. Woe betide those who are found guilty, for they are generally marched like convicts through the streets in the early morning, denied any opportunity of winding up their affairs, and forced back to the Pale. 2 Thus were 5000 Jews expelled from Kieff in 1910, and thus were hundreds of families expelled from their homes in Siberia in all the severity of mid-winter (1909-10). Even the sick are not spared, and the ailing Jews and Jewesses who are dis¬ covered at Yalta, or Piatigorsk, or at any other of the protected health-resorts, are summarily expelled with the risk of endangering their lives. Thousands of Jews are 1 In 1911, Mr. Oscar Straus, then United States Ambassador in Constantinople, wished to visit Russia, but as the requisite document was worded in an unusual manner he abandoned the projected journey. Furthermore, a British officer, ordered by his War Office to the Far East, was refused permission to travel by the Siberian Railway because he was a Jew (Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia, p. 73). In November 1913, Dr. Georg Brandes was also refused permission to visit Russia for a lecturing engagement. 2 The technical term for such “ drives ” is oblava . 152 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES thus irretrievably ruined in health and in business year after year ; and those who remain in the interior provinces are enveloped in an atmosphere of dread and try to buy repose and protection by bribing the police. It has been estimated that from two to two and a half million pounds sterling are levied every year by the police from the Jews for their “ protection,” a sufficiently valuable reason why the Russian bureaucracy is opposed to the emancipation of the Jews. Another fertile source of oppression is the restriction of opportunity in regard to education. Since 1886 the admission of the Jews to secondary schools and universities has been limited to 10 per cent of the register within the Pale and 5 per cent without it, except in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where the limit is fixed at 3 per cent. Jewish pupils are admitted to commercial schools only in a ratio equal to that of the Jewish merchants paying the Guild taxes, by means of which the schools are maintained; whilst they are wholly excluded from important technical institu¬ tions. Under Nicholas I and Alexander II the Russian Government urged the Jews to attend the State schools, as they were then largely opposed to secular learning ; now that Jews show an avidity for modern education the Government tries to paralyze their aspirations, and even forbids the teaching of Russian in private Hebrew schools. Beyond the Pale there are comparatively few to make use of the 5 per cent rule, and within it the eagerness to be included within the limited 10 per cent compels youths to cram desperately for the qualifying examination and makes their parents resort to the bribery of headmasters and teachers. Failure is often followed by tragedy. 1 Jewish parents are even known to pay for the education of addi¬ tional Christian pupils so as to create extra places for 1 “ In Wilna the son of the advocate Schmerling has committed suicide by throwing himself out of the window of the third story because, after waiting for two years, he was refused admission to the University, by reason of the percentage norm” (Hilfsverein Report, 1911, p. 123). Since last February, by an order of M. Kasso, the Minister of Instruction, the admission of Jews to Universities must be decided by lots, a cunning device for depriving them of all incentive. SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 153 their own children. The widespread difficulty of getting into the universities, however, forces hundreds of students —men and women—every year to migrate to universities abroad, where through lack of means, ignorance of the vernacular, and inability to earn anything in their leisure, they are often reduced to penury. Over 4000 Russian students are now at foreign universities, and the great majority, who are in Germany, have been afflicted with a further hardship, as several German universities have also adopted the principle of limiting the attendance of Russian Jewish students. This anti-Jewish movement has also spread to some universities in Austria and Switzerland. Even after graduating abroad the Jew must submit to another examination on his return to Russia, in order to obtain recognition of his diploma. The policy of suppressing the Jews as an intellectual and economic factor is rigorously applied in their exclusion from State and municipal service, in their limitation in the liberal professions, and the restriction of their right to own property. The few isolated cases of Jews in Govern¬ ment service are due to special and fortuitous circum¬ stances ; for the great bulk of university-trained Jews there can be no appointment without baptism. They are not employed in the police service except as spies and in¬ formers : thus are their talents prostituted to the ends of a despotic bureaucracy, which then has a plausible pretext to abuse them. They are excluded from the bench, from appointments in schools and universities, and from the railway and post office departments. Since 1881 they have been limited to 5 per cent of the army surgeons, but upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War hundreds of Jewish surgeons were torn away from their civil practice, sent off to the most dangerous positions in the theatre of war, and curtly dismissed after the conclusion of peace. Jews can neither elect councillors of the municipality nor be elected to such positions, but the governors in the Pale may “ at their pleasure ” appoint several Jewish representa¬ tives, not exceeding a tenth of the corporation—a humi¬ liating concession that is spurned by self-respecting Jews. 154 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES They are also excluded from the Zemstvos (rural assemblies), limited to one-third of the members of stock exchanges and produce exchanges, and altogether forbidden to act as brokers in certain corn exchanges where the trade is mainly in Jewish hands. Shut out from the civil service, Jews of academic education find scanty openings even in the legal and teaching professions. They cannot be called to the bar or qualify as solicitors without the special permission of the Minister of Justice, which is very rarely given ; and they are even forbidden to give private instruction in non- Jewish families. Moreover, since 1882, Jews are prohibited to buy or rent land beyond the precincts of a town, a prohibition that has utterly crippled the attempts to create a Jewish peasantry. Even in the Jewish agricultural colonies founded by the Government itself, where large tracts are of poor quality, they are not allowed to buy or lease additional land, and although many colonies are thus faced by gradual ruin the anti-Semitic press taunts the Jews with an aversion for agriculture. Deprived of all elementary rights and placed under constant surveillance like convicts on parole, the hapless Jews must help in the defence of their cruel fatherland ever in greater measure than the Christians. According to the census of 1897 they furnished 20*6 per cent more soldiers to the Russian army than their quota, and in 1902-03 they furnished from 35 to 37 per cent more. According to their ratio to the total population they should provide not more than 13,500 conscripts annually, but in recent years they have been made to supply from 17,000 to 18,000 every year. This disproportion is due to the fact that the Russian authorities deliberately ignore the immense Jewish emigration, which even in years of calm amounts to 50,000, and likewise fail to take into account the incomplete registration of Jewish deaths. For every Jew who fails to report himself for military service the Government exacts from his family a fine of 300 roubles (£30). The desired conscript may have died or emigrated or deserted the Jewish fold : it is all one—the fine must be paid. Thousands of Jewish families have been reduced SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 155 to beggary by this barbarous extortion, but the Russian Government, which has already benefited to the extent of £5,000,000 by this mediaeval system of spoliation, knows neither justice nor pity. 1 And yet, although the Jews are so much sought after as soldiers, they are treated in the army with every mark of degradation. They are excluded from the military schools, from all commissions, and even from the rank of sergeant-major ; they are shut out from the guards and the navy, from the frontier and quarantine service ; they may not form more than a third of the musicians in a military band, and they are for¬ bidden to conduct it. But when war breaks out they must supply a relatively larger contingent for the troops than any other nationality, and the regiments with the biggest proportion of Jewish soldiers are sent to the most danger¬ ous positions. In the Crimean War the Christian popula¬ tion in the western provinces of Russia supplied 19 soldiers per 1000, and in the eastern provinces 9 per 1000, while the Jews had to furnish 30 per 1000. 2 In the Russo- Japanese War there were 40,000 Jewish soldiers, many of whom, on their return, found their homes a prey to the pogrom fiends. The foregoing account of the disabilities of the Jews in Russia represents but a tithe of their sufferings. The 1 The following typical episode is related in the Vossische Zeitung of 30th March 1913 : “ In the year 1908 the eleven-year-old son of a Jew named Manela, who removed from Kielce to Lodz, was summoned by the Military Commission to join the army. The little recruit naturally did not respond. Some time after, the father, to his great surprise, was sentenced to a fine of 300 roubles. As the matter had become serious Manela went with his son to Kielce and convinced the Military Commission by ocular evidence that the boy was really only eleven years old. But the Military Commission had no power to absolve him of the fine and advised him to appeal to the District Court, a step which he was unable to take owing to the expense. Thereupon his furniture was seized and sold by auction, and as this did not yield sufficient money the new furniture that he obtained was overtaken by a similar fate. Manela then appealed to the Governor and also to the late Prime Minister, M. Stolypin, but without avail. Ultimately he appealed to the District Court, but three years have now passed and he is still awaiting the Court's decision. In the meantime his son has reached his sixteenth year, but cannot get a passport as he is officially a deserter ! ” 2 Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia, p. 6. 156 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES oppressive laws have been narrated here with some attempt at sequence and consistency, but as they have been issued at different periods and by different authorities, and as they are frequently marked by an ambiguity of phrasing, they are often erroneously and illegally applied and thus inflict hardship even upon those who, according to Russia’s mediaeval code of justice, should be immune from annoy¬ ance. For the enforcement of the laws rests with the provincial Governors, desirous of securing promotion by evincing an excess of zeal, and with the local police, who are by no means punctilious about either the technicalities of the law or considerations of humanity. Repeated appeals are consequently made to the Central Government in St. Petersburg, but the decisions, which are delayed for months and even years, are seldom in favour of the Jews. Since 1881 over 3000 interpretations of the anti-Jewish laws have been issued by the Ruling Senate, and every year adds to their number. It was in 1881 that the present era of barbarous legislation started upon its destructive course, the climax of which it would be difficult to predict, for every week, nay every day, brings some fresh story of Jewish wrong. 1 There have, indeed, been Russian statesmen who have favoured the removal of the heavy yoke, but their mere espousal of the Jewish cause has sufficed to render them impotent for good. In 1882 Count Pahlen’s Commission reported in favour of the gradual and complete emancipation of the Jews, but the same year witnessed a tightening of their bonds. In October 1905, M. Witte recommended “ the necessity of equalizing the civil rights of all Russian subjects without distinction of nationality or faith,” and in the same month broke out that epidemic of pogroms which raged with brief intervals all over the country for nearly a year. Even a circular issued by M. Stolypin in 1907 to legalize the residence of non-privileged Jews already settled outside the Pale, provided they were not politically objectionable, was twisted into a weapon of attack against those Jews who were actually in possession of the domiciliary privilege, 1 See Note on p. 326. SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 157 on the ground that they were inimical to the social order. On this trumpery charge thousands have been banished, even infants and greybeards, from a host of towns in all parts of the Empire. But more horrifying than all these expulsions and barbarous decrees are the pogroms that have made Russia an inferno for the Jews, plunging them into a veritable saturnalia of robbery, rape, murder, desecration of synagogues, and wholesale demolition of property, in which bloodthirsty hooligans are instigated by the civil authorities and aided by the military and police. 1 These pogroms first became a familiar feature in the years 1881-83, when 224 broke out in South Russia and Poland, despoiling 70,000 poor Jews of their belongings, and inflicting a loss of nearly 11 million roubles (about £1,100,000). Further massacres took place in 1891, 1892, and 1903, but the most devastating of all were the pogroms of October 1905, when as many as 725 places were the scenes of riot, rape, and bloodshed, whereby over 200,000 Jews suffered a direct loss of nearly 63 million roubles (£6,300,000), whilst in the riots extending from October 1905 to September 1906, over 1000 Jews were killed and 7000-8000 were wounded, the total material loss amounting to 66 million roubles (£6,600,000) apart from the incalculable economic damage of an indirect nature. And in addition to this long succession of misfortunes the Jews have constantly to suffer from an unfair administration of justice, to see their assailants acquitted by biased judges, and to be put upon trial themselves on some trumpery or legendary charge, such as the harbouring of a non-privileged relative in a house outside the Pale, the collecting of money for Jewish colonization in Palestine, or the alleged murder of 1 A considerable literature has grown up about the Russian pogroms. The standard work is Die Judenpogrome in Russland (Judischer Verlag, Berlin, 1910, 2 vols.), comprising nearly 1000 pages of painful and often gruesome reading, which demands very strong nerves. See also The Russian Government and the Massacres, by E. Semenoff (John Murray, 1907), which proves the complicity of the Government ; Russia at the Bar of the American People, edited by Isidore Singer (Funk & Wagnalls, 1904), and Within the Pale, by Michael Davitt (Hurst & Blackett, 1903), the last two dealing mainly with the Kishineff massacres of 1903. 158 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES a Christian child for the use of his blood in the Passover ritual. Unfounded as this“ritual murder ’ ’ charge has always been, it has become one of the deadliest weapons in the arsenal of the Russian Anti-Semitism, and is produced almost without fail on the eve of every Passover to do its mischievous work. The most recent occasion on which this calumny was advanced, was on the murder of the boy Andrew Yuschinsky, in Kieff, on 12th March 1911, when an innocent Jew, Mendel Beilis, was made its victim ; and although the most eminent men—statesmen and theo¬ logians, politicians and professors, scientists and authors— in England, France, Germany, and even Russia itself, 1 repudiated the charge as a malicious and superstitious libel, the Russian Government made desperate efforts to prove it, and kept Beilis in prison for two and a half years, though it was compelled to release him at last upon his being found innocent after a trial lasting a month. What wonder, therefore, if the radical solution of the Russo-Jewish question propounded by that unholy Pro¬ curator of the Holy Synod, Pobiedonostzev, whom Momm¬ sen called ** a resurrected Torquemada,” is apparently being realized ? The solution of that arch-enemy of Israel was that one-third of the Jews should be forced to emigrate, one-third should be absorbed into the bosom of the Church, and the remaining third should perish of hunger. During the last thirty years two million Jews have emi¬ grated ; thousands, especially among the educated circles, have baptized themselves ; and pauperism has spread to such an alarming degree that from one-fifth to one-third of the Jews in different towns are now dependent upon charity. The great majority of those who remain in Russian captivity are unable to raise the fare to a land of refuge, and they face the future in a spirit of stoicism steeled by the untold calamities of the past. The future 1 The Blood Accusation has been refuted by many Christian scholars, notably Prof. H. L. Strack. It has also been condemned as baseless in several Papal Bulls. The Encyclical issued by Innocent IV (1247) and the Report drawn up in 1758 by Cardinal Ganganelli (later Clement XIV) are authenticated by Cardinal Merry del Val, Papal Secretary of State, in a letter, dated 18th October 1913, to Lord Rothschild. WEARY WANDERERS FROM THE FAINTING BY LEOPOLD PILICHOWSKI SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 159 is overhung with the blackest clouds, for all the reactionary forces in the various forms of Nationalism, Clericalism, “ Real Russianism,” and Pan-Slavism, apart from the old-established bureaucratic despotism, are in the ascend¬ ant ; and in addition to all their official persecutors the Jews in Poland are now subjected to a systematic economic boycott—the irony of it all !—by oppressed Poles, which is calculated to crush out of them any remaining spark of vitality. The plight of the quarter of a million Jews in Rumania is in several respects even worse than that of their brethren in Russia, and affords a striking example of the duplicity of a modern State. Settled in the country for more than fifteen hundred years—long before the advent of the Roman convicts who were introduced by Trajan to populate the fertile land of the Dacians—the Jews are treated as outlaws and subjected to a mass of harassing and humiliating restrictions despite the solemn Treaty obligation entered into by Rumania in 1878. The Berlin Treaty, by Article 44, made it a prime condition of the independence of Rumania that difference of religious belief should not preclude anyone from the enjoyment of civil and political rights, admission to public offices and honours, or the exercise of various professions and industries. In other words, the signatory Powers demanded the complete civil and political emancipation of the Jews in Rumania. Their action was due to the merciless persecution of the Jews which had become a European scandal. The Jews were treated as aliens incapable of naturalization, they were denied all freedom of economic activity, and they were driven from the villages into the towns where they were exposed to riots and massacres, where their homes were plundered, and their synagogues polluted and demolished. The Powers therefore wished to secure respect for the elements of humanity in return for the sovereign independ¬ ence which Rumania sought. The Treaty of Berlin also required the bestowal of civil and political equality upon the Jews in Bulgaria, Servia, and Turkey, an act which these countries readily conceded. But the Rumanian Govern- i6o JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES ment protested that the immediate emancipation of its Jewish subjects would be a peril to the State and proposed an alternative to Article 44. This alternative had such apparent resemblance to the original Article that the Powers in their innocence accepted it, for it declared explicitly : “ Difference in religious beliefs and confessions does not constitute in Rumania an obstacle to the obtainment of civil and political rights, nor to the exercise of these rights,” and it was followed by the reassuring stipulation : “A foreigner, without distinction of religion, and whether a subject or not of a foreign Government, can become naturalized under the following conditions.” The principal conditions were that the foreigner should address to the Government an application for naturalization and reside for the next ten years in the country, to prove he was of service to it, and that naturalization could only be granted by law—that is, by Act of Parliament—and individually. As the principle of civil and religious equality was practically retained in this revised article, the Powers, after the dis¬ persal of the Berlin Congress, agreed to accept it in lieu of Article 44, on condition that jit was made part of the Con¬ stitution. To this Rumania, with a pretence of mag¬ nanimity, submitted, and Lord Salisbury expressed the hope that it would bring matters “ into exact conformity with the spirit of the Treaty of Berlin.” Little did the Powers dream that their confidence would be shamefully abused and that Rumania would cunningly extricate itself from its solemn contract. To prove that it did not violate the principle of religious equality and at the same time to keep its Jewish subjects in bondage the Rumanian Government brazenly declared all the Jews in the country to be foreigners, whose status could only be improved by the laws pertaining to the naturalization of foreigners. In vain was it pointed out that the Jews had been settled in the country uninterruptedly for more than fifteen centuries and had shed their blood in its defence. The Government insisted upon regarding its native Jewish subjects as aliens, though they were under the protection of no other State, and more than one states- SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 161 man boasted of the trick that had been played upon the diplomatists of Europe. A pretence was made of emanci¬ pating the Jews by naturalizing in a body the 883 Jewish soldiers who had fought in the war against Turkey, but most of them had not survived to enjoy the honour. After this impressive display of generosity the Government, in 1880, naturalized another fifty-seven native Jews, but since then a steadily diminishing number has been admitted to the rights of citizenship, the total within the last thirty-five years hardly exceeding 200. Every year the Government submits the names of a list of Jews to each Chamber, but takes care that only a small proportion shall be passed by both Chambers, whose joint ratification is necessary for complete naturalization. But the Jews are not even treated as ordinary foreigners, who can invoke the protection of their home Government. They are legally described as “ persons under Rumanian protection,” but this protection has manifested itself in a series of oppressive laws, mostly enacted during the last thirty years, which are designed to force them to emigrate or to reduce them to starvation. Virtually, therefore, they are outlaws. The only exception consists of a part of the Jews who lived in the Dobrudja before it was ceded by Turkey to Rumania after the Russo- Turkish War in compensation for Rumania's cession of Bessarabia to Russia. The Jews in the Dobrudja who, before nth April 1878, were Ottoman subjects, were promised the rights of Rumanian citizenship by the re¬ script ratifying the annexation ; but these rights were not granted by law until 9th April 1909, and they were con¬ fined only to those Jews who could prove by documentary evidence that they had formerly been Ottoman subjects. The native Jews in Rumania are not allowed to own land or even to till it as hired labourers. They have been expelled from the rural districts and driven into the towns where most of the avenues to an honest living are closed to them. They are excluded from the civil service and from the medical, legal, and teaching professions. They may not form more than a fourth of the workmen or staff in any factory applying for the Government benefits without which 11 162 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES industry in Rumania cannot flourish ; whilst Jewish fac¬ tories are wholly denied such benefits. Their economic plight is aggravated by their forced idleness one-third of the year, for Jewish shops, factories, and workshops, apart from observing the Jewish Sabbaths and festivals on sixty-five days of the year, must also close on Sundays and about a dozen Church festivals. Jewish merchants who have to visit a rural district on business are placed under police supervision to prevent them from coming into contact with the villagers, who might be enlightened as to the true cause of their permanent distress—absentee landlordism and Government indifference. The road to education is also barred. Jews are excluded from the secondary schools and universities, and even those who contrive to be admitted to university examinations are usually “ ploughed ” by anti- Semitic professors, 1 who show a surprising leniency to Christian students. Jewish students of medicine who obtain their doctorate diplomas at foreign universities are not allowed to practise in their native country, which is noto¬ riously short of qualified doctors. Jewish children are not admitted into the public free schools until accommodation has been found for all Christian children, and then only after the payment of exorbitant fees. And yet the Government interferes in the management of the private schools which the Jewish communities must needs establish, frequently disapproving of the appointment of Jewish teachers and foisting upon them Christian teachers. Denied all rights of citizenship, the Jews, with their reduced earning capacity, must nevertheless discharge its duties : they must pay taxes and—foreigners as they are declared to be—they must serve in the army, although they cannot rise to the rank even of a mere corporal. But more degrading than all these disabilities is the gruesome ceremonial of the oath which which they are compelled to take when engaged in litigation with Christians. This sacramentum more Judaico , which has been in force since 1844, is marked by the fanaticism of 1 Professors Jorga and Cuza were openly accused of this charge by the Liberal Minister of Education, M. Haret, in the Rumanian Parliament (Report of the “ Hilfsverein der deutsclien Juden,” 1911, p. 31). SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 163 the Middle Ages to which it owes its origin and is utterly repulsive to human reason. The Jewish litigant is wrapped in a shroud, placed into a coffin, and laid out in the syna¬ gogue, where the Rabbi, in the presence of a mixed con¬ gregation of indignant Jews and scoffing officials, utters a curse threatening all manner of loathsome diseases against the living corpse and his descendants should he not speak the truth, and the corpse must repeat every word of the malediction or lose his case. This barbarous ceremonial has on several occasions been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Justice and the Court of Cassation, but it is still enforced by local courts which condemn the Jew who refuses to submit to it. Not until an Act of Parliament abolishes it will this abominable stain be removed from Rumania’s code of persecution. The hostility of the Government has a contagious and demoralizing effect upon all classes and sections of the population—judges and bishops, politicians and pro¬ fessors, students and peasants. A judge in a Jassy law- court publicly stigmatized the Jews as vagabonds in a case affecting a respectable Jewish merchant of thirty years’ standing ; and Bishop Nifon of the Lower Danube, in a pastoral screed printed in the Bucharest press, accused them of trying to seduce the common people from their ancestral religion. 