It was against this background of ever-spreading persecution and misery
that the great war broke upon the Jews. They accepted it as loyal
Russian citizens, and not without hope that it might lead to some
improvement in their own conditions.
The Kehillas (communities) of Petrograd, Odessa and other cities
officially sent large sums in gold for the reservists, established
hospitals for the use of the wounded without distinction of race or
creed, held great patriotic demonstrations in the synagogues, at
which the Rabbis urged the Jewish youth to render their full share of
military service, and in other ways, presented, as the Mayor of Odessa
said, “an example of readiness to sacrifice everything for the army.”
The spirit of the Jews of Russia at the outbreak of the war is well
expressed in the appeal which the Jewish community of Vilna, the
oldest in Russia, at the very heart of the Pale, issued in connection
with the establishment of a military hospital:
“Our beloved Fatherland—the great Russian Empire—has been provoked
to bloody, terrible conflict. It is a struggle for the integrity and
greatness of Russia. All true sons of Russia have risen as one man to
shield their country, with their own breasts, against the onslaught
of the enemy. Our brothers of the Jewish faith, all over the Russian
Empire, have also responded to the call of duty ... and many have
voluntarily joined the army which has gone forth to the field of
battle. But circumstances now demand that those of us who have not
been fortunate enough to be called forward to fight for our country
with weapons in our hands should also make whatever sacrifices we
can. We owe a sacred obligation to those who have left their families
behind, those who are defending our country, and us, with their
blood and their lives. It is our duty to assume all responsibility
for the families of the reservists. It is our duty to take care of
those who will fall wounded or ill in the war. No doubt this sacred
duty will be assumed by the entire Jewish population of the Empire,
by individuals no less than by entire communities. The history of
all past wars, especially those of the nineteenth century, beginning
with the war of 1812, shows that the Jews have honestly and sacredly
fulfilled their duty as citizens and were ever ready to sacrifice upon
the altar of their country their wealth, their blood and even their
lives.... In like manner, at this great crisis in the life of our
country, we, the representatives of the Jewish community of Vilna, the
oldest in Russia and at the very heart of the present conflict, take
the liberty of appealing to our co-religionists to begin at once the
work of organizing relief for the wounded and for the families of the
reservists. =We must care equally for all the soldiers of our glorious
army, without distinction of race or creed, for all are brothers, sons
in common of our great Fatherland....”=
The Jewish press also gave resonant voice to this spirit of loyalty and
devotion. The “Novy Voskhod,”[14] one of the leading Jewish organs in
Russia, issued this call:
=“We were born and brought up in Russia. Our ancestors are buried
here. We Russian Jews are bound to Russia by ties which cannot be
broken, and our brothers who have been driven beyond the ocean
by cruel fate cherish their memories of Russia all through life.
Custodians of the commandments of our forefathers, nucleus of the
entire Jewish nation, we, the Jews of Russia, are nevertheless united
inseparably with the country in which we have dwelt for hundreds of
years, and from which neither persecution nor oppression can tear us
away. At this historical moment, when our country is threatened by
foreign invasion, when brute force has taken up arms against the great
ideals of humanity, the Jews of Russia will bravely go forth to battle
and will fulfil their sacred duty....”=
The Jewish contingent in the Russian army numbered from 350,000 (an
estimate made by the Mayor of Petrograd before the Conference of
Russian Mayors in August, 1914), to 400,000 (the estimate made by the
Jewish Colonization Association, Petrograd). The thousands of Jewish
students who have matriculated at foreign universities because the
“percentage rule” had closed the Russian universities to them, returned
to enroll under the colors, even though they knew that there was no
hope of preferment for them.
On the field of battle the Jewish soldiers distinguished themselves for
valor. Over one thousand received the Medal or Cross of St. George.
From the many letters of appreciation and affection written by Russian
officers to the relatives of Jewish soldiers under their command who
had been disabled or killed, it was evident that the Jews had won
the affection and respect of the fighting men in the field. But it
was their eternal misfortune that the war, by the logic of military
geography, had to be fought out, on the Eastern side, in Poland; for
between the Poles and the Jews there had long been a state of open
conflict—and the developments of the campaign in Poland foredoomed the
Jews to disaster appalling and almost irretrievable.