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subject to the restriction of acts, which exclude them from official and municipal situations.

What efforts have lately been made to improve the condition of the Jews?

The attempt which has been made in 1830 to remove these disqualifications, and to allow the Jews to bring the whole operation of their industry and talents to bear upon the general good of the empire, has been defeated; although it is not unlikely, that when the question is agitated again, the conclusion of parliament may be very different. The benevolent attention of the British public, has been long directed to the moral condition and improvement of the Jews. To reclaim them from their delusions, to bring them back again to the church of God, to impress upon them by arguments derived from inspired prophecy, from the predictions of the Redeemer, and from the wonderful circumstances which have distinguished their preservation to the present hour in all the nations of the habitable globe, a society was organized some years ago for their conversion; liberal contributions have been made; a most efficient apparatus of exertion has been employed; schools have been established for their children; discourses have been addressed to their understandings; tracts and other publications have been distributed; the remotest foreign countries have been visited; the servants of the institution have attempted, within the walls of Jerusalem itself, to inforce the claims of Jesus of Nazareth; and occasionally powerful impressions have been made; a few Jews have been brought to the Christian faith; and some of them have testified their sincerity amidst the agonies of death. A second association, called the Philo-Judæan Society, was formed in 1826, with the declared object of promoting their welfare by all possible means, of employing readers for their adults, of establishing day and Sabbath schools for their children, of relieving the sick and aged at their own habitations, of supplying the wants of the distressed, of procuring the removal of their civil disabilities, of promoting their national welfare, and of forwarding these objects in other countries according to opportunity. The most outrageous scepticism cannot deny that highly anima

ting, and in some cases extrordinary, effects have been produced by these societies, especially by the first; converted Jews, sent from England, have again proclaimed to the degraded and miserable population of Judæa, the tidings of salvation; the strong-holds of the infatuated superstition of the posterity of Abraham have been penetrated, and the light of eternal Truth has been placed in all its effulgence before their eyes; and though the result has not perhaps_corresponded with the effort, in the estimation of some sanguine expectants of a rapid moral revolution, the first-fruits have certainly been gathered of that glorious harvest, when Jews as well as Gentiles shall be gathered into the great garner of God.

SECTION V.

THE JEWS IN THE REMAINING COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.

GIVE the history of the Jews in Germany.

ALTHOUGH the Jews in GERMANY were, in the early ages of the empire, considered as under the peculiar jurisdiction of the emperor, although they were secured in the freedom of their worship and exempt from military service, yet they soon began to experience the evils produced by the disorders incident to the feudal system, and to the ignorant bigotry of the times. When Peter the Hermit led through Germany his hordes of fanatic crusaders, the most detestable enormities, the most horrible cruelties were perpetrated upon the miserable Jews. In Treves, in Metz, in Cologne, in Mentz, in Worms, in Spire, from A. D. 1097. the Rhine to the borders of Hungary, the Jews had to endure all the horrors of pillage, violation, torture, and massacre; and many of them fled from the storm into the wilds of Silesia and Poland. Fifty years afterwards, a fanatic monarch again aroused the fury of the people; the cry of Hep, a word composed of the initial letters of the three words, Hierosolyma est perdita, Jerusalem is destroyed, was

the watchword of the multitude; shocking barbarities were again perpetrated upon the Jews; and it was the effectual interposition of St. Bernard alone, which saved them, in that part of Europe, from A. D. 1147. utter extermination. But their repose was

A. D. 1394.

of short duration. The miserable enthusiasts called Flagellants, who passed in procession through Ger many, scourging themselves wherever they went for the sins of the world, plundered and murdered the Jews in the great cities through which they passed; the hatred of the populace coincided with the outrages of the fanatics; and the Jews, proscribed and persecuted, were scattered through all the provinces of the empire in search of an asylum. The Reformation was most advantageous to the Jews; for though Luther detested them on account of the method of conducting money transactions, and declaimed against them with characteristic violence, yet in the contest between Protestants and Catholics the Jews were forgotten; and the subsequent diffusion of knowledge, and the prevalence of enlightened views upon religious subjects, secured them from the recurrence of the miseries which had been inflicted by Papal ignorance, intolerance, and rage. It was reserved, however, for a German sovereign, celebrated for his military abilities, and who aspired to the character of a philosopher, but whose despicable scepticism was beneath contempt, to revive the persecutions of the dark ages by his absurd and barbarous legislation relative to the Jews. Frederic the Great of Prussia, limited their number in his dominions, prohibited foreign Jews from settling in his territories, imposed upon them the most enormous burdens, excluded them from all civil functions and from respec- A. D. 1750, table professions and lucrative branches of trade.

