L578j A CrtAUf AUQUA Sr'bTEM COURSE BOO lEWlSH GHARACTERST1 ENGL UCAi RABBI HARRY LEv Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library m -2 IS! O p inrr ■ O 1 JO J fiao L161— H41 THE CHAUTAUQUA SYSTEM OF EDUCATION COURSE BOOK JEWISH CHARACTERS IN FICTION ENGLISH LITERATURE BY RABBI HARRY LEVI PHILADELPHIA, PA. The Jewish Chautauqua Society P. O. Box 825 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE JEWISH CHAUTAUQUA SOCIETY THE FRIEDENWALD COMPANY BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page A Word of Preface . . 5 Introduction 7 Lesson I. "The Jew of Malta," by Christopher Marlowe.' 13 II. " Merchant of Venice," by William Shakespeare 21 III. "The Duenna," by Richard Brinsley Sheridan 30 / IV. "The Jew," by Richard Cumberland 37 V. "Ivanhoe," by Sir Walter Scott 42 VI. "Oliver Twist," by Charles Dickens 51 VII. " Our Mutual Friend," by Charles Dickens . ^ 58 VIII. "Tancred," by Benjamin Disraeli 64 IX. "The Vale of Cedars," by Grace Aguilar 73 X. "Daniel Deronda," by George Eliot 80 XI. "The Dance to Death," by Emma Lazarus 90 XII. "The Rebel Queen," by Walter Besant 97 XIII. "The Children of the Ghetto," by Israel Zangwill 104 XIV. "The Sons of the Covenant," by Samuel Gordon 115 XV. "The Heirs of Yesterday," by Emma Wolf • ..... 121 XVI. "Deborah," by James Ludlow 131 XVII. Bibliography 139 A WORD OF PREFACE. This little course of readings owes its birth to a suggestion made by Mrs. Minnie D. Louis, the able Field Secretary of the Jewish Chautauqua Society. Some years ago Mrs. Louis vis- ited Wheeling, and while there attended a meeting of one of the temple classes pursuing a course somewhat similar to this. Be- coming interested in the work and thinking others might be equally interested, she advised the Society she represented to issue a syllabus treating of fiction in which Jewish characters ¥ played part. The suggestion met with approval. The task of preparing the syllabus was assigned to me, and this little volume ^ is the result. The books herein considered are more or less familiar to all. I Eight of them are made the subject of study in Dr. David ■ PhiHpson's The Jew in English Fiction." In addition, valua- ble articles have been written by scholars the world over, but rhost of these articles are inaccessible. The bibliographies ac- ''^companying each lesson show the source whence much informa- tion was gathered. I owe many thanks to Dr. Henry Berkowitz ^and the Educational Council of the Jewish Chautauqua Society ^for suggestions and helpful criticism. Unpretentious as is the yittle booklet, it is still too much to hope that it will be free from error. That more mistakes have not crept in, is due largely to \he valuable assistance of Mr. Max J. Kohler, to whom I am indebted more than I can say. In the field herein traversed, VMr. Kohler is an authority of whose kindly aid I have gladly P^availed myself. Harry Levi. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 1- https://archive.org/details/jewishcharactersOOIevi INTRODUCTION. History is a systematic record of past events." Fiction, in a literary sense, is narrative in prose form, in which the in- cidents, characters and scenes, are partly or wholly imagined." The difference is vital. In history we are concerned with facts, in fiction merely with fancy erected on a foundation of fact. Even historic fictio-n, though trying to depict fact in interesting form, justifies its title, by using the imagination freely. The Jew in English fiction is not a historic Jew. He is scarcely a pos- sible Jew. Yet he is interesting, because he is so unreal, because the pictures drawn of him show us what the world beUeved (and believes) of Jewish thought and Jewish life. It is a late day to apologize for studying the Jew in English fiction. Be it confessed, this singular Jew has exerted an in- flu^ence in molding popular conceptions (or misconceptions) con- cerning matters Jewish, altogether disproportionate to his real importance. It is worth the student's while to study this inter- esting character, to learn what causes gave him birth and influ- ence, to determine in how far he is historic and in how far fic- titious. The course here presented opens with The Jew of Malta." Marlowe, of course, was not the first to treat of the Jew in fiction, but while in earlier years this treatment had been given some attention, the attention was rather spasmodic at best, and the results scarcely successful or satisfactory. Marlowe's creation 8 Introduction was indeed a wonderfully curious and grotesque figure. The elements of the impossible were so mixed in him, that nature could not stand up and say to all the world, This is a man." Three and a half centuries have passed since he appeared on the literary horizon. The Jew in fiction is still somewhat grotesque, but he is an improvement on his ancestors. Knowledge is sav- ing. The development of the Jew in fiction has kept pace with the development of knowledge of the Jew of history. Since Marlowe's day, fiction has made free use of the Jew. To-day, indeed, he is a popular figure in literature. Whether it be an illustration of tardy justice, or an effort to obey the demands of the curious, the Jew of English fiction is becoming daily more prominent and, what is even more gratifying and en- couraging, is becoming more and more a man and less and less a freak. Yet it is no easy task to select from the heterogeneous mass of fiction in which the Jew plays part, a list of books satisfying at once the reader's sense of justice, yearning for information and desire to be entertained. Some years ago, I am told, the Unity Clubs asked a number of representative men to desig- nate tKe ten grerjest novels in the English language. Among the books finding mention were, Hugo's Les Miserables " and Auerbach's Auf der Hohe." Were we to pursue a somewhat similar course and consider as English literature, works origin- ally written in a foreign tongue, but later translated into our own, our task might be a simpler one. But resisting the tempta- tion to trespass in foreign fields, and remaining within our own borders, we experience no little difficulty in creating a satisfactory course out of unsatisfactory material. A Jew is Introduction 9 tempted to select just those volumes in which his coreligionists are given worthy expression. To give further publicity to cari- catures of his own people, is far from being a congenial pursuit. But first of all, a course describing the representative Jew would be woefully limited, and in the second place, such a course would give the reader a false impression of the world's estimate of the Jew. If literature is the expression of a people's life, that liter- ature will give us the key to men's mutual estimates. The Jew in fiction is the Jew as men saw him. True, they saw him with perverted vision. Yet their point of view is not without interest for us. We want to know what the Jew is, and we want to bring that knowledge to others. But we are equally desirous of learning what men thought of our ancestors, what they think of us, how they came by such estimates. If we are to study the Jew as he appears in English fiction, we must take him for what he is worth, considering the pictures which representative writers have drawn of him. Sometimes those pictures may be exaggerated. Often they may rouse our indignation. Some- times their absurdities will merely stir us to laughter. We shall at least gain in knowledge and loyalty, and perhaps in liberality too. The course here presented appeared originally in the " Men- orah," the official organ of the " Jewish Chautauqua Society." In the revision however, a number of changes have been made. The introduction has been largely rewritten, the articles in the " Required Readings " bearing upon the subject of the lesson, have been altogether replaced by the Studies" preceding each lesson, in some Instances the lists of Recommended Readings " have been lengthened, a few new suggestions have been made. lO Introduction a new article on Marlowe and Shakespeare has been added, and some new material has been incorporated in the study of Sheridan and Cumberland." Otherwise the course remains practically unchanged. It consists of sixteen lessons, each de- voted to the consideration of one book in which the Jew plays a prominent role. The entire course is to be covered in eight months. Two weeks may seem but a short time in which to accomplish much. But by cultivating regular habits of study, the syllabus can be easily completed in the required time. In the matter of time, the needs of each reader and the best judg- ment of circle leaders must, however, decide. The brief articles preceding each lesson, are designed merely as introductions, or supplements to the lessons. While consti- tuting part of the Required Reading,'' they do not pretend to be exhaustive, or to do the subjects oi which they treat full justice. They aim, by summing up in brief compass some of the main facts of the subject, to- provide short suggestive studies easily accessible to the reader. The Required Readings " may be here more extensive than in other Chautauqua courses. Whether more time will be de- manded, is open to question. In reading history, attention must be given to details. To be remembered, history must be read and reread, must be studied. Fiction on the other hand reads easily and interests where perhaps history may not. Does this explain the popularity of the novel? Yet it is poor read- ing that knows no study. To read aright, we must do more than be entertained. Our knowledge must grow from more to more and our lives become larger, better, stronger. The course is designed for individual readers, as for classes. \ Introduction ii Where the course is being followed by classes, the Required Readings should be in the hands of every member. Where this is not possible a class library should be created, the books being purchased by small regular contributions from all the members. Some of the Recommended Readings can be secured in the same way. Note that the Required Readings " must be read by every member. The " Recommended Read- ings " are for those who have time and incHnation for further study of the subjects under consideration. For the essayist they will prove extremely helpful. The ^' Readings in Class consist of a short poem and story, in most instances having some reference to the subject of the lesson, or the hoHday near which the meeting is being held. Finally, a few practical suggestions. Read the Required Readings carefully. Class work brings good returns, but the larger results are obtained through individual study. Give the Suggestions close attention. They sum up the most important facts in the lesson. iVnswer the Tests and Reviews " as thoroughly as you can. It would be well to enter these answers in a note book provided for that purpose. Ask at the meeting for information you can- not otherwise secure. Do not hesitate to express yourself. Argument is the mother of knowledge. As you read, mark passages you deem important. Do not take everything for granted. Distinguish between fact and fic- tio-n. Remember you can dispute only when you know. Our lessons concern themselves with the Jew as he is pictured in EngHsh fiction. Yet our aim is to find the Jew of history. We can know only as we study. 12 Introduction It will be found that an original essay on the book under consideration, a discussion of both book and essay, and a brief report of literary notices concerning Jewish authors, or Jewish characters in literature, will lend interest to the meetings. The program of the meetings might be as follows: Reading of minutes. Review of essay of preceding meeting. Readings in Class. Essay on book being studied. Discussion. Abstracts of some of the Recommended Readings." Book News. If all the members are willing to work, assign the papers and readings alphabetically. Under no circumstances exclude from the meetings, those who, wilHng to attend, are unwilling tc participate actively. Perhaps attendance will subsequently bring about desired results. Parliamentary exactness is not a necessity. Good work is possible without it. LESSON I. I. Required Reading. *'The Jew of Malta/' Christopher Marlowe. (1564-1593.) The sixteenth century in England was a turbulent one. Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, and died in 1547. His son Edward being but nine years of age, the government was then carried on by a board of regents made up of both Protest- ants and Catholics, but dominated altogether by the former. Henry's reforms therefore were continued until 1553, when on the death of Edward, Mary Tudor came to the throne. An ardent Catholic, the new Queen devoted all her efforts to re- estabUshing in England the Papal power so opposed by her predecessors, and succeeded. But at her death, all her work was undone. Elizabeth became Queen in 1558. Whether from policy or conviction, she followed in the footsteps of her father. By the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity CathoHc influence in England was again shattered, and the AngHcan Church firmly re-established. Religious conflict is frequently the mother of fanaticism, but often it fosters indifference as well. Enthusiasts rally most loyally about the flag of their faith, when it is most threatened. Yet sometimes the quarrels and struggles of the different faiths leave men faithless. Further, a generation of reform, is a gen- eration of stress and strain. In an age of transition, men find it difficult to maintain their equilibrium. Either they blindly re- fuse to countenance all change, or they welcome the new and be- come confused. In politics, in literature, in religion, reform is often the stepping stone to anarchy, for men are imitative beings, attracted by what is novel, and reveal how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." 14 The Chautauqua System of Education Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, and was but twenty- nine years of age when slain in a drunken brawl by Francis Archer, June i, 1593. The end of the man tells us something of his life. A genius of remarkable caliber, exhibiting astonish- ing ability while still a child, producing the first English tragedy worthy the name before he was twenty years of age, creating and perfecting one of the finest yet most difificult forms of poetic expression, blank verse, and reaching a maturity of fame at an age when most men of talent are beginning to acquire it, Mar- lowe at the same time was a free lance, careless o^ tradition, indififerent to social restraints and public opinion, doing what- ever his own sweet will suggested, • and perhaps like Burns, and Byron, and Shelley and Keats, and Poe and Andrea del Sarto, believing that the ten talent man is entitled to privileges that one talent men are denied, and must not be judged by the same standard. For propriety, Marlowe cared nothing. To the voice of authority, he gave no heed. About his reputation, he experienced not the slightest worry. For religion, he had abso- lutely no care. He had no hesitancy in voicing his atheism. Moses, he called a juggler. Christianity he said deserved death more than did Barabas. He himself could manufacture a better religion than that he saw about him. Sometimes a man who has outgrown religious influence is liberal, tolerant, impartial. Sometimes he beco-mes as bigoted and dogmatic as those from whose ranks he has stepped, and whom he continually denounces. Marlowe was intolerant, but he does not seem to have discriminated in his hatred. Cath- olic, Protestant, Jew, all alike were denounced by him. The Jew of Malta " was written about 1589 or 1 590, but a few years before Marlowe's death, at a time when his genius was in flower. Yet its plot is the most outrageous imaginable and its characters are the most impossible. It is as though Marlowe raked the dregs and ransacked the dunghills of humanity, to 1 . Jewish Characters in Fiction 15 justify the melodrama of his hero's cursing end," says Symonds. (Shakespeare's Predecessors in the EngHsh Drama). Of all the Jews of whom literature speaks, Barabas is the worst. His only virtue is that he loves his daughter, and even that love becomes at times questionable. Otherwise he is fiend incarnate, with nothing human about him, and nothing Jewish. Yet Marlowe wrote him down as a Jew, gave him to the world as such, and the world took Marlowe at his word. How came a man mentally so keen, poetically so able, so free from the bias induced by fanat- ical or enthusiastic denominationalism, to paint such a false picture of the Jew? Brandes suggests that the exaggeration is the result of Mar- lowe's determination to have one figure predominate in his work, a fact noticeable in his other plays. Symonds offers two sug- gestions. The unrelieved cruelty of the play encourages a be- lief that Marlowe dramatised it from some Spanish source." Or It must have been hurried by stage necessities and the press of time." That Marlowe was pandering to public prejudice is scarcely to be credited. Such a charge would hardly be brought against a man to whom popular estimates meant nothing. The play was extremely popular. Heywood, writing in 1633, speaks of it as having been Written many years agone And in that age thought second to none," but it is extremely questionable whether Marlowe wrote merely to please. One further explanation remains. Marlowe de- scribed the Jew as he believed him to be. The caricature is the product rather of ignorance than of malice. When Marlowe lived, the Jew was but little known in Eng- land. Banished in 1290, almost four centuries passed before Menasseh ben Israel sought for his people legal readmission. It is now historically certain that during that time a few Jews lived in London. But having no right to enter or remain i6 The Chautauqua System of Education in England, living without privilege or recognition, and finding safety but in hiding their identity, what could Marlowe or any one else in the land of Elizabeth know of them? The Queen spent her life in uprooting Catholicism. But in England Juda- ism had been uprooted long ago. The people knew absolutely nothing of the Jew at first hand. They knew him merely by hearsay. What they heard of him they believed, and they passed on their estimates, as if they were authoritative. In the process, the Jew's villainy assumed enormous proportions. But in those days the imaginations of men were vivid, and their credulity in inverse ratio to their knowledge. In lands where the Jew was permitted to live, and where, though locked up within the ghetto, men had an opportunity of studying him and knowing him, he was believed possessed of no virtue and every vice. In England, where he was not tolerated and where he was almost as unknown as unsung, this belief simply became more intense. The hatred of Dr. Lopez and his execution may have con- tributed to this belief. So did the conception of the Jew in the early English ballads and in Chaucer. The Jew was humanity's scapegoat, only that and nothing more/' The theory has been advanced that Marlowe did not write the last part of the play. Be the theory true or false, Marlowe evi- dently shared in many of the dominant ideas of his day. His knowledge of the Jew was that of the people about him. When he denounced and criticised and satirized his countrymen, he spoke and wrote of what he knew. When he painted the Jew in hateful colors, he drew on his imagination. Knowledge may be parent of criticism. But prejudice is often child of ignorance. II. Suggestions. I. The decree banishing the Jews from Spain, banished them as well from all of Spain's possessions. Hence there were no Jews in Malta when Marlowe's play appeared. Jewish Ciiakacters in Fiction 17 2. The play at once won popular favor. Marlowe was inde- pendent and original. Yet he scarcely created his Jew. He fashioned him of the ideas then prevailing. 3. Gosse (Modern English Literature) calls Marlowe ''a pion- eer who cried in the wilderness of literature." He was pioneer not in his conception of the Jew, nor in giving that conception literary expression, but in using it in dramatic fiction. 4. To determine the source whence Barabas was drawn, it has been suggested that Marlowe drew upon the traditions of the Miracle Plays. 5. Draper in his Intellectual Development of Europe paints a rather gloomy picture of the intellectual condition of Europe during the sixteenth century. Only such a condition could beget a Barabas. Liberal and enlightened as is England to-day, it is dif^icult for us to conceive the narrow and intolerant attitude it adopted toward the Jews in earlier years. 6. "Has he crucified a child?" (Jacomo to Bernardine, con- cerning Barabas, Act HI). One of the charges frequently brought against the Jew. 7. Marlowe means to suggest that all Jews were usurers. The truth is some Jews were — and some Christians. St. Bern- ard writing in 1146. " I keep silence on the point that we regret to see Christian usurers. Jewing worse than the Jews, if indeed it is fit to call them Christians and not baptized Jews." (Jacob's " Jews of Angevin England," 22). For his usury the Jew had an explanation, though perhaps not an excuse. He was shut out from well nigh every trade at which an honest living could be made. He was allowed but to sell old clothes and lend money, and when he lent it, he enjoyed the risk of never having it returned. 8. Barabas is exaggerated and untrue. He proves Marlowe's attitude toward the Jew. But Marlowe was not partial in his i8 The Chautauqua System of Education hatred. He had as much contempt for Christianity as he did for Judaism. Indeed we are told that only his death saved him from prosecution for heresy and atheism. 9. Henry Morley (Enghsh Writers, 10, 1 13-120) incHnes to the theory of Kellner, that Barabas was suggested by the career of Joseph, Duke of Naxos. (See Graetz, IV, S93-630). 10. Brandes, the great Shakespearian critic, speaks of " He- brew passionateness." But nothing could be more unlike the real Jew, than ' The Jew of Malta.' " (Beaulieu, Israel among the Nations,'' 215). The Jew does not often display passion. Centuries of persecution have made him endure patiently. He is capable of righteous and fiery indignation. He feels it, but he restrains it. 11. ''Marlowe's work is characterized by the love of the impossible." Symonds. HI. Tests and Reviews. 1. How could Jews live in England after they were ban- ished? 2. Do you know anything of the Jews of Malta? 3. Where did Marlowe gain his conception of the Jew? 4. What could have prompted him to paint Barabas in such atrocious colors? 5. Briefly describe the state of England during the reign of Elizabeth. 6. What were the ''Miracle Plays?" 7. What was the "Ritual Murder" charge? 8. To what trades was the Jew of the Middle Ages limited? 9. Why are pawnbrokers, second hand dealers, clothiers, and bankers almost exclusively Jewish? 10. What is the Jewish attitude toward usury? Jewish Characters in Fiction 19 II. We know the play was popular when first it appeared. We are told that Kean produced it with some alterations in 1818, and that it was well received. Can you explain why? IV. Recommended Readings. England when Marlowe lived. Draper, The Intellectual Development of Europe," II, 229-252. Lee, Elizabethan England and the Jews " in Proceed- ings of the new Shakespeare Society.'* Wolf, Middle Ages of Anglo-Jewish History " (Papers of Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition). The Jew in England before 1290. Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England." Jewish Ideals, 162-234. Rigg, Select Pleas, Starrs and Other Records." Blunt, History of the Jews in England." The Jew in English Literature before Marlowe. Mabon, The Jew in Enghsh Poetry and Drama," Jewish Quarterly Review, XI, 411. M. Kohler, The Jew in Pre-Shakespearian Literature," ''Jewish Exponent," July 11, 1902. The Jew in the Sixteenth Century. Graetz, VI, 121 f. Ritual Murder Charges. Jacobs, ''Jews of Angevin England," 19-21, 45-47, 75, 146- 152, 256-258. Childs, " English and Scottish Ballads," HI, 233-254. The Jew and Usury. Jacobs, XIII-XXII. Gross, " The Exchequer of the Jews " (Papers, Anglo-Jew- ish Historical Exhibition). 