JEWISH ADAPTABILITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2394, 18 January 1900, Page 63

JEWISH ADAPTABILITY.

Abridged from "The Jew, from the Histoi'ical, National, and Social Standpoint.'' Authtjii S. QtriCK, in the Puritan. " National " life has never been a characteristic of the Israelite. He has always made his sojourn in a strange land as comfortable as possible, and looked upon Babylon, so late as 1000 a.d., as a " second land of Israel," and apparently Avas not over- * anxious to return to the land of his fathers when the opportunity was given him. It must be somewhat a matter of shame to the Divine revelation of love as he does, his_ the Christian when he realises that, professing the Divine revelation of love as he' does, his treatment, whenever he had the opportunity, of the people to whom he owes the whole substance of his religion hos been one long, relentless, merciless persecution. From the dawn of Christianity until now, s the Jew's misfortunes have been owing to the Christian's uncompromising hostility. We read with astonishment how St. Ambrose preached as a matter of faith that the death of Maxiinillian was a direct ■ punishment from God for his having ordered the Christians to repair a Jewish synagogue they had wrecked. We see in Spain, under the Moors, the Jews flourished and beoame wealthy ; and "itis a well-established fact that to them is chiefly dve — through the Arab medium — the preservation and subsequent spreading of ancient classical literature, especially philosophy, in Europe." How did Christianity repay the debt the world "owed to the Spanish Jews? I suppose nothing more inhuman_ than ,the proceedings of the Inquisition in Spain can be imagined ; it is too painful to dwell on, but the point to be noted, is — the Jew survives the Inquisition. The conclusion one comes to, leluctantly, is that Christianity has always been, and now is, afraid of the Jew. It is not a matter of principle, but a matter of instinct, and is just as much alive now as it was in medieeval Spain, this hatred of the Jew, which is liable to result in bloodshed at any moment. No one with the Drejffus case still in his mind can deny the existence of this " anti-Semitis-mus," or Judenhetze ; but Englishmen, as a rule, never trouble to think whether there may be a rational basis for this mania, but condemn it as a disease of the mind to which foreigners are peculiarly subject. Has the Frenchman or the Russian any cause for alarm? or' is it mere spitef illness or envy? It is well to bear in mind that the Jews were seven centuries in Spain before the Christians turned on them. The Jews have not been absolutely on the saSne footing as Englishmen in England -for' 70 years, and already the scientificsociologist sees distinct signs of -an anti-Semitic 'fueling gaining ground every day. . . . It must be remembered that in <the Spanish exodus 300,000 Jews left Spain, but were not allowed by "law" to remove any property. About 200,000 were " forced " into the Christian Church, and saved their lives by very heavy fines. That brings up the total to considerably more than half a million. The number slaughtered was prodigious — at c read of 280 being burned in one year in Seville alone. Considering the magnificent services to civilisation that the Spanish Jew rendered, we can only attribute the relentless brutality of his treatment to panic alone. It -was a struggle for existence. For, strange as it may appear to us, wholesale conversions to Judaism have been possible ; in some cases whole tribes have embraced the faith, and so acute did the situation become at different periods during the last thousand years that we find much prohibitive legislation against Christians becoming servants to Jews. For instance, 1229 the Archbishop of Hungary reports that many Jews had Christian wives, and .thousands of "conversions" were taking place. We continually hear it said that the modern Jew and his genius is the result of pure race. This, on scientific examination, proves- to be fallacious, for we find the Jew, being planted in a particular country, acquires the peculiar shaped skull of that country in which he lives. In North Africa, where the heads are long (dolichocephalic), the Jews' heads are so also. In Piedmont their heads resemble the Italians of Turin. All over Slavic Europe no distinction between Jewish and Christian heads can be proved to exi&t. This seems to prove that racially he is no purer than his neighbours. But in spite of this apparent disproval of purity of blood comes the question of uniformity of facial type, which is patent lo every one's

observation. The peculiar nose, the dark hair and eyes, the "ghetto" expression, all aid one to identify the Israelite, although it must not be forgotten that there are a proporion of blonde or fair-haired Jews. . . The Christian has persecuted the Jew so relentlessly through the ages that his ste-ture is diminished about four inches beloAV the Christian; that is, the average Englishman is about a half-head taller than the average JeAV. But the Jew influences every kingdom of the world, yet scarcely knoArs his strength — a JeAV has been Prime Minister of the British Empire. If Christians lose hold of their Christianity, the Jew Avill rule the world.