What shall Jews do in Russia?
When conditions for Jews grew worse in
Russia at the end of the 19th century, the
educated members of the Jewish
community, especially young people, tried
to find answers for a way out of the
existing state of affairs.
As it was useless to expect the tsarist
authorities to show an understanding of
their situation, all that was left for Jews
was to place their trust in the greatest
spiritual authority of Russia – the writer
Lev Tolstoy. It became necessary to hear
from Tolstoy himself how he viewed the
situation of the Jews, the campaign
directed against them and what, in his
opinion, Jews in Russia should do. Fate
brought the young Leon Bramson to hear
answers to these vital questions for the
Jewish community when he and Rabbi
Josif Krauzkopf from America met with
Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana on a
summer’s day in 1894.
Bramson told the writer of the
difficulties Jews in Russia had
experienced and explained that the
activists among the Jewish community
saw the engagement of Jews in agriculture
and trades as a way out of the existing
situation. Tolstoy heard with great interest
that there were already several agricultural
communities and hundreds of thousands
of Jewish artisans; that Jews were leaving
cities to engage in agricultural labour; that
educational farms were being established
and new plans for training in trades were
being drawn up. The news that a society
for trades and agriculture that supported
Jews already existed surprised the writer.
Tolstoy approved of Jews wishing to get
involved in other work, agriculture in
particular. “The more Jews will work the
land,” he said with great enthusiasm, “the
better it will be for them. If an entire
generation appears that will cultivate land
with sweat on their brow or will work in
workshops, so much the better. The more
people till the land and sow, the fewer of
them go into trade and the happier and
better the life of the nation is.” These are
Tolstoy’s words as written by Bramson in
his 1937 memoirs about the unforgettable
meeting in Yasnaya Polyana.
Bramson was greatly encouraged to get
involved in further activities after he
visited Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, the great
Russian author and intellectual, in
Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy praised and
supported the work begun by Bramson
and his associates – the founding of
Jewish agricultural colonies and farms
for educational purposes and the training
of artisans.
Many years later Bramson wrote about
this meeting in his memoirs:
“reconstructing in my mind that
unforgettable day, I again
experienced for hours a spiritual
upsurge and a belief in the victory
of the brotherhood of nations, as
well as encouragement to work for
a better life for enslaved and
subjugated peoples – all the things
that our common teacher in
Yasnaya Polyana dreamed about.”
Students in the fields of Ungurinė [Ungarina] farm (Marijampolė [Mariampol] county), 1933–1935. World
ORT Archive
Lev (Leo) Tolstoy. Esfir Bramson’s
personal archive
Leon Bramson, Chair of the ORT Central
Board, devoted much attention to the
activities of the ORT Vilna Technicum. On
28 April 1935 he made a special visit to take
part in an ORT Vilna meeting, the agenda of
which is shown here. Esfir Bramson’s
personal archive
Poster advertising a charity concert organised by ORT in
London in support of the ORT Vilna Technicum and the ORT
vocational school in Vilnius (“Saturday evening, 20th May at
8 PM the singer Iza Kremer will perform Jewish and Russian
folk songs”). World ORT Archive
Announcement by the BRAMSON ORT
Technical Institute in New York about
registration of new students at its colleges in
Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn. Esfir
Bramson‘s personal archive
Jewish weekly “Apžvalga”, 4 June 1939, Nr. 21.