Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/178

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
162
GREAT RUSSIA

Nothing could exceed the misery and squalor of the ghetto of Old Warsaw, unless it be the ghetto of New York.

The second assumption is that the bulk of the Jews have now received equal political rights, and that the persecution of ages has at last come to a close. As a matter of fact, the enormous majority of Jews still suffer from civil and political disabilities. It is only in Anglo-Saxon communities that they have attained to political equality. But even there their position is uncertain, and in the United States there are already clear indications of a rise of anti-Semitism. As for France, the recent formidable epidemic of anti-Semitism and the terrible crisis of the Dreyfus affair clearly show how precarious the condition of the Jews still remains, even under the most favourable conditions. In Germany no Jew before this war could hold a commission in the army or hold a post in the diplomatic service, and they are shut out from the higher ranks of the Civil Service.

But it is especially to the north-east of Europe, inhabited by two-thirds of the Jewish population of the world, that we must look to form a true idea of the present position of the