History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, by Simon Dubnow, translated by Israel Friedlander

HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

CHAPTER VIII: POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS

1. THE JEWS OF POLAND AFTER THE FIRST PARTITION

On the eve of the great crisis which overtook the Jews of
Western Europe in the wake of the French Revolution, the
vast Jewish center in Eastern Europe was in a state of political
and social disintegration. We refer to the position of Polish
Jewry during the interval between the first partition of Poland
and the second (1772-1793).
The first vivisection had just been performed on the diseased
organism of the Polish Republic.1 Russia had chopped off one
flank-the province of White Russia'; Austria had seized
Galicia, and Prussia had helped herself to Pomerania and a
part of the province of Posen. Correspondingly the compact
organism of Polish Jewry was divided among the three Powers.
One section of this huge mass, which lived a secluded and
tho,roughly original life of its own, suddenly became the object
of" reformatory" experiments in the laboratory of Joseph II.
Another section found itself in the role of a " tolerated" population
in the royal barracks of Frederick II., who would fain
havc acquired the Polish provinces minus their Jewish inhabitants.
A third portion came under the sway of Russia, a
country which had not yet become reconciled to the presence
of a handful of Jews on the border of her Empire, in the province
of Little Russia.
[' On this expression see p. 88, n. 1.J
['it consisted of the present Governments of Moghflev and
Vitebsk.]
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 263
What was left of Polish Jewry after the surgical operation
of 1772 experienced, after its own fashion, all the pre-mortal
agonies of the doomed commonwealth, which was destined to
undergo two more partitions. Dying Poland was tossing about
restlessly, endeavoring to prolong its existence by the enactments
of the Permanent Council or by the reforms of the
Quadrennial Diet (1788-1791).' In connection with the general
reforms of the country the need was felt of curing the old
specific ailment of Poland, the Jewish Problem. The finance
committee of the Quadrcnnial Diet gathered all available information
concerning the number of Jews in the reduced kingdom
and their economic and cultural status.
The following are the results of this official investigation,
as embodied in the report of one of the members of the committee,
the well-known historian Thaddeus Chatzki, who made
a special study of the Jewish problem.
Officially the number of Jews residing in Poland and Lithuania
about the year 1788 was computed at 617,032. Chatzki,
fortified by all array of additional data, rightly points out
that, owing to the fact that fiscal considerations caused the
people to evade the official census, the actual number of Jews
['After the first partition of Poland the Government of the
country was placed in the hands of a Permanent Council consisting
of thirty-six members, who were to be elected by the Diets,
and were to take charge of the five departments of the administration:
foreign affairs, police, war, justice, and finance. The
king was to be the president of the Council. The Diet, which
assembled on October 6, 1788, abolisiled this Permanent Councll,
and set out to elaborate a modern Constitution, which was finally
presented on May 3, 1791. While, according to Polish law, the
Diets met only once in tWJ years for six weeks (see above, p. 76,
n. 1), the Diet of 1788 declared itself permanent. It sat for four
years-hence its name, the Quadrennial Diet-until the adoption
of the new ConstitutioIo. in 1791 led to civil war and to the intervention
of RU88Ia.]
264 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
mounted up to at least 900,000 souls of both sexes. This computation
agrees substantially with the authoritative statement
of Butrymovich, a member of the" Jewish Commission"
appointed by the Quadrennial Diet. For, according to this
statement, the Jews of Poland formed an eighth of the whole
population, the latter numbering 8,790,000 souls. The Jewish
population, thus amounting to practically one million, multiplied
rapidly, owing to the custom of early marriages then
in vogue. The same custom, on the other hand, was responsible
for increased mortality among Jewish children and for
an ever-growing physical deterioration of the adolescent generation.
The school training received by Jewish children was
limited to the study of the religious literature of Judaism,
particularly the Talmud.
As regards commerce, the Jews figured in it in the following
proportions: 75% of the whole export trade of Poland and
10~ of the imports lay in their hands. The living expenses
of the Jewish business man were half as large as those of his
Christian fellow-merchant, which fact enabled the Jew to sell
his goods at a much lower figure. Bankruptcy was more frequent
among Jewish business men than among Christians. In
the provinces outside of Great Poland half of all the artisans
were Jews. Shoemakers, tailors, furriers, goldsmiths, carpenters,
stone-cutters, and barbers, were particularly numerous
among them. In the whole country only fourteen Jewish
families were found to engage in agriculture. Wealth among
Jews was but very seldom retained for several successive generations
within the same family, owing to frequent bankruptcy
and to a propensity towards risky speculations. A
twelfth part of the Jewish population was made up of " idlers,"
that is, people without a definite occupation. A sixtieth part
consisted of beggars.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 2.65
To these deductions, based on official findings, as well as on
outside observation, the important fact must be added that
one of the main pursuits of the Jews at that time was the liquor
traffic, that is, the keeping of taverns in the towns and villages.
As far as the manorial estates were concerned, the sale of
liquors was closely connected with land-leasing and innkeeping.
In leasing from the noble landowner the various items of
agrarian wealth, such as dairies, pastures, timber, etc., the
Jew farmed l1.tthe same time the" propination," the right of
distilling and selling spirits in the taverns and inns. These
pursuits often resulted in a clash between the Jew and the
peasant, that outlawed serf who was driven to the tavern,
not by opulence, but by extreme poverty and suffering, brought
upon him by the heavy hand of the aristocratic landlord.
The final stage in the economic breakdown of the peasant
was reached at the door of the tavern, and the Jewish liquordealer
was in consequence looked upon as the despoiler of
the peasant. This accusation against the Jews was brought
forward by the slaveholding magnates, who were the real cause
of the impoverishment of their peasant serfs, and pocketed
the proceeds of the "propination " which they let out to the
Jews.
As for the Jews themselves, there is no doubt that the traffic
in liquor had a demoralizing effect upon them. The position
of the Jewish arendar, sandwiched between the spendthrifty
and eccentric pan, on the one hand, and the Jowntrodden
khlop, on the other, was far from enviable. In the eyes of
the landowner the arendar was nothing but a servant, who
received no better treatment at his hands than the khlop. If
perchance the roads or bridges on the estate were found in bad
condition, the arendar would sometimes be subjected to cor266
THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
poral punishment for it. When the pan engaged in one of his
frequent orgies, the first victims of his recklessness were the
arendar and his family. A good illustration is afforded by an
entry in the diary of a Volhynian country squire, from the
year 1774:
The arendar Hershko 1 has remained ninety-one thaler in arrears
from last term. I was forced to attach his goods. According to
the clause of the contract I have the right. in case of non-payment,
to keep him with his wife and children in prison as long as I like,
until he pays up. I gave orders to have him put in chains and
locked up in the pig-sty together with the swine; the wife and the
bahurs [young sons] I left in the inn, except for the youngest son
Layze [Lazarus]. The latter I took to the manor, and I had him instructed
in the [Catholic] catechism and the prayers.
The boy in question was forced to make the sign of the cross
and to eat pork. Only the arrival of Jews from Berdychev,
who remitted the debt of the arendar, saved the father from
imprisonment and the son from enforced conversion.
It is interesting to inquire into the causes which drove the
Jewish populace into the unenviable pursuits of land-leasing
and rural liquor-dealing. Although forming but one-eighth of
the population of Poland, the Jews furnished 50% of the whole
number of artisans in the realm and 75% of those engaged in the
export trade--the export, be it noted, of agricultural products,
such as timber, flax, skins, and all kinds of raw material. All
these occupations were obviously insufficient for their maintenance.
In Poland no less than in Western Europe neither the
merca.ntile guilds nor the trade-unions, which to a considerable
extent were made up of Germans, admitted Jewish lj.rtisans
and merchants into their corporations, and as a result the
sphere of Jewish activity was extremely limited.
£' Popular Polish form of the Jewish name Hirsch.]
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 267
The same burghers and business men were also the predominating
element in the composition of the magistracies,
and in the majority of cities it lay in their power to grant or
refuse licenses to their Jewish competitors for pursuing commerce
or handicrafts. The clause in the Polish parliamentary
Constitution of 1768, which placed the economic activity of
the Jews in the cities under the control of the magistracies,
might have been literally dictated by the latter. It ran as
follows:
Whereas the Jews inflict intolerable damage upon the cities and
the burghers, and rob them or their means or subsistence .... ,
be it resolved that in all towns and townlets in which the Jews
have no special, constitutionally guaranteed privileges, they be
rorced to conduct themselves according to the agreements entered
into with the municipalities, and be forbidden, on pain or severe
fines, to arrogate to themselves any further rights.
