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The
most grievous injury has been inflicted on the Jewish nation by those
unkind and unjust restrictions, which, in many of the countries where
they have sojourned in their captivity, have prevented their following
useful trades and manual employments. The effect of these unnatural laws
has been great and extensive; and, in consequence of them, too many of
our Jewish brethren have been for successive generations, altogether
deprived of the opportunity for pursuing those callings which furnish
the means of subsistence to the great bulk of every nation. The mere
barter of articles manufactured by strangers cannot afford occupation
for an entire nation, without tending very much to lower the tone of
their character for independence, for steady perseverance, and for
diligent industry. We cannot, indeed, but be struck with astonishment
when we look at the disadvantages to which the Jews have been subjected,
to find, that notwithstanding these painful and unjust prohibitions,
they have still laboured as successfully as they have done, in the
limited sphere to which their exertions were confined.
Their
toil has been most severe, and their discouragements very great, when
they felt themselves limited and restrained in so many of their
endeavours to obtain the necessary support for themselves and their
families. It must be most irksome, not to be allowed in so many
instances to choose that kind of occupation which they felt to be most
congenial to their wishes, and suited to their capacities.
But,
not only were the Jews thus subjected to many inconveniences which
seriously affected their temporal interests, they were in this way too
often effectually excluded from social intercourse with their Christian
neighbours, they were condemned to lead an isolated life, compelled to
dwell alone, though mixed with the nations among whom they sojourned.
The
consequences of these barriers to social comfort and national
advancement have been most painfully felt in very many cases, when
Jewish believers in the truths of the Gospel hove joined the community
of the Church of Christ.
Having
been compelled to be strangers to our habits and manner of life as it
regards the things of this world, they suffer many disadvantages arising
from their defective education, which seriously affect them, as
concerning the things that make for their everlasting welfare.
It
is, therefore, with great satisfaction that we point to a large Jewish
community where the disadvantages of which we have complained do not
exist. The Jewish character for honest industry and diligent labour in
all the various callings which others successfully cultivate, have here
had a scope which has too often been denied them; and it is impossible
to read the following statistical account of the Jewish population of
Berditschew, taken from the “Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums,” of
April 29th, 1844, without saying, “O si sic omnes,” and
blushing to think that the reason why it. has not been so elsewhere, is
to be sought, not among the Jews themselves, but among the nominal
Christians, who, by excluding them from many of the pursuits to which
the Jews at Berditschew have addicted themselves, have done so much harm
to those whom they ought to have instructed in every good way, by words
of truth and deeds of charity:—
“In
Berditschew, a town containing above 30,000 Jewish inhabitants, there
are nine merchants of the first, twelve of the second, and about 500 of
the third rank. There are 274 cornhandlers, 205 butchers, and a great
many fish, fruit, and vegetable salesmen. There are builders, dyers,
three engravers, forty goldsmiths, six painters, seventeen watchmakers,
thirty musicians. Others find a subsistence from literary employment,
and great numbers by the instruction of youth, partly in Hebrew, partly
in European languages; many are bookkeepers and clerks. Of
handicraftsmen, there are (exclusive of journeymen) above 4,000; 374
workers in various kinds of metal, above twenty licensed barbers,
seventy ropemakers and pipetube-borers, ninety-two leather cutters and
upholsterers, 598 tailors, 174 capmakerers, 159 furriers, 353
shoemakers, 204 joiners and turners, ninety bakers, sixteen milliners,
thirteen wadding manufacturers, fiftysix tobacco and snuff
manufacturers, 112 innkeepers, and 200 vintners and moneychangers.
Numbers of manufacturers of
needles, buttons, pencils, lucifers, white lead, lace, tape; besides
bookbinders, coopers, soapboilers, tilemakers; many day-labourers,
coachmen, bricklayers, water carriers, and labourers of every
kind.”—Jewish Intelligence.
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