DS 
 
 135 
 
 R9R92 
 
 ■fi
 
 I 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE 
 
 PEKSECUTION OF THE JEWS 
 IN RUSSIA. 
 
 WITH 
 
 APPENDIX CONTAINING A SUMMARY OF 
 
 SPECIAL AND RESTRICTIVE LAWS, 
 
 ALSO A 
 
 Map of Biissia, showing the Pale of Jewish Settlement^ 
 
 AND A 
 
 Letter rejjrlnted from " The Times" of 5th November, 1890. 
 
 Issued by thb 
 RUSSO-JEWISH COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER, LEA & CO., 
 
 CIECUS PLACE. LOXDOX WALL. 
 
 1890.
 
 lis 
 
 THE PERSECUTION PcjPc^o 
 
 OF 
 
 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 " All Jews born in England shall be regarded as aliens. No 
 " Jews shall dwell in any part of the United Kingdom but 
 "the Principality of Wales, and the counties of Cheshire, 
 " Shropshire, Hereford and Monmouth, unless they be 
 " full graduates of some University, members of the learned 
 " professions, skilled artisans certificated by the Technical 
 " Institute, or have been members of a Chamber of Commerce 
 " for five years, paying £100 per annum for that privilege. 
 " No Jew shall hold any government or municipal oflUce. 
 " No Jew shall buy or rent landed property. All Jews shall 
 •'pay special taxes in connection with religious functions. 
 " No synagogue may be opened without the Queen's signed 
 "permit, and no public prayers may be held in any other 
 "place than a synagogue. Married Jews who become con- 
 " verted to the Established Church of England, are ipso facto 
 " divorced on conversion, but the wife, if she remain a Jewess, 
 "may not marry again. All Jews attaining the age of 20- 
 " years, shall serve five years in the active army, and thirteen 
 " years in the reserve, but no Jew may become an ofiicer, or 
 " even an officer's servant. No Jew shall serve in the navy." 
 
 A condition of things such as is suggested by the above 
 set of rules is so utterly impossible in free England, that they 
 may easily raise a smile. Yet they represent in a manner 
 calculated to bring the subject home to English readers, the 
 normal situation of the Jews of Russia, under which they 
 have been obliged to live for much more than a century. 
 The whole life of the Russian Jew has always been ham- 
 pered, from cradle to grave, by restrictive laws of the kind 
 
 a2
 
 indicated above, and given in fuller, though by no means com- 
 plete, detail in the Appendix. When it is remembered that 
 besides these special laws, Russian Jews have also to obey 
 all the multitudinous details of the general Russian Code, a 
 state of affairs is brought before the imagination which English- 
 men would consider utterly intolerable. 
 
 Hard though the yoke was, the burden has been made 
 absolutely unbearable by enactments brought into existence 
 some eight years ago, and put into rigorous operation 
 during the last three or four years; they were even, it 
 was feared, about to be extended and intensified during 
 the present year. The practical effect of even their present 
 ajDplication can be best summed up in the one crushing 
 unwritten law, " No Russian Jew shall earn a living." 
 
 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 
 
 In order to understand and substantiate this summary it 
 will be necessary to comprehend the general attitude of the 
 Russian Government to the Jews, and the events that led 
 up to the now infamous Ignatieff Laws of May 3rd, 1882. 
 Russia is still, as is well known, in the mediaeval stage of 
 development, where Church and State are identical. Those 
 who do not belong to the Orthodox Russian Church are not 
 regarded as true Russians. Jews are thus both heretics and 
 aliens in Russian eyes. With the followers of other creeds 
 this principle could not well be carried out in its entirety 
 without leading to international complications. But Russian 
 Jews have no natural external protectors, and the principle is 
 applied in full rigour to them. They do not belong to the 
 Orthodox Church; therefore they are "foreigners," and are so 
 styled and reckoned in the Law Books, even though their 
 ancestors have been settled in the districts where they reside 
 many centuries before Russia had anything to do with them. 
 
 There is another reason, besides the religious, which has 
 caused the Russian Government to regard the Jews with 
 scant favour, and connects them with some of the blackest 
 pages of Russian rule. The Russian Jews are regarded as " an 
 inheritance from Poland," and they are kept, to this day.
 
 mainly cooped up within the confines of Old Poland, where 
 they first came within the Russian grip. Besides Poland itself, 
 there are the eight provinces of Western Russia (Vilna, Kovno, 
 Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk, Mohilev, Volhynia, Podolia), which 
 formerly belonged to Poland. Jews are also found in the 
 three provinces of the Ukraine or Little Russia (Kiev, 
 Tchernigov, and Poltava), and in the four divisions of South 
 Russia (Ekatrinoslav, Taurida, Cherson, Bessarabia). Western, 
 Little, and South Russia — these form the notorious Jewish Pale 
 of Settlement, and within these precincts the ordinary Russian 
 Jew must live and die. He must not set foot in holy and 
 orthodox Great Russia, in the Czardoms of Kasan and Astrak- 
 han, or in Finland and the Baltic Provinces. This restriction 
 within the Western Provinces, applied to Jews alone of all the 
 multifarious races, creeds, and nationalities that go to form 
 All the Russias, is the fount and origin of all the ills that 
 assail Russian Jewry. While it is retained, there is no hope 
 oi any permanent improvement in the condition of the 
 Russian Jews. It cramps all their industrial and commercial 
 energy, and, besides, marks them out to all their fellow- 
 countrynien as aliens, and a pariah caste set apart for special 
 and degrading treatment. The only other Russian subjects 
 that are similarly hampered are discharged criminals. 
 
 Some attempt was made in earlier reigns to settle Jews in 
 agricultural colonies outside the Pale, but the attempt was 
 saddled with conditions that made its success iinpossible. 
 Under the milder regime of Alexander II. somewhat more 
 favourable opportunities were afforded them. In 1805 the 
 Czar issued a rescript allowing Jewish artisans to settle out- 
 side the Pale. Besides this, the Government at that time 
 encouraged the education of Jewish youths, who were, on be- 
 coming full graduates or members of the learned professions, 
 allowed to settle beyond the Pale. Altogether a considerable 
 number of Jews were by these means enabled to settle outside 
 the Pale, thus relieving the remainder from their competition 
 and opening new centres for Jewish industry. Restricted as 
 they were in other respects, this simple boon enabled them to 
 advance in many ways, especially in education.
 
 After his lamentable death a change occurred in the 
 position of the Jews. The anti-Semitism of Germany 
 had been merely theoretical and vapouring. But it served 
 to brino; the chronic anti-Semitic feeling^ of the Russian 
 officials to a head, with the deplorable result known as 
 the Anti-Jewish Riots of 1881. Perhaps the officials were 
 not altogether sorry to let the excitement of the people vent 
 itself on the Jews. Besides this, a few of the more 
 prominent Nihilists were discovered to be Jews by birth, 
 though they had long cast off all connection with their 
 creed and people. This was urged as an excuse by the official 
 world for their attitude towards the Jews as a body, and 
 caused them to look on at the terrible riots without stirring 
 a finger to prevent or remedy them. 
 
 At the head of the Ministry of the Interior at that time 
 stood General IgnatiefF. He proved that he shared the 
 anti-Semitic views of the official world by issuing a rescript in 
 September, 1881, even before the riots were over, putting- 
 leading questions to the local governors as to the best means 
 of preventing the Jews from "exploiting" the peasantry. 
 After allowing time to elapse in order to receive their answers, 
 he issued the now notorious May Laws of May 3rd, 1882, O.S. 
 The actual text of these is important enough to be reproduced 
 in its entirety, and in its original form as given in No. 42 of 
 the Official Collection of Laws. 
 
 THE MAY LAWS. 
 
 " 272. On the execution of the Temjiorary* Orders concerning the Jews, 
 The Committee of Ministers, hiiving heard the report of the 
 
 * Temporary Lams are those passed as Resolutions of the Committee of 
 Ministers. The constitutional legislative body is the Council of the 
 Empire, consisting of high officials, all nominees of the Crown, and pre- 
 sided over by the Grand Duke Michael. The Council would not at that 
 time have consented to pass such laws as the May Laws ; so IgnatiefE 
 had recourse to tbe alternative, allowed iu cases of urgency, of getting 
 the May Laws unacted as Resolutions of the Committee of Ministers. 
 When the Imperial sanction Avas obtained, they became temporary laws. 
 A tempr)rary law may last for ever. As a matter of fact, the May Laws 
 have ah'cady existed over eight years.
 
 Minister of the Interior on the execution of the temporary orders 
 concerning the Jews, resolved — 
 
 (1.) As 11 temporary measure and until a general revision has 
 been made in a proper manner of the laws concerning the 
 Jews, to forbid the Jews henceforth to settle outside the 
 towns and townlets, the only exceptions admitted being 
 in those Jewish colonies that have existed before, and 
 Avhose inhabitants are agriculturists. 
 
 (2.) To suspend temporarily the comjjletion of instruments of 
 purchase of real property and mortgages in the name 
 of Jews ; as also the registration of Jews as lessees of 
 landed estates situated outside the precincts of towns and 
 townlets, and also the issue of powers of attorney to 
 enable Jews to manage and dispose of such property. 
 
 (3.) To forbid Jews to carry on business on Sundays and on 
 the principal Christian holidays, and that the same laws 
 in force about the closing on such days of places of busi- 
 ness belonging to Christians shall, in the same way, apply 
 to places of business owned by Jews. 
 
 (4.) That the measures laid down in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 
 
 apply only to the Governments Avithin the Fale of 
 
 Jewish Settlement. 
 
 His Majesty the Emperor was graciously pleased to give his 
 
 assent to the above resolutions of the Committee of Ministers on 
 
 the 3rd of May, 1882." 
 
 The effect of the first clause of this enactment would 
 clearly be to create a Pale within the Pale, Hitherto, ordinary 
 Jews, if prevented from going beyond the Pale, could move 
 from town to village, and from village to village, within the 
 Pale. This was to be stopped. In process of time all the 
 Jews of the Pale would be cooped up in the towns and 
 " townlets " found within it. There they might be left to 
 " stew in their own juice." 
 
 The second clause was not less wide-reaching in its scope, 
 for it tended to the same end, by restricting still further the 
 possibility of Jewish life in the country. If a Jew might not 
 acquire land by purchase, mortgage or lease, or have anything 
 to do with landed estate, his country life must come to an end.
 
 and even the favoured exceptions permitted to reside in the 
 villages as old inhabitants would have no work to occupy them. 
 
 The third clause was specially hard in places where the 
 large majority of inhabitants were of the Jewish faith, and 
 kept Saturday as their day of rest. 
 
 The last clause, however, was a saving clause, restricting 
 the application to the Pale, and leaving movement free 
 throughout Poland. 
 
 Ignatieff began to carry his temporary laws into execution, 
 but the burst of indignation in Western Europe at the Russian 
 persecution of the Jews helped to bring about his fall in the 
 autumn of 1882, and with his disappearance his laws were 
 to some extent discredited and only partially carried into 
 execution. Indeed, in some places, it was considered 
 that they had been withdrawn. Thus, in November, 1884, 
 on a certain point concerning these laws being referred 
 to the Governor-General of Vilna, he replied that they 
 were suspended and under consideration by the Senate. 
 
 But whether moderately or rigorously applied, the May Laws 
 still remained on the Russian Statute Book, and only needed 
 a revival of anti-Semitic feeling among the rulers of Russia 
 to be brought into full operation. This came with the increased 
 power of M. Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy Synod 
 since 1880, whose baneful influence on the mind of his former 
 pupil, the present Czar, has brought into Russia an era of 
 religious intolerance directed against all dissenters from the 
 Orthodox Church. Oppressive and repressive laws have been 
 directed and applied against Christian sects ; Lutherans and 
 Roman Catholics are suffering to some extent, though not so 
 severely as the Jews, from M. Pobiedonostzeffs determination 
 to suppress every influence in Russia that is not strictly 
 Orthodox. 
 
 Against the Jews it was not necessary to introduce new 
 measures to effect this end. The May Laws were c(mveniently 
 in existence, and as time went on, the interpretation given by 
 the Senate, the highest court of appeal, became more and more 
 stringent. On one occasion it was decided that certain Jews 
 who had been settled in a village within the Pale before May,
 
 1882, could not migrate to any other village. This became a 
 leading case, and the result lias been to make the word 
 " settle " equivalent to " intern." A Jew who was settled in 
 a Russian village within the Pale before 1882 is very literally 
 " settled " there. The important corollary was added that 
 the object of the May Laws was " the complete, though 
 gradual, withdrawal of the Jews from the open country." 
 
 The withdrawal of the Jews had to be gradual, or else the 
 object would be too apparent, and the resulting congestion 
 lead to some pestilence. But the May Laws have been 
 applied locally and intermittently throughout the Pale of 
 Jewish Settlement, harrying the Jews from the villages into the 
 towns, the enforced removal causing in most cases the entire 
 impoverishment of their families, and the finding of employment 
 in the towns becoming more difficult with each new irruption 
 of Jewish villagers. Thus it will be readily understood what 
 acute misery has been caused to the Hebrews of the town of 
 Tchernigov by this clearing of the neighbouring villages. 
 Within little more than eighteen months the Jewish popula- 
 tion of the town, already overcrowded as it was, has risen 
 from 5,000 to 20,000 souls : four have now to find a living 
 where one found a difficulty iu doing so before. 
 
 PROJECTED EXTENSION OF MAY LAWS. 
 
 During the winter of 1889-90 it became known that 
 official Russia had it in mind, not as one would have 
 thought, to repeal the May Laws, the disastrous effiict of 
 which had already become apparent, but to extend and inten- 
 sify them and render them permanent. Information was sent 
 to the Governors-General that it was pi-oposed to advise the 
 Czar to adopt new measures, having for their object the 
 e>xtension of the May Laws, the addition of new edicts em- 
 phasising the old restrictions and disqualifications, and lending 
 the sanction of permanent law to many legal decisions of the 
 Senate given in a sense adverse to the Jews. 
 
 It was understood that the Grand Duke Michael, president 
 of the Imperial Council, objected to these repressive laws, and
 
 10 
 
 it was even reported that the Czar himself signified his dis- 
 approval of this policy of persecution. 
 
 But notwithstanding this powerful intervention, which 
 gave rise to high hopes, from some unexplained cause drafts 
 of the projected laws were sent to the governors of the 
 several provinces, ostensibly with the object of inviting 
 their opinion thereon. 
 
 Curiously, however, some of the Governors-General, to 
 whom the draft laws were submitted for comment, began to 
 act almost as if they had actually been ratified. They thus 
 became known to the Jews and others ; copies of the draft 
 laws were freely circulated in Paris, London, Vienna, and 
 Warsaw, and attention was called to their stringent character 
 in the European press, the Tijues taking the lead in denouncing 
 the intended tyranny. Forthwith Russian Ambassadors and 
 other accredited individuals hastened to assure the world 
 that no new enactments had been passed, and that no fresh 
 edicts against the Jews were intended. 
 
 Indeed, it must have become obvious to the Russian 
 officials that no such fresh laws were necessary to efiect the 
 end they had in view, namely, to clear the rural districts of 
 the Jews, and to practically intern them in the towns. By a 
 rigorous application of the first May Law, and by an 
 insidious straining of its terms, already effected by the 
 decisions of the Senate, they could attain their ends, at least 
 as regards the Pale of Settlement, without any of the 
 formalities and invidiousness of new legislation. Indeed the 
 Russian Code is so framed that it can be turned into a 
 formidable means of persecution at any time, simply by 
 the revival of old laws and applying the thumb-screw of 
 police administration. The manifest injustice of thus leading 
 tlic world to think these laws are abrogated by disuse, and 
 then suddenly calling them into active operation must be 
 abundantly obvious. The existence of the laws even as a 
 dead-letter is a hardship, Ijeing a perpetual menace, and 
 marking the Jews as a pariah class. This renewed applica- 
 tion of dead laws is not alone an evil ^;c/' se, but carries with 
 it the further ffrievance that tlie Jews never know when such
 
 11 
 
 legal weapons may not be re-opened upon them. Tlius the 
 Russian Jew lives in a perpetual state of insecurity, and may 
 truly be said to live on the brink of a volcano. And then a 
 further hardship is inflicted by the interpretation of the law 
 which is invariably taken by the Senate, the Supreme Court 
 of Appeal, in a sense adverse to the Jews. On one occasion, 
 indeed, this has been acted upon as a ruling principle, A 
 Jew, who had the right of residence, and, therefore, of holding 
 a house outside the Pale, desired to register a deed of transfer 
 of a house to his wife, relying on the general principle of 
 Russian law that a husband communicates all his civil ricfhts 
 to his wife. The officials refused to register, and on the 
 matter being referred to the Senate, it confirmed the refusal, 
 on the principle that the general Russian laws are to be 
 interpreted in a restrictive sense with respect to Jews. In 
 other words, unless the Russian Code expressly says to the 
 Hebrew, " you may," it must be assumed to say " you shall 
 not." And there still remains a further hardship for the 
 unfortunate Russian Israelite in the harsh manner in which 
 the law is administered by tlie officials. 
 
 EXPULSION FROM VILLAGES. 
 
 A few instances of this latter point may be adduced, to 
 enable the reader to reahse what is implied in the new process 
 of carrying out the May Laws, respecting the expulsion from 
 the villages of Jews who did not reside there before 1882. 
 What the ulterior consequences of such expulsions will be we 
 shall see later on. In the villages of Gawinoski and Alexeewki, 
 near Okna (Podolia), all the Jews received expulsion orders, 
 the reason assigned being that their names were not on the 
 registers in May, 1882. Notwithstanding the fact that they 
 had all been residents in these villages from 10 to 15 yearS) 
 and that the peasants and landowners testified to the general 
 fact that they had all been there prior to 1882, they were 
 forced to depart without delay. It was mid-winter at the 
 time, and they craved leave to stay till spring ; but their 
 petition was refused, and they were turned out of their homes
 
 12 
 
 durincr the most inclement weather, and had to seek refuge in 
 the towns. Four Jewish families were summarily expelled 
 from Stanislawowki. Among them was a woman who was 
 dangerously ill, and she begged the district official to grant 
 her a little time to give her the chance of recovery. He not 
 only refused, but gave orders to all the peasants in the neigh- 
 bourhood that they might not afford shelter to any of the 
 expelled Jews even for a single night. 
 
