HISTORY OF THE JEWS
HISTORY OF THE
JEWS
BY
HEINRICH GRAETZ
VOL. V
FROM THE CHMIELNICKI PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN
POLAND (1648 C. E.) TO THE PERIOD OF EMANCIPATION
IN CENTRAL EUROPE (c. 1870 C. E.)
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
5717-1956
Copyright, 1895, by
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
_All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without permission in
writing from the publisher: except by a reviewer
who may quote brief passages in a review to be
printed in a magazine or newspaper._
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
CHMIELNICKI AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS OF POLAND BY THE
COSSACKS.
Condition of the Jews in Poland before the Outbreak of
Persecution--Influence of the Jesuits--Characteristics of
Poles and Jews--The Home of the Cossacks--Repression of the
Cossacks by the Government--Jews appointed as Tax Farmers
--Jurisdiction of the Synods--The Study of the Talmud in
Poland--Hebrew Literature in that Country becomes entirely
Rabbinical--Character of Polish Judaism--Jews and Cossacks
--Chmielnicki--Sufferings of the Jews in Consequence of
his Successes--The Tartar Haidamaks--Fearful Massacres
in Nemirov, Tulczyn, and Homel--Prince Vishnioviecki--
Massacres at Polonnoie, Lemberg, Narol, and in Other Towns--
John Casimir--Lipmann Heller and Sabbataï Cohen--Renewal of
the War between Cossacks and Poles--Russians join Cossacks
in attacking the Jews--Charles X of Sweden--The Polish
Fugitives--"Polonization" of Judaism _page_ 1
1648-1656 C. E.
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND AND MANASSEH BEN ISRAEL.
Obstacles to the Resettlement of Jews in England--Manasseh
ben Israel--His Character and Attainments--Christian
Students of Jewish Literature: Scaliger, the Buxtorfs,
Selden, and Vossius--Women devote themselves to Hebrew--
The Fifth-Monarchy Men: Expectation of the Millennium--
Enthusiastic Friends of the Jews--The Puritans--Cromwell
and Holmes--Nicholas' Protection of the Jews--"The Hope
of Israel"--Fresh Victims of the Inquisition--Manasseh
ben Israel's Negotiations with the English Parliament--He
journeys to London, and is graciously received by Cromwell
--A Council sits at Whitehall to decide the Question of
the Re-admission of the Jews--Prynne's anti-Jewish Work--
Controversial Pamphlets--Manasseh's "Vindication"--The
Re-admission of the Jews connived at _page_ 18
1655-1657 C. E.
CHAPTER III.
THE SCEPTICS.
Condition of Judaism--Complete Triumph of the Kabbala--
The Disciples of Isaac Lurya--Vital Calabrese, Abraham de
Herrera, and Isaiah Hurwitz--Immanuel Aboab--Uriel da
Costa; his Career and Death--Leo Modena; his Character and
his Writings--Deborah Ascarelli and Sarah Copia Sullam,
Jewish Authoresses--Leo Modena's Veiled Scepticism--The
Travels and Influence of Joseph Delmedigo--The Writings of
Simone Luzzatto _page_ 51
1620-1660 C. E.
CHAPTER IV.
SPINOZA AND SABBATAÏ ZEVI.
Spinoza's Youth and Education--His Intellectual Breach with
Judaism--Fresh Martyrs of the Inquisition--The Rabbis
and Spinoza--Excommunication--Spinoza's "Tractate" and
"Ethics"--Spinoza's Writings Concerning Judaism--Spinoza's
Contemporaries in Amsterdam--De Paz and Penso--The Mystical
Character of the Years 1648 and 1666--Sabbataï Zevi's Early
Career--The Jerusalem Community--Sabbataï's Travels--
Nathan Ghazati--Sabbataï announced in Smyrna as the Messiah
--Spread of Enthusiastic Belief in the pseudo-Messiah--
Manoel Texeira--Ritual Changes introduced by the Sabbatians
--Sabbataï proceeds to Constantinople--Nehemiah Cohen--
Sabbataï Zevi's Apostasy to Islam and its Consequences--
Continuation of the Sabbatian Movement--Death of Sabbataï and
Spinoza--Results of the Sabbatian Imposture _page_ 86
1656-1677 C. E.
CHAPTER V.
LIGHT AND SHADE.
Jews under Mahometan Rulers--Expulsion from Vienna--Jews
admitted by Elector Frederick William into the Mark of
Brandenburg--Charge of Child-murder in Metz--Milder
Treatment of Jews throughout Europe--Christian Champions
of the Jews: Jurieu, Oliger Pauli, and Moses Germanus--
Predilection of Christians for the Study of Jewish Literature
--Richard Simon--Interest taken by Charles XI in the
Karaites--Peringer and Jacob Trigland--German Attacks on
Judaism by Wülfer, Wagenseil, and Eisenmenger--Circumstances
of the Publication of _Judaism Unmasked_--The _Alenu_ Prayer
--Surenhuysius, Basnage, Unger, Wolf, and Toland _page_ 168
1669-1700 C. E.
CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL DEMORALIZATION OF JUDAISM.
