THE DAWN OF HASKALAH
1794-1840
A glimmer of light pierced the Russian sky at the accession of Catherine
II (1762-1796). This "Semiramis of the North," the admirer of Buffon,
Montesquieu, Diderot, and, more especially, Voltaire, whose motto, _N'en
croyez rien_, she adopted, endeavored, and for a while not without
success, to introduce into her own country the spirit of tolerance which
pervaded France. Her ukases were intended for all alike, "without
distinction of religion and nationality." Her regard for her Jewish
citizens she showed by allowing them to settle in the interior,
establish printing-presses (January 27, 1783), and become civil and
Government officers (April 2, 1785). In the edict promulgated by
Governor-General Chernyshev it is stated that "religious liberty and
inviolability of property are hereby granted to all subjects of Russia
and certainly to the Jews; for the humanitarian principles of her
Majesty do not permit the exclusion of the Jews alone from the favors
shown to all, so long as they, as faithful subjects, continue to employ
themselves, as hitherto, with commerce and trade, each according to his
vocation." That she remained true to her promise, we see from the
numerous privileges enjoyed by many Jews, who began to frequent Moscow
and St. Petersburg and reside there for business purposes.
Paul (1796-1801), too, was kindly disposed toward the Jews, and
permitted them to live in Courland; and when Alexander I (1801-1825)
became czar, their hopes turned into certainty. Alexander I did, indeed,
appear a most promising ruler at his accession. The theories he had
acquired from Laharpe he fully intended to apply to practical life. Like
Catherine, he wished to rule in equity and promote the welfare of his
subjects irrespective of race or creed. He ordered a commission to
investigate the status of the Russian Jews (December 9, 1802). The
result was the polozheniye (enactment) of December 9, 1804, according to
which Jews were to be eligible to one-third of all municipal offices;
they were to be permitted to establish factories, become agriculturists,
and either attend the schools and colleges of the empire on the same
footing as subjects of the Christian faith, or, if they desired, found
and maintain schools of their own. The approach of the great Usurper and
the crushing defeat the Russians sustained at the battle of Friedland
(June 4, 1808) also favored the advance of the Jews. As the short, but
troublous, reign of Paul and his wars with Turkey, Persia, Prussia,
Poland, and Sweden had impoverished the country and depleted the
treasury, the shrewd Alexander was not averse from appealing to Jews for
help. Of course, as in many more enlightened countries and in more
modern times, most of the privileges were merely paper privileges. Few
of them ever went into effect. The noble intentions of the enlightened
rulers were steadily thwarted by bigoted councillors and jealous
merchants. Every favor shown the Jews aroused a storm of protests, which
resulted in numerous infringements. The Jews were compelled to pay for
the good intentions of Catherine with a double tax (June 25, 1794), and,
during Paul's reign, without the emperor's knowledge, a law was enacted
requiring of Jews double payment of the guild license. In spite of all
efforts, the Jews, instead of being emancipated politically, were
burdened with additional discriminations.[1]
Had not the wheel of progress suddenly stopped revolving, Russian Jews
might have constituted one of the most useful as well as most
intellectual elements in the vast empire. As it was, the kindly
intention of czar or czarina sufficed to arouse them from the asthenia
to which they were reduced for want of freedom. The times were rife with
excitement, and the Jewish atmosphere with expectancy. The mighty
changes which were taking place in Russia and Poland; the dismemberment
of the latter; the annexation of Balta (1791), Lithuania (1794), and
Courland (1797) to the former; the short-lived yet potent German rule in
Byelostok (1793-1807), and the rude but memorable contact with France
(1807-1812), these and many other important happenings in a brief span
of time had a telling effect upon the diverse races under the dominion
of Russia, and among them not the least upon the Jewish race. Everywhere
the desire for "liberty, equality, and fraternity" began to manifest
itself. In Courland, the most German of Russian provinces, Georg
Gottfried Mylich, a Lutheran pastor at Nerft, made a touching appeal
(ab. 1787) in German on behalf of the Jews, insisting that the word Jew
"should not be taken to indicate a class of people different from us,
but only a different religious body; and as regards his nationality, it
should not hinder him from obtaining citizen's rights and liberties
equal to those of the people of Sleswick, the Saxons, Danes, Swedes,
Swiss, French, and Italians, who also live among us." In Poland, Tadeusz
Czacki, the historian, wrote his _Discourse on the Jews_ (_Rosprava o
Zhydakh_, Vilna, 1807), in which he deplores that Jews "experienced
indulgence rarely, oppression often, and contempt nearly always" under
the most Christian governments, and suggests a plan for reforming their
condition. But the main appeal for freedom came, as might have been
expected, from the Jews themselves. Contemporaneous with, if not before,
Michel Beer's _Appel à la justice des nations et des rois_, a Lithuanian
Jew, during his imprisonment in Nieszvicz on a false charge, wrote a
work in Polish on the Jewish problem,[2] while in 1803 Löb, or Leon,
Nebakhovich, an intimate friend of Count Shakovskoy, published _The Cry
of the Daughter of Judah_ (_Fopli Docheri Yudeyskoy_), the first defence
of the Russian Jew in the Russian language. The followers of the
religion of love are implored to love a Jew because he is a Jew, and
they are assured that the Jew who preserves his religion undefiled can
be neither a bad man nor a bad citizen.
But the Jews did not wait for their dreams to be realized. They threw
themselves into the swirl of their country's ambition, as if they had
never received anything other than the tenderness of a devoted mother at
her hands. They were "kindled in a common blaze" of patriotism with the
rest of the population. That in spite of all accusations to the contrary
they remained loyal to Poland, is amply proved by the history of that
unfortunate country. The characteristic kapota of the Polish Jew, his
whole garb, including the yarmulka (under cap), is simply the old Polish
costume, which the Jews retained after the Poles had adopted the German
form of dress.[3] "When, in the year 1794," says Czacki, "despair armed
the [Polish] capital, the Jews were not afraid of death, but, mingling
with the troops and the populace, they proved that danger did not
terrify them, and that the cause of the fatherland was dear to them."