1 The peasants who are naturally well disposed towards the Jews, and of whom 75 per cent are illiterate, are impregnated with Anti-Semitism by the village teachers, who read to them choice extracts from bigoted newspapers at their evening gatherings. The peasants have frequently protested against the banish¬ ment of the Jews from the villages, but the Government is merciless, sparing neither reservists nor even the sick, who can be driven from their homes at twenty-four hours’ notice. Nor does it matter whether the Government is composed of Conservatives or Liberals, for they are both agreed in this policy of oppression and in defying the Treaty to which their country owes its independence. The result of this policy, which aims at reducing the Jews 1 Sec the Report of the “ Hilfsverein,” 1911, pp. 28, 29. 164 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES to economic ruin, has been a constant migration to lands of liberty, primarily to England and America. From 1899 to 1907, according to the Moniteur Officiel, some 55,000 refugees left for the United States alone. The high tide in this flow of emigration was reached in 1902, when the American Secretary of State, John Hay, fearing that economic troubles might arise from the sudden influx, addressed a Note to the Powers signatory to the Treaty of Berlin, urging them to make the Rumanian Government comply with its pledge. The British Govern¬ ment seconded the Note, but the other Powers were restrained by political interests from enforcing the lesson of humanity they had vainly tried to administer a quarter of a century before, and Rumania was thus left unchecked in its career of persecution. The only effect of America’s well-meant intervention was that the Rumanian Govern¬ ment stopped issuing passports to Jews so that the com¬ plaints about their invading other countries might cease, and hundreds who had already sold up their homes and eagerly looked forward to reaching a peaceful haven in a few days were doomed to remain in their cruel father- land. All subsequent attempts to bring moral suasion to bear upon the Government, whether from within or without, have proved equally futile. The most recent occasion has been in connexion with the cession of the new Dobrudja by Bulgaria to Rumania as part of the Balkan War settlement, a territorial change that naturally aroused the fear that the free Jewish citizens of Silistria and Baltshik would be reduced to the bondage of their fellow- Jews in the rest of Rumania. The Rumanian Minister in London published an assurance in the Jewish Chronicle 1 that the Jews who came under Rumanian rule would enjoy the same civil and religious equality as before, but the Bill for the administration of the new Dobrudja, which has been drafted by the Rumanian Government, offers Bulgaria’s former subjects only a modified sort of equality. The new citizens of Rumania will be able to acquire only a limited amount of land, and only in the 1 21st March 1913. SUFFERINGS IN BONDAGE 165 annexed territory ; and they will be deprived of Parlia¬ mentary representation, which they had enjoyed for more than thirty years under Bulgarian rule, and likewise of local self-government. 1 The Jews of the new Dobrudja, however, may con¬ sider their lot as fortunate in comparison with that of their brethren in the older part of the kingdom, for these have no prospect whatsoever of the removal of their dis¬ abilities. The 15,000 Jewish soldiers who took part in Rumania’s bloodless campaign against Bulgaria were promised enfranchisement by Ministers of the late Government, 2 but there is no indication that this promise will ever be realized, and hence hundreds of disappointed Jewish reservists, with their families, have left the country in disgust. It had, indeed, been hoped that the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin, which ensure the equal rights of religious or national minorities, would be re¬ affirmed in connexion with the recognition of the territorial changes consequent upon the Balkan War. But the Powers, as announced in the House of Commons, 3 are not agreed upon the question of reaffirmation, even though this was to be applied only to the newly annexed terri¬ tories ; nor could one have expected them to agree, for how can Russia read Rumania a lesson in tolerance ? Thus, although the British Government has chivalrously declared that it will recognize the annexations only of the States that grant equal rights to religious or national minorities, the Powers have allowed a unique opportunity to slip for exacting from Rumania the redemption of the promise to which she owes her independence, and the bondage of the Jews in Rumania is likely to continue for years a blot upon the civilization of Europe. 1 The Times, 13th May 1914. 2 Jewish Chronicle, 1st and 8th August 1913. 3 The Times, nth June 1914. CHAPTER III POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE The safeguarding of Jewish interests—Relations with parties in England and America—Complex conditions on the Continent— Membership of Parliaments and of Cabinets—The diplomatic and civil service—Municipal activity and civic honours—Defending the fatherland—Prominence in Socialism—Socialist tendencies in Russia—Woman suffrage I N the lands of bondage the political activity of the Jews is confined to the struggle for equal rights ; in the lands of freedom it coincides with the political activity of the country at large. An intermediate stage is occupied by the hundred thousand refugees who throw off the shackles of Russian or Rumanian serfdom every year and, settling in lands of liberty, qualify in course of time for the rights of citizenship with the aid of naturaliza¬ tion societies. The Jewish citizen, who has known what it is to suffer under every form of tyranny, has a high appreciation of his civic status. He exercises his rights honestly and intelligently, he eagerly participates in the municipal and political life around him, he is found represented in all the parties of his country, and his sympathy and support are given to every movement making for the extension of human liberty or the promotion of a patriotic ideal. He pursues no separatist aims except such as conform with the principles of liberty and tolera¬ tion, namely, to secure the unfettered exercise of his religion and to keep open the portals of refuge for his brethren still pining in bondage. The Sunday closing of shops and workshops, the conditions of elementary education, the slaughter of animals for food, naturalization, POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 167 and the regulation of alien immigration—such are the main questions in regard to which Jews are influenced less by party considerations than by religious motives and racial solidarity. To safeguard their interests in these and kindred matters the Jews in England are repre¬ sented by the Board of Deputies, which was founded in London as far back as 1760 ; their brethren in the United States by the American Jewish Committee, which was incorporated in New York in 1911 ; and those in British South Africa by a Board of Deputies founded in 1912 and situated in Johannesburg. The Jews in Austria are represented by the “ Oesterreichisch-Israelitische Union/* founded in Vienna in 1884, whilst their brethren in Germany have two organizations for the defence of their civil rights, the “ Zentralverein Deutscher Staatsbiirger jiidischen Glaubens,” established in 1893, and the “ Verband der deutschen Juden,” founded in 1904, the membership of the former being made up of individuals, and that of the latter comprising congregations and societies. In addition to the matters over which the representative bodies in the English - speaking countries have to watch, the organizations in Germany are also striving to secure the realization of the complete equality granted by the Con¬ stitution by the removal of the bar against the appoint¬ ment of Jews as university professors, as army officers, and as judges. The activity of all these organizations is thus restricted to the defence of the civil rights and religious interests of the Jewish community, in furtherance of which representations are made when necessary to the Government authorities, and the repulsion of attacks and accusations, but it in no wise conflicts with the interests of the country at large. Apart from questions affecting specifically Jewish interests, Jews are found numerously represented in all the political parties and movements of the countries in which they enjoy civil equality. In England they are almost equally divided in their affections between the Conservative and the Liberal Party, although there is a traditional attachment to the latter as the main authors i68 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES of their political emancipation ; but the balance of affection is pretty faithfully reflected by the present proportion of Jewish members in the two great parties in the House of Commons, namely, eight on the Liberal and eight on the Conservative side. Similarly, both the Democratic and the Republican Parties in the United States, and the various sections of each, embrace hosts of Jews in their ranks. At election times in England as well as in America one occasionally hears of “ the Jewish vote ” in constitu¬ encies with a large Jewish electorate, as though this were an organized force ; but unless there is some important question affecting the Jewish community at stake, Jews vote solely according to their political convictions, even if one of the candidates is a Jew, and take an active share in the campaign of the various parties to which they belong. There is, however, no lack of endeavour on the part of Parliamentary candidates to secure the suffrages of the Jewish community, and it is no infrequent pheno¬ menon for opposing candidates in a Jewish constituency to make the very same promises in furtherance of their prospects. Thus, both Republicans and Democrats in the United States advocated the termination of America’s commercial treaty with Russia in reply to the refusal of the Russian Government to allow the free entry of American Jews into its dominions ; and both Liberals and Conservatives in England have favoured the reduction of the naturalization fee, a matter specially affecting Jewish immigrants. The passage of the Aliens Act in I 9°5 by the Conservative Government, which set up a barrier against the admission of Jewish refugees at a time when Russia was reeking with pogroms, naturally drove a great number of Jewish voters to support the Liberal Party in the memorable election of 1906 ; but with the lapse of time the political sympathies of the Jews again assumed their purely party tendency. Far different are the conditions in Central and Eastern Europe, where Jews are still fighting for complete equality and are subjected to various degrees of disability. It is natural that the Jews in Germany should throw in their POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 169 lot with the Radical and Socialist parties, as only from these can they hope to obtain any support in their struggle for complete emancipation ; but another important motive is the innate Jewish desire for Constitutional government upon a representative and democratic basis, a stage of political development from which Germany is still far removed. The Jews in that country are contributing with their money, their brains, and their press towards the advance of Liberal ideas and representative government. They have supplied the Social Democratic Party with its present leaders, Hugo Haase and Eduard Bernstein, as they provided it with its intellectual creator, Karl Marx, and its founder, Ferdinand Lassalle ; and it was likewise a Jew, Professor Jacob Riesser (a kinsman of the Gabriel Riesser who distinguished himself in the fight for Jewish emancipa¬ tion fifty years ago) who founded the Hansa Bund in 1909 to protect the interests of trade, commerce, and manu¬ facture against the aggression of the agrarian class, a league that forms a powerful element on the side of liberty and equality, numbering close upon half a million members. It is natural also that the Jews in Russia, who, despite their severe oppression, have the right to elect members of the Duma and to be elected themselves, should confine their support to the “ Cadets ” (or Constitutional Democrats), from whom alone they can hope for any sympathy— ineffective though it be in their struggle for freedom ; but the local authorities generally contrive by intimida¬ tion and a cunning manipulation of the voters’ list to prevent Jews who even form a majority of the population in a town from securing the election of the Jewish candidate or of a non-Jewish candidate of liberal views. In Austria, where the play of political life largely resolves itself into the struggle of a dozen nationalities for autonomy against the centralist tendency of the Government, and where there is neither the division into two great parties as in England and America, nor the conflict between democracy and privilege as in Germany, the liberalism of the Jews ex¬ presses itself in the support of the various nationalist parties, such as Czechs, Poles, and Rumanians, accord- 170 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES ing to their geographical incidence, whose cause they espouse with an ardour that could scarce be equalled if they were autochthonous and pure-blooded members of the nationality they adopt. This policy of identification with the local political interests of the dominant nationality, which is sedulously fostered by the bulk of the Jews in the upper and middle classes, has the effect of pitting the Jewish members of one ethnic group against their brethren in another ethnic group as though they had really nothing in common between them. But a more serious effect is that the economic and cultural interests of the Jewish masses in Galicia, who can no more be reckoned to the Polish than to the Ruthenian nationality, are made to suffer through the warring jealousies of these nationalities, and that too with the help of Jewish politicians who refuse to recognize the distinguishing characteristics and separate claims of their own people and convert them into a help¬ less appendage of the Polish electorate. The inconsequence of this position is seen in the fact that a Jew who leaves Galicia for Bohemia is converted there into a Czech, and if he then removes to Croatia he must identify himself with the Croats. This policy has been combated for the last fifteen years by a minority of the Jewish people in Austria, who claim recognition as a separate nationality, and who succeeded in being represented in the Reichsrat of 1906 by four Jewish deputies, who formed a Jewish “ Club ” on the same basis as the parliamentary “ clubs ” of other nationalities. The number of Jewish nationalists in the Austrian Reichsrat has since declined to one, but the problem of Jewish national politics continues to form a perplexing element in the Austrian mosaic of nationalities, and will remain acute as long as the J ewish masses of Galicia are oppressed by the Polish bureaucracy. There is no similar problem in Hungary, where Jews are content and even eager to sink their racial individuality and to Magyarize themselves beyond recognition. Nor, strangely enough, is there any parallel in that other great mosaic of nationalities, the Ottoman Empire, where, although the Jews played an active part in inaugurating the present constitutional era, POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 171 they set up no claims for the separate representation of their people in the Imperial Parliament. The leading Jewish politicians in Turkey are members of the Com¬ mittee of Union and Progress, whose avowed policy from the start was the Turkification of the numerous nationalities owing homage to the Sultan ; but this fact has in nowise restrained the journalists of Western Europe from stigmatiz¬ ing the policy of the Young Turks as one directed mainly in the interest of Jewry and visiting their errors and failures upon the innocent head of Israel. It is true that the Donmeh of Salonica played an important part in guiding the policy of the Committee of Union and Progress, but they are not Jews : they are Moslem sectarians descended from Jews who adopted Islam in the latter half of the seventeenth century; and modern Jewry is no more responsible for the political actions of these Mohammedans than for the doings of the descendants of Jewish converts to Christianity in other countries. The active participation of the Jews in political life has naturally procured them a certain measure of parliamentary distinction, which in several countries far exceeds their ratio to the population. They are found as members of the legislative assemblies in every land in which they enjoy civil equality, with the exception of the few countries, such as Spain and Norway, in which their numbers are almost insignificant. They sit in the parliaments of London and Washington, of Paris and Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg, Brussels and Amsterdam, Rome, Constantinople, and even Sofia, and in most of the legislative assemblies of the British Colonies and the provincial Diets of Germany and Austria. They are elected for the most part by non- Jewish votes, and so scrupulously do they confine them¬ selves to the interests of their electorates that only rarely can they be moved to raise their voices on behalf of their oppressed co-religionists and invoke the good offices of their respective Governments. The Jewish members of the Duma naturally champion the cause of their persecuted brethren : they would be less than human if they kept silent. The Jewish members of the German Reichstag 1J2 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES periodically plead for the abolition of the remaining re¬ strictions, and their co-religionists in the Austrian Reichsrat, provided they be not in close a dance with local national¬ ist parties, defend the interests i f their harassed brethren in Galicia. In the British House of Commons and the American House of Representatives a Jewish member also occasionally raises his voice against some wrong done to his people, but such occasions are few in comparison with former times. For the most part Jewish members of parlia¬ ment in Western countries show a singular timidity in championing the cause of their own kith and kin, although they can display a passionate eloquence in denouncing atrocities upon the negroes of the Congo ; and it is thus left for the special Jewish organizations, which cannot gain a hearing in Parliament, to take the necessary action. But although Jewish deputies generally refrain from de¬ fending Jewish interests, non-Jewish critics raise a periodical alarm about the growth of the political influence of J ewry being a menace to the country. Individual Jews may acquire political influence, despite their being Jews : their community, however, reaps little benefit from it, and is even exposed to the envy and hostility which it arouses. The political activity of the Jews is by no means limited to ordinary membership of the elective chambers, for they have also been elevated to the hereditary chambers in London, Vienna, and Budapest, and they sit in the senates of Washington, Rome, and Constantinople. More im¬ portant still, they have sat and sit in all the leading Cabinets of Europe and America, and have filled the highest positions offered by a political career. They have provided Italy with a Prime Minister, Signor Luigi Luzzatti (1910), who previously served as Minister of Finance on six occasions, with another Minister of Finance (Leone Wollemborg, 1900-03), with a Minister of War (General Ottolenghi, 1902-03), an Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Isaac Artom, 1870-76, the friend and private secretary of Cavour), and the present president of the Council of State, Signor Malvano, who previously acted as General Secretary of the Foreign Office under several Cabinets and virtually POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 173 conducted Italy’s foreign policy. They have provided France with six Ministers during the last sixty-five years : Adolphe Cremieux, Minister of Justice in 1848, and member of the Government of National Defence in 1870 ; Michel Goudchaux, Minister of Finance in 1848, and Achille Fould in the same office under Napoleon III; Edouard Millaud, Minister of Public Works in the Cabinets of Freycinet and Goblet, in 1886-87 ; David Raynal, Minister of Public Works in 1881, and of the Interior in 1893-94 ; and Lucien Klotz, Minister of Finance in 1912, and Minister of the Interior in 1913. They have provided England with an Under-Secretary for the Colonies (Baron Henry de Worms, 1888-92, afterwards Lord Pirbright), and a Deputy- Speaker of the House of Commons (Sir Julian Goldsmid, 1894), whilst in Mr. Asquith’s present Administration they were at one and the same time represented by the Post¬ master-General (Mr. Herbert Samuel, 1 formerly Under¬ secretary for Home Affairs and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), the Attorney-General (Sir Rufus Isaacs), and the Under-Secretary for India (Mr. Edwin Montagu 2 )— a record combination of Jewish statesmen in a single Government. The conferment of the Lord Chief Justice¬ ship upon Sir Rufus Isaacs 3 represents the highest dis¬ tinction yet attained by an English Jew. Jews have also furnished Austria and the United States with Ministers of Commerce (Baron Simon von Winterstein in the former in 1867, and Oscar Straus in the latter in 1906-09), Holland with a Minister of Justice (M. H. Godefroy, i860), Denmark with a Minister of Finance (Eduard Brandes, 1911), and Hungary with a Political Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice (Dr. Badass, 1913). They have likewise pro¬ vided the British Colonies with several statesmen of the highest rank : Sir Julius Vogel as Prime Minister of New Zealand (1873), V. L. Solomon as Prime Minister of South Australia (1899), Henry Emanuel Cohen as Minister of Justice in New South Wales (1883-85), Isaac Alfred Isaacs as Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1 Now Pres., Local Govt. Board. 2 Now Financial Sec. to Treasury. 3 Now Lord Reading. ' / 174 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Simeon J acobs as Attorney-General in Cape Colony (i 874-82), and Sir Nathaniel Nathan as Attorney-General in Trinidad (1898). In addition to these leading positions Jews have occupied and occupy to-day numerous subsidiary offices in the Governments mentioned above, as many as fifty being said to be in the special entourage of the Ministers of the French Government. 1 The only important country, apart from Russia, in which Jews have not attained any ministerial position is Germany, 2 owing to the Anti- Semitism of the Government, but the political annals of that country record the prominent part played by Eduard Lasker and Ludwig Bamberger in forming and leading the National Liberal party until Bismarck’s adoption of a Protectionist policy forced them to abandon it. The diplomatic and various branches of the civil service in many countries have also contained and contain at present conforming members of the Jewish faith. The American Commonwealth has been thrice represented by Mr. Oscar Straus as Ambassador in Constantinople (1887, 1897-1900, 1909-10), and is now represented by Mr. Henry Morgenthau in that capital, whilst Italy, which had a Jewish Minister Plenipotentiary in Denmark in 1865 (Isaac Artom), is now represented at the Court of Copen¬ hagen by Count di Carubio. England has never had a Jewish Ambassador, but the governorship of its colonial possessions, Gold Coast, Hong-Kong, and Natal, has been held by Sir Matthew Nathan, and New South Wales has been represented both by Sir Saul Samuel and Sir Julian Salomons as Agent-General in London. Among Jews who have served on the bench are Meyer Sulzberger in the United States; Henry Cohen, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (1896-1912); Simeon Jacobs, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope 1 The Jew in France, by Eugene Tavernier, in The Nineteenth Century, February 1913. 