Читать книгу A Jewish Journey - Sheldon Cohen - Страница 22
CHAPTER 6 Six months passed before Shepsel heard anything. When he did, he learned that the special schools and the candle tax would soon start. Kolakoff gave him this news. “Here’s the decree, Rabbi. Give your people the wonderful news. They should be excited.” “Yes, I’ll read this and we’ll talk about it. Oh, by the way, is Mr. Lilienthal going to be the director of the program?”
Оглавление“The decree is not signed by Mr. Lilienthal. As far as I know, he decided to go back to his home country, Germany. I don’t know why, but good riddance.”
Rabbi Shepsel knew why.
Once Lilienthal had learned of a secret codicil accompanying the decree, which stated that the purpose of the schools was to reeducate the Jews and bring them closer to Christianity, he left the country, fled to Germany and immigrated to the United States where he became a prominent rabbi in Cincinnati and a leader in promoting Reform Judaism. The fact that Rabbi Shepsel Tepperovitch was right, and the fact that other restrictive anti-Jewish laws started about the same time the school decree went into effect, prompted Lilienthal’s decision. Nicholas I, Czar of Russia, would never let up on the Jews.
Nicholas I firmly believed in autocracy, and he was the ultimate autocrat. His policies were reactionary and many of his decisions based upon two prejudices engendered in his formative years. These were hatred of Poles and hatred of Jews.
Over time, the schools for the Jews were established. Maskilim attended them for the most part. The great majority of Jews did not send their children, feeling that the danger of losing them as Jews was considerable. Gradual divisions developed within the Jewish population of Russia, which had the effect of weakening them as a cohesive force. This, of course, is what Czar Nicholas I hoped to accomplish. Even though the masses of Jews remained oppressed, the Maskilim hoped to receive the support of the government in implementing the changes to their lives that would bring them into the Russian mainstream and remove their status as second-class citizens.
The Maskilim also felt it was their duty to influence change in governmental policy to uplift their Jewish brethren and bring them into the modern era. One of the first things the Maskilim suggested was a change in the dress code and the appearance of the ultra-orthodox, the Hasidim. The government accepted this proposal and it was Kolakoff who informed the rabbi.
Kolakoff said. “Rabbi, here’s a decree from the government. You better advise some of your people that it’ll be enforced.”