It goes without saying that these "agreements" with the
Christian business men consisted as a rule in nothing else
than the prohibition or limitation of local Jewish competition.
In this manner the orginators of the parliamentary Constitution,
the landed proprietors and townspeople, were those
who forced the Jews out of the cities, and drove them into landleasing
and liquor-dealing. ,
The parliamentary Constitution of 1775, which was promulgated
after the first partition of Poland, 'itnd instituted a
supreme administrative body, the Permanent Council, increased
the Jewish per capita tax from two gulden to three,
to be levied on both male and female, and including the newborn.
It also made the attempt, though not after the cruel
pattern of Western Europe, to place certain restrictions on
Jewish marriages. The rabbis were interdicted from performing
the marriage service for the Jews who were not
268 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
engaged in one of the legitimate occupations, such as handicrafts,
commerce, agriculture, or manual labor, or who were
unable to indicate their sources of livelihood. Parenthetically
it may be remarked that this law was never applied in practice.
Ancient Poland never had a " Pale of Settlement," the Jews
being merely barred from residing in several so-called" privileged"
towns. One of these forbidden places was the capital,
Warsaw: The Jews had long been refused the right of permanent
settlement in that city. They were only allowed to
sojourn there temporarily during the sessions of the various
Diets, simultaneously with which the commercial fairs were
generally timed to take place.
The parliamentary Constitution of 1768, in sanctioning this
"ancient custom" of admitting the Jews temporarily into
Warsaw, gave as its reason" the common welfare and the necessity
of reducing the high cost of merchandise," this high cost
resulting invariably from the absence of Jewish competition.
In the capital the following procedure became customary: two
weeks prior to the opening of the Diet the Crown Marshal
informed the inhabitants of Warsaw by trumpet blasts that
visiting Jews were permitted to engage in commerce and
handicrafts, and two weeks after the conclusion of the session
of the Diet trumpet blasts again heralded the fact that it was
time for the Jews to take to their heels. Those who were slow
in leaving the city were expelled by the police. As a rule, however,
the exiles managed, under all sorts of pretexts, to return
the day after their expulsion, in the capacity of new arrivals~
and they continued to reside in the city for several weeks by
" persuading" the inspectors of the marshal. As a result,
Crown Marshal Lubomirski established a system of tickets for
[' See p. 85.]
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 26!:i
visiting Jews, each ticket costing a silver groschen, which
granted the right of a five days' sojourn in the capital. Without
such a ticket no Jew dared show himself on the street.
The collection from these tickets netted an annual income of
some 200,000 gulden for the marshal's treasury.
When some of the high Polish dignitaries, who owned entire
districts in Warsaw, made the discovery that it was possible to
convert Jewish rightlessness into cash, they began, for a definite
consideration, to accord permission to the Jews to settle on their
estates, which lay beyond the city ramparts. In this way there
gradually came into bcing a settlement known under the
name of New Jerusalem. The Christian burghers of Warsaw
raised a terrible outcry demanding the literal application
of the law which barred the Jews from settling permanently
in the capital. 'l'hereupon Lubomirski adopted stringent
measures against the Jews, notwithstanding the protests of the
bghly-placed house-owners and regardless even of the intervention
of the King. On Jan~ry 22, 1775, the Jews were
expelled from Warsaw; their homes in New Jerusalem were
demolished, and all their goods were transferred to the armory
or the barracks, where they were sold at public auction.
This was a severe blow to the mercantile Jewish population,
which was now cut off from the political and industrial center
of the country. The Jews had to content themselves again
with temporary visits during the short term of the parliamentary
sessions. In the course of time the former evasion
of the law came into vogue again. In 1784 the administration,
appealed to by the magistracy, once more undertook to
clear the capital of Jews. The situation was modified somewhat
towards the end of 1788, when the Quadrennial Diet
began its sessions. The Jews were inclined to assume that,
270 'fHE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
I
inasmuch as the Diet was sitting permanently, their right of
residence in the capital was no longer subject to a time limit.
Accordingly the Jews began to flock to Warsaw, and several
thousands of them were soon huddled together in the center of
the city. This of course aroused the ire of the burghers and
the magistracy against the new-comers, resulting subsequently
in a sanguinary conflict.
In this manner law and life were constantly at odds, life
turning law into fiction whenever in opposition to its demands.
and law retaliating by dealing occasional blows at life.
The million J eWEpressed their way into the eight millions
of the native population like a wedge, which, once having
entered, could not be displaced. :E'orby occupying the originally
empty place of the mercantile estate, the Jews had
for many centuries served, so to speak, as a tie between the
bipartite nation of nobles and serfs. Now a ncw wedge, the
Christian middle class, was endeavoring to displace the Jewish
element, but it failed in its efforts. For the Jewish population
had become inextricably entwined with the economic organism
of Poland, though remaining a stranger to its national and
spiritual aspirations. This was the tragic aspect of the Jewish
question in Poland in the period of the partitions.
Deeply stirred by the catastrophe of 1772, Poland fell to
making reforms as a means of salvation. She was anxious to
expiate her old sins and turn over a new leaf. Here she found
herself face to face with the Jewish problem: a huge and compact
population of different birth and creed, with an autonomous
communal life, with a separate language, and with customs
and manners of its own, was scatterlOdall over the realm
and interwoven with all branches of economic endeavor. This
secluded population, which Polish legislation no less than the
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 271
arrogance of the nobility and the intolerance of the Church had
estranged from political and civil life, survived as a relic of the
old order, which was now tottering to its fall. The ruling class,
which had brought about this state of things, was naturally
loth to acknowledge its responsibility for the decomposition
of Poland, and so the guilt was thrown on the shoulders of the
Jews, in spite of the fact that their position was merely the
product of the general caste structure of the nation. And
when, in a fit of repentance, Poland began to dig down into
her past, she discovered that one of her" sins" was the Jewish
question, and she was bent on solving it.
Two solutions presented themselves at that moment. 1'I1e
one was of a repressive character, permeated with the old spirit
of the nobility and clergy. The other was of a comparatively
liberal character, and bore the impress of the policy of " compulsory
enlightenment" pursued by the Austrian Emperor
Joseph II. The former found its expression in the parliamentary
project of Zamoiski (1778-1780); the latter was
represented by the proposals of Butrymovich and Chatzki,
who submitted them to the liberally inclined Quadrennial Diet
in 1789.
One of the Polish historians rightly observes that" the celebrated
ex-Chancellor [Andreas Zamoiski] drafted this law
more for the purpose of getting rid of the Jews tJ:1anof bringing
about their amalgamation with the national organism [of
Poland]." Zamoiski's project is semi-clerical and semibureaucratic
in character. The Jews are to be granted the right
of residence in those towns into which they had been admitted
by virtue of former agreements with the municipalities, while
other places are to be open t() them only for temporary visits, to
attend markets and fairs. In the cities the Jews are to settle in
18
272 THE JEWS· IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
separate streets, away from the Christians. Every Jewish adult
is to present himself before the local administration and produce
a certificate to the effect that he is either a tradesman owning
properly of the minimum value of a thousand gulden, or an
artisan, arendar, or agriculturist. Those who cannot prove that
they belong to one of these four categories shall be obliged to
leave the country within a year. In case they refuse to leave
voluntarily, they are to be placed under arrest, and sent to a
penitentiary. Moreover, the author of the project, repeating
the old ecclesiastic regulations, proposes to bar the Jews from
those financial and economic functions, such as the leasing of
crown lands, public contracts, and collection of revenues, in
which they might exercise some form of control over Christians.
For the same reason the Jews are to be interdicted from keeping
Christian help, and so forth. Compulsory conversion of Jews
is to be discountenanced; yet those already converted are to
be removed from their old environment, and not to be allowed
even to see their fonner coreligionists, except in the presence
of Christians.
The Catholic clergy was so well pleased with Zamoiski's
project that the Archbishop of Plotzk attached his signature
to it. Having fortified himself by ecclesiastical and police
safeguards, Zamoiski was at liberty to pay a scant tribute to
the spirit of the age by including in his project the principle
of the inviolability of the person and property of the Jew.
After binding the Jew hand and foot by these draconian
regulations there was indeed no necessity for further insulting
him.