2 Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, Germany’s Colonial Secretary in 1907-10, was brought up in the Christian faith. For a similar reason Benjamin Disraeli is not included above, nor Kiamil Pasha, several times Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, who was born of Jewish parents, but was brought up from early childhood in the Mohammedan faith. POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 175 (1882); Sir Nathaniel Nathan, Senior Puisne Judge in Trinidad (1893); Isaac Alfred Isaacs, at present Justice of the High Court of Australia; whilst Mr. Arthur Cohen held until recently the distinguished office of Judge of the Cinque Ports. To attempt anything like an adequate enumeration of Jews filling important Government positions in England, America, France, Italy, and other countries, would involve the publication of a wearisome list of names. Municipal life has also attracted a goodly portion of the activity of Jews in countries in which it is open to them, and they are frequently found in opposite camps, 1 except where, as in many Continental cities, Anti-Semitism plays a part in the affairs of the municipality. Jews have occupied the Lord Mayoralty of London on five occasions during the last sixty years, they have served as Chief Magistrates of a host of other cities in the United Kingdom (Liverpool, Belfast, Bradford, Leicester, Nor¬ wich, etc.) and the British Colonies, and they have fre¬ quently acted as Sheriffs and Lord Lieutenants of counties. There are also many Jews who sit on the magisterial bench in English countries. On the Continent the most prominent successes in municipal life have been achieved by Signor Ernesto Nathan, Mayor of Rome from 1911 to 1913, and by Dr. Franz Heltai, who was elected, in February 1913, Chief Burgomaster of Budapest, and died in office a few months later. Honours and distinc¬ tions, hereditary and otherwise, have been conferred upon Jews by the Government or monarch of their country in recognition of their services to the State or of their achievements in public life or in their various professions. The Rothschild family was the first to be ennobled in modern Europe by the Crown of Austria (1822), and many are the Jewish barons created in modern countries during the last thirty years. In England there are now 4 Jewish peers, 19 baronets, 14 knights, 12 companions of various orders, and 5 privy councillors. The heraldic arms of these Jewish lords and barons, with their quaint 1 The London County Council (1913) contains 10 Jews—5 Progressives and 5 Moderates. 176 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES fusion of Hebrew mottoes with British designs, are a significant phenomenon in the latter-day evolution of Jewry. In France and Germany, in Holland and Italy, in Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and even in Russia the children of Israel have received many of the honours and decorations bestowed by the State for personal distinction. The popular test of patriotism—the defence of the fatherland—has been discharged in abundant measure by the Jews in all the lands in which they have been allowed to bear arms. During the last hundred years they have fought on all the battlefields not merely of Europe but of the world ; they have shed their blood in wars of liberation and wars of conquest; and their heroism has received repeated recognition in the bestowal of medals and orders. From seven to eight thousand Jews fought in both armies in the American Civil War, comprising 9 generals, 18 colonels, 8 lieutenant-colonels, 40 majors, 205 captains, 325 lieutenants, and 25 surgeons. In the Franco- German War there were a few hundred Jews on the French and 4703 on the German side, and in the Spanish-American War (1898) the Jewish contingent in the American forces comprised 32 officers and 2450 men in the army, and 27 officers and 42 men in the navy. A thousand Jewish soldiers took part in the South African War of 1900, and 40,000 in the Russo-Japanese War, whilst the heroic part they have played in the Turco-Italian 1 and the Balkan Wars are too recent to require mention here. Jewish soldiers have attained high rank, even the highest, in several armies in which promotion is open to them. In France they comprise 8 generals, 14 colonels, 21 lieutenant- colonels, 68 majors, and 107 captains; 2 and in Austria 6 generals—one a lieutenant field-marshal—17 colonels, 15 lieutenant-colonels, 48 majors, and 211 captains and officers of lower rank. 3 Of these Jewish soldiers in Austria 1 See the article, “ Die Juden und der turkisch-italienische Krieg,” by Professor E. Loevinson in Ost und West, June 1912. 2 Article, “ The Jew in France,” in Nineteenth Century, February 1913. 3 A remarkable biographical work in two volumes, Oesterreich-Ungcirns Juden in dev Armee, by Moritz Friihling (Vienna, 1913), gives a detailed account of the careers of all Jews in the Austro-Hungarian army. POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 177 26 have received for special bravery before the enemy the Order of the Iron Crown with the war decoration, one of the highest and rarely awarded distinctions in the Austrian army. The Jews of Italy are also well repre¬ sented in the officers’ corps of the army, and one of them, General Ottolenghi, even once held the portfolio of the War Minister. The Jews in the British Army are com¬ paratively fewer than their co-religionists in the armies of Continental countries where conscription prevails, but they provide a contingent equal to their ratio of the population and comprise several officers in the regular army (1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 5 majors, 19 captains, etc.), besides a great number of commissions in the Territorial forces. Apart from their general participation in political life Jews have also been associated in a conspicuous degree with the advancement of the Socialist movement. Karl Marx, who laid down the scientific foundations of Socialism, was of Jewish birth, but was brought up from childhood in the Christian faith : to him Judaism was a religion bound up with Capitalism. His doctrines have found a considerable measure of Jewish adhesion, beyond their native soil, only in those countries, such as Austria and Russia, in which there is a medley of parties struggling against privilege or absolutism, whereas the amount of Jewish support in countries with two main constitutional parties, as in England and America, is relatively small and unimportant. The founder of the German Social Democratic Party was the Jew Ferdinand Lassalle, and most of its leaders down to the present day have been drawn from Jewish ranks, one of the most popular having been the late Paul Singer, whose body, a few years ago, was followed to the grave through the streets of Berlin by a hundred thousand admirers. The present head of the German Socialists is also a Jew, Hugo Haase, and so is the leader of the Revisionist movement, Eduard Bernstein, whilst most of the able exponents of Revisionism are believed to have been inspired by the teaching of Professor Hermann Cohen, who for many years expounded a liberal philosophy at the Marburg University. The head 12 178 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES of Social Democracy in Austria is also a Jew, Dr. Victor Adler; whilst the Revolutionary Syndicalism that has recently grown up in France is attributed by some to the influence of the philosophy of Professor Henri Bergson. There is nothing Jewish, however, among the great majority of these advocates of Socialism except the accident of birth : they have almost without exception abandoned the synagogue and declared themselves free¬ thinkers. Champions of a cause that knows no national distinctions, they have cut themselves adrift from their own people, and if occasionally they protest against the sufferings of Israel they do so not out of racial sympathy but from general humanitarian motives. In all other countries Socialism has simply attracted individual Jews, but in Russia it has won the adhesion of the masses, thanks to the pressure of economic misery and legal persecution. In 1897 was founded the Bund, the popular designation of the Allgemeiner Judischer Arbeiter Bund in Russland , Polen und Littauen, which feverishly propagated Socialistic ideas by a ceaseless output of literature among the working-classes of the Pale and succeeded in enrolling 30,000 organized members by 1905. Established as a speci¬ fically Jewish organization, the Bund at first only aimed at the economic betterment of the Jewish artisan population, whose very existence had hitherto been denied by the enemies of J ewry ; but upon the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1905 the Bund expanded its programme by demanding national cultural autonomy for the Jews. The period of terror ushered in by the Revolution gave birth to several new Socialist organizations among the proletariat of the Pale, which were animated by a keener sense of the national claims of Jewry than the Bund : they all agreed that the Jewish question could only be solved in a Jewish territory, yet radically and even bitterly differed as to the process of the solution. 1 The Zionist Socialist Labour Party, desig¬ nated in brief “ S.S.” 2 (who should more correctly be termed 1 See “ Der judische Socialismus und seine Stromungen,” by Maxim Anin in the Judischer Almanack, 5670 (Judischer Verlag, Berlin, 1910). 2 Used, for the sake of alliteration, instead of "Z.S. ” POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND STATE SERVICE 179 Socialist Territorialists), declared that the progressive de¬ velopment of Jewry in the diaspora was impossible, and demanded autonomy in a territory anywhere ; the Jewish Socialist Labour Party, styled ‘ ‘ Sarp ’ ’ (Sozialistische Arbeiter Partei) or “ Seimisten ” (Russ.,“ Seim ” = Diet), demanded national autonomy in the Pale ; whilst the “ Poalei Zion ” (Heb., Workers of Zion), a branch of the Zionist Organiza¬ tion, were content to aim at the realization of a Socialist regime in Palestine. All these Communist groups, stubbornly affirming that their particular specific for the salvation of Jewry was an unconditional historic necessity, conducted a wordy warfare over theories with one another in the days when the pogrom-demons swept through the Pale, but joined hands in armed self-defence when their own lives were threatened and played a valiant though fruitless part in the revolutionary struggle. 1 The succeeding years, while finding each of these parties far from its goal, have softened the differences that once separated them and united them in a common effort to secure the recognition of a J ewish national section in the International, in face of the oppo¬ sition of those fellow-Jews who have merged their identity into some other national contingent of Social Democrats— French, German, Belgian, Czech, and so forth. The most modern of political movements, the cause of Woman Suffrage, has also been espoused in its various phases, pacific and militant, by a section of Jewry, and has with¬ drawn many a mother in Israel from the seclusion of her home into the storm and strife of public meetings. Mr. Israel Zangwill has actively identified himself with the movement in England, where also a special Jewish league, with the benison of ministers, has been formed for its furtherance. The movement in Germany, which pursues a far more placid course than in England, is supported by the “Jiidischer Frauenbund,” an organization primarily established for social and philanthropic work, but now also devoted to the cause of the emancipation of woman. 1 A graphic sketch of this turbulent period of recent history will be found in Zangwill’s Ghetto Comedies, under the title “ Samooborona.” BOOK IV THE ECONOMIC ASPECT INTRODUCTION Participation in all branches of economic activity—Poverty and migration T HE Jews, who, in ancient times, were mainly occupied in agriculture, and in the Middle Ages in trade, are now represented in every sphere of economic activity. In most countries they still show a predilection for various forms of commerce, owing partly to historic and social influences, but they have devoted themselves in increasing numbers during the last fifty years to all branches of industry, to manu¬ factures and handicrafts as well as mining, whilst their preponderance in the business world, in which they have manifested special aptitudes, is tending to diminish. Equally significant of the transition from mediaeval conditions is the return to the land, from which Jews had been excluded for the most part since their dis¬ persion. Despite their urbanization for so many centuries they have, during the last thirty years, successfully engaged in farming and forestry in various regions, notably in their ancestral country. But the most characteristic feature of the economic activity of modern Jewry is the growing number of those engaged in the liberal professions and public service. The material position of the great majority of Jewry defies description. Only a small portion of those settled in Western countries enjoy the wealth that is commonly attributed to the entire race; but in the regions containing 180 INTRODUCTION 181 more than two-thirds of the world’s Jewry, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa, there is a depressing spectacle of widespread poverty and misery. Goaded by oppression and economic distress the Jews of Eastern Europe are fleeing in hundreds of thousands to the lands of the West, especially America and England, bringing with them the industries in which they were engaged at home. They migrate not singly but in families, almost in com¬ munities, braving the countless hardships of the voyage to the once-vaunted lands of liberty, whose portals they now find guarded by inquisitorial janitors. But, despite their hardships and the culminating risk of rejection, they will continue to flock to these countries as long as they can find no peace nor make a living in their native land. CHAPTER I SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Historic and religious factors—Pioneers of commerce—Com¬ mercial activity in various lands-—Activity in finance—Partici¬ pation in industries—Factories and handicrafts in Russia—Female and child labour—Industrial conditions in England and America— Agricultural activity in Russia and in Central Europe—Advance of agriculture in America—Colonization in Palestine—-The liberal professions and public service D ISPERSED throughout all the lands of the earth the Jews are found among the followers of nearly every occupation, but they show a particular predilection and capacity for certain branches of economic activity which can be traced to definite factors. They are represented in the largest numbers in commercial pursuits and domestic industries owing partly to historic influences and partly to religious requirements. From the downfall of Judaea in the first century until the beginning of the nineteenth century the Jews, who had for centuries lived by tending their flocks and tilling their soil, were, with insignificant exceptions, strictly barred from the land, which they could neither buy, rent, nor cultivate. They were thus early forced to choose between trading and manual labour. Thanks to their dispersion in the various countries around the Mediterranean and the feeling of racial solidarity that united them they had exceptional facilities for engaging in international trade ; whilst the adoption of handicrafts was fostered by the example of the Rabbis themselves, who made it a rule of life to combine the study of the Torah with the pursuit of a secular calling. 1 The legislation of the Middle 1 Mishna, Pirke Aboth, ii. ; Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 471. 182 SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 183 Ages, which confined the Jews to special quarters, excluded them from the trade guilds, and allowed them to deal only in money and merchandise, inevitably forced the great majority into commerce, in which, aided by wits sharpened by ages of Talmudical dialectics and by the very struggle for existence itself, they developed special capacities and achieved considerable success. The influence of the reli¬ gious factor in determining the choice of occupation is seen in its earliest and simplest form in the callings necessitated by the requirements of the community, namely, those of the baker, the butcher, and the dairyman, who had to pro¬ vide bread, meat, and milk conforming with the strict regulations of the Jewish law, as well as those of the func¬ tionaries attached to the synagogue, the Rabbi, precentor, teacher, and beadle ; but the effect of this influence upon the masses of the population did not show itself prominently until the latter half of the nineteenth century in their preferring domestic industries to factory labour, so as to be able to observe the sanctity of the Sabbaths and festivals undisturbed. The abolition of the Ghetto and the remo val of mediaeval restrictions resulted in an appreciable diminu¬ tion of the numbers devoted to commerce and an increase of those engaged in industries and handicrafts, whilst there was also a gradual return to agriculture both in the Old and the New World. The political emancipation of the Jews also threw open to them the liberal professions and Government service, which are attracting an increasing proportion every year, particularly in Western Europe and the United States. At the present day, therefore, it may be said that the Jews are found in all the main departments of the economic world and in most of their subsidiary branches. The main spheres of economic activity in which Jews have been engaged is that of commerce in all its forms, whether as wholesale or retail traders, bankers or financiers, shippers of transoceanic trade or carriers of local wares, war contractors or dealers in old masters, founders of newspapers or organizers of international exhibitions. Professor Werner Sombart has recently written a portly 184 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES and learned volume, 1 in which he emphasizes and illustrates the influence of the Jews upon the economic progress of modern nations, and describes how they quickened inter¬ national and colonial trade, financed Governments, and developed and perfected the commercial and financial instruments of modern economic life. He maintains that the centre of trade was transferred from the south to the north of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in consequence of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and their migration into Holland, Germany, and England, but his proofs of this contention are inadequate, and it is more likely that the Jews simply developed and profited by the commercial opportunities which they already found in these lands. It is less disputable, however, that they held the biggest portion of the Levantine trade in their hands from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century and took a prominent part in bringing the commodities of the Indies to Europe ; that they established the importance of the Leipzig fairs and were the first to exploit the trade in precious metals ; that they had a considerable share in founding the British colonial trade and in promoting the economic development of the American Commonwealth ; and that with the advance of the present capitalistic era they developed the bill exchange and stock exchange and popularized the bill of exchange, the company share, the banknote, and other negotiable instruments of modern commerce. The “ industrial awakening of almost the whole interior of Cape Colony ” in the early thirties of the nineteenth century was due to Benjamin Markus and Simeon Nor den 2 ; the wool and hide trades and the mohair industry in South Africa were established by the Mosenthal brothers, and the whale and fishing industry by the De Pass brothers ; Joel Myers introduced ostrich farming, whilst the Albus, Barnatos, and Ecksteins played 1 Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1911). An English translation, somewhat abbreviated, by Dr. M. Epstein, has been published under the title of The Jews and Modern Capitalism (Fisher Unwin, 1913). 2 Jewish Encyclopedia, xi. p. 476. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 185 a prominent part in the development of the diamond and gold mines. One of the most romantic episodes in the colonization of South Africa was the creation of Nathaniel Isaacs in 1828 as Chief of Natal by Tchaka, King of the Zulus, who presented him with a great tract of the country extending 100 miles inland from the sea in return for his services in subduing a hostile tribe. In more recent times Jews have distinguished themselves by creating the department stores, particularly on the Continent and in America, 1 and by attaining a prominent position in the art-dealing world of Europe. 2 The success of the Jew in business has prompted various theories as to its origin. Professor Sombart has evolved the fanciful idea that the Jew owes his commercial aptitude to the influence of his religion, which he regards as domin¬ ated by rationalism ; but Dr. Ruppin and Dr. Zollschan 3 are nearer the truth in declaring that the Jew has no specific business capacity, but that his general intellectual equipment finds a fertile field of activity in a vocation demanding mobility and originality of thought and prompt¬ ness of action, and that it is by virtue of the same mental qualities that he has distinguished himself in politics, law, medicine, and chess-playing. The Jew is of a speculative and calculating turn of mind ; he is quick to comprehend ; he has enterprise, initiative, and foresight ; he is a keen competitor, a hard bargainer, a capable organizer, and has known how to develop and utilize the art of advertise¬ ment : all attributes of supreme value in the commercial struggle. He is, moreover, endowed with perseverance and readiness of resource ; he can adapt himself to the whims of fortune and quickly change from one line of business to another, and even from one occupation to another, in the determination to advance. He has estab¬ lished a secure, if not everywhere prosperous position in 1 Wertheim and Tietz in Germany ; Macy and Rosenwald in America. 2 Duveen, London ; Seligmann, Paris; Heilbronn, Berlin ; Hirsch, Vienna, etc. 3 See Dr. Zollschan’s criticism of Prof. Sombart's theories in the preface to the third edition of Das Rassenproblem (Wm. Braumiiller, Vienna and Leipzig, 1912). 86 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the business world, though he has a match not only in the Greeks and Armenians, who are born traders, but also in the Americans and the Scotsmen. It is inevitable that when a large section of a people is engaged in business a certain proportion, whose methods are not very scrupulous, should be regarded as characteristic of the people at large ; but to what an extent this judgment is just has been discussed in the chapter on “ Morality.” But although the Jew has acquired the reputation of being the personifica¬ tion of the commercial spirit, he is sometimes quite shiftless and helpless, failing miserably in everything he undertakes as though pursued by some mocking sprite and good- humouredly nicknamed by his brethren a Schlemiel. In Germany and Italy one-half of the Jews are en¬ gaged in commerce, and in Austria and Russia over two- fifths. 1 * * * V In Germany 50-35 per cent of the Jews are engaged in commerce and transport as compared with 13-41 per cent of the general population ; but whilst they formed 10*5 per cent of the entire commercial class in 1895, they are now only 7-9 per cent. In Italy 50*35 per cent 1 Complete occupation statistics of the Jews are available for these four countries and to a limited extent for Rumania. The figures given here are taken from the following sources, the years after the country being the date of the census :— (a) Germany (1907) : Die beruflichen und sozialen V erhaltnisse dev Juden in Deutschland, by Dr. J Segall (Berlin: Max Scliildberger, 1912) ; ( b ) Italy (1901) : Zeitschrift lUr Demographie und Statistik der Juden, January 1905 (Berlin) ; ( c ) Austria (1900) : Die Juden in Oesterreich, by Dr. J. Thon (Berlin, 1908) ; (d) Russia (1897) : The sozialen Verhaltnisse der Juden in Rttssland (Berlin, 1906), Bulletin of the Bureau of Labour, “ Economic Condition of the Jews in Russia,” by I. M. Rubinow (Washington, 1907), and Die Wanderbewegungen der Judeyi, by W. W. Kaplun-Kogan (Bonn: Markus & Weber, 1913); (e) Rumania (1901-2 and 1904) : Die Juden in Rumanien (Berlin, 1908). The original sources of the statistics for Russia are the Government Census of 1897 and the Investigation conducted by the Jewish Colonization Association in 1898-99, published first in Russia (St. Petersburg, 1904) and afterwards in French under the title of Recueil de mat&riaux sur la situation tconomique des Israelites en Russie d’aprZs VenquMe de la Jewish Colonisation Associa¬ tion (Paris, 1906). The only other country of which Jewish occupation statistics are extant is New South Wales {Hebrew Standard, Sydney, 10th March 1905), but as they only concern a total employed population of 3031 and were compiled in 1901 they cannot be regarded as of much signi¬ ficance for present-day conditions. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 187 of the Jews are engaged in business, as compared with only 8*32 per cent of the general population. In Austria, where the percentage is 43-7 and 8-3 respectively, the Jews practically monopolize trade in Galicia, where there is a dearth of industries and the staple occupation is agriculture. They form 91*2 per cent of the dealers in merchandise in East Galicia and 81 per cent in West Galicia, 85*3 per cent of the brokers and agents in East Galicia and 66*3 per cent in West Galicia, but the great majority are merely petty shopkeepers, pedlars, and hawkers, who can hardly keep body and soul together. In Russia 42*62 per cent of the Jews are engaged in commerce and transport (38*64 per cent in commerce alone), as compared with only 2*7 per cent of the general population, but it must be remembered that Russia is predominantly an agrarian country and that the Jews, with the exceptions to be noted later, are barred from the soil. They form one-third of the entire mercantile class in the Russian Empire and as much as four-fifths in the Pale of Settlement alone. Nearly one- half of the Jewish merchants in Russia trade in agricultural produce, they constitute over 90 per cent of the grain dealers in the Empire, and practically monopolize the corn trade in the Pale and along the Black Sea ; but they are also represented in many other branches of commerce, particularly clothing, textiles, and timber. The general characteristics of Jewish trade in Russia are overcrowding, excessive and unhealthy competition, and its restriction mainly to manufactured articles of inferior value and commodities intended for immediate consumption. In Rumania the Jews form a fifth of the entire commercial class, whilst the proportion rises in some departments of the country to a half and even three-fourths, the maximum being reached in Jassy and Botosani. They entirely monopolize the petroleum trade and form the bulk of the dealers in iron goods (92 per cent), cotton goods (88 per cent), flour, timber, and fur. Most of the native Jews in England and America are also engaged in commerce, those in the latter country largely controlling the trade in corn, tobacco, and cotton, whilst the East European immigrants 188 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES in these countries provide a contingent of shopkeepers, hawkers, and pedlars. The participation of Jews in finance is relatively not so great or important at the present day as it was until the middle of the nineteenth century. The refusal of the mediaeval Church to allow its followers to deal in money, as something taboo, gave the Jews a monopoly in which they were able to specialize, and they thus acquired con¬ siderable skill and success in financial operations. The outstanding episode in the history of Jewish finance, as indeed in the annals of modem finance in general, is the unparalleled rise of the firm of Rothschild, which, starting from modest foundations in Frankfort in 1760, raised loans for almost every country of importance during the next hundred years, and is estimated to have contracted for or participated in loans to the huge total of £1,300,000,000 up to 1904. 1 Among the most important transactions carried out by the Rothschilds were the transmission of £18,000,000 sterling to the Continent between 1814 and 1822 for payment to the anti-Napoleonic Allies, the raising of a loan of £15,000,000 for the English Government in 1856, the arrangement with Bleichroeder for the payment to Germany of the French indemnity of five million francs after the Franco-Prussian War, and the advance of £4,080,000 to the English Government in 1875 for the purchase of 176,600 Suez Canal shares. 2 One of the most important factors that contributed to the success of the Rothschild house was its establishment of branches in London, Paris, Vienna, and Naples, each headed by a brother, which enabled it to undertake operations of an international character; but the branch at Naples was discontinued in 1861, and the ancestral house at Frankfort was closed forty years later. The Rothschild firm, however, was not the only Jewish house that undertook State and municipal loans in the early half of the nineteenth century : it had many serious competitors in the Pereires, Lazards, Speyers, Sterns, Seligmanns, and Bischoffsheims, who also adopted 1 Financial Times, 13th February 1913. 2 Jewish Encyclopaedia, x., art. “ Rothschild.” SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 189 the Rothschild system of establishing local branches in European capitals, each under the charge of a brother. But the movement that spread throughout Western Europe in the fifties of last century for the formation of credit banks and the growing practice of Governments to throw open the subscription of loans to the general public com¬ bined to break down the Jewish monopoly of international finance, which may be said to have largely passed away by 1900. 1 Jewish financiers invested considerably in the construction of railways in the latter half of the nineteenth century, notably the Pereires in North France, the Bischoffs- heims in Belgium, the Bleichroeders in Germany, Baron de Hirsch in Turkey, and Messrs. Kuhn, Loeb, & Co. (Mr. Jacob H. Schiff) in the United States, and it was to a Jew by birth, Sir Ernest Cassel, that the financing of the Nile Dam was due. In Russia, too, the influence of Jewish finance showed itself in the establishment of commercial banks by Barons Joseph and Horace de Giinzburg and Leon Rosenthal of St. Petersburg and by Baron Kronen- berg and Iwan Blioch of Warsaw; whilst farther east, the Sassoons, “ the Rothschilds of the East/’ have created a network of banks from Bagdad to Shanghai. At present the movement of precious metals throughout the world is mainly directed by Jewish bankers, who largely deter¬ mine the rate of exchange between one country and another; but there is absolutely no ground for the allega¬ tion, often made by anti-Semitic scribes, that the Jewish financiers of different countries are in alliance and use their combined resources for particular operations. On the contrary, the competition between Jewish houses is just as keen as between other firms. If there is any policy at all, apart from purely business considerations, by which self-respecting Jewish financiers are guided, it is the ab¬ stention from raising loans for the Russian Government as a protest against its inhuman treatment of their brethren, a policy that must be endorsed by every friend of freedom. There is, moreover, a notable decline in the proportion of Jews engaged in finance. In Germany they formed 13*8 1 Jewish Encyclopcedia, v., art. “ Finance." 190 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES per cent of the entire class engaged in financial pursuits in 1895, but this percentage sank to 7*9 by 1907 owing to the private banks being replaced by big joint-stock banks capable of supplying the credit needed for Germany’s in¬ dustrial and commercial development. 1 In Italy only 2*83 per cent, and in Russia only ’15 per cent of the Jewish population followed a financial calling. The number of Jews on the stock exchange is not as large as is popularly supposed. In London there are estimated to be 330 Jews among 5100 members of the Stock Exchange—that is, over 6 per cent 2 ; whilst in New York the percentage is prob¬ ably nearly twice as high. A significant tendency of modern times is the increasing number of Jews engaged in industrial pursuits, whether as manufacturers or mechanics, a tendency illustrated by the large number of Jewish schools for manual crafts founded during the last half-century not only in Europe and America but also in Palestine. In Germany 21 '87 per cent of the Jews were engaged in industry in 1907, as compared with 19*30 per cent in 1895 ; in Austria the percentage is 26*4, and in Russia as high as 34*63, whilst in Italy it is as low as 8*68. In Germany the principal industries in which they are engaged are those of machinery, metals, building, paper, timber, and especially chemicals and textiles. In Austria the bulk of Jewish manufacturers and artisans are concentrated in Galicia, in the east of which they form from 52 to 56 per cent of those engaged in the metal, chemical, food, leather, and paper industries, and 41 per cent of the clothing industry. Particularly noteworthy is the mining colony in Boryslav, consisting of exemplars of Jewish pluck. 3 In Rumania, despite the special laws aiming at the restriction of Jewish enter¬ prise, they form 19*5 per cent of all the manufacturers, and only 5*3 per cent of the factory employees, whilst they account for 52*8 per cent of the glass, 32*4 per cent 1 Segall, Die beruflichen und so.zialen Verhdltnisse dev Juden in Deutsch¬ land, p. 33. 2 Mr. Percy M. Castello, in the Jewish Chronicle, 17th June 1910. 3 Die Welt, 20th June 1913. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 191 of the furniture, and 39*1 per cent of the clothing manu¬ facturers. 1 One of the most remarkable features of Jewish labour, not only on the Continent but also in England and America, is the comparatively large propor¬ tion occupied in the clothing industry. Of 40,000 Jewish artisans in Germany, distributed in twenty-two different occupations, over one-third are engaged in this industry, 2 whilst in Rumania it claims over three-fifths. In Russia over one-seventh of the entire Jewish population is either engaged in or dependent upon the clothing industry (in¬ cluding hats, boots, and gloves, as well as clothes). In Rumania the proportion of Jews in manual trades is four and a half times larger than their ratio to the population, whilst in Jassy they form over three-fourths of the artisan class. They are mostly engaged either in trades demanding special skill, such as engraving and watchmaking, or in those that involve physical strain, as tailors, shoemakers, box-makers, plumbers, bookbinders, and paper-hangers. To those who have hitherto regarded the Jews in Russia as wholly or mainly absorbed in barter it will come as a revelation to learn that nearly two-fifths are occupied in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, in which less than a sixth (15*4 per cent) of the general population is represented. Although the Jews form little more than 4 per cent of the population of Russia, they constitute 10 - 5 per cent of the entire industrial class in the Empire, and as much as a third in the Pale of Settlement. In the north-western provinces, Lithuania and White Russia, industrial occupations even claim a greater proportion of Jews than commerce : in Lithuania there are 44^2 per cent in industries and only 23*8 per cent in commerce, whilst in White Russia there are 42*2 and 27*4 per cent respectively. 3 It is in these provinces that the congestion is greatest, the economic conditions are lowest, and the labour movement is strongest. In the Pale, according to the latest statistics, the Jews owned 37*8 per cent of 1 Die Juden in Rumanien, p. 30. 2 Segall, p. 44. 3 Rubinow, Economic Conditions of the Jews in Russia, p. 502. 192 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES the factories (2933 out of 7750), and formed 27 per cent of the employees (63,509 out of 235,203), but the value of the products manufactured in Jewish factories was only 22*5 per cent of the total value of the manufactures. 1 The reason for this is that the average Jewish manufac¬ turer has a smaller capital than his non-Jewish competitor, his factory is a smaller establishment and seldom equipped with the best machinery, and the cost of maintenance is relatively larger, as he is by law confined to the town, whilst his non-Jewish competitor can build his factory in the country, where rent and labour are cheaper. The industries in which Jewish manufacturers are engaged present a wide variety : textiles (80 per cent of the total), timber, tobacco (75 per cent), hides, soap (87 per cent), bricks, tiles, flour-mill products, creameries, breweries, and mineral waters. In Poland there are 305 Jewish factories of textile goods, of which 155 are in Lodz, employing about 13,000 men; and in Bialystok and its suburbs there are 299 Jewish factories out of a total of 372. The total number of Jewish factory-workers in the entire Pale is probably between 100,000 and 150,000, and the conditions of most of them are distressing. They are confined to the towns, they cannot work on the Sabbath, they have a higher standard of life than the Russian operative who has been brought up in the country and can generally fall back upon a little farm in bad times, and they have a difficulty in getting employment not only in non-Jewish works, which are often controlled by anti-Semitic managers, but also in Jewish works, as they are apt to look upon their employer as their equal and know how to protect their interests by organization. The conditions of the artisans are scarcely better. There are over half a million, who, with their families, form a third of the Jewish population in Russia. Although permitted to live in certain parts outside the Pale, the conditions governing their residence are so burdensome and harassing that the great majority remain perforce in their native towns, where they work mostly at home in 1 Rubinow, Economic Conditions of the Jews in Russia, p. 537. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 193 insanitary conditions and for an overcrowded market. Over 38 per cent are engaged in the production of clothing and other wearing apparel, 17 per cent in leather wares (boots, gloves, etc.), 11 per cent in food products, nearly 10 per cent in furniture, 9 per cent in metals, 6 per cent in bricks and tiles, and the rest in the textile, paper, stationery, and chemical industries. Different towns have specialized in particular industries : thus several towns in the province of Siedlec are engaged in brush-making, Grodno is devoted to boots and shoes, Vitebsk to agri¬ cultural machinery, and Bresin to ready-made clothing. Unskilled labour is generally avoided by Jews : it claims only 2 per cent of the total Jewish population in Russia. In the Pale there are over 100,000 Jews employed in unskilled labour, mostly as dock-labourers (especially in South Russia), carriers, teamsters, cabmen, farm-labourers, diggers and stonebreakers, lumbermen, raftsmen, rag¬ pickers, and water-carriers. This at least proves that Jews, if needs be, can undertake the hardest form of physical labour. They are also found as dock-labourers at Salonica, Beyrout, and other Levantine ports. On the other hand, they are apt to look down upon employ¬ ment as domestic servants or waiters as servile callings that suppress personal individuality. One of the most striking features of Jewish industry in Russia is the large proportion of female labour. The day is long past when the Jewish woman was able to keep within the peaceful seclusion of the home : the fight for existence has driven her also into the factory and workshop. Women form 21*26 per cent of the Jewish wage-earning class in Russia, and account for 15*3 per cent of the artisans. In the north-west provinces women and girls form a third of the Jewish artisans, and over 80 per cent are employed as dressmakers, seamstresses, milliners, stocking-knitters, and cigarette-makers. Female and child labour is also largely employed in factories, ranging from 20*2 per cent in South Russia to 37*4 per cent in Poland, and 42*4 per cent in the north-west provinces ; and it is found in many industries of a dangerous kind, such 13 194 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES as the manufacture of bricks and of matches, the packing of matches being done mostly at home. In Germany, also, it may be added, women form 21'97 per cent of the entire Jewish working population, but they are engaged more in business and professions than in factories and domestic service. The percentage of Jewesses in employ¬ ment in that country rose from 21 '97 in 1875 to 30 in 1907. 1 The emigrants from East Europe who have settled in such large numbers in America and England during the last thirty years have brought with them the industries in which they were engaged at home, namely, tailoring, shoemaking, cabinet-making, cigarette-making, cap-making, and furriery, though they are also represented in all other trades. It is mainly due to them that these industries have become of increasing importance in these countries : they monopolize the clothing trade in the United States and largely dominate it in England. In New York there are over 2000 firms employing about 80,000 men and women in the designing and making of clothes. The leading industry of the city and state of New York is the manufacture of women’s clothing, which had a production in 1909 of 272,518,000 dollars, and 75 per cent of the development of which has taken place during the last fifteen years. All the firms and employees engaged in this industry, with insignificant exceptions, are Jews. 2 Almost 53 per cent of the male Russo-Jewish workers and 77 per cent of the female workers in New York are employed in tailoring, dressmaking, and cognate trades. 3 In England one-third of the Russian and Polish Jews are estimated to be in this branch of industry, and to them is entirely due the introduction of the ladies’ jacket and mantle trade. 4 The centres of the tailoring trade are London, Manchester, Leeds, whilst the Manchester water- 1 Segall, p. 78. 2 Jewish Immigration Bulletin, November-December 1912, New York. 3 The Immigrant Jew in America, p. 112. 4 The Jew in London, by C. Russell and H. S. Lewis (Fisher Unwin, 1901), p. 73. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 195 proof garments industry is also in Jewish hands. The influx of Jewish immigrants into the English labour market gave rise in recent years to the complaint that they lowered the rate of wages and took the bread out of the mouth of the native workman, but the investigations that have been made into the question have shown the charge to be groundless. When the immigrant first arrives in London he may submit to sweating conditions rather than beg or starve or sink to the depravity of the indigenous wastrels who sleep in the parks by day and in the “ doss-houses ” by night; but he very soon asserts his position and obtains a normal wage. Moreover, as the Jew has created his own industries there is practically no competition with the Gentile workman in the labour market, Jew and Gentile working, as Mr. Sidney Webb has put it, “ in water-tight compartments/’ A similar charge of undercutting the rate of wages has been made in America, but the Immigration Commission, after a study of the earnings of more than half a million employees in mines and manufactures, has discovered no evidence that immigrants have been hired for less than the prevail¬ ing rate of wages. On the contrary, Dr. Hourwich has recently shown that the average wage is higher in those parts of the United States where there is a larger percentage of foreign-born workmen, that there has been a gradual reduction of the working day during the past decade in the state most affected—New York, and that the proportion of children employed in factories is greatest in the states where there is practically no immigrant population. 1 The immigrant is constantly spurred on to improve his position and to become his own master, not only because he brings his wife and children to join him at the earliest opportunity, but because he has a higher standard of life than the native workman. He must provide for the proper celebration of Sabbaths and festivals and for the Hebrew education of his children, and he subscribes to a synagogue and benefit society. The trade union move¬ ment has so far not found much hold among the Jewish 1 1 . A. Hourwich, Immigration and Labour (Putnam, 1913). 196 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES immigrants, partly owing to the shifting character of their class, partly owing to their irrepressible ambition to rise from the ranks of the toilers, and partly owing to their lack of the sense of disciplined organization 1 ; but strikes for the improvement of employment conditions are no infrequent phenomenon among the garment-makers in New York and the bakers in London. The return of the Jews to the land during the nineteenth century affords a refutation of the oft-recurring charge that, having been cut off from the soil and urbanized for so many centuries, they cannot adapt themselves to rural pursuits. There are now about 400,000 Jewish souls living by farming and forestry in the Old and in the New World, and the number is increasing every year. The return to the land began in Russia in 1804, when Alexander I,passed a law permitting the settlement and purchase of land by Jews in New and Southern Russia, and presented them with 80,000 acres in the province of Kherson as a nucleus for agricultural settlements. He also granted them exemption from military service to induce them to go upon the land, and by 1810 several Jewish colonies were established, comprising 1700 families, in Kherson. Under the reign of his successor, Nicholas I, further colonies were established by private benevolence in the provinces of Kherson and Ekaterinoslav, and their number rose to 371 in 1865, when the Government repented of its goodwill and prohibited the creation of fresh Jewish colonies. In the seventies the Government took nearly 90,000 acres away from the Jewish colonies in the provinces of Volhynia, Kieff, Podolia, and Tchernigoff, and in 1882 the famous May Laws forbade Jews to buy or rent land in rural areas in the fifteen provinces of West Russia, a prohibition that was extended to Poland in 1891. Since then the position of the Jewish farmer in Russia has become rather precarious, and it would be menaced with utter decay if it were not for the material and financial assistance rendered by the Jewish Colonization Association, 1 The Jewish Year Book (1914, p. 80) enumerates only twelve Jewish trade unions in London, seven belonging to the clothing industry. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 197 which also maintains a staff of travelling agriculturists and five agricultural schools. According to the statistics of 1898 there were 296 Jewish colonies (apart from those in Poland), comprising 305,407 acres. 1 The number of Jews in Russia independently engaged in agriculture is 40,000, so that the entire number, including dependents, who live by it is close upon 200,000. This forms only 3 - 8i per cent of the Jewish population of the country, whilst 60'5 per cent of the general population is devoted to agriculture. The average estate of the Jewish farmer is only 23-J- acres in extent, which is quite inadequate for a comfortable existence. Only one-sixth of these rural households owns 54 acres or more, and this sixth owns 44’i per cent of the entire land of the Jewish colonies. Like the Russian peasant the Jew plants more than two- thirds of his land with cereals and leaves the rest for grazing purposes. He uses only his own labour, his methods are mostly primitive and his implements in¬ efficient ; but fifty years of farming have had a beneficial effect in developing the frame and strengthening the muscle of the Russian Jew. In addition to the colonies there is also a great amount of independent farming by Jews, the entire area owned or rented by them in the Russian Empire being 6,422,684 acres, over two-thirds of which are in the Pale. 2 In Austria the percentage of the Jewish population engaged in agriculture is 11*4, three times as high as that in Russia, compared with 54-4 among the Christian popula¬ tion. The entire number of Jews dependent on agriculture and forestry is 139,810, the great bulk of whom are in Galicia and the Bukovina, where 177 per cent of the Jewish population live by agriculture, the highest per¬ centage in any country. 3 But there is no real Jewish peasantry in Austria, as a considerable proportion of the agriculturists are merely landowners who do not them¬ selves cultivate the soil, though a great number of Jewish farm-labourers are met with in Galicia. Moreover, since 1 Rubinow, Economic Conditions of the Jews in Russia, p. 508. 2 Ibid., p. 517. 3 Thon, Die Juden in Oesterreich, p. 112. 198 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES 1899, an agricultural school has been maintained at Slobodka-Lesna, near Kolomea, by the Jewish Colonization Association. The amount of Jewish agriculture in other parts of Europe is almost insignificant. In Germany, according to the census of 1907, there were 3746 Jews engaged in farming, forestry, hunting, and fishing, forming 1*30 per cent of the Jewish population, a decline from 1*41 per cent in 1895 1 ; and an agricultural school has been maintained at Ahlem, near Hanover, since 1893, founded by Moritz Simon with an endowment of £150,000. In Italy only *31 per cent of the Jews are engaged in agriculture, whilst in Rumania, where they are forbidden to own land, and in Hungary, where there is no such pro¬ hibition, there are a great number of Jewish tenant- farmers who cultivate the estates of Christian landowners. The most notable advance in Jewish agriculture during the last thirty years has taken place in America and Palestine, partly owing to the persecutions in Russia and partly to the revival of the national idea. The pogroms of 1881 caused an emigration en masse from Russia, and both in that and other countries the cry arose that the Jews could find the only final relief from their sufferings by resettling upon the soil of the Holy Land. The great bulk of the emigrants, however, wended their way not to the ancient but to the modern " land of promise,” and unsuccessful attempts to found agricultural colonies were made in the United States and Canada in the early eighties. The real history of Jewish agriculture in the New World began in 1891, when Baron de Hirsch, moved by a fresh eruption of massacre in Russia, resolved to devote his fortune to the relief of his brethren by transplanting them to America and settling them upon the land. He founded the Jewish Colonization Association as an English company with a capital of £2,000,000, which was increased upon his death by a further £9,000,000. The Association devoted itself in the first place to the settlement of Russian Jews in the Argentine, but the unfitness of most of the emigrants for agricultural life proved a hindrance to the early success 1 Segall, pp. 30 and 58. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 199 of its efforts. After twenty-two years of activity it has established eight colonies in the Argentine, comprising at present only 4520 families with 24,000 souls, of whom 6626 are non-colonists—a result that, compared with the enormous sums expended on the enterprise, can hardly be regarded as satisfactory. The total area covered by the colonies is 1,250,000 acres, of which 462,873 acres are under cultivation. The colonists grow wheat, flax, barley, corn, oats, tobacco, and vegetables, and also engage in cattle¬ rearing and dairying. They have 139,258 head of live stock, comprising 59,415 cattle, 13,130 sheep, and 66,713 horses and other animals. But although the extent of Jewish colonization is small in relation to the money and labour devoted to it, the colonists themselves appear on the whole to have reached a sound position, as in 1910 they paid back 538,429 dollars to the Colonization Associa¬ tion. The Association also started colonizing in Brazil in 1904, and possesses there 240,000 acres, of which 100,000 are covered with timber, but the Jewish farming population so far numbers only 400 souls. A more gratifying and promising picture is presented by the Jewish farmers in the United States and Canada, 1 most of whom have created their own settlements, though they have also received assistance from the “ I.C.A.” 2 and other organizations established with the funds of Baron de Hirsch. In Canada most of the Jewish farmers are Russian immigrants settled upon Government allotments ; they comprise 3482 souls and own 136,334 acres. In the United States there are now about 25,000 Jewish souls living by agriculture and owning 600,000 acres distributed among all the states of the Union. The Jewish farmers in this country own real and personal property of an aggregate value of 33 million dollars and are organized in a federation which holds annual conferences. They owe their advancement in great measure to the Jewish Agri¬ cultural and Industrial Aid Society of New York, which 1 See an excellent and up-to-date account, “ The Agricultural Activities of the Jews in America/' by Leonard G. Robinson, in the American Jewish Year Book for 5673. 2 Familiar abbreviation for Jew. Col. Association; 200 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES encourages farming by rational methods and issues a monthly Yiddish journal, The Jewish Farmer, which has a circulation of 5000 in sixteen countries. Far more significant for the future of the Jews as a nation is the growth of the colonization movement in Palestine. In 1870 the Agricultural School at Mikveh Israel (“ Hope of Israel ”), near Jaffa, was founded by the “ Alliance Israelite Universelle ” for the training of the Jewish youth of the Orient and of Eastern Europe in agriculture ; but this school was of little practical use as long as the Jews had no land of their own in Palestine. Nine years later a number of Jews of Jerusalem attempted to found a colony near the Arab village Mulabbis in the Plain of Sharon, which they called Petach Tikvah (“ Gate of Hope ”), but owing to the fever spread by the rain-sodden soil they had to abandon the attempt until 1882, when they returned, reinforced by well-to-do emigrants from Russia. The marshy land of Petach Tikvah was then planted with eucalyptus trees and the sanitary conditions improved, but the lack of means for the purchase of imple¬ ments and other equipment necessitated aid from abroad. It was in the same year, 1882, that a “ Society for the vSupport of Jewish Agriculturists and Artisans in Palestine,” known as the Chovevei Zion (“ Lovers of Zion”), was founded in Odessa, and societies with similar objects arose in Germany, Rumania, England, and other countries. The Odessa Society at once started operations, and the re¬ colonization of Palestine thus really dates from 1882. “Not only was the existence of the first, and so far the largest colony, Petach Tikvah, assured in this year, but the three most important and central colonies in the three different districts of Palestine, Rishon-le-Zion in Judaea, Zichron Jacob in Samaria, and Rosh Pinnah in Galilee, were founded by people who immigrated into Palestine in large numbers from Russia, Poland, and Rumania, in con¬ sequence of the Jewish persecutions in 1881-82.” 1 These 1 Die judischen Kolonien Palastinas, by Jcsaias Press (J. C. Hinrichs, Leipzig, 1912), p. 4—the latest reliable account of Jewish colonization in Palestine. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 201 pioneer colonies, however, had to struggle against serious privations and might have succumbed had it not been for the munificent support of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, of Paris, who from 1883 devoted considerable funds to the purchase of land and the promotion of Jewish colonization in Palestine. The benevolence of “ the Baron,” as he was affectionately called, had a somewhat demoralizing effect upon the colonists, as their reliance upon his aid deprived them of a sense of responsibility and of all perseverance. Hence he found it necessary afterwards to pull his purse¬ strings tight, and in 1910 he transferred the administration of his colonies to the Jewish Colonization Association, since when they have been able to pay their way and to repay some of their old debts. The latest and most impor¬ tant factor in the development of colonization in Palestine is the Zionist Organization, which has stimulated the increase of Jewish farmers, increased the amount of land in Jewish possession, introduced modern and scientific methods of agriculture, advanced agrarian loans, and established colonies upon the co-operative system. This organization also gave the impetus to the creation of the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station at Haifa, and has in manifold directions promoted the welfare of the rural settlements. The agricultural industry in Palestine, which comprises corn, wine, oranges, olives, and tobacco, has now reached a sound and stable position and has an assured future. There are forty separate Jewish colonies in the country, which, with some unoccupied lands, cover an area of 40,344 hectares 1 or close upon 100,000 acres, i'll per cent of the entire area of Palestine, and support a farming population of 8500 souls. They produce annually about 50,000 hectolitres of wine and cognac, which are exported to Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Germany, England, and the United States, and they owned one-third of the six million francs of oranges exported from Jaffa in 1912. Outside Palestine the extent of Jewish agriculture in the Orient is insignificant, and is mainly confined to the agri- 1 B. Goldberg in Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der juden, February 1913. 202 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES cultural school of Djedeidain Tunis, founded in 1895 by the “ Alliance Israelite,” and the school of Or Jehuda (“ Light of Judah ”), near Smyrna, founded in 1899 by the “ I.C.A.” The last important sphere of activity in which Jews are represented and to which they have devoted themselves in increasing numbers since their civil and political eman¬ cipation, is that comprising the liberal professions and Government service. The special circumstances that have favoured their advance in this sphere are their concen¬ tration in towns, their comfortable social position, and their thirst for higher education. It is significant that in Germany, where the Jews have attained such a high level of prosperity by means of business, most of the Jewish merchants devote their sons to the learned professions, particularly those of law and medicine ; whilst in England and America, too, there is a marked tendency on the part of immigrants who have managed to secure a competence as shopkeepers or artisans, be it as grocers or butchers, tailors or shoemakers, to put their sons into these pro¬ fessions. The pursuit of this tendency, in the face of the knowledge that the income from a profession is more pre¬ carious than that from business or industry, belies the charge that is often made, that Jews are wholly given to money-making, and shows that ideal motives also largely enter into their choice of a career. Whilst the practice of law and medicine enjoys the most popularity, an increas¬ ing number of Jews are found in the ranks of civil service employees, teachers, journalists, artists, actors, musicians, dentists, chemists, and engineers. In Germany the per¬ centage of Jews in Government service and the liberal professions rose from 6^14 to 6^54 in the period 1895-1907, whereas the percentage of the general population in these professions declined from 6'22 to 575 in the same period. 1 The prevalence of Anti-Semitism acts as a check upon the increase of J ews in Government positions and as university professors, though the waters of baptism at once remove their only blemish. It is at first sight surprising to find that the conforming Jews of Germany, who form only 1 Segall, pp. 28-30. SPHERES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 203 1 per cent of the population, constitute i’93 per cent of the high Government officials and 2‘5 per cent of the university ordinary professors, 1 but these proportions are much below the ratio of Jews with university education to the entire educated class. More significant is the fact that Jews form 15 per cent of the lawyers, and 6 per cent of the doctors in Germany. In Russia, where there are hardly any Jews in Government positions, 63 per cent are in the liberal professions despite the severe restrictions for excluding them, but it is probable that a good propor¬ tion is made up out of the host of private Hebrew teachers. In Austria about 7 per cent, of the Jews are in the liberal professions, and it is noteworthy that as many as 6 per cent hold military positions. In Hungary, Jews form I7'9 per cent of the authors and scholars, 39'6 per cent of the journalists, 20 per cent of the artists (musicians, painters, etc.), and 20’i per cent of the actors. 2 The most favour¬ able conditions in this sphere are found in Italy, where 18*67 per cent of the Jews are engaged in the civil service and the liberal professions, as compared with only 6*42 per cent of the general population. 3 1 Segall, pp. 45-57. 2 Neue Judische Korrespondenz, 13th January 1913. 3 Zeitschrift fur Stat. u. Demographic der Juden, January 1905. CHAPTER II RICHES AND POVERTY The legendary wealth of the Jew—Material prosperity in Western countries—The poverty of the majority of Jewry—The distress in Russia—Conditions in Eastern Europe and the Orient | ^ HE legend of the wealth of the Jews has persisted so obstinately for centuries that there is little wonder that it is still accepted as a fact. It owes its origin to the prominent part they have played as traders in money in the past, whether as money-lenders, money¬ changers, or financiers ; and it has been strengthened in modern times by their predominance in commercial pur¬ suits in Western Europe, and their occasionally high representation on the stock exchanges. Two other phenomena have contributed to the popular delusion : the fabulous millions of the Rothschilds, which are made to throw a reflected splendour upon the entire race, and the frequent occurrence of moneyed Jews in the plays and novels of nearly every European literature, particu¬ larly of English literature, whose pages from Shakespeare to Hilaire Belloc have been lavishly strewn with Jewish gold. It is probably this literary factor that is responsible for the first impression of Jewish wealth received in the Christian world, and it would be impossible to exaggerate the mischief done by the reading of The Merchant of Venice in elementary schools, where the plastic minds of young children are impressed with the misunderstood figure of Shylock crouching over his ducats. The impression conceived in childhood grows into an obsession or prejudice which is fostered later by every circumstance, however trivial, that seems to agree with it, and becomes with time 204 RICHES AND POVERTY 205 more and more difficult to eradicate; and its widespread currency is unquestionably one of the causes of the envy and hostility to which the Jewish people is exposed. The truth is, that there are indeed rich Jews, but they are comparatively very few in number ; the Jewish people in the mass is the poorest on earth. It is high time that this myth of J ewish wealth should be exploded once for all, and that the terrible fact of Jewish poverty be thoroughly realized. People in Western Europe or America, who are familiar with prosperous Jewish business houses in their leading cities, who are faced in the newspapers with big Jewish donations at the head of subscription lists for philanthropic causes, and who read ever and again of some handsome Jewish benefaction for a municipal or national object, may perhaps be reluctant to believe that all these phenomena are anything but tokens of bounteous prosperity. The significance of such phenomena is undeniable, but they must not be regarded as characteristic of the people as a whole : they are characteristic only of a very small minority. The overwhelming mass of Jewry has a hard fight for mere existence and is an utter stranger to the comforts of life. Jews who have been settled in Western Europe or x\merica for at least twenty years have for the most part attained a competence, if not actual wealth, and a good proportion of those settled there even for not more than ten years have secured a comfortable livelihood; but the vast majority of the immigrants of recent years have to toil hard and long to make ends meet, and during the earty period of their struggle they are partly dependent on charity. Indeed, with the exception of about two or three per cent, the recipients of charity from the communal coffers consist entirely of immigrants. The political freedom enjoyed by the Jews in Western Europe during the last fifty years has greatly favoured their economic progress, and to the same cause, operating much earlier, must be attributed their general prosperity in America. But two other factors have played an important part in their material advancement : their participation to a great extent in mercantile pursuits, and to a growing extent in professions, 206 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES and their relatively small families. Not only have they a better opportunity of getting on quickly in commerce than in domestic industries or handicrafts, but they are able to continue their activity to a more advanced age ; at sixty they are still hale enough to reap the benefit of a lifetime’s experience in business or to practise their pro¬ fession, whereas at that age, if employed in a trade, they would be bent and broken and have to lay down their tools. The smallness of most of the native Jewish families in the Western world places a comparatively lighter burden upon the father than in Eastern Europe, where a family with eight or ten children is quite normal; not only has the father fewer to support but his support is needed for a shorter period. And an additional circumstance which is of no small significance when regarded in the light of conditions in Eastern Europe, is that the Jew in the West, for the most part, does not allow himself to be interrupted by the Sabbath in the pursuit of his business. There are no statistics to illustrate the comparative wealth of the Jewish communities in Western countries, but such figures as we have show that the Jews in Germany have reached a high level of prosperity. The proportion of independent Jews without a profession in that country increased from 1673 per cent to 19*24 per cent in the period 1895-1907. 1 Professor Sombart has compiled a list of thirty towns in Germany, several of them large and im¬ portant, in which the percentage of the total income-tax revenue contributed by the Jews is considerably higher than their percentage of the local population. 2 Thus, in Berlin they form only 5-06 per cent of the inhabitants, but contribute 30*77 per cent of the income-tax revenue ; in Mannheim they form only 3-21 per cent of the population, but contribute 28*66 per cent of the income-tax revenue ; in Posen the figures are 4*21 and 24*02 per cent respectively, in Gleiwitz 3*20 and 23*90 per cent, in Beuthen 4*04 and 26*90 per cent, in Bromberg 2*79 and 13*73 per cent, and in Karlsruhe 1*91 and 11-67 P er cent. In Breslau 1 Segall, p. 30. 2 Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben, p. 219. RICHES AND POVERTY 207 the Jews form only 4*3 per cent of the inhabitants, but they own 203 per cent of the total income of the tax¬ payers, and in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, where they con¬ stitute 7 per cent of the population, they possess 20*8 per cent of the total income of the tax-payers. These figures manifestly show that the Jews in the towns investigated are much more prosperous than their non-Jewish neighbours, but the Jewish population of all these towns is rather less than half of the total Jewish population in Germany, and there is no indication of similar wealth in the communities not examined. On the contrary, there are a large number of communities in Eastern Germany which have a struggle to defray their congregational requirements. The con¬ ditions in Austria are by no means as favourable as in Germany, for two-thirds of the Jews are concentrated in Galicia, which is within the poverty zone of Jewry. According to Dr. Zollschan, 1 one-third of the business men can with difficulty meet their bills on settlement-day ; only a very small proportion of the Jews in Vienna can pay even the lowest' synagogue-tax ; and the J ewish population of Moravia declined from 44,175 to 41,158 in the period 1880-1910, corresponding to a fall from 2*05 per cent to 136 per cent of the general population, a sure indication of diminishing welfare. The conditions are rather better in Italy, where the percentage of Jews with independent means is 9^26, as compared with only 2‘86 per cent among the Christian population. But the vast regions containing more than two-thirds of the world’s Jewry, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa, present a spectacle of material distress that almost baffles description. They are industrially undeveloped regions, in which nine-tenths of the Jews just manage to eke out a wretched, poverty-stricken existence. In the swarming communities of Eastern Europe there are hundreds of thousands of J ews who scrape a mere pittance together as hawkers, pedlars, or petty shopkeepers, and whose pale, hungry-looking features tell a tale of constant gnawing care or betray the fear of an impending doom. In 1 Das Rassenproblem, p. 442. 208 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Russia and Rumania, which together count more than six million Jews, the principal cause of the widespread misery is the elaborate code of mediaeval laws, growing in number and severity every year, which restrict their residence to par¬ ticular localities and hinder them in the free choice and exercise of trades and professions ; and the inevitable congestion in the towns produces an overcrowded labour- market and ruinous competition. In Galicia there is a similar congestion in the towns with similar economic results, whilst the permanent distress produced by the dearth of industries was accentuated a couple of years ago by the new laws which suddenly reduced the number of licences of innkeepers and pedlars and plunged thousands of Jews into ruin. But in addition to the industrial drawbacks and legal oppression in these countries, supplemented by an economic boycott in Poland, the Jews, both in Eastern Europe as well as in the lands of the Orient proper, are exposed to a recurring cycle of disasters and catastrophes which seem to operate almost with the regularity of the laws of nature. A cursory review of the events of the last ten years will suffice to show with what surreptitious and destructive forces the Jews have to fight apart from their ordinary foes. In Russia they have had to suffer from the war with Japan, from the Revolution, and from the unparalleled outbreak of pogroms. In Rumania they have been victims of the Agrarian Revolt of 1907 and of periodical outrages. In Tripoli they have had to suffer in the war between Italy and Turkey, and in all the Balkan countries in the various wars between Turkey and the Allies and between the Allies themselves, whilst the war-panic of several months’ duration in Austria sufficed to bring ruin upon thousands of families in Galicia. Civil war in Morocco, Persia, and the Yemen claimed the Jews as its easiest and most numerous victims; fire, earthquake, and pestilence have desolated countless homes in Turkey ; and famine has afflicted the pious believers in Palestine. With such a catalogue of misfortunes the wonder is not that the Jews cannot attain even the shadow of prosperity, but that they manage to exist at all. And despite all these fatal obstacles to material welfare, they bravely uphold the RICHES AND POVERTY 209 sanctity of the Sabbath and rest two days in the week, whereon they are able to reflect longer upon the mysteries of Providence. The nature and extent of the poverty in Russia was vividly brought home by an investigation conducted by the Jewish Colonization Association in 1898. The object of the investigation was to ascertain how many Jews received charitable aid to enable them to observe the Passover, the most costly of the religious festivals, which necessitates the purchase of unleavened bread and other special preparations. The amount of assistance usually given is small, sometimes only 75 kopecks (is. 6d.), and seldom exceeding 3 roubles (6s.), so that only those in real need would apply for it. The investigation elicited that of 700,000 families living in more than 1200 localities, 132,855 families—almost 19 per cent—received such assistance. The group of persons represented by this number equals nearly one-fifth of the Jewish population of the Pale and comprises members of all occupations. From 1894 to 1898 the families aided in¬ creased from 85,183 to 108,922, an increase of 27*9 per cent. That such a large proportion are dependent on charity can be readily understood when we examine the rate of wages. Tailoring, as we have seen, is the principal industry, and a tailor who works an average of 14 hours per day earns only 125 to 150 roubles (£12,10s. to £15) a year, whilst the normal family budget in a small town is estimated at 300 roubles (£30). Even in the brush-making trade, the best organized industry in the Pale, the maximum wage ranges from 5 to 8 roubles (10s. to 16s.), and the minimum from 5*25 roubles to 75 kopecks (10s. 6d. to is. 6d.) 1 ; but even this income was not constant, for the weeks of regular employment varied from 46 to 25. Throughout the Pale 6 or 8 roubles a week are considered a very fair wage, but the ordinary wage is probably nearer 5 roubles (10s.). 2 The cost of living for the Jew is also greater than for the Christian, as he must pay more for kosher meat, provide for the Hebrew education of his children, and observe the 1 Report to International Socialist Congress, Paris, 1900. 2 Rubinow, Economic Conditions of Jews in Russia. 