rence to this situation deserves
to be quoted: "True," he said, "the Jews of the provinces may possibly
be guilty of indifference towards the revolutionary cause, but can we
expect any other attitude from those we oppress?" [1] It may be added
that soon afterwards the question of military service as affecting the
Jews was solved by the Diet. By the law of May 30, 1831, the Jews were
released from conscription on the payment of a tax which was four times
as large as the one paid by them in former years.

[Footnote 1: In the Western provinces outside the Kingdom of Poland, in
Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia, the Jewish population held itself
aloof from the insurrectionary movement. Here and there the Jews even
sympathized with the Russian Government, despite the fact that the
latter threw the Polish rulers into the shade by the extent of its
Jewish persecutions. In some places the Polish insurgents made the Jews
pay with their lives for their pro-Russian sympathies.]

When the "aristocratic revolution," having failed to obtain the support
of the disinherited masses, had met with disaster, the revolutionary
leaders, who saved themselves by fleeing abroad, indulged in remorseful
reflections. The Polish historian Lelevel, who lived in Paris as a
refugee, issued in 1832 a "Manifesto to the Israelitish Nation," calling
upon the Jews to forget the insults inflicted upon them by present-day
Poland for the sake of the sweet reminiscences of the Polish Republic in
days gone by and of the hopes inspired by a free Poland in days to come.
He compares the flourishing condition of the Jews in the ancient Polish
commonwealth with their present status on the same territory, under the
yoke of "the Viennese Pharaohs," [1] or in the land "dominated by the
Northern Nebuchadnezzar," [2] where the terror of conscription reigns
supreme, where "little children, wrenched from the embraces of their
mothers, are hurled into the ranks of a debased soldiery," "doomed to
become traitors to their religion and nation."

[Footnote 1: Referring to Galicia.]

[Footnote 2: Nicholas I.]

The reign of nations--exclaims Lelevel--is drawing nigh. All peoples
will be merged into one, acknowledging the one God Adonai. The rulers
have fed the Jews on false promises; the nations will grant them
liberty. Soon Poland will rise from the dust. Let then the Jews living
on her soil go hand in hand with their brother-Poles. The Jews will then
be sure to