The Jews: a study of race and environment

Front matter

lifJX

Che Contemporary

Sgience Series

Preface

This volume is an attempt to present the results of anthropological, demographic, pathological, and sociological investigations of the Jews. Considering that one-fifth of all the Jews in the world live at present in English-speaking countries, and that the migrations of Eastern European Jews tend toward the United States and England with its colonies, I believe I need not apologize for claiming attention to this subject. The facts presented are not available in any book, and it may safely be declared that the whole world is interested in the subject of the Jews as a race, and the getting into closer touch with the ethnic relations of the Jews. Moreover, the perennial problem, whether it is possible to assimilate the vast number of Southern and Eastern immigrants to the United States and British colonies has been applied more to the Jews than to any other white people. It has even been questioned whether there is ever a probability of incorporating the Jews into the body politic of Anglo-Saxon communities.

That anthropology only is competent to answer this question is agreed. Yet there is no book in English treating of the race traits of the Jews. The literature on the subject in English consists mostly of investigations by special parliamentary commissions, containing opinions of statesmen, social workers, educators, etc. It appears that the prevailing opinion is that the Jews, alleged to have maintained themselves in absolute racial purity for three or four thousand years, may prove hard to assimilate. On the one hand we have those Jews who take great pride in the purity of their breed, and, on the other, the people among whom they live who see a peculiar peril in the prospect of indefinitely harbouring an alien race which is not

VI PREFACE.

likely to mix with the general population. This apprehension is confirmed by the Jewish nationalists, who look for repatriation in Palestine, or some other territory, thus corroborating the opinion that they are aliens in Europe, encamped for the time being, and waiting for an opportunity to retreat to their natural home in Asia. Indeed, the problem has of late been given official recognition in Anglo-Saxon countries. When bills were introduced in Parliaments aiming at the exclusion of Asiatic immigration, it was questioned whether Jews might not be considered Asiatics under the law ; and in the United States a bill was recently introduced in Congress specifically declaring that the law prohibiting immigration and naturalization of Asiatics does not refer to Jews, Armenians, and Syrians.

This inquiry into the race traits of the Jews could not be carried out by a study of these people in any one country, because we find at the outset that they present significant differences depending greatly on their birth-place, social and political conditions, and, in general, the environment in which they find themselves. Their anthropological characteristics could best be studied in New York City, where exist a million Jews from Europe, Asia, and Africa; and we have taken advantage of the material thus offered by obtaining anthropometric measurements of about three thousand Jews in this city. The conclusions as to the anthropological types of the Jews are based on these measurements, as well as on a collation of the scattered literature on the subject. The demography of the Jews could best be studied from official government publications in those countries where the censuses classify the population by religious confession. The changes in the physical, social, and economic conditions of the Jews under emancipation could best be studied in Western Europe and America, and this study involved a careful search into the literature on the Jews to bring out certain points which might have practical social bearings, especially on the problem of assimilation.

While speaking of the changes which the contemporary Jews

PREFACE. vii

have been undergoing within the last fifty years, we have avoided taliing the position of partisan or advocate, and have treated the subject objectively. Books aiming at sympathetic apologies, defending, often excusing, Israel's existence among the nations, are on the same plane as those containing venomous diatribes full of scurrilous invectives against the Semites. It should also be understood that while pointing at the process of assimilation of the Jews, we by no means advocate their absorption by the surrounding people of different faiths. We do not find it important for the welfare of the remnants of Israel, or of those around them, that Jewry should commit race suicide. What is aimed at, however, is to point out what appears to be the tendencies, the Zeitgeist, of the Jews at the threshold of the Twentieth Century. Showing that while discarding the greater part of their separative ritualism the modern Jews commit suicide as Jews, because they cease to be peculiar, it is difficult to avoid describing in detail the metamorphosis this change works on the children of Israel. The large number of mixed marriages, which keeps on growing, could only take place among Jews who have discarded the separative tenets of their religion. People obeying the dietary laws religiously could not come in close and intimate contact with those whose table they could not share. The fact that the differences between Jews and Christians are not everywhere racial, due to anatomical or physiological peculiarities, but are solely the result of the social and political environment, explains our optimism as regards the ultimate obliteration of all distinctions between Jews and Christians in Europe and America. This optimism is confirmed by conditions in Italy, Scandinavia, and Australia, where anti-Semitism is practically unknown. When intermarriage between Jews and Christians will reach the same proportions in other countries, and the facts presented in Chapter IX. clearly show that thfe time is not distant, anti-Semitism will everywhere meet with the sj^me fate as in Italy, Scandinavia and Australia. Both J-^«s-arrd" Christians have been contributing to this end^ the former by discarding viii PREFACE.

