NEEDED REFORMS.
If Governor Pomeroff abandoned his original plan of Christianizing the
Jews, he did not relinquish his friendship for Mendel. The Rabbi was
frequently summoned to appear before him, professedly for the purpose
of giving an account of this or that good work which he had undertaken,
but in reality to entertain the Governor by his brilliant conversation.
So frequent had these visits become that the guards about the palace
were no longer surprised at the strange companionship and the term
"Jew," with which they were wont to designate Mendel, gave place to the
more respectful appellation of "The Rabbi."
As Mendel became better acquainted with his powerful friend, his
appreciation of his noble qualities steadily increased and they became
warmly attached to each other.
"Would that all the Jews were like you," Pomeroff occasionally remarked,
to which Mendel would reply: "How fortunate would be our lot if all
Christians possessed your nobility of character."
Then came the glorious year 1861, the year in which Russia freed
millions of serfs and removed the shackles of slavery from a debased
people.
While much praise should be accorded to the liberality and humanity of
Alexander, the main cause of the emancipation act was the
unprofitableness of serf labor. Public opinion, too, had demanded the
change. What "Uncle Tom's Cabin" accomplished in this country Gogol's
"Dead Souls" and Tourgenieff's "Recollections of a Sportsman" did for
the Russian slaves. The disasters of the Crimean War were attributed to
the corrupt condition of all classes, caused, it was claimed, by this
pernicious institution of serfdom. By the edict of 1861, in the same
year in which our own struggle for the emancipation of our Southern
slaves began, the peasants were made free and were granted the right to
purchase the lands occupied by them at the time. "Enfranchisement was
effected in Russia in a manner far more skilful than in our own country,
where it was accomplished through the terrible agency of a civil war.
Yet the Russian people have been, perhaps, less satisfied with its
results. Since then the serfs have been compelled to work harder than
ever to pay for the land they had always cultivated and regarded as
their own. The complete ignorance of the _moujiks_ has laid them open to
greater vices than serfdom possessed and drunkenness has greatly
increased since the emancipation."[13]
At the time of which we speak, however, there was nought but rejoicing
in Russia. Freedom had unfurled her banner, and the sanguine prophets
foresaw in the near future a complete cessation of despotism and a
constitutional government such as the people had demanded since the
beginning of Nicholas' reign in 1825. Amidst the general joy, the
Governor of Kief found an opportunity for materially improving the
condition of the Jews of his province.
Mendel would have been less than human had he not endeavored to turn
this condition of affairs and Pomeroff's friendship to practical
account. For himself he desired nothing. When the Governor, in order to
have him constantly at his side, tendered him an honorable office in the
palace, Mendel gently but firmly declined the proffered honor. All his
energies were directed towards ameliorating the lot of his
co-religionists.
He one day induced the Governor to stroll with him through the Jewish
quarter, and with tact and eloquence called his attention to the crowded
condition of the houses and streets, explaining how difficult it was to
preserve health where the hygienic laws were of necessity utterly
disregarded. He showed how the streets, at first ample for all
requirements, had in the course of years become overcrowded; how hut had
been built against hut and story erected upon story, until the lack of
room deprived many a dwelling of light and air. He led the surprised
Governor through the squalid lanes near the river and demonstrated how
difficult it would be to master an epidemic when once it had taken root
there, and how the welfare of the entire town of Kief depended upon the
sanitary condition of each of its parts.
With the financial acumen of his race, he appealed to the economic
aspect of the case, demonstrated how many houses, large and small, were
standing idle in the city proper, bringing neither rent to their owners
nor taxes to the province, and depicted the benefits that would be
gained by granting the Jews the privilege of occupying such dwellings.
The Governor, who had never before visited the haunts of poverty, felt a
positive repugnance to the system, or rather lack of system, that could
countenance such a condition of affairs. He hurried away from the
uninviting neighborhood, and, having again reached a spot where the air
was fit to breathe, he promised to exert his influence with the Czar to
have the boundaries of the Jewish quarter extended.
