Their present actual numbers may, perhaps, not exceed six
millions--numbers, however, probably greater than those over which
Solomon reigned; and of these six millions there may be resident in the
contiguous countries of Moravia, Ancient Poland, the Crimea, Moldavia,
and Wallachia, above three millions. Except within the countries which
formed Poland before its partitions, their population contained in any
one European kingdom, cannot, therefore, be great. Yet so essentially
are they one people, we might almost say one family; and so disposable
is their wealth, as mainly vested in money transactions, that they must
be considered as an aggregate, and not in their individual portions.
The Jews in France are perhaps from thirty to forty thousand; they
abound chiefly at Metz, along the Rhine, and at Marseilles and Bordeaux.
In Bonaparte's time they were imagined to amount to at least twice that
number.--They are relieved from civil restraints and disabilities in
France, and in the Netherlands also. The Jews in Holland, of both German
and Portuguese origin, are numerous; the latter are said to have taken
refuge there when the United Provinces asserted their independence of
Spain; they have a splendid synagogue at Amsterdam. Infidelity is
supposed to have made more progress amongst them than amongst the German
Jews in Holland. The Italian Jews are chiefly at Leghorn and Genoa; and
there are four thousand of them at Rome. In speaking of the religion of
the Jews, it is not necessary to particularize those who assumed the
mask of Christianity under terror of the Inquisition, although much has
been said of their wealth and numbers, and of the high offices they have
filled in Spain, and especially in Portugal. But it is curious to see,
in a very distant quarter, a like simulation produced amongst them
by like causes. There are at Salonica thirty synagogues, and about
twenty-five thousand professed Jews; and a body of Israelites have been
lately discovered there, who, really adhering to the faith of their
fathers, have externally embraced Mahomedanism.
The Barbary Jews are a very fine people; but the handsomest Jews are
said to be those of Mesopotamia. That province may also boast of an Arab
chief who bears the name of the Patriarch Job, is rich in sheep, and
camels, and oxen, and asses, abounds in hospitality, and believes that
he descends from him; he is also famed for his justice. The Jews at
Constantinople, forty thousand in number, and in the parts of European
Turkey on and near the Mediterranean, speak Spanish, and appear to
descend from Israelites driven from Spain by persecution. The Bible
Society are now printing at Corfu the New Testament, in Jewish-Spanish,
for their benefit.
In truth, little appears to be known of the state of the Jews during
some hundreds of years after the destruction of Jerusalem. The first
body of learned Jews which drew attention after that disastrous event
was that settled in Spain; and from it all Jewish learning descends.
As in accomplishment of the prophecy, the Jew is found over the whole
surface of the globe; he has been long established in China, which
abhors the foreigner; and in Abyssinia, which it is almost as difficult
to reach as to quit. The early Judaism of that country, and in later
days the history of the powerful colony of Jews established in its
heart, which at one time actually reigned over the kingdom, are matters
so curious, that we regret that we can do no more than advert to them;
we must say the same as to the evidence existing of Jewish rites having
extended themselves very far southward along the eastern coast of
Africa; the numerous Jews of Barbary; and the black and white Jews, who
have been established for ages, more or less remote, on the Malabar
coast. It may be here observed, that all the Israelites hitherto
discovered appear to be descendants of those who held the kingdom of
Judah.
The Jews in Great Britain and Ireland are not supposed to be more than
from ten to twelve thousand, very many of whom are foreigners, and
migratory.--_Quarterly Rev._
* * * * *