WITHIN THE PALE
Stone, Esther L.
Within the Pale By ESTHER L. STONE RECENTLY newspaper dispatches from St. Petersburg reported "most pitiful" scenes attending the exodus from Keiff of the Jewish families who, by order of the...
...Unless he succeeds in settling the difficulty with the official for a consideration, he and his family may be compelled to swelter in town through the summer...
...Something of the nature of this section within which the Jewish population is segregated is ¦ told by Mrs...
...For any nation to turn to private charity for the performance of its public duties is a degradation and a danger.—J...
...This happened, for instance, in the Province of Ekaterinoslav, where fifteen Jewish families were ordered to leave...
...The wholesale expulsion of the Jews from Moscow by the uncle of the Czar, when he became governor of that province, when thousands of well-to-do people were reduced to beggary at one stroke, is a more striking, though less recent instance of this policy...
...Work is a right and a necessity, as well as a duty...
...As a result of this policy, the pale is overcrowded with artisans and trades people, while other parts of Russia, particularly Siberia, have to import the simplest articles of manufacture from other parts of Russia and pay enormous prices for them...
...The rigor with which these rules are being enforced at present can only be compared with the darkest days of the pre-revolutionary years...
...The Russian papers record numerous instances where several families who had lived for years in one place in perfect peace and harmony with their neighbors are all of a sudden ordered to leave the place and are given a few weeks or days for winding up their affairs...
...A. Hob-son in "The Crisis of Liberalism" * - * * f'lf the Settlement seeks its expression through social activity, it must learn to distinguish between mere social unrest and spiritual impulse, and so far as possible endeavor to translate one into the other...
...Take another case: People exiled to Siberia for various offenses (political or otherwise) are allowed to settle there upon the expiration of their term of exile, but, as Siberia is outside the pale of Jewish settlement, this does not apply to the Jews...
...The papers were full of such occurrences last summer, and not only the Jews are the sufferers, but the Christian population near the cities as well, since they derive a considerable income from renting their cottages, and in other ways...
...These restrictions are so numerous and complicated as to clothe petty police officials with arbitrary power a^d give room to abuse and graft...
...The "pale" is a strip of land embracing all of Russian Poland and several Russian Provinces along the Western frontier...
...Opportunity is Denied the Jew THESE difficulties about his "right to live" beyond the pale are encountered by the Jew at every turn...
...If he suffers from some other disease for which the mineral springs of the Caucasus are very beneficial, if he is a Jew, he cannot go there...
...She writes from personal knowledge.—-Editor's Note...
...In comes the petty police official and tells him that he has no right to live there...
...Jane Addams...
...Suppose he wants to move with his family to the country for the summer months...
...The welfare of hundreds of thousands of families is made to depend upon the whim of these pptty, ignorant, and coarse minions of the law...
...He may be tolerated there only as a criminal, but as a peaceful citizen he is regarded as a menace to the native population...
...In this "pale" the bulk of the Jewish subjects of the Czar are huddled together...
...But being a Jew, he will be ordered to leave Siberia...
...fWork is not rightfully a privilege to be given or withheld at the caprice of a few men...
...If a Jew has consumption and wishes to go to the Crimea which is known for its mild climate, he is not permitted to do so...
...Esther L. Stone in the following article...
...Stone is a native of Russia and has since twice revisited the land of her birth and bringing up...
...Even within the pale, Jews are not permitted u settle everywhere, for they have no right to own land outside of city limits or to reside in the country...
...Petersburg reported "most pitiful" scenes attending the exodus from Keiff of the Jewish families who, by order of the Russian government, were driven back within the pale...
...The peasants who felt that they would be the losers if the Jews should move away, called a village meeting in order to discuss this matter, but the village administration prohibited the holding of the meeting...
...THE RESTRICTIONS imposed by the Russian authorities with reference to the right to live outside of the pale are fraught with severe hardships, affecting as they do every man, woman, and child belonging to the Jews...
...While in exile he may have established himself in business, and by tha time his term of exile is over, he feels like staying there for good...
...As a consequence rich Russian Jews flock to the watering places of Western Europe and the poor among them have to suffer in silence...
...no man can be healthy without it.—C...
...Suppose a Jew is exiled to Siberia for a real or fancied crime...
...it is as much a necessity as fresh air...
...Only a few more fortunate ones are permitted to live outside the pale, among them being university graduates, merchants paying the highest rate of taxation, ar a few others...
...E. Russell...
Vol. 2 • June 1910 • No. 24
