Russia and "Soviet Union": Jews in Moscow

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Russia and "Soviet Union": Jews in Moscow

(Found this by luck. Has history on the Benei Zion group of Jewish Zionists in pre-revolution Russia... note the economic intrigues... The CSR)

Prohibition of Jewish settlement until 18th century - merchants - Guild Jews in Glebovskoye inn - former Cantonists founding community - expulsion 1892 - Jewish refugees since 1915 - community - Communist Moscow - WW II - persecution and cultural life under the Soviet regimes 1945-1970

from: Moscow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 12

presented by Michael Palomino (2008) (A Zio-Historian. Notice no mention of the Jew Bolshevik Cheka and plenty of blaming "Orthodox Christians" instead of Shetl Bound Idiot Talmudic Rabbis... -- The CSR)


<MOSCOW, (Rus. Moskva), capital of the U.S.S.R. and from the Middle Ages the political, economic, and commercial center of *Russia.

[Some Jews in Moscow up to the 18th century - general prohibition to settle in Moscow]

Up to the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to reside in Moscow although (col. 359)

[[The criminal orthodox "Christians" Church was the driving force against the Jews but is never mentioned in the article]].  

many Jewish merchants from Poland and Lithuania visited the city. In 1676 Jews who brought their wares to Moscow were expelled. Apostates and forced converts who maintained varying degrees of connection with Judaism and the Jews were to be found in Moscow during various periods. A few Jews among the prisoners brought to Moscow after the wars against Poland apostatized and settle there. A physician of Jewish origin, Daniel Gordon, was employed by the court in Moscow from 1657 to 1687; Peter Shafirov, one of the most important advisers of Czar Peter the Great, was also of Jewish origin.

[Belarus Jews from Shklov in Moscow since 1772 - only temporary stay permitted since 1791]

With the Russian annexation of Belorussia (1772), the number of Jewish merchants living in Moscow for commercial reasons increased; they came in particular from *Shklov, then an important commercial center in Belorussia. One of these was the contractor and merchant Nathan Note *Notkin.

In 1790 Moscow merchants requested that the presence and commercial activities of the Jews in the city be prohibited. A royal decree forbidding Jewish merchants to settle in the inner districts of Russia was issued in 1791. However, they were authorized to stay for temporary periods in Moscow to carry on their trade. Most of the Jews who came to Moscow lodged at the Glebovskoye podvorye, an inn which was situated in the center of the market quarter.

[Jewish merchants between Moscow and the West and the South - Jewish export trade]

Jewish merchants continued to play an important role in the trade between Moscow and the southern and western regions of Russia, as well as in the export of Moscow's goods, and in 1828 the turnover of this trade was estimated at 27,000,000 rubles. As a result, Russian industrialists in Moscow supported the rights of (col. 360)

the Jews.

[Guild Jews with the right to remain one month in Moscow since 1828 - Glebovskoye inn - prolonged stay of six months]

In 1828 Jewish merchants who were members of the first and second guilds were authorized to remain in Moscow on business for a period of one month only. They were forbidden to open shops or to engage in trade within the city boundaries. To facilitate the execution of these regulations, the Jews were compelled to lodge solely in the Glebovskoye podvorye. The inn was a charitable trust which had been handed over to the Moscow city council to use its income for the maintenance of a municipal eye clinic. Exorbitant prices were soon extorted from Jewish merchants who had to stay at the inn.

After a few years, third-class merchants were also authorized to enter the town under the same conditions and the period of their stay was prolonged to six months. About 250 people made use of this right every year. As a result of these restrictions Jewish trade decreased to about 12,000,000 rubles annually during subsequent years.

[Temporary residence in whole Moscow for Jews since 1855]

When Alexander II came to the throne (1855), Jewish merchants were permitted to reside temporarily in all the sections of the town.

