THE JEWS IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND
1. PLANS OF JEWISH EMANCIPATION
Special mention must be made of the position occupied by the Jews in the
vast province which had be n formed in 1815 out of the territory of the
former duchy of Warsaw and annexed by Russia under the name of "Kingdom
of Poland." [1] This province which from 1815 to 1830 enjoyed full
autonomy, with a local government in Warsaw and a parliamentary
constitution, handled the affairs of its large Jewish population,
numbering between three hundred to four hundred thousand souls,
independently and without regard to the legislation of the Russian
Empire, Even after the insurrection of 1830, when subdued Poland was
linked more closely with the Empire, the Jews continued to be subject to
a separate provincial legislation. The Jews of the Kingdom remained
under the tutelage of local guardians who were assiduously engaged in
solving the Jewish problem during the first part of this period.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 390, n. 1.]
The initial years of autonomous Poland were a time of storm and stress.
After having experienced the vicissitudes of the period of partitions
and the hopes and disappointments of the Napoleonic era, the Polish
people clutched eagerly at the shreds of political freedom which were
left to it by Alexander I. in the shape of the "Constitutional
Regulation" of 1815.[1] The Poles brought to bear upon the upbuilding of
the new kingdom all the ardor of their national soul and all their
enthusiasm for political regeneration. The feverish organizing activity
between 1815 and 1820 was attended by a violent outburst of national
sentiment, and such moments of enthusiasm were always accompanied in
Poland by an intolerant and unfriendly attitude towards the Jews. With a
few shining exceptions, the Polish statesmen were far removed from the
idea of Jewish emancipation. They favored either "correctional" or
punitive methods, though modelled after the pattern of Western European
rather than of primitive Russian anti-Semitism.
[Footnote 1: The author refers to the Constitution granted by Alexander
I., on November 15, 1815, to the Polish territories ceded to him by the
Congress of Vienna. The Constitution vouchsafed to Poland an autonomous
development under Russian auspices. It was withdrawn after the
insurrection of 1830.]
In 1815 the Provisional Government in Warsaw appointed a special
committee, under the chairmanship of Count Adam Chartoryski, to consider
the agrarian and the Jewish problem. The Committee drew up a general
plan of Jewish reorganization which was marked by the spirit of
enlightened patronage. In theory the Committee was ready to concede to
the Jews human and civil rights, even to the point of considering the
necessity of their final emancipation. But "in view of the ignorance,
the prejudices and the moral corruption to be observed among the lower
classes of the Jewish and the Polish people"--the patrician members of
the Committee in charge of the agrarian and Jewish problem accorded an
equal share of compliments to the Jews and the Polish peasants--immediate
emancipation was, in their opinion, bound to prove harmful, since it
would confer upon the Jews freedom of action to the detriment of the
country. It was, therefore, necessary to demand, as a prerequisite for
Jewish emancipation, the improvement of the Jewish masses which was
to be effected by removal from the injurious liquor trade and inducement
to engage in agriculture, by abolishing the Kahals, i.e., their communal
autonomy, and by changing the Jewish school system to meet the civic
requirements. In order to gain the confidence of the Jews for the
proposed reforms, the Committee suggested that the Government should
invite the "enlightened" representatives of the Jewish people to
participate in the discussion of the projected measures of reform.
Turning their eyes towards the West, where Jewish assimilation had
already begun its course, the Polish Committee decided to approach the
Jewish reformer David Frieländer, of Berlin, who was, so to speak, the
official philosopher of Jewish emancipation, and to solicit his opinion
concerning the ways and means of bringing about a reorganization of
Jewish life in Poland. The bishop of Kuyavia,[1] Malchevski, addressed
himself in the name of the Polish Government to Friedländer, calling
upon him, as a pupil of Mendelssohn, the educator of Jewry, to state his
views on the proposed Jewish reforms in Poland. Flattered by this
invitation, Friedländer hastened to compose an elaborate "Opinion on the
Improvement of the Jews in the Kingdom of Poland." [2]
[Footnote 1: A former Polish province, compare Vol. I, p. 75, n. 2.]
[Footnote 2: It was written in February, 1816, and published later in
1819.]
According to Friedländer, the Polish Jews had in point of culture
remained far behind their Western coreligionists, because their progress
had been hampered by their talmudic training, the pernicious doctrine of
Hasidism, and the self-government of their Kahals. All these influences
ought, therefore, to be combated. The Jewish school should be brought
into closer contact with the Polish school, the Hebrew language should
be replaced by the language of the country, and altogether assimilation
and religious reform should be encouraged. While promoting religious and
cultural reforms, the Government, in the opinion of Friedländer, ought
to confirm the Jews in the belief that they would "receive in time civil
rights if they were to endeavor to perfect themselves in the spirit of
the regulations issued for them."