20 The Chautauqua System of Education Abrahams, ''Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," 103-237. Errera, '' The Russian Jew," 130-135. Jewish Encyclopedia, Banking." Church View of Usury. Jacobs, 16-18, 49-51, 63. The Jew and Money. Waldstein, Jewish Question," 265-302. Hosmer, The Jews," 254-272. The Miracle Plays. Symonds, '' Shakespeare's Predecessors in the Englisli Drama," 73-ii5- Malta. Britannica. Barr, The Unchanging East," I, 79 f. Critical Estimate of The Jew of Malta." Symonds, 493-497- Marlowe's Place in English Literature. Symonds, 465-536. Brandes, Shakespeare, A Critical Study," 27-33. Barabas. Jewish Encyclopedia. Charles Lamb, Characters of Dramatic Writers Contem- porary with Shakespeare." V. Readings tn Ceass. Lazarus (Emma), " The Guardian of the Red Disk." Gordon, Whose Judgment is Justice " in " Strangers at the Gate." Jewish Characters in Fiction 21 LESSON II. I. Required Reading. ''The Merchant of Venice." WiUiam Shakespeare (1564-1616). The pioneer blazes the way for those who foUow. Yet of those who fohow, there may be some who will improve on the pioneer's work. William Shakespeare was born the same year as Christopher Marlowe, but the latter had practically completed his work, when the former was about to make a beginning. '' The Jew of Malta was written in 1589, but a few years before its author's death. Shakespeare, passing his early life at Strat- ford upon Avon, did not come to London until about 1585. Exactly how many years came and went before he began his literary activity, is not known. But genius though he was, and making his mark at an early age, some time must have passed before as an unknown young man, a stranger in a strange world, he could reach a position where he could exercise aright the talents that were his, and win the attention and approval he de- served. However, when at last he began his literary work, he began it under the spell and influence of his predecessors. Mar- lowe did pioneer work. Indifference and independence made him nothing if not thoroughly original. Shakespeare had no hesitancy in learning from those who had gone before, and in the infancy of his productive years, following in their footsteps. Sometimes he imitated their methods. Sometimes he re-em- ployed their material. Yet such genius was his, such a creative touch, such dramatic skill, that what left his pen, not merely had the stamp of originality, but proved him possessed of a literary ability markedly superior to that of his teachers. After all, originality means more than saying something new. It means saying something old in a new way, shedding new light on 22 The Citautauoua System of Education some old situation, finding new interpretations for old truths, new* solutions for old prol)lems, fitting old jewels into new set- tings, old pictures into new frames. Shakespeare had a genius for such originality. His may not have been real pioneer work. Others went before him to show him the way. But while profit- ing by their guidance he so-on outstripped them, improved upon all they had done, and brought their work much nearer per- fection. From being follower he became leader. The Aferchant of Venice " was written near the end of the six- teenth century, about 1597. Its chief sources, as is well known, were the Gesta Romanorum," and the story of " Gianetto," in the collection called II Pecorone " by Giovanni Florentino, (^55^)- rcrhai)s '' The Orator " by Alexancler Silvayn (1596) was also not without some influence, for its ninety-fifth decla- mation has the title, " Of a Jew who w^ould for his debt have a pound of the flesh of a Christian." That Shakespeare owed much of his '' Merchant of Venice " to ]\Iarlowe is questionable. We know that as Symonds puts it, he deigned to tread in Marlowe's footsteps, and at the last completed and developed to the utmost, that national .... art which Marlowe drew forth from. . . .darkness and anarchy." It is even said that Marlowe had a hand in the first rough draughts of " Henry VI " and '' Edward HI," while Brandes points out the fact that Marlowe is distinctly referred to in ''As You Like It," (Act HI, scene 5). At any rate, it is easy to prove that Shakespeare was influenced by his immediate predecessor and contemporary. But much of that influence in '' The Merchant of Venice " is not easily discernible. Marlowe speaks of the Jew; so does Shakespeare. But Barabas and Shylock bear each other little resemblance. Both are usurers, both have a daugh- ter in love with a Christian, both love their daughters and both yearn for revenge. But there the resemblance ceases. Beyond this point, the characters are merely contrasts. Barabas is Jew ish Ciiarac t1':ks in Fiction inhuman, Shylock human; Barabas unnatural, Shylock natural; Barabas a brute, Shylock a man. I For a long time Shylock was looked upon as merely a funny speare shared in the prejudices of his day, and drew Shylock to voice his own sentiment, or gain for his play the favor of the masses. The manner in which the character was portrayed upon the stage, was largely responsible for this view. To-day the opinion is gaining ground, that Shylock is not an attack up- on the Jew, but a defence, a justification, a vindication. That there is much to support this new opinion, may be readily grant- ed. Shylock has his faults. But he is at least the strongest Jew English Literature up to the seventeenth century can show. He has much about him we do not admire, but he is natural, reasonable, human. That these characteristics make Shylock therefore representa- tively Jewish is not so clear. Brandes calls him a tragic sym- bol of the degradation and vengefulness of an oppressed race," " a real man and a real Jew," compared to whom Barabas is only " an intolerable demon in a Jew's skin," " fit only for a fairy tale or a mad house "; and he argues his Jewish character from " his references to the Old Testament, his insistence upon the letter of the law, his reliance upon statutory rights (the only rights granted him), the restriction of his moral ideas to the principles of retribution, his Flebrew passionateness, his loath- ing of idleness, his logic, and his cold reasoning." I do not ques- tion that there is something Jewish about Shylock. I grant that there is something peculiarly Jewish about most of the char- acteristics here attributed to him. But while I hesitate even to question when the greatest of living Shakespearian critics speaks, I believe that it takes more than some Jewisli characteristics and many vices not distinctively Jewish, to make a man a Jew. I be- lieve Shylock to be an improvement, a vast improvement on It was supposed that Shake- \ 24 The Chautauqua System of Education Barabas. He is more human and more natural, and therefore more Jewish; because the Jew is human and natural. But in the Jew, there is something additional to all of this, and that something Shylock possesses to too small a degree. We may pity him where we cannot admire. We may rejoice in him as a distinct advance in the world's estimate of the Jew, but we cannot consider him a symbol of the degradation and venge- fulness of an oppressed race/' a real Jew," or a type of that people who- suffered much and sorrowed much, but who seldom retaliated, who despite their anguish and misery, stood by the flag of their faith thoug'h death was their reward. Shakespeare knew more of the Jew than did Marlowe, but there was much too, that he did not know. Marlowe and Shakespeare were born in the same year, lived in the same England, breathed the same political atmosphere, and were exposed to the same religious prejudices. Both lived at a time when the Jew^ was not allowed to live in England. Yet to the o-ne the Jew is Barabas, to the other he is Shylock. What explanation suggests itself? Of course men often see the same thing with different eyes. But since the Jew was but little known in London until the 17th century, and since if he lived there during the preceding century, he did so secretly, and, without disclosing his identity or seeking, recognition, he could have been a familiar figure neither to Mar- lowe nor to wShakespeare. Perhaps men yield differently to the prejudices of their day. Marlowe however, whO' was the more indifferent to public sentiment, paints the blacker Jew. To explain the difficulty, Brandes suggests that Shakespeare visited Italy and so Venice during the years 1 592-1 593, when due to the plague, the theatres were closed in London. In those days Venice was the Paris of Europe. Thither journeyed those who were interested in the best of art. Especially did many go- from England, and it is probable that of these Shakespeare was one. Jewish Characters in Fiction 25 If so, we can readily understand his intimate acquaintance with Italy and his rather remarkable knowledge of the Jew. For while the Jew was barred from England, Venice had a large Jewish colony. Of course a brief sojourn (and at best Shake- speare's suggested trip could have been no more), will hardly gain one an insight into the inner, hence the real life of a people. At most one sees but externals, and uses them as a basis for inference. Shakespeare may have seen the Jews in Venice. Still the Jew is not to him an open book, but a well with unfathomed depths. Shylock is as high above Barabas as are the heavens above the earth, but he is not the Jew. II. Suggestions. 1. Though born in the same year, Shakespeare was influenced by Marlowe. 2. Yet Barabas and Shylock have little in common, " The one is a rough draught ; the other a finished portrait/' Symonds. 3. In his life of Sixtus V, Gregorio Letti tells us that in 1587, Simone Cenade, a Jew living in Rome, wagered Paul Maria Sechi, a Christian, a pound of flesh against 1000 scudi, that the report that Sir Francis Drake, the English admiral, had con- quered San Domingo, was not true. When the report was veri- fied, Sechi demanded the flesh. The Jew was saved through the intervention of the governor of Rome. A similar version of the pound of flesh idea, was current in England before the time of Shakespeare, wherefore the claim has been made, that he purposely inverted the story, either because, in a day when the Jew was hated, the original version would not have proved acceptable to the masses, or because he himself was prejudiced. The claim has little to support it. 4. Shylock is meant to be not a condemnation of the Jew, but a defence. Why the defence is not clearer, more direct, and 26 The Chautauqua System of Education freer from mistake, is a question that does not lend itself to ready and simple answer. Scott says he could not marry Re- becca to Ivanhoe, because the prejudices of his day would neither have permitted nor approved the union. Did Shakespeare con- sciously refrain from making Shy lock better, stronger, and more humane? 5. Legally Shylock is in the right. " The trial is an utter travesty 011 justice." Lounsberry. 6. Shylock offers a defense of the Jew that is unanswerable. 7. He too loves his daughter and his home and reveres the memory of his wife. 8. Revenge is not a Jewish longing. It may be human nature to try to retaliate for wrongs done. From beginning to end Shakespeare apparently tries to justify the position of Shylo-ck. But Jewish thought sums itself up here in the words of Deuter- onomy. ' Vengeance is mine,' saith the Lord." Jewish law may have voiced the law of retaliation, but Jewish law as well forbade its literal application. Li the case at hand, it would have compelled Shakespeare to cho-ose between money payment and nothing. The idea of taking the pound of flesh would not have been countenanced. 9. The right to take payment in the flesh of the insolvent debtor was admitted in the Twelve Tables of ancient Rome, and was quite international. Shakespeare simply transferred it from an old semi-barbarous time to the Venice of his day." Brandes. 10. The Inquisition all over again. But then the Jew clung to his faith. Shylock deserts it. That is not Jewish. 11. Shylock has been identified with Roderigo Lopez, physi- cian of Elizabeth. 12. It is an illustration of the irony of history, that when in 1 571 the Venetian Senate determined to expel all the Jews, it Jewish Characters in Fiction 27 based its hope of securing peace from Turkey (into whose hands the island soon fell), on an influential Jew. 13. It has been said that at least 5000 Jews were living in Venice at the time of Shakespeare. A single illustration will suffice to show that their peace and 'safety were none too secure. Nicolas Antoine (1602-1632), a Catholic, wished to embrace Judaism. The Rabbis of Metz fearing to grant his request, sent him to Venice, where he met the same unsatisfactory reception. The conversion involved too much danger for all concerned. 14. Shylock is a wealthy merchant. Most of the merchants of the Levant were Jews. While hated, they still exerted much influence. .15. In 1 701 Lord Landsdowne published an altered version of the play under the title The Jew of Venice," but in the change, Shylock loses in strength and vitality. In the one he is powerful in his hatred. In the other he becomes merely mean and contemptible. 16. Despite the prejudice against him, the Jew during the Middle Ages could count many Christian friends. III. Tests and Reviews. 1. What does Greene mean when he says Marlowe's Jew of Malta was the herald of Shylock?" (History of England, II, 474.) 2. Compare Barabas and Shylock. 3. What gives color to the claim that Shakespeare visited Italy? 4. Did Shakespeare purposely invert the original pound of flesh story? 5. Prove that Shylock is not an attack upon, but a defense of the Jew. 6. Wherein lies the injustice of the trial? 28 The Chautauqua System of Education 7. What is the Jewish attitude toward revenge? 8. Who was Roderigo Lopez? 9. What do you know of the Jews of Venice? 10. Why did Anto-nio borrow money from a " hated Jew"? 11. Compare Shylock and Antonio. 12. What do you think of Jessica? 13. Has Shylock helped or hurt the Jewish cause? 14. What is meant by the Exchequer of the Jews? (Graetz, in, 588). 15. Sum up Shylock's defense of the Jew. 16. What is Jewish about Shylock? IV. Recommended Readings. England in the Sixteenth Century. Thornbury Shakespeare's England." Winter, Shakespeare's England." Brandes, 242-250. Guizot, ''Shakespeare and His Times," i-i57« London, 1485-1603. Besant, London," 263-371. The Drama in Shakespeare's Time. Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors," 18-73. The Theatre in Shakespeare's Time. Symond's, 212-253. Brandes, 98-112. The Jews in Italy in the Sixteenth Century. Graetz, IV, 650-675. fhe Jews in Venice. Graetz, IV, 600-601. Hosmer, The Story of the Jews," 204-208. Did Shakespeare visit Italy? Brandes, 113-118. Shakespeare and the Jews. Brandes, 164-168. Jewish Characters in Fiction 29 Sources of the Play. Guizot, 343-347- The Original of Shylock. Lee, Gentlemen's Magazine/' Feb., 1880. Did Shakespeare know any Jews? Furness, New Variorum Edition, Appendix to Merchant of Venice," 395-399- Shylock Legally in the Right. Ibid, 403-420. Shylock and Barabas. Symonds, 519-524. Jewish Encyclopedia, Barabas." Shakespeare's Originality. Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors." Brandes, 29-33. A Jew's Estimate of Shakespeare. Lee, Life of Shakespeare." Brandes Shakespeare. A Critical Study." GoUanz, Temple Edition of Shakespeare. Other Estimates. Bagehot, Shakespeare the Man." Lowell, ''Among My Books," 151-227. Emerson, " Representative Men." The Merchant of Venice " and " The Jew of Venice." Lounsberry, '' Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist," 328-338. The Jew in Commerce. Abrahams, "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," 211. The Social Position of the Jew in the Middle Ages. Waldstein, " The Jewish Question," 100-197. V. Readings in Class. Whittier, " The Two Rabbins." Isaacs, " The Rip Van Winkle " of the Talmud," from " Stories From the Rabbis." 30 The Chautauqua System of Education LESSON III. 1. Required Reading. ''The Duenna.'' Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (1751-1816). Shakespeare died in 1616. "The Merchant of Venice" ap- peared about 1597. "The Duenna" was written in 1775. Be- twen the two stretches a period of ahuost two centuries. In that time of course the world saw many changes. As already stated, when Shakespeare wrote, but few Jews could have lived in Eng- land. The first synagogue in London was built in 1662. Evi- dently by that time their number had increased, but we know that while Cromwell looked with kindly eye upon them, they still labored under political disabilities. Sheridan and Cumberland both wrote during the second half of the eighteenth century. Still the Jew was discriminated against. He was not legally recognized. He was hardly tol- erated. Yet he must have been in England now in large num- bers (else the " Naturalization Act " or " Emancipation Bill " would not have found expression), and he must have made his presence felt. People must have known him, and have known him for what he was. Yet he was discriminated against in life and caricatured in literature. Sheridan pictures him as a usurer, a trickster, a schemer. He is rather a light than a heavy villain, but he is still a villain. He is held up to ridicule, is laughed at, is frowned down upon, is condemned. He has not the redeem- ing features of a Shylock. Of course Sheridan wrote to entertain. He was a subtle sat- irist, but he did not hesitate to listen to the public voice. " The Duenna was remarkably successful. Sheridan, in his estimate of the Jew, was not alone. The people were with him, those who saw the play, those who read it, and those who did neither. Jewish Characters in Fiction 31 Sheridan was here the mouthpiece of the masses. He gave their sentiment dramatic expression, and became the hero of the hour. He had calculated well. Had Marlowe exerted himself, he might in some way have learned the truth about the Jew. Shakespeare lived where the Jew was almost an unknown quantity. Yet something of that truth became his. However, in those days, men were sel- dom willing to exert themselves to become acquainted with a people, at once ostracised and hated. The Jew was for them an uninteresting and unprofitable study. Marlowe might have knov/n better, but the requisite knowledge was not easy to secure. What was difficult for Marlowe, however, was easy for Sher- idan, for when the latter lived, the Jew was in London in goodly numbers. But quietly as he returned, so quietly did he for a time continue to live. Gradually he gained confidence. He was denied much that he deserved. But at least he could now live his faith openly, and he did. Superficial observers are accustomed to insisting that preju- dice is the result of ignorance. It is, but not always. Other causes contribute to its being. Sometimes men know the Jew and yet disKke him. Marlowe drew his Barabas because he knew no better. He could not know better. It is almost certain that he never saw a Jew. He laughed the weaknesses, the faults, the prejudices, even the virtues of his countrymen to scorn. Nevertheless he took the commonly accepted opinion of the Jew for granted, and repeated it in dramatic form as though it were true. We may criticise that dramatic expression and prove that Barabas is false. To what degree can we criticise Marlowe? The old Romans used to say " Ignorantia legis non excusat;" "Ignor- ance of the law is no excuse,'' a sentiment fundamental to Anglo- Saxon law likewise. Yet we look more leniently on wrong done 32 The Chautauqua System of Education through lack of knowledge, than on crimes committed with knowledge and foresight. We relieve a child from responsibili- ty for a deed for which a man would be severely punished. Had Sheridan cared to know the Jew he maligned and cari- catured, he would not, like Shakespeare, have had to journey to Italy. A few steps, a little patient study, would have brought him all the information he desired. He might have had it for the asking. But about an honest picture of the Jew there would have been nothing funny, and Sheridan delighted in caricature. And to tell the truth, that honest picture would scarcely have proven acceptable to the masses. Addison might speak a brave word in behalf of the Jew, but Addison was writing no play depending for its success on the favor of the theatre-going pub- lic. The Englishman of the eighteenth century lived next door to the Jew, but that Jew still remained to him a stranger. Sheridan satirized the faults of his day, ridiculed them, and so no doubt helped those to whom he addressed himself. But his caricature of the Jew helped neither truth nor justice. It succeeded in making men laugh, but it succeeded as well in per- petuating iniquitous and vicious falsehoods, and in delaying the day when the Jew would come into his own. II. Suggestions. I. As the Jews re-entered England without legal recognition, they remained without it for almost two centuries. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, liberal movements were stirring people everywhere. It was the time of Mendelssohn (1728-1786), of Lessing (1729-1781, Nathan the Wise " appeared in 1778), of Mirabeau (1749-1791). Montesquieu died in 1755. Remember his Spirit of the Laws." These were champions of Israel. England too had its champions of reform and emanci- pation, but the country as a whole remained orthodox and con- servative. So the Jew continued to labor under disadvantages. Jewish Characters in Fiction 33 Persecution is the product of orthodoxy. Tolerance is the child of liberalism. 2. In 1753, the Pelhams in England asked Parliament to pass a special bill permitting such Jews as applied, to be naturalized without taking the sacrament, as the law demanded. The bill was passed. But such a hue and cry arose that it had to be repealed the next year. Public sentiment was not tolerant. There is no page in the history of the eighteenth century that shows more decisively how low was the intellectual and political condition of English public opinion,'' Lecky. The opposition to the passage of the bill is well described in Maria Edgeworth's " Harrington." 3. It is interesting to notice that Joseph Addison (1672-1719), who did much to mold public opinion in his day, looked with liberal eye upon the Jews. He speaks, too, of the Jew in com- merce, but he speaks intelligently. The Jew finds in literature no such liberal treatment for almost another century. 4. Note that during the eighteenth century in England, the Catholics were even more disliked than the Jews. The same thing is still true. 5. Beaulieu quotes with evident approval the statement of Em. Faquet, that the eighteenth century was neither Chris- tian nor French.'' (cf. Israel Among the Nations," 54). Nor was it English. 6. The Duenna " appeared in 1775, and was an instantaneous success. It was even much more popular than Gay's " The Beggar's Opera," considered during the eighteenth century the best Enghsh opera. Brander Matthews considers it the pre- decessor of Pirafore." 7. In The School for Scandal " we also meet a Jewish char- acter, a Mr. Moses, a money-lender. Mendoza is by no means a strong character. Moses is even weaker. 34 The Chautauqua System oe Education 8. Mendoza is spoken of as a Portuguese Jew, who stands like a dead wall between church and synagogue, or like the blank leaves between the Old and New Testament." The expression is one of Sheridan's best. The meaning is clear. Mendoza had left Judaism, but was not yet a good Christian. The history of the Jew in Portugal is interesting. He was exiled in 1497, and not readmitted until 1821. The choice, Mohammed's se- verest alternative, was The Koran or the Sword." The In- quisition's milder alternative was Christianity or Exile." Most of the Jews chose exile, when they dared. Some few became converts. Many who lived in Portugal and Spain after the decree had been issued, remained as Marranos, surface or lip Christians, but heart Jews. 10. Many sentiments and expressions in ''The Duenna" sug- gest '' The Merchant of Venice." cf. Act IV., Scene i of the latter, with Act II., Scene 4, and Act III., Scene 7, of the former. 11. It has been said that Sheridan had Cumberland in mind when he drew the character of Sir Fretful Plagiary in '' The Critic." It was not unusual for dramatists to use the stage for such satirical purposes. 12. It is indicative of the character of the English stage dur- ing the eighteenth century, that in 1755 a number o-f the plays then being produced were stopped by the authorities, lest their immorality bring on England the fate which befell Lisbon (the earthquake of 1755). In 1719, one Arthur Bedford wrote a book, in which he said the dramatic literature of his day offended against 1400 texts in the Bible. To attain success, old plays had to be introduced under new titles. Thus Lord Landsdowne presented " The Merchant of Venice " as The Jew of Venice." 13. Observe that while Protestantism was the child of Catholic persecution, so soon as it came intO' power it became the father of similar persecution. Jewish Characters in Fiction 35 III. Tests and Reviews. 1. Trace briefly the history of the Jew in England (a) from 1066 to 1290; (b) From 1660 till the dawn of the nineteenth cen- tury. 2. What was the Emancipation Bill? Why after being passed, was it repealed ? 3. Why is the Jew oppressed and discriminated against in lands where Church and State are one, and treated liberally where no State religion is known? How about England? 4. Was the status of the Jew in England in the eighteenth century identical with that of the Catholic? Were both discrim- inated against for the same or different reasons? 5. When and why were the Jews exiled from Portugal? Who were the Marranos? 6. Co-mpare The Duenna " with The Beggar's Opera." 7. Compare Mendoza and Moses. 8. Has the early ill repute in which trade was held, any con- nection with anti-Semitism? 9. Mendoza is frequently humorous. How in this respect does he resemble other Jewish characters in fiction? 10. What does Addison mean when he says Jews are like pegs and nails in a great building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole frame together?'' IV. Recommended Readings. Resettlement of Jews in England. Graetz, V, 18-50. Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century," I, 283. Green, Short History of the English People," 590. 36 The Chautauqua System of Education Menasseh b. Israel. Magnus, ''Jewish Portraits/' 99-131. Wolf, Menasseh b. Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell." The Jew in England, 1750-1800. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History," 60-122. The Naturalization Bill of 1753. Picciotto, 80-86. Graetz, V, 336. The Duenna. Ohphant, " Life of Sheridan.'' Comparison with The Beggar's Opera." Lecky, I, 587. Harper's Magazine, VIII, 501-508. The English Stage in the Eighteenth Century. Lecky, I, 583. Portugal and the Jew. Graetz, IV, Index. Portugal. Joseph Addison. Jewish Encyclopedia. The Spectator, 495. The Jew in Europe, 1758-1775 (when The Duenna " appeared). Graetz, V, 291-392. V. Readings in Class. Lessing, Nathan the Wise " (Act HI, Scene 7). Auerbach, Leather Heart " (The Good Hour). Jewish Characters in Fiction 37 LESSON IV. L Required Reading. "The Jew.'' Richard Cumberland (1731-1811). The Jew was now permitted to dwell in England, but unless native born, was granted no citizenship. Came he from a for- eign country, he had no legal standing. He asked that this dis- crimination be removed. As we have seen, in 1753 his request was granted, and then almost at once the grant was revoked. Still the leaven was all the while at work. The new Renaissance was on, or rather the new Revolution. Oppression, intolerance, discrimination were beginning to beget their natural and inevit-'-.. - able results, discontent and restlessness. The rumblings were heard all over Europe. They were the rumbHngs of a long - sleeping volcano. Men were waking to a consciousness of their rights, and nerving themselves to a determination to demand them. They had been denied, them so long, that compromise would no longer be efifective. Promises were now useless. It was a question of the government yielding voluntarily, or being compelled to yield. In France, relying on its ''divine rights," royalty refused to listen. The Revolution was the result. Literature is the expression of a people's Hfe. But literature is often the source of a people's Hfe, directing the current of its activity into certain definite channels. So while all France rose to win the fight for liberty, the victory owed no little to the men who, intimately acquainted with the wrongs the people were suffering, pleaded with the authorities to right these wrongs, and then finding their pleadings of no avail, turned to the victims and taught them to strike for themselves. The soldier may win many a battle, but the pen is mightier than the sword." Rous- seau had clamored for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." Vol- 38 The Chautauqua System of Education taire and Diderot and D'Alembert and Montesquieu and Mirabeau, helped create the response to that cry. The move- ment grew. The cry was taken up, here, there and everywhere, and it was heard. England, conservative as it was, could not still that cry, or ren- der itself immune to the influence of the new movement. Per- haps it did not care to become liberal, but it could not help it. Civilization rides rough shod over those who would stand in its path. Progress has a way of insinuating itself into quarters where it knows it is not welcome. Men were made to grow and advance, else they were not here. The watchword of life is growth. Stagnation means death. Of course the French Revolution was a struggle largely politi- cal in nature. As a result a monarchy became a republic. But one hundred years ago church and state were still one. Religion and politics were so interwoven, that the overthrow of the one involved that of the other. Three hundred years before, the struggle resulting in the birth of Protestantism, promised much to the cause of religious freedom* But as time went on many of the blessings, momentarily resulting from the victory, were Tost^ so that the struggle had to be renewed. Even tO'-day religious liberty is not everywhere a fact. The raison d'etre of the French Revolution was a yearning for political right. When it was brought to a close, men enjoyed more of religious rights, than they had ever known. Now the Jew, wherever he lived (except in America), was de- nied both political and religious privilege ; but while, as in France, the masses were strong enough to gain the recognition they demanded, the Jew had neither sufficient strength of his own nor sympathy of others, to secure his demands a hearing. Nevertheless, since the influences that gave the French Revolu- tion impulse, knew no geographical limitations, and since be- tween the conditions of the downtrodden peasantry and his Jew isi[ Characters in Fiction 39 own, there was much resemblance, the injustice from which he suffered could not long remain unnoticed. Lessing saw it and sought to remove it in Germany. Cumberland saw it and did what he could to bring it to an end in England. A defence of an unpopular people requires courage. Also it is not apt to enjoy immortality. When Cumberland wrote, the dawn O'f freedom was breaking for the Jew in the distance. But there were few who dared to herald it, or attempt to assist its coming. Cumberland had nothing to gain by writing The Jew," but the denunciation of those about him, and the Bravo " of his own conscience. But for a noble soul, that is sufificient. There is but little pleasure in antagonizing men, but there is less pleasure in refusing conscience a hearing. If we can have friends only as we obey them and stultify ourselves, then God save us from our friends." For the first time the Jew in English fiction is a man, call him how you please," with somewhat exaggerated virtues it is true, but with virtues it may be necessarily exaggerated. The rep- resentative Jew it is true, is neither Slieva nor Shylock, not Barabas, and not Mendoza. While Marlowe and Shakespeare and Sheridan gave the Jew less than his due, Cumberland gave him more. Neither method is productive of exactness. But Cumberland taught at least this truth, that the Jew has no monopoly on vice, as the Christian has no monopoly on virtue. He has his faults, but he has his good quaHties also. He is not an angel. No more is he a devil. He is merely a man, call him how you please," but he is that at least. H. Suggestions. I. Sheridan's ''The Duenna" appeared in 1775, the year fol- lowing the death of Louis XV. The French Revolution prac- tically began in 1789. ''The Jew" was written in 1794, while the " Reign of Terror " was at its height. The revolution was 40 The Chautauqua System of Education a demand of the downtrodden for better treatment. The whole world felt the upheaval. Cumberland may well have been moved by the spirit that created that demand and The Jew " may be his expression of that spirit. 