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COLLEGE LIBRARY
THE
JEWISH CONTRIBUTION
TO CIVILIZATION
By
the
Smne Author
THE LAST FLORENTINE REPUBLIC

London,
ip2); Italian translation, Florence, ip2^
THE CASALE PILGRIM

Londo7i, 1929
l'apotre des marranes

Paris, ipô
HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN VENICE

Philadelphia, 1930; Italian translation, Ro7ne, 1933
A JEWISH BOOK OF DAYS

London,
1931
HISTORY OF THE MARRANOS

Philadelphia, 1932
LETTERE
DI
DONATO GIANNOTTI A PIERO VETTORI

In collaboration with R. Ridolfi. Florence, 1932
THE NEPHEW OF THE ALMIGHTY

London, 1933
A LIFE OF MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL

Philadelphia, 1934
A bird's-eye view of JEWISH HISTORY

Cijicinnati, 193^
ETC.
JEWISH
CONTRIBUTION
The
to
CIVILIZATION
BY CECIL
HARPER
(&
ROTH
BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
Nenv York and London
Third Printing
CXJP'V'RIGHT,
1940
BY
CECIL ROTH
PRINTED IN U.
S.
OF AMERICA
MY
TO
BROTHER
LEON ROTH
^Tra cotanto senno'
(inferno,
IV.
102)
Digitized by the Internet Archive

in
LYRASIS
2011 with funding from
IVIembers and Sloan Foundation
http://www.archive.org/details/jewishcontributiOOroth
FOREWORD
At any time it would be a public service to issue in an
American edition this volume on The Jewish Contribution to Civilization, but today
The Jewish
it is
of special importance.
people constitute a considerable element in
our population, and beyond their numbers ranges their

many fields. The very distinctiveness of their
ethnic and religious inheritance, and the very weight and
impact of their achievements, arouse every manner of
reaction often inadequately informed, springing from
vague rumor, helped out by deliberate propaganda, and
sometimes issuing in dangerous prejudice.
To anyone capable of harboring thoroughgoing antiSemitism a group prejudice, that is, directed against a
whole race of human beings this book is probably too
intelligent to make an effective appeal. Such vulgar and
barbarian race prejudice is not only without rootage in
anthropology, without support in the social sciences, and
incredible to normal men and women; it is, from the
standpoint of morals, one of the most debasing of human
attitudes. As H. G. Wells has written, "I am convinced
myself that there is no more evil thing in this present
world than race prejudice, none at all. I write deliberately
it is the worst single thing in life now. It justifies and
holds together more baseness, cruelty and abomination
than any other sort of error in the world." Events in
Europe have terribly validated this judgment, and in
influence in
America the repercussions of foreign anti-Semitism are

too frequent and menacing to be neglected.
Mr. Roth's special contribution to an intelligent outvii
Vm
FOREWORD
look on this situation is made on a high level. This book

a compact, readable, interesting, broad-minded statement of facts, often undreamed of by those who glibly
is
make pronouncements on the "Jewish problem," and its

wide-spread reading would temper many popular judgments, correct many common misunderstandings, and introduce perspective and balance into public discussion.
It is
particularly fitting that a Christian should help
introduce this volume to
its
American
readers.
Here
is
without malice by a Jew, which, nonetheless,

lays on the Christian conscience a burden of guilt and
responsibility. The very peculiarities of Jewish custom
and vocation, and the differentials of Jewish habit, which
many deprecate, are not so much native to the group as
they are desperately acquired under the terrific pressure
of persecution across the centuries. Only as Jews and
story, told
Christians recognize together the folly of their prejudices,
the suicidal nature of their mutual antagonisms, the
mon
com-
and the great gain in

their cooperation, can any desirable future be foreseen.
Mr. Roth's approach to this problem is historical. He
brings a more just estimate of Jewish contributions to culture and civilization within reach of popular understanding. In one realm after another, where non-Jews have
walked in the pride of their possessions, he shows the
notable and often forgotten part the Jews played in discovery, invention, and creation. It must have been a difficult book for Mr. Roth to write without overstatement
and exaggeration. That he has scrupulously tried to be
fair, accurate, balanced, and careful, is obvious. The result
is a volume well worth the attention of American readers.
guilt of their estrangement,
Harry Emerson Fosdick
PREFACE
This work
is
intended as a contribution towards the
settlement of a discussion of long standing,
which
is
now
once again attracting attention. It is alleged by

modern anti-Semites, in order to justify a prejudice
which, in these ostensibly tolerant times, they hesitate
to base
on
tially a
middleman,
he
is
theological grounds, that the
who
an alien excrescence on Western
influence
Jew
is
essen-
has produced nothing; that

life;
and that the
which he has had on the world's
culture,
during the past two thousand years, has been entirely

if not deleterious. Such a criticism demands
an analysis based not on theory but on fact; and this
is what I have endeavored to provide. I have set out
negative,
to write this book as objectively as possible. I am

making no attempt to evaluate the Jewish genius or
even to decide whether such a thing exists. Perhaps, on
the basis of the material collected in this volume,
it
may
be possible to come to some conclusion upon

these problems in the future. My task has been a
comparatively simple,
to assemble and set
if
down
laborious, one. I have tried

in this
volume a representa-
tive selection of the contributions
zation, the culture,
made
to the civili-
and the amenities of the western
world by persons of Jewish lineage.

There has been in this no question of a theological
test of any sort. Today, as has been indicated, the
ix
PREFACE
assault
upon
the
made on
whose veins
Jew
grounds. Persons in
is
"racial," not religious
there runs the blood
of a single Jew as far as three generations back of

one traceable Jewish great-grandparent, that is are
ferociously persecuted today in Germany on the plea
that their stock is alien, and ipso facto harmful to
German, "Nordic," and European cultural life. The
Jewish people, moreover, is consistently blamed for the
actions of persons of Jewish origin, who not only have
cut themselves off from Jewish life, but who even
have professed markedly anti-Jewish sentiments,
which they have not scrupled to translate into action.
Hence, one is justified in attempting to evaluate the
Jewish contribution in terms of Jews and not of Juda-
ism alone by taking into account
made by persons
ever their religious

I
tliose
contributions
of traceable Jewish ancestry, whataffiliation
or sympathies.
must confess, however, that normally,
sence of such a religious distinction,
in the ab-
would
find
it
what a Jew is. I have no

any of the current contro-
difficult to define precisely
intention to enter into

versies
on "race" and "blood," nationality and
gion.
can only
^This term
state, as
an historical
in the present connotation
is
implications
(and
still
is
reli-
how-
of course based on an
ancient and exploded embryological theory.

as in the present instance,
fact, that
To make
use of
it,
sometimes convenient; to draw further
more
to
make
it
the basis of a political
absurd to a degree. So also the terms "Aryan"

and "Non-Aryan," while occasionally convenient in use, are a
theory or policy)
is
is one of the most regrettable features

contemporary intellectual life that an imposing pseudo-scientific
structure sometimes dominating public affairs can be erected
on the basis of a linguistic misusage.
scientific monstrosity. It
in
PREFACE
ever distinct the Jews
may
XI
have been from their
neighbors ethnologically at the beginning of their

settlement in Europe, this distinction has been progressively modified.
For countless generations every
European country (not excluding Germany) pursued
as a
point of principle the policy of encouraging
conversions from Judaism to the dominant faith
by
every means which lay in its power, fair or foul.

There were baptisms from conviction. There were
baptisms from material interest. There were forced
baptisms, on an enormous scale, in more countries than
one. If this violent pressure has been relaxed during
the last century and a half, the tendency toward leav-
ing the Jewish fold has been maintained

stant procession of those converted
from convenience, or those who have

into the majority
by
by
the con-
from conviction or
drifted insensibly
the gradual process of assimila-
tion.
On
the other hand, even at the darkest hour of
were Christians who saw fresh

in Judaism and became integrated in the Jewish community as "children of Abraham the Patriarch." The numbers in question were
there
degradation,
spiritual potentialities
never great, but a process of

a period of
two thousand
this sort,
continued for
years, necessarily modified
whatever purity of stock may originally have existed.

To this must be added the illicit admixture which was
inevitable
on
either side, the result of scenes of vio-
lence or interludes of romance.

It is
impossible to escape the conclusion that the
much-discussed "racial" differentiation between the
XU
PREFACE
Jews and their neighbors, especially in those countries

like Germany, in which their settlement is of oldest
date, is largely artificial. The amount of Jewish blood
traceable among non-Jews is surprisingly great, even
if one goes back for only a single century. Vice versa,
few Jews can fail to have (whether they realize it or
no) some tincture of non- Jewish blood in their veins.
To quote the words of the late Lucien Wolf (which
gather new weight in the light of these facts), "the
Jew who emerged from the Ghetto was no longer a
Palestinian Semite but an essentially modern European, who differed from his Christian fellow-countrymen only in that his religion was of the older Semitic
form and that his physical type had become sharply
defined through a slightly more rigid exclusiveness in
the matter of marriages than that practiced
estants
My
and
Roman
by Prot-
Catholics."
use of the term
"Jew" in the following pages

hence denotes a person whose immediate ancestors
professed the Jewish religion.
The
differentiation
artificial
one.
is
clearly to
The background and
some extent an
the upbringing of
the Jewish and non-Jewish elements are in

stances identical. In the case of persons of
many
in-
mixed an-
cestry, the fifty or twenty-five per cent of Jewish

blood cannot be proved the decisive factor in the
determination of the particular genius of a poet or
playwright or philanthropist.
No more is
it,
of course,
in the determination of the character of a criminal, a
decadent, or a revolutionary. If the Jewish people
is
to receive a full measure of blame for the one cate-
Xm
PREFACE
gory,
justified in
it is
claiming some measure of credit
for the other.
must be
It
realized that the author has
no
intention
of giving here anything in the nature of a connected

account of those subjects on which he touches. Those
who may be interested in "Jewish art" or "Jewish

medicine" must be referred to the specialized works
devoted to those questions. It would have been beyond
the
power of
this
book
purpose
if
fields
and the author will have served his

he has indicated, by mentioning some out-
The
how Jews
is
not in a position to judge,
nor can he agree with what
on
perhaps, by
have collaborated in each
psychological and philosophical nature
of the contribution he
asserted
man to give a satisfactory

human activity of which
of
treats;
standing names,
sphere.
a single
many
survey of the
these subjects.
is
generally so confidently
The Jew
is
distinguished,
a slightly greater degree of intellectuali-
zation; possibly
by
a freshness of outlook, natural in
one whose approach tends to be external; and, in

consequence, by a faculty for synthesis and for introducing new ideas. He is apt to show, in fact, certain
characteristics
inevitable
in
persons
who
belong,
through the circumstances of their history, to a single

sociological group.
To
say more
The outcome
my
enquiry has been more than a
of
is
hazardous.
even to myself. There
is no branch of
which Jews have not
touched and enriched. In some branches, the contribution has been more significant than in others. But,
whether we consider literature or medicine or science
little
surprising,
human
culture or civilization
PREFACE
XIV
or exploration or humanitarianism or
art,
the
Jew
has
been prominent. That he has not produced giants in

all these branches is of course true; for the same is
the case with every other fraction of humanity. England has produced only one Shakespeare, Germany
only one Goethe; and who will say that these stand
on a higher level, whether as thinkers or as masters
of the written word, than the Prophet Isaiah? England
gave birth to no philosopher on the same plane as
Spinoza; no musician who excels Mendelssohn; no
contemporary painter, perhaps, of the calibre of Pissarro or Liebermann. In the fields of medicine and
science, moreover, the Jewish contribution during the
past century can well stand comparison with that of
any country of the world without exception and
that notwithstanding the fact that emancipated Jewry
numbered until a few years ago far less than the population of one of the Balkan or Scandinavian states.
made in
some readers extravagant.
Certain assertions
to
volume may appear

can only plead that I
this
I
have taken the utmost pains to verify my statements

and have included nothing for which I was unable to
find reliable authority.
prised,
Many
will doubtless be sur-
for example, to discover the extent of the
Jews in the maritime discoveries

century. But the data are indubitably
participation of the
of the fifteenth
as I
have stated them;
my
account cannot claim even
the merit of originality. It must be borne in mind, after

all,
that general ignorance of a fact does not neces-
sarily impair its validity.

I
am
certain,
moredver, that any baseless claims
PREFACE
XV
which may have been made, notwithstanding my

caution, are far outnumbered by omissions, whether
due to ignorance or to the obvious impossibihty of
being able to ascertain the precise antecedents of every
Nothing has been further from
individual.
my
mind
than any sort of Jewish chauvinism.

man or a group
of men does not deserve particular merit for having
performed his or their duty. Only when the

impugned does proof become necessary.
My
indebtedness in the composition of a
such complexity
knowledgment
to
however, express
Charles Singer,
is
fact
work
is
of
too great to permit detailed ac-
who
all
my
who
have assisted me. I must,

deep gratitude at least to Dr.
revised the chapters
on the Jew
Medicine and kindred branches in the light of his

vast knowledge; to my brother. Professor Leon Roth,
in
of the University of Jerusalem, for contributing the
on Philosophy; and to my
with heroic application compiled the Index.
essential part of the section
wife,
who
In adapting the
ican reader,
Dr. Emanuel
work
to the requirements of the
have had
Amer-
also the invaluable assistance of
Gamoran and
group of
his friends.
Cecil Roth
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
FOREWORD
vii
'
PREFACE
I.
ix
THE HEBRAIC HERITAGE
THE PROCESS OF DEGRADATION
22
III.
THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING
52
IV.
THE GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY
II.
V.
THE JEW^ IN LETTERS

Appendix: Journalism and the Jew
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
THE JEW IN
141
1
EUROPEAN THOUGHT
46
180
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
MEDICINE
220
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

Appendix: The Jews in
93
25
Agriculture
PUBLIC LIFE
291
298
Law
324
CHARITy"
33O
Appendix: Jews and Western

XII.
76
IO3
"the GREATEST OF THESE
IS
EPILOGUE
362
BIBLIOGRAPHY
369
INDEX
381
xvii
THE
JEWISH CONTRIBUTION
TO
CIVILIZATION
CHAPTER
Jewish history
I.
is
The Hebraic Heritage
approximately divided into two
nearly equal periods, the dividing line between them

falling,
whether one adopts the theological or the
political standpoint, at the age of Jesus of
or the destruction of Jerusalem
by
the
Nazareth,
Romans
generation after his death. During the early period,
roughly coinciding with the nineteen centuries before

the beginning of the Christian Era, the Jews or rather
as
they are better termed over most of
constituted
of the
Near
many lesser
They were distinprincipally by their
one of the
the Israelites
nationalities
this period,
East.
guished from their neighbors
and by the superior

which resulted therefrom. During the
religious beliefs
ethical
code
latter period,
roughly coinciding with the nineteen centuries of

the Christian Era, they have been a people scattered
throughout the world, in all continents and in almost

every land, still adhering to their distinctive religious
system but exercising their influence as individuals
rather than as a group.
It is with the latter period, more properly the
"Jewish," that this work will in the main deal. But
3
JEWISH CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION
4
it
would be misleading to omit
reference to the
all
which, taken over by Christianity

(in a somewhat modified or expanded form, as Jew
Heritage of
Israel,
and Christian respectively hold) has

cable influence
upon
left
an ineradi-
the structure of the
modern
world.
It is
a commonplace that
amalgam of
three elements.
modern
civilization
is
From Rome, we have
an
re-
ceived our conception of law and, to some extent, of
From
politics.
Greece, operating sometimes through
Rome, we have our philosophy,
as well as
our aesthetic
whether in literature or in the other arts.

Israel, the Western World owes its religion and
standards,
And to
its ethics.^
The
Hebraic contribution to Western

and the Hebrew's greatest gift to hu-
basis of the
civilization
manity is the ideal of the One God, Creator of Heaven

and Earth. According to the biblical account, this conception, familiar to the Patriarchs,
their descendants at the foot of
was reaffirmed
Mount
Sinai;
to
accord-
it was a gradual discovery,

some centuries later. In any case,
ing to the critical view,

fully realized only
it
is
fundamental to a consideration of the Hebraic
element in modern
life.
Greek and Indian thinkers
may have had a glimmering of the same truth. Only

the Hebrew proclaimed it aloud, adhered to it through
^To
this
conventional triple division
may
be added the modern
contribution of technical efficiency, which constitutes the outward

shell (too often
confused with the substance) of present-day
zation. In this, Jews, as individuals, have played a
which
civili-
noteworthy
part,
will be considered in detail in later chapters of this book.

persecution and vilification, yielded up his
sake,
and made
it
central to his
whole
life
for
existence.
its
The
Jews of today, adhering to the monotheistic tradition

of their fathers, number some sixteen million souls.
But, through Jesus and Paul, the Hebraic teaching,
in a modified form, yet basically identical, passed to
Europe, and
tians
is
now
cherished
by 650,000,000
throughout the world. Six centuries
reiterated in Arabia with desert sternness
Chris-
later, it was
by Moham-
med and is now the creed of 220,000,000 Moslems.

The kernel of both religions is the terse declaration
which the Hebrews believed to be uttered by the
Deity Himself from Sinai: / a7n the Lord thy
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
God.
There is, of course, more in monotheism than this
dogmatic self-affirmation of Deity. The most unfet.
tered thinker of today
who
steadfastly refuses to sub-
any theological dictum owes, nevertheless,

to Hebraism the breaking of the shackles of polytheism the worship of animals and images, of the
stars and planets, of a plurality of deities such as those
in the Hellenic pantheon with their human appetites
and lusts and failings. There was in this a degrading
and demoralizing effect, which cannot escape the
notice of any student of ancient history. The commanding part taken by the moral code in the biblical
religious system is too familiar to require any amplification here. But the ideas of the value of human
life, the sanctity of the home, and the dignity of the
marital relationship, which nominally prevail at the
present time, are essentially a biblical heritage. For the
scribe to
religion of the ancient
scribed in
modern
its
application.
thinker, the struggle for justice
gods in the
gle against other
being
Hebrews was not circumAs has been remarked by a
two
separate movements, are logically one and
Even
the same.
and the strug-
biblical age, instead of
at the present time,
ception of mediation between
man and
when
his
the con-
Creator and
the institution of hagiolatry sometimes tend to obscure
among
the ignorant the monotheistic basis of
ern spiritual
life,
the clarion voice of the
West-
Hebrew
an ever-present reminder of that underlywhich every Church adheres.

The monotheistic idea had, moreover, a far-reaching
influence on Western thought even in its least theo-
prophets
is
ing principle of Unity to
logical aspects.
morals, and
exhausted
we
its
We
usually connect Hebraism with
are apt to think that
significance.
cance for science, too. Science

larity. It is
we
have thereby
But Hebraism has

is
signifi-
the search for regu-
the attempt to find order and system. But
regularity, order,
and system are only derivatives from
the unity postulated in the Hebraic conception of
God. The modern reaction against "Laws of Nature"

need blind us no more than the modern reaction
against Puritanism to the
immense
scientific signifi-
cance, both historical^ and actual, of monotheism.
The triumphs
sible
of
modem science
the rationality of the Universe,"

ultimate bequests of the
^
have been made pos-
only by the "superb and unshaken confidence in
The
point
is
World, Chap.
i.
which
Hebrew
is
one of the
prophets to hu-
made by Whitehead, Science and
the
Modern

manity
at large. If
tional morality,
God," the
Law
is
Duty, with the
capital
of tradi-
the "stern daughter of the voice of
of Science
is
that voice
itself.
necessary extension of the idea of the Divine
Unity is that of the equality of all before the One

God. Out of the same seed which gave birth to the
conception of the Chosen People, there developed
ultimately in the Hebrew prophets and in the Talmud
the idea of the brotherhood of
all
peoples.
hood of peoples makes abhorrent the
The brother-
idea of inter-
necine war. All the dreams of universal peace that
have stirred mankind
down
to our
own day
are to be
traced back to that Messianic vision of the Prophet

Isaiah,
of an age
when
up
they learn war
"people shall not
lift
sword against people, nor shall

any more." To us today it may seem trite, but there
was an epoch-making originality in this idea in an age
when conquest was regarded as the natural right of
the stronger, and a victorious war the ideal of every
powerful state. Contemporary developments have
given the Hebraic attitude new force and value, and
today it is no exaggeration to say that the future of
civilization depends upon the renewal of the prophetic
its
dream.
The God
of Israel was, moreover, a
eousness. This
is
insisted
God
of right-
overwhelming passion for righteousness
upon
in the Bible almost as
monotheistic idea, for the one

sion of the other.
is
much
Here was no impersonal
deity, in-
different to men's affairs,
selfish one,
by
Who
flattery
as the
the concrete expres-
nor yet a
and bribes; but a God
swayed
loved good-
ness,
Who
abhorred oppression,
Who
conduct between
tive standards of
laid
down
man and
posi-
his fellow,
Who insisted on justice, truth, and morality. The ideals

of social justice, which Western reformers are endeav-
own
oring to carry into practice in our

ideals taught
the
common
by
Isaiah,
day, are the
Amos, and Micah, now part of

would be absurd
heritage of mankind. It
to claim that the affirmation of righteousness as a fun-
damental principle in the conduct of human
Hebrew;
affairs is
found in the teachings of Buddha, of Confucius, and of the Greek philosophers. These, however, made their protest against
superstition and their plea for righteousness, almost
simultaneously, some two hundred years after Amos
and Hosea had sounded the call in Palestine, in the
eighth century B.C.
and this, according to the traditional view, was nearly a thousand years after those
same ideas had been proclaimed at Sinai. Moreover,
peculiar to the
it is
to be
the
non-Hebrew
thinkers, in effect,
stitute for religion. It
is
made
ethics a sub-
the enduring glory of the
He-
brews that they made ethics central in religion the

which the Western World pays at least lipservice. Nor is there any comparison between the
academic reasoning of Plato and the burning hunger
for righteousness which is characteristic of the prophideal to
ets.
The Old Testament
is
herein no less potent a force
modern world than
New. But
is
im-
possible to neglect in this connection the essential
He-
in the
the
braic content of the Gospels. Jesus
by
birth,
was
it
Jew not only
but also by upbringing; and some of
his
most
Striking sayings were part and parcel of the rabbinic
The Lord's Prayer and the Sermon

on the Mount are paralleled in the Talmud, verse for
verse and phrase for phrase. The Golden Rule, "Do
unto thy neighbor as thou wouldst be done by," is
teaching of his day.
only a paraphrase of the riecommendation of Jesus'

older contemporary, Hillel, who died when the
founder of Christianity was only ten years old. Hillel
taught, "What is distasteful to thee, do not to thy
neighbor."
The Rabbis
of the age of Jesus joined with
him, too, in averring that the pentateuchal injunction,
"Love thy neighbor
as thyself"
fundamental principle of
declared, "This
is
(Lev. 19:18), was a
religion.
the whole
Law;
As
this
the rest
same Hillel
but com-
is
mentary."
When
the Christian believer goes to church to pray,
he does not realize that he
is
making use of another
Jewish innovation. In ancient times the basic element

of public worship
fice. So, too,
was animal, sometimes human,
with the primitive Hebrews. But,
sacri-
at
an
method of worship was restricted since

it was forbidden to offer up sacrifice outside the central
sanctuary which was ultimately situated in Jerusalem.
Thus, even in remote times, pious believers in the more
early date, this
distant parts of the
with
sacrifice
God; and
when
country had perforce dispensed

they poured out their hearts to
the prophets, with their bitter denunciation
of formalism without piety, strengthened this ten-
dency. During the Babylonian Exile,
when
Jerusalem
lO
and the Temple lay in ashes, the nation dispensed altogether with sacrifice. To this period probably belongs
the origin of the Beth ha-Keneseth or Synagogue the
"place of assembly," where the reading of God's law
was accompanied by prayer. Hence, in the period of
the Second Temple, a synagogue was to be found in
every city and township of Palestine, and this manner
of worship became familiar to the non-Jewish world
by
the erection of similar institutions in
all
the princi-
pal centers of the Diaspora.
Thus, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d.,

irreparable blow was felt by Judaism as a religious
no
system.
Its
strengthened.
spiritual
were
indeed,
potentialities,
The synagogues continued
to function
regularly, prayer taking permanently the place of sacrifice.^
That which was considered,
bitter
element in the national
at the time, the
disaster,
most
subsequently
came to be regarded by the Jew, earlier than any other

branch of the human family, the natural mode of worship.
When
Christianity began to expand through the
world, under the aegis of Paul and his companions, the

first
centers of missionary activity
gogues, found in
Roman Empire.
all
were the syna-
the most important cities of the
These, rather than the pagan temples,
formed the model and the
ideal of the
new
sect. First,
the Christian missionaries attempted to convert the

^ It is
not generally realized
how
long the trices of animal sacri-
on the pagan model, remained in the church. Thus, for example, it was customary to slaughter a stag in St. Paul's Cathedral
in London each Christmas untU long after the Reformation nearly
fifteen centuries after the Jews had abandoned such practices.
fice,
II
Jewish congregations to their own way of beUef in

case of failure, they set up their own sectarian syna;
it was the Jewish, not

which was followed. That which to
and so obvious must have appeared to
gogues. In either circumstance,

the Pagan system
us
is
so natural
some contemporaries, a remarkable innovation, but, in

the long run, it carried the day. And, some six centuries later,
when
Islam began
its
triumphant march,
the Mosque, too, with its sternly Puritan procedure,

was modeled upon the spiritualized places of worship
of the two Peoples of the Book,^ Jews and Christians.
The Church, of course, owes much more to the
Synagogue than this, though this is the essential. Its
structure and "orientation" copy the Synagogue, in
which worship was directed towards Jerusalem, that
is,
in
much
of Europe, to the East.
The
stoup at the
door, for holy water, seems to reproduce the laver at
the entrance of the older (and, to this day, the Italian)
synagogues, which enabled worshippers to precede

their godliness
by
cleanliness, in
dictates of the rabbis.

is
The
accordance witJi the
light before the high altar
a reminiscence of the perpetual lamp,
which
(fol-
lowing the example set in the Temple in Jerusalem)

burned day and night in the "lesser sanctuaries" which
replaced it. The use of incense followed Old Testament prescription, revered though not practiced by
the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem.
The
sepa-
which Jewish
recent years, was
ration of the sexes in public worship,
reformers have almost abolished in
^The very term Mosque

Axamaic fnasgeda.
is
apparently derived from the Judaso-
12
frequently practiced
Reformation. And,
by
Church even
the
after the
when the ecstatic Christian revival-
Hallelujah, or the devout worshipper pro-
ist cries
nounces Ainen, he
is
using a
Hebrew term
familiar in
synagogal worship long before the Church came into

being.
may be
So, too, with ceremonial. Christian baptism
traced back to the symbolic bath

to Judaism
which the proselyte
had to undergo. The communion service
was modeled upon the Seder meal of Passover Eve.

Theologians dispute the exact degree of interdependence, yet
it is
clear that Jesus' last "supper" constituted
the prototype, and his words the specific injunction,
which lay
at the
institution,
bottom of
this all-important Christian
while the elements recall the ceremonial
breaking of bread and benediction of wine on the eve

of Sabbaths and festivals.
Church continue the

lic
reading of the
was not
The
Law
the
lectionaries of
tradition of the cycle of the
pub-
in the synagogues. This, again,
so obvious a procedure as centuries of usage
have made
it
appear to us; but
it
was rendered
essential
in ancient Judea in order to familiarize the people with
the regulations of Jewish religious and social
life
em-
bodied in the Pentateuch, and for that reason had been

a regular practice ever since the fifth century
time went on,
it
b.c.
As
became customary to read a section
from the Prophets, containing
a passage related to the
its echo in the

Second Lesson of the Church, Much of Christian worship is made up of the Psalms of David, while many
section in the Pentateuch; this has
original
hymns
are based
upon
these so closely as to be

in certain cases (e.g. the English
"O God,
our Help in
Ages Past") mere paraphrases.

3
Though
the influence of the Bible
Western World on the

is
is
greatest in the
theological and ethical side,
discernible also in the field of
politics.
imply that the Jews enjoyed a very high

velopment, as
Roman
true of the
is
Greek
republic. Nevertheless,
it
political de-
city-states
and the
has been suggested
that the "people of the land," at the time of the
brew monarchy,
it
This does not
He-
constituted a sort of democratic as-
sembly, and in the time of the Maccabees and the Last
Commonwealth
certainly
there
existed
popular
Council, whose assent was considered necessary for
any
constitutional change.
The importance
age of
modern Europe, however, does not
terior details,
came
of Hebraism in the political herit-
but in the
into existence
tion, to
spirit.
lie
in ex-
The Hebrew monarchy
under the influence of a concep-
be found nowhere
else in antiquity,
which
re-
garded the constitution as the result of a tripartite

agreement or covenant bet^veen the people, the ruler,
and the Deity. This may sound elementary. But, if
the Deity
is
the
embodiment of justice and righteousmonarchy is dependent on the
ness, it follows that the
maintenance not only of certain religious but also of

human values.
see this conception in the story of
We
the oldest
est
Hebrew monarch,
development
Saul;
it
reaches
its
high-
in the career of David. It underlies
the outline of the ideal
monarchy which
is
given in the
14
Mosaic Code. And, above

course of subsequent
all, it is
Hebrew
implicit in the w^hole
history,
when prophet
prophet dared to admonish the ruler for
after
breach of the fundamental laws, for
human
misery, for his oppression of the poor. It
markable that in almost
all
his
his callousness to
is
re-
cases the prophet's reproofs
were heard with forbearance, as though to acknowledge his right to criticize and the essential justice
of his claim.
remarkable phrase occurs in the de-
scription of the king's prerogatives in the Pentateuch
(Deut. 27:20) which sums up the Hebraic ideal of the

monarchy: "that his heart be not lifted up above his
brethren.''^
In the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries,
when the study of the Bible in the vernacular
was popular
new
life.
in
Western Europe,
these stories received
In every land, but especially in the English-
speaking countries, pious Christians identified them-
with the Israelites of old, people with people

and tyrant with tyrant. When a nation thinks in this
way, absolutism cannot be condoned. In just the same
manner as the oppression of Israel by the Court of
Samaria had been against God's expressed will, so, the
Puritans thought they were fulfilling the desire of God
when they fought against arbitrary government. Elijah's reproof of the tyranny of Ahab applied no less,
they thought, to the unconstitutional attempts of
Charles I. They read an indictment of the Star Chamber in the thunderings of Amos and found that ship
selves
money was condemned

Naboth's vineyard. The
implicitly in the episode of

Bible,
moreover, was in dia-

metrical opposition to the idea of
divine descent
tlie
of kings, which was one of the basic principles of

primitive absolutism.
Hence the Hebraic conception of the tripartite

agreement between God, His people, and the ruler, a
breach of which might forfeit the latter's throne, lay
at the basis of the reaffirmation of constitutional government in England. This, in turn, was taken over by
the fathers of the American Revolution,
spired at every turn
ings
and language,
by
who were
the ideas of the Bible,
as well as
by
its
in-
teach-
the theory and the
practice of their Bible-intoxicated precursors
on both
one hundred and fifty years before.

Pilgrim Fathers and founders of the North Ameri-
sides of the ocean,
The
can colonies had been devoted students of the Bible
had been for the sake of interpreting it as they desome of them had left their original homes
and in numerous cases were themselves Hebraists.
The "Pilgrim Code" of Plymouth Colony (1636) and
the "Body of Liberties" of Massachusetts (1647) were
confessedly based on the Hebrew scriptures, and the
leaders of the American Revolution, from Benjamin
Franklin downwards, were imbued with Hebrew
it
sired that
conceptions.
It
was Hebraic mortar
(in
Lecky's famous phrase)
that cemented the foundations of the republic; and
not without reason did
throw of Pharaoh
its first seal
in the
"Rebellion to tyrants
is
Red
Sea,
depict the over-
with the motto:
obedience to God."
few
years later this same conception was adopted to some

extent,
though with
a difiêrent philosophical
back-
ground, in France. Imitated in the course of the nineteenth century in almost every other country of the
Western World,
it is
thus intimately connected with
the conception of constitutional
we knew
government such
as
until yesterday.
it
The
literary influence of the
been
vast.
Hebrew
scriptures has
In a score of European languages the Bible
book
was the
first
peoples
it first
to be translated
and among so many
set a literary tradition, establishing the
standard of orthography, composition, and style. For

the whole of Europe, but especially for the so-called
"Nordic" peoples, the Scriptures continued to play an

almost dominant literary role. This was not the case
only in the Dark Ages or with unimportant tribes. It

was Luther's translation of the Bible into High German which rendered that particular dialect supreme
and
the
of
first
demonstrated the force and malleability of
German
language. It hence marks the beginning
literature. The greatest German

when he holds his thousands of hearers
by his command of language, apparently
modern German
orator of today,
spellbound
does not realize that he
which became what

of the
Hebrew
is
it is
making use of an instrument
today only through the force
scriptures.
In England and in other English-speaking countries,

the stimulus of biblical literature, in the incomparable
version "authorized"
by King James
in 1611, has
been
incalculable. Generation after oreneration of Enorlish-
men
heard the Bible read in church and studied
it
at

home. In many
was the
cases
it
principal book.
was the only book;
At
last its
cadences,
in
its
all,
it
music,
mind and became part

of his being. He quoted it, intentionally, more frequently than modem taste approves; more often still,
he quoted it unwittingly. Hence by slow degrees his
daily speech was not merely enriched, but to some extent moulded by its influence. Phrase after phrase,
figure after figure, became current in the English
language, which would be a strangely denuded thing
if all these Semitic influences were removed.
Few people can realize today to what an extent their
ordinary conversation is colored by the Hebrew Scriptures. When a man escapes by the skin of his teeth,
its
phraseology, sank into his
when he
quires
goes
down
when he encan change its spots, when

enemy lick the dust, he is
to the sea in ships,
whether a leopard
he threatens to make
his
using biblical phrases which have

arable part of his language.
maid, the tale that

the
a
is
told, the
crown of her husband,
fall,
become an
The way
of a
insep-
man with
multitude of counselors,
the pride that goes before
the bread of idleness, the
way
of an eagle, the
apple of the eye, the wife of a man's bosom, coals of

fire,
all
these phrases
became naturalized
in English
through familiarity with the Proverbs of Solomon. In

chapters xxx and xxxi of that work alone, it is possible
to enumerate
no fewer than twenty-four passages
which
are familiar to every English-speaking person.
Even
so unecclesiastical a conception as "a thirsty
soul" (not necessarily used today in

ing)
is
based on Prov. 25:25.
its
original
"He who runs may
meanread"
is
mere mistranslation of Habakkuk 2:2 (the correct
rendering
is
"He who
reads
may
run").
could be protracted indefinitely. Similarly,
many
The
hst
we owe
phrases to the earlier Prayer-book version of the
upon Coverdale's
Psalms, based
There
rendering.
is
only one work the influence of which on the English

language
is
comparable to that of the Bible
the plays
of William Shakespeare. But, as has recently been
demonstrated, Shakespeare's use of the Bible was

extensive,
and
its
stimulus
may
itself
be traced throughout
his writings.
This
biblical inspiration is
not necessarily direct.
is saturated with
Bunyan's Filgrim^s Progress, for
example, is so imbued with this sentiment that both
in conception and in language it is a direct continuation of the same tradition. Through this and similar
works the Hebraic influence was refracted, the original radiance appearing from a dozen different directions and in as many different forms. It is difficult in
fact to imagine what the English language and Eng-
English prose of the heroic period

biblical atmosphere.
lish literature
the Scriptures
would now be but for the
the
influence, that
is,
influence of
of the ancestors
of the Jewish people of today, as expressed in and
through their literary heritage. Moreover, the Hebraic

faculty for associating moral ideas with the
name
things (bread, wine, and so on) and sublimating
of
them
into a call to virtuous living has contributed to the
general background of the Anglo-Saxon
mind and
affected the thought and style of generations of writers.
Apart from this literary influence, which English

and German illustrate to such a remarkable degree,
every language of Europe has been enriched by various
Hebrew words which have now become wholly naturalized: Jubilee, Satan, Paradise, Cherub, Armageddon, and numerous others. Moreover, all Western
tongues contain words which are now reserved for
conveying certain specifically Hebrew conceptions.
The Greek aYyeXo? means a messenger by no means
the same thing as our "angel." The Latin benedicere,
to commend, is far removed from the conception now
universally found in European languages, to bless
that is, to pronounce a formula conveying spiritual
beneficence. To adore is very different from to pray
the meaning of the Latin adorare. The case is identical
with terms such as "The Lord," "Prophet," etc. The
words may be derived from the Greek or Latin, but
their "semantic" meaning is essentially Hebraic. This
is not a point of mere philological interest. It must be
realized that the reason why the words in question
had to be borrowed by the European tongues from the
Hebrew, or else to have their original meanings modified, is because no conceptions of the sort or words to
express
them
existed hitherto.
They
are,
therefore,
yet another indication of the extent to which the
and ethical life of Europe has been enriched

by the Hebraic heritage.
Even from the point of view of literary form, the
biblical ififluence has been a potent one. The Book of
Ruth is as perfect an idyll as literature can provide;
the story of Susannah is an admirable detective tale;
spiritual
20
Book
the
of Tobit has provided the direct model for
a novel of our
ment may be
pattern of
own
said to
day. Moreover, the
Old Testa-
have provided the world with the
present historiography. According to
its
the Russian thinker, Berdyaev, the Jews were the
first
people to contribute the concept of "historical" to
world
history,
"thereby discharging the essence of
their specific mission."
The
Chronicles of Kings and
phenomBut the grandiose biblical
relations of individual episodes are a general
enon
in ancient literature.
conception, starting with the creation of the universe

and continuing through the centuries to almost contemporary events, was essentially diiferent. The Hebrew was brought by it to a realization of his own
relative position in the scheme of things
as the heir to
the ages but neither their author nor their cause. Particular significance from this point of view attaches to
the
Book
of Daniel, perhaps the
true philosophy of history. "In
"we
are
engaged
made
expression of the
it,"
writes Berdyaev,
to feel dramatically that
in a process that tends
And
goal."
first
mankind
is
towards a definite
in Daniel's interpretation of
Nebuchad-
nezzar's dream, this thinker sees the earliest attempt to

attribute a design to history, an attempt
which was
be repeated and developed in Christian phi-
later to
losophy.
The
ested
Bible,
in
moreover, was only incidentally inter-
dynastic
history.
The
people
is
central
throughout, and the modern type of histor^, which

centers
its
attention
upon
the ordinary man, neglecting
the kings and the captains, found
its
prototype in

biblical narrative. It
was not
able to revert
more
many
own day
until after a lapse of
centuries that an audacious pioneer of our
was
closely to the biblical con-
ception, attempting a universal history
which should
few centuries or groups
trace the record, not of a
only,
but of the whole evolution of mankind.

5
The outcome of what has been stated above may be

summed up very briefly. The Jewish people is largely
a
product of the Bible, under the influence of some

seldom uneventful and
thirty-five centuries of history,
frequently tragic.
World, the
On
the peoples of the
biblical influence has
not been quite so
direct or so protracted. Yet, for a period of
ten and twenty centuries,
it
Western
between
has been an integral part
of their background, modifying their religion, their
to some extent, even their

and their language. Deprive modern Europe
and America of the Hebraic heritage, and the result
thought, their conceptions

politics
would be barely recognizable. It would be a different,

and it would be a poorer thing. In Woodrow Wilson's
expressive words, "if
we
could but have the eyes to see
the subtle elements of thought
which
constitute the
gross substance of our present habit, both as regards

the sphere of private
the state,
we
life
and
as regards the action of
should easily discover
besides religion
we owe
to the Jew."
how
very
much
CHAPTER
II.
The
Process of Degradation
The Jew's
association with the European world began

back in classical times. There are indications that
even during the biblical period he was known in the
Greek isles. Aristotle encountered one, who is reported
far
him much information, during his travels

with Alexander the Great. Jews were very numerous
to have given
in Alexandria,
long the center of Hellenistic culture,
from the time of its foundation, and they were found

in Greece itself, at least from the third century b.c,
when the classical glories had barely departed from
Athens and from Corinth. In Rome and elsewhere in
Italy, they were numerous from the second century
B.C.; and Italian Jews may still be encountered whose
families trace their descent, according to legend, from
the nobles of Judea taken into captivity by Titus after
the
fall
of Jerusalem.
In Spain, Jews were present in some numbers at
beginning of the Christian
era,
centuries before the Visigoths had absorbed the
Ro-
least as early as the
mans, or the Arabs had displaced the Visigoths, or the
They were to be
century onwards, well
Christians had driven out the Arabs.
found
in
France from the
first
22
23
before the Franks arrived from beyond the Rhine to

give their
name
ary evidence attest their presence in
Balkan
states,
and in South Russia in the
many years before
period,
and literHungary, in the
to the country. Inscriptions
classical
the barbarian incursions and
the arrival of the peoples
who were
regions their present ethnic character.
to give those
Even
in the
remote border-province which stretched along the
Roman period, as a
number of venerable relics serve to show. By the beginRhine, Jews were familiar in the
ning of the fourth century, a Jewish community, fully

organized and with the customary religious and lay
leaders, flourished at
Cologne. In 321, Constantine the
Great issued an edict curtailing certain privileges formerly enjoyed by the Jews of this city, and ten years
later he exempted the "rabbis, heads of synagogues,
elders, etc.," from various onerous personal obligations.
It
was 150 years
after this that the
Germans
first
per-
manently crossed the Rhine and established themselves

in the
Roman
province.
The
aliens today, therefore,
are not the Jews, the only representatives perhaps in
the Rhineland of
As
its
inhabitants of sixteen centuries
modern authority has phrased it, "the Jews

had settled in Western Europe before many of its
most typical inhabitants had emerged from Asia, and
before others had crossed the Central European plain
or had traversed the North Sea to invade the West."
There was still, indeed, a considerable Jewish
nucleus in the East; but it was henceforth a diminishago.
ing group.
From
the late classical period on, Jewish
history, Jewish literature,
Jewish thought, and the
24
predominant part of the Jewish people, have been inseparably associated with Europe and the Western
World.
Yet it was in Europe that the Jews' lot was the
hardest. This is not the place to trace the progress and
development of Jewish persecution or to attempt to
place the responsibility for it. It is enough to sum up
the result. There were isolated corners where something of the spirit of freedom long persisted. Before
the clouds gathered to their fullest extent over the oldestablished Jewish centers of the Mediterranean,
Jews
had begun to migrate to the new centers on the Atlantic seaboard. But, taking Europe as a whole, it may
be said that from the period of the Christianization of
the Roman Empire down to the French Revolution,
the
Jew was
exclusion
and
bent,
subject to a systematic degradation, an
from opportunity,
history of the Jews in
50 years,
the record of their gradual recovery
last
and
their return to a
socially
warping of his natural

normal position. The
the Western World, during the
a
a distortion of his
is
more or
and economically
less
balanced existence,
a process
which began
with prodigious rapidity but which, before

fully
where
accomplished,
it
had achieved
During the
first
was reversed
its
it
could be
country
most remarkable progress.
in
half of their history, the
that
Jews had been
a normally-constituted people, rooted in the soil as
peasant proprietors. Their economic development was

retrograde, rather than advanced; trade
was
in the
25
hands of non-Israelitish traders to such an extent indeed that the words "Canaanite" (that is, it is to be
presumed, Phoenician)
interchangeably.
The
and "merchant" were used
mercantile colonies in the towns
of Palestine, in the biblical period, were largely
com-
posed of strangers, and the great commercial entrepots

lay on the coastal plain, in non-Israelitish hands. After
the return from the Babylonian captivity, conditions
were much the same. It was in the Greek cities, not in
the strongly Jewish uplands, that trade was centered.
It is significant that no money was coined by any
Jewish ruler until shortly before the beginning of the

Christian Era. "Ours is not a maritime country," wrote
Josephus (Cc;2?r^ Apionem,
I. xii)
of the Christian Era. "Neither
course which
it
in the first
century
commerce nor the inter-
promotes with the outside world has
any attraction for us."

This natural balance was inevitably disturbed when,
owing to the circumstances of their defeat by the Romans, the Jews were forced to leave their former
country and were scattered throughout the Western
World. Emigrants, even from an agricultural country,
tend to abandon agricultural life (the United States
today provides an illustration of this fact) Yet, for a
.
long time after their Diaspora began, the Jews resisted

this temptation.
The
Mesonowhere
great Jewish settlements in
potamia, where Jewish
life
flourished as
it
did
were predominantly agriculmost detailed picture of the methods of farming which obtained here in the first centuries of the
Christian Era is preserved in the Babylonian Talmud.
else
outside Palestine,
tural: the
26
In Other centers, perhaps, there was greater variety;
but everywhere, in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Greece,

Spain, even France and
Germany,
It
was
by
the
tilling
soil.
Europe, and in Christian Europe
first in
pecially, that the
Jew was compelled
predominantly agricultural
interests.
the result of circumstances, for
than the farmer
was in early
on the land, earn-
there
times a solid nucleus of Jews settled
ing their livelihood
Italy,
who
it is
es-
to abandon his
This was partly

the trader rather
and the immigrant to a
travels,
land already occupied must perforce congregate in
towns and engage in urban occupations. But, in addition to this, the growing religious prejudice and the
consequent insecurity made
who
it
unsafe for individuals
did not belong to the dominant faith to live in
rural isolation.
With
the passage of years and the in-
crease of fanaticism the
life
of the isolated Jewish
became more and more dangerous.

Frequent persecutions uprooted him time after time
and drove him into a strange country where there was
no room for him on the soil, and he was compelled to
agriculturalist
Church
on Sunday,
he rested on Saturday.
join his fellow- Jews in the towns. Successive
Councils forbade him to
work
notwithstanding the fact that

Finally, the feudal idea
upon
military service,
in the fields
made land-holding dependent
from which the Jew was gener-
ally excluded (the English Assize of Arujs of 1181, for
example, specifically forbade him to possess any weapons) .^ Thus, he was prevented both from holding land
^The Jews did not entirely lose their martial

under these circumstances. They frequently served
qualities,
in Spain
even
both
27
and tilling it, a Jewish farmer being almost as curious

an anomaly, in Northern Europe at least, as a Jewish
monk would have been.
In the towns, the Jews were at the beginning mainly
artisans, as
they have remained to the present day in
those countries
where fewer
placed upon their economic
restrictions
life.
In
have been
Roman Egypt,
the
boatmen were predominantly Jews. In Sicily (as in

Salonica, down to our own day) they were the porters
and stevedores. In Germany and Northern Italy, they
were expert miners. In Imperial Rome they were represented in all walks of life, from painting to peddling.
Throughout the Middle Ages, we find Jewish craftsmen and Jewish trade-guilds those of the weavers,
carpenters, dyers, blacksmiths, and so on
sometimes
maintaining their own guild-halls and even their own
synagogues. Many, of course, were engaged in trade,
selling, above all, imports adventurously brought from
distant countries, as will be
In time,
this, too,
in the Christian
and
was
shown
restricted.
in another chapter.
Gradually, religious
Moorish forces; they
in the
defence of Naples in 537, of
Worms
in 1201, of
assisted in the
Pernambuco
in
1654, etc.
With
the removal of medieval disabilities, professional Jewish
under Wellington
Waterloo; and many Jewish soldiers have since attained high
rank (e.g., General Giuseppe Ottolenghi, Italian Minister of War
in 1902-3, or General Sir John Monash, who commanded the
Australian forces in France during their smashing victories in
1918). In France alone there have been, up to 1939, no less than 50
Jewish generals. Jews have served in all the wars of the American
Republic since the very beginning some 2500, for example, in the
soldiers appeared. Fifteen Jewish officers served
at
Civil
War,
of
whom
nine became generals.
28
disabilities were extended until they excluded the Jew

from almost every form of normal economic activity.
The cities became organized on a new corporate basis,
with civic control over manufacture and commerce;
and the new prejudices prevented the Jew from being a citizen. The craft guilds claimed a monopoly in
the various branches of manufacture, but these bodies
were united
in a quasi-religious
brotherhood in which
the unbeliever could generally find no place.
The
guild merchant extended the same idea to trade; and
the
Jew would normally have been
excluded, even had
he been able to pray or feast with the rest. The

frequency of attack, massacre, and pillage compelled
him
to discover a
walk of
life
in
which
could be easily concealed and, above
all,
his
property
easily trans-
chance would have it, just at this period

a re-adjustment in the economic organization of Europe provided such an opening, into which he was
ferred.
And,
as
reluctantly forced.
In remote times, the Jew had shown no proclivity

toward finance. Rather, indeed, the reverse, as the passage quoted above from Josephus clearly shows. In
Egypt only, where Jews were actively engaged in
every branch of commercial life, do we meet with
Jewish bankers and financiers from the beginning of
the Christian Era.
With
this exception, there is
no
mention of Jews in financial pursuits until the sixth

century, when they are encountered in France. This
was, of course, not unnatural, for the Jews in France
at this period played an important role in commercial
life, and the transition from wholesale trade to finance

most
very slight.
the Jewish economic and
is
in
cases
29
The impetus which

social balance
ruined
came from
without.
As
gun
the Middle
to set
its
Ages advanced, the Church had be-
face sternly against lending
money
at
on the ground that this was prohibited not

only by the Old Testament (Deut. 23:19), but also
by the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:35, in its current mistranslation), and according to Aristotle by
nature itself, which did not intend to make money
breed by the ordinary processes of reproduction. The
prohibition was an impracticable one (as was soon discovered) for in a money-economy any man may be
reduced to momentary necessity, and thus have urgent need of a loan in order to carry on his business, to
interest,
prepare for the harvest, or sometimes even to
The
live.
would have been an impossible one

but for the presence of the Jew, who, precisely as he
found himself excluded from other methods of gaining a livelihood, was forced into this most unhonored
situation
The non-Jewish capitalists lent to kings

and magnates, under the cover of various devices (such
as making out the bond for a larger amount than the
profession.
sum
lent,
or euphemistically calling the interest
some other name). The more open,
least lucrative,
by
and
most unpopular branches of the profession, such as

lending on pledge for a short period to the artisan and
tradesman, were forced upon the Jew. Thus, for example, in the heroic days of Florence,
part of the city ultimately depended for
upon
when
its
a great
livelihood
large-scale financial operations abroad, the
Jews
30
were summoned
to the city for the purpose of admin-
istering to the requirements of the populace, to save
Christians
usury!
from being contaminated by the
sin of
In medieval England, the Jews were invariably, or
almost invariably, moneylenders. But
they were admitted to England for
Why,
why? Because
this
therefore, did they not leave?
very purpose.
The answer
is
were not allowed to, that they applied for

permission to do so on more than one occasion, but
were refused. The Crown, in fact, insisted on retaining them, so as to fleece them at incredibly frequent
that they
Exchequer, thus beand ultimate beneficiary of

all their transactions. "No Jew may remain in England
unless he do the King service," ran the opening words
of a notorious Edict of Henry III of 1253, "and from
the hour of his birth every Jew, whether male or
female, shall serve us in some way."
But the Jew, as has been indicated, was not the only
usurer during the Middle Ages, though he was the
only one of whom the Church did not overwhelmingly disapprove. Italians (known under the generic
name of Lombards) and South Frenchmen (generally
called Cahorsins) had a particularly bad reputation for
intervals for the benefit of the
coming the
silent partner
their remorseless activities in this field; and,
among
the
former the Paduans were especially notorious, Dante

^For a
fuller
and consecutive account of the subject treated
may
in
be made to the present author's Bird^sEye View of Jewish History, Cincinnati, 1935. See also below,
Chap. X.
this chapter, reference

in his Inferno singling
them out for exemplary pun-
The fact that the

London to this day is
ishment.
center of the
in
in
money market
"Lombard"
Street
eloquent reminder of that period. Sometimes,

usurious activities were carried on in the
is
an
pitiless
shadow of
So remorseless were the Christian

usurers that St. Bernard of Clairvaux called attention
to the fact that they far exceeded the Jews. Similarly,
when the Jews were expelled from France in 1 306, the
the Papal curia
itself.
chroniclers deplored their departure, as
it
left
the
much less reasonable Christian

The notorious Gianfigliazzi family of
Florence who lent money in Languedoc at the preposterous rate of 266% per cent is only one example.^
people in the hands of

competitors.
why the Jews were often

open a loan-bank was that the local
moneylenders had become too extortionate. Thus the
Jews were admitted to Todi, in Umbria, only when
the normal rate of interest had reached a shattering
figure. In Brindisi, the poor burghers had good reason
to rejoice when the Jews were authorized to lend
In Italy, indeed, one reason
summoned
to
money
at the rate of 40 per

"would have been forced to
cent, as otherwise they

sell their
belongings at
and after their expulsion, the rate of incharged by the Christian usurers rose to 240
vile price";
terest
per cent.
^
The
pressive
author
may
be excused for quoting once more the ex-
words of Geoffrey of
Paris:
"For the Jews were debonair,

Greatly more, in this affair,
Than now
the Christians are."
32
Sometimes, it was notorious

mere decoys, acting for Christian
that the
Jews were
capitahsts behind the
scenes. Joseph Sessa, an anti-Semitic Itahan jurist of
the eighteenth century, gives reluctant testimony to

this fact.
He
writes:
"A
majority of the sums lent
by
the Jews to Christians at an interest of i8 per cent,

whether on security or otherwise, are advanced to the
Jews themselves by
Christians.
The
latter ordinarily
retain the pledge, in order to safeguard themselves,
sharing in the Jewish usury to the extent of eight, ten,
or even twelve per cent. These facts have often been

^
An even more
commentary upon the state of affairs is
provided by contemporary documents from Italy,
from Poland, and from the south of France, which
demonstrate that the poverty-stricken Jewish communities were forced to borrow money, at an extremely high rate of interest, from Christian religious
laid bare,
and continue to be daily."
astonishing
houses."
3
Other than moneylending, there was one calling only,

or at the most two, which the Jew was normally per^
So too
at
Nuremberg, over the period 1304-y, we find the

money to Jews at a virulent
Christian firm of Holzschuher lending
rate of interest, apparently going as high as 220 per cent,

^
The
story of Shylock, the prototype of the Jewish usurer of
symptomatic of the manner in which fantasy has been

fact. The story of the pitiless creditor and the
pound of flesh first appears in relation to an historical event of the
sixteenth century, with a Roman Jew, Samson Cesena, as victim
and a Christian merchant, Paolo Secchi, as his persecutor. In The
Merchant of Venice, the incident is reproduced, but the roles are
legend,
is
allowed to travesty
reversed!
33
mitted to practice in Christian Europe. In order to
prevent any competition with non-Jewish merchants,
which he was not ad-
closely organized in guilds to
mitted, the
Jew was
in
from ordinary trade
most
that
cases rigorously excluded

is,
purchasing from the
manufacturer or producer, and selling to the consumer. But this restriction did not extend to second-
hand commodities. Accordingly the Jew was the uniragman and old-clothes dealer. Attempts were
made to exclude him even from this unenviable walk
versal
of
life
(in Venice, for example, the guild of straz-
zaiuoli periodically voiced
its
indignation and begged
that this concession should be withdrawn), but generally speaking, no difficulties were raised. Finally,
though prohibited from opening a shop, the Jew was
usually allowed to sell unimportant trifles, sometimes
of
home manufacture,
in the countryside,
if
not in the
towns. Throughout Western Europe, the "Jew Peddler," pack on back, was a familiar figure in the seven-
and early nineteenth centuries.

These three callings, moneylending, old-clothes
dealing, and peddling, were the only ones which were
universally permitted to Jews in Europe down to the
period of the French Revolution. Here and there were
teenth, eighteenth,
more generous opportunities being conceded either to individuals or to the whole body. But
nowhere was there complete freedom of vocation and
movement. In England, for example, it was not until
183 1 that Jews were able to open shops for retail trade
in London; yet the English policy was particularly
liberal in comparison with that which prevailed on the
exceptions,
34
Continent.
These
regulations,
moreover, were en-
forced with the utmost ruthlessness. Thus, in various
German and
exist
Itahan cities the Jews were allowed to
only for the purpose of moneylending. Once
had disappeared, they

would be expelled; while any individual who attempted to gain his livelihood in a more dignified manner was treated as a criminal.
their utility in this direction
down
In Venice, for example,
to the close of the
community was only

on the express condition that it maintain
in the Ghetto four loan-banks (a more polite term for
pawnbroking establishments) for the benefit of the
eighteenth century, the Jewish
tolerated
poor.
The only
other professions legally permitted
were old-clothes dealing and the wholesale export trade to the Levant, which did not compete with
Christian traders. The same was the case in the cities of
there
the terra
firjna.
This ignominious condition of
affairs
was sternly enforced, and any attempt on the part of

the Jews to broaden their economic status, or to place
it on a slightly more dignified plane, was systematically
blocked. Even as late as 1 777, the Venetian government
closed down all the factories owned by Jews throughout
its
possessions
including the silk-looms
where the industry had been
by the Jews; and thousands
established
at
Padua,
and developed
of hands were thrown out
of work. In this same place the Jews were not even allowed to work as turners and carpenters and to sell the
products of their industry to their fellow-townsmen.
As
late as the
Roman Jews
middle of the nineteenth century, the

restricted almost completely to old-
(still

clothes dealing)
were compelled to
35
close the shops
opened outside the Ghetto. In Russia,
similar regula-
tions existed, at least outside the rigorously restricted
down
Pale of Settlement,
to the
War of
19 14-18.
Though
the channels of livelihood which were left

open to the Jew were so few and so ignoble, levies
were made upon him as though he were the sole capitalist.
He
contributed to
all
ordinary taxes. In addition
were dozens of other imposts. The Jewish

community, as such, had to pay heavily for the privto
this,
there
ilege of toleration
so
eighteenth century
heavily, indeed,
many
that in the
ancient congregations were
reduced to insolvency. Their ordinary tolls and market-dues were double what the Christian had to pay.
There was a tax on Jewish weddings, a tax on the Sabbath candles, a tax on the citron used at the Feast of
Tabernacles, a dice-tax which could be levied by
every ruffian encountered on the high-road. A special
poll-tax, similar to that levied on animals and included
in the same list of tolls, had to be paid in Germany at
the entrance to every town and state. Even on the
dead, there was a special toll to be paid at the city
boundary as the body was escorted to its last home.
In Frankfort, no less than thirty-eight different imposts were levied upon the Jews, mostly additional to
those imposed on the ordinary townsfolk.
Much
is
sometimes said about the influence of the
Jewish moneyed dynasties in the Middle Ages. This is

generally pure invention, as there were very few cases
36
in
which the medieval Jew, however wealthy, was
able
to transmit his fortune to his heirs (see below, pp.

265-266). Legally, indeed, his property reverted to
the
Crown; though
and
in
the reality
most cases the Treasury
was seldom
restricted
so severe,
its
claims to
one-half the dead man's property, returning the rest

to his legal heirs so that they might accumulate further
Yet even at the end of

the Middle Ages, and after the former conception of
royal rights was modified, the actual result was frequently identical. Thus Samuel Oppenheimer, the
Court Factor at Vienna at the period of the War of
Spanish Succession, was forced into bankruptcy because of an unpaid debt from the Imperial Treasury
amounting to 6,000,000 florins. A more astonishing
case still was that of Mordecai Meisel, the Jewish
philanthropist, who built a synagogue which is still
profits for the royal benefit.
among
in the
who
the sights of Prague.
The
words of the writer of
story
Fugger
is
best related
News
Letter
can hardly be described as pro-Jewish:
From
Prague, the jth day of April, 1601:

short
time ago there died here the Jew Meisel. Notwith-
standing that he had left His Imperial Majesty ten
thousand
florins,
and much cash
also to the Hospital
for poor Christians and Jews, His Imperial Majesty
on the following Saturday, viz., the Sabbath of the

Jews, ordered Herr von Sternberg, at that time President of the Bohemian Chamber, to enter the Jew's
house forcibly and to seize everything there was.
widow
The
of Meisel handed this over willingly, for she

had already
treasure.
five
set aside
37
and hidden the best part of the
That which was taken away came
to forty-
thousand florins in cash, promissory notes, jewels,
clothes and
all
kinds of coins. After
President, against
whom
this,
however, the
the Jewess and the sons of
two brothers of Meisel had raised a strong protest

to the privy councillors, was not satisfied with all this
money and booty, and, no doubt at the command of
His Majesty, once more broke into the house at night.
The son of one of the brothers was taken prisoner,
secretly led away and tortured.
the
Apart from such episodes, there was no limit to the

indignities, deprivations, and restrictions from which
the Jews suffered in their long Middle Ages. They
were compelled to live together in a separate quarter
of the town, known as the Ghetto, which was generally unhealthy and rarely large enough to accommodate them without the most appalling overcrowding. The Ghetto gates were closed every night, and,
until they were opened again in the morning, no Jew
might show his face outside and no Gentile might
venture within.
On the days of the great solemnities of
Church and during Easter, the entrances

were barred and the Jews treated virtually as prisoners.
the Christian
In the streets, sometimes in the Ghetto, too, the
Jew
had to be distinguished by an ugly badge of shame, a

yellow circle worn on the outer garment above the
heart in Germany, a yellow or crimson hat or kerchief
in Italy. The number of weddings was restricted, in
Germany at least, and only one member of each
38
family was permitted to set up his
own household. The
remainder were compelled either to emigrate or to re-
main unmarried; yet, at the same time, association with

non-Jewish women was punished by the most drastic
penalties, including death.
In the courts of law, a special oath had to be taken
more
accompaniment of a degrading
ceremonial. Each Sabbath the Jews were forced to attend conversionist sermons, where they were comjudaico, to the
pelled to hear long tirades against Judaism. Their chil-
dren might be seized and forcibly baptized, after
which, uncanonical though
it was, there was no reand they were brought up in Christian surroundings, sedulously removed from any possibility of
contact with their parents. Jews were not allowed to
employ Christian servants or even to enlist the serv-
dress,
ice of Christian neighbors for the

fires
purpose of kindling
on the Sabbath. Christian mid wives and Christian
wet-nurses were not allowed to lend assistance in time

of need. Jews were not allowed to ride in coaches, or
customary courteous prefixes,

or to be called by names which were not characto be addressed with the
teristically Jewish, or to
Good
Friday, in
rabble and buffeted

fatal results.
wear ordinary clothing. On

they were stoned by the
many places,
by
the authorities, sometimes with
They were
not allowed to erect tomb-
stones over their dead or to escort

resting-place
^ It
may
number
ceeded.
them to
their last
with the prescribed religious
be remarked that in present-day Germany
of these prohibitions are closely paralleled,
dirges.^
a
large
some even ex-
They were
39
harried with absurd accusations, such as
murder of Christian children (repeatedly condemned by the Popes) and the even more
absurd charge of desecrating the Host, which caused
the loss of thousands of lives from the thirteenth cen-
that of the ritual
tury onwards.
So many
were placed upon the

would have been impossible for him had
he obeyed them all. Evasion was necessary, if he were
to exist. Thus, for example, in places where the Jews
were restricted to dealing in old clothes, tears were
deliberately made sometimes in new articles so as to
render them technically second-hand. Where the Jew
was excluded from manufacture, a fictitious Gentile
partner was occasionally acquired in whose name the
business was carried on. If taxation became too crushing, it was not surprising that the victim attempted to
minimize his apparent profits. Restrictions on residence
Jew
restrictions, in fact,
that life
and occupation might perhaps be overlooked, if the

police authorities received a gift.
There was, in
fact, the same experience that modern theories suggest:
that laws, in order to be obeyed, must be reasonable;
.
that a ridiculous rigor defeats
its
own
object, penaliz-
ing the law-abiding at the expense of the less responsible
elements; that the multiplicity of restrictions
tends to bring the fundamental laws of security and
government into disrepute. This generalization applies

all the more when the restrictions are of a definitely
unethical character, as were so many of those from
which the Jew suffered. The result was what might
have been expected evasion, sharp practice, petty
40
deceit, a perpetual state of suspicion
and grievance
against those responsible for the hard lot of the victim,
a feeling of contempt for the laws which they enacted.

This sentiment continued in some unhappy cases after
the justification had passed. But the wonder is that in
the majority of instances it should have disappeared so
rapidly.^
Yet the relations which prevailed between the Jews

and their neighbors were friendly enough when no
outside pressure was brought to bear, and their services were appreciated in the most unlikely quarters.
Here
are
two or
three examples. In the eleventh cen-
tury, Riidiger, Bishop of Speyer, ambitious for the ex-
pansion of his episcopal
Jews to the
privileges and pro-
seat, invited the
town, endowed them with lavish

vided them with a special quarter within the walls of
the city. "Wishing to make of Speyer a city," he
honor a thousandfold by bringing in the Jews." He was by no means

alone in holding such ideas. At the end of the Middle
Ages, in 1569, the city of Orange, in the south of
boasted, "I thought to increase
On
the other side,
it is
gerated scrupulousness.
possible to
The
story
is
its
adduce instances of an exag-
told, for
example, of a saintly
Russian rabbi of the last century, who made a practice of destroying a postage-stamp every time he sent a note by hand, as the post
government monopoly! Such in fact was the general delicacy

man was admitted to pray with the congregation
on the Day of Atonement until he had been formally absolved
from ill-considered vows which he had hastily taken on himself
during the year and which were clearly impossible of fulfilment.
This is the origin of the much-maligned Kol Nidrei formula.
was
of feeling that no
France, was in the depths of depression,
dwindhng and
at that
commerce
its
languishing.
time no Jews in the city and the
recommended
wealth
Town Council
one of the measures for restoring
as
prosperity that
its
There were
"two hundred Jewish households"
should be invited to
settle.
So, also,
when
the position
of the Jews at Neustettin was menaced, the guilds appealed almost unanimously to the
leave
them undisturbed.^
Or
take another scene
this period.
in
King of Poland
one of the most
When the Jews were
expelled
1492, the overseas possessions of the
to
tragic of
from Spain,
Crown
of
Aragon, particularly Sardinia and Sicily, were included in the Edict. In vain the Council of the latter
kingdom
protested, pointing out the loss
which the
people as a whole would, and indeed did suffer in
consequence of
this
On
measure.
January 12th, 1493,
on record that, as long

as the vessels which bore them were in sight, the inhabitants stood on the housetops and waved farewell
the last Jews left Palermo. It
is
must not be imagined that these instances are isolated. In

when the interest on loans made by Christian merchants
rose to 216 per cent, the citizens begged for the admission of the
Jews to the town as their only salvation. In 1544, and again in
^ It
Lindau,
when the Emperor Charles

issued a decree expelling the
crypto-Jews from Antwerp, the magistrates of the city protested
on the grounds that such action would spell ruin to the city and the
state. The new oppressive legislation enacted by the Venetian Government at the close of the eighteenth century elicited protests
from the municipalities of Verona and Ceneda. In 1781, the civil
.1550,
Jewish community conno cause for complaint

by their conduct as regards morality, religion, or commercial life.
Similar illustrations can be multiplied.
authorities at
Avignon
tributed greatly to
its
testified that the
welfare, and gave
42
to their old neighbors,
who
had Uved
peace and amity almost as long
They
tory.
had, indeed,
after, at the
good
in their midst in
as Sicily
cause. It
had
a his-
was not long
beginning of the sixteenth century, that
Aragonese intolerance drove the Jews likewise from

the neighboring mainland.
recent learned
work
shows that Calabria has not yet recovered from the

blow. Or, again,
we
have the delightful episode of the
Worms who was so imceremony of the Rejoicing of the Law
romantic lady in medieval

pressed
by
the
and the beauty of one of the male participants that she

bequeathed a parcel of ground to the Jewish com-
munity for use
as a public
garden.
6
Notwithstanding
were
his physical degradation, there
certain specific values
which the Jew succeeded
in
keeping alive even amid the squalor of the Ghetto.
There was, in the first place, the idea of the family.

His home life, in the Middle Ages, was generally on a
plane distinctly higher than that of his neighbors. Marriage was regarded as a natural and praiseworthy state,
not, as in the
Church,
The monogamous
human weakness.
though formally accepted by
a concession to
ideal,
the Jews of Northern Europe only about the year

looo,^
had already long been the general
rule. It
was,
moreover, considered more seriously than among the
European
^ It
rope
Christians, for concubinage, adultery,
will be recalled that legalized
bigamy was practiced
as late as the sixteenth century, this
gested
solutions
England.
to
the
marital
and
in
Eu-
being one of the sug-
quandary of Henry VIII
of

prostitution
level.
were rare plienomena
when
at a time
43
in the Judengasse
sexual life without
was
at its lowest
when
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
wife-beating was not only customary
but expressly permitted by Canon
among
all
classes
Law
and by the
statutes of some small towns, Rabbis declared: "This is
a thing not done in Israel." The practice was, indeed,
regarded in the Codes as justifiable ground for divorce.
As a corollary to the purity of the home, drunkenness was rare, instead of being considered a natural
pastime.
The warmth
of domestic
life
extended
till it
embraced outsiders, even utter strangers. The visitor

from a distant Ghetto could always count upon a
welcome, hospitality, and assistance. There was a
highly-developed system of charity, in advance of
modern ideas in that it showed the utmost delicacy for
the feelings of the recipient, besides trying to substitute self-support for pauperization
(see below, p.
330)-
Furthermore, education was considered a religious

duty. Illiteracy
and even the

learning.
was almost unknown among the Jews,
illiterate
A universal
had the profoundest respect for

system of education had existed
in Palestine since the first or second century b.c,
and
Josephus had explicitly avowed that "our principal

care of
all is this:
to educate our children well."
was never
Hence
That
Ghetto
period there existed, in the smallest Jewish community,
an educational system of a breadth and universality
which the most advanced state in modern Europe or
America has even now barely equalled, and certainly
early ideal
lost sight of.
in the
44
not surpassed. Enrollment for either sex was
free.
The
was regulated. The elements of the vernacular were taught as well as of

Hebrew. Meals were given to those who required
them. Boots and clothing were distributed to the most
needy in winter, A community of less than i,ooo souls
in eighteenth-century Italy would maintain a school of
this type with no less than six teachers and assistants.
Compare this with the provision which would have
been made in a contemporary English or American
number
of pupils in each class
Or one may take another criterion. In 1861,

were no less than 54.5 illiterates in each hundred
village!
there
Italians
above the age of ten years; among their Jewish
fellow-citizens, only 5.8!
mark the end of eduEvery synagogue had attached to it voluntary

associations for the purpose of study, which would assemble after the morning and evening service. Wealthy
enthusiasts would establish regular courses of instrucArrival at adolescence did not
cation.
tion in their
century,
in
we
own
houses. In Poland, in the seventeenth
are told, "there
was hardly a
single house
which they did not study. Either the householder

was a scholar, or else his son or his son-in-law
himself
studied perpetually, or, at the very

tality to
least,
he gave hospi-
some young student." Adult education was
thus taken as a matter of course
among Jews,
centuries
before the conception had begun to penetrate the outside world.
The scheme of education was not restricted, as

might be imagined, to quasi theological studies, but by
reason of the wide humanity of Judaism was extended

to every field of
human
interest.
When
Germany,
45
for
example, had hardly emerged from barbarism, there
were Jewish schools in the Rhineland, to which students streamed from every part of the world, and
which were hardly distinguishable from the primitive
universities which Christian Europe was beginning to
develop at this period. It was not until these academies
had already been in existence for centuries that the
destined to have an ephemfirst German university
eral existence
was started at Erfurt (1379). Not long
after this, in 1466, the handful of Jews living in Sicily,
numbering at the most not more than 100,000, received formal license from the king to open their own
university, with faculties of medicine, law, and presumably the humanities. Twenty-four years later, the
idea was revived in Northern Italy. These facts are in
themselves sufficient to show the profound Jewish
veneration for scholarship, quite apart from the Rabbinic disciplines, even in this remote period.
As a natural consequence, there was in the Ghetto
and the Judengasse a spirit of free inquiry which was
elsewhere rare, if not unknown. In this fact, perhaps,
lay the greatest service of the medieval Jew to mankind. It was a period when authority was triumphant
in the intellectual sphere, when thought was circumscribed even more than practice, when uniformity had
established itself, not as an accident but as a principle,

throughout European life. Had this state of affairs
well
would have been impossible. The mere
continued unchallenged, progress

philosophical
fact that the
Jew
existed,
scientific as
as
and that he preserved the
46
habit of independent thought, helped to save the world
from
this
original
menace.
mind
to
was impossible even for the
It
fail
least
to realize that in the Jewish quar-
ter there existed a class as intelligent at least as other
men
were,
who
yet did not believe as other men,
possessed literature and beliefs and practices
who
which
world, and who

even
lip-service
refused to pay
to the prevailing ideas.
were not
like those of the rest of the
This very fact saved the world from accepting uniformity finally as a natural thing. It stimulated students
and thinkers to realize the existence of other spheres
to conquer, over and above those which were delineated from the pulpit. And, if from time to time,
Europe shook off its lethargy and began to re-examine
for
itself
of the
the wells of
Jew was
human
thought, the propinquity
in part responsible.
The Age
of Degradation lasted, roughly speaking,
to the time of the
up
French Revolution. In England,
Holland, and America, there had been a considerable
emancipation even before
measure of
social
in Central
and Eastern Europe notable
this time;
relics of the
old system continued long after. But in general
it
may
was the French Revolution which broke

down the gates of the Ghetto and permitted its down-
be said that
it
trodden inhabitants to enjoy for the
same
first
time the
and opportunities as their neighbors.

The consequences were remarkable. A section of
the European population, of at least normal intelligence, with their wits sharpened by generations of
rights

intensive Talmudical study,
47
were suddenly allowed

emerge into the world,
after centuries of repression to
and given a natural outlet for the first time. The inevitable happened. Jews began to find their own level.
The grandchildren of the petty Ghetto traders and
usurers became leaders of business, of thought, of society.
Those whose
intelligence qualified them, rose in a
remarkable manner in the circles to which they were

at last admitted. It was, of course, no more than what
might have been expected. The Jew of the Ghetto
period was not a usurer, a petty trader and so on, by
choice. His intellectual interests were at least as wide
and as varied as those of the patrician or citizen of the
outside world. It was not, therefore, that his descendants rose above their level; it was that after a lapse of
centuries they at last found their level.
In what direction could these newly-emerged scions
of the Ghetto seek an outlet? The centuries of repression could not fail to leave their trace. It was impossible for those who during long generations had
been restricted to the more degraded forms of business life to become immediately farmers or artisans,
simply because the statute-book no longer forbade
was inevitable that they found

expression in the more dignified forms of business and
the so-called "professions," for which their artificially
stimulated intellect perhaps gave them special quali-
these occupations. It
fications.
They
could not
larly to those callings
fail
to be attracted particu-
where there were no vested
interests to discourage or exclude
tended to engage in
activities in
them.
They
thus
which personality
48
and personal ability were important, or in newlyopened fields where family connection and tradition
counted for little. In Central Europe, moreover, Jews
were still excluded, with considerable rigor, from the
civil service and from commissioned rank in the army
and navy, fields of activity in which elsewhere, too,
much prejudice yet prevailed. This stimulated a yet
more disproportionate concentration

sions
still
This
is
left
in those profes-
open.
the reason
why,
in the nineteenth century,
the progress of the Jews in certain spheres appeared

to be so rapid.
Answering
their natural bent for study,
they seized the opportunity of entering the professions

of law, medicine, literature, and journalism. In the
economic world, they were primarily attracted by

the new businesses which the industrial revolution had
created, or those which were calling for new blood,
new ideas, and new methods. We thus find them figuring, in more than their due proportion, in banking in
the nineteenth century, in the entertainment industry
in the twentieth.
Like a cork released under water, they forced their
way
to the surface after having been artificially de-
pressed for so long. Like water spilled
on uneven
ground, they followed the contours of the

advantage of every opening, and flowed
soil,
took
irresistibly
But the analogy may be pursued a

water is absorbed by
the soil. Its moisture has been drunk in with beneficial
results. The earth on which it fell has to some extent
been fertilized. Yet in the process, the water has
into every gap.
little
further. After a time the
49
ceased to have an independent existence. So, too, in
phenomenon which we are attempting to examine.

was seldom long before these Jewish pioneers of
the
It
the
nineteenth
and twentieth centuries
many
lost
their
even
their Jewish
The
impetus and
enthusiasms which they had brought became absorbed
into the common store and enriched the common life,
but their distinctiveness passed away. On the other
hand, the new ideas and methods were by now unispecific Jewish characteristics,
Hence
cases
fertilizing
loyalties.
versal property.
in
in
many
callings in
Jews were thought to have a dominant
which the
position, their
influence dwindled progressively as the nineteenth
century advanced and the twentieth began, though

in
many
instances the legend outlived the actuality.^
was natural that the older a Jewish center was,

the more rapid was the rise of its children, for on
It
^ A fact which tended to obscure this phenomenon was that the

Jews did not emerge from their repressed condition simultaneously. In some places, emancipation was retarded; in many families, the influence of conservatism was stronger; sometimes, the
adjustment took longer. The impression might thus be given of a
continuous advance. Actually, this did not take place. In more

than one generation, there was a fresh exodus (though on a scale
which was unimportant); but by this time the earlier wave had
reached its climax or even begun to recede. The initial impetus,
indeed, seldom lasted for more than one generation, or two at the
most; for the transmission of outstanding ability from generation
to generation is as rare among Jews as among their neighbors. The
children of the Ghetto prodigy, who dazzled the eyes of his
contemporaries, generally developed into Englishmen or Frenchmen or Germans of normal tastes, normal interests, and normal
ability, indistinguishable from their neighbors except through a
diminishing family tradition.
50
emergence from the Ghetto they did not have the

problem of acchmatization added to that of emancipation. This is perhaps the explanation of the disproportionate distinction attained in so
Jews of Germany, who had

fourth century, or
by those
many
fields
by
of Italy,
who were
already
acclimatized at the time of the birth of Jesus. In
Eng-
land and in France, where the settlements were

ancient, the
far,
and
number of important names
it is
noteworthy that
the
lived there since the
is
less
smaller
by
in these countries the
majority of outstanding Jews probably belonged to

the oldest strata.
The
following pages present a number of examples
to illustrate these generalizations.
The
process
is
in
most cases identical. There was consistent collaboration between the Jews and their neighbors in every
field of endeavor, from the beginning of their settlement in Europe and throughout the Middle Ages, so
far as was permitted. The long night of the Ghetto put
an end to this tradition, save in a few exceptional instances.
With
the downfall of the system of restric-
was resumed with an intensity

naturally heightened by the previous unnatural represtions, the collaboration
sion.
In
new
fields of
endeavor, especially, Jewish
names begin to figure with unusual frequency. But

in most cases the lessons which they taught and the
stimulus which they provided were rapidly assimilated. Activities which owed their origin to Jews became part of the common stock. There is everywhere
a tendency for this participation to recede to its natural proportion, modified perhaps only by an heredi-
tary proclivity in favor of intellectual activities and an
enforced tendency to urban
Even before
established,
the
however, Jews played
intellectual process to
its
birth.
life.
Ghetto walls were effectively
which the
a vital part in the
modem
world owes
CHAPTER
From
III.
The Revival
of Learning
the point of view of intellectual history, the
modem
world began with the Renaissance, that
re-
discovery of the treasures of antiquity, which deeply

stirred the
"new
man
birth."
of the Middle
The
Ages and brought about
old conception that this reawaken-
Greek
ing began with the rediscovery of

the fifteenth century
is
misleading.
Long
literature in
before that
was opened up to Westindeed, in the Greek originals, for
period, the classical heritage
em Europe not,
few men could read or understand Greek, but
versions.
The
texts in question
were
in Latin
inelegant,
and
often inaccurate, but the conceptions of the originals
were conveyed faithfully enough. The result was sufficient to open up new horizons before the wondering
eyes of students. It was of this revival the "Latin"
Renaissance that Dante, Chaucer, and Petrarch were
born.
The
part played
by
the Jews in this process
the utmost importance. It
may
be
could not have come about as

assistance;
said,
it
was of
indeed, that
it
did but for their
and that without them, the revival of the

would have been retarded or as-
fifteenth century
52
53
sumed a different form. The story is familiar how in

the Dark Ages and after, when the Hellenic tradition
was entirely lost to Christian Europe, it was nurtured
and further developed in Moslem Spain. It was here
that the wisdom of Hippocrates, the astronomical records of Ptolemy, and above all the philosophy of
Aristotle, continued to be revered, studied, and commented upon. The original texts, indeed, were inaccessible; the studies centered
tions, in
around Arabic
transla-
many cases made from the Syriac. The matter,
however, was the same, and from the eleventh century

onwards, when the breath of intellectual interest had
begun to
medan
stir
again in Europe,
it
was
to the
Moham-
sages of Andalusia that eager Christian students
looked for some notion of the wisdom of ancient
Of
course, it was not only the Greek authoriwere revered and sought after. Their Arabic
exponents, Averroes, Avicenna, and the rest, enjoyed
almost equal prestige; and if Christian Europe imagined that the former provided a gate to wisdom, it
was no less convinced that the latter owned the key.
The Mediterranean world at this time was divided
culturally and politically, it may be said, into three
sections. There were the Greeks, possessing the treasures of antiquity, yet hardly aware of their value; the
Arabs, studying them in vernacular versions in their
schools, particularly in Southern Spain; and the Latins,
Hellas.
ties that
painfully conscious of their inferiority, yet for linguistic reasons unable to obtain access to the sources
for which they thirsted. All these three sections were
cut off from one another by differences of language,
54
The
would have been unwhich was to be found

in all. From the truly catholic point of view, the Jews
were the only real Europeans, whose purview extended beyond the boundaries of the Latin world, to
the Greek on the one hand and to the Arab on the
other. They possessed a common language, Hebrew,
which was understood, in certain circles at least, the
whole world over and could thus form a medium of
intercourse; they were so endowed with linguistic
knowledge that they could travel from land to land
without great difficulty and could generally find some
co-religionist who could read and speak the most diffireligion,
and
tradition.
gulf
bridgeable, but for one element
cult foreign tongue.
The Jews
were, therefore, peculiarly qualified to
between these mutually exclusive

and mutually intolerant worlds. The Jews of Spain
serve as a bridge
shared the intellectual heritage of their
Moslem neigh-
some, indeed (such as Maimonides or Israeli^),

were reckoned among its greatest adornments. But the
Hebraic heritage was available to Jews throughout the
bors
world.
The humblest Jewish
scholar in Italy or Pro-
vence thus had access to intellectual resources of which

his most erudite Christian neighbors were ignorant.
was, therefore, to the Jews, in most instances, that
It
Christian students had recourse for the intellectual
achievements of the Arabs and even the ideas of the

sages of ancient Greece."
^See
infra, pp. 184-6, 216, 222-5.
The
best account of this available in English is to be found in

Joseph Jacobs' Jewish Contributions to Civilization a work of
^
^^
Many
hundreds of translations made by Jews in the

medieval period, illustrating their intense interest and
every branch of intelbeen preserved. It was the resultant Latin versions of the Greek classics and of their
Moslem exponents (whether made directly from the
their fruitful participation in
lectual activity, have
Arabic, or through the
medium
prepared by Jews for their

trated
of
own
Hebrew
versions
which peneEurope from the eleventh century onwards

use)
with such far-reaching results.

