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HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

CHAPTER I: THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE

1. THE JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA

From the point of view of antiquity the Jewish Diaspora in
the east of Europe is the equal of that in the west, though
vastly its inferior in geographic expansion and spiritual development.
It is even possible that the settlement of Jews in
the east of Europe antedates their settlement in the west. For
Eastern Europe, beginning with Alexander the Great, received
its immigrants from the ancient lands of Hellenized Asia,
while the immigration into Western Europe proceeded in the
main from the Roman Empire, the heir to the Hellenic
dominion of the East.
Among the ancient Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe
the colonies situated on the northern shores of the Black Sea,
now forming a part of the Russian Empire, occupy a prominent
place.
Far back in antiquity the Greeks of Asia Minor and the
Ionian Islands gravitated towards the northern shores of the
Pontus Euxinus, the fertile lands of Tauris-the present
Crimea: Beginning with the sixth century B. C. E., they estab-
[' Later on the author differentiates between Tauris and the
Crimea, using the former term to designate the northern coast of
the Black Sea in general, with the Crimea as a part of it. The
modern Russian Government of Tavrida is similarly made up of
two sections: the larger northern part consists of the mainland,
the smaller southern part is identical with the Crimean Peninsula,
connected with the mainland by the Isthmus of Perekop. In
antiquity the name Tauri, or Taurians, was restricted to the
inhabitants of the mountainous south coast of the Crimea.]
14 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.AND POLAND
lished their colonies in those parts, whence they exported com
to their homeland, Greece. When, after the conquests of Alexander
the Great, Judea became a part of the Hellenistic Orient,
and sent forth the" great Diaspora" into all the dominions of
the Seleucids and Ptolemies, one of the branches of this Diaspora
must have reached as far as distant Tauris. Following in
the wake of the Greeks, the Jews wandered thither from Asia
Minor, that conglomerate of countries and cities--Cilicia,
Galatia, Miletus, Ephesus, Sardis, Tarsus--which harbored,
at the beginning of the Christian era, important Jewish communities,
the earliest nurseries of Christianity. In the first
century of the Christian era, which marks the consolidation of
the Roman power over the Hellenized East, we meet in the
Greek colonies of Tauris with fully organized Jewish communities,
which undoubtedly represent offshoots of a much older
colonization.
During the same period there flourished in the Crimea and
on the adjacent shores of the Black and Azov Seas, called by
the Greeks Pontus and Maeotis, in the lands of the Scythians,
Sarmatians, and Taurians, a number of diminutive Greek cityrepublics--
Cimmerian Bosporus, or Panticapaeum (at present
Kerch), Phanagoria (the Taman Peninsula), Olbia, Gorgippia
(now Anapa), and others. The most active of these colonies
was Bosporus-Panticapaeum, which was situated at the confluence
of the Black and Azov Seas. The kings, or archonts,
of Bosporus, of the Greek dynasty of the Rhescuporides, ac-
/ knowledged the sovereignty of Rome. They styled themselves,
in accordance with the customary formula, "friends of the
Caesars and the Romans," and frequently added to their title
the Roman dynastic appellation "Tiberius-Julius." The
1ewish historian Josephus Flavius, in depicting the irresistible
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 15
sway of the Roman world-power in his time, refers to this
colony in the following terms: "Why need I speak of the
Heniochi and Colchians and the nation of the Tauri, and those
who inhabit the Bosporus and the nations about Pontus and
Maeotis . . . . who are now subject to three thousand armed
men, and where forty long ships keep in peace the sea which
before was unnavigable, and is very tempestuous?" (Bell.
Jud. II. xvi. 4.) These :wordswere written shortly after the
downfall of Judea, about the year 80 of the Christian era.
Now from practically the same year (80-81) date the Greek
inscriptions which were discovered on the soil of ancient Bosporus
in Tauris, testifying to the existence there of a wellorganized
Jewish community, with a house of prayer. The
following is the text of one of these inscriptions, engraved on a
marble tablet which is kept in the Hermitage of Petrograd:
In the reign of King Tiberius Julius Rhescuporides, the pious
friend of the Caesars and the Romans, in the year 377,' on the
twelfth day of the month of Peritios, I, Chresta, formerly the wife
of Drusus, declare in the house of prayer ("'POCTEVx1i) that my fosterson
Heracles is free once [for all], in accordan~e with my vow, so
that he may not be captured or annoyed by my heirs, and may move
about wherever he chooses, without let or hindrance, except for [the
obligation of visiting] the house of prayer for worship and constant
attendance. [Done] with the approval of my heirs Iphicleides
and Heliconias, and with the participation of the Synagogue of the
Jews in the guardianship (CTV"~"""'PO"'~VOUCT'If Be Ka.l .•.1js CTVlla.'YO'Y7jS .•.,;,,,
'IovBa.lw,,) .
This inscription, paralleled by a similar document of the
same period, was evidently meant to certify the act of liberating
a slave, which, according to custom, was performed
'The date is that of the" Bosporan era," and corresponds to the
year 80·81of the common era.
2
16 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
publicly, in the" house of prayer," with the participation of
the representatives of the Jewish community:
The contents of the inscriptions enable us to draw the following
conclusions bearing on the history of the Jews during
that period:
1. The JewiS~Unity in Taurian Bosporus was made up
of Hellenized Jews, who employed the Greek language in their
religious and civil documents, and called themselves by Greek
Dames (Chresta, Drusus, Heracles, Artemisia, etc.). 2. While
assimilated to the Greeks in point of language, they were firmly
united among themselves by the bond of religion, as is shown
by the obligation, imposed even on the freedman, the Ubertinus,
to visit the house of prayer for worship. 3. The Jewish community
enjoyed a certain amount of civil autonomy, as shown in the case
cited above, in which the community appears in the rOleof a jurid·
ical person, acting as the guardian of the liberated slaves.