Continue the history of the Jews in Germany. Very different was the conduct of the emperor Joseph II. He had no sooner ascended A. D. 1780. the throne, than he directed his attention to the amelioration of the condition of the Jews; the schools and the universities were thrown open to them; they were enabled to take degrees in philosophy, medicine,

A. D. 1820,

and law; every lucrative branch of trade, they were permitted to carry on with all the facilities possessed by Christians; and wise and efficient measures were taken to secure the education of their youth. The present emperor, to prevent the Rabbins from exercising an improper controul over the minds of the common Jews, has issued an edict ordaining that the Rabbins, before they are allowed to exercise any religious function, are to undergo an examination relative to their acquaintance with the principles of their religion and their progress in the philosophical sciences; and he has ordered that the appointments allotted to them shall be in proportion to their acquired and natural talents. Their prayer books are translated into the vernacular language of the country; the discourses addressed to the people are to be in the same tongue; and the Israelite youth are to participate in the common benefits of education.

What has been the condition of the Jews in Poland?

The Jews in POLAND have long existed in greater numbers than in any other country; and it is computed that, at the present day, nearly three millions of them are scattered through the provinces which formerly composed that now dismembered kingdom. From the fourteenth century, they have formed the principal part of the population of many of the towns. They have in their hands, the greatest part of the retail or intermediate trade of the country, and some of them have attained considerable wealth. But the Jews in Poland, have been chiefly remarkable for the tenacity with which they have adhered to the prejudices and superstitions of their race. The Talmud with all its monstrous tales, has retained implicit credit; the authority of the Rabbins has been almost despotic over the minds of the people; and the whole system of education has been rendered subservient to the purposes of the elders and the degradation of the people.

Who are the Chassidim in Poland?

A modern writer has described a very extraordinary sect, the Chassidim, who are now very numerous in

A. D.1575.

the Polish provinces, and have rapidly increased. The history and principles of this extrordinary body, form a strange exhibition of the propensity which this unhappy people have displayed in every age from the destruction of Jerusalem, to give way to the most palpable delusions, and to follow in the train of the most impudent impostors. A Rabbin in Podolia, about a hundred years ago, pretended, that long before, a Jew had discovered an important work in Egypt, containing such inestimable information, as to conduct to an accurate acquaintance with the will and character of God. Maintaining that he was favoured with direct intercourse with heaven, and that he had the power of performing the most stupendous miracles, he was regarded almost with adoration by his numerous followers. These men pretend to an extraordinary degree of sanctity, although they are by no means averse from sensual indulgences, and are in fact permitted by the code of morals communicated by the founder of their sect, to gratify their passions without much restraint. An estimable and creditable modern writer, Niemcewicz, declares that in his country, Poland, there are generally some chiefs of this sect, to whom Jews and Jewesses make pilgrimages. They believe that when one of their Rabbins becomes a Cabbalist, he becomes a kind of deity; that he understands the language of animals, trees, and flowers; that he can avert the inflictions of the demons; can determine in war who shall conquer and who shall be subdued and can dethrone such monarchs as are unfavourable to the Jews; in short that every thing yields to his prophetic power. The chief principle of the sect is, that each one who belongs to it, is so enveloped in sanctity, that it is impossible he should ever lose his station by any transgression, or by any criminal action whatever. Their practices are abominable, and their wretched devotees seem to be sunk to the lowest stage of depravity and crime.

To what employments are the Polish Jews addicted? Since the Jews in Poland are incapacitated from becoming the possessors of landed property, they refuse to follow agricultural pursuits; and though the emperor of Russia issued an edict, commanding them

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