Trudy Gold
The Jews and Their First Encounters with the Tsars Catherine and Alexander

Trudy Gold | The Jews and Their First Encounters with the Tsars Catherine and Alexander | 06.07.22

- Right, well, good afternoon everybody, and it’s great to be back. And can we see the first slide please, Judi? Yeah. Now, William and I are kind of teaching in tandem at the moment. Yesterday, he gave a masterful performance on the three female tsars. And today, what I’m looking at is what happened to the Jews under the reign of the tsars. Now, it’s important that we look at these maps because what I was looking at with you, for the past few weeks has, of course, have been the story of the Jews in Poland, in the Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian Commonwealth. And that of course, becomes the home of three quarters of world Jewry. Now, what happens, beginning in 1772, concluding in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth ceases to exist as a sovereign state and it doesn’t reemerge on the world map until after the First World War, when you have an independent Poland, an independent Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. And of course, I’m taking into account that I would imagine, about three quarters of you listening, be you in America, England, Israel, Canada, South Africa, you’re going to trace to your descent.

But from now on, the bulk of world Jewry are going to be living under the Tsarist Empire until it finally comes to an end with the revolutions of 1917. And we’re going to take Russia right up to the present day. So here, you look at the three partitions. The first partition is completed in 1862. And it’s important to state that by the early 18th century, Poland had declined from a major power into really, a Russian satellite state. I mentioned to you last time we looked at Poland, that the Polish Sejm, the Parliament, would choose their own kings. And by this time, Russian interference was deciding who would be king of Poland. In fact, in 1764, Catherine chose Stanislaw Poniatowski, who was one of her former lovers; I think you got quite a lot of information about her lovers yesterday, from William, and he becomes king of Poland. Now, as a response to that, the nobles rise up against it and of course they are defeated. They were aided, by the way, by Catholic France and Catholic Russia and Catholic Austria. It’s important to remember, look at the country’s surrounding Poland, you’ve got Russia to the east, but you’ve got Galicia, which is the Habsburg Empire. It’s Catholic Habsburg, Catholic France, and they go to war to help the Catholic Polish neighbours, nobles, against whom the Russian Orthodox… There was huge hostility between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, but they are defeated. And after the defeat you have the first partition of Poland.

Then there is a war between Poland and Russia, and that leads to the second partition. You can all see that, I hope. And it culminates in the complete swallowing up of the Polish Commonwealth after the Napoleonic Wars. And of course, what also happens is the Habsburgs gain Galacia, which has a huge Jewish population, and land is also gained by East Prussia. But Warsaw, which had formerly been part of East Prussia, now becomes part of the Russian Empire and it forms an autonomous entity within the empire. It’s known as Congress Poland, but it is under the control of the Russians. So important to remember now, so Poland no longer exists, this is to the west of Russia. And now the Russian Empire is going to be the proud possessor of about 1.2 million Jews. It’s difficult to calculate exact numbers because, of course, religious Jews are superstitious about numbers, but it is estimated about 1.2 million Jews are living in the Russian Empire. About 100,000 of them are going to be under the Habsburgs in Galicia, and about 70,000 in East Prussia, under the Germans. And of course, the conditions under which each group are going to live is going to be very, very different. And can we see the next map? Thank you.

And beginning with Catherine the Great, it’s interesting because William talked about her as a great tsarina. And yes, in many ways she was. But remember, when you look at Jewish history, you look at inside out history, she might have been great in some ways, but as far as the Jews are concerned, it’s a very ambiguous picture. And this is the area, beginning in 1791, when Catherine confines the Jews to this area, they’re not allowed to enter Russia proper. She does allow extension down to the Black Sea and, of course, to Odessa, and I’ll talk about that in a minute, but here you see the areas of Jewish settlement, and I have a hunch that many of you will be able to trace your families to these various, if you look at the various divisions within the Pale of Settlement, pale just means paling, stockading. Now, she did allow Jews all sorts of tax concessions if they would move down to the province of Kherson to settle that new land recently conquered from the Turks. And, of course, that meant the big city of Odessa. Jews were not allowed into… In return for that, they’re not allowed to enter Russia proper.

Now, obviously, there had been Crypto-Jews during the reign of Peter the Great there had been Jewish traders passing through, but perhaps it’s all summed up by the Empress Elizabeth, who you heard about yesterday, who William talked about as an incredibly cruel empress. She was also deeply religious within the confines of the Russian Orthodox Church. And her great statement on the Jews was, “I want no prophet from the killers of Christ.” So what kind of empire did the Jews find themselves part of? Well, to start with, it is the largest empire on earth. It covers about a sixth of the land’s surface of the globe. It stretches all the way out to Manchuria. And remember, this is the empire at its height. The Pale of Settlement was finally codified by her great grandson, Nicholas I, but more about that later on. Now Jews made up about 12% of the population within the Pale. And of course, because you need a community to be able to live a Jewish life, this is really the land of the schtetler, the land of the little towns where Jews could make up as much as 90% of the population. So this is the Jewish areas, but of course they’re living amongst the white Russians. Little Russia, remember Belarus, they’re living amongst the Ukrainians, they’re living amongst the Poles and they live in them in their areas.

