Talk about kicking a tin can after it is bent, used, but golly, still lying there - I do see that we can learn and that is why many of us read - and so in the name of further exploration, I think the 'Rich as a Jew' statement reminds me of today how some say in Awe that we have a Blackman as our President and others say Sarcastically we have a Blackman as President.
As to the view of Jews in Britain during the nineteenth century - it appears change was taking place and Dickens was caught in that change - found this that is further information - It appears in the early part of the nineteenth century publicly Jews were a people apart because laws forced Jews into jobs that dressing and acting like Fagin could be an easy stereotype. And so with that view yes, 'Rich as a Jew' would be a unthinkable put down - however, this information may give us another picture of as you say the only few words in
Bleak House that refer to Jews.
Sir Robert Peel,
an avid anti-Semite and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1834 to 1848, articulated the period's feelings towards Jews: "The Jew is not a degraded subject of the state; he is rather regarded in the light of an alien- he is excluded because he will not amalgamate with us in any of his usages or habits."
The hostility towards Jews was caused by their jobs. In London, most Jews were not allowed to open shops or attend college. This forced them to become money lenders and clothes dealers. Church laws prevented Christians from lending money at interest, but these laws did not apply to Jews. The phobia surrounding Jews led to public opinion that every Jew was scary, mean, money hungry, and would not hesitate to cheat a Christian. Jews were also separated as a result of their religion. They were treated as foreigners and persecuted because they held fast to their religion and traditions by refusing to become Christians during a time when Christianity was the dominant religion.The attitude of early to mid-nineteenth century Victorians from the 1830s to the 1850s changed the social opinions of Jews. A growing literary trend of a sympathetic treatment of Jews, many individuals modified their traditional views. These changing social patterns and Dickens's communication with Mrs. Davis, a Jewish woman, directly influenced Our Mutual Friend.
Mrs. Davis wrote to Dickens in June 1863 stating, "that Charles Dickens the large hearted, whose works please so eloquently and so nobly for the oppressed of his country . . . has encouraged a vile prejudice against the despised Hebrew." Dickens responded by stating that he had always spoken well of Jews and held no prejudice against them. Fagin, in Oliver Twist, was a Jew "because it unfortunately was true of the time to which that story refers that class of criminal almost invariably was Jewish." Mrs. Davis replied by beseeching Dickens to "examine more closely into the manners and character of the British Jews and to represent them as they really are."
In his article, "
Dickens and the Jews," Harry Stone claims that this "incident apparently brought home to Dickens the irrationality of some of his feelings about Jews; at any rate, it helped, along with the changing times, to move him more swiftly in the direction of active sympathy for them."
While in
Oliver Twist, Fagin is portrayed as money hungry and ruthless, Dickens later creates the character Riah in
Our Mutual Friend. Riah's is also a moneylender and could be construed as an early Victorian stereotype; however, as Harry Stone argues, "Riah's stereotype was not a stereotype, but a means of reversing it."
Challenging Jewish stereotypes in
Our Mutual Friend, "Riah", whose name is said to be derived from Hebrew rē'eh (friend), is a profoundly sympathetic character, especially in his relationship with Lizzie and Jenny Wren. Riah becomes their protector. Jenny calls him her "fairy godmother" and Lizzie refers to Riah as her "protector."
Instead of being stingy and mean, Riah shows his charity by helping Lizzie find a job in the country - Riah is not out only for himself like Dickens's previous depiction of Jews. Riah risks his own welfare to keep Lizzie's hidden location a secret from Fledgeby. - Riah "the Jew" is not money hungry; his Christian master Fledgeby is.
Granted, the letter from Mrs. Davis was written after
Bleak House was published. therefore, it can be a toss up, since views were changing, what Dickens meant with his one line reference to the wealth of Jews as a great mark of achievement - I still cannot get out of my mind that Dickens was influenced by the news and would know the elevation to peerage for the wealthiest man in England who was Jewish along with another Jewish man sitting in Parliament.
Regardless, today we can read, as you say JoanP and based on where we are at we can take from a novel what we will - There is a quote I like from Cormac McCarthy that for me expresses the heart of most people and how I perceive the heart of Dickens..."No creature can learn that which his heart has no shape to hold."
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