Low Condition of the Jews at the End of the Seventeenth Century
--Representatives of Culture: David Nieto, Jehuda Brieli--
The Kabbala--Jewish Chroniclers--Lopez Laguna translates
the Psalms into Spanish--De Barrios--The Race after Wealth
--General Poverty of the Jews--Revival of Sabbatianism--
Daniel Israel Bonafoux, Cardosa, Mordecai of Eisenstadt, Jacob
Querido, and Berachya--Sabbatianism in Poland--Abraham
Cuenqui--Judah Chassid--Chayim Malach--Solomon Ayllon
--Nehemiah Chayon--David Oppenheim's Famous Library--
Chacham Zevi--The Controversy on Chayon's Heretical Works in
Amsterdam _page_ 199
1700-1725 C. E.
CHAPTER VII.
THE AGE OF LUZZATTO, EIBESCHÜTZ, AND FRANK.
Poetical Works of Moses Chayim Luzzatto--Luzzatto ensnared
in the Kabbala--His Contest with Rabbinical Authorities--
Luzzatto's Last Drama--Jonathan Eibeschütz--Character and
Education of Eibeschütz--His Relations with the Jesuits in
Prague--The Austrian War of Succession--Expulsion of the
Jews from Prague--Eibeschütz becomes Rabbi of Altona--Jacob
Emden--Eibeschütz charged with Heresy--The Controversy
between Emden and Eibeschütz--The Amulets--Party Strife--
Interference by Christians and the Civil Authorities--Revival
of Sabbatianism--Jacob Frank Lejbowicz and the Frankists--
The Doctrine of the Trinity--Excesses of the Frankists
_page_ 232
1727-1760 C. E.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MENDELSSOHN EPOCH.
Renaissance of the Jewish Race--Moses Mendelssohn--His
Youth--Improves Hebrew Style--Lessing and Mendelssohn
--Mendelssohn's Writings--The Bonnet-Lavater Controversy
--Kölbele--The Burial Question--Reimarus--Anonymous
Publication of his Work--Lessing's "Nathan the Wise"--
Mendelssohn in "Nathan"--Mendelssohn's Pentateuch--
Opposition to it--The "Berlin Religion"--Montesquieu--
Voltaire--Portuguese Marranos in Bordeaux--Isaac Pinto
--His Defense of Portuguese Jews--Dohm and Mendelssohn--
Joseph II of Austria--Michaelis--Mendelssohn's "Jerusalem"
--Wessely: his Circular Letter--Mendelssohn's Death
_page_ 291
1750-1786 C. E.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW CHASSIDISM.
The Alliance of Reason with Mysticism--Israel Baalshem, his
Career and Reputation--Movement against Rabbinism--The
"Zaddik"--Beer Mizricz, his Arrogance and Deceptions--
The Devotional Methods of the Chassidim--Their Liturgy--
Dissolution of the Synods "of the Four Countries"--Cossack
Massacres in Poland--Elijah Wilna, his Character and
Method of Research--The Mizricz and Karlin Chassidim--
Circumstances prove Favorable to the Spread of the New Sect--
Vigorous Proceedings against them in Wilna--Death of Beer
Mizricz--Progress of Chassidism despite the Persecution of
its Opponents _page_ 374
1750-1786 C. E.
CHAPTER X.
THE MEASFIM AND THE JUDÆO-CHRISTIAN SALON.
The Progressionists--The Gatherer (Meassef)--David Mendes
--Moses Ensheim--Wessely's Mosaid--Marcus Herz--
Solomon Maimon--Culture of the Berlin Jews--Influence of
French Literature--First Step for Raising the Jews--The
Progressive and Orthodox Parties--The Society of Friends--
Friedländer and Conversion--Depravity of Berlin Jewesses--
Henrietta Herz--Humboldt--Dorothea Mendelssohn--Schlegel
--Rachel--Schleiermacher--Chateaubriand _page_ 395
1786-1791 C. E.
CHAPTER XI.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS.
Foreshadowing of the French Revolution--Cerf Berr--Mirabeau
on the Jewish Question in France--Berr Isaac Berr--The
Jewish Question and the National Assembly--Equalization of
Portuguese Jews--Efforts to equalize Paris Jews--Jewish
Question deferred--Equalization of French Jews--Reign of
Terror--Equalization of Jews of Holland--Adath Jeshurun
Congregation--Spread of Emancipation--Bonaparte in
Palestine--Fichte's Jew-hatred--The Poll-Tax--Grund's
"Petition of Jews of Germany"--Jacobson--Breidenbach--
Lefrank--Alexander I of Russia: his Attempts to improve the
Condition of the Jews of Russia _page_ 429
1791-1805 C. E.
CHAPTER XII.
THE JEWISH-FRENCH SYNHEDRION AND THE JEWISH CONSISTORIES.
Jew-hatred in Strasburg--Bonald's Accusations--Plots against
French Jews--Furtado--David Sinzheim--Assembly of
Notables--Italian Deputies--The Twelve Questions--Debate
on Mixed Marriages--The Paris Synhedrion--Its Constitution
--Napoleon's Enactments--Israel Jacobson--Consistory of
Westphalia--Emancipation in Germany--In the Hanse-Towns--
Restrictions in Saxony _page_ 474
1806-1813 C. E.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE REACTION AND TEUTOMANIA.