With the permission of Kosciusko, Colonel Joselovich Berek, later killed
at the battle of Kotzk (1809), formed a regiment of light cavalry
consisting entirely of Jews, which distinguished itself especially at
the siege of Warsaw. Most of the members perished in defence of the
suburb of Praga. In the agony of death, Rabbi Hayyim longed for good
tidings, that he might die in peace. And when the fight was over,
Zbitkover expended two barrels of money, one filled with gold ducats and
one with silver rubles, for the live and dead soldiers who were brought
to him.[4] Indeed, Prince Czartorisky was so convinced of their
patriotism, that he always advocated the same rights for the Polish Jews
as were claimed for the Polish Gentiles, entrusted his children to the
care of Mendel Levin of Satanov, and instructed his son, Prince
Ladislaus, always to remain their friend.[5]
But when, in spite of struggle and sacrifice, the doom "finis Poloniae"
was sounded, and a large portion of the once powerful empire was
incorporated into Russia, we find the Jews bearing their sorrow
patiently, and willingly performing their duties as subjects to their
new masters. Their attachment to their czar and country was not shaken
in the least when, in 1812, Napoleon made them flattering promises to
secure their services in his behalf. Rabbi Shneor Zalman, the eminent
leader of the Lithuanian Hasidim, hearing of the invasion of the French
army, spent many days in prayer and fasting for the success of the
Russians, and fled on the Sabbath day, not to be contaminated by contact
with the "godless French." When Napoleon was finally defeated, the event
was celebrated both at home and in the synagogue, and Russian soldiers
were everywhere welcomed by Jews with gifts and good cheer.[6]
Lilienthal relates that the Jews succeeded in intercepting a courier who
carried the plan of operations of the French army, and Alexander
declared in a dispatch that Jews had opened the eyes of the Russians,
and the Government, therefore, felt itself bound to them by eternal
gratitude.[7] It is to this proof of patriotism that some attribute
Alexander's interest in the Jews and his order that three deputies
should reside in St. Petersburg to represent them in Russia, and in
Poland a committee consisting of three Christians and eight Jews should
be appointed to devise ways and means of ameliorating their
condition.[8]
The times were promising in other respects. In that critical period, the
Government, reposing but little confidence in Russian merchants, whose
business motto was "No swindle, no sale," allowed several Jews to become
Government contractors (podradchiki). These, while rendering valuable
services, amassed considerable fortunes. Notwithstanding the law
restricting Jewish residence to the Pale of Settlement, Catherine II
speaks of Jews who resided in St. Petersburg for many years, and lodged
in the house of a priest, who had been her confessor. Moreover, Jews
contributed not a little to the liberal policy of Alexander I. Among
them were Eliezer Dillon of Nieszvicz (d. 1838), who was honored by the
emperor with a gold medal "for faithful and conscientious services," and
was given an audience by his Majesty, at which he pleaded the cause of
his coreligionists;[9] Nathan Notkin, who mitigated the possible effect
of Senator Dyerzhavin's baneful opinions concerning Jews, as expressed
in his report (_Mnyenie_, September, 1800), and who suggested the
establishment of schools for children and for adults in Yekaterinoslav
and elsewhere; Abraham Peretz, the personal friend of Speransky,
Dyerzhavin, and Potemkin, and a brilliant financier, whose high standing
enabled him to be a power for good in the councils concerning Jews;[10]
and his father-in-law, Joshua Zeitlin (1724-1822). Zeitlin was a rare
phenomenon, reminding one of the golden days of Jewish Spain. His
knowledge of finance and political economy won him the admiration of
Prince Potemkin, the protection of Czarina Catherine, and the esteem of
Alexander I, who appointed him court councillor (nadvorny sovyetnik).
But his mercantile pursuits did not hinder him from study, and his high
living did not interfere with his high thinking. His palatial home at
Ustye, in Mohilev, became a refuge for all needy Talmudists and
Maskilim, whom he helped with the liberality of a Maecenas; he conducted
an extensive correspondence on rabbinic literature, and for many years
supported Doctor Schick and Mendel Levin. For Doctor Schick he built a
laboratory, and filled his library with rare manuscripts and works on
Jewish and secular subjects.[11]
Even among the conservative Talmudists signs of improvement were not
wanting. The Gaon became the centre of a group of enlightened friends
and disciples, who continued in his footsteps after his death. His son,
Rabbi Abraham, who published and edited many of his works, a task
requiring no small amount of acumen and Talmudic erudition,[12] was also
the author of books on geography, mathematics, and physics. His pupils,
such as Doctor Schick and Rabbi Benjamin and Rabbi Zelmele, influenced
their contemporaries either directly, by bringing them in touch with the
new learning, or indirectly, by reforming the school system and the
method of Talmud study.[13] Of Rabbi Zelmele, who like his master became
the hero of a wonder-biography written by his disciple Ezekiel Feivel of
Plungian, we are told that he regarded grammar as indispensable to a
thorough knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud, pleaded for a return to
the order of study prescribed in the _Pirke Abot_, and complained that,
owing to the neglect of Aramaic, the benefits of comparative philology
were lost and unknown. He declared also that while he believed in all
the Bible contains, the stories in the Talmud are, for the most part,
legends and parables used for the purpose of illustration.[14]
[Illustration: MAX LILIENTHAL, 1815-1882]
Towering above all the disciples of the Gaon, the most outspoken in
behalf of enlightenment is Manasseh of Ilye (1767-1831). At a very early
age he attracted the attention of Talmudists by his originality and
boldness. In his unflinching determination to get at the truth, he did
not shrink from criticising Rashi and the _Shulhan 'Aruk_, and dared to
interpret some parts of the Mishnah differently from the explanation
given in the Gemara. With all his admiration for the Gaon, but for whom,
he claimed, the Torah would have been forgotten, he also had points of
sympathy with the Hasidim, for whose leader, Shneor Zalman of Ladi, he
had the highest respect. Like many of his contemporaries, he determined
to go to Berlin. He started on his way, but was stopped at Königsberg by
some orthodox coreligionists, and compelled to return to Russia. This
did not prevent his perfecting himself in German, Polish, natural
philosophy, mechanics, and even strategics. On the last subject he wrote
a book, which was burnt by his friends, "lest the Government suspect
that Jews are making preparations for war!" But it is not so much his
Talmudic or secular scholarship that makes him interesting to us to-day.
His true greatness is revealed by his attempts, the first made in his
generation perhaps, to reconcile the Hasidim with the Mitnaggedim, and
these in turn with the Maskilim. He spoke a good word for manual labor,
and proved from the Talmud that burdensome laws should be abolished. His
_Pesher Dabar_ (Vilna, 1807) and _Alfe Menasheh_ (ibid., 1827, 1860) are
monuments to the advanced views of the author. In the Hebrew literature
of his time, they are equalled only by the _'Ammude Bet Yehudah_ and the
_Hekal 'Oneg_ of Doctor Hurwitz.[15]
This short period of enlightenment and tolerance, inaugurated by a
semblance of equality, indicates the native optimism of the Slavonic
Jew. For a while a cessation of hostilities was evident in the camp of
Israel. The reforms introduced by the Gaon, and propagated by his
disciples, began to bear fruit. Hasidism itself underwent a radical
change under the leadership of Rabbi Shneor Zalman of Ladi (1747-1813)
and Jacob Joseph of Polonnoy, who, unlike their colleagues of the
Ukraine, were learned in the Talmud and familiar with the sciences.
Protests by Hasidim themselves against the irreverent spirit that
developed after the death of the Besht, had in fact been heard before.
