e Jewish religion as well as of Russian and arithmetic, and to
establish institutions of higher rabbinical learning in the larger
cities; to Institute the office of Chief Rabbi, with a supreme
council under him, which should be in charge of Jewish spiritual and
communal affairs in Russia; to allot to a third of the
Russian-Jewish population parcels of land for agricultural purposes;
to prohibit luxury in dress and furniture in which even the
impecunious classes are prone to indulge.

Levinsohn was not satisfied to propagate his ideas by purely literary
means. He anticipated meagre results from a literary propaganda among
the broad Jewish masses, in which the mere reading of such "licentious"
books was considered a criminal offence. He had greater faith in his
ability to carry out the regeneration of Jewish life with the powerful
help of the Government. As a matter of fact, Levinsohn had long before
this begun to knock at the doors of the Russian Government offices. Far
back in 1823 he had presented to the heir-apparent Constantine
Pavlovich [1] a memorandum concerning Jewish sects and a project looking
to the establishment of a system of Jewish schools and seminaries.
Moreover, before publishing his first work _Te'udah_, he had submitted
the manuscript to Shishkov, the reactionary Minister of Public
Instruction, applying for a Government subsidy towards the publication
of a work which demonstrates the usefulness of enlightenment and
agriculture, "instills love for the Tzar as well as for the people with
which we share our life, and recounts the innumerable favors which they
have bestowed upon us."

[Footnote 1: Being the eldest brother of Alexander I., Constantine was
the legitimate heir to the Russian throne. He resigned in favor of his
younger brother Nicholas. See above, p. 13, n. 2.]

These words were penned on December 2, 1827, three months after the
promulgation of the baneful conscription ukase ordering the compulsory
enlistment of under-aged cantonists! The request was complied with. A
year later the humble Volhynian litterateur received by imperial command
an "award" of 1000 rubles ($500) "for a work having for its object the
moral transformation of the Jews." This "award" came when the volume had
already appeared in print, in the terrible year 1828 which was marked by
the first conscription of Jewish recruits, the ominous turn in the
ritual murder trial of Velizh and the constant tightening of