ISRAEL, HISTORY OF

ISRAEL, HISTORY OF.

I. Biblical History.

Primitive History (§ 1).
The Abrahamic History (§ 2).
The Sojourn in Egypt (§ 3).
The Exodus and the Giving of the Law (§ 4).
The Conquest of Canaan and the Judges (§ 5).
The United Kingdom (§ 6).
The Divided Kingdom (§ 7).
Judah to the Exile (§ 8).
The Exile (§ 9).
The Persian Period (§ 10).
The Greek Period (§ 11).
The Maccabean and Roman Periods (§ 12).

II. Post-Biblical History

1. General Survey.

2. The Early Period.

Conditions after the War; Jabneh (§ 1).
The Last Insurrections (§ 2).
Rise of the Babylonian School (§ 3)
The Two Talmudic Collections; The Masorah (§ 4).

3. The Middle Period.

In the Orient and Italy (§ 1).
In Spain; Rise of Jewish Culture (§ 2).
Jewish Scholars in Spain (§ 3).
Temporal Situation in Spain to 1469 (§ 4).
The Inquisition in Spain (§ 5).
Jews in France (§ 6).
In England (§ 7).
In Italy (§ 8).
In Germany (§ 9).
Revival of Messianism (§ 10).
Jews in Poland (§ 11).

4. The New Period.

5. Jews in America.

Early Settlements (§ 1).
In the United States, 1800-80 (§ 2).
Reform, Educational and Charitable Movements (§ 3).
The New Immigration Since 1880 (§ 4).
The Press; General Conditions (§ 5).

I. Biblical History: (§ 1). Primitive History. Primitive history as set forth in Genesis takes the form of the history of families. In Semitic nomadic life the family is the unit from which the tribe is conceived as developing. Consequently the Hebrews regarded the nations of the world as the results of ramifications from a single stock. It is debated how far the history of families as given in Genesis is to be taken as historical, and how far the genealogical scheme depends upon observed ethnographic relationships. In the story of the different stocks, while in general little of personal life appears, the forms of the patriarchs stand out full of individuality, and the attempt is not successful to read the experiences attributed to them in certain situations and in individualistic form as the doings of a tribe or a people. Moreover, the sobriety and exactness of detail in these narratives is such as to differentiate them from the poetizing sagas in which folk-lore celebrates the eponymous ancestors to whom the origins of the peoples are traced. It lies on the face of these narratives that they are only fragments of traditions which had for a long time been transmitted orally, and in the course of this transmission the lesser figures have dropped from the account and only the great personalities have remained. But the memory of such personalities as Abraham (q.v.), the father of the nation with whom is associated the migration from the Euphrates to Canaan; or Jacob (q.v.), who endured hard service in the Aramaic territory and earned the blessing of God as the father of a numerous progeny, or Joseph (q.v.), through whose vicissitudes the settlement in Egypt was brought about, remained a permanent possession essentially constant in form. For the historicity of the person of Abraham it may be said that his history is not discordant with what Assyrian-Babylonian history demands, and the story of Joseph is accordant with what is known of Egyptian history.

(§ 2). The Abrahamic History. In Genesis Abraham is the descendant and spiritual heir of Shem. According to Gen. x. 21 sqq. he shares this descent with a group of nations, all of whom (except Elam and Lud) are related in language and blood to the Hebrews and are still known as Semites. In Gen. xiv. 13 Abraham is called "the Hebrew," and according to the Biblical representation the Israelites were in early times called Hebrews by other peoples, especially by the Egyptians. The connotation of this term Hebrew is narrower than that of Semite, but broader than that of Israelite though its exact meaning is not established. It can hardly mean "those who dwell beyond the Jordan" (Stade and E. Meyer), but is better brought into relation with the river Euphrates and related to the Assyrian expression "across the river." The equating of the Hebrew form ‘Ibhrim with the Egyptian ‘Apriu is questionable; more likely is the equivalency of the Hebrew form with the Habiri of the Amarna Tablets, though the signification of Habiri must not be restricted to the forefathers of the Hebrews. The existence of the Hebraic nomadic family life in Canaan was arduous, according to the concordant testimony of the sources. The people often had to change their dwelling-places to secure pasturage. Still more difficult was their situation in times of famine, as when they had to transfer themselves to Egypt, at that time the granary of the region, and found themselves subject to oppression and placed under disabilities (Gen. xx. 11). It was a necessity of this kind which brought about the settlement of the entire Jacob clan in Egypt, in the northwestern part known as Goshen, the later "Arab nome district" about Phakusa, the present Saft el-Henneh, a region not yet definitely marked out (E. Naville, Goshen and the Shrine of Seft el Henneh, London, 1887). While little is known of the people during their stay there, the circumstances were so favorable that they developed into a nation which yet was not politically organized in national form, but lived under the patriarchal government of tribal sheiks. On the religious side much must have been borrowed from the orderly state in which they were. While a part of the people followed pastoral occupations, another part settled down to agricultural life (Num. xi. 5), and something of the industrial accomplishment of the Egyptians must have been acquired. That the Israelites showed a greater receptivity and productivity in respect to culture than their near relatives, the Edomites and Moabites, is due in part to their sojourn in Egypt. The pre-Mosaic period was a preparation also for the theocratic and national cult of later times. The preaching of Moses must have had a basis in the knowledge of contemporary Hebrews; and the sources unitedly attribute to the patriarchs acquaintance with the God of the covenant, though he was called by other names. This God of the patriarchs was invisible, exalted, not bound to any one land, though he revealed himself in definite localities which were therefore holy, and was the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. xiv. 19), dwelling in heaven and ruling the earth. The recollection clung that Abraham had been called from a relationship where idolatry was the rule (Josh. xxiv. 2, 14). The uniqueness of God was not theoretically developed, but was rather a practical monotheism which permitted to the Hebrews worship of him alone. The stone worship and totemism some find in Genesis is discovered only through wilful exegesis and eisegesis. Even in the naive anthropomorphisms of Gen. xi., xviii.-xix. there are evidences of an exalted conception of God. These religious ideas were not derived from Egypt, for they differ entirely from Egyptian conceptions, though that the Hebrews derived some things from the Egyptians is clear from Josh. xxiv. 14; Ezek. xx. 7 sqq., but that the calf worship had such an origin is improbable (see CALF, THE GOLDEN).

(§ 3). The Sojourn in Egypt. In the region granted them by the Egyptians, the Hebrew shepherds lived in relative independence and grew strong. Into this situation was injected the circumstance simply expressed in Ex. i. 8 as the rise of a king who knew not Joseph. This is doubtless to be connected with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and the antiforeign sentiments of the new dynasty. The half-nomads in the northeast were subjected to the corvée and put to building fortresses and storehouses; and since this did not suffice to reduce their strength, the slaughter of the male children was ordered. Thus what had been a welcome asylum became a place of slavery under the hardships of which the Hebrews groaned. Liberation from this situation is attributed by a unanimous tradition to Moses. The period of the oppression is with growing assurance asserted to be that of Rameses II., whose name is connected with so many building-enterprises and monuments. In that case his son and successor, Meneptah, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus (see EGYPT, I., 4, § 3). Apparently against this is an inscription of Meneptah telling of an expedition in which he has destroyed Syria and Israel (the latter for the only time found mentioned on Egyptian monuments). If the reference is to Israel, then Israel must already have been living in Canaan, and the Exodus must have taken place earlier. This agrees better with Hebrew tradition, which (I Kings vi. 1) reckoned 480 years between the Exodus and the building of Solomon’s temple, which would place the Exodus c. 1440 B.C., therefore in the time of Amenophis II.; and this agrees again with the statement of Manetho, who records the expulsion of the lepers under a king of this name. One circumstance, indeed, tells against this earlier date, viz., the frequent occurrence in the Pentateuch of the name Rameses (Gen. xlvii. 11; Ex. i. 11, xii. 37; Num. xiii. 3, 5). Further, against the late dating of the Exodus is the fact that the tribal name Asher appears in an inscription of Seti, father of Rameses (c. 1350 B.C.), according to which that tribe must have had its residence in the neighborhood of Lebanon. The supposition that this tribe departed alone from Egypt is improbable.* According to Gen. xv. 13, 16, the sojourn in Egypt was to last 400 years or four generations. The Hebrew of Ex. xii. 40-41 gives 430 years, but the Septuagint reads "which they sojourned in Egypt and the land of Canaan." The indication of the narrative of P is that 215 years were assigned to the Egyptian sojourn and 215 to the period between the settlement and David, which was the understanding of Josephus and of the synagogue. Along with this goes the fact that in the genealogies of Moses and Achan between Korah and Levi are mentioned only two steps, between Judah and Achan only three (Ex. vi. 20; Num. xxvi. 59, xvi. 1; Josh. vii. 1). But since in Gen. xv. even the Septuagint has the higher number, its reading in Ex. xii. 40 appears to be an emendation. With the longer period would agree the censuses of Num. i., xxvi., which involve a population of about 2,000,000 souls, and Num. xi. 21. On the other hand, it is difficult to reconcile these high numbers with the long sojourn in the peninsula of Sinai [or to find room for so many people in the region. Therefore these numbers are now rejected, and scholars reduce the number of Israelites in the Exodus to a few thousands].

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* The text takes no account of the explanation by recent critics of the Seti and Meneptah inscriptions. This is to the effect that the Hebrew tribes whose descent was traced to concubines of Jacob were those who, already settled in Canaan in prehistoric times, were absorbed at a comparatively late period, to which fact is due the less honorable account of their origin. The tribes mentioned in the inscriptions were in that case not among the refugees in Egypt or the Hebrews of the Exodus, but had maintained their residence in Canaan, where they were assailed by Seti and Meneptah. This is supported by the legend of the substitution of the name Israel for Jacob, which is the eponymous method of accounting for a transfer of name from a portion to the whole people. G. W. G.

