The duty of enlisting the recruits was imposed upon the Jewish communes, or Kahals, which were to elect for that purpose between three and six executive officers, or “trustees,” in every city.  The community as such was held responsible for the supply of a given number of recruits from its own midst.  It was authorized to draft into military service any Jew guilty “of irregularity in the payment of taxes, of vagrancy, and other misdemeanors.”  In case the required number of recruits was not forthcoming within a given term, the authorities were empowered to obtain them from the derelict community “by way of execution.” [1] Any irregularity on the part of the recruiting “trustees” was to be punished by the imposition of fines or even by sending them into the army.

[Footnote 1:  The term “execution” (ekzekutzia) is used in Russian to designate a writ empowering an officer to carry a judgment into effect, in other words, to resort to forcible seizure.]

The following categories of Jews were exempted from military duty:  merchants holding membership in guilds, artisans affiliated with trade-unions, mechanics in factories, agricultural colonists, rabbis, and the Jews, few and far between at that time, who had graduated from a Russian educational institution.  Those exempted from military service in kind were required to pay “recruiting money,” one thousand rubles for each recruit.  The general law providing that a regular recruit could offer as his substitute a “volunteer” was extended to the Jews, with the proviso that the volunteer must also be a Jew.

The “Instructions” to the civil authorities, appended to the statute, specify the formalities to be followed both at the recruiting stations and in administering the oath of allegiance to the conscripts in the synagogues.  The latter ceremony was to be marked by gloomy solemnity.  The recruit was to be arrayed in his prayer-shawl (Tallith) and shroud (Kittel).  With his philacteries wound around his arm, he should be placed before the Ark and, amidst burning candles and to the accompaniment of shofar blasts, made to recite a lengthy awe-inspiring oath.  The “Instructions” to the military authorities accompanying the statute prescribe that every batch of Jewish conscripts “shall be entrusted to a special officer to be watched over, prior to their departure for their places of destination, and shall be kept apart from the other recruits.”  Both in the places of conscription and on the journey the Jewish recruits were to be quartered exclusively in the homes of Christian residents.

The promulgated “military constitution” surpassed the very worst apprehension of the Jews.  All were staggered by this sudden blow, which descended crushingly upon the mode of life, the time-honored traditions, and the religious ideals of the Jewish people.  The Jewish family nests became astir, trembling for their fledglings.  Barely a month after the publication of the military statute, the