This flunkeyish notion of the necessity of _deserving_ civil rights
coincided with the views of the official Polish Committee in Warsaw.
Soon afterwards a memorandum, prepared by the Committee, was
submitted through its Chairman, Count Chartoryski, to the Polish
viceroy Zayonchek. [1] Formerly a comrade of Koszciuszko, Zayonchek
later turned from a revolutionary into a reactionary, who was
anxious to curry favor with the supreme commander of the province,
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. [2] No wonder, therefore, that the
plan of the Committee, conservative though it was, seemed too
liberal for his liking. In his report to Emperor Alexander I., dated
March 8, 1816, he wrote as follows:
[Footnote 1: He was appointed viceroy in 1815, after the formation of
the Kingdom of Poland, and continued in this office until his death in
1826.]
[Footnote 2: He was the military commander of the province. See above,
p. 13, n. 2.]
The growth of the Jewish population in your Kingdom of Poland is
becoming a menace. In 1790 they formed here a thirteenth part of the
whole population; to-day they form no less than an eighth. Sober and
resourceful, they are satisfied with little; they earn their
livelihood by cheating, and, owing to early marriages, multiply
beyond measure. Shunning hard labor, they produce nothing
themselves, and live only at the expense of the working classes
which they help to ruin. Their peculiar institutions keep them apart
within the state, marking them as a foreign nationality, and, as a
result, they are unable in their present condition to furnish the
state either with good citizens or with capable soldiers. Unless
means are adopted to utilize for the common weal the useful
qualities of the Jews, they will soon exhaust all the sources of the
national wealth and will threaten to surpass and suppress the
Christian population.
In the same year, 1816, a scheme looking to the solution of the Jewish
question was proposed by the Russian statesman Nicholas Novosiltzev, the
imperial commissioner attached to the Provincial Government in
Warsaw.[1] Novosiltzev, who was not sympathetic to the Poles, showed
himself in his project to be a friend of the Jews. Instead of the
principle laid down by the official Committee: "correction first, and
civil rights last," he suggests another more liberal procedure: the
immediate bestowal of civil and in part even political rights upon the
Jews, to be accompanied by a reorganization, of Jewish life along the
lines of European progress and a modernized scheme of autonomy. All
communal and cultural affairs shall be put in charge of "directorates,"
one central directorate in Warsaw and local ones in every province of
the Kingdom, after the pattern of the Jewish consistories of France.
These directorates shall be composed of rabbis, elders of the community,
and a commissioner representing the Government; in the central
directorate this commissioner shall be replaced by a "procurator" to be
appointed directly by the king.
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 16.]
This whole organization shall be placed under the jurisdiction of the
Minister of Public Instruction, who shall also exercise the right of
confirming the rabbis nominated by the directorates. The functions of
the directorates shall include the registration of the Jewish
population, the management of the communal finances, the dispensation of
charity, and the opening of secular schools for Jewish children. A
certificate of graduation from such a school shall be required from
every young man who applies for a marriage license or for a permit to
engage in a craft or to acquire property. "All Jews fulfilling the
obligations imposed by the present statute shall be accorded full
citizenship," while those who distinguish themselves in science an art
may even be deemed worthy of political rights, not excluding membership
in the Polish Diet. For the immediate future Novosiltzev advises to
refrain from economic restrictions, such as the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, though he concedes the advisability of checking its
growth, and advocates the adoption of a system of economic reforms by
stimulating crafts and agriculture among the Jews. In the beginning of
1817 Novosiltzev's project was laid before the Polish Council of State.
It was opposed with great stubbornness by Chartoryski, the Polish
viceroy Zayonchek, Stashitz, and other Polish dignitaries, whose
hostility was directed not so much against the pro-Jewish plan as
against its Russian author. The Council of State appointed a special
committee which, after examining Novosiltzev's project, arrived at the
following conclusions:
1. It is impossible to carry out a reorganization of Jewish life
through the Jews themselves.
2. The establishment of a separate cultural organization for the
Jews will only stimulate their national aloofness.
3. The complete civil and political emancipation of the Jews is at
variance with the Polish Constitution which vouchsafes special
privileges to the professors of the dominant religion.
