Norwich bulletin., 1915-10-19
HALF or THE JEWS ARE
 WITHIN RUSSIAN EMPIRE
Proving Loyal citizens In War De-
 spite the Manner In Which They Have Been Treated.
Special to The Bulletln.) ]

Especial to The Bulletin.)
 Washington. D. C.. Oct Is.-Russia has the largest Jewish population of any country in the world. Although their lot has not always been an en- viable one under the rule of the Tsars.
 the Great War has found them loyal
 citizens of their northern fatherland
 willing and anxious to contribute
 their sacrifices to the success of its cause. According to private letters
 and dispatches from Russia. many Jews have come forward to enlist;
 they have opened and equipped hos pitals for the soldiers, and displayed
 an eagerness to aid with their goods
 and their labor. The warmth of their
 patriotism has been a surprise in i subjects of the Tsar. as 1t was before | the war. Is told in a bulletin just is-
 sued by the National Geographic So-
 c!ety. It reads as follows:
 | More than one-half of the worlds | total Jewish population, numbering
 about 6,500. 900 dwells within the Rus | sian Empire. The total number of Jews in the world numbers about 13,-
 100000. The United States and Aus
 tro-Hungary. each with more than
 the British Empire with 100000. are the other important homelands of this | scattered nation Russia. however. today might be looked upon as the true fatherland of the Jewish people.
 as the great body of them live there.
 This comes primarily from the cause
 that the Slavs. more especially the Russian Slavs. have always been the
 most tolerant of peoples in matters of
 religion. The Russian Church. prop
 church. That a RJF JFsian should be a member of the Russian branch of the Eastern Orthodox church. Is regarded
 almost as a law of nature in Muscovy
 while the Russian feels that 1t is just
 Ns natural and fitting that Tartal
 should be a Mohsmmedan. and that q Jew should follow the Mosaic creed
 Tt is true. that most of the Jewi
 were originally Polish subjects. and 1t Is said. that colonies of them uveS . in the basin of the Volga and thu Crimea 800 years before the birth o Christ Through the years of thei
 bItterest persecution. the rule of tn , Poles over the Jews was light ant , amiable one. and many hundreds O thousands of them passed to thi
 country. Thus. with Poland. Russii acquired the greater part of her Jew . ish subjects. "The Tsar's Jewish subjects ar confined. by law. to a definite part o . the empire. known as the Jewish Pal ? of Settlement. This is an irregula ] belt of territory. extending from tn Baltic to the Black Sea The Pal , includes Poland. Lithuania, Whit 2 Russia. and regions in the Caucasul A belt of land about 30 miles wid :, | along the international boundary also exempt The Pale proper. where i, in nearly all of the Russian Jew dwell, comprises the entire territor v of Russian Poland. and the govern . | -nents of Kovno Vitebsk, Wilma. Mo = hIlev VoIhynia, Grodno. Minsl ' Chernigof PoItava. Kief. Podolii = Bessarabia Kherson. Ekaterinosla' o and Taurida. Kovno. Minsk, Mo
 hilev and Volhynia are the mot
 thickly settled by Jews who, in tines
 governments. constitute about two e thirds of the entire population. Son a Jews were settled as agriculturis' h upon the southern Steppe. and, dt a spite the strict law. wealthy member 1 of the nation are found in business a Petrograd and Moscow. All disabi - ities which attach to Jewish birth d | Russia, fall away with the conversic | of one of the race to Orthodoxy. bu 1 nevertheless, such conversions seldo - take place. This curtailment of tf I- freedom of the Jewish subjects is m I- a mateer of religious persecution b' d rather an expression of the Russian Id dread of the superior business abilit ,r of the Jew.
 " There are however. certain class if of Jews allowed by the law to dwt Id without the Pale. These are studen d in educational institutions. merchan ,e of the first guild. professional pc e sons and skilled artisans. and such sit have served 25 years in the arm