Who Knew?
Page 7
Using the topics raised in his essay, Grégoire was very active in raising the “Jewish question” to the French National Assembly. He also used his rhetorical skills to counter those who would deny emancipation to the Jews.
Largely through his efforts, emancipation of the Jews was granted in 1791.
Toward the end of his life, Grégoire became active in propagating the idea “of the fall of Rome and the renewed establishment of a Jewish Jerusalem as the capital of a reconstituted Christian world.”2
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1. Paul R. Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 53.
2. Professor Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. 5 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1895), 440; Baruch Mevorah, “Henri Baptiste Grégoire,” Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-ROM Edition (Jerusalem: Keter, 1997).
...French Jews gave aristocratic dowries
In eighteenth-century France, the Jews began to experience considerable economic success through ventures in buying and selling saddle horses and draft horses, silk, and silk goods.1 During this period, the Jews also assumed a prominent role in the business of banking.2 A measure of this rising prosperity was the size of the dowries that fathers of brides were able to bestow on their daughters.
During the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the average dowry of a Jewish bride was 590 pounds. By the years 1700–1709, the average dowry had risen to 730 pounds. By the years 1730–1739, the dowry size had risen to 1,650 pounds, and by 1760–1769, it was 6,787 pounds. By the eve of the revolution in 1789, the average dowry size had reached an astounding nine thousand pounds, comparable to that given by the most aristocratic families in France.3
There was an old Yiddish axiom that said, “Alle far die kinder (everything for the children).” The Jews of eighteenth-century France certainly lived up to that saying.
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1. Esther Benbassa, The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 44.
2. Ibid., 51.
3. Ibid., 44.
...French Jews urged repeal of their own voting rights
In 1808 the French government instituted a network of “consistories,” semi-autonomous governing bodies, to handle the communal affairs of French Protestants and eventually French Jews as well. Members of the Jewish consistories consisted of one or two rabbis and three lay members nominated by the government and elected by the “notables,” the rich and powerful.
Included in the general duties of the Jewish consistories were education, training for trades, and maintenance of the social order. More specifically, the consistories were charged with “charitable works, administration of religious affairs, and supervision of youth through the creation of primary schools for poor children and of vocational schools.”1 The consistories founded a new rabbinical school with the purpose of replacing the Talmud-oriented schools (yeshivot) which had been closed during the Reign of Terror. They eventually opened orphanages, children’s homes, and a Jewish hospital.
By 1831, the government began to pay the salaries of rabbis as it had been doing for Protestant and Catholic clergy. In the light of past history, this was a remarkable achievement for the Jews of France.
However, all was not peaceful in the Jewish community. Because of the structure of the system for selecting members of the consistories, the power was held by the wealthier and more religiously liberal Jews. The Orthodox, generally the less affluent, were excluded from the governance of the community. When France extended the right to vote to Jews over twenty-five years of age, some of the Orthodox began to be admitted to the consistories. Seeing their power threatened, the ruling members of the Jewish consistories in 1851 amazingly called for the repeal of the decree of the December 1849 meeting that had given the Jews the right to vote.2 In order to maintain their control, they were willing to bargain away what had taken the Jews of France more than a millennium to achieve.
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1. Esther Benbassa, The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 91.
2. Ibid., 92.
...Karl Marx’s anti-Semitism hurt the communist cause
Although born a Jew, 1 Karl Marx came to associate Jews with everything detrimental to a socialist society. Jews represented, for Marx, a culture of merchants and hucksters whose God was money. Thus, it would appear that Jews, as a class, would not be welcome to the communist cause. In spite of this attitude by Marx, many Jews supported his ideology.
Marx’s collaborator and lifelong friend was Friedrich Engels. After Marx’s death, Engels was prompted to put some distance between himself and the anti-Semitism of Marx. Engels stated that “anti-Semitism falsifies the entire situation.”2 Engels went on to point out: “We here in England have had during the last twelve months three strikes of Jewish workers, and now we are to promote anti-Semitism to battle capitalism? ...Many of our best people are Jews.”3
Marx, for most of his adult life, was financially supported by Engels, the son of a wealthy industrialist.4 Thus we have Marx being maintained by the very class of people he was trying to bring down and permitting his self-hating anti-Semitism to blind him to the contributions that Jews were making and could make to the cause so dear to his heart.
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1. Marx’s father and later his mother converted to Christianity, and Marx was raised in a Protestant environment.
2. Elliot Rosenberg, But Were They Good for the Jews? Over 150 Historical Figures Viewed from a Jewish Perspective (Secaucus, NJ: Carol, 1997), 207.
3. Ibid.
4. Schneir Levenberg, “Karl Marx,” Encyclopedia Judaica, CD–ROM Edition (Jerusalem: Keter, 1997).
...two Jews bought the Suez Canal for England
In 1875 Prime Minister Disraeli of England was dining with Baron Lionel Rothschild when a phone call informed them that the Khedive of Egypt had offered to sell his shares in the Suez Canal to the French. The negotiations had stalled and the British government had a chance to acquire the shares.1
Since Parliament was not in session at the time, the Prime Minister was unable to complete the transaction through the Bank of England. However, before the night was over, Disraeli and Rothschild had come to an agreement on the terms, and the deal was ready for the cabinet to meet and tender its approval.
