CAUSES OF ANTI-SEMITISM

We shall not again touch on those causes which are a result ofrntemperament, prejudice and narrow views, but shall here restrictrnourselves to political and economical causes alone. ModernrnAnti-Semitism is not to be confounded with the religious persecutionrnof the Jews of former times. It does occasionally take a religiousrnbias in some countries, but the main current of the aggressivernmovement has now changed. In the principal countries wherernAnti-Semitism prevails, it does so as a result of the emancipation ofrnthe Jews. When civilized nations awoke to the inhumanity ofrndiscriminatory legislation and enfranchised us, our enfranchisementrncame too late. It was no longer possible to remove our disabilities inrnour old homes. For we had, curiously enough, developed while in thernGhetto into a bourgeois people, and we stepped out of it only to enterrninto fierce competition with the middle classes. Hence, ourrnemancipation set us suddenly within this middle-class circle, where wernhave a double pressure to sustain, from within and from without. ThernChristian bourgeoisie would not be unwilling to cast us as a sacrificernto Socialism, though that would not greatly improve matters.rnrnAt the same time, the equal rights of Jews before the law cannot bernwithdrawn where they have once been conceded. Not only because theirrnwithdrawal would be opposed to the spirit of our age, but also becausernit would immediately drive all Jews, rich and poor alike, into thernranks of subversive parties. Nothing effectual can really be done tornour injury. In olden days our jewels were seized. How is our movablernproperty to be got hold of now? It consists of printed papers whichrnare locked up somewhere or other in the world, perhaps in the coffersrnof Christians. It is, of course, possible to get at shares andrndebentures in railways, banks and industrial undertakings of allrndescriptions by taxation, and where the progressive income-tax is inrnforce all our movable property can eventually be laid hold of. But allrnthese efforts cannot be directed against Jews alone, and wherever theyrnmight nevertheless be made, severe economic crises would be theirrnimmediate consequences, which would be by no means confined to thernJews who would be the first affected. The very impossibility ofrngetting at the Jews nourishes and embitters hatred of them.rnAnti-Semitism increases day by day and hour by hour among the nations;rnindeed, it is bound to increase, because the causes of its growthrncontinue to exist and cannot be removed. Its remote cause is our lossrnof the power of assimilation during the Middle Ages; its immediaterncause is our excessive production of mediocre intellects, who cannotrnfind an outlet downwards or upwards--that is to say, no wholesomernoutlet in either direction. When we sink, we become a revolutionaryrnproletariat, the subordinate officers of all revolutionary parties;rnand at the same time, when we rise, there rises also our terriblernpower of the purse.