The saintly and retiring Abraham Malak (d. 1780) had denounced, in no
uncertain terms, the gross conception held by the Hasidim of the sublime
teachings of their own sect. He drew a beautiful picture of the ideal
zaddik, who is "so absorbed in meditation on the Divine wisdom that he
cannot descend to the lower steps upon which ordinary people stand."[16]
But the more active Rabbi Shneor, or Zalman Ladier, as he was usually
called, insisted on putting the zaddik on a par with the rabbi, whose
duty it is not to work miracles but to teach righteousness. Assuming for
his followers the name HaBaD, the three letters of which are the
initials of the Hebrew words for Wisdom, Reason, and Knowledge, he
furthered the cause of enlightenment in the only way possible among his
adherents.[17] How well he succeeded may be inferred from the fact,
trivial though it be, that the biography of the Besht, _The Praises of
the Besht_ (_Shibhe ha-Besht_), by Dob Bär, published in Berdichev
(1815), omits many of the legends about the Master included in the
version published the same year in Kopys. The omission can be explained
only on the ground that the editor, Judah Löb, who was the son of the
author, did not wish to give offence, or he had outgrown the credulity
of his father.[18]
The feeling of tolerance manifested itself also in the Jewish attitude
towards the Gentiles. "O that we were identified with the nations of our
time, created by the same God, children of one Father, and did not hate
each other because we are at variance in some views!" This exclamation
of Doctor Hurwitz[19] found an echo in the works of the other Maskilim
that wrote in Hebrew, but more especially of those who used a European
language. They were deeply interested in whatever marked a step forward
in their country's civilization. The opening of a gymnasium in Mitau
(1775) was a joyful occasion, which inspired Hurwitz's Hebrew muse, and
at the centennial celebration of the surrender of Riga to Peter the
Great (July 4, 1810), the craving of the Jewish heart, avowed in a
German poem, was expressed "in the name of the local Hebrew community to
their Christian compatriots." The last stanza runs as follows:
Grant us, who, like you, worship the God above,
Also on earth to enjoy equality with you!
To-day, while your hearts are open to love,
Let us seal our happiness with your love, too![20]
This desire for naturalization brought with it an attempt at
"Russification." To show the beauty of the Russian language, Baruch
Czatzskes of Volhynia translated some of the poems of Khersakov into
Hebrew, and others published manuals for the study of Russian and
Polish.[21] Among the first books issued from the newly-established
printing-press in Shklov, the centre of Jewish wealth, refinement, and
culture at that time, was the _Zeker Rab_ with a German translation
(1804). In an appendix thereto the Shklov Maskilim announced their
intention to publish a weekly, the first in the Hebrew tongue. Yiddish
was also resorted to as a medium for educating the masses, and as early
as 1813 some Vilna Jews applied to the Government for permission to
publish a paper in that language, though it was not until ten years
later (1823-1824) that a Yiddish periodical, Der Beobachter an der
Weichsel, appeared in Warsaw. Nor do we hear of any opposition to the
Government decrees, issued probably at the request of Dillon, Notkin,
Peretz, or Nebakhovich, that the elders of the kahals in and after 1808,
and the rabbis of the congregations in and after 1812, be conversant
with either Russian, German, or Polish. This sudden Russification of the
Jews amounted sometimes to no more than a superficial imitation of
Russian civilization, which pious rabbis as well as liberal-minded men
like Schick, Margolioth, Ilye, and Hurwitz, felt impelled to call a halt
to. Jews, especially the rich, aped the Polish pans. Their wives dressed
in Parisian gowns of the latest fashion, and their homes were conducted
in a manner so luxurious as to arouse the envy of the noblemen. Israel
waxed fat and kicked. Their greatest care was to become wealthy; they
pampered their bodies at the expense of the impoverishment of their
souls, and some feared that "with the passing away of the elder
generation there would not remain a man capable of filling the position
of rabbi."[22]
The privilege of attending public schools and colleges further
stimulated the Russification of the Jews. As soon as these institutions
of learning were thrown open to them, numerous Jewish youths made
headway in all branches taught, especially in medicine. That Alexander's
benign decree of November 10, 1811, issued through the Secretary of
State Speransky, was not always executed by his officials goes without
saying. Simeon Levy Wolf, one of the first Russo-Jewish graduates, was
denied his degree of doctor of jurisprudence in Dorpat unless he
embraced Christianity.[23] When, in 1819, some of the Vilna graduates
applied for the privilege of not paying the double tax, they were told
that they must first renounce their faith, an exception being made only
in favor of Arthur Parlovich. Still the number of Jewish graduate
physicians was on the increase. Osip Yakovlevich Liboschüts, who was the
son of the famous physician of Vilna, took his doctor degree at Dorpat
(1806), became court physician in St. Petersburg, where he founded a
hospital for children, and wrote extensively in French on the flora of
his country.[24] The medical institute of Vilna (1803-1833), afterwards
transferred to Kiev, became the centre of attraction for the Russian
Jewry. Padua, Berlin, Königsberg, Göttingen, Copenhagen, Halle,
Amsterdam, Cambridge, and London were for a third of a century replaced
by the home of the Gaon and of Doctor Liboschüts. The first students
were recruited from the bet ha-midrash, and they frequently joined, as
in former days, knowledge of the Law with the practice of their chosen
profession. Such were Isaac Markusevich, whose annotations to the
_Shulhan 'Aruk_ (ab. 1830) were published fifty years later;[25] Joseph
Rosensohn, the promising Talmudist who became rabbi of Pyosk at the age
of nineteen;[26] and Kusselyevsky of Nieszvicz, a stipendiary of a
Polish nobleman and a great favorite with Professor Frank. Because of
his proficiency, he was exempted from serving as a vratch (interne), and
for his piety and learning he was addressed by Jews and Gentiles as
"rabbi."[27]
With what dreams such happenings filled the Jewish heart! "Thank God,"
writes a merchant of the first guild in reply to an inquiry from distant
Bokhara, "thank God, we dwell in peace under the sovereignty of our czar
Alexander, who has shown us his mercy, and has put us in every respect
on an equality with all the inhabitants of the land."[28] But a rude
awakening was soon to make the Jews aware that their visions of better
days were still far from realization. In 1815, Alexander I formed the
acquaintance of Baroness Krüdener, and since then, to the satisfaction
of Prince Galitzin, "with what giant strides the emperor advanced in the
pathway of religion!" His humanitarian deeds gave way to a profound
religious mysticism. He experienced a revulsion of feeling toward
reforms in his vast empire, and, as always, the Jews were the first
victims of an ill-boding change. The kindly monarch who, at Paris, had
said to a Russo-Jewish deputation, _J'enleverai le joug de vos épaules_,
began to make their yoke heavier than he had found it. The enlightened
czar, who, in striking a medal commemorating the emancipation of the
Jews of his empire, had anticipated Napoleon by a year, suddenly became
a bigoted tyrant, whose efforts were devoted to converting the same Jews
to Christianity. He who had claimed that his greatest reward would be to
produce a Mendelssohn, now resorted to various expedients, to render
education unpalatable to the Jews. The Jewish assemblymen, who, in 1816,
soon after the Franco-Russian war, had been convoked to St. Petersburg,
were not allowed to meet; and when, two years later, they did meet,
their every attempt was baffled by the Government. Jews were expelled
systematically from St. Petersburg (1818). They were forbidden to employ
Christians as servants (May 4, 1820), to immigrate into Russia from
abroad (August 10, 1824), and reside in the towns and villages of
Mohilev and Vitebsk (January 13, 1825). Several years after the double
poll and guild tax had been abolished in Courland (November 8, 1807), it
was restored with an additional impost on meat from cattle slaughtered
according to the Jewish rite (korobka). All this impoverished the Jews
to such an extent that they were forced to sell the cravats of their
praying shawls (taletim), in order to defray the expense of a second
deputation to St. Petersburg.[29]
Had Alexander I been satisfied with merely restricting the Jews' rights,
the favorable attitude towards enlightenment we have noticed above would
probably have remained unaltered. Unfortunately, Alexander became a
fanatic conversionist. It was a time when missionary zeal became
endemic, and Baroness Krüdener's influence was strengthened. The
Reverend Lewis Way, having founded (1808) the London Society for
Promoting Christianity among the Jews, made a tour through Europe,
everywhere urging the Gentiles to enfranchise the Jews as an inducement
to them to embrace Christianity, the only means of hastening the advent
of the Apostolic millennium. His _Mémoires sur l'état des israélites_
presented to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 11, 1818) and his
visit to Russia resulted in an imperial ukase (March 25, 1817)
organizing a Committee of Guardians for Israelitish Christians
(Izrailskiye Christyanye). The members of this association were to be
granted land in the northern or southern provinces of Russia and to
enjoy special privileges. The bait proved tempting, and, as a
consequence, some prominent Maskilim, too weak to resist the
allurements, precipitated themselves into the Greek Catholic fold.