By the 1860s, Warsaw is going to be a third Jewish. Odessa, at its height, it’s going to be 35% Jewish. Odessa is going to be a third Jewish. So in the cities you’re going to see a disproportionate number of Jews. And also there could be little towns and villages with up to 90% Jewish population. And one of the issues is, is how did they deal with their neighbours? And it’s a fascinating story really because as I’ve mentioned to you many times I’ve travelled at length in Eastern Europe, particularly in Lithuania, Ukraine, Eastern Poland and even when I was travelling 20 years ago, I would go to the little villages which were once great Jewish settlements. And it was almost impossible to imagine two peoples more unalike because at this stage, at this taking of the empire and William’s talked to you about serfdom, at this taking of the empire, you are really looking at an area where you have a peasant class, serfdom, and the Jews. And of course they’re not going to mix with the nobility. You do see the beginnings to an emerging of a merchant class, and that’s going to, of course, cause problems.

But basically they lived a life apart. Now, ironically, shall we, can we move on please, Judi, and have a look at the next picture, please, which is of course Catherine the Great? Now ironically, Catherine, as William told you yesterday, saw herself as a friend and patron of the Enlightenment. And she had great admiration for reform, which gained her much support from, of course, the enlightenment thinkers. And on Thursday, I’m actually going to be talking about the Enlightenment and how it viewed the Jews. But after taking power, she actually realised how difficult it was, how on earth to apply the ideas of the enlightenment to a huge unruly society in which wealth is measured by the number of souls, serfs, a man possessed. And she really did find it very, very difficult to reconcile these ideas on one level, if you are a figure of the Enlightenment, do you carve up Poland? Do you put your lover on the Polish throne? Do you actually annex territory? And it’s later on as she sees what happens with the French Revolution, that all her ideas of the Enlightenment are going to be smashed. And both when she becomes more and more reactionary, Voltaire and Diderot both write her long, long letters. And as William told you yesterday, she was a great correspondent, mainly in French.

Now, important to remember, the Russian court, the language they used was French, as did the German court. And this is going to be very important in the development of the nation state. Now, this is how Catherine replied to Voltaire. “I told him, frankly, I have listened with great pleasure to everything you have told me, with admiration for your brilliant mind. In your plans for reform, you forgot the difference in our situations. You philosophers are fortunate. You only write on paper, which is smooth, obedient to your commands, and does not raise any obstacles. Why I, poor Empress, have to write on ticklish and easy, irritated skins of human beings.” So what was it like for the Jews? Well, remember the power of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church is a very high church. Patrick always refers to it as a church of smells and bells. It’s a very much into dogma belief. And you know, the lighting of candles, it’s a very superstitious kind of Christianity. And, of course, it had a very strong tradition of anti-Judaism. As I said before, we know that Peter the Great tolerated Crypto-Jews in his court, but his widow Catherine, expelled Jews from areas of the Ukraine, which were under Russian rule. And those small numbers of Jews did manage to penetrate Russia. They were only there of risk. Now, why would Jews want to penetrate areas of Russia? I want you to think trade. I want you to think fur. I want you to think the Jewish trade route.

So they would go, they would risk everything in order to be able to trade. And of course, Peter’s daughter, Elizabeth, was violently anti-Jewish with that incredible comment of hers, “I wish no profit from the killers of Christ.” But Catherine seeing herself in the beginning as a creature of the Enlightenment, she did have this notion that perhaps she could trans, she could actually transform Jews into useful subjects. When I talked to you on Thursday about the ideas of the Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers in the main viewed Jews as a downgraded people. Remember they were traders, they were hawkers, they were peddlers. And as far as the Enlighteners were concerned, they had no dreams of aspiration, of philosophy, et cetera. Now this is going to have very negative effects on Jewish identity, by the way, particularly in the West. But the point is, you have this notion we’re going to transfer, we’re going to try and transform Jews into useful subjects. She might be a figure of the Enlightenment, but she is an autocrat. And I personally find this a complete dichotomy. How can you be a figure of the Enlightenment when many of the Enlightenment thinkers, the more radical ones, are thinking in terms of human rights, civil rights, when in Russia you have 57 million serfs absolutely tied to the land and you have a totally illiterate peasantry.

But anyway, she did, she did decide this. And the other thing that she followed on from Peter, in one way she did attempt to westernise Russia because she did realise in this incredibly unwieldy empire that if you are going to make an indent, just as Peter did, you need to develop a middle class to develop a proper economy. And she wanted to westernise Russia by dividing it into four estates: the nobles, the merchants, the townspeople, and the peasants. It was unsuccessful. But on the other hand, where on earth would the Jews fit into it? The tsarist empire is not a nation state, it’s an empire. It’s a land empire that exists, that actually goes all the way into Eurasia. And you know, later on when Stalin was Commissar for Nationalities, he worked out that there were 106 different national groups in the Russian Empire. So also another important point to make, the Jews are far away from the centre of empire, the life, the bureaucrats of St. Petersburg. So in many ways, when Catherine begins to plan edicts and events that can alter Jewish life, quite often they don’t really filter through. Because one of the things one has to say about the Tsarist empire under Catherine and under all the successive Tsars, it was almost impossible to govern it.