An entirely different position is taken by the anonymous
author of a Polish pamphlet which appeared in Warsaw in
1782 under the title, "On the Necessity of Jewish Reforms
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 273
in the Lands of the Polish Crown." The writer, who disguises
his identity under the pseudonym " A Nameless Citizen,"
is opposed to retrogressive measures, and favors legislation
of an utilitarian and enlightened character. As far as the
Jewish religion is concerned, he is willing to let the Jews keep
their dogmas, but deems it necessary to combat their" harmful
religious customs," such as the large number of festivals,
the dietary laws, and so forth. It is important in his opinion
to curtail their communal autonomy by confining it to religious
matters, so that the Jews shall not form a state within a state.
In order to stimulate the amalgamation of the Jews with the
Polish nation, they are to be compelled to adopt the Polish
language in their business dealings, to abandon the Yiddish
vernacular, and to be interdicted from printing Hebrew
books or importing them from abroad. On the economic
side the Jews are to be barred from keeping inns and selling
liquor in them, only handicrafts, honest business, and agriculture
being left open to them. In this way the project of the
:c Naweless Citizen" seeks to render the Jews "innocuous"
by compulsory amalgamation, just as the preceding project of
Zamoiski endeavored to attain the same end by compulsory
isolation. After having been rendered" innocuous," the Jew
may be found worthy of receiving equal rights with his Christian
fellow-citizens.
It is not difficult to discern in this project the influence of
J'oseph II.'s policy, which similarly sought to effect the" improvement"
of the Jew through compulsory enlightenment
and his amalgamation with the native population, as a
preliminary for his attainment of equal rights. It seems that
the project met with a friendly reception in the progressive
circles of Polish society, which were animated by the ideas of
2'{<1 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
the eighteenth century. The anonymous pamphlet appeared in
a second edition in 1785, and a third edition was published in
1789 by Butrymovich, a deputy of the Quadrennial Diet, who
added comments of his own. A year later Butrymovich extracted
from his edition the project of Jewish reform, and laid
it before the committee of the Diet, which was then meeting
amidst the uproar of the great French Revolution.!
As for the inner life of this Jewish mass of one million
souls, it displays the same saddening spectacle of disintegration.
The social rottenness of the environment, the poison of
the decaying body of Poland, worked its way into Jewish life,
and began to undermine its foundations, once so firmly
grounded. The communal autonomy, which had been the
mainstay of public Jewish life, was unmistakably falling to
pieces. In the southwestern region, in Podolia, Volhynia, and
Galicia,-the last having been annexed by Austria,-it had
been shattered by the great religious split produced by
Hasidism. The Kahal organization was tottering to its fall,
either because of the division of the community into two hostile
factions, the Hasidim and Mithnagdim, or because of the
inertia of the Hasidic majority, which, blindly obeying the
dictates of the Tzaddik, was incapable of social organization.
In the northwestern region, in Lithuania and White Russia,
-the latter having become a Russi8jl province-the rabbinical
party, going hand in hand with the Kahal authorities, was
superior to the forces of Hasidism. Nevertheless the Kahal
organization was infected by the general p~ocess of degeneration,
which had seized the country at large in the partition
period. The Jewish plutocracy followed the eXRmple of the
Polish pans in exploiting the poor laboring masses. The
! See p. 280.
'tHE PERIOD OF THE PARTf'I'lONS 2'i'5
rabbinate, like the Polish clergy, catered to the rich. The
secular and the ecclesiastic oligarchy, which controlled the
Kahal, victimized the community by a shockingly disproportionate
assessment of state and communal taxes, throwing the
main burden on the impecunious classes, and thus bringing
them to the verge of ruin. The parna,<,-im, or wardens, of the
community, as well as the rabbis, were occasionally found
guilty of embezzlement, usury, and blackmail.
The oppression of the Kahal oligarchy went to such lengths
that the suffering masses, unmindful of the traditional prohibition
to appeal to the "law courts of the Gentiles," frequently
sought to obtain redress from the Christian administration
against these Jewish satraps. In 1782 representatives
of the lower classes, principally artisans, of the Jewish population
of Minsk, lodged a complaint with the Lithuanian
]!'inancial Tribunal against the local Kahal administration,
which "was completely ruining the community of Minsk."
'l'hey alleged that the Kahalleaders embezzledthe receipts from
taxation, and misappropriated the surplus for their own benefit,
that by means of the herem (excommunication) they squeezed
all kinds of revenues from the poor and appropriated their
hard-earned pennies. The complainants add that for their
attempt to lay bare the misdoings of the Kahal before the
administration, they had been arrested, imprisoned, and pilloried
in the synagogue by order of the Kahal wardens.
In Vilna, the. capital of Lithuania, celebrated on account
of its aristocracy of mind as well as its aristocracy of birth,
a split occurred within the ranks of the Kahal oligarchy itself.
For nearly twenty years there was a conflict between the Rabbi,
a certain Samuel Vigdorovich (son of Avigdor), and the
Kahal, or, more correctly, between the rabbinical party and the
276 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Kahal party. The Rabbi had been convicted of corruption,
drunkenness, biased legal decisions, perjury, and so on. The
litigation between the Rabbi and the Kahal had, at an earlier
stage, been submitted to a court of arbitration as well as to a
conference of Lithuanian rabbis. Since the strife and agitation
in the city did not subside, both parties appealed, in 1785, to
Radziwill, the Voyevoda of Vilna, who decided in favor of the
Kahal, and dismissed the Rabbi from office.
The common people, standing between the two belligerent
parties, were particularly bitter towards the Kahal, whose
abuses and misdeeds exceeded all measure. A little later,
between 1786 and 1788, a champion of the people's cause
appeared in the person of Simeon Volfovich (son of Wolf),
who, acting as the spokesman of the Jewish masses of Vilna,
had to struggle and suffer on their behalf. To ward off
the persecution by the Kahal, Volfovich managed to obtain an
"iron letter" from King Stanislav Augustus, guaranteeing
inviolability of person and property to himself and to the
whole Jewish commonalty, "which the tyranny of the Kahal
had brought to the verge of ruin." This did not prevent the
Kahal authorities from subjecting Simeon to the herem and
entering his name in the "black book," while the Voyevoda,
who sided with the Kahal tyrants, sent the mutinous champion
of the people to the prison of Neswizh (1788). From there
the prisoner addressed his memorandum to the Quadrennial
Diet, emphasizing the need of a radical change in the communal
organization of the Jews, and urging the abolition of
the Kahal power, which pressed 80 heavily upon the people.
This struggle between the Kahal, the rabbinate, and the common
people shook to its foundations the social organization of
the Jews of Lithuania shortly before the incorporation of this
country into the Russian Empire.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 277
A somber picture of the conduct of the cODlDlunaloligarchy
is supplied by one of the few broad-minded rabbis of the
period:
The leaders [rabbis and elders] consume the o1ferings of the
people, and drink wine for the flnes imposed by them. Being in
full control of the taxes, they assess and excommunicate [their
opponents]; they remunerate themselves for their public activity
by every means at their disposal, both openly and in secret. They
make no step without accepting bribes, while the destitute carry
the burden. . .. The learned cater to the rich, and, as for the
rabbis, they have only contempt for one another. The students of
the Talmud despise those engaged in mysticism ~nd Cabala, while
the common people accept the testimony of both, and conclude that
all scholars are a disgrace to their calling. . .. The rich value
the favor of the Polish pans above the good opinion of the best and
noblest among the Jews. The rich Jew does not appreciate the
honor shown to him by a scholar, but boasts of having been
aliowed to enter the mansion of a Polish noble and view his
treasures.
The rabbi complains in particular that the well-to-do
classes are obsessed by a love of show; that the women wear
strings of pearls around their necks, and array themselves
in many-colored fabrics.
The education of the young generation in the heders and
yeshibahs sank to ever lower depths. Instruction in the elements
of secular culture was entirely out of the question. The
Jewish school bore a purely rabbinical character. True, Talmudic
scholasticism succeeded in sharpening the intellect, but,
failing to supply concrete information, it often confused the
mind. Hasidism had wrested a huge pi~e of territory from
the dominion of Rabbinism, but, as far as education was concerned,
it was powerless t.ocreate anything new. The religious
and national sentiments of Polish Jewry had unilel'gone a
278 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
profound transformation at the hands of Hasidism, but the
transformation lured the Jews backward, far into the thickets
of mystical contemplation and blind faith, both subversive
of rational thinking and of any attempt at social reform.
In the last two decades' of the eighteenth century, when the
banner of militant enlightenment was floating over German
Jewry, a bitter warfare between the Hasidim and Mithnagdim
was raging all along the line in Poland and Lithuania, with the
result that the consciousness of the political crisis through
which Polish Jewry was then passing was dimmed, and the
appeal from the West calling to enlightenment and progress
was silenced. The specter of German rationalism, which flitted
across the horizon of Polish Jewry, produced horror and consternation
in both camps. '1'0 be a "Berliner" was synonymous
with being an apostate. A Solomon :Maimonwas forced
to flee to Germany in order to gain access to the world of new
ideas, which were taboo in Poland.

