ppoint a spiritual
leader. The autocrat, therefore, signed an ukase checking settlement in
the hitherto free land, depriving honest men of the privilege enjoyed by
the worst of criminals, and enrolling the children of those already
there among the military Cantonists (January 5, 1837).

Then began real misery. Believing at first that the czar's intentions
were sincere, many Jews had sold their hut and land and left for
Siberia. No sooner were they there than they were sent, on foot, to
Kherson. The decree of the "little father" was executed in--no other
phrase can describe it so well--Russian fashion. The innocent Jews who
had come to Siberia by invitation were seized, treated as vagabonds, and
deported to their destination. Want and suffering produced contagious
diseases, and many became a burden to the Jews of Kremenchug and such
Christians as could not witness unmoved the infernal comedy played by
the defender of the Greek Catholic Church. Help could be rendered only
secretly, and those who dared complain were severely punished.

At the same time that this was taking place in the wilderness of
Siberia, a phenomenon of rare occurrence was to be witnessed in the very
heart of the Jewish Pale, in Lithuania. Aroused by the wretched
condition of his coreligionists, Solomon Posner (1780-1848) determined
to erect cloth factories exclusively for Jews. He sent to Germany for
experts to teach them the trade. These Jewish workingmen proved so
industrious and intelligent that before the end of three years they
surpassed their teachers in mechanical skill. But this attempt of Posner
was only prefatory to the greater and more arduous task he set himself.
It was nothing less than the establishment of a colony in which some of
the most Utopian theories would be applied to actual life. Ten years
after Robert Owen founded his communistic settlement at New Harmony,
Indiana, several hundred robust Russian Jews settled on some of the
thousands of acres in Lithuania that were lying fallow for want of
tillers. With these farmers Posner hoped to realize his Utopia. He
provided every family with sufficient land, the necessary agricultural
implements, as well as with horses, cows, etc., free of charge, for a
term of twenty-five years. In return, the members of the community
pledged themselves to use simple homespun for their apparel, black on
holidays, gray on week-days, not to indulge in the luxuries of city
life, and to avoid trading of an