This intellectual, scientific, and philosophical system, based upon the encyclopedic teachings of Aristotle as preserved
and developed by the Moors and
Jews, was accepted unquestioningly throughout Europe, and
was embodied by Dante almost
in
its
en-
monument of the MidComedy. Thus Dante's entire

cosmic system, enveloped within the Frimmn Mobile
tirety in that greatest literary
dle Ages, his Divine
on a conception of the world immediately derived from Arabic and Jewish thinkers.
It is symptomatic that Aristotle ("The Master of
those who know" as Dante calls him) has in his train
in the Inferno, Averroes "who made the Great Commentary." In the famous pictorial representation of
the Middle Ages, in the Spanish Chapel in Florence,
rests
vanquished philosophy
ures,
typifying
is
represented
Singer in
books
and
The Legacy
in this
fig-
legendary association with the
its
Moslem world. But though

studied moderation
by turbaned
the system
in the chapters
of Israel.
was expounded
by Charles and Dorothea
have drawn heavily on botk
and the following chapters.
^6
by Mohammedan
thinkers (with the aid of Jews and
it was mainly through Jews

was transmitted from the Moslem to the Christian world/
The importance of this process in European
thought, science, and civilization was incalculable. To
persons of Jewish origin),

that
it
it is
to be traced the origin of mathematical study in
Europe, the ultimate basis of all technical progress. It

was the foundation of medieval medicine, which,
though long superseded, is nevertheless the basis of our
own.
It
enriched medieval Europe with fresh literary

It formed the basis of astronomiwhich was all-important at the period
concepts and forms.

cal investigation,
of the great discoveries. Arabic and, indeed, medieval

science in general are today no longer of
more than
academic importance, but it is upon them that our

modem thought and science depend.
Before
we
leave this subject, a point referred to
cursorily above must be accentuated. Just as the
Jews
played a part of vast significance as intermediaries in

the transmission of Islamic culture to the Latin world,
no small measure to the evolution of that culture. To an anonymous Jew is due, for
example, the introduction into Europe from the East
(below, p. 194) of the Indian work, Kalilah and Dimso they contributed in
Civilizatio?i, draws
between the philosophical texts, which according to
him were for the most part derived by the Latin world direct from
the Arabic, and the scientific, which in many cases were transmitted via Hebrew. The opposite thesis is maintained most brilliantly by Renan in Averroes et VAverroisme. But in any case the
indubitable collaboration of Jews with Christian translators (e.g.,
Michael the Scot, below, p. 62) must be taken into account.
''
Joseph Jacobs, in his Jewish Contributions to
a distinction
$J
nah, or Fables of Bidpai (subsequently translated into

38 languages, in 112 different versions) on
much
which
so
of the lighter literature of the Middle Ages, in-
cluding at least one-tenth of the fairy-tales familiar

today, ultimately depends.
Again, in 680, a Basran Jew named Masurjuwaik

handbook of medicine from Syriac to Ara-
translated a
bic,
and wrote
evils
original treatises
of foodstuffs and drugs.
on the
benefits
The Jewish
and
scientist,
Mashaala (pp. 142, 323), was a figure of great significance in the intellectual life of the Moslem world in
the eighth century. Other names of considerable im-
portance will be mentioned later on from time to
Some
go so far as to suggest that the

and physicians of Moslem Spain
were of Jewish, when they were not of Christian,
extraction. This, though clearly an exaggeration, contains in it the germ, at least, of a truth which should
not be overlooked.
time.
historians
greatest philosophers
There were three main centers for the fruitful activity of the Jews, as interpreters of Graeco-Arab
science to Europe. One was Toledo, at the court of the
kings of CastUe. Another was Naples, under the auspices of the House of Anjou. The third was Provence,
the bridge between France and Spain, where the local
Jewish scholars, particularly of the family of Ibn Tibbon, translated large numbers of texts from the Arabic
of their native Spain into
Hebrew
for the benefit of
their co-religionists north of the Pyrenees.
These were
58
frequently rendered into Latin at the request of Christian savants. Connected vtîth this family was Jacob
ben Makhir^ (p. 78), a prolific translator in all
branches of knowledge, whose original contributions
to science were also of the utmost importance. But
even in Northern Europe the process was repeated.
Thus, in 1273-4 a Jew named Vives translated into

French in the house of Henri Bate, at Malines, several
books by the Spanish Jewish globe-trotter, exegete,
and philosopher, Abraham ibn Ezra. These works
were subsequently used by Bate to good
own writings.
The contemporary appreciation
effect in his
of this activity
may
be conveyed by an enumeration of the patrons under
whom
whom
Jews
Jewish translators worked, many of

far from friendly towards the
these
were normally
men
like
Raymund, Archbishop of Toledo in

Emperor Frederick II, Man-
the twelfth century, the
fred of Sicily, Charles of Naples, and Alfonso the
Wise of
Pedro
The
Castile in the thirteenth,
III
of
Aragon
Robert of Naples and
in the fourteenth.
Wise was particularly inwas not himself conspicuously proJewish; indeed, the legislation contained in his famous
code, the Siete Partidas, was notably intolerant. But
he realized how backward his kingdom was in intelcase of Alfonso the
teresting.
He
lectual matters, as
^
The
vital dates of
in the text only
when
compared with the high standard
persons mentioned in this

it is
work
logical setting. In other cases reference should be
Index.
will be given
necessary for understanding the chrono-
made
to the

of civilization
the Moorish
which
still
59
prevailed in the remnants of
principalities of the South.

,
Accordingly,
he deliberately set himself to adapt the masterpieces

of Arabic science arid literature into Spanish, incidentally creating thereby the Spanish language as we
know
it
today. Naturally, and inevitably,
the Jews that he had recourse

at
it
was
to
the Jews, who were
home both under Moslem and
Christian rule and
piously retained some knowledge of the Arabic lan-
guage even in Northern Spain and beyond. The first

task undertaken was the translation of a curious work
known as the Lapidario, a discourse upon the property
of metals and precious stones. One of the authors of
this work, incidentally, had himself been a Jew, one
Abolays. This version was completed in 1256 by the
royal physician, Rabbi Judah ben Moses. Then followed a long series of similar translations of astronomical, philosophical, and scientific works; treatises
on the quadrant, the candle-clock, and quick-silver;
literary exercises and philosophical disquisitions. Much
of this literature was subsequently translated into
Latin;
all
European
of
it
formed henceforth part of the general
heritage.
Similar activity,
if
not quite so systematic, was
carried on under the auspices of the Holy Roman

Emperor, Frederick II. Of the Jewish savants under his
patronage the most important was Rabbi Jacob Anatoli, whom he invited to Naples, where he had riot
long before established a University. Anatoli was the

first
to translate the philosophy of Averroes
original Arabic.
from the
His version was in Hebrew, but the
6o
Latin texts of the great Cordovan philosopher, which
Middle Ages and as late as the

seventeenth century in some important European
centers, were based upon his translation. In his original
work, which was of portentous bulk, he mentions with
were current
in the
Emperor himself.
from Southern Italy, their intellectual interests were maintained
by their successors of the House of Anjou. Charles of
Anjou in particular turned to Jews to assist him in
respect various suggestions of the
When
the Hohenstaufen were ejected
acclimatizing, in the Christian portion of his dominions,
the lore of the Arabs
still
numerous
For
in Sicily.
this
purpose, he employed Faraj ben Salim of Girgenti,

the
first
of the professional translators of the Middle
Ages, whose
magnmn
opus was a version of the enorof Rhazes, the Liber conti-
mous medical compendium

nens.
Another translator who worked under the same

was Moses of Palermo, specially instructed
auspices
in Latin
by
version of a
the king's order, to
work on
whom we owe
a Latin
the diseases of horses, ascribed to
Hippocrates. This was one of the earliest veterinary

treatises
and constituted the
basis of almost all those
current in Europe, until the close of the sixteenth

century.
The Jews were

the translations. In
not solely responsible for
many
many
of
no doubt, one has to
cases,
imagine the Jews reading from the Semitic original,

which they would translate extemporaneously into the
vernacular
Castilian
which
or Italian
Christian student sitting
down in monkish Latin.
by
some eager
would write
there were a num-
their side
In addition,

ber of converted Jews
who
played a prominent role in
this activity. Such were Petrus Alphonsi, an important
who brought an
echo of the revival into England; or Constantine the
African, a convert either from Islam or from Judaism,
who translated many works of Jewish origin and who
was greatly utilized by the English thinker, Adelard of
figure in the history of literature,
Bath; or Jacob of Capua, who worked at Padua. Most

important of all was John of Seville (Avendeath), a
baptized
member
of the Ibn
Daud
family,
who
a particularly prominent part in this activity,

in collaboration with such
men
played
working
as Plato of Tivoli.
No
medieval translator, with the exception of the indefatigable Gerard of Cremona, produced a greater bulk of
work. He translated Avicenna, al-Gazali, and "Avicebron" among the philosophers, as well as many
works in all branches of science. He was responsible
for the introduction to Europe of the Secretmii Secretorum ascribed to Aristotle, one of the most popular
works of the Middle Ages, which has not entirely lost
its vogue even today. He may be said, indeed, to have
provided a large proportion of the
ment of the average medieval
scientific equip-
library.
astronomy the Jews played a most significant role in transferring the Arabic knowledge of
the stars, and Graeco-Arabic astronomy in general,
from Islam to Christendom. All the more valuable
astronomical tables of the Middle Ages were either
translated or compiled with Jewish aid. This, as we
shall see, was to be of the utmost importance for its
Similarly, in
bearing upon the progress of maritime exploration.
It
62
was John of Seville who translated into Latin the

works of al-Battani and al-Farghani, the two chief
Arabic writers on astronomy. The latter, under the
name Alfergano,
in the Convito
cited
is
by Dante;
various passages
and the Vita Nuova are based upon
his theories. Al-Kindi's treatise of the Stations of the
Moon was translated for Robert
of
Anjou by Kalony-
mos ben Kalonymos ("Maestro Calo"). Al-Heitham's

astronomical compendium was translated from Arabic
into Spanish
by
Jew named Abraham
at the request
Makhir translated al-Hazen's

Astronomy and the works of Autolycus and Menelaus
on the Sphere.
While working at the court of Frederick II, Jacob
Anatoli came into contact with the great Michael the
of Alfonso X; Jacob ben
Scot, one of the outstanding figures in the intellectual

life
of the Middle Ages,
whose name is still a byword

It was he who was sent
for supernatural knowledge.
by
the
Emperor on
a mission to the Universities of
Europe to communicate to them the versions of Aristotle which he and others had made. This mission
makes him one of the most important figures in the
Latin Renaissance.
It is
highly probable that he
is
to
be identified with a certain remarkable Christian sage

whom Anatoli often cites cryptically though with the
utmost respect. Whether

that Jews
were
this is so
or not,
it is
very closely associated in his
certain
work.
we have for instance the evidence of Roger

Bacon, who informs us categorically that a Jew named
Andrew was principally responsible for those transFor
this
lations
from the Arabic which
are
bound up with the
63
of Michael the Scot, as well as with those as-
name
Herman
cribed to
German, Alfred the English-
the
man, and William the Fleming.

Bacon implies that Michael was ignorant of Arabic;
in which case the aid of Andrew, who has been conjecturally identified with Anatoli himself, must have
been
all
important. This evidence confirms and
trates in a
remarkable fashion the fact that the Jewish
share in the early revival of learning
most
The
illus-
was of the
ut-
significance.
participation of the
currents
knew no
Jews
European
in
intermission,
intellectual
continuing, though
with abated force, owing to the growth of persecution,
through the period of the Italian Renaissance.

to the middle of the sixteenth century, Jewish
Down
Jacob Mantino, one-time physician

to the Pope at Rome and to the Doge at Venice, or
Abraham de Balmes, medical attendant on the Cardinal
Grimaldi, continued to carry on the work of translasavants, such as
tion. Translations
and not,
now made
were
as hitherto, into the
scholastic dialect.
By
available to the
increasing rapidity, and the
came
less
rigor
from academic
important.
The
life,
"barbarous" medieval
time the original Greek
this
made
sources were being
in elegant Latin,
work
world with
of translation be-
Jew, excluded with growing

henceforth played a less im-
portant part than he had in the earliest stage of the

Renaissance. Yet
it
was
far
from a
negligible one; for,
64
notwithstanding
all
the difficulties in his way, his intel-
lectual interests could not be suppressed,
laboration
is
and
his col-
to be traced in almost every facet of the
Renewal of Learning. It is thus no coincidence that

the countries which led in the revival of the fifteenth
century were those which still contained considerable
Jewish settlements. A king of Portugal, successor and
namesake of the ruler who was responsible for the
peculiarly brutal expulsion of the Jews from that
country in 1497 (in fact a universal forced converbelow, p. 230), recorded his own conviction that
"the Renaissance found Portugal ready to receive its
impetus because the way had already been prepared
partly by the learned Portuguese Jews."
sion:
was symptomatic
It
scholars
who
that
one of the
many Greek
streamed westward after the
fall
of
Con-
stantinople in 1453, and brought the revival of letters
to flower,
was
Jew, Elijah del Medigo, of Crete. This
savant was regarded in his day as one of the foremost,

if
not the foremost, exponent of Aristotelian philoso-
phy, as distinct from the fashionable Platonism then

gaining ground. In 1480, he was
summoned
as referee in a dispute in University circles.
Padua
Here he
to
made
the acquaintance of Giovanni Pico della Miran-
dola,
who
invited
him to Florence
to act as his tutor.
was himand particu-
Pico, that knight-errant of the Renaissance,

self
deeply interested in
Hebrew
studies
which he first introduced to the

Christian world; but it was in philosophy that he desired Del Medigo's guidance. The latter thus became
larly in the Cabbala,
a familiar figure in humanistic circles in Florence.
He
6^
famous fresco in the Medici

Palace in the Via Larga, and there can be Httle doubt
that he was among the brilUant company which assembled to discuss philosophical problems in the Orti
Oricellai. Nor was he the only Jewish savant who
figured in the cosmopolitan body of scholars which
the Medici attracted to Florence, There was, for example, Johanan Alemanno, an expert in Greek and
was depicted
in Gozzoli's
Arabic philosophy
as well as
Hebrew
literature, in
whose writings there is a penetrating delineation of

Lorenzo the Magnificent and his surroundings; or
again,
Abraham
forms us
how
raffe sent
by
cosmographer,
Farisol, the
he saw
at the
in-
court of the Medici a gi-
the Sultan of Egypt.
these Jewish savants
who
The
on the Florentine
influence of
thinkers, such
as Marsilio Ficino as well as Pico himself,
cannot be
overlooked.
Other Jewish participants

illustrate the great
in the
breadth of their
new
birth in Italy
interests,
co-exten-
with that of the Renaissance as a whole. Among

those who enjoyed Lorenzo the Magnificent's patronage in Florence was Guglielmo da Pesaro, author of
sive
on the art of dancvogue in Italian society

during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; Giovanni
Maria, the musician, who subsequently became converted and was raised by Leo X to the dignity of
Count of Verocchio; and more than one other.
This activity was not, of course, restricted to Florence. Benvenuto Cellini had as one of his masters
Graziadio the Jew, of Bologna; and the metal-worker
one of the
ing,
earliest extant treatises
which had
a considerable
66
Salamone da Sessa (subsequently converted,

de' Fedeli)
worked
at the courts of
rara, as well as for that
whom
Ercole
most discriminating patron,
Cesare Borgia. There were lesser

of
as
Mantua and Fer-
Moses da Castellazzo
is
artists all
best
over
Italy,
remembered
in
Jewish annals. In the seventeenth century, Joseph

Levi and Angelo de' Rossi of Verona enjoyed a high
still sought after by
Mantua, when it was
reputation. Their productions are

collectors.
And
at the court of
one of the centers of Italian intellectual life, the Jews

played a part of real importance, in their corporate
capacity in the development of the nascent drama.
Much
of the activity of the Italian Jews at the
period of the Renaissance will be dealt with in con-
nection with different topics later on.

tion,
however, of the extent of their
take a single
humble
ther research
is still
As an
interests,
illustra-
one
instance, the handkerchief.
may
Fur-
required on the early history of
this indispensable article.
In England,
it
does not ap-
pear to be very ancient, for the Oxford English Dictionary does not record the use of the
to 1530.
But
Italian
Jews were
word
previous
familiar with the hand-
kerchief long before then. In the writings of a certain

rabbi
named
who died in the first half

we find a detailed descrip-
Isaiah of Trani,
of the fourteenth century,
tion of "the piece of cloth used for cleansing the nose"
which he
called
by
its
Italian
name, fazzoletto. This
is
certainly one of the earliest mentions of the object.
To
assume on the basis of this that the Jews invented

would be too much. But we are justified in deducing
that they soon adopted it widely before it was in gen-
it
'
67
any but the highest circles, and certainly

was familiar in England,
eral use in
before
As
it
happens, this record
it
At
further.
may
be carried
a little
the beginning of the sixteenth century a
French student named Frangois Tissard visited Italy,

and took the opportunity to study local Jewish life.
His observations are embodied in the preface to the
Hebrew and Greek Grammar which he published
shortly after his return home, Grajninatica Hebraica
et
Graeca
(Paris, 1508).
This
the earliest surviving
is
work
printed in France in which
used.
Among
tion to
other matters, he
Hebrew
type was
calls particular atten-
what he considered the disgusting habit of one
of his Jewish teachers at Ferrara,

piece of cloth about with
mouth
to
abhor
this
who
used to carry a
him and would put
it
to his
remove his spittle, instead of expectorating

on the ground like a decent Christian! "I began to
fellow for this to such an extent," observes
Tissard naively, "that
must make an example of
him."
This Jewish anticipation of what is now regarded

as an elementary piece of hygiene, ridiculed by nonits parallel in a practice to which
was drawn by Rammazzini, the great Italian
physician of the seventeenth century and originator of
Jewish observers, has

attention
the
study of occupational
among
He
diseases.
mentions,
the outstanding unsanitary habits of the Jews
of Venice, their practice of keeping the
day and
night!
The
windows open,
Italian physician's attitude
who
five centuries
before had
in
Moses Mairecommended
striking contrast to the prescriptions of
monides,
is
68
air
and sunlight
as
being among the most important
safeguards of health (see below p. 227)/

Or, as a final example, a public bath was regarded
an
Jewish quarter (it was

in a town without a synagogue
essential institution of the
better for a
Jew
to live
than in one which lacked a public bath, the rabbis had

taught), and systematic ablutions were part of the
recognized system of religious hygiene. Hence John

Locke, in urging the benefits of cold water on his fel-
low-countrymen, appealed to the example of the

Jews:
warmer, those of Germany

and Poland are much colder than any in this our country; and yet in these the Jews, both men and women,
bathe all over, at all seasons of the year, without any
prejudice to their health." So7ne Thoughts Con"If the rivers of Italy are
cerning Education. (1690) 7
The
revival of learning
would have remained the
prerogative of a comparatively small class had
it not
been for the invention of printing. The Jews were
quick to realize the potentialities of

early as 1444
six years, that
ally assigned to the
is,
this
new
art.
As
before the date gener-
beginning of Gutenberg's activity
adduced. In the lavatories in New

prominently displayed requesting employees to wash their hands after using the toilet, in accordance
with a recent municipal regulation. This hygienic practice has
been universal among Jews for twenty centuries, as a quasi^
York
modern
parallel
may be
restaurants, a card
religious prescription.
is
69
an
agreement for the cutting of a Hebrew font

"according to the art of writing artificially," was entered into at Avignon between a wandering German
craftsman and a
specimens of
member
this
of the local community.
earliest
Hebrew
No
unfortu-
press,
nately, have survived; for the persecution of
Hebrew
was hardly less ruthless in its day than the

persecution of the Jews themselves. But before long,
Hebrew presses were active in more than one part of
the Jewish world, and in several places the Jews were
literature
pioneers, anticipating the other local craftsmen
some
years. Thus, in Portugal
in 1478,
first
Hebrew
and non-Hebrew seven years
Latin book appeared (no
work
by
printing began
later,
when
the
in the Portuguese
language earlier than 1495 is known).^ Indeed, of the

twenty-four known books printed in Portugal before
1500, the first eleven are in
When
Hebrew.
the Jews were driven out of this country in
1497, they took their skill and their
equipment with
them, and various Hebrew works, printed at Fez
shortly after, are extant, notably an edition of the
liturgical guide, Abudrahhn. This is the earliest book
printed on the African continent. Similarly, the first
book printed in the Balkans was the Hebrew Code
of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (Constantinople, 1493) and
;
work
by the European method in

Asia is a commentary on the Book of Esther, published
at Safed, in Palestine, in 1577. At Cairo, where a Eurothe earliest
printed
There is, indeed, a vague and probably inaccurate reference

book of 1490, but even this is some time after the initiative
had come from the Jews.
^
to a
yo
pean press was not
started until 1798 during
Hebrew
leon's expedition, a
press
Napo-
had been active
since 1557.
It
was not only
in
Hebrew
printing that Jews were
Notwithstanding the efforts made to exclude

them from honorable walks of life, a few managed to
become engaged in secular work. Thus, Abraham
active.
Zacuto's
lished
Almanac and astronomical
by Abraham d'Orta
editions, Latin
as it
is
tables
and Spanish. The
latter
were pub-
1496 in two
noteworthy,
at Leiria in
is
the only incunabulum printed in Portugal with
Hebrew.
At the beginning of the following century, Girolamo
Soncino was active as a publisher in Northern Italy,
the text neither Latin, nor Portuguese, nor
mainly in Latin and
Italian.
He
took pains to search
out manuscripts in order to establish the best
texts, his
edition of Petrarch being particularly noteworthy.
Moreover, he contests with the great Aldo the credit

for
first
realizing the potentialities of the so-called
Italic type.^ Similarly
the most famous Portuguese ro-
mance of the sixteenth century, Ribeiro's Menina e

Moga, was first published by the Jew, Usque, at Ferrara in 1554.
Perhaps the most important factor in the populari-
which the newly-invented

would have remained little more than a
zation of learning, witliout

printing-press
toy,
always ex-
was the replacement of parchment
It is interesting to note that bilingual typographic activity was

not confined to Western Europe. Tiie first Turkish press, founded
at Constantinople in 1729 (over two hundred years after the first
Hebrew press in that city, set up in 1503) was carried on with the
*
help of a
Jew named
Jonas.
and necessarily restricted in quantity by

which the supply was unlimited. The Chinese
had long ago made paper from silk and other materials.
The Arabs had learned to manufacture it from cotton,
but it was not until comparatively late that Western
Europe mastered the art, and began to make linen
paper. The Jev/s once again were among the pioneers,
and the earliest known paper factory in Europe was
that which they established in the thirteenth century
pensive,
paper, of
at Jativa, near Valencia.
when it crossed the Alps from

Germany, took on a different complexion.
The serious, introspective Germanic spirit took into
consideration various questions which the light-hearted
The
Renaissance,
Italy to
had preferred not to raise, or the answers to

which they had taken for granted. The spirit of inquiry, which had been fostered by a re-examination
of medieval science, was now applied to medieval re-
Italians
ligion. Literary criticism,
with the texts of
developed in order to cope
classical literature,
that of the Latin Bible.
was applied
The new-found
to
passion for
going back to the sources was applied to the Catholic

tradition,
and the same
spirit
which had questioned
authority in philosophy began to question

ters of faith.
The
it
in
mat-
Renaissance, in fact, developed in
its
northern form into the Reformation. This in turn had

its
repercussions south of the Alps in the Catholic Re-
action, or
Counter-Reformation. In the end, the re-
ligious life of
Europe, whether
it
titularly retained the
72
old faith or embraced the
new
form, was revolu-
tionized.
The
is
Jews' part in bringing about the Reformation
frequently exaggerated, and generally misunder-
stood.
The
Reformation, like
movements before and
after,
all
Christian reform
implied a return to the
reform necessarily went to

the Bible for support, and occasionally approximated
biblical practice in one matter or the other. It was
hence natural that one of the commonest terms of
ecclesiastical vituperation in the Middle Ages was
"Judaizer" an epithet which recurs in the controversial works of the period with wearisome frequency.
But in fact it was seldom justified. The Jew, as such,
had no interest in the dispute, one way or the other.
Scriptures. All agitators for
There was little for him to choose, theologically speaking, between the Reformed and Catholic forms of
Christianity. Nor was there any material reason why
he should prefer one to the other. It was true that
Martin Luther,
at the outset of his career,
had referred
Jews as an
he reversed
to the Church's atrocious treatment of the
argument against it. Yet later

and inveighed against the Jews with a
virulence which surpassed the worst precedent that the
Middle Ages could provide. For many years to come,
the treatment of the Jews by Catholic and Protestant
Europe was much the same; and, if the latter subsequently changed its policy, this was due to economics
and expediency rather than to abstract, disinterested
additional
his opinion,
toleration.
It is
thus misleading to speak of a direct Jewish in-

upon the Reformation/ Yet
fluence
73
the influence of
Jewish scholarship, and hence of individual Jewish

scholars, was far from negligible. As has been pointed
Reformation was based upon the rejection of
out, the
Catholic tradition in favor of the authority of the
from the latter of the glosses by

means of which (as the Reformers claimed) the
Church of the Middle Ages had attempted to maintain
its ascendancy over religious thought. But the Bible
was available to the Western World only in its official
Catholic version, the Vulgate; it was the Jews alone
who possessed the Hebrew original and the key to its
interpretation. Hence, just as Italian savants applied to
Greek scholars for guidance in their researches into
Bible and the removal
Plato, so
German
theologians applied to Jewish Rabbis
for assistance in understanding the

It
was only
clash in
Hebrew
Scriptures.
a coincidence, perhaps, that the intellectual
Germany began with an
attempt on the part of
which was
by Johannes von Reuchlin; yet
the Dominicans to suppress the Talmud,
doughtily championed
it
was symptomatic of the trend of
great leaders of reform
Luther,
thon, Tyndale, Servetus, and so on
Many of them,
Ân
too,
events. All the
Zwingli, Melanch-
studied Hebrew.
had Jewish scholars to teach them.
to be made only as regards the Marranos, or

crypto-Jews of Spain and Portugal. Compulsorily converted to
Catholicism, they could not be expected to appreciate its spirituality; yet in many cases they entirely lacked Jewish knowledge and
loyalties. They were hence a particularly favorable soil for the
Reform doctrine, and played an important part in its propagation
exception
in Flanders.
is
Thus Marc
Perez, the Calvinist leader at
the middle of the sixteenth century,
were many
others.
was of Jewish
Antwerp
in
extraction, as
74
Reuchlin, for example, had been instructed by Jacob

Loans (physician to the Emperor Frederick III) in
Germany and by Obadiah Sforno in Italy; these two
savants have been reckoned, for that reason, among
the fathers of the Protestant Reformation.
The newly aroused interest did

Hebrew text of the Bible. In order
Scriptures,
it
was necessary
on the
real beginning of
subject.
to understand the
to have recourse to rab-
binical literature, so as to discover

ish tradition
not end with the
From
what was the Jew-
this period dates the
Christian-Hebrew scholarship, the
establishment of effective chairs of

principal
European
universities
Hebrew
at the
and the emergence of
a class of Christian Hebraists of real ability,
whose
contributions to Jewish scholarship have sometimes
been of the utmost value.
The
left
recourse to Jewish tradition was fruitful and
permanent mark. The writings of the great
medieval Franco-Jewish biblical commentators, Solo-
mon ben
Isaac of
Troyes (Rashi) and David Kimchi
of Narbonne, were of the highest importance; for
was upon them
that the
new
it
translations of the Bible,
the foundation of the Reformation, depended. Luther,

indeed, relied principally
upon Nicholas de Lyra,
the
fourteenth century Franciscan exegete, said to have
been
on
Jew by
birth.
that account.
His
critics
indeed sneered at him
Had Lyra not lyred, they said, Luther
could never have danced. But Lyra himself depended

to an overwhelming extent on the writings of Rashi,
whose
interpretations in
many
instances he simply
adapted, giving them a Christian tinge. Subsequently,
75
Lyra's writings were furnished with an important sup-
plement (Hkewise used by Luther) by Paul de Santa

Maria, Bishop of Burgos, who had formerly been
Rabbi Solomon Levi and naturally derived to a great

extent from Jewish sources. Kimchi's commentary was
used in a large degree
by
successive generations of
Christian exegetes, particularly in the preparation of

the English "Authorized Version" of 1611.
an extent was
this so, that, it
no Jews were tolerated

this
in
To
such
has been aptly said, though
England
at the
time
when
magnificent achievement was being produced.
Rabbi David Kimchi was present
at
Westminster in
spirit.
Hence,
Jewish collaborators assisted in the
just as
labor of translation of secular and scientific texts into

Latin,
which marked the beginning of the
learning, so the
Hebraic
spirit,
revival of
Jewish learning, and
individual Jewish scholars participated to a
extent in
its
latest
phase
the
biblical research
marked
and
re-
examination of doctrine which accompanied the revival of religion.
CHAPTER IV. The Great Voyages of Discovery
"The
greatest event
which has happened
since the
creation of the world (leaving aside the incarnation
and death of Him who made it) is the discovery of the

Indies" wrote a sixteenth century Spaniard, Francisco
Lopez de Gomara, in dedicating his Hispania Felix to
the
Emperor Charles V. There was

was customary
in this statement than
less
exaggeration
in such effusions,
for the discovery of the sea-route to India and the

existence of the vast
American Continent was among
the most epoch-making events in
The
all
recorded history.
succession of maritime discoveries at the close of
the fifteenth century suddenly enlarged men's hori-
showing them the existence of a new world,

known to their fathers and fathers'
fathers before them. This widening of perspective provided humanity with a new universe to conquer. It
shifted the balance of power from the Mediterranean
zons,
other than that
to the countries of the Atlantic coast. It laid the foun-
dation of the world of today.
The
discovery of America and of the Indies was not,
to be sure, a
sudden stroke of genius or of luck, but
the culmination of a gradual
76
movement spread over
many
regarded
as a
The
77
from antiquity been

sphere of which only a small part was
generations.
earth had
known. Already in the thirteenth century, the English

friar, Roger Bacon, had offered as proof the authority
of
Hebrew writers to show that
Asia could be reached
by sailing west from Europe. Indeed, the rabbis had

made some astonishing guesses about the structure of
the universe, which by coincidence were near enough
to the truth. The so-called "Jerusalem" Talmud
(Aboda Zara, 42c.) boldly states that the world is in
the form of a globe. The Zohar (Lev. 1:3) goes even
on
further, asserting that the earth rotates

a ball; thus,
other half
low have
its
axis like
when
is
it is day in one half of the globe, the

plunged in darkness, and those living be-
their heads in the opposite direction to those
This statement, accepted by many medieval scholars,^ familiarized in wide circles among the
Jews the conjecture of antipodean conditions which,
from the sixth century on, had been treated with genabove.
eral derision.
The
progress of maritime discovery at the close of
Ages was bound up with certain technical

Ships were small, knowledge was
limited, mechanical aids almost non-existent. Even
after the introduction of the compass, it was impossible
the Middle
improvements.
to estimate the position of a ship at sea.
point in the history of

ships could
sail
modern
The
starting-
exploration began
when
out boldly into uncharted seas instead
of hugging the coast or steering in a direction
which
^Like the thirteenth-century author of the Mashal haKadmoni,

Isaac Sahulla.
78
would bring them

few hours.
in sight of
known
land within a
In the development and perfection of the instru-
ments and
tables
by means
of
which
this
became pos-
Jewish savants, who were deeply interested in

astronomy, played a part of the utmost importance.
sible,
As
a result their
names are inseparably associated with
the whole story of maritime discovery.
The nautical instruments used in the Middle Ages

were almost without exception based ofi Arab models.
These in turn depended on Greek science. Their prototypes were introduced to the Moslem world by that
remarkable
Jewish genius of the eighth century,

Mashaala, "the phoenix of his age," who first adapted
the
Greek
treatise
on the
astrolabe for the use of the
Arabic-speaking world. Throughout the Middle Ages,
Jewish scholars, in particular, continued to work on

this indispensable instrument,
Apart from the
as
we
shall see later.
most important nautical instrument in the early days was the quadrant for
the determination of the right ascension of the sun and
stars, and hence the relative position of the vessel at
any given moment. For a long time the quadrant in
general use was one devised by that twelfth century
genius known as Robert the Englishman, first translator of the Koran into any European language. His
astrolabe, the
invention held the field for
many
generations until
it
was superseded by the improved instrument of Rabbi

Jacob ben Makhir, compiler, incidentally, of the calendar used by Dante. This was known after him as the
Quadrcms Judaicus. The importance of Jacob ben

Makhir's
work was
79
universally recognized, for he
by
read and quoted with respect
the founders of
was
mod-
ern astronomy, Copernicus and Kepler, long after his

day.
A more important invention was due to Rabbi Levi

ben Gershom of Bagnols,
South France, the most

eminefit Jewish philosopher and exegete of the fourteenth century. His magnum opus was a philosophical
work, The Wars of the Lord, which covered also a
in
considerable part of the field of natural science.

entire section, comprising
of a total of 237,
is
no
An
than 136 chapters out

devoted to astronomy. The reputaless
which the author enjoyed was so great that almost

as soon as the book was put into circulation, Pope
Clement VI had the astronomical portion translated
into Latin. This was indeed fortunate since, when the
original Hebrew was published, that part was not con-
tion
sidered to be of sufficient theological importance to
warrant inclusion. In
this treatise the
author described
an improved quadrant which he had invented, and
which could be handled more easily than the cumbersome old affair. The great Regiomontanus, reading
this account, was so impressed that he constructed an
instrument according to the Rabbi's recommendations,
which he named Jacobus Staff. This was the instrument

which accompanied all the great explorers of the
Renaissance, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, even Christopher Columbus, on their travels. It remained in use
for approximately three centuries, and was not given
up until John Hadley's reflecting quadrant was
adopted by the British Admiralty in 1734. Even after
8o
that
it
continued to be used by surveyors for land
measurements/
The
in
quadrant, used alone, was inadequate as an aid
In
navigation.
the
heyday of the Portuguese
maritime activity at the close of the fifteenth century,
King Joao II of Portugal

it was possible to extend the scope of the mechanical devices hitherto employed, by adapting to nautical use the old planispheric
astrolabe known to the Greeks. The King entrusted
the scientists at the Court of
advised him to find out whether
commission of three scientists. One of

them was Martin Behaim (that is "the Bohemian"),
said by some authorities to have been a Jew. The other
this task to a
two were
the King's two Jewish physicians. Master

Rodrigo and Master Joseph Vecinho. The three
savants set to
work
methodically.
The
result
was the
manufacture of an improved astrolabe, which, used in

conjunction with tables of the solar declination which
^
The "Jacob's Staff" consisted of a long central bar marked
with a scale and provided with a movable cross-bar (or four of
varying sizes, used alternatively). One end was placed to the eye
and the traversal was adjusted until one end was in line with the
sun and the other with the horizon. By calculating the length
of the cross-piece and
its
distance
from the
eye, the angle
the sun and the horizon could easily be calculated.
between
With
the aid
was thus possible to prick the chart while

at sea, instead of landing (as had hitherto been necessary) each
time the position was to be determined. A representation of the
of this instrument,
instrument
is
constantly before our eyes in the picture of the Jack
of Diamonds, as
cards.
Under
it
it is
the
to be found in
name
Suffolk sailors within living

laine the Great,
II. iii. 3, it
gation, Jacob's Staff
any ordinary pack of playing-
it continued to be used by
memory. From Marlowe's Tambur-
"sun-glass,"
seems
was the
that, besides
earliest
being used for navi-
form of range-finder.
they prepared, made it possible to navigate by observation of the sun. Portuguese historians record this dis-
covery with pride, for now oceanic navigation in its

complete sense became possible.
Navigation necessarily required one other aid without
which the instruments were
astronomical tables, essential in
or sidereal
observation.^
all
All
useless
reliable
work based on
the
solar
more important
astronomical tables of the Middle Ages, without exception,
were
at least translated
or compiled with the
help of Jews; in the most important cases they were

entirely of Jewish authorship.
Shortly before the capture of Toledo
by
the Chris-
tian forces in 1085, a series of astronomical tables
been drawn up in that city
the swan-song,
as
it
had
were,
of Arab science in the old capital. In the compilation
number of Jewish asSome time later, in the thir-
of these, the Toledo Tables, a
tronomers had
assisted.
teenth century, Alfonso the Wise,

his
King of
Castile, in
endeavor to naturalize Moslem science in
his
do-
minions, set about having these adapted for the use of
non-Moslem
scholars and brought
up
to date.
Among
whom he applied with

view
were Judah ben Moses Cohen, a Jewish physician, and
Isaac ben Sid, hazan or reader in a Toledo synagogue.
These two in collaboration with other Jewish savants
those to
this object in
^What follows is based upon Joseph Jacobs' admirable summary in his Jewish Contributions to Civilization a superb achievement which, had he been spared to complete it, would have rendered a great part of the present work unnecessary. Much use
has been made in this section also of the chapter in The Legacy
of Israel on "The Jewish Factor in Mediaeval Thought."
82
were the authors of the famous "Alfonsine Tables,"

which they themselves translated into Spanish and
which continued in great repute for centuries. They
are found in innumerable manuscripts and were published time after time long after the invention of printing.
The
was
that of
which appeared for practical use

Madrid in 1641. As late as the seventeenth
century they were still being consulted by Kepler and
last edition
even Galileo.
The
by
1
Alfonsine Tables in their turn were adapted
Isaac Israeli of
Toledo for
They became
3 10.
were
by
utilized
classical
his
contemporaries in
throughout Europe, and
Scaliger,
the
sixteenth
century
founder of the modern science of chronology, and by

Petavius. Further astronomical tables formerly in general use were compiled by Joseph ibn Wakkar at
Toledo
in
1396, and in
Aragon by various Jewish

were
savants for Pedro III (IV). Other calculations
made by Emanuel ben

world
as Bonfils
Jacob,
known
to the outside
de Tarascon. These were shortly
afterwards translated into Latin from the original
brew and were
extensively used
He-
by many European
by
scholars of the age of the Renaissance, especially
Pico della Mirandola and Peiresc.^

^ It is
interesting to note that even the points of the compass, as
they were
known
to mariners of old,
owed
their
nomenclature to
Asaph of the ninth (?) century that we

first find these mentioned by the names current in the Middle
Ages Graecum, Scirrocum, Garbinum, Magistrwn. These terms
were taken over by the Latin world and were crystallized by
mention in the Treasure, composed by Brunetto Latini between
Jews.
It is in
the Sepher
1260 and 1269.
One
83
of the principal centers of activity in the period
of preparation M^hich led up to the great maritime dis-
Ages was Majorca. The

island lies midway between Europe and Africa. It inherited the traditions of Islamic civilization, of which
it was one of the last European refuges, as well as of
Latin culture; its inhabitants, many of whom were
Jews, were from necessity skilled navigators, as much
at home on the high seas as in their own sea-girt birthplace. In consequence, they were quite familiar with
coveries of the late Middle
the art of navigation, the coastline, and geographical
knowledge
in general.
By
degrees their reputation ex-
tended. In the end they came to be the cartographers
par excellence of Christendom, and they were called
upon when new maps were required
especially
by
the princes and rulers of the Spanish mainland. Their
productions
as
it
may
was known
be said to
in the later
sum up geography
so far
Middle Ages and to have
served as the point of departure for subsequent discoveries.
So much
is
more or
generally realized
tographers,
upon
is
less familiar.
But what is not so

Majorcan car-
the fact that these
whom
Europe
relied for
its
geo-
graphical knowledge, were for the most part Jews.
At
head was the Crescas family. Abraham Crescas

was so highly esteemed that he was appointed by the
their
Infant Juan of
Aragon as "Master of Maps and Comwhich he was paid, apparently,
passes," a dignity for
by an
authorization to establish a public bath for his
84
coreligionists at Palma. On one occasion the Infant

Juan of Aragon wrote to the authorities on the island
stating that he wanted a complete chart which would
represent the Straits of Gibraltar, the Atlantic coasts

It was natural that
was entrusted to Abraham Crescas and his son
Jahuda. They worked on it for two years (1376-7),
and the result was their famous inapamundi "that is
to say, an image of the world and of the various states
of the world and of the regions which are on the earth
and of the divers manners of people which inhabit it."
This, now famous as the Catalan Atlas, is one of the
most remarkable monuments of medieval science that
have come down to us. "Never have we seen so fair a
map," cried Don Juan when he saw it. The sources
from which Crescas obtained his information cannot
be ascertained, but it is certain that he must have made
and the mysterious ocean beyond.

the task
use of the experiences of Joseph the physician, or

Yuceff Faquin, a Barcelona Jew who had settled in
Majorca and who was reported to have sailed the en-
known world.
The sequel was remarkable.
tire
In
1 ,
Charles
VI
of
France wrote the Infant Juan, informing him of his

desire to possess an atlas of the world executed by the
cartographers of Majorca, who enjoyed so high a reputation for their care
that he
knew
and precision. The other replied
of no mapa?7mndi better than that
recently executed
by
his
Jewish subjects. This he
generously dispatched with his letter with careful instructions as to

session of the
its
transport. It remained a prized pos-
Royal Library
in Paris
and
is
now among

the treasures of the BibHotheque Nationale.
85
Much
has
been written about it and in recent times it has twice

been reproduced in facsimile. This work marks a real
epoch in European map-making, inasmuch as it added
for the first time the discoveries of Marco Polo to the
conventional map-drawing which had continued almost unchanged for centuries.
Abraham Crescas continued to work unremittingly
under the patronage of the Aragonese Court until 1387.
On his death in that year, his son, Jahuda, the Compass

or Map Jew, as he was popularly called, inherited his
reputation and his clientele, and
patron,
a
now King
we
find his former
of Aragon, commissioning
new mapa?nzmdi
from him
to replace that sent to France.
wave of forced baptisms which swept through

Spain in 1 391, Jahuda Crescas was compelled to change
his religion. Henceforth, he Mâs called Jayme Ribes.
But he was too useful to be allowed to change his occupation, and he was summoned to Barcelona to conduct his work nearer the Court. On the death of his
In the
patron and of the
continued his
vited
scientific interests,
by Prince Henry
was known
the
latter's successor,
first
as
Martin
I,
who had
Jayme Ribes was
the Navigator to Portugal.
in-
He
Maestre Jacomo de Majorca and was
director of the famous nautical observatory at
Sagres, cradle of the Portuguese discoveries.
expeditions were
Here the
organized which resulted in the
rounding of the Cape of
Good Hope and
the discov-
ery of the sea route to India.
Another Jewish cartographer of Majorca, believed

Abraham Crescas' family, was Haym ibn
to belong to
86
Risch. He, too,
became converted
at the time of the
name
persecutions in 1391, adopting the
of Juan de
He was probably the father of the Gabriel

de Vallsecha, who executed in 1439 another famous
mapaimmdinow one of the treasures of the InstiVallsecha.
tute of Catalan Studies in Barcelona, for
to
Amerigo Vespucci. In
Azores
used for the
is
tography.
ish birth
Still
first
is
map
it
belonged
the meridian of the
time in the history of car-
another Majorcan cartographer of Jew-
was Mecia de
dated 141 3,
this
Viladestes.
One
of his maps,
preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale
in Paris.
It
is
significant that the anti-Jewish persecutions
marked the end of

of cartography.
the glories of the
The
little
Majorcan school
group of conversos con-
tinued the Jewish tradition for another generation;

thereafter, there
was
a rapid decadence.
One
incident
very clearly. The Jewish map-makers

with their widespread connections had known and
illustrates this
indicated
all
that
was
possible about the cities, the
trade-routes, and the oases of the Sahara.

cessors forgot
it all.
Pedro
Their suc-
Roselli, in his planisphere
of 1465, seventy-five years after the outbreak of persecution,
marked only four
localities to the
the Atlas range; his successors

^ It
south of
knew only one/
was not only by providing maps that the Jewish
of Majorca
contributed
to
geographical
discovery.
scientists
They
also
manufacturers of nautical instruments. Two were

especially famous. The physician, Isaac Nafuci, was a favorite of
excelled
as
Pedro IV of Aragon, who called him "the celebrated Jew of

Majorca" and never tired of singing his praises. In 1359, the king
chose him "to make the clocks and quadrants that we desire," and
With
87
regard to the ancestors of Christopher Colum-
bus, a certain degree of mystery, largely of his
own
due to the fact

that, in his anxiety to claim a noble origin, he spoke as
little and as confusedly as possible about his parentage.
There are certain obvious discrepancies, moreover, between his own account of his career and what we
making,
still
prevails.
This
know from documentary
is
chiefly
sources of that of Cristofer
Colombo, son of the Genoese weaver, with
whom
he
is
generally identified.
de
Spanish scholars, such as Jose M. Erugo, C. Garcia

la Riega, Otero Sanchez, Nicholas Diaz Perez, etc.,^
him for their own country, have put

forward the hypothesis that he was of Marrano extraction, and therefore obliged to be secretive about
his origin. It is certain that the name of Colombo, or
Colon, is by no means unknown among Jews, that
in order to claim
Christopher
left a small
legacy to a
Jew
living
by
the
gate of the Jews' Street in Lisbon, that he shows a
moment of the war with Castile, he ordered

made to him for a silver quadrant which he had
provided. Nafuci worked in conjunction with the Majorcan Jewish scientist Ephraim Bellshom (to whom, incidentally, a conin 1365, at a critical
payment
to be
temporary rabbi turned to discover the area of a globe, in connection with the construction of a ritual bath). The two
collaborated in the manufacture of an astrolabe for the use of
the Infant Juan, together with a translation into Catalan of an
astronomical work of the famous al-Farghani.
^The hypothesis
Madariaga.
now
(1939)
has the support of Salvador de
88
particularly strong biblical influence in his writings,

that his
somewhat mysterious
signature
Hebraic interpretations and that
gorically that his father's progenitors
blood of Jerusalem
is
capable of
his son states cate-
were of the royal
a phraseology consistently used
by Spanish Jews of the period ivhen they desired to

boast their aristocratic origin. "The theory that Columcannot lightly be
bus was born at Pontevedra
.
brushed aside,"
asserts
the other hand, there

lieving
him born
in
Andre, in
is
his biography.
"On
perhaps equal reason for be-
Aragon, the son of converted
Jeivsr
Whatever
the truth
may
be,
it is
incontestable that
the great explorer had a penchant for Jewish society,
and that Jews were intimately associated with his

from the beginning.
Discouraged by his failure in Portugal, where he
had first applied for assistance, Columbus had made his
way to Spain. Here, too, he met with rebuff after
rebuff. The only persons who took him seriously were
a little group, all or nearly all of whom were either
Jews or of Jewish descent belonging to Marrano families which converted to Christianity by force during
enterprise
the persecutions at the close of the fourteenth century,

still
remained
at heart, in
most
the religion of their fathers.
instances, faithful to
The most prominent was
the learned Diego de Deza, later Inquisitor General,
who, notwithstanding his Christian zeal, belonged to

a family which originated in the juderia; the latter
introduced Columbus to Abraham Zacuto, the astronomer (below, pp. 92-94), whose discoveries were uti-

lized to
89
good effect by the explorer later on. A striking

Deza was Don Isaac Abravanel, the last
contrast to
scholar-statesman of Spanish Jewry,
who
occupied an
important position in the financial administration of

the country, yet devoted
studies.
His
Rabbi of
associate,
Castile,
all
was likewise
More
leisure to
Jewish
Senior, last
Crown
his
Abraham
a staunch supporter of
was Luis de
Santangel, Chancellor and Comptroller of the Royal
the
explorer.
influential
still
Household, a great-grandson of the Jew
Noah
Chinillo
of Calatayud. Gabriel Sanchez, another of the most
fervent supporters of the expedition, was also of Jewish origin, being the son of a converso couple and
nephew
of Alazar Ussuf, of Saragossa.
Among
other patrons of Columbus were Alfonso de

leria,
member
of a famous
la
the
Cabal-
Marrano family and Vice-
Chancellor of Aragon, and Juan Cabrero, the Royal

Chamberlain. Indeed, the only high official intimately
concerned with the genesis of the expedition belonging to an "Old Christian" house was the royal secretary, Juan de Coloma, whose wife was, however, descended from the Jewish clan of De la Caballeria.
It was this group which rallied round Columbus
when, faced with failure, he was preparing to leave
Spain for good. Santangel secured him an audience
with the Queen and, representing to her the advantages which would accrue to the Crown and to Spain
from the discovery of the sea-route to the
Indies, per-
suaded her to neglect the adverse views of the pedants
upon
whom she had previously relied. When at last she
acquiesced, the question of finance remained.
Once
90
more Santangel came forward, advancing without interest no less than 1,140,000 maravedis towards the
expenses of the expedition. A certain amount was still
needed; this was provided by Don Isaac Abravanel.
The story that the queen pawned her crown jewels for
the purpose of financing the expedition
is
a pious in-
vention.
now
Preparations for the expedition were
pushed
forward. Columbus' crew consisted of some ninety
men
all
told.
Among
the
few
of these
whose names
known
Jewish origin
have been preserved, persons of

are prominent.
One was Alonso
de
whose
Jewof the High
la Calle,
very name indicated that he had been born

ish quarter.
Roderigo Sanchez, a
relative
in the
Treasurer, joined the expedition at the personal request of the queen.
A New
was
while Mestre Bernal, the ship's
ship's surgeon;
Christian
named Marco
physician, had been punished a couple of years pre-
viously
sighted
by the Inquisition as a judaizer. Land was first

by the Marrano sailor, Rodrigo de Triana; and
Luis de Torres, the interpreter,
who had been baptized
only a few days before the expedition

first
European
to set foot in the
sailed,
was the
New World. The
ex-
was equipped with the astronomiand instruments of Abraham Zacuto and

other Jewish scientists. On his return to Europe, the
famous letters in which Columbus first announced the
news of his discoveries were addressed to his Marrano
patrons, Luis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez. In
view of all this evidence it may be stated without exag-
pedition, moreover,
cal tables
geration that the discovery of the
New World as early

as 1492
would have been unlikely but for the
9
assistance
of persons of Jewish origin/
The Jewish
scientific activity of the later
culminated in the
work
of
Abraham
Middle Ages
Zacuto, one of the
most remarkable savants of the fifteenth century,

whose work was of the utmost importance in the
period of the great maritime discoveries. The most
capable astronomer, perhaps, of his day, he had taught
that subject, informally, as appears from the latest researches on the subject, at the University of Salamanca,
where he met and was consulted by Columbus, On
the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, he made
his way to Portugal, where he received appointment
almost immediately as Astronomer-Royal; and,
when
persecutions followed in that country in 1497, he
man-
aged to escape to North Africa, where he compiled

the well-known chronicle, Sepher Juhasin, which
made
his
name memorable
in the annals of Jewish
literature.
While
nomical
at
Salamanca, he compiled a series of astro-
tables,
based on the
work
of his predecessors
^ It is an ironic consideration that, notwithstanding the assistance which the Marranos had given in the discovery of the New
World, they were not safe from persecution even here. As early
as
15 1 5
the Inquisition started
its
operations,
suspected of judaizing back to Europe for
end of the century autos da
fe
and before the

were familiar spectacles in every
part of the Spanish dominions overseas.
tims of the Inquisition in the
bringing persons
trial;
Among
New World
the earliest vic-
was Hernando Alonso,
who had
followed Cortes to Mexico as one of the conquistadores;

he was burned at the stake, with another judaizer, in 1528.
\
92
but considerably improved, v^hich immediately ob-
Vecinho
Spanish,
and
(pp. 94
and had them published at the press of the Jewish
printer, Abraham d'Orta, at Leiria in 1496. So highly
esteemed was this work that before the end of the
century it was twice republished at Venice, the classical center of the maritime art.^ This compilation contained general recognition. His pupil, Joseph
if.),
translated
them
into Latin
tinued to be cited in Portugal long after the author
had been driven out; thus, in the Reportorio dos

Tempos, Lisbon, 15 18, there are to be found tables of
the declination of the sun, "punctually taken
from
Zacuto by the honest Gaspar Nicolas."

The tables of Zacuto were carried in the fleets of
Vasco da Gama, Cabral, Joao da Nova, and Albuquerque, but are most important for the use made of them
by Christopher Columbus. In his writings the latter
mentions how he consulted the "Almanack" on his
voyages and how on one occasion he saved himself
and his companions from a difficult position by predicting an eclipse with its aid. It is pretty obvious that
it was Zacuto's tables to which he referred. In any
case, it is certain that he took them with him on his
is preserved at Seville a copy of
which belonged to the great explorer. It has been conjectured that it was presented to
him by the author or translator, and bears manuscript
annotations from Columbus' own pen.
later voyages, for there
the Leiria edition
the
There were other
work
and 1528, and

more than once in facsimile. See,
A. Fontoura da Costa, U Almanack Perpetuum de
editions here in 1500, 1502, 1525
has been reproduced
most recently,
Abraham Zacuto
(1934, 1935).
'
93
was in Portugal that Zacuto's activity reached its

Here he devised a new astrolabe, which he
manufactured of iron instead of wood as was previously usual, thus making that cumbrous instrument
available for ordinary use. The assistance which he
gave to Vasco da Gama before he set out on the
voyage which resulted in the discovery of the sea-route
to India was of the utmost importance. The Court
asked his opinion before the expedition was authorized.
The ships were equipped with his improved astrolabe,
It
zenith.
and in contemporary records

lessons in
its
they put out to

this
new
Camoens
we
find reference to
use being given to the navigators before

sea.
So great was the impression that
experiment created that
it is
referred to
by
in his Lusiads, the greatest Portuguese epic
poem in flowing verses.

The ultimate object of
the great medieval voyages
of discovery was to find a
more convenient route to

While Bartholomew Diaz with his two tiny
caravels was ploughing his way south by sea towards
the Cape of Good Hope, two other audacious pio-
India.
neers, Joao Perez of Covilha and Alfonso de Paiva,

were dispatched eastward to investigate the overland
route; among their equipment were maps made by
Behaim's two Jewish collaborators. Subsequently, two
Jews followed
Joseph
(Japateiro of
Lamego, who had
great experience in Eastern travel and had presented
King
on Ormuz, the emporium of the

Indian spice-trade, and Rabbi Abraham of Beja, whose
knowledge of languages was considered remarkable.
At Cairo, they met Joad Perez, now on his way back
the
a report
94
from
India; his
ing his
companion had died meanwhile, leavJew who had ac-
last instructions to a faithful
companied him in his travels.

Rabbi Abraham remained with Perez, going as far as
Ormuz and then returning by the caravan route via
Damascus and Aleppo. Joseph, on the other hand, was
sent back to Lisbon immediately. He brought information amassed from Arabian and Indian pilots which
indicated a sea-route to the Far East. Armed with this
information, with the Majorcan maps, with Vecinho's
tables, and with Zacuto's improved astrolabe, Vasco da
Gama set out on the epoch-making voyage which was
to result in the discovery of the sea-route to India.
Before sailing from Lisbon on July 8th, 1497, Da

conferred publicly with Zacuto and affection-
Gama
ately bade
crew.
On
him good-bye
his arrival at
the explorer
in the presence of the
whole
Anchediva, not far from Goa,
was greeted by
flowing white beard, a
a tall
Jew from
European with a
Posen, who had
found his way to India after remarkable adventures.

He had risen to the rank of Admiral to the Viceroy of
Goa, whom he had persuaded to treat the strangers
kindly. Da Gama's conduct towards the old man was
most ungrateful, even according to brutal fifteenthcentury standards. He had him seized and tortured
until he consented to be baptized and to pilot the
Portuguese flotilla in Indian waters. Gaspard da Gama,
as he was henceforth known, subsequently accompanied Cabral on his voyage to the East in 1502, the
latter being instructed to follow his advice in all matters. At Cape Verde, on the return voyage, he met and

was consulted by Amerigo Vespucci, then
95
setting out
to explore the Eastern coast of South America;
Tuscan
explorer,
ferred to
him
who
and the
gave America her name, re-
in his writings in terms of the highest
esteem and admiration.
Joseph Vecinho played a role in the age of the

maritime discoveries no less important and barely less
prominent than that of
his master,
He
Zacuto.
held the
rank of physician-in-ordinary to Joao II of Portugal,

and hence enjoyed great influence at the Portuguese
Court. His opinion was regularly asked on
relating to science.
When
in
all
questions
1484 Columbus
laid be-
fore the Portuguese ruler his plan for exploring the
was submitted to a junta

including Joseph Vecinho and a Jewish
western route to the Indies,

of five experts,
it
as we have
one of the commission which adopted
mathematician named Moses. Vecinho,

seen,
was
also
the astrolabe for ordinary nautical use. It
means of
this
was by the
instrument that he ascertained the
lati-
tude by solar observation on the coast of Guinea,
whither he was sent on a
On
scientific mission
by
the King.
he reported the results of his observaCourt on March nth, 1495. Among those
present on this occasion was Christopher Columbus,
who did not fail to take careful notes and to record the
event in one of his characteristic observations.
his return
tions at
The
forced conversion of the Jews in Portugal in

one
of the most shameful episodes in the history
1497,
the
of
Middle Ages, did not affect their scientific in-
Abraham Zacuto went into exile. Joseph

Vecinho was compelled to submit to baptism, and.
terests.
96
under the name Diego Mendes Vecinho, was prominent in scientific work at the court of King Manoel
the Fortunate. None the less, Jewish loyalty remained
strong in his descendants, and a century later one finds
them
ing,
settled in Italy as professing Jews,
however, their ancestor's
still
maintain-
scientific bent.
Another victim of the forced conversions was Pedro

Nufiez, who, a mere child at the time, subsequently
became professor of mathematics at Coimbra and chief
cosmographer to the Crown of Portugal. He, too, remained closely attached to Judaism in secret; so much
so, that at the
his
beginning of the seventeenth century
grandsons were tried by the Inquisition for judaiz-
ing.
first
His magniiin opus was the Treatise on the Sphere,

published at Lisbon in 1537, and described as "one
of the scientific glories of Portugal." This opened the
way
for Mercator's work and thus for the whole system of modern cartography. The last King of Portugal, Manoel, in his monumental Early Portuguese
Books, had no hesitation in calling this Marrano scientist, whose Jewish origin he barely suspected, "the
most distinguished Portuguese nautical astronomer."
5
The
Jews, particularly those of Spain and Portugal,
thus provided no small part of the technical equipment

of those
voyages
of
exploration
which suddenly
widened the horizons of Europe at the close of the

Middle Ages. But their work as actual explorers was
by no means insignificant. It was the Radanite Jewish
merchants of the ninth century who, according to Ibn
97
Khurdadbih, Postmaster-General of the Caliphate of

Bagdad, opened up the trade routes between Europe
and the Far East, either via Egypt and the Dead Sea,
or along the Tigris and Euphrates, or overland
by
the
southern route through Northern Africa or the northern across Central Europe (see below, pp. 251 ff.)was an outpost of barbarism, and all
When Germany
the culture of
Europe was concentrated
Spain, an enterprising Jew,
among
Abraham
in
Moslem
ibn Jacob, was
which the Caliph of Cordova sent

and he brought back with
him one of the most informative accounts now extant.
But the greatest medieval Jewish traveller was
Benjamin of Tudela, who in 1 160 left his native city in
the mission
to the northern country,
Navarre, traversing in the course of the next thirteen

years the whole of Southern Europe, Northern Africa,
Byzantium, and
much
of Jewish literature,
of Asia. His Itinerary, a classic
is
replete with information con-
communities
and economic
structure of those places through which he passed. For
this reason he is still universally consulted and quoted
by every writer on twelfth-century history all the
cerning not only the various Jewish
which he
visited,
but
also the social
more
first
readily since,
by
medieval traveller
universal consent, he
who
told the truth.
was the
Another
adventurous medieval Jewish explorer, whose account

is still classical, was Benjamin's contemporary, Petahia
of Regensburg.
But there must have been many more, whose identity

has not been preserved for posterity.
Arabic
traveller,
When
the great
Ibn Battuta, arrived in the Turkish
98
city of
Ma jar about
Jew who
Spanish
he was amazed to find there a

had preceded him, making his way
1
3 3 2,
overland through Constantinople, Anatolia, and Transcaucasia, a four months' journey in
all.
The experiences
of later Jewish travellers form an integral part of the
European exploration. Thus, the venturesome sixteenth-century pioneer, Pedro Texeira of Lisbon, who explored the overland route between Italy
and the Far East with a degree of detail hitherto unknown and wrote an account of his travels which was
translated into many languages, was a Marrano. He
was by no means the only one of his kind who blazed
history of
trail in
Even
regions as yet unexplored.
in the heroic period of English exploration,
Jews played
a significant part.
When
England
first
entered into the race in the days of Elizabeth, Jews
were
little
known
in the country. Nevertheless, the
English pioneers did not scruple to take Jews into
when they had the good

one
accompanied Sir James
Thus
their service as interpreters,
fortune to find them.

Lancaster,
the
when he sailed to the
first fleet
of the East India
command of
Company in 1601. In
Pacific in
the second great period of British exploration, which
Jews were estabEngland and played their part. Israel Lyons

the Younger, son of the Instructor in Hebrew at the
University of Cambridge, and a well known botanist
in his day, accompanied Captain Phipps, subsequently
Lord Mulgrave, as principal astronomer in his Arctic
Expedition in 1773. Among the other members was a
diminutive midshipman named Horatio Nelson, who
began
in the eighteenth century, the
lished in
99
had on that occasion his classical encounter wîth a

It was not long after, that Captain Moses
Ximenes, subsequently Sir Maurice Ximenes, led a
band of adventurers, partly Jewish, who proposed
to establish a colony in West Africa. The party
occupied the island of Bulama and raised the British
flag, but after several conflicts with the natives they
were compelled to withdraw. It was characteristic that
one of their first cares after landing had been to organize an educational system for the children.
The next generation provides us with the adventurous figure of Nathaniel Isaacs, born in Canterbury in
1808. In 1822 he left England for St. Helena, where
he struck up a great friendship with Lieutenant King,
R.N., whom he accompanied on an expedition to the
Cape of Good Hope in 1825. They were shipwrecked
off the coast of Natal, and before long Isaacs was engrossed in a career of exploration and adventure. For
seven years he travelled through the Zulu and Fumos
polar bear.
countries, in addition to visiting the
The
Comoro
Islands.
party had interviews with Chaka, the great Zulu
king, and took the coast lands under their protection.
After King's death, Isaacs was made Principal Chief of

Natal. His work, Travels and Adventures in Eastern
which gives the first reliable account of the

topography and ethnology of the country, was repub-
Africa,
lished
by
the Riebeck Society in a centenary re-issue
ini937.
Another intrepid Jewish explorer of the nineteenth

century was Eduard Karl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer. A
native of Oppeln, in Silesia, he was baptized in child-
100
hood
(as
were so many other German Jews
at that
period, in order to assist their careers) and after gradu-
ating as doctor of medicine, found the call of the
Near
In 1875, he joined General Gordon at

Khartoum, assuming the name of Emin. When Gordon
East
irresistible.
became Governor General of the Sudan three years

later, he appointed Emin Governor of the equatorial
provinces. Here he served with considerable distinction for some years. After the fall of Khartoum, he was
entirely isolated. Nevertheless, he held out for
more
two
est
and became the center of European interin Africa in place of his dead leader. Stanley made
his
way to relieve
post,
years,
but at
last
him.
At
first
he refused to desert his
was persuaded
to
accompany his
was however
rescuer back to civilization. Inactivity

impossible for a
man
of his nature, and he undertook a
voyage of exploration into Central

in 1890. Though disowned and
recalled, he persisted. Arabs ultimately brought to the
coast the news that Emin Pasha had been assassinated
semi-political
Africa for
Germany
autumn of 1892.^
Thus we are brought
in the
own
days, when only

and its glamor. The
part played by Jews in contemporary Arctic explora-
the Arctic has retained
to our
its
secret
^ It is worthwhile to recall, in this connection, that Professor

Palmer, Captain Gill and Lieutenant Charrington, who were murdered treacherously by Arabs while travelling in the Sinai Desert
were accompanied by a Jew, Bakhor Hassun, whose remains lie with theirs in St. Paul's Cathedral. Another associate of
General Gordon was Louis Arthur Lucas, the explorer of Lake
Albert Nyanza, whose premature death alone probably prevented
him from attaining a very high reputation.
in 1882,
ID I
Greely had a young Jew,

as astronomer on his
Arctic expedition of 1 88 1-4. He was the youngest of
the party, yet, even when sick, he refused to accept
more than his usual ration of food, with the result that
tion has been noteworthy.
Sergeant
Edward
Israel,
with him
he died before the expedition returned. In 1882, he

had rendered especially important services in deter-
mining the possibility of an overland route to Hazen

Land in Greenland through the Bellows Valley. In
reading the burial service, it is said. General Greely
remembered the dead man's faith and modified the
ritual accordingly.
On
General Nobile's ill-fated aerial Arctic expedition of 1928, he was accompanied by Aldo Pontremoli,
a nephew of Luigi Luzzatti, the former Italian Prime
Minister,
gallantry.
relief,
who died under circumstances of particular

By a coincidence, the Russian expedition of
but for whose aid the whole party would have
perished,
witsch,
was under the direction of Rudolf Samoilo-
who
in 193
conducted
Zeppelin flight over
the Pole.
As with
the frozen north, so with the parched
deserts of Central Asia.
(Mark)
Stein,
by
From
1899 to 1926, Sir Aurel

Chinese
his repeated expeditions in
Turkestan, Central Asia, and Western China, not only

widened geographical knowledge, but also revealed the
treasures and records of a lost civilization. He had only
one rival, Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer of the
Gobi Desert and discoverer of the Hedin Mountains.
The
latter
is,
as
it
happens, a descendant of
the founder of the Jewish
community
in
Aaron Isak,
Sweden.
I02
Other great Jewish explorers of the nineteenth century include Arminius Vambery (Bamberger), a phenomenal linguist, who was the first European to traverse the heart of
unknown
Persia, living there for
over two years disguised as a native Moslem; Nathaniel

Wallich, Asiatic botanist and explorer of Assam; the
converts Joseph Wolff and
as missionaries
among
Henry Aaron
Stern,
who,
the Jews, explored Bokhara and
Samuel Sandberg, pioneer

Angelo Castelbolognesi, who explored the Sudan; Eduard Foa, who discovered the
Abyssinia
respectively;
traveller in Thibet;
sources of the Zambesi;
Hermann Burchardt, who
per-
ished in the Arabian desert in 1909; Siegfried Langer,
murdered in the Yemen in 1882; Vladimir Jochelson

and L. Sternberg, who explored northern Siberia;
Isaac Israel Heyes, who led an expedition to Greenland in i860, where it joined up with another under
the direction of August Sonntag; and many lesser
members of enterprises of the same nature in every
quarter of the globe.
The same
spirit
which forced Jews towards new
spheres of economic activity urged them to act as pioneers of European enquiry in unexplored regions of
the world.
spirit
alike.
Even
the Ghetto
of adventure
which
was unable to quench that

to be found in all men
is
CHAPTER V. The Jew
From
in Letters
the beginning of their Hfe in Europe, long be-
fore the present national languages and literatures
known, Jews played
were
prominent part in European
when
was the intellectwere Jewish

poets, Jewish playwrights, Jewish philosophers, Jewish historians, all writing in Greek and with an eye
upon the plaudits of the non-Jewish public. One of the
first European Jews known to us by name is Caecilius
cultural
life.
In Alexandria,
it
ual capital of the Hellenic world, there
of Calacte, in Sicily,
B.C. at
Rome.
who flourished in the first century
Characteristically enough, he
was the
representative in his day of the Attic style of oratory,

in contradistinction to the verbose Asiatic style
which
had begun to gain ground. Similarly, he and his Greek

friend Dionysius of Halicarnassus were the only ap-
when it
circles. The
preciative students of Latin literature at a time
was the fashion
to sneer at
quantity of his
work must have been
it
in literary
considerable,
though not much has survived. However, there can be

little doubt that he deserves credit for the famous
passage in the classic treatise on The Sublime, ascribed
to Longinus, which permeated English thought in the
103
I04
eighteenth century: "Sublimity

ness of soul. This
illustrated
is
of the Jews, no ordinary man,
opening words of
was
his
and there was
light,
the echo of great-
is
.
Laws: 'God
light; let there
from the legislator

who wrote in the
said,
Let there be
be land, and there
land.'
From the period of this pioneer of twenty centuries

ago the participation of the Jews in the cultural life of
Europe has been almost continuous. For ever since
some time previous, Jews have not
only lived in Europe, but also have spoken and written
European languages. Indeed, the tradition which they
preserved was in some ways purer than that of their
neighbors. A brilliant American scholar, by a detailed
analysis of the various Judaeo-Romance dialects which
were formerly spoken and written by the Jews of
then,
as,
Spain,
indeed, for
France, Provence, Italy,
Portugal,
etc.,
has
traced these dialects back to a prototype used by the

ancestors of the Jews throughout
downfall of the
Italian or
Frenchman of
peculiarities of
relics of
Roman
an
Empire.
Europe before the
What
a generation
the educated
ago considered
Jewish speech are thus in
many
cases
earlier age, before
modern Italian or French
when
the Jews were already
was dreamed
of,
but
familiar figures throughout the Latin world.
Everywhere, moreover, they translated their liturand their biblical texts into the language of the
country, which was their own natural native speech.
The importance of these relics for the study of modern
European languages is considerable, and scholars are
becoming more and more appreciative of the fact. The
gies
THE JEW IN LETTERS
IO5
eleventh-century Franco-Jewish commentator, Solo-
mon ben Isaac

so
of Troyes, or Rashi,
much by Christian exegetes
was
who was consulted
of the late Middle Ages,
words and exthe vernacular. These notes, embedded
in the habit of translating difficult
pressions into
in his various commentaries,
are
among
the oldest
specimens of the old French vocabulary.
They
are
by philologists and a
by now been written about them.
eagerly consulted and collected

small library has
In 1290, and again, finally, in 1540, the Jews were exfrom Apulia, in South Italy. Many of them
pelled
ultimately found refuge in Corfu,
where an independ-
ent Apulian synagogue existed until our
With them they brought not only
own
their dialect,
day.
but
also some of their religious poetry, written in Apulian,

though in Hebrew characters. These are among the
oldest specimens of Apulian literature
The Jews were

with
expelled
now
extant.
from Spain and Portugal
a refinement of cruelty at the close of the fif-
teenth century. Their descendants in the Balkans and
North Africa
still
speak the Castilian of their fathers;
and students of Spanish dialects and folk-lore find

them a happy hunting-ground forâ reconstruction of
the life and literature of medieval Spain. Similarly, one
might have imagined that Germany would have been
proud of the tenacity of her Jewish children who,
migrating eastwards at the close of the Middle Ages,
preserved in an alien land the
German which
their
had spoken in the Rhineland when the great

Cathedral of Speyer was still being built. Even the
Arthurian romances and the Tales of the Round
fathers
I06
Table, which did not lack Jewish
affinities,
were famil-
medieval Jews and are extant in old Hebraic

versions, while Sir Bevis of Hampton actually gave his
iar to
name
to a whole Ghetto cycle.

For the larger part of their literature, to be sure, the
Jews used Hebrew, just as Christians used Latin, and
for the same reasons. It was a semi-sacred tongue; it
was universally read and understood, irrespective of
national and linguistic boundaries; it was of proper
scholastic status. But what they wrote was to a considerable extent European in conception. Hence it
happened that Jewish writers of the period, Moses
Maimonides, Levi of Bagnols, Abraham ibn Ezra,

could be translated into Latin and take their place as
the mental food of the schoolmen.
The
opinions were closely paralleled
by
Sheelot iiTeshiibot.
The
canonists' legal
the
rabbinical
medieval moralists of the
Rhineland had their counterparts in the Judengasse,

Thus, there is little essential difference between the
writings of Berthold of Regensburg and those of his
Jewish contemporary and fellow-townsman Judah,

compiler of the collection of godly anecdotes known
as The Book of the Pious. When the German moralists
turned to mysticism, their Jewish neighbors did also,
so that the flights of Master Eckhart
"Aryan"
the incarnation of the
fluenced
our
own
by
though
in-
the medieval Jewish philosophers and, in
day, edited
by
Jew) have
for example, those of Eleazar of
Hebrew
(now considered
spirit,
ethical classic, the
their parallels in,
Worms, author
of the
Rokeach.
But the most remarkable instance
is
that classic of
THE JEW IN LETTERS
IO7
medieval churchmen, the Fons Vitae, which was ascribed to the authorship of a Spanish Christian
named
Avicebron, and studied with rehgious reverence by
was
was disthe author was the synagogal poet, Rabbi
successive generations of medieval theologians. It
only in the course of the

covered that
last
century that
it
Solomon ibn Gabirol, called "the nightingale of piety."

Nothing could illustrate more forcibly the essential
unity of European culture, whether Gentile or Jewish,
in the
It
Middle Ages.
frequently happened that the parallels converged,
we find Jewish writers contributing actively,

even in the age of degradation, to the literary store of
so that
their environment.
Thus,
of the poetical school, of
one of the members

Dante was the greatest,
in Italy,
whom
was Immanuel of Rome, who, besides being a physician, Hebrew poet, and exegete, was a familiar member
of the circle of the dolce stil nuovo. He exchanged
sonnets in Italian with the litterateurs of the time. His
patron was
whom
Can Grande
della Scala of
Verona, to
the poet dedicated a bisbiglio describing his
busy court. Here he may have met Dante, with whom

he appears to have been on terms of some intimacy,
to judge from the fact that Busone da Gubbio sent him
a sonnet of condolence on the greater poet's death.
The volume of his Italian work which has survived
shows the promise, if not the final fulfilment, of a
genius no less than that displayed in his Hebrew writings. It may be added that Immanuel of Rome is
I08
thought to be the medium through which Dante received (p. ^s) his knowledge of the Moslem cosmogony, of which such important influences have
been found in his work.