It is to be assumed that similar communities of Hellenized
Jews were found in the other Greek colonies of Tauris, their
population being constantly swelled by the influx of immigrants
from Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, particularly from
Judeo-Hellenistic Alexandria. Since these communities of the
first Christian century appear to have been well-organized and
to have possessedtheir own institutions, we are safe in assuming
that they were preceded by a more primitive phase of communal
Jewish life, in the shape of petty settlements and trading
stations, which must ha~e arisen in earlier centuries.
From the first centuries of the Christian era date a number
of tombstones bearing representations of the holy candlestick,
the Menorah. The religious influence of Judaism in Tauris
and in the Azov region is attested by various other indications.
The inscriptions contain several references to "those who
1In the Greek documents of that period Synagogue signifies,
not a house of worship, but a religious community.
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 17
fear God the Most High" (u(/J6p.u'ot 6(ov v';urrov), a phrase
applied in the Greco-Roman world to pagans who stand halfway
between polytheism on the one hand and Judaism or
primitive Christianity on the other.
The Judeo-Hellenistic Diaspora in Tauris, on the northern
shores of the Black Sea, was, like its parent stock in Asia
Minor, the ceI).ter of a Christian propaganda. Towards the
end of the third century we :find in Chersonesus, near Sevastopol,
Christian bishops wielding considerable power. The
exercise of this power was evidently responsible for the
pagan rebellion of which we read in the lives of the Christian
martyrs Basil and Capiton. On the sixth of December of
the year 300 the pagan inhabitants rose in revolt against these
two bishops and their fellow-missionaries, and were joined by
the Jews, whom, it would seem, the zealots of the new faith
had endeavored equally to drag into the bosom of the Church.
The existence of a Jewish settlement in the Bosporan kingdom
was also known to St. Jerome, the famous Church father,
who lived at the end of the fourth century in far-off Palestine.
On the authority of his Jewish teacher he applied verse 20
in Obadiah, "and the captivity of Jerusalem which is in
Sepharad," to the Taurian Bosporus, the remotest corner of the
Jewish Diaspora.'
With the division of the Roman Empire into two halves
the Greco-Judean colonies on the Black Sea were naturally
drawn into the splJere of influence of the eastern part, the
E~pi:re of Byzantium, the capital of which, Constantinople,
was situated on the opposite coast of the Black Sea. Com-
[1 It is possible that the identUicatlon was suggested by the simi·
larity in sound between Bosporus and bi-SpMrad. the Hebrew for
••in 8epharad."]
18 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
mercia! relations brought the Taurian colony into ever closer
contact with the metropolis of Byzantium, and the Jews vied
with the Greeks ~. thj promotion of trade. 'I.'hepersecutions
of the militant CjYrtch of Byzantium under the Emperors
Theodosius II., Zeno, and Justinian, during the fifth and sixth
centuries, drove the Jews from the ancient provinces of the
Empire into the Taurian colonies. In the eighth century the
Jewish population of these colonies was so numerous that the
Byzantine chronicler Theophanes places the Jews in the forefront
of the various groups of the population. "In Phanagoria
and the neighboring region," says Theophanes, "the Jews who
live there are surrounded by many other tribes."
These colonies were frequently visited by Christian missionaries,
who endeavored to convert the native population to their
faith, and incidentally also to win over the Jews. The Patriarchs
of Constantinople were then hopeful of drawing the
people of the Old Testament into tM fold of the New'. The
Patriarch Photius, of the ninth century, writes thus to the
Bishop of Bosporus (Kerch): "Wert thou also to capture'the
J udeans there, securing their obedience unto Christ, I should
welcome with my whole soul the fruits of such beautiful hopes."
The" Judeans," however, not only did not take the bait of the
missionaries, but even managed to spoil their propaganda
among the pagans. The most illustrious of all Byzantine missionaries,
Cyril and Methodius, had frequent occasion to quarrel
with "the J udeans, who blaspheme the Christian faith,"
and the boastful ecclesiastic legend asserts that the holy brothers
"by prayer and eloquence defeated the Judeans [in disputes]
and put them to shame" (about 860) .
The struggle between the Christian missionaries and the
Jews during that period had for its object the Khazar nation,
part of whom had embraced Judaism.
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 19

2. THE KINGDOM OF THE KHAZARS

While Byzantium was pressing on the Euxine colonies from
the west, endeavoring to draw them, together with the adjoining
lands of the Slavs, into the sphere of Christian civilization,
a new power from the east, from the Caucasus and the Caspian
region, came rushing along in the same direction. We refer to
the Khazars, or Kazars: Forming originally a conglomerate
of Finno-Turkish tribes, the warlike Khazars appeared in
the Caucasus during the "migration of nations," and began
to make inroads into the Persian Empire of the Sassanids,
often acting as the tools of Persia's rival, Byzantium. The
great Arabic conquests of the seventh century and the rise
of the powerful Eastern Calipha~ checked the movement of the
Khazars towards the East, and turned it westward, to the
. shores of the Caspian Sea, the mouths of the Volga and the
Don, the Byzantine colonies on the Black and Azov Seas, and,
in particular, the flourishing region of Tauris. At the mouth
of the Volga, where the mighty river joins the Caspian
Sea, near the present city of Astrakhan, arose the kingdom of
the Khazars with its capital Ityl, the name originally designating
the river Volga. From there the bellicose Khazars
made constant raids upon the Slavonian tribes far and near,
to the very gates of Kiev, forcing them to become their
tributaries.
