his hands strengthened by every civilized nation in Europe he



278 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

was enabled to extend his sphere of usefulness.* To-day the
world is offering tributes of joy on his centenary and is extoll-
ing the greatest philanthropist of the age; and yet he is recog-
nized as having kept always prominently before him as a first
duty the ministration to Jewish suffering :

"This above all, — to thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."



♦Written during the year 1885, while the great philanthropist was alive



CHAPTER XL

Wherein is considered the interest of society in the preservation
of the Jews as such.

If it be true that society at large would be benefited by th«
extinction of the Jews as such, or by the decadence of their dis-
tinctive manners, customs and beliefs, the arguments which I
have employed lose all their force. It will be observed that in
what has previously been written I have addressed myself to the
Jews as such, from a common locus standi, and that society at
large has not been considered in the discussion. Thus far I have
devoted myself to inquiring the benefits that will inure to the
Jews from the preservation of their solidarity. It remains to
be considered how the world will be affected if the views I hold
shall prevail and be followed by the Jews. If it were possible
that the Jews could be benefited by pursuing a course which
would entail a disadvantage to the general public, that disadvan-
tage would be an irresistible and unanswerable argument
against the pursuit of that course. Every man and every class
of men have the inalienable right to exercise and enjoy the largest
liberty compatible with the good order and happiness of society,
and in correlation society has the inalienable right to abridge the
liberties of individuals or classes to the extent required by the
good order and happiness of society. Upon these correlative
rights are founded the whole structure of political and social gov-
ernment. Whenever either right is infringed, the equipoise is
disturbed, the structure is in danger of downfall.

It is easy to formulate this rule, but none is so difficult to
apply. The adjustment of these rights depends upon human
minds and hearts, and the inherent fallibility of both is exhibited
in their work. The application of the rule to the question under
consideration is fraught with great difficulty. Theorists and vis-
ionaries may content themselves with the argument that if the

279



28o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

Jews be sincere in their manners, customs and beliefs, any abridg-
ment thereof would be intolerant, and, as intolerance is wrong,
the Jews have a right to exercise their manners, practice their
customs and employ their belief. But this argument begs the
question by assuming that intolerance is a wrong. Intolerance
is not always wrong — for wrong may be what is not tolerated,
and it is unquestionably a virtue to be intolerant of what is not
right. Truth is intolerant of error; virtue of evil, and against
such intolerance nothing can be urged, though the error or evil
be practiced with never so much sincerity. It is commonly be-
lieved that our government is founded in a large degree upon
the principle of universal tolerance, and this fancied element
of our institutions is extolled as one of its most attractive
features.

This belief is an erroneous one. I am aware that the founders
of our Government, warmed by the French Revolution and heated
by our own, delivered themselves of many loose expressions,
even in our laws and public documents, that gave color to the idea
that this is a country of universal tolerance, but a moment's re-
flection will demonstrate that the idea is false and unfounded.
The experience of the world shows that in the struggle between
the rights of individuals and the rights of society as represented
by governments, the latter always prevailed, and to guard in a
measure against a recurrence of that evil, the principle was in-
grafted upon our Constitution, that not only should individuals
be unrestrained except as required by the public good, but that
in considering the propriety or expediency of restriction every
doubt should be in favor of the individual. This is written every-
where between and on the lines, and this is the extent to which
we have traveled toward universal tolerance. To have gone fur-
ther would have exceeded the bounds of reason.

Freedom of conscience is a right which is enjoyed inde-
pendent of governmental license, and which is practiced in spite
of governmental inhibition. Torquemada himself, with all the
machinery of the inquisition, and backed by all the power of
Castile and Arragon could not prevent the weakest and poorest
Jew in Spain from denying Christ in his heart. The utmost that



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 281

can be done by power is to prevent the promulgation of beliefs,
and the practice of obnoxious forms of religion or inhibited man-
ners and customs. This is the extent of human power, and to
that extent it may be exercised whenever its exercise is demanded
by consideration of the greatest good to all and the least pressure
upon any of the members of society.

As a rule, the power has been employed to oppress individuals
and classes, rather than to protect society. It is abused oftener
than legitimately exercised, but it exists none the less. Gun-
powder has perhaps done more harm than good, but its well rec-
ognized evidence as a physical and mechanical force is not there-
by impaired. Such instruments are given to mankind to be used
at their peril. When mountains are leveled by explosions to
make highways for commerce, when sunken reefs are blasted to
make safe passage for ships, we give thanks for the discovery
or invention of dynamite; but when fine buildings are demol-
ished and innocent lives destroyed by the same agency, we are
apt to consider it a curse rather than a blessing. Our maledic-
tions, however, should be directed to those who misuse the power,
rather than to the power itself, and we should address ourselves
to protecting ourselves against the misuse rather than against
the thing which is misused. Dynamite, without evil men, would
be an unmixed blessing, but evil men, even without dynamite,
will always be a curse. ' To drop the metaphor and return to our
subject proper, I would say that we should not and may not decry
intolerance any more than we should bewail the invention of dy-
namite, for if intolerance be always directed against evil it would
be an unmixed blessing. But who shall decide when the power
should be exercised?

