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 Cornell University Library 
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 Polish Jew 
 
 3 1924 028 644 338 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028644338 
 
THE POLISH JEW 
 
The Polish Jew 
 
 HIS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE 
 
 BY 
 
 BEATRICE C. BASKERVILLE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1906 
 
TO 
 MY BROTHER GEORGE 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Many of the facts put forth in the following pages 
 are so much at variance with accepted opinions of the 
 Polish Jew — both in Great Britain and the United 
 States of America — that I have been advised to preface 
 them with the assurance that they are not the outcome 
 of a short visit to Poland, but the result of eight years' 
 residence in the country. During this time I have had 
 every opportunity of observing the Polish Jew both in 
 the towns and settlements, and have been in contact with 
 the leaders of thought on all sides of the cjuestion 
 from the Anti-Semite to the Jewish nationalist. I 
 have witnessed the growth of that revival which has 
 now spread throughout most of the settlements and all 
 the large ghettoes of the country, and which has 
 engendered hostihty to the GentUe and revolution 
 against the powers that be. The fact that thousands of 
 the men and women here discussed annually emigrate 
 to compete with the English-speaking nations has 
 caused me to investigate their social and economic value 
 the more carefully, both for the sake of the pauper 
 aliens themselves and for that of the peoples among 
 whom they eventually settle. 
 
 Aitgust 11, 1906. 
 
EREATA 
 
 There will be found to be some dissimilarity between the spelling 
 of names in the text of the book and in the map. The only 
 important differences are as follows : — 
 
 For Petrikau in the map read Piotrkoff. 
 „ Krakow ,, ,, „ Cracow. 
 „ Czenstochow ,, „ Czenstochova. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 CHAP. pjjGE 
 
 I. INTKODUCTORY EBMAEK8 — POPULATION — THK TWO GROUPS 
 
 — THE GHETTO : THE JEWISH SETTLEMENTS . . 3 
 
 II. ECONOMICAL POSITION — RELATIONS WITH THE POLISH 
 
 COMMUNITY . . . . . .41 
 
 III. EDUCATIONAL AND COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS . . 80 
 
 IV. POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS: SIONISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM . 116 
 
 V. POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS (continued) — THE BUND — OTHER 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY PARTIES . . . .152 
 
 PART II 
 
 I. HISTORICAL SKETCH . . . . .215 
 
 II. THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW — HIS SURROUNDINGS, 
 
 ORGANISATIONS, CHARACTER, AND CULTURE . . 237 
 
 III. FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS . . . .261 
 
 PART III 
 
 I. RELIGIOUS CONSERVATISM . . . 285 
 
 II. THE FUTURE — CONCLUDING REMARKS . . . 309 
 
PART I 
 
 THE POLISH JEW OF TO-DAY 
 
THE POLISH JEW 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODirCTORY EEMARKS — POPULATION — THE TWO GROUPS 
 — THE GHETTO : THE JEWISH SETTLEMENTS 
 
 To those whose impression of the Polish Jew is derived 
 from the pauper alien, who see him shuddering, half- 
 starved and weary in the slums of European cities, 
 hustled from pillar to post, gesticulating and gibbering 
 in a strange, uncouth tongue, always in groups but ever 
 forlorn, with noise on his lips and patience on his face ; 
 he appears to be nothing more than an unwelcome 
 stranger, an economic burden, too loathsome to be 
 likeable, too ubiquitous to be interesting. And yet 
 behind those strongly-marked features and restless eyes ; 
 behind that unwholesome countenance and strange jargon, 
 lie the mystery of a great influence and the shadow of 
 a great peril ; for the outcasts who crowd the emigrant 
 ships represent a race that, hated and despised though 
 it be, holds a sway in the Eussian Empire it does not 
 wield elsewhere ; a sway, which is the more powerful 
 because it is silent, more dangerous because it is unfelt, 
 more deadly because it has eaten into the very sap of 
 
 3 
 
4 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the community, into the every detail of life and every 
 action of the Sclavonic race. Here under the northern 
 skies and in the dominions of an autocratic ruler, in the 
 vast empire of which Europeans know so little ; in this 
 mysterious land of many peoples, where life flows easily 
 and time is of little account, where women rule and men 
 submit, where the Sclav dreams and the Semite 
 schemes, the children of Israel play a rdle which cannot 
 but interest the English-speaking race that has seen 
 enough of the Jewish emigrant to fear that his presence, 
 hitherto but a troublesome question, may shortly assume 
 all the proportions of a problem. 
 
 But as it is impossible to understand Kussia's Revolu- 
 tion without studying her history and character, so it is 
 necessary to understand the Sclavonic temperament in 
 order to appreciate the character of the Polish Jew ; for 
 centuries of influence have been brought to bear upon 
 it by the fact that when a Russian or a Pole has a 
 troublesome task to perform, he has grown so accustomed 
 to appeal to the Hebrew that the action has become 
 second nature. 
 
 But here a difl&culty confronts the Anglo-Saxon. 
 He is too apt, in drawing his conclusions upon current 
 events in Russia, to judge of the people by his own 
 standard, to mentally transport them to London or 
 New York, instead of imagining them in Moscow or 
 Warsaw, influenced by a crowd of local circumstances 
 and by centuries of local history. He is too apt to 
 think of them as Anglo-Saxons in red shirts, or as 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 5 
 
 Englishmen speaking Polish. And though he has the 
 opportunity of observing the Jewish people from near, 
 he again commits the same error, imagining the English 
 or American Jew removed to the Russian Empire and 
 acting there as he acts in London or New York. He 
 forgets the vast differences of atmosphere, of history, 
 of treatment and environment. He forgets that the 
 Polish or Russian Jew in his relationship to the Sclav 
 differs from the English or American Jew in his 
 relationship to the Anglo-Saxon, as the Sclavonic 
 temperament differs from the Anglo-Saxon temperament, 
 or the histories of Russia and Poland from the histories 
 of England and the United States. He reads with 
 horror of Jewish massacres and of Jewish persecution ; 
 learns with indignation that the Jews are only permitted 
 to inhabit certain quarters of Russian cities and certain 
 cities of the Empire. But has he seen the Jews placed 
 under these restrictions ? Has he had an opportunity 
 of observing the methods of the Polish Jews who, 
 living freely amongst a nation in the proportion of one 
 in seven, have attained an influence in the proportion 
 of seven to one 1 Has he seen the other side of the 
 medal and counted the cases in which the Semite takes 
 advantage of the Sclav and the Jew rules the Russian ? 
 Has he seen provincial towns solely inhabited by Jews 
 who live upon the surrounding peasantry 1 Has he seen 
 country estates in which Jews act as middlemen between 
 the proprietor and those who purchase his grain, his 
 potatoes, his horses and cows — nay, his milk and butter ? 
 
6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Can he imagine the capital of Poland, the most civilised 
 city in Russia, the link between Europe and Asia, where 
 every third man is a Jew, where the trade and commerce 
 are in the hands of Jews and where Jewish organisations 
 have openly declared their intention of converting the 
 Imperial army to the tenets of Socialism and of gaining 
 the greatest amount of political influence, when the 
 crisis of crises, the fall of absolutism shall throw the 
 Empire into chaos ? And yet these things are facts, and, 
 what is of more importance to the Anglo-Saxon peoples, 
 these facts may, though in a modified form, spring up 
 amongst them. It is true that the mysterious influence 
 and the long unheeded danger of Semite tenacity has 
 been greatly augmented by Sclavonic indolence, by the 
 patience of the one race and the unstableness of the 
 other : that alarmist theories are easilv concocted when 
 no nation welcomes the advent of the pauper alien, and 
 England, proud of her supremacy, has grown idle and 
 careless in prosperity. But is it not possible that this 
 very indifference may help to develop the alien pauper 
 question into a problem ? Although there are a hundred 
 reasons why the Jewish people should not attain the 
 ascendency in the West they have attained in the East, 
 that strange deceptive ascendency which looks like 
 persecution at first sight ; although the reader may not, 
 and probably does not, believe that in very truth the 
 sons of Israel are the chosen people who shall one day 
 inherit the earth ; although there are as yet no grounds 
 for supposing that one third of the population of 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 7 
 
 London, Leeds, Manchester, New York or Sydney, will 
 shortly be composed of the Hebrew element ; although 
 neither Great Britain nor the United States have 
 reason to fear being " swamped " by the Semitic race, 
 yet it is not improbable that even the supreme Anglo- 
 Saxon would profit by observing the methods, customs 
 and character of that wonderful people whom no amount 
 of oppression, persecution or injustice has been able to 
 conquer. That silent defenceless army, though always 
 defeated, never loses, never flinches nor turns back, no 
 matter how strong the fortress or how large the garrison 
 arrayed against it. Always suffering, it is ever victorious ; 
 physically cowardly, it never flinches ; but, gathering up 
 its scattered forces, stands shoulder to shoulder and man 
 to man, vanquished by all, yet seeing all its conquerors, 
 proud kingdoms and mighty empires though they be, 
 crumble into forgotten dust, whilst it rises once more 
 with eternal sufibring and untiring patience, with a 
 mixture of fear and valour, humility and arrogance, to 
 confront younger nations with its insoluble problem. 
 For these reasons I have ventured to place before the 
 reader a few facts relating to the Polish Jew — facts 
 gathered at first hand and proved, whenever circum- 
 stances would permit, on the spot ; facts which are for 
 the most part of daily, even hourly occurrence, and which 
 I have endeavoured to surround with as much local 
 colouring as will enable him to see them in their natural 
 light. 
 
THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Table A. — Comparative Population op Jews in Poland 
 
 GOVERNMENT OP 
 
 TOTAL 
 POPULATION 
 
 JEWISH 
 POPULATION 
 
 PBKOENTAGB 
 OF JEWS 
 
 Warsaw . . . 
 
 Kalisz 
 
 
 1,931,168 
 
 842,398 
 761,689 
 579,300 
 1,159,273 
 1,404,031 
 553,094 
 815,062 
 582,696 
 772,388 
 
 349,943 
 72,339 
 82,427 
 90,912 
 
 153,728 
 
 222,299 
 50,473 
 
 113,277 
 58,808 
 
 122,370 
 
 18-12 
 8-59 
 
 Kielce . 
 Lomza . 
 Lublin . 
 
 
 10-82 
 15-69 
 13-26 
 
 Piotrkoff . . 
 Plock . 
 Radom . 
 
 
 15-83 
 
 9-13 
 
 13-89 
 
 10-09 
 
 Siedlec . . 
 
 
 15-84 
 
 Total . 
 
 9,401,097 
 
 1,316,576 
 
 14-01 
 
 Population 
 
 From Table A it will be seen that the Jewish population 
 is greatest in the governments of Warsaw and least in 
 that of Kalisz. It diminishes in the following manner : — • 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 PERCENTAGE 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 PERCENTAGE 
 
 Warsaw 
 
 18-12 
 
 Lublin 
 
 13-16 
 
 Siedlec 
 
 15-84 
 
 Kielce 
 
 10-82 
 
 Piotrkoff ... 
 
 15-83 
 
 Suwalki 
 
 10-09 
 
 Lomza 
 
 15-69 
 
 Plock 
 
 9-13 
 
 Pi adorn 
 
 13-89 
 
 Kalisz 
 
 8-59 
 
 Taking the districts, we find that Warsaw (28'20%) 
 and Lodz in the government of Piotrkoff (25 •09%) have 
 the largest Jewish population. In the remaining districts 
 of these governments the Jewish percentage does not 
 exceed 15, so that the greatest proportion is gathered in 
 the two large centres — Warsaw and Lodz. 
 
POPULATION 9 
 
 Taking the statistics for the town populations for the 
 ten governments, we find that the percentage varies 
 between 59 and 28'2, the government of Siedlec giving 
 the greatest and that of PiotrkofF the least, thus : — 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 POPTTLATION 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 POPULATION 
 
 Siedlec 
 
 590 
 
 Kielce 
 
 47-7 
 
 Suwalki 
 
 56-3 
 
 Kalisz 
 
 42-9 
 
 Lomza 
 
 55-7 
 
 Lublin 
 
 38-9 
 
 Eadom 
 
 54-7 
 
 Warsaw 
 
 38-8 
 
 Plock 
 
 49-1 
 
 PiotrkofE ... 
 
 28-2 
 
 It will be seen that the variation of these percentages 
 falls into two natural groups, one following the Western 
 governments on the left bank of the Vistula, the other, 
 the Eastern on the right bank — that is to say, in the 
 Western governments (Kielce, Kalisz, Warsaw and 
 Piotrkoff) the Jewish town population is smaller than 
 in the Eastern (Siedlec, Suwalki, Lomza and Plock). 
 Of the two governments which fall away, Eadom and 
 Lublin, the former is to the west but has a larger 
 Jewish population than Lublin ; but this is the only 
 exception. 
 
 By dividing the ten governments into Eastern and 
 Western groups, we find the following proportions of 
 general and Jewish populations for the towns and 
 suburbs. 
 
 GENERAL POPULATION 
 
 JEWISH POPULATION 
 
 % 
 
 Eastern Group 837,400 
 Western Group 1,865,446 
 
 408,504 
 700,910 
 
 48-4 
 37-1 
 
 In the Western group both the general and Jewish 
 population are larger than in the Eastern, though the 
 
lo THE POLISH JEW 
 
 percentage of the Jewish in the Eastern is larger than 
 that in the Western. The Western governments are 
 more densely populated, as they include the large 
 industrial centres, whilst the Eastern governments are 
 chiefly agricultural. This predominance of the Jewish 
 element in the agricultural districts appears strange at 
 first sight. One would think that the Jews, by virtue 
 of their business propensities, are better adapted to the 
 industrial centres. This supposition is strengthened by 
 the fact of their large number in the districts of Warsaw 
 and Lodz, the two chief industrial centres of the country. 
 But the truth of the matter is that the average Jew 
 earns a better living in the agricultural districts, not by 
 tilling the soil but by disposing of its produce. Until 
 the latter half of the 19 th century Poland was par 
 excellence an agricultural country, in which the Jews 
 played the part of middlemen between the producer at 
 home and the consumer abroad. Since the year 1863, 
 however, Poland has gradually but steadily developed 
 her industrial resources. Factories have replaced farms 
 in many districts, and machinery imported from England 
 and Germany abolished a great deal of manual labour. 
 The Jews, deprived to a great extent of their old role 
 of factor, have been forced to find other means of 
 living. The lack of good Jewish schools, the restrictions 
 imposed by Jewish ritual, the observance of Saturday 
 as the Sabbath, their dislike for factory discipline, and 
 their aptitude for commerce, are all reasons which 
 prevent them from competing with the Poles in the 
 
POPULATION II 
 
 industrial world. Once, therefore, they cease to be 
 factors or have not enough means to trade, they resort 
 to the sweating shops and make cheap clothing or turn 
 hawkers in the large towns. Those who happen to be 
 born in agricultural districts can always eke out a 
 living from the squires and peasants. This is why their 
 numbers predominate in those governments which 
 remain chiefly agricultural. Many thousands, unable 
 to earn their bread in the towns, emigrate ; their 
 numbers are ever increasing, but the continual exodus 
 does not succeed in decreasing the Jewish population. 
 The average annual increase since 1890 for the whole 
 Kingdom is 2^. But nowhere has it reached such pro- 
 portions as in the governments of Piotrkoif and Warsaw, 
 where it amounts to 81 "1^ and 6 8 "2^ respectively 
 during the last seven years. These centres have been 
 recouped by Jews from the rest of the Empire. Many 
 so-called LitvoM, or Lithuanian Jews,^have emigrated to 
 Warsaw and other large centres ; many more have 
 come from Moscow and the Eussian settlements. The 
 Jewish massacres of 1905 and 1906 sent many to 
 Poland, They cannot all earn a living there, some 
 emigrate, others tax the resources of the Jewish com- 
 munity to the utmost. In fact, it is computed that 
 80% of the Jewish population belongs to the proletariat, 
 a class which is suffering severely from the economic 
 crisis. It is with these eighty per cent, that the 
 following pages wiU chiefly deal, for its members fill 
 the emigrant ships and crowd the slums of foreign 
 
12 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 cities. Nevertheless the rest of the Jewish community 
 demands brief comment. 
 
 The Jewish community in Poland falls into two 
 unequal groups, the smaller one comprising those who 
 have adopted Polish culture, the larger those who 
 have not. 
 
 Group I 
 
 This group again subdivides into two broad classes, 
 the Plutocracy and the Intelligentia. The Plutocracy 
 need not detain us here, for its members are as 
 cosmopolitan as those of the same class in other 
 countries. Content to rule the finances of the land, it 
 has as much interest in averting revolution and con- 
 demning anarchy as other wealthy classes. Its members 
 are to be seen in the hotels of London, Paris and 
 Monte-Carlo, as far removed in sympathies and senti- 
 ments from the children of the ghetto as the fashionable 
 crowds they rub shoulders with. But they are never 
 deaf to an appeal on behalf of their less fortunate 
 co-religionists, and many a charitable institution in the 
 Jewish quarters of Polish towns owes its existence to 
 their bounty. 
 
 The Jewish Intelligentia is to be found among the 
 ranks of the medical and legal professions to a large 
 extent. As medical men they take a high place and 
 are much respected by the community at large. The 
 general practitioner is practically unknown in Poland ; 
 the Jewish doctors are therefore specialists. As such 
 
POPULATION 13 
 
 they keep pace with the times, and being men of liberal 
 education are able to keep au courant of the most 
 recent researches and discoveries made by their 
 colleagues in other countries. 
 
 As barristers they fill a large portion of the legal list 
 in spite of the restrictions put upon them. Many of 
 them have remunerative practices of a somewhat doubt- 
 ful character and a few enjoy excellent reputations. 
 But the majority of barristers in Poland, Jewish or 
 Polish, lack that culture which is generally associated 
 with members of the free professions in Western Europe. 
 This lack is more strongly marked amongst the Jews. 
 I know Jewish barristers who receive their clients in 
 their shirt-sleeves in the summer, in a " study " from 
 which the dust has not been removed for more days 
 than a careful housekeeper would like to count. Their 
 reception hours are in the afternoon, after the law 
 courts are closed, and the barristers, eager for clients, 
 appear in the doorway to see who is ringing. Some- 
 times the flats, dingy and ill-kept, which serve as office 
 and home for the whole family, are literally crammed 
 with furniture that a Bond Street dealer would envy. 
 Old Italian chairs, Dantzig cupboards, and Empire 
 tables which were new when Napoleon went to Warsaw 
 vie in beauty with delicate pieces of china that Macolini 
 himself painted ; and yet all these things are crowded 
 together and so dirty that the pleasure which their 
 beauty would otherwise afford is marred by regret that 
 they are neglected. And in the midst of all these 
 
14 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 curios sits the mecenas (lawyer) himself, as ill-cared-ior 
 as his household gods, receiving his clients in their long 
 halats. But these are the men, the Jewish lawyers of 
 Warsaw and the provinces, who guide not only Jewish 
 but much Polish thought to-day, for it is they who 
 contribute to the greater part of the newspapers and 
 magazines. The Jewish journalist is to be found every- 
 where. Not many years ago a Jew edited a well-known 
 woman's paper with clerical tendencies. Not being 
 very sure of the kind of sentiment which ought to 
 prevail in such literature, he used to take the articles to 
 a Roman Catholic priest before publishing them. The 
 priest made whatever corrections were necessary, and 
 the paper flourished until the Jew died and it fell into 
 the hands of a Eoman Catholic editor with liberal views. 
 Its circulation rapidly went down. 
 
 The Jewish element is most influential in Socialistic 
 and revolutionary literature, and, as we shall see later 
 on, the members of the Jewish Intelligentia play an 
 important part in political societies. 
 
 The Jewish Intelligentia have assimilated more or less 
 with the Polish community. Many of them, even 
 though they have ceased to attend the synagogue and 
 are too intellectually developed to look upon the Rabbis 
 with blind respect, would scorn the idea of embracing 
 Christianity and despise those of their race who have 
 done so. But they have left the ghetto far behind them : 
 nay, they often speak of it with horror. They have 
 exchanged its language for Polish, which they speak and 
 
POPULATION 15 
 
 write as accurately as the Poles, although, as with Peter 
 of old, their " speech betrays them," Those of them who 
 are not Socialists are Polish patriots, looking upon the 
 country as theirs, on its vicissitudes as their own. Such 
 men, whose sons are in their first youth and converts to 
 new ideas, look upon the Jewish Party ^ with antipathy. 
 
 It is no rare thing to-day to find these Jewish houses 
 of the Intelligentia divided. The older generation is for 
 assimilation, for making the Jew forget the ghetto and 
 its language, whilst the younger deliberately sets itself 
 the task of learning Yiddish in order to reach the Jewish 
 proletariat. The fathers are for the old peaceful times, 
 and the sons for strikes and disturbances. And yet it 
 must not be supposed that either wishes to lose his Jewish 
 individuality ; each strives to assert it in his own way, 
 each hopes by his own methods to raise the position of 
 the Jews in the Russian Empire. When the women folk 
 join in the struggle in which one member of the house- 
 hold is for assimilation with Socialism, another for 
 assimilation without, a third for the Social Democrats, 
 a fourth for Sionism and a fifth a leader of the Jewish 
 Bund, the chaos is such as to cause the patriarchs of the 
 family, bred in traditional solidarity, to hold up their 
 hands in horror and ask what will happen next. 
 
 An idea of the extent to which the political revival 
 has swept away the old ideas of solidarity among the 
 Jews in Poland will be gathered from the following case 
 which came before the Warsaw tribunal during the 
 
 1 The Bund. 
 
i6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 summer of 1906, and in which two Jews accused co- 
 religionists of forcing them to join a revolutionary party. 
 
 According to evidence given at the trial, two young 
 Jews, Wasserman and Grosman by name, went to the 
 police with the following complaint. " As we were going 
 along the Torgova at the Brudno (a suburb of Warsaw) 
 several young Jews stopped us and began to persuade us 
 to join the fighting section of a Socialistic Party. When 
 we refused over and over again, the agitators would not 
 let us go on, but threatened that if we were so obstinate 
 we should pay for it with our lives. We went on in 
 spite of these threats, and one of the agitators took out 
 a stiletto and tried to stick it into Wasserman's chest, 
 but Wasserman dodged him and escaped with a tear in 
 his coat. Seeing this, the brother of the would-be assas- 
 sin pulled a revolver out of a comrade's hand and fired 
 at Wasserman, who escaped a second time, but the 
 bullet hit Grosman in the neck." The two agitators 
 were arrested and charged with attempting to murder 
 Wasserman and Grosman. As it happened, both 
 prisoners were released for want of sufficient evidence. 
 But the interest of the case lies in the fact that Jews 
 rarely bring their quarrels before a Russian tribunal, 
 preferring to settle all their difierences amongst them- 
 selves. 
 
 Quarrels of a more modified form are now of daily 
 occurrence among the Jewish community. Time was 
 when the Polish Jews spent their time arguing about the 
 Talmud ; politics have taken its place in modern Jewry, 
 
THE GHETTO 17 
 
 The Jewisli newspapers are full of articles directed 
 against those whose views differ from their own. Half 
 their columns are taken up with abusing their neighbours. 
 The contributors of the Yiddish papers jeer at those who 
 write in Polish, whilst the latter often treat the former 
 with a scorn which might be called anti-Semite but for 
 the fact that both parties are Jewish. Needless to say, 
 these polemical feats are the work of the Jewish editors 
 and journalists. But for the present let us turn to the 
 class the Intelligentia is trying to influence, for whose 
 popularity they are bidding, and upon whose support the 
 hopes of more than one political party rest. For this 
 purpose we must bend our steps towards the ghettoes of 
 the Polish towns and visit the Jewish settlements 
 scattered over the provinces. 
 
 Group II 
 
 (1) THE GHETTO 
 
 In Poland, when a man launches out into unwonted 
 
 expenses, his friends ask him " Hast thou killed a Jew ? " 
 
 as if all the Jews were rich and their assassination 
 
 meant a fortune for him who cared to take the spoils. 
 
 The working classes have a fixed idea that the Jews, 
 
 however poor they may appear, have great wealth 
 
 stored up somewhere or other, and they cling to this 
 
 illusion, in spite of the poverty of the ghetto, a poverty 
 
 which exceeds anything the Polish masses experience. 
 
 c 
 
i8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 And yet tlie first impression of the Jewish quarter is 
 not so much poverty as the stifling atmosphere, the 
 smell of garlic and of dirt which pervades the streets 
 and seems to roll from the houses in waves. So strong 
 is it, in the summer months especially, that it seems to 
 be something tangible. In the winter, the cold sup- 
 presses it in the streets, only to coop it up in double 
 strength in the rooms where six square feet afford 
 sleeping, living and working accommodation for a dozen 
 people, whose aversion to soap and water is proverbial 
 and whose favourite food is herrings and garlic. And yet, 
 at first sight, the ghetto of a large town will probably 
 disappoint the stranger, especially if he happen to enter it 
 by a large thoroughfare like the Nalevki in the Warsaw 
 ghetto. Here the buildings are more defaced and the 
 shops dingier than those in the Polish quarters. But here, 
 as there, the fronts of the houses are covered, up to the 
 second floor, with boards on which Eussian and Polish 
 words advertise the wares to be sold and the names of 
 the merchants. True, the signs are more crudely painted 
 than those in the rest of the town. Here a many- 
 branched candlestick, painted yellow, announces that 
 a silversmith works in the house ; there cylindrical 
 masses and round lumps, brown on a white ground, tell 
 the would-be purchaser that Jewish bread is to be sold. 
 A little higher up red, blue and green ostrich feathers, 
 abnormally large and brilliant, announce a feather 
 factory. But it is, with the exception of the candlestick, 
 only what the stranger has seen in other parts of the 
 
THE GHETTO 19 
 
 town, shabbier and shoddier, but the same. The names 
 over the doors are not Sclavonic, for who ever heard of 
 a Polish "Goldwater," " Mothermilk," or "Nut-tree," 
 but they are written in Eussian and Polish. No 
 Hebrew signs are to be seen : even the announcement 
 that the Jewish troupe will play in the Muranov 
 theatre, stuck up on the walls of a corner house, is 
 printed in Russian and Polish. The authorities, bent 
 on suppressing all signs of Judaism even in its home, 
 forbid the use of Yiddish for advertisements or announce- 
 ments. And yet on nearer inspection, the streets are 
 very characteristic. To begin with they are crowded, and 
 the people who pass one another have nearly all the 
 Jewish type. The men are dressed in the long Halat, 
 or skirted coat which reaches nearly to the ankles, and 
 the peaked cap, or Jarmulha. Some of the younger 
 women have their hair plaited ; others wear the hideous 
 wigs of the married women ^ which can be seen like the 
 trophies of some Indian chief, piled up in baskets in the 
 market-place. Every degree of Hebrew beauty and 
 ugliness is here : the stunted boys and girls, the 
 offspring of diseased parents, reared in the poisonous 
 atmosphere of the cellar and the cheder; ^ the maiden 
 with lustrous eyes and rich dark colouring, such as 
 Solomon must have had in his mind when he wrote, 
 " Thou art all fair — there is no spot in thee ; " young 
 
 1 A Jewess on her marriage must shave her head and wear one 
 of these wigs. 
 
 * Jewish elementary school. 
 
20 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 men with Christ-like faces, others with mean ones ; old 
 men wrinkled and calculating, with eyes in which lust 
 for money glints as hard as the golden idol ; old women 
 who look like witches invented to frighten naughty 
 children; and the white-haired Rabbi who walks with 
 a dignity which proves that he is a learned man and 
 entitled to respect. They are all there. Even in the 
 trams and cabs which pass, the Hebrew prevails. The 
 Cossacks, sunburnt and frowning, are a contrast. They 
 ride through the street, lining both sides of it, in single 
 file, their small rough-coated horses shy at the tram- 
 bells and rush, head in air, among the traffic. The 
 riders, with the muskets in their hands, are ready to 
 shoot at the first sign of an attack. Their linen blouses 
 are nearer brown than white, their loose trousers and 
 high boots shabby. They scowl at the people on the 
 pavements and at the shops as if looking for an excuse 
 to ride among them and plunder. These are the men 
 who only need a sign from their superiors to run wUd 
 in Warsaw, plundering and massacring all who come 
 their way ; for not only is the inherent love of looting 
 strong in them, but they are sick of patrol service 
 which means long hours on duty and the risk of a 
 bomb, yet has none of the joys of warfare, where 
 a Cossack may plunder and no questions are asked. 
 Give them the slightest excuse, fire oflf a revolver or 
 throw a cracker, and they will avenge not only their 
 comrades who have perished at the hands of the 
 revolutionaries, but their own hands and backs stiff 
 
THE GHETTO 21 
 
 from holding the musket, and aching with long service 
 in the hot sun or the biting frost. The Jews know this, 
 and though they scowl back at them or mutter a word 
 in Yiddish, they give them a wide berth. Even the 
 armed groups of the Bund, who assassinate policemen in 
 broad daylight and think nothing of going up to a 
 couple of sentries and shooting them where they stand, 
 hesitate before attacking Cossacks, for they know that 
 the odd hundred who line the street now would like 
 a pogrom more than anything, and that the under 
 officer who is with them could not hold them back, 
 even if he would, once their eager eyes found an excuse 
 for beginning a stampede. These savages of Orenburg 
 inspire fear as well as hatred, and the Jew would be 
 foolhardy indeed who provoked their rage. As to the 
 rest of the crowd, those who have no political aspirations, 
 and the shopkeepers who have wares to lose, they heave 
 a sigh of relief when the Cossacks turn the corner and 
 the last horse disappears from view, for the times are 
 such that a slight incident leads to a panic, and then 
 who knows if the massacres of Bialystok may not be 
 repeated in Warsaw ? 
 
 Let us turn into one of the side streets. Here houses 
 are dingier and the shops so small that they find enough 
 room in the cellars. The Goya ^ does not buy things in 
 this street, where the commerce is supported by the 
 ghetto population. A lame boy is selling newspapers — 
 you can buy the Weg, Telegraf, Freind, and half-a- 
 
 1 Gentile. 
 
22 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 dozen others, but they are all in Yiddish, and even if 
 you have studied it in Western Europe, there will be 
 many words you cannot understand, for it is the most 
 plastic language in the world, and absorbs expressions 
 peculiar to whatever country it happens to be in. This 
 street is comparatively quiet. The windows of the 
 houses are open. Here and there a man, cap on head, 
 looks out into the street ; ragged children, their heads 
 and often their bodies teeming with vermin, play 
 gravely. They all look old and wise ; they all glance 
 at the European intruder with undisguised aversion. 
 A tram passes on its way to the cemetery which lies 
 beyond the town. The roads are up — they always are 
 in Warsaw — and the rails are so insecurely laid that the 
 tram runs off them when it reaches a curve, and a 
 murmur from the passengers expresses more disapproval 
 than surprise. The driver and conductor descend with 
 the look of men who " expected it," the passengers show 
 no inclination to get out, and only do so when the 
 driver points out the impossibility of getting the tram 
 back so long as their weight is in it. A crowd of Jews 
 have gathered round, but do not help, neither do the 
 Jewish passengers. The conductor and driver do not 
 expect their aid, and would not give their own if they 
 saw a Jewish carter in the same predicament, unless 
 their tram were inconvenienced by the delay. But 
 the two sturdy Poles push the wheels back again, the 
 passengers get in, the bell jangles loungers out of the 
 way, the tram drives off", the crowd disappears and 
 
THE GHETTO 23 
 
 silence reigns until the next tram, hurrying to make 
 up for lost time, runs amuck on the same corner. 
 Whenever I hear people in England talk about the fear 
 with which the children of the ghetto look upon the Sclav, 
 I think of a tram incident I saw once from my window 
 in Warsaw, which looks out upon a street where a sharp 
 turn causes the trams to derail whenever the wooden 
 pavement wears down. One warm evening, almost 
 every tram which passed had met with the same mis- 
 fortune, and at last a large one drawn by two horses, 
 skidded close to the kerbstone. The passengers got 
 out, and as it was crowded, rushed back as soon as they 
 could to their places. A Polish girl of about sixteen 
 and a Jewish boy of about the same age disputed the 
 possession of a few spare inches on the front bench. 
 They both nudged and pommelled for some seconds, 
 untU the Jew, noticing the girl's smart hat — it was 
 Sunday — found a way of getting his seat. He sprang 
 at the hat, the girl made an unsuccessful dash at his 
 cap ; the boy, pushing back her hat, first made a bird's- 
 nest of her hair, then crushed the "creation" between 
 his hands. The other passengers were too busy getting 
 their places to notice the incident ; the girl, discomfited, 
 got off the tram, and the Jew set his cap straight and 
 folded his arms with the air of a Napoleon who had 
 conquered Europe. 
 
 Let us turn into a busier street, where the sounds of 
 bartering are to be heard. This woman sitting on the 
 pavement with a basket of fish is what the Poles call a 
 
24 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Kupcova, or female hawker. Her wares look as un- 
 savoury as she does, but two or three Jewesses are 
 bargaining with her, one holding a fish up in dirty- 
 hands and asking how she could think anybody was so 
 stupid as to pay such a fabulous price for it. Every- 
 thing in this street looks unwholesome, the people, the 
 shops and the wares. There are no trams, but cars 
 driven by Jews make a noise which forces the passers- 
 by to shout if they want to be heard. Nobody laughs, 
 even the children do not smile ; everybody looks patient 
 or angry, but not gay. There is a total absence of 
 street humour, and though all are busy and intent on 
 their work, nobody hurries. The languor, not of cities, 
 but of the ghetto, is upon them, and it shows in their 
 gait as well as in their faces. Here and there a 
 prosperous tradesman in alpaca halat and velvet cap is 
 to be seen. His mind is full of his business — he has a 
 bill or two due to-day. That thin man, who is in as 
 near an approach to a hurry as the ghetto can show, is 
 a factor. His Polish client wants money — the interest 
 will be good and the Jew is bent on raising the loan by 
 hook or by crook before nightfall. This youth, with 
 his serge jacket and soft hat is an agitator, on his way 
 to a meeting at one of the factories. He has discarded 
 the halat and the peaked cap, but he talks Yiddish 
 fluently and is a good speaker. Now he is pondering 
 over what he shall say to the men. The girl who walks 
 by him is bent on the same errand. Two years ago 
 they were both working in a factory for a pittance. 
 
THE GHETTO 25 
 
 Now the " Party " pays them a fixed sum for propaganda 
 work. The girl is, if anything, a better orator than her 
 companion, but he has the pull with the pen, which he 
 wields in the Yiddish papers exposed for sale hard by. 
 Neither of them is twenty-one. Those two lads hanging 
 round the bread shop are out of work. They make 
 cigarettes when they can, but the trade is bad and their 
 factory closed for three days in the week. They talk to 
 each other at intervals, but most of their time passes in 
 spitting on the pavement. This man who comes out of 
 the shop leading a small child by the hand is a beggar. 
 His kind has increased during the last two years, but I 
 doubt if his plea is ever refused. The Jews do not let 
 their poor beg outside the ghetto ; they provide for 
 their needs within its bounds. That grey-bearded man 
 is a Jew of the old school. His race is dying out, for 
 his children have taken to politics and mix with the 
 world in a way which horrifies him. He has nothing in 
 common with new Jewry. He lives in the Talmudistic 
 atmosphere which still pervades certain parts of the 
 ghetto and reigns in many of the provincial settlements. 
 He has no work, that is to say he does not make boots 
 or clothes, mend fur, or roll cigarettes. He is poorer 
 than such men, his wife supports him by the proceeds 
 of a basket which holds cherries, apples or oranges 
 according to the season, and reposes with the remains 
 of the fruit, under the family bed at night. But even 
 to-day, when the Bund has swept away many traditions 
 and the Talmud is not held in such reverence as of yore, 
 
26 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 this learned Jew holds a high place in the ghetto. 
 Nobody hates the goya like he, and he would rather 
 suffer hunger than learn to speak Polish. He will 
 ponder for weeks over a passage in the Talmud or a 
 verse in the law, and sit poring over the scriptures long 
 after his family has gone to rest, till the dawn breaks 
 through the window. He knows and cares nothing for 
 the outer world. Even ghetto life does not interest 
 him. He lives with the law and the prophets. Moses 
 is more real to him than the city magistrates and King 
 Solomon than the Tsar to whom he owes allegiance. 
 His great grief is the fact that his eldest boy whom he 
 had destined for a "wise man" has joined the Social- 
 Sionists. But he has his moments of triumph. When 
 a Eabbi comes and consults him about some passage 
 which troubles him, and he answers, finger upon the 
 sentence in question, whilst the neighbours, attracted 
 by the distinguished visitor, listen open-mouthed or gasp 
 " ai-ivaj " (" oh my ! "), there is no prouder man in the 
 Russian Empire than this Jew, in his ragged lialat and 
 lice-infested cap. 
 
 Let us go into that cellar where six men and boys are 
 busy at a table on which leather is scattered. The room 
 is so full, what with the cobblers, the furniture, the 
 master's wife and the children, that we can scarcely 
 grope our way across it. Nobody takes any notice of 
 us but the master, who raises his head and asks us some- 
 thing in Yiddish. His looks are not friendly. No, he 
 cannot make you any boots — he's too busy. He answers 
 
THE GHETTO 27 
 
 in bad German, and, as if to explain the fact, he goes on 
 with his work. Feeling snubbed, you have scarcely time 
 to glance round the dirty room before leaving it. The 
 chief articles of furniture are the red feather beds. All 
 the men and the boys sit in their caps, as pious Jews 
 should, and the little children are taught to keep theirs 
 on. The wife, who is busy by the stove, makes some 
 remarks in Yiddish to her husband, and you feel that it 
 is directed against yourself. Several of the children 
 cough. Little wonder, cooped up in such air, without a 
 park or square to play in. Let us leave them. They 
 will work till late at night, when they stream into the 
 streets to breathe what little air there is. In summer 
 the thoroughfares of the ghetto are crowded from night- 
 fall till the early hours of the morning. One wonders the 
 people do not go to sleep after the long day's work until 
 one remembers the rooms, the beds, the vermin and the 
 crowds of children. But let us go to the market. Our 
 way lies through the same shabby streets, knocking 
 against the same people. Sometimes an incident 
 relieves the monotony of the scene, but it is not often. 
 A large empty cart driven by Jews passes us and pulls 
 up at the corner. Two soldiers, who have evidently 
 been having a lift, rise from its depths. Both of them 
 are drunk — one very much so. They want the Jews to 
 go in one direction, the Jews have business in another. 
 The more sober one tries to persuade his comrade to get 
 out, but the cart is comfortable and the comrade fails 
 to see the point — he is of the opinion that Jews were 
 
28 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 meant to take ordinary people where they want to go. 
 He lies down again. The Jews in front of the cart feel 
 uncomfortable and huddle up together. The more sober 
 soldier summons all his energy and tries to pull his 
 comrade out. The comrade objects, and is pulled by the 
 legs — until he reaches the edge of the cart, when he gets 
 a push which throws him under the horses. But the 
 providence which watches over his kind allows him to 
 be dragged out. The Jews look more frightened than 
 ever, for the soldier, feeling aggrieved, draws his sword. 
 But his comrade persuades him to put it back in its 
 sheath, which he does after describing circles in his 
 efforts to find it. No sooner is he clear of the cart than 
 the Jews, whipping up their horses, make off as hard as 
 they can, glad to get out of their dilemma so easily. 
 The soldiers lurch on until they meet an officer, when 
 they grow sober as if by magic, salute, and after he has 
 passed, roll into a cab. 
 
 The military are much in evidence in this part of the 
 town. Here a guard of four are taking a man and a 
 woman to the police station. A crowd of Jews follows 
 them. But they too disappear from view, and a few 
 minutes' walking brings us to the market. 
 
 The halls are crowded with the Jewish hawkers, who 
 sell everything, from meat for soup to vanilla for flavour- 
 ing the ices. Their cries rend the air as they walk up 
 and down between the booths, touting for customers 
 and calling upon the "pretty lady" and the " Diamond 
 lady" to buy. Indeed, in this babel it seems as if 
 
THE GHETTO 29 
 
 everything is to be had for the bargaining which is 
 carried on with Eastern zest and indulged in as a sport 
 in which both sides are prepared to give and take. To 
 the uneducated foreigner it is bedlam. All races are 
 here. There is the stolid Moscovite soldier with his 
 market basket and bicycle buying the dinner for his 
 master. There is the Circassian with his lissome figure 
 and silver hinjal. Here is the elegant Polish woman, who, 
 alarmed at the cook's bills, has come to see the prices for 
 herself and perhaps to drive a bargain over some lace or 
 ribbon for which she would pay three times as much in 
 the Polish shops. There is the practical Frenchwoman, 
 owner of some atelier, doing her own marketing, basket 
 on arm. There is the working man's wife, buying a 
 few cucumbers or a loaf of bread and looking wistfully 
 at dainties she cannot afford. There is the clilop ^ from 
 the country, dazed but economical, bargaining for a pair 
 of boots for himself or a gaudy kerchief for his baha.^ 
 There are the cooks, male and female, now exchanging 
 the gossip of the hour, now chaflSng a Jewish kupcova 
 about the quality of her asparagus or the price of her 
 strawberries. They are all here, Pole, Tartar, Moscovite, 
 Frank and Hebrew, all talking at once, haggling, 
 screaming, laughing and swearing. There is something 
 for everybody : — things that can be bought in every 
 European market and things which seem strange to 
 Western eyes. Wigs for the Jewish bride are piled on 
 one basket; veils for the Polish one hang hard by. 
 
 1 Peasant. ^ Old woman. 
 
30 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Clothes, fish, fruit and meat are all jumbled up together, 
 whilst above the noise is the Hebrew's jargon and the 
 smell of garlic and herring which his soul loves. Here 
 are gathered all the force and wonder of the ghetto, the 
 booths and stalls which feed the whole town and clothe 
 four-fifths of it. Here are the garments made in the 
 sweating shops and the produce of country farms, 
 brought hither by the Jew who dances attendance 
 upon the squire and runs his wife's errands. Here 
 are merchants who haggle among themselves in one 
 language and with their customers in another. Here 
 are the people who have another creed and another 
 hope, whom a thousand years have not changed nor 
 brought nearer to those they barter with, who hold the 
 trade of the country in the hollow of their hands, and 
 who mock by every word and act those who dream of 
 assimilating the Jewish masses. In the provincial 
 settlements their lives are somewhat difierent. 
 
 (2) THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 
 
 A short journey on the Vistula Railway takes the 
 traveller from Warsaw past the fortress of Novo Geor- 
 vievsk and to the station of Nasielsk. The town is 
 three versts away, and the road runs through an un- 
 interesting country, bare and ill-cultivated, with a few 
 pine- woods scattered here and there. The town stands 
 on a slight incline, only called a hill in this flat district, 
 and the church, a good specimen of what is called 
 
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 31 
 
 " Vistula Gothic," is visible from the railway. But one 
 wonders why it is there as soon as the town is reached, 
 for the population seems to be chiefly Jewish, as indeed 
 it is, for out of a total population of 5,486, 3,882 are 
 Hebrew. A synagogue adorns the Square which is 
 paved with cobbles, crowded with children, and sur- 
 rounded by wooden and plaster huts in various stages 
 of dilapidation. There are other towns in which the 
 Jewish element predominates to a still greater extent, 
 in which they form 80%, 85% and even 90% of the total 
 population ; but there, it is obliged to take to less con- 
 genial tasks, because it cannot live on the Polish element. 
 In Nasielsk the Jews are seen as they could be seen a 
 hundred years ago all over the country, before the rise 
 of industrial undertakings took the place of agriculture. 
 Nasielsk existed when William of Normandy conquered 
 England, and when the Zamek (castle) was there, the 
 Jews settled round it to buy and sell and make what 
 they could out of the Polish magnate, who owned the 
 town, the district and its inhabitants. To-day, there is 
 not a trace of the Zamek left, the stock of the magnate 
 has long since died out, but the descendants of the 
 Jews who first settled there have increased and multi- 
 plied, plying the same trades and observing the same 
 customs for ten centuries. They are to be seen at all 
 times and seasons, lounging at their doors, or leaning 
 out of their windows. On market days they repair to the 
 corner of the Square where the long, narrow peasant-carts 
 are drawn up. A few skinny horses, brought by their 
 
32 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 owners from the neighbouring villages, stand together 
 at one side. A few peasants and Jews discuss their 
 qualities to those who choose to listen. There is almost 
 as much noise here as in the Warsaw market, though 
 there are fewer people. There are no soldiers, well- 
 dressed women, or working men's wives ; even the 
 squireen, to be seen at all the bigger fairs, is conspicuous 
 by his absence. The elements are reduced to peasant 
 and Jew, and both buy or sell indiscriminately, although 
 the latter seems to have the monopoly of the stalls 
 containing boots and clothing. Here, the art of bargain- 
 ing is brought to perfection, and for him who under- 
 stands the language, there is plenty of amusement to 
 be derived from the conversations. The peasant has a 
 stolid way of repeating his opinion of the value of an 
 article with a frankness and a primitive choice of words 
 which is as startling as convincing. The Jew indulges 
 in the metaphors of the East, translated into a nasal 
 Polish which contrasts strangely with the other's pure, 
 Mazovian accent. 
 
 That Jew who is haggling with the peasant-woman 
 over a basket of butter wUl take it to Pultusk or War- 
 saw when he has concluded his bargain. She is asking 
 a fair price for it, but he hopes to get it for half a 
 farthing a pound cheaper, and if, by the end of the 
 afternoon, she gives in, he will regret all the way home 
 that he did not propose a whole farthing a pound less. 
 He and the wife of his bosom will discuss it together, 
 and probably she will reproach him for a noodle. So 
 
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 33 
 
 far, however, the peasant does not mean to give in ; she 
 has the butter of the whole village to sell, the other 
 women are harvesting on their own land, and she, too, 
 fears reproaches if she sells it too cheap. The Jew sees 
 this and walks away, to return to the attack later on, for 
 he knows he has no rivals to-day : the woman leaves her 
 basket in charge of her daughter and goes to the far end 
 of the market to hear the price of fowls. The stout Jew 
 in the velvet cap is a corn-factor, Perlmutter by name. 
 His business lies chiefly with the manors around, and he 
 has only strolled into the market to gather a fresh stock 
 of gossip from the Jews who have driven in from Pul- 
 tusk. Perlmutter is quite a personage in Nasielsk. He 
 has one or two houses, and sent his son to America to 
 escape military service. Mrs. Perlmutter, who is stand- 
 ing in a red wig on the step of the family mansion, a 
 brick, double-fronted cottage one storey high, will tell 
 you with tears in her eyes that her boy is a fine gentle- 
 man in America, " so fine that nobody would think he 
 is a Jew." The man in the very ragged lialat, who has 
 just puUed up his cart in front of Mrs. Perlmutter, is on 
 his way to the station with milk from a manor beyond 
 the town. He is a factor of the poorer sort and a money- 
 lender as well. He has espied a debtor among the group 
 of peasants by the inn, and hastens to see if he cannot 
 get some interest at least in kind. The debtor feels he 
 has given enough interest already, and their voices, as 
 they argue the question, add to the hubbub. So does 
 
34 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the diligence on its way to Pultusk, which the Hebrew 
 youth greets with shrieks of delight and a few choice 
 remarks to the driver, also a Jew, who set up a rival 
 diligence — much to the wrath of Nasielsk, which hires 
 out weird conveyances called hriczhas. Nobody is 
 busier than the Jewish szynkarz or pot-house keeper, 
 who lives almost at the end of the Square, His vodka 
 and sausages are in great request ; so is his money, 
 which he lends to his customers at real Hebrew interest. 
 Inside, the emigration agent is talking to the 
 peasants who are wanted for the harvests in Prussia. 
 He promises them a speedy fortune if they will go, and 
 many, tempted by the high wages, agree. They are 
 immediately set upon by one or two who were unfor- 
 tunate when they went last year, and all begin to 
 quarrel at once. The Jew, seeing his prospects of 
 commission vanish, gets most excited and begins to 
 dance in his anxiety lest the two dissenters should per- 
 suade their friends to stay at home. Another agent, of 
 the same race, is talking earnestly in Yiddish to a few 
 Jews at the further end of the cottage. He is hunting 
 for emigrants to America, can get them over the frontier 
 without a passport, and makes a good thing out of 
 it. He has a share in an office in Warsaw, and carries 
 on a big business. 
 
 Nasielsk is the commercial centre of the district. 
 Everything bought and sold there passes through the 
 hands of Jews. The richer ones live on the squires and 
 
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 35 
 
 the poorer on the peasants, who are rarely out of their 
 debt. The poorest inhabitant in the settlement manages 
 to make a living somehow or other, for if he have no 
 money of his own he can go to the lending club, which 
 is quite an institution in these settlements. The richer 
 Jews in the town or village subscribe to it, and though 
 often it does not contain more than a few roubles, it 
 keeps many a Jew from starvation, and sometimes sets 
 them on a commercial career. The treasurer is entrusted 
 with the money, and Jankel or Icek, when burning to 
 exploit a Polish village, and without the means of doing 
 so, goes to him. If his case is considered deserving, he 
 is given a rouble, or even less, to begin with, and told 
 to repay it within a week. Jankel, or Icek, now a capi- 
 talist, starts on foot, or begs a lift from a luckier Jew, 
 to the village he thinks will suit his purpose best. There, 
 he goes among the peasants, telling them gossip, looking 
 at their stock, and finding out which is most likely to 
 be his debtor. If he finds that nobody wUl borrow from 
 him, he will buy some butter or eggs and go elsewhere. 
 But the chances are that some peasant will be glad to 
 have the loan of the money for four or five days. The 
 interest is either deducted at once or taken out in kind, 
 that is, in butter, eggs, or some other trifle, which the 
 Jew will sell elsewhere. With the money gained by the 
 transaction, he buys more stock or puts it out on in- 
 terest. It is very possible that by the end of the week 
 he will be able to pay back what he took from the club, 
 
36 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and leave the original sum on renewed terms with the 
 peasant, an alternative he prefers, because his interest is 
 safe and his capital too. As soon as possible he will 
 scheme to get a broken-down horse, which would be 
 consigned to the knackers under any other government, 
 from one of the villages. This he wiU ride until he can 
 hire or bargain for a cart ; once in possession of this 
 stock in trade, he is a full-blown factor, with a career 
 before him. Sometimes, though, he is unfortunate or 
 stupid : he lets his small capital lie idle, or places it 
 badly. The week ends and he cannot repay his loan. 
 He is jeered at by his brethren as a fool, and has for- 
 feited the right to draw any more roubles. He goes 
 about with a long face, as befits a man who has 
 fallen in the estimation of his kind, and racks his brains 
 for some new scheme which will re-establish his reputa- 
 tion. He generally manages to succeed, for the Polish 
 peasant is easy prey. Having very little ready money, 
 though he is rarely in want, he hates to part with cash, 
 and readily pays interest in kind without reflecting how 
 much dearer it really costs him. And borrow he must 
 from time to time, for he has taxes to pay, boots to buy, 
 or other expenses, before the sale of the pig has brought 
 him in sufficient money. When a misfortune comes, 
 and the cow dies or falls sick, the Jew is at hand, and so 
 it goes on till the peasant is perpetually in his debt and 
 power. 
 
 He and his wife have no idea of the market value of 
 
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 37 
 
 their dairy and farm produce, for the Jews rule the 
 market and keep their secrets to themselves. In this 
 way the inhabitants of Nasielsk and settlements like 
 them manage to live. They produce nothing, and, so 
 long as they can keep body and soul together by 
 making small sums among the peasantry, will not touch 
 manual labour, which they detest. They are perfectly 
 happy going from village to village and driving small 
 bargains there, and only take to work of another kind 
 as a last resource. 
 
 On the whole, they are infinitely better ofi" than their 
 brethren in the large towns, that is, than the proletariat. 
 First, they have congenial employment. Physically, 
 they are stronger, for though their homes are as 
 unsavoury as those of the ghettoes, they spend a large 
 part of the day in the open air. Milk is cheap, and 
 they can live better. Cases of consumption and of 
 nervous diseases are not met with so frequently as in 
 the towns. Their wives and children look almost as 
 healthy as the peasants. Of course, when the rural 
 population fails to support them, and they take to 
 sweating, they are very sickly, but in settlements like 
 Nasielsk the peasants are the sponges from which a 
 living can be squeezed. The two elements live in peace, 
 and when quarrelling takes place, it is generally among 
 the Jews themselves, and in consequence of professional 
 rivalry. The hostility of the larger towns is lacking in 
 the agricultural centres, especially where the Socialist 
 
38 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 agitator has not yet penetrated. The Jews bow low to 
 the parish priests, tell them the news, buy or sell their 
 cows, and lend them money. 
 
 In these districts the Jew is reputed honest, and a 
 man of his word. His high interest surprises nobody 
 — for is he not a born usurer ? The convenience of 
 having him shuts his debtors' eyes to his real cost ; 
 he robs with discrimination, and if a peasant is the 
 victim of some daring imposture, the chances are ten 
 to one that he has fallen a prey to a non-Jewish 
 swindler. 
 
 Quite lately, Nasielsk itself was the scene of a trick, 
 in which the priest was the victim, and an Armenian 
 the impostor. The priest was noted for his bargaining 
 propensities amongst the Jews for miles around, and an 
 Armenian who happened to be passing through the 
 town had heard of them too, and determined to make 
 something out of the knowledge. He went to the 
 priest, and, showing him a ducat, said he had a thousand 
 like it which he had found in the Caucasus, and was 
 wUling to sell at a fair price. On being asked the 
 price, he replied that the Jews in Nasielsk had offered a 
 rouble apiece for them, but he was sure they were worth 
 much more. The priest, seeing that the ducat was 
 gold, promised to send it to Warsaw to be valued, and 
 told the Armenian to call again in a week's time, and 
 bring the rest of the ducats with him. The Armenian 
 bowed, retired, and spent the interval in conversation 
 
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT 39 
 
 with the Jews of the neighbourhood. At the end of 
 the week he presented himself to the priest, carrying a 
 heavy pot, which he said was full of ducats. Meanwhile 
 the priest had been to Warsaw with the ducat and 
 found out that it was worth three roubles ; but, think- 
 ing that an Armenian, fresh from the wilds of the 
 Causasus, would not know as much as the Jews about 
 the value of his treasure, told him it had been valued 
 at two roubles, and that he — the priest — was willing to 
 pay two thousand roubles for the whole lot. 
 
 The Armenian agreed, but politely hinted that he 
 would like to be sure that the money was forthcoming 
 before parting with his ducats. 
 
 "Of course I've got the money," the priest said 
 indignantly, omitting to add that most of it had been 
 given in his charge by confiding parishioners who were 
 afraid of brigands and had full confidence in him. And 
 in order to convince his visitor that he spoke the truth, 
 he opened the desk where it was lying. It was at this 
 moment that the Armenian, producing a revolver, told 
 the purchaser to part with his money or his life, and 
 swear he would not give the alarm within twenty-four 
 hours. The frightened priest, feeling the cold metal of 
 the revolver on his forehead, did as he was told. A few 
 minutes later he was the poorer by four thousand roubles 
 of other people's money, and the richer by one gold 
 ducat, worth three roubles, and a pot full of stones from 
 the Nasielsk market-place. He was too ashamed of the 
 
40 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 whole thing to tell anybody about the mishap for a few 
 days, when the wily Armenian had disappeared — 
 perhaps to play the same trick upon another priest who 
 loved a bargain. 
 
