"Having made these preliminary remarks, I shall now proceed to describe to your Excellency the state of the schools which I visited in the course of my journey through Russia and Poland.
"Being anxious to convince myself of the real condition of my brethren, I often took them by surprise, and I am happy to say, although they had not teachers of profane sciences, still most of the pupils in some schools knew how to write and to read in the Russian, Hebrew, and German languages. In Wilna I found the schools organised agreeably to the command of His Imperial Majesty's Government; they were well provided with competent masters, and the pupils answered most satisfactorily questions in the various branches of tuition—in Latin, Russian, and German grammars, geography, arithmetic, and history.
"In Hebrew, however, they could only obtain instruction during three hours each week. The pupils who frequent the gymnasium also attended whilst I was there the schools thus organised, and I had an opportunity of ascertaining that a considerable number of them were well versed in various branches of science and secular education. The girls' schools are in a most flourishing state, and your Excellency will be pleased to hear that the pupils excel in the knowledge of the Russian, Polish, French, Hebrew, and German languages, in addition to their knowledge of geography, Russian history, and arithmetic. With respect to the Talmud Tora schools (your Excellency having expressed so zealous a desire to advance the study of the Hebrew language and its literature), I feel much pleasure in assuring your Excellency that I examined a great number of pupils, and their knowledge of Hebrew was surprising. Sometimes they were addressed in that language, and they translated it into German, or vice versâ; on various occasions they continued to recite any sacred text in the Bible after the first word of the chapter or verse was given to them. At Warsaw also I found the schools organised upon the principles laid down by His Imperial Majesty's Government in a flourishing state. The pupils are well versed in the Russian, Polish, French, Hebrew, and German languages, independently of their knowledge of geography, history, arithmetic, and composition. I was equally satisfied in inspecting the girls' school. Like those at Wilna, these schools may be regarded as models, for they are upon an equality with similar establishments in my own country. The school of industry I also found to be a most excellent establishment, which, in the course of time, will confer great benefits upon the rising generation. With respect to the Talmud Tora schools, in which a knowledge of Hebrew language and its literature is exclusively taught, I beg leave to assert that there is not any school in the most distinguished Hebrew congregation in Europe that deserves to rank higher than those established in Warsaw and Wilna. Of the various Hebrew schools which I visited in the smaller towns on my route, I was frequently surprised in a most agreeable manner. At those where I expected it the least the pupils were well acquainted with the Hebrew language and its literature, and on many occasions wrote in my presence various sentences in the Russian, Hebrew, and German languages.
"I particularly inquired the reason why the Talmud Tora schools had no professors appointed for the Russian language and other branches of secular science and literature, this deficiency having struck me the more after having heard such powerful arguments in favour of studying these, showing that a knowledge of worldly science and literature, when combined with that of Hebrew and the observance of pure religion, was well adapted to improve an Israelite. The answer to my inquiry was, that they had not the means to procure such professors; that to have a master of that description would have given them the highest pleasure, but that having themselves to contend with innumerable difficulties in obtaining the ordinary and most urgent necessaries of life, they deemed it their first duty morally and religiously to procure, with the limited means they had, such instruction for their children as is essential for the enjoyment of their religion, leaving other kinds of learning for more favourable opportunities. Of their real feeling on this head the following incident is an example. I offered the means of procuring masters for the Russian language, geography, history, writing, and arithmetic in several schools, and my offer was most eagerly accepted, and the following day masters were engaged.
"With respect to the inclination of the Israelites to frequent public schools, I found that a considerable number of the Jewish youth do attend these institutions, and many more would do so were it not that a most difficult question arises to their parents, who say, 'We thoroughly appreciate the great advantages derivable from additional acquirements, but what is to become of our children after their minds shall have been so instructed in the higher branches of knowledge and their sensibilities thereby necessarily refined? or how are we to provide them with proper habiliments and books required for the purpose if we can hardly afford to satisfy them with bread?' Very many Israelites are also much afraid that the mode of instruction at some public schools, and at some established for the Israelites exclusively, may induce their children to abjure the Jewish faith, which of course is dear to Israelites, and which they are ready to defend with their lives. For there are schools where persons, who are apostates from the Hebrew religion, are allowed to instruct the pupils, a course of tuition which must give rise to the most painful anxiety in the minds of those by whom that religion is still cherished.
"I beg leave now to state, with the most profound respect for your Excellency's judgment on this important subject, that I have given it most serious consideration, and knowing from ample evidence that my brethren in the Russian empire are most anxious to advance their mental and social improvement, I humbly submit to your Excellency that they are in a fit condition for receiving the benefits which their most benevolent and merciful monarch intended to bestow upon them.
"My humble petition to your Excellency is, that by your humane and kind intercession supplications may be brought effectually before His Imperial Majesty's Government.
"Those supplications I will thus set forth. In the first place, that they may be permitted to have the management themselves of their Hebrew theological schools. This is essential to their dearest sympathies and interests, as no other persons could promote the study of Hebrew literature more effectually. In all regions where civilisation has made any marked progress, wherever its blessings are really experienced, Hebrew literature is regarded as its most precious feature, and all nations ardently cultivate its study and render homage to its worth. May it therefore please the Imperial Government to allow the Israelites themselves, the people by whose agency this boon has been given to mankind, to have the direction of those establishments in which they are to be trained in the true knowledge of their own inalienable inheritance. For the acquirement of knowledge in secular science and literature they should also have the appointment of their own teachers, such whose competency may be approved of by His Majesty's Minister of Public Instruction, or should be allowed to avail themselves of the public educational establishments, subject, of course, to such periodical examinations as may be deemed necessary to test the progress of the pupil.
"Secondly, they consider it a just regulation that, in those schools which His Majesty's Government has originated solely for their benefit, no convert from Judaism be appointed a teacher. Particular allusion is here made to the Rabbinical school at Warsaw, where a person who was tutor, whilst belonging to that faith, continues to hold that situation even after having abjured it and embraced another. No permanent satisfaction can result from such an anomaly, which will surely deter sincere Israelites from sending their children to institutions placed in similar circumstances, as they will naturally suppose that His Imperial Majesty's Government encourages conversion, but which I am assured, by a statement from your Excellency, it does not desire. Such appointments of instructors should be made as would remove all misconception on this vitally important subject.
"Thirdly, I submit to your Excellency that it is just that the Ukase issued on the 24th November 1836, declaring that all such Hebrew books as are pronounced by the Chief Rabbi not to contain inimicable sentiments to the government of the country, be permitted to remain with the Israelites, do continue in full force, because unfortunately during the last eleven months, the Hebrew libraries of private individuals have been in the hands of the police, and many books which they were authorized to keep by the Chief Rabbi, having thereon his seal and signature, were taken away from them, and even those books on which the Committee of Censors would find nothing wrong, are still kept back by the Committee. May it therefore please your Excellency to order that the books be returned to the owners.