[Permanent settlement of Jewish Cantonists - professions and careers]

The first Jews to settle permanently in Moscow, and the founders of the community, were *Cantonists who had finished military service, some of whom had married Jewish women from the *Pale of Settlement. In 1858 there were 340 Jewish men and 104 Jewish women in the whole of the district of Moscow. After Jewish merchants of the first guild, university graduates, and craftsmen were allowed to settle in the interior of Russia, the number of Jews increased rapidly. Some were extremely wealthy, such as Eliezer *Polyakov, one of the most important bankers in Russia and head of the community, and K.Z. *Wissotzki.

From 1865 to 1884 Hayyim (Ḥayyim) Berlin officiated as rabbi of Moscow, and in 1869 the community invited S.Z. *Minor, one of the outstanding students of the Vilna rabbinical seminary, to serve as the *kazyonny ravvin (government-appointed rabbi).

[Numbers 1871-1890 - liberal governor of Moscow, Prince Dolgorukov]

There was an estimated Jewish population of 8,000 in the city in 1871, which had grown to around 12,000 in 1882 and 35,000 (over 3% of the total population) in 1890, just before the expulsion.

The governor of Moscow, Prince Dolgorukov, was known for his liberal attitude toward the Jews, and (after receiving bribes and gifts) the local administration overlooked their illegal presence (as in the case of fictive craftsmen). A considerable number of industrialists and merchants recognized the advantages deriving from Jewish presence in the city, and in a memorandum addressed to the minister of finance in 1882 they pointed out their great contribution to the city's prosperity.

While anti-Jewish persecutions and decrees were gaining momentum throughout Russia after the accession of Alexander III, a period of relative ease, the legacy of the previous czar, continued in Moscow. This situation (col. 363)

changed completely with the deposition of Prince Dolgorukov and the appointment of Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich as governor of the city. During the 14 years (1891-1905) of his term in office, his main aim was "to protect Moscow from Jewry".

The Expulsion.

[The expulsion decree of the Jews of Moscow in 1891 under Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich - expulsion of about 30,000 Jews in 1892 - flight to Warsaw and Lodz]

On March 28, 1891 (Passover Eve 5651), a law was issued abolishing the right of Jewish craftsmen to reside in Moscow and prohibiting their entry into the city in the future. The police immediately began to expel thousands of families, some of whom had lived in Moscow for several decades or were even born there. They were granted a period of from three months to a year to dispose of their property and many were compelled to sell out to their neighbours at derisory prices.

The poor and destitute were sent to the Pale of Settlement with criminal transports. On October 15 the right of descendants of the Cantonists to live in the town was abrogated, if they were not registered with the Moscow community. The expulsion reached its climax during the cold winter days of 1892. While the police made a concerted effort to search out the Jews and drive them out of the city, generous rewards were offered for the seizure of any still in hiding.

The press was not permitted to report on the details of the expulsion. An appeal to the government made by merchants and industrialists in 1892 and their warning of the economic damage that would result from the expulsion were of no avail. Police sources estimated that about 30,000 persons were expelled. About 5,000 Jews remained - families of some Cantonists, wealthy merchants and their servants, and members of the liberal professions.

[[As it seems the brutal police force is collaborating willingly and makes career with the expulsion of the Jews. And the criminal Orthodox "Christian" Church is never mentioned in the article]].

The Moscow expulsion came as a deep shock to Russian Jewry. A considerable number of those expelled arrived in Warsaw and Lodz and transferred their economic activities there. [[...]]

In 1893 J. *Mazeh was elected as rabbi of Moscow, remaining its spiritual leader until his death in 1923. [[...]] In 1897 there were 8,095 Jews and 216 Karaites in Moscow (0.8% of the total population). [[...]]

[More restrictions for the staying bout 5,000 Jews]

Decrees regulating residence in Moscow became even more severe. In 1899 the authorities ordered that no more Jewish merchants were to be registered in the first guild unless authorized by the minister of finance. At the height of the expulsion period, the authorities closed down the new synagogue, as well as nine of the 14 prayer houses. Rabbi S.Z. Minor, who requested the reopening of the synagogue, was expelled from the city. The struggle for the use of the synagogue continued for many years and it was not until 1906 that permission was granted for its reopening. [[...]]