Another Khazar center was established in the Crimea,
among Byzantine Greeks and Jews. From the Crimea
[' The Arabic and other medieval authors write the name with a
kh (= hard German ch), hence the frequent spel11ngChazars. In
Hebrew sources the word is written with a k (::l). except in a
recently discovered document (see Schechter, Jew. Quart. Review,
new series, 111.184), where it is spelled with a k ( P). Besides
Khazar and Kazar, the name is also found in the form KOllar, or
Kuzar.] -
20 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
the Khazars pressed forward in the direction of Byzantium
and the Balkan Peninsula, constituting a serious menace to the
Roman Empire of the East. As a rule, the Byzantine emperors
concluded alliances with the kings, or khagans, of the Khazars,
checking their unbridled energy by means of concessions and
the payment of tribute. In Constantinople the illusion was
fostered that the Church, and with it Byzantine diplomacy,
were in the end bound to triumph over all the Khazars-by
converting them to Christianity. With this purpose in view,
missionaries were dispatched from Byzantium, while the local
bishops of Tauris were working zealously to the same end.
But the task proved extremely difficult, for the Greek Church
found itself face to face with a powerful rival in Judaism,
which succeeded in establishing its hold on a part of the
Khazar nation.
While yet in their pagan state, the Khazars were exposed
at one and the same time to the influences of three religions:
Mohammedanism, which pursued its triumphant march from
the Arabic Caliphate; Christianity, which was spreading in
Byzantium, and Judaism, which, headed by the Exilarchs and
Gaons of Babylonia, was centered in the Caliphate, while its
ramifications spread all over the Empire of Byzantium and its
colonies on the Black Sea. The Arabs and the Byzantines
succeeded in converting several groups of the Khazar population
to Islam and Christianity, but the lion's share fell to
Judaism, for it managed to get hold of the royal dynasty and
the ruling classes.
The conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, which took place
about 740, is described circumstantially in the traditions preserved
among the Jews and in the accounts of the medieval
Arabic travelers:
THE DIABPOR.AIN EABTEltN EUROPE 21.
The King, or Khagan, of the Khazars, by the name of Bulan,
had resolved to abandon paganism, but was undecided as to the
religion he should adopt instead. Messengerssent by the Caliph
persuaded him to accept Islam, envoysfrom Byzantium endeaTored
to win him over to Christianity, and representatives of Judaism
championed their own faith. As a result, Bulan arranged a dis·
putation between the advocates of the three religions, to be
held in his presence, but he failed to carry away any definite
conviction from their arguments and mutual refutations. Thereupon
the King invited first the Christian and then the Mohammedan,
and questioned them separately. On asking the former
which religion he thought was the better of the two, Judaism or
Mohammedanism,he received the reply: Judaism, since it is the
older of the two, and the basis of all religions.' On asking
the Mohammedan,which religion he preferred, Judaism or Christianity,
he received the same reply in favor of Judaism, with
the same motivation. ••If that be the case," Bulan argued in
consequence,••if both the Mohammedanand.the Christian acknowledge
the superiority of Judaism to the religion of their antagonist,
I too prefer to adopt the Jewish religion." Bulan accordingly embraced
Judaism, and many of the Khazar nobles followed his
example.
According to the Jewish sources, one of Bulan's descendants,
the Khagan Obadiah, was a particularly zealous adherent of
Judaism. He invited-possibly from Babylonia-many Jewish
sages to his country, to instruct the converted Khazars in
Bible and Talmud, and he founded synagogues, and established
Divine services.
1According to another version of the same story, quoted by
the Arabic geographer al·Bekri (d. 1094), the Bishop who was
championing the cause of Christianity said in reply to the King's
inquiry: ••I believe that Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, is the
Word,and that he revealed"the mysteries of the great and exalted
God." A Jew who lived at the royal court and was present at
the disputation interrupted him with the remark: ••He [the
Bishop] believes in things which are unintelligible to me."
22 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
In the ninth and tenth centuries, the kingdom of the
Khazars, governed by rulers professing the Jewish faith, attained
to outward power and inner prosperity. The accounts
of the Arabic writers of that period throw an interesting light
on the inner life of the Khazars, which was marked by religious
tolerance. The king of the Khazars and the governing classes
professed the Jewish religion. Among the lower classes the
three monotheistic religions were all represented, and in addition
a considerable number of pagans still survived. In spite
of the fact that royalty and nobility professed Judaism, the
principle of religious equality was never violated. The khagan
had under him seven (according to another version, nine)
judges: two for the followers of the Jewish religion, two each
for the Christians and Mohammedans, and one for the pagans
-the Slavs, the Russians, and other races. Only occasionally
did the Khazar king show signs of intolerance, particularl1
when rumors concerning Jewish persecutions in other countries
came to his ears. Thus, on one occasion, about 921, on
being informed that the Mohammedans had destroyed a synagogue
somewhere in the land of Babunj, the Khagan gave
orders to destroy the tower (minaret) of a certain mosque and
to kill the muezzins (the heralds who call to prayer), explaining
his attitude in these words: "I should have destroyed the
mosque itself, had I not feared that not a single synagogue
would be left standing in the lands of the Mohammedans."
