402 



JEWS. 



to practice as physicians, 16 being Americans and 

 4 British, and 8 British and 1 German have asked 

 for pharmaceutist licenses, all of which were at 

 once granted. In the old " three cities and five 

 ports" 43 foreigners have practiced medicine. 

 One of the most destructive storms known for 

 years visited the country on Aug. 28 and 29, the 

 number of killed and wounded being in the hun- 

 dreds, and the houses and vessels injured in the 

 tens of thousands. The first murder case under 

 the new treaties, the judges being three Japa- 

 nese, was that of an American named Miller, who 

 killed one man and two Japanese women. The 

 court dismissed the plea of inherited insanity 

 and the argument of brain deterioration through 

 drinking Japanese whisky, and sentenced the 

 prisoner to capital punishment. Mr. H. W. Deni- 

 son, for many years in the service of the Foreign 

 Office of Tokio, in September received audience of 

 the Emperor and investment with the First Class 

 Order of the Rising Sun, the first ever given to 

 any one not of the diplomatic corps. 



JEWS. The final act of the Dreyfus drama 

 was played at Rennes, Aug. 7, where the new 

 trial was held. On July 1 the prisoner had re- 

 turned to France from the Devil's isle, a revision 

 of his trial having been decided upon early in 

 June. The proceedings aroused international in- 

 terest, heightened on Aug. 14 by the attempted 

 assassination of M. Labori, Dreyfus's counsel. 

 The verdict given by five of the seven military 

 judges was, " Guilty of treason." It was added 

 that they did not desire him to be obliged to un- 

 dergo again the ceremony of degradation before 

 the army, that there were " extenuating circum- 

 stances," and that he should be pardoned, on the 

 ground that his years of solitary confinement in 

 consequence of his first sentence had sufficed as 

 punishment. On Sept. 19 he was pardoned by 

 President Loubet on the recommendation of the 

 ministry, he and his friends agreeing not to ap- 

 peal. He and his family then took up their resi- 

 dence at Carpentras, in southern France. The 

 result of the trial aroused considerable indigna- 

 tion; meetings were held in the chief cities of 

 the globe, and representatives of all classes and 

 creeds protested, while the press was unanimous 

 in its condemnation of the verdict. But it was 

 soon felt that peace with or without honor was 

 best for France, and with the rehabilitation of 

 Lieut.-Col. Picquart and the quashing of the trials 

 against Emile Zola the rest of the world had to 

 be satisfied. 



The profound regret expressed at the death of 

 Baroness Clara de Hirsch de Gereuth in Paris, 

 on April 1, proved the universal reverence felt 

 for her, which was intensified when it was known 

 that by the provisions of her will she had not 

 only maintained her husband's benevolent proj- 

 ects, but devoted practically her whole private 

 fortune to philanthropy, not restricted to those 

 of her own creed. Several million dollars were 

 given to strengthen the Hirsch colonies in Can- 

 ada and New Jersey and for the erection of 

 workingmen's homes in upper New York, while 

 charities and educational societies in France, 

 England, and Austria-Hungary were richly en- 

 dowed. 



The third Basle Zionist Congress, Aug. 15, was 

 well attended, the greater number* of delegates 

 representing Russian, Roumanian, and Galician 

 Jews. It was said that the movement was mak- 

 ing satisfactory progress. The chief aim appears 

 to have shifted to colonization of Palestine, the 

 idea of a Jewish state being less emphasized. 



The subscriptions to the Colonial Bank were 

 announced as meeting expectations, and the 



Sultan of Turkey was to be sounded as to the 

 purchase price for a tract in Palestine to be a 

 home of refuge for persecuted Jews. At the same 

 time the Sultan excludes Jewish immigrants from 

 right of residence beyond thirty days unless they 

 become Turkish subjects, the decree being in- 

 tended to prevent any immigration en masse of 

 destitute aliens. The outrages in Moravia and 

 Bohemia, due to political causes, culminated in 

 the arrest of a half-witted Jewish lad at Polna, 

 Bohemia, on the charge of killing a Christian girl 

 for ritual purposes. The trial resulted in a ver- 

 dict of guilty, but there is every indication that 

 it will be appealed and the prisoner declared in- 

 nocent. Such accusations are rare the latest 

 occurred in Hungary in the early eighties but 

 on an inflammable population, grossly ignorant 

 and bigoted, the tools of designing demagogues 

 and Jew baiters, the blood accusation is always 

 a pretext for mob law and plunder. It has stirred 

 the flames of anti-Semitism in Austria, despite 

 the public protest of Emperor Francis Joseph, 

 and has been made the subject of Government 

 inquiry that has not allayed but increased the 

 agitation. With Czech and German at each 

 other's throat, the village Jew is a convenient 

 scapegoat, and many wealthy Jewish landowners 

 .and manufacturers have removed to Vienna and 

 Buda-Pesth. Spirited protests against the verdict 

 and the charge in general were made by emi- 

 nent Christians priests, professors, advocates 

 and papal decrees of the Middle Ages denouncing 

 the blood accusation as baseless were spread in 

 all directions. The issue is still in doubt, and 

 the political uncertainty and confusion add to 

 the perplexities of the situation. In Germany 

 there has been a gratifying lull in anti-Semitism. 

 In England the presence of delegates of the Amer- 

 ican Council of Jewish Women at the Interna- 

 tional Congress of Women in London made a 

 significant incident. In Roumania the Govern- 

 ment has sought to check educational progress 

 among the Jews by continued limitation of the 

 number of Jewish children who are permitted to 

 attend the schools of the land. 



Among the 'honors received, T. C. Asser, the 

 Dutch jurist, was one of Holland's representa- 

 tives at The Hague conference. Prof. S. Schech- 

 ter was appointed Professor of Hebrew at the 

 University of London, while Dr. A. Neubauer re- 

 tired as librarian of the Bodleian with a pension 

 for life. Louis S. Cohen was elected mayor of 

 Liverpool. Rev. Dr. Adler, chief rabbi of the 

 Jews of England, received the degree of LL. D. 

 from the University of St. Andrew's. The year 

 closed with marked amelioration of the condition 

 of the Jews of Algiers, anti-Semitism meeting with 

 a decisive check. 



In America Temple Sinai, of Chicago, cele- 

 brated on Jan. 15 the twenty-fifth anniversary 

 of the establishment of Sunday services, which 

 have been adopted in a few congregations, but 

 as yet have not met with very pronounced suc- 

 cess. On March 14 the eightieth birthday of the 

 Rev. Dr. I. M. Wise, of Cincinnati, -was cele- 

 brated, and on May 13 the seventieth birthday of 

 the Rev. Dr. M. Jastrow, of Philadelphia. On 

 Nov. 12 the Rev. Dr. B. Szold had a public cele- 

 bration of his seventieth birthday. On April 23 

 the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans was dedi- 

 cated; on May 18 the New York Hebrew Chari- 

 ties Building, the gift of Solomon Loeb. On May 

 7 the San Francisco Mount Zion Hospital was 

 opened, and on Dec. 10 the Denver Home for 

 Consumptives. On May 19 a National Conference 

 of Jewish Charities was organized in Cincinnati, 

 and in December 24 constituent societies joined 