In the plenary session of the Polish Council of State the debate about
Novosiltzev's project was exceedingly stormy. The Polish members of the
Council scented in the project "political aims in opposition to the
national element of the country." They emphasized the danger which the
immediate emancipation of the Jews would entail for Poland. "Let the
Jews first become real Poles," exclaimed the referee Kozhmyan, "then
will it be possible to look upon them as citizens." When the same
gentleman declared that it was impossible to accord citizenship to
hordes of people who first had to be accustomed to cleanliness and cured
from "leprosy and similar diseases," Zayonchek burst out laughing and
shouted: "Hear, hear! These sluts won't get rid of their scab so
easily." After such elevating "criticism," Novosiltzev's project was
voted down. The Council inclined to the belief that "the psychological
moment" for bringing about a radical reorganization of the inner life of
the Jews had not yet arrived, and, therefore, resolved to limit itself
to isolated measures, principally of a "correctional" and repressive
character.
2. POLITICAL REACTION AND LITERARY ANTI-SEMITISM
Such "measures" were not long in coming. The only restriction the
Government of Warsaw failed to carry through was the enforcement of the
law of 1812 forbidding the Jews to deal in liquor. This drastic measure
was vetoed by Alexander I., owing to the representations of the Jewish
deputies in St. Petersburg, and in 1816 the Polish viceroy was compelled
to announce the suspension of this cruel law which had hung like the
sword of Damocles over the heads of hundreds of thousands of Jews.
On the other hand, the Polish Government managed in the course of a few
years (1816-1823) to put into operation a number of other restrictive
laws. Several cities which boasted of the ancient right _de non
tolerandis Judaeis_[1] secured the confirmation of this shameful
privilege, with the result that the Jews who had settled there during
the existence of the duchy of Warsaw were either expelled or confined to
separate districts. In Warsaw a number of streets were closed to Jewish
residents, and all Jewish visitors to the capital were forced to pay a
heavy tax for their right of sojourn, the so-called "ticket impost,"
amounting to fifteen kopecks (7½c) a day. Finally the Jews were
forbidden to settle within twenty-one versts of the Austrian and
Prussian frontiers. [2]
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, pp. 85 and 95.]
[Footnote 2: The law in question was passed by the Polish Government on
January 31, 1823, barring the Jews from nearly one hundred towns. It was
repealed by Alexander II. in 1862. See below, p. 181.]
At the same time, the Polish legislators were fair-minded enough to
refrain from forcing the Jews, these disfranchised pariahs, into
military service. In 1817 an announcement was made to the effect that,
so long as the Jews were barred from the enjoyment of civil rights, they
would be released from personal military service in Poland, in lieu
whereof they were to pay a fixed conscription tax. About the same time,
during the third decade of the nineteenth century, was also realized the
old-time policy of curtailing the Jewish Kahal autonomy, though, as will
be seen later, this "reform" did not proceed from the Government
spheres, but was rather the product of contemporary social movements
among the Poles and the Jews.
The political literature of Poland manifested at that time a tendency
similar to the one which had prevailed during the Quadrennial Diet.[1]
Scores of pamphlets and magazine articles discussed with polemical ardor
the Jewish problem, the burning question of the day. The old Jew-baiter
Stashitz, a member of the Warsaw Government who served on the Commission
of Public Instruction and Religious Denominations, resumed his attacks
on Judaism. In 1816 he published an article under the title "Concerning
the Causes of the Obnoxiousness of the Jews," in which he asserted that
the Jews were responsible for Poland's decline. They multiplied with
incredible rapidity, forming now no less than an eighth of the
population. Should this process continue, the Kingdom of Poland would be
turned into a "Jewish country" and become "the laughing-stock of the
whole of Europe." The Jewish religion is antagonistic to Catholicism: we
call them "Old Testament believers," [2] while they brand us as
"pagans." It being impossible to expel the Jews from Poland, they ought
to be isolated like carriers of disease. They should be concentrated in
separate quarters in the cities to facilitate the supervision over them.
Only well-deserving merchants and craftsmen, who have plied their trade
honestly for five or ten years, should be allowed to reside outside the
ghetto. The same category of Jews, in addition to those married to
Christian women, should also be granted the right of acquiring landed
property. The ghetto on the one end of the line, and baptism on the
other--this medieval policy did not in the least abash the patriotic
reformers of the type of Stashitz.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 279 et seq.]
[Footnote 2: Referring to the term _Starozakonni_, the Polish
designation for Jews.]