Symptomatic of the Italian outlook of Immanuel of
Rome, in whatever language he wrote, was his collection of Hebrew poems, known as the Compositions of
Immanuel. In this work, one of the first to introduce
to non-Moslem Europe the loosely-woven narrative
framework perfected by Boccaccio in his Decauteron,
we find a picture of a completely Italian environment,
European literary forms such as the sonnet, a good
measure of the licentious spirit of Italian poetry of the
time, and, above all, an imitation, or perhaps it is more
correct to say a parody, of the Divine Comedy.
This work deserves closer examination, for it follows Dante's model from beginning to end. It commences, like the Inferno, with an allusion to the age
of the author at the time of composition;
like the Paradiso,
is
with a glimpse of the
closely modelled
indeed,
its
on the
profundity,
its
stars.
Italian original
polish or
finishes,
it
The
text
without,
its clarity,
for this
was only a trifle appended by the author to a miscellaneous collection of poems. The outstanding point of
difference
there
is
lies in
the fact that, in
no Purgatory,
logical ideas.
One
noteworthy, for
it
Tophet and Eden,
conformity with Jewish theoother minor feature, however, is

in
illustrates strikingly
the difference
between the Jewish and Christian outlook at the time.

Dante places in his Inferno all who did not believe in
Jesus and in Christianity, including even those who
THE JEW IN LETTERS
IO9
flourished before the beginning of the Christian Era,
and so could neither have

striking contrast to this,
honor
known nor
Immanuel
beheved. In
reserves a place of
in his Paradise for non-Jews, "the righteous of
the nations of the world," and elaborates, subsequently,
on
his ideal of
an eclectic religion, embodying the
This tolerance contrasts strangely

with the contemporary Catholic doctrine, which put
the proportion of "saved" to the "damned" at one to
best in
all
faiths/
a thousand, or even one to a
hundred thousand.
In other countries, similarly, the Jews participated

in literary activity in the vernacular
early date. Medieval France
from a very
knew at least one Jewish

The thirteenth cen-
troubadour, Bonfils de Narbonne.
tury produced
Siisskind
jjiinnesinger
von Trimberg, who sang of the
woman and
among
German Jewish
in
virtue of
the nobility of man, and took high rank
the itinerant poets of his day. In the next cen-
one Samson Pine collaborated (1336) with Claus

Wysse and Philipp Kolin of Strassburg, in adapting
into German a French version of the Parsifal. In the
preface Pine is referred to repeatedly as a Jew and is
tury,
thanked both for translating the poem into
German
and finding rhymes for it, the lion's share of the work.
Another name that may be mentioned in this connection is that of Johannes Pauli, a converted Jew of
the age of Luther,
who became
Another
could
his day.
significant innovation of
the Inferno a certain
knowledge"
a Franciscan friar
He is better
Immanuel is his placing in
person "because he was miserly with his
for which perhaps only a medieval Jew
and was a popular preacher in
condemn
failing
man
to punishment in the hereafter!
no
remembered, however, for

jests,
his
famous collection of
Schijfipf iind Ernst, which,
ran through innumerable

1 5 19,
and amplifications. Some of the
over in the
Hundred Merry
first
published in
editions,
stories
imitations,
were taken
Tales, a favorite
of Elizabethan England, used lavishly
work
by Shakespeare
himself.
Most marked of all was the participation of the Jews

which had a pronounced
effect upon European literature as a whole. Here such
in the literary life of Spain,
began at least as early as the thirteenth cenJews beginning to write in Spanish before it
activity
tury,
was
either fashionable or
Spanish
is
common.
modern
measure the creation of the Jewish

the court of Alfonso the Wise, who
in great
translators at
molded the despised Mozarabic
medium
Indeed,
dialect into a literary
of considerable richness and force. Spanish
Jewish literature of the Middle Ages would fill many

volumes, and a good deal of it is of high quality. Thus
the Catalan "Aphorisms" of Judah Bonsenior of Bar(fl. 1 287-1 305), and the "Moral Proverbs" of
Rabbi Santob of Carrion, dedicated to Pedro IV of
celona
357-1 360), are considered classics by students of Spanish literature and are read even today.
Castile
Spain expelled her Jews in 1492; yet, because of the

common for a cen-
forced baptisms which had been
tury before that date, Jewish blood permeated the
whole peninsula. Sancho Panza could perhaps (and

did) pride himself that his blood was free from any
admixture of Jew or Moor, but it is not so certain
that his master would have been in the same fortunate
THE JEW IN LETTERS

position. It
is
the veins of
possible that there
some of the
In
many
it
was Jewish blood
greatest Spaniards of the
teenth, sixteenth, seventeenth,

cases,
III
in
fif-
and eighteenth centuries.

The group of poets
can be proved.
court of Henry IV of Castile, whose writings

throw so much light upon the social history of the
time, were to a large extent of Jewish birth. Foremost
among them was the impudent Anton de Montoro,
"the ragman of Cordova," who has been called "the
at the
most sympathetic and
attractive poet in the
Castilian Parnassus of the fifteenth century."
out of his
way
audacious
satires.
entire
He went
to call attention to his origin in his
Others were Juan de Espafia, Juan
de Valladolid, Rodrigo Cota de Maguaque, and the

rest.
Conditions were very
much
the same in Aragon,
where the revival of vernacular literature under Juan II

was due in considerable measure to the genius of
persons of Jewish blood, and was in part inspired by
the cowverso, Alfonso de Santa Maria. Similarly the
eminent physician, Francisco Lopez de Villalobos, a

classical
was
also
stylist, was of Jewish extraction, as

Pedro Guttierez de Santa Clara, historian of
Spanish
the conquest of Peru.
And
in
more recent
times, the
Camilo Castelo Branco, who

may be described without any exaggeration as the
Portuguese Walter Scott, is descended from a Jewish
famous
historical novelist,
family.
Two
Marrano contributors to Spanish literature

more detailed consideration because of their
influence on European letters as a whole.
Luis Ponce de Leon was perhaps the greatest lyric
deserve
112
poet that Spain has produced. Going back to the Bible

for his inspiration (possibly this
is
not entirely a coin-
cidence), he introduced a fresh naturalism into Spanish poetry,
which
who came
after him.
on in the poets and romancers

Today, he is remembered for a
few odes and hymns which are said to reveal a majestic and serene simplicity not found again till Wordsworth. In his age, however, he was best known as a
theologian, and in his lectures was considered to have
shown a sympathy for the reform movement. When
he was arrested by the Inquisition in March, 1572, it
was discovered in the course of his examination that
he was of Jewish blood, a great-grandmother having
been "reconciled" by the Inquisition in 15 12. This
added to the seriousness of the charge against him.
He remained in prison for over four years. It was
only in the autumn of 1576 that he was able to resume
his lectures at
lived
Salamanca with the
"As we were saying

^
There
is
some echo of Ponce de Leon
other Spanish poets of

reconciled
the other day."
by
New
classical
remark,
in the writings of
two
Felipe
Christian descent
the Inquisition at Seville in 1624,
who
Godinez,
wrote plays
and Juan Pinto Delgado, whom Menendez

y Pelayo considered one of the most inspired Spanish poets of the
seventeenth century, and who ended his life as a professing Jew.
Juan Perez de Montalvan the friend, confidant, and publisher of
Lope de Vega, and the most prominent Spanish playwright between the latter, and Calderon, whom he inspired was similarly
of New Christian extraction. A contemporary of Calderon's, and
his rival for the favors of the theatre-going public of Madrid, was
the Marrano Antonio Enriquez Gomez, or Enrique Enriquez de
on
biblical subjects,
Paz,
condemned
in absentia
by
the Spanish Inquisition in 1660.
was perhaps the forecomedies being performed
In the following century, Antonio da SUva
most Portuguese playwright, one of
his
THE JEW IN LETTERS
A final illustration may be
II3
added. Spain's most im-
portant contribution to European literature before
Quixote was Calisto and Meliboea, better known

Celestina, first printed in 1499. It is a tragi-comedy
Don
as
in prose of
two
lovers,
and was very popular in
its
day,
having been published time after time and translated

into
many European
the great critic,
languages. In the judgment of
Menendez y Pelayo,
have deserved the
first
work would
the
place in Spanish literature, had
Cervantes not written his masterpiece.
Its
name be-
came a byword, its passages were universally quoted,

and its characters and action long served as model in
an age when plagiarism was not yet a vice. In the
words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica it "caused the
new theatre to make a gigantic step onwards. This
astonishing novel taught the Spaniards the art of dialogue, and for the
first
time exhibited persons of
of society speaking in
classes
harmony with
all
their
natural surroundings, thinking and acting in accord-
ance with their condition of

Little
life."
was known about Fernando de Rojas, the
author of this work, until the recent discovery of an

Inquisitional record
verso,
i.e.,
in the
at
made
clear that he was a conhampered for that reason

profession, and in addition
it
a baptized Jew,
exercise
of his
Lisbon on the evening of the day
when he was burned
at the
stake.
The name of one more Portuguese man of letters, out of many,

may be added to this HstDidaco Pyrrho, of Evora, a foremost
neo-Latin poet of the sixteenth century, who ended his days as
a
Jew
at
Ragusa under the name of
Isaiah
Cohen.
114
who had
married to the daughter of another converso
been put on
trial
for judaizing.
The importance
of Celestina in European literature

But for our purpose it is enough to point
out its influence on William Shakespeare. Above all,
it had a distinct share in the ancestry of Ro?neo and
was
vast.
Juliet,
who
were, as a modern
critic has
put
it,
"own
children" to Rojas' tragic lovers. Similarly, the "old
bawd" who sustains the comic part foreshadows that

most perfect of Shakespearian characters, Juliet's
nurse.
The
extent of the interaction of Jewish and other
elements in European culture

all
the
more
strikingly
if
is
illustrated in
we go back
England
to the period
of that astonishing renascence of letters under the
Tudors,
when Jews were
virtually absent
from the
country.^ Yet English literature of that glorious period
was profoundly imbued with the influence of

Jews or persons of Jewish blood.
individual
It
is,
of course, absurd to overlook the Bible in this
connection. Shakespeare did not read and speak, as
does the Englishman of today, an English saturated
with
biblical language:
ond generation
to
he belonged to only the sec-
whom
the Bible in English
was
readily accessible. But, nevertheless, a recent inquiry

possible to go back even further: Geoffrey Chaucer's
on the Astrolabe, one of the earliest uses of English for
scientific purposes, is based upon a Latin version of the Arabic
treatise, written by the Jewish scholar Mashaala.
^ It
is
Treatise
THE JEW IN LETTERS
II5
which he made of the

Scriptures. His bibhcal knowledge was, moreover, the
fruit of deep love and study, developing more and
more with the passage of years. He had his favorite
books Genesis, Job, Proverbs, Isaiah, in the Old
Testament, as well as Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha,
and St. Matthew in the New echoes of which may
has demonstrated the great use
be discovered in
his
own
magnificent
lines.
Deprive
background, and
him
the Shakespeare we know would not be quite the same.
But it is more significant to discover in Shakespeare
of his biblical,
i.e.,
his Semitic,
Hebraic influences much nearer to his own day. Mention has been made above (p. 6i) of the eleventh-century Spanish convert Petrus Alphonsi of Toledo,
whose Training School for the Clergy contains all
manner of entertaining fables for homiletic use. These

became the common heritage of all Europe, a number
being incorporated in the famous medieval collection,
Gesta RoTfianorum. Some are printed
at the
end of
Caxton's English Aesop of 1483, being thus among

the earliest products of the English printing press.
More noteworthy still, the collection was the source

of many of Chaucer's stories. It was first printed in
English by Wynkyn de Worde and republished in
1577. This latter edition was familiar to Shakespeare
and greatly used by him. Similarly, the Hundred
Merry Tales, another Elizabethan classic which Shakespeare read to good purpose, was based in part, as we
have seen, on the Schimpf und Ernst of Johannes
Pauli, a
German
influence
friar of
Jewish birth.
Add
to this the
of Fernando de Rojas' Celestina and of
Il6
Leone Ebreo's Dialogues of Love (exerted through

the medium of Castiglione's famous treatise on "The
Courtier," which taught Europe the ideal of the gentleman) and it will be realized that the "Semitic" influence on Elizabethan literature was far from negligible.
knowledge of things
Italian, one of the most characteristic features and
the most favored sources of his plays, is derived from
John Florio, the translator-in-ordinary to Elizabethan
good
England.
deal of Shakespeare's
The
latter's great Italian-English
dictionary
works of the
would certainly
The genius would have been
was probably one of the most
influential
century. Shakespeare without Florio
have been diiferent.
and the humor, and the language, but the atmosphere of many of the plays would have been strangely
there,
remarkable to find, then, that Florio
unfamiliar. It
is
was of Jewish
extraction.
His father was Michelangelo

Florio, preacher of the Italian Protestant congregation in London and biographer of the ill-fated Lady
Jane Grey. In his Apologia (Chamogasco, 1557),
Michelangelo Florio states: "I was never a Jew nor
son of a Jew, but born of a father and mother baptized
but if you should say that my
Hebrews before baptism, this I ivill
as papists like yourself;
progenitors ivere
not denyP
John Florio
is
best
remembered today for
his trans-
Michel de Montaigne, which is

still classical. The latter was, of course, one of the
great figures in sixteenth-century letters. It was he
who for the first time made French prose into a
lation of the Essays of
THE JEW IN LETTERS

literary
medium
II7
of the highest order, elevated every-
and personal happenings into a subject-matand invented the essay form,

in which the French were afterwards to excel. But
what were the elements that went to make up this
great Frenchman of letters, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne? His father's name, Eyquem, he claimed to be
day
life
ter for great literature,
from the
of English origin, deriving perhaps
of
Ockham. His mother, on
village
the other hand,
Antoinette Louppes or Lopez, and was a

a Spanish family of Bordeaux.
was
member
of
recent discovery
has proved that her progenitors belonged to a
New
more than one of

them had suffered at the hands of the Inquisition and
that they were descended from the Jewish clan of
Christian family of Calatayud, that
Pazagon.
It
is,
possibly, to this admixture of blood that
the great essayist
which seems
owed
that slightly sceptical tone
to us today the
most French of
his quali-
ties.
Montaigne's injfluence in
mense.
letters
The new spirit which he
was, of course, im-
introduced into Euro-
pean literature gave an impetus which
is
not exhausted
even today. Permission for an English translation of

the Essays
Company
Paris.
was
issued in
in the
London by
the Stationers'
very year of their publication in
Shakespeare was acquainted with them, echoing
the language sometimes, the thought
Francis Bacon's elder brother
more
knew
frequently.^
the author per-
^
See especially Gonzalo's description of the ideal commonwealth in The Tempest II. i. 154 fF., which is nearer a paraphrase
than a reminiscence of Florio's version of Montaigne.
I 1
sonally,
and the indebtedness of Bacon's Essays to
Montaigne's
may
be noted throughout.
It is a
coin-
cidence only that the classical English translation of
Montaigne's Essays was due to John Florio, who was

similarly of Jewish extraction, but the two facts, taken
in conjunction, illustrate
how potent was the influence

when religious intol-
of Jews on English letters even
erance excluded them rigidly from the country.
was with the seventeenth century and the publi-
It
cation of the Authorized Version of the Bible that
Hebraic influence in English literature rose to its highest point. It reached its climax in John Milton, who
might almost be said to have thought in Hebrew,
though he expressed himself in English. This was not
entirely dependent, as was probably the case with the
majority of his contemporaries, upon acquaintance
with the English Bible. He was a competent Hebrew

scholar, with a fair knowledge of rabbinical lore,
which
due?
is
manifest in Paradise Lost.
The
authority
who
has
made
To what was
this
the most detailed
inquiries into the subject speaks only of his university
studies at the feet of the erudite
Cambridge. Put
it
may
Hoseah Meade
be assumed
that,
at
during his
travels in Italy in 1637-9, he encountered some learned

Jews, possibly even in the company of Galileo, who
is
known
There
is
not to have been averse to their society.
evidence, moreover, that the blind poet
made
the acquaintance of Menasseh ben Israel during the
mission to Oliver Cromwell in 1655-7 ^^ secure

permission for his coreligionists to resettle in England,
latter's
and
it is
by no means improbable
that erudite conver-
THE JEW IN LETTERS
II9
between the two men, who had so much in

common, may have ensued.
But Milton was only one out of many. George
Herbert and John Donne echoed the Psalmist, Herrick quoted the "Ethics of the Fathers," Bacon cites
sations
the biblical commentaries of
Don
Isaac Abravanel,
and even so spontaneous a production as Walton's

Compleat Angler is filled with Hebraic lore, obtained
partly from literary sources and partly through the
medium
of the learned globe-trotter. Sir
ton, while he
It
was "lying abroad" for
Henry Wothis sovereign.
goes without saying that such influences were not
confined to England.
The
biblical inspiration of
many
of the dramas of Racine in France, and of Metastasio

in Italy,
too obvious to require elaboration; and
is
this spiritual
forced, in
atmosphere
seme
is
known
to have
instances at least,
been rein-
by contemporary
influences and personal association.
4
Direct Jewish participation in English literary and
began in the generation which followed their re-admission to England. In the group
of poets of the mid-eighteenth century (not a very
inspired period, it must be admitted) Moses Mendes,
a grandson of one of the pioneer settlers, was an
interesting figure. His works were produced at Covent
Garden and Drury Lane; he wrote dramatic pieces,
which were set to music by Boyce and Burney, and
poems and songs, which echoed Spenser piously, if
without inspiration. He wrote sometimes in collaboraintellectual life
I20
tion with another poet of Jewish birth
Dr.
Isaac
Schomberg, who attended Garrick in his last illness,

and whose brother Ralph was one of the most prolific
and most uniformly unsuccessful writers of the generation.
The
last
years of the century produced, together
with numerous writers of
less ability,
was
two, at
least,
from negligible.
Isaac D'Israeli would probably be better remembered
today were his reputation not overshadowed by that
of his son. His novels are, indeed, as dead as most
novels of that period, and his Conmtentaries on the
Life and Reign of Charles I have outlived their usefulness. But, on the other hand, his series of literary
whose
role in English letters
far
anecdotes, beginning with Curiosities of Literature
published in modest anonymity in 1791, and ending
with Amenities of Literature, completed when he was

old and blind, in 1840, still retain their interest after
being favorite works with more than one generation.
But his literary ability was far excelled by his son's.

If Benjamin Disraeli had not attained an abiding place
in English history
by
would be known
as the
his qualities as a statesman,
most
scintillating
he
political
England has ever known.

Just after Isaac D'Israeli began the publication of
his gravely mature works, an infant prodigy named
Francis Cohen, son of Meyer Cohen, of Kentish Town,
aged eight years, translated Homer's Battle of the
Frogs into French. The resultant work was published
in 1797, by his proud father, Meyer Cohen, a stockbroker. Later, Francis Cohen changed his faith and
novelist that
THE JEW IN LETTERS
121
adopted his wife's name Palgrave, under which he

became famous. He wrote among other works The
Rise and Progress of the English Commonivealth, the
earhest important study of
EngHsh
tory based upon the records.
perhaps the
first
Enghsh
constitutional his-
He may
be regarded as
scientific historian.
Francis Palgrave founded
dynasty almost
unique in the history of English letters. His eldest son
was Francis Turner Palgrave, professor of poetry at
Sir
Oxford and compiler of that classical anthology, The

Golden Treasury; the second was William Gifford
Palgrave, missionary, oriental traveller and diplomat,
author of A Yearns Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia; the third was Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave, editor of The Dictionary of Political Econojny;
the fourth.
Sir
Reginald Francis Douce Palgrave,
Commons from 1886 to 1900,

was the editor of Rules of Procedure of the House of
Cojmnons and author of various works on constituClerk of the House of
tional practice, as well as a proficient
water color
artist.
A few other names belonging to this period deserve

member of a well-known
Anglo-American family, published among other historical works, a History of England from 1760 to
1883, and Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution; his son, John Leycester Adolphus, a wellknown critic in his day, was the first to argue methodically in favor of Scott's authorship of the Waverley
Novels; and Grace Aguilar, author of many historical
writings and novels which still retain their charm.
mention. John Adolphus,
122
The second
half of the nineteenth century naturally
saw, with increase in numbers and growing acclimatization, greater

Sir
life.
Jewish participation in English literary
Arthur
Wing
Pinero
cies of the age in his plays,
summed up the tendenThe Second Mrs.
such as
Tanqiieray and Trelaivney of the Wells, and gave

new heart. It was he who with Henry
English drama a
Arthur Jones rescued the English stage from artificiality, thus paving the way for Shaw, Galsworthy, and
the other playwrights who were not afraid of ideas in
the theatre. A little later was Alfred Sutro, a dramatist,
but memorable too for his translation of Maeterlinck's
Life of the Bee, which he rewrote seven times before
venturing upon publication. Israel Zangwill's genius
would perhaps have received even wider recognition

had he not been so intimately associated with the Children of the Ghetto; yet the
new
style of genre-fiction
which he introduced had a considerable influence on

English letters. Max Beerbohm, though best known as
a caricaturist,
prose.
The
list
Two more
this
is
among
may
the great masters of English
be extended almost indefinitely.
figures at least of the first importance in
generation were of Jewish blood. Bret Harte, the
American imaginative writer to speak to England

in her own idiom, was a grandson of Bernard Hart, a
London Jew who had migrated to the New World;
while Sir Henry Newbolt, chronicler and poet of the
English navy, was descended from Dr. Samuel Solofirst
mon
of Liverpool.
In our
own day, the list becomes more crowded, and

many can be mentioned here. It is
only a few of the
THE JEW IN LETTERS

the considered opinion of
est loss inflicted
by
the
was the death
letters
many
War
23
critics that the great-
of 19 14-18 on English
in action of Isaac Rosenberg, a
young East End Jew, whose slender volume of surviving verse suffices to place him in the front rank of
contemporary poets. Another poet who made his niche
at this time was Siegfried Sassoon, who subsequently
achieved fame, perhaps immortality, for his pictures
of the atmosphere of the Shires. Other living poets
include Humbert Wolfe and E. H. W. Meyerstein.

Leonard Merrick was one of the most brilliant English short story writers, almost worthy of being ranked
with Maupassant. There is only space for mention of
W. L. George, Stephen Hudson, Arthur Waley, Louis
Golding, Gilbert Frankau, Naomi Jacob, G. B. Stern,
and so on.
In another sphere, Philip Guedalla is one of the few
contemporary historians who has learned to combine
brilliance with research; L. B. Namier has placed the
study of English political history of the mid-eighteenth century on a
new
basis;
and Gertrude
besides being a novelist of distinction,
may
Millin,
be said to
have brought South African historical literature to

maturity. In America (where
by whom
are inscribed
Emma
Lazarus, verses
on the Statue of Liberty,
set
a great tradition three-quarters of a century ago),
the
number
ers
is
too long even to
Hurst,
Stein,
of prominent contemporary Jewish writlist;
but Elmer Rice, Fannie
Ludwig Lewisohn, John Cournos, Gertrude

George and Robert Nathan, Edna Ferber,
Michael Gold, Maurice Samuel, Alter Brody, Babbette
124
Deutsch, Louis Untermeyer,
Waldo
Frank, deserve
at least passing mention.
The
contribution of Jews to Shakespearian research,
which should be considered the quintessence of English studies, has been particularly high. It was in the
i88o's that Sir Sidney Lee began his series of Shakespearian studies, which culminated in his monumental
Life of Shakespeare rapturously greeted at the

its appearance, and still a standard work, hav-
time of
ing passed through
many
editions.
Yet perhaps Lee's
most important contribution to English

was in the capacity of editor (previously
tor)
of the Dictionary
cultural life
assistant edi-
of National Biography, to
which he contributed over 600 biographies from his

own pen, and which might not have been completed
but for
his systematic persistence. Israel
proached English studies
at first
Gollancz ap-
from the
philological
and did much work for the Early English Texts

is still a model of
its kind and set an example for the popularization of
the classics. His most enduring influence, however,
was probably as organizer and first secretary of the
British Academy, which he raised to a level of dignity
and scholarship proper to the Academy of a great
empire. The trio of eminent Jewish Shakespearian
scholars is completed by Marion Spielmann, art critic
and historian, who made an intensive study of the
portraiture of William Shakespeare, as a result of
which we have a much more accurate idea of the
poet's actual appearance and of a number of incidental points connected with his biography and bibliogside
Society. His edition of Shakespeare
THE JEW IN LETTERS
25
raphy. In Germany, the most recent of a long line of

scholarly interpreters of Shakespeare
Friedrich Gundolf,
German
poet in
is
was Professor
whose rendering of the English

one of the most superb achieve-
ments in the history of translation. If the sages of

Heidelberg are today able to claim Shakespeare as a
kindred Nordic spirit, it is partly because he found
in
Germany
so gifted a "Semitic" interpreter/
There is something in the background of the Jew

which makes him realize the existence of countries
other than his own, and hence provides him with a
human world outlook. He seems to have, accordingly,
a certain faculty for entering into the spirit of other
countries and
making contributions to
heritage seldom paralleled

cedents.
To
by
their cultural
foreigners of other ante-
take the field of English history alone,
on the laws of the Anglo-Saxons

German professor, Felix Liebermann, whose
the greatest authority
was
writings in this field have not been superseded. In our
own
generation, the keenest survey of English history
in the early part of the nineteenth
century
is
that of
which has received the compliment of

which it might rationally have been expected to be written. There is not
quite the same solidity, though far more brilliance, in
the studies of Andre Maurois, which he wrote in order to interpret England to the French, but which
Elie Halevy,
translation into the language in
way served to interpret the English to themAnd in the days of bitterness which followed
have in a
selves.
^ It may
be added that Shakespeare's interpreter to Denmark
was the Jew, Georg Brandes.
126
the
War
of 19 14-18,
it
was Paul Cohen-Portheim
who, unembittered by years of unnecessary suffering

English character to England's erstwhile enemies, and thus
in an internment camp, set about interpreting the
laying the basis for a better understanding.
The most remarkable

terateurs
is
perhaps
markable, not so
its
fact about this
group of
lack of homogeneity. It
much
for
its
is
lit-
re-
distinction, as for its
comprehensiveness. For the past two centuries Jewwriters of various degrees of eminence have
ish
contributed to English literature in every sphere and

from every angle. It is impossible to trace in them
any common factor; they are as motley, as varied, and
as inchoate as English literature itself.
This
is
ingly illustrated in the following instances,
show how
amus-
which
far the process of intellectual assimilation
somewhat absurd composition,

"Home, Sweet Home," is one of the songs in the opera
Clari, the author of which was the Aqierican John
has proceeded. That
Howard
Payne, son of one Sarah Isaacs and grandson
of a converted Jew.
When
it
first
became known,
perhaps the most popular English song was "The
Death of Nelson" this was the production of John

Braham, formerly a synagogue choir-boy. "A Life on
the Ocean Wave," "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," and hundreds of less known songs were composed by Henry
;
Russell, a professing
Jew
(father both of Sir
Landon
Ronald, the musician, and of William Clark Russell,

the writer of sea-stories).
It is
not suggested for one
moment that these productions are to be numbered

among the masterpieces of modern literature, but they
THE JEW IN LETTERS
27
demonstrate in a remarkable fashion the manner in

which the Jew has identified himself with the literary
heritage of the country, at
its
most typical
as well as
at its best.
The German Jewish
literary tradition dates
the Middle Ages, to Siisskind
back to
von Trimberg, Samson
Pine, and Johannes Pauli. How far this literature

might have developed but for the virulent persecution
which raged at the close of the Middle Ages, it is
impossible to say. The improvement in German Jewish
conditions in the middle of the eighteenth century
witnessed, however, a revival, associated with the
name of Moses Mendelssohn. He was a more important
figure in German than in Jewish literary life, though
often overlooked; for
the fact
is
tions to
German letters
it
was by
generally that he
his
contribu-
first
achieved
a reputation in intellectual circles, subsequently to be
echoed in his own community.

His first important independent work. Letters on
Sentiment (ijss)-) virtually founded modern German
philosophic-aesthetic criticism. His Phaedon, a charm-
ing adaptation of the Platonic dialogue on immortality,
was the most widely read book of its time in Germany,

no less for its subject-matter than for its clear style,
unusual hitherto in philosophical discussion. It was reprinted time after time, translated into almost every
European language, and did more than any other work

of the age to enhance the reputation of the
German
There was one
possible
philosophical genius abroad.
128
exception, Lessing's famous Laokoon, inspired largely
by Mendelssohn's writings and by his correspondence

with Nicolai. This work diffused the Mendelssohnian
point of view in a yet wider circle. Moreover, Mendelssohn's writings
were the
first
to arouse
German
interest in their native philosophers, in particular Leib-
and in the formation of the Romantic tradition

which dominated Europe for the following generation,
his influence was profound. It is something more than
a literary curiosity that Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
whose best friend at Highgate was the Jewish writer
Hyman Hurwitz, was a devoted student of Mendelssohn's philosophical works and that his copies of
Jerusale?7i and Morgenstujiden, preserved in the British
niz;
Museum,
are enriched with manuscript annotations.
Mendelssohn's intellectual interests were inherited

daughters and their associates, whose
were the centers of intellectual life in Berlin
over some decades. Dorothea's second husband was
Friedrich von Schlegel. Her novel Florentine (1801)
was one of the finest specimens of romantic fiction of
the generation, and it was she who introduced Mme.
de Stael and Victor Hugo to the German-reading
by
his brilliant
salons
public.
Her
Rachel Levin,
friend,
who
married Karl
August Varnhagen, was another leader of Berlin

lectual
Goethe
life.
"The
called her.
woman
little
.
intel-
with the great soul,"
"She was the
first
to under-
Ludwig Robert, poet and dramatist, whose Die Macht der

Verhdltnisse was the first play by a Jew to be presented on the German stage. But the most remarkable
stand and recognize me." Rachel's brother was
THE JEW IN LETTERS
29
and most beautiful of the group was Henrietta Herz,

who knew a dozen languages Ênglish so well that
she taught it in the household of the Duchess of Courland and was a brilliant conversationalist.
When
the intellectual
ginning to
stir,
life
of
Germany was
be-
the houses of this group of cultured
Jewish forerunners of the feminist movement, whose
was non-existent,
formed the principal center. They knew everybody
and had met everybody; they were the first to discern
the genius in promising young men of letters and to
give them their initial encouragement. In their houses,
Fichte, Schiller, Niebuhr, Humboldt, Schlegel, and
Schleiermacher could meet illustrious foreigners like
Mme. de Stael, the Prince de Ligne, and Mirabeau. It
was in this melting-pot, presided over by Jewish hostsense of Jewish loyalty, incidentally,
esses, that
German
literature of the early nineteenth
century was molded and invigorated.
The tradition, it must be admitted, was a ponderous

From this, it was saved by Heinrich Heine "a
German Parisian, a Jewish German, a hated political
exile who yearns for a dear, old, homely Germany,
one.
a sceptical sufferer with a Christian patience, a romantic
poet expressing in
Jew and
classic
form the modern
spirit,
poor," as Israel Zangwill characterized him.
He
and his fellow-Jew, Ludwig Borne, that brilliant

stylist and mordant critic, were associated in founding
Young Germany. More enduring,

perhaps, or so it seemed until a few years ago, was
their creation of a new standard for German journalthe liberal party.
ism,
which they saved from the overwhelming por-
130
tentousness of the eighteenth century and imbued
new
and technique. This amazing couple,

which the
press of Central Europe would now be unthinkable/
Heine's own countrymen never forgave him for his
French sympathies. Yet he was, in spite of all, one of
the foremost European poets of his age, and one of
with a
spirit
indeed, invented the feuilleton, without
German
Though his
native country has done its best to obliterate his memory, half a dozen at least of his lyrics remain among
the most popular in the German language. His Lorelei
the greatest
and
his
poets of
all
time.
Grenadiers can hardly be driven out of the
recollection of the
German
child even
by
anti-Semitic
reaction.
At one time Berthold Auerbach
rivalled Heine, in
and seemed likely to play the same

role in fiction which the former had done in poetry.
Time has brought a truer perspective, yet Auerbach
remains one of the great names in German literature of
the middle nineteenth century. But there was one
profound difference between the two men. Heine's
taste, his wit, and his verve, were French, or in any
case, non-Teutonic. Auerbach, on the other hand,
popularity at
least,
represented the quintessence of
German
sentimental-
and Gemiitlichkeit, As was the case in art, a certain objective externality was necessary for the aesthetic appreciation of the slow-moving folk-life of the
countryside, and just as Liebermann enshrined the
life of the German people in his canvases, so Auerbach
ity
The
art
was brought
Spitzer, of Vienna.
to perfection
by another Jew, Daniel
THE JEW IN LETTERS

achieved fame through his
of the
life
warmly
I3I
intimate pictures
of the peasantry of the Black Forest, the
heart of unspoiled
Germany. Though
in his student
his demobecame a staunch advocate of

German Nationalism and distinguished himself for
days he had suffered imprisonment for

cratic views, he later
his
effusions
patriotic
War. The
people did not save

Semitic
movement
the end drove
him
during
the
Franco-Prussian
for his
own
him from attack when the
anti-
fact that he
had done so
raised
its
little
poisonous head. This in
to his death.^
Imaginative literature could hardly be said to flourish in the late nineteenth-century
death of Heine.
Germany
after the
It is significant, nevertheless, that
the
most gifted of the German novelists of the time, Paul

Heyse, who received the Nobel Prize for literature
in 1 9 1 o was a half-Jew. He typified the heavy Augustan tradition, today barely readable, though at the
time considered the height of good taste. On the other
hand, the naturalistic and expressionistic schools,
which have revived German literature in our own
day and given it a European significance which it
never previously enjoyed, provide a disproportionate
number
of Jewish names.
Among
these are Jacob
Wassermann, Franz Kafka, Stefan Zweig, Arnold

Âuerbach
On
is
best
remembered outside Germany for
his novel,
the Heights.
Mention may be made in this connection also of Emil Franzos

and Georg Hermann, well-known novelists in their day, who,
though they devoted their talents in part to the Jewish scene,
were much appreciated by the general world of letters. The latter
in particular was an imaginative writer of the first rank.
132
Zweig, Lion Feuchtwanger, Emil Ludwig, Ernst TolRichard Beer-Hoffman, Alfred Neumann, Franz
ler,
Werfel,
Max
Brod, and very
Ernst Lissauer,
with
lyricist
his patriotic song,
(it is
many
others of less note.
and dramatist, became famous

"Hassgesang gegen England"
not quite correct to translate
hate").
And
one of the great
German letters in
the
war
of
suffered by
was the death of
losses
of 19 14-18
the promising poet, Walter
"The hymn
it
Heymann, who
fell in
action.
Special attention
His
may be
story appeared in 1884,
first
Ludwig Fulda.
when he was 22
directed to
years of age, and for a generation he remained one of

the most popular as well as the most prolific
writers.
German
His books were published in edition after
edition, while his play,
in 1901,
for years.
As
social dramas, in
the theatre as a
Die Zivillingsschivester,
first
was played throughout Germany

playwright, he is noteworthy for his
produced
which, in advance of
medium
to problems of the
his age,
he used
for directing public attention
moment.
An
even more important place in contemporary

letters is that of the Viennese Jew, Arthur Schnitzler,
one of the foremost dramatists of our generation. His
plays are familiar in the repertoire of
many
countries.
Apart from this, his influence has been a particularly

potent one in modern German literature, for to him
is partly due the credit for making that naturally
ponderous language more human and the subjectmatter for imaginative treatment more real. Moreover,
it was he who introduced for the first time the medico-
THE JEW IN LETTERS

scientific
approach which
33
associated with the term
is
psychoanalysis.
In the
field
German Jew has risen to

Mommsen, or Gregorovius,
of history, no
the eminence of Ranke,
but
many have
attained a considerable reputation.
Thus Robert Davidsohn,
the
German
banker-critic
turned historian, whose researches have placed the
on an entirely new basis,

was a Jew, as was also Ludo Hartmann, historian of
Italy in the Middle Ages. A Jew, by birth, was Heinearly history of Florence
rich Fried] ung, the greatest, perhaps, of Austrian historians,
whose writings range from
Life of the Ejn-
V to A
History of the Struggle for Su(i 859-1 866), still the best historical introduction to the "Austrian Question." Marperor Charles
premacy
in
Germany
tin Philippson,
son of one of the religious paladins of
German Jewry, was

to anti-Semitism,
owing
forced to leave
and
Brussels,
to anti-Teutonism.
The
Germany owing
where he then
of his considerable historical output

strictly
One
non-Jewish subjects.
the great classical historian

the medievalists
Harry
settled,
greater part, however,
was devoted
to
should mention also
Ludwig Friedlander and
Bresslau and Philipp Jaffe,
foremost among the six Jews who

Monumenta Germaniae Historic a.
collaborated in the
In connection with historical study, a further point
may
be accentuated.
It is to a
German
of Jewish stock
owes the popularization of the materialistic

interpretation of history, which looks primarily to
economic forces and factors for the explanation of historic phenomena. It is not necessary to follow this
that Clio
134
school in
its
wilder extravagances or to
its
political de-
ductions to realize the solid substratum of truth on

which it rests. There can be no doubt, moreover, as to
the profound influence which it has exercised on contemporary historiography, or the manner in which it
has infused past movements and causes and leaders
with the breath of life.

As is the case with Shakespeare studies in England,
German literary criticism and research may be assessed
by the study of Goethe. All his most scholarly biographers and interpreters, as it happens, have been Jews.
The
pioneer of Goethe studies in
Germany was Theo-
dor Creizenach; later experts include Morris, Geiger,

Meyer, Bielschowski, Simmel, Priower, and Gundolf.
For many years, the Goethe Archive in Weimar was
under the direction of Julius Wahle, co-editor of the
standard "Sophien Ausgabe" of the poet's works.
Similarly, it was Eduard von Simson, an outstanding
figure in German politics and law, who founded the
Goethe Gesellschaft.
A final illustration may be presented. When in

the
German
1876
Ministry of Education decided to elimi-
nate foreign terms and expressions
from the German
language, one of the commission assembled for that

purpose was the Jewish lexicographer, Daniel Sanders,
whose researches on his native language have never
been surpassed either in quality or in bulk. Logic
should force present-day purists to believe that the
tongue formed
translation,
by Heine, and
by Luther's Bible
by Mendelssohn, human
as a literary vehicle
made
malleable
purified with the aid of Sanders,
is
no
THE JEW IN LETTERS
35
longer a proper vehicle for expressing the thoughts

of "Nordic" man.
The Jew had been
a part of
for a generation or more, as
going pages,
when
European
is
intellectual life
apparent from the fore-
the impact of
In view of the impression which
is
modernism began.
widely held,
it is
necessary to emphasize the fact that the part played
by Jews
gible.
Of
in the origins of this
movement was
du
the degenerate leaders of the fin
neglisiecle,
one only was a Jew, the poor, demented Otto Weininger, who committed suicide at the age of 25. None
of the other fathers of modernism were Jewish. On the
other hand, the sternest opponent of the modernistic
school was Max Nordau, who thundered against these
unhealthy tendencies in his Degeneration, and whose
Jewish allegiance, for he was one of the founders of
modern Zionism, was
positive.
In France, indeed, the Jewish element in letters
tended to the side of convention, or rather conven-
by Alexander Dumas the younger, if one assumes the truth of the report that he was partially Jewish. There was no truer
tional unconventionality, typified
boulevardier than Philippe Auguste d'Ennery, drama-
Michael Strogoff and part-author of The Two

Orphans and some hundreds of other plays. His name
was seldom absent from the Parisian playbills for
nearly half a century. His Anibigu alone was performed 1 ,000 times. Catulle Mendes, novelist, poet, and
dramatist, was one of the most faithful portrayers of
tizer of
136
under the Third Repubhc. Georges de

Porto-Riche, after a succession of failures, opened a
new era in the history of the French stage by his La
Chance de Frangoise, presented at the Theatre Libre
in 1888. He was henceforth ranked as the leader of a
school. Tristan Bernard rivalled this success and enriched the French vocabulary with a few immortal
Parisian life
characters and phrases; his son, Jacques Bernard,
among
is
the leading dramatists of the younger school
There was no suspicion of Jewish coloring

any of these authors; though Henri Bernstein, one
in France.
in
of their rivals for the favors of the theater-going

Parisians in the early years of the twentieth century,
turned his attention to Jewish problems in a couple of

his plays,
perhaps with more enthusiasm than under-
Baron Henri de Rothschild, aside

achievements in medicine and philanthropy,
standing. Similarly,
from his
made himself something of a reputation as a dramatist
under the pen name of Andre Pascal.
A potent influence was that of Gustave Kahn, one
of the leaders of the symbolist school,
duced into French
who
intro-
literature the vers libre, "strophes
of psychical rather than syllabic unity, variable in
number and duration

cessity."
Though
in accordance with musical ne-
this
new
versification
has
not
achieved the sweeping triumph that was at one time

expected,
still
it
revivified the faltering tradition
which was
French poetry. For that reason alone,

from his far-reaching work as editor and
Kahn deserves to be remembered as one of the
dorgiinating
quite apart
critic,
important figures in Parisian
letters at the close of the
THE JEW IN LETTERS

nineteenth century.
Andre
The
vers libre
37
was perfected by
Spire, another figure of considerable importance
noteworthy
contemporaries, show particular interest in Jewish subjects and
affairs. Spire's enthusiasm had been first aroused at the
time of the Dreyfus affair, when he was serving in a
contemporary French
in
literature. It is
that both these writers, unlike
Among
cavalry regiment.
philosopher, and
least
Andre
most of
their
essayists, Julien
Benda, the
Suares, the poet, deserve at
cursory mention.
The
literary significance of Marcel Proust, whose

mother was Jewish, is particularly great. In his hands,
the novel assumed a new form. Introspective analysis
began to be used as a medium in fiction for interpreting
human
emotions. Whether there is anything Jewish

uncanny faculty is still a matter for inquiry; but
it may not be a mere coincidence that Italo Svevo,
called by his admirers the Italian Proust, was of Jewish
birth. His name was originally Ettore Schmitz. Of
Jewish origin, too, is Andre Maurois, who, in conjunction with Emil Ludwig in Germany, has created
in his
new
gainly
school of biography, displacing the former un-
monuments
of departed heroes.^
The names of writers whose appeal is essentially Jewish have

been intentionally omitted from this survey, no mention having
been made even of the great Hebrew poets, Jehudah haLevi in
the Middle Ages and Chaim Nachman Bialik in our own day, or
of the latter's contemporary, the philosopher-essayist Ahad Ha-am.
Yet it should be realized that a man like Sholem Asch (to cite
one outstanding instance), though writing in Yiddish and of a
Jewish environment, has become a great force in modern letters
^
generally.
138
In Other countries, too, Jews have made their contribution. Thus Denmark, with its comparatively small
Jewish community, produced in the past generation

Georg Brandes, Professor of Aesthetics at the Uni-
Copenhagen, and one of the outstanding
versity of
literary critics of his age.
any other man
He
did
more perhaps than
to enhance the reputation of Danish
His brother, Eduard was one

of the most successful Danish playwrights of the late
intellectual life abroad.
nineteenth
century,
while
another brother, Ernst,
was a prominent economist. Slightly before their day

was Meir Aaron Goldschmidt, who, prevented from
qualifying as a physician because of the prevailing
became
stormy petrel in jourTo him and Georg

Brandes is due the opening of Danish intellectual life
to modern ideas. Both retained their interest in Judaism, the latter to a marked extent. Henrik Hertz, on
the other hand, one of the most prolific and widely
translated Danish poets of the nineteenth century was
baptized in middle life. Henri Nathansen is another
modem Danish-Jewish playwright of international
anti- Jewish prejudice,
nalism and a successful novelist.
reputation.
Sweden produced Ludwig Oscar Josephson, dramatist, critic,
and theatrical producer, pioneer of the
Drama and one
New
of the staunchest supporters of Ibsen
and Strindberg; Sophie Elkan, well-known as an historical novelist; and the poet and critic, Oskar Ivar
Levertin, the foremost Swedish romanticist.
THE JEW IN LETTERS
39
Holland contributes Herman Heijermans, outstanding modern Dutch novelist, dramatist, and leader of
the naturalistic school; Isaak Costa, a famous poet;
Israel
Querido,
who
vindicated his origin
to the Bible for inspiration; and
many
by turning
others.
Hungary's great names include Franz Molnar, LudBiro, Ludwig Hatvany, Melchior Lengyel, and
Andreas Latzko, the Hungarian Barbusse (himself, incidentally, said to be of Jewish extraction)
In Czechoslovakia there are Ottokar Fischer and
Frantisek Langer; in Poland, Julian Tuwim and Antoni
Slonimski; in Russia, Isaac Babel, the novelist, and
wig
Boris Pasternak the lyricist. Fet-Tschenschin, perhaps
the greatest Russian lyricist,
was of Jewish descent,
as
Nadson and Chosadevitch. The greatest poet

that anti-Semitic Roumania has as yet produced is the
Jew, Ronetti Roman, whose play Nenjo Lamps for Old
is one of the very few specimens of Roumanian litwere
also
erature
known
abroad.
Italy, in particular,
with
its
handful of some 40,000
Jews, certainly provides a disproportionate

of names.
as
From
number
poets of a century and a half ago, such
Salamone Fiorentino,
whom
his admirers
compared
to Petrarch, to those of today like the half-Jew
Um-
berto Saba; from historians like Samuele Romanin,
who
laid the
foundations of Venetian historiography,
to classical prose- writers like Giuseppe Revere;
from
popular romancers like Guido da Verona to more pro-
found imaginative novelists like Italo Svevo; from

playwrights like Sabbatino Lopez to critics like Eugenio Camerini; from Alessandro d' Ancona, the liter-
140
ary historian,
Italy, to
who
introduced the historic method into
Graziadio
philologist of
all
Ascoh, the foremost Itahan
Isaia
time, both leaders of that
whom the renewal of
thinkers to
nineteenth century was due.
group of
Italian culture in the
The Jewish
interest in
philology has indeed been particularly marked.
owes
Ages,
its
who
because of the intimate relations of
brew and Arabic made
their
It
Middle
origin to the Jewish savants of the
He-
grammatical studies the
beginning of comparative philology. Great scholars
such
as
Sanders
Germany
in
or
the
brothers
Darmesteter in France demonstrate the universal inter-
our
est in the subject in
own
day.
Nor
should one
forget that remarkable genius, Lazar Geiger,
whose
bust stood until recently in the entrance hall of the
Frankfort Public Library. His researches on the origin

of language were of sensational importance and led
him
to the same conclusions as Darwin, that evolution

nature. It
he died from grief
reigns in
all
when he
learned that the English scientist had antici-
is
said that
pated his discovery.
Nothing indicates more clearly than these names,

and the innumerable others which could be mentioned,
the complete fusion of the Jewish element in the intellectual
life-blood
of the Western World.
The
may
have
antecedents of these writers and scholars
helped in some instances to widen their horizons, but

did nothing to narrow their sympathies or to qualify
with which they mirrored the tone,

the atmosphere, and the fashions of their environment.
the
fidelity
JOURNALISM AND THE JEW
I4I
APPENDIX: Journalism and the Jeiv
The
dictum, "Let
who makes
not
me
write a people's ballads:
care
their laws," needs revision in the light
when
of conditions of the present day,
the written
word and the power of the press have attained an influence unknown in any former age. The implications
of this should not of course be exaggerated, for recent
experience in England and America has
on great public
issues the
shown
that
popular suffrage has some-
times gone in a diametrically opposite direction to the

general consensus and advice of the popular newspapers. In this connection, the
itself as in
lectual
so
many
same picture presents
other branches of activity, intel-
and economic.
In the
first
impetus of their emancipation the Jews
flocked to journalism and played a considerable part

in that profession.
But there was never any
tively Jewish quality in their contribution;
new
distinc-
and the
conceptions and ideas which they introduced be-
came common property before long.

The rapidity with which the Jews grasped the
potentialities of the new instrument is attested by the
fact that in the seventeenth century two Jewish newspapers were established in Amsterdam, one in Spanish
and one in Yiddish. The former, at least, was probably
intended for a wider circle. Yet for Jews to engage
in general journalism was as yet impossible. It is true
that Oliver
in
77
1,
Goldsmith writes of
in his
Haunch
Jewish journalist
of Venison. But this instance,
if
not jocular, was isolated, and from certain points of
142
view the earliest English journalist in the modern

sense was Lewis Goldsmith, a violent pamphleteer of
the Napoleonic era.
It was in German journalism that the influence of
Jews in the early nineteenth century was most pronounced. In particular, the contributions of Marx to
the Rheinische 2,eitung, and the brilliant feuilletons
contributed from Paris by Heine and Borne, to the
Augsburger Zeitung in particular, aroused the German
periodical press from its traditional pompous lethargy
and set a fresh example for European journalism as a
whole. In Austria, L. A. Frankl and particularly Ignaz
Kuranda, in his audacious Grenzboten, performed a
somewhat similar function, though with more explosive results. It is significant that, once this semisubterranean periodical had achieved its end and a constitution had been granted, Kuranda founded the
Ostdeutsche Post, which was of conservative tendencies and even overemphasized the Pan-German standpoint. This in turn disappeared before the once famous
Neue Freie Presse, in its day one of the world's most
important journals, which was founded and managed
by a group of Jews. It was due to his brilliant feuilletons in the columns of this periodical that the founder
of political Zionism,
Theodor Herzl, owed
his origi-
nal reputation.
The same period saw the establishment in 1872 by

Rudolf Mosse and Georg Davidsohn, its first editor,
of the Berliner Tageblatt, which speedily became
known as one of the world's great newspapers. But the
leading German journal was the Frankfurter Zeituijg,
43
which was begun by Leopold Sonnemann. Other great

journaHsm in Germany included
men like Maximilian Harden, the greatest opponent
of William IFs megalomaniac absolutism, and a little
later Theodor Wolff, editor during a long and critical
role of real imperiod of the Berliner Tageblatt.
portance was played, too, by men like David Kalisch,
figures in pre-war
who founded
in 1848 the
famous German humorous
weekly, Kladderadatsch, and Moritz Gottlieb Saphir,

the best
known
humorist in continental Europe,
who
laughed Metternich out of the Dual Empire. Kalisch's

principal collaborator was Rudolf Loewenstein, the
famous poet, whose verses were found prior to 1933
in every first grade reader in
German
schools.
In England, the most notable Jewish figure in the

newspaper world in the nineteenth century was J. M.
Levy, who founded not merely the Daily Telegraph,
but, as a result, popular journalism as a whole in England. Contemporaneously, there were a few outstanding figures such as Blowitz, the great foreign cor-
respondent of
of the
many
The
Tiines.
The latter's
attitude
was one
indications that Jewish sympathies have
on the whole been markedly absent in the more

prominent Jewish journalists. Blowitz was so "objective" that he maintained a somewhat shameful detachment even during the progress of the Dreyfus
Case. In this, however, he was outdone by Arthur
Meyer, editor of Le Gaulois, which became under his
direction the mouthpiece of the Clerical, Monarchist,
and anti-Semitic
ish solidarity."
parties in France.
So much for "Jew-

144
The
nineteenth
century
witnessed
the
rise
of
various Jewish newspaper administrators of genius

S. Ochs, who made the New York
Thnes one of the most powerful stabihzing forces in
American pubHc Hfe; Joseph PuHtzer, a half- Jew, who
developed the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Neiv
York World into great liberalizing institutions, and
founded the School of Journalism at Columbia University; and Leopold Ullstein, founder of what was in
its day one of the most important German publishing
men hke Adolph
houses.
One
of the rare features
common
to these en-
was that in so few cases has control continued

in the same family. Thus, no member of the Levy
(Lawson) family is now associated with the London
Daily Telegraph, while the Ullstein Press was "coordinated" by the Nazi government. In fact, Jewish
influence in contemporary journalism has not been
particularly great. In Germany, before the Nazi revolution, it was fashionable to describe all papers of the
terprises
Left
Democratic and
(i.e.,
Socialist)
as
"Jewish."
no more than ten out of the eighty-five more

prominent German papers had a Jewish editor-in-chief,
while there were fewer than twenty Jews out of some
400 on the editorial staffs of the entire German Socialist Press. In England the influence is even less. Today
Really,
not a single important English daily paper
is conJew; only one has a Jew as chairman of its

board of directors, and not one has a Jewish editor-in-
trolled
by
chief.
In the development of the news service, which

all-important for
modem
is
journalism, Jewish enter-

had a
prise
vital share. All three
45
of the pioneers in
European news-agencies were

Jews Renter, Wolff, and Havas. The greatest of
these three was indubitably the first. Havas operated
at the outset chiefly in France, and Wolff in Germany. But Renter boldly made London his base,
assuming British nationality. The pre-eminence which
was established by his enterprise has never been challenged. It is characteristic of what has happened in so
the establishment of
many
other enterprises that the Jewish element in
three of these organizations has
The Wolff agency, which

in Germany during the war
peared.
a role
some sort of Jewish

come under Nazi control.
last to retain
now
now
all
entirely disap-
played so important
of 19 14-18,
was the
direction, but
it
has
In the realm of publishing, Jewish participation has

been more important than extensive. It is sufficient to
mention that greatest of German publishing houses,
the firm of Fischer, whose intellectual guidance was
largely responsible for the revitalization of
German
Bernard
one only of the foreign authors whose introduction to the German public was entirely due to
them. To suggest any "racial" bias in such activities
becomes all the more preposterous when one recalls
the strange irony that even Nietzsche, the major
prophet of National Socialism, was discovered and
supported by Jews.
literature at the close of the last century.
Shaw
is
CHAPTER VI. Art, Music, Stage
modern
It was long believed that until

ish share in the visual arts
was
rigorous interpretation of the
times the Jew-
negligible
owing
to the
Ten Commandments.
most sensational recent archaeological discovery has
made it necessary to revise this view. At Dura Europos,

formerly a frontier city on the borders of the
Roman
and Persian Empires, there have been discovered the

remains of a third-century synagogue, in a remarkable
state of preservation.
The
walls
in some places of nearly twenty

with frescos of considerable
still
feet.
stand to a height
They are adorned
vitality,
representing
biblical scenes, the visions of the Prophets, the
Temple
and so on. Contrary to all preconceived

no qualms whatsoever are entertained at repre-
at Jerusalem,
ideas,
senting the
human figure, notwithstanding the religious

The Egyptian disaster in
nature of the building.

the
Red Sea
or the dedication of Aaron leaves nothing
to fantasy; while a portrait of a priest, probably in-
tended to represent the Prophet Jeremiah, closely resembles the early representations of Jesus of Nazareth.
These
frescos, in fact, are distinctly related to those
146
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
47
discovered in the Christian catacombs and the mosaics

in the earhest
Roman
churches.
In view of these discoveries, some scholars go so far

as to
suggest that the ideas previously held with regard
to the origins of Christian art
formerly thought that
now
it
had
must be
its
appears probable that the
it
on the
carried
tradition
revised. It
was
roots in pagan Egypt;
Church simply
which already
existed in the
Synagogue. But European painting depends, in the

last instance, on ecclesiastical and early Christian
origins; hence, if this
new
tion of Giotto and of
Cimabue goes back ultimately
theory
is
correct, the tradi-
to
a Jewish prototype.^
Whether
tion of
or no this
is
much European
the case, the Jewish inspiraart
cannot be denied. Three-
quarters at least of European paintings before 1500,
and a very high proportion after that date, deal with

i.e., Hebraic, characters and scenes. It is difficult to conceive Italian art of the Renaissance without
biblical,
such familiar episodes
as the creation, the lives of the
triumph of Judith, and so on; while,

though the fact was not conveyed in pictorial art until
the last century, the central subject of all, Jesus and the
patriarchs, the
Madonna, was essentially Jewish.

It was Dutch painting which first made a
definite
Yet this
breach
by no means signified a revolt against the Hebraic subject matter. Rembrandt, for example, turned again
in the ecclesiastical tradition in art.
^ It may be added, in connection with this, that a professional

Jewish animal-painter named Eudoxios lived at Rome in the im-
perial period.
148
and again to the Bible for
more
attracted
Moreover,
quarter of
by
its
inspiration,
dramatic than
his realistic sense led
Amsterdam
its
him
though he was
spiritual values.
to the Jewish
in order to obtain local color,
with the result that the scope of
his
work extended
from the Hebrews of old to the Jews of his own day,

who were depicted with a characteristic intermingling
of realism and romanticism. For many years, Rembrandt lived among Jews, painted Jews, and worked
frequently under Jewish auspices. It is interesting to
recall in this connection that he illustrated a book for
Menasseh ben Israel, the founder of the modern Jewish
settlement in England, In view of all this, it has often
been suggested, though without any documentary
evidence, that he was himself of Jewish blood,^
For the paradoxical reason that art was so specifically Hebraic in character, the Jews could participate
in
it
to only a very limited degree in the great age of
European painting. It occupied itself largely with

Testament scenes; it was destined to a large ex-
New
tent for ecclesiastical decoration
or, rather,
venera-
Other Dutch and Flemish artists who are suspected to be of

Jewish extraction include the fifteenth century master-engraver,
Lucas Jacobsz, known as Van Leyden, son of the painter S. H,
Jacobszoon; the family of engravers and artists of the seventeenth
-^
century, the De Jodes; and the Ruisdaels Izaak Jacob, Jacob

Salomons, and Salomon. Evidence based on names is, however, a
little tenuous, particularly in the seventeenth century, when the
Puritan tradition became so strong. It is believed with a greater
degree of probability that the great Spanish painter Bartolome
Bermejo of Cordova was of Marrano extraction, as was also perhaps Cosimo Tura, a distinguished fifteenth-century artist of the
School of Ferrara.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE

tion.
Hence
49
very large proportion of the training,
the activity, and the

off
from the Jew.
HveHhood of the
He
artist were cut

compensated himself by inter-
preting with increasing rigor the biblical prohibition
which forbids making graven images or any likeness.

Finally, social prejudice prevented the Jew from entering the profession which of all handicrafts assumes
the most intimate and friendly association between
patron and worker.
Hence, from the
close of the classical age
down
to the
period of the disintegration of the Ghetto, Jewish
working for the Gentile world, though not abunknown (a few instances have been given
above, pp. 6^-6), were few and far between. However, as soon as art lost its ecclesiastical bias and social
prejudices decreased, they began to play a more active role. They began with a branch of art in which
social connections and religious allegiance were unimartists
solutely
portant.
As
a natural outcome of their commercial interest
in precious stones, they mastered the art of

seal
cutting,
which developed
medal-making. In
Germany
into
gem and
engraving and
and
com-
in the seventeenth
eighteenth centuries these professions were very
monly followed by Jews. Many
of the petty courts
had a Jewish seal engraver in their employment, and

some of the best medalists of the period were Jews.
It is enough for our purpose to mention Jacob Abraham, who held an official appointment in the Court of
150
Prussia in the second half of the eighteenth century,
and
his
son,
Abraham Abrahamson, both
prolific
workers.
From gems and
seals,
the transition to miniature-
This art was exemplified in the

eighteenth century by Raphael Bachi in Paris, the
Pinhas and Treu families in Germany, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century by David Alexander
painting
was
easy.
Fiorino, one of the best miniaturists of his day, in
Dresden.
Thus, by gradual degrees the Jew began to acclimatize himself in the artistic world.
By
the close
of the eighteenth century a couple of figures of
first
importance were of Jewish origin. Anton Rafael

Mengs, court painter at Madrid, a much-read writer
on the theory of art and the first person to recognize

the genius of Goya, was the son of a converted DanishJewish enamel worker named Ishmael Mengs. The
younger Mengs' reputation in his day was enormous,
probably exceeding
his merits.
lasting influence in the
He
had, moreover, a
history of painting as the
founder of the neo-classical school, which received its

greatest development in that superb painter, David.
The latter's name makes one believe that he, too, was
of Jewish extraction. So, according to the latest researches,
was John Zoifany, one of the
bers of the Royal
Academy
in
original
London and
of the conversation-piece; he was,
it
mem-
a master
appears, born at
Frankfort of Bohemian Jewish parentage, and certainly lodged in the house of a Jew when he first came
to
London.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
I5I
This brings us to England, which exempHfies most

strikingly the role of the
Jew
in painting
always
in
essence a child of his environment and of his age.
The
first
great English artist
was the famous
miniaturist
who professed
of the
Stuart
Judaism
period,
Abraham Cooper, who however was apparently
convert from Christianity. Later on, the features which
were on the whole

Jew showing himself
as conservative as his Gentile neighbors. If Solomon
Alexander Hart, professor and librarian of the Royal
Academy, was a noteworthy exponent of what may
characterized English painting
faithfully imitated, the English
be termed the pontifical school in British painting, that
wayward
genius,
remarkable
Simeon Solomon, was not the
member
of the pre-Raphaelite group.
least
An-
other distinguished exponent of the classical tradition
England both as portraitist and as painter of figure

compositions was Solomon Joseph Solomon.
In view of the early Jewish association with the art
in
of miniature-painting,
is
Jew, Alfred Praga,
it is
interesting to note that
it
who was responsible for the re-
vival of the art in England. In our day, Sir
William
Rothenstein and Philip Laszlo, both of Jewish birth,

represented the conservative tradition, in contrast to
the younger
artists,
Mark
Gertler,
David Bomberg,
Bernard Meninsky, Jacob Kramer, and so on, who

have shared with their non-Jewish comrades in the
exciting struggles of the
^
The names
a place:
of
modern movement.^
two famous
caricaturists
must be accorded
(famous also as
Max Beerbohm and Henry Ospovat
book-iUustrator)
each of
whom
built
up
a remarkable reputation.
152
was
characteristic that, while in England Jewish

were typical members of the placid British
school, on the Continent they were caught up in the
feverish new tide which had its origin in France. During the course of the nineteenth century Paris became
the artistic center of the whole world, and under the
inspiration of Manet and Monet, Millet and Renoir
It
artists
new tradition in art began.
It is
not generally realized
that one of the founders of the
New
School was a
Jew, Camille Pissarro, who had a profound influence

on the earlier development of Cezanne. The peculiar
atmosphere of the streets and boulevards of Paris have

had no more faithful chronicler than in his "luminous
vibration," though he brought to his work as well
something of the atmosphere of his West Indian birthplace. His landscapes are among the most solidly constructed achievements of the Impressionist movement.
But more important was his warm humanity. It is to
this common factor that one seems forced back when
one considers the Jewish contribution in every sphere.^
France produced at least one outstanding
Rosa Bonheur, the famous animal painter, whose
father, Raymond Bonheur, had also enjoyed a high reputation.
Her work was remarkable for the firm handling of the subject,
coupled with extraordinary accuracy. She was the first woman
to receive the Cross of the Legion of Honour (1894).
Camille Pissarro's son, Lucien Pissarro, settled in England, where
he made a name not only as artist but also as founder of the
Eragny Press, whose beautiful productions are famous wherever
fine printing is appreciated. Another great Jewish typographical
artist is the American, Joseph Ishill.
^
Before
Jewish
diis period,
artist,
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
With the
53
who
twentieth century the stream of Jews
and work in Paris grew greater and

producing
painters of the cahbre of Chagall,
greater,
Pascin, Soutine, Szyk, Kisling, and above all, Modigli-
went
to study
ani, the Botticelli
of the twentieth century,
who before
untimely death had attained great fame.

It was in the generation following Manet, that the
his
characteristic Jewish function of acting as intellectual
intermediary began to be
extent
by Jews
beyond France,
carried
felt,
for
it
was
to a large
that the spirit of the impressionists
new
to initiate a
was
tradition in
painting throughout Europe. Thus, Serafino de Tivoli,
who had studied in Paris,

back to
Italy,
brought the
new conceptions
where he founded what was irreverently
called the school of the "macchiaiuoli." Josef Israels
took
it
figure in
to Holland,
Dutch
becoming the most
art since the seventeenth
certainly the nearest in spirit to

It
was
typical that this
age to enter into the
Jew was
spirit
significant
century and
Rembrandt van
the
first
Rijn.
person of his
of the people, to go to the
fisherman, the peasant, and the artisan for inspiration
without any sense of patronage, amusement, or charity.
similar democratization
Isaac
Levitan,
of
whom
was achieved
the
in Russia
anti-Semitic
by
Novo ye
"This full-blooded Jew knew, as no

other man, how to make us realize and love our plain
and homely country scenes."
In this, Israels and Levitan were at one in spirit with
Vrejjtya wrote:
Max
Liebermann,
the authority of the Encyclopaedia Britannic a
their great contemporary,
the
two
first-rate figures in
German
who on
is
one of
painting.
There
154
had been eminent German-Jewish painters of the conventional school in the generation which had preceded
him Veit and Oppenheim and Possart and the Bendemanns, father and son. It was Liebermann, however,
who by
bringing
country,
disturbed
shared
by
the
the
Impressionist
school
complacent
to
traditionalism
Germany was
these Jewish painters.
his
long while reluctant to recognize him, and
it
for a
was only
when
his fame had re-echoed back from abroad that

supremacy was at last realized. Following the example of Israels and their common master, Millet, he
his
devoted himself to depicting the
life
of the poor, find-
ing his best subjects in orphanages, asylums, peasants,
and
He
villages.
matter of
democratized, as
German
it
were, the subject
painting. "His pictures hold the fra-
and the breezes of the heavens,"

states the Britannica. But his influence was exercised
not only through his painting. It was he who in 1900
organized the first Berlin Sezession, a landmark in the
grance of the
soil
German art. In 19 19 he was elected President of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts, serving until
the Nazi Revolution, and distinguishing himself by a
receptiveness to new ideas and new currents most unhistory of
usual for one in such a position.
Liebermann was almost unique among academicians

in his realization that in art the revolutionary of yester-
day
is
the conservative of today.
stylistic
coherence among Jewish
The
absence of any
artists
may
be
real-
Jews were so prominent among

the German expressionists and their successors, whose
ized
from the
rise
in
the
fact that
first
decades of the twentieth century
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
55
The most distinLiebermann, in the pre-war

period, was probably Lesser Ury, a genius in color,
while Yankel Adler subsequently made his name
marked the decline of
his influence.
guished Jewish
artist after
known among
the radicals. But there
the artistic temperament of the
him
was nothing in
which
inclined
Jew
to revolutionary idealism; and,
when
the
Neue
Sachlichkeit sounded the call for the back-to-nature
movement, one of its leaders was Josef Bato.

Sculpture was for centuries the most ecclesiastical
branch of art, and this is perhaps the reason for the
Jew's
late
entrance into
it.
In the romantic period,
Mark Matveyevitch Antokolski was

eminent Russian sculptor, gaining the
international competition of 1878.
critic, Stassov,
our age.
He
wrote:
"He
is
As
easily the
first
most
prize in the
the Russian art-
the greatest sculptor of
represents in his personality something
altogether different
sculptors stand for
from what
all
the rest of our
both ancient and modern."
The next generation produced Enrico Glicenstein,

N. Aronson, Arrigo Minerbi and others of equal reputation.
Today, the magnificent
virility
of
men
like
Jacques Lipchitz, Osip Zadkin, and Jacob Epstein and

of
women
Ghana Orloff is leavened by the classiArnold Zadikow, while Benno Elkan

return to the Renaissance ideal in wedding a
like
cal purity of
leads a
sculptor's imagination to sober utilitarianism.
What that prodigious melting-pot of genius, which

is known as the United States, may produce in the
156
future in the realm of
art,
no man can yet
foretell.
But
the emergence during the present generation of an al-
most unending series of talented young men and

women, combining the untrammeled American spirit
with the Jew's passionate feeling, points to the pos-
may come into existence before long

with their aid a great American artistic tradition, comparable to anything that the Old World ever knew.
sibility that there
It is
more than a coincidence
Stieglitz, to
whom
his disciples
that a Jew, Alfred

have dedicated a re-
markable volume of essays, is regarded as the father of

modern art in America. He is the man who inspired
young Americans, led them towards new goals, and
showed them
that to
make
their contribution they
World models but

environment and men-
should not slavishly follow Old

interpret their
own American
tality.
Among
it is
the great
possible only to
American Jewish artists of today,

mention a few outstanding names,
resisting the temptation to particularize, for

stitute a
remarkable
are Maurice Stern and
Museum
they con-
Among the important painters

Max Weber, both honored by
roll.
Modern Art by retrospective exhibitions and monographs, Leon Kroll, Abraham Baylinson, the Soyer brothers, Benjamin Kopman, William
Mayerowitz, Theresa Bernstein, Abraham Walkowitz,
reckoned with Weber among the fathers of modemthe
of
ism in the United States, and Louis Lozowick,

has done
much
who
to interpret the school to the outside
world. Etchers include William Auerbach-Levy and
Abbo Ostrowsky.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
In the plastic
last
arts,
leadership
was
57
established in the
century by Sir Moses Jacob Ezekiel, perhaps the
most distinguished American-bom sculptor of that

day. His lead was followed by Jo Davidson, of
world reputation, who designed for the French government a heroic group to commemorate the first
victory of the Mame. William Zorach undoubtedly
excels him in fire and passion, while among the younger
generation there are outstanding names like Louis
Slobodkin, one of the great hopes of the future. The
wood-carver, Hayim Gross, and the stone-carver,
Nadelman, well known in Europe, deserve at least
passing mention, while Oscar Bach and Samuel Yellin,
whose
intense Jewish sentiment atones for the for-
mer's lack of
wrought
it,
iron.
are distinguished as practical artists in
Their achievements almost bear com-
parison with the productions of the classical period.
In America, industrial design has entered into
The most
its
own.
important influence in modern industrial
arts in the country is Florence Levy, founder of the

Art Center, with its multifarious activities; she is ably
seconded by designers like Henry Dreyfuss and Paul
Frankl.^
5
In architecture the
demonstrate
Jew had
his talent until
The Herodian Temple in

among the wonders of the
^
The
outstanding Mexican
Jewish affiliations, but it

be included in this list.
is
little
opportunity to
comparatively recent years.

Jerusalem was reckoned
ancient world; but there
artist,
Diego Rivera,
also
claims
not easy to decide whether he should
158
was no possibility of emulating this achievement, even

on a reduced scale, in the Diaspora. The medieval synagogue was, of necessity, modest and unpretentious. It
is
remarkable
how
faithfully
of the environment.
The
Worms,
reflected the fashions
German synagogues
Romanesque
are perfect specimens of the
of
it
earliest
style, as that
constructed in the eleventh century and
deliberately destroyed by anti-Semites with the aid of

minnewerfers in the twentieth; or of the Gothic, as
the
Alt-Neu Schul of Prague. Those of
Spain,
e.g., at
Toledo, Segovia, or Cordova, reproduce the flowing
Arabesques of the neighboring mosques. Italy, at

Venice or Padua or Ferrara, brings in the baroque influence, while the
wooden synagogues
of Russia and
Poland are thought to reproduce the style and fashions

of the ancient pagan temples, of which no other trace
survives.
In only one respect was the medieval

sible for
Jew respon-
an important architectural innovation. His
precarious existence
made
it
desirable for his dwelling
place to be as strong as possible, and his widespread
connections suggested the means. Accordingly,
it
ap-
was the pioneer of domestic architecture

in stone in Northern Europe. It seems more than a
coincidence that all over England ancient houses of
pears that he
especial solidity are even
now
associated with
the
names of the Jewish owners of seven centuries ago. In

what was formerly the Lincoln Jewry, above all, some
admirable specimens survive, said to be the oldest
dwelling-houses in Europe, with the exception of
Spain,
which
are
still
inhabited.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
The
nineteenth century at
last
59
opened the doors of

were not slow to
architecture to the Jews, and they
take advantage of this opportunity. English
Jewry
George
Basevi,
provided
at least
one important
figure,
whose works include that perfect specimen of the neo-
Museum
Cambridge.
In Germany, in the middle of the century, the most
prominent name in this sphere is that of Georg Hitzig,
classical style the Fitzwilliam
president of the
Academy
of Art,
at
who
designed the
Bourse (1859-64) and the Reichsbank (1869-77).

Many of the local branches of this institution, in the
full fortress-like floridity
tury,
a
of the close of the last cen-
were erected by E. Jacobsthal, while
new
tradition in theatrical architecture
by Oscar
Gothic
in Austria,
was
started
Strnad. Hyper-patriotic admirers of the neo-
style in
when Alfred
Germany
date the revival
from 1905,
Messel completed the Wertheim Building
in Berlin, and, according to the reactionary Freiheits-
ka?npf, "a
new epoch opened
ture." Today, there
for
German
architec-
one Jewish figure of international

significance in architecture, Erich Mendelssohn, who,
ruthlessly sweeping away traditional forms, took
cognizance of the sun and air. His style symbolizes
and sustains the modern concept of the sun as a therapeutic agent, while his interplay of horizontal and
vertical lines has stimulated the evolution of the American skyscraper from a utilitarian curiosity to an unprecedented architectural form of rare beauty.^
^
is
Another name associated with the development of the skyis that of L. J. Horowitz, head of the company which
scraper
erected
the
Woolworth BuUding.
In
the
previous
generation,
l6o
two outstanding names, Eli

regarded as second among con-
In America, there are
Jacques Kahn,
who
is
temporaries to Frank Lloyd Wright, and Albert Kahn,
Motor Plant, who possesses (in

words of the University of Michigan, in conferring an honorary degree upon him) "creative imagination attested by imposing structures that combine utility with dignity and beauty,"
designer of the Ford
the
and history the part played by

Jews has been of the utmost importance. One of the
In
artistic criticism
greatest living students of Italian art of the Renaissance

is
Bernhard Berenson, an American
critic of
Lithua-
nian birth, while there was no greater authority on
medieval Italian sculpture than
I.
B, Supino.
Germany
provided a larger number of workers in
has, of course,
Marc Rosenberg, the outstanding

on goldsmith's work, Adolph Goldschmidt, au-
this field
expert
thority
including
on medieval sculpture and manuscript
Max
mination, and
J.
Friedlander, author of a
illu-
monu-
mental work on Dutch painting. Some of England's
most eminent
art critics
and
historians, too,
have been
Jews. Sir Charles Walston, Slade Professor at

bridge, to cite one, wrote extensively
of
art; in
name
Cam-
aesthetics
addition he was a great archaeologist.
of Salomon Reinach
Dankmar
on the
Adler,
is
The
famous, not only in
who
a notable figure in
designed the Chicago Stock Exchange, was

American architecture and was head of the
firm which erected the
first steel construction skyscrapers in the

contemporaries who deserve mention is the
Swiss Julien Flegenheimer (i 880-1938), architect of the Palace of
the League of Nations at Geneva.
country.
Among

ART, MUSIC, STAGE
France, as author of what
is
perhaps
the best intro-
Apollo.
duction to the history of art
Music, like painting,
still
l6l
a particularly faithful index of
is
and Jewish religious and folk-music have

on the whole reflected with the utmost fidelity the
atmosphere of the Jew's environment. Northern
Jewry generally imitates in home and synagogue the
German musical tradition of the Middle Ages and
assimilation,
The
after; southern, that of Spain.
to
melodies
common
both elements, which might, therefore, be presumed
to be of ancient Palestinian origin, are conspicuous

their rarity.
Temple
Thus,
it is
cantillation
by
probable that the tradition of
may today
be traced in the oldest
music of the Catholic Church rather than in that of the
Synagogue. Indeed,
tive
it
may
be argued that
this primi-
Jewish influence on Christian plain-song was the
origin of the polyphonic, and
is
thus in a sense funda-
mental to Western music in general.
On
the other
hand, in a later age, synagogue music has occasionally
been drawn upon by gentile composers. Benedetto

Marcello found the settings for many psalms in the
Ghetto at Venice, while the historic tune to the Eng-
hymn, "The God of Abraham Praise," was carried

away from the Great Synagogue in London one
Friday evening in 1772 by the Wesley an minister,
lish
Thomas
Oliver, after hearing Leoni chant the doxol-
ogy, Yigdal. But the tide has generally flowed in the

other direction. Students of medieval Spanish music,
for example, are
now
beginning to devote increasing
62
attention to the folk-music of the
who
still
Jews
in the Levant,
possess a vast store of uncontaminated folk-
songs and ballads of the age of Columbus.
Jewish musicians, whose performances were enjoyed

audiences, were indeed to be encoun-
by non-Jewish
tered throughout the Middle Ages.
As with
their
neighbors, it was only with the Renaissance that individual composers began to emerge. The first known
to us
by name was one Joseph ("Giuseppe Ebreo"),
who
flourished at the court of
Lorenzo
de' Medici,
where he collaborated with the Jewish writer,

Guglielmo da Pesaro, on the art of dancing. At the
court of Mantua there were also a number of singers,
instrumentalists, and composers. Some of their work,
which was mainly of secular interest, was published.
Among them may be mentioned David Civita, whose
Vremitie Armomche appeared at Venice in 1616;
Allegro Porto, who dedicated three volumes of compositions to the Emperor Ferdinand; and Salamone de'
Rossi, who divided his attention impartially between
compositions intended for synagogal and profane use.
In Venice the Jews had in the Ghetto their own musical academy, which exchanged courtesies and compositions with similar bodies in the city.
The development
this
of the Catholic reaction destroyed
promising beginning.
With
the Jews restricted to
Ghettos and forbidden ordinary intercourse

with their fellow-citizens, and with Church compositheir
tions, the easiest, if
not the only, avenue to recognition,
the tradition languished.
Hence
it
was only
in lands of
greater freedom that the Jewish musical ability found
ART, MUSIC, STAGE

outlet,
its
and
modest one
63
at that, until the great re-
vival of the nineteenth century.
was Germany which led Europe in music, and it

was natural that German Jews showed greater prominence than their coreligionists across the Rhine or the
North Sea. Here Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the
It
baptized grandson of the great Jewish philosopher,

exercised an influence so potent that
it
can hardly be
believed that he died before attaining his fortieth year,
England knows him as a composer, almost the last real

genius of the melody which was once music. His Midsunnner Night's Dremn all but enhanced the charm of
Shakespeare; more than normal obtuseness was necessary to have his masterpieces banned in Nazi Germany,
on the ground that the composer was "non- Aryan."
His sacred oratorios, a branch of music to which he
gave a new lease of life, meant more abroad than
they did in his own country, and his Elijah, in particular,
has not only preserved
its
classic
popularity but has
had almost too powerful an influence on composers of

English church music.
In the words of Sir Hubert Parry, one of England's
greatest musical scholars, "he was one of the few composers to
whom in his best moments all the resources of
were equally available. His choral writing was, on

the whole, the most practical and the most fluent that
has been seen since Handel and Bach, and for mastery
of choral effect he had no real superior in his time. His
harmony is full of variety and sufficiently forcible, and
his facility in melody quite unlimited."
But, even had he not composed a note, Mendelssohn
art
164
would
Still
be an important figure in musical history.
In 1827-8, in the face of considerable opposition, he
began propaganda on behalf of the music of Bach,

which finally resulted in the formation of a Bach Society and the publication of his Masses and Cantatas; it
was to this that the Renaissance of Bach, long forgotten
among
his
countrymen,
is
to be traced. Mendelssohn's
transference to Leipzig in 1835 ^^ conductor of the

Gewandhaus Orchestra made Leipzig the musical
center of
Germany,
as
Germany was
of Europe.
He
Upon
the
founded, too, the Leipzig Conservatoire.

staff
of this famous institution were a
number of
eminent Jewish instrumentalists, many of whom were

at the same time composers of note. They included
Ignaz Moscheles, founder of a
new
school of piano-
enabled him to link the

day with modern times;
Joseph Joachim, "one of the loftiest names in the history of the violin" and the interpreter par excellence
of the classical tradition. His "Hungarian Concerto"
and "Hebrew Melodies," for viola and piano, testify
to the range and catholicity of his musical sympathies.
Ferdinand David combined the qualities of the classics
with the technical skill and brilliance of the modems,
and it is because of him that Leipzig long remained the
center of violin playing in Europe. "Leipzig is a Jewish metropolis," grumbled Wagner in 1869.
Contemporary with Mendelssohn was a group of
other Jewish composers, almost on the same plane. The
"Cyclopaean" Giacomo Meyerbeer, son of a Berlin
banker, became famous in the one sphere all but unforte-playing,
whose long
pianistic tradition of
an
life
earlier
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
touched by
He
his great
65
contemporary, namely, opera.
anticipated or instructed
Wagner
in his genius for
matching the pageantry of scene with that of tone,

and a more immediate influence is sometimes discernible. His works still hold the stage, on the Continent
especially, while his style, setting, and orchestration
have had a subtle effect on many subsequent composers.
The
established
travelling fellowships
by
his will
which Meyerbeer
were then something novel
in
musical annals and have not been without their perma-
nent influence. His work shows distinct
affinity to
that of Fromenthal Elie Halevy, one of the great
French music along with Thomas, Gounod,

The last two mentioned are both
said to have been of Jewish extraction. In Paris at least,
where a street is named after him, his works are still
regularly played and enthusiastically received. His
name, alone of the more eminent Jewish composers of
the nineteenth century, is associated with a work on a
Jewish theme, though it has no Jewish characteristics
in its music
his masterpiece. La Jiiive, still a favorite.
Jacques Offenbach linked Germany with France.
He was the son of a synagogue cantor at Cologne, but
he passed his most active years in Paris, where during
the Second Empire he was one of the outstanding figfigures in
Bizet, or Saint-Saens.
He was the father of the

Opera Comique. The artistry of his hundred or more
compositions makes them of living interest to the present day, and among them there is one at least which is
ures in the musical world.
assured of immortality.
More
solid
The
Tales of Hoffjnan.
was the operatic work of Karl Gold-
66
mark, especially remarkable for the rich splendor of

the orchestration. Gustav Mahler was a composer in
whose works mainly of Catholic

and German folk-music evoked great devotion and are
marked by a spiritual power of moving impressiveness.
In England, though no names of equal calibre have as
yet emerged, Sir Frederic Cowen, conductor as well as
composer, was a prolific creator of songs, instrumental
the grand manner,
work of abiding value.

