The Denver Jewish news., 1919-02-20
JEWS AS DIPLOMATS.
" PRor. a.IffEARp pEuFseH

Vonclu1lOn.D
From the sixteenth to the first halt
OF the, eishteenth century our history
has a great number Of Jews as finan-
cial managers Of European sovcreigns.
1t was natural tht they possessed an
Influence ON political questions. For
this reason we find Them ut parlia.
mentafy assemblies, or in places where
international treaties were concluded.
A Baron Won Pappenhelin. member of
one of the most aristocratic German
families. tells us that while in Rats
bon, attending Reichstag he saw
"Micheljud," the financial manager of
the Elector of Brandenburg, riding on
horseback, and SO elegantly dressed,
and attended by retinue of servants
that he took him to he one of the
grandees Of the empire and eurtsied
most devoutly, hut changed his curtsy
into an oath when he came near
| enough to recognize him. "Micheljud,'
who died in Berlin about 1910, must
| the Reichstag. When, in 1879, the
electOr August of Saxony was u can
| didate for the crown of Poland, he
called Berent Lehman to Dresden,
from which city the Jews had been
! excluded for two centuries. The SER
vices which Lehman rendered to his
lord We're naturally of financial ma
ture. but they could not be without n
political side.
Similar was the case Of Samuel OPP
both great masters of finance in Wen
M during the seventeenth and eight
eenth centuries. Turkey had come
near making of Vienna n second Con-
stantinople, and of st. Steplie's Cath
etlral a second st. Sophia, when by the
timely Intervention of the king of Pol
and the House of Austria was saved.
t16S3). 1t became necessary to prose
cute the war, and Samuel -Oppenheim-
er. q financial genius, was as i'm
portant to the empire as was the great
strategist, Prince Eugene of savoy
He could not have been Us useful as
he actually was without being initiated
iptO the states secrets. Yet nowhere
in weatern Europe did Jew rise as
high as did the Marano, Joseph Nasi,
who in the sixteenth century became
Duke of Naxos. though in all likcli-
hood this was a mere title, and the
government of the Duke was practical
ly limited to the financial administra-
ton of the island.
In the regular sense of Il member
of the government in the department
of international relations we could GER
tainly not expect Jew to have held
office before the second half Of the
! nineteenth century. when the consti-
tuition gave them full political equal
ity. We might claim the first place in
history for the thited States, where
Mordecai Manuel Noah was in 1918
consul to the Bay of Tunis. and Benja-
min Peixotto consul to Roumania in
1870. As real ambassador the Hon.
Oscar 8. Straus, appointed in 1887 by
President Cleveland as minister to
Turkey, occupies probably pioneer
pOsltlOu, tnO Hc huS bSSh SuSNSN"e"
since by Solomon Hirsch, by himself,
Henry Morgcnthau, and now by AbrHm
I. Elkus. of European states, 1 know
of Jews as ambassadors only in Italy.
They are Salvatore Barzilai, ambas-
sador to China in 1910. and Count di
Carobio. minister to Copenhagen in
1918. 1t is of special interest to note
that Italy also mad a jew, I. II. Cahen,
as attache of the Spanish embassy
wlio in 1894 was transferred TO Paris.
An exceptional fact is the employment
of William Calm. IA native of Mayence.
now retired in the states department
of Germany under bismarck. \ still
higher position was occupied by Louis
Doczi. also retired. in the states de-
partment of Austria under Count An
dr1lssy.
As foreign representative TO
Christian government the case OF Mr.
Ira \. Nelson. United States minister
to, Norway, is in all likelihood the first
~ its kind, tho am not suyc whether
Mr.. Nelson is to be considered jew
outside of his descent. From the way
we can read the signs of the times
il will take quite while before even
the United States will be able to send
jew as its representative to Ger
many, or even to England. d.-"Amcrican
Jewish Chronicle"