The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-11-23
RUSSIA HAS LARGEST
JEWISH POPULATION
THEY HAVE PROVEN LOYAL TO
THE GAR DURING
WAR.

| ~ e1O AoA SOoI JEWISH population OF
any country in the world. Although
their lot has not always been an en-
viable one under the rule of the Cars
the Great war has found them loyal
citizens of their northern fatherland
willing and anxious to contribute their
sacrifices to the success of it's cause.
According to private letters and dis
patches from Russia, many Jews have
come forward to enlist they have
opened and equipped hospitals for the
soldiers, and displayed an eagerness
to aid with their goods and their labor.
The warmth of their patriotism has
been surprise in Muscovy. The po-
sition of the Jewish subjects of the
Tsar, as it was before the war, is told
in bulletin just prepared by the Ma
tional Geographic Society. 1t reads as
follows:
More than one-half of the worlds
total Jewish population, numbering
about 100000, dwell within the Rus
sian Empire. The total number of
Jews in the world numbers about 10
100000. The United States and Aus.
| trO-Hungary, each with more than 3
100000; Germany with 100000, and
the British Empire with 100000, are
the other important homelands of this
scattered nation. Russia, however. 10
day might be looked upon as the true
fatherland of the Jewish people, as
the great body of them live there. TITS
comes primarily from the cause that
the Slavs, more especially the Russian
Slavs, have always been the most toll
Grant of peoples in matters of religion.
| The Russian church, properly speak.
ing, is not missionary church That
a Russian should be a member of the
Russian branch of the Eastern Ortho-
dox church, is regarded almost as a
law of nature in Muscovy, while the
Russian feels that it is just as natural
and fitting that a Tartar should be
Mohammedan, and that a Jew should
| follow the Mosaic creed.
ct is true, that most of the Jews
were originally Polish subjects, and,
it is said, that colonies of them lived
in the basin of the Volga and the
Crimea 500 years before the birth of
Christ Through the years of their bit
terest persecution, the rule of the
Poles over the Jews was a light and
amiable one, and many hundreds Of
thousands passed to this country.
Thus, with Poland, Russia acquired
the greater part of her Jewish sub
jects.
"The Tsar's Jewish subjects are con-
fined, by law, to a definite part of the
empire, known as the Jewish Pale of
Settlement. This is an irregular belt
Of territory, extending from the Baltic
to the Black Sea- The Pale includes
Poland, Lithuania, White Russia, part
of Little Russia, and regions in the
|
miles wide along the international
boundary is also exempt. The Pale
proper, wherein nearly all of the Rus
sian Jews dwell, comprises the entire
territory of Russian Poland. and the
| governments of Kovno, Vitebsk, Wilma,
Mohilev, Volhynia, Gordno, MinsR,
Chernigof, Poltava, Kief, Podolia, Bes-
sarabia, Keherson, Ekaterinaslav, and
Taurida. Kovno, Minsk, Mohilev and
Volhynia are the most thickly settled
by Jews, who, in these governments,
constitute about two-thirds of the en-
tire population. Some Jews were set,
tied as agricultuists upon the southern
Steppe, and, despite the strict law,
found in business in Petrograd and
Moscow. All disabilities which attacl:
to Jewish birth in Russia, fall awav
with the conversion of one of the race
Ito Orthodoxy, but, nevertheless, such
conversions seldom take place This
curtailment of the freedom of the
Jewish subjects is not a matter Of re-
ligious persecution but rather an ex-
preston of the Russians dread of the
superior business ability of the Jew.
There are, however, certain classes
of Jews allowed by the law to dwell
without the Pale These are students
in educational institutions, merchants
of the first guild, professional persons
and skilled artisans, and such as have
served % years in the army. Mem
bers of these classes, nevertheless,
must obtain special permission to en-.
joy their rights under the law. No
4 Jew is eligible to government office,
unless he becomes convert to Or
thodoxy.
The Jews are taxed more highly
ithan other citizens of Russia Their