Israel in Europe

by G. F. Abbott

“That a census or report of the Jewish population be forthwith prepared.”[236]

The anti-Semitic Leagues, though disapproving of violence in their manifestoes, in practice were only too ready to encourage the most sordid passions and the basest prejudices of the poor and ignorant masses, so that, while anti-Semitism led to stormy scenes in the Prussian Diet, it translated itself into more stormy riots outside. Pamphlets and duels were the order of the day among the upper classes, sanguinary encounters between the Jewish and German mobs among the lower. The Liberals protested, the Crown Prince Frederick tried to save the Jews from this dastardly persecution, and the movement was publicly denounced by many distinguished Germans, such as Virchow and Mommsen, as a subversion of the principles of humanitarianism promulgated by German philosophy, as a blasphemy against German ideals, and as a stain on German civilisation. But Jew-baiting was not checked before many thousands of Jews were compelled to leave their country—the country to which they gave Mendelssohn the philosopher and Mendelssohn the composer, Heine and Börne, Offenbach and Auerbach, Ense, Ewald, Jacoby, and a host of other great men, including Lasker, who a few years before had done his utmost to avert the financial catastrophe for which his co-religionists now suffered.

A German who has played an active part in his country’s history from 1848 onwards does not hesitate to ascribe “the disgraceful orgies of the Jews’ Chace, begun on a large scale at Berlin on the New Year’s night of 1880–81,” to Prince Bismarck’s direct inspiration. “There was evidently,” he says, writing not long after those events, “more method in those ugly rushes and riots than may be generally suspected.... The German citizens of Hebrew origin, or of the Mosaic faith, belong, in their great majority, to the Liberal and Radical camp. Several of them have achieved the most honourable prominence in the progressive parties to which they attached themselves. The great statesman whose ideal is his own Dictatorship under cover of the King’s personal Government, finding these popular leaders of Semitic blood as stumbling-blocks in his path, did not scruple to dally coquettishly with the organisers and approvers of the Jews’ Hunt. An underhand alliance was struck up, in old Roman fashion, between out-and-out partisans of Caesarism and certain shady leaders of a misguided rabble. A Court Preacher, Stöcker, acted as the go-between and spiritual head of the crusade. The same man is now in the German Parliament a chief exponent of this cross-breed between princely absolutism and professed philanthropic care for the multitude.”[237]

Soon, however, a discrepancy became apparent between the leaders of the nationalist and the leaders of the religious and economic forces. While anti-Semites, strictly so called, clamoured for a revival of the ancient disabilities which doomed the Jew to political servitude and social ostracism, the Christian Socialists were not prepared to go so far. This moderation was partly due to the fact that the anti-Semites had manifested symptoms of wishing to include Christianity in their denunciation of Judaism as a Semitic creed—a tendency which, of course, could inspire no sympathy in orthodox theologians and Court Preachers. The schism was temporarily healed in 1886: but it was reopened three years later. However, this divergence of views did not affect the rank and file of the anti-Jewish agitators. They cared little for intellectual theories; but were frankly actuated by the blind and unreasoning instincts of their mediaeval ancestors. Again the populace found allies among the impecunious and the unscrupulous, who supplied it with food for its credulity, and among the Catholic clergy, who inflamed its fanaticism. The mediaeval charge of ritual murder was once more revived, and it led to the destruction of Jewish houses and the burning of Jewish synagogues.

Prince Bismarck’s retirement, in 1890, and the abandonment of his anti-Liberal programme did not mend matters. The Conservatives endeavoured to gain the popular ear by coming forth as the champions of national unity and of the Christian faith, and by denouncing the Jews as the enemies of both. ♦1892♦ This change of attitude brought about a reconciliation with the nationalist anti-Semites, whose rabid programme was fully accepted. And now the two sections united brought to bear all their strength against the Jews. Christianity and stupidity, respectability and sansculottism, were found marshalled in one compact phalanx as in the days of yore. In the autumn of 1893 a Bill was brought into the German Diet, asking that the Talmud should be subjected to an official examination, and it was seriously proposed that the old Commission appointed for that purpose by the Emperor Maximilian at the instigation of Pfefferkorn at the beginning of the sixteenth century should be roused from its sleep of ages. But the alliance was too grotesque to be effective. The saner section of the Conservatives was shocked at the unprincipled tactics and the excessive fury of their allies, and, though the lower orders of their supporters in the country were not troubled by such delicacy, yet the extreme anti-Semitic party lost, through its own extravagance, much of its influence among the educated. Herr Stöcker was expelled from Court, and soon after from the ranks of the Conservative party. The Catholics also were shamed into breaking all connection with the scandalous demagogues, and thus the anti-Semitic distemper, though still an element of discord in the Reichstag, has ceased to be an element of danger—for the present. But, if the paroxysm is over, the disease is not cured. Indeed, individual anti-Semites still display a degree of fervour that would have done credit to Herr Marr himself on the hey-day of his frenzy. The leader of these loyal Jew-haters is Count Puckler, whose speeches are sold in the streets of Berlin, and read by many Germans with profound approval. All that is needed is some encouragement from above, and then we may again see many volunteering to translate the prophet’s visions into deeds of blood.

