3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Israelites sit now in the parliaments and congresses. They are al- 

 lowed to be teachers in most of the universities, and the number of 

 Jewish young men who devote themselves to study increases with 

 every year. Important offices are already intrusted to Jews. Their 

 protective union, the judiciously managed " Israelitish Alliance," which 

 has its seat in Paris, appears to be constantly winning greater influ- 

 ence. The facts of comparative statistical science are favorable to 

 them. In most countries, theirs is, relatively speaking, the smallest 

 number of judicial crimes, and they stand foremost among the popu- 

 lation in general prosperity and wealth, even in length of life and rate 

 of increase. The old virtues of temperance and continence, of well- 

 ordered and affectionate family life, of filial piety to parents, which 

 served so well in preserving this people from destruction in the troub- 

 lous times of the middle ages, have not yet vanished from among 

 them. Marriage unions with Christians and conversion are more com- 

 mon than formerly ; in Berlin alone several years ago, there were esti- 

 mated to be some two thousand proselytes. 



It is true, however, that there are dark shadows to the picture ; the 

 better spokesmen of this people do not deny their serious faults; they 

 must allow that there is abundant occasion for sharply reproving 

 them : they only urge that the faults arrest attention more than the 

 virtues. The strongest charge and the principal reason for the popu- 

 lar hatred of them is the economical injury they inflict, and the manner 

 in which they take advantage of the peasantry in the Slavic and also in 

 some German countries, in connection with small bartering and money- 

 lending, which seem to be their favorite occupations. In the East, 

 particularly in Galicia, this injury is called even by a stronger word 

 it is named devastation. The fault is undeniable ; our Israelitish 

 fellow-citizens lament it as much as we, but it would be unjust to make, 

 on account of race connection, the whole responsible for the conduct 

 of a fractional part, who are far removed and beyond control. The 

 same is true of the founding of sham companies (Griinderunwesen) 

 and the pernicious speculation in money, which is a fault common 

 to Christians and Israelites. As it was formerly alchemists, astrolo- 

 gers, and searchers after hidden treasures, who took advantage of 

 the blind and eager credulity of the higher classes, so now Jewish 

 speculators do the same. In a similar way, the sins of the press of 

 the day are to be charged upon its circle of Christian readers as 

 well as upon the Jewish editors, who only follow the fashion in pan- 

 dering to, rather than trying to mold, the opinions and passions of the 

 people. 



The great reform movement, that began with Mendelssohn in the 

 bosom of Judaism, has given it a new form in Germany, France, and 

 England. Those of the Jewish people who live in Slavic countries 

 remain for the most part untouched by this movement, and are still 

 bound to the Talmudic standards ; but in "Western Europe the Israel- 