their separative ritualism, and thus displaying willingness to bridge the gulf which separated them from others, and the latter by legalizing civil marriage. Whether this means that ceasing to be peculiar may prove deadly to Judaism can only be conjectured. All I could do was to present the facts.

I am indebted to Dr. Joseph Jacobs for reading the greater part of the manuscript and proofs and making some helpful suggestions. Drs. S. Weissenberg and A. D. Elkind of Russia have generously loaned me some photographs of types of Jews which could not readily be obtained in New York. Dr. Joseph Fraenkel, physician to the Montefiore Home in New York, deserves my gratitude for reading the proofs of the chapter on nervous diseases. I am also indebted to Mr. M. Mandelkern for the patience and interest he manifested when I sent to him persons to be photographed for this work.

MAURICE FISHBERG.

New York, U.S.A., 1911.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I. Number and Distribution of the Jews in the World —Acclimatization

Number of Jews in ancient times — During mediseval ages — Ubiquity during the nineteenth century — Distribution of the Jews in Europe — Number and distribution in North and South America — In Asia, Africa, and Australasia— Total number of Jews — Recent changes in distribution — ^Jews in English-spealring countries — ^Jews as town-dwellers — Causes of preference for city life — Acclimatization — Causes of the superior power of acclimatization of the Jews.

CHAPTER II. Physical Characters 2.1

The alleged purity of the Jewish race — Stability and persistence of racial traits — Race and environment — Stature * of the Jews — Height of the ancient Hebrews — Height

of modern Jewish conscripts — Growth of the body — Height of Jewesses — Influence of the environment on the stature of the Jews — Influence of occupation — Social selection— Selection by immigration — Ethnic Factors.

CHAPTER III. Physical Characters (Continued) - 47

The head-form — Skulls of ancient Hebrews — Of mediaeval Jews — Of modern Jews — The three types of head-form among Jews — Uniformity of cranial type of Eastern European Jews — Origin of the types of skulls of the Jews — Size of the head — Weight of the brain — Brain weight and intellectual capacity.

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER IV. Physical Characters {Concluded) 60

Complexion — Types of pigmentation of the ancient Hebrews — The ideal Jewish type— Types of pigmentation among modern Jews— Complexion of Jewish children in various parts of the world — Erythrism — The blonde Jews- Origin of the blonde elements among the Jews — Artificial selection — The nose — Fallacy of considering the aquiline and hook noses as typically Jewish— Forms of the nose among modern Jews — The Jewish chest — Vital capacity — Fitness for military service.

CHAPTER V. Types of Jews 90

The "indelibility" of the Jewish type — The type of the ancient Hebrews — The characteristics of the Jewish face — The artist's conception of the Jewish face — The novelist's conception of the Jewish face — The anthropologist's conception of the Jewish type — The alleged prepotency of the Jewish physiognomy — The two Jewish types — The Sephardi type of Jew — The Ashkenazi types of Jews — The Slavonic type — The Teutonic type — The Turanian type — The Mongoloid and the Negroid types of Jews — Other types.

Chapter VI

Jewish types in Palestine — The Samaritans— Jews of Bokhara — The Persian Jews — Jews in the Caucasus — ^The Daghestan Mountain Jews — The white and black Jews in India — Chinese Jews — The various types of Jews in North Africa— Berber Jews — ^Jewish cave-dwellers in Tripolis — Falashas in Abyssinia — Other Negro Jews — In Jamaica and Surinam — The Karaites — Crypto-Jews — The Dbnmeh in Salonica — The Chuetas — The Annussim — The distinction between Jews by race and Jews by religion.