In the kingdom of the Khazars, favorably situated as it was
between the Caliphate of Bagdad and the Byzantine Empire,
the Jews evidently played an important economic role. During
the ninth and tenth centuries the territory of the Khazars was
traversed by one of the great trade routes which connected the
three parts of the Old WorId. According to the testimony of
THE D1ASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 23
Ibn Khordadbeh, an Arabic geographer of the ninth century,
Jewish merchants, who were able to speak the principal Asiatic
and European languages, "traveled from West to East and
from East to West, on sea and by land." The land route led
from Persia and the Caucasus "through the country of the
Slavs, near the capital of the Khazars" (the mouth of the
Volga), by crossing the Sea of J orjan (the Caspian Sea).
Another Arabic writer, named Ibn Fakih,' who wrote shortly
after 900, testifies that on the route of the" Slav merchants,"
who were trading between the Sea of the Khazars (the Caspian
Sea) and that of Rum (the Byzantine or Black Sea), was
found the Jewish city of Samkers, on the Taman Peninsula,
near the Crimea:
During this period of prosperity the kingdom of the Khazars
received a considerable Jewish influx from Byzantium, where
the Jews were persecuted by Emperor Basil the M:acedonian
(867-886), being forcibly converted to Christianity, while
hundreds of Jewish communities were devastated. The J ewish
emigrants from Byzantium were naturally attracted
towards a land in which Judaism was the religion of the Government
and the Court, though equal toleration was accorded to
all other religions. The well-known Arabic writer Masudi
refers to this Jewish immigration in the following passage:
P The author, evidently relying on the authority of Harkavy,
writes 11m Shard. The writer referred to by Harkavy is All Ibn
Ja'far ash-8haizari (wrongly called Ibn Sharzi), who made an
extract from Ibn Fakih's ••Book of Countries" about 1022. This
extract has since been published by de Goeje in his BtbJiotheca
Geographicorum Arabicorum, vol. v. Our reference is found
there on p. 271. I have put Ibn Fakih's name in the text, as there
is no reason to doubt that our passage was found in the original
work, which was written more than a hundred years earlier.]
[" See on the name of this city de Goeje's remarks in his edition of
Ibn Fakih, p. 271, note a.]
24 THE JEWS IN ftUSSIA AND POLAND
The population of the Khazar capital consists of Moslems,
Christians, Jews, and pagans. The king, his court, and all members
of the Khazar tribe profess the Jewish religion, which has
been the dominant faith of the country since the time of the
Caliph Barun ar·Rashid. Many Jews who settled among the
Khazars came from all the cities of the Moslems and the lands
of Rum (Byzantium), the reason being that the king of Rum
persecuted the Jews of his empire in order to force them to adopt
Christianity. . . .. In this way a large number of Jews left the
land of Rum in order to depart to the Khazars.
This testimony dates from the year 954. Contemporaneous
with it is the extremely interesting correspondence between
Joseph, the Khagan of the Khazars, and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut,
the Jewish statesman of the Cordova Caliphate in Spain.
Being a high official at the court of Abderrahman III.,
Hasdai maintained diplomatic relations with the emperors of
Byzantium and other rulers of Asia and Europe, and in this
way came to learn of the Khazar kingdom, through the
Persian and Byzantine ambassadors. The news of the existence
of a land somewhere beyond the seas where a Jew sat
on the throne, and Judaism was the religion of the state, filled
Hasdai with joy. Firmly convincedthat he had found the clue
to the lost Jewish kingdom of which popular Jewish tradition
had so much to tell, the J'ewish statesman at the Moslemcourt
felt the burning need of getting in touch with the rulers of
Khazaria, and, in case the rumors should prove correct, of
transferring his abode thither and devoting his powers of
statesmanship to his fellow-Jews. Prolonged inquiries elicited
the information that the land of the Khazars lay fifteen days
by sea from Constantinople, that it stood in commercial relations
with Byzantium, that the name of its present ruler was
Joseph, and that the safest means of communicating with him
THE DIASPORAIN EASTERN EUROPE 25
was by way of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Russia. After several
vain attempts to get in touch with the ruler of the Khazars
Hasdai finally succeeded in having an elaborate Hebrew epistle
delivered into the hands of King Joseph (about 955).
In his epistle Hasdai first gives an account of himself and
his position at the court of Cordova, and then proceeds to beg
the King of the Khazars to inform him in detail of the rise and
present status of " the Jewish kingdom," being anxious to find
out" whether there is anywhere a soil and a kingdom where
scattered Israel is not subject and subordinate to others."
Were I to know-Hasdai continues-that this is true, I should
renounce my place of honor, abandon my lofty rank, forsake my
family, and wander over mountains and hills, by sea and on
land, until I reached the dwelling-place of my lord and sover·
eign, there to behold his greatness and splendor, the seats of
his subjects, the position of his servants, and the tranquillity of
the remnant of Israel. . . .. Having been cast down from our
former glory, and now living in exile, we are powerless to answer
those who constantly say unto us: ••Every nation hath its own
kingdom, while you have no trace [of a kingdom] on earth."
But whElnwe received the news about our lord and sovereign,
about the power of his kingdom and the multitude of his hosts,
we were filled with astonishment. We lifted our heads, our
spirit revived, and our hands were strengthened, the kingdom of
my lord serving us as an answer. Would that this rumor might
increase in strength [i. e. be verified], for thereby will our greatness
be enhanced!
