every road; Germany, Holland and Italy were full of Jews who, pack on
shoulder, were seeking a precarious livelihood at a time when peddling
was neither lucrative nor safe.
But underneath all this were signs of a great change. The 18th century
has a goodly tale of Jewish artists in metal-work, makers of pottery,
and (wherever the gilds permitted it) artisans and wholesale
manufacturers of many important commodities. The last attempts at
exclusion were irritating enough; but they differed from the earlier
persecution. Such strange enactments as the _Familianten-Gesetz_, which
prohibited more than one member of a family from marrying, broke up
families by forcing the men to emigrate. In 1781 Dohm pointed to the
fact that a Jewish father could seldom hope to enjoy the happiness of
living with his children. In that very year, however, Joseph II.
initiated in Austria a new era for the Jews. This Austrian reformation
was so typical of other changes elsewhere, and so expressive of the
previous disabilities of the Jews, that, even in this rapid summary,
space must be spared for some of the details supplied by Graetz. "By
this new departure (19th of October 1781) the Jews were permitted to
learn handicrafts, arts and sciences, and with certain restrictions to
devote themselves to agriculture. The doors of the universities and
academies, hitherto closed to them, were thrown open.... An ordinance of
November 2 enjoined that the Jews were everywhere considered fellow-men,
and all excesses against them were to be avoided. The Leibzoll
(body-tax) was also abolished, in addition to the special law-taxes, the
passport duty, the night-duty and all similar imposts which had stamped
the Jews as outcast, for they were now (Dec. 19) to have equal rights
with the Christian inhabitants." The Jews were not, indeed, granted
complete citizenship, and their residence and public worship in Vienna
and other Austrian cities were circumscribed and even penalized. "But
Joseph II. annulled a number of vexatious, restrictive regulations, such
as the compulsory wearing of beards, the prohibition against going out
in the forenoon on Sundays or holidays, or frequenting public pleasure
resorts. The emperor even permitted Jewish wholesale merchants, notables
and their sons, to wear swords (January 2, 1782), and especially
insisted that Christians should behave in a friendly manner towards
Jews."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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