The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Jacob S. Raisin

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THE HASKALAH MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA

by

JACOB S. RAISIN, PH.D., D.D.

Author of _Sect, Creed and Custom in Judaism_, etc.

Philadelphia
The Jewish Publication Society of America

1913

_And the "Maskilim" shall shine
As the brightness of the firmament ...
Many shall run to and fro,
And knowledge shall be increased_.
--Dan. xii. 3-4

[Illustration: TOBIAS COHN
1652-1759
FROM THE FRONTISPIECE OF HIS MA'ASEH TOBIAH]

TO AARON S. RAISIN

Your name, dear father, will not be found in the following pages, for,
like "the waters of the Siloam that run softly," you ever preferred to
pursue your useful course in unassuming silence. Yet, as it is your
life, devoted entirely to meditating, learning, and teaching, that
inspired me in my effort, I dedicate this book to you; and I am happy to
know that I thus not only dedicate it to one of the noblest of Maskilim,
but at the same time offer you some slight token of the esteem and
affection felt for you by

Your Son,

JACOB S. RAISIN

CONTENTS

PREFACE 11

CHAPTER I. THE PRE-HASKALAH PERIOD 17

CHAPTER II. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 53

CHAPTER III. THE DAWN OF HASKALAH 110

CHAPTER IV. CONFLICTS AND CONQUESTS 162

CHAPTER V. RUSSIFICATION, REFORMATION, AND ASSIMILATION 222

CHAPTER VI. THE AWAKENING 268

NOTES 305

BIBLIOGRAPHY 331

INDEX 339

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TOBIAS COHN (1652-1759) Frontispiece

ISAAC BAeR LEVINSOHN (1788-1860) facing page 64

MAX LILIENTHAL (1815-1882) " " 120

ALEXANDER ZEDERBAUM (1816-1893) " " 175

PEREZ BEN MOSHEH SMOLENSKIN (1842-1885) " " 220

MOSES LOeB LILIENBLUM (1843-1910) " " 280

PREFACE

To the lover of mankind the history of the Russo-Jewish renaissance is
an encouraging and inspiring phenomenon. Seldom has a people made such
rapid strides forward as the Russian Jews. From the melancholy
regularity that marked their existence a little more than two
generations ago, from the darkness of the Middle Ages in which they were
steeped until the time of Alexander II, they emerged suddenly into the
life and light of the West, and some of the most intrepid devotees of
latter-day culture, both in Europe and in America, have come from among
them. Destitute of everything that makes for enlightenment, and under
the dominion of a Government which sought to extinguish the few
rushlights that scattered the shadows around them, they nevertheless
snatched victory from defeat, sloughed off medieval superstition, and,
disregarding the Dejanira shirt of modern disabilities, compelled their
countrymen to admit more than once that

Tho' I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am!

Similar movements were started in Germany during the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and in Austria, notably Galicia, at the beginning of
the nineteenth, but none stirred the mind of the Jews to the same degree
as the Haskalah movement in Russia during the last fifty years. In the
former, the removal of restrictions soon rendered attempts toward
self-emancipation unnecessary on the part of Jews, and the few Maskilim
among them, satisfied with the present, devoted themselves to
investigating and elucidating the past of their people's history. In
Russia the past was all but forgotten on account of the immediate duties
of the present. The energy and acquisitiveness that made the Jews of
happier and more prosperous lands prominent in every sphere of practical
life, were directed toward the realm of thought, and the merciless
severity with which the Government excluded them from the enjoyment of
things material only increased their ardor for things spiritual and
intellectual.

In its wide sense Haskalah denotes enlightenment. Those who strove to
enlighten their benighted coreligionists or disseminate European culture
among them, were called Maskilim. A careful perusal of this work will
reveal the exact ideals these terms embody. For Haskalah was not only
progressive, it was also aggressive, militant, sometimes destructive.
From the days of Mordecai Guenzburg to the time of Asher Ginzberg (Ahad
Ha-'Am), it changed its tendencies and motives more than once.
Levinsohn, "the father of the Maskilim," was satisfied with removing the
ban from secular learning; Gordon wished to see his brethren "Jews at
home and men abroad"; Smolenskin dreamed of the rehabilitation of Jews
in Palestine; and Ahad Ha-'Am hopes for the spiritual regeneration of
his beloved people. Others advocated the levelling of all distinctions
between Jews and Gentiles, or the upliftment of mankind in general and
Russia in particular. To each of them Haskalah implied different ideals,
and through each it promulgated diverse doctrines. To trace these
varying phases from an indistinct glimmering in the eighteenth century
to the glorious effulgence of the beginning of the twentieth, is the
main object of this book.

