cracow and the polish jew

ever since i can remember i have had a special and peculiar interest in the history and the progress of the jewish race. the first book that i knew, the bible, was a history of the jews, and to my childish mind the most fascinating portion of that book was the story of the manner in which moses led the children of israel out of the house of bondage, through the wilderness, into the promised land. i first heard that story from the lips of my mother, when both she and i were slaves on a plantation in virginia. i have heard it repeated and referred to many times since. in fact, i am certain that there is hardly a day or a week goes by that i do not meet among my people some reference to this same bible story.

the negro slaves were always looking forward to the time when a moses should arise from somewhere who would lead them, as he led the ancient hebrews, out of the house of bondage. and after freedom, the masses of

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the negro people have still continued to look to some great leader, some man inspired of god, who would lead them out of their difficulties into the promised land, which, somehow, they never seem able to reach.

as i learned in slavery to compare the condition of the negro with that of the jews in bondage in egypt, so i have frequently, since freedom, been compelled to compare the prejudice, even persecution, which the jewish people have to face and overcome in different parts of the world with the disadvantages of the negro in the united states and elsewhere.

i had seen a good deal of the lower classes of the jews in new york city before going to europe, and when i visited whitechapel, london, i had an opportunity to learn something of the condition of the polish and russian jews who, driven from their native land, have found refuge in england. it was not until i reached cracow, in austrian poland, or galicia, however, that i really began to understand what life in the ghetto, of which i had heard so much, was really like. it was not until then that i began to comprehend what the wear and tear of centuries of persecution, poverty, and suffering had meant in the life of the jews.

one of the first things i observed in regard to the jews abroad was the very different forms

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which racial prejudice takes in the different countries that i visited. for example, in east london, which has long been the refuge for the poor and oppressed of other countries, the jew is tolerated, although he is not liked. it is not clear just what is the source of the english prejudice. complaint is sometimes made that the jewish immigrant has driven out the native briton from certain parts of east london, but it is admitted at the same time that in such cases it is because the jew has proven a better tenant. he does not drink, he is law-abiding, and he pays his rent regularly. it seems to be true in london, also, as it is in new york, that as soon as the jewish immigrant has made a little success he does not remain in the same quarter of the city. he soon moves out and his place is taken by some new and half-starved fugitive from russia or roumania, so that there is a constant stream of "greeners," as they are called, coming in, and another, perhaps somewhat smaller, stream of those who have been successful moving out. in spite of this fact, it is generally admitted that general conditions have improved under the influence of the jews. english prejudice where it exists seems to be due, therefore, partly to economic causes and partly to the general distrust of the alien that seems to be gaining in england with

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the influx of immigration from southern europe. in denmark, on the contrary, where the jews seem to be very largely represented among the educated and well-to-do classes, i discovered a great deal of prejudice against the germans but almost none against the jews. in fact, one of the most distinguished men in denmark, outside of the king, a man who has been a leader in the intellectual life of that country during the past thirty years, prof. georg brandes, is a jew.

in germany i learned that, while the jews are prominent not only in business but in the professions, it was still difficult for them to rise in the army or to advance to the position of professor in the universities, unless they have first been baptized.

in speaking about this matter to a german whom i met at one of the hotels in vienna, i called to mind the name of a distinguished professor whose name i had heard as an instance of a jew gaining a high position in a german university.

"oh, well," he replied, "he has been baptized."

that recalls to my mind a conundrum which an acquaintance proposed while we were discussing some of the peculiarities of race prejudice in europe.

"when is a jew not a jew?" he asked. the

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answer is of course, "when he is a christian." in other words, prejudice in germany seems to be directed only against the jew who clings to his religion.

when i reached prague in bohemia i learned that among the masses of the people there is little distinction made between jews and germans, since both speak the same language, and the czechs, confusing the one with the other, hate both with a double hatred, first, for what they are, and then for what they seem to be.

in vienna and budapest the jews, through the newspapers which they control, seem to exercise a powerful influence on politics. i remember hearing repeated references while i was there to the "jewish press." in prague it is said that every german paper but one is controlled by jews. jews are represented, however, not only in the press in austria-hungary, but in the army and in all the other professions. they are not only financiers and business men, but doctors, lawyers, artists, and actors, as elsewhere in europe where they have gained their freedom. nevertheless it is still against the law for jews and christians to intermarry in austria-hungary.

i have referred at some length to the condition of the jews in other parts of europe where they have profited by the social and political

