Chapter 235 - The Second Rabbinical Conference and the Continued Struggle Against the Maskilim.

00:00 The maskilim kept stirring up trouble, pushing again and again for changes to the curricula of the chadarim and Talmud Torah schools, and pressing for another assembly of rabbis to decide the matter. The Russian government cooperated with them. In Tishrei 5608, that is, September 1847, Mr. Chaikin, a member of the committee of Chabad communal activists in Petersburg, learned that a special committee had been established in the Ministry of the Interior to arrange an assembly of rabbis. This assembly, however, would be organized differently from the assembly of 5603, that is, 1843. Back then, the government itself had chosen the members. For this assembly, they said, the Jewish citizens of Russia would elect delegates from across the country. From among those delegates, a joint committee of representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education would select a smaller group, who, together with government delegates, would constitute the rabbinical conference. The Minister of the Interior charged the special committee with, first, gathering all the material by subject and raising questions and proposals concerning religion, Jewish customs, the relationship of Jews to the peoples among whom they lived, and matters of trade and property connected with religion. There were also matters of trade and property connected with honesty. These were the questions they wanted to raise. The Minister of the Interior also charged the committee with determining the number of elected delegates, whether according to the population within and outside the Pale of Settlement or according to categories of voters: merchants, householders, craftsmen, laborers, rabbis, religious functionaries, scholars, doctors, lawyers, and the like. At the same time, the Minister of the Interior stipulated that the number elected could not exceed thirty-five, and that no more than six people would be chosen for the conference. And so on. Meanwhile, there was an incident known as the false accusation against the Jews of Globovka. Globovka was one of Count Golitsyn’s estates in the Brest region.

02:47 Berkowitz and his family lived in the village of Globovka. He had a large garden and vineyard, and his neighbor was a Catholic priest called the ksiądz. This priest coveted Berkowitz’s vineyard and garden. Twice, Berkowitz offered to sell the priest his house and property, including the garden, at a fair price to be set by the villagers. But the priest demanded that the vineyard be handed over to him for nothing. For two years the priest informed on Berkowitz and his family, and the villagers always defended the Jew, until the matter reached the count. The count warned the priest that if he did not leave the Jew alone, he would lodge a complaint against him with the diocese. Then clothing and shoes were stolen from the military arsenal in Brest. The priest joined forces with the thieves, and they buried some of the stolen goods in Berkowitz’s garden. The priest then accused the Jew of stealing the clothing and shoes. The elderly Berkowitz and his two sons, Yerucham and Eliyahu Nachum, were imprisoned under harsh conditions. Chaim of Siavo, a member of the committee of communal activists, visited the count and pressed for a discreet investigation. Over the course of three months, it became clear that the accusation was entirely false. When Chaim of Siavo visited Count Golitsyn about the accusation against Berkowitz, the Jew from Globovka, the count told him that Dr. Neumann and two academy students, Bernstein and Gurevich, both from Odessa—sons of wealthy families who visited the home of Prince Sheremetev—had, with his help, obtained a meeting with his nephew, Nikolai Grigorovich, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, and submitted a complaint. The complaint, purportedly on behalf of the Jews of Volhynia and Lithuania, was against the distinguished citizen, the tzaddik Menachem Mendel Schneersohn—that is, the Tzemach Tzedek. It claimed that through those who obeyed him, he was rebelling against the imperial order concerning the establishment of schools for Jews, and that he had spread the slander that the government intended to convert the Jews from their faith. Count Golitsyn told all this to Chaim of Siavo, who immediately passed it on to the Tzemach Tzedek. When this information reached the Tzemach Tzedek,

