Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore Part 43

ch. xii, secs. 4, 5): 'The wise men and the prophets did not desire the advent of the Messiah, that they might attain the power of any terrestrial government, that they should be elevated in worldly rank by the nations, or enjoy every terrestrial comfort. No! this was not the object of their fervent prayer; their object was, in that glorious period, to be enabled to devote themselves wholly and in perfect freedom to the study of the holy law and its sacred literature, through which they might, at the end of their worldly career, attain the bliss of immortality. That period is expected to be full of peace; no war, no disturbance, no hatred; no jealousy between men will then exist; happiness will be the lot of every creature, and the whole world will only be anxious to acquire the knowledge of the law. Then will Israel be enlightened by the Word of G.o.d, for the world is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, even as the waters cover the sea.'

"A most remarkable feature in the purity of that particular article of our creed is, that whilst the prayer for the Messiah regards the welfare of the whole human race, it also strongly inculcates a sentiment that no kind of coercive measures ought to be used by any person for the purpose of hastening the advent of that blissful period. Our Talmud declares that the Omnipotent enjoined the Israelites not to press events to bring on that promised season of peace, nor ever to oppose the nations ('Tract Ketubot," 1. cx. p. 1).

"Having made these preliminary remarks, I shall now proceed to describe to your Excellency the state of the schools which I visited in the course of my journey through Russia and Poland.

"Being anxious to convince myself of the real condition of my brethren, I often took them by surprise, and I am happy to say, although they had not teachers of profane sciences, still most of the pupils in some schools knew how to write and to read in the Russian, Hebrew, and German languages. In Wilna I found the schools organised agreeably to the command of His Imperial Majesty's Government; they were well provided with competent masters, and the pupils answered most satisfactorily questions in the various branches of tuition--in Latin, Russian, and German grammars, geography, arithmetic, and history.

"In Hebrew, however, they could only obtain instruction during three hours each week. The pupils who frequent the gymnasium also attended whilst I was there the schools thus organised, and I had an opportunity of ascertaining that a considerable number of them were well versed in various branches of science and secular education. The girls' schools are in a most flouris.h.i.+ng state, and your Excellency will be pleased to hear that the pupils excel in the knowledge of the Russian, Polish, French, Hebrew, and German languages, in addition to their knowledge of geography, Russian history, and arithmetic. With respect to the Talmud Tora schools (your Excellency having expressed so zealous a desire to advance the study of the Hebrew language and its literature), I feel much pleasure in a.s.suring your Excellency that I examined a great number of pupils, and their knowledge of Hebrew was surprising.

Sometimes they were addressed in that language, and they translated it into German, or _vice versa_; on various occasions they continued to recite any sacred text in the Bible after the first word of the chapter or verse was given to them. At Warsaw also I found the schools organised upon the principles laid down by His Imperial Majesty's Government in a flouris.h.i.+ng state. The pupils are well versed in the Russian, Polish, French, Hebrew, and German languages, independently of their knowledge of geography, history, arithmetic, and composition. I was equally satisfied in inspecting the girls' school. Like those at Wilna, these schools may be regarded as models, for they are upon an equality with similar establishments in my own country. The school of industry I also found to be a most excellent establishment, which, in the course of time, will confer great benefits upon the rising generation. With respect to the Talmud Tora schools, in which a knowledge of Hebrew language and its literature is exclusively taught, I beg leave to a.s.sert that there is not any school in the most distinguished Hebrew congregation in Europe that deserves to rank higher than those established in Warsaw and Wilna. Of the various Hebrew schools which I visited in the smaller towns on my route, I was frequently surprised in a most agreeable manner. At those where I expected it the least the pupils were well acquainted with the Hebrew language and its literature, and on many occasions wrote in my presence various sentences in the Russian, Hebrew, and German languages.