 At Szebesh (Vitebsk) the expulsion of Jews was carried out 
 in a very complete manner, the police having also included a 
 large number of artisans. There was, however, one Jew, who 
 with his family seems to have escaped the vigilance of the 
 police. When the fact was discovered by the police inspector> 
 he drove in a cart to the village in the middle of the night, 
 turned out the family, put the children and baggage into the 
 cart, and started off with them to the nearest town, leaving the 
 parents to trudge behind. At a distance of two versts from 
 the town he put down the children and effects in the middle 
 of the road, and then drove away, leaving the children alone 
 in the dark and cold. 
 
 As an instance of the wa}^ in which the law is strained, 
 take the following case. In the village of Palitzki, which is 
 nearly large enough to be regarded as a town, the population 
 consisted almost exclusively of Jews. Suddenly the police 
 awoke to the fact that it was a village, and not a town, and 
 expelled all those who had not resided there before May^ 
 1882. Among the expelled was one M. M., who had been 
 born and bred there, and had never left the place. A short 
 time since, however, he stayed away a few days to marry a 
 girl who was resident with her family at Szebesh. On his 
 return with his bride he was forthwith ordered to leave. His 
 whole life-long sojourn was ignored, and he was regarded as a 
 new settler under the May Laws, and expelled accordingly. 
 
 A Jewish soldier discharged from the army on the expira- 
 tion of his term of service was similarly expelled from the 
 same village, though be had belonged to the village before 
 commencing his military career. His prior sojourn was 
 ignored. The fact of his absence being due to an act of
 
 13 
 
 military duty was also ignored. His return was regarded as 
 a new arrival, and the expulsion order was issued, and had to 
 be obeyed. Many other expedients are resorted to to oust 
 the Jews even from non-rural districts. The suburbs of larsfe 
 towns are officially declared to be outside the urban limits, 
 and therefore to be counted as villages. On this plea Jewish 
 families have been driven from the suburbs of Vilna into 
 the already overcrowded ghetto of that town. A place 
 named Reshilovko has been always regarded as a town, and 
 officially so styled in public documents. Recently a decree 
 was issued expelling the Jews from its precincts as from a 
 village. On its being pointed out that it had been officially 
 recognised as a town, the reply was made that it could not 
 be a town, as it had no Town Council. 
 
 EXPULSION OF ARTISANS. 
 
 Such are the means by which the Russian Administration 
 is carrying out the design of the May Laws to clear the 
 open country of the Jews, and coop them up in towns. The 
 Czar's officials are, however, just as zealous and as subtle in 
 forcing back into the Pale of Jewish Settlement the 
 many thousands who have managed to escape that 
 prison house. Among these the largest number consists 
 of ai'tisans who, as we have seen, were granted the right of 
 free movement by Alexander II. in 1865. It would be, 
 perhaps, too barefaced to refuse this right directly, but the 
 very generality of the permission gives an opportunity to the 
 officials for evading it. It gives permission to " artisans " to 
 reside outside the fifteen provinces ; but who is to say what 
 classes of workmen are to be included under the term 
 " artisan " ? Thus the administration of the Pi^ovince of 
 Smolensk has decided that Jewish bakers, butchers, glaziers, 
 and vinegar makers are no longer to be regarded as artisans, 
 and accordingly Jews coming under those categories have been 
 ordered to quit Smolensk and return to the Pale of Settlement. 
 The authorities of Simbirsk have taken the hint and acted 
 upon it, expelling several Jewish artisans and their families 
 A vinegar "maker who had lived there for thirty 3'ears and
 
 14 
 
 had carried on liis trade in the same place since 1869, was 
 ordered to leave, the artisans' guild having lately declared that 
 vinegar making was not a handicraft trade, and this though 
 the Senate last year determined that vinegar makers were to 
 be regarded as artisans, and were therefore to be permitted 
 residence anywhere in Russia. This Jew, however, though 
 72 years of age, and with a family dependent on him and his 
 trade, has been forced to depart, and he and his family are 
 ruined. From the same town a Jewish baker, resident in 
 the place for twenty-five years, has also been expelled, presum- 
 ably because a baker is no longer regarded as an artisan. 
 The expulsion order as usual included all the family. The 
 eldest son, a student in the highest class of the Gymnasium is 
 thus also compelled to leave the town, and his studies are cut 
 short just as he is about to attain the educational position 
 at which he aimed. It may be here remarked that the right 
 of residence outside the Pale does not pass on to the children 
 unless they also qualify as artisans. If not so qualified, at 
 the age of twenty-one they must settle within the Pale. 
 
 Another instance of the elasticity of the term " artisan " is 
 afforded by the craft of printing. Quite recently, twenty-five 
 Jewish workmen, at a well known printing press at Moscow, 
 were summarily dismissed and sent back to the Pale, though 
 some of them had lived outside it as compositors ever since 
 1874. On inquiry being made of the reason for this, the 
 reply was made that printing is not a handicraft but an 
 art-craft, and that therefore compositors are not artisans. 
 One of the victims of this injustice is now in London. 
 
 A further loophole is afforded to the officials by the epithet 
 "skilled " which is applied to the term "artisan." With the 
 extreme division of labour in modern industry, it is rare to 
 find a workman competent in all parts of his craft, and it is 
 therefore easy to find him tripping by purposely setting him 
 to do some branch of his craft with which he is not acquainted. 
 Thus a tailor's cutter is set to do the work of a presser, 
 or vice versa, and on his failing, the unfortunate victim is 
 expelled from the guild and from the town where he had 
 at least been able to earn a livincr. In most cases the
 
 15 
 
 guild-master is called upon to judge as to the workman's 
 capacity for his trade, and there is at the present moment, 
 in London, a Jewish shoemaker from Livonia who was 
 expelled on the judgment of a guild-master, a rival neigh- 
 bour. Similarly an artisan must work at his craft in 
 order to retain the privilege. The police will therefore make 
 a domiciliary visit on the Jewish Sabbath, and finding the 
 workman at rest expel him for not being engaged at his 
 craft. Still more harshly the same restriction is applied to 
 workmen who have passed the age for work. These are 
 ruthlessly sent back to the Pale, from the towns where they 
 liave spent a lifetime of honourable industry. 
 
 Even within the Pale no favour is shown to artisans, the plea 
 being that they are not specially excepted from the May Laws. 
 In the village of Lepeticha (Melitopol district) expulsion orders 
 were served on a hundred families, on the ground that the 
 names of those families did not appear on the registr}'- before 
 May, 1882. As a matter of fact, no such special registry existed 
 in the village before or even at that date ; so registration, even 
 if the Jews had deemed it necessary, would have been impossi- 
 ble. Official documentary evidence was therefore not forth- 
 coming, though the evidence of their neighbours proved that 
 they had resided in the village above ten years. Many of 
 the people served with expulsion orders were artisans, whoso 
 certificates showed them to be workers in the village before 
 1882, but this availed them nothing. They then claimed that 
 as artisans they had the right to live anywhere in Russia ; 
 but here again they were foiled, for it w^as pointed out to 
 them that the May Laws made no exception in favour of 
 artisans. These might be allowed to live outside the Pale, 
 but could not within it live in villages. The hundred families 
 had to leave the village within thirty days, under pain of 
 expulsion by eta2X', in the company of criminals, handcuffed, 
 two and two, and driven more like animals than men. 
 
 Thus every means are adopted within the fifteen provinces 
 to carry out the policy of internment in the towns, and with- 
 out them every subterfuge is utilised to drive back within them 
 the most numerous class of Jews— skilled artisans who have
 
 16 
 
 managed to escape from the ghetto. Yet more deh'berate is the 
 policy bj^ which the Government are seeking to limit the 
 number of those who in the future will be enabled to escape 
 beyond the Pale. Liberty of movement beyond it is 
 granted only to three chief classes: young men who have 
 reached the higher grades of education in the universities, 
 certain classes of professional men, and merchants of the first 
 guild. In the first two classes of cases recent measures have 
 been passed, evidently intended to limit the number of those 
 who might escape by their intellectual ability from being 
 imprisoned in the Pale. 
 
 RESTRICTIONS ON EDUCATION. 
 
 The Jew has been always renowned for his care of his 
 children's education. In Russia he has the further incentive 
 of being able by this means to gain for his sons a release 
 from a veritable prison-house. Ever since Alexander II. gave 
 encouragement to his Jewish subjects to attend the schools of 
 the country, they have eagerly taken advantage of the 
 privilege. Any lad who has shown the slightest promise of 
 intellectual ability has been encouraged to pursue his studies. 
 If his father was not rich enough to support the lad during 
 his years of study, his neighbours would club together to 
 help him. Owing to this avidity for education, the pro- 
 portion of Jewish children at the schools, especially the 
 higher schools, has always been larger than that of the general 
 population, a fact which one would have thought would be 
 put down to their credit. This is not the view adopted by the 
 Russian official world, which has recently taken steps to lessen 
 the number of lads educated at the gymnasia and at the 
 universities, and by that means lessening the number of those 
 who in the next generation would be entitled to settle 
 Ijeyond the Pale. One cannot think the association of the 
 two things is accidental. 
 
 Hitherto there has been no direct check put upon this most 
 praisewoitliy zeal of Jewish parents to give their children the 
 best education in their power. But, three years ago a new
 
 17 
 
 restriction was put that is a typical example of persecution in 
 the guise of red-tape. A rescript was issued limiting the 
 proportion of Jewish scholars at universities and gymnasia to 
 10 per cent, in the Pale, 5 outside it, and 3 at Moscow and 
 St. Petersburg. At lirst sight this does not seem so unfair, 
 since the proportion of the Jewish population within the Pale 
 is only 12 per cent, or thereabout. But this proportion is 
 reckoned on the whole population, in town or country, whereas 
 the universities and higher schools are, of course, in the towns; 
 and here the Jewish proportion is very much higher : in 
 eighty -two towns, over 50 per cent.; in four over 80; and these 
 statistics are from 1884, before the May Laws had driven so 
 many more Jews into the towns. It is a manifest injustice 
 that in a town where half the inhabitants are Jews, only one- 
 tenth of the scholars of the High School shall be of the Jewish 
 persuasion. It is, for instance, palpably unjust that at the 
 University of Odessa, only 5 per cent, of the students may be 
 Jews when there are 100,000 of that creed, out of a total 
 population of 24'0,000. The case is still harder with the 
 universities and technological institutes, where an actual 
 means of livelihood depends on passing through such estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 Debaried thus from the public schools, the Jews of Russia 
 might reasonably ask to be allowed to establish higher schools 
 of their ow^n. Indeed the surplus of the special tax put upon 
 animals killed in accordance with Jewish law is declared legally 
 to be intended for that purpose. As a matter of fact it is rarely 
 so applied: on one occasion the Governor of Kishineft' "bor- 
 row^ed" 100,000 roubles from this surplus to build himself an 
 official residence. But apart from this, the Jews, in several in- 
 stances, attempted to establish higher schools at their own cost 
 but were met by a recent rescript forbidding them, and point- 
 ing out that the ordinary schools were open to the Jews. This 
 is sufficient to indicate that the policy at the root of the new 
 restriction is to limit the numbor of highly educated and 
 professional Jews, who would have a right to freedom of 
 movement. It was, doubtless, this same policy that caused 
 the Russian Government to refuse Baron Hirsch's munificent 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 offer of £2,000,000 sterling, to be applied to the higher and 
 technical education of the Russian Jews. 
 
 Even where schools have been established by the munifi- 
 cence of opulent Jews, the proportion of Jewish scholars is 
 still rigidly kept. Thus, at Vinitza (Podolia) a technical school 
 was recently opened at the expense of the late Mr. Weinstein, 
 a member of the Jewish community there, who number some 
 10,000 out of a total population of 25,000. Notwithstanding 
 the fact that the Jews were nearly half the population, and 
 the school was founded by a Jew, only eight scholars of that 
 creed were admitted, while eighty Christian lads were granted 
 the privilege. In the same way, at Gorlovka, there is a 
 mining school established by the late M. Poliakoff, the Jewish 
 railway contractor. It was hoped that Jewish students 
 would have free access to such an establishment, and a 
 number of them studied for a whole year beforehand, in order 
 to be prepared for the course of study at the school. On 
 application to be admitted, however, only the normal five per 
 cent, were allowed to pass its portals, and the remainder had 
 to bear the waste of a year of their lives as best they might. 
 
 RESTRICTIONS ON PROFESSIONS. 
 
 Besides closing the professions in this way by limiting the 
 number of those who may go through the necessary education 
 and examinations for them, the Russian Government has 
 recently lessened the opportunities of those who even by a 
 lucky chance are among the tenth who are admitted to the 
 higher educational establishments. Recent regulations have 
 decided that no Jew shall be an army doctor ; the only college 
 for veterinary surgeons, that at Charkov, has been closed to 
 them. Jews cannot be engineers, they are excluded from 
 the Civil Service, and indeed all public ofiices. The profession 
 of advocate, in which Jews have had great success, is now 
 clo.sed except to those who can obtain a permit of the Minister 
 of Justice, a permit which recent experience has shown is now 
 never given.* The Russian Law in effect says: " You Jews 
 
 * While these pages have been passing through the press, according to 
 nowf-paper reports, the Czar's attention has been called to the injustice,
 
 19 
 
 may study for the law, but you must not practise at the bar. 
 You may study to be engineers, but you must not act in that 
 capacity." There can be little doubt that these illiberal 
 measures have been adopted, partly at least, in order to lessen 
 the number of those who can escape from the Pale. As an 
 instance of the all-seeing watchfulness of the Russian Govern- 
 ment in this regard, we may take the following recent 
 enactment. Midwifery is one of the professions that confer 
 liberty of movement outside the Western Provinces. But a 
 recent decision has settled that a midwife does not confer the 
 same right on her children, who must be left behind if she 
 desires to follow her profession in Russia proper. 
 
 MERCHANTS OF FIRST GUILD. 
 
 The only other class of Russian Hebrews that are permitted 
 free movement through the land of their birth, is that of 
 merchants of the first guild who have paid their subscription, 
 about 1,000 roubles annually, for five years inside the Pale, and 
 who continue to pay the same outside it. It is obvious that this 
 class can be but small, and is not an unwelcome one to the 
 minor officials, whose income is largely supplemented by black- 
 mail. But even these merchants have restrictions put upon 
 them. They may take one Jewish clerk with them, but if he 
 leaves them they may not replace him by another from within 
 the Pale, and until recently they could not have a Christian 
 servant or clerk. Again, such a merchant may have his 
 children with him till they reach twenty-one, but he must 
 not bring his aged parents. A case has been known in which, 
 to evade this barbarous restriction, a merchant registered his 
 old father as his valet, and his own mother as his cook, 
 
 EXTENT AND EFFECTS OF EXPULSIONS. 
 
 It is by this time abundantly obvious to the reader, that 
 recent Russian legislation concerning the Jews has been iu- 
 
 and a number of Jewish advocates have received the permit. This state- 
 ment has not been confirmed, and without official contirmatiou appears 
 somewhat apocryphal. 
 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 sidiously and carefully directed to two points — to force all 
 Jews into the towns within the Pale, and to reduce the number 
 of those outside it as far as possible. An estimate has been 
 made of the number of Russian Jews who will be dislodged 
 from their homes by the new restrictions. It is on the face 
 of it rough, and in round figures, but may be useful to define 
 the situation even approximately : — 
 
 Expulsion from villages inside Pale is 
 
 estimated to affect ... ... ... 500,000 
 
 Expulsion of artisans outside Pale ... 200,000 
 
 Expulsion from the commercial towns 
 
 outside Pale (Riga, &c.) 500,000 
 
 Expulsion from the 50 Verst Zone* ... 250,000 
 
 Total 1,450,000 
 
 Even if we reduce this number to a million, this is an 
 enormous mass of persons to be thrown suddenly on their 
 own resources in strange localities already overburdened with 
 persons of their own creed and callings. The process of harry- 
 ing the Russian Jews from pillar to post is as yet only in its 
 initial stages. But already the mass of misery that has been 
 produced by the congestion is appalling. Jews have always 
 been the poorest class of all Russians, owing to their large 
 families and heavy taxes, reckoned to be half as much again 
 as even those of a Russian Christian Dissenter. But the new 
 policy of cooping them up in towns has made their poverty 
 more pronounced. There are said to be over 25,000 Jewish 
 paupers in Berditschev, the Russian Jerusalem, and through- 
 out the Pale thousands of families have only one meal a day, 
 and not even that if the head of th.e family has not found work 
 during the day. The congestion of the Jews into the towns 
 forces them into the petty trades and sweated urban indus- 
 tries. They are obliged often to work and live in the same 
 room, to the number of 15. No wonder those who take 
 refuge in England find the life of a " greener" in a back-slum 
 
 ** Jews must not reside within a distance of 50 versts (33 miles) of the 
 frontiers, but this rule was allowed to become obsolete. It is now being 
 put into force again.
 
 21 
 
 of East London preferable to such extremity of misery. 
 Jewish pliilanthropists in London, wlio have taken pity on 
 some of the victims of the sweating system, and offered to 
 send them back to Russia, have been met by the assurance 
 that, wretched as their life here is, it is luxury and comfort 
 compared with the same fate in the Russian ghetti. 
 
 The cooping up in towns is beginning to tell most terribly 
 on the morbidity and general vitality of the Russian Jews, 
 who alone of all their co-religionists fail to show superior vital 
 statistics to those of their neighbours. Doctors used to credit 
 Jews with immunity from phthisis. But of recent years the 
 number of rejections for this disease, which cannot be 
 malingered, was among Russo-Jewish recruits 65 per cent, 
 against 0'5 of other Russians. For other diseases and for feeble 
 constitution, no less than 61 "7 of the Jewish recruits were 
 rejected, against but 27'2 of the ordinary Russians. A terrible 
 tale is told by such figures. Translated into plain English, 
 it means that the persecution is a persecution to death. 
 