The nineteenth century produced a number of other
Jewish composers, perhaps less universally known than
music, and choral
those mentioned above but of considerable reputation

nevertheless
Salomon
Jadassohn,
Ignaz
and
Briill,
Moritz Moszkowski in Germany and Austria; John

Barnett, Julius Benedict and Isidore de Lara in England; Camille Erlanger
and Paul Dukas in France;
Federigo Consolo and Alberto Franchetti in Italy
.^
In the modern school of music, Jews, at last aJff orded

ampler opportunities, are among the leaders. It is
enough to mention Arnold Schonberg, "the first musi-
form
whose innovations have profoundly affected a large body of disciples, although he is now an
exile from his native Germany; Darius Milhaud, the
leading member of the Modern French School, recian since Debussy to have carried forward the
of opera,"
markable in that
his revolutionary
music often ex-
According to some authorities the names of Sullivan, LeonCosta, and even Beethoven (!), but the likelihood is
slender, should be added to this list, as having been of Jewish
extraction. Maurice Ravel, though bearing a distinctively FrenchJewish name and attracted by Jewish themes, is stated authori^
cavallo,
tatively not to
be
Jew.
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
67
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
younger ItaHan comone of the most
posers of our time; the brothers Krein, prominent in
the contemporary Russian musical world; and those
Jews who have contributed to modem American folkmusic, such as Gershwin, Copland, and Gruenberg.
Ernest Bloch, Swiss by birth, is considered one of the
outstanding composers of the day. As Director of
the San Francisco School of Music, he had a great
influence on the younger American composers. He
is one of the few modem Jewish musicians who has
devoted his talent to Jewish themes. Far, however,
from diluting the pure source of European music with
an extraneous element, he has endeavored to put a
Jewish content into modern European musical forms,
presses religious emotion;
gifted of the
as for instance in his recent titanic
experiments in
synagogal composition.
In music, unlike any other branch of

is
art,
interpretation
all-important, and, since the first half of the nine-
teenth century, Jews have figured in disproportionate
numbers among the instrumentalists in every land- Indeed, the concert hall of today would be inconceivable
without the Jewish virtuosi who constitute no mean
proportion of its major attractions. The violin has had
a special attraction for Jews particularly, by some
freak of environment, for those of Russian birth; wit-
names of Joachim, David, Elman, Heifetz,

Achron, Auer, Seidel, Menuhin,
Hubermann, and PoUitzer (Elgar's master)
ness the
Kreisler, Zimbalist,
Szigeti,
68
Anton Rubinstein, one of the greatworld has ever known and at the same time a
composer of merit/ and his brother, Nicholas, founder
of the Russian Musical Society. Nearer our own day,
there are Myra Hess, Ossip Gabrilowitch, Moritz
Moszkowski, Moriz Rosenthal, Harold Samuel, Moiseiwitsch, Consolo, Horowitz, Solomon, Hambourg,
Schnabel, Arthur Rubinstein, and so on. Among 'cellists, the names of Feuermann, Piatigorsky, and Bernhard Cossman are pre-eminent.
Great singers have not been quite so common, yet
they include Giuditta Pasta, for whom Bellini wrote
"La Norma," and Pauline Lucca, the first "Africana,"
as well as Julius Lieban, Joseph Schwarz, Alexander
Kipnis, Hermann Jadlowker, and Richard Tauber.
Among the Jewish conductors may be mentioned
Walter Damrosch and his family, whose services for
Pianists include
est the
the upbuilding of the great musical tradition of the
United States have been so conspicuous. Hermann

Levi was one of the most notable Wagnerian conductors and producers, the first conductor of Parsifal, and
for many years the only one to whom Richard Wagner entrusted it. Nearer to our own day and equally famous are Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Ferdinand
Hiller, Leo Blech, and the Frenchman, Pierre Monteux, who, it is said was engaged to replace Bruno
Walter at a concert in 1933 under the impression that
^
he was "Aryan."
was on his advice that Paderewski turned to the piano.
Another great name is that of Sir George Henschel, singer,
composer, founder of the London Symphony Orchestra, and first
conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
-^
It
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
69
and theoreticians include Heinrich Porges,

greatest champion, and Eduard Hanshck,
his greatest opponent; Guido Adler, leader of the
"Vienna School"; Max Friedlander, the great authority on German folk-music; Oscar Bie, historian of the
dance and the opera; and Egon Wellesz, one of Schonberg's foremost followers in Austria and a distinguished student of Byzantine and Oriental music.
As patrons of music, moreover, the role of Jews has
been all important. They have been among the most
sedulous frequenters of concerts, the most discerning
appreciators of talent, the most receptive students of
new ideas, currents, and methods. "How can I be antiSemitic when I know that without our Jewish friends
all our opera-houses and concert-halls would be more
than half empty? " asked Richard Strauss. This would
have been, and is still true, not only of Central Europe,
but also of London, Paris, and New York. Nor is the
Critics
Wagner's
phenomenon a new one. In eighteenth-century England, when Handel was sedulously neglected by the
nobility and aristocracy, he
found encouragement and

who thus had their
part in identifying with England one of the most
potent influences on English music. Rossini's life was
rendered possible through the friendship and unflagging support of James de Rothschild in Paris. Perhaps
it is for this reason that his works are at present banned
in Germany, for he had no traceable Jewish blood.
Even Richard Wagner, notwithstanding the antiSemitic extravagances which he expressed in his Judaism in Music, found that the Jews were not only
support from the
London
Jews,
lyo
among
his finest interpreters,
but
also his
most
practi-
Jewish subscriptions poured in for the

foundation of the Bayreuth Theatre, while it was the
cal supporters.
Jewish
raise
who
Karl Taussig,
pianist,
300,000 thalers for
its
devised the plan to
construction. Attempts
have been made to trace Semitic influences in the
and elaboration of Wagner's music. Rather is it

to be found in the essentially Teutonic themes which
he developed for his story, for the action both of
Tcmiihduser and The Flying Dutchman, which he himself ascribed later to some unspecified and untraceable
collection of legends, were dependent upon the genius
glitter
of Heinrich Heine. "In Heine's truly dramatic treat-
ment of the redemption of
Wagner had
Ahasuerus of the Sea,"

Autobiographical Sketch
this
written in his
of 1843, before his anti-Jewish prejudice had developed, "I found
opera subject.
with Heine
That
all I
came
wanted
to
make
of the Saga an
to an understanding in the viatter

^
himself.''''
there
is
anything Semitic in the compositions
of Mozart has never been suggested, though
it is
a fact
Jews were among the first persons to

encourage him during his visit to England as an infant
prodigy in 1764. However, no small part of the enjoyment of those who listen to his operas, particularly
Don Juan and The Marriage of Figaro, comes from the
extraordinary ability of his librettist, Emanuel Conegliano of Ceneda in Italy, better known under his bap-
that a handful of
It
that
may be added that

Wagner himself, for
his father
being
there
all
is
strong ground for suspecting
his anti-Semitism,
named Geyer.
was half-Jewish,
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
17I
name of Lorenzo da Ponte. He
rivalled Casanova
amorous adventures and autobiographical audacity, contributed considerably to the success of the most
famous of Mozart's operas, brought the first Italian
opera company to America, and brought to a close an
tized
in his
eventful
1838.
life at
New
The librettos
York
at a venerable old age in
of most of Richard Strauss' operas,
including his Rosenkavalier, were written
by
that
genius and Liberal reformer, the half-Jew,
stylistic
Hugo von Hoffmannsthal/

8
One
of the most important strands in the complex his-
tory of the theatre
is,
of course, biblical.
The medieval
Miracle Play, presenting to the people in dramatized
form the
was
upon the Old Testament or Apocrywas not upon the Passion or the Nativity
familiar episodes of scriptural history,
generally based
pha when
of Jesus.
it
The
stories of
Joseph and his brethren, of
Susannah, of the deluge, of the sacrifice of Isaac, were

favorites,
that the
and
it
modern
was from
these simple representations
stage emerged.^
^Beethoven used the words of a Jewish poet, Jeiteles, for his

famous song, An die entfernte Geliebte; while Brahms, Schumann,
and Hugo Wolf similarly composed some of their best songs
to the words of Heine and other Jewish poets. Conversely, Schubert set the 92nd Psalm to music for the Vienna Synagogue.
^ Hebraic echoes are to be discerned even in some of the morality
plays. Thus the famous Everyman has its parallel in a familiar
passage
in
the
collection
of
Rabbinic
teachings
known
as
Ethics of the Fathers: "When a man departs from this world,

there accompany him neither silver nor gold nor precious stones
The
nor
pearls,
but only learning and good works."
The thought
is
172
This universal European practice

the Jews in their Ghettos. It
vvâs
paralleled
by
was perhaps symbolic
that while
among their neighbors
sentations
were
these dramatic repre-
associated especially with the seasons
of greatest solemnity,
among
the Jews they took place
was inevitable
commemorated
at carnival-time, at the feast of Purim. It
that the story of Esther and Mordecai,
was a specially favored subject. Howwere others, the sale of Joseph, David and
Goliath, and so on. Precisely when this tradition
at that season,
ever, there
started
is
uncertain.^ Traces of
it
may
be discerned in
the dark ages in the East; in the late Middle
Ages
it
developed, and at the period of the Renaissance, the
performances of the Jews were famous, and attracted

numerous Gentile spectators. Thus we are informed
by
the industrious Marino Sanuto
how, at Venice in
was performed by the Jews in their Ghetto
a very fine comedy; but no Christian was permitted to
be present, by order of the Council of Ten." Ultimately, it seems that a permanent theatre was instituted in the Venetian Ghetto, where plays, composed
by writers not unknown to the outside world, were
153
"there
presented.
natural enough, but
it is significant that in the English version (in

which, incidentally, God is referred to as Adoiwi) "knowledge,"
corresponding to Torah, accompanies "good deeds," a typically
Hebraic conception. The more elaborate version of this contained in the Chapters of Rabbi Eleazar is even closer in spirit to
the Morality Play, introducing the dramatic form.
^Jewish actors had, of course, been known even in

times. Josephus mentions one, Alityros,
the
Emperor Nero.
who was
classical
a favorite with
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
73
This practice certainly had some influence on the
modern Eu-
Itahan theatre and indirectly on that of
rope in general. Jewish interest in the drama appears
where the
Accordcentury, whenever it was
to have been particularly strong at Mantua,

actors
were famous for their
ingly, during the sixteenth
histrionic ability.
desired to give a dramatic performance at the court
of the Gonzagas, in honor of some visiting Prince or

Grandee, the obligation and, incidentally, the expense,
are informed
generally devolved upon the Jews.
that on Friday the performances had to commence in
We
the morning, so that they
on Jewish
would end before the Sab-
days they either had to be

postponed or deprived of their most attractive features.
Thus, at the formative period of European drama,
bath, while
when
feast
the influence of Italy
was
felt
throughout Eu-
rope, and Italy looked with interest to Mantua, the
Jewish community of that city was closely associated

with,
if
not responsible
for, the
dramatic performances
at court.
The Jews of Mantua did not provide the actors only.

de' Sommi Portaleone, by profession a scribe,
by predilection a Hebrew poet, was a prolific writer
Leone
He composed
of Italian prose and verse.
in addition
several plays of the insipid pastoral character then
fashionable
nature.
of
course, of a specifically non-Jewish
He was impresario
and producer
Ducal
at the
Court; and the poet Manfredi entrusted him with the
production of
is
remembered
at least
as
one of
his plays.
But above
all
he
author of a volume. Dialogues on the
Dramatic Art, composed in 1556, the
first
work
of that
174
nature ever M^ritten in a European tongue.
It is a
body
of sane theory and pioneer understanding of stage

practice, in
some respects
work was not pubhshed
advance of
in
Nevertheless, the author had
many
age.
The
opportunities to
put his theories in practice, and some at
commonplaces of the
its
in full until recent years.
Italian,
least
became
and ultimately the Euro-
pean, theater.^
Considering
it is
this
long Jewish tradition in the theater,
not surprising that Jewish writers of today have
furnished so high a proportion of dramatists. In the
English-speaking countries,
Zangwill, Merrick,
we have had Pinero,
Benn Levy,
Belasco,
Sutro,
and among
the disturbing figures of the younger generation in
America, Elmer Rice,
S.
George Kaufman, and
N. Behrman,
Clifford Odets,
Hellman; in France,
Bernstein, d'Ennery, Porto-Riche, and the two Bernards, father and son; in Denmark, Henrik Hertz; in
Sweden, Josephson; in Holland, Heijermans; in Italy,
Sabbatino Lopez; in Hungary, Franz Molnar, Melchior Lengyel; in Germany, Schnitzler, Fulda, Hoffmannsthal, Beer-Hoffman, L'Arronge; in Russia,
Semjon Juschkewitch and Ossip Dymow
their
name is legion. In our own day, the Palestine Arts
Theater, Habbnah, has elevated the drama into a spiritual experience. And it is remarkable that the one
Lilian
Nobel
artist
artist-prizeman
is
a Jew,
Leo
Bakst, the scenic
whose presentation of Scheherazade
in
19 lo
noteworthy that the greatest authority on the history of

is a Jew, as was also
Alessandro d'Ancona, the great historian of the Italian theater.
'^
It is
the medieval stage, Gustave Cohen, of Paris,
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
75
brought him international fame and whose designs for

Russian ballet had so profound an influence on the
modern
stage/ But neither the eye of prejudice nor of
enthusiasm can possibly find any
common
factor in
these strangely diverse types, at
one only
in fidelity
all
to their age and environment.
Jewish actors of genius, to whom Europe and America

have owed no small part of their dramatic enjoyment
in the course of the past century and more, are too
numerous to list, and include some of the greatest
names of all. If Rachel, the queen of tragedy, a Jewess,
had an equal, it was the half -Jewess, Sarah Bernhardt.
Less widely
known
than either of these, but hardly
was Esther de Boer, for half a century

queen of the Dutch stage. Their spiritual heiress today
is Elizabeth Bergner, an exile from Germany. Naziless talented,
mova, too, is a Jewess. Ada Isaacs Menken is hardly to

be mentioned in the same breath as these, yet Swinburne could write of her: "Lo! this is she that was the
world's delight."
If
Jewish actors have not quite attained the over-
whelming place of Jewish actresses, they have neverprovided some of the great names in the history
of the theater. When Sheridan's Duenna was produced at Covent Garden in 1775, the part of Isaac was
taken by "Mr. Leoni" (Myer Lyon) on whose ac-
theless
Of scenic artists in other parts of the world, the contemporary

Americans, Lee Simonson, Mordecai Gorelik, and Jo Mielziner,
'^
are outstanding.
176
count performances were suspended on Friday nights.^

In the Edwardian Era, the English stage was almost
dominated by Sir Beerbohm Tree. Holland has never

had an actor to equal Louis Bouwmeester, one of the
most remarkable figures of the European theater of
his day. Two Hungarian Jews, Ludwig Barnay and
von Sonnenthal, played

history of
a leading role in the theatrical
Germany and
German and
Austria respectively.
On
the
Austrian stages Jews have been promi-
nent for more than a century, and in the
last
genera-
were among the foremost actors.

It is sufficient to mention Emanuel Reicher, Rudolf
Schildkraut, Fritz Kortner, and Max Pallenberg,
As theatrical entrepreneurs, too, Jews have been
prominent, though they showed a tendency, which to
some professionals may have seemed distressing, to
proceed from the parallel and normally non-convergent functions of management to more intimate partion especially they
ticipation.
In
New York,
Italian
opera was
first
introduced by
Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's Jewish librettist. Oscar

Hammerstein, besides managing many theaters, presented a galaxy of new stars to the operatic world at
the Manhattan Opera House, which he built. David
Belasco dominated the American theater for many
years, as producer as well as actor, and playwright.
In Germany Otto Brahm who was founder of the
Freie Biihne and whose activity at the Deutsches
Theater left an indelible mark on German stage his^The
Edmund Kean was a Jew has no foundation

same applies to the American Edwin Booth.
report that
in fact; the
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
and Leopold
tory,
Jessner,
77
who was formerly director

who introduced ex-
of the Berlin Staats Theater and

pressionism to the stage, are
They would be even
ures.
Max
for the activity of
among the foremost figknown were it not
better
Reinhardt, whose rationalistic
productions have completely revolutionized the theater in
our day and who, with Brahm, was responsible
for the intimate atmosphere which led to the evolution
of the fashionable
"little theaters."
German
which came
theater,
the cultural
life
to
In fact, the
modern
mean so much in
war of 19 14-18,
of the period after the
but a Jewish creation. To quote a recent work,

Jew has been foremost in raising the activity of
is all
"the
the stage-director from a perfunctory job to an art

characterized
proach."
In the
no
by
imagination, style, and creative ap-
new
art of
established traditions
progress,
where there were

or prejudices to hamper their
motion
pictures,
the Jews entered whole-heartedly.
They
newcomer, relegated to back-streets and

uncomfortable halls and occupying itself in cheap
extravagances. It was largely under Jewish auspices
found
it
that
developed to a great industry, not challenging
it
but supplementing the theater; the center of a

art
new
a new standard of comfort as well

achievement to the reach of the poorest pocket.
which brought
as of
There was
a period
when
the subject-matter, reflect-
Myerson and Goldberg's The Ger?nan Jew, His Share in Modwork to which I owe more in the compilation of certain portions of this book than I can adequately
^
ern Culture, an admirable
acknowledge.
178
ing post-war moral standards, tended to be sordid and
Jews were associated with this,

they were associated no less with the subsequent regeneration, which in recent years has made such remarkable progress. No man, for instance, did more
to enhance the dignity of the motion pictures industry
than Irving Thalberg, whose death in 1936 was
mourned by critics all over the world as a major dissex-centered.
If
aster.
10
Much
has been said, from the days of
Wagner
on-
wards, of the contamination of the pure source of
European inspiration by the "alien" element introduced by the Jew. An examination of the facts shows
that this suggestion
is
untrue. In music, in
art, in litera-
and in medicine, the Jew

has brought to bear a keen critical faculty, highly
developed through centuries of intensive culture and
an innate respect for intellect and intellectual achievement. This is coupled with great receptivity, a reluctance to accept tradition per se, and perhaps a critical
ture, as, indeed, in science
aloofness, natural in those

turies
been maintained
a hostile world.
Jew
Thus
whose
identity has for cen-
as that of a small
there
is
minority in
inherent perhaps in the
qualifies him peculiarly

cobwebs of conventions, though
mental attitude which
to brush
away
the
rendering him no
less
receptive to prevailing tenden-
cies.
The Jew, therefore, is very often found in the vanguard of a new movement. But, on the other hand, he is
ART, MUSIC, STAGE
frequently responsible for the
less
step.
He
first
generally works through the
revolutionary
medium most
favored at the time; with the romantics he
with the impressionists, impressionistic;
tic;
the
79
romanand with
is
modems, ultra-modem. There may conceivably be
something Jewish in the essence a feeling that spirit

is more important than form, some mystical abstraction
is
which
defies analysis. In certain instances, there
a tendency to seek relief
a riot of color.
There
is
humanity. This, however,
The
from everyday drabness
generally a
is all
warm
in
feeling for
that can be conceded.
moment; the subject is the endemanded by convention. Thus

Israels, Auerbach, Levitan, were the interpreters in
paint or in prose of the Dutch, German, Russian
countryside. Only, coming as they did from the obscurity of the Ghetto, they were perhaps able to see
more than those whose fathers had been familiar with
style
is
that of the
vironment, or what
is
the tints and folds and figures of centuries past.
any other common factor about the Jews'

art, music, and letters, it is due to the
simple fact that, forming as they do a single sociological group, brought up in a similar environment,
If there
is
contributions to
they tend to reflect something of that group's outlook.
There
are signs that a
in Palestine.
But
it
is
new
art
may
perhaps develop
an art rooted in the Western
milieu, using a AVestern technique. If anything specifi-
cally Jewish
may
evolve,
it is still
to
make itself known.
CHAPTER VIL The Jew
in
European Thought
is commonly assumed, perhaps too hastily, that the

Hebrews of the biblical period were not interested in
It
philosophy.
made
courageous attempt has recently been
The Old Testament

Hebrew philosophy, Pla-
to correct this impression.
gives evidence of a native
tonic in type but not in origin,

noticeable in the
the well-known
which
is
especially
Book of Ecclesiastes. In particular,

"wisdom" passages of the 4th and
8th chapters of Proverbs are held to be the "remains of

generations, and indeed centuries, of keen and devoted
thinking on the problems raised

life."
by
the
phenomena
of
That this is in the main true is clear. The Old Testament is obviously the product of profound and exhaustive meditation on divine purpose and human
destiny. But a distinction should be drawn between
philosophy as a technical discipline and thought in
the wider sense
Job
is
which includes
feeling.
The Book of
human
classical expression of the rebellion of the
heart against the apparent tyranny of the

^
ways of the
Macdonald, The Hebrew Philosophical Genius
1936), p. 49.
180
(Princeton,
THE JEW IN EUROPEAN THOUGHT
151
universe, but its protest is not made in the technical

forms of the syllogism, and its ending is as illogical
as it is magnificent. In the same way the Hebrew Bible
as a whole oif ers a view of life which is both consistent
and rational, but it would not seem to have been
"thought out" in terms of logical analysis and is not,
therefore, in the strict sense of the term philosophy.
Yet men live by feeling and not by logical analysis,
and the influence of the Hebrew Bible on European
philosophy is greater than that of any philosopher or
The
philosophical system.
reason
is
simple.
The He-
brew Bible laid down for the European peoples,
largely
through the channel of Christianity, certain leading

principles concerning the ultimate origin and nature
of the world. These principles thus became the data
of philosophical speculation, setting forth the problem
they were not accepted as that problem's soHebraic theism gave Europe its vision of supreme reality and is thus at the base of the European
even
if
lution.
intellectual outlook.
We may rebel against
very negations affirm
it.
It is there,
it,
but our
inescapable, an
integral part of our minds.

It
may
merged
Yet
it is
be thought that with the Old Testament
work was
be gathered up and
Testament and Christianity.
an interesting and typical fact that the the-
the Jews'
into the
finished, to
New
itself was built up, after

Old and New Testaments,
ology of Christian theism

the completion of both
with help derived from Jewish thinkers.

of the
Jew
Philo, the first
who
The work
offered a synthesis be-
tween "revealed" and "philosophical"
religion, passed
82
into the structure of patristic Christianity; while in
the great age of the schoolmen,
when
Christianity
boldly undertook to embrace the whole intellectual
world, the
The
last
way was
named
is
traced
by
Jew Maimonides.
the
so important as to merit more than
passing mention, but before turning to him,
we
should
enquire what were the elements in the old Hebraic
outlook which offered something fresh to the world.
The answer
is an old one, although none the less true.

Hebraism has always meant what it means today and
will mean tomorrow, monotheism and its attendant
ideas. That well-known passage of Longinus which
has been referred to above (p. 103), quotes the verse
of Genesis: "God said let there be light, and there was
light." This verse is typical of the Old Testament, of
Genesis, of Isaiah, of Job. It expresses the idea that
behind the manifoldness and the discord and the contradictions of the world in which we live there is one
supreme source to which the whole owes its being.
And
this
source
is
"God
active, creative.
The God
were inadeT
of the Old Testament
is
'Let
by His "word"
there be light,' and there ivas lighf;

the "heavens
said,
thus not a mere
hypothesis to account for the wheels of the world

is He a mere cosmological
Among the "work of His hands" are human
beings, and He is interested in them because they are
going round. But neither

force.
the
work
of His hands.
The
(greater
in the physical sense of the old
but in the moral sense that
and disapproves, that
He
He
is
the Father, not
Greek mythologies,
cares, that
He
approves
punishes and forgives, loving
who live as He would

He would not wish. We
those
as
wish, hating those
have
all
"puritan" has
men's
lives,
83
who live
heard of the dark
side of this picture, especially in these days
word
when
the
become a term of reproach. Yet

Cromwell's Ironsides were men of whom any people
might be proud, and men who recognized by the
biblical names they gave themselves what spirit it was
that made them what they were. The Hebrew genius
is ethical, and it is its ethical quality which has affected
both in the daily grind and in those out-
bursts of enthusiastic return to religious faith heralded
by Luther,
What
Milton, Wesley, and in our day, Karl Barth.
has mattered in history
ish revelation of the unity of
is
not so
God
much
as the
the Jew-
Jewish intui-
tion of that God's moral nature.
But men's lives rest not only on what the great

Hebraic Christian moral teacher and philosopher
Immanuel Kant called the "categorical imperative,"
command "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt

not" by which we do the right because we must. Men
the austere
need a vision which gives meaning to moral striving.

This can take the form of one of two ideals in which
present inequalities are redressed, the one that of a
perfected social order, the other that of a perfected
individual life-cycle.
Both these
ideals
took shape in
more stress
Although ob-
the Hebraic tradition, the former receiving

in Judaism, the latter in Christianity.
viously compatible with one another they have ap-
pealed separately to different persons and different

ages,
and both have stimulated
reflection, the
one on
the practical problem of social justice, the other
on
184
the religious problem of immortality. If one adds the

institution of the Sabbath, so derided
writers,
which
is
by
the classical
nothing other than the voluntary
limitation of the hours of labor
which
raises
man
above the beasts and asserts man's moral dignity as

a human being, we have a trio of Hebraic ideals directly derived from the Old Testament which yet
have a role to play in our civilization.
Mention was made of two Jewish philosophers, Philo

and Maimonides, whose work is woven into the texture of Christian theology. But the outlook of the
medieval schoolmen was not merely theological in the
narrow sense. All knowledge was their province. This
medieval world of knowledge is, almost as if by deliberate intention, an object lesson in the inextricability
of the heterogeneous strands which go to make up

any culture worthy of the name. The ultimate base
of scholasticism religiously is Hebraic, But philosophically and scientifically it is Greek. The Greek came
through Syriac and Arabic and often Hebrew before
it assumed its Latin dress. The fathers of the Church
were content to draw on them all without discrimination; and Greek, Arab, and Jew jostle one another on
their pages in
complete promiscuity.
In fashioning this surprisingly unified world of
knowledge, the Jews played a large and important

part in the field of philosophy as well as in those of
medicine, mathematics, and astronomy (see pp. 195 f.,
222
ff.).
Among
the best
known was
the physician

Isaac Israeli (Isaac Judaeus) of Kairouan,
viving works include a logical treatise
On
whose
85
sur-
Definitions
and an exposition of Aristotelian physics called On the

Elements. The former is a treatment of various philosophical terms, derived ultimately from Aristotle,
which were taken over subsequently by the schoolmen and became the basis of medieval Christian philosophical terminology.
More important
as
an original
thinker was Avicebron (Ibn Gabirol), the synagogal
poet living under Moslem rule in Spain in the eleventh

century, whose Fons
Vitae, the first philosophical
compiled in that country, was accepted for

centuries as the production of a Christian thinker and
treatise
approved or disapproved as one of the typical expressions, of Neo-Platonic metaphysics (see pp. 6i, 107).
The anti-Semitic William of Auvergne, not suspecting
his real identity, termed him "unique, and most notable
of all philosophers." It was this remarkable treatise
which introduced Neo-Platonic thought among the
Arabic-speaking thinkers of the Iberian peninsula, and
popularized
it
ultimately
among
the Christian school-
men. Thus when the reaction against Aristotelianism

and its exponents began, thinkers like Duns Scotus
(following in this the great Franciscan, Alexander of
Hales) leaned heavily upon Gabirol, though it is
doubtful whether they would have done so had his
Judaism been known. One of the principal points of
difference between the two schools was that the latter
adopted Gabirol's theory of the existence of a material
substratum to spiritual beings, and declared the essence
of the Divine nature to be in will rather than in intel-
86
lect.
The special ferment of thirteenth-century schomay hence be traced in large measure to the
lasticism
influence of Gabirol's thought.
Greatest of
was Moses Maimonides ("Rabbi
all
Moysis," as he was
known
to generations of school-
men) whose epoch-making work, the Guide for the

Perplexed (1190), was translated into Latin shortly
after its composition and was followed by Thomas
Aquinas on almost all the great issues common to
Judaism and Christianity. The later history of this remarkable book is illuminating. The early Latin version
was reissued in the sixteenth century (Paris, 1520),
and superseded by the new one of the Christian
Hebraist Buxtorf in the seventeenth (Basel, 1629),
this in turn to give way to the French version of Munk
(Paris,
1856-66).
In
the
interim
it
had inspired
Spinoza, not necessarily always to agreement; stimu-
and political inquiries of men like

Bodin, Selden, and Grotius; presided over the birth
of modern anthropology in Spencer's Laws of the
Hebrews (1685); and had been made the subject of a
series of penetrating comments and summaries by
lated the social
Leibniz. It
is
now
a standard repository for students
of the conceptions forming that
world-view, which in
many
common
respects
some of the permanent elements
in
still
Western
medieval
provides
civiliza-
tion.
At
scientists
when
and
were helping to erect the structure of medie-
the time
these philosophers, translators,

val rationalism, a mystical revolution
which became hardly
may
be
87
was brewing
although doubt
Gathering up elements
less significant,
felt as to its real value.
the origins of
which are lost in the remotest antiquity,

book of "Splendor," flashed on the
the Zohar, the
Jewish world in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and Christian Hebraists soon discovered that
this "secret
doctrine" of the
Hebrews contained
of the mysteries of Christianity. It

gerate the influence exerted
by
obscurity of the Zohar and
its
is
difficult to
these writings.
hints
exag-
The
kindred literature
is
only equalled by the insight of their occasional inspira-
They show remarkable
affinities with the comRaimon Lull and other contemporary

Spanish mystics, whose influence reverberated through
tion.
positions of
Europe.
They entered deep through men like Reuchlin
and Pico della Mirandola into the harmonizing temperament of the Renaissance. A by-product is said
to be a metaphysical theory of space which commended itself to various philosophers, from the Italian
Patrizzi to the Englishman John Locke
to the latter
as the result of a conversation with no less a person
than Isaac Newton. Since the conception would seem
to have reached Newton through the Cambridge NeoPlatonist Henry More, we have here another suggestion of the tangled origin of modern ideas. But be
that as it may, it is important to note that no account
of the Renaissance would be complete without an
inquiry into the so-called "Cabbala" of the Jews, and
there is little doubt that its influence is to be found
within such broad boundaries as the humanist martyr
88
Giordano Bruno in
John Milton,
epic,
Not
is,
Italy
and the creator of the
biblical
in England.
that the stream of mysticism ever was, or ever
unmixed. Both in
the Cabbala
its
sources and
its
later history
was always infected with some
sophical elements, and the interesting result
by one
of the
now
is
philo-
offered
forgotten but once famous books
of the sixteenth century, the Dialoghi di Ainore of
Judah Abravanel (Leone Ebreo), son of the

ish scholar-statesman of Spain,
Composed
Don
last
Jew-
Isaac Abravanel.
originally, in all probability, in
Hebrew,
and published originally in Italian, this work ran

through edition after edition in many of the languages
of Europe. It exerted a great influence on Castiglione's
// Cortegiano, which provided the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries with its new ideal of aristocracy,
in which the old knight merged into the modern
gentleman. Translated into English, this book was
widely read in Shakespeare's England. The conception
of "Platonic love" is one of the heritages of the Dialoghi di
Amore
to the
modern world.
4
It is
with the seventeenth century that the greatest
Jewish philosopher, one of the outstanding names in
modern thought, emerged. Though the Synagogue

of Amsterdam cast him out, nervous lest his impiety
should endanger its newly won religious liberty,
Spinoza was Jewish in feeling and in background.
Volumes have been written about the Jewishness
of Spinoza, which has been denied as vigorously as it

has been affirmed. But
flavor
is
all
would agree
owes at least something
89
that his peculiar
to his origin.
By
"origin"
not meant some mysterious and indefinable quality
of the blood which
made Spinoza what
monist; but only that the
cultural
is
called a
tradition
from
which Spinoza sprang and in which he spent his early

and impressionable years, a tradition rooted as it was
in an austere monotheism, was such as to suggest a
monistic key to the riddles of existence. Monism is,
of course, not monotheism, and the religion of the
Synagogue which Spinoza left is not the five books
of the Ethics which Spinoza bequeathed as a new
Pentateuch to mankind. But if the Synagogue taught
anything it was the unity of God, and Spinoza's philosophy is a hymn to the unity of God's work or
nature. The characteristic dogmas of Judaism and
Spinozism are thus closely akin. Whatever Spinoza
derived from other sources is subordinated to this
ultimate vision, and the unitary character of the resulting system, crushing in
sign of
The
on
its
primary
its
simplicity,
is
only another
inspiration.
extent and profundity of Spinoza's influence
modem thought is a matter on which two opinions

He is one of the great thinkers of the
cannot be held.
world.
It is
like Plato
he
is
most
common
to
mention him with
he has survived even

like Plato in that
ideas even for those
who
he
Plato,
his admirers.
is
and
Indeed,
a fruitful source of
profess themselves his
op
ponents. Personal intercourse with Leibniz at the very

close of his life gave the determining influence to the
latter's
thought, which was destined to dominate the
190
eighteenth century.
No
book on Spinoza
to tell
fails
of his position in the history of the formation of the
German mind
in
its
days of true greatness, the days of
And no student of
Hegel can avoid seeing the debt that dominating and
fruitful personality owes to Spinoza. But it is absurd
Lessing and Herder and Goethe.
to lengthen the string of names. Spinoza
and there
is
nothing to
but
it
Spinoza,
is
that.
As one
looks at the present-day scene,
observe an outpouring of talent

clearly prodigious. This
is
among
as true in
may
one
Jews, which
philosophy
is
as in
any other sphere of human activity. It is not so much

the power to see new things; it is also, and that is of
even greater importance, the power to see old things
it is
in a new way. We may note this gift in some
recent Jewish thinkers who
pointless to catalogue all
have displayed
Bergson,
it is
it
it
most obviously.
has been said, has rediscovered time, and
as the rediscoverer of
remembered.
And
time that he will probably be
so Einstein,
among
fruitful ideas, rediscovered space
covered dreams. Each of these
anew.
They looked on
They brought
men
his
many
other
and Freud
redis-
started, as it
were,
new
eyes.
old problems with
to the tired discussions of centuries the
freshness of approach of a child.
And
are elementary; elementary in the
their results, too,
profound sense that
they reach deep, offering a foundation for a whole

world-view. These Jews and innumerable
are
among
the master-builders of the
lesser
modem
ones
intellec-

and
tual world,
them
as
it is
I91
not for us to "claim" or "reject"
"Jewish" or "un-Jewish"; they are men.
materialism are due to Jews;
new and
if
Cohen, founded
criticism or the
Jew Meyerson
dialectical
the Jew,
Hermann
fertile
school of Kantian
new
or the Jew,
ideas in the study of
Worms,
new
indicated
in the interpretation of science; or the
stimulated
If the
and
fruitful doctrines of creative evolution
paths
Jew, Durkheim,
human
society;
established the International So-
ciological Institute; or the Jew, Husserl, initiated a
new movement
in logic
and metaphysics; these are
contributions freely given to civilization as a whole
and in civilized times as freely received. Who cares

and who should care, when considering Levy-Bruhl's
work on the mind of the primitive, or Leon's life of
Fichte, or Cassirer's history of the theory of knowledge, or Brunschvicg's edition of Pascal, or Samuel
Alexander's massive defence of the
in metaphysics
realistic attitude
which begins with space-time and ends
who cares and who should care that these
in Deity
men
are
Jews and
as
such have given of their best to
the world? The list could be. extended tenfold. It is

not only that the Jew is in every movement, old and
new. It is that he is there as an integral part of the
movement, a powerful
leader, a faithful
comrade, a
courageous follower.
As an
instance of the part taken
humbler, but possibly in the

portant,
work
by Jews in the
more im-
last analysis
of secondary interpretation rather than
primary discovery, one may note the part played in

France by the centers of publication and discussion
192
which Jewish savants put to the
service of the
com-
munity. There, the traditions of Renaissance humanism survive undisturbed, and the study of philosophy
has always been a part of the official system of national
education. But
it
would be
difficult to
overestimate
the assistance given to the maintenance of philosophical thinking
by such reviews
as the
Revue
Fhiloso-
phique directed for many years by Levy-Bruhl, or the

Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale founded and
by Xavier Leon. To
edited until his death

ter
is
phie,
due,
whose
and the
too,
the
Bulletin
Societe frangaise
de PhHosoyear,
initiation of the series of international
Con-
Studten and
to
in
its thirty-fifth
is
gresses of Philosophy.
good
now
the lat-
its
end on
public service.
With
the fate of the Kant-
exiled editor before one's eyes,

this
it is
note of modest and prolonged
CHAPTER VIII.
The
question
their high
is
Scientific Progress
often asked,
why
the Romans, with
powers of organization and
technical ability, as
shown
their remarkable
in their buildings, their
and especially their roads, never made any

greater progress than they did in engineering science.
One answer out of the many is particularly cogent.
The reason lay above all in their cumbrous and elementary system of numbering. If a simple figure, such
as 478, has to be represented by a long and complibaths,
cated
row
of
letters,
cccclxxviii,
it
is
arithmetical calculations are
difficult,
higher mathematics closed, and
many
obvious that
the study of
scientific
and en-
upon mathematical
calculations, enormously hampered. It was only when
the Western World was introduced to the more con-
gineering developments, dependent
venient so-called "Arabic" system of numbers, and
with
it
higher mathematics, that the path to the material
today was opened. One may affirm then

that the introduction of the Arabic numerals to Europe with the use of the zero and decimal system was
civilization of
one of the landmarks in the history of Western

193
civili-
194
zation. It
is
hardly too
system
cal
achieved
is
by
the
much to say that our mathemati-
key
to the material pre-eminence
this culture in the past
four centuries.
The so-called Arabic numerals are not, in fact, Arabic. They originated in India, v^^here they were fatwenty centuries ago; thence they were carried
westward by the Arabs, from whom in turn they
were taken over by medieval Europe. Recent inquirers
miliar
have suggested that the introduction of Arabic numerals was due to the "Radanite" Jewish traders of the
Dark Ages, who penetrated
and must
knowledge of the
number systems used in recording prices and market
computation. There is extant, however, a more ciras far as India
necessarily have spread abroad a
cumstantial account, preserved in the writings of the
medieval Jewish philosopher and exegete, Abraham
who
ibn Ezra,
London
visited
in
1158 and whose
character inspired Robert Browning's famous poem.
He
writes:
"In olden times there was neither science nor religion
among the sons of Ishmael ... till the great king,

by name Es-Saffah [750-5] arose, who heard that
were many sciences to be found in India.
came men saying that there was in India a
very mighty book on the secrets of government, in
the form of a fable
and the name of the book
was Kalilah and Dimnah.^
Thereupon he sent for
there
And
there
For
this
famous work, see above, p. $6. This Jewish translation

Dimnah was afterwards superseded by the classical
of Kalilah and
version of the Persian Ibn El Mukaffa.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
a
Jew who knew both
translate this book.
saw
indeed, they are
95
languages and ordered him to

.
And when he
that the contents of the
as,
[i.e.,
the King]
book were extraordinary
he desired to know the science

Jew
of the Indians, and he sent accordingly the
to
whence he brought back one who knew the
Arin,
Indian numerals, besides
many
other astronomical
writings."
Jew was
thus responsible,
account
if this
believed, for the transmission of the
from India
is
to be
Hindu numerals
to the Arabic-speaking world.
How
did
^from
they make the next, and more
vital, transition
the Islamic world to the Christian?
In this process, too, Jewish agency
One
of the
most
Jewish birth
who worked
at
after the capture of that city
is
to be traced.
band of translators of
Toledo in the period
active of the
by
the Christians was,
as
we
by
the schoolmen into Avendeath.
have seen, Johannes Hispalensis, or John of

Seville, whose Arabic name, Ibn Daud, was corrupted
The most impor-
world
means was a work of the Persian, Muhammad
al-Kwarizmi^ (fl. c. 830) on practical Indian arithme-
tant composition introduced to the Christian
by
tic.
is
his
In this the so-called Arabic numerical notation
used for the
first
time in Latin literature
stone in the history of
Western
culture.
a mile-
So fundamen-
was al-Kwarizmi's work that for centuries what

we now call mathematics was known after him as
"Algorism." Though it was not till the sixteenth cental
The town
of
Kwarizm
is
the
modern Khiva.

196
new method had completely permeated

may be said that the whole of modem
tury that the
Europe,
it
mathematics, and with
it
a great part of
modern science
and philosophy, dates back to this translation from

the Arabic by a Jewish scholar of a system first introduced to the Arabic world by a Jew.
Even before this period, mathematics had come under the influence of a very ancient Hebrew composition. The Treatise of Measures, ascribed to a Rabbi
Nehemiah. This remarkable work, a handbook for
surveying and dividing landed inheritances, was probably composed about a.d. i 50. It has many an original
approach to mathematical problems and exercised considerable influence on Arabic
and, hence, medieval
science generally.
At approximately
the same time, Indian mathemat-
or a little later, Indian geometry also was introduced to the Latin world. The medium was in this
case a work by a famous and devoted Jewish scholar
and religious philosopher, Abraham bar Hiyya of
Barcelona, or Savasorda (d. 11 36), whose Treatise on
Geometry was translated from the Hebrew into Latin
during his lifetime by Plato of Tivoli, under the title
Liber Embadorum. This work, together with that of
al-Kwarizmi of which we have been speaking above,
was used by Leonardo da Pisa as the foundation for
his textbooks on Indian arithmetic, geometry, and
trigonometry, on which the whole of medieval mathematical studies were based. It is upon them, ultimately,
that the technical progress and the material civilization
of the present day depend.
ics,
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
97
In the blundering progress of scientific and technical
achievement in the Middle Ages, the Jews of Europe

did not fail to play their part. Throughout the period
one finds mention of them, now translating a funda-
work, now introducing a new process

from one country to another, now referred to as au-
mental
scientific
thorities,
An
now making
impressive
list
their original contributions.
of Jewish inventors and scientists
of the Middle Ages could be compiled.
Many
of
them
have been mentioned above, in connection with the

evolution of various nautical instruments and tables.
were not by any means confined to

this. The fourteenth-century philosopher, Levi ben
Gershom, inventor of the so-called "Jacob's Staff,"
But
is
their interests
distinguished in the history of science also as dis-
coverer of the Camera Obscura, of which he gave a

detailed description,
many
generations before Alberti
and Delia Porta, in a mathematical work soon translated into Latin. His interest was, of course, dependent
on the fact that the device could be used for astronomical observation. The importance of this becomes
apparent when one realizes that on this simple idea
depends the whole of photography and cinematography as we know them today.^ Levi ben Abraham,
an obscure Provengal scholar of the thirteenth century,
whose mathematical writings are just beginning

which they deserve, is mem-
to receive the attention

' It
may
be added at this point that in a later age the use of

photography was the invention of the younger
sensitized paper for
Herschel.
198
orable for having recognized heat as a
form of motion,
four centuries before Robert Boyle.
Here and there throughout the course of the Middle

Ages and the Renaissance other Jewish inventors and
scientists make their appearance. According to some
authorities, Typsiles, who re-invented gunpowder in
Augsburg in 1353, was not a Byzantine but a Jew. In
anti-Semitic Venice of the fifteenth century, a certain
Jew named Solomon enjoyed a high reputation as a
hydraulic engineer, and, for this reason, was granted
special privileges.
Colomi
At
the court of Ferrara,
Abraham
distinguished himself as a military engineer,
and devised
a primitive quick-firing
gun
as
well as a
taximeter and an instrument for measuring distances
by means
of reflectors.
ployed to build
Jewish engineer was em-
a bridge in Brazil in
640. Jewish min-
Germany,
ing engineers were found in
Italy,
even
England, where in the reign of Elizabeth a certain

Joachim Gauns of Prague directed smelting-works.
Many
other instances
may
be adduced, serving to
indicate that, in the gradual,
anonymous, develop-
ment of technical progress before the nineteenth century, Jews collaborated with other sections of the
European population. It is not perhaps without significance that one of the earliest chemical utensils,
modern cheminame
of its hypothetical discoverer, a Jewess named Maria.
This same intellectual alertness was given a fresh
/Outlet after the breakdown of the Ghetto. In the
the Bain Marie, or "water-bath" of our
cal laboratories,
is
legendarily associated with the
course of the nineteenth century, the energy and in-

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
99
which had previously been confined to
ventiveness
talmudical studies, or to the difficult task of earning a
through menial occupations, began to be turned

to science in its wider sense. Jews now not only earned
distinction, but produced a few scholars who were the
unchallenged leaders in their particular branches of
living
The
Nobel Prizes provides

some sort of index. Jews who were given that coveted
award down to 1934 numbered at least seventeen, in
addition to whom there were at least four half -Jews.
Of the seven American prizewinners two were Jews,
and while the Jews do not exceed i per cent of the
general population of the Western World, they conresearch.
institution of the
tributed 9 per cent, or, with the half-Jews 1 2 per cent,

of the Nobel Prizewinners. Numerically they ex-
ceeded
all
whom, on
but the French and Germans, several of
were Jews. In fact, of the

Germans who have been awarded Nobel
the other hand,
thirty-eight
were Jews and one partly Jewish, while

two more are doubtful. Proportionately, Jews were exceeded only by Scandinavians, but
it must be recalled that the Nobel Prizes are a ScanPrizes, nine
the antecedents of
dinavian foundation.
As
will be
shown
elsewhere, a
majority of the Jewish Nobel Prizemen received the
award
characteristically,
it
may
perhaps be added
for services to medicine. Proportionately, the next

highest
number were awarded for services
to the cause
of peace. There has been one award for scenic art and
one for
literature.
their services to
The remainder were
singled out for
one branch or the other of
inquiry in the more restricted sense.
scientific
200
The
modern civihzation
which has had a widespread
influence upon the amenities of Hfe in all countries and
in every class of the community. This, in the last
resort, is dependent to a very large extent upon physical and mathematical advances, with the result that
is
characteristic feature of our
a technical progress,
those
who
among
have led in these
fields
the benefactors of the
may
be reckoned
modern world.
It
is,
perhaps, in instinctive appreciation of this fact that
Albert Einstein, the
full implications of
of relativity can be appreciated only
whose theory
by very few,
has
received in our day an unexampled degree of public

recognition. But,
among
the workers in the same field
whose names are indubitably in the first rank are

several more of Jewish birth or descent: Niels Bohr,
Danish on his father's side and Jewish on his mother's,
the greatest theoretical physicist of his time; James
Franck, youngest of
all
Nobel Prizemen, who
re-
ceived the award in 1926 for his experimental confir-
mation of the quantum theory; his associate, Gustav

Hertz, given the prize in physics for research in the
theories of atoms; Albert Abraham Michelson, the
American whose experiments broke down the theory

of a stationary ether which had previously prevailed,
through which all motion took place and the transmission of light and electricity was conditioned; and
the great mathematical physicist.
Max
Born, formerly
editor of the Fhysikalischen Zeitschrift.
The
mathematical propensity of the Jews, traceable
''J.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
20I
perhaps to the rigidly logical character of their training, continued the notable medieval tradition to which
reference has already been made. Ozanam, the greatest
French mathematician of the seventeenth century, is

generally reported to have been of Jewish extraction.
The nineteenth century produced a remarkable galaxy in this field. It is believed that even Lobatschewski, one of the discoverers of absolute geometry, was
the son of Jewish parents who had been converted to
The
the
Greek Catholic
last
century include, too, K. G.
as well as
faith.
great pioneers of the

J.
Jacobi, of
dynamic
pure mathematical fame, co-inventor of
elliptic functions; the
two Cantors
Georg,
the ro-
mantic among mathmeticians, and Moritz, the historian of mathematics; Luigi
Cremona, reformer of Italwhose name is associated
ian mathematical instruction,
with the theory of geometrical transformations; the
Gotthold Eisenstein, who might have excelled

but for his premature death before he completed his thirtieth year; and many others of renown.
In the following generation in Germany were Edmund Landau, formulator of the analytic theory of
numbers, and Paul Ehrenfest, originator of the theory
brilliant
them
all
of adiabatic invariants; in France, Jaques Hadamard,
who
proved the prime number theorem, and GeorgesHenri Halphen, prizeman of the Berlin Academy; in
Italy,
Guido Castelnuovo, founder of
surfaces.
the study of
Emmy Noether, their contemporary, was not
only one of the outstanding algebraists of the day, but

in addition unquestionably the most eminent woman
mathematician of
all
time. Perhaps the greatest,
how-
202
modem
ever, of
Jewish mathematicians is Hermann

apart from his outstanding work on
Minkowski, who
the geometry of numbers, gave a great impetus to the
mathematical basis of
following upon the
relativity,
conception of a four-dimensional time continuum;

while Tullio Levi-Civita, one of the most distinguished
figures in Italian
absolute calculus,
Academic life today, developed the

which was the mathematical instru-
ment necessary for the fashioning of Einstein's ideas.

It was in conjunction with Michelson, Minkowski,
and Levi-Civita, that Einstein's remarkable thesis of
relativity was developed. If it is possible to say that
there is something Jewish in the tenacity which can
persist in a
long sequence of thankless research, in the
flash of genius
which can evolve
new
explanation of
the data so laboriously collected, and in the courage

to maintain an unpopular theory in the teeth of op-
position and contempt, then the theory of relativity

is,
as the adverse critics of its
tially
author maintain, essen-
Jewish. But scientific research
knows nothing
of racial and religious distinctions, and in point of fact

this,
like
every other conquest of knowledge,
is
human achievement, built up on human experiments

and human theories, in which a Jewish strand can no
more be
set apart
than any other.
England, for some reason, has not produced the
same long sequence of distinguished Jewish students

in this field as Germany. There are, however, a handful of the highest eminence.
Thus
the greatest English
pure mathematician of the nineteenth century, with

the possible exception only of his collaborator, Cayley,
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
203
was James Joseph Sylvester, Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford, He was the foremost worker in developing, and perhaps author of,
the doctrine of invariants in algebra, and he enriched
the science of
number with important work on
tions. In addition (a surprising diversion for a
parti-
mathe-
body of
as well as translations from
theory of versification. It was
matician) he was the author of a considerable

,
verse of high quality,
foreign languages and a
an English Jew,
down
too,
Benjamin Gompertz,
who
laid
the principles as to the decline of resistance to
death which are the foundation of
all
actuarial tables
in use.
4
Chemistry, too, furnishes a few names of
tance,
whose
first
impor-
investigations are felt in every branch
of our daily life. It was in 1859 that Adolf Frank began to study systematically the plant-consumption of
potash, which had been noticed by the great chemist
Liebig. In 1861, as the results of his researches, he set
up his first factory, thus founding the great potash
German
until recent
years. In addition, he developed all the
commercial
industry which was exclusively
bromide, ammonia, and the various chlowhich themselves became the nuclei of great
by-products
rides
industries. Frank's collaborator,
of the most prolific workers in

joined with
him
in perfecting a
nitrogen from the
air, a^
significance. Fritz
Haber
Nicodem Caro, one

German chemistry,
method for obtaining
discovery of great practical

carried these discoveries a
204
when he
devised his method for profrom

the nitrogen in the air and
ducing ammonia
hydrogen, thereby making available unlimited supplies
of natural fertilizer. For this discovery, he was given
the Nobel Prize in 1919. It was because of his discoveries that Germany was able to withstand a world
in arms between 19 14 and 19 18. Nevertheless, he died
in voluntary exile, and it was in England that his services to science were formally commemorated. Another
great German-Jewish chemist whose work is closely
linked with that of this group was Victor Meyer, a
brilliant worker in stereo-chemistry. His apparatus
Step further,
for the determination of vapor-densities
used and
his brilliant
tion of molecules
is
work
is
widely
in elucidating the constitu-
of great importance. In 1882, he
discovered in impure benzine the sulphur-containing
compound
thiophene, and thereby did a good deal to
further the production of cheap industrial chemicals,
now so necessary.
The dyeing
industry provides a typical demonstra-
tion of the interaction of science and industry.
Not
employment to tens of thousands,

but in addition its modern development has had a
marked effect upon the life and the aesthetic outlook
of the ordinary man and woman. In the Middle Ages,
as will be demonstrated (p. 260), Jews were prominent
in this calling, until the Italian cities secured the mononly does
it
give
opoly. Later, in the nineteenth century, with the evolution of aniline dyes,
Germany took
the lead.
Two
of the most important names in this field are Jewish.
Heinrich Caro, director of a great industrial concern
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
205
Manchester
and Victoria blue, and was the co-discoverer of phosgene dye-stuffs. The dyeing industry
was revolutionized by his work, and important technical advances in the field of medicine were facilitated by
in Baden, discovered aniline red, induline,
brown,
eosine,
rendering possible the coloring of various
tissues.
on, the researches of Richard Willstater,
measure responfor the superior position of the German dye in-
greatest living chemists,

sible
were
Later
one of the
dustry in our
too, his
work
own
in large
day. In the field of biochemistry,
has been of paramount importance in
determining the chemical structure of the colors of
was
Munich through antishared by many other con-
flowers and of the haematin of the blood. Yet he
forced to vacate his chair at

Semitic agitation, a fate
temporary German
scholars,
who
have been spoken
of in these pages.^
was done by
Raphael
Meldola,
the eminent naturalist and chemist,
who discovered many important compounds and coaltar dyes, some of which proved to be of great commercial importance. He was, in addition, one of the
greatest recognized authorities on photo-chemistry,
biologist of considerable distinction, and a valued
friend of Charles Darwin, his intellectual interests may
perhaps be ascribed to the fact that he was descended
In England,
work along
similar lines
only name to be mentioned by the side of these two is

Nobel Prizewinner and founder of the great Baeyer
Manufacturing Co., Adolf von Baeyer, who discovered eosin
"^The
that of the
(much used in medicine), artificial indigo, and many other aniline

was a half -Jew, his mother belonging to the Hitzig
dyes; he
family (p. 159).
2o6
from
a long line of rabbis,
who
settled in
England
Ludwig Mond,
in
German,
1862, revolutionized the
chemical industry of the country by
his process for
the recovery of sulphur from alkali waste. Subsequently, he perfected the Solvay process for the re-
covery of ammonia soda, and by
his discovery
of
nickel carbonyl devised a process for the extraction
of nickel from
In the
new
its ores.
branches of science, such as colloid
chemistry, Jewish investigators have played a note-
worthy
part. Jacques
Loeb
left
Germany
at the close
of the last century for the United States,
was
a pioneer
worker on
where he
colloid science as well as
(below, p. 241) a leader in physiological research.

More recently, Herbert Freundlich, perhaps the fore-
most authority on colloids today, was forced by

reason of his partly Jewish origin to leave
Germany
London. In the
same sphere, one must mention Jerome Alexander in
America, Emil Hatschek in England, I. Traube, P.
Rona, and a host of younger workers. And among
contemporaries two more names cannot be neglected:
Kasimir Fajans, formerly director of the Physical
Chemical Institute at Munich and one of the best
known physical chemists of our day, and Friedrich
to the benefit of the University of
Adolph Paneth, formerly of the University of

famous for his fruitful work on radio-activity.
Berlin,
The most
times
is
dramatic
technical
the astonishing
triumph of modern
improvement
in
communica-
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
tions.
207
Until the close of the Napoleonic Era, these had
hardly surpassed the standard attained
mans eighteen centuries before. Since

tances have been annihilated
The
by
by
the
Ro-
that date, dis-
successive inventions.
on economic organization, on social

have been immeasurable.
The first stage, the Steam Age, was in the main the
result of the activity of English and American inventors. Jews did not play a part of any importance,'^ except that some of the wealthier among them, quick to
life,
reactions
on
intellectual outlook,
realize the implications of the
active share in
tion
the
making
new
inventions, took an
possible their practical applica-
Rothschilds
in
Austria,
the
Pereires
in
France, the Josephs in Canada, de Hirsch in Turkey,
and so on.
The Railway Age was, however, challenged by two
new inventions. At the close

the automobile
made
its
ning of the twentieth,

develop.
By
this
of the nineteenth century,
appearance, and at the beginair
communications began to
time the Jews had emerged from the
Ghettos, to which they had hitherto been compulsorily confined.

sible,
and
it
It is said
Their collaboration was therefore pos-
was considerable.
that the earliest electrically driven auto-
was made and driven in the streets of

Darmstadt, Germany, in 1854, t>y a Jew named M.
mobile
^This
is
not to be interpreted too rigidly. Joseph Simon of

was closely associated with the genesis
Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
it was in their joint workshop that his partner,

William Henry, made his first unfortunate experiment in 1763,
and under their tutelage that Robert Fulton, who constructed the
first effective steamboat in 1807, developed his abilities.
of the steamboat;
208
Davidsohn. For the moment, however, this means of

traction was premature, and subsequent development
was based upon an oil-driven engine. A short while

before petroleum was first refined and utilized in
America, in 1854, the discovery was anticipated by a
Galician Jew,
the
way
Abraham Schreiner, who thus paved

modern system of transportation. His
for the
amateurish efforts robbed his discovery of real
signifi-
cance and he died in penury, but his invention links
up with the work of another Jew, Siegfried Marcus,

inventor of the automobile. It was in 1864 that the
latter built his first horseless carriage and in 1875 the
second, which was the first benzine-driven vehicle to
function. This earliest motor-car,
now
in the pos-
of the Vienna Automobile Club, he drove
session
Vienna amid general astonishment.

His automobile patents were registered in Germany
in 1882; it was not until four years later, in 1886, that
the first Daimler motor-car was built. In honor of his
invention a tablet was affixed by the Town Council
of Mecklenburg outside the house in which he was
born. No doubt it has been removed in the course of
about the
streets of
few
more
when men's
come
the past
years,
attract
attention than their achievements.
Aviation, too,
its
owes
ancestry has
to
One of
German Jew named David
a distinct debt to Jews.
pioneers was a certain
Schwarz, so far forgotten even by his co-religionists

that he does not figure in the columns of most Jewish
works of reference.
a rigid airship
It was in 1 890 that he first devised

with a gas-container made of metal. He
presented his scheme to the Austrian
War
Ministry,
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
which rejected
it
on
financial grounds.
209
Not
discour-
went to Russia, where the first rigid

was constructed under his direction at St.
Petersburg. Unfortunately, the container was made
of inferior metal, and the experiment was only a
qualified success. However, the German government
became interested and invited him to Germany to
make a trial flight. The excitement was too much for
him, and when he was handed the official telegram,
he collapsed and died in the street. His widow, however, carried on the work, and a new airship was conaged, in 1892 he
airship
structed under her supervision.
Count Zeppelin was
present,
that he purchased the patents

that the
successful dirigible
name
At
the
trial,
a certain
and was so impressed

from Frau Schwarz, so
which finally resulted
But Jewish collaboration did not

was chief construction engineer in the Zeppelin works, and in 1924 piloted the
bears his
alone.
end, for Karl Arnstein
first
Zeppelin across the Atlantic to America.^
Other important inventions in connection with flying which

Jews are those of Emile Berliner who devoted his later
years to devices for stabilizing aeroplanes; and of Theodor von
Karman, author of the theory of the "vortex strut," who occupies
^
are due to
a premier position
Weiller
flying,
by
212)
(p.
among mathematicians
in aviation. Lazare
Jean
has contributed to various appliances used in
and Hunefeld was one of the
first
to cross the Atlantic
made also of the

by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe by
aeroplane, west to east. Mention should be
services rendered to aviation

his writings
which he
(especially
instituted,
Le
and
petrole et ses applications)
his
the prizes
foundation of the Aerotechnical In-
Cyr.
nothing but the name to support the belief that Otto
stitute of St.
There
is
Lilienthal,
chine,
was
who advanced
a Jew.
the idea of a heavier-than-air flying
ma-
2IO
Let us
now
modern
technical progress
advance
in the harnessing
with
its
with which
consider another aspect,
many
is
intimately
and
varied outlets
bound
up, the
utilization of electricity,
power,
lighting,
com-
munications, telegraph, the radio, and so on. Joseph
Popper (Lynkaeus),
flight, is said to
theory of
a pioneer also in the
have been the
first
person to suggest
the possibilities of transmitting electrical power, in a
paper submitted to the Imperial

at
Vienna
enjoy a
in 1862.
less
Other names
Academy
of Sciences
in this field,
however,
vulnerable distinction.
Foremost among the physicists of the nineteenth

century was Heinrich Hertz, a half Jew, who, bringing optics and electro-dynamics under one doctrinal
discipline, made an important advance towards the unification of modern physics. His Principles of Mechanics is still considered after many years the fundamental
work in this branch of study. The great discovery
with which his name is associated is the transmission
of electro-magnetic waves through space, the basis of
the wireless system suggested first by Clerk Maxwell
and subsequently applied to commercial purposes by
Marconi, and of the radio which has assumed such importance in every household during the past two
decades. Hertz died, before reaching the age of forty,
in 1894,
when
he
is
believed to have been on the point
of anticipating Rontgen in the invention of the X-ray

^ It is
a little absurd to try to evaluate the paternal
contribution to genius. But
it
is
not without
its
.^
and maternal
significance that
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
may
In this connection mention
211
be made of Leo
Graetz, son of the famous historian of the Jews, the

first
person to investigate the dispersal of electrical
waves, whose
name
the whole range of
is
thus intimately associated with
modern
science.
So much for the theoretical

there
man
is
fully as
much
side.
to be said. It
who was
birth, Philip Reis,
On the mechanical
was
Jew
of Ger-
responsible for the
everyday necessity of modern life, the

son of very poor parents and almost
self-educated, he began to be interested in the pos-
genesis of that
telephone.
sibilities
The
of controlling sound-devices before he was
twenty years of age. At first he copied the structure

of the ear, making an electrified ear-drum, which was
improved upon until it could be shown at a meeting
of the Frankfort Physical Society and again, in 1 864,
before a conference of physicists in Giessen. Alas for
the theory that
Jews have unlimited money for
all
purposes! Reis had neither the means nor the health

to develop his invention, his "telephone,"
cially;
and
it
was
left to
Graham
commer-
Bell to elaborate the
device in conjunction with Edison, and to place

the market. Nevertheless, the standard
works of
it
on
refer-
name as the first inventor of the

monument to his memory was erected
ence record Reis'

telephone, and a
by
physicists in 1878.
The microphone, on
was the invenGerman-Jewish scientist who
the other hand,
tion of Emile Berliner, a
Hertz' cousin on the side of his Jewish father was the Nobel
Prizeman, Gustav Hertz; this seems to indicate that, in this instance,
the Hebraic factor
was
decisive.
212
lived in America,
whose work
is
hence associated with
the telephonic and gramophonic devices

eral use. Indeed, the claim has
now
in
gen-
been made with a con-
siderable degree of justification that he
was the
true
inventor of the gramophone, though the commercial
triumph of Edison has obscured his claim to recognition. What has been said above does not of course
belittle in the slightest
latter,
is
worthy of note
name
degree the discoveries of the
the greatest inventor, perhaps, of
is
that the
two
particularly associated
Jews, but for
whom
all
But it
which his
time.
devices with
owed
their perfection
a great deal to
would
certainly
have been retarded, and might have been impossible.

Similarly,
Lord Kelvin's system for multiple

1858, was based upon
raphy, elaborated in
covery of that astonishingly

genius,
Hayim
telega
dis-
versatile Russian-Jewish
Selig Slonimski,
who two
years pre-
vious had produced an electro-chemical device for
sending four telegrams at once. Later on, the copper
which made possible long-distance telephoning

were first used in Europe by Lazare Jean Weiller. And
it was Robert von Lieben who invented the radio
amplifier which made possible the development of
modetn radio, as well as of the sound film, an achievement which earned for him, until they discovered his
alloys
Jewish origin, the enthusiastic plaudits of the antiSemitic press in
Germany.
7
Minor mechanical
origin which are in
devices and processes of Jewish

daily use are numerous.
The sew-
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
ing-machine, which
made
by
immense reducwas developed to a high
possible the
tion in the price of clothing,
degree of efficiency
213
Isaac Singer.
invention of the spider- wheel
made
Nahum
the
Salamon's
modern
safety-
bicycle possible.
Ernst Fleischel devised the capillary thermometer,
and the Luxemburger, Gabriel Lippmann, was discoverer of the capillary electrometer and of color photography, the latter gaining for him the Nobel Prize.
The
Samson Valobra, invented the safety-match;

Abraham Stern made the first calculating machine;
Italian,
L. B. Phillips, an able etcher of the last generation,
invented the keyless watch, which
is
now
used almost
universally.
Aaron Hirsch introduced

lurgical processes;
nent
German
Moritz
various improved metal-
Hermann
architect of his day,
galvanoplasty, with
all
its
Jacobi, a promi-
was the inventor of
manifold subsidiaries, in-
cluding electrotyping; Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda, the
most eminent nautical engineer of early Victorian

times, was a pioneer in the use of iron for the construction of steamships. Joseph B. Strauss of Cincinnati,
was
one of America's greatest bridge-builders, his outstanding achievement being the great Golden Gate
Bridge at San Francisco, the longest span bridge in
the world.
The
great humanitarian, Lewis Gompertz,
devised the expanding chuck,
still
widely used in
in-
from which a more practically-minded person

might have made a fortune. This was only one of his
dustry,
thirty-eight inventions, designed, for the
make
the lives of
dumb
animals
more
most
bearable.
part, to
14

8
Jewish interest in natural history and alHed branches

of science goes back to a remote period. When in the
tenth century a
copy of Dioscorides' work on botany

it was the Jewish physician, Hasdai
reached Cordova,
ibn Shaprut,
who
translated
aid of a Byzantine
of the great
Greek
monk.
It
scientist
into Arabic with the
it
was thus that the work

became available to the
Spanish schools and ultimately to medieval Europe.
This was typical of the part Jews played in spreading

medieval science.
Mention is made elsewhere (pp. 230-31) in another

connection of the vastly important medical work of
Marrano physician, Garcia d'Orta, founder of tropmedicine. But his famous Colloquies, first published
Goa in 1563, marked an epoch, too, in the history of
the
ical
at
botany; for
of a large
it
contains the earliest scientific description
number of
treats a flora different
plants and
from
is
the
first
work
that
that of the classical writers,
Dioscorides, Theophrastus, and so on. D'Orta's botanical
work was
further developed
by another Mar-
traveller, Christoval Acosta, whose

Drugs and Medicines of hidia (Burgos,
much more than a bibliographical curios-
rano scholar and

Treatise on the
1578),
is still
ity (see p. 232).
One
of the earliest Jewish natural scientists
who
at-
modern times was

Marcus Eliezer Bloch (172 3-1 799) who, unable to
read German until he was nineteen years of age, nevertheless had such a desire for knowledge that within
tained a
European reputation
in
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
eight years he
was
215
able to take his medical degree at
the University of Frankfort-on-Oder. His passion,
however, was the study of
His collection of
specimens, acquired by the Prussian government, was
until recently to
fish.
be seen in the Zoological
Museum
in
began to publish his superbly illustrated Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische in

twelve volumes, which was completed in fifteen years.
This work, considered to have laid the foundations of
the science of ichthyology, for many years remained
the standard work on the subject and even today may
Berlin. In 1781, he
be consulted with
profit.
While Bloch was at work in Germany, the wayward Emanuel Aiendes da Costa was active in England, where he was considered the greatest living
authority on fossils and conchology. The twelve
volumes of
savants,
his
correspondence with contemporary
is preserved in the British Museum, is a

monument of eighteenth-century encycloscholarship. The name of Moses Harris, the
which
remarkable
paedic
great English entomologist of the same period,
seem to indicate
Nathaniel
to
botanist,
first
would
Jewish origin. There is no doubt as

the eminent Anglo-Indian
Wallich,
whose
best
work was accomplished
half of the following century
of the marine biologist,
and
who was
in the
father
George Charles Wallich, one
of the founders of deep-sea exploration.
This tradition was carried on by such eminent Gerbotanists as Ferdinand Cohn, whose researches
man
led to his
epoch-making discoveries in the
bacteriology; Julius
von
field
of
Sachs, associated especially
2l6
with the development of plant physiology and microchemical processes; Nathaniel Pringsheim and Eduard
Strassburger
all
figures of the utmost importance in
the history of the study of organic
second Lord Rothschild ranked
life.
In England, the
among
the foremost
natural historians of our day, his writings and his collections enjoying a
world-wide reputation.
9
In the study of the stars, the Jews in modern Europe

were indubitably among the pioneers. The beginnings
do not redound altogether perhaps to their credit according to modern standards. In the Middle Ages they
believed for the most part, in common with their
neighbors, that the actions of man were influenced by
the planets and could be predicted by their study.
This fact marks a regrettable recession from earlier
beliefs, when, as Josephus and Tacitus agree, the Jews
were distinguished by their refusal to pay attention
to celestial indications. There were, of course, exceptions, and no more authoritative voice was raised
during the whole course of the Middle Ages against
the pseudo-science than that of Maimonides, in an as-
tonishingly rationalistic communication sent to the

rabbis of Marseilles. But even his views did not
mand
universal acceptance, and before his
com-
day and
Jews were regarded as pre-eminent in this field.

This was the case especially in Spain, where both Moslem and Christian courts frequently had a Jewish asafter
trologer in their employ.
Yet astrology, however far-fetched
its
conclusions,
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
217
was dependent upon a careful and accurate observation of the motion of the heavenly bodies. Hence, just
as alchemy and the search for the philosopher's stone
did a good deal to advance chemistry, so, but to an
even greater degree, astrology was the basis of the
modern science of astronomy. Above all, the instruments upon which astronomical study is based are a
heritage from the medieval observers. The Alfonsine
Tables drawn up by two Toledo Jewish savants
{supra, p. 82) form the basic document of all scientific astronomy. The astronomical works of Abraham ibn Ezra were popular in various European languages, and were much used centuries after the author's death.
Mention has been made above of the improved

astronomical instruments which are due to Levi ben
Gershom of Bagnols and of the tables drawn up by

Abraham Zacuto of Salamanca, which were of incalculable importance for the maritime discoveries at
the close of the Middle Ages. These instances

multiplied.^
astronomers
The names of no less

who flourished, mainly
rivalled
be
than 252 Jewish

Europe, before
in
the year 1500 have been enumerated
number,
may
remarkable
by very few European peoples during
that period.^
Interest did not
may
end with the Middle Ages.
It is
be added that the earliest literary reference to a sunII Kings 20: 9-1 1, in connection with the illness of
King Hezekiah of Judah.
^ One interesting figure was the convert Pierre de Notre-Dame,
physician to King Rene of Anjou, and grandfather of the famous
Nostradamus.
Ît
clock occurs in

2l8
known
was on friendly terms with the

Immanuel Boccaro Frances, and that
that Galileo
Marrano
poet,
Tycho Brahe knew the Hebrew

David Ganz of Prague, who prepared for
German translation of the Alfonsine tables
both Kepler and

chronicler,
the latter a
from the Hebrew.