Stashitz's point of view was supported by certain publicists and opposed
by others, but all were agreed on the necessity of a system of
correction for the Jews. The discussion became particularly heated in
1818, after the convocation and during the sessions of the first [1]
Polish Diet in Warsaw. Three different tendencies asserted themselves: a
moderate, an anti-Jewish, and a pro-Jewish tendency. The first was
represented by General Vincent Krasinski, a member of the Diet. In his
"Observations on the Jews of Poland," he proceeds from the following
twofold premise: "The voice of the whole nation is raised against the
Jews, and it demands their transformation." This titled publicist
declares himself an opponent of the Jews as they are at present. He
shares the popular dread of their multiplication, the fear of a "Jewish
Poland," and is somewhat sceptical about their being corrigible.
Nevertheless he proposes liberal methods of correction, such as the
encouragement of big Jewish capital, the promotion of agriculture and
handicrafts among the Jewish masses, and the bestowal of the rights of
citizenship upon those worthy of it.
[Footnote 1: i.e., the first to be convoked after the reconstitution of
Poland in 1815.]
Krasinski was attacked by an anonymous writer in an anti-Semitic
pamphlet entitled "A Remedy against the Jews." Proceeding from the
conviction that no reforms, however well conceived, could have any
effect on the Jews, the writer puts the question in a simplified form:
"Shall we sacrifice the welfare of three million Poles to that of
300,000 Jews, or _vice versa?_" His answer is just as simple: the Jews
should be forced to leave Poland. Emperor Alexander I., "the benefactor
of Poland," ought to be petitioned to rid the country of the Jews by
transferring them to the uninhabited steppes in the South of Russia or
even "on the borders of Great Tartary." The 300,000 Jews might be
divided into 300 parties and settled there in the course of one year.
The means for expelling and settling the Jews should be furnished by the
Jews themselves.
This barbarous project aroused the ire of a noble-minded Polish army
officer, Valerian Lukasinski, a radical in politics, who subsequently
landed in the dungeon of the Schlueselburg fortress. [1] In his
"Reflections of an Army Officer Concerning the Need of Organizing the
Jews," published in 1818, Lukasinski advances the thought that the
oppression and disfranchisement of the Jews are alone responsible for
their demoralized condition. They were useful citizens in the golden age
of Casimir the Great and Sigismund the Old [2] when they were treated
with kindness. The author lashes the hypocrisy of the Shlakhta who hold
the Jews to account for ruining the peasants by selling them alcohol in
those very taverns which are leased to them by the noble pans.
Lukasinski contends that the Jews will become good citizens once they
will be allowed to participate in the civil life of Poland, when that
life will be founded on democratic principles.
[Footnote 1: In the government of St. Petersburg.]
[Footnote 2: i.e., Sigismund I. (1506-1548). See on his attitude towards
the Jews Vol. I, p. 71 et seq.]
The choir of Polish voices was but faintly disturbed by the opinions
expressed by the Jews. An otherwise unknown rabbi, who calls himself
Moses ben Abraham, echoes in his pamphlet "The Voice of the People of
Israel" the sentiments of Jewish orthodoxy. He begs the Poles not to
meddle in the inner affairs of Judaism: "You refuse to recognize us as
brothers; then at least respect us as fathers! Look at your genealogical
tree with the branches of the New Testament, a d you will find the roots
in us." Polish culture cannot be foisted upon the Jews. Barbarous as may
appear the plan of expelling the Jews from Poland, the persecuted tribe
will rather submit to this alternative than renounce its faith and its
ancestral customs.
The views of the progressive Jews of Poland were voiced by a young
pedagogue in Warsaw, subsequently the well-known champion of
assimilation, Jacob Tugenhold. In a treatise entitled "Jerubbaal, or a
Word Concerning the Jews," Tugenhold contends that the Jews have already
begun to assimilate themselves to Polish culture. It was now within the
power of the Government to strengthen this movement by admitting
"distinguished Jews to civil service."
While this literary feud concerning the problem of Judaism was raging,
an unhealthy movement against the Jews started among the dregs of the
Polish population. In several localities of the Kingdom there suddenly
appeared "victims of ritual murder" in the shape of dead bodies of
children, the discovery of which was followed by a series of legal
trials against the Jews (1815-1816). Innocent people were thrown into
prison, where they languished for years, and were subjected to
cross-examinations, though without the inquisitorial apparatus of
ancient Poland. It is impossible to say whither this orgy of
superstition might have led, had it not been stopped by a word of
command from St. Petersburg. In 1817, as a result of the energetic
representations of "the Deputies of the Jewish People," [1] Sonnenberg
and his fellow-workers, the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs,
Golitzin, gave orders that the ukase which had just been issued by him,
forbidding the arbitrary injection of a ritual element into criminal
cases, be strictly enforced in the Kingdom of Poland. This action saved
the lives of scores of prisoners, and put a stop to the obscure
agitation which endeavored to revive the medieval spectre.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 394, and above, p. 74.]
The Polish Diet of 1818 reflected the same state of mind which had
previously found expression in political literature: an unmistakable
preponderance of the anti-Jewish element. Some of the deputies appealed
to Alexander I. in their speeches and openly called upon him to give
orders to lay before the next session of the Diet "a project of Jewish
reform, with a view to saving Poland from the excessive growth of the
Hebrew tribe, which now forms a seventh of all the inhabitants, and in a
few years will surpass in numbers the Christian population of the
country." For the immediate future the deputies recommend the
enforcement of the suspended law barring the Jews from the liquor
traffic [1] and their subjection to military conscription.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 304, and above, p. 94.]
One might have thought that the Diet had no need of extra measures to
"curb" the Jews. It was quite enough that it tacitly sanctioned the
prolongation of the ten years term of Jewish rightlessness which had
been fixed by the Government of the Varsovian duchy in 1808. [1] This
term ended in 1818, while the first Diet of the Kingdom of Poland was
holding its sessions, but neither the Polish Diet nor the Polish Council
of State gave any serious thought to the question whether the Government
of the province had a right to prolong the disfranchisement of the Jews.
This right was taken for granted by the Polish legislators who were
planning even harsher restrictions for the unloved tribe of Hebrews.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 299.]
3. ASSIMILATIONIST TENDENCIES AMONG THE JEWS OF
POLAND
In the beginning of the third decade of the nineteenth century the noise
caused by the Jewish question had begun to subside both in Polish
political circles and in Polish literature. Instead, the agitation
within the Jewish ranks became more vigorous. That group of Jews already
assimilated or thirsting for assimilation, which on an earlier occasion,
during the existence of the Varsovian duchy, had segregated itself from
the rest of Jewry, assuming the label of "Old Testament believers," [1]
occupied a very influential position within the Jewish community of the
Polish capital. It was made up of wealthy bankers and merchants and
boasted of a few men with a European education. The members of this
group were hankering after German models and were anxious to renounce
the national separatism of the Jews which was a standing rebuke in the
mouths of their enemies. To these "Old Testament believers" the
abolition of the Kahal and the limitation of communal self-government to
the narrow range of synagogue interests appeared the surest remedy
against anti-Semitism. Behind the abrogation of communal autonomy they
saw the smiling vision of a Jewish school-reform, leading to the
Polonization of Jewish education, while in the far-off distance they
could discern the promised land of equal citizenship.
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 96, n. 1.]
The efforts of the Jewish reformers of Warsaw were now systematically
directed towards this goal. In 1820 there appeared an anonymous pamphlet
under the title "The Petition, or Self-defence, of the Members of the
Old Testament Persuasion in the Kingdom of Poland." The main purpose of
this publication is to show that the root of the evil lies in the Kahal
organization, in the elders, rabbis, and burial societies, who expend
enormous sums of taxation money without any control--i.e., without the
control of the Polish municipality--who oppress the people by their
_herems_ (excommunications), and altogether abuse their power. It is,
therefore, necessary to abolish this power of the Kahals and transfer it
to the Polish municipalities, or even, police authorities; only then
will order be established in the Jewish communities, and the Jews will
be transformed into "useful citizens."
The Government spheres of Poland were greatly pleased by these
utterances of the "Old Testament believers" of Warsaw. They had long
contemplated the curtailment of the autonomy of the Kahals, and now "the
very Jews" clamored for it. In consequence, there appeared in 1821 a
series of edicts by the viceroy and various rescripts by the Commission
of Public Instruction and Religious Denominations, resulting in the
demolition of the ancient communal scheme, in which certain forms of
self-government, but by no means its underlying fundamental principles,
had become obsolete.
These measures were sanctioned by an imperial ukase dated December 20,
1821, [1] decreeing the abolition of the Kahals and their substitution by
"Congregational Boards," whose scope of activity was strictly limited to
religious matters, while all civil and fiscal affairs were placed under
the jurisdiction of the local Polish administration. The Congregational
Boards were to consist of the rabbi, his assistant or substitute, and
three trustees or supervisors.
[Footnote 1: Corresponding to January 1, 1822, of the West-European
calendar.]
