MODERN JEWS. An outline of the mediaeval history of the Jews is given in the article ISRAEL. The modern history of the race in its political and intellectual emanci-pation begins with Moses Mendelssohn, who flourished at Berlin in the latter part of the 18th century. The persecu-tions of the Middle Ages had produced their natural effect. Cut off from their fellow-citizens, excluded by oppressive laws from all trades except that of peddling in old clothes and even from buying certain classes of these, specially taxed, confined to Ghettos and Judengassen, strictly pro-hibited from entering some towns, limited in numbers in others, forbidden to marry except under restrictions designed to check the growth of the Jewish population, dJtabled from employing Christian servants or being members of trade guilds, the Jews seemed by their abject condition to deserve the evils which were its cause. There were always, it is true, exceptions to the general degradation of the race. The exiles from the Spanish peninsula (who in western Europe were found chiefly in Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Paris, and London, and also in Hamburg and Copenhagen) were in many cases persons of distinguished culture and intelligence, having been enabled, while protected by their disguise of Christianity, to live a life more worthy of freemen than was that of their oppressed and pillaged brethren in the north. In Germany itself Frederick William, the great elector of Brandenburg (1640 to 1688), was indebted for zealous service to Gompertz and Solomon Elias. Beckman of Frankfort-on-the-Oder obtained permission in 1696 to print the Talmud. In Austria Wolf Schlesinger was personally exempted from the decree which banished the Jews from Vienna in the time of Leopold I. The Oppen-heimers had sufficient influence in Austria to prevent the publication there of Eisenmenger's libels on their race ; the Arnsteins, Sinzheimers, and other families earned the favour of Maria Theresa, and were decorated with titles of nobility. But the general condition of the multitude was shown by the excommunication of Spinoza at Amsterdam, by the rise of the Chasidim and of Frank, and the mar-ker- vellous history of Sabbathai Zebi. The German Jews grew many, distrustful of their knowledge of their own religion, and instructed their children by the aid of long-ringleted rabbis from Poland, who overspread the country, inculcating con-tempt for all except the too subtle dialectics of their peculiar school of disputation. Led by these blind guides, the German Jews continued to speak their own jargon of Hebrew and German, to correspond and even endorse their commercial bills in Hebrew characters, and abandoned the hopeless attempt to enter into the general life of their country. Fortunately the hereditary desire of learning still survived, though the selection of subjects for study helped to isolate them from their happier neighbours. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), who did so much to induce the Jews to become at one with the spirit of the age, and the Christians to tolerate them, was at three years old taught by his father, a professional copyist of Hebrew religious manuscripts, to repeat the wise sayings of the Talmud, Later on he found in the rabbi Frankel, of his native town of Dessau in Anhalt, a capable and en-lightened teacher. When Frankel was promoted, the young Mendelssohn followed him, at the age of fourteen, to Berlin. In Prussia the condition of the Jews had been comparatively favoured. Forty or fifty respectable families fleeing from persecutions in Austria had been admitted to Berlin towards the end of the 17th century. The colony increased, and was specially patronized in his own grotesque and tyrannical fashion by the half-mad sovereign Frederick William I. Frederick the Great held the maxim that " to oppress the Jews never brought prosperity to any Government," but his "general privilege," issued in 1750, while it abolished some old restrictions, was only a halting step in advance. It divided the Jews into two classes,—the hereditarily and the personally tolerated. In the first were those who were actually engaged in commerce or who occupied some office in connexion with the synagogue. Their right of abode extended to merely one child of the family. Those who were personally tolerated were men who had means of independent subsistence, though not engaged in commerce, and their right did not descend to their children. The right to residence for a second child of each family of hereditary inhabitants was purchased by the Jews for 70,000 thalers. The restrictions imposed by Frederick on marriage were severe; poor Jews could not marry at all. No Jew was permitted to own land in fee or to possess more than forty houses. Their business was confined to trade in money or goods. Frederick the Great, penetrated as he was by the sentiments of Voltaire, yet struck out Mendelssohn's name when it was put forward for election into the Berlin Academy. Mendelssohn was with difficulty admitted into Berlin when he presented himself at its gates as a poor boy, having no friend but his teacher Frankel. He went into a silk manufacturer's house as teacher to the children, and became a clerk and afterwards a partner in the firm. He formed a warm friendship with Lessing, and inspired the drama of Nathan the Wise, in which the Jew was for the first time in modern literature represented in a benevolent light. He translated the Pentateuch into German, and issued his translation in Hebrew characters, added to it a commentary in Hebrew (incorporating the rational as distinguished from the Aga-distic interpretations of former Hebrew commentators), partly by himself and partly by others, whom he associated with himself, and by this and other works introduced the Jews to modern culture. At the same time he gained a distinguished place in the world of letters by the pure and exalted tone, and the charming style, of his Philosophical Dialogues, his Phcedo, or the Immortality of the Soul, and other works, which showed him to be at the height of the philosophy of that time. He remained warmly attached in feeling and practice to the synagogue, and was requested by the chief rabbi of Berlin, Hirsch el Levin, who for a brief period had been chief rabbi in London, to prepare the German digest of the ritual laws of the Jews, which was ordered by Frederick the Great. Every visitor to Berlin, Jew or Gentile, sought to make his acquaintance at a kind of salon which he held in the afternoons. By the great majority of the orthodox Jews the writings of Mendelssohn were received with delight, and it was only by exception (as in Hamburg, Prague, Fürth, and Poland) that they were fiercely denounced as rationalistic in tendency. The times were favourable to the development to which he led the way. The ideas of the great writers who preceded the French Revolution were teaching the abolition of privilege and of religious persecution. Although neither Voltaire nor Bayle wrote in a kindly spirit of the degraded Hebrew race, the general tendency of their teaching was in the direction of toleration, and so it happened that, just at the moment when the Jews were become more than ever willing and ready to enter into the national life of Germany, the country was being prepared to receive them. The civil restrictions were only gradually abolished ; painful revivals of hatred recurred from time to time, but henceforth the name of Jew grew year by year to mean less a distinction of nationality, and became more exclusively a denomination referring merely to ancestry and religious belief.

Among the friends and disciples of Mendelssohn who continued his work were "Wessely (the father of modern Hebrew poetry), David Friedländer (founder of the Jews' Free School in Berlin), Joel Löwe (professor at the Jewish Wilhelmschule in Breslau), Herz Homberg (tutor in the house of Moses Mendelssohn, and inspector of German schools of the Jews in Galicia), Aaron "Wolfsohn (teacher at Breslau), Baruch Lindau (writer on physics), Marcus Herz (Mendelssohn's family doctor, whose more famous wife, afterwards converted to Christianity, received at her house a brilliant society, the two Humboldts, Count Bernstorf, Gentz, and Börne), Isaac Euchel (translator of the Jewish prayer-book), Lazarus Bendavid (who was specially concerned with education). All these and others contri-buted to the Hebrew periodical Meassef ("The Gatherer"), pub-lished at Königsberg and Berlin, 1783-1790 ; Breslau, 1794-1797 ; Berlin, Altona, Dessau, 1809-1811. The activity of the literary period which followed appears from the long list of rabbinical reprints, some with valuable notes, or translations, issued immedi-ately before the close of the 18th century from the Jews' Free School printing-press at Berlin, under the direction of Isaac Satanow.