The Jews in the Wars for Freedom--The Congress of Vienna--
Hardenberg and Metternich--Rühs' Christian Germanism--
Jew-hatred in Germany and Rome--German Act of Federation--
Ewald's Defense of Judaism--Jew-hatred in Prussia--Lewis
Way--Congress at Aix--Hep, hep Persecution--Hartwig Hundt
--Julius von Voss--Jewish Avengers _page_ 510
1813-1818 C. E.
CHAPTER XIV.
BÖRNE AND HEINE.
Börne and Heine--Börne's Youth--His Attitude to Judaism--
His Love of Liberty--His Defense of the Jews--Heine: his
Position with Regard to Judaism--The Rabbi of Bacharach--
Heine's Thoughts upon Judaism--Influence of Börne and Heine
_page_ 536
1819-1830 C. E.
CHAPTER XV.
REFORM AND YOUNG ISRAEL.
Segregation of the Jews--Its Results--Secession and Obstinate
Conservatism--Israel Jacobson--His Reforms--The Hamburg
Reform Temple Union--Gotthold Salomon--Decay of Rabbinical
Authority--Eleazar Libermann--Aaron Chorin--Lazarus
Riesser--Party Strife--Isaac Bernays--His Writings--
Bernays in Hamburg--Mannheimer--His Congregation in Vienna
--Berlin Society for Culture--Edward Gans--His Baptism--
Collapse of the Society for Culture _page_ 557
1818-1830 C. E.
CHAPTER XVI.
AWAKENING OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE SCIENCE OF JUDAISM.
Dawn of Self-respect--Research into Jewish History--Hannah
Adams--Solomon Löwisohn--Jost--His History--The
Revolution of July (1830)--Gabriel Riesser--His Lectures--
Steinheim--His Works--His "Revelation"--Nachman Krochmal
--Rapoport--Erter--His Poems--Rapoport's Writings--
Zunz--Luzzatto--His Exegesis--Geiger--The "Nineteen
Letters" of Ben Usiel--New School of Reform--Joel Jacoby
_page_ 589
1830-1840 C. E.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE YEAR 1840 AND THE BLOOD ACCUSATION AT DAMASCUS.
Mehmet Ali--Ratti Menton--Damascus--Father Tomaso--His
Disappearance--Blood Accusation against the Jews of Damascus
--Imprisonment of Accused--Their Tortures and Martyrdom--
Blood Accusation in Rhodes--In Prussia--Adolf Crémieux--
Meeting of English Jews--Moses Montefiore--Nathaniel de
Rothschild--Merlato, the Austrian Consul--Plots--Thiers
--Steps taken by the Jews in Paris and London--Bernard van
Oven--Mansion House Meeting--Montefiore, Crémieux, and
others sent to Egypt--Solomon Munk _page_ 632
1840 C. E.
CHAPTER XVIII.
EVENTS PRECEDING THE REVOLUTIONS OF FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1848, AND
THE SUBSEQUENT SOCIAL ADVANCE OF THE JEWS.
Return of Montefiore and Crémieux from the East--Patriotic
Suggestions--General Indecision--Gabriel Riesser--Michael
Creizenach--Reform Party in Frankfort--Rabbinical Assembly
--Holdheim--Reform Association--Zachariah Frankel--The
Berlin Reform Temple--Michael Sachs--His Character--His
Biblical Exegesis--Holdheim and Sachs--The Jewish German
Church--Progress of Jewish Literature--Ewald and his Works
--Enfranchisement of English Jews--The Breslau Jewish
College--Its Founders--The Mortara Case--Pope Pius IX
--The Alliance Israélite--Astruc, Cohn, Caballo, Masuel,
Netter--The American Jews--The "Union of American Hebrew
Congregations"--The Anglo-Jewish Association--Benisch, Löwy
--The "Israelitische Allianz"--Wertheimer, Goldschmidt,
Kuranda--Rapid Social Advance of the Jews--Rise of
Anti-Semitism _page_ 667
1840-1870 C. E.
Retrospect _page_ 705
HISTORY OF THE JEWS
HISTORY OF THE JEWS
CHAPTER I.
CHMIELNICKI AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS OF POLAND BY THE COSSACKS.
Condition of the Jews in Poland before the Outbreak of Persecution
--Influence of the Jesuits--Characteristics of Poles and Jews
--The Home of the Cossacks--Repression of the Cossacks by
the Government--Jews appointed as Tax Farmers--Jurisdiction
of the Synods--The Study of the Talmud in Poland--Hebrew
Literature in that Country becomes entirely Rabbinical--
Character of Polish Judaism--Jews and Cossacks--Chmielnicki
--Sufferings of the Jews in consequence of his Successes--The
Tartar Haidamaks--Fearful Massacres in Nemirov, Tulczyn, and
Homel--Prince Vishnioviecki--Massacres at Polonnoie, Lemberg,
Narol, and in other Towns--John Casimir--Lipmann Heller and
Sabbataï Cohen--Renewal of the War between Cossacks and Poles
--Russians join Cossacks in attacking the Jews--Charles X of
Sweden--The Polish Fugitives--"Polonization" of Judaism.
1648-1656 C. E.
