joy at an enemy's misfortune. D. Another collection of "words of the wise" (24:23-34), containing aphorisms, and a vivid picture of the sluggard's field. E. "The proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah collected" (25 to 29) may be further divided into two readily distinguished parts (25 to 27 and 28 to 29). The first part (25 to 27), except for glosses (25:21-22; 25:5; 27:11, and other passages), is secular and presumably one of the older sections of the book, whereas the second section (28 to 29) has the strong ethical and religious emphasis of post-Exilic Judaism, very much like the aphorisms in (B). F. "The words of Agur the son of Jakeh" (30:1-10) is the statement of a skeptic, wrestling with the concepts of God and creation, whose heresy is offset by a pious prayer (30:7-9). There follows a group of sayings, against slandering a servant (30:10), and against certain vices and errors (30:11-33). G. "The words of Lemuel" (31:1-9), warning the king against sensuality and intemperance, and exhorting him to aid the needy. H. The picture of an ideal housewife (31:1031), in a poetic, alphabetic acrostic.

Two schools of thought may be recognized in the wisdom materials of Proverbs, a secular and a religious. The theology of the secular group is that of Job, Ps. 104, and Ecclesiastes. The religious school is akin to Deuteronomy, the later codes, and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). The secular school conceives of God as Creator (3:19-20) about Whom man can gain little knowledge (30:2-4). God is the source of all things (16:9), directing every move of man (16:1; 21:1, 31), who is powerless against Him (21:30). Man may obtain the good things in life only by his own efforts. Wealth is acquired through intelligence (24:3-4), hard work (10: 4-5), especially in herding (27:23-27) and in farming (12:11; 28:19). The wise man will retain his property by abstaining from laziness (6:6-11; 24:30-34), profligacy (5:9-10; 6:26; 23:27-28; 29:3b), intemperance (23:20-21) and going surety for another's debts (6:1-5). The pleasures of life, if in moderation, are not to be shunned; such pleasures are ointment and perfume (27:9), wine (31:6-7), honey (25:16), friendship (25: 17), and marriage and family (5:15-20). A nagging wife (17:1; 21:9, 19), false friendship (16:27-30; 19:4; 26:18-19), association with fools (13:20b), quarrelsome men (15:17-18; 19:19), flatterers and tale-bearers (26: 20-28) are to be avoided. Wisdom is either a professional skill (20:18; 24:3-6; 30:24-28) or a utilitarian morality (14:3; 24:4-5). Admonitions of wisdom against adultery, usury, fraud, theft, and ill-gotten gains are not moral or religious, but dictated by expediency. These derelictions are fraught with serious, personal or material risks. Self-interest is the chief criterion in avoiding them. Bribery is approved when fruitful of results (17:8; 19:6), despite religious laws against it.

In the religious and ethical section of Proverbs, the influence of the social ideals of Deuteronomy is felt. Prophecy and law are mentioned (29:18); inward spiritual religion (16:2), appeals for the widow and orphan (15:25b; 23:10-11) and for the poor (14:20-21; 17:5; 19:17; 21:13; 22:2), and the feeding of one's enemy (25:21-22), all reflecting the spirit of the prophets and of Deuteronomy. In the religious school, the wisdom of God is now accessible to man (1:20-33; $:1 to 9:6). It is equated with morals (8:13) or religion (17), as in the prophetic writings. Ethical and re

