2. Occupational Restrictions
The public service of the Empire, or of any of its political subdivisions, is practically closed to Jews. Jews may not be teachers (except in Jewish schools), or, as a rule, farmers. These artificial restrictions operate to drive the Jews into the occupations permitted to them, chiefly trade and commerce, thus overcrowding the ranks of tradesmen and artisans.
3. Property Restrictions
Jews may not buy or sell, rent, lease or even manage land or real estate outside the Pale or outside of the city limits within the Pale. The artisans privileged to practise their handicraft outside the Pale may under no circumstances own their homes. The ownership, direct or indirect, of property in mines or oil fields is also forbidden to Jews.
4. Fiscal Burdens
The Jews pay, in addition to the normal taxes, a candle tax, designed for the support of Jewish schools, and a meat tax, originally destined for Jewish religious purposes; but in practice these funds are diverted to general, non-Jewish, purposes, and even used, in part, for the enforcement of police measures against the Jews.
5. Educational Restrictions
Jews are not admitted to the secondary or higher educational institutions and universities, except in proportions varying from 3 to 15 per cent. of the entire number of non-Jewish pupils. (For high schools: 10 per cent. within the Pale and 5 per cent. outside the Pale, except in the two capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow, where it is only 3 per cent.; and for universities all over the Empire, about 3 per cent.)
A ministerial decree issued in August, 1915, permits the children of all Jews actively connected with the war to enter any educational institution in the country regardless of the percentage norm; but in practice this decree, like the decree abolishing the Pale, is entirely subject to interpretation and modification by the local authorities, who have, so far, virtually ignored it.