CHAPTER IX. JEWS IN ENGLAND-THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. IN all the towns of Europe which, in olden JEW AT PRAYER. times, have permitted the exiled Hebrews to find a resting-place within their walls, the traveller will fail to discover a single city that has not allotted its dirtiest and most squalid districts for the special abode of the Jew. The Judengasse at Frankfort, the Ghetto at Rome, the Jewish quarters in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and in numerous other towns, are, or have been, the most disagreeable portions of their respective capitals. Everywhere the scattered nation have been treated as social pariahs, and been banished to spots far away from the ordinary haunts of men. But as the spread of liberal opinions advanced, and the prejudice of ages became mitigated, the wealthier Jews one by one quitted the lowly homes of their ancestors, and migrated to suburban villas and fashionable squares. Thus, as restriction after restriction was removed from the Hebrews, the quarters in which they had all been formerly compelled to live, became only the places of abode of their poorer brethren. And such they remain at the present day. By the poor Jew, his Jewish district is deemed preferable to the cleaner and better built parts of the town. No matter whether that district be the Judengasse, or Houndsditch, or the like, it is there that he feels at home, and there only. For there he is surrounded by those of his own faith, free from the scorn and derision of the Gentile, in the midst of his own peculiar tradespeople, and close to his synagogue. Elsewhere he may be better housed; but only at the risk of being looked upon as an alien, and perhaps as an enemy. For among the lower classes in England, France, and Prussia, a Jew is still regarded with medieval contempt. The Jewish quarter of London is certainly no shining exception to parallel districts on the continent. The "Modern Judæa" of our metropolis is bounded on the north by Union Street, on the south by Houndsditch, on the west by Bishopsgate Street, and on the east by Aldgate. Within this area is the local habitation of the poorer class of Jews; and those not of the Hebrew faith, who pay a visit to this district, may easily imagine that they have been transported into a foreign land. The inscriptions over many of the shops and dwellings are in strange characters. Curious sounds salute the ear. Occupations unknown elsewhere flourish here. The inhabitants themselves are unlike other people, for on every countenance a strong but peculiar eastern character is impressed. All appear to resemble each other, some being perhaps more refined than others in their features, but yet the lineaments are the same. There is a striking similarity in the contour of the face; the brow, the nose, the eye, the curl of the locks, the shape of the beard, are all of a unique character. Every one who is not a Jew is here a foreigner. Our Jewish quarter, I must frankly own, is not a very savoury locality. Houndsditch is hardly a street one would choose for a promenade, except out of curiosity. Nor are Whitechapel, Bevis Marks, or Petticoat Lane, places that one would desire to live in. Their inhabitants belong entirely to the lower class of Jews, and though much destitution prevails among them, there is, on account of their excellent national charities, none of that extreme want and misery so common among the poor English. And here let me say that we Christians might take many a lesson from the Jews with regard to the organisation of our charitable institutions. According to the Jewish creed almsgiving is a most commendable act and it is divided into eight grades by their great teacher, Maimonides-the first or lowest grade being the act of giving reluctantly; the second, of giving cheerfully, but not proportionately to the distress of the recipient; the third, of giving cheerfully and proportionately, but not till relief is demanded; the fourth, of giving cheerfully unsolicited; the fifth, of relieving the distressed in such a way that the recipient knows the benefactor without being known. by him; the sixth, of relieving suffering unknown to the sufferers; the seventh, of bestowing charity so that the benefactor is not known, even by name, to his recipients, nor they to him; and lastly, the most meritorious of all, the act of anticipating charity by preventing poverty. Such being the Jewish view of this great virtue, it is not extraordinary that the Jews are among the most charitable people of the earth. The charities of the British Jews are numerous, and are of three kinds, public, private and congregational. Among them are societies for studying the law, and for the education and clothing of boys; for relieving the sick, and interring the poor gratis; for granting marriage portions to fatherless girls; for apprenticing poor boys; for the distribution of bread to the poor weekly, and also meat and coals during the winter; for the relief of poor married women at their own homes during their confinement, etc. In addition to these, there are hospitals, almshouses, ladies' benevolent societies, friendly societies, orphan asylums,-in fact, all kinds of institutions for the mitigation of distress, and for the education of the poor. As I passed a poor Polish Jew in tattered garments, carrying a frame on his back, containing glass and putty, I could not help thinking of the vicissitudes his race has witnessed. The moment its history and character are investigated, what touching associations are connected with it! What an anomaly to the history of mankind is the Jew! Mingling with the various nations among whom he has been scattered, his national character has never been lost. He belongs, and always will belong, to a peculiar and distinct people. He is a burning lamp kept alive amid convulsions and tempests—a subject without a king, having survived oppression in every form; while his conquerors are dead, and empires, which bound him in the chains of tyranny, have perished for ever. Alone he stands in this respect. Other nations can be traced up to a certain point, but beyond that point discovery is lost in conjecture and the twilight of fable. The Jews only can mark out a lineage which, in its original history, is without a parallel. Mr. Disraeli writes eloquently on this subject, speaking through the fictitious Sidonia, in his novel of Coningsby:" K "Sidonia was well aware that in the five great varieties into which physiology has divided the human species; to wit, the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Malayan, the American, the Ethiopian; the Arabian tribes rank in the first and superior class, together, among others, with the Saxon and the Greek. This fact alone is a source of great pride and satisfaction to the animal Man. But Sidonia and his brethren could claim a distinction which the Saxon and the Greek, and the rest of the Caucasian nations, have forfeited. The Hebrew is an unmixed race. Doubtless, among the tribes who inhabit the bosom of the Desert, progenitors alike of the Mosaic and the Mahomedan Arabs, blood may be found as pure as that of the descendants of the Scheik Abraham. But the Mosaic Arabs are the most ancient, if not the only, unmixed blood that dwells in cities. "An unmixed race of a first-rate organisation are the aristocracy of Nature. Such excellence is a positive fact; not an imagination, a ceremony, coined by poets, blazoned by cozening heralds, but perceptible in its physical advantages, and in the vigour of its unsullied idiosyncrasy. "In his comprehensive travels, Sidonia had visited and examined the Hebrew communities of the world. He had found, in general, the lower orders debased; the superior immersed in sordid pursuits; but he perceived that the intellectual development was not impaired. This gave him hope. He was persuaded that organisation would outlive persecution. When he reflected on what they had endured, it was only marvellous that the race had not disappeared. They had defied exile, massacre, spoliation, the degrading influence of the constant pursuit of gain; they had defied Time. For nearly three thousand years, according to Arch |