Poland ceased to be a haven for the sons of Judah, when its
short-sighted kings summoned the Jesuits to supervise the training of
the young nobles and the clergy and crush the spirit of the Polish
dissidents. These originators of disunion, to whom the frequent
partition of Poland must be attributed, sought to undermine the
unobtrusive power which the Jews, through their money and prudence,
exercised over the nobles, and they combined with their other foes,
German workmen and trades-people, members of the guilds, to restrict
and oppress them. After that time there were repeated persecutions
of Jews in Poland; sometimes the German guild members, sometimes the
disciples of the Jesuits, raised a hue and cry against them. Still, in
the calamities of the Thirty Years' War, fugitive Jews sought Poland,
because the canonical laws against Jews were not applied there with
strictness. The high nobility continued to be dependent on Jews, who
in a measure counterbalanced the national defects. Polish flightiness,
levity, unsteadiness, extravagance, and recklessness were compensated
for by Jewish prudence, sagacity, economy, and cautiousness. The Jew
was more than a financier to the Polish nobleman; he was his help
in embarrassment, his prudent adviser, his all-in-all. Especially
did the nobility make use of Jews in developing recently established
colonies, for which they had neither the necessary perseverance nor
the ability. Colonies had gradually been formed on the lower Dnieper
and the northern shore of the Black Sea, by runaway Polish serfs,
criminals, adventurers from every province, peasants, and nobles, who
felt themselves cramped and endangered in their homes. These outcasts
formed the root of the Cossack race at the waterfalls of the Dnieper
(Za-Porogi), whence the Cossacks obtained the name of Zaporogians. To
maintain themselves, they took to plundering the neighboring Tartars.
They became inured to war, and with every success their courage and
independent spirit increased.
The kings, who needed the Cossacks in military undertakings and to ward
off the inroads of Tartars and Turks, granted them some independence in
the Ukraine and Little Russia, and appointed a chieftain over them from
their own midst, an Attaman, or Hetman, with special marks of dignity.
But the bigoted temper of King Sigismund III and the Jesuits made the
Cossacks, who might have become an element of strength for Poland,
the source of endless discontent and rebellion. The Zaporogians for
the most part were adherents of the Greek Church, the Greek Catholic
confession being predominant in southern Poland. After the popes by
means of the Jesuits had weakened and oppressed the Polish dissidents,
they labored to unite the Greek Catholics with the Romish Church or to
extirpate them. With the warlike spirit of the Cossacks this change was
not easy; hence a regular system of enslavement was employed against
them. Three noble houses, the Koniecpolski, Vishnioviecki, and Potocki,
had control of colonization in the Ukraine and Little Russia, and
they transferred to their Jewish business agents the farming of the
oppressive imposts falling on the Cossacks. Thus Jewish communities
gradually spread in the Ukraine, Little Russia, and even beyond these
provinces. The Cossacks, for instance, had to pay a tax at the birth
of a child and on every marriage. That there might be no evasion, the
Jewish revenue farmers had the keys of the Greek churches, and when the
clergyman wished to perform a baptism or a marriage, he was obliged to
ask them for the key. In general, the position of the Jews in districts
where none but Poles dwelt was better than in those which besides
Polish inhabitants contained a German population, as was the case in
the large cities, Posen, Cracow, Lublin, and Lemberg.
By reason of their great number, their importance, and their compact
union, the Jews in Poland formed a state within a state. The general
synod, which assembled twice a year at Lublin and Jaroslaw, formed a
legislative and judicial parliament from which there was no appeal. At
first called the Synod of the Three Countries, it became in the first
quarter of the seventeenth century the Synod of the Four Countries
(Vaad Arba Arazoth). An elective president (Parnes di Arba Arazoth)
was at the head, and conducted public affairs. The communities and
rabbis had civil, and, to a certain extent, criminal, jurisdiction,
at least against informers and traitors. Hence no Jew ventured to
bring an accusation against one of his race before the authorities of
the country, fearing to expose himself to disgrace and contempt from
public opinion, which would have embittered his life, or even entailed
death. Almost every community had its college of judges, a rabbi with
two assessors, before whom every complaint was brought, but the final
decision rested with the synod. The synod also concerned itself about
honesty in dealing and conduct, and in weight and measure, wherever
Jews were affected.
The study of the Talmud in Poland, established by Shachna, Solomon
Lurya, and Moses Isserles, reached a pitch attained at no previous
time, nor in any other country. The demand for copies of the Talmud
was so great that in less than twenty years three editions had to be
printed, no doubt in thousands of copies. The study of the Talmud was
a greater necessity in Poland than in the rest of Europe. The rabbis,
as has been already said, had jurisdiction of their own, and decided
according to Talmudical and Rabbinical laws. The great number of
Jews in Poland, and their fondness for litigation, gave occasion to
intricate law cases. The rabbi-judges were obliged to go back to the
source of law, the Talmud, to seek points of support for such cases.
The contending parties being themselves well informed and acute, the
reasoning of the rabbis had to be flawless to escape criticism. Hence
Rabbinical civil law in Poland met with extraordinary cultivation
and extension, to adapt it to all cases and make it available for
the learned litigants. Thus the ever-growing subtlety of the method
of Talmud study depended on current conditions and wants, and on the
circumstance that each Talmudist wished to surpass all others in
ingenuity.