05:19 he invited several communal activists to consult with him: about the assembly of rabbis the government intended to convene, about the complaint Dr. Neumann had submitted on behalf of the maskilim of Volhynia and Lithuania, and about how to organize communal work throughout the country in a coordinated and discreet way. The meeting at the Tzemach Tzedek’s home took place in Cheshvan, and an organized plan was drawn up. First, when the order was published for the election of delegates from whom the members of the rabbinical conference would be chosen, they would campaign vigorously and tirelessly to prevent the freethinkers and maskilim from being elected, and to elect householders and businesspeople instead, with as few rabbis as possible. Second, they would distribute letters, pamphlets, and articles depicting the nature of the Berliners, and publicly expose them as informers who brought false accusations against the Jewish people and knocked on the doors of the Ministry of the Interior seeking to abolish Jewish customs. Third, they would establish centers of communal activists throughout the country to carry out every aspect of the campaign and keep an eye on the maskilim’s campaign. On 15 Shvat, the police official Novokim [unclear], Ivan Petrovich, arrived. He brought an order he had received from the provincial office. This is what the order said: “His Honor the provincial governor announces the imperial order of September 20, 1847, to convene a conference of rabbis and men of learning in 1848 to discuss Jewish affairs. In accordance with this order, a joint committee of officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education has been established to arrange the conference. The Jewish citizens of Russia will elect thirty-two candidates for membership in the conference. From among them, officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education, with the agreement of the provincial governors, will select six people. The Minister of the Interior orders that notice of the election of candidates be published promptly, and that by March 15, 1848, the results be received at the office of the special committee arranging the conference of rabbis and Jewish men of learning. The Ministry of the Interior orders that notice be given

07:58 to the distinguished citizen, the tzaddik Reb Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch—that is, the Tzemach Tzedek—that he must stand as a candidate from Mogilev Province, since he will certainly be chosen as one of the six members of the conference.” The Tzemach Tzedek sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior asking to be excused from putting himself forward as a candidate and traveling to the provincial capital, for several reasons. The law required candidates in every province to come to the provincial capital and submit a written statement agreeing to stand for election and, if chosen, to serve as a member of the conference. In short, the Tzemach Tzedek informed them that he could not do so. A month later, a firm order arrived from the governor of Mogilev: the Minister of the Interior had rejected the Tzemach Tzedek’s request and insisted that he be one of the delegates from Mogilev Province. As an exception, he was exempted from traveling to the provincial capital, but was to give his consent to being named among the members of the assembly. The Tzemach Tzedek submitted a signed certificate from the renowned physician, Academician Eichwald [unclear], stating that his health required rest and that he must not involve himself in matters that could cause agitation. Throughout this time, all the centers were conducting an extensive campaign. The elections went well in most cities, apart from Vilna, Zhitomir, Bessarabia, and Odessa: twenty-six delegates were elected who were observant householders and merchants, and only six were freethinkers. From among the delegates, officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education chose six members of the assembly: one known as Rabbi Eliezer Lifshitz; two scholars, Mr. Werbel and Mr. Eichenbaum; the merchant Bernstein of Odessa; the merchant Goldberg of Bialystok; and the merchant Bashkovich of Vitebsk. At Dr. Mandelstam’s suggestion, the Ministry of Education invited the scholars Dr. Stern and Dr. Pinsker to serve as advisers to the conference, specifically to lecture about Jewish customs for which, the teachers at the rabbinical seminaries in Vilna and Zhitomir had shown with explicit proofs from the Talmud, there was no basis in religion. Those Jewish customs. On the contrary, most of those customs are forbidden, yes.

