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Present Condition in America.

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the capital of that State. Similar abuses are reported to have been rampant in several other parts of the ex-Confederacy; but all of these may be supposed to have vanished since the termination of the War of Secession. On the whole, it may be said that the Jews are now holding rather a prominent position in the great Transatlantic Commonwealth. Their number is increasing at a more rapid rate than that of the Christian inhabitants, especially in the large centres of population, such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and St. Francisco. Among their great men, the Jews in America count Louis Belmont, for many years the leader of the Democratic party, and Mr. Benjamin, the late Secretary of State to ex-President Jefferson.

CHAPTER XI.

First Settlements in Eastern Europe.—Colonisation of the Ukraine, the Crimea, Transylvania, and Hungary.-The Caraites.-The Jews in Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland during the Middle Ages. -Their flourishing condition in Poland.-Their peculiar characteristics.-The Jews in Roumania.—A glance at those in Russia.

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HAVING glanced at the history of the Jews in Western Europe, it now becomes my duty to speak somewhat more at length of the important section of those inhabiting the eastern and northern portions of the European continent. most recent researches make it appear that the road pursued by these Jews at the time they settled in the regions alluded to, led them from the country situated between Palestine and the Euphrates, to the south-eastern shores of the Black, and south-western borders of the Caspian Sea, thence to the Crimea and the shores of the Volga, Don, and Dnieper. Their first temporary resting-places they seem to have found in the Crimea, the Ukraine, and Bessarabia, whence they soon pushed further north and west, colonising a portion of Transylvania

Settlements in Eastern Europe. 157

and Hungary, and especially the vast domains of the Republic of Poland, as well as Bohemia.

The primary origin of these numerous settlers may perhaps remain for ever hidden in darkness. Few topics have given rise to more controversy than the question, whether that compact body of Jews commonly called Polish, are direct descendants of those that returned from the Babylonian captivity, under Esra and Nehemiah, or of those that remained in Persia subsequent to the edict of Cyrus. Yet whatever their origin and the first causes of their emigration to Europe may have been, it is certain that the Jews of Eastern Europe are so utterly distinct from the German and Portuguese Jews, both in their physical appearance and their mental characteristics, as to point to a totally different extraction from these. These observations apply more particularly to the Caraites inhabiting the Crimea and a portion of Bessarabia and the Dobroodsha. These people, some ten thousand in number, adhere with the utmost stringency to the Mosaic rites and observances, whilst, on the other hand, they ignore the traditional laws contained in the Talmud and observed by the other Jews.

It may not be without interest to notice that considerable light has been thrown on the past history of the Jews in the Taurian countries by the researches of the Archæological Society, of which Prince Woronzow, Governor-General of Odessa, is the President. "It seems that a good many relics having an important bearing on many points of ancient manuscripts as far back as the fifth century of the Christian era, copies or epigraphs, a parchment roll, with three documents found in the wall of the synagogue at Mangelis, near Derbend, seven hundred copies of epitaphs, and lastly eight original monuments from the Jewish graveyard at Tschufutkale, make up," says the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums," a store of learning sufficient to occupy the learned for many a year to come.

"Tschufutkale appears to have been the principal spot for these researches. This place was, in the middle ages, inhabited exclusively by Jews -a kind of Jewish fortress, which the inhabitants held in 1261, with much success, when attacked by the Genoese. It is situated on a promontory, almost in a line with Sebastopol, opposite to it, and about four miles from Batschiserai. At the head of the valley, not far

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from this place, is a Jewish burying-ground, which, from its high antiquity, is called by the Jews The Valley of Jehoshaphat.' The gravestones are not placed upright, as elsewhere, but deposited on the ground. The inscriptions appear to be on the side, and hence very difficult to decipher. There is also an historically important point—the grave of Isaak Tangari, who is said, in the year 850, to have converted the Cazar (Cuzar) to Judaism. But the dates of the gravestones reach further back still, as also their importance; for they refer not only to pre-Caraite, but also to a pre-Christian time. One from the year 30 after Christ bears the record: Rabbi Moses Levi, who died in the year 726 of our exile,' evidently the Assyrian exile, which, from a comparison with the year of creation, also noticed on the monument, must have taken place, according to their calculation, in 696 (the year 3 after Christ being 702). It is curious to find two more modes of calculation on these stones besides those already noticed, i.e., the ancient Crimean and the Matarchio. Matarcha is a place not far distant, whither, in 350 after Christ, Greek Jews are said to have come to settle, bringing their own

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