It is
probable, too, that Sir William Herschel, the
was of Jewish birth, for the

came over to England from Germany as a musician in a Hanoverian
band. Benjamin Gompertz, who has been mentioned
greatest of astronomers,
name
is
typically Jewish, and he
above, began the construction of tables for the

places of fixed stars, but
was anticipated by
mean
Bessel.
Moderns include Hermann Goldschmidt, who between 1852 and 1 86 discovered fourteen hitherto unknown asteroids between Mars and Jupiter; Wilhelm
1
Beer, brother of the composer Meyerbeer; Maurice
Loewy, one of
the greatest observational astronomers
who devised the two-part

common use; Sir Arthur Schuster,
the famous physicist, who headed the eclipse expedition to Siam in 1875; Max Wolf of Heidelberg, who
of the nineteenth century,
telescope
now
in
introduced the method of photography into astron-
omy; Karl Schwartzchild, most eminent of all, who

was responsible for the equations for the atmosphere
of the sun and the stability of the rotary masses;
Rudolf Wolf, the great historian of the science; and

own day Schlesinger, Weiner, Bethe, Freundlich, and very many others. One of the newly-disin our
covered
planets,
even,
is
named after a Jew

name of Moritz Op-
"Mauritius," which embodies the
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
penheim, devoted
German
moreover,
astronomy,
branches of study, the

server,
known
219
patron of the sciences/ In
more almost than
work
in
other
of the cloistered ob-
to only a limited circle of inquirers,
is
any advance of knowledge. It is by these

modest workers as well as by the giants that the cultural contribution must be judged.^
essential to
That Von Seeliger was a Jew is widely stated, but not certain.
Arnold Zweig, in his Insulted and Exiled, calls attention to one
remarkable dynasty of German-Jewish scientists and scholars, that
of Pringsheim. The founder achieved fame as a railway pioneer in
the middle of the last century. One son was Nathaniel (already
mentioned above, p. 216), an originator of the modern science of
vegetable physiology (it was he who first discovered sexuality
among the lowest forms of plant-life) and founder of the German Botanical Society. One of his brothers, Alfred, was Professor
of Mathematics at A'lunich. In the next generation came Ernest
^
Pringsheim, the eminent physicist; Klaus Pringsheim, the musician,
now
in
Tokyo; and
bore children
literary
and
who
artistic
a daughter who married Thomas Mann and

have already achieved a reputation in the
world.
CHAPTER IX. Medicine
The
earliest
and what
is
perhaps
still
the noblest
panegyric of the healing art appears in the apocryphal
Book
of Ecclesiastes, compiled
by
a Jerusalem notable,
Joshua ben Sirach in the second century B.C.: "Honor

a physician with the honor due unto him for the uses
which ye may have of him: for the Lord hath created

him. For of the Most High cometh healing, and he
shall receive honor of the king. The skill of the
physician shall lift up his head, in the sight of great
men
he
shall
be in admiration.
Then
give place
Lord hath created him; let

him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. There
is a time when in their hands is good success."
These glowing words make it probable that even at
this early date a flourishing school of medicine was to
be found among the Jews. There is no trace of this in
the Bible; but that work contains some remarkable illustrations of medical intuition. In the words of the
to the physician, for the
great medical historian, Karl SudhofF:

greatest
hygienic
"Two
thoughts of mankind
origin to 'Semitism'
the
220
owe
weekly day of
of the
their
rest
and
MEDICINE
the direct prophylaxis of disease.
mediately evident to
all,
22
The
first
even though
will be im-
has not yet
it
been clearly recognized and proclaimed

manifestation of prime importance.
as a
hygienic
Had
Judaism given nothing more to mankind than the establish-
ment of
weekly day of
rest,
we
should
still
be forced
to proclaim her one of the greatest benefactors of
...
humanity.
It is a
most interesting fact
that, de-
theory of natural causation, Greek medicine
spite its
was blind
to the fact of contagion or direct transmis-
But in the Old Testament we have a

methodic inspection of a leper by the priest who,
according to the diagnosis, isolated the patient temporarily or permanently, and admitted him again to free
intercourse only after indubitable convalescence or
sion of disease.
cure.
." ^
It is not surprising, under the circumstances, that

throughout the ages the Jew has shown a remarkable
predilection for the healing art, and that in
all epochs
been recognized. In the Middle Ages half
of the best-known Jewish scholars, philosophers, and
litterateurs
men like Moses Maimonides, Jehuda haLevi, Immanuel of Rome, and so on
were physicians
his skill has
by profession, a striking
which that calling was
bibliographer,
much
of his
illustration of the respect in
generally held.
Moritz Steinschneider,
life
The
who
great
devoted
to a study of Jewish contributions to
medieval science, was able to enumerate no less than

^ The idea of direct prophylaxis was first applied in Europe only
in the fifteenth century, when, subsequent to the ravages of the
Black Death, the public officials of Marseilles and Venice first organized a system of sanitary control for incoming vessels.
22 2
2,
68 Jewish physicians,
Dark Ages and
who
flourished betwêen the
the eighteenth century and
who were
of sufficient eminence to be recorded; yet his
list
manifestly incomplete, and for some periods could
is
easily
be doubled.
The
record, deeply impressive for
the Middle Ages, becomes in
modern
times of almost
overwhelming importance.
The Talmud
preserves
some scattered notions of
Jewish therapeutics. The earliest extant

specifically medical document of Jewish authorship
ancient
however, the well-known compilation of "Asaf
is,
Judaeus" who, according to the most recent researches,
Mesopotamia in or about the

seventh century. His famous medical treatise, the
earliest experiment in this genre of literature which
has survived in Hebrew, sums up the scientific outlook
which prevailed at the period. In one important point
flourished in Syria or
he
strikes
writer
out for himself, for he
is
itary character of certain maladies.

is
the
first
medical
who seems to have had any inkling of the hered-
Asaf 's
treatise
Noteworthy,
on the medicine of the poor, com,pris-
ing remedies which required no outlay, for "he

his pupils take
too,
made
an oath that they would accept no fee
for this work, but
would attend
the poor and
needy
free of charge for the sake of charity."
After Asaf, the
earliest of the great
Jewish physicians
was Isaac Israeli of Kairouan,

European scholars as Isaac Judaeus. He
was described by a Moslem contemporary as a man of
in the classical tradition
known
to the
MEDICINE
223
who, though much occupied

about Court, was indifferent to wealth and personal
advancement. During the Middle Ages he was one of
the best-known of his profession, and his views on
fevers in particular had the utmost influence. Like
many another Jewish physician he was also a philosopher, and as such, too, exercised great influence. To
the highest character
Israeli
tific
belongs the credit of having introduced scien-
medicine into Northern Africa, and
later exercised
his writings
no small influence on medieval Western
medicine. His great composition, translated into Latin
by Constantine
the African under the
De
title
Gradi-
bus Si?npliciuni, was one of the few early standard

works on pharmacology, a main source and basis of
most of the subsequent medieval treatises on the same
subject,
and therefore of singular importance in the
history of medicine.
One
of the great thinkers
was Avicenna, "the
influence
who
who came under
Israeli's
Aristotle of the East,"
possessed powers of codification hardly surpassed
even by
his
Greek prototype. His writings impressed
medieval thought in every department, but his Canon

especially
was the most widely read of
all
medical
compositions of the Middle Ages, and was used
as a
textbook in European universities until the middle of

the seventeenth century, Avicenna
of Jewish origin,^ There
is,
is
said to
have been
indeed, nothing improb-
able in this, for near Bokhara, where he was born, the

Jews had been settled from time immemorial. But,
whether it is so or no, it is a fact that a large propor^
See A. Soubiran, Avicenne, Prince des Medicijis, Paris, 1935.
2 24
Europe through
the medium of the Jewish scholars and translators who
worked in Spain, Italy, and Provence, and whose activity (as has been indicated above) was so important
tion of Avicenna's writings reached
an influence in the
The
earlier stages of the Renaissance.
on which they worked was partly

Avicenna's own (thus his treatise On the Soul was
translated by the Jew, John of Seville, in collaboration
with the Archdeacon Dominicus Gundissalinus),
partly that of the series of scholars who carried on and
material
developed
his tradition.
Foremost among these and among the physicians of

Moslem Spain was Avenzoar (d, 1162), friend of the
great Averroes. He, though a Moslem, was, so at least
it is said, of Jewish descent, and may thus be included
among the great Jewish physicians of history. His
most important work was his Taysir, or Aid to Health,
one of the most widely-read medical works of the
entire epoch. At an early date it was translated into
Hebrew, the language of the author's forbears. From
Hebrew it was translated into Latin in 1280 by a
Paduan physician, working in collaboration with a
converted Jew, Jacob of Capua, thus reaching the

European world. It was at Padua, too, that the Jew
Bonacosa translated into Latin the Colliget, or General

Rules of Health, of Averroes, which was long used as
a medical textbook and frequently published even
after the invention of printing.
most popular of all medieval books of

which goes by the name of Mesne, itself
part on Jewish sources, was translated into
Similarly, the
remedies,
based in
MEDICINE
Hebrew, and thence
225
into Latin.
This version was
printed no less than thirty times between the invention of printing and
traced in
1581, and
its
influence
is
still
modern pharmacopoeia. So is that of the

with the name of Serapion Junior,
drug-list associated
a joint production, based on

sources, of the Christian,
the Jew,
Hebrew and Arabic
Simon Cordo of Genoa, and
Abraham ben Shemtob
of Tortosa.
A foremost figure in this band of translator-scientists

was the enigmatic character of the eleventh century
known as Constantine the African (above, pp. 61,

223), who was the ultimate source of much European
medicine. The works which he translated and thus
introduced to Europe were largely of Jewish origin.
His main sources, in fact, are the works of Isaac Israeli

and the latter's pupil, also a Jew, Ahmed ibn al Djezzar. That he was materially assisted in his work by
Jews is certain. Indeed, there is some ground for believing that he was himself of Jewish birth.
The most important name of the Middle Ages in
Jewish life was that of Moses Maimonides. His overwhelming importance as philosopher and codifier obscures the fact that he was by profession a physician,
and that his achievements in the field of medicine were
such as to have secured him in any case a high place in
the annals of science. The volume of his written work
in this field was considerable; much of it was translated
into other languages, and continued to be published
and re-published long after the invention of printing.
Of his Treatise on Poisons and Antidotes, a work
which was cited in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
226
turies
by
Gui de
"The book is
writers like Henri de Mondeville and
Chauliac, a
modem
authority
states:
written in so scientific and independent a
such practical advice, that one often

that
it is
modern work."
Maimonides' Aphoris?ns,
reading
More popular
Latin
the
with
spirit,
feels in
still
translation
it
was
of
which appeared in no less than five editions for the use

of European physicians between 1489 and 1579 and
was praised by the great Mercurialis as being not inferior to the similar
work
of Hippocrates.
As
late as
the close of the eighteenth century, six centuries, that

after its original composition,
is,
was
it
still
being
quoted.
Maimonides' medical writings are in some respects

astonishingly
his
modern
common sense,
disease
on
in tone.
Modem
writers stress
and
treatment of
his rationalism,
scientific principles, rather
his
than upon guess-
work, mysticism, and superstition. Even the exception

which he makes to this rule shows him to have been
far ahead of his time; he sanctioned faith treatment in
cases of dangerous illness
on psychological grounds,
for the sake of the patienfs peace of
Jiiiiid!
lieved in the strong curative
power of nature
and the importance of proper
diet.
He
be-
herself
In an ultra-modern
fashion he stressed the superiority of prevention over

cure, suggesting that the physician should be consulted
regularly in order to keep the patient in

condition, instead of waiting
sists
^
till
good physical
sickness came.
He
in-
on the reciprocity between the mental and bodily
Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Johns
Baltimore),
iii
(1935)
Hopkins University,
571.
..ifc
MEDICINE
227
emphasizing the corollary that the physician
State,
should have regard for the former no
less
than for the
latter.
In other
up-to-date.
details, too,
He
Maimonides was surprisingly
advocated something in the nature of
eugenics, while insisting at the same time that for the

benefit of the offspring there
must be complete psy-
harmony between husband and wife during

sexual union. He commended exercise and sport,
though only in moderation. He insisted on the imchological
portance of bodily cleanliness and on the beneficial
and sunshine. The house, he adshould be properly ventilated, and plenty of
effects of fresh air

vised,
natural light should be allowed to enter
sun
is
it,
for "the
the best disinfectant."
In all this, as modern authorities agree, Maimonides

shows himself surprisingly in advance of his age. In
many respects he was the most modern medieval physician. The progress of medical science between the
thirteenth century and the seventeenth owed much to
his teaching; it would have been better had his theories
been drawn upon even more.
3
Though
the greatest names in medieval Jewish medibound up with Spain and the Moslem world,
was by no means without its influence elsewhere.
cine are
',
it
The
foundation of the famous medical schools of
Salerno and of Montpellier, through which the Arabic
medicine was
first
transmitted
traditionally associated with the
to Christendom,
work
of Jews.
is
The
2 28
report
is
it
of such antiquity, and of such insistence, that
cannot be neglected entirely, notwithstanding the
it is in comharmony with what we know of contemporary

conditions. From the Dark Ages onwards Jewish physicians had figured prominently all over Europe in the
absence of documentary evidence. For
plete
service of kings
and princes. One of the
earliest Italian
physicians whose record has survived was the Jew,
Sabbetai Donnolo, born at Oria in 913. His extant
works
justify us in considering
important figures in the
him one of the most

Latin Europe
scientific life of
in his age. Incidentally, he provides the earliest
medi-
eval description of a magnifying- and burning-glass.

Such was the reputation of the medieval Jewish
practitioners that in the thirteenth century the
of Flanders sent to England to
summon
Count
the scholar
and physician. Master Elias of London, to cross the

narrow seas to attend upon him. Later on, after the
Jews had been expelled from England, Jewish physicians were sometimes summoned from abroad when
the occasion demanded. Thus, in 1410 the ailing
Henry IV
sent to Italy for a Jewish expert. Dr. Elias
ben Sabbetai) of Bologna. In the previous

year Richard Whittington, of nursery-tale fame, sent
to France to fetch the Jew, Master Samson de Mirabeau, to come to England to the sick-bed of his wife,
the Lady Alice. In other parts of Europe similar conditions prevailed. It was seldom that one or another of
Sabot
(i.e.,
the Spanish courts did not have a Jewish physician in

its
employ. The kings of France, no less than the Holy

emperors and the Doges of Venice, often con-
Roman
MEDICINE
suited Jewish medical advisers,
Pope
in
Rome
there
was
229
and
at the curia of the
a long succession of Jewish
practitioners considered in their
day among the most
eminent in Europe. One of these, at the close of the fifteenth century, conducted the first recorded experi-
ment
in blood transfusion.
With the Counter Reformation, a determined effort

was made to drive the Jewish physicians out of practice. The medieval regulations, which forbade them to
attend Christian patients under the pretext that they
might obtain too strong a hold over their minds, were

renewed, and for the first time consistently put into
effect. Henceforth in Catholic Europe it was only at
times of emergency that the Jewish physician found
unhampered. This happened in 1630, during the plague of Venice, when Dr. Valensin extended
his activities from the Ghetto itself to the neighboring
districts, which had been deserted by the Gentile practitioners, or during the War of Candia in the middle of
the century, when Elkanah Circoletto attended the
Venetian wounded without accepting any fee. Yet in
the Catholic world as a whole, the old tradition of the
Jewish physician, which had been the rule in the
Middle Ages throughout Europe, was now at an end.
For some generations, accordingly, we must look
his activity
for the manifestation of Jewish genius in this direction,
not among professing Jews, but in the first instance

among the Marranos or crypto-Jews of Spain and
Portugal. These had been compelled to embrace Christianity at the time of the persecutions of the fourteenth
and
fifteenth centuries, culminating in the Edict of
230
Expulsion from the larger country in 1492 and from

the smaller in 1497. They still continued to cherish
and the enforced
their ancestral faith in their hearts,
outward change of religion could not
affect their nat-
Hence, a remarkably large proportion of the eminent Spanish

and Portuguese practitioners from the sixteenth century onwards are known to have been of Jewish extraction, and in many cases gave concrete expression to
ural proclivities for the
healing
their religious allegiance, either
by
art.
flight to a
greater tolerance or at an auto da fe. It
is
land of
obvious,
all of them proved their Jewish symand that many remain unidentified. Were the
complete, it is doubtful whether many eminent
however, that not

pathies,
list
Portuguese or Spanish physicians of the period would

not be included.
The Pope of Rome and the Queen

Doge of Venice and the Stadtholder
lands, the
of England, the
of the Nether-
Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, and Den-
mark, the Czar of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey,
all
had at one time or another Jewish medical attendants

of Marrano birth, who had attained the very highest
standing in their profession. It
even to enumerate them
all
would take too long

few who have
here, but a
left a lasting trace in the history of
medicine will be
mentioned.
"Among
who have estabcountry a claim to permanent remembrance in connection with the history of India and the
Farther East, the name of Garcia d'Orta stands in first
the Portuguese worthies
lished for their
rank," wrote Sir Clements
Markham. His
services to
MEDICINE
231
medicine and to science were immense. D'Orta was, in
most important figure in materia medica and

pharmacognosy from Dioscorides in the first century
of the Christian Era to his own time. He was one of
fact, the
the
first
great philosophic naturahsts to be classed with
men as John Hunter and Alexander von Humboldt, who observed men in their relation to nature.
such
His writings, particularly
his Colloqios
dos simples e
drogas medicinaes (1563), the first scientific work

published in Portuguese and the greatest scientific
monument
of the Portuguese Renaissance, give the
by a European of tropical diseases,

and the accounts which he furnishes of medicinal
plants are still unsurpassed. Asiatic cholera was an undescribed, if not unknown, disease to European medicine before his time; the account given of it by him
brought it to the attention of the Western World in
so complete and circumstantial a form to make it a
earliest description
classic of clinical description.
Historians of medicine, both in Portugal and out-
had written rhapsodically about the medical importance of Garcia d'Orta, without having any idea as
side,
to his origin.
A brilliant piece of research by a Portu-
guese scholar, Augusto da Silva Carvalho, has, however, recently established the fact that this great figure
was a Jew in everything but

name. His forbears had been victims of the forced conin the history of medicine
version in Portugal in 1497; some of his closest relatives

were persecuted by the Inquisition as secret judaizers;
one of
his sisters
was burned
alive,
and only
his timely
death saved the great physician himself from arrest and
232
trial on the same charge. His bones were, in fact, dug

up and burned.
D'Orta's work was the basis of that of Cristoval
Acosta, known as "The African," a distinguished
Portuguese surgeon, physician, botanist, and traveller

of Marrano extraction,
who
spent some years in India
practicing medicine and subsequently undertook
many
long journeys in tropical countries for the purpose of

studying natural history. His famous Tractado delos
drogas,
first
published at Burgos in 1578, based partly

his illustrious predecessor, is
on material supplied by
still
regarded as an authoritative
work on
materia
medica and drugs.
Amatus Lusitanus is another of the great names in

European medicine of the sixteenth century. His books
are referred to even today for the immense number of
case-histories which they contain. He was born at
Castel-Branco in Portugal in 1 5 11 as Juan Rodrigo.
The name Amatus, which he subsequently assumed,
was a translation of Habib, the original Hebrew name
of the family. He was graduated at Salamanca, emigrated to Italy, where he was in attendance on the
Pope, and lectured at Ferrara, and ultimately sought
refuge from the rigors of the Inquisition in Salonica,
where he died in 1568. Among his pupils was Giovanni
Battista Canano, who during one of his lectures received the
first
impetus for
his
discovery of the impor-
tance of the valves in connection with the circulation

of the blood. His published works were numerous,
but most important were the famous Centuriae, which,

issued
from 1551 onwards, had passed through
dozen
MEDICINE
editions, in five countries,
by
233
the beginning of the fol-
lowing century. Even today, the collection is regarded

as a medical classic and one of the most valuable
sources of medical practice of the sixteenth century/
Rodrigo de Castro, a native of Lisbon, sought refreedom in Northern Europe, settling ultimately
ligious
Hamburg. Here he
in
distinguished himself
sacrificing devotion in the plague of 1594
by
his self-
and for
his
outstanding services to the city in subsequent years.
He
achieved contemporary recognition, being sum-
moned
to attend the
King of Denmark, the Arch-
bishop of Bremen, the Count of Holstein, and other

persons of eminence in the region. But he
membered
for his
De
universa vmliermn
is
best re-
morborum
medicina (1603), which is generally regarded as having laid the foundations of gynecology as we know it
one of the fathers of medical

jurisprudence, having written one of the first books
today. Castro
on
is
also
this subject.
In England the names of
two Marrano physicians

among the many. Jacob
of special eminence stand out
de Castro
group
(i
who
704-1 789) was one of the enlightened

endeavored to introduce vaccination
against small-pox into England, advocating
it
succession of pamphlets, in English and Latin,

172
onwards
half
a century, that
is,
in a
from
before Jenner's
Amatus Lusitanus was not related to Zacutus Lusitanus of

Amsterdam, another important Jewish figure in medical history
of the period, who was a descendant of the astronomer Abraham
Zacuto. It has, however, been conjectured that he was related to
^
Elijah Montalto, yet another very prolific Jewish medical writer,
physician to Catherine de' Medici,
Queen
of France.
34
commenced. He is frequently confused with

more ostentatious namesake, Jacob de Castro
Sarmento (i 691-1762), author of a large number of
medical works, who is memorable for having popuactivity
his
larized the use of quinine in Portugal to stem the
ravages of malaria in that country. Ribeiro Sanchez,
another Marrano physician,
England
who
lived for a while in
in the eighteenth century, introduced the
Russian vapor-bath into Western Europe, but he
remembered even more
On
prison reform.
is
pioneer of educational and
as a
the other hand, the Dutchman,
Hermanns Boerhaave,
leader of the world of medicine
was
in the eighteenth century,
so
much under
the
influence of Spinoza that the latter, though no physician, has
been spoken of
as "father of
Boerhaave's
medicine."
With
the eighteenth century the regulations against
Jewish physicians fell into fairly general desuetude.

Jews were allowed to study at one or two universities
and medical schools, and

serted
their natural ability reas-
itself.
Perhaps
it is
not altogether a coincidence that the
from this period, for

no exaggeration to say that the world is indebted
to Jewish workers for a considerable proportion of
modern medicine. It may be added that a remarkably
rebirth of medical studies dates
it is
large
number of
the eminent Jewish physicians of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries were Germans, just

as a particularly large
number of
the eminent
German
MEDICINE
physicians were Jews.
235
German Jewry
has, in fact,
provided the world with a disproportionately large

its relief from suffering. To say that Jews
dominated German medicine is irrelevant. Jews did
their share, and more, in the activities which were
carried on in Germany, and assisted in bringing them
quota of
to their high level.
To
resent this participation, or to
submit the proportions involved to microscopic examination,

It
is
may be
present
absurd.
remarked, incidentally, that to judge from
indications,
members
Jewish
the
younger medical school
in the
of
the
United States seem
likely to perpetuate in the future this tradition of out-
standing service to stricken humanity.

It is
not intended to give here a detailed analysis of
the Jewish contribution to

it is
modern medicine
indeed,
impossible to disentangle the various strands in a
complicated science
but simply to indicate some of
the most remarkable contributions for
which Jews
have been immediately responsible.
Modern
therapeutics are to a large extent depend-
ent on the comparatively
new
science of bacteriology.
In Classical times and throughout the Middle Ages the

doctrine of spontaneous generation was held; that
is,
the idea that under certain circumstances living organ-
isms and
life
could come into existence from inanimate
nature without any outside agency. This conception
was destroyed by Ferdinand Cohn (supra, pp. 2 1 5-16),

a botanist, whose researches had far-reaching implications on medical science. His studies of the development of bacteria and investigations into their life his-
236
tory disposed once and for

previously prevailed.
He
of the theory
all
is
which had
thus the father of bacteri-
ology, and without his preliminary investigations, the

great discoveries of his pupil, Robert Koch,
found the organism of
who
Pasteur,
finally
would have been
tion,
who
and even those of

disproved spontaneous generatuberculosis,
impossible.
searches into hydrophobia,
may
it
The
latter's
re-
be added, were
and almost forestalled in England by the
paralleled
distinguished pathologist, Julius Dreschfeld.
The
on by
koff,
great Frenchman's
a
part-Jew
who was
life
work,
too,
was carried
a Russian, this time, Elie
Metschni-
his real successor in France, a zoologist
and embryologist of world reputation, a leader in the

gallant campaign against infectious diseases, and author
of the theory of phagocytosis. Of nearly equal importance was the deeply-religious
Waldemar
Haffkine,
who, after working under Pasteur in Paris, discovered

the method of inoculation against cholera. In 1893, at
the invitation of the Indian government, he went to
India in order to conduct a campaign against bubonic
At
life, Haffkine continued his

and at last discovered a method of inoculation which reduced the mortality rate by over eighty
per cent. In recognition of his work, the bacteriological laboratory at Bombay has been renamed the Haffkine Institute. When one realizes the terrible ravages
of the bubonic plague, not only in Asia but also in
Europe, ever since the dawn of history it will be real-
plague.
the risk of his
investigations
ized
was
how
Haffkine's researches benefited the world. It
this specific
malady which
led to the
Great Plague
MEDICINE
237
of London in 1665. Later, the serum against typhus

was invented at the Pasteur Institute by another Jew,
Alex Besredka.
One of the best known names in modem medicine
of course that of Paul Ehrlich, father of chemico-
is
therapy and the greatest biochemical philosopher of

all
time. His
most notable discoveries
same time to the fact that
his genius consisted in
infinite capacity for taking pains.
also a
tissue
testify at the
an
With Karl Weigert,
Jew, he introduced the idea that every cell and

of the human body had a specific chemical com-
position,
which
reacts differently to coloring matter
and may hence be analyzed by the use of dye-stuffs.

This theory, worked out in painstaking detail, is the
basis of the modern science of haematology and is
fundamental to modern therapeutics.
Better known to the general world is Ehrlich's
salvarsan, generally referred to as 606 because it was
the 6o6th substance that he tried as a cure for syphilis.
This preparation, which has saved the
lives
and ca-
many men and women, but even of

unborn, won its author the Nobel Prize
reers not only of
children yet
in 1908
and
entitles
him
to be ranked
among
the great
benefactors of mankind. "As a therapeutic achieve-
ment," declared Emil von Behring, "the production

of salvarsan and neo-salvarsan has never been surpassed." In
England
alone,
it is
said, the lives
of 5,000
babies are saved each year through Ehrlich's researches,
and through
his discoveries there
that the disease will

It
is
become
remarkable that in
is
a reasonable
hope
extinct in that country.

this
particular sphere
238
majority perhaps of the other discoveries of foremost
importance have been made by Jews. EhrHch was himself greatly helped by Alfred Bertheim, who had previously
worked on the arsenical preparation, atoxyl.

name was that of August von Was-
further great
who in 1906 discovered the famous Wassermann Test for syphilis, which was used until it was
superseded by a new method elaborated in 1927 by
an American Jew, Reuben L. Kahn in each case, of
course, based on the work of earlier observers. Kahn,
sermann,
was the first person to demonstrate the immunizing

powers of the skin. Albert Neisser, an outstanding bacteriologist and clinician, discovered the organism of
too,
gonorrhea. Indeed, the only
name
of
first
rank
history of this branch of medical research
not Jewish
is
in the
which
that of Schaudinn, the Austrian
is
who
discovered the organism of syphilis.
Hardly
less
important than Ehrlich, though not so
well known, was Jacob Henle, the greatest
microscopic anatomist of
his
est anatomists of all time.
German
day and one of the great-
With an
early thesis of his
modern knowledge of epithelial tissues. His

General Anatomy of 1841 almost revolutionized medical science. It was Henle who first accurately described
begins
the cellular structure of the skin and of the tissues
and other parts of the body. He

anatomy of the kidney,
and his researches on the ligaments, the muscles, the
viscera, and the vascular nervous system were without
number and were of epoch-making importance.
The most eminent of the great Virchow's disciples,
lining the intestines

first
investigated the minute
MEDICINE
239
without a doubt, was Julius Cohnheim, Professor of

Pathology at Kiel, who in the course of his short life
(he was only 45 years old at the time of his death) did
work
of immeasurable importance in the field of pa-
thology. In opposition to his master's views, he established the fact that the essential feature in inflammation
of any part of the

cells
body
is
the passage of white blood-
through the walls of the
vessels, the
migration
of these corpuscles being the origin of pus. This dis-
covery initiated a revolution in pathology. Cohnheim

was, moreover, one of the founders of experimental
pathology in the modern sense by his transmission of
tuberculosis to the cornea of the eye.
As
a teacher,
Cohnheim's position was of the utmost importance. Among his pupils were Ehrlich, as well as the
great American physicians, Welch and Councilman.
too,
new
In the comparatively
science of endocrinology,
the study of internal glands, one of the greatest names

of
all is
that of Moritz Schijff, a
German Jew who
taught in Switzerland and in Italy. His investigations
covered the whole

as of the glands.
anticipator" of
field
He
of the nervous system as well
has been described as the "great
many
subsequent discoveries.
Above
famous for his researches into the function of

the thyroid gland, and the gland treatment which has
recently become so conspicuous is to be traced back
to his researches. Similarly, the brilliant if unconventional anatomist, Benedikt Stilling was the first person
in Germany and one of the first in the world to conduct operations on the ovary. More recently, superb
work in the same field has been conducted by Bernard
all,
he
is
240
Zondek, one of a most able group of brothers, and codiscoverer of the remarkable Zondek- Ascheim test for
pregnancy.
The researches of Robert Frank in the field of sex

hormones have opened up new avenues which may be
of incalculable benefit to mankind. Again, both the
founders and most prominent workers in the
field
of
otology, the study of the diseases of the ear, were the
Austrian Jews, Politzer and Barany, of

latter
war
was awarded
Nobel
whom
the
Prize while a prisoner of
in Russia in 19 14.
Several Jews, in addition to those mentioned above,
have received the Nobel Prize for their researches in

medicine and allied sciences. One of the best known
Otto Warburg, who was given the award for his

great work on the metabolism of cancer, which has
afforded fresh hope for many sufferers. Another great
worker in this field, director of the Institute for Cancer
Research at Berlin, was George Klemperer. Yet another Jewish Nobel Prizeman is Otto Meyerhoff, who
devoted his life to the study of the dynamics of living
phenomena and to the chemistry of the muscles.
Otto Loewi, who was awarded the prize in 1936,
attained international reputation through his researches on the chemical nature of the transmission
of nervous currents and on the structure of the heart;
his work is now regarded as fundamental, and is being
actively developed in many countries. Oskar Minkowski, the eminent endocrinologist, laid the foundation
for the treatment of diabetes by his famous experiment
of removing the pancreas and producing the disease
is
MEDICINE
artificially,
241
thus making possible the discovery of the
universally-employed curative agent, insulin.
Some
other names
may
be mentioned
Ehrlich's collaborator, Karl Weigert,
at random.
was responsible
for a famous explanation of inflammation as an over-
eager attempt of nature to replace damaged

is
the basis of
all
protein therapy,
now
so
tissue.
This
widely em-
ployed. Cellular formation in live tissues was discov-
by Saloman Strieker, who introduced the use

of wax and gum cells for microscopic work. Gottlieb
Gluge made special studies on the subject of inflamered
mation, introduced the current treatment for rheu-
matic fever, and conducted important investigations
on
influenza.
discovered
by
The micrococci
the
lung
of pneumonia were
specialist,
Albert Frankel.
Jacques Loeb, head of the department of experimental biology in the Rockefeller Institute, New York,
endeavoring to interpret physiology in terms of phys-
and chemistry, conducted experiments in artificial

which seem likely to have far-reaching
consequences on our understanding of the generation
of life; while his brother, Leo Loeb, has made fundamental studies in endocrinology and cancer. Harry
Goldblatt of Cleveland, has made a fundamental contribution to the nature of high blood pressure, while
ics
fertilization,
Max
B.
Lurie of Philadelphia, has done searching
and acquired
resistance to tuberculosis. Valy Menken of Harvard,
has made profound studies on the physical and chemi-
investigations in the character of natural
cal nature of inflammation.
Dittel invented the operation for calculus;
Hoi-
242
was the pioneer of modern scientific dentistry;

Georges Fernand Widal discovered the absolute diagnostic blood test for typhoid fever, known by his
name, which is now regarded as indispensable and is
universally used. Theodor Rosenheim was the founder
lander
of esophagoscopy. James
eases of the kidney,
Israel,
a specialist in dis-
was one of the
greatest
German
physicians and surgeons of his day. Gustav Magnus,

just a
century ago, was responsible for the epoch-
making discovery that all tissues "breathe," that is to

say, they absorb oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.
Ludwig Traube, to whom a monument was erected
in the court of the Charite, conducted what was in
its day one of the most celebrated clinics in Europe.
With Henle, he was the founder of experimental pathology, and his studies on digitalis, fever, and diseases
of the lungs, heart, and kidneys brought him a great
reputation.
Simon Flexner,
feller Institute for
the
germ
at present
Director of the Rocke-
Medical Research, has discovered
of dysentery and developed a serum to cure
meningitis.
The
studies
on the compatibility of types
by the Nobel Prizewinner, Karl

Landsteiner, have made scientific transfusion practicable. His researches on the chemical nature of antiof blood conducted
gens and anti-bodies have vindicated the once-dis-
carded "side chain" theory of Ehrlich, and afford the

greatest promise for the ultimate control of infectious
and possibly also of cancer.

Schenk was founder of modern medical embryology. Alexander Marmorek, the Zionist leader, was a
diseases
MEDICINE
gallant fighter in the
Ludwig Kaspar
is
243
struggle against tuberculosis.
father of criminal medicine, a nota-
ble advance in humanitarianism as well as therapeutics;
Hugo Kronecker
laid the
foundations of the scientific
study of the physiology of the heart; Sir Felix Semon
was the most eminent throat
a reputation
later held
specialist of his
period
by Heinrich Neumann
of
Vienna, one of the band of highly talented Jews who

made that city, previous to 1938, the capital of the
world's medical science.
Modern medicine depends
to a considerable extent
on operative treatment, possible only through the vast

improvement in the system of anaesthetics. In the development of this, too, Jews have been prominent. The
introduction of chloral and the scientific manufacture
of hypnotic drugs, one of the most notable achievements of German medical chemistry, is due to Oscar
Liebreich. Local anaesthetics were inaugurated by
Carl
KoUer (subsequently of New York), an ophwho first made use of cocaine for
thalmic surgeon,
this purpose. Similarly, the
cold light apparatus for
was invented by Isaac Michael.

must here end, but it might well be continued
internal operations
The list
much
to
greater length.
5
The Jewish
practitioner of the Middle Ages seems to

have been especially interested in ophthalmology, a
branch of medicine in which the writings of Isaac
Judaeus once enjoyed a great reputation. The most

renowned ophthalmologist of the period, in fact, was
244
the Jew, Benvenutus Grapheus, or Rapheus/ of Jeru-
whose Practica oculorum was widely used at

it was translated into Hebrew, Provengal,
Old French, and Middle English, and numerous Latin
salem,
the time;
editions appeared.
In the later Middle Ages, the Jewish oculist enjoyed

great renown; one, for example, operated for cataract
on King Juan of Aragon

interest has continued.
in 1468. In
One
modern times the
of the earliest writers on
astigmatism was George Hartog Gerson of
who had
Hamburg,
served under Wellington in the Peninsula
Campaign and superintended
the Hopital des Visitan-
dines during the Battle of Waterloo.
The
first
Atlas
was published by Liebreich; Javal

attained fame through his studies in physioptics; Ludwig Mauthner of Vienna and
of Ophthalmology
of Paris
ological
Julius Hirschberg are recognized
on the
The
among
the greatest
Herman Cohn, of Breslau, father of the more famous Emil

Ludwig, the essayist and historian, laid the foundation
authorities
subject.
investigations of
of school hygiene for the eyes. Carl Koller, of
York,
New
we
have seen, discovered the use of local

anesthesia for ophthalmic operations.
as
Other names
those of Joseph
in the history of
Aub
ophthalmology are
of Cincinnati,
who
first
used the
magnet for removing foreign bodies from the

eye; Julius Jacobson, who improved the surgical treatment of cataracts and originated the operation for
trachoma; and John Zachariah Laurence, perhaps the
electric
greatest English ophthalmologist of the first half of

^
Rophe
= Physician
(Hebrew)
This
is
however problematical.
MEDICINE
the last century. It
is
245
of interest that the
two
greatest
on the history of the science of ophthalmology were August Hirsch and Julius Hirschberg,
both Jews.
authorities
The
particularly deep Jewish love of children
is
perhaps responsible for the Jew's bent towards pediatrics, the factual answer to the infamous ritual murder
charge. This branch of medicine was, indeed, in large
measure the creation of German Jews. One of the

founders of the science was Eduard Henoch; Abraham
Jacobi, a fiery
German
who was
patriot,
forced to
take refuge in exile after 1848, introduced the science
where he founded the first children's

and was at the time of his death one of the most
honored figures in American medicine. Until recently
the outstanding German pediatrician was Heinrich
into America,
clinic
Finkelstein,
who
discovered
new
principles in infant
feeding. Adolf Baginsky, co-founder with
Virchow
of one of the greatest Berlin hospitals, the Kaiser-und-
Kaiserin-Friedrich-Krankenhaus, was a pioneer in the
and a voluminous writer on the subject. Alois Epstein, founder

of the world-renowned Foundling Hospital at Prague,
clinical
and
scientific
study of child
initiated various antiseptic
by means
life
measures in infant hygiene
which the mortality in foundling asylums

was reduced from 30% to 5% in the course of fourof
teen years.
The
itself
current medical insistence on vitamins
homage
Funk,
bom
is
in
to the genius of the Polish Jew, Casimir
at
Warsaw
at the Lister Institute in
in 1884,
London
who, while working

in 191
2,
named
cer-
246
tain substances
which he had succeeded
in isolating
"vitamins" because he thought that they belonged to
group of chemical substances which he called amines

and which were vital for life. A good deal of modern
a
is based upon this discovery. Again,

was a German-Jewish physician, Kurt Huldschin-
medical treatment
it
sky,
who
rickets,
in 19 19 first used artificial sunlight to cure
then very prevalent in Berlin.
In neurology and allied branches of the medical
been particularly important.

Moritz Heinrich Romberg is regarded as the founder
of the science in the modern sense. Robert Remak,
profession,
Jews have
also
who
discovered the cells which initiate the heart-beat #

and thus has an important place in the history of
embryology, described a type of nerve-fibre which
has been named after him and evolved the electrical
treatment of nervous diseases. It was Moritz Schiff
who
first
attributed cretinism or
its
converse to the
action or inaction of the thyroid gland. Cesare
Lom-
broso, an Italian, described the nervous relationships
of pellagra, a skin-afFectation then widely prevalent

in Italy,
which often ended
had no immediate
result
in insanity.^
His discovery
except that he was com-
pelled to resign his chair, but his opinion has since
been universally accepted. In addition, he wrote The

Man of Genius^ one of the famous books of the century, and opened up fresh vistas by his theories on
criminology. His ideas by their positive approach
^
Joseph Goldberger made the most fundamental contribution to
the understanding of pellagra prior to the recent isolation of the

active vitamins, lack of
which
is
responsible for this disease.
MEDICINE
247
played a decisive role in the transformation of pe-
nology and criminal law.

But towering above all others
commanding
figure of Sigmund Freud, "The Columbus of the Subconscious World," founder of psychoanalysis. There
is
the
have been excesses in the development of this science,

due more to Freud's disciples than to himself. Yet there
can be no question but that
it
has proved of inestimable
value to countless sufferers, not only those from osten-
however, is only one

aspect of its importance. No theory of modem times
since that of Darwin has affected human thought so
sibly nervous complaints. This,
deeply, and every branch of intellectual
philosophy and
literature, art
life
today,
and music, even daily
profoundly influenced by the theories advanced by the Viennese Jewish psychiatrist.

To quote an English authority: "Sigmund Freud's
name is as cardinal in the history of human thought as
Charles Darwin's. Psychoanalysts, under his leadership, have created a new and dynamic psychology,
one that thinks in terms of activities and strivings, of
impulses and conflicts, in the place of a flat and lifeless
^
picture of mental states."
It must be added that very many of the outstanding
exponents of Freudian psychology and psychiatry
from the beginning have been Jews Alfred Adler,
Karl Abraham, Hans Sachs, Joseph Breuer, and so on.
speech,
is
Wells, Wells and Huxley, Outline of Science.

psychologist
accepts all his teachings writes of Freud: "He
who by no means
has done
more for
the
advancement of psychology than any
student since Aristotle." (McDougall, Outline of

chology, 1926, p. viii.)
Abnormal Psy-
248
Antiquarians, on the other hand, trace the whole con-
ception back to a remote Jewish pioneer, Hibatullah
ibn Jami, physician to the great Saladin.
The
essence of the foregoing pages has been
summed
in an amusing statement by Dr. Lukatchewsky, a

non-Jewish medical man, depicting the quandary of
a conscientious anti-Semite who refuses to avail him-
up
self of
any remedy invented by Jews:
"A Nazi who
has venereal disease must not allow him-
be cured by salvarsan, because
self to
it
is
the dis-
covery of the Jew, Ehrlich. He must not even take

steps to find out whether he has this ugly disease, be-
Wassermann
cause the
purpose
is
reaction
heart disease must not use
of
If
which
the discovery of a Jew.

digitalis,
is
used for the
Nazi
who
has
the medical use
which was discovered by the Jew, Ludwig Traube.^

he has toothache he will not use cocaine, or he will
be benefiting by the
Typhoid must not be

by the discoveries of
work
of a Jew, Carl Koller.
treated, or he will
the Jews,
have to benefit
Widal and Weil.
has diabetes he must not use insulin, because
vention was
made
possible
the Jew, Minkowski.
If
by
the research
If
its
work
he
in-
of
he has a headache he must
shun pyramidion and antipyrin (Spiro and Filehne).

^
[This
cine
by
century.
rected.]
is
not quite correct. Digitalis was introduced into medi-
the Englishman, William Withering, in the eighteenth
few other
details in
the statement have been cor-
MEDICINE
Anti-Semites
them, for
it
who
was
have convulsions must put up with

Jew, Oscar Liebreich, who thought
The same with
of chloral-hydrate.
Freud
is
by
burg;
psychic ailments:
the father of psychoanalysis. Anti-Semitic
doctors must jettison
all
Nobel Prizemen
the
249
discoveries and
Politzer,
improvements
War-
Barany, and
Bruno Bloch,
Oppenheim, Kro-
dermatologists Jadassohn,
the
Unna; the
neurologists Mendel,
necker, Benedikt; the lung specialist Fraenkel; the
surgeon
Israel; the
anatomist Henle; and others."
It has been suggested that the proportion of Jews

engaged in the practice of medicine is too high. In
1895, it was reckoned in Italy that eminent Jewish
physicians amounted to 64 per 100,000 of the population, whereas non-Jews amounted to only 34. In
Germany
in 1932, of a total of about 52,000 physi-
were Jews; in Berlin, the proportion was

higher. For some incomprehensible reason, this is regarded as a "problem." But every person is at liberty
cians, 8,000
to choose his
own
own
lawyer, and
Jews
is
if
physician, as he
particularly large,
than their
is
to choose his
in these callings the

it
ability, devotion,
number
can prove nothing other

and the manner in which
these qualities are recognized
by
The
Jew has
their clients.
foregoing pages have demonstrated that the
shown
of
a continuous devotion to the art of healing
for the past thousand years or more, and that
some of
the most notable contributions to medical science have
been due to him. If skill and understanding can be

enhanced by generations of devotion, study, and prac-
250
the Jew of today must be better qualified than

most men to engage in the practice of medicine. To
exclude or discourage him on the grounds of a numeri-
tice,
cal calculation
vidual;
it
may
is
certainly a crime against the indi-
be one against humanity.
CHAPTER X.
About the year
The Economic Sphere
847, the Postmaster of the CaHphate of
Bagdad, ibn Khordadhbeh, compiled a way-book for

the guidance of travellers and couriers.
section
is
devoted to "the routes of the Jewish Merchants called

Radanites."
Well known though
it is, it
deserves to
be quoted here once again, for no source conveys

more strikingly the part played by Jews in commerce
at that period,
was
when
other international intercourse
relatively slight:
"These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Roman

[i.e., Greek], the languages of the Franks, Andalusians
and Slavs. They journey from West to East, from East
to West, partly on land, partly by sea. They transport
from the west eunuchs, female and male slaves, silk,
castor, marten and other furs, and swords. They take
ship in the land of the Franks, on the Western Sea, and
steer for Farama (Pelusium). There they load their
goods on the backs of camels and go by land to Kol-
zum
(Suez) in five days' journey, over a distance of
Ît is believed that this term is derived from Rhodanus (the

Rhone), the estuary of which river was the base of these merchants, or else from the town of Rhaga in Persia.
251
252
They embark
from Kolzum to
in the East Sea
twenty-five parasangs.
(Red Sea), and sail

el-Jar (port of
Medina) and Jeddah (port of Mecca) then they go to
Sind, India, and China. On their return they carry
back musk, aloes, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the Eastern countries to Kolzum, and bring
them to Farama, where they again embark on the
Western Sea. Some make sail for Constantinople to
sell their goods to the Romans; others go to the palace
of the King of the Franks to place their goods.
"Sometimes these Jew merchants prefer to carry
their goods from the land of the Franks in the Western Sea, making for Antioch (at the mouth of the
Orontes); thence they go by land to al-Jabia, where
they arrive after three days' march. There they embark on the Euphrates for Bagdad, and then sail down
;
the Tigris to al-Obolla.
Oman,
From
al-Obolla they
Sind, Hind, and China. All this
is
sail
for
connected
one with another.

"These different journeys can also be made by land.
The merchants that start from Spain or France go to
Sous al-Akza (Morocco), and then to Tangiers,
whence they march to Kairouan and the capital of

Egypt. Thence they go to al-Ramla, visit Damascus,
al-Kufa, Bagdad, and Basrah, cross Ahwaz, Ears, Kirman, Sind, Hind, and arrive at China. Sometimes they
likewise take the route behind Rome, and, passing
through the country of the Slavs, arrive at Khamlif,
the capital of the Khazars. They embark on the Jorjan
from there
journey toward
Sea, arrive at Balkh, betake themselves
across the Oxus, and
continue their
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
253
Yurt and Toghozghor, and from there to China."

This classical passage is one of many which indicate
the importance of the Jews in the mercantile
Dark Ages. The Roman Empire and

had crumbled
The
to pieces, so far as the
its
life
of the
magnificence
West was con-
which it had introduced

were forgotten by the Nordic and semi-Nordic states
which had sprung up on its ruins. On the other hand,
a new civilization, that of Islam, had come into existence in the Middle East, opening a new gateway to
the ideas and the commodities of China and India. The
new inhabitants of Western Europe had little knowledge of, or interest in, what lay beyond their own
borders; and it was natural for the Jews to step into
cerned.
amenities of
life
Thus they
by which the harsh-
the breach in the role of intermediaries.
contributed largely to the process

ness of the
Dark Ages was
finements of
life,
later to
mollified,
and various
be considered
re-
necessities,
were introduced to the countries of the bleak north.

According to one authority^: "Europe owes to
the Jewish Radanites the introduction of oranges and
apricots, sugar and rice. Jargonelle pears, and Gueldre
roses, senna and borax, bdellium and asaf oetida, sandalwood and aloes, cinnamon and galingale, mace and
camphor, candy and julep, cubebs and tamarinds,
slippers and tambours, mattresses, sofa, and calabash,
musk and jujube, jasmine and lilac. There is also evidence that some of the more important items of foreign trade came in with the Radanites, as was perhaps natural. Thus the word 'douane,' for custom
"^
Jacobs, op.
cit.,
pp. 203-4.
54
house,
'tariff,' 'bazaar,' 'bale,'
'baggage,'
and
all
occur
There
'sloop.'
'fondac,' or factory,
and
early, as well as 'barge,' 'barque,'

is
also probability that the royal
known
breed of horses in France
as limousin, intro-
duced in the ninth century, was due to these Jewish

merchants.
."
Yet more can be added to
this
list.
The Jews
are a
people "endowed by divine grace with special aptitude

for handicrafts," wrote
Cosmas Indicopleustes
in the
sixth century, and, so long as Christian intolerance
permitted,
it
was
as artisans rather
than capitalists that
they were distinguished. Various branches of manu-
were associated with them almost exclusively.

In the early centuries of the Christian Era and long
after, the Jews were recognized as the most skilled
workers in glass; indeed, in the Dark Ages, Greek
artisans in France boasted that they had mastered the
Jewish methods of work. Throughout the Middle
Ages, particularly in South Italy and Greece, the Jewish communities had almost a monopoly in dyeing and
silkweaving, and it is probable that much of their production was exported to Northern Europe. There was
one yellow, of which they alone had the secret, and
which was known by their name. A remarkable contrast, this, to the other shade of the same color called
facture
Isabella to
Jews,
commemorate
who vowed
that arch-persecutor of the
never to change
had been captured from the
The
it
until
all, had a
Benjamin
the Eastern Mediterranean at
tradition of silk manufacture, above
continuous history
among
of Tudela travelled in
Granada
infidel!
the Jews.
When
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
255
the close of the twelfth century, he found this to be
the rtiainstay of the Jewish communities everywhere.
In Sicily and Southern Italy, they enjoyed all but a

monopoly, until Christian competitors from Genoa
and Lucca secured their expulsion from the coastal
towns. But the struggle was not yet over. In the sixteenth century, a Venetian Jew named Meir Magino
wrote a book on his improved method of silk-manufacture, which he attempted to introduce into both
Italy and Lorraine. It was about the same time that
the silk industry was first established in the Low
Countries
ferred
it
by Antwerp Marranos.
Later, they trans-
with them to Holland; but even in
this
gener-
once their trade secrets had been

learned, they were officially excluded from the industry by the jealous burghers, whose subsequent
ally tolerant milieu,
may not
decline
be altogether a coincidence. Precisely
where the Jews, after

having introduced the industry and practiced it undisthe same took place at Padua,
turbed for generations, were driven out at the close of

the eighteenth century.
silk
manufacture was
simultaneously
by
As though
first
to compensate, the
established in Berlin almost
Jew, David Hirsch.
these cases, the function of the
Jews was not
merely that of entrepreneurs; they were
also the tech-
In
all
nicians and, so far as
was permitted, the
laborers. It
has been worth while recounting this case in some

detail as
an
illustration of the
manner
in
which the
broadening of the basis of Jewish economic work was

consistently impeded.
The
story may, however, be duplicated with regard
256
many
to
textile
other branches of industry, especially the
industry, with
particular
were long
which the Jews of Spain
They
associated.
in
possessed above
the secret of certain methods of embroidery, such
all
famous Point (TEspagne, which was much used

ecclesiastical purposes. It has been
pointed out that even the pomp and glitter of the
autos da fe was in part the product of Jewish skill!
As goldsmiths and silversmiths, too, Jews were famous,
as the
for
Christian
especially in the Mediterranean countries, throughout
the Middle
Ages and
after. It
is
noteworthy that
it is
precisely with these callings that they have remained

associated
down
to our
own
day; there
is
thus
no
question of a sudden, and competitive, incursion.
At
a later stage, there
were four commodites, the
in-
troduction or popularization of which in Europe had
on social life, and indeed on

economic organization. They were sugar, tobacco,
coffee, and tea. In the distribution of all these the Jews
were deeply interested.
It is believed that sugar was introduced to the European of the Dark Ages through the medium of the
a considerable influence
Radanite Jewish traders. The commodity continued

to be an object of special interest for the Jews. Towards the close of the Middle Ages, it was exported
by
those of Crete as far as Austria, and treacle, the
principal by-product of sugar, was,
it
appears, first
made by them.
The
industry entered
upon
new
phase after the
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
257
maritime discoveries of the fifteenth century,
when
sugar became one of the necessities of Hfe instead of

a luxury. In this process, the part played
was of great importance. In
by
the Jews
1548,* Portuguese
Mar-
ranos transplanted the sugar-cane from the island of
Madeira to South America, thus initiating what was

for a long period one of the staple industries of the
New
World. In 1654, when the vast majority of

Jews emigrated from Brazil rather than imperil the
religious liberty laboriously achieved under Dutch
rule,
they transferred their activity to the
establishing the
on
new
West Indies,
commercial prosperity of these islands
basis.
was Benjamin da Costa, one of the refugees, who

set up the industry in Martinique, while others brought
it to the Dutch
(at that time English) colony of
Surinam. They were very prominent in this branch of
It
activity also in Barbados, Jamaica,

lands. It
was
Marrano, too,
the nineteenth century,
who
who
West
sugar-cane mill into the

it
was
and the other
introduced the
is-
first
Long after, in
certain Aaron de Pass
Indies.
introduced the sugar-cane to Natal.
Upon
this
industry, to so great extent of purely Jewish origin,
the prosperity of the
West
livelihood of a large
Indies long rested, and the
number of
the inhabitants
still
depends.
With
regard to coffee, the most interesting sources
of information at our disposal relate to England.

first
The
recorded use dates from the Commonwealth
period, and the place
is
Oxford. "This year," writes
Anthony Wood, sub anno
1650, "Jacob, a Jew,
opened
258
a Coffee
House
in the Parish of St. Peter in the East,
Oxon; and there
it
was by some, who delighted
in
noveltie, drank." This Jacob may or may not have

been identical with another person mentioned by
Wood, "Cirques Jobson, a Jew and Jacobite, bom near
Mount Libanus, who sold coffee in Oxon, in a house
between Edmund Hall and Queen Co. corner." Subsequently, according to the same authority, Jacob
left Oxford and transferred his business to London,
"in old Southampton Buildings in Holborne." He was
stUl alive in 1671. The whole question calls for further
investigation; what, however, seems to be quite clear
is that coffee was first introduced to England by
Levantine Jews, who already had a considerable interest in the commodity in their own country. In Egypt,
indeed, coffee was already so much associated with
the Jews that it was generally termed "Jews' Drink."
Tea plantations were first introduced into Ceylon by
the Dr. Worms family, who thus assisted, not only in
making an important contribution to the welfare of
the island, but also in making the beverage a popular
one in the fullest sense of the term. Similarly, it was
by Jewish agency that chocolate was introduced to
France in the eighteenth century.
More important was

not long after the
ship's
first
the case of tobacco.
landing in the
new
When,
world, the
doctor on Columbus' expedition, Mestre Bemal,
who was
of Jewish birth, and had indeed figured as a
Judaizer in an auto da f e returned to the Admiral's vessel, his
companions were surprised to
smoke out of
his
mouth
see
him breathing
procedure which appar-
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
259
ently had something to do with an iniperceptiblyfuming tube which he held in his hand. This was the
first recorded use of tobacco by any European or by
any man whose name has been preserved to history.
From that time on Jews have been closely associated
with the tobacco industry; and they contributed
thereby, incidentally, to a considerable degree, in lay-
ing the foundation of American economic prosperity.
The
though they questioned the permissibility of smoking on Sabbaths and Holydays, took
rabbis,
neither the attitude of the Christian clergy,

sidered
I
it
of England,
use.
They
sobriety.
who
con-
"offering incense to the devil," nor of James
who
devoted a special
considered smoking,
Jews were engaged
tobacco monopolies in
at
Italy; it
treatise against its
rather,
an aid to
an early date in the
was
Jew who
first
introduced the use of snuif to Venice; and in Spain, in

the seventeenth century, persons engaged in the tobacco trade figure with significant frequency among
the Marranos punished by the Inquisition. In Holland,
tobacco was unknown until 1 6 1 1 In that very year,
a Jew named David Abendana sold a barrel of tobacco
to a merchant in Hoorn, and from that date, tobaccoimporting and tobacco-working played a very important part in the economic structure of the Amsterdam community. In the seventeenth century, a good
part of the tobacco consumed in Germany was imported through the Spanish and Portuguese commu.
nity of
Hamburg. The Jewish
industry, therefore,
is
interest in the
tobacco
not a recent development: Jews
have been interested in
it
from the
first.
l6o
American products
Margrant
export
grain
and
horses
ranos. Thus the first
to
to America was made by Ferdinand and Isabella to
Columbus' "New Christian" patron, Luis de Santangel,
Besides tobacco and sugar, other
owe
their introduction in the first instance to
whom
to
est
is
hence due the genesis of two of the great-
American
industries of today.
Vanilla, too,
is
owed
have
said to
its
introduction
into general use to Jews. This report finds confirma-
tion in the fact that
de
la
Roche died
when
in the
in 1684 a certain
Salamon
Dutch colony of Essequibo,
the secret of preparing the vanilla-bean for the market
died with him. Indigo was also a staple article of Jewish
was introduced by
North America. This links up with their
commerce, and
Jews
into
its
cultivation
participation in the dyeing industry in the Mediter-
ranean world in the Middle Ages in the one direction,
and
in the establishment of aniline
em
Europe
in
modern
dyeing in North-
As
times in the other.
early
under the Emperor Frederick II, African Jews were given Crown lands to
develop indigo plantations in Sicily. Five hundred
as the thirteenth century,
years later, a certain Dr. Nuiies
growth
London
to Georgia, while
first
introduced the
Moses Lindo, coming from
in 1756, invested a fortune in fostering
it
in
South Carolina. In the nineteenth century, synthetic

indigo was discovered (as
by
a half-Jew,
we
have seen on
Adolf von Baeyer. This
is
p.
159)
a striking
example of the continuity of Jewish interest in certain types of industry for

It
was perhaps
many
fitting that
generations.
Europe owed
to the
Jews
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

some of
l6l
cleanliness as well as godliness.
its
great
center for the manufacture of castile soap in the Middle
Ages was
it
Marseilles; here,
said,
is
by
sabonarius.
it
was introduced
the Jew, Crescas Davin,
But the story does not end
in 1371,
known
here.
as
Four
centuries later, in 1761, a similar incident took place
when
Assembly of Rhode
Newport to manufacture castUe soap according to the process which he
had learned in Spain. At the same time, Jacob Rod-
in America,
Island
the General
empowered James Lucena
of
rigues Rivera introduced to the colony the spermaceti
industry and candle-making. It was because of this

that
Newport became
the great whaling center in the
middle of the eighteenth century,

almost exceeded that of
The diamond
Jews played
its
importance
industry was another in which the
a conspicuous part
Here, the reason
when
New York.
is
in precious stones
plain. In the
was one of
throughout the ages.

Middle Ages, dealing
the
few
callings, other
than moneylending, in which Jews were allowed to

engage. Moreover, because of their insecurity,
it
was
desirable to have their property in easily transferable
form; their international connections and their pawn-
broking business gave an additional impulse.
From
became interworking them. In the seventeenth century

they were regarded as the best gem-polishers in Venice,
though the protectionist policy of the Serenissima subdealing in precious stones they naturally
ested in
sequently excluded them, to the great loss of the city,

as
was subsequently
realized. Possibly,
it
was by the
refugees from Venice that the craft was established in
262
Holland, where
working
in
introduction
its
Portuguese Jews.
The
latter
Amsterdam
is
associated with the
were engaged
as early as 161 2.
gem-
in
From
that
date on, this has been one of the mainstays of the Jewish
community of that city, still the greatest center of

where the proportion of Jewish workers em-
business,
ployed has never been

1
less
than 70 per cent.
When,
in
748, their Gentile competitors petitioned for legisla-
Jews from the industry, the government refused to take action on the grounds that
"the Jews have established the diamond trade in this
tion to exclude the
city."
was that Jews,

became expert seal-engravers. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they
worked in this capacity in many Central European
courts, and attained a high degree of skill and reputation. Similarly, we find them active under more humble
natural
outcome of
this interest
proficient in gem-cutting,
conditions in various English provincial centers.
Thus
engraving and art in general (see above, p. 150) were

introduced.
Meanwhile, they retained their prominence
in the
surveying of gems. Just as in the Middle Ages, as

early as the time of Charlemagne, Jewish jewellers
made
perilous voyages over land and sea to the East
back gems for the courts of Europe, so at a

they went to India with the same objective,
this being the earliest settlement there of European
Jews. Similarly, when Brazilian diamonds came on the
market in the seventeenth century, they were brought
to Europe largely by Marranos. It was not surprising
to bring
later date
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
263
Jews played such a large part in the development

of the diamond industry in South Africa at the close
of the nineteenth century; indeed, it was a new experience when they were subsequently ousted from
their previous almost dominant position by the immensely superior financial genius of Cecil Rhodes.
that
It
with the
is
achievement
Jewish economic
usually associated. This conception,
field of finance that
is
by Sombart
ponderous and, in many ways, impressive
volume on the Jews and Modern Capitalism. In this he
maintains with a wealth of learning that the Jews, by
the circumstances of their history and of their intelalready widely held, was popularized
in
his
lectual bent, are particularly qualified to participate

in
modern capitalism, and
evils.
are largely responsible for
Indeed, according to him,
features
which
distinguish
all
modern
its
the predominant
capitalism
from
medieval trade and industry are directly due to Jewish influence. "Thus, the economic form of the modern
state
and
was due
to the activities of the
Jews
financiers, in providing the state
as
purveyors
with capital for
war and development. They helped considerably in

the foundation of modern colonies, which has determined the policy and controlled the development of
modern
states,
and quickened international trade by
the large scale of their trade, the variety of their wares,
and the introduction of new commodities. As a consequence, we find the centers of trade changing from
one country or center to another according as Jews
264
were expelled or found
Sombart gives as examples the transference of trade from Spain to Holland, from Antwerp to Amsterdam, from Augsburg
to Frankfort and Hamburg. Above all, Jews have
transformed economic life in commercializing it by
creating credit instruments and introducing the custom of buying and selling securities, which supplied
mobile
capital
for
shelter;
industrial
thereby introduced their

into
modern
trade,
with
its
capitalistic
and general
remarkable catalogue of achievement; and
its
utilization,
'just')
payment by
installments, utilization of waste products,
This is
whatever
point of view
competitive (against
prices, its advertisements, adulterations,
efficiency."
They
undertakings.
original object
it is
and whatever
its
present
record which does not necessarily
apology. Sombart's theories, however, as has

been shown by Jacobs, Hofman, Steckelmacher,
Waetjen, and others, are based upon an arbitrary seleccall for
tion of facts. Isolated data are taken as representative;
strange names are assumed without justification to be
Jewish; theories are built
more
upon
a basis of assumptions.
careful inquiry results in a very different
picture.
The Jew was
forced
by
the unfortunate circum-
stances of his history to be predominantly a towns-
man. He had to seek an outlet, despairingly, in every

branch of urban economy. Yet even here he found
himself hampered at every turn by repressive legislation, whether in buying, selling, or manufacturing.
^ For this analysis I am indebted to Jacobs, op. cit.,
pp. 247-8.
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
265
Hence he made an intermittent appearance in every

branch of industry, but invariably before long he was
ejected. The situation was much the same in finance,
which he was supposed to dominate. It was only for
brief periods, perhaps
once or twice in history,
as will
At
was
other times, he filled only minor functions. However,
his quasi-exclusive association with finance conveyed
be seen, that
really considerable.
his influence
the general impression that he monopolized

the fact that in the Jewish quarter there
were
ably one or two wealthy householders gave
popular delusion which identified

Actually, as
is
all
it,
while
invari-
rise to the
Jews with wealth.
pointed out elsewhere, one-third of the
Jews of the Ghetto Age were dependent on charity,

and as many more lived on the verge of the minimum
subsistence-level.
One
simple fact shows
in finance really was.
how
slight
Jewish influence
For the consistent
important role in economic
life,
exercise of an
a certain stability of
which carried the Fuggers or the

from
generation to generation, is esMedici through
sential. But the Jew generally lacked this. There were
in the Middle Ages some Jews of great wealth. But
seldom did this wealth pass from father to son. Generally, it was strictly personal, and the confiscatory
measures which followed the death of a wealthy Jew,
whose fortune legally passed to the Crown, prevented
his son from enjoying it. Hence, though in the Middle
Ages we know of several wealthy Jews, it is difficult
to trace any wealthy dynasties of the type which
exist today; the children of an Aaron of Lincoln and
fortune, like that
266
the like enjoyed at the best a modest competence.

Wealth, moreover, bred jealousy; and time after time
Jewish financial magnates, such as Samuel Abulafia

of Toledo, minister to Pedro IV, who built what is
now called the House
of El Greco, were hounded to a
shameful and penurious death.
Not
until the time of
the emancipated communities of enlightened Holland,

in the seventeenth century, did the Jewish capitalist in
the real sense

the Ghetto
come
still
into being. In the countries
where
Germany and
Jewish
prevailed,
wealth remained
Italy,
strictly personal until the close of the
eighteenth century.
There were two periods only when the Jewish

One was
at the height of the Middle Ages; the other at the
height of the Industrial Revolution. Both were periods
of change, and each, moreover, called for special qualities which the Jews, as it happened, could at that time
financier played a part of real importance.
provide.
The
first
of these
two
periods was between the
eleventh century and the thirteenth,
when
the Jews,
from commerce and industry through the

jealousy of the guilds, were seeking another outlet
for their capital. At the same time the Papacy with an
impracticable idealism was endeavoring to suppress
ejected
the institution of interest
among
Christians (supra, pp.
29-31). Hence, for a short period the Jews, by no

means the wealthiest persons in Europe (those whose
property was measured in terms of land were more
wealthy by far) were in certain parts the sole capital,
ists.
They
possessed their capital, in short, in mobile
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
267
it is mobile capital which is all-important

economic development. Europe's transition from a
barter-economy to a money-economy in the two and
a half centuries which succeeded the First Crusade was
certainly facilitated by their presence. The ready
money which they could provide made possible the
development of the system of "scutage," whereby
the baron acquitted himself of his obligations to the
Crown by a monetary payment instead of personal
service. Incidentally, the process meant that the hands
of the central government were strengthened against
the centrifugal powers of the nobility. Thus the dis-
form, and
in
solution of the feudal system
no
negligible factor in the
was
facilitated
development of
itself
civilization.
Moreover, for the two characteristic occupations of

the Middle Ages, fighting and building, Jewish aid
was
at this time indispensable.
The
Crusades, fatal as
they were to the Jews, would not have been possible

on the same vast scale had it not been for the capital
to provide. Even ecclesiastical foundahad recourse to them when any important undertaking was contemplated; thus Aaron of Lincoln, the
great Anglo-Jewish financier of the twelfth century,
is thought to have assisted in the construction of no
less than nine of the Cistercian monasteries of England
as well as of the great Abbey of St. Albans and even
Lincoln Minster.
This period of prominence, however, did not last
long. The recurrent massacres which accompanied the
Crusades and followed them, the competition of
Christian usurers operating under the highest patron-
which Jews had

tions
268
and finally the great expulsions at the close of the

Middle Ages, drove the Jews into the position of mere
pawnbrokers. From the thirteenth century to the
eighteenth, their importance in the world of finance
age,
was, generally speaking, negligible.
The second
period of the Jews' real significance in
the world of finance began in the eighteenth century,
and reached
its
climax in the nineteenth, after the
poleonic Wars.
It
was
a period of
growing
Na-
industriali-
zation, of rapidly increasing manufactures, of rising
economy gave place to a world

became necessary to perfect a method
for the balance of payments without the laborious and
exports. National
economy, and
it
superfluous process of transporting bullion. This need
gave
rise
to
the
great international
banks,
played so important a part in the economic
which
life
of
Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century.

It was not remarkable that the Jews, newly released
from the Ghetto and ebullient with a pent-up spirit of
enterprise, played a
prominent role
at this stage.
The
circumstances of their recent history had forced them

it was true, but not essentially
from large-scale operations. Their adaptability enabled them to devise fresh methods to cope with
fresh problems. Above all, their mobility and the international connections which resulted from it provided them with potential agents and agencies in every
commercial center. This was the secret of the promi-
to finance: petty finance
different
nence of the Rothschilds, the Worms, the Sterns, the

Bischoffsheims, and the other international banking
houses which played so prominent a part in European
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

finance a century ago.
The Jews
269
of Frankfort were
particularly to the fore, for Frankfort
was the
tradi-
tional financial center of the continent of
Europe, and
now
to enjoy the
for the
first
time
its
Jews were able
advantages of their position to the

hand, the treatment of the Jews in
this
full.
On
the other
Germany even
at
period was not such as to encourage them to re-
main, and the constant emigration which resulted
strengthened the international connections and out-
look of those
who
remained. But the fact must not be
overlooked that the success of these firms was
ulti-
mately dependent on their reputation for integrity.
As
back as the seventeenth century, an Elector

grandson of James I of England, was advised
to entrust his treasure to the keeping of a Frankfort
Jew, as it would be safe in his hands as in those of the
Almighty. The legendary account of the foundation
far
Palatine,
of the fortunes of the
House of Rothschild,
as a result
of a quixotic honesty in their dealings with the Elector

of Hesse, has in
should
it
it
at least
be forgotten in
an element of truth.
this
Nor
connection that none of
the Jewish financiers of the nineteenth century ever
earned anything approaching the obloquy which

tached (for example) to some great non- Jewish
at-
Amer-
ican capitalists of the period.
One
accustomed to hear these nineteenth-century

is very
important therefore to realize that in the strict sense of
the term (that is, "maintaining an establishment for
the custody of money, which is paid out on the cusis
captains of finance designated as "bankers," It
tomer's order"
Oxford English Dictionary) the part
270
played by Jews has been very slight, and in England

particularly almost negligible. On the other hand, there
was an old form of Financial House which used to be

styled "merchants." Their business was international,
and their principal occupation was to finance trade and
industry either on short terms, by bill-discounting, or
on long terms, by means of loans. It was with this type
of banking only, together with bullion-dealing and
transactions in foreign exchange, that Jews were at
one time (and in a modified degree
still
are) promi-
nently associated.
It is
true that the Jewish bankers, like their non-
Jewish colleagues and competitors, operated for their
own
advantage.^ Yet their services for the economic

development of Europe and of the world were incontestable. It was not that they provided the capital.
But they made it mobile. They perfected the delicate
machinery by which it was brought together and
rendered available for industry, and they transferred
it from country to country as and when it was needed.
If during the course of the nineteenth century communications improved to such an extent that what had
previously been a week's journey could be accomplished in a few hours, if what had previously been the
luxuries of the rich became familiar to every class, if
the outposts of Europe overseas were developed to
such an extent that they were able to absorb vast numbers of Europe's teeming millions, the new financial
'^
There
The
are exceptions even to this elementary generalization.
Beit Bridge-building bequest to South Africa, though
it
hap-
pens to have achieved an outstanding material success, was in-
tended
as a
pure benefaction.
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

machinery alone made
it
possible,
27
and the Jewish
financiers should share the credit, just as they are
made
to shoulder almost the entire blame.
Yet, contrary to popular belief, this period of quasi-
hegemony
lasted only for a
very short time. The
848 involved the decline of the House

Rothschild
of
in France, where its influence had pre-
Revolution of
viously been greatest; and simultaneously, the intro-
duction of public subscription for state loans cut off
what had formerly been
Above all,
in the
a steady source of income.
middle of the century, the great joint-
stock banks began to flourish. This was largely due, as

will be seen later, to the equalitarian initiative of the
brothers Pereire in France and to the support of
David Salomons in England. But
like Sir
men
their rise
inevitably implied the decline of the private banks, a
great part of
whose
The Jewish
private banks
meanwhile become
business they henceforth absorbed.
less
which had
in
many
cases
Jewish, both in personnel and
in sympathies, suffered especially for precisely the
same reasons which had previously brought about their

rise.
The
process of decline,
which had already begun
in the later Victorian Era, received
an additional im-
petus with the outbreak of the European
War in
19 14,
which violently disrupted the traditional structure of

international finance. The Jews had introduced the
new methods; but the machinery they constructed and
the technique they developed were by now absorbed
into the
common
stock.
This applies above
all
to
England where the number
272
of Jewish private bankers was always small and the
Joint-Stock bank, in which Jewish participation
is
has especially flourished. Elsewhere the impor-
slight,
tance of the private bank
nowhere
is
is,
of course, greater, but
the influence of the
Jew preponderant. In
by which
the United States after the recent legislation

financial houses
issuing or the
were compelled
banking
to choose
between the
Kuhn-
sides of their business,
Loeb & Co. chose the former.
It
may now
be said that
Jewish banks and banking, in the accepted sense of

the term, have practically ceased to exist in this country. In
Germany,
the influence of such
well-known
private firms as Bleichroder, Mendelssohn, and
burg,
all
War-
more than a hundred years

was even before the Nazi Revolution
of which boasted
of existence,
very small in comparison with that of the big joint

stock banks, where Jewish directors were few.
On the Stock Exchange, contrary again to the general
impression, matters
were much the same. At
Ghent, where so far as is known, the "Bourse" first

assumed prominence, and at Bruges, where the name
originated, there was never a Jewish settlement of
any
Antwerp, where what was to beEuropean "Exchange" was

only
a handful of Marranos
1,
153
significance. In
come
the prototype of the
constructed in
The same applied to London in 1566

period of Sir Thomas Gresham's epoch-making
lived.
at the
experi-
ment.
The
establishment of the
pany, in 1602, marks what
is
Dutch East India Comgenerally regarded as the
beginning of the modern joint-stoqk method of trad-
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE

ing. It has
273
been alleged that the part taken
in this
by
was overwhelmingly important. Actually,

contribution to the original capital was trivial
the Jews
their
4,800 florins out of a total of 6,500,000, or

one-tenth of one per cent
less
than
approximately proportion-
numbers in relation to the

general population. Moreover, Jews were rigorously
excluded from the administration of the company
until the Age of Emancipation. It was only long after
the original establishment, when the institution had
passed its climax and the Amsterdam Jews had lost
their pioneering spirit, that they began to invest their
funds in its stocks on a large scale for the sake of security. This step was almost fatal to the community as
a whole at the time of the great slump in the eighteenth
ate, that
century,
previous
is,
to their actual
when
level,
lishment of the
the shares
fell
to one-tenth of their
never to recover. Similarly, in the estab-
Dutch West India Company
the original Jewish contribution to
more than one-half per
its
in 162 1-3,
was no
capital
cent, rising to four per cent
half a century later.

It is
true that a
Dutch Jew of Portuguese
origin,
Joseph Penso de la Vega, wrote in 1688 the first handbook on the theory and practice of the bourse, which
is still
the best description, both in
form and substance,
of dealings in stocks and shares. Similarly, Isaac de

Pinto's remarkable Traite de la circulation et
of
77
1,
ning of the modern

prises
du
credit,
has been described as standing at the beginera, in
which
joint-stock enter-
have become the center of economic
But from these
isolated
illustrations
activity.
of theoretical
274
comprehension
it is
absurd to draw any far-reaching
conclusions regarding actual participation.
The Stock Exchange
in
London was organized only

number of
at the close of the eighteenth century; the
Jewish members being originally restricted to twelve.

There was a time, in the height of nineteenth-century
expansion,
when Jews were
perhaps prominent in
this
organization out of proportion to their numbers. This
was short-lived. Today, the Jews on

the London Stock Exchange number only some five
per cent, and include no house of first importance,
while of the thirty members of the Stock Exchange
Committee only one is a Jew. In New York, too, the
Jews, numbering some 2 5 per cent of the total populaperiod, however,
tion, are
represented
by only
per cent of the
mem-
on the Stock Exchange.
bers
4
This
is
not to suggest that the Jewish share in modern

development was negligible. In view of
capitalistic
the circumstances of their history,

that
it
was
inevitable
Jews should have played a part of some im-
portance in the evolution of the present financial system.
From
the simple moneylending, to
were driven in the Middle Ages

and
restrictive legislation,
sprang commercial money-
lending. This developed into
the purchase of bonds
by
which they
religious prejudice
from
anonymous
States
lending,
i.e.,
and issuing them
to the general public. Hence, arose stock-dealing and,

finally,
stock-broking and bill-broking.
And
in all
these various stages of development the part played
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
by
the Jews
was of
considerable,
275
though not
decisive,
importance.
It is
generally stated, for example, that the Letter of
Credit was a Jewish invention. Hardly a particle of
evidence can be found to confirm this assumption. Yet

is not unlikely. Though the Jews may not
have been familiar with the institution of "credit" in
the technical financial sense, they knew it as a social
the theory
reality. If a
talmudic scholar resident in London, at
the end of a scholastic communication to a rabbi of

Marseilles, requested
him
to oblige a client
on
his
way
to Palestine with an advance, he could rest assured that
would carry out his wishes, realizing that a

service would be performed for him in London
the other
similar
should the necessity arise. Thus, too, in medieval

England or Germany or France, a bond of indebtedness to a Jewish financier in one part of the country,
duly endorsed, was equivalent to a draft or a

credit in the hands of the person
network of Jewish
who
held
letter of
it.
The
and correspondents, spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean world, had therefore in it the germ of a highly
developed financial system. It is even suggested,
though on slender authority, that the Bill of Exchange
owes its origin to the exigencies of the Jewish refugees
expelled from Spain in 1492.
In view of all this, it was natural for Jews to share
in the genesis and development of banking, the cornerstone of modern economic organization. As early as
the tenth century their activity is associated with the
beginnings of the banking system in the Islamic world
friends, relatives,
276
The famous Venetian Bank, the Banco

6 9, owed a great deal to the finanacumen of Abraham del Banco. In the same year
Marrano community of Hamburg took a promi-
Bagdad.
at
Giro, founded in
cial
the
nent part in the foundation of the Bank of Hamburg,
members being included in the earliest roll

of shareholders. Towards the close of the century, a
Jew named Jacob Henriques, if the petition subsequently presented by his son is to be believed, played
some part in the establishment of the Bank of England.^ It is remarkable, though, that while the Jews
forty of
its
collaborated in the
establishment
tions both with advice
and with
of these institu-
capital,
they played
only the smallest share in their administration.
Banco Giro,
The
Venice never, of course, admitted a Jew to any responsible post, while there was
no Jewish director of the Bank of England until the
in Catholic
election of Alfred de Rothschild in 1868, the only
Jew
who has ever figured on the board.

