HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I UNTIL THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER III
by S.M. Dubnow
A Project Gutenberg EBook
4. INTERCESSION OF WESTERN EUROPEAN JEWRY
The mask of the Russian Government was soon torn down
also before the
yes of Western Europe. In the initial stage of
Lilienthal's campaign,
public-minded Jews of Western Europe were inclined to
believe that a
happy era was dawning upon their coreligionists in
Russia. At the
instance of Uvarov, Lilienthal had entered into
correspondence with
Philippson, Geiger, Cremieux, Montefiore, and other
leaders of
West-European Jewry, bespeaking their moral support on
behalf of the
school-reform and going so far as to invite them to participate
in the
proceedings of the Rabbinical Commission convened at St.
Petersburg. The
replies from these prominent Jews were full of
complimentary references
to Uvarov's endeavors. The _Allgemeine Zeitung des
Judentums_,[1] in the
beginning of the forties, voiced the general belief that
the era of
persecutions in Russia had come to an end.
[Footnote 1: A weekly founded by Dr. Ludwig Philippson in
1837. It still
appears in Berlin.]
The frontier expulsions of 1843 acted like a cold douche
on these
enthusiasts. They realized that the pitiless banishment
of thousands of
families from home and hearth was not altogether
compatible with
"benevolent intentions." A sensational piece of
news made its rounds
through Germany: the well-known painter Oppenheim of
Frankfurt-on-the-Main
had given up working at the large picture ordered by the
leaders of
several Jewish communities for presentation to the Tzar.
The painting
had been intended as an allegory, picturing a sunrise in
a dark realm,
but the happy anticipations proved a will o' the wisp,
and the plan had
to be given up. Instead, Western Europe was resounding
with moans from
Russia, betokening new persecutions and even more
atrocious schemes of
restrictions. The sufferings of the Russian Jews suggested
the thought
that it was the duty of the influential Jews of the West
to intercede on
behalf of their persecuted brethren before the emperor of
Russia.
The choice fell on the famous Jewish philanthropist in
London, Sir Moses
Montefiore, who stood in close relations to the court of
Queen Victoria.
Having established his fame by championing the Jewish
cause in Turkey
during the ritual murder trial of Damascus in 1840,
Montefiore resolved
to make a similar attempt in the land of the Tzar. In the
beginning of
1846 he set out for Russia, ostensibly in the capacity of
a traveler
desirous of familiarizing himself with the condition of
his
coreligionists. Montefiore, who was the bearer of a
personal
recommendation from Queen Victoria to the Russian
emperor, was received
in St. Petersburg with great honors. During an audience
granted to
Montefiore in March, 1846, the Tzar expressed his
willingness to receive
from him, through the medium of the "Jewish
Committee," suggestions
bearing on the condition of the Russian Jews, based on
the information
to be gathered by him on his travels. Montefiore's
journey through the
Pale of Settlement, including a visit to Vilna, Warsaw,
and other
cities, was marked by great solemnity. He was courteously
received by
the highest local officials, who acted according to
instructions from
St. Petersburg, and he met everywhere with an
enthusiastic welcome from
the Jewish masses, who expected great results from his
intercession
before the Tzar.
Needless to say, these expectations were not realized. On
his return to
London, Montefiore addressed various petitions to
Kiselev, the chairman
of the Jewish Committee, to Minister Uvarov and to
Paskevich, the then
viceroy of Poland. Everywhere he pleaded for a mitigation
of the harsh
laws which were pressing upon his unfortunate brethren,
for the
restoration of the recently abolished communal autonomy,
for the
harmonization of the school-reform with the religious
traditions of the
Jewish masses. The Tzar was informed of the contents of
these petitions,
but it was all of no avail.
In the same year another influential foreigner made an
unsuccessful
attempt to improve the condition of the Russian Jews by
emigration. A
rich Jewish merchant of Marseille, named Isaac Altaras,
came to Russia
with a proposal to transplant a certain number of Jews to
Algiers, which
had recently passed under French rule. Fortified by
letters of
recommendation from Premier Guizot and other high
officials in France,
Altaras entered into negotiations with the Ministers
Nesselrode and
Perovski in St. Petersburg and with Viceroy Paskevich in
Warsaw, for the
purpose of obtaining permission for a certain number of
Jews to emigrate
from Russia.[1] He gave the assurance that the French Government
was
ready to admit into Algiers, as full-fledged citizens,
thousands of
destitute Russian Jews, and that the means for
transferring them would
be provided by Rothschild's banking house in Paris. At
first, while in
St. Petersburg, Altaras was informed that permission to
leave Russia
would be granted only on condition that a fixed ransom be
paid for every
emigrant.
In Warsaw, however, which city he visited later, in
October, 1846, he
was notified that the Tzar had decided to waive the
ransom. For some
unexplained reason Altaras left Russia suddenly, and the
scheme of a
Jewish mass emigration fell through.
[Footnote 1: A law on the Russian statute books forbids
the emigration
of Russian citizens abroad. See later, p. 285, n. 1.]
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