CHAPTER VII. Origin of the Various Types of Jews - 162

Dress and deportment as contributory causes of the distinctive type of Jews— The attitude of the body— The psychic type of the Jew— The Ghetto face— The Jewish

CONTENTS. XI

PAGE

eye — The ubiquitous Ten Lost Tribes of Israel — ^Jewish type met with among many peoples and races in various parts of the world — Isolation and selection as factors in the production of the Jewish type.

CHAPTER VIII. Proselytism and Intermarriage among Jews - 179

The Jewish race — Mixtures during the period of consolidation of the Hebrews — Intermarriages of the patriarchs and kings of Israel with other races — Intermarriages during the Babylonian captivity — Ezra's admonition about the purity of race — Intermarriage during the Greco-Roman period of Jewish history — Extent of Jewish proselytism — Graetz's and Reinach's estimates of the extent of intermarriage and proselytism of the Jews during that period — Intermarriages prohibited by Church edicts — Intermarriages in Gaul and Spain — In Slavonic countries — The Chozars — Origin of the Eastern European Jews.

CHAPTER IX. Intermarriages between Jews and Christians

IN Modern Times - - 195

The legal status of intermarriages between Jews and Christians — What is a "mixed" marriage? — Number of mixed marriages in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy, England, Australia, and the United States — The opposition of the Church and the Synagogue to intermarriages between Jews and Christians — Intermarriages between followers of various Christian denominations — The Ghetto is the best preventive of intermarriage — Fertility of mixed marriages — Distinguished persons of half-Jewish origin — The loss sustained by Judaism through intermarriages — -Frequency of divorce among mixed couples — Decrease of Jewish population as a result of intermarriage — Intermarriage and missionary work among Jews — Ethnic effects of mixed marriages — Jewish Theological attitude toward inter-marriage.

Chapter X

The alleged superior fecundity of the Tews — Birth-rates of the Jews in various countries — Differences between Eastern and Western Jews— The decline in the fecundity of the Jews — The marriage fecundity of the Jews — Causes of the low birth-rates of the Jews—Sex at birth — The enormous excess of male births only apparent — Proportion of still-births— Illegitimacy among the Jews.

xii CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER XI. Demographic Characteristics {Continued) 245

Marriage rates among the Jews in various countries- Differences between Eastern and Western Jews— Age at marriage— Proportion of celibates— Causes of low marriage-rates of the Jews— Consanguineous marriages —Dissolution of marriage.

CHAPTER Xn.

Demographic Characteristics {Concluded) 255

Mortality of the Jews in various countries — Tenacity of life of the Jews — ^Jewish infant mortality — Expectation of life — Causes of the low death-rates of the Jews— Effects of the demographic phenomena on the Jews — Excess of births over deaths— Differences between Eastern and Western Jews— The recent decline in the natural increase of the Jews.

CHAPTER Xin.

Race and disease — Effects of social conditions on the incidence of pathological processes — Alcoholism — Contagious diseases among Jews — The Black Death — Typhoid fever, cholera, endemic diseases among Jews — Causes of differences in frequency of certain diseases among Jews and others — Tuberculosis — Causes of infrequency-of tuberculosis among Jews.

CHAPTER XIV.

Pathological Characteristics {Continued) 296

General diseases — The diatheses — Diabetes as a "Jewish disease" — Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and digestive organs — Goitre — Cancer — Foelor Judaictis — Skin diseases among Jews — Syphilis, leprosy, eye diseases among Jews — Blindness, colour-blindness, and myopia,

CHAPTER XV.

Pathological Characteristics {Concluded) - 324

Nervous and mental diseases among Jews — Hysteria and neurasthenia — Paralysis agaitans— Intermittent claudication— Causes of the nervousness of the Jews — Frequency of idiocy and imbecility among Jews — Deaf-

CONTENTS. xui

PAGE

mutism — Insanity among the ancient Hebrews — Insanity among the modern Jews — Forms of insanity among Jews — Psychosis Judaica — Causes of the excessive incidence of insanity among Jews — Suicide among Jews — Recent increase in the tendency to self-destruction.