Abraham Peretz, financier and champion of Jews' rights, consented to be
converted, as also Löb Nebakhovich, the dramatist, whose plays were
produced in the Imperial theatre of St. Petersburg and performed in the
presence of the emperor.[30] Equally bad, if not worse, for the cause of
Haskalah was the conduct of those who, disdaining, or unable, to profess
the new religion, discarded every vestige of traditional Judaism, and
deemed it their duty to set an example of infidelity and sometimes
immorality to their less enlightened coreligionists. What Leroy-Beaulieu
says of Maimon, "that type of the most cultured Jew to be found before
the French Revolution," might more justly be applied to many a less
prominent Maskil after him: "Despite his learning and philosophy he sank
deeper than the most degraded of his fellow-men, because in repudiating
his ancestral faith he had lost the staff which, through all their
humiliations, served as a prop even to the most debased of ancient
Jews."[31]
Haskalah thus having become synonymous with apostasy or licentiousness,
we can easily understand why the unsophisticated among the Russian Jews
were so bitterly opposed to it from the time the sad truth dawned upon
them, until, under Alexander II, their suspicions were somewhat
dissipated. Previous to the latter part of the reign of Alexander I the
"struggle groups" in Russian Jewry were at first Frankists and
anti-Frankists, and afterwards Hasidim and Mitnaggedim. It was a
conflict, not between religion and science, but between religion and
what was regarded as superstition. Secular instruction, far from being
opposed, was, as we have seen, sought and disseminated. Long after the
pious element in Germany had been aroused to the dangers that lurked in
the wake of their "Aufklärung," and had begun to endeavor to check its
further progress by excommunication and other methods, the Russian Jews
remained "seekers after light." They might have condemned a Maskil, they
had not yet condemned Haskalah. Mendelssohn's German translation was
welcomed in Russia at its first appearance no less than in Germany, but
when some of the children of Rabbi Moses ben Menahem embraced the
Christian faith, and their father, as was natural, was suspected of
skepticism, the _Biur_ and the Meassefim were pronounced, like libraries
by Sir Anthony Absolute, to be "an evergreen tree of diabolical
knowledge." So also with Wessely's Epistles, which were destroyed in
public, together with Polonnoy's _Toledot Ya'akob Yosef_. Haskalah
itself was not impugned, and as theretofore translations and original
works on science were encouraged, and the wish was entertained that
"many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."[32]
But the latest experiences in their own country put Haskalah in a very
different light from that in which they were wont to regard it. Formerly
the opposition to it had been limited to the very land that gave it
birth. Because of their determination to study, Solomon Maimon was
denied admission to Berlin, Manasseh of Ilye was stopped in Königsberg,
and Abba Glusk Leczeka, better known as "the Glusker Maggid," the
subject of a poem by Chamisso, was persecuted everywhere. It was Rabbi
Levin, of Berlin, who prohibited the publication of Wessely's works, and
insisted that the author be expelled from the city.[33] It was Rabbi
Ezekiel Landau of Prague who, though approving of Wessely's _Yen
Lebanon_, opposed the translation of the Pentateuch by Mendelssohn,
while Rabbi Horowitz of Hamburg denounced it in unmeasured terms,
admonishing his hearers to shun the work as unclean, and approving the
action of those persons who had publicly burnt it in Vilna (1782). Moses
Sofer of Pressburg adopted as his motto, "Touch not the works of the
Dessauer" (Mendelssohn),[34] and seldom allowed an opportunity to pass
without denouncing the Maskilim of his country. Now the clarion note of
anti-Haskalah, sounded by these luminaries in Israel, found an echo
among the Jews in Russia. They had discovered, to their great sorrow,
that like Elisha ben Abuya, the apostate in the Talmud, "those who once
entered the paradise [of enlightenment] returned no more." The very name
of the seat of Haskalah was an abomination to the pious. To be called
"Berlinchick" or "Deitschel" was tantamount to being called infidel and
epicurean, anarchist and outlaw. The old instinct of self-preservation,
which turned Jews from lambs into lions, holding their ground to the
last, asserted itself again. As the Talmudic rabbis excluded certain
books from the Canon, as the study of even the Jewish philosophers was
later proscribed by certain French rabbis, so the Russian rabbis laid
the ban upon whatever savored of German "Aufklärerei."
Thus began the bitter fight against Haskalah, in which Hasidim and
Mitnaggedim, forgetting their differences, joined hands, and stood
shoulder to shoulder. For, after all, was not Judaism in both these
phases endangered by the new and aggressive enemy from the West? And did
not the two have enough in common to become one in the hour of great
need? Hasidism, in fact, was Judaism emotionalized, and since, beginning
with Rabbi Shneor Zalman of Ladi, it, too, advocated the study of the
Talmud, the distinction between it and Mitnaggedism was hardly
perceptible. The study of the Zohar and Cabbala was equally cultivated
by both; Isaac Luria and Hayyim Vital were equally venerated by both,
and hero worship was common to both. The _Ascension of Elijah_ (Gaon) is
as full of miracles as _The Praises of the Besht_. It is no wonder,
then, that the animosities, which reached their acme during the last few
years of the Gaon's life, were weakened after his death, and that the
compromise, pleaded for by Doctor Hurwitz and Manasseh Ilye, was somehow
effected. But it was otherwise with the Haskalah. "Verily," says the
zaddik Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, "verily, grammar is useful; that our
great ones indulged in the study thereof I also know; but what is to be
done since the wicked and sinful have taken possession of it?" In the
same manner does Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin inveigh against the followers
of Mendelssohn, because of the latitudinarian habits of the Maskilim,
who "despise the counsel of their betters, and go after the dictates of
their hearts."[35] Both saw in Haskalah a deadly foe to their dearest
ideals, a blight upon their most cherished hopes, and, like Elizabeta
Petrovna, they would not derive even a benefit from the enemies of their
religion.