2. The hour was one of struggle for recognition and repre- sentation. 'Neath it all the Jewish Question could not lie dor- mant. When the struggle was over, the Jew too would share in the blessed results. 3. In a direct way, the nineteen years fro-m the appearance of The Duenna '' to that of " The Jew/' brought Israel few new privileges. 4. Sheva, good as he is, is still a money lender. Observe that every Jewish character in fiction thus far spoken of, has the same occupation. 5. Sheva is as good a Jew as Barabas is a villainous one. Neither is therefore representative. 6. To-day Cumberland is but little known and his Sheva even less so. The worst Jewish characters in fiction are the best re- membered, the best the most easily forgotten. The evil tliat men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones." 7. Cumberland is given to sentiment. The plots of many of his plays have striking similarities. Though his sentimentality is often wearisome, his morality is generally sound." He is always on the side of the downtrodden and oppressed. III. Tests and Reviews. I. What circumstances may have been responsible for so liberal a portrayal of the Jew? ^ 2. Sum up the virtues of Sheva and see if the average Jew pos- ' '^sesses them. Jkwisii Characters in Fiction 41 3. What qualities enter into the composition of the average Jewish character? 4. Compare Sheva and Mendoza; Sheva and Shylock. 5. Why is Shylock better known than Sheva? 6. What does Prof. Ward mean by saying Cumberland was possessed of theatrical instinct, though not of dramatic genius " ? 7. Did Cumberland help the Jewish cause and how? 8. Was Cumberland alone in his liberal estimate of the Jew? 9. What progress had the cause of the Jew made since the time of The Duenna " ? 10. How could French and American history in any way have affected the condition of the Jews in England? IV. Recommended Readings. The readings in Lesson III will be serviceable here. The Jew in Europe, 1 791 -1794 (when " The Jew " was written). Graetz, V, 428-452. The French Revolution and the Emancipation of the Jews. Graetz, V, 429-474. Cumberland's Attitude toward the Jew. Memoirs. The Jew in America 100 Years Ago. Jewish Encyclopedia. A Critical Estimate of Cumberland. Ward in Britannica. V. Readings in Class. Kompert, " The Ghetto Violet." Browning, Fillipo Baldunecci on the Privilege of Burial.'' 42 The ChautxVuoua System of Education LESSON V. 1. Reouired Reading. " Ivanhoe." Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Cumberland's The Jew " appeared when the French Revo- lution was at its height. Before another score of years had passed, Napoleon was defeated and the Revolution w^as over, but it had not been fought in vain. Later years proved that. For the time being, however, the rapid spread of Napoleonic ideas was checked. In 181 5 the Congress of Vienna convened, reapportioned Europe among the Powers, and endeavored to restore conditions to their pre-revolution state. If the revolu- tion stood for the spread of liberal ideas, the Congress of Vienna stood for the restoration of conservatism. But the world lives by growth and reform. That reform, overestimating its strength, or underestimating the force of opposition to be encountered, or in its zeal losing sight of its real purpose, may overstep its limits, become radical, and running for a time wild, may create the antagonism that will call it to a halt. Extremes usually defeat themselves. But real reform usually regains its equilibrium, and when it does, nothing can permanently hinder its progress. Conservatism may attempt to check it and may temporarily succeed. But victory belongs to growth. Scott wrote his Ivanhoe " while the reaction against Napoleon was strongest. The book appeared in 1820. Its action occurs during the last years of the twelfth century. It is not easy to forget what those years meant to the Jew\ Remember it was the time of the Crusades. The Crusades were born of religious sentiment curiously rnixed with much that was not religious, for hatred is foe to religion and belies it. Religious enthusiasm is always attractive, but fanaticism, while it may achieve tremen- Jewish Characters in Fiction 43 (Ions ends, lacks in appeal to reason. Religion is of course a matter. of feeling, but it is more than that. Disraeli is right in believing that men lacking in emotion fail of large influence. " Mormon counts more votaries than Bentham/' But the faith that is not anchored to reason and knowledge, is an unsafe guide. The Crusader was a fanatic. He fought for the restora- tion of Palestine. From his point of view that restoration was essential. From the view point of true religion, it lacked neces- sity. To the Crusader, the Mohammedan was a Pagan. Was not the Jew to him also Pagan? How did he discriminate? He began by loving Palestine. He concluded by hating all not of his faith. Scott's picture of the sufifering of the Jew is not overdrawn. To be sure, if we search lynx-eyed for inaccuracies we shall find them. Remember, hov/ever, that Scott wrote not of his own time, but of a day already more than six hundred years old. It is nothing short of remarkable that he could describe the condi- tions of that time so accurately, that he could so cut himself off from the life that was about him, and for the time being live the Hfe of the days long gone. Naturally, inevitably, his own immediate environment was not without its effect upon him. The condition of the Jew was not an enviable one. Humiliated, despised, cursed, his helpless condition made most people take advantage of him. That con- dition made Scott his champion. Years had passed since Cum- berland defended the Jew. Scott needed no less courage to write his Ivanhoe." He wrote of the twelfth century. The lesson still came home to his own generation. Isaac of York and Rebecca suffered when Richard the Lion-hearted lived. Yes, but many an Isaac and Rebecca still suffered during the reigns of George HI (1760-1820) and George IV (1820-1830). Scott said he could not permit Rebecca to marry Ivanhoe be- cause the prejudices of the day would have rendered such a 44 The Chautauqua System of Education union impossible. Is the statement a reflection of conditions obtaining when he wrote, as weU as during the period of which he wrote? At any rate, while the cause of the Jew had certainly advanced from the day when the entire community at York could be massacred in cold blood, it was still in need of champions like Cumberland and Macaulay and Scott. Who w^ill determine the degree to which these men were responsible for the position the Jew enjoys in England to-day ? II. Suggestions. 1. The Jews most likely came to Britain while it was still under Roman sway. They preceded both Saxons and Normans, and suffered at the hands of both. By Canute (994-1035) they were banished to the Continent, but they returned with William the Conqueror (1027-1087). From that time until 1189 they suf- fered comparatively little from prejudice. Neither tlie First nor the Second Crusade stirred the stolid English to any consider- able degree. Richard the Lion-hearted (11 57-1 199) was averse to the persecution of the Jews, yet it was at his coronation that that very persecution began, tho'Ugh he was not responsible for it and sought to check it. He took part in the Third Crusade. During his absence, his brother John, who practically usurped the throne, made the Jews' lot a hard one. 2. The massacre of the Jews at the coronation of Richard I. occurred on the 3d of September, 1189. The Jews were attacked and killed in great numbers at Norwich, February 6th, 1190, at Stamford, March 7th, 1190, at York, March 17th, 1190, and at Bury St. Edmunds, March 18th, 1190. The action of Ivanhoc " occurs during these troublous years, toward the end of the twelfth century. 3. Myers (Mediaeval and Modern History, 205) in presenting a perverted picture of Richard L, states that the money for the Jewish Characters in Fiction 45 Third Crusade was secured by the persecution and robbery of the Jews. The entire attitude of Richard toward the Jews would behe the statement. Money was secured from the Jews, but only as it was secured from all, and not because of any personal ani- mosity but simply because, due to the Crusade and its results, money had to be secured in some way. Very little discrimina- tion was shown. 4. Isaac is described as a man of wealth living in York. Two very wealthy Jews of York, Joceus (or Josce) and Benedict (the latter was converted to Christianity under compulsion, and later, when the fact became known, permitted by Richard I. to return to Judaism), are said to- have been individually responsible for the terrible fate that befell the Jews of that city. Their wealth made them the target of the fanatics of that time. Of the entire Jewish community not one was permitted to escape alive. They made a brave defense against the enemy (a braver defense is unknown), but it was vain. All, to the number of 500, were killed. 5. When " Ivanhoe was written (1820), the condition of the Jews was different from what it had been in earlier years. Yet full recognition was by no means their 's. Remember that it was not until 1830 that Macaulay made his famous address On the Civil Disabilities of the Jews.'' 6. Scott's defence of the Jew (for despite Isaac that is what " Ivanhoe " stands for) must have exerted a tremendous influence in changing the popular estimate of the Jew. 7. Though some deny it, many believe that the original of Rebecca of " Ivanhoe " was Rebecca Gratz, the remarkable Jew- ess of Philadelphia (1781-1869). She was a particularly close friend of Matilda Hoffman, the first, last and only love of Wash- ington Irving, and was with her in her last hours. Irving, who had always admired Miss Gratz, admired her now miore than 46 The Chautauqua System of Education ever, and on his visit to Scott in 1817, described her to him. Ivanhoe " was written in 1820. The hrst copy went to Irving, accompanied by a letter in which Scott wrote : How do you Hke your Rebecca? Does the Rebecca I have pictured compare well with the pattern given?" 8. Lockhart tells us that Scott became interested in the Jews and so wrote of them in " Ivanhoe/' because of a description of the condition of the Jews in Germany, which Mr. Skene had given him, while planning the plot of the book. In a letter to Mr. Skene after the appearance of Ivanhoe, Scott wrote: ''You will find the book owes no-t a little to your German reminiscences." 9. Again the virtue of parental affection. Isaac has his faults, but loves his daughter. So Shylock. In view of this fact Beaulieu's words are suggestive (but are they altogether true ?) : To a close observer the Jew is perhaps the most affectionate of men, but all his affection was reserved for his family or race. His nature, so hard and callous on the outside, remained tender in its innermost depths. The Jew, too, was a man . . . but he was a man toward his brethren only, toward those who treated him like a man. Against all others he clothed himself in an armor of spines, or rolled himself up in a ball, or else he shut himself in cold impassiveness." Israel Among the Nations," 10. Ivanhoe " is variously estimated : '' As a work of art, Ivanhoe is perhaps first of all Scott's efforts." — Lockhart. Ivanhoe never can be ranked with his (Scott's) highest achieve- ments." — Mrs. Oliphant. Scott at his worst, excels all others at their best." — Saintsbury. 11. Rebecca ''the sweetest character in the whole range of fiction." — Thackeray. In the introduction to the edition of 1830, Scott tells us that when first the book appeared, the character of Rebecca found so much favor, that he was censured for not Jewish Characters in Fiction 47 having married her instead of Rowena, much less interesting, to Ivanhoe. In answer, among other things, he said: Not to mention that the prejudices of the age rendered such a union impossible, the author may in passing observe, that he thinks| a character of a highly virtuous and lofty stamp is degraded rather than exalted, by an attempt to reward virtue with tem- poral prosperity. It is a dangerous and fatal doctrine to teach young persons, the most common readers of romance, that rec- titude of conduct and of principle are either' naturally allied with, or adequately rewarded by, the gratification of our passions or attainment of our wishes." 12. It is suggested that Aaron of York gave Scott his idea of Isaac. This Aaron was born in York some time before 1190 and died after 1253. He was probably the son of Josce of York mentioned above, and was for a time Chief Rabbi of England. 13. "I am not, God knows, a bigot in religious matters, nor a friend to persecution," wrote Scott to Southey; yet he called Catholicism a superstition," declared it silly, possessed of absurd ritual and solemnities and a good competence of non- sense." 14. Walter Bagehot, whose criticisms are usually worth ser- ious attention, insists that almost without exception Scott's char- acters are commonplace. We see them from without, not from within. We see how they dress and know how they speak, but we know nothing of their real feelings. They have no soul. 15. Thackeray, in his satirical way, objects to the conclusion of Ivanhoe," and in a somewhat humorous though scarcely ap- pealing burlesque, presents a sequel to the story. The bur- lesque gives us some idea of Thackeray's attitude toward the Jew. I. Describe the condition of the Jews in England at the time of the action of Ivanhoe," III. Tests and Reviews. 48 The Chautauqua System of Education 2. What was the condition of the EngHsh Jews when " Ivan- hoe " appeared? 3. What may have interested Scott in the fortunes of the Jews and suggested his Jewish characters? 4. Present briefly the Ufe of Rebecca Gratz. 5. Compare Rebecca Gratz with Rebecca Franks who became Lady Johnston. 6. Compare Rebecca and Rowena. 7. " Isaac of York is but a milder Shylock." Compare the two. 8. He wished not the world to elevate itself, to amend itself, to do this or do that, except simply pay him for the books he kept writing." — Carlyle speaking of Scott. Is the criticism just? Must the novel have a purpose? What is the difference between a historian and a historical novelist? 9. Can you mention any historical inaccuracies in " Ivanhoe "? 10. What, from Ivanhoe,'' would you judge to have been Scott's attitude toward other faiths? 11. Compare Scott and Thackeray in their ideas of the Jew. IV. Recommended Readings. Jews in Europe, 1171-1205. Graetz, III, 382-445. In England. Graetz, III, 409 f. In York. Graetz, III, 413 f. Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England," 77, 1 17-134, 385-396. Richard and the Jews. Jacobs, 131-138. Massacre at Coronation of Richard. Jacobs, 99-108. Jewish Characters in Fiction 49 Massacres at Norwich, Stamford, St. Edmunds, Lynn. Jacobs, 112-116. Jews in Germany, 1800 f. Graetz, V, 465. In England, 1800-1820, when Ivanhoe " was written. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History," 264-288. Aaro-n of York. Jewish Encyclopedia. Was Rebecca Gratz the original of Rebecca in ''Ivanhoe"? Affirmative: Gratz Von Rensselaer. Century, September 1882. Wharton, Colonial Days and Dames," 231-237. Morals, Jews of Philadelphia." Sartain, " Reminiscences." Negative: Andrew Lang's Edition of Ivanhoe, Introduction Lockhart, Life of Scott." Daly, Settlement of the Jews in North America." Rebecca Franks. Wharton, ''Through Colonial Doorways," 59-61, 2i;2-2i3, 217-219. M. Kohler, Rebecca Eranks, Ian American-Jewish Belle of the Revolution." Scott and Plis Mistakes. Hutton, " Life of Scott," 114-116. A Critical Estimate of Scott. Saintsbury, Scott," 69-156. Bagehot, " Literary Studies," II, 85-126. Scott's Estimate of '' Ivanhoe." Letter of Lawrence Templeton (Scott's pen name), to Rev. Dryasdust, prefixed to most editions of Ivanhoe. The Jews in Ivanhoe." Lockhart, II, 447. 50 The ChautauoUxV System of Education Macaiilay and the Jews. Address on the Bill for the RemoA^al of Jewish Disabilities. Thaekeray and the Jews. Burlesques, " Rebecca and Rowena/' and Codlingsby." The White Squall." Miss Lowe.'' The Journey from Cornhill to Cairo." See Jewish American," September 5, 1902. V. Readings in Class. Hanukah falls this year (1901) on Dec. 6th. The readings for Lesson V will therefore concern themselves with this day. Should the holiday occur in other years at a different time, the readings can of course be readily rearranged. Lazarus, The Banner of the Jew." " The Feast of Lights." Masoch, The Legend of the Roman Matron." Longfellow, Judas Maccabaeus." The following books of fiction treat of the period of history re- called by Hanukah. Church, The Hammer." Yonge, The Patriots of Palestine." Ludlow, Deborah." Jewish Characters in Fiction 51 LESSON VI. I. Required Reading. Oliver Twist." Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Rebecca and Fagin. — What a contrast! Yet the latter was born when the former was already seventeen years of age— - born at a time when again the cause of liberty and liberality was beginning to find voice. The Reform Bill was passed in 1832. Public sentiment compelled its passage. But public sentiment had not yet taken the Jew under its wing. So the Jew still sor- rowed, because he was misunderstood. But how comes it that a writer like Dickens, on the whole so liberal, and always the champion of the weak, the poor, the de- fenseless, could offer Fagin as a Jew? Surely he must have known that the picture was not true, and he must have known wli:^t its effect would be on The Jewish Question." Was he prejudiced against the Jew, and did he write to spread that pre- judice? In 1863, a Jewess of London to whom Fagin seemed unworthy of Dickens, wrote to him, remarking how surprised she was to find that Charles Dickens, the large hearted, whose works plead so eloquently for the oppressed of his country, has encouraged a vile prejudice against the despised Hebrew." The answer is characteristic of Dickens, but expressive of the sentiment of the day. It is an open and frank explanation, hon- est and clear. It shows how little Dickens was pandering to the popular taste when he drew Fagin, but it shows too how really little he knew of the Jew. " Fagin, in ' Oliver Twist ran his answer is a Jew, because it unfortunately was true at the time to which that story refers, that that class of criminal almost invarial)ly was a Jew. But surely, no sensible man or woman of your persuasion can fail to observe — firstly, that all 52 The Chautauqua System of Education the rest of the wicked dramatis personae are Christians, and sec- ondly, that he is called a Jew not because of his rehgion, but because of his race. If I were to write a story in which I de- scribed a Frenchmen or a Spaniard as the ' Roman Catholic,' I should do a very indecent and unjustifiable thing, but I make mention of Fagin as the Jew, because he is one of the Jewish people and because it conveys that kind of idea of him, which I should give my readers, of a Chinaman, by calling him Chinese/' This may be an explanation, but it is no justification. Dickens created his Fagin not because he hated the Jew, but because he did not know him. Is it not another illustration of the truth that " knowledge is saving?" The further question at once sug- gests itself. Is the Jew at all responsible for the prevalent ig- norance of the truth about him? A Jewess opened the eyes of Dickens, as we shall see when we consider Our Mutual Friend/' Is it not the Jew's duty to open the eyes of all that walk in darkness? " Carlyle in his usual brusque way, accuses Scott of writing merely for the money that was in it. Unless the reference is to the time when, it consequence of the Ballantyne failure, Scott wrote to pay ofif his debts, there is too much of real moral purpose running through not only Ivanhoe " but the other Waverley novels, to give the charge any weight. But what- ever the truth about Scott, Carlyle himself would hardly deny Dickens a purpose. Scott is more romantic; Dickens more real, more intense. Scott teaches while describing the past; Dickens by painting the present in all its liideousness. The one proved more entertaining, the other from a moral viewpoint more help- ful. For it is interesting to read of the times that were and feel stirring within, the desire to emulate the deeds of the days of chivalry. It is better to learn the truth about our own time, however sad that truth may be, providing only it inspires us to assist those in need of our assistance. Scott's novels sprang Jewish Characters in Fiction 53 into popular favor and still retain it. Dickens told men too much of truth to find immediate welcome. But men came to sec that truth at last, and that was the moment of Dickens' victory.' How much grander that victory would have been, if such an un- truth as Fagin had not been inextricably interwoven with it? Perhaps some day Dickens himself would realize the inconsis- tency, the injustice, and endeavor to make it good. With Scott and Dickens we leave the eighteenth and enter the nineteenth century. We come into the century during whose course the cause of freedom and liberalism triumphed. It is the period of Jewish emancipation, particularly in England. Many obstacles were yet to be encountered before that emancipation was complete. But no- such year as 1754 would again be known. The very year 1837, which begot a Fagin, saw the death of Wil- Ham IV. A new ruler, Queen Victoria, ascended the throne. With her coming, the cause of the Jew became brighter, as dur- ing her reign that cause gained its victory. When first she came, the Jew was already the recipient of an interested attention — not the undesirable attention of which he had been so long the victim, but an attention which gave him hope and promised good results. When by decree of God that good Queen left, the Jew could mourn her passing, no longer discriminated against, but blessed with the rights and recognition for which he had so long hoped and fought. II. Suggestions. I. How does it come that Dickens, otherwise so liberal and always on the side of the oppressed, created such a character as Fagin? The answer is found in Dickens' inability to grasp the vital distinction betw^een religion and race and nationality. To him the word Jew is like the name Chinese. Both refer to national races, or racial nations. He had no personal prejudice. When shown the wrong Fagin did the Jew, he apologized in striking: form. 54 The Chautauqua System of Education 2. Another fault of Dickens. He generalizes from the special, instead of specializing from the general. Instead of determining fiuman nature, and then creating a character illustrating it, he hits upon an exceptional character and makes it stand for all. He knew a Jew like Fagin, he tells us. Therefore he must needs make his Fagin stand as representative of the Jews of his day. " He expands traits into people/' as Walter Bagehot puts it. 3. Dickens was a writer with a purpose. " I wished to show in little Oliver, the principle of good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last." The full purpose of " Oliver Twist " must have been even larger, the creation of an interest in the submerged tenth. Dickens was " the advocate of the absent." Stanley. Fie pleaded the cause of the poor, who, wath us always, are often forgotten of us. 4. Dickens and Thackeray are often spoken of in the same breath. They were for a long time friends, but, later became estranged. Yet each continued to speak well of the other. (Sec reference to Dickens in " Pendennis " and estimate of Thackeray by Dickens after former's death.) The two men lived in the same country and at the same time. Yet there was no resem- blance between them. From Thackeray you gain a lower esti- mate and appreciation of life; from Dickens a higher. Thack- eray was a cynic. His own life made him so. Dickens loved men, and was happy, even though as Lanier says " he takes the slums and raggedest miseries of London and plumps them boldly down in the parlors of high life." We laugh at the characters of Thackeray. We laugh wifli those of Dickens. 5. Dickens began with an earnest desire to reform. He criti- cized with a purpose and suggested practical remedies for existing conditions. By the time old age came upon him, his criticism had become more general and less specific, more in- tense and less just, more theoretic, less practical. Its tone de- Jewish Ciiakactkrs in I^iction g-encratcd. At first it produced reform, later only an unsatis- factory discontent. 