In pursuance of my end, I have paid particular attention to the causes
that retarded or accelerated Russo-Jewish cultural advance. As these
causes originate in the social, economic, and political status of the
Russian Jew, I frequently portray political events as well as the state
of knowledge, belief, art, and morals of the periods under
consideration. For this reason also I have marked the boundaries of the
Haskalah epochs in correspondence to the dates of the reigns of the
several czars, though the correspondence is not always exact.

Essays have been published, on some of the topics treated in these
pages, by writers in different languages: in Russian, by Bramson,
Klausner, and Morgulis; in Hebrew, by Izgur, Katz, and Klausner; in
German, by Maimon, Lilienthal, Wengeroff, and Weissberg; in English, by
Lilienthal and Wiener; and in French, by Slouschz. The subject as a
whole, however, has not been treated. Should this work stimulate further
research, I shall feel amply rewarded. Without prejudice and without
partiality, by an honest presentation of facts drawn from what I regard
as reliable sources, I have tried to unfold the story of the struggle of
five millions of human beings for right living and rational thinking, in
the hope of throwing light on the ideals and aspirations and the real
character of the largely prejudged and misunderstood Russian Jew.

In conclusion, I wish to express my gratitude and indebtedness to those
who encouraged me to proceed with my work after some specimens of it had
been published in several Jewish periodicals, especially to Doctor
Solomon Schechter, Rabbi Max Heller, and Mr. A.S. Freidus, for their
courtesy and assistance while the work was being written.

JACOB S. RAISIN.

E. Las Vegas, N. Mex.,

Thanksgiving Day, 1909.

CHAPTER I

THE PRE-HASKALAH PERIOD

?-1648

"There is but one key to the present," says Max Mueller, "and that is the
past." To understand fully the growth and historical development of a
people's mind, one must be familiar with the conditions that have shaped
its present form. It would seem necessary, therefore, to introduce a
description of the Haskalah movement with a rapid survey of the history
of the Russo-Polish Jews from the time of their emergence from obscurity
up to the middle of the seventeenth century.

Among those who laid the foundations for the study of this almost
unexplored department of Jewish history, the settlement of Jews in
Russia and their vicissitudes during the dark ages, the most prominent
are perhaps Isaac Baer Levinsohn, Abraham Harkavy, and Simon Dubnow.
There is much to be said of each of these as writers, scholars, and men.
Here they concern us as Russo-Jewish historians. What Linnaeus, Agassiz,
and Cuvier did in the field of natural philosophy, they accomplished in
their chosen province of Jewish history.[1] Levinsohn was the first to
express the opinion that the Russian Jews hailed, not from Germany, as
is commonly supposed, but from the banks of the Volga. This hypothesis,
corroborated by tradition, Harkavy established as a fact. Originally the
vernacular of the Jews of Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev was Russian and
Polish, or, rather, the two being closely allied, Palaeo-Slavonic. The
havoc wrought by the Crusades in the Jewish communities of Western
Europe caused a constant stream of German-Jewish immigrants to pour,
since 1090, into the comparatively free countries of the Slavonians.
Russo-Poland became the America of the Old World. The Jewish settlers
from abroad soon outnumbered the native Jews, and they spread a new
language and new customs wherever they established themselves.[2]

Whether the Jews of Russia were originally pagans from the shores of the
Black and Caspian Seas, converted to Judaism under the Khazars during
the eighth century, or Palestinian exiles subjugated by their Slavonian
conquerors and assimilated with them, it is indisputable that they
inhabited what we know to-day as Russia long before the Varangian prince
Rurik came, at the invitation of Scythian and Sarmatian savages, to lay
the foundation of the Muscovite empire. In Feodosia there is a synagogue
at least a thousand years old. The Greek inscription on a marble slab,
dating back to 80-81 B.C.E., preserved in the Imperial Hermitage in St.
Petersburg, makes it certain that they flourished in the Crimea before
the destruction of the Temple. In a communication to the Russian
Geographical Society, M. Pogodin makes the statement, that there still
exist a synagogue and a cemetery in the Crimea that belong to the
pre-Christian era. Some of the tombstones, bearing Jewish names, and
decorated with the seven-branched Menorah, date back to 157 B.C.E.;
while Chufut-Kale, also known as the Rock of the Jews (Sela'
ha-Yehudim), from the fortress supposed to have been built there by the
Jews, would prove Jewish settlements to have been made there during the
Babylonian or Persian captivity.[3]

Though the same antiquity cannot be established for other Jewish
settlements, we know that Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities," had many
Jews long before the eighth century, who thus antedated the Russians as
citizens. According to Joseph Hakohen they came there from Persia in
690, according to Malishevsky in 776. It is certain that their influence
was felt as early as the latter part of the tenth century. The Russian
Chronicles ascribed to Nestor relate that they endeavored, in 986, to
induce Grand Duke Vladimir to accept their religion. They did not
succeed as they had succeeded two centuries before with the khan of the
Khazars.[4] Yet the grand duke, who had the greatest influence in
introducing and spreading Greek Catholicism, and who is now worshipped
as a saint, was always favorably disposed toward them.

