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
One attempt of coupling socialism with Judaism ought not to be passed
over in silence. In the beginning of the seventies there existed in
Vilna a Jewish revolutionary circle made up principally of the pupils of
the rabbinical school and of the teachers' institute of the same city.
In 1875, the police tracked the members of the circle. Some were
arrested, others escaped. One of the refugees, A. Lieberman, managed to
reach London where he associated with the circle of Lavrov and the
editors of the revolutionary journal _Vperyod_ ("Forwards").
In the following year, Lieberman founded in London the "League of Jewish
Socialists" for the purpose of carrying on a propaganda among the Jewish
masses. It was a small society of students and workingmen which busied
itself with arranging lectures and debates, and penning Hebrew appeals
on the need of organizing the proletariat. The society was soon
dissolved, and Lieberman emigrated to Vienna, where, under the name of
Freeman, he started in 1877 a socialistic magazine in Hebrew under the
name _ha-Emet_ ("The Truth"). The first two issues of _ha-Emet_ were
admitted into Russia, but the third was confiscated by the censor. The
magazine had to be discontinued. It yielded its place to a paper called
_Asefat Hakamim_ ("The Assembly of Wise Men"), published in Koenigsberg
in 1878 by M. Winchevski as a supplement to the paper _ha-Kol_ ("The
Voice"), which was issued there by Rodkinson. Soon this whole species of
socialistic literature was put out of existence. In 1879, Lieberman in
Vienna and his comrades in Berlin and Koenigsberg were arrested and
expelled from the borders of Austria and Prussia. They emigrated to
England and America, and lost touch with Russia.
In Russia itself the Jewish revolutionaries were heart and soul devoted
to the cause. The children of the ghetto displayed considerable heroism
and self-sacrifice in the revolutionary upheaval of the seventies. Jews
figured in all important political trials and public manifestations;
they languished in the gaols, and suffered as exiles in Siberia. But
this idealistic fight for general freedom lacked a Jewish note, the
endeavor to free their own nation which lived in greater thraldom than
any other. And no one at that time ever dreamt that after all these
sacrifices the Jews of Russia would be visited by still greater
misfortunes, by pogroms and increased disabilities.
5. THE NEO-HEBRAIC RENAISSANCE
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