546 



The Journal of Heredity 



aristocratic stock, in the Cihctto; the 

 lamdon, the scholar, was the real aristo- 

 crat no matter what his parentajjte was. 

 When a poor but capable and promis- 

 ing boy was discovered in the com- 

 munity there was sure to ])e found a 

 rich man who would undertake his 

 sujjport till he reached maturity and 

 married his benefactor's daughter. The 

 scholar was even supported by his 

 father-in-law for many years after 

 marriage, often for life. In this manner 

 the marriage and parenthood of the 

 favored and best stock, /. e., of persons 

 of marked aloilit}' and civic worth, was 

 greatly enhanced almost to a degree 

 satisfactory to those who, with Galton, 

 advocate radical methods of positive 

 eugenics. 



Jewish marriage laws, customs and 

 habits have, however, not only been 

 effective in encouraging the augmenta- 

 tion of the favored stock. We also 

 find strong and active dysgenic ten- 

 dencies which have been instrumental 

 in encouraging the proliferation of an 

 enormous number of physical and 

 mental defectives among the children of 

 the Ghetto. To begin with, even the 

 rich usually cared but little for the 

 ]jhysical a]>]:)earance of the men they 

 chose for their sons-in-law. All they 

 cared for was the intellectual attain- 

 ments of the yoimg men; even deformi- 

 ties may not have militated against 

 prospective bridegrooms, provided they 

 were scholars of eminence or jDromise. 

 They were, however, careful about the 

 a])]jearance of their ])ros]iective daugh- 

 ters-in-law, l)ecause the Talmud ap])re- 

 ciated l)eauty in a woman, and every 

 Jew was urged t*^) marry a handsome wife ; 

 a dark-complexioned man should better 

 marry a fair-com])lexioned woman, etc. 

 This may, to some extent, explain why 

 there are at present so many beautiful 

 Jewesses among the inhabitants of the 

 Ghetto, while beautiful men are rather 

 scarce. Social selections may ha\-e had 

 its effects. 



DYSGKXIC INFLUENCES 



The most remarkable and far-reaching 

 dysgenic factor operative among the 

 Jews for centuries has l^een the institu- 

 tion known as Achiwscs Jalch — societies 



having the object to provide trousseaus 

 and dowries for poor maidens in Israel. 

 Unmarried jjersons of either sex were 

 practically unknown in the Ghetto; 

 every Jew had to marry and to pro- 

 create. In case of young men or 

 women who were either too poor to 

 venture into matrimony, or because of 

 some infirmity, physical or mental, 

 could not find consorts willing to cast 

 their lots with them, these societies 

 provided opportunities, and funds, to 

 unite these defectives with life partners. 

 Every i)hysical and mental cripple was 

 thus encouraged to marry and to bring 

 legitimate olfsjiring into the world. 

 Occasionally it was necessary actually to 

 force this sort of individual into matri- 

 mony and parenthood. A blind boy 

 was united with a lame girl; deaf and 

 dumb were coupled; the town fool was 

 given a }:)aralyzed wife; the insane was 

 encouraged to marry an imbecile girl, 

 etc. Public-spirited Jews, especially 

 Jewesses, collected money to provide 

 these vmfortunates with trousseaus, 

 cash dowries, furniture, etc. These 

 defectives proliferated, no doubt, at a 

 higher rate than healthy individuals, 

 leaving a stock of degenerate offspring 

 which were a burden on the Jewish 

 community till they reached maturity, 

 when they, in turn, offered opportunities 

 to ])ious Jews and Jewesses to raise 

 funds with which to marry them off. 



1 have already sjjoken of the pro- 

 fessional marriage broker, the Schadchcn, 

 and his role in Jewish Ghetto life. In- 

 deed, among the Jews, he was an institu- 

 tion; while peo])les of other faiths have 

 made use of marriage brokers, among 

 the Jews he was more often called into 

 service. In many cases these match 

 makers worked along eugenic lines as, 

 for instance, when the Schadchcn was 

 instrumental in bringing about the 

 union of the daughter of a rich man with 

 a Imdding scholar; or when he brought 

 together well-known families from dis- 

 tant towns for the jmrpose of uniting 

 their children in matrimony. But, on 

 the whole, a great pro])ortion of physi- 

 cal and mental defectives among the 

 Jews of today owe their existence to 

 his nefarious activities. Inasmuch as 

 he was legally entitled to compensation 



