WHAT THE PRIEST HAD ACCOMPLISHED.
The horrible crimes which have been described in preceding chapters were
insignificant compared with those to be committed. Mikail the priest,
the Jew-hater, was dead, but the evil of which he had been the author,
lived after him. His ghost stalked through the Empire, converting it
into one vast charnel-house.
Simultaneously with the riots in Kief, there were outbreaks in every
town and village throughout the province. At Browary, the synagogue in
which the terrified people had congregated was attacked and destroyed.
The mob attacked the Jewesses, and assaulted many of them. Three of the
poor victims died and a number of others found their only escape in the
river.
Scenes like these occurred daily throughout Southern Russia. Whole towns
and districts were ablaze with riot and violence. The story that the
Czar had handed Jewish property over to his Catholic subjects spread
upon the breath of the wind, and the populace was not slow to
appropriate its new possessions. The Governors of the various provinces
looked on with folded arms at the barbarities enacted under their eyes.
Occasionally the pleadings of the poor Jews appeared to prevail and the
military was called out; but it was not to protect the Hebrews, but to
prevent them from defending themselves.
The riots were invariably announced for days, often weeks, beforehand,
the police frequently stimulating the people to hatred and violence.
The municipalities, with the consent of the provincial government, had
taken every means to add to the misery of the situation. Mikail's book,
"The Annihilation of the Jews," became the bible of the fanatical
masses. Its sentences were distorted and exaggerated and then read to
the intoxicated wretches at the village _kretschmas_. Petitions were
circulated in the provinces to devise means to drive the Jews out of the
towns in which they had no legal right to live. In other places where no
such restrictions existed, petitions were sent to the authorities
requesting the adoption of measures to prevent the increase of Jewish
residents.
At Kief, the day after the riot, Governor Drentell called an assembly of
his counsellors to form a plan for expelling the Jews. Old documents
were unearthed and a rigid scrutiny instituted to discover what were
the restrictions upon the Jewish population of the city. The laws
enacted under the tyrannical reign of Nicholas were examined and the
discovery was made that nine thousand of the Jews in Kief had no legal
right to live there. For twenty years these laws had slumbered
unenforced. With a cruelty without parallel in the history of the world,
Drentell determined to enforce these ancient edicts and to expel all
Jews in excess of the legal number.
The Jews were accordingly notified that before August the number in
excess of the lawful population would be expected to seek another
domicile.
Wailing and lamentations broke out afresh in Israel. Many families did
not possess the means of departing, having lost everything in the recent
attacks. Others did not know in what direction to turn their weary
steps, for persecutions were reported all through Russia and in Germany
as well. Others again mourned at the thought of leaving behind them aged
relatives, beloved friends, the graves of their cherished dead and the
thousand memories that hallowed their old homes.
In their extremity, the Jews again petitioned the Governor to temper his
authority with mercy, and one of Drentell's counsellors, moved by the
piteous appeal, recommended leniency in dealing with the stricken race.
"Gentlemen," replied Drentell, rising in anger; "either I or the Jews
must go! Russia is not large enough for both. I insist upon a strict
enforcement of these regulations."
The Governor's word prevailed. By the beginning of July, over eight
thousand Jews had been expelled from Kief alone.
It was a sultry day towards the end of June. The air was unusually
oppressive, the reapers in the fields moved listlessly under the
scorching sun, the leaves on the trees were motionless and the birds had
ceased their warbling.
The Jewish quarter was quiet, almost deserted. A pall hung over the
dismal homes; there were no children in the streets to stir the air with
their merry voices. As men passed each other their greetings were short
and formal; they scarcely stopped to bid each other good-day. The entire
Jewish population was in mourning. Hearts were bleeding for some
departed soul cut off in the midst of life by the lawless mob, or
throbbing with suppressed sorrow at the enforced departure of relatives
or friends for the distant shores of America.
One by one a number of our old acquaintances and some of their friends
entered the dwelling of Rabbi Winenki, glancing furtively behind them as
though in fear of being watched. In the Rabbi's house there was some
show of festivity, although the attempt was half-hearted and conveyed an
impression far from joyous.