 Sad as is the physical degeneration caused by the cooping 
 up of the Jews within the Pale, and inside the towns within 
 it, still sadder is the moral degeneration which is the direct 
 result of it. What must result when ten men are kept in a 
 place where only three could find a decent living ? The fierce- 
 ness of the struggle for existence can only result in fraud and 
 chicanery being employed as the only means of living. 
 None of the more honourable careers being open, they are 
 forced to over-crowd the petty industries and to undersell one 
 another. The vast bulk of the Russian Israelites are at the 
 present moment living on the verge of starvation, which is 
 only kept off by the admirable way in which they help one 
 another. But with starvation thus staring them in the face, 
 what wonder if any means be adopted to avoid it ? The 
 accusation which the Russian officials brine: ajjainst the 
 fraudulent tendencies of the Jews is the direct outcome of 
 their own treatment and the severest condemnation of it. 
 
 PERSECUTION BY LOCAL OFFICIALS. 
 
 Beside the direct misery that is produced by this " intern-
 
 22 
 
 ment" in the towns of the Pale, there is much indirect 
 persecution caused by the overt evidence it affords of the 
 ill-will of the Russian Government towards the Jews. No 
 one watches the political weathercock with such keenness 
 as the Russian Tchinovnik. Seeing the Government set 
 against the Jews, the minor officials feel justified in putting 
 into full force the multitudinous oppressive measures against 
 them that crowd the Russian Statute Book. They even 
 initiate new regulations of the character of bye -laws to 
 further harass the lot of the unfortunate Hebrews whose 
 onerous taxes go to pay part of their salaries. All these addi- 
 tional restrictions bring further grist to the official mill by 
 affording new opportunities for blackmail on the part of the 
 officials. It is, of course, impossible to quote more than a 
 few examples of the oppressive character of the local tyranny 
 which supplements so effectually the more systematic perse- 
 cution of the Government. 
 
 One of the most strikingl}^ degrading of these minor per- 
 secutions is the recent issue of orders by the Governors- 
 General of Odessa and Mohilev, permitting the local police to 
 punish any Jew " showing disrespect " in the public streets. 
 The Israelites of Odessa, as a mark of their indignation, for 
 some time after the issue of the order, refused to attend any 
 public place of resort, and the order would seem to have been 
 withdrawn in that city. But Jews are now obliged to touch 
 their hats to every official on pain of being punished for the 
 vague crime known as " disrespect." 
 
 A further hardship which Jews have recently suffered 
 from the local administration, is the stringent carrying out of 
 the laws against the employment of Israelites in the Govern- 
 ment service. This principle is now being made retrospective. 
 Thus, in consequence of a circular from the Deputy-Governor 
 of Kovno, to the effect that all Jewish writers and clerks in 
 the Government offices, municipal establishments, and courts 
 of justice, were to be dismissed, ten Jews in Novo-Alexan- 
 drovsk, who had been in the public service for more than 
 fifteen years, during which they had enjoyed the esteem and 
 confidence of their Christian fellow-workers, were suddenly
 
 23 
 
 discharged. They and their families are now absolutely 
 without means and are reduced to beggary. 
 
 Even after dismissal, former vmployts of the Government 
 are mercilessly persecuted. Some Jewish clerks, having been 
 dismissed by Government order from the offices of the Odessa 
 Notaries, joined in establishing an office for the prepara- 
 tion of petitions and drafting documents, thinking that they 
 might thereby gain a scanty living. The Governor-General 
 of Odessa, however, has ordered the police to close this office, 
 and the families of the dismissed clerks have consequently 
 been reduced to a state of abject poverty. 
 
 And here, again, as elsewhere, the restrictive application is 
 made as stringent as possible. It is reported from Kiev that 
 the senior physician of the Kirilov Hospital having admitted 
 several Jewesses to practise as nurses in the wards, this fact 
 was brought to the knowledge of the local governor, who 
 issued an order that no person of the Jewish religion should 
 be allowed to practise in the hospital, and the Jewesses were 
 accordingly discharged, presumably on the ground that 
 nurses are Government officials. Similarly private tutors, by 
 some inscrutable interpretation, are brought under the same 
 category. The directors of the different Teachers' Institutes of 
 Kishinev have received orders from the Minister of Public 
 Instruction that no Jewish teachers may give instruction in 
 Christian houses. 
 
 PERSECUTIOX AS " ALIEN VAGRANTS." 
 
 Still more arbitrary and cruel is the manner in which the 
 law is beino; strained airainst what are termed " alien 
 vagrants." Foreign Jews, notwithstanding many years' 
 residence in Ruf^sia, are now no longer permitted to remain 
 in the country, and, in default of compliance with the order 
 for their expulsion, are treated as vagrants and prosecuted 
 accordingly. But the officials frequently accuse honci fide 
 Russian-born Jews of being aliens. Two such cases are re- 
 ported from Letitschew (Podolia). S. C. and T. D., born and 
 bred in this town, the former a most respectable and benevo- 
 lent man, who had inherited a house and some small means
 
 24 
 
 from his father, the latter a carrier, industrious, honest and 
 highly respected, were both brought before the District Court 
 and subsequently before the Odessa Criminal Court, and de- 
 clared to be vagrants. They have been already eighteen 
 months in prison, and there they are likely to remain, till they 
 or their relatives can satisfy the authorities that they are 
 Russian-born. This is no easy matter when the accused are 
 men advanced in years. Registration of births was formerly a 
 very lax institution with Russo- Jewish parents; for in the 
 days of the Emperor Nicholas, their children, if registered, were 
 often forcibly taken from their homes in early years for military 
 service, and this involved forcible conversion. In the particular 
 cases referred to above, the names of the accused appear year 
 after year on the town books, paying the Imperial taxes like 
 any other Russian subjects. It seems late in the day to 
 declare them aliens now. and to imprison them as Brodyags, 
 " rogues and vagabonds," merely because they are Jews, and 
 can bring no official proof of their place of birtb. 
 
 Again, T. E., a native of Trostianez (Podolia), an illiterate 
 man, was lately brought before the District Court as a vagrant 
 because he could not prove the place of his birth. He was 
 remanded for seven days to enable him to bring evidence, but 
 failed to produce it. He was sentenced to four years' im- 
 prisonment, to be followed by perpetual exile to Siberia. 
 Later on the required evidence was fortlicoming, but the court 
 refused to accept it or to review the sentence. The man has 
 a wife and seven children, who are thus deprived of their 
 only support, and are likely to starve. 
 
 The manner in which Jews of Bessarabia have been treated is 
 peculiarly instructive in this regard. Part of this province was 
 handed over to Russia by the Treaty of Berlin. Its Jews 
 were regarded by the Roumanians as "foreigners." Russia 
 follows suit, and thus they have no nationality, and are 
 simply at the mercy of the local police, who either prosecute 
 i)V expel them. Similarly, when Prince Bismarck, a few years 
 ago, expelled all Russian subjects from the Provinces of 
 Prussian Poland, Russia refused to receive the Jews who had 
 ventured beyond her borders, and they were l(;ft wit
 
 25 
 
 any nationality or natural domicile in the wlujle world. It 
 will thus be seen that it is no idh; formality on the part of 
 the Russian Government to call its Jews " foreigners." 
 If it had not been for the hospitality of Western Europe, 
 these " aliens," having no land to call their own, would have 
 been driven into the sea. 
 
 These examples will suffice to show the attitude taken up 
 by the local officials of Russia when they discern that the 
 Jews have sunk lower in the eyes of the Central Government, 
 The word can easily] be passed by word of mouth from 
 headquarters " to make it warm for the Jews," and no new 
 regulations are necessary to carry out such instructions. Yet 
 when any new policy is about to be adopted concerning the 
 Jews, it is to these officials that the Government resorts for 
 information and advice. Sets of leading questions are issued 
 to the local governors, the very tenour of which is sufficient 
 to indicate the tone of reply that is wanted. It was on replies 
 obtained in this way that the May Laws were fornnilated. 
 Considering that every new regulation against the Jews 
 means so many opportunities for these officials to extort 
 blackmail from the unfortunate Israelites, to ask their opinion 
 on the advisability of imposing new restrictions is equivalent 
 to consulting Reynard on the regulation of the poultry-yard. 
 
 Nor are there any adequate means by which the Jews 
 themselves can state their own case in answer to the accusa- 
 tions of their enemies. There are practically no representative 
 bodies that can approach the Government on any question 
 affiicting the general body of Russian Israelites. Thus their 
 only hope of getting any redress for their injuries, or any 
 alleviation of their sufferings, is to get the intervention of 
 the outside world in the form of protests in the European 
 press. 
 
 ALLEGED FAILINGS OF RUSSIAN JEWS. 
 
 From the above recital of the systematic and grindino- 
 oppression under which the Russian Jews live, it might be 
 thought that there was some pressing necessity to keep the 
 Jews and Jewish influence outside orthodox Russia. As a
 
 26 
 
 matter of fact, no adequate reason has ever been adduced for 
 retaining this reHc of the Middle Ages in nineteenth century 
 Russia. The excuses brought forward are of the flimsiest, 
 and are usually based on prejudice rather than fact. " The 
 Russian Jew will not work with his hands," is often the cry 
 of the ofiicial apologists. Russian official statistics however 
 declare that of the 2,40-i,253 Jews living in the Pale of Settle- 
 ment in 1888, no less than 293,507 are artisans ("remess- 
 lennik "), 12 per cent, of the whole. The proportion of the 
 same class in France is only 10 per cent., and in Prussia 9'1 
 per cent. We have seen, besides, that a large number of 
 Russo-Jewish artisans live outside the Pale, as they are 
 entitled to do, so that proportionately a far greater number 
 of Russian Jews are handicraftsmen than among the Russians 
 themselves, who are still mainly agriculturists. " Ah ! but 
 the Jews will not take to agriculture " is the parrot cry of 
 the Russian Jew-haters, who point to the failure of the 
 Jewish colonies established by Nicholas in the South of 
 Russia. These, however, were hampered by the absurd con- 
 dition that each plot of land should be owned in perpetuity 
 by two families conjointly, and by the moral, material, and 
 physical difficulties put in the way of the colonists at their 
 first settlement. And as a matter of fact, the colonies, not- 
 withstanding the difficulties with which they have been met, 
 have not been such utter failures as has been represented. 
 A Government inspector reported very favourably upon them 
 as late as 1880, and remarked that he saw no signs of in- 
 capacity for an agricultural life among the Jewish colonists. 
 The last decade has seen quite a large number of agricultural 
 colonies established in Palestine and the United States 
 by Russian Jews themselves. The new restrictions against 
 purchasing or even renting land on lease would be by them- 
 selves sufficient to keep the Israelites of Russia from devoting 
 themselves to agriculture, for even those who had the privilege 
 of residing in the villages could never be anything better than 
 farm labourers. 
 
 It is idle to accuse the whole mass of Russian Jews of usury 
 and exploitation, when at least 80 per cent, of them are so
 
 27 
 
 poor as to be living from haud to luoutli, and half of the 
 remainder are artisans. No doubt there are money-lenders 
 among the Russian Jews, as among Russian Christians, who 
 " exploit " the peasantry, but this class is infinitesimal in 
 number, compared with the mass of poverty-stricken and 
 hard-working petty traders and mechanics in the towns. 
 Equally exaggerated is the alleged deleterious influence of 
 the Jewish innkeepers, to whom is attributed the well-known 
 drunken habits of the Russian peasants. But these are 
 equally, if not more, prone to intoxication in the interior of 
 Russia where there are no Jewish publicans. To persecute 
 the Russian Jews because some of their co-religionists supply 
 liquor to the drunken Russian peasants is quite as insensate 
 as would be the persecution of all English retail dealers 
 because certain of them contribute to the drunkenness of 
 Encjland. 
 
 An old accusation against the Russian Jews is their evasion 
 of military service. Even if this were true, it would be but 
 natural, v/hen no respect is paid to their religious scruples 
 while they are under arms, and where there is no hope for a 
 Jew to rise out of the ranks. But, as a matter of fact, official 
 statistics, of which we give a summary in the Appendix 
 (pp. 42, 43), conclusively show that the exact reverse is the case. 
 
 The only other charge that remains to be considered is that 
 the Jews are the chief source of Nihilism and disaffection. 
 If this were so, it could scarcely be wondered at, considering 
 how little cause the Russian Jews have to desire a continuance 
 of the present regime. But they are eminently a loj'al 
 and patient people, and would be quite content if tht-y were 
 allowed to earn their living in peace. There were Jews and 
 Jewesses among the Nihilists, it is true, but they had in almost 
 every case ceased to be Jews, and many of them had become, 
 at least nominally, converts of the Orthodox Church. Mem- 
 bers of the nobility and even of the clergy were also found 
 among the Nihilists, but this fact has not been brought 
 against those two classes ; why should it be brought 
 against the Jews ? 
 
 But it is unnecessary here in England to argue elaborately
 
 28 
 
 that the ordinary Russian Jews are not fiends in human shape, 
 as their enemies in Russia declare them to be, in excuse for their 
 treating them so inhumanly. We have seen many thousands 
 of them pass through England, and we can still observe some 
 thousands who have remained with us in the large cities. 
 They certainly bring with them some of the insanitary 
 habits that belong to Russians generally, and have been per- 
 haps intensified by being cooped up in the towns of the Pale. 
 But apart from that, and a willingness to slave eighteen hours 
 a day for the barest pittance, there is nothing abominable and 
 atrocious that has been observed in their character and 
 behaviour. And even in the short time many of them have 
 been here, they have shown a capacity for improvement under 
 freer conditions of life that has surprised even their best 
 friends. In particular, the readiness with which their 
 children adapt themselves to English ways of thinking and 
 acting is sufiicient to show what good citizens they are 
 capable of becoming, if they are allowed free scope for their 
 abilities. The inquirers into East London poverty, under 
 Mr. Charles Booth, declared that, miserable as is the condition 
 of these Russian Jews when they arrive, they do not form a 
 social danger or menace, owing to their capacity for self-help 
 and mutual aid, and the certainty that they will raise them- 
 selves from their depth of poverty and degradation. 
 
 TRUE CAUSES OF THE PERSECUTION. 
 
 It is indeed this capacity for betterment that is at the root 
 of Russian antipathy to the Hebrews. In the midst of an 
 older economic system of customary prices and long credits 
 they introduce a principle of keen competition that cuts down 
 prices and profits to the advantage of the consumer indeed, 
 but not to the advantage of the commercial classes, who are 
 set against the Jews as rivals who excel them. ■ The same, to 
 a large extent, has occurred in the professions, where the 
 superior energy and persistence of the Hebrew has enabled him 
 to get ahead of his more easy-going confreres. There was a 
 general upward movement of the Jewish population under 
 the r^fjiino of Alexander II., and this has been the head and
 
 29 
 
 front of their offending. It was irritating to the racial and 
 religious arrogance of the Russian pur snug to find the 
 despised Hebrew making headway in business and in the 
 professions. " These Jews are daring to excel us pure 
 Russians," M. Pobiedonostzeff is reported to have said, and 
 certainly he has done his best to repress that tendency. 
 
 The absurdity of any racial antipathy to the Jews is obvious 
 in an Empire almost as multinational as Austro-Hungary. 
 M. Pobiedonostzeff, to do him justice, has been equally eager 
 in repressing the influence of Poles, Finns, and Germans, 
 but the consistency of his injustice does not make it a whit 
 the less unjust. But against the Jews he has a still further 
 reason for ill-will. Amidst all their misery and oppression, 
 they still cling to their ancient faith, and resist the many 
 temptations held out to them to abandon it. By becoming a 
 convert to the Orthodox Russian Church, a Jew is imme- 
 diately freed from all the degrading restrictions on his free- 
 dom of movement and his choice of a profession. He is 
 likewise helped pecuniarily by an immediate sum down, and 
 until recently by freedom from taxation for five years. If 
 he is married, his conversion procures him a divorce, though, 
 unless she likewise is converted, his Avife may not marry 
 again. By conversion, too, a Jew ma}'' escape the conse- 
 quences of any misdeed against a fellow-Jew, for, to quote the 
 Russian Code, " in actions concerning Jews who have embraced 
 Christianity, Jews may not be admitted as witnesses if an 
 objection is raised against such admission." All that a Jew 
 therefore need do to escape any legal process against him by a 
 brother-Jew, is to be converted, and his victim is powerless. 
 Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, only thirteen hun- 
 dred annually, out of the five millions of Russian Jews, are 
 found willing, under the pressure of compulsion, to concede 
 even the nominal abrogation of their faith. M. Pobiedonostzeff 
 doubtless regards this as a further proof of Jewish depravity ; 
 but few will be found to agree with him outside the Russian 
 borders. Here again the recent policy of M. Pobiedonostzeff 
 is consistent in antagonism to all unorthodox sects in Russia. 
 Lutherans and Roman Catholics, Raskolniks and Molokhani
 
 30 
 
 suffer the persecution of the Procurator of the Holy Synod 
 and religious Vizier of All the Russias. 
 
 The Jews are alone, however, in combining all those 
 qualities against which Russian officialism is at present 
 wagino- relentless war. They are commercial and urban, 
 while the officials are convinced, and perhaps rightly so, that 
 the present system of autocracy and bureaucracy is only 
 possible while the poor, ignorant and superstitious peasantry 
 are the predominating influence in Russian life. The Jews 
 are not Slavs, and are, nolens volens, a standing protest against 
 Panslavism. The Jews are noi? even Christians, much less 
 orthodox Russian Christians, and thus stand a third time in 
 the way of the claim of Russia for the Russians, i.e., for the 
 orthodox Slavonic and bureaucratic Russians. This is the 
 plea that is at the root of the most recent attempt to crush 
 out Jewish influence in Russia by crushing out the Jews 
 themselves. The root of the whole matter is racial arrogance, 
 a determination not to allow, at any cost, the Jews to show 
 themselves superior, or even equal, to the Russians. 
 
