[Footnote 1:  The first president of the Society was the exponent of the idea of “Antoemancipation,” Dr. Leon Pinsker, who occupied this post until his death, at the end of 1891.]

The attempt at a wholesale immigration into destitute Palestine with its primitive patriarchal conditions proved a failure.  During the following years the colonization of the Holy Land with Russian Jews proceeded again at a slow pace.  One colony after another rose gradually into being.  A large part of the old and the new settlers were under the charge of Baron Rothschild’s administration, with the exception of two or three colonies which were maintained by the Palestine Society in Odessa.  It was evident that, in view of the slow advance of the Palestinian colonization, its political and economic importance for the Russian-Jewish millions was practically nil and that its only advantage over and against the American emigration day in its spiritual significance, in the fact that on the historic soil of Judaism there there rose into being a small Jewish center with a purer national culture than was possible in the Diaspora.  This idea was championed by Ahad Ha’am[1], the exponent of the neo-Palestine movement, who had made his first appearance in Hebrew literature in 1889 and in a short time forged his way to the front.

[Footnote 1:  “One of the People,” the Hebrew pen-name of Asher Ginzberg.]

3.  CONTINUED HUMILIATIONS AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER III.

In the meantime, in the land of the Tzars events went their own course.  The Moscow tragedy was nearing its end, but its last stages were marked by scenes reminiscent of the times of the inquisition.  After banishing from Moscow the larger part of the Jewish population, the governor-general, Grand Duke Sergius, made up his mind to humble the remaining Jewish population of the second Russian capital so thoroughly that its existence in the center of Greek Orthodoxy might escape public public notice.  The eyes of the Russian officials at Moscow were offended by the sight of the new beautiful synagogue structure which had been finished in the fateful year of the expulsion.  At first, orders were given to remove from the top of the building the large cupola capped by the Shield of David, which attracted the attention of all passers-by.  Later on, the police, without any further ado, shut down the synagogue, in which services had already begun to be held, pending the receipt of a new special permit to re-open it.  Rabbi Minor of Moscow and the warden of the synagogue addressed a petition to the governor-general, in which they begged permission to hold services in the building, the construction of which had been duly sanctioned by the Government, pointing to the fact that Judaism was one of the religions tolerated in Russia.  In answer to their petition, they received the following stern reply from St. Petersburg, dated September 23, 1892: