ation:
"You grant a semikah [rabbinical diploma] so readily, why do you seem so
reluctant when a mere haskamah [recommendation] is the matter at issue?"
To his surprise the reason given was that the rabbi enjoyed his
scientific debates so much that he would not willingly part with the
young author.

Stories were told how the deans of the yeshibot were frequently found to
have mastered the very books they confiscated because of the teachings
they inculcated. Before the reign of Nicholas I drew to its end,
Haskalah centres were as numerous as the cities wherein Jews resided. In
Byelostok the Talmudist Jehiel Michael Zabludovsky was lending German
books to young Slonimsky, the future inventor and publicist; in
Vlotslavek Rabbi Joseph Hayyim Caro was writing and preaching in classic
German; in Zhagory, Hayyim Sack helped Leon Mandelstamm (1809-1889), the
first Jewish "candidate," or bachelor, in philology to graduate from the
St. Petersburg University (1844) and the assistant and successor of
Lilienthal, in the expurgation and German translation of Maimuni's
_Mishneh Torah_. When, in 1857, Mandelstamm resigned, he was followed by
Seiberling, for fifteen years the censor of Jewish books in Kiev, upon
whom a German university conferred the doctor's degree. The
poverty-stricken Wolf Adelsohn, known as the Hebrew Diogenes, formed a
group of Seekers after Light in Dubno, while such wealthy merchants as
Abraham Rathaus, Lilienthal's secretary during his campaign in
Berdichev, Issachar Bompi, the bibliophile in Minsk, Leon Rosenthal,
financier and philanthropist in Brest-Litovsk, and Aaron Rabinovich, in
Kobelyaki (Poltava), promoted enlightenment by precept and example. In
Vilna, Joseph Sackheim's young son acted as English interpreter when
Montefiore was entertained by his father, and Jacob Barit, the
incomparable "Yankele Kovner" (1793-1833) another of Montefiore's
hosts, was master of Russian, German, and French, and aroused the
admiration of the Governor-General Nazimov by his learning and his
ability.

Yes, the Jews began to pay, if they had ever been in debt, for the good
that had for a while been bestowed upon them by Alexander I. Alexander
Nebakhovich was a well-known theatrical director, his brother Michael
was the editor of the first Russian comic paper Yeralash, and Osip
Rabinovich showed marked ability in serious journalism. In 1842 died
Abraham Jacob Stern, the greatest inventor Russia had till then
produced; and,