The repository of a power that is not restrained by a higher
must, in the nature of things, exercise that power in its own dis-
cretion and at its own peril. Every government is in its internal
affairs sovereign. Society is sovereign in its own sphere. So-
ciety must always judge what it will tolerate and what it will not
endure. For an error it is responsible to posterity and to God.
To limit the liberties of others is a dangerous exercise of power,
and one fraught with grave responsibility, and, as society is al-



282 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

ways stronger than individuals, the exercise may be delayed with-
out danger, and should be avoided except in cases where no doubt
exists as to the propriety thereof. But when no doubt exists and
the institution to be suppressed is unquestionably fraught with
great danger to the well-being and safety of society, no maudlin
sentiment can or should interfere.

To illustrate: suppose that a religious sect should spring up
in the United States whose exercises required the sacrifice of
human life (a crime that ignorant fanatics attribute to the Jews),
and suppose that, in the practice of this religion in all sincerity,
human beings were slain; does any one maintain that such things
should be permitted in deference to a visionary idea that to pro-
hibit it would abridge the freedom of conscience?

Society, like individuals, may and must protect itself. We
have laws against polygamy which punish it as a crime, although
practiced in the name of religion ; and we have laws under which
we can segregate and even banish lepers and other infected per-
sons whose presence in the country is dangerous to the public.
We are intolerant of personal liberty in a thousand ways, and all
upon the principle that the good of the whole is better than the
good of any part, and that every man is presumed to surrender
to society, in return for its benefits, so much of his natural rights
as the well-being and safety of society requires. Every man is
master of himself and his property, but subject always to the limi-
tation that the control of both must not interfere with the public
weal. The old maxim of the law embodies the principle : Sic tuo
utere ut alienum non laedas, "so use what is thine as not to injure
what belongs to others."

To guard against misapprehension, I repeat that while the
power to suppress exists and the repository of that power must
judge when it shall be exercised, that repository exercises the
power at his peril. It is responsible to God above all for its acts.
He invests all men with the power, but none with the right to
do wrong. If I be correct in my reasoning, it follows indis-
putably that society may frown upon Judaism and suppress Jew-
ish institutions, manners and customs, if these institutions, man-



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 283

ners and customs do not consist with the general good, or, to be
more accurate, if they endanger the general welfare.

If, therefore, any one be sincerely intolerant of the Jews, let
us not regard him as perversely violating a great principle, but
rather as one who is honestly misapplying it. Let us strive to
show that there exists no occasion for this intolerance against us,
instead of denying the right of its exercise at all. To do other-
wise is to be intolerant ourselves — a fault not the least prominent,
alas ! that may be laid at our doors. I am firmly impressed with
the conviction that there exists a strong prejudice against us;
that to a large extent it is honest ; that to some extent it is pro-
voked by ourselves, but that altogether it is unwarranted. I be-
lieve that the world would be the greater loser by the extinction
of the Jews, and in the succeeding pages I shall endeavor to show
as briefly and as dispassionately as I can why I would regard it as
a universal calamity to wipe out that great people in whose an-
nals mixed with all their faults are to be found the highest ex-
amples of all that is noble and sublime in man.

"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; be-
cause thou hast obeyed my voice." (Genesis xxii. i8.)

If I shall be able to show that most of the faults laid at the
door of the Jews are common to all men and are not distinctly
Jewish faults ; if I shall further show that their distinctive faults
are mainly due to enforced conditions of life and protracted per-
secutions ; if I shall show that no other people under similar cir-
cumstances resisted temptations so well, and preserved virtues
so long ; if I shall further show that in the midst of temptations to
evil, they not only resisted evil, but developed positive virtues
and great intellectual power ; and if I shall be able finally to show
that the voluntary tenets and practices of the Jews are responsible
for the good that is in the Jew, and not chargeable with the evil,
then I take it the world is better off for the existence and preser-
vation of the Jews as such. Let us discuss the premises in order
to support the conclusion.

Character is a conglomerate. It is made up of inheritance,
education, association and surrounding circumstances. An indi-
vidual who is born of worthy ancestors, who is properly edu-



284 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

cated, who mingles with unexceptionable associates, and is sur-
rounded only by ennobling influences, rises to the fullest stature
of moral manhood. There may be an occasional exception; by
a miracle of God the sun once stood still. But if any of the afore-
said elements of character be omitted, and in their stead be
brought a factor of evil, the result depends upon the relative
strength and endurance of the contending elements of good and
evil.

Thus we see not infrequently the offspring of noble parents
disgrace the patronymic by reason of evil associations or im-
proper education; while on the other hand, from the lowest
origin spring the grandest heroes. These seeming anomalies
are but examples of a great law of human development. The
most hardened criminals have been reclaimed by proper influ-
ences ; the loftiest natures have been degraded by the temptation"
that assailed their weakest point. None may cease so far to be
human as to retain no spark of the Divine. None may rise so
far toward the angels as to retain no taint of the brute.

Goethe wrote somewhere, I think in his ''Wahrheit und
Dichtung" that no man had ever had all the good eliminated
from his nature. Walpole held that every man had his price.
Both were right. There is something divine in man that corrod-
ing influences can not destroy, and there is something brutal in
him that subjects him to temptation, which, if it fits his weak-
ness, will cause his fall. Whatever be the native qualities of a
man or a people they will have their complexion altered more
or less by influences brought to bear thereon for good or evil.
The character that is susceptible of the highest improvement in
response to the least influence, and that is proof against degrada-
tion for the longest period and through the most numerous and
trying temptations, is the most sterling. If it can be analyzed
and understood, it should be emulated and preserved.

Nothing is so degrading as contumely. Self-respect is the
sheet-anchor of personal honor, and the respect of others is the
vital principle of self-respect. It matters not if the contempt
and contumely to which one is subjected be deserved or not, if it
be exhibited toward a man it causes him to shrink in sensitive-



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 285

ness from the world's gaze, it engenders his indignation and
hatred, it breeds a spirit of vengeance, and finally he broods
until vengeance is achieved through crime, or peace is secured
in a desperate and ignoble indifference. How full is life of
illustrations to this rule. Every prison is full of creatures noble
once, but driven by the disgrace of the first fault to the madness
of professional crime, or reckless indifference to disgrace. When
from a prison career — where the surroundings are reeking with
crime, corruption and temptation — a man emerges with few
faults^ and many virtues, he has demonstrated a heroic and manly
character that merits all praise.

After the battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans took
possession of England. They found in the Saxons the sturdiest
and most liberty-loving and incorruptible people of Europe, and
yet ere long the influence of power and wealth, persecution and
bribery overcame the Saxon purity and ingrafted upon the parent
tree a Norman scion that has borne most of the English fruit.
History is full of examples to prove how easy it is to corrupt a
people and undermine their manhood.

It records radical changes in the character and constitution
of every nation, and but few in the march of two thousand
years have escaped utter destruction.

"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?
*********

their shores obey
The stranger, slave or savage ; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts."

The influences that have brought about the decadence of so
many mighty empires are the temptations and pressures to which
they have been subjected. As a rule, human conduct is governed
by the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. By these
means the virtues of men and of peoples have been overcome
since the first fall. Miraculous almost is the escape of him who
is driven to evil by fear or tempted by rewards.

The Jews since the dawn of the Christian era have been



286 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

subjected to the degrading influence of the world's contumely,
that fruitful source of desperate corruption and shameless brut-
ishness. They have, moreover, been impelled by the fear of per-
secution and the hope of reward to forsake their creed, to abjure
their traditions, and surrender their individuality.

It has been a mighty battle that has been waged for nearly a
thousand years. There has been ranged on one side the sneers
and the power of the world, against a few isolated creatures with
no country, no system of laws other than those of religion, no or-
ganization, no vernacular — with nothing to sustain them but only
the creed that God himself taught them, and the traditions and
customs that came down to them as a sacred trust from those
who were admitted even into the Divine Presence. From such a
struggle, not yet ended, the Jews, though victorious, have not
come out unscathed.

In many instances the practice of religion has been with
them the strict observance of rites and ceremonies and the utter
disregard of morality, which is the essence of the religion.
Driven from the ordinary walks of life, they have become money-
lenders par excellence, and being forced even in this vocation to
duplicity and chicanery for defensive purposes, these evils have,
in a large measure, become a part of their character. Compelled
to be hypocrites, hypocrisy has entered into their composition,
and being denied the benefit of the laws of even natural rights,
they have come to look upon Gentiles as enemies whom it is law-
ful to spoil. Falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy, dishonesty, ignorance,
uncleanliness, boorishness, may all be laid at their door. They
have become and have been false, deceitful, hypocritical, because
the world forced them thereto either by degrading or oppressing
them; they have become and have been dishonest because by
dishonesty they lost no position, nor by integrity could they gain
any.