2. THE PERIOD OF THE QUADRENNIAL DIET (1788-1791)

The first year of the :French Rcvolution coincided with the
first year of Polish reform. III Paris the etats geMraux
were transformeu, under the pressure of the revolutionary
movement, from a parliament of classes into a natiollalassembly
representing the nation as a whole. In Warsaw the new
reform Diet, styled the Quadrennial, or the Great, though
essentially a parliament of the Shlllkhta, and remaining
strictly within the old frame of class organization, reflected
nevertheless the influence of French ideas in their pre-revolutionary
aspect. The third estate, that of the burghers, was
knocking at the doors of the Polish Chamber, demanding equal'
rights, and one of the principal parliamentary reforms conj
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 279
sisted in equalizing the burghers with the Shlakht& in their
civil, though not in their political, prerogatives.
Two other questions affecting the inner life of Poland
claimed the attention of the legislators touched by the spirit
of reform: the agrarian and the Jewish question. The former
was discussed and brought to a solution, which could not be
other than favorable to the interests of the slaveholding landowners.
As for the Jewish question, it cropped up for a
moment at the tumultuous sessions of the Quadrennial Diet,
and like an evil spirit was banished into the farthest corner
of the Polish Chamber, into a special "deputation," or commission,
where it stuck forever, without finding a solution.
It would not be fair to ascribe this failure altogether to the
conservative trend of mind of the rejuvenators of Poland.
There was an additional factor that stood in the way of radical
reforms. Over the head of Poland hung the unsheathed sword
of Russia, and Russia was averse to the inner regeneration of
the country, which, having undergone one partition, was expected
to furnish a second and a third dish for the table of the
Great Powers. The Quadrennial Diet was a protest against
the oppressive patronage of Russia, which was personified by
her Resident in Warsaw, and had for its main purpose the
preparation of the country for the inevitable struggle with her
powerful neignbor. The" estates in Parliament assembled "
had to think of reorganizing the army and filling the war chest
rather than of carrying out internal reforms.
But outside the walls of the Chamber the current of public
opinion was whirling and foaming. Side by side with the legislative
assembly, a literary parliament was holding its deliberations,
the famous pamphlet "literature of the Quadrennial
Diet," reflecting the liberal currents of the eighteenth century.
280 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
The" Kollontay smithy'" alone, which was, so to speak, the
publishing house of the reformers, flooded the country with
pamphlets and leaflets touching upon all the questions connected
with the social reorganization of the Polish body politic.
Scores of pamphlets dealt partly or wholly with the Jewish
question. The discussions on the projects of " Jewish reform"
were conductedwith intense passion, taking the place of parliamentary
debates.
The impulse to the literary discussionof the Jewish question
came from a pamphlet previously referred to, which had been
published by Butrymovich, a representative of the city of
Pinsk in the Diet, who stood out as the principal champion
of the renaissance of Polish Jewry. The publication consisted
of a reprint of the well-knownpamphlet of " A Nameless Citizen,"
which had been circulated in two editions.· Butrymovich
supplied the pamphlet with a new title (" A Means whereby
to Transform the Polish Jews into Useful Citizens of the
Country "), and garnished it with comments of his own. In
this way the popular member of the Diet put the seal of his
approval upon the reform project, which was based on the
assumption that the Jews in their present state were detrimental
to the country, not because of their intrinsic make-up,
but on account of their training and mode of life, and that
their political and spiritual regeneration had to precede
their association with civil life. The proposed reforms reduced
themselves to the following measures: to promote useful pursuits
among the Jews, such as agriculture and handicrafts,
and to remove them from the obnoxiousliquor traffic; to combat
their separateness by curtailing their Kahal autonomy;
[' Kollontay (in Polish, Kollontaj) was a radical member of the
Polish Chamber. See p. 291.]
• See p. 272 and p. 273.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 281
to supersede the Yiddish dialect by the Polish language in
schooland in business; to prohibit the wearing of a distinctive
costume and the importation of Hebrew books from abroad.
This reform project was supplemented by Butrymovich in one
particular: the Jews were not to be admitted to military service
in person, until enlightenment had transformed them
into patriots ready to serve their fatherland.
Yet even this project, imbued though it was with the spirit
of patronage and compulsory assimilation, was deemed far
too liberal by many representatives of advanced Polish society.
One of the progressive Polish journals published" Reflections
Concerning the Jewish Reform Proposed by Butrymovich"
(December, 1798). The writer of the" Reflections" concedes
a certain amount of " political common sense" in the project,
but criticizes its author, because, "in his great zeal to preserve
the rights of man, he shows too much indulgence
towards the defects of the Jews." The anonymous journalist
in turn demands the complete annihilation of the Kahal and
limits the action of the Jewish communities to the exercise of a
purely congregational autonomy. He also considers it necessary
to restrict retail trade among the Jews in the cities, so that,
having been dislodged from commerce,they might be induced
to engage in handicrafts and agriculture.
Several magazine writers spoke far more harshly of the
Jews, and adopted a tone bordering on anti-Semitism. 'l'he
fanlous prelate Stashitz, the author of "A Warning to
Poland" (Warsaw, 1790), whoenjoyed the reputation of being
a democrat, styles the .Jews "a summer and winter locust for
the country," and voices the conviction that only in an environment
in which idleness is fostered could this "host of
parasites" find shelter, entirely forgetting that these" para282
THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLANJI)
sites" had created the commerce of the country riven between
nobles and serfs.
The majority of these vilifiers agreed in one point, that the
defects of the Jews could be cured only by " reforming" their
life from above. An ancient historic nation, which had for
centuries managed its own affairs, was represented as a kind
of riffraff, whose life could be easily recut after a new pattern.
To achieve this end, all that was necessary was to let
the Polish language take the place of Yiddish, to substitute
the official Polish school for the traditional Jewish school, the
magistracy for the Kahal, handicrafts and agriculture for
commerce. The authors of the various schemes disagreed
merely as to the extent to which the radical and compulsory
character of these reforms should be pursued. Some suggested
abolishing altogether the communal autonomy of the Jews
(Kollontay) ; others would merely confine it to definite functions,
and place the Kahal under the supervision of the
Government (Butrymovich and others) . Still others proposed
to shave off the Jews' beards and earlocks, to burn the 'falmud,
and reduce the number of Jewish religious festivals.
Others again were content with prohibiting the traditional
Jewish costume and shutting down the Jewish printing-presses,
proposing at the same time" to encourage the translation of
Jewish religious literature into the Polish language." The plan
of limiting the number of Jewish marriages after the Austro-
Prussian model, by requiring a special permit of the police
and a certificate testifying to the ability of the candidate to provide
for his family and to his compliance with certain standards
of general education, appealed to all the reformers. Sev-
Ilral writers injected into the discussion of the Jewish question
the specific problem of the Neo-Ohristians, the converts from
THE PERIOD m' THE PARTITIONB 283
among the Frankist sect, who, having been merged with the
Polish gentry and burgher class, were yet treated by them as
strangers, and stood aloof equally from Christian and Jewish
society. The majority of Polish writers endorsed the contemptuous
attitude of Polish society towards these converts,
who in point of fact fostered their old sectarian leanings, traveled
abroad to do homage to Frank, and supplied him with
money.
In the babel of voices condemning the entire Jewish population
of the country and dooming it to a radical "refitting"
by means of police measures, only one solitary Jewish voice
lllade itself heard. Hirsch Yosefovich (son of Joseph), a rabbi
of Khelm, published a pamphlet in Polish, under the title
" Heflections Concerning the Plan of Transforming the Polish
Jews into Useful Citizens of the Country." While giving
Butrymovich full credit as an enlightened well-wisher of the
Jews, the Rabbi expresses his amazement that even cultured
men indulge in a wholesale condemnation of the Jewish people,
and charge the misdeeds of certain individuals among them
to the account of the whole nation, which is endowed with so
many virtues, and is of benefit to the country in so many respects.
The author emphatically protests against the proposed
abolition of the Kahals and against outside interference in the
religious affairs of the Jews, in a word, against the projects
tending to assimilate the Jews with the Poles, which assimilation
"was bound to result in the complete destruction of
Judaism." As an Orthodox rabbi he refuses to budge an inch,
even in the matter of a change in dress, slyly observing that
once tile Jews are put in the category of malefactors, it
seems preferable to allow them to retain their traditional
garb, so as to mark them off from the Christialls.