(§ 4). The Exodus and the Giving of the Law. The Exodus under Moses was regarded by the Israelites as the birth of the nation (for the route of the Exodus see RED SEA; WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS). The historicity of the narrative of the Exodus would suffer no harm if it were assumed that only the noblest part of the people, to which the Joseph tribes belonged, took part in the event, while the other tribes were already in the peninsula; but for this supposition there is no sure ground. To Moses, under direction of God, were due both the Exodus and the covenant between Yahweh and Israel; but they were essentially divine acts, and God became known by his name Yahweh (see JEHOVAH; and YAHWEH). The result was the cult and the conceptions of life which became regnant in Israel. The resulting form of government has, since the time of Josephus (Apion, ii. 16), been called a theocracy, the idea being that to God was assigned the authority for all rights and acts. Hence the law included not only regulations for civil and criminal processes, but also regulations governing sacrifices and festivals and purifications. From the time of the reception of the law the solidarity of the people was an accomplished fact, while at the same time the personality of deity was emphasized. The people had become a united religious community. It is self-evident, therefore, that Moses set in order the cultus for this community, sanctioning or prohibiting customs then prevalent, those which were accepted then receiving new consecration. He appointed also a central sanctuary, without an image,--the ark of the covenant with the celebrations centering about it, and in this centralization lay the only protection for the pure worship of Yahweh. The priests at the central sanctuary of later times were naturally the protectors of the Mosaic law, and while this law necessarily received modifications in the course of time, in general no law was known which did not go by the name of Moses. That there were relapses from observance of this law is not surprising. Equally sure is it that the law is not merely ideally referred to the desert period of Israel’s life, but that it grew out of the leader’s struggle with the people, whose rebellious and distrustful character so often manifested itself in the desert. The continuance of the desert sojourn is given as forty years by the concordant tradition and Amos v. 25. This period includes several smaller periods when the people settled about some spot, as at the mountain and at Kadesh. With this period of forty years agrees the fact that it was a new generation which undertook the conquest, different from that which had participated in the crossing of the Red Sea.

(§ 5). The Conquest of Caanan and the Judges. Moses was not among those who entered the promised land; only the East-Jordanland, not included in the promises, did he see in possession of the people. But to Joshua was divinely committed the task of leading the people across the Jordan. Campaigns were accomplished in the north, then in the central portion at Shiloh the central sanctuary was established. Before his death Joshua called an assembly of the people at Shechem and there exhorted them to remain true to their God. For the relation of the narrative in the Book of Joshua to Judges i., see JOSHUA, BOOK OF. When the land was parceled out among the tribes, when the Hebrews came to mingle with the earlier inhabitants and were no longer held together by central authority, it could hardly be otherwise than that the political solidarity should be lost, that the tribal distinctions should emerge, and that the tribes should enter into various relationships with the Canaanites. So, too, the religious unity was endangered through communications with the early settlers, while totally different conceptions of deity overlaid those which had been received at Sinai. It was easy to adopt into the Yahweh worship customs which in origin and meaning were heathen. This happened particularly at the high places, the sanctuaries of the Canaanites, which were adopted as places of sacrifice by the Hebrews (see HIGH PLACES). With this went relapse into the worship of the Baals and Astartes, with their impure cults so opposed to that of Yahweh. The obliteration of the religious distinction between Hebrews and Canaanites carried with it more or less of social and political dependence or amalgamation, especially where the Hebrews were in the minority. To this was perhaps due the loss of physical courage through which subjection to the inroads of the hordes of Midianites, Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines was brought about, relief from which was wrought by the inspired heroes who aroused the people to resistance. These heroes --the Judges--were, above all, champions of freedom, but their strength and success lay in the fact that they recalled the people to trust and obedience given to the God of Moses and Joshua (see JUDGES). This is true of such of the Judges as Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah (q.q.v.), while of Samson (q.v.) it must be said that his significance was rather individual than national or tribal, and of others, such as Elon and Abdon, the influence was rather tribal or local than national. The result of this period was severance into tribal groups and loss of the sense of nationality.

(§ 6). The United Kingdom. This severance, due to the breaking of the covenant bond founded upon the relationship with Yahweh, naturally led in turn to the demand for a firmer political union under a national head in whom leadership was more externally evident than under a pure theocracy. The tendency toward a monarchical form of government was manifested under Gideon, whose son, Abimelech, exercised a brief sway over a limited region. The founding of the kingdom is, however, inseparably connected with the name of Samuel (q.v.), the last of the Judges, who exercised also the functions of priest and prophet. The immediate occasion of the establishment of the kingdom was the oppression by the Philistines. The hope of relief from this distress was realized under Saul (q.v.), who, however, soon regarded himself as sovereign and not as the representative of the sole king, Yahweh. This led to the announcement of his rejection through Samuel, followed quickly by his melancholia and his defeat and death at Gilboa. Before his death his successor had been chosen in the person of David (q.v.), son of Jesse, of Bethlehem of Judah, who had achieved prominence as a leader in war and had aroused Saul’s jealousy, hatred, and persecution. After the death of Saul, David was for seven and a half years king in Hebron over Judah, while Ishbosheth (q.v.) reigned in Mahanaim across the Jordan over the northern tribes. After the violent death of Ishbosheth David became king over the united tribes, and fixed his residence finally in Jerusalem, then newly captured. His leadership in war and peace brought the kingdom to its highest point of prosperity. His spiritual and religious significance was also great, characterized as it was by complete concord between king and prophet; and no less marked was his influence upon the cultus through his placing of the ark in the capital, through his service to the ritual of song, as well as his zealous devotion to Yahweh. His son and successor, Solomon (q.v.), built in Jerusalem the temple, which became more and more the cultic center for the entire land, in spite of its temporary destruction. His reign, unlike that of his father’s, was one of peace; yet the very fact that the land was unassailed by external foes, together with the jealousy of the northern tribes at being ruled by a Judahite, prepared the way for the division of the kingdom, which was supported by the prophetic leaders, swayed in part by Solomon’s acquiescence in the practise of heathen rites introduced by the princesses whom he had made his wives.

(§ 7). The Divided Kingdom. After the death of Solomon the larger part of the nation revolted from the Davidic dynasty and set up the Ephraimite Jeroboam (q.v.) as king, while to Rehoboam (q.v.), Solomon’s son, only the southern part remained true with the capital, to which adhered Judah, part of Benjamin, remains of Simeon, and Dan, and most of the Levites. A hostility began between the two kingdoms which resulted in mutual weakening and in consequent inability to resist external powers such as Syria and Assyria. The division was also religiously disastrous. In order to wean the people from Jerusalem and its sanctuary, Jeroboam set up golden calves (see CALF, THE GOLDEN) as images of Yahweh at Dan and Bethel and in this way reintroduced the principle of religious syncretism into the worship of Yahweh. Nevertheless the prophets remained a powerful agency in the Ephraimitic kingdom. Politically the situation there was lamentable. Dynasty succeeded dynasty in rapid succession, and the revolutionary principle was often in evidence in the further history. The dynasty of Jeroboam (q.v.) had but two generations, as had that of the next founded by the usurper Baasha (q.v.); Zimri (q.v.) reigned but seven days, and was overthrown by Omri (q.v.), whose name became so celebrated that in the Assyrian inscriptions Israel was long known as the "land of Omri." Omri made Samaria (q.v.) the permanent capital, and was succeeded by his son, Ahab (q.v.), a king successful in his external relations, but swayed at home by his consort, Jezebel (q.v.), whose unremitting efforts to subvert the Yahweh cult for that of Baal were opposed by Elijah (q.v.). The reigns of Ahab’s sons, Ahaziah and Joram (qq.v.), brought the dynasty to an end. The period of the Omri dynasty was one of peace and alliance between the two kingdoms, cemented by marriage between the two houses in the persons of Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, and Ahab and Joram (q.v.) of Judah. In the meantime the southern kingdom under Rehoboam had suffered severely under a campaign of Shishak of Egypt, but under his grandson, Asa (q.v.), and his great-grandson, Jehoshaphat (q.v.), its prestige was recovered. The alliance between the two houses almost resulted in the extinction of the Davidic dynasty through the massacre by Athaliah, from which only Joash (q.v.) of the seed royal escaped. Under Joram, father of Joash, Edom, the one vassal people remaining to Judah from the united kingdom, had secured its independence. In the northern kingdom judgment came upon the dynasty of Omri through Jehu (q.v.), who, with frightful slaughter, established a new dynasty in Samaria. Jehu and his son and successor, Jehoahaz (q.v.), were, however, vassals of the Syrians. Under Jehu’s grandson, Joash (q.v.), this vassalage was broken and Judah was reduced to a tributary position under Amaziah (q.v.), son of Joash of Judah. Jeroboam II. (q.v.), the fourth of Jehu's dynasty, raised the kingdom to an unexampled height of prosperity, quickly lost under his successor, Zachariah (q.v.). Jeroboam reestablished the early bounds of the kingdom by bringing the Moabites and part of the Syrian territory under Israelitic dominion. This was the period of the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Jonah the son of Amittai (qq.v.), who showed the contrast between the apparent prosperity and the internal decay of the kingdom. The Assyrians had been battering at Syria and had already come into close relations with Israel. Ahab had fought against Assyria at Karkar, Jehu had paid costly tribute in 842 B.C.; but Tiglath-Pileser III. (see ASSYRIA, VI., 3, § 9) had subjected to his power the country up to the Mediterranean coast; Jehu’s dynasty ended with Zachariah, who was slain by Shallum, and he in turn was killed by Menahem (q.v.) after a reign of one month. Menahem reigned five years, a vassal of Tiglath-Pileser; his son Pekahiah (q.v.) was slain by the usurper Pekah (q.v.), whose combination with Syria against Judah was aimed against Assyria, and led to the final catastrophe under his successor, Hoshea (q.v.). In Judah the calamity sustained under Amaziah was gradually forgotten during the long reign of Uzziah (q.v.), whose generalship secured the subjection of the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, while the northern kingdom declined. Whether the Azriyahu of Yaudi ("Judah") mentioned in the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser as at the head of an anti-Assyrian combination is to be identified with this king or with the king of a North-Syrian Yaudi is still debated. Uzziah directed well the inner fortunes of the state, patronizing agriculture and grazing. The Chronicler ascribes his leprosy to an invasion of priestly rights; in consequence of this disease his son Jotham (q.v.) ruled long as regent before he succeeded to the throne. In the time of Jotham’s successor, Ahaz (q.v.), occurred the alliance of Israel and Syria against Judah, referred to above; and the situation was complicated by a hostile combination of Edomites and Philistines. But Ahaz was relieved by the successes of Tiglath-Pileser, whose campaigns were directed against Judah’s foes. The Assyrian beset Samaria, which Sargon finally took, carrying 27,000 of its inhabitants into captivity, leaving Judah to survive for 135 years.

