Jews in Russia - The Jews

While Diky's work is a good expose on the knavery of the jews in Russia, he is nevertheless absolutely ignorant of their origins. The Bible is not, and never has been, a jewish book. WRF


The Jews

As stated in the Bible, which is the history of the Jewish people, the Jews are descendants of one family of semi-Asiatic, nomadic Semites who developed into a tribe of numerous nationalities, bound together by their unity of religion and origin.

Since they were scattered among other peoples for two thousand years, the Jews had no territory of their own. They used the language of those nations among whose people they lived, but nevertheless, they preserved their tribal unity by not mixing with other nationalities. They lived their own isolated life among these nations, adhering strictly to their religion, distinct from that of other nationalities, in that it is an inseparable part of their race and origin.

In addition, the Jewish religion teaches that the Jews are the "Chosen People", distinct from all other nationalities and tribes, and under the special protection of God. The Jews believe that they are the "Chosen People", a fact that elevates them in their own eyes, and contributes to their conscious awareness of their own superiority.

Owing to the peculiarities of their religion and the mode of life, the Jews always remained a foreign body in the countries in which they lived, in spite of the fact that they spoke its languages. They have forgotten the language of their ancestors, preserving it only in religious practices.

In whatever country or nation they lived, the Jews took an active part in its economic life. Their major sphere of activity was commerce, retail and wholesale trade, avoiding that part of the business activity which produced goods for consumption or supplied raw materials needed for such goods. Neither agriculture, nor cattle-breeding, nor pioneering in the development and cultivation of virgin lands attracted the Jews in the lands of dispersion.

The Jewish participation in cultural life of the people along whom they lived was quite insignificant up to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. The reason for this was the Christian and Jewish conflicts that arose from religious differences.

The Jews did not attempt to invite strangers to join their religion, because they could not accept them as equal members of their religious community. In the exact point of the Jewish religion, one must be born a Jew; one cannot become a Jew simply by accepting the Jewish religion.
As its people were considered the "Chosen People", the Jews jealously guarded the purity of their race and strove towards self-isolation in their mode of life and their daily living, which naturally hindered their assimilation with the surrounding native population.

The character of the Jewish business activity predetermined the times of their appearances in different countries of the ancient world as well as in the countries formed after the decline of ancient civilizations. They appeared where known law and order and strong power existed, essentials without which trade and commerce is impossible.

It was during the epoch of Hellenic cultural supremacy that the Jews appeared in Ancient Greece. In the Roman Empire, they appeared also when the Romans conquered North Africa and Western Europe and established their law and order.

They came not with the legions, but after them, settling in what is now Spain, England, Germany and France. Almost immediately they began their trading and intermediary activities which were favorably welcomed by the great powers, giving the Jews the opportunity to live and enrich themselves.

The character of their business activities, and also the tribal and religious peculiarities of the Jews during the two thousand years in which they were dispersed, caused endless conflicts with the nationalities among which they lived in secluded detached communities. This was especially true after Christianity became the supreme religion in these countries. In addition to the motives and the causes of their domestic and economic rivalry a greater role began to be played by their religion.

As the results of these conflicts periodically sharpened on different grounds and by different causes, the whole history of the Jewish sojourn abounded in the description of different limitations, exploitations and pogroms, whose victims were the Jews of the Diaspora.

Analysis and meticulous studies of these conflicts and their causes do not enter into the order of this work, which is a limited study as the title indicates. The work covers only that historical period which extends from the time of the Jewish appearance within the borders of the Russian Empire, when the Jewish ethnic group was either "the subjects of the Russian Judaic faith", until 1917 or "the citizens of USSR of the Jewish nationality", after 1917.

For those who are interested in this question, its causes and conflicts, I refer them to the book written by professor Solomon Lourie, "Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World", published in 1922 in Petrograd. Extensive excerpts from this book are featured in Part II of this work, as a separate supplement.