6. Scott sprang into popularity, Dickens grew into it. 7. Dickens knew little of the higher and better side of Eng- lish life. Its lower side was to him an open book. He saw only the " Darkest England." 8. Oliver Twist " was written in 1837. Remember that it was not until 1846 that the disabilities of the Jew in England were finally removed. The terrible Damascus affair occurred in 1840. 9. Influential as was Dickens as a writer, his Fagin could not have been without effect in intensifying the dislike of the Jew. Whether and hovv^ much Dickens thus delayed the emancipation of the Jew, is another question. 10. Mackenzie, in his life of Dickens, tells us of the originals of many of Dickens' characters. No- original of Fagin is men- tioned. None has yet been found. Why Dickens sHould have made him (Fagin) a Jew," says Rimmer " is not apparent, for Jews, as a rule, are among the most law-abiding subjects in any land. But it is said that he was a real portrait. Still he is not a representative character. Men bred ancl born in London, or Birmingham or Liverpool, Gentiles let us say, of no very defined creed, could much more easily be found to fill the char- acter." III. Tests and Review^s. 1. What is the difference between a race, a nation and a religion? Is Israel a race, a nationahty or a rehgious brother- hood? 2. What did Dickens think of the Jews? 3. Is Fagin either true or representative? 4. How could a character like Fagin hurt the Jew? 5. What was the status of the Jew in England when '' Oliver Twist" was written? 56 The Chautauqua System of Education 6. Describe the Damascus charge and its outcome. 7. Could OHver Twist in any way have been responsible for the tardy emancipation of the Jews? 8. Dickens claims that at the time the story was written every criminal like Fagin was a Jew. Is the statement true or liberal? 9. Compare Dickens and Thackeray. 10. What was the purpose of Oliver Twist "? What is meant by the statement that Dickens was the advocate of the absent." What did he try to do for the poor? What did he succeed in doing? 11. What do you think of Dickens' description of the lower life of London? IV. Recommended Readings. How Oliver Twist " was written. Forster, Life of Dickens," I, 152-164. A Critical Estimate of Dickens. Bagehot, " Literary Studies/' II, 127-167. Dickens and Reform. Forster, I, 157-162. The Originals of the Characters of Dickens. Mackenzie, Life of Dickens,'' 188-209. Dickens and the Jew. Max Kohler, The American Hebrew, Sept. 24, 1897. A. A. Green, American Israelite, Jan. 6, 1898. Mackenzie, 233-35. rrhe European Jew, 1830-1840. Graetz, V, 589-631. The Jew in England. Lady Magnus, " Outlines of Jewish History," 315-334. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times," II, 115-118. Wolf, "Life of Montefiore." Jewish Characters in Fiction The Damascus Af¥air. Graetz, V, 632-636. Picciotto, " Sketches/' 347-358. Dickens and Thackeray, A Contrast. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times,'' II, 549-554. Ward, Life of Dickens," 165. V. Readings in Class. Lucas, Hillel and His Guest," in " The Jewish Year." Schnabel, The False Turn," in Vo-egele's Marriage." 58 The Chautauqua System of Education LESSON VII. I. Required Reading. Our Mutual Friend." Charles Dickens (1812-1870). In Harper's Magazine for September, 1899, Mark Twain had an article Concerning the Jews." It was an honest, impartial consideration of the Jew and the Jewish Question. In speaking of the Jew as a citizen, he said that the Jew is charged with an unpatriotic disinclination to stand by the flag as a soldier — like the Christian Quaker." He did not say the charge was true, or that he believed it to be true. He even admitted that if it was true, it was a truth not limited to the Jew. This very men- tion of the charge however gave it prominence and so hurt the Jew. Mr. Simon Wolf of Washington at once sent the humorist a copy of his book, The American Jew, as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen," with the result that when the article Concerning the Jews " appeared later in the volume The Man That Cor- rupted Hadleyburg " a postscript was added, in which the author co-nfessed the mistake he had made, and corrected it. He had not really charged the Jew with cowardice, but through ignor- ance of the real facts in the case, he had allowed that charge to stand undenied. Now he saw the truth and he was willing to give the truth the publicity he had given the lie. It was his apology. It was the most, the best, he could do. Now it requires both bravery and honesty to make such a public apology, and writers have not always been brave and hon- est. That is why, while the Jew has so often been wronged in literature, those who thus wronged him. refused to confess their mistake, or do anything to repair the wrong done. Marlowe and Shakespeare could not perhaps have removed the evil effects of Jewish Characters in Fiction 59 Barabas and Shylock, by creating* other and truer Jewish char- acters. But they could certainly have lessened these evil effects. Be it said to the credit of Dickens, that when he saw the mis- take he had made in his " Fagin/' he at once tried to correct it. He was not a man of prejudice. When he wrote Oliver Twist/' he simply did not know the Jew. He had heard much of him and had read something al)out him, and he believed what he heard and read. Fie thought Fagin a real Jew, even a repre- sentative one. In 1863, as we have seen, he found he had done the Jew a wrong. Verbal apology meant little. So he gave that apology literary expression. He created Riah. Two years later, Dickens received from the Jewess who in 1863 criticized his Fagin, a copy of Benisch's Hebrew and Eng- lish Bible, with this inscription: " Presented to Charles Dick- ens, Esq., in grateful and admiring recognition of his having exercised the noblest quality man can possess, thar of atoning for an injury as soon as conscious of having inflicted it." In answer Dickens wrote: The terms in which you send me that mark of remembrance, are more gratifying to me than I can possibly express to you, for they assure me there is nothing but good will felt between me, and a people for whom I have a real regard, and to whom I would not willingly have given an offense or done an injustice, for any worldly consideration." It is questionable whether Dickens' apology exerted much influence or achieved any result. It certainly was not respon- sible for the emancipation of the Jew in England. By the year 1865 when Our Mutual Friend " was written, Jewish emancipa- tion in England was practically complete. Fagin must have done more to retard that consummation than Riah to hurry it, or bring it about. The apology could not right the wrong. An apology never does right a wrong. Sheva did not redeem SHy - lock. Riah was the best compensation Dickens could offer. Hut it did not offset the evil influence of Fagin. It could not. 6o The Chautauqua System of Education One bad Jew does Israel harm a score of good Jews cannot undo. And Dickens knew it. I reflected he makes Riah say in telling Jenny of his connection with Fledgeby, " I reflected for the first time, that in bending my neck to the yoke I was willing to wear, I bent the necks of the whole Jewish people. For it is not in Christian countries with the Jews as with other peoples. Men say, ' This is a bad Greek, but there are good Greeks. This is a bad Turk, but there are good Turks.' Not so with the Jews. Men find the bad among us easily enough (among what peoples are the bad not easily found?), but they take the worst of us as samples of the best; they take the lowest of us as presentations of the highest; and they say, ^All Jews are aHke.' Dickens knew his Fagin had helped to spread and per- petuate anti-Jewish prejudice, but he did not know it until long after Oliver Twist " had been written. If he had known in 1837 what he learned in 1863, Fagin would most likely never have seen the light of day. But learning the truth only after the wrong had been done, he did the best he could to make re- paration. It is the most any brave and honest man can do. II. Suggestions. 1. ''Oliver Twist" was written in 1837. ''Our Mutual Friend " in 1865, and Tancred " by Disraeli, which we consider in Lesson VIII, in 1847. Chronologically therefore, Tancred precedes Our Mutual Friend,'' but we give the latter first treat- ment, because Riah was meant to be an apology for^ Fagin, 2. Fagin and Riah, both pictured as Jews, yet with nothing in common. The one, an embodiment of all that is vicious; the other a paragon of all that is virtuous. 3. Riah's one faiilt, he cowers and cringes to Fledgeby. When the Jew knew no rights, he seldom dared speak out, or defy his oppressors. He suffered patiently. But in England, by the year 1866, the Jew was reheved of every vestige of dis- Jewish Characters in Fiction 6i crimination, and enjoyed every privilege. Still it takes time to outgrow habit. 4. ''Who but you and I ever heard of a poor Jew"? asks Fledgeby, '' The Jews," is Riah's answer. The world believes every Jew to be rich; the Jew knows most Jews to be poor. 5. Riah, good as he is, is still concerned with money-lending. Dickens had come to see much of the truth about the Jew, but he was still given to exaggerated generalization. 6. In general, Our Mutual Friend " is criticised as being one of Dickens' poorest efforts. It was written but five years before his death, and during a severe illness. Had this iconoclastic but ignorant zeal. . .which. . .was apparent in his last completed novel, been united with less original genius, the result must have been infinitely tedious, and could not have been in any way profitable." — Saintsbury. McCarthy is no less severe in his criticism. Dickens had as little knowledge of any kind save that which is derived fro-m observation, as any respectable Eng- lishman could well have." 7. The Revolutions of February and March, 1848, brought the Jews many blessings. They really emancipated the Jews. In 1865 our own Civil War came to an end, and the negro slave became free. By that time the Jew could help bestow freedom. 8. When Riah hears of Fledgeby's injuries, he wishes to visit and tend him at once. How unlike Shylock and Barabas! 9. Dickens wrote his every volume with a purpose. The pur- pose of ''Our Mutual Friend" he explains in his postscript, which takes the place of a preface. He wished to correct the abuses of the English Poor Law. HI. Tests and Reviews. 1. What led Dickens to create the character of Riah? 2. Compare Fagin and Ria-h. 62 The Chautauqua System of Education 3 Does Fagin apologize for Riah? 4. Can an apology remove the evil effects of a wrong done? 5. What has Dickens done for the Jews? 6. What progress did the Jewish Cause make from 1837, when Oliver Twist was written, to 1865, when Our Mutual Friend" appeared? 7. Mrs. ]\Iilvey, learning that Lizzie is staying at Riah's, fears he will try to convert her to his religion. Lizzie answers, They never talk of theirs to us, and they never talk of ours to us." Is Judaism a missionary religion? 8. Chap. XIII is introduced by these w^ords: ''Give a dog a bad name, and hang him." The reference is to Fleclgeby's denunciation of Riah. Have these words larger significance? 9. Why is Our Mutual Friend " not generally considered as strong a book as '' Oliver Twist "? Have the Jewish characters anything to do with that judgment? Setting aside critical esti- mates, what do you think of " Our Mutual Friend " ? 10. " Riah is a mere stage saint." — Ward. Do you agree with the criticism? 11. Compare Riah and Sheva. IV. Recommended Readings. The Readings in Lesson VI may here be referred to. Riah an Apology for Fagin. Forster, "'Life of Dickens," HI, 372 f. Ward, " Life of Dickens," 173 f. Green, The Jew in Fiction," American Israelite, Jan. 6, '98- The Beginning and Development of Our Mutual Friend." Forster, HI, 371-379. The London of Our Mutual Friend." Rimmer, About England witli Dickens," 246-265. Jewish Ciiaractkrs in Ficiion A Critical Estimate of '\ Our Mutual Friend/' Ward, 169-175. The Jew After 1848. Graetz, V, 697-704. The Removal of Jewish Disabilities. Picciotto, 386-401. V. Readings in Class. Longfellow, The Legend of Rabbi b. Levi." Gordon, The Conquest of Aaron Pittrick," in Daughters of Shem and Other Stories." 64 Ihe Chautauqua System of Education LESSON VIII. 1. Required Reading. Tancred." Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). Dickens was a realist. He described merely one side of Eng- lish life, the lower. But he described it as it was. He was seek- ing truth and when he found it, he gave it striking expression, whether that expression could be accounted art or not. He was eminently practical. He was interested in his own day and in his own surroundings. He labored with the present. So far as he was concerned, the future could take care of itself, while the dead past " could bury its dead." Disraeli was one of the Dreamers of the Ghetto." He too knew his day, and he knew men. Had he not known them, he could never have exerted such tremendous political influence. But with it all, he always dreamed. It was as though he lived two lives, one eminently practical, the other romantic. Zangwill calls him The Primrose Sphinx." Indeed he was and is a mystery. Who can say what he really was or what he really hoped to accomplish? Looking back over his life, it is remarka- ble how many of his dreams came true. He made them come true. He was an idealist, but a realist as well. Brandes has written a life of Disraeli based almost wholly on his literary productions. For Disraeli wrote himself into his books. They constitute his autobiography. Their characters dream for him, speak for him, act for him, endure for him. He made no efTort to hide himself. To understand Disraeli we must read his novels. But to understand his novels we must also study his life. Once a Jew always a Jew." Disraeli was baptized when but a child, because his father had deserted Judaism. But baptism Jewish Characters in Fiction 65 made him no less Jewish. He continued to speak for the Jew, write for the Jew and fight for the Jew. How much good he did the Jewish cause, it is hard to tell. " He had always assisted the movement (civil emancipation of the Jew) . . . unlike some other men, who carried on their faces the evidence of their Hebrew extraction, and who yet made themselves conspicuous for their opposition to it." — McCarthy. Whatever Disraeli's direct influence on the Jewish Question, his indirect influence must have been tremendous. He lived to see the English Jew enjoying the freedom so long denied him. Disraeli hoped for Israel's future, but he gloried in its past. He never tired of enumerating its contributions to civilization. His zeal, however, led him to exaggeratioin, and it led him as well to mistake. Jewish birth, though it may lead to, is not in itself Jewish worth. Israel is not a pure unmixed race, if it is a race at all. The Jew has given the world much, but he has not given it all its blessings. Judaism is not merely Oriental, it is universal. It is a religion rather of duty than of privilege, of sentiment not sentimentalism. Disraeli could not or would not understand all this. The world did not like him because he was a Jew. Well, he would prove to the world that the Jew was its most generous benefactor. Without the Jew, no civilization," was his cry. Exaggeration and generalization sometimes win the day by taking men by surprise. But often when the reaction sets in, even the truth is denied. Disraeli was thoroughly oriental in temperament. He loved the East, thought of it, dreamed of it, for there Israel had lived and achieved. He visited Spain, whence his own immediate ancestors had been exiled in 1492. He journeyed to Venice, whither they had gone and where they lived when Shakespeare pictured his Shylock. He went to Malta, and was received with open arms and loud acclaim. What a contrast to the position of Barabas! He travelled still eastward. For him, eastward 66 The Chautauqua System of Education the course of Empire " took its way." He reached Palestine and dreamed dreams and saw visions." He was inspired. Why should not Israel again become the power it once was? Why should not England become a world empire embracing all the East? He returned to Engfand still dreaming. " Alroy is an expression of that dream. So is Tancred." For England the dream was realized. For Israel? Had Disraeli remained in the Ghetto/' says Zangwill, speaking of The Redemption of Palestine/' " he might have applied his unifying intellect to Israel instead of to the British Empire, as sprawling and incoherent in his day, as Israel is in ours." Zangwill, too, is a dreamer. After all, is not every Jew a dreamer, or did he dream in days gone by, and now dreams no more? Who will answer the riddle of the Sphinx? Nominally a Christian, he is Jewish in belief and feeling. A Tory in politics, he supports liberal movements. Oriental in temperament, he is English through and through. A dreamer, yet w^ith a thorough knowledge of men and a practical grasp of contemporary events. Careless of opposition, indifTerent to personal attack, almost feelingless, Sidonia himself, apparently all mind and no heart, he is responsive to every suffering cry. While Disraeli never forgot a friend, he never remembered a personal affront."- — Froude. Carlyle always denounced him. Yet he was the only prinie-minister who saw the disgrace to England, in permitting Carlyle to live unhonored and unrewarded. Leech had carica- tured him in Punch " for twenty years. Yet when Leech died, Disraeli had his pension continued for the wife and child. How shall we explain the paradox? We attempt no explanation. We cannot analyze genius. We cannot read men's souls. Some men's personalities are like inscriptions in an unknown tongue. They can be studied, and read if at all, but by a few, and then only after lengthy, critical examination. Disraeli's . character was fashioned of a curious co-mbination of differing Jewish Ciiaractrrs tn "P'tctton 67 elements. But those differing elements produced a powerful individuality, one that knew no fear and no failure. In the vision at Sinai, the angel says to Tancred: " Fear not, faint not, faJter not. Obey the impulse of thine own spirit and find a ready instrument in every human being.'' It was the rule of Disraeli's own life, and obedience to it brought him the success he attained. At the height of that success, three verses from In Mem.oriam " were applied to him. The application was ridiculed. At his death those lines were quoted again, for they were true. Who breaks his birth's iiividions bar And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance, And grapples with his evil star; " Who makes by force his merit known, And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne ; " And moving up from high to higher, Becomes on fortune's crowning slope, The pillar of a people's hope, The centre of a world's desire." II. Suggestions. 1. When Isaac DTsraeli withdrew from the Jevv^ish fold, Benjamin was but thirteen years of age, old enough, if report speaks truly, to give Samuel Rogers permission to have him baptized, but certainly too young to appreciate the step. 2. Though thereafter nominally Christian, Disraeli was never virtually so. To the world of course he was still Jew, despite his baptism. (Is that not always the case?) The world's atti- tude threw him back upon himself. The world did not like the Jew. The world did not like him because he was a Jew. He 68 The Chautauqua System of Education would make that world see that the Jew was a member of history's truest and noblest aristocracy. 3. Disraeli's estimate of the Jew is to be found in ''Alroy," the story of a Jewish dreamer; in Coningsby/' a political novel; in " Tancred/' and in ''The Life of George Bentinck." In his preface to '' Coningsby " he says: ''The author thought the time had arrived when some attempt should be made to do justice to the race which had founded Christianity." The same purpose runs through " Tancred/' which appeared thirteen years after " Coningsby.'' 4. Though defending Judaism and the Jew, Disraeli always professed an orthodox Christianity; but to him that Christ- ianity was but liberal Judaism. " Jesus was a great man, but he was a Jew." The Christianity I draw from your books is not the Christianity you practice." " Christianity is Judaism for the multitude." The same strain runs through all his religious and theological discussions. 5. To Disraeli the Jew is great because he belongs to a great race, the Semite race. " The Hebrew is an unmixed race." " An unmixed race of a first-rate organization are the aristoc- racy of nature." " You cannot destroy a pure race of Caucasian organization." " All is race. There is no other truth." But there is other truth. 6. Misled by his philosophy of Jewish racialism, Disraeli, in his effort to* have justice done the Jew, claims as Jews, many great men who have been anything but Jews. Is not the disease often a chronic one to-day? 7. Yet in showing the Jewish character and origin of much that is termed Christian, and in arguing the Jewish character of Christ himself, the author of " Tancred " is at once with the Best liberal thought of to-day, Christian and Jewish. 8. Strange to* say, however, he is altogether lacking in exact Jewish Characters in Fiction 69 scientific knowledge. He talks like a parish clerk, of the great scientific problems and ideas of his day." — Brandes. He cared more for sentiment than philosophy, for imagination than reason. Mormon counts more votaries than Bentham.'' 9. Disraeli loved the Orient. He always dreamed of it. His dreams fashioned some of his political policies and created some of his books. Tancred " is a dream, and a prophecy. 10. As he dreamed he prophesied, and, remarkable to relate, he realized most of his prophecies. 11. We see in Tancred " how much Disraeli put himself into his writings. We find much of him in Tancred himself, much in Eva, much in Fakredeen. His characters are but his mouth- pieces. 12. Sidonia, who helps Tancred on his way, and whom Baroni so loves, and all so admire, plays a more important part in " Coningsby " than in " Tancred." Sidoiiia, brilHant, but without feeling. ''x\fifections," says he, are the children of ignorance." Again Disraeli. 13. Fakredeen, the most original character Lord Beacons- field has ever drawn." — Brandes. His dream of an Asiatic Empire, like Disraeli's dream of an English Empire. 14. The vision of Tancred at Sinai, recalls the vision of Alroy in the tomb of the kings. 15. ''We are Sephardim," says Sidonia, descendants of Spanish Jews, who became Marranos, but who when they left' Spain, at once professed their Judaism. These are but historic facts in the life of the Disraeli family. 16. "Tancred" introduces us to the land and faith of, Ma- homet. When Mahomet first announced his new movement, he found Httle response and much ridicule at the hands of the Jews. At once he broke with Judaism, and with radical hand did away with many Jewish features, that would otherwise have found place in the faith he preached. 70 The Chautauqua System of Education 17. In view of the present Roumanian outrages against the Jew, it is interesting to remember that Disraeh was responsible for that clause in the Berlin treaty which gave Roumania its independence, on the express condition that the difference of religious creeds and confessions shall not be alleged against any person, as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relat- ing to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, admission to public employment, function anH honors, or the exercise of various professions and industries in any locality whatever." 18. Thackeray burlesques Disraeli in Coningsby " as he did Scott in " Rowena and Rebecca." Half the Hebrew's life is a disguise/' is Thackeray's estimate. HI. Tests and Reviews. 1. Sum up briefly the main facts in the life of Disraeli. 2. How did the Disraelis become Christians? 3. What, despite baptism, prompted Lord Beaconsfield's de- fence of the Jew? 4. What was that defence? What estimate do you place upon it? 5. Describe the character of Disraeli. How did his character affect his writings and his achievements? 6. What must be the relation between reason and feeling? 7. Mention some of the facts and views in Tancred " that are merely autobiographical. 8. What prophecies, first given expression in his novels, did Disraeli later realize? 9. What do you think of Disraeli's high estimate of Jewish racialism in particular and racial qualities in general? 10. How does the Jew look upon Jesus? 11. What was the relation between Mahomet and the Arabian Jews ? Jewish Characters in Fiction 71 IV. Recommended Readings. Hebrew Statesmen. Hosnier, "The Jews," 294-311. Disraeli writes of the Jew in: Alroy. (1833). Coningsby. (1844). Tancred. (1847). Life of George Bentinck. (1851). Disraeli as Dreamer. Zangwill, Dreamers of the Ghetto," 424-431. A Critical Estimate of Disraeli. Froude, " The Earl of Beaconsfield," 254-262. Kebbel, '' Life of Beaconsfield," 161-206. Latimer, " England in the XIX. Century," 343-372. McCarthy, " History of Our Own Times," I, 256-275. Conway, ''The Wandering Jew," 295-311. Progress of the Jewish Cause in England During Disraeli's Time. McCarthy, II, 1 10-126. The Congress of Berlin. McCarthy, II, 595-613. The Jews and Jesus. Wise, " The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth." Jacobs, " As Others Saw Him." Hirsch, " The Crucifixion." Croly, " Tarry Thou Till I Come." Appendix. Weinstock, " Jesus the Jew." Krauskopf, " A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Plays." Disraeli Viewed Through Jewish Eyes. Brandes, " Lord Beaconsfield." R. Gottheil, " Benjamin Disraeli." Chautauquan, April, 1899. E. Lazarus, "Was Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?" Century, April, 1882. 72 The Chautauqua System of Education Mahomet. Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Worship." Mahomet and the Jews. Graetz, H, 71-85. Sale. Koran." Sura of the Cow. The Rechabites. Britannica. The Prophecies of Disraeli. Latimer, 359. Brandes, 288-290. Thackeray on DisraeH. Burlesques, Coningsby." The Religion of Disraeli. Froude, 165-167. The Jew in Europe, 1840-1847 (when Tancred " was written). Graetz, V, 667-696. V. Readings in Class. Jehuda Halevi, Ode to Zion " (in Songs of Exile," by Nina Davis). Zangwill, The Palestine Pilgrim." Jewish Characters in Fiction 73 LESSON IX. 1. Required Reading. The Vale of Cedars." Grace Aguilar (1812-1847). In Tancred " we have a Jewish estimate of the Jew, the first Jewish estimate in Enghsh fiction. After all, convictions count. Though Christian in name, Disraeli was Jewish in thought, and thought and belief in religion mean mxore than name. Jewish birth is less than Jewish worth. In " The Vale of Cedars," we are given another Jewish esti- mate of the Jew, but it differs vitall}^ from that in Tancred." Disraeli writes of modern times; Grace Aguilar of the past. Disraeli of the Orient and England; Grace Aguilar of Spain. Necessarily the Jews both describe, differ. Men do not merely influence their age and surroundings. They are in turn influ- enced by them. The Jew of Palestine is not the Jew of Spain, though the Jew of Spain may once have been the Jew of Palestine. Nor is the Jew of the nineteenth century the Jew of the fifteenth. All Jews may be brothers, (there is a Jewish solidarity) and there may be a Jewish conservatism. But neither Jewish solidarity nor Jewish conservatism has been proof against influence from with- out. The Jew has given the world much, but he has taken from it also. In some respects the conqueror has been conquered. The Jew is to a degree the product of time and place, of age and circumstance. Therefore Marie and Eva are not the same, though both are the creation of Jewish minds. But aside from this, a waiter can put only himself into his work. Let him seek to hide himself as he may, his literary productions will constitute his biography. Emerson quotes a painter who said no artist could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree." Disraeli wrote himself into his books. He could not 74 The Chautauqua System of Education help it. The same may be said of Grace Aguilar. That is why we find the one in Tancred," the other in The \ ale of Cedars/' Disraeli believed a man could do anything-, if he but determine^! to do it, and persisted in the determination. His own life was the most striking illustration of his philosophy. Yet he was a be- liever in tradition. The past meant everything to him. He reveled in that past and when not disturbed by affairs of state, lived in it. Grace Aguilar, too, loved Israel's past. She grieved that her coreligionists did not have a better acquaintance with that past. She did what she could to develop that acquaintance. She urged the study of Hebrew. But with it all, she was not a traditionalist. Indeed, she often claimed that tradition shackled the Jewish mind, a claim Leeser, who edited her " Spirit of Judaism " and Jewish Faith," in his editorial notes, often combats. Certain it is, that while loving Judaism, and upholding and defending it, she was :i powerful champion of reform. She felt that in England, at least, the absence of such reform denied the Jew an interest in Judaism, and denied the Jewess Judaism altogether. For the young man in the synagogue, she argued, there were teachers and books ; for the young woman, neither. True, we do not find all of this in The Vale of Cedars," but we can understand the book only as we understand the writer. She was loyal to her Judaism. It was her Judaism. After all, must not Judaism be an individual matter? Her Judaism may not have been your's or mine, but it was a worthy Judaism, and such as it was, she tried to give it to others, and make it part of them as it was of her. It meant much to her. She earnestly and sincerely worked to make it mean as much to others. The Vale of Cedars " is a story of Jewish, or rather Marrano life in Spain during the fifteenth century. For the student of Jewish history, Spain has an indescribable charm. For there the Jew lived long and achieved much. He came to Spain most likely \ Jewish Cttaractrrs in Fiction 75 during the time of the Roman RepubUc. He came as a freeman, but as soon as Christianity became influential there, he began to suffer. The coming of the Mohammedans was for him a bless- ing. For four centuries and more (710-1150) he lived in Para- dise. Then began the Almohade Dynasty, and again the Jew suffered. Gradually Catholic power grew in Spain. The Jew hoped and prayed that its growth might mean peace for him. For a time his prayer was answered and his hope realized, but only for a time. Mediaeval Christianity was sincere, but narrow, fanatical and bigoted. So long as it had other political forces with which to contend, it overlooked the Jew, or looked to him merely for financial aid. Ihit when it was mistress of all it sur- veyed, the Jew could prepare for the worst. First the Jew was persecuted. Then he was given the choice of conversion or con- fiscation. And finally the alternative was presented to him: exile or death. To prevent confiscation and escape death, many Jews feigned conversion. These were the Marranos. The climax came when in 1492, twelve years after the Inquisition was estab- lished, and the very year when Columbus, through Jewish instru- mentality, went forth on his epoch making voyage, the Jew\s of Spain, to the number of about 300,000, were exiled from the home they had so long known, but would not be permitted to re-enter until 1868. Such a history cannot help interesting one to whom Judaism and the Jew are of any concern. It interested Disraeli. His own ancestors had contributed to the making of that history. It inter- ested Grace Aguilar, too. While yet a child, she studied it under her father's guidance. And had not the Aguilars centuries back, suffered in Portugal as did the Jews in Spain, and for the same reasons ? In these facts The Vale of Cedars " must have found its beginnings. If we are critical we shall find some historical inaccuracies. We shall be able, too, to pick flaws in the literary style. It will 76 The Chautauqua System of Education not be exceedingly difficult to prove here and there inconsis- tency. But what matter all this? Grace Aguilar was but thirty- five years of age wdien she passed away. She gave her very life to the Jewish cause. She stood up for it and wrote for it in sick- ness and in pain. To the last she was its ardent champion. She died in 1847, but her influence still lives. II. Suggestions. 1. "The Vale of Cedars" was written in 1835, but was not published until 1850. It was translated tv/ice into Hebrew and twice into German. 2. Grace Aguilar w^as herself descended from Marranos, who came to England from Portugal during the i8th century. This fact naturally interested her in Marrano life in Spain. 3. In 612, Sisebut, king of the Visigoths, gave the Jews in his kingdom the alternative of being baptized or exiled. Many left, but many became lip converts. After the death of Sisebut, those converts returned to Judaism. Grace Aguilar says this was the beginning of the Marranos. The Marranos of Spain were born of the terrible persecution of the Jews in 1391. 4. Though virtually Jewish, and though Jews were hated, many Marranos occupied the highest offices in Castile and Aragon. Luis Sanchez w^as president of the highest tribunal of Aragon; Gabriel Sanchez was chief treasurer ; Alfonso Sanchez, deputy treasurer ; Guillen Sanchez, cup bearer and later royal treasurer ; Francisco Giu'rca, governor; Miqucl de Almazan, private secretary to the king. The royal house always borrowed from the Santangels, who were very prominent. Kayserling calls Luis de Santangel The Beaconsfield of Spain." 5. On p. 32, Grace Aguilar says that the wealth of Ferdinand Morales was ever nt the service of cither Isabella or her be- trothed ; he it was from whom the necessary means for her private nuptials were borrowed." A Jew of Segovia, named Don Abra- Jewish Ciiar.vcters in Fiction 77 ham Senior, stood high in the estimation of Ferdinand, and arranged his first meeting with Isabella at Toledo. Being penni- less, Ferdinand borrowed 20,000 sueldos for his trip, from Jaime Ram, the son of a rabbi. 6. The Inquisition was first suggested at a meeting of the Spanish clergy in 1478. Isabella counseled easier measures. But Ferdinand at once approved. The confiscation of the possessions of the victims w^ould fill his cofifers. That was all he cared for. The Inquisition w^as born not of religious zeal but of material greed. 7. Ferdinand was not the Ferdinand of The Vale of Cedars/' but the Isabella of Grace Aguilar, though exaggerated, is nearer the truth. The first Tribunal of the Inquisition was established in Seville in 1487. Torquemada was made Inquisitor General by Sixtus IV, in 1483. There was much objection on the part of the people, but it was soon overcome. It was due to the influence of Isabella, that the Inquisition did not begin its work in Castile, until tv/o years after the Pope had given his permission. 8. h^inding appeal in vain, a number of prominent Jews slew one of the inquisitors, in 1485. This incident is said to have made the queen favor the Inquisition. g. Columbus came to Spain in 1485, but was given scanty atten- tion. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella gave him a favorable hear- ing, but his requests were so extravagant that he was again dis- missed, and left Granada to go to France. Thereupon, Luis de Santangel, a Jew, persuaded the queen to favor the journey of Columbus, and advanced out of his own pocket the necessary funds, 17,000 florins. Columbus was ordered to equip his fleet, on April 30, the day the decree expelling the Jews from Spain, was publicly announced. 10. Jews accompanied Columbus on his voyage to America. His interpreter was a Jew, Luis de Torres; so was his surgeon, Mar- cos, and his ship physician, IMaestre Bernal. 78 The Chautauqua Systeim of Education 11. In view of Ferdinancrs attitude toward the Jews, it is inter- esting to remember that his grandmother was Juana Enriquez, the grand-daughter of Paloma, a Jewess of Toledo. 12. After the edict had been issued, expelhng the Jews from Spain, Isaac Abravanel, who had been treasurer of Portugal, and who later entered the service of Ferdinand, ofifered the king 30,000 ducats to revoke the edict. It is said, Ferdinand might hav^ yielded, had not Torquemada interfered. 13. The establishment of the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews had the same aim, the former to secure the posses- sions of the Marranos, the latter. to secure the property of those who openly professed their Judaism. III. Tests and Reviews. 1. Give the main facts in the life of Grace Aguilar. 2. Why did she write almost exclusively on Jewish subjects? 3. Who were the Marranos? 4. Give a brief outline of the history of tlie Jews in Spain. 5. What v/as the conditions of the Jews in Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella? 6. What was the Inquisition? 7. Why did Ferdinand favor it? How did Isabella look upon it? Explain her attitude. 8. What part did Jews play in the final success of Columbus in the discovery of America? 9. Who was Isaac Abravanel? IV. Recommended Readings. Grace Aguilar. Jewish Encyclopedia. Memoir, prefixed to " Vale of Cedars.'' Morals, ''Eminent Israelites of the 19th Century," 12-15. Jewish Characters in Fiction 79 Jews in Spain. Graetz, III, 214-241. IV, 308-457- Kayserling, " Christopher Columbus/' translated by Charles Gross. Lindo, Jews in Spain and Portugal." The Inquisition. Mocatta, " Inquisition and Judaism." Graetz, IV, 308-334. Kayserling, 30-40. Adler, "Auto da Fe," Jewish Quarterly Review, XIII, 392, Jewish Encyclopedia, Auto da Fe." Lea, History of the Inquisition." Prescott, " Ferdinand and Isabella." Reinach, The Inquisition and the Jews," Jewdsh Comment, Aug. 23-Sept 6, 1901. Britannica. The Marranos. Graetz, IV, Index. Kayserling, 22-31. The Jews and Columbus. Kayserlmg, 1-21, 41 f. Jewish Encyclopedia, America." Isaac Abra\anel. Jewish Encyclopedia. V. Readings in Class. Aguilar, Song of the Spanish Jews," in Appendix to " Spirit of Judaism." Lazarus, 1492." An Epistle." Longfellow, Torquemad'a." 8o The Chautauqua System of Education LESSON X. I I. Required Reading. Daniel Deronda." George Eliot (1808-1880). Like Disraeli in her interest in Jewish history, and resembling him somewhat in his theory of tradition and racialism ; like Grace Aguilar in her interest in modern Jev/ish life, but greater than both in her psychological grasp of Jewish character, was George Eliot, who in 1876 wrote Daniel Deronda/' To say this book had a curious reception, is putting it mildly. Its author had al- ways made it a point to read only such literary references to her- self and her books, as her husband judged would interest her Even this did not permit her to remain ignorant of the harsh criti- cisms directed against this her last book, and particularly against its consideration of Jewish life. The Jewish element seems likely to satisfy nobody,'' she wrote in her " Journal," April 12, 1876. And again, December i, the same year: Since Septem- ber I have been made aware of much repugnance, or else indiffer- ence, toward the Jewish part of Deronda." And in a letter to Prof. Kaufman, of Buda-Pesth, May 31, 1877: ''Though the prejudice and ignorant obtuseness which has met my effort to con- tribute something to the ennobling of Judaism in the conception of tlie Jewish community, has never for a moment made me repent my choice, but rather has been added proof to me that the effort has been needed, yet I confess that I had an unsatisfied hunger for certain signs of sympathetic discernment which you only have given.'' It cannot be said that the absence of this '' sympathetic discern- ment," for w^hich George Eliot hungered, was altogether a sur- prise to her. She had anticipated it. She knew the world did not know or understand the Jew, and she knew for a long time it Jewish Characters in Fiction 8l would not understand or appreciate Mordecai. But it was just these conditions that prompted her to write her Daniel De- ronda/' As to the Jewish element in Deronda/' she wrote to Mrs. H. B. Stowe, October 29, 1876, I expected from first to last in writing it, that it would create much stronger resistance, and even repulsion, than it has actually met with. But precisely because I felt that the usual attitude of Christians toward Jews is — 1 hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid when viewed in the light of their professed principles, I therefore felt urged to treat Jews with such sympathy and understanding, as my nature and knowledge could attain to . . . There is nothing I should care more to do, if it w^ere possible, than to arouse the imagination of men and women, to a vision of human claims in those races of their fellowmen, who most differ from them in customs and belief. But towards the Hebrews, we west- ern people who have been reared in Christianity, have a peculiar debt, and whether we acknowledge it or not, a peculiar thorough- ness of fehowship in religious and moral sentiment. Can any- thing be more disgusting than to hear people called ' educated ' making small jokes about eating ham, and showing themselves empty of any real knowledge, as to the relation of their own so- cial and religious life, to the history of the people they think themselves witty in insulting? . . To my feeling, this deadness to the history which has prepared half our world for us, this ina- bility to find interest in any form of life that is not clad in the same coat-tails and flounces as our own, lies very close to the worst kind of irreligion. The best that can be said of it is, that it is a sign of the intellectual narrowness, in plain English, the stu- pidity, which is still the average mark of our culture. ... I sum up with the writer of the Book of Maccabees: ' If I have done well and as befits the subject, it is what I desired, and if I have done ill it is what I could attain to.' " These words give us an insight into George Eliot's attitude 82 The Chautauqua System of Education toward the Jew. They show us why she wrote Daniel De- ronda " and why she pictured its Jewish characters as she did. They prove her to have been " without prejudice/' and brave enough to champion a cause she beheved just and right, whatever the consequences. George EHot studied Jewish history and Jewish Hfe. She was not content with mere superficial observation. That observation had been sufficient for Marlowe and Sheridan and Thackeray and Dickens. It was not enough for George Eliot. She insisted on getting beneath the surface. She was not satisfied with seeing. She wanted to understand, and understanding means study, and long and patient study. George Eliot was nothing if not a stu- dent. She was not expert in her every line of study, but nothing left her hands that did not bespeak honest and patient research. Others stood aloof from the Jew. If they spoke of him it was of his appearance. Of his real home life and thought life they knew nothing. They did not write to do him justice. They did not care to do him justice. But George Eliot gave herself to the study of the Jew, honestly, impartially, and in view of his lowly position sympathetically. She penetrated beneath his hard exterior and she found the treasure within. If Dickens," she wrote in her essay on The Natural History of German Life," could give us their (city folks) psychological character — their conception of life and their emotions, with the same truth as their idiom and their manners, his books would be the greatest contribution art has ever made to the awakening of social sympathies." But that is just where Dickens was weak and George Eliot herself strong. He was the more imaginative of the two, but he lacked the power of psychological analysis that was her's. Scott could project himself better into the past. His " Ivanhoe " is a remarkable illustration of this ability. But Scott could not analyze and interpret character as could George Eliot. That is why Mordecai, misunderstood as he has always been, is Jewish Characters in Fiction 83 more truly Jewish than Rebecca, and Fagin, and even Riah. It takes a Jew to understand a Jew. But George EUot understood him, though no Jewish blood coursed through her veins. Leeser complained that Grace Aguilar underestimated tradi- tion. George Eliot overestimated it. She was a firm believer in heredity. In " The Spanish Gypsy she puts these words into the mouth of the Prior : What ! Shall the trick of nostrils and of lips Descend through generations, and the soul, That moves within our frame like God in worlds, Convulsing, urging, melting, withering, Imprint no record, leave no documents, Of her great history?" Now the Jew has inherited a glorious past, a past to remember, for our finest hope is finest memory." It is the source of all that is moral and spiritual in life. Tradition has made the Jew. There- fore it is for him to keep that tradition alive, and since that tradi- tion is a national one, the duty of the Jew lies in resurrecting his Jewish nationality. The preservation of national memories is an element and a means of national greatness, and their revival a sign of reviving nationality.'' Each nation has its own work to do, its own contributions to make to world life. Now Israel is still a nation, though a nation without a political home of its own, without a thorough recognition of, or a loyalty to, its national ideas and ideals, its national tradition, its national inheritance. Let, therefore, a Jewish state arise. Let Jewish nationality live again. The Jew will then do his best, and in that best the whole world will be blessed. This reasoning runs through Daniel Deronda,'' The Impres- sions of Theophrastus Such " and The Spanish Gypsy." It made George Eliot a loyal Zionist, but its repetition at times threat- ens to become as monotonous, as in parts it is untrue. No one denies the influence of heredity and tradition. But there are plenty 84 The Chautauqua System of Education who will deny both unlimited influence, as there will be plenty to deny that the necessary result of their influence, will be the resurrection of nationalities that have long gone to their graves. Indeed, to many it appears that the fusion of differing nationali- ties has not been a curse but a blessing. At least England and the United States are not the weakest countries in the world. George Eliot seems to have caught the distant whisper of this truth. The tendency of things is toward quicker or slower fusion of races. It is impossible to arrest this tendency" (Thcophrastus Such). Would George Eliot bewail this fusion, or distinguish between a nation and a race ? At any rate, with her, tradition is everything. What under the circumstances she believes to be the power of personality, it is difficult to determine. Disraeli exaggerated the importance of race ; yet he felt the individual could do anything. But if tradition is to determine a man's life, what can he deter- mine? Surely he does not fashion his own tradition. Does he mould it? Shakespeare felt that a man would be true to others if he were true to himself. George Eliot seems to think a man will be true to himself only if he is true to tradition. Is not the reverse more reasonable ? Despite the undue stress laid upon heredity and tradition, George Eliot may be said to have created the Jew in English Fiction.'' Cumberland drew a good Jew, Sheva. Scott pictured a beautiful Jewess, Rebecca. Dickens painted an angel almost, Eiah. But George Eliot gave us the first real Jew. She was the first to find the Jew as he was, not merely as he appeared. She studied him from within, not merely from without. She fathomed the depths of his real life. II. Suggestions. I. Dickens gave us a bad Jew and a good Jew. George Eliot gives us a true Jew. Her Jewish characters are not overdrawn and are not impossible. Jewish Characters in Fiction 85 2. In presenting such dififerent types of Jewish character (Mor- decai, Mirah, Klesmer, Ezra Cohen, Kalonymos, Gideon, Lapi- doth), George EHot at once gives the He to the charge that all Jews are alike. There are Jews and Jews. 3. Daniel Deronrla " is composed of two parts, the one center- ing in Gwendolen Harleth, the other in Mordecai. The one is a study of English social life, the other of Jewish life. Deronda is the connecting link. 4. The book has other purposes than merely to speak a good word for the Jew, defend him, or do him justice. It aims to show that heredity is stronger than environment, and that reverence for and obedience to- tradition, beget a life vastly superior to that which knows no such tradition. Therefore, Gwendolen and Grandcourt are really contrasted with Mordecai and Mirah. 5. The book at once attracted a great deal of attention. The critics almost without exception condemned its Jewish element, and declared Mordecai unnatural and impossible. Jews, of course, praised it highly. George Eliot was not altogether satisfied with it herself. She knew she had done her sincere best, but she did not feel it was a satisfactory expression of what she wanted to say. 6. George Eliot is usually witty and humorous, though she was essentially a serious woman. Daniel Deronda " has scarcely a humorous situation or word. The question at once suggests it- self: Did our author think humor foreign to the Jew? 7. In the Fortnightly Rcviczv of April, 1866, G. H. Lewes de- scribes a club very similar to the Hand and Banner Club," and a Jew, Ezra Cohen, from whom Joseph Jacobs first suggested, George Eliot drew her Mordecai. In private conversation, how- ever, Lewes often said that no such resemblance existed, Cohen being a keen dialectician and a highly impressive man, but without any specifically Jewish enthusiasm." Mordecai yearned for the political regeneration of Israel ; Cohen was but an enthusiastic worshiper of Spinoza. 86 The Chautauqua System of Education 8. Joseph Jacobs compares Mordecai to Emanuel Deutsch (1829-1873), who laid down his life for the regeneration of our views of Israel's past, as Mordecai sacrificed his for the elevation of our hopes of Israel's future." ("Jewish Ideals," 70.) Emma Lazarus goes still further and ventures the conjecture that it was Emanuel Deutsch that suggested Mordecai to George Eliot. {Century, II, 50.) 9. Mordecai has been variously estimated. Curiously unreal, shadowy, puppet-like, lifeless." Mrs. Linton. A probable char- acter portrayed with realistic touch." Cooke. " Carved of the wood from which prophets are made, he is one of the most diffi- cult, as well as one of the most successful essays in psychological analysis, ever attempted by an author." Kaufman, in general, it may be said, Jewish critics have found Mordecai a remarkable character and a real Jew, while non-Jewish critics have practically proclaimed him a monstrosity. We may depend on it, a Jew can best understand a Jew. 10. Observe that George Eliot speaks highly of Judaism, but commends loyalty to tradition. She scarcely practiced what she preached, for she broke with all her past. Her's was the so-called " Religion of Humanity." She denied a God and immortality. The only reality to her was duty. We can find more religion in George Eliot's words than she herself dreamed she was putting there." (Lanier, The English Novel, 218.) She wrote with a purpose, and her works exert a strong moral influence. She rouses and stimulates. 11. Klesmer, a musician through and through. So Mirah. The Jew is notorious for his musical ability and temperament. 12. To explain George Eliot's knowledge of things Jewish, some one has suggested that her husband, Mr. Lewes, was a Jew. It has also been suggested that she had, as personal friend, some Jew enthusiastically interested in Zionism. Jewish Characters in Fiction 87 13. Latimer (England in the XIX Century, 348, and note) ven- tures the assertion that the character of Deronda's mother was suggested by Lord Beaconsfield's grandmother — proud, and ashamed of her faith. 14. Ezra Cohen loves his mother. Mordecai and Mirah retain the tenderest recollections of their home. All reverence Mordecai. Are not these Jewish characteristics? 15. George Eliot and Goethe, the only two writers who had a union of the scientific and literary or artistic temperaments. George Eliot was 'genius and culture.' (McCarthy, Hist, of Our Own Times, II, 650.) George Eliot had a knowledge of the latest con- clusions of science, and she used that knowledge in her literary work. III. Tests and Reviews. 1. How did George Eliot become interested in Jewish life? 2. What was the purpose of Daniel Deronda? " 3. How was the book received, and why? 4. What was the reasoning that made George Eliot a Zionist? 5. What do you think of Mordecai? 6. Can you name any of the originals of the characters in Dan- iel Deronda? 7. Show why George Eliot must have known more of Jewish life than other writers who tried to picture the Jew. 8. Compare Mirah and Rebecca. (Ivanhoe.) 9. Compare Mirah and Gwendolen. 10. What distinguishes a Jew from a non-Jew ? 11. Is Deronda's interest in Judaism, when told of his Jewish birth, natural ? IV. Recommended Readings. George Eliot on " The Jew." Kaufman, George Eliot and Judaism." Translated by Fer- 88 The Chautauqua System of Education Mordecai. Jacobs, ''Jewish Ideals," 61-83. Dowden, Studies in Literature,'' 294-305. Zionism. For : Zangwill, Lippincotfs Magazine, October, 1899. Leslie's Monthly^ December, 1901. Dreamers of the Ghetto," 430-440, 525-537. Henrietta Szold, Maccabaean," Nov., 1901. Felsenthal, Hebrew Union College Journal," Dec, 1899 G. Gottheil, '' Hebrew Union College Journal," Dec, 1899. C. Levias, Year Book Central Conference of American Rabbis," 1899. M. P. Mendes, Book of the Judsens," Nov., 1897. R. Gottheil, '' Book of the Judseans," Nov., 1897. Against: K. Kohler, Book of the Judseans," Nov., 1897. M. H. Harris, '' Book of the Judeeans," Nov., 1897. Berkowitz, Year Book, C. C. A. R.," 1899. Sale, " Year Book, C. C. A. R.," 1899. I. M. Wise, H. U. C. Journal, Dec, 1899. G. Deutsch, H. U. C. Journal, Dec, 1899. L, Grossman, H. U. C. Journal, Dec, 1899. Beaulieu, Israel Among the Nations," 335-357. Some Aspects of the Jewish Question " by a Quarterly Reviewer. Zionism in America. M. J. Kohler, Some Early American Zionist Projects," Pub- lications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 8. A Critical Estimate of Daniel Deronda." Magnus, Jewish Portraits," 83-99. Lanier, The English Novel," 252-287. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times," II, 649-651. Cooke, George Eliot," 336-354; 391-412. Jewish Characters in Fiction 89 Blind, George Eliot," 254-271. Dowden, 273-310. Stephen, George Eliot.'' Browning, " George Eliot." George Eliot on " Daniel Deronda." Cooke, 351-352. Cross, George Eliot," III, 193-21 1. Gwendolen Harleth. Howells, Heroines of Fiction," II, 79-93. Religion of George Eliot. Cooke, 11-23; 221-280. Philosophy of George Eliot. Cooke, 166-220. George Eliot speaks of the Jew in " Daniel Deronda." The Impressions of Theophratus Such." " The Spanish Gypsy." The Death of Mosoe." Daniel Deronda : A Conversation," by Henry James, Sr., in Atlantic Monthly, Dec, 1876, gives a splendid idea of the reception which the book met on its appearance. V. Readings in Class. Eliot, The Death of Moses." Gordon, Towards the Sunrise," in Daughters of Shem." go The Chautauqua System of Education LESSON XI. 1. Required Reading. ''The Dance to Death." Emma Lazarus (1849-1887). In his essay on " Race and Tradition," Darmesteter quotes Renan as saying, " There is a psychology of religious minorities independent of race." The thought represents the conclusion at which Renan arrived, after an examination of the history of Israel. Here was a people that, in the course of time, had lost whatever of racial purity it may once have possessed, yet still it lived healthy and strong, a religious brotherhood, whose mem- bers were bound to each other not by the ties of blood, but by similarity of belief, and aims, and ideals. There was a time when the position of Renan met with more attack than defence. Even to-day many insist on the racial char- acter of the Jew. In general, however, Renan's view has found ready acceptance. There is no Jewish face. The Jew is Jew by virtue of his faith alone. It is Judaism that makes the Jew, as the Jew once made Judaism. Conviction, not birth, determines a man's religion. Yet ever and anon we meet with a case like that of Emma Laza- rus, and then we are puzzled. She was born in 1849 of Jewish parents, yet for thirty years and more she knew nothing of Juda- ism. She knew not for what it stood. She knew not its princi- ples, so she had no Jewish convictions. To all intents and pur- poses she was not Jewish. Yet when the cry of the suffering Jew in distant Russia reached her, it stirred her whole being. From that day she dedicated her life to the cause of Israel. What was there about the cry from beyond the seas, that should have wrought such a revolution in her? What was there about herself that made her so respond to that cry?" It was more than mere so-called hu- Jewish Characters in Fiction 91 manitarianism. Emma Lazarus rose to the occasion because there was something Jewish in her. Judaism is a matter of con- viction. Can there be a latent Judaism that needs but be stirred to awaken to active Hfe? Explain it as you will, Emma Lazarus henceforth was ardent champion of her faith and her people. She wept over Israel's sorrows. She denounced Israel's foes. She gave new life to Israel's hopes. She sang of Israel's trials and of its triumphs, of its past and of its future, but always of Israel. It was as though she were trying to make recompense for her earlier years, when Judaism was to her but a relic of bygone days, and the Jew merely a survival of antiquity. If that was her aim, she suc- ceeded. She made Judaism a part of herself. She made herself a part of her people. And both were the better for it. And it was this new covenant, this dedication of her life to a cause, for whose welfare she labored heart and soul, that made the poems of Emma Lazarus palpitate with life. She had writ- ten pretty poems in earlier days. But their's was a beauty without a purpose. She had written sadly of sad topics. But the sadness was not born of experience, so it lacked the power to appeal. It was not until she really felt, that she could write to make others feel, not until she was aroused, that she could rouse others. Into her general poems Emma Lazarus put her literary ability. Into her Jewish poems she put her soul. The Dance to Death" is merely an expression of her inner soul, her deeper feelings. She writes of the twelfth century, because the sorrow of the Jew in her own day, had made her see how the Jew had sorrowed through all history. Glory in individual men who here and there gave up all for a cause? Why, here was a whole people, martyr to its faith, a people innocent of wrong, wounded for the trans- gressions of others, yet bearing its burdens with a dignity and a patience and an endurance, of which none but heroes could be capable, and dancing to its death, with prayers of praise to God. 92 The Chautauqua System of Education Was there ever so remarkable, so inspiring a history, as that which this people had written with its very life blood? Emma Lazarus studied this history and lived it over again. That is why there is so much life and reality to her poems referring to it. That is why her Dance to Death " is so vivid, so true. Like Scott, she did not merely put herself into her story. She pro- jected herself into the period of which wrote. For the time being, she was Liebhaid, and Claire, and Siisskind, and Rabbi Jacob, and the whole host of whom she tells us. She suffered with them, she wept with them, she was brave with them, and with them she sang, as they went to meet their God. But Emma Lazarus saw only the tragedy of the Jew. To her all of Jewish history was a tragedy. She met Jews who had come to America to escape the torture they had experienced in Russia. That incident exerted such a spell over her, that wherever she looked she could see only the dark side of Jewish life. Now and then she catches a glimpse of the happier side when, as " In Exile," she speaks of Jewish life in America, but in general her's is more cloud than sunshine. To a certain degree the same thing is true of Grace Aguilar. Both defend the Jew, both glory in Judaism. But both are always sad and serious. Joy, real animated joy, is to them almost unknown. To them the history of their people was solemnly tragic ; and who can smile at a tragedy ? Who can laugh at death and martyrdom? For the greatest men, for the greatest people in life, we have only tears. But do not tears bespeak real sympathy, as they often betoken deep study and analysis? The superficial observer wastes but little time and care on the Jews. He is not interested in them. He has no admiration, no love and little respect for them, and he does not believe they deserve much pity. But the student, whether he is in sympathy with the Jew or not, is not content to judge by mere surface appearances. He knows such judgment denies him right to the title he bears. So he goes beneath the surface. He Jewish Characters in Fiction 93 delves into the depths. He pierces the veil. He does not merely observe the Jew, he studies him, learns what this hero in the strife has been, has done, has experienced, and then he lauds and grieves and weeps. Whatever her early years, Emma Lazarus lived and died to p'fove she was Jewish. II. Suggestions. 1. Lessons I-XI are concerned with the productions of English writers. With Emma Lazarus we turn to America, child of Eng- land. She was not the first here to picture the Jew in fiction, but no American writer before her gave the Jew such strong, living expression. 2. Born in 1849 in America, Emma Lazarus did not know or feel the disabilities 'neath which the Jews in England still la- bored. 3. In 1879, began in Russia the persecution of the Jew which culminated in the New Exodus." That Exodus awoke the slum - bering Jewish feelings of Emma Lazarus. Thenceforth she was Jewish to the core. 4. The Dance to Death " was written in 1882. It is a descrip- tion of Jewish suffering in the fourteenth century (1349). But it was Jewish suffering in the nineteenth century that suggested it. 5. The tragedy is dedicated to George Eliot, whom Emma Lazarus profoundly admired, and from whose Daniel Deronda " she became an ardent Zionist. 6. The Black Death," the raison d'etre of the Dance to Death," originated in China and spread westward. 25,000,000 are said to have died in Europe alone. The Jews were not spared, but for some reason or other, the number of their dead, victims of the plague, was not proportionate. This fact at once gave rise to 94 The Chautauqua System of Education the suspicion, that the Jews had brought about the plague by poisoning the wells, and the suspicion became father to the hor- rible massacres that followed. The record of these few years, forms one of the blackest pages in history. 7. Mohammedans and Mongols have always been accused of narrowness, of superstition, of fanaticism, yet they refused to attribute the responsibility for the plague to the Jews. 8. The Black Death " brought the order of Flagellants to life again, but it now found little favor. Pope Clement VI. issued a bull against the order, Oct. 20, 1349, the very year of the plague. 9. The plot of the play is taken from Richard Reinhard's Der Tanz zum Tode,'' and is based on authentic records compiled by Prof. Franz Delitzsch. Observe how accurate are the historic references. 10. Perhaps the name of the fanatical prior Peppercorn was sug- gested by the character of Joseph Pfefiferkorn, the miserable apos- tate of the beginning of the sixteenth century. 11. In Act IV, scene i. Dicker von Werther speaks in defense of the Jews. Such Christian champions of Israel were not want- ing in that critical hour. 12. ''I have seen monstrous sights, . . . but never until this hour a Jew," says one of the onlookers, as the Jews march by to their death. The prejudice against the Jew was largely the result of ignorance. The Jew was hated not because of what he was, but because of what people believed him to be. His character was good, but he had a bad reputation. 13. Many incidents in ''The Dance to Death" remind us of ''The Vale of Cedars;" as Prince William's love for Liebhaid, supposed to be a Jewess ; Princess Mathilde's refusal to permit the death of Liebhaid, and the efiforts to convert her, that she might become wife to the Prince, Jewish Characters in Fiction 95 III. Tests and Reviews. 1. Present briefly the main facts in the Hfe of Emma Lazarus. 2. What historic facts awoke her Jewish consciousness? 3. Did she help the cause of the Russian Jews? 4. What was the "Black Death?" Why were the Jews held responsible for it? Why did they not feel its effects as did others? 5. Name some of the champions of the Jews during this trying time. 6. Is the Dance to Death " historicaUy accurate? 7. Who was Joseph PfefTerkorn? 8. Does persecution kill faith or give it new life? 9. What is the difiference between character and reputation? IV. Recommended Readings. Emma Lazarus. Introduction to the Houghton, Mifflin Edition of her poems. Morais, Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century," 186-192. Mabel Lyon, Emma Lazarus," Jewish Exponent, Aug. 22, 1902. Maccabean, Nov., 1902. The Russian Jew. Harold Frederick, The New Exodus." Errera, The Russian Jews " (translated by Bella Loewy). Persecution of the Jews in Russia," J. P. S. A. Wolf, The Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen," 523-564. Goldsmith, Rabbi and Priest." Antin, From Plotzk to Boston." The Black Death. Graetz, IV, 100-135. Britannica, Plague." Bulwer, Rienzi." Boccaccio, The ' Decameron/ " 96 The Chautauqua System of Education The Flagellants. Graetz, IV, iii, 201, 217. Cooper, Flagellation and the Flagellants/' Boileau, History of the Flagellants." Joseph Pfefiferkorn. Graetz, IV, 423-463. Champions of the Jews. Graetz, IV, 106-107. # V. Readings in Class. Lazarus, " In Exile.'' Browning, Holy Cross Day." Jewish Characters in Fiction 97 LESSON XII. L Required Reading. "The Rebel Queen.'' Walter Besant (1836-1901). As tears are natural to Emma Lazarus, they are unnatural to Sir Walter Besant. Does that not at once explain all ? Besant knew much about the Jew. He had spent much time in East London. He had been in the ghetto, had visited Jewish homes, had attended Jewish service. And he saw the picturesque side of it all. It ap- pealed to his artistic nature. So he described it in The Rebel Queen and East London/' and showed in his descriptions a sympathy with his subject that other writers on Jewish life sadly lacked. Artistic temperament, however, is not always a guarantee of jus- tice. Because Besant saw the picturesque in Jewish life, and spoke in general highly of the Jew, does not prove he knew the Jew intmiately. He saw the glory and beauty of synagogue service. He saw that the Jew labored and loved, adapted himself to the present, but did not forget the past. He saw the Jew was a shrewd business man and yet a dreamer. But it was merely the surface life of the Jew he saw. He did not penetrate to the depths, tie did not analyze. Fortunate indeed was it that Besant caught at first glance the picturesque. Another writer would perhaps have given the moving panorama of ghetto life a different and poorer interpretation. But it is not safe to de- pend on appearances, particularly where the Jew is concerned, else the Jew in literature will always be the product of a writer's imagination and not an exact reproduction of the original. So while Besant speaks kindly of Jewish life, he does not touch us. He is too cold. There is no warmth about his descriptions. It is all a matter of fact and argument, without feeling. I have 98 The Chautauqua System of Education said a writer can merely put himself into his books, that his char- acters speak for him, represent him, prove him. Well Isabel and Emanuel and Francesca are lifeless. Emanuel is patterned some- what after Mordecai, but how little the resemblance! Emanuel moves and breathes, but Mordecai lives. Adelbert Angelo and Sydney Bernard, repulsive as in many respects they are, still have this virtue — they are not automata. The old grandfather is per- haps the most natural of all the characters, though not by any means described as the most important. But there is something appealing in him, something to which our own hearts respond, and when all is said, that is the best criterion for judgment. We are merely human, and when we become absorbed in characters in fiction, and follow their fortunes as though the experiences through which they are passing were our own, it means that there is some- thing human about them, and what is human is natural, and what is natural is real and true. Is The Dance to Death stronger than The Rebel Queen,'' and truer, because Emma Lazarus was Jewish? Does it not stand to reason that a Jew ought to be the best interpreter of the Jew ? Is there not something in Jewish character a Christian cannot fully see or understand or interpret aright ? The Jew is the product of centuries of history. Those centuries have contributed to his psychological make-up. He is in many respects a mystery, a riddle. To that riddle only the exceptional non-Jew has found the key. That is why the Jew has always been misunderstood, and why even to-day he has not altogether come into his own. Now Besant observed Jewish life and studied Jewish customs, and admired many Jewish characteristics. But Jewish life never became a part of himself. It was always something external to him, something objective. Some months ago a critic in the " Academy," comparing Besant with a contemporary, said, He (Buchanan) studied life in the nude, while Sir Walter Besant ar- ranged its draperies." And another voices the same criticism in Jewish Characters in Fiction 99 " Literature/' when he says : It was the panorama of Hfe, not the mechanism behind the panorama, that interested Besant." So we have in The Rebel Queen " many facts of Jewish Hfe. But an encyclopedia gives us those facts too. It is as though Besant had read of Jewish life, and bodily incorporated all he read. The result is some mistakes, many misinterpretations, and little of powerful appeal. Apparently he did not conceive of Judaism as a growth. To him the Jew was permanent, immortal, but almost unchanging, ♦ constant in the largest sense of the word. I know no writer more honest in his interpretation, his repre- sentation of the Jew. He tried to do the Jew full justice. Preju- dice was absolutely foreign to him. He was a prolific writer, and some of his books achieved practical results, as all of them found a large circle of readers. But The Rebel Queen " can hardly be accounted a success. Unless, indeed, success be considered rather a matter of intention and of motive, than of result. In that case, of course, The Rebel Queen " was everything but a failure. For Besant did his best to paint the Jew as he was. That he did not succeed is the fault of his ability, not the result of malice. For what he meant to do — yes, and for what he did — the Jew owes Sir Walter Besant a debt of gratitude. II. Suggestions. 1. With ''The Rebel Queen " we return to England. Practi- cally all the English writers who tell us of the Jew, speak of the ghetto Jew of London. To Besant that ghetto is an open book. But while he knows the district he scarcely knows the Jews. He describes their appearances accurately, but he does not know their souls. 2. Besant speaks but of Orthodox Judaism. Apparently he knows but little of Reform. Remember, however, that in Eng- land, Reform as here understood is practically unknown. What to the English Jew would appear as radical, would to the Amer- ican seem, conservative. 100 The Chautauqua System of Education 3. The Rebel Queen is based on a misconception of the place of woman in Israel. Jewish teachers of extreme orthodox tenets, may have at one time fashioned such a philosophy as that which Isabel Elveda condemns, and against which she rebels. But a few extremists do not make Israel, any more than a few extreme ideas constitute Judaism. A single expression underestimating the importance of woman, and assigning her an inferior position in life, can be matched with hundreds of quotations paying the highest possible tribute to her, and yielding her not merely all honor, but practically every right. 4. The Rebel Queen is presented as a story of modern life. Isabel and Emanuel Elveda would have been improbable at any time. To-day they would be impossible. 5. " Nature,'' the Divine Order," Law," are frequently re- ferred to as synonyms. The references are always to Jewish teachings, and the impression is created that Judaism is a religion of rigorous and exacting law, like nature herself. Emanuel is pictured as being distinctively Jewish, hence it is taken for granted his attitude on all vital questions is Jewish too. Yet he is mis- taken, who thinks Judaism to have been or to be without love. Schechter argues that the Psalms, outpourings of joy, could never have been written had Judaism been merely legalistic, had it been merely Law, 01 had its law not been love as well. Emanuel sacri- fices his love to his conception of the Law. In Judaism the con- flict did not exist; if it had. Law would have yielded to love. 6. Yet Besant has, in general, an accurate knowledge of Jewish life and thought. Of course, he sometimes misinterprets and mis- takes facts as he does tendencies. When Francesca visits the syna- gogue, Emanuel tells her the whole Law is read every week, whereas a year is the shortest time in which the Pentateuch is ever read. He refers also to the six hundred Jewish commands, when in reality he means the six hundred and thirteen, which Rabbi Jewish Characters in Fiction lOI Simlai enumerated. But these are minor matters. On the whole, Besant displays an unusual acquaintance with Jewish life. 7. Emanuel cannot endure city life. He must get back to the desert, to nature ; like Ruskin, like Rousseau. The Jew was once a child of nature, a man of the. soil, of the country. To-day he is a man of the city. 8. Speaking to Francesca, Nelly remarks (p. 215) that London is over-crowded with Jewish immigrants from Russia. The problem is an acute one in London to-day and an effort is now being made (and it promises to be successful) to limit immigra- tion. 9. All love and revere the old grandfather; that is Jewish. He worships Napoleon; that is French. The Good Old Chronicle " attributes the emancipation of the Jew to the Little Corsican.'' In large degree the claim is true. Loyal for the time being to the principles that gave the Revolution birth, Napoleon granted the Jew every privilege the Christian enjoyed. In 181 5, after his de- feat, these privileges were withdrawn. But the Revolution had not been in vain. 10. To destroy the walls of the ghetto is not to transform the residents." Emanuel. Compare with Zangwill's words, " People who have been living in a ghetto for a couple of centuries, are not able to step outside merely because the gates are thrown down, nor to efface the brands on their souls, by putting off the yellow badges." (Proem, to Children of the Ghetto.") III. Tests and Reviews. 1. How does the Jew in England differ from his brother in America ? 2. Has what is known as the American spirit hurried the prog- ress of Reform in Judaism? I02 The Chautauqua System of Education 3. How does Besant misrepresent the Jewish woman? What position did she really occupy in Jewish life? 4. Why has Judaism been accused of being Law without Love ? What are the real facts in the case ? 5. Is there anything Jewish about Emanuers dreams or in his yearnings for the free Hfe of the desert? 6. What did Napoleon do for the Jews? 7. Compare Francesca's discovery of her Jewish birth with the similar experience of Daniel Deronda. 8. Our worship keeps us together. It is our bond of union/' What is the secret of Israel's immortality? 9. Compare Emanuel Elveda with Mordecai. 10. Compare Emma Lazarus and Walter Besant. 11. Enumerate some of the changes history has wrought in Jewish character. IV. Recommended Readings. The Jewish Woman. Aguilar, Women of Israel.'' Remy, The Jewish Woman." Zirndorf, Some Jewish Women." Schechter, Studies in Judaism," 313-325. Szold, " What Has Judaism Done for Woman " in ''Juda- ism at Parliament of Religions," 304-310. Karpeles, ''Jewish Literature," 106-145. The London Jew. Besant, East London," 187-207. Russel-Lewis, '' The Jew in London." Wyckofif, Among London Wage Earners " Scribners, Sept., 1902. Napoleon and the Jew. Graetz, V, 429-536. Jewish Characters in Fiction 103 Critical Estimates of Besant. Literary Digest, July 27, 1901. Besant. Autobiography. Jewish Encyclopedia. V. Readings in Class. Purim this year (1902) falls on March 23. When it occurs during the time of another lesson, the readings can be easily re- arranged. Aguilar, " Dialogue Stanzas.'' Masoch, Haman and Esther." I04 The Chautauqua System of Education LESSON XIII. I. Required Reading. ^'The Children of the Ghetto." Israel Zangwill (1864—). The first volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia has been criti- cized, for containing the biographies of men and women still among the living. Britannica, when first it appeared, avoided that mistake, though as much cannot be said of many of the American reprints. The wisdom of permitting time to grow over the graves of men, before attempting to place an estimate on their lives, seems patent. To judge them while yet they are with us, is to risk the possibility of having a later day prove our judgment faulty, inaccurate, false. On the one hand, under the spell and glamour of brilliancy and achievement, we are in danger of foun- dering on the Scylla of exaggeration. On the other hand, influ- enced by the misunderstanding and denunciation to which real greatness is so often heir, we shall find it dif?icult to escape the Charybdis of underestimation. What we wish is truth, and truth is not found in a day. Sometimes centuries must pass before it can be discovered. Thus far in our study, we have considered twelve volumes, whose authors are among the unnumbered dead. Marlowe died 1593, Besant 1901. With Lesson XIII, we come to writers whose best contributions to literature have been made during the last few years, and from whose pens we may expect other works, equal to those that have already made them prominent. It may be that before a generation has passed, these writers will have been forgotten. The possibility is a distant one, yet it is a possibility. Other writers have in the past gained a promi- nence equal to their's, and then to their profound regret have seen that prominence disappear as rapidly as it came; while som^ Jewish Characters in Fiction 103 during life met only indifference or harsh criticism, and discovered fame only when they were gone. Still we should not be human if we did not try to judge, to balance, to compare. And then the world knows no halt. Pessimists to the contrary notwithstanding, the world is larger, better, stronger than ever. The inference may not be true, but it seems reasonably permissible, that the latest point in development is its highest. The last expression of prog- ress ought to be its best. This consideration alone should justify the study of our own times. Zangwill, Gordon, Wolf and Lud- low, may be in the public eye only temporarily. But as the best of the latest exponents of a particular phase of literature, they de- serve serious consideration, for their light promises to shine for more than a day. Moreover, the Jew was never so well understood as he is to- day. Profounder ignorance of the Jew than that which obtained scarcely a century and a half ago, it would be difficult to imagine. The birth and development of political emancipation, striking off the shackles with which the Jew was burdened, opened the eyes of the world to the injustice, the iniquity, the absurdity of its anti- Jewish attitude. The prisoners came forth from their dungeon, and the blind saw again. At last the hope which had so long upheld the Jew began to be realized. Yet the millennium did not come with American Independence, or the French Revolution, or the Congress of Berlin, or the strug- gle of 1848, or the Franco-Prussian War. The nineteenth cen- tury has meant much to the Jew, more than the score of centuries preceding it, but it has seen too many sorrows which the Jew will have occasion to remember, to permit the belief that it long ago filled Israel's cup of joy to overflowing. However, with each ad- vancing year these sorrows have grown fewer in number. Day by day the Jew has secured more and more of freedom, more of privileges, more of right, and so day by day has become better known. io6 The Chautauqua System of Education Now I repeat, literature is the expression of a people's life. As the world grows, its growth is mirrored in its books. An author writes himself into his works, but he writes down his people and his country as well. To-day men have a more intimate acquaint- ance with the Jew than they had a century ago. Therefore, the caricatures then considered Jewish types are