After long and painful waiting Hasdai received the King's
reply. In it the ruler of the Khazars gives an account of the
heterogeneous composition of his people and the various
religions professed by it. He describes how King Bulan and
his princes embraced the Jewish faith after testing the various
rival creeds, and how zealously it was upheld by the Kings
26 THE JEWS "IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Obadiah, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Hanukkah, Isaac, Zebulun,
Moses (or Manasseh II.), Nissi, Aaron, Menahem, Benjamin,
Aaron (II.), the last being the father of the writer, King
Joseph. The King continues:
I reside [i. e. my residence is situated] at the mouth of the
river Ityl [Volga]; at the end of the river is found the Sea of
Jorjan [the Caspian Sea]. The beginning of the river is towards
the east. at a distance of a four months' journey. Along,the banks
of the river there are many nations living in towns and villages,
in open as well as fortified places. These are their names: Burtas,
Bulgar, Suvar, Arisu, Tzarmis, Venentit, Sever, Slaviun.1 Each
of these nations is very numerous, and all of them are tributary
to me. From there the boundary turns towards Buarezm [probably
Khwarism], up to Jorjan, and all the inhabitants of the seashore,
for a distance of one month's journey, are tributary to me.
To the south are found Semender, Bak-Tadlud, up to the gates of
Bab aI-Abwab, which are situated on the coast." .... To the
west there are Sarkel, Samkrtz, Kertz, Sugdai, Alus, Lambat,
Bartnit, Alubika, Kut, Mankup. Budak, Alma, and Gruzin.' All
these localities are situated on the shores of the Sea of Kostantinia"
towards the west .... They are all tributary to me. Their dwell·
ings and camping-places are scattered over a distance of a four
months' journey.
Know and take notice that I live at the mouth of the river
[Volga], and with the help of the Almighty I guard the entrance
to this river, and prevent the Russians, who arrive in vessels,
from passing into the Caspian Sea for the purpose of making
their way to the Ishmaelites [Mohammedans]. In the same
manner I keep the enemies on land from approaching the gates
of Bab aI-Abwab. Because of this I am at war with them, and
were I to let them pass but once, they would destroy the whole
land of the Ishmaelites as far as Bagdad . • . . Our eyes are
•A group of Slav nations.
I A group of Caucasian cities (Semender = Tarku, near Shamir.
Khan-Shur; Bab aI-Abwab = Derbent).
•A group of Crimean cities (Kerch, Sudak, Marigup, and others).
["1. e. Sea of Constantinople, another name for the Black Sea.]
THE DIASPORAIN EASTERN EUROPE 27'
[turned] to God and to the wise men of Israel who preside
over the academies of Jerusalem and Babylon. We are far away
from Zion, but it has come to our ears that, on account of our
sins, the calculations [concerning the coming of the Messiah]
have become confused, so that we know nothing. May it please
the Lord to act for the sake of His great Name. May the destruction
of His temple, and the cutting off of the holy service, and the
misfortunes that have befallen us, not appear small in His sight.
May the words of the prophet be fulfllled: ••And the Lord, whom
ye seek, shall suddenly cometo His temple" (Mal. iii. 1). Wehave
nothing in our possession [concerning the coming of the Messiah]
except the prophecy of Daniel. May the God of Israel hasten our
redemption and gather together all our exiled and scattered
[brethren] in my lifetime, in thy lifetime, and in the lifetime
of the whole house of Israel, who love His name.
The concluding phrases cast a shadow of doubt on the
authenticity of this epistle or, more correctly, of some parts
of both epistles, which more probably reflect the mournful Messianic
temper of the sixteenth century, when this correspondence
was brought to light by Spanish exiles who had made
their way to Constantinople, than the state of mind of a
Spanish dignitary or a Khazar king of the tenth century.
However, the essential data contained in Joseph's epistle
are so completely in accord with the reports of contemporaneous
Arabic writers that the substance of this correspondence
may be safely declared to be authentic:
Joseph's epistle must have arrived in Spain about 960.
Only a few years later events occurred which made this King
the last ruler of the Khazars. The apprehensions, voiced in
• This supposition is confirmedby a recently discovered Genizah
fragment containing a portion of another Khazar epistle, which
811pplementsand modifiesthe epistle of King Joseph. See Schechter,
II An Unknown Khazar Document," Jewish Quarterly Review,
new series, ill. 181 ff.
28 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
his letter, concerning the Russians, with whom the King was
at war, and who were ready to " destroy the whole land of the
Ishmaelites as far as Bagdad," were speedily realized. A few
years later the Slavopian tribes, who had in the meantime been
united under the leadership of Russian princes, not only threw
off the yoke of the Khazars, whose vassals they were, but also
succeeded in invading and finally destroying their center at the
mouth of the Volga. Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev devastated
the Khazar territories on the Ityl, and, penetrating to the
heart of the country, dislodged .the Khazars from the Caspian
region (966-969). The Khazars withdrew to their possessions
on the Black Sea, and established themselves in particular
on the Crimean Peninsula, which for a long time retained
the name of Khazaria.
The greatly reduced Khazar kingdom in Tauris, the survival
of a mtghty empire, was able to hold its own for nearly half a
century, until in the eleventh century it fell a prey to the Russians
and Byzantines (1016). The relatives of the last khagan
fled, according to tradition, to their coreligionists in Spain.
