The soul of the Jewish people was filled with sorrow, and yet there was no way of protesting publicly in the land of political slavery.  The Jews had to resort to the old medieval form of a national protest by pouring forth their feelings in the synagogue.  Many Jewish communities seemed to have come to an understanding to appoint the 18th of January as a day of mourning to be observed by fasting and by holding religious services in the synagogues.  This public mourning ceremony proved particularly impressive in St. Petersburg.  On the appointed day the whole Jewish population of the Russian capital, with its numerous Jewish professionals, assembled in the principal synagogue and in the other houses of prayer, reciting the hymns of perpetual Jewish martyrdom, the Selihot.  In the principal synagogue the rabbi delivered a discourse dealing with the Jewish persecutions.

When the preacher—­an eye-witness narrates—­began to picture in a broken voice the present position of Jewry, one long moan, coming, as it were, from one breast, suddenly burst forth and filled the synagogue.  Everybody wept, the old, the young, the long-robed paupers, the elegant dandies dressed in latest fashion, the men in Government service, the physicians, the students, not to speak of the women.  For two or three minutes did these heart-rending moans resound—­this cry of common sorrow which had issued from the Jewish heart.  The rabbi was unable to continue.  He stood upon the pulpit, covered his face with his hands, and wept like a child.

Similar political demonstrations in the presence of the Almighty were held during those days in many other cities.  In some places the Jews observed a three days’ fast.  Everywhere the college youth, otherwise estranged from Judaism, took part in the national mourning, full of the presentiment that it, too, was destined to endure decades of sorrows and tears.

2.  THE VOICE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA

The political protest, which could not be uttered in Russia, was soon to be heard in England.  During the very days on which the Russian Jews were weeping in their synagogues, their English coreligionists, in conjunction with prominent English political leaders, organized indignation meetings to protest against the horrors of Russian Judaeophobia.  Already at an earlier date, shortly after the pogrom of Warsaw, the London Times had published a series of articles under the heading “The Persecutions of the Jews in Russia,” containing a heartrending description of the pogroms of 1881 and an account of the anti-Semitic policy of the Russian rulers. [1] The articles produced a sensation.  Reprinted in the form of a special publication, which in a short time went through three editions, they spread far beyond the confines of England.  Numerous voices were soon to be heard demanding diplomatic intercession in favor of the oppressed Jews and calling for the organization of material relief for the victims of the pogroms.