You know, I remember when I was in, I was in Poland when it was still under communism. And even though the Russian Empire grew enough food to completely sustain itself, the means of transporting food around the empire, by this stage the communist empire was so bad that in the place we were in Poland, the only thing we could get was radishes, because as vegetables, because that’s the only thing they grew there. So it’s important to remember that she might have the ideals of the Enlightenment. She might play around with philosophers and their ideals, but she’s still at the core of an empire that is backwards, where the peasants’ life… Can you imagine what life was like for a peasant or a serf in Russia? And these are the majority. Life was nasty, brutish, and short-lived. They were illiterate. The only person in the town or village perhaps, who could read or write was the Russian Orthodox priest. And you can imagine the kind of image they were given of the Jews. However, there was a man who had a very different view of the Jews. And can we see him please? Yes, this is Grigory Potemkin. And of course, as William told you yesterday, he was her favourite lover and perhaps even her husband. And Gregory Potemkin was almost unique amongst… He was a bear of a man, he was a brilliant soldier. He was a brilliant, he was a brilliant, he was a brilliant statesman as well. And she first met him when she was 22. He was 10 years younger than her, when he was 22.

Later on he became her lover. And as I said, probably her husband. And when they were at their closest, it was he who controlled the armies, which actually conquered that whole area from the Turks, and, of course, took the city of Odessa. He died just before, but he gave her that incredible gift of that incredible land. And how did Potemkin first come into contact with Jews? He first, he actually first encountered them when he took whole swathes of ex-Polish lands for himself. And when he invited settlers to the south, remember they wanted to settle in that area of the Black Sea, as early as 1775, he added a coder, even the Jews, and he allowed them to settle on his lands. Sometimes he gave them empty small holdings that had once belonged to the Zaporozhian Cossacks provided they had the money to invest. He was a man of the world. He realised the usefulness of Jews to the economy. And not only that, he became interested in their ideas. He also exempted them from taxes and provided they settled in his lands to the south and he also gave them the right to trade in wines and spirits. And if you think Odessa, think port, think communications, please don’t forget that there are Jews throughout the world. And the trading empires that, for example, there was a huge community of Sephardi Jews in France, and, of course, they were in the wine growing business.

So there’s this linkage just as with the Radhanites, just as in the Mediterranean with the various traders. And he gives them the right to sell and trade in wines and spirits. And not only that, he promised them physical protection. And he promised that their disputes could actually be adjudicated by their rabbis. He allowed them to have synagogues. And he has huge estates that, you know, the size of a country. He gave them the right to establish graveyards and also the right to import wives from other parts of Poland because, of course, marriages were arranged. So it’s interesting that Catherine’s major lover, the man who conquered everything for her, was in fact very fond of the Jews. Now, when I say fond of the Jews, he was also an incredibly clever man. And one of his closest associates was a man called Joshua Zeitlin. He’d been born in Belarus in a little schtetl called Shklov, and he made his way down, he was a very important trader and he was also a rabbinic scholar. He was a great scholar. He built up a huge empire financially. He was a Talmudist. And also he was an expert on political economy. And it’s a fascinating field of study that I’ll keep on referring to, what may a Jew study. He becomes a very close associate of Potemkin. And during the Turkish Russian wars, he furnished the Russian army with various supplies and he managed the business of the supplying of the army so well that he was appointed Imperial Court Counsellor.

It’s fascinating. He becomes the court Jew to the most important man in Russia. Just as you have court Jews all over the Habsburg Empire, you have court Jews also in all the German states. And he himself was given an estate by Potemkin with 500 serfs. He and Zeitlin, he becomes a sort of godfather, if I might use that word, for the local Jews. He’s consulted by the rabbis halakic questions. He aided many Talmudist financially. He supported a Bet Ha-Midrash, where he paid for all the Jewish scholars. He was a great believer in scholarship. And he remains a contractor to the government right up until the end, until Potemkin’s death. He also supported both the Vilna Gaon and their opponent, and his opponent, the Hasids. He didn’t take sides. If Jews needed him, he supported him. And it was really because of the largesse of Potemkin. And evidently they would engage in all sorts of debates. But Potemkin also had Muslim scholars at his court. He was one of those fascinating characters who walks the world of history. Now, can we please go back to the picture of Catherine, please?

Now, in March, 1785, she decided, you’ve got to remember that the Russian monarchs didn’t want a Jewish population. And so the west of Russia, they’ve now taken on this hated Jewish population. What are they going to do with them? And also they have far more important things to do than look after too much the issue of the Jews. So there is no concerted policy. I think this is the most important message that I can get over to you that each tsar during their reign, they’re going to change their minds many, many times about the Jews. And each tsar is going to have a different attitude. Unfortunately, apart from the reign of Alexander II, it’s going to be downhill all the way. So it begins in March 8th, 1785 when she decides in her senate that she’s going to discuss the Jewish issue. She has already, as a figure of the early Enlightenment, said the Jews should be in the same position of the others. Everyone is entitled to rights pertaining to his calling or estate without distinction of nationality. Now, she affirmed that the Jews have been accorded a status equal to others, and Jews should be allowed to keep certain rights according to their calling and without distinction of religion, but unfortunately, in practise, it’s a completely dead letter.

