1806.] 
the train of Liberty ; and this is the rea- 
fon why theJewifh communities in Holland 
have produced fo many enlightened men: 
even now we find many {uch among them, 
fuch as Cappadoce, a phyfician ; D’ Acofta 
who was prefident of the Ba‘avian Legifla- 
tive Affembly ; Affer, and feveral others, 
of Amfterdam, who are eminent lawyers ; 
De Sojla and Bel-Infante at the Hague, 
&c. Like the Catholics, they have ac- 
quired in Holland political rights; but 
both Catholics and Jews complain that 
the intolerance of the lately dominant re- 
ligion actually deprives them of that 
which the law has granted them. 
During the laft fifreen years France has 
communicated to the 100,000 Jewsdifperf- 
ed in her departments every civil right ? 
Among them there are many men of cul- 
tivated minds, fuch as Rodriguez, Furta- 
do, Eli Levi; Bing, lately dead, and uni- 
verfally regretted ; Lipman Mofes, known 
as the author of Hebrew and German po- 
ems ; Beir-Ifaac Beer, who at the com- 
mencement of the Conftituent Affembly 
victorioufly refuted the paralogifms advan- 
ced by Lafare, bifhop of Nancy, againft 
the admiffion of Jews tocivil rights ; Mi- 
chael Berr, an advocate, and member of 
feveral learned focieties ; Zalkind How- 
witz, author of fome efteemed works, as 
for inftance, ** On the Refignation of the 
Jews 3°? Terkem and Anfchel, the former 
proteffor of the higher branches of mathe- 
matics, the latter of phyfics and chemif- 
try, at the Lyceum of Mentz, &c., &c. 
No Jew has ever had. a feat in any of 
the French National Aficmblies, into 
which Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinifts, 
Negroes, and Mulattoes, were admitted ; 
but feveral have filled with honour the 
offices of judges, adminiftrators, and mu- 
nicipal officers. In the department of 
Mont Tonnere one cf them is mayor of his 
commune, of which he has put the finan- 
cial affairs in very good order, and 1s 
efteemed as an excellent farmer. 
Mr. David Zinttheimer, a Rabbin of 
AJface, has difplayed much learning and 
eloquence in a letter which he addrefled 
two years ago to fuch as profeffed the 
Jewith religion; preaching charity to- 
wards all men, and the duties they 
owe to their country. The influence 
which he derives from his faceidotal 
charaéter enables him to fecond the views 
of the Government, which wifhes to turn 
the attention of the Jews to agriculture, 
and the exercife of the liberal and mecha- 
nic arts. The praifeworthy conduct of 
this Rabbin forms a ftriking contraft to 
that of many of his brethren, whofe folly 
Prefent State of the fews in France and Germany. 
405. 
and ignorance might lead us to fuppofe that 
they do not belong to the preient age. To 
be verfed in the Talmud is by them confi- 
dered as the maximum of learning. They 
contract and debafe the minds of their fol- 
lowers by the fooleries with which their 
memory is charged, and by a multitude of 
puerile obfervances, fome of which are not 
the moft decent, impofed upon the women 
in particular. Fearful of lofing their pow- 
er, they found the alarm as foon as any 
of their flock evince a defire to cultivate 
their underftandings. From the fame mo- 
tive, in the German provinces lately ane 
nexed to France, they oppofe the eftablith - 
ment of feparate fchools for the Jews, or 
the fending of their children to thofe of 
the Chriftians. 
In the paft centuries of our era, efpeci- 
ally from 450 to 550, difference of relie 
gion did not hinder the Jews and Chrif- 
tians from intermarrying ; but fuch untons 
are very rare in our times ; and not above 
four or five are known to have taken place 
in France fince the Revolution. 
The Jews have Jefs diflike to the milita- 
ry profeffion than to agriculture. Acon- 
fiderable number of them ferve in the 
French armies ; feveral of them are ofh- 
cers; and two have rifen to the rank of 
chiefs of battalions. 
Formerly the Portugueze and German 
Jews detefed the Caraites, and mutually 
hated each other. In the laft century a 
Pruffian Jewefs having married a Portu- 
‘gueze phyfician, her relations put on 
mourning as if fhe had been deads A 
Caraite having come to Frankfort, would 
have been murdered there, if Ludolp had 
not faved him from the fury of the fyna- 
gogue. A Rabbin had previoufly gives 
it as his decided opinion, that if a Caraite 
and a Chriftian were drowning at the fame 
inftant, the Rabbinical Jew ought to make 
a bridge of the body of the Caraite for 
the purpole of faving the Chriftian. _ 
Their ideas, however, have undergone 
a confiderable change in that refpect. It 
is not a hundred years fince fifty Jewifh 
families of Amfterdam having expreffed a 
with to declare themfelves Caraites, the 
Government prevented them. Lately, at 
Paris, a religious feftival united under the 
root of one tynagogue the Portugueze and 
German Jews. This, however, is fup- 
poled to have refulted lefs from a confor- 
mity of dcétrine, than from an indifference 
which is partly the fruit of their educa- 
tior. In their childhood they beard their 
teachers not only approve, but even prefer, 
the Taimud to the Bible; for the Rab- 
bins compare the latter to water, and the 
Talmud 