 RUSSIAN LOSSES BY PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 Against such fanatic intolerance as this, it is, perhaps, idle 
 to point out the harm that will be done to Russian commerce 
 and industry by thus destroying the chief element of progress 
 in them. Russians themselves acknowledge that the remark- 
 able progress of Western Russia of recent years, has been 
 o-reatly assisted, if not caused, by the commercial ability of the 
 Jews there settled. Already signs are manifest of the injury 
 that has been done in such an industry as that of flour 
 mills, hitherto mainly in the hands of Jewish intermediaries. 
 The recent fair of Nijni-Novgorod was a complete failure 
 owing to the enforced absence of Jewish traders, who had 
 previously been the life of the place. The loss of 270,000 
 Russian Jews who have emigrated during the past ten years, 
 mainly to America, has rescued from Russia some of the 
 younger and more energetic Jews who might have helped 
 to develop its resources. Their absence is, perhaps, not
 
 31 
 
 regretted by the Russian Jew-haters, who would prol)ably be 
 glad if the whole five millions followed. But such an exodus 
 is impossible : neighbouring States would not allow it, and 
 meanwhile the normal increase of population more than makes 
 up for the loss, replacing sturdy woj-kers by helpless infants. 
 What good can come to Russia by this denial to one- 
 twentieth of its subjects all the elements of justice ? It 
 only serves to make the Jewish question more acute, to 
 bring odium and disgrace on the Russian ;iame. It does not 
 make Russian Jews in any way better from the point of view 
 of the Slavophiles. It only intensifies their faults and their 
 differences from other Russians. The system sends to the 
 outside world a number of the more energetic of the Jews, 
 who cannot be other than ill-wishers to the Government that 
 has driven them forth from hearth and home. And it tends 
 to make those who remain join the mass of disaffected in just 
 those parts of the empire where patriotic feelings should be 
 strongest in the day of conflict with neighbouring enemies. 
 And, worst evil of all, it will create, nay, has already created, 
 a mass of poverty which will soon bring matters to a crisis. 
 Either State aid will be required to prevent utter starvation, 
 or a pestilence will ravage all the towns of Western Russia. 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Surely it would be wiser as well as more humane, to grant 
 the Jews of Russia the mere elementary rights of human 
 beings, liberty of movement and freedom in choice of a career. 
 All experience is in favour of such a policy. During the past 
 century all the nations of Western Europe have adopted it, with 
 results which no one but a few fanatics can call other than 
 advantageous to the nations among whom the Jews dwell. It 
 does not befit a great nation like Russia to express fear of 
 the influence of one-twentieth of its population becoming pre- 
 dominant over the remaining nineteen-twentieths. Nor does 
 it beseem a Christian nation like Russia to lag behind her 
 ancient enemy Turkey in this respect. The boon of liberty- 
 has been recommended over and over again by Commissions
 
 32 
 
 specially appointed by successive Czars to inquire into the 
 Jewish Question. 
 
 There should be no Jewish Question. No excuse has ever 
 been adduced by the officials of Russia, that can justify them 
 in treating the unfortunate Hebrews of Russia as if they are 
 tainted with some moral hydrophobia. The present system 
 of barbarous repression demoralises the whole Russian nation 
 by accustoming them to sights of cruelty and oppression. 
 Russian anti-Jewish riots stand on a lower moral level 
 than even Spanish bull-lights. Further, the system is a per- 
 petual menace to the Jews ; they live in continual fear of 
 popular outbi-eak caused by their being marked out by special 
 legislation from the rest of their fellow-countrymen. In times 
 of national excitement, as in the days immediately succeeding 
 the murder of the late Czar, their own lives and the honour 
 of their women are put in jeopardy. The Russian Govern- 
 ment claims obedience, and many onerous sacrifices from its 
 Jewish subjects. What does it oti'er them in return ? Not 
 even safety for themselves or protection for their wives and 
 children. Nay, in the face of recent events can it be said to 
 offer them even the right of earning a living ? 
 
 There is no means of getting rid of this disgraceful and 
 disastrous state of things but one. Complete emancipation of 
 the Russian Israelites from the degrading restrictions that 
 oppress them in every direction is the only possible solution. 
 The Pale of Settlement must disappear; education must be 
 freely open to the Jews ; honourable careers in the professions 
 and public service must be allowed to Russian Jews as to 
 Russian Christians. It is not a privilege they ask for, it is a 
 right, the right of every citizen of a country to be regarded 
 as equal to every other in the eyes of the law. 
 
 It is difficult to bring home to Western European minds 
 the misery and degradation caused by this legislative and 
 administrative persecution of the Jews of Russia. The public 
 mind, ever ready to sympathise with individual examples of 
 physical ill-treatment, cannot realise the slow crushing out in 
 a whole comnmnity of all manhood, of all hopes of a truly 
 human life. But it is hoped that the above recital of the sad
 
 33 
 
 situation and sadder prospects of the Jews of Russia, will 
 cause Englishmen to give expression to their abhorrence in 
 such a way as to penetrate to the Czar, even through the 
 Department of His Majesty's Journal, which edits all com- 
 munications from the outer world. 
 
 On His Majesty the Czar the hopes of the Russian Jews 
 rest. He can by a stroke of the pen give life to millions of 
 his subjects who can now scarcely be said to live. He has 
 repeatedly and graciously intimated that the interests of his 
 Jewish subjects are as dear to him as those of the most 
 Orthodox Russian. He cannot allow a new class of serfs to 
 be created in his kingdom, and the position of Jews is rapidly 
 becoming worse than that of the serfs, who, at least, had 
 masters that were responsible for them, while Jews are 
 gradually becoming serfs of the Russian police. Alexander 
 II. has the imperishable glory of having been the emancipator 
 of the Russian serfs. Let Alexander III. advance a further 
 step towards Russian liberty, and become the emancipator of 
 the Russian Jews. 
 
 NOTE. 
 Ox THE Jewish Popula.tiox of Russia. 
 
 Russian statistics are in a very backward state. The resuUs that 
 are reached by the Imperial Statistical Bureau are very incomplete, 
 and are rarely published in such a way as to be checked. This is 
 specially the ease with the statistics of Russian Jews, and a good 
 deal of uncertainty exists as to their number, which is variously put 
 down at three and at six millions. 
 
 The most recent figures that have been published are contained 
 in a Report made to the Pahlen Commission in 1885, and professed 
 to give the Jewish population of the Palei of -Jewish Settlement of 
 1884. It is very doubtful whether this was the case, and it is more 
 probable that the figures were extracted from the latest census of 
 Russia, that of 1879. The figures are at best only a minimum, and 
 should probably be increased about 30 per cent. 
 
 C
 
 34 
 
 I. — Western Eussia. 
 
 
 
 Total 
 Population. 
 
 Jews. 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Grotlno ... 
 
 
 1,163,525 
 
 229,574 
 
 19-7 
 
 Kovno ... 
 
 
 1,419,493 
 
 269,399 
 
 19-0 
 
 Minsk ... 
 
 
 1,410,754 
 
 283,194 
 
 20-1 
 
 Mohilev 
 
 
 835,244 
 
 151,055 
 
 18-1 
 
 Poclolia . . . 
 
 
 2,239,514 
 
 418,858 
 
 18-7 
 
 Vilna ... 
 
 
 1,191,992 
 
 175,996 
 
 14-8 
 
 Vitebsk... 
 
 
 1,037,892 
 
 133,785 
 
 12-9 
 
 Volhynia 
 
 
 1,946,438 
 
 289,820 
 
 14-9 
 
 II.- 
 
 -The Ukraine (Li 
 
 ttle Eussia). 
 
 
 Kiev ... 
 
 ... 
 
 2,332,421 
 
 339,557 
 
 14-6 
 
 Poltava... 
 
 
 2,399,400 
 
 84,041 
 
 3-5 
 
 Tcbernigov 
 
 
 1,896,450 
 
 83,117 
 
 4-4 
 
 Charkov 
 
 ... 
 
 2,160,203 
 
 8,474* 
 
 0-4 
 
 
 III. 
 
 — South Eussia. 
 
 
 Bessarabia 
 
 
 1,385,743 
 
 267,827 
 
 12-1 
 
 Cberson 
 
 
 1,479,303 
 
 140,162 
 
 9-5 
 
 Ekaterinosln 
 
 V ... 
 
 1,459,066 
 
 47,304 
 
 3-2 
 
 Taurida... 
 
 .. . 
 
 898,945 
 
 21,197 
 
 2-5 
 
 Odessa, Kertscb, 
 
 
 
 
 and Seb 
 
 astopol 
 
 265,813 
 25,481,896 
 
 77,279 
 
 29-1 
 
 Total 
 
 2,920,639 
 
 11-5 
 
 To this total of 2,920,639 has to be added (a) the Jews of 
 Poland, reckoned to number 1,078,000, or 14*4 per cent, of the 
 population ; (b) the Jews outside the Pale, probably numbering 
 750,000. This would raise the total number of Jews in the 
 Eussian Empire in 1884 (? 1879) to 4,748,640. There can be 
 little doubt, therefore, that they amount to more than five millions 
 at the present time, even though their infant mortality must have 
 been increased by the May Laws, and such large numbers, say 200,000 
 in the six years, have emigrated. 
 
 Some interesting details were given to the Pahlen Commission of 
 the proportion of Jews in the towns of the Pale. In four towns 
 they were over 80 per cent. ; in fourteen from 70 to 80 percent.; in 
 no less than sixty-eight from 50 to 70 per cent. ; in twenty-eight 
 they were from 20 to 40 jjer cent. These 114 towns probably 
 include the whole of the towns and " townlets " within which 
 Jews are now allowed to reside. 
 
 '■ This number must refer to artisans, i^-c, who have right of residence 
 outside the Pale, as Charkov is not included within it.
 
 35 
 
 THE JEWS IN EUSSIA. 
 
 From "The Times," November oth, 1890. 
 TO THE EDITOR OF " THE TIMES." 
 
 Sir, — Under the light of the most recent intelligence it is 
 now no longer difficult to understand the truth of the Russian 
 assertions of August last, that no new repressive measures 
 aq;ainst the Jews were intended. Thouo;h the draft of the 
 new edict was then not only in existence, but was an open 
 secret, circulated so freely in the Jewish Pale of Settlement 
 that copies found their way to London, Paris, and Vienna, it 
 had not been presented to the Committee of Ministers by its 
 promoter. The Czar's Government was therefore, technically, 
 in a position to deny that any new edict was contemplated. 
 That the promulgation of the new edict had been intended 
 there is no doubt. That at the moment of denial the inten- 
 tion had been abandoned, probably consequent on the cry of 
 horror aroused throughout the civilized world, there can now 
 also be no doubt. 
 
 But the sigh of relief that escaped many lips, when theV 
 world was told that no new edicts were to be enacted against 
 the Jews of Russia, was scarcely justified by the true state of 
 affairs. The rejM'rtoire of exceptional and repressive laws 
 against those hapless people was already full enough to enable / 
 any amount of persecution. To have issued new edicts against ' 
 them would have been truly a work of supererogation, while 
 the May Laws of 1882 — the hateful work of Ignatieff — were 
 in existence. These, together with the bulky mass of restric-^ 
 tive laws which had been piled one on another during a long 
 succession of years from the days of the Empress Catherine L 
 were all-sufficient, and with a little ingenuity and enough zeal 
 in their application, the Russian Jews, in their tens and 
 
 c2
 
 36 
 
 hundreds of thousands, could be exterminated without the 
 promulgation of any new edict. 
 
 And this, in fact, is now being slowly but surely effected. 
 The May Laws of 1882, which all the denials of all the 
 Russian diplomatists cannot blot out from the Statute-book 
 till the Czar, with a stroke of his pen, repeals them, consti- 
 tute by themselves an instrument of torture and persecution 
 of so odious a character that the ordinary mind fails to grasp 
 their full scope and purport till their practical results are 
 Lrouoht to light and their victims stand before us in all their 
 misery. The novelist who depicted a doomed prisoner in a 
 cell with its opposite walls gradually approaching, contracting 
 by slow degrees his breathing space, till they at last immure 
 him in a living tomb, foreshadowed, in fiction and in an 
 individual case, the now imminent fate of countless thousands 
 of human beings in the so-called Pale of Jewish Settlement 
 in Russia, The May Laws of 1882 have been gradually 
 applied, and lately not only with increased severity but in 
 enlarged proportions. Whether the money with which the 
 victims have hitherto been able to bribe the officials and so 
 purchase immunity or evasion has come to an end, or whether 
 the provincial governors, many of whom are humane men 
 and friendly to the Jews, have received orders from head- 
 quarters to enforce the law with all possible rigour, the fact 
 remains that the Jews are now being ruthlessly expelled, 
 l^artly by main force, partly by force of circumstances, from 
 the villages and townlets within the Pale, and are driven 
 into the over-crowded towns, there to swell the volume of 
 chronic poverty and sufi'ering. There they become helpless 
 paupers among the struggling poor, a starving multitude in 
 a hunger-stricken hive. Squeezed within limits too narrow 
 for the old inhabitants, without food or the means of acquir- 
 incf food, without work or the chance of finding work, their 
 own sad fate is sealed, and before their career is closed they 
 will probably bring pestilence and death to the towns they 
 have unwillingly invaded. 
 
 Nor is this the only phase of persecution by which the 
 Israelites of Russia arc being slowly done to death. To the 
 
 1
 
 37 
 
 young Jewish student who can live on a crust, semi-starvation 
 is a mere incident of life, and he forgets his hunger if only he 
 can slake his thirst for knowledge. Cramped by the limits 
 of space, deprived of the wealth of earth, he can at least 
 enlarge his intellectual range and store up the wealth of 
 knowledge. But here, too, he is foiled. The gymnasia and 
 Universities are practically closed against him, only a three 
 per cent, proportion of Jews in some, and a five per cent, 
 proportion in others, being permitted. What must this mean 
 to an intellectual race, when in one town alone the Jews 
 number 70 per cent, of the entire population, and when in the 
 whole Pale of Settlement there are only two Universities? 
 
 The Jews were reviled by their enemies for following only 
 the paths of commerce, buying and selling, and producing 
 nothing. Thus many abandon commerce, settle in villages 
 and pursue an agricultural life. But the May Laws drive 
 them back into the towns. Exception is made in favour of 
 those settled in the villages before 18S2; but again the law 
 declares that even those who have thus settled may not hold 
 the land. They may remain there, but they may not follow 
 the calling that brought them there, and that secured fou 
 them the means of living. 
 
 The Jews were reviled by their enemies for following only 
 pursuits that brought them monetary wealth. Few Jews in 
 Russia have reached the goal of opulence. Nowhere in the 
 wide world is seen such poverty as pervades the entire Pale 
 of Settlement. But the tjews, scorning the base insinuation^ 
 that they prize riches above knowledge, claim the higher 
 education, show themselves in the schools worthy of it, and 
 yet the portals of the Universities are closed against them^ 
 except within limits wholly disproportionate to their numbers. 
 The few who gain admission achieve the highest triumphs, 
 but find they have been drinking from the cup of Tantalus. 
 The Faculty of Law declares them qualified to be lawyers, 
 but a new regulation forbids them to practise without a 
 Ministerial consent that is now invariably withheld. The 
 Faculty of Medicine declares them qualified to act as Army 
 doctors, but a new law forbids them practising in the Army.
 
 ^r 
 
 38 
 
 Even the humble post of schoolmaster is no longer open to the 
 Jew, and those on whom long service should have conferred a 
 vested right of employment have been discharged. 
 
 It may seem a sorry jest ; but the Russian law, in very 
 truth, now declares — the Jew may live here only and shall 
 not live there ; if he lives here he must remain here ; but 
 wherever he lives he shall not live — he shall not have the 
 means of living. This is the operation of the law as it stands, 
 without any new edict. This is the sentence of death that 
 silentl}^ insidiously, and in the veiled language of obscurely 
 worded laws, has been pronounced against hundreds of thou- 
 sands of human beings, and the executions are proceeding — 
 not on the scaffold in the sight of gaping multitudes, not in 
 the dungeon by dagger or by bowl, but in the dusky gheiti of 
 the Pale, the victims cramped and crushed, starved of air and 
 space and food, with scarcely roof or rags to cover them, 
 kicked and cuffed by officials who scoff at the squalid poverty 
 that officialism has produced, panting for life and light, but 
 with no hope, save of the light and life of another world. 
 
 Shall civilized Europe, shall the Christianity of England, 
 behold this slow torture and bloodless massacre and be silent ? 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 N. S JOSEPH, 
 Hon. Secretary to the Russo-Jcwish Committee.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ABRIDGED SUMMARY 
 
 or 
 
 LAWS, 
 
 SPECIAL AJSD EESTRICTIVE, 
 
 RELATING TO THE 
 
 JEWS IN RUSSIA, 
 
 BROUGHT DOWN TO THE YEAR 
 
 1S9C
 
 INDEX TO APPENDIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On Religion 41 
 
 On Duties towards the State : — 
 
 I. — Military Duties 43 
 
 II. — Taxation 45 
 
 On the Education of Jewish Youth 46 
 
 On Personal Status and Right of Settlement and 
 Movement : — 
 I. — Permanent Residence Within the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement 4^ 
 
 II. — Permanent Residence Outside the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement 49 
 
 III. — Temporary Residence Within the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement 51 
 
 IV. — Temporary Residence Outside the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement 52 
 
 V. — On Passports 54 
 
 On the Rights of Property 55 
 
 On Agricultural Pursuits and Husbandry 58 
 
 On Commercial Rights 59 
 
 On the Trade in Intoxicants 62 
 
 On Industrial Pursuits 63 
 
 On Civil Service 63 
 
 On Representation . . . . , 65 
 
 On Military Service 66 
 
 On Legal Procedure in reference to the Jews 68 
 
 On Punishments 69 
 
 Regulations as to Foreign Jews 70
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 General observation. — It must be remarked that many of the 
 laws here given contradict one another. This fact must not 
 be regarded as involving any inaccuracy in transcription or 
 translation. In Russia, laws are piled on one another without 
 satisfactory consolidation. Hence the contradictions, which, 
 as they exist in the original text, exist also in this Summary. 
 