At first, the majority of Jewish communities in Poland were indignant at
this curtailment of their autonomy, and adopted a hostile attitude
towards the new communal organization. The "supervisors" elected on the
Congregational Boards often refused to serve, and the authorities were
compelled to appoint them. But in the course of time the communities
became reconciled to the new scheme of congregations, or _Gminas,_[1]
whose range of activity was gradually widened. In 1830 the suffrage of
the Polish Jews within the Jewish communities was restricted by a new
law to persons possessed of a certain amount of property. The result was
particularly noticeable in Warsaw where the new state of things helped
to strengthen the influence of the group of the "Old Testament
believers" and enabled them to gain control of the affairs of the
metropolitan community. The leaders of Warsaw Jewry managed soon to
establish intimate relations with the Polish Government, and co-operated
with it in bringing about the "cultural reforms" of the Jews of Poland.
[Footnote 1: _Gmina_ is the Polish word for community, derived from the
German _Gemeinde_.]
In 1825 the Polish Government appointed a special body to deal with
Jewish affairs. It was called "Committee of Old Testament Believers,"
though composed in the main of Polish officials. It was supplemented by
an advisory council consisting of five public-spirited Jews and their
alternates. Among the members of the Committee, which included several
prominent Jewish merchants of Warsaw, such as Jacob Bergson, M. Kavski,
Solomon Posner, T. Teplitz, was also the well-known mathematician
Abraham Stern, one of the few cultured Jews of that period who remained
a steadfast upholder of Jewish tradition. The "Committee of Old
Testament Believers" embarked upon the huge task of civilizing the Jews
of Poland and purging the Jewish religion of its superstitious
excrescences.
The first step taken by the Committee was the establishment of a
Rabbinical Seminary in Warsaw for the training of modernized rabbis,
teachers, and communal workers. The program of the school was arranged
with a view to the Polonization of its pupils. The language of
instruction was Polish, and the teachers of many secular subjects were
Christians. No wonder then that when the Seminary was opened in 1826,
Stern refused to accept the post of director which had been offered to
him, and yielded his place to Anton Eisenbaum, a radical assimilator.
The tendency of the school may be gauged from the fact that the
department of Hebrew and Bible was entrusted to Abraham Buchner, who had
gained notoriety by a German pamphlet entitled _Die Nicktigkeit des
Talmuds_, "The Worthlessness of the Talmud." [1]
[Footnote 1: He was also the author of a Jewish catechism in Hebrew,
entitled _Yesode ha-Dat_, "The Fundamental Principles of the Jewish
Religion."]
Characteristically enough, Buchner had been recommended by the ferocious
Jew-baitor Abbé Chiarini, a member of the "Committee of Old Testament
Believers," which, one might almost suspect, was charged with the
supervision of Jewish education for no other reason, than that to spite
the Jews. Chiarini was professor of Oriental Languages at the University
of Warsaw. As such he considered himself an expert in Hebrew literature,
and cherished the plan of translating the Talmud into French to unveil
the secrets of Judaism before the Christian world. In 1828 Chiarini
suggested to the "Committee of Old Testament Believers" to arrange a
course in Hebrew Archaeology at the Warsaw University for the purpose of
acquainting Christian students with rabbinic literature and thus
equipping prospective Polish officials with a knowledge of things
Jewish. The plan having been approved by the Government, Chiarini began
to deliver a course of lectures on Judaism. The fruit of these lectures
was a French publication, issued in 1829 under the title _Theorie du
Judaïsme_. It was an ignorant libel upon the Talmud and rabbinism, a
worthy counterpart of Eisenmenger's "Judaism Exposed." [1] Chiarini did
not even shrink from repeating the hideous lie about the use of
Christian blood by the Jews. He was taken to task by Jacob Tugenhold in
Warsaw and by Jost and Zunz in Germany. Yet the evil seed had sunk into
the soil. Polish society, which had long harbored unfriendly sentiments
against the Jews, became more and more permeated with anti-Semitic bias,
and this bias found tangible expression during the insurrection of
1830-1831.
[Footnote 1: The book of a famous anti-Semitic writer who lived in
Germany in the seventeenth century. _Entdecktes Judentum_, the book
referred to in the text, appeared in 1700.]
4. THE JEWS AND THE POLISH INSURRECTION OF 1831
When, under the effect of the July revolution in Paris, the "November
insurrection" of 1830 broke out in Warsaw, it put on its mettle that
section of Polish Jewry who hoped to improve the Jewish lot by their
patriotic ardor. In the month of December one of the "Old Testament
believers," Stanislav Hernish, [1] addressed himself to the Polish
dictator, Khlopitzki, in the name of a group of Jewish youths, assuring
him of their eagerness to form a special detachment of volunteers to
help in the common task of liberating their fatherland. The dictator
replied that, inasmuch as the Jews had no civil rights, they could not
be permitted to serve in the army. The Minister of War Moravski
delivered himself on this occasion of the following characteristic
utterance: "We cannot allow that Jewish blood should mingle with the
noble blood of the Poles. What will Europe say when she learns that in
fighting for our liberty we have not been able to get along without
Jewish help?"
