The Ashkenazi Revolution

75“to completely distinguish between Spanish and Portuguese Jews on theone hand, and the Jews of other lands on the other. For there is nosimilarity between one and the other.” And he brings proof for thisconclusion: The opposition between “these two races” is so great that aSephardi who marries an Ashkenazi woman is forced to leave hiscommunity. It is clear to the Sephardim that only they are the descendantsof Judah and it was their ancestors who came to Spain during theBabylonian exile. (Yedioth Aharonoth edition, volume 4, page 1659).The Sephardic leaders did not shy away from open slander before thegentile authorities, and here are the words of Dobnov:In the beginning of the 17 th century the Sephardic community in Londongrew to the extent that it already had two or three synagogues and schools.Along side it slowly grew an Ashkenazi community. The first of those fromGermany and Poland arrived in London, by way of Hamburg andAmsterdam, during the last decades of the seventeenth century. The rulersof the city made every effort to stem the tide of the poor guests. When thefathers of the city took notice, in the year 1677, “of the poor foreignerswho call themselves Jews”, it was decided to deny future entry to Londonto Jews who “lack appropriate resources.” These edicts were caused, asin Bordeaux, by the demands of the Sephardic community, that still did notconsider themselves safe and feared that the poor Ashkenazim woulddesecrate their honor in the eyes of the Christians (Ibid. page 1671).Particularly dangerous was the slander by Sephardic leaders that waspresented to the French National Assembly after its decision of December24, 1789 when it decided to grant to non-Catholics suffrage, both activeand passive, and the right to hold government offices just like Catholics,but it delayed a decision regarding the Jews. Dubnov says:This was a moral blow to the entire Jewish People and not only to the fewJews of France alone. But the Ashkenazim of Alsace-Lorraine, who werenumerous among French Jews, who had been deprived justice and whowere faithful to their Jewish nationality. The smaller number of the