The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeWashington, Booker T.
History
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe
Washington, Booker T.
Poor -- Europe; Working class -- Europe
One of the first things I observed in regard to the Jews abroad was the
very different forms which racial prejudice takes in the different
countries that I visited. For example, in East London, which has long
been the refuge for the poor and oppressed of other countries, the Jew
is tolerated, although he is not liked. It is not clear just what is
the source of the English prejudice. Complaint is sometimes made that
the Jewish immigrant has driven out the native Briton from certain
parts of East London, but it is admitted at the same time that in such
cases it is because the Jew has proven a better tenant. He does not
drink, he is law-abiding, and he pays his rent regularly. It seems to
be true in London, also, as it is in New York, that as soon as the
Jewish immigrant has made a little success he does not remain in the
same quarter of the city. He soon moves out and his place is taken by
some new and half-starved fugitive from Russia or Roumania, so that
there is a constant stream of "greeners," as they are called, coming
in, and another, perhaps somewhat smaller, stream of those who have
been successful moving out. In spite of this fact, it is generally
admitted that general conditions have improved under the influence
of the Jews. English prejudice where it exists seems to be due,
therefore, partly to economic causes and partly to the general distrust
of the alien that seems to be gaining in England with the influx of
immigration from southern Europe. In Denmark, on the contrary, where
the Jews seem to be very largely represented among the educated and
well-to-do classes, I discovered a great deal of prejudice against the
Germans but almost none against the Jews. In fact, one of the most
distinguished men in Denmark, outside of the King, a man who has been a
leader in the intellectual life of that country during the past thirty
years, Prof. Georg Brandes, is a Jew.
In Germany I learned that, while the Jews are prominent not only in
business but in the professions, it was still difficult for them to
rise in the army or to advance to the position of professor in the
universities, unless they have first been baptized.
In speaking about this matter to a German whom I met at one of the
hotels in Vienna, I called to mind the name of a distinguished
professor whose name I had heard as an instance of a Jew gaining a high
position in a German university.
"Oh, well," he replied, "he has been baptized."
That recalls to my mind a conundrum which an acquaintance proposed
while we were discussing some of the peculiarities of race prejudice in
Europe.
"When is a Jew not a Jew?" he asked. The answer is of course, "When
he is a Christian." In other words, prejudice in Germany seems to be
directed only against the Jew who clings to his religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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