 ON RELIGION. 
 
 A married [woman! who adopts the Orthodox Christian 
 faith must sign a declaration to the effect that [^^q] will 
 endeavour to convert | her husba^iui | to the same faith. (§ 81, 
 vol. X.,part 1, issued 1887.) 
 
 Should either a husband or a wife (but not both) adopt 
 Orthodoxy, both are prohibited residence outside the pale of 
 Jewish settlement. {Ibid, and § 31, Siippl. on Passports, vol. 
 XIV., ed. 1857.) 
 
 If a Jew or Jewess converted to the Christian Orthodox reli- 
 gion does not agree to continue his or her life with the spouse 
 remaining in the Jewish religion, the marriage is dissolved, 
 and the convert can marry a person of the Orthodox religion. 
 (§ 81, Civil Laus ; Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, vol. X., 
 p,art 1, ed. 1887.) 
 
 Jews on reaching their fourteenth year, may he received in 
 the Orthodox Church without permission of their parents or 
 guardians. (§ 1, SuppL to § 78 of the Late on Prevention of 
 Crimes, 1876.) 
 
 The Minister of the Interior may allow Jewish children to 
 be converted to any of the Christian denominations that are 
 tolerated in the Empire, even without the consent of their 
 parents. (§ 3, Suppl. to § 7G, Law regarding the Religious
 
 42 
 
 Affairs of Foreign Denominations, vol. XI.,2)arf 1 (ed. 1857) ; § 1, 
 note to § 94, Lau: on Prevention of Crimes, vol. XIV., 1876.) 
 
 If either husband or wife adopts Christianity, the children 
 under seven years of age of the same sex as the convert shall 
 also be baptised. (Ibic/., Suj^pl. to Art. 76, § 6.) 
 
 Every convert to Christianity shall receive a monetary 
 payment of from 15 to 30 roubles, without distinction of sex, 
 and children half that sum. (§ 6, SupjiJ. to § 78 {note), Law on 
 Prevention of Crimes, 187G.) 
 
 Rural communities of Jewish agriculturists shall keep apart 
 from settlers belonging to another persuasion. (§ 979, vol. 
 IX., 1876.) 
 
 For the office of Rabbi, only such persons are eligible who 
 have passed a course of instruction either in the old Rabbin- 
 ical schools, or in a trainino' colleg-e for teachers, or in one of 
 the public higher or middle class educational establishments. 
 No one, except the Rabbis or their assistants, may perform 
 the rites of the Jewish faith. Marriages or divorces not 
 having taken place before a Rabbi or his assistant, will be 
 considered illegal. {Vol. XI. , part 1, Law about the Religious 
 AJfairs of Foreign Denominations, §§ 1083 and 1086, and note; 
 § 1135, and note, issued 1886 and 1887. 
 
 N.B.- — ^Both Rabbinical schools were closed in 1873, i.e., seven- 
 teeu years ago. Of the two training colleges for teachers,;one, 
 namely, that of Zitomir, was closed in 1885. Besides, when 
 these colleges were founded, it was ordained by law, that snch 
 pupils as intended to become Eabbis should not be received. 
 As to the public educational establishments, it is well known 
 that there neither the Hebrew language, nor the Hebrew 
 religion is taught, but only such branches of knowledge as 
 have nothing in common with Jewish theology. Consequently, 
 .such so-called Crown Rabbis must necessarily be elected who 
 receive their education at the higher and middle class public 
 establishments, but who are absohitely unable to perform re- 
 ligious rites, which require theological knowledge. Thus it 
 comes to pass, that the religious requirements of the Jewish 
 communities cannot be provided for in a legal manner. 
 
 Synagogues and houses of prayer in tlie same streets and 
 scjuares where Orthodox churches exist must Ijc situated at a 
 distance of at least a hundred scijeii from the latter. (§ 258, 
 vol XII. , part 1, Lau- on Bnildlngs.) 
 
 Public prayer and worship may only be held in the Syna- 
 gogues and houses of prayer. Jews holding divine worship in 
 their houses without permission of the authorities, will be 
 punished by law. {Note ^o §§ 1060 and 1061, vol. XL, part 1,
 
 43 
 
 Laio on the Religious Affairs of Forcirpi Denominafions, 1857 ; 
 § 98, vol. XIV., Law on Prevetition of Crimes, 1(S7G.) 
 
 The establishment of synagogues is allowed only in places 
 where there are no less than eighty Jewish houses, whereas 
 houses of prayer can Ije started onl}- in places where there 
 are not less than 30 Jewish houses. ( Vo/. XL, licliijious 
 Affairs of Foreign Denominations, § 10G2 ; Build. Laus, § 259.) 
 
 N.l>. — Tims in places with a smaller Jewish population the 
 Hebrews arc prohibited public prayer under pain of criminal 
 prosecution. 
 
 Robbery of articles used in public worship, and of 
 effects appertainino; to the .synagogue, is not considered as 
 sacrilege. (§§ 2rj-233, Penal Code, 1885; § 170, Laio on 
 Punishments by Justiees of the Peace.) 
 
 ON DUTIES TOWARDS THE STATE. 
 I. — MiLiTAEY Duties. 
 
 A person who is not a Christian, but whose brother has 
 adopted Orthodoxy and lives apart, will not have the right of 
 exemption as the only support of the family. {Explanation 
 of Sen., 22 Bee., 1877, No. 9532, 1885, and Oct. 17, No. 7274.) 
 
 Those who do not contriljute to the support of the family 
 forfeit the rigjit of exemption of the first or second class. But 
 this law does not apply to converts to Christianity. (§ 48, 
 Law about Military Duty, vol. LV., 1880.) 
 
 The rules laid down in § 51 of the Law on Military Duty, 
 according to which persons called out for service or being 
 already in service can offer as substitute a brother or another 
 relative, do not apply to Jews. {Law of olst January, 1889.) 
 
 Jews cannot be elected by their town as members of re- 
 cruiting committees. (Imperial Order of May 20, 1874.) 
 
 In the Kingdom of Poland also, Jews cannot be elected 
 members of tlie recruiting committees. (Circular of the 
 Minister of the Interior, 187 -i] May 27, No. 971.) 
 
 No documents of any kind affording the right of carrying 
 on a trade or a profession will be issued to Jews under any 
 condition, except when they have produced evidence that they 
 have l)cen registered in the recruiting districts. (§ 101-, Law 
 on Military Duty, 188G.) 
 
 The removal of the names of Jews to divisions of other 
 districts or governments is only permitted if they have re-
 
 44 
 
 sided in the locality to which they wish to belong not less 
 than two years. (For non- Jews a previous residence of only 
 three months is required). In case of removal to divisions 
 outside the Pale of Settlement, they lose all rights of 
 exemption accruing from certain conditions of family rela- 
 tions. (§ 1191, Law on Miiitaru Duty, 1886.) 
 
 The military authorities have the right to submit Jews, 
 whose entering the service has been postponed on account of 
 bodily infirmity or insufficiently developed muscular strength, 
 without notice, to a medical examination ; such authorities 
 not being obliged to pay any regard to the time prescribed by 
 law for this purpose. {Note 2 ?"() § 146, Law on Military Duty, 
 1886.) 
 
 Jews who have adopted Orthodoxy, will, before they have 
 entered the service, and notwithstanding the classihcation 
 according to denominations, be considered as Jews. But once 
 they have entered the service they will be considered as 
 Christians. {Explanation of Rules by the Senate, 1886, Feb- 
 ruary 19, No. 1342.) 
 
 Should there be in any district a deficiency in the number 
 of Jews eligible as recruits, either of those not exempt, or of 
 those who on account of family conditions have a right to 
 exemptions of the third or the second class, it is permitted 
 to draft into the army such Jews as enjoy the exemption of 
 the first class. {Note 2 ^0 § 152, Law on Military Duty, 1886.) 
 
 The family of a Jew who has evaded the fulfilment of his 
 military duties, will have to pay a fine of 300 roubles. The 
 amount of the reward paid to any one arresting a Jew who 
 has evaded his military duties will be fixed by the Minister 
 of the Interior. (§ 360 and note, Law on Military Duty, 1886.) 
 
 N.B. — The 'restrictions cited under this heading were called 
 forth by the charge levelled against the Jews, that they tried 
 to evade their military duties. But official data disprove the 
 charge. The proportion of the number of Jews liable to con- 
 scription, to the number of non- Jews equally liable, must 
 necessarily equal the proportion of the Jewish male population 
 to the non-Jewish. According to the data produced in the 
 "Journal of Statistics," issued by the Central Statistical Com- 
 mittee, the male population of all denominations in European 
 llussia, for a period of twelve years (1875 — 1886), consisted 
 of an average of 37,918,932, of whom 1,496,076 were Jews, 
 equal to 3"95 per cent, of the entire population. Now, it 
 aj)])ears from the printed accounts of the Ministry of the 
 Interior, that during these twelve years, there were called for 
 the j)urpose of conscription, 8,434,449 non-Jews, or a yearly
 
 45 
 
 average of 702,871, and 446,802 Jews, or a yearly average of 
 .'37,233. Thus 5"80 per cent, were Jews. Tliis means a far 
 higher percentage of their number in comparison with their per- 
 centage in the general popuhition. 
 
 In 1887, according to the reports of the Ministry, printed 
 in the " Government Gazette," there were called out : Xon- 
 Jews, 798,992 ; Jews, 42,407, i.e., 5'31 per cent. In 
 1888 :— Non-Jews, 862,254 ; Jews, 44,918, i.e., 5-20 per cent. 
 Finally, in 1889 :— Non-Jews, 844,019 ; Jews 46,190, or 5-47 
 per cent. 
 
 During the same period of twelve years (1875 — 1886), there 
 were drafted into the army : —Non-Jews, 2,381,272, or a yearly 
 average of 198,439 ; Jews, 94,535, or a yearly average of 7,878, 
 i.e., 5"97 per cent. In 1887: — Non-Jews, 234,085; Jews, 
 12,263, or 5-24 per cent. In 1888 :— Non-Jews, 249,087 ; 
 Jews, 13,141, or 5'27 per cent. In 1889: — Non-Jews, 
 254,106 ; Jews, 14,552, or 5*72 per cent. 
 
 Thus Ave find that, whereas the fair proportion of Jewish 
 soldiers in the Russian army should be, according to these 
 numbers, 3*95, the actual proportion of Jewish soldiers was 
 largely in excess of the fair percentage ; indeed, nearly half as 
 much again as the equitable proportion. 
 
 XL — Taxation. 
 
 Over and above the ordinary assessments to which the 
 rural population and the inhaljitants of the towns are liable, 
 the Jews have to pay the following special taxes : — 
 
 I. — The "Box Tax," which again is subdivided into two 
 classes: (a) tiniversal or gcnvnil, (b) 2>>'n'ate ov siibsidiari/. 
 The general tax is levied : 
 
 (1.) On every animal which is slaughtered kos/icr ;* 
 (2.) On every bird which is slaughtered kosher ;* 
 (3.) On every pound of meat which is sold as kosher ;^ 
 (4.) Penalties and fines for evasions of the law on this 
 point are to be utilised for the objects for which the 
 tax was instituted. 
 The subsidiary tax levied from the Jews consists of: 
 
 (1.) A certain percentage on the rents of the houses, 
 shops, and warehouses of Jews. 
 
 * According to Jewish rite, and declared fit for food. The tax is 
 farmed, and adds 2d. or 3d. to the retail price of meat.
 
 46 
 
 (2.) A certain percentage on the profits of factories, 
 breweries, industrial establishments, and other trade 
 enterprises carried on by Jews. 
 
 (3.) A certain percentage on the capital bequeathed by 
 Jews. 
 
 (4.) A tax on apparel specially worn by Jews and 
 Jewesses. For the wearing of a skull cap (used by 
 Jews during domestic prayers), a tax of five silver 
 roubles a je&v is levied. (§§ 1, 5, 8, 10, note to § 281, 
 Late on Taxes, vol. V., 1857.) 
 
 II.— Candle Tax (on Sabbath lights*), amounting to 230,000 
 roubles a year. {Ibid,, §§ 9 and 67.) 
 
 III. — Tax on Printing Offices, amounting to 20 roubles for 
 every printing press worked by hand, 12() roubles for every 
 small machine press, and 200 roubles for every large or 
 double machine press. {Xote to § 158, lol XIV., Law on 
 Censure, 1886.) 
 
 N.B. — The Box T.ax and the Candle Tax, as also the tax 
 levied for the snpport of edncational establishments, and the 
 income of the Giinzbnrg endowment, for giving subsidies to 
 Jewish agriculturists, are not entered in the financial budget 
 of the Ministry. {Stijipl. to § 221, part 2 ; note 2, §§ 1 a7id 3, 
 vol. I., part 2, Law on the Cabinet.) 
 
 The exemption from the Box Tax of those engaged in agri- 
 culture is abolished. {Note 2 to ^ 1, Siippl. to § 281, Tax Law, 
 ■vol. v., 1857.) 
 
 ON THE EDUCATION OF JEWISH YOUTH. 
 
 Jewish children are admitted only in the public and private 
 educational establishments of places in which their parents 
 have a right of residence. (§ 966, rot. IX., Circutar of 1876 ; 
 Circular of the Minister of Puhtic Education, 1884, Julij 15, 
 No. 9846.) 
 
 The issue of subsidies formerly granted to Jewish boys 
 and girls receiving their education in the public educational 
 establishments superintended by tlie "Ministry of Public Educa- 
 tion from the sums sot aside for the education of the Jews, 
 
 * It is the religious duty of every Jewish housewife to light at least two 
 candles on the eve of the Sabbath and festivals, and this custom is most 
 rigorously carried out.
 
 47 
 
 and .amountin<]^ to 24,000 rouhles annually, is abolished. 
 (1875, JaJij 25 (54-,934a) ; Imperial ((■■s-scid to the Budget of 
 the Committee of MinidevH.) 
 
 In accordance with § 967 of the same volume, Jews who 
 have passed a pul)lic middle-class school are allowed to enter 
 universities, academies and other higher educational estab- 
 lishments without restriction. In 18S0 the authorities 
 connnenced to restrict the number of Jews so entering'. In 
 1882 the number of Jewish students in the Militar}^ Academy 
 for Medicine was limited to 5 per cent. At present no Jews 
 at all are admitted at this academy. In 1883 the number of 
 Jewish students in the Mining Institute was also limited to 
 5 per cent. About the same time their number was also 
 limited in the Engineering Institute for Public Roads. In 
 1885 the Jews at the Technical Institute at Charkotf were 
 limited to 10 per cent. In 1886 a prohibition was issued 
 against the admission of any Jews at all at the Veterinary 
 Institute at Charkoff. In 1887 the number of Jews to be 
 admitted at the Institute of Civil Engineers was fixed at 3 
 per cent. And Jinalhj, in accordance tcith the jrroposals of the 
 Committee of Ministers, which received the Imperial assent oh 
 December 5th, 1886, and June 2Qth, 1887, the Ministry of Public 
 Education obtained the right of restricting the number of Jewish 
 pupils in the educational establishments generally. The Ministry 
 thereupon limited, in all schools and universities, the number of 
 Jeics residing in 2)laccs within the piale of Jewish settlement to 10 
 per cent., in places outside that pale to 5 per cent., but in St. Peters- 
 burg and Moscoiv to S per cent, of the total number of pupils in 
 each school or university. This without regard to the proportion 
 of Jews to the (jenord population in any one place."^ 
 
 Since 1885 Jews are not allowed to hold university 
 scholarships derived from the Public Treasury, and can only 
 enjoy scholarships derived from private endowments. 
 
 The proceeds of the Candle Tax is to be applied to the 
 building of Jewish schools.f (§ 9, note to § 281, Tax Law, 
 vol. v., 1857 ; § 1067, Law on the Religious Affairs of Foreign 
 Denominatio)is, vol. XI., part 1, 1857.) 
 
 N.B. — Tlie Eal)binical Schools of Wihia and Zitorair have 
 been converted into training colleges for teachers. The Jewish 
 State Schools for secondary education have been closed by 
 
 * la some places the Jewish population is 80 per cent, of the entire 
 population. 
 
 t As a matter of fact the money is frequently used for other purposes 
 unconnected with educational or other wants of Jews.
 
 48 
 
 Imperial order. Those for elementary education have been pre- 
 served only in those places where the number of public schools 
 proved insufficient on account of the large population of Jews. 
 The training college of Zitomir has been closed by order. 
 (Note to §1083, Law on the Religious Affairs of Foreign Denomi- 
 nations, vol. XL, part 1, 1857 ; Imperial assent to the Report of 
 the Ministry of National Education, 2Sth November, 1885.) 
 
 ON PERSONAL STATUS AND RIGHT OF SETTLE- 
 MENT AND MOVEMENT. 
 
 The Jews are declared to be Aliens, whose social rights 
 are regulated by special ordinances. {Note 7, § 835, vol. IX., 
 1876.) 
 
 I. — Permanent Residence Within the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement. 
 
 In the whole Russian Empire (exclusive of the kingdom of 
 Poland) the Jews are prohibited from permanently residing or 
 settling anywhere, except in the following fifteen gubernia : — 
 Bessarabia, Vilna, Vitebsk, Volhynia, Grodno, Ekaterinoslav, 
 Kovno, Minsk, Mohilev, Podolia, Poltava, Taurida (except 
 Sebastopol), Cherson (except Nicolaiev), and Tshernigov, also 
 in the gubernium of Kiev, exclusive of the city of Kiev. 
 These gubernia are, therefore, called the Pale of permanent 
 Jewish Settlement. (§ 16 of the Law of Passports, vol. XIV., 
 1886.) 
 
 Jews v.ho are merchants of the first guild* may live in the 
 city of Kiev, but only in the Libedsky and Plossky districts 
 of the town. {Ibid, § 17, vol. 1 V.) 
 