10:20 According to Jewish law, because of divination and sorcery. Yes, they came up with new inventions. The General Education Committee in Petersburg kept a close eye on the proceedings of the conference and on the conduct of the assembly members and council members, both in matters concerning the conference and in their private lives. The conference members Worbel, Eichenbaum, and Bernstein were complete freethinkers: they ate non-kosher food and publicly desecrated Shabbos. On top of that, they were profoundly ignorant—that is, they lacked any understanding of Judaism in general. Eliezer Lifshitz, a native of Stuttgart, had studied at the rabbinical seminary in Metz, in eastern France. Though talented and learned, he was also a self-indulgent freethinker, and was one of the prominent instructors in halachic rulings at the rabbinical seminary in Vilna. The merchants Goldberg and Bashkovitz had a moderate knowledge of Torah, but they were G-d-fearing men with firm convictions. The council member Dr. Stern, although devoted with every fiber of his heart and soul to secular education—teaching students and influencing them were his life’s aim—had taken part in the rabbinical assembly of 5603. That experience, and especially the answers he received to his questions from the Tzemach Tzedek and the Tzemach Tzedek’s steadfast self-sacrifice, changed Dr. Stern for the better in his observance of the practical mitzvos. Simcha Pinsker was devoted to researching the Karaite sect and diligently studied its history, books, and customs. He was one of the greatest freethinkers, particularly when it came to Jewish customs. Fluent in French and the language of the country, he would often speak mockingly about Jewish customs. Dr. Mandelstam knew a man named Schwartzel, a senior official in the office of the Minister of Education. Schwartzel was a favorite and confidant of the minister who fulfilled his every wish, particularly in matters of the Jewish religion, which the minister loathed. Through Schwartzel, Dr. Mandelstam secured the Minister of Education’s decision to introduce a prayer book translated into German and an abridged Chumash in every Jewish cheder, with punishment for anyone who refused. The committee of communal activists, in addition to following

12:51 the conference through the observant delegates Goldberg and Bashkovitz, made inquiries through their acquaintances and contacts in the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Religious Denominations, where the conference was being held. They sought to verify every detail. Whatever they learned about the conduct of the committee and council members—their proposals, their remarks, their contemptuous attitude toward the Jewish religion, and Pinsker’s speeches mocking Jewish customs—they hurried to pass on to the coordinators for public dissemination. After every conference session, the committee members Goldberg and Bashkovitz would come to the synagogue and tell everyone what had been said at the conference concerning the Jewish religion. They said that the government treated the rulings of Eliezer Lifshitz—whom they called “the scoundrel” and would not mention by name—as the rulings of a rabbi in Israel, because he held a rabbinical title from the seminary in Metz. Their own objections, those of Goldberg and Bashkovitz, were disregarded because the freethinkers were in the majority. Several times, the two of them protested vehemently, with sharp words, against the committee members Worbel and Eichenbaum, saying they were worse than the inquisitors in Spain. The inquisitors had come in the name of those who upheld the religion of Moshe and Israel; these men, supposedly, came in the name of the Jewish religion itself. Once, when Eichenbaum’s words angered them greatly, Goldberg and Bashkovitz turned to the Christian chairman and said that it was a disgrace for any thinking person to listen to someone who reviled religion, let alone take the views of such people into account. They protested with all the force of the rights the law gave them as conference members against deciding matters by the opinions of four conference members simply because those four were the majority, when the delegates’ authority came from the voters who had elected them. Surely the government officials, too, knew that those four members represented only five percent of the voters. They, on the other hand, were only two, but represented ninety

14:58 five percent of the Jews who observed the Jewish religion and Torah. Lifshitz, Worbel, and Eichenbaum became very upset and demanded that the chairman order Goldberg and Bashkovitz’s insulting remarks to be entered into the record. They demanded that the two be punished for them, and Mandelstam added that they had affronted the government by accusing it of conducting the delegate elections improperly—as if the small group of voters had received four delegates and the large group only two. He fixed Goldberg and Bashkovitz with a piercing look. Bashkovitz said to him, “Is that not the truth? Not only are ninety-five percent of the voters religiously observant, but ninety percent of the questions brought before the conference for resolution concern religious observance—a religion none of you believes in at all. Nine questions concern shechitah. Five concern the synagogue. You eat non-kosher food and desecrate Shabbos and Yom Tov. What do shechitah and those who perform it, or matters of the synagogue, have to do with you? The four questions concerning kiddushin have nothing to do with you either. Only two questions—whether an uncircumcised person is a Jew, and a question concerning an apostate and his inheritance—have any relevance to you. It is a farce, a farce, that of the twenty questions for which the offices of the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Education called a conference of delegates, eighteen do not concern these delegates at all, yet these are the people who form the majority whose opinion will decide them.” The chairman became angry but said nothing. Goldberg continued: “About two weeks ago, we told the Jews in the synagogue about the course of the conference, the delegates’ opinions on religious matters, and their mockery of Jewish customs. The assembled listeners demanded that we publicize these things in every Jewish town. If the conference chairman and the government officials take account only of the views of those who deny the Jewish religion and mock Jewish customs, then we, the delegates Bashkovitz and Goldberg, must submit a written protest and, along with it, our resignation