From minimizing differences in religion some were led to give up their distinctive religion altogether, and adopt a nominal, sometimes a real, Christianity, and thus the famous names of Heine, Börne, Edward Gans the jurist, Eahel, the younger Mendelssohn the composer, and Neander the historian pass out of the scope of this article. These I celebrated persons belong rather to the general history of German culture than to that of the race from which they sprang. Among the general body of the Jews, the removal of political restrictions and a closer communion with modern thought worked noticeable, though less radical, changes. The old system of preaching in the synagogue was revived, and led to the excision of some of the interminable prayers and sacred poems which the piety of preceding ages had accumulated in embarrassing profusion. After the estab-lishment of the consistory in the (French) kingdom of Westphalia, German lectures were held in Cassel, Dessau, Berlin, Hamburg, &c; and now there is scarcely anywhere an important Jewish community without a preacher. Organs were introduced into some synagogues. The altera-tions brought about disputes in several communities and even secessions, as at Hamburg in 1819. In Prussia the Government, acting on the principles urged in Mendelssohn's time by his friend Dohm, but vigorously combated by the Jewish philosopher, gave the sanction of state authority to the resolutions of the orthodox. The private synagogue founded in Berlin by Israel Jakobsohn, after the breaking up of the Westphalian consistory, on principles similar to those of the reformed Hamburg Temple, was closed, and suffered the same fate when reopened as a public synagogue in 1817 and again in 1823. Even choirs and sermons were prohibited as un-Jewish innovations. Such regula-tions tended to disgust many educated persons who might otherwise have continued to remain attached to the faith of their fathers. They felt themselves isolated in the midst of their less advanced brethren, and were tempted to identify themselves even in religion with their more cultured Christian associates. Besides, a change of faith offered an escape from humiliating legal restrictions, and opened the way to more dignified careers than those permitted to the conforming Jews. The smaller German states appointed rabbis who were more or less state officials. When the Government restrictions were removed, considerable diver-gences manifested themselves, which the assemblies of rabbis and synods, beginning in 1844, and continued from time to time to the present day, did little to heal. There now exist in most German towns an orthodox and a reform congregation, which differ in their mode of conducting public service, in the prominence given to the belief in the Messiah and the return to the Holy Land, and in their greater or less adherence to the laws of the Sabbath, and laws concerning diet, &c. One reformed congregation in Berlin keeps the Sabbath on the first day of the week.

More remarkable examples of sectarian dissent were the move-ments known by the names of Sabbathai Zebi, of Frank, and of the Chasidim. Sabbathai's career had Turkey for its theatre, but the influence of his strange pretensions was felt in Poland and Germany, as well as throughout the East. Sabbathai Zebi was born at Smyrna in 1626. He announced himself the Messiah in Jerusalem, named his brothers kings of Judah and Israel, took the title for himself of king of the kings of the earth. Miracles were related of him ; from Poland, Hamburg, and Amsterdam treasures poured into his court; in the Levant young men and maidens prophesied before him ; the Persian Jews refused to till the fields. "We shall pay no more tribute," they said, "our Messiah is come." The pretender, whom so many rnhappy people were ready to acclaim as their deliverer from unendurable evils, afterwards embraced Mahometanism to escape death from the Porte. Some of his followers went over with him to Islam; others treated his conversion as forced, and still pro-claimed themselves Jews and his disciples. Their faith was nearer to immortality than their Messiah, and he was still believed in and his return expected after his death. Out of the wrecks of the Sabbathaic party Jacob Frank formed in Podolia the Zoharites, whose Bible was the Cabbalistic work called Zohar. Persecuted by the orthodox, he put himself under the protection of the bishop of Kaminiek, and burnt the Talmud in public. When his protector died he migrated with hundreds of followers, and afterwards lived in royal state at Vienna, Briinn, and Offenbach, ending by becom-ing a Roman Catholic. He died in 1791, and his sect perished with him. Very different was the fate of the Chasidim ("the pious"), who preceded Frank and have survived him. They also swear by the Zohar, and revere as their founder Israel Baal Shem ("pos-sessor of the wonder-working name"), or Besht, who flourished at Miedziboz in Podolia in 1740. Besht pretended to be the pro-mised child foretold by the prophet Elijah, and named by him Israel before his birth. A long sojourn in solitary places, much fasting and physical torment, the tortures of rolling in thorns in summer and of bathing in half-frozen rivers at midnight in the winter, gave this prophet the faculty of seeing visions, the power to heal diseases, and to release souls held captive in the bodies of brutes. Like the older Kabbalists he treated the Talmud with contempt; he exhorted his followers not to lead a gloomy ascetic life, but praised gaiety and enjoyment as tending to a career agreeable to God. Joyful religious worship was to be induced by drinking, jumping, clapping of hands, making noises and screaming, to which were added ablutions according to the fashion of the Essenes of old, and the wearing of a peculiar dress. Amongst his followers many found out how to derive advantage from the superstition and ignorance of the masses. Dob Beer (Berush) of Mizricz seldom showed him-self but to his disciples, and had reports of his wondrous works spread by them ; many sick and lame went to him for cure ; offerings of money came in and supplied the Zaddik with means to lead a princely life. The Chasidim still flourish in Russia and Jerusalem, and the Zaddikim (or "righteous") and Rebbes, as their leaders are called, live in magnificence upon the contributions of the most ignorant of the people.

While this and cognate heresies were driven back into the over-crowded Jewish communities of Bussia and Poland from which they came, in Germany Talmudic studies were pursued with undiminishing zeal, though carried on in gradually narrowing circles, and largely owing to the knowledge of the Talmud being a qualification for appoint-ments in large congregations. Gradually the Talmud, which had been once the common pabulum of all education, passed out of the knowledge of the laity, and was abandoned almost entirely to candidates for the rabbinate. In the earlier part of this period, the rabbis received their educa-tion at the Yeshiboth (" sessions " of academies devoted to the Talmud, the Shulchan Aruch, and their commentators). As the spirit kindled by Mendelssohn penetrated the various sections of the Jews, it was felt that this mode of instruc-tion would not suffice, and institutions were founded, not confined exclusively to these studies, but embracing the whole domain of Hebrew theology, philosophy, and history. Jonas Frankel in 1854 established the Judseo-theological seminary at Breslau, an institution which has provided Germany and Austria as well as England and the United States with many rabbis. Its first director was Zacharias Frankel (1801-1875), predecessor of Graetz in editing the Monatschrift, and author of works on the Septuagint, the Mishna, and the Talmud of Jerusalem. Of later date are the high school for the study of Judaism, founded in 1872, and the " seminary for rabbis for orthodox Judaism," under Dr Hildesheimer, established at Berlin in 1877. Israel Jakobsohn, president of the Westphalian consistory (1768-1823), did good service in improving teaching. He founded in Seesen (Brunswick) an educational and normal institution, bearing his name, for Jews and Christians, which still flourishes. A similar college was instituted by his brother-in-law Isaac Samson, and directed by S. M. Ehrenberg, amongst whose pupils were Jost and Zunz. Schools of a more elementary character were the Berlin Free School, already referred to, and others. In Dessau, Moses Mendelssohn's birthplace, the free school fostered by the duke, and called after him Franzschule, flourished under David Frankel (1779-1865), editor of the journal Sulamit; in Frankfort-on-the-Main was the Philanthropin, now converted into a technical school. In almost all Jewish communities we now find institutions teaching religion. After a first and unsuccessful attempt, Dr Moritz Veit founded a normal school, which existed under Zunz in Berlin from 1840 to .1852, and was revived by Dr Veit and the famous preacher and author Dr M. Sachs. Similar schools were founded in other places'—Hanover, Minister, Diisseldorf, Cassel,—with more or less success. The union 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-ista, 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 the form of prefaces are largely biographical, and 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 Renown remained unrealized, except some fragments. Nachman Krochmal (1780-1840) was not less learned than Rapoport, and perhaps surpassed him in philosophical acuteness.