14 210 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Sabbaths and festivals with something better than the ordinary fare of the week. The general poverty of the masses reacts unfavourably upon the earnings of the professional classes, in which there is an over-supply of lawyers, doctors, and teachers, who make up an intellectual proletariat. Many graduate lawyers are forced to remain bank clerks at twenty shillings a week, and it is not unusual for doctors to receive fees varying from 7-Jd. to iod. for a visit at a patient’s house. The scantiness of the earnings of Jewish physicians is shown by their eagerness to obtain appointments in the service of the municipal or county authorities [zemstvos), the salary for which does not exceed £100 to £120 a year. Cases of religious conversion in Russia are more frequent among the intellectual and professional classes than among the rest of the population, not only because the ties of faith are weaker but because the prospects of material reward are greater. But despite the bad economic conditions there are comparatively few confirmed paupers in the Jewish com¬ munity, that is, people who can but will not work and who live entirely by charity. If a Jew cannot succeed in one calling he promptly adopts another, and he is a veritable “ quick-change artist ” in the variety of his vocations. He is a pedlar, teacher, commission agent, precentor, and marriage-broker, by turns, regularly consoling himself with the thought that “ God will help,” and invariably ready to help his neighbour. It is in regard to existences such as these that Dr. Max Nordau coined the expression Luft- menschen, people whose only apparent means of subsistence is the air they breathe. A particularly distressing picture of the Jews in Odessa was revealed by Brodowski some years ago. 1 In 1899 there were 8500 families, comprising 48,500 souls, or one-third of the Jewish population, who lived in such abject poverty that they depended upon a free grant of 120 to 160 lb. coal for the entire winter and 40 lb. of matzos for the eight days of Passover—for a family of eight ! About another 30,000 persons were also on the verge of sinking into this category, so that over half of the Jews in Odessa lived in 1 Jiidische Statistik, pp. 287-292. RICHES AND POVERTY 211 dire poverty. Of 60,000 patients in the hospitals nearly 33,000 were Jews, although these formed only a third of the population. On the average 63 per cent of the dead had to be buried free, and a further 20 per cent at the lowest rates. Odessa has the largest clothing industry in Russia, but the supply of labour was greater than the demand, and tailors could earn very little. Shoemakers were reported to earn from 3s. 6d. to 7s. a week, whilst other artisans, such as joiners, plumbers, and painters, earned as much as 50s. a month and refrained from taking charity. Dealers in old clothes earned only 40s. a month, but to get together their stock they had often to borrow 10s. in the morning and return it with 6d. interest in the evening. In the cigarette factories women competed with men, who had to be content with an average wage of 20s. a month. Seamstresses earned only a penny for sewing a shirt and a halfpenny for a pair of drawers, whilst little children helped towards keeping them¬ selves alive by sewing buttons and hooks on cards for i^d. a day. About two-thirds of the dwellings were damp ; most of the poor Jews lived in cellar hovels where a wretched lamp burned by day and night, and in many cases two or three families lived in a single room. Were it not for the charity received from their own brethren the poor Jews of Odessa, as of the rest of Russia, would be unable to exist at all; but although the Russian Government compels the Jewish communities to support their own poor out of the proceeds of a special tax (levied principally on kosher meat), the local authorities have the control of this revenue and allow the communities only so much as they deem sufficient for an economic budget, the balance being kept for the public treasury. In Galicia and Rumania the conditions are little better than in Russia, but the outlook is not so dismal. Although the Jews form only 11*09 P er cen * population in Galicia they comprise 44*8 per cent of those without any fixed occupation, an index of distress that requires little commentary. But their position on the whole is not so bad as that of the general population, as in all the towns of Galicia, except Cracow, they contain a larger proportion 212 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES than the Christians of those who pay an income-tax of ioo Kronen (£4) or more. 1 But the misery in the countries of the Orient is much more appalling. In Tripoli two-thirds of the Jews live in utter penury, and even the rest have no sure means of subsistence, whilst in Algeria 68 per cent are poor and depend on charity, 30 per cent are well-to-do with a daily income of at least a franc, and only 2 per cent have independent means. 2 In Palestine, where in 1880 as many as 30,000 of the 35,000 Jews lived wholly or mainly upon the charity received from their brethren abroad (the Chaluka), the economic situation has since considerably improved, but there are now still 55,000 out of an increased population of 100,000 who are solely dependent upon this means of subsistence. 3 The prospects in Palestine, as shown by the continued im¬ provement of the last decade, are hopeful; but the same cannot be said of the near future in Eastern Europe. Dr. Ruppin, writing at the beginning of 1911, predicted that there would be an advance in the economic position of the Jews in Eastern Europe during the next few decades 4 ; but the events of the three years that have since elapsed certainly give no ground for such optimism. He refers to an increasing penetration of the Jews from the Pale of Settlement to other parts of Russia, but the last few years have witnessed a contrary movement—a systematic driving of the Jews long settled outside the Pale back to its cheerless confines. Their commercial depression in 1912 was quite epidemic in character : from 15th November 1911 to 15th November 1912 there were 2003 business failures in 388 towns, involving a clear loss of 170,308,238 roubles (about £17,030,823). 5 The recent economic legisla¬ tion in Rumania and Galicia has also been the reverse of beneficial to the position of the Jews, whilst the effect of the war in the Balkans will not be effaced for many 1 Dr. J. Thon, Die Juden in Oesteneich, p. 136. 2 I. Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem, p. 459. 3 Dr. E. Auerbach, Palaestina als Judenland, p. 13. 4 Die Juden der Gegenwart, p. 66. 5 Zeitschrift filr Demographie dev Juden, 1913, p. 92. RICHES AND POVERTY 213 years. 1 The only avenue of immediate relief open to the Jews in the large misery-stricken zone of the East is migration, to which all who can scrape together the necessary fare are betaking themselves in hundreds of thousands every year. But the flow of emigration does not relieve the pressure at home to any notable extent, as the diminution of producers is accompanied by a simultaneous decline of consumers, so that in the self- contained economic life of the Jews, the resultant position is pretty much the same as before. 1 It is significant of the economic depression caused by the Balkan War that in the Jewish community of Budapest the communal taxes in the year 1912-13 produced 155,000 crowns less than had been estimated, and that in Constantinople the receipts from the tax on kosher meat were reduced by more than half (by 30,000-40,000 francs), necessitating the closing of the Rabbinical Seminary (Jewish Chronicle, 20th June 1913, p. 15). The Budapest community has been compelled to raise the communal taxes, whereupon many members of the so-called “ assimi¬ lated ” class have seceded {Die Welt, 17th July 1914). CHAPTER III MIGRATIONS The vastness of Jewish migration—Extent of immigration into the United States — Character of emigration — Occupation of immigrants—Material position—Immigration into other lands— The hardships of emigration ' T HE vast migration of the Jews from Eastern Europe during the last thirty years is one of the most striking events not only in modern history but in the entire history of the Jews. It can compare in charac¬ ter with their dispersion from Palestine in the first century, and surpasses in point of numbers even their expulsion from Spain in 1492. The principal land to which they have flocked in quest of a refuge from persecution and distress is the United States of America, in which over two and a quarter million have settled since 1880. The other lands of refuge, England, Canada, Argentine, South Africa, and Australia, as well as the western countries of the European Continent, Egypt, and Palestine, have also received since that year, upon a moderate com¬ putation, half a million Jews ; so that in all 2,750,000 Jews, or more than one-fifth of the entire Jewish popula¬ tion in the world, have permanently transplanted their homes to other lands during the last thirty years. 1 Until 1881 the volume of migration was comparatively small. In the fifty years from 1821 to 1870 only 7550 Jews from Russia entered the United States, though in the next decade the total amounted to 41,057. 2 But it was not until 1881, when the Jews were overwhelmed by the 1 See Appendix on Immigration to North America. 2 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. viii. p. 584. 214 MIGRATIONS 215 first epidemic of pogroms, burdened by oppressive laws, and faced by economic misery, that the stream of migration to the havens of liberty began to swell into full tide. The immigration into the United States, which forms about four-fifths of the total current, is deserving of some detailed examination. From 1st July 1880 to 30th June 1912 the number of Jews of all regions who settled in this country was 2,258,146, of whom 1,357,123, or 60 per cent, came from Russia alone. The exact numbers from other countries who migrated to the United States in this period are not known, as until 1898 only the immigrants from Russia were separately recorded, whilst all the rest were simply put down as “ from other countries ” ; but in the ten years, 1898-1908, in which Jewish immigration reached its maximum point (932,631), Russia contributed 71*47 per cent, Austria-Hungary 17*07 per cent, and Rumania 5*55 per cent, whilst 5*91 per cent came from other countries. The rise and fall of the immigration from Russia clearly reflects the conditions of the time, the years of the pogroms showing a higher figure than either the year before or after. Thus in 1880-81 there were 8193 immigrants from that country; in 1881-82, the year of riots and the notorious May Laws, the number rose to 17,497, but in the following twelve months it fell to 6907. Similarly, in 1890-91 the number was 42,145, rising to 76,417 in the following pogrom-stricken year, and falling to 35,626 in the year 1892-93. Again, in 1904- 05 the number of immigrants from Russia was 92,388, rising in the next two years to the highest figures on record, 125,234 in 1905-06 and 114,932 in 1906-07, and dropping again in 1907-08 to 71,978. The total number of Jews who entered the United States in the two years 1905- 07 was 302,930, which exceeds the accepted estimate of the number who were expelled from Spain over four centuries ago, namely, 300,000. The percentage of Jewish immigrants contributed by Russia to this country since 1898 has fluctuated between 6o*8 and 81*4, the maximum being reached in the memorable year 1905-06. Austria-Hungary has contributed 193,587 Jews from 2l6 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES 1898 to 1911, probably nine-tenths coming from Galicia alone. The emigration from Rumania first assumed serious dimensions in 1899, upon a tightening of the screw of anti-Jewish legislation. According to the report of the Rumanian Minister of the Interior (Moniteur Officiel, 13th August 1906), the number of Jews who emi¬ grated from the country in 1899-1905 was 55,000, of which about 40,000 went to the United States ; and as according to the American Immigration authorities 57,015 Jews from Rumania settled in the United States between 1898 and 1911, we may fairly assume that about 80,000 Jews in all left Rumania in that period for various parts. The percentage which the Jews have formed of the total body of immigration into 97 1 0-5I Servia 1914* 16,000 5 4,624,000 0‘34 Belgium . 1911* 15,000 7,490,411 0‘20 Carry forward • « 10,050,684 • • • • 1 Estimate of Government Statistical Office [Zeitschrift fur Demo¬ graphic u, Statistik d. Juden, 1911, p. 119). 2 Report of Warsaw Statistical Committee [Zeitschrift f. Demog. u. Stat. d. Juden, 1911, p. 88). 3 This estimate is arrived at by adding together the figures of the Jewish population in all the towns of the United Kingdom, as given in the Jewish Year-Book for 1914, multiplying the number of families (where the population is so stated) by 5, and assuming a minimum population of 30 for towns with a synagogue for which no figure is given. The Jewish population of London is estimated at 160,000 (the estimate of Joseph Jacobs for 1902 was 150,000, Jewish Encyclopcedia, vol. viii. p. 174). 4 According to the last census in 1899 the Jews in Rumania numbered 266,652, but 55,000 emigrated in the period 1899-1905. It is probable that the population has since been brought up to 250,000 by natural increase. 6 Estimated after the territorial changes caused by the Balkan Wars. 6 Prof. Loevinson’s estimate is 45,000. Ost und West, September 1912. APPENDIX I 347 EUROPE —continued Country. Year of Census (or Esti¬ mate *). Jewish Population. Total Population. Jewish Percent¬ age of Total Popula¬ tion. Brought forward • • 10,050,684 • • • • Norway 1910 1,045 2,391,782 0-04 Sweden 1910 3-912 5,604,192 o-o6 Denmark . 1911 5,164 2 , 775,076 0-18 Luxemburg 1910 1,270 259,891 0-41 Spain 1910* 4,000 19,943,817 002 Portugal . 1911* 1,000 5 , 957 , 98 5 O’OI Gibraltar . 1913* 1,300 25,367 5-12 Malta 1913* 60 228,534 0'02 Total • • 10,068,435 • • * * ASIA Russia in Asia : Caucasus 1905 65,88s 1 12,037,200 o ’54 Siberia . 1905 4°,443 1 8,719,200 0-46 Central Asia . 1905 14,305 1 10,107,300 014 Bokhara . 1905* 120,636 20,000 2 30,863,700 1,500,000 0-39 i '33 Turkey in Asia: Asia Minor 1914* 60,000 10,940,765 °‘54 Syria and Mesopo¬ tamia . 1914* 100,000 3,000,000 3*33 Palestine 1914* 100,000 700,000 14-28 Arabia . 1914* 30,000 1,050,000 2-85 Persia 1914* 40,000 9,500,000 0-42 Afghanistan 1913* 19,000 5,900,000 0-32 Aden 1913* 3,747 46,165 8-n India 1911 20,980 3 i 5 T 32,537 O'OI Dutch East Indies 1905 8,605 38,000,000 0-02 China and Japan 1913* 2,000 364,601,269 • • Straits Settlements 1913* 535 700,000 0-07 Cyprus 1913* 155 275,000 005 Total • • 525,658 • • • • 1 Estimate of Russian Government Statistical Office ( Zeit. f. Demog. u. Stat. d. Juden, 1911, p. 119). 2 Elkan N. Adler, Jews in Many Lands, p. 221. 348 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES AFRICA Country. Year of Census (or Esti¬ mate *). Jewish Population. Total Population. Jewish Percent¬ age of Total Popula¬ tion. Morocco . 1912* 109,712 7,000,000 1-56 Algeria 1911 70,271 1 5,600,000 1 25 Tunis 1911 65,213 2 1,800,000 3-62 Tripoli 1913* 19,000 3 523,176 3‘63 Egypt 1913* 50,000 11,300,000 °'44 Abyssinia . 1911* 50,000 4 * 7,000,000 0-71 East Africa 1914* 50 • • • . South Africa 1914* 50,000 6,000,000 0-83 Total • • 4^,246 • • • • AMERICA United States 1913* 2,300,000 6 91,972,266 2-50 Canada 1911 75 , 68 i 7,204,838 1 05 Argentine . 1914* 100,000 6 8,000,000 125 Mexico 1911 8,972 15,063,207 o‘o6 Cuba 1910* 4,000 2,220,278 o‘i8 Brazil 1900 3,000 17,318,556 0’02 Dutch Guiana : Surinam 1910 933 86,233 i*o8 Cura5ao. 1910 670 54,469 1-23 Jamaica . 1911 984 831,383 012 Panama 1913 505 426,928 0 ‘II Peru 1896 499 4,609,999 O’OI Venezuela . 1894 4 11 2,743,841 OOI Uruguay . 1910 150 1,177,560 OOI Total • • 2,495,805 • • • • 1 Annuaire Statistique de la France, 1911. 2 Gothaischer Hof-Kalender, 1911. 3 Ost und West, June 1912 (Article by Prof. Loevinson). 4 Dr. J. Faitlovitch, Quer durch Abessinien, p. 173. 6 The Jewish population of the United States was estimated by the American Jewish Year-Book in 1910 at 2,043,762 (an increase of 266,577 upon the number in 1907). In the three years 1910-13 there was a net addition of 252,632 Jews by immigration, and as any diminution of this number by death must be considerably less than the natural increase of the previous population, it is safe to assume a present population of about 2,300,000. 6 Jewish Chronicle, 29th May 1914 (40,000 Jews are in country districts, 40,000 in the capital, and over 20,000 in other cities). APPENDIX I 349 AUSTRALASIA Country. Year of Census. Jewish Population. Total Population. Jewish Percent¬ age of Total Popula¬ tion. Australia . • 1911 17,287 5,000,000 o -34 New Zealand • 1911 2,128 1,100,000 020 Total • • • i 9 , 4 i 5 • • • • Summary Jews in Europe ,, Asia . ,, Africa ,, America ,, Australasia 10,068,435 525,658 414,246 2,495,805 I 9 , 4 I 5 Grand total 13 , 523 , 559 1 1 The discrepancy between this grand total and that given in the diagram at the end of the book is due to the latter having been prepared before the publication of the latest estimate of the Jews in the Argentine. SOME PREVIOUS ESTIMATES OF THE WORLD’S JEWISH POPULATION Authority. Time. Estimated Number. Balbi . . 1829 . 4,000,000 Jost . . 1846 . 3,143,000 Legoyt . 1868 . 4,550,000 I. Loeb • 1879 6,276,957 Andree . 1881 . 6,193,662 Ency. Brit. . 1881 . 6,200,000 A. Nossig . 1887 . 6,582,500 J. J acobs . 1896 . 9,066,534 I. Harris 1902 10,319,402 A. Ruppin . . 1904 . 10,456,000 Jew Encyc. . . 1905 11,273,076 A. Ruppin . . 1911 . 11,558,610 I. Harris • 1913 . 12,134,179 APPENDIX II IMMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA (A) JEWISH IMMIGRANTS AND TOTAL NUMBER OF IMMI¬ GRANTS ADMITTED TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1880-1913 Fiscal Year, July 1- June 30. Total Immigrants. Jewish Immigrants. Percent¬ age of Total. 1880-81 669,431 8,193 I '2 1881-82 788,992 31,807 4‘2 1882-83 603,322 6,907 12 1883-84 518,592 27,410 5’3 1884-85 395 . 34 6 36,214 9-0 1885-86 334.203 46,967 i4’o 1886-87 490,109 56,412 11 5 1887-88 546,889 62,619 11 ‘5 1888-89 444.427 55,851 '126 1889-90 455.302 67,450 14-8 1890-91 560,319 111,284 20'0 1891-92 579,663 136,742 23-6 1892-93 439,730 68,569 155 1893-94 285,631 58,833 20'4 1894-95 258,536 65,309 26-1 1895-96 343,267 73,255 21'4 1896-97 230,832 43,434 i8-o 1 897-98 229,299 54,630 24'0 1898-99 3 IU 7 I 5 37 , 4 I 5 I2'0 1899-00 448,572 60,764 13*5 1900-01 487,918 58,098 12-5 1901-02 648,743 57,688 8-7 1902-03 857,046 76,203 8-8 1903-04 812,870 106,236 13*0 1904-05 1,026,499 129,910 I2’6 1905-06 1,100,735 153,748 .140 1906-07 1,285,349 149,182 11*6 1907-08 ; [782,870 103,387 16*6 1908-09 75 L7S6 57 , 55 i r 7 1909-10 1,041,570 84,260 8 '0 1910-11 878,587 91,223 10*3 1911-12 838,172 80,595 9*6 1912-13 1,197,892 101,330 84 Total 20,644,214 2 , 359,476 n*4 350 APPENDIX II 35i (B) NET INCREASE THROUGH IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES, 1908-13 Fiscal Year, July 1- June 30. Number Admitted. Number Departed. Net Increase. Jews. Total. Jews. Total. Jews. Total. 1907- 08 1908- 09 1909- 10 1910- 11 1911- 12 1912- 13 103,387 57 , 55 i 84,260 91,223 80,595 101,330 782,870 751,786 1,041,570 878,587 838,172 1,197,892 7,702 6,105 5,689 6,401 7,418 6,697 395,073 225,802 202,436 295,266 333,262 308,190 95,685 5 U 446 78,571 84,822 73 U 77 94>633 387,797 525,984 839 T 34 582,921 504,910 889,702 Total 518,346 5,490,877 40,012 1,760,429 478,334 3,730,448 (C) IMMIGRATION TO CANADA Year. 1 Jewish Immigrants. Total Continental Immigrants, etc. 2 All Immigrants. 1901 2,765 19,352 49,149 1902 1,015 23,732 67,379 1903 2,066 37,099 128,364 1904 3,727 34,786 i 3 o, 33 x 1905 7 , 7 i 5 37,364 146,266 1906 7 , 12 7 44,472 189,064 1907 3 6,584 34,217 124,667 1908 7,712 83,975 262,469 1909 1,636 34> I 75 146,908 1910 3,182 45,206 208,794 1911 5 A 46 66,620 311,084 1912 5,322 82,406 354,237 1913 7,387 112,881 402,432 Total 61,384 656,285 2,521,144 1 Fiscal year ended 30th June for 1900-06, thereafter 31st March. 2 Excluding immigration from the United States and United Kingdom. 3 Nine months ended 31st March. APPENDIX III BIBLIOGRAPHY T HE following are the principal sources that have been consulted in the preparation of this volume :— I. GENERAL Publications of the “Bureau fur Statistik der Juden,” Berlin :— Der Anteil der Juden am Unterrichtswesen in Preussen, 1905. Die sozialen Verhaltnisse der Juden in Russland, 1906. Die jiidischen Gemeinden und Vereine in Deutschland, 1906. Die Juden in Oesterreich, 1908. Die Juden in Rumanien, 1908. Das jiidische Genossenschaftswesen in Russland, 1911. Die herujlichen und sozialen Verhaltnisse der Juden in Deutschland, 1912. Zeitschrift fur Demographie und Statistik der Juden, from 1905 Jiidische Statistik, edited by Dr. Alfred Nossig. Berlin, 1903. Jacobs, J., Studies in Jewish Statistics. London, 1891. Annual Reports of the following Organizations : Jewish Colonization Association, Zionist Organization, Anglo-Jewish Association, “ Alliance Israelite Universelle,” “ Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden,” “ Israelitische Allianz zu Wien,” American Jewish Committee, Board of Deputies of British Jews. Jewish Year-Book, edited by the Rev. I. Harris, M.A., London. American Jewish Year-Book, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia. Jewish Encyclopedia, 12 vols. New York, 1901--06. II. SOCIAL ASPECT Adler, Elkan N., Jews in Many Lands. London, 1905. Billings, J. S., Vital Statistics of the Jews in the United States. Washington, 1890. 352 BIBLIOGRAPHY 353 Fishberg, Dr. Maurice, The Jews : A Study of Race and Environ¬ ment. London, 1911. Hapgood, Hutchins, The Spirit of the Ghetto. New York, 1902. James, Dr. Edmund J. (edited by), The Immigrant Jew in America. New York, 1907. Mandelstamm, Dr. Max, Report of Physical Condition of the Jews. London,1900. Reports of the Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor, London, and of the United Hebrew Charities, New York. Ripley, W. Z., The Races of Europe. New York, 1899. Ruppin, Dr. Arthur, Die Juden der Gegenwart. Leipzig, 1911. (English translation by Margery Bentwich, The Jews of To- Day. London, 1913.) Russell, Charles, and H. S. Lewis, The Jew in London. London, 1901. Theilhaber, Dr. Felix A., Der TJntergang der deutschen Juden. Munich, 1911. Zollschan, Dr. Ignaz, Das Rassenproblem. Vienna, 1912. III. POLITICAL ASPECT Abbott, G. F., Israel in Europe. London, 1907. Anin, Maxim, Der jiidische Sozialismus und seine Stromungen, in “ Judischer Almanach, 5670.” Vienna, 1910. Davitt, Michael, Within the Pale. London, 1903. Die Judenpogrome in Russland , 2 vols. Leipzig, 1910. Feldmann, J., The Jews in Yemen. London, 1912. Graetz, Heinrich, Geschichte der Juden , 11 vols. Leipzig, 1882. (Eng. translation, History of the Jews , 5 vols. London, 1892.) Hyamson, A. M., History of the Jews in England. London, 1908. Jahresbericht des Zentral-Komitees des Verbandes der einheimischen Juden (von Rumanien). Berlin, 1912. Loewenthal, Dr. Max J., Das jiidische Bekenntnis als Hinderungs- grund bei der Beforderung zum preussischen Reserveoffizier. Berlin, 1911. Nathan, Dr. Paul, Die Juden als Soldaten. Berlin, 1896. Piiilippson, Prof. Martin, Neueste Geschichte des j-iidischen Volkes , 3 vols. Leipzig, 1907. Schwarzfeld, Elias (“ Edmond Sincerus ”), Les Juifs en Rou- manie depuis le Traite de Berlin. London, 1911. SfcMfcNOFF, E., The Russian Government and the Massacres. London, 1907. Singer, Isidore, Russia at the Bar of the American People. New York, 1904. Steed, H. Wickham, The Hapsburg Monarchy. London, 1913. Wiernik, Peter, History of the Jews in America. New York, 1912. 23 354 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Wolf, Lucien, The Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia. London, 191*2. Wolf, Simon, The American Jew as Patriot , Soldier , and Philanthro¬ pist. Philadelphia, 1895. IV. ECONOMIC ASPECT Annual Reports of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society. New York, from 1909, in progress. Evans-Gordon, W., The Alien Immigrant. London, 1903. Hall, Prescott F., Immigration and its Effects upon the United States. New York, 1907. Hoffmann, Dr. M., Judentum und Kapitalismus. Berlin, 1912. Hourwich, Isaac A., Immigration and Labour. New York, 1913. Jenks, J. W., and W. J. Lauck, The Immigration Problem. 3rd edit. New York, 1914. Jewish Immigration Bulletin , New York. From 1912, in progress. Kaplun-Kogan, W. W., Die Wanderbewegungen der Juden. Bonn, I9I3- Landa, M. J., The Alien Problem and Us Remedy. London, 1911. Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. London, 1903. Press, Jesaias, Die jiidischen Kolonien Palastinas. Leipzig, 1912. Robinson, Leonard G., The Agricultural Activities of the Jews in America. American Jewish Year-Book, 5673. Philadelphia, I9i3- Rubinow, J. M., Economic Condition of the Jews in Russia. Bulle¬ tin of the Bureau of Labor, Washington, 1907. Sombart, Prof. Werner, Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben. Leipzig, 1911. (Eng. translation by Dr. M. Epstein, The Jews and Modern Capitalism. London, 1913.) V. INTELLECTUAL ASPECT Bialik, Ch. N., Gedichte. Aus dem Hebraischen ubertragen von Ernst Muller. Cologne, i 91 i. Education in Russia. Board of Education, Special Reports, vol. 23. London,1909. Ginzberg, Asher, Selected Essays by A chad Ha’am. Translated by Leon Simon. Philadelphia, 1912. Heppner, Ernst, Juden als Erfinder und Entdecker. Berlin, 1913. Kisselhoff, S., Das judische Volkslied. Berlin, 1913. Levy, Rev. S., Original Virtue , and other Short Studies. London, 1907. Loewe, Dr. Heinrich, Die Sprachen der Juden. Cologne, 1911. Martens, Kurt, Literatur in Deutschland. Berlin, 1910. BIBLIOGRAPHY 355 Pines, Dr. M., Histoire de la Litterature Judeo-Allemande. Paris, 1911. Raisin, Jacob S., The Haskalah Movement in Russia. Philadelphia, 1913- Rhine, Abraham B., Leon Gordon. Philadelphia, 1910. Slousch, Nahum, La Renaissance de la Litterature Hebraique. Paris, 1903. - La Potsie Lyrique Hebraique Contemporaine. Paris, 1911. Wiener, Leo, The History of Yiddish Literature. London, 1899. VI. RELIGIOUS ASPECT Abrahams, Israel, Judaism. London, 1907. Friedlander, Dr. Michael, The Jewish Religion. London, 1891. Gidney, Rev. W. T., Missions to Jews. London, 1912. Joseph, Rev. Morris, Judaism as Creed and Life. London, 1903. Montefiore, Claude G., Liberal Judaism. London, 1903. Philipson, Dr. David, The Reform Movement in Judaism. London, 1907. Roi, Lie. Joh. de le, Judentaufen im ig Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1899. Samter, Dr. N., Judentaufen im ig Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1906. Schechter, Dr. Solomon, Studies in Judaism. London, 1st Series, 1896 ; 2nd Series, 1908. VII. NATIONAL ASPECT Auerbach, Dr. Elias, Palaesiina als Judenland. Berlin, 1912. Cohen, Israel, Zionist Work in Palestine. London, 1911. - The Zionist Movement. London, 1912. Friedemann, Adolf, Das Leben Theodor Herzls. Berlin, 1914. Gottheil, Prof. Richard, Zionism. Philadelphia, 1914. Herzl, Dr. Theodor, Zionistische Schriften. Berlin. Johnston, Sir Harry H., Common Sense in Foreign Policy. London, 1913. Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole, Israel chez les Nations. Paris, 1893. (Eng. translation by F. Hellman, Israel among the Nations. London, 1894.) Levy, Rev. S., Zionism and Liberal Judaism. London, 1911. Nawratzki, Dr. Curt, Die jiidische Kolonisation Palastinas. Munich, 1914. Nordau, Dr. Max, Zionistische Schriften. Cologne, 1909. Oppenheimer, Dr. Franz, Merchavia : A Co-operative Colony in Palestine. New York, 1914. Reports of the Actions-Comite der Zionistischen Organisation. Cologne, 1911, and Berlin, 1913. Ruppin, Dr. Arthur, Zionistische Kolonisationspolitik. Berlin, 1914. 356 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Sombart, Prof. Werner, Die Zukunft dev Juden. Leipzig, 1912. Trietsch, Davis, Palaestina Iiandbuch. 3rd edit. Berlin, 1912. Tschlenoff, Dr. E. W., Funf Jahre dev Arbeit in 'Palaestina. Berlin, 1913. Some of the chapters of this book appeared in their first form in the following periodicals: Sociological Review , Economic Journal , Jewish Review , Knowledge , Churchman , New Statesman , American Hebrew , Jewish Comment , Reform Advocate, and Inquirer. INDEX OF SUBJECTS Abyssinia, Jews of, n, 115 Achuzah Companies, 336 Actors, 259 Adaptability of Jewish immigrants, 39 Adultery, Rabbinical view of, 120. Africa, Jewish population of, 5, 11. See also South Africa Agricultural Experiment Station, 337 Agriculture, 85; in Russia, 154, 196-7; in Austria, 197; in Germany, 198; in America, 198-9; in Palestine, 200-1, 328, 333. 