Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-06

In district then outside the city limits,
put now IN the center Of the lower East
Side
The refusal of the Dutch to permit the
Jews to engage In retail trade has had a
powerful influence upon the commercial
development of New York city, because
1t drove them into the importing. export
ing and wholesale business, which they
have practically monopolized for the last
century. If you Will take street car up
or down Broadway you will notice that
nearly all the signs In the wholesale dis
trfct bear Jewish names; and they con-
troll large number of the big department
stores also. Altman. Saks. Stern Bros. and
Bloomfngdale. are all Jews; Arnold. of Ar
mold Il Constable. comes of Jewish stock;
Macy's great store Is owned by Strauss
Siegel & Cooper, Henry Siegel and many
other big retail firms that / mention ale
all Jews. Although the members OF the
first colony had their baggage seized to pay
Jews of New York are now estimated at
$ST0, 100000 and their wholesale trade last
year was estimated at 5o000,000 In this
city alone.
It IL an interesting fact that John Jacob
Astor learned his trade from Hayman
Levy. Jewish fur dealer, who employed
him In 1883 to beat furs for a dollar day;
and as Louis Marshall has observed, this
constitutes no blot on the Aston family
escutcheon!'
Until 1912 nearly all the Jews In New
York were Spaniards and Portuguese. Then
German Jews began to come in having
been driven out by the Napoleonic wars.
As late as 1882 the majority in the Ghettos
were German Jews, but the restrictive
edicts Of Alexander III banished from Rus
sia a great army which took refuge in New
York. Now 1t Is estimated that two-thirds
or more of the Jewish population of this
city are of Russian origin
Jews Among the Leaders.
nc hox hold
sitions In our national. state and municipal
presidents of the board Of aldermen Of
New York: there are always three or four
in the state legislature and in the con-
gressionaI delegation from this city. Julius
M. Meyer, the present attorney general Of
New York. Is Jew. They have been as
successful In the professions as in trade
and it Is asserted In Jewish publications
that at least thirty-three per cent of the
lawyers IN the city of New York belong
to that race. They have been equally
prominent in education. You would be in
terested to look over the list of teachers
In the public schools of New York, and
the catalogue of students in the normal
schools, which show a large proportion of
Jewish names. The Irish only surpass them
in this respect. Joseph Pulitzer and
Adolph Lewisohn have given large sums to
Columbia University. and Annie Nathan
Meyer was one of the founders of Barnard
College, the woman's department of that
institution. The assessed valuation OF Jew
ish educational and charitable institutions
in New York is s6,516J00.
A majority of the New York theaters are
owned or controlled by Jews; Heinrich Con-
ried. manager of the Metropolitan Opera
House, and his predecessors. Maurice Grau
and Strakosch, were all Jews. A majority
of the piano and singing teachers in the
city belong to the Jewish race, and sew
eral of the most successful composers
The mother of John Howard Payne, author
of Home, Sweet Home" was a Jewess.
l have frequently heard 1t asserted that
Theodore Roosevelt and even George
Washington had strain of Jewish blood in
their veins.