Nobly did he keep his word. He journeyed to St. Petersburg and sought an
audience with Alexander. What happened at the interview the Jews of Kief
never discovered, but the result was extremely gratifying. At the end of
a fortnight there came a ukase extending indefinitely the limits of the
Jewish quarters of all large cities, granting permission to all Jewish
merchants who had been established in some branch of trade for
twenty-five years or over, and to all rabbis and teachers, to reside in
the city proper, in such streets as they might select, and permitting
merchants of ten years' standing to dwell on certain streets carefully
specified in the proclamation. It also made it lawful for Jews and
Christians to live in the same building, a privilege hitherto withheld.
Many were the Jews who availed themselves of their new privileges.
Bensef was among the first. His house, since the arrival of Mendel's
parents, had been too small for comfort and the wealthy man desired a
dwelling befitting his means. Haim Goldheim, the banker, found that
there was not enough room in his house for the works of art it
contained. He took a house in the fashionable Vladimir quarter, where,
to the intense disgust of the aristocrats, he established himself in
princely magnificence. A hundred families, at least, followed the
example thus set, leaving the crowded streets, in order to breathe the
purer air of the more select quarters of Kief. To their credit be it
said, however, few went far from their old homes; the synagogue still
formed the rallying centre of their community. About it revolved their
daily thoughts and actions and the greatest recommendation a new home
could have was that it was near the _schul_.
Upon Mendel, who had brought about this change, the greatest honors were
showered. His congregation almost worshipped him. There were envious
detractors, however, who contended that it did not behoove a Jew to
become so intimate with a _goy_, and a Governor at that. They claimed
that the Rabbi labored only to promote his own private ends; but, as
these malcontents were among the first to seize the opportunity of
bettering their condition, Mendel could afford to shrug his shoulders
and smile at their insinuations.
The principal class to benefit by the new order of things were the poor,
who now found abundant room and greedily availed themselves of it. To
them Mendel was a saviour in the practical sense of the word, and many a
grateful woman whose hovel had been exchanged for a more commodious
dwelling would kiss the Rabbi's hand as he passed through the quarter on
his errands of mercy.
But the young Rabbi's zeal did not end here. He convinced the Governor
that the taxes exacted from the Jews were not only excessive, but
disproportionate, and, as a result, they were lowered to a level with
those paid by the gentiles.
Hitherto the Jews had been forbidden to cultivate land on their own
account. Mendel, in presenting this subject to the Governor, laid stress
upon the fact that vast tracts were lying fallow for want of
agriculturists, and that the crown was thereby losing much revenue which
could easily be raised by a judicious distribution of these fields among
the thrifty and industrious Hebrews. Pomeroff saw the justice of the
argument and a proclamation resulted, removing the restrictions placed
upon the cultivation of land by the Jews.
The Jews of Kief and the surrounding provinces felt that a day of
prosperity and happiness had dawned for them. In a measure they enjoyed
the same liberty and privileges as did the lower classes of Russians.
They were free to come and go, to live where they pleased and to engage
in a score of occupations which had hitherto been forbidden, and Mendel
was justly honored as the author of these changes. His fame spread at
home and was heralded abroad. During his frequent visits to the Governor
he came in contact with many of the great and brilliant men of the
Empire. Dignitaries who at first met the Jew with a feeling of
repugnance gradually yielded to the charm of his personal influence and
vied with each other in honoring him, and through him Judaism was
honored and respected. His character, his benevolence, his patriotism
and his great mental gifts did more to convince those gentiles of what
the Jew could be than the keenest arguments could have done.
A great general one day asked him:
"Why are you so different from the Jews one usually meets?"
"Your excellency is in error," Mendel replied. "I am not unlike my
fellow-men. In disposition and feeling I am the same, but I have had an
opportunity for mental improvement of which most of my brethren have
been deprived. Give them the privilege of attending your universities,
open to them the avenues of knowledge and you will create for Russia an
intellectual element which will eventually place her in the front ranks
of the nations."
The general shrugged his shoulders and smiled. The idea seemed
preposterous.
"You have certainly an exalted opinion of your co-religionists," he
said.
"I have, your excellency, and it is borne out by history. Your
excellency has doubtless read of the intellectual supremacy of Spain
when the Jews were in the ascendant."
His excellency had not read of it. In fighting but not in reading lay
his strength and, not wishing to display his ignorance, he wisely
changed the subject.
