The wanderers appear to have met with much better treatment in Italy and Turkey than anywhere else. During the 15th and 16th centuries they are to be found—except at intervals, when persecution applied its scourge—in almost every city of Italy; pursuing various kinds of traffic (nearly the whole trade of the Levant, for instance, was in . their hands), but chiefly engaged in money-lending, in which they rivaled the great Lombard bankers. Abrabanel, perhaps the most eminent Jewish scholar and divine of his day, rose to be confidential adviser to the king of Naples. In Turkey they were held in higher estimation than the conquered Greeks; the latter were termed teddr (slaves), but the Jews, monsapltie (visitors); they were allowed to reopen their schools, to establish synagogues, and to settle in all the commercial towns of the Levant.
The invention of printing, the revival of learning, and the reformation are generally asserted to have been beneficial to the Jews, but this can be regarded as true only in a certain sense. When the Jews began to use the presses at their earliest stage for their own literature, sacred and otherwise, the emperor Maximilian was urged—chiefly by converts—to order all Hebrew writings to be committed to the flames; and but for the strenuous exertions of Heuchlin (q.v.), ignorance, treachery, and bigotry might have secured a despicable triumph. Luther, in the earlier part of his career, at least, looked with no unfavor-.ble eye on the adoption of violent means for their conversion; and, on the other hand, we find at least one distinguished Roman Catholic, pope Sextus V., animated by a far more wise and kindly spirit towards them than any Protestant prince of his time. In 1588 he abolished all the persecuting statutes of his predecessors, allowed them to settle and trade in every city of his dominions, to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and. in respect. to the administration of justice and taxation, placed thcm on a footing with the rest of his subjects. That the reformation itself had nothing to do with subsequent ameliorations in the condition of the Jews, is only too plain from the that in many parts of Germany, Protestant as well as Catholic, their lot became actually harder than before. They were driven out of Bavaria (1553 A.D.), out of Brand( nlang (1573 A.D.), and similar treatment befell them elsewhere. They also excited numerous popular tumults (as late even as 1730 A.D. in the Protestant city of Hamburg); and, in fact, during the whole of the 17th and the first part of the 18th c. the hardships inflicted on them by the German governments positively became more and more grievous. What really caused the change in their favor was the great uprising of human reason that marked the middle of the 18th century. Among the writers who distinguished them selves in Germany by pleading the cause of the Jews, we may specially mention Lcssing (q.v.), Mendelssohn (q.v.), and Dohm.
Holland, as we know, was one of the first countries in modern times to rise out of the barbarism of the middle ages. Its active, energetic, intelligent inhabitants appre ciated the business qualifications of the Jews, and as early as 1603 A.D., permitted them to settle and trade, though they did not acquire the rights of citizenship till 1796 A.D. In the edict of Edward I. remained in force for more than 300 years; and the first attempt made by the Jews to obtain a legal recognition in that country was during the protectorate of Cromwell in 1655 A.D. Cromwell himself was favorable to their admission; so were the lawyers; but the nation generally, and particularly the emphati cally religious portion of it, were strongly hostile to such a proceeding; and the weari sonic, controversial jangling of the divines appointed to consider the question, prevented anything from being done till the reign of Charles II., who, standing much and fre quently in need of their services, permitted them quietly to settle in the island. In 1723 A.D. they acquired the right to possess land; in 1753 A.D. they obtained the right of naturalization. Since 1830 civic corporations, since 1833 the profession of advocates, and since 1845 the office of alderman and of lord-mayor have been opened to them. The last and crowning triumph of the principle of toleration was achieved in 1858 by the admission of Jews into parliament.