 In the towns Nicolaiev and Sebastopol the right of settle- 
 ment, of carrying on a trade or the business of contractor, or 
 of obtaining house or landed property, is granted only to 
 Jewish merchants of either guild. {Law on Passports, Art. 16.) 
 
 Jews are prohibited from residing pennanently in the 
 western gubernia situated next the frontier, and also in 
 Bessarabia within 50 verstsf of the frontier. From this rule 
 are excepted those Jews who were registered in these 
 
 * The monetary qualification for this guild is payment of taxes of not 
 less than Kjoo roubles per annum — of course, a very exceptional condition, 
 f About 33 English miles.
 
 49 
 
 localities before 27th October, 1S58, or who possessed before 
 27tli October, iS.nS, house aiul laiuletl })i'operty in these 
 localities, although they did not belorii^ to such coimnunities. 
 {Ibid., § 2;3.) 
 
 Jews in the Pale of Permanoit Scfllci/zciif (trejorhiddoi to tfike 
 lip new residence outside the tuicns and toicn/ets, the onhj exception 
 beinr/ in the case of seft/ers in Jcicish ogrieulturcd colonies 
 estahlisJicd before 1882. The ronoval of Jens frotn the settlements 
 ichere thcij h,ad resided before \lrd Mai/, 1882, to other settlements 
 is unconditionaUi/ prohibited. {Vol. IX., Laic xpon Status, § do'.), 
 note 4, 188G, and note 5, 1889.) 
 
 jS.V>. — Tliis is one of the })riiieipal May laws, of 1882, wliicli 
 lias caused so laigu an influx into the towns. Jews are 
 theroby also, under a recent legal decision, prohibiteel from 
 removing from one village to another. 
 
 II. — Permanent Residexce Outside the Pale of 
 Jewish Settlement. 
 
 Outside the above mentioned fifteen gubcrnia only those 
 Jews are permitted to reside who can be classed under the 
 foUowino; categories : — 
 
 (1.) Merchants of the first guild, both of the Russian 
 Empire and of the Kingdom of Poland, who have 
 satisfied the spcci<xl conditions established by law. 
 
 (2.) Jews who have a diploma of doctor of medicine and 
 surgery, or of doctor of medicine ; or who have a 
 diploma of doctor or master of one of the other 
 faculties of the University. 
 
 (3 ) Jews who have discharged their military duties in 
 accordance with the recruiting law and belong to 
 the reserve ; also those soldiers and non-commis- 
 sioned officers who have unlimited fuilough.* 
 
 (4.) Jews who have passed the higher educational esta- 
 blishments, inclusive of those for the study of 
 medicine. 
 
 (5.) Graduates in pharmac}', dentists and surgeons, also 
 midwives. 
 
 (G.) Jews who are studying pharmacy, surgery, and 
 midwifery. 
 {Vol. XIV., Law on Passports, § 17.) 
 
 * This privilege has now been lost by the Jews. 
 D
 
 50 
 
 In the gubernium of Courland, as also in Slilok (Livonia), 
 only those Jews may reside permanently who were registered 
 there according to the revision before 18th April, 1835. Of 
 the Jews settled in Shlok, only those shall be allowed 
 permanently to reside in Riga who had settled there before 
 l7th December, 1841. The settlement of Jews in Riga, 
 whether from other gubernia or from Shlok, is prohibited. 
 ( Vol. XIV., Law on Passports, § 17'.) 
 
 Jews from Bokhara and Khiva, as also Jews of other 
 Central- Asiatic dominions, may become Russian subjects and 
 be registered in the frontier towns of the districts of Oren- 
 burg and Turkestan ; but only on condition that they 
 belono' to a merchant guild, and that the riofhts of other 
 Russian Jews be granted them. {Vol. IX., § 992, note, 1886; 
 ■col. XIV., Law on Passports, § 17.) 
 
 In the military territory of the Don, and in the old districts 
 of Rostov and of Taganrog, at present incorporated in the 
 Don territory, the settlement of Jews is prohibited.* (Law 
 on Passports, § 17.) 
 
 In the government of Stavropol and in the trans-Cauca- 
 sian territory, only those Jews are allowed to remain who 
 lived there before 12th Ma}^ 1837, and formed settlements 
 of their own. (§ 27, Laic on Passports, vol. XIV., 1857.) 
 
 Jews are not permitted to enter, or to settle in, Siberia. 
 {Hid., § 30, 1887.) 
 
 The settling of Jews in Siberia for the purpose of following 
 agricultural pursuits is prohibited. (§ 978, vol. IX., 1876.) 
 
 Wives of Jews who have been exiled to Siberia are per- 
 mitted to follow their husbands. But the husbands of Jewesses 
 exiled to Siberia may not follow their wives. {Note 1 ^o § 40, 
 Laio on Deportation, vol. XIV., 1857.) 
 
 Jewish exiles in Siberia are prohibited residence within a 
 hundred versts from the Chinese frontier, and, in general, 
 from the frontier of all tribes not under the dominion of 
 Russia. {Hid., note to § 363, 1886.) 
 
 Outside the places of permanent Jewish settlement Jews 
 may adopt as children, in accordance with the general laws, 
 only such of their co-religionists as have themselves a right to 
 
 '^' This includes a district of great importance, hitherto largely popu- 
 lated by JcAvs engaged in commerce, who had been always allowed to 
 settle there, being part of Ekaterinoslav gubernium, and thus in the 
 Pale of Settlement, but detached therefrom ou I'Jth May, 1887.
 
 61 
 
 reside in nil places of the Empire. {Collection of Laws, 1889, 
 
 No. 35, § 'im.) 
 
 Jews are not permitted to dwell in the Grand Duchy of 
 Finland. 
 
 N.r>. — No such law exists amonji; tlic l;i\vs of Old Finhuid, 
 wliicli Avere iiccc'])teil by the Impcinal Govcniineut on annexation, 
 nor in the " Collection oi" Laws of the Grand Duchy of Fin- 
 land," issued annually l)y oflicial order from 1827 to 1890. 
 
 III. — Temporary Residence Within the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement. 
 
 Only temporary residence of Jews in the cities of Kiev 
 and Sebastopol is permitted, and only for the following 
 purposes : — 
 
 ( 1 .) In order to take possession of an inheritance. 
 
 (2.) In order to establish legal claims on property in 
 
 courts of justice and in government offices. 
 (3.) For business transactions or anything connected with 
 government contracts ; but only if such transactions 
 take place in towns where Jews may permanently 
 dwell. 
 Besides in the above-mentioned cases of residence, the Jews 
 are permitted to enter the city of Kiev only under the follow- 
 ing circumstances : — 
 
 (a.) For military duty. 
 
 (o.) For business during the fair. 
 
 {c.) For importing and selling articles of food in the 
 
 markets and in the harbour, 
 (c/.) For transporting passengers and forwarding goods. 
 (<?.) For purchasing materials. 
 
 (/) For delivering the products of their own handicraft. 
 {g.) For using the mineral waters or for attending the 
 
 hospitals. 
 (h.) For attending the educational establishments. 
 (/.) For learning a handicraft. 
 Whenever a Jewish visitor of any of the above denomina- 
 tions is obliged to remain in Kiev more than twenty-four 
 hours, the police may give a printed license, on which a 
 special entry must l>e made in case the time is extended. 
 
 .Such extension of time is limited thus : b}' the expiration of 
 the time of military duty ; by the termination of the fair ; by 
 the market days. For carmen, for the purchase of materials, 
 and for the settlement of accounts for work, by a fortnight. 
 
 D 2
 
 For invalids, hy the completion of the course of mineral 
 waters or hospital attendance. For students, by the termina- 
 tion of the course of study. For apprentices, b}^ the termination 
 of the time fixed for the learning of a handicraft ; and for those 
 who arrive upon other business, by a maximum of six weeks. 
 Those Jews who are temporarih^ in Kiev, being neither 
 patients drinking the waters, nor being the wives or children 
 of soldiers on active service, nor persons learning a handicraft, 
 are only permitted a temporary residence in the Libedsky and 
 Plossky districts of the town. 
 
 Jews from other towns who possess factories, or are mer- 
 chants of one of the two guilds, are permitted to enter Sebas- 
 topol only — 
 
 For the purpose of doing business at the fairs, or, if 
 they are contractors, for the supply of the govern- 
 ment with goods for that town ; but for the sake 
 of carrying on such business they are not permitted 
 to employ Jews except those who are their servants 
 or clerks. Jews living^ in the neio-hbourhood of 
 Sebastopol, and in other towns of the pale of Jewish 
 settlement, are permitted to enter Sebastopol only 
 for business on the established market days. Young 
 Jews may only come to Sebastopol for the sake of 
 learning a handicraft. (§ 284, Laic on Passports, 
 vol. XIV., 188G.) 
 In the gubernia of Vitebsk and Mohilev, Jews are onl}' per- 
 mitted to reside in villages by special license, but tliey may 
 not settle as ordinary inhabitants. (Ibid., 1 16.) 
 
 In the gubernia of Vitebsk and Mohilev, Jews are allowed 
 to work in the making of roads in the settlements, but 
 only on condition that, as soon as their work is completed, 
 they have no longer a right to reside there. The same con- 
 ditions must be observed in Courland in respect of Jews from 
 the gubernium of Kovno, engaged in similar work. (Ibid., 
 §§ 20, 21, 1857.) 
 
 IV. — Temporary Residexce Outside the Pale of Jewish 
 
 Settlement. 
 
 Temporary residence outside the pale of Jewish settlement 
 is permitted to the Jews only under the following circum- 
 stances : — 
 
 (1.) For the purpose of taking possession of an inheritance. 
 (2.) For the purpose of establishing legal claims on pro- 
 perty in courts of justice and in government offices.
 
 53 
 
 (3.) For business transactions, and for everything con- 
 nected with government contracts ; but only if such 
 Contracts take pUice in towns where Jews may 
 ])ermanently dwell. In all such cases the police 
 arc authorised to permit the Jews to remain, but for 
 no longer than six weeks. The authorities of such 
 gubernia cannot prolong their stay beyond two 
 months, unless they have obtained permission from 
 the higher authorities. ( § 283, Law on Passports, 
 foL XIV., 188G.) 
 Jewish mechanics, distillers, and brewers, and generally 
 master artisans and their journeymen, may reside outside the 
 Pale of Jewish Settlement, but, in order to obtain their pass- 
 port (which is to be renewed periodically) they must produce 
 a certificate of their calling in accordance with the rules 
 established by law for that purpose. Young Jews under 
 eighteen years of age are permitted to live in places outside 
 the Pale of Jewish Settlement, for the purpose of learning a 
 handicraft, but onl}^ for a period of not more than five years. 
 {Ibid, note ^ tol 283.) 
 
 Jewi.sh cutters and tailors may live in places where 
 regiments are located, or where military training colleges 
 exist, but onh' until the term of their contract with the 
 military authorities has expired. {Ihkl., § 11), 1857.) 
 
 Jewish artisans may reside — in the fortress towns on the 
 eastern shore of the Black Sea, and in the towns of Temruk 
 and Suchum-Kale ; also on the north-western shore of 
 the Caspian Sea ; and in the town of Petrofsk ; l)ut only 
 temporarily, and in such manner that the field of their trade 
 activity does not extend bevond the boundaries of these 
 towns. {Ibid., § 28, 1886.) 
 
 Jewish carmen, who have brought goods to places outside 
 the pale of Jewish settlement, are not permitted to remain in 
 such places longer than a foitnight. {Ibid, § 285, 1857.) 
 
 Jewish mercliants of the first guild, not yet (jualified 
 to settle outside the Pale, are permitted to come person- 
 ally, or to send their accredited agents, to the capitals 
 and other towns for the purpose of purchasing goods ; they 
 may do so twice a year, on condition, however, that their 
 total stay do not exceed six months of the year. Such 
 merchants may visit the fairs at Nijni-Novgorod, Irbit, 
 Charkov, and Summi, both for buying and for selling 
 wholesale. 
 
 Jewish merchants of the second guild are permitted to come 
 pcrsonalh^ or to send their accredited agents, to the capitals
 
 54 
 
 and other towns, for the purpose of purchasing goods, only 
 once a year for two months. 
 
 Merchants of both guilds are permitted to visit the Christ- 
 mas and summer fairs in Kiev, and carry on business there, 
 both wholesale and retail, whether in Russian or foreign 
 commodities. Their stay must terminate with the termination 
 of the fair. 
 
 Jews of the gubernia of the Kingdom of Poland may as a 
 rule visit the gubernia within the Pale of Jewish Settlement ; 
 but only guild merchants may visit the other gubernia of the 
 empire and they only once a year, and then only for two 
 months, for the purpose of doing business, of contracting 
 with the Government for the supply '"of goods, but only for 
 such places where Jews may permanently reside ; and on 
 condition, that, in case such transactions take place in the 
 interior provinces of the empire, and are being managed by 
 themselves, no Jews be employed by them. {Ibid., § 289, 188G.) 
 
 Jewish tradesmen who are settlers of old standing in the 
 trans-Caucasian territory may visit Astrachan to sell " Marena" 
 dye, but only twice a year, and only for an aggregate of six 
 months in any one year. {Ibid., § 290, 1857.) 
 
 V. — Ox Passports. 
 
 Jews witliin the Pale of Jewish Settlement are only per- 
 mitted to dwell outside the towns in which they have been 
 registered according to the revision, if provided with pass- 
 ports. (§ 18, Law on PassjMrts, vol XIV., 1857.) 
 
 Jews can obtain licenses for travelling only into those 
 gubernia Avhere Jews have the right of permanent settlement. 
 {Ibid., § 121.) 
 
 Travelling within the pale of Jewish settlement is permitted 
 to Jews, provided they have a passport in which it is observed 
 that such passport is only valid in places set aside for their 
 permanent residence ; and in the certificates issued to mer- 
 chants it is indispensable that the religious persuasion of their 
 holders be mentioned. {Ibid., § 280, 1889 ; Circular of the 
 Minister of the Interior, 1878, June 2-1, No. 7:3.) 
 
 Immediately on the arrival of Jews in tlie capitals, the 
 police are required to examine their passports and to inquire 
 into their right of visiting such capital. Those who have no 
 right to visit the capitals are to be nnmcdiately sent back to 
 their places of residence. {Ibid., § 29-1, 1857.) " 
 
 ^•1^. — The Jaws laid down under the preceding five chapters 
 deprive live nulHons of Jews of one o[ tlie most csse;itial
 
 personal ri;ilits, enjoyed not only by all Russian subjects, 
 Christian, Maliommedan or Heathen, Avitliout distinction, but 
 also by foreigners, namely, the right of residing anywhere, and 
 of free movement throughout tin) Empire. At the present time 
 the whole mass of Russian Jews. Avith only a few exceptions, 
 are caged and crowded in the narrow confines of the territory 
 which is called " the Pale of Jewish Settlement " ; and even 
 there exclusively in towns. In all civilised States the right 
 of settlement in any phice is recognised to be one of the most 
 essential and natural laws of every subject. In time of peace, 
 foreigners even enjoy that right. The deprivation of such a 
 right is regarded, even by the Russian legislation (§§ 30-32, 
 48, 49, 51 of the Law of Punishment, 1885), as a punishment 
 inflicted for various criminal offences, and then only for a 
 period fixed by sentence in a court of justice. 
 
 ON THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 
 
 On the Acquisition of Property; on the Mortgaging 
 
 AND Leasing of the same; and on Farms and 
 
 their Management. 
 
 Landed estates, including also land Avhich has been appor- 
 tioned to peasants for their permanent use, cannot be sold to 
 Jews. ( Vol. IX., Law on Status, Suppl. I. to § 330 {note) ; § 3, 
 1887.) 
 
 Land, and other appurtenances belonging to an estate, and 
 which are not part ot" allotments made to peasants on their 
 emancipation, may not be sold to Jews. (Ibid., § 4; S/(pj)l. 
 ibid.) 
 
 Estates in the Western and Baltic provinces, formerly- 
 belonging to the Jesuits, and which have to be sold by auction 
 to satisfy the debts of their owners, cannot be bought by 
 Jews. ( Vo/. VIII. , L<tic 0)1 the Administration of Croirn Pi-opcrty 
 in the Western and Baltic Gorcrnnicnts ; Suppl. to %^ 1 {note 1), 
 
 Jews are not admitted to the public auctions of Crown 
 lands. {Ibid., Suppl. /o § 2 {note 2), § 6.) 
 
 Jews are not admitted to attend the public auctions of 
 propert}' mortgaged to banks, and forfeited for non-payment. 
 {Vol. XIII., Laic of Common Aid, Suppl. to § 165 {note 2), § 3, 
 1857.) 
 
 Jews are not admitted to public auctions of allotments of 
 land forfeited by peasants who have made default in payment
 
 56 
 
 of serfdom commutation tax, or State land-tribute, or, in 
 Bessarabia, their land-rate. (Ru/es about the Peasaiitn/, Special 
 Suppl. to vol. IX. ; Rules on Distress, §§ 135-138 ; liu/es^ on 
 Peasants helonginrj to the State, Suppl. to § 15 {note 1), § 7 ; 
 Rules about the " Tsarani" [peasants in Bessarabia], § 95; § 5.) 
 
 All Jews, without exception, are prohibited from purchasing 
 landed property from landowners or peasants in the nine 
 Western gubernia. {Note 3 to § 959, vol. IX., Law on Status, 
 188G.) 
 
 N.B. — The meaning of the foregoing seven l.iws is that 
 Jews are not allowed to purchase landed estate anywhere. 
 
 Throughout the Pale of Jewish Settlement the completion 
 of conveyances of purchase of landed or house property and 
 mortgages in the name of Jews is suspended, as also the regis- 
 tration of Jews as lessees of landed estate, situated outside the 
 precincts of towns and townlets, and also the issue of powers 
 of attorney enabling Jews to act as agents for the managing 
 and disposing of such property.^ {Ibid., § 2 ; note ^ to '^ 959.) 
 