'' CHAPTER XVI.

Social and Economic Conditions of the Jews

IN Various Countries 356

Factors influencing social and economic conditions — Distribution of the population by ages — Difierences between Eastern and Western Jews — Poverty — Absence of the pauper element — The economic conditions depend mostly on their political status — Poverty of the Jews in Russia, Poland, and Roumania — Prosperity of the Western Jews — Differences in the economic conditions of the native and immigrant Jews in the United States — Capacity for regeneration of the Jewish immigrant.

^CHAPTER XVII.

Education of the Jews in Various Countries 370

Facilities for education an important factor — Illiteracy among Jewish immigrants — Illiteracy in Russia — Superiority in countries in which the schools are open to them — Higher education — ^Jews in high schools and universities — Disabilities in Russia — Preference for the study of medicine and law — ^Jewish students of philosophy and applied sciences — Languages spoken by Jews — There is no Jewish vernacular — Chaldaic displaced Hebrew at an early age — Greek, Arabic, and the Romance languages used by Jews during the Middle Ages — Effects of isolation — Characteristics of Jewish jargons — SpagmioH — Yiddish — Its centre of diffusion— English displacing Yiddish— Language as a test of social contact — The alleged inability of Jews to pronounce European languages.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Occupations - ... 393

Effects of political disabilities on the occupations pursued by the Jews — Influence of the Jewish religion on the choice of occupation — Preference for the garment industry — Jews in various trades — Commercial pursuits— Changes observed in the occupations of American Jews— Jews as agriculturists.

xiv CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER XIX.

Criminality - 4°?

Differences between Jews and Christians as to the number of arrests and convictions— Effects of occupation on criminalty — Criminality of the Jews in Germany, Hungary, Holland, and Russia— Differences in the nature of the crimes committed by Jews and Christians— Infrequency of crimes of violence committed by Jews- Recent changes among the Jews in England and the United States.

CHAPTER XX.

Proportion of emancipated Jews — Effects of the union of Church and State on the political conditions of the Jews at various periods of theit history — Political status in ancient Greece and Rome — Effects of the spread of Christianity — Effects of the separative ritualism of Judaism — Aims of mediaeval legislation against the Jews — Political conditions of the Jews in Roumania — Conditions in Russia — Summary of restrictions imposed on the Jews of Russia — Causes of Russian persecutions — Political status of the Jews in Western Europe — First admission to citizenship in France — Emancipation in England — In Holland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, etc. — Analogy between conditions of the modern Jews in Russia and Roumania and those in mediseval ages — General effects of the recent political disabilities — ■ Migrations of modern Jews — The United States the point of destination of the vast majority of Jewish immigrants.

^CHAPTER XXI.

The entry of the emancipated Jew into modern society — Discrimination in the armies and navies in Europe — Social ostracism in the United States — Discrimination in German academic circles — Number of Jewish professors in German universities — Baptism the usual pre-requisile for academic appointments — Fear of the "Semite" by "Aryan" jingoes — Baptismal waters the specific means of clearing the "Semite" of his objectionable racial traits — Singular position of the emancipated Jews — Causes of baptism — Baptism and apostasy in ancient and medieval times — Prominent modern Jewish converts to Christianity — Number of

CONTENTS. XV

page; baptisms during the nineteenth century in Russia, Austria, and Hungary — Social conditions of the Jews baptized in Vienna and Berlin — The " Freethinkers " from Ihe Jewish fold — Marriage and advancement the two main causes of baptisms — Effects of baptism on the social conditions of the Jews who remain true to their faith — Excessive proportion of Jewish parvemis — Eastern European Jews replacing those lost through baptism in Western countries.

CHAPTER XXII.