ligious wisdom is a gift of God (3:7; 2:6-7). The wise are identical with the pious (9:9; 10:31; 23:24), and contrasted with scoffers (9:8; 13:1; 15:12; 29:8). Identified with all that is noble and pious, wisdom becomes the summum bonum of life (3:13-18; 8:6-21) through which long life, security, honor, wealth and happiness are found (6:23; 1:33; 3:16; 8:18; 3:13). God is no longer unapproachable, but Creator and Judge (16:4), Who sees man's innermost thoughts (5:21), weighs his heart (16:2), and metes out reward or punishment (24:12). The pietists firmly believed that wealth and happiness were the reward of piety and righteousness (3:16; 8:18). All derelictions, such as bribery, drunkenness, and adultery, were now moral and religious sins, not merely inexpedient forms of conduct (6:16-19; 15:27; 2:16-19). The pious sages regarded wealth neither with the unreserved praise of the secularists nor with the utter condemnation of the proletarian psalmists. Proverbs reflects the ideals of the prosperous middle classes of Judea, whose children were taught by the pietists that wealth had a spiritual meaning in the light of pious and philanthropic giving (3:9-10; 11:2426; 19:17; 22:9), and in that there was no real difference between rich and poor (22:2; 29:13). Many things in life were more precious than riches, namely wisdom (3:14-15; 8:11), religion (15:16), righteousness (16:8), and a good name (22:1). Proverbs presented, as in Deuteronomy (11:26) and Jeremiah (21:8), the two ways of life, the good and the evil, the pious way of reward as against the wicked way that leads to retribution (2:13; 5:5; 12:28; 15:19). The religious proverbs as a whole are idealistic, pious, and morally religious, whereas the secular proverbs are realistic and practical, with an occasional strain of cynicism.

Scholars are generally agreed that the book of Proverbs was composed out of several collections of aphorisms extant in Palestine between 400 and 200 B.C.E. That its final compilation could not have occurred later than 200 B.C.E. is evident from the reference to Proverbs in Sirach 47:17 and 8:8. That the book as a whole can not be older than 400 B.C.E. is clear because of the Aramaic and late Hebrew forms (collected by Wildeboer in Marti's Kommentar), the absence of earlier nationalistic sentiments, the references to the law and prophets (28:4, 9; 29:18), its advanced religious conceptions (14:31; 16:4; 22:2; 28:13), the sharp division of the Jewish community into pious and scoffers (letzim, a late word), and other parallels with Psalms and other late writings (especially Sirach). It is extremely unlikely that anything at all originated with Solomon. His name in 10:1 can perhaps be explained by the fact that the number of proverbs in 10:1 to 22:16 is equal to the numerical value of the word Solomon (Hebrew, SHeLoMoH), or 375. Similarly, the collection in 25 to 29 has 136 verses, corresponding to the letters in the name Hezekiah (Hebrew, HiZKiYaHU). Whether the number of verses was chosen on account of the name, or the name on account of the number of verses (which is more likely), can not be definitely determined. On the assumption that the king proverbs refer to Jewish kings, scholars like Kittel and Gunkel assign the older collections to preExilic times. Yet some of the verses they cite refer to the Pharaoh (22:29), originally a part of Amen-en-ope's book, and to an Arabian chieftain (31:1-9). While individual collections and statements may go back to

PROVIDENCE

earlier times in line with an Egyptian prototype, their compilation is clearly post-Exilic (see Erman, in Orientalistische Literatur-Zeitung, 1924-25). As for the inclusion of Proverbs in the canon, Proverbs, like the two other books ascribed to Solomon, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, was not finally included in the canon of the Bible until about the year 100 C.E. (Sab. 30b; Aboth de Rabbi Nathan 1). ADOLPH J. FEINBERG.

Lit.: Cheyne, T. K., Job and Solomon or the Wisdom of the Old Testament (1887); Meinhold, J., Die Weisheit Israels in Spruch, Sage und Dichtung (1908); Eissfeldt, O., Der Maschal im Alten Testament (1913); Hudal, A., Die religiösen und sittlichen Ideen des Spruchbuches (1914); Cadbury, Henry J., "Egyptian Influences on the Book of Proverbs," Journal of Religion (1929) 9; Ranston, H., The Old Testament Wisdom Books and their Teaching (1930); Fichner, J., Die altorientalische Weisheit in ihrer israelitischjüdischen Ausprägung (1933); Baumgartner, W., Israelitische und altorientalische Weisheit (1933); Schmidt, J., Studien zur Stilistik der alttestamentlichen Spruchliteratur (1936); MacDonald, D. B., The Hebrew Philosophical Genius (1936). See also the standard commentaries on Proverbs, and the articles in the standard Bible dictionaries. PROVERBS, MIDRASH TO, see MIDRASH PROV

ERBS.