There were other places that were inhabited early by Jews. There are
traditions to the effect that Jews lived in Poland as early as the ninth
century, and under the Boreslavs (992-1278) they are said to have
enjoyed considerable privileges, carried on a lively trade, and spread
as far as Kiev. Chernigov in Little Russia (the Ukraine), Baku in South
Russia (Transcaucasia), Kalisz and Warsaw, Brest and Grodno, in West
Russia (Russian Poland), all possess Jewish communities of considerable
antiquity. In the townlet Eishishki, near Vilna, a tombstone set in 1171
was still in existence at the end of the last century, and Khelm,
Government Kovno, has a synagogue to which tradition ascribes an age of
eight hundred years.[5]

The Jewish population in all these communities was prosperous and
respected. Jews were in favor with the Government, enjoyed equal rights
with their Gentile neighbors, and were especially prominent as traders
and farmers of taxes. Their monoxyla, or one-oared canoes, loaded with
silks, furs, and precious metals, issued from the Borysthanes, traversed
the Baltic and the Euxine, the Oder and the Bosphorus, the Danube and
the Black Sea, and carried on the commerce between the Turks and the
Slavonians. They were granted the honorable and lucrative privilege of
directing and controlling the mints, and that of putting Hebrew as well
as Slavonic inscriptions on their coins.[6] In the Lithuanian Magna
Charta, granted by Vitold in 1388, the Jews of Brest were given many
rights, and about a year later those of Grodno were permitted to engage
in all pursuits and occupations, and exempted from paying taxes on
synagogues and cemeteries. They possessed full jurisdiction in their own
affairs. Some were raised to the nobility, notably the Josephovich
brothers, Abraham and Michael. Under King Alexander Jagellon, Abraham
was assessor of Kovno, alderman of Smolensk, and prefect of Minsk; he
was called "sir" (jastrzhembets), was presented with the estates of
Voidung, Grinkov, and Troki (1509), and appointed Secretary of the
Treasury in Lithuania (1510). The other brother, Michael, was made
"fiscal agent to the king." In the eighteenth century, Andrey
Abramovich, of the same family but not of the Jewish faith, was senator
and castellan of Brest-Litovsk.[7] They were not unique exceptions.
Abraham Shmoilovich of Turisk is spoken of as "honorable sir" in leases
of large estates. Affras Rachmailovich and Judah Bogdanovich figure
among the merchant princes of Livonia and Lithuania; and Francisco Molo,
who settled later in Amsterdam, was financial agent of John III of
Poland in 1679. The influence of the last-named was so great with the
Dutch States-General that the Treaty of Ryswick was concluded with Louis
XIV, in 1697, through his mediation.[8]

That Russo-Poland should have elected a Jewish king on two occasions, a
certain Abraham Prochovnik in 842 and the famous Saul Wahl[9] in the
sixteenth century, sounds legendary; but that there was a Jewish queen,
called Esterka, is probable, and that some Jews attained to political
eminence is beyond reasonable doubt.[10] Records have been discovered
concerning two envoys, Saul and Joseph, who served the Slavonic czar
about 960, and an interesting story is told of two Jewish soldiers,
Ephraim Moisievich and Anbal the Jassin, who won the confidence of
Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Kiev, and afterwards became leaders in a
conspiracy against him (1174).[11] Henry, Duke of Anjou, the successor
of Sigismud August on the throne of Poland and Lithuania, owed his
election mainly to the efforts of Solomon Ashkenazi. Ivan Vassilyevich,
too, had many and important relations with Jews, and his favorable
attitude towards them is amply proved by the fact that his family
physician was the Jew Leo (1490). Throughout his reign he maintained an
uninterrupted friendship with Chozi Kokos, a Jew of the Crimea, and he
did not hesitate to offer hospitality and protection to Zacharias de
Guizolfi, though the latter was not in a position to reciprocate such
favors.[12]

In addition there are less prominent individuals who received honors at
the hands of their non-Jewish countrymen. Meir Ashkenazi of Kaffa, in
the Crimea, who was slain by pirates on a trip from "Gava to Dakhel,"
was envoy of the khan of the Tatars to the king of Poland in the
sixteenth century. Mention is made of "Jewish Cossacks," who
distinguished themselves on the field of battle, and were elevated to
the rank of major and colonel.[13] While the common opinion regarding
Jews expressed itself in merry England in such ballads as "The Jewish
Dochter," and "Gernutus, the Jew of Venice," many a Little Russian song
had the bravery of a Jewish soldier as its burden. In everything save
religion the Jews were hardly distinguishable from their neighbors.

There are--writes Cardinal Commendoni, an eye-witness--a great
many Jews in these provinces, including Lithuania, who are not,
as in other places, regarded with disrespect. They do not
maintain themselves miserably by base profits; they are landed
proprietors, are engaged in business, and even devote themselves
to the study of literature and, above all, to medicine and
astronomy; they hold almost everywhere the commission of levying
customs duties, are classed among the most honest people, wear
no outward mark to distinguish them from the Christians, and are
permitted to carry swords and walk about with their arms. In a
word they have equal rights with the other citizens.

A similar statement is made by Joseph Delmedigo, who spent many years in
Livonia and Lithuania as physician to Prince Radziwill.[14]

In his inimitable manner Gibbon describes the fierce struggle the Greek
Catholic Church had to wage before she obtained a foothold in Russia,
but he neglects to mention the fact that Judaism no less than paganism
was among her formidable opponents. The contest lasted several
centuries, and in many places it is undecided to this day.[15] The
Khazars, who had become proselytes in the eighth century, were
constantly encroaching upon Russian Christianity. Buoyant as both were
with the vigor of youth, missionary zeal was at its height among the two
contending religions. Each made war upon the other. We read that Photius
of Constantinople sent a message of thanks to Archbishop Anthony of
Kertch (858-859) for his efforts to convert the Jews; that the first
Bishop of the Established Church (1035) was "Lukas, the little Jew"
(Luka Zhidyata), who was appointed to his office by Yaroslav; and that
St. Feodosi Pechersky was fond of conversing with learned Jews on
matters of theology.[16] On the other hand, the efforts of the Jews were
not without success. The baptism of the pious Olga marks an era in
Russian Christianity, the beginning of the "Judaizing heresy," which
centuries of persecution only strengthened. In 1425, Zacharias of Kiev,
who is reputed to have "studied astrology, necromancy, and various other
magic arts," converted the priest Dionis, the Archbishop Aleksey, and,
through the latter, many more clergymen of Novgorod, Moscow, and Pskov.
Aleksey became a devout Jew. He called himself Abraham and his wife
Sarah. Yet, strange to say, he retained the favor of the Grand Duke Ivan
Vassilyevich, even after the latter's daughter-in-law, Princess Helena,
his secretary Theodore Kuritzin, the Archimandrite Sosima, the monk
Zacharias, and other persons of note had entered the fold of Judaism
through his influence.

The "heresy" spread over many parts of the empire, and the number of its
adherents constantly grew. Archbishop Nikk complains that in the very
monastery of Moscow there were presumably converted Jews, "who had again
begun to practice their old Jewish religion and demoralize the young
monks." In Poland, too, proselytism was of frequent occurrence,
especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The religious
tolerance of Casimir IV (1434-1502) and his immediate successors, and
the new doctrines preached by Huss and Luther, which permeated the upper
classes of society, rendered the Poles more liberal on the one hand, and
on the other the Jews more assertive. We hear of a certain nobleman,
George Morschtyn, who married a Jewess, Magdalen, and had his daughter
raised in the religion of her mother. In fact, at a time when Jews in
Spain assumed the mask of Christianity to escape persecution, Russian
and Polish Christians by birth could choose, with little fear of danger,
to lead the Jewish life. It was not till about the eighteenth century
that the Government began to resort to the usual methods of eradicating
heresy. Katharina Weigel, a lady famous for her beauty, who embraced
Judaism, was decapitated in Cracow at the instigation of Bishop Peter
Gamrat. On the deposition of his wife, Captain Vosnitzin of the Polish
navy was put to death by auto-da-fe (July 15, 1738). The eminent "Ger
Zedek," Count Valentine Pototzki, less fortunate than his comrade and
fellow-convert Zaremba, was burnt at the stake in Vilna (May 24, 1749),
and his teacher in the Jewish doctrines, Menahem Mann, was tortured and
executed a few months later, at the age of seventy. But these measures
proved of little avail. According to Martin Bielski, the noted
historian, Jews saved their proselytes from the impending doom by
transporting them to Turkey. Many of them sought refuge in Amsterdam.
For those who remained behind their new coreligionists provided through
collections made for that purpose in Russia and in Germany. To this day
these Russian and Polish proselytes adhere steadfastly to their faith,
and whether they migrate to America or Palestine to escape the
persecution of their countrymen, they seldom, if ever, indulge in the
latitudinarianism into which many of longer Jewish lineage fall so
readily when removed from old moorings.[17]

That the Russian Jews of the day were not altogether unenlightened, that
they not only practiced the Law devoutly, but also studied it
diligently, and cultivated the learning of the time as well, we may
safely infer from researches recently made. Cyril, or Constantine, "the
philosopher," the apostle to the Slavonians, acquired a knowledge of
Hebrew while at Kherson, and was probably aided by Jews in his
translation of the Bible into Slavonic. Manuscripts of Russo-Jewish
commentaries to the Scriptures, written as early as 1094 and 1124, are
still preserved in the Vatican and Bodleian libraries, and copyists were
doing fairly good work at Azov in 1274.

Jewish scholars frequented celebrated seats of learning in foreign
lands. Before the end of the twelfth century traces of them are to be
found in France, Italy, and Spain. That in the eleventh century Judah
Halevi of Toledo and Nathan of Rome should have been familiar with
Russian words cannot but be attributed to their contact with Russian
Jews. However, in the case of these two scholars, it may possibly be
ascribed to their great erudition or extensive travels. But the many
Slavonic expressions occurring in the commentaries of Rashi (1040-1105),
and employed by Joseph Caro (ab. 1140), Benjamin of Tudela (ab. 1160),
and Isaac of Vienna (ab. 1250), lend color to Harkavy's contention, that
Russian was once the vernacular of the Russian Jews, and they also argue
in favor of our contention, that these natives of the "land of
Canaan"--as the country of the Slavs was then called in Hebrew--came
into personal touch with the "lights and leaders" of other Jewish
communities. Indeed, Rabbi Moses of Kiev is mentioned as one of the
pupils of Jacob Tam, the Tosafist of France (d. 1170), and Asheri, or
Rosh, of Spain is reported to have had among his pupils Rabbi Asher and
Master (Bahur) Jonathan from Russia. From these peripatetic scholars
perhaps came the martyrs of 1270, referred to in the _Memorbuch_ of
Mayence. It was Rabbi Moses who, while still in Russia, corresponded
with Samuel ben Ali, head of the Babylonian Academy, and called the
attention of Western scholars to certain Gaonic decisions. Another
rabbi, Isaac, or Itshke, of Chernigov, was probably the first Talmudist
in England, and his decisions were regarded as authoritative on certain
occasions. These and others like them wrote super-commentaries on the
commentaries of Rashi and Ibn Ezra, the most popular and profound
scholars medieval Jewry produced, and made copies of the works of other
authors.[18]

Soon the Russo-Polish Jews established at home what they had been
compelled to seek abroad. Hearing of the advantages offered in the great
North-East, German Jews flocked thither in such numbers as to dominate
and absorb the original Russians and Poles. A new element asserted
itself. Names like Ashkenazi, Heilperin, Hurwitz, Landau, Luria,
Margolis, Schapiro, Weil, Zarfati, etc., variously spelled, took the
place, through intermarriage and by adoption, of the ancient Slavonic
nomenclature. The language, manners, modes of thought, and, to a certain
extent, even the physiognomy of the earlier settlers, underwent a more
or less radical change. In some provinces the conflict lasted longer
than in others. To this day not a few Russian Jews would seem to be of
Slavonic rather than Semitic extraction. As late as the sixteenth
century there was still a demand in certain places for a Russian
translation of the Hebrew Book of Common Prayer, and in 1635 Rabbi Meir
Ashkenazi, who came from Frankfort-on-the-Main to study in Lublin, and
was retained as rabbi in Mohilev-on-the-Dnieper, had cause to exclaim,
"Would to God that our coreligionists all spoke the same
language--German."[19] Even Maimon, in the latter half of the eighteenth
century, mentions one, by no means an exception, who did not "understand
the Jewish language, and made use, therefore, of the Russian."[20] But
by the middle of the seventeenth century the amalgamation was almost
complete. It resulted in a product entirely new. As the invasion of
England by the Normans produced the Anglo-Saxon, so the inundation of
Russia by the Germans produced the Slav-Teuton. This is the clue to the
study of the Haskalah, as will appear from what follows.

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