This was a double victory for England. Not only had Great Britain stopped the French from adding to their commanding holding in Suez stock, but they also stood to gain an income that would indemnify them for the purchase price of the shares within three years.
It was with great pride that a jubilant Disraeli was able to write to the queen, “It is just settled; you have it, madam.”2
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1. In 1813 Benjamin Disraeli’s father had a quarrel with the synagogue to which they belonged, and in 1817 he had his children baptized. Although nominally a Christian, Disraeli always expressed pride in his Jewish heritage and is included here as a Jew. It was his conversion which made him eligible to become Prime Minister of England, since Jews were barred from sitting in Parliament until 1858. “Benjamin Disraeli,” Encyclopedia Britannica Micropedia, 15th ed. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1990).
2. Cecil Roth, The Magnificent Rothschilds (London: Robert Hale and Company, 1939), 73–77.
...Chaim Weizmann retained an anti-Semitic nurse for his children
In 1916, upon the birth of their second son, Chaim Weizmann engaged the services of a nurse, Jessica Usher. She remained with them for twenty-two years. With Chaim often away on Zionist business and Vera Weizmann busy with her own activities, the Weizmann boys were increasingly under the domination of this woman.
In her own way, Miss Usher saw her care of the Weizmann boys as her mission in life. She wrote, “I felt it my job as a Christian to come into that family and to give those boys, as far as possibl
e, a normal life, because Jews are so cruel to their children. Jews have all these customs they impose upon them. Jews expect so much of their children, and I wanted to give those Jewish boys...a normal English life.”1
A close friend of Vera Weizmann saw Miss Usher as a “malign influence” and tried in vain to have her dismissed.2
As a trained nurse, it fell to Miss Usher to minister to many of the medical needs of the family. Again she wrote, “Benji, Michael, Vera, and Chaim, because they were Jews, were always ill. Jews make a great thing about illness, and indeed, Jews actually enjoy illness.... Each member of the family used to have their own thermometer and [were] keen on having their temperatures taken.”3
Benji, when he was grown, wrote of “Nurse’s” “disgraceful behavior”: “It is my firm conviction that we have had a Rasputin in our house for far too long.”4
Finally, in 1938 Miss Usher suffered a nervous breakdown and retired from service.
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1. Norman Rose, Chaim Weizmann: A Biography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986), 254.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., 255.
...Chaim Weizmann foresaw the Holocaust and the Jewish state
As early as the latter part of 1932, Chaim Weizmann was counseling German Jews to flee the country. Having read Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Weizmann, on his last visit to Germany, advised the Jews of Munich, “Hitler means every word”; he told them it was time to flee. By March of 1933, Weizmann publicly denounced the German lapse “into barbarism.”1
In 1933 Weizmann wrote to Felix Warburg, a member of a prominent German-American-Jewish banking family, “The world is gradually, relentlessly and effectively being closed to the Jews, and every day I feel more and more that a ring of steel is being forged around us.... It is all inescapable, and every ounce of my energy...is going toward the consummation of that end [Palestine]. Everything else is a palliative, a half measure, and merely postponing the evil day.”2
In 1936, after appearing before the Peel Commission investigating Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine, Weizmann told his private secretary Yeheskiel Saharoff, “I foresee the destruction of European Jewry...”3
Weizmann’s pessimism deepened, and by 1938 he confided to a friend in an extremely prophetic utterance, “I am distressed that the Jews don’t understand the apocalyptic nature of the times.... Part of us will be destroyed, and on their bones New Judaea may arise! It is all terrible but it is so – I feel it even here [in Rehovot, Palestine], and can think of nothing else....”4
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1. Norman Rose, Chaim Weizmann: A Biography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986), 301.
2. Ibid., 301–2.
3. Ibid., 319.
4. Ibid., 310.
CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE EAST:
The Unwanted Diaspora
...Jewish traders kept Christians and Muslims in business
During the ninth and tenth centuries, diverse cultures and hostility divided Christians and Muslims. Trade between Europe and Asia virtually disappeared, as Christians and Muslims refused to use each other’s ports.1 Into this gap stepped a group of traveling Jewish merchants called Radanites. These people were masters of languages and spoke Arabic, Persian, and Greek, and the languages of the Romans, Franks, Andalusians, and Slavs.2
These intrepid traders, traveling by land and by sea, had several advantages: in addition to being conversant in all the languages encountered along the way, being neither Christians nor Muslims they were able to gain the trust of both sides. In addition, they were able to reduce or eliminate the risks of carrying cash over long distances. This was done by a system of checks or letters of credit, which would be honored by Jews all along the trading route. Moreover, they were able to eliminate language barriers among themselves by the universal use of Hebrew, known to all the Jews with whom they would be doing business.
