e. Not only were they reconciled to me,
but they were distinctly proud of me. Old Rabbi Abraham now
delighted in conversation and discussion with his grandson, who
seemed to him almost like an inhabitant of another world, of the
_terra incognita_ of modern knowledge and science. In the town
inhabited chiefly by Jews the very appearance of the rabbi's
grandson in the uniform of a royal college created an immense
sensation, and I became naturally the hero of the day. The older
generation lamented that now an end would be put to the very
existence of Israel and the sacred synagogue, while the younger
people envied me and were inspired to follow my example.

Such scenes occurred not only in Pinsk, but, not infrequently, in other
towns of the Pale as well.

The striving for intellectual enlightenment manifested itself in the
refining of religious customs. Though Russian Jewry "has never
experienced any of the ritualistic struggles that Germany has
witnessed,"[14] yet reform and Haskalah always went hand in hand. The
attacks on tradition by the Maskilim of the "forties" and the early
"fifties" were mild and guarded compared with the assaults by the
generation that followed. With the appearance of the periodicals the
combat was intensified. Ha-Meliz, and, later, Ha-Shahar in Hebrew, and
Kol Mebasser in Yiddish were the organs of those who were dissatisfied
with the old, and sought to introduce the new. It was in the latter that
_Dos Polische Yingel_ (_The Polish Boy_), by Linetzky, first appeared,
and it proved so popular that the editor published it in book form long
before it was finished in the periodical. In an article on _The Ways of
the Talmud_, by Moses Loeb Lilienblum, the prevailing Jewish religious
observances were vehemently attacked. This was followed by another
article from the pen of Gordon, _Wisdom for Those Who Wander in Spirit_,
with suggestions for adapting religion to the needs of the times, and a
still more powerful one, _The Chaotic World_, by Smolenskin. The muse
ceased to content herself with "flame-songs that burn their pathway" to
the heart. She preferred to appeal to the head. She no longer tried

In strains as sweet
As angels use ... to whisper peace.

In cutting criticisms and biting satires she exposed time-honored but
time-worn beliefs and practices. Gordon was a militant reformer in his
younger days, and so were Menahem Mendel Dolitzky and the lesse