Some of the relics of that mighty host of exiles that left Spain and Portugal found their way into France, where they long lingered in a miserable condition. In 1550 A.D. they were received into Bayonne and Bordeaui; they were also to be found in consider able numbers in Avignon, Lorraine, and Alsace. In 1784 the capitation-tax was abol ished. In 1790, while the French revolution was still in its pristine vigor, and animated by a sincere humanitarianism, the Jews presented a petition to the national representa tives claiming equal rights as citizens. Mirabeau was among their advocates, and their cause could not, therefore, be unsuccessful. From this time their technical designation in France has been leraeltiles. In 1806 the emperor Napoleon summoned a "Sanhedrin" of Jews to meet at Paris, to whom a variety of questions were put, mainly with a view to test their fitness for being French citizens. Their answers were satisfactory, and they were allowed to reorganize their religious institutions in the most elaborate manner. Since then, no material change has taken place in the laws regarding them; and they are since then found not only in the highest offices of the civil administration—very fre quently in the ministry (e.g., Cremieux, Goudchaux, Fou1d)—but they also fill some of the chief places in the army and navy. We may add here that their surpassing bravery in the field has been the subject of frequent remark, more especially since among the vices with which a brutal prejudice loved to brand them, in spite of all historical evidence, was also that of cowardice.—In Denmark, since 1814 A.D., they have been on
a footing of equality as citizens with native Danes,—In Sweden they did not obtain -admission till 1776 A.D., and then only into Stockholm and three other towns. Citizen ahip is still conferred as a favor.—Norway forbade them to touch its soil till 1860 A.D.— Admitted. into Russia proper by Peter the great, they were expelled—to the number of 85,000—by the empress Elizabeth in 1743. Readmitted by the empress Catharine II., they were further protected by the emperor Alexander I., who in 1805 and 1809 issued decrees, insuring them full liberty of trade and commerce; but of the liberties which he conferred upon them they were deprived by the late emperor, Nicholas. Since 1885 it scheme of gradual emancipation has been under contemplation.—Poland, however, has become their principal residence. There they are more numerous than in any other part of the world. They owed their first humane reception in the 14th c. to the love which king Casimir the great bore for a Jewish mistress. For many years the whole trade of the country was in their hands, During the 17th and the greater part of the 18th c., however, they were much persecuted, and sank into a state of great ignorance, and even poverty; but education—in spite of the severity and barbarism of Russian intoler ance—has, since the French revolution, made progress among them.—Frederick the great, king of Prussia, showed himself singularly harsh towards the Jews; in fact, his legislation, it has been said, almost throws us back into the middle ages, All manner of iniquitous and ridiculous taxes were laid upon them; only a certain number were allowed to reside in the country, and these were prohibited both from the most honor able and the most lucrative employments. This shameful state of matters was ended by the Prussian edict of toleration (1812 A.D.), by which Jews were placed almost in an equal position as citizens with other Prussians. Since. then the tendency, on the whole, had been to enlarge their "liberties"—until the revolution of 1848 finally gained them their full emancipation, although, owing to the subsequent reaction, it was slowly car ried out.—Iu the smaller German states their full rights have likewise—gradually and grudgingly—been conceded to them at last, The first German national assembly held in Frankfort in 1848 contained many prominent Jewish members. Lasker, the leader of the national liberal party in the Reichstag of the new German empire, is a Jew.—In Austria the emperor Joseph II. distinguished himself by passing an act of toleration, 1782 A.D. This act was extraordinarily liberal in its provisions for the Jews. Not till 1860, however (and even then under certain restrictions), did they acquire the right to possess land.—In Hungary and Transylvania they have long enjoyed important privi leges, and have been protected by the nobility. As a consequence, in the late Hun garian insurrection, they were patriotic to a man.—Spain began to tolerate them again to 1837 A.D., and they can follow trade or agriculture like other Spaniards; but few Jews have as yet cared to venture back to a land that fills them with the most mournful' recollections.—Portugal, where they enjoy no civic rights, has only a few German. Jews.—Switzerland long treated them harshly, and only of late years have a few cantons taken a step in the right direction hi other countries their condition must be merely referred to. In Turkey they are very numerous, and have thriven in spite of the exactions of pashas, the insolence t,f janizaries, and the miseries of war. The communities in Constantinople, Adrianople, Saloniki, Smyrna, Aleppo, and Damascus, are considerable; in Palestine, their ancient home, they are tsitid to be rapidly increasing; but they are suite of the many efforts on the part of their European brothers to ameliorate their condition, very poor. Their numbers in Arabia are not very large, yet they enjoy some independence. Those in Persia have sank into ignorande through oppression, yet it is touching to find that they are not hopeless. " Heavy," they say, "is our slavery; anxiously we wait for redemption." They exist in Afghanistan, and carry on a trade between Cabul and China; in India and Cochin-China, where they are both agriculturists and artisans; in Surinam there is a flourishing colony; in Bokhara, where they possess equal rights with the other inhabitants, and are skilled in the manufacture of silks and metals; in Tartary ami China, where, however, they are very insignificant both in numbers and position. They' are also found all along the North African coast, where, indeed, they have had communities for perhaps more than a thousand years, which were largely reinforced in consequence of the great Spanish persecutions. They are numerous in Fez and Morocco, though they are not always free from the perils of Mohammedan fanaticism. In Egypt and Nubia they are few; in Abyssinia, more numerous; and it is ascertained that they have even made their way into the heart of Africa; they exist in Sudan, and are also found further south. America, too, has invited their spirit of enterprise. In the United States, as in Great Britain, they enjoy absolute liberty. They have been in Brazil since 1025, amd in Cayenne since 1039, and are also settled in some parts of the West Indies.
The entire number of Jews in the world is reckoned variously between 3,500,000 and 15,000,000. A recent estimate gives their number at about 5,000,000. of which upwards of 3,500,000 are assigned to Europe; about 205,000 to Asia; about 750,000 to Africa, and about 105.000 to America. There are in Germany, inclusive of the whole of Austria and Prussia. about 1,440,000, of whom 1,019,871 are in Austria, and 200,751 in Prussia. According to the Russian census of 1870, the number of Jews in European Russia was 2,739,811.