The Khazar nation was scattered, and was subsequently lost
among the other nations. The remnants of the Khazars in the
Crimea who professed Judaism were in all likelihood merged
with the native Jews, consisting partly of Rabbanites and
partly of Karaites.
In this way the ancient Jewish settlements on the Crimean
Peni+lsula suddenly received a large increase. At the same
time the influx of Jewish immigrants, who, together with the
Greeks, moved frOm B-yzantium towards the northern shores of
the Black Sea, continued as theretofore, the greater part of
these immigrants consisting of Karaites, who were fouttd in
large numbers in the Byzantine Empire. Even the subsequent
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 29
dominion of the Pechenegs and Polovtzis, who ruled over the
Taur~s region after the downfall of the Khazars, failed to
uproot the ancient traditions, and as late as the twelfth ce~-
tury the name Khazaria meets us in contemporary documents.
About the year 1175 the traveler Pethahiah of Ratisbon visited
"the land of the Kedars and that of the Khazars, which are
separated from each other by a sea tongue," meaning the continental
part of Tauris, where the nomadic Polovtzis (Kedars)
were roaming about, and the Crimean Peninsula, between
which two regions lie the Gulf of Perekop and the isthmus of
the same name. In the land of the Kedars Pethahiah did not
find genuine Jews, but minim, heretics or sectarians, who
" do not believe in the traditions of the sages, eat their Sabbath
meal in the dark, are ignorant of the Talmudic forms of
the benedictions and prayers, and have not even heard of the
Talmud." It is evident that the author is describing the
Karaites.

3. THE JEWS IN THE EARLY RUSSIAN PRINCIPALITIES AND IN THE TATARIC KHANATE OF THE CRIMEA

With the growth of the Russian Principality of Kiev,. which
received its ecclesiastic organization from the hands of Byzantine
monks, it gradually became another objective of Jewish
immigration. The Jews came thither not only from Kha-
P During the early centuries of Its existence Russia was made up
of a number of Independent principalities, over which the Principality
of KJev, ••the mother of Russian cities," exercised, or rather
claimed, the right of overlordshlp. From 1238 to 1462 the Russian
lands were subject to the dominion of the Tatars. During the fourteenth
century, while yet under Tatar rule, the Principality of Moscow
gained the ascendancy over the other Russian states. The
absorption of the latter and the creation of the autocratic Tzardom
of Muscovy was the work of Ivan III. (1462-1505), his son Basil
(1606-1633), and his grandson Ivan IV. the Terrible (1533-1584).]
30 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA .ANDPOLAND
zaria, or the Crimea, but also, following in the wake of ·the
Greeks, from the Empire of Byzantium, developing the commercial
life of the principality and connecting that primitive
region with the centers of human civilization. The popular
legend, which is reproduced in the ancient Russian chronicles,
and is no doubt tinged with the spirit of Byzantine clericalism,
makes the Jews participate in the competition. of religions for
the conquest of pagan Russia, in that famous spectacle of the
"test of creeds" which took place in 986 in the presence of
Vladimir, Prince of Kiev.
The church legend narrates that when Vladimir had announced
his intention to abandon idolatry, he received a visit from I{ha.
zarian Jews, who said to him: ~.We have heard that the Christians
have come to preach their"faith, but they believe in one who was
crucifled by us, while we believe in the one God, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob." Vladimir asked the Jews: "What does
your law prescribe?" To this they replied: ••To be circumcised,
not to eat pork or game, and to keep the Sabbath." ••Where is your
country?" inquired the Prince. "In Jerusalem," replied the Jews.
" But do you live there?" he asked. ",We do not," answered the
Jews, "for the Lord was wroth with our forefathers, and scattered
us all over the earth for our sins, while our land was given away to
the Christians." Thereupon Vladimir exclaimed: ••How then
dare you teach others when you yourselves are rejected by God
and scattered? If God IOTed you, you would not be dispersed In
strange lands. Do you intend to inflict the same misfortune
on me?"
This popular tradition is historically true only insofar as it
reflects the ecclesiastic and political struggle of the time. It was
in Taurian Chersonesus, the ancient scene of Jewish and
Byzantine rivalry, that the threads were woven which subsequently
tied pagan Russia to Byzantium. The attempts of
the Taurian, or Khazarian, Jews to assert their claims in the
, THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 31
religious competition at Kiev were bound to prove a failure.
For community of political and economic interests was forcing
Byzantium and the Principality of Kiev into an alliance, which
was finally consummated at the end of the tenth century by
the conversion of Russia to Greek Orthodox Christianity. The
alliance resulted in the downfall of their common enemy, the
Khazars, who, for several centuries, had been struggling with
the Byzantines on the shores of the Black Sea, and at the
same time had held in subjection the tribes of the Slavs. In
consequence of the defeat of the Khazars, a part of the Jewish-
Khazarian center in Tauris was transferred to the Principality
of Kiev.
The coincidence of the settlement of Jews in Kiev with
the conversion of Russia to the Greek Orthodox faith foreshadows
the course of history. The very earliest phase of Russian
cultural life is stamped by the Byzantine spirit of intolerance
in relation to the Jews. The Abbot of the famous
Pechera monastery, Theodosius (1057-1074), taught the Kioviana
to live at peace with friends and foes, "but with their
own foes, not with those of God." God's foes, however, are
Jews and heretics, "who hold a crooked religion." In the
Life of Theodosius written by the celebrated Russian chronicler
Nestor we are told that this austere monk was in the habit
of getting up in the night and secretly going to the Jews to
argue with them about Christ. He would scold them, branding
them as wicked and godless, and would purposely irritate
them, in the hope of being killed "for the profession of
Christ" and thus attaining to martyrdom, though it would
seem that the Jews consistently refused to grant him this
pleasure. Hatred against Jews and Judaism was equally
preached by Theodosius' contemporaries Illarion and John,
Metropolitans of Kiev (about 1050 and 1080).