Of greater importance and influence were the writings of the patriarch of living Jewish scholars, Leopold Zunz, especially his epoch-making work Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden (Berlin, 1832). 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. GEIGEE (q.v,), 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 FÜEST the lexicographer (q.v.), M. Steinschneider the bibliographer, Herxheimer the translator of the Bible (Pent., 1841; Proph. 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, Biibenstein 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 two 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." Stbcker, 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 are 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 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. The 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- France, 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 the 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 Babaut St Etienne 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. The gratitude of the Jews was shown by their patriotic devotion in the wars of the Revolution.

One of the most remarkable events in modern Jewish history was the convocation of the Sanhedrin (Synedrion) by Napoleon. It was preceded by the session of a general assembly of one hundred and eleven delegates, held in Paris in 1806 under the presidency of Abraham Furtado, merchant, author, and scientific agriculturist, the delegate of the Portuguese congregation in the port of the Gironde. To this assembly twelve questions were submitted by the emperor, and its principal answers were afterwards confirmed and formulated in nine propositions of law by a Sanhedrin formally elected by the synagogues in France and Italy. The Sanhedrin commenced its sittings on February 9, 1807, under the presidency of Rabbi David Sintzheim of Strasburg, with a Piedmontese rabbi as first, and an ex-legislator of Italy as second assessor. The forms of the old Sanhedrin were observed as far as possible ; the responses are couched in the form of statutes binding the constituents of the Sanhedrin, and these decisions have usually been treated with much respect even by communities which sent no delegates, while the Jews of Frankfort and Holland formally accepted them.

The following are the nine decrees :—(1) polygamy is forbidden, according to a decree of the synod of Worms in 1050 ; (2) divorce is allowed to the Jews if and so far as it is confirmatory of a legal divorce pronounced by the authority of the civil law of the land in which they live ; (3) no Jew may perform the ceremony of marriage unless civil formalities have been fulfilled,—intermarriages with Christians are valid civilly, and, although they cannot be solemnized with any religious celebration, they involve the parties to them in no ban ; (4) the Jews of France recognize in the fullest sense the French people as their brethren ; (5) acts of justice and charity are to be performed towards all mankind who recognize the Creator, irre-spective of their religion ; (6) Jews born in France and treated by its laws as citizens consider it their native country,—they are bound to obey the laws of the land ; Jews are dispensed from ceremonial observances during service in the army ; (7) the Sanhedrin exhorts the Jews to train their children to laborious lives in useful and liberal arts, to acquire landed property as a means of becoming more firmly attached to their fatherland, to renounce occupations which render men odious and contemptible in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, and to do all in their power to acquire their neighbours' esteem and good wishes ; (8) interest is not allowed to be taken when money is lent for the support of a family, but interest is per-mitted when money is lent for commercial purposes, if the lender runs any risk, and if the legal rate is not exceeded ; (9) the above declarations concerning interest, and the texts of the Holy Scrip-ture on the same subject, apply between Jews and fellow-citizens in precisely the same way as between Jews and Jews. Usury is altogether forbidden. At the close of the Sanhedrin, the emperor established the consistorial organization which in its main features still exists in France. Every two thousand Jews were to form a synagogue and a consistory consisting of one chief rabbi, and two rabbis with three laymen householders belonging to the capital town of the consistory. Bankrupts and usurers were excluded from the consistory, which was to watch over the conduct of the rabbis, to maintain order in the synagogues, and to admonish the Jews of the district to follow handicrafts and obey the laws of the conscrip-tion. The central consistory, sitting at Paris, had power to appoint and depose the rabbis. The rabbis were to publish the decrees of the Sanhedrin, to preach obedience to the laws, and to pray in the synagogues for the imperial house. Many Hebrew hymns of praise were composed in honour of the despot who had framed this or-ganization, although at the same time the emperor issued a decree which made considerable concessions to the popular prejudices against the Jews in Alsace and eastern France generally, forbade the Jews to change their domicile or enter into occupation without special permission, framed stringent precautions against usury, and excepted the Alsatian Jews from the right to provide substitutes for military service. The laws of 1814, 1819, and 1823 made some beneficial changes in the position of the Israelites, and in 1829 Charles X. established at Metz a central school for the instruction of candi-dates for the rabbinate. It was subsequently removed to Paris. In 1831 the Government definitivelydecided,in accordance with the ideas of Napoleon, that the rabbis should be state functionaries. From that year they have been paid by the state. In 1833 the French Govern-ment suspended relations with a Swiss canton which had denied equal rights to a French subject on the ground that he was a Jew.

In France the absence of political restrictions has been unfavourable to the separate development of Judaism. The ministers Crémieux (1796-1879), Fould, and Goudchaux, the archaeologists and philologians Jules Oppert and Halévy and the Darmesteters, the composer Meyerbeer, and many others, are well-known names in the general history of their country. Many Israelites have occupied high civil and military posts. Other Israelites by race have become indistinguishable by religious practice from the main body of the citizens; and the principal contributions in France to Hebrew literature have been from writers born in Germany, like Münk (1802-1867) and Derenbourg, like Samuel Cohen and Franck.

Before the year 1860, an outbreak against the Jews in Bussia, the accusations at Damascus, the Mortara abduction case in Italy, and about this time the sufferings of the Jews in Morocco, had vividly excited the sympathies of the Jews in western Europe; they had joined together to make con-tributions of money for relief of distress at Königsberg and in the Holy Land, and had even made representations to the Governments of the various countries in which they resided in order to bring political means to bear to alleviate the fate of their unfortunate co-religionists. An English Jew, Sir Moses Montefiore, took the lead in these efforts. But there was no regular provision for prompt and concerted action in defence of outlying and oppressed communities of Jews till, in 1860, an organization was established in Paris which was destined to exert a permanent watchful-ness over the oppressions practised in the less civilized countries upon Jews, as well as to improve the backward communities of Hebrews by education. This was the Alliance Israelite Universelle, which on January 1, 1881, had 24,000 subscribers in all parts of the world, though Israelites are by no means unanimous in supporting it.

The connexion between the local committees and the central body is not very intimate, but a correspondence is constantly kept up, and subscriptions for public objects flow from one to the other according to their respective wants and wealth. The Alliance and similar societies of a more strictly national character which exist in London and Vienna made representations at the Berlin conference in 1878, and helped to procure some alleviations of the state of the Jews in Roumania and Servia. The exertions of the same bodies had previously arrested, by making them known to Europe, the atrocities practised upon the Roumanian Jews in 1872. Similar action was brought to bear at the Madrid conference in 1880 in favour of the Jews in Morocco. Another part of the work of the Alliance is to maintain or assist schools for boys and girls in North Africa and in the Turkish empire, &e. In this task it co-operates with the Anglo-Jewish association formed for similar objects in England, the Board of Deputies in'London, and the Alliance in Vienna. The Alliance has also an organization for apprenticing Jewish children to useful tradesin elevenEastern towns. Other Jewish public institutions at Paris are the rabbinical seminary under chief rabbi Wogue, schools and an industrial school for girls, the hospital founded by the late Baron James de Rothschild, the orphanage established by the late Baron Salomon de Rothschild, the ladies' committee and house of refuge, a central committee for Jerusalem schools, the society of Talmudical studies, and many burial and mutual aid societies. At Lyons and Marseilles there are similar institutions.