 No Jews, even those who are merchants of the first guild, 
 may purchase landed or house property in any part of the 
 town of Kiev. Only those merchants of the first guild are ex- 
 cepted who, before being registered as merchants at Kiev, 
 have been during five years merchants of the first guild in 
 one of the towns within the pale of Jewish settlement. 
 (Resolutio)i of the General Meeting of the Dejmrtnient of Cassation, 
 and of the First and the Seeond Department of the Imperial 
 Senate, Srd Nov., 18SG.) 
 
 Jews possessing a diploma of doctor of medicine and of 
 surgery, or who have a diploma of doctor, master, or ordinary 
 first class diploma in one of the other faculties of the Univer- 
 sit}^ do not transfer to their wives or their children their 
 right of acquiring house property outside the Pale of Jewish 
 Settlement. {Resolution of the General Meeting of the First 
 Departnioit and the Department of Cassation of the Imperial 
 Senate. 1889, No. 25.) 
 
 With the exception of tliose who have a scientific University 
 dcgi'cc, all Jews arc prohibited from obtaining, or renting, or 
 farming landed property in the military territory of tlie Don, 
 as also in the districts formerly belonging to Rostov and to the 
 city of Taganrog, but at present included in the Don territory. 
 
 * This is one of the " May Laws " of 1882, and it practically annuls 
 all the limited powers of acqnisition of landed and house property con- 
 ferred Ijy the other hiws except only in tuiviis within the Pale.
 
 (Vol. XIV., Laiv on PasHporh, §17; vol VI IL, 1886. oml 
 note to that section, 1887.) 
 
 Jews are prohibited from obtaining landed property of 
 any kind in any part of the Baltic Governments. (18G9, 30 
 3Ia[/ (47152); Imncrial Ukase proninhjated by the Senate of 
 the Ministry of the Interior; 1806, IS Feb. {^m':)\), Imperial 
 assent to Law of tJie Baltic ConunHtee.) 
 
 In the Baltic provinces Jews cannot lend money on the 
 security of house or landed property of any kind, either in 
 the country or in tlie towns. (Collection of Local Laws of 
 tJie Baltic Governments, part HI, book II., §§ 1-504, 1512, 
 1864.) 
 
 The ac(|uisition of land or house property in Turkestan is 
 prohibited to Jews not domiciled there. Jews born in the 
 countries of Central Asia which are situated in the vicinity 
 of Turkestan, are subject to the common law relating to 
 foreign Jews. {Vol. IX., Lair on Status, § 1003, note 3, 1887; 
 Collection of La as, 1889, No. 76, ^ 666.) 
 
 Land and house property wdiich has been obtained by Jews 
 b}' inheritance outside those places where they are permitted 
 to possess such propertv, nuist be sold by them in the course 
 of six months. (Ibid., § 960, 1886.) 
 
 The Jews are prohibited from renting mills and factories 
 from the Crown in places where they are not allowed to 
 reside. They are also prohibited from retailing intoxicating 
 liquors on Crown lands even in places where they are allowed 
 permanently to reside (i.e., in the Pale of Settlement). ( Vol. 
 VIII. , part I., Laic on Croioi Boits, § 22, 1876, and note to the 
 same, 1886.) 
 
 The leaseholder of an estate belonging to the Crown, and 
 situated m the Western and Baltic Governments, may not 
 subdet a country-inn to a Jew. (Ibid., Laic on Croirn Broperty 
 in the Western and Baltic Governments, § 35, 1876.) 
 
 Persons who have received temporary grants of Crown 
 revenues in the Western and Baltic Governments according 
 to the privileges of 1775, and by Imperial Ukases, are 
 prohibited from assigning their interests therein to Jews. 
 {Vol. VIII., part 1, Law on Crown Property in the Western 
 and Baltic Governments ; Suppl. to ^2 (note 3), § 18.) 
 
 Jews are prohibited from being managers or stewards of 
 inhabited estates, and from farming from the landowners the 
 incomes they derive from the peasants. (Vol. IX., § 961, 
 1^886.) 
 
 In Courland, Jews may not farm the rents due by the
 
 58 
 
 peasants to the landowners. They are also prohibited from 
 
 rentino- inns and pnblic-houses in townlets and villages. 
 
 {Collection of Local Laws of the Baltic Governments, part L., 
 
 I 1401, Nor^,p. III., I 40il.) 
 
 In places where Jews may not permanently reside, they 
 
 may not be admitted to the public auctions where chattels 
 
 belonging to the Crown are being sold. {Vol. X., § 1500, 
 
 1887.) 
 
 N.B. — Under the laws cited in the preceding heading, the 
 .Tews, with a few exceptions, are deprived of every right to 
 acquire or hold honse or landed estate outside the towns within 
 the pale of settlement. And besides these enactments, the code 
 of laws contains old regulations Avhich do allow Jews to acquire or 
 hold such property, to rent land, farm rents, and like obligations 
 appertaining to land, to possess distilleries, to rent or to manage 
 mills and factories. (Vol. IX., Law or Status, §§ 959, 961, a?id 
 Suppl. 963.) These regulations have not been repealed, and 
 remain on the statute books, and serve only to gloss over the 
 Jewish disabilities. As a matter of fact, they have been 
 rendered absolutely nugatory by the May Laws, being practically 
 and legally repealed by them. 
 
 ON AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS AND HUSBANDRY.. 
 
 The application of a part of the income derived from the Box 
 Tax to the training of Jews as agriculturists is abolished. 
 
 The Jewish Colonisation fund, Avhich was kept on deposit 
 at the State Treasury by the Minister of CroAvn Lands, and 
 at the Odessa Treasury by the Cherson-Bessarabia Superin- 
 tendent of Crown Lands, has been transferred to the funds of 
 the Imperial Treasury. 
 
 Jews are prohibited from settling in Siberia for the purpose 
 of becoming agriculturists. ( Vol. II., part 2, Position of Aliens, 
 §833, note; i88G, note 2 ^o § 1 ; Supjjl. to § 281; Law on 
 Taxes, ml. V., 1857 ; Collection of Ecgnlations, 1887, iVb. 62, 
 § 553, wl. IX. ; Law on Status, § 978.) 
 
 Acquisition or renting of rural property of any kind, as 
 well as the settlement outside of towns, being prohibited to 
 Jews, agricultural pursuits are rendered impossible to them. As 
 an exception to the rule, some agricultural colonies which were 
 established in certain places chosen by the Government in the 
 reigns of Alexander I. and Nicholas still exist, but no new 
 colonics are permitted to be established.
 
 59 
 
 ON COMMERCIAL KIGHTS. 
 
 Tra<ling in tlio f,nil)crnia outside the Pale of .Scttleinont 
 Avithout restriction is allowed only to Jews who have acquired 
 the position of a merchant of the first guiM while within the 
 fifteen gubernia of the Pale. 
 
 In order to become a merchant of the first guild in the" 
 above gubernia, a Jew must have been previously a merchant 
 of the first guild in the Pale of Settlement for five years. 
 
 The Jew who has become a merchant of the first guild and 
 settles outside the Pale of Settlement, forfeits his rights, and 
 is obliged to return into the Pale, if he cease to pay the fees 
 of the first guild, unless he has paid the fees for at least ten 
 years. {Vol. XIV., Statute on Passports, § 17 ; 1, contin. 188G.) 
 
 Jewish merchants of the first guild, belonging to the Pale 
 of Settlement, are allowed to visit the capitals and the other 
 towms outside the Pale, for purchasing goods, only twice a year, 
 and provided that both visits should not together exceed six 
 months. {Vol. XIV., Statute on Passports, ^ 288,2, contin. 
 1880.) 
 
 In Siberia merchant licences are given only to the fc^llowing 
 categories of Jews : — (1) To the children of Jewish convicts 
 who came there with their parents or who were born there ; 
 (2) to Jewish convicts who have been condemned to depor- 
 tation without loss of civil rights. {Vol. IX., SuppL to the 
 § 974 {note), 3, contin. cd. 1887.) 
 
 N.B. — It follows, therefore, that Jewish criminals and their 
 sons are the only Jews who can obtain a licence to trade in 
 Siberia, certain ])arts of wliich are extremely prosperous and 
 full of natural resources. 
 
 Jews of the Western gubernia, not belonging to any guild, 
 may not take any Government contract or farm royalties, 
 nor may they sell wholesale by powers of attorney anything 
 belonging to a member of the nobility, nor carry on business 
 ■within the Empire and beyond the frontier, even if it be only 
 to forward and to sell actual land produce. (Vol. IX., Lair on 
 Status, SuppL to § 974 ; [note 2), § 7, 1887.) 
 
 Jewish merchants of the first guild, in the Pale of Settlement, 
 may receive goods directly from the capitals and from the 
 ports, but only wholesale, and only through firms residing at 
 those places, or by means of correspondence with the manu- 
 facturers. Jewish merchants of the first guild are prohibited 
 from employing Jews in the management or superintendence 
 of contracts concluded by them in the interior provinces.
 
 60 
 
 The sale of products of guljernia within tlie Pale of Jewish 
 Settlement, may be etiected by Jewish merchants of the Pale 
 of the first guild, in the capitals and ports, but only wholesale, 
 and with the help of Christian employes, or local merchants, 
 or by mercantile firms, or by means of correspondence with 
 the manufacturers. But such Jews are forbidden personally to 
 sell goods in the capitals and ports, or to open shops at these 
 places, under pain of immediate expulsion and confiscation of 
 their goods. 
 
 Within the Pale of Jewish Settlement, Jewish merchants of 
 the first guild may, by order of Christians residing in other 
 gubernia, clear goods from the custom-house which their 
 owners would be entitled to receive through the custom- 
 houses situated in the Pale. 
 
 Such Jews are however prohibited from selling their own 
 goods which they have to receive and which have to pass 
 through the same custom-houses, outside the Pale of Jewish 
 Settlement, even though they employ Christians for the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Jewish merchants of the first guild, belonging to the Pale, 
 may sell foreign goods at the fairs of Charkov, and Summi, 
 but only wholesale. At other fairs they may not sell foreign 
 goods, whether on their own account or as consignees. {Ibid., 
 
 Foreign goods, which require to be sealed by the Custom 
 House ofiicers may not be brought to the fairs by Jewish 
 manufacturers, viz., neither to Nijni - Novgorod, Irbit, 
 Charkov, nor Summi ; although such goods may have under- 
 gone a certain manufacturing process at their factories, e.g., 
 by dyeing, etc. {Ibid., § 3.) 
 
 Jews visiting places where they are only allowed to reside 
 temporarily for business transactions, may not during 
 their visit sell goods in a house or by hawking them in 
 the street, and any infraction will be punished by law, 
 {Ibid., § 0.) 
 
 Jews are prohibited from acting as commission agents of 
 any foreign firm for sending goods from the Custom Houses 
 at the frontier to places where Jews may not permanently 
 reside. {Ibid., § (5.) 
 
 The Custom House ofiicers may not accept a declaration 
 from Jews, or from their agents or employes, nor may they 
 issue a licence for the passing of goods belonging to Jews 
 destined for the Custom Houses of gubernia outside the 
 Pall! of Settlement. ( Vol. VI, Lcrv of the Ciisloii/s, § 954, 
 1880.)
 
 Gl 
 
 Every one may keep his books in whatever language he 
 likes, except the Jews. They are obliged to use either 
 Russian, or the language in business use at the place where 
 they live, but in no case Hebrew. ( VoL IX., Lair on Statua, 
 § 955 ; Vol. XL, part 2, Commercial Law, § GIO, 18iS7.) 
 
 Jews cannot act as agents for contractors for delivery and 
 supply of goods in any place where they themselves have no 
 right to be contractors for the delivery and supply of goods. 
 ( Vol. X., Civil Lauc on Deli (■(')•// and Sapjjlf/ for tJie Croicii, § 7, 
 note.) 
 
 In places of permanent Jewish settlement, Jews are pro- 
 hibited from carrying on business on Sundays and on the 
 principal Christian holida3^s. ( Vol. IX., § 959, notes 4 and .*3 ; 
 Vol. XLV., Oil Frvventivn of Crimes, § 10, note.) 
 
 N.B. — One of the May Laws. This is a gruat hardship in 
 those towns where the Jews form the great bulk of the 
 population. In many tOAvns, Sunday is the legal and customary 
 market-day. There is no restriction to the Sunday trading of 
 Mahommedans and other non-Christians. 
 
 Jewish merchants of the first guild, who, observing the 
 conditions established by law, settle in places outside the pale 
 of Jewish settlement, may take with them Jewish clerks and 
 domestic servants, that is to say, in both the capitals as many 
 as the local governor and the governor-general will allow ; in 
 the other cities of the Empire not more than one Jewish clerk 
 or employe, and not more than four servants for every family. 
 {Vol. X'lV., Law on Passports, Art. 17, § 1, ISSG.) 
 
 Jews who hold a University di2:)loma of a scientific degree, 
 and who enjoy by law the right of residing in an}'- place in 
 the Empire, may (for the purpose of carrying on business and 
 industrial pursuits), during the time of their residence outside 
 the Pale of Jewish Settlement, have with them, besides the 
 members of their families, domestic servants from among 
 their co-religionists, but not more than tAvo. Such of them 
 as become merchants of the second guild, may, besides, have a 
 clerk or employe of their own faith. {Lbid., § 2.) 
 
 Shares in the company of the " Upper and Middle Market 
 Rows," in the Krassnoi S([uare in Moscow, may not be trans- 
 ferred to Jews, even if they become converts to Orthodoxy, 
 because onl}^ persons born Christian are allowed to obtain such 
 shares. {Collection of lieg illations, 1890, No. 82, § 817, 818.) 
 
 Jews may not possess shares in the joint-stock company 
 for the manufacture of sugar Kordelefha, in the district Vinitza,
 
 62 
 
 in the government Podolia ; they may not be members of the 
 board of that company, nor be appointed to the office of 
 manager or trustee. {CoUcction of Regulations, 1890, No. 89, 
 § 889 ; § 9, note ; § 23, notes 1 and 2.) 
 
 ON THE TRADE IN INTOXICANTS. 
 
 Jews may deal in intoxicants only in places where they are 
 allowed to reside permanently, but not otherwise than in their 
 own houses. Jewish potmen may be employed, but only in 
 public-houses belonging to Jews. {Laiv on the Tax on Sjn'rits, 
 1887, § 366.) 
 
 Outside the boundary of towns and townlets, Jews inay 
 carry on business in spirits, but only in houses which are their 
 own property, built on ground belonging to them, and 
 acquired by them before 3rd May, 1882. But Jews may not 
 deal in spirits in houses and on ground belonging to them 
 only for life, or of which they have only a lease. (Ibid., § 363, 
 note 3.) 
 
 The brewing of beer and mead for their own domestic use 
 is permitted in such Jewish settlements as contain not fewer 
 than ten houses. (Ibid., § 108, note 1.) 
 
 Retired soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the Jewish 
 faith, settled in places outside the Pale of Jewish Settlement, 
 in accordance with the old privilege, shall not enjoy the right 
 to deal in spirits in such places. (Ibid., § 363, note 1.) 
 
 In the gubernia of the Kingdom of Poland, Jews are 
 permitted to retail spirits, but only in towns and townlets ; 
 and in such villages as are inhabited by Jews only. (Ibid., § 
 363, wore 2.) 
 
 Jews who have the right to reside permancntl}^ in Siberia 
 may not carry on business there in intoxicants. (Ibid., § 368, 
 note 4.) 
 
 Jews who have removed to Turkestan from the interior 
 gubernia of the Empire, are prohibited from manufacturing and 
 dealing in intoxicants in Turkestan. (Ibid., § 102, note 2 ; 
 § 363, note 5, 1889.) 
 
 The clauses of the law forbidding the opening of establish- 
 ments for retailing beer and spirits in the vicinity of churches, 
 houses of prayer, mosques, &c., &c., do not apply to the vicinity 
 of Jewish synagogues and houses of prayer. (Ibid., §§ 414, 
 498 and 499.)
 
 G3 
 
 ON INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS. 
 
 Jews are not pcrmittcl to occupy themselves in gold mining 
 in places where they are prohibited to reside permanently. 
 (,Vo/. VII., Law on Primte Gold Mining, § 30, note 1.) 
 
 Jews not being allowed to occupy themselves in gold 
 mining cannot be agents for others in that industry. {Ibid., 
 § 31.) 
 
 In those places where trade guilds exist, plasterers, brick- 
 layers, masons, quarry-men, carpenters, and paviors, as also 
 servants, are exempt from belonging to such guilds, Ijut not if 
 they belong to the Jewish faith. ( Vol. XL, Law on Industrial 
 Profcmons, 1887, § 285.) 
 
 In places of permanent Jewish residence Jews cannot be 
 elected as masters of trade guilds. (Ibid., § oOG, note.) 
 
 In the committee of trade guilds, consisting of Christians 
 and Jews, the master and vice-master must be non-Jews. 
 (Ibid, §§ 338 fo?f/474.) 
 
 In places of the Pale, the governing body of such guilds 
 are obliged to take note of all Jews as have joined the guild, 
 so that those Jews may be expelled from the guild who have 
 not followed their calling during six months, without 
 sufficient cause. {Ibid., § 346.) 
 
 Jewish working-men are allowed to have Christian appren- 
 tices only when at least one of their foremen is a Christian, 
 and when they have obtained a special authorisation from the 
 committee of the guild. (Ibid., note to Art. 390.) 
 
 Jewish artisans residing outside of the Pale of Settlement 
 may sell only the products of their own work ; a licence of a 
 guild merchant obtained by these Jews does not give them 
 the right of selling articles not of their manufacture. (Ibid., 
 Art. 103, Resolution of Senate, 1874, No. 731.) 
 
 Jewish photographers are not permitted to open photo- 
 graphic establishments outside the Pale of Permanent Settle- 
 ment, nor to enjoy as artisans the right of residing there. 
 (Circular of the Minister of the Interior, 1875, Ajrril 3, No. 4395.) 
 