284 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
At that time Warsaw evidently did not yet possess the type
of cultured Mendelssohnians-they appeared in that city
shortly thereafter, under the Prussian regime-who might have
been in a position to engage in a literary discussion of the proposed
reforms from the Jewish point of view. "Enlightenment"
was then the exclusive privilege of a small number
of Jews who, as agents or as purveyors of the Crown, came
into contact with the Court or the Government. The project
of one of these" advanced" Jews, the royal broker Abraham
Hirschovich (son of Hirsch), has been preserved in the archives.
In this project, which was submitted to King Stanislav
Augustus during the sessions of the Great Diet, the author
suggests some of the patent remedies of the Polish reformers:
to induce the Jews to engage in handicrafts and agriculture" in
the deserted steppes of the Ukraina " and to forbid early mar-
. riages. With 'fegard to the change in dress, he advises beginning
with the prohibition of luxurious articles of wear, such as
silk, satin, velvet, pearls, and diamonds, the chase after finery
having a ruinous effect on men of moderate means. Rabbis, in
the opinion of Hirschovich, ought to be appointed only in the
large cities, and not in the smaller towns, for the reason that in
these towns, which are generally owned by the squires, the
rabbis purchase their officefrom the latter, and then ruin their
congregations by all kinds of assessments. The Kahals should
be spared, except that the Government ought to maintain order
in them, since the Jews themselves, on account of their differences
of opinion, " cannot institute reasonable rules of conduct
for themselves." The whole plan reflects the spirit of flunkeyism,
ever obsequiously willing to yield to the powers that be in
the matter" of eradicating the prejudices and misconceptions
of an erring people."
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 285
During the year 1789 and the first half of 1790 the J ewish
question did not come up at the sessions of the Quadrennial
Diet. In the midst of the passionate debates raging around the
supremely important bills involving the whole future of the
body politic, the Diet remained deaf to the repeated reminders
of Butrymovich, who demanded the same urgency for the proposed
Jewish reform. Neither did the heated literary dis-
ClIssionscentering on the Jewish question prompt the popular
representatives to take it up more speedily. But at this juncture
ominous shouts from the street began to penetrate into the
Chambcr of Deputies, and the Diet had to bestir itself.
The metropolitan mob had made up its mind to solve the
Jewish question after its own fashion. To the Christian
tradesmen and artisans of Warsaw the Jewish question was
primarily a matter of professional competition. During the
first two years of the Great Diet the old law which confined the
Jewish right of residence in Warsaw to temporary visits during
the brief sittings of the Diets, had automatically fallen into disuse.
The Diet having prolonged its powers for a number of
years, the Jews thought that they too had the right to prolong
their term of residence. Accordingly an ever-growing wave
of Jewish tradesmen and artisans in search of a livelihood began
to flow from the provinces into the busy commercial emporium,
and this new influx could not fail to affect the Christian middle
class, inasmuch as the new-comers diverted purchasers and
customers from the native tradesmen and artisans, who were
affiliated with the guilds and trade-unions.
The privileged burghers, who by that time were on the point
of being equalized with the Shlakhta in their rights, raised a cry
of indignation. In March, 1790, a crowd of incorporated artisans,
among them a particularly large number of tailors and
286 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
furriers, surrounded the town hall, and vowed to murder all
J"ews,should the magistracy refuse to expel them from Warsaw.
John Dekert, a well-known champion of the burgher class,
who was mayor at the time, immediately brought this demonstration
to the notice of the Diet, and the latter dispatched two
of its members to pacify the crowd. When askcd by the
deputies about the motive of the gathering, the artisans declared
that the newly-arrived J cws made life intolcrable by
wresting the last earnings from the Christian tailors 8nd furriers.
The deputies promised to look into the matter. Accordingly,
on the following day, the Jewish artisans and street
vl;)nderswere ordered out of the city, and only the merchants
who had stores or warehouses were pcrmitted to remain.
Penniless and homeless, the exiled Jews could do nothing
but return surreptitiously to Warsaw soon afterwards. The
agitation among the Christian population commenced anew,
and on May 16, 1790, it vented itself in a riot. A certain Fox,
a member of the tailors' union, happened that day to meet a
J~wish tailor on the street who was carryilJg a piece of work in
his hand. He suddenly attacked him, and began to pull the
parcel out of his hands. The Jew tore himself away, and managed
to escape. The shouts-of Fox attracted a crowd of Christian
artisans. Some one spread the rumor that the Jews had
killed a Christian tailor. At once the cry for vengeance went
up, and a riot began. The mob rushed into Tlomatzkie Street,
but was beaten off by the Jews, who had taken shelter behind a
fence. In the adjacent streets, however, "victory" perched
on the banner of the mob. 'fhey looted private residences as
well as stores and warehouses belonging to Jews, carrying off
whatever was valuable, and throwing the rest into wells. The
municipal guards, which came rushing along, were met by
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 287
a hail of stones and bricks. Only whell a detachment of soldiers
on foot and on horse appeared was the crowd dispersed and
order restored.
Stirred by these events, the Diet gave orders to investigate
the matter and bring the guilty to justice. Justice in the case
of the Christian malefactors amounted to the arrest of Fox and
the imprisonment of some of his accomplices. As lor the Jews,
severe administrative measures were adopted: any peddler
or artisan found on the street with goods or orders was to be
conveyed to the marshal's guard-chamber, punished with rods;
and expelled. III such manner were Jcwish artisans dcalt with
at a time when the projects for reform were full of eloquent
phrases about the necessity of attracting the Jews to handicrafts
in particular and productive forms of labor in general.
The agitation in Warsaw led moreover to consequences of
a more serious nature. The Diet realized that further delay
in considering the Jewish question was impossible now that the
street had begun to solve it by its own simplified methods. On
June 22, 1790, the Diet appointed a "Commission for Jewish
Reform," which was composed of the deputies Butrymovich,
Yezierski, the Castellan of Lukov,' and others. Yezierski, who
soon became the chairman of the Commission, was an advocate
of radical reforms, and as such came nearer than any of his colleagues
to a just estimate of the economic aspect of the Jewish
problem. In opposition to the current formula of " transforming
the Jews into useful citizens," he declared in the Diet that
in his opinion the Jews as it was were useful, because for a
long time they had constituted the only mercantile element in
Poland, and had rendered valuable services by exporting
pLukov (in Polish, Lukow) is a district town in the province
of Shedletz, not far from Warsaw. Castellan is the Polish title
for the head of a district.]
19
288 THE .JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
abroad the products of the couutry a.nd thus enriching it.
Hence the favorable financial position of the Jews would be
tantamount to a stronger position of the state finances and
an increase by many millions in the circulation of money. The
Commission, guided by Yezierski and Butrymovich, labored
assiduously. It examined a number of reform projects submitted
by Butrymovich, Chatzki, and others. Butrymovich's
project was an extract from his own publication referred to
previously. Similar in essence was the project of the wellknown
historian and publicist Thaddeus Chatzki, the guiding
spirit of the finance committee of the Quadrennial Diet:
In the beginning of 1791 the Commission of the Dict finished
its labors on the Jewish reform project, and submitted it to the
Diet for consideration. The project of the Commission, the
text of which has not come down to us, was doubtless based on
t.he proposals of Butrymovich and Chatzki. The Diet, completely
absorbed in arranging for the promulgation of the Constitution
of the third of May, was not in a position to busy
itself with the Jewish question. Only after the Constitution
had been promulgated in the session of May 24 was the Jewish
reform project brought up again by Butrymovich, who
claimed urgency for it. But at that juncture there arose
another member of the Jewish Commission, by the name of
Kholonyevski, a deputy from Bratzlav in Podolia, and announced
that he considered the project of the Commission,
with its extension of the commercial rights of the Jews, prejudlcial
to the interests of Little Poland, and therefore moved to
recommend his own proposals to the attention of the House.
The Diet was glad of an excuse for postponing the considera-
I Chatzki's project is reproduced in his famous book Rozprawa 0
Zvdach, •• Inquiry Concerning the Jews" (edition of 1860), pp.
119·134.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 289
tion of this vexatious problem. Soon afterwards, in June, the
Diet was adjourned, and it did not reassemble until September,
1791.
In this way the magna charta of Polish liberty-the Constitution
of May 3, 1791-wll.s proDlulgated without modifying
in the slightest degree the status of the Jews. True, the new
Constitution did not in any way alter the former caste system
of the Polish Republic itself-the feudalism of the nobility,
the servitude of the peasantry, and the privileges of the gentry.