In 1902 there were 9,339 Jews there, and half of them declared Yiddish as their mother tongue; the overwhelming majority of the others declared it to be Russian. [[...]]

A considerable number of the members of the small community were wealthy merchants and intellectuals. Assimilated Jews (some of whom apostatized) held an important place in the cultural life of the city. In 1911 there were around 700 Jewish students in the higher institutions of learning in Moscow.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 359-360. Twenty-fifth anniversary meeting in Moscow of the early [[racist]] Zionist group, Benei Zion, 1909. The photograph includes: 1. Jehiel Joseph Levontin, 2. Jacob Mazeh, 3. Jehiel Tschlenow, 4. Pesah Marek, 5. Isaac Naiditsch, 6. Eliezer Tcherikower. Jerusalem, J.N.U.L., Schwadron Collection

[World War I: Jewish refugees - Moscow becomes a Jewish center - Lithuanian structure - cultural life]

After the outbreak of World War I, from 1915, a stream of Jewish refugees began to arrive in Moscow from the German-occupied regions. They took part in the development of war industries in the town and some of them amassed large fortunes. In a short time, Moscow became a Jewish center.

[[The Jewish refugees were expelled by the Russian army from the frontier districts, see *Lithuania, *Latvia, and *Estonia]].

Hebrew printing presses were set up, and in the town of Bogorodsk (near Moscow) a large yeshivah [[religious Torah school]] was established on the pattern of the Lithuanian yeshivot [[religious Torah schools]]. Thee foundations of the Hebrew theater *Habimah were then laid. Among the new rich were [[racist]] Zionists and nationally conscious Jews who were ready to support every cultural activity. Most outstanding of these were H. *Zlatopolsky, his son-in-law Y. Persitz, and A.J. *Stybel. Authorization was given for the publication of a Hebrew weekly, Ha-Am.

[February revolution of 1917]

Cultural activity increased in scope with the outbreak of the (col. 364)

February 1917 Revolution. It was symbolical that O. *Minor, the son of S.Z. Minor, a leader of the Social Revolutionary Party, was elected as chairman of the Moscow municipal council. [[...]]



Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 362. Last issue of the Moscow Hebrew newspaper, Ha-Am, November 23, 1917. The lead articleis on the Balfour Declaration. Jerusalem, Central Zionist Archives.


[Numbers 1920-1926]

When Moscow became the capital of the Soviet Union, its Jewish population rapidly increased. In 1920 there were 28,000 Jews in the city, which had become severely depopulated as a result of the civil war. By 1923 the number had increased to 86,000 and by 1926 to 131,000 (6.5% of the total population). [[...]]

[More Jewish cultural activities in Moscow - 400,000 Jews estimated in 1940]

Ha-Am became a daily newspaper and two large publishing houses, Ommanut (founded by Zlatopolsky and Persitz) and that of A.J. Stybel, were set up. The founding conference of the organization for Hebrew education and culture, *Tarbut, was held in Moscow in the spring of 1917. This activity also continued during the first year of the Bolshevik Revolution (three volumes of Ha-Tekufah were published in 1918, as well as others) but the new regime, with the assistance of its Jewish supporters, rapidly liquidated the institutions of Hebrew culture in Moscow.

The Habimah theater was more fortunate; it presented An-Ski's Dibbuk (Dybbuk) in Moscow for the first time in January 1922 and continued to exist under the protection of several prominent members of the Russian artistic and literary world who defended it as a first class artistic institution, until it left the Soviet Union in 1926. [[...]]

[[The Communist terror against the merchants and the NEP policy are not mentioned in this article, see: *Soviet Union. The Gulag system and forced labour system in "Soviet Union" with the construction of long railroad lines or canals accompanied by mass death by freezing or hunger etc. are never mentioned in Encyclopaedia Judaica]].



Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 361-362. The Moscow Jewish State Theater in a production of "King Lear" with S. Mikhoels in the title role, 1935. Courtesy C.A.H.J.P., Jerusalem.