PROVIDENCE. In Jewish tradition divine Providence means God's forcknowledge from the beginning of all the events which will transpire, and also His guid

ance and moral control of the entire universe. It denotes at once His omniscience and His loving care for all His creatures. In Biblical literature Providence is implicit. The term hashgahah which is used by later philosophic writers is not found in Scripture, although the verbal form hishgiah is found in Ps. 33:14, where it suggests providential care: "He looketh intently upon all the inhabitants of the earth." Throughout the Bible there are innumerable references to God's foreknowledge (Amos 3:7; Isa. 40:21; 41:4, 22, and other passages). Even more definite are the references to God's guidance and control. Not only is this true of His guidance of Israel, which is the leitmotif of the entire Pentateuch, but also of His care for individuals. This becomes explicit in the Joseph story (Gen. 50:20), in which Joseph interprets events, seemingly evil, in terms of God's larger and beneficent plan. "Ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." This guidance is given a mildly deterministic tone in certain prophetic statements (for example, Jer. 10:23).

The term "Providence" is first used in the Apocrypha (Wisdom of Solomon 14:3 and other passages). In the minds of the rabbis and of the Jewish philosophers, belief in providence gives rise to a philosophic problem to the solution of which considerable thought is devoted. "From a strictly rational or philosophic point of view, God's foreknowledge-Yediah-and man's freedom of will-Bechirah-are utterly incompatible" (Central Conference of American Rabbis Year Book, vol. 27, p. 317). When the Jewish mind first became aware of this problem can not be determined, but it is evident that controversies about providence, free will and determinism took place among the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees in the days of the Second Temple (Josephus, Antiquities, book 13, chap. 5, section 9). Philo also is troubled by it (Creation of the World 61:6). In general, the Jewish philosophers attempted to reconcile these seemingly contradictory doctrines by adopting the Aristotelian point of view. They declared that God's providence is of species rather than of individuals (Morch Nebuchim 1:23; Ikkarim 4:1-11). They also adopted Aristotelian terminology by declaring that God is not the immediate but the remote cause of everything.

Among secondary or immediate causes is the free will of man. Thus the conflict was resolved by placing God's guidance and man's freedom of choice in separate spheres of causality.

The rabbinic solution is strikingly different. The rabbis refused to deny either divine control or man's moral freedom. On the contrary, they accepted both (Central Conference of American Rabbis Year Book, vol. 27, p. 317 et seq.). They declared in unmistakable terms that God is the governor and orderer of the universe and all it contains. All He does is for a good purpose. Even the evil is part of His plan (Ber. 6ob). Nothing happens in this world which is not of His doing. Even the most insignificant event is ordained by Him (Midrash Gen. 18; Midrash Eccl. 10). But this does not nullify man's freedom. Before a child is born his physical nature, his knowledge and his success are determined by God, but his character is of his own making (Nid. 16b; Ber. 33a). In the realm of morality there is no determinism. This is clearly expressed in the rabbinic statements that "Everything is in the power of God, except the fear of Him" and that "All is foreseen; yet free will is given" (Ber. 33b; Aboth 3:15).

By affirming both doctrines the rabbis refuse to relinquish their sublime faith in both God and man. Man is elevated to the position of co-worker with God (Sab. 119b). Kohler declares that "it is at this point that philosophy and religion part company" (p. 173).

It is the faith of the Jewish religionist that God's omniscience and omnipotence do not destroy the basis of morality, which is human freedom, without which the moral struggle loses its meaning. In more recent years the doctrine of divine guidance has been challenged by the emphasis of modern science on absolute cause and effect relationships in the realm of nature. In rabbinic spirit the leaders of Reform Judaism declared in the Pittsburgh Platform that the discoveries of modern science are not antagonistic to divine Providence (Cohon, p. 94). ABRAHAM SHUSTERMAN.

Lit.: Kohler, Kaufmann, Jewish Theology (1918); Cohon, Samuel S., Christianity and Judaism Compare Notes (with H. F. Rall; 1927); Mann, Louis L., "Freedom of the Will in Talmudic Literature," Central Conference of American Rabbis Year Book, vol. 27 (1917) 301-37.