The distinction between reform and orthodox congrega-tions, which has been noticed in Germany, and reappears elsewhere, is not found in France. The older distinction between the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Sephardim) on the one hand, and the Polish and German Jews (Ashken-azim) on the other, is, however, still made. They have different synagogues, in which a somewhat different ritual and a different pronunciation of Hebrew are employed. No doctrinal distinction, however, exists between the two divisions, and they now freely intermarry and associate with each other, although at their first meeting in France and England, about a century ago, and for some time later, the rich and polished emigres from the south refused to mix with their uncultured northern brethren. The Jews of German rite are now much more numerous and wealthy in western Europe than the Sephardim.
The number of Jews in France in 1880 was about 60,000, of whom 34,000 were in the consistorial circonscription of Paris, 8800 in that of Nancy, 2200 in Lyons, 4000 in Bordeaux, 2200 in Bayonne, 4000 in Marseilles. The Jewish population in France (including northern Italy, and Treves, Mainz, Coblentz, &c.) in 1808 was 77,000 ; it had risen to 158,994 (without including Italy or Treves and its sister cities) when the census of 1866 was taken, but fell to 49,439 in the census of 1872, owing to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, the part of France in which the most numerous Jewish population existed. The Jewish inhabitants of the Paris circon-scription were in 1808 only 3585 in number, about a tenth of their number in 1880. Two Jewish newspapers are published in the French language at Paris, and one at Avignon. The Jewish population of Algeria in 1880 was (according to the Annuaire Israelite) 72,800, of whom 52,000 were in the consistorial circonscription of Oran. These figures show a large increase in the population in recent years. M. Cremieux by a stroke of the pen obliged the Israelites in Algiers to become French citizens, a step that had previously involved certain formalities which their conservative feeling resisted. The measure, however, led to an outbreak of the Arabs. In Versailles exertions were made to cancel it, and its operation was suspended, but finally the decree was sustained, and the Jews, who form the class among the native population most fitted for civilization, retain the franchise.

England. The Jews were readmitted into England by Cromwell on the application of Manasseh ben Israel; and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam took a lease of ground for a burying-place at Stepney in February 1657. The first recorded interment was in 1658. The city of London, which was afterwards to aid so powerfully in the emancipation of the Jews, petitioned the council in the first years of the restoration to remove the competing Jewish merchants, but, this and other petitions being unsuccessful, a synagogue was built and the copyhold of the cemetery was acquired, although up to fifty years ago doubt was sometimes expressed whether Israelites even if born in the country could hold land in England. The right of Jewish charities to hold land was clearly established by an Act passed in 1846. The Jews were too few in number to be visited with special disabilities, but suffered from the general operation of the Tests Acts, which excluded them from political, civil, and municipal offices, from the bar, &c, and could be invoked to prevent them from voting at parliamentary elections. Jacob Abendana and David Nieto are rabbinical writers who nourished in England in the 17th and early in the 18th centuries. In 1725 Sarmento, a mathematician, was (like Gompertz and others after him) made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Emanuel Mendes da Costa was secretary and librarian of the society a few years later (died 1769). Sir Solomon Medina financed the com-missariat in the duke of Marlborough's campaigns. But the Sephardic immigration is best known by the converts to Christianity whom it supplied, as Isaac Disraeli, and his son Lord Beaconsfield (who was baptized at the age of twelve), David Bicardo, the Lopes family, and others. Conversion to Christianity was encouraged by a statute of Anne (repealed in 1846), which compelled Jewish parents to make an allowance to their children who embraced the dominant faith. German Jews began to immigrate in large numbers after the accession of the house of Hanover. English statesmen soon perceived what important contribu-tions the business ability of the Jews was capable of render-ing to the wealth of the country in which they settled, but the enlightened appreciation of the governing class was long in making its way among the electors. In 1753 Mr Pelham passed his Jewish Naturalization Act, which was repealed the next year owing to popular clamour, " No more Jews, no wooden shoes," becoming as influential a refrain as Lilliburlero. This premature emancipation supplied an argument which afterwards assisted to retard the political liberation of the Jews. The Jews were excepted from the benefit of the Irish Naturalization Act in 1783; the excep-tion was abolished in 1846 ; in that year also the obsolete statute De Judaismo, which prescribed a special dress for Jews, &c, was formally repealed. It had been disregarded ever since the return of the Jews under. CromwelL The Reform Act of 1832 gave the right of voting for members of parliament in all constituencies to Jews who possessed the property or other qualification required. Mr Bobert Grant, M.P. for Inverness, in 1830 proposed to admit Jewish mem-bers to the House of Commons, Mr Huskisson having pre-viously presented a petition asking for this concession. The bill was carried on the first reading by eighteen votes, but lost on the second by sixty-three. The Board of Deputies had been appointed in 1760 to watch over the interests of the " Portuguese nation" as the Sephardic Jews called themselves in England and France ; it was shortly after-wards joined by delegates of the German congregation, and now represents the orthodox congregations in the principal towns of the United Kingdom. Through this board the House of Commons was frequently petitioned in the next thirty years to grant political equality to the Jews, and the claim was supported by eminent statesmen, notably by Maeaulay and by Lord Russell, the latter of whom brought in an annual bill on the subject. Baron Lionel de Bothschild was elected five times by the city of Lon-don before he was allowed to vote, and was eleven years a member of the House of Commons without taking the oath. Alderman Salomons was returned for Greenwich in 1851, and took his seat, spoke, and voted, having in repeating the oath omitted the words " on the true faith of a Christian." He was fined ¿6500 by the court of ex-chequer, and was obliged to retire from parliament. The enabling bills had been passed year after year in the House of Commons, but as often rejected by the Lords, until in 1858 a compromise was effected, and Jews were permitted by the joint operation of an Act of Parliament and a resolution of the House of Commons to omit on taking the oath required of a member of the Lower House the words to which they conscientiously objected. In 1866 and 1868 Acts were passed which prescribed an oath in a form unobjectionable to Jews to be used in the Houses of Lords and Commons alike, but no Jew by religion has yet been raised to the peerage. Bemarkable legislative provisions in favour of the Jews are the exceptions by which they have enjoyed since 1870 under the Factories Acts the right to labour on Sunday in certain factories if they rest on their own Sabbath. Till 1828 only twelve Jewish brokers were permitted to carry on business in the city of London, and the patent was purchased for large sums when vacancies occurred. No Jew could open a shop in the city till 1832, because that permission was only accorded to freemen. Even baptized Jews were not admitted to the freedom of the city between 1785 and 1828. The first Jewish sheriff of London, Sir D. Salomons, was unable to take the oaths till a special Act was passed by Lord Campbell in 1835, and, although he was followed two years later by another Jewish sheriff, Sir Moses Montefiore, it was not until ten years after his election as alderman that Lord Lyndhurst's Act (1845) enabled him to perform the duties of that office. Among the names of Jews in England distinguished in science and literature are the mathematician Sylvester, the Sanskrit scholar Goldstiicker, and the Orientalists Zedner and Deutsch. The first Jewish barrister (Sir F. Goldsmid) was called to the bar in 1833.

