On the eve of the Jewish New Year it is proper that we draw up and take account of our annual budget. The biggest sum in this budget is the item marked "bribery." Few realize how many millions are spent annually6 by Russian and Roumanian Jews who seek to mollify their oppressors with bribe4 or gift offerings. Few realize that the many millions spent by wealthy Assimilationists in non-Jewish philanthropies are also bribe offerings. The Jew has learned that if he means to be a Jew he must pay bribery and that if he does not want to be a Jew, he must also pay bribery.
When a few years ago a Jewish lord in England bequeathed his fortune of $10,000,000 to non-Jewish institutions, he made it clear that this gift should be taken as proof of his sincere Anglicism, which meant the repudiation7 of Judaism. When the French Jew, Meurts de la Deutsch spends 2,000,000 francs annually to encourage aviation in France, it is for no nobler purpose than to deny that he is a Jew, and that he has embraced all French interests. The same is true of innumerable wealthy Jews who give millions for non-Jewish and often for anti-Jewish purposes. It might prove interesting to an economist8 to discover how many millions are spent annually in such bribery.
It is not difficult to estimate in round figures the sums spent annually by those who want to remain Jews.
There are six million Jews in Russia. For every move he makes, the Russian Jew must bribe the authorities. If he wants his son admitted to the schools, he must bribe the education officials. If he wants to open a store and obtain a license9, he must bribe the village or town officials. If he builds a house he must bribe the building inspectors10. If he seeks a passport, he must bribe the police. The whole run of human activities is accompanied by an endless flow of bribes11, gifts, presents, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that every Jew in Russia must spend an average of ten rubles annually in bribing12 officials. This is 60,000,000 rubles, or $30,000,000 a year. The total budget of the Swiss Confederacy falls within this amount. In return the Russian Jews are paid in exceptional laws and pogroms. These laws and pogroms lead to emigration which costs us, on an average, $10,000,000 a year.
In the last decade Jewish emigration from Russia has been at least 100,000 persons a year. The cost to every immigrant is at least 120 rubles. This totals $7,200,000 a year. Economists13 have calculated and discovered that the incidental expenses of each immigrant amount to about 100 rubles. These expenses are caused by the loss entailed14 in breaking up business, selling out below cost, etc. This in turn totals up to 12,000,000 rubles, or $6,000,000 a year. In addition to these sums there are extraordinary losses resulting from pogroms, fire and boycott15.
We are not taking into consideration the hundreds of millions lost by Jews in the war owing to the malice16 of the Russian Government. These losses are not recurrent. But we must consider the losses of the Jews in Russia as a result of pogroms. In the pogroms of 1905 and 1906 the Russian Jews lost 20,000,000 rubles. Pogroms on a minor17 scale are yearly events in Russia. All in all, the sum which the Russian Jews spend annually in bribes or in expenses in connection with emigration, or which they lose in pogroms or other upheavals18, reaches the gigantic sum of $50,000,000, a sum which exceeds the annual budget of Bulgaria or of Switzerland. For less than this sum these two peoples enjoy national independence and sovereignty while we enjoy—pogroms.
What is true of Russia is true of Roumania, partly true of Galicia and of the Jews in northern Africa, Persia and Afghanistan. That these million and a half of oppressed Jews living outside of Russia also spend millions annually in bribery and emigration goes without saying.
As the emigration from the countries of oppression does not diminish the number of Jews, because of the high birth-rate there, and as conditions of life grow worse daily, the emigrants19 have to support their families and friends who stay behind. The Russian Ministry20 of Post and Telegraph published statistical21 tables a few years ago, which show that the Russian immigrants in the United States, mostly Jews, send annually to their relatives and friends from $15,000,000 to $18,000,000 a year. A good part of this sum goes to the Russian post office officials. This fact became known four years ago when a group of Jews in Petrograd and Moscow started a movement with the purpose of founding a Jewish immigrants' bank.