In 1940 the Jewish population was estimated at 400,000. the headquarters of the *Yevsektsiya was situated in Moscow, and there its central newspaper Der Emes (1920-38) was published as well as many other Yiddish newspapers and books. The Jewish State Theater (known in Russian as GOSET from its initials), directed by S. *Mikhoels, was also situated in Moscow. For a number of years, small circles of organized [[racist]] Zionists continued to exist in the city, which was the central seat of the legal *He-Halutz (He-Ḥalutz) (which published its own newspaper from 1924 to 1926) and of the groups of the Left *Po'alei Zion. All these were liquidated by 1928.

[World War II - Anti-Fascist Committee and newspaper "Eynikeyt"]

During World War II, the Jews shared the sufferings of the war with the city's other inhabitants. From 1943 Moscow was seat of the Jewish *Anti-Fascist Committee which gathered together personalities of Jewish origin who were outstanding in Soviet public affairs. Founded to assist the Soviet Union in its war effort against Nazi Germany and to mobilize world Jewish opinion and aid for this purpose, it published a newspaper, Eynikeyt [[Yidd.: "Unity"]].

[Y.S.]

[[The Big Flight from Barbarossa, the circumstances in the hard winters and the defense battles before Moscow are not mentioned]].

After World War II. [Destruction of the Jewish communities since 1948]

The Anti-Fascist Committee attempted to continue with its activities even after the war until it was brutally liquidated in 1948-49, as a first step in the total liquidation of organized Jewish life in the "black years" of Stalin's regime.

[[Since 1948 - since the foundation of a racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel - Stalin's anger was headed against the Jews in general, because the new "Jewish State of Israel" - with the aim of borderlines at the Nile and at the Euphrates (according to 1st Mose, chapter 15, phrase 18) - was collaborating with the criminal "USA" and it's secret service CIA. By this Stalin and his government felt encircled by the Western powers, and corresponding measures were taken to destroy any Western structure in the Soviet Union, so, also all Jewish life. And the "Soviet Union" was supporting all Arab states against racist Zionist imperialism. By all this there was born the eternal war in the Middle East. Stalin's regime wanted to have Israel as a Communist satellite on the Mediterranean Sea...]]

Most of its [[the Anti-Fascist Committee's]] leading members were arrested and executed in 1952.

[Representatives from racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel in Moscow - demonstrations]

Because Moscow is the capital and a "window" of the Soviet Union, it has been (col. 365)

possible for world Jewry to follow the destinies of Moscow's Jews more than those in other cities and the latter have been more able to meet with Jews from outside the Soviet Union. When Golda *Meir, the first diplomatic representative of the [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] State of Israel, arrived in Moscow in September 1948, a spontaneous mass demonstration of Jews in her honour took place on the High Holidays near and around the Great Synagogue. The mere presence of an Israel diplomatic mission with an Israel flag in the center of Moscow was a constant stimulus to Jewish and pro-Israel sentiments among the Jews of Moscow and Jewish visitors from other parts of the Soviet Union.

The Israel delegation to the Youth Festival, held in Moscow in 1957, was the first occasion of personal contacts between Jewish youth from [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel and the U.S.S.R. It is considered to have been a turning point in the revival of Jewish national feelings and their daring demonstration in public on the part of Soviet Jewish youth.

Already in 1958, on *Simhat (Simḥat) Torah eve more than 10,000 young Jews gathered around the Great Synagogue to dance and sing Yiddish and Hebrew songs. They refused to be intimidated by the militia and to disperse. Thus these mass gatherings of young Jews, which also take place on their Jewish holidays, became a traditional feature of Jewish life in Moscow.

In 1955 some elderly Jews were tried and sentenced to several years of imprisonment in labour camps for possessing and distributing Israel newspapers and Hebrew literature and gathering in groups to read them. For similar "offenses" several Jews of the Great Synagogue congregation were punished in 1963. (col. 366) [[...]]

From 1961 a barrier was erected in the Great Synagogue to separate foreign visitors, including Israel diplomats, from the congregation, and the synagogue officers were responsible to the authorities for strictly enforcing the segregation. (col. 367) [[...]]