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freedom which was granted them in the course of the nineteenth century, because their progress there is in such striking contrast with their condition as i saw it in and around cracow, in galicia; as it is, also, just across the borders of austria-hungary, in russian poland and roumania, and as it seems to have been in other parts of europe seventy-five or a hundred years ago, before the gates of the ghetto were opened and the inhabitants emancipated.

some notion of the conditions under which the jews lived, in almost every part of europe, a hundred years ago, may be gathered from the restrictions which are imposed upon them to-day in russia and roumania. in roumania a jew can neither vote nor hold office in the civil service. he is excluded from the professions; he is not permitted, for example, to become a physician or even open a pharmacy; he is not permitted to live in the rural districts; he may neither own land outside of the town nor work as an agricultural labourer. in the mills and factories not more than 25 per cent. of the employees may be jews. although they are practically restricted to business enterprises, jews may not become members of chambers of commerce. jews are bound to serve in the army, they pay heavier taxes, proportionately, than other portions of the community, but they

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are classed under the laws as "aliens not subject to alien protection."

in russia, jews are not allowed to live outside of what is called the "pale of settlement," which includes twelve provinces on the western and southwestern borders which russia has annexed during the past two hundred years. only merchants who pay a special license of 1,000 rubles, or about $500, university graduates, and a few others may live outside the pale. a jew is not even permitted to live in siberia unless he has been sent there in punishment for crime.

inside the pale, jews are not allowed to live outside the cities and incorporated towns. although jews are allowed to vote in russia and send representatives to the duma, they are not permitted to hold office or to be employed in the public service. they are compelled to pay in addition to the ordinary taxes, which are heavy enough, taxes on the rents they receive from property owned by them, or inheritances, on the meat killed according to the jewish law, on candles used in some of their religious observances, and on the skull caps they wear during religious services. in spite of this they are excluded from hospitals, schools, and public functions, which, in the pale, are mainly paid for out of the extra taxes imposed upon them.

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the most singular thing about it all is that the disabilities under which the russian jew now labours are at once removed by baptism. not only that, but every jew who allows himself to be sprinkled with holy water, in sign of the renunciation of his religion and his people, receives thirty rubles, "thirty pieces of silver," as a reward.

the jews whom i saw in galicia are not subject to any of the medieval restrictions which are imposed upon members of their race in russia and roumania. they enjoy, in fact, all the political rights of other races. nevertheless, jews in galicia are said to be poorer than they are in some parts of russian poland, although very much better off than in some parts of southern russia.

elsewhere in europe, where they have had their freedom, jews are as a rule more prosperous than the people by whom they are surrounded. in berlin, germany, for instance, where jews represent 4.88 per cent. of the total population, 15 per cent. of those who had an income of 1,500 marks, or more, were jews. statistics show that similar conditions exist in other parts of europe.[3]

when i asked an acquaintance, who had lived a number of years in austria, why this was so,

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he replied that there were so many jews in galicia that there were not enough other people to support them. he then went on to explain that between the two classes, the nobility who owned the land and the peasant who cultivated it, the jew represented the trader, or middleman. it was, therefore, literally true that there were not enough other people in the country to support the jew, who represents, however, not more than 11 per cent. of the total population.

one of the first persons i met in galicia was a representative of this poorer class of jews. i reached cracow late one afternoon in the latter part of september. there was a cold wind blowing and, for the first time since i had left scotland, i noticed an uncomfortable keenness in the evening air, which was an indication, i suppose, that i was on the northern and eastern or the russian side of the carpathian mountains. one of the first persons i encountered as i was standing shivering at the entrance of the hotel was a pale-faced, brown-eyed little boy, who spoke to me in english and seemed to want to establish some sort of friendship with me on the basis of our common acquaintance with the english language. he was unmistakably a jew and, as we walked down the street together, he told me something of his life in london and then in cracow. i gathered from what

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he was able to tell me that his father, who was a cabinetmaker and, as he said, "very poor," had found it harder to live in the fierce competition of the london sweatshops, where he had been employed, than in the ghetto at cracow, and so had grown discouraged and returned.

i learned from him, as i did later from others of his race, that not all the jews who came to england and america succeed and get rich in a few years, as seems to be commonly supposed. some of them fail, and some get into unexpected troubles, and frequently families who immigrate are broken up and some of them sent back as a consequence of the enforcement of the immigration regulations, so that there is not so much eagerness to go to america as there was a few years ago.

in spite of this fact the jews of galicia, nearly every one of whom probably has friends or relatives either in england or america, seem to look with peculiar interest upon every one who speaks the english language, because they regard them as representatives of a people who, more than any other in the world, have tried to be just to the jews.

a few days later i met in a little village a few miles from cracow a jewish trader who, like most of the jews in this part of the country,

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spoke german as well as polish, so that with the assistance of doctor park i was able to speak with him. he said that his business was to buy grain and fodder from the large landowners in different parts of galicia and sell it again to the peasants, who used it to feed their stock. when he learned that i was from america and that i wanted to see something of the life of the peasant people he volunteered to be my guide. it was a very fortunate meeting for me, for i found that this man not only knew about the condition of nearly every family in the village, but he understood, also, exactly how to deal with them so that, at his touch, every door flew open, as if by magic, and i was able to see and learn all that i wanted to know.

in the meantime i noticed that our guide and interpreter seemed to be quite as interested in learning about america as i was interested in getting acquainted with galicia. he interlarded all his information about the condition of the peasants in different parts of the country with questions about conditions in america. as it turned out, he not only had relatives in america, but he had a cousin in new york who had got into trouble and been sent to prison for three years on account of some business irregularity. it was a small matter, according to my jewish friend, that would not have cost

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more than eight days' imprisonment in galicia. he could not understand, therefore, how a poor man should be treated more harshly in a free country like america, where all are equal, than he was at home, where he was the underdog and did not expect consideration. what seemed to trouble him most, however, was the fact that he had not heard from his cousin for a year and no one knew what had become of him.

when the matter was explained to me, i told the man that if he would give me the name and last address of his cousin, when i returned to new york i would look the matter up and, if possible, learn what had become of the missing cousin.

this seemed to me a very natural proposal, under the circumstances, but it evidently took the poor man by surprise, for he stopped, stared at me an instant, and then in the most humble manner knelt down and kissed my hand. i confess that at first i was a little shocked and rather disgusted. afterward i learned that it is a common habit, more especially in russia, for peasants to kiss the hands and even the feet of their superiors. the thought that occurred to me, however, was that it must have taken many centuries of subjection and oppression to make this attitude of humility a familiar and

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natural way, as it seemed to be in this case, of expressing gratitude.

the singular thing about it all was that this jew who had shown himself so humble toward me looked down upon and despised the polish peasants among whom he trades. he referred to them as "ignorant and dirty creatures." for all that, he seemed to have learned their ways of expressing himself to those to whose power or influence he looked for help or protection.

under these circumstances, with these ingrained habits in the masses of the people, i found it hard to imagine just what the right of manhood suffrage, which has recently been conferred upon the people in all the provinces of austria, was likely to mean in actual practice.

nothing was impressed more forcibly upon me during my study of conditions in europe than this—namely, that we can tell very little from the mere fact that this or that political institution exists in a country just what privileges or disadvantages these institutions bring to the masses of the people. in fact, it seems to be just as true in europe as it is in america, that mere legislative enactments can of themselves no more produce justice and freedom than they can produce industry and thrift. after the physical bondage has been destroyed

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there still remains the bondage of superstition, of ignorance, and of religious, class, and racial prejudice. the act of this jew in kissing my hand was a revelation to me, not only of his own state of mind, but of the conditions by which he was surrounded.

i think this one incident, more than anything else i saw or heard while i was in galicia, gave me an insight into the life of the people. it seemed to me i could understand, for example, from this alone, why the jews have made little more progress in galicia than they have in the neighbouring provinces of roumania and russia.

as for my guide, i might add that i never heard from him afterward. if he wrote to me the letter never reached me, and i do not know what finally became of the cousin whom he had lost.

perhaps i ought, before i attempt to describe the condition of the poorer class of jews in cracow, to say something of another ghetto which i saw while in europe.

during my stay in prague i took a walk one day through an ancient quarter of the city which had been formerly inhabited by jews. the ghetto of prague is said to have been the largest and most famous in europe. it was, in fact, a city in itself, for it contained not merely the oldest synagogue in europe, with a famous old jewish burial ground attached to it,

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but also a rathhaus, or city hall, and a market in which, according to tradition, jewish traders at one time sold christian slaves. so thoroughly were the jews at one time established in this quarter of the city that it went under the name of judenstadt, or jewtown. there they maintained, in a small way, a separate civil government of their own, just as they do, to a lesser extent, in russia to-day. in his book on the jews, already referred to, mr. m. fishberg, to whom i am indebted for many facts and statistics concerning the condition of the jew, says of the jews in russia to-day:

they speak their own language, yiddish, and many conduct their affairs, keep their ledgers, write contracts, wills, and many other documents in this dialect; the registration of births, marriages, and deaths is done by their rabbis, and the divorces granted by them are recognized by the state as valid; in the smaller towns they prefer to settle their differences before their own judiciary (beth din), and not in the state courts; they collect the greater part of their own taxes for the government in the name of the jewish community; not only is each individual jew required to do military duty, but the jewish community as a whole is held responsible for delivering annually a certain number of recruits. this separateness goes as far as the calendar with many jews, who date their letters and documents according to the hebrew and not the russian calendar. up to about fifty years ago it was a disgrace for a jew to be able to read russian or german, or even to have in his possession a book in one of these vulgar languages; it was a sin next to apostasy. but during the last two generations a profound change has taken place.