Still, Alexander I approached his object only tentatively. Haskalah
during his reign was like the Leviathan in the Talmud legend which
resembled an island, so that wayfarers approached it to moor under its
lee and find shelter in its shade, but as soon as they began to walk and
cook on it, it would turn and submerge them in the stormy and bottomless
sea. The Jews were invited or induced to forsake their religion, and
only the less discerning were caught in the snare. It remained for the
"terrible incarnation of autocracy," Nicholas I (1825-1855), or, as his
Jewish subjects called him, Haman II, to fill their cup of woe to
overflowing and employ every available means to convert them to his own
religion.
Nicholas's one aim was "to diminish the number of Jews in the empire,"
but not by expulsion, the means employed by Ferdinand and Isabella. He
knew too well their value as citizens to allow them to migrate. He would
diminish their numbers by forced baptism. Baptized Jews were exempted
from the payment of taxes for three years; Jewish criminals could have
their punishment commuted or could obtain a pardon by ceasing to be
Jews. But as these inducements could naturally appeal only to
comparatively few, more stringent measures were resorted to. Hitherto
the Jews had been excused from military service, paying an annual sum of
money for the privilege. On September 7, 1827, an ukase was issued
requiring them not only to pay the same amount as theretofore, but also
to serve in the army; and while Christians had to furnish only seven
recruits per thousand, and only at certain intervals, the Jews had to
contribute ten recruits for each thousand, and that at every
conscription. The only exception was made in the case of the Karaites,
who, according to Nicholas's decision, had emigrated from Palestine
before the Christian era, and could not therefore have participated in
the crucifixion of Jesus. Jews found outside of their native towns
without passports, and those in arrears with their taxes, frequently
even those who, having lagged behind in their payment to the Government,
eventually discharged their obligations, were to be seized and sentenced
to serve in the army, and this meant a lifetime, or at least twenty-five
years, of the most abject slavery imaginable. This grievous measure
caused the utmost misery. No Jewish youth leaving home could be sure of
returning and seeing his dear ones again. The scum of the Jewish
population (poimshchiki, or "catchers") made it their profession to
ensnare helpless young men or poor itinerant students suspected of the
Haskalah heresy, destroy their passports, and deliver them up as
poimaniki (recruits), to spare the rich who paid for the substitutes. To
form an idea of the time we need but read some of the numerous
folk-songs of that day. Here is one of many:
Quietly I walk in the street,
When behind me I hear the rush of feet.
Woes have come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
"Your passport," they ask. Alas, it is lost!
"Then serve the White Czar!" that is the cost.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
There are many rooms, they take me to one,
And strip from my body the poor homespun.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
They take me to another room,
The uniform,--that is my doom.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
Rather than wear the cap of the czar,
To study the Torah were better by far.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
Rather than eat of the czar's black bread,
I'd study the Scriptures head by head.
Woes have come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.
Yet this was not all. Knowing that it is easier to convert the children
than their elders, the Government of Nicholas I, out-Heroding Herod,
inaugurated a system so cruel as to fill with terror and pity the heart
of the most ferocious barbarian. Infants were torn from their mothers,
boys of the age of twelve, sometimes of ten and eight, were herded like
cattle, sent to distant parts of Russia, and there distributed as
chattels among the officers of the army. Many of these Cantonists, as
they were called, either died on the way, or were killed off when they
resisted conversion. Those who survived sometimes returned to Judaism,
and formed the nucleus of Jewish settlements in the interior of Russia.
These "soldiers of Nicholas" (Nikolayevskiye soldati), with their
uncouth demeanor and devoted, though ignorant, adherence to the faith of
their fathers, furnished much material for the folk-songs of the time
and the novelists of the somewhat happier reigns of Nicholas's
successors.[36]
One of these Cantonists, the first to give a description of the life of
his fellow-sufferers, was Wolf Nachlass, or Alexander Alekseyev. For
many years he remained faithful to the religion of his forefathers,
though he had been pressed into the service at the age of ten. About
1845 he changed his views, became an ardent Greek Catholic, and
converted five hundred Cantonists, to the great delight of Nicholas I,
who thanked him in person for his zeal. He lost his leg, and during the
long illness that followed Nachlass settled in Novgorod, and wrote
several works on Jewish customs and on missionary topics.
Less horrifying, but equally aiming at disintegration, was Nicholas's
scheme of colonization. What better means was there for "diminishing the
number of Jews" than to scatter them over the wilderness of Russia and
leave them to shift for themselves? This, of course, was necessarily a
slow process and one involving some expense, but it was fraught with
great importance not only for the Russian Church, but for Russian trade
and agriculture as well.
"Back to the soil!" Was not this the cry of the romantic Maskilim in
Germany, in Galicia, and particularly in Russia? And have not country
life and field labor been depicted by them in the most glowing colors?
Here was an opportunity to save the honor of the Jewish name and also
ameliorate the material condition of the Russian Jews. The permission
given to them by Alexander I to establish themselves as farmers in the
frigid yet free Siberian steppes was greeted with enthusiasm by all.
Nicholas's ukase was hailed with joy. Elias Mitauer and Meyer
Mendelssohn, at the head of seventy families from Courland, were the
first to migrate to the new region (1836), and they were followed by
hundreds more. Indeed, the exodus assumed such proportions that the
Christians in the parts of the country abandoned by the colonists
complained of the decline in business and the depreciation of property.
The movement was heartily approved by the rabbis; the populace, its
imagination stimulated, began to dream dreams and see visions of
brighter days, and all gave vent to their hopefulness in songs of
gladness and gratitude, in strains like these:[37]
Who lives so free
As the farmer on his land?
His farm his companion is,
His never-failing friend.
His sleep to him is sweet
After a hearty meal;
Neither grief nor worry
The farmer-man doth feel.
He rises very early
To start betimes his toil,
Healthy and very happy
On his ever-smiling soil.
O blessings on our czar,
Czar Nikolai, then be,
Who granted us this gladness,
And bade the Jews be free.
Alas, this joy was of short duration! Very soon Nicholas became
suspicious of his Siberian colonization scheme, that it was in reality a
philanthropic measure, and in place of saving the Jew's soul it only
promoted his physical well-being. This suspicion grew into a conviction
when he learned that the Jewish community at Tomsk, still faithful to
the heritage of Israel, applied for permission to appoint a spiritual
leader. The autocrat, therefore, signed an ukase checking settlement in
the hitherto free land, depriving honest men of the privilege enjoyed by
the worst of criminals, and enrolling the children of those already
there among the military Cantonists (January 5, 1837).
Then began real misery. Believing at first that the czar's intentions
were sincere, many Jews had sold their hut and land and left for
Siberia. No sooner were they there than they were sent, on foot, to
Kherson. The decree of the "little father" was executed in--no other
phrase can describe it so well--Russian fashion. The innocent Jews who
had come to Siberia by invitation were seized, treated as vagabonds, and
deported to their destination. Want and suffering produced contagious
diseases, and many became a burden to the Jews of Kremenchug and such
Christians as could not witness unmoved the infernal comedy played by
the defender of the Greek Catholic Church. Help could be rendered only
secretly, and those who dared complain were severely punished.
