THE NEW YORK GHETTO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 80

THE NEW YORK GHETTO.

(Montreal Witness, January 7.) What is called the East Side in NewYork is also known as the Ghetto from the fact that it is almost wholly occupied by Jews. The word is derived from th© custom established in European cities of enclosing the Jewish quarter within gates and compelling all Jews to reside therein In many cities they were only allowed outside the Ghetto in daytime, the gates being closed and locked at sundown, and then they had to wear a distinctive badge, usually a piece of yellow cloth or of some other prescribed colour sewed on the breast of the outer garment. This system of seclusion lasWl from a period

antedating the first crusade down to the time of the French Revolution, France being the first country to abolish Jewish restrictive laws. Continued for so many centuries, this enforced segregation developed the Ghetto habit, which was further intensified by the exclusive customs of the Jews themselves, whope religious observances drew them together, the daily life of every professing Jew being intimately associated with the synagogue and the cognate institution of the Beth Hamrdrash, or house of learning. Even after the t^ates had be-?n removed these people continued to reside in Ghettos, only the wealthy amonu: them seeking homes in other parts of the cities. At the present time a large part of Russian Poland is one huge Ghetto, to which the Jewish population is confined, only a few being permitted by the Government to purchase the privilege of residing outside the Pale. The result is a fearful -state of congestion, for the Jews are a prolific race. Obedience to the Divine command to increase and multiply, though not given specially to them, makes this with them a religious duty. In addition to confinement within the Pale, they were, and are still, deprived of the right to follow any but certain avocations, and thofe the meanest and- least lucrative. Yet, despite this cruelty and injustice and the exclusion of all but a small percentage of their children from the schools, they a.re the best educated of all the nationalities in Russia, and have given many distinguished names to science, art, and literature. They have also developed greater vitality than the peoples about them. This shows that there is not, as is commonly believed, any tendency in early marriage and large families to deteriorate the race. The effect of repressive laws, constant persecution, and not infrequent pogroms, as themassacre of Jews by mobs is called in Russia, has been to intensify the Jewish spirit and make their learning peculiar to themselves. Even their Jiidaism is different from that practised in free countries, its most notable development being the Cbassidim, a sect of strict observers analogous to the Holiness movement among a class of Christians in this country. There are few Polish rabbis who are not tinctured by the teachings of Baal Cham, the great saintly founder of the Chassid (pronounced Hossid strongly guttural). It is not hard to understand why Jewish immigrants, coming to America by thousands every year, reproduce in New York and other cities the same- Ghetto habits formed in the Russian Pale, and which have become almost hereditary racial instincts. What this means will be further understood when it is borne in mind that there are nearly seven hundred thousand Jews in the borough of Manhattan alone. To combat this habit of segregation, American-born Jews have organised societies for dispersing the newcomers throughout the States. Agricultural settlements have been formed, and large amounts of money voluntarily subscribed have been spent in the work of dispersion. Here in Montreal there is a committee appointed by the Jewish Colonial Association, amd given the disposal of a fund for sending immigrants west and settling as' many of them as possible on the land as farmers, i The Ghetto habit and the custom of act- j ing together, necessitated .by centuries of persecution, were shown in a remarkable manner in the recent movement on the East Side in New York for the reduction of rents. The landlords have to give in, for it was practically impossible to evict the hundreds of thousands who demanded the reduction and refused to pay anything until it was conceded. Ameri-can-born Jews have little influence with these East-Siders, who regard them as not much better than renegades from the strict faith held by Russian Jews as the only true Judaism. This separation is further emphasised by the fact that the great majority of American Jews are of the Reform persuasion. This exclusiveness is not likely to last, as the rising generation, learning to speak English and . freely pushing their activities abroad through the States, are becoming Americanised. The Ghetto, however, will probably remain permanent so long as the fountain of congested millions in Russia oontinues to send its yearly flood of Jewish emigation across the Atlantic.