 ON CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 It is prohibited to receive Jews into the Civil Service, 
 except those of the following categories : — 
 
 1. Jews who have the scientific decree of doctor or
 
 G4 
 
 master, or the first-class university diploma, may l)? 
 admitted in any part of the Empire. {On- Cicil 
 Service, vol. III., Art. 7, 46.) 
 2. Jews who have a diploma of a physician of the second 
 class, are admitted into the public medical service 
 only within the Pale of Settlement. Outside of the 
 Pale they are admitted only in the department of 
 the Ministry of Education, and of the Ministry of the 
 Interior, but not in St. Petersburg or Moscow, or in 
 their respective provinces. (Ibid., Art. 57.) 
 8. In the Civil Service of the Army, the proportion of 
 Jewish surgeons is limited (since 1882) to 5 per cent. 
 Promotion is given to them only up to the fifth 
 medical class, but with the consent of the chief 
 connnanders of the military districts. To posts 
 above the fifth class they are not to be appointed at 
 all. In a hospital there may be only one Jewish 
 surgeon. To the district medical administration 
 offices, to the chief medical administration offices, as 
 well as to hospitals and offices in fortresses, they are 
 not to be admitted at all. {Imjyerial Order, iOfh April, 
 1882.) 
 The same rule as to the 5 per cent, proportion is to be 
 applied to military surgeons' assistants and surgeons' appren- 
 tices. {Ibid) 
 
 Is.B. — In fact, even the Jews who possess all the exceptional 
 qualifications determined by the law are not admitted as a rule 
 into Civil Service, even for the most subordinate ])ositions. 
 Lately, notwithstanding the foregoing permissive laws, no 
 Jews'have been admitted as army surgeons. 
 
 The board of judges, and the council of sworn advocates, 
 may receive among the number of private and of sworn 
 advocates, persons who are not Christians ; but they may not 
 accept them without the express permission of the Ministry 
 of Justice. {Collection of Rcyulatiom, 1889, No. 127, § 1031.) 
 
 A special permission of the Ministers of the Interior and of 
 Justice is required for the reception of non-Christian private 
 attorneys in the district sessions. {Collection of Regulations, 
 1890. No. 47, § 398.) 
 
 J^.B. — Since the two foregoing regulations were enacted, 
 not one Jew has been admitted as sworn advocate or j)rivate 
 attorney. [But see note on p. 18.]
 
 ON REPRESENTATION. 
 
 The election of Jews, in places of their permanent residence, 
 to offices which they are allowed to fill, and which are of 
 secular communal interest, can be effected only l)y their own 
 congregational body, and apart from the elections for the 
 same offices made by the Christian community. ( Vol. IX., 
 La/0 on Stafn.s, | 984.) 
 
 The number of non-Christian members of a town council 
 may not exceed one-third of the entire number of members, 
 (Loca/ Institutions, 1886, Art. 1982.) 
 
 The number of members of the Committee of the Bourse 
 in Odessa not professing the Christian religion must not 
 exceed one-third of the entire number of members. The 
 president of the Committee and the government l)rokor may 
 not be Jews. {Collection of Regulations, 1890, No. 78, § 794.) 
 
 A Jew is not eligible for the post of mayor, nor can he 
 act as his locum tenens. The number of non-Christian deputies 
 in the Municipal Council may not exceed a third of the 
 entire number. {Local Institutions, Art. 2035.) 
 
 As Jews have no right to fill the duties of a mayor, they 
 are altogether excluded from the presidency of municipal 
 meetings. {Circular of the Local Department of the Ministry of 
 the Interior, 1879, Oct. 12, No. 7795.) 
 
 Jews are not admitted at all to take part in the election of 
 members for the local District and Provincial assemblies,* nor 
 can they be elected to any office in these bodies or their 
 Boards. {Statute on Province and District Local Institutions 
 {Zemstva) ; | XII. of the Law sa)ictioning the Statute, of 12th June, 
 1890; Collect, of Laics, No. 63, § 597.) 
 
 N.B. — This wholly exchulcs Jews from local self-government 
 except municipal, and even then their number is limited to 
 one-third. 
 
 By virtue of a general rule as to the eligibility of Jews, it 
 is enacted that in the composition of official bodies not more 
 than a third may consist of Jews, so that the two-thirds 
 and the president must be Christians. {Vol. IX., Law on 
 Status, § 983.) 
 
 Jews may not be elected to fill the office of president of 
 school boards, whether in District or in Provincial towns, 
 nor can they be chosen as members of the same by rural 
 or urban electors. {Collection of Laws, 1889, No. 13, § 116.) 
 
 * Covresponding with English County Councils. 
 E
 
 66 
 
 Jews are not eligible for the offices of mayor or police 
 counsellors. Nor may they fill any other duties necessary in 
 a town, which either have to be filled exclusively by 
 Christians, or which from their nature cannot be conveniently 
 and decently entrusted to Jews. ( Vol. IX., Law of Status, 
 § 989.) 
 
 In the nine Western Provinces, as also in the govern- 
 ments of Bessarabia, Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, Taurida, Cherson, 
 and Tshernigov, on the appointment by rotation of thirteen 
 jurors and three substitutes, the rule is to be observed that 
 the number of Jews be in proportion to the number of 
 Christians as the number of Jewish inhabitants of each 
 district to the total population. (Judiciary Laiv, Regulations 
 on Criminal Procedure, § 550, note, 1886.) 
 
 In the nine Western governments, as also in the govern- 
 ments of Bessarabia, Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, Taurida, Cherson, 
 and Tshernigov, the foreman of a jury may not be a Jew. 
 {Law on Criminal Procedure, | 670^, 1886.) 
 
 In the Kingdom of Poland Jews cannot be elders of a 
 hamlet unless it is exclusively inhabited by Jews. {Civic 
 Regulations of the Kingdom of Poland, hook I., § 16 ; VIL, § 1.) 
 
 Jews are elig'ible for the office of " Lavnik " in hamlets 
 inhabited by a mixed population, but only in cases in which 
 they comprise not fewer than a third of the population. 
 {Ibid, note 2.) 
 
 Jews can be elected to the office of " Soltiss " (bailiff) only 
 of such hamlets as are exclusively inhabited by Jews. {Ibid., 
 note 3.) 
 
 ON MILITARY SERVICE. 
 
 Jewish recruits may not be employed in guarding a quaran- 
 tine district. {Vol. till, Medical Laiv, § 1532, 1886; Collec- 
 tion of Military Regulations, part 2, book 1, § 1180, note.) 
 
 Jewish privates and non-commissioned officers may not be 
 employed to guard the frontier. ( Vol. VI., Laic on Customs, 
 § 101 ; Collection of Military Regulations, part 2, book , 
 § 1182, note.) 
 
 Jews may not serve in the navy. {Collection of Milit. Regu- 
 lations, vol. XXX L (30484).) 
 
 Jews may not serve as gendarmes in the districts of Warsaw 
 and in the Caucasus ; even such Jews as have embraced-- 
 Orthodoxy are disqualified from this office. {Collection of 
 Military Regulations, part 2, book 1, § 1184; Suppl., § 1, note 1.)
 
 07 
 
 Recruits of Jewish extraction may not be employed in the 
 navy, nor in the local divisions, nor among the miners and 
 sappers, nor in the commissariat service, nor as clerks. 
 Recruits of all other denominations, who serve in the districts 
 of the Amoor, have the right to take their families with them 
 at the expense of the State, on condition of their settling per- 
 manently in that district on their entering the reserve. But 
 Jewish recruits have not that permission. {Circular of the 
 Principal Sfaf, 1889, Jul// 31, iVo. 180; Instructions, § 24; 
 Sappl. 3, Rules.) 
 
 Jewish soldiers and non-commissioned officers who are 
 converts to Orthodoxy may not serve in any regiments or 
 divisions permanently stationed in gubernia where Jews are 
 registered. {Collection of Milit. Regulations, part 2, book 1 ; 
 Vol. v., Suppl. X VIII. '{to § 213), 1859, and additions to the 
 san)e,fir.sf continuation, 1861.) 
 
 It is not allowed to employ Jewish soldiers as attendants 
 upon officers. Jewish medical officers in the army, on the 
 other hand, may employ none but Jewish attendants. (Ibid., 
 § 2129, Suppl., § 39, and note.) 
 
 Although Jewish privates may be promoted to become 
 non-commissioned officers and clerks, yet no further promotion 
 to any military post or position as officer is allowed. {Ibid., 
 § 568.) 
 
 Soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the Jewish faith, 
 notwithstanding they may have served their time and ful- 
 filled the required conditions, may not be appointed as jwrte- 
 ipee younkers* or become candidates for any post as officer. 
 {Ibid., § 727, note.) 
 
 Jewish soldiers and non-commissioned officers who belong 
 to the reserve, although they may possess a degree in chemistry 
 not lower than that of dispenser, may not, in case of a mo- 
 bilisation of the army, be appointed to fill the post of army 
 dispenser. (Circnlar of the Principal Staff, 1888, March 21st ; 
 No. 60, Chief Milit. Authorities of Medicine.) 
 
 Jewish soldiers and non-commissioned officers are not 
 allowed to enter the schools for the training of officers. 
 {Ibid., part 2, book 15, § 506, note.) 
 
 In case Jews pass the examination in the subjects taught 
 at the military schools, the following words shall be omitted 
 from their certificate " As far as their knowledge is concerned, 
 there is no objection to admitting them to the military schools." 
 
 * An upper degree of non-coiumissiuned officers permitted to carry 
 swords. 
 
 E 2
 
 (J8 
 
 {Collection of Regulations, 1882, Sej^t. 17, No. 84, § 642 ; notes 
 hy the authorities ; explanation from the Ministry of War.) 
 
 Since 1887 Jewish volunteers are no longer admitted to the 
 examination for the rank of officer, either in the military 
 schools or in those for the training of officers or by special 
 commission. 
 
 Since 1889 Jews are no longer permitted to serve in the 
 army as bandmasters, and of young Jewish soldiers no 
 greater proportion may be appointed as musicians than one- 
 third of the total number of members of the band. 
 
 Jews beloncjino^ to the reserve or beinsf substitutes for those 
 entering active service, according to the regulations of the 
 military law, have no right of residence outside the Pale of 
 Jewish Settlement. {Resolutions of the Senate, 1st Bejjartmenf, 
 1885,Maylst,JSro. 3372.) 
 
 The law which forbids Jews from residing outside the pre- 
 cincts of towns and townlets applies also to Jews belonging 
 to the reserve or having unlimited furlough, who have com- 
 pleted their military duties according to the previous re- 
 cruiting law. (Resolutions of the Senate, ist Department, 1885, 
 October 3 ; Circular of the Ministry of the Interior, November 
 Gth, No. 29.) 
 
 ON LEGAL PROCEDURE IN REFERENCE TO 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 In gubernia where Jews arc permitted to reside perma- 
 nently, they are allowed to give evidence in actions concerning 
 such of their co-religionists as have embraced Christianity, 
 but only in such cases where a sufficient number of Christian 
 witnesses cannot be found. (Vol. X.,part 2, § 233; vol. XV., 
 part 2, § 251.) 
 
 In actions concerning J ews who have embraced Christianity, 
 Jews may not bo admitted as witnesses if an objection is 
 raised against such admission. (Law on Criminal Procedure, 
 § 96, note; 4707, note 5; Law of Military Courts, §§ 621, 848; 
 Law of Naval Courts Martial, §§ 318, 767.) 
 
 In the form of oath specially administered to Jews the 
 following extra words must occur : " With a pure heart and 
 without mental reservation, but in accordance with the 
 thoui^hts and intention of those who administer the oath 
 to me." ( Vol. XL, part 1, Law on Foreign Denominations, 
 § 1061 {note) ; Suppl. continued 1886.)
 
 69 
 
 ON PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 No persons, except Rabbis autlioriscd by the Government, 
 and their assistants, arc allowed to perform the ceremonies of 
 the Jewish religion, as laid down in the law concerning 
 alien religious denominations. Those who infringe this 
 regulation are liable to the following penalties : For the first 
 offence, imprisonment from fourteen days to four months ; for 
 the second offence to penal servitude for four years. The head 
 of the family at whose instance such ceremony has been per- 
 formed, has to pay a fine not exceeding twenty roubles. 
 {Criminal Late, § 302.) 
 
 Non-Jews, guilty of concealing military deserters are liable 
 to imprisonment from two to four months, or to military 
 arrest from three weeks to three months. But a Jew who has 
 concealed a Jewish deserter, even during ever so short a time, 
 is liable to penal servitude from twelve to eighteen months. 
 In addition to this, the members of the Jewish Community 
 where a Jewish deserter has been concealed, will be sentenced 
 to a fine not exceeding 300 roubles. {Criminal Law, 1885, §§ 528 
 ami 530.) 
 
 If a non-Jew evcides the fulfilment of his military duties, 
 the liability, according to §§ 506-520, to punishment lies only 
 upon him personall}^ But if a Jew evades the fulfilment of 
 his military duties, his family is liable to a fine of 300 
 roubles, over and above his owni personal responsibility. {Law 
 on Militarij Duty, 1886, § 360.) 
 
 Non-Jews, convicted of contraband importation of foreign 
 goods, and of smuggling in general, or of participation in the 
 same, are liable to punishments laid down in Penal Code, 
 §§ 744-764, 766-781, 784, 787, 790, 801-817, 819-821. But 
 Jews, besides the ordinary punishment, will be removed to a 
 distance of fifty versts from the frontier, not merely if 
 convicted of smuggling, but even if suspected of that offence. 
 They may be thus removed with their families without a 
 regular sentence by a judge, and merely on the rec^uisition 
 of the Custom House authorities. {Vol. XIV., Laic on 
 Passports, § 23, note, 1886.) 
 
 Persons of all denominations, other than Jewish, who have 
 infringed the regulations as to the education of youth, are 
 liable to pay the fines laid down in §§ 1049-1052 of the Penal 
 Code. But Jewish teachers {melamdim), for the same offence,
 
 70 
 
 are liable : for the first and second offences to a fine of twice 
 the amount of the penalty to which non- Jews are liable under 
 the same circumstances ; for the third offence, over and above 
 the payment of the fine, to an imprisonment of four to eight 
 months. (Penal Code, § 1053.) 
 
 Jewish colonists, if guilty of negligence in their occupation, 
 or of carrying on a trade not permitted them, are liable for 
 the first offence to imprisonment of two to four months, for 
 the second oflence to double that punishment, for the third 
 offence to penal servitude for four years. (Ibid., § 1056.) 
 
 Those who are guilty of building synagogues or houses of 
 prayer without permission, or who have built such within 
 the distance from Christian churches prohibited by law, are 
 liable to a fine not exceeding 200 roubles. (Ibid., § 1074.) 
 
 Persons of all other denominations, who carry on a trade 
 not permitted them by law, are, if found guilty, liable, accord- 
 ing to § 1169, to a fine not exceeding 300 roubles. But Jews 
 who carry on any trade outside the Pale of Jewish Settlement 
 are punished by the confiscation of their goods and immediate 
 expulsion. (Ibid., § 1171.) 
 
 Non-Christians who have performed the ceremony of mar- 
 riage on persons who have not reached the age prescribed by 
 law, or who have performed an illegal divorce, will, as well as 
 their accomplices, lose their posts and be imprisoned for a 
 period of two to four months. 
 
 But Rabbis convicted of such breach of the law for the 
 second time, will be punished with penal servitude for four 
 years. (Ibid., | 1579.) 
 
 REGULATIONS AS TO FOREIGN JEWS. 
 
 Foreign Jews, who obtain by inheritance house or landed 
 property in Russia, must sell the same within the period of 
 six months. {Vol. IX., Law on Status, § 960; vol. XIV., Law 
 on Passports, § 296, 1887.) 
 
 Foreign Jews who are not Karaites, are not permitted to 
 immigrate into Russia, or to become Russian subjects. ( Vol. 
 IX., Law on Status, § 991.) 
 
 Every foreigner on producing his passport will be required 
 to declare, among other things, to which religious denomina- 
 tion he belongs. {Vol. XI V, Law on Passports, § 4>86, note, 
 § 7, 1886.)
 
 71 
 
 Foreign Jews shall be furnished with passports, on which 
 it shall be expressed that the same is valid only for such 
 places where the Jews may permanently reside. {IhicL, §§8, 
 
 2-) . . . 
 
 Foreign Jewish subjects known from their social position, 
 
 and from their large business transactions, on visiting Russia, 
 are permitted to carry on their business within the Empire, 
 and to found banking houses, subject to their becoming mer- 
 chants of the first guild. This can only take place if a special 
 permission has been granted to that effect by the Ministers of 
 Finance, of the Interior, and of Foreign Affairs ; such per- 
 mission must be solicited again at every renewal of the 
 merchant guild certificate. {Vol. IX., § 1001, note 1, 1887.) 
 
 All foreigners who visit Russia for the purpose of transacting 
 business, either without becoming Russian subjects, or with 
 the intention of becoming Russian subjects, are required first 
 to produce a certificate from a foreign Consistorium, or any 
 other high clerical authority, to the effect that they and their 
 families are Christians. The same law applies to those who 
 arrive from the Kingdom of Poland, and from the Grand 
 Duchy of Finland. (Ibid., note 3.) 
 
 Jews from Roumania who have no means of subsistence, 
 will not be admitted into Russia. {Vol. XIV., Law on Pass- 
 ports, § 487, contin., 1886.) 
 
 The local authorities shall keep a strict watch, that no 
 foreign Jews reside under Christian names in places where 
 they are prohibited to stay. ( Vol. XIV., Law on Passport, 
 §531, 1886.) 
 
 Foreign Jews may not manage or farm inhabited or unin- 
 habited estates. ( Vol. IX., § 1004.) 
 
 General Observation. — The restrictive laws hereinbefore 
 enumerated, the stringency of which is sufficiently obvious, 
 give a very inadequate idea of their full working effectiveness. 
 Their practical working is intensified by a series of rulings by 
 the Senate (the Court of Judicature), which has almost invari- 
 ably interpreted the laws in a sense unfavourable to the 
 Hebrews. It may therefore be readily understood that these 
 laws are not only applied, but over-strained in their scope and 
 intention by the Russian officials. 
 
 Wertheimer, Lea & Co., Printers, Clrcua Placj?, London Wall.
 
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