At the same time that this was taking place in the wilderness of
Siberia, a phenomenon of rare occurrence was to be witnessed in the very
heart of the Jewish Pale, in Lithuania. Aroused by the wretched
condition of his coreligionists, Solomon Posner (1780-1848) determined
to erect cloth factories exclusively for Jews. He sent to Germany for
experts to teach them the trade. These Jewish workingmen proved so
industrious and intelligent that before the end of three years they
surpassed their teachers in mechanical skill. But this attempt of Posner
was only prefatory to the greater and more arduous task he set himself.
It was nothing less than the establishment of a colony in which some of
the most Utopian theories would be applied to actual life. Ten years
after Robert Owen founded his communistic settlement at New Harmony,
Indiana, several hundred robust Russian Jews settled on some of the
thousands of acres in Lithuania that were lying fallow for want of
tillers. With these farmers Posner hoped to realize his Utopia. He
provided every family with sufficient land, the necessary agricultural
implements, as well as with horses, cows, etc., free of charge, for a
term of twenty-five years. In return, the members of the community
pledged themselves to use simple homespun for their apparel, black on
holidays, gray on week-days, not to indulge in the luxuries of city
life, and to avoid trading of any sort. As time passed, Posner opened
coeducational technical schools for the children and batte midrashim for
adults, and soon the homesteads presented the appearance of progressive
and flourishing farms. Posner's successful effort attracted the
admiration of Prince Pashkevich, and was both a living protest against
the accusation of Nicholas that Jews were unfit to be farmers and an
eloquent plea for the unfortunate victims of a capricious tyrant in
Siberia and Kherson.[38]
In his efforts to curb the stiff-necked Jews by all manner of fiendish
persecution, Nicholas did not neglect to try the efficacy of some of the
plans advocated by Lewis Way. Undismayed by the failure of the Committee
of Guardians for Israelitish Christians, in which Alexander I had put so
much confidence, a "Jewish Committee," all the members of which were
Christians, was organized by imperial decree (May 22, 1825). This
committee established, in 1829, a school at Warsaw where Christian
divinity students were to be instructed in rabbinical literature and in
Judeo-German, in order to be fully equipped for missionary work among
the Jews. It appointed Abbé Luigi Chiarini to translate, or rather
expose, the Babylonian Talmud, to which undertaking the Government
contributed twelve thousand thalers.
To do his work thoroughly, the abbé deemed it advisable to write a
preliminary dissertation, presenting his aim and views. This he did in
his _Theory of Judaism_ (_Théorie du judaisme_, Paris, 1830). He
endeavored to show how worthless, injurious, and immoral were the
teachings of the Talmud. Only by discarding them would the Jews qualify
themselves to enjoy the right of citizenship. He proved, to his own
satisfaction, that ritual murder was enjoined in the Talmud, and this he
did at a time when many a community was harassed by this fiendish
accusation. When early death cut short the abbé's effort (1832), the
Government, still persisting in its plans, engaged the services of
Ephraim Moses Pinner of Posen, who published specimens of his intended
translation in his _Compendium_ (Berlin, 1831). But the fickle or
restless emperor seems to have tired of the plan, or perhaps he found
Pinner too Jewish for his purposes. Of the twenty-eight volumes planned,
only one, which was dedicated to Nicholas, appeared during the decade
following Chiarini's death, and the work was abandoned entirely.[39]
The crusade against the Talmud, thus headed and backed by the
Government, now broke out in all its fury. Anti-Talmudic works in
English, French, and German were imported into Russia, translated into
Hebrew, and scattered among the people. _The Old Paths_, by Alexander
McCaul, a countryman and colleague of Lewis Way, but surpassing him in
zeal for the conversion of Jews, was translated into Hebrew and German
(Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1839) for the edification of those who knew no
English. Jews themselves, either out of revenge or because they sought
to ingratiate themselves with the high authorities, joined the movement,
and openly came out against the Talmud in works modelled after
Eisenmenger's _Entdecktes Judenthum_. Such were Buchner, author of
_Worthlessness of the Talmud_ (_Der Talmud in seiner Nichtigkeit_, 2
vols., Warsaw, 1848), and Temkin, who wrote _The Straight Road_ (_Derek
Selulah_, St. Petersburg, 1835). The former was instructor in Hebrew and
Holy Writ in the rabbinical seminary in Warsaw; the latter was a zealous
convert to the Greek Catholic faith, who spared no effort to make
Judaism disliked among his former coreligionists.
All these desperate attempts proved of no avail. Judaism was practiced,
and the Talmud was studied during the reign of Nicholas I more ardently
than ever before. Their sacred treasures attacked by the Government
without and by renegades and detractors within, the Russian Jews
nevertheless clung to them with a tenacity unparalleled even in their
own history. Danzig's _Life of Man_ (_Hayye Adam_, Vilna, 1810),
containing all Jewish ritual ceremonies, was followed out to the least
minutiae. Despite the poverty of the Jews and the comparatively
exorbitant price the publisher had to charge for the Talmud, and, aside
from the many sets of former editions in the country and those
continually imported, and in addition to the Responsa, commentaries,
Midrashim, and other works directly and indirectly bearing on it, more
than a dozen editions of the Talmud had appeared in Russia alone since
the ukase of Catherine II (October 30, 1795) permitting Russian Jews to
publish Hebrew works in their own country. This ukase had been intended
originally to exclude seditious literature from Russia, but what was
unfavorable for the rebellious Poles proved, in a measure, very
beneficial to the law-abiding Jews. Under the supervision of a censor,
and with but slight interruptions, the Jews published their own books,
and in 1806 Slavuta, in Volhynia, saw the first complete edition of the
Talmud on Russian soil. Then followed another edition in the same place
(1808-1813), a third in Kopys (1816-1828), and a fourth in Slavuta
(1817-1822), and several others elsewhere.
The story of the Vilna-Grodno edition of the Talmud is interesting as
well as illuminating. It depicts the relation of the Jews among
themselves and to the Government. Begun in 1835, at Ozar, near Grodno,
an imperial ukase directed the removal of the work to Vilna, the
metropolis of Russo-Poland. When the publishers, Simhah Ziml and Menahem
Mann Romm, had completed their work in the new quarters, the copies of
the book were destroyed by incendiaries (1840). After some time, an
effort was made by Joseph Eliasberg and Mattathias Strashun to continue
the publication, but the Warsaw censor prohibited its importation into
Poland, where the bulk of the subscribers lived. To add to the calamity,
a feud broke out between the head of the Slavuta publishing company,
Moses Schapira (1758-1838), and the Vilna publishers. The publication of
the Talmud had always been supervised by the prominent rabbis of the
land, and their authorization was necessary to make an edition legal.