There was no, the bureaucracy had absolutely no ability or wish to form any kind of administration that would take into account the interest of the Jews. And there’s no real incentive to modernise anything. And also Catherine is beginning to encourage trade and Christian townspeople. And the bureaucracy does not want to upset the Christian townspeople. So there’s no government willingness to actually defend Jewish rights unless you are dealing with characters like Potemkin. So unfortunately, the Jewish population did tend to be harassed often by prejudice governed officials. But on the other hand, Catherine is not interfering with the way the Jews run their own lives. The kehillot are still running Jewish life and they’re still living according to their traditions, either traditional orthodox or Hasidic. And they kind of, as I said, , they walked the same earth and they looked at the same sky. And also important to remember the way Jewish life was structured. The most respected person in the Jewish community was the scholar, the rabbi, the gentle, pale-complexioned scholar as opposed to the… Just think of the symbol. What is the symbol of the Russian? Who are the great regiments? The Cossacks who protected the tsars. You can have no greater opposition of ideas. The Cossack, they’re horseman, they’re strong, they’re fit. And you have the Jew, the scholar. And of course this is deliberate. And this is a very, very fascinating issue because within a hundred years in Eastern Europe, you’re going to see the rise of Zionism, which wants to overturn this whole notion of the image of the Jew.

Back to what I’ve often said to you, “What is the secret of the Jews?” What is the destiny of the Jew? Is it Bar Kokhba? Is it ben Zakkai? And basically, by turning themselves to study and living this internal life on one level, it kept them safe. So 1791, as I said, she codifies the Settlement of Pale, but she doesn’t allow Jews out into Moscow or Kiev against the wishes of some of the nobility who think they’d be useful. Now, towards the end of her reign, as I said, you have the French Revolution in 1789. Can you imagine what that did to monarchs like Catherine? What it did to the Enlightener, Joseph II, whose sister was Mary Antoinette? Even what it did to the Hanoverians in England? The French Revolution, which on one level was spawned by the Enlightenment, on the other level, it was seen as completely opposed to autocracy; the French Revolution that is actually going to execute a king and a queen. So Catherine, she did at least look at the Jewish question, she codified the Pale. But basically, although, and I’m emphasising this, it’s fascinating cause William sees her as a great queen, as far as the Jews are concerned, the best thing one could say is she didn’t interfere too much in their lives. And then, of course, the throne is taken by her grandson, Alexander I.

Now let me give you a little device so you will never forget the tsars under whom the Jews lived. Think of the word Canaan, CANAAN. Catherine, her son Paul was, who was probably the son of one of her lovers, he lived for five years. He was insane and murdered. So he did nothing towards the Jews. So it’s Catherine, Alexander, Nicholas, Alexander, Alexander, Nicholas. You will never forget the tsars of Russia, now. Now Alexander I, let’s have a look at him. Alexander I was a fascinating individual. He was, as I said, the grandson of Catherine. Was he in any way complicit in the death of his father? Did he look the other way? We will never know. And of course, he is the tsar who is going to go against Napoleon. So huge events are swirling in his life. So he doesn’t really have that much time to deal with the Jewish issue. You’ve got to remember these tsars are seminal in terms of Jewish history. Jews aren’t very seminal in terms of Russian history until the Russian Revolution. Now, he was, but at the beginning of his reign, when he had a bit more time, he did, you’ve got to remember, again, he saw himself in his early years as a figure of the Enlightenment and Michel Bear in 1800, Michel Bear, I should say, in 1801, he was a French privy counsellor of Jewish origin, he issued an appeal to all the sovereigns and nations of Europe in the name of the… to actually look at the issue, “in the name of the European inhabitants of Jewish faith,” asking that justice be shown to the Jews.

And this was the appeal that probably led Alexander to establish a commission on October 9, 1802, which led to a tsar ukase, which is a Russian decree, concerning the Jews. This is December 9, 1804. Now, he gives permission for Jews to buy and rent land in all the western and southern provinces. That’s that very underpopulated area down by Odessa. And this leads to the first of the Jewish agricultural colonies in Russia. Now this is going to have an impact on Jewish history because a grandfather, a man called Bronstein, is going to be one of these characters. And of course, Bronstein is the grandfather of Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, better known as Trotsky. He also promoted the notion of Jews entering elementary schools and high schools and to learn the language. And I’m reading from the, I’m actually reading from the statute. “Jewish children may study in all public schools, secondary schools and universities in Russia on terms with other children. Jewish pupils will neither be required to renounce their religion, nor they will be compelled to study subjects which are contrary to their religion. If the Jews refuse, despite all these encouragements to send their children to public schools, special schools must be built at their expense. For this purpose a special tax will be levied. The study of either Polish, Russian, or German must be included in the curriculum.” Now that’s interesting because the literacy rate of the majority of Russians was absolutely zero. So what is going on here? The Jews do have in the main, all male Jews could read and write. You had to, to be able to be a practising Jew. Think about it.

But on the other hand, is this about the road to acculturation? And the statute goes on to say, “All the Jews residing in the Russian Empire, although free to use their native language, in all religious and domestic affairs are obliged as of January 1807 to use the Russian, Polish or German language in all public documents. And so he’s trying to acculturate the Jews. Now, occupations of rights of Jews. All the Jews are divided into four classes: farmers, manufacturers and craftsmen, merchants and city dwellers. Jews who are farmers, as well as those who are manufacturers, craftsmen/ merchants, and city dwellers are allowed to purchase and own property in the unpopulated areas of the province of Lithuania, Belarus, Little Russia, Kiev,” How many names am I mentioning where you have families? “Minsk, Volynia, Podolia, Astrakhan, Caucasus, Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, and Sabaria. They may sell the land, lease it, bequeath it, or bestow it as a gift.” So these are people, he’s trying to modernise his empire. These people can be useful. “No Jew will be compelled to engage in agriculture in the aforementioned provinces, but those who do shall be exempt from payment of taxes for a period of 10 years.” If you get engaged in what we consider to be wholesome occupations, we will exempt you from tax. So basically, it’s a charter which is offering the Jews the beginnings of being part of Russia. But what is the price? And you can imagine how the rabbis dealt with this kind of thing. And back to that story, what may a Jew study?

Now, we know that in the yeshivas, and when I talk about next week, I’m going to be talking more about this. We know what Jews may study, they must study mathematics, they must study astronomy. How much can they, Maimonides certainly studied philosophy. How much can they study of the outside world? And it’s still a very interesting point. Now, why on earth would he set up schools? So you need to have these ideas in your mind, What is it really about? So he even allowed Jews to come inside Russia proper, because Jews aren’t allowed to settle in Russia proper. Remember they’re confined to the Pale. If they got involved in agriculture, they could settle in the areas around St. Petersburg and around Moscow. So in a way, this is quite, this is quite a forward thinking notion. They’re still, they’re responsible to his law, but he didn’t abolish the kahals, the rabbi, “is still responsible for all ceremonies of the Jewish faith and deciding all religious disputes,” but they were not allowed to excommunicate. Now this is because the, and I think Phil Rubenstein talked about this, this is because the Misnagdim and the Hassids were beginning to excommunicate each other. The and a dissident sect, quote unquote, was given the right to build its own synagogue and elect its own rabbi, which gave legal sanction to Hasidism. Now, his notion was to try and transform Jewish economic life. He wanted to make the Jews into useful subjects of the empire, and also he wanted to push them more into industry, handicrafts. You’ve got to understand how backward Russia was. You know, by 1850 there was only a thousand miles of railway.

Later on, of course, we’re going to see in the reign of Alexander II, who are going to be the great railway kings of Russia? Jews, just as they are in the Turkish Empire, just as they are in the Habsburg Empire. The limitations of staying in the Pale are still there, except certain merchants and useful manufacturers are allowed to live outside the Pale. Now, he did also, though, want to remove the Jews from the liquor trade. He’s getting a lot of criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church, actually, that drunkenness of the peasants is because of the Jews running the liquor trade. Well, obviously, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. But the committee argued that this in fact would not end drunkenness. And it was actually increased Jewish poverty. So basically that didn’t go. And also in the early years, he did show his friendly disposition. He contributed 3000 rubles towards a Jewish hospital in Vilna. And in 1806, he gave more money to the hospital. And he also established a factory in Kronenberg for carpet making and encouraged Jews to go into that particular industry. In 1815, he ordered a census and also he wanted surnames. Now how much that happened is very, very interesting. And it depends how far away you were from central authority. And in 1818, he directed the election of three Jewish deputies who would live in St. Petersburg and bring Jewish affairs to the notion of the government. And we know the names of the characters: Michael Eisenstadt from Mohilev, Beinash Baratz from Vitebsk, Sundel Sonnenberg of Grodno, the Vice Deputy Samuel Katzenellenbogen of Vilna, it’s a very famous family, Mordecai Lipler of Vitebsk, and Eleazar Dillion of Minsk.

These are wealthy individuals within the Jewish community and they are to live in St. Petersburg. And the Jewish community has to pay for their living expenses. And Alexander actually wrote, “If through my efforts to ameliorate the position of the Jews, I should succeed in bringing forth only one Moses Mendelson from amongst the Russian Jews, I will be abundantly rewarded.” So in the early years, there are policies to try and make Jewish life easier, but how far along the road of acculturation, assimilation, and you know, it only really occurs when there’s a world you want to inhabit. And just as in Poland where you had an aristocracy and basically a peasant class, who was there to assimilate into? So it’s not yet a real problem. So I think we have to say that in his early years, he’s quite a reforming tsar. But then of course, Napoleon. And Napoleon invades Russia. And one of the questions that the tsar faced, Napoleon, and I’m going to be talking about this when I talk about the Enlightenment and later on in the year we’re going to spend a lot of time on France. The French Revolution had emancipated the Jews and Napoleon posed the Jews 12 questions to find out if they could be loyal subjects of the French Republic. He wanted them to give up any notion of nationhood and to become a religious group within France that he would actually control. Now he issues this proclamation, the 12 questions, questions like, “Do you regard France as your country for all purposes? Will you obey its laws?” In return, I’ll give you everything.

Now, he issues this when he’s invading Poland. Think about where the Jews are, where the Jews are, that is the whole line of Russian defence is in those territories. Did he hope that the Jews in fact would back him? Ironically, the majority of them, well, they kept out of it, but they didn’t. And Zalman of Liardi, the man who creates Chabad, he actually writes a letter to another rabbi in which he says, “I would far rather that my people be persecuted under the tsars, than live in peace under Napoleon, because Napoleon will be the end of the Jewish people.” And it’s very interesting, the road to acculturation, give up your notion of nationhood. Where will it all end? Now after the defeat of Napoleon, what a shock Napoleon have been? Because think about it, every country he conquered, he introduced the ideas of the French Revolution. And as far as the Jews are concerned, that means he knocked down the ghetto walls. Those of you who visited Italy, for example, you go to Genoa, via Libero was the once the street of the Ghetto. The same in Padua. So he liberates the Jews. He is the great… but what happens when he’s defeated? Again, the Jews are pretty irrelevant, but the victorious autocrats, the Prussians, the Austrians, and the Russians, forget the British, they’re, you know, it’s a different story when you’re dealing with Britain. They want to take back all those laws that promulgated the French Revolution. It’s dangerous. And the latter part of Alexander’s life, he becomes far more reactionary.

For example, there is a edict of 1820, which forbade Jews from keeping Christian servants. On August 10th, 1824, he prohibited foreign Jews from settling in Russia. Nobody can come in either for marriage or for trade. I don’t want any foreign Jews. I’ve got the Jews I’ve got, but I don’t want anymore. In January, 1825, he removed Jews from towns in Mohilev and Vitebsk. He just expelled them all. And so towards the end it is a real problem. And towards the end, he also meets a fascinating Englishman who I want to introduce to you. His name is Lewis Way. Can we see his picture please? Yeah, this is the Reverend Lewis Way, and he is going to become a close associate of Alexander I. William mentioned to you that towards the end of his reign, he became incredibly religious. He was already into mysticism and into spiritualism. And he became very interested in promoting the second coming of the Messiah. And this is where he’s going to collide with the life of the Reverend Lewis Way. And that will introduce you to a stream of English thought, which I will be referring to when I look at other Zions on Thursday night. Anyway, who was Lewis Way and why am I talking about him when I’m talking about the Great Tsar of Russia? He was born in Buckingshire in England. He had the usual kind of upper class education, Eaton, Merton College, Oxford, then he became barrister. But a friend John Way, who was no relative whatsoever, on his death left the Reverend Lewis Way 300,000 pounds, which is about 32 million today.

So in 1804, he’s independently wealthy and decides to become a philanthropist. He’s ordained as a minister, and now he’s going to devote all his wealth to religious causes. He goes to, he travels the Near East. He is an evangelical Christian, and he passionately believes in the conversion of the Jews to Christianity because that is the way you prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Not only should the Jews be returned to their own land, but they should all become Christian. Now, that’s when you know, when you think of our evangelical friends in the middle of America, on one level, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but never forget that these individuals have an incredible agenda. Now on his way to Lebanon, by the way, I think you will find this fact quite fascinating. I love the byways of history. He donated, he stayed in Nice, which was a little place, and he donated funds for the construction of a promenade, which is known of course, as the Promenade des Anglais. He paid for it. He later lived in Paris as the chaplain to the British ambassador. And he was a very fiery preacher. He attracts a very, very fashionable crowd. And he created, he was a founding member of the society, the London Society for the Promoting of Christianity Amongst the Jews. And what he needs to do is to make it happen. He actually had a sort of vision on the road to Damascus, when it was actually on the road from Exeter to Exmouth, where he absolutely believed that he’s got to restore the Jews. So he set up in the UK a Hebrew college to train missionaries.

But what he does, he goes on a grand tour, he goes to the Netherlands, to Germany, Poland, and Russia to have a look at all the Jewish communities. Now remember, he’s a wealthy man. Britain is allied to Russia. He has been the chaplain at the British Embassy. He’s an aristo type. So he has a meeting with Alexander I, and they have four meetings, and what they discuss is the return of the Jews. And in 1818, at the invitation of Alexander, Lewis Way addressed the European Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. Because what was decided after the defeat of Napoleon, that there were be four congresses held by the British, Austrian, Prussians and Russians to talk about taking common action on European problems. And he believed, Lewis Way believed, that the first stage was to emancipate the Jews, make them part of us. They will realise how wonderful we are. They will convert to Christianity and the Messiah would come. And he was a real fire-brand. Evidently, he quite entranced Alexander I, who, as I said, by the end, you know, you can go into all sorts of realms about this, was he complicit in his father’s death towards the end of his life to be become very, very anxious about all of this? Anyway, the point is that he really befriended Way, but it’s just a little oddity of history. So what have I told you about the two tsars? Both of them in their own ways, saw themselves as figures of the Enlightenment.