The Jews' Free School in London is probably the largest and most efficient elementary school in England. Two Jewish newspapers are published in London. The Jewish community in England maintains many charitable and other public institutions. The most important are the boards of guardians in London and Manchester, which are chiefly occupied in the relief of penniless emigrants from Russian Poland. Dr Benisch, the late editor of the Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1871 the Anglo-Jewish association to co-operate with the Alliance Israelite of Paris, which has been already described. The association has nearly 3000 members, chiefly in England and the colonies, but also at Alexandria and Tangier's. The Jews' college in London and the Aria college at Portsea are designed for the training of ministers and teachers. Three societies for the promotion of Hebrew literature have been formed. The only one wdiieh still exists is the Society of Hebrew Literature, to which Christian scholars have contributed equally with the Jewish students of the same subject. The principal religious movement has been the formation of the West London congregation of British Jews, a body of dissent-ers, who have simplified the ritual, only keep one day of the festivals, and do not acknowledge the spiritual ascendency of the chief rabbi. They seceded in 1840. Congregations at Manchester and Bradford worship with the same rites. The Sephardim and Ashkenazim still differ in liturgy and in pronunciation of Hebrew. The principal London synagogues of the latter body were federated by private Act of Parliament in 1870 under the name of the United Synagogue, which now consists of ten London congregations. Its liturgy was modified in the direction of brevity in 1880. Forty provincial orthodox synagogues are recognized by the Board of Deputies, which under the Marriage Acts certifies the secretaries of orthodox syna-gogues entitled to register marriages.

The Jewish population of Great Britain is estimated (in the absence of a census by religions) to be 62,000, of whom 40,000 are reckoned to be in London. There were 453 Jews in Ireland at the census of 1881.

In the British colonies Jews are numerous and their congregations flourishing. There are nearly 2000 Jews in Gibraltar, who carry on an active commerce with their brethren in Morocco, sending Man-chester and Sheffield goods, and receiving corn, hides, and other pro-duce. Their settlement dates from the British occupation in 1704, which allowed the unhappy Spanish refugees in Morocco to return to a corner of Spain. Jews have been law-officers, ministers, mem-bers of the legislatures, and magistrates in the Australasian colonies, Cape Colony, the West Indies, &c. In Victoria there were 3571 Jews m 1870, and a Jewish newspaper is published at Melbourne; inWest Australia there were 62 only in 1870; in Tasmania they formed only 0'23 per cent, of the total population of 99,328.

A remarkable settlement exists in Bombayunder the name of the Beni Israel. They are 5000 in number, and are for the most part artisans, some of them soldiers. They support a school to which the Anglo-Jewish association in London and Manchester contri-butes. The Beni Israel have a tradition that they were ship-wrecked on that coast more than one thousand years ago. They have always strictly observed the Sabbath, refraining from cooking their food or doing any other work on that day. They do not eat unclean fish or flesh ; they observe the great feasts, and have a Jewish type of countenance. The Beni Israel are found not only in Bombay itself but in other towns on the coast not beneath the direct rule of the British Government. They relate that David Rababia, a Jew either of Baghdad or Cochin, came to that part of India about nine hundred years ago, and, having discovered that the Beni Israel were observing the Jewish code, was convinced of their Jewish origin, and established a Hebrew school. Before his death he gave a written order to two of his scholars to succeed him as religious ministers. This office has been retained to this day by their descendants. These ministers are called kajees, and are con-sidered superior to the ordinary religious ministers who receive payment for officiating in the synagogues. They are in some re-spects like high priests and civil heads of the community ; and in the outlying villages ecclesiastical and civil matters are investigated and settled by them with the aid of a council. With these kajees may be compared the cohanim (priests) in the Western Jewish com-munities, who are reputed to be descendants of Aaron, and enjoy the prerogative of blessing the people, and a certain precedence in synagogue, to the exclusion of ministers who are not of the same lineage. In Bombay judicial and other civil functions forthe Beni Israel are performed by a person called Nassi or head, aided by a council. The Beni Israel have been settled in Bombay itself for upwards of one hundred and fifty years. Their first synagogue was built in 1796 by Samuel Ezekiel, a native commandant in the British army sent against Tippoo Sahib. The Sephardic daily prayer-book, Dr Hermann Adler's sermons, and some other works have been translated by the Beni Israel into Marathi. Some of them know Hebrew, although Marathi is their ordinary language, and their knowledge of Hebrew is probably rather due to frequent intercommunication with the Jews of Baghdad and Europe than to independent tradition. The Beni Israel rarely intermarry with the ordinary Jews. They have a literature in Marathi. They tie a golden band (" munny ") with black glass beads round the bride's neck during marriage to show that the bride is a married woman; when she is stripped of it she is considered a widow. They say that they adopted the title of Beni Israel because that of Jehudim or Jews was hateful to the Mussulmans. The Baghdad and Cochin Jews attend their synagogues and eat with them, and vice versa. They have among them a class of Beni Israel whom they designate Kala Israel or Black Israel. Between them and the white Beni Israel no intermarriages are ever solemnized. They are descendants of Beni Israel by heathen wives, or are proselytes or their descendants. They have separate burying-grounds.

The Jews of Cochin, found in that British port of the Madras presidency and elsewhere on the Malabar coast, have the tradition that they arrived at Cranganore in the sixty-eighth year of the Christian era, and received a written charter from the native ruler, and that when the Portuguese came they suffered oppression and removed to Cochin, where the rajah granted them places to build their synagogues and houses. They again suffered from the Portu-guese, but the Dutch conquest in 1662 gave them protection. At Cochin there are black and white Jews. The white Jews consider themselves as immigrants from Palestine. The black Jews are regarded as proselytes and emancipated slaves of the white Jews. The black and white do not intermarry with each other, and the black Jews do not observe all the ceremonies of the law.





The history and condition of the Jews in three important Austria, countries and their colonies having been somewhat fully sketched, a shorter account of their situation elsewhere will be sufficient. The Austrian Jews participated in all the intellectual movements of their brethren in Germany. Their chief writers are Kompert (the brilliant author of Tales of the Ghetto), Frankl the poet, G. Wolf, historian, Mosenthal, dramatist, Dukes, Kayserling, Mannheimer, Jellinek, Gudemann, Kaufmann, Letteris. The chief training establishment for rabbis is the Budapest seminary established with the proceeds of the fine imposed upon the Jews for participation in the insurrection in 1848. Austria was long notorious for ill-treatment of the Jews, but Joseph II. made in 1783 a new departure in his policy towards this class of his subjects. He abolished the Leibzoll, night-notices, passport regulations, and gave the Jews permission to learn trades, art, science, and, under certain restrictions, agriculture. The doors of the universities and academies were opened to them. He founded Jewish elementary and normal schools, and also compelled the adults to learn the language of the country. In spite of these reforms, considerable restrictions were still imposed upon the Jews with regard to right of residence, &c, and the successors of the philosophic emperor, Leopold II. and Francis I., restored many of the old humiliating regulations. The Jews in Austria remained during the greater part of the present century subject to special restrictions. To remove from province to province they required the permission of the central Government. In many parts of the empire they were not allowed to rent or purchase lands beyond their own dwellings. The Magyar nobles, however, employed them largely as bailiffs, gave them great freedom of tenure, and actually fought under their lead as military officers in the struggle for independence. After 1848 the Jewish capitation tax was reduced except in Vienna ; but, as many Jews had taken part in the revolutionary movement in Hungary, a heavy exaction was imposed upon them after its suppression. The reforms inaugurated by the constitution of 1860 for Austria and in 1861 for the rest of the empire, and completed in 1868, at length gave the Austrian Jews the freedom which they now enjoy, which makes them influential and respected in Vienna and the other great towns, and even in the backward province of Galicia a striking contrast to their less favoured brethren in the neighbouring country of Russian Poland. Several Jews, two of them rabbis, sit in the legislatures. The Israelitish Alliance was founded in Vienna in 1872. The number of the Jews in the empire of Austria-Hungary is 1,372,333, or more than 3 per cent, of the total population. Of the total number, 820,200 are found in Austria (including 575,433, or more than a tenth of the total population in Galicia), and 552,133 in Hungary.

In Italy, while Venice and Leghorn sheltered large and compara- Italy, tively flourishing colonies, the Roman Jews had long an unenviable pre-eminence in suffering. Till 1847 they were not permitted to leave the Ghetto, and their conversion was sought by most oppres-sive means. It was in the papal states after this date that the young Mortara, secretly baptized by his nurse, was torn from his parents, and trained to be a monk. The kingdom of Italy brought freedom and political equality to the Jews. The most celebrated of recent Jewish scholars in Italy was S. D. Luzzatto (1800-1865). The rabbinical college at Padua, founded by J. S. Reggio of Gorz (1784-1855), fell with the Austrian domination in 1866. The number of Jews in Italy was in 1876 estimated to be 53,000, of whom 5000 were in Rome, 2800 in Modena, 3000 in Venice, 2000 in Sicily, 7688 in Leghorn, 2500 in Turin, 2000 in Padua.

The census of 1870 gave 2582 as the number of the Jews in Greece. Greece. They enjoy perfect freedom of worship, and live on terms of friendship and equality with their neighbours in the kingdom of Greece, although at Alexandria, Smyrna, and other towns of the Levant, quarrels sometimes occur between the two races.

The liberal institutions established during the last few years in Spain. Spain have permitted the Jews to return to a country in which their ancestors enjoyed a glorious period of literary and social activity. In 1881 the Spanish representative at Constantinople was autho-rized to assure some distressed Jews who fled into Turkey to escape the persecutions of Russia that the Government of Spain would welcome them to that country, in which, he added, all Jews could now settle. At Seville Jewish worship is regularly held, and meat killed according to Jewish rites can be bought. At Madrid a con-gregation assembles on the most solemn fast in a private house.

Since the commencement of this century foreign Jews oi'Portugal. Portuguese origin from Gibraltar and Africa have immigrated into Portugal and been permitted to solemnize religions service there. There are three synagogues at Lisbon and one in Oporto. On the Day of Atonement, unknown persons from a distance in the interior have been observed to join these congregations ; they were members of Jewish families who had secretly preserved their religion and the tradition of their origin during the whole time of the exclusion of the Jews from Portugal. In 1821 the cortes abolished the Inquisi-tion, and resolved that all rights and privileges which had been accorded to the Jews by former sovereigns should be renewed, and that all Jews who dwelt in any part of the world might settle in Portugal. About 1000 Jews reside in this country. Holland. In Holland, which was long the refuge of the Jews, and was the cradle of a flourishing Jewish literature, the Israelite immigrants were not entirely without restrictions, although Mendelssohn pointed to Amsterdam as a commercial paradise where all men were allowed free interchange of commodities. The 50,000 Jews of Holland, 20,000 of whom resided in Amsterdam, were first admitted to political equality in 1796, and the closer union with France which followed completed the work of liberation. At first this gift was not will-ingly received by the leaders of the Jewish community. They en-joyed great power over individuals, could levy large fines upon those members of the congregation who incurred their displeasure, and feared that the new duty of serving as soldiers and the new right of filling all the employments of the state would alienate their flocks. The Portuguese (or Sephardic) Jews, who were regarded as the aristocracy of their race, were especially conservative, and ulti-mately the discussions about emancipation led to the secession of the neoterizing party under the name of 'Adat Jeshurun. The num-ber of Jews in Holland is now 68,000, to whom 665 may be added for Luxembourg.

Belgium. In Belgium there are about 2000 Jews, who enjoy freedom and state subvention for their worship as in France.

Switzer- In Switzerland the Jews were long treated with great severity, and
land. the French domination brought them only temporary relief. It was only in 1874 that full religious equality was conceded to the Swiss Jews. Their number is now 6996.

Denmark. In Denmark the number of Jews does not exceed 4500. Since 1814 they have been eligible as magistrates.

Sweden. The archives of the Sephardic synagogue in London contain a curious printed invitation from the king of Sweden, sent in the year 1746, in which wealthy Jews are invited to Sweden, while the poor are warned that their residence will be unwelcome. The London Jews declined this calculating hospitality. There are now 1836 Jews in Sweden, and an insignificant number in Norway.

Russia. In Russia the Jews are more numerous and more harshly treated than in any other country in the world. From Russia proper the Jews were long and still are excluded, but the conquests of the Muscovites brought them face to face with large numbers of Israel-ites who, driven out of Germany by persecution, had taken refuge in Poland under the sway of Casimir the Great. The half Hebrew half German patois (Jüdisch-Deutsch) which Jews still speak in Russia and Roumania preserves this part of their history. A literature exists in this language : journals are printed in it with Hebrew characters ; theatrical representations are given in it, and two com-panies in London lately played dramas in it, in which the main point of the action was the misery of the religious Jew, who is dragged away from the study of his favourite Talmudical books to serve in the army, where he can hope, as a Jew, for no promotion. The flourishing factories, agriculture, and commerce of the Polish and Lithuanian Jews were wrecked by the intolerance of the succes-sors of Casimir, and Russian oppression completed the ruin. The Jews are still confined to a few over-populated provinces, and loaded with special taxes and restrictions. Under Alexander II. the condition of the Jews was in some respects improved, and the permission accorded for three Jews to settle at each railway station has enabled a few to escape from the old overcrowded settlements and find a new sphere for their commercial activity. They are still, however, largely at the mercy of the official class, and popular risings against them have been repeatedly permitted or encouraged. They are excluded from many vocations, or practise them only by the connivance of bribed officials. For some purposes they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the rabbis. Harkavy, Pinsker, Mandelstamm, Reiffman, and Levinsohn are among their most learned writers ; Baron Günzburg is at the head of a society for spreading culture among the masses. In spite of their disabilities, there are among the Russian Jews enterprising contractors, skilful doctors, and successful lawyers. The number of Jews in European Russia was returned for 1876 as 2,612,179. In Russia in Asia they are estimated to number 25,000. For the KARAITES in Russia see that article.

Moldavia At the beginning of the present century the Jews were found in and Moldavia everywhere keeping the villagei inns and forming the Rou- centres for the commerce of their districts. Engaged in this occu-mania. pation, or travelling through the country to buy or advance money upon the crops, and to sell foreign merchandise, were Jews, some of whom had come from Poland or Russia, while the families of others, resident chiefly at Bucharest, had been in the country from time immemorial. They also exercised many handicrafts. They were glaziers, locksmiths, tinmen, tailors, &c. The metal roofs and pinnacles of churches were all the work of Jews. In the great towns of Moldavia, and also in the Wallachian city of Bucharest, there were established wealthy communities belonging to both divisions of the modern Jews, Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Of the Sephardim or Spanish Jews it is known beyond a doubt that they settled in the country many centuries ago. They belonged to the families driven from Spain by the Inquisition. The principal bankers of Roumania are Jews. Their children have been in the habit of attending the same schools as the wealthy native families, and the parents held a good position in society. In Jassy, the prin-cipal city of Moldavia, 30,000 or 40,000 out of the 90,000 inhabi-tants are Jews. In 1804 the practice of the neighbouring states began to creep into Roumania. In that year an ordinance of Prince Mourousi of Moldavia deprived the Jews of the right to hold farms except when attached to village inns. Since that time there have been a series of laws and edicts limiting the freedom of the Jews to hold land and engage in various professions and trades ; the Jews have also had much to suffer from popular outbreaks, and even the treaty of Berlin, which abolished all incapacitation on grounds of religion, has been interpreted by the Roumanian Government as not applying to the Jews, who are regarded as foreigners, and only naturalized in small numbers and by special acts of the legis-lature. There are 200,000 Jews in Roumania, and perhaps two or three thousand may have been admitted to naturalization.

In Servia there are 2000 Jews. They have suffered from occa- Servia. sional orders of expulsion from the country districts, but on the whole their condition is comparatively favoured, and they are believed to be on the eve of being admitted, if not already admitted, to political rights.

