even rejoiced
that by attending the services in Protestant churches many Jewish
families were becoming acquainted with the religion he himself would
have accepted on certain conditions.[6]

It was to Friedlaender that Bishop Malchevsky, actuated, as he
maintained, by a desire to render the Jews worthy of the enjoyment of
civil rights, applied for suggestions, in 1816, when the missionary zeal
of Alexander I was first aroused. He responded in a pamphlet, _On the
Improvement of the Israelites in the Kingdom of Poland_,[7] in which he
declared that the quickest way of "civilizing" the Jews would be to
deprive their rabbis of power and influence, to force them to dress in
the German fashion, and use the Polish language, to admit them to the
public schools and other educational institutions, and, above all, to
abrogate the laws discriminating between them and their Gentile
countrymen.

Friedlaender's advice regarding the removal of civil disabilities was
never executed, but his other suggestions were followed out with more
vigor than was necessary or good. To do away with the rabbis, and
consequently with the Talmud, was just what was desired. It was partly
with this end in view that Alexander I permitted, that is, commanded,
the establishment of the rabbinical seminary in Warsaw. But when it was
found that, although the seminary students were provided with all
necessaries, and notwithstanding the decree that six years from the date
of its opening none but seminary graduates would be eligible to the
rabbinical office, few students availed themselves of the opportunity
afforded, and none obtained positions, the whole plan fell into
disfavor.[8] The Government, nevertheless, remained as stubbornly
determined as ever, and unable to turn all the children into Cantonists,
it decided to have those who remained at home gradually converted by
means of a method worked out by the Minister of Education, Uvarov. They
were forced to attend what became known as Government schools, though
maintained exclusively with Jewish funds. In order to win the confidence
of the Jews for the project, Doctor Lilienthal, whose speech at the
dedication of the Riga School secured him a diamond ring as a token of
the czar's approval, was sent from St. Petersburg on a mission of
investigation, more especially of persuasion.

For more than three years Lilienthal was one of the most popular
personages in Europe. The eyes of all who had the amelioration of