 As to the Jews, they enjoyed it better than anybody. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ECONOMICAL POSITION — RELATIONS WITH THE POLISH 
 
 COMMUNITY 
 
 General Remarks. — As the members of the Intelli- 
 gentia do not merit our special consideration because 
 they do not emigrate ; so the Jewish shopkeepers, a large 
 and generally prosperous class, who can make a good 
 living in Poland, need not detain us. Such people do 
 not go to England and America, unless they are in 
 political trouble. The skilled Jewish workman can also 
 earn better wages in normal times ; but at present the 
 times are not normal, and the artisan of varying capacity, 
 the member of the land-settlement, the factor, the 
 sweater, the mill-hand, all find it necessary to emigrate 
 nowadays, though the rank and file of those who do so 
 are of the poorest class, incapable of attaining to the low 
 standard which prevails in the industrial world in 
 Poland. The condition of these men when at home 
 will be found in this chapter. 
 
 Jewish Land Settlements have existed in Poland for 
 many years. The constitution of 1779 accorded the 
 Jews permission to settle on all crown lands in the 
 
 41 
 
42 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. In the year 1823 
 the Viceroy of Poland published an order to the effect 
 that they might rent land for life. Several rich Jews 
 took advantage of this concession to rent large farms and 
 settle Jewish families upon them. By an Ukaze published 
 in 1843 Jews were permitted to settle upon all lands 
 belonging to the government. Those engaged in 
 agricultural pursuits were exempted from military service 
 for a certain term of years, according to the number of 
 souls in the settlement ; but no family was allowed to 
 own more land than its members could cultivate by 
 themselves, and the employment of hired labour, Jewish 
 or non-Je'wash, was forbidden. Between the years 1844 
 and 1861, 1,345 Jewish families, consisting of 8,927 
 souls, were engaged in land cultivation in the Kingdom 
 of Poland. 
 
 According to the latest statistics, 2,809 Jewish families 
 are now engaged in cultivating a total of 36,000 acres. 
 The registered number of Jews following special agri- 
 cultural pursuits, such as market-gardening, cow-keeping, 
 etc., is only 4,198, or 30*2 per thousand of the total 
 Jewish population. But, as a good deal of land is rented 
 to them in defiance of the law, it is safe to assume that 
 at least three times that number is so engaged. For the 
 same reason the total amount of land in Jewish hands is 
 about 40,500 acres. The position of the average 
 Jewish agriculturist is not high. Many of them have 
 little or no live stock, and the little they possess 
 is poor in quahty. As mere cultivators they are 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 43 
 
 not successful ; it is only when they bring their 
 produce into the market that they outstrip their Polish 
 rivals. 
 
 Jeivish Labour in the Siveating Shops, etc. — 
 More than 10% of the Jewish population in Poland is 
 engaged in tailoring, boot-making, stocking-knitting, and 
 in the manufacture of toys, buttons, studs and artificial 
 flowers. Nearly one half (4 8 "5%) of this number is 
 engaged in making shoddy boots, shoes and clothing, 
 which not only find a market at local fairs, but are 
 exported to the interior of Eussia. Sometimes the 
 tailors and tailoresses work in shops under a master, but 
 as the master himself can seldom afford more than one 
 room for the accommodation of his family, most of the 
 work is taken home. They are badly paid, and by dint 
 of working for sixteen hours per day, can rarely earn 
 more than £25 a year. A master makes from X25-£30 
 yearly; in many districts as little as £15 or even less. 
 For instance, 33% earn less than £25, 47% from £25- 
 £30, and 20% over £30 per annum. 
 
 After the tailors, the boot-makers are the most 
 numerous. As many as 18,731 Jews are engaged in this 
 industry. This number includes 8,215 masters, 4,314 
 journeymen, and 4,639 apprentices. The town of 
 Eadom produces cheap ready-made boots to the annual 
 value of £100,000. The goods are sent to all parts of the 
 Eussian Empire. A clever master boot-maker in Eadom 
 is able to earn as much as £50 a year. But taking 
 the total number of masters in the trade, 52% earn 
 
44 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 less than £25, 33% up to £30, and only 15% over that 
 amount. 
 
 According to the report of the Jewish Colonisation 
 Society, when Jewish tailors and boot-makers are 
 employed in the larger shops they have the reputation for 
 being bad workmen, and are engaged as assistants to the 
 Polish hands, only executing that part of the work which 
 requires a minimum of care and technical knowledge. 
 The guardians of the Society for supplying the Poor with 
 Work in Warsaw strongly endorses this opinion. 
 
 The manufacture of shoddy underclothing employs 
 5,256 Jewish hands, only 572 of whom are men. The 
 chief centres of this industry are in the governments of 
 Radom and Lublin. A mistress seamstress has as many 
 as four workers under her, whereas a master tailor rarely 
 gives employment to more than three men. 
 
 Machine-made embroidery gives employment to a 
 large number of Jewesses in the town of Radom. A 
 mistress earns from 16s. to 24s. weekly, an assistant 
 from 4s. to 6s. No men are employed. Jews are chiefly 
 engaged in the stocking industry. A good master some- 
 times earns as much as £75 a year. The government 
 of Warsaw annually supplies £8,000 worth of stockings 
 to the capital. 
 
 The manufacture of other articles of clothing gives 
 employment to very few Jews, but the bristle industry is 
 entirely in their hands. The work is badly paid, and 
 those engaged in it live in the most abject poverty. A 
 Jew can earn as much as £20 per year. 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 45 
 
 In Eussia, where Christian competition is not so keen 
 and there are fewer metal factories, many Jewish black- 
 smiths are to be found ; but this is not the case in 
 Poland. Generally speaking, the highest percentage of 
 Jews engaged in metal industries is to be found among 
 the copper workers, who form 2*5% of the Jewish artisan 
 population. Locksmiths only form 0"9%. 
 
 Chemical workers, soap-boilers, engravers and photo- 
 graphers form less than one per cent, of the Jewish 
 artisan population. House-painters, glaziers and book- 
 binders amount to a little more than 1^. Only 580 
 Jews are employed in the glove trade. 
 
 With the exception of the bristle-makers, the people 
 mentioned above work for fairs and bespoken orders. 
 All their chances of gain are therefore in the proximity 
 of the market-towns. When Jewish settlements are 
 within easy reach of several, the inhabitants are in a 
 flourishing condition ; when they are at a long distance 
 from them, the inhabitants earn the best living they can 
 by running errands for the neighbouring dvori (manor 
 houses) and lending money to the peasants. The pro- 
 fessional knowledge of these artisans is very small : their 
 work is of the poorest quality, unable to compete in any 
 other markets than those of Eussia and Poland. The 
 Jewish Colonisation Society has done much good in 
 bringing this fact before the eyes of the better-to-do 
 Jews, and forcing them to realise the urgent need of 
 establishing industrial schools if the Jewish artisan is to 
 hold his own; this commission affirms that, with the 
 
46 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 increase of machine-made boots, etc., the demand for 
 Jewish labour has diminished. 
 
 Many Jews engaged in tailoring are hampered because 
 they cannot get credit when buying their materials, and 
 often a settlement is obliged to refuse orders from some 
 Eussian agent because their workers have not the where- 
 withal to buy stuff, and the mills will not trust them 
 sufficiently to give them it except in return for cash. 
 
 As a rule these men and women, like their brethren in 
 north-western Russia, seize the first opportunity of giving 
 up crafts to engage in commerce or money-lending. 
 Others, as we shall see, rent the gardens of the smaller 
 landed proprietors, sell the produce in the nearest towns, 
 and live through the winter on the profits of the trans- 
 action. 
 
 In the government of Lublin, where towns are far 
 apart and the railway has not yet penetrated in many 
 districts, the lot of the Jewish artisans is harder than 
 elsewhere. There is little demand for their wares, as the 
 peasants of that government weave and make their own 
 clothing, disdaining to exchange their national and 
 picturesque dress for shoddy clothes made after German 
 patterns. They make everything for themselves but 
 their boots, and the Jewish boot-maker of Lublin, by 
 working sixteen hours a day and sending his wife to the 
 fairs to dispose of his goods, can only manage to make 
 both ends meet in the winter. In the summer he turns 
 gardener or cow-keeper. Even money-lending is less 
 profitable in this government than anywhere else. The 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 47 
 
 peasantry are prosperous and independent. They have 
 not been demoralised, like those in the frontier districts, 
 by European luxuries, and are therefore satisfied to live 
 on the soil, which is of excellent quality, and to cling to 
 the primitive customs of their ancestors. In the winter 
 the men and women weave, spin and embroider, selling 
 the flax and wool they do not want to the Jewish 
 factors. 
 
 Toys for the Polish and Russian markets are made by 
 the Jews in the historical city of Czenstochova, The 
 trade brings this town alone as much as £10,000 
 annually. The industry was founded by a local Jew, 
 who now sends his wares all over the Eussian Empire. 
 Most of them are made in tumble-down shops and hovels 
 under the most primitive conditions. Both girls and 
 men are employed, the girls earning from Is. 7d. to 3s., 
 and the men from 8s. to 10s. weekly. 
 
 These toys, which include children's musical instru- 
 ments, are copies of cheap German articles. Great soli- 
 darity exists among the different toy-makers. None of 
 them will put a new pattern into the market until their 
 colleagues have had an opportunity of copying it. The 
 low price of their goods ensures them a ready sale, 
 though, like all work produced by the Polish Jew, they 
 are unable to compete with those of foreign manufacture. 
 Formerly, the Jews of Czenstochova made the medallion- 
 copies of the famous picture of the Virgin Mary — known 
 as the Virgin Mother of Czenstochova, which hangs in 
 the cathedral and is visited yearly by hundreds of 
 
48 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 thousands of pilgrims from all parts of Poland as well as 
 from Galicia ; but they have now been forbidden to en- 
 gage in this industry. The Jews of Czenstochova are 
 also employed in making fancy buttons, studs, hat-pins, 
 etc., which are sold throughout the Empire as " Nou- 
 veautes de Paris." This work is fairly well paid. 
 
 Jewish Labour in Factories and Mills: General 
 RemarJcs. — The non- Jewish factories and mills in the 
 Kingdom of Poland are, with few exceptions, larger 
 than those financed by Jewish capital. There are no 
 reliable statistics available for the whole of Poland, but 
 those for the government of Warsaw show an average 
 annual turnover of 8,213 roubles for 113 Jewish factories, 
 and 115,987 roubles for 256 non-Jewish factories. 
 
 Jews are not employed in chemical works except as 
 packers and sweepers. Their ignorance of the process of 
 varnishing seems to exclude them even from those furni- 
 ture factories which are in Jewish hands, and which turn 
 out an enormous quantity of old furniture sold by Jewish 
 dealers at high prices to uninitiated amateurs. They are 
 also often excluded from the bronze and lamp factories 
 because they do not know how to draw and are too weak 
 for the heavy part of the work. They are employed in 
 metallurgical works in such branches as do not require 
 any special knowledge. 
 
 According to the evidences of the Jewish Colonisation 
 Society, in factories and mills owned by Jews, when the 
 installation of up-to-date machinery demands care and a 
 certain amount of technical knowledge, Jews are not em- 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 
 
 49 
 
 ployed as engineers or machinists. In mills and factories 
 where motors have not been installed and manual labour 
 is still in demand, they are employed in large numbers 
 both in the Jewish and non-Jewish establishments. 
 Fewer Jewish factories are worked with motors than 
 without. The average number of workmen employed in 
 Jewish factories with motors is 71 '5, and in non- Jewish 
 factories 13'5. 
 
 The percentage of Jewish hands employed in Jewish 
 factories with motors is 18 "9, and in factories without 
 motors 4 3 '7. The number of Jewish hands employed 
 in non- Jewish works is very small. In 311 non- Jewish 
 factories and shops furnished with motors we find only 
 352 Jewish hands employed, and in 140 non- Jewish 
 factories without motors there are 74 Jewish hands 
 registered — that is, less than one Jewish workman per 
 non-Jewish factory. 
 
 The following tables will illustrate these facts : — 
 
 Non-Jewish Factomes and Shofs 
 WITHOUT Motors 
 
 Jewi.sh Factories and Shops 
 WITHOUT Motors 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 OF 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 FACTOEIES 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 NOMBEK 
 
 OP HANDS 
 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 OF THESE 
 
 THERE ARE 
 
 JEWS 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 FACTORIES 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF HANDS 
 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 OF THESE 
 
 THERE ARE 
 
 JEWS 
 
 Warsaw 
 
 Kalisz 
 
 Kielce 
 
 Lomza 
 
 Lublin 
 
 Piotrkoff 
 
 Plook. 
 
 Eadom 
 
 Suwalki 
 
 Siedleo 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 5 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 32 
 4 
 
 13 
 7 
 5 
 
 605 
 181 
 
 74 
 
 9 
 
 410 
 
 944 
 
 9 
 
 1,647 
 
 47 
 
 28 
 
 34 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 122 
 
 154 
 
 61 
 
 39 
 
 158 
 
 121 
 
 114 
 
 116 
 
 90 
 
 55 
 
 3,035 
 1,118 
 1,025 
 
 276 
 1,760 
 3,861 
 
 600 
 1,429 
 1,673 
 
 662 
 
 1,5S0 
 
 268 
 
 101 
 
 239 
 
 1,122 
 
 1,394 
 
 245 
 
 280 
 
 1,072 
 
 417 
 
 Total . 
 
 140 
 
 3,954 
 
 74 
 
 1,030 
 
 15,429 
 
 6,718 
 
so 
 
 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Non-Jewish Factories and Shops 
 with motoes 
 
 Jewish Faotokies and SHors 
 WITH Motors 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 or 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 FACTORIES 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF HANDS 
 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 OF THESE 
 
 THERE ARE 
 
 JEWS 
 
 NUMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 FACTORIES 
 
 TOTAL 
 NUMBER 
 OF HANDS 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 OF THESE 
 
 THERE ARB 
 
 JEWS 
 
 Warsaw 
 
 Kalisz 
 
 Kielce 
 
 Lomza 
 
 Lublin 
 
 Piotrkoft 
 
 Plock . 
 
 Eadom 
 
 Suwalki 
 
 Siedlec 
 
 
 
 45 
 20 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 36 
 
 151 
 
 8 
 16 
 
 5 
 14 
 
 9,874 
 1,561 
 
 24 
 
 46 
 
 874 
 
 27,955 
 
 102 
 
 1,088 
 
 35 
 
 412 
 
 100 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 37 
 
 153 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 29 
 
 72 
 
 25 
 17 
 22 
 21 
 166 
 7 
 20 
 19 
 17 
 
 7,026 
 
 1,282 
 
 683 
 
 469 
 
 245 
 
 16,147 
 
 81 
 
 778 
 
 266 
 
 605 
 
 2,467 
 
 394 
 
 62 
 
 189 
 
 207 
 
 1,570 
 
 1 
 
 107 
 
 119 
 
 120 
 
 Total . 
 
 311 
 
 41,971 
 
 352 
 
 386 
 
 27,582 
 
 5,236 
 
 The reason given by the Jewish Colonisation Society 
 for the fact that Jews are not so frequently employed in 
 mills with motors as in those without, is that they are 
 too ignorant of the technical part of the work. But 
 many employers of labour in the large mills and factories 
 speak most highly of the Jewish workmen and work- 
 women, and say that it is only their socialistic tendencies 
 which prevent their being employed in large numbers, 
 and that the only complaint they have to make is that 
 they introduce a revolutionary element into the mills. 
 The following notes will enable the reader to draw his 
 own conclusions. 
 
 Cotton-sinmmig. — Chiefly carried on in Lodz, which 
 is called the "Manchester of Poland," has hitherto 
 enabled that country to rule the market in Eussia and 
 the Far East. The strikes, which have been continual 
 since the beginning of the year 1905, have caused much 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 51 
 
 of the trade to go to Moscow and other Russian centres, 
 which used to be unable to compete with it. 
 
 According to the latest statistics, Jewish capital is 
 represented in 40% of the cotton mills in Poland. One 
 of, if not the largest establishment of the kind, is the 
 property of a Jewish family (Messrs. Poznanski and 
 Son). Their mills are said to produce goods to the 
 annual value of 12 millions of roubles, and give employ- 
 ment to over 6,000 hands. Few Jews are employed, 
 and the reason given by one of the firm when asked why 
 he did not patronise his co-religionists was that he did 
 not want to have 6,000 partners. 
 
 The woollen industry is almost entirely financed by 
 Jewish capital, though Jews are chiefly" employed as 
 weavers. There are 1,625 Jewish weaver shops in the 
 district of Pabianice (near Lodz) alone. Many so-called 
 manufacturers have no mills of their own, but give work 
 to these weavers, who execute it at home, earning from 
 125. to 14s. per week. All the small towns and Jewish 
 settlements in the neighbourhood of Lodz are inhabited 
 by Jewish weavers, who work at home — generally with- 
 out employing assistants. In general, the Jews prefer 
 home work. This is because they dislike factory 
 discipline and prefer to work under much harder con- 
 ditions at home rather than submit to it. 
 
 In the town of Zdunska Vola, not far from Lodz, 
 there are 80 hand-weavers, of whom 64 are Jews, 
 who earn a living by doing work for the "Distribution 
 Offices." The head of such an ofiice, who is paid accord- 
 
52 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 ing to the amount of stuff he can procure, gives out 
 yarn to the weavers, together with patterns. Sometimes 
 one of these offices will give employment to a hundred, 
 a hundred and fifty, and even two hundred and fifty 
 hand looms at a time. The observance of the Jewish 
 Sabbath also deters capitalists from employing the Jews 
 in the factories. The Colonisation Society, which makes 
 a point of sending delegates to the factories and mills 
 either financed or worked by Jews, takes a very gloomy 
 view of the Jewish workman, and complains that whereas 
 the Polish workman has made much progress under 
 the guidance of foreign masters, the Jew remains in the 
 same place as he was five and twenty years ago. Many 
 Jews complain that German and Polish masters will not 
 employ them because of Anti-Semitism, even when they 
 are better than their Polish rivals. 
 
 One large mill, in which light woollen goods are made, 
 and which is owned by a Jew, only employs Jews and 
 is closed on Saturdays. Other Jewish and German 
 owners say that the Jewish workman is so much more 
 intelligent and learns so much better than the Pole, that 
 they will employ him in spite of the Sabbath observance 
 obstacle. On the other hand, there is one large mill in 
 Poland, financed by Jews, where their co-religionists 
 are only employed for manual labour, although the 
 masters and foremen are Jews. 
 
 Many Jewish manufacturers who use hand-looms 
 refuse to employ Jewish labour for economical reasons. 
 The Polish workman takes lower wages, he does not 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 53 
 
 demand pay for his children's education, as they receive 
 it free of cost, his wife adds to the family income, and 
 both of them work on Saturday. The Jewish hand 
 needs money for the cheder (elementary school), his 
 wife does not work, and he himself only goes to the mill 
 five times a week, for it is shut on Sundays and he 
 observes the Sabbath. A Polish hand can therefore 
 manage to support himself and family upon 8s. per 
 week, whilst the Jew needs from 12s. to 14s., and 
 supplements his wages by selling fruit in the streets 
 after working hours, keeping a little unsavoury shop 
 in his room, and lending money to his Polish comrades. 
 Metallurgical works, which come after the textiles in 
 importance, employ few Jews. Messrs. S. and K., metal 
 workers in Warsaw, are Jews. They employ 135 hands, 
 of which 110 are Jews (95 men and 15 women.) The 
 machinists are Poles with one exception. The Jews 
 work as journeymen ; neither the specialists nor masters 
 are Jews. The owners of the works say that their 
 Jewish hands have no technical knowledge of their work 
 because the large establishments owned by Christians, 
 the only places where they could learn the trade, refuse 
 to employ Jewish labour. The works are open on 
 Saturdays and Sundays. A few years ago Jewish 
 masters were employed, but Messrs. S. and K. replaced 
 them by Poles, because the Jews worked only four and 
 a haJf days weekly, and demanded pay for the whole 
 week. They naturally did not work on Saturdays ; on 
 Sundays it is the time-honoured custom of the masters 
 
54 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 to take a holiday, and they left much sooner than the 
 other employes on Fridays. 
 
 At another Jewish works, where the manufacture of 
 boilers for sugar refineries is a speciality, 325 men are 
 employed, 125 of whom are Jews. The master, a Jew, 
 says that his co-religionists are clever copper workers, 
 and as such often find employment in non-Jewish 
 factories. When questioned about the Jewish men 
 under him, he said that they had three grave faults — 
 they shirked their work, interfered with things which 
 did not concern them, and were too indifi"erent or 
 conceited to compete with better workmen. 
 
 Hie metal-plate tvorks employ Jews for manual 
 labour only ; they are excluded from all work in 
 connection with the machinery. Mr. E., lamp manu- 
 facturer at Warsaw, a Jew, employs 200 men, of whom 
 100 are Jews. This gentleman said he was not satisfied 
 with his Jewish hands, who were too ignorant to varnish 
 and physically unfit for the heavier work. He affirms 
 that the Jews not only know nothing about this industry, 
 but are too self-satisfied to learn. For this reason they 
 earn much lower wages than the Polish hands. The 
 Jews employed by him are nearly all unable to read or 
 write Polish, or to draw — a defect in their education 
 which places them at a great disadvantage. The Polish 
 workmen earn from 32s. to 50s. weekly, the Jewish from 
 20s, to 22s. No Jews are employed in the cast-iron 
 section of the works. 
 
 Messrs. F. and M. (Jews) own a metal works at Warsaw 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 55 
 
 which gives employment to 110 hands, of whom 70 are 
 Jews. The verdict given by the owners is that the 
 Jews are less accurate than the Poles, and work better 
 when paid by the piece. Here they work in their caps, 
 and pray at intervals during the day. The varnishers 
 in these works are all Jews, and very poorly paid. 
 
 One Jewish furniture manufacturer said he did not 
 employ his co-religionists for varnishing and polishing 
 because they do not know their work sufficiently well. 
 They are employed in other parts of the factory. 
 
 In the cigarette and cardboard-box trade we find a 
 demand for Jewish labour. The cardboard-box makers 
 in Warsaw are all Jews. They have organised a kind of 
 guild with which a savings bank is connected. Lectures 
 are delivered in Yiddish two or three times a week. A 
 Jewish cigarette-maker works much quicker than a Pole, 
 turning out 2,000 pieces to the others' 1,500. The Jews 
 generally work at separate tables but in the same room. 
 They are paid from 8^d. to Is. per 1,000. The paper 
 sheaths are made by the women and children and filled 
 by the men. Sheath-makers are paid about Is. to 
 Is. 3d. per 1000, earning from 2s. 6c?. to 10s. weekly. 
 Many of these factories, though owned by Poles, are 
 closed on Saturdays as well as Sundays. 
 
 The tobacco factories employ Jews almost exclusively. 
 One of the largest firms of the kind. The Brothers Pola- 
 kievitch, employs 650 Jewish hands, including 358 
 women. The cigar factories only employ Jews to make 
 the cheaper sorts of cigars. The reason given- is that 
 
56 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the Jewish workmen are slipshod, and often spoil the 
 goods. The good Jewish workmen leave Poland to go 
 abroad, where they can earn higher wages. 
 
 The manufacturers of cheap neckties almost entirely 
 engage Jewish labour. Girls and women take the work 
 home. The forewomen who distribute the work earn 
 about 16s. a week ; the others considerably less. They 
 are paid by the dozen. 
 
 The straw-hat industry is almost entirely in Jewish 
 hands. The work is precarious and badly paid, the 
 season short. The Jews employed in the summer do 
 not make the winter hats, as they are not sufficiently 
 strong to press the felt and beaver shapes. 
 
 This industry, owing to the strikes and foreign 
 competition, has greatly declined during the past two 
 years. The hands are paid by the meter of straw. 
 Thirty meters brings a girl in from l^d. to Is. 8d. 
 
 The manufacture of artificial flowers, which has 
 developed by leaps and bounds at Warsaw of late years, 
 gives employment to Jews and Poles, the Poles execut- 
 ing the more delicate part of the work, and the Jews 
 making the foliage. Women can earn about Is. a day, 
 and men from 6s. to 20s. weekly, but the season is short 
 and the trade precarious, especially since the strikes 
 and disturbances have driven many good customers 
 elsewhere. 
 
 In the ready-made underlinen factories at Warsaw 
 256 men are employed, of which number 193 are Jews. 
 Poles are engaged to attend to the steam-motors, as 
 
ECONOMICAL POSITION 57 
 
 the Jews, by reason of their lack of sufficient physical 
 strength and technical knowledge, cannot be entrusted 
 with the work. 
 
 In all the factories and shops investigated — with one 
 trivial exception — the Jews and Poles work side by side 
 in perfect amity. The exception was due rather to 
 political than racial reasons, as there were no Socialists 
 amongst the Polish hands. In fact, politics, whereas 
 they bring the representatives of rival parties to 
 blows in many of the mills and shops, have served to 
 bind the Jewish and Polish workmen closer together. 
 One common cause has bound them, and that is Social- 
 ism. When a party of National Democrats springs up 
 in a factory they have to confront not only the Jewish 
 Bundists, but the Polish Socialists as well ; and the 
 adherents of the Bund, the Polish Socialists and the 
 Social Democrats will join forces against the common 
 enemy, no matter how lustily they fight over their own 
 shades of political opinion at meetings. 
 
 Between these factory hands and the inevitable 
 Jewish factor there are huge numbers of Jews in Poland 
 who produce nothing, because they lack even the most 
 primitive forms of technical knowledge, which condemns 
 them to perform the heaviest tasks for the lowest 
 possible wages. Such men become the hewers of wood 
 and bearers of water, the porters, carters, raftsmen, hop- 
 gatherers, and rag-sorters of the community. They form 
 nearly twenty per cent (19'6) of the Jewish population, 
 and as their lives are very miserable make good revolu- 
 
58 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 tionary material. The advent of the long winter 
 generally puts an end to their labours and to all means 
 of earning the scanty fare which keeps their bodies 
 and souls together. Jewish benevolence does what it 
 can for them, but these poor wretches, whom a 
 very average elementary education would place beyond 
 fear of starvation, are a terrible weight upon their 
 co-religionists. 
 
 This portion of the Jewish proletariat is in a far worse 
 position than the class with which we must now deal, 
 the class of middlemen and factors who live upon the 
 Polish population, and, by reason of the Polish character, 
 have become a regular institution not only in the towns 
 but in every village and hamlet throughout the country. 
 Sometimes they are wealthy, and dream of a brilliant 
 career for their sons ; sometimes they have no more 
 capital than their mother-wit, which enables them to 
 create a commercial monopoly in the villages they have 
 chosen for their labours. Sometimes they only lend 
 money to the peasants, sometimes their capital will 
 allow them to supply the squires with it. But what- 
 ever class of the Polish community they may be useful 
 to, they are always there, an inevitable feature of the 
 Polish landscape, subservient, guttural, gesticulating, 
 and useful. 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 59 
 
 The Polish Community and the Jews' Relations 
 
 WITH it 
 
 Nine millions of the Polish population belong to the 
 working classes, two millions being employed in factories 
 and works, and seven millions on field labour. Of the 
 last, three millions are entirely without land, and the 
 majority of those peasants who have small holdings 
 cannot support their families thereby. These holdings 
 vary in size from a little over three to thirty acres. The 
 well-to-do peasants possess as much as fifteen and even 
 twenty acres, but the average amount is three, which 
 with the cottage and live stock is worth about one 
 thousand roubles. 
 
 Owing to heavy taxation and his inferior husbandry, 
 it is as much as a peasant can do to support himself 
 and family upon fifteen acres. Very many of them 
 have therefore to send their children to work on the 
 neighbouring manor. Failing such employment they 
 temporarily emigrate to Germany and even to America, 
 whence their savings are sent home, and are, if times are 
 good, the means of augmenting the family acres. Very 
 often the wife is left to till the land with the aid of a 
 younger daughter whilst the men-folk emigrate for a few 
 years. 
 
 Many of those who possess no holdings find employ- 
 ment on the manor lands, earning from 30 to 40 
 roubles annually in money. In kind they receive 35|- 
 bushels of corn, 71 bushels of potatoes, the use of 110 
 
6o THE POLISH JEW 
 
 square yards of land for growing potatoes, the same 
 amount for the cultivation of flax, which the women 
 spin into coarse linen for shirts ; 20 feet of wood or its 
 equivalent in peat, and the right to keep one cow on the 
 manor pasture. 
 
 If the parobek, as this farm labourer is called, has a 
 son or daughter old enough to go to work, the earnings 
 in money and kind are augmented to the value of 100 
 roubles yearly. Since the agrarian disorders, when 
 strikes took place in many districts, some of the 
 peasants have obtained better terms from the land- 
 owners, including 40 roubles in money, an increased 
 allowance of corn and potatoes, and the right to pasture 
 two cows on the manor. But such conditions are 
 exceptional, and the parobek rarely earns more than 
 35 roubles a year. 
 
 As it is impossible for all the peasant proletariat to 
 find employment in the country, migration to the towns 
 is constantly increasing. This did not matter so much 
 when trade with the Far East, Poland's largest market, 
 was in a flourishing condition, and good harvests kept 
 the prices of food low ; but this trade was paralysed as 
 soon as the Eusso-Japanese war broke out, and manu- 
 facturers were obliged to discharge many of their hands. 
 The condition of the working classes was rendered still 
 more deplorable in 1904 by the bad potato crop and an 
 epidemic amongst pigs, which not only brought the 
 rural population to the verge of starvation, but in- 
 creased the cost of living for the urban proletariat, 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 6i 
 
 whereas wages remained the same or were altogether 
 lost in consequence of the industrial crisis. 
 
 These causes all tended to swell the ranks of the 
 indigent and increase the influence of Socialism, a fact 
 which did much to develop the activity of the Bund, 
 as the reader will see later on. 
 
 The remainder of the Polish population consists of a 
 small aristocracy, a large nobility and a rapidly in- 
 creasing Intelligentia. 
 
 The aristocratical class is unpopular with the nobility 
 and Intelligentia alike. This is partly owing to the 
 r61e it played in the partition of Poland, and partly to 
 its general cosmopolitanism. With the exception of 
 the late Marquees Wielopolski, few members of the 
 Polish aristocracy take any real interest in politics ; but 
 since the present political revival, which swept over the 
 Eussian Empire at the opening of the Russo-Japanese 
 war, and afi'ected Poland more than any other portion 
 of it, most of them have joined the National Democrats, 
 in order, their enemies affirm, to regain their long-lost 
 popularity. 
 
 Practically every Pole who is not a peasant is a 
 szlachcic (nobleman). He may be the proud possessor 
 of two or three thousand ancestral acres, or he may 
 eke out a beggarly existence by copying barristers' 
 briefs ; but, rich or poor, his nobility and his crest are 
 the pride and the consolation of his life. Indeed, they 
 often prevent him from working, even though his estate 
 be so heavily mortgaged that it is to all intents and 
 
62 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 purposes in the hands of the Jews; and if he does 
 drift to the Intelligentia and engage in a profession, he 
 considers it a point of honour to do as little as adverse 
 circumstances will allow. He is in his element in the 
 country, where the size of his estate varies from 180 to 
 1,500 acres, or, according to his reckoning, from six to 
 fifty wloki. But the average size of the estate of a 
 country szlachcic is about thirty tvlohi, valued at from 
 three to five thousand roubles a wloka, but which, were 
 it put into the market to-morrow, would not bring him 
 a fourth part of this sum, so heavily is it mortgaged. 
 The manor house or dvo7' is old, low-roofed, and gener- 
 ally built of wood. Sometimes it contains an upper 
 storey, but as a rule all the rooms are on the ground 
 floor, communicating with each other. Balconies, covered 
 with roses and creepers, form the family lounge in 
 summer, and fitted with double windows keep the cold 
 out of the house in winter, when the rooms are heated 
 by means of high white stoves. The lady of the manor 
 passes her days in her dressing-gown, busied with her 
 garden, home, and children. The lord, booted, collar- 
 less and unshaven, drives about his estate and converses 
 with his Jewish factors, who bring him the news, do his 
 business for him, and without whom he would not sell a 
 bushel of corn or a quart of milk. 
 
 Far from town and post ofiice, life flows easily in 
 these dvori, where hospitality is unlimited, and Polish 
 customs are clung to with a tenacity unknown in the 
 cities. In politics the country szlachcic is a patriot, 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 6s 
 
 and to-day he has thrown in his lot with the National 
 Democrats. 
 
 As the superfluous peasant population helps to swell 
 the ranks of the urban proletariat, so do the sons and 
 daughters of the poorer landowners add to the ranks of 
 the Intelligentia. Once members of this class and 
 residing in Warsaw or some other large town, their 
 patriotism is tinged with Sociahsm, even if they do not 
 join the Social Democrats or become members of the 
 Polish Socialistic Party. As students they do much 
 propaganda work amongst the urban and rural prole- 
 tariat, now an object of interest for patriot as well as 
 Socialist ; though the Socialists gained considerable 
 influence over the working classes during those years 
 when the country squire sadly pondered over the failure 
 of the last rebellion. The szlachcic who leaves his 
 patrimonial estate to seek a living in the towns can 
 only become a lawyer, doctor, engineer, architect, clerk 
 or tradesman, for owing to his nationality the civil 
 service, a Eussian monopoly, is closed to him, and his 
 patriotism forbids him to serve in the Eussian army in 
 any other capacity but that of a conscript. But neither 
 in the free professions nor in commerce does the Pole 
 distinguish himself He lacks that punctuality and 
 power of attending to details which alone can insure 
 success in any branch of work. His broad Sclavonic 
 nature hates drudgery, and longs for change and amuse- 
 ment. As a professional man he is apt to ignore his 
 reception hours or forget to attend to a case at the 
 
64 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 proper time. As a merchant he treats his customers in 
 an indifferent manner which indicates that he, as a 
 szlachcic, pays them a great compliment in consenting 
 to sell his wares at all. It is not that he is lacking in 
 intelligence, far from it. His wit is equal, if not superior, 
 to that of the average Anglo-Saxon. In spite of bad 
 Eussian schools and all the disadvantages of being ruled 
 by a government whose culture is inferior to his own, 
 he manages to cull a good all-round education, for, unlike 
 the Englishman, who is too apt to think that what he 
 does not happen to know is not worth knowing, he 
 applies himself to the pursuit of a very catholic kind of 
 knowledge, aided by good and cheap books. This lack 
 of sterling business qualities is united with the want of 
 what is best described by the word "grit" in the Scla- 
 vonic temperament, in its idle, easy-going good nature 
 which will not make the effort to be at the office 
 punctually in the morning or send work home within a 
 week of the date for which it was promised. How far 
 this trait has been developed by the presence of the 
 ubiquitous Jew, ever ready to run an errand, perform a 
 tiresome task or lend money, it is difficult to say, but it 
 is there, and forms one of the reasons why the Pole, no 
 matter how poor he is, can always give a Jew the 
 wherewithal to buy his daily herring and garlic. Another 
 reason lies in that desire of the shopkeepers and crafts- 
 men to make their sons "gentlemen," to give them an 
 university education and send them to swell the already 
 overcrowded ranks of the free professions. This in- 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 65 
 
 satiable desire to mimic the szlachcic, and the inherent 
 tendency of the Pole to avoid trades and crafts, has 
 two effects. The first is to fill the Warsaw University 
 and the higher schools with lads whose lives are a 
 perpetual struggle to pay the fees and keep body and 
 soul together by coaching small boys and girls ; the 
 second is the production of an army of incapable 
 craftsmen, who are either too dull or too poor to dream 
 of higher education, and too careless of their trades to 
 try to excel in them. 
 
 What the Pole lacks in business capacity and moral 
 courage the Jew possesses to an extraordinary degree. 
 True, the ease, the grace, the charm of manner and of 
 person are not his. His gait is awkward and his feet 
 ungainly ; no matter how fluently he speaks the lan- 
 guage of his adopted land, his very accent betrays him. 
 He brags and boasts, talks through his nose, talks 
 against his race ; is arrogant, self-opinionated, conceited 
 and shy. When fortune smiles upon his strenuous 
 efforts, and his money admits him to the society of the 
 Polish szlachcic, he too often becomes a snob. But 
 though he frequents their society, he is uneasy in it ; 
 for he knows he cuts but a sorry figure mounting a 
 horse or handling a gun. But he is rich, and rich or 
 poor, he is both of the least account and of the greatest 
 power, for he has crept into every Polish household from 
 the palace to the manor, from the farmhouse to the 
 cabin. Nay, more than that. Were he to make a 
 mark on all his hands have touched, not a field or 
 
66 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 pasture, not a brick or stone, not even a beast of burden 
 but would bear the trace of the despised son of Israel. 
 
 It is characteristic of the Polish nature that anti- 
 Semitism does not prevent the Jew from earning a 
 living in those very pursuits for which he is most 
 detested. It is astonishing to find how many members 
 of the aristocracy and richer nobility employ Jewish 
 lawyers to superintend their affairs. They are, they 
 affirm, excessively anti-Semitic, because they consider 
 that the Jew is the cause of all the misfortunes Poland 
 sufiers, and especially of the anarchy which pre- 
 vails. But they cannot take the trouble to put their 
 afiairs into the hands of a Pole because he worries them 
 too much about formalities and will not get the business 
 done in the time required, whereas a Jew does it all 
 without any trouble and has a knowledge of the by- 
 ways of the law which enables his client to sail close to 
 the wind without running any real risk. " I can go to 
 Monte Carlo with a quiet mind," the Pole will remark. 
 " I know my case is in safe hands, and if he overcharges 
 me, he does it in such a way that I never find it out." 
 His wife, equally anti-Semitic, buys her laces and ribbons 
 not at a Polish shop, but in the Jewish quarter, because 
 the prices are lower. The average Pole is always in need 
 of ready money, and generally pays dearly for it. Every 
 Jew in Poland is more or less a money-lender, so the 
 anti-Semites aflSjm ; and though the statement is exag- 
 gerated, I doubt if any country is such a happy hunting- 
 ground for the Hebrew usurer, from the rich Jew who 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 67 
 
 has bought a title from the proceeds of his usury to the 
 ragged inhabitants of a Jewish settlement who borrow 
 a rouble for a week to " speculate " with among the 
 peasantry. The following incident, which is not only 
 true, but one of many similar instances, wUl illustrate 
 the happy-go-lucky way in which the Pole will burden 
 himself with debt — 
 
 X , a szlachcic, of course, and with nothing but 
 
 his gambling propensities and his crest to live upon, 
 needed 1,800 roubles. He sent for a Jew who happened 
 to be possessed of that sum, and who agreed to lend it 
 to him on condition that he paid five roubles interest 
 daily and did not return the money for at least a year, 
 
 X agreed, the money was counted out, and the 
 
 debtor went to his club. On leaving it next morning 
 he was accosted by the Jew, who_, bowed very low, 
 enquired if the illustrious gentleman had had good luck, 
 and asked for the five roubles. It was so every morning. 
 
 No matter where X played, the Jew was awaiting 
 
 him as he left to go home. When he had been fortunate 
 he gave the five roubles lightly enough, when he lost he 
 relieved his feelings by using strong language ; but the 
 interest was always forthcoming even when the debtor 
 was obliged to go without his dinner. At the end of 
 the year the Jew eagerly renewed the terms. Many 
 years have now elapsed since the bargain was made, 
 but the Jew does not fail to apply for his five roubles 
 
 every morning, and X calculates that the loan of 
 
 1,800 roubles has cost him many times that amount. 
 
68 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The reader has already seen how the Jews in the 
 country settlements eke out a living by lending small 
 sums of money to the peasantry. But these are 
 not the only ones to live upon the Polish community, 
 producicg nothing but ever busy hanging around the 
 palaces of the magnates and the hut of the clodhopper 
 alike. None are so ubiquitous as the " factors " who 
 spend their days in squires' farmyards and stables. The 
 Jewish factor is quite a feature of Polish country life, 
 and there is a Polish proverb to the effect that if you 
 throw him out of your door he will crawl in by the 
 window. 
 
 One meets him at every turn ; when the corn is only 
 a few inches high he buys it from a needy squire, paying 
 half the sum agreed upon at once. The potatoes often 
 are his before they have flowered. He buys the produce 
 of the land at a risk, and the squire does not get a 
 fair price for it ; but as he wants ready money above 
 all things, he does not think of the consequences. Ninety 
 per cent, of the country estates in Poland are managed 
 in this way, and the Jewish factor has become so 
 ingrained into the system that I doubt if the most 
 independent and energetic farmer could altogether do 
 without him. 
 
 He knows everything that passes in the estate he 
 frequents ; when a cow is to be sold, a horse gone lame, 
 or a mare foaled ; he will buy everything from eggs to a 
 cart-horse, from lumber to the dvor itself, for if he has 
 not the wherewithal to make the purchase, he has cousins 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 69 
 
 or brothers in the neighbouring settlement who will take 
 part in the enterprise. He and his tribe are ever to be 
 seen about the dvor. If they are not in the stables, the 
 cow-house, or the dairy, they are sure to be found in 
 the neighbourhood of the granary, or even further afield, 
 observing the wheat or the barley with calculating eyes. 
 When the squire and his family are at dinner the mad 
 barking of the dogs, followed by shrill protests and the 
 sound of a stick beating them ofi", announces the arrival 
 of Jankel or Szmul or Mordka, who shows his tattered 
 cap and greasy halat on the verandah a few minutes 
 later and asks the illustrious gentry if they have nothing 
 to buy or to sell. Each dvor has its own clan of Jews, 
 from the corn factor who drives a trap and owns a villa 
 in the nearest town and could buy his Polish patron out 
 of house and home, to the ragged wretch who tramps to 
 market to buy necessaries for the peasantry and smuggle 
 in a forbidden pamphlet. The meat is brought twice a 
 week to the manor by the Jewish butcher, a flourishing 
 man, who keeps the monopoly for himself and his 
 brethren. More than once the mayors in the provincial 
 towns have attempted to place this profitable business in 
 the hands of non-Jewish butchers ; but when the Jewish 
 population predominates, the attempt invariably fails. 
 The Jewish factors, by buying up all the cattle on the 
 neighbouring estates, have absolute control of the 
 market and refuse to sell a single head of cattle to 
 their non-Jewish rivals, who are obliged to put u p 
 
70 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 their shutters and leave the field to the Jew, who, as 
 meat is scarce, does not fail to tyrannise over his 
 customers. 
 
 I remember that whilst spending the summer in the 
 country a couple of years ago a culinary revolution was 
 caused by the butcher, who sent some very unsavoury 
 meat — the English consumer would call it skin and 
 bones — which the housekeeper indignantly returned, 
 remarking that " The illustrious gentry would not 
 poison themselves by eating suff stuff." 
 
 " Won't they ? " the butcher said, when his journeyman 
 returned with the message, and told his brother butchers, 
 who boycotted the dvor in question for the rest of 
 the summer, whilst the " illustrious gentry " humbled 
 themselves upon poultry until the advent of the 
 partridge season relieved the monotony of ducks and 
 chickens. 
 
 The Jew who makes boots and shoddy clothing in 
 winter often turns gardener in the summer. When the 
 orchards are still bright with blossoms he tramps round 
 to the smaller manor houses and oflfers to rent the garden 
 for the season. If his offer is accepted, he counts the 
 trees, looks at the bloom, and offers a certain sum, 
 bargaining from 25 to 40 copecks per tree. He agrees 
 to give a certain measure of fruit and vegetables to the 
 manor free of charge ; if more is required, it is paid for 
 at a fixed rate. Half the rent is paid at once, the re- 
 mainder to be given when the fruit has been gathered 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 71 
 
 and sold. Sometimes a contract is written, but sucli 
 formalities are rarely indulged in. A day or two later 
 the Jew returns with his family and feather beds and 
 takes possession of a hut in or near the orchard. If 
 the season is a good one, all goes well ; if not, he 
 appeals to the lady of the manor to release him from 
 his debt, swearing upon the graves of his grandfathers, 
 grandmothers, uncles, aunts and deceased cousins that 
 he will hang himself, his wife and offspring, if " the great 
 and illustrious gentry " bring him to ruin by their hard- 
 heartedness. At first the request is refused, for the 
 squire's wife knows how many cart-loads have left the 
 garden for the neighbouring town, and she tries to get 
 at least a portion of the rent owing to her. But the 
 petitions and threats of suicide are repeated by the 
 gardener and his family until the " great and illustrious 
 lady," alarmed at the prospect of beholding curly-haired 
 Jews and Jewesses dangling from her apple-trees, gives 
 in, and peace is restored. When the squire is asked 
 why he will not employ a Polish gardener to look after 
 his orchard and sell the fruit himself, he answers that it 
 is too much trouble, because nobody will do the packing 
 in the country or control the sale in the town, and that 
 the Jew and his numerous family, aided by mongrel 
 watch-dogs, keep intruders from the orchard, whereas 
 the Polish gardener would let the peasants roam in the 
 garden and help themselves. 
 
 The milk market, as we have seen, is almost entirely 
 
72 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 in the hands of the Jews, who rent the produce of the 
 dairy as they do that of the orchard and kitchen garden. 
 So it is, from the farmyard to the cornfield The Jew 
 rents everything and buys everything ; he is always on 
 the spot, pays, at any rate, a certain amount of ready 
 money, and saves the landowners a great deal of trouble. 
 He has, too, a fund of information for everybody. He 
 is a walking news-letter. Not only does he know what 
 is passing in the neighbouring town, in the nearest 
 garrison, what the Russians are saying, how many horses 
 are being sent out of the regiment, how much they cost 
 and what they are worth ; he has news from Warsaw, 
 aye, and from Petersburg too. It is to the Western 
 mind rather amusing to hear the squires solemnly dis- 
 cuss some impending change in the government which 
 Mordka, or Szmul or Perlmutter, the factor, has told 
 them of, but which generally comes to pass in the way 
 the Jews have predicted. For the rest, the szlachcic likes 
 to hear the Hebrew gossip. The roads are bad, neigh- 
 bours far off and posts irregular. Time often hangs 
 heavy on his hands, and he listens with interest to what 
 the corn factor heard about the governor of the fortress, 
 how much he made over the last building contract, how 
 many blankets were missing from the last consignment, 
 how the priest was cheated over his new cow, or why 
 the peasantry broke the windows of the unpopular 
 squire in the next parish. The Jew knows all these 
 trifling details, because his brother or cousin or wife's 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 73 
 
 cousin is a factor too, and goes to the garrisoji and the 
 fortress. 
 
 The Jewish factor and his tribe move freely amongst 
 the soldiers, selling them little luxuries and gossiping. 
 It is often they who distribute the revolutionary pamph- 
 let urging them to join the "movement for liberty" by 
 shooting not at their own people, but at their officers. 
 It is they who supply the materials whilst the fortresses 
 are being built and the necessaries for the inhabitants 
 when finished. It is they who sell the fodder for the 
 horses and the rations for the men. The secrets of 
 the commissariat are theirs ; they know how much the 
 governor and his staif make over the contracts and 
 the difference between the sum the government is 
 charged and that paid to them. Sometimes the factors 
 have an opportunity of profiting by this knowledge to 
 the discomfiture of the authorities. Soon after the 
 failure of the Moscow revolution, in December 1905, 
 some members of a certain Socialist party were arrested 
 in a large Polish town and sent to a neighbouring 
 fortress. They were necessary to the party they led, 
 and there seemed little prospect of their being set at 
 liberty, or even of undergoing their trial before the 
 court-martial for some time to come. But the ways 
 of revolutionaries are wise, and within a few weeks it 
 was announced that the five Socialists had left the 
 fortress in broad daylight after presenting the sentries 
 with discharge sheets signed by the military governor 
 
74 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and bearing the official seal. The general public once 
 more wondered at the adroitness of the Socialists, whose 
 experts forge signatures and seals so well. But the 
 annals of the party in question tell a different tale. 
 Amongst the Jewish factors who frequented the fortress 
 was a member of the party. He went to the governor 
 one day under pretext of selling corn, and quietly 
 proposed that the five prisoners should be released. 
 
 "These are, as Your Excellency is aware, very im- 
 portant men in their party," the Jew explained. " I 
 would not disturb you for men who mean little, but 
 these are wanted. All you have to do is to sign the 
 discharge sheets and give them to me. You will not 
 appear in it. I will do the rest, and your signature will 
 be looked upon as a good piece of forgery. As to the 
 seal of the office, our party has already one in its 
 possession." 
 
 At first the governor was very angry, and refused. 
 The Jew did not speak for a few moments, and when he 
 
 did, he said, " The governor of the fortress at 
 
 also refused a similar request, but the Jews denounced 
 him at Petersburg, sending in the accounts for the corn 
 supplied to his fortress and showing how much he had 
 made over them. Your Excellency knows that that 
 governor was dismissed from his post. I wiU see 
 Your Excellency again in a few days." 
 
 The factor called in a few days, and the governor signed 
 the discharge sheets. The factor and he understood 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 75 
 
 each other, and their business relations, thanks to the 
 
 fate of the governor of fortress, have not been 
 
 strained. 
 
 But every political offender, even though he be a Jew 
 and guilty of nothing worse than distributing revolu- 
 tionary literature amongst the soldiers, does not slip 
 through the hands of th e military authorities. Sometimes 
 the soldiers themselves arrest them, and when tried by 
 courts-martial they are generally sentenced to lifelong 
 exile in Siberia for more serious propaganda. Very often 
 their fate is settled on the written evidence of one soldier, 
 who does not appear because he is on duty. This seems 
 grossly unjust to those who are accustomed to think 
 that a man is innocent before his guilt has been proved. 
 In both political and civil cases the Eussian tribunals 
 too often assume that the prisoner is guilty and hear 
 evidence as a mere matter of form. Jews, on account of 
 their reputation for cowardice, are frequently subjected 
 to different forms of cruelty in order that they may 
 confess to having participated in a crime, whether they 
 have done so or not. The following case, which came 
 before a Warsaw tribunal in April, 1906, will illustrate 
 this fact, and though it has no connection with factors, 
 the reader will forgive the digression for the sake of the 
 light it throws upon the way in which the poorer Jews 
 are treated when they come under the shadow of the law. 
 On the morning of the 19th of June, 1905, a policeman 
 was shot in one of the Jewish market-places in Warsaw, 
 
76 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 known as the Janasz market. The place was crowded, 
 and though many market women were standing close by 
 at the time, the perpetrator or perpetrators escaped. The 
 detective appointed to watch the case, a man named 
 Ivanoff, worked hard to discover somebody who would 
 admit having witnessed the crime, and finally found a 
 Jew, Israel Nordwind, a boy of seventeen years old, who 
 fell into his hands quite by chance under a charge of 
 theft, and who confessed to have seen four Jews — whom 
 he named— fire at the policeman. He also afiirmed that 
 when the man lay upon the ground one of them returned, 
 let ojff a parting shot, crying in jargon " Fama hlit " (for 
 my blood). But when the case came before the central 
 criminal court, not only did the four accused deny their 
 guilt, but Nordwind, the chief witness, retracted every 
 word of his former evidence, saying that he had given it 
 at the suggestion of Ivanoff", who promised that if he did 
 so he would be acquitted of the charge upon which 
 he had been arrested. Other witnesses were then 
 called. But one had escaped to London, another, 
 emboldened by Nordwind's statement, afiirmed that she 
 knew nothing about the murder, but had been imprisoned 
 for nine days and forced, under pain of tortures and the 
 rack, to give evidence against the prisoners. The 
 Procurator ordered the prisoners to be discharged, but 
 the police re-arrested one of them before night, and only 
 released him upon a fresh order. 
 
 Ivanoff" defended himself by saying that he was 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY ^^ 
 
 morally convinced that the four Jews in question had 
 killed the policeman. 
 
 But to return to the factors. They are to be found in 
 the towns in even greater numbers than in the country. 
 There, too, they buy and sell everything for other people, 
 from corn to tickets, from dust to diamonds. They 
 know where stolen goods are to be bought cheaply, and 
 sell smuggled merchandise at a low price. They place 
 money on mortgages and on horses. They buy and sell 
 lottery tickets, theatre tickets, opera tickets. If you 
 have any difficulty about booking a seat to hear a 
 favourite singer, though all the places are sold and the 
 box office closed hours before, the obliging factor is always 
 to be found in the neighbourhood, touting for customers, 
 who buy his tickets at a high price. Do you want to 
 send a message to a friend in prison, to buy a horse, to 
 buy old furniture, to borrow anything, from money to 
 a passport, if you find yourself in a plight, and under 
 the Russian government this situation is by no means 
 unusual, aU you have to do is to send for the Jewish 
 factor, and, though he always meets your request with 
 " It can't be done," to raise the pecuniary value of his 
 services, he will do it, if anybody can. When he fails 
 there is no hope. 
 
 It is, in short, the Jew who goes everywhere and does 
 everything. Unnoticed and unknown, he holds the 
 secrets of a thousand houses, of a hundred afiairs, and the 
 ins and outs of a score of fortresses. Above all things 
 
78 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 lie knows when to speak and when to be silent, when he 
 can afford to be insolent and when he must be subservient. 
 Little wonder that the Pole cannot do without him, for 
 he has been filling his present position for so many 
 centuries that he has become an indispensable feature of 
 the national life. 
 
 One more instance of the way in which the Jew 
 manages to live upon the Polish population by his wits, 
 and I am done with his "back door" influence. 
 
 A certain Jew owned a large house in Warsaw, which 
 he was in danger of losing because he had a debt of ten 
 thousand roubles upon the property without the means 
 of paying it off. So he organised a private lottery 
 amongst his acquaintances, issuing one hundred tickets 
 at a hundred roubles each. The tenements of the house, 
 which is situated in a densely populated Jewish quarter, 
 always let well, and naturally the tickets were eagerly 
 bought up, for who would not like to win a house worth 
 fifty thousand roubles for a mere song ? The day for 
 drawing the lots at length arrived, and all the ticket- 
 holders anxiously awaited the issue. But when the 
 happy winner claimed his prize, the Jew said : " No, 
 I cannot give you the house ; the house belongs to me. 
 If your greed has deluded you I am not to blame. You 
 all know that private lotteries are strictly forbidden, 
 and that if you put the case into court you will get 
 imprisoned as well as I, and what is worse you'll never 
 get your prize, because the lottery is worth nothing in 
 
THE POLISH COMMUNITY 79 
 
 the eyes of the law. I wanted ten thousand roubles, 
 and you wanted the house. Both sides cannot be 
 satisfied." 
 
 The ticket-holders went home sadder, and, let us hope, 
 wiser men. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 educational and communal organisations 
 
 Education 
 
 The Polish Jew is very much hampered in the matter 
 of education, so that, in spite of his natural intelligence, 
 he does not become such a good workman as he might. 
 Not only does the Russian Government make it difficult 
 for him to enter the elementary and middle schools ; 
 not only is he restricted as to his attendance in the 
 higher schools and universities, but the superstition 
 of the ghetto, which clings to ancient methods of 
 instruction, condemns him to spend long hours in 
 learning things which are of no use to him. He has 
 four ways of obtaining instruction: — 
 
 (1) In the public schools. 
 
 (2) In the cheders. 
 
 (3) In the Jewish government schools. 
 
 (4) In the technical schools. 
 
 (1) in the public schools 
 
 In 1887 the then Minister of Public Instruction 
 
 (Count Delianoff) issued a circular in which the per- 
 
 8o 
 
EDUCATION 8i 
 
 centage of Jews to be received in the middle and higher 
 schools was restricted to the following proportions : — 
 
 In St. Petersburg and Moscow to 3 ; in the towns 
 in the interior governments, 5 ; in the towns in Jewish 
 settlement, 10. 
 