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at the time i was in prague the ancient ghetto was in process of demolition, and it illustrates the change which has come in recent years that most of the people living in the narrow streets and battered ancient buildings of the former ghetto were not jews but christians.

after prague, the city which has the oldest and most interesting ghetto in europe is cracow, and the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it is still inhabited by jews. they live there to-day very much, i suppose, as they did a hundred years ago, a race separate and apart, more removed, apparently, from the manners, customs, and comprehension of the rest of the world than any people this side of china.

i have known jews nearly all my life. i have done business with them and have more than once talked to them in their synagogues, and have always found sympathy and support among them for the work i have had to do for my own people. i have frequently visited and studied, to some extent, the poorer classes in the jewish quarter on the east side in new york. in spite of this, however, when certain strange figures in long black coats, soft felt hats, with pale faces, lighted by dark glittering eyes and framed by glossy curls which hung down on either side in front of their ears, were pointed

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out to me in vienna, i had not the slightest notion to what race or nationality of people they belonged. later on, when i reached cracow, these same slender figures and pale, delicate faces became very familiar to me, and i learned to recognize in them the higher type of polish jew.

the great majority of the jews in cracow still make their homes in a quarter of the city called the "kazimierz," which gets its name from that of a polish king who fell in love with a beautiful jewess some four hundred years ago and, for her sake, made poland a refuge for the members of her race, who, at that time, were hunted almost like wild beasts in other parts of europe.

i visited the kazimierz late one afternoon, when the narrow, dirty, and ill-smelling streets were swarming with their strange brood of slatternly, poverty-stricken, and unhealthy looking inhabitants.

i have been through the jewish quarter in new york, with its confusion of pushcarts, its swarms of black-eyed children, and its strange old men with gray-brown beards wandering careworn and absorbed through the crowded streets, each anxiously intent on some thought or purpose of his own. the jewish quarter on the east side in new york is, however, a pale

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reflection of the ghetto in cracow. for one thing, the jew in new york, though he retains many of the habits and customs of the country from which he came, seems, in most cases, to be making an earnest effort to make an american of himself; to learn the language, adopt the dress and, as far as possible, the manners of the new country of which he is soon to become, if he is not already, a citizen.

the masses of the polish jews, however, still cling tenaciously to the customs of their religion and of the ghetto in which, for a thousand years or more, they have lived as exiles and, more or less, like prisoners. instead of seeking to make themselves look like the rest of the people among whom they live, they seem to be making every effort to preserve and emphasize the characters in which they are different from the people about them.

although i met in cracow jews in all the various stages of transition—as far as their dress is concerned—from the traditional ghetto jew to the modern literary, professional or business man, nevertheless the majority of the jews still cling to the long black coat which they were compelled to wear in the middle ages. certain ones have discarded this symbol of exclusiveness, but still wear the long beard, and the side curls in front of their ears, which

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seem to be especially dear to them, perhaps, because, for some reason i could not understand, they are forbidden to wear them in russia.

perhaps it was the effect of the costume, which gave them a strange and alien appearance, but it seemed to me, at first, as if every jew in cracow had exactly the same features, the same manner of walking, and the same expression of countenance. as i watched the different figures in the crowded streets more closely, however, i discovered that beneath the peculiar dress and manner many different types of human beings were concealed. there were the pale-browed students, who moved through the crowd with a hurried and abstracted air; there were slender and elegant aristocrats, who, while still wearing the uniform of their race, dressed with a scrupulous correctness and looked at you with an expression which seemed a curious mingling of the humility of the jew and the scorn of the pharisee.

there was the commonplace plodding jew, following humbly in the common ruts of barter and trade and the daily and weekly routine which his religion prescribed. there was the outcast beggar, dirty and wretched, doddering aimlessly along the dirty street or sitting in some doorway, staring disconsolately into the street. there was, also, the dirty,

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gluttonous, ignorant, and brutal type, on whom neither suffering nor fanaticism seemed to have made any impression, and who, in his jewish dress and manners, looked like a caricature of his more high-bred neighbour.

