The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-04-07
The Jews in Germany.
[London Saturday Review. ]

Professor Heinrich Won Treitschke,
the eminent German historian, politician
and publicist, declares that there exists
in his country "Jewish question" In
the last number but one Of the PrCus-
sjSche Jahrbucher, of which he is the
editor, he concludes a most interesting
paper on the prospects Of Germany,
with trenchant attack on the Germ II
Jews; and this attack he iUstjfies and
develops in the current number Of the
same periodical. The position which he
takes up is as follows: Germany is
newly formed country; and though IL
Prussia it has found q strong and CON-
paratiyeIy old State to serve as nucleus
or leaven to the whole, the moral unfit
cation of the people can not be said tC
be yet completed. Both the internal
state of the country, in face OF the
socialism of the artisan class, and its ex-
ternal policy, in view of the two dangers
which menace it from the East and
from the West, make the firmest moral
union at home Indispensable. Now
there are several reasons, he argues,
why the Jew-harmless, and even use
full, in some cOuntries-is source of
danger to Germany. The first is that
the Jews are much more numerous
there than in the other countries oftle
West. In 1871 there were IN Spain
5000 Jews; IN Italy, 10000; in France,
$4,000; in Great Britain, $4,000; in
Germany, $4,000. The rate at which
they have increased during the present
century is very striking. Ia 1876 there
were in Prussia 1910. 0 Jews: IN 1916
there were 2l5, geo; in 1875 there We
nearly $40, goo. Notwithstanding 5000
conversions to Christianity, the proper
tion of Jews to the whole body OF il
habitants in Prussia rose between 1915
and 1915 from l In SO to in Is. At
Berlin there was in 1916, l Jew to every
SO inhabitants; in 1916, in every 40;
in 1871, il every %. and now there is
probably in every 70. Nor do these
figures give any adequate notion Of their
influence. The average of wealth among
them is very high, and the average of
education among them is still more re-
markable. In 1875 the proportion of
Jews in the Prussian Gymnasien was l
in 9.5, and in the ReaIschuien of the
first class, ! in 1925. 1t is notorious
that quite disprOportiOnate mum Der OF
Jews are members of the learned pro
fessiOns and that the press in Germany
is almost wholly in their hands, with the
result, as Herr Won Treitschke says with
scanty politeness, that nobody now be
lieves what he reads in the papers.
There is further, it is alleged, an i'm
portant difference between the quality
of the Jew in Germany and in France,
Italy, or England. The German jews
are very largely immigrants from the
SlavOnic East, while the Jews in Othe
western countries are in great part de-
scendants of the Spanish and Portuguese
Israelites-i other words, of the aris-
tocracy of the race. The fact Of this
superior quality causes them to be
treated with more respect, and this
respectful treatment reacts on their own
feeling toward the countries they live
in A Jew in England, France or Italy
feels himself an Englishman, French /
man or Italian; while German Jew,
Herr Won Treitschke declares, feels
himself simply Jew, not German at
all, and looks on his Teutonic and
Christian fellow-citizens with aversion
and contempt.