Duma and of sitting in the new assembly
were granted them, but all their civil and religious disabilities were
maintained. Both the first and the second Duma proposed to emancipate
them, but they were dissolved before any action could be taken. By the
modification of the electoral law under which the third Duma was elected
the voting power of the Jews was diminished and further restrictions
were imposed upon them through official intimidation during the
elections. The result was that only two Jews were elected, while the
reactionary tendency of the new electorate virtually removed the
question of their emancipation from the field of practical politics.

Rumania.

The only other country in Europe in which a legalized anti-Semitism
exists is Rumania. The conditions are very similar to those which obtain
in Russia, with the important difference that Rumania is a
constitutional country, and that the Jewish persecutions are the work of
the elected deputies of the nation. Like the _Bourgeois Gentilhomme_ who
wrote prose all his life without knowing it, the Rumanians practised the
nationalist doctrines of the Hegelian anti-Semites unconsciously long
before they were formulated in Germany. In the old days of Turkish
domination the lot of the Rumanian Jews was not conspicuously unhappy.
It was only when the nation began to be emancipated, and the struggle in
the East assumed the form of a crusade against Islam that the Jews were
persecuted. Rumanian politicians preached a nationalism limited
exclusively to indigenous Christians, and they were strongly supported
by all who felt the commercial competition of the Jews. Thus, although
the Jews had been settled in the land for many centuries, they were by
law declared aliens. This was done in defiance of the treaty of Paris of
1856 and the convention of 1858 which declared all Rumans to be equal
before the law. Under the influence of this distinction the Jews became
persecuted, and sanguinary riots were of frequent occurrence. The
realization of a Jewish question led to legislation imposing
disabilities on the Jews. In 1878 the congress of Berlin agreed to
recognize the independence of Rumania on condition that all religious
disabilities were removed. Rumania agreed to this condition, but
ultimately persuaded the powers to allow her to carry out the
emancipation of the Jews gradually. Persecutions, however, continued,
and in 1902 they led to a great exodus of Jews. The United St