[Numbers]

In the census of 1959, 239,246 Jews (4.7% of the total population) were registered in the municipal area of Moscow. Of these, 132,223 were women and 107,023 were men. 20,331 of them (about 8.5%) declared Yiddish to be their mother tongue. These numbers are thought to be a gross underestimate because many tens of thousands of Jews declared at the census their "nationality" to be Russian (some opinions evaluate the number of Moscow's Jews as high as 500,000). (col. 368)

[Pogrom of 1959: fire in the synagogue - murder of the shammash - graffiti]

In 1959, on Rosh Ha-Shanah eve, an anti-Jewish riot took place in Malakhovka, a suburb of Moscow. The synagogue was set afire, but quickly extinguished; the shammash [[salaried servant in a synagogue]] of the Jewish cemetery was murdered by unknown persons and on the walls a typewritten anti-Semitic tract appeared, signed by "the B.Zh.S.R. Committee", the Russian initials of the prerevolutionary anti-Semitic slogan "Hit the Yids and save Russia".

At first Soviet spokesmen denied the facts, but several months later admitted them to foreign visitors, assuring them that the hooligans were apprehended and severely punished. The Soviet press did not mention the incident at all.

[[It can be admitted that there were many more pogroms]].

[Jewish cemetery discontinued since 1960 - economic trials]

In 1960 a stir was created among Moscow Jewry when burying at the Jewish cemetery was almost discontinued and Jews were forced to bury their dead in a separate section of a general cemetery. This section was filled up in 1963 and subsequent Jewish burials had to take (col. 367)

place alongside non-Jewish ones. Some Jews in various ways obtained the privilege of burying their dead in the remaining space of the old Jewish cemetery, others carried them to the Jewish cemetery of Malakhovka.

At the same period several Jews in Moscow were accused, tried, and sentenced to the severest punishment, including execution, for "economic crimes", such as speculation, organizing illicit production and sale of consumer goods in collusion with high officials of the militia, directors of factories, etc. Their trials were accompanied by inflammatory feature articles (called "feuilletons") in the central Moscow press with pronounced anti-Semitic overtones.

[[After every war in the Middle East with a winner named "Israel" (racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel) there was a new anti-Semitic propaganda wave, with the destruction of cemeteries step by step, of synagogues, and with new discrimination laws]].

[Yiddish culture in Moscow: Yiddish newspapers and writers]

However, Moscow was also the center of other developments. IN 1959 some Yiddish books, most of them selective works of the classics (*Shalom Aleichem, I.L. *Peretz, D. *Bergelson, etc.), were published there after a prolonged period of the complete obliteration of any printed Yiddish word. Yiddish folklore concerts took place relatively frequently in the city and drew large crowds. Even a semiprofessional theater troupe, headed by the elderly actor Benjamin Schwartzer, was established and mainly performed Shalom Aleichem plays in provincial cities. In 1961 the Yiddish journal *Sovetish Heymland [[Soviet Homeland]] edited by an officially appointed editor, the poet Aaron *Vergelis, began to appear as an "organ of the Soviet Writers' Union", first as a bimonthly, later as a monthly. It also served as a kind of Soviet-Jewish mouthpiece for foreign Jews and visiting Jewish intellectuals were invited to its premises to meet members of its editorial staff. In 1963 and 1965 collections of Israel Hebrew poetry and prose were published in Russian translation, as well as a Hebrew-Russian dictionary in 1965 (in 25,000 copies), which was sold out in a few weeks.