The case was different with the private banks, which
flourished in the period following the Napoleonic
Wars. Their
influence,
we
have seen, dwindled with
the growth of the joint-stock banks in the middle of

the century,
By
which gave
rise to
present-day banking.
a coincidence the great impetus in establishing these
institutions,
which undermined the
position of the
Jewish private banks, came from the brothers Pereire,

grandsons of that Jacob Rodrigues Pereira who in^ To these earlier instances may be added the participation of
Bernhard Eskeles in the foundation of the Austrian National Bank
in 81 6, and the great work of Ludwig Bamberger for the establishment of the German Reichsbank in 1870.
1
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
277
vented the system of teaching deaf-mutes.
Among
Saint-Simon's earhest and most devoted disciples, they
management of credit should be controlled

whose benefit credit was intended, and
consequently the banking system should no longer
felt that the
by
those for
that
be concentrated in private hands. Following this

first the Credit Foncier and then
the Societe Generale du Credit Mobilier, the first
modern joint-stock banks. The former was the prototheory they founded
type of the Agricultural Mortgage Banks, which have

continued to do good
are
still
work
for one hundred years,
being imitated with beneficial results and play
an important part in the financial mechanism of modern
states.
As bankers they were drawn
into other interests, and a
good
inevitably
deal of the railroad
development of modern France was due to them. In

this, their principal competitor was the House of
Rothschild. This fact, combined with the disaster
which the establishment of the joint-stock institutions

brought upon many Jewish bankers, is yet another
outstanding instance of the complete absence, contrary to the anti-Semitic allegation, of unity of aim
among
the Jewish capitalists.
On more than one occasion, indeed, financiers who

happened to be Jews (to speak of "Jewish Financiers"
is to make an invidious and unjustifiable distinction)
have done a great deal to restore public confidence at
times of strain, and sometimes to uphold public credit
in a crisis.
The work
of the
House of Rothschild
in
connection has been continuous. In 1886, the

head of the English branch was raised to the peerage
this
278
in recognition
of his courageous assistance to the
Egyptian Exchequer at a critical moment under circumstances which eHcited cordial recognition in both
Houses of Parliament. "Egypt was in imminent danger
of bankruptcy," stated the Chancellor of the Exchequer. "In fact, it was saved only by monthly advances made by Messrs. Rothschild upon no legal se-
but simply on the security of a private note

from the late Foreign Secretary." The firm enhanced
curity,
its
by
reputation
in 1890,
when
its
conduct during the Baring
crisis
the difficulties of that great house pro-
duced a Black Friday in the City, and every effort

was needed to stave off a catastrophe. It was the Roths-
who
childs
rivals
from
took the lead in measures to save their

disaster. So, too, in 191 3,
Paul
M. Warburg
successfully carried through the reorganization of the
American banking system

ing, together
at
which he had been work-
with Senator Aldrich, since
9 11
thus
thoroughly consolidating the currency and finances

of the United States.
5
It is
too often overlooked that the vision and courage
of the financial magnate, not necessarily altruistic in

intention, but essential to the
system
as
we know
achievements which
it,
working of the economic
are frequently responsible for
may
be of enormous benefit to
win him sympathy, while

Only one inwas Sir Ernest Cassel, who
the public. Failure does not

success
may
arouse envy and obloquy.
stance will be cited here:
it
financed one of the most gigantic and most beneficial
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
279
mechanical enterprises of modern times, the construction of the Assuan

its
Dam. While
sponsors great profits,
it
it
may
has saved
all
have secured
Egypt from
the specter of famine.
The
which Jews played
in the great maritime

been
described.
discoveries has already
More than
this, to be sure, was needed to open the ocean highways of the world to travellers and commerce the
part
enterprise of those
who made
international shipping
the wonderfully organized thing that
today. In
it is
Jews played their part. The first ship which

sailed to the Western hemisphere under the Venetian
flag, at the close of the eighteenth century, was dispatched by the firm of Treves de' Bonfili. Joseph
Henry was the first person to build ships in Canada
for the transatlantic trade, thus founding the Canadian
Mercantile Marine, while the earliest service between
Montreal and Antwerp was established by Jesse Joseph. Emile Pereire, of Paris, took part in the organization of the first French transatlantic steamboat service.
The German Mercantile Marine was raised to the remarkable position which it enjoyed before 19 14 by
the genius of Albert Ballin. He was the only German
in a prominent position who found the disgrace of his
country's defeat too great to bear, and died by his
own hand. Yet notwithstanding these services Jewish
this, too,
influence in the world's shipping today
is
negligible,
and even the Hamburg- Amerika Line, which owes

existence to Jewish genius,
is
now
its
Judenrein.
Part of Sombart's thesis states that while the Jew's

part in the distributive trades has been disproportion-
8o
ately large, he has played an insignificant role in the

so-called
tified
by
"heavy"
industries.
the facts.
Many
This
is
by no means
jus-
Eastern European Jews are
coal-miners, like their neighbors, while the develop-
ment of
ple,
the mining industry in
owed a good
Germany, for exam-
deal to the Friedlaender-Fuld family.
Similarly, Frankfort's pre-eminent position as a
manu-
is
had an
and industrious Jewish population. Nothing
in its earlier history marked it as a manufacturing
center: but today the ring of factories that surrounds
it owes its origin in a majority of cases to Jewish effort.
A secondary result was that for a long time Frankfort
led Europe in social welfare work.
Another section of this work dealt with the partici-
facturing city
largely due to the fact that
it
intelligent
pation of the Jews in establishing the chemical in-
Adolf Frank in Germany and the Mond family

England have done particularly important work in
this connection. The development of the electrical industry, with its far-reaching results on social as well
as economic life, owed an enormous debt to Emil
Rathenau, founder of the German Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft, who today has his counterpart
in England in the person of Lord Hirst.
dustry.
in
This type of activity
may
be paralleled
world, but a few illustrations will

staple
was
suffice.
South African products today
originally exported only
is
all
over the
One
of the
mohair. This
from Asia Minor, where
breeding Angora goats was jealously controlled by the
Turks. Numerous experiments had been made to introduce the industry to South Africa, where climatic
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
28
conditions were not dissimilar from those in Anatolia,
but without success. At last, after the Crimean War,

Adolph Mosenthal, a brother of the Austrian dram-
Salomon von Mosenthal, managed to bring to

the Colony via England a consignment of Angora
goats, purchased with great difficulty in Turkey. The
monetary loss on this original enterprise was considerable. Nevertheless, it was demonstrated that the
Angora goat could not only survive the long sea voyage from Turkey, but could also flourish in Cape Colatist
ony. Thus, one of the great South African industries
was
established.
Participation in the South African mining industry
followed the same tradition.
new
When
in 1885
rumors of
discoveries of gold arrived in Kimberley, they
were not taken too seriously; they had been only too
common before. However, Alfred Beit optimistically
put ;r 2 5,000 at the disposal of the Englishman Joseph
B. Robinson; this was the beginning of the Rand mining industry and of Johannesburg. The work of Jewish financiers in the subsequent development of the
South African mining industry is well known. Yet
it is
not so widely appreciated that they did
also to increase the amenities of the territory
make
the city of Johannesburg
was "Barney" Barnato who
what
it
started the
is
much
and to
today. It
waterworks
an impossible and, indeed, chimerical venture
it
then
seemed. Samuel Marks provided the means for dam-
ming the Vaal River and planted orchards,

his brother-in-law, Isaac
in
collieries,
while, with
Lewis, he invested vast sums
breweries, glass,
steel,
brick and
tile
282
works, and in
this
manner founded the industry of
the country. Johannesburg and the
a monument to Jewish
Or let us take
Rand
are in a
way
enterprise.
another of the "new" countries which
Hvehhood and happiness to un-
has provided refuge,
told thousands of the surplus population of Europe.
The
part played
by
the Jews in the development of
the American Middle
West
erly investigated, but
it is
The
has never yet been prop-
of incalculable importance.
was vast. Hundreds of miles

divided city from city. Communications were primitive; roads were non-existent; travelling was dangerous. The pioneer from the Atlantic coast or the Euroterritory involved
pean immigrant
off
from
who
settled in this area cut himself
civilization. It
was the
travelling peddler
who
him and made his life

bearable. And, in most cases, these peddlers were Jews
to a large extent, Jewish refugees from the intolerant
policies of Central Europe. When after some time
brought the amenities of
life
to
conditions improved, these peddlers settled
the urban centers, where they opened the

tive general stores. It
is
a significant fact,
down
first
though
importance must not be exaggerated, that the

'brick house in Chicago
was
built
by
in
primiits
first
a Jew. Sombart,
indeed, avers that the Jewish traders constituted one

in
twenty of the pioneers
who went
the American wilderness. This
is
out to conquer
a palpable exaggera-
But the fact remains that in the process which

America forward from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and gave the Middle West its prosperity and
established the great urban centers of the area, the
tion.
carried
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
work
283
of the Jewish petty trader was of supreme im-
portance/
6
Much
is
said
about the power of the financier
the
Jewish financier, for some reason, above all in deciding war. Less, incomprehensibly, is said about his
power in deciding peace. Yet his influence in the latter

direction is the more usual, for the financier is more
capable than most
men
of realizing the terrible waste
of war and the permanent impoverishment which almost invariably succeeds an international conflict.
This fact is brought out very clearly in the most
written by Count Corti, a non-Jew, in a spirit which
on the whole is not over-friendly. There is no instance
in this of encouraging or even financing a war on the
authoritative
history
of the
part of this most famous of international banking

houses, but there are several instances of the reverse.
At
the height of
its
power
in the early nineteenth
century, this famous banking house threw
which was
its
weight,
on the side
the intervention was some-
at the time very considerable,
of peace; and
it
seems that
times decisive. This was so particularly during the
1830 and 1840. In 183 1, when the Austrian

troops intervened in North Italy, James de Rothschild
crises of
"did everything to allay the indignation which was

flaring
up
in Paris
ing taken."
^ It
may
and to prevent any hasty action bein 1839, the Belgian government
When,
be pointed out that in medieval Poland the Jews pervery similar function, being largely instrumental in
opening up the country to Western civilization.
formed
284
applied to the
of Treasury
House for an advance on the security

with a view to rearmament in prepa-
Bills,
ration for hostilities with Holland,
point blank refusal.
it
"Our goodwill
encountered a
necessarily stops
short of the point of providing the rod with
we are to
be beaten, that
wanted to make
to say, providing the
is
which
money
which would destroy the credit

that we are applying all our energies and resources to
maintain," wrote the head of the Vienna branch. At
a war,
the time of the Russian crisis in 1854,
Von
Hiibner,
the Austrian Ambassador, found James de Rothschild
of Paris "positively demoralized"
House
1866, the
did
by
fear of war. In
best to avert the Austro-
its
Prussian conflict, and three years later

expressing
"absolute
Franco-Prussian
panic"
at
the
heads were
its
possibility
of
hostilities.
In the period before 19 14, the international influence of the House had dwindled, yet it continued to
throw
its
influence
on the
side of peace. "If ever the
archives of this period should be

public,
it
will
made
available to the
probably be possible to show by docu-
mentary evidence, too, what we can now deduce only

from the consistency of the Rothschild policy during
a century, as shown by various indications and the information derived from certain responsible persons,
that immediately before the
childs
World War
the Roths-
did everything possible to avert the ca-
tastrophe," writes
the part played
Count
Corti.
little is
by Alfred de Rothschild
known
at this time
to improve the prospects of world peace. It
who succeeded in arranging
of
was he
the friendly encounter be-
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
285
tween Joseph Chamberlain and the German Ambassador, which took place under his roof, to discuss
various points of friction between England and Germany without the encumbrance of diplomatic formality. His efforts were nobly seconded by two other
Jews, Sir Ernest Cassel,
to smooth the
Berlin in 191
2,
way
who
did everything possible
for Haldane's despairing
visit
to
and, on the other side, Albert Ballin,
head of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and founder of

the German Mercantile Marine.
The
classical
method
in
example, constantly repeated, of the
whicK
hostilities
can be exploited for the
Waterloo fable,
which, notwithstanding the fact that it has been so
private benefit of the "financier"
is
the
ruthlessly exposed, continues to be repeated at in-
even today.
tervals
The
story goes that in order to de-
ceive the Stock Exchange,
Nathan Meyer Rothschild
followed Wellington to the
field
of Waterloo, that
when he saw which way the battle was going he posted

London, depressed the market with hints of disaster
and secretly bought the depressed stock. Thus, he
contrived to clear several millions of pounds sterling
to
when
the ofHcial intelligence arrived.
account
first
tells
An
alternative
how the news was carried by pigeon-post,
used by the House.
In point of fact, Nathan Rothschild was nowhere
London throughand leaving for Belgium, under

instruction from the British Treasury, only on June
20th two days after Wellington's overwhelming victory. It was true that, owing to his admirable news-
near the
field
out these
of battle, remaining in
critical days,
286
service,
he had learned the result of the great en-
counter before anyone
keeping
to
it
else in
England. But, far from
by
to himself or profiting
it,
he hastened
communicate with the Prime Minister, Lord Liver-
who refused
pool,
to believe him.
that he had depressed the market

ish disaster, the truth
is
that
As
by
for the allegation

hinting at a Brit-
from the
first, as
the re-
ports in the contemporary press show, he had bought
openly and largely, in the face of an incredulous and

falling market.
An
more
episode of English history
the Battle of Waterloo
"among
was the
glorious than
abolition of slavery,
the three or four perfectly virtuous pages in
the history of nations," as
minated in the
Bill
Lecky
called
This cul-
it.
of 1833 for the abolition of slavery
in the British dominions, especially, of course, in the
West
Indies.
sum
of
/ 2 0,000,000 was
compensate the slave-owners.
It
is
needed to
significant that
Nathan Meyer Rothschild's last great operation before

his death in 1836 was to advance this amount.^
West
may be added that one of the few

Indies who anticipated government
slaves
was
^ It
planters in the British
action
by
Isaac Simon, father of the late Sergeant Sir
freeing his
John Simon,
was not unnatural,

remarkable for its humanity (cf.. Exodus 2i:26f.; Deuteronomy 23:16), had been yet
further developed by Jewish tradition. Thus the precedent of the
English "Somerset Case," which liberated any slave who arrived in
England, was anticipated at least fifteen centuries earlier by a
the eminent lawyer and philanthropist. This
for the slave legislation of the Bible,
itself
rabbinical decision, that an escaped slave, whether
Jew or
Gentile,
automatically regained his freedom on touching Palestinian

Philo of Alexandria
was
centuries in advance of his age
soil.
when he
proclaimed (Spec. Leg. II, 69), "Servants are free by nature, no

being naturally a slave."
man
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
287
His son, Baron Lionel de Rothschild, inherited no

small share of his business acumen and more than his
public spirit. He achieved a "particularly honored
position" in the financial life of Great Britain when
in March, 1847, he offered the government his financial assistance for dealing with the miserable condition
of Ireland.
The
Irish
Famine Loan of
;r
8,000,000 was
subsequently raised without any view to profit through

his
agency, in collaboration with his greatest com-
petitors, the
house of Baring. Baron Lionel,
1858 became the
first
Jewish
Member
who
in
of Parliament,
remembered in the history of the

Empire for the public-spirited manner in which
he came to the assistance of Lord Beaconsfield in
will be permanently
British
1875,
when he advanced
the
money
of the Suez Canal shares, and took
for the purchase

all
risks
pending
the approval of Parliament. But for this action
it
is
doubtful whether Beaconsfield's coup could have succeeded.

7
The most
important economic function of the Jews in

field very far removed from
our day has been in a
that of finance. In various branches of industry, they
have played an important part in mass-production and

improved distribution, which have wrought in our day
a profound sociological change. Time was
and not
so very long ago
when the rift between the rich and
poor was far greater than it is at present, and when
even the lower middle classes had to be content with
the coarsest and barest necessities of life. The environ-
88
ment of the laboring
classes
was even more
drab.
Luxuries were completely out of the poor man's reach;
amusements were primitive; his clothing was coarse

and shapeless and could seldom be replaced; the rift
between the "classes" and "masses" was deep and unhis
bridgeable.
In the course of the last generation this situation

has been altered fundamentally.
The poor man, and
to
an even greater extent the poor woman, dresses in the

same manner as the rich, even though the cut and the
may
be inferior. His household amenities are
dissimilar.
His diversions are much the same, even

have to wait a little longer until his
materials
not
though he
may
local place of resort brings within his reach for a
few
pennies what has been available elsewhere at higher

prices
some weeks before. The radio provides the same

all. Even the methods of transporwhich were once a sign of distinction are now
entertainment for
tation
within the reach of the humblest purse.

In this profound social revolution Jews have played
an intimate part. It is the Jewish tailor, for example,
who has broken down the sartorial gap between rich
and poor. The persecutions in Russia at the close of

the last century first reduced to beggary, and then
drove into exile, large numbers of Jews without resources, and for the most part without a trade. In the
Anglo-Saxon countries a very high proportion of the
refugees entered the tailoring industry, for which they
had a certain bent and in which Jews were already
engaged to some extent. The influx of cheap labor,
coupled with an intensive organization (the so-called
THE ECONOMIC SPHERE
289
"Boston System" of division of labor), completely

revolutionized the tailoring industry.
The
seviîng
ma-
chine became a scientific instrument of mass production;
minute subdivision of labor was organized; the

was immensely reduced; and in
cost of manufacture
consequence, the price of clothing was brought

to a fraction of
its
down
previous level, coming for the
old clothes dealer, mainly Jewish heretofore
first
The
time within the reach of every artisan's pocket.
(inci-
was no question of ejecting non-Jews

from employment), lost his importance. No longer was
it necessary for the workingman to wear the reconditioned garments of his social superiors; for the same
dentally, there
amount, or
suit.
The
he could periodically purchase a
less,
new
reduction in the cost of women's clothing
was even more
striking.
The
process was repeated in
boot-making and furniture-making industries.

What had previously been the greatest distinguishing
mark between the various social strata disappeared,
and the beneficial effect on the morale of the laboring
classes was incalculable. This epoch-making change
was assisted by great development in the distributive
trades, and the growth of the single-price store, in
which also the Jews played a considerable part, though
not perhaps as great as is often alleged. By this means,
the
all commodities were vastly reduced, and

one time extravagances came to be considered necessities of existence in every class.
prices in
In other respects, too, Jews collaborated solidly in

this far-reaching
change.
generation ago, their par-
ticipation in the catering industry in
England brought
290
the "restaurant" within the reach of the modest pocket
and was a remarkable boon to city workers of that

More important was the part which they
played in what is termed the "entertainment industry."
The function which Jews have filled in the developgeneration.
ment of
the motion-picture industry, as actors, inven-
tors, technicians,
mous.
They
producers and exhibitors,
realized
its
implications
when
it
enor-
is
was gen-
erally regarded as no more than an amusing novelty;

and it was to a large extent under Jewish guidance that
it became the great institution, and the universal amenity of life that
it
is
agencies of our time,
today,^
it is
Of
the great levelling
only in the automobile in-
dustry that the part of Jews has been negligible.
The
implications
of this change
though hardly appreciated as yet.

disappeared. It
upper
classes
is
no longer
and the lower
The
are
sansculotte has
possible to regard the

as divided
by an
mountable barrier in quite the same sense

past.
The
social life of the
ceived on very
much
enormous,
two, at
least, is
insur-
as in the
now
con-
the same lines, differing in scale
rather than in character.
velopments, in short, the
Through
last
these recent de-
generation has witnessed
a sociological change unexampled in history. It
is
the
it is worth while to bear in mind the fact

on the technical side fully as much as on the administrative,
the modern motion-picture industry is indebted to Jewish genius.
It is sufficient to recall that Levi ben Gershom was a pioneer in
the development of the camera {supra, p. 197); the younger
Herschel in the evolution of photography (p. 197); Berliner was
the inventor of the microphone (p. 211); Lieben of the amplifier
(p. 212); Lippman of color photography {ibid).
In this connection,
that,
THE JEWS IN AGRICULTURE
29
great peaceful revolution of our time and

greatest stabilizing forces in the
modem
among
the
world. In
helping to bring this about, rather than in a fictitious

financial
predominance,
role of the
his
most
Jew
in
lies
the real importance of the
modern economic
life,
significant contributions to
and one of
civilization in
recent times.
appendix:
The Jews
in Agriculture
The
rapidity of the Jewish economic readjustment,

once external pressure was removed, has been re-
markable. True, the effect of fifteen centuries of

repression cannot be shaken off in one or
two genera-
But a beginning has been made, and its progress

has been striking.
In the Hanoverian period, the majority of the Jews
in England, as on the Continent, were probably engaged in petty trading, peddling, and old-clothes dealing. Scores of caricatures, engravings, and popular
tions.
On the other hand, Jews

were excluded almost completely from the professongs are sufficient proof.
sions,
and the opponents of Jewish emancipation held
Jews showed a greater interest in these more

polite and useful callings, they would not justify their
claim to be considered good and useful citizens.
A couple of generations were sufficient to destroy
this reproach. Nowadays, the positions are reversed.
that until
The
so, in
Jewish peddler
the areas in
is
today non-existent, or almost
which he was previously
best
known.
292
The
itinerant Jewish old-clothes dealer, formerly a
characteristic figure in city streets,

tinct.
At
activity has broadened,

sions has
is
completely ex-
the same time, the range of Jewish economic
grown
and the influx into the profes-
to such proportions that great-grand-
children of those critics referred to above are
complaining of too great a tendency in
One point, however, is

man employs a doctor,
overlooked in
now
this direction.
this criticism;
a lawyer, or a dentist,
cause of his race or his creed, but because
pated that he has the best qualifications
not beantici-
it is
and will give
the most conscientious service.
The
case of agriculture illustrates even
made
ingly the progress which has been
nomic readjustment of Jewish

soil
life.
An
more
strik-
in the eco-
urge to
till
the
has invariably manifested itself in Jewish history,
soon as external pressure has been removed. There

were Jewish agriculturalists in Russia under the old
regime, though under the May Laws of 1882 they
were uprooted from their holdings. There were Jewish farmers long established in South Germany, indistinguishable from their neighbors except for their
religion; but the Nazi regime made life impossible for
as
them. In free lands, however, the process continues.
Jewish agricultural settlements exist today all over

the world, in Russia, Poland, Bessarabia, Roumania,
even
Siberia.
In Canada, for example, there are a num-.
ber of settlements, under the guidance of the Jewish

Colonial Association; and 500,000 bushels of wheat
are
produced each year by the Canadian Jewish

whole areas cov-
farmers. In the Argentine, there are
293
by Jewish agricultural settlements, with their

own vigorous community life. In the United States,
ered
at least
100,000 Jews look to agriculture for their
livelihood and
"more Jews
are thinking today in terms
of the farm than in any other period in the whole of
American
history."
Above
all,
the return to Palestine,
under the inspiration of the Zionist movement, is

coupled with the ideal of the return to the land. Lack
of funds and local obstructionism are responsible for
the fact that the process has not been so complete as
was at one time hoped; but, even so, some 15% of
Palestinian Jewry is established on the soil. In England, it may be mentioned for the purpose of comparison, only 7% of the general population is thus
The total number of Jews throughout the

who look to agriculture for their livelihood is
engaged.
world
now
most
nearly 700,000, and the

daily.
number
The phenomenon
is
is
increasing al-
unique in the world
today, where the general tendency
is
not towards,
but away from, the land.

It is curious, in
from the
soil
tion with
it,
and
view of the Jew's long exclusion
his
comparatively recent re-associa-
that outstanding contributions to agricul-
been made by Jews. One

of the alphabet with
Aaron Aaronson, one of a devoted family who rendered conspicuous service to Great Britain during the
conquest of Palestine in 19 17-18. (His sister, Sarah
tural science should have
may
start at the
commencement
Aaronson, was killed for that reason by the Turks.)
who founded the Agricultural Experimental Station near the ruins of the Crusading castle
Aaronson,
294
at Athlit, discovered in Palestine
"wild wheat," which
has been used extensively in the United States and
elsewhere to strengthen the cultivated plant.
More
were the discoveries of Fritz Haber, the

chemical genius whose investigations notably assisted
Germany between 19 14 and 191 8, but whom an unsensational
grateful Fatherland compelled to die in exile after the
advent of the Nazi regime. His greatest service to
mankind was
his
discovery of the method of the fixa-
tion of nitrogen, the production, that
ammonia from
this, nitrates
is,
of synthetic
the nitrogen in the atmosphere.
From
for fertilization could be extracted and
were hence made available to the world in unlimited

quantity. Thus was obviated the risk which serious
thinkers, such as Sir William Brookes, once voiced,
that when the deposits of natural fertilizers were exhausted, the world would be faced with starvation.
It must be added that the use of potash for agricultural purposes was due in the first instance to the
activity of the German Jew, Adolf Frank. He collaborated in his later years with the
young Nicodem
Caro, whose discovery of cyanamide, the

thetic nitrogenous
fertilizer,
and
first
new methods
synfor
hydrogen are similarly of considerable importance for the development of scientific agthe production of
riculture.
These discoveries were carried a stage further by

Jacob G. Lipman, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture
at Rutgers University, whose principal work was
centered upon the determination of the nature of the
chemical action produced by bacteria in making both

organic and inorganic components of
for food.
The
295
soils available
bacteria which he has turned loose on
it is said, have more than made

up for the Jews' failure (not of their own making) to
work on the land.
Finally, mention should be made of that idealistic
Polish- American businessman, David Lubin, who, after
various adventures and travels, gained a competence
by inventing a device for the extremely prosaic purpose of rivetting buttons on overalls. He was thus en-
the farms of the world,
abled to
fulfil his
ambition of engaging in fruit-farm-
But he found a complete absence of organization

in agriculture in all its branches. Every man worked
for himself; experience was never pooled; and as a
result there was a shocking degree of waste. After
studying and comparing agricultural methods in Europe, Lubin published in 1900 his work, Let There
Be Light, based upon Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed, in which moral and practical idealism are curiing.
ously mixed.
Then he began
to
work out
the solution of the agri-
problem from the standpoint of the farmer

as well as of the producer. He laid his views before
the U. S. Department of Agriculture, but received no
encouragement; he travelled about Europe trying to
interest official circles, but met with opposition and
indifference at every turn. At last, he obtained an
interview with Luigi Luzzatti, the Italian-Jewish statesman, at that time a member of the cabinet. The latter
realized the practical importance of the suggestions
implied in Lubin's idealistic approach, and secured
cultural
296
him an audience with the King of
In an hour's
Italy.
Emmanuele was won over
conference, Vittorio
to
Lubin's theories and called an international conference

to consider his plans. In 1905 the representatives of
met
Rome, and the International Agricultural Institute,
which has since done untold good and without which
the state of agriculture in the world today would be
even more chaotic than it is, was established. In Oc-
forty governments, excluding the United States,

in
tober, 1934, fifteen years after Lubin's death, tribute
was paid
to his
memory by
delegates
from the
sixty-
three nations then represented in the institute; and
the
name
of this Polish-Jewish immigrant
rated, not
only by a tablet in the
founded, but also (at

intolerance in Italy)
Future inquirers
least until the
by
may
a street in
is
commemowhich he
institute
triumph of
racial
Rome.
attach importance not only to
the reconstruction of Jewish agricultural
life
in Pales-
tine,
but also to the type of the
The
self-sacrificing devotion of the pioneers; the in-
life
that
is
emerging.
fluence of the ideas of A, D. Gordon, that national
regeneration can
come only from
physical contact with the

justice
which
inspires the
soil;
personal labor and
the enthusiasm for social
new type
of settlement such
Moshav, and the communal settlement, the Kvutzah, which have realized
such outstanding triumphs; are all developments whose
significance is by no means restricted to Palestine.
as the co-operative colony, the
Above
first
all,
the
new
settlers
have demonstrated for the
time in history that a peasantry can attain as high
a level of cultural life
and expression
as the
most so-

phisticated urban dweller. It
all this
is
297
possible to discern in
the kernel of a future contribution to rural,
perhaps even more important than the past contribution to urban civilization/
Ît should perhaps be pointed out that an inclination toward
physical activities
is
by no means
in the Ghetto period, there
was a
new
thing
among
times even superiority in various fields of sport.

third century maintained that
it
Jews. Even
definite proclivity to,
is
a religious
and some-
rabbi of the
man to
commonly
duty for a
teach his son to swim. Later, fencing-masters were
Modern
students are becoming interested in a medieval

account of tennis as it was played by his co-religionists in
Mantua. Jews took part in athletic contests at Rosenau in the fifteenth century, in the foot-races, jumping, weight-lifting, and so
Jews.
rabbi's
on.
particularly notable figure
wrestler in
Germany under
was the Jew, Ott, champion
Frederick
III
(1440-1493),
who
even
handbook on the art, as also did one Andreas Jud Liegnitzer. It is clear from all this that even before the days of the
great Anglo-Jewish boxers of the i8th century, Mendoza and the
rest, and the champions in tennis, etc., in our own day, the intellectualization of the Jew was not exclusive of other interests.
wrote
CHAPTER XI. Public Life
External circumstances
are responsible for the fact
that the Jews' participation in

at a
pubhc hfe began only
comparatively recent date. For centuries Church
and State had combined to inveigh against the occuby Jews of any position of authority, and the
exclusion remained effective until a hundred and fifty
pation
years ago.
The
first
breach in the theory was made by
it was introduced into Europe with the Declaration of the Rights
the Declaration of Independence in 1775;
of
Man
in 1789,
followed
by
the formal emancipation
of the French Jews in 1790.
The
following eighty
years saw the gradual imitation of this example in
Western Europe. Thus, in England, municipal rights

were conceded in 1831-1835, and Jews were first admitted to the House of Commons in 1858 and to the
Lords in 1886. After 1870 emancipation was established, in
world.
name
at least, in all the so-called "civilized"
The only
exception was Russia, where perse-
cution continued in an exaggerated form, accompanied
by frequent outbreaks
of violence, as long as the
authority of the Czars was maintained.
For
this reason,
any examination of the part played

298
PUBLIC LIFE
by Jews
in public life after 70 a.d.
299
must necessarily
be restricted almost entirely to very recent times. In

the Roman Empire, of course, exclusion was by no
means complete, and we find Jews participating amply
in municipal life, and the late Judean rulers honored
as benefactors by Athens and other centers of Greek
culture. In Moslem Spain, Jews occasionally rose to the
rank of vizier, directing the affairs of state, and even
under Christian rulers Jewish physicians, scientists,
or
experts sometimes enjoyed considerable in-
fiscal
fluence.
The same was
height of
its
power
the case in
Turkey
at the
in the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Converted Jews, too, occasionally rose to positions of authority. But, broadly speaking,
until the nineteenth
century that the
it
was not
Jew had any
opportunity for political self-expression.^
This fact should be kept in mind in considering the

There was, indeed, in France, at the close of the sixteenth
little group of men of Jewish origin who profoundly
influenced the course of political thought. Best remembered today
is Michel de A4ontaigne, whose mother, as has been indicated elsewhere, belonged to a crypto-Jewish family settled in France. His
contemporary, Jean Bodin, one of the most remarkable of French
political thinkers, was reproached in his lifetime for his Jewish
affinities and associates, and his mother, too, apparently belonged
to a Marrano family. His great work. Six livres de la Reptiblique,
written as a reply to Machiavelli's Principe, champions the idea of
a monarchy tempered by the States General, and is the outstanding
vindication of the constitutional monarchy of its day. Noteworthy,
too, is the generous toleration in matters of religion, which he ex^
century a
presses in his Heptaplo?neres.
More
in the public
eye than either
of these was Michel de I'Hopital, who, as Chancellor of France,
more generous
and to stop the bloodshed which had
so long been the scourge of the country. He, too, was of Jewish
exerted himself to the utmost to bring about a
spirit in questions of faith
300
irresponsible theory
is,
which has been summed up
"The Jews
the phrase,
as revolutionary leaven"
that every upheaval in the history of the
world
may
be traced to the action of
of the population.
The prototype
this
in
that
modem
one section
of the
modern
revolution was the "Great Rebellion" in England, but
when
this
took place there was in that country only
Marrano merchants, unable to profess
a handful of
Judaism and too timid to meddle in public
affairs.
One
few Jewish comments upon the situation that

has survived is that of a Marrano of Rouen, who expressed the conviction that "none of his religion would
ever adventure themselves among such bloody traitors
as had murdered their own King."
The myth of the Jew as revolutionary leaven takes
of the
as
its
French Revolu-
serious point of departure the
Whether Jews would need to apologize for any

share in it is a question upon which there is no need
tion.
to express an opinion, in
role
was almost
view of the fact that
nerve-center of the Revolution, no Jewish
was yet
their
entirely passive. In Paris, always the
tolerated,
community
and the few individuals living there
played a part barely worth mentioning. Indeed, the
only French
nence
Jew who enjoyed
at the period
was
the slightest promi-
moderate
Abraham Fur-
tado of Bordeaux, a close friend of the Girondin

origin, being
descended from an Avignonese Jewish family. Thus
the three chief intellectual voices of the
who
party
known
as
the
opposed religious fanaticism, wished to suppress

party faction and endeavored to set up a strong monarchy to save
France from further tribulations, were in part of Jewish blood.
"politiques,"
PUBLIC LIFE
leaders,
who narrowly
301
escaped the guillotine. Others
them
being executed during the Reign of Terror. Meanwhile, during the supremacy of the Goddess of Reason, synagogues were pillaged, Jewish observances
were forbidden, the Sabbath had to be publicly desecrated, and Jewish ministers of religion were dragged
to the Temple of the new state Deity to do homage.
There was one place, indeed, where the Jews enof his co-religionists were less fortunate, nine of
joyed considerable influence during the Terror
St.
Ghetto suburb of Bayonne, renamed JeanJacques Rousseau by the extremists. Here, Jews were
so numerous on the Comite de Surveillance as to be
Esprit, the
almost in control. It
were
is
significant that, while heads
rolling across the river at
Bayonne
in
an intermit-
tent blood-bath, not a single capital sentence
was
passed in the suburb, where there were tokens of a
humanity and moderation hardly tip be found elsewhere in France.^

That the Jew traditionally nourishes a feeling for
equality needs neither argument nor apology. An observer who cannot be charged with pro-Jewish sympathy, Hilaire Belloc, has indicated what he considers
to be the foundation of this Jewish democratic instinct
{The
Battlefield, p.
slums of our great

equality
man
'^
which
dignity
So, too,
it
is
134):
cities
"The Jew today
in the
has kept intact this sense of
coincident with the feeling of hu-
for human dignity

was Lange Cohen,
is
product of re-
Jewish silk-merchant, guillo-
tined in 1794, who saved the sacred relics of the Cathedral of

Cavaillon from destruction.
302
ligion
where
religion binds the individual to a
supreme
god; and the Jewish millionaire does not, like our rich
men, mistake his wealth for excellence, nor do his

fellow-Jews think him the greater for it, but only-
more
fortunate."
view in politics, it
than from the views of
If there exists a Jewish point of
cannot be better
Don
illustrated
Isaac Abravanel, the Spanish scholar-statesman
of the fifteenth century,
lumbus'
first
who
assisted in financing
expedition and
Co-
was perhaps the only
Jewish author of the Middle Ages to deal explicitly

with political problems. In his commentaries on Deu-
teronomy and Judges, he formulates

political theory.
Monarchy
is,
well-rounded
according to him, a
human, not a divine, institution. His personal leanings

were in favor of the constitutional form of government such as he saw and admired in Venice, Florence,
and so on. Yet he denied the right of subjects to rebel
even against the most obvious grievances, and he maintained this position on more than one occasion at
Court in conversation with Christian thinkers who
held the opposite. "The law of the land is our law,"
taught a talmudic authority sixteen centuries ago, and
this has ever since been a cardinal principle of Judaism.
A review of the biographies included in the Encyclopaedia Britanjiica emphasizes the point.
statesmen of
in that
work
first
importance
fifteen
who
Among
the
are accorded entries
only are of Jewish origin.
Of these,
nine are reformers, including some revolutionaries,
while
six
may
be classed as conservative. This con-
PUBLIC LIFE
elusion
is all
the
more remarkable
303
if
one bears
in
mind
the fact that this particular survey excludes the United

States
is
and England, in which the conservative element
noticeably greater.
perhaps only in these and one or two other

advanced countries that the Jewish political
genius has been able to find its natural level and direction. Where the Jew has been oppressed, deprived
of economic opportunity, and excluded from public
life, it was inevitable for him to throw his weight on
the side of those parties endeavoring to effect a modifi-
For
it is
politically
Hence the activity of

movements of the nineteenth
cation in the existing regime.
Jews
in
all
the national
century, in which they imagined that their salvation
Hence
lay.
active in
among
the fact that in pre-war Russia,
all
Jews were
the parties of the Left; though less
the Bolsheviks than
among
by
far
the moderates, the
Constitutional Democrats and Menshiviks. Similarly,

in countries where the clerical movement is strong,
Jews have inevitably thrown themselves into opposition to those parties whose policies must necessarily,
though not perhaps intentionally, add to the difficulties
of the Jewish position.
The
movements with which the Jews have

been associated out of proportion to their numbers
political
have hence not been in general revolutionary but conand national. Thus, they were particularly
stitutional
prominent among the fighters for American freedom,

for
German
unity, for Italian independence, for
Hun-
304
garian self-government, at the close of the eighteenth
century and in the middle years of the nineteenth.
At
the time of the great struggle between England
revolted colonies, out of which the United

was to emerge, there were in the whole of North
America barely 2,000 Jews. The part which they
played was absolutely disproportionate to their insignificant numbers. For the first time in modern history,
and
its
States
they had been permitted to participate in the political

strivings of their neighbors, and they showed by their
devotion and self-sacrifice
the privilege. It
is
how much
a thrice-told tale
they appreciated
how
five
signed the Non-Importation Agreement of 1769,
Jews
how
numerous Jews served with the armies in the field and

how some of them fell, how the community of New
York
virtually disbanded itself rather than continue
to exist during the British occupation,
how Hayim
Salomon suffered and was ruined by reason of his

financial services, never properly recognized. Yet this
overwhelming preponderance of sympathy with the
patriot cause did not imply that the Jewish community
was blind to the other point of view. Perhaps the
most typically Jewish of all was Abraham Wagg,
who strove in his humble way for peace and even at
the height of the conflict looked forward to the day
when the mother country and her former colonies
would live side by side in peace and amity.
In Europe it was in the great national movement
of 1848, when throughout Europe the forces of democracy shook off the shackles of absolutism, and the
peoples insisted on their natural right of self -govern-
PUBLIC LIFE
305
ment, that the Jews first had the opportunity to prove

that they were prepared to shoulder the responsibihties of the citizenship of which they claimed the rights.
Everywhere, they took a leading share in the struggle
and in the sacrifice. In France, where the movement
began, Adolphe Cremieux was a member of the Provisional Government. In Germany, Johann Jacoby,
who was subsequently to raise an almost solitary voice
in opposition to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, had
dared to ask the King of Prussia for a constitution as

early as 1841, and
was once more
now,
after a
term of imprisonment,
Jews were killed

Jews were prominent,
too, in the V orparlaiitent of Frankfort, which anticipated German unity. Here, the convert, Eduard von
Simson, later President of the Reichstag and Reichsgericht, was president; the Austrian poet, Moritz
Hartmann, was one of the most striking figures; and
one of the vice-presidents, Gabriel Riesser, a stalwart
champion of Jewish emancipation, was appointed with
Simson among the delegation which offered the crown
of a united Germany to Frederick William IV.
In the March Days in Vienna, Jews were similarly
active. The dare-devil Adolf Fischhof was at the head
of the popular movement, which was inspired by
Moritz Hartmann, the poet, and the famous journalist,
Ignaz Kuranda: and several more were among the
martyrs to the cause of liberty. It was noteworthy,
however, that the detested Prime Minister, Baron
to the fore. Several
in the street fighting in Berlin.
Doblhoff,
owed
his life to
the popular party,
another Jewish leader of
who smuggled him away
at consid-
306
erable personal risk to a private house. In
Hungary,
Jewish regiment fought under Kossuth, and manyJews followed their leader into exile. From every part
of Central Europe Jewish refugees emigrated
the popular
evident that
The United
movement was
1
suppressed, and
848 brought no more than a

States benefited especially;
when
became
dawn.
it
false
it
is
hardly
an exaggeration to say that the great Jewish com-
munity of that country
is
monument
to the liberty-
loving enthusiasm of Central European
Jewry dur-
ing those years of reaction.

In Italy, in particular, the part of the Jews in the
Risorgbnento was remarkable. In every part of the

peninsula, they took the lead in the
movement
to shake
There were at least nine

Jews among Garibaldi's Thousand. For many years
Cavour's closest collaborator was Isaac Artom, of
off the hated Austrian yoke.
whom
he wrote,
"He
has a remarkable, mature mind,
indefatigable zeal, golden character"; he
was subse-
quently to take a prominent share in the public
life
of
which he had worked. In exile,

Mazzini had no friends more devoted than the Nathan
family of London.
For a time the dramatic center of the whole movement was Venice, where for a few months in 1848-9
the pale ghost of the Serenissima was revived in Victhe united Italy for
torian costume.
The London
critic at that period,
Times, an unfriendly
paid eloquent testimony to the
which infused the leaders. On September ist,

1849, it wrote that from February, 1848 onwards,
"there has been no popular movement conducted with
spirit
PUBLIC LIFE
SO
much
307
dignity and maintained with such unswerving
decision as that of Venice."
Nor, even in that year of patriotic fervor, was there

in which the Jewish element was more
movement
prominent.
The
leader of the
movement was Daniel
who bore
Manin, one
the same surname as the last Doge. The coincidence
was, however, merely accidental; he did not belong
to an old patrician family, but was the grandson of a
converted Veronese couple, Samuel and Allegra
Medina, who had assumed the name of Manin in honor
of the purest of Italian patriots,
of their sponsor at baptism. There are
few
figures in
the whole of nineteenth-century history so pure and
noble as this
lowed him
last
Venetian hero. Declared Jews
eagerly, including several
who were
fol-
sub-
sequently to play an illustrious part in the history of
United
Italy. In the
National Guard, which fought
bravely for the defense of the city, there were a dozen
Jewish
officers
and privates
in proportion,
one of
whom was among the first to fall. Among the members

of the National Assembly were three Jews, the
num-
ber subsequently rising to seven: and they included
two rabbis, one of whom introduced into it one of the

most dramatic motions in favor of liberty. Leone
Pincherle, who had played a prominent part in the
events of the past heroic days, was Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the Provisional Government, while Isaac Pesaro Maurogonato was Minister
of Finance, his meticulous administration calling forth
the grudging admiration of the Austrians themselves
after
the
recapture.
He was
subsequently
Vice-
3o8
President of the Italian

1884,
when
Chamber
of Deputies, and in
the government recognized the Venetian
loans of 1848, he turned over his claims to the munici-
The "Forty" who were exiled from

Manin for their share in the revolution
number of members of the group to which
pality of Venice.
the city with
included a
he traced
detail,
his origin.
but the
This one case
may be
tale
is
recounted here in
duplicated for every part of
and Europe during that heroic period.

Contrary to what might be imagined, the case was
the same even among the hyper-orthodox Jews of
Poland. Here, as early as 1794, they had participated
Italy
in Kosciusko's revolt.
certain Berek,
who
held the
rank of colonel, had raised among them a troop of
which was almost wiped out by Suvarov's

Warsaw. During the revolt
against Russian misgovernment in 1830, Berek's son,
Joseph Berkovitz, took the lead and summoned his co-
light horse,
troops during the siege of
religionists
to arms,
with the result that
special
"bearded" section of the Metropolitan Guard was
formed
in
Warsaw, comprising 850 Jews. So
the revolution of
also in
860-1 863, the Jews of every school
of thought took their place
by
the side of their fellow-
and two rabbis were sent to prison for daring

to march in the funeral procession behind the coffins
of the demonstrators who had been cut down by the
Poles,
The artificial distinction between Jewish

and Catholic Poles had not yet been crystallized.
Adolphe Cremieux was perhaps the most typical as
he was the most brilliant Jewish statesman of the Age
of Emancipation. From the days of the First Empire
Cossacks.
PUBLIC LIFE
309
to the reign of Louis Philippe, he
was one of France's

became Minister
great orators and lawyers. In
of Justice, and
family
it
left Paris
his death,
was due
848, he
to his assiduity that the royal
unscathed.
thirty-two years
From
later,
standing figures in French public
over seventy at the time of the

pire,
that date almost to
he was one of the outlife.
fall
An
old
man of
Em-
of the Second
he was, nevertheless, forced by public opinion to
take part in the
Government of National
Defense,^
and at this time offered a great part of his property to

pay the war indemnity imposed and ruthlessly exacted
by the Germans. But his name is associated above all
with humanitarian achievement. On writing to congratulate the American people on the emancipation
of the slaves, he prided himself on the fact that he had
been a member of the government of 1 848 which had
proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the French dominions, and perhaps the most important measure for
which he was himself responsible as Minister of Justice
was the
abolition of the capital penalty for political
offences.
The
instances
which have been assembled in the

by no means exhaustive. Illustra-
foregoing pages are
may be multiplied to an almost weariWhat has been said is, however, sufficient
tions of the sort
some degree.
to demonstrate the participation of the

tional, as distinct
He
from
nationalistic,
Jews in the namovements of the
was a colleague in this of his former Secretary, Gambetta.

no ground whatever for believing that the latter was a
Jew, as is so often said, but there would be no reason for apologizing were this indeed the case.
^
There
is
3IO
century.
last
The same was
ernments which were
set
at the close of 191 8, as
Emergency
of 193
generally, such as those of 1870 in France,
in England,
true in the popular gov-
up all over Central Europe

in governments of National
and so on. In
settled periods,
have found a more catholic outlet for their
Jews
political
sympathies, which have in no other circumstances

been confined to one party.
3
One
of the most prominent figures in
life in
the middle of the last century
Lassalle,
whose influence is
all Western
conceptions of
public
life
German
public
was Ferdinand
traceable in the political

countries.
in the battle for liberty in
He
began
his
1848, but in
came to the conclusion that the wrongs of

the masses lay more in the economic than in the politi-
prison he
cal sphere.
From
1861 to his premature death in a duel
1864, he swept Germany with his campaign of

economic democracy. In 1863, he founded the first
Workers' Party, the General German Workingman's
Association, out of which grew the party of the Social
Democrats or Socialists. In return for the franchise and
in
social welfare legislation,
even Bismarck,
first
he was prepared to support
the Continent his was perhaps the
authoritative voice of the nineteenth century to
assert,
his
On
notwithstanding the angry resentment which
views aroused, the right of the masses to a voice in
the government.
He was barely
forty years old at the
time of his death, but he had prepared the ground for

a
new
attitude in Europe.
PUBLIC LIFE
Lassalle's
311
views seemed extreme in
him, the pohtical interests of
German
After
his day.
Jews,
if
gen-
were predominantly moderate. When, in 1890, the ban on Socialism was removed and it came once more into the open, it had
mainly owing to
lost its revolutionary character
theoretician
of
the movement as
Eduard Bernstein, the
a reformist doctrine. The revolutionary ardor had
erally inclined to the Left,
clearly disappeared.^
Thereafter, the tendency of the emancipated

public
liberal.
life
In
Jew
in
throughout Europe was predominantly
Germany the mass
now that its rights were,
as
the National Liberal Party.
it
of the Jewish population,
thought, won, inclined to
The founder
of this party,
indeed, in the teeth of Bismarck's frenzied opposition,
was the Jew, Eduard Lasker, who was ably

^
Elsewhere Jews contributed during
names, but not
many
this
leaders, to the Left
assisted
by
period a few important
wing
in politics. In France,
Olinde and Eugene Rodrigues, with their banker cousins Pereire,
were among the earliest and most fervent supporters of SaintSimon, and a few others, such as Gaston Cremieux and Alfred Joseph Naquet, were prominent in the troubled period which succeeded the Franco-Prussian war. Later, the aristocratic Leon Blum
was to be France's first Socialist premier. In Holland, there was
Henri Pollack, one of the organizers of the Trade Union movement in that country; in Austria, the Adlers, father and son; in
the United States, Morris Hillquit, one of the organizers of American Socialism, and Samuel Gompers, creator of the American
Federation of Labor, who was for nearly half a century the dominant and moderating influence in the working-class movement.
England can furnish the names of several liberal leaders during
this period, but none of real prominence belonging to the Left
wing in politics. To the German names mentioned above should
be added that of Moses Hess, who was unusual in that he retained
his
enthusiasm for Judaism.
312
Ludwig Bamberger and

tics
others.
This tendency in poli-
continued to attract the sympathies of the average
German Jew.
Lasker's greatest
title
achieved in a non-partisan role on that
fame was
memorable octo
casion in 1873 when from the tribune of the Reichstag

he thundered against the "promotion swindle" and mis-
leading the public
pectuses of
new
by printing great names on the
pros-
ventures. This speech, one of the
strongest ever delivered in the
German
Parliament,
and had wide repercussions.

In England, Jewish emancipation had been opposed
by the Conservatives and supported by the Liberals.
It was therefore inevitable that the earliest Jewish
members of Parliament were all adherents of the latter
party. But at the time of the Liberal Unionist split,
Jewish public opinion veered round, and some of the
outstanding representatives of English Jewry accompanied Chamberlain into the Conservative camp. From
became
historical
that period the distribution of the Jews in politics reflected
more evenly
the general political tendency of
the country. Thus, while after the political landslide
of 1906 the Liberal members of Parliament who were

Jews outnumbered the Conservatives by three to one
(12 to 4), the numbers four years later were approxi-
mately equal (8 to 7).

Jewish ministers of the
by Prime Ministers of all
Crown have been

political
appointed
complexions. If the
Conservative party can point to no great public serv-
who
belonged to the Jewish community of the

caliber of the Marquess of Reading or Viscount
ants
Samuel, this does no more than accentuate the natural
PUBLIC LIFE
313
tendency pointed out above, while, on the other hand

no parallel to Benjamin
the Liberal party can provide

Disraeli.
So completely impartial
a distribution
was perhaps
confined to the English-speaking world, in which effective emancipation has gone furthest and
a long time
no reactionary party
where for
in the Continental
sense has existed. Elsewhere, the Liberal and Left tend-
ency
is
perhaps stronger; yet nowhere has
everywhere
clusive. Indeed,
it is
it
been ex-
possible to point to
conservative leaders of great influence
who were
of
Jewish extraction.
In the opinion of some competent observers, the
most
Jewish birth in the nineteenth century was Disraeli's German contemporary,

influential statesman of
Friedrich Julius Stahl. His

career in the
a Jew, he
Germany
was
a fairly
commonplace
up as
of those days. Brought
found the inevitable
path
difliculties in his
and was baptized at the age of seventeen.

one of the best known German jurists of
He became
his day, de-
voting himself especially to the philosophy of law, his

great Die Philosophie des Rechts nach geschichtlicher
Ansicht running into several editions.
When,
the revolutionary agitation broke out in

Stahl,
in
845,
Germany,
unlike the majority of Jews, threw himself
whole-heartedly into politics on the conservative (perhaps
it is
more correct
Revolutions of
to say reactionary) side. In the
848, his
was the most
active,
most
bit-
ing and most effective pen on the side of the Govern-
ment, and he was rewarded by appointment as a
member
of the
Upper House.
life
314
Throughout the following decade, he was recognized as the leader of the reactionary party, and he lost
his
power only with
try.
the
fall
of the Manteuifel minis-
No less an authority than Lord Acton regarded his
influence in
German
conservatism as more dominant
than that of Beaconsfield in England.

in the Caiitbridge
Modern History
He
is
described
as "the intellectual
leader of the conservative aristocratic party and the
most remarkable brain
He
in the
Upper Chamber.
largely supplied the ruling party with the learning
on which to found their claims."

Bluntschli describes him as being "after Hegel, the
most important representative of the philosophical
theory of the state." His influence on Bismarck, in
the latter's formative period, was very strong. So,
incidentally, was that of Professor Emil von Friedberg
(brother of that Heinrich von Friedberg who was Minister of Justice in Prussia from 1879 to 1889), the great
authority on ecclesiastical history, who was the Chancellor's principal adviser during the Kulturkampf and
was also of Jewish birth.
and wealth of
One
ideas
of the heirs to Stahl's
spirit, in
the days
the Prussian junker had taken a slightly
when
more liberal
nephew of a
was Karl Rudolph Friedenthal,

well-known Hebrew writer. Converted like Stahl in
youth, he was a member of the Reichstag from 1867
and one of the founders of the Free Conservative
Party. He it was whom Bismarck invited in 1870 to
formulate the constitution of the German Empire
which was promulgated at Versailles, in collaboration
with Blankenburg and Bennigsen; subsequently, he
attitude,
PUBLIC LIFE
315
became Minister of Agriculture. The constitution

which Friedenthal framed continued to function until the revolution of 191 8. It was then overthrown in
Weimar Constitution, one
favor of the
framers of which was the Berlin
Hence
the
Weimar
of the principal
jurist,
Hugo
Constitution could no
Preuss.
more be
described as Jewish than the Versailles Constitution
were the work of patriotic Germans,

among whom there happened to be persons who were
Jews by birth.
could. Both
Austria provides a further illustration of the participation of Jews in formulating the ideology of the conservative
element in Central European
Heinrich Fried] ung,
who
politics,
in
has received mention as per-
haps the greatest Austrian historian. Born in Moravia

of Jewish parentage, he was
German
by conviction
a passionate
Austrian, equally proud of the great tradi-
tions both of
Germany and
of Austria. In 1880, in col-
George von Schonerer (later the leader

of the extreme Pan-Germans in Austria) and the Jew,
laboration with
Victor Adler (subsequently founder of the Austrian
and Foreign Secretary in

Republican Cabinet of October, 19 18), he
produced the Conservative Linz program as a basis for
Social Democratic Party,
the
first
the future policy of the
German
Austrians.
In short-lived liberal Germany, contrary to what
is
generally believed, the participation of Jews in public
was not particularly great. Thus in the twenty

which ruled the country from the downfall
of the monarchy to the Nazi Revolution, there were
some 200 different ministers in all. Of these, only seven
life
cabinets
3l6
were of Jewish descent
Preuss, Rathenau, Landsberg,

Gradnauer, Hilferding, and Dernburg (who
Schiffer,
was only half-Jewish). In the German federal states

there were still fewer Jewish ministers. Between 1920
and 1932 neither Prussia, the largest state, nor Bavaria,
second in size, had a single Jewish minister. The same
was the case in most of the smaller states. In the
Reichstag of 1930 there was only one Jew among
about 600 members, and 20 members of known Jewish
descent; the Socialist Party comprised 143 members,
of whom none were Jews and only 14 of Jewish blood.
In
the only outstanding Jewish statesman in
fact,
Germany
whose
recent years was Walther Rathenau,
in
essential
rehabilitate
work
lay in his courageous effort to
Germany, both morally and economically,
after her shattering defeat in 19 18.
taHst
by
and
birth
training,
Nor
can he, a capi-
be regarded by any stretch
of the imagination as an exponent of extreme political

principles.
class
had
He
left
responsibility,
was, however, quick to realize that his
the era of privilege and entered that of
and wisely endeavored to bridge the
gap which divided the proletariat from the bourgeoisie.
"His German extraction gave him an objective view

of the British Empire not always obtainable by an
Englishman," said a contemporary writer with reference to the late Lord Milner.
similar fact perhaps
explains the enduring influence of Disraeli in English politics. His exuberant imagination made it pos-
PUBLIC LIFE
sible for
him to
realize
317
not only the romance, but

At a time when
also the potentialities of the empire.
the majority of Englishmen regarded the "colonies" as

for younger sons, he had more than a glimmerwhat has subsequently come to be termed the
"Commonwealth of Nations," composed of equal
home
ing of
partners
who
might perform an important function in
among nations.
More important still, perhaps, was his conception
maintaining a balance
of
conservatism, not as the party of privilege and hence
of a perpetual minority, but as the representative of

historic instead of radical development. It
is
hence re-
markable but not astonishing that of the statesmen of

the last century Disraeli alone is a hving force and a
source of political inspiration in England.
There
are
many
persons
who
consider
Luigi
Prime Minister of Italy from 1 909-11, the

modern times. His work was, of
course, greater in the economic than in the political
sphere. From early manhood he devoted himself to
the task of raising the economic status of the people.
His ideal was to abolish the monopoly of wealth
through other means than those advocated by the
socialists, whose remedies were in his opinion riidiculously inadequate to the unhealthy state of affairs
which they criticized. Long before the union of Italy
was an accomplished fact, he toured the country advocating the foundation of people's banks and cooperative societies. In pursuance of this policy he
founded the Banco Popolare of Milan and started the
first cooperative store in Italy.
His influence is
Luzzatti,
greatest Italian of

3l8
Stamped upon the cooperative movement

strongly as
that of Schulze-Delitzch in
is
in Italy as
Germany
or
As Cabinet
became Premier, he advowas Luzzatti, in D'Annunspiritualized the power of
that of the Rochdale pioneers in England.

Minister, even before he
cated this same policy. It

zio's
happy
phrase,
who
gold.
An analysis of the Jewish

public
life is
not easy,
if
participation in
only by reason of
naturalness, impartiality,
American
its
complete
and lack of constraint.
On
may
be said that whereas in local and

Jews have played a prominent and
honorable part witness, for example. Governor
Herbert H. Lehman of New York State, and Governor Henry Horner of Illinois in national politics
their participation has barely been in proportion to
their numerical importance. Thus, though a succession of American presidents have considered that the
Jew may have a range of sympathy and knowledge
which peculiarly qualifies him to represent the country
the whole,
it
in state politics
abroad (instance after instance will readily come to
mind) it was not until the appointment of Henry

Morgenthau, Jr., to the post of Secretary of the
Treasury in 1934, the second Jew to hold office in a
presidential cabinet, that any administrative position of
the highest importance was filled by a Jew. The total
number of U. S. Senators up to 1937 who were Jews
was only eight
very modest figure. It is only in the
sphere of law, in which Jews have always been para.
ticularly distinguished, that their participation

said to
be outstanding. In
its
may
political alignment,
be
Amer-
PUBLIC LIFE
ican
Jewry has simply
fully, its social
319
and
faith-
sufficient to
show
reflected, naturally
and economic position/

5
The
Instances
adduced above are
Jews with extreme opinions in politics rests upon slender evidence, and that
even their dominant liberal sympathies are by no
means exclusive. They have been identified with every
party; and it is as easy to quote instances of conservatives or even reactionaries as it is to cite exponents of
that the identification of the
extreme
left principles. It is certainly significant that
the champions of conservatism both in England and

in
Germany were of Jewish

Karl Marx was to be sure,
birth.
like them, of Jewish exHis affiliations are, however, needlessly exaggerated, both by his admirers and by his detractors.
His father, Hirschel Marx, a typical Rhenish lawyer
traction.
of the assimilationist period, was baptized some time
between the midsummer of 18 16 and the spring of

18 17, some time, therefore, before his famous son was
bom, Karl himself was received into the Evangelical
Church at the age of seven and was brought up as a
Christian. Not only was he ignorant of Judaism: he
was, unlike Disraeli, bitterly antagonistic to
story of his association with
^We may
it.
Zunz and Heine
The
in the
mention Sidney Hillman, who has worked out

problems of both laborer and manufacturer and was awarded the Harmon medal; and Bernard M.
Baruch, who founded the Williamstown Institute of Politics, a
genuine contribution to the understanding of national and inter-
many
also
original solutions to the
national problems.
320
Vere'in fur Cultur
und Wissenschajt der Juden
obvious fable, as that institution was founded
he was
less
he was ten!
about
is
an
when
than three years old and disbanded before
Nor was
there anything especially Jewish
an intellectual product of the charTeutonic doctrines of Hegel and Feuer-
his teaching,
acteristically
bach.
In point of fact, the whole of the Marxian theory,
far
from being fundamentally Jewish,
is
a reaction
was a logical consequence of) the decorous conclusions drawn

by another theorist who, like Marx, happened to be a
Jew by birth. Orthodox economics are to a large extent the creation of David Ricardo, the illustrious
against (though he himself inferred that
it
English economist of the nineteenth century and

political economy. He was,
more Jewish than Marx, as he had been
born and bred in the faith of his fathers, which he left
only after attaining manhood. Unlike Marx, moreover,
his attitude towards Jews and Judaism was friendly
founder of the science of
indeed, rather
to the end. It may be remarked that Nassau Senior, the

most distinguished English economist of the ensuing
age, was also of Jewish descent, his ancestor, Aaron
Senior, having emigrated from the West Indies at the
beginning of the eighteenth century.^

Ricardo's
Theory
of Value dominated English and,
some other outstanding Jewish economists, see above,

the pioneers in this sphere was the Jewish astronomer Mashaala (supra, pp. 57, 114), who composed in the eighth
century one of the earliest works on the subject, a dissertation on
prices, as well as a remarkable political treatise on communities,
^For
p. 273.
faiths,
Among
and nations.
PUBLIC LIFE
321
European thought in the sphere of political

until the end of the nineteenth century, and
still constitutes the core of accepted economic theory.
But his conclusions ran counter to the whole of the
social and humanitarian preconceptions of Karl Marx,
who thought only in terms of human suffering and
in fact,
economy
upheaval.
The two
attitudes are clearly expressions of
the temperaments of the
two
theorists. It
is
therefore
highly unfortunate that to the Jews should be ascribed

the sole responsibility for one whose connection with
them was so
and whose attitude so unfriendly

a misconception all the more unjustified in view of
slight,
whom
Marxism owes hardly

had no Jewish connections
or affiliations whatsoever. But perhaps time has dealt
no less unkindly with Marx himself, whose name has
been associated in Russia and the world with the
Bolshevik form of autocracy.
the fact that Engels, to

less
than to
In
Marx
fact, the
himself,
persons responsible for the translation
of Marx's theories into the amalgam which is associated

with the term "Bolshevism" were mainly Russians,
such as Herzen and Bakunin. Russian Bolshevism lies
deep in the root of the Russian nature and in the
politico-economic structure of the Empire of the

Czars.
To
conceive
it
merely
as a variant of the prole-
tarian socialism of the Marxist school
regard
sian
its
Jew
would be
distinctively national character.
to dis-
The Rus-
was essentially
the Lenin government issued a
of the period before 19 17
bourgeois. In 19 18,
manifesto violently attacking the Jewish workers for

their anti-Bolshevik attitude.
That same
year, in the
322
Jewish National Assembly of the Ukraine, no
63%
than
less
of the representatives were affiliated with
bourgeois groups, while
among
the fiercest opponents
of the Bolsheviks was the General League of Jewish
Workers, known
Bund, subsequently suppressed by the new regime. It is hence more preposterous to ascribe the triumph of Bolshevism in Russia to
the Jews than it is to ascribe it to the Germans, who
sent Lenin in a sealed carriage across Germany in 1 9 1
with the express purpose of inculcating communist
as
the
ideas into the Russian masses.
On
the other hand, since the
Jews were the only

who were as a rule
portion of the Russian proletariat
it was inevitable that the Bolshevik

government drew a considerable number of its instruments from their ranks. The proportions, however,
highly educated,
have been distorted. Out of 48 persons who constituted

Lenin's administration in 19 19, only eleven, or some
20%
(not
90%,
as
is
sometimes alleged) were of
Jewish birth. The attitude of this group to Judaism,

moreover, may be gauged from the reply of Trotsky to
which begged him

your Jews. I am not a Jew,
care nothing for the Jews or their fate."
a representative Jewish delegation

to resign:
and
"Go home
to
any common factor

Jews who were active in public life and some
of whose names have been mentioned above? There is
the instinctive anti-Semitic reply: that all were a dis-
Is it possible, nevertheless, to find
in those
ruptive influence in the state. This, in the face of the
PUBLIC LIFE
names of the
reactionaries, the conservatives,
very moderate
other
323
liberals vi^hich
side, is absurd.
and the
may be marshalled on the
Nor among
the
members of
this
group, so far removed from one another in back-
ground, in object, in character and in policy,
is
there
any singleness of purpose.

One bond of union only may perhaps be observed.
There seems to have been among them all a broad
sympathy with the under-dog. The people who had
discernible
suffered for
two thousand years could not
sympathy with those who suffered
The
children of those to
whom
in their
fail
to feel
own
day.
the prophets had ad-
dressed their message could not but retain some inkling of the ideal of social justice.
And
so the Jewish
statesmen, whether elaborating plans for
Young Engnew
land like Disraeli, or endeavoring to institute a
order on earth like Karl Marx,
all appear to have been

wide
sympathy
with suffering huby that
manity which is, one may hope, part of the Jewish
actuated
heritage.
The
tive
foregoing pages are contributory to an objec-
consideration of the part played
European and American
political life.
criticism of the systems involved.
by Jews
in
They imply no
There
are circles in
every country in which the fancied responsibility of

the Jews for the triumph of Bolshevism in Russia is
even now considered a high compliment; the name of
Disraeli
of Karl
is
nearly as unpopular in some groups as
Marx
however,
it is
is
that
in others. In the interest of veracity,
necessary to remove the current mis-
understanding. Individual Jews have played some part
324
save perhaps,
all times; "the Jews," never
(and there were exceptions even then) in the heyday
in politics at
of the national revival in the middle of the last century.
And, though
it is
propensity on the
possible to discern a certain
of Jews to that side in

which was formerly termed "liberal," that
tendency has never been exclusive. All parties and outlooks have found their response in the Jewish compart
politics
munity, and in nothing does

acter
show up more
clearly.
its
representative char-
Western
civilization has,
however, been permanently enriched by the Jew's devoted, and sometimes heroic, participation in the cause
of self-government, of humanitarianism, and of social
reform.
appendix: Jews and Western
Law
Any evaluation of the part of the Jews in the legal development of modern Europe must necessarily take
account of the Bible. For, while European law traces
Rome, the influence of Hebrew ethics on the mind of legislators and on the
growth of customary law cannot be overlooked. Moreover, the medieval Canon Law, based to a considerable
extent on the Old Testament, could not but exercise a
profound influence upon the Civil Law with which it
was studied contemporaneously.
In accordance with one theory which has been advanced, the Jewish influence on European law was
far more profound and far-reaching than is usually
its
origin, in the main, to
JEWS AND WESTERN LAW
325
It has been maintained in a recent study,

with a wealth of learning and great force of argument,
believed.
law deeply aifected Syrian law, which

in turn (it will be recalled that Berytus, now Beyrout,
was the seat of one of the most famous Imperial schools
of jurisprudence) had a great influence on the Byzantine codes and the Roman law as it was formulated by
that talmudic
the great legalists of the Eastern Empire. If this theory

is
correct, the exclusive claims of the
Roman
jurists
and the German folkways to the paternity of the

European codes must be modified.
It is indisputable that the parallels between European
and talmudic law go beyond a few vague general
principles. There is rabbinic, but not Roman, precedent for the principle qui jack per almrn facit per se,
"he who acts through another acts through himself."
The medieval rabbis evolved a law of copyright which
probably preceded the practice among their neighbors.
The
possession,
Jewish system of tenant-right, or right of
became
familiar in general circles through
the ]us Gazaga, miserably evolved through force of
circumstances in the Italian Ghetto, and
may
not have
been a barren example. The suggestion has even been

made that one or two institutions and formulae of
English law, such as the Writ Eligit, the mortgage,
and the phrase cuius est solum eius usque ad coelinn
usque ad inferos, are derived from Jewish deeds,
which were familiar to medieval lawyers. The "universal code" based on the Bible, termed by the rabbis
the laws of the Sons of Noah, is paralleled by the jus
naturale et gentium, or Natural law, recognized by
326
medieval
jurists; this in
turn was the formative prin-
ciple at the base of the English Equity law and of the
Continental legal philosophies
upon which
the nine-
The
great jur-
teenth-century codifications depended.

ists
of the seventeenth century, Grotius on the conti-
nent, Selden in England, were positively soaked in

Hebraic lore biblical, rabbinic, and contemporary
traces of which may be discerned throughout their
writings.
the
God
that, since the
Age
The God
remarkable
of Israel
is
of Justice; and
it is
not
of Emancipation, the
profession of law has exercised a powerful attraction
on the Jewish mind. There can be no doubt
as to the
importance of the part played by Jewish lawyers in
modern
Even before the period of

few eminent Jewish lawyers emerged,
jurisprudence.
emancipation, a
such as the Austrian humanitarian, Joseph von Sonnenfels,
who was
responsible for the abolition of tor-
ture in Austria (infra, p. 343).
The
nineteenth century
saw the beginning of a series of notable Jewish jurists

and advocates in every country. Pre-eminent in England, above all, was Sir George Jessel, one of the great
lawmaking judges of his time, generally recognized
founder of the court of chancery as it exists today. His judgments were models of clarity and learn-
as the
ing and were seldom reversed on appeal.

Jessel
was
in his
prime when Judah Philip Benjamin,
the eminent Southern statesman called "the Brains of

the Confederacy," found refuge in England at the
conclusion of the American Civil
War. The
latter
was
admitted to the bar and for some years enjoyed a prac-

327
which even now has seldom been surpassed. He

wrote the Laiv of the Sale of Personal Property, which
tice
remained
a classic to the present day. It
his elevation to the
is
believed that
bench, an honor for which he was
more than qualified, was prevented only by deference

to American public opinion.
In France,
among many Jewish lawyers of high rename is undoubtedly that of
pute, the outstanding
Adolphe Cremieux, one of the most brilliant of advocates and a great Minister of Justice, who did much to
abolish the many cruel penal punishments which still
persisted even in his day. Holland owes its code of
judicial procedure to an equally great lawyer and
friend of his coreligionists, Michael H. Godefroi,
Minister of Justice in that country in 1 866, while Aaron
Adolf de Pinto was part-author (1886) of the Dutch
penal code. J. L. Simonsen was for many years the outstanding lawyer in Denmark.
Germany, in the course of a single generation,
produced a host of Jewish jurists of high distinction
Eugen Fuchs, Herman Staub, Max Hachenburg,
Eduard von Simson (supra, pp. 134, 305), Heinrich
Dernburg, Eduard Gans, Joseph Unger, Georg Jellinek, Heinrich von Friedberg, at one time Minister
of Justice, Hugo Preuss (supra, p. 315), and a vast
of others. With Hans Kelson of Geneva,
they were virtually the creators of the science of the
philosophy of Law, in which Germany was long pre-
number
eminent: and Friedrich Julius Stahl's great Die Philosophie des Rechts nach geschichtlicher Ansicht
classic.
So
also
is
is still
Levin Goldschmidt's great history of
328
commercial law, one of the triumphs of German

scholarship of the nineteenth century.
In Italy, one of the earliest Jewish lawyers to achieve

a high reputation
was Gioacchino
Basevi,
who had
the
courage to defend the German- Austrian hero, Andreas

Hofer, during the Napoleonic domination. Later, the
contributions of Cesare Vivante, the founder of the
new
school of Italian commercial law (with Leone
and David Supino), of Vittorio Polacco, one of

legalists, and of Ludovico
Mortara, the great systematizer of the procedure of
Italian Civil Law, were of the utmost importance.
Bolaffi
the most important Italian
Federico Cammeo, a recognized expert in administrative law,
played a part of some distinction in ne-
gotiating the recent treaty with the Vatican.
While Jews
are largely represented in the legal pro-
fession in America,
two
in our
own day
achieved a
and were members of the

Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis for the liberal spirit
which won him before his elevation to the bench the
title "the People's attorney"; and the late Benjamin
Nathan Cardozo, the philosopher of American jurisprudence. Both were notably liberal in their sympathies, and it is significant that they were elevated to
particularly high reputation,
their high positions
tendencies.
can
is
by
Presidents of opposite political
Another outstanding contemporary Ameri-
Professor Felix Frankfurter, one of the most
eminent
number
legal theorists in the country,
of standard works on political and constitu-
tional problems, Professor of

sity,
and
author of a
now
Justice of the
Law at Harvard UniverSupreme Court.

That Jews have been exceptionally
329
active in the
eld of international law might be anticipated.
modern system
Tobias Michael Carel
great part in the development of the
was taken by the Dutch
The name of Albrecht Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

was particularly prominent in the same field in Germany. In England, Leone Levi, primarily an economist, was largely responsible for the codification of
international commercial law. He was the author of
several important works on this subject, in one of
which he anticipated the modern view as to the disastrous consequences of any war, victorious or otherAsser.
jurist,
wise.
npiiTK
CHAPTER XII. ''The Greatest of These
It
is
natural in a
work which
Is
Charity^
deals with the Jewish
contribution to civilization to devote a section to

beneficent activities, for,
the
Jew was
if
there
was any quality which
able to enhance even during the age of
was the spirit of charity.

Research upon this subject is still necessary
persecution,
it
in order
to bring out fully the distinctive quality of this Jewish
For it had certain specific characteristics

own. The degree of destitution among the Jews
was enormous at the time when Ghetto deprivation
was at its height. In the eighteenth century it is computed that one in three of the Jewish population in
Germany, England, and Italy was dependent upon his
coreligionists for relief and as many more were living
upon the borderline of penury. Yet the cry for assistance was never made in vain, and relief was given
in such a manner as to facilitate the maximum selfreliance and to avoid pauperization. It is significant
that the most bulky work on charity ever published,
with the exception of Lallemand's four-volume Histoire de la Charite is the Meil Zedaka, written by an
contribution.
of
its
eighteenth century Jewish author, Elijah
Smyrna.
330
Cohen
of
"the greatest of these
Some
is
charity'
331
of the outstanding characteristics of post-
bibhcal and medieval Jewish philanthropy deserve
cursory mention.
It
was
realized
from the beginning
that the poor have rights, and the rich have duties.
This principle, explicitly
was extended and
From
down in the Mosaic code,
laid
crystallized in talmudic practice.
the period of the
fall
of the Jewish state the
was part of the recognized institusystem of every community. It was expected of
charity overseer
tional
the medieval
Jew
that he should devote a tithe of his
income, at the very

this ideal has
pauper,
who
least, to
philanthropic objects, and
been preserved to our

lived
own
on the charity of
Even
others,
pected to contribute his mite to the
more needy than
day.
the
was ex-
relief of those
himself.
series of voluntary associations took care of the
indigent from birth to death.
The mother
assistance in child-birth, the ailing
on
could expect
their sick bed,
the mourners in their hour of affliction, the prisoner in

his
dungeon, the slave in captivity. Another charitable
activity
which was
period not
less
Rome
in the
than thirty of these benevolent associa-
tions existed, in a population
thousand
was
Ghetto
particularly highly esteemed
the dowering of poor brides. In
which did not exceed
five
souls.
Every Ghetto had its lodging house for indigent

strangers, which was also used as a hospital (the institution is found at Cologne as early as the eleventh century) every community had its salaried physician, so
that medical care was available for all. There was, too,
;
(supra, pp. 43-44)
a free educational system, sup-
332
ported
child.
it
by voluntary
subscriptions and
A town without
down
its
open to every
proper charity organizations,
was no proper residence

more so than if it lacked
place of worship. Yet, at the same time, it was
was
laid
in the codes,
for a self-respecting Jew, any

its
a cardinal principle that the
poor should not be put to
shame by the method of administering

as the fourth century, the
Emperor
As
relief.
Julian,
early
when he
ordered the institution of hostels for strangers in every
with admiration to the example of the

Jews, "the enemies of the gods," in whose midst no
beggars were to be found.
city, referred
It
should be noted, in this connection,
how
catholic
is the Jewish conception of charity. It is man's duty,

we are informed in the Talmud, to relieve the Gen-
tile
poor, to visit their sick, and to bury their dead, just
with a coreligionist. This principle was not inculcated for the sake of appearances or of policy, but on
as
a purely ethical basis, being deduced from the verse of

Psalm 145, which tells how the tender mercy of the
Lord is over all His creatures. Moreover, the principle was taken over in the Ghetto period and reiterated in such intimate ethical treatises as the Mesillat
Yesharhn of Moses Hayim Luzzatto. It is illuminating
to compare this with the spectacle which horrified the
world at the time of the expulsion from Spain in 1492,
when zealous friars wandered among the groups of
starving Jewish refugees on the quay-side in Genoa,
loaves of bread in one hand and a crucifix in the other,
offering food in return for a recognition of the spiritual
pre-eminence of Christianity.
THE GREATEST OF THESE
With
IS
CHARITY
background
333
was natural
that Jews played a conspicuous part, once they were
given the opportunity, in every modern humanitarian
movement. It is impossible to give a detailed account
this tradition in the
in these pages of their record in this
it
field,
but an
tempt will be made to outline some of the more
at-
signifi-
cant achievements.
It
has been pointed out above that the Jewish ideal
in charitable relief
all
that
was
was
to avoid pauperization and do
possible to render the beneficiary self-
supporting. Scientific charity, in a word, took the place
of indiscriminate giving. This ideal was adopted
by
the
work, as soon as
Jews
the breach in the walls of the Ghetto enabled them to
assume their natural place in such activity.
The wealthy Jews who took the lead in this process,
at the beginning of the last century, made it a rule to
in their general philanthropic
employ
their almoners, to investigate the cases
they were called upon to
assist.
which
This simple beginning
developed into the rudiments of a
scientific
structive system of charity administration,
and con-
which
re-
placed the haphazard alms-giving which had previously
been the general rule. In the present state of knowledge upon this point, it is impossible to say that the
Jews took the lead in this, but they were certainly
among the pioneers, and they continued to develop the
new ideal.
One of
the most remarkable illustrations of this

comes from the United States. It was perhaps because
334
he himself belonged to a misunderstood and perse-
cuted group that Julius Rosenwald directed his attention to the amelioration of the condition of the
can Negro.
The
Ameribeen
total of his benefactions has
estimated at some $62,000,000; and a
sum was devoted
to
Negro
good part of
welfare. Eighteen
this
Negro
Y.M.C.A.s and no less than 3,433 Negro rural school

buildings were the result of his interest. The method of
his giving, above all, marked an epoch in philanthropy.
It was not only scientific; it was also impersonal. He
organized a staff of experts and consultants to advise
him, and to ensure that his benefactions were expended
to the utmost advantage. He made it a rule, moreover,
to give conditionally, that
is,
provided that certain
further amounts were raised or certain local conditions

fulfilled.
He
had
rooted objection to having his name
So little did he look for

eleemosynary immortality, indeed, that he took steps
associated with his donations.
to ensure that his benefactions should be expended
within a comparatively short period of years.

spirit
than their extent.
or another but to the
The
common
Rothschild family
is
It is less
generally realized
use of the riches

has regarded
this one.
name
is
its
store of humanity.
today taken
standing exemplification of the
it is
The
was thus even more important

It was a contribution not to one cause
of his charities
how
Jew
unselfishly they
which they amassed.
accumulated wealth
For
as the out-
in high finance.
If
made
any family
as a public trust,
a period of several generations, the
repeated with impressive regularity in every
beneficent enterprise and endeavor in over half of
I
*
charity'
335
Europe; and, up to the war of 1914-18, their firm

figured at the head of the subscription Hst of almost
every charitable fund raised in London. To recount
their benefactions in detail would be an endless task,
but it is impossible to touch upon this subject without making specific mention of their liberality in some
directions.
They were among
the foremost to recognize that
housing conditions are the key to
many
other social
problems, and they led in the attempt to cope with the

abuse. Betty de Rothschild of Paris,
widow
of Baron
James de Rothschild, founder of the French house,
showed her
k. .benefaction
"
is
interest in the timid spirit of unscientific
when, on her death
in
1886, she left
600,000 francs to the public charities to

laborers in paying their rents.
Her
poor
advanc-
assist
three sons,
ing beyond this elementary conception, subscribed

10,000,000 francs in 1904 for the erection of inex-
pensive dwelling-houses, and for the general amelioration of the condition of the
working
classes.
And
one
of the most remarkable achievements of practical phi-
when the government had

begun to interest itself in the housing question on an
enormous scale, was the first Lord Rothschild's organization of the 4% Industrial Dwellings, which replaced some of the most notorious London slums with
model tenements. Jews took the lead in the movement
for housing reform at Mulhouse, which in turn set a
model for the whole of France, and indeed of Europe.
Other initiatives, too, reflected an understanding
of the interaction between economic and social prob-
lanthropy, before the time
33^
lems, and of the desirability of leavening the
supply and demand with a
modicum
law of
of humanity.
Witness Maud Nathan, who founded the Consumers'

League of America, which has done a great deal to improve conditions of labor in the United States. Another great American figure, whose merits are likely
to be increasingly recognized, was Edward Filene,
founder first of the Boston, then of the American, and
finally of the International Chamber of Commerce.
His greatest title to fame was, however, his unflagging
advocacy of higher wages, shorter hours, and comprehensive social insurance, and his leading share in the
establishment of the Credit
with
its
No
Union Extension Bureau,
thousands of branches.
account has hitherto been given of benefactions
for specifically Jewish purposes. Yet there are certain
which is more than

denominational. In his day, there was no greater or
more objective philanthropist than Baron de Hirsch,
who, in addition to his multifarious activities, endeavored to solve the problem of Russian Jewry singlehanded by diverting it to the agricultural colonies
which he founded in America. He maintained a regiment of supervisors and almoners, in the hope of
instances of this, the significance of
achieving a scientific approach to the question.
The
was estimated at more than twice the fortune which he left.

Actually, he was unable to do more than touch the
fringes of the problem which he had endeavored to
total of his charities at the time of his death
solve,
but
his
work
is
scientific beneficence.
a landmark in the history of
The
IS
CHARITY
337
Baroness de Hirsch worthily seconded
all
her
husband's charitable endeavors, in the non-Jewish as

well as the Jewish sphere; and she figures
the side
famous philanthropist, Madame Boucicaut,
of the
founder of the Bon Marche in
which
by
Paris, in the
monument
faces that institution. Incidentally, of the seven
whom
women
to
French
capital,
have been erected in the

were Jewesses; besides the
Baroness de Hirsch, there are also Rosa Bonheur and
statues
three
Sarah Bernhardt.
The
founders of two of the greatest English philan-
thropic agencies happen to have been of Jewish blood,
though in neither case were they Jews by religion.

One was Thomas John Barnardo, who established in
1867 the first modest nucleus of Dr. Barnardo's Homes,
which by the time of his death, forty years later, had
given homes to 250,000 poor children and has continued the work since on an expanding scale. According to his
official
biographer,
J.
M. Bready,
the "Father
of the Fatherless" was the son of John Michaelis
Barnardo, a
lin,
lost all
Hamburg
Sephardi who, settling in Dubconnection with his coreligionists. Even
greater than this institution in the extent of
for the relief of
human misery
is
which, in addition, introduced a
its
the Salvation
new
work
Army
spirit into re-
England in the middle of last century

and awakened Church circles to a sense of their wider
social responsibilities. The founder of this organization,
"General" William Booth, was the son of a Nottingham woman named Moss, and it is generally assumed,
rightly or wrongly, that he owed to her his rabbinical
ligious life in
338
appearance, his prophetic enthusiasm, and his burning
sympathy" for the poor.

