Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1882 — JEWS IN THE UNITED STATES. [ARTICLE]

JEWS IN THE UNITED STATES.

••MetUiif About Tbelr AfpcfKte Nwbm, Tbelr , IMsttribn tIM, nod Tbelr Occupation. It will surprise a good many people to l>e told that there are not more than 250,000 Jews in this country, or one to every 20 of the population. The oommqp error in regard to their numbers is ptdbabiy due to the fact that most Jews ere engaged in active business, in merchandising or banking, and are established in the principal streets in our great cities, where they are constantly under the public eye. The recent exodus from Russia has also con - tributed to give exaggerated notions of their multitude. According to the oen - sus of 1880 there are 230,984 Jews In the United States. The emigration from Russia has added some 17,000 to the number, so that the Jewish population of the country may be estimated as above, at about 250,000. The Russian Jews are strictly orthodox, close observers to the rites and ceremonies of their ancient religion, while the great majority of the Jews in this country have little attachment to the religion of their ancestors, and are Hebrews only in race. Of the 60,000 Jews in the city of New York not more than 5 per cent belong V> the synagogues, so that in the matter of religion the Russian Jews are further removed from their relatives who came to this country from Germany and Austria than the latter are from'Ohristians. Of the total’number of Jews in the United States New York has 80,518; Pennsylvania, 20,000; Illinois, 12,625; California, 18,580, and Ohio, 12,581 — these five States containing more than half the Jews of the entire country. There are are 10,337 Jews in Maryland, 8,500 in Massachusetts, 7,538 in Louisiiana, 7,380 in Missouri, 5,593 in New Jersey, and the rest are scattered over the country, busily plying trade, from Maine to Oregon. More than two-thirds of all the Jews of the country are congregated in the principal cities. New York contains 60,000; San Francisco, 16,000; Brooklyn, 14,009; Philadelphia, 13,000; Chicago, 12,000; Baltimore, 10,000: Cincinnati, 8,000 ; Boston, 7,000; St. Louis, 6,500; New Orleans, 5,000; Cleveland, 8,500; Newark, 8,500, and •o on £own the list. The attachment of the Jews to trade and banking, which necessarily attracts them to large oities, is a remarkable instance of the perpetuation of traits when foreAd in a'certain direction. The ancient dwellers in Palestine were shepherds and farmers, and their attachment to pastoral and agricultural life is abundantly attested in their poetry. But Christian persecution left them in Europe no pursuits but merchandising, banking and moneylending. Until comparatively modern times Jews were r.ot permitted ,to own zeal estate in Christian countries. They could enter neither of the learned professions nor be apprenticed in Any of the guilds of mechanics because of the Christian prejudices against their race. Of necessity, therefore, their pursuits were narrowed to me i chan dising and money-lending until they have become by the law of evolution the bankers of the world. The hostility to the Jews that has recently manifested itself in Germany, to say nothing of the persecutions to which they have been snbjeoted by the semibarbarian Russians, is due in about equal degree to their superior skill in business and to the liberality of their politics. In former times Christian Kings applied the thumb-screw and the rack to extort from the Jew banker a revelation of the hiding-place of his treasure, and thus obtain a forced loan. But we have changed all that now. Nowadays the Tolers of nations go 4b tVe Jewish capitalists of London and Paris and ask them to put a loan on the market, and wars are made and oities are bombarded by Christian fleets to enforce payment. It was not surprising when it was announced some time ago from London : 4 ‘ Little doing on ’Change to-day, as it is a Jewish holiday.” Christian persecutions have made, in a long prooess of time, the descendants of the shepherds and peasant farmers of Jndea the money-lenders of the world. Nothing else was left for them. After awhile, under the operation of the perfect dbcial and political freedom of the United States, and the constant prooess of assimilation, the pursuits of the Jews will take as wide a range as those of the rest of their fellow-countrymen.—Phila-delphia Record.