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By the Chief Rabbi Dr. Lilienthal,
(Continued from page 446.)
No. II.
The second class are the mechanics. For a long time
the Jews were accused in Russia also, as elsewhere, that they would not
occupy themselves with mechanical pursuits. This prejudice came from
Germany, where the old laws did not grant us permission to learn or to
exercise them. But how agreeably was I astonished during my travels in
Russia, to find the Jews in all places exercising mechanical trades. The
city of Wilna alone numbers over one thousand tailors, and over an equal
number of shoemakers. Some object to them that they do not understand
how to do fine work, after the Parisian fashions; but in the first place
their Jewish brethren are their only customers, and the Shubetz*
has not been subject to alteration for several centuries; and if they
should have to work for other customers, it would be impossible for them
to get their trade perfect, as a sojourn at St. Petersburg and Moscow is
prohibited to them, and in their native towns they have no opportunity
of acquiring a greater knowledge of their trade than they have already.
And in the cities of Riga and Mitau, where the German is spoken, the
Jews <<492>>are subject to severe restrictions as mechanics; since in the
former a Jew can only become the apprentice of or work as a journeyman
with another Jew; and in the latter only father and children can work
together. It is no wonder that such restrictive laws press hard upon the
Jewish mechanic, who even without them can scarcely hope to rise in the
world, on account of the active competition he has to meet with.
Notwithstanding this, the Jews have not confined themselves to the
common trades; but in the South, where poverty is not so general as in
the North, they have established many manufactories. I enumerate the
manufactories established in Podolia, as I have the memoranda to enable
me to do so. Broadcloths are made in Dunajowey, Ladishin, Kaljuss,
Kamionka, Minkowey, Nemeroff, Teplik; shawls and Tallethim, which excel
the Turkish ones in fineness of quality, are made in Bershady;
dress-shawls, which are worked after Turkish patterns, are made at
Mohilev; there is also a manufactory of paper at Minkowey, and one of
pins at Miendshiboshe; besides manufactories of heavy linen oznaburgs,
and those of soap and candles, in great quantities. There were also
formerly a great many stationers and publishers, till the law of 1835
prohibited them that branch of business in all places, with the sole
exceptions of Wilna and Kiev.—The distilleries gave employment to
hundreds of families; in the first place to the wholesale dealers, who
kept large warehouses; secondly, to the brokers, who often made
successful speculations by the difference of prices existing in the
produce of the distilleries in different places, besides their usual
commissions in buying and selling; and thirdly, to the retail dealers
and shopkeepers. It is certain that thirty thousand people obtained
their livelihood from this one branch of business.
We now come to the mail contractors, who in Russia
are obliged to keep a certain number of horses, according to the route,
and these receive, in addition to the usual travelling fees obtained
from passengers, a certain stipulated sum from government. In all
provinces where the Jews are permitted to settle, they have the mail
contracts, and generally earn thereby a comfortable maintenance.
Another class consists of ministers of religion and
teachers. The number of the first is very considerable, since there is
<<493>>hardly a village which has not its Rabbi, and if possible a Maggid
(preacher) likewise. In the more considerable towns, where there are
several Synagogues, each one has its own preacher and Dayanim (judges);
and in the large cities, such as Wilna, they have, in addition to the
Beth-Din; ten or twelve Rabbis, among whom are divided for adjudication
different portions of the Shulchan-Aruch (the compendium of Jewish
laws), and who are presided over by the chief Rabbi. It must not be lost
sight of, that the Russian Jews live strictly in accordance with our
received laws: and they are sufficiently learned in them to know that
the many cases of conscience which are of constant occurrence, cannot be
decided understandingly by any one who may claim a superficial knowledge
of the Talmud and the decisions of the latter doctors of the law; but
that it requires the study of an entire lifetime to become thoroughly
acquainted with those stupendous monuments of learning and deep research
in the great concerns of life. Hence the Russian congregations would not
feel at ease in their conscience, if they did not have a Rabbi to
preside over their religious affairs; and as the number of the
communities is large, we can easily account for the great number of
those who obtain their support as Rabbis, and why so many students crowd
their colleges to prepare themselves for the high and holy office of
teachers of religion.—Next to them is the class of Melammedim, or
schoolmasters, of whom there are at least twenty thousand in Russia. As
every Jewish child goes to the Hebrew school, and as the poorest
families exert themselves to the utmost to have their children partake
of the education there afforded, it is easy to understand that the
persons engaged in teaching must form a large mass in the aggregate. The
three cities of Kaminiec, Balta, and Mohilev, in Podolia, alone give
employment, according to strictly authentic records, to one hundred and
twenty-six Melammedim, who teach over sixteen hundred children, at an
annual expense of 10,392 silver rubles. The most populous cities, such
as Wilna and Berditshev, employ each over two hundred Melammedim. And,
although the money spent annually by the Russian Jews for the education
of their children reaches the enormous sum of between two and three
millions of silver rubles, still every individual teacher obtains barely
more than eighty rubles salary, wherewith he has to support his often
<<494>>numerous family. It is only astonishing that so many embrace every year
this pursuit, wherein they labour with a fidelity, a perseverance, and
an energy, of which the teachers of modern schools have neither
knowledge nor conception.
