JEWS IN RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2984, 23 January 1917, Page 9

JEWS IN RUSSIA

PRIVILEGES AND DISABILITIES

A MISUNDERSTOOD PROBLEM

In certain organs of tho British Press (says a correspondent to tho "Morning Post") one is constantly finding references to the condition , of tho Jews in Russia. I have seen it positively stated that the Jewish nation in Russia is subjected to persecution not only of an economic but of a religious charaoter. I ha.vo como across such a phrase as this: "Tho Russian Government sucks tho blood of tho Jew simply because-ho is a Jow!" The ignorance of tho wider public concerning thp internal affairs of Russia is chiefly to blamo for tlio altogether preposterous and one-sided views taken of tho legal position of tho Jows in-Russia. In tho general State-structure and public life of tho Russian Empire tlio nation of Jewry does undoubtedly occupy a. special place. So also do tho other alien groups in Russia, of European , or Asiatic origin, of Christian or nonChristian creeds, who livo their lives apart. And it should bo noted that tlio degree of their aloofness from tho main stream of lifo in the Russian State is in the very closest relations with their national traditions and race peculiarities. Tlio various groups of, aliens in tho Russian Empire aro at all times at liberty, either individually or collectively, to throw off their exceptional status and acquire in a moment absolutely all tho. tho rights of Russian citizenship in their fullest scope; there is but one, and only, condition attached, namely, that they cannot have it both ways. They must he willing to divest themselves not alono of such restrictions as limit their civil rights, but also of all the special privileges which they have hitherto enjoyed. National Privileges. Few peoplo outsido Russia aro aware, that the Russian Jews, numbering somo six millions, enjoy a whole series of highly significant national privileges, of. which tho natives, of tho soil themselves are deprived in thoso regions (sixteen provinces with a total population of twenty-fivo millions) inhabited by.Jows; the right of imposing'their own taxes (the "korobbchny" tax, eto.), the, right to. .maintain, exclusively Jewish educational establishments to which iibri-Jews aro not admitted (tho "heSera," the "Academies"), tho right of - self-government in their public affairs (the "kagal"), with officials that have executive power ("paresi," "sha-. ,meshi."~etc), and, even more remarkable, the tolerated, if not openlv legalised, right of administering their own justico ("hot-din"), to say nothing of tho right of forming "unions" ("khevri"), and the right of free assembly in tho so-called houses of prayer ("synagogues"). Tho enormous political privileges, which ; t tlio Jewish' nation thus, under the respectable pretext of religious and; raco peculiarities, really enjoys in Russia are hold sacred by the authorities of tho Russian State, which', tliere-. by puts into the- hands of Russian Jewry extraordinary powers. Tho internal national solidarity, of tho Jewish kagals, according to the universal opinion of those who know Russia, exceeds in a high degree the stability,of the ties uniting such State, ecclesiastical, or public- organisations as tlio themselves havo. (the "United Nobility," the. "Burghers! Union," the "Craftsmen Guilds," the "Peasant Communes," the "Church Brotherhoods," tlio parish organisations,, etc.): and tho principal result of tho existence of these Jewish privileges in, Russia is naturally the complete trk umpli of the Jews in all those spheres: of Russian economic and. 'public, ac-. tivity wliero co-operation and ■ solidarity play the chief part in crushing all competition. ■ The predominance, of-the, Jews in Russian finance, in Russsian .trade, the Russian Press, and tho Russian stage has long been strikingly manifest to all foreigners visiting Russia. They all alike fully recognise also that the Russian Government, is contending with this predominance only in. a very moderate degroo, which is explained by the traditional shrinking from any appearance- of incautiously touching tho religious or purely spiritual side of Jewish life. As, a result, the Jewish nation in Russia rciraihs secure in the actual possession of political rights' which aro denied to the native Russians among whom it lives. iNaturally, the Russian Government is .compelled to seek an issue, out of a situation which is steadily becoming more and moro acute, and is compelled, nolens volens, to take account of the gjeat wave of winch is.rising among all the non-Jews of the Rusr sian Empire. It is trying to protect the common peoplo of Poland and Lithuania from tho solid economic, pressuro exorcised upon them by the' Jewish' kagals, and therefore it forbids tho Jew who is not personally engaged in agricultural labour to reside in tho villages. This measure does, little- to protect the peasant from exploitation by tlio Jewish usurer, and, in point of fact, over tho wholo western half of European Russia not a single bushel of grain escapes tho bauds of the: Jewish middleman, not a- single landholder is in a position to buy tihq things of his daily needs without paying tribute to the Jews, who have squeezed out 95 per cent, of, their Christian trade rivals in eighteen provinces, the iriciiT est in Russia—that is to. say, over an. area equal to France and Germany taken together. Everywhere where the Jews desiro to devoto themselves personally to agricultural labour they are met by the' Russian Government with full and unconditional support. . But tho Government lias found itself forced to prohibit categorically -Jews leasing or buying land and timber for purely speculative purposes; experience: 'has proved 1 that tho disastrous deforestation of enormous areas in Western Russia and in Poland lias been brought about almost exclusively owini; to tho predominating part played by Jow speculators. Estates that, by the venal connivanco of complacent Christians, ha-vo falleii into Jewish hands nre invariably sold by them t« tho local peasantry on tonus cruel and oppressive in the extreme. ' Calculated Lying. Outside Russia there is no .hesitation at accepting as literally true- such statements as: "A sick Jew has not tho right to visit n watering-place for tho benefit-of his health," or "A Jew is not allowed to reside in Potrograd, Moscow, and many other places," and the like. Statements of tliis. kind can only bo characterised as a- very, low form of propaganda by political agitators. It is well known that an enormous number of the most diverse watering-places in Russia arc situated west of tho Dvinn. and tho Dnieper, that is to say, precisely in thoso. townships and districts which aro populated by Jews. Moreover, 80 per cent, of tho.watering-places,■sanatoria, and hospitals in Poland, Lithuania, Littlo Russia, and White Russia aro in Jewish hands and aro served almost wholly by doctors and apothecaries of the Jowisli raco. Nay, more, in tho very capital of tho Russian Empire '13 per cent, of the doctors aro of Jewish race, and of tho hundreds of apothecarios' shops (which enjoy an extreme form of trado protection in Russia) thero are only two which do not belong to Jews. As for private persons resident in Potro-' grad, Jows form 8.3 per cent, of the total, that is to say, the Jewish residents in tho capital of tho Empiro aro

