Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/612

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598 HEBREWS in France, Protestantism in the north and northwest. The greater persecutions of the Jews now ceased. They became flourishing in the republics of Holland and Venice and their dependencies, were readmitted into England by Cromwell (having also entered Denmark and returned into France), spread with the Dutch and English to various parts of Amer- ica, reentered Russia under Peter the Great (to be expelled afterward), were admitted in Sweden, and were protected and often em- ployed in high stations by the sultans of Tur- key and Morocco. In Germany and Switzer- land, where the struggle was not terminated by any decisive triumphs, the mediaeval treat- ment of the Jews was continued longest, its worst features being maintained and developed in Austria (excepting in the reign of Joseph II.). In this empire, down to the revolution of 1848, the Jews were excluded from all civil rights, numerous professions, and various prov- inces, districts, towns, villages, and streets, paying besides a tax for toleration in Hungary (in spite of the remonstrances of the legisla- tures), a tax upon their sabbath lights in Gali- cia, and a residence tax when visiting Vienna, and being subject to Pharaonic marriage restric- tions in Bohemia and Moravia. The general progress of freedom was promoted in the age of philosophy by the appearance of Spinoza and of Mendelssohn (l729-'86) among this long despised people. The influence of the latter upon Jews and Christians through his works, example, fame, and friends (the great Hebrew poet Wessely, Euchel, Lowe, Friedlander, &c., among Jews, and Lessing, Dohm, Abt, Nicolai, Engel, Ramler, &c., among Christians), was immense; and his admirers could say, "Be- tween Moses (the lawgiver) and Moses (Men- delssohn) there was only one Moses (Maimoni- des)." Progress now became general among the Jews, and the noble philosopher lived to see the first dawn of freedom in the land of Franklin and Jefferson. The great revolution in that of Voltaire and Rousseau came next, and the triumphs of republican and imperial France destroyed the mediaeval institutions on the Rhine and Po. Liberty, crushed in Poland by the Russians, when 500 of Kosciuszko's Jewish volunteers fell fighting to the last on the ram- parts of Praga (1794), was successively victori- ous in the West. Proclaimed in the United. States and France, the rights of the Jews were recognized in Holland, Belgium, Denmark, parts of Germany, Canada, and Jamaica; in 1848-'9 throughout Germany, Italy, and Hungary ; and finally in Norway and England. Among the most zealous defenders of the rights of the Jews we may mention the Frenchman Gr6goire, the Pole Czacki, the German Welcker, the Irish- man O'Connell, the Englishman Lord John Rus- sell, the Italian D'Azeglio, and the Hungarian Eotvos, all Christians; the Jews by descent Borne and Disraeli, and the professing Jews Jacobssohn, Riesser, Philipssohn, Montefiore, and Cr6mieux. The revolutionary movement of 1848-'9 proved the immense progress of the Jews as well as of public opinion since Men- delssohn and Lessing. The Jews Cr6mieux, Goudchaux, and Fould were among the minis- ters of the French republic; Pincherle was a member of the provisional government in Ven- ice ; Jacoby of Konigsberg was the leader of the opposition in the Berlin parliament ; Ries- ser was vice president of that of Frankfort; Dr. Fischhof stood at the head of affairs in Vi- enna after the flight of the court ; Meisels, the rabbi of Cracow, was elected to the Austrian diet by Polish patriots ; and Hungarian barons and counts willingly fought under Jewish offi- cers. The subsequent reaction, as in Austria, where it was checked by the events of 1859, was mostly temporary, and the Mortara case in Italy in 1858 excited a very general expres- sion of opposition to the antique legislation by which it was decided. Of the vast number of Jewish writers after Mendelssohn (excluding all converts to Christianity like Heine, Nean- der, or Gans) we mention only a few : the tal- mudists Jacob of Dubno, Jacob of Slonim, Pick, Jacob of Lissa, Bonet, Eger, Sopher, Chajes; the Hebrew poets, philologists, or critics, E. Luzzato, S. Cohen, Satanow, Wolfsohn, Bensev, Pappenheim, Troplowitz, Heidenheim, Lowi- sohn, S. Bloch, Siinha of Hrubiesz6w, Jeitteles, Landau, Reggio, Perl, N. Krochmal, the great rabbinical critic Rapoport, S. D. Luzzato, Letteris, Eichbaum, P. M. Heilprin, S. Sachs, Kirchheim, Schorr, A. Krochmal ; the histori- ans, critics, or publicists on Jewish subjects in modern languages, Zunz, Jost, Riesser, Gei- ger, Furst, Philippson, Salvador, Munk, Cahen, Dukes, Frankel, M. Sachs, Jellinek, Herzfeld, Saalschutz, Steinschneider, Gratz, Low, Ber- nays, Neubauer, Harkawy, Kayserling, Raphall (New York), Leeser (Philadelphia), Wise (Cin- cinnati) ; the conservative theologians Pless- ner, Johlsohn, Steinheim, and Hirsch ; the ad- vocates of religious reform (besides Geiger and Herzfeld) Chorin, Creizenach, Stein, Herx- heimer, Holdheim, Hess, Stern, Einhorn (New York), Lilienthal (Cincinnati) ; the pulpit ora- tors Mannheimer, Kley, Salomon, Frankfurter ; the philosophers Maimon, Bendavid, Frank; the mathematicians Witzenhausen, Sklow, A. Stern, Cassel, Hirsch ; the astronomers W. Beer, Stern, Slonimski ; the ichthyologist Bloch ; the physiologist Valentin; the anatomist Hirsch- feld ; the botanist Pringsheim ; the poets Kuh, M. Beer, Frankl, L6on Halevy ; the miscella- neous writers Auerbach, Bernstein, M. M. Noah, Grace Aguilar, Jules Janin ; the orien- talists Weil, Dernburg (Derenbourg), Oppert, E. Deutsch, Levy (besides Munk). Politics, law, medicine, and the arts, including the stage (Mile. Rachel, &c.), have had numerous representa- tives, and especially music (Moscheles, Meyer- beer, Halevy, &c.). The number of Jews in all parts of the world is hardly less than 6,000,000, or more than 7,000,000. The HEBREW LAN- GUAGE (Heb. IbritJi, or lasJion Ibrith, Hebrew tongue, also leshon hakkodesJi, sacred tongue, in