CHARITY AND SOBRIETY OF THE JEWS.

Evening Post, Issue 41, 27 March 1865, Page 3

CHARITY AND SOBRIETY OF THE JEWS.

In his charity the Jew is also profuse, but far from lavish. The most charitable inhabitant of our land is indisputably the Jew ; and there is so much common sense, threwdness, and regularity in his alms, that he might profitably be held up as an example to all" of the proper manner in which that eminently Christian virtue, charity, should be dispensed. I repeat, so far from the London Jew being niggardly, in h ; s private expenditure, the contrary is the fact. His great fault is an excessive love of ostentation. That this failing is rarely to be met with among the higher class of Jews, at the west end of London, we readily admit, but among the smaller of their tradesmen, and the poorer classes, it is ex'-eedinglv predominant. On their Sabboth in the neighborhood of White* chapel, Houndsditch, and Petticoat lane, thi* characteristic of the Jewish nation may be witnessed in its fullest stage of development. Nothing can possibly be more gaudy than the dresses they wear. '• heir jewelry is also exceedingly large and showy; gold chains of almost fabulous tbickness, and precious stones, very possibly real, but whose magnitude make us doubt their reality, are there to be seen in the greatest profusion. Follow some of teese outrageously dressed individnals to their homes, and it will be found that a vast proportion of them lire in the most squalid localities •, and to see them during the working days in the next week, in their ordinary dresses, few wou d recognise the tawdry attired individuals who had attracted their attention on the previous Sabbath. This description of the Jews' and Jeweees' dre«B it mu»t be fairly understood does not apply to those really in a higher position of society. With these there is perhaps more neatness in their Sabbath attire than even among Christians, especially the ladies. A reason has been given, professing to account for this greater simplicity on the part of the Jewish ladies, but which, if true, "onght to raise them still higher in our estimation— that it is contrary to their religion to ride to church, as thereby the servant withiiutheir gates would be called Upon to labour ; and fot^the same reason Aheir attention to . the toileTTit-the less, to -s|>iie asTnuoh as p issible their female servants. As a nation, the Jews may be quoted as a singularly sober people. Dr. Asher, the medietflHjffieer^of the Jewish Board of Guardians, in DeTwishTe-sqiiare, ft 'gentleman On whose' experience, and veracity the most perfect' reliance may be placed, told us that in the whole course of nis practice, which was most extensive, he had never met with a. : '-case of delirium tremens among the low Jews. This qualification of extreme sobriety' tells to the advantage of the poorer Jews in more "ways than that of their immediate family connections. It is from that we may trace ' their comparative immunity from insanity: < this terrible malady, the most lamentable f possibly which can affect humanity, is far rarer 1 among them than among the poor •Christians. Again, the benefit is i great extent on the'r health, ¦yjtfews have a far more delicate Ph than our working classes gene1 the squalid and densely crowded they live in tend to make them

still more liable to sickness ; yet, on the authority of Dr. Asher, there is far less difficulty in bringing them through serious cases of sickness or accident than the poorer Christians whom he is called upon to attend, and this he attributes principally to their sobriety. His statement is also borne out by the records of the London Hospital. In that institution more than one large ward is appropriated solely for the benefit, of Jewish patients, and they notoriously recover more rapiJly from the effects of serious operations than the Christian patients generally. — Good Words.