 The local authorities had begun to diminish the 
 percentage of Jews accepted in the schools before this. 
 For instance, in the educational district of Vilno we 
 find the following diminution in the percentage of 
 Jewish students admitted : — 
 
 1882, 26-9; 1883, 26-2; 1884, 24-9; 1885, 23-6; 
 1886, 21-54. 
 
 Taking the Universities of Petersburg, Moscow, 
 Kazan, Kharkow, Odessa, KiefF, Warsaw, Dorpat and 
 Tomsk, the percentage of Jewish students has fallen in 
 thirteen years from 14'8-10"9. 
 
 In St. Petersburg it has fallen from 12 "7-4 "4 ; but 
 Moscow alone, where the latest statistics give 3*5, seems 
 to have kept strictly to the proportion laid down by the 
 circular of 1887. 
 
 In the University of Warsaw, the only one in Poland, 
 we find an increase in the percentage of Jewish students 
 received between 1880, when it was 11'6, and 1899, 
 when it had reached 16 '8. The number of Jewish 
 candidates who apply for admittance is far in excess of 
 those who gain it. In the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, 
 of the 97 Jews who presented themselves for the entrance 
 examination, 30 were admitted. In the year 1900, 70 
 Jews applied for admission to Dorpat and 18 only were 
 
82 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 accepted. In KharkofF, 60 applied and 12 were 
 admitted. But all statistics on this subject are more or 
 less superfluous until the higher educational establish- 
 ments are re-opened. There is a general feeling that 
 the restrictions under which the Jews have hitherto 
 worked in the schools will then be abolished, together 
 witb other civil disabilities. At present it is hard for 
 the Jewish student to gain admittance into the Gymnasia 
 and other middle schools. The official proportion is the 
 same as that for the higher schools. Between the years 
 1881-1894 the actual percentage fell in the Warsaw 
 educational district from 12 to 9"5. 
 
 The fact that the middle-class schools are always 
 besieged by more applicants than there is room for, 
 makes it doubly difficult for the Jewish candidates to 
 gain admission. As a general rule, once there, he works 
 well to keep a good place in his class ; he is often better 
 prepared than his colleagues who had not the percentage 
 restrictions to fear, and, unlike them, he nearly always 
 goes through the eight classes of the philological or the 
 seven of the mathematical school. It is in considering 
 elementary schools that we come to the important part 
 of education, because eighty per cent, of the Jewish 
 population cannot aflford to give their children more 
 than that. 
 
 There is no legal restriction as to the admittance of 
 Jewish children into the elementary schools of the 
 country, but complaints are often heard from their 
 parents that applications are refused, and that the most 
 
EDUCATION 83 
 
 important part of the course, such as reading or writing, 
 is taught on Saturdays when their children cannot 
 attend. Eoughly, the percentage of Jewesses attending 
 the elementary schools is 17, and of boys 12. 
 
 Generally speaking, the Jewish parent prefers his 
 children to attend either the Cheder, the Talmud- Tor 
 or the Eshihot. Talmud-Tor is practically the same 
 thing as the Cheder, except that it is maintained by the 
 Jewish community for the benefit of those children 
 whose parents are too poor to pay for their education. 
 Here the children are fed as well as taught. The Eshihot 
 differs from the Talmud-Tor, inasmuch as the pupils are 
 older and the foundation larger. As far as instruction 
 is concerned, they scarcely differ from that time-honoured 
 institution, as much a part of the Polish Jew as his 
 halat, called the Cheder. 
 
 (2) THE CREDER 
 
 When the child of the ghetto has reached the age of 
 seven or thereabouts he is sent to the cheder, or 
 elementary school, whose origin is wrapped in the dim- 
 ness of Jewish tradition. The average cheder is placed 
 in the typical lodging of the poor Polish Jew. The 
 room also serves as bed and living room for the melamed, 
 or master, and his family.^ The one bed is placed in a 
 corner by the stove ; the household gods fill the others, 
 and the pupils, whose number ranges from fourteen to 
 
 1 Over 35% of tte cheders are kept by men who rent only one room. 
 
84 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 thirty, seated on high forms, take up the little space 
 which is left. The room is filled to overflowing. The 
 floor, which is never scrubbed, is a harbour for all kinds 
 of dirt and rubbish, which mingle with the sawdust that 
 is sprinkled upon it from time to time. In winter the 
 stove is only lighted when the cold is too intense to be 
 borne, and the pupils, dressed in their out-door halats, 
 are unable to heat the room with their mere animal 
 warmth. In summer the atmosphere is unbearable to 
 all but those bred in it, and even if the windows and 
 doors were opened, no fresh air would come in, for the 
 odours from the courtyard beyond, where the filth and 
 refuse of the neighbourhood are collected, are worse, if 
 possible, than that in the room. The hubbub is as 
 noticeable as the smell, for it is incessant. The melamed, 
 in cap and ragged halat, reads out a passage from a 
 book, his pupils shrilly repeat it, some quickly, others 
 dragging in long after their neighbours have finished. 
 The melamed's wife, busy with unsavoury pans, or 
 tending her offspring, shouts to make herself heard ; the 
 elder daughter, a sickly girl, who sews buttons on to 
 ready-made shirts, puts in a remark every now and then; 
 a hunchbacked boy shouts, and the result is such a 
 mixture of sound and smell that one wonders which 
 makes the air the heavier. But neither master nor 
 pupils seem to object to it, and, truth to tell, the melamed 
 is no better than his surroundings. He is well on in the 
 forties, and looks like the hundreds of poor Jews one 
 passes in the ghettoes of the Polish towns. If he cries 
 
EDUCATION 85 
 
 shrilly or makes frantic gestures in his attempt to keep 
 the children quiet, they are too frequent to impress 
 them. Probably his task bores him as it does them, for 
 neither master nor pupil see any goal in the lessons, 
 which are always the same and oral. He has no idea of 
 making them interesting, because he himself does not 
 understand the meaning of the passages he teaches. 
 The poetry of Hebrew scriptures and the wealth of 
 Hebrew history are not for him. He has never been 
 taught their import, empty words and disconnected 
 phrases are all the psalms of Israel's King and the song 
 of his prophets can give him. His qualifications as a 
 teacher are of the poorest. He began to keep a school 
 out of despair, after failing in other walks of ghetto 
 life. Any Jew who has attended a cheder in his youth 
 or learned portions of scriptures off by heart at home 
 may turn melamed without more preparation. Quondam 
 factors, whose Polish clients have deserted them, small 
 tradesmen gone bankrupt, master bakers and tailors 
 baffled by economic conditions, swell the army of those 
 teachers, from whom the Jewish proletariat culls its 
 education. They cannot enlarge their pupils' minds or 
 fit them to battle with Russian or Polish competition in 
 the workshops because they rarely know any language 
 but Yiddish, and their own minds are as cramped as 
 their native ghettoes. 
 
 In the cheders of Kieff — a fair sample among Jewish 
 settlements — only six per cent, of the teachers can teach 
 any Russian at all. Forty per cent, of these melameds 
 
86 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 were artisans or stall-keepers, and eighty per cent, have 
 had no better education than that afforded by the cheder 
 or the eshibot. The method of teaching is as primitive 
 as the other arrangements in the cheder. When the 
 melamed has gathered his pupils together he divides 
 them into groups according to their ages — one group has 
 a lesson whilst the other amuse themselves as openly as 
 they dare. Except in the rare cases in which the melamed 
 keeps an assistant, the other groups have no tasks 
 allotted to them whilst their comrades are being taught, 
 for they have no books, and could not read them if they 
 had. The course is supposed to consist of instruction in 
 writing and reading Hebrew. The writing is generally 
 left out of the programme, and the reading is mostly 
 done by the melameds themselves. Some of them try 
 to teach their pupils the rudiments of Russian grammar. I 
 say " try," because the master knows so little about his 
 subject that his lesson recalls the parable of the blind 
 leading the blind. Both melamed and pupil fall into an 
 intellectual ditch, in which they grope for seven, eight, 
 and even ten hours a day, to keep them in which their 
 parents pay from 36s. to 50s. a year, and from which 
 they emerge at the end of four or five years with a small 
 stock of useless knowledge. That is to say, they can 
 repeat a few scriptural texts, in a meaningless way, and 
 know a number of ancient Hebrew words without being 
 able to construe them into sentences, or having any idea 
 of the history from which they are taken. They know 
 nothing of arithmetic or the rudiments of the country's 
 
EDUCATION 87 
 
 language. They have no idea of the world around 
 them. All they are taught of the Gentile and his culture 
 is to hate both. The pity of it is that these centres of 
 ignorance, in which disease is more successfully dis- 
 seminated than knowledge, and from which Jewish 
 children emerge sickly, stunted, and often deformed, are 
 to be found throughout the ghettoes of the Russian 
 Empire. True, their registered number is only 1701. 
 But few melameds can afford the expense of the three 
 roubles registration fee, the photograph and testimonials 
 which must accompany all official applications, and they 
 content themselves with taking some twenty pupils with- 
 out troubling about formalities. The Jewish Colonisa- 
 tion Society, which has done invaluable work in showing 
 up the condition of the Jewish masses in Russia, affirm 
 that the actual number of cheders for the Russian 
 Empire is at least 24,540, of which 5,724 are in Poland, 
 which has a Jewish population of 1,306,576. The 
 same authority assumes that on the average one private 
 cheder is opened for 199 Jewish inhabitants, and, in the 
 Kingdom of Poland, for 33 Jewish children. 
 
 This number is enormous compared with that of 
 voluntary schools maintained by the rest of the com- 
 munity, for it forms 31 "2% of the total number of such 
 establishments in Russia, although the Jews form but 
 4*1% of the whole population. The Mahometans, who 
 form 11% of the whole population, maintain 297% of the 
 voluntary schools, whilst the Christian population (84%) 
 maintains 40%. That is to say, the Jews maintain three 
 
88 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 times as many voluntary schools as the Mahometan, 
 and fifteen times as many as the Christian population in 
 Eussia. 
 
 Girls are rarely found in the cheder, 5*8% being the 
 average in most places and in still lower percentage in 
 others/ but nevertheless 55"8% of the Jewish children 
 who are of a suitable age for attending school go to the 
 cheders, and of these some fifty per cent, are the offsprings 
 of parents who earn less than one rouble a day. And yet 
 the cheder is not cheap. The fees vary from 18 to 25 
 roubles a year. Allowing 25,000 cheders with an 
 average attendance of 14 pupils, and supposing that they 
 all pay the minimum fee of 18 roubles, we have the 
 sum of 6,300,000 roubles, or about £630,000, annually 
 spent upon a useless education by the poorest part of 
 the population. But, as a matter of fact, the sum is 
 much larger, for we may safely assume that at least one- 
 half of the children pay 20 roubles per year, which 
 brings the budget up to 7^ millions of roubles, the 
 burden of which is borne solely by the Jewish popula- 
 tion, and which works out roughly at 150 copecks per 
 head ; whereas the rest of the community pay 23 
 copecks per head for elementary education, which, if it 
 does not come up to the standard of the Western world, 
 is incomparably better than that given in the Jewish 
 cheders. 
 
 The children of the ghetto cannot get any more 
 education than these establishments aflTord them. Their 
 
 1 The authorities refuse to allow cheders for girls to be established. 
 
EDUCATION 89 
 
 parents, taxed to the utmost to keep them at all, send 
 them to work in some sweating shop when they have left 
 the elementary school. But Jewish secondary schools 
 do exist, though their number is much smaller than that 
 of the cheders. 
 
 (3) JEWISH GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 
 
 In the year 1817 an Imperial Ukaze decreed that 
 Jewish schools under the control of the Government 
 should be established in the Kingdom of Poland. In 
 1844 these, together with the Jewish communal schools 
 [Talmud-Tors and Eshihots) and the Jewish district 
 schools, were brought under the same jurisdiction. 
 
 The Jewish Government schools were primarily 
 intended to give Jewish children a general elementary 
 education, together with lessons in Hebrew, religion, 
 writing and reading. A large part of the time was 
 devoted to Hebrew, but the educational authorities 
 appear to have been over-anxious to teach the Jew 
 religion in their own way, and to bring their influence 
 to bear upon the religious life of the Jewish settlements. 
 They ordered Hebrew books of their own choosing to 
 be used in the schools, and appointed teachers who had 
 little or no sympathy with the Jewish element to 
 expound them. The result was that teacher and pupils 
 are entirely out of touch and often at variance upon 
 what the pupils consider the most important part of 
 the school curriculum. According to the latest statistics 
 
90 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 there are 130 of these Jewish schools in the Kingdom of 
 Poland and 820 in the Eussian Empire. It is computed 
 that one of these schools exists for the accommodation of 
 5,525 Jewish inhabitants, which means that there are 
 27 times as many cheders. One Jew in 70 attends the 
 Jewish governmental school, whilst one in 13 attends a 
 cheder. As far as secular education is concerned, the 
 teachers are fairly well qualified ; they have generally 
 gone through one of the teachers' schools. Their pupils 
 complain that their knowledge of Hebrew history is 
 insufficient, and that they are too inclined to sacrifice 
 this part of the educational programme to the 
 other. 
 
 In the district boys' schools, which are also under the 
 Government, the teachers are often self-taught and have 
 no accuracy or method. Only one-tenth of their 
 number have finished even the middle schools, and 
 one-sixth of them have no certificates at all. As a 
 matter of fact they are mostly ordinary melameds, 
 employed simply because they can teach Hebrew more 
 or less efiiciently. Men like them form more than 
 one-third of the staffs of the communal schools. 
 
 The girls' schools seem to be better off in the way of 
 teachers, of whom more than two-thirds have finished 
 the middle schools and hold certificates for home 
 teachers. 
 
 Nearly all these schools are badly provided with 
 globes, atlases and maps — in fact, many of them can only 
 boast a few of the last, and it is computed that only 
 
EDUCATION 91 
 
 one-third of the Jewish schools in the Empire are 
 furnished with globes. Drawing instruments, com- 
 passes and rulers are very often conspicuous by their 
 absence. 
 
 The fees for the year vary from 11 to 22 roubles. 
 The girls' schools are generally dearer, as the teachers 
 are better prepared and the classes more numerous. In 
 the district schools part of their cost is defrayed by the 
 different Jewish societies. 
 
 The parents of children attending most of these 
 schools cannot afford to keep them there for the whole 
 course of study. Many of them are taken away as 
 soon as they learn to read and write, and sent to 
 work in shops and factories. In the government of 
 Warsaw only 3 "9// of the scholars go through all the 
 classes. 
 
 In the Talmud-Tors, where the course extends over 
 from three to four years, and the children are taught for 
 nothing, 5*4% of the girls and 7 "8% of the boys finish 
 the course. Their parents look upon it as so much 
 wasted time once they have mastered the art of writing 
 and spelling, and the consequence is that only half as 
 many Jewish children complete the elementary course 
 as the Polish or Russian. This disadvantage is felt as 
 soon as the boys enter factories and works, for the 
 average Jewish artisan has little opportunity of master- 
 ing a craft. The trade passes from father to son. 
 When a boy has left the cheder, he goes to a master 
 craftsman in the ghetto, who knows very little about his 
 
92 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 work. There are many reasons connected with his 
 religious life which prevent him from being apprenticed 
 to a Polish master, and so he misses all the technical 
 part of his trade, and when he has done his term with 
 a co-religionist, he has not learned to work with good 
 materials or to draw or trace his own designs. In fact, 
 he never sees good models, and has not the slightest 
 idea of keeping his work clean or giving any care to its 
 finish. Little wonder, then, that when a boy taught in 
 the average Jewish workshop becomes a master in his 
 turn, he is obliged to confine himself to the poorest and 
 least remunerative work, or, if he enters a Polish shop, 
 is only fit to execute the humblest jobs, and is doomed 
 all his life to be an assistant. 
 
 Unfortunately, industrial schools are few and far 
 between in Russia, and the few there are afi'ord little or 
 no space for the Jewish people. The Jewish Communes 
 are already overburdened by self-imposed taxation for 
 the support of elementary schools, to say nothing of 
 hospitals, synagogues and various charitable institutions, 
 all of which have suffered severely during the past two 
 years from the results of the economic crisis which has 
 asserted itself throughout the Empire. It is therefore a 
 matter of surprise that the Jewish community has been 
 able to found the cheap technical schools which, imperfect 
 as they are, exist in some of the Jewish towns and 
 settlements. 
 
EDUCATION 93 
 
 (4) TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 
 
 These are of three Idnds : — 
 
 (1) Technical schools. 
 
 (2) Technical classes. 
 
 (3) Masters' schools. 
 
 The course in the technical schools covers a period of 
 three and even four years. Pupils learn the practical 
 part of their trade and drawing as well ; most of them 
 have gone through an elementary school and know how 
 to read and write. The idea of these schools is to turn 
 out good foremen and masters with a thorough know- 
 ledge of their work. But the teachers are bad, and have 
 neither a fixed plan nor a programme of the course of 
 instruction. 
 
 The Technical Classes are attached to elementary 
 schools, and the work done is more useful in fiUing up 
 the time left over from the general programme than 
 anything else ; at least four-sevenths of the school day 
 is spent on elementary education, leaving the rest for 
 instruction in trades, which is given without method. 
 In 40% of these classes no drawing or tracing is taught 
 at all. They have not given the results which were 
 expected. In many of them the pupils are only taught 
 handicrafts, and leave without any knowledge of 
 mechanics. In others, orders are received, but as a 
 rule, the pupils do not execute them. The girls' 
 classes are confined to teaching plain sewing and 
 knitting. 
 
94 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 In the Masters Schools the teaching of trade takes 
 the foremost phice. Pupils of both sexes have the 
 opportunity of devoting the greater part of their time 
 to practical work. A good deal of attention is paid to 
 instruction in drawing and tracing, but the fact that 
 many pupils who do not know how to read or write 
 are admitted hinders progress, especially in designing 
 and executing the more complicated and finished 
 work. 
 
 The teaching staff of these schools does not stand high. 
 The teachers are often themselves ignorant of the 
 technical part of their work. They have had no training 
 but what the Jewish shops can afford them. It is a 
 very rare thing to find teachers in the girls' schools who 
 have been through a course in the industrial schools, 
 either in Russia or abroad ; they know next to nothing 
 of the subject they attempt to teach, and often have not 
 as much as a qualifying certificate from the elementary 
 schools. 
 
 The lack of good teachers is especially evident in 
 classes in which carpentry, sewing and metal working are 
 taught. The lack of good Jewish masters for weaving, 
 ceramic work and modelling is such that these crafts 
 cannot be introduced into the school curriculum, a fact 
 which debars the Jew from competing with the Pole in 
 these branches. But, bad as these schools are, the pupils 
 rarely finish them.^ In the majority (60%) of cases this 
 is owing to the poverty of the parents — in 17% to the 
 1 28% in boys', and 24% in girls' schools. 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 95 
 
 inaptitude of the pupils. This latter reason is not so 
 general among boys as girls. 
 
 When we consider the above facts, it is not difficult 
 to understand why thousands of Jewish youths, without 
 any education, utterly unable to cope with modern 
 economic conditions, are, by their backwardness or 
 ignorance, a weight upon the communal organisations 
 which look after the Jewish poor as far as their limited 
 resources permit. 
 
 These organisations include the Commune, the Kahal, 
 and the Rabhinat. 
 
 The Commune, the Kahal, akd the Rabbinat 
 
 Although, as will be seen later on, Jewish Communes 
 and Kahals existed in Poland many hundreds of years 
 ago, the date of Jewish local government as recognised 
 by law is generally put as the year 1821, when the 
 following regulations were passed : — 
 
 (1) The Jews of each town to organise a Commune in 
 which the executive body shall be elected by all members 
 of the Jewish community who pay a tax. 
 
 (2) The executive body to fix the amount of the 
 tax according to the financial resources of the several 
 members of the community. 
 
 (3) The money thus collected to be expended upon 
 religious culture, education and charity. 
 
 The executive body of a Jewish Commune is known as 
 a Kahal ; except in Warsaw and Petersburg, where the 
 
96 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 word has been dropped for another term which is best 
 translated by the words " Executive Committee." The 
 power and influence of the old Kahals were pro- 
 verbial. To-day, though many changes have taken 
 place, the executive body of a Jewish Commune plays a 
 large part in the life of the Jews, and is in many ways 
 a bureaucratic institution which is now meeting with a 
 lot of criticism from certain parties in the Jewish com- 
 munities. This is especially observable in the big 
 towns, and I have chosen the Commune of Warsaw 
 because of its large field of work and the various 
 parties which are trying to influence the Executive 
 Committee. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the average Commune 
 consists of fourteen members, elected every three years 
 by the Jewish community. In Warsaw, only those who 
 pay an annual tax of at least fifteen roubles have a vote, 
 but the rate is much lower in the smaller towns, and 
 varies with the size and prosperity of the community. 
 Women are excluded from the elections and men can 
 vote by proxy. 
 
 According to the prescribed regulations, the candidate 
 who obtains the largest number of votes becomes 
 President of the Committee. This does not work well 
 in the larger Communes, and at Warsaw the leader is 
 chosen by the Committee in the following way. They 
 decide upon the man they want to lead them, and if he 
 has fewer votes than another, the latter gives his up 
 until a majority is obtained. 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 97 
 
 The President of the Town then confirms the Com- 
 munal President's election, and presents a list of 
 Committee for the Governor-General's assent. The 
 Vice-President is chosen unofficially by the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 The Commune of Warsaw has asked the Government 
 to introduce the following reforms :— 
 
 (1) To allow every man who pays the smallest com- 
 munal subscription to vote at the elections. 
 
 (2) To increase the number of the Executive Com- 
 mittee to eighteen, with three for replacing members who 
 may be absent. 
 
 (3) To accord the Executive Committee the right to 
 elect its own president. 
 
 The Government has refused to consider this request 
 until local government has been established. 
 
 The Executive Committee meets once a week to 
 discuss business and pass resolutions. In Warsaw their 
 decisions are carried out by thirty -two officials ; two 
 hundred and fifteen clerks being employed by the Com- 
 mune. The duties of the Committee are multifarious. 
 With the aid of sub-committees, chosen from among 
 the fourteen members, it imposes the tax known as the 
 communal subscription upon the community, controls 
 the expenditure in connection with the synagogues, 
 schools, hospitals, etc., appoints clerks in the different 
 institutions, has control of the communal estate, real 
 and personal, distributes the monies voluntarily sub- 
 scribed for charitable purposes, and governs the 
 
98 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 educational, economic and charitable institutions in 
 connection with the Commune. 
 
 In "Warsaw all this business is divided into eleven 
 departments, which respectively control — 
 
 General Business, 
 
 The Budget, 
 
 Charitable Institutions 
 
 Taxation, 
 
 Schools, 
 
 Workshops, 
 
 Loan Bank, 
 
 Pawnshop, 
 
 Legal Department, 
 
 and' the suburb of Praga. 
 
 Each department is composed of a president, vice- 
 president, and one member, who discuss their business 
 before bringing it before the general weekly meetings. 
 The department in control of the finances is responsible 
 for the annual budget, a report of which is presented 
 to the President of the Town and finally sent to the 
 Ministry of the Interior. At the time of writing, the 
 statistics for the year 1905 are not ready, but the 
 following figures give some idea of the way in which 
 the Jewish Commune at Warsaw expends the money 
 which passes through its hands. The figures are extracts 
 from the financial report for the year 1904, and have 
 been kindly given by a member of the Executive 
 Committee. 
 
 The Commune possesses twelve buildings, not counting 
 the Jewish hospital in the Wola district, built at a cost 
 of £120,000. The expenditure and income in 1904 
 amounted to nearly £31,000. In the year 1878 the 
 funds of the Commune amounted to £3,790, they are 
 now worth £70,500. There is a reserve fund of 
 £3,750. 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 
 
 99 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 £ 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 £ 
 
 Education 
 
 9,000 
 
 Taxes 
 
 ... 15,600 
 
 Charity 
 
 8,100 
 
 Contributions . . . 
 
 ... 6,780 
 
 Hospital, Orphanage, 
 
 
 Cemetery Dues... 
 
 ... 3,000 
 
 Alms-houses, etc. 
 
 4,150 
 
 Legacies 
 
 ... 4,000 
 
 Maintenance of Cemetery 
 
 3,180 
 
 Various 
 
 ... 1,600 
 
 Various ... 
 
 4,050 
 
 
 
 Obligations 
 
 2,000 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Total ... £30,480 
 
 £30,980 
 
 These figures are enormous when we take into con- 
 sideration that only a very small proportion of the 
 Jewish community can pay anything at all towards 
 communal expenses. According to the calculations of 
 the Executive Committee, the Commune contains 65,000 
 families with an average number of five members, and 
 of these, barely 10,000 heads of families can pay any 
 tax or contribution at all. Of this number again, only 
 one-third pay more than thirty shillings annually. 
 
 As no municipal aid whatever is given, the well-to-do 
 members of the Commune have to bear the burden of 
 the maintenance of the various expenses enumerated on 
 the table. 
 
 Lately, the tax, which is fixed by the Committee 
 according to the financial resources of the several 
 members of the community, has been increased, as more 
 than 300 heads of families have been unable to continue 
 to pay their communal subscription in consequence of 
 the depression which now prevails in all branches of 
 business. 
 
 At first sight it seems rather arbitrary treatment on 
 
loo THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the part of the Committee to decide how large a tax each 
 member of the Commune must pay, and many members 
 of the Commune complain of the Committee's despotism 
 in this respect as in others. But an incident which 
 occurred quite recently seems to point to the fact that 
 great care is exercised to ascertain the real amount of a 
 man's income before the tax is levded on him. 
 
 A Jew complained to the President of the Town that 
 his Commune had leAded too high a tax upon him. 
 When the aflfair was looked into, the Executive 
 Committee satisfied the authorities that the evidence of 
 a delegate from the income tax officials is always taken 
 and carefully sifted before a tax is levied, that when a 
 member of the Commune appeals, his case is considered 
 again, and if it transpires that he has been too highly 
 assessed, the amount is lowered. The Committee also 
 showed that the Jew in question was quite able to pay 
 the tax, and had appealed without sufficient reason. 
 
 The larger Communes maintain various charitable and 
 educational institutions, such as creches, orphanages, 
 alms-houses, asylums for idiots and elementary schools. 
 These institutions, although quite insufficient to meet the 
 demand, do much to better the condition of the sick and 
 indioent and to raise children above the level of the 
 
 ghetto. 
 
 The creches take a small sum from the mothers of 
 the babies who are left there. The orphanages and 
 schools are free. In the orphanages children between the 
 ages of two and seven are taught habits of cleanliness 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS loi 
 
 and order, attend a sort of Kindergarten class, where they 
 play games, sing Polish songs, and do easy physical drill. 
 The healthy conditions under which these children are 
 reared, the large rooms and the appearance of the 
 inmates compared with those who crowd the streets of 
 the Jewish quarter, make one regret that only 1,000 
 children in all can be accommodated. 
 
 At the age of seven the girls are sent to a sewing 
 school and the boys to one of the communal 
 Talmud-Tors. These schools are very different from 
 those described above. Though their number is 
 necessarily limited, they well bear comparison with 
 similar institutions in Europe, and are even better 
 managed, as far as attention to hygienic conditions is 
 concerned, than many in richer and more ciAdlised 
 countries. The pupils are taught Polish, Russian and 
 Arithmetic. Each child is clothed, fed and — an attention 
 not every child of well-to-do Polish parents receives — 
 sent to a bath twice a month. The Commune has no 
 official permission to teach Polish, and its request to be 
 allowed to establish a teachers' college has been refused. 
 The Government, true to its policy of Russification, would 
 give a concession on one condition, that is the employ- 
 ment of Russian and orthodox teachers. The Commune, 
 partly because many of its members are sincerely 
 attached to Polish culture, partly because the children in 
 the elementary schools must be fitted to compete with 
 Polish and not Russian rivals in the mills and workshops, 
 will not hear of this. The consequence is that, although 
 
I02 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the grounding is infinitely better and the course more 
 comprehensive than that in the Cheders and Talmud- 
 Tors over which the time-honoured melamed presides, 
 the teaching is far from what the men and women 
 interested in these schools would like it to be. 
 
 Then there are trade classes which give instruction to 
 1,800 boys and 210 girls ; and here again the Commune 
 is cramped for lack of funds. These elementary schools 
 have been started by the Communes at Lodz, Piotrkofi^, 
 Plock, Czenstochova, and Lomza. 
 
 There are also two Jewish schools of farming in the 
 Kingdom of Poland, one near Warsaw, on the estate of 
 Mr. Bersohn, with a hundred pupils, the other at 
 Czenstochova, with thirty pupils. The teachers are 
 Poles, and after finishing the course of instruction, the 
 pupils obtain situations as managers and baUifis on 
 estates belonging to rich Jews. 
 
 During the past two years an asylum for the deaf and 
 dumb has been established by the Warsaw Commune. 
 In this and a few other large Communes evening classes 
 are held for youths engaged during the day in the Jewish 
 workshops and factories. Lessons are given three times 
 a week in Polish and Russian, and on Saturdays, 
 religion. 
 
 In the Warsaw Commune from 140 to 160 boys are 
 received into these schools free of charge. Besides these 
 Talmud- Tors, trade classes and evening schools, the 
 Warsaw Commune maintains fourteen elementary 
 schools at an annual cost of £3,100. 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 103 
 
 The charitable institutions do good work and have 
 been much appreciated by the Jewish poor since the 
 Universal Strike of the autumn of 1905 brought 
 thousands of the proletariat face to face with starvation. 
 Cartloads of potatoes, flour, etc., to say nothing of warm 
 clothing, were distributed free by committees appointed 
 for the purpose. Two establishments which have always 
 to turn away applicants for want of funds are the pawn- 
 broker's shop and the loan bank. The pawnbroker's shop 
 advances money free of interest upon articles of clothing, 
 furniture, jewellery, etc. More than £4,140 was lent in 
 this way in Warsaw alone during the winter 1905-6. 
 The loan bank in the same Commune lends sums 
 varying from £5 to £20 to artisans and small tradesmen. 
 The Jewish hospital, alms-houses, and asylum for idiots, 
 though connected with the Commune are not under its 
 complete control, being managed by separate committees. 
 
 The Executive Committee is generally composed of 
 Conservatives, who cling to all the old Hebrew traditions, 
 and would exclude secular education from the school 
 curriculum ; Moderates, anxious to combine the two 
 in equal proportions ; and the Progressives, bent upon 
 bringing the organisations of the Commune up to modern 
 standards. 
 
 At the last elections, which took place a couple of 
 years ago, the Sionists made their appearance for the 
 first time, much to the concern of the other parties, who 
 have no sympathy with the movement, and although 
 neither of the three candidates was elected, the number 
 
I04 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 of votes they received warned the Committee that they 
 may prove to be an element to be reckoned with at the 
 next elections. 
 
 Apart from political opinions, which are fully repre- 
 sented in the Commune, there is a large party at War- 
 saw which clamours for reforms in the general plan of 
 communal administration, and especially in the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee. This party has been grumbling in 
 a suppressed way for some years, but during the last few 
 months its voice has been heard in louder tones, and there 
 is no doubt that the agitation will bear fruit at the next 
 elections. One of the party, a man whom his colleagues 
 generally choose as spokesman, boldly criticises the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee. Among other things he says : — " At 
 present the whole business of the Commune is managed 
 by a small committee of fourteen men, who levy taxes, 
 take cemetery dues, appoint clerks and officials in the 
 communal institutions, and what is more than all this, 
 dispose of the communal funds without consulting the 
 wishes of those who have subscribed the money, con- 
 trolling the expenditure of all the charitable, educational 
 and economical institutions. This Executive Committee 
 acts in an autocratic manner, and passes all resolutions 
 without the concurrence, and often without the know- 
 ledge, of the Jewish community. I even venture to 
 affirm that the way in which they spend the communal 
 monies, without the consent of the other members of the 
 Commune, is illegal, for, by a circular published by the 
 Committee of Religious Faiths and Public Education in 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 105 
 
 the year 1830, and by a further regulation, issued in the 
 year 1852, it was decreed that all monies given for the 
 maintenance of " Houses of Prayer" (synagogues), Eabbi- 
 nats, hospitals, charitable institutions, cemeteries, etc., 
 must be disposed of according to the wishes of the ma- 
 jority of the members of the Commune. The Executive 
 Committee does not comply with this regulation. It 
 seems clear that it was drawn up in order that all the 
 members of the Commune might have a voice in the ex- 
 penditure of their money. These people are obliged to 
 pay taxes levied by the Committee, whether they will or 
 not, and all the privilege they get in return is the right of 
 electing a body of men to dispose of their contributions, 
 and even this privilege, if it is one, is denied to a very 
 large proportion of the community, because of the high 
 tax necessary for a vote. These arrangements are contrary 
 to the most elementary ideas of democratic government. 
 But as a matter of fact, the Executive Committee of the 
 Commune is a despotic organisation, for, with the excep- 
 tion of the local magistrate, who is its nominal chief, and, 
 de facto, never interferes, it is under nobody's control, 
 and responsible to none for its actions. This does not 
 matter so much in the small towns, where the whole 
 Commune consists of a few hundred members, whose 
 ideas and aims are about the same, and who may, by 
 taking an interest in the activity of the Kalial, manage 
 to suppress any autocratic tendencies. But the case is 
 very different in a large town like Warsaw, where the 
 Jewish Commune, the largest on the Continent, contains 
 
io6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 over 300,000 members, who hold various views, from 
 Chassidism to the most advanced Sociahsm. The 
 management of such a Commune should be in the 
 hands, not of fourteen men, but of a much larger body- 
 enjoying the confidence of every class and every shade 
 of opinion in the Commune, Moreover, this body ought 
 to be a permanent institution, and the Executive Com- 
 mittee ought to respect its decisions as the expression of 
 public opinion. The number of members of the Com- 
 mittee should be increased to twenty-four, and a group 
 of representatives, elected by the Commune, ought to 
 control its movements. These representatives should 
 have the power of inspecting the budget, of organising a 
 taxation committee, of electing Rabbis from among the 
 candidates who present themselves, and of representing 
 the Commune in all subsidiary institutions. The de- 
 liberations of these representatives should be open to 
 any of those members of the Commune who wish to 
 attend, and the Executive Committee should be obliged 
 to present them with a full report of business done 
 during the year. These arrangements would do much 
 to increase the usefulness of the Commune and develop 
 its possibilities, as well as repressing the bureaucratic 
 tendencies of the Executive Committee. At present the 
 Jewish press only publishes as much of the Communal 
 reports as the Committee cares to give, and it follows 
 that they are scanty of facts and rich in praise of that 
 body's good qualities. Only inspired organs publish an 
 account of its proceedings. This is not the case in 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 107 
 
 Western Europe, and in Vienna the committee meetings 
 are open to the Jewish community. 
 
 " All those who speak enthusiastically of the activity 
 of the Jewish Communes in Poland and in the rest of 
 the Russian Empire make one great mistake, that is, 
 they compare the Communes here with those in other 
 parts of the world. They forget the enormous difference 
 in the conditions under which the Jews live here and in 
 other countries. There, their numbers are much smaller 
 and their financial position better. There, the Jewish 
 Communes confine their activity to building synagogues, 
 keeping up cemeteries, attending to ritualistic observ- 
 ances, and in rare cases to building hospitals, almshouses, 
 and orphanages. But in Poland the case is very different. 
 Thanks to political and social conditions, and partly also 
 to Talmudism, the Jews in Poland have preserved their 
 exclusiveness. At one time, when Poland was a purely 
 agricultural country, the Jews formed the commercial 
 class. Now that agriculture has to a great extent given 
 way to industry, they are obliged to earn their living as 
 artisans. This is not at all easy for them ; the few 
 national schools the country possesses do not take Jewish 
 pupils willingly, and the corporations, clinging to old 
 traditions, exclude Jews. The consequence is that they 
 are bad artisans and mechanics. Their bad health and 
 the different religious observances are also against their 
 taking a good place in the industrial world. Unfortun- 
 ately, their physical deterioration is on the increase, and 
 in a country in which the Jewish masses live under such 
 
io8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 adverse conditions as in Poland, the Communes ought to 
 do something more than manage cemeteries, slaughter- 
 houses, and the mylcva (ritualistic bath). They ought 
 to look after the moral, physical, and economic develop- 
 ment of the community, and fit it to compete with its 
 rivals. The schools are badly in want of funds, and the 
 management of the hospital in Warsaw is on a par with 
 the relations between the subscribers and the Committee. 
 The Jewish community gives thousands of roubles to 
 keep up this hospital, which is under the control of one 
 man, the Curator. The patients are always complaining 
 of the food, and, if the evidence of doctors who are 
 not on the regular staff is to be believed, the complaints 
 are not altogether unjust. The hospital servants are so 
 badly paid that only a very inferior class of person will 
 take the situations, and the consequence is that the 
 patients are badly nursed and fed. Besides this, the 
 accommodation is quite insufficient. Years ago, when 
 the Jewish population in Warsaw did not exceed 30,000, 
 there were 400 beds ; to-day there are only 500, which 
 means that, whereas the population has increased by 
 900 per cent., the number of beds has increased by 90 per 
 cent., and this in spiteof a great increase in sickness, caused 
 by bad food and dwellings and increased poverty. The 
 hospital should be under the complete control of the 
 Jewish Commune, which should also take steps to 
 establish a sanitorium to meet the growing scourge of 
 consumption and the prevalence of nervous diseases 
 among the inhabitants of the ghetto. But of course. 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 109 
 
 these are all questions which can only be satisfactorily 
 solved when local government, in the widest sense of the 
 term, has been given to the towns and to the Communes 
 as well. At any rate, Jewish opinion has been aroused 
 of late, and the days of a bureaucratic Executive 
 Committee are numbered." 
 
 The mere observer wonders where all the money is to 
 come from if sweeping reforms are to be made by a 
 community of which only a small fraction can aflFord 
 to pay anything at all for its various institutions. As 
 far as elementary education is concerned, the abolition 
 of the cheders and their substitution by elementary 
 schools of a modern type would cost the parents of the 
 children who use them no more than they now pay. 
 The difficulty would be to overcome the Conservative 
 views of the parents, who look upon the melamed as a 
 sacred institution, and rarely think their children ought 
 to learn anything but Talmudic lore. 
 
 In contrast to this reform party, the Executive 
 Committee of the Warsaw Commune encounters opposi- 
 tion in another direction from two other sources — the 
 Eussian authorities, who seem bent upon doing all they 
 can to prevent the civilised Jews from raising their un- 
 civilised masses above their present level, and the Con- 
 servative members of the Commune, who would like the 
 Jewish youth to live in a Talmudistic atmosphere, where 
 his mental range is bounded by the Beth-Hamidrash 
 or the Talmud-Tors. Quite recently the Sionists sent 
 delegates to one of the Communal orphanages and asked 
 
no THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the Superintendent what she taught the children under 
 her charge. When she told them they asked what 
 language they sang in ? " Polish " was the answer. 
 " Why don't you teach them their own jargon ? " her 
 visitors asked. The woman said she did not know any 
 jargon, at which they told her she ought to be ashamed 
 of herself for not knowing her own language, and that 
 they would soon find means of replacing her by some- 
 body who did. 
 
 As for the policy of the Eussian authorities, it is 
 prompted, as an official in Warsaw remarked in a 
 moment of expansion, by fear of the Jew, who is clever 
 and likely to prove a formidable rival if given equal 
 chances. The day of equal chances is, the Jewish 
 revolutionaries say, not far off, and though the Executive 
 Committee of the Warsaw Commune is far from sharing 
 their political opinions, it, and the similar institutions 
 in several other large towns, do what they can to fit the 
 Jewish masses for the unequal fight against prevailing 
 economic conditions. The Conservative members of the 
 Commune cry out against the assimilating influence of 
 the elementary schools, in which the children are taught 
 Polish instead of the jargon of the ghetto, and where 
 secular education takes up a large part of the children's 
 time. The Sionists have much the same complaints to 
 make, and those Rabbis who know no Polish, and are 
 therefore excluded from the livings in the Communal 
 gift, join in the criticism. 
 
 Whatever mistakes and shortcomings the Commune 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS iii 
 
 of Warsaw may make, the stranger who sees their efforts 
 to raise at least a small fraction of the Jewish poor from 
 their present misery and fit a few children to earn 
 decent wages, and takes into consideration the opposition 
 from within and without, to say nothing of the lack of 
 sufficient funds, cannot but admire the courage with 
 which the difficulties are overcome and the wisdom with 
 which the money is spent in the good work. 
 
 The Rabbinat is in connection with the Commune. 
 At one time the Commune of Warsaw possessed only 
 one chief Rabbi, but a college of Rabbis, known as the 
 Rabbinat, has now been in existence for the past twenty- 
 five years. There are twelve Rabbis in the Rabbinat, 
 corresponding in numbers to the twelve wards into 
 which the town is divided. Each Rabbi presides over 
 the Rabbinat for a month, according to the Jewish 
 calendar. Each of these Rabbis has his own synagogue, 
 where he performs all the duties in connection with his 
 parish. The registers of marriages and births are kept 
 by him, but are inspected by a commission appointed 
 by the Executive Committee. This supervision has 
 been found necessary, because the Jewish poor^ ignore 
 the regulations in connection with births and marriages, 
 and, if it were not for the vigilance of the Commune, 
 many marriages would be considered invalid by the 
 Russian authorities. These Rabbis do not attend any 
 special school or pass an examination. They study 
 in the Beth-Hamidrash until they think they know 
 
112 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 enough, of the Talmud and the Law, when they go 
 to some of the Rabbinat with a certificate of efficiency 
 and ask them to sign it. The more signatures the certifi- 
 cate has, the better qualified the Rabbi is supposed to be. 
 
 The Executive Committee tries to appoint only such 
 Rabbis to the communal synagogues as have a knowledge 
 of Polish and at least some idea of the country in which 
 they live. This is by no means easy, and the need of 
 a seminary is badly felt. Besides the twelve communal 
 synagogues, there are 380 "Houses of Prayer" in 
 Warsaw alone, placed in small rooms in the ghetto, 
 where studious youths listen to the harangues of some 
 Rabbi and pore over obscure passages in the Talmud. 
 There are several hundred such Rabbis in a Commune of 
 moderate size, and in Warsaw, at any rate, the Com- 
 mittee is always waging war with the unsanitary con- 
 dition in which their " Houses of Prayer " are kept ; but, 
 as usual, the police decline to interfere, and these 
 hotbeds of disease continue to multiply. 
 
 Years ago the Communal Rabbis were much more 
 powerful than they are now. But during the last three 
 decades, in spite of bitter opposition from the Rabbis 
 themselves and from the Conservatives, their influence 
 has weakened, and secular business now occupies much 
 of the time which was formerly devoted to questions of 
 ritual and spiritual education. 
 
 Although the growth of Socialistic parties has done 
 much to weaken the rabbinical power in the larger 
 Communes, it is still in evidence in the smaller towns 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 113 
 
 and provincial settlements, andin such places a delinquent 
 will confess his guilt to a Rabbi when he has denied it 
 to everybody else. 
 
 A short time ago a lot of excitement was caused 
 among the Jews in a small town by the fact that a 
 train, filled with emigrants bound for America, was 
 searched by the police, who arrested the passengers and 
 confiscated their ship-tickets. The Rabbi was appealed 
 to, and found out that the police had been informed 
 that the emigrants were political offenders, escaping 
 from Lithuania. A search was made for the traitor, 
 and suspicion pointed to a Jewish emigration agent, 
 who denied all knowledge of the affair. But when the 
 Rabbi questioned him, he admitted that he had de- 
 nounced the emigrants because they had booked their 
 passage through another agent, and he had sworn to be 
 revenged. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards another case came to my 
 knowledge ; this time a graver offence had been com- 
 mitted. Some Jewish merchants had been murdered on 
 the high-road near Lodz, and the man who was driving 
 them said that the assassins were also Jews. The police 
 did not make any arrests, and the local Rabbi determined 
 to settle the question of the murderers' identity for 
 himself, and as he could not get any information by 
 making inquiries in the usual way among his flock, he 
 told all the Jews in the town to shut up their shops 
 and go to the synagogue on Monday morning. When 
 the building was full, the trumpeters attached to 
 
114 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the synagogue blew their trumpets, and the Rabbi 
 called upon all who knew anything about the mur- 
 derers to come forward. One man gave himself up 
 at once, and some others showed the Eabbi where 
 the rest of the band were hiding. Before the day 
 was over all the assassins were given over to the 
 police. 
 
 The Rabbi at Lodz, an old man who has been there 
 for over thirty years, is quite a despot and makes all 
 sorts of rules which the Jews have to obey. His latest 
 invention is a licence for selling milk, for which he 
 makes the Jewish dairyman pay five shillings a month. 
 As few of them make as much as five shillings profit in 
 the time, the complaints against the hard-hearted Rabbi 
 are many and frequent ; but as he forbids any Jew to 
 sell milk without his permission, they have to pay it, or 
 retire from the business. 
 
 The following incident occurred in Warsaw during 
 the winter of 1905-6. A Jew named N. lent a Rabbi 
 one hundred roubles on a bill, and as he could not get 
 his money back again at the end of the term agreed 
 upon, he went to law about it and obtained an order to 
 seize the Rabbi's furniture. But his triumph was short- 
 lived, for the same evening ten men, armed with 
 revolvers and knives, went to his lodging and forced 
 him to sign a declaration that the Rabbi had paid the 
 hundred roubles. This done, they beat N. and his wife 
 and departed with the declaration. 
 
 Another instance of the authority of the Rabbi occurred 
 
COMMUNAL ORGANISATIONS 115 
 
 a short time ago. A case was brought before a court- 
 martial in which several Jews were accused of killing 
 a policeman, or a straznik ziemshi, that is a man who 
 performs the duties of a policeman in the country 
 districts. They were sentenced to death on the 
 evidence of some false witnesses, also Jews ; and the 
 sentence was finally remitted. But the Eabbi of the 
 place in which the accused Jews lived sent a telegram 
 to the Head Eabbi in Palestine, where the false 
 witnesses had escaped, directing him to call them to 
 the synagogue to make a full confession, under 
 oath, before the Russian Consul. They did so, and 
 thanks to the Rabbi's interference, the case was 
 satisfactorily cleared up. 
 
 Nevertheless, political organisations have obtained a 
 firm footing in the ghetto, and play an important part 
 in the current affairs of Poland. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS : SIONISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM 
 
 SlONISM 
 
 It seems scarcely pertinent to remind the reader that 
 Sionism, as a movement, was organised by the late 
 Theodore Hertzl ; that Marks and Hess, upon the 
 German side, and Pinskier, Lilienblum and Rosenfeld 
 on the Russian, had written upon the subject before; 
 that Hertzl convoked the first Universal Congress of 
 Sionists in 1879 ; that this same congress was the first 
 public protest of Jewry against the position of the 
 Semite in Europe, and that those there assembled 
 decided that the sole means of solving the Jewish 
 problem was to open an asylum for those children of 
 Israel who are unable or unwilling to assimilate with 
 the great Aryan races. So far all was perfectly straight 
 sailing for Mr. Hertzl and his adherents. But no sooner 
 did Sionism begin to spread throughout the Jewish 
 communities of Europe, no sooner were branches estab- 
 lished within the communes and shelters and Jewish 
 settlements of the Russian Empire, than complications 
 arose, complications as diverse as the spheres which had 
 
 been represented at the congress, when the Jewish 
 
 ii6 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 117 
 
 journalist sat down with the Rabbi and the London 
 banker with the Galieian factor. Digressions were 
 inevitable in such a gathering, and before long the 
 adherents of Sionism had divided into two parties, 
 known respectively as the Orthodox and the Progressive. 
 The first dreams of a return to Palestine, where Hebrew 
 culture is to develop upon ancient soU, untrammelled by- 
 Aryan oppression. The second advocates the cultural 
 education of the Jewish masses before emigration. The 
 Orthodox Sionists again split into two parties^one 
 adhering to the former project of returning to Palestine, 
 the other ready (theoretically) to emigrate to any 
 favourable colony which the British or another govern- 
 ment would, offer. The Progressive likewise formulated 
 two distinct professions of faith, cultural and political. 
 The cultural Progressives have just been referred to, and 
 the political Progressives affirming that, as the human 
 character is formed by environment alone, the first step 
 necessary is to obtain political autonomy. The members 
 of this last party are known as the Social Sionists. 
 
 Before considering the position of Sionism in Poland, 
 either as cultural separation or as a movement in favour 
 of emigration to Palestine, let us dispose of Social- 
 Sionism. 
 
 Social-Sionism aims at converting the Sionists to 
 Socialism before they go to Palestine, in order to facili- 
 tate the establishment of a Socialistic government when 
 their dreams have been realised and they have arrived 
 in the Land of Promise. In the meantime they do 
 
ii8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 their best to overthrow those European Governments 
 which do not attain to their political standard. In 
 Poland the party chiefly owes its recruits to the school- 
 boy and school-girl population. I have not yet come 
 across a Social-Sionist over twenty-five years of age, 
 and, after making various inquiries into the cause, 
 ascertained that its members generally join the Bund 
 before they arrive at years of discretion, preferring to 
 leave Palestine to the Orthodox Sionists, and devote 
 their energies to the establishment of a new form of 
 government which will give the Jews civil rights 
 throughout the Russian Empire. I think we need not 
 linger over the Social-Sionists. Their programme, which 
 is full of Socialistic ideas, and which they have not the 
 influence to carry out, is not particularly interesting. 
 It includes the organisation of strikes, acts of terror, 
 and, the organisers being very young, acts of folly 
 as well. 
 
 In July last (1906) the party managed to organise 
 a strike of waiters serving in the Jewish restaurants in 
 Warsaw. Extravagant demands were put forth, and, 
 as the employers could not accede to them, a certain 
 amount of terrorism was brought to bear, not only on 
 the restaurant keepers, but on the strikers as well. At 
 one meeting, when negotiations were on foot, an agitator, 
 who dropped in unawares, turned to a restaurant keeper 
 with the words — " If you don't agree to our terms, we'll 
 come and rip up your wives' stomachs." When the 
 strikers heard this threat, their waning courage was 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 119 
 
 renewed, and they determined to go on with the fight. 
 Being addicted to the manufacture of bombs, used when 
 circumstances allow, on their political enemies, the 
 Social- Sionists are sometimes unpleasant members of 
 society. The following incident will show that even 
 extreme youth, when engaged upon active politics, may 
 prove dangerous, unless, as in this case, chance places 
 the secret in other hands. 
 
 During the month of May (1906), a month in which 
 bombs were particularly prevalent in Poland and 
 Lithuania, the Social- Sionists were nonplussed in the 
 town of Minsk by a casual policeman, who, whilst 
 standing on his beat in the Jewish quarter, noticed that 
 some sparks were proceeding from the courtyard of 
 a house close by. He went to the str6z (house- 
 guardian) who told him that a small fire had broken 
 out on the third floor, but that the tenants of the flat 
 had extinguished it without any help. The policeman 
 was about to return to his post, when upon glancing 
 round the courtyard he saw a barrel standing in a 
 distant corner. Being an inquisitive man, he peeped 
 into the barrel and found that it contained two bombs. 
 Mentally connecting them with the fire on the third 
 floor, he telephoned for some soldiers and gendarmes, 
 and proceeded with them to the flat in question. Their 
 search was rewarded by finding a packet of dynamite, 
 a completed bomb, five revolvers, a few boxes of 
 ammunition and various articles used in bomb-making, 
 such as glass cylinders, iron, glycerine and chemicals. 
 
120 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 There were also several packets of the party's proclama- 
 tions. In an adjoining attic they found two more 
 completed bombs, and one awaiting the finishing 
 touches ; another store of proclamations and literature 
 printed in Yiddish and Hebrew, three sacks of dynamite 
 and some chemicals. Mr. Wolf Funt, the tenant of the 
 flat, and five young Jews found on the premises, told 
 the gendarmes about the fire. Two bombs were all but 
 finished — they needed but the addition of iron-scraping 
 to render them ready for use, when by some chance the 
 dynamite they contained caught fire. Funt and his 
 accomplices, anxious above all things to keep the secret 
 of the accident from the stroz, hurriedly put out the 
 fire, and fearing that the police, attracted by the smoke 
 which proceeded from the windows, would arrive to 
 make enquiries, tried to rid the room of the remaining 
 bombs as quickly as possible. Two were placed in the 
 courtyard in the barrel, and a third, not quite filled, 
 was thrown into a neighbouring garden. The policeman 
 interrupted them at this stage of the proceedings, the 
 bombs, dynamite and literature were confiscated and 
 the Social-Sionists arrested. Whom their bombs were 
 intended for did not transpire, but it is to be hoped 
 that the high ofiicials of Minsk felt grateful to the alert 
 policeman whose discoveries interrupted the labours of 
 the bomb-makers. 
 
 Cultural Sionism, the Sionism which aims at imbuing 
 the Jewish proletariat with Hebrew culture, was, like all 
 forms of the movement, introduced into Poland from 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 121 
 
 Lithuania. These Sionists do not intend to conduct the 
 Jewish proletariat back to Palestine. They affirm that 
 Sion or the Sionistic atmosphere can be reached in any 
 land in which the Jews live, whether it be England, 
 Eussia, America or the desert of Sahara, that it consists 
 not in territory, but in an atmosphere of separation, in 
 the cult of Yiddish, of Jewish traditions and customs, 
 of the hopes and aims which separate the Jewish masses 
 from the rest of the world. 
 
 So much for the theories of Sionism ; we will now see 
 how they work out in practice. First let us look at the 
 effect which these theories have made upon the Jewish 
 and Polish communities. Nowhere do we find such 
 bitter opponents to Cultural Sionism as amongst those 
 Jews who, having adopted Polish culture themselves, 
 are anxious that the Jewish masses should follow their 
 example. They regard the jargon with abhorrence and 
 the halat with disgust. They look upon them, and 
 justly, as the symbols of Hebrew separatism and as the 
 anti-civilisation sentiments of the ghetto. In order to 
 release the minds of the masses from all the prejudices 
 these two symbols represent, they do their best to intro- 
 duce the Polish language into the ghetto, and persuade 
 its inhabitants to adopt European customs and clothes. 
 This doctrine of the Sionistic atmosphere is their worst 
 enemy, because the Jewish proletariat, too indifferent 
 and morally blind to care for the civilisation around 
 him, prefers to read his Yiddish papers and attend 
 a Yiddish theatre, where his own sordid existence is 
 
122 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 portrayed by those who live and feel and speak 
 as he. 
 