3
32 THE JlllWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
This propaganda of religious intolerance did not remain
without effect. In the beginning of the twelfth century the
Jewish colony of Kiev experienced the first pogrom. Under
Grand Duke Svyatopolk II. (1093-1113) the Jews of Kiev
had enjoyed complete liberty of trade and commerce. The
Prince had protected his Jewish subjects, and had intrusted
some of them with the collection of the customs and other ducal
imposts. But during the interregnum following the death of
Svyatopolk (1113) they had to pay dearly for the liberty
enjoyed by them. The Kiovians had offered the throne of
the principality to Vladimir Monomakh, but he was slow about
entering the capital. As a result, riots broke out. The Kiev
mob revolted, and, after looting the residences of several high
officials,threw itself upon the Jews and plundered their property.
The well-intentioned among the inhabitants of Kiev
dispatched a second delegation to Monomakh, warning him
that, if he tarried longer, the riots would assume formidable
dimensions. Thereupon Monomakh arrived and restored order
in the capital.
Nevertheless the Jews continued to reside in Kiev. In 1124
they suffered severely from a fire which destroyed a considerable
portion of the city. In the chronicles of that period (1146-
1151) mention is frequently made of the" Jewish gate" in
Kiev. Jewish merchants were attracted towards this city, a
growing commercial center serving as the connecting link
between Western Europe on the one hand and the Black Sea
provinces and the Asiatic continent on the other. Reference
to Kiev is made by the Jewish travelers of the time, Benjamin
of Tudela and Pethahiah of Ratisbon (1160-1190). The
former speaks of " the kingdom of Russia, stretching from the
gates of Prague to the gates of Kiev, a laJ'ge city on the border
THE DIABPORA IN EA~N EUROPE 33
of the kingdom." The latter, Pethahiah, informs·us that, on
leaving his home in Ratisbon, he proceeded to Prague, the
capital of Bohemia; from Prague he went to Poland, and from
there" to Kiev, which is in Russia," whereupon he traveled
for six days, until he reached the Dnieper, and, having crossed
it, finally arrived on the coast of the Black Sea and in the
Crimea.
After the Crusades, when considerable settlements of Jewish
immigrants from Germany began to spring up in Poland,
part of these immigrants found their way into the Principality
of Kiev. The German rabbis of the twelfth century occasionally
refer in their writings to the journeys of German Jews
traveling with their merchandise to " Russ" and " Sclavonia "
(= Slavonia, Slav countries). The Jews of Russia, who lacked
rabbinical authorities of their own, addressed their inquiries to
the Jewish scholars of Germany, or sent their studious young
men to the West to obtain a Talmudic education. Hebrew
sources of the twelfth century make mention of the names of
Rabbi Isaac of Chernigov and Rabbi Moses·of Kiev. The
latter is quoted as having addressed an inquiry to the wellknown
Gaon of Bagdad, Samuel ben AlL
The conquest of the Crimea by the Tatar khans in the
thirteenth century and the gradual extension of their sovereignty
to the Principalities of Kiev and Moscow brought the
old center of Judaism in the Tauris region in close contact
with its offshoots in various parts of Russia. Kiev enters into
regular commercial intercourse with Kaffa (Theodosia) on the
Crimean sea-shore. Kaffa becomes during that period an international
emporium, owing to the Genoese, who had obtained
from the Tatar khans concessions for Kaffa and the surround·
ing country, and had founded there a commercial colony of the
34 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Genoese Republic. The Crimean Peninsula was joined to the
world commerce of Italy, and merchantmen were constantly
ploughing the seas between Genoa and Kaffa, passing through
the Byzantine Dardanelles. Italians, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians
flocked to Kaffa and the adjacent localities on the southern
coast of the Crimea. The Government of the Genoese
Republic time and again instrncted its consuls who were
charged with the administration of the Crimean colony to
observe the principles of religious toleration in their attitude
towards this heterogeneous population. If the testimony of
the traveler Schiltberger, who visited the Crimea between
1394 and 1427, may be relied upon, there were in Kaffa Jews
" of two kinds," evidently Rabbanites and Karaites, who had
two synagogues and four thousand houses, an imposing population
to judge by its numbers.
The great crisis in the history of Byzantium-the capture of
Constantinople by the Turks-affected also the Genoese colony
in the Crimea. The Turks began to hamper the Genoese in
their navigation through the straits. In 1455 the Genoese
Government ceded its Kaffa possessions to the Bank of St.
George in Genoa. The new administration set out to restore
order in the colony and establish normal relations between the
various races inhabiting it; but the days of this cultural oasis
on the Black Sea were numbered. In 1475 Kaffa was taken
by the Turks, and the whole peninsula fell under Turco-Tataric
dominion.
Important Jewish communities were to be found during that
period also in the older Tataric possessions of the Crimea. Two
Jewish communities, one consisting of Rabbanites and the
other of Karaites, flourished, during the thirteenth century,
in the ancient capital of the Tatar khans, named Solkhat (now
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 35
Eski-Krym). Beginning with 1428, the old Karaite community
of Chufut-Kale ("the Rock of the Jews"), situated
near the new Tatar capital, Bakhchi-Sarai, grows in numbers
and influence. The memory of this community is perpetuated
by a huge number of tombstones, ranging from the thirteenth
to the eighteenth century. Crimea, now peopl<~dwith Jews,
sends forth settlers to Lithuania, where, at the end of the
fourteenth century, Grand Duke Vitovt 1takes them under his
protection. Crimean colonies spring up in the Lithuanian
towns of Troki and Lutzk, which, as will be seen later, are
granted extensive privileges by the ruler of the land.
The establishment of Turkish sovereignty over the Crimea
(1475-1783) resulted in a closer commercial relationship between
the Jewish center on the Peninsula and the Principality
of Moscow,which at that time fenced herself off from the out~
side world by a Chinese wall, and, with few exceptions, barred
,from her dominions all foreigners and infidels, or "Basurmans."
I In the second half of the fifteenth century the Grand
Duke of Muscovy, Ivan III., was constrained to seek the help
of several Crimean Jews in his diplomatic negotiations with
the Khan of the Crimea, Mengli-Guiray. One of the agents of
the Muscovite Prince was an influential Jew of Kaffa, by the
name of Khoza Kokos, who was instrumental in bringing about
a military alliance between the Grand Duke and the Khan
(1472-1475). It is curious to note that Kokos wrote his
letters to Ivan III. in Hebrew, 80 that the Muscovite ruler,
who evidently could find no one in Moscowfamiliar with that
language, had to request his agent to correspond with him in
P Also written Witowt. Another form of the name is Wltold.]
[I Basurman, or Busurman, mutilated from Mus8uJman, is an
archaic and contemptuous designation for Mohammedans and in
general for all who do not profess the Greek Orthodox faith.]
36 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Russian or "in the Basurman language" (Tataric or perhaps
Italian). Another agent of I van III., Zechariah Guizolfi,
was an Italian Jew, who had previously occupied an important
post in the Genoesecolony in the Crimea, and was the owner of
the Taman Peninsula (" the Prince of Taman") . He stood in
close relations to Khan Mengli-Guiray, and in this capacity
carried on a diplomatic correspondence with the Prince of
Muscovy (1484-1500). Later on Zechariah was on the point
of taking up his abode in Moscow in order to participate more
directly in the foreign affairs of Russia, but circumstances
interfered with the execution of the plan.
During the same period there arose in Moscow, as the result
of a secret propaganda of Judaism, a religious movement
known under the name of the" Judaizing heresy." According I to the Russian chroniclers, the originator of this heresy was the
learned Jew Skharia (Zechariah), who had emigrated with a
number of coreligionists from Kiev to the ancient Russian city
of Novgorod. Profiting by the religious unrest rife at that
time in Novgorod-a new sect, called the Strigolniki: had
arisen in the city, which abrogated the Church rites, and went
to the point of denying the divinity of Christ-Zechariah got
in touch with several representatives of the Orthodox clergy,
and succeeded in converting them to Judaism. The leaders of
the Novgorod apostates, the priests Denis and Alexius, went to
Moscow in 1480, and converted a number of the Greek Orthodox
there, some of the new converts even submitting to the rite
of circumcision. The" Judaizing heresy" was soon intrenched
among the nobility of Moscowand in the court circles.
Among its sympathizers was the daughter-in-law of the Grand
Duke, Helena.
£' The name is derived from their founder, Carp Stri&o1Jlik.]
THE DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE 37
The Archbishop of Novgorod, Hennadius, called attention
to the dangerous propagation of the" Judaizing heresy," and
made valiant efforts to uproot it in his diocese. In Moscowthe
fight against the new doctrine proved extremely difficult. But
here too it was finally checked, owing to the vigorous endeavors
of Hennadius and other Orthodox zealots. By the decision of
the Church Council of 1504, sUPP0rlfd by the orders of I van
III., the principal apostates were burned at the stake, while
the others were cast into prison or exiled to monasteries. As
a result, the " Judaizing heresy" ceased to exist.'
.Another tragic occurrence in the same .period affords a lurid
illustration of Muscovite superstition. At the court of Grand
Duke I van III. the post of physician was occupied by a learned
Jew, Master Leon, who had been invited from Venice. In the
beginning of 1490 the eldest son of the Grand Duke fell dangerously
ill. Master Leon tried to cure his patient by means
of hot cupping-glasses and various medicaments. Questioned
by the Grand Duke whether his son had any chances of recovery,
the physician, in an unguarded moment, replied: " I shall
not fail to cure your son; otherwise you may put me to death! "
On March 15, 1490, the patient died. When the forty days of
mourning were over, Ivan III. gave orders to cut off the head
of the Jewish physician for his failure to effect a cure. The
execution was carried out publicly, on one of the squares of
Moscow.
In the eyes of the Muscovites both the learned theologian
Skharia and the physician Leon were adepts of the "black
art," or magicians. The" Judaizing heresy" instilled in them
a superstitious fear of the Jews, of whom they only knew
[' For later" Judaizing" tendencies in Russia, see pp. 261 et ,eg.
and 401 et ,eg.]
38 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
by hearsay. As long as such ideas and manners prevailed,
the Jews could scarcely expect to be hospitably received in the
. land of the Muscovites. No wonder then that for a long time
the Jews appear there, not in the capacity of permanent residents,
but as itinerant merchants, who in a few cases-and
with extreme reluctance at that-are accorded the right 01
temporary sojourn in " holy Russia."

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