History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)Dubnow, Simon
Religion
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
Lelevel's kindly words would scarcely have brought the anti-Semites to
reason, had not the Poles at that moment embarked upon an enterprise for
the success of which they sorely needed the sympathy and co-operation of
their Jewish neighbors. The revolutionary movement which engulfed
Russian Poland in 1860-1863 required the utmost exertion of effort on
the part of the entire population, in which the half-million Jews played
no small part. All of a sudden Polish society opened its arms to those
whom it had but recently branded as foreigners, and out of the ranks of
Warsaw Jewry came a hearty response, expressing itself not only in
patriotic manifestations but also in sacrifices and achievements for the
sake of the common fatherland.
At the head of the Warsaw community during this stormy period stood a
man who combined Polish patriotism with rabbinic orthodoxy. Formerly
rabbi in Cracow, Berush [1] Meisels had as far back as 1848 been sent as
deputy to the parliament at Kremsier, [2] and stood in the forefront of
the Polish patriots of Galicia. In 1856 he accepted the post of rabbi in
Warsaw. When the revolutionary movement had broken out, Meisels
endeavored to instruct his flock in the spirit of Polish patriotism.
Revered by the Jewish masses for his piety, and by the intellectuals for
his political trend of mind, this spiritual leader of Polish Jewry
played in the revolutionary Polish movement a role equal in importance
to that of the leading ecclesiastics of Poland. The harmonious
co-operation of the orthodox Chief Rabbi Meisels, the reform preacher
Marcus Jastrow, [3] and the lay representatives of the community lent
unity and organization to the part played by the Jews in preparing the
rebellion.
[Footnote 1: A variant of the name _Baer_.]
[Footnote 2: A town in Moravia, where, after the rising of 1848, the
Austrian parliament met provisionally till March, 1849.]
[Footnote 3: After the suppression of the Polish insurrection, Jastrow
went to the United States, and became a leading rabbi in Philadelphia.
He died in 1903.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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