number of the
enlightened." With the establishment of the rabbinical seminaries in
Zhitomir (1848), this former centre of Hasidism became the nursery of
Haskalah. The movement was especially strong in Vilna, the "Jerusalem of
Lithuania," as Napoleon is said to have called it. From time immemorial,
long before the Gaon's day, it had been famous for its Talmudic
scholars. "Its yeshibot," says Jacob Emden in the middle of the
eighteenth century, "were closed neither by day nor by night; many
scholars came home from the bet ha-midrash but once a week. They
surpassed their brethren in Poland and in Germany in learning and
knowledge, and it was regarded of much consequence to secure a rabbi
from Vilna." Now this "city and mother in Israel" became one of the
pioneers of Haskalah, all the more because, in addition to the public
schools and the rabbinical seminary, the Jews were admitted to its
university on equal terms with the Gentiles. "Within six years,"
exclaims Mandelstamm, "what a change has come over Vilna! Youths and
maidens, anxious for the new Haskalah, are now to be met with
everywhere, nor are any ashamed to learn a trade." The schools exerted a
salutary influence on the younger generation, and the older people, too,
began to view life differently, only that they were still reluctant to
discard their old-fashioned garb. There also, in 1847, the leading
Maskilim started a reform synagogue, which they named Taharat ha-Kodesh,
the Essence of Holiness.[30]

It should not be forgotten that, if Lilienthal met with mighty
opposition, he also had powerful supporters. There were many who, though
remaining in the background, strongly sympathized with his plan. Indeed,
the number of educated Jews, as proved by an investigation ordered by
Nicholas I, was far greater than had been commonly supposed. Not only in
the border towns, but even in the interior of the Pale, the students of
German literature and secular science were not few, and Doctor Loewe
discovered in Hebron an exceptional German scholar in the person of an
immigrant from Vilna.[31] The tendency of the time is well illustrated
by an anecdote told by Slonimsky, to the effect that when he went to ask
the approval of Rabbi Abele of Zaslava on his _Mosde Hokmah_, he found
that those who came to be examined for ordination received their award
without delay, while he was put off from week to week. Ill at ease,
Slonimsky approached the venerable rabbi and demanded an explan