335-7 J as represented among Russian emigrants, 322 Airship, invention of, 263 Albanians, compared with Jews, 320 Algeria, Jewish population of, 11 ; emancipation, 144 Alien immigration, 167; Royal Commission, 121, 122, 124; restrictions, 221, 309 Aliens Act, adoption of, 168 “Alliance Israelite Universelle,” educational work of, 16, 25, 85, 200, 202, 235, 339 ; agricultural school of, 328 Almshouses, 84 Alsace, Jews of, 136; consistories, 272 America, Jewish population of, 5, 12; immigration to, 12. See also United States American Jewish Committee, 167 American Zionists, Palestinian colony founded by, 336 Amorites, an element in the forma¬ tion of the Jewish type, 114 Amsterdam, Jewish population of, 10; criminality, 98; mixed marriages, 305 Anglicization, policy of, 39 Anglo-Jewish Association, 16, 25, 236 , 339 Anglo-Levantine Banking Com¬ pany, 333 Anglo-Palestine Company, 332, 334-5 Angola, projected Jewish settle¬ ment in, 325 Anthropological characteristics of Jews, hi, seq. Anti-Semitism, 97, 175; in uni¬ versities, 105; in Russia, 154, 157; in Rumania, 162; in Ger¬ many, 174, 202, 256, 258, 260, 298; relations with assimilation, 315-6 Apprenticing of boys, 81, 91 Arabia, Jewish population of, 10 ; ritual, 276 Arabs, in Palestinian colonies, 336 ; relations to Jewish colonists, 341-2 Aragonian ritual, 276 Archaeology, contributions to, 262 5 discoveries, 265 Argentine, Jewish population of, 13; agricultural colonies, 85, 198-9 ; immigration to, 220 Army, Jews in the. See Military Service Arson, 95, 97 Art, Jewish, 252 Art-dealing, 185 Artists, 251, 260 Aryans, relation to Jewish origins, 114 Ashkenazim, 19, 275, 276 Asia, Jewish population of, 5, 10 Assimilation, doctrine of, 20 ; process of, 21 ; in the home, 59 ; favoured by declining increase, 132; progress of, 3 I 3~4 5 re¬ lation to Zionism, 330-2 Asthma, 124 Athletics, 107 Atonement, Day of, 76, 283, 286 Australasia, Jewish population of, 14; Jews as statesmen and 357 358 JEWISH LIFE IN judges, 173-4; immigration to, 220-1 ; mixed marriages in, 306 Austria, Jewish population of, 8 ; criminality, 92, 98 ; suicides, 129 ; birth-rate, 130; natural in¬ crease, 131-2 ; civil emancipa¬ tion, 140-2; representative political association, 167 ; politi¬ cal activity, 169 ; Jewish Minister of Commerce, 173; military officers, 176; commercial acti¬ vity, 186-7; industries, 190; economic conditions, 207 ; emi¬ gration, 215; religious organiza¬ tion, 272 ; conversions, 299 ; mixed marriages, 304 Auto-Emancipation, 328 Automobiles, invention of, 263 Autonomy in Palestine, 340 Baal Shem Tob, 45, 278 Babylonia, racial characteristics derived from, 114, 116; Tal- mudical academies, 277, 278, 280 Baden, suicide in, 129 ; emancipa¬ tion, 141 ; congregational ad¬ ministration, 272 Badge, mediaeval, 141 Balkan War, relief of Jewish victims, 28, 87 ; effect upon Jews in Dobrudja, 164; Jewish par¬ ticipation in, 176 ; economic effect upon Jews, 208, 212-3; effect upon Turkey, 340 Bankers, Jews as, 188-90 Bankruptcy, fraudulent, 96 Banks, Zionist, 332-5 Baptisms. See Conversions Bar-Mit vah, 47, 100 Baronetcy, Jewish members of, 175 Basle, Zionist Congress at, 330 ; Basle Programme, 330 Baths, 119 Bavaria, mortality in, 121 ; suicide in, 129; birth-rate, 129; mixed marriages, 305 Bazaar, 103 Beilis trial, 158 Belgium, Jewish population of, 10 ; consistories, 138, 272; emanci¬ pation, 144 ; immigration, 220 Ben Shamen, 337 Benefit Societies, 104 Berlin, Jewish population of, 9 ; charity expenditure, 83; Jewish proportion of income-tax, 206; Rabbinical seminaries, 274 ; con¬ versions, 301 ; mixed marriages, 305 MODERN TIMES Berliner Tageblatt, 257 “ Berliners," 248 Berlitz method and Hebrew, 233 Beth Din, 90, 273, 274 Beth Hamidrash, 124, 270, 317 Betrothal, ceremony of, 42 Betting, 91 Bezalel School, 333, 337 Bill exchange, institution of, 184 “ Birds of passage,” 218 Birth, customs at, 45 ; birth-rate, 129, 130 ; births of mixed mar¬ riages, 306-7 Black Death, 123 Black Jews, 115 Blond type, 112 Blood, draining of, 51, 53; as hygienic factor, 119 Blood accusation. See “ Ritual murder ” Bnei Brith, Independent Order, 79, 104 Board of Deputies, 90, 167 Board of Guardians, 79, 80, 83, 125 Bohemia, Jewish advocacy v. German element in, 258 Bookplates, 252 Books, distinctive Jewish, 50 Botanists, eminent, 262 Brachycephaly, 113, 114 Brazil, agricultural colonization in, 199 Breslau, Jewish income in, 206 ; Rabbinical seminary, 274 British Colonies, immigration to, 11, 14, 214, 220-1 ; Jewish statesmen and judges in, 173-4 ; promotion of trade by Jews, 184 British Isles, Jewish population of, 9 Bronchitis, 124 Brunette type, 112 Brussels, Jewish population of, 10 ; conference at, 27 Budapest, Jewish population of, 9 ; Jewish Burgomaster of, 175 ; typhoid fever, 124; communal taxes, 213 ; Rabbinical seminary, 274; conversions, 300; mixed marriages, 305. Bulgaria, Jewish population of, 10 ; death-rate, 121 ; birth-rate, 130 ; marriage-rate, 131 ; emancipa¬ tion, 144, 159 ; schools, 236 Bund, 178 Burial society, 271 Business capacity of Jews, 185. See also Commerce Cabinets, Jews in, 172-4 359 INDEX OF Caf6s, frequenting of, 109 Canada, Jewish population of, 13 ; emancipation, 144; agricul¬ tural colonization, 199; immi¬ gration, 220-1 Cancer, 124 Cantor, 269, 270, 285 Card-playing, 91, 101 Carlsbad, no, 126 Castilian ritual, 276 Catalonian ritual, 276 Celibacy, Rabbinical view of, 40 ; increase of, 130, 131 Cemetery, 270, 271 Cephalic index, 113 Ceremonies, at marriage, 43; at birth, 45 ; on the Sabbath, 62, 65 ; on Passover, 67 Chalukah, 212 Chanucah, 49, 69, 289 Charity, as basic principle of Jewish life, 75 ; in mediaeval times, 77 ; modern principles and methods, 78 ; prevalence in Russia, 209 Charter, for Palestine, 332, 340 Chassidim, dress of, 34; founder of, 45, 244; sect of, 231, 278, 284 Chastity, 70, 89 Chazan, 269, 283 Chazars, 7, 115 Cheder, 225-6, 231, 233, 270, 284 Chess, 63, 101, 185 ; champions, 262 Chest measurement, 118 Chevra Kadisha, 104, 271 Chevroih, 271 Chicago, Jewish population of, 13; child mortality, 122; Sinai con¬ gregation, 288 Child labour, 193 Children, love of, 45 ; death-rate of, 122 ; maternal care of, 122 ; diseases of, 126 China, J ews of, 11, 115 Choir, mixed, 278, 285, 287 Cholera, 123 Chovevei Zion, 200, 328 Christian Germanism, 141 Christianity, conversions to, 291- 302 Christmas, Jewish observance of, 289 Church, attitude towards Jews, 133, 291 Cincinnatti, Rabbinical seminary at, 274 Circumcision, 46, 126 Civil rights, acquisition of, 135-44 i defence of, 167, 172 Civil sendee, Jews in, 174 SUBJECTS Clannishness, 255 Cleanliness, personal, 59, 119 ; of the home, 61, 119, 125 Clothing industry, 191 ; in Russia, 193 ; in England and America, 194, 218 Clubs, 82, 91, 102 Cochin, J ews of, 11 Code, religious. See Shulchan Aruch Colonial governor, Jew as, 174 Colonial Trust, Jewish, 332 Colonies, agricultural, 85 ; in Russia, 154, 196-7; in America, 1:98-9 ; in Palestine, 200-1, 336 Colour photography, discoverer of, 263 Commerce, Jews engaged in, 182-7 Jewish influence upon world's trade, 184 Commercial occupations, offences in, 96 Communistic groups in Russia, 179 Community, institutions of, 24 ; character and variety of com¬ munities, 32 ; origin of Eastern communities, 33 ; of Western communities, 36, 134; conserv¬ ing force of communal organiza¬ tion, 317 Complexion, characteristics of, 122, seq. Composers, musical, 260 Concerts, 102 Conferences, international J ewish, 27 Confessionslos, 300 Confirmation, 47 Congregation, development of, 269- 7i Congress of Vienna, 141 ; Zionist Congresses, 330 Consistories, 138, 272 Constantinople, effect of Balkan War upon community, 213 Consumption, 125 Contagious diseases, 123 Conversions to Christianity, 210, 291-302 Cookery, peculiarities of, 53 Co-operative basis of Palestinian colonies, 333 Co-operative loan societies, 334 Copenhagen, mixed marriages in, 305, 307 Cosmopolitan organization depre¬ cated, 27 Court of judgment, 273 Cracow, child mortality in, 122 36o JEWISH LIFE IN Cradle-songs, 71 Creeds, 281 Crimean War, Jews in, 155 Criminality, Jewish, exaggerated, 89 ; juvenile, 91 ; compared with general criminality, 93, seq. ; de¬ termined by economic conditions, 96 Croup, 126 Crusades, as instrument of con¬ version, 291 Culture, characteristics of Jewish, 72 ; scope of, 239, seq. ; culture of a Jewish national settlement, 323 Customs, at marriage, 43 ; at birth, 45; in the homes, 48, seq. ; at death, 73. See also Ceremonies Cyrenaica, Jewish population of, 11 ; settlement projected in, 325 Dagania, colony at, 336 Dancing, in Eastern circles, 71 ; at weddings, 100 Daniel Deronda, 328 Death, rites observed at, 73; death-rate, 121-3 Denmark, emancipation in, 144 ; Jewish Minister of Finance, 173 ; mixed marriages in, 305 Department stores, 185 Destiny of Israel, 278 Diabetes, 125 Diarrhoea, 126 Dietary regulations, 51 ; peculi¬ arities, 53 ; disregard of, 55, 286, 287 ; influence upon health, 119 Dinners, public, 103 Diphtheria, 126 Diplomatic service, Jews in, 174 Disabilities, in mediaeval times, 135, seq. ; in Persia, 145 ; in Yemen, 145 ; in Russia, 146-58 ; in Rumania, 159-65 Disease, immunity from, 118, 123, seq. Dispersion, scope of, 2 ; causes of, 2-3 ; general survey of, 5, seq. Disputations, mediaeval, 291 Dissolution, forces of, 309 Divorce, ground for, 45 ; bills of, 273 Dobrudja, Jews in the, 161, 164-5 Dock labourers, 193 Dolichocephalic type, 113 Donmeh, 171, 277 “ Dorcas” guilds, 103 Dowry, importance of, 41 ; for poor girls, 76, 80 MODERN TIMES Drama, Yiddish, 109, 251; in Hebrew, 251, 340 Dramatists, 259 Dress, distinctions of, 34, 55 Dreyfus affair, 316 Drinking, recommended on Purim, 70 ; customary toast, 72 ; sobriety, 89, 90, 120, 124 Duelling, 97, 106 Duma, 169, 171 Dyspepsia, no, 125 Eastern Jewry, compared with Western, 4, 16, 129 ; character¬ istics of, 18, 34 ; differences between Jews of Eastern Europe and of the Orient, 35 ; economic conditions of, 207-13 ; assimila¬ tion of, 314 Eczema, 126 Education, in Eastern Jewry, 85, 235 ; early age for beginning, 128 ; in mediaeval times, 225-7 '■> in modern times, 227-38 ; re¬ ligious, 270, 289 ; effect of modern education, 312 ; necessity of national education system, 323 Egypt, exodus from, 67 ; immigra¬ tion to, 220 Electric automobile, invention of, 263 Electro-thermometer, invention of, 263 Ellis Island, 221 Emancipation, in France, 136-8; in Italy, 138 ; in Holland, 139 ; in Germany, 139-41 ; in Austria, 140-2 ; disintegrating effects of, 311-4 Emigration, causes of, 35, 134, 213 ; character of, 216-7 ; effect on family life, 89 ; effect on philan¬ thropic organizations, 318; re¬ lief work, 86, 222 ; from Galicia, 215-6; from Germany, 12, 34, 97 ; from Rumania, 164, 215, 216 ; from Russia, 13, 35, 86, 154, 158, 215, 322 Emigration Bank, 222 England, Jewish population of, 9 ; criminality, 93; friendly socie¬ ties, 104 ; students’ societies, 106 ; Naturalization Act, 135 ; civil emancipation, 142-3 ; politi- tical activity, 167-8; Jewish statesmen, 173 ; military service, 177 ; commercial activity, 187 ; immigration, 220-2 ; ecclesiasti- 361 INDEX OF cal organization, 271 ; secessions to Christianity, 293, 299 Environment, influence upon home life, 59, 70 ; influence upon racial traits, 113, 116; upon physique, 118, upon mortality, 123 ; upon health, 126 Erez Israel Settlement Association, 333 Esperanto, 266 Esther, Book of, 283 Ethical culture, propagation of, 266 ; adoption of, 288 Europe, Jewish population of, 5 Exhibitions, organizing of, 266 Exploration, 254, 265 Expulsion, from Spain, 34, 184, 214, 215 ; from the Hanse towns, 141 ; from Kieff, Siberia, etc., 151 Eye, characteristic colour of, 112 ; diseases of, 126 Factories, in Austria, 190 ; in Rumania, 190 ; in Russia, 191-3 Falashas, 115 Family, importance of, in Jewish life, 40 ; customs, 41, seq. ; Sabbath reunion, 63 ; Passover reunion, 68 ; moral purity of, 88, 120; festivities, 100 ; dim¬ inution of children, 130, 206 Farming. See Agriculture Fasts, 70 ; Fast of Ab, 283 Federation of Synagogues, 271 Female labour, in Russia, 193 ; in Germany, 194 Fencing, 331 Festivals, peculiarities of cuisine on, 54; domestic celebration of, 66 Fever. See Scarlet fever and Typhoid fever Financial activity, 188-90, 204 “ Fire-woman,” 65 Fish, popularity of, 53 Folk-songs, 71, 100, 244 Folk-tales, 244 France, Jewish population of, 10 ; civil emancipation, 136 ; es¬ tablishment of consistories, 138 ; Jewish statesmen, 173 ; military officers, 176 ; immigration, 220 ; ecclesiastical organization, 272 ; moribund condition of French Jewry, 316; French Constitu¬ tion, 319 Franco-Prussian War, 176, 188 Frankfort, National Parliament at, 14 ; income of Jews in, 207 ; mixed marriages, 305 SUBJECTS Frankfurter Zeitung, 257 Frankists, 278 Fraternal orders, 104 Freethinkers, 300 French Academy, Jewish member of, 261. French Revolution, as liberator of Jewry, 133 Friendly societies, 104 Gaberdines, worn in Poland, 34, 55 Galicia, Jewish population of, 8-9 ; distinctions of dress, 55 ; rate of suicide, 129 ; birth-rate, 130 ; natural increase, 132 ; political conditions, 170 ; commercial activity, 187 ; industries, 190 ; economic conditions, 208, 211 ; emigration, 215-16 ; education, 231 ; conversions, 299 ; mixed marriages, 305 Galveston, immigration via, 20, 222 Gemara, 280 Genius, of the Jews, 255 ; be¬ friending of, 260 Geographical discoveries, 265 Germany, Jewish population of, 9 ; orphanages, 83 ; criminality, 92, 96, 97 ; students' societies, 105 ; athletic societies, 107 ; death-rate, 121, 122 ; rate of suicide, 129 ; birth-rate, 129- 30 ; marriage-rate, 131 ; natural increase, 131 -Civil emancipation, 139-41; restriction of Russo-Jewish students at Universities, 153, 234 ; political organizations, 167 ; political activity, 169, 174 -Commercial activity, 186; financial pursuits, 189-90 ; in¬ dustries, 190 ; female labour, 194; liberal professions and civil service, 202 ; economic pros¬ perity, 206 ; immigration, 220 -Jewish literary activity, 252-3 ; contributions to German liter¬ ature, 256 ; religious organiza¬ tion, 272 ; conversions, 301 ; mixed marriages, 305 Ghetto, in mediaeval times, 31 ; in Oriental countries, 34 ; in Western countries, 37, seq. ; law- abiding character, 90 ; pastimes, 101 ; theatres, 108 ; as con¬ servator of Jewish type, 116 ; influence upon occupations, 183 ; in Italy, 138 ; in Austria, 141 ; 362 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES in Morocco, 145; as conservation of Jewish life, 310-1 Girls, confirmation of, 47 Glauber salts, discoverer of, 263 Government service, Jews in, 202-3 Grace before meat, 60; after meat, 63 Graetzin light, inventor of, 263 Gramophone, invention of, 263 Greece, Jewish population of, 10 Greeting, modes of, 72 Gymnasium (High School), at Jaffa, 338, 341 Gymnastics, 107 Hadamard’s theorem, 262 Hague Conferences, 266 Haifa, 332, 337 ; Technical Insti¬ tute at, 339 Hair, dressing of, 56; colour of, 112 Hashachar, 250 Haskalah, 245 Hattarat Hovaah, 274 Head, covering of, 56, 59 ; types of, 113 Health conditions, 118, seq. ; in Palestine, 338 Health resorts, 109 ; in Russia, 151 Heart disease, 124 Hebrew, education, 225-6, 237 ; literature, 247-51 ; language, 247-8 ; as national tongue, 323 ; education and culture in Pales¬ tine, 338-40 Height of Eastern Jews, 118 Hekdesh, 77 Hemorrhoids, 124 Heraldic arms of Jewish nobles, 175 Hereditv, influence upon health, 119 “ Herzliah,” 338 Hesse, infant mortality in, 122 ; birth-rate, 129 ; emancipation, 141 Higher Criticism, influence upon religious conformity, 287, 289 “ Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden,” 16, 25, 85 ; emigration relief, 86 ; educational work, 232, 236, 339 Histadvuth Ibrith, 251 Historical development, influence upon home life, 70 ; upon the nervous system, 127 Historical societies, 253 Hittites, relation to Jewish origins, 114 Holland, Jewish population of, 10 ; natural increase, 131 ; civil emancipation, 138 ; Jewish Minister of Justice, 173 ; ecclesi¬ astical organization, 272 Home life, formative forces in, 58 ; religious facts in daily life, 59- 60 Honeymoon, observance of, 44 Hospitality, 63, 76 Hospitals, 84, 104 ; missionary, 296 Humanism, advancement of, 248 Hungary, Jewish population of, 8 ; criminality,92,98; death-rate, 121, 122; birth-rate, 130; marriage- rate, 131 ; emancipation, 142 ; political conditions, 170 ; liberal professions, 203 ; conversions, 300 ; mixed marriages, 304 ; children of mixed marriages, 307 Hygienic regulations, 119 Hymns, at Sabbath meals, 63 ; at the close of Sabbath, 66, 283 Hysteria, 127 “I.C.A.,” 199, 202 Immigrants, aid of, 86 ; exclusion of, 126 ; industries introduced by, 194 ; influence upon labour conditions, 195 ; economic position, 205, 219 ; occupations of, 218 ; literacy of, 232-3 Immigration, to America, 12-13, 20, 163, 214-22 ; to the Argen¬ tine, 198 ; to Palestine, 200 ; to Australasia, 14 ; effect upon Western communities, 39 Impresarios, 260 Inbreeding, 116 India, Jewish population of, 10 ; Black Jews, 115 Industrial pursuits, 190-6 Insanity, 127 Intellectual activity of Western Jewry, 16 ; of Eastern Jewry, 35, 223, seq. Intermarriage. See Mixed mar¬ riages International Agricultural Insti¬ tute, 266 International conferences, 27 Inquisition, 138, 291, 293 “ Israelitische Allianz,” 25, 85, 86 Italy, Jewish population of, 10 ; civil emancipation, 138 ; Jewish statesmen, 172 ; army officers, 177 ; commercial activity, 186 ; financial pursuits, 190 ; liberal professions, 203 ; economic position, 207 ; emigrants from, 217 ; religious indifference, 286 ; mixed marriages, 305 ” I.T.O.,” 325 INDEX OF “ Jacobsonian organ,” 265 Jaffa, seat of Anglo-Palestine Com¬ pany, 332 Japan, Jewish population of, 10 “ Jargon,” 243, 245 Jerusalem, Jewish population of, 10 ; symbol of its destruction, 49 ; token of grief for, 53 ; schools, 236 ; destruction of, 279; lace workrooms at, 338 ; Hebrew University, 339 ; National Library, 340 Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station, 201 Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, 199 Jewish Chronicle, 164 Jewish Colonization Association, 13 ; establishment of, 25, 198 ; philanthropic activity, 85, 86, 196, 199, 201, 202, 209, 232, 233, 317 Jewish Encyclopedia, 252 Jewish Lads’ Brigade, 108 Jewish National Fund, collecting- box of, 49 ; establishment of, 333- 335 Jewish Publication Society of America, 253 Jewish State, The, 329 Jewish Territorial Organization, 20, 26, 86, 222, 324-5 Journalism, activity in, 257 Judeo-Arabic, 34, 243, 311 Judeo-German. See Yiddish Judeo-Persian, 243 Judeo-Spanish, 243, 311. See also Ladino Judges, Jews as, 174 Jurisprudence, contributions to, 262 Kaddish, 45, 74, 284 “ Kadimah ” society, 105 Karaites, 16, 115, 277 Kashrus, 274 Kattowitz, Conference at, 328 Kedem, Culture Fund, 333 Kitchen, orthodox arrangements, 51 Kittel, 287 Klesmer, 44 Kliatsche, Die, 245 Knighthood, members of, 175 Knowledge, esteem of, 229-30 Kosher, 52, 61, no, 125, 209, 211, 270, 282 Kuppah, 76 Labour conditions, in Rumania, 191 ; in Russia, 191-3 ; female SUBJECTS 363 and child labour, 193 ; in England and America, 194-5 Labour parties, in Russia, 178-9 Ladino, origin of, 34 ; use of, 237 Laissez faire, in Jewish policy, 330 Land Development Company, Palestine, 333, 335 Land legislation in Palestine, 341 Land question and nationalism, 324 Languages, development of Jewish, 34 ; courses for immigrants, 103 ; necessity of a national language, 322-3 Law, written and oral, 279, 312 ; Rejoicing of the Law, 284 Lectures at literary societies, 102 Leipzig fairs, 184 Lemberg, Jewish population of, 9 Lessing’s Laokoon, 256 ; Nathan the Wise, 140 Levantine trade, Jews engaged in, 184 Liberal Judaism, 19 ; Liberal Syna¬ gogue, 288 Liberal professions, 202-3, 236 Libraries, public, 103, 104, 253 Lilith, belief in, 45 Literature, Jewish, characteristics of, 239-42 ; Yiddish, 242-7; Hebrew, 247-51 ; contributions to European, 255, 257 Litigation, 89 Liturgy, 275 ; Reform, 287 Loan banks, in Russia and Galicia, 8 5 Loan societies, co-operative, 334 London, Jewish population of, 10 ; charitable institutions, 79 ; crim¬ inality, 93 ; athletic societies, 107 ; death-rate, 121 ; con¬ sumption, 125 ; schools, 229 ; Jewish Lord Mayors, 175 ; mem¬ bers of County Council, 175 ; Rabbinical seminary, 274 Longevity, 118, 123 “ Lovers of Zion,” 328-9 Luftmenschen, 210 Ma’ase Buch, 244 Magistrates, Jews as, 175 Magyarizing tendency of Hun¬ garian Jews, 170 Malaria, suppression of, 338 Manchester, death-rate, 121, 122 ; smallpox, 124 ; industries, 194-5 Manufacturing pursuits, 190-5 Marannos, 136 Marienbad, no, 126 Marriage, age prescribed by Rabbis, 364 JEWISH LIFE IN 40; in Eastern countries, 41, in Western countries, 42 ; customs 43-4 ; fidelity, 88 ; preference of type, 117; marriage-rate, 131. See also Mixed marriages Marschalik, 44 Mathematical science, contribu¬ tions to, 262 May laws, 148, 196, 215 Mayor, Jews as, 175 Measles, 126 Meat, preparation of, 51, 53, 119 Mediaeval disabilities, 135 Medicine, study of, 230 ; achieve¬ ments in, 263-5 Melammed, 226 Mellah, 145 Mendelssohn, influence of, 227, 244. 293 “ Menorah ” societies, 106 Merchant of Venice, 204 Merchavia, 336 Messiah, belief in, 191, 278, 281, 286, 287, 311 ; forerunner of, 67 Mezuzah, 49 Microbiological Institute, 338 Microphone, invention of, 263 Middle Ages, economic restrictions in, 182-3 i intellectual versatility in, 223 Migrations, modern compared with mediaeval, 3 ; westward course of, 35 ; probable effect of emanci¬ pation upon, 39 Mikvah, 119, 270 Mikveh Israel, 200, 328 Military service, in Germany, 97; in Russia, 118, 154-5 ; in Austria, 203. See also Soldiers Mining, 180, 185, 190 Minstrels, 101 Mishnah, 225, 279 Mishneh Torah, 280 Mission of Israel, 287, 321, 329 Missionary activity, 295-9 Mixed marriages, discouraged, 114; fertility of, 115, 307 ; decision of Paris Sanhedrin, 137 ; preval¬ ence of, 302-7 Monism, adoption of, 288 Montpellier, medical school of, 254 Morality of the family, 88 Moravia, Jews of, 207 ; congrega¬ tional administration, 272 Morocco, Jewish language and dress in, 34 ; sufferings in, 35 ; political conditions, 145 ; schools, 235 Mortality, rate of, 120, seq. MODERN TIMES Mourning rites, 73 Municipal activity, 175 Murder, rate of, 95, 97 ; Rabbinical view of, 120 Music, at weddings, 100; love of, 108; characteristics of Jewish, 251 ; composers, 260 ; influence of Zionism, 331, 340 Music-hall, 260 Napoleon and Jewish emancipation, 137-40 Nation or religious community, 320-1 National Fund, Jewish, 333, 335, 338 Nationalism, theories of, 20 ; students' nationalist societies, 106 ; in Hebrew literature, 250 ; conditions of national restora¬ tion, 321-326 Natural increase, rate of, 131 Naturalization, in Rumania, 160; societies for, 166 ; in England, 168 Nervous diseases, 127 Neue Freie Presse, 257, 258 New South Wales, occupations in, 186 New Year, domestic celebration of, 69 New York, Jews of, 12, 13 ; first Jewish settlement in, 78 ; charit¬ able institutions, 79, 83; Protec¬ tory, 91 ; criminality, 93 ; death- rate, 121, 122 ; typhoid mortality, 124 ; smallpox, 124 ; consumption, 125 ; nervous diseases, 128 ; cloth¬ ing industry, 194 ; schools, 229 ; Rabbinical seminary, 274 New York Globe, Times, World, 258 New Zealand, Jewish popu¬ lation of, 14; Jewish Prime Minister, 173 Newspapers, owned by Jews, 257 Nobel Prize awards, 266 Norway, emancipation in, 144 Nose, shape of, 113 Nursery, spirit of, 71 ; for poor children, 81 Oath of Abjuration, 143 Oath more Judaico, 162 Oblava, 151 Occupations, influence upon health, 123, 124, 125 ; diversity of occu¬ pations described, 182-203 ; his¬ toric and religious factors affect¬ ing, 182-3 Odessa, Jewish population of, 8; poverty in, 210-1 365 INDEX OF “ Oesterreichisch-Israelitische Un¬ ion,” 167 Office of Health (Palestine), 338 Opera, Yiddish, 109 ; comic, 260 Oral Law, 278, 279, 285, 312 Orphanages, 83, 104 Orthodoxy, principles of, 18-9; home features of, 51 ; faith and observance, 279-86 Ovariotomy introduced by Jew, 264 Painters, 251, 260 Pale of Settlement, population of, 6 ; history of, 7, 147 ; life in, 17 ; Socialist parties, 178—9; labour conditions, 191-3; economic conditions, 209 Palestine, Jewish population of, 10 ; gymnastic societies, 108 ; agricul¬ tural colonization, 200-1,328, 333, 335-7; famine, 208; economic conditions, 212 ; schools, 235-6 ; introduction of credit, 333-5; urban colonization, 337-8 Palestine Land Development Com¬ pany, 333, 335 Paris, Jewish population of, 10 ; charitable institutions, 79, 83; Sanhedrin, 137 Parliaments, Jews in, 171-4 Passover, special crockery, 51 ; cookery, 54; domestic celebra¬ tion, 67, 286 Passports, Russian, 221, 318 Patriotism, in bondage, 50 ; mani¬ fested in battles and political life, 134 ; discussed by Paris Assembly of Notables, 137 ; shown in wars of last 100 years, 176; as factor in Mendelssohnian movement, 227; attitude of Jewish journa¬ lists, 259 ; in relation to Zionism, 329 Peace, cause of, 259, 266 Peasant class in Palestine, 336 Penitence, Days of, 286 Pentateuch, chanting of, 63, 226, 284 ; German translation of, 227, 244 ; Yiddish translation of, 244 Pentecost, domestic celebration of, 69 Persecution, effects of, 21, 35, 127, 208 ; influence upon Jewish type, 116. See also Disabilities Persia, Jewish population of, 10; Judeo-Persian, 243 ; as constitu¬ tional state, 318 Personal service, 82 Pester Lloyd, 257 SUBJECTS Petach Tikvah, 200, 337, 341 Petroleum, discovery of, 263 Philadelphia, Jewish population of, 13 ; child mortality, 122 Philanthropy, associations for, 25, 85, 205 Philology, contributions to, 261 Philosophy, contributions to, 261 Phylacteries, 59, 282 Physiognomy, characteristics of, 112-7 Physiological