PROVIDENCE, capital of the state of Rhode Island. Its Jewish population was estimated (1940) at 23,000, in a total population of 253,504.

The first Jew who is known to have been a resident of Providence was David Lopez, Jr., apparently a grandson of Aaron Lopez, one of the leading figures in American commerce. On January 2, 1781, Lopez, Jr., wrote to Lopez, Sr. "sincere acknowledgments that so justly is due for your great benevolence in negotiating a plan for my establishment." The first city directory of Providence lists Samuel Lopez, a jeweler in Cady's Lane. The directory of 1841 lists Isaac Fish, another jeweler. But the other early settlers appear to have been peddlers, tailors and clothing merchants.

In 1920 Mary Pareira Hirschorn, over eighty years old, visited her native city of Providence. She told her friends that when a very young child she remembered hearing through a chink in the door of the living room in her father's home on Bridgham Street the voices of men reading religious services. Her father was Solomon Pareira, who at one time owned three clothing stores in Providence. The year is estimated to have been 1844. Oral tradition must suffice for the first eleven years in lieu of the records lost in a fire. In 1855 the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island granted

a charter to "Joseph Stern, Solomon Pareira, Abraham H. Goodman, David DeYoung, Morris Marks, Leonard Halberstad, Henry Solomon, Isaac Fish, with their associates and successors," who incorporated under the name "The Congregation of the Sons of Israel." In 1858 Abraham Pareira presented a parcel of land to the congregation. The land was the nucleus for the present (1943) Reservoir Avenue Cemetery. In that year, too, Moses Cohen, the first resident minister, was engaged, to be followed shortly by Lazarus Kantrowitz. Among the settlers who arrived in the 1870's and 1880's and became well-known were the Winograd and Dickens families.

In 1874 Sons of David, which had seceded from the mother congregation because its members wanted more rigorous adherence to the transmitted liturgy, rejoined Sons of Israel. Neither congregation was willing to give up its name; hence the enlarged congregation was reincorporated under the name Sons of Israel and David.

In July, 1877, Solomon Sonnenschein, of St. Louis, and Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, former American consul general to Roumania, came as representatives of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to explain the principles of Reform Judaism. The congregation joined the Union. Early in the following year the service was embellished by the use of an organ and the introduction of a mixed choir. These innovations were brought into the newly rented chapel located on the corner of Pine and Page streets. At that time the congregation numbered seventy-three families. The first structure erected by the congregation was built on the corner of Friendship and Foster streets and dedicated on December 7, 1890, by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise. The present (1943) building on the corner of Broad and Glenham streets was dedicated on September 15 to 17, 1911. It is generally called Temple Beth El. Its membership in 1942 was 300.

Among the rabbis who served the congregation were Abraham Jacobs (1862-68), Jacob Voorsanger (1876), Meyer Noot (1881-86), Morris Sessler (1887-92), David

Blaustein (1892-98), Henry Englander (1905-10), Nathan Stern (1910-15), Sidney S. Tedesche (1916-17), Simon Cohen (1917-19), Samuel M. Gup (1919-32) and William G. Braude (1932- ).

Jewish distress in Europe began bringing large waves of Russian, Galician, Roumanian and Lithuanian Jews to Providence. Hitherto most of the settlers were of Dutch, Posen and Bohemian origin. Toward the end of the 19th cent. there were 3,000 Jews in Providence. In 1906 the Jewish population had more than tripled and was estimated at 10,000. These years were marked by the organization of many congregations and their steady growth. The newcomers could not adjust themselves to the Reform services of Sons of Israel and David. Therefore, in 1885, they formed Sons of Zion (rabbi, David Werner, 1935- ), in 1889 Ahavath Sholom Roumanian Congregation, and in 1891 Mishkan Israel Anshe Russia or Beth Dovid (rabbi, Eliezer Poupko, 1940- ).