Assimilation versus Zionism 466

Tendencies among the modern Jews — George Brandes' view on his relation to Judaism — Causes of the revival of the Jewish Nationalists' movement — The Zionist's programme— Zionism and assimilation — The Zionist's assumption of a distinct Jewish nationality — Attempts to avert disintegration of Judaism — Are the Jews a nation? — The Jews were a nation before their emancipation in Europe — Judaism and the laws of Christian states kept them apart from their neighbours — Assimilation of the Western Jews — Causes of denationalization of modern Jews — Religion and nationality — Language and nationality — There is no national Jewish vernacular — Adoption of culture and civilization of the countries in which they live — The failure of the Nationalists in their efforts to revive the Jewish national spirit — What is Jewish art? — Is there a Jewish literature? — Absence of a specific Jewish spfTit in painting, sculpture, music, and architecture — There is no Jewish folk-lore, folk-tales, folk-medicine, etc. — Professor Lazarus on Jewish nationalism — Why Palestine is inadequate to shelter all the Jews— Christendom would not cherish renationalization of the Jews in the Holy Land — The fertility of Palestine — The difficulties in the way of developing Palestine industrially and commercially — Repatriation offers no solution of the Jewish problem — Zionism has not attracted the cultured Jews — Objections y/ to an autonomous territory — The two tendencies among • the modern Jews.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Recapitulation and Conclusions 504

Race pride of the Jews — The Semite and the Aryan — Influence of the environment on racial characters — The difference between the social and the anthropological type of the Jew — Anthropologically the Jews are not a race — There is no Jewish type ; there are Jewish types — Mixed xvi CONTENTS.

marriages and their significance — Failure of hostile legislation against the Jews — Decline in the fertility of the Jews — Demography as an index of the social, religious, and political status of the Jews — Decadence of the Western Jews — Alleged racial immunities — Isolation often spared them during epidemics — Mortality rates of the Jews depend more on their economic condition than on "inherent tenacity of life" — Psychic trauma as causes of nervousness of the Jews — Isolation and its significance — Mediaeval legislationalwaysaimed at isolation of the Jew — ^Judaism the most separative of religions — Effects of the Sabbath and the dietary laws — Judaism the best ally of the Church in keeping the Jews isolated from the Christians — Economic and social effects of isolation — Alleged superiority of the Jew as a trader — Characteristics of the Jewish artisan — The "inherent thirst for knowledge" of the Jew — Causes of the peculiar criminality of the Jews — Assimilation of the Jews — Large number of baptisms prove capacity of assimilation— Disabilities in Eastern Europe the greatest barrier in the way of assimilation of the Jews.

Bibliography Index of Authors

557 567

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. I'AGE

1. Algerian Jewess 5

2. Tunisian Jew 9

3. Dagheslan Mountain Jews 12

4. Bokhara Jews 15 S-6. Caucasian Jewess iS

7. Young Jewess in Sfax, Tunis 22

8-11. Types of Eastern European Jews 30

12. Curve of stature of Jews and non-Jews in Eastern Europe 43

13-16. Types of Jews in Austrian Galicia 45

17. Group of Jews in Bokhara 61

iS. Face of Old Jew. (From a painting by Remlirandt) 62

19. Jewish Faces. (From a painting by Kaufmann) 63

20. Jewess in Tangier, Morocco. (From a painting by Pottaels) 67 21-22. Lithuanian Jews 69

23. Algerian Jewess 7'

24. Algerian Jew 73

25. Jewish Rabbi, Constanline 75 26-27. Galician Jews - 7^ 28-29. Polish Jew, White Russian Type - 80 30-31. Polish Jew, Great Russian Type 82

32. Diagram of Jewish Nose 85

33. Ancient Races portrayed on the Egyptian Monuments 91

34. Jewish Doctor (Rembrandt) 93

35. Jewish Face. (Drawing by Lilian) 95 36-40. Artists' conception of Jewish Face. (From paintings by

Hirszenberg, Pasternack, Sichel, Gottlieb, Lilien) 96-97

41. Composite portraiture of Jewish Type. (Gallon) loo-ioi

42. Tewess, Jerusalem ; Sephardi Type - 103 43-46. Sephardi Types o( Jews l°5

47. Jewish Rabbi, Oran i°9

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG.

rA<;E

48-51-

Ashkenazi Types of Jews -

52-55-

Jewesses, Ashkenazi Type

Polish Jew

"5

Galician Jew

"5

58-59-

Russian Jewess, Mongoloid Type

"5

Polish Jew, Slavonic-Mongoloid Type

62-63.