"I particularly inquired the reason why the Talmud Tora schools had no professors appointed for the Russian language and other branches of secular science and literature, this deficiency having struck me the more after having heard such powerful arguments in favour of studying these, showing that a knowledge of worldly science and literature, when combined with that of Hebrew and the observance of pure religion, was well adapted to improve an Israelite. The answer to my inquiry was, that they had not the means to procure such professors; that to have a master of that description would have given them the highest pleasure, but that having themselves to contend with innumerable difficulties in obtaining the ordinary and most urgent necessaries of life, they deemed it their first duty morally and religiously to procure, with the limited means they had, such instruction for their children as is essential for the enjoyment of their religion, leaving other kinds of learning for more favourable opportunities. Of their real feeling on this head the following incident is an example. I offered the means of procuring masters for the Russian language, geography, history, writing, and arithmetic in several schools, and my offer was most eagerly accepted, and the following day masters were engaged.

"With respect to the inclination of the Israelites to frequent public schools, I found that a considerable number of the Jewish youth do attend these inst.i.tutions, and many more would do so were it not that a most difficult question arises to their parents, who say, 'We thoroughly appreciate the great advantages derivable from additional acquirements, but what is to become of our children after their minds shall have been so instructed in the higher branches of knowledge and their sensibilities thereby necessarily refined? or how are we to provide them with proper habiliments and books required for the purpose if we can hardly afford to satisfy them with bread?' Very many Israelites are also much afraid that the mode of instruction at some public schools, and at some established for the Israelites exclusively, may induce their children to abjure the Jewish faith, which of course is dear to Israelites, and which they are ready to defend with their lives. For there are schools where persons, who are apostates from the Hebrew religion, are allowed to instruct the pupils, a course of tuition which must give rise to the most painful anxiety in the minds of those by whom that religion is still cherished.

"I beg leave now to state, with the most profound respect for your Excellency's judgment on this important subject, that I have given it most serious consideration, and knowing from ample evidence that my brethren in the Russian empire are most anxious to advance their mental and social improvement, I humbly submit to your Excellency that they are in a fit condition for receiving the benefits which their most benevolent and merciful monarch intended to bestow upon them.

"My humble pet.i.tion to your Excellency is, that by your humane and kind intercession supplications may be brought effectually before His Imperial Majesty's Government.

"Those supplications I will thus set forth. In the first place, that they may be permitted to have the management themselves of their Hebrew theological schools. This is essential to their dearest sympathies and interests, as no other persons could promote the study of Hebrew literature more effectually. In all regions where civilisation has made any marked progress, wherever its blessings are really experienced, Hebrew literature is regarded as its most precious feature, and all nations ardently cultivate its study and render homage to its worth. May it therefore please the Imperial Government to allow the Israelites themselves, the people by whose agency this boon has been given to mankind, to have the direction of those establishments in which they are to be trained in the true knowledge of their own inalienable inheritance. For the acquirement of knowledge in secular science and literature they should also have the appointment of their own teachers, such whose competency may be approved of by His Majesty's Minister of Public Instruction, or should be allowed to avail themselves of the public educational establishments, subject, of course, to such periodical examinations as may be deemed necessary to test the progress of the pupil.

"Secondly, they consider it a just regulation that, in those schools which His Majesty's Government has originated solely for their benefit, no convert from Judaism be appointed a teacher. Particular allusion is here made to the Rabbinical school at Warsaw, where a person who was tutor, whilst belonging to that faith, continues to hold that situation even after having abjured it and embraced another. No permanent satisfaction can result from such an anomaly, which will surely deter sincere Israelites from sending their children to inst.i.tutions placed in similar circ.u.mstances, as they will naturally suppose that His Imperial Majesty's Government encourages conversion, but which I am a.s.sured, by a statement from your Excellency, it does not desire. Such appointments of instructors should be made as would remove all misconception on this vitally important subject.

"Thirdly, I submit to your Excellency that it is just that the Ukase issued on the 24th November 1836, declaring that all such Hebrew books as are p.r.o.nounced by the Chief Rabbi not to contain inimicable sentiments to the government of the country, be permitted to remain with the Israelites, do continue in full force, because unfortunately during the last eleven months, the Hebrew libraries of private individuals have been in the hands of the police, and many books which they were authorized to keep by the Chief Rabbi, having thereon his seal and signature, were taken away from them, and even those books on which the Committee of Censors would find nothing wrong, are still kept back by the Committee. May it therefore please your Excellency to order that the books be returned to the owners.