It would be tedious to enumerate the Rabbinical authors of Poland
in the first half of the seventeenth century. The cultivation of a
single faculty, that of hair-splitting judgment, at the cost of the
rest, narrowed the imagination, hence not a single literary product
appeared in Poland deserving the name of poetry. All the productions
of the Polish school bore the Talmudical stamp, as the school regarded
everything from the Talmudical point of view. The disciples of this
school looked down almost with contempt on Scripture and its simple
grandeur, or rather it did not exist for them. How, indeed, could they
have found time to occupy themselves with it? And what could they do
with these children's stories, which did not admit the application
of intellectual subtlety? They knew something of the Bible from the
extracts read in the synagogues, and those occasionally quoted in
the Talmud. The faculty for appreciating the sublimity of biblical
doctrines and characters, as well as simplicity and elevation in
general, was denied them. A love of twisting, distorting, ingenious
quibbling, and a foregone antipathy to what did not lie within their
field of vision, constituted the character of the Polish Jews. Pride
in their knowledge of the Talmud and a spirit of dogmatism attached
even to the best rabbis, and undermined their moral sense. The
Polish Jews of course were extraordinarily pious, but even their
piety rested on sophistry and boastfulness. Each wished to surpass
the other in knowledge of what the Code prescribed for one case or
another. Thus religion sank, not merely, as among Jews of other
countries, to a mechanical, unintelligent ceremonial, but to a subtle
art of interpretation. To know better was everything to them; but
to act according to acknowledged principles of religious purity,
and exemplify them in a moral life, occurred to but few. Integrity
and right-mindedness they had lost as completely as simplicity and
the sense of truth. The vulgar acquired the quibbling method of the
schools, and employed it to outwit the less cunning. They found
pleasure and a sort of triumphant delight in deception and cheating.
Against members of their own race cunning could not well be employed,
because they were sharp-witted; but the non-Jewish world with which
they came into contact experienced to its disadvantage the superiority
of the Talmudical spirit of the Polish Jews. The Polish sons of the
Talmud paid little attention to the fact, that the Talmud and the great
teachers of Judaism object even more strongly to taking advantage of
members of a different faith than of those of their own race.
The corruption of the Polish Jews was avenged upon them in a terrible
way, and the result was, that the rest of the Jews in Europe were for
a time infected with it. With fatal blindness Polish Jews offered the
nobility and the Jesuits a helping hand in oppressing the Zaporogian
Cossacks in the Ukraine and Little Russia. The magnates wished to make
profitable serfs of the Cossacks, the Jesuits hoped to convert the
Greek heretics into Roman Catholics, the Jews settled in the district
expected to enrich themselves and play the lord over these pariahs.
They advised the possessors of the Cossack colonies how most completely
to humiliate, oppress, torment, and ill-use them; they usurped the
office of judges over them, and vexed them in their ecclesiastical
affairs. No wonder that the enslaved Cossacks hated the Jews, with whom
their relations were closest, almost more than their noble and clerical
foes. The Jews were not without warning what would be their lot, if
these embittered enemies once got the upper hand. In an insurrection
of the Zaporogians under their Hetman in about 1638, despite its
brief duration, they slew 200 Jews, and destroyed several synagogues.
Nevertheless, Jews lent a hand, when in consequence of the insurrection
the further enslavement of the sufferers was determined upon. In the
year 1648, fixed by that lying book, the Zohar, they expected the
coming of the Messiah and the time of redemption, when they would be
in power, and, therefore, they were more reckless and careless than was
their custom at other times. Bloody retribution was not long delayed,
and struck the innocent with the guilty, perhaps the former more
severely than the latter.
It proceeded from a man who understood how to make use of the
increasing hatred of the Cossacks for his purposes, and who was
regarded by his countrymen as their ideal. Bogdan Chmielnicki (Russian
Chmel), born about 1595, died 1657, before whom all Poland trembled
for several years, gave Russia the first opportunity of interfering
in the Polish republic, and was a frightful scourge for the Jews.
Chmielnicki, brave in war and artful in the execution of his plans,
impenetrable in his schemes, at once cruel and hypocritical, had been
vexed by Jews, when he held the subordinate position of camp secretary
(Pisar) of the Cossacks subject to the house of Koniecpolski. A Jew,
Zachariah Sabilenki, had played him a trick, by which he was robbed
of his wife and property. Another had betrayed him when he had come
to an understanding with the Tartars. Besides injuries which his race
had sustained from Jewish tax farmers in the Ukraine, he, therefore,
had personal wrongs to avenge. His remark to the Cossacks, "The Poles
have delivered us as slaves to the cursed breed of Jews," was enough
to excite them. Vengeance-breathing Zaporogians and booty-loving
Tartars in a short time put the Polish troops to flight by successful
manoeuvres (May 18, 1648). Potocki, the lieutenant-general, and 8,000
Poles, according to agreement, were delivered to the Tartars. After
the victory the wild troops went eastward from the Dnieper, between
Kiev and Pultava, plundering and murdering, especially the Jews who had
not taken flight; the number of the murdered reached several thousand.
Hundreds underwent baptism in the Greek Church, and pretended to be
Christians, in order to save themselves. Fortunate were those who fell
into captivity with the Tartars; they were transported to the Crimea,
and ransomed by Turkish Jews. Four Jewish communities (Porobischa
and others) of about 3,000 souls resolved to escape massacre by
surrendering to the Tartars with all their property. They were well
treated, and sold into Turkey, where they were ransomed in a brotherly
manner by those of their own race. The Constantinople community sent a
deputy to Holland to collect money from the rich communities for the
ransom of captives.