As might have been expected, violent objections were raised by the
gentiles to the enlarged privileges granted the Jews. The priests were
particularly virulent in their denunciation of the new liberties
conferred, in which they saw but the beginning of the gradual
emancipation of the Hebrews. Attacks were made against them from press
and from pulpit, and all of these Mendel answered calmly and
convincingly. His logic finally silenced the ravings of the unlettered
and fanatical Jew-haters and the privileges once accorded were not
repealed.
Had Mendel's zeal ended here he would have avoided much subsequent
difficulty, but he was well aware that the Jews had not attained to the
ideal he had formed, that much ignorance, fanaticism and superstition
still prevailed. He desired to imitate the example of his great
prototype, Moses Mendelssohn, and spread the light of learning
throughout the Jewish world. He did not lose sight of the vastness of
the undertaking, of the dangers he was incurring, or of the animosity he
was inviting, for the Jews of Russia still regarded all learning not
found in the folios of the Talmud as sacrilegious and unholy. To
overcome this antagonism to secular knowledge now became Mendel's
self-imposed task.
Consulting no one but his friend the Governor, and armed with a letter
of introduction from this powerful ally, Mendel set out for St.
Petersburg, to visit the Czar in person. It was an unheard-of experiment
on the part of a Jew, but Mendel felt the inspiration of right and
undertook his new mission fearlessly. What nothing else could accomplish
was done by the Governor's letter of recommendation. After a little
delay he was admitted into the august presence of the Czar Alexander
and presented his petition.
Alexander was not a little surprised at the temerity of a Jew in thus
appearing before him, but the very strangeness of the proceeding
enlisted the ruler's interest in the demands of the Rabbi. After a long
conference, during which Mendel eloquently pleaded his cause, he was
dismissed with the assurance that the educational disabilities of the
Hebrews would be in a measure removed, and shortly after his return to
Kief a proclamation was issued admitting Jewish youth into the Russian
schools upon terms of equality with the gentiles.
Then arose a storm of indignation among the pious Israelites. Those who
had antagonized Mendel from the first, now were furious at his attempt
to force intelligence upon them. They prophesied that these were but the
stepping-stones to more radical changes and stubbornly refused to yield
an inch, lest the proverbial ell might be seized.
"Never," they cried, "shall our children be taught the wisdom of the
_goyim_. The Law and the Talmud are sufficient for our needs.
Instruction in the public schools will force rabbinical studies into the
background and will gradually estrange our children from the religion of
their fathers. We want no new-fangled education. We are Jews and we will
remain Jews."
So hostile was the greater part of the community to the idea of
extending educational facilities, that the friends of Mendel, and there
were many of them, advised him to make an effort to have the obnoxious
privileges repealed.
This Mendel positively refused to do.
"It is but a privilege," he answered, "and not at all obligatory. You
can do as you like about sending your children to the public schools.
As for myself, however, I shall never cease to uphold the necessity of
education in order to obtain the rights that belong to our race."
The battle thus commenced raged fiercely. Hirsch Bensef was one of the
ablest supporters of the young Rabbi. Haim Goldheim was another; his
wealth had procured him the friendship of several aristocratic but
impoverished families in the neighborhood of his new home, and he never
forgot that the blessings he now enjoyed were due to Mendel's past
labors.
The young men were all on Mendel's side. They chafed under the restraint
that had been put upon them and yearned for instruction in keeping with
the enlarged sphere of activity now opened to them.
Thus a schism arose in Kief. The progressive Israelites siding with
Mendel founded a congregation of their own, leaving the more
conservative to work out their salvation in their old accustomed way. It
must not be supposed that Mendel observed this break in the ranks of
Judaism without a pang. He spent many a sleepless night in planning how
to avert further differences and to appease existing animosities. Balzac
truly says: "Every great man has paid heavily for his greatness. Genius
waters all its work with its own tears. He who would raise himself above
the average level of humanity, must prepare himself for long struggles,
for trying difficulties. A great thinker is a self-devoted martyr to
immortality."
In spite of the anathemas of the narrow-minded, in spite of the cry that
the Messiah could never come as long as such sacrilege was tolerated in
the household of Israel, the good work went steadily forward, to the
manifest advantage of the entire body of Jews.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 13: Foulke.]