It was the long anticipated wedding day of Kathinka and Joseph. All
their bright prospects and pleasant anticipations of a professional life
at home were at an end. Their one desire was to be married before
seeking a new existence in America. The guests spoke in subdued voices,
as though fearful of exciting the animosity of their gentile neighbors.
Rabbi Mendel, who had but recently risen from a bed of pain, was wan and
pale; his tall and stately form had shrunk, his massive head was bowed,
his raven locks had become gray.
Quietly and without ostentation, the good man performed the ceremony
according to the Jewish rites. The ring was given, the glass broken, the
blessings pronounced, and the couple stood hand in hand to receive the
congratulations of their assembled friends. Smiles and merry laughter
gave way to tears and sobs. It was a touching spectacle! The young
couple were to remain in Kief until the following Sunday, and then, with
two thousand other unfortunates, to leave the place in which they had
lived and loved, prospered and suffered.
On the Sabbath, the synagogue was crowded; for many of the worshippers
it would be the last service they would attend in their native land.
Tearful and heartfelt were the prayers that ascended to Jehovah's
throne. The service for the dead was as impressive as scalding tears and
broken hearts could make it. Mendel ascended the pulpit, that place from
which he had so often instructed his people in wisdom and godliness, and
with streaming eyes bid the wanderers farewell.
He spoke briefly but impressively, concluding by giving them much good
advice as to their conduct in their new homes in America.
"Lead irreproachable lives," he said. "And remember one thing more:
stoop not to deceit or to crime. In America, as in Russia, every evil
act of the individual Jew will rebound upon the entire race. If the
gentile sins, he alone bears the brunt of the punishment. If a Jew
transgresses the law of the land, his religion is heralded to the world
and the wrong he has committed brings odium upon the entire household of
Israel. It has been so in the past, it will continue so for generations
to come. Does not this admonish you to avoid evil, to make your conduct
exemplary, and to be models of virtue and righteousness?"
While the Rabbi was speaking, it seemed as though an angel of comfort
and hope had entered the holy place. Tears were dried and the
unfortunates whose destiny was hurrying them far from all that earth
held dear, no longer dreaded the approaching journey.
The rest of that memorable Sabbath was spent in bidding farewell to
friends and relatives. There was grief in every household.
We have seen how Mordecai Winenki perished, a victim of the infuriated
mob. His wife, Leah, died a short time afterward, broken-hearted at the
separation from her life-long companion. Hirsch Bensef and his wife
declared they were too old to brave the rigors of a journey to America,
and, though broken in spirit as well as in fortune, they preferred to
remain in Kief. The Rabbi would have gladly accompanied his daughter to
the New World, but devotion to duty bound him to his old home. The
Kiersons accompanied their son and his bride upon their long voyage. The
refugees who left Kief consisted chiefly of the poorer classes, who,
being without means, were assisted by their more fortunate
co-religionists to emigrate. There were many sturdy young people among
the group, who, like Joseph Kierson and his wife, hoped for better
opportunities than were possible in their own intolerant land. The
wealthier classes, those who still had important mercantile interests in
Russia, as a rule, remained at home, in expectation of a speedy end of
the persecutions.
On the next day a sad and sorrowful procession moved slowly out of Kief.
They were accompanied part of the way by grieving friends, and trudged
bravely along on foot to Brody, on the Austrian frontier, where they
arrived after many days, foot-sore and weary. A pitiful state of affairs
confronted them here. Nearly six thousand refugees from Russian villages
had assembled in Brody and were in a completely helpless state. Huddled
in cellars, stowed away in sheds, in boxes, under lumber, lay the
unfortunate people, many of whom but a few weeks before had been rich
and prosperous. The travellers from Kief did what they could to mitigate
the horrible condition of these wretches, but the trouble was of such
magnitude that they could do little to relieve it.
On to Hamburg went our friends, on foot, in wagons, or by rail, as their
means warranted; on to Hamburg, there to take ship for the haven of
their hopes, the free and hospitable shores of America.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 22: For the corroboration of these facts, see the account of
the _London Times_ special correspondent; also, Mr. Evarts' speech
delivered in Chickering Hall, New York, in March, 1882.]