[Cultural life - Rabbi Schliefer, a pacifist rabbi with revised Jewish prayer book without wars]

The Great Synagogue and its rabbi (first S. *Schliefer and after his death J. L. *Levin) serve the authorities often as unofficial representatives of Soviet Jewry to the outside world.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 367. Chief Rabbi Levin (right) and Cantor Steinberg during a Passover service in the Moscow Great Synagogue, 1966. Courtesy D. Bar-Tov, Jerusalem.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Great Synagogue was allowed to issue a Jewish calendar and to sent it to other synagogues in the U.S.S.R. In 1956 Rabbi Schliefer was granted permission to print a prayer book, by photostat from old prayer books. He named it Siddur ha-Shalom ("peace prayer book") and deleted from it all references to wars and victories (as, e.g., in the Hanukkah (Ḥanukkah) benedictions). It was said to have been printed in 3,000 copies, but it was very rarely seen in other synagogues in the Soviet Union. (A second edition of it was printed, ostensibly in 10,000 copies, in 1968 by Rabbi (col. 366)

Levin, but it also was not much in use in Soviet synagogues).

[The religious Torah school of the pacifist rabbi Schliefer since 1957]

In 1957 Rabbi Schliefer received permission from the authorities to open a yeshivah [[religious Torah school]] on the premises of the Great Synagogue. He called it "Kol Ya'akov", and for several years a small number of young and middle-aged Jews (bout 12 persons a year), mostly from Georgia, were trained there, almost all of them as *shohatim (shoḥatim) (ritual slaughterers), whereas the number of ordained rabbis did not exceed one or two. In 1961 the yeshivah, though officially still in existence, almost ceased to function, mainly because of the refusal of the Soviet authorities to grant permission to yeshivah students, who went for the holiday to their homes outside Moscow, to come back and register again as temporary residents of the city for the purpose of study. By 1963, 37 students had passed through the yeshivah; 25 of them were trained as shohatim (shoḥatim). In 1965 only one student was there, and in 1966 the number was six.

[Unleavened bread - ritual slaughtering]

The unrestricted baking of mazzah (maẓẓah) [unleavened bread]] in a rented bakery and its distribution in food stores was discontinued in Moscow, as in most areas of the Soviet Union, in 1962. However, it was partially permitted again in 1964 and definitely in 1965, but under a different system: it was done under the supervision of the synagogue board and was only for "believers" who brought their own flour and registered their names.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 365. Baking mazzah in Moscow.


The ritual slaughtering of poultry was allowed in the precincts of the Great Synagogue whereas kosher beef was obtainable until 1964 twice a week at a special store on the outskirts of the city. (col. 367) [[...]]

[1970]

In 1970 three synagogues were functioning in the city of Moscow. Apart from the Great Synagogue on Arkhipova Street, there were two small synagogues - in the suburbs of Maryina Roshcha and Cherkizovo, which were wooden buildings, more of the type of a shtibl [[small room]] than of a full-fledged synagogue. In addition to them, there was a synagogue in the nearby town of Malakhovka, practically also a suburb of Greater Moscow, which has had a sizable Jewish population from prerevolutionary times. (col. 366)

[Contacts with racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel]

Contacts with Israel took manifold forms. The Israel embassy invited to its receptions not only the rabbis and board members of the various synagogues, but also Jewish writers, artists, and other intellectuals. In various sport events, international scientific congresses, and international exhibitions [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel was almost always represented, and often not only Moscow Jews but also Jews from other parts of the Soviet Union, even from outlying regions, came especially to the capital "to see the Israelis". From time to time Israel popular singers (e.g., Nechama Hendel, Geulah Gil, etc.) and other artists performed in Moscow and aroused great enthusiasm, particularly among young Jews.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Moscow, Vol. 12, col. 361. The Israel Embassy in Moscow, prior to June 1967

The Six-Day War and the rupture of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel (June 1967) put an end to these contacts.

[[The Six-Day War was a national climax for the Jewish racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl government, and racist members of the government said the new occupations were a step forward to a "Greater Israel", e.g. Moshe Dayan. Palestinians were treated like pigs]].

But, on the other hand, many Moscow Jews, especially the young, began more and more openly to demonstrate their pro-Israel feelings - by continuing increasingly their mass gatherings around the Great Synagogue, by signing collective protests against the refusal to grant them exit permits to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, by studying Hebrew in small groups, etc. Unlike other cities, like *Riga, *Leningrad, *Kishinev, and some towns in *Georgia, there were hardly any sanctions applied in Moscow in 1970 against pro-Israel Jews. [[...]]

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