They have been and have become ignorant at times because
education was denied them in the ordinary course, and if stealthily
acquired, received no recognition. They have been and remain
uncleanly and boorish in some countries because they have been
driven from general society and denied any of their own. What



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 287

people similarly situated could have escaped the faults that are
found among the Jews ? What people, under the most favorable
circumstances and conditions, is free from them? Are not these
faults common to all, and are they not the rule rather than the
exception with the most highly favored among the nations of
the globe? The municipal laws of every modem civilized people
are chiefly directed to the punishment of crimes among which
stand prominently perjury and theft. Deceit and falsehood are
the fruitful sources from which nearly all of modern litigation
springs. It requires no search to find all of these faults among
the most cultured and freest peoples of the earth — and Diogenes
might still hunt with his lantern for honest men. With all the
appliances of modern science pestilence has not been subdued,
and the filth prevailing among the people at large is the greatest
promoter of these plagues. The Jews usually escape, for, despite
the charge of uncleanness made against them, they are to such an
extent superior in this respect to the Gentiles that the plagues
seem to pass them over now as it did in Egypt centuries upon
centuries ago.

There is but little that is characteristic of the Jew in the faults
of the Jews. They have weaknesses like other men, they sin
like other men. But the Jew is everywhere prominent as an
object of comment, and the development of his shortcomings
gives rise to more discussion and makes a deeper impression than
that of other men. It is the tendency of the human mind to
generalize. I have already shown how prone we are to adopt
general rules to explain particular phenomena. The Jew being a
prominent object of attention, the superficial observer (who is
largely in the majority) is apt to notice particularly the failings
of such as he knows, and to generalize therefrom the want of
virtue among the Jews as a class. Nothing could be shallower.

If it were true that Jews are more corrupt than other men,
the fact would easily be explained by their history, and thus
relieve the Jewish religion, customs and traditions of the re-
sponsibility therefor. A man is not wicked because he is a Jew,
but in spite of it. But it is not true that they are worse than
other men in the same walks of life. The Jewish merchant, law-



288 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

yer, doctor, artisan or laborer is in all respects the peer of the
members of the same occupations — in many respects he is facile
princeps.

I have admitted much more as chargeable against the Jews
than can be established by resort to history. I have done so be-
cause I am arguing to convince others, not to please myself, and
my purpose will be best accomplished by the course I have pur-
sued.

The intelligent student of history and of men will require no
argument to explain a state of facts that he knows does not exist
even though I admit it; the prejudiced and ignorant would not
believe a denial that they will not verify, but they may yield to
an argument that they can not refute and which destroys the
force of that state of facts even though it existed.

There is nothing in the Jewish religion, customs or traditions
that should breed wickedness or corruption. The traditions relate
to deeds of heroism and courage, sublime resignation and charity,
self-sacrifice, martyrdom and faith. The Jewish customs and
practices are simple, healthful and pure; they are nearly all
founded on the Mosaic laws, which modem science approves as
the most wonderful code of sanitary and domestic regulation ever
formulated. The Jewish religion teaches that the greatest piety
is morality.

On the contrary, the traditions, customs, practices and religion
of this people have bred heroes and statesmen, savants and poets,
philanthropists and Samaritans, to such an extent that though
composing but a small fraction of the earth's population, the
Jews have given to nearly every generation an immortal name,
and have shaped the destiny of nearly every government under
the sun since and before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jew.

Let us glance briefly at the chronology of the Jews since the
Christian era and note the great names that serve as landmarks
in modern Jewish history.



CHAPTER XII.

IVherein is Given a Brief Resume of Jewish History since the

Christian Era.

For eight Ijundred years after the birth of Christ the Jews
were the objects of persecution at the hands of Pagans, Chris-
tians and Mohammedans. During the first century CaHgula per-
secuted them in Rome, Jerusal-em was besieged and captured by
Titus, the temple was destroyed and the chosen people of God
driven from the holy city. The stars that shone on Galilee looked
down upon a dispersed and desolate people. The pagan legions
of Rome overspread the Holy Land, and the forests of Lebanon
and Zion echoed the lamentations and shrieks of a devoted race
hunted to the death. Peace and security were conditions remem-
bered only as a time long since departed. In the second century
Akiba became a m.artyr, and the children of Israel were forbidden
to even enter the city of their ancient glory. In the year 530
Justinian formulated laws against the Jews that were designed
to work their extirpation, but, despite the engines of destruction
brought to bear upon them, they survived and preserved their
customs, manners, traditions, learning and religion. With the
beginning of the ninth century opened a new era for the Jews.
Haroun Al Rashid, in the Orient, and Charlemagne, in the West,
fostered and encouraged the talents of the indestructible and irre-
pressible people. They rose to eminence in commerce and litera-
ture, and became the repositories of the wealth and the learning of
the world. The Christian clergy became jealous of their power and
fomented ntw persecutions, but it required something more than
priestcraft to strike with success at a power so great as theirs.
In Morocco and Spain they became the intimates of the rulers,
and their merchant princes supplied the belligerent monarchs of
Europe with the sinews of war. Great minds arose, and radical
reforms were instituted among them. The Scriptures, by trans-
lation and commentary, were brought nearer to the common

289