(§ 8). Judah to the Exile. The successor of Ahaz to the throne of Judah was Hezekiah (q.v.), a vassal of Assyria, but most restless in that relation, who was saved from the vengeance of Sennacherib in a way regarded as miraculous. His son, Manasseh (q.v.), was strongly disposed toward heathenism, persecuting the adherents of the Yahweh religion. This policy was con-tinued under his son Ammon (q.v.), but reversed under his second successor, Josiah (q.v.), who, with all earnestness, reintroduced the Mosaic faith and cultus. Josiah’s untimely death, caused by his confronting the Egyptian Necho at Megiddo, was a most serious blow to the welfare of Judah. His son Jehoahaz (q.v.) was removed from the throne by Necho after the latter’s return from the East three months later, and Jehoiakim, his elder brother, was put in his place. Jehoiakim (q.v.) became tributary to the Babylonians, but revolted after three years, an offense which was expiated after his death by his son, Jehoiachin (q.v.), whom, after a reign of three months, Nebuchadrezzar took prisoner and carried to Babylon with the noblest of the land. The Babylonians placed upon the throne a third son of Josiah, who assumed the name Zedekiah (q.v.); he, in the ninth year of his reign, conspired in alliance with the Pharaoh Hophra to throw off the Babylonian yoke, in this going counter to the advice of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and thereby challenging the might of the Euphrates kingdom. The Babylonians invested Jerusalem after defeating a force of Egyptians sent to break the siege, captured the city in 586 B.C., destroyed the temple and the city’s defenses, visited with punishment the leaders of the people, and carried away into captivity all whose social rank exposed them to possibilities of leadership. Gedaliah (q.v.) was made governor and took up his residence in Mizpah, where the remnant of the people gathered about him, and where he soon became the victim of assassination. Many of the remaining people fled into Egypt, taking with them against his will the prophet Jeremiah. Jerusalem lay in ruins, large parts of the territory of Judea passed into the possession of the Edomites, and the future and promise of Israel for the next fifty years was in the exiles in Babylon.

(§ 9). The Exile. The exiles were settled in Babylonia along the Chebar in the neighborhood of Nippur (see BABYLONIA, IV., § 9), where they possessed their own houses and lands and a certain degree of autonomy. The only basis for a history of the exilic period and the life of that time is in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Deutero-Isaiah, which last originated in the last third of the exile. Part of the people relapsed into idolatry. But for the rest, in their enforced abstinence from participation in the religious ordinances of the sanctuary, the spiritual significance of such observances as the Sabbath rest, and the ordinances regarding food and circumcision became deepened as being signs of their distinction as the people of God. The very nearness of heathenism repelled many of the Jews, as there was borne in upon them the fact that their own experiences were the expression of a long-deferred judgment for this sin. There was also impressed upon the nation the idea of its mission in the world as a mediator between God and the nations.

(§ 10). The Persian Period. About fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem the Babylonian empire came into the hands of Cyrus. Babylon was taken in 539, and in that year the Jews received from the victor permission to return. Of this permission 42,360 males, with their families availed themselves under the leadership of Sheshbazzar-Zerubbabel (the identity of Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel is still debated) and the high priest Joshua, and reached Jerusalem probably in 538. They settled in Jerusalem and in the outlying cities, set up the altar of burnt offerings, and made preparations to rebuild the temple. Owing, however, to the opposition of the Samaritans, who placed all difficulties in the way, and to the necessity of securing means of subsistence, the reconstruction of the temple was deferred till the beginning of the reign of Darius, in the years 520-516 B.C., and was accomplished then under the stimulus of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. The report of the return in 538 has been seriously questioned, and the thesis advanced that Zerubbabel was never in exile, and that the temple was rebuilt by the Jews who had remained in Palestine; but these hypotheses are based on arbitrary constructions which fall on examination. For the period 516-458 no reports have been transmitted, except that the narrative of the Book of Esther (q.v.) refers to the time of Xerxes. In 458 B.C. under Artaxerxes I. the condition of the colony at Jerusalem was miserable and the maintenance of its religious distinction endangered. Then the scribe Ezra (q.v.) led back to Judea a new company of exiles consisting of 1,500 males with their families. He was empowered by royal firman to put into practise the requirements of the Mosaic law, but entire success in this direction was attained only when in 445-444 B.C., Nehemiah (q.v.) came to his support, clothed with the authority of the governorship. Nehemiah reestablished the defenses of Jerusalem by having the walls of the city repaired, notwithstanding the opposition of the Samaritans, and then assisted Ezra in the purification of the community by causing the dismission of the heathen wives and requiring the observance of the entire Mosaic law. After a residence of twelve years Nehemiah returned to the Persian court, but in a later visit to Jerusalem found it necessary to employ stern measures for the preservation of the Mosaic institutions, expelling from the community a grandson of the high priest who had married a daughter of the Samaritan noble Sanballat (q.v.). According to Josephus (Ant. XI., viii. 2 sqq.), this priest, with the help of his father-in-law, established the sanctuary of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim and set in order its priesthood; but Josephus confused these events with others which occurred in the time of Alexander the Great. Undoubtedly at that time the Samaritans received from the Jews the Pentateuch, which constitutes their Scriptures. Of the last ten years of the Persian period no trustworthy reports have come down. There are statements that Artaxerxes III. Ochus ordered a deportation of Jews to Hyrcania, on the south shore of the Caspian, because they were involved in a rebellion of Phenicians and Cypriotes against the Persians. On this occasion the Persian General Bagoses pushed into the temple, and Josephus reports (Ant. XI., vii. 1) that he substituted Jesus (Joshua) as high priest for his brother John. The political importance of the high priest originated in that period.

(§ 11). The Greek Period. With the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great a new period began for Judea. Alexander’s attitude toward the Jews was friendly. But when, after the conqueror’s death, his empire was divided, Judea, lying between the kingdoms of the contending Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, was a continual sufferer by the conflict. At first Judea came into the power of the Ptolemies. Josephus reports that Ptolemy Lagus violated the Sabbath, captured Jerusalem, and carried captive to Egypt a large number of Jews from Jerusalem and Galilee (Apion, i. 22; Ant. XII., i., XIII., xii. 4). Hecataeus says that later this Ptolemy was so friendly toward the Jews that many of them of their own accord went to Egypt and settled there, particularly in Alexandria. Judea still remained the object of strife between Syria and Egypt, and came finally into the power of Syria under Antiochus III. the Great, by his victory over Scopus near Paneas. Of Seleucus Philopator, son of Antiochus the Great, it is reported that his general, Heliodorus, entered the temple to plunder it and was prevented by a miraculous vision. The succession of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes to the throne of Syria (175 B.C.) was of especial moment to the Jews. During the changes which had befallen the political possession of Palestine, Jewish independence being entirely lost, the chief concern of the Jews was their religious freedom. But contact with Greek civilization and the attempts of the leaders to make capital out of the quarrels of the overlords, as well as the building up in the land of centers of Greek life through settlement there of Greek colonies, introduced the spirit of Hellenism and caused the establishment of a party among the Jews favorable to Greek civilization, receiving therefore the support of the overlords. Opposed to this Hellenistic party was the party of the Hasideans, committed to the observance of the Mosaic ordinances, and to the condemnation of Hellenism. Into the contest between these two parties Antiochus Epiphanes intruded by his brutal attack on the sanctuary, 168 B.C., as well as by his assault upon the religious observances of the Jews and his edict against the Sabbath and circumcision. His anger on account of the failure of his expedition against Egypt he vented in this way upon the Jews, and he thus became the antetype of the New-Testament Antichrist. Severe persecution followed, in the course of which many Jews abandoned their religion.

(§ 12). The Maccabean and Roman Periods. A turn in affairs was given in the year 167 B.C. in the resistance offered by the priest Mattathias of Modein, supported by his sons. Rebellion against Syria broke out, led by Judas, son of Mattathias, who won many victories over Syrian troops, restored the service of the temple, and died a hero’s death. The strife was carried on by the brothers of Judas, one of whom, Simon, gained the position of high priest and prince by choice of the people and recognition by the Syrians. Until the time of Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus, the Maccabees and the Hasideans were of the same party and, indeed, bore the same name (see HASMONEANS). They were the predecessors of the Pharisees (see PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES). John broke with the orthodox party and connected himself with the Sadducees. After his death his family became involved in quarrels over the succession and lost its preeminent position, and against his son Alexander Jannaeus (104-78 B.C.) the Pharisees sought Syrian help. In the strife that ensued upon his death, caused by attempts to gain the succession, the Romans obtained entrance, and Pompey captured Jerusalem after a three months’ siege. Herod, son of the Idumean Antipater, was made king by the Roman senate in 39 B.C., and established himself by the help of the Roman legions in 37 B.C. He sought to conciliate the Jews, particularly by his magnificent restoration of the temple. After the death of this talented but conscienceless tyrant, his kingdom was divided between his sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. The first, to whom Judea had fallen, was soon deposed by the Romans (6 A.D.), and government by Roman procurators was instituted with capital at Caesarea. The procurators appointed by the Romans had no appreciation of Jewish characteristics, and constant ill-feeling was aroused over religious matters. The best known of these officers is Pontius Pilate (26-36 A.D.), whose conduct caused many conflicts with the people and whose unstable character is revealed in the story of the trial of Jesus (see PILATE, PONTIUS). The oppostion between the suppressed theocratic consciousness of the Jews and the claims of the Caesars grew ever sharper until the final conflict. Open rupture was almost provoked in the year 40 A.D. by the order of Caligula to have his image set up in the temple, a crisis that was passed only by the intercession of Agrippa I. at Rome. To this end Agrippa was given the realm which had been Herod’s, and his favor to the Jews appears in his attitude toward the Christians (see HEROD AND HIS FAMILY). The situation of the Jews became more difficult under Felix and Festus, still harder under Albinus, and the rebellion came to a head under Gessius Florus. The Zealots seized the temple and fortified themselves there; Agrippa II., who had succeeded to a lesser area of sovereignty than Agrippa I. controlled, did not suppress the insurrection. In a battle near Beth-horon a Roman force was nearly annihilated. This victory inflamed the whole country. But the Romans began to press in, and under Vespasian they conquered Peraea in 68 A.D., while internal strife divided the Jews between the Zealots and the moderates. In the year 70, a few days before the Passover, Titus appeared before the walls of Jerusalem and assailed it from the north. In fourteen days the outer wall was taken, and, a few days after, the second, while the innermost and strongest afforded means of greater resistance. Famine seized the defenders, but in spite both of the mild proposals of Titus for the surrender of the city and his stern exhibitions of punishment that must ensue, the defense was maintained. The people still hoped for such deliverance from God as their history recorded as having occurred in earlier times. The temple was the last stronghold. When it was taken, Titus would have preserved it at the request of Josephus, but his intention was frustrated by the unguarded act of a soldier who applied the torch. After the fall of Jerusalem, resistance was still offered at a few fortresses, such as Herodeum near Tekoa, Machaerus across the Jordan, and Masada, west of the Dead Sea. But from that time the Jews have had to live without country, sanctuary, and nationality.