When speaking of necessary and incidental expenses of immigration one must not overlook the losses accruing22 from re-immigration and from a decrease of productive energy of many immigrants because of their inability to adapt themselves to new surroundings.
These are expenses caused by the decision of Jews to remain Jews. We maintain that the sums of money paid by Jews who are determined23 to have the world think them non-Jews, or to have the world forgive them for being Jews, are at least as large.
When, a few years ago, the Jewish millionaire Efrussi died in Paris, the French press without exception paid high tribute to his French patriotism24 and omitted all mention of his Jewish origin. Efrussi used to spend 2,000,000 francs on French national sports, races, etc. This was also the case with the French Jew, Osiris, who left his fortune of 60,000,000 francs to the French people and French institutions, and 60,000 francs to the Jewish people in the form of a copy of Michael Angelo's Moses erected25 in the court of the Jewish Teachers' Seminary of the Alliance Israelite in Paris. An Austrian Jew, Taussig, gave 1,000,000 kronen to the Catholic Eucharist Congress in Vienna, while a relative of the same name left 500,000 kronen to the Catholic church with the request that on his Jahr-Zeit two Franciscan monks26 visit the synagogue to pray for his soul. The new university in Frankfort-on-Main, which cost many[127] million marks, is a Jewish university in so far as large parts of this sum were contributed by Jews. Most of the contributors were Jews who in no way support Jewish institutions. A Prussian statistician discovered a few years ago that not only do Jews contribute to funds for the building of monuments to national heroes, but also to funds for Catholic cathedrals and other institutions that are anti-Semitic in character.
In England there are hundreds of wealthy Jews who make annual contributions to the Church of England, refusing at the same time to support any Jewish institutions. Lord Rothschild, who is by no means the richest man in England, spends more in New Year's gifts to various non-Jewish classes in London than ten other rich lords combined. Another English Jew, Sir Ernest Cassel, the son of a Hebrew teacher in Germany, has spent in the last decade £1,500,000 in the support of non-Jewish institutions. Their contributions to Jewish institutions have been insignificant27 in comparison.
The gift of these large sums is always made public, but the sum total of smaller gifts, which are not made public, exceed by far the amounts given by very rich Jews to non-Jewish institutions. If we compare the sums given by so-called Jewish philanthropists to Jewish and non-Jewish institutions we discover that they give at least five times as generously to the non-Jewish as to the Jewish. Mr. Jacob H. Schiff's gift of $500,000 to Barnard College is a striking instance. At a time when his own people experienced the greatest calamity28 in its history, when millions of Jews were starving, and when Jewish blood was being shed freely, Schiff gave $100,000 for Jewish relief purposes and five times as much to a single institution for the erection of one building in New York. This is the usual proportion that marks the giving of Jews to Jewish and non-Jewish institutions.
We think that the form of bribery which the oppressed Jews practice to mollify their oppressors is sad enough as a commentary on Jewish life. But the more ostentatious form of bribery—a form of gift bestowal29 which seeks to hide the giver's identity as a Jew or at least to purchase pardon for his Jewishness—is the greater tragedy. These Jews spend millions to make the world forget they are Jews, but the world remembers and laughs up its sleeve.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
expenditure
|
|
| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
expenditures
|
|
| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bribe
|
|
| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
bribery
|
|
| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
annually
|
|
| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
repudiation
|
|
| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
economist
|
|
| n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
license
|
|
| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
inspectors
|
|
| n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
bribes
|
|
| n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
bribing
|
|
| 贿赂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
economists
|
|
| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
entailed
|
|
| 使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
boycott
|
|
| n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
malice
|
|
| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
minor
|
|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
upheavals
|
|
| 突然的巨变( upheaval的名词复数 )； 大动荡； 大变动； 胀起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
emigrants
|
|
| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
ministry
|
|
| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
statistical
|
|
| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
accruing
|
|
| v.增加( accrue的现在分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
patriotism
|
|
| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
monks
|
|
| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
insignificant
|
|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
calamity
|
|
| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bestowal
|
|
| 赠与，给与； 贮存 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |