Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-01
RUSSIA AND THE JEWS.

RUSSIA AND THE JEWS.
The intolerance of the Russians towards
the Jews in that country has eliminated
In an edict that bears with extreme cruelty
upon the prosecuted race. They are now
to be so circumscribed in their liberty
that the enforcement of the edicts Of 1882
amounts almost to expulsion. 1t is said
by American correspondents in Russia
that immense numbers of them anticipa-
ting this event have looked towards
America as the hope of their deliverance.
Still others will make for England and a
smaller body will enter France The ex-
tremely poor will remain and suffer on, be
deprived of the privilege of owning a
home, be forbidden entry into the profess
sions, refused admission to the schools,
limited in residence to certain towns, suffer
under grievous taxation, forbidden to till
the soil or to hire for its tillage, forbidden
ownership or work in mines, excluded
from the army, debarred the practice of
medicine, and excluded from competition
for official positions.
Not many of the Russian Jews will at
tempt to settle in Germany, which SO re-
Gently drove so many thousands of the
race into exile They have not forgotten
that when, in 1879, large emigration of
their people to Germany set in, that "Jew
batting" or Juden-hetze, followed, and the
most notable anti-Semitic movement of
modern times was then inaugurated. So
cieties were formed pledged to boycott
Jews, and in 1SS0-S1, in Berlin, the
autho tiles remained idle while the bitter
est prosecutions were practiced upon the
"prosy bed" The disturbances even in
vadei ne dignity of the universities, and
the 1servative Lutheran clergy likewise
Joined the hue-and-cry. German agi-
tation spread across the border and re-
suited in frightful cruelties in Rus
STA, where in Kief, Odessa, Warsaw,
and scores of smaller places, riot
ers robbed the Jewish households,
assaulted women, and murdered even
he children. For these excuses the Rus
sian Courts refused to punish the offenders.
1t remains a credit for all time to the
memory OF the then Crown Prince of Ger
many, sour Fritz" that he befriended the
prosecuted, and announced his adherence
of the crusade against them. Austria pre-
sents no attractions either for the Russian
Jews, and France is, while tolerant, not
presenting to them sufficient avenues to
success in business, the trades, professions
or arts, and hence they naturally look to
the Anglo-Saxon's house of refuge. Just
who these people are therefore becomes of
interest to us.
if the idea prevails that the Jews of
Russia are intellectually below those of
their race in England, America and
France, it should be abandoned There is,
it is true, class of the very poor the
habits of which are degraded, and not
above those of the squalid OF the great
centers Of population in other lands. But
as a rule the Russian Jew is keen-witted,
shrewdly intelligent and well-informed
man. Because he has suffered under Rus
sian prosecutions so many generations,
and has been debarred making advance
ment abreast with other Russians, he has
had his wits much sharpened. Suffering
and oppression have served to deprive him
of secular knowledge to great extent, and
he has therefore become student Tai
mudic knowledge is broader among the
Russian than the English or American or
French Hebrews. Their schools are of a
severer class; they are reasoners because
their situation has made them thoughtful
and studious. They are sharper and
stronger in reasoning than any of the
varied peoples and tribes of Russia, and as
q rule are better educated than the aver
age Russian subject. Indeed, they are
known in Russia as the student class.
That they are hated by the common peo-
pie is not surprising, since in the quarters
where the intolerant spirit is most bitter,
the Russian peasant is the most slavish,
indulges much in drink, and is given to
violent outbursts of passion, and to petty
crimes, while superstition rules him alb
solutely. The educated anti-Semitic
Russian dislikes the jew for different
reason. Ii is related that when Sir Moses
Montefore was urging upon Paskievitch,
the Eissian Governor of Poland, measures
fol admitting Jews TO the best educational
advantages Of the land, that The official re-
piled: God forbid The jews are al
ready too clever for US. How would it be
if they got good schooling?" Hosmer, as
late as 1880, in his review of the history
of the Jews, declared that while George
Eliot in her day was correct in saying
that the leader of liberalism in Germany
was Jew, of Republicanism in France a
Jew, of free government in Spain of jew.
ish descent, of the Conservatives of Eng
land Jew, he would add that the diplo
macy of Russia was then guided by minds
of the same race.
But in the main in Russia the Jew has
been a trader in public. student in pri