Nevertheless it conferred civil equality on the burgher class,
and placed the representative institutions on a somewhat more
democratic basis. Only the Jew, the cinderella of the realm,
was completely cut off in this last will of dying Poland.
The seB8ionsof the Diet, which were renewed in the fall of
1791, were surrounded by a particularly disquieting political
atmosphere. '1'he opponents of the new Constitution fomented
an agitation in the country. Civil strife and war with Russia
were imminent. Nevertheless the indefatigable Butrymovich
had the courage to remind the Diet once again of the necessity
of extending the protection of the Government to "the unfortunate
nationality which is not in a position to effect its own
rescue, and is not even aware of the direction in which the betterment
of its lot may be found." He demanded that the CommiB8ionrevise
the project formerly elaborated by it, with a
view to submitting it anew to the House, with such amendments
as were" called forth by present-day circumstances."
Butrymovich was warmly seconded by Yezierski, who in the
same session (December 30) voiced the above-mentioned
"radical" idea, that in his opinion the .Tewswere even now
" useful citizens," and not merely likely to be " useful" in the
290 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
future. The Diet adopted the motion, and the Commission
once more resumed its labors.
The results of these labors were minimal. After protracted
deliberations the Commission arrived at the following conclusion:
In order to improve the status of the Jewish population, it is
necessary to regulate its mode of life. Such regulation is impossIble
unless that population is relieved from its Kahal indebtedness,
which relief cannot be brought about until the finance committee
has taken up the question of liquidation.'
The Commission accordingly felt that, before taking up tile
projected reforms, the Government should first point out ways
and means of liquidating the Kahal debts. The resolution of
the Commission was cheerfully passcd in a plenary session of
the Diet. A burden had bccn lifted from its shoulders. There
was no more need of bothering about" Jewish reform" and
"equality." It was enough to instruct the local courts to fjx
the extent of the Kahal debts and authorize the finance committee
to wipe them off with moneys taken from the available
Kahal funds or other special sources. Thus it came about
that, under the pretext of li.quidating Jewish Llebts, "Jewish
reform" itself was liquidated.
Having been passed over by the Constitution of May 3, the
Jews, if we are to believe the accounts of several contemporaries,
made an attempt to influence the Government and the
Diet through the instrumentality of King Stanislav Augustus,
1 The Jewish communities of Poland were burdened with enormous
debts, representing loans made by them in the course of
many years, to payoff their arrears in taxes, to meet extraordinary
expenditures, and so on. The creditors of the Jews were the
muniCipal magistraCies, the Catholic monasteries, as well as private
persons. The question of liquidating these debts cropped up time
and again at the sessions of the Polish Diets during the latter halt
of the eighteenth century.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 291
approaching the latter with the help of their connections at
court. Jewish public leaders are said to have assembled in
secret and elected three delegates, who were to enter into
negotiations wit!J.the King looking to the amelioration of the
condition of the Jews. The three delegates carried out their
mandate, towards the end of 1791 and thc beginning of 1792,
with the help of the Royal Secretary Piatoli as their go-between.
Shortly thereafter they were received by the King in special
audience, with great solemnity, the King, as the story has it,
being seated on hi" throne during the reception. The Jews
pleaded for civil rights as well as for the right of acquiring
lands and houses in the cities, the preservation of their communal
autonomy, and exemption from the jnrisdiction of the
magistracies. The story goes that the Jewish delegates held
out the promise of a gift of twenty million gulden to pay the
royal debts. Several leaders of the Diet, among them Kollontay,
a radical, were initiated into the secret. '1'he King, according
to this report, endeavored to push the Jewish reform project
through the Jewish Commission and the Diet, but failed in
his efforts. The problem of ages could not be disposed of at
this anxious hour when the angel of death was hovering over
Poland, while the unfortunate land was exhausting its strength
in a final dash for inner regeneration and outer independence.

3. THE LAST TWO PARTITIONS AND BEREK YOSELOVICH

The death struggle of Poland was approaching. The opponents
of the May Constitution among the conservative elements
of the country joined hands with the Russian Government,
which in its own sphere of influence had always been a
baneful stumbling-block in the path of progress. The result
292 'l'HE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLANlJ
was the formation of the Confederacy of Targovitza 1 and the
outbreak of civil war (summer, 1792). 'I'hough severed from
political life, the Jews nevertheless showed sympathy here and
there with the men that fought for the new Constitution. The
Jewish tailors of Vilna undertook to furnish gratis two hUlldred
uniforms for the army of liberty. The communities of
Sokhacliev and Pulavy contributed their mite towards the
patriotic flmds. The Jews of Berdychev took part in the deputation
of the local merchants which went to meet Joseph Poniatovski,
the commander-in-chief of the Polish army, and presented
him with new instruments for the regimental music
bands. On many an occasion the ,Tewishcommunities of Volhynia
and Podolia were the victims of enforced requisitions
from both belligerent armies. The community of Ostrog had
to undergo the bombardment of the city by the Russian army
in July, 1792.
The year 1793 saw the second partition of Poland, between
Russia and Prussia. Russia annexed Volhynia, with a part of
the province of Kiev, Podolia, and the region of Minsk. Prussia,
in turn, acquired the other part of Great Poland (Kalish,
Plotzk: etc.), with Dantzic and Thorn. Once more an enormous
territory, with hundreds of thousands of Jews, was cut
off from Poland. The unfortunate nation, seized with a
paroxysm of pain at this new amputation, burst forth against
its torturers. The Revolution of 1794 took its course.
At the head of the uprising stood Kosciuszko.· Having been
reared in the atmosphere of two great revolutions-the American
and the French-he had a loftier conception of civic and
political liberty than the liberalizing host of the Polish
[' In Pollah, Targowica, a town in the Ukraina.]
[" See p. 243, n. 1.]
[. More exactly, Kosciuszko, pronounced Koshchushko.]
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 293
Shlakhta. He was aware that no free country could exist
without first abolishing the serfdom of the peasants and the
inequality of the citizens. Even in the heat of his struggle
for the salvation of the fatherland, the Polish leader occasionally
gave proof of his democratic tendencies, and the
oppressed classes could not but feel that this revolution was
more than merely an affair of the Shlakhta.
The enthusiasm for liberty communicated itself to several
sections of Polish Jewry. It was manifested during the prolonged
Russo-Prussian siege of Warsaw in the summer and
autwnn of 1794, when the whole population was called to arms
to defend the capital. The very same Jews who but a little
while ago had been attacked on the streets of Warsaw by the
burghers and artisans, and were mercilessly driven from the
city by order of the administration, now, in the moment of
danger, fought in the trenches shoulder to shoulder with their
persecutors, digging ditches and throwing up earthworks.
Frequently at an alarm signal the volunteers would rush out
to fight back the besiegers. Amidst the whistling of bullets
and bursting of shells they repulsed the enemies' attacks side
by side with the other Varsovians, furnishing their quota in
wounded and killed, and yet keeping up their courage. Among
the Jews defending Warsaw the plan was conceived of forming
a separate Jewish legion to fight for the country. At the head
of this patriotic group stood Berek Yoselovich.'
Born about 1765 in the little town of Kretingen,' Berek had
traversed the thorny path that led a poor Jewish boy from
the Jewish religious school (heder) to the post of a pan's
[' Berek, or Berko, popular Pollsh form of the Jewish name
Baer.-Yoselovich. in Polisl, Joselowicz, son of YOBel,or Joseph. 1
• In the province of Zhmud [or Samogitia, corresponding practicall)'
to the present Government of Kovno.]
294 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
agent. He entered the employ of a high noble, the Bishop of
Vilna, by the name of Masalski, and was thereby launched upon
his remarkable career. Ma;;alski often went abroad, especially
to Paris, and alway.> took his Jewish agent with
him. During these travels young Berek early acquired the
French language, and observed the life of the Parisian
salons in which the master moved. The plain Polish Jew
perceived a new world, and he could not help scenting the
new tendencies floating about in the air of the world's capital
on the eve of the great Revolution.
During the years of the Quadrennial Diet Berek, who had
given up his position with Masalski, and had married in the
meantime, lived in Praga, a suburb of Wareraw. In the atmosphere
of patriotic excitement, the vague impressions which his
contact with the Polish nobility and his foreign travels had left
upon his mind came to maturity. The heroic figure of Kosciuszko
and the siege of Warsaw gave these vague sensations a
concrete form. He realized that it was his immediate duty to
fight for the freedom of the country, for the salvation of the
capital, where Poles and Jews were equally shut 00' and cooped
up by the hand of the enemy. Now was the time to prove tba t
even the stepchildren of the nation knew how to fight ill the
ranks of her sons, and that they deserved a better lot.
