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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
3. CONTINUED HUMILIATIONS AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER III.
In the meantime, in the land of the Tzars events went their
own course.
The Moscow tragedy was nearing its end, but its last
stages were marked
by scenes reminiscent of the times of the inquisition.
After banishing
from Moscow the larger part of the Jewish population, the
governor-general, Grand Duke Sergius, made up his mind to
humble the
remaining Jewish population of the second Russian capital
so thoroughly
that its existence in the center of Greek Orthodoxy might
escape public
public notice. The eyes of the Russian officials at
Moscow were offended
by the sight of the new beautiful synagogue structure
which had been
finished in the fateful year of the expulsion. At first,
orders were
given to remove from the top of the building the large
cupola capped
by the Shield of David, which attracted the attention of
all
passers-by. Later on, the police, without any further
ado, shut
down the synagogue, in which services had already begun
to be held,
pending the receipt of a new special permit to re-open
it. Rabbi Minor
of Moscow and the warden of the synagogue addressed a
petition to
the governor-general, in which they begged permission to
hold
services in the building, the construction of which had
been duly
sanctioned by the Government, pointing to the fact that
Judaism was
one of the religions tolerated in Russia. In answer to
their
petition, they received the following stern reply from
St.
Petersburg, dated September 23, 1892:
His Imperial Majesty, after listening to a report of
the Minister of
the Interior concerning the willful opening of the
Moscow Synagogue
by Rabbi Minor and Warden Schneider, was graciously
pleased to
command as follows:
_First_. Rabbi Minor of Moscow shall be dismissed from
his post and
transferred for permanent residence to the Pale of
Jewish
Settlement.
_Second_. Warden Schneider shall be removed from the
precincts of
Moscow for two years.
_Third_. The Jewish Synagogue Society shall be notified
that,
unless, by January 1, 1893, the synagogue structure
will have been
sold or transformed into a charitable institution, it
will be sold
at public auction by the gubernatorial administration
of Moscow.
The rabbi and the warden went into exile, while the dead
body of the
murdered synagogue--its structure--was saved from
desecration by placing
in it one of the schools of the Moscow community.
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