From Germany Anti-Semitism found its way to the neighbouring states. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire politicians and publicists caught the rabies and spread it without delay. As early as 1880 an attempt was made to establish in Hungary an anti-Semitic league after the German pattern, and, though the healthier and more enlightened portion of the nation was loth to forget the liberal traditions of the past and the services rendered by the Jews in the struggle for Hungarian independence, the obscurantist elements among the people and the aristocracy, in the Church and the official classes,—the vulgar high and low—were not disinclined to listen to the dictates of bigotry and superstition. An opportunity for a declaration of the latent prejudice offered in 1881, when a Catholic Professor of Hebrew gravely accused the Jews of secretly holding the destruction of the Gentiles as a religious tenet; the ritual murder of Christians being only one method for carrying out this moral obligation. Despite exposure and open repudiation, the worthy Professor’s utterances tallied so well with preconceived ideas that the prehistoric fiction found many eager believers. ♦1882♦ The disappearance of a Christian girl from a Hungarian village in the next year strengthened the belief and led to brutal outrages on the Jews at Buda-Pesth, Zala and elsewhere, the riots being only quelled by the proclamation of martial law. This measure, as was natural, was turned into an instrument of attack on the Liberal Government, already unpopular, as sheltering the enemies of mankind. An inquiry was instituted into the alleged murder, many Jews were arrested, and evidence was manufactured. But in the trial which ensued the plot was stripped of all its shameful vestments of perjury, forgery, and intimidation, and the prisoners were acquitted.

While the anti-Semites were covering themselves with contempt and ridicule in Hungary, in Austria the movement attained serious dimensions. The campaign, begun with occasional pamphlets, followed the development of German anti-Semitism. In Austria, as in Germany, Liberalism had been undermined by that worst form of racial intolerance known as Christian Socialism, which was and is nothing but the old spirit of clerical reaction masquerading in the guise of anti-Semitic prejudice and pseudo-democratic demagogy.[238] In Austria, as in Germany, the operations were conducted by two bodies of men—the racial and the religious enemies of the Jew. The two bodies met on the common ground of objection to the Jews’ acquiring land. The anti-Semites proper did not like to see the land falling into the hands of non-Austrians, and the Christian Socialists objected to its falling into the hands of infidel financiers. The agitation was gradually organised, and in 1882 two leagues were formed in Vienna. Austrian, like German, anti-Semitism was immediately exploited for party purposes. Many politicians, though themselves free from anti-Semitic prejudice, were ready to adopt a cause which promised to add to their own strength or to weaken their opponents. They, therefore, loudly preached a doctrine which they despised, excited passions which they did not share, and advocated principles which in all probability they would have shrunk from acting upon. Thus the support of the anti-Semitic leagues was solicited by the Radical Nationalists on one hand, and by the Liberal Government on the other. The Nationalists being less insincere in their prejudices, won the victory which they deserved, and the coalition between them and the Christian Socialists derived additional strength from the anti-clerical policy of the Liberal party, which compelled many Catholics who had hitherto stood aloof, to join the ranks of anti-Semitism. ♦1892♦ Henceforth the agitation was conducted under the auspices of the Roman Church. The clerical press disseminated the seed in the cafés, and the priests fulminated against the Jews from the pulpit. The time-dishonoured charge of ritual murder was not forgotten, and the Hungarian Upper House, in 1894, rejected the Liberal Bill which placed Judaism on a footing of equality with other denominations.

