s way the inception of the new reign was marked by a
characteristic slogan: the fusion of the Jews with the Russian people,
to be promoted by alleviations in their legal status. The way leading to
this "fusion" was, in the judgment of Russian officialdom, blocked by
the historic unity of the Jewish nation, a unity which in governmental
phraseology was styled "Jewish separatism" and interpreted as the effect
of the inferior "moral status" of the Jews. At the same time it was
implied that Jews with better "morals," i.e., those who have shown a
leaning toward Russification, might be accorded special legal advantages
over their retrograde coreligionists.

From that moment the bureaucratic circles of St. Petersburg became
obsessed with the idea of picking out special groups from among the
Jewish population, distinguished by financial or educational
qualifications, for the purpose of bestowing upon them certain rights
and privileges. It was the old coin--Nicholas' idea of the "assortment"
of the Jews--with a new legend stamped upon it. Formerly it had been
intended to penalize the "useless" or "unsettled burghers" by
intensifying their rightlessness; now this plan gave way to the policy
of rewarding the "useful" elements by enlarging their rights or reducing
their rightlessness. The objectionable principle upon which this whole
system was founded, the division of a people into categories of
favorites and outcasts, remained in full force. There was only a
difference in degree: the threat of legal restrictions for the
disobedient was replaced by holding out promises of legal alleviations
for the obedient.

A small group of influential Jewish merchants in St. Petersburg, which
stood in close relations to the highest official spheres, the purveyor
and banker Baron Joseph Yozel Guenzburg [1] and others, seized eagerly
upon this idea which bade fair to shower privileges upon the well-to-do
classes. In June, 1856, this group addressed a petition to Alexander
II., complaining about the disabilities which weighed so heavily upon
all Jews, "from the artisan to the first guild merchant, from the
private soldier to the Master of Arts, and forced them down to the level
of a degraded, suspected, untolerated tribe." At the same time they
assured the Tzar that, were the Government to give a certain amount of
encouragement to the Jews, the latter would gladly meet it half-way and
help in the realization of its policy to draw the Jews nearer