C. VON ORELLI.

III. Post-Biblical History.--l. General Survey: With the fall of Jerusalem the Jewish nation lost the remains of its independence and all control over its external destiny, while it became dependent upon the peoples among whom it lived. It nevertheless had received such a development of spiritual, social, and religious life as had differentiated it from the other nations with which its lot was from that time cast and had made absorption into them an impossibility. Consequently the Jewish people has had for 1,900 years its own inner history, which has not been without influence upon the world at large. Externally and internally this history divides into three periods: (1) From the fall of Jerusalem to the Mohammedan conquest and the emergence of the Teutons; (2) to the French Revolution; (3) to the present. In the first of these periods the Jews built about themselves a spiritual wall within which they protected and developed their peculiar and individual bent. Abandoning all claims upon the outer world, they busied themselves with the production of the Talmud, the citadel of their spiritual life, the treasury of their thought, the basis of the physical and spiritual laws of their existence. When their individuality had thus been fixed in enduring form, they could without danger to their peculiar genius participate in the life of the nations of the world so far as this was permitted to them. In the second period this participation was very limited, confined chiefly to the exercise of the functions of commerce and of the privileges of middlemen between the Orient and Occident. They also exercised a decided influence upon culture and mediated between Greek learning and philosophy and the Arabic and between the Arabs and the West, and so contributed to learning of the scholastic type, producing a monistic type of thought best illustrated by Spinoza. With the French Revolution began the gradual emancipation of the Jews, in which they gained political equality with Christians, lost the quality of separativeness, acquired eminence in the world of wealth and of letters, but at the expense of that intensity of religious life which had distinguished them through the centuries. Against this there came late in the nineteenth century a reaction which took the form of Zionism (q.v.), one of the purposes of which is the unification of the nation through the erection of a Jewish state in Palestine. The present century finds among the Jews a social excitement and a spiritual ferment such as it has not known since the destruction of Jerusalem.

2. The Early Period: (§ 1). Conditions after the War; Jabneh. The Jewish war left Judea a waste and its Jewish inhabitants despoiled. Vespasian took the land as his personal domain, from which he bestowed estates upon his friends; he settled 800 veterans in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, and compelled those Jews who wished to remain in the country to purchase their holdings from the conqueror. The Jews who had previously been domiciled in other lands became the real strength of those nations. They were in greatest force in Egypt, especially in Alexandria; but they were scattered elsewhere from India westward, and no considerable city was without its Jewish community and its synagogue. In Rome there were at least 8,000 Jews with their own quarter of the city; Jewish merchants followed the legions, while the Herodian family had a recognized place at court, and Jews under the empire had special exemption and position. With the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews had lost their unifying center. But by his flight to the camp of the Romans and his prediction to Vespasian of elevation to the throne, Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai (cf. JE, vii. 214 sqq.) had gained the emperor’s favor and a promise to grant any request the rabbi might make. The latter asked permission to establish a school of Jewish law, and when this was given, settled at Jabneh or Jamnia, a little city near the coast south of Joppa. Under the care of the institution there erected came the settlement of many matters formerly in charge of the Sanhedrin, including the Jewish calendar. Hence arose the tradition that Rabbi Johanan transferred the Sanhedrin to Jabneh. While it had not been his purpose to create a new center of Judaism, the gathering of scholars there and the study of the law had this effect, and so made possible the continued survival of the Jewish spirit. Jews from abroad sent their sons for the study of the law, while the teachers gave their pronouncement upon matters of importance for all their coreligionists. Here was developed the tradition of the law, as divided into Halacha and Haggada (see MIDRASH), out of which came a definite and characteristic set of views which stamps the Jewish learning with what may be called a Talmudic type as opposed to the Biblical type of post-exilic and pre-Christian Judaism. This is the third stage in the development of the Jewish spirit, the first being what may be termed the pre-Biblical. In this stage the four generations to the close of the Mishna are known as Tanaim, the five to the close of the Talmud as Amoraim, both classes influential upon all succeeding Judaism, guarding as they did Judaic orthodoxy. Among the Tassaim two men were of eminent importance, Gamaliel the younger (cf. JE, v. 560 sqq.), and Akiba (q.v.). The first stood for the influence of Hillel’s interpretation of the law, for the decision of legal matters by a majority of authorities, and for Jabneh as the continued center of official Judaism. Rabbi Akiba's fame rests not merely upon his collection of the Halachoth, but upon his new method of using the literal and minute elements of Scripture as a basis of legal formulas. Under Gamaliel the estrangement between Jews and Christians became final and complete.

(§ 2). The Last Insurrections. Judiasm meanwhile gained ever a stronger influence, and proselytes of eminence in the heathen world adopted the Jewish religion. This aroused Domitian’s distrust, and he had the Jewish law examined to discover whether it were a danger to the state. Under Trajan this distrust became greater because of the practical aid given by Jews to the Parthians, and victory over these was recognized, even in inscriptions on coins, as a new victory over the Jews. But the victory over the Jews of the Orient was fearfully avenged upon both Romans and Greeks in a rising of the Jews of the Occident. The imperial legions were exterminated, and in Cyprus alone 240,000 Greeks were said to have been slaughtered. Trajan called in the aid of his best generals to suppress the insurrection, and severe vengeance was taken on the Jews of Mediterranean lands, while the beautiful synagogue in Alexandria was completely destroyed. But in Syria and Asia Minor a new revolt was raised, and the fanaticism of the Jewish spirit, fanned by the Messianic hope centered in Bar Kokba, made necessary the sending of Trajan’s most capable general, Julius Severus, from Britain to Palestine. This was the last important attempt of the Jews to establish a Messianic kingdom by force of arms; thenceforth they looked for it to come only by special divine interposition. The site of Jerusalem was given to the plow, and in 134 a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina, was founded to the north of the old city. Another revolt among the Jews was suppressed in 135. A poll tax was levied, and circumcision and observance of the Sabbath were forbidden. By these means the possibilities of political danger from the Jews were so thoroughly eliminated by the time of Antoninus Pius that he abolished the severe restrictions, and their renewal under Marcus Aurelius was caused not by political conditions, but by religious intolerance. The Jews themselves recognized that their political importance was a thing of the past and that all which remained was their community in matters of religion.

(§ 3). Rise of the Babylonian School. At the end of the second century the Sanhedrin lost its eminence, and the decisions of Rabbi Juda ben Simon were recognized as authoritative. He established as finally decisive the Mishna of Rabbi Akiba, while other collections were pronounced devoid of authority. At this time, it is probable, the Mishna ceased to be oral and was committed to writing. Since all national, political, and judicial rights had ceased, the law had in part only an ideal value as fashioning the inner life and conceptions of Jews. With the compilation of the Mishna Palestinian Judaism had exhausted itself, and the scholastic center shifted to Babylon in the production of the Gemara or the Talmud proper by the school of the Amoraim. What the Mishna is to the Bible the Gemara is to the Mishna--a continuous refinement of the law, binding Judaism within ever tightening chains. The first Amoraim were Palestinians, the most eminent among them Rabbi Juda the younger. He transferred the seat of the school to Tiberias, where, under the favor of Alexander Severus, something of splendor appeared. Relations between Jews and Romans became not merely friendly, but intimate, and laxity in following Judaic practises was the natural result. During this period Babylon was coming into greater significance for the Jews, and was even called "the land of Israel." The head of the Babylonian Jews was an officer under the Parthian government, fourth in rank after the king, and a descendant of the Davidic line. His power, however, was temporal, not as yet spiritual. Rabbi Abba Rab brought the Mishna from Palestine and founded a school at Babylon which soon had 1,200 students. His friend Mar Samuel first enunciated the maxim which became authoritative for Jews--"the law of the state is valid." During the reign of Alexander Severus the neo-Persian kingdom of the Sassanides was established, and this, in its zeal for Zoroastrianism, excluded Jews from office and introduced certain restrictions to be followed on Zoroastrian festivals. These restrictions did not continue long, and until Constantine’s time the Jews had peace. Constantine’s edict of toleration: (312 A.D.) included the Jews also, but later his policy changed and proselyting was forbidden as well as the circumcision of slaves of Jews. In this Jews saw the approach of Messianic times, for it had long been said that "the Messiah will not come till the Roman empire is Christian." But Rabbi Hillel the younger declared that Israel had no Messiah to look forward to, for the prediction by the prophet of a mighty ruler had been fulfilled in Hezekiah; the head of the Babylonian school replied in the prayer "May God forgive Rabbi Hillel for holding this error." Under Constantius matters were still worse for the Jews, and many in the Roman empire emigrated to Persia. Constantine's laws were enforced with the addition that marriage between Jews and Christians was forbidden. Julian especially favored the Jews, and preparations were made for rebuilding the temple, which ceased, however, on his death.

