now crammed with the
ideas of positivism, evolution, and socialism. Sharp and sudden was the
transition from rabbinic scholasticism and soporific hasidic mysticism
to this new world of ideas, flooded with the light of science, to these
new revelations announcing the glad tidings of the freedom of thought,
of the demolition of all traditional fetters, of the annihilation of all
religious and national barriers, of the brotherhood of all mankind. The
Jewish youth began to shatter the old idols, disregarding the outcry of
the masses that had bowed down before them. A tragic war ensued between
"fathers and children," [1] a war of annihilation, for the belligerent
parties were extreme obscurantism and fanaticism, on the one hand, and
the negation of all historic forms of Judaism, both religious and
national, on the other.

[Footnote 1: The title of a famous novel by Turgenieff, written in 1862,
depicting the break between the old and the new generation.]

In the middle between these two extremes stood the men of the
transitional period, the adepts of Haskalah, those "lovers of
enlightenment" who had in younger years suffered for their convictions
at the hands of fanatics and now came forward to make peace between
religion and culture. Encouraged by the success of the new ideas, the
Maskilim became more aggressive in their struggle with obscurantism.
They ventured to expose the Tzaddiks who scattered the seeds of
superstition, to ridicule the ignorance and credulity of the masses, and
occasionally went so far as to complain of the burdensome ceremonial
discipline, hinting at the need of moderate religious reforms. Their
principal task, however, was the cultivation of the Neo-Hebraic literary
style and the rejuvenation of the content of that literature. They were
willing to pursue the road of the emancipated Jewry of Western Europe,
but only to a certain limit, refusing to cut themselves adrift from the
national language or the religious and national ideals.

On the other hand, that section of the young generation which had passed
through a Russian school refused to recognize any such barriers, and
rushed with elemental force on the road of self-annihilation.
_Russification_ became the war cry of these Jewish circles, as it had
long been the watchword of the Government. The one side was anxious to
Russify, the other was equally anxious to be Russified, and the natural
result was an _entente cordiale_ between the new Jewish _i