Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-13
RUSSIA AND THE HEBREWS.
Abstract Of the Laws That Have Ex.
cited Indignation.

Prom the London Timea
1. jews throughout Russia and including
Russian Poland must henceforth reside in
towns only and not in the country. No Jew
Will any longer be permitted to own land or
even to farm land Ali Jewish land owners,
farmers and agricultural laborers will thus be
expelled from their village homes and unless
they have saved the means Of subsistence will
be reduced to beggary. To intensity the Sc
verify Of this edict and widen its scope the
gov eminent officials have included many hun
dreds Of small towns in the category Of country
villages and expelled the Jews from those
towns In this manner the number Of sufferers
from the edict is greatly augmented Tens Of
thousands Of souls will be thus rendered home
less. These laws, known as the May laws"
were promulgated in 1882, but were never put
into force until the present year.
z. Jews have hitherto been allowed by law to
reside In only sixteen OF the counties (gubernia)
OF Russia. But the law has not been enforced
against Jewish merchants in many important
commercial centers outside those provinces,
such as Riga, Libau. Rostoff. &C., for, by a
ministerial circular of 1880, Jews long estab-
hshed In such towns were permitted to remain
there unmolested. The law is now to be
strictly enforced, and by recent ministerial
order all jews, numbering many thousands OF
families, settled outside the sixteen counties
are to be expelled
8. Jewish artisans who in like manner had,
under the law of 1865, been permitted to settle
temporarily in places outside o. the sixteen
counties are now to be expelled from those
places. Tens of thousands OF artisans with
their families will it is said, be affected by this
edicI and rendered homeless
4. jews are no longer to be allowed to be in
any way connected with mines or mining in
dustry. nor even to hold shares in any mine.
8. The jews will henceforth be practically
debarred from DartaEiDp of apv aduc ational
advantages, whether in school, gymnasia or
universities. Hitherto they have been allowed
admission subject to the limitation that their
number should not exceed per cent of the
total number of students. Secret instructions
have already been sent requiring the reduction
OF this small percentage to still lower limits,
and from many of the higher educational in
situations all Jewish students have been ex-
PEELED.
s. The legal profession, in which heretofore
large number of Jews in Russia have achieved
great success. will in future be closed to Jewish
students. law has already been put in force
requiring the special sanction of the minister
OF the interior before Jew, qualified by ex-
animation, may practice. Since the promulga-
ton OF the law not a single sanction has been
given and 1t is understood none will be given.
Y. Jews are henceforth prohibited from fol-
lowing the professions of engineer or army
doctor or from filling any government post,
however subordinate.
In the days OF the Emperor Nicholas it was a
subject OF reproach to the Russian Jews that
they were all traders and not producers. That
reproach has since been wiped away, and now
an enormous proportion have become skilled
artisans. agriculturists and professional men,
all adding largely to the wealth of the empire.
But under the new repressive laws all this COM
munal progress is to be reyersed-the artisan,
the farmer and the professional man are all to
be ruined, and those who survive the persecu-
ton must become traders in the overcrowded
towns.
1t is estimated that the total number Of per-
sons who will be expelled from their homes
under the new law will not be far from I,OOO,-
OO0. The consequent migration and the con-
gestlon of the starving fugitives in those cities
where Jews will still be allowed to dwell will
DO so dangerous, and possibly so pestilential
In Its results, that only one object can be con-
templated by the instigators of these persecu-
tions, namely, the total determination of the
1000, 600 Jews OF Russia