This the rabbi never granted unless the previous edition was entirely
disposed of. The Slavuta publishers claimed that their edition had not
been sold out when the Vilna publishers started theirs. The litigation
continued for some time, and was finally decided in favor of the Vilna
firm. The publishers of Slavuta, however, having the Polish rabbis and
zaddikim on their side, continued to publish the Talmud, regardless of
the protests of Rabbi Akiba Eger and the "great ones" of Lithuania. But
a terrible misfortune befell the Slavuta publishers. On account of some
accusation, the two brothers engaged in the business were deported to
Siberia, and their father, the head of the establishment, died of a
broken heart. This cleared the field for the Romms of Vilna, who
continue to prosper to this day, and have now the greatest Hebrew
publishing house in the world. "It is the finger of God," the pious ones
said, and studied the Talmud with increased devotion.[40]
The numerous Talmud editions indicate the demand for the work, and the
multiplicity of yeshibot explains the cause of the demand. We have seen
how the yeshibot destroyed by Chmielnicki were re-established soon after
the massacres ceased. Their number increased when the Hasidic movement
threatened to render the knowledge of the Talmud unpopular; and when the
Maskilim, too, made them a target for their attacks, there was hardly a
town in which such institutions were not to be found. But surpassing all
the yeshibot of the nineteenth century, if not of all centuries, was the
Yeshibah Tree of Life (Yeshibat 'Ez Hayyim) in the townlet of Volozhin.
There the cherished hopes of the Gaon were finally realized. Within its
walls gathered the elect of the Russo-Jewish youth for almost a century.
The founder of this famous yeshibah was Rabbi Hayyim Volozhin, the
greatest of the Gaon's disciples (1749-1821). A prominent Talmudist at
twenty-five, he, nevertheless, left his business and household at that
age, and went to Vilna to become the humble pupil of the Gaon, whose
method he had followed from the beginning. When he felt himself
proficient enough in his studies, he returned to his native place, and
founded (1803) the Tree of Life College, with an enrollment of ten
students, whom he maintained at his own expense. But soon the fame of
the yeshibah and its founder spread far and wide, and students flocked
to it from all corners of Russia and outside of it. In response to Rabbi
Hayyim's appeal contributions came pouring in, a new and spacious
school-house was erected, and Volozhin became a Talmudic Oxford. To be a
student there was both an indication of superiority and a means to
proficiency. Rabbi Hayyim did away with the "Tag-essen," or "Freitisch"
custom, and introduced a stipendiary system in its stead, thus fostering
the self-respect of the students. But they did not as a rule require
much to satisfy them with their lot. They came to Volozhin "to learn,"
and they well knew the Talmudic statement, that "no one can attain
eminence in the Torah unless he is willing to die for its sake."
Rabbi Hayyim was succeeded by his son Rabbi Isaac, who united knowledge
of secular subjects with profound Talmudic erudition, was active in
worldly affairs, and played a prominent part in the Jewish history of
his day. He was of the leading spirits who, in 1842, attended the
rabbinical conference at St. Petersburg convoked by Nicholas I. The
number of students increased under his leadership, according to
Lilienthal, to three hundred. But Rabbi Isaac became so engrossed in
public affairs that he found he could no longer do justice to his
position. His two sons-in-law, therefore, took his place, and when the
older died, in 1854, Rabbi Naphtali Zebi Judah Berlin (1817-1893)
entered on his useful career, unbroken for forty years, as the dean of
the greatest seat of learning in the Diaspora. Under his administration
the Tree of Life College reached both the height of its prosperity and
the end of its existence (1892).[41]
Thus all the schemes and machinations of the Russian Government
respecting the Jews proved ineffectual. Nicholas I, with the possible
exception of Ivan the Terrible, the greatest autocrat in Russian
history, at whose wish seemingly insuperable obstacles were instantly
removed, the wink of whose eye was sufficient to kill or revive the
millions of his crouching slaves--Nicholas I, with all his herculean
strength, yet found himself helpless in the presence of a handful of
wretched Jews. Furious at his defeat, he expressed the intention to
reduce all Jews to Governmental servitude or to make them, like the
Cossacks, lifelong soldiers. Being advised to postpone the execution of
this plan and to employ less severe measures meanwhile, he issued the
Exportation Law of 1843, ordering the expulsion of Jews from the
fifty-vyerst boundary zone and from the villages within the Pale,
thereby depriving fifty thousand families at once of their homes and
their support.
Those from the country--writes a Russo-Jewish eye-witness of the
scenes following the enforcement of this inhuman law--move first
to the neighboring cities, and increase the existing poverty,
rendering the difficulty of finding profitable employment still
greater. God only knows how it will end when the congestion
increases still further.... I must also inform you--he
proceeds--that these past four months several imperial
commissioners have visited the frontier towns on the Lithuanian
border, from which the Jews are to be banished, in order that
the value of the real estate may be estimated. But how is the
valuation calculated? Even one who is acquainted with the
venality and unscrupulousness of Russian officers cannot form a
correct idea of how this business is conducted. If a man has no
connection with those in authority, or cannot obtain powerful
intercession, or is unable to give heavy bribes, his property is
valued at perhaps five per cent, or is set at so low a figure as
to make the appraisal differ little from downright robbery. We,
however, are used to such measures, for when they banished us
some time past from certain districts of the city of
Brest-Litovsk, where for centuries celebrated scholars of our
people dwelt, nothing better was done by the crown to compensate
us for our houses.[42] The same occurred at the expulsion from
St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Nikolayev, Alexandrov, Sebastopol,
etc., but as it did not affect so large a mass, nor injure us to
so great an extent, we bore the injury silently. Alas, this is
not the case at present. We should gladly quit the country,
gladly should we emigrate to America, Texas, and especially to
Palestine under English protection, if, on the one hand, we had
the means and, on the other, the Government would permit us.[43]
This Exportation Law of Nicholas I, the result of a lawsuit between a
Jew and a nobleman living on the eastern frontier, which had been
decided by the supreme court in favor of the former, aroused much
excitement in every civilized country of Europe. It was before
anti-Semitism was in flower, and the people of the time were more
responsive even than during the later Kishinev massacres. Indignation
meetings were held. Both Jews and Gentiles, not only abroad, but even in
Russia, protested. Prayers were offered for the unfortunate. Crémieux in
France and Rabbi Philippson in Germany appealed to the public. All to no
effect. Grief was especially manifest among English Jews, always the
first to feel when their fellow-Jews in other countries suffer, and
Grace Aguilar, like Rachel weeping over her children, lamented over her
Russian brethren:
Ay, death! for such is exile--fearful doom,
From homes expelled yet still to Poland chain'd;
Till want and famine mind and life consume,
And sorrow's poison'd chalice all is drained.
O God, that this should be! that one frail man
Hath power to crush a nation 'neath his ban.
