THE RUSSIAN POGROMS OF 1881 AND 1882
The new period of Jewish martyrdom――Public opinion in England
――Mass meetings, questions in Parliament and collections
――Protests from France, Holland, America and other countries
――An instructive lesson――Emigration of Jewish masses――The
problem――The “Lovers of _Zion_.”
THE year 1882 was a turning-point in the history of the colonization
of Palestine by the Jews.
The anti-Jewish riots and massacres which broke out in Russia in
the spring of 1881 had attracted attention to the position of the
Jewish people, but not to a degree commensurate with the importance
of the subject. Just when it seemed probable that the martyrs of 1881
would leave no record behind them, new massacres occurred in 1882 and
again drew attention to the subject. All the English newspapers dealt
sympathetically with the position of the persecuted Jews, and gave
full accounts of the atrocities. These articles caused an outburst of
pity and sympathy throughout England. Several mass meetings were held
and funds were started. Questions were addressed in both Houses to the
Secretary and Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. This spontaneous
outcry in England soon spread to all the countries of Europe. In Paris
the veteran poet novelist Victor Hugo (1802‒1885) headed the appeal for
justice and pity. In Holland the University of Utrecht rivalled that
of Oxford in its protests. Across the Atlantic the Government of the
United States went further than any other Government, and entered a
powerful protest in the President’s Message to Congress. All these
movements took their origin from the first emphatic outburst of pity
in England.
The racial and national instincts which in times of prosperity often
lie dormant in the hearts of the Jews were thoroughly aroused and
stimulated by the cruel persecutions to which their brethren were
subjected. It was a terribly instructive lesson for those Jews who
believed in the progress of humanity as a solution of the problem
of the Jewish tragedy. They had a sudden and rude awakening. More
and more the conviction gained ground among the people that the
helplessness of the Jew in his trials, his utter inability to stem
the tide of abuse and oppression, was chiefly due to the fact that he
had no land which he could call a Jewish land _par excellence_. The
best treatment that he received in free countries was only toleration.
He was always supposed to have the right of existence and of equality
with those among whom he lived, but in no case could he enforce it by
stronger measures than an appeal to the goodwill and kindness of those
who could either give or withhold it. Appeals to the sacred principles
of humanity and justice, beautiful and inspiring as they were, were
practically futile. Renewed persecution brought these facts once again
to the cognizance of the Jews.
Besides, there was the visible fact of an enormous number of homeless
Jews who had no place of refuge anywhere in the wide world. For
the great exodus had begun. The necessity of providing the homeless
wanderers with shelter was most pressing, the more so as it had to
be done without much delay. The persecutions grew in intensity, and
emigration increased by leaps and bounds. The sufferers attempted to
settle in almost every part of the world. Every country objected to
the influx of so many immigrants, and more than one country prohibited
their entry altogether.
While most of the poor wanderers themselves struggled manfully to
brave the tide of poverty and of exile, the bulk of their brethren
who dwelt under more favourable conditions in other countries made
it their business to devise plans for the succour of the exiled.
Fortunately for the immigrants, and to the credit of human nature,
there were noble-minded men in America who saw that there was work to
be done, and undertook it without hesitation, sparing neither expense
nor trouble in devising measures for the alleviation of the misery of
the immigrants and for safeguarding them against the temptations and
evils of a new country.
The immediate help which America gave was very important, but the
question of the future still remained unsolved. The problem created by
Jewish emigration presents many difficulties. The tie that binds the
heart of the emigrant to the soil of his birth is gradually weakened.
The attachment of the parents to the traditions of their native land
slowly weakens. The children find new ties. The new surroundings claim
their attention. The distant land of their infancy appears to them
only dimly on the horizon. A few years pass, and the old _Ghetto_ has
become to them a mythical vision. Nothing, indeed, is so remarkable
as the rapid absorption of English, Irish, Scotch, German, and
even French immigrants, not to speak of some half a dozen smaller
nationalities, by the ordinary American type. One would have expected
to see citizens of the States learning to regard this continual fusion
as a natural political condition, to reckon with it, to encourage
it, to remove all difficulties out of the way of those who devoted
themselves to the task of bringing new immigrants into the “land
of unlimited possibilities,” and of reconciling and harmonizing the
numerous heterogeneous elements. But there are men who do their best
to hinder this great work, and thanks to their efforts, legislation is
engaged in placing various restrictions upon free immigration. Jewish
immigrants in particular are still looked upon in some quarters as
intruders. They are received with frigid looks not only by non-Jews,
but also by some of their own brethren, who have had the good fortune
to settle in the country earlier, and have learnt to feel quite at
home. And it is not only the economic question which makes Jewish
immigration _en masse_ difficult: it is still more the question of
the national culture, religion and traditions of the Jews, which are
endangered by assimilation. The question of bread, important as it
is, is not the whole of the Jewish problem. The old Roman “panem et
circenses” could never become a Jewish principle. The Jewish principle
is expressed in the words:――
“... man doth not live by bread only, but by everything
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live”
(Deuteronomy viii. 3).
Now members of other nations can find a home in America while their
nation remains and develops its own life in the mother-country. But
where is the mother-country of the Jews, of Judaism?
Various schemes of Jewish colonisation were planned and partly carried
out in America at the time of which we speak. Some of them met with
some success, others proved utter failures. On the other hand, great
masses of Jews were inspired by the conviction that good results could
be expected only in Palestine from an effort to turn the exiled Jews
into agriculturists. That view was strongly opposed by others who,
living themselves in affluence, thought that they would always be
secure against persecution in the countries in which they dwelt. They
consequently thought that the Jewish problem could be solved only by
a real union between the Jews and their non-Jewish neighbours, by a
process in which the Jews would cast off all that separated them from
non-Jews. They were blind to the fact, established by the whole of
Jewish history, that the more the Jew denies his distinctiveness the
more he is attacked and accused of it; and that whilst small groups of
Jews may sometimes succeed in getting rid of their dissimilarity, the
Jewish masses neither can nor will. They thought that Palestine should
be the last place for the Jew of to-day to think of, being under the
mistaken impression that the Holy Land was unsuitable for colonisation
and agriculture on a large scale. They argued from a technical
standpoint which had a bad foundation. They had no knowledge of the
facts, and Palestine was for them really a _terra incognita_. But
the masses turned with a unanimous impulse to Palestine. Everywhere
societies of “Lovers of _Zion_” were founded for the realization
of the cherished hope of making Jews once more owners of land in
Palestine. Sometimes the idea was taken up with more enthusiasm than
practical sense, and many hurried to Palestine in the belief that,
once in the country, they would find it easy to make a living. Not
unnaturally there was much disillusionment, and many a bitter lesson
was learnt by sad experience. So it became incumbent upon the existing
societies to keep the enthusiasm of their adherents within the bounds
of sanity and practicability. The societies had to grope their way
carefully. They had to find out suitable localities for establishing
colonies, to direct the energies of those most fit to undertake
colonising work into the proper channels, and to check the efforts of
those who did not show the capacity for success and would only have
proved a hindrance to the capable and the efficient.
Illustration: DAVID GORDON SAMUEL J. FUENN
_Dr._ LEON PINSKER
MOSES L. LILIENBLUM PEREZ SMOLENSKIN