Unfortunately for the Poles and Jews, King Vladislav, for whom
Chmielnicki had shown some respect, was removed by death. During the
inter-regnum of several months, from May to October, 1648, the usual
Polish dissension occurred, which crippled every attempt at resistance.
At first Chmielnicki drew back, apparently inclined to negotiate with
the crown, but he gave his creatures full power to ravage the Polish
provinces. Regular troops of murderers, called Haidamaks (the Tartar
word for partisans), were formed under brutal leaders who cared not a
straw for human life, and who reveled in the death-struggles of their
Polish and Jewish foes. In the name of religion they were urged by the
Greek popes to murder Catholics and Jews. The commander of each troop
had his own method of exercising cruelty. One had thongs slung round
the necks of Catholic and Jewish women, by which they were dragged
along; this he called "presenting them with a red ribbon." A few weeks
after the first victory of the Cossacks, a troop under another of
these chiefs advanced against the stronghold of Nemirov, where 6,000
Jews, inhabitants and fugitives from the neighborhood, had assembled;
they were in possession of the fortress, and closed the gates. But
the Cossacks had an understanding with the Greek Christians in the
town, and put on Polish uniforms in order to be taken for Poles. The
Christian inhabitants urged the Jews to open the gates for their
friends. They did so, and were suddenly attacked by the Cossacks
and the inhabitants of the town, and almost entirely cut down amid
frightful tortures (Siwan 20--June 10, 1648).
Another Haidamak troop under Kryvonoss attacked the town of Tulczyn,
where about 600 Christians and 2,000 Jews had taken refuge in the
fortress. There were brave Jews among them, or necessity had made them
brave, and they would not die without resistance. Nobles and Jews
swore to defend the town and fortress to the last man. As the Cossack
peasants understood nothing of the art of siege, and had repeatedly
suffered severely from the sorties of Jews and Poles, they resorted
to a trick. They assured the nobles that their rage was directed only
against the Jews, their deadly foes; if these were delivered up,
they would withdraw. The infatuated nobles, forgetful of their oath,
proposed that the Jews should deliver up their arms to them. The Jews
at first thought of turning on the Poles for their treachery, as they
exceeded them in numbers. But the rabbi of Tulczyn warned them against
attacking the Poles, who would inflict bloody vengeance, and all Poland
would be excited against the Jews, who would be exterminated. He
implored them to sacrifice themselves for their brethren in the whole
country; perhaps the Cossacks would accept their property as ransom.
The Jews consented, and delivered up their arms, the Poles thereupon
admitting the troops into the town. After the latter had taken
everything from the Jews, they set before them the choice of death or
baptism. Not one of them would purchase life at that price; about 1,500
were tortured and executed before the eyes of the Polish nobles (Tamuz
4--June 24). The Cossacks left ten rabbis alive, in order to extort
large sums from the communities. The Poles were immediately punished
for their treachery. Deprived of the assistance of the Jews, they were
attacked by the Cossacks and slain, proving that violators of their
word cannot reckon on fidelity towards themselves. This sad event had
the good effect that the Poles always sided with the Jews, and were not
opposed to them in the course of the long war.
At the same time another Haidamak troop, under a leader named Hodki,
had penetrated into Little Russia, and caused dreadful slaughter
in the communities of Homel, Starodub, Czernigov, and other places
east and north of Kiev. The Jews of Homel are said to have suffered
martyrdom most firmly, on the same day on which the Tulczyn community
was annihilated. The leader of the troop had all the Jews of Homel,
inhabitants as well as fugitives, stripped outside the town, and
surrounded by Cossacks, and called upon them to be baptized or to
expect a most frightful death. They all, men, women, and children, to
the number of about 1,500, preferred death.
Prince Vishnioviecki, the only heroic figure amongst the Poles at that
time, a man of penetration, intrepid courage, and strategic ability,
defended the cause of the persecuted Jews with devoted zeal. He took
the fugitives under the protecting wings of his small, but brave force,
with which he everywhere pursued the Cossack bands to destruction. But,
because of his limited power, he could accomplish nothing of lasting
import. Through petty jealousy, he was passed over at the election of
the commander-in-chief against the Cossack insurrection, and instead of
him three were chosen, of a character calculated to help on Chmielnicki
to further victories.
Annoyed at the pitiful policy of the regent, the primate of Gnesen,
Vishnioviecki followed his own course, but was compelled to retreat
before the overpowering number of the roving troops and the Greek
Catholic population in sympathy with them, and so destruction was
brought on the Jews, who had reckoned on his heroic courage. In the
fortress of Polonnoie, between Zaslav and Zytomir, 10,000 Jews, partly
inhabitants, partly fugitives from the neighborhood, are said to have
perished at the hand of the besieging Haidamaks and the traitorous
inhabitants (Ab 13--July 22).