(§ 4). The Two Talmudic Collections: the Massorah. About the year 400 A.D. Rabbi Aschi had the oral explanations, discussions, decisions and investigations based on the Mishna collected in the Babylonian Talmud, which became the chief source of spiritual instruction, as much superior to the Mishna in the regard of scholastic Judaism as the Mishna was to the Bible. Even till the present the Talmud has been for millions of Jews the totality of truth, wisdom, righteousness and holiness, and study of it the certain way to eternal life, while to study anything else is to a real Jew a sign of godlessness. To a Jew instructed in the Talmud God and his revelation as set forth therein are the first and highest interests of life, thought, feeling and action. Thus this collection became the wall which hedged about all Jewish life, the influence which controlled all Jewish thought and molded Jewish conceptions for fifteen hundred years. It was the obstacle, as well, to further development of Jewish religion and life (see TALMUD). This great production came forth in the time when Rome was hard pressed by the Germanic peoples and North Africa became the booty of the Vandals. The mighty world-movements of the times served to arouse once more the Messianic hopes of the Jews, expressed in the saying that the Messiah would not come till the eighty-fifth Jubilee (4200 anno mundi, 440 A.D.), about the time when the Vandals captured the temple treasures at Rome and carried them to Africa. As at this time the old sacred treasures of the Jews disappeared, the more precious became the Talmud as the one sacred instrument remaining. So in Palestine the Amoraim collected their traditions in the Jerusalem Talmud, though it is not known where or by whom this was done. In the declining Roman empire the situation of the Jews was not favorable. Theodosius sought to protect them, though foiled by the opposition of Ambrose, and his successors also tried to secure their peace. Under Theodosius II., Cyril of Alexandria had the Jews expelled from the city and their possessions given to the rabble, while their synagogue in Antioch was sacked. Enmity between Jews and Christians became acute. Jerome’s Hebrew teacher could attend his pupil only in secret. Palestinian Judaism meanwhile did not perish without leaving one more monument of exceeding value in the Massorah--i.e., the addition of vowels, accents, and marks of division or distinction to the consonantal text of the Old Testament, with annotations on the text. In 470 there began an official persecution of the Jews of Persia, and many were compelled to emigrate to India. Later, in Malabar they received privileges which are chronicled on a tablet still extant, inscribed in Hebrew and early Indian. The end of the period of the Amoraim fell at the close of the fifth century.

3. The Middle Period: (§ 1). In the Orient and Italy. For the Jews of the Byzantine empire this period began with the reign of Justinian whose laws were the basis of the treatment of the Jews during the Middle Ages. Under his code Jewish testimony against a Christian was not received, a Christian might not become a proselyte to Judaism, Jews had to support highly paid city officials from whom they received no benefits or immunities, they might not celebrate their Passover before the Christian Easter, might read the Scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath only in Greek or Latin, while they were subjected at the hands of the rabble to frequent riots with all attendant evils. On the other hand, the Jews lost no opportunity for vengeance, which in turn excited new animosity. At this time the Jews of the Orient dropped out of history and those of the Occident became prominent, especially those of Spain. In Italy, under the great movements of the Germanic peoples, Jews suffered as did the Christians. During the Gothic rule the laws of Theodosius were in force; Jews controlled the slave-trade and held Christians in slavery, and were largely autonomous besides disregarding the laws designed to protect Christians. Still, the highest authorities did all possible to protect the Jews, and the efforts of the popes to this end were constant. Gregory the Great was especially kind to them, compelling indemnification for destroyed synagogues, but he forbade the holding of Christians as slaves, and wrote to several of the kings of his day to make an end of the trade in Christian slaves carried on by the Jews.

(§ 2). In Spain; Rise of Jewish Culture. Of all the countries of Europe none was so favorable to the Jews as Spain. There the highest products of Jewish industry, intellect and skill were in evidence; in wealth, honor, philosophy and poetry the days of the Jews in Spain still mark for them an epoch. On the other hand, in the reaction nowhere was the suffering so great as there. Jewish settlements in the Spanish peninsula were very ancient, made perhaps under the Phenicians; certainly after the destruction of Jerusalem great numbers of Jews were sold into Spain, and Granada was so largely settled by them as to be called a Jewish state. Christianity also made early and great conquests there, and laws similar to those mentioned above were enacted to prevent holding of Christian slaves by Jews and proselyting by force. Later King Sisebut ordered all Jews to receive baptism or to give up their holdings of land, and many Jews complied, while many others migrated to France or Africa. The Jewish question came under discussion at the Synod of Toledo (633 A.D.). Isidore of Seville opposed forcible conversion of the Jews, but forbade that Christians should become Jews and prohibited intercourse between Jews and Christians. The situation changed from time to time. Under one king the Jews would enjoy religious liberty, and Jews who had nominally accepted Christianity were permitted to return to their old faith; under another the menace to the Church of so large a population of Jews was felt, and severe laws against them were put in force. Under King Egica a conspiracy of Spanish and African Jews with the Arabs to overthrow the Gothic kingdom was discovered, but too late; Jews and Arabs made common cause, and the Mohammedan conqueror, Tarik, brought the Gothic kingdom of Spain to an end in 711 A.D. The relations between Jews and Mohammedans was peculiar. Jews regarded Islam as a younger daughter of Judaism, as was Christianity, but they felt more closely related to Islam and never made common cause with Christians against Mohammedans. In Arabia they had made ineffective Constantine’s efforts for the spread of Christianity. They had many important settlements there which were governed by Jewish princes, and they had a school of the law and possessed Talmudic learning. When Mohammed proclaimed his faith as that of Abraham, the Jews had faith in him and he called them "helpers." But differences arose, and Mohammed published parts of Suras against them in which he called them murderers of prophets and falsifiers of revelation. Then there came war with the Jewish tribe of the Banu-Kainuka, and one of the two Jewish women whom the prophet brought back tried to poison him. After his death the strife between Mohammedans and Jews continued. In Spain the Jews opened the gates of Toledo to Tarik and took bloody vengeance upon the Christians, while they received many favors from the conquerors. In this period occurred the founding of the sect of the Karaites (q.v.) by Anan ben David (cf. JE, i. 553 sqq.), who, in Babylon and Palestine, opposed the Talmudic learning and would have the Old Testament alone authoritative. He was the first Jew to compose a commentary on the Pentateuch. In Palestine there was propounded also a Jewish mysticism and system of ascetics whose followers called themselves "men of faith," claimed miraculous powers, and influenced all medieval Judaism. The Karaites were opposed by Saadia of Egypt, who founded Jewish science and translated the Old Testament into Arabic. His philosophic-religious system is contained fully in his Emunoth wedeoth, written in 943 A.D., in which he introduced Greek-Christian philosophy to the Orient.

(§ 3). Jewish Scholars in Spain. The tenth century saw the flowering of Jewish culture in Spain, especially at the court of Abdul-Rahman III. at Cordova. The first of the series of noted Jewish scholars was Samuel Halevi ibn Nagdela (b. 993), rabbi, author and poet. Then came Jona Marinus (Merwan ibn-Ganach, 995-1050), grammarian and exegete; Solomon ibn-Gebirol, who wrote in Arabic Mekor hayim, "The Fountain of Life," a cosmogony which contained little especially Jewish except a basis in the divine word of power, being a syncretism of Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism. This was translated into Latin 100 years later and was much used by the Schoolmen. Bahya ibn-Pakuda wrote (1050-60 A.D. cf. JE, ii. 447 sqq.) a "Guide to Inner Duties" based on Platonic asceticism. The celebrated Solomon bar Isaac (cf. JE, x. 324 sqq.), known as Rashi (q.v.), wrote his commentary in the first half of the eleventh century. The greatest Jewish poet of all the centuries was Judah Halevi (1086-1145; cf. JE, vii. 346 sqq.), who wrote the songs which have become the national pride of Jews. He proclaimed the sovereignty of Judaism and the preeminence of Jews on the ground that from Adam down they alone had preserved the gifts of grace and the essence of manhood. Jews were between angels and the highest rank of men; proselytes might partake of the external blessings of Jews, but could never reach the height of privilege which belonged to the native Jew. Israel is God’s servant upon whom are laid the ills and hurts of mankind. The destruction of Jerusalem was of divine purpose that the earth might be leavened with the Jewish spirit. Twenty years later Abraham ibn-Daud (cf. JE, i. 101 sqq.) used Aristotelian philosophy to prove Judaism the one system of truth and reason. Abraham ibn-Ezra of Toledo (1088-1167; cf. JE, vi. 520 sqq.) was a keen critic, though a superstitious astrologer and alchemist. Most celebrated of all was Moses ben Maimun, known best as Maimonides (1135-1204; q.v.), in whom the movement just sketched reached its height. Soon after his death arose not merely the banning by the rabble of Maimonides’ writings, but hostility to all study of philosophy. Jews divided themselves into followers and opponents of Maimonides, but until the time of Spinoza the Jews did nothing further for philosophy.

