Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-08-23
Jews IN GERMANY.
How they are Treated 81 Water
ing PlaceA-LessiDg's SNathan
the Wise"
Eisonach Letter to Pail Mali Gazette

Eieenach Letter TO Pail MAIL 0ahetto.l
In a former letter l alluded to the
great sociability witnessed at Thuring-
ian watering places and forest resorts,
all the assembled guests fraternizing
in a manner very agreeable to contem-
plate, / am sorry to have to dwell on
one painful exception to this rule, and
to note a phase of German lite i'll
becoming oneof the best educated Sec
tions Of the human race. The jews, no
matter their position, are never in
cluded in what our German neighbors
call reiSebekdn ac-
quaintance. Wherever you go you
find the Jews apart; their children
do not join in the games of others in
hotel gardens they sit at table to.
gether, and, while the other assembled
guests bow and smile TO each other
and Immediately begin q conversation,
no notice at all is taken Of the Jews.
There are, indeed, ono or two charm
ing spots in the Thuringiap forest
which have become almost deserted
by other tourists, simply because the
Jews flock thither. We must live in
Germany among German people to
realize this extraordinary moral retro
gression, as | must call it. | have
heard kindly, we'll bred, courteous
Germans speak Of the Jews in terms
more bitter than anything eve said in.
my hearing by French Catholics Of
the Republicans, or vice versa, and
when | have ventured to express my
astonishment, and to reiterate the
statement that no such feeling exists
in England; that the Jews are received
on precisely the same footing as others
into society generally; that was
proud and happy to a number OF Jews
among my acquaintance, the only reply
l could obtain was, and this accom-
panied by a look Of semi incredulity;
Then all we can say is, the Jews in
England are not like those OF Berlin
and other places here"
Into the causes of this wave the
anti Jewish feeling now sweeping over
Germany | cannot here enter. lfeel,
however, unable to pass by the most
painful experience OF my visit to Ger
many alter an absence of ten years.
The hue and cry being raised against
the Socialists seems to an English
mind irrational enough; what is that
compared to the Hep, hep, hep"
being raised against the Jews, and not
BY the ignorant and the vulgar only.
but by the gentle and the learned?
What avail in Germany the teachings
of the great Lessing;whose ideal, az
high, perhaps, as any in imaginative
literature, was a Jew? If we look back
q hundred years Gan English writer
on German life and literature DR..
JapD, is here an admirable guide) we
shall see how admirable was the posi-
ton of the Jews in Germany then
Could the magnanimous sTlrit of Mo
SEES Mendelssohn revisit the earth and
see what is now going on in Germany
aud Russia, he must surely despair O.
the education of the human race as
foreshadowed by his equally magnani
nous friend Nathan the Wise" is
often given in German theater s, and
eager audiences sit out the 10 ng and
somewhat monotonous play for the
sake of the noble diction and still no
bier sentiments it contains. But it is
not ''the letter that killeth, the spirit
that keepeth alive" Little avails the
teaching of Nathan the Wise. in
Germany just now.