Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/716

682 JEWS for the culture and science of Judaism (1823) and the Culturverein had a brief existence. Instead of receiving- support and thanks, the chief workers were regarded as heretics. The modern historical study of Judaism was inaugurated by Rapoport and Zunz. Solomon Juda (Lob) Rapoport, sprung from an old family boasting many learned Talmud- ists,was born in Lemberg in 1790, and was rabbi at Tarnopol and in Prague, where he died in 1867. His published essays in various periodicals or in tho form of prefaces are largely biographical, arid display a great range of reading and power of combining distant references. Of his pro jected Talmudic encyclopaedia but one part appeared, and his scheme for a biographical series under the title of Men of Renorvn remained unrealized, except some fragments. Nachmau Krochmal (1780-1840) was not less learned than Rapoport, and perhaps surpassed him in philosophical acuteness. 1 Of greater importance and influence were the writings of the patriarch of living Jewish scholars, Leopold Zunz, especially his epoch-making work Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrdge der Juden (Berlin, 1832). 2 Among other his torical writers may be named Isaac Marcus Jost (1793- 1860), teacher in the Jewish normal school at Frankfort, editor of a valuable edition of the Mishna with a German translation (1832-34), and author of several important histories of Judaism and its sects, A. GEIGER (<?.#.), and H. Graetz of Breslau, who has composed the most com prehensive history of the Israelites that has yet appeared. To the names of these scholars may be added FURST the lexicographer (q.v.), M. Steinschneider the bibliographer, Herxheimer the translator of the Bible (Pent., 1841; Propli. and Hag., 1841-48), and Herzfeld the historian (Gesch. d. V. Jis., 1847). In modern German-Jewish literature Philippson of Bonn and Lehmann of Mainz are leading representatives in journalism of reform and orthodoxy. German Jews have also distinguished themselves in general public life, claiming such names as Lasker in politics, Auerbach in literature, Riibenstein and Joachim in music, Traube in medicine, Lazarus in psychology. Especially famous have been the Jewish linguists, pre-eminent among whom are T. Benfey of Gottingen (1809-1881), the most original of modern comparative philologists and the greatest Sanskrit scholar of our day, and the admirable Greek scholar and critic Jacob Bernays of Bonn (1824- 1881). "Within the last year or tvo the success of the Hebrew race in commerce and the professions has led in Germany to a singular revival of old-world prejudices. A series of leagues of " Germans" were formed against the "Semites." Stocker, a "Christian Socialist" and court preacher to the emperor, gave importance to the movement by placing himself at its head. Its weapon is social ostracism : meetings are held at which the Jews arc loudly denounced ; and members of the " German " leagues vow to have no commerce with the hated race. Occasionally the two parties came to blows, some Jewish houses were wrecked, and a synagogue at Neu-Stettin burnt. At this point the Government interfered. The universal admission of the Jews to public posts only dates from the establishment of the empire. In the German states the spiritual emancipation of the Jews was not immediately followed by political emancipation. They were freed in Germany by the French law as a result of the conquests of Napoleon, but lost their civil equality when the French retired, to regain it bit by bit in succeed ing years. The Leibzoll, the odious tax imposed upon a Jew as often as he crossed the boundary of a city or petty state, even if he went in and out twenty times in the day, was 1 His fragmentary works were collected by Zunz, under the title More Ntboche ha-seman, 1851. - A collected edition of Zunz s scattered essays was commenced by the " Zunzfund " in honour of his eightieth birthday, 1874. removed in Prussia in 1790, and in other German states in 1803. In 1812 the royal edict declared all Jews in Prussia to be citizens, and gave them equal rights and privileges with their Christian fellow countrymen, They fought in the war of liberation, but after its success there was a reaction, and the new privileges (more particularly free admission to academic posts) were in part withdrawn. The Jews who had been promoted to the rank of officers during the war had to quit military service to escape the degradation of losing their commissions. The national parliament, which met at Frankfort in 1848, adopted re solutions in favour of the removal of religious disabilities. The Prussian constitution of 1850 declared that the en joyment of civil rights was independent of religious con fession. Tbe legislation with which the empire was inaugurated in 1871 at length gave political and civil equality to the Jews throughout Germany. The number of the Jews in the German empire is now 520,575, or 1 per cent, of the whole population (census of 1875). The Gemeindebund, or union of congregations for some religious and charitable purposes, has recently been established at Leipsic. The Jews are engaged in all the occupations which other citizens pursue in Germany. While they show a marked predilection for and success in commerce and the learned professions, a few are farmers and sailors. Being subject to the ordinary military laws, they serve in the army, and many Jews hold commissions in those regiments in which noble descent is not a necessary qualification. While the spiritual awakening of the Jews was essenti- Fn ally a German movement, having its centre in Prussia, the most powerful impulse to their political liberation came from France. The Jews had been banished from France by Charles VI., but a few had returned. Some Portuguese fugitives had taken up their residence at Bordeaux and Bayonne. Others had settled at Avignon under papal protection, and at Carpentras there was a congregation with a liturgy in some respects peculiar. To Paris tho Jews began to return in 1550, but held the privilege of domicile by a precarious tenure till Pereyre, the founder of the institution for deaf mutes, obtained in 1776 formal confirmation of the leave given to the Portuguese Jews to reside in the capital. There were already several hundred German Jews resident in an unlawful way, and protected chiefly through the influence of a German Jew named Calmer, who had been naturalized for services to the Government. The conquest of Alsace had added largely to the Jewish subjects of France. In 1780 the Alsatian Jews presented to the king a petition complaining of the seignorial dues exacted of them, of the restrictions on their trade, and the efforts of the priests to convert their children. The complaint was not without effect, The capitation tax was abolished in 1784, projects of enfranchise ment began to be broached, and a commission was ap pointed for the revision of the laws about the Jews, but its work was interrupted by the Revolution. The Jews addressed themselves with better hopes to the national assembly, and those of Paris distinguished themselves by demanding the withdrawal of the authority of the syna gogue over its members. In 1790 the French Jews united in sending into the assembly a petition demanding their admission to full and equal rights with other citizens. This requisition at first met with some serious opposition even among the advocates of universal liberty ; the ancient pre judice against this people had not been entirely eradicated. But the exertions and influence of Mirabeau and Rabaut St F^tienne prevailed. In 1790 the Portuguese Jews, and in 1791 the whole Hebrew population of France, were admitted to complete rights of citizenship. The constitu tion of 1795 confirmed the declarations of the assembly.