ANTI-SEMITISM

the name given to a widespread political movement, which was directed against the Jews during the last twenty years of the 19th cent: and earlier years of the 20th cent. The hostile movement began in Germany and Austria, in both of which countries the Heb. element was strong. The Jews, moreover, had succeeded in a imilating the Ger. national spirit in a very remarkable degree; and, besides having secured the control of a large share of the state’s commerce, individual members of the Jewish body had achieved high positions in literature, music and other arts (e.g) He in rich Heine, Karl Marx, Ludwig Borne, and Ferdinand Lasalle; the composers Mendel ohn and Meyer beer; and the politicians Edward Lasker and Ludwig Bamberger. So powerful had the Semitic influence become in political life that Prince Bismarck found it a serious menace to his schemes, and there gradually arose a strong anti-Semitic feeling, which is said to have been engineered by the prince himself, and was fomented by a court preacher named Adolf Stocker. The spark appeared in the year 1879, and was quickly fanned into flame. Quarrels were fixed upon members of the Jewish race; they were insulted and boycotted; attempts were made to exclude them from the schools and univs.; duels between anti-Semites and Jews were of frequent occurrence; and street riots were by no means uncommon. This abominable ecution, however, did not meet with general acceptance, and, amongst others, the crown prince Frederick publicly denounced the agitation as a standing disgrace to Germany. Scarcely had the excitement aroused by this outbreak subsided when a much more serious one took place in Ru ia. This was in 1881. As in Germany, an antagonistic feeling against the Jews was «, 4 7! arene stirred by secret means, and the reign of persecution began. The Ru ian Jews were cooped up in huge ghettos, chiefly in the Polish areas; and when the work of ma acre and burning commenced, it quickly spread thvouchout Western Ru ia. It is estimated that nearly two hundred towns and villages were concerned in the outbreak, including Warsaw, Ode a, and Kiev; immense numbers of men, women, and children met with violent deaths, and many you sands of unoffending people were ruined. Though public indignation was raised to the highest pitch, little notice was taken of any protest, and similar outbreaks (pogroms) occurred in 1890-1, and also within recent times. Almost concurrently with these earlier outbreaks in Germany and Ru ia, there arose violent persecutions in Rumania and Austria-Hungary, while Fr. anti Semi tic feeling reached its climax in the conspiracy by means of which a Fr. Jewish officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was, in 1894, convicted of treason. Efforts to create anti-Semitic feeling have from time to time been made in America, but with little succe .