i visited the ancient synagogue while i was in cracow, which they say was built for the jews by that same polish king, kazimierz, who first invited them to take refuge in his country. i saw there the ancient roll of the laws and ancient prayer book which were brought from spain when the jews were expelled from that country.

nearby the synagogue is the ancient jewish market. a narrow street leads into an open square in the centre of which is a circular building. before one of the entrances of this building a man, with the pale brow and delicate features which seem to be a mark of superiority among the people of the ghetto, was publicly slaughtering geese. the square in which this building stood was surrounded on all sides by rows of little market booths, in front of which groups of men and women were dickering and trading for various small wares. a crowd of women stood about the building in the centre of the square and watched the pale-browed man, who did not seem to relish the job, as he rapidly and dexterously performed the ceremony of cutting the throats of the geese. these were

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handed to him by a good-natured looking woman, wearing an apron and high boots, red with blood. after the geese were killed they were hung over a pit to drain, while fresh victims were brought from the baskets and crates standing about in the open square. a foul smell from the open pit in which the geese were allowed to bleed filled the square. this did not add to the dignity of the proceedings, but it served to impress them upon my memory.

in one corner of the square i noticed a dull gray-coloured building from which troops of little jewish children were issuing. it was one of those schools by means of which jewish teachers, through all the persecutions and dispersions of nineteen centuries, have kept alive the memory of the jewish history and the jewish law and so kept the race together. i do not think i know of anything which so illustrates and emphasizes the power of education as the influences which these schools have had upon the jewish people.

i was interested in all that i saw of the life of the jew in cracow, because it gave me some idea of the poverty, degradation, and squalor in which more than half of the jewish race is living to-day in different parts of europe. of the twelve million jews in the world, about nine millions live in europe. of this number

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more than six million live in russia and nearly two million and a half in austria, roumania, and the other parts of southeastern europe. i have given some idea of the poverty of the jews in galicia, where they are politically free. from all that i can learn the jews in russia and roumania are very much worse off than they are in the austrian province of galicia. most of us, who are acquainted with jews only in america or in western europe, have been led to believe, in spite of the evident poverty of many of the jews who live on the east side in new york and in the whitechapel district of london, that, as a race, the jews are extremely wealthy. i was surprised, therefore, to read recently the statement, made by jews who have investigated the condition of their own people, to the effect that, while they are undeniably wealthier than their christian neighbours in the countries in which, during the past hundred years, they have been granted their freedom, taking the jews as a whole they are poorer than any other civilized nation in the world. in short, one writer has said: "if we were to capitalize their wealth and distribute it among the twelve millions of jews they would dispute with any poor nation for the lowest place in the scale of wealth."[4]

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the direction in which the jews seem to be superior to all of the rest of the world is apparently not in wealth but in education. even in russia, where they do not have the same educational advantages that are given to the rest of the population, it is found that, while 79 per cent. of the total population can neither read nor write, the percentage of illiteracy among the jews is 61 per cent. which is 18 per cent. less than that of the rest of the population.

in western europe, where jews have equal opportunities with their gentile neighbours in the matter of education, they are far in advance of them in education. statistics for cracow show, for example, that while only a little more than 2 per cent. of the jews who applied for marriage licenses were unable to read and write, between 15 and 20 per cent. of the christians in the same category were illiterate. in italy, where 42.6 per cent. of the men and 57 per cent. of the women of the christian population over fifteen years of age are unable to read and write, only 3 per cent. of the men and 7.5 per cent. of the women among the jews are illiterate.

in austria over 25 per cent. of the students of the universities are jews, although they represent only 5 per cent. of the population. in hungary, where jews represent 4.9 per cent.

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of the population, they furnish 30.27 per cent. of the students in the universities and other schools of higher education. in baden, germany, jews have proportionately three and a half times as many students as the christians. since 1851 the number of jewish students in austrian universities has increased more than sevenfold, while the number of christian students has scarcely more than trebled in that time.

one reason for this is that the jews have almost invariably made their homes in the cities, where the opportunities for education existed. they have, at the same time, been almost wholly engaged in business, which not only requires a certain amount of education, but is in itself, more than other occupations, a source of education.

the name rabbi, or teacher, has always been a title of respect and honour among the jews from the earliest time. it was the name that his disciples bestowed upon jesus.

if there were no other reasons why the story of the jew should be studied, it would be interesting and inspiring as showing what education can do and has done for a people who, in the face of prejudice and persecution, have patiently struggled up to a position of power and preëminence in the life and civilization in which all races are now beginning to share.

footnotes:

[3] m. fishberg, "the jews," p. 366.

[4] m. fishberg, "the jews: a study of race and environment," p. 361.