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Page 43
But Riga on the Baltic, Odessa on the Black Sea, and Warsaw on the
Vistula were outdone by some cities in the interior. Haskalah lovers
multiplied rapidly, and were found in the early "forties" in every city
of any size in the Pale. "The further we go from Pinsk to Kletzk and
Nieszvicz," writes a correspondent in the Annalen,[29] "the more we lose
sight of the fanatics, and the greater grows the number of the
enlightened." With the establishment of the rabbinical seminaries in
Zhitomir (1848), this former centre of Hasidism became the nursery of
Haskalah. The movement was especially strong in Vilna, the "Jerusalem of
Lithuania," as Napoleon is said to have called it. From time immemorial,
long before the Gaon's day, it had been famous for its Talmudic
scholars. "Its yeshibot," says Jacob Emden in the middle of the
eighteenth century, "were closed neither by day nor by night; many
scholars came home from the bet ha-midrash but once a week. They
surpassed their brethren in Poland and in Germany in learning and
knowledge, and it was regarded of much consequence to secure a rabbi
from Vilna." Now this "city and mother in Israel" became one of the
pioneers of Haskalah, all the more because, in addition to the public
schools and the rabbinical seminary, the Jews were admitted to its
university on equal terms with the Gentiles. "Within six years,"
exclaims Mandelstamm, "what a change has come over Vilna! Youths and
maidens, anxious for the new Haskalah, are now to be met with
everywhere, nor are any ashamed to learn a trade." The schools exerted a
salutary influence on the younger generation, and the older people, too,
began to view life differently, only that they were still reluctant to
discard their old-fashioned garb. There also, in 1847, the leading
Maskilim started a reform synagogue, which they named Taharat ha-Kodesh,
the Essence of Holiness.[30]
It should not be forgotten that, if Lilienthal met with mighty
opposition, he also had powerful supporters. There were many who, though
remaining in the background, strongly sympathized with his plan. Indeed,
the number of educated Jews, as proved by an investigation ordered by
Nicholas I, was far greater than had been commonly supposed. Not only in
the border towns, but even in the interior of the Pale, the students of
German literature and secular science were not few, and Doctor Loewe
discovered in Hebron an exceptional German scholar in the person of an
immigrant from Vilna.[31] The tendency of the time is well illustrated
by an anecdote told by Slonimsky, to the effect that when he went to ask
the approval of Rabbi Abele of Zaslava on his _Mosde Hokmah_, he found
that those who came to be examined for ordination received their award
without delay, while he was put off from week to week. Ill at ease,
Slonimsky approached the venerable rabbi and demanded an explanation:
"You grant a semikah [rabbinical diploma] so readily, why do you seem so
reluctant when a mere haskamah [recommendation] is the matter at issue?"
To his surprise the reason given was that the rabbi enjoyed his
scientific debates so much that he would not willingly part with the
young author.
Stories were told how the deans of the yeshibot were frequently found to
have mastered the very books they confiscated because of the teachings
they inculcated. Before the reign of Nicholas I drew to its end,
Haskalah centres were as numerous as the cities wherein Jews resided. In
Byelostok the Talmudist Jehiel Michael Zabludovsky was lending German
books to young Slonimsky, the future inventor and publicist; in
Vlotslavek Rabbi Joseph Hayyim Caro was writing and preaching in classic
German; in Zhagory, Hayyim Sack helped Leon Mandelstamm (1809-1889), the
first Jewish "candidate," or bachelor, in philology to graduate from the
St. Petersburg University (1844) and the assistant and successor of
Lilienthal, in the expurgation and German translation of Maimuni's
_Mishneh Torah_. When, in 1857, Mandelstamm resigned, he was followed by
Seiberling, for fifteen years the censor of Jewish books in Kiev, upon
whom a German university conferred the doctor's degree. The
poverty-stricken Wolf Adelsohn, known as the Hebrew Diogenes, formed a
group of Seekers after Light in Dubno, while such wealthy merchants as
Abraham Rathaus, Lilienthal's secretary during his campaign in
Berdichev, Issachar Bompi, the bibliophile in Minsk, Leon Rosenthal,
financier and philanthropist in Brest-Litovsk, and Aaron Rabinovich, in
Kobelyaki (Poltava), promoted enlightenment by precept and example. In
Vilna, Joseph Sackheim's young son acted as English interpreter when
Montefiore was entertained by his father, and Jacob Barit, the
incomparable "Yankele Kovner" (1793-1833) another of Montefiore's
hosts, was master of Russian, German, and French, and aroused the
admiration of the Governor-General Nazimov by his learning and his
ability.
Yes, the Jews began to pay, if they had ever been in debt, for the good
that had for a while been bestowed upon them by Alexander I. Alexander
Nebakhovich was a well-known theatrical director, his brother Michael
was the editor of the first Russian comic paper Yeralash, and Osip
Rabinovich showed marked ability in serious journalism. In 1842 died
Abraham Jacob Stern, the greatest inventor Russia had till then
produced; and, as if to corroborate the statement of the Talmud, that
when one sun sets another rises, the Demidoff prize of two thousand five
hundred rubles was the same year awarded to his son-in-law, Hayyim Selig
Slonimsky (HaZas, 1810-1904) of Byelostok, for the first of his valuable
inventions. Stern's genius was surpassed, though in a different
direction, only by that of Elijah Vilna. His first invention was a
calculating machine, which led to his election as a member of the Warsaw
Society of the Friends of Science (1817) and to his being received twice
by Alexander I (1816, 1818), who bestowed upon him an annual pension of
three hundred and fifty rubles. This invention was followed by another,
"a topographical wagon for the measurement of level surfaces, an
invention of great benefit to both civil and military engineers." He
also constructed an improved threshing and harvesting machine and a
sickle of immense value to agriculture.[32]
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