medal "for faithful and conscientious services," and
was given an audience by his Majesty, at which he pleaded the cause of
his coreligionists;[9] Nathan Notkin, who mitigated the possible effect
of Senator Dyerzhavin's baneful opinions concerning Jews, as expressed
in his report (_Mnyenie_, September, 1800), and who suggested the
establishment of schools for children and for adults in Yekaterinoslav
and elsewhere; Abraham Peretz, the personal friend of Speransky,
Dyerzhavin, and Potemkin, and a brilliant financier, whose high standing
enabled him to be a power for good in the councils concerning Jews;[10]
and his father-in-law, Joshua Zeitlin (1724-1822). Zeitlin was a rare
phenomenon, reminding one of the golden days of Jewish Spain. His
knowledge of finance and political economy won him the admiration of
Prince Potemkin, the protection of Czarina Catherine, and the esteem of
Alexander I, who appointed him court councillor (nadvorny sovyetnik).
But his mercantile pursuits did not hinder him from study, and his high
living did not interfere with his high thinking. His palatial home at
Ustye, in Mohilev, became a refuge for all needy Talmudists and
Maskilim, whom he helped with the liberality of a Maecenas; he conducted
an extensive correspondence on rabbinic literature, and for many years
supported Doctor Schick and Mendel Levin. For Doctor Schick he built a
laboratory, and filled his library with rare manuscripts and works on
Jewish and secular subjects.[11]

Even among the conservative Talmudists signs of improvement were not
wanting. The Gaon became the centre of a group of enlightened friends
and disciples, who continued in his footsteps after his death. His son,
Rabbi Abraham, who published and edited many of his works, a task
requiring no small amount of acumen and Talmudic erudition,[12] was also
the author of books on geography, mathematics, and physics. His pupils,
such as Doctor Schick and Rabbi Benjamin and Rabbi Zelmele, influenced
their contemporaries either directly, by bringing them in touch with the
new learning, or indirectly, by reforming the school system and the
method of Talmud study.[13] Of Rabbi Zelmele, who like his master became
the hero of a wonder-biography written by his disciple Ezekiel Feivel of
Plungian, we are told that he regarded grammar as indispensable to a
thorough knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud, pleaded for a return to
the order of study prescribed in the _Pirke Abot_, and co