characteristics, in, 117, seq. Pictures, distinctive Jewish, 49 Pigmentation, 112 Plague in India, cure of, 264 Plantation companies, 335 Playwrights, 259 Pneumonia, 124 “ Poalei Zion,” 179 Pogroms, damage caused by, 87, 157 ; complicity of Govern¬ ment, 157 ; laws for preventing, 95 ; effect upon nervous system, 127; cause of suicide, 129 ; product of Muscovite culture, 146; outbreak in 1905, 156 ; barring asylum to refugees from, 168 ; self-defence against, 179 ; cause of emigration, 198, 215 ; cause of distress, 208 ; reflected in literature, 246, 250 ; cause of apostasy, 301 ; evanescent moral effect of, 316 Poland, partition of, 7 ; mode of dress, 34; birth-rate, 130; mar¬ riage-rate, 131 ; economic boy¬ cott, 158-9, 208 Political influence of Jews exagger¬ ated, 172 Political Zionism, 329 Poll-tax, 135, 136, 140 Population, Jewish, 5, seq., apparent multitude and real paucity of, 6 ; urban character of, 32, 118, 128, 131, 180 ; rate of increase, 131. See also Appendix I Poriah, 336 Portugal, religious emancipation in, 144 Poverty, characteristic of Eastern Jewry, 35 ; in Russia, 158 ; general distribution of, 207-13 Prager Tageblatt, 258 Prague, students at, 231, 234 Prayers, 59, 282, 283 Praying-shawl, 56, 59, 73, 282 Precious metals, movement of, 189 Press, Jewish connexion with, 257 366 JEWISH LIFE IN Prime Ministers, Jews as, 172-3 Princedom of captivity, 277 Prisons, Jews in, 93 Privy councillors, Jews as, 175 Prodigies, musical, 108 Prophets, 279, 287 Proselytes, 300, 301 Proselytism, 114-5, 273] Proselytizing sermons, 138 Prostitute, privileged in Russia, 150 Proven9al ritual, 276 Prussia, Jewish criminality in, 92 ; death-rate, 121 ; suicide, 129 ; birth-rate, 129, 130 ; conver¬ sions, 293-5 i civil emancipation, 140-1 ; schools, 229 ; Junker party, 259 ; mixed marriages, 305, 307 ' Pseudo-Messianic sects, 277 Pugilists, 107 Purim, domestic celebration of, 69 ; in the synagogue, 283 Quest of Zion, 328 Question, the Jewish, local solution of, 28 ; local and universal aspects, 308-9 Rabbinical Judaism, influence of, 18 ; view of life, 120 Rabbis, as arbitrators, 89 ; attitude to modern education, 227 ; appointment in Continental countries, 272 ; training of, 274 ; functions of, 274-5 ; Chief Rabbi of British Jewry, 271 ; Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Jewry, 273 ; Crown Rabbis in Russia, 272 ; opposition to Zionism, 329 Racial characteristics, in, seq. ; racial purity, 112-6 Rationalists, 314 ; rationalism, 317 “ Red Ticket,” 341 Redemption of firstborn, 46 Reform Judaism, principles of, 19, 278-9 ; characteristics and effects of, 286-8 Regeneration, national, 329-31 Reichsrat, 172 Reichstag, 171 Rejoicing of the Law, 284 Relief of the distressed and perse¬ cuted, 27, 78, 85 ; of immigrants, 80, 104 Religion, traditional orthodoxy, 18, 279-85 ; tendencies in Western Jewry, 19, 286 ; age of religious responsibility, 47 ; in¬ fluence upon home life, 48 ; MODERN TIMES organization, 269-76 ; education, 270; declining importance of religion, 319 “ Reverend," title of, 275 Revisionism, 177 Revolution, French, 133, 144 ; of 1848, 141 ; Russian, 178-9, 208, 3i4>3i8 Rheumatism, no, 124 Rickets, 126 Rights of Man, 136 Riots, in Germany, 141 ; in Russia, see Pogroms Rishon-le-Zion, 200 Rites, domestic, 59 ; at death, 73 Ritual, differences of, 19 ; of the synagogue, 275 “ Ritual murder," 157-8, 318 Robbery, 95, 97 Rome, Ghetto in, 138 ; Jewish Mayor of, 175 Rome and Jerusalem, 328 Rothschild family ennobled, 175 ; financial operations, 188 ; wealth of, 204 Ruchama, 336 Rumania, Jewish population of, 9 ; death-rate, 121 ; birth-rate, 130 ; marriage-rate, 131 ; civil dis¬ abilities, 159-65 ; commercial activity, 187 ; industries, 190-1 ; Agrarian revolt, 208 ; emigra¬ tion, 164, 215-16; educational conditions, 232, 236; mixed marriages, 304 Russia, Jewish population of, 7; criminality, 92, 94; exclusion from health resorts, no ; mili¬ tary recruits, 118 ; death-rate, 121, 122 ; consumption, 125 ; nervous maladies, 127 ; birth¬ rate, 130 ; marriage-rate, 131 ; natural increase, 35, 132 -Civil disabilities, 147-58 ; limi¬ tations of domicile, 147-51 ; of education, 152, 233, 326 ; in public service and liberal professions, 153 ; in property ownership, 154; military service, 154; pogroms, 157 ( see also under Pogroms) ; political activity, 169; Socialistic organizations, 178 ; Revolution, 178-9, 208, 314, 318 -Commercial activity, 186-7; financial pursuits, 190 ; in¬ dustries, 190-4 ; liberal pro¬ fessions, 203; economic con¬ ditions, 209-11 ; emigration, 214-22 3 67 INDEX OF Russia,Educational conditions, 232- 4; ecclesiastical organization, 272; conversions, 295, 298, 301, 314 ; Russian factor in Jewish question, 318 Russo-Japanese War, Jews in, 153, 155, 176 ; effects of, 208; in literature, 246 Sabbath, neglect of, 21, 285 ; special loaves, 52 ; food distinc¬ tions, 53 ; domestic prepara¬ tions, 60, 119 ; celebration, 62, seq. ; effect upon health, 120 ; influence upon choice of occu¬ pations, 183 ; economic aspect of, 206, 209 Sacrifices, restoration of, 287 Salvarsan, discovery of, 264 Samaritans, 112 Sanhedrin, of Paris, 137, 303 ; the ancient, 273 Saxony, emancipation in, 141 Scarlet fever, 126 Scholastic movement, 254 Schoolroom, synagogue, 270 Schools, in Eastern Jewry, 85, 235 ; prize distributions, 103 ; in Russia, 152, 232-3 ; in Rumania, 162, 232 ; for manual crafts, 190 ; attendance in Western countries, 228-9 ; boarding-schools, 236 Science, contributions to, 262, seq. Scrofula, 126 Sculptors, 260 Sects, 277 “ Seimisten,” 179 Seminaries, theological, 274 Semitic race, 114 Separation Law, 138 Sephardim, 19, 275, 276 Servia, Jewish population of, 10 ; emancipation, 144, 159 Sexes, separation of, 71 Sexual diseases, 126 ; discovery of remedies for, 264 Shadchan, functions of, 41-2 Shalet, 53, 61, 64, 65 Shaving, prohibition of, 56 Shechita, 52, 271 Shekel, 330 Sheriffs, Jews as, 143 “Shield of David/’ 49 Shofar, 286 Shulchan A ruck, as code of ortho¬ doxy, 18, 48, 58, 273 ; comprised in a Jewish library, 50 ; as subject of religious study, 226, 284 ; its prohibition of an organ SUBJECTS in the synagogue, 285 ; its authority abrogated by Reform Judaism, 286 ; disregard of, 287 Shylock, as symbol of Jewish wealth, 204 Sick, visitation of, 76, 275; benefit societies, 104 “ Sisterhoods,” 82 Skin diseases, 126 Skull, shape of, 113 Slaughter-house, 270, 271 Slaughterers, 273 Smallpox, 124 Smoking, forbidden on the Sabbath, 63 Sobriety, 89, 90, 120, 124, 125 Socialism, Jews and, in Germany, 169, 177 ; in Austria, 178 ; in Russia, 178-9 Societies, communal, 36, 317 ; philanthropic, 80 ; literary, 102, 253 ; sick benefit, 104 ; students, 105 ; athletic and gymnastic, 107 ; publication, 252-3 Soldiers, Jews as, 134 ; in the Prussian Wars of Emancipation, 140; in Russia, 148-9, 153-5; in Rumania, 161, 162, 165; in 19th and 20th century wars, 176 ; in France, 176; in Austria, 176 ; in England, 177 ; in Italy, 177 Solidarity, springs of, 23 ; forms of, 24, seq. ; in emigrants’ relief, 87 ; promoted by visiting lec¬ turers, 102 ; furthered by Bnei Brith, 104 ; stimulated by phil¬ anthropic societies, 317 Soup-kitchens, 81 South Africa, Jewish population of, 11 ; emancipation, 144; Board of Deputies, 167 ; commercial development, 184 ; immigration, 220-1 Spain, Jews of, 10, 275 ; expulsion from, 34, 184, 214, 215, 243 ; re¬ peal of expulsion edict, 144; movement for return of Jews to, 144 Spanish-American War, Jews in, 176 Spectator, quoted, 315 Spiritual religion, 281 Sport, 107 Statesmen, Jewish, 172-4 Stock Exchange, institution of, 184 ; membership of, 190, 204 Students, societies of, 105; and Zionism, 331 Suicide, 128 Sultan of Turkey, and Zionism, 332 368 JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES Summer resorts, 109 Sunday closing, 166 Superstitions at birth, 45 Sweden, emancipation in, 144; mixed marriages, 305 Swimming, 107 Switzerland, Jewish population of, 10 ; emancipation in, 144 ; Russo-Jewish students in, 153, 235 Symbolism: grief for fall of Jerusalem, 49 ; desire for Divine bounty, 66 ; in the Passover celebration, 67 ; in New Year celebration, 69 Synagogue, influence of, 20; as nucleus of the community, 24,269; centre of social intercourse, 37 ; attendance at, 60, 65 ; divine worship, 282-4 > declining in¬ fluence of, 317 Tabernacles, domestic celebration of, 68; synagogue celebration, 284 Tailoring, 125, 209, 211. See also Clothing industry Talmud, 50 ; study of, 60, 99, 103, 124, 225-6, 270, 283 ; discourse on, 65 ; composition of, 279-80 Talmud Torah, 226, 228, 233, 270, 284 Talmudical academies, 277 Tamhui, 77 Technical Institute, Haifa, 339 Tel A bib, 338 Telephone, inventor of, 263 Temperance, 89, 90, 120 Territory, conditions of a national, 321-5. See Jewish Territorial Organization Teutsch-Chumesh, 50 Theatre, love of, 108 Theism, secession to, 288 Times, 25811.; opinion on Jewish question in Russia, 326 Toleration, progress of, 134, 135 Torah, 50 ; study of, 71, 224, 227 Toynbee Halls, 102, 237 Trachoma, 126, 221 ; in Palestine, 338 Trade Union movement, 195 Trades. See Industrial pursuits Tradition, in home life, 48, seq. ; authority of, 273 ; chain of tradi¬ tion, 279 Transmigrants, 220 Treaty of Berlin, confers emancipa¬ tion upon Jews in Bulgaria and Servia, 144 ; stipulates for eman¬ cipation of Jews in Rumania, 159-60; recent demands for fulfilment of its provisions, 164-5 Tripoli, Jewish population of, 11 ; economic conditions, 208, 212 Turco-Italian War, Jews in, 176 Turkey, Jewish population of, 9; gymnastic societies, 107-8 ; con¬ stitution promulgated, 144 ; political activity in, 171 ; com¬ munal organization, 273; as constitutional state, 318 Turkish Government and Zionism, 340-1 Turkish Revolution, 333 Turks, Young, 171 Types, diversity of, 15, 117; anthro¬ pological, 112, seq. Typhoid fever, 119, 124 United Hebrew Charities, 79, 83 United States, Jewish population of, 13, 216 ; orphanages and hospitals, 85 ; criminality, 93 ; students’ societies, 106 -Civil emancipation, 133, 144; immigration to, 163, 214-22 ; political activity in, 168 ; com¬ mercial treaty with Russia ter¬ minated, 168 ; Jewish Ambas¬ sadors, 174 ; Civil War, Spanish- American War, Jews engaged in, 176 -Commercial activity, 187; agriculture, 199; universities, 230 ; religious organization, 271- 2 ; mixed marriages, 306 United Synagogue, 271 ; Chief Rabbi of, 271 Universities, Jews at, in Austria, 153, 230, 234 ; in England, 106, 230 ; in Germany, 153, 230, 234, 236; in Hungary, 230, 234 ; in Rumania, 162; in Russia, 152, 234; abnormal attendance at, 230 ; restriction of Russo-Jewish students at West European universities, 153, 234 University for Jerusalem, 339 University Tests Act, 143 Unleavened bread, 54, 67, 273 Unskilled labour, 193 Urban colonization in Palestine, 337-8 Urbanization of Jewry, its pre¬ dominant character, 32 ; in¬ fluence upon health, 118 ; in¬ fluence upon lunatic statistics, 128 ; influence upon birth-rate. INDEX OF 131 ; in relation to economic activity, 180 ; in relation to higher education, 229 Vaccination, 124 “ Verbandderdeutschen Juden/’i67 Vienna, Jewish population of, 9; charity expenditure, 83; death- rate, 121 ; political organ¬ ization, 167; synagogue-tax, 207 ; students, 231 ; Rabbinical seminary, 274 ; conversions, 299 ; as headquarters of Zionist Or¬ ganization, 330 Vitebsk, cholera in, 123 Viticulture in Palestine, 337 Vossische Zeitung, 258 Wars, Jews in, 176. See also Soldiers Warsaw, Jewish population of, 8; prevalence of hysteria, 127 Watering-places, 109 Wealth of Jews, 204-7 Weddings, 100 Western Jewry compared with Eastern, 4, 36; in regard to suicide, 129 White slave traffic, 90 Whitechapel, law-abiding character of, 90; death-rate, 121 Wife-desertion, 89 Wig worn by women, 57, 70 Wild wheat, discoverer of, 263 Wilna, literary circle at, 248 Wine, for Sabbath sanctification, 63, 120 ; Sabbath termination, 66 ; in Passover celebration, 67 Wireless telegraphy, 263 “ Wissenschaftdes Judentums,” 252 Woman, Oriental view of, 46; wearing of a wig, 57, 70 ; her SUBJECTS 369 place in the home, 70-1 ; maladies of, 124 Woman suffrage, 179 “ Wonder Rabbis," 231 Wurttemberg, emancipation in, 141; administration of congregations, 272 “ Yellow ticket," in Russia, 150 Yemen, Jews of, 145-6 ; as settlers in Palestine, 336, 337 Yeshiba, 226 ; Yeshiboth, 274 Yiddish, origin of, 34 ; paraphrase of Pentateuch, 50, 100 ; modes of greeting, 72 ; theatres, 108 ; as medium of instruction, 226 ; prevalence of, 237, 322 ; litera¬ ture in, 242-7 ; drama, 251 ; modernist influence in Yiddish literature, 314 Zaddik, 284 Ze’enah Uve'enah, 50, 244 Zemstvos, Jews excluded from, 154 Zion, restoration of, 278, 282, 286 ; pilgrimages to, 328 ; “ Lovers of Zion," 328 Zionism, aims of, 19, 26, 327 ; in Hebrew literature, 250; precursors of, 328-9 ; influence upon Jewish life, 330-2 ; institutions of, 332- 3 ; Palestinian colonization, 333- 9 ; political aspect of, 340-2 ; general outlook, 342-3 Zionist Congress, influence upon Jewish solidarity, 26; diversity of types at, 116 Zionist organization, establishment of, 330; influence upon educa¬ tion in Russia, 233 Zionist Socialist Party, 178 Zionist students’ societies, 106 24 INDEX OF NAMES Aaronsoiin, Aaron, 263 Abdul Hamid, Sultan, 340 Abrahams, Israel, 77 n. Abramowitsch, Solomon Jacob, 245 “ Achad Haam,” 250 Adler, Dr. Felix, 266 Adler, Dr. Herman, 275 Adler, Dr. Victor, 178 Akiba, Rabbi, 77 Albus, the, 184 Alexander I, 146, 196 Alexander II, 147, 152 Alexander III, 298 Angell, Norman, 266 Anin, Maxim, 178 Antokolski, Marc, 260 Arthur, King, 244 Artom, Isaac, 172, 174 Asch, Schalom, 246 Ascoli, Graziadio, 261 Asser, Tobias, 262, 266 Atias, Isaac da Costa, 139 Auerbach, Berthold, 256 Auerbach, Dr. Elias, 212 n. Badass, Dr., 173 Bakst, Leon, 261 Bamberger, Ludwig, 174 Barnatos, the, 184 Barnay, Ludwig, 259 Belasco, David, 259 Bell, Graham, 263 Belloc, Hilaire, 204 Ben-Avigdor, 251 Ben-Jehuda, 251 Bentwich, Norman, 289 n. Bergson, Prof. Henri, 178, 261 Berliner, Emil, 263 Berman, Hannah, 246 n. Bernal, 293 Bernhardt, Sarah, 259 Bernstein, Eduard, 169, 177 Bernstein, Henri, 259 Bialik, Nachman, 250 Bibbero, Marquis, 107 Billings, Dr. J. S., 121, 125 Bischoffsheims, the, 188, 189 Bismarck, 174, 303 Bleichroeder, 188, 189 Blioch, Ivan, 189, 266 Blowitz, Henri de, 258 n. Blumenthal Oscar, 259 Boas, Prof. Franz, 113 Boccaccio, 246 Boerne, Ludwig, 256 Brainin, Reuben, 251, 302 n. Brandes, Eduard, 173 Brandes, Georg, 117, 151 n.. 257 Breal, Michel, 261 Bruch, Max, 260 Burchardt, Hermann, 265 Busch, M., 303 n. Cantor, Georg, 262 Caro, Rabbi Joseph, 273, 280 Carubio, Count di, 174 Cassel, Sir Ernest, 189 Castello, Percy M., 190 n. Catherine I, 146 Cavour, 172 Cayley, 262 Chamberlain, Houston, 255 Clement XIV, 158 Cohen, Arthur, 175 Cohen, Henry Emanuel, 173, 174 Cohen, Prof. Hermann, 177, 261 Cohn, Ferdinand, 262 Columbus, 5, 12, 254, 265 Copernicus, 254 Coralnik, Dr. A., 302 n. Corneille, 259 Cowen, Dr. Frederic, 260 Cremieux, Adolphe, 173 Cromwell, Oliver, 142 Cuza, Professor, 162 Dalman, Gustav, 298 Darmesteter, Ars&ne, 261 Darmesteter, James, 261 Davidsohn, M., 263 Davitt, Michael, 157 n. Derenbourg, Hartwig, 262, 294 370 INDEX OF NAMES 37i Derenbourg, Joseph, 262 Dernburg, Dr. Bernhard, 174 n. Dernburg, Friedrich, 258 Deutsch, Emanuel, 294 Disraeli, Benjamin, 174, 257, 293 Dohm, Christian William, 140 Dreyfus, 316 Dubnow, S. M., 20, 302 Diihring, 260 Duveen, 185 Dymov, 257 Ecksteins, the, 184 Edward, King, 264 Ehrlich, Prof. Paul, 255, 264, 266 Eliot, George, 328 Elman, Mischa, 260 Emin Pasha, 265 Epstein, Jacob, 261 Epstein, Dr. M., 184 n. Erter, Isaac, 248 Ezekiel, Moses, 261 Faitlovitch, Dr. Jacques, 11 Fall, Leo, 260 Feldmann, Joshua, 146 n. Felix, Rachel, 259 Ferdinand, Emperor, 141 Fichte, 140 Finot, Jean, 258 Fischer, S., 257 Fishberg, Dr. M., 113, 125, 126, 230 n., 306 Fleischer, Dr. Siegmund, 231 n. Fould, Achille, 173 Francis Joseph, Emperor, 142 Frankel, Albert, 264 Frederick the Great, 139 Frederick William III, 140, 294 Frederick William IV, 294 Freycinet, 173 Fried, Albert, 266 Friedlander, David, 228 Friedrichsfeld, David, 139 Frischmann, David, 251 Fruhling, Moritz, 176 n. Fulda, Ludwig, 259 Furtado, 293 Ganganelli, Cardinal, 158 Geiger, Abraham, 241 Geiger, Prof. Ludwig, 256 Gilbert, Jean, 260 Ginzburg, Asher, 250 Ginzburg, Mordecai Aaron, 248 Glaser, Eduard, 265 Goblet, 173 Godefroy, M. H., 173 Goethe, 140 Goldberg, B., 201 n. Goldfaden, Abraham, 109, 251 Goldmark, Karl, 260 Goldschmidt, Hermann, 263 Goldsmid, Colonel Albert, 108 Goldsmid, Francis, 143 Goldsmid, Sir Julian, 117, 173 Goldziher, Prof. Ignaz, 262 Gollancz, Prof. Israel, 257 Gordin, Jacob, 109 Gordon, Judah Loeb, 249 Goudchaux, Michel, 173 Grad, Benjamin, 35 n. Graetz, Heinrich, 241, 252, 303 n. Graetz, Leo, 263 Gregoire, Abbe, 136 Giinzburg, Barons Horace and Joseph, 189 Haase, Flugo, 169, 177 Hadamard, 262 Haffkine, Waldemar, 264 Halevy, Fromenthal, 260 Hall, Prescott F., 233 n. Hall, Dr. W., 126 Haman, 283 Hambourg, Mark, 260 Harden, Maximilian, 258 Haret, M., 162 Harkavy, A., 115 Hatzfeld, Adolphe, 262 Hauptmann, Gerhart, 257 Hay, John, 164 Hedin, Sven, 265 Heilbronn, 185 Heilprin, Angelo, 265 Heine, Heinrich, 53, 255, 256, 261 Heltai, Dr. Franz, 175 Henle, Friedrich Gustav, 264 Heppner, Ernst, 262 n. Hermann, Georg, 256 Hertz, Heinrich, 263 Herz, Henrietta, 256 Herzl, Dr. Theodor, 50, 117, 329, 33°> 34° Hess, Moses, 328 Heyermanns, Hermann, 257, 259 Hirsch, Baron M. de, 25, 50, 86, 117, 189, 198, 199, 231 Hirsch (art-dealer), 185 Hirsch (news agency), 257 Hirszenberg, Samuel, 252 Hofmannsthal, 256 Horowitz, Leopold, 260 Hourwich, Dr. I. A., 195 Hugo, Victor, 246 Ibsen, 314 t Ignatieff, Count, 148 372 JEWISH LIFE IN Innocent IV, 158 Isaacs, Isaac Alfred, 173, 175 Isaacs, Nathaniel, 185 Isaacs, Sir Rufus, 173 Israel ben Eliezer, 45, 278 Israels, Josef, 255, 260 Isserles, Rabbi Moses, 281 Itzig, Daniel, 228 Jacob ben Asher, Rabbi, 280 Jacobi, Karl, 262 Jacobs, Joseph, 113 Jacobs, Simeon, 174 Jacobson, Ludwig, 265 James, Dr. Edmund J.,229 n. Jesus, 255 Joachim, Joseph, 260 Jochelson, Waldemar, 265 Jones, Henry, 104 Jorga, Professor, 162 Joseph II, of Austria, 140 Joshua, 279 Judt, Dr. M., 114 Kalischer, Hirsch, 328 Kant, 261 Kaplun-Kogan, W. W., 186 Karpeles, Dr. Gustav, 256 Kiamil Pasha, 174 n. Kiralfy, Imre, 266 Kiss, Joseph, 257 Klausner, Joseph, 251 Klopstock, 248 Klotz, Lucien, 173 Krochmal, 248 Kronenberg, Baron, 189 Kuhn, Loeb & Co., 189 Lasker, Eduard, 174 Lasker, Emanuel, 262 Lassalle, Ferdinand, 169, 177 Lazards, the, 188 Lazare, Bernard, 258 Lazarus, Moritz, 252 Lebensohn, Abraham Beer, 248 Lee, Sir Sidney, 257 Lessing, 140, 245, 256 Letteris, M. H.? 248 Levin, Rahel, 256, 294 Levinsohn, Isaac Beer, 249 Levy, Calmann, 257 Liebermann, Prof. Max, 260 Lilienblum, Moses, 328 Lilienthal, Otto, 263 Littre, 262 Lippman, Gabriel, 263 Loeb, Prof. Morris, 230 n. Loevinson, Prof. E., 176 n., 286 n. Lombroso, Cesare, 265 MODERN TIMES Lopez, 293 Lubin, David, 266 Luschan, Prof, von, 114 Luzzatti, Luigi, 172 Luzzatto, Moses Haim, 248 Maccabaeus, Judas, 16 Maeterlinck, 257 Maimonides, 241, 280, 281 Malvano, Signor, 172 Manasseh ben Israel, 241 Mandelstamm, Dr. Max, 118 Mapu, Abraham, 249 Marcus, Siegfried, 263 Marmorek, Dr. Alexander, 265 Martens, Kurt, 256, 257 n. Marx, Karl, 169,1177, 255 Maupassant, De, 314 Melville, Lewis, 257 Mendelssohn, Dorothea, 256 Mendelssohn, Henriette, 256 Mendelssohn, Moses, 139,140,227-8, 243, 256, 294, 320 Mendelssohn, Sidney, 11 n. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 255, 261 Mendes, Catulle, 257 Mendes, David, 248 Menelik, 115 Merry del Val, Cardinal, 158 Meyerbeer, 260 Michelson, Albert, 263, 266 Millaud, Edouard, 173 Minkowski, 262 Minski, 257 Mirabeau, 136 Mombert, Alfred, 256 Mommsen, 158, 295 Montagu, Edwin, 173 Montefiore, Claude, 288 Monteftore, Sir Moses, 50 Montesquieu, 136 Morgenthau, Henry, 174 Mosenthal brothers, 184 Moses, 255, 279 Munk, Salomon, 241, 294 Munz, Siegmund, 258 Myers, Joel, 184 Nabarro, David, 265 Nansen, 265 Napoleon Bonaparte, 138, 140, 272, 303 Napoleon, Jerome, 138 Napoleon III, 173 Nathan, Ernesto, 175 Nathan, Sir Matthew, 174 Nathan, Sir Nathaniel, 174, 175 Nathansen, Henri, 259 Neisser, Albert, 264 INDEX OF NAMES 373 Neubauer, Adolf, 294 Nicholas I, 56, 152, 196, 295 Nicholas II, 147 Nietzsche, 257 Noah, Mordecai Manuel, 328 Nordau, Dr. Max, 210, 258, 265 n., 340 Norden, Simon, 184 Nystrom, 113 Oesterreicher, Josef, 263 Offenbach, Jacques, 260 Oppenheim, Max von, 265 Oppenheim, Moritz, 50 Oppenheimer, Dr. Franz, 336 Oppert, Jules, 262, 294 Ospovat, Henry, 261 Ottolenghi, General, 172 Pahlen, Count, 156 Pass, De, brothers, 184 Paul I, 146 Paulsen, 295 Pereires, the, 188, 189 Perez, Leon, 246 Perl, Joseph, 231 Pilichowski, Leopold, 252 Pinsker, Leon, 328 Pirbright, Lord, 173 Pissaro, Camille, 260 Pius VII, 138 Pobiedonostzev, 158 Poliak, Leopold, 260 Popper, Josef, 263 Press, Jesaias, 200 n. Pringsheim, Nathaniel, 262 Pulitzer, Joseph, 258 Querido, Berechiah, 277 Querido, Isidor, 257 Rabinowitsch, Solomon, 246 Racine, 248, 259 Rapaport, S. L., 248 Raymond, 127 Raynal, David, 173 Reading, Lord, 173 Reinach, Salomon, 262 Reinhardt, Prof. Max, 259 Reis, Philipp, 263 Reuter, Baron, 257 Ricardo, David, 293 Ries, Peter, 263 Riesser, Gabriel, 141, 169 Riesser, Prof. Jacob, 169 Ripley, W. Z., 113, 116 Robinson, Leonard G., 119 n. Roi, J. de le, 297 Rosenfeld, Leon, 189 Rosenfeld, Morris, 246 Rosenwald, Julius, 185 Rothschild, Baron Edmond de, 26, 201, 329, 335 Rothschild, Baron Lionel de, 143 Rothschild, Lord, 143, 158 Rubinow, I. M., 186 n., 191 n., 192 n., 209 n. Riihs, Friedrich, 141 Ruppin, Dr. Arthur, 185, 212, 220, 229 n., 230, 306, 307 Saadyah, 241 Salisbury, Lord, 160 Salomons, David, 143 Salomons, Sir Julian, 174 Salvador, Joseph, 328 Samter, Dr. N., 303 n., 305 Samuel, Herbert, 173 Samuel, Sir Saul, 174 Sassoons, the, 189 Schiff, Jacob H., 189, 222 Schiller, 245 Schnitzer, Eduard, 265 Schnitzler, Arthur, 256, 259 Schreiner, Abraham, 263 Schwarz, David, 263 Schwarzschild, 262 Segall, Dr. Jacob, 186 n., 190 n., 191 n., 202 n., 203 n., 206 n. Seligmann (art dealer), 185 Seligmanns (financiers), 188 Semenoff, E., 157 n. Semon, Sir Felix, 264 Sennacherib, 116 Shakespeare, 204, 246 Sheba, Queen of, 115 Shishak, 116 Shulman, Caiman, 249 Simon the Just, 76 Singer, Isidore, 157 Singer, Paul, 177 Sinzheim, Rabbi, 137 Slonimski, Chaim, 262 Smolenskin, Perez, 250, 328 Sokolow, Nahum, 251 Solomon, King, 115 Solomon, J. Solomon, 260 Solomon, V. L., 173 Sombart, Prof. W., 183, 185, 206 Sonnenthal, Adolf von, 259 Speyers, the, 188 Spinoza, 224, 255 Stein, Dr. I. A., 325 Stein, Sir Marc Aurel, 265 Steinitz, 262 Steinthal, Hermann, 261 Sterns, the, 188 Stettenheim, Julius, 256 374 JEWISH LIFE IN Stilling, Benedikt, 264 Stolypin, 155, 156 S track, Prof. H. L., 158 Straus, Nathan, 338 Straus, Oscar (diplomatist), 151, I 73> 174 Straus, Oscar (composer), 260 Strieker, Salomon, 264 Struck, Hermann, 252, 261 Stuyvesant, Peter, 78 Sue, Eugene, 249 Sulzberger, Meyer, 174 Siisskind, 224 Sutro, Alfred, 259 Sylvester, James, 262 Talleyrand, 136 Tchaka, King, 185 Tchernichowsky, Saul, 250 Theilaber, Dr. Felix, 289 n., 306 n. Thon, Dr. Jacob, 186 n., 212 n,, 299 n. Tietz, 185 Titus, Emperor, 279 Tolstoi, 246, 314 Traube, Ludwig, 264 Treitschke, 295 Ullstein & Co., 258 Unger, Josef, 262 Uzzielli, 293 Vambery, Arminius, 261, 265 Victor Emanuel II, 138 MODERN TIMES Vogel, Sir Julias, 173 Wagner, Richard, 260 Waldstein, Sir Charles, 262 Wassermann, August von, 264 Wassermann, Jacob, 256 Webb, Sidney, 195 Weingarten, 262 Wertheim, 185 Wessely, Naphtali Hartwig, 228, 248 Winterfeld, Max, 260 Winterstein, Baron S. von, 173 Witte, Count, 156 Wolf, Lucien, 148 n., 258 Wolf, Theodor, 258 Wolff (news agency), 257 Wolffe, Jabez, 107 Wollemborg, Leone, 172 Worms, Baron Henry de, 173 Ximenes, the, 293 Yushkevitch, 257 Zamenhof, Dr. Ludwig, 266 Zangwill Israel, 179, 241, 257, 324 Zedner, 294 Zeppelin, Count, 263 Zevi, Sabbatai, 277 Zimbalist, Ephraim, 260 Zola, Emile, 314 Zollschan, 112, 113, 114, 185, 207, 212 n. Zuckertort, 262 Zunz, Leopold, 241, 252 Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh COMPARATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF THE JEWISH POPULATION LThe World s Oewish Population in 191 4. .The Russian Umpire 6 262.763 United Stales of Tlorlh fimerica 2.300.000 fiasiria- Hungary 2.2582 '/2 Germany 615.029 ( Tale of Settle merit— (Galicia 8/1906) 'Suhcwinal0fi9\ Ottoman Cmpire 385 .000 LJitkoul Poland 4- 038 735 ) United Kingdom Z70 .000 Roumania 2.50 .000 (fysloj Austria Morocco 109 712 338862> Hetkerld. 106 309 Trance 100 000 Greece 90.000 ( Poland 1 7/6 06+ ) ( Hungary 932m) Other (oi/nlries 732.592 Ura/iJ Total ( Test of Russia in Turope 367318 I Russia, m Asia ifo 636 ) 13.4-79.375 - - - — - THE THIRTY LARGEST JEWISH COMMUNITIES PerCent O-O.S 2-3 3-4 Jewish Population. Percentage of Tot. Pop. Jewish Population. Percentage of Tot. Pop. Greater New York . 1,000,000 Warsaw . . 308,488 Budapest . . . 203,687 Chicago . . . 200,000 Vienna . . . 175,318 Odessa . . . 170,000 Greater London . . 160,000 Philadelphia . . 150,000 Greater Berlin . . 142,289 Lodz .... 92,308 Wilna . . . 88,000 Salonica . . . 85,000 Boston . . . 75,000 Jerusalem . . . 65,000 Constantinople . . 65,000 There are also 40,000 Jews in the two 20-97 39- 80 23-00 9-15 8- 75 48-00 2-15 9- 68 6-87 22-60 40- 00 42-50 11-18 65-00 5-77 \merican citi< Amsterdam . . . 60,170 Cleveland . . . 60,000 Paris .... 60,000 Lemberg . . . 57,387 Kishineff . . • 52,000 Tunis .... 50,000 Baltimore . . . 50,000 Minsk .... 49,957 Ekaterinoslav . . . 47,566 Berditchev . . . 47,000 Bagdad .... 45,000 Bucharest . . 43,274 Bialystok . . . 42,000 Kovno .... 40,369 Buenos Ayres. . . 40,000 ;s of Rochester (18-33 p.c.) and St. Loui 11-30 10-70 2- 15 35- 88 46-00 21-98 8-95 54-60 36- 56 87-52 3103 15-34 65-62 54-60 3- 80 s (5-82 p.c.). 4-tf fompctrcttive Density of" the Jewish Population. \\WV.V\.VvVc> v\\ X N \ ffiisstan Empire \ x xx ^S\N\ \ v \\ ^ \\* ^ • ' Xfi \ \*_- v\\\ \v KX : ^k< \\ fV\V .\W A\ x v\^ .A v\ ^ QOt n V \ US R. 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