he political sense of the Jews. They were not aware of
the fact that St. Petersburg's conspiracy against Judaism had long been
exposed in the Pale of Settlement, if only for the reason that the
conspirators were not clever enough to hide even for a time the
chastising knout beneath the cloak of "cultural" reforms.

4. INTERCESSION OF WESTERN EUROPEAN JEWRY

The mask of the Russian Government was soon torn down also before the
yes of Western Europe. In the initial stage of Lilienthal's campaign,
public-minded Jews of Western Europe were inclined to believe that a
happy era was dawning upon their coreligionists in Russia. At the
instance of Uvarov, Lilienthal had entered into correspondence with
Philippson, Geiger, Cremieux, Montefiore, and other leaders of
West-European Jewry, bespeaking their moral support on behalf of the
school-reform and going so far as to invite them to participate in the
proceedings of the Rabbinical Commission convened at St. Petersburg. The
replies from these prominent Jews were full of complimentary references
to Uvarov's endeavors. The _Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums_,[1] in the
beginning of the forties, voiced the general belief that the era of
persecutions in Russia had come to an end.

[Footnote 1: A weekly founded by Dr. Ludwig Philippson in 1837. It still
appears in Berlin.]

The frontier expulsions of 1843 acted like a cold douche on these
enthusiasts. They realized that the pitiless banishment of thousands of
families from home and hearth was not altogether compatible with
"benevolent intentions." A sensational piece of news made its rounds
through Germany: the well-known painter Oppenheim of Frankfurt-on-the-Main
had given up working at the large picture ordered by the leaders of
several Jewish communities for presentation to the Tzar. The painting
had been intended as an allegory, picturing a sunrise in a dark realm,
but the happy anticipations proved a will o' the wisp, and the plan had
to be given up. Instead, Western Europe was resounding with moans from
Russia, betokening new persecutions and even more atrocious schemes of
restrictions. The sufferings of the Russian Jews suggested the thought
that it was the duty of the influential Jews of the West to intercede on
behalf of their persecuted brethren before the emperor of Russia.

The choice fell on the famous Jewish philanthropist in London, Sir Moses
Montefiore, who stood in close relations to the court of Queen Victoria.