"Finally, I have to pet.i.tion your Excellency to take seriously into consideration all that I have here advanced on my suffering brethren's behalf. Your Excellency, I am aware, entertains the most philanthropic views, and when your Excellency reflects on the earnest desire of my brethren in His Imperial Majesty's dominions to benefit by education in the most comprehensive and useful sense of the word, and the restrictions which as Israelites impede a beneficial progress therein, I am sure that your Excellency's enlightened judgment will accord them your powerful advocacy with His Imperial Majesty's Government.

"Your Excellency may indeed believe that I a.s.sert as my solemn conviction, that when they shall fully enjoy those privileges and opportunities which their paternal and beneficent Sovereign has designed for them, the result will be surprising to those who have underrated their talents and inclinations, and most gratifying to all who like your Excellency have evinced a sincere desire to promote their welfare, equally with that of the other numerous people over whom His Imperial Majesty reigns.--I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration and the most profound respect, your Excellency's most faithful servant.

(Signed) "Moses Montefiore."

CHAPTER XLVI.

1846.

REPORT TO COUNT KISSELEFF ON THE STATE OF THE JEWS IN POLAND--PROTEST AGAINST THE RESTRICTIONS TO WHICH THEY WERE SUBJECTED.

The last of the three important reports made by Sir Moses Montefiore to the Ministers of the Emperor of Russia was to Count Kisseleff, and ran as follows:--

"To his Excellency Le Comte de Kisseleff, Ministre du domaine de l'Empire de sa Majeste l'Empereur de Russie, &c., &c., &c.

"May it please your Excellency,--My first and princ.i.p.al report had reference, as your Excellency will have seen, to the condition and wants of my brethren in Russia. In obedience, however, to the permission which His Majesty the Emperor most graciously gave me, and to your Excellency's most benevolent desire, it is inc.u.mbent on me to make some remarks (which for the sake of clearness I prefer submitting in a distinct paper) in regard to those who are inhabitants of the kingdom of Poland. In so doing, I would humbly beseech His Majesty the Emperor, your Excellency, and His Majesty's Government at large, so far as it may be made acquainted with the subject, to receive such remarks, and any requests that may stand connected with them, with great and indulgent consideration.

"Humble as is my position in life, when compared with the most exalted stations of the high persons to whom I venture to address myself, I nevertheless have laid upon me by the high benevolence itself which I have experienced, a heavy responsibility to Almighty G.o.d, to His Majesty the Emperor and his Government, to my brethren, and I believe to the whole civilized world.

"I most sincerely believe that the human race at large would experience solid and lasting benefit, if His Majesty would deign to carry out fully and completely his gracious expressions of desire for the welfare of his Hebrew subjects. With these views I would most humbly and earnestly supplicate that the great and sublime course of proceeding already commenced by His Majesty, which I have ventured to solicit for the Israelites in Russia, should be extended as fully to those of my brethren who are resident in Poland. I supplicate the powerful Russian Government to prove to the whole civilized world that the amelioration of the condition of the Hebrew race, for which it is so graciously desirous, can be produced with completeness and effect, by measures that would appeal to the grat.i.tude and love of a loyal and warm-hearted people.

"Permit me in the first place to direct your Excellency's attention to two paragraphs, the fifth and seventh of the Organization Statute of Poland promulgated in the year 1832, and which are immediately connected with the subject in question.

"Therein His Majesty the Emperor and King of Poland declares that 'the difference from the Christian modes of wors.h.i.+p cannot be regarded as a cause of exclusion to any person whatever from the rights and privileges granted to all other inhabitants professing the Christian religion.

"'The protection of the law equally extends to all the inhabitants of the kingdom without any distinction of rank or social condition.'

"With the profoundest respect I will now proceed to lay before your Excellency the following brief enumeration of serious restrictions under which my brethren in Poland are weighed down.

"_1st._ Concerning their confined habitations.

"(_a_) There are towns in Poland in which Israelites are never allowed to reside.

"(_b_) In these towns or marts where they have permission to live it extends only to a few streets.

"(_c_) From every habitation situated near the high roads they are entirely excluded.

"(_d_) They are prohibited from settling within three geographical miles of the frontier, which, in a country of the dimensions of Poland, excludes them from a considerable tract of territory.

