Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/702

646 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Anti-Semitism statesmen, has so far had more

iiionil

than pnu-tical

rL'sults.

Whi'ii. Istde/.i.

ill

a

the Iliinirariiin Parliainrnt,

(li'i>iHy iiiikiinwii

a

Hungary.

i

liiiilii'ii

rniiicnt

up

to lh:il

Vi<'t(>r iv tiiiir.

iiiailc

(.hily I".'. ISTS) that tlic shoulil force Turkey to

jri'Vj;iv<^

up I'alesliiie ami should deport there all the Jews of Hungary, it was coiisirovcd that prcs<'nted in (Jermany."

was

not justilied. Anti-Scniilisni was favored liolh l)y the t^lavonie Tuitionalities. which were oppressed hy the government, and hy the Clerical i)arty. which sjiw the time approaching when the government would have to alirogate the canonical law, which was still recognized in the Seventeen mendiers of the marriage legislation. House of Deputies made. Feb. IS, 1SS2, a motion to repeal the act wliieh had emancipated the Jews. The disnppear;ince of Ksther iSolymosi in Tis7.,-I''szi..U!. April 1. 1SS',J. aroused such an excitement that the Jewish deputy Morris 'ahrnuinn and Istoc/i came to blows in Parliament (June o. ISSi). In many places that his (iptiniisin

occurred; Jews were mobbed. and in some instances were killed or riots

The Esther Solyraosi Case. ,

seriously

wounded.

Such

riots

oc-

euircd in Presburg, Sept. iS, ls.s-,2; in Budapest, Oedenlnu-g, and other jdaces

(Aug. S, x>i:). aftcM- the ilischarge of the Jews accused of the murder of Esther Solymosi: the most serious of all, in Zala Egcrszeg, on Aug. 23. 1N8:S. A petition to the Parliament, asking that the act for the emancipation of the Jews be repealed, received only a few votes; even the independents who were in opposition to the iroveriunent voted against it (Jan. 20,

is,s;!i.

Not long afterward (Oct.. issij) an anti-Semitic party was organized in Parliament. It consisted of four members. Onody. Szell. Istdczi. and Simonyi. Its platform demanded the restriction of economic liberty, withdrawal of the right to sign jiromissory notes, and exclusion of the Jews from the lii|in>r trade. The elections of 1884 increased the nundier of anti-Semites to IT. but the goveriunent, in the address from the throne at the opening of the session. Sept. !l. 1JSS4. declared itself strongly against the anti-Semites. The minister-president, Tisza, lost no opportimity to detine his position iluring the debate on the address. The year 1HS4 marked the height of the anti-Sendtic movement; and with the new ecclesiastic legishilion of 1S!M, which abrogated the |irivileged position of the Koman Catholic Church and recognized the Hebrew failh. Anti-Sendtism in Hungary received a crushing blow. The defeat of Austria in istili and its financial condition, which tiordered on liankrujitcy, had broight the (Jermau-Liberal element to the front. The consequence of this change of policy was the promul-

gation of the Constitution (Staatsgrundgesetzc) of iS7, which declared the princijile of religious lil)erty. What might be called Anti Senntism came from the ranks of those who were o]i])osed to the i>rinci|de of religious libertv and iiolitical ei|uality. or CDuld be heard among those who. while liberal in principle, drew the line of distinction in the social life. Thus Anton von Schmerling, a fornier minister-president in the Austrian House of Lords 18H(|). urged the necessity of instruction in (Jerman in schools in order to overcome the advantageous position of the Jewish soldiers in the regiments of Galicia. who. owing to their knowledge of tlic German langviage, had better chances of promotion to the position of non(

646

commissioni'd ollicers; lie aihU'd, not in .sympathy with the. lews,"

" Pei-sonally. I

am

Thesirious tinanwhich struck Austria

of 1S7:!, severely, proiluciil there as in (ormany ill filling au'anist ihi' stock exchange and eonse(|ni'nlly against l.iiiendism in general, and against the J<ws in particular. This ill leeling became a political factor when, with the formation of the TaalTc ministry (1H7!I), the Czechs, who had hitherto refused to acknowledge the constitution of lM(i7, sent their deleLrales to the lieiclismth. As the Uerinan Liberal element Verl'a.ssungs]iartei) opposed the ministry, the latter formed a majority out of the Slavicelement. condiined with the Oerman Clericals. Without beingantiSi'mitic the nnnistry tried to win the favor of the majority by some concessions to the Keactionary progriun. This was the tenilency of the school law, ]iasscd in lss;i. which re(|nired that the prineiiial of every public school shonlil belong to the same chnreh to which the majority of the school-children belonged. This l;iw ilebarri'd the eial crisis

Austria,

(

,

Jews from all teaching and served the normal

to deter schools.

positi<ins in eountry districts, Jewish students from entcrinjf The law Tuade an exception in

favor of Galicia. where, in the cities, the Jews were majority. Ucstrictions upon peddling and upon theelothing tnide wei'e further concessions to the political parties demanding a revisiiai of the oft<'n in the

constitution in a reactionary sense. The first one. however, to make Anti Scmilism a political program was Georg von Schimerer. an amliitious politician and miliionaire,

Georg'

von

who had iidierited his wealth from his father, a railroad contractor in the

Schonerer. employ of the Hothschilds,

He

re-

nouiu-ed the anti (Jerman policy of Count TaalTe, and, together with two other mend)ers of the Heiclisratb, ScliiiHelanil Kiirnkranz, formed the nucleus of an anti Seudlie party. In the Diet of Lower Austria heilemande<l (Oct, :!, lSS2)a legal solution of the Jewish i|Uestion. threatening that otherwise the people woulil take the law in their own Previously (May 11. 1SS2) he had brmight hands. intothi' H<'ichsratli a petition against theiimnigration of Hussian Jews, and had found the support of 2^ members. He obtained still more ardent support among the students of the university of X'ieniia and the largest of the stuileiits' societies, the Deutsche Lesehalle, was responsible for turbulent meetings The larger and at, which the Jews were insdted. more respectabh' element of the population ilid not participate in this movement; nor did the government as yet tolerate its excesses. ^leetings. at which violent speeches were delivered, were jiromiilly dissolved by the i>olice: and intlanunatory jiamphlets

were sujipressed. The most pronunent citizens in Vieima and of other large cities, following the example of Berlin and Paris, formed committees for the purpose of assisting the Jewish refugees fnnn

The affair of Tisza Eszhir also exercised inHuence upon the conditions in Austria. Hohling. who in 1S71 as professor in the Catholic Academy of Minister had ]idilishcd his notorious pamphlet. ' Der Talmudjudc." hail in the meantime been called to Prague, where he continued his agitation, adding to his former charges against rabbinical literature the odious one that the Talmud makes it the duty of the Jews to use the blood of Christians Russia, its

in certain religious rites (Holding. "DiePolemik und das ilenschenopfer des Babbinismns," Paderborn, IHK:!; ".Meine Antworti'n an die Habbinen oiler Fi'mf Briefe iiberden Talmuilismus und das Blutritnal der Juden," Prague, 188;i), This agitation was taken

up

ia

the

Reiclisrath,

where the Polish deputy