Nearly twenty centuries have passed since the ancient Judæo-Hellenic Diaspora sent forth a handful of men who established a Jewish colony upon the northern Scythian, now Russian, shores of the Black Sea. More than a thousand years ago the Jews of Byzantium from one direction, and those of the Arabian Caliphate from another, went forth to colonize the land of the Scythians. The Jew stood at the cradle of ancient Kiovian Russia, which received Christianity from the hands of the Byzantines. The Jew witnessed the birth of Catholic Poland, and, during the stormy days of the Crusades, fled from the West of Europe to this haven of refuge which was not yet entirely in the hands of the Catholic Church. He has seen Poland in its bloom and decay; he has witnessed the rise of Muscovite Russia, tying the fate of one-half of his nation to the new Russian Empire. Here the power that dominates history opened up before the Jewish people a black abyss of mediævalism in the midst of the blazing light of modern civilization, and finally threw it into the flames of the gigantic struggle of nations. What may the World War be expected to bring to the World-Nation? Full of agitation, the Jew is looking into the future, and the question of his ancient prophet is trembling on his lips: "Ah Lord God! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?"[61].... Let the entire past of the Jewish people serve as an answer to this question--a people which, in the maelstrom of human history, has succeeded in conquering the two cosmic forces: Time and Space. FOOTNOTES: [61] Ezekiel XI, 13. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY VOLUME I [_Yevr. Bibl._ = _Yevreyskaya Bibliotyeka_; _Yevr. St._ = _Yevreyskaya Starina_.] CHAPTER I THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE (pp. 13-38) Latyschew, Inscriptiones antiquae orae Septentrionalis Ponti Euxini, vols. I-II. St. Petersburg, 1885, 1890 [R]. Reghesty i Nadpisi. Svod materialov dla istoriyi yevreyev v Rossiyi ("Documents and Inscriptions. Collection of Materials for the History of the Jews in Russia"). Vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1899, Nos. 1-218 [R]. Dubnow, "The Historical Mystery of the Crimea," _Yevr. St._, 1914, No. 1. Harkavy, Skazaniya Musulmanskikh pisatyeley o Slavianakh i Russkikh ("The Accounts of the Mohammedan Writers concerning the Slavs and Russians") St. Petersburg, 1870 [R]. ----, Mitteilungen über die Chasaren, _Russische Revue_, 1877; also _Yevr. Bibl._, vols. VII-VIII, St. Petersburg, 1878. ----, Altjüdische Denkmäler aus der Krim, St. Petersburg, 1876. Firkovich, Abne Zikkaron. Matzebot 'al Kibre Bne Israel bi-Krim, Vilna, 1872. Chwolson, Corpus inscriptionum hebraicarum. Grabschriften aus der Krim, St. Petersburg, 1882. Petahiah of Ratisbon, Sibbub, edited by Grünhut, Jerusalem, 1904.