Accordingly, in September, 1794, at the very height of the
siege, Berek Yoselovich, conjointly with Joseph Aronovich
(son of Aaron), a fellow-Jew of like mind, applied to liosciuszko,
the commander-in-chief, for permission to form a
special regiment of light cavalry consisting of Jewish volunteers.
Kosciuszko immediately complied with their request,
and announced it joyfully ill a special army order, dated September
17, extolling the patriotic zeal of the originators of the
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTl'l'lONS 295
plan, "who rem.ember the land in which they were born, and
know that its liberation will bestow upon them [the Jews] the
same advantages as upon the o[lers." Berek was appointed
commander of the Jewish regiment. An appeal was issued calling
for recruits and for contributions towards their equipment.
Berek's appeal to his coreligionists was published in the official
"Gazette" of Warsaw on October 1. It was written in
Polish, though couched in the solemn phraseology of the
Bible:
Listen, ye sons of the tribes of Israel, all ye in whose heart is
implanted the image of God Almighty, all that are willing to help
in the struggle for the fatherland. . . .. Know ye that now the
time hath come to consecrate to this all our strength ..... Truly,
there are many mighty nobles, children of the Shlakhta, and
many great minds who are ready to lay down their lives! ....
Why then should we who are persecuted not take to arms, seeing
that we are the most oppressed people in the world! . . .. Why
should we not labor to obtain our freedom which has been prom·
ised us just as firmly and sincerely as it has been to others? But
first we must show that we are worthy of it. . . .. I have had the
happiness of being placed at the head of the regiment by my
superiors. Awake then, and help to rescue oppressed Poland.
Faithful brethren, let us fight for our country as long as a drop
of blood is left in us! Though we ourselves may not live to see
this [our freedom], at least our children will live in tranquillity
and freedom, and will not roam about like wild beasts. Awake then
like lions and leopards!
Berek's language is crude and naive, and so is his political
reasoning. While calling upon the Jews to join" the mighty
nobles" in fighting for liberty, he evidently overlooked the fart
that the liberty of the Jews was far from being secured by
the liberty of the nobles, among whom men with the humani296
THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
tarian tendencies of a Kosciuszko were few and far between.!
Berek, however, found solace in the hope that the participation
of the Jews in the struggle for Polish independence would
bring about a change. He lived at a time when the Jews of
Western Europe were eager to display their patriotic sentiments
and civic virtues. Before his mind's eye there probably
floated the figures of Jews who, since 1789, had served in the
garde nationale of Paris.
Berek's enthusiasm succeedeu in attracting many volunteers.
In a short time a regiment of five hundred men was made up.
The Jewish legion, which was hastily equipped with the scanty
means supplied by the revolutionary Government and by voluntary
contributions, had the checkered appearance of militia.
Yet the consciousness of military duty was keen in these men,
many of whom carried arms for the first time in their lives.
The Jewish regiment displayed its dauntless and self-sacrificing
spirit on that fatal November fourth, the day of the terrible
onslaught upon Praga by the Russian troops under Suvarov.
Among the fifteen thousand Poles who lost their lives in the
intrenchments of Praga, in the streets of Warsaw, or in the
waves of the Vistula, was also the regiment of Berek Yoselovich.
The bulk of the regiment met its fate at the fortifications,
being killed by Russian shells or bayonets. Berek himself
survived, and fled abroad with General Zayonchek, Kosciuszko's
comrade in arms, Kosciuszko himself having been
made a. Russian prisoner somewhat earlier. Berek was at
1That the habits of the Shlakhta were but little changed by the
revolution may be gauged from the fact that In 1794 the revolutionary
Central Council passed a law ordering the sale of crown
lands for the purpose of paying the national debt, but limiting this
sale to persons of the Christian faith.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 291
first arrested in Austria, but he managed to escap"land reach
France, where he found himself among the Polbh revolutionary
refugees.
The third partition of Poland, which took place in 1795,
transferred to Russia the backbone of the former Jewry of
Poland, the dense ma·ssesof Lithuania, the provinces of Vilna
and Grodno. Prussia absorbed the remainder of Great Poland,
including Warsaw and Mazovia,' as well as the region of Bialystok.
Austria rounded off her possessions in Little Poland by
adding the provinces of Cracow and Lublin. Henceforward
the fortunes of the Polish J"ews are identical with those of
their brethren in these three countries, and exhibit a "tricolored"
appearance-Austro-Prusso-Russian.
However, even the third partition of Poland was not final as
far as the political distribution of territory is concerned. For
a short interval the ghost of a semi-independent Poland dances
fitfully about. Twelve years after the third partition,
Napoleon I., in juggling with the political map of Europe and
calling mushroom states into being, snatched the province of
Great Poland from the grasp of Prussia, and turned it into the
Duchy of Warsaw, a small Polish commonwealth under the
rule of the Saxon King Frederick Augustus III., a grandson of
Augustus II., the last Polish Kir..gof the Saxon dynasty. This
took place in 1807, after the crushing blow which Prussia
had received at the l~andsof Napoleon and after the conclusion
of the Peace of Tilsit. Two years later, in 1809, when
Napoleon had shattered Austria, he tore off a section of
her Polish dominions, and joined them to the Duchy of
Warsaw.
£' See p. 85, n. 1.]

4. THE DUCHY OF WARSAW AND THE REACTION UNDER NAPOLEON

Warsaw, having been cleared of the Prussians, once more
became, after an interval of twelve years, the capital of a
separate Polish state, resuscitated under the patronage of
Napoleon. 'l'he Duchy of Warsaw, which was made up of
the ten "departments," or districts, of Great and Little
Poland, received from her French master a fairly liberal
Constitution, two legislative chambers (the Diet and the
Senate), and the" Code of Napoleon," which had just been
introduced in France. The fundamental laws proclaimed
the equality of all citizens; serfdom was abolished, and aU
class privileges were abrogated.
The Jews too cherished hopes for a better future. The
nimbus of Napoleon as the originator of the" Jewish Parliament"
and the Parisian Synhedrion, had not yet faded from
the minds of the Jews, and they cherished the hope that the
Emperor would extend his protection to the Polish Jews as
weU, but they were grievously disappointed.
The first year of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1808) coincided
with a critical turn in Napoleon's own policy towards the
Jews of France. The" Great Synhedrion" was disbanded,
and its disbandment was followed by the humiliating Imperial
decree of March 17, 1808, which for a decade checked in almost
the entire French Empire the operation of the law providing
for Jewish emancipation. This reactionary step was grist
to the mill of those sinister forces in Poland which had learned
nothing from the violent upheavals their country had undergone,
and even now were not able to reconcile themselvQs to the
idea of granting equality to the unloved tribe.
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 299
In the spring of 1808 the Government of the Duchy was
forced to pay attention to the Jewish question, in consequence
of a petition for civil rights presented by the Jews, and in
connection with the impending elections to the Diet. The
Council of Ministers, which had already been informed of
Napoleon's decree, clutched at it as an anchor of salvation.
A report was submitted to Duke Frederick Augustus, in
which it was pointed out that" a somber future would be in
store for the Duchy if the Israelitish nation, which is to be
found here in vast numbers, were suddenly to be allowed to
enjoy civil rights," the reason being that this people" cherishes
a national spirit alien to the country," and engages in unproductive
occupations. The Council of Ministers pointed to
Napoleon's decree suspending the Jewish question for a time
as a convenient means of evading the clause of the Constitution
granting equal rights to all citizens.
rfo make sure of Napoleon's approval in this matter, the
Government of Warsaw conducted negotiations with its agents
in France and with the French minister Champagny, who was
a Jew-hater. Napoleon's sympathetic attitude towards this
anti-Jewish policy having been ascertained, the Duke promulgated
on October 17, 1808, a decree to the following effect:
The inhabitants of our Varsovian Duchy professing the Mosaic
religion shall be barred for ten years from enjoying the political
rights they were about to receive, in the hope that during this
interval they may eradicate their distinguishing characteristics,
which mark them off so strongly from the rest of the population.
The foregoing decision, however, will not prevent us from allowing
individual members of that persuasion to enjoy political rights
even before the expiration of said term, provided they will prove
themselves worthy of our high favor, and will comply with the
conditions which will be set forth by us in a special edict concerning
the professors of the Mosaic religion.