B'nai Jacob, organized in 1897, built its first synagogue in 1906 and moved into a new structure in 1922. Its first rabbi was Isaac Bick, who served from 1924 to 1933. In 1941 Carol Klein, formerly of Czechoslovakia and Frankfort, was made rabbi. B'nai Jacob, with three other Orthodox congregations in Providence, established the Vaad Hakashruth, which has total supervision of Kashruth in the city. Among the Orthodox synagogues which were founded after B'nai Jacob were the Hebrew Congregation of South Providence (1899), of which Joshua Werner became rabbi in 1931, and Ahavath Sholom, a Russian group, founded in 1904, with Morris G. Silk as rabbi (1939- ).

In the 1920's the children of the immigrants of the 1890's wanted modernized services and preaching in English. Congregation Beth Israel, organized in 1921, had B. Leon Hurwitz for its first rabbi. Jacob Sonderling (1929-31) and Morris Mazure (1931-33) were rabbis later. Morris Schussheim, who occupied the pulpit from 1923 to 1929, returned in 1933, and in 1943 was still serving as rabbi. A synagogue was built in 1942. The congregation follows the Conservative ritual.

Emanu-El, which is also Conservative, was organized in 1924; its own building was dedicated in 1927. Israel M. Goldman was rabbi in 1943, having been elected in 1925. A new Orthodox congregation was formed in 1938-the Sons of Abraham. Nathan Taragin, the first rabbi, was serving in 1943. The synagogue was completed in 1939.

All the congregations have religious schools attached to them. Two of the Orthodox rabbis instituted a small parochial school, which was functioning in 1943. Temple Beth El has a library of Judaica of almost 5,000 volumes. There is a large Jewish cemetery in Warwick owned by the Sons of Zion, with sections parcelled out among many congregations and lodges.

Between 1933 and the outbreak of the second World War about 400 refugees, men, women and children, settled in Providence.

Providence had (1943) many welfare societies and institutions. The oldest was the Montefiore Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Association, organized in 1878. There were, in 1943, two free loan societies-that of the North End (organized 1903) and that of South Providence (organized 1906). There was a Jewish Home for the Aged (Samuel Magid, president; Isaac Feinstein, director), the Jewish Community Center (Samuel H. Workman, president; Jacob I. Cohen, director), Miriam Hospital (Max L. Grant, president; Maurice Stollerman, director), Jewish Children's Home (Dr. Archie A. Albert, president), Jewish Family Welfare Society (Jacob Temkin, president; Joseph Galkin, director). The strongest women's organizations were Hadassah, the Temple Sisterhoods, the Women Pioneers and the Council of Jewish Women. At one time Providence had many lodges and mutual benefit societies. Many of them have disappeared. The strongest of those which survive are the B'nai B'rith and the Touro Fraternal Association. Providence had a chapter of the Jewish War Veterans of America, with its own headquarters. There were two Jewish shelters for transients-one in the North End, the other in South Providence.

At one time the Jewish community had a cloth hat and cap makers' union as well as a painters' union. These were dissolved. There existed in 1943 a bakers' union and a furriers' union. The Workmen's Circle (Arbeiter Ring) had four branches. In 1926 it organized a Yiddish School; Beryl Segal was principal in 1943.

In 1943 the Jews of Providence were engaged in commerce, industry, the professions and many trades. There was a weekly newspaper called the Jewish Herald (established 1929). John J. Rosenfeld, once managing editor of the Providence Journal, was the most prominent Jew in local journalism. Israel J. Kapstein was assistant professor of English, and William G. Braude was lecturer in Biblical literature at Brown University.

Zionist sentiment loyally cultivated by Archibald and Ida Silverman was strong. Besides the Zionist District, there was a Mizrachi chapter, Poale Zion group and several young men's and women's Zionist societies.

Harry Cutler headed the Jewish Welfare Board in the first World War. Marion L. Misch was national president of the Council of Jewish Women. Joseph Samuels gave a dental clinic to the state of Rhode Island, and J. Jerome Hahn erected a monument at the spring where Roger Williams landed in 1636.