 But the assimilator is as strongly opposed to orthodox 
 Sionism. He boldly affirms that the movement is not 
 only injurious to the vital interests of the Jewish pro- 
 letariat. It is more ; it is a cruel deception of those 
 who are blindly attached to it, because it aims at 
 establishing a political and economical Utopia. From his 
 point of view it is a political Utopia, because the Turkish 
 Government will never allow a separate people, ambitious 
 and exclusive, imbued with a mixture of Markism and 
 Talmudism, to live within their domains ; because even 
 if Turkey were foolish enough to agree to their settle- 
 ments, the Christians throughout the world would never 
 admit the Holy Sepulchre — rescued from the infidel with 
 the blood of the Crusaders, stamped with the mark of 
 a thousand traditions, the monument of all that endears 
 the Christian to his faith, the last earthly resting-place 
 of the Founder of his faith, the monument for whose 
 possession whole countries were plunged into bitter 
 wars, for which men have devoted their lives, suffered 
 hunger and thirst, received wounds and courted death 
 itself — to fall into the hands of the very people who 
 mocked and betrayed and crucified Him who was taken 
 from the Cross and laid within that grave. The Sionist 
 leaders, the assimilator affirms, little guess the measure 
 of the Christian's love and reverence for the land 
 whence his faith first sprung. They know as little of 
 the psychology of Christianity as they do of the Judaism 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 123 
 
 they have ceased to believe in. They forget that 
 fanaticism, the great motive power of human action, 
 is not dead, either in Christian or Jew, in gentile or 
 Semite; they have omitted to reckon with this huge 
 force, which they as non-religious men cannot feel, but 
 which still affects a large portion of the human race. 
 " Were you," the assimilator warns the Sionist — " were 
 you to realise your dream and send the Jewish proletariat 
 to overflow the Holy Land, such a protest would be 
 raised throughout Christendom as the Crusaders of old 
 raised against your own forefathers, driving them with 
 bitter persecutions from all Europe to seek refuge and 
 protection in Poland itself. Then, indeed, would anti- 
 Semitism be aroused against those who dare to desecrate 
 the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulchre." But the 
 assimilator does not stop here. He has arguments of 
 an economic nature wherewith to combat Sionism. He 
 reminds the leaders that Palestine is only capable of 
 supporting one million souls, whereas they dream of 
 transporting nine millions thither ; that the world 
 cannot furnish the means of transporting nine millions 
 of emigrants from diflferent parts of the universe ; that 
 the Jewish population increases at such a rapid rate 
 that, even if all Jews were Sionists and subscribed to 
 the cause, if all the Jewish millionaires gave a fifth part 
 of their fortune for the purpose, then, and only then, 
 would it be possible to carry out a sufiiciently large 
 emigration scheme within a year to equal the increase 
 of the Jewish population during that time. " But even 
 
124 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 supposing," the assimilator continues — " even supposing 
 that every Jew be a Sionist — which he is not — and 
 paid his subscription regularly ; supposing that every 
 Jewish millionaire sacrificed one-fifth of his fortune and 
 one million Jews emigrated en masse to Palestine, how 
 would they earn their daily bread in this Hebrew 
 Utopia ? They are bad agriculturists, and, bad as they 
 be, there are too few of them to be able to undertake 
 the cultivation of the land. They do not take kindly 
 to factory work, and leave it as soon as they can afford 
 to exchange the mill for a shop. No doubt they would 
 make very fair artisans if they cared to be taught, for 
 the anti-Semites themselves do not deny their intelli- 
 gence. But how will they learn in Palestine ? At the 
 feet of the Talmudists who think that it is sufficient to 
 expound the Jewish law and observe the Jewish ritual ? 
 True, the Jews are excellent merchants, traders and 
 middlemen ; but whom will they trade with ? What 
 will they sell ? How will the thousands of Jews who 
 now earn their living in Poland by running the Poles' 
 errands and acting as middlemen between the producer 
 and buyer, live in Palestine, where they will be in- 
 capable of producing anything themselves, and where 
 there are no Poles to produce things for them ? Who 
 will finance the factories, and, even if they get established, 
 who wdl trade with Palestine ? Who will buy shoddy 
 boots and clothing ? Who will borrow money from the 
 usurer, consult the lawyer or pay the doctor? The 
 Jewish colonies which are already established in the 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 125 
 
 Argentine, the Transvaal, Canada, aye, and in Palestine 
 itself, advertise the failure of your movement, for in 
 spite of the large sums of money which have been 
 expended upon them, they are developing in an 
 alarmingly feeble manner. What is this Hebrew 
 culture you talk so much about ? What civilisation 
 fitted to establish a government and guide a nation 
 under modern conditions can proceed from the cult of 
 the Talmud, of Yiddish, and of the halat ? Your 
 Eabbis are against any other cult. They will want to 
 rule the community as Moses ruled the people of Israel. 
 Instead of breaking down the walls of the ghetto and 
 shedding the light of civilisation amongst the in- 
 habitants, you would establish a national ghetto, a 
 state of anti-civilisation, a state which no enlightened 
 Jew will return to." 
 
 So the assimilators argue ; but they are not the only 
 enemies Sionism has to confront in Poland. 
 
 Those Jews who have cast in their lot with the 
 various parties which are struggling for the establish- 
 ment of civic liberty in the Eussian Empire have an 
 unanimous complaint against both the Cultural and the 
 Orthodox Sionists. They accuse the advocates of the 
 Sionistic atmosphere of luring the Jewish proletariat 
 back into the darkness of the jargon and the Talmud, 
 of creating a ferment of anti-civilisation, and a feeling 
 of hatred for all that can raise the masses from the 
 moral and social depths into which they are sunk, of 
 undoing the work of a few decades by conjuring back 
 
126 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the baneful influences of centuries, in influences of the 
 ghetto, of oppression and destitution. 
 
 They are not more favourably disposed towards the 
 Orthodox Sionists, for against them they lodge an 
 additional and too just complaint ; a complaint that 
 they are absolutely indifferent to the present struggle 
 for freedom which is convulsing the Russian Empire. 
 They maintain that the Sionists gloat over the Jewish 
 massacres and take joy in the laws which fetter the 
 Hebrew, because they see in all the injustice and 
 oppression of a cruel government one great advantage 
 — a facility for the propagation of their movement. 
 
 Amongst the Poles themselves, Sionism with its 
 separatism, with its anti-communal and anti-cultural 
 tenets, has only served to increase anti-Semitism. To 
 the Polish nature, easy-going though it be, there is 
 something particularly obnoxious in the contemplation 
 of the better part of a million Jews, whose forefathers 
 found a refuge in the country at a period when the 
 Semite was chivied and chased from all parts of Europe, 
 who have lived upon that country for centuries, some 
 of whom have even amassed fortunes, assuming an 
 attitude of hostde exclusiveness towards the very people 
 to whom they owe so much, flaunting the cult of the 
 jargon, the halat and the Talmud before their eyes, and 
 eagerly looking forward to the time when they will 
 have amassed a sufficient quantity of Polish gold to 
 bear them over the seas and establish them in Palestine 
 to continue the cult practised in the land of exile. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 127 
 
 " We have no objection to Sionism," the Poles affirm, 
 " inasmuch as it means a speedy return of the Jews to 
 Palestine. Indeed, we did not ask you to leave that 
 land of your dreams and take up your abode amongst 
 us. Once you were here we tolerated you. True you 
 have monopolised our trade and commerce and eaten 
 into the very heart of the community with your factors 
 and your money-lenders, feeding upon it as the parasite 
 feeds upon its prey. No walk of life is free from you 
 — you enter the professions as well as the trades, but 
 we are a lazy people and found you useful. We do not 
 like you personally, but we must admire many excellent 
 qualities which you possess, in which we are deficient, 
 and which, thanks to your presence, we have had little 
 chance of developing. Go to Palestine or America or 
 England as soon as you like. Neither shall we complain 
 very much if you decide to stay, but we strongly object 
 to your living here and spreading your Sionistic atmo- 
 sphere throughout the Jewish settlements of the country 
 and fanning the feeling of anti-Semitism which lies 
 dormant in the hearts of the Polish masses, and which, 
 if aroused, might lead to demonstrations that we, as a 
 humane and cultured people, would deeply regret, but 
 which the arrogance of the Jewish masses does much to 
 call forth." 
 
 Of the two evils the average Pole prefers the Jewish 
 nationalist who aims at establishing a Jewish nation by 
 the side of the Polish, but does not contemplate trans- 
 porting the spoils of commerce, trade and usury to a 
 
128 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 distant land, after creating antagonism between the 
 Hebrew and the Sclav. Nothing galls him so much as 
 the attitude of the Sionist who speaks of the land in 
 which he and his forefathers have lived for centuries as 
 one of oppression, suffering and exile, as a stepping- 
 stone to wealth and Palestine. The revival of anti- 
 Semitism, apparent during the past few years even 
 amongst the educated Poles, owes its existence to the 
 Sionistic atmosphere which many Jews have helped to 
 create. 
 
 On the other hand, anti-Semitism is helpful to the 
 Sionist, who considers massacre, oppression and tribu- 
 lation as the best means of converting the Jewish 
 proletariat to his way of thinking. This fact is 
 sufficiently illustrated in the Sionist organs which adopt 
 a tone of martyrdom, when writing of the conditions 
 under which the Polish Jew lives. The following 
 extract from a Yiddish newspaper is a very fair 
 specimen of the sentiments which are expressed in this 
 kind of literature. 
 
 One says — " The longer the country sucks in 
 our blood, the poorer, weaker, more oppressed and 
 darkened we shall become ; therefore we must sacrifice 
 all our strength to Sionism, we must offer up sacrifices 
 which will bring us nearer to the goal, for Sionism is 
 the only way of escape from our present unbearable 
 position." 
 
 And again — 
 
 " Let our blood flow that we may at last come into 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 129 
 
 our inheritance. We will cover with our corpses the 
 path which leads, not to exile, but to Sion, though every 
 clod of earth we gain there shall exact a sacrifice. We 
 will work not for strange gods but for ourselves alone." 
 Visions of Jewish massacres and persecutions, of the 
 Poles slaying the Hebrew stranger that is within his 
 gates, are conjured up by such articles. One would 
 imagine to read them that the horrible scenes recently 
 enacted in various towns in Eussia, when the Jews were 
 merciless'ly tortured, disgrace Poland daily. One would 
 think that the Polish Jew was safe to shed his blood for 
 the Sionistic cause in a fanatical desire to reach the 
 promised Land, the land of his inheritance. This picture 
 of the Jews soaking the land of their exile with their 
 blood and covering the road to Sion with their bodies 
 appears rather terrible. It certainly would be so if the 
 Polish Jews intended to make such sacrifice. But they 
 do not. Rich or poor, cultured or ignorant, they have 
 little sympathy with the Sionism which invests money 
 in Palestine or emigrates there. Though the assimilator's 
 objection might be slightly exaggerated, it is not without 
 reason that he points out that the Sionist lawyer, doctor 
 and shopkeeper, though he may attend party meetings 
 in Poland and even send delegates to the large congresses, 
 does not seriously contemplate the idea of leaving the 
 land of his birth and settling in Jerusalem. Ask the 
 leaders of the Sionist branch in Warsaw when they intend 
 to start for Palestine, or the head of the territorialist 
 branch whether he will go to whatever country his 
 
I30 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 leader may choose as a colony. Ask the editors of the 
 Sionistic newspapers whether and when they contemplate 
 beginning a new life beyond the seas. They will all tell 
 you that they do not intend — unless forced for political 
 reasons — to leave Poland, that they are bound to that 
 country by a thousand ties of interest and affection, that 
 they foresee a not-far-distant day when Jewish energies 
 and Jewish intelligence will have full scope in the 
 Eussian Empire. If you enquire why, under these cir- 
 cumstances, they are Sionists, they will reply that they 
 adhere to the movement, not for their own sakes but for 
 the sakes of the oppressed and indigent Jewish proleta- 
 riat that cannot keep body and soul together in the 
 country. 
 
 Go to the Jewish banker established in the Polish 
 capital, who gives his wealth to the Sionistic cause and 
 ask if he intends to transfer his business to one of the 
 Jewish colonies in America, Africa, Asia, and he will 
 answer " no " with the indulgent smile of the sane man 
 to the mentally weak one. If he does not think you too 
 mad to talk to he will add that Sionism is for the Jewish 
 masses, and that he as a Sionist does all in his power to 
 persuade them to emigrate to Palestine. If you begin to 
 chat with him you will find that he intends to spend a 
 few weeks in Nice next winter, or that he has just been 
 for a holiday in Paris, or is about to take his wife and 
 family to Ostend ; that, in short, he has been or is going 
 anywhere but to Palestine. You leave him struck with 
 the impression conveyed by the manner of all these 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 131 
 
 Sionists, that they were as much in touch with the Jew- 
 ish proletariat as the Russian landowners of the sixties 
 were with the serfs they only knew from the verandahs of 
 their country houses. You, therefore, determine to go 
 and look for the real Sionist men and women who want 
 to go to Palestine, and turn your steps in the direction of 
 the Jewish quarter, where the proletariat lives. But on 
 your way you call upon a Rabbi, delighted at the idea of 
 finding a man who stands midway between the banker 
 and the masses, who will be the embodiment of all that 
 is Sionistic, looking eagerly forward to the realisation of 
 his pious dreams. You are shown into his stuffy, shabby 
 room, and as soon as he returns your salutation with a 
 slight inclination of his head, you instinctively feel his 
 dislike for you, his hostility to your European dress and 
 speech, a feeling which increases when he sternly tells 
 you that Hertzl's movement is a profanation of the 
 prophets and a blasphemy upon Holy Writ. You leave 
 the silent and uncompromising Talmudist and, once more 
 in the street, pause undecided as to your next step. The 
 Rabbi's reception has chilled your enthusiasm for the 
 Jewish proletariat, and you realise, for the first time 
 perhaps, how wide the chasm is that separates these 
 bearded Jews and bewigged Jewesses from you. As they 
 brush past you gesticulating and excited, you notice one 
 smaU son of Israel furtively offering a man a revolution- 
 ary paper ; the incident reminds you that Socialism has 
 done much to weaken the influence of the Rabbis, and 
 gaining fresh courage, you determine to continue your 
 
132 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 search for Sionists amongst the masses. You will 
 probably spend the rest of the day in the sweating shops 
 and factories of the Jewish quarter, returning home 
 bereft of all illusions about the influence of Sionism upon 
 its inmates. The result of your researches may be 
 summed up in this way. Roughly speaking, you found 
 the people you came into contact with divided into 
 two groups — Socialists and Orthodox Jews. You found 
 that, whilst the first group treated Sionism with contempt, 
 the second was more hostilely inclined towards it than 
 the Rabbi, whose antagonism for the outward signs of 
 European culture was accentuated in his flock to an 
 extraordinary degree. This antagonism explains their 
 hostility to the Sionism which was founded by Theodore 
 Hertzl. The sweating boot-maker is a Sionist, it is true, 
 but he is a Sionist who absolutely believes what the 
 Scriptures teach him about Sion. He believes that a 
 deliverer shall come to open blind eyes, to bring the 
 prisoners from the prisons and them that sit in darkness 
 from the prison-house. But he does not beliex'e that 
 the Hertzls and Zangwills and Nordans are destined by 
 the Lord God of Israel to be his deliverers. His religion 
 and the prophets are so very real to him that he looks 
 upon such men as those who falsely call themselves by 
 the name of Jacob as the false prophets the Holy 
 Scripture warns him to beware of. He believes that one 
 day his sons and daughters wUl be gathered from the 
 ends of the earth into the place whence the Lord, for 
 Israel's sins, had caused his forefathers to be taken cap- 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 133 
 
 tive, and " to be an astonishment and a hissing " amongst 
 the nations whither they were driven. Miserable as he 
 is, his one hope is in that Sion, his one pleasure the 
 thought of returning there, and he repeats the words of 
 Israel's prophets who cried unto the Lord that their 
 houses were turned unto aliens, their young men taken 
 to grind, that the mountain of Sion is desolate and the 
 Lord wroth against him. 
 
 But there is no thought of the leaders of the Basle 
 Congress when, pausing in his work in the grimy factory, 
 he turns his soul to Sion and prays to the Lord who shall 
 gather him and his out of the country with " a mighty 
 hand," when " a great company shall go thither," when 
 the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, " Arise 
 ye, and let us go up to Sion unto the Lord our God." 
 Amongst his toils and privations this thought of return 
 to Sion comforts him as it comforted his fathers in 
 Babylonian captivity, in Crimean exile or on the steppes 
 of the Ukraine. But those who tell him that the modern 
 Sionist is to take him to the Promised Land are met with 
 a stern reproof for blaspheming against the Scriptures. 
 No, the Sion of the dweller in the ghetto is to be 
 realised by miracles, by the blowing of trumpets at the 
 four corners of the earth. To his mind it is nothing 
 short of profanation to talk of the train and the steamer 
 which are to convey him to the Land of Promise, and 
 of the industry, the tedious industry of exile, which is 
 to support him when he gets there. " Surely," he argues 
 with himself, "the Lord will feed him, leading him in 
 
134 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 green pasture. There all will be peace and rest and 
 plenty, for has he not the promise that his soul shall be 
 as a " watered garden " ? 
 
 He will consent to go in the train and the ship to 
 America and England and to ply his trade there if he 
 cannot make a living in Poland, but never to Palestine, 
 the land of his forefathers, whither the Lord Himself 
 shall lead him. 
 
 But not only are his fervent religious feelings at war 
 with Sionism ; there is the antagonism of the ghetto as 
 well. To him the advocates of the movement with their 
 European culture and dress are un-Jewish and therefore 
 hostile. He who clings to his halat and his jargon can- 
 not bear the European delegate with his short coat and 
 low boots, speaking good German or fluent Polish. He 
 will have none of them. The intellectual lawyers and 
 editors may discuss and subscribe, but the children of the 
 ghetto wiU have none of their Sionism. It is the old 
 story of the leader who strives to turn the uncultured, 
 morally blind masses to a movement which has originated 
 in the brain of an enlightened and intelligent man, who 
 idealises the masses and applies his own conceptions of 
 an idea to them. The Sionism of Hertzl is one thing and 
 the Sionism of the ghetto another. The two cannot be 
 reconciled, because their respective adherents do not 
 understand one another, and the consequence is that the 
 Sionism of Hertzl goes a begging amongst the very 
 classes for which it was intended, the classes whose posi- 
 tion and characteristics have exacted this Jewish 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 135 
 
 problem, and whose hopes, aims and ambitions only 
 those born in the ghetto and bred in the halat can 
 thoroughly fathom. 
 
 Anti-Semitism 
 
 The average Pole when asked to define an anti- 
 Semite will promptly answer " a man who dislikes the 
 Jews more than they deserve," but I have used 
 the word here in the ordinary sense of the word — as 
 meaning a dislike for the Semite. Sionism in Poland 
 is so bound up with anti-Semitism that it would be 
 difficult to treat of the one without referring to the 
 other. As we have just seen, though Sionism, as Dr. 
 Hertzl and the general public understand the word, is 
 bankrupt in that country, the Sionistic atmosphere is 
 not. The Jews say that its flourishing condition is due 
 to anti-Semitism, that if the Poles were not anti-Semites, 
 the Jews would not be Sionists. The Poles deny this 
 charge, affirming that anti-Semitism is not the cause but 
 the efi"ect of Sionism, that if the Jews had shown any 
 friendly feelings for them, any gratitude for the protec- 
 tion they received centuries back, any interest in 
 Poland's weal or sympathy for her woe, any inclination 
 to demolish the walls of the ghetto, to forget the jargon, 
 to discard the halat, to assimilate, in short, with the rest 
 of the community — anti-Semitism would not exist to- 
 day. They meet the charge of increased anti-Semitism — 
 and its increase during the past half decade is utterly 
 
136 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 undeniable — with a counter charge of Jewish hostility 
 and Jewish anarchy. They point out that the Bund 
 was the first party to arm the masses, placing the means 
 of exercising terrorism in the hands of those who lack 
 culture and education to curb their passions of race and 
 class ; that the revolutionary parties which are given up 
 to bomb-throwing, assassination and other acts of excess, 
 are de facto Jewish ; that the proportion of Poles to Jews 
 amongst the leaders of these parties is very small ; that 
 the Jew, who has been economically dangerous to Polish 
 interests for centuries, has now become a political peril, 
 because, having nothing to gain by keeping quiet and a 
 possible gain in revolt, he has prompted and is guiding 
 the present revolutionary movement. 
 
 This conviction prompted the Poles to ■ act with 
 unexpected energy during the election for the Duma. 
 Very little interest was shown in these elections at first 
 because the Jews had declared that they would not 
 participate in them. The Polish community was aroused 
 a few days before the time fixed for voting by the 
 announcement that the Jews had decided to send 
 representatives to the Duma and were engaged in a pre- 
 elective campaign. Warsaw and Lodz, owing to the 
 large percentage of the Jewish element, were threatened 
 with Jewish delegates. The result of this news was 
 astonishing. Suddenly every Polish party took the 
 elections quite seriously, and, what is more wonderful in 
 faction-loving Poland, decided to arrive at a speedy 
 understanding and vote irrespective of party politics for 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 137 
 
 the National Democrats ; otherwise if the votes split up 
 between the Conciliators, Patriots and Progressives, the 
 Jewish candidates would gain the day. Perhaps the 
 best example was shown in Lodz, where, though the 
 Polish and German elements are ever at war, they united 
 against the common foe, voted together, and won the 
 day. The Jews themselves worked with laudable 
 zest. In the provinces those who could not afford to 
 pay their fares to and from the voting centres were 
 supplied with enough money to cover their travelling 
 expenses. The Kahals, calling upon every man to use 
 his vote, threatened to impose a heavy fine upon those 
 who neglected their civic responsibilities. Men were 
 sent into the streets to buy voting cards from the needy 
 Polish population.^ Sandwich men, bearing Hebrew 
 placards calling upon all Jews to vote for their cause, 
 paraded the Jewish quarters. Pre-election meetings 
 were addressed in Yiddish by advocates of the cause. 
 But solidarity, a feature which is generally missing in 
 their political life, saved the Poles ; and, in spite of the 
 fact that the Jews form 14% of the total population, their 
 party in Poland did not send one delegate to the first 
 Duma. The Jewish proletariat relieved their feelings by 
 setting up straw figures dressed in the Polish fashion 
 and throwing mud at them. The " Intellectuels " lodged 
 a protest against the conduct of the National Democrats 
 who had "swamped" them, and promised never to forget 
 
 1 As much as six shillings was paid for the cards, which were 
 immediately destroyed. 
 
138 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the slight put upon Jewish interests. Whether this exclu- 
 sion of the Hebrew element is politically wise, or whether, 
 as the Jews themselves affirm, it will convey but a poor 
 opinion of Polish tolerance to the Liberal Party in 
 Eussia, remains to be seen. But the fact in itself is 
 interesting, inasmuch as it shows a tendency on the part 
 of the Poles to keep whatever political right they may 
 obtain under their own control and prevent the Semites 
 from ousting them in the political arena as they have 
 already done in trade and commerce. 
 
 Hitherto anti-Semitism has not aroused the Poles to 
 organise a campaign against the economic influence of 
 the Jews. Here and there an increased disinclination to 
 buy from them may be seen, and of late much has been 
 written about the need of organising the Polish commercial 
 element into guilds which will defend its interests, for 
 there is a growing conviction that, as the Jews intend to 
 preserve their own national individuality, some means of 
 protecting the Polish element must be found. But as 
 yet it is too early to foretell what these means will be. 
 In Poland, where men think rapidly and act slowly, 
 questions even of such importance as this one do not 
 get the prompt attention they deserve. No, though anti- 
 Semitism prevails in all classes of the Polish community, 
 it is, as yet, nothing more definite than the instinctive 
 dislike of the Sclav for the Semite, not because he is 
 dangerous, politically or economically, not because he lives 
 on usury, but because he is a Semite, because he talks 
 through his nose, and talks Yiddish, is difficult to throw 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 139 
 
 off, is half a toad-eater and half arrogant, because he has 
 a hooked nose and a high colour, because he wears a 
 halat and his wife wears a wig. This anti-Semitism 
 does not prevent its possessor from dealing with Jewish 
 tradesmen, borrowing Jewish gold or employing Jewish 
 labour. It is content to make use of the object of its 
 hatred even for the object's own gain. But it goes no 
 further. It will not admit a feeling of sympathy between 
 the two contracting parties, it prompts the contempt 
 with which the Pole regards his factor, not because he is 
 a factor, but because he is a Jew. It prevents the 
 Polish lounger from helping the Jewish drayman to pull 
 his cart-wheels out of the snow. It causes the Polish 
 school-boy to call the blots which disfigure his copy-book 
 " Jews," and the peasant to call the teazels by the same 
 name, because they cling to his clothes and are difficult 
 to dislodge. It is, too, though slightly accentuated, the 
 same instinct which prevents a Pole from marrying a 
 Jewess, or a Polish girl from wedding a man who has a 
 Jewish name, and which closes the doors of many Polish 
 houses to the Jews. 
 
 But there are times when this sentiment takes a more 
 serious form, when the Polish masses, inspired either by 
 fanaticism or a sense of wrong, assume a threatening 
 attitude towards the children of the ghetto, who then 
 feel that Poland, like Russia, may become the scene of 
 terrible massacres. Such a case occurred in the autumn 
 of the year 1905 when the imperial manifesto of October 
 17th promised constitutional right to the Tsar's subjects. 
 
I40 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The event was celebrated in all the Polish towns by 
 processions, for the Poles are addicted to illusions, and it 
 seemed to them that the promise of the Tsar would bring 
 about a political paradise at once. The least respectable 
 portion of the population preferred to follow red banners 
 and even old red petticoats carried by the Bund and other 
 revolutionary parties, shouting out "Down with Tsardom" 
 " Down with Poland ! " " Down with the Church ! " down 
 with everything in short but anarchy ; the more 
 respectable, however, gathered in front of the churches, 
 singing patriotic hymns and returning thanks for the 
 constitution the Tsar had promised them. Before long 
 it became evident that whilst the Polish element flocked 
 to the patriotic processions, the Jewish element prevailed 
 amongst the red banners and rags. In short, a kind of 
 rivalry sprang up, and when the patriotic population of 
 the city decided to organise a solemn procession of its 
 own upon the following Sunday, the hooligans who had 
 howled themselves hoarse over the " Eed Standard " 
 expressed their intention of preventing others from sing- 
 ing " God save Poland." But the national procession 
 was organised so carefully that all attempts to disturb 
 the order of the main body were abandoned. The 
 ruffians among whom, spectators affirm, Jews predomin- 
 ated, therefore turned their attention to the branch 
 processions ; and when one left the church on the outskirts 
 of the town, they threw mud, stones and other missiles 
 at the cross and the priests. One of the crosses was 
 struck, and a young Israelite, incensed at the remon- 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 141 
 
 strances of a man wlio carried it, shot him. The 
 indignation of those in the procession was unspeakable. 
 The priests had the greatest difficulty in preventing a 
 free fight, and, when the day's ceremony was over and 
 the news of the outrage had spread through the town, 
 black looks and threats passed from man to man in the 
 poorer quarter and warned the Jews that public opinion 
 was very much against them. Their anxiety was 
 increased by the fact that Jewish massacres were 
 disgracing several towns in Russia. The acrimony with 
 which the revolutionary parties, taking advantage of the 
 temporary freedom of speech accorded by the Manifesto, 
 had attacked Church and fatherland during the past 
 few days, only increased the feeling of hostility to the 
 Jews, who, rightly or wrongly, have the reputation of 
 leading these parties. All this caused the quieter portion 
 of the population to fear that another outrage, similar 
 in character to the one just recorded, would induce the 
 Polish masses to follow the example given in Odessa and 
 Kieff and rise against the Jews. Their apprehensions 
 were heightened by the conviction that the Russian 
 authorities would gladly welcome a massacre in "cultured" 
 Poland ; they therefore used every effort to avert such 
 a disaster and to keep the national record for toleration 
 at all costs. In the churches the priests mounted the 
 pulpits twice and thrice daily to preach against the evils 
 of racial hatred and the necessity for Christian love and 
 forbearance. In the squares and open spaces laymen 
 addressed little groups, urging them, for Polish honour, 
 
142 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 not to allow the passion of the masses to get the upper 
 hand. Pamphlets and proclamations, bearing the same 
 message, called upon the people to refrain from following 
 the example of barbarous Eussia and refuse to play into 
 the hands of a hostile government. Householders, fearful 
 lest the mysterious "black hundred," the crowds of 
 hooligans whom Russian misrule had allowed to increase 
 and multiply in the slums of the city, would, incited by 
 the Russian authorities, commence the massacre and set 
 fire to the anti-Semitism of the people, organised self- 
 defence parties which, armed with the best weapons they 
 could obtain, kept watch by night in the large covered 
 gateways of the houses. Excitement ran high. In spite 
 of the universal strike which had cut off all the ordinary 
 means of communication with the rest of the Empire, 
 vague and alarming reports came from Russia. The air 
 was heavy with massacre and disaster, and no man knew 
 what the hour would bring forth. It is in such times 
 that a little incident, a mere trifle, is fraught with giant 
 consequences. For all "Warsaw knew, the government in 
 St. Petersburg might be overthrown, and the only 
 machinery, bad as it was, which kept the joints of the 
 communal life together, be destroyed. People could not 
 sleep at night. The least noise in the silent courtyards, 
 ~the echoes of a domestic difference, the shouts of startled 
 slumberers aroused a panic, when people sprang from 
 their beds and opened the windows to see if the " black 
 hundred " had not begun to massacre the Jews. And if 
 fear and excitement prevailed in the Polish quarters, 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 143 
 
 what is to be said of the Jewish, where men dared not 
 venture out by day and sat huddled together at night, 
 trembling at every passing footfall, thinking that each 
 patrol was a murderous band, come to butcher the men, 
 violate the women and sack the shops and houses. In 
 several instances the Jewish defence groups, maddened 
 into anxiety, rushed into the streets upon hearing the 
 sound of measured footsteps and attacked the military 
 patrols, a mistake which resulted in an order to disarm 
 and disband all Jewish defence parties and to arrest the 
 members. 
 
 They would have fled to Austria and Germany if 
 escape had been possible, but all communication was cut 
 oflf. One Jew, impressed with the powers of the British 
 Government, went to the British Consulate and demanded 
 protection in the form of a steamer to convey him and 
 his family to Dantzig. The same idea of British prestige 
 caused quite a demand for the " Union Jack." A few 
 rich Hebrews, the envied possessors of motor-cars, 
 escaped from what they thought was certain death. The 
 rest sat at home and awaited their fate. This tension 
 lasted for several days ; but as night after night passed 
 and the " black hundred," the bogey of Pole and Hebrew, 
 did not appear, the excitement calmed. The Jews 
 began to venture about the streets, the Polish self- 
 defence groups were dismissed, and the crisis passed. 
 But for weeks afterwards the thought of massacre 
 haunted the inhabitants of the ghettoes. 
 
144 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The following incidents, the first of which occurred in 
 Warsaw shortly before the feast of Passover (1906) 
 will give the reader some idea of the scenes which occur 
 from time to time in the Polish towns to disturb the 
 amicable relations which, in spite of the anti-Semitic 
 undercurrent, generally exist between the Polish and 
 Jewish masses, permitting them to work side by side 
 in the factories without showing any signs of racial 
 antagonism. 
 
 One evening a little Polish girl entered a Jewish 
 shop and begged for a piece of maca (passover-cake). 
 Rosenzweig, the Jew who owned the shop, gave her 
 some and she went away. But the maca pleased her so 
 much that she came back for a second helping, and 
 when she returned for the third time, Rosenzweig, 
 anxious to get rid of the child, swung her up in the air 
 and playfully theatened to put her in a barrel which 
 stood near, if she came again. A passer-by heard the 
 child scream and, upon glancing in and seeing her swung 
 up in the air, immediately raised the alarm that " the 
 Jews want the child's blood to mix their maca." This 
 signal has never failed to bring a crowd in a Polish 
 town, and a moment later a very angry one had collected 
 round the shop, Rosenzweig, thoroughly frightened, 
 locked the door and hid himself behind some lumber. 
 The crowd broke the windows and was looking for the 
 hapless joker when a passing patrol arrested the pro- 
 ceedings by enquiring into the cause of the excitement. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 145 
 
 The soldiers found Rosenzweig, pulled him from his 
 hiding-place, and took him to the police-station accom- 
 panied by the crowd whom the patrol could scarcely 
 keep away from the object of their anger. After giving 
 his version of the affair, Rosenzweig was set at liberty 
 and told to go home. It took him all his Hebrew 
 ingenuity to take him there, for the crowd followed him 
 all the way ; and not a moment passed but he had to dodge 
 a blow or a piece of mud aimed at his trembling figure. 
 The little Polish girl cost him dear, for he dared not 
 open his shop until three or four days afterwards. 
 
 Not long afterwards a very similar incident occurred in 
 the town of Lomza. A Polish workman took his ten- 
 year-old son out shopping, and went into a Jewish shop for 
 some yeast. The Jew could not find it at first — these 
 little shops are not models of tidiness — so the workman 
 told his son to wait for the yeast while he went on to 
 make some more purchases, as it was Friday afternoon 
 and the Sabbath was approaching. On his return, the 
 yeast was there but the boy had disappeared. He 
 angrUy asked the Jew what had become of the child. 
 The Jew as angrily answered that he knew nothing 
 about him. Their loud voices attracted a few loungers 
 who said something about Christian blood and Jewish 
 passover- cakes. The words spread through the street 
 like wild-fire, and the consequence would have been 
 disastrous for the Jew had not the boy turned up 
 amongst those who ran to see what new piece of excite- 
 
146 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 ment was afoot. He paid for the misunderstanding he 
 had caused with a sound whipping. 
 
 These two incidents show that the old conviction that 
 the Jews are ready to murder Christian children for 
 ritualistic purposes still prevails among the Polish 
 masses, in spite of the efforts of the clergy to eradicate 
 it. It is as firmly rooted in their minds as the belief that 
 to dream of a Jewess is unlucky, or that all Jews are 
 subject to a loathsome disease akin to mange which will 
 show itself even in the offspring of mixed marriages. 
 
 Nevertheless, there have been no Serious anti-Semitic 
 demonstrations in Poland since the year 1880, when the 
 Jews in Warsaw were the victims of a good deal of 
 horseplay. But the scenes then ^ enacted were of very 
 different character from those which occurred in Eussia 
 as recently as the year 1906. 
 
 After the barbarous pogrom which took place on 
 Corpus Christi day (1906) at Bialystok, some attempts 
 were made to provoke a similar massacre in Warsaw. 
 Proclamations were posted on the houses at street 
 corners calling upon the populace to stamp out once and 
 for all that "parasitic, grasping and useless Jewish race" 
 from among them. But the indignant passers-by tore 
 them down, and the Social Democrats and Polish Party 
 of Socialists replaced them by others. The Social 
 
 1 No blood was shed ; the crowds contented themselves with 
 breaking the furniture and splitting up the feather beds in the 
 ghetto. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 147 
 
 Democrats, after stating in very plain language that the 
 Kussian Government had provoked the horrors of 
 Bialystok, continued : — 
 
 " In Bialystok the Jewish proletariat is very numerous : 
 thousands of Jews work in the factories there — they 
 fight side by side with Christians there for political 
 freedom and a better existence. The minions of Tsardom 
 have long plotted to bring these brethren to kill one 
 another. Their provocations failed, for the revolutionary 
 parties exposed their shameful plans and made them 
 useless. But at last a bomb has served their purpose, 
 and the Tsar's hooligans waited in crowds for the signal 
 to begin their hellish work, aided by the Tsar's soldiers, 
 who fired into the houses and let ofi" volleys at the Jews 
 as they escaped from the hooligans." Of course the 
 author of the proclamation seizes the opportunity of 
 preaching the ceaseless sermon of the revolutionary. He 
 says — "This new crime of the Tsar cries out for 
 vengeance. These rivers of innocent blood cry out that 
 life is unbearable until the Monster called Tsardom is 
 strangled, until the knife and the sword are wrenched 
 from the hands of the criminals." 
 
 Then capitalism is dragged in : — 
 
 "But there is yet another criminal, and that is 
 capitalism, which has grown to monstrous proportions 
 under the protection of Tsardom. Bialystok is its nest. 
 For long years the capitalistic leeches have sucked the 
 blood of the working man. To the struggle ! Comrades 
 
148 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and workmen ! To the struggle with hideous Tsardom ! 
 To the struggle with capitalism, the source of all curses." 
 It is only at the end of the proclamation that the 
 proletariat is abjured to shoot down the first hooligan who 
 looks like provoking a pogrom. 
 
 The Polish Party of Socialists distributed over a 
 hundred thousand proclamations calling upon their 
 comrades to deal shortly with the provocators. But 
 those they posted on some of the houses in Warsaw 
 deserve the prize in a proclamation competition. After 
 laying stress on the fact that the government had 
 provoked the massacre in Bialystok and the soldiers 
 rivaled the hooligans in torturing their victims by 
 cutting ofi" their hands, legs, noses and ears, it went on 
 to say that, for all the party cared, the rich Warsaw Jews 
 might look after themselves. What the Socialists meant 
 to protect was the Jewish proletariat. Why ? Not 
 because the Jewish proletariat is composed of human 
 beings, of men and women with a right to enjoy as full 
 a measure of safety and protection as anybody else, not 
 because a Jewish massacre would shame Poland in the 
 eyes of the world ; but because the Jewish proletariat 
 was the most revolutionary element in the country, and 
 the Polish Party of Socialists needed that element to help 
 them to carry out their political programme. But the 
 scenes which disgraced Bialystok on Corpus Christi day 
 aroused the indignation of the Poles, both in that town 
 and throughout the Empire. It was therefore with thinly 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 149 
 
 veiled satisfaction that they repeated the following 
 sequel to the pogrom. 
 
 In the Szosova, in Bialystok, lives a certain Pop (an 
 Orthodox priest) who took part in the procession on the 
 fatal day and was seen mixing with the crowd during 
 the looting which accompanied the massacre. A day or 
 two later some of the richer Jewish merchants, whose 
 shops had been looted, sent a deputation to the Pop to 
 say that they had excellent reason to believe that some 
 looted treasure was concealed in his cupboards. The Pop 
 indignantly denied the charge and refused to open his 
 cupboards. The deputation went away and returned 
 with policemen, and after some delay the cupboards were 
 opened and revealed looted goods to the value of 5,000 
 roubles to the astonished gaze of the police inspector 
 and the discomfiture of the Pop. 
 
 Elated with this success, the deputation next called 
 upon a Eussian in the civil service. In his cupboards 
 they found wares which had lately been in their shops 
 and included 3,000 roubles' worth of watches, jewellery 
 and silver. The police took possession of the treasure, 
 and unwillingly penned protoJcols in which the names of 
 two locally prominent Russians figured not as accusers 
 but as accused. 
 
 There is yet one form of anti-Semitism to be found 
 amongst baptised Jews. These neophytes often have a 
 bitter dislike for the race from which they sprang, and 
 lose no opportunity of holding up those who still adhere 
 
I50 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 to the faith they have so recently left to derision. This 
 kind of anti-Semitism, which is totally different from 
 the goodnatured contempt of the Pole — has given rise 
 to a popular saying that no man is as anti-Semitic as a 
 Jew. It affords much amusement and no little wonder 
 to the Polish element to hear a man, whose father 
 frequented the synagogue and wore a halat, talk con- 
 temptuously of " those mangey Jews " or gleefully point 
 out the Semitic features on his cousin's face, quite forget- 
 ful of the fact that his own are of the Hebrew type and 
 that his very speech betrays him as a descendant of the 
 ghetto. 
 
 Such is the anti-Semitism we meet in Poland : like the 
 people from whom it comes, it is lacking in energy and 
 aim. Like people from whom it comes it is regulated 
 by a certain sense of national pride, ready, when the 
 moment and the need arrive, to exercise its power or 
 court its passions. It is far removed from the anti- 
 Semitism of the Russian as it is from the toleration of 
 the Saxon. But it exists, and, what is more, exists in 
 the hearts of the Poles in a more definite form to-day 
 than it did five years ago. 
 
 Which side was the more to blame at the beginning 
 when the two races first lived side by side, it is difficult 
 to say. But to the mere observer it appears that there 
 has been a good deal to forgive on both sides ; and to-day, 
 at any rate, the Jews are as anti-Polish as the Poles are 
 Anti-Semitic. They do not want to assimilate, they do 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 151 
 
 not want to blend their interests with the interests of 
 the rest of the community. They are striving to assert 
 their national individuality, to live their own lives and 
 attain their own ends, all three of which are as far 
 removed from Sclavonic ideals as the twilight from 
 dawn, as night from day. These tendencies have found 
 expression in the Bund. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS (continued) — THE BUND — 
 
 other revolutionary parties 
 
 The Bund 
 
 To the reader whom chance or business may bring to 
 Warsaw, a visit to the Jewish quarter of the city on a 
 Saturday afternoon will not be without interest. When 
 he has passed the "Government" quarter, leaving the 
 stately houses in the Miodova, where Russian officials 
 are quartered in the confiscated palaces of Polish mag- 
 nates, he will find himself in narrow streets paved with 
 cobble stones or not paved at all, where the dreary, 
 defaced houses echo the silence of the Jewish Sabbath. 
 Here the roads are for the most part deserted, for the 
 inhabitants have gone to walk in the distant avenues, 
 and stare with the curiosity of their race at the uniforms 
 of the Russian officers or the toUettes of the Polish 
 dames. But by crossing the main thoroughfare of the 
 ghetto and turning to the smaller ones on the left, he 
 will reach the Dzika ^ and be struck by the changed 
 aspect of the street, which is crowded. Jews and 
 
 1 Wild. 
 152 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 153 
 
 Jewesses are walking up and down in groups of two 
 or three, talking earnestly in Yiddish. Not a Sclavonian 
 feature is to be seen, not a Polish accent heard. The 
 stranger who goes there is met with significant looks, 
 and the little crowds which have gathered in the road 
 and on the pavement dissolve almost imperceptibly as 
 he approaches them. Here there are none of the shrill 
 cries of the ghetto. The tones are subdued though 
 earnest; only the gestures of the speaker betray the 
 excitement of the moment. And excitement there 
 undoubtedly is. One feels it in the air akin to that 
 indescribably nervous tension which prevails in a town 
 in times of revolution when the monotony of months is 
 about to be varied by some exciting outbreak. Turn 
 into the street upon the left — it is called the Mila^ — 
 here the houses are more squalid and the groups thicker. 
 Somebody is holding forth to a large gathering by the 
 cheder, a shaky wooden house, the windows of which 
 are shuttered and padlocked in a way which makes one 
 wonder who has put so much metal to protect wood 
 which a strong fist could shatter. A frowsy woman is 
 leaning out of an attic, listening intently. The stranger 
 draws near. The crowd is too interested to observe him. 
 This time the speaker is a young woman, evidently 
 married, for she wears the hideous wig, prescribed by 
 Talmudic law. She is angrily talking to a man who 
 has a better-dressed and more-recently-washed appear- 
 ance than the rest. His features are Jewish, but he has 
 
 ^ Pleasant. 
 
154 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 discarded the halat and peaked cap. The stranger is 
 soon observed and passes on, followed by hostile glances 
 and muttered remarks. He comes upon more groups, 
 some smaller, others bigger ; but two things are to be 
 remarked in all — first, that the speaker is invariably 
 a man of better appearance than his hearers, a Jew, 
 but wearing European clothes ; and second, that neither 
 in orators nor crowds are there men or women much 
 over thirty years of age. Many of them are mere boys 
 and girls, pale, sickly, and stunted. Glance at the 
 houses where they have been bred. It is a warm day ; 
 the elder people with the young children are on the 
 balconies. The windows are open, disclosing sordid 
 rooms from which the sickening odour of filth and 
 garlic, the characteristic smell of the ghetto, comes. 
 One turns with relief to the street, where the groups 
 have again changed. Somebody has distributed a pro- 
 clamation. If the visitor can escape the vigilance of 
 the Jews and get near enough to glance at one, he wUl 
 find that they are small scraps of paper printed in 
 Yiddish ; they too disappear behind the halats. It is 
 nearly half-past four. The groups increase. The mur- 
 mur of suppressed voices fills the air. Here and there 
 an excited orator raises his voice to a shrill cry to 
 immediately lower it to a whisper. The crowd by the 
 cheder has dissolved, and a large one gathered on the 
 opposite side of the way. Now the street is so full that 
 it is possible to pass through the groups without attract- 
 ing attention. One red-haired Jew with a face scarred 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 155 
 
 by disease, and a long, ragged beard, a little older than 
 his companions, is evidently waging war with a young 
 man in European dress. But the rest of the group 
 hustle him away, and, still talking angrily, he dis- 
 appears into the doorway of a neighbouring house. A 
 few yards further on, a group of young girls employed 
 in an artificial flower factory — to judge by their head- 
 gear — are listening to a youth with a black slouched hat 
 and a dark handkerchief drawn high under his chin. 
 The air is too heavy to be borne. The stranger turns 
 into the Dzika, where the crowds are thinner, and thence 
 into the silence of the neighbouring streets. He has 
 witnessed a meeting of the so-called " workman's ex- 
 change," where agitators hold forth on Tuesdays and 
 Saturdays to the Jewish proletariat. Here strikes are 
 organised, meetings planned, proclamations distributed, 
 and the conditions of the factory hands discussed. Here 
 new converts are made to the ghetto-revival and old 
 ones given their work. Here a whispered word means a 
 death sentence to an unpopular policeman or a bomb for 
 a government official. Here the revolution gathers its 
 adherents, passes the news of to-day, the plans for to- 
 morrow, points out the line of action to be pursued with 
 this master or that employer, the delinquents to be 
 pardoned, the lives to be sacrificed. Here is the 
 political school of the ghetto, where boys and girls 
 learn the power of the revolver and the use of the 
 bomb. Here all the revolutionary propaganda and 
 business takes place in broad daylight and in the 
 
156 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 middle of the street. Within a stone's throw the trams 
 pass to and from the centre of the town, and the ram- 
 parts of the fortress rise above the flatness of the fields. 
 At the very street corners sentries are posted, and yet, 
 when the rigour of martial law was at its strongest and 
 people were searched in the streets, the workman's 
 exchange managed to exist. Patrols pushed their way 
 through the throng, but there was always a moment for 
 a whispered word or a rapid order. Policemen carefully 
 avoid the spot, and little wonder, for Jewish enterprise 
 has armed its proletariat, and it would be courting death 
 to show the black and orange uniform of the force in 
 that thoroughfare. For the agitator it is a most con- 
 venient place. No ordinary intruder can understand 
 what is going on. The meetings do away with the 
 need of a great deal of writing. The Jews^ ever ad- 
 dicted to doing their business in the open air, go there 
 readily. Orators are always sure of an audience. Many 
 a factory hand, who would not run the risk of attending 
 an indoor meeting, goes there to hear what new actions 
 are afoot. Here, too, gather those birds of prey, the 
 callous products of revolution and minions of anarchy, 
 who will murder a man for a song or the mere pleasure 
 of the deed ; the men who will set fire to a spirit shop 
 for the sake of the vodka, and kill a policeman for the 
 sake of a revolver wherewith to perpetrate other acts of 
 violence. Here, in a word, is the quarry of the Socialist 
 agitator, who thinks to carve the road to a political 
 Utopia through the bodies of his fellow-creatures, the 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 157 
 
 happy hunting-ground for the All-Jewish Labour League 
 of Russia, Lithuania and Poland, popularly known as 
 the "Bund." 
 
 The Bund came to Poland from Lithuania in the year 
 1900. The soil was well prepared to receive it, for 
 signs of a political revival, engendered by the desire 
 to assert Jewish nationalism, had already made their 
 appearance. Its programme includes the overthrow of 
 Tsardom and the establishment of a democratic govern- 
 ment ; the convocation of a national assembly based 
 upon universal direct and secret voting ; amnesty for 
 all pohtical prisoners, the abolition of capital punish- 
 ment, the nationalisation of the land, etc., etc. So far this 
 programme is identical with that of another revolution- 
 ary party, the Social Democratic League. But there is 
 a clause deahng with the Jewish question. The Bund 
 strives to establish a central autonomy for the children 
 of the ghetto, to remove the civil disabilities which 
 oppress them and to give them the same rights as the 
 rest of the community. It does not aim at assimilating 
 them with the Polish community. True, if a Jewish 
 workman wishes to learn Polish in order to enable him 
 to compete with a Polish rival, the intellectual members 
 of the party, those whose education has caused them to 
 absorb a certain amount of Polish culture, will help 
 him by lessons to obtain this end. Incidentally, too, 
 the Bund tends to draw the Jewish proletariat away 
 from the superstitions of Judaea; a man who believes 
 in the precepts of modern Socialism can scarcely retain 
 
158 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 all his respect for Talmudic and Rabbinistic lore. But 
 at the same time tbe Bund does not laugh at Yiddish, 
 far from it ; it does all in its power by translating 
 Socialistic literature to raise its cultural and political 
 value. It publishes Yiddish pamphlets from English, 
 French and German originals, establishes Socialist news- 
 papers which tell the Jew, who would not hear of it 
 otherwise, how the working classes live in other lands ; 
 tell him of trades-unions and libraries, of reading- 
 rooms and lectures, of free medical advice and short 
 working hours. Instead of preaching, like the Sionists, 
 the necessity of emigration to the Land of Promise, it 
 says, " Stay where you are and work out your own 
 salvation. When autocracy falls, we shall have a vast 
 amount of political influence. The Jew will no longer 
 be the Pariah of society: he will be able to assert his 
 own individuality. Keep to your Yiddish. Let the 
 Poles and half-assimilated Jews sneer at the jargon, 
 calling it the tongue of the Talmud and of darkness, 
 we will make it the means of your intellectual develop- 
 ment and of your political freedom. Read our books 
 and papers written in your mother tongue, and you will 
 learn of things which have passed and are passing in 
 the outside world without losing your individuality or 
 sacrificing one jot of your racial pride. You will learn 
 of despotism overthrown by the masses, of revolutions 
 achieved and proletariats victorious. Join us and we 
 will do the rest." The immediate goal of the Bundist 
 is the overthrow of the Tsardom. He employs two 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 159 
 
 general means towards that end — strikes and the con- 
 version of the Tsar's military and naval forces to the 
 tenets of Socialism. 
 
 STRIKES 
 
 Strikes as organised by the Bund are of two kinds — 
 isolated and universal. Isolated strikes are always oc- 
 curring, and are frequently organised in conjunction 
 with the Polish Party of Socialists and the Social 
 Democratic League. One month there will be a strike 
 of bakers, when those who are caught baking bread are 
 punished by having naphtha mixed with their dough. 
 When the journeymen bakers have wrung some new 
 concessions from their masters, the butchers will under- 
 go the same process, with the same ruination of the 
 meat. Then the attention of the agitators will be 
 directed towards the master tailors. In the spring of 
 1906, when people who had spent the winter abroad to 
 escape the consequences of the prevailing anarchy, re- 
 turned to Poland and the master tailors were besieged 
 with orders from the Polish shops, their journeymen 
 went on strike, presenting them with the following 
 conditions drawn up by the Bund, the Social Democrats, 
 and the Pohsh Party of Socialists : — 
 
 (1) Home work must be abolished and work-rooms 
 provided by the masters. 
 
 (2) The masters are not to employ hands without the 
 consent of the (strikes) committee. 
 
i6o THE POLISH JEW 
 
 (3) Payment by the piece is to be abolished. 
 
 (4) A 9-hours' working day is to be established. 
 
 (5) Independent hands to be paid at least three roubles 
 per day, and assistants one rouble. 
 
 (6) When work is slack to cut down the working days 
 for all alike : not to dismiss the bad workers and keep 
 the good ones. 
 
 (7) To have hygienic work-rooms. 
 
 (8) Not to dismiss for strikes. 
 
 (9) To pay for time lost during strikes. 
 
 At first the master tailors refused to accept such con- 
 ditions, affirming that they were not in a position to 
 pay two roubles a day, let alone concede to the other 
 demands. Many preferred to raise the price of their 
 own produce, and accepted clauses 3, 4, 5 and 6, reject- 
 ing the others. It is impossible for a tailor who takes 
 work from some shop and has to live in one room with 
 his family to open a work-room for the convenience of 
 his men, and equally impossible for him to pay for 
 " strike time " when he himself is brought to the verge 
 of starvation with every lock-out. As to consenting to 
 consult the wishes of " delegates " before dismissing a 
 refractory hand or employing a new one, many masters 
 expressed their opinion that it was better to give up 
 business altogether and live the best way they could 
 rather than submit to the terrorism of their men. When 
 it became apparent that the masters did not intend to 
 give in, bands of strikers entered their rooms and spoUt 
 the materials by cutting them up into small pieces, or, 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS i6i 
 
 when there was too much for that, pouring vitriol and 
 naphtha over them. These agitators are always armed 
 with revolvers, which they do not hesitate to use as soon 
 as they meet with resistance. The following instance is 
 a fair example of the way in which those whom the police 
 arrest are avenged by their comrades. A master boot- 
 maker had called in the assistance of the police when 
 his men entered his house and ruined ten pounds' worth 
 of leather by cutting some of it into small pieces and 
 pouring iodoform over the rest. The men were arrested, 
 but the next morning two of their friends entered the 
 master's rooms and fired several shots from their revol- 
 vers. The master, though wounded, strove to save 
 himself by jumping out of the window into the court- 
 yard, where he fell, exhausted by loss of blood. The 
 sight of their victim, writhing in the «.gony of death, 
 instead of moving the rufl&ans to pity, only served to 
 enrage them the more. They both stood at the open 
 window and fired shot after shot at their unfortunate 
 master until their bullets were exhausted, when they 
 left the house as coolly as they had entered it. This 
 kind of crime has grown too common in Poland to 
 excite any wonder. Men are murdered in broad day- 
 light in their own houses, surrounded by their wives 
 and children, because they must earn bread for them- 
 selves and families and cannot afford to accede to the 
 extravagant demands of those who pull the strings of 
 the revolutionary movement. Very often the workmen 
 themselves are not anxious to strike, but the agitators 
 
162 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 find means of compelling them to do so. In several 
 Jewish mills in Lodz, when the men said they were satis- 
 fied with the wages, the agitators removed indispensable 
 parts of the machinery, thus forcing a lock-out. 
 
 The butchers' strike (June 1906) in Lodz led to 
 fighting in the streets. The butchers, finding it im- 
 possible to accede to their employes' new demands 
 without raising the price of meat, did so. The result 
 was that the working classes, who could not aff'ord to 
 pay a high price when times were so bad, boycotted the 
 butchers' shops. Crowds, headed by women, fell upon 
 people as they returned from marketing, ransacked their 
 baskets and poured naphtha upon all the meat they 
 found. Those who had spent their money upon beef and 
 mutton naturally objected to this procedure and both 
 sides fought lustily. When the patrols interfered they 
 were fired upon. Some butchers shut their shops, others 
 paid for their temerity by losing their meat, which was 
 ruined by the inevitable naphtha or iodoform ; a few 
 were guarded by the military, though these last generally 
 saw their shop windows broken before many days had 
 passed. One evening a large crowd began to storm the 
 shops of the less popular butchers : when the military 
 arrived, the crowd fired at them. In many cases 
 prisoners arrested during similar disturbances are let off' 
 after a day or two, as the prisons cannot aff'ord accom- 
 modation for the hundreds that are taken there. 
 
 These small and intermittent strikes serve two purposes. 
 They gain adherents in a large class of men who have 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 163 
 
 no objection to being paid for " strike time " and working 
 under improved conditions, and they give the men an 
 opportunity of becoming accustomed to the idea of 
 frequent lock-outs, so that the masses, remembering past 
 benefits, are ready to fall in with the plans of the Strikes 
 Committee and take part in an universal lock-out when 
 the opportunity occurs. 
 
 A young Jewish agitator — a member of one of the 
 Bund committees — frequented the dyeing-sheds of a large 
 carpet factory at Warsaw, holding meetings during the 
 dinner hour and inciting the men to strike for higher 
 wages and the dismissal of some foremen, who were to 
 be replaced by those of their own choice. 
 
 The owner of the factory sent for the agitator at last 
 and asked him how much he earned. 
 
