lom Ahim_, ibid.), to suggest a way to
cosmopolitanism and universalism through Judaism.[19] In 1879, Jacob
Gordin founded in Yelisavetgrad a sort of ethical culture society called
Bibleitsy (also Dukhovnoye Bibleyskoye Bratstvo, Spiritual Bible
Brotherhood), which obtained a considerable following among the workmen
of the section. It advocated the abolition of ritual observances, even
prayer, and the hastening of the era of the brotherhood of man. It
preached, in the words of one of its leaders, that "our morality is our
religion. God, the acme of highest reason, of surest truth, and of the
most sublime justice, does not demand useless external forms and
ceremonies."[20] Following the organization of the Bibleitsy, and based
on almost the same principles, branches of a Jewish sect, which called
itself New Israel (Novy Izrail), were started almost simultaneously in
Odessa and Kishinev. In the former city, the organization was headed by
Jacob Prelooker, in the latter, by Joseph Rabinowitz. Prelooker, who
after graduating from the seminary at Zhitomir became a school-master at
Odessa, sought to bring about a consolidation between his own people and
Russian Dissenters (Raskolniki: the Molocans, Stundists, and
Dukhobortzi). The theme of his book, _New Israel_, is a "reformed
synagogue, a mitigation of the cleavage between Jew and Christian, and
recognition of a common brotherhood in religion." Rabinowitz went still
further, and preached on actual conversion to one of the more liberal
forms of Christianity.[21]

These sects, which sprang up in church and synagogue during the latter
part of the "seventies," were the outcome of political and social as
well as religious unrest. Alexander II fulfilled the expectation which
the first years of his reign aroused in Jewish hearts no more than
Catherine II and Alexander I. Those who had hoped for equal rights were
doomed to disappointment. Most of the reforms of the Liberator Czar
proved a failure owing to the antipathy and machinations of his
untrustworthy officials. Russia was split between two diametrically
opposed parties, the extreme radicals and the extreme reactionaries,
waging an internecine war with each other. The former originated with
the young Russians that had served in the European campaigns during the
Napoleonic invasion, and who, in imitation of the secret organizations
which had so greatly contributed to the liberation of Germany, united to
throw off the yoke of aut