The Jews in European Turkey before the war which ended with Turkey, the treaty of 1878 were estimated to number 72,000 (in Adrianople 15,000, Shumla 1500, Widdin 1200, Varna 300, Tatar Bazardjik 1050, Dardanelles 2000, Philippopoli 2100, Rustshuk 2500, &c). There are some thousands in eastern Roumelia, and others in Bul-garia, who have been very fairly treated by the authorities of the new principality, having grants for their schools, &c. The exertions of Dr Allatini of Salonica have provided the community of that town (25,000 to 30,000 persons) with excellent means of education. Here is published the Epoca, a Spanish newspaper in Hebrew characters, which recalls the fact that this, like so many of the Jewish com-munities on the shores of the Mediterranean, sprang from exiles from Spain. The Jewish population of Constantinople consists of about 30,000 souls. Most of the Jews are Sephardim. Two thousand follow the German rite, and are principally to be found in Galata. The Jews in Constantinople are chiefly engaged in traffic. They are governed by a caim-macam appointed by themselves, and salaried by the Government. There are forty-two synagogues in the suburbs. Besides the schools of the Alliance, there are 2287 pupils in the wretched Talmud Torah schools. There are also three infant schools. The number of Jews in Asiatic Turkey is stated to be from 106,000 to 130,000. The Smyrna Jews number 25,000. In Baghdad, where there are 30,000 Jews, and where the wealthy family of Sassoon first became known, there are twenty-one synagogues. Pilgrimages are made to the tombs of Ezra, Ezekiel, Joshua the priest, and Sheikh Isaac. There are 500 families in Aidin, 400 in Magnesia, 250 in Casaba, 130 in Pergamos, 516 in Canea in Crete, 200 in Candia, 1200 in Beyrout, 2000 in Damascus, 10,200 in Aleppo. Outbreaks of religious hatred between the Greeks and the Jews, and even between the Mahometans and the Jews, have occasionally occurretl at Smyrna, Rhodes, &c. The Jews on each occasion have been accused of using Christian blood at the passover. The falsity of this charge was publicly established in 1840, owing to the efforts of Sir Moses Montefiore, who journeyed to the East, accompanied by Cremieux and Munk, to vindicate the innocence of those of his coreligionists who had been put to death, and to liberate those who were imprisoned. The sultan then issued, at the request of Sir Moses Montefiore, a firman declaring the innocence of the Jews, and their title to his equal protection. They now suffer under no disabilities, and are admissible to office.

There are 15,000 Jews in Jerusalem (forming half the population), Pales-whose chief occupation is to study the Talmud. To maintain them tine, in this hallowed indolence their brethren throughout the world send annual contributions (haluka) amounting to about £50,000 a year, or five-sevenths of the total revenue of Palestine. The rabbis who administer these large funds, and also wield the dreaded weapon of excommunication (herem), have set their faces against secular education, regarding Jerusalem as the one great rabbinical college of the world, where the contributors of the haluka fulfil the sacred duty of studying the law by proxy. Both Ashkenazim and Sephardim (whose leaders, more liberal than the Ashkenazim, permit Arabic to be taught), both Chasidim and Karaites, are represented here ; the Sephardim dress as Orientals ; the Russians and Poles wear their long silk or cloth gowns and fur caps, the Germans the quaintly cut coat and flattened wideawake of the early part of this century. All cultivate the long love-locks brought down in front of the ears ia obedience to Lev. xix. 27. Boys often marry at fifteen, girls at thirteen. There are two weekly Hebrew newspapers. The syna-gogues are very numerous; around them cluster the Talmud schools. There are three hospitals for Jews, one of which is main-tained by a Christian mission, numerous almshouses, of which the Juda Touro house is the principal, and several endowed schools. Jewish agricultural colonies have been formed at Lydda and else-where, and an excellent agricultural school at Jaffa receives thirty pupils. Jews are found at Hebron, Tiberias (1100 in number), Ramleh, Safed (5666), and elsewhere in the Holy Land. Persia. ln tne mountains of Kurdistan and on the plain of Urmiah there are Jews who speak an Aramaic dialect—"the language of the Targum." The Jews in Persia, as in many other countries, write their vernacular in Hebrew characters. They are engaged as peddlers in petty trades or in larger commerce, or enter into partner-ship with Kurdish farmers, to whom they supply capital, receiving half the produce. As a rule monogamy prevails, but exceptions are frequent when the marriage proves childless, or when the levirate law comes into operation. Jews settle their differences with each other by applying to the malum (i. c, the rabbi) of the place, who together with his beth din forms the authorized court of justice. Boys are taught reading, writing, the Scriptures, and sometimes the Mishna. Every man and woman wears charms as safeguards against the evil eye, as protections both from ailments and from the attacks of enemies. The fear of infidelity is one of the causes which deter parents from letting their children learn secular subjects. Yet as each congregation requires the services of a dayan or religious chief, the necessity of cultivating some kind of knowledge cannot be entirely ignored. Persons desirous of pursuing a course of studies have had to resort to Urmiah and to Baghdad. There are ten synagogues, and 300 families in Teheran, partly engaged in skilled trades and professions. Jews are also found in Ispahan and other towns, &c. They are very poor, the majority in Ispahan being day-labourers and porters. The total number of the Jews in Persia is estimated to be 16,000. Central In Bokhara (13,000), in Samarkand (10,000), in Merv, through-and out Central Asia, Jews are scattered. The small colonies of Jews Eastern in Kai-fung-foo, Hansho, Ningpo, and Peking are regarded by the Asia. Chinese as a sect of Mahometans. They are termed Taou-Kin-Kedou ("separators of the sinew from the flesh"). These colonies, of ancient settlement, are not to be confounded with the European Jewish merchants, who under European protection now trade in the ports. The Jews of Kai-fung-foo have parted with their sacred scrolls, and their synagogues are ruined. Arabia. The Jews in Yemen have a long history, but the present Jewish population is stated by the latest observer (a correspondent of the Alliance Israelite, writing in 1881) to be only 15,000 in number. An older estimate (1876) made them number 200,000. They are chiefly found in Sanaa, the capital (where they are from 2000 to 3000 in number, and have thirteen synagogues under a Chacham Bashi), and also in the mountain villages. For upwards of eighty years the Jews of Sanaa have been the victims of repeated persecutions, false accusations, and exactions ; and until twelve years ago to these were added the duties of scavengers and night-men, imposed even upon the rabbis, and not redeemable by money payments. The assumption of sovereignty by the Porte much improved their position. They are artisans, labourers, and merchants. Africa. Wealthy Jews reside at Cairo (3000), others at Alexandria (where the odious blood accusations were recently revived against them) and Port Said. There are in all about 8000 Jews in Egypt.

In Abyssinia are found the Falashas, whose Jewish descent is doubted by some ethnologists. See FALASHAS, and Halevy in Misc. Soc. Hcb. Lit., 2d ser., vol. ii., 1877.
The Jews in Tripoli are estimated at 100,000. Tunis is variously said to contain 40,000 or 60,000 Jews. Those in the ports are European, chiefly Spanish, in recent origin. In the interior Jews live in tents, carry on agriculture on a communal basis, dress like their neighbours, bear long matchlocks, and rove from place to place like them ; many, however, are goldsmiths. They conform strictly to the Jewish ceremonial laws.