having a truer esti- mate placed upon them, and therefore the pictures painted of the Jew are becoming worthier, truer, and more dignified. To omit these pictures would be to do our subject an injustice. But most of the writers of to-day who describe the Jew in fiction are Jews! Is the statement surprising, or has your's been the be- lief that the Jew has always known himself well, and that it is but natural that his pictures of his own people should be accurate ? Be it confessed, the prophets of Israel were not the last to bewail Jewish ignorance of things Jewish. Nevertheless, conditions are bettering. The Jew is becoming better known to others — and to himself. The prospect is promising. The dawn of this new era of promise was heralded by Israel Zangwill, when in 1892 his Children of the Ghetto " appeared. Since then Zangwill's pen has known no rest. He has given us stories, long and short, on Jewish and on general subjects. All show that he has grown and become stronger in every way. But viewed from a Jewish standpoint, nothing he has written equals his first attempt to describe his own. He wrote of what he saw, what he knew, what he lived. It was his first, his best. Yet its welcome was cold and cheerless. It received little attention and less praise. Some two years ago the bool< was dramatized. Bj that time Zangwill was famous. If he had not been, that play would have made him so. There was no lack of attention now. Not a critic, large or small, but gave it column upon column. But it was all to emphasize faults, to point out flaws, to denounce. Here and there a voice was raised to commend. It was lost in a din of bitter opposition. Jew and non-Jew joined forces in bring- Jewish Characters in Fiction 107 ing about its death, and their effort was successful. What was there about the Children of the Ghetto " that will explain these circumstances ? In the first place, Zangwill wrote of the Jew, and the Jew has never been a popular figure in literature, or on the stage. Per- haps that statement should be somewhat conditioned. In earlier days, when he was presented as a bloodthirsty villain, his presence was considered an added attraction. " The Merchant of Venice " was a success, so was The Duenna," yet both tell of the for- tunes (or misfortunes) of Jews. But The Jew was a failure. Considered from a dramatic and literary view-point, the truer the Jew, the less his power of attraction. Further, The Children of the Ghetto " tells us of English life, and for Americans it is somewhat difficult to appreciate English characteristics. After all we are largely the products of our en- vironment, and consciously or unconsciously we develop a so- called patriotism, that bhnds us to our faults and to others virtues. We love America, but we know little of, and we care little for other countries. Then it is ghetto-life Zangwill describes, and of that life, most of those not of the ghetto, know nothing. But little acquainted with Jewish life in general, the non-Jew is even less acquainted with that phase of it to be seen on the East Side. The Jew him- self, who is born amid happy surroundings, knows something of the life his co-religionists live in the ghetto. But most of his in- formation he has usually gathered from magazine and newspaper articles, or from hurried visits, where surface indications have been his only data for judgment. In general, I dare say the Jew who has never been in the ghetto, is almost as much a stranger to its life as is his Christian neighbor. Ghetto life, religiously speaking, is a conservative life. Every sort of ism is bred there — Socialism, Radicalism, Atheism, Union- ism — but where orthodoxy is not the form of faith, there is no io8 The Chautauqua System of Education faith. The ghetto Jew is seldom ,a reform Jew. When he be- comes such, he generally leaves the ghetto. Now a consistent orthodox Judaism must be a consistent Shulhan Aruk, a con- sistent Talmudic Judaism. Zangwill makes that much plain. But how many not bred in orthodoxy, know much of the Shulhan Aruk or the Talmud? Perhaps these facts will in a measure explain why The Chil- dren of the Ghetto received such cheerless welcome. It tells us of the Jew, the English Jew, the ghetto Jew, the Talmudic Jew, and to the world at large that Jew is a total stranger. Of course Zangwill is not responsible for the world's ignor- ance, nor is he to be found fault With because of it. People may not like his characters, since they do not know or understand them. Those characters may be none the less true. The blind man may argue there is no sun. 'Tis his eye that is at fault. Reb Shemuel, Malka, Melchizedek Pinchas, Strelitzki, are not merely imagina- tive characters. They pay as much tribute to Zangwill's power of description, as to his originality and creative ability. They are real figures, products of the past and living under the spell of that past, but still part and parcel of the moving mass that to-day con- stitutes the London ghetto. Out of rhyme, and out of tune with the rushing progressive present, if you will, an exotic laboring to adjust itself to its new soil before its life is spent, but still here, still living, and still to be reckoned with. Do you remember the many criticisms to which at the home of the Goldsmith's, Esther's book, written under the nom do phime of Armitage, is subjected? Of the ''Children of the Ghetto" we have heard and read all these criticisms and more. Most of them are as absurd as they are weak, and most display as much ignor- ance as they do prejudice. Zangwill has been roundly con- demned because he has not been understood. The heritage a great man leaves the world, is to force it to explain him," said Hegel. To know is to understand and appreciate. Not ignor- ance, but knowledge is saving. Jewish Characters in Fiction 109 Yet Zangwill is not free from fault. He is without question the leading Jewish writer of the day. I dare say, he could not if he would, write uninterestingly. His ease of utterance is remark- able. He knows Jewish life. His plots are developed with con- summate skill. He knows how to make the most of a situation. He speaks as one with authority, and so he exerts an influence. He has an inexhaustible fund of humor; so you laugh with him. He sees the tragedy of life ; so you weep with him. And here we reach the crucial point. Given to the making of epigrams, Zangwill often sacrifices truth to expression. To make his thought striking, he exaggerates. He does not beat about the bush. He strikes straight from the shoulder. He is plain-spoken and open in his criticism. He lacks tact, but at least he is honest to the core. At times, however, he is more honest than exact. In the heat of argument, he is too much given to generalization. Because some Jews dream, all are Dreamers of the Ghetto.'' Because the history of the Jew records suffering, all Jewish life is a tragedy. It is said of George Eliot that while she knows how to be humorous, her Jewish characters are all serious. Zangwill can hardly be said to be humorous. You laugh at some situations he describes, but when you think it over, you find you are laugh- ing at human weaknesses. Sometimes your laughter ends with a sob. The King of Schnorrers and Melchizedeck Pinchas are sup- posed to be funny. But their humor is forced and exaggerated. However, they have this virtue, they are not always serious and solemn. It takes all kinds of people to make a world. Zangwill brings a varied host before us, but with almost im exception they have this point of resemblance, they all suffer. Sometimes they are pessimistic, sometimes cynical, sometimes patient, sometimes deeply religious, but a gloom hovers over them all. In The Children of the Ghetto " the gloom is at infrequent intervals pierced by a ray of sunshine. In Zangwill's later stories even this ray is wanting. All is darkness and tragedy and tears. Such an no The Chautauqua System of Education afmosphere may be interesting, but at times we are interested in what is not altogether true. There are sorrows in Jewish Ufe, but there are joys too ; tears, but also smiles ; tragedies, but also wholesome, happy comedies. \ II. Suggestions. 1. Zangwill was born and bred in the ghetto of London. Therefore, he writes of what he knows. George Eliot and Walter Besant knew something of this ghetto life, because they studied it. Zangwill lived it. 2. There are some things about Jewish life in London we Americans cannot altogether appreciate. Remember that once a Jew always a Jew " does not mean that the Jew is everywhere the same. To a large degree he is what the country of his birth or adoption makes him. America is not England. The Ameri- can Jew is not the English Jew. The New York ghetto is not the ghetto in London. 3. England differs from America in that it is more conserva- tive. Commercially, we have known this for some time. Reli- giously speaking, the same truth holds good. So Judaism in England is not so progressive as it is here. That is why, what for us may have long ago lost all life and meaning, may by our English cousins be deemed all important. 4. " The Children of the Ghetto " is a study in realism. Many of the characters really lived. The others are possible. 5. At home in the ghetto, Zangwill cares little for, and has little appreciation of, Jewish life that has outgrown it. There- fore, volume I is truer than volume II. The one is fact, the other fiction. Yet remember, fiction is built on fact. 6. Intellectually speaking, Zangwill is often extremely radical in his ideas. Yet, his artist's eye finds beauties in the old. Religiously, at times he outstrips the most radical. Again, Jewish Characters in Fiction III ceremonialism touches his heart strings into sympathetic vibra- tion. In general, he is friend of orthodoxy and foe to reform. Recall, that English Judaism knows no real reform. Mr. Russel calls it ''amphibious." Does that explain Zangwill's attitude? Then, a dreamer is often inconsistent; one of the eccentricities of geilius. 7. Abraham Cahan says, The Children of the Ghetto " tells us of the world of Talmudic Judaism crumbling under the pressure of modern culture." The reHgion of the ghetto is Talmudic. Real reform is scarcely known. When the ghetto Jew gives up his orthodoxy, he often gives up all that is Jewish. From rigorous ceremonialism to atheism is often but a step. There is frequently a kinship between extremes. Melchizedek Pinchas is merely an illustration. 8. Yet, outgrown and difificult as is to-day, a consistent Tal- mudic Judaism, it is possible and at times beautiful. Is there no strength and appeal in the character of Reb Shemuel? 9. But consistency in orthodoxy necessarily requires emphasis upon the letter, often at the expense of the spirit of the Law. Judaism is a religion of life, not of death, of sacrifice, but not of suicide. Real Judaism would have made Hannah happy. An undue stress upon its letter made her life a tragedy. '' Spirit without letter is a mere phantasm " says Schechter. Letter with- out spirit is too often a reality. 10. Judaism wants of us sacrifice. It would be a poor reli- gion if it did not, and we would be poor Jews if we did not give it what it asked. We are not born in sin, certain to do wrong, and doomed in consequence to eternal perdition. But we are so constituted that it is easy for us to yield to temp'tation. Often we do what we like instead of what we ought. Pleasure, not duty, often attracts us. Judaism is a reHgion of happiness. But it is, above all, a reHgion of duty, be your's joy or sorrow. It. ri2 The Chautauqua System of Education says, ''Rejoice," but it adds, Do right, and be righteous, what- ever the sacrifices, whatever the consequences, even though the very heavens fall." 11. Esther, at home in a dingy garret in the ghetto, is home- less in the midst of wealth. Healthy growth demands native soil. The whole question of the break-up of the ghetto is here involved. We progress best not by revolution but by evolution. 12. George Eliot became a Zionist, because of her theory of heredity and tradition; Zangwill, because he thought Zionism the only solution to the Jewish problem. Vol. II, p. 207, Raphael calls Joseph Strelitzki a dreamer for objecting to Zionism. To- day, the charge is quite the reverse. III. Tests and Reviews. 1. Give a brief account of the life of Zangwill. 2. How is his life reflected in his writings? 3. Compare the ghetto of London with that of New York; the English Jew with the American. 4. Why is England more conservative than America? 5. Why is Volume I of The Children of the Ghetto truer than Volume II? 6. Can you offer an explanation of Zangwill's inconsistencies? 7. What do you mean by Talmudic Judaism? What is the Talmud? 8. Are orthodoxy and heterodoxy related? How? 9. What is meant by the letter of the law, as opposed to the spirit? Give some illustrations from Jewish life. 10. Is consistent orthodoxy possible? How? 11. Can you justify the sentiment, ''Judaism is a religion of sacrifice "? Jewish Characters in Fiction 113 12. How can we remedy ghetto conditions? 13. Esther and Raphael. How can ghetto and non-ghetto Jews meet on common ground? 14. Why is evolution better than revolution? ' ! IV. Recommended Readings. The Ghetto. \ Graetz, Index, Jew's Quarter." The Ghetto in New York. Cahan, ''The Imported Bridegroom;" '' Yekl." Babod, " The American Israelite," Feb. 27, 1902. Bernstein, In the Gates of Israel." Hapgood, " The Spirit of the Ghetto." The Talmud. Abrahams, " Jewish Literature," 43-54. Deutsch, " The Talmud," J. P. S. A. Darmesteter, " The Talmud," J. P. S. A. The Shulhan Aruk. Abrahams, 232-242. Zangwill's Play. Cahan, Forum, Dec, 1899. Elzas, Israelite, Feb. 27, 1902. Zangwill as Zionist. Zionism," Lippincott, Oct., 1899. The Redemption," Leslie, Dec, 1901. The Jew in the Year 2000," Literary Digest, July 13, 1901. Estimate of Zangwill by Dr. Leipziger, Judge Sulzberger, J. W. Mack, F. de Sola Mendes, Abraham Cahan, and Prof. Seligman. The Judsean Book, Nov., 1897. 114 The Chautauqua System of Education Zangwill's Jewish Stories. " Children of the Ghetto " (1892). " Ghetto Tragedies " (1893). The King of Schnorrers " (1894). Dreamers of the Ghetto " (1898). " They that Walk in Darkness (1899). V. Readings in Class. Rosenfeld, " I am a Machine.'' Zangwill, " The Rose of the Ghetto." Jewish Characters in Fiction 115 LESSON XIV. I. Required Reading. ''The Sons of the Covenant." Samuel Gordon. That there is a side to the ghetto other than that which Zang- wiH describes, is shown us in The Sons of the Covenant." Gordon, too, was born and bred in East London, and it is of that famous district of which he writes, but while the scenes are practically the same as those of which Zangwill tells us, we scarcely recognize them. They seem to have undergone some transformation. They are brighter. That is because Gordon looks at them with brighter eye and happier heart. Where Zangwill sees only darkness, he finds light. Where Zangwill sees despair, he finds hope. He does not believe the ghetto to be perfect. He knows its faults and its sorrows. But that knowledge 'does not make him bitter, sarcastic, cynical. He sees hope everywhere, in the ghetto, and out of it, and he sees good. He speaks of Narrow Alley, but it is not merely a dirty and filthy lane. He takes us outside the ghetto's walls, and he meets more than hypocrisy, and gossip, and a parvenu cul- ture. He sees the two sides of London Jewish life, but he does not antagonize them. He brings them into friendly contact. Mrs. Lipcott is poor, but she is still a Jewess and a mother. Mrs. Duveen is wealthy, but that makes her no less honest, no less a woman of feeling. Mrs. Diamond is funny, because of her faults, but she is not ridiculous; she has her virtues. Even Yellow Joe, product of the slums, is not beyond redemption. In the ghetto and out of it, in the palace of the rich and the cramped quarters of the poor, Gordon finds something good, something worth the while, something hopeful. Jewish life of to-day is for him more than a tragedy on which the curtain will ii6 The Chautauqua System of Education soon fall. It is a drama of rather complex nature, in which the lights and shadows of human life are mingled, but over all shines the sun of hope. The Jew is not all he should be. Jew- ish life is not all we would wish it to be. But one day condi- tions will be better. We are living in a time of stress and strain, of strenuous change. We have not fully adjusted ourselves to our new surroundings. To-morrow perhaps we shall have more time to look about and straighten things up, and then life will assume a dififerent aspect. But let us not despair. So long as God's in His heaven, All's right with the world.'' .But Gordon does more than hope. For the wrongs, the abuses, the evils that he sees, he suggests remedies. Zangwill will merely ridicule and denounce. Gordon plans and pleads. He knows ghetto conditions must better. How to better them is the question. First it is necessary to understand the facts that have created the problem. The trades of the ghetto are few in number. Children, as soon as they are able to work, follow in the footsteps of their fathers. Newly arriving immi- grants no sooner set foot within the ghetto, than they too join the ranks laboring in the sweat-shops. Consequently, the few trades to which the ghetto Jew gives himself are overcrowded, and as these trades as a general thing pay but small wages, the standard of life is lowered. To remedy these conditions, the rising generation must be taught other work than that in which their parents have grown up, must be trained in lines other than those in which older generations have passed their lives. The Jew to-day must become skilled in a wider field than the ghetto allows. The technical school will provide him the necessary training. It will fit him to occupy positions his father did not know, and to which he could not have aspired if he had known them. He will no longer be compelled to remain within the ghet- Jewish Characters in Fiction 117 to, to make a livelihood a certainty. His will be the privilege of leaving it, of moving into the open, of seeing the world and battling with it. Of course he will have to labor would he find returns. But the Jew does not fear work. Give him the opportunity and he will take advantage of it and make the personal equation tell. Gordon may be too hopeful, but his plan is more than a dream or theory. It has been and is still being tried, and failure has not yet been its share. Wherever the technical school has gone, it has raised the standard of labor and the dignity of life. It has not killed the slums, but it has helped them. The problem cannot be solved in a day. That the ghetto must help in the solution of its own problems, goes without saying. Assistance from without can do much, but it cannot do all things. It must find hearty co-operation within. Leuw and Phil, after leaving the ghetto, return to it to help lift their poorer coreligionists. More and more are leav- ing the ghetto daily, are outgrowing its life. But however far from it they journey, they understand it better than do those who have been born and bred away from it. Cannot these grad- uates assist their alma mater? Must they not lend that assist- ance? The ghetto problem is complex. Its solution is still distant. But it will never be found, until there is an enthusiastic exercise and a hearty co-operation of all the forces at Israel's command. II. Suggestions. 1. Like Zangwill, Gordon describes the London ghetto. Yet how differently he views it! The Ansells and the Lipcotts do not seem to inhabit the same world. 2. Both Zangwill and Gordon are products of East London. Both know the life it shelters, though to the one it spells de- spair, to the other, hope. There is more than one side to Jew- ish life. ii8 The Chautauqua System of Education 3. " The Children of the Ghetto " Hve in the past and present. The Sons of the Covenant " in the present and future. 4. Not all tlic ghetto is of one level. It is a world in itself, almost unto itself. In it lives Moses Ansell, but also Reb Shem- uel. In it lives Yellow Joe, but the Lipcotts live there also. 5. Not all conservative Jewish life is honest, nor all reform hypocritical. Appearances are often deceitful." There is no royal road to real religiousness, but poverty can claim no mo- nopoly on it. Not all the wealthy Jews are Goldsmiths. There are Duveens, too. 6. Gordon's solution for the ghetto problem is in accordance with the best philanthropic and sociological ideas of the day. 7. Leuw and Phil return to help their coreligionists. The ghetto must largely solve its own problems. 8. ''All Sorts and Conditions of Men " produced " The Palace of Delight." Perhaps The Sons of the Covenant " vv^ill also not be w^ithout material result. The Maccabees in London are now considering Mr. Gordon's plan. The pen may yet save the world. 9. Christopher argues that the Jew and Scotchman are baked in the same oven." It is not the first time the argument has found expression. 10. Phil is a '' Dreamer of the Ghetto." Uncle Bram is emi- nently practical. Leuw, to a certain degree, combines the char- acteristics of the two. The Jew is not always tlie same. Now he dreams. Now he is all business. Now religious ideals lead him on, now commercial ambitions. 11. But the Jew has always been interested in social problems, in Socialism at its best. The prophets of Israel were the world's first agitators for social justice. 12. And the Jew practiced wdiat he preached. He clamored for righteousness, for equality, for charity, and he exemplified in Jewish Characters in Fiction 119 his own life his precepts. He cared for his poor. Therefore the world knows little of Jewish poor, and therefore the world deems every Jew rich. 13. But the Jew does not believe in force, in revolution. He dreams, but he will not murder to reahze his dreams. He has ideals, but he lives, waits and labors, until they come true. All things come to him who waits " and deserves. The Jew neither destroys nor wastes. He wishes to lift m.en, so he uses prac- tical methods. 14. David Brandon comes from the Cape. Leuw spends seven years there. The Jew has been prominent in the development of South Africa. 15. Esther Ansell returns to the ghetto. So Leuw, so Phil The ghetto claims its own. HI. Tests and Reviews. 1. Contrast the ghetto of Zangwill with that of Gordon. How can you explain the difference? 2. Can writers describe things as they are? 3. What is the problem of The Sons of the Covenant " ? What solution does Gordon offer? What other solutions have been offered? Have you a solution of your own? 4. Is the ghetto problem limited to the larger cities? 5. How can the ghetto still exist when officially it is long dead? 6. What characteristics have the Scotchnian and the Jew in common? How about the Jew in Scotland? 7. The pen is mightier than the sword." What have books done for the v\/orld. How have they directly benefited it? 8. How comes it that Jews were responsible for the birth of Socialism? Have they contributed also to its growth? I20 The Chautauqua System of Education 9. Compare Mrs. Goldsmith and Mrs. Duveen, Raphael Leon and Phil Lipcott. 