JEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5072, 26 June 1877, Page 3

JEWS.

No people are more widely spread over the surface ©f the globe than the Jews. Amongst no race are there more cognate men, and yet, singularly enough, no race has suffered more from popular fallacy in regard to its natural characteristics. That Jews prefer wealth to poverty is no impeachment on them. There are few Christians who do not shave this trait with them. But the current idea that their modes of acquiring riches are exclusively the practice of usury and parsimony is inconsistent with fact. When they were settled in Judaea, they engaged, like their neighbors, and even more than their neighbors, in agricultural pursuits. They had flocks and herds, and they converted mountain slopes, which are now parched and rocky deserts, into terraced gardens. When driven from their homes, and no longer possessed of land, they, perforce, turned their attention to commerce. They were the moneychangers and bankers of Europe, during an age when coarse, illiterate, feudal barons made existence almost intolerable to all except themselves, and fancied that they had a divine right to appropriate to themselves money which belonged to those who were not of their religion. . .' , The love ©f dealing in money still clings to Jews, but in their monetary ventures they are singularly bold, and far too ready to incur risk of loss. It is very questionable whether, as a race, they are exceptionally rich. Some few who have been fortunate in all their ventures are very wealthy, but most of them lose in one venture what they have made in another. They delight too much in the gaadia certaminis over to rest and be thankful. la monetery campaigns Jews rush in -where Christians fear to tread. Their caution is extolled to the skies, when, in point of fact, the excitement of the game renders them habitually incautious. Show to a Jew a probability of gain, and he will cheerfully incur the possibility of loss. In massing his forces, and in manoeuvring them on the field of battle he is aa able general, but, like the ablest generals, he can only minimise the demerits of chance in his combinations; he cannot eliminate them. Were he, indeed, able to do so his pleasure would be gone. Neither victory nor defeat eradicates from his heart the passion of combat, if successful, he seeks new fields on which to conquer ; if defeated, he collects his shattered forces for a new campaign. Still more erroneous is the idea that Jews are penurious and miserly in their habits, or that they derive pleasure from the mere accumulation of money. There are few people more lavish. In business they are fair dealers, and naturally look after their own interests, but when they earn they expend freely. The “ alieni avidus sui profusus” is applicable to them. If they have an itching palm, they have no sparing hand. Eai* from stinting themselves, they deny themselves nothing which money can afford. They are fond of practising a large and liberal hospitality. They are, too, singularly charitable. It is not because there are no poor Jews tha*-- no Jew ever becomes a burthen on his parish, but because the poor are supported by the alms of the rich. All England is divided into districts, and at the head of each district is a guardian, who affords relief to those who require it. The means are provided by voluntary contributions, and the guardians meet periodically in ■London to discuss the affairs of their districts, and to settle the manner in which contributions are to be apportioned. The Jews, moreover, have hospitals, convalescent homes, schools, almshouses, and soup kitchens for those of their race, although their charity is not hedged in by distinction of race and religion. for seldom is an appeal made to them without their generously responding to it. . . . Honest men ought not to make common cause with scamps because the latter happen to ho of the same religion, and honest Jews have long suffered by allowing it to be supposed that they arc responsible for the acts of dishonest Jews, They arc wise in openly repudiating them. No people hold in greater horror the practices of the West-cud usurers than the collective Jewish community, and yet, because amongst these knaves there are Jews, usurer ami Jew have become synonymous terms. With equal justice might all Irish ho called murderers, because some Irish have a habit of shooting their landlords. Wo have endeavored in the above remarks to show that Jews are not, as a race, the sordid, close-fisted bondsmen of Mammon of popular prejudice, and that they may justly complain of being the victims of misconception, arising in part from their having been peaceful traders during ages of armed barbarism, and in part from the failings of a few of their race forming the groundwork for the approved estimate of their national characteristics. Their minds are as well as receptive, and whenever success is to he attained by acuteness in conception, combined with boldness in action, they have achieved it. Some of them who have devoted themselves to money-making have acquired almost fabulous wealth ; but others have achieved fame in the fields of art and of science, of politics and of philosophy. As companions, they are as a rule more agreeable than Anglo-Saxons, because they are more cosmopolitan in their views, and their thoughts range over* a wider

field, . They are, too, singularly free from all narrowing prejudices. “J’aime, Montrond,” said Talleyraud, “ pavcequ’il a si peu de prdjugss.” “Et moi,” replied Montrond, “j’aime Talleyrand, parcequ’il u’en a paa.”— Truth.