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By the Chief Rabbi Dr. Lilienthal
No. II.
A General Survey of the Condition of the Jews in
Russia
Soon after his return from Southern Europe,
Alexander decreed, that he would permit the Jews, in order to testify
the sense of gratitude which the whole nation owed them, to send three
deputies to St. Petersburg, who should reside there constantly, and
represent all Jewish affairs. Although there lurked here also, in the
background, views for proselytizing the Jews, we must still confess,
that it was a noble and high-minded act of the
<<442>>Emperor, and that our
people were wrong to let an opportunity pass unimproved, which neglect
now exhibits so many terrible consequences. If there had been men who
could have placed a proper value upon the momentous affairs entrusted to
them, and could have grasped the favourable opportunity to benefit their
people, and endowed with a proper degree of education to make good use
of the liberal permission of the Emperor, to meet as a committee of
consultation on Jewish affairs; if there had been men acquainted with
the Russian language, with knowledge of the world, men of high
character, dignity and standing among their fellow Israelites, who could
have demonstrated to the government by the clear light of the truth, and
nothing but the truth, that its own interest would be best promoted in
seeking to promote the welfare of its Jewish subjects: who knows what
the condition of the Jews would be at this time? although we
acknowledge, that in view of the energy and steadiness with which the
Russian government carries out its plans, every thought of success in
amelioration of our prospects can be only problematical.—But the Jews
held a meeting of their Rabbis and Parnassim at Wilna, after the
appearance of the imperial decree; and after a tedious discussion, they
sent three men to St. Petersburg, who were soon banished from the
capital on account of their misdemeanour, and who brought disgrace and
contempt on the nation, which, to represent properly, they had been
chosen. “If these are their best men, what shall I think of the others!”
was the Emperor’s remark, and thus the misfortune of the Israelites was
sealed, and their mournful lot yet farther aggravated. But the deputies
under question were not the best men among the Jews; they had been
elected because they could speak the Russian language, and had served as
contractors in the Russian army during the French wars, and were
therefore known to a portion of the nobility; the more learned, and the
better men among the Jews, were unacquainted with the Russian language,
and strangers to all ideas which lay beyond their Jewish circles, and
they had therefore not the courage to undertake a mission which was both
so important and so difficult. Alas! that the punishment for this
ignorance should prove so severe.
Soon afterwards a monstrosity made its appearance,
nothing less than a Russo-proselytical state policy; under the
superinten<<443>>dence of Prince Galitzin, the Minister of Education. Papow
projected a plan, the object of which was to bring all the Jews to the
baptismal font, and in order to make it palatable to them, the coverts
were to be called “Israelitish Christians.” It shows a total ignorance
of the character of the Jews, to suppose that they could be caught by
such a device; and it was, therefore, natural enough, that the whole
plan miscarried, and it was accordingly abandoned.—A few years
afterwards the government resorted to severer measures, by decreeing
that the Jews should give up the distilleries which they kept throughout
the country, and to remove into the towns. Although a cabinet order of
Alexander appeared a few days later, delaying the execution of this
measure, still, Chavansky, the governor-general of Witebsk and. Mohilev,
one of the bitterest enemies of the Jews, had already executed the first
order in his provinces. I do not wish to say a word in defence of the
trade in ardent spirits; yet I must inveigh against the manner it was
suppressed among the Jews; since hundreds of families who gained before
an honourable living in the country, were thus driven into the towns
without the means of earning there a livelihood; and in this way was
laid the foundation of the terrible poverty which rests now like an
incubus on the Israelites of both the above provinces. Soon after, a
second ukase was published, which ordered the removal of all Jews who
kept liquor shops in a space of fifty miles of the western border of the
empire. This imperial decree augmented yet more the poverty of many
Jewish families of the western provinces, and they were removed from the
country to the towns where they knew of no means to earn a living.
Jewish affairs remained in the same state till the death of Alexander,
which took place at Taganrog.
Nicholas, on ascending the throne, decreed that all
the Jews who had till then resided in considerable numbers at St.
Petersburg and Moscow, should quit those cities immediately. Already in
the reign of Alexander the police had placed many difficulties in the
way of the Jews; but the then governor-general, Mileradowitch, always
took their part with his usual energy of character. When the chief of
the police on a certain occasion refused permission to several Jews to
sojourn in the capital, Mileradowitch asked him: “To whom, do you think,
General, am I indebted <<444>>for these stars which decorate my breast? To
none but the Jews, who rendered the most signal service to my brigade
during the French wars; and such a people you desire to persecute! Let
them stay so long as their business requires it.” He permitted them also
to have three small Synagogues at St. Petersburg, and to erect their
tabernacles on the feast of Succoth. But Mileradowitch fell in the
tumult which broke out at the accession of Nicholas to the throne, and
in him the Israelites lost their best friend. Jewish women and children
shed tears when they saw his corpse laid out in state.
