was the disgrace brought upon the Jewish name by several converts to Christianity.  A certain Jacob Brafmann, having proved a failure in all he undertook, tried at the last the business of Christianity, and succeeded therein.  He was appointed professor of Hebrew in the seminary of Minsk, and the Holy Synod charged him with the duty of devising means to promulgate Christianity among the Jews.  Finding the times auspicious, he devoted himself to writing libellous articles about his former coreligionists, and wound up with a Book on the Kahal (Kniga Kahala, Vilna, 1869), in which he quoted forged “transactions,” to the effect that Judaism tolerates and even recommends illegality and immorality among its adherents.  In a conference of Jews and Gentiles convoked by Governor-General Kaufman (1871), Barit proved the falsity and forgery of Brafmann’s documents.  But, as usual, the defence was forgotten, the charges remained.[24] A certain Lutostansky poisoned the public mind by caricaturing the Jews, and aroused an anti-Semitic agitation among his countrymen.  The consequence was that even the liberals began to be suspicious, and the prospect of better days was blighted by the hatred which broke out in fiendish fury, in lightnings and thunders which astounded the world under Alexander III.

It was but natural that the Jews that had become completely Russified should enlist in the ranks of the extreme liberals.  They found themselves in every way as progressive and patriotic as the Christian Russians.  The language of Russia became their language, its manners and aspirations their manners and aspirations.  They contributed more than any other nationality to Russifying Odessa, which, owing to its great foreign population, was known as the un-Russian city of Russia.  Proportionately to their numbers, they promoted the trade and industry, the science and literature of their country more than the Russians themselves.  Yet the coveted equality was denied them, and the emancipation granted to the degraded muzhiks was withheld from them, because of a religion they hardly professed.  They were like Faust when he found himself tempted but not satisfied by the pleasures of life, when food hovered before his eager lips while he begged for nourishment in vain.  The liberals, on the other hand, preached and practiced the doctrine of equal rights to all.  Socialism, or nihilism, also appealed to the Jews from its idealistic side, for never did the Jews cease to be democrats and dreamers.  In the schools and universities, which they were now permitted to attend, they heard the new teachings and imbibed the novel ideas.