A Christian servant living at Bologna with a Jewish family named Mortara secretly took a sick child to be baptized. Some years later this fact came under the cognizance of the priests. Thereupon the boy Mortara, then six years old, was carried away from his parents, by the officers of the papacy, and placed in a monastery (1858). All steps taken by the father to regain possession of his son were useless. Equally fruitless were the efforts of various governments and even of Emperor Napoleon III, who protested against this act as one likely to injure the papacy, if in the nineteenth century it countenanced so barbarous a proceeding as the abduction of a child. Pius IX at a former time had shown liberal tendencies, but he afterwards revived the narrow-minded course of action which prevailed in the Middle Ages, and even commanded the Roman Jews to be shut up within the dreary walls of the Ghetto. Against all representations Pius IX obstinately maintained his reply of "non-possumus." The boy Mortara was kept hidden away, and brought up in the ways of Catholicism; he eventually learned to curse his parents and his race. But the papacy reaped no advantage. The loss of Rome, or of the so-called Papal States, followed soon.
This event and similar acts of intolerance induced six noble young Frenchmen to establish a sort of brotherhood for bringing help to those of their co-religionists who were oppressed and suffering. By their united efforts they endeavored to ameliorate the condition of Jews who lived under intolerant rulers, and to spread the advantages of education amongst those in need of it. These men were Aristides Astruc, collaborator to the chief rabbi of Paris; Isidore Cohn, professor of the rabbinical college; Jules Caballo, engineer; Narcisse Léven, lawyer; Eugene Masuel, professor at the University of Paris; and Charles Netter, merchant, only two of whom (Astruc and Léven) are still living. They founded an institution which bears the title of the "Alliance Israélite Universelle" (1860), having as its motto, "All Israelites are responsible the one for the other." This institution met with a cordial reception, and members joined from all parts of the globe. The accessions continued to increase, especially after Adolf Crémieux became president, and in 1873 the number of subscribers had attained the high figure of 12,526.
In the United States, where in the year 1775–6, after the War of Independence, the republican form of government was adopted, the equality of the Jews was established as a matter of course. At first there were only a few Jewish immigrants in New York and Newport, but owing to the facilities offered to all industrial pursuits and every species of commercial activity, the number of American Jews rapidly increased. They also formed themselves into a body for the protection of their less favored brethren, under the title of the "Union of American Hebrew Congregations." They earnestly desired to promote the welfare of the Jewish communities, built numerous synagogues, and still continue to take a lively interest in all that concerns their brethren in Europe. In the year 1878 the Jewish-American population numbered about 250,000 souls, and maintained 278 synagogues. In these places of worship the reform ritual is chiefly followed. There being no communal traditions to abolish, the changes which in Europe could be brought about only after severe struggles, were easily introduced. Even so radical a reform as that of transferring the divine service from the Sabbath to Sunday, which had been originated by the insignificant Reform Congregation in Berlin, was copied in various American congregations. The warm sympathy displayed towards Judaism and the Jews by the Americans is to be highly commended, and to such sympathy the Union owed its origin.
The English Jews, to whom the task of leading their brethren seems to have been allotted, were not backward in uniting for the promotion of the well-being of their race. At the instigation of two excellent men, Abraham Benisch, editor of the "Jewish Chronicle" (died 1878), and Albert Löwy, one of the ministers of the Reform Congregation in London (whose unassuming character would be wounded were he to be praised according to his deserts), an institution was founded (1871) in connection with the Alliance Israélite, and was called the "Anglo-Jewish Association." Although the number of English Jews is comparatively small (about forty thousand in London and barely thirty thousand in other towns and the Colonies), yet the members of the Association number four thousand. Active correspondence is maintained through its members between Australia, Canada, India, Gibraltar, and the parent body.
In Vienna, also, through the efforts of Joseph Wertheimer, Ignatz Kuranda, and Moritz Goldschmidt, an association was established under the name of the "Israelitische Allianz." Their main object was to work hand in hand with the "Alliance," but the primary task undertaken by them was to promote an improved condition of affairs amongst the Jews of Galicia. The Jews living in this province of Austria, who number about one million, are for the greater part in the lowest stage of culture. Owing to poverty and the heavy labor required to cultivate so barren a soil, they hardly made further progress than enables them to learn their prayers. Even those who possess the necessary ability and leisure to acquire European culture are kept back by the perversions of Neo-Chassidism, which possesses many followers amongst them. To raise them from their degraded condition is the praiseworthy object of the Viennese Alliance. The Alliance counts about five thousand members.
This union amongst the flower of Judaism for common action, besides its civilizing tendency, has also a defensive purpose, for the prevention of detraction and degradation. It could not, however, have been foreseen at the outset, that so wide a scope would have been presented for the work undertaken.
After the Jews had been emancipated in Western Europe, as they were in America, they labored unceasingly at their own improvement, and could soon point out distinguished co-religionists in the highest ranks in every profession—crown lawyers, councilors of state, members of Parliament, musicians, authors, academicians, and in France even generals.
The Jews of Western Europe became so amalgamated with their surroundings, that timid minds began to fear that Israel might be submerged in the current. But suddenly they were confronted by a bitter enemy who endeavored to exclude and oust them from the positions to which they had attained. This enemy all but challenged them to recall their past, prove their own value in opposition to their detractors, and show that though they are a peculiar people, this peculiarity is as much an agent in the world's history, as a product of it. This enemy, the bitterest Anti-Semitism, the offspring of delusion and falsehood, robs rejuvenated Israel of its peace, plays an active part in the immediate present, and unfortunately cannot as yet be relegated to the domains of History.
THE END.