The unfortunate issue of the second war between Poles and Cossacks
(September, 1648), when the Polish army, more through dread of the
Tartars under Tugaï Bey and the incapacity of its generals, than
through Chmielnicki's bravery, was scattered in wild flight, and
collected only behind the walls of Lemberg, prepared a bloody fate even
for Jews who thought themselves safe at a distance from the field of
battle. There was no escape from the wild assaults of the Zaporogians,
unless they could reach the Wallachian borders. The blood of
slaughtered and maltreated Jews marked the vast tract from the southern
part of the Ukraine to Lemberg by way of Dubno and Brody; in the town
of Bar alone from two to three thousand perished. It scarcely need be
said that the brutal cruelty of the regular Cossacks, as well as of the
wild Haidamaks, made no distinction between Rabbanites and Karaites.
The important community of Lemberg lost many of its members through
hunger and pestilence, and its property besides, which it had to pay to
the Cossacks as ransom.
In the town of Narol the Zaporogians caused a revolting butchery.
It is said that in the beginning of November 45,000 persons, among
them 12,000 Jews, were slain there with the cruellest tortures. Among
the corpses remained living women and children, who for several days
had to feed on human flesh. Meanwhile the Haidamaks roamed about in
Volhynia, Podolia, and West Russia, and slaked their revenge in the
blood of nobles, Catholics, clergy, and Jews, to thousands and tens of
thousands. In Crzemieniec an inhuman monster slew hundreds of Jewish
children, scornfully examined the corpses as Jews do with cattle, and
threw them to the dogs. In many towns Jews, as well as Catholics, armed
themselves, and drove the bloodthirsty Cossacks away.
The election of a king, which finally was effected--and, though
the Polish state was on the brink of an abyss, it took place amidst
fights and commotions--put an end to bloodshed for the moment.
Although for the most part in a drunken condition, Chmielnicki retained
sobriety enough to dictate, among his conditions of peace, that no
Catholic church should be tolerated, nor any Jew live, in the Cossack
provinces. The commission, unable to accept the conditions, departed
without settling the business (February 16, 1649). The Jews, who had
reckoned upon a settlement, and returned to their home, paid for their
confidence with death, for the Cossacks surrounded the towns with
death-cries. Thus, a second time, many Jews and nobles perished at
Ostrog (March 4, 1649).
The breaking off of the negotiation with Chmielnicki led to a third
encounter. Although the Polish army this time appeared better armed on
the field of battle, it had as little success as before. In the battle
at Sbaráz it would have been completely destroyed by the Zaporogians
and Tartars, if the king had not wisely come to an understanding with
the Tartar chief. Thereupon followed the peace (August, 1649), which
confirmed Chmielnicki's programme, among other points that concerning
the Jews. In the chief seats of the Cossacks (_i. e._, in the Ukraine,
West Russia, in the district of Kiev, and a part of Podolia) they could
neither own or rent landed estates, nor live there.
In consequence of this convention, the Poles and Jews were unmolested
for about a year and a half, although on both sides schemes were
harbored to break the agreement at the first opportunity. As far as
residence was allowed them, the fugitive Jews returned to their homes.
King John Casimir allowed the Jews baptized according to the Greek
confession openly to profess Judaism. In consequence, the baptized Jews
fled from the Catholic districts to Poland to be free from compulsory
Christianity. This permission was especially used by Jewish women whom
the rude Zaporogians had married. The Jews brought back into Judaism
many hundreds of children, who had lost their parents and relatives,
and had been brought up in Christianity, investigated their descent,
and hung the indication of it in a small roll round their necks, that
they might not marry blood relations of forbidden degrees. The general
synod of rabbis and leaders which assembled at Lublin in 1650 occupied
itself entirely with the attempt to heal, at least partially, the
wounds of Judaism. Many hundreds, even thousands, of Jewish women did
not know whether their husbands lay in the grave, or were begging in
the East or West, in Turkey or Germany, whether they were widows or
wives, or they found themselves in other perplexities created by the
Rabbinical law. The synod of Lublin is said to have hit upon excellent
arrangements. Most probably the lenient Lipmann Heller, then rabbi of
Cracow, strove to effect a mild interpretation of the law relating to
supposed death. At the instigation of the young, genial rabbi Sabbataï
Cohen (Shach), the day of the first massacre at Nemirov (Siwan 20)
was appointed as a general fast day for the remnant of the Polish
community. The hoary Lipmann Heller, at Cracow, Sabbataï Hurwitz,
at Posen, and the young Sabbataï Cohen drew up penitential prayers
(Selichoth), mostly selected from older pieces, for this sad memorial
day.
After a pause of a year and a half, the war between Cossacks and
Poles broke out in the early part of the year 1651, the first victims
again being Jews, as Chmielnicki and the wild Zaporogians now fell
upon the Polish territory where Jewish communities had again settled.
The massacre, however, could not be so extensive as before; there no
longer were thousands of Jews to slaughter. Moreover the evil days
had inspired the Jews with courage; they armed a troop of Jewish
soldiers, and enlisted them in the king's service. The fortune of
war turned against the Cossacks, and they were obliged to accept the
peace dictated by the king (November 11, 1651). John Casimir and his
ministers did not forget to guard the rights of the Jews in the treaty.
They were to be permitted to settle anywhere in the Ukraine, and to
hold property on lease.
This treaty also was concluded and ratified only to be broken.
Chmielnicki had accepted it to strengthen himself and restore his
reputation with the Cossacks. As soon as he had gained his first
object, he began hostilities against the Poles, from which Jews always
suffered most severely. In two years after the first insurrection of
the Zaporogians, more than 300 communities were completely destroyed by
death or flight, and the end of their suffering had not yet arrived.