Galician Jew, Ruthenian Type

64-65.

Polish Jew, Mongoloid Type

66-67.

Galician Jews, Negroid Types

South Russian Jew, Slavonic Type

70-71.

Jew, Native of Warsaw, Polish Type

72-73-

Teutonic Types of Jews

Polish Jew in Jerusalem

Samaritan

Group of Samaritans

Syrian Jewess

78-79-

Yemenite Jews

Bokhara Jewess

Syrian Jewess

Group of Persian Jewish Immigrants in New York

83-84-

Jews in Georgia, Caucasus

85-86.

Jews in Kutais, Caucasus -

87.88.

Daghestan Mountain Jews

89-90.

Circassian Jews, Caucasus

91-92.

Black Jews of India

White Jew in Cochin, India

Black Jew, Cochin, Malabar, India

Jew, Samarkand

Jewess, Turkestan

97-98.

Chinese Jews

Family of Chinese Jews

Tunisian Jew lOI.

Fat Jewess in Tunis

Tunisian Jewess

Fat Jewess in Sfax, Tunisia

Jewess in Constantine ,

■OS-

Jewess in Biskra, Algeria

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XIX

FIG. PAGK

io6. Sahara Jewesses - . 144 iio-iii. Karaite 151

112. The Ghetto Bend 164

113-114. Jew, Native of Tetuan, Morocco 167

115-116. Muscovite Jew, Great Russian Type 168

117-118. Imer, Caucasus, with Jewish Facial Expression 169

119. Tartar, from Tiflis, with Jewish Physiognomy 169

120. Circassian, Caucasus, with Jewish Physiognomy - 169 121-122. Bakai'ri Indian, with Jewish Cast of Countenance 172

123. Japanese Girls with Jewish Expression I73

124. Hova of Tananarivo, with Jewish Cast of Countenance 175

125. Yoro Combo, with Jewish Expression i77

126. Young Woman of Aries, with Jewish Physiognomy 180 127-128. The Jewish Lads' Brigade, London 185

129. Jewess in Asia Minor - 187

130. Jew of Jerusalem, Mongoloid Type 190

131. Hungarian Jewess 190

132. Jew of Bukowina 193

133. Jewess, Oran, Algiers 193 134-135. American Jew and Jewess 198

136. Russian Jewish Rabhi 201

137. Caucasian Jew 201 13S. Group of Daghestan Mountain Jews 204

139. Group of Yemenite Jews 208

140. South Arabian Jew 212

141. Samaritan Grand Rabbi 212

142. The Three Types of Head-form among Jews 5'°

A STUDY OF RACE AND ENVIRONMENT.

Chapter I. Number And Distribution Of The Jews In The World

Number of Jews in ancient times —During mediaeval ages — Ubiquity during the nineteenth century — Distribution of the Jews in Europe — Number and distribution in North and South America — In Asia, Africa, and Australasia — Total number of Jews — Recent changes in distribution — Jews in English-speaking countries — Jews as town-dwellers — Causes of preference for city life— Acclimatization of the Jews— Causes of superior power of acclimatization of the Jews.

The facts of history, beginning- with remote antiquity, show that there were never as many Jews, nor were they ever as ubiquitous,, as they are at the present. Biblical tradition has it that Jacob migrated to Egypt with a retinue of seventy souls. After remaining there 430 years, his progeny returned to Palestine, and a census taken at Mount Sinai showed that there were 611,730 adult males capable of bearing arms. Haushoffer and Nossig calculate by a plausible method that the total population amounted to 3,154,000 souls. ^ Leaving the question of the possibility of taking a proper census, as well as the method employed, out of consideration, it must be borne in mind that it is questionable whether such a large number of men, women, and children could be supported with absolulely necessary food and shelter in a