Isaac Hahn was the first Jew to be elected to public office. He served in the state legislature in 1884. He was followed by Leopold Dimond, Jacob A. Eaton, Harry Cutler, Philip C. Joslin (who was speaker of the House and who, in 1943, was a judge of the Superior Court), Harry Horowitz, Charles Brown, Ira Marcus, Joseph Smith, Elisha Scoliard, Ernest L. Shein, Thomas H. Goldberg and Samuel C. Kagan. Maurice Robinson, in 1943 judge of the Sixth District Court, and Paul J. Robin served in the senate. John J. Rosenfeld, grandson of Rabbi Abraham Jacobs, was very influential in state and city politics in the days of General Brayton. (In his will Rosenfeld left $150,000 for the erection of a school building for Temple Beth El.) J. Jerome Hahn, the son of Isaac Hahn, served as judge of the Superior and Supreme Courts of the state. (He left over $1,500,000 for the Rhode Island Hospital.) David C. Adelman was a member of the Board of Elections, Nat C. Cohen of the Board of Parole, Max L. Grant of the State Board of Defence, and Hyman Lisker, assistant attorney general of Rhode Island. Harry Edward Miller was, in 1943, professor of political economy at Brown University.

WILLIAM G. BRAUDE. Lit.: Blaustein, Miriam, Memoirs of David Blaustein (1913); Congregation Sons of Israel and David Ninetieth Anniversary (1934).

PRUSSIA. 1. Political History. The history of the first Jewish settlements in Prussia is given under BRANDENBURG. The first of the Hohenzollern princes to follow a systematic policy toward the Jews was the Great Elector, Frederick William I (1640-88). This ruler was tolerant in matters of religion; he was one of the first princes to draw a distinct line of division between the policies of government and religion. He was also desirous of increasing the population and revenues of his state, and accordingly promoted the settlement of Jews in Cleves, Ravensberg and East Prussia, and in the provinces which he had obtained in 1648, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Minden and Farther Pomerania. He accepted in Brandenburg fifty Jews who had been driven out of Austria.

In an edict issued on May 21, 1671, Frederick William I granted the Jews the right of staying in all places and cities of the margraviate, of renting and purchasing houses, of buying and selling in open stores and shops, and of visiting the yearly markets and fairs. He declared that he would be satisfied with protection money of eight talers a year per person, in addition to the ordinary taxes and contributions required of all citizens. In this he was guided by the desire to secure the aid of the Jews in transforming the economic state of his country from one based on agricultural products to one based on money and credit; he hoped that they would help to restore trade in the provinces which had been devastated by the Thirty Years' War. At the same time he regarded the economic power of the Jews as an important potential political tool in his fight with the estates and the guilds. As in the case of other princes of the mercantile era, a great role was played in his reign by the court and mint Jews, such as Israel Aaron, Bernd Wulff, Jost Liebmann and the Gompertz family. To these he entrusted the supplying of the army with ammunition and provisions, and the delivery of furnishings for the court.

The first Prussian king, Frederick I (1688-1713), followed the same policy. This extravagant and luxurious successor of the Great Elector regarded the Jews as a welcome source of revenue which was to be entirely at the disposal of the prince. For this reason he permitted a steady increase in the number of Jews, but

also ordered a constant increase of the protection money and of the gifts which they had to furnish on special occasions. The Great Elector had not interfered in the internal affairs of the Jews. Under a form of selfgovernment they were left to their own jurisdiction; they conducted their own system of education and held community property; they were permitted to elect their own officers and rabbis. Under the absolutism of Frederick I, however, the state began to supervise the Jews, to control them, to meddle in their internal affairs and, finally, to place them under a Jews' commission composed of the royal ministers (1708).

King Frederick William I (1713-40) carried this policy to an extreme. The state began to control the budgets of the Jewish communities, to settle disputes, and to decide all important proposals of the elders. Hitherto the taxes from the provinces had been collected separately, and their amount had been determined from time to time. Now Frederick William I demanded a strictly centralized and unified state, and that all Jews should bring their taxes and protection money at the same time. While the king thus bound the Jews more closely to the state than any of his predecessors had done, he sought, on the other hand, to limit their numbers. Strictly religious, almost a bigot, he was personally hostile to the Jews. Although his confirmation edict of 1714 was still very favorable, being based on the Great Elector's decree of acceptance of 1671 and removing many limitations which had been made in the meanwhile, Frederick William's general privilege and regulation of September 29, 1730, imposed certain restrictions. The number of protected Jewish families in Berlin was fixed at 120, and only two children might be "established" provided that there was a guarantee of property worth 1,000 talers and a fee of fifty talers for the first child and a tax of one hundred talers for the second. Only those who were especially granted the concession were allowed to maintain stores and shops; the wares in which they were permitted to trade were expressly stipulated.

