Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/179

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PROBLEM OF RUSSIAN JEW
163

Jews. In Roumania they are denied the right of citizenship, notwithstanding the solemn pledges of the Treaty of Berlin inserted by Lord Beaconsfield. In Russia they are still subjected to mediæval oppression. They are periodically expelled and systematically massacred. Jew "baiting" is a political Russian sport, and "pogroms," or organized massacres, are resorted to by the black hundreds with the complicity of the Russian Government whenever the reactionary parties find themselves in a difficulty.


VII

In the course of their tragic history the Jewish nation have revealed certain striking peculiarities which distinguish them from all others. Morally, they are presumably neither better nor worse than other communities. If their morality is inferior in their relations to alien nations, on the other hand their tribal and domestic morality is probably higher. They are sober and thrifty, industrious and charitable. Intellectually, they are one of the most gifted peoples of the world. The Jewish mind has been developed in the hard school of persecution. All through the severe struggle for life