The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-11-26
/. THE JEW IN MODERN HISTORY

8" THE JEW In MODERN HISTORY
BY BENZ. I. COHEN.
The following lecture was delivered
before the Young Mems Hebrew Associ-
alton at Portland, Or, November IA,
by Benz. I. Cohen: Spain, the Sunny
home of the olive and the vine, was the
chosen abode of lsraels wanderers. long
ere the gates of Centa opened to admit
the Moorish conquerors. And above all,
in Southern Spain had they become the
favorites of fortune, where being the
principal cultivators of the soil, they had
aroused the jealousy and excited the Gu
pidity of the Cloths, who attempted by a
series of barbarious DEGREES, to drive
them from the land which their industry
and intelligence had made to blossom as
the rose. The Jewish population
of Spain, of Arab descent,
turned in this dark hour,
an appealing glance to their brethren OF
the Crescent, whose banners could be
seen to wave and the sound OF whose
Tecbir war cry could almost be heard
across the narrow strait which separates
Spain from Africa 1.-THE overthrow OF
the Gothic Kings was as much achieved
by the superior information which the
Saracens received from their suffering
kinsmen as by the resistless valor OF the
desert" And then shone the dawn OF
a glorious day for IsraePs race. Hand
in hand, and heart to heart, with their
Moorish friends, they mounted the lad
der of fame Both alike reared fair
palaces and filled the highest offices OF
state. The leading physicians were Jews,
and grave professors cast abroad the
dazzling light of secular science, min
gled with the lucent rays Of Talumdlca4
lore. An extensive and enlighted COM
70 merce
SUPPORTED THIS SPLENDoR,
While noble universities fourished for
the benefit of their favored youth. Long
after the fall OF the Moorish Kingdoms,
the Jews still fourished in Spain, until
the increasing strength of the Goths
brought with it increase of persecution:
Gradually the Jews were deprived OF
their privileges, or forced to an
outward compliance with the Cath
olic faith under the title OF
NueUOs Christians. At length the rise
of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the intro
duction of the fatal Inquisition, sealed
their fate. This moral Upas tree first
unfolded its leaves at Seville, and three
of the fairest names in Spain, the Duke
of Medina Sidonia, the Marques of Cadiz,
and the Count of ARGOS, were its first
victims. The introduction OF the
Inauisition into Aragon was resisted
with all the energy of despair; but
alas! evil triumphed over good and its
fell talons were again Redeemed with the
blood of the children of the Sun. Fer
dinand, in a spirit of madness, the evil
effects of which are felt in Spain to this
day. determined that its delicious air
should no longer be breathed by any who
did not profess Catholicism. Baptism
or exile were the alternatives. More
that GOO, 900 of the most industrious, the
most intelligent, and most enlightened of
Spanish subjects, clinging to
the faith on their fathers, re-
signed the delightful land where
in they had resided for centuries,
the beautiful cities they had raised, the
universities from which Christendom
drew for ages its most precious lore, the
tombs of their ancestors and the temples
where they had worshiped the God for
whom they made this sacrifice. They
had but four months to prepare for
eternal exile, after residence of as many
centuries, during which brief period
forced sales and glutted markets vir-
tually confscated their property. 1t is a
calamity which the scattered people still
ranks with the desolation of Nebuchad-
nezzar and of Titus. Who, after this,
should say that the Jews are by nature
A soRDID PEOPLE.
But the Spanish Goth, then so cruel and
SO naughty, where is he? A despised
suppliant to the very race which he ban
ished for some miserable portion of that
treasure which their habits of industry
have again accumulated. Where is that
tribunal which summoned Medina
Sidonia and Cadiz to its dark inquisi-
ton? Where is Spain? Its fall? Its
unparalleled and irremidiable fall is
mainly to be attributed to the expulsion
of that large portion of its subjects,
the most industrious and intelligent,
who traced their origin to the Mosaic
and Mohammedan Arabs" Many, if not
the greater portion of these hapless ex
lies. sought and found safe asylum in
free Saxon England, where, as in all
other parts of Europe, their progress,
though silent and slow. was onward ever
and upward. Leaping now the gulf OF
time until we arrive at the early part OF
the 10Th century, we find their then con-
dition thus portrayed in the glowing
Orientalism of Disraeli: "You never
observe great intellectual movement in
Europe in which the Jews do not largely
participate. The first Jesuits were Jews;
that mysterious Russian diplomacy
which SO alarms Western Europe is or
ganized and principally carried on by
Jews; that mighty revolution which is at
this moment preparing in Germany, is
entirely developing under the auspices
of Jews, who almost monopolize the pro-
fessorial chairs of Germany. Neander
the
FOUNDER OF SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY,
And who is Regius Professor of Divinity
in the University of Berlin, is a jew.
Benary, equally famous in the same
University, is Jew. Wehl the Arabic,
Professor Of Heidelberg, is Jew, the first
Arabic scholar of the day and author of
the life of Mahomet. A few years ago
we were applied to by Russia for loan.
resolved to go myself to St Peters
burgh. I had an interview on my ar
rival with the Russian Minister of
Finance, Count Cancrin. I beheld the
son of a Lithuanian Jew. The Joan was
connected with the affairs of Spain. /
repaired thither in the person of the
Spanish Minister, Senior Mendizabel; I
beheld one like myself, the son of a