he last stanza runs as follows:

Grant us, who, like you, worship the God above,
Also on earth to enjoy equality with you!
To-day, while your hearts are open to love,
Let us seal our happiness with your love, too![20]

This desire for naturalization brought with it an attempt at
"Russification." To show the beauty of the Russian language, Baruch
Czatzskes of Volhynia translated some of the poems of Khersakov into
Hebrew, and others published manuals for the study of Russian and
Polish.[21] Among the first books issued from the newly-established
printing-press in Shklov, the centre of Jewish wealth, refinement, and
culture at that time, was the _Zeker Rab_ with a German translation
(1804). In an appendix thereto the Shklov Maskilim announced their
intention to publish a weekly, the first in the Hebrew tongue. Yiddish
was also resorted to as a medium for educating the masses, and as early
as 1813 some Vilna Jews applied to the Government for permission to
publish a paper in that language, though it was not until ten years
later (1823-1824) that a Yiddish periodical, Der Beobachter an der
Weichsel, appeared in Warsaw. Nor do we hear of any opposition to the
Government decrees, issued probably at the request of Dillon, Notkin,
Peretz, or Nebakhovich, that the elders of the kahals in and after 1808,
and the rabbis of the congregations in and after 1812, be conversant
with either Russian, German, or Polish. This sudden Russification of the
Jews amounted sometimes to no more than a superficial imitation of
Russian civilization, which pious rabbis as well as liberal-minded men
like Schick, Margolioth, Ilye, and Hurwitz, felt impelled to call a halt
to. Jews, especially the rich, aped the Polish pans. Their wives dressed
in Parisian gowns of the latest fashion, and their homes were conducted
in a manner so luxurious as to arouse the envy of the noblemen. Israel
waxed fat and kicked. Their greatest care was to become wealthy; they
pampered their bodies at the expense of the impoverishment of their
souls, and some feared that "with the passing away of the elder
generation there would not remain a man capable of filling the position
of rabbi."[22]

The privilege of attending public schools and colleges further
stimulated the Russification of the Jews. As soon as these institutions
of learning were thrown open to them, numerous Jewish youths made
headway in all branches taught, especially in medicine. That Alexander's
be