At this critical period, Moses Montefiore, encouraged by his success in
refuting the blood accusation at Damascus, and stimulated by the many
petitions he had received from Russia, Germany, France, Italy, England,
and America, undertook the philanthropic mission of interceding with the
czar on behalf of his coreligionists. It is natural to suspect that no
trouble is entirely undeserved; it is but human to sympathize with our
friends, and yet regard their suffering as a judgment rather than a
misfortune. But Montefiore's trip to Russia dispelled the last trace of
suspicion against the Russian Jews. In spite of their poverty, he saw
numerous charitable and educational institutions in every city he
visited. He found the Jewish men to be the cream of Russia. "He had the
satisfaction," Doctor Loewe, his secretary, tells us, "of seeing among
them many well-educated wives, sons, and daughters; their dwellings were
scrupulously clean, the furniture plain but suitable for the purpose,
and the appearance of the family healthy." To all his pleadings Count
Uvarov returned but a single answer: "The Russian Jews are different
from other Jews; they are orthodox, and believe in the Talmud"[44]--a
reason for persecution in Holy Russia!
Montefiore's visit to Russia, from which so much had been hoped, did not
improve the situation in the least. For all his strenuous efforts, he
was compelled to leave the Jews as destitute as he had found them. Nay,
they might truthfully have said to the Moses of England what their
ancestors had said to the Moses of Egypt, "Since thou didst come to
Pharaoh, the hardness of our lot has increased." From the first of May
(1844) they were not allowed to continue to earn the pittance necessary
to maintain life, as, for instance, by the slavish labor of breaking
stones on the highways, with which three hundred families had barely
earned dry bread.[45] The great love and respect shown to the uncrowned
king of Israel proved to the czar's officials the existence of some
artful design on the part of the Jews, and convinced them especially of
the disloyalty of Montefiore. The latter, they maintained, was scheming
to set himself up as the Jewish czar. Hence every movement of his was
closely watched, every word he uttered carefully noted, and not a few
Jews were left with memorable tokens for doing homage to the English
baronet. Their disabilities were not removed, their condition was not
improved, the hopes they entertained resolved themselves into pleasant
dreams followed by a sad awakening.[46]
Yet, though his visit did not, as Sir Moses had anticipated, "raise the
Jews in the estimation of the people," it was not without beneficent
effect on the Jews themselves. It cemented the "traditional friendship"
which has always existed between Anglo-Jews and Russo-Jews more than
between any sets of Jews of the dispersion. It disclosed to the latter
that there were happier Jews and better countries than their own; that
there were men who sympathized with them as effectively as could be.
Above all, it convinced them that a Jew may be highly educated and
wealthy, and take his place among the noble ones of the earth, and still
remain a faithful Jew and a loyal son of his persecuted people. "I leave
you," Sir Moses called to them at parting, "but my heart will ever
remain with you. When my brethren suffer, I feel it painfully; when they
have reason to weep, my eyes shed tears." Had Montefiore's visit
resulted merely in arousing his brethren's self-consciousness, he had
earned a place in the history of Haskalah, for self-consciousness is the
most potent factor in the culture of mankind.
Jews from other lands also came to the rescue of their Russian
coreligionists. Jacques Isaac Altaras, the ship-builder of Marseilles,
petitioned the czar to allow forty thousand Jewish families to emigrate
to Algeria. Rabbi Ludwig Philippson, editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung
des Judenthums, appealed to his countrymen to help the Russian Jews to
settle in America, Australia, Africa, anywhere away from Russia. But all
attempts were ineffectual. Though Count Kissilyef assured Montefiore
that the czar "did not wish to keep them [the Jews], five or six hundred
thousand might leave altogether," emigration was next to impossible.
Russia was constantly playing the game of the cat with the mouse. Her
nails were set and her eyes fixed upon her prey, and yet she made it
appear to the outside world that she was anxious about the welfare of
the Jews. For Russian tactics have always been, and still are, the
despair of the diplomat, a labyrinth through which only they who hold
the clue can ever hope to find their way.
The condition of the Jews in Russo-Poland was, if possible, even worse
than in Lithuania and Russia proper. Nothing, in fact, but the
auto-da-fé was needed to give it the stamp of medieval Spain. As before
the division of Poland, the Poles suspected the Jews of disloyalty to
Poland, while the Russians suspected them of disloyalty to Russia.
Hitherto too proud to soil his hand with a manual or mercantile pursuit,
the Polish pan, now that the glory of his country had departed, and he
was deprived of his lordly estates, began to engage in business of all
kinds, and, finding in the Jewish trader a rival with whose skill and
diligence he could seldom compete, he became embittered against the
entire race. This was the cause of the innumerable restrictions, the
extortion, and exploitation in Russo-Poland, which surpassed those of
Russia proper.
The Jewish archives--said Doctor Marcus Jastrow, then Rabbi in
Warsaw--were humorously known as "California" or the "Mexican
Gold Mines." Jews had to pay at every step. They had to pay a
Tagzettel [daily tax] for permission to stay in Warsaw, which
permission, however, did not include the luxury of breathing.
The latter had to be purchased with an additional ten kopecks
per capita. The income from these taxations amounted to over a
million and a half, but in spite of all this the Jews were
regarded as parasites, as leeches feasting upon the life-blood
of their Christian compatriots.[47]
Such is the background upon which the picture of Haskalah is to be
drawn--black enough to throw into relief the faintest ray of light. The
Russian Jews, during the reign of Nicholas I, found themselves in a
position possible only in Russia. They were not allowed to emigrate, nor
suffered to stay. In 1823 they were expelled from the farms, and had to
crowd into the cities; in 1838 they were expelled from the cities, and
forced to go back to the country. Then Siberia was opened to them, but
when it was found that even the land of the outcasts was hailed as a
place of refuge by the Jews, they were told to go to Kherson. At last
arrangements were perfected to allow them to colonize Lithuania--all at
once even this was interdicted. They had been conquered with the Poles,
yet were left unprotected against the Poles. Could they help suspecting
the tyrant of what he really intended to do--of seeking to diminish
their numbers by conversion? Is it surprising that when he determined to
open public schools and establish rabbinical seminaries, Jews looked
upon these, too, as the sugared poison with which he intended to
extirpate Judaism? Or can we blame them for being determined to the last
to baffle him? Nicholas did not understand the great lesson taught by
the history of the Jews and inculcated in the old song,
To destroy all these people
You should let them alone.
All that tyranny could inflict, the Russian Jews endured. Yet their
number was not diminished. No coercion could make them leave, in a body,
the old paths they were wont to tread. Nicholas's so-called reforms only
encouraged a reaction, and the more he afflicted the Jews, the more they
multiplied and grew. The behalot of 1754, 1764, and 1793 were repeated
in 1833 and 1843; the missionary propaganda only strengthened the
devotion of the faithful; and the denial of the means of support only
increased the stolidity of the sufferers. And if, like some
stepchildren, they were first beaten till they cried, and then beaten
because they cried, like some stepchildren they rapidly forgot their lot
in the happiness of home and the studies of the bet ha-midrash, and
could sing[48] without bitterness even of the behalah-days, when
Little boys and little girls
Together had been mated,
Tishah be-Ab, the wedding day,--
Not a soul invited.
Only the father and the mother,
And also uncle Elye--
In his lengthy delye (caftan),
With his scanty beard--
Jump and jig with each other
Like a colt afeared.
(Notes, pp. 314-317.)