(§ 4). Temporal Situation in Spain to 1469. While at first the Jews were favored under the Arabs of Spain, later they were forced either to accept Islam or to leave the country. They then began to take the side of the Christians and assisted Alfonso X. in the conquest of Seville, for which service they were given three mosques to use as synagogues. But in 1260 the old laws of the Goths were revived and new restrictions were imposed. On the other hand Christians were not to dishonor synagogues, force baptism of Jews, or employ legal measures against them on Jewish feast days. Many of these laws remained a dead letter. A little later the Dominican Raymond of Peñaforte (see DOMINIC, SAINT, AND THE DOMINICAN ORDER, § 4) undertook his mission to the Jews. At the instigation of Pope Clement IV., Jayme I. of Spain ordered that all passages in the Talmud opposing Christianity should be erased. Under Alfonso X. of Castile began a golden age for the Jews, during which they appeared at court and gained riches and position. Under Don Pedro (1350-1369) even more favorable was their situation, but with his fall great reverses were experienced. Jews were forbidden to bear Spanish names and were compelled to wear a distinguishing mark; in order to make headway against Jewish usury, to Christians Jews were ordered to remit a third of their indebtedness. Disputations took place in which the systems of Christianity and Judaism were attacked and defended. Even Jews bewailed the greed and selfishness of men of their own nation who were in positions of wealth and power, and the voices of eminent Jewish scholars were raised against such men as impious and godless. In Seville in 1391 occurred the first popular rising against the Jews, suppressed only by royal troops. Three months later, in a new uprising, 4,000 Jews were slain, the wives and children sold to Mohammedans, and two synagogues converted into churches. Many Jews suffered themselves to be baptized, among them Samuel Abrabanel; in Cordova and Toledo also many Jews became nominal Christians. These became a great danger to the Church, preserving as they did in secret their fidelity to Judaism and the Talmud, and were more under suspicion and more hated than those who had remained faithful to their religion. Some, however, showed great sincerity and endeavored to convert their brethren, among whom may be named Solomon Levi of Burgos (1353-1435; cf. JE, ix. 562-563), who received ordination and, as Paul of Burgos, attained a high position, becoming bishop of Seville. Other zealous converts were Joshua Lorqui, whose Christian name was Geronimo of Santa Fé, physician to Benedict XIII., and Vicente Ferrer, who even in the synagogues assailed Judaism. At this time an edict was issued assigning the Jews to special residence quarters, inhibiting certain trades, offices, and commerce with Christians, ordering a style of dress with the Jewish mark on it, and prohibiting the trimming of the beard and the carrying of weapons. Continued popular uprisings drove many of the Jews over to Christianity, while the synagogues were changed into churches. Benedict XIII. ordered a disputation which was held in Tortosa. It lasted fifteen months, and held sixty-eight sessions, in which Joshua Lorqui disputed with sixteen of the foremost rabbis. As a result Benedict issued his bull forbidding the reading of the Talmud, while the scurrilous writings on the life of Jesus were proscribed, especially the Mar mar Jesu. A period of literary polemics between Jews and Christians ensued which lasted for fifty years. In 1442 Pope Eugenius IV. issued a bull to the bishops of Castile and Leon enforcing the old church laws against Jews, and King John IV. put forth an edict protecting them, which the territorial limitation of his authority made of little value. Almost no Jewish literature was produced, while the works of Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Occam were translated into Hebrew. Cabalistic works continued to appear, and Jews cultivated the healing art. In the second half of the fifteenth century the charge was again made that Jews murdered Christian children, and this calumny continued in spite of repeated failure to convict in the courts. The fact that Jewish converts to Christianity held many of the most lucrative offices caused numerous anti-Jewish riots.

(§ 5). The Inquisition in Spain. The turning-point was the marriage (1469) of Isabella of Castile to Don Ferdinand of Aragon. In 1480 the Inquisition was set at work against the Jews, with whom the prisons were soon filled, and four days after the setting up of the Holy Office six Jewish converts to Christianity were burned at the stake. Converts and all Spaniards were invited to betray converts suspected of secretly Judaizing, and a list of suspicious circumstances was published to aid in detecting the apostates. Between January and November, 1,481,298 of these supposedly false Jewish converts suffered death, while in the archbishopric of Cadiz in the same year 2,000 Jewish heretics were found. The proscribed who had already died were exhumed and their bones burned, while their property was confiscated. Sixtus IV. censured the proceedings of the inquisitors and disapproved the request of Ferdinand to have the tribunal set up in his other dominions. In 1482 Torquemada was made chief inquisitor, the Inquisition was released from restriction to legal forms and its sphere of influence extended to Aragon. Attempts were made against the highest dignitaries of Church and State if only they were of Jewish blood. At the court of Ferdinand Isaac Abrabanel was minister of finance, but in spite of his influence the edict was issued to exile all Jews from Castile, Aragon, Sicily, and Sardinia. To the number of 300,000 they fled into Portugal, Navarre, Italy, Morocco, and Turkey. The princes of Europe censured the regulations of Ferdinand, while the Sultan Bajazid remarked, "You call Ferdinand a clever king, who has impoverished his own land and made ours rich." In 1496 Emmanuel of Portugal issued an edict giving the Jews the alternative of baptism or exile. Many chose exile, thousands were baptized, while hundreds killed themselves and their families in order to escape enforced baptism.

(§ 6). Jews in France. In France Charlemagne favored the Jews because they were the only merchants in the realm. To the embassy to Harun al-Rashid he made a Jew interpreter, and after the death of the ambassador the interpreter carried through the work of the mission. Under Louis the Pious, Jews held an important place at court, though opposed by Agobard of Lyons. At the Synod of Meaux the bishops reenacted the old ecclesiastical laws against the Jews, which Charles the Bald prevented from taking effect. Yet popular demonstrations were made against the Jews. In Toulouse it was the right of the count on Good Friday to administer to the chief of the Jewish community a box on the ear. The Jews secured immunity from this by paying a yearly tribute, and in the same way elsewhere they purchased the good will of the powerful. Hugh Capet's death in 996 was charged against the Jews because Hugh’s physician was a Jew. The crusades gave new opportunities to despoil this people. The principal colony was at Narbonne, consisting of 300 families, among them that of the Hebrew grammarian Kimchi; another great colony was at Montpellier. In the twelfth century the story was told that Jews were killing the children of Christians to use their blood in the Passover. On the basis of this charge, King Philip August, about the year 1180, mulcted the Jews of his realm in 15,000 marks silver and declared all debts to Jews void except such as paid him one-fifth of the entire amount. The possessions of Jews were regarded as the property of the barons, and nobles made sales of "property and Jews." At this time arose in France the Cabala (q.v.) with its mysticism, magic and theosophy, exercising influence not only upon Jewish, but upon Christian thought, and playing its part in exegesis of both Talmud and Bible. Its force is felt to the present, since the modern Chasidism of Russia and Galicia is the Cabala in its most recent form, and its essence reflects the spirit of Jewish thought. In the third crusade the Jews of various parts of France suffered as they had in the first and second, although Pope Gregory IX. declared that the Church desired neither their enforced conversion nor their destruction. But this pope committed to the bishop of Paris the question whether the Talmud reviled Christ and his mother and contained statements derogatory of Scripture and of God. The Talmud was condemned and in 1244 twenty-four wagon loads of copies of this work were burned in a square of the city. At this time the Jews themselves condemned and burned the writings of Maimonides. In 1269 Louis IX. required all Jews to wear a badge of yellow on breast and back, and in 1306 Philip IV. ordered them driven from the kingdom, and their gold, silver, and jewels were forfeited to him, while only their clothes were left in their possession. In 1360 they were allowed to return under favorable conditions, such as that permitting them to charge interest at eighty per cent., only to be driven out again under Charles VI. in 1394.

(§ 7). In England. In England after the conquest by the Normans the Jews found themselves in fortunate circumstances, and in London their dwellings were like royal palaces. These conditions were first disturbed at the coronation of Richard in 1189, for when the Jews of the realm were about to bring their dues of homage, in popular uprisings in many of the cities numbers of them were slain, and some were burned in their houses. In York they intrenched themselves in the fortress and, when hope of escape was gone, set fire to it and perished in the flames. John Lackland and Henry III. extorted from them more than 10,000,000 francs, and the latter encouraged efforts to convert them (see JEWS, MISSION TO THE). In 1275 parliament by statute interdicted the collection of usury, yet Jews might buy houses and lands and engage in commerce. In 1278 the circulation of counterfeit coin was attributed to the Jews and 293 were hanged. In 1290 Jews were banned, mortgages held by them canceled, and they were compelled to sell their property; 16,000 left the country and were not permitted to return till the time of Cromwell, when individuals were permitted to settle there. Cromwell was looking for the Messianic kingdom in which he allotted a great part to the chosen race.

(§ 8). In Italy. In Italy the Jews suffered no such hard fortune as in other lands, since the influence of the popes was there more effective, though restrictive measures were passed limiting their privileges. Under the Normans in Naples and Sicily Jews and Christians had equal privileges. The great centers of Jewish life in Italy were in the central and southern parts, not in the great Christian commercial cities of the north. In 1199 Innocent III. issued a Constitutio Judaeorum protecting the Jews, and this was confirmed by Gregory IX. in 1235. Innocent IV. issued a bull at the Council of Lyons of 1245 to the German and French princes, directed against the charge that Jews killed the children of Christians; he also commanded that the Talmud be protected if only it were found free from assault upon Christianity. When, in consequence of the Black Death, many Jews in South France, Spain, Savoy, on the Southern Rhine, and in Switzerland were tortured, murdered or burned, Clement VI. in a bull forbade the killing of them and the taking of their goods without due process of law, and also forcible baptism. In 1419 Martin V. issued a bull in favor of this people. But Eugenius IV. in 1442 put in force the old canonical limitations, and even intensified them, and in this course he was followed by Nicholas V. in 1447. The latter’s legate to the Synod of Bamberg, Nicholas of Cusa (q.v.), directed in Germany the execution of these regulations. During the Inquisition in Spain and after the exile of Jews from Spain and Portugal, many of them found refuge in the Papal States and Turkey. The popes of those times, Alexander VI., Julius II., Leo X., and Clement VII., had Jewish physicians, and the princes of the Church followed their example. Clement disapproved of forcible baptism of adult Jews, but encouraged the baptism of Jewish children if their parents consented. He also attempted to protect the Jews who had perforce received baptism in Spain but were persecuted as unfaithful. Paul III. was charged with being more kind to Jews than to Christians, and his benefits extended to the persecuted Jewish-Christian converts of Portugal. In 1536 Charles V. obtained from Paul III. sanction of the Inquisition, but with limitations; and while following popes continued this course, it was rather regarded as an existing fact than as a legal institution, and Clement VIII. openly discountenanced it. When under Julius III. Cardinal Caraffa in 1542 made the Inquisition general throughout the Christian world and increased its rigor, in Italy attack upon the Talmud began; in 1553 the pope signed a decree of condemnation, and on the Jewish New Year’s Day all copies in Rome were burned, while throughout Italy many thousand copies suffered the same fate. Under Marcellus II. the Jews were expelled from Rome in consequence of accusations of the murder of children, and Paul II., a confirmed enemy of the Jews, laid a tribute on the synagogues and enforced the old restrictions with additional enactments, while in many other ways he manifested his hostility. Against him Sultan Suleiman acted in protection of the Jews of Ancona. During this period so many Jewish-Christian converts entered the Franciscan and Jesuit orders that Paul IV. forbade the reception of Jews therein before the fourth generation. At this time the Sohar, the chief Cabalistic writing, was first printed by permission of the Inquisition. Pius IV. mitigated the hard conditions, and the Talmud, issued in censured form, was first printed at Basel, 1578-80. Pius V. again put in force the early restrictions with further limitations, and permitted the Jews to reside within the Papal States only at Rome and Ancona. Gregory XIII. ordered that Christian scholars acquainted with Hebrew preach to the Jews in their synagogues on feast days, and Jews were compelled to support the preachers. Clement VIII. withdrew in 1593 the decree of banishment and annulled the anti-Jewish regulations of his predecessors. Since then the popes have taken no official steps respecting the Jews with the exception of the declaration of Pius IX. in 1870 with respect to their conversion.

