History of the Jews in 19th-century Poland

Jews of Poland within the Russian Empire (1795–1918)

Official Russian policy would eventually prove to be substantially harsher to the Jews than that under independent Polish rule. The lands that had once been Poland were to remain the home of many Jews, as, in 1772, Catherine II, the tzarina of Russia, instituted the Pale of Settlement, restricting Jews to the western parts of the empire, which would eventually include much Poland although it excluded some areas in which Jews had previously lived. By the late 19th century, over four million Jews would live in the Pale.

Initially, Russian policy towards the Jews of Poland was confused, alternating between harsh rules and somewhat more enlightened policies. In 1802, the Tsar established the Committee on the Improvement of the Jews in an attempt to develop a coherent approach to the Empire's new Jewish population. The Committee in 1804 suggested a number of steps that were designed to encourage Jews to assimilate, though it did not force them to do so. It proposed that Jews be allowed to attend school and even to own land, but it restricted them from entering Russia, banned them from the brewing industry, and included a number of other prohibitions. The more enlightened parts of this policy were never fully implemented, and the conditions of the Jews in the Pale gradually worsened. In the 1820s, the Cantonist Laws passed by Tsar Nicolas kept the traditional double taxation on Jews in lieu of army service, while actually requiring all Jewish communities to produce boys to serve in the military, where they were often forced to convert.

One of the most important events of that period was the establishment of the Rabbinical School, a Junior High School for Jewish male youth founded in 1826 on the basis of the Tsar's decree of July 1, 1825 and existed until the school year 1860/1861.

In four school years the following subjects were taught: Old Testament, Midrash (commentaries on the Holy Scriptures), Talmud, general history, history of Poland, mathematics, geography, Hebrew, Polish, German and French. The graduates from the School were members of the Jewish intelligentsia related with the assimilation movement.

Only a few graduates dedicated themselves to the profession of rabbi. Supplementary classes were planned for them. Most of the graduates formed Warsaw's progressive Jewish elite: entrepreneurs, merchants, scientists, journalists, artists and patrons of the arts.

The founding committee appointed by the government of Congress Poland consisted of three Poles, including Stefan Witwicki. The rabbinical school was headed by Antoni Eisenbaum from its founding until his death in 1852, then by Jakub Tugendhold until its closure in 1862. Jews and Christians worked as teachers. Altogether about one thousand Jews graduated from the rabbinical school. The school inspired patriotic attitudes. Some students, like Stanislas Hernisz, took part in the November Uprising of 1831.

The Warsaw Rabbinical School was bitterly criticized by the Orthodox Jews’ circles. Throughout Eisenbaum's tenure at the school, rumors abounded that boys attending the school were fed treyf meals and were generally pressed to abandon their religion. It did not help matters that the school inspector was a catholic priest, the Christian Hebraist Luigi Chiarini, a notorious critic of the Talmud. Worse yet, the school's instructor of Hebrew and Bible was Abraham Buchner, like Eisenbaum a radical enlightener, who taught Hebrew using Chiarini's grammar and used Mendelssohn's Biblical commentaries.

Though the Jews were accorded slightly more rights with the emancipation reform of 1861, they were still restricted to the Pale of Settlement and subject to restrictions on ownership and profession. In 1881, however, the status-quo was shattered with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, which was falsely blamed on the Jews.