Page 90 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

The Track of the Jew through the Ages

world a new era and even for the local baptised Jews of Portugal;
nowadays there thrives there a rich community and forms a fine
branch on the tree of the Jewish world state.

The Jews in France

If Portugal was a small state in which the relationships in
the centre and in the provinces did not develop in especially different
ways, France was a bigger country with a population diversely graded
in character that was not easy to rule from one centre. Accordingly,
the fate of the Jews is a varied one according to the strength of the
French kings. But nevertheless we see, sooner or later, the same
result: mutual hatred and Jewish persecution. When the Jews came
to France is uncertain.
th
The first written reports date from the beginning of the 6
century and show us that even at that time the Jews lived spread out
throughout the country. As the first documents show, the relationship
between the Jews and the French was a completely peaceful one;
the Jews could practise their customs and businesses unhindered,
received and returned visits from local inhabitants, were accepted
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in the city police and army, in short, they enjoyed total civil rights.
But soon there appeared tensions. When one recalls with
what a number of dietary and moral laws the Jews came into the
country, people who, in order to preserve the chosen from mixing
and pollution with gentiles, directed their barbs against all non-Jews;
if one can imagine that the hatred of Christ and Christians was a
characteristic of the immigrants that could not be thrown off and
that, in spite of assimilation, had to strike outwards as well, one
will be able to understand very well the complaints of the local
population when they declare that their refusal of Christian bread
and wine represents a disregard, that arrogance is often plainly
expressed in their statements on Christianity.
Added to this was the fact that the Jews, as their law
demanded, forced all Christian slaves to follow Jewish ceremonial

144
M. de Boissi, Dissertations pour servir a Thistoire des Juifs, Paris, 1785,
Vol.II,p.l8.
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