A very happy influence on the moral character of the Jews has been their closeness and segregation, forced on them in part by their strange religion, and in part by oppression. Their almost equal fate has linked all Jews so closely with one another that they share in the fate of their fellow Jews with much more interest than is possible in a more numerous nation. Nowhere are their poor a burden on the state; they are taken care of by the prosperous among them and the whole community takes sympathetic interest in the affairs of the individual. The Jews seem to enjoy the bliss of domestic life with more simplicity than is at present usual, at least in big cities. Most of them are good husbands and fathers. Luxury has with them not yet reached the stage as with Christians in similar circumstances. The purity of their marriages is greater, crimes of unchastity, especially perversities, are much rarer. Almost never has a Jew committed treachery or a crime against the state. Almost everywhere they are devoted to the country in which they live, if only they are not treated too badly. In danger they have shown a zeal which one would not have expected from members of society who are so little favored.

In contrast to these fine traits of the Jewish character are the exaggerated love of the nation for every kind of profit, usury, and crooked practices; a fault which is nourished in many by their exclusive religious principles and rabbinic sophistries, and more still by Christian oppression and the antipathy against other religions which they are taught. Breaking of laws which limit trade, import or export of contraband merchandise, forgery of mint or precious metals, are natural consequences of this character trait; and in almost all modern states the Jews are accused of these. But, as I remarked already, all these crimes do not stem from the national character of the Jews, but from the oppressed state in which they live, and are in part consequences of the profession to which they have been restricted exclusively.

There is no record that Jews did all these things as long as they lived in their own state and as long as their only occupation was agriculture; nor during the period when they, dispersed over the whole Roman Empire, enjoyed all human and civil rights. Only from the time on when one began to deny them those rights and forced them, so unpolitically, to live on commerce alone did crookedness and usury become more and more apparent as special traits of the Jewish character.

Every kind of occupation and trade has some special effects on the way of thinking and the moral character. One of the strangest differences of these effects lies in the fact that some ways of earning a living always yield equal profit regulated by the natural scope of the occupation, while others, depending more on chance, sometimes offer great advantages, sometimes threaten great loss. The first type requires a permanent, quiet activity, a manner of work which once understood does not tax the mind and becomes purely mechanical, and the result of which is rarely uncertain; the latter necessitates continuous alertness and the utilization of changing conditions, speculations, and planning for the future. Its success can almost never be predicted with certainty. Industry alone is of little avail if not assisted by intelligence and good luck, and the latter sometimes is alone responsible. These differences and their influence on the character are very clearly apparent in the diverse occupations of the artisan, the farmer, and the merchant. The first always has the equal occupation, the moderate but certain profit, which I described. In most of the common crafts the manner and volume of work and of selling are regulated so precisely and uniformly that few changes and expansions are taking place. Most places have as many shops as are necessary to supply their demands, and therefore the artisan sells just enough to cover the needs of an artisan and his family who are accustomed to moderate nourishment. Their income is secure and permanent.

As long as his industry continues equally, he neither has to fear impoverishment nor can he hope to better himself. According to this income which the artisan can easily and with certainty figure out in advance, he makes the little budget for his household and as a rule his calculations are correct. If he works diligently and well, he will usually soon succeed in making a comfortable living, and often a good and abundant one relative to his class, and he will when he dies leave to his children a fortune which will suffice to establish them just as well as their father. In this manner well-to-do, sometimes even wealthy families of artisans are founded, which continue through many centuries, until they, blind to their fortunate lot, move into a so-called higher estate, where their wealth is no longer wealth and their mode of living not according to the fashion, and where their principles are unknown, so that often the descendant of wealthy craftsmen perishes as a bankrupt merchant or a starving scholar. In fact, the life of a skilled craftsman is perhaps the purest happiness to be found in our civil society.
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