From the meagre sketch given above, of the manner
in which the greater portion of the Russian Jews obtain their living, it
will be evident that they are not given so much to laziness as their
accusers charge them with. The only charges which could in reality be
brought against them, in the reign of Nicholas, are, that they were not
farmers, and that they did not devote their time to secular studies, but
that they generally embraced a mercantile life. To give a more perfect
view of the ways and means of their living, we will anticipate the order
in which the Russian laws were promulgated, and treat of the above
accusations. They are in the main the very same which are brought
forward in Germany, only with this difference, that the Russian Jews
cannot be accused of a neglect of the mechanical arts. That they did not
occupy their time with agriculture, was owing to the position assigned
to them in society being that of traders, and because the fear of
becoming reduced to a state of slavery, like the Russian serfs,
prevented them from engaging in farm labours. The law of 1835, which was
intended to encourage agriculture among the Jews, promised to every one
who would engage in tilling the earth an exemption from all military
duty for five-and-twenty years; and to the wealthy Israelites, who would
establish Jewish colonies, the personal and hereditary right of honorary
citizenship.
It is a fact well known, that whole masses of Jews
were ready to emigrate to Siberia, to establish there agricultural
colonies; that the old minister of finance, Count Cankrim, gave the
project his whole support, and recommended it strongly to the Emperor;
but that he ordered, in 1837, to let the whole matter drop, because
Siberia was a land too good and inviting to be settled by Jews. Even
Jewish criminals, after their time of punishment has expired, and even
if they should desire to remain there, are forced to bend their steps to
their former homes, though they have not the least prospect to earn
there an honest support. A case in point occurred at the time when the
hereditary prince visited Siberia, and pardoned all the criminals whose
term of punishment was near expiring. The Jews, who
<<495>>felt at home in
their place of exile, begged for permission to remain there; but the
governor-general had to execute the law, and their prayers were
refused.—The government some time after assigned the level country of
Cherson to the Jews, as the land where they could settle themselves.
More than fifteen hundred Jews from the single province of Courland,
applied immediately to be sent thither; and sold all their landed
property in order to emigrate. But their petitions remained unanswered;
till at length the Czar and his son were passing in one of their
journeys through Mitau, when a Jewish tailoress boldly approached the
carriage of the Emperor, and applied to him, taking him for a person
attached to the imperial court, not knowing that it was the Czar himself
she was addressing, to intercede with the Emperor in their behalf An
order soon followed, appropriating a large sum of money to defray the
expenses of the transportation of the emigrants, promising them also
houses, cattle, agricultural implements, and seed for the first year.
I happened to be at Mitau when the intended
settlers began their journey; and I delivered an oration at the festival
which the Congregation had made, in order to prove their gratitude for
the imperial boon. It was a day of general joy, for a new era seemed to
dawn for the so long oppressed Israelites. But how speedily was that
voice of joy silenced again; for soon the afflicting news came, that one
third of the emigrants had died through the neglect of the officers who
conducted the removal; that they had found Cherson to be a dreary
country, where, from the absence of forests, rain was scarce; that they
had found neither houses nor anything else provided for them on their
arrival; that they were indebted for their preservation thus far solely
to the munificence of a Jewish commissary, Salomon-Raffalowitch; and
that, in brief, their cup of misery was full to overflowing. This
dreadful deception of all their fond anticipations, did not only bring
heart-rending misery on these emigrants, but it roused the indignation
of all Jews in Russia, and produced a settled aversion to agriculture;
for they began to look upon it as a new bait to lure them to
destruction. Of all colonies commenced under the law of 1835, only those
in Volhynia and Witebsk—the latter being founded by the hereditary
honorary citizen Rappoport—have met with success; for they are located
on good land, and in the neighbourhood of cities, as
<<496>>also of their
Jewish brethren, who give them their patronage and support.—This
accurate statement of facts proves clearly, that the charge of the Jews
being averse to agriculture, has been without foundation, at least ever
since 1835; and that if they are now cautious and distrustful, the fault
lies somewhere else than in themselves; for they may justly aver, that
after such dearly bought experience, they can only then be willing to go
to farming en masse, if they could obtain land in those provinces
where they are already settled, and near their former homesteads.
The other charge, that the Jews are averse to
secular studies, rests upon an equally erroneous foundation. For in
Germany, even Jewish parents have at length found out, that it is
absolutely folly to let their sons devote themselves to the study of
the law, since they never can hope of obtaining the least office: and
since many a one, after the lost years of his youth are passed, tired of
waiting, and fearful of not having in old age any means of support,
finds in the baptismal font the last anchor of his shattered hopes. How
much more must this consideration have weight in Russia? Nicholas,
instead of encouraging the Jews to study, ordered, on the contrary, that
all such of them as held offices and insignia of distinction under
Alexander, should either resign them or become apostates. I know myself
several collegiate counsellors and men attached to the court, who went
to the Synagogue on the Day of Atonement, with the insignia of the order
of St. Anna around their neck, and prayed there with devotion and
fervour, who still were forced into apostacy. Such instances are not
calculated to encourage Jewish parents to let their children study; and
it is but too true, that many whose inclination led them to study, were
carried thereby into the bosom of the Christian church.
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