In his reply Lilienthal advanced an impressive array of arguments: 

What will you gain by your resistance to the new measures?  It will only irritate the Government, and will determine it to pursue its system of repression, while at present you are offered an opportunity to prove that the Jews are not enemies of culture and deserve a better lot.

When questioned as to whether the Jewish community had any guarantee that the Government plan was not a veiled attempt to undermine the Jewish religion, Lilienthal, by way of reply, solemnly pledged himself to throw up his mission the moment he would find that the Government associated with it secret intentions against Judaism. [1] The circle of “enlightened” Jews in Vilna pledged its support to Lilienthal, and he left full of faith in the success of his enterprise.

[Footnote 1:  Op.  Cit. p. 266.]

A cruel disappointment awaited him in Minsk.  Here the arguments which the opponents advanced in a passionate debate at a public meeting were of a utilitarian rather than of an idealistic nature.

So long as the Government does not accord equal rights to the Jew, general culture will only he his misfortune.  The plain uneducated Jew does not balk at the low occupation of factor [1] or peddler, for, drawing comfort and joy from his religion, he is reconciled to his miserable lot.  But the Jew who is educated and enlightened, and yet has no means of occupying an honorable position in the country, will be moved by a feeling of discontent to renounce his religion, and no honest father will think of giving an education to his children which may lead to such an issue. [2]

[Footnote 1:  The Polish name for agent.  See Vol.  I, p. 170, n. 1.]

[Footnote 2:  Quoted from Lilienthal’s own account in Die Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, 1842, No. 41, p. 605b.]

The opponents of official enlightenment in Minsk were not content with advancing arguments that appealed to reason.  Both at the meeting and in the street, Lilienthal was the target of insulting remarks from the crowd.

On his return to St. Petersburg, Lilienthal presented Uvarov with a report which convinced the Minister that the execution of the school-reform was a difficult but not a hopeless task.

On June 22, 1842, an imperial rescript was issued, placing all Jewish schools, including the heders and yeshibahs, under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Instruction.  Simultaneously it was announced that the Government had summoned a Commission of four Rabbis to meet in St. Petersburg for the purpose of “supporting the efforts of the Government” in the realization of the school-reform.  This Committee was to serve Russian Jewry as a security that the school-reforms would not be directed against the Jewish religion.