The number of the Jews in Morocco was stated by the deputation which petitioned the British foreign office on their behalf in 1880 to be 300,000. There are 1200 in Larache, 1400 in Alcazar, 6000 in Tetuan, 8000 in Tangiers. Many are of Spanish origin. Jews have frequently been chosen, in bygone times, to represent the sultan as envoys. They now suffer from the fanaticism of the Mahometans, and are compelled to go barefoot in sign of their submission in nearly all the cities. Robbers plunder them almost with impunity, and murders of Jews are frequent. About a hundred enjoy pro-tection from Christian powers, which was confirmed at the con-ference of Madrid in 1880, but is impatiently submitted to by the sultan.

•Jews in the interior or beyond the boundary of Morocco live a nomad life like the Jewish tribes of Arabia, and conduct caravans across the desert as far as Timbuctoo. Mardochee, a member of the first Israelite family who settled in Timbuctoo, has described the Daggatoun (merchants), a tribe of Jews who have forgotten their religion, but cherish the tradition of their descent, and proclaim it by their fair complexions and the character of their features ; they live in the Sahara in the midst of a Mussulman race, with whom they do not intermarry. America There are several thousands of Jews in Brazil; a Dutch Jewish colony was founded at Savannas in Surinam, but has lost its distinc-tive character ; a few Jews are scattered in Mexico and the South American ports.

In the United States Jews are numerous, and enjoy full equality of rights and great material prosperity. A Jewish colony was founded by Judge Mordecai Noah, sheriff of New York, in 1825, at Grand Island in the Niagara river, but did not long endure. The Jews of the United States organize themselves in great friendly societies. Of these there are four principal orders :—the B'nai Berith (Sons of the Covenant), which in 1878 had 22,814 members, had paid $1,000,000 in benefits, and retained $570,000 in hand ; the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel, with 8604 members ; the Kesher shel Barzel (Iron Link), with 10,000 members and $112,000 ; the Improved Order Free Sons of Israel, with 2849 members. Jewish hospitals, orphan asylums, free schools, benevolent institutions, exist in very many cities. The union of American congregations comprises 118 con-gregations, and has for its objects (1) to promote religious instruc-tion, and (2) to co-operate with similar associations throughout the world to relieve and elevate oppressed Jews. Many ways of interpret-ing Scripture prevail among the Jews in the United States. Some keep Sabbath on Sunday, others pray in English without any use of Hebrew ; there is much laxity in observance, but all sects agree in building magnificent synagogues. In 1878 there were in the United States 278 congregations with 12,546 members, owning in their cor-porate capacity real estate worth $4,778,700 and other property worth $1,860,030, sending 12,886 children to their schools, and forming a population of about 250,000.

Some further particulars may be given regarding the Jewish press. There are, according to Lippe, 86 Jewish periodicals, as follows :— 18 in the Hebrew language, published at Vienna (2), Warsaw (2), Wilna, St Petersburg, Königsberg (2), Lyck (2), Mainz, Jerusalem (3), and 4 in Galicia (at Brody, Kolomea, Tarnopol, and Lemberg) ; 14 in Jüdisch-Deutsch, published at Vienna (2), Bucharest (3), Mainz, New York, Pressburg, Chicago, Königsberg, Lemberg, Budapest (2) ; 22 in German, published at Würzburg, Breslau, Berlin (4), Frankfort-on-the-Main, Leipsic (3), Bromberg, Kroto-schin, Mainz, Magdeburg, Lemberg, Budapest (2), Melnik (Bohemia), Bilni (Bohemia), Vienna, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee; 4 in French (reckoning the bulletin of the Alliance as one) at Paris (3), Avignon; 14 in English, at London (2), New York (4), Cincinnati (2), San Francisco (partly in German), Chicago, Philadelphia, Atalanta, St Louis, and Melbourne; 3 in Italian, at Trieste, Casale Monferrato, and Corfu; 3 in Dutch, at Rotterdam (2), Amsterdam; 2 in Russian, both at St Petersburg ; 2 in Polish, at Warsaw and Tarnopol in Galicia ; 1 in Hungarian, at Budapest ; 6 in Spanish (5 of them in Hebrew characters), at Vienna (2), Constantinople (2), Salonica, and Smyrna. In addition to these, Lippe gives 8 annuals:—1 in Roumanian at Bucharest, 1 in French at Paris, 1 in Russian at St Petersburg, 1 partly in German and partly in Hebrew at Bamberg, and 4 in German at Brody, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Halberstadt, and Prague. Two Jewish calendars appear annually in London.

From the numbers of the Jewish population which we have given it results that there are about 5,000,000 Jews in Europe. In Asia 200,000, in Africa 700,000, maybe approximately correct totals, in America 300,000, in Australia 20,000. The total Jewish population of the world would thus be 6,200,000. It may be added that the vital statistics of the Jews differ a little from those of the nations with which they have been compared. The Jews have a somewhat greater average longevity,whichis attributed to their abstinence, com-parative freedom from phthisis, &c, and to their not often following employments which shorten life. Their dietary laws and ceremonial ablutions have an influence in preserving them from epidemics.

Literature.—Graetz, Geschichte der Juden; Cassel, Lehrbuch der Jüdischen Geschichte und Literatur ; Jost, Geschichte der Israeliten, and Gesch. des Juden- thums: Stern, Gesch. des Judenthums von Mendelssohn, bis auf die Gegenwart; Bäck, Gesch. des jüdischen Volkes ; Kayserling, Menasseh b. Israel, and Juden in Portugal; Mendelssohn, Gesammelte Schriften; Loewenstein, Lamascia; Lippe, Bibliographisches Lexicon; Ersch and Gruber, Encyk., sect, ii., vol. xxvii.; Selig Cassel, Juden-Gesch.; Geiger (Ludwig), Gesch. der Juden in Berlin; Güdemann, Gesch. der Juden in Magdeburg ; Haarbleicher, Gesch. der deutsch-israelitischen Gemeinde in Hamburg ; Jolowicz, Gesch. der Juden in Königsberg ; Perles, Gesch. der Juden in Posen; Wolf, Gesch. der Juden in Worms u. Wien; Auerbach, Gesch. der isr. Gemeinde z. Halberstadt; Donath, Gesch. der Juden in Mecklen- burg ; Engelbert, Statistik der Juden im deutschen Reich ; Schimmer. Statistik der Juden in den Oesterreichischen Ländern; Friedländer, Zur Gesch. der Juden in Mähren; Stein, Gesch. der Juden in Danzig; Fin, Gesch. der jüdischen Gemeinde in Wilna; Schulman, Toldot Chachme Israel ; Bédarride, Les Juifs en France, en Italie, et en Espagne ; Carmoly, La France Israélite; Loeb, Albert Cohn, Situation en Serbie en Roumanie; Beugnot, Les Juifs d'Occident ; Hollandaeiski, Les Israélites de Pologne ; Halphen, Recueil des Lois concernant les Israélites; Collec- tion des actes de l'assemblée des Israélites ; Detehéverry, Israélites de Bordeaux ; Mardochée, Les Daggatoun; Saphir, Travels; Milman, History of the Jews; Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History; Sydney Samuel, Jews in the East (reprinted from Jewish Chronicle); Morais, Eminent Israelties of 19th Century; L. Oliphant, The Land of Gilead; Lindo, Calendar, and Jews in Spain; Israel Davis, Jews in Roumania; Society of Hebrew Literatuie, Misc. Heb. Lit., i., ii.; Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' synagogue, London (MS.); Her- mann Adler, Jews in England; Koenen, GescJiiedenis de Joden; J.Miller and A. Löwy, in Tr. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1876 ; Reports of Anglo-Jewish Association, Alliance Israélite, Board of Deputies, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Allianz in Wien, &c.; Jewish newspapers (see list in Lippe). (I. D.)