Day 7 (13 Sep) Shabbat


Advertisement
Russia's flag
Europe » Russia » Northwest » Saint Petersburg
September 13th 2014
Published: September 19th 2014
Edit Blog Post

Shabbat could be summed up in a few words: service in the hotel, breakfast, service in the big synagogue (for those unlike me who wanted to attend), lunch at the Golden Cafe, sleep, rest, seudah (late afternoon meal) at the Golden Cafe and Havdalah. So I will use this space to write about the history of the Jews in Russia and particularly St Petersburg and then describe our party!

In 1703 the Jews started arriving in the St Petersburg region from distant lands. They were conversos - Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity to avoid persecution. They were accepted into society. For example the first chief of police was a Jew called Otto de Vere.

However, the first sign of anti-Semitism came in 1738 when Alexander Voznitzin became disillusioned with the Russian Orthodox Church and converted and underwent a circumcision ritual. He was accused of heresy and executed.

When Elizabeth came into power in 1741 she was anti-Jews and as a result they left the city. However, there was no official persecution as the official policy was tolerance. She wanted to rule the people and have full control over their lives. But she effectively terrorised the Jews.

Her successor Catherine recognised the value of the Jews as skilled professionals including artisans and wanted them back. When Poland was annexed to Russia in 1772 many Jews living in Poland went to Russia. They were officially banned from living in the city but they got rights and in 1802 the first Jewish cemetery was founded. Jews also had political power - when Rabbi Shnaur Zalman of Liaidi (the Alter Rebbe) was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress it was the Jews who moved for and secured his release.

Then tsar Nicholas I issued the Cantonist decree - all young people were drafted into the army with the aim of assimilating the Jews and the policy of Russification. At the same time all unproductive Jews were expelled from St Petersburg. After this decree the Jewish population dwindled from 18,000 down to just 500.

In 1820 the Jewish people got permission to build a synagogue.

Under Alexander II things were slightly better. He cancelled the Cantonist decree and encouraged Jewish merchants and encouraged Jews to enrol at university. In 1859 the Guenzburg bank was established. It helped to build the mines and the railways. The Jewish population grew back to 17,000.

By 1863 St Petersburg was an important cultural centre. In 1880 the Hebrew newspaper HaShachar (the Dawn) was set up. The editor was Shimon Dubnov who wrote the history of Russian Jewry.

During the haskalah (the Jewish enlightenment) the Grand Choral Synagogue was built in 1893 in St Petersburg and was originally a Reform synagogue. Today it is an Orthodox synagogue under the auspices of Chabad. It was constructed in the same style as the synagogue in Florence and it has 1200 seats.

But winds of change were afoot. After the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 his son wanted one tsar, one religion, one country. The Jews were not looked upon kindly. With his death and the new tsar Nicholas the people wanted a constitutional monarch. On 22 January 1905 - Bloody Sunday - was the Winter Palace Rebellion which was initiated by a union leader, Father Gapon, because four workers had been fired. The army was told to shoot after a four or five hour standoff and in the first salvo 40 were killed. Fr Gapon sought the help of Pinkus Rothenburg. Gapon was executed in 1906 and Rothenburg went to Israel where he founded the Electricity Company.

Lenin called for a rebellion in 1917. In 1912 the newspaper, Pravda had published articles about the food shortages and by 1917 there were strikes and calls for the tsar to give up his throne. The army failed to help him and so in March 1917 the tsar abdicated. The leader of the Bolsheviks was Trotsky. On 25 October (old calendar) or 7 November (new calendar) came the big revolution. The capital was transferred to Moscow. In 1918 Russia signed an agreement with Germany. The name of St Petersburg was changed to Leningrad. In the years 1920 - 1930 the Jews moved from the Pale of Settlement back to the city. There were hundreds of thousands growing to 3 million of Jews in Russia. Some became officials and some even helped the persecutors.

By 1938 the synagogue closed and in the siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) 1,000,000 died. Jews were captured in the synagogue courtyard. Hitler wanted to celebrate 31 December 1942 in the Hermitage but couldn't since he had to retreat as the Russian army approached.

After the war everything returned toward normal except Jewish life. In the 1960s there were about 200,000 Jews with some sort of life. They weren't allowed to have any form of Jewish education, nor learn Torah, and they weren't allowed social events at the synagogue. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were acceptable religious services but attendees were monitored for undermining authority.

After the Six Day War the Jews were allowed to learn a little Ivrit and they asked for visas to leave. The term refuseniks came into being. Then in 1970 Eduard Kuznetsov hijacked a plane to escape from Russia but the plot was revealed and he was caught. The Leningrad Trials became a battle for human rights and this subject was always on the table in any discussions between the USA and the USSR. Eventually Kuznetsov was released and he left for Israel.

Officially today there are 4,000 Jews in St Petersburg but the real number could be 100,000. Jewish community leaders think that there are maybe 200,000 Jews not known about.

More about the modern day Russian Jewish community on Monday (do I hear a cue for a song "Monday, Monday" - seeeeee Steve) in our Day 9 blog.



Anyway - about our party. Motze shabbat we pooled our resources - 2 bottles of vodka, a bottle of wine, sweeties, chocolates, nuts and orange juice and we sat around sharing stories, and singing songs. Judy taught a Russian folk song and dance, as shown in the pictures and linked video. At midnight we called it a day. Another lovely day.

NOTE: we suggest current followers reread our previous days in this trip because we are frequently updating the blog details and photos as we discover more highlights to add. Likewise if anyone uploads a personally recorded VIDEO from any day onto YouTube please give us the reference code and we can link it into our blog with your permission.

Advertisement



Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.1482s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb