The Jews in the Eastern War Zone

by American Jewish Committee

Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:

“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish faculty sharpened for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews and exasperates them.”[12]

The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad. At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:

“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional repeal of all special restrictions.”

The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23 (September 5), 1915, declared editorially:

“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno expulsions and Kuzhi[13] slanders came and the people grew desperate. This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is only a slight relief in the condition of citizens who have no rights and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs, from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and other citizens remains and is even more emphasized. The principle of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”

Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all Jewish restrictions:

“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’ appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war, and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger, but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time, because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!

“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to leave....

“Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.... The sop is thrown to us under conditions internal and external which sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting the semi-savage tribes—he alone needed such a favor.