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The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Jacob S. Raisin
page 99 of 309 (32%)
Russia, protested. Prayers were offered for the unfortunate. Crémieux in
France and Rabbi Philippson in Germany appealed to the public. All to no
effect. Grief was especially manifest among English Jews, always the
first to feel when their fellow-Jews in other countries suffer, and
Grace Aguilar, like Rachel weeping over her children, lamented over her
Russian brethren:

Ay, death! for such is exile--fearful doom,
From homes expelled yet still to Poland chain'd;
Till want and famine mind and life consume,
And sorrow's poison'd chalice all is drained.
O God, that this should be! that one frail man
Hath power to crush a nation 'neath his ban.

At this critical period, Moses Montefiore, encouraged by his success in
refuting the blood accusation at Damascus, and stimulated by the many
petitions he had received from Russia, Germany, France, Italy, England,
and America, undertook the philanthropic mission of interceding with the
czar on behalf of his coreligionists. It is natural to suspect that no
trouble is entirely undeserved; it is but human to sympathize with our
friends, and yet regard their suffering as a judgment rather than a
misfortune. But Montefiore's trip to Russia dispelled the last trace of
suspicion against the Russian Jews. In spite of their poverty, he saw
numerous charitable and educational institutions in every city he
visited. He found the Jewish men to be the cream of Russia. "He had the
satisfaction," Doctor Loewe, his secretary, tells us, "of seeing among
them many well-educated wives, sons, and daughters; their dwellings were
scrupulously clean, the furniture plain but suitable for the purpose,
and the appearance of the family healthy." To all his pleadings Count
Uvarov returned but a single answer: "The Russian Jews are different
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