The general regulation of 1750, issued by Frederick the Great (1740-86), divided the Jews into regular and special protected Jews. Only the regular protected Jews could bequeath their privileges to their children; the privileges of the special Jews expired with their death. Both the latter and the younger children of regular . protected Jews were forbidden to marry or to carry on a business of their own. In the matter of business enterprises, even the protected Jews were limited. In the meantime the pressure of taxes became greater and greater, and the number of ordinary and extraordinary gifts to the king pyramided. There were recruiting monies, delivery of silver, calendar money, money for the provost, correspondence money, and a number of other kinds. Especially burdensome were the obligation to export manufactured wares, the maintenance of the Templin factory, the compulsory export of porcelain and the joint responsibility of the entire Jewish community for the taxes and for theft and concealment of stolen property.

Under the rule of the liberal Frederick William II (1786-97) the situation of the Jews in Prussia underwent a fundamental change. The process of assimilation began. It was brought about by the change from the centrally ruled military and police state to a constitutional state, by the ideas of humanity and tolerance of

the 18th cent., and not the least by the efforts of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, Alexander von Humboldt, and, above all, of Moses Mendelssohn, to lessen or solve the difficulties and constraints under which the Jews labored.

This movement, which began in 1787 and was led chiefly by such Jews as David Friedländer and by such Prussians as the ministers Humboldt, Schroetter and Hardenberg, and the Königsberg jurist Brand, ended with the issuing of the emancipation decree of March 11, 1812. This edict, which was in very close connection with the Prussian reform of the organization of the cities, the freedom of commerce and the arrangement of the guilds, declared in section 1 that the Jews were "natives and Prussian citizens." It removed all restrictions as to residence and profession, all special taxes and discriminatory laws; it admitted the Jews to the municipal service, to academic offices and to military service. It granted them freedom of settlement and freedom of trade, dissolved the separate bond of the Jewish communities and removed the separate jurisdiction of the elders and rabbis.

These events had taken place during the reign of Frederick William III (1797-1840); but under him there began also a period of the worst reaction, starting in the time of the War of Liberation. The romantic period held up the ideal of a national and Christian state; it naturally turned against the Jews, who were of a different race and of a different faith. Jewish deputies were not allowed to be elected, and the patrimonial jurisdiction of Jewish property owners was removed. Jews were debarred from the most important communal offices, were denied appointment to the higher academic and military offices, and were limited as to the purchase of land. In Posen, where two-fifths of the Jewish population lived, the "Temporary Regulations" of June 1, 1833, divided the Jews, as in the time of Frederick the Great, into two classes. The first included the naturalized inhabitants, the second those "who as yet were not fitted to acquire the rights granted to the naturalized class."

Under Frederick William IV (1840-61), who was under the sway of medievalism, feudalism and Christian romanticism, reaction prevailed during the first years of his rule. But the influence of the liberal tendencies of the 1840's resulted, at the proposal of the estates of the individual Prussian provinces, in a law, issued on October 31, 1845, which compelled the Jews of Prussia to take definite family names. On December 12, 1845, all Prussian Jews were made subject to military service; the right to engage in a regular business had been granted them on January 17, 1845.

Although the Jewish law of 1847 still excluded them from every communal and official position, the storm of 1848 soon annulled it. The diet summoned under the pressure of the "March days" worked out the plan of a constitution, in which the enjoyment of civil and civic rights was declared to be independent of religious belief (section 5 of the order of April 6, 1848). This paragraph was accepted by the constitutional convention, in which Johann Jacoby, the well-known Jewish deputy from Königsberg, played an important part. The article about equality remained in the constitution proclaimed by royal decree on January 31, 1850, after the convention had been dissolved by the king. Article 4 stipulates: "All Prussians are equal before the state.