The order to quit the imperial towns fell upon the
Jews like a thunderbolt from a clear and unclouded sky, so unprepared
were they for the fatal blow; many obeyed and left; but many, too many,
alas! became apostates, in order to remain; and thus was the first step
in the proselytising policy taken. And Benkendorf, the minister of
secret police, and the intimate friend of the Emperor, expressed himself
to this effect, that the Jews were expelled solely on account of their
uncleanly habits; but the common Russians are a hundred times worse, and
nobody in St. Petersburg seems to care the least about it. It is a
peculiarity rather of the Russian state policy to assign a plausible
reason for every act that is done by government, in order to stand
justified in the estimation of Europe, whilst they by, so to say,
throwing dust in the eyes of the public, conceal their true purpose.
Not long afterwards, a committee was appointed to
devise a plan of laws for the separate and especial government of the
Jews; but the work assigned to this body was only finished in 1835.
During this time, the section of the imperial council entrusted with the
making of the general laws for the empire, progressed with the task
assigned them, and the code thus produced, appeared for the first time
in a collected form, under Nicholas; and at the conclusion of every law
are the words, “Krom Ebreew,” which mean “with the exception of the
Hebrews.” Thus accumulated from day to day the laws unfavourable to the
Jews, and they were loaded with the not formerly unusual denunciations,
that the Jews are injurious to the empire, that they are idle vagabonds,
who are unwilling to work, that they are strangers to all mental
culture, and that it is the duty of the government to transform them
into useful citizens. These accusations so gene<<445>>rally believed in, compel
us to examine the argument by which they are supported. According to the
laws in force at that time, the Jews were permitted to be merchants and
pedlars, to exercise mechanical trades, to keep taverns and
post-offices, and to furnish all articles to be delivered under contract
with the crown for army supplies, &c. Even now the Jews have among them
a far greater proportionate number of patented merchants than all
the other subjects of the empire. I say patented: because the merchants
in Russia are divided in three classes or guilds, where every one has
its own proper privileges; the lowest class pays sixty; the second three
hundred, and the third eight hundred silver rubels, (per annum.)
Nevertheless, the Jews, who thus pay a very considerable sum annually to
the government, and are taxed as all other merchants, are only allowed
to trade in seventeen provinces, where they are permitted to reside,
whilst they are excluded from the remainder of the fifty-two provinces
of the empire. But where they are permitted to reside they are not
engaged merely in the retail business; but they have also rendered
themselves meritorious by prosecuting the export trade of Russian
products. Riga, which as a seaport, has the exporting business to
Holland and Great Britain, is annually visited by a great many Jewish
merchants from White Russia, for the purpose of making their contracts
for the delivery of produce; and when the ice has disappeared from the
Dwina, a fleet of Jewish vessels appears loaded with flax, hemp,
flaxseed, wheat, and the products of the forest trees, to be again
reshipped to foreign countries. From the Lithuanian provinces Jewish
merchants send their agents with the country products to Dantzig, on the
Baltic Sea, where they do a considerable business. In the south is
Berditshev, in Volhynia, the Moscow of Russian commerce, where the Jews
buy up the products of Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev, which provinces are
so greatly blessed as a grain-growing country, in order to carry them to
Odessa, on the Black Sea, whence they are again transhipped to all the
ports on the Mediterranean Sea. Another very considerable branch of
business of the Russian Jews is the furnishing of all the articles
wanted for government purposes. The government does not directly build
and keep in repair the Public highways and the public buildings; neither
does it supply directly the food and clothing for its armies; but it
publishes pro<<446>>posals, and assigns them to one of the bidders,
(Patradshiki.) The government, knowing the cupidity and greediness of
the officers, declines to provide the supplies itself; and it therefore
entrusts this branch of its administration to the hands of men, who have
to satisfy the thirst for money on the part of the officers from their
own purses; and they must therefore always lose by their contracts, if
they do not calculate all these expenses beforehand. The Jews are only
permitted to send in bids in the provinces where they reside; and as the
expenses are necessarily considerable, the wealthy only can participate
in this branch of business, and the number of those who can do this is
easily counted; as among the hundred and fifty thousand Jews in Russia*
(proper,) there are hardly twenty whose property amounts to one hundred
thousand dollars, and not a hundred who are worth fifty thousand. And
yet they do more in this government contract business than any one would
imagine, and there are families who have been noticed by government for
their spirit of enterprise, and been rewarded by the distinguished title
of “honorary citizens.”
(To be
continued.) |