 " Thirty roubles a month in an office, and I have had 
 a university education," was the reply. 
 
 "Do you know," the manufacturer asked, "that each 
 of the men you are persuading to strike earns at least 
 twice as much as you ? " and he showed the books to 
 verify his statement. 
 
 " I don't doubt it," said the agitator. " It is nothing 
 to us how much you pay your men ; we don't care a jot 
 if they are happy or not. We want to organise another 
 universal strike. It is the only way of doing it."^ 
 
 These dinner-hour meetings have become such a feature 
 of the Polish factories and workshops that no employer 
 ventures to raise any objection to them. 
 
 1 This conversation took place in June 1906. 
 
i64 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Very often the Bund, the Social Democrats and the 
 Polish Party of Socialists all send delegates who do not 
 agree with each other. The Bund and the Social 
 Democrats are apt to join forces against the Polish 
 Party of Socialists. 
 
 During the week which ends as I am writing this 
 (June 16, 1906) no less than fifty meetings of this 
 kind were held in the Warsaw factories alone. Six 
 thousand workmen took part in them. Only twelve 
 were attended by delegates of the Polish Party of 
 Socialists, the remainder being run by the Bund and 
 the Social Democrats. 
 
 When a poUtical crisis occurs and the Bund thinks that 
 the days of autocracy are numbered, it does its best to 
 organise a universal strike, counting upon the economical 
 ruin of the country. I suppose it will be allowed that 
 that of October — November 1905 partially succeeded, 
 for it half ruined the country, brought the Jewish and 
 non-Jewish proletariat to the verge of starvation, and 
 drove all those who had any money to spend across 
 the frontier. The attempt of December 1905 was 
 a complete failure, in spite of urgent proclamations 
 calhng upon the proletariat to join hands in one last 
 struggle. (All revolutionary proclamations promise 
 that the demonstration they urge will be the " last 
 struggle.") The Bundists admit to-day that the masses 
 were too exhausted morally and physically with the 
 eflforts of the autumnal disturbances and the privations 
 endured during the early part of the winter to respond to 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 165 
 
 the call. Those who had work were glad to keep it 
 and give a part of their earnings to their less fortunate 
 comrades. As it was, thousands had to beg in the 
 streets, and many, impelled by hunger and unable to 
 resist the temptation of obtaining by force that which 
 they could not earn, used their revolvers against the rest 
 of the community and went in bands to " hold up " 
 shops and offices. 
 
 Very few mills or factories were working more than 
 three days a week ; the miners' lock-out and the railway 
 strike had resulted in a coal famine ; the price of coal 
 was exorbitant, bread dear and meat beyond the means 
 of the working classes. They learnt the bitter lesson 
 that an economical crisis, even when caused by strikes 
 organised by "the friends of the people," affect these 
 people more than anybody else. 
 
 Another attempt was made when the Tsar dissolved 
 the Duma in July 1906, but this time the Socialists, 
 who did not expect Russia's first parliament to come to 
 such an abrupt end, were unprepared and in want of 
 funds. The date of the general strike was therefore 
 postponed from week to week and finally fixed for the 
 middle of August.^ 
 
 These strikes have caused many factories to be closed, 
 men thrown out of work have lowered the standard 
 of Polish produce and driven a large amount of trade 
 
 1 By this time the most important leaders were either in prison 
 or over the frontier ; the idea of the strike was therefore postponed 
 indefinitely. 
 
i66 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 from, the country. The total output of the Lodz 
 factories alone for 1905 was worth 19,195,484 roubles, or 
 1,384,665 roubles less than the preceding year. Poland's 
 best market was the Far East. She sent thousands oi 
 bales of cotton and woollen goods to Charbin, Chabarovsk 
 and Vladivostok. Owing to the frequent strikes, Lodz 
 was not in a position to execute more than a small 
 fraction of the orders received for the spring and summer 
 of the present year (1906). Their warehouses were 
 exhausted and the balance of the orders was placed with 
 Moscow firms who had hitherto been unable to compete 
 with the Polish centres. At about the same time the 
 Vistula Eailway Company sent their agent to Warsaw to 
 contract for new uniforms. The contract covered a sum 
 of £60,000, but the tailors' strike was at its height and 
 the order was placed in Russia. The same company 
 required 30,000 ells of Polish linen, but the country 
 could not produce so much, because the stock had been 
 exhausted. How many families, who are now destitute, 
 could have been supported by the money to be earned 
 upon this one contract ! 
 
 The cheap ready-made boot trade, which, as has already 
 been stated, is in the hands of the Jews, has also suffered 
 severely through the strikes. A large Moscow firm 
 which supplied the Warsaw boot-makers with annual 
 orders worth several thousand roubles, finding it im- 
 possible to get them executed in Poland during the year 
 1905, transferred their custom to Lithuania. A master 
 boot-maker of Minsk was " bombed " for executing 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 167 
 
 orders for a Eussian dealer who had hitherto gone to 
 Poland, but the outrage failed to bring the trade back 
 again. 
 
 The shopkeepers have learned to import German 
 goods. Now that the prices of home-made articles have 
 gone up, the foreign ones are nearly as cheap and 
 better in quality. 
 
 Those who supply the wealthy classes with clothes find 
 that the number of their customers is rapidly diminish- 
 ing : anarchy reigns in their work-rooms, and the foremen 
 and forewomen dare not insist upon bad work being altered 
 because threatening letters would drive them from their 
 situations. Too many of their class have been wounded 
 or killed for disregarding such warnings. 
 
 PEOPAGANDA 
 
 The weak point about all the revolutionary under- 
 takings in Russia is the attitude of the military, who not 
 only refuse to fight for the people, but, in spite of all 
 efforts to organise mutinies, show a considerable amount 
 of respect for their officers and a predilection for vodJca, 
 which invariably turns a political demonstration into 
 a drunken orgy from which they awake very penitent 
 and docile. Many speculations have been made by 
 revolutionary philosophers upon this feature, and the 
 Bundists at any rate are hopeful of curing this trait in 
 the " broad-natured Russian" by organising as many 
 
i68 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 small mutinies as possible.^ Whether they will succeed 
 in doing so remains to be seen, and as they themselves 
 allow a term of from 5 to 7 years before expecting any 
 great results, the world will probably wait a good deal 
 longer before the average Russian soldier grows careful 
 of anything when drunk or fails to repent of his mis- 
 deeds when sober. Perhaps it is the more difficult for 
 the Jews, an abstemious and careful people, to realise 
 how broad the Sclavonic nature is. Should their 
 officers decide to cast in their lot with the people against 
 autocracy, there is little doubt that the soldiers would 
 obey them. But this is not what the Bund aims at : 
 the Bund wants to stir up strife between officer and 
 private, and has organised a system of propaganda 
 amongst the Tsar's military and naval forces with this 
 end in view. 
 
 Propaganda is carried on (l) by Jewish factors who 
 obtain entrance into all the garrisons and fortresses, 
 (2) by Jews serving in the army or navy. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Russian sailor spends 
 much more of his time on land than the blue-jacket, and 
 that when there he lives in barracks. Factors, therefore, 
 have almost as much access to him as to the soldiers. 
 From time to time he can distribute leaflets calling upon 
 them not to shoot their brethren but their officers. 
 There is a great amount of risk in such propaganda : for 
 
 1 The recent mutiny in the Preobrajienski regiment was organised 
 by the Jews, who served as bandsmen. The regimental bands in 
 the Eussian army are largely composed of Jews. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 169 
 
 the Russian soldier or sailor is very anti-Semitic, and 
 often denounces the agitator or arrests him. Cases have 
 occurred in which soldiers have shot them on the spot 
 for distributing revolutionary proclamations in the 
 barracks. It not unfrequently happens that agitators, 
 after inciting the men to strike for higher pay and better 
 rations, are turned out by their auditors as soon as they 
 begin to talk about politics. The Jewish soldier has 
 a far better chance of success. He knows the conditions 
 under which his comrades live, and marks the short- 
 comings of his superiors. He does not tell the raw 
 recruit — and this class forms the hope of the revolu- 
 tionary propagandist — that the Tsar is a bad ruler, a 
 despot, a man who ought not to be obeyed, who orders 
 brother to fire upon brother and son upon father. He 
 knows that the average soldier has a vague but reverent 
 idea of his Imperial master. He does not always even 
 tell him to turn against the colonel of the regiment, 
 who is an awful and mysterious personage, with un- 
 bounded authority. The Jewish soldier tells his comrade 
 to mutiny against the subaltern officer who makes 
 money on his rations, swears at his awkwardness and 
 marches out into the streets with him when disturbances 
 are afoot. This appeals to him because he knows every 
 tone of his subaltern's voice and is probably familiar 
 with the touch of his fist when applied in acger upon 
 his body. The soldier will therefore listen to a comrade 
 better than to a factor. Often he will argue that as 
 the man is a Jew he cannot be giving him good advice : 
 
I70 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 but though a Jew he is a comrade, and therefore 
 deserving of some sort of consideration. Not long ago 
 I was talking to a prominent Bundist about the Russian 
 soldier, and said that neither they nor any other revolu- 
 tionary parties had yet succeeded in organising a mutiny 
 which has proved really dangerous to the Government. 
 While admitting the truth of my remark, he said that even 
 in Poland, where the soldier was especially hostile to the 
 civil population, and where his natural antipathy was 
 sharpened by long hours of patrol and sentry duty, 
 insubordination in the army was on the increase. Of 
 course the military authorities deny this, and it is very 
 difficult to get at the truth because they have an 
 excellent way of keeping their domestic troubles to 
 themselves. But if the nature of sentences passed 
 upon men accused of propagating revolutionary doctrines 
 in the army is in proportion to the apprehension with 
 which they are regarded, the courts-martial evidently 
 look upon such men as dangerous. Here are two 
 instances, one concerning a Jew, the other a Russian. 
 A., a Jew, and B., a Russian, both soldiers belonging 
 to the fortress of Warsaw, were brought up before the 
 court-martial of the fortress upon a charge of propa- 
 gating revolutionary ideas amongst their comrades. 
 The Jew was arrested upon the evidence of a soldier 
 from another regiment, who said he had heard him tell 
 his comrades that it was murderous to shoot down one's 
 own brothers, and that the officers who gave such an 
 order should be shot by their own men. The witness, 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 171 
 
 who happened to be doing patrol duty in the town, was 
 not present at the trial, and his written statement was 
 taken as evidence. The Jew was sentenced to exile in 
 Siberia for life. 
 
 B., a fair-haired, open-faced Eussian, was a man of 
 greater intelligence than most of his class. He used to 
 read literature with which the officers, let alone the men, 
 in a Russian regiment are rarely familiar, translations 
 of John Stuart Mill's books, Spencer's Education, etc. 
 He was heard to observe that the autocratic form of 
 government was bad, and that the time was not far 
 distant when Russia would exchange it for a constitutional 
 one. When arrested he refused to accept the services 
 of a lawyer, which are allowed to those who desire 
 them. The barrister who defended the Jew was taken 
 into the Russian's cell, and explained that though it was 
 not possible for him to be acquitted from the charge, 
 legal advice might do some good. " I want no legal 
 advice," the soldier replied. " In Japan the soldiers are 
 encouraged to read and think for themselves. The 
 Russian government wants cattle, and not men ; that is 
 why it is falling to pieces." He was exiled to Siberia 
 for life.^ 
 
 An escape was effected in June last from one of the 
 large prisons, which points to the possibility of connivance 
 
 1 Towards the autumn of 1906 there has been a marked tendency 
 towards giving shorter sentences for revolutionary propaganda 
 This is owing to the terrorism and the assassinations of military 
 men known for their severity when sitting on courts -martial. 
 
172 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 on the part of the sentries. S, a Jew and civilian, was 
 arrested upon a charge of distributing revolutionary- 
 literature. Pending his trial he was sent to the criminal 
 prison, and whilst in the exercise yard with other 
 prisoners the latter helped him to escape by hoisting 
 him over the wall. This was in the presence of armed 
 sentries who always escorted the prisoners. 
 
 Revolutionary propaganda amongst civilians is much 
 less severely punished. I have records before me of 
 trials in which men accused thereof are sentenced to 
 from three to twelve months' imprisonment and two 
 years' exile beyond the Eussian frontiers. 
 
 But the Bund is not forgetful of the benefits of 
 propaganda at home. The reader has seen how in large 
 towns like Warsaw a great deal is done in the streets 
 by means of the " workmen's exchange." The agitators 
 also enter the factories where Jews are employed and 
 speak to them in the dinner hour. The work is easy in 
 the large manufacturing centres, where practically the 
 whole of the Jewish proletariat belong to the Bund. In 
 the smaller towns and Jewish settlements -its propaganda 
 is making steady headway. Branch committees are 
 formed, consisting sometimes of no more than one or 
 two members, who work among the people, lending 
 Yiddish pamphlets and newspapers, and holding meetings 
 in which the speakers do their best to persuade the Jewish 
 masses that they are slaves to the Poles, and the only 
 way in which they can become free is to join the Bund. 
 
 The propaganda of the Bund amongst the Jewish 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 173 
 
 bourgeoisie has not yet met with any very promising 
 results, although the children of the small shop-keeping 
 class are very often members of one of the Socialistic 
 parties. 
 
 Generally speaking, its activity is confined to the 
 younger generation of the Jewish proletariat ; though its 
 ranks are not, like those of the Social-Sionists, filled by 
 mere boys and girls, men of middle age are rarely to 
 be met with. The fact is that the two generations are 
 not in a position to understand one another. The 
 parents — men who have either partially assimilated with 
 the Polish community, as the Jewish intellectuals, or 
 clung to the prejudice of the synagogue, as the masses — 
 do not understand the revival which has manifested 
 itself so conspicuously during the past five years. The 
 children retort that their fathers were young in different 
 times, and that the wave of revolution which is sweeping 
 over Eussia is the only hope for the civil emancipation 
 of the Jews. This thought is the keynote to all the 
 Bund's propaganda, and has appealed not only to the 
 youth of the ghetto but to many Israelites who have 
 been reared outside its walls. 
 
 THE ARMING OP THE BUND 
 
 But the Bund is not content with persuading the 
 soldier to fight for the proletariat; it has taught the 
 proletariat to fight against the soldier so long as he 
 refuses to listen to its call and rise against autocracy. 
 
174 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The leaders of the movement soon realised that the 
 physical cowardice which characterises the Polish Jew 
 was a great drawback to the success of an enterprise 
 which required courage and daring. " A defenceless 
 man," they argued, " cannot confront an armed soldier." 
 So they promptly organised what they call "fighting 
 groups," consisting of armed men who stand on the 
 outskirts of such gatherings as the " workmen's ex- 
 change," and protect those who are not armed from the 
 attacks of passing patrols. At the same time it en- 
 courages all open-air gatherings as tending to accustom 
 the Jewish proletariat to danger and the use of firearms. 
 This systematic arming was first introduced by the Bund, 
 and upon the Bund the responsibility of placing firearms 
 in the hands of the proletariat rests. Wherever their 
 organisation has established a sub-committee, in every 
 factory and workshop into which it has gained an en- 
 trance, its adherents are supplied with revolvers of the 
 Browning system, and taught how to use them. Those 
 who can afibrd to pay are supposed to do so, but the 
 poorer ones receive them for nothing. The Patriots of 
 the National Democrat League bought their first stock 
 of revolvers from the Jewish organisation. Nearly all the 
 revolvers in the possession of the Bund — and the sum 
 total amounts to several thousands — were brought into 
 the country without the knowledge of the customs 
 authorities. The rest, a far smaller number, were stolen. 
 The Jews have ever been the smugglers in Poland. 
 From time immemorial they have brought things over 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 175 
 
 the frontier without contributing to the revenue. There 
 is nothing, from a French clock to a forbidden news- 
 paper, that they will not produce at prices which — to 
 use a commercial expression — compare favourably with 
 those of home-made goods. 
 
 Hundreds of Jews earn a living in this way, passing 
 their time about the frontier stations of Poland- Austria- 
 Germany. But the wealth of more than one respected 
 and prosperous Jewish firm has been built up by a 
 system of smuggling. Let us take the instance of 
 Messrs. A. and B., pianoforte and musical instrument 
 makers, the first firm of the kind in the country. The 
 two partners, both Jews, grew rich rapidly, and the un- 
 initiated Pole wondered at the money-making qualities 
 of imported pianos. One day the customs-house officers 
 happened to open one of the pianos which were being 
 imported from Berlin by Messrs. A. and B., and found 
 large quantities of lace, watches, and other trinkets 
 inside the walnut case. Enquiries were made which 
 resulted in the discovery that this smuggling had been 
 going on for years. The two partners met to consider 
 the dilemma, and agreed to draw lots as to who should 
 take the blame for the whole thing. The lot fell to A. 
 He underwent his trial, exonerated his partner from all 
 knowledge of this systematic smuggling, was sentenced, 
 and blew his brains out. B, carried on the business, 
 which is still the most profitable one of its kind in the 
 country, and does his best to help talented young 
 musicians to make their way in the world. 
 
176 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 If musical-instrument makers were able to bring other 
 things than "Stein ways" and "Erards" into the country, 
 it was not more difficult for the Bund to introduce re- 
 volvers. The only difference was that the revolution- 
 aries substituted coal-trucks for piano-cases. Large 
 quantities of coal are imported into Poland from Ger- 
 many. Much of it is conveyed in covered trucks. The 
 Bund sent agents to the German capital to buy revolvers 
 and to come to an understanding with those agents who 
 supply coal to the Polish capital. A few weeks later 
 large quantities of revolvers were secreted — amongst a 
 small quantity of coal, which was duly unloaded by the 
 agent's men at the Warsaw terminus. This went on for 
 some time, until it dawned upon the minds of certain 
 officials that it was a strange thing that outrages in 
 which revolvers played an important part should be 
 steadily increasing in Poland at a time when the gun- 
 smiths' shops were closed by order and their stores safely 
 locked up in the nearest fortress. This phenomenon was 
 commented upon for a few weeks in official circles, until 
 some fresh outrage, more daring than preceding ones, gave 
 one tchinovnik the brilliant idea of searching the goods 
 trains. Among some covered coal-trucks, revolvers of 
 the Browning system were found. Of course, nobody, 
 even the merchant who imported the coal, knew any- 
 thing about it. But the authorities, who are so fond of 
 shutting the stable door when the horse has disappeared, 
 stopped the importation of coal for several weeks, thus 
 adding to the coal famine which was then making itself 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 177 
 
 unpleasantly felt.^ But the Bund had already obtained 
 a large supply of firearms, and if the government was 
 against the importation of coal, they had nothing to 
 object to in foreign bedsteads, which, if carefully packed, 
 could evade the vigilance of a ciistoms-house officer, 
 whose sight had been partially impaired by bribes. But 
 there was another means of obtaining revolvers which 
 were already in the country, and that was from the 
 policemen. 
 
 The police-force in Poland was formerly supplied 
 with shoddy revolvers of an extraordinary pattern, which 
 always went ofi" when they were not wanted to, and 
 always refused to do so when they were. Those in 
 Warsaw were especially bad. The town was not al- 
 together to blame for this, as it paid a good price. 
 But the cavalry officer who undertook to execute the 
 order had been rather too anxious about his profit in the 
 transaction, and the consequence was that a policeman 
 when attacked was as good as defenceless, because his 
 revolver refused to go ofi". " The Bund has Brownings," 
 said the authorities when the daily assassination or 
 wounding of a policeman warned them that the ranks 
 of the force were being sadly thinned, and men could 
 not be found to fill the vacancies, "we must buy 
 Brownings too," and the police force was supplied with 
 Brownings. But the Bund did not approve of this 
 imitation, though it might be the sincerest form of 
 
 1 Lately, revolvers have been imported in packing-cases supposed 
 to contain sugar. 
 
 N 
 
178 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 flattery, and began to take the new arms away. At two 
 o'clock in the morning, when the streets are deserted 
 and dark, a band of three or four men approach a police- 
 man who stands shivering at his post, pin him to the 
 ground, gag him, and, after taking his coveted firearm, 
 make off in the darkness. This went on for some weeks 
 (during the winter of 1905-1906), one or two policemen 
 lost their lives in the struggle, and policemen were 
 ordered to stand together in pairs at night. This means 
 was found ineffectual, for eight men came in place of the 
 four, and carried off two revolvers instead of one. Then 
 two soldiers were allowed for the protection of each 
 policeman, and when the nights became shorter, this 
 form of terrorism gave way to others, and it became the 
 fashion to shoot the policeman. The favourite way of 
 doing this is to watch for him as he goes to or from his 
 beat in a tram, jump upon the foot-board, fire at him 
 several times, and get into a cab before the astonished 
 onlookers know what has happened. Others are shot 
 at their posts, in spite of the two sentries who stand 
 near. The explanation is that all three, after standing 
 for a few hours, doze at their posts and fail to see the 
 approaching assassins. The fact that there are stiU 
 men willing to risk being shot like this for a mere 
 twenty-four shillings a month, proves how hard it is to 
 get an honest living in Poland just now. 
 
 But the Bund needs something more than revolvers. 
 Its programme includes the use of the bomb when poli- 
 tical enemies are to be " removed," and though sardine- 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 179 
 
 boxes are easy to get, and deadly fluids can be bought 
 in the chemists' shops, dynamite often has to be stolen 
 from the factories where it is used, or, failing that, from 
 the government stores and arsenals. This is done with 
 great ingenuity. 
 
 The Kieff incident, which occurred during the winter 
 of 1905-6, will illustrate the way this is done. 
 
 On a certain day a man, dressed in the uniform of the 
 civil service, presented himself at the office attached to 
 the arsenal upon some business in connection with the 
 routine of the establishment. He was left alone for a 
 few minutes, and, as the official he particularly wished 
 to see had gone out, was asked to call again next day. 
 He represented himself as coming from the town of X, 
 and there were no reasons to disbelieve him. He did 
 not call, and his existence was almost forgotten until a 
 few days later, when one of the clerks was surprised to 
 see a permit returned from the stores. Nobody had 
 applied for it, and no orders to give out ammunition had 
 been received. His eyes wandered to the place on the 
 wall where the keys of the stores were usually kept. 
 They were not there. His suspicions were aroused, and 
 he began to count the seals which are affixed to the 
 passes — one was missing. He made enquiries about the 
 pass at the stores. The sentries there said it had been 
 presented that morning by two men dressed in bom- 
 bardiers' uniforms, who drove up to the arsenal in a 
 regulation cart. One of them stayed in the cart whilst 
 the other opened one of the storehouses, took out a 
 
i8o THE POLISH JEW 
 
 quantity of dynamite and ammunition, locked up again, 
 loaded the cart and went off. Enquiries were made at X 
 which resulted in the discovery that the stranger who 
 had been at the office was entirely unknown there. He 
 had stolen the keys and seals, and sent his accomplices to 
 take the dynamite. Where an artifice fails, more ener- 
 getic means are adopted. More than once the coal 
 mines in the district of Dombrowa have been the scenes 
 of raids in which the watchmen who guard the sheds 
 where explosives are stored were overpowered, and large 
 quantities of dynamite stolen. But perhaps the coolest 
 way of obtaining arms and ammunition occurred on the 
 premises of a gunsmith's at Warsaw, when a band of Jews 
 entered the shop in broad daylight and, whilst some 
 asked to look at the weapons, the rest held up the 
 astonished staff until the bogus customers had helped 
 themselves. They then walked out shooting, and dis- 
 appeared long before their victims sufficiently regained 
 their presence of mind to give the alarm. 
 
 PUNISHMENT 
 
 Before considering the effect of this arming of the 
 proletariat, it may interest the reader to learn how 
 those who disarm policemen, raid shops, make or throw 
 bombs and carry on revolutionary propaganda among the 
 military are treated when they fall into the hands of the 
 police. 
 
 When a man or woman is arrested he or she is con- 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS i8i 
 
 veyed to the examination prison, in order that the police 
 may make out a case against the accused before the trial. 
 The methods there used, though contrary to British 
 ideas of justice, save the police a great deal of trouble 
 because, being " morally convinced " of the prisoners' 
 guilt, they do all in their power to make them confess 
 it. "The quicker they confess, the better it is for 
 them," a man connected with this court is fond of say- 
 ing. " We don't want to keep them with us longer than 
 we can help, for the prisons are overcrowded as it is. If 
 they are so pig-headed, they must put up with it." In 
 an earlier chapter I have cited a case which throws some 
 light upon the way in which such prisoners are "per- 
 suaded " to give evidence against others. Very nearly 
 the same means are employed when persuasion is used 
 in connection with the guilty one himself Beating is 
 resorted to in most cases. A docile prisoner is often 
 brought to confess his guilt, real or imaginary, after 
 being flogged with long rubber whips, which leave few 
 marks but give terrible pain. More obstinate ones are 
 subjected to a process which is nothing short of torture. 
 After being bound down on their stomachs, a small 
 piece of wood is placed upon their vertebra, near the 
 base, and beaten with a hammer. Two lads of fourteen 
 were arrested somewhere in the provinces upon the 
 charge of shooting a policeman. They were taken to 
 the investigation prison and beaten with the indiarubber 
 whips just referred to, but as they protested their inno- 
 cence, the soles of their feet were beaten with bull- whips 
 
i82 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 (whangees). Most prisoners are agreed that the pain 
 thus inflicted is the worst of any which the ingenuity of 
 the police has yet discovered. In the present case the 
 agony was so great that the lads confessed their guilt 
 and were sent to the Warsaw citadel for trial, A bar- 
 rister heard of their case and investigated it. Both boys 
 were innocent of anything worse than being in the crowd 
 when the assassination took place, and were liberated 
 after being imprisoned for some months pending the 
 investigation. 
 
 It is not an uncommon thing for prisoners brought up 
 for trial to emerge from their examination department 
 with broken noses, maimed ears, etc. At present, as 
 soon as their examination is completed, political offenders 
 are brought up before a court-martial. They are allowed 
 to call in a barrister to plead their case, but this 
 concession is merely a matter of form, as the " investi- 
 gation" process has furnished as much evidence as the 
 court requires. Sometimes, it is true, a very young 
 offender — and there are many offenders below twenty 
 years of age — may manage to get a sentence of death 
 modified into that of perpetual exile. But when martial 
 law is in force, capital punishment is legal for so many 
 political offenders that such commutation is difficult to 
 obtain, and the burial-grounds of the political prisoners 
 are overcrowded. Condemned to death, a prisoner, 
 whether he be Jew or Gentile, a Bundist or a Social 
 Democrat, or an anarchist generally, strives to be shot 
 instead of hanged. Not only is death by shooting more 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 183 
 
 dignified, but the agony is over much sooner. In the 
 fortress of Warsaw, at least, the duty of hangman used to 
 be performed by a professional. His services have now 
 been disposed of, and his place is supplied by amateurs 
 who apply for the job incognito. These men are the 
 lowest specimens of humanity, drawn from the scum of 
 the slums of the city, where condemned thieves, knifers, 
 and that army of ruffians who will hire themselves out 
 for murder when they find somebody ready to give them 
 a few roubles for doing it. Those who succeed in being 
 hired for hanging political prisoners are paid about 
 £2 10s. Od. per head, or rather per neck. On the 
 morning of the day appointed for the execution, the 
 condemned man is asked whether he wishes to make 
 his peace with God. If he answers in the affirmative, 
 a regimental chaplain is conducted to his cell. After 
 the religious ceremony is over, he is dressed in a long 
 linen cloak, the hood of which is drawn down over his 
 eyes, and led to the gallows, and up a short set of 
 movable steps leading to them. Then the amateur 
 hangman slings the noose round his neck, tightens it, 
 and jumping ofi" the steps, pushes them away from under 
 the condemned man's feet. The death agony is supposed 
 to last ten minutes, but the authorities in the Warsaw 
 citadel allow half-an-hour. At the end of that time 
 a surgeon pronounces life extinct, the body is taken 
 down by soldiers and buried, coffinless, in the adjoining 
 burial-ground. Those who are shot are led out into the 
 execution ground blindfolded and tied to stakes. At 
 
i84 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 a word of command given by an officer the soldiers who 
 are told off to perform the execution fire a volley and 
 all is over. Their bodies are buried in coffins. 
 
 Not long ago, that is at the beginning of the year 
 1906, a large bomb factory was discovered by a military 
 patrol in the Jewish quarter. Several people were 
 caught red-handed. They were arrested and taken to 
 the citadel. Two young Jewesses were among the 
 number and, after the court-martial had passed a 
 sentence of death upon the men, the authorities sent 
 to St. Petersburg to intercede for the Jewesses, in the 
 hope that their sentences might be commuted to im- 
 prisonment for fife. The governor of the fortress took 
 up the case, and finally an answer was obtained to the 
 effect that if the two Jewesses would promise to have no 
 further connection with the Bund or any other revolu- 
 tionary party, they would be imprisoned for some time 
 and then obtain a free pardon from the Tsar. The 
 official who repeated this message did not doubt that 
 such young girls — they were not more than nineteen 
 years of age — would agree to take the required oath. 
 But to his surprise they quietly but firmly refused to 
 do so, adding that they would not under any considera- 
 tion whatever make a promise they did not intend to 
 keep. Should they ever regain their liberty, they 
 would, they declared, work harder than ever in the 
 cause of freedom. Their comrades had already paid 
 the last penalty the law could impose upon them, and 
 they were prepared to do the same. They were allowed 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 185 
 
 a few days in which to reconsider their decision, but as 
 they remained firm, were shot in the precincts of the 
 fortress of AVarsaw. Yet these were girls who had not 
 hesitated to prepare the most deadly and at the same 
 time unjust instruments terrorism has yet conceived, 
 for scarcely a bomb is thrown which does not injure or 
 kill innocent victims. These were girls who had signed 
 the death sentences of those whose political opinions 
 were at variance with their own, who had made innocent 
 children fatherless and homes desolate. But theirs is 
 not an isolated case of idealism. The Russian prisons 
 are filled with Jews and Jewesses who, having sworn to 
 sacrifice their lives for the cause of the Bund, are pre- 
 pared to suffer all things rather than deviate one whit 
 from their intentions. 
 
 What is the secret of the Bund's power ? How is it 
 that during the five and a half years it has been on 
 Polish soil, it has become an indispensable feature of 
 ghetto life and is gaining adherents in provincial settle- 
 ments where, before its advent, the Jewish population 
 had the same aims and sentiments as their forefathers ? 
 True, there are still remote spots, untouched by the 
 railway, which have not yet come under its influence, 
 and where the most brotherly feeling still exists between 
 the Jews and the Poles. Even to-day in some parts of 
 the remote government of Lublin, when the Roman 
 Catholic Bishop makes a progress through his diocese 
 and passes near the Jewish settlements, the inhabitants 
 still run out to meet him, presenting him with bread 
 
i86 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and salt and greeting him with " Niecli Zyje PolsJca" 
 (Long live Poland). But these cases are rapidly growing 
 rarer, and in the large towns the Jewish proletariat takes 
 no pains to hide its hostility. It is striving to assert its 
 individuality, and woe betide those who cross its purpose. 
 Every month marks the success of new propaganda, 
 every month the Bund establishes a new sub-committee 
 in some town or village, spreading its doctrines amongst 
 the Jewish population. How is it that whilst the 
 Sionist has found that his propaganda is looked upon 
 with hostility, the Bundist makes converts daily ? It 
 is because the Sionist strives to open the doors of the 
 ghetto with his European civilisation, with his talk of 
 emigrant ships and capitalists and factories, whilst the 
 Bundist appeals to and through all that the children of 
 the ghetto hold dear, to the latent ambitions and anti- 
 Christianism of the Jewish masses, and through the 
 Yiddish they have heard ever since they could remember. 
 This is the key which has opened the door. This is 
 why the Bund has succeeded in attracting the Jewish 
 proletariat when other revolutionaries, the Social Demo- 
 crats, the Polish Socialists and the Proletariat failed. 
 When Bundism first came into Poland it found young 
 men and women belonging to the Jewish intellectual 
 class, which had half assimilated with the Polish com- 
 munity, adopted its language, its culture, often even its 
 politics, eager to learn Yiddish to arrest the process of 
 assimilation, and go amongst the Jewish masses as the 
 Russian youth of the seventies went among the liberated 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 187 
 
 serfs. In a word, the Bund came just at the right time, 
 just when the young generation was afire with the wish 
 to do something for its kin. At first they had no 
 easy task. They were confronted with much of that 
 hostility the Sionist meets to-day. The children of 
 the ghetto mistrusted those of their race who had 
 cast aside the halat, spoke Yiddish with difficulty, and 
 had broken away from the thousand and one superstitions 
 which enslave the orthodox Jew. In those early days 
 the agitators were glad if they could effect an entrance 
 in a small sweating shop, and persuade two or three 
 journeymen tailors to listen to them. But soon their 
 work grew easier : for it was a miserable audience they 
 addressed, too numbed and indifferent to realise the 
 depths of its own misery, but sensible of the note of 
 sympathy which ran through the agitators' halting 
 speech. The very substance of these harangues was 
 a lesson to the political propagandists. They did not 
 talk of the theories of Marx and Engel, as too many 
 Social Democrats are used to do. They did not speak 
 of overthrowing autocracy and creating those free units 
 to which the drawing-room agitator, who pleads the 
 cause of a people he has never seen, delights to refer. 
 What does the Jew in the sweating shop care for 
 autocracy ? He has never seen the Tsar ; he has — or had, 
 at that time, at any rate — the vaguest ideas about the 
 Eussian Empire, nay, of that small portion of it which 
 immediately surrounds him. Marx, Engels and the 
 Tsar were all one to him, for they were but empty 
 
i88 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 names conveying as much meaning to his mind as 
 a quotation from one of the plays of Shakespeare. 
 But he did know what it meant to work for sixteen 
 hours a day in a foetid room ; he did know what it 
 meant to live upon half a herring and a slice of bread 
 a day ; he did know what it was to be in want even of 
 that poor fare when times were bad and the long winter 
 froze the blood in his veins. He knew, too, that other 
 men who lived in streets beyond his own had good food, 
 clothes and houses. He knew, too, that the Poles upon 
 whom he existed, for whom he worked, no matter how 
 poor they were, had more comforts than he, that they 
 had other riojhts, other and brighter lives. And when 
 the agitators told him that these comforts were the 
 result of his toil, wrung from the ghetto slaves who had 
 only to believe in themselves to be free, he felt that 
 after all the strangers must be right. And when he 
 was told that his employer was dependent upon his 
 labour, that when the man refused to work, the master 
 was ruined, the seeds were sown for strikes, for he did 
 not pause to think that a bankrupt master means a 
 starving man. Then, when Yiddish translations of the 
 more popular kind of revolutionary literature made their 
 way into the ghetto, when lectures explained the position 
 of the proletariat and newspapers reported labour strikes 
 in other parts of the world, the mental range of the 
 Jewish proletariat widened. His natural intelligence, 
 cramped for centuries by Talmudic doctrines and confined 
 to the details of bai'ter, rapidly expanded. He beheld 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 189 
 
 himself objectively, compared himself with others, and 
 came to the conclusion that he too had a right to live, to 
 assert his own nationality, and to educate himself, not by 
 assimilating with the Polish community, but by adopting 
 what the Bund thought best and most necessary from 
 the culture of other nations. This is the argument ot 
 the more enlightened Bundists. But their propaganda 
 is always bringing in new converts, steeped in the super- 
 stition of the ghetto, to whom the agitators appeal 
 to-day as they appealed five years ago. The leaders 
 alone have the goal clearly in view : the rank and file 
 are content to strike for the amelioration of the moment. 
 If they pour vitriol over the cloth and leather of the 
 strike-breakers and shoot the masters who refuse to stop 
 work, they do it, not because they believe that the 
 action will hasten the fall of autocracy, but because 
 they are eager to earn a few more copecks a day, or 
 wring money they have not earned from the man who 
 employs them. If they insist that the good and bad 
 workman should be paid alike, it is not because they 
 have any logical objection to the survival of the fittest ; 
 but because they hate fair competition, and are too 
 indolent to try to bring their work up to a given 
 standard. 
 
 THE bund's achievements 
 
 Since the day the Bund first entered the Kingdom of 
 Poland, great changes have taken place in Eussia's 
 
I90 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 general political situation. The disasters of the Eusso- 
 Japanese war, the enormous growth of all revolutionary- 
 parties, the repressive measures of autocracy have com- 
 bined to produce a condition of affairs undreamed of half 
 a decade ago. Nowhere are these changes more apparent 
 than among the Jewish proletariat. The children of the 
 ghettoes and settlements have been aroused to a sense 
 of what they owe themselves and gathered under the 
 largest Jewish organisation of modern times. 
 
 They have realised the need of fighting their own 
 battles, of watching their revolution carefully and aiding 
 it, inasmuch, but only inasmuch, as the results may be 
 beneficial to themselves. They are no longer content to 
 toil all the week and listen to the Rabbi on the Sabbath. 
 The vista of freedom and a new era has been opened 
 up to them. They are practising in the political life of 
 the country, and as they only see a prospect of political 
 freedom in revolution, what v/onder is it that they have 
 become the greatest revolutionaries ? Not only do they 
 strive to attain their end by organising strikes them- 
 selves, but they aid the Polish proletariat with monetary 
 and moral help, if they consider that the success of some 
 strike will be to their own advantage. And this attitude 
 of the ghetto will not change. Even the most sanguine 
 assimilators admit that the Bund has destroyed their 
 hopes so far as the Jewish masses, nearly 80% of the 
 total Jewish poptdation, is concerned. Whatever inclin- 
 ations they may have had to assimilate with the Polish 
 community have vanished since they knew the Bund. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 191 
 
 Why should they lose their individuality when they 
 will obtain civil rights and a cultural autonomy when 
 autocracy is no more ? Afterwards, perhaps, when they 
 have been sufficiently launched on Socialism to be able 
 to consider the trifling difi"erences of parties, some may 
 join other revolutionary societies. But they will remain 
 revolutionaries, for the old regime has treated them too 
 much like a step-mother to keep them once they have 
 begun to think for themselves. When they only felt, 
 they hated the goya, and now that reason has been 
 added to their passion it can only lead them further 
 away from the Polish community. For good or evil 
 the Bund has taken the Jewish masses into its hands, 
 taught them not only to hope but to believe in their 
 own power. 
 
 No factor has been so helpful to the Bund as the 
 revolver. Before the organisation was known in the 
 ghetto, firearms were there looked upon with horror. 
 The agonies of fear which the Jewish recruit suffered 
 have become proverbial. It is by no means a rare 
 thing for the riding-master to have their legs lashed to 
 the horses' flanks, because they are too nervous to keep 
 on. Bred under the most unhealthy conditions imagin- 
 able, fed upon insufficient food, unused to all physical 
 exercise, miserable, half-starved and sickly, the children 
 of the ghetto shrink from occupations other men enjoy. 
 Five years ago the sight of a passing patrol was sufficient 
 to scatter any gathering in the Jewish quarter. Not so 
 to-day. The armed groups who are appointed to protect 
 
192 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 meetings, fire at once when soldiers approach them, and, 
 what is more, hit their mark. Bombs are things from 
 which the most courageous men shrink, and yet the 
 most successful bomb outrages of the past year have 
 been perpetrated by Jews. The bomb factories which 
 the police discover in Warsaw and other Polish towns 
 from time to time are almost always in the Jewish 
 quarters. The Polish Party of Socialists frequently 
 employ Jewish adherents to execute the death sentence, 
 either by means of a bomb or revolver. The reason some- 
 times given is that the Israelite's hostility to a Gentile 
 will insure the success of the attempt. The most 
 interesting occurrence of the kind which I can recall at 
 present happened in May 1906, when a Jew threw a 
 bomb at a certain K., a member of the Warsaw police- 
 force as he stood on duty near the Marszalkovska — at 
 seven o'clock in the evening. K. had a very bad 
 reputation among political parties generally. He was 
 excessively cruel to prisoners, and had shot innocent 
 women in a gateway the preceding autumn. The Polish 
 Party of Socialists warned him that if he did not resign 
 he would be killed. He promised to send in his papers, 
 but remained at his post. It was not until six months 
 afterwards, however, that he met his death. His 
 assassin, in spite of the policeman and two soldiers 
 who never left him whilst on duty, managed to throw 
 the bomb just under his feet. He was literally blown 
 into pieces. A week later one of his legs was found 100 
 yards from the scene of the outrage on the roof of 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 193 
 
 a five-storied house. The most characteristic feature of 
 the incident lies in the fact that the Polish Party of 
 Socialists published a proclamation next day to the 
 effect that one of its adherents had executed the death 
 sentence passed upon K. Shortly afterwards a notice 
 appeared in one of the party's organs to the effect that : 
 " The author of the attempt upon K. was Boruch 
 Szulman, 20 years old, a workman and a member of the 
 fighting committee of our party. After throwing the 
 bomb he perished from a rifle-shot." The Party did not 
 think it necessary to apologise to the relatives of the 
 innocent victims who perished from Szulman's 
 " attempt." 
 
 The Bund armed the Jewish proletariat. Other 
 revolutionary parties followed the Bund's example, and 
 the consequence is that not a street quarrel takes place 
 without the assistance of the inevitable Browning 
 revolver. This is not the worst. All these parties 
 found the aid of the loafer necessary, not only for work 
 in the armed groups, but for executing death sentences. 
 Once armed, these men, feeling the power of the revolver, 
 began to use them for their own ends. Many men 
 who were honest a year ago, but have been ruined 
 by the strikes and forced to earn a living the best 
 way they can, join these bands. Banditism in Poland 
 has therefore assumed alarming proportions. Honest 
 people, who dare not keep firearms without a licence and 
 find the gunsmiths' shops have not got revolvers even 
 when the licence is forthcoming, are terrorised by them. 
 
194 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The following is an extract from the Warsaw Courier 
 of January 10, 1906. The issues of January 14 and 16 
 varied little from it. The only difference is in the 
 names of the victims and the sums of money extorted. 
 
 "Two men armed with revolvers entered the beer-shop 
 in the Z^bkovska yesterday and demanded money and 
 three bottles of vodka. . . . 
 
 "Some persons unknown went last evening to Mr. I.'s 
 warehouse, Noviniarsha 16, and began to shoot, 
 demanding money. When nobody answered, they fired 
 at the glass doors and windows until they were all 
 smashed, and then ran away. This is the second outrage 
 of the kind at Mr, I.'s warehouse. 
 
 " In K.'s general shop (Ceglana No. 4) four men, all out 
 of work, were arrested for demanding five roubles and 
 threatening to shoot K. if the money was not 
 forthcoming. 
 
 "A few weeks ago some people entered Mr. Zysman's 
 house and demanded 300 roubles for the Polish Party 
 of Socialists. Z. refused. Yesterday they caUed 
 again. Z. gave them a few roubles, which they took, 
 promising to come for the balance in a few days' 
 time. . . . 
 
 "A cobbler, B.,was arrested in the warehouse belonging 
 to Mr. Pryves for begging in company with four other 
 men and threatening to shoot. 
 
 "In a shop in the Krolevska a band of men threatened 
 to throw a bomb if their demands for money were not 
 satisfied. . . . 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 195 
 
 "Five men entered Mr. Ben's shop and demanded 
 3,000 roubles. A policeman happened to hear of it and 
 went to arrest them. Three of the men ran away, and 
 Mr. Ben, shaking with fear, said the other two were 
 customers. . . . 
 
 " Anarchists go into the boot-shops and demand boots 
 — mostly women's. 
 
 "Five delegates entered Zbrozek's chocolate factory 
 and demanded wages for workmen who had been dis- 
 missed from the factory. They called themselves 
 representatives from the Bund ; one of them fired off 
 his revolver. The report brought a police inspector, who 
 arrested one of the men. The rest ran away. 
 
 " Four young men in students' uniforms entered a house 
 on the Grzybovski Square, and asked if the wages of the 
 strdz (house-guardian) had been raised. They also 
 demanded 28 roubles. The landlord's wife said her 
 hiisband was not at home, and they left, promising to 
 return to-morrow." 
 
 I have given this as an example of the way in which 
 the inhabitants of Warsaw are visited daily by men 
 asking for money. Space forbids my using extracts 
 from reports from the provinces. 
 
 During the six months which have elapsed between 
 January and June 1906, things have not improved. I 
 append an extract from [the Polish Courier for June 15, 
 in which, as before, the day's accidents are recorded. 
 
 "To-day at noon some persons unknown shot at 
 Anthony Horonin, 42 years of age — police inspector, as 
 
196 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 he was passing No. 9 in the Volska. He fell dead in- 
 stantly, receiving three wounds. The assassins escaped. 
 
 " At five o'clock this morning two men went up to the 
 strdz at No. 9 Stalova, and shot at him from revolvers. 
 Neither of them hit its mark. The men escaped. 
 
 " Yesterday at half-past one somebody shot at police 
 inspector M. from the gateway of 110 Panska. M. fell 
 dead. Soldiers, who happened to be passing, began to 
 fire at the people who had run away from the scene of 
 the outrage. One man, name unknown, was killed, and 
 two workmen wounded. The police raided No. 110 and 
 arrested four people. 
 
 " A little later in the afternoon, that is about three 
 o'clock, Bienik, a member of the mounted police force, 
 was mortally wounded by a revolver-shot whilst passing 
 the Krolevska Street in a tram. A policeman who was 
 standing close by tried to arrest the would-be assassin, 
 but he was wounded in the leg by somebody in the tram, 
 and the assassin escaped in a cab. Soldiers began to 
 shoot at the cab, but instead of hitting the people 
 inside, they wounded three passers-by — a servant, 
 Josephine M., a butcher, Kondracki, and a Jew who 
 was driving from the station.^ 
 
 " Soon after nine o'clock this morning a policeman, 
 accompanied by some soldiers, went into the Zabia ^ in 
 order to search the people in the street. When at the 
 
 1 Rumour says that this Jew had escaped from the massacres at 
 Bialystok only to be injured as soon as he reached Warsaw. 
 
 2 In the Jewish quarter. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 197 
 
 corner of the Bank Square he went up to some young men, 
 he was shot at. He and the soldiers fell wounded, and 
 their assailants ran away. The ambulance arrived and 
 found that the policeman had received two wounds, the 
 two soldiers one each. The ambulance conveyed them 
 to the military hospital in a grave condition. 
 
 " At ten o'clock last night, a post van drove up to No 8 
 in the Biala. When the postman was about to enter 
 the house, several men surrounded him and demanded 
 the letters containing money. Although they were 
 armed with revolvers, the postman did not lose his 
 presence of mind, but, throwing off the men, rushed 
 down to the strbz (house-guardian) and told him to 
 shut the gate. Two of the roughs managed to escape 
 before the strbz had time to do so, and the third was 
 caught." 
 
 So much for Warsaw. Provincial correspondence in 
 the same issue records a daring attack on the post 
 office in Zgierz, near Lodz, of which thirty masked men 
 armed with knives and revolvers were the heroes. Two 
 who entered by the back entrance asked one of the 
 sentries where stamps were sold. When the latter 
 turned round to point out the window, the new-comer 
 snatched away his musket and wounded him in the 
 abdomen with a knife. 
 
 Meanwhile five other masked men had entered the 
 forwarding office on the first floor, where three 
 soldiers were on guard. They killed one and mortally 
 
198 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 wounded the others. Two more accomplices entered a 
 neighbouring room and wounded one of the three clerks 
 who were there ; the other two, completely losing their 
 presence 6f mind, threw themselves out of the window 
 and were seriously injured. 
 
 The fourth group went into the room where the safe 
 is kept and where the postmaster and his assistant were 
 at work. Holding revolvers to their heads the marauders 
 ordered the postmaster to open the safe. On his making 
 some reply, they mortally wounded him. But the 
 soldier who had been wounded at first managed to 
 escape from the hands of his assailants and ran into the 
 street calling for assistance. The whole band, on seeing 
 the turn things had taken, left the post office as quickly 
 as possible, without stopping to take the money but 
 carrying three muskets away with them. Two of them 
 were afterwards found in a forest close by. Five others, 
 who were arrested a little further from the town, threw 
 their revolvers into a pond when they saw dragoons 
 approaching them. 
 
 It must be added that the band had cut the telephone 
 and telegraph wires before beginning operations. 
 
 The Lodz correspondent records the following mishap 
 for the same day. " Yesterday S. Kobylecki, 26 years 
 old, was shot in the Lutomierska market-place. Terror 
 has been employed against the Strbzy (house-guardians) 
 who refuse to strike. The strbz at 12 Piotrkovska was 
 mortally wounded whilst lighting his lamps. The strbz at 
 No. 50 was so badly beaten that he had to be taken to the 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 199 
 
 hospital. Terror is used against the coffee-house keepers 
 also. Mr. Ulrich refused to shut his establishment and 
 the agitators shot at him. Luckily all six shots missed 
 their mark, and only destroyed a mirror which cost 900 
 roubles. 
 
 " The workmen in P.'s factory in the Sredna demanded 
 a 9|-hours' working day instead of the 10 hours they 
 had agreed to a short time ago. The factory was closed 
 in consequence. P. received several threatening letters, 
 and yesterday some men went to see him. He told 
 them through the open window that he would re-open 
 his factory only on condition that the men worked 10 
 hours a day. When he had said this one of the men 
 shot at him. But the bullet missed P. and only smashed 
 a window. The men ran away." 
 
 I have given the above extracts because they are 
 records of daily events in Warsaw and other large towns, 
 not because they constitute any unusual facts. They 
 have been going on now since 1905. Every few days 
 the raid upon a post office or a saving's bank is varied 
 by that on a dvor (manor house) with more or less loss 
 of life. But whether in town or country, the assailants 
 are invariably armed with revolvers, which they know 
 how to use with fatal results. The consequence is that 
 everybody in the country is in constant danger of being 
 wounded, if not kUled, either at home or in the street. 
 If he be not liable to perish from a revolver, the chances 
 are that he will meet his fate from a soldier's rifle fired 
 at some assassin. People who come to the country for 
 
200 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 a short time are horrified at this state of anarchy : but 
 the inhabitants have got used to it. The outrages are 
 recorded without comment and elicit little surprise. 
 Nobody shows as much indignation as the leaders of the 
 revolutionary parties who have armed the irresponsible 
 masses. Their newspapers are constantly informing the 
 public that ^ " We give no permission to extort money 
 from private persons for the cause with threats," or, 
 " We have been much annoyed at discovering that 
 death-sentences purporting to be signed by us are being 
 distributed in order to extort money. We wish to state 
 once and for all that we never pass death-sentences upon 
 those who don't deserve them." This is no doubt very 
 considerate of the revolutionaries, but offers small comfort 
 to the victims of the armed ruffians who infest the 
 country at present. After all, it does not make much 
 difPerence whether a man has his brains blown out 
 by a Social Democrat, a Bundist, or a ." non-party " 
 assassin. 
 
 It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the cases in 
 which simple banditism has been at work from those 
 ordered by one of the parties. Very often a man is 
 assassinated by accident. The chief of the Bialystok 
 police, murdered in June 1906, was a victim of mistaken 
 identity. The Jewish revolutionary party of the town 
 apologised to his widow ; but the man, a very worthy 
 one by the way, was dead. I remember a case of a 
 strbz (house-guardian) who was shot one afternoon in 
 
 1 See the Red Standard, the workmen's and other party organs. 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 201 
 
 Warsaw. After his death the party discovered they had 
 punished the wrong man — the strbz next-door had 
 incurred their anger. The widow received consolation 
 in the form of a 100-roubIe note. 
 
 Whether the leaders of the Bund will live to regret 
 the initiative they took in arming their proletariat; 
 whether it is wise to place weapons at the disposal of 
 masses of men who have every temptation to use them 
 against innocent people ; whether the anarchy thereby 
 engendered will finally lead the country to a state of 
 order, or the proletariat will prove itself too powerful for 
 its quondam mentors, are questions which time alone 
 can answer. But whatever may be the final solution of 
 the problem, the blame or the praise for arousing the 
 dark masses of the Polish ghettoes must rest with the 
 Bund. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The following extracts from some resolutions recently 
 passed by a congress of Bundists throwing light upon 
 the attitude of the organisation towards general questions 
 may interest the reader. 
 
 Agitation meetings (under the protection of armed 
 groups) must be organised as often as possible, in 
 factories, workshops, synagogues and open spaces. The 
 organisation must be strengthened by the accession of 
 men and women who devote all their time to the 
 
 cause. 
 
202 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 It is necessary to extend agitation to every possible 
 quarter. Groups of non-Jewish workmen must be 
 formed to agitate among the non-Jewish proletariat in 
 order to gain the greatest amount of political influence 
 by the time autocracy is abolished. 
 
 The old fighting methods must be abandoned and 
 more decisive and revolutionary ones formed. Those 
 who are not armed must be supplied with weapons 
 without delay. 
 
 General Strikes are of paramount importance, as 
 they obstruct the industrial and cultural life of the 
 Empire. 
 
 Propaganda must be carried on amongst the soldiers, 
 and special committees formed for this branch of the 
 work. 
 
 Terror must be applied when necessary. It is also 
 necessary that public men who are dangerous to the 
 cause be removed. 
 
 In time of public disturbances government buildings 
 must be stormed by the populace. 
 
 Other Revolutionary Parties 
 
 The Polish Party of Socialists. — The Jews play 
 an important part in the Polish Party of Socialists, 
 especially as leaders and organisers. The programme 
 of the P. P. S., as the party is popularly called, includes 
 the foundation of a Polish republic on democratic 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 203 
 
 lines; that is, the patriotic element is introduced. 
 For this reason the P. P. S. only appeals to those Jews 
 who have adopted a certain amount of Polish culture 
 and look upon Poland as their country. It therefore 
 does very different work from the Bund, as its leaders 
 have little sympathy with Yiddish and ghetto culture. 
 But there is a Jewish committee which carries on 
 propaganda among the Jewish proletariat. There is no 
 space here to discuss this party at length. For seven 
 years, that is, from 1893 till 1900, the P. P. S. were first 
 in the Socialistic field in Poland, for the Social Demo- 
 crats were weak from many adversities, and the Bund 
 had not made its appearance. But even to-day it holds 
 its own against all rivals, and is as strong as any 
 political party now existing in the country. It has 
 been especially active during the past year, and, apart 
 from its political work, often performs duties which are 
 done by the police in other countries. 
 
 A line of steamers which ply on the Vistula between 
 Warsaw and Plock had long been infested with a band 
 of card-sharpers who imposed upon the peasant passen- 
 gers to a scandalous degree. The owners of the boats 
 applied to the police several times in vain. But the 
 P. P. S. got to hear about it, and determined to put a 
 stop to the nuisance. One morning, as the five sharpers 
 were playing on one of the boats, eight strangers entered 
 the cabin where they and their victims were sitting, and 
 taking out revolvers, ordered the sharpers to go on deck 
 
204 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and the other passengers to stay where they were. 
 They obeyed ; a death sentence was read out, and they 
 were told to stand in a row whilst it was being executed. 
 At the same time the man at the wheel was told that he 
 would be shot if he gave the alarm or stopped the boat 
 — they were some way out of Warsaw, and the river 
 was clear. Then the shooting began. The sharpers ran 
 about the deck and tried to hide in the cabin, but before 
 long they were all lying on the deck. Their execu- 
 tioners threw three of them who were dead overboard, 
 and, leaving the others where they were, told the man in 
 charge to put into the bank, carried a wounded comrade 
 ashore, and disappeared into the rushes. 
 