(§ 9). In Germany. The Jews entered Germany with the Roman legions. Their presence at Cologne in the fourth century is demonstrable. Most of them, however, passed on into France. According to German law they had their own regulations and freedom in religion, but were without citizenship. They were dependent upon the emperor for protection, and paid a special tribute to him and to the princes. Their scholars they received from other lands. Henry II. drove them from Mainz, though they returned the next year. In Speyer they had their own quarter, protected by a wall. Forcible baptism was not allowed, in legal contests Jewish law prevailed, and the ordeal by fire and water was not applied to Jews. The first crusade in 1094 saw the first persecution of the Jews, and in Treves, Speyer, and Mainz many Jews perished. At the time of the second crusade the monk Rudolph preached against them from city to city, but they received some protection from Conrad IV. and from certain of the princes of the Church, while Bernard of Clairvaux rebuked Rudolph for his incitement to murder. For what protection the Jews received, however, they had to pay. The charges of murder were also occasions of extortion of money and of persecution. In spite of all this, the Jews contributed to the culture of the country, especially in the Minnelieder. Under Frederick II. the canonical regulation against office-holding by the Jews was enforced. Under Frederick I. of Austria the legal position of Jews was excellent, while Rudolph of Hapsburg contradicted the old charge of the murder of Christian children. Notwithstanding, popular uprisings against the Jews took place in many cities with all attendant atrocities. In 1298 the new charge of desecrating the host raised persecutions which spread over Germany and into Austria. Albrecht I. compelled many cities to pay damages and took the Jews under his protection. In the fourteenth century blame for the Black Death was laid upon them on the ground that they had poisoned wells and springs, and resulting uprisals of the population inflicted fearful sufferings upon the supposed authors of the scourge. In some cities the whole Jewish community was put to death at the stake, in others they burned themselves to death. While in many places the magistrates swore never to receive Jews back again for residence, the oath soon became a dead letter, and to Strasburg, Nuremberg, Vienna, Erfurt, Basel, Zurich, and Heilbronn the Jews returned by invitation. Campaigns against the Hussites began always with assaults upon Jews. The Council of Basel occupied itself in its nineteenth sitting with this people, ordered the enforcement of the ecclesiastical regulations, and recommended the study of Hebrew and Aramaic to the universities in order better to carry on missions among them. At the instigation of a Jewish-Christian convert named Pfefferkorn the Dominicans at Cologne began a campaign against the Talmud, and were opposed by Johann Reuchlin (q.v.), who believed that in the Talmud and the Cabala were to be found divine philosophy and the wisdom of the patriarchs. Against Reuchlin came Jakob van Hoogstraten (q.v.) with his composition on the "Destruction of the Cabala." In 1509 Pfefferkorn obtained an order from Emperor Maximilian to the Jews to deliver to the former all their anti-Christian writings, and a second edict directed Hoogstraten, Reuchlin, a Jewish-Christian named Viktor von Karben, and certain universities to pronounce upon the contents. Reuchlin adduced what he declared to be Christ's testimony to the Talmud as a witness for Christian verity. Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn engaged in a campaign of nicknames into which the archbishop of Mainz intruded, the humanists of Germany took the part of Reuchlin with an anti-ecclesiastical bias, and Luther found therein one of his opportunities (see EPISTOLE OBSCURORUM VIRORUM). In several of his utterances he manifested favor to the Jews, though later he reversed his position and violently assailed them, so that the Reformation did not bring to them the relief they expected. But in 1544 Charles V. restored to the Jews their privileges and declared them not guilty of murdering Christian children for Passover purposes.

(§ 10). Revival of Messianism. The suspicions and attacks under which the Jews after the twelfth century had suffered throughout Europe prevented expansion and growth of spiritual life, and a further hindrance was the opposition of the rabbis to the study of philosophy on the ground that it led to Christianity and heresy. Hence the Jews became superstitious and sank into the practise of magic and into religious fanaticism. Consequently the people came to look for Messianic deliverance, and under the pressure of constant reports of coming relief Shabbethai Zebi (b. in Smyrna in 1626) claimed to be the Messiah, put forth prophecies, and in the year 1666, reckoned by Jews as the year of the coming redemption, went to Jerusalem, while another Jew assumed the rôle of Elijah. The greatest expectations were aroused among his own people throughout Europe. Had Shabbethai possessed the qualities requisite for the carrying out of such a scheme, he would have caused the greatest movement of modern times among the Jews. But in 1666 the Turkish cadi sent him to the sultan at Constantinople, who put on him a white turban and a green mantle and made him, as Mehemed Effendi, his doorkeeper, while the Jews of Europe were plunged into shame and chagrin. Among the more intelligent Jews this one experience killed all seeds of the Messianic hope. But the ignorant masses of the East still had expectations, and in 1720 in Galicia Jacob Frank (q.v.) claimed to be the reincarnated Shabbethai and gained a following which replaced the Talmud by the Sohar. The Chasidim of Russia and Poland, named from Juda Chasid, are the remainder of a movement similar to that inaugurated by Frank. Among them ecstasy is sought with the aid of stimulants, asceticism is practised, and the Sohar is regarded as of the highest value (see CHASIDIM, 2). Contemporaneous with these outbreaks of fanaticism and superstition were the life and momentous work of Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), whose achievements prove that the inner genius of Judaism could not be destroyed by opposing external forces or by internal error, though indeed official Judaism sought to destroy by ban and actual attack the man who glorified this race.

(§ 11). Jews in Poland. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Poland became the chief center of Judaism. Since the fourteenth century that land had been the refuge of persecuted Jews from the west of Europe, especially from Germany. Consequently Russian and Polish Jews came to use a mixed dialect of which the foundation is German with Russian, Polish and Hebrew words mingled, and this dialect has produced a literature. Settlement of Jews from the East was made in quite early times. Gregory IX. urged King Andrew to exclude Jews and Mohammedans from office, and the synod of Ofen (1279) ordered Jews to wear a red wheel on the left breast. Casimir the Great renewed and extended in 1334 the favorable laws of a century earlier, requiring the accordant testimony of three Jews and three Christians to convict a Jew of the crime of murder of a Christian child; thirteen years later he limited the privileges accorded Jews. During a pestilence the Jews of the principal cities were attacked by the populace. Casimir IV. made the laws still more favorable, but Cardinal Olesnick permitted the monk Capistrano, "the scourge of the Jews," to preach against them, and Casimir had to withdraw his concessions. Sigismund I. (1506-48) protected the Jews. Meanwhile the study of the Talmud had flourished under the care of German Jews in Poland, and Joseph Caro produced the Shulhan Aruch, which has remained the guide of life for Jews since, while the Talmudic schools of the land became celebrated in all Europe. Study of the Bible languished, only one work of importance being issued, the Hizzuk emunah by Isaac Troki (cf. JE, xii. 265-266), a keen polemic against the Gospels and Christianity. During the seventeenth century the Jews of Poland were ruled by their own rabbis, constituting a state within a state with an annual synod. But under this regime and a narrowing of studies to matters of legal refinement, the character of the people had deteriorated, while the Polish impress stamped all European Judaism, except that of Spain, with the traits most disliked by the European peoples. Polish Jews became compromised in an attempt to reduce to serfage the cossacks of Ukraine, and many thousands perished, and a large number were killed in the Russian-Swedish war under Charles X. It is said that 180,000 families perished, 1648-1658, and Polish Judaism lost its eminent position.

4. The New Period: By the end of the eighteenth century a general deterioration and rankness of religious life had conquered Judaism all over the world; if the people was to be saved, a rebirth was necessary for the whole people. The reformation of the inner spirit of Judaism began in Germany through Moses Mendelssohn (q.v.); the betterment of the external situation began with the emancipation of the Jews of France. The great elector, Frederick William, had settled fifty Jewish families from Vienna in Berlin, and to that place came Mendelssohn, and gave himself to educational and philosophical work. His reputation, recognized even by Christians, stimulated the younger Jews to care for larger interests, and study of the Talmud alone no longer satisfied. His translation of the Pentateuch into German, though necessarily printed in Hebrew type, had great influence, though use of it was forbidden by the rabbis. Following his lead, a generation of authors sprang up having the purpose to release the Jewish people and religion from the superstition and regard for mere ceremony into which they had fallen, to break the yoke of Talmudism, and substitute the Bible as the basis of life. In France in 1791 Jews were given the right of citizenship, though this was withdrawn in Alsace in 1808. In 1812, after six years of preparatory measures, Napoleon declared the Jews of the empire eligible to citizenship, though in the free cities of Germany this right had to be purchased, and it was afterward withdrawn. Progress toward the same end of freedom for the Jews was made in other European countries. In Germany most of the states took the religion under their protection. Many Jews became Christians, others set up reformed synagogues (as in Cassel and Hamburg). Yet in 1819 there broke out a new popular uprising against the Jews, in which life and property were destroyed. Against the reform tendency in Judaism and the movement toward Christianity arose an orthodox party fostering the early ideals. Jewish consciousness of its past and a new awakening of Jewish spirit was brought about by the Geschichte der Israeliten (9 vols., 1820-29) of I. M. Jost (q.v.), while works on Jewish history, poetry, and philosophy, and on the linguistics of the Hebrew tongue further stimulated the newly awakened interest. While Abraham Geiger (q.v.) had a leading part in this movement, the political support gained in France through the help given to Louis Philippe in 1830 by the Rothschilds furthered the cause. The spirit of liberalism spread, the literary activities of Heine, Börne, and Gabriel Riesser contributed to its growth and many Jews accepted Christianity. An event in the East raised again the Jewish question in Europe. In Damascus, which reckoned among its 120,000 inhabitants 5,000 Jews, Father Tomaso, the guardian of the Capuchins, and his servants disappeared. Seven of the richest Jews were accused of murdering them, their houses were attacked and destroyed in the effort to find the bodies, while the owners and other Jews were slain or arrested. The Jewish financial houses of Europe interested France, England and Austria in protecting the Jews, and an international court under Mohammed Ali of Egypt was established to investigate the case. The general result was a unification of feeling among the Jews of Europe, and this was extended to the East by the establishment there of schools to raise the level of knowledge among the Jews of the Orient. A specially important movement was the founding of the Alliance Israélite Universelle at Paris under the leadership of Adolphe Crémieux, who had been a guiding spirit during the entire course of events. The result of the revolutionary movements of 1848 in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Italy, and elsewhere was the triumph of liberalism with the advancement of the Jews as an inevitable consequence. A reaction occurred, beginning in 1870, and antisemitism expressed itself, especially in Germany, in attacks upon the Jewish quarters, while this feeling and its consequent riots and legal limitations spread into Russia, Rumania, Austria, and France. The consequence of the feeling of insecurity thus awakened among Jews was the establishment in Vienna by Theodor Herzl of the Zionist movement, the object of which is the founding of a Jewish state in Palestine in which all persecuted Jews may find a secure refuge.

