This 101 page report contains documents relating to Swiss discrimination against American Jews. In 1850, the U.S. and Switzerland began negotiating a treaty in which the Swiss sought a provision specifying that Christians alone were entitled to the privileges guaranteed under the treaty. Protests by American Jews erupted in the U.S., and the treaty was not approved by the Senate. In 1855 a modified version of the provision became part of the treaty that was approved, though it still permitted the individual Swiss cantons to discriminate. Subsequent public protests in America were triggered by the expulsion of A.H. Gootman, an American Jew, from the canton in which he had resided for five years. Theodore S. Fay, the U.S. Minister, actively protested the expulsion which was reversed as a favor but not a recognition of a right. Fay pursued the issue and wrote extensively on the topic. His lengthy “Israelite Note” to the Swiss Council is included here. It was not until 1874 that full civil rights were guaranteed to all Jews in Switzerland. Perhaps the most lasting impact of the protests by American Jews and their organization of a convention was the emergence of a national Jewish consciousness. Disbound with pages uncut and untrimmed.

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Condition: B+

Disbound with occasional light foxing.