For over a hundred years, almost every shipment of spices that came into Europe was a result of Radanite trade.3 However, the virtual monopoly enjoyed by the Radanites was soon to end. Riots in China against foreign merchants hurt the Radanite trade. Another blow came with the fall of Khazaria – the Radanites had benefited from the goodwill of Khazaria’s Jewish kings. Finally, the rise of Venice locked the Radanites out of the Mediterranean trade. Although the day of the Radanite traders had come to an end, the gold these traders had amassed helped them find a new line of work as bankers when Europe found itself in need.4
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1. Matthew Goodman, “How the Radanite Traders Spiced Up Life in Dark-Ages Europe,” Forward (May 30, 2003); http://www.forward.com/articles/8926/.
2. Joseph Jacobs, Jewish Contributions to Civilization: An Estimate (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1919), 194.
3. Goodman, “How the Radanite Traders Spiced Up Life in Dark-Ages Europe.”
4. Jacobs, Jewish Contributions to Civilization, 198–99.
...crusades spawned a “protection racket” against Jews
The crusades represented a turning point in the lives of European Jews. No longer were Jews being persecuted for their religion only. Now they had to contend with race aversion. In order to protect themselves, the Jews began to greet each new king or emperor with costly monetary gifts. They also gave generous gifts whenever some new danger approached. In return for the money paid, protection was extended to them. After a while, the tradition of Jewish giving evolved, and the Jews gradually became part of the feudal system. In the feudal system, each class owed allegiance to the class immediately above. Serfs belonged to the landowner and the land; knights were bound to their lord; lords owed allegiance to the king. Now the Jews belonged to the king.
The Jews assumed the status of servi camerae regis, servants of the royal chamber, and wards of the emperor. Kings and emperors were able to buy and sell them at their whim. If a king needed some money quickly, he was able to consign the revenue from “his” Jews to the person who was lending him the money. An ironic twist to this situation was provided by Emperor Albert, who sought to punish those who were killing Jews and destroying their businesses and possessions. He complained that they were maltreating his property and destroying his revenues! Incredibly, this system lasted for six hundred years.1
When Jews sought to emigrate from this “protective” environment, they were refused permission to do so, because they represented a steady and lucrative source of income. Here we have a prototype of the old gangster movies with their stories of protection rackets. The difference here is that the “gangsters” were the kings and the higher nobility.
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1. Abram Leon Sachar, A History of the Jews (New York: Knopf, 1964), 192, 198.
...Jewish money helped finance the crusades
A warrior setting forth to participate in a crusade often put himself into difficult financial straits. In an effort to alleviate the burden of those who were going off to war, Pope Innocent III issued decrees pertaining to crusaders who were in debt to Jewish moneylenders. The order stipulated that during the time the crusader was away, he was to pay no interest on his loans. Interest already paid to the Jewish financier was to be repaid to the crusader.
In the event the crusader could not pay his debt, there was to be a moratorium on payment until such time as the individual returned home to attend to his affairs. In cases where the Jewish moneylender was holding income property as collateral, the income was to be applied to reducing the principal, but no interest was to be paid.
As a result of these decrees, a crusader going off to war did not suffer financially due to his indebtedness. The Jewish moneylender, on the other hand, could do no better than to break even.1 To add insult to injury, many of the crusaders participated in wholesale massacres of Jews while on their way to fight the Muslims.
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1. Jacob R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315–1791 (New York: Atheneum, 1938), 140–41.
..
.Jews were instrumental in spreading the Renaissance
At the dawn of the renaissance, Europeans were becoming interested in the Greek philosophical writings that had been further developed by Arab scholars like Averroes and Avicenna. However, they were having trouble getting at the knowledge they were seeking. Barriers of religion and culture separating Christians and Muslims extended also to language. Few people in Christendom were fluent in Arabic. It was here that the Jews were able to bridge the gap. Having already translated the Arabic works into Hebrew, the Jews had no trouble rendering them into Latin, thereby making available an entire body of knowledge to Christian scholars. The major medical resource of the time was that of Avicenna, translated by the Jewish physician Master Bonacosa.1
The renaissance sparked a new interest in things Jewish. Christians began to study the Bible in its original Hebrew. The “works of Maimonides, Ibn Gabirol, and Yehuda haLevi became part of the new humanist curriculum,” as did the Zohar and other works of Kabbalah.2
Some of the greatest Renaissance literature was heavily influenced by Jewish writings. The widely studied Summa Totius Theologie of St. Thomas Aquinas leaned heavily on the works of Maimonides, and the famous author Dante drew from Aquinas much of his theology and philosophy. Here we have a straight-line connection between Dante and Maimonides.3
Christians in the Renaissance began to desire to read Scriptures in the Hebrew. In order to accomplish this, some resorted to hiring Jewish teachers. However, the pope soon put a stop to this practice. Some of the clergy were disciplined for taking instruction from Jews. It was a lucky Christian who found a baptized Jew to teach him Hebrew.