(F. HEMAN.)

5. Jews in America. (§ 1). Early Settlements. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497, a considerable number of them nominally adopted Christianity but retained their Jewish creed and practises in secret. Columbus on his first voyage, was accompanied by several of these Maranos, or secret Jews; many Maranos visited or settled in Spanish or Portuguese America, and, when their creed was discovered, became victims of the Inquisition. By their wide connection with the Spanish Jews who had settled in Holland and the Levant, they contributed to international trade across the Atlantic. Owing to a natural sympathy with Holland, those of Brazil took the part of the Dutch in the conflict between Holland and Portugal for the possession of that country, and when the Dutch were expelled from Pernambuco and Rio Janeiro in 1654 a considerable number of Jews left with them and went to the West India Islands. Some twenty-three of these emigrated to New York in the summer of that year, and obtained a footing there through the influence of the Dutch West India Company, among the founders and members of which were a number of Amsterdam Jews. Four years later fifteen Jewish families arrived at Newport, R. I., and established a congregation there, under the direction of Aaron Lopez, one of the leading merchants of the country, about 1650. It is possible that Jews had appeared even earlier in Maryland; but the first of importance there was Jacob Lumbroso, a physician of distinction. These places and Philadelphia, Savannah, and Charleston constituted the chief seats of Jewish settlement in the latter half of the seventeenth and the first part of the eighteenth century; the settlers were mostly of the Sephardic, or Spanish branch of the Jewish people, though occasionally a few English Jews were found among them. Toward the close of the colonial period Jews had spread to Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Leicester, Mass., and the majority of them took the revolutionary side in the struggle with England, some of them fighting in the ranks, twenty-four of whom held commissions. Robert Morris was helped to finance the Revolution by the aid of Haym Salomon.

(§ 2). In the United States, 1800-1880. It has been calculated that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were about 2,000 Jews in the United States, of whom 800 were in Charleston, 500 in New York, 150 in Philadelphia, and the remainder scattered. Their numbers were soon increased by migrations from England and Germany, the latter chiefly after the failure of the Liberal movement in 1848. These were among the first of Austin’s colonists in Texas in 1821, and the cities of Waco and Castroville still testify to the important position held in early Texas by Jacob de Cordova, who laid out the former and Henry Castro, who founded the latter. The Jews also helped in the earlier development of California, Solomon Heydenfeld being chief justice of that state up to 1857, while among the pioneers in the commerce of that state Jews were numbered. The period from 1848 to 1880 marked the immigration of German Jews who had taken part in the liberal movements in Germany in 1848 and had come to America to escape the reaction which followed it. These to the number of not less than 7,000 showed their devotion to their adopted country by taking part on both sides of the fraternal strife of the Civil War. Meanwhile, Jews had been in various directions establishing their positions as American citizens and claiming the rights thereof. Even in the early days of the eighteenth century several of the colonies passed laws permitting Jews to become naturalized without the oath on "the true faith of a Christian" still demanded in the mother country. The English act of 1740 permitted this throughout the colonies. In Maryland between 1776 and 1825 the political disabilities of the Jews were entirely removed, mainly by the activity of Jacob I. Cohen and Solomon Etting. The Board of Delegates of American Israelites had been formed for activity where religious discrimination was brought against Americans on account of their creed as Jews. Several American Jews in this early period served abroad as diplomatic agents of the United States.

(§ 3). Reform Educational, and Charitable Movements. Internally, movements for reform in the ritual took place among American Jews as among their European brethren, the first being at Charleston as early as 1825, but the chief movements in this direction came with the migration of German Jews in 1848. Under the leadership of Rabbis David Einhorn and Isaac Mayer Wise, a wave of reform spread throughout American Jewry, though a large number of the elder established congregations still retained the older and more orthodox ritual. Two colleges were founded by the opposite parties to train ministers, the Maimonides College at Philadelphia, founded in 1867, by Isaac Leeser, the leader of the more conservative Jews, and the Hebrew Union College in 1875 in Cincinnati, O., by Isaac Mayer Wise, who had likewise established the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which combined the ministers of the more radical direction and unified the reform ritual by a standard "Union Prayer Book." A more extreme development of the reform position was founded by Felix Adler (q.v.) in New York in 1883, and is known as the Ethical Culture movement (see ETHICAL CULTURE, SOCIETIES FOR). Among the most characteristic features of American Jewry during the period from 1848 to 1880 are the many fraternal organizations which combined educational, charitable and benefit features and served as Jewish centers in small communities where no congregations or synagogues existed. Most congregations had established some charitable features, but few specially philanthropic institutions were found necessary. The first Jewish hospital, Mount Sinai, was founded in 1852 in New York, and the first orphan asylum in 1855 at New Orleans, under the auspices of Judah Touro.

(§ 4). The New Immigration Since 1880. In 1880 it was reckoned that there were about 250,000 Jews in the United States, of whom 75,000 were in New York, 16,000 in San Francisco, 12,000 in Philadelphia, 10,000 in Chicago, 8,000 in Cincinnati, 6,000 in St. Louis, and the rest scattered. In the following year commenced extensive migrations from Russia, due to the massacres and persecutions which began then and have continued down to the present. It is estimated that at least 1,250,000 Jews have entered the United States since 1881, two-thirds of them from Russia. With the advent of this huge and increasing stream of immigrants, mostly ill provided with means of livelihood, a total change came over the spirit of American Israel. The older Jewish inhabitants hastened to form institutions to assist their persecuted brethren in settling in the land of liberty. Baron de Hirsch placed a sum of two and one-half millions of dollars at the disposal of an American committee in 1890 for the special purpose of providing for the new arrivals; this fund has founded agricultural colonies and industrial schools. In New York the Educational Alliance has been established to instruct the newcomers in the English language and in their duties as prospective American citizens. Hospitals, orphan asylums, and homes for the aged have been established in all the great Jewish centers, and uniform methods of treatment have been developed under the auspices of the National Conference of Jewish Charities organized in Cincinnati in 1899, which numbers over fifty philanthropic organizations throughout the country. The various charitable bodies have been federated in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Kansas City and Cleveland, and it is reckoned that these bodies, together with the chief Jewish institutions of New York, distribute five millions of dollars annually for relief, industrial training and other philanthropic objects. More recently the Russian Jews, who have prospered remarkably, have established independent institutions to care for their poorer brethren. The majority of the newcomers are of the orthodox wing of Judaism, so that whereas before the "eighties" the majority of American Jews were probably attached to reform congregations, at least five-sixths of the 1,200 congregations now in the United States are of the more conservative section. In order to supply these with rabbis, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was established by Sabato Morais in New York in 1895, and was reorganized in 1902 under the presidency of Solomon Schechter (q.v.). This institution has now one of the largest Hebrew libraries in the world.

(§ 5). The Press; General Conditions. Jews have their own press, the first periodical being The Jew in New York 1823-25, the next important one being The Occident, Philadelphia, edited by Isaac Leeser, 1843-1869. The more important weeklies are American Israelite of Cincinnati, established in 1854; Jewish Messenger, New York, 1857-1902; The American Hebrew, New York, 1879; Jewish Exponent, Philadelphia, 1887; Reform Advocate, Chicago, 1891, and Jewish Comment, Baltimore, 1895. The newcomers have also founded a press of their own in Yiddish, a dialect of archaic German printed in Hebrew characters. The chief paper is the Jewish Daily News of New York. The Jewish Publication Society of America, founded in 1889, issues works adapted for popular reading, its most memorable publications being Graetz’s History of the Jews, Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto, and Schechter’s Studies in. Judaism. American Judaism has not hitherto produced any important contributions to Jewish learning, though the Jewish Encyclopedia, in twelve volumes (New York, 1900-06) summarizes for the first time the results of the Jewish scholarship of Europe and is being translated into Hebrew and Russian. Owing to the large increase in the number of American Jews, the government has of recent years taken action to protest against the persecutions in Europe which lead to such burdens being cast upon America by the illiberal and persecuting action of despotic governments. Meetings of protest have been held throughout the country against Russian tyranny in 1881, 1893, and after the Kishineff massacres in 1903, when a fund of over one million dollars was collected in America by a Jewish relief committee. In order to take continuous action in such cases an American Jewish Committee was formed in 1906 of representative Jews throughout the country. Jews have taken part in the higher activities of American life in numbers far beyond their numerical proportions. They have had eminent representatives among the officers of the army and navy, in the United States Senate, in the learned professions, among artists and inventors, and in literature. Altogether, the Jews of the United States have perhaps the most fortunate and influential position of any Jews throughout the world. They number nearly two millions (half of them in New York), about one-sixth of the whole number of Jews, and they show exceptional capacity to enter into the democratic life of America.

JOSEPH JACOBS.