17:10 for the simple reason that, in a climate where decisions on religious matters have been entrusted to people who violate the religion, we cannot fulfill our duties and must relinquish responsibility.” Mandelstam exclaimed, “So this is what you tell people about the delegates Goldberg and Bashkovitz—wait, excuse me. You,” he shouted, “tell people about the delegates Goldberg and Bashkovitz, the organizers of the assembly! Your whole purpose is to make the conduct of the government officials odious in the eyes of the Jews. They are carrying out their duties toward the Jews and the citizens of the country by imperial command, and you deserve to be punished as rebels against the crown.” Goldberg answered him, “Is the synagogue worse than Nikolai Kharitonov’s restaurant, where you gather and consult among yourselves? Has the time already come to propose to the conference that chalitzah and the laws of agunos be abolished among the Jewish people? Our fellow member Eichenbaum expressed his opinion that these questions should be put before this conference and decided by a majority vote—yet we are forbidden to reveal your opinions and proposals in public?” Goldberg continued: “In recent days, we have received letters containing instructions and warnings from forty cities and towns, all saying the same thing: ‘As we have learned, most of the conference members have cast off the yoke of Torah, deny the Torah of Moshe, and scorn the mitzvos. And Eliezer Lifshitz, a man placed under a ban by the great Torah scholars of Israel, has been given the title of rabbi so that he can rule on and resolve questions submitted to the government. We, the Torah-observant Jews who elected you to defend our religion and Torah, ask you, since you are in the minority, to convey the protest of Torah-observant Jews against the opinions and proposals of the committee members Mr. Lifshitz, Mr. Worbel, Mr. Eichenbaum, and Mr. Bernstein, who eat non-kosher food and desecrate Shabbos and Yom Tov, and to submit your resignation to the Department of Religious Denominations at the Ministry of the Interior.’ On the basis of the letters and instructions we have received,” Goldberg continued, rising from his seat as his fellow conference member Bashkovitz rose with him, “we intend to express to the most honorable chairman our vigorous protest in the name of the Torah-observant Jews who sent”

19:26 us to this conference. At the same time, we would submit our resignations as elected delegates to the conference. When Goldberg handed the paper to the chairman, the other four conference members were so alarmed that they could not utter a word. The chairman was furious: how dare Jews with beards and peyos, dressed in the traditional Jewish clothing worn throughout the Pale of Settlement, speak so plainly against the educated Jews and the government ministers? Nevertheless, he restrained himself and said with a smile, “I did not know there were Jews so sincere that they wished to faithfully fulfill their duty to those who sent them.” “That,” Bashkovitz replied, “is the plight of the Jewish people: government officials do not know the Jews who observe the faith and its mitzvos, who give their lives to keep the Torah and fulfill its mitzvos. Jews can give up their money and sometimes even endure physical suffering, but when it comes to their faith and the Torah, they do not yield. And how great is the plight of the Jewish people when government ministers know only those who may have come from among the Jewish people but have no connection whatsoever to the Torah or to the faith. They are morally corrupt, driven by their desires, and more. And it is by them that the government ministers judge all Jews.” Despite all the proposals and pleas, the conference delegates Goldberg and Bashkovitz left the conference.