The Polish troops could not withstand the violent attacks or skillful
policy of Chmielnicki. When he could no longer hope for help from the
Tartars, he combined with the Russians, and incited them to a war
against unhappy Poland, divided against itself. In consequence of the
Russian war in the early part of 1654 and 1655, those communities
suffered which had been spared by the Cossack swarms, _i. e._, the
western districts and Lithuania. The community of Wilna, one of the
largest, was completely depopulated (July, 1655) by slaughter on
the part of the Russians and by migration. As if fate were then
determining upon the partition of Poland, a new enemy was added to
the Cossacks and Russians in Charles X of Sweden, who used Poland as
the first available pretext to slake his thirst for war. Through the
Swedish war, the communities of Great and Little Poland, from Posen to
Cracow, were reduced to want and despair. The Jews of Poland had to
drink the cup of poison to the dregs. The Polish general, Czarnicki,
who hated the Jews, ill-used those spared by Cossacks, Russians, and
the wild Swedes of the Thirty Years' War, under the pretense that they
had a traitorous understanding with the Swedes. The Poles also behaved
barbarously to the Jews, destroyed the synagogues, and tore up the holy
scriptures. All Poland was like a bloody field of battle, on which
Cossacks, Russians, Prussians, Swedes, and the troops of Prince Ragoczi
of Transylvania wrestled; the Jews were ill-used or slain by all. Only
the Great Elector of Brandenburg behaved leniently towards them. The
number of Jewish families said to have perished in ten years of this
war (600,000) is certainly exaggerated, but the slaughtered Jews of
Poland may well be rated at a quarter of a million. With the decline of
Poland as a power of the first rank, the importance of Polish Judaism
diminished. The remnant were impoverished, depressed, and could not
recover their former position. Their need was so great, that those who
drifted to the neighborhood of Prussia hired themselves to Christians
as day laborers for field work.
As at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal
every place was filled with fugitive Sephardic Jews, so during the
Cossack-Polish war fugitive Polish Jews, wretched in appearance,
with hollow eyes, who had escaped the sword, the flames, hunger,
and pestilence; or who, dragged by the Tartars into captivity, had
been ransomed by their brethren, were seeking shelter everywhere.
Westwards, by way of Dantzic and through the Vistula district,
Jewish-Polish fugitives wandered to Amsterdam, and were forwarded
thence to Frankfort-on-the-Main and other Rhenish cities. Three
thousand Lithuanian Jews came to Texel in the Netherlands, and were
hospitably received. Southwards many fled to Moravia, Bohemia, Austria,
and Hungary, and wandered from those places to Italy. The prisoners
in the armies of the Tartars came to the Turkish provinces, and some
of them drifted to Barbary. Everywhere they were received by their
brethren with great cordiality and love, cared for, clothed, and
supported. The Italian Jews ransomed and supported them at great
sacrifice. Thus, the community of Leghorn at this time formed a
resolution to collect and spend a quarter of their income for the
liberation and maintenance of the unfortunate Polish Jews. The German
and Austrian communities, also, although they had suffered under the
calamities of the Thirty Years' War, exercised that brotherly feeling
which they rarely professed with their lips, but cherished the more
deeply in their hearts.
The number and misery of those escaped from Poland were so great, that
the German communities and probably others were obliged to devote the
money intended for Jerusalem to the maintenance of Polish Jews. The
Jews of Jerusalem dependent on alms, who were drained by the pasha and
his subordinates, felt the want of their regular support from Europe.
They soon fell into such distress, that of the 700 widows and a smaller
number of men living there nearly 400 are said to have died of hunger.
The Cossack persecution of the Jews, in a sense, remodeled Judaism. It
became Polonized, so to speak. The Polish-Rabbinical method of study
had long dominated the Talmudical schools of Germany and Italy through
the abundant literature by Polish authors. Now, through the fugitives,
most of whom were Talmudical scholars, it became authoritative.
Rabbinical appointments were mostly conferred on Polish Talmudists,
as in Moravia, Amsterdam, Fürth, Frankfort, and Metz. On account of
their superiority in their department, these Polish Talmudists were
as proud as the Spanish and Portuguese fugitives had been, and looked
down with contempt on the rabbis who spoke German, Portuguese, and
Italian. Far from giving up their own method in a foreign country,
they demanded that all the world should be regulated by them, and they
gained their point. People joked about the "Polacks," but nevertheless
became subordinate to them. Whoever wished to acquire thorough Talmudic
and Rabbinical knowledge was obliged to sit at the feet of Polish
rabbis; every father of a family who wished to educate his children
in the Talmud sought a Polish rabbi for them. These Polish rabbis
gradually forced their sophistical piety upon the German, and partly
on the Portuguese, and Italian, communities. Through their influence,
scientific knowledge and the study of the Bible declined still more
than previously. In the century of Descartes and Spinoza, when the
three Christian nations, the French, English, and Dutch, gave the
death-blow to the Middle Ages, Jewish-Polish emigrants, baited by
Chmielnicki's bands, brought a new middle age over European Judaism,
which maintained itself in full vigor for more than a century, to some
extent lasting to our time.