 When the P. P. S. raids a public or semi-public insti- 
 tution for money, it always names the amount of money 
 taken in the next issue of its organ, and sometimes gives 
 the names of those who took part in the raid. The same 
 plan is adopted with those who have been shot for 
 treachery or taking money under false pretensions or for 
 private use. The members put down drunkenness and 
 gambling in the factories with a strong hand. The 
 following proclamation appeared in a large iron factory a 
 short time ago. 
 
 " Comrades," it begins, " during the great strike we 
 fought, among other things, for the abolition of search- 
 ing, and for the institution of a system of workman- 
 overseeing in place of the old system of spying which 
 has hitherto prevailed. But bitter experience has taught 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 205 
 
 us that there are many workmen who have not yet 
 grown worthy of humane laws, and whose moral conduct 
 is such that they want the foreman's whip and fines 
 to keep them in order. Drunkards have begun to show 
 themselves in the factories, especially after pay-days, and 
 by their conduct cause rioting and fighting in which the 
 other men are often obliged to interfere. That is not all. 
 These men, not content with turning the factories and 
 workshops into pot-houses, have even made gambling- 
 dens of them as well. The rest of the workmen have made 
 up their minds to put a stop to this excess, the dignity 
 of the proletariat must be preserved. Individuals who 
 bring shame upon us must be removed. Therefore it 
 has been decided, at a meeting recently held, that he 
 who enters his factory drunk for the first time shall be 
 sent away from work for three days ; for the second 
 offence six days ; for the third offence for twelve days ; 
 while the fourth offence shall be punished by dismissal 
 from the factory or workshop altogether. The same 
 punishment shall be meted out to those who indulge in 
 gambling." 
 
 There is no doubt that the P. P. S. has done a great 
 deal of good in the way of putting a stop to drunkenness 
 and gambling ; from time to time it raids the brothels 
 of the large towns as well. 
 
 This party also committed the robberies which took 
 place on the Vienna and Vistula Railway lines in July 
 1906j when over two hundred thousand roubles were 
 
2o6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 taken from the mail-waggons. The money was added 
 to the funds collected for the general strike which the 
 P. P. S., in coalition with the other parties, wished to 
 organise for the following August. These outrages were 
 committed in the coolest possible manner. In the second 
 Vienna-Railway incident, when the evening train from 
 Aleksandrovo, the frontier station, was within ten versts 
 of Warsaw, the engine-driver noticed a group of people 
 standing by the plant, one of whom was making signals 
 with a red lantern. At the same time he felt that one 
 of the automatic brakes was being used in the carriages, 
 the train stopped, some fourteen or fifteen people 
 boarded it ; half of them took possession of the driver 
 and stoker, whilst the others began to disconnect the 
 part which contained the mail-coach, separated from the 
 engine by seven goods-waggons. No sooner was this 
 done than two or three men, armed with revolvers, 
 jumped out of each carriage and kept guard over their 
 frightened fellow-passengers, after telling them that 
 they had nothing to fear so long as they kept quiet. 
 MeanwhUe, one of the men who had boarded the engine 
 drove it a few hundred yards away from the rest of the 
 train, his accomplices gathered round the mail-waggon, 
 shot at the doors and windows until they made enough 
 holes to effect an entrance, disarmed the post-ofSce 
 official who was in charge, and who had wounded one of 
 the assailants, and set to work. One of the band took 
 the book containing a list of the monies in the waggon, 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 207 
 
 read out the numbers of the bags which were wanted 
 to his comrades, who sorted the private correspondence 
 from that belonging to the railway, taking the latter 
 and leaving the former intact. When this was done 
 they gave the official back his revolver, told the driver 
 not to move till they were out of sight, and walked off 
 with their booty, which amounted to about one hundred 
 thousand roubles, being the week's takings from the 
 principal stations between the frontier and Warsaw. 
 During the proceedings a large red flag with the party's 
 initials printed on it was planted near the train. One 
 of the conductors said that the train was stopped in his 
 presence by a second-class passenger who put a revolver 
 to his head when he protested against the use of the 
 brake. The whole incident did not take very long, for 
 the train was only half-an-hour late in Warsaw. A 
 similar robbery was committed earlier in the same day 
 on the same line, when nine men who resisted the assail- 
 ants were shot. The P. P. S. also lost one man. The 
 third was committed on the Vistula line, when a 
 gendarme lost his life. A receipt for the whole sum 
 appeared in the next issue of the Rohotnik (workman), 
 the party's organ. 
 
 The P. P. S. also organised the raids on the govern- 
 ment spirit-shops, which were of daily occurrence 
 during the months of June and July, and forced the 
 authorities to close them altogether. On such an 
 occasion near Lodz, the four raiders kept five Cossacks 
 
2o8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 at bay for several hours, and finally escaped with the 
 money. 
 
 The Social Democratic League of Poland was 
 founded by Rosa Luxemburg, a Jewess, and Karski in 
 1893. Its programme is the same as that of the Bund 
 except for the clause treating with Jewish nationalism. 
 A large proportion of the members of this party are 
 Jews. A police raid was made when a meeting of the 
 Warsaw section was being held in that town in the 
 spring of 1906. A few days afterwards, a list of those 
 arrested appeared. It contained 75 names, of which 66 
 were indisputably Jewish, and the rest either doubtful 
 or non-Jewish. The Social Democrats, being anti- 
 national, appeal to many of the Jewish Intelligentia who 
 have left the traditions of the Hebrew culture far behind 
 them, and yet know little or nothing of Polish culture. 
 These men and women have generally been educated in 
 the Eussian Gymnasia, where the tendency of the teach- 
 ing in non-national. The Social Democrats seem, to the 
 outsider, to live in an imaginary world, mapped out by 
 Marx and Engel, and not in the world which is. 
 
 The voice of this party is not often heard except in 
 connection with some strike. Now and again they 
 expose some impostors by printing such notices as 
 this in their paper, Czervony Sztandar (The Red 
 Standard) — 
 
 " We have just received a red paper with a black 
 border signed ' The Social Democratic League for the 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 209 
 
 Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania,' and containing the 
 following statement : — ' Death sentence passed on N. N. 
 for spying on the Social Democrats. If you don't save 
 yourself by running away, this sentence will be executed 
 either in your home or in the factory. We give you a 
 week to take leave of your friends and family.' This 
 sentence is utterly false, and was put into our hands by 
 N. N. of D.'s factory, probably by a man who wanted to 
 get his place. Some villain has put our seal to it to 
 make it look genuine. We hereby give notice that our 
 organisation sends death sentences to nobody, and that 
 we shall punish the wretches who forge such sentences 
 without mercy. We call upon our comrades to help us 
 crush these villains who try to contaminate the revolution 
 with their dirty hands." 
 
 The rank and file of these parties quarrel among 
 themselves and with the followers of the National 
 Democratic Party. Sometimes the most trivial dis- 
 agreement will lead to a fuss in the factory. Lately, 
 the Socialists used terror to have Patriotic workmen 
 dismissed from the factories in which the Socialistic 
 element predominates, and by the beginning of August 
 things had got to such a pitch in Warsaw and Lodz, so 
 many lives were lost in the quarrels which took place, 
 and in which the Patriots came ofi" worst, that the 
 latter issued an appeal to the Polish community to help 
 them to put a stop to this form of terrorism by having 
 the factories in which it had been practised closed until 
 
2IO THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the Socialists promised to take them back. The follow- 
 ing incident proves that the most trivial causes were 
 sufficient to bring about the "party's" interference. 
 Two women who worked side by side in one of the 
 spirit warehouses in Praga (a suburb of Warsaw), one a 
 Socialist and the other a Patriot, had a discussion about 
 the virtues of their respective parties and came to blows. 
 The Patriot got the best of it ; but the Socialist went to 
 her party and demanded instant satisfaction. The next 
 morning, two delegates went to the manager of the 
 warehouse and told him that he must dismiss the Patriot 
 at once. The manager refused, but removed her to 
 another room for a day, after which he told her to go 
 back to her old place. But this arrangement did not 
 please her political enemy, who fetched the delegates. 
 They came, turned the Patriot out by force, and told the 
 manager that if he did not receive one of their protegees 
 in her place he would have good reason to regret his 
 obstinacy. 
 
 At about the same time Lodz was the scene of a 
 
 several days' feud, in which the Socialists and the Patriots 
 
 lost no opportunity of putting bullets into each other. 
 
 But perhaps the most barbarous act of revenge was 
 
 committed upon a young man, a Patriot, who was shot 
 
 by the Socialists because he brought the tanners' strike to 
 
 an end. A young Jew was shot in the street by his party, 
 
 the Bund, for using its seal for his own private ends. 
 
 His grave was desecrated three times within as many 
 
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS 211 
 
 weeks, and boys dug it up again and again in order, they 
 said, to exhume his body and throw it out of the 
 cemetery. The fact that his sister was standing by the 
 grave at the time did not deter them, and it was only 
 the arrival of some workmen which put a stop to the 
 outrage. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE POLISH JEW'S PAST 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 Before considering the future prospects of the Polish 
 Jew it is necessary to draw aside the veil which obscures 
 his past, and glance at the influences which have tended 
 to form his character since the first of his race took 
 refuge amongst the Sclavonic people. 
 
 The Middle Ages, the treatment of the past, the 
 character, restrictions, persecutions, proscriptions and 
 privileges, the ghettoes, communes and the kahals 
 created the Jewish question which has assumed such 
 gigantic proportions in the Russian Empire at the present 
 day, and of which the influence has extended as far as 
 England and America. It is difficult to say when the 
 Jew entered Poland ; for though it is certain that he was 
 there before Christianity, his first advent is wrapped in 
 the rumours and mysteries of tradition and legend. It 
 seems equally certain that he went there for the purpose 
 of carrying on that traffic for which the Sclavs were 
 famous, taking his slaves as far from Poland as the 
 Pyrenees. There is one legend touching the Jew which, 
 if it serves no other purpose, indicates that he was 
 
 2IS 
 
2i6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 received by the Poles with good humour and enjoyed 
 their confidence and esteem. 
 
 According to this hajka (legend) the Kingdom of 
 Poland, whilst yet pagan, was suddenly bereft of her 
 King, Popiel by name, who had been gathered to his 
 fathers by undergoing the uncomfortable process of being 
 eaten up by mice as a punishment for his manifold 
 iniquities. There was some difficulty about choosing his 
 successor. The election meetings had been long and 
 stormy, everybody was in a hurry to get home, and 
 the suggestion of an old man that they should settle 
 the question by electing the first person who entered the 
 town at daybreak was received with enthusiasm. 
 Primitive as it was, it at least saved the indolent Poles 
 from any trouble in the way of post- electoral petitions 
 and the tiresome consequences of such political amenities 
 as sumptuous dinners and crowded " at homes," 
 
 As chance decreed, the first man to enter the town 
 after daybreak was a Jewish merchant, Abraham, who 
 dealt in gunpowder and was known to his customers 
 by the endearing and diminutive form — Abramek. He 
 was hailed with joy and taken in triumph through the 
 town to receive the crown which had so lately rested 
 upon King Popiel's wicked head. But Abramek, either 
 because he was overpowered by the great and unexpected 
 honour or because he felt chary about wearing a diadem 
 left by a man whose body had nourished mice, refused. 
 The electors were importunate : they remonstrated, 
 pleaded and threatened, and at last it was arranged that 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 217 
 
 Abramek should retreat for a short time into an empty 
 hut to reflect upon the duties and responsibilities which 
 had been so suddenly thrust upon him. The impatient 
 electors waited, waited, and waited. Two days and two 
 nights passed, but Abramek still remained in meditation. 
 At last one of them, named Piast, said that as Abramek 
 did not emerge from the hut himself, he meant to go and 
 fetch him. Like most suggestions which nobody had 
 thought of before, it was received with enthusiasm and 
 wonder that the meeting had overlooked such a simple 
 solution. In a few minutes Piast had broken in the 
 door of Abramek's hut, " Poles ! " cried the Jew, 
 emerging at last. " Your countryman, Piast, has done 
 a clever thing. Take him for your leader ! He has 
 understanding, for he has perceived that the country 
 may not remain so long without a king. He is courageous, 
 because he broke open the door of my hut when the 
 meeting had decided that I should remain in meditation ; 
 offer him the crown, and I hope you will be grateful to 
 God and to Abramek for the suggestion." And so it 
 was that the first of a long and illustrious line of kings 
 was chosen by a Jew for the Polish people. 
 
 The immigration of Jews into Poland, hitherto 
 intermittent, appears to have become permanent during 
 the eighth century. Not only did they flock thither from 
 Germany, Hungary and Bohemia, but they left their 
 settlements in the Crimea and in the land of Eus, to 
 seek refuge in Poland. 
 
 The Arabian historian, Eba Hankal, who flourished 
 
2i8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 in the tenth century, says that there was at that time 
 a prosperous Hebrew state famous for its agricultural 
 superiority upon the banks of the Volga, ruled over by a 
 Jewish monarch. The name of it was Bath, and its 
 territory was protected by 1 ,200 warriors. What became 
 of that community we know not, but it is supposed that 
 after its fall or decay the inhabitants went to the land 
 of Eus, and thence, as we shall see, to Poland and 
 Lithuania, where their descendants, ignorant of their 
 traditions, live at the present day. 
 
 But this was not the only important Jewish settlement 
 in Eastern Europe. Some of the children of Israel who 
 were enslaved by the Babylonians and Assyrians drifted 
 in the course of time to the land of the Armenians and 
 thence to those countries, such as the Crimea and 
 Caucasus, which now belong to the Russian Empire. In 
 the year 1840 a diligent search in the Crimean Peninsula 
 was rewarded by the discovery of the remains of Hebrew 
 civilisation. One of the monuments there found, dated 
 in the four thousand and twenty-seventh year of the 
 Jewish era, and therefore corresponding to the nine 
 hundred and sixty-seventh year after the birth of Christ, 
 was erected to the memory of Isaac Sangari, a famous 
 figure in Jewish history. It was he who tamed and 
 united the wUd tribes among whom he had settled, 
 introducing Hebrew civilisation. We find traces of these 
 Crimean Jews as far as KieflF, where they attempted to 
 convert Vladimir the Great to Judaism. The story runs 
 that these Crimean Jews, hearing that the Prince had 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 219 
 
 decided to abandon the pagan religion of his forefathers 
 and adopt a creed which would bring himself and his 
 subjects under the influence of civilisation, sent delegates 
 to Kieff with the message, " We hear that Bulgarians and 
 Christians have come to teach you their creeds. The 
 Christians believe in one whom we have crucified. We 
 only believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." 
 When Vladimir asked them what their convictions were, 
 they replied, "To be circumcised, to refrain from eating 
 the flesh of pigs and of hares, and to keep holy the 
 Sabbath Day." The Prince asked where their land was. 
 " Jerusalem," they answered. " But do you live there 
 now ? " Vladimir enquired. To this the Jews answered, 
 " God was angered with our forefathers, and scattered us 
 all over the world for our sins, and our land was given 
 to Christians." " How can you," asked Vladimir, when 
 he heard this, " cast aside by God and scattered as you 
 are, teach others ? If God had loved you and your law, 
 you would not be wanderers upon earth. Do you want 
 the same misfortune to fall upon us ? " 
 
 So Vladimir the Great refused to embrace Judaism. 
 Nevertheless they translated the books of Moses into 
 Russian (the original is, or was, in the Vatican), and must 
 have had a certain amount of influence in the Principality 
 of Kieff' to venture to try to convert its Prince. But 
 this influence gradually weakened, and the position of 
 those Jews who had settled there became so unbearable 
 that they were obliged to leave Vladimir's domains and 
 take refuge in Poland. The Jews attributed this change 
 
220 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 in the attitude of the Russians to Greek intrigue, but the 
 Russian historians affirm that the Jewish usurers alone 
 were to blame, as they charged such high interest for 
 their loans that their debtors grew exasperated. In the 
 year 1112 the soldiers in the Principality mutinied, and 
 concluded their orgies by sacking the Jewish quarters in 
 Kieff, which were also destroyed by fire a few years 
 later. One prince of the line of Monomach, anxious to 
 obtain possession of the crown, gained his object by 
 suggesting that the people should expel the Jews from 
 the land, and set the example by driving them from his 
 own estates. 
 
 They were not any more fortunate in the Southern 
 portion of the land of Rus, for, though the inhabitants of 
 the country tolerated them, they suffered terribly from 
 Tartar raids. 
 
 In Vilno, on the other hand, they flourished so well 
 that they occupied a large portion of the town. But 
 they had less influence in the neighbouring Principality 
 of Moscovy, whither they appear to have paid frequent 
 visits for trading purposes, and even collected taxes which 
 were rented to them by the prince. In Lithuania they 
 suffered persecution, and fled thence to Poland. They 
 were afterwards taken back to Lithuania as slaves, or 
 drifted thither whilst trading, and prospered more than 
 their co-religionists who had remained in Poland, where 
 the Jews from Germany had already obtained leave 
 from King Leszek to settle. This king's reputation for 
 toleration attracted thousands of Jews, who obtained their 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 221 
 
 first Charter of Privileges in Poland in the year 905 a.d. 
 This document was unfortunately lost during the wars 
 with Germany in the next century ; but copies of that 
 granted by King Boleslas in the year 1264 are still 
 extant, and prove that the Jews were treated in Poland 
 with toleration at a time when they were persecuted not 
 only in Germany but in England as well. The most 
 interesting clauses in this Charter are the following : — 
 
 (1) In cases against a Jew a Christian alone cannot 
 bear witness : Jews must also do so. 
 
 (3) A Jew may take any article as a pledge except 
 those used in Church or soaked in blood. 
 
 (6) When a pledge has been stolen and the Jew swears 
 he did not know of it, then the Christian must pay him 
 the capital lent upon the pledge and the interest thereof. 
 
 (7) When a Christian pledge is lost, by fire or by theft, 
 whilst in a Jew's keeping, the Jew may free himself from 
 the responsibility thereof by an oath. 
 
 (8) The Jews in quarrels amongst themselves are 
 excluded from the Polish tribunals ; they shall remain 
 under the protection of the King, or a Wojewoda, 
 (Governor of a district). 
 
 (9) He who wounds a Jew shall pay a fine and the 
 costs of his cure. 
 
 (10) He who murders a Jew shall pay a fine and suffer 
 confiscation of his property. 
 
 (1 1) He who strikes a Jew shall pay a fine. 
 
 (12) Jews shall not pay higher taxes than the towns- 
 people. 
 
222 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 (14) A Christian who spoils a Jewish cemetery shall 
 suffer the confiscation of his estate and pay a fine besides. 
 
 (18) He who throws stones at a Jewish school shall 
 give the Wojeivoda two pounds of pepper. 
 
 (20) When there is no proof as to who has murdered a 
 Jew, we will give legal protection against the suspected 
 man. 
 
 (24) No man shall be quartered upon a Jew. 
 
 (26) The abduction of a Jewish child shall be 
 considered as a theft. 
 
 (27) When a pledge has been in a Jew's possession for 
 a year and a day, it becomes his property. 
 
 (28) Jews cannot be forced to give back pledges upon 
 their feast days. 
 
 (29) Those who take them away by force shall pay a 
 fine. 
 
 (30) The Jews may not be accused of using Christian 
 blood. 
 
 (35) In night attacks the neighbours must lend the 
 Jews aid under pain of a fine. 
 
 (36) Jews may buy all kinds of goods and touch 
 bread and other eatables. 
 
 The Jews were able to freely profit by this Charter for 
 the next century. At the end of that time the Poles 
 conceived a dishke to foreigners. This was owing to 
 the bad government and consequent unpopularity of 
 King Ludwig of Hungary, who reigned in Poland from 
 1370-1382. They sufi"ered from the delinquencies of 
 the Hungarians who flocked to the country. The 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 223 
 
 Charter was modified, and during the reigns of Lud- 
 wig's successors, Kings of the House of Jagiellon, the 
 children of Israel were ordered to wear red patches upon 
 their clothes and yellow caps to distinguish them from 
 the rest of the population. Their condition became stiU 
 more deplorable after the Council of Basle (1431-1443), 
 whose influence reached Poland and led to the perse- 
 cution of the Jews, who had learned to look upon this 
 country as a haven of security from the massacres and 
 ill-treatment they had experienced in other parts of 
 Europe. 
 
 The reader wiU doubtless recollect that the Jewish 
 question obtained a large share of the Council's attention, 
 and that their object was to employ measures which 
 would force them to embrace Christianity. Hard laws, 
 all tending to exclude them from intercourse with the 
 Christians, were passed, and Polish delegates took copies 
 of them home. Then John de Capostrano, the Inquestor 
 of the Jews, visited Cracow, and his anti-Semitism, com- 
 bined with the zeal of the Polish clergy for their Church, 
 incited the townspeople to such an extent that they fell 
 upon the Jews, sacking their shops and houses, burning 
 and massacring them and their families in a manner 
 worthy of a Spanish auto-de-fe. 
 
 These terrible scenes, which generally terminated with 
 the expulsion of the survivors, were repeated in Lemberg 
 and other towns, for the passions of the people had 
 been fanned by the adherents of Capostrano to such a 
 pitch that the wildest charges against his victims re- 
 
224 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 suited in massacre, rapine and arson. The King, 
 Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk, was powerless to help his 
 proteges, and they could only wait until the passion 
 of the masses had been satisfied, when they again crept 
 back to their former haunts, set up their booths and 
 bartered, ran errands, and lent money as of old. This 
 wave of anti-Semitism, however, had one lasting effect, 
 for even after the popular passion, tired of bloodshed, 
 had sunk down to the usual state of passive anti-Semitism, 
 legislation stepped in and placed restrictions upon their 
 mode of living. They were no longer allowed to buUd 
 their dwellings side by side with the Christians. Not 
 only were they ordered to live in isolated quarters of the 
 towns, separated by a wall or ditch, but Christians who 
 owned property near their dwellings were obliged to 
 sell it without delay, lest they should become con- 
 taminated by living near the Hebrews. This wave of 
 exotic anti-Semitism, which was evinced in a manner 
 totally at variance with the principles and sentiments 
 of the Polish people, strove to separate the Jews further 
 than ever from the rest of the community. They were 
 forbidden to bring their quarrels before a Polish magis- 
 trate, and from this time they began to consider the 
 Talmud as their authority in the quarrels and misunder- 
 standings which sprang up between themselves, and to 
 look up the Eabbis as their judges. In Posen the Law 
 of Moses was referred to in judging Jews charged with 
 misdemeanor, and the order to use it for this purpose 
 was given by King Sygmunt Augustus, At the same 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 225 
 
 time the Jews in Lithuania were ordered to bring their 
 quarrels before their own court and to obey the verdict 
 of this body. 
 
 With the fall of the House of Jagiellon and the rise 
 of the elective monarchy, their state grew worse instead 
 of better. Henry of Valois, the Frenchman who sat 
 upon the Polish throne, brought the petty persecutions 
 they suffered to a crisis. His successor, Stephan Batory 
 (1576-86), a Pole, treated them with more justice. It 
 was he who first gave their Kahals the right to govern 
 the internal affairs of their Communes. But stUl these 
 vicissitudes did not separate them from the rest of the 
 population as much as it might have done. Indeed, 
 their separation only became general when the nobility, 
 or Szlachta, granted them charters and the right to settle 
 in groups upon their land. 
 
 It is diflficult to-day, when Poland's neck has been 
 under a foreign yoke for a century, to realise the enor- 
 mous amount of power the Polish nobles then exercised 
 over the peasants and Jews. The last not only settled 
 in the royal cities, i. e. those which fell under the juris- 
 diction of the King, but in course of time they lived in 
 the " noble towns," i. e. those which were built upon the 
 lands of nobles, and in the noble villages, both of which 
 fell under the governance of the lord of the manor. 
 These lords were the undisputed masters of the Jews 
 and peasants who lived upon their soil. So great were 
 their privileges, and so powerfully did they support one 
 another, that the kings themselves did not often venture 
 
226 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 to contradict them. As to the Jews, they were at their 
 mercy; their lawsuits against Christian debtors and 
 Christian oppressors were decided by their lords, whose 
 power was very often abused in favour of a fellow- 
 countryman and a co-religionist. Nevertheless it is well 
 not to forget the balance allowed by the Polish character. 
 Like all Sclavs, they were careless, easy-going, idle and 
 unstable of purpose. Unless a Jew were seriously in 
 their way they were content then, as they are now, 
 to live and let live. Besides, the landed proprietor, like 
 the King and the Wojewoda, could not get on very long 
 without his Isaak or his Jankel, and the bargain therefore 
 worked both ways. If the squire or magnate wanted 
 ready money, and, Pole as he was, he always needed it, 
 the Jew would lend it to him ; if his wife wanted pearls 
 or silks or furs, there was nobody but the Jew to procure 
 them, for a Polish merchant, even if he undertook the 
 task, would need as many months as the Jew days to 
 accomplish it. If there were an important despatch 
 to be speedily delivered at the other end of the king- 
 dom, the Pole intrusted it to a Jew, because he knew 
 that the bearer would not get intoxicated whilst on the 
 road and impart the secret of his mission to others. If 
 his house or palace were in bad repair, if he needed gold 
 wherewith to buy the partisans who would support him 
 at the Diet, if he wanted a suit of armour, a horse or a 
 sword, a soldier or a coach, there was ever the ready, 
 obliging Jew to supply his wants and wait patiently for 
 remuneration. It mattered little for the Pole that he 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 227 
 
 paid a ridiculous price for all he bought, that he was 
 taking the bread out of his brothers' mouths, and sink- 
 ing deeper and deeper into debt. He was only too 
 happy to have financial aid always at hand, and thereby 
 developed the Jew's money-lending propensities. The 
 Jew was not to blame. All other occupations were 
 proscribed. Not being able to possess land, he could 
 not cultivate the soil ; not being allowed to carry arms, he 
 could not become a knight. Even the pursuit of crafts 
 was forbidden him when the townspeople found out how 
 apt he was. His one monopoly was usury, and his only 
 occupation commerce. Little wonder that he clung 
 to both and excelled in these two means of earning a 
 living. 
 
 By the middle of the sixteenth century we find, from a 
 pamphlet entitled " Ad querelam mercatorum Cracoviero- 
 sium : responsum Judaeorum de mercatura," that Poland 
 possessed only 500 Polish as against 3,200 Jewish 
 merchants, and, in spite of the efforts of the Polish 
 craftsmen to retain their crafts in their own hands, that 
 there were three times as many Jewish craftsmen. A 
 historian of the same period remarks that "A Pole 
 avoided commerce because ' merchant ' and ' Jew ' meant 
 almost the same thing, unless indeed, here and there, a 
 German settled and carried on his trade." The Jews had 
 one friend, the monarch. Nearly all the Polish kings 
 were favourably disposed towards a class which was so 
 financially useful. The Polish townspeople were ill- 
 matched against the superior business capacities of their 
 
228 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 rivals, who had nothing to fear from the nobles, forbid- 
 den as they were by law to engage in trade or commerce. 
 Living in a country lacking in natural defences, open to 
 attacks from the West, and greedily watched by Tartars 
 and the Cossack hordes from the East, the Polish szlachtic 
 had to be prepared to sally forth at a moment's notice 
 and fight not only for his country, but for the very roof 
 which sheltered himself and his family. The burgher, 
 hardly pressed by the magnates, only dreamed of 
 becoming noble, and strove to attain this end on the 
 ever-ready battlefield. Commerce, therefore, was left to 
 the Jews, and the Charters which gave them permission 
 to trade saved them for a long time from any real 
 competition. They made full use of their opportunities. 
 The signs of their gold were everywhere, and no monarch 
 used this financial element better than Kazimierz the 
 Great, who lived as far back as the sixth century. 
 Commercial communication was so difficult in the 
 sparsely-populated country that he formed a project of 
 building towns along the most frequented tracts. He 
 needed money for this undertaking, and the Polish 
 burghers were unable to lend it him. He therefore 
 appealed to the Jews, who advanced him a loan to 
 cover the cost of building seventy towns. In return 
 for this they obtained the permission to settle freely 
 in these towns, which became the most flourishing in 
 the whole kingdom. 
 
 Long after the death of Kazimierz European anti- 
 Semitism penetrated into Poland and forced the Jews 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 229 
 
 to live as a separate caste. But by that time they had 
 obtained a footing in towns and settlements from which 
 it was impossible to dislodge them. In the days of 
 Kazimierz many Polish towns could show the then 
 unique sight of Jewish houses built against the walls 
 of monasteries, and in Piotrkof the town hall and royal 
 palace were both surrounded by Jewish dwellings. 
 Though the magistrates and townspeople were little 
 inclined to treat the Jews with justice, the kings con- 
 tinued to extend them their protection until the Diet 
 became powerful enough to pass laws against them. 
 Indeed, the monarchs often did their best to extend the 
 trade of the Polish Jew to foreign countries. Their 
 efforts in this direction were not always successful. 
 One king, Sigmunt Augustus, tried to use his influence 
 with Ivan Bazylevitch to enable the Jews under his 
 rule to extend commercial enterprises to Russia. But 
 Ivan refused to allow the Jews to enter his domain, 
 replying with a candour which is lacking in modern 
 diplomatic correspondence. He says : " We cannot 
 allow the Jews to enter Russia. That people hath 
 brought us poison for both our souls and our bodies, 
 hath sold us powder which bringeth death; and hath 
 blasphemed against the very Christ. For this reason I 
 will not hear of it." In Inflandia the Jewish merchants 
 from Poland met with the same rebuff. But they were 
 more fortunate in the countries which lay to the south 
 of the kingdom, and carried on lucrative trade with 
 the Armenians, in spite of the Tartars of Perekop, 
 
230 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 who swooped down upon their booths from time to 
 time and " made havoc " amongst them and their 
 merchandise. 
 
 In Poland itself a spell of national peace always 
 brought their rivals, the Polish burghers, against them. 
 These townspeople's attacks were chiefly directed against 
 the small Jewish traders and shopkeepers : those who 
 carried on extensive export and import trade did not 
 arouse their jealousy, for such undertakings were beyond 
 their business capacities and powers of endurance. But 
 they could not bear to see such outward signs of the 
 Hebrew's prosperity as the stores of cloth and other 
 merchandise in the towns, and especially in large cities 
 as Cracow, Lublin and Lemberg. They sent petitions 
 to the kings to annul or modify the charters, and, 
 when the Diet grew more powerful and their own 
 influence there increased, passed laws against the hated 
 traders. In Lemberg in the sixteenth century the 
 Jews, who had flourished exceedingly in the town, 
 were forbidden to sell any merchandise whatever in 
 their private houses, and were only permitted to barter 
 certain goods in the market-place on fair-days. But, 
 by virtue of their contract with the towns, this 
 decree was powerless without the pale of the local 
 magistracy, and the Jews removed their stalls and 
 booths to the suburbs, where the land belonged to the 
 nobles. Disputes arose between the townspeople and 
 the local magnates, who were determined to retain their 
 new and profitable tenants as long as possible. At last 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 231 
 
 a compromise was arrived at by which the Jews were 
 allowed to remain where they were for another two 
 years in order that they might sell off their stock of 
 merchandise. But, knowing the weak side of the Polish 
 nature, the ever-present need of ready money, they 
 paid a tax and obtained an extension of this term. 
 This prolonged lease gave them, in accordance with 
 Polish law, certain rights of possession which no amount 
 of opposition from the townspeople, headed by the 
 magistrate, could annul. Then the burghers founded 
 guilds, and excluded the Jews therefrom ; but the latter 
 do not appear to have suffered very much in conse- 
 quence. The Polish craftsman was indolent and always 
 liable to be called upon to change his tools for a sword 
 and fight one of the many enemies that surrounded 
 Poland. In fact, a law passed with a view to restricting 
 Hebrew enterprise was generally followed by fresh 
 Hebrew prosperity, such as the development of an ex- 
 tensive trade with the port of Dantzig, the establishment 
 of large markets in Podolia and the Ukraine, and the 
 immunity, by Royal Charter, from duty upon all goods 
 brought into the country. It is also characteristic of 
 the Polish Jews' history that whenever they were forced 
 to separate from the rest of the inhabitants, their towns, 
 or quarters of towns, grew in size and importance, whilst 
 the place they had left declined into poor and insigni- 
 ficant suburbs. To quote a historian of this period 
 (Moraczewski), this was but a natural result, for it i 
 
232 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 not the religion, but the industry of the inhabitants 
 which makes a town, and this last only remained with 
 the Jews. When they first settled in Poland they 
 were forced to live by usury, and grew rich thereby, 
 for they were permitted to charge an interest of 25 
 per cent. Afterwards they were allowed to sell a few 
 kinds of merchandise, such as coarse linen and second- 
 hand goods ; but in the course of time, when wars 
 occupied the Poles, they sold everything, even in the 
 "Royal Cities." 
 
 The Jews of the Ukraine and Lithuania were in a 
 better position, both socially and financially, than their 
 brethren in other parts of the Polish Eepublic. Here 
 there were few usurers. Land produce and cattle were 
 sent thence to other parts of the country, and even to 
 Germany. This trade was entirely in the hands of the 
 Hebrew, who often possessed land in Lithuania, and, 
 when his fortune permitted him to desist from business, 
 studied astrology and the Talmud. 
 
 True, they, in common with the Polish population, 
 suffered much from the Cossack raids, and especially from 
 the Cossack rebellion in the earlier half of the seventeenth 
 century. Those wild hordes that overran the country, 
 pillaging and burning as they went, had mercy for none, 
 and often scorned to respect the Sanctuary of the Holy 
 Altar. Still less did they spare the Hebrew, whose 
 wealth aroused their cupidity and whose creed excited 
 their own strange religious fanaticism. It was their 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 233 
 
 custom upon approaching a town or city to demand 
 that the Jews be surrendered to them for massacre. 
 This request was invariably refused, but the refusal 
 generally cost large sums of money, to which the Jews 
 themselves contributed the chief share. Lemberg paid 
 as much as 20,000 Polish zloty ^ — an enormous sum for 
 that time — to save the Jews from total extermination 
 at the hands of the Cossacks. No sooner had these 
 savages been driven back beyond the Ukraine, whence 
 they had penetrated as far as Cracow — than the Swedish 
 war swept over the country. The Jews were taxed in 
 order that they might contribute towards the expense of 
 these conflicts. 
 
 But at the same time these national misfortunes aided 
 the Hebrews in another way. After and during the 
 wars with the Cossacks, Swedes and Moscovites, they 
 obtained a footing in all the towns, even in Cracow, and 
 the magistrates ignored the infringement of their laws 
 for the simple reason that nobody else had any leisure 
 for trade. But this was not all. Not only did the 
 Poles who had hitherto engaged in commerce leave 
 their shops and booths for the battle-field, but the 
 kings, desirous that the Jews should play a more 
 important and profitable part in the impoverished 
 community, held out inducements to them to become 
 Christians. Those who did so were ennobled, made 
 much of and received as equals by the landed proprietors 
 1 About £500 in English money. 
 
234 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and magnates. For reasons which will be explained in 
 the next chapter, few Jews took advantage of this 
 opportunity of changing their faith, and it was not until 
 the latter part of the eighteenth century, when Poland's 
 power had almost passed away and Russia's legions were 
 menacing her frontiers, that some of the sect of Contra- 
 Talmudists asked, or rather consented, to be received in 
 the fold of the Roman Catholic Church. Before this 
 time conversions were the exception rather than the 
 rule. 
 
 The civil position of the Jews remained about the 
 same until the year 1791, when the Constitution of the 
 3rd of May, a day still commemorated in Poland as 
 a national holiday, gave them equal civil and national 
 rights and removed all the disabilities which had 
 hitherto pressed upon them. The principles upon which 
 these reforms were founded were briefly as follows : — 
 The Jews, who had hitherto only enjoyed the toleration 
 of the Government, were henceforth to be considered as 
 responsible members of the community ; the country 
 had therefore the right to demand that they should 
 have full advantage of a secular education. All dis- 
 tinctions of dress, of places of abode, and of legislation 
 were to be removed, together with all differences but 
 that of religion, which was free to all. All branches of 
 industry were open to them. Their Communes were to 
 have a voice in the government of the country. They 
 were to be allowed to occupy government posts and live 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 235 
 
 in any district of the towns or parts of the country they 
 wished. They might and must share the military 
 service with the rest of the community ; they were to 
 be admitted into all posts, ranks and positions upon 
 perfect equality with Christians. Rewards and punish- 
 ments, honours and dishonour were to be the same for 
 all. In twenty years' time they were to be allowed to 
 buy landed property. No Jew was to be baptised 
 before the age of 29, or Jewess before that of 18 years, 
 and after one whole year of Christian instruction. 
 
 Perhaps, had Poland been allowed to carry out these 
 reforms, the history of her Jews would be differently 
 written, and the antipathy of race to race, which ex- 
 presses itself in Separatism, in Sionism, in anti-Semitism 
 and revolution, would have been averted. Perhaps by 
 this beginning of the twentieth century we would have 
 seen a new Poland, in which the Hebrew and Sclav 
 combined hand in hand to develop the resources of a 
 republic whose brilliant past gives rise to regret that 
 the present is so sordid. Perhaps, indeed, the dream 
 of the assimilator would have been realised and a new 
 race, uniting the best qualities of Sclav and Hebrew, 
 arisen to lead the fortune of Eastern Europe. But it 
 was not to be. Poland fell, and with it the Polish 
 Constitution, which she has not yet won back from her 
 Russian masters, in spite of reiterated promises. When 
 the civil code of Napoleon was adopted for the Kingdom 
 of Poland in 1812, special laws against the Jews were 
 
236 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 nominally abolished. But Russian anti-Semitism placed 
 them under restrictions ^ which still fetter them, and 
 which have helped to fan antipathy into hostility and 
 engender a problem without affording the means of 
 solving it. 
 
 "to 
 
 1 The chief of these restrictions are — a Jew may not serve in the 
 army or navy as an oiScer, may not enter the civil service in any 
 capacity, may not act as trustee under a Christian's will ; can only 
 enter the government schools and universities in a certain pro- 
 portion, and must have the word "Jew" written upon his passport. 
 Unless he is registered as a merchant he cannot re-enter the country 
 after a prolonged absence. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW — HIS SURROUNDINGS, 
 ORGANISATIONS, CHARACTER, AND CULTURE 
 
 In comparing the lot of the Jews in mediaeval Poland 
 with that of their co-religionists in Germany, France, 
 Italy, Spain and England we see that they were treated 
 with a toleration unknown elsewhere at the time. We 
 see that even when subjected to petty persecutions, they 
 were not systematically ill-treated, that their teeth 
 were not extracted nor their limbs amputated ; that 
 they were not tormented by the fanatic to change their 
 faith nor tortured by the rapacious to render their gold. 
 They were free to practise the rites of their religion, to 
 barter, to travel, to come and go across the frontier in 
 pursuit of business. They were free to administer the 
 laws for the governance and levy taxes for the main- 
 tenance of their own communities. When the flame of 
 exotic anti-Semitism, fanned .and fed by foreign mis- 
 sionaries and ministers, swept through the Pohsh masses, 
 the persecutions it engendered never lasted longer than 
 a few hours, and only once did they attain proportions 
 which placed them on a level with similar scenes enacted 
 in the rest of Europe and repeated in other parts of 
 Russia to-day. For a century after the Charter of 
 
 237 
 
238 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Boleslas granted them liberty and assured them pro- 
 tection, they had every opportunity of mixing freely 
 with the Polish population of the towns, and even when 
 this charter was modified they were never altogether 
 cut oflf from intercourse with the Poles. How is it, then, 
 that the number of neophytes was so small until the 
 middle of the eighteenth century ? Why was it that the 
 inducements made to them to change their faith and be- 
 come members of the Polish community were met with 
 so coldly ? Why was it that, seeing the advantages 
 accruing from such a change, so few of them decided to 
 make it ; that the daily intercourse which took place 
 between them and the Poles did not draw them a whit 
 nearer to a people whose anti-Semitism was so different 
 from that of other nations, whose tolerance was pro- 
 verbial amongst the Jews of Europe, and whose national 
 character renders assimilation so easy for the foreigner 
 who settles amongst them 1 Why is it that, whereas 
 the German colonists, who settled long after the Jews, 
 have lost all trace of their origin but their names, 
 becoming Polish patriots and Eoman Catholics ; whereas 
 the Stuarts and O'Rourkes who sought refuge in the 
 Republic from a hostile government, a hated monarch 
 or religious persecution, have become as ingrained in 
 the Polish community as if their names had ended in 
 shi, the Jew is still a stranger ? From the time 
 Abramek chose Piast as King, they have only succeeded 
 in drifting further and further from the rest of the 
 community until their individualism has developed into 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 239 
 
 separatism, their gratitude cooled to indijfference, their 
 indifference warmed into antipathy, and their antipathy- 
 strengthened into hostility. Who is to blame for this 
 relationship of the two races, for this waste of vital 
 force in the country ? Is it the Jew or the Catholic, 
 the Sclav or the Hebrew *? These questions must be 
 answered at length, for the blame lies with the Poles on 
 the one hand and the Jews on the other, with the 
 political instincts of the first and the character of the 
 second. Let us glance at the Polish community and 
 consider the different classes of which it was composed. 
 
 During the tenth and eleventh centuries, that is, when 
 the Jews first went to Poland in large numbers, the 
 King exercised absolute power. All his subjects, from 
 the officials who filled his train, the knights whom he 
 clothed, armed, and fed, and the clergy who were 
 dependent upon his bounty, down to the slaves or 
 prisoners of war, bowed to his will and did his bidding. 
 But the two succeeding centuries saw a change : petty 
 princes, each with his own scheme of home and foreign 
 politics, with his own army, court and knights, defied 
 the kingly authority. Decade after decade marked alter- 
 ations in the community : the burghers, descendants 
 of German colonists, once prosperous, dwindled into 
 insignificance ; the princes fell to the state of knights ; 
 the monarchy became elective, and the only class which 
 increased in influence and numbers was that comprising 
 the descendants of the fighting men, the nobility, or 
 
240 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Szlachta, who virtually began to govern Poland from 
 the fourteenth century. Their first charter dates from 
 1373, and was granted by Ludwig of Hungary on con- 
 dition that the crown should pass to his daughter 
 Jadwiga. They not only elected the kings, but could 
 themselves become candidates for the kingly office. 
 Their power over the peasantry was well-nigh unlimited. 
 Though they levied taxes they paid none, and the King 
 when in need of money applied to them for voluntary 
 contributions. If they were not forthcoming, and such 
 was frequently the case, he had recourse to the Jews. 
 Criminal cases which sprang up between them were 
 tried, not before the royal judges, but by their own 
 tribunals. In 1538 the King wanted money from the 
 Szlachta to carry on the war against Muscovy : it was 
 given, but only in return for the rights of the higher 
 tribunals. Henceforth there was no appeal to the 
 monarch from the decision of the Szlachta : a plebeian 
 who killed a noble forfeited his life, a noble paid a fine 
 for killing a plebeian. The nobles, and the nobles alone, 
 had the right to possess land ; not only the agricultural 
 produce, therefore, but the riches of the earth and 
 treasure-trove belonged to them. They reserved to 
 themselves the privilege of filling the higher eccle- 
 siastical offices ; only a member of the Szlachta could 
 become a bishop or a canon ; only his person was im- 
 mune, only his speech free. They had their own 
 sejmiJci, or local Diets, where they passed laws, levied 
 taxes upon the rest of the population, and controlled the 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 241 
 
 movements and actions of the monarch, who could not 
 make war or peace, marry or divorce, or even go abroad 
 without their permission. By the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century they had passed a law decreeing that 
 the King should change nothing in the legislature with- 
 out their consent {nihil novi), and by the latter half of 
 the same era they had abolished the spiritual jurisdiction 
 which the clergy had hitherto exercised over them. 
 Free from all duties but that of military service, this 
 sole responsibility increased their power, which the 
 King was always striving to weaken. This perpetual 
 struggle led to domestic factions and fierce quarrels 
 not only between the monarch and the Szlachta, but 
 between rival magnates, anxious to obtain the greatest 
 amount of influence at the Diet in order to pass a 
 profitable measure or elect a relative to the throne. As 
 the only privileged class they jealously guarded their 
 rights. All the Szlachta were equal ; titles gave none 
 the ascendency, but those who disgraced the caste by 
 engaging in trade or working at a craft lost their 
 patent of nobility and were degraded for ever. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that a class which 
 exercised power without performing duties, which 
 enjoyed the best the country had to give, which 
 divided the burden of taxation between the burghers, 
 the peasantry and the Jews, which had every oppor- 
 tunity of developing the indolent, careless, ostentatious 
 and spendthrift side of the Sclavonic temperament, and 
 which drew its income from the products of agriculture, 
 
242 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 should find tlie Jews' gold acceptable. But this was all. 
 No thought of the economical and political waste 
 engendered by the peculiar position of the Hebrew 
 appears to have crossed the nobles' minds. To them the 
 Jews were not people but things — things to be protected 
 against the hostility of the townspeople because, like the 
 proverbial hen that lays the golden eggs, they were very 
 useful. No thought of the morrow troubled them, 
 for it is not in the Polish nature to do more than enjoy 
 the day which is. Just as they cramped the other 
 classes of the community by using them as conveniences 
 created for their own present well-being, so did they use 
 the Jews to do the work they detested and lend the 
 gold they needed to equip them against the German or 
 to restore the faded splendour of their palaces. So from 
 them the Jew could not expect to receive inducements 
 to change his faith or take his place amongst those who 
 sat in high places. In them he found many means of 
 building up or adding to a fortune, and protection from 
 the burghers and the magistrates ; but that was all. 
 
 He profited still less from the Polish chlop,^ or peasant, 
 whose case was perhaps worse than his own, for the 
 chtop was in bondage to the noble whose land he 
 cultivated, and was bought or sold at his pleasure. He 
 was hemmed in by many restrictions. If he had an 
 only son, the latter could not leave the land he was 
 
 ^ The Polish chlop, or peasant, was deprived of liberty in 1496. 
 Prom 1543 his master had the right to sell him with or without 
 land. 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 243 
 
 born on ; if many, only one was allowed to go to tlie 
 neighbouring town to learn a craft or be apprenticed to 
 a trade. When a peasant's son left the land of his 
 own accord, his father's inheritance, if he had any, passed 
 to the master. His daughter could marry a free man 
 upon one condition, that he settled on the land as if he 
 belonged to it. If the clilop cultivated his master's land, 
 he was obliged to pay a tax from out of the proceeds, 
 to perform certain services, to pay his master in 
 money and in kind, and to render a tenth part of his 
 produce to the Church. He was obliged to buy his salt, 
 herrings and drink in his master's pot-house,^ and to 
 sell his fowls, eggs, butter, cheese and flax to the manor 
 and to the manor alone. His master also controlled his 
 earnings, had the first refusal of work — at his own 
 price. More than this. The lord of the manor did 
 not allow his peasant to rent land on a neighbouring 
 manor if his own fields were not under cultivation, to 
 keep more than a fixed number of heads of cattle or to 
 bleach more than a certain quantity of linen. The chlop 
 could not sue a noble before a tribunal, and could only 
 give evidence for his own master, who was always the 
 last instance, from whom there was no appeal, and who 
 could brand him, cut off his nose or sentence him to 
 death. Yet even the chlop found use for the Jew, who 
 gave him credit, sold him what few comforts of life 
 were in his reach, disposed of his surplus corn and hay, 
 his sheep and oxen. 
 
 1 Almost invariably rented to a Jew. 
 
244 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 But in the towns the Jews found at once their bitterest 
 opponents and their ablest rivals, for though the burghers 
 hated the Jewish merchants, they were, for reasons 
 which will now be explained, almost powerless to resist 
 them. 
 
 The townspeople, or mieszczanie, were rigorously ex- 
 cluded from the privileges of the Szlachta. They could 
 not obtain employment in the Civil Service, attain to 
 posts of dignity in the Church, or — with few exceptions — 
 own land.^ They only participated in public affairs 
 upon the authority of and in accordance with the 
 charters of their respective towns. Vilno and Cracow, 
 indeed, enjoyed the right of sending representatives to 
 the Diet in the sixteenth century, but they were so 
 completely outnumbered by the Szlachta that they 
 ceased to profit by this clause of their charter before 
 the close of the same century. They took part in the 
 elections of the King, but here again they were out- 
 numbered.^ 
 
 But if they laboured under great civil disabilities, the 
 economic difficulties which confronted them were not less 
 considerable. They were beset by the Szlachta on every 
 side. The Szlachta had the right of importing foreign 
 goods free of duty, a privilege they shared with the Jews, 
 who managed the nobles' import as well as their own. 
 
 ' Burghers of the Russian towns and Cracow had the right to 
 acquire landed property. 
 
 2 The towns of Dantzig, Torun and Elblag sent representatives 
 to the provincial Senate, and had the right to coin money. 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 245 
 
 More than that: the Wojewoda had the right to tax 
 home produce, and there is every reason to believe that 
 he exercised it. These were not the townspeoples' only 
 grievances. The law which decreed that trade and 
 industry were shameful pursuits, and that fighting was 
 the one honourable occupation, deprived the town of all 
 possibility of profiting by the capital and work of the 
 enlightened classes. The only towns which could possibly 
 develop were those which, like Cracow, Lemberg and 
 Dantzig, were situated on the highways joining the 
 East with the West, and therefore enjoying exceptional 
 geographical advantages. And in these towns, as we 
 have seen, the Jews obtained a firm foothold. The very 
 charters which allowed certain towns to build store- 
 houses for merchandise cramped the commercial develop- 
 ment of the country, for by the charters the foreign and 
 local merchants were forbidden to travel by any other 
 roads than those marked in them, and could not pass 
 over the towns which contained their storehouses. They 
 were obliged to store their merchandise in one of the 
 chartered towns, and sell it on market days, and market 
 days alone. This system of special privileges aided the 
 growth of such towns as Cracow,^ Lemberg, Kalisz and 
 Posen, but meant ruin to others which were less favour- 
 ably situated. Thus it was that Poland, a country 
 which was rich in agricultural produce, formed a natural 
 link between the East and West, which possessed a 
 Dantzig and a Lemberg, could not develop her towns 
 
 1 These towns were near the frontier. 
 
246 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 because the growth of commerce, instead of being 
 encouraged, was stunted by a hundred laws and 
 regulations. 
 
 But the townspeople were not only cramped in respect 
 to their pursuits ; they enjoyed little freedom even in 
 such trivial matters as in their choice of dress. The 
 Diet of the seventeenth century forbade the mieszczanie 
 to wear silk clothing and rich furs or to adorn themselves 
 with jewellery. The private towns, that is those which 
 were built on ecclesiastical or manor lands, enjoyed no 
 special prerogatives unless they happened to possess 
 charters drawn up according to German law. Their 
 inhabitants, though personally free, were under the 
 authority of the nobles. 
 
 These restrictions were rapidly followed by two con- 
 sequences : the antipathy of the burghers to the Jews, 
 and the anxiety to leave the despised class to which 
 they belonged. The first consequence was inseparable 
 from the second, because the privileges the Jews enjoyed 
 and the business capacity they displayed made it the 
 more difficult for the Polish burghers to amass a sufficient 
 fortune to make them influential. In their antipathy 
 to their rivals they were almost systematic. They made 
 their magistrates complain to the King to draw up 
 contracts, oxpahta, with the Jews in the hope of arresting 
 their prosperity. But, as we have seen, these measures 
 were of little eS"ect. True, some towns were altogether 
 closed to the Jews, whom the burghers would not admit 
 under any conditions, but these either became to all 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 247 
 
 intents and purposes German colonies or deteriorated 
 into poverty-stricken settlements. In 1570 the Jews 
 were banished from Warsaw ; though their trade with 
 that city was not seriously injured, because they were 
 allowed to visit the city whilst the Diet was sitting — 
 that is — when the palaces were occupied by the 
 magnates and trade was in a most flourishing condition. 
 Another potent factor in their commercial prosperity 
 was, as we have seen, the geographical position of Poland, 
 which caused her to be surrounded by perpetual enemies 
 and forced her inhabitants to be warriors out of sheer 
 self-defence. 
 
 When to these conditions and restrictions we add 
 that trait in the national character which is best 
 described by the word "unbusinesslike" and set them 
 against the energy and untiring patience of the Hebrew, 
 with his protection from the powers that were, one 
 can scarcely wonder at the impotent hatred of the 
 burghers or their disinclination to draw nearer to the 
 people whose abilities and charters made them such 
 formidable rivals. 
 
 Such is the case for the Jews, such are the conditions, 
 prerogatives, antipathies and prejudices which caused 
 the Polish community to treat them as strangers and 
 mere conveniences, sometimes even as enemies. 
 
 We have seen that the monarch and magnates only 
 protected them because they needed their gold, and that, 
 thouo-h the protection was far more liberal than the 
 children of Israel enjoyed elsewhere, there was no thought 
 
248 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 of anything but toleration prompted by egotism. We 
 have seen that the burghers did their best to drive them 
 out of the towns, and that, though nobody thought of ex- 
 terminating the Jews, everybody indulged in tormenting 
 them. But it is only just to hear the other side of the 
 question, and, by looking into the organisations, character 
 and culture of the Jewish people, to see whether they 
 were quite free from the accusations of separatism which 
 the Poles brought against them, and which, ripened by 
 the force of years, has attained such enormous proportions 
 to-day. 
 
 It has been remarked that the history of the Polish 
 Jews is contained in the annals of their Kahals. To a 
 certain extent, inasmuch as every-day details make 
 up the sum of history, this statement is true ; but the 
 scribes who recorded them passed over the big events 
 which have marked their sojourn with characteristic 
 indifference, and were content to enter in the records of 
 the lawsuits, complaints, elections and punishments 
 which occupied the attention of the Kahals. 
 
 To-day the revolutionary spirit which prevails amongst 
 the Hebrew masses has done much to undermine the 
 influence of the Jewish Communes. But in the Middle 
 Ages their authority was unchallenged and their influence 
 universal. Established in order that the Jews might 
 enjoy the privileges of self-government in their internal 
 affairs, they were responsible for their actions to none 
 but the Wojeivoda, who received a fixed salary in return 
 for his protection, and with whom the Jews were on 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 249 
 
 terms of friendship, which were cemented by the most 
 lasting bond, that of mutual interest. On the one hand 
 the Polish Wojewodas received gifts of wine and of 
 money, a portion or even the whole of the sums paid 
 into the Jewish court for fines, enjoyed the convenience 
 of an army of Jews ready to run errands for themselves 
 and their magnificent households, and of willing bankers 
 to fill their ever-empty purses. The Jewish Communes, 
 on the other hand, received the protection of the greatest 
 magnates in the land, had control of their own affairs, 
 free from the interference of the Christians, were assured 
 that their schools, cemeteries and hospitals would be 
 secure from the attacks of the hostile burghers and 
 their Kahals supplied with a military guard to watch 
 over their own prisoners, who were generally kept in the 
 cellars under the synagogues until their term of punish- 
 ment had expired. 
 
 The governing body of the Commune was the Kahal} 
 composed of from four to forty members according to 
 the size and importance of the community. For instance, 
 large Communes, such as those in Posen, Cracow, 
 Lemberg and Vilno elected a KaJial of as many as forty 
 members, smaller towns confined their number to thirty- 
 four, whilst the Communes in the small settlements and 
 villages were under the authority of six or eight men 
 who were themselves responsible to the Kahals of the 
 nearest large town. It is difficult to determine the 
 
 1 The same term is still applied to the executive committees of 
 the Jewish Communes. See Chapter on Communes. 
 
250 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 exact nature and amount of authority these Kahals 
 exercised, partly because the records of them are very 
 meagre and partly because they were not all organised 
 upon the same lines. But generally speaking the 
 following rules applied to them all. 
 