3
The
people
universe
is
who
originated the adage that the whole
poised on the breath of school children,
who were sneered
at
by Greek and Roman
writers for
considering child-murder a sin and whose family
life
remained a model for the world, naturally showed a

particular interest in children's welfare.
tration of this
comes from Leghorn
the eighteenth century,
when
A curious illus-
in Italy. Here, in
the death of children
through "overlying" was shamefully common, the

community passed a regulation, enforced by the severest religious sanctions,
forbidding mothers to take their
them
same bed.
Such devoted regard for infant welfare, coupled with
the hygienic regulation of the traditional Jewish life,
had its consequence in a greatly reduced death-rate
among Jewish children. In Czarist Russia the deathrate for infants under one year among Jews was 13.21
per cent, among non-Jews 25.96 per cent. In Vienna
at one period the death-rate for infants under one
month was among Jews 8.3 per cent, among nonJews 1 6. 1 per cent. These figures are reflected in other
parts of Europe, though the contrast is not always quite
infant children to sleep with
so striking.
in 191 5
Even
in
in the
New York Jewish infant mortality
was 78 for each 1,000
births while that for the
remainder of the population was 105; and the infant

death-rate among Palestinian Jewry today is almost the
lowest in the world.

It
was
natural, therefore, that
to
CHARITY
339
prominent
large scale,
when they
Jews took
work on a
become part
part in infant welfare
were allowed
IS
of the general
com-
munity. In another connection (supra, p. 2 1 2) mention

has been made regarding the Jewish contribution to
the science of pediatrics. Here, a few details will be
added which
illustrate that
same
interest
from a
dif-
ferent angle.
One
of the most remarkable philanthropic endeavors
of our day was that of the American philanthropist,
Nathan
Straus,
who, appalled
at the
waste of child-life
through the inroads of tuberculosis, devoted his energy

entirely to an attempt to grapple with the problem at
its
source. In 1890, he installed a system for the dis-
tribution of sterilized milk to the poor of
New
York.
A greatly reduced infant mortality showed that the exjustified. He then set about
same system and providing pasteurized
milk in various other cities of the United States and
periment was more than

installing this
abroad, maintaining his

pose. It
was through
own
laboratory for this pur-
his efforts that the relationship of
bovine tuberculosis to the spread of the disease was

finally
demonstrated at the Eighth International Tu-
berculosis
Conference
at
Stockholm in 1909. Im-
mediately afterwards, he established the

losis
first
tubercu-
preventorium for children. During one period of
his life,
he gave away more than
he sold
his yacht,
and
his
his
income to charity;
wife sold her jewels, so that
the proceeds could be devoted to
more useful purposes.
But the aged philanthropist retained his greatest treasure, a slip of paper which he carried about in his pocket
340
to his last day, and
on which were shown the number

New York before and after he
of infant deaths in
introduced his scheme.
Another American philanthropist who did work in

though not on so large a scale, was the
inventor, Emil Berliner, who was a foremost advocate
of milk pasteurization, besides doing much to popularize preventive medicine. It is noteworthy that a
similar system was set up in France by another Jew,
Henri de Rothschild a rare instance of the heir to
wealth who has devoted his whole energy to science
and philanthropy who founded the first Infant Consultations in Paris and was instrumental in establishing
milk-stations for the poor in that city. Emile Deutsch
this direction,
de
la
Meurthe, during the war of 1914-18, organized
the Franco-American Brotherhood,
which ultimately
took care of 286,000 orphans.
Abraham Hart, founder of the

Medical Journal, was responsible for the Infant
In England, Ernest
British
which eliminated the hideous old

type of baby farm, as well as for the act which established the Metropolitan Asylums Board. In the followLife Protection Act,
ing generation, Herbert Samuel, as
was
Home
Secretary,
to pilot the Children's Bill, a notable step in social
reform, through the
House of Commons.
In the United States, the Child Study Association of
America, which
by Jews, while
has done splendid work,
originated in 1908
by
Lillian
D. Wald,
who
earlier
had organized school nursing in
She
better remembered, however,
is
was
started
the Federal Children's Bureau
by
six
New
was
years
York.
the famous
.}
Henry
Street Settlement
charity
341
which she founded
in 1893
is
in the face of considerable opposition, but
originated a
new
era in welfare
work
which
in America.
Later she was responsible for the beginning of the disnursing system throughout the United States. In
trict
Germany, Lina Morgenstem, who

first
International
Women's
later
convened the
Congress, was the most
sedulous advocate of the kindergarten system, her
Childhood's Paradise of i860 being one of the epoch-
making publications in this sphere. The earliest kindergarten in Italy was established by Adolph Pick, the
pioneer of Froebellian methods in that country. Similarly, it was Albert Neisser who founded the first
society in the world to combat venereal disease and
safeguard maternity.
By
Jews have played an important

removing the calamities of another common
affliction of infancy. At one time, a child born deaf
was necessarily considered dumb, and generally semiidiot also for, unable to hear what was said to it, it
could not understand any language or express its
a coincidence,
role in
thoughts. It
this
was only
in the eighteenth century that
horror was averted.
The
pioneer was a certain
Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, a Marrano returned to Judaism, and grandfather of the famous bankers of the
Second Empire. After long study of anatomy and

physiology and numerous experiments on congenital
deaf-mutes, Pereira perfected a system for instruct-
ing them which received ofEcial recognition from the

Academic des Belles Lettres of Caen in 1747. Unfortunately, his religion and origin were against him,
342
and the Abbe de I'Epee's method, not greatly dissimilar

from his own and to some extent based upon it, was
officially
adopted. Nevertheless, Pereira's
work
as first
teacher of deaf-mutes in France remains a perpetual

title
to the gratitude of posterity.
The Hebraic abhorrence
of capital punishment
is
to
be traced throughout the centuries. In the Second

Jewish Commonwealth, it was virtually abolished; so
much so, that a court which passed a capital sentence
once in seventy years was stigmatized as one of murderers. This, incidentally, is one of the many indica-
Nazareth was the

Roman, not a Jewish,
was more natural than that in England
tions that the execution of Jesus of
outcome
What
court.
Sir
of the sentence of a
Moses Montefiore, the Jewish
among
ment.
those
who
philanthropist,
was
led the opposition to capital punish-
He was overjoyed when he secured the remission
of the sentence of the only person sentenced to death
during his term as sheriff of the city of London; it was

symptomatic of the times that Lord John Russell, when
approached, took no interest in the subject, while
Marshal Soult, then on a visit to London, showed
nothing' but astonishment at these humanitarian views.
Indeed, Montefiore received his main encouragement
from another Jew,
Sir
David Salamons,
who was
whole-heartedly opposed to the savage penalties which
had survived
Peel's reforms.
Similarly, in France,
Adolphe Cremieux procured
the abolition of capital punishment for political of-

fences. In the previous century
it
IS
CHARITY
had been
343
a baptized
Joseph von Sonnenfels, who was responsible for the abohtion of torture in Austria in
Jew, the
1776
jurist
a revolutionary step at that time,
though in
the Jewish tradition this perversion of the judicial
was Uriah Phillips Levy,

American navy,
brought
the
abolition
of
flogging which
who
about
had previously been one of its disgraces.
system was never allowed.
the
first
The
Jew to rise
record
may
It
to high rank in the
be continued. In the
field
of prison
John Howard was preceded by Antonio

Ribeiro Sanches, a Portuguese Marrano physician, who
spent part of his time as a professing Jew in London.
Elizabeth Fry, who continued Howard's work, had
no more staunch supporter in England than Sir Isaac
Lyon Goldsmid, the first Anglo- Jewish baronet; and in
America, later on, Adolf Lewisohn was active in the
same field. Similarly, in all the other humanitarian endeavors of the nineteenth century, Jews stood by the
reform,
side of their fellow-citizens in every country,
always
seconding and sometimes directing them.
The
origin of the
ment of animals is
Jew was working
movement
for the
humane
The
"Thou
in the oldest Jewish tradition.
simple humanitarianism of the biblical precept,

shalt
treat-
particularly significant, for in this a
not muzzle the ox
when he treadeth
out the corn"
(Deuteronomy 25:4) contrasts strangely with Paul's

comment, "Doth God take care for oxen?" (I Corinthians 9:9). That all this is not a matter of twentieth
century apologetics is made plain from Josephus (Contra
Apionem
II.
29), "So thorough a lesson has he
344
(Moses) given us in gentleness and humanity that he

does not overlook even the brute beasts," a sentiment
which Philo also echoes. Cattle and oxen and asses

must be permitted to share in the Sabbatical repose
(Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14); Nineveh was
spared on account of its dumb animals as well as the
human
God
beings (Jonah, last verse)
the Psalmist praised
for preserving beast as well as
This
strain continues in the
"And
man
(Psalm 36: 7).
Talmud. Thus, from the
thy fields for thy

mayest
eat
be
full"
(Deuteronomy
cattle, and thou
and
1 1
it was deduced that a man should not sit down
1 5),
to table until he had fed his domestic animals; and in a
verse,
will send grass in
was told how God

marked out Moses as a fitting pastor for his people by
reason of his devoted treatment of a lamb which had
strayed. Even the much decried law of Shehita, or the
legend paraphrased by Coleridge,
ritual slaughter of animals,
to a large extent
it
seems to have been dictated
by humane
considerations.^ This
was
keeping with the rabbinical conception that cruelty
in
was a breach of the Divine law and of the

Mosaic code. "The Jews never torment or abuse or
put to any cruel death any brute beast," wrote a
Venetian rabbi three centuries ago. It has been pointed
to animals
out that, until the nineteenth century, cruelty to ani-
mals was nowhere
illegal,
except in Jewish law.
Who
was responsible for the change in attitude?

as any other man, it was a Jew, following the
should be happy to think that my own end were hkely to
As much
^
"I
be as swift and painless as the end of these cattle killed in this

[the Jewish] way undoubtedly is." (Lovat Evans, Professor of
Physiology in the University of London.)
IS
CHARITY
prophetical and rabbinical teaching. Lewis
345
Gompertz
belonged to a Jewish family established in London

since the beginning of the eighteenth century.
One
of
was
a famous mathematician and another

a much admired poet. Lewis, on the other hand, an active and successful inventor, devoted his energies to
his brothers
the cause of kindness to animals. In 1824, he recorded

his
views in a work entitled Moral Enquiries on the
Men
and Brutes. This attracted considermovement as a result of which the Society (subsequently
Royal Society) for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded. Gompertz was associated with the
institution from the first, revived it when it was in
difficulties, acted for years in an honorary capacity
as its secretary and nursed it back to life. Religious
prejudice was not as yet dead in England. A dispute
arose between the secretary and the executive committee, and the former's Moral Enquiries were denounced as hostile to Christianity. In consequence, he
was compelled to sever his connection with the Society. He then formed the "Animals' Friend Society,"
which speedily outstripped the parent body. However,
in 1846, he was obliged by ill-health to retire from
public life; his society was disbanded, and the Royal
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals henceforth held undisputed sway, and became ultimately
the parent body of a network spread over the civilized
world. It has long since forgotten that it owes its very
Situation of
able attention and contributed greatly to the
existence, as well as
working
its
inspiration, to a professing
in the talmudic
and
biblical tradition.
Jew,
34^
Visitation
and
relief of the sick
was regarded
as
one of
the cardinal Jewish virtues, and Jews have naturally-
taken their share in the
endowment and support
of
hospitals.
true both in the countries of Europe as well

United States. Not only have Jews had a share
in the endowment and building of general hospitals and
dispensaries in various cities but most of the larger
cities in the United States have their "Jewish" hospitals
This
is
as in the
as well.
First should
New
be mentioned the Touro Hospital in

by Judah Touro. This is a
Orleans, founded
non-sectarian institution which serves
all alike
and
as
more non-Jewish patients than

Jewish. Incidentally, Judah Touro contributed to
many philanthropies. Foremost among these was his
gift to help in the erection of the Bunker Hill Monument. Both in Newport and New Orleans, streets
named after him tell how dear his memory is to both
a matter of fact treats
these
cities.
Mt. Sinai Hospital in
New York, originally
known as the Jews' Hospital, was founded in 1857.

The Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago was established in 1879. Then there are others not local but
national in scope. The most outstanding are the National Jewish Hospital in
in
Los Angeles, both for the treatment of
A unique
in
Denver and the sanitarium
institution
is
tuberculosis.
the hospital for blood diseases
Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Nor should we, in considering
the Jewish contribu-
IS
CHARITY
347
tion to philanthropy, overlook the development of a
whole network of institutions known by various names

as settlements, Y.M.H.A.s, Y.W.H.A.s, and Jewish
Centers, all of which aim at character development of
young men and women and thus contribute not only to
improving Jewish life but also to making better
American citizens.
If these instances are derived from the United States
only, it is merely because of the difHculty of drawing
up and studying a detailed list in which every country
of the world would require mention. It is sufficient to
say that illustrations, certainly no less striking, could
be assembled for England, France, and Germany, and
for every other land in which Jews live.
The Jew
of the Ghetto period
was brought up to
supreme importance of rabbinic learning.

Admitted to the general world, he translated this conception into general terms and became a munificent
patron of scholarship and a pioneer in the establishment of educational institutions. Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, for example, collaborated whole-heartedly with
realize the
Joseph Lancaster in his great work of enlightening the

masses and arousing public interest in education. It
was he, too, who headed the group of Jews who

worked fervently for the establishment of University
London, the first non-sectarian British University, the site of which he purchased; and he was
thus one of the fathers of the University of London.
College,
The
library of the University of Liverpool
is
monu-
348
ment
Harold Cohen, just as a

pubhc hbrary in Frankfort commemorates the
generosity of the House of Rothschild and long bore
its name. Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris, in
addition to his many other benefactions, endowed a
to the munificence of
great
foundation for
scientific research
with a
gift of 40,-
000,000 francs, one of the most princely endowments

of that time. Emile Deutsch de la Meurthe, in 1922,
group of buildings on the outskirts of

the nucleus of the imposing Cite Universitaire,
established a
Paris,
where 350
destitute students could live while receiv-
ing their university training. Joseph Pulitzer, as
we
have seen, founded the School of Journalism at Columbia University, the first institution of its kind in
the world. These illustrations, too, could be extended
almost indefinitely.
The
case of the University of Frankfort-on-Main
an outstanding one. William Merton, a
member
is
of a
Jewish family which had emigrated to England and

anglicized
scientific
its
name, was a
real prince of charity
benefactor as well.
own means
Academy
the
He
and a
established out of his
for Social and Commercial
which flourished exceedingly and in 19 14

was transformed into the University of Frankfort.
This University had a special charter and a more libSciences,
eral constitution
ing. It
was
than the other
communal
contribution to
its
affair,
German
seats of learn-
the State
making no
upkeep: and the significance of
this
which contained many wealthy and openhanded Jews is obvious. George Speyer contributed
in a city
the "Institut
fiir
experimentell-chemotherapeutische
IS
CHARITY
Forschung" (Georg Speyer Haus) and so made

,
sible for
349
it
pos-
Paul Ehrlich to discover salvarsan. Mathilde
von Rothschild, the Sterns, and others made large bequests to it. Even Jacob Schiff in far-away New York
remembered it. And today, no Jews are permitted to
enter
its
More
lecture-halls.
specialized benefactions include characteris-
tically the
foundation of Chairs for Industrial and In-
ternational Peace
by
Sir
Montagu Burton
more than
at
one British university. The thirty Beit fellowships for

medical research have done an enormous amount
for the relief of human suffering, and, it is to be hoped,
will do much more. In the United States, the John
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,

with
established
a capital of $3,000,000 for aiding scientists
artists in their
and
education, without distinction of race,
creed, or color, is one of the most munificent endowments for the encouragement of post-graduate research. To another member of the same family thanks
are due for a princely endowment for the study of
aeronautics.
Adolf Lewisohn donated the School of Mines to

Columbia University and the Lewisohn Stadium,
where New York hears its great summer concerts, to
the College of the City of New York. Elkan Naumberg was another great musical patron, whose generosity was responsible for the erection of the Music Pavil-
menYork Pub-
ion in Central Park. Jacob Schiff, previously

tioned,
lic
made munificent
gifts to the
New
Library, to the Library of Congress, and to Barnard
College.
What
Otto Kahn did for American music,
350
and above
all
for the opera, cannot easily be sum-
marized in a single sentence. Lucius Littauer
is
one of
the most liberal supporters of Harvard University.
The
Advanced Study at Princeton was

the creation of Louis Bamberger and his sister. The
first American Planetarium was a gift to the city of
Chicago from Max Adler, but this was soon followed
by a similar gift from Samuel Fels to the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia. James Loeb, another HarInstitute for
vard benefactor and formerly a partner in the famous
American banking firm, established the Institute of

Musical Art in New York, in addition to founding the
famous Loeb Classics, which have placed the masterpieces of Latin and Greek literature within the grasp
of the ordinary reader.
On
his demise, after the be-
ginning of the Nazi regime, his residuary
amounting to over
$ i ,000,000,
was
estate,
left to the Institute
for Experimental Psychiatry in his beloved Munich.^
In 1927, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, mentioned

so often in these pages, gave the princely sum of 30,-
000,000 francs for the establishment in Paris of a Biological Institute to
continue the research
Claud Bernard, the digestive
work
specialist. Similarly,
of
one
of the greatest benefactors of the Pasteur Institute,
where so many Jews have done useful work, was the

Jewish philanthropist Osiris Ma. In the East, David
and Albert Sassoon, father and son, did an enormous
may
be added that as far back as the middle of the eightwhen Brown University was founded at Newport,
Rhode Island, contributions were forthcoming from Jewish magnates of southern cities, while the timber was provided by Aaron
Lopez, a local merchant-prince.
^
It
eenth century,

amount
to further education
IS
CHARITY
among
all
35
races and
creeds in India, China, Turkey, Persia, and even Japan,
while the Kadoorie bequests are applied for the benefit
not only of the Jews but also the Arabs in Palestine.

The widespread connections of the Jew prevent his
purview from being confined to a single country. The

"international" outlook, however, has consistently
worked to achieve a peaceful understanding between
all peoples. It is only characteristic that Sir Ernest
no more
Cassel could think of
memorating
his
fitting
manner of com-
beloved friend. King
than by his gift of
^^
Edward
VII,
200,000 to found the Anglo-
German Institute, for the promotion of English studies

in Germany and German studies in England. It was
in this tradition that the first public speech
which was
by a German in England after the war of

which did so much to clear away international misunderstanding, was that of Albert Einstein;
and also that Rufus Isaacs, Marquess of Reading, became first President of the Anglo-German Fellowship,
when it was organized at that period.
The same spirit is shown with regard to other coundelivered
19 14- 1 8,
tries.
was
The London center of the btstitut de France

by Baron Edmond de Rothschild,
established
while the Casa Velasquez in the University City at

Madrid, which performed a similar function, owes its
existence to the same noble philanthropist.
ideal inspired the establishment of the
The same
Henry Travel-
ing Fellowships, intended to foster closer relationships
between England and the United

nection,
we
have the
States. In this
justification in the acute
con-
com-
352
ment made by Joseph Addison in the Spectator, over

two hundred years ago: "They (the Jews) are, indeed, so disseminated through
all
the trading parts of
the world, that they are become the instruments
by
which the most distant nations converse with one another and by which mankind are knit together in a
general correspondence."
7
chapter of this study has already been devoted to
some Jewish contributions to art.

But the function of the patron and collector in this
field should not be neglected. Their work is indeed
imperfectly appreciated; yet it is through them that
the artist exists, that works of art are preserved, and
a consideration of
that collections are brought together.
The
circumstances of their history
made
it
impos-
Jews to figure conspicuously in this capacity

in the Ghetto period. Nevertheless, there is evidence
that they patronized Giotto, Bonif azio il Giovane, and
sible for
other eminent painters for illuminating their liturgical
and
scientific manuscripts.
The Roman community
possesses ritual appurtenances ascribed to Cellini; the
Florentine Jews appreciated the iron-work of Niccolo

it is certain that Rembrandt
was supported by his Jewish neighbors, in whom he
showed such great interest.
It was only in the nineteenth century that Jews had
Grosso, "II Caparra"; and
show their artistic appreciation

At once they stepped into the front rank of
patrons. Once more, it is inevitable that a be-
the opportunity to
freely.
artistic
IS
CHARITY
353
ginning must be made with the Rothschild family,
who
patronized
artists
of every sort with a magnifi-
cence which recalled the
Italian
merchant-princes of
the Renaissance. In volume after volume of recent
reminiscences
it is
possible to read enthusiastic appre-
ciation of their munificence and taste.
many more:
But there were
the Bischoffsheims, the Sterns, the
heimers, and others.
Of more
recent
memory
is
WertHenry
Oppenheimer, whose collection of Old Master drawwas perhaps the most comprehensive ever brought
ings
by a private individual. (His business assoMarten Erdmann, not a Jew, built up a collec-
together
ciate.
tion of mezzotints unequalled in their range of ex-
and discrimination of choice.) Mortimer

wonderful art collection, disbanded in 1938,
amples
SchifF's
defies description
tility;
by reason
of
its
astonishing versa-
but he was at the same time conspicuously
generous in
The
his donations to public collections.
collector
becomes
is
of greater significance
a benefactor,
and
many
are the
when he
Jews
who
have taken measures to ensure that the treasures in

which they took delight during their lives should be
accessible to a larger circle after their deaths.
Most
of
the great art-centers of the world exemplify this fact.
The Ca
d'Oro, that magnificent, treasure-filled Renais-
Grand Canal at Venice, was bequeathed to the city by the Baron Franchetti. The
sance palace on the
Hertz collection of paintings was left to the Italian

government and is now in the Palazzo Venezia at
Rome. In Paris, there was inaugurated in 1936 the Nissim
Camondo Museum
of decorative art of the eig-ht-
354
eenth century, founded in
Jew who
memory
of a
young French
died on the field of honor. This
only memorial of the family in

ber, Isaac de
Camondo,
Paris, for
left his
is
not the
another
mem-
remarkable collection
of nineteenth-century art to the Louvre in 19 ii.
At
the Louvre, too, as at the Bibliotheque Nationale, are
many
other
monuments
to Jewish taste, including the
wonderful collection of French engravings of Baron
Edmond
de Rothschild, whose munificence
memorated on a marble
here, too,
is
tablet in the
former
is
com-
institution;
the Salle Rothschild, containing master-
goldwork and enamel of the Middle Ages

presented by Baron Edmond's
brother, Adolphe. And it was Daniel Osiris who,
pieces of
and
Renaissance,
among many
other benefactions, presented to the
French nation the Empress Josephine's home. La

Malmaison.
In
Germany, among
a host of
important donations
may be mentioned those lavishly made by James Simon

to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, and the
antiquities given by Fritz von
Gans to the Altes Museum. The collection of pictures
which Jules Bache presented to the City of New York
in 1937, valued at some $10,000,000, is among the
most munificent gifts ever made to any city.
In England, Jews supported the British Museum
almost from its inception, and perhaps the most re-
famous collection of
markable addition that the institution has ever received was the great Waddesdon Bequest. This gift, in
itself almost a complete museum of medieval and
renaissance art, was left to it by Baron Ferdinand de
Some
Rothschild in 1898.
CHARITY
IS
355
of the greatest treasures of
the National Gallery are included in the collection of
Ludwig Mond and are maintained as a separate entity.

Mention must be made also of the great Duveen endowments to the British Museum, Tate Gallery, and
National Portrait Gallery, which transformed the
last
terest
mausoleum of patriotic ininto the palace of delight which it is today/
From
the point of view of the conforming Jew,
institution
from an
artistic
perhaps regrettable that persons
it is
who were Jews by
birth have taken so prominent a share in forwarding
the interests of other religions.

is
a remarkable
On
the other hand,
commentary upon the
it
religious genius
of the Jewish people and a standing refutation of the
preposterous idea
(all
more preposterous in view

Jews to proselytizaattempt is being made by per-
the
of the notorious aversion of the

tion) that a deliberate
sons of Jewish origin to establish the supremacy of
Judaism in the world.
One may
for the
moment
look the fact that the founders of Christianity,

of the Church Fathers, including the
first
and a goodly proportion of the Catholic
over-
many
three Popes,
saints
were
One of the most remarkable acquisitions which the BerHn

Museums owe to James Simon (who has been mentioned above)
is the famous bust of the Egyptian Queen Nephretiti, discovered,
^
incidentally,
also
by
the Jewish archaeologist, Burchardt.
nificent supporter
the
German Oriental Society and

of the German archaeological
founder of the
Near
German Academy
at
mu-
expeditions to
modern paintings was

by Robert von Mendelssohn, and
Rome was founded by Eduard Arnhold.
East. Similarly, a collection of
presented to the Berlin Gallery

the
Simon was
the most
35<5
of Jewish birth.
Coming down
when all susmay mention Saint
to a date
picion of legend disappears one
one of the most commanding and devout figures in Spanish church history of the Visigothic period; or the family of Santa Maria, descended
from Rabbi Solomon Levi of Burgos, who contributed
to the Spanish Church in the fifteenth century several
prelates and ecclesiastical writers as well as one of the
most active spirits in the Council of Basle.
Isidor of Seville,
The
tradition has continued to the present time
without interruption.
Not many
persons of our day
have influenced the Catholic Church to a greater ex-
Jews by birth, who

founded the Order of Notre Dame de Sion in 1842.
This was given canonical existence by Pope Pius IX
and consists of societies of both priests and sisters, who
maintain schools, orphanages, and workrooms for the
poorer classes as well as secondary schools for the
well-to-do. Under the auspices of the Congregation
there has been established the Archiconfratemity of
Christian Mothers, which numbers nearly 2,500
tent than the brothers Ratisbonne,
branches in different parts of the world. Similarly, the

Catholic Church cherishes the
able Francis
Mary
memory
of the vener-
Paul Libermann, an Alsatian
baptized at the age of 22.
By
his
Jew
foundation of the
Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, since
Holy Ghost, he
modern movement for the evangelization
of the negroes, through which the Catholic Church
has been firmly established in Africa. The movement
for the beatification of this convert from Judaism has
merged
in the Congregation of the
initiated the

already
made very
considerable progress, and
ticipated that he will shortly be

officially
CHARITY
IS
recognized Catholic
To take another instance,
357
an-
it is
added to the
list
of
saints.
the Society of St. Vincent
de Paul, an international association of Catholic lay-
men
engaging systematically in personal service to the
was founded
poor,
in the middle of the last century
by Antoine Frederic Ozanam,

and
historian,
faith
who
by works
desired, as he
of charity."
a distinguished jurist
put
it,
"to insure
He belonged,
my
according to
the accepted account, to an old French Jewish family,
and was a great-grand-nephew of Jacques Ozanam,

the eminent French mathematician of the age of
Louis XIV, whose Recreations Mathhnatiques et
Scientifiques continued to be translated into foreign
tongues 150 years after they first appeared. It is asserted, too, that St. Francesco of Paola, who founded
the order of the
Minims
in 1436,
was the son of
Jewess.
Turning to the Protestant Church,
Sir Culling
Eard-
descendant of the Jewish financier, Sampson

Gideon, was founder of the Evangelical Alliance,
ley, a
which secured the independence of the Bulgarian

Church and the abolition of the penal laws against
the Catholics in Sweden. Michael Solomon Alexander,
formerly minister to the Plymouth Synagogue, was
responsible for the Anglican missionary activity which
established the influence of the Church of England
Holy Land, and for the foundation of the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem, of which he was the first
incumbent. Again, Dr. Isaac Capadose was associated
in the
358
with the disciples of Irving in launching the Catholic

Apostolic Church; Felix Adler was the founder of the
Ethical Culture movement, and Maximilian Low
collaborated with Charles Annesley
Voysey
in the
foundation of the Theistic Church.
Church history in the modem

Johann August Wilhelm Neander, originally
named David Mendel, who embraced Christianity at
the age of seventeen. His impressive Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche, which
Finally, the father of
sense
is
required
more than a quarter of a century to
write, has
established his position as one of the greatest

historians of all time.
Yet perhaps
his
Church
Jewish up-
bringing was responsible for the spirit which inspired

his classical reply to the Prussian
had asked
government, which
opinion as to whether Strauss' Life of

Jesus should be prohibited: "Scholarly works are to
his
be fought with the weapons of science, not by the
power of
the State."
"God knoweth no
as peace," runs a
^ It
may be
benefactions
vessel so full of blessing for Israel
well-known rabbinic dictum.
pointed out, incidentally, that not

to
Christian
objects
have
all
emanated
It is
the Jewish
from non-
professing Jews, for the traditional tolerance of the Jews has
Thus the Marrano magAbraham Senior Texeira, sup-
often overlooked the difference of faith.

nate of the seventeenth century,
plied the copper roofing for the
Church of
St.
Michael at
Ham-
burg; several Jews subscribed to the completion of the Trinity

Church in New York in the eighteenth century; while the English
church was first erected

Denis Samuel.
at
Rio de Janeiro through the
efforts of
IS
CHARITY
359
not remarkable that a group, brought up under the

influence of such an ideal, and aware that the Jewish
masses must necessarily suffer disproportionately in
time of war, should have
made
a practical contribution
hope/ After medicine the

greatest proportion of Jewish Nobel Prizewinners received the award for services to peace. They include
Tobias Michael Carel Asser, the famous Dutch jurist
and one of the great figures in the development of international law, and Alfred Hermann Fried, who
to the realization of this
worked
passionately for the ideal
of international
The latter, among his other

founded the German Peace Society in
peace for several decades.

achievements,
1892 and published a series of works dealing with the

subject to
which he had devoted
his heart.
Lazar (Ludwig) Zamenhof labored for international

understanding through a different medium.
was the one
He
felt
means
of removing the conflicts and misunderstandings and
differences which separate nation from nation and
that a universal language
certain
create national rivalries. In the midst of his professional
work
as a physician
he worked hard to propagate
ideal, signing his first essays
Esperanto."
The
by
the noin de
this
plume "Dr.
plan which he suggested achieved
remarkable success. Within a few years the
new
inter-
national language had been created, an international
Esperanto Congress had been held, an Esperanto

ture had
^
It is
come
into being.
not perhaps without
its
Though
litera-
the high hopes
significance that Florence Night-
Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red

Cross, was also one of the great Gentile forerunners of Zionism.
ingale's Swiss collaborator,
360
which the movement once aroused have not been

reahzed,
it
direction,
is
has achieved something at least in that
and
its
utihty as an international instrument
incontestable.
More important by
vich) Bloch.
He was
far
was Jean (Ivan
Stanislavo-
the author of a weighty work,
published in 1898, in which he maintained a thesis,
now
familiar,
which was then
nical progress, he declared,
future
it
was
war would mean
strikingly novel.
had made such
Tech-
strides that
the suicide of humanity, and
vitally necessary to devise
some other means
for settling international disputes. This
work
the attention of the Czar Nicholas
Notwithstand-
II.
ing his anti-Semitic bent, the latter

that he took steps
which
was
attracted
so impressed
led to the Peace Conference
The Hague in 1899 and ultimately to the establishment of The Hague Tribunal for International Arbitration. A prominent member of this body for some
at
was
American representative, Oscar Straus,

subsequently Chairman of the League of Nations Peace
Committee. And it was a Chicago Jewish lawyer, Salyears
the
mon Levinson, who in

the outlawry of war,
1927
first
published the plan for
which was the
basis for the sig-
though abortive Kellogg Pact.

Thus, in the present generation Jews have endeavored to merit the noble sentiment expressed by Azariah
de' Rossi nearly four centuries ago (Meor E7iayim,
nificant,
Mantua
1573, p. 169b):
All the peoples of the earth should
we, the remnant of
know
that while
Israel, live in dispersion,
we
are

obliged, according to the
is
charity"
361
words of the prophets and
the tradition of the fathers, to pray for the peace and
welfare of the state that rules over us.
time above
all,
the four winds,
God
that
.
when
it is
for our sins
we
At
the present
are scattered to
our duty to supplicate Almighty
for the peace of
all
the inhabitants of the world
no people may lift up the sword

and that He may remove from
against another
their hearts all
and hatred, implanting instead peace

world: for in their peace we too have peace.
strife
in
the
EPILOGUE
As
this
survey draws to a close, a
final
word
Is
needed
no misunderstanding as to the
The names of a large number of Jews have been presented whose contributions
to European culture and to human civilization as a
whole have been of considerable importance. Yet it is
so that there shall be
purpose or the conclusion.
not desired to exaggerate the share that these persons
have had in the evolution of the modern world. Of

the great names of human history, the Jews have not
produced an unusual proportion, save
in the religious
sphere with Moses and Isaiah, Jesus and Paul. In
mod-
ern times there have been no towering figures, excepting
perhaps
Spinoza
in
the
seventeenth
century,
Disraeli in the nineteenth, Einstein in the twentieth.

(I omit,
of course, those whose essential
work was
performed within the bounds of their own religious

community.) The proportion may be respectable; it is
not abnormally large.
But
be
it is
not by the giants alone that civilization can
assessed.
Great advances in human progress are the
work, not of a
single genius, but of scores of less-
known
from whose work, experiences, and

is a complex
constant action and reaction. More
would be in most cases impossible
pioneers,
failures the genius profits. Civilization

affair.
There
is
startling results
without the painstaking research of scores of humble,

3^2
EPILOGUE
363
unrecorded workers of a previous generation. The

may be won by the general; they are fought
by the private soldiers, and victory is a result of the
battles
laborious plans of the
accordingly a more
on the part of any one
staff. It is
solid contribution to progress
of the subsections of the
formed
than
human
race
duty consistently in the
its
if
it
has per-
lesser functions
has contributed one of the giants of dis-
if it
covery, whose intuition and good fortune enable him

to
sum up
the
work and
the tendencies of his genera-
tion.
The Jews have provided both. For centuries past,

they have formed an integral part of the culture of
Europe and have contributed
scientists, as
men
of
to
it
incessantly
as
letters, as translators, as explorers,
Had Haber or Reiss or

made his discoveries, it may well be that
someone else would have done so a little later, peras pioneers, as physicians.
Ehrlich not
for those
haps
discoveries
were
in the air. It
is
of
even greater significance, then, to recall that in the

more remarkable achievement, the evolution of that
vibrant intellectual atmosphere in which these discoveries were made, the Jews also collaborated effec-
and not
tively
zation
would
in the last century only.
not stand where
that collaboration.
pense with
it
The world
it
Western civili-
does today without
could not afford to dis-
any more than with that of England, of
France, or of Germany.
There
a corollary, however. These Jewish inand discoverers had in almost every case
non-Jewish teachers on the one hand, non-Jewish
is
vestigators
364
on the other; just as many of the other great

scientists and discoverers of modern times received
their training partially from and transmitted it to Jewpupils
The
ish experts.
fied as
from
resultant discoveries cannot be quali-
"Jewish" or "non-Jewish."
this point of
The
distinction
the term has been used in the foregoing pages
simply as a convenient
implication.
The
is
fact,
is
it is
without any exclusive

are
human.
heir to a double tradition.
There
the religious history of three and a half millennia,
which
fructified
with God's help

is
ellipsis,
Such contributions
Jew, in
is,
view, arbitrary and ridiculous. If
above
may
all
on the
soil
of Palestine and
fructify there again.
And
there
the political history of the past twenty centuries,
which has been associated principally with the Western

World, in whose civilization persons of Jewish birth
have taken, not indeed a dominant, nor
tionate share, but a share
which
is
a dispropor-
worthy of study and
respect.
The
point gains in force from a glance at the map.
Palestine, the cradle of the
Jewish people,
is
a narrow,
on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean, between the Arabian Desert and the sea. Let
fertile strip
us imagine for the

heaval which
is
moment
that the geological up-
responsible for the present configura-
tion of that area had happened otherwise, that the
come down
on the west of the

Arabian Peninsula, as it now does on the east, but that
instead, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, there were
desert had
to the sea
a tiny fertile area capable of
which the
Israelites
human
habitation, to
had migrated from Babylonia and
EPILOGUE
365
Egypt. Palestine would thus have faced east instead of

west, towards Asia instead of towards Europe.
It is difficult to imagine any slight geological change
which would have influenced the history of mankind
to quite the same extent. One may imagine that Europe
would have remained pagan, divided between the immoral deities of Rome and Greece and the blood-
thirsty
gods of the Teutonic Valhalla.
The
Latin and
Greek genius would not have been fertilized by Christian religious thought. It would have lacked the unity
and the force which is based in the last instance upon
Jewish monotheism. It would have lacked, too, the
invigorating influence of the Jewish mind. Notwithstanding
its
its fertility, its
favored geographical position,
temperate situation, Europe might have remained
was left by the Dark Ages.

on the other hand, would
have radiated eastward. India and China, rather than
Rome, would have received the Jewish message
through Christianity. The unchanging East would
have known those influences which set European
thought, discovery, and progress in motion. The ingenious inventions of the Orient would have received
just that impetus which they lacked. America might
have been colonized from Asia instead of from Europe.
One may sum the matter up thus: Palestine, though
situated on the Asiatic seaboard, is to a large extent
cut off from Asia because of the sea of desert which
in the condition in
The Hebraic
which
it
influence,
nearly surrounds
it,
and, facing west as
it
does, has
always had a more important influence on Europe than

on Asia and, reciprocally, has received more important
366
influences
came
into
century
from Europe than from Asia, since it first

the orbit of the Greek world in the fourth
b.c.
"There is," writes H. A. L. Fisher, in his History of

Europe, "a European civihzation. ... It is distinct;
it is also all-pervading and preponderant. In superficial
area Europe is surpassed by Asia, Africa, and America,
in population,
by
the vast stable peasantry of Asia.
comprehensive survey of the globe were to

be made, it would be found that in almost every quarter of it there were settlements of European men, or
traces of the operation of the European mind.
Yet,
if
The
Europe are apparent even

embodied in direct European control. The ideas of nationality and responsible government, of freedom and progress, of democracy and
democratic education have passed from the west to the
east with revolutionary and far-reaching consequences.
It is, moreover, to European man that the worl4 owes
political influences of
where they
are not
the incomparable gifts of
modern
science. It
excessive to say that the material fabric of

civilized life
is
tenacity of the
would be
It
is
hardly
modern
the result of the intellectual daring and
European peoples."
foolish to contest the essential truth of
But one modification is necessary. The

term "Europe" is an arbitrary one. To the ancient
world, the differentiation would have been meaningthis passage.
less
except as a mythological exercise. Hellenic culture
flourished nearly as
much on
at a later date, of Africa, as
Lasting contributions to the
the shores of Asia, and,

it
did in Greece proper.
Roman
heritage,
whether
EPILOGUE
in literature or in
law or
367
in religion,
were made by
persons living on the southern and eastern seaboards

of the Mediterranean.
It is
hence invidious and inac-
curate to place too rigid an interpretation on the terms
"Europe" and "European Culture." That civilization

which Mr. Fisher refers had its birth in the Eastern
Mediterranean, not in the irregular peninsula and archipelago which we now term "Greece"; it subsequently
moved westward, and finally, after the Renaissance, it
moved northward and became world-wide.
to
The
center of gravity of the Jewish people
moved
moving gradually to
with it,
Greece, Italy, France, and Spain, finally to Northern
Europe and the Atlantic seaboard. Each stage of Western culture has affected the Jews profoundly; they,
on their side, have, so far as they have been allowed,
exercised a considerable influence upon it at every
stage and in every land. There is in this nothing to
boast of. Contemporary events have, however, shown
starting in the East,
that even in the twentieth century,
it is
necessary to
emphasize the fact that in the tradition of Western

culture, in
Jew
all its
has been as
branches and centers, the share of the

it
was proper
that
it
should be,
solid,
continuous, and integral.
For two thousand years, then, the Jews have formed

Throughout that period, though more
part of Europe.
intensively during the past century, since the gates of
made
their
sometimes
as in-
the Ghetto were broken down, they have
contribution to the
common heritage
termediaries, sometimes as pioneers,

activities
were not curtailed,
more
if
their
as participants. In the
long
often,
368
become interwoven inexby a thousand different strands. Disintegrate these, and the tree of Western
culture would be mutilated. Allow them unobstructed
run
their contribution has
tricably with the
growth, and
means
it
fruit yet
common
may
stock
bear in the future through this
more splendid than
in the past.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The
nature of this
work
renders
it
impossible to give
a detailed bibliography illustrating every statement
The works listed below give guidance for the

who desires to study the question more thoroughly in its general aspects. The utility of the vol-
made.
reader
umes
not, of course, necessarily confined to those
is
chapters in connection with which they are

tioned.
men-
preference has been given to works in the
English language. Those listed in the
first group have

proved particularly useful throughout.
It is the author's duty to acknowledge particularly
which he has derived from Jacobs'

Jewish Contributions to Civilization, The Legacy of
Israel, and The German Jeiv: His Share in Modern
Culture by Myerson and Goldberg.
the assistance
GENERAL
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369
1928-1934
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370
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37
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H.,
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The
(The excursus
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191 2.
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G., Literary
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Sulzberger, Mayer, The
Hebrew
Trenel,
J.,
Am
Ha-Aretz: the Ancient
Parliament, Philadelphia, 19 10.
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et la
Langue
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CHAPTER IL The Process of Degradation
Abrahams,
London,
Caro,
Israel,
Georg,
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Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,
1932.
Sozial
2 vols.,
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Rocca S. Casciano, 191 6.
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Marcus, Jacob
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German Jew,
Cin-
372
Morris, Nathan,
Parkes, James,
The Jewish
The
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Conflict of the
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Synagogue, London, 1934.
Roth, Cecil, History of the Jews
in Venice, Philadelphia,
1930.
Sessa, Joseph, Tractatus
de Judaeis, Turin,
17 17.
CHAPTER IIL The Revival of Learning

Cassuto, Umberto, Gli Ebrei a Firenze nelV eta del
Rinascimento, Florence, 191 8.
Gamoran, Emanuel, Changing Conceptions

Education,
New
in
Jewish
York, 1925.
GuDEMANN, MoRiTZ, Gcschichte
des Erziehungswesens
und der Kultur der ahendldndischen Juden wdhrend

des Mittelalters und der neueren Xeit, 3 vols., Vienna,
1880-1888.
Hume, Martin, "Some Debts the World Owes to Spanish

Jews," in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, Vol. VI, 138 ff.
Manoel, King of Portugal, Catalogue of Early Portuguese Books, London, 192 9- 193 5.
Newman,
L. L, Jewish Influence
Movements,
New
Renan, Ernest, Averroes

ScHLEiDEN,
M.
Preservation
L,
on Christian Reform
York, 1925.
et
rAverro'isme, Paris, 1866.
The Importance
of the Jews for the
and Revival of Learning during the
Middle Ages, London,
191
1.
Steinschneider, Moritz, Hebrdische Vbersetzungen des

Mittelalters, Berlin, 1893.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
373
CHAPTER IV. The Great Voyages of Discovery

Burgos, F. Cantera, Eljudio salmantino
Abraham Zacut^
Madrid, 193 1.
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Heppner, Ernst, Juden
Berlin, 191
Isaacs,
als
Erfinder
1936.
und Entdecker,
3.
A. Lionel, The Jews of Majorca, London, 1936.
Kayserling, Moritz, Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese
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York, 1894.
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Sanz,
Manuel Serrano
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Origenes de
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I,
la
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Madrid, 191 8.
ScHucK, A., Der Jakobstab, Munich, 1896.
CHAPTER V. The Jew
Abrahams,
Israel,
A History
in Letters
of Jewish Literature, Phila-
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AsiN, Miguel,
La
Escatologia
musulmana en
la
Divina
Comedia, Madrid, 19 19.
Blondheim, D.
S.,
Les parlers judeo-romains
et la
Vetus
Latina, Paris, 1925.
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The Jew
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1909.
Cassuto, Umberto, Dante e Manoello, Florence, 1921.
CoTARELo Y MoRi,
E.,
Cancionero de Anton de
Mont ore,
Madrid, 1900.
Debre, M., Der Jude in der franzosischen Literatur,

Ansbach, 1909.
374
Fletcher, H.
,
F.,
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Milton's Rabbinic Reading, Urbana, 1930.
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Berlin, 19 10.
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1895.
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Lichtenstein,
J.,
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Manly, John M., and Edith Rickert, Contemporary

American
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New
York, 1929.
Mantle, Burns, Contemporary American Playwrights,
New
York, 1938.
Mersand, Joseph, Traditions
New
in
American
Literature,
York, 1939.
Noble, Richmond, Shakespeare^s

London, 1935.
Philipson, David,
Biblical
The Jew in English
Knowledge,
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New York,
die
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1918.
Stein, Leopold,
Untersuchungen
iiber
Morales von Santob de Carrion, Berlin, 1900.
Waxman,
I-IV,
lyivER,
New
History of Jewish Literature, Vols.
York, 1930.
Zinberg, Israel,
History of Jewish Literature
(in
Yiddish).
chapter VI. Art, Music, Stage

Berl, Heinrich, Das Judenthum in der Musik, Stuttgart,
1926.
Buber, Martin, Jiidische Kunstler, Berlin, 1903.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CoHN-Wiener, Ernst, Die

CoHON, A.
An
I.,
375
Jiidische Kunst, Berlin, 1929.
Introduction to Jewish Music,
New
York, 1923.
Coleman, Edward
York,
93
D.,
The
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Drama,
New
1.
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Idelsohn, a.
Z.,
in Art, Cincinnati, 1909.
Jewish Music,
New
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J., The Jew in Drama, London, 1926.

Gdal, Famous Musicians of a Wandering Race,
Landa, M.
Saleski,
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Saminski, Lazar, Musicians of the Ghetto and the Bible.
Schwartz, Karl, Die Juden
in der
Kunst, Vienna, 1936.
Zweig, Arnold, Juden auf der deutschen Buhne, Berlin,

1928.
chapter VII. The Jew in European Thought

Bension, Ariel,
Spain,
The Zohar
London,
Guthmann,
in
Moslem and
Christian
1932.
Julius, Die Philosophic des Judenbunds,
1933-
Guttmann,
Jacob, Moses ben
Maimon,
2 vols.,
Frankfort,
1908-1914.
Jacobs, Joseph,
The God
of
Israel, Cincinnati, 1880.
RoBACK, A. A., Jewish Influence
in
Modern Thought,
Cambridge, Mass., 1929.
Roth, Leon, Spinoza, Descartes and Maimonides, Oxford, 1924.
WoLFSON, Harry Austryn, The Philosophy of Spinoza,

Cambridge, Mass., 1934.
37^

CHAPTER VIII.
Scientific Progress
Carlebach, Joseph, Lewi ben Gerson
als
Mathematiker,
Berlin, 1910.
Gershenfeld, Louis, The Jew in Science, Philadelphia,

1934. (Must be used with the utmost caution.)
MacCallum, T., and J.
S.
Taylor, The Nobel Prize Win-
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Marx,
A.,
"The
Scientific
Work
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L. R. Miller,
Schleiden, M.
New
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Memory
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Les Juifs
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La Science au Moyen Age,
Paris, 1877.
chapter IX. Medicine

Carvalho, Augusto
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Silva, Garcia
UOrta, Coimbra,
1934.
Castelli, David,
II
Cormnento
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Moses Maimonides: Eighth Centenary

Memorial Volume, London, 1935.
Epstein,
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Friedenwald, Harry, The Bibliography of Ancient

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Grunwald, Max
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Jewish
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Geschichte
Abraham
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377
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1939.
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1922.
Neuburger, Max, "Die Stellung der
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Mitteilungsblatt
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vereiiiigung
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Vienna, April, 1936.
Simon, L, Asaph Ha-Iehoudi,
Paris, 1933.
chapter X. The Economic Sphere
Bloom, Herbert I., The Economic Activities of the Jews

of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
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Cohen, George, The Jews
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Boston, 1924.
CoRTi, Count,
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,
The Reign of
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1928.
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1934.
,
Jews of Today, London,
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CHAPTER XII. "The Greatest of These

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New
Feldman, William Moses, The Jewish
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York, 19 17.
Child,
London,
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Fleugel, Maurice, The Humanity, Benevolence and

Charity Legislation of the Pentateuch and Talmud,
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An
New
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The History
Fund, Philadelphia, 1935.
of the Baron de Hirsch
INDEX
(Except for soine contemporaries, vital dates are given only in the
case of Jews and persons of Jewish origin.)
Aaron of Lincoln,
Aaronson, Aaron
AcHRON, Josef
265-6
(187 8-1 9 19),
tury), 214, 232
293-4
Aaronson, Sarah (d. 1917), 293

Abendana, David (17th Century), 259
Abolays, 59
Abraham of Beja
(fl.
15th
Cen-
tury), 93
Abraham bar Hiyya
(d. 11 36),
196
Abraham ben Shemtob
(13th
Century), 225
Abraham ibn Ezra, see Ezra,
Abraham ibn
Abraham ibn Jacob
(1722-1800),
Abraham, the Jew
(13th Cen-
160
Adler, Felix (1851-1933), 358

Adler, Guido (1855-), 169
Adler, Max (1873-1937), 350
Adler, Victor (1852-1918), 311,
Adler, Yankee (b. 1895), 155
Adolphus, John (i 785-1 845),
121
John
Leycester
(1795-1862), 121
Adult Education, Jewish Sys-
tury), 62
Karl
(i 877-1925),
247
Abramson,
Abraham
(1754-
1811), 150
1508), 89,
Actors, Jewish, 175 ff., see Stage

Addison, Joseph, 352
Adelard of Bath, 61
Adler, Alfred (1870-1937), 247
Adler, Dankmar ( 1 844-1900),
Adolphus,
149
Abravanel,
AcTON, Lord, 314
315
(loth Cen-
tury), 97
Abraham, Jacob
Abraham,
(b. 1886), 167
AcosTA, Christoval (i6th Cen-
Don
119,
Isaac
188,
(1437-
302
Abravanel, Judah (Leone EbREo) (?i465-i53o),

Abudrahi?n, 69
188
tem of, 44-5

Aeronautics, 208-9
Aesop
(1483), 115
Africa, South, 263, 270
, exploration of, 97-101
Africa, equatorial provinces of,
99-100
,
first
Africanus,
Samuel ( 1 3 20-60)
266
Abyssinia, 102
Academy of Art (Berlin), 159
Abulafla,
38:
book printed
in,
Constantinus
69
(d.
1087), 61, 223, 225
Agriculture, 291-296
displacement of Jews
from, 26 ff., 291 flf.
,
INDEX
382
International Institute
of, 296
,
26
ff.,
Alphonsi, Petrus
61,
Jewish
292
interest
in,
ff.
Mortgage
Agricultural
Bank,
277
Aguilar, Grace (1816-47), 121

Aid to Health, 224
Albans, St., Abbey of, 267
Leon
(i 062-11 id),
115
Alsace-Lorraine, 305
Altes Museum (Berlin), 354
Alt-Neu Schul (Prague), 158
Amatus Lusitanus (ijiihSS),
232-3
Amenities of Literature (D'lsRAELl), 120
Albuquerque, 92
America, see United States,

76, 155-6, and passim
Aldo, 70
Aldrich, Senator Nelson, 278
American Federation of Labor,
Alberti,
Battista, 197
Alemanno, Johanan
(fl.
the
Great
(356-
323 B.C.E.), 22
Alexander, Jerome, 206

Alexander, Michael Solomon
( 1
Alexander of Hales,
185
Alexander, Samuel
(b.
191
10
Alfred, the Englishman, 63

Algazali, 61
"Algorism," 195
Alityros (ist Century), 172
Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft ("A.E.G."), 280
der
Geschichte
Allgememe
Religion
und
Christlicheit
Kirche (Neander), 358
Allgemeine Naturgeschicbte der
Fische (Bloch), 215
Ahnanac (Zacuto), 70, 91-92,
243-44
Rabbi Jacob
Hernando
1528), 91
(1194-
ff.
ANCHEOrVA, 94
Ancona, Alessandro D' (18351914), 140, 174
Andalusia, 53-4
Andrew
(Jewish Translator)
(13th Century), 63
Anglo-German Institute, 351

Angora Wool, 280-81
Animals, humane treatment of,
342, 345
Annunzio, Gabriele
Antokolski,
VITCH
( I
D', 318
Mark Matveye-
842-1 902),
155
Antwerp,
Apollo,
41, 255, 273

161
"Aphorisms," Judah Bonsenior,

no, 226
(fl. 1287-1305),
Apocrypha, 171
Apologia (Michelangelo FloRio), 116
217
Alonso,
Anaesthetics,
Anatoli,
Anatomy, 238
1859),
Alexandria, 22
"Alfergano," 62
Alfonsine Tables, 82, 217-18
Alfonso, the Wise, of Castile,
1
American Revolution, 15
Amos, 8
Amplifier, Radio (Lieben), 212
Amsterdam, 141, 148, 259, 273
1246), 59, 62-3
799-1 845), 357
58, 62, 81,
75-6
of,
15th
Century), 6
Aleppo, 94
Alexander
discovery
46,
(burned
Apulian Literature, 105

Aquinas, Thomas, 186
INDEX
Arabesques, 158
Arabic Scholarship, 52
383
Astronomical Tables,
Aragon,
41, 42, 84-5, 89

"Archiconfraternity of Christian Mothers," 356
Architecture, 157 ff.
Argentine, 292
Arin, 195
Aristotle, 22, 53, 5^, 185
Arms, bearing of, by Jews, 26
Army, 26, 48
Astronomy, 62, 80, 216-18

AuB, Joseph (1846-88), 244
AuER, 167
AUERBACH, 179
AuERBACH, BeRTHOLD (1812-82),
130
Auerbach-Levy, William
(1889-), 156
Zeitiing,
Augsburger
Arnhold, Eduard,
Austria,
Arnstein, Karl
"Authorized"
Aronson,
355
(b. 1807), 209
Naum
(b. 1872), 155
Arronge, L', 174

Art, Democratization of, 153
entry of Jews in, 149
in America, 156
Jewish inspiration of,
,
147
f.
,
Jewish, on the Conti-
256-9
English
Hebrew
of
142
208-10,
Bible,
version
16
ff.,
75,
118
Autobiographical Sketch, 170
AuTOLYCUS, 62
Automobile, invention of, 207-8
Auvergne, William of, 185
"Avendeath" (John of Seville,
c.
logo-c. 1165), 61, 195, 224
Avenzoar, 224
nent, 152
,
70, 91-2,
217
ff.
Jews excluded from,
Averroes,
53, 55, 59,
224
Aviation, 208-9
149
,
Religious basis of, 147,
AvIcebron, see Gabrirol, Solo-
mon
149
Arthurian Cycle, 105

Artisans, Jews as, 27
Artom,
Isaac
(i
IBN
AvicENNA, 53,
Avignon, 41
829-1900), 306
61, 223-4
Hebrew
printing
at,
69
"Asaf Judaeus" (7th Century),

222
AscH, Sholem (b. 1880), 137

AscoLi, Graziadio Isaia (1829-
AsHER, Rabbi Jacob ben, 69
book printed
first
in,
69
AssER, Tobias Michael Carel
(1838-1913), 329, 359
Assuan Dam, 279

Astrolabe, 78, 80, 93-4
2
(1717-67), 150
Bacon, Francis, 117, 118

Bacon, Roger, 77, 119
Asia, 77
Astrology,
Bache, Jules, 354

Bachi, Raphael
1907), 140
Babel, Isaac (b. 1894), 139

Bach, Oscar, 157, 163 f.
Bacteriology, 235-6
Badge of Shame, Jewish, 37

Adolf von
Baeyer,
(18351917), 260
Bagdad, 276
Baginsky, Adolf
245
(i
843-191 8),
INDEX
384
Bagnols, 79; see Levi ben Ger-
SHOM
Bain-Marie, 198
Bakst, Leo (i 868-1924), 174
Bakunin, M. a.,
321
Balkan States, 23, 69

Ballin, Albert (1857-1918), 279
Balmes, Abraham de {c. 14401523), 63
Bamberger, Louis (185 5-), 350

Bamberger, Ludwig (1823-99),
276, 312
Abraham
Banco,
del
{c.
1619),
276
Banco Giro (Venice), 276

Banco Popolare (Milan), 317
Bank of England, 276
Banking, 268-78
Banks, Agricultural Mortgage,
277
Baptism, origin of, 12

Baptisms, forced, ix, 38, 95, no,
231
Barany, Robert
(b. 1876), 240,
249
Barbados, 257
Barcelona, Institute of Catalan
Studies, 86
Baring crisis (1890), 278
House of, 278, 287

Barn ADO, John Michaelis, 337
Barn ADO, Thomas John (1845,
1905), 337
Barnato, "Barney"
(1852-97),
Barnay,
Ludwig
(i 842-1926),
176
Barnett, John (1802-90), 66

Barth, Karl, 183
Baruch, Bernard M. (1870-),
Basevi,
Bate, Henri, 58
Baths, public, 68
Bato, Josef, 155
BaTTANI, AL-, 62
The (H. Belloc),
Battlefield,
301
Battle of the Frogs, 120
Battuta, ibn, 97
Baylinson, Abraham
(1882-),
156
Bayonne, 301
Bayreuth Theater, 170
Beaconsfield, Lord, 287, 314
Beer, WiLHELM (i 797-1 850), 218
Beer-Hoffman,
Richard
(1866-), 132, 174
Beerbohm,
Max
(b. 1872), 122,
151
Beethoven, Ludwig von, 166, 171

Behaim, Martin (d. 1506), 80
Behring, Emil von, 237
Behrman, S. N. (1893-), 174

Beirs of Hampton, Sir, 106
Beit, Alfred (i 853-1906), 281
Beit,
Bridge-building
bequest,
270
Fellowships
Research, 349
Belasco,
David
Beit,
i74>
for
Medical
(1858-1932),
i7<5
Bell, Graham, 2 1
Bellini, 168
Belloc, Hilaire, 301
Bellshom, Ephraim (14th Cen-
281
319
Basevi,
Basle, Council of, 356
tury), 87
Benda, Julien (b. 1867), 137

Bendem ANN, Edward ( i 8 i i 89). 154
Bendemann,
Rudolf
(1851-
84), ibid.
George (i 794-1 845), 159

Gioacchino
(1780-
1807), 328
Benedict, L., 249

Benedict, Sir Julius (1804-85),
166
INDEX
and Benefactions,
Beneficence
330
(18 11-84),
326
Benjamin of Tudela
(c. 1173),
f.
Bennigsen, 314
Berek,
Joselovicz,
(1765-1809),
Colonel
308
Berenson, Bernhard
(b. 1865),
160
Bergner, Elizabeth
(b.
1899),
175
Henri
Bergson,
Louis
(b.
1859), 190
Berkovitz, Joseph (d.
c.
1846),
Berlin, 240, 246, 255

,
Academy
of Fine Arts
154
Sezession, 154
215
Emile
(i 851-1929),
142
Bartolome
Century), 148
Bernal, Mestre
(i6th
BiE, Oscar, 169

BiELscHOwsKi, Albert
(1847-
Biochemistry, 237
Biographical Memoirs
of
French
Revolution
Adolphus), 121
the
(John
Biological Institute (Paris), 350

Biro, Lltdwig (b. 1880), 139
268, 353
Bishopric of Jerusalem, Anglican, 257
258
174
Bernard,
Tristan
(b.
1888),
174
Bernhardt, Sarah
(i
844-1923),
175. 337
Bernstein, Eduard
(i 850-1932),
3"
Bernstein,
136,
Bischoffsheim Family,
1492), 90,
(fl.
Bernard, Claud, 350

Bernard of Clairvaux, St., 31
Bernard, Jacques (b. 1866), 136,
136,
Bessel, 218
Bethe, 218
Bevis of Hampton, 106
Beyrout (Berytus), 325
Bialik, C. N. (1873-1934), 137
Bible, influence of, 14 ff.
influence of, on Christian thought, 1 8 1-2
influence of, on European thought, 181
Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris),
Biography, 137
211-12, 340
Berliner Tageblatt,
Bermejo,
Berytus (Beyrout), 325

Besredka, Alex (b. 1870), 237
1902), 134
University of, 206

Zoological Museum of.
Berliner,
Berthold of Regensburg, 106
85-6, 354
Bicycle, 213
308
in,
Bertheim, Alfred (1879-1914),

238
ff.
Benjamin, Judah P.
254
385
Henri
(b.
174
Bernstein, Theresa, 156
1875),
Bismarck,
310,
314
Bizet, 165
Black Death, 221

Black Friday, 278
Blankenburg, 314
Blech, Leo (b. 1871), 168
Bleichroder, Firm of, 272
Bloch, Bruno, 249
Block, Ernest (b. 1870), 167
Bloch, Jean (Ivan Stanislavovich)
(1873-1902), 360
Bloch, Marcus Eliezer (172399), 214-15
INDEX
386
Blood Transfusion, 229, 242

Blowitz, Henri (1825-1903),
Brake, Tycho, 218

Brahm, Otto, 176
Brahms,
143
Blum, Leon
(b.
1872), 311
Bluntschli, 314
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 108
BoDiN, Jean (1520-96), 186, 299
Boer, Esther de (d. 1937), 175
Boerhaave, Hermanus, 234
Bohr, Niels (b. 1885), 200
Bokhara, 223
171
BrANCO, CaMILO CaSTELO, III

Brandeis, Louis (b. 1856), 328
Brandes, Eduard ( 1 847-1 931),
138
Brandes, Ernst, 138

Brandes, Georg (1842-1927),
125, 138
Brazil, 198, 257
Bolaffi, Leone (b. 1848), 328

Bolshevism, 303, 321
Bremen, Archbishop
Bombay, 236
Breslau, 244
BoMBERG, David, 151

Bonacosa, Jew of Padua (i6th
Bresslau,
Century), 224
BoNFiLi, Treves de. Firm of, 279
BONFILS de NaRBONNE, IO9
Breuer, Joseph (1842-1925), 247
BoNHEUR, Raymond, 152

Bonheur, Rosa (1822-99),
BONIFAZIO IL GiOVANE, 352

Bonsenior, Judah
1287{c.
1305),
no
of the Pious,
The (Judah
of Regensburg), io6
Booth, Edwin, 176
Booth, "General" William
(1829-1912), 337
Bordeaux, 300
Borgia, Cezare, 66
Born, Max (b. 1882), 200
Borne, Ludwig
(1786-1837),
129-30, 142
"Boston System," 289

Botany, 214-216
BoucicAUT, Madame, 337
"Bourse," 272
,
LOUIS
(1842-
1925), 176
Boyle, Robert, 198
Braham, John
(i
M., 337
Harry
774-1856), 126
of, 233
(i 848-1926),
Brindisi, 31
British Academy, 124
Medical Journal, 340
Museum, 354-55
Brod, Max (b. 1884), 132
Brody, Alter, 123
Brookes, Sir Willlam, 294
British
Brotherhood of Man, 7
Browning, Robert, 194
Bruges, 272
Brull, Ignaz (i 846-1 907), 166

Bruno, Giordano, 188
Brunschvicg, Leon (b. 1869),
191
Bulama, 99
Bullion-dealing,
268
Bunker HUl Monument, 346

BuNYAN, John, 18
BuRCHARDT,
HERMANN
(1857-
1909), 102, 355

Burgos, Paltl de Santta Maria,
Bishop of,
in Berlin, 159
BOUWMEESTER,
J.
133
British
152,
337
Book
Bready,
(Solomon Levi)
(i
352-1435), 75, 356

Burning-glass, 228
Burton, Sir Montagu, 349

BuxTORF, Johannes, 186
INDEX
Caballeria, Alfonso de la
(15th Century), 89
Cabbala, Influence of, 64, 187-8
Cab.ral,
Pedro Alvarez,
92,
94
Cabrero, Juan (15th Century),
387
Cantor, Georg (i 845-191 8), 201

Cantor, MoRiTZ Benedict (18291920), 201
Dr.
Capadose,
Isaac
(1834-
1920), 357
(15th Century), 93
Cape of Good Hope, 85
Capital punishment, opposition
Capateiro, Joseph
89
Ca d'Oro (Venice),
353
Caecilius of Calacte (ist Century B.C.), 103

Caen, Academic des Belles Let-
Cairo, printing
at,
ff.
of
Cen-
(13th
Cardozo, Benjamin N. (18701939), 328
Heinrich
Caro,
(1834-1910),
204
lestina
Calle, Alonso de la
{c. 1492),
90
Maestro,
Kalony-
see
MUS BEN KaLONYMUS

Cambridge Modern History,
314
.
Cambridge, University
of,
98,
160
Caro, Nicodem
(b.
1871), 203,
294
Carolina, South, 260
Carvalho, Augusta da Silva,

231
Casa Velasquez, Madrid, 351

Casanova, Giovanni Jacopo de,
171
Camera Obscura, 197, 290

Camerini, Eugenio (1811-75),
Cassel, Sir Ernest (1852-1921),

278, 285, 351
Cassirer,
139
Cammeo,
Camoens, 93
(1850-
Castelbolognesi,
Angelo
(1836-
75)^ 102
(Nissim)
Museum,
Moses
Castellazzo,
da
(d.
1525), 66
Paris,
354
"Canaanites," 25
Canadian
(b. 1874), 191
90), III
de
Isaac
1910), 354
Camondo,
Ernest
Castelobranco, Camilo (1825-
Federico, 328
Camondo,
Marine,
Mercantile
CaSTELNUOVO, GuIDO, 201

Castelnuovo-Todesco,
Mario
(b.
279
Giovanni
Battista,
1895),
Castiglione,
167
Baldassare,
116,
188
232
Cancer Research, 240

Candia,
263
tury), 61, 224
69
Calabria, 42
Calculating Machine, 213
Calisto and Meliboea, see Ce-
Canano,
342-44
309,
Capua, Jacob
Cahorsins, 30
Calo,
to,
Capitalism,
tres of, 341
War
of,
Candle-making, 261
Canon (Avicenna), 223
Canon Law,
43,
Castile,
229
324
57-8,
Jewish
translators
in,
I'lO
Castile soap, 261

f.
Castro, Jacob de (1704-89), 233

Castro, Rodrigo de, 233
INDEX
388
Catalan Atlas, 84
Catering industry, 289-90
Catholic Church, 26, 29, 161, 356
Catholic Reaction, 162
Cavour, Count, 306

Caxton, William, 115
Cayley, Arthur, 202
Celestina (de Rojas), 113, 115
Cellini, Benvenuto, 6^, ^52
Cholera, campaign against, 231,

236
Chosadevitch, 139
Christianity, influence on, 3 ff .,
II
,
Jewish, 168
Centuriae (AmatusLusitanus),
'Cellists,
232
Cervantes, Miguel de, 113

Cesena, Samson (fl. i6th Century), 32
Cezanne, Paltl, 152

Chagall, Marc (b. 1887), 153
Chaka, Zulu King, 99
Chamberlain, Joseph, 285, 312
La
Chance
de
Franfoise,
(Georges de Porto-Riche),
Catholic Apostolic, 358

Councils, 26
Fathers, 355
Jewish Origins
of, 7 ff.
Theistic, 358
Cigarette-making, 259
CiMABUE, Giovanni, 147

Circoletto,
Elkanah
Century), 229
( 1
7th
Cite-Universitaire, 348
Civil Service, 48
Civita,
David (i6th Century),
162
Clari
(John
Howard Payne),
126
136
Chancery, Court of, 326

Charity-System, Jewish,
330
Patristic, 181
Church, Bulgarian, 357
Clement VI,
43
ff.,
ff.
Charlemagne, 262
Charles of Anjou, 60
Charles I of England, 14
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, 41, 76
Charles VI of France, 84
Charles II of Naples, 58
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 52
Chauliac, Gui de, 226
"Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (Henry
Russell), 126
Chemico-therapy, 337-8
Chemistry, 303 ff.
ChUd Welfare, 245, 338ff.
Childhood''s Paradise
(Morgen-
Chinillo,
tury), 89
Eng-
Cohen, Elijah (i8th Century),

330
Cohen, Ferdinand, 215

Cohen, Francis, see Sir Francis
Palgrave, 120-21
Cohen, Gustave, 174

Cohen, Harold (d. 1936), 348
Cohen, Herman (1842-1918),
191
Cohen, Judah ben Moses (13th

Century), 81
Cohen, Lange, 301

Cohen, Meyer (i8th Century),
120
COHEN-PORTHEIM, PaUL (1880-
stern), 341
Children's Bill
Pope, 79
Clio, 133
Coffee, introduction of, to
land, 258
(1908),
Noah
(15th
340
Cen-
1932), 126
CoHN, Ferdinand (1828-98), 235

CoHN, Herman (1830-1906), 244
INDEX
COHNHEIM,
JxiLIUS
839-84),
Constantine the Great,
Taylor,
Constantinople, 64
Constitutional Democrats, 303
Constitutional Government, 13-
239
COIMBRA, 96
Coleridge,
Samuel
Collectors, 353 ff.

Colliget (AvERROEs), 224
ica,
Colloquios dos shnples e drogas

medicinaes (d'Orta), 214,231
Cologne, 23, 165, 331
CoLORNi,
de, 89
Abraham
{c. 1540-c.
1600), 198
Columbus, Christopher,
79, 87,
92, 95, 258, 301
Comite de Surveillance, 301

Com?nentaries on the Life and
Reign of Charles I (Isaac
251
of
ff.
ori-
gins of, 12
319
ff.
Compleat Anglar (Walton) ,119

Composers, Jewish, 163
Composing Machine, 70
Compositions of hmnanuel (Im-
manuel
of
Rome),
225
317
Communism,
Marranos
Convito (Dante), 62
Cooper, Abraham (1605-60), 151
Co-operative Movement, 317
Copenhagen, University of, 138
Copernicus, 79
Copland, 167
CoRDO, Simon (13th Century),
Nations,"
Communications, 206 ff
Communion service, Jewish
336
Contagion, 221
Conversos, 73, 86, iii, 113 see
Cordova, 214
Calif of, 97
D'Israeli), 120
Commerce, 24 ff.,
"Commonwealth
23
15, Chapter XI
Consumers' League of Amer-
128, 344
CoLOMA, Juan
389
108
Conchology, 215
Conductors, Jewish, 168
Emanuel,
Conegliano,
see
PoNTE, Lorenzo da, 170-1,
Synagogue
Costa,
Benjamin da
Costa,
Emanuel Mendes da
(1717-91), 215
Costa, Isaac (i 798-1 860), 139
Councilman, 239
Count of Flanders, 228
CouRNOS, John
Conservatism, Jews and, 302-3,
Cowen,
166, 168
Const ANTiNE, the African, 61,

see Africanus, Constantinus
(17th Cen-
tury), 257
"Courtier,
116, 188
CoNSOLO, Federigo (1841-1906),
(1822-
1910), 168
Costa, 166
176
Confiscation, 35-37
Conquistadores, Jewish, 91
312. 317
of, 158
Corfu, 105
CoRTi, Count, 283 ff.
Cosmography, 96
Cossman,
Bernhard
(b. 1881), 123
The" (Castiglione),
Covent Garden Theatre, 119

Sir
Frederick
1935), 166
Craft Guilds, 28
Craftsmen, 27
Creative evolution, 191
Credit Foncier, 277
(1852-
INDEX
390
Credit, Letter of, 275
Credit Mobilier, Societe
Gen-
erale du, 277
Creizenach,
133
Theodor
(1818-
77), 134
Adolphe
Cremieux,
(1796-
1880), 305, 308, 327, 342
Cremona,
83
Luigi, 201
Abraham
(d.
Davidson, J. (b. 1883), 157

Davin, Crescas (Sabonarius),
261
Deaf -Mutes, Instruction of 341-2

Death of Nelson, The (John
Braham), 126
Death penalty, abolition of, 342
,
Cremieux, Gaston ( 1836-7 1 )

Crescas,
Davidsohn, M. (c. 1854), 208

Davidsohn, Robert (1853-1937),
1387),
ff.
Crescas, Jahuda (Ribes, Jayme;

Jacomo de Majorca) (14th
Century), 84 ff.
Crete, 64, 256
Cromwell, Oliver, 118, 183
Crusades, 267
Curiosities of Literature (Isaac
D'Israeli), 120
Decameron (Boccaccio), 108

(Max Nordau),
Degeneration
135
Degradation, Age of, 46, 107

process of, 22, 24
De Gratibus Simplicium (Leo
,
Africanus), 223
De
"Cyclopaean," 164
Czechoslovakia, 139
iiniversa Mulierum morborummedicina (de Castro), 233

Della Porta, 197
Democracy, biblical influence
Daily Telegraph (London), 143
Denmark,
Damascus, 94
Daimler, 208
Dentistry, 242
on, 13-15
Dernburg,
Damrosch, Walter
(b.
1862),
168
Heinrich
162
Deutsch,
among
literature,
Jewish con-
tributions to, 138

Alighieri, 30, 52, 55, 62,
Dante
107-8
Darmesteter Brothers, 140

Darwin, Charles, 140, 205, 247
Daud, ibn (Avendeath) i.e.,
John of Seville {c. 1090-c.
1165), 61-62, 195
Ferdinand
(1810-73),
164, 167
David, Louis, 150
Davidsohn, Georg
(b.
1895),
Diego
tury), 88
de
Cen-
(15th
f.
Dialectical Materialism,
191
Dialogues on the Dramatic Art

(Portaleone) 173
Dialogues of Love (Leone Eb,
Darmstadt, 207
David,
Jews, 330
Babette
123-4
Deza,
Danish
(1829-
1907), 316, 327
Destitution
Dancing, Treatise on the Art of

(GUGLIELMO DA PeSARO), 65,
78,
138, 230, 233
{c.
iSji), 142
reo), 116, 188
Diamond
262
industry,
Jews
in,
f.
Diaspora, beginnings of,

Diaz, Bartholomew, 93
Dice-tax, 35
25 ff
Dictionary of National Biography, 124
INDEX
Dictionary
omy, The,
Econ-
Political
of
121
391
Eardley,
Culling
Sir
(1805-
63), 357.
Digitalis, 242, 248
DiONYsius ofHalicarnassus, 103

DiOSCORIDES, 214, 231
Discovery of America, 76 flF.

the great voyages of,
,
Early English Texts Society, 124

Early Portuguese Books (King
Manoel), 96
Earth, rotundity of, 77
East India Company, 98, 272
Ebreo, Giuseppe, 162
76
Disraeli,
Benjamin, Earl of
Beaconsfield
( 1
804-8 1
120,
Ecclesiastical
origins
art,
of,
147-8
Ecclesiastes,
Book
180, 220
287, 313-4, 316-7, 319, 323, 362

D'Israeli, Isaac (i 769-1 848), 120
EcKHART, Master, 106
DlTTEL, 241
Economic Democracy, 310

(Dante),
Co?nedy
Divine
62, 108
DjEZZAR, Ahmed ibn al (loth

Century), 225
DoBLHOFF, Baron, 305
Don
Juan, 170
Donne, John, 119

DoNNOLO, Sabbetai (b.
Drama, 122 ff., 171 ff.
913), 228
119
(
Sheridan )
DuKAs, Paul
Dumas,
175
1865), 166
Alexandre,
Younger
Dun ant,
(b.
the
Eli as, of
fres-
1915), 191
Jewish contributions to, see Holland, 139

literature,
East India Company, 272

painting, 147
Ossip
London
(13th
Cen-
Writ, 325
Queen of England,
98, 198
Elkan, Benno (b. 1877), 155

Elkan, Sophie (i 853-1921), 138
Elman, Mischa (b. 1891), 167
Emancipation,
Emanuel ben
Age
of, 46 ff., 308

Jacob see Taras-
CON, BONFILS DE, 82
Duveen Endowments,
Dymow,
1879),
Elijah, 163
146
Dyeing industry,
(b.
ElSENSTEIN, GoTTHOLD, 20I

El Greco, House of, 266
Eleazar of Worms {c. 11601230), 106
Electricity, 210-212
Elizabeth,
at,
Albert
190, 200, 351
Eligit,
Jean Henri, 359
DuRKHEiM, David Emile (1858-
Dutch
Einstein,
tury), 228
(1824-95), '35
Dura Europos, Synagogue

coes
ff.
Economists, Political, 320

Edict of Expulsion, 230
Edison, Thomas Alva, 211
Education, system of, 44, 99, 331
Edward VII of England, 351
Ehrenfest, Paul, 201
Ehrlich,
Paul
(1854-1915),
237, 248, 349 363
Dresden, 150
Dreyfus case, 137
Dreyfuss, Henry, 157
Drury Lane Theatre, London,
Duenna
Life, 251
55,
of,
355
Emmanuele,
Vittorio, 296
204-5, ^54' ^ô
Emin Pasha
(1840-92), 100
(b.
1878), 174
Emperor Frederick
II,
58 f
INDEX
392
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
113,
153
Endocrinology, 239
116
Engineering, 193, 198

Engels, 321
England, 14-16, 44, 46 and passim
,
Bank
Hebraic
Jewish
influence
in
benefactions.
Jewish Contributions to
Literature,
14-126
Art, 151
Architecture, 157
Economic
251
ff.
life,
ff.
Politics, 312-13
The
ff
"Ethics of the Fathers," 119, 171

(ist Century), 147
Eugenics, 227
Europe, first Jewish settlements
in,
22
ff.
European
culture, 266 f
Evangelical Alliance, 357
Evans, Lovat, 344
EveryTnan, 1 7
Exchange,
ff.
Law, 325-6
Music, 161
Ethics, 5
Eudoxios
ff.
334-5
,
ESKELES, BeRNHARD, 276

Ethical Culture, 358
Ethics, (Spinoza), 186
of, 276
literature of, 14
Es-Saffah, 194
Essays (Michel de Montaigne),
stage, 174, 176
Engraving, 149
Ennery, Philippe Auguste de
(1811-99), 135, 174
Entertaining industry, 48, 290
Bill
of,
275
Exchange Banking, 268 ff.

Expanding chuck (Gompertz),
213
Exploration, Chap. IV, 76 ff.

Explorers, Jewish, 98 ff.
Expressionism, 155
Expulsion of Jews from Spain,
105
Moses
Entomology, 215
EzEKiEL,
Entrepreneurs in the Theatre,
(1844-1917), 157
Ezra, Abraham ibn
176
fepEE,
Abbe de
l',
342
Epstein, Alois (1849-1918), 245
Epstein, Jacob (b. 1880), 155
Eragny
Ercole
Press, 152
Sir
Jacob
(c.
1092-
1167), 58, 106, 194, 217
Fairy Tales, 57
Fa JANS, Kasimir, 206
de' Fedeli (Salamone

DA Sessa) (c. 1465-15 19), 66
Erdmann, Martin, 353
Family Life, 42 ff.

