The Denver Jewish news., 1920-09-15


ried. If they established n household
for themselves they had 10 acquire II
'SchutZbrief'' of their own. with the
! exception of the rare cases mentioned
above. in which man had received
the extraordinary grant Of having his
children married. Now ii was stipu-
lated that Jew who asked permit
To marry. had to buy china for 200
thalers and export il. Only when he
iiuwed the receipt of the factory that
he had bought the china and the state
ment of the custom house that he had
exported it, wns he given the much
coveted license There were any NUM-
Der Of other privileges" business
was restricted. In some eases the Jew
had the right to deal in manufacture
goods and not in raw materials. In
other instances ID was the reverse II
he wanted to extend his business. lei
MS say for Instance. if he wished tn
deal in wool in II place where the Jews
were permitted TO deal in cloth only
he had to obtain an additional priv
iIcGc. for which he had to buy n Ger
tain amount of china. The possession
of house was again n privilege. II
man died and his heirs wished IL
have his house transferred to them
there was need of another special
grant and n new charter had to ht
obtained again on condition that
certain amount of china was to bt
bought. In one such case. the widow
of man who had owned house
asked for the transfer. and was charg
cd with the duty OF buying 30 thai
ers worth of china notwithstanding
her protest that the house was onl!
worth 200 thalers. Another privilege
was the confirmation of the clectio'
to congregational office. The sex
ton of cemetery had to be confirm
cd by royal decree, and IN one sucl
cnse. n charge of % thalers was made
In Memberships case. it may no
he improbable to suppose that the man
ager of the salesroom in the chin
factory had some pieces which he ha,
in vain tried TO sell for long time
and so he would force them on the
Fl rst Jew who came with an orde
for the required amount of china. >
it may have happened that among III
uicces selected by Mendclssohn Their
were several monkeys. and there is II
reason to doubt the story that such
piece which now might easily com
mand Il price higher than was charr
ed for the whole lot. remained in III
possession of the family. The onl
difficulty about the story is that th.
| Jew was not permitted to Keep rh
china because II was the desire OF TN
king that the china should he export
ed, and n marriage license or othe'
privilege could only be purchase
with certificate showing that Tho
china had actually been exported. stu
we know that such tyrannical order
we're not always carried out strictly
and tho china monkey in the posses
sion of Professor Dirichlrt may he
genuine article.
The law was not very beneficial
If was proven i'll this case as in man.
others that business would not ALLOW
any bureaucratic management. In
market became glutted and the chine
nicknamed. Jew china. was by TN
name already marked as unpopular
The old king. however. became NOR
obstinate the older he grew. ana II
would not listen to any suggestion tina
the order he revoked. and so the Jew
of Prussia had to Keep on buyin
china when they married or when the.
elected II sexton for the cemetery un
til after the death of King Frcderici
and until his successor. Frederick WI
linn II. in 1877. repealed that useles
decree.
The obstinacy of the king and hi
bitter luminosity towards the Jews ma:
he illustrated by another story. J.
17JO he issued what is called ger
erol privilege" which means Il uni
form law regulating the legal cond'
lion of the Jews. His predecessor ha'
promulgated n similar law in 1714 in.
stead of the former practice of stipr
lating the condition of every indiVid
ual Jew. The use of the term priv
ilcge" is so misleading that the lat
Mayor Gaynor of New York. at on
time quoted Frederick the Great as
friend of the Jews because he hat
granted them n general privilege. Th'
/ fact of the matter is that the tern
privilege" is decided misnomer anf
that the ordinance in question Is iul
of restrictions and disabilities. One q
| these is that the Jewish commu1it!
was responsible in case of theft II
which n Jew was involved. 1t hap