 The Kalial, whether it consisted of forty persons or 
 four, was divided into several groups, each group having 
 its special functions to perform in connection with the 
 administration, legislature, education and charity of the 
 Commune. These groups were called commissions. 
 The charitable commission attended to the maintenance 
 of the Jewish hospitals, the care of the destitute 
 and the burial of the poor. Another commission 
 insured property against losses incurred by fire, 
 attended to the cleanliness and order of the streets in 
 the Jewish quarters, to the condition of water wells, to 
 the accuracy of weights and measures, and to the 
 preparation of food destined for consumption by the 
 Jews. Another commission passed regulations as to 
 dress and music, drew up marriage settlements, and 
 settled conjugal disputes. The Kahal had control of 
 the communal treasury, and levied taxes upon those 
 members of the Commune who were able to pay for 
 the maintenance of the poor, of hospitals, schools and 
 cemeteries. But the most important part of their 
 authority was the tribunal, which not only superintended 
 the drafting and execution of written agreements, bills, 
 contracts, marriage certificates, etc., but exercised all the 
 functions of a criminal court, which was presided over 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 251 
 
 by a Eabbi and consisted of several judges (dagamin) in 
 the large Communes. 
 
 In criminal cases, Rabbis, learned in the laws of 
 Moses, judged according to them and put the verdict 
 to the vote when opinion was divided as to the guilt of 
 the accused or the measure of punishment to be meted 
 out to him. The presiding judge, who was exempt from 
 the payment of government taxes, always came from 
 another Commune lest his judgment should be pre- 
 judiced. As he and his colleagues dispensed the sacred 
 law which the Jews hold in such profound respect, the 
 Kahals rapidly became despotic. They could banish 
 an offender or a common enemy from the towns or 
 Communes, deprive him of his liberty by keeping him 
 imprisoned in the cellar of the synagogue guarded by 
 the Wojewodas soldiers, and impose fines at their 
 pleasure. Little wonder that when, as will be seen, 
 the greater part of the Jewish community, under the 
 influence of the Eabbis, clung to its ancestral faith, tradi- 
 tions and prejudices, those who strove to free themselves 
 from the shackles of superstition were forced to escape 
 from the persecution of their co-religionists and take 
 refuge in other countries ; little wonder, too, that few 
 found the courage to change their faith or trespass on any 
 of the multitude of regulations which encompassed their 
 lives in order to develop their intellectual endowments 
 in any other direction than that laid down by the 
 traditions of their race. They were powerless against 
 the decision of the Kahals, for there was no appeal but 
 
252 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 a special charter granted by the Pohsh King, which 
 could not be executed without the concurrence of the 
 Jewish judges. 
 
 When fairs and markets drew large numbers of Jews 
 together for commercial purposes a special court went 
 on circuit to the towns and tried cases of dispute then 
 and there. The members of the Kalial were elected at 
 the Feast of Passover, for the space of one year. The 
 elective system varied considerably, but it is safe to 
 assume that the whole of the community did not partici- 
 pate in the elections, which were performed by chosen 
 delegates who were generally elected not by votes, but 
 by casting lots. Not every Jew could aspire to the 
 honour of becoming a member of the Kahal. Only 
 those who were versed in the Law and the Talmud, who 
 paid taxes, who owned house property or at least a large 
 shop, and who had been long enough in the Commune 
 to inspire the respect of their fellows, might aspire 
 to that honour. When the elections were over the 
 authority of the newly appointed Kahal was formally 
 confirmed by the Wojeivoda and entered upon its 
 numerous duties. If one of the members was guilty of 
 tardiness or carelessness in the execution of his duties 
 or of irregularity in keeping the communal accounts, he 
 was promptly fined and dismissed. 
 
 These two organisations, the Commune and the ^ffct^aZ, 
 did much to form the character of the Polish Jew. It 
 preserved that respect and awe with which the Jewish 
 masses regarded the office of Eabbi, and tended to 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 253 
 
 confirm them in their adherence to Hebrew culture and 
 their antipathy to what the Polish Jews call " worldly " 
 things. For it must not be supposed that the Polish 
 Jew of the Middle Ages was merely a merchant and a 
 usurer, that his life ended in the market-place, or his 
 ambitions soared no higher than the driving of a good 
 bargain and the extortion of the highest possible amount 
 of interest. When the market was silent and the 
 evening shades had fallen upon the Jewish quarter, the 
 Hebrew's real life began. In his own house, excluded 
 from the gaze of the curious, surrounded by the family 
 whose ties he revered and loved with all the strength of 
 his aflfectionate nature, he either listened as some Rabbi 
 expounded the Scriptures or expounded them himself, 
 telling of the great hope which was to come out of Israel 
 and of the Messiah who was to lead them back to the 
 Promised Land. All the worry of the world, the teasings 
 and the petty persecutions, the struggle for existence and 
 the care of the morrow were forgotten. But this almost 
 fanatical love for his religious life, this blind obedience 
 to the Rabbis and Kalials caused the Polish Jew to 
 adopt a culture which removed him further and further 
 from the Polish community. 
 
 It was the boast of the sons of Israel that, whilst 
 many of the Poles were illiterate, all their children were 
 taught to read and write, thanks to the abundance of 
 their schools and the teaching afforded by the doctors 
 of their synagogues. 
 
 In Poland the study and cult of the Talmud were far 
 
254 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 above the standard preserved by the Jews of other 
 nations, and was already famous as early as the twelfth 
 century. From the middle of the sixteenth century,, 
 Cracow boasted a Hebrew printing press imported from 
 Italy. The rich paid for the books which proceeded from 
 it ; the studious poor received them as gifts. The Jews 
 of the town of Lublin possessed a school which drew 
 Jewish scholars from Europe and even from Palestine ; 
 other towns, profiting by royal charters, established 
 higher schools and set up printing presses. Askenazy 
 (Eleazer ben Eliahar), Eabbi in the Commune of Posen, 
 who died in 1586, spoke ten languages and spent his 
 spare time in developing Judaism in Poland. Polish 
 Jews were called upon to fill dignities amongst their 
 co-religionists in other parts of Europe. Another 
 Askenazy, Hillel ben Hire, was elected Eabbi of the 
 Jewish Commune in Hamburg. Kaidanover, a Jew of 
 Vilno, filled a similar post at Frankfort-on-Maine. The 
 father of Hebrew bibliography, Szabtai-ben-Josef Bass 
 was born in Kalisz. In the Ukraine the Jews were 
 renowned for their skill in the art of healing, and more 
 than one Jewish doctor had become court physician. 
 But those who devoted themselves to secular study were 
 few and far between. It was the cult of the Talmud 
 which chiefly occupied them. 
 
 In the early part of the sixteenth century the ecclesi- 
 astical authorities protested against Jewish children 
 attending schools in which Christians were taught, but the 
 Jewish Synod urged their co-religionists to study secular 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 255 
 
 works in spite of this restriction, since they had their own 
 schools supported by the proceeds of special taxes levied 
 by the Kahals. Their manifesto points out that : — " The 
 study of the Holy Scriptures cometh first, but other lore 
 should not be neglected ; learn therefore, be of use to 
 the King and to the magnates, and they will respect 
 you. As the stars in heaven, as the sands of the sea, so 
 is the number of the Jews in the world ; but here they 
 do not shine as stars, they are trodden upon by all, as 
 upon sand. Why, then, can you not rise out of the 
 trampled moss, even as the cedars of Lebanon ? " 
 
 But the Talmudist culture of the Eabbis continued to 
 hold the field at the expense of secular learning. True, 
 we hear of some Polish Jews, disguised and under 
 assumed names, at Pisa, where they had gone to study 
 subjects the Eabbis forbade, but such cases were ex- 
 ceptional. The list of learned Jews who were born or 
 lived in Poland during the sixteenth, seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries contains 80 names, only seven of 
 which belonged to men whose writings are of sufficient 
 general interest to justify their translation into any 
 European language. The Polish Jews appear to have 
 fully appreciated the toleration with which they were 
 treated ; they were, as their writings testify, proud to 
 call themselves " Polish." But the corrupted German 
 jargon was never abandoned for the language of the 
 country in their daily intercourse with each other, and 
 their wise men wrote not in Polish, but in Hebrew, 
 Latin or German. 
 
256 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 This assiduous study of the Talmud and the Holy 
 Scriptures led to frequent discussions and split the 
 Polish Jews into many sects, which either obtained 
 a very weak foothold or have been altogether unknown 
 amongst their co-religionists in other countries. 
 
 It would be a long task to enter into the details of all 
 these sects or of the cabalistic practices many of them 
 resorted to, for, though causing much ado amongst the 
 Hebrews themselves, their history would be of little 
 interest to the general reader. But three are worthy 
 of brief notice : the one because it gained numerous 
 adherents amongst the Jews of Russia and Poland, the 
 other because its activity has not tired to the present 
 day, and the third because it led to the formation of a 
 society whose members finally became baptized and 
 joined the Roman Catholic Church. The members of 
 the first sect are known as Karaims ; the second as 
 Chassideens, and the third as Sabbatajans. 
 
 The Karaims were those who brought Hebrew civilisa- 
 tion to the Crimean Peninsula and sent their delegates 
 to Vladimir the Great of Kieff, when it was rumoured 
 that the Razan Prince intended to change his faith. 
 Mordchaj-ben-Nisan, a learned Polish Jew, wrote the 
 history of his sect at the instigation of Jacob Trigland, 
 Professor and Rector of Ley den University in 1698. 
 
 The Karaims (from Heb. Gara, to read) reject the 
 teaching of the Talmud and accept only that which is 
 contained in the books of the Old Testament. They 
 are sometimes called the Protestants of Judaism, and 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 257 
 
 attach more importance to the moral and practical side 
 of their religion, rejecting the letter in favour of the 
 spirit of the Law. Their bitterest enemies are the 
 Eabbis, whose authority they have long since rejected. 
 In the seventeenth century they enjoyed the special pro- 
 tection of Jan III. of Poland, who allowed them to live in 
 all the towns in the republic without any restrictions 
 whatever. Some authorities affirm that this privilege 
 was accorded as a mark of respect for one of the 
 Karaims, a certain Abraham Ben Samuel, renowned for 
 his learning ; others attribute it to a hope on the King's 
 part, that many of the liberal-minded sectarians would 
 embrace Christianity. There are no records that this 
 hope, if it existed, was realised. 
 
 The Chassideens (from Heb, Chassidim, pious) were 
 revived in Poland at about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, by Israel Baal Schem, whose birth is said to have 
 been predicted by the prophet Elias, and whose mother 
 was a hundred years old at the time. He was an adept 
 at cabalistic practices, and fought with demons and evil 
 spirits at an early age. His doctrines were preserved in 
 manuscript until the nineteenth century, when they were 
 published in book form : they are a strange mixture of 
 moral precepts, ridiculous tales of apparitions and 
 mystic interpretations. The original Chassideens were 
 enthusiasts who renounced all the pleasures of this 
 world, spending their time in prayer, reflection and self- 
 V imposed corporal punishment in order to expiate their 
 sins and hasten the advent of the Messiah. They 
 
258 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 studied cabalistic books and emaciated the body by 
 fasts and vigils in order to release their souls from the 
 flesh and absorb themselves in God. But the Chassi- 
 deens whom Israel Baal Schem drew around him were 
 much less severe in the mode of their living. He taught 
 that the union with God can only be effected by con- 
 templation, that mortification of the flesh is deleterious 
 to this desirable attitude of mind, which can only be 
 attained by enjoying all lawful pleasures of the senses 
 and thereby rendering them their natural vigour. The 
 sects gained many adherents, and spread to the Jews in 
 Galicia, Walachia, Moldavia and Hungary. As they 
 were respected more for their piety than their in- 
 tellectual superiority, they attacked secular learning as 
 unnecessary and even injurious. To-day, as then, they 
 are bitterly opposed to the perusal of worldly books, 
 even when written in Yiddish. They also object to 
 the teaching of Polish in the communal schools. They 
 raid Jewish houses and search for secular literature, 
 promptly confiscating any which they find. These ex- 
 peditions generally take place on Friday evenings, when 
 the merchants and traders have leisure for reading. I 
 remember one poor Jew complaining to me that his 
 daughter, a pretty girl of fourteen or fifteen and the 
 proud owner of two thick plaits of hair, was surprised 
 whilst reading a " worldly " book by some Chassideens 
 of the neighbourhood, who promptly quenched her thirst 
 for secular knowledge by emptying a pot of pitch over 
 her head. When they know of the existence of a 
 
THE PAST OF THE POLISH JEW 259 
 
 library or collection of secular books in the settlement, 
 they set spies to find out its whereabouts, thus making 
 it impossible for their broader-minded co-religionists to 
 profit by the little store of literature, for the simple 
 reason that they do not dare to fetch the books lest 
 they should betray the secret of their hiding-place. 
 
 Notices forbidding the Jews to read worldly literature 
 are posted up in the " Betharmidrasz," or houses where 
 the young Jews abandon themselves entirely to the 
 study of the Talmud, often leaving their wives in 
 order to do so. The Russian Government sometimes 
 steps in, raids the Betharmidrasz, arrests those found 
 upon the premises, and imposes a fine upon the 
 president. 
 
 It will be observed that if the Polish community were 
 indifferent to the economic and civil possibilities of the 
 Jewish strangers amongst them, the strangers them- 
 selves, owing to their character, organisations and 
 culture, tended to hold aloof from the rest of the popula- 
 tion. Which side is the more to blame the reader must 
 decide for himself ; but the above facts are those which, 
 worked into the private and national life of the Poles 
 and Jews, produced a problem and an antagonism 
 which increased as time went on. It was impossible 
 but that the Polish Jews, immersed in cabalistic lore 
 and buried in the study of the Talmud, should have 
 flocked to the side of the notorious pseudo-Messiah and 
 impostor, Sabbataj — Cevi of Smyrna. Many of them 
 afterwards paid allegiance to a leader who, once an 
 
26o THE POLISH JEW 
 
 adherent of Sabbataj, abused the confidence of many in 
 order to obtain his own selfish ends, and after living as a 
 Jew and a Turk, finally embraced the Christian faith. 
 But the story of his adventures, impostures and ambitions 
 must be reserved for the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 FRANK ANB HIS FOLLOWERS 
 
 The ravages of Cossack hordes about the middle of 
 
 the seventeenth century drove many Jews from Poland 
 
 to the domains of the Turkish Sultan, where, wearied 
 
 and almost hopeless, they listened eagerly to the 
 
 doctrines of a pseudo-Messiah, Sabbataj Cevi, who was to 
 
 put an end to their sufferings and lead them back to the 
 
 Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. The 
 
 homage this man received from the Jews in Smyrna 
 
 aroused the jealousy of the reigning Sultan, Mahomed 
 
 IV., who forced him to embrace the faith of Islam. But 
 
 his Hebrew followers still continued to believe in him, 
 
 and when he died (1676) others adopted his doctrines, 
 
 which denied those of Judaism, with the exception of 
 
 the rite of circumcision, and rejected all of the Old 
 
 Testament but the " Song of Songs." He professed to 
 
 believe in the cabalistic book of " Zoar," in a Trinity 
 
 consisting of a Highest Cause, a Messiah and a Matron- 
 
 ita, and in the transmigration of souls, by which all 
 
 the heroes of Israel were but various forms of the same 
 
 personality. 
 
 These doctrines were discussed wherever Jews lived, 
 
 261 
 
262 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and nowhere so eagerly as in Poland, where the Rabbis 
 did all in their power to prevent the influence of this 
 new sect from spreading amongst their flocks. But its 
 success was considerable there, nevertheless, as the Jews 
 had been suff"ering from poverty, heavy taxation and 
 oppression which had reduced them to a state of 
 misery that inclined them to dream of a Messiah to re- 
 lease them. Amongst these was one Frank, a Jew of 
 humble origin, whom the vicissitudes of life had driven 
 at an early age to Smyrna, and whose ambitious mind 
 saw possibilities in the new sect which would, if properly 
 used, afi'ord him the means of gratifying those luxurious 
 tastes which are inherent in the Hebrew. After spend- 
 ing some years in Turkey and assisting in the orgies in 
 which those who still professed the faith of Sabbataj 
 Cevi indulged, Frank returned to the land of his birth, 
 where he speedily converted several Jews to the tenets 
 of Christianity. This fact and his own mode of life 
 drew the censure of the Rabbis upon him ; and rumours 
 of strange practices, in which nude men and women 
 danced round him, singing extracts from the " Song of 
 Songs," caused the Jews of the Podolian settlement in 
 which he lived to break into his house one night and 
 arrest him and his companions upon a charge of spread- 
 ing principles and practices contrary to the teachings of 
 the Talmud. Then it was that Frank, seeing the Jews 
 were thoroughly aroused against him, openly expressed 
 his intention of joining the Roman Catholic Church, and 
 applied to the neighbouring landowners to protect him 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 263 
 
 from the persecutions of his own people, and to arrange 
 a solemn meeting between himself and the Eabbis to 
 discuss the Talmud and the falsity of its doctrines. 
 
 The Polish Bishops appear to have been favourably 
 inclined to this proposal, and, as if to clinch the bargain, 
 some twenty-five of Frank's adherents were publicly 
 received into the fold of the Church of Rome. These 
 neophytes published a manifesto dictated by the 
 Consistory of Podolia, in which they declared that the 
 Talmud was a blasphemous book, and that the one true 
 creed was that which professed belief in the Doctrine of 
 the Holy Trinity. 
 
 A meeting of the nature of that which the Polish 
 Bishops finally arranged between Frank and the Rabbis, 
 and in which judgment was given in favour of the 
 contra-Talmudists, as Frank and his followers were called, 
 was contrary to the laws of Poland. According to them 
 no civil or religious dispute between Jew and Jew could 
 be judged by a Pole. Such differences as the creed of 
 the Hebrew entailed were to be settled before the Jewish 
 Kahal, and the Kahal alone had the right to pronounce 
 judgment in the dispute between Frank and the Rabbis 
 who flocked from far and wide, from Poland, Lithuania 
 and Russia, to defend the Talmud and protest against 
 Frank's teaching and mode of life. But it appears that 
 the Bishop of Podolia was too dazzled by the prospect 
 of converting the now famous Frank, and too pleased at 
 having already been, as he supposed, the means of con- 
 verting five-and-twenty of his adherents, to trouble 
 
264 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 himself about legal formalities. After the meeting had 
 lasted eight days, judgment was given in favour of 
 Frank, and the Talmud publicly burned. 
 
 But Dembovski, Bishop of Podolia, died shortly after 
 this extraordinary meeting, in which Bishops and Eabbis 
 sat side by side to discuss a point of Jewish law, and 
 Frank's position rapidly changed. As he and his 
 adherents — except twenty-five neophytes — had not 
 publicly and ceremoniously embraced Christianity, the 
 Church did not extend her protection to them. They 
 were jealously excluded from the Jewish Commune as 
 contra-Talmudists. The generality of the population 
 looked askance at a man who was neither a Pole nor a 
 Jew — who wore a green turban, who lived like a Turk 
 and kept a harem, who was supposed to have embraced 
 Islamism, who, though having no visible means of 
 subsistence lived in luxury, and was in short a mystery 
 to Jew and Pole alike. Before long the Orthodox Jews, 
 or Talmudists, persecuted him to such an extent that he 
 was obliged to leave the country and take refuge in 
 Stamboul, where he was joined by a small party of Jews 
 from Poland. Here he remained until the new King 
 of Poland, Augustus III., who was much under the 
 influence of those courtiers with whom Jewish assimila- 
 tion had become a fashionable fad, issued an order by 
 which the contra-Talmudists received the protection of 
 the general laws (1788). A few months later Frank 
 returned to Poland, where he began to play the role of 
 apostle. His followers contributed to his treasury, his 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 265 
 
 house became more luxurious than ever, whilst his 
 adherents were half- starved and in rags. But he saw 
 visions and performed miracles, he cured the sick, he 
 prophesied, he expounded the mysteries of the book of 
 Zoar ; he wrote wise sayings and preached them. 
 Hundreds of poor Jews rushed to him, giving up their 
 meagre earnings that he might pass his days in his 
 harem and his nights in mysterious orgies. It is difficult 
 to say what attracted these poor wretches to this man, 
 whether it was that love of show which is so strong in 
 the Hebrew, or the hope of bettering their position by 
 following a man who was, or had been, on friendly terms 
 with Polish magnates and bishops, or whether it was the 
 personality of Frank, who, with his melodious voice and 
 glomng rhetoric, kindled the hope of future happiness 
 in the breasts of men and women who knew of nothing 
 but misery on earth. Whatever may have been the 
 reasons which impelled his followers to defy the hostility 
 of the Orthodox Jews, it is certain that he taught them, 
 crudely enough, it is true, some of the tenets of Christian- 
 ity. Whence he derived them, without a knowledge of 
 Polish, it is difficult to say, but the following words, 
 which are his, prove that he was not altogether devoid 
 of poetic fancy. 
 
 " He who would be attached to the living God must 
 have faith with all good works towards people and God, 
 and do good to every one, as far as in him lies the 
 responsibility. Although temptation come upon him, 
 he must be firm of spirit, turning neither to the right 
 
266 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 nor to the left. If he do this, the good God will 
 strengthen and enlighten his heart, and he will attain to 
 the rank of a true man." 
 
 " I will show you God, for in me are power and 
 strength, and me hath God chosen." 
 
 "The time will come when you will count my 
 steps, seek my footprints, yea, and kiss the soles of 
 my feet." 
 
 " If you will listen to and obey my commands, you 
 will come to great gain, which neither your grandfathers 
 nor your great-grandfathers attained to." 
 
 Frank does not seem to have told his followers what 
 this " great gain " was to be ; but his pomp, his promises, 
 and his precepts soon increased their numbers to such 
 an extent that a strange phenomenon appeared in the 
 Polish Republic — that is, a large community, ruled by 
 an adventurer who preached doctrines opposed to the 
 political and religious creeds of his adopted country, 
 and calculated to found a sect tending to be hostile to 
 the Republic. His infant daughter Eve was already 
 spoken of in this community as something superhuman. 
 His general mode of life provoked the hostility of the 
 Jewish Rabbis to such an extent that they managed to 
 subject his followers to many petty persecutions, in spite 
 of the royal decree issued for their protection. Finally, 
 in 1759, Frank was obliged to seriously consider whether 
 it would not be better to embrace Christianity, and he 
 wrote to the Bishop of Lvov (Lemberg) and to the King 
 asking to be baptised. The Bishop did not receive his 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 267 
 
 request with enthusiasm, neither did the Papal Nuncio, 
 who considered that Frank's proposal was an excuse, 
 and that he only wanted the King's protection in order 
 that his followers might ply profitable trades and supply 
 him with the means of living in luxurious ease, and of 
 ruling over his community. On receiving permission to 
 be baptized, Frank again asked the Polish Bishops to 
 assist at a conference with the Talmudists. Many Poles 
 thought this was to gain time and obtain equal civil 
 rights without embracing Christianity. But the con- 
 ference took place in the Cathedral of Lemberg; the 
 Jewish Communes of Russia and Poland sent delegates, 
 and the aristocracy of Poland flocked to hear Rabbis 
 argue in a Roman Catholic Cathedral. The conference 
 lasted from the 8th of July till the 10th of September. 
 Frank appeared late in the day, driving into Lemberg 
 with all the pomp of an Oriental potentate ; though the 
 plague brought by his miserable adherents raged in the 
 town for weeks afterwards. He was warned by the 
 ecclesiastical dignitaries not to drive about in his 
 gorgeous coach, as such pomp was unbecoming in one 
 who lived upon alms. His followers, blinded by his 
 splendour, gave him their last mite, and would have 
 starved but for the charity of the Poles. The priests 
 did their best to persuade Frank to be baptized, promis- 
 ing that if he and some of his chosen adherents would 
 consent to a simple ceremony, they would be permitted 
 to proceed to Warsaw, to be there received into the 
 Roman Catholic Church with all due pomp. At last 
 
268 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 he consented, and was baptized in the Cathedral of 
 Lemberg. Thirteen men, six women, and ten children 
 followed his example. Frank received the name of 
 Joseph. Shortly afterwards he was again baptized in 
 the Chapel Royal in Warsaw with all the ceremony of 
 Roman Ritual. Between 1759 and 1760, 540 of his 
 adherents followed his example. This was the first 
 occasion on which so many Jews in Poland have 
 embraced Christianity, and it is doubtful if this number 
 has ever been exceeded within a space of twelve months. 
 The question now arose what was to be done with these 
 neophytes. 
 
 As such, they would no longer come under the control 
 of laws and privileges relating to Jews, and would suffer 
 persecution from Orthodox Jews. They were not men 
 of culture or education. Even their leader could not 
 speak or write the Polish language. As they were of 
 humble origin and great poverty, it was clearly the 
 duty of the Republic to make some provisions for them. 
 The Papal Nuncio at Warsaw, Serra, has left much 
 valuable information on this subject. 
 
 A certain number of Polish magnates offered to receive 
 the neophytes on their country estates. But Frank had 
 other aspirations, and demanded a grant of separate 
 territory near the Turkish frontier, where he could freely 
 exercise his influence upon his adherents and form a 
 separate state, independent of the Polish Republic. The 
 Nuncio, who was strongly opposed to granting this 
 demand, pointed out that Frank, once in possession of 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 269 
 
 sucli a colony, would tend to destroy the country's peace, 
 and that keeping the Frankists upon charity would 
 rapidly turn them into a band of vagabonds. The 
 question was eagerly discussed at court. A large party 
 agreed with Serra that the neophytes should be given a 
 settlement in the centre of Poland, to avoid all possibility 
 of intrigue with foreign powers. Frank was assured 
 that the neophytes and their children would be well 
 cared for by the benevolent; but he rejected this 
 proposal on the grounds that his adherents would, if 
 distributed about the country, fall into the state of 
 serfdom. At last it was proposed that those neophytes 
 who had been born in Poland (the Papal Nuncio 
 described them as Neofiti Polacchi) should be allowed to 
 settle in the cathedral cities, which the Polish Jews had 
 not been allowed to enter, and in the so-called royal cities 
 in order that they might be able to earn a living by 
 engaging in trade and crafts. As to those from Moldavia 
 and Hungary, who had flocked to Frank's standard in 
 considerable numbers, their leader asked that they might 
 be allotted a separate settlement. Some of the Polish 
 magnates attempted to persuade the King to grant them 
 crown lands in Lithuania which brought in but small 
 revenues. In return for them the neophytes were to 
 pay taxes and support judges and priests ; to take upon 
 themselves, in fact, all the civil responsibilities of a 
 Christian community. 
 
 Frank promised the King that if he would grant his 
 adherents a settlement, tens of thousands of Jews would 
 
270 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 embrace Christianity and settle in Poland, become good 
 patriots, and do much to restore the tottering Eepublic 
 to its former position amongst the countries of Eastern 
 Europe. 
 
 But meanwhile the Papal Nuncio, who, with the 
 exception of a Lemberg priest named Mikulski, seems to 
 have been the only person to take any active steps to 
 verify the sincerity of Frank's intentions, had been 
 making enquiries both amongst the Frankists and 
 in Turkey. His labours were not unrewarded. The 
 priest learnt from a few ignorant Frankists in Lemberg 
 that they believed Frank was Christ, and that the end of 
 the world was approaching. He drew up a written 
 statement to this effect dictated by six Frankists — two 
 of whom were incapable of signing their names in any 
 language — and sent copies of it to Warsaw. Their 
 statement is not astonishing when we remember that, as 
 most of the Frankists did not know Polish and could not 
 receive instruction from the priests, their only knowledge 
 of the principles of Christianity was derived from Frank 
 himself, and Frank was too fond of power and homage to 
 lose any opportunity of gaining the adoration and respect 
 of his adherents. The Nuncio obtained information of 
 his antecedents from the Bishop of Nicopol. He also 
 learned from a Frankist that the whole sect subscribed 
 to keep the "master" and "fifty favourites," that he 
 and the favourites met on certain days in the week to sing 
 chants in the Jewish jargon and observe certain rites and 
 ceremonies which' cannot be mentioned here, and which 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 271 
 
 appeared to the Nuncio, to quote one of his Despatches, 
 un culto religioso ed esterno. Serra did not hesitate to 
 communicate all he had learned to the King, who 
 simultaneously received news from Lemberg to the effect 
 that the newly baptized Frankists were practising 
 polygamy and other Turkish customs. Frank, who was 
 in the habit of driving about Warsaw in a sledge driven 
 by three horses harnessed tandem-fashion, to the admira- 
 tion of the crowds which collect so easily in the Polish 
 capital, suddenly fell from a hero to an impostor, and he 
 was seized and imprisoned, first behind the grill in the 
 Church of the Bernardines, afterwards in the monastery 
 at Bielany in the neighbourhood of Warsaw. After a 
 short time he was brought before the Consistory of 
 Warsaw, charged with practising secret ceremonies and 
 believing in the transmigration of souls and other 
 doctrines contrary to those of the Roman Church. He 
 denied that the Frankists practised polygamy, and, whilst 
 admitting that he had embraced Islamism, said he had 
 done so in order to escape the persecution of the Jews. 
 When asked how he knew whether his adherents were 
 prepared for baptism, he replied that when he saw a light 
 over the head of a Jew or Jewess who wished to be 
 baptized he allowed them to do so, and that when 
 there was no light he forbade them to embrace 
 Christianity. After the examination he was sent to 
 the fortress of Czenstochova awaiting the decision 
 from Rome, so that he could not exercise his influence 
 upon his adherents, who, after being put through 
 
272 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 their cathechism by means of an interpreter, were 
 dismissed. 
 
 Frank remained a prisoner in the fortress of Czensto- 
 cliova for thirteen years. This fortress, which was at once 
 a stronghold and a monastery of the Polish Brotherhood, 
 has played a most picturesque part in Polish history. In 
 the year 1685 the fortress, meagrely garrisoned and led 
 by the Abbot Kordecki, had heroically sustained a siege 
 against the Swedes ; to this day its magnificent church, 
 which contains the miraculous picture of the Holy Virgin 
 brought from Constantinople, is the Mecca of pious 
 Poles. 
 
 When Frank was sent thither the garrison consisted 
 of 80 decrepit soldiers and a few officers. Their 
 commandant was the Abbot, to whom, by an observance 
 which had pertained from the days of the heroic 
 Kordecki, the keys were rendered every evening. The 
 veterans were not averse to receiving bribes, and although 
 Frank was sent under their care in order that his 
 adherents might not be influenced by him, it was not 
 long before he managed to receive some of his followers, 
 whose visits frequently lasted several days. His influence 
 soon began to exert itself over them. They settled in 
 the neighbourhood of the monastery in large numbers, 
 and before he had been there two years his wife shared 
 his prison with him. Delegates sent by the Frankists at 
 Lemberg and Warsaw held councils with him. Ceremonies 
 of the nature of those held in the Podolian settlement 
 became of frequent occurrence. A company of fourteen 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 273 
 
 " Brethren" and as many " Sisters" used to take walks 
 on the ramparts of the fortress and listen to Frank's 
 harangues. Indeed, if it were not for the evidence of 
 this man's private chronicle, it would be difficult to 
 believe that such scenes were enacted in a fortress where 
 he was a prisoner. He taught his adherents the prin- 
 ciples of a communism completely at variance with 
 the laws of the Republic. He practised ceremonies 
 which had absolutely nothing in common with the 
 Christian religion or the ordinary ethics of European 
 morality. With his approbation, nay, at his instigation, 
 polyandry and polygamy were practised to an extent 
 which broke the family ties of his "company." 
 
 From this "chronicle" we gather that Frank was a 
 man of a passionate and cynical nature, who satisfied the 
 lowest instincts under the cloak of exalted ideals and 
 aims. His bad example was eagerly imitated by his 
 disciples, whom such a mode of life, free from all restraints 
 which commonly bind society together, pleased, and who 
 became more and more dependent upon their leader's 
 caprices. 
 
 In spite of these orgies, the " company's " outward life 
 was in accordance with the regulations of the monastery. 
 As Christians the Frankists fulfilled them all. They 
 attended the church, went to confession, and partook 
 of the Church's most solemn Sacrament. But they did 
 this, not from conviction, but for the mere form, for fear 
 that the priests would suspect them of their sectarian 
 practices. It was here that Frank first began to teach 
 
274 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 those of his adherents who visited him, the cult of 
 "Our Lady," that is, of his daughter AWACZA. 
 By the time he was released from the fortress they 
 had grown so accustomed to this cult that she was 
 regarded by them as superhuman. 
 
 After five years' " imprisonment " Frank wearied of 
 Czenstochova, and though he assured the good abbot 
 that all Jews should be baptized, he began to seriously 
 consider how he might extend his influence to the 
 Eussian Jews and convert them to the Greek Church. 
 The Poles were too occupied with the presence of a 
 Russian army on their borders to think about the 
 converted Jew in Czenstochova, and when he sent 
 delegates to a Russian bishop who chanced to be in 
 Warsaw on business, only the Jews knew of his plans. 
 They immediately apprised their co-religionists in Moscow 
 that Frank was trying to get released from his Polish 
 prison by Russian command, in return for a promise to 
 convert the Polish and Russian Jews to the Greek Church, 
 and to use Poland's weak situation for his own ends. 
 Their prompt action frustrated him ; his delegates, who 
 promised that twenty thousand Jews would enter the 
 Greek Church as soon as theix master was free, were sent 
 out of Moscow, and Frank remained in Czenstochova 
 until the year 1773, when the fortress capitulated to the 
 Russians, and he, regaining his liberty, proceeded to 
 Warsaw. 
 
 There he appears to have dreamed of new influence 
 and power, for in a letter addressed to a certain 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 275 
 
 acquaintance in Podolia he urges him to " force all Jews 
 to the front." But the Russians, who were now masters 
 of that part of the Polish territory, first imprisoned the 
 delegates and then sent them across the frontier. In 
 Warsaw Frank was not more fortunate . His old adherents 
 had done well in trade and commerce, and were unwilling 
 to embark upon new enterprises. They seemed in fact 
 anxious to be rid of their "master," who had just 
 received an invitation from the followers of Sabbataj 
 Cevi in Moravia to join them. They promised to send 
 him money, but the well-to-do refused to accompany 
 him. Seeing that his role in Poland was finished, he 
 left it for Moravia, never to return, with these 
 words : — 
 
 "Because you have blasphemed, I must leave this 
 country, which is God's inheritance. ... It is the land 
 which was promised to the Patriarchs. Even if all the 
 countries upon earth filled with precious stones were 
 given me, I would not leave Poland, for it is the 
 inheritance of God, and the inheritance of our fore- 
 fathers." 
 
 He lived in Moravia in great pomp at the expense of 
 the Frankists in Poland until his death in the year 1791. 
 His daughter Eve lived until 1816. 
 
 So much for Frank. It is now time to consider his 
 adherents. What manner of men were they, who at his 
 instigation became nominally at least Christians, and 
 who whilst contributing to the maintenance of their 
 " master " gradually drifted away from him ? What 
 
276 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 influence did they exert upon the Polish community at 
 the time and afterwards ? 
 
 Their fate is the more interesting because they were 
 the first Polish Jews to embrace Christianity in any 
 large number. True, Jews had been converted before, 
 and having enjoyed the especial protection of a Polish 
 magnate had flourished, intermarried with the Polish 
 element, and gradually assimilated to such an extent 
 that only the curious who seek the documentary evidence 
 of dusty archives knew that their forefathers once 
 belonged to the despised race of Israel. But such cases 
 had been few and far between. Frank happened to be 
 born when the once powerful Republic of Poland was 
 beginning to fall ; he lived when men who observed the 
 signs of the times asked themselves with consternation 
 what the morrow would bring forth. At such periods 
 all fanatical movements, all phases of social or political 
 excitement find favour ; for men, seeing that their 
 country's case is hopeless, that grave changes are taking 
 place, are ready to catch at any straw, at any myth, 
 which may stave ofi" the evil day. This is the secret of 
 Frank's success with the Poles. There were those at 
 the court of Augustus III. who believed that the assimila- 
 tion of the Jews would build up a new Polish race which 
 would defy the triple enemy composed of Germany, 
 Austria and Russia. They did not stop to ask them- 
 selves whether Frank's intentions were sincere, whether 
 the Jews who followed him were prepared to accept 
 their new faith, whether the movement would extend 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 277 
 
 to any appreciable extent. They rushed into the idea 
 as the Pole rushes into all ideas, with enthusiasm but 
 without reflection. There were others who protected 
 the Frankists from purely religious motives, believing 
 that every baptized Jew was a soul rescued from the 
 clutches of hell. On the other hand there was a large 
 party who thought with the Papal Nuncio, Serra, that 
 Frank was nothing but an ambitious impostor, eager to 
 obtain a grant of land near the Turkish or Russian 
 frontiers for himself and his adherents, in order to 
 satisfy his passion for power and intrigue, and to play 
 a profitable r61e in the political drama which was then 
 being enacted in Eastern Europe. 
 
 The Frankists who embraced Christianity did so for 
 two reasons. First because their " master," who exerted 
 an extraordinary amount of influence upon his adherents, 
 ordered them to do so, secondly, because, being men and 
 women of the poorest class of Jews, they could lose 
 nothing thereby, and might, by embracing the national 
 faith of the country in which they lived, enjoy privileges 
 which would enable them to engage in profitable trades. 
 As Frank had the protection of the Government, Jewish 
 persecution could not touch them. Besides, they were 
 allowed as neophytes to settle in towns which were 
 closed to the Jews. The advantage of their situation 
 was obvious. Placed in the midst of a Polish population, 
 of a population averse to business and of small business 
 capacity, free from Hebrew competition, they enjoyed 
 opportunities which their brethren might well envy. 
 
278 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Their baptism placed them on a slightly higher social 
 plane than they occupied before. According to their 
 baptismal registers they received surnames derived from 
 the government or town from which they came, with the 
 Polish termination sM. Their godparents, who were for 
 the most part magnates and dignitaries, extended protec- 
 tion in the form of pecuniary assistance or the permission 
 to settle in the towns and villages under their rule. 
 But their increasing prosperity soon awoke the jealousy 
 of the Polish burghers, and public opinion grew so strong 
 against the Frankists that after the death of Augustus III. 
 in 1763 the question of limiting their privileges was 
 brought before the Diet of Warsaw. From the reports of 
 their deliberations it appears that many of the neophytes 
 had obtained lucrative posts in public offices. Some 
 had even been ennobled, because, owing to the general 
 laxity with which laws were executed, a Lithuanian law 
 was applied to the neophytes in Poland proper. By 
 this law a Jew or Jewess who embraced the Christian 
 faith was counted a szlaehcic, and was entitled to all 
 the rights and privileges of the Polish nobles. The 
 murderer of a converted Jew was punished by the same 
 laws which applied to the murder of Christians. So 
 carelessly was the law executed, that a Jew baptized in 
 Lemberg;in 1789 figured as a noble in Lublin a couple 
 of months later, though neither Lemberg nor Lublin 
 was within the area of Lithuanian jurisdiction. Owing 
 to the efforts of the Papal Nuncio, who did his best to 
 prevent the neophytes from settling near the frontiers, 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 279 
 
 many Frankists had gone to Lithuania, where they 
 became noble and gradually acquired landed estates. 
 The Diet of Warsaw which assembled in May 1769 
 passed a decree ordaining that not only Frankists, but 
 all neophytes should sell their land within the space of 
 two years, under pain of confiscation. This decision 
 was modified in the case of forty-eight distinguished 
 neophytes, who assimilated so perfectly with the local 
 nobility that all trace of their Jewish origin had long 
 been lost. 
 
 Not so with those who were not ennobled, or who 
 had not acquired land in Lithuania. With the exception 
 of twenty-three neophytes whom the new King, Stanislaus 
 Augustus, ennobled in order to replenish his purse, the 
 Frankists remained a people apart. Their exclusiveness 
 and their immunity from taxation, their intercourse with 
 and large donations to Frank in Moravia, and most of 
 all perhaps their comparative competence, aroused the 
 indignation of the small Polish tradespeople, an indig- 
 nation which resulted in the publication of several 
 lampoons and pamphlets which are the more interesting 
 because, after a lapse of over a century, many of the 
 charges therein cited are brought by the anti-Semitic 
 portion of the Polish community against the neophytes 
 of to-day. In them the Frankists are charged with 
 keeping apart from the rest of the population, and from 
 failing to adopt the culture, customs and ideas, of the 
 people whose faith they have adopted. The author of 
 
28o THE POLISH JEW 
 
 one, in describing a Frankist christening-party to which 
 he was invited, complains that the table was arranged 
 after the Jewish fashion, that all the guests but himself 
 were of a pronounced Hebrew type, that the Frankists 
 do not apprentice their children to crafts, that they 
 intermarry with other neophytes, and that they are only 
 professed Christians. All who have ever conversed 
 with modern Poles about neophytes must be familiar 
 with these remarks. 
 
 To-day it is difficult to say whether their assimilation 
 is complete. If a Polish name, Polish aims and patriot- 
 ism, the use of the Polish language and the profession 
 of the Eoman Catholic faith mean assimilation, then the 
 answer must be in the affirmative. But if by assimilation 
 we mean that the Polish population have forgotten their 
 Jewish origin, that their racial characteristics have been 
 entirely eradicated, that the Poles make no distinction 
 between them and men whose forefathers were Poles 
 and Roman Catholics, then we are bound to admit that 
 the process of assimilation has not yet been completed, 
 and that Poland is still watching the effects of an 
 extraordinary movement, originated by a remarkable 
 man whose ambitions and schemes raised him from the 
 hovel of a Jewish settlement to a princely state in 
 Moravia. 
 
 Before leaving him it may interest the reader to read 
 some extracts from his Booh of Words. 
 
 " Jacob said : How terrible is the place wherein God 
 
FRANK AND HIS FOLLOWERS 281 
 
 is. He was mistaken. Where God is, there is nothing 
 terrible, but before God, before the place of His abode, 
 is great terror." 
 
 "He who is worthy to approach God Himself will 
 receive in that place which is by God wisdom which 
 is seven, nay, eight times greater than the wisdom of 
 Solomon." 
 
 " There is one place in the sea where fish of pure gold 
 hide themselves, but none can catch them, for the danger 
 thereof is too great." 
 
 " There are roses which grow upon the islands of the 
 sea. The man who can reach them and gather them 
 will live a thousand years. The gods created great 
 ignorance wherewith to cover these islands, so that none 
 can find them." 
 
 "No country fears the Judgment Day as much as 
 Poland, for the foundation of everything is Jacob and 
 Esau." 
 
 " How can it be that the true God made this world in 
 which one must die, and where so much is lacking ? 
 From this I gather that He who created the world was 
 not the true God indeed." 
 
 " God Himself cannot be approached without money." 
 
PART III 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLISH JEW 
 

CHAPTER 
 
 some jewish customs 
 
 Religious Conservatism 
 
 Somewhere in the Talmud there is a story setting 
 
 forth not only the necessity but the expediency of 
 
 keeping the fifth commandment. According to it, the 
 
 father of the family was asleep with his feet on the 
 
 box when a man entered the house and proposed some 
 
 business to the son. But the money which was necessary 
 
 for the transaction was in the box, and the son, afraid 
 
 to break the commandment by waking his father, sent 
 
 the man away. Both father and son were in great 
 
 distress about losing such a good opportunity, but the 
 
 next day they were rewarded by a visit from another 
 
 man with a still better oifer. This time the father was 
 
 awake, the box opened, and a large profit made. Both 
 
 father and son attributed it to a sign of divine pleasure 
 
 that the commandment had been kept, even under such 
 
 great temptation. This reminds me of a far more 
 
 recent story in connection with a pious Jewish family 
 
 in Lodz. One Friday evening, just as the Sabbath had 
 
 begun, a telegram arrived, and although the head of the 
 
 house had good reason to believe that it was a business 
 
 285 
 
286 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 offer from a foreign firm, refused to open it, in spite of 
 the assurances of a visitor that it was no sin to read 
 telegrams on the Sabbath. Next morning, Saturday, 
 another telegram came, and again the visitor assured 
 his host that, as the Law said nothing about telegrams, 
 he would not break the Sabbath if he saw what was 
 inside it. But his host was obdurate, and the family 
 spent the day in speculations. On Saturday evening a 
 third telegram arrived, and as the Sabbath was over the 
 old merchant opened all three. His triumph was great 
 when he read them, for the first contained a good off"er, 
 the second a better, and the third an excellent one, all 
 from the same firm, who, supposing that the Jew did 
 not answer because he did not think the off'er good 
 enough, had raised it each time. "You see," the old 
 man said to his visitor, "the Law says nothing about 
 telegrams, but the God of Israel has rewarded my piety 
 with much gold ! He who keeps the commandments 
 shall ever prosper." 
 
 The religious conservatism of the Polish Jew is quite 
 remarkable ; and he shows it not only in the purely 
 religious part of his customs, but in the traditional ones 
 which have been instituted by the Talmud. To him it 
 stands in the place of fatherland and nationality. Tell 
 the really pious Polish Jew that his co-religionists in 
 France or England have ceased to differ from the rest 
 of the community in dress, speech and general mode of 
 life, and he will retort that they are no longer Jews but 
 freethinkers, who have deserted their faith, and only go 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 287 
 
 to the synagogue and eat hoszerny out of affectation 
 and a wish to be talked about. In his opinion, such 
 men are not worthy to be called the sons of Israel. 
 This conservatism causes an unlimited amount of friction 
 between the old generation of the ghetto and the 
 young, for the old looks upon the study of the Talmud 
 as the only fit occupation for a pious Jew, and thinks of 
 all modern ideas of a secular education with horror. It 
 is difficult to understand the amount of consternation a 
 young Polish Jew can cause among his family, especially 
 
 the father be a Chassideen, by exchanging his long 
 halat for a short coat of ordinary European cut and 
 clipping his beard. It is quite equal to the feeling of 
 shame experienced by a respectable English household 
 if a son disgraces the family honour by forging some- 
 body else's name. Hours spent in arguing with the 
 unhappy parents fail to convince them that a boy does 
 not merit being turned out of the house because, having 
 learned the Talmud off by heart, he wants to read 
 " worldly " books and get some idea of people and things 
 around him. The fact that the same boy takes off his 
 halat and puts on an ordinary coat when he goes abroad 
 on business does not alter their views in the least. "He 
 must take off his halat when he goes abroad, because 
 he would look different from everybody else," they say. 
 
 "Then why on earth should he look different from 
 everybody else when he is in Warsaw, or Eadom, or 
 Lodz ? " the uninitiated asks. 
 
 " Because he is a Jew," is the reply. " And a Jew 
 
288 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 '}nust be different from everybody else. When my sou 
 has a halat, he will not walk in the gardens and parks 
 for fear the police will search him." 
 
 " And why shouldn't he walk there if he wants to ? " 
 " Why should he ? " is the indignant retort. " His 
 father never walked in the public gardens, and there is 
 no reason why he should begin. Besides, if he leaves 
 off his halat he wUl be going into the Polish cafds and 
 eating tryfny food (not prepared according to the Jewish 
 ritual), and then he will be utterly lost, and what will 
 there be for us but shame and dishonour? We would 
 not mind if he would wear a short coat under his halat 
 for the sake of appearances. But he won't do that. 
 What will all our friends and acquaintances say when 
 they see him without his beard and his halat? I 
 always told his father he would go wrong, that boy, for 
 he's twenty-one, and won't hear of getting married." 
 
 Then follows a torrent of reproaches and real Hebrew 
 despair for the prodigal son who wears a short coat and 
 walks in the public gardens. As to the boy, he mourns 
 the loss of the family circle from which he has been 
 banished ; being a Jew, he is sincerely attached to his 
 home. But he borrows Polish books, and probably goes 
 to lodge in a Christian household. To sympathisers he 
 will confide his wish to learn something more than the 
 Talmud can teach him, so as to become a " man " instead 
 of a Jew in a long halat. In a short time he will either 
 get baptized, or, what is far more likely to-day, become 
 a Socialist and a freethinker. His parents will continue 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 289 
 
 to mourn him as worse than dead and hang their heads 
 before their friends, who point out the scapegrace to 
 their own sons as an example of the horrible fate which 
 overtakes boys who read Polish books and refuse to 
 marry. 
 
 The Young Rabbi 
 
 These Conservative Separatists, though dying out 
 in the large towns, still flourish in the provincial 
 settlements, where the Kahals are as averse to progress 
 as the rest of the community. Their one ideal is 
 the cult of the Talmud ; and in order to devote their 
 lives to that, they will starve themselves and their 
 children, walk in rags and live in close, filthy hovels. 
 Their ambition is to have a Rabbi for a son. He need 
 not be such a Rabbi as those employed in the communal 
 synagogues in the large towns. Far from it ; the average 
 provincial Jew looks upon those men who can speak and 
 even write Polish with the utmost horror. By a Rabbi 
 they mean a " master," that is a boy or man who 
 knows the Talmud off by heart and can engage in con- 
 troversy with other Rabbis, and vanquish their arguments 
 about some question with a passage which puts it in 
 quite another light. 
 
 The grave boys one sees in the ghettoes, walking book 
 in hand to a Bethamidrasz, are either Rabbis or pro- 
 spective ones. From their earliest years they have been 
 excluded from all that could influence them in favour of 
 
290 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 worldly things. They have been kept away from the 
 streets in which they might hear Polish spoken, never 
 allowed to play with other children, or be children them- 
 selves. They were encouraged to talk of nothing but 
 the Bible and the Talmud, which they are taught to read 
 as soon as their baby intellects are capable of under- 
 standing the Hebrew letters. 
 
 If such a boy be a promising pupil, he is admitted to 
 the discussion of wise men at the age of eight, and 
 listens to the words of wisdom which fall from the 
 Rabbis' mouths, whilst his less fortunate or duller brothers 
 and cousins look on with a mixture of awe and envy. 
 
 The Polish Jew is carefully instructed in the Law and 
 Ritual, and at thirteen he becomes of age. He is 
 received with ceremony into the synagogue when his 
 father pronounces a prayer over him in which he declares 
 that, whereas he has hitherto taken all his son's sins 
 upon himself, he is no longer responsible for them from 
 that moment. He is then taken before some Rabbi, who 
 examines him as to his knowledge of the Talmud, and 
 decides upon the amount of dowry his future bride must 
 bring, according to the extent of his knowledge of the 
 sacred book. The boy must now observe the fasts of 
 the Jewish year and perform the same religious duties 
 as his father and other pious men. He must pray many 
 times a day, before and after all meals, as well as in the 
 morning, late in the afternoon, and in the evening. If 
 he breaks his fast by eating a small piece of bread, he 
 says a short prayer, both before and after. If he sits 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 291 
 
 down to a meal, he must say a long prayer. The 
 morning, afternoon and evening prayers are still longer ; 
 in fact, if a Polish Jew means to be really pious he has 
 little time for anything but saying his prayers and 
 observing the different laws and rules the Talmud has 
 laid down for the guidance of every moment of his life. 
 Once the other Rabbis in the community are satisfied 
 that he is able to take part in their discussions, and once 
 he can hold his own with these elders and discover some 
 new explanation of an obscure passage in the Talmud, 
 his future is assured. He need never work. The hated 
 factory, the sweating shop, and all kinds of manual 
 labour, are spared him. Even if he have no home of his 
 own he will always find some pious household wherein 
 to eat, drink, pray, and sleep on a bug-infested bed. He 
 will instruct the boys of the family in the Talmud and 
 be treated with unbounded respect ; for all pious Jews 
 wiU look up to him, and those who have given 
 themselves over to secular things will not be admitted 
 within his circle. No matter how ragged and dirty he 
 is ; no matter if he has no idea of anything outside the 
 Talmud ; if he is incapable of earning a farthing, he will 
 be sought after by parents with daughters to marry, for 
 he is a Eabbi, knows the Talmud off by heart, has a very 
 long and dirty beard, and wears a halat to the ankles. 
 If he goes on as he has begun, and has a roof and his 
 daily food assured him, he may possibly become a very 
 great Rabbi indeed, like the master of Gora Kalvarya (a 
 settlement a few miles from Warsaw), who died a year 
 
292 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 or two back full of years and honours. This Rabbi was 
 known by the Jews throughout the Eussian Empire. 
 Thousands used to flock to hear him expound the 
 Talmud. He was surrounded with a certain amount of 
 pomp. Four servants, all wise and honourable men, 
 waited upon him incessantly, and those who saw them 
 say that a prince of the blood could not be better served 
 than this Jew of a Polish village. He had his own 
 councillor, a rich iron-founder from Warsaw, who used 
 to go and advise him upon matters in connection with 
 the management of his flock once every week. When a 
 young Jew gave promise of great wisdom, he was taken 
 to Gora Kalvarya. A man once told me that, having 
 learnt the Talmud by heart at the age of thirteen, he 
 was destined for a Rabbi and taken to see the wise man. 
 One mark of favour was to receive a small piece of food 
 from his own hands, and as he was breaking his fast, he 
 gave the boy a piece of bread. The young Rabbi was 
 in a predicament, for he had not yet said his morning 
 prayer, and yet could not refuse to eat the bread the 
 master had given. After vainly ransacking his memory 
 for a passage in the Talmud to guide him, he determined 
 to eat the bread and see what would happen. As he 
 was not struck down by a terrible disease or otherwise 
 punished for his sin, he began to make other experiments 
 of the same kind, of course without saying anything to 
 anybody. Before long he horrified his friends by declar- 
 ing he would not be a Rabbi, took ofl" his long hatat, 
 went abroad, learnt gardening, and finally became the 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 293 
 
 first skilled Jewish gardener in Poland. He taught two 
 other Jews, and employs them in a Jewish cemetery. 
 Needless to say, all the Conservatives in the Commune 
 hold him in horror, and affirm that he is well punished 
 because his two Jewish assistants brought revolutionary 
 ideas among his non- Jewish workmen and organised a 
 gardeners' strike. 
 
 Marriages 
 
 In the Polish ghetto a girl of twelve and a boy 
 of thirteen must think of getting married. If the 
 boy happen to be a Rabbi, or rather to give 
 promise of becoming one, there is little difficulty about 
 it ; his parents will be besieged with offers from people 
 who either have no sons of their own at all or else none 
 with Talmudistic capabilities. When the boy happens 
 to be an acknowledged Rabbi, he can generally ask 
 whatever dowry he likes, for he is the best match in the 
 settlement, and he knows it. After a suitable wife has 
 been found the parents arrange about the dowry, which 
 is paid, as soon as the engagement is completed, to the 
 boy's parents. There are three separate copies of the 
 contract, which is drawn up in such a way that the boy, 
 his father and the girl's father must all agree to its with- 
 drawal from whatever business it is invested in before 
 the money can be touched. These contracts are placed 
 in some Jewish bank, and the engagement is looked 
 
294 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 upon as settled. If, however, it is broken off within 
 the year, the bride must return any presents she 
 has received, and the side which breaks off must pay 
 all the costs of the betrothal. Any disputes which 
 arise are tried before the Kahal, which pronounces 
 judgment. 
 
 During the year of the engagement the betrothed 
 pair do not see each other ; in fact, they generally make 
 each other's acquaintance on their wedding day, and 
 whilst they are engaged the young man is supposed to 
 solely frequent the society of his own sex. The parents 
 make all arrangements, often without consulting their 
 children. 
 