[Footnote 1: Polish patriot and publicist. He subsequently fled to
France. See later, p. 109.]
The insulting refusal did not cool the ardor of the Jewish patriots.
Joseph Berkovich, the son of Berek Yoselovitch, who had laid down his
life for the Polish cause, decided to repeat his father's experiment [1]
and issued a proclamation to the Jews, calling upon them to join the
ranks of the fighters for Polish independence. The "National Government"
in Warsaw could not resist this patriotic pressure. It addressed itself
to the "Congregational Board" of Warsaw, inquiring about the attitude of
the Jewish community towards the projected formation of a separate
regiment of Jewish volunteers. The Board replied that the community had
already given proofs of its patriotism by contributing 40,000 Gulden
towards the revolutionary funds, and by collecting further contributions
towards the equipment of volunteers. The formation of a _special_ Jewish
regiment the Board did not consider advisable, inasmuch as such action
was not in keeping with the task of uniting all citizens in the defence
of the fatherland. Instead, the Board favored the distribution of the
Jewish volunteers over the whole army.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol. I, p. 293 et seq.]
From now on the Jews were admitted to military service, but more into
the militia than into the regular army. The commander of the National
Guard in Warsaw, Anton Ostrovski, one of the few rebel leaders who were
not swayed by the anti-Semitic prejudices of the Polish nobility,
admitted into his militia many Jewish volunteers on condition that they
shave off their beards. Owing to the religious scruples of many Jewish
soldiers, the latter condition had to be abandoned, and a special
"bearded" detachment of the metropolitan guard was formed, comprising
850 Jews.
The Jewish militia acquitted itself nobly of its duty in the grave task
of protecting the city of Warsaw against the onrush of the Russian
troops. The sons of wealthy families fought shoulder to shoulder with
children of the proletariat. The sight of these step-children of Poland
fighting for their fatherland stirred the heart of Ostrovski, and he
subsequently wrote: "This spectacle could not fail to make your heart
ache. Our conscience bade us to attend to the betterment of this most
down-trodden part of our population at the earliest possible moment."
It is worthy of note that the wave of Polish-Jewish patriotism did not
spread beyond Warsaw. In the provincial towns the inhabitants of the
ghetto were, as a rule, unwilling to serve in the army on the ground
that the Jewish religion forbade the shedding of human blood. This
indifference aroused the ire of the Polish population, which threatened
to wreak vengeance upon the Jews, suspecting them of pro-Russian
sympathies. Ostrovski's remark with reference to this situation deserves
to be quoted: "True," he said, "the Jews of the provinces may possibly
be guilty of indifference towards the revolutionary cause, but can we
expect any other attitude from those we oppress?" [1] It may be added
that soon afterwards the question of military service as affecting the
Jews was solved by the Diet. By the law of May 30, 1831, the Jews were
released from conscription on the payment of a tax which was four times
as large as the one paid by them in former years.
[Footnote 1: In the Western provinces outside the Kingdom of Poland, in
Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia, the Jewish population held itself
aloof from the insurrectionary movement. Here and there the Jews even
sympathized with the Russian Government, despite the fact that the
latter threw the Polish rulers into the shade by the extent of its
Jewish persecutions. In some places the Polish insurgents made the Jews
pay with their lives for their pro-Russian sympathies.]
When the "aristocratic revolution," having failed to obtain the support
of the disinherited masses, had met with disaster, the revolutionary
leaders, who saved themselves by fleeing abroad, indulged in remorseful
reflections. The Polish historian Lelevel, who lived in Paris as a
refugee, issued in 1832 a "Manifesto to the Israelitish Nation," calling
upon the Jews to forget the insults inflicted upon them by present-day
Poland for the sake of the sweet reminiscences of the Polish Republic in
days gone by and of the hopes inspired by a free Poland in days to come.
He compares the flourishing condition of the Jews in the ancient Polish
commonwealth with their present status on the same territory, under the
yoke of "the Viennese Pharaohs," [1] or in the land "dominated by the
Northern Nebuchadnezzar," [2] where the terror of conscription reigns
supreme, where "little children, wrenched from the embraces of their
mothers, are hurled into the ranks of a debased soldiery," "doomed to
become traitors to their religion and nation."
[Footnote 1: Referring to Galicia.]
[Footnote 2: Nicholas I.]
The reign of nations--exclaims Lelevel--is drawing nigh. All peoples
will be merged into one, acknowledging the one God Adonai. The rulers
have fed the Jews on false promises; the nations will grant them
liberty. Soon Poland will rise from the dust. Let then the Jews living
on her soil go hand in hand with their brother-Poles. The Jews will then
be sure to obtain their rights. Should they insist on returning to
Palestine, the Poles will assist them in realizing this consummation.
Similar utterances could be heard a little later in the mystic circle of
Tovyanski and Mitzkevitch in Paris, [1] in which the historic destiny of
the two martyr nations, the Poles and the Jews, and their universal
Messianic calling were favorite topics of discussion. But alongside of
these flights of "imprisoned thought" one could frequently catch in the
very same circle the sounds of the old anti-Semitic slogans. The
Parisian organ of the Polish refugees, _Nowa Polska_, "New Poland,"
occasionally indulged in anti-Semitic sallies, calling forth a
passionate rebuttal from Hernish, [2] an exiled journalist, who reminded
his fellow-journalists that it was mean to hunt down people who were the
"slaves of slaves." Two other Polish-Jewish revolutionaries, Lubliner
and Hollaenderski, shared all the miseries of the refugees and, while in
exile, indulged in reflections concerning the destiny of their brethren
at home. [3]
[Footnote 1: Andreas Tovyanski (In Polish _Towianski_, 1799-1878), a
Christian mystic, founded in Paris a separate community which fostered
the belief in the restoration of the Polish and the Jewish people. The
community counted among its members several Jews. The famous Polish poet
Adam Mitzkevich (in Polish _Mickiewicz_, 1798-1855) joined Tovyanski in
his endeavors, and on one occasion even appeared in a Paris synagogue on
the Ninth of Ab to make an appeal to the Jews.]
[Footnote 2: See above, p. 105.]
[Footnote 3: Lubliner published _Des Juifs en Pologne_, Brussels, 1839;
Hollaenderski wrote _Les Israélites en Pologne_, Paris, 1846.]
In pacified Poland, which, deprived of her former autonomous
constitution, was now ruled by the iron hand of the Russian viceroy,
Paskevich, the Jews at first experienced no palpable changes. Their
civil status was regulated, as heretofore, by the former Polish
legislation, not by that of the Empire. It was only in 1843 that the
Polish Jews were in one respect equalized with their Russian brethren.
Instead of the old recruiting tax, they were now forced to discharge
military service in person. However, the imperial ukase extending the
operation of the Conscription Statute of 1827 to the Jews of the Kingdom
contained several alleviations. Above all, its most cruel provision, the
conscription of juveniles or cantonists, was set aside. The age of
conscription was fixed at twenty to twenty-five, while boys between the
age of twelve and eighteen were to be drafted only when the parents
themselves wished to offer them as substitutes for their elder sons who
were of military age. Nevertheless, to the Polish Jews, who had never
known of conscription, military service lasting a quarter of a century,
to be discharged in a strange Russian environment, seemed a terrible
sacrifice. The "Congregational Board" of Warsaw, having learned of the
ukase, sent a deputation to St. Petersburg with a petition to grant the
Jews of the Kingdom equal rights with the Christians, referring to the
law of 1817 which distinctly stated that the Jews were to be released
from personal military service so long as they were denied equal civil
rights. The petition of course proved of no avail; the very term "equal
rights" was still missing in the Russian vocabulary.
Only in point of disabilities were the Jews of Poland gradually placed
on an equal footing with their Russian brethren. In 1845 the Russian law
imposing a tax on the traditional Jewish attire [1] was extended in its
operation to the Polish Jews, descending with the force of a real
calamity upon the hasidic masses of Poland. Fortunately for the Jews of
Poland, the other experiments, in which St. Petersburg was revelling
during that period, left them unscathed. The crises connected with the
problems of Jewish autonomy and the Jewish school, which threatened to
disrupt Russian Jewry in the forties, had been passed by the Jews of
Poland some twenty years earlier. Moreover, the Polish Jews had the
advantage over their Russian brethren in that the abrogated Kahal had
after all been replaced by another communal organization, however
curtailed it was, and that the secular school was not forced upon them
in the same brutal manner in which the Russian Crown schools had been
imposed upon the Jews of the Empire. Taken as a whole, the lot of the
Polish Jews, sad though it was, might yet be pronounced enviable when
compared with the condition of their brethren in the Pale of Settlement,
where the rightlessness of the Jews during that period bordered
frequently on martyrdom.
[Footnote 1: A law to that effect had been passed on February 1, 1843.
It was preparatory to the entire prohibition of Jewish dress. See below,
p. 143 et seq.]