548 



The Journal of Heredity 



London, and esi3ecially New York at 

 present, keep on supiJortin<^ all the 

 defectives, reckless and degenerate in 

 their communities. In New York they 

 are even "pensioned" so that they may 

 at ease keep on proliferating at a rate 

 which is appalling when it is considered 

 that many of their children have 

 physical or mental defects, and will, 

 when reaching maturity', i)resent grave 

 social i^roblems to the community. 



I have already mentioned that the 

 average age at marriage appears now 

 to be higher among the Jews than among 

 others. The reason is that they are 

 mainly city dwellers, and their occupa- 

 tions require long years of jjreparation 

 before fitting the person to earn a live- 

 lihood. The thoughtful, the intelli- 

 gent and those endowed with foresight 

 are not in haste to marry. They 

 I'ealize that marriage entails important 

 obligations which a man of character 

 must feel confident that he is fit to 

 fulfil. It is different with the pauper 

 who is by nature reckless, often actu- 

 ally parasitic. Matrimony to him is 

 not an important event and entails no 

 obligations and he i>lunges into it, 

 knowing that his offspring will be cared 

 for by charitably inclined persons or 

 societies. 



The Biblical j^rediction that the poor 

 shall alwa\-s be among the Children of 

 Israel is thus more than fulfilled. In 

 spite of their industry, frugality, thrift, 

 soljriety and even philanthropy that 

 aims at abolishing i)aui)erism, there are 

 more Jewish mendicants, paupers, de- 

 pendents and defectives than social 

 conditions would lead us to expect. 



IJlkTII K.\TK NOW FALLING 



The deleterious influence of these 

 dysgenic customs and habits of the 

 Ghetto is jjroved in another way. In 

 western Iuiro])e and in America, where 

 the native Jews have discarded more or 

 less these peculiar marriage customs, 

 and where marriage is i)ostponcd till 

 the contracting ])arties are ])re])are(l 

 for the responsibilities they undertake; 

 where the activities of the Schadchen 

 are restricted or altogether spurned; 

 and where the physical condition of the 

 man counts for as much as his intel- 



lectual capacity, there has been ob- 

 served a very decided and striking 

 change in the i>hysical and intellectual 

 peculiarities of the ])eoi)le whose parents 

 and grandparents have been inhabitants 

 of the Ghetto. Their birth rates are 

 low and are sinking; in fact, according 

 to reliable statistical evidence avail- 

 able, the birth rates of the Jews in the 

 large cities in central and western 

 Europe are lower than those of any 

 other religious group of j^eoj^le. Going 

 hand-in-hand with this is also noted a 

 striking improvement in their social 

 and economic conditions. There are 

 hardly any dependents, mendicants and 

 paupers of Jewish faith whose parents 

 have lived outside of the Ghetto in 

 Germany, France, England, Italy, Scan- 

 dinavia or the United States for two 

 or more generations. Practically the 

 Jewish dependents in western countries 

 are of eastern nativity. But the pro- 

 portion of physical and mental defec- 

 tives has not been materially reduced 

 among them, which is evidently one of 

 the hereditary traits which cannot be 

 easily eradicated. 



While the economic conditions of the 

 native western Jews are on the whole 

 superior to those seen among their 

 eastern co-religionists, this cannot be 

 said about some other peculiarities 

 which may be noted by a close ob- 

 server. The well-known Jewish Schnor- 

 rer and itinerant mendicant has dis- 

 appeared among them. But instead 

 we find him now as a tramp or vagrant 

 who does not at all differ from the non- 

 Jewish people of this class. But this 

 sort of vicious jjerson, while jjarasitic 

 and anti-social during his own life 

 time, docs not menace future genera- 

 tions as a rule, because he hardly 

 leaves any ]irogeny. It is from among 

 these that we recently observed many 

 of the Jews who are vicious, esjiecially 

 the drimkards. drug fiends, etc. They 

 are now met with among the Jews in 

 the United States. Had they remained 

 under the inlUunccs of Ghetto life, 

 they would undoubtedly have con- 

 trilmted to the de])endent class and 

 j)roliferated in the characteristic manner 

 described above. 



Another impt)rtant change has taken 