Faquin, Yuceff (14th
Erfurt, 45
Farghani, AL-, see Alfergano,
Erlanger,
Camille
(1863-
1919), 166
Erugo, Jose M., 87

Esophagoscopy, 242
Espana, Juan de (15th Century), III
Esperanto, 359
"Esperanto, Dr.," 359
Cen-
tury), 84
62
Farisol,
Abraham
(1451-c.
^5^5), 65
Farmer, Jew
Fedeli,
as,
Ercole
291
de'
ff.
(c.
1465-
1519), 66
Federal
Children's
U.S.A., 340
Bureau,
INDEX
Fellowship, Anglo-German, 351
Travelling
Fellowships,
(Henry), 351
Fels, Samuel, 350
Movement
Feminist
many,
Ferber,
in
Ger-
28 ff
Edna
Ferdinand
(b. 1887), 123
Holy Roman
II,
Emjieror, 162
Ferrara, 66-7, 158, 232
Fertilizers,
293
Flying Dutchman, The, 170

FoA, Eduard (1862-1901), 102
Fo?2s Vitae, 107, 185, see GabiROL, Solomon ibn
FoNTouRA, A. da Costa, 92
Foundling Hospital, London,
245
Fraenkel, 249
ff.
Fet-Tschenschin, 139
FeUCHTW ANGER, LlON
France,
(b. iJ
Feuerbach, 320
Feudal system, 267
Feuermann,
393
Florid, John (1553-1625), 116

Florio, Michelangelo (fl. 1550),
116
15,
116-17,
104,
31, 46,
135-36, 140, 298, 300

,
Institut de, 351
Kings
Frances,
of,
203
Immanuel
(Jacob)
Feuilleton,
BoccARO (1588-1662), 218

Francesco of Paolo, Saint, 357
Franchetti, Alberto (b. i860),
FiLEHNE,
Franchetti, Baron, 353

Franck, James (b. 1882), 200
Franco-American Brotherhood,
168
1 30
Fez, printing in, 69
FicHTE, 129, 191
FiciNo, Marsilio, 65
166
WiLHELM
(1844-
1927), 248
FiLENE, Edward (i860-), 337

Finance, 28, 265 ff.
FiNKELSTEIN, HeINRICH (1865-),
War,
131
Frank, Adolf (1834-1916),
203,
208, 294
245
Salamone
Fiorentino,
(1743-
I8I5), 139
Alexander
David
Fiorino,
797-1 847), 150

Fischer, Firm of, 145
Fischer, Ottokar (b. 1883), 139
FiscHHOF, Adolf (1816-93), 305
Fisher, H. A. L., 366
(
340
Franco-Prussian
Frank, Robert, 240

Frank, Waldo (b. 1889), 124
Frankau, Gilbert (b. 1884),
FitzwUliam
Museum,
Cam-
bridge, 159
Flanders,
Count
Flegenheimer,
of, 228
Jltlien,
(1880-
1938), 160
Flexner, Simon
Frankel, Albert
Frankel, L. A. (1810-94), 142

Frankfort-on-Main, 35, 269, 280
Physical Society, 211
Public Library, 140, 348
University, 348
Frankfort-on-Oder, University
of,
(b.
1863), 242
Florence, 29 ff., 64-5

Florentine
(Dorothea Mendelssohn Schlegel), 128
(i 848-1 91 6),
241
215
Frankfurter, Felix
(b.
328
Frankfurter Zeitung,
Frankl, Paul, 157
142
1882),
INDEX
394
Franzos, Emil
Frederick II,
Emperor,
( 1
848-1 904), 131
Holy
Roman
Free Conservative Party, 314

Freie Biihne^ 176
Freihaitskampf, 159
French Jews, emancipation
of,
298
language, 104-5
literature, contributions
to,
135-37
Revolution, 46, 300

Frescoes,
190,
146
f.
Sigmund
Freud,
247,
(i 856-1 939),
249
Freundlich, Herbert, 206, 218

Fried,
Alfred
Hermann
(1864-
Friedberg, Professor
Emil von
(1837-1910), 314
Friedberg, Heinrich
von (1813-
95), 314, 327
Friedenthal,
Karl
Rudolph
(1827-90), 3i4f.
Heinrich
Friedjung,
1920),
133,
(1851-
315
Friedlaender Fuld, Family, 280

Friedlaender, Ludwig (18241909),
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 306

Garrick, David, 120
Gaulois, Le, 143
Gauns, Joachim (i6th Century), 198
Geiger, Lazar (1829-70), 134,
140
trade,
Max
Max
(1852-), 169
(1864-),
J.
160
in,
262
f.
(Jacob
Henle), 238
Genoa, 225
Geometry, 196, 201, 203
George, W. L. (i 882-1926), 123
Georgia, 260
Gerard of Cremona, 61
Germany, 26, 34
Germany, contributions to
149,
art,
153-4
,
literature,
medicine,
27-
135
Chap.
IX, and passi?n
Fry, Elizabeth, 343

FUCHS, EuGEN (1856-192 3), 327
Fugger Family, 265

Fugger News Letters, 36
FuLDA, Ludwig
(b.
Abraham
Furtado,
(1756-
Solomon
politics, 3ioff.
science,
ibn.
Rabbi
1021-1058), 61, 107, 185-6
Chap.
constitution of, 315
earliest
ment
Jewish
settle-
in, 22 ff.
,
German
German
1818), 300
Gabirol,
VIII, and passhn
1862), 132,
174
Funic, Casimir (b. 1884), 245
(c.
Jews
General Anatomy
133
Friedlander,
Friedlander,
82, 118, 218
Galsworthy, John, 122

Gama, Gaspard da (fl. 1450), 94
Gama, Vasco da, 79, 92, 94
Gambetta, Leon, 309
Gans, Eduard ( 1 798-1 839), 327
Gans, Fritz von, 354
Ganz, David (1541-1613), 218
Gem
1921), 359
(1878-
1937), 168
Galileo,
260
58-9, 62,
Gabrilowitch, -Ossip
unification of, 315

Botanical Society, 219
General
Workingman's Association, 310
German Peace Society, 359
INDEX
395
79,
GoLDMARK, Karl (1830-1915),
Gershwin, George (1898-1938),
Goldschmidt, Adolph (1863-),
Gershom, Rabbi Levi ben,

197. 217
165
160
167
Gerson, George Hartog, 244

Gertler, Mark (b. 1892), 151
Gesta RoTnanonnn, 115
"Gewandhaus" Orchestra, Leipzig,
f.
Hermann
Geyer, 170
Ghent, 272
Goldschmidt, Levin (1829-97),

327
Aaron
Meir
(1819-87), 138
GoLDSMiD, Sir Isaac Lyon
37, 43, 45, 47, 106, 173,
325. 331
,
institution of, 37
theater in the, 173
,
GlANFIGLIAZZI FaMILY,
Gideon, Sampson
(1802-
66), 218
Goldschmidt,
164
Ghetto,
Goldschmidt,
1859),
343,
778-
347
Goldsmith, Lewis
(i 763-1 845),
142
ff.
(i 699-1 762),
Goldsmith, Oliver, 142

Goldsmiths, Jews as, 256
Gollancz, Sir Israel (18641930), 124
357
GlESSEN, 213
Giotto, 352
Giovane, Bonifazio
GoMARA, Francisco Lopez

il,
352
Giovanni Maria, Count of

Verocchio (fl. 1520), 65
Girondin Leaders, 300
Giuseppe Ebreo (15th Cen-
Gomez,
Antonio
(1602-62),
Enriquez
112
Gompers, Samuel (1847-1921),

311
Gompertz,
Benjamin
(1779-
1865), 203, 218
tury), 162
Glass-workers, 254
Glicenstein, Enrico, 155
Gluge, Gottlieb (1812-98), 241
GoA, Viceroy de, 94

God, 4, 6ff.
GoDEFRoi, Michael
(b.
Gesellschaft,
Studies, 134
Gompertz,
Lewis
1780-
{c.
1861), 213, 345
GoNZAGAs, Court of the, 173

Gordon, A. D. (1856-1922),
296
Hendrik
(1813-82), 327
GoDiNEZ, Felipe
Goethe, 128
de,
76
1585), 112
34
Gold, Michael (1894-), 123
Gordon, General, 100

Gorelik, Mordecai, 175
Gothic, 158
Gounod, 165
Goya, 150
GozzoLi, 65
Gradnauer, Georg
{c.
1866),
316
"Golden Rule," 9
Golden Treasury, The (Fran-
Graetz, Leo (b. 1856), 211

Gramniatic Hebraica et Graeca
cis Turner Palgrave), 121

GoLDiNG, Louis (b. 1895), 123
Goldblatt, Harry (1891-), 241
Grapheus, Benevenutus,
Rapheus, 244
(TissARD, 1508), 67
see
INDEX
39^
Graziado, of Bologna
(c. 1500),
Waldemar
Haffkine,
(1860-
1930), 236
"Great Rebellion," 300

Greco, El, House of (Toledo),
266
Greely, General, 100 f.

Grenadiers (Heinrich Heine),
130
Grenzboten (Kuranda), 142

Gresham, Sir Thomas, 272
Grey, Lady Jane, 116
Grimaldi, Cardinal, 63
Gross, Hayim (1904-), 157
Grosso,Niccolo ("IlCaparra"),
352
221
Halevy, Elie (1870-1937), 125

Halevy, Jacques FRANgois Fro-
menthalElie (i799-i862),i65
Halphen,
Georges-Henri
(1844-99), 201
Mark
Hambourg,
(b.
1879),
168
Hamburg, 233, 244

Bank of, 276
Hamburg-American Line, 279
Hammerstein, Oscar (1848,
Grotins, 186, 326

Grotto, 147
Gruenberg, 167
gubbio, busone da, i07
Guedalla, Philip (b. 1889),
Guggenheim, John Simon
1867), 349
Guide for the Perplexed
ses Aâimonides)
1919), 176
ff.,
George
Handel,
123
(b.
(Mo-
186, 295
Guilds and Jews, 27
33, 41
Gundissalinus, Archdeacon
Dominicus ( 2th Century)
1
163,
Frederick,
169
Handicrafts, 254
ff.
Handkerchief, origin of, 66

Hanslick, Eduard (1825-1904),
169
Maximilian
Harden,
(1861-
1927), 143
Harris, Moses
(fl.
1766-85), 215
Hart, Bernard (i8th Century),
224
Gundolf, Friedrich
125.
Haldane, 285
Hales, Alexander of, 185
ha-Levi, Jehuda (d. c. 1142),
(b.
1880),
122
Hart, Ernest Abraham (1835-
134
Gunpowder,
198
98), 340
Solomon
Alexander
Gynecology, 239-240
Hart,
Ha-Am, Ahad
(1806-81), 151
Harte, Bret (1839-92), 122
Hartmann, Ludo ( 1 865-1 924),
Haber, 363
Haber, Fritz
(1856-1927), 137
(i 868-1934),
203,
Habib
133
Hartmann, Moritz
294
see
Habimah
Amatus,
(Palestine Arts
The-
ater), 174
Hachenburg, Max (i860-), 327

Hadamard, Jacques S.
(b.
1865),
201
Hadley, John, 79
(1821-72),
232-3
Harvard University, 350

Ha'ssun, Bakhor (d. 1882), 100
Hatschek, Emil, 206
Hatvany, Baron Ludwig (b.
1880), 139
Havas, 145
INDEX
Heat
Hebraic heritage,
Study
among
of,
Melodies,"
164
Hedin, Sven (b. 1865), loi

Hegel, 190, 320
Heifetz, Jascha (b. 1901), 167
Heijermans, Herman (1864(
797-1 856)
129-30, 142, 170, 319

HeITHAM, AL-, 62
(1905-), 174
(1808-85), 238,
249
(1820-1910),
245
Henriques, Jacob
Cen-
(i8th
of Castile,
hi
Henry, Joseph (b. 1775), 279

Henry, Prince, the Navigator,
Henry
Heymann,
I.,
3"
102
Walter
(1882-
Heyse, Paul, 131

Hibatullah ibn Jami
{c. 1200),
248
Hilferding, Rtjdolf, 316

HiLLEL, 9
HiLLER, Ferdinand (181 1-35),
168
HiLLiviAN, Sidney (1887-), 319
tury), 276
Henry IV
Hess, Moses (1812-75),

Hess, Myra, 168
Hess, Elector of, 269
1915), 132
Hellman, Lilian
Henoch, Eduard
(1860-1904),
142
Heyes, Isaac
1924), 139, 174
Heine, Heinrich
Henle, Jacob
129
Herzen, 321
Herzl, Theodor
Christians, 74 f
"Hebrew
(185 7-94 )
Hertz, Henrik (i 798-1 820), 138

Herz, Henrietta ( 1 764- 1 847 )
language, 54
Heinrich
174, 210
3 ff.
influence, 365
Hebrew
397
Hertz,
motion, 198
as
Street Settlement,
N.
Y,,
HiLLQUiT, Morris, 311

Hippocrates, 53, 60, 226
Hirsch, Aaron (178 3-1 842), 213
Hirsch, August (1817-94), 245
Hirsch, Baron de (1831-96),
207, 336
341
Henry Traveling
Fellowships,
351
Hirsch, Baroness de, 337

Hirsch, David (i8th Century),
Henschel, Sir George, 168

Heptaplonieres, 299
HlRSCHBERG,JuLrUS (1843-I925),
Herbert, George, 119

Herman, the German, 63
244
Hirst, Lord (b. 1863), 280
HisPALENsis, Johannes, see John
Hermann, Georg
(b. 1871), 131
Herodian Temple, 157

Hernick, Robert, 119
Herschel, Sir John
(1792-
1871), 197, 290
Historiography, 19 ff., 125-6

History of England from ij6o
to 1883,
Herschel, Sir William (17381822), 218
Hertz Collection,
Hertz, Gustave
of Seville, 61
HisPANiA Felix (Gomara), 76
(John Adolphus),
121
History of Europe, 266

HiTziG,
353
(b. 1887),
200
Georg (1811-80), 159
Hofer, Andreas, 328
INDEX
398
HOFMAN,
264
HuGO
HOFFMANNSTHAL,
VON
HussERL,
Hygiene,
Edmund
68, 220
(1874-1929), 171, 174

HOHENSTAUFEN, 60
Iffla, Osiris, 350
Holland, 46,
"II
,
,
art in, 1^3

literature in, 139
in, 3
HoLZscHUHER,
Cen-
life,
42
"Home, Sweet Home" (John
Howard Payne),
126
HopiTAL, Michel de l', 299

Horner, Henry (1878-), 318
Horowitz, L. J., 159
Horowitz, Vladimir (b. 1904),
168
Hosea, 8
Hospitals in Ghetto, 331-2
Jewish benefactions to,
,
243
ff.,
339, 346
ff.
Housing, 335-6
Hubermann,
Bronislaw
(b.
1882), 167
movement,
1300),
152
ff.
laration of, 298

India, discovery of sea route to,
94
Indicopleustes, Cosmas, 254
Indigo, 260
International
Industrial
and
Peace, Chairs of, 349
Industrial dwellings, 335
Infant Consultations, 340
Infant Hygiene, see Pediatry,
mortality
and welfare,
f.
Inferno (Dante), 107

Inquisition, 88-90, 112, 231
ff.
Insulin, 241, 248

International Agricultural Insti-
ff.
Humboldt, 129
Humboldt, Alexander von,
Hundred Merry Tales, no,
231
115
"Hungarian Concerto," 164

Hungarian writers, 139
Hunter, John, 231
Hurst, Fannie (b. 1889), 123
Hurwitz, Hyman (i 770-1 844),
128
{c.
Ta-
Independence, American, 308

Independence, American Dec-
338
treatment of animals,
Humanitarianism, 333
107-8
Impressionist
340
Infant
Huldschinsky, Kurt, 246

213, 343
Jacob, see
rascon, bonfils de, 82
245 ff.
Infant Life and Protection Act,
HiJBNER, Von, 284

Hudson, Stephen, 123
Hugo, Victor, 128
Humane
Con-
221
Immanuel of Rome
tury), 32
Home
43-4
Conception,
gregation of, 356
Immaculate
Immanuel ben
Count
of, 233
firm of ( 14th
ff.
Caparra," 352
llCortegiano (Castiglione), 188
ImMANUEL,
Hollander, 241-2
HoLSTEiN,
338
Illiteracy,
Trade Union move-
ment
139, 255, 259, 262
(b. 1889), 191
ff.,
tute, 296-7
International Sociological Institute, 191
Inventors, Jewish, 197 ff.

Irish Famine (1846), 287
Irving,
Edward, 358
Isaac ben Sid
( 1
3th Century) , 81
Isaac, Sarah, 126
INDEX
Solomon ben
Isaac,
(Rashi,
1040-1105), 105
Nathaniel
Isaacs,
1858), 99
Isaacs, Rufus, ist
(1808-c.
Marquess of
399
Jacob, Emanuel, 82
Jacob, Isaak, 148
Jacob of Capua (13th Century),
61, 224
Jacob, the
Reading (1860-1935), 312, 350

"Isabella" (Colour), 254
Jacob,
Isaiah, 362
Jacobi,
Isaiah of Trani, 66
IsAK, Aaron (i8th Century), loi
245
Jacobi,
IsHiLL, Joseph, 152
Jacobi,
IsiDOR OF Seville, Saint
(560-
Jew (Oxford)
1650), 257
{c.
f.
Naomi
(b. 1889), 123
Abraham;
(1830-1919),
K. G. J. (1804-51), 201
MoRiTZ Hermann (1801-
74), 213
636), 356
Islam, 56, 83, 253
Israel, Sergeant Edward (1859-
(i 854-191 6), 56, 81, 264

"Jacob's Staff," 79, 197
Jacobson, Julius (1828-89), 244
84), lOI
Israel, James (i 848-1926), 242,
Jacobsthal, E. (1839-1902), 159

Jacobsz, Lucas, 148
Jacobszoon, S. H., 148
249
Menasseh ben
Israel,
(1604-
Jacobs
Jacoby,
Johann
(1805-77), 35
1657), 118, 148

Israeli, Isaac (Isaac Judaeus),
Jacomo, Maestre de Majorca,

see Crescas Jahuda, 85
54, 82, 185, 222-3, 225, 243

Israels, Josef (1824-1911), 153
Jadassohn, Josef (b. 1863), 249

Salomon
Jadassohn,
( i 83 i
f.,
1902), 166
179
Italian
Chamber of Deputies,
Italian
literature,
308
contributions
to, i39f.
public
life,
307 if ., 3i7f.
Italian writers, 107-9
first
254
Jewish settlement
in, 22
29
Jewish lawyers in, 328

Jewish loan-banks in,
ff.
Jewish manufacturers
in
Middle Ages in, 34

of Benjamin of Tu-
Itinerary
dela, 97
I of England, 16, 259

Jami, Hibatullah ibn, 248
Jativa, 71
(1839-1907),
Jeiteles, 171
Jellinek,
George (1851-1911),
327
Jenner, Edward, 233

Jeremiah, Prophet, 146
Zara), jj
Jessel,
54
Jacob ben Makhir ibn Tibbon

1240-1308), 58, 61, 78
Emil
244
Jerusalem Talmud (Aboda
Jacob, Anatoli (13th Century),
{c.
Jaffe, Philipp (1829-1870), 133

Jamaica, 257
Javal, Louis
,
(b. 1878),
168
James
Italy, 22, 27, 34, 44-5, 54, 198,

,
Jadlowker, Hermann
f.
Sir
George (1824-83),
326
Jessner, Leopold (b. 1878), 177
INDEX
400
Jesus of Nazareth, 3-4, 8
Iconography
ff ., 12
of, 146-7,
362
Jew,
in
England,
II
of
Aragon,
87, III, 244
1256), 59
(d. 1217),
106
(Wagner),
Judaism in Music
30, 33
in France, 23, 28
in Hungary, 23
169
Judaizer, 72
in Spain, 22
Judengasse, see Ghetto, 106

Juive La, 16$
Julian, Roman Emperor, 332
JuscHKEWiTCH, Semjon (i868-
in the
Western World,
Jewelers, Jewish,
Ages, 262-3
in
Middle
1927). 174
Jus Gazaga, 325
Colonial Association, 292
mind, 365
National Assembly, 322
period,
Workers,
League
General
Joachim,
Joseph
Gustave
(1831-1907),
Kahn, Otto (i 867-1934), 349

Kahn, Reuben L. (b. 1887), 238
Kaiser Friedrich
OF Portugal,
Job, Book of, 1 80-1

JoBsoN, Cirques, of
Kaiser-und
Oxford
{c.
1650), 258
see
Museum
(Ber-
Ijn), 354
80, 95
JocHELsoN, Vladimir, 102

JODES DE, 148
Johannesburg, 281-2
Seville,
(i 859-1936),
136
164, 167
of
Kadoorie bequests, 351

Kafka, Franz (1883-1924), 131
Kahn, Albert (1869-), 160
Kahn, Eli Jacques (1884-), 160
KLahn,
of, 322
"Jew's Drink," 258

Jews in war, 27
II
Infant
Judah ben Moses (c.

JuDAH of Regensburg
in Russia, 35
Jewish
Jewish
Jewish
Jewish
Jewish
ff.,
JuDAEus, Isaac, 222
ixif.
in the Balkans, 23
in the East, 23
John
Juan,
83
in Alexandria, 22
JoAO
Journalism, 129, 141
Aven-
Kaiserin-Friedrich-
Krankenhaus (Berlin), 245

Kalilah and Dimnah, 56, 194
Kalisch, David (1820-72), 143
Kalonymos, Kalony Mos ben
(Maestro Calo) (c. 1300), 62
Kant, Immanuel (i 724-1804),
DEATH, 61, 195, 224

Joint Stock-banking, 272
Jones, Henry Arthur, 122
Kajit Studien, 192

Kantian Criticism, School of, 191
Joseph Family, 207

Joseph, see Giuseppe Ebreo, 162
Kaufman, George
183
Joseph, Jesse (18 17-1904), 279

Joseph, the physician, 84
Josephson,
Ludwig Oscar,
174
Josephus, 25, 43, 172, 343
138,
Kaspar, Ludwig, 243

S.
174
Kean, Edmund, 176

Kellogg Pact, 360
Kelson, Hans, 327
Kelvin, Lord, 212
(b. 1889),
INDEX
Kepler, Johann,
Khurdadbih, ibn
Landau,
79, 82, 218

(fl.
847), 96
Edmund
(1877-1938),
f,,
Landsberg, Otto (b. 1869), 315

Landsteiner, Karl (b. 1868),
251
Kiel, 239
Kimberley, 281
KiMHi, David,
1235), 74
40
242
Rabbi
(1160-
Langer, Frantisek
(b.
1888),
139
f.
KiNDI, AL-, 62
Langer, Siegfried (1857-82), 102
King, Lieutenant, R. N., 99
Laskoon (Lessing), 128
KiPNis, Alexander, 168

KiSLiNG, Moise (b. 1891), 153
Kladderadatsch, 143
Lapedario (Abolays), 59
Lara, Isidor de (1858-1935), 166
Lasker, Eduard (1829-84), 311 f.
Lassalle, Ferdinand (1825-64),
Klemperer, George
1864),
(b.
310
240
Klemperer, Otto (b. 1885), 168

Koch, Robert, 236
Kol Nidrei, 40
KoLiN, Philipp, 109
KoLiER, Carl (b. 1887), 243-4,
(i 869-1 937),
151
Latin, Renaissance, 52
Latin, use of, 183 f.
Latini, Brunetto, 82
Latzko, Andreas, 139

Laurence, John Zachariah
248
Kopman, Benjamin,
ff.
Laszlo, Philip de
156
(c.
Koran, 78
KoRTNER, Fritz (b. 1892), 176
Kosciusko, Revolt of, 308
Kossuth, Louis, 306
1828-70), 244
Law, Jews and, 324 ff., 359
Law of the Sale of Personal
Kramer, Jacob,
Laws
151
Lazarus,
Kronecker, 249
Kronecker, Hugo (1839-1914),
243
I42,
Kvutzah, The, 296
318
Leibniz,
AL,
228
Lallemand, 330
Lancaster, Sir James, 98
Lancaster, Joseph, 347
(1849-87), 123
95
(1878-),
Gottfried Wilhelm,
189
Leipzig, 164
Conservatoire, 164
Leirla.,
Lady Alice,
Emma
League of Jewish Workers, 322

Lecky, W. E. H., 15, 286
Lectionaires of the Church, 12
Lee, Sir Sidney (i 859-1926),
128,
MuHAMMED
327
Hebrews (Spen-
Lehman, Herbert H.
305
KWARIZMI,
(Benjamin),
124
Co., 272
Kulturkampf, 314
KURANDA, IgNAZ (1812-84)
of the
cer, 1685), 186
Krein, the Brothers, 167

Kreisler (b. 1875), 167
Kroll, Leon (1884-), 156
KUHN, LOEB AND
Property
186,
70
Lengyel, Melchior
139,
(b.
174
Lenin, Vladimir, 321

Leon, 191
f.
1880),
INDEX
402
Leon, Louis Ponce de
1528-
(c.
91), 111-12
Leon, Xavier (b. 1868), 192

Leoncavallo, 166
Leone Ebreo, see Abravanel,
JUDAH, 188
"Leoni, Mr.,"
(c.
1800),
Lyon Myer
i.e.
161,
175
Ephraim,
128
Let There Be Light (Lxjbin),

Letter of Credit, 275
Chap. V, p. 103 flF.

Letters on Senti?nent (Moses
Letters,
Mendelssohn)
1906),
(1862-
(b.
1883),
Lewisohn Stadium, 349

Lexicography, 134
Liber cojitinens (Rhazes), 60
Liber Embadorum (Plato of
Tivoli), 196
197
Levi ben
1
Gershom
of Bagnols
288-1 344), 79,
217
Levi-Civita,
Tullio
106,
(b.
197,
1873),
202
Hermann
(i 839-1900),
168
Jehuda ha-,
221
Levi, Joseph (17th Century), 66
Leone (1821-88), 329

Solomon, see Santa
Maria, Paul de, 75, 356
Levin, Ludwig Robert, 128
Levin, Rachel (1771-1833), 128
Levinson, Salomon, 360
Levi,
Levi, Rabbi
Levitan, Isaac
(i 860-1900), 153,
179
Levy, Benn (b. 1900), 174

Levy, Florence, 157
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien
(b.
1875),
191-2
J.
Paul, Venerable, 356

Lieban, Julius (b. 1857), 168
Lieben, Robert VON (1878-1913),
M.
125
LlEBERMANN,
138
Levi ben Abraham (of Villefranche)

(c.
1245-c. 13 14),
Levy,
Lewisohn, Ludwig
Lieberm ANN, Felix (1851-1925),
Oskar Ivar
Levertin,
Levi,
343,
349
212, 290
27
Levant, 34
Levi,
Lewisohn, Adolf (1849-),
Libermann, Francis, Mary
295
(c.
(i 792-1 862), 343
281
123
Gotthold
Lessing,
Levy, Uriah P.
Levsîs, Isaac,
(1812-88), 143
130,
153
LlEBIG, 203
Liebreich,
MaX
( 1
847- 1 934),
ff.
Oscar
(1839-1908),
243, 249
Liegnitzer, Andreas Jud (15th
Century), 297
Lije of Jesus (Strauss), 358
Life of Shakespeare (Sir Sidney
Lee), 124
Life of the Bee (Maurice Maeterlinck), 122
"Life on the Ocean Wave, A"
(Henry Russell), 126
LiGNE, Prince de, 129
Lincoln, Aaron of (12th Century), 265 f.
Lincoln, Jewry, 158

Lincoln, Minister of, 267
Lindau, 41
LiNDO, Moses (d. 1774), 260
Linz program, 315
LtPMAN, Jacob G. (b. 1874), 294
Lippman, Gabriel (i 845-1 921),
213, 290
LiPSCHiTZ, Jacques (b. 1891), 155
INDEX
Lorenzo, the Magnificent,
LisBon, 233
LissAUER, Ernst
(1882-1937),
on
Literary influence
Scriptures,
Hebraic
Literature, English,
in-
ii4flF.
LiTTAUER, Lucius N.
(1859-),
350
Countries, 255
A-Iaximilian, 358
LozowicK, Louis (1892-), 156

Lubin, David (1849-1919), 295 f.
Lucas, Louis A. (1851-76), 100
Lucca, Pauline ( i 84 i - 908 )
i
"Little Theaters," 177
168, 255
Liverpool, Lord, 286

Liverpool, University of, 347
Loans, Jacob (1440-93), 74
LOBATSCHEWSKI, NiK. IvANOVICH
LucENA, James (i8th Century),

261
LuDWiG, Emil
of,
Lurie,
Max
Classics, 350
(i 859-1924), 206,
183
Lusiads,
248
16, 72-3,
109,
(Camoens), 93
Lusitanus,
241
132,
B. (1893-), 241
Luther, Martin,
207 f
LoEB, Jacques
1881),
(b.
137. 244
Lukatchewsky, Dr.,
Lull, Raimon, 187
(1793-1856), 201
Locke, John, 68, 187

Locomotion, development
Loeb
Low
Low,
ff.
fluence on,
6^,
162
Lorraine, 255
Louis XIV of France, 357
Louvre, The, 354
Lister Institute, 245

Literacy, 43
16
403
Amatus
(Rodrigo,
Loeb, James (1867-1933), 350

Loeb, Leo (1869-), 241
Loeavenstein, Rudolf, 143
Juan) (1511-68), 232 f.

LuzATTO, Moses Hayim (1707-
Loewi, Otto
Luzzatti,
(b. 1873), 240
Loewy, Maltrice
(1833-1907),
Luigi
loi, 295, 317
(1841-1927),
f.
Lyon, Myer ("Mr. Leoni")
218
Lombards, 30
LOMBROSO, CeSARE (1836-1909),
1800), 175
Lyons, Israel,
the
(c.
Younger
(1739-75), 98
246
London,
,
Lyra, Nicholas
33, 245
University of, 206
Longinus, 103
Lopez, Aaron (1884-), 350
Lopez, Antoinette (i6th Century), 117
Lopez, Sabbatino
174
Lords,
47). 332
House
(b. 1867), 119,
of, 298
Lord's Prayer, 9
Lorelei (Heinrich Heine), 129
Maccabees,
de, 74 f
13
"Macchiaiuoli," School of the,

153
Machiavelli, 299
Macht der Verhdltnisse, Die
(LuDwiG Robert Levin), 128
Madrid, 82, 150
Madariaga, Salvador de, 87
"Maestro Calo," see Kalony-
MUS BEN KaLONYMUS,
62
INDEX
404
Magellan, 79
Magino, Meir (i6th Century),
Magnifying
(15th Century), iii
Gustav
1923), 242
Marranos,
iioff.,
(1860-1911),
Moses
1204),
54, 67, 106,

186, 216, 221 ff.
(1135182,
184,
41,
148,
73,
225,
86,
Majar, 98
LOMBROSO), 246
contributions of, to
erature,
II
lit-
ff
Marriage, Jewish ideal of, 5, 42

restrictions on, 37-8
Marriage of Figaro, The, 170
f.
Marseilles, 216, 261
Martin
I,
85
Martinique, 257
Marx, Hirschel (c. 1800), 319

Marx, Karl (1818-83), 142, 319,
323
Marxian Theory, 320
Manet, 152 f.
Manfred of Sicily, 58
Mashaala
Manfredi, 173
Manhattan Opera House, 176
Manin, Daniel (1804-57), 3^7
Mashal Hakadmoni, 77
"Master of Maps and
(8th
Century),
57,
78, 114, 320
Masurjuwaik
219
(fl.
Mathematics,
Manteuffel ministry, 314

Mantino, Jacob (d. 1549), 63
Maurogonato,
Mantua,
Maurois, Andre
66, 162, 173
Com-
passes," 83
Manoel, King of Portugal, 96
"Map
98,
Majorca, Jewish school of cartographers at, 83

Makhir, Jacob ben, 58, 61, 78 f.
Malaria, suppression of, 234
Malmaison, La, 354
Man of Genius, The (Cesare
Mann, Thomas,
96,
229-30, 257,
272
166
Maimonides,
1850-1920),
(c.
281
Markham, Sir Clements, 230

Marmorek, Alexander (1865-
glass, 228
Magnus, Gustav (1802-70), 242

Maguaque, Rodrigo Cota de
Mahler,
Marks, Samuel
680), 57
193, 196, 200
Isaac
f.
Pesaro
(1817-92), 307
(b. 1885), 125,
Jew," 85
Map-making, 83 ff.
Marcello, Bendetto, 161
Marco, surgeon to Columbus
(c. 1492),
May
Laws, 292
Mayerowitz, William, 156
90
Marconi, Guglielmo, 210

Marcus, Siegfried (1831-97),
208
Maria, Alfonso de Sante,

Maria, Giovanni, 6^
Mauthner, Ludwig, 244

Maxwell, Clerk, 210
hi
Maria, Legendary inventor of

"water bath," 198
Maria, Paul de Santa, 75, 356

Maritime discovery, 77 ff
Mazzini, Giuseppe, 306
Meade, Hoseah, 118

Mecklenburg, Town Council
of,
308
Medal-making, 149
Mediaeval rationalism, 186-7
Medical Schools, Mediaeval, 227
Medici Family and the Jews,
65, 265
INDEX
Medici, Lorenzo de', 65, 162
Medicine, 220 ff.
, Jewish contribution
Mengs,
predilection
of
to,
Jews
Medigo, Elijah del (1463-97),
764),
Menina e Moga, 70
M^NiNSKY, Bernard, 151
Menken, Ada Isaacs (1813-68),
175
Menken, Dr. Valy,

Menuhin, Yehudi
Meor
64
Medina, Allegra (Manin), 307

Medina, Samuel, 307
Mediterranean, Eastern, 254
Meil Zedaka (Elijah Cohen),
241
Meisel, Mordecai
(1
528-1 601),
(b. 1917), 167
(Azariah
Enayini
de'
Rossi), 360
Mercantile
Mercantile
life,
Jews
in,
Marine,
252
ff.
Canadian,
279
Mercantile
330
Marine,
German,
279, 285
Mercator, 96
ff.
Melanchthon, 73
Meldola, Raphael (1849-1915),
Merchant of Venice, The,
32
"Merchants," 270
Mercurialis, 226
205
Menasseh ben Israel (1604-57),

118, 148
Mendel, David, 358

Mendel, Emanuel, 249
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
BRECHT
(i 688-1
Menshiviks, 303
for, 221
36
Ishmael
150
in Nortliern Africa, 223

in the Talmud, 222
,
405
Al-
(b. 1874), 329
1*53 f.
1839), 128
(b.
1887),
159
Mendelssohn, Firm of, 272

Mendelssohn, Moses (1729-86),
127
Mendelssohn, Robert von, 355

Mendes, Catulle ( i 84 1 - 1 909 )
135
Mendes, Moses (d. 1758), 119

Mendoza, Daniel (i 763-1 836),
297
Menelaus, 62
Mengs, Anton Rafael (172879). 150
Merton, William,
348
Mesillat Yeshariin
(Luzzatto),
332
Mendelssohn, Dorothea (1763Mendelssohn, Erich
123,
174
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix
(1809-47),
Meridian of the Azores, 86

Merrick, Leonard (1864-),
Messel, Alfred (185 3- 1909), 159

Mesue, 224
Metallurgy, 213
Metaphysics, 192
Metastasio, 119
Metropolitan
Asylums
Board,
340
Metschnikoff,
Elie
(1845-
I9I6), 236
Metternich, 143
Meurthe, Emil Deutsch de la

(I847-I924), 340, 348
Meurthe, Henri Deutsch de la

(1846-1919), 209
Meyer, 134
Meyer, Arthur
(1846-1924),
143
Meyer, Victor (1848-97), 204
4o6
INDEX
Monarchy, Hebrew
Meyerbeer, 218
Meyerbeer, Giacomo
1864), 164
(1791-
4,
Monash,
f.
Meyerhoff, Otto (b. 1884), 240

Meyerson, 191
Meyerstein, E. H. W. (b. iS
ideal of, 3-
302
Sir
John (1865-1931),
27
MoND
Family, 280
Mono, LuDwiG
(1839-1909), 206,
355
Michael, Isaac (1848-97), 243

Michael Reese Hospital, 346
Michael Strogoff, 135
Michael, the Scot, 62 f
MicHELsoN, Albert Abraham
(1852-1931), 200
MONDEVILLE, HeNRI
MoNET, 152
Money, minting
of,
211-
by
12
Monism, 189
MiELZINER, Jo
Monogamy,
(b. 1901), 175

(b. 1892), 166
Millet, 152, 154

MiLLiN, Sarah Gertrude, 123
Milner, Lord, 316
Milton, John, 118-19, 183, 188
Minerbi, Arrigo (b. 1881), 155
32
42
Monotheism, 5 ff., 182

Montaigne, Essays of, 11 6-1
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
(1533-92), 117-18, 299
Montalvan, Juan Perez de
(b.
1863), 112
MONTEFIORE, SiR MoSES (1784-
Miniature-painting, i5ofI.
of, 357
1885), 342
Mining industry, 281

Minkowski, Hermann
(1864-
1909), 202
Minkowski, OsKAR (1858-1931),
MoNTEUx, Pierre, i68

MoNTORO, Anton de (
5th Cen1
tury), III
Montpellier, University of, 227
Mojmvienta Germaniae Histor-
240, 248
Mirabeau, Master Samson de

{c. 1415), 129,
228
Miracle Plays, 171
MiRANDOLA,
Giovanni
Pico
in letters, 135
MODIGLIANI,
AmEDEO
ff.
(1884-
1920), 153
Mohair industry, 280
MoisEiwiTSCH,
Benno
More, Henry, 187

Morgenstern, LiNA
( 1
830-1909),
341
Morgenthau, Henry,
(b. 1890),
Jr.
(b.
1891), 318
Morris, 134
168
MOLNAR, FrANZ
ic a, 133
Moral Enquiries on the Situation

of Men and Brutes, 345
Moral Proverbs of Carrion
(Rabbi Santob), iio
DELLA, 64, 82, 187
Modernism
ff.
to Jewish communities
Christian religious houses,
Middle West, opening of, 282

Midsummer Night's Dream, 163
Minims, Order
of, 24
Money-lenders, Christian, 31 ff.

Money-lending, compulsory restriction on, 30, 34, 41, 266
Microphone, invention
Milhaud, Darius
DE, 226
(b.
1878), 139,
Mortara, LxjDOvico (1855-1936),

328
INDEX
MOSCHELES, IgNAZ (1794-1870),
407
Namier, L. B.
MosENTHAL, Adolph (19th Century), 281
MoSENTHAL,
SALOMON
VON
(1821-77), 281
Moses, 362
Moses, Rabbi Judah ben, 59
Moses (Mathematician) (15th
Century), 95
Moses of Palermo (13th Century), 60
Moshav, 296
Mosque, institution
of,
MOSZKOWSKI,
MORITZ
Motion-pictures, Jews
Napoleon Bonaparte,
in,
177
Mozarabes, no
Mozart, 170
Mulgrave, Lord, 98
Munich, 205
Nathan, Maud (b. 1862), 336

Nathan, Robert (b. 1894), 123
Nathansen, Henri (1868-), 138
355
Assembly (Venice,
1848-9), 307
Gallery,
London, 355
Liberal Party,
Jewish composers
Movements, Jews
of,
National Portrait Gallery, London, 355

National Jewish Hospital, 346
Natural History, 214
Natural Science, Chap. VIII
on
Nautical instruments and tables,
Christian, 161
Jews as patrons
, modern, 166-7
78,
of, 109
Musical Art, Institute
of, 350
Musicians, Jewish, 162
Mysticism, Jewish influence on
Christian Europe, 186-8
Naboth's Vineyard, 14
Nadelman,
in,
309
Naumberg, Elkan,
influence
German,
311
religious, 161
Jewish
(b.
9). 307
166
,
1882), 123
207
Guard (Venice, 1848-
Institute of Physical
Chemistry, 206
MxJNK, Salamon (1803-67), 186
Museum of Modem Art, 156
Music, 161 fF.
70,
Napoleonic Wars, 268, 276

Naquet, Alfred Joseph, 311
Narbonne, Bonfils de, 109
Natal, 99
Nathan Family, 306
Nathan, George Jean
(1854-
1925), 166, 168
157
Nadson, 139
Nafuci, Isaac (14th Century),
f.
123
i{
National Arts Collections Fund,
11
MossE, RuDULF (1843-1920), 142
86
(b.
Naples, 58
164
349
197
Navigation, Chap.
IV
Nazimova, 175
Neander, Johann August Wilhelm (David Mendel) (17891850), 358
Negro welfare, 334

Nehemiah, Rabbi (fl.
150 a.d.),
196
Neisser,
Albert
(1855-1916),
238, 341
Nelson, Horatio (Lord), 98

Neo-Platonic thought, 185
INDEX
4o8
Netherlands, Stadtholder of the,

230
Neue Freie Presse, 142

Neue Sachlichkeit, 155
Neumann, Alfred (b.
1895),
Neumann,
Heinrich, 243
Neurology, 246
Neustettin, Jews at, 41
New School in Art, 152
New Testament, Art of, 148
New York, 244
New York Times, 144
Henry
Sir
165
On
On
On
(b. 1862),
Agencies, 145
Service,
Development
of,
144
Newton,
Nicholas
Sir Isaac, 187

II,
Czar of Russla,
Definitions (Israeli), 185

the Ele?)zents (Israeli), 185
the Soul, 224
Opera, Jews and, 176
Opera Comique, 165

Ophthalmology, 244-5
Ophthalmology, Atlas of, 244
Oppeln, 99
Oppenheim, Hermann (18581919), 249
Oppenheim,
360
NiEBUHR, 129
199,
200,
204,
213,
237,
240, 242, 249, 359

NoBiLE, General, 10 i
Oppenheimer, Henry
Oppenheimer, Samuel
(c.
1635-
1703), 36
Orange, City of, 40

Oranges, introduction
to
Eu-
Orloff, Ghana (1888-), 155
Ormuz, 94
Orta, Abraham
304
NoRDAu, Max (1849-1923), 135

"Nordic" peoples, 16
d' (c.
1496), 70,
92
Orta,
Gracia
d'
(c.
1500-c.
1570), 214, 230-31
La, 168
Nostradamus, 217
Notre-Dame, Pierre
Notre-Dame
(d. 1935),
353
rope, 253
Noether, Emmy, 201

Agreement,
Non-Importation
Norma,
Daniel
Moritz
(1801-82), 154
Nietzsche, 145
Nissim Camondo Museum, 353
Nitrogen, fixation of, 203, 294
Nobel Prizes, Jewish winners,
131,
judaico, 38
Old Testament, 171

Oliver, Thomas, i6r
122
News
News
Oath more
260
Odets, Clifford (1906-), 174

Offenbach, Jacques (1819-88),
132
Newbolt,
Nunez, Dr. (i8th Century),

Nunez, Pedro (fl. 1537), 96
Nuremberg, 32
de, 217
de Sion, Order of,
356
Orti Oricellai, 65
Osiris, Daniel (182 5-1 908), 354
OspovAT, Henry (1877-1909),
151
Nova, Goao da, 92

Novoye Vremya, 153
Numerals, Arabic, introduction
to Europe, 193, 196
,
Roman,
193
Ostdeutsche Post, 142

OSTROWSKY, AbBO, 1 56
Otology, 240
Ott, wrestling
champion (15th
Century), 297
INDEX
Ottonlenghi,
SEPPE
( I
Oxford,
Gen;pral
838-1904), 27
University of,
Gius203,
257-8
OZANAM,
AnTOINE
FrEDERIC
(1813-53), 201, 357

OzANAM, Jacques (1640-17 17),
409
Pasternak, Boris
(b. 1890), 139

Pasteur Institute, 237, 350
Pasteur, Louis, 236
Pasteurized mUk, supply of, 339
Pathology, 239
, experimental, 242
Patrizzi, 187
Paul, 362
357
Paul, Society of St. Vincent de,
Paderewski, 168
Padua, 30, 34, 158, 224, 255
357
Pauli, Johannes
Pagan temples, 158
Payne, John Howârd
Painting miniatures, 150

Paiva, Alfonso de, 93
Pale of Settlement, 35
Peace,
7,
ff,,
Conference
Palestine Arts Theater, 174

Palgrave, Francis, Sir (Cohen)
788-1 861), 120-21
Francis
Turner
Reginald
Francis
Douce, Sir (1829-1904), 121
Palgrave, Robert Harry Inglis
(1827-1919), 121
William
Gifford
(1826-88), 121
Max
at
The Hague
(1899), 360
Peddling,
Pedro
33, 282, 291
III
82, 86
Palgrave,
Pallenberg,
ff.
Pediatry, 245, 339
(1824-97), 121
Palgrave,
358
ff.,
Nations), 360
364
Palgrave,
283
Committee (League of
Palestine, 8, 25, 43, 179, 293
(1791-
1852), 126
Palermo, 41
1455-1530),
(c.
109, 115, 127
(1877-1934),
176
Paneth, Friedrich Adolf, 206

PaNZA, SaNCHO, II o
Papacy and the Jews, 31, 39, 266
Paper factory, 71
Paradise Lost (Milton), 118
Paradiso (Dante), 108
(IV) of Aragon,
Pedro IV of Castile, no, 266

Peel, Sir Robert, 342
Peiresc, 82
Pelayo, Menendez y, 113

Penology, 247
Pereira, Jacob RoDRiGUES (171580), 276, 341 f.
Pereire, Emile (1800-75), 279
Pereire Family, 207, 271, 276
Perez, Joao, 93
Perez, Marc (1. i6th Century),
73
Parry, Sir Hubert, 163
Perez, Nicholas Diaz, 87

Persian Empire, 146
Peru, III
Pesaro, Guglielmo da
(Wagner), 109, 168

Andre (RoTHscfflLD,
Pascal,
Baron Henri de), 136
Century), 65, 162

PeTAHIA of REGENSBtniG
Century), 97
Pascin, Jules (1885-1930), 153

Pasta, Giltditta ( 1 798-1 865 ) 168
Petavius, 82
Paris, 236, 244, 335
Parsifal
58,
f.
Petrarch,
52, 70
(15th
(l2th
INDEX
41
Petroleum, 208
152
LuCIEN
PiSSARRO,
127
Phagocytose, Theory
of, 236
Pharmacognosy, 231
Pharmacology, 233
Philadelphia, Franklin Institute
at,
CaMILLE (183O-I903),
PiSSARRO,
Phaedon (Moses Mendelssohn),
"Platonic love," 188
350
Philanthropy, Jews in, 33off.

Phillips, L. B. (1841-1922), 213
Philippson, Martin (i 846-1 91 6),
Playwrights, Jewish, 122

173
Philo of Alexandria
{c.
20 b.c-
40 A.D.), 181, 286, 344

Philosopbie des Rechts nach ge-
schichtlicher Ansicht, Die,
Pneumonia,
107
241
ff.,
111-12,
Philology, 140
Philosophy, Chapter VII
Congresses
Point d' tlspagne, 256

POLACCO, VlTTORIO (1839-1926),
328
Synagogues
of, 192
Political
Mulgrave,
13
of Bible on,
ff.
, Jews in,
303
"Politiques, Les," 299
Photo-chemistry, 205
Politzer,
Photography,
197, 213, 290
Adam
(i
Pollack, Henri, 311
Fhysikalischeii Zeitschrift, 200
Pollitzer,
PlATIGORSKY, GrEGOR (b. 1903),

168
341
"Pilgrim Code," 15
Pilgrijfi's Progress (Bltnyan), 18
Pincherle, Leone, 307

Pine, Samson (14th Century),
109, 127
Sir
Arthur Wing
(1855-1934), 122, 174
Pinhas Family (Judah, 1727-93;

Salomon, 1759-1837), 150
Pinto,
Aaron Adolf
de, 227
Pinto, Isaac de (1717-87), 273

Pisa,
Leonardo
da, 196
ff.
835-1920),
240, 249
Physics, 200
Adolph (1829-74),
of, 158
economy, 320
Politics, influence
Lord, 98
Phoenicians, 25
Pinero,
123,
Polar Exploration, loo-i
Law,
328
Phipps, Captain, see
Pick,
119,
130, 132, i35ff., 138-39
Poland, 41, 44, 139, 308
313. 327
of
ff.,
ff.
Poets,
133
(b. 1863), I52
Pius IX, Pope, 356

Planetarium, 350
Plato, 189
Plato of Tivoli, 61, 196
Adolf
(183 2-1900),
167
Polo, Marco, 85
PoNTE, Lorenzo da (ConegliANO, Emanuel) (i 749-1 837),
1
70-1, 176
Pontevedra, 88
Pontremoli, Aldo
(d.
1928),
lOI
Poor, medicine of, 222

Popper, Joseph (1838-1921), 210
PORGES, HeINRICH (1837-1900),
169
Porta, Giovambattista Della,

197
Portaleone, Leone da
(d. c. 1591), 173
Sommi
INDEX
Porto, Allgro (c. 1600), 162
PoRTO-RicHE, Georges de (18491930), 136, 174
Publishing, 145
Pulitzer, Joseph
(1847-1911),
144, 348
Portugal, 64, 69, 70, 80, 85, 91

Ill, 229 ff.
PossART, Felix (1837-), ^54
Potash industry, 203
ff.,
Poverty in Ghetto, 265 ff., 330

Fractica occulorum (Raphaeus),
Purim, dramatic representations

at, 172
Puritans, 14, 15, 183
Pyrrho, Didaco (i6th Century),
"3
Quadrans Judaicus, 78
244
Praga, Alfred, 151

Prague, 36, 158, 245
Prejudice against the Jews, 26
Treinhie Armoniche (Civita),
162
Preuss,
411
Quadrant, improvements in, 79

Quantum theory, experimental
confirmation of, 200
QuERiDO, Israel (i 874-1932),
139
Hugo
(i
860-1925), 315,
Vrimiim Mobile, 55
Princeton Institute of Advanced
Study, 350
Principe, 299
Principles of M.echa7iics (HeinRicH Hertz), 210
Pringsheim, Alfred, 219

Pringsheim, Klaus, 219
Pringsheim, Nathaniel (1823-
Quinine, 234
Quixote, Don, 113
Rachel (1821-58),
175
Racine, 119
"Radanite" Jeviîsh traders, 96,
251, 253, 256
Radio, 212
Railways, development of, 207
Rammazzini,
Rand mining
67
industry, 281
94), 216, 219

Printing, 68 ff
Rapheus, Benvenutus
Priower, Otto (1859-1932), 134

Prison reform, 343
Process of Degradation, The,
"Rashi"
22
ff.
Professions, 47
Protein therapy, 241

Proust, Marcel (i 871-1922),
137
Provence, 54, 57
Proverbs, Book of, 17
Prussia, 150
Psychiatry, 247
Psycho-Analysis, 247-8
Psychology, 247
Ptolemy, 53
Public life, 298 ff.
f.
("Gra-
PHEUs"), 244
{i.e.
Solomon Ben
Isaac of Troyes,
040-1105),
74. 105
Rathenau, Emil
(1838-1915),
280
Rathenau, Walter
( 1
867-1 92 2 )
315-16
Ratisbonne Brothers
(Al-
phonse-Marie, 1812-84, and

Marie Theodore, 1802-1884),
356
Ravel,
Maltrice
(1875-1937),
166
Raymond, Archbishop of Toledo, 58
INDEX
412
Reading, Marquess of
357
Rhodes, Cecil, 263

RiBES, Jayme, see Crescas,
Jahuda, 85
RiCARDO, David (1772-1823), 320
(i 849-1924),
Rice, Elmer (b. 1892), 123, 174

Rickets, treatment of, 246
RiEGA, C. Garcia de la, 87
(1860-
1935), 312, 351
Recreations
Mathematiques
Sciefitifiqiies
(Ozanam),
et
Reformation, Jews and, 72

Regiomontanus, 79
Reicher,
Emanuel
RiESSER, Gabriel (1806H53), 305

Rights of Man, Declaration of
176
Reichsbank (Berlin), 159

Reichsgericht, German, 305
Reichstag, German, 305, 3 1 2
(1789), 298
ff.
Reinach, Solomon (1858-1932),
RiscH,
Hayim
ibn (Valiesecha,
Reinhardt,
Juan de) ( 5th Century) 85 f

Rise and Progress of the English
Commonwealth (Pal-
Relativity,
Risorgifnento, Jews and, 306

Ritual murder, 39, 245
160
Max (b. 1873), 177

Reis, Philip (1834-74), 2"
Reiss, 363
Religion,
Theory
4,
355
of, 190, 200
mediaeval, 71
Religious leaders, 355 ff.
147
(1815H55), 246
f.,
Robert of Naples, 58
Robinson, Joseph B., 281
Rochdale pioneers, 318
Roche, Salamon de la
olas), 92
Restrictions
Tempos (Nic-
on Jews,
37
ff.
Reuchlin, Johannes von, 73
Robert, the Englishman, 78

Robert, Ludwig (1778-1832),
128
153, 352
Renaissance, art of, 147

Jews and, 52, 64, 71
Renan, 56
Renoir, 152
Reportorio dos
(c.
1717-89), 261
prejudice, 26
Rembrandt,
grave), 121
Rivera, Diego, 157

Rivera, Jacob Rodrigues
ff.
-,
Remak, Robert
f.,
187
Reuter, Paul Julius von (182199), 45
Revere, Giuseppe (1812-99), 139

Revival of hearing, 52
Revolutions (1848), 304 ff., 314
Revue de Metaphysique et de
Morale, 192
Revue Philosophique, 192
Rheinische Zeitung, 142
Rhineland, Jewish schools in, 45
Rhode Island, General Assembly of, 261
(17th
Century), 260
Rockefeller Institute of Medical
Research, 241
Rodrigo, Juan (151 1-68), 232
Rodrigo, Master (15th Century), 80
Rodrigues, Eugene, 311
Rodrigues, Olinde, 311
RojAs, Fernando de (c. 1500),
113, 115
Rokeach (Eleazar of Worms),

106
Roman, Ronetti,
139
Romanesque, 158
RoMANiN, Samuel, 139
Romberg, Moritz Heinrich

(1795-1873), 246
INDEX
Rome, Jews
Romeo
in, 22,
and
34-5
(Shake-
Juliet
Nathan
Rothschild,
von
Meyer
(1777-1836), 285-6
Rothschild, Nathaniel,
ist
Lord
Isaac
(1890-1918),
(1840-1915), 335
Rothschild, Salle, 354
Marc
(1852-1930),
Rothschild, Walter, 2nd Lord
123
(1868-1937), 216
Rothschild, History of the House
of (CoRTi), 283
160
Rosenheim, Theodor, 242

Rosenkavalier,
Rosenthal,
Mathilde
(1832-1924), 349
ROSENAU, 297
Rosenberg,
(1808-
79), 287
Rothschild,
speare), 114
RONA, P. ( 1 871), 206
Rontgen rays, 210
RosELLi, Pedro, 86
Rosenberg,
413
Rothschild, Lionel de
Moriz
(b.
1862),
Roumanian
literature,
contributions
168
RosENWALD, Julius
(i 862-1932),
Rousseau,
to,
Jewish
39
Jean-Jacques
(St.
334
Rossi, Angelo de' (17th Century), 66
Rossi, Azariah de' (1513-78),
Bayonne), 301
Royal Academy, 150
Royal Library, Paris, 84
Royal Society for Prevention of
360
Rossi,
Cruelty to Animals, 345

RUBENSTEIN, ArTHUR, 68
Rubinstein, Anton (1829-94),
Salamone
de'
{c.
1587-
1628), 162
Rossini, Gioacchino, 169

Rothenstein, Sir William
(b.
168
RtTBiNSTEiN,
Nicholas
(1835-
81), 168
1872), 151
Rothschild Family,
277-8, 283
Esprit,
ff.,
334
207, 268-9,
ff.,
348, 353
Rothschild, Adolphe de (18231900), 354
Rothschild, Alfred de
(1842-
Rudiger, Bishop of Speyers, 40

RuisDAELS, 148
Rules of the Procedure of the
House of Commons (Sir Reginald Francis Douce Palgrave, editor), 121
1918), 276, 284
Rothschild, Betty (1805-1886),
Russell,
Henry
(181 2-1900),
126
335
Rothschild, Baron
Edmond
de
(1845-1934), 348, 350-1, 354

Rothschild, Baron Ferdinand de
Russell, Lord John, 342

Russia, 23, 35
art in, 153
Jewish contributions to
(1839^8), 335
Rothschild, Baron
(Pascal Andre)
literature in,
Henri de
(b.
1872),
136, 340
Rothschild,
in,
(1792-1868), 169, 283
f.,
335
39
158
Russian
Baron James de
, synagogue architecture
ballet, 175
Musical Society, 168
Rutgers University, 294
INDEX
414
Saba, Umberto, 139

Sabbath, institution of, 184
Sabot, Dr. Elias (ben Sabbatai)
(15th Century), 228
Sachs, Hans (b. 1877), 247
Sachs, Julius von (1832-97),
215-16
Sacrifice, conception of, 9-10
Safed, first book printed at, 69
Safety-match, invention of, 213
Sagres, nautical school at, 85
Sahara, exploration of, 86
Sahulla, Isaac (13th Century),
77
St.
Bernard of Clairvaux,
31
St. Esprit, 301

St. Francesco, 357
Samuel, Herbert (1870-),
312,
340
Samuel, Maurice (b.

Antonio
1895), 123
Sanchez,
Ribeiro
(i699-i783),234, 343
Sanchez, Gabriel {c. 1492), 89 f.

Sanchez, Otero, 87
Sanchez, Roderigo {c. 1492), 90
Sandberg, Samuel, 102
Sanders, Daniel (1819-97), 134?
140
Sansculotte, 290
Santa Clara, Pedro Guttierez

DE (i6th Cenmry), in
Santa Maria, Alfonso de, hi
Santa Maria, Paul de, Bishop
of Burgos (i 352-1435), 75
Helena, 99
Saint-Saens, 165
Santangel, Luis de
Saint-Simonism, 277, 311
Santob de Carrion, Rabbi (14th
Saladin, 248
Salamanca, 232
Salamanca, University of, 91
Salamon, Nahum ( 1 828-1 900),
Century), no
Sanuto, Marino, 172
Saphir, Moritz Gottlieb (1795-
St.
89
213
Salomon, 148
Salomon, Haym, 304
Salomons, Sir David
(1797-
1873), 271, 342
Salvarsan, discovery of, 248
Army,
337
Schiff,
Rudolf
(b.
1881), lOI
Samuda, Joseph d'Aguilar

(1813-85), 213
Samuel, Denis, 358

Samuel, Harold (b.
de
Castro
J.
350
350
123
of
107
C,
82
Scandinavian Literature, 199

Schandinn, Fritz, 238
ScHENK, 242
ScHiFF, Jacob (1847-1920), 349
Salonists, Jewish, 129
Samaria, 14
Samoilowitsch,
Jacob
(1691-1762), 234
Sassoon, Albert (1818-96),
Sassoon, David (i 792-1 864),
Sassoon, Siegfried (1886-),
ScALA, Can Grande della,
Scaliger,
Salonica, 27
1492),
1858), 143
Sardinia, 41
Verona,
Salomons, Jacob, 148
(fl.
260
Sarmento,
Salerno, 227
Salim, Faraj ben, 60
Salvation
f.,
1879), 168
Moritz (1823-96),
239,
246
ScHiFF, Mortimer, 353
schiffer, eugen (1860-), 316
Rudolf (1862Schildkraut,
1930), 176
Schiller, 129
INDEX
415
Schimpf und Ernst (Johannes
Segovia, Synagogue
Pauli), iio, 115

ScHLEGEL, 129
Seidel,
SCHLEIERMACHER,
29
ScHLESiNGER, Frank (b. 187 i), 218

ScHMiTZ, Ettore, see Svevo,
Italo, 137, 139
Toscha
at,
Selden, John, 186, 326

Semantic meanings, 19
Semon, Sir Felix (i 849-1 921),
243
Aaron {c. 1720), 320

Abraham, Crown Rabbi
Senior,
Senior,
SCHNABEL, ArTUR (b. 1882), 168

SCHNITZER, EdUARD KaRL OsCAR
Theodor (Emin Pasha) (184092),99f.
(1862SCHNITZLER,
ArTHUR
Senior,
1932), 132, 174

Scholastic System, 43 ff.
Scholasticism, 184
SCHOMBERG, Dr. IsAAC
Serapion Junior, 225

Serenissima, 261, 306
Servetus, 73
Sessa, Joseph, 32
(1714-
80), 120
,
{c. 1492),
Schonerer, George von, 315

Schoolmen, 182
Abraham
Schreiner,
(1820-
1900), 208
Schumann,
1864), 320
Sepher Juhasm (Zacuto), 91
Salamone
Ercole
Seville,
da, see Fedli,
de, 66
John of (Avendeath),
Sewing-machine,
invention of,
212-13
Sexes, separation of, in worship, 1
Sezession, Berlin, 154
Sfarno, Obadiah
171
Sir
Arthur
(1851-
1935), 218
SCHWARTZCHILD, KaRL, 2l8

Schwarz, David (1845-97), 208
ScHWARZ, Joseph (i 880-1926),
{c.
1475-1550),
74
Shakespeare, Life of (Lee), 124
Shakespeare, William, 18, no,
114-15, 124-5
Shakespearian research, 124
168
Science, 57ff.,78ff.,96, Chap. VIII
Shaprut, Hasdai ibn
Scot, Michael, 63
Scott, Sir Walter,
Shaw, George Bernard,
hi
Seal-cutting
and
{c.
915-
70), 214
122, 145
Sheelot uTeshubot, 106
ScoTus, Duns, 185

Sculpture, 155 ff.
148
89
(1790-
William Nassau
61-2, 195, 224
166, 169
Schuster,
of Castile
Sessa,
ScHOMBERG, R ALPH ( 1 7 1 4-92 ) 1 20

Schonberg, Arnold (b. 1874),
158
(b. 1899), 167
Shehita, 344
engraving,
flf.
Secchi, Paolo, 32
Secojid Mrs. Tanqueray, The
(Sir Arthur Wing Pinero),
to, 218
Sicily, 27, 41-2, 45, 255, 260
Sick, relief of, 346

Sid, Isaac ben, 81
122
Secretujn Secretorwn
totle), 61
Shipping, 279
Shylock, story of, 32
Siam, Eclipse Expedition
(Aris-
SUk
industry, 34, 254
SiLVA,
Antonio da
( 1
f.
705-39) ,112
INDEX
4i6
Silversmiths. Z!:6
Solvay process. 206
SiMMEL, Georg (185S-191S), 134

SiMOX, Is.\-\c, 2S6
Simox,James (1851-1932), 354-5
Simon, Joseph {c. 1703-1807),
So.MB.\RT. ^^'ERXER.
SiMOX. Sergeant Sir John", 286

SiMoxsEx. J. L. (1814-86). 327
Si-Moxsox, Lee. 1-5
Slnisox, Ej)u.\rd
vox (1810-99),
279
Leopold
SoN*N*EM.VN-x,
(1831-
Is.\.\c,
JOSUAH BEX. 220
SlR-\CH.
Li
Slobodkix. Louis. 157

Sloximski. AxTOXi. 139
Sloxlniski. Ha\xm Selig (18101904). 212
Soap, manufacture
\\'elfare
"VN'ork,
Chap.
xn
francaise
de
Philoso-
Soldiers, Jewish, 27
81
ff.,
iioff.,
ff.,
Spanish language, development

of, 59, no, 113
Spectator, The, 352
Spexcer. Johx. 186
Speyer. George. 40, 348
H.
Spielm.\n"N', .\L\riox
(1856-),
1-4
Spixoza,
Ben-edict
Spire, An-dre
''Splendour,^''
( 1
82 3-62),
68
(1632-77),
(1868-), 137
Ga-
Book
of, see
Zobar,
77' 187
Stage.
iBX Gabirol, See
BIROL
Jew and
the,
136
St.ahl, Friedrich Jtrrus
(1802-
55), 313, 327

(Pianist, b. 1902), 168
SOLOMOX, S.\MUEL (1780-1818),

122
SoLOMOx, Slnleox (1840-1905),

151
Solomon*
(1860-1927). 151
(\"enetian
SoLOMOX
52
Spiro, 248
SOLOMOX. ABR.4HAM
Solomon',
22,
229. 256
IS6, IS8, 190, 234, 362
phie," 192
SoLOMOX
Spain,
Spermaceti industrv, 261
of. 261
Social Democratic Parrv. 310

Social revolution, 287 fj.
Socialism. 310-18
SoLOMox
(1834-
1909), 176
So-iXR Brothers, 156
Republique, 299
Sla'scraper. architecture of. 159

Slaverv. abolition of, 286
"Societe
1817). 326, 343

SON-N-ENTHAL,
AdOLPH
SouxT. AL\rshal, 342

SOUTESE, ChAYIM, 1 53
213
Singers. Jewish. 162, 168
Six Ik-res de
VOX (1733-
SOXNTIXFELS, JoSEPH
SoxxTAG, August, 102
134. 305, 327
SrsGER.
f.,
1909), 143
207
Social
263
"Somerset Case,"' 286

Soxcixo, GiRoi_\MO (d. 1533). 70
Joseph
St.\el,
engineer, 15th Centur\'), 198
H.
de, 128-29
AI.,
100
Stassov, 155
Statesmen, Jewish, 303 ff.
Statiom of the Moon
KrxDi), 62
Stal"b,
hvdraulic
AIme.
St.\ntxy,
Herman"
3^7
Steam Age, 207
(al-
(i 856-1 904),
INDEX
Steamboat, inv'ention of, 207
Steamships, construction of, 213
Steckelmacher, 264
Stein, Sir Axtrel
(Mark)
(b.
1862), lOI
Stein, Gertrl-de <h. 1874), 123

Steinschneider, Moritz (18 161907), 221
Stern, Abraham
769-1 842 )
21
Stern Family, 268, 353

Stern, G. B. (b. 1890), 123
Stern, Henry A. (1820-85), 102
Stern, Maurice, 156
Sternberg, L., 102
Sternberg, Herr von, 36
Stieglitz, Alfred, 156
Stilling, Bent:dikt (1810-79), 239
Stock Exchange, Jews and, 274-5
in
in
London, 274
New York, 274
Strassburger, Eduard, 2x6

Straus, Nathan (1848-193 1 ) 339
STR.A.US, Osc.\R (1845-1926), 360
Strauss, Joseph B. (1879-), 213
Strauss, Richard, 169
Stricker, S.ômon (1834-1898),
,
241
417
Sweden, 101-2
Swedish writers, 138
SWTN-BL-RNE, A. C, 1 75
Switzerland, 239
Sylvester, James Joseph (181497), 203
Synagogue, Great, 161

Synagogue, institution of, 9 ff.
Synagogue, third century^, 146
Synagogues, architecture of, 158
Synagogues in Poland, 158
Synagogues in Russia, 158
SziGETi, Joseph (b. 1892), 167
Szyk, 153
Tafsir, see
Aid to Health (A\xn-
zoar), 224
Tailoring industry, 289
Tales of Hoffman, The (Offenbach), 165
Talmud,
73, 77, 199, 222, 332,
Tannhduser, 170
Tarascon, Bontils de
(fl.
Tal^ber, Rich.\rd (b. 1892), 168

Taussig, K.a.rl (1841-71), 170
Taxation of Jews in Ghetto pe-
Taxes, special, 35
ay sir, 224
Telegraphy, 212
Telegraphy, wireless, 210
SLXLrV'AN, 166
Temple,
SupiNO, Da\td (1850-1935), 328

Sltino, Senator I. B. (b. 1858),
Texeira,
160
SUSSKINT) VON TrIMBERG {C. I25O1300), 169
SuTRO, Alfred (1863-1933), 122,

174
SvEvo, Italo (Schmttz, Ettore)
(I86I-I928), 137, 139
1365),
82
Strnad, Oscar (b. 1879), 159

SuARES, Andre (b. 1866), 137
Sublnne, The, 104
Sldhoff, Karl, 221
Suez Canal, 287
Sugar industry', 257
Surinam, 257
344
riod, 35
ff.
Telephone, 311
ff.
f.
10, 157 ff.
Abraham SEN^0R, 358

Texeir_\. Pedro (c. i57o-i65o),98
Textile industrv, 256
Th.^berg,Ir\tvg ( 1 899-1936) ,178

Theater, 171 ff.
Theater, architecture of, 159
Theater at Bayreuth, 170
Theory of Value (Ricabdo), 320
Thomas,
165
Thought, freedom
of, 45 f
INDEX
41
Tree, Sir Beerbohm, 176

Trelaivney of the Wells (Sir
Arthur Wing Pinero), 122
Treu Family, 150
Treves, Bonfili de, 279
Triana, Rodrigo de (fl. 1492), 90
Trimberg, Susskind von, 109, 1 27
Trotsky, 322
TiBBON, iBN, Family, 57

Times, The, 143, 306
TissARD, Francois, 67
Titus, 22
TivoLi, Plato of, 61, 196
TivoLi, Serafino de ( 1 8 2 6- 1 90 2 )
153
Tobacco
industry, 258
ff
ToDi, 31
Toledo,
Tuberculosis, fight against, 243,

57, 81, 82
339
Synagogue of, 158

Toller, Ernst (b. 1893), 132
Tophet ajid Eden (Immanuel
Tudela, Benjamin
Tura, Cosimo, 148
OF Rome), 108-9
Torres, Luis de (fl. 1492), 90
Tortosa, 225
Torture, abolition of, 326, 343
Two
Touro
39
Ukraine, Jewish National As-
VAL AcOSTA), 232
Trade Union Movement,
sembly
"5
in,
322
Ullstein, Leopold (1826-99) 144

Unger, Joseph (1828-1913), 327
,
United
311
Training School for the Clergy

(Fetrus Alphonsi of Toledo)
States, 25, 168, 282
University College, London, 347

University, Jewish, in Sicily
(1466), 45
Traite de la circulation et
du
credit, 273
Ludwig
Traube,
f.
(1816-1876),
242, 248
Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa (Isaacs), 99

Treasure, 82
Treatise of Measures, The, 196
Treatise on Geornetry
(Abram
BAR HiYYA), 196
(b. 1850),
dotes, 225
on the Drugs and MedIndia
Untermeyer,Louis
(b. 1885), 124
Urg, Lesser (1862-1931), 155

Usque, Solomon (fl. 1554), 70
UssuF, Alazar (15th Century),
Vaccination, 233
Valensin, Dr. (17th Century),
229
Valladolid, Juan de (15th Cen-
Treatise on Poisons and Anti-
of
Unna, Paul Gerson

249
Translators, mediaeval, 55
Traube, I., 206
(Christoval
Acosta), 214
on the Sphere, 1^37

(Nunez), 96
Treatise
T\T>JDALE, 73
Hospital, 346
icines
Julian,
Orphans, The, 135
Typsiles, 198
TOURO, JUDAH, 346

Tractado delos drogas (Christo-
Treatise
TuwiM,
of, 97
tury), III
Vallsecha, Gabriel de (15th

Century), 86
Vallsecha, Juan de (15th Century), 86
Valobra, Samson
tury), 213
(19th
Cen-
INDEX
Vamberg (Bamberger), ArmiNIUS (1832-I924), 102
Van
c.
1450-1520), 80, 92,
94 ff.
Vecinho, Rodrigo, 80
Vega, Joseph Pen so de la (165092)' 273
de, 112
Vegetable physiology, 219

Veit, Philipp (1793-1877), 154
Venereal diseases, 248
Venezia, Palazzo, 353
Venice, 34, 41, 67, 230, 261, 306 ff.
Jewish Musical Acad,
emy
at,
162
synagogues of, 158

Verein fur Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden, 320
Verocchio, Count OF (c. 15^0) ,65
Verona, 41, 66
-,
Verona, Guido
Vers libre, 137
da, 139
Versailles Constitution, 315
Vespucci, Amerigo, 86, 95

Veterinary surgery, 60
Vienna, 244
Imperial Academy of
238, 245
Visigothic period, 356

Vita Nuova (Dante) 62
,
ViVANTE, CeSARE
(b. 1855), 328
Vitamins, 246
(c.
1273), 58
168
ff.,
178
Wahle, Julius, 134

Wakkar, Joseph ibn {c. 1396), 82
Wald, Lillian D. (b. 1867), 340
Waley, Arthur, 123
Walkowitz, Abraham, 156
Wallich, George Charles ( i 8 i 599), 215
Wallich,
Nathaniel
1854), 102, 215

Walston, Sir Charles
(1786(1856-
1927), 160
Walter, Bruno
(b. 1876), 168
Walton,
Izaak, 119
WaltJEN, 264
War, Jews in, 27

Warburg, Firm of, 272
Warburg, Otto (1859-),
240,
249
Warburg, Paul M. (1868-1932),

278
Wars
of the Lord,
The
(Levi
BEN Gershom), 79
1925), 238, 248
(15th
Century), 86
ViLLALOBos, Francisco Lopez de
(i6th Century), iii
Virchow, Rudolph,
Waddesdon Bequest, 354

Wagg, Abraham, 304
Wagner, Richard, 164 f.,
Warsaw, Siege of (1794), 308

Wasserman, August von (1866-
Sciences, 210
"Vienna School," 169

Vienna Synagogue, 171
ViLADESTES, MeCIA DE
VivES
Seeliger, 219
Vorparlamcfit (1848), 305
Vulgate, 73
Vapor-baths, 234
Vecinho, Joseph ( VecinhoDiego
Vega, Lope
Von
VoYSEY, Charles Annesley, 358
Leyden, 148
Vanilla, 260
Mendes,
419
Wassermann,
Jacob
(1873-
1934), 131
Watch, Keyless,
213
Waterloo, Battle
of, 27, 244, '285
Weber, Max (b. 1881), 156

Weigert, Karl ( 1845-1904)
237,
241
Weil, Adolf (1848-), 248

Weiller, Lazare Jean (1858-),
ESTDEX
42 O
Weimar
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 160

Wysse, Glaus, 109
Constitution, 315
Weiner, 218
Weininger, Otto
(i 880-1 903),
Ximenes, Moses, Captain (sub-
135
Welch,
sequently
239
Wellesz, Egon (b.

Wellington, Duke
Werfel, Fr.\nz (b.
of, 244
Wertheim BuUding,
Berlin, 159
Werthelm Family,
353
1885), 169
1890), 132
Wesley, John, 183

Whittington, Richard,
Mayor
Lord
of London, 228
WiDAL, Georges Fern and (1862Wife-beating, 43

Wild wheat, discovery
of,
294
WiLLL\M, the Fleming, 63

WnisTATER, Richard (b. 1872),
205
Worker's Party, 310
268
Yigdal, 161
Zacuto,
129
Abraham
1510), 70, 88
{c.
1450-c.
217
ff.,
Zacuto, Tables of, 92, 94

Zacutus,
Lusitanus
(1575(b. 1884), 155
Zadkin, Osip, 155
Zamenhof,Lazar (LLT)^VIG,I859i9i7) 359
Zangwill, Israel
(1864-1926),
122, 129, 174
Zeppelin, Count, 209

ZiMBALIST, EfREM (b. 1 889), 167
Zoffany, John (1733-1810), 150
Zohar,
77, 187
ZONDEK-ASCHEIM
Zondek, Bernard
TEST, 24O
(b. 1891),
239-
40
ZoRACH, William, 157
ZuNZ, Leopold
Zweig, Arnold
(i
794-1 886), 319
(b. 1887), 131-2,
219
Jews' Garden
Synagogue
and Eastern Arabia, A (William GiFFORD PaLGRAVE), 121

Yellin, Samuel, 157
Yellow badge, 37
Zadikow, Arnold
Wolf, Hugo, 171

Wolf, Mvx, 218
Wolf, Rutjolf, 218
Wolfe, Humbert, 123
Wolff Agency (Bernhard
Wolff, 181 1-76), 145
Wolff, Joseph (1795-1862), 102
Wolff, Theodor (b. 1868), 143
Wood, Anthony, 257
Woolworth Building, 159
Worde, W-v'NK'i'N de, 115
Wordsworth, Willlam, 112
Y.A/I.H.A., 347
Year's Journey through Central
1642), 233
21
Wireless telegraphy, 210
Worms,
c.
X-Ray, 210
Young Germany,
1929), 242, 248
Wilson, Woodrow,
Maltrice,
Sir
1J62-C. 1830), 99
at,
42
Zweig, Stefan
(b. 1881), 131

Zivillingsschwester, Die (Lud-
of, 158
Worms, Rene (1869-1926),

Wotton, Sm Henry, 119
191
wiG Fulda), 132

Zwingli, 73
r-
Date Due
Returned
Due
Due
Returned
^'îim
S'Bi
f*//^f
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1
1
i
i
194
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Jewish contribution
296R845J
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to civjiization
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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

Who is the author?

Who is the author?

UNIVERSITY

THE LAST FLORENTINE REPUBLIC

ip2); Italian translation, Florence, ip2^

THE CASALE PILGRIM

l'apotre des marranes

HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN VENICE

A JEWISH BOOK OF DAYS

HISTORY OF THE MARRANOS

DONATO GIANNOTTI A PIERO VETTORI

THE NEPHEW OF THE ALMIGHTY

A LIFE OF MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL

A bird's-eye view of JEWISH HISTORY

Nenv York and London

Digitized by the Internet Archive

2011 with funding from

IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

people constitute a considerable element in

our population, and beyond their numbers ranges their

America the repercussions of foreign anti-Semitism are

look on this situation is made on a high level. This book

make pronouncements on the "Jewish problem," and its

particularly fitting that a Christian should help

introduce this volume to

without malice by a Jew, which, nonetheless,

Christians recognize together the folly of their prejudices,

the suicidal nature of their mutual antagonisms, the

and the great gain in

Harry Emerson Fosdick

intended as a contribution towards the

settlement of a discussion of long standing,

once again attracting attention. It is alleged by

theological grounds, that the

an alien excrescence on Western

has produced nothing; that

and that the

which he has had on the world's

during the past two thousand years, has been entirely

to write this book as objectively as possible. I am

the basis of the material collected in this volume,

be possible to come to some conclusion upon

laborious, one. I have tried

tive selection of the contributions

zation, the culture,

and the amenities of the western

world by persons of Jewish lineage.

"racial," not religious

there runs the blood

of a single Jew as far as three generations back of

ism alone by taking into account

ever their religious

of traceable Jewish ancestry, whataffiliation

must confess, however, that normally,

sence of such a religious distinction,

what a Jew is. I have no

difficult to define precisely