nearly thrice as numerous as they normally should be, for tko Jews in Russia only number about 3 per cent, of the total population. When it is remembored that Petrograd is a very long way from the regions inhabited by tho main masses of Jewry tho above statistics become oven moro< eloquent of the actual situation. It is probably unnecessary to' say more in order to show that statements about tlio Joirish Question in Russia made- by persons unfamiliar with its details must be received with caution. Such, doubtless in most cases highly respectable if superficial, persons know not what they do when, without haviny any knowledge- of the genesis of the Jewish Question in Poland and Russet defend an already all-powerful political organisation Bomo six millions strong! 'As for' tlio Jews themselves ontsido Russia, they judge of Russian Jewry onlv by their own fellow-countrymen of Jewish faith, and have consequently absolutely no sound criteria by which to estimate tlio "Jewish Question" in Russia, a question which is complicated and peculiar in the extreme.. In othm , ' countries than Russia- thn Jow is a Frenchman, EngIfslininii. Dutchman, efc, of tlio Jewish faith, ami as such is cloalb with bv the Government lie lives under. These Western Governments aro no* troubled by way "Jewish Question"; they, in fact, know no' such thing. Nor hny.o they miy occasion to know exacllv.ivjm, t-lm Jowisli knjjnls in Russia mean t»; J &> Russian Government, nor til' , extent of theij - united economic and political pressure upmi the poneral course of life in t!.io Russian Stt^e.