10. Which appeals to you the more, " The Children of the Ghetto " or ''The Sons of the Covenant " ? Can you tell why? IV. Recommended Readings. Gordon's Jewish Stories. '* Daughters of Shem." Same with Some Additions. " Strangers at the Gate.'' " Sons of the Covenant.'' Gordon and the London Ghetto. Haas, " Jewish Comment," March 29, 1901. The Jewish Question. Beaulieu, Israel Among the Nations." Waldstein, The Jewish Question." Smith, Questions of the Day." White, " The Modern Jew." Eliot, The Modern Hep, Hep," in Impressions of Theo- phrastus Such." Jewish Encyclopedia, ''Anti-Semitism." V. Readings in Class. For Passover. Heber, " Passage of the Red Sea." Zangwill '' Chad Gadya," in Dreamers of the Ghetto." Wolfenstein, " How Schimmele Became a Skeptic " in Idylls of the Gass." Jewish Characters in Fiction 121 LESSON XV. I. Required Reading. The Heirs of Yesterday." Emma Wolf. In the article, ''Concerning the Jews/' to which reference has already been made, Mark Twain, after denying that preju- dice against the Jew is the product of religious fanaticism, sug- gests that it is born of the fact that the Jew is a money-getter." He does not point this out as a failing of the Jew exclusively. He states emphatically that the Jew began to strive for wealth, because of the degree to which he saw it everywhere worshiped. But when once he entered the contest, he was certain of victory. Wherever he went fortune smiled on him. No matter how shrewd his opponent, the Jew always found success and found with it hatred. For men who fail dislike those who succeed. That the argument sounds plausible, no one will deny. That it explains the Jewish Question, will not so readily be admitted. The question is too large and intricate to find so ready and simple an answer. In the first place it is not everywhere the same. Russia dislikes the Jew because he is not of the state church, and it is convinced state and church ought to be one. France is prejudiced against the Jew because it claims he be- longs to the Semitic race, and the Semitic race it feels is a menace to the higher civilization of the world. Germany hates the Jew because it thinks political capital can be made of that hatred. America discriminates against the Jew socially, because it does not believe him to be cultured. So much for national attitudes. Other reasons cross national boundaries; atavism, ignorance of the truth of the Jew% bigotry. Then the Jew is in the minority, and it is characteristic of minori- ties to be disliked. And finally the Jew himself is not altogether 122 The Chautauqua System of Education free from responsibility. He did not create the situation, but he has undoubtedly assisted in its development. What does Mark Twain mean by saying the Jew is a money- getter? " Does he mean the Jew usually manages to make a liv- ing, labors patiently at whatever he undertakes, does not grow discouraged at failure? If so, we give him our agreement. But if he means to suggest that the Jew has a monopoly on wealth or success, we beg to dififer. There are Jews of wealth. There are Christians who are wealthier. Further, the Jew has more than his share of poverty. The world does not know it, for the Jew always cares for his own. Nevertheless the Jew is energetic and ambitious. He is full of business. He grasps every opportunity. He goes wherever prospects are promising. He went to South Africa when first it came into prominence. He crossed the Mississippi and the Rockies when Westward the course of Empire " took its way, and he contributed his share to the growth and development of California, Fifty years ago the Jews of the West were few in number. A small congregation had been organized in San Francisco. Otherwise Jewish congregational and communal life were prac- tically unknown. But in the half century that has passed since then, the West has made rapid strides, and the Jew has kept pace with the life around him. To-day the Golden Gate " is to the West, what New York is to the East, a metropolis reflect- ing every phase of life, and every phase of Jewish life. There are rich Jews and poor Jews, Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews, Jews of yesterday and Jews of to-day. It is of this community that Emma Wolf writes, but she tells of but its one phase. Abraham Cahan writes of Jewish life in America, too, but he speaks always of the ghetto. We confess but a hearsay acquaintance with Jewish life beyond the Middle West. But so far as we have observed, the further West one Jewish Characters in Fiction 123 goes, the less one finds of the ghetto, save of course in the large cities. Chicago is of the Middle West, yet it certainly knows its Jewish quarter. And so San Francisco. Still it is evident that the ghetto here is not that of the East. That may explain why to many in the West real ghetto life is unknown. That may explain why Emma Wolf does not speak of it. The life of which she tells us, is that which has outgrown the world with which Cahan and Zangwill and Gordon concern them- selves, a life that has left behind the external characteristics that once distinguished it in dress and manner and speech, and has well nigh identified itself with the world without. Perhaps Emma Wolf purposely avoids all reference to the ghetto, because she is interested in a problem that does not concern it. For the Jew of the Jewish quarter, wherever it may be, is practically cut off from the world without. He lives a life of his own. He does not come under the direct influence of the progressive currents of modern life, and so he need not fear them. The ghetto may keep him behind the times, but it keeps him distinct as well. With the Jew who has left the ghetto the case is altogether different.. In everything save religious conviction, he is like his non-Jewish neighbor. Yet his neighbor represents a majority, and he a minority. Will his religious convictions be sufficient to enable him to maintain his identity, in the face of the many non- Jewish influences with which he is daily thrown into contact? Zangwill tells us of " Dreamers " whose lives illustrated this situ- ation, and who, after battling in vain against the forces that surrounded them when they left the ghetto, at last gave up the struggle and surrendered. Are we to gather our answer from these tragedies? There was a time when I believe Zangwill himself would not have suggested this, but that was before he became a Zionist. Then he could say that the solution to the Jewish problem m.ight be found " in an immense strength- 124 The Chautauqua System of Education ening of the Jewish spiritual consciousness, a burning convic- tion of some great world part to play, some great world end to serve, and one that can be even better served by diffused isola- tion, than concentrated isolation/' But now he apparently sees no such possibility. To-day he sees no hope for the Jew, unless he leaves the country of his birth or adoption, where he strug- gles in vain against the forces around him, goes back to Pales- tine, and creates there a Jewish state, where every man shall sit under his vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid." That Emma Wolf was influenced by Zangwill can scarcely be doubted. But while that influence is discernible throughout her stories, she does not permit it to overshadow her individuality. She too wonders how the Jew who has thrown off so many dis- tinguishing features, will manage to remain Jewish in a world of untoward influence. Like Zangwill she is scarcely sanguine of the outcome. She prophesies defeat as the result for the Jew. She even counsels him to accept it graciously. But she does not bid him leave the country wherein he dwells, and trans- form his religious heritage into a mere political scheme. No! She would have the Jew continue diminishing instead of increas- ing the distance between the Christian and himself. You say the result will be intermarriage. Other things being equal," she does not object even to that. Indeed, at one time she would have given it her hearty approval. Now however, she has little fear that that will be the outcome. The danger is rather seeming than real. In the first place the Jew is Heir of Yes- terday," and do what he will, he cannot rid himself of that heri- tage. In the second place, try as he may to do away with his differences, to the world at large he will always be a Jew, re- spected by it perhaps, but hardly welcomed to a permanent place in its social circles. " I resolved to break the chain," said Philip. You cannot Jewish Characters in Fiction 125 break the chain/' answered Jean. These two forces, tradition and prejudice, one of the past, the other of the present, will keep the Jew, Jew, and prevent Israel's disappearance. So the Jew need not worry about his continuance. Let him be contented with the present day conditions. Let him remem- ber the millennium is not yet here. Let him bear the world's pre- judice and care not. In spite of that world, in spite of himself, he will live on. The advice sounds reasonable, does it not? But while it may sufifice for those to whom Judaism was what it was to Heine, ''a misfortune," for those who like Philip May would like to mingle in circles where as Jews they would not be welcome, it has no meaning for the Jew who has in him a spark of manhood. Such a Jew is content to remain Jew, is not ashamed of his faith, does not try to conceal it, does not see why any one should try to conceal it. He is proud of his heritage, glories in what his ancestors did, glories in being permitted to continue their work. He rejoices in Israel's immortality. He feels it the work- ing of " A divinity that shapes our ends. Rough hew them how we will." But he is not satisfied to feel that he is Jew only because he cannot help it, because there are forces outside him compelling him to remain within the fold, because he was born a Jew. That is not enough for him. He will be positive Jew or no Jew, emphasizing Jewish teachings, giving them daily expression and finding in them justification for the life that is his. That he is in the minority does not worry him. That the world does not like him gives him equally little worry. He is patient but he is hopeful, because he is Jewish. One day his dream will be realized. In the meantime he will live up to his convictions. 126 The Chautauqua System of Education II. Suggestions. 1. Thus far we have considered studies of Jewish Ufa in Eng- land, in Italy, in Spain, in Germany, in Palestine. With The Heirs of Yesterday," we turn to America. Like Emma Wolf, Emma Lazarus was born here, but her Dance to Death " touched times and lands not of her birth. 2. Observe that the Heirs of Yesterday " treats of modern Jewish life outside the ghetto. Besant touched that life. Zang- will in the second volume of his Children of the Ghetto," went further than Besant, and Gordon distanced both. But all at some time come back to the ghetto, and all tell us of Jewish life in England. Emma Wolfs characters, like " The Rebel Queen," " The Children of the Ghetto " and The Sons of the Covenant," are Heirs of Yesterday," but they have left the home and life their fathers knew. They dwell in a new world. 3. Still, that world, while it differs from, is the child of, the old world. America is merely an offspring of England, and the American Jew of to-day is merely an evolution of the Jew of yesterday. 4. Similarly, Reform Judaism is not a newly invented religion. It is the old Judaism grown and developed. 5. The Heirs of Yesterday " is not the first attempt to pic- ture Jewish life in America. It is not Emma Wolfs first attempt, Other Things Being Equal " appearing several years ago. We give it place in our syllabus, however, because it gives the most adequate expression of the life with which it deals. 6. In Lesson XIV, we remarked that Jews had been promi- nent in the development of South Africa. They were equally prominent in the remarkable and rapid growth of California and the West. The Jew is not merely camp follower; he is pioneer as well. 7. But go where he may, the Jew finds discrimination. Philip Jewish Characters in Fiction 127 May finds it in Germany, but he finds it in San Francisco, too. Still the Jewish Question of Europe is hardly known here. There it is national, racial, religious, economic. Here it is mainly social. 8. Will the Jewish Question ever find complete answer? Ap- parently Emma Wolf doubts it. Jew and Christian run parallel courses and Science proves that, this side infinity, parallels never meet " (Foreword). But Jew and non-Jew are nearer each other to-day than they were yesterday. Prejudice against the Jew is not nearly as intense as once it was. The Jew is better known and more respected. Why doubt that the prog- ress will continue? 9. The Jew is at least his neighbor's equal. Therefore, he is justified in refusing condescension, and demanding full recog- nition of his rig^hts. We glory in the Jew who by virtue of his personality, by employing aright his every power, compels the world to do him justice. But we have only contempt for the Jew who, to gain formal recognition, will deny or conceal his identity, and so sacrifice his self-respect. 10. " I wanted to be successful socially as well as professio- nally," says Philip (p. 32). To' be a Jew has always meant to struggle against odds and labor under disadvantages. Yet, while he has more than his share of poor, the Jew has usually suc- ceeded commercially and professionally. Mark Twain attrib- utes his success to his honesty. His patience and ability must not be left out of account. 11. ''Whenever a Jew fails to be proud of his birth, it is through cowardice or ignorance, or both. And whenever a Christian is unjust to a Jew, it is through cowardice or igno- rance, or both." (Philip, p. 238). The conclusion holds good for most cases but not for all. Where cowardice is gone and ignorance is unknown, the Jew may still be disliked. 128 The Chautauqua System of Education 12. Philip May does not know Judaism, and does not care to fight the battle an avowal of his faith would involve. Therefore, he passes for what he is not. Therefore, he has little of our respect. 13. Paul Stein knows his Judaism. But, because his Judaism is liberal, Philip finds it difficult to believe him Jewish. I think you are rather a radical Jew,'' he says, to which Paul responds. If that means rational.'' Once every rational Jew was called Christian or atheist. To-day he is called radical. To-morrow, he may be called reform, and the next day conservative. 14. No rational Jew is mere iconoclast. He adjusts himself to his environment, but he still remembers the past and has reverence for tradition. He is still conscious " Heir of Yes- terday." 15. Philip, a physician. Both he and Jean, musical. The Jew is conspicuous for his ability in both directions. HI. Tests and Reviews. 1. How do the Heirs of Yesterday " differ from the " Chil- dren of the Ghetto " and the Sons of the Covenant " ? 2. Why does Emma Wolf call the Jews of to-day The Heirs of Yesterday " ? 3. Distinguish between a " Radical " and Reform,'' a " Radi- cal " and Rational " Jew. 4. Is Reform Judaism a new religion or a development of an old? 5. What part did the Jews play in the " Winning of the West " ? 6. How does the Jewish Question in Europe differ from the same question here? 7. Is the Jew responsible for that question? If so, how can he contribute to its answer? Jewish Characters in Fiction 129 8. Philip, I resolved to break the chain/' Jean, You cannot break the chain." What is the chain? Can it never be broken? Why? 9. Jean, ''one of those modern anachronisms, a woman with ideals/' Why an anachronism? Is the Jewess of to-day a wo- man with ideals? How explain the cynicism in which many young women of to-day delight? Is woman more religious than man? Why? IV. Recommended Readings. Emma Wolf has written: " Other Things Being Equal.'' " A Prodigal in Love." " The Song of Life." " Heirs of Yesterday." The Jew in the West. V oorsanger, Jews on the Pacific Coast," American Jews Annual, 1889. Chronicle of Emanuel." Jewish Encyclopedia, California." The Jew in America. Jewish Encyclopedia. Daly, " The Settlement of the Jews in America." Martens, The Hebrews in America." Wolf, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen." " A Victim of Conscience," a story of American Jewish life, by Milton Goldsmith. Publications of American Jewish Historical Society. The Jews and Medicine. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," 234, 365. Graetz, Index. Physicians." Karpeles, " Jewish Literature," 369-379. 130 The Chautauqua System of Education Sale, Contributions of Jews to the Preservation of Sciences in the Middle Ages/' in Judaism at the World's Par- liament of Religion," 193-203. Breaking the Chain. Hosmer, The Jews," 235, 253. V. Readings in Class. Aldrich, " The Jew's Gift." Kompert, Debby and her Door.'" I Jewish Characters in Fiction 131 LESSON XVI. 1. Required Reading, " Deborah." James Ludlow. It is a far cry back to the days of the Maccabees, but history often repeats itself. The problem confronting the Jews to-day faced the Jews of yesterday as well. To-day the problem is in large measure the product of Christian influence. In those days Grecian influence was responsible. Greek culture was spread- ing and exerting its sway in every direction. To that culture Israel began to bow the head and bend the knee." Idolatry? Yes. Jews adopted Greek customs, habits, ideas. Gradually the new civilization began to insinuate itself into Jewish phil- osophy, until it appeared that Jewish distinctiveness would be but a memory. But persecution saved Israel then, as it saved it before and since. Antiochus IV, who ascended the Syrian throne 175 B. C, had also fallen under the spell of Hellenistic influence. Touched by that influence himself, nothing would have pleased him more than to see it gather all his dominions under its wings. That would unify his kingdom. As far as the Jews were concerned, had he himself not interfered, his hope might have been realized. To settle the priestly quarrel among the Jews, he came to Jerusalem in 169 and plundered the temple. That awakened the Jews from their dream. Antiochus stood for Greek culture. Well, if he were a specimen of its influence, they wanted no more of it. Soon after (168), Antiochus was humiliated by the Roman ambassadors in Egypt. He returned to Palestine, furious. Whether because, as Mahaffy suggests, the Jews had been partly responsible for that humiliation, or because he wished to consolidate his empire, or because he wished to prevent defec- 132 The Chautauqua System of Education tion from his standard, or because he was in need of money, he determined at once to hellenize Judea. What the Jews had been doing up to the year 169, of their own free will, they now resolutely refused to do under the lash of compulsion. The revolt began in 167. Under the leadership of Mattathias and his brave sons, the Syrian hosts were de- feated a^ain and again. In two years Syrian pride had been crushed, and Greek influence put to flight. On the 25th day of Kislev, 165 B. C, victorious Israel returned to Jerusalem, whence it had been driven, rededicated the temple that had been desecrated and defiled, and instituted the festival of Hanukah. Over 2000 years have passed since then, but the Maccabean victory still has a message for us. We are threatened by forces about us. Then it is for us not to flee, not to try to conceal our identity, or pass for what we are not, but to assert our posi- tion boldly and defend it, to stand up for our own, to give as good as we receive, and strike blow for blow. Not cowardice will save us, but courage. Judaism is worth fighting for, living for, dying for. Dr. Ludlow is not the first to treat the Maccabean period in fiction. First Alfred Church wrote The Hammer," a juvenile. Then came Charlotte Yonge's The Patriots of Palestine,'' a book for adults, but poor for anybody. Deborah '' is a book for old and young, and good for both. It shows an exact ac- quaintance with Jewish history, and an unusual sympathy with Jewish life. The figures that played so important a role in those days when men's souls were tried, are brought out clearly, while the characters, which are the products of the author's own fancy, are exceedingly life-like. Indeed they seem to us as historic as the real individuals with whom they associate. Is that not in itself a tribute to the author's ability? Furthermore, Deborah " shows us what history seldom portrays, the human side of the men and women of whom it speaks. Judas is a warrior, Jewish Characters in Fiction 133 giving his all for his people, but he is still a man. And Deborah herself, type of the Jewish woman of those stirring days, is no less the woman because of the dangers she hazards, and the labors she performs. Should she seem unnatural to you, remem- ber she lived in the long-ago, in an age when plow-shares were beaten into swords and pruning hooks into spears, when the fate of her people hung in the balance, when it was not considered unwomanly for mother and daughter to contribute by direct efforts to their country's safety and welfare. Of course Deborahs are few in number. Alas for that! Dr. Ludlow has caught well the spirit of the Maccabean times. There are little inaccuracies here and there. But considering the material with which he had to work, and the large measure of the work that is purely his own, it is remarkable that the inaccuracies are so few in number. We catch in the book the atmosphere in which the people of the time lived. We get to _ understand why Greek culture appealed so to the people. We see the progress it made in gathering Israel within its embrace. We see the renegade Jews who hurt the Jewish cause so much. We catch the staunch and sturdy Jewish spirit, which, outraged by Syrian insolence, finally rose in its wrath and saved Israel. We see the valor and courage of men fighting for home and faith. We see the genius of a commander, who has written his name indelibly on the world's record of wondrous military achievement. And finally we see a handful of Jews, by virtue of the righteousness of their cause, giving Syrian might its death blow. It is a glorious picture, full of powerful appeal, full of inspiration. Ludlow has given that picture sympathetic and accurate expression and in doing so has helped Judaism and the Jew. II. Suggestions. I. In 168 B. C, Antiochus Epiphanes was besieging Alexan- dria, in Egypt, when a Roman envoy appeared, demanded that 134 The Chautauqua System of Education he raise the siege, and depart at once. To defy Rome then, was out of the question. Antiochus yielded, but with the determi- nation that, as soon as he could weld together the different nationalities of which his empire was composed, he would return and compel Rome to regret its insolence. To achieve this end, he decreed that all his subjects should adopt one form of faith, his own. 2. Prof. Mahafify suggests as explanation of the determination of Antiochus either to hellenize or exterminate Israel, that in some way the nationalist party in Judea, and their relations in Egypt, must have thwarted his advance (against Alexandria), and (so) marred his campaign. ... It seems likely, that this opportunity of the patriotic party in Judea hindered his march, and so caused his signal failure at the moment of victory." 3. Other facts may have contributed to the policy of Antio- chus. Not only did he wish to secure a force with which to overthrow Rome, but he wished to forestall the possible dissolu- tion of his empire, threatened by Rome. Then he was in need of money, and felt that such an assertion of autocratic power would secure it. And finally, he was irritated by the continu- ous quarrelling among the priests in Jerusalem, and determined to put an end to it, once and for all. 4. Remember, however, that the Jews themselves gave Antiochus the first opportunity of interfering in their domestic affairs. Coming to Jerusalem apparently to restore Menelaus to the priesthood, Antiochus took occasion to despoil the sanc- tuary. 5. That action prevented the spread of the Greek culture, which Antiochus represented but scarcely appreciated, which had already found favor with many of the Jews, and which, with- out direct influence on the king's part, threatened to hellenize all of Israel. The Jews may have opened the way for Syrian inter- Jewish Characters in Fiction 1.35 ference, but Antiochus gave life to the very opposition he found himself later unable to- overcome. 6. The Maccabean struggle thus became a contest between Greek and Jewish civilization. On the part of Antiochus it was merely an attempt to level distinctions. To the Jews it was a question of life and death. To yield, meant to give up all that made them what they were. 7. In those days there was a vital connection between Church and State. They stood and fell together. The Maccabees fought for religious liberty, but they won political independence as well. 8. Ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.'' The persecution of Antiochus saved Judaism, and so the Jews. There are often dangers in emancipation, as there are often blessings in adversity. 9. But the conqueror was also conquered. The Jew won, but the Greek did not give up the struggle until he had influ- enced Jewish life and thought. 10. That influence virtually divided the Jews into two parties; the Hasidim, or Saints, zealous for the law, who kept Judaism as had their fathers, and to whom every Jewish custom was sacred; and the Zaddikim, or Righteous, who prided themselves on their liberal views, who opened the door to Greek Influence, and so became known as Hellenists. 11. Judaism is a religion that grows and develops. Such a religion, adjusting itself to its environment, has no hesitancy in assimilating the best of that with which it comes into contact. But many a Jew confuses assimilation with imitation. 12. As an illustration of Greek influence on Jewish life observe the change of names. Menahem becomes Menelaus, Joshua, Jason, and Eljakim, Alcimus. 136 The Chautauqua System of Education 13. Keep the following dates in mind: 175 B. C. E. Antiochus IV ascends the throne. 173 Jason is made high priest. 172 " Menelaus succeeds Jason. 169 " Antiochus plunders the Temple. 168 " Antiochus is bidden by Roman ambas- ; sadors to leave Egypt. Temple at Jerusalem is desecrated. 167 " Mattathias begins the revolt. 166 Death of Mattathias. Judas becomes commander. Battle of Beth-Horon. Battle of Emmaus. i6s " Battle of Beth Zur. Judas re-enters Jerusalem. Festival of Dedication. 164 Death of Antiochus. 14. Refer to the map at end of Deborah for places men- tioned in the book. 15. Greece gave the world art; Rome, law; Israel, religion. The Hebrews drank of the fountain, the Greeks from the stream, and the Romans from the pool." (Kohut.) The Greeks were only handsome youths, but the Jews have always been men." (Heine.) 16. Ludlow confesses in his ''note'' that he has availed him- self of an author's privilege, and has supplemented by aid of his imagination the meagre records at his disposal. Dion and Caleb and Meph, and even Deborah herself, are merely chil- dren of his fancy. But how accurate and life-like they are! 17. It has been suggested that the name Maccabee was de- rived from the initial letters of the war-cry of the Jews during the struggle with Antiochus, Mi-kamoka-baelim-adonai/' Jewispi Characters in Fiction 137 Ludlow seems to incline to this view (158), though why he abbreviates, we do not know. Most likely, however, the name comes from the Hebrew Makabah," meaning " hammer." Compare title, Martel," given to Charles, the famous general among the Franks. 18. The Book of Daniel was written some time between 168 and 164 B. C. Perhaps, Psalms 44, 74, 79 and 83 were also written at the same time. III. Tests and Reviews. 1. What brought about the Maccabean struggle? Were the Jews at all responsible? 2. For what did the Jews fight? 3. Trace the course of Jewish history, 175-165 B. C. 4. To what degree had the Jews fallen under Greek influence? 5. What was the difference between the civilization of Greece and that of Judea? 6. How does assimilation differ from imitation? 7. What are the dangers of emancipation, the blessings of adversity? 8. Into what two parties did the struggle divide Judaism? What attitudes did they represent? Compare them with the Sadducees and Pharisees? 9. Compare the contributions which Greece, Rome and Judea made to civilization. 10. Can you distinguish fact from fiction in " Deborah " ? 11. Name some literary productions of the Maccabean period. IV. Recommended Readings. The Maccabean War. Josephus, Antiquities," Book XII, chps. 3-1 1. Schiirer, " Jewish People in Time of Jesus,'' I, 186-290. 138 The Chautauqua System of Education Stanley, ''History of Jewish Church," III, 251-305. Conder, ''Judas Maccabeus." Riggs, " The Maccabean and Roman Period." Morrison, " Jews under the Romans." Hudson, " History of Jews in Rome," 1-35. Greek Civilization. Mahaffy, " Greek Life and Thought from Alexander to the Roman Conquest." Mahafify, " A Study of Greek Civilization." Greek Influence upon the Jews. Montefiore, " Origin and Growth of Religion," 374-382. Wellhausen, " History of Israel and Judah," 137-162. Kuenen, " Religion of Israel," III, 63-147. Graetz, I, 427 f., 435 f. Oort-Hooykaas-Kuenen, " Bible for Learners," I, 544-54- Antiochus. Jewish Encyclopedia. Origin of Name, Maccabee. Britannica, " Judas Maccabeus." Jewish Literature of Maccabean Period. Montefiore, " Bible for Home Reading," II, 655-766. Driver, " Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testa- ment," 360, 363-364, 458-483. V. Readings in Class. Lazarus, " Gifts." Longfellow, "Judas Maccabeus."' Jewish Characters in Fiction 139 BIBLIOGRAPHY Of English Fiction, not already considered, in which Jewish characters appear. Sheridan. — The School for Scandal/' Richardson. — The Son of a Star." Disraeli. — Coningsby.'' " Alroy." Aguilar.^ — Home Scenes and Heart Studies." Farjeon. — A Fair Jewess." " Pride of Race." Crawford. — Zoroaster." " Witch of Prague." Zangwill. — Dreamers of the Ghetto." They that Walk in Darkness." Tragedies of the Ghetto." The King of Schnorrers." Wolf.— ^ Other Things Being Equal." Gordon. — Daughters of Shem." Ludlow. — King of Tyre." Edgeworth. — Harrington." Thackeray. — Burlesques." Kingsley. — Hypatia." Smollet. — " Count Fathom." Croly.— " Salathiel " (Tarry Thou Till I Come). Levy. — Reuben Sachs." Church. — The Hammer." Yonge. — The Patriots of Palestine." Hichens-Barret. — Daughters of Babylon." Jackson. — Son of a Prophet." Lust. — A Tent of Grace." 140 The Chautauqua System of Education O'Meara.— ' Narka the Nihilist/' Cahan.— " Yekl." The Imported Bridegroom.'* Hope. — Quisante/' Caine. — The Scapegoat." Wolfenstein.— ' Idylls of the Gass." Ackerman. — The Price of Peace." Goldsmith. — Rabbi and Priest." A Victim of Conscience." Iliowizi.— ' In the Pale." SchnabeL— ' Voegele's Marriage, and Other Tales." Gerard. — Sawdust." Waldstein. — Ethics of the Surface." Wallace.—" Ben Hur." " Prince of India." Warfield.— " Ghetto Silho-uettes." Guttenberg. — Neither Jew nor Greek." Bernstein. — " In the Gates of Israel." Harding.—" The Gate of the Kiss."