Having established his fame by championing the Jewish cause in Turkey
during the ritual murder trial of Damascus in 1840, Montefiore resolved
to make a similar attempt in the land of the Tzar. In the beginning of
1846 he set out for Russia, ostensibly in the capacity of a traveler
desirous of familiarizing himself with the condition of his
coreligionists. Montefiore, who was the bearer of a personal
recommendation from Queen Victoria to the Russian emperor, was received
in St. Petersburg with great honors. During an audience granted to
Montefiore in March, 1846, the Tzar expressed his willingness to receive
from him, through the medium of the "Jewish Committee," suggestions
bearing on the condition of the Russian Jews, based on the information
to be gathered by him on his travels. Montefiore's journey through the
Pale of Settlement, including a visit to Vilna, Warsaw, and other
cities, was marked by great solemnity. He was courteously received by
the highest local officials, who acted according to instructions from
St. Petersburg, and he met everywhere with an enthusiastic welcome from
the Jewish masses, who expected great results from his intercession
before the Tzar.

Needless to say, these expectations were not realized. On his return to
London, Montefiore addressed various petitions to Kiselev, the chairman
of the Jewish Committee, to Minister Uvarov and to Paskevich, the then
viceroy of Poland. Everywhere he pleaded for a mitigation of the harsh
laws which were pressing upon his unfortunate brethren, for the
restoration of the recently abolished communal autonomy, for the
harmonization of the school-reform with the religious traditions of the
Jewish masses. The Tzar was informed of the contents of these petitions,
but it was all of no avail.

In the same year another influential foreigner made an unsuccessful
attempt to improve the condition of the Russian Jews by emigration. A
rich Jewish merchant of Marseille, named Isaac Altaras, came to Russia
with a proposal to transplant a certain number of Jews to Algiers, which
had recently passed under French rule. Fortified by letters of
recommendation from Premier Guizot and other high officials in France,
Altaras entered into negotiations with the Ministers Nesselrode and
Perovski in St. Petersburg and with Viceroy Paskevich in Warsaw, for the
purpose of obtaining permission for a certain number of Jews to emigrate
from Russia.[1] He gave the assurance that the French