 When a Polish Jew marries one of his daughters his 
 great idea is to get all the world to know about it. Now- 
 a-days the announcement of a Jewish engagement often 
 appears in the Polish papers, especially those in Jewish 
 hands, which tell all it may concern that Icek Morning- 
 star of Lodz is betrothed to Rachel Finechild of Radom, 
 or words to that effect. But the Jew of the ghetto 
 cares nothing for Polish papers — neither he nor his friends 
 can read them ; so he sticks to the good old custom of 
 having the ceremony in front of the synagogue. As this 
 is impossible in a large town, a courtyard is chosen 
 instead. The religious part of the ceremony is the same 
 as if it were held in a synagogue, but according to the 
 Talmud any learned man can perform it. In fact, at 
 one time no religious ceremony was necessary at all. It 
 was sufficient for a boy to give a girl any trifle, such as 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 295 
 
 a small piece of money, or a piece of bread ; if she 
 accepted it, she was his wife. Iq cases where the 
 girl had rich parents the custom was so much abused 
 that witnesses were considered necessary to make a 
 marriage valid, because a boy would go to his bride's 
 parents and startle them with the news that he had 
 married their daughter and was coming to live with 
 them. 
 
 The orthodox ghetto marriage takes place in the 
 evening, and by the light of lanterns which the chief 
 guests hold. All the world and his wife are there ; the 
 bride's parents make every effort to astonish them 
 with the richness of the reception and general arrange- 
 ments, so that a family will be half starved for weeks 
 before and after the wedding in order that the feast may 
 include some dainty or a bottle of wine. The bride, with 
 a cloth over her eyes, is brought by her parents into the 
 courtyard where the ceremony is to take place and the 
 bridegroom by his. The guests then sing and dance 
 whilst the young couple make each other's acquaintance 
 — that is, the bride's eyes are uncovered whilst somebody 
 asks her if the young man pleases her. When she 
 answers in the affirmative, her hair is shaved off close 
 to her head, hops are thrown over her for prosperity, and 
 the Eabbi performs the religious part of the ceremony, 
 during which the bridegroom breaks a glass. After 
 this, the marriage feast is eaten, the newly married pair 
 being conducted thither with songs and noisy mani- 
 festations of joy. 
 
296 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 After the feast the bride and bridegroom are con- 
 ducted to a separate room and locked up in it for some 
 time, whilst the guests dance and sing. When the Jews 
 are very pious, the men and girls do not dance with 
 each other; each sex has a part of the room to twirl 
 round in to the accompaniment of music which has very- 
 little melody about it. The elder men stand in one group, 
 looking on, and the women in another. 
 
 There is often a clause in the marriage contract which 
 states the length of time the young pair is to live with 
 the parents of each ; but as a rule they live with the 
 bride's parents until the father-in-law sees what the boy 
 is fit for, whether he wUl be a Rabbi, a factor or a 
 merchant, etc. It not unfrequently happens that a boy 
 leaves his wife and children after he has been married a 
 few years to live in one of the Bethamidrashes and 
 study the Talmud, free from all domestic cares, or runs 
 away from home to exchange his halat for a short jacket 
 and learn something of the world outside the ghetto. If 
 his wife is of a pious stock she will not receive him into 
 her father's house again, and a divorce is the usual 
 consequence. Considering that such couples often have 
 a family of half-a-dozen children before either is twenty- 
 five, that they live with one and often two families of 
 equal dimensions in one room, that they rarely get 
 sufficient food to keep body and soul together, it is not 
 surprising that the physical condition of the larger part 
 of the Jewish emigrants leaves a great deal to be 
 desired. 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 297 
 
 Shaving the Women's Heads 
 
 There is a difference of opinion about the origin 
 of this custom. The Talmud says that when a woman 
 is married she has no business to please any man, as 
 her mission in life is fulfilled, and since a woman's 
 hair is her beauty, she must hide it. The original 
 order appears to have been to cover it with a close- 
 fitting cap. But later on, as the material with which 
 it was to be covered is not specified, the Polish 
 Jewesses began to wear wigs on their shaved heads. 
 Some old Jewesses wear close-fitting caps to-day. Of 
 course the progressive Jews, even in the ghetto, do not 
 make their wives shave their heads ; all that are a little 
 bit educated have dropped the custom altogether, 
 and it is, like the very long halats of the men, a sign 
 that the wearer belongs to a pious family. Another 
 version of the origin is that a Jew must never have his 
 hands soiled by grease, and that, as his wife's hair is 
 greasy and he cannot always be washing his hands, the 
 best way out of the diflSiculty is to make all brides shave 
 their heads. 
 
 Position of Women 
 
 The position of the women in a pious Jewish 
 household is rather paradoxical. A strict Jew will 
 not sit down to eat with his wife or take food 
 
298 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 from a woman's hands. In other households, less 
 orthodox, the fathers and sons sit down first and are 
 served by the women, who eat afterwards. In others 
 again, the two sexes eat together, but the men sit on 
 one side of the table and the women on another. Other 
 distinctions are made. For instance, in the provincial 
 settlements, the men and boys go to the " house of 
 prayer," as the synagogues are there called, before the 
 women and girls. In the large communal synagogues 
 they attend the same service, but stand in different parts 
 of the building. The men are exempt from bathing, 
 unless they like it, but it is the business of the Kahals 
 to see that women of the community observe the 
 commands relating to the mykva, or ritualistic bath. 
 On the other hand, the women take a small part in the 
 religious life of the really pious Jewish household. 
 They are not supposed to say many of the prayers ; 
 they do not wear the tephilen, or the Laws of Moses 
 written on parchment and strapped on the head and 
 arms, as the men do when praying on week-days. These 
 tephilen are also fixed to the doors of their rooms. The 
 origin of the custom will be found in Deuteronomy, 
 ch. vi., which says : " Thou shalt bind them for a 
 sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets 
 before thine eyes. And thou shall write them upon the 
 posts of thy house, and on thy gates." 
 
 But at the Feast of Tabernacles, called Kuthi in 
 Poland, the women often take offerings of an apple, a 
 piece of willow and of palm to the house of prayer. 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 299 
 
 During the seven days of this feast, which lasts from the 
 fifteenth to the twenty-second of October, the Jews in 
 the Polish ghettoes and settlements may be seen sitting 
 in queer little tents usually made out of rags, with the 
 top open to the sky or the ceiling of the room according 
 to the state of the weather. The women often sit in 
 them too. But in pious households, the men and 
 women do not share the same tents. The days are 
 passed in praying, and the food eaten there. This 
 custom is observed as a reminder of the time when the 
 Children of Israel were brought out of Egypt and had 
 slept in tents in the wilderness. While the feast lasts 
 the Jewish shops are shut and no work or business done, 
 except for a few hours once or twice during the week, 
 when it is a " free holiday," that is, one on which they 
 can do a little buying or selling. 
 
 The Talmud allows a man to beat his wife if she 
 curses him or makes light of his parents. The Kahals 
 used to have the power of imprisoning a man who beat 
 his wife wrongfully. To-day, they can only reason 
 with, or, at the most, excommunicate him. 
 
 In practice, the domestic arrangements of the pious 
 Jew work out rather differently. If he is progressive he 
 does not keep so strictly to the laws laid down in the 
 Talmud for the regulation of his home life, and will not 
 hesitate to sit down at the same table with her, allow 
 her to use his chair, etc. ; whereas, if he be a pious man, 
 devoted to the Talmud and the contemplation of its 
 obscure teachings, his wife has to work for him and 
 
300 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 their numerous children. Once in possession of the 
 purse-strings, she rules the household, and not unfre- 
 quently relieves her feelings by throwing the wise man's 
 soup at his head instead of letting one of her sons serve 
 him with it. The wives of these Rabbis are generally 
 hardworking, energetic women, and a Jewess who does 
 a factor's work in one of the settlements, or hawks and 
 sells things in the Jewish quarters, almost invariably has 
 a pious husband at home or in some Bethamidrasz. 
 Her children when old enough will help her, and as a 
 rule the father wants for nothing as long as he lives, and 
 the chances are ten to one that his first-born son will 
 follow in his footsteps and find a wife to work for him. 
 His happiest days are spent in waiting upon other wiser 
 men, or giving advice upon important questions to some 
 great Rabbi. 
 
 DiVOECE 
 
 According to the Talmud, polygamy is lawful ; but 
 the Rabbinats have long since altered this law, and now 
 a man may not have more than one wife at a time. 
 But it is very easy for him to get rid of her. The Law 
 says, " When a man hath taken a wife and married her, 
 and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes 
 because he hath found some uncleanness in her ; then 
 let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in 
 her hand, and send her out of his house." 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 301 
 
 This means is very frequently used among the Jews 
 n Poland and for trivial reasons, when a man is free of 
 lis father-in-law's roof and has grown tired of the wife 
 lis parents chose for him when he was thirteen. Often 
 m irate husband will go to the communal Rabbinat and 
 lemand a writing of divorcement, as it is still called, 
 jecause his wife gave him food with flies in it or put 
 ;oo much salt in his soup. The Rabbinat generally 
 ;ries to dissuade the petitioner from his intention, but 
 ;annot legally refuse him the writing if he proves that 
 lis complaints are well grounded. Once in possession 
 )f the piece of parchment, all the husband has to do is 
 io thrust it into his wife's hands or even throw it into 
 ler arms. When divorced, she is entitled to half of 
 ler dowry ; but as the marriage contract is made out 
 lecording to the religious law, and by this a dowry can- 
 lot exceed the equivalent to thirty pounds of English 
 noney, her husband is not obliged to give her back 
 nore than fifteen pounds. A widow is entitled to the 
 lame amount on the death of her husband. The Russian 
 Luthorities do not make any difficulties about confirming 
 :he decision of the Rabbinat, and so divorce is excessively 
 lasy for the Polish Jew — though as a matter of fact 
 ;ases are comparatively rare among the educated classes. 
 5ut when a man, divorced in the above way, wishes to 
 narry again, he must get the consent of the Rabbinat 
 n order to do so, and this gives the latter a good deal 
 •f influence in petitions. If both sides wish to divorce, 
 he matter is very simple indeed, and neither has any 
 
302 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 difBculty about getting married again. A woman can 
 get divorced from her husband against his will if she 
 can prove that he engages in any dishonourable or 
 objectionable trade which she did not know of before 
 her marriage ; if he is suffering from any objectionable 
 disease ; if his breath is unsavoury ; if he often turns 
 her out of the house ; if he has a very bad temper ; and 
 lastly, if he beats her : " For," the Talmud says, " it is 
 not seemly that a Jew should beat his wife." 
 
 Other Customs 
 
 The Polish Jew was very much attached to his long 
 locks of hair, or peasy, which he wore on each temple in 
 obedience to the command : — " Ye shall not round the 
 corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the 
 corners of thy beard." For many centuries he walked 
 about with these locks, which often reached as far as 
 the knees. But about ten years ago the Russian 
 Government thought seriously of making him look like 
 other people whether he wished or not, and issued 
 orders that men in halats were not to walk in the parks 
 and public gardens, and that those who insisted on 
 wearing peasy should have them cut off by the police. 
 In their zeal the authorities often had the skirts of the 
 halats cut off as well ; but the peasy were got rid of by 
 arresting their wearers, taking them to the- nearest 
 police-station, and clipping the long strands of hair, 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 303 
 
 tlodern ideas penetrate even into the Polish ghetto, 
 ,nd, in the large towns at any rate, many old customs 
 re slowly dying out from among a certain portion of 
 he Jewish community, although others observe them 
 iS religiously as ever. The remarkable part of it is 
 hat they manage to keep the letter of the law whilst 
 isregarding the spirit, and seem perfectly satisfied that 
 hey have done all that the Talmud requires of them, 
 ^or instance, a Jew is forbidden to transact business or 
 ouch money on the Sabbath ; but almost every Jewish 
 actor win take money on Saturday provided his fingers 
 .0 not touch it except through a piece of stuff, paper, 
 r a corner of his halat. 
 
 On the day of Roszhaszan the pious Jews are sup- 
 osed to bathe in a stream of running water in order 
 
 cleanse themselves from all their sins. The idea of 
 be command is to bathe in pure water, but the average 
 evotee does not pay attention to this so long as the 
 rater is not still, but a running stream. The same 
 tdng is to be seen with the myhva, or ritualistic bath, 
 "^hich was instituted with the idea of cleansing the 
 ather, who, however, simply gets into the water and 
 lit of it again. In the large and progressive Communes 
 le executive committees wage war with this ignorance, 
 hich precludes the possibility of the people becoming 
 tore hygienic, that is, of attaining the real end implied 
 
 1 all these commands about bathing and purifying, 
 ut in the smaller ones it is a case of the blind leading 
 iind. The Kahals are as averse to cleanliness as the 
 
304 . THE POLISH JEW 
 
 rest of the community, so that dirt and disease reign 
 supreme. 
 
 A strict Jew will not eat Tryfny, that is, food which 
 has not been prepared according to the prescribed rites. 
 But almost every Polish Jew will drink water out of 
 a glass in a Christian house, whereas he would not touch 
 an earthenware mug or a cup. The fact that it has 
 been washed by non-Jewish hands does not seem to 
 trouble him. When he is about to eat a small piece 
 of bread and fish, he must say a short prayer and just 
 dip the tips of his fingers in water. But if he intends 
 to take several mouthfuls, he must say a much longer 
 prayer and immerse his hands in water as far as the 
 wrists. In the railway stations in Poland the Jews 
 can be seen wetting the tips of their fingers by putting 
 them upon the frosty windows until the ice is melted, 
 when they eat a small piece of bread or a mouthful 
 of egg. 
 
 He may not buy bread from a non-Jewish baker 
 unless the latter has a certificate from the communal 
 Eabbinat that his flour is clean and free from all 
 impurities, and has not come in contact with lard or 
 any other fat. The Conservative Jews will not buy it 
 even then, in spite of the safeguard that flour spoils as 
 soon as it is moistened with grease. At Passover he 
 eats maca, or thin cakes baked out of special flour. 
 The wheat is carefully watched by men sent by the 
 Eabbinat whilst still in flower. These men look after 
 it day and night lest a shower come and wet it, when 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 305 
 
 is unfit for its purpose. They do not let it out of 
 jir sight until it is put into sealed bags, ready 
 reshed under their watchful eyes. The maca is baked 
 
 men only — women may not touch it. It consists of 
 ur and water, without salt, and is eaten for seven 
 ys instead of ordinary bread. 
 
 The Sabbath is ushered in with singing and prayers, 
 le hymn used at the table on these occasions is known 
 
 the Maiufez (How beautiful thou art). When the 
 nily can afford it, the table is lighted with silver or 
 onze candlesticks, with many branches. The day is 
 ent in religious exercises and prayer at a Bethamidrash, 
 )m which the women are excluded. 
 A book could be filled with an account of the many 
 stoms which still keep the Polish Jew a man apart 
 )m the rest of the population. Some of them are 
 ily strange, others absolutely repulsive. The educated 
 iws make all the efi"orts possible to dissuade their co- 
 ligionists from practising them, but as yet they are 
 ang to with a tenacity peculiar to the Hebrew, 
 ich men cannot distinguish between the religious 
 )servances ordered by the Mosaic Law and the 
 aditions to be found in the Talmud, traditions which 
 ten have no better authority than some long-deceased 
 abbi who thought fit to write them, and which, however 
 jcessary they may have been at one time, are quite at 
 iriance with modern conditions, and only serve to keep 
 leir observers wrapt in ignorance and superstition, 
 lit when the more progressive members of the com- 
 
3o6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 munity attempt to abolish them they are met with a 
 considerable amount of resistance. Nothing is so clung 
 to as the rites and ceremonies in connection with the 
 
 Burial of the Dead 
 
 The dreary Jewish cemetery, with its flat tombstones, 
 is always apart from those belonging to peoples of other 
 faiths. No matter how small or poor it is, it contains 
 a building from which the Polish passer-by turns with 
 disgust and the educated Jew with horror. 
 
 When a Jew is sick to death, a Rabbi is called in to 
 give him what comfort he can for his last moments. 
 As soon as the breath is out of his body, the relations 
 do their utmost to have the corpse removed as soon as 
 possible. Russian law says that a body must lie three 
 days before the coffin is closed ; but the Jews take the 
 risk of breaking it, and when a doctor has pronounced 
 life to be extinct, remove it to the cemetery in a closed 
 bier, which looks hke a huge box on a platform of black 
 wood. The friends and acquaintances follow it, but only 
 the nearer relations enter the mysterious building. The 
 others wait outside. 
 
 In the provincial cemeteries the room into which the 
 corpse is taken is of the simplest description. A large 
 table stands in the middle, supplied with a trough. The 
 body is stripped and placed on it ; and, if the deceased 
 was a very pious man, water, the quantity of which is 
 
SOME JEWISH CUSTOMS 307 
 
 prescribed by the Talmud, is thrown over his remains, 
 ivhilst his friends say prayers for him. If there are 
 •ewer than ten people, the prayers are said to be of no 
 ivail, just as an oath witnessed by less than three persons, 
 )r one Rabbi, is invalid. 
 
 After the water has been poured over the corpse, an 
 india-rubber tube is placed in the mouth, clean water 
 pumped into it and the stomach pressed with wooden 
 instruments like rolling-pins. This and syringes are 
 used until the water which leaves the body is quite 
 3lear. Meanwhile, other women are busy sewing linen 
 grave-clothes, which must be made near the corpse. The 
 piece from which they are made cannot be cut. If the 
 deceased were a man and pious, he is also dressed in 
 the shirt worn by him during the great fast — the Day 
 3f Judgment. His hair and beard are then combed, his 
 &nger and toe nails carefully cleaned, and short sticks 
 placed between his fingers, so that when the last trump 
 3alls him from his grave he will have something with 
 which to raise his body. Gloves are then put on, a new 
 earthenware basin broken, and two pieces placed over his 
 3yes, lest he should see what is happening in the grave. 
 A.fter this the body is enveloped in a shroud, made of 
 inen for men and thick tulle for women, taken out into 
 :he cemetery and put into the grave. No coffin is used, 
 but if a man is a first-born son, double planks of wood 
 ire placed at each of his sides and over him ; if not 
 Srst-born, the planks are single. No wood is put under 
 :he body, in order that it may be in direct contact with 
 
3o8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the earth. A bag of earth is also placed under his head 
 in return for his life-work. The grave is then filled up, 
 and the ceremony completed with prayers. 
 
 When a Polish Jew dies abroad and his remains are 
 brought into the country for burial, the coffin is put into 
 the grave without being opened, as Russian law forbids 
 all coflfins coming into the country to be touched. Often 
 the Kahal makes a lot of difficulty about burying people 
 in this way, and the heirs of the deceased have to pay a 
 large fine before the coffin is admitted into the cemetery 
 at all. There is a tradition among the Polish people 
 that in such cases the authorities in the smaller Com- 
 munes exhume the bodies at night, perform all the 
 ceremonies just described, and replace them coffinless in 
 their graves. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 THE FUTURE — CONCLUDING EEMAEKS 
 
 The growing power of the Bund, with its nationalistic 
 theories and the general awakening of the Jewish masses, 
 have caused even the Poles, little given to worrying 
 about problems of the kind, to ask themselves whether 
 the Jewish masses will assimilate, or whether they really 
 mean to become a separate nation, with their own culture 
 of the hated Jargon and their own aims and aspirations, 
 to be a veritable and constant thorn in the flesh to 
 Sclavonic sensibilities. Unhappily, the Poles know very 
 little about the strangers who have been living with them 
 for the last nine centuries, and it is therefore chiefly 
 among the educated Jews that men and women qualified 
 to speak about the future prospects of their race in 
 Poland are to be found. The following opinions were 
 given by the representatives of three groups, each 
 with its own theory ; and as all three work among 
 the people of whom they speak, they may safely be 
 considered as the best authorities on a very complicated 
 
 question. 
 
 309 
 
3IO THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The First Speaker 
 
 looks upon the question from an impartial point of view. 
 I may add that he is a member of one of the Socialistic 
 parties mentioned in Part II., and is considered an 
 excellent judge of the Jewish question. He does not 
 deny that separatism is strong among the Jewish masses, 
 and says — 
 
 " Once this fact is admitted, two questions arise in 
 connection with it : 
 
 " (1) Is this separatism, an unbreakable social law? 
 and 
 
 " (2) Will not its very existence render any assimila- 
 tion of the Polish and Jewish elements impossible by 
 reason of the class and cultural antagonism which 
 exist at present? 
 
 " We must first of all look into the causes which have 
 produced this antagonism. 
 
 "There is not the least doubt that, in spite of the 
 difficulties which the process of assimilation has had 
 to encounter, in spite of the superstitions, oppression 
 and legislative restrictions which have widened the 
 breach between them and the rest of the community, 
 cultured Jews always tend, and still tend, to draw near 
 to the nations among which they live. 
 
 " Such groups, by virtue of the natural laws of assimi- 
 lation and by force of common interests, gradually lose 
 their distinctive characteristics until nothing remains of 
 
THE FUTURE 311 
 
 them but their religion and a few traces of their old 
 culture. 
 
 " But with the masses we see a very diflferent state of 
 things. They preserve their distinctiveness of language 
 and of custom. It would, however, be difficult to deny 
 that, even here, assimilation has been, and still is, doing 
 something. These masses have not been living in a 
 complete state of cultural inertia. They have learned 
 something from their surroundings. But the process 
 has been so slow that it has evolved a strange, incon- 
 gruous ethnical material, which is totally different from 
 ancient Hebrew culture and still less like that of the 
 community which surrounds it. You cannot possibly 
 call the result a Jewish nation ; it is nothing of the sort. 
 It is rather a Jewish people, consisting of uncultured, 
 unhappy masses, exclusive in their internal existence, 
 cast off by the rest of the community, and yet a part of 
 it, rooted into and unrootable from the soil in which 
 they have not been allowed to develop normally. 
 
 " The Jews are not to blame for this separatism. Acci- 
 dents of history, fatal to them, have caused it. The 
 feudal system of the Middle Ages surrounded them with 
 a wall of contempt and isolation. On the one hand, the 
 social conditions and theories of the period made them 
 a caste apart, a caste of merchants and middlemen ; on 
 the other, religious hatred persecuted and. tortured them 
 with all the cruelties that human inventiveness could 
 conceive. They were obliged to engage in commerce 
 and usury, and, as the theories of the times, most clearly 
 
312 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 expressed in the doctrines of the Fathers of the Church, 
 held all commerce in contempt, they bore the odium of 
 a calling which they were forced to adopt. In Western 
 Europe fanaticism and ignorance pursued them until the 
 end of the eighteenth century. In Poland they were 
 more fortunate for some time, because they were not, as 
 in other countries, the property of the kings, but formed 
 a separate people, enjoying a liberal autonomy, 
 
 " The Polish Republic had no middle class, and needed 
 one ; so, in opening the gates of its towns to the burghers 
 who came from other countries, it received the Jews who 
 had been driven from the German ghettoes. The political 
 and religious toleration which prevailed in Poland until 
 the middle of the seventeenth century assured them a 
 complete cultural and religious liberty. But even then 
 there was scarcely any tendency towards assimilation, 
 because here, too, class distinctions formed an obstacle 
 to the assimilation of any foreign elements. The con- 
 dition of the Jews grew worse in the seventeenth century, 
 when the towns became impoverished and the effects of 
 reaction, civil war, and strife began to be felt throughout 
 the country. They suffered terribly from the Cossack 
 rebellions, whilst the kings, whose power was rapidly 
 falling, were unable to enforce the statutes by which their 
 quondam proteges had once profited. 
 
 " During a century and a half — that is, from the middle 
 of the seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century — 
 the condition of the Jews grew rapidly worse ; their 
 poverty and ignorance increased, and their misfortunes 
 
THE FUTURE 313 
 
 were multiplied. The consequence was that they 
 separated further than ever from the rest of the 
 community. 
 
 " The Four-years' Diet undertook the task of reforming 
 their civil position, as it hoped to reform all classes and 
 elements in the Republic. 
 
 " Butrymovicz's memorial — he was president of the 
 Commission appointed to consider the Jewish question 
 — was drawn up with the hope of assimilating them 
 with the rest of the community. The Commission took 
 a most liberal point of view, wishing to make them true 
 citizens of the State by removing their disabilities and 
 giving them civil responsibilities. 
 
 " There is historical evidence that many of the Jews 
 themselves shared these hopes, whilst the part played 
 by them in Kosciuszko's rising, and the fact that Berek 
 Joselowicz, a Jew, raised a regiment, prove that even 
 then there were Jews who considered themselves a part 
 of the Polish nation. The fall of Poland arrested, or, 
 at least, seriously impeded, this new development ; but 
 from this time we find that the idea of co-citizenship did 
 aot cease to exist. 
 
 " I believe that the simplest way in which to settle the 
 Jewish question — that is, to bring about assimilation — 
 s to treat it from a humane and perfectly just stand- 
 3oint. The anti-Semite has widened the breach with 
 lis hatred and persecutions ; and it is only fair to 
 idd that the Sionist, with his separatism and eccen- 
 ;ricities, has done as much harm. Neither the one 
 
314 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 nor the other has succeeded in curing the disease, 
 because both have only torn open old wounds. They 
 want to do what is sociologically an impossibility, that 
 is, to take the Jews away from the communities in which 
 they are living. What we ought to do is to stamp out 
 and uproot all hatred and prejudices against the Jews, 
 to wipe out all contempt for their uncultured masses, 
 and to try to expiate our historical sins, persecutions and 
 wrongs. 
 
 " We are now in a position to answer our two 
 questions — 
 
 " ( 1 ) Under normal conditions of development, which 
 have hitherto been lacking in Poland as far as the 
 Jewish problem is concerned, this separatism would 
 be weakened to a considerable extent, because it is 
 not an unbreakable social law, but the result of 
 historical isolation, of persecution, and of ivant of 
 culture. 
 
 " (2) TTie existence of this separatism would not make 
 it impossible for the two elements to unite in common 
 aims and interests, so long as a humane point of view 
 and principles of justice were employed in our relations 
 with the Jewish masses. 
 
 " I will add that, with the exception of Poland, the 
 Russian Empire, Galicia and Roumania, the Jewish 
 question does not exist as far as cultural separatism 
 is concerned. 
 
 " In Germany, it is true, semi-ofl&cial anti-Semitism 
 exists ; in Austria, and especially in Vienna, it prevails 
 
THE FUTURE 315 
 
 a great extent ; in France, nationalism organised the 
 ,nti-Dreyfus cabal. But these are forms of official and 
 )olitical intrigue, and the question, in the real sense of 
 he term, does not and cannot exist. It is only apparent 
 mtagonism, far weaker, as a matter of fact, than the 
 ilass antagonism which is going on in the same 
 lountries. 
 
 "There was a time when anti-Semitism grew silent in 
 Poland also. Four or five decades ago, the two elements 
 mited under the watchword of brotherhood. It broke 
 )ut afresh under the heavy yoke of reaction, and was 
 net with another kind of reaction, of the Jewish 
 element, which took the form of Sionism and Jewish 
 lationalism. 
 
 " To-day, when we have had time to look at these two 
 novements quietly, neither of them presents very 
 iangerous qualities. Sionism is an abortive theory — for 
 t does not take the Jews from the Land of Tribulation 
 ;o the Land of Promise. As to Jewish nationalism, it is 
 lothing more than a very natural answer to anti- 
 Semitism, and will fall to pieces as soon as the theory of 
 mion of the two elements has become a fact. 
 
 " But the way in which the Jews are defending them- 
 jelves at present is the best proof of what persecution, 
 contempt and civil disabilities can effect. These same 
 people, who bore oppression and hatred with the mildness 
 )f lambs for so long, have suddenly changed into men 
 md are fighting in their self-defence with an energy which 
 iwakes wonder. Nobody supposed that those people 
 
3i6 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 who seemed to be resigned to their fate as slaves of the 
 ghetto, socially and legally oppressed, would rise and 
 fight with such courage. But these efforts have nothing 
 in common with nationalism. These outbursts of anger 
 will subside as soon as the future lies clear and straight 
 before them, as soon as they are citizens with the same 
 rights as the rest of the community. Then the separat- 
 ism of the masses will be wiped away ; but it must last 
 so long as disabilities, to say nothing of the contemptuous 
 and hostile treatment from the anti-Semitic part of the 
 community, last. This aiming at a separate culture is 
 simply the result of separatist treatment from the other 
 element. The Jews, unable to develop after the pattern 
 of the culture which surrounds them, and equally unable 
 to obtain real toleration, instinctively defend themselves 
 by adopting their own means of cultural development. 
 One thing remains to be considered, and that is the 
 ignorance of the Jewish masses, an ignorance which 
 goes side by side with abject poverty and boundless 
 misery. 
 
 " I know you will say that the Jewish question chiefly 
 concerns the poorest members of the Jewish community, 
 and that the theory of assimilation cannot break through 
 their ignorance nor make any headway in the face of the 
 hunger and privations these people perpetually suffer. 
 But here we have the prospect of help from the masses 
 of the Polish community, of the solidarity of the two 
 proletariats, which, drawn together by common interests 
 and hardships, will gradually lose all separatist feelings. 
 
THE FUTURE 317 
 
 " In a word, the Jewish, question in Poland is, in my 
 opinion, a question of the moment — a question of evolu- 
 tion. The prospect of a new form of political life is 
 bound up with the emancipation of the Jews. This 
 new state of things must inevitably sweep away all 
 differences, and assimilation will follow as a natural 
 consequence." 
 
 The Second Speaker, 
 
 a manwho has done and is still doing good work for 
 the Polish and Jewish communities, is an assimilated 
 Jew, advocates assimilation and accuses the Sionists and 
 the Jewish nationalists of acting in direct opposition to 
 the real welfare of the Jewish masses in Poland. He 
 says — 
 
 " The chief elements necessary for the making of a 
 nation are territory, a living language, and culture — all 
 of which must be the nation's own. 
 
 " The first national element which the Jews lack is 
 territory. Neither have they their own living language. 
 They generally speak the languages of the nations among 
 which they live — German, French, English, etc. In 
 Poland the minority feel, think, and make themselves 
 understood in Polish ; the majority speaks a language 
 they adopted during the long period they passed on 
 German soil. 
 
 " The third element is an individual culture, and in- 
 cludes religious faith, manners and customs, legislative 
 
3i8 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 and political organisations, education. That part of 
 culture whicli we call religious faith belongs entirely 
 to the Jews. But when we come to manners and 
 customs, even in those which are quite connected 
 with their religion, we find that many of them differ 
 from those of their co-religionists who inhabit different 
 countries. Dress also comes under the heading of 
 culture. But here, too, we shall look in vain for any 
 uniformity. The Polish Jew, with his halat, once forced 
 upon him by law, differs equally from the average 
 Jewish workman in France, with his blue blouse ; from 
 the middle-class Jew in England, with his felt hat and 
 morning coat ; and the Turkish Jew in his loose trousers 
 and red fez. As to legislative and political organisations 
 — the Jewish people live under the political and legisla- 
 tive conditions of the nations among which they live. 
 The same must be said of their educational standard. 
 
 " But the Sionists and the Jewish nationalists in 
 Poland and Russia affirm that the Jews are a nation and 
 defend their nationality, in spite of the fact that they 
 lack the three chief elements. This way of defending 
 Jewish nationalism, i.e. by affirming that it exists, is 
 employed almost entii'ely by the Polish and Russian Jews. 
 But he who will decide for or against the existence of a 
 Jewish nation cannot confine himself to those Jews who 
 live upon what once belonged to the Polish Republic, 
 for they only form one half of the Jews at present living 
 on the earth's surface. But even if we judge of the Jews 
 here apart from those in other parts of the world, great 
 
THE FUTURE 319 
 
 doubts arise as to whether they can be said to possess 
 the necessary national elements. Their most marked 
 characteristic is their religious conservatism, which serves 
 to strengthen separatism. One instance will be found in 
 the way in which they cling to the long beard and the 
 locks of hair (joeasy). 
 
 " As a nation, they also had their national dress. But 
 history tells us that in Poland during the Piast dynasty 
 they wore the national dress of the Poles, and that in 
 the Jagiellon dynasty, in obedience to a law passed in 
 order to separate them from the rest of the community, 
 they wore a distinctive form of dress. Therefore, 
 neither the long beards and peasy, the results of a 
 badly-understood religious law, nor yet the halat, is a 
 national characteristic. The halat is looked upon by 
 the Jew who wears it as his own, and he clings to it with 
 a tenacity which only proves his ignorance. One can 
 compare him to a slave who has grown so used to his 
 fetters and his bondage that he is ready to fight to the 
 bitter end with all who try to take away his chains, 
 svhich he thinks belong to him, and are his birthright 
 given by God. 
 
 " The most important national element is language. 
 The Jewish Separatists tell us that the Jewish masses 
 speak their own language. There is historical evidence 
 bhat the Jews settled in Germany as early as the fourth 
 jentury after Christ. They did not immigrate into 
 Poland until the tenth century, when they brought 
 svith them a corrupt Jargon, a bad form of German, 
 
320 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 revolting to all ethical sense of sound and unworthy 
 of the sons of Israel. 
 
 "And as neither the black halat, the long beard and 
 peasy, nor the Jargon belong to the national character- 
 istics of the Jews in Poland, in what do these character- 
 istics consist ? How are the nationalists going to make 
 out a case of these proofs of ignorance, superstition and 
 conservatism ? 
 
 " Besides, will it be convenient and practicable to 
 acknowledge the Jews in Poland and Russia as a 
 separate nation, or will it be good for Jewish interests ? 
 And here again we must put the question of language 
 first, as the most important national element. Doctor 
 Arthur Ruppin, a great authority on the Jewish question, 
 says that the Jargon has no literary development before 
 it. His words are — ' The Jewish Jargon does not lend 
 itself to the expression of elevated thoughts.' And 
 who of the friends of the Jewish masses would wish to 
 give them a language which cannot serve them in the 
 expression of their elevated thoughts ? I suppose only 
 those who do not consider them capable of high think- 
 ing and would like to tie them down with the fetters of 
 the jargon. But there are other considerations of the 
 value of the Jargon as a national language. In per- 
 mitting it to be and remain their national language, the 
 Jews run a risk in using a German form of speech 
 whilst living among a Sclav people. It is not surprising 
 that all that is German awakens hatred in the hearts of 
 the Poles, for a deadly struggle has been going on 
 
THE FUTURE 321 
 
 between the two for centuries, and whereas, with the 
 progress of culture, it will be easy for the Jew in Poland 
 bo pass from his Jargon to German, it will be far more 
 iifficult for him to leave it for the Polish language. 
 This is why the Poles fear that they will see German 
 theatres, newspapers and schools established in their 
 aaidst by the Jewish population which lives on their 
 territory. Even in ordinary times this would be dis- 
 tasteful to the Poles ; but in the event of war with 
 Grermany this resentment would probably be fanned to 
 I terrible extent and result in the most unfortunate 
 jonsequences for the Jewish population. History shows 
 is how much the Jews in Posen and Galicia have been 
 ittracted by German culture. Once the Jargon was 
 sanctioned as a national language any liberal-minded 
 government would establish elementary, middle and 
 ligher schools, with Jargon teachers, to say nothing 
 )f Jargon lectures in the Universities and polytechnics, 
 50 that a certain amount of distrust would grow up 
 between the two nations, the Polish and Jewish, living 
 )n the same territory, and it is doubtful if this would 
 ead to the well-being of the Jews. 
 
 "The ignorant Jewish masses do not realise this, but 
 ;he same excuse cannot be made for their leaders, who 
 ;ell them : " Why, the Jargon is yours ! You have a 
 ight to it ! Defend it with all your might ! Don't 
 et it be taken away from you, for it is your pride and 
 rour national property ! The Sionists, on the other 
 land, understand all the hideousness of the Jargon. 
 
322 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 They again want millions of young Jews and Jewesses 
 to worry their brains learning a difficult and strange 
 language, namely Hebrew. It is absurd of them to 
 wish people living in the twentieth century to adopt the 
 century's culture through the medium of the language 
 of Moses, David and Isaiah. The language of the Old 
 Testament, with little more than 4,000 words, cannot 
 possibly supply the needs of philosophy, science 
 and sociology which man has created during the 
 2,000 years and more which have elapsed since 
 Hebrew ceased to be a living language, and only a 
 living language can adapt itself to development and 
 enlargement. As far back as 500 years before the birth 
 of Christ it ceased to be their national language, and 
 was but the ancient language of the Scriptures, which 
 had been replaced in everyday life by that of the 
 Chaldeans. During the first centuries of the Christian 
 era^ tlie intellectual Jews living in Alexandria used 
 Greek, and those in Babylon the language of the 
 Syrians. From the seventh century, for nearly 500 years, 
 Arabic was spoken by the intellectual Jews, then 
 Spanish and, to a certain extent, French. Modern 
 Hebrew would therefore have to be formed for the 
 use of the Jews in the nation of which the Sionist 
 dreams. This would not be a practical way out 
 of the difficulty, and I affirm that neither the forma- 
 tion of a new Hebrew language, nor the retention 
 of the Jargon of the ignorant Jewish masses living 
 in Poland as a national language, would contribute 
 
THE FUTURE 323 
 
 e whit to their happiness, well-being or cultural 
 
 ogress. 
 
 " But even in Palestine, before they were scattered 
 '■er the earth, the Jews did not possess the national 
 ntiments as we understand them to-day, for the 
 mple reason that they did not exist at that time. This 
 ntiment only began to appear with the Renascence, 
 efore that there were peoples rather than nations, and 
 16 word ' fatherland ' had a strictly political meaning, 
 he Jews discarded their language whilst they were 
 ill on their own territory. They finished their national 
 ireer when nationalism had its chief stronghold in 
 jligion. Modern nationalism is absolutely strange to 
 lem ; it does not emanate from their traditions or 
 ■om their most brilliant era, and could not exist in 
 tie breasts of the ancient Jewish people because the 
 ery emotions which are understood under the word 
 ationalism to-day did not exist then. The tragedy of 
 be whole Jewish question in Poland lies in the fact 
 h.at the leaders of the Jewish masses, instead of teach- 
 lo- them to cast off the halat, the Jargon and ihepeasy, 
 nd to make themselves like the other people of Europe 
 /hilst retaining all that is worthy in their customs and 
 eligion, use the revival to push them further and 
 urther back into separatism. Until they are pulled 
 lUt of this pit of ignorance, assimilation, the only key 
 o the problem, cannot be effected." 
 
324 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 The Third Speaker, 
 
 a Separatist, echoes the feelings of the ghetto at the 
 present moment and says — 
 
 " The Jewish question in Poland is one of the gravest 
 which the community has to face. Every one is agreed 
 — I suppose — that in order to discuss a problem in con- 
 nection with any part of the community, it is necessary 
 to know something about that part. And yet the Poles, 
 on the whole, know little or nothing about the Jews who 
 have lived among them for so many centuries. To know 
 assimilated Jews is not to know the Jews at all, for these 
 people, who have left the race to which they once 
 belonged, have absolutely nothing in common with them. 
 Such only represent a very small proportion of the 
 Jewish people, and not the whole Jewish nation in 
 Poland. The days when units of this nation, thirsting 
 for light and knowledge, were obliged to break away 
 from their own, have gone — and for ever, for the gates 
 of the ghetto are opened and its barriers broken down. 
 A stream of light has penetrated into the Jewish hovels, 
 and is chasing away the prejudices and superstitions 
 born of the slavery of centuries. The Jewish people are 
 changed ; they are under the influence of a renascence. 
 They have awakened, and to-day we can see the first 
 eff"ects of the revival. The Jew now feels that he is 
 a man ; that he has a soul ; that he commits a sin 
 towards himself and humanity in misshaping it by try- 
 ing to make it like other people's ; that it is a lie and a 
 
THE FUTURE 325 
 
 debasing one to destroy his own individuality ; and that 
 his own ' I ' has the right to be and to assert itself. 
 There is nothing strange or unnatural about this. We 
 have other examples of a similar revival among the 
 Lithuanians and the Ruthenians. The only difference 
 is that people are not surprised at them, and think that 
 the Jews alone have no right to assert their nationality. 
 And so this revival of theirs is looked upon as something 
 abnormal, as a fad or a whim of a few fanatics, as some- 
 thing which the masses do not feel. People in Poland 
 are so fond of saying that the assimilation of the Jews 
 in the country is the only way out of the Jewish ques- 
 tion, that they forget to ask the most important factors 
 in the process, the Jewish masses, what they think about 
 it ; and, so far, they have been silent too. Now that 
 they are beginning to have experience, and to think 
 about their future at all, they plainly show that they do 
 not intend to assimilate. True, they long to develop, to 
 find light and knowledge, to live politically, to live as 
 human beings ; but they want to do it in their own way. 
 They know that they must work and suflfer before they 
 can attain their goal, but they want to work and sufier 
 as Jews and not as Poles, for they will not give up 
 that which is dearer than all to a nation, their own 
 souls. 
 
 " ' There is not a Jewish nation ! ' some people cry ; 
 ' they have not even got their own language.' ' What 
 is this poor, obscure Jewish culture ? ' we hear others 
 ask. 
 
326 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 " My answer is, that the Jews are a nation, because they 
 look upon themselves as such, and any given ethnical 
 group has the right to choose whatever nationality it 
 thinks fit. What determines nationality ? Surely, 
 amongst other things, language, customs, historical 
 traditions, culture, and psychic characteristics. The 
 hereditary language of the Jews is the so-called 'Jar- 
 gon,' spoken by some millions of people. True, this 
 ' Jargon ' is a mixture of many tongues, a sort of patch- 
 work of several elements, but that is a question for the 
 linguists ; a form of speech by which people can express 
 their thoughts has every right to be called a language. 
 The ' Jargon ' has served the Jews for centuries ; for 
 centuries it has grown side by side with them, with their 
 thoughts, hopes and longings, with their few joys and 
 many sufferings. As the masses developed, so has it 
 grown richer and developed its vocabulary. It has 
 words for legends and fables, and words for philosophy 
 and history. 
 
 " Its literature also has its history. The Yiddish 
 pamphlets you sec in the Jews' hands to-day are not 
 the first examples of written and published thought 
 which the ghetto has seen. The first 'Jargon' writings 
 appeared in Poland during the sixteenth century. They 
 were mostly of a religious character, and included frag- 
 ments of the Bible, commentaries to the Book of Job, 
 translations of the Psalms, etc. As it chiefly served the 
 lower classes of the people and women who did not know 
 any Hebrew, the character of the literature did not 
 
THE FUTURE 327 
 
 undergo any great change until the latter part of the 
 nineteenth century. The second period contains a lot of 
 novels and ' romances ' of an erotic nature, written by 
 people without much talent. The new generation of 
 women, who had thrown off the traditions of their grand- 
 mothers and did not yet understand the new needs of 
 their race, liked the scandalous novels which then 
 appeared in Yiddish. It was only towards the end of 
 the last century that the new era in ' Jargon ' literature 
 began, and writings formed on European models became 
 popular. America Was the centre of the new develop- 
 ment. Hundreds of ' Jargon ' papers, pamphlets and 
 books were published there. The Jews in Poland, 
 Russia, Lithuania, and Galicia followed the good ex- 
 ample. But it was America that gave ' Jargon ' litera- 
 ture its democratic colouring. One proof of the desire 
 the Jews in Poland feel for national culture is the ever- 
 mcreasing number of publishing firms and of the 
 ' Jargon' newspaper circulation. The Frei7id had a 
 circulation of 40,000 copies annually before it had been 
 founded two years. 
 
 " Jewish culture is poor, I admit. But if richness of 
 culture is to justify nations well endowed in forcing 
 their spirit upon poorer nations, then the Prussians are 
 justified in their policy of trying to stamp out all 
 culture but their own. And yet all honest folk condemn 
 their 'civilising' activity. 
 
 " All the Jew wants is to profit by modern progress in 
 bis own way, and not to give up his national indi- 
 
328 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 viduality in order to benefit by the progress made by 
 civilisation. He is confronted by all sorts of difficulties; 
 by unwillingness and defiance. And wby ? Is a hard and 
 fast method of training indispensable to human happi- 
 ness ? One so often hears it said that it is a sin to crush 
 individuality ; that a school ought to develop it ; that 
 its business is to make not dolls, but men and women. 
 This rule ought to apply to all people and to all nation- 
 alities, and no less to the Jews. But there are rumours 
 afloat that this Separatist theory is a dangerous one for 
 the rest of the community ; that it is hostile to it. Such 
 rumours are entirely false. They are set afloat by those 
 who, having left their own people, do not know anything 
 about and therefore misjudge them. Do you really 
 think that, because a Jew talks his own language, he 
 cannot understand that others have their own hopes 
 and aims, that he cannot understand other people's 
 ideals ? Do you really think that a Jew can become 
 a ' man ' only by casting ofi" his own ' I,' and that 
 the only culture which can raise the Jews in Poland is 
 Polish culture ? If the community at large has really 
 become so imbued with the insipid ideas of the Judo- 
 Assimilators, it is high time that such rumours, harmful 
 to true Jewish interests, were dispelled. It is time that 
 they got to know the Jewish masses better. Then they 
 would find out for themselves that Jewish separatism 
 has nothing in common with hostility. In a word, the 
 Jewish masses want to live, feel they have the right to 
 live, and are ready to fight for that right." 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS 329 
 
 CONCLtTDING REMARKS 
 
 So far, the Separatists have the last word, because 
 they are likely to hold sway in the ghettoes and Jewish 
 settlements of Poland for some time to come. Even 
 the Assimilators admit that the realisation of their 
 dreams has been indefinitely postponed by the revival 
 among the Jewish masses. Mr. Alexander Kraushar, 
 the historian, himself an Assimilator, fears that the 
 influence of the Bund has postponed the process for a 
 long time to come. 
 
 A great change is noticeable in the attitude of the 
 Jewish population during the eight years I have spent 
 in the country. To-day, one must go to the remote 
 districts, where the absence of post and railroad and a 
 long distance from the frontier make it difficult to 
 spread new ideas, in order to find the old spirit which 
 used to exist between the Polish and Jewish elements. 
 Not only are the masses averse to assimilation — as 
 indeed, they always were, but their latent, passive 
 dislike of the Gentile has, during the last half decade, 
 developed into active antagonism. They have realised 
 that their aims and aspirations are at variance with 
 those of the rest of the community, and, seeing the 
 power they possess, exercise it to the utmost in order 
 to realise their ambitions. In the large towns this 
 hostility is often evident in the shops, i. e. in the quarter 
 where the " goya" is the best customer. Here there is 
 
330 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 the twofold hatred — that of the Jew for the Gentile, 
 and of him who has little for him who has, or is supposed 
 to have, much. 
 
 The missionaries who come to Poland from other 
 countries have reason to complain of a similar change in 
 the attitude of the people they attempt to preach to, 
 and the number of their converts has fallen off con- 
 siderably during the past few years. One cannot help 
 wondering whether the good people in Western Europe 
 know why the Polish Jew, for whose conversion they 
 often give large sums of money, changes his faith. 
 There are several reasons why he should do so. He is 
 released from paying the communal tax, free to cross 
 and recross the frontier even after a prolonged stay 
 abroad, and has got rid of the word " Jew " from his 
 passport. In a man of education, he is no longer under 
 the restrictions which prevented him from becoming 
 a member of the legal profession — for till recently only 
 a certain percentage of barristers could be Jews. But 
 the fact that some Jewish merchant comes to the 
 missionary to be baptized does not make him change 
 his life or begin to assimilate with the rest of the com- 
 munity. To aU intents and purposes he is the same 
 man as he was before, with the trivial difference that 
 he keeps his shop open on Saturday and shuts it on 
 Sunday. Can a leopard change his skin ? He had 
 ceased to attend the synagogue long ago, for really 
 devout Jews do not fall into the hands of the mission- 
 aries. True, they will spend hours in arguing a point 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS 331 
 
 with them, and enjoy the exercise immensely ; but only 
 a man who is very sure of his faith will venture to do 
 that. It is a common thing to hear a Jew say that he 
 is not strong enough to argue with the adversary ; so 
 he keeps away, for fear the missionary should overpower 
 him with arguments. No, the religious man does not 
 go to be baptized, as a rule. The neophyte is a practical 
 person. He changes his faith either because he wants 
 to free himself of the restrictions which the Russian 
 lays upon his co-religionists, or else to escape the duties 
 of his Commune. But the revival of the ghetto has 
 made itself felt among his class also. Not only is public 
 opinion stronger against him than a few years ago, when 
 all but the most conservative devotees understood why 
 he escaped the disabilities and restrictions whilst remain- 
 ing at heart a Jew ; but the day of his civil deliverance 
 is at hand, and he knows it. The part which his co- 
 religionists are playing in the revolution assures him 
 that he need no longer be baptized in order to get what 
 he wants. Sometimes he is ready to meet his missionary 
 with defiance ; for he always resented his intrusion, and 
 does not hesitate to show it now that he can make no 
 further use of him. 
 
 As to the well-to-do Jewish neophytes, they prefer to 
 enter the Roman Catholic Church. It is a step nearer 
 the Polish community, and, as he or she is generally 
 baptized in order to be able to marry a Pole, the matter 
 is considerably simplified. It is not a rare thing to 
 find Jewish families in which one or two daughters are 
 
332 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 Roman Catholics and married to Poles, whilst the parents 
 still retain their old religion, are buried in the Jewish 
 cemetery when they die, and leave money for memorial 
 services to be held in the synagogue. The other 
 daughters remain Jewish if they marry or intend to 
 marry Jews, or become Protestants if they marry 
 Englishmen or Germans. The sons, on the other hand, 
 will not be in a hurry to change their religion unless 
 the exigencies of their business require it, for unless 
 they are very rich they will find it hard to get Polish 
 wives. The Poles are usually averse to allying them- 
 selves by marriage with converted Jews or those of 
 Jewish extraction ; and though a bankrupt noble may do 
 so under the pressure of debt, his sister will often prefer 
 to remain single or poor rather than adopt a Jewish 
 name. 
 
 But a change has come over the attitude of such 
 Jews also in the matter of conversion, and in their 
 relations with the Polish community. Not only have 
 many of them withdrawn their names from charitable 
 organisations which benefit the Polish poor, and ceased 
 to take an active part in the movements started and 
 supported by the Poles, but they do not get baptized 
 into the Christian religion. There are to-day many rich 
 Polish Jews who will give their children the advantages 
 of a liberal European education, and forbid them to 
 marry Poles and converted Jews. And often, though 
 the members of the family can speak Polish, they use 
 one of the several other languages they know at home. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS ^^^ 
 
 Many Poles say that they do this because their accent — 
 a relic of the ghetto and the Jargon — is not so noticeable 
 when they speak French or English as in Polish. And 
 yet there are still many Jewish houses where all the 
 holidays of the Polish community are observed, where 
 there is a tree at Christmas time and a feast with the 
 traditional ham, eggs and sucking-pig at Easter (not, of 
 course, consecrated by the priest), but where the members 
 of the household are not baptized, although priests of 
 the Roman Church visit them and are their confidential 
 friends, to be appealed to in times of difficulty and 
 trouble. 
 
 So neither the man who lives in the ghetto and wears 
 a halat, nor his brother who has bought a foreign title, 
 is anxious to be baptized. Is it not because they know 
 the day of their civil emancipation is at hand, because 
 they know that before long they will be able to send 
 their sons into the army, navy and civil service at their 
 will, and be free to live all over the Russian Empire ? 
 Is it not because they know that their power, even now 
 indisputable, will soon be acknowledged — that what 
 has been their back-door influence will soon become that 
 of the first places in the administration of the Empire ? 
 There is little doubt that, once their civil disabilities are 
 removed, they come to the front in every walk of life ; 
 for even whilst hampered by disabilities they have a 
 power no other race in the world possesses, a power the 
 Jewish banker exercises on behalf of his poorest brother, 
 a power nobody can overcome, for it is the power of 
 
334 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 gold. Count Witte is reported to have told a Jewish 
 deputation that whereas Germany is in the hands of the 
 Jews, and the English monarchy supported by Jewish 
 gold, the same thing would not happen in Eussia, because 
 the Tsar was determined to be the ruler of his own 
 Empire. It does not matter whether the story is true 
 or not ; what does matter is that it echoes the spirit of 
 Russian bureaucracy which would crush the progress of 
 Jewish emancipation for very fear of the consequences 
 to its own power. It is this fear which makes them 
 oppose the efforts of those Kahals which strive to educate 
 Jewish youths by establishing schools and fitting them 
 to compete with their Russian and Polish rivals. An 
 official in Warsaw also echoed the opinion of his class 
 when he said : " The Government will not give the 
 Jews civil rights if they can help it, because they are 
 afraid. The Jews are much cleverer than we. They 
 are everywhere, and doing everything. The Cadet Club 
 in Petersburg is full of them ; they are the life and soul 
 of the meetings. The Russian members are indifi"erent 
 or occupied elsewhere. When the Jews do get their 
 disabilities removed — and the day will come sooner or 
 later — they will rule the Empire officially. De facto, 
 they are the masters at the present moment. The young 
 men of the civil service who ought to be energetic and 
 save the situation, are letting things slip through their 
 fingers. All they think about is amusement and getting 
 their salaries raised. They come to work late and go 
 away early. When the Jew efiects an entrance in their 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS 335 
 
 midst, he will sweep them off the board like so many 
 pieces of paper." 
 
 So much for local opinion. Meanwhile, the struggle 
 which is convulsing the Empire sends thousands of Jews 
 from the country. According to the latest statistics, 
 more than 250,000 Jewish emigrants left Russia in 1905, 
 as against 100,000 for the preceding year. Most of 
 them were bound for England and the United States, 
 and it is computed that 80% came from Poland and 
 Lithuania. At one time only the economic failures and 
 incapables, the men who were too ignorant or unhealthy 
 to find work at home, used to emigrate. Now the 
 political waste-products of the revolution have been 
 added to them. It is with both these classes of 
 immigrant, with the sweated tailor and boot-maker 
 as well as the "politician" and the bomb maker, that 
 the English-speaking peoples have to deal. 
 
 However hospitable a host is, however addicted to 
 keeping open house, he generally demands some 
 particulars of the guests he receives under his roof. He 
 likes to know a little of their characters, of their past 
 lives and environments, of their aims and ambitions, 
 for if he does not take precautions and secure their 
 moral passport, he is in danger of discovering^ 
 when it is too late, that he is entertaining a thief 
 unawares who has robbed him of his household gods, 
 his domestic happiness — sometimes of his honour. So 
 it is with nations. They owe themselves the duty 
 of enquiring into the character aud capabilities of the 
 
336 THE POLISH JEW 
 
 strangers who settle among them, their reasons for 
 immigrating, their civil and economic worth. For the 
 same reasons, the English-speaking peoples should know 
 something of those Polish Jews, who, from time to time, 
 gather on their squares and embankments, bearing 
 banners with Yiddish inscriptions, roaring hoarsely in a 
 strange language, moving away from the police as from 
 their natural enemies, and losing no opportunity of 
 raising a shout against them. 
 
 They have the right to know the general tendency of 
 the Jargon papers which are distributed among the 
 crowds on these occasions. More than this, they have 
 the right to know why the people who compose these 
 crowds left the land of their birth, whether they are 
 likely to conform to the laws which bind the members 
 of the community together, to raise or lower the moral 
 standard of living in the land of their adoption, and to 
 contribute, by their industry and their attainments, to 
 the well-being of those classes with which they will be 
 brought in contact. 
 
 It has been the aim of the preceding pages to answer, 
 at least in part, these questions. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Richard Clay <k Sons^ Limited, London and Bungay. 
 
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