^ ' Haushoffer, Handbuch der Staliitik, p. 95; A. Nossig, Juedische Statisiik, pp. 430-432, Berlin, 1903. These Biblical figures are certainly fanciful. It is problematical where 3,000,000 people could find room and subsistence in the land of Goshen, even if many lived in the district of Rameses. The exodus must have been a movement of a much smaller body of men (Jewish Encyclopi^dia, vol. v., p. 294; see also Flinders Petrie, Researches in Sinai, pp. 194-222, London, igo6).

desert. In any case, it appears that during the following period of their history they increased at a fair rate. The census of King David gave a net result of 1,300,000 males over twenty years of age, which would imply a total population around 5,000,000. This would also imply that Palestine was quite densely populated, to the extent of about the density of population of Belgium of to-day. That it is possible for such a population to live on such a small area which has few high roads, navigable rivers, etc., is shown by the congested state of India and some parts of China. But even this apparently high estimate of the Jewish population in antiquity shows only five millions. Since then there have never been as many Jews before the nineteenth century.

There is only scanty information available about the number of Jews during their dispersion at the beginning of the present era. Syria, according to Josephus, was, next to Palestine and Babylonia, most densely inhabited by the Chosen People. In Damascus there are said to have been massacred, at the time of the great insurrection, 10,000 Jews, or even 18,000 according to another version. Philo gives the number of Jewish inhabitants in Egypt as 1,000,000, one-eighth of the total population. But this is only an estimate. ^ " If the sum confiscated by the propretor Flaccus in 62 represented actually the tax of a dedrachma per head for a single year," says Reinach, "the inference may be safely drawn that in Asia Minor the Jewish population numbered 45,000 persons." Josephus evidently exaggerates when he says that during the siege of Jerusalem 1,100,000 people were segregated in that city. 2 He also says that in Nero's time 2,565,000, or even 3,000,000 Hebrews offered Passover sacrifice in Jerusalem, while the Talmud states that as many as 12,000,000 congregated at one time in the holy city, which, according to the most extravagant estimate, measured thirty-three stadia, or about six square kilometres. Tacitus^ states that shortly before its destruction, Jerusalem harboured 600,000 Jews. Beloch* estimates that among the 7,000,000 inhabitants of Syria in Nero's time there were a million Jews. Ruppin's estimate that in 500 B.C. the total number

' In Flacciim, § 6. ^■Jewish Wars, vi. , 9, 3. ^ Hisloyiic, v., 13.

^ Die Bevolkeittn^ der griechisch-rdmischen Welt, p. 248.

of Jews did not much exceed 100,000 appears to be correct, while his estimate of 4,500,000 at the beginning- of the Christian era is seemingly excessive. ^

In the absence of any definite data about the number of Jews during the Middle Ages, we must resort to estimates which are often fallacious. The best estimates, based on various historical data, and especially on records of the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, are those made by Joseph Jacobs in his article "Statistics" in ihs Jewish Encyclopcedia. According to this author the number of Jews during the twelfth century was about 750,000, and during the sixteenth century about 1,000,000. They had not increased during these dark days, owing to the severe persecutions to which they were subjected. Jacobs estimates that during the five centuries from 1000 to 1500 A.D., 380,000 Jews were killed during massacres. All historical evidence goes to show that even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century the total number of Jews in the world hardly exceeded one million, less than one-half of whom lived in Europe. That there were no more can easily be believed when it is considered that they were mostly city-dwellers, and there were very few cities in Europe in which the Jewish population exceeded 10,000. After the beginning of the nineteenth century the increase of the number of Jews in Europe was enormous. In addition to this increase they have also scattered all over the habitable globe, so that to-day they are met with in almost every country.

In round numbers there are twelve millions of Jews in the world at present. Of these only about 500,000 live in Asia, and only about 250,000 in their original homes, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia. Three-fourths of the total number of the Jews of to-day, or about nine millions, live in Europe, and 7,500,000 live in three countries, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Roumania. The rest are scattered all over the continent, north, south and west.