"_2nd._ Regarding mechanics (trade).

"(_a_) An Israelite following any trade or mechanical operation is not allowed to keep apprentices, neither can he declare such as journeymen. This naturally involves the Hebrew mechanic in innumerable difficulties, for he is entirely dependent upon his own personal exertions, and can never avail himself of the a.s.sistance of his fellow-mechanics.

"(_b_) He is prohibited from working with a Christian master, and in consequence of his not being acknowledged as a master among the corporations, he is always considered as a person who injures the trade.

"_3rd._ With respect to agriculture, crown lands, or ecclesiastical property.

"The Israelite is prohibited from taking on lease, nor is he ever allowed to be the proprietor of any lands, however small in extent; for even the property of private individuals he can only rent by paying heavy taxes for the patent, and then even is not allowed to employ Christian a.s.sistants.

"_4th._ Additional taxes.

"(_a_) An Israelite has to pay a tax of three kopecs, besides the usual tax, upon each pound of beef or veal lawfully prepared for his use; fifteen kopecs silver for a turkey, five kopecs silver for a fowl, eight kopecs silver for a duck, and nine kopecs silver for a goose.

"(_b_) A Hebrew labourer living in the vicinity of Warsaw cannot enjoy the advantage of bringing his goods or the produce of his land into the capital, there being a law that every Israelite from the provinces who comes to town should pay, daily, ten silver kopecs for permission to stay, and seven and a-half silver kopecs for the duty on the stamp.

"(_c_) An Israelite dealing in spirituous liquors lies exclusively under taxes for such a privilege. Thus an individual having a brewhouse and brandy distillery has to pay 25 dollars to the City Exchequer, 66-2/3 dollars to the finances of the State, 66-2/3 for the distillery, 66-2/3 for the brewery, amounting to 291-2/3 dollars annually; and although he pays for such a privilege dearly, he cannot bequeath it to his child, for only those are allowed to enjoy it who obtained permission in the year 1809.

"_5th._ Other restrictions.

"(_a_) An Israelite is not allowed to appear as a witness in a case of lawsuit against a Christian, for his evidence is not considered valid. The great injury he must sustain from such a law or practice is incalculable.

"(_b_) As soldiers, although they may distinguish themselves in the army or navy, they are not permitted to rise in rank. The mode of enrolling recruits is also most painful; for, notwithstanding a distinct decree having been issued by His Majesty's Government in the year 1843, that recruits should be given up to the authorities by the community, without the interference of any officer, still great wrongs are committed by some of the petty officers, which cause the ruin of numerous families.

"(_c_) They have not the advantage, like other subjects of His Majesty, of renting the local revenues derived from the sale of spirits. Not, however, that I would consider this restriction a hards.h.i.+p, excepting so far as it is a distinctive mark upon the Israelites in Poland.

"(_d_) They are excluded from the great advantages derivable from the acquirement of science and literature, by being prohibited from following the professions of chemists, architects, lawyers, and several other similar avocations.

"Like their brethren in Russia, the Israelites of Poland are accused of great aversion to every kind of manual labour, preferring to gain a livelihood by devotion to petty commerce. It is alleged also, that they are disinclined to agriculture, avoid every mechanical pursuit, and defraud the Government of the excise and customs; that they distinguish themselves from the rest of the inhabitants by their particular costume; and finally, that the precepts of their religion, to which they most scrupulously adhere, are of antisocial tendency.

"I entreat your Excellency's kind consideration of the few observations which I deem it essential to offer, in reference to the foregoing imputations. The statistical accounts of Poland shew that, in proportion to the number of Hebrew inhabitants, there are more mechanics amongst them than amongst any other cla.s.s of His Majesty's Polish subjects; they devote themselves to the most laborious occupations, and it may be easily ascertained that there is not only a great number of Hebrew brickmakers, blacksmiths, paviors, and carpenters, but there may be found two thousand Israelites who break stones on the chaussees. As a most striking instance, I shall name to your Excellency a small town of the name of Kalnary, where there exist no less than 486 families following mechanical pursuits, amongst a Hebrew population of 1500 families, as I believe may be proved by the official accounts of the police.