They did make gestures towards the Jewish community, but only from this position. They saw Judaism, they saw the Jews as a downgraded people, a people whose work life has made them a sordid race, an avaricious race, inverted commas, and they want to, I think the word would be they want to restore the Jews. They want to make them into useful human beings with, certainly with Alexander, with a view to convert them. And of course, though, on Alexander’s death, there’s going to be the time of troubles. But then the throne is going to be taken by his brother Nicholas I. And Nicholas I is going to do a lot to alienate and destroy any hope of any kind of Jewish rapprochement with Russia. And ironically, this is what kept the Jews together. And so we are left with an incredible dilemma. I keep on coming to this. In Jewish history, in the Modern Period, the dilemma of the modern world, how do you walk the tightrope? Moses Mendelson back in Germany, but don’t forget his dates. He’s born in 1729. He dies in 1786.

He said, “Be a Jew at home and a man in society.” What does that mean to be a man in society? Is Judaism a merely religious? What happens when you lose your religiosity? Do you blend into the outside world? So this is the period when, for the first time, it’s going to touch the Jews of Eastern Europe. We’re going to see that the Jews in the Prussian border lands are going to go in a completely different direction. The Jews in the Habsburg Empire in a different direction. But Nicholas I, the autocratic military tsar, is going to become so hated of the Jews that they don’t want to be part of his world. So ironically, is anti-Semitism the key to Jewish survival? That’s a thought to ponder on.

So let’s have a look at the questions. Judi, thank you so much for helping.

Q&A and Comments

Oh, “How are my eyes?” Marilyn, you’re so sweet. Strained. I’m seeing opticians. I’m going blind. I’m going deaf. Oh yes, this is Jennifer. “Schtetl” by Eva Hoffman is a wonderful book. Yes. Three partitions, text is to too small to read. Okay, this is again from, I’m showing it to you, you should have it in your homes, the “Jewish History Atlas” of Martin Gilbert.

Q: What are good sources for Catherine and the Jews? A: I’m afraid I get my information from all sorts of different places. I will put up a book. I will put up a bibliography for you.

This is from Jack.

Q: “My mother’s family still live in Sambol, Poland. Where is that today and does it have a Jewish population? My father was from Borislav. What is it today and what is the Jewish population? A: There is a very small Jewish population in Poland, Jack, I’m afraid. May I suggest you get onto Jewish genealogy. I think that’s the best way.

Q: Who ruled the countries of the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia? A: They were all in the Pale. No, they were all in the Pale, Adrian. They’re going to become independent after the First World War.

The Jews being the mercantile class. the link between the nobility, the peasants, and the serf. Look in Poland, the nobility did use the Jews a lot. In Russia, it’s not going to be as clear cut. They’re not allowed into the Russian interior, remember. They’re confined to the Pale. We’re going to see that even in the reign of Nicholas I there are a few Jews who are so useful to the Russians, like the railway kings or people who build up the huge manufacturing empires. Some of them are even going to be ennobled like the Ginsberg’s, but in the main, they are outside it.

Q: Where can I find out more about Potemkin? A: There’s a good biography of him. And also there’s some very good biographies of Catherine, which I think William gave you. The name of the Jew, who was Potemkin’s friend is Joshua Zeitlin. Z-E-I-T-L-I-N.

Oh, thank you, Jules. Thank you. Oh, I do love you all. I don’t need to say anything really. This is from Jules Feldman. "I recommend David E. Fishman, ‘Russia’s First Modern Jews: The Jews of Shklov.’” Yes. Michael Goldberg,

Q: “Has there ever been anything analogous to Roman Catholic Nostra Aetate in Orthodox Christianity in Anglican or any other Protestant churches? A: Not as far as I know, Michael. The Anglican Church did apologise last month for the Council of Oxford. You will remember because we studied it. In 1222 England was the first country to implement the Vatican order for the wearing of the Jew badge. And there was a big conference, the Archbishop Canterbury, where they asked Jewish forgiveness, which I find very strange. Look, Michael, I have very, very strong views on this. I think it’s so deep in Christianity that you’re not going to expunge it. And frankly, I don’t want their apologies anymore. I don’t want their apologies. I don’t even want their understanding. I think, remember what Rabbi Sack said, "First they hated our religion, then they hated our race, then they hated our nation.” And I’m not making any political comments about Israel. What I’m saying is that the kind of coverage Israel gets, when does it veer into anti-Semitism?

Molly Weaver, “I remember William said yesterday, the on balance Catherine was not great. He said she had a very mixed legacy.” Yes. Look, to be fair, could anyone rule an empire a sixth of the land surface of the globe with a completely, with a noble class and a peasant population and a completely inefficient bureaucracy? Look, as I said to you, when I was there under communism, they couldn’t run it. I was also there when Russia was collapsing under Gorbachev. You can’t liberalise Russia, by the way. You cannot hold it together. And of course, Putin wants it all back. He wants the old tsarist empire back. So did Stalin. We’ll be covering that later on in the course. Oh yes, thank you Jennifer. Yes, Canaan is very interesting, but don’t forget Paul. He’s between C and A.

This is from Marion, “In my late husband’s family who came from Minsk, they told the story that a great-grandfather became tsar for a day and was killed the next day. Have you ever heard a story like that?” No, I haven’t, Marion. No, no, but it’s a lovely story. That’s Isaac Bashevis Singer, isn’t it?

Q: “How do the Karaites fit into the equation?” A: That will be a completely different lecture, which I will be asking an expert to give, because the Karaites, it’s a different branch of Judaism and their main settlement was in Trakai, Lithuania.

Marilyn, “Napoleon wanted the Jews to give up the notion of nationhood. Is that not a problem for the Jews in the diaspora today? Jews think of themselves as American, British, Australian.” Yes, you see, this is the problem of the Jew. I think this is one of the biggest problems. There could have been no more acculturated group than Jews of Germany. Remember that. And the issue is how do we fit? Are we, am I a British woman of the Jewish religion? Is it possible to have hybrid identity? As I believed it was in America that you could be an American Jew, an Italian Jew, an African American. I don’t know. Is it possible? Because we’re certainly moving into an area of very strong nationalisms. I don’t know.

Tamara, “It’s well known that Catherine was taught and influenced by his grandmother, Catherine. Could his measures on behalf of the Jews stem from that influence and her teachings as he understood them.” Yes, that’s very true, Tamara, but both of them were erratic. Remember though the Jews… Look, William gave you a picture yesterday of Catherine. The problem is that we are a footnote in Russian history. Just for us, Jewish history’s fascinating. So they don’t spend much time on us. You know, we are this troublesome Christ killing group at the edge of the empire.

Q: “Which tsar enforced Jewish conscription in Russia?” asks Adrian. A: Nicholas I. I’ll be talking about that next week.

Marilyn. “Sorry, accidentally cut myself off. Jews in the diaspora think of themselves as Americans, Australians. However, if things get tough, like the war in Ukraine and a plane is sent to get us out to Israel, most of us would go.” Yep. There was no Israel at this time, remember? Michael, “I think that American Jews think differently from most diaspora Jews.” That’s interesting, Michael, and that’s really worthy of one of our challenging conversations. Judi, I think we should take note of that. Thank you, Liliana. Thank you, Nanette. Hindi, reeducation, “My great-grandmother in Bobruisk, Belarus, must have been a pretty modern, my great-grandfather must have been a pretty modern man even though he was rosh yeshiva. My grandmother, born in the late 1870s, had a secular education, wrote and read Russian and must have had enough maths to manage her business. All her children graduated gymnasium high school.” Yet, Hindi, a lot’s going to happen. She came to maturity in the reign of Alexander II. He’s going to open Russia up. And you have this brief honeymoon when some Jews believe that Russia was going to emulate the west. But then it all goes wrong. He’s assassinated in 1881, towards the end of his life. He stops all the liberalism. One of the assassins is of Jewish descent. And that’s when the pogroms occur. But that’s a fascinating period and I’ll spend a lot of time on it because it’s the late 1850s, 1860s, 1870s that he liberalises, he liberalises the…all the relax. He relaxes for all the minority groups. He needs to create a modern Russia. But what happens is once you liberalise, he encourages all sorts of people to go to university. Jews could leave the Pale, et cetera. It’s a fascinating period and I’m going to spend a lot of time on it.

Q: “Which Tsarina,” this is Faye, “said, ‘I want no profit from the killers of Christ.’” A: Elizabeth, the one that William said was particularly cruel.

Oh, thank you Karen. Oh, Emily, thank you. Thank you, thank you. My family came from Kamanetz-Podolsk, ‘cause that is significant time for the Jews. Yes, Angela, I’ve been there. Zeitlin is a street in the centre of Tel Aviv of Duvna. Thank you, Tracy. “It’s not the same Zeitlin,” says Jules. You know, this is interesting. Wouldn’t that be a great course? The streets of Tel Aviv or the streets of Jerusalem or the streets of New York?

Q: “What system of law was applied in the Pale of Russia, if any?” A: Now that is an interesting question, Barry. I do not know the answer. If you’re talking about Russia, if you’re talking about Jewish law, for the Jews they’re still using Jewish law. They still have the kahals. Russian law, I’m not an expert, but I’m sure someone is.

Q: Nanette, “Do I think that Putin will follow or who will follow him will win, will win war?” A: Ah, that’s a question, Nanette.

Q: Did the French Revolution also disrupt the class structure in Europe and Russia or did that occur later?“ A: Well, the French Revolution certainly disrupted the class system in France. You see, that was also about modernity, the rise of a middle class. You don’t have a revolution unless you’ve got an articulate middle class.

It’s Romi. Ah, that’s a good question, Romi Romi,

Q: "Did it disrupt the class structures of Russia?” A: Not really. Not really, because the Russian Revolution, remember the Russians won. It didn’t disrupt the class system in the Habsburg Empire, either. It’s the revolution that destroys it. It’s the Russian Revolution that completely sweeps away the class system.

Ah, yes, there’s a story of a Jewish king for a day in Poland, Jules. Yes, it’s Katzenellenbogen, isn’t it? Yeah. “There’s already in the book on street names, 'Street People’ by Helga Dudman.” Thank you Alfred. Maybe we could cull it as a course. Oh, this is from Eleanor, “I was born in Leningrad. I know this history as presented at school and Jewish history was related to me, my parents.” Oh, that’s lovely, Eleanor. I think that’s the end of the questions, Judi.

• [Judi] Yeah, that’s it. We’ve got through them all today. Wonderful. And thank you so much, .

• Thank you Jude. And goodbye everyone. And thank you all for your good wishes and lots of love.