History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 1 [of 3]: From the Beginning until the Death of Alexander I (1825)Dubnow, Simon
History
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 1 [of 3]: From the Beginning until the Death of Alexander I (1825)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
At that time Warsaw evidently did not yet possess the type of cultured
Mendelssohnians--they appeared in that city shortly thereafter, under
the Prussian _régime_--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 marriages. With regard 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 office from 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."
During the year 1789 and the first half of 1790 the Jewish 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 discussions
centering 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 Chamber of Deputies, and the Diet had
to bestir itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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