300 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
In this way the Government of Warsaw in politely couched
terms, phrased after the modern French pattern, managed to
rob all the "professors of the Mosaic religion" of the rights
of citizenship which the Constitution had granted them. It
is true that the decree uses the words" political rights," but
in reality the Jews were divested by it of their elementary civil
rights. In November, 1808, they were forbidden to acquire
patrimonial estates belonging to the Shlakhta. '1.'11ehumiliating
restrictions attaching to the right of domicile in Warsaw
were rei'tored, and were embodied in a decree issued in 180!)
which ordered the Jews to remove within six months from the
lllain streets of the capital, except a few individuals, such as
bankers, large merchants, physicians, and artists. There was
a general tendency to return to the anti-Jewish traditions of
the Old Polish and Prussian legislation.
'fhe Jewish community became alarmed. By that time Warsaw
already possessed a goodly number of " advanced" Jews.
who had acquired the new culture of Berlin, and had divested
themselves of the distinguishing marks in dress and outward
appearance for which the Jews were penalized with the loss 01
rights. Helying upon the second clause of the ducal uecree,
which provided for the exceptional treatment of those who
shall have "eradicated their distinguishing characteristics,"
a group of seventeen Jews of this type made representations
to the Minister of Justice in January, 1809, to the effect
that, " having endeavored for a long time, by their moral conduct
and modern dress, to come into closer touch with the rest
of the population, they are now certain that they have ceased to
be unworthy of civil rights." To this flunkeyish petition the
'Minister of Justice, Lubenski-one of the" constitutional"
ministers who managed to promote the interests of despotism
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 3Q1
under the cloak of liberalism-retoILed with coarse sophistl·y,
that constitutional equality before the law did not yet make
a man a citizen, for only those could claim to be citizens who
were loyal to the sovereign, and looked upon this country as
their only fatherland. "Can those "-added Lubenski-" who
profess the laws of Moseslook upon this country as their fatherland?
Do they not wish to return to the land of their fathers?
. . .. Do they not regard themselves as a separate nation? ...•
The mere change of dress is not yet sufficient." The Polish
minister had, it would seem, made a thorough study of
Napoleon's catechism on the Jews.
Aside from the representatives of this sartorial culture, who
looked after their own personal advantage, there were among
the Jews of Warsaw followers of the Berlin" enlightenment,"
who considered it their duty to make a stand for the rights of
their people. On March 17, 1809, five representatives of the
J"ewish community of Warsaw submitted a memorandum to
the ducal Senate, in whi<:hnot only the note of entreaty but
also the undertone of indignation could be discerned.
Thousands of members 01 the Polish nation 01 the Mosaic persuasion/
who, by virtue of having dwelt in this country for many
centuries, have acquired the same right to consider it their fatherland
as the other inhabitants, have hitherto, without any fault of
theirs, to the damage of society and as an insult to mankind. for
reasons that no one knows. been doomed to humiliation, and are
groaning under the load of daily oppressions.
Contrary to the enlightened spirit of the age and "the
wisdom of the laws of Napoleon the Great "-the petitioners go
on complaining-the Jews are denied civil rights, have no
one to defend them in the Diet or the Senate, and sorrowfully
anticipate that even" their children and descendants will not
live to see happier times."
302 'rHE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
We carry a heavier burden of taxation than the other citizens.
We are robbed of the gladsome opportunity of acquiring a piece of
land, of building a little house, of founding a household, of erecting
a factory. of engaging in commerce unhampered, in a word, doing
that which God and nature hold out to man. In Warsaw
we are even ordered out of the main streets. And what shall we
say of those blessed liberties which citizens value most highlythe
right of electing their superiors and of being elected by their
compatriots, so as not to be as a dead body in the civic life of the
nation? Is the land in which our fathers, paying heavily for this
privilege, saw the light of the world, always to remain strange to
us? Gentlemen of the Senate, we lay before you the tears of the
fathers and of the children and of the coming generations. We
beg you to hasten the happy day when we may enter upon the enjoyment
of the rights and liberties with which Napoleon the Great'
has endowed the inhabitants of this country. and which our beloved
country recognizes as the possession of her children.
To this petition of the Jews, who classed themselves as
" members of the Polish nation," and were ready to renounce
their own national characteristics, the Senate replied by presenting
the Duke with a heartless report, in which it was
pointed out that the Jews had brought upon themselves the
" curtailment of their rights" by their " dishonest pursuits "
and by" their mode of life, subversive of the welfare of society."
It was necessary first to reform the life of the Jews and to
appoint a committee to elaborate plans of reform. It may be
remarked parenthetically that a committee of this kind had
been in existence since the end of 1808, and had worked out a
"plan of reform" akin in spirit to the projects of the Quadrennial
Diet and the Parisian Synhedrion. But all these committees
were in reality nothing but a decent way of burying
the Jewish question.
At the very time when the Government of the Varsovian
Duchy rejected the Jewish appeal for equality, under the
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 303
pretext that the Jews lacked patriotism, there lived and worked
in Warsaw a shining example of Polish patriotism, Berek
Yoselovich, the hero of the Revolution of 1794. After roaming
about for twelve years in Western Europe, where, having enlisted
~n.the ranks of the" Polish legions" of Domvrovski, he
took part in many Napoleonic wars, Berek returned home as
soon as the Duchy was established, and received an appointment
as commander of a detachment in the regular Polish army.
The dream of the old fighter had failed to come true. In vain
had his" Jewish regiment" filled the trenches of Praga with
their dead bodies. Twelve years later the brethren of those
who had sacrificed their lives for their fatherland had to beg
for the rights of citizenship. But Berek seems to have forgotten
his former ambition on behalf of his fellow-Jews, having
in the meantime become a professional soldier. It was solely
Polish patriotism and personal bravery that prompted the last
military exploits of his life. When, in the spring of 1809, war
broke out between the Duchy and the Austrians, Berek Yoselovich,
at the head of his regiment, rushed against the enemy's
cavalry near the town of Kotzk! He fell on May 5, after a
series of heroic deeds.
'I'he papers lamented the loss of the hero. A representative
of the Polish aristocracy, the proud Stanislav Pototzki, devoted
a special discourse to his memory at a meeting of the" Society
of the Friends of Science" in Warsaw.
Thou hast saddened-thus spoke the orator-the land of heroes,
thou valiant Colonel Berek, when unmeasured boldness drove thee
into the midst of the enemy. . . .. Well doth the fatherland
remember also thy old wounds and thy former exploits. remember
eternally that thou wast the first to give thy people an example. an
[' In Polish, Kock, near Warsaw.]
20
304 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
example of rejuvenated heroism, and that thou hast resuscitated
the image of those men of valor over whom in days gone by wept
the daughters of Zion.
The Polish nation remembered, and that for a short time
only, the one Berek; but the thousands of his oppressed
"Qrethren were forgotten. The only way in which the gratitude
of the "fatherland" manifested itself was a special order
of the Duke granting permission to Berek's widow, who found
it difficult to live and bring up her children on her Bcanty
pension, to reside in the streets of Warsaw from which the
Jews were barred, and" to engage there in the sale of liquor."
Other civil privileges the Jews could not hope for, even by
way of exception.
This state of affairs could not very well inspire the Jewish
population with a great love for military service, although the
J eWBhad been graciously permitted to discharge it in person.'
With few exceptions, the Jews preferred to pay an
additional tax rather than spill their blood for a country
which offered them obligations without rights. The decree of
January 29, 1812, legalized this substitution of personal military
service by a monetary ransom, the grand total of which
amounted to 700,000 gulden a year.
On the brink of destruction, during the war tempest of 1812,
the Duchy of Warsaw still found leisure to strike an economic
blow at the Jews. At the suggestion of Minister Lubenski, a
ducal decree was issued on September 30 forbidding the Jews,
after the lapse of two years, to sell liquor and keep taverns,
which meant, in other words, that tens of thousands of Jewish
families were to be deprived of their livelihood. Secretly the
Government justified this measure by the impending augmentation
of the territory of the Duchy and the restoration of Old
THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS 305
Poland, where strict economic measures were necessary to keep
the returning Jewish population in bounds. But the confidence
reposed in the power of Napoleon was not justified. The
idol was overthrowIl. ThE: Duchy of Warsaw, the pale specter
of an independent Poland, vanished into air, and the fate
of the country again lay in the hands of the three Powers
that had divided it, particularly Russia. The millions of Jews
in Russian Poland were well aware of what they had to expect
at the hands of their new rulers.

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