The Liberals had succeeded in offending both the Radical Nationalists and the Clericals. They offended the former by advocating Jewish rights, and the latter by combating the tyranny of the Church. The alliance between those two enemies of Liberalism was, in 1895, blessed by the Pope, who hoped to gain over, or at least to control, the Radicals by drawing closer the bonds which united them with the Clericals. The Vatican, disappointed in the long-cherished hope of recovering its temporal power by the help of the Catholic monarchs, was induced to court the democracy. Thus the spiritual tribunal which has always taken its stand on the lofty platform of obedience to authority, in the pursuance of secular ends did not hesitate to lend its sanction to the advocates of violence and revolt. The anti-Jewish agitation, hallowed by the Vicar of Christ, carried all before it. The anti-Semites secured a vast majority in the Municipal Council of Vienna, notwithstanding the opposition on the part of the Emperor, who dissolved the council twice, only to be met each time with an even greater anti-Semitic triumph; and in the Parliamentary Elections of 1897 the allied powers of Radical Nationalism and Clericalism secured a strong position in the Austrian Reichsrath. This was the meridian of anti-Semitic popularity in Austria. But here, as in Germany, the unseemly and unnatural coalition between rabid Nationalism and respectable Clericalism could not last long, and, while it lasted, could command but little respect. Three years afterwards the General Election showed a decline of public confidence in the allies, and many of the Radical Nationalists deserted the ranks to form an independent and anti-Clerical party, while, on the other hand, the Vatican thought it expedient to withdraw its sanction from the Christian Socialists.

Austro-Hungarian anti-Semitism, however, though much weakened, is not dead, and it would be taking too sanguine a view of human nature and human intelligence to hope that the prejudices, the passions, and the sophisms which have led to the recrudescence of Jew-hatred will not assert themselves again. In point of fact, there are ample signs to confirm this pessimistic forecast. On October 21, 1904, the Diet of Lower Austria witnessed a scene which a spectator pronounced “unparalleled for vulgarity and demagogic impudence even in this country of crazy Parliamentarism.” The anti-Semitic and Christian Socialist parties, which still command an overwhelming majority both in the Diet and in the Vienna Municipal Council, had organised a torch-light procession in honour of the sixtieth birthday of Dr. Lueger, the anti-Semite Burgomaster of Vienna. The Premier instructed the police to prohibit the demonstration. Thereupon the outraged worshippers of the great hero of Christian Socialism brought in a motion in which they accused the Premier of having yielded to Jewish pressure and to the terrorism of the Social Democrats, the champions of the Jews, and of “having thereby given proof of shameful cowardice.” The motion was carried amid loud acclamations in honour of Dr. Lueger who, on his followers asserting that the reason for the Government’s attitude was “the jealousy caused in the highest circles by the Burgomaster’s popularity,” modestly assured the House that “he was not jealous of the Emperor and repudiated the supposition that he envied the reverence and affection which surrounded the Monarch’s person.” At the end of the sitting Dr. Lueger was enthusiastically cheered in the streets, while a Social Democratic Deputy was insulted and spat upon.[239] This demagogue, who by the volume of his voice, the character of his wit and the extent of his power over the Viennese mob, recalls vividly the Cleon of Aristophanes, a year later warned the Austrian Jews openly and with impunity that the Kishineff tragedy might repeat itself in Vienna. Even more recently twenty thousand Christian Socialists, Clericals and anti-Semites, headed and inflamed by Dr. Lueger, made a violent demonstration outside the Hungarian Delegation building, as a protest against the policy of the “Judaeo-Magyars.”[240] Within a week of this outburst Dr. Lueger, in company with Herr Schneider, a militant anti-Semite Deputy, paid a visit to Bucharest, where he was fêted by all classes of Roumanian society, from the King downwards: a glorification of this arch-enemy of the Jews as significant as it is natural in a country where Jew-hatred is at its height. Clearly, Austrian anti-Semitism is anything but dead.

The reply of the Austrian Jews to the anti-Semites is characteristic of the movement. Hitherto they had been content to identify themselves politically with their Christian compatriots. But the continued antipathy on the part of the latter has recently forced them to adopt a purely Jewish attitude. On the initiative of the Jewish representatives of Galicia in the Reichsrath and in the Galician Diet, the Jews of that province have resolved to create a Jewish organisation for the defence of the political rights and economic interests of their community.[241] Thus modern Jew-haters foster by their own efforts the very tribalism which they condemn, just as their mediaeval ancestors compelled the Jews to adopt money-lending as a profession and then denounced them for so doing.