The Maccabaean

In the year 1819 Reb Schloime Plonski, a septuagenar- ian of Warsaw undertook a journey to Palestine, in order to see the Holy Land, and offer up prayer in the holy cities. After a somewhat prolonged stay he commenced his homeward journey, but, being delayed on the way at Constantinople, he wrote, toward the end of September of the year 1821, to his son-in-law Josef, a merchant of Warsaw, and informed him of his impending return. In the letter occurs the following passage:

"Here, in Constantinople, far from thee, I pray to God that peace be unto thee, my God-beloved, glorious, learned son-in-law, blessed with abundant wealth, of the dear name of Josef, and unto thy spouse, my daughter, that virtuous and God-fearing woman, of the name of Juta, and unto all the posterity that shall spring from thy loins."

Further he describes his diffieult journey, and expresses his joy at the approachine reunion with the following worthy expression: “He that sows with tears shall reap with joy.” The beginning of November of the same year Reb Schloime eommunicated that he was now ready to leave Warsaw; his journey, however, had taken much longer than he had antieipated and his stock of money was exhausted. He was therefore obliged to make the request that fifty ducats be forwarded to him. This communication, too, was couched in the old-fashioned Jewish style of letter-writing. He addressed his son-in-law as “Noble Sir,” and closed his letter with the statement that the news which he was bringing with him from the Holy Land would reawaken hope and Joy in the hearts of the True Believers, “the Kingdom of the Jewish Nation is now at hand, the youth of Jerusalem, and the rest of the inhabitants of the eity will help in the buildine of Zion.”

Both the foregoing letters were held over by the Russian police and were submitted for translation to the Censor of Jewish and Hebrew books. The contents appeared so suspieious to the authorities that the letter were submitted to the Governor Grand Duke Constantine, brother of Czar Alexander I. The Grand Duke and his couneillors glimpsed in the letters the traces of a Jewish conspiracy for the conquest of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish State— and then beran a truly Russian affair.

The copies of the translation (written, as was characteristic of the Russians of those days, in the French language) were sent in the Grand Duke's own handwriting, to the Czar at St. Petersburg. The Grand Duke reported as follows:

“A few days ago, two letters, addressed to a Jewish inhabitant of Warsaw, were forwarded to me. It appears from their contents that they were written by a person of the same nationality, who, together with four other Jews, undertook to journey on some mission throughout the Holy Land. From those expressions in the second letter which I have underlined it would appear that the emissary duly fulfilled the mission entrusted to him and that he evidently entertains the hope of the rehabilitation of Palestine and of the founding ofa Jewish Kingdom. As soon as the Jew who composed these letters arrives in Polish territory I will have him seized, together with his papers, which will perhaps contain details concernine the eonfederates who left Odessa with him.”

Soon the Grand Duke was able to carry out his design. The unsuspecting Schloime Plonski arrived in Warsaw on the 21st of December, 1821, was immediately arrested, and brought in secret to Bruls Palace, where only the most important state criminals were confined. His papers were naturally seized. There were no fewer than 61 Hebrew and

Jewish letters. These were immediately translated into French and the whole despatched to the Czar at St. Petersburg. Their perusal might well have proved uninteresting to the Ruler of all the Russians. The letters discovered on Plonski had been entrusted to him by inhabitants of Jerusalem to be delivered to addresses in Russia. The letters contained news as to how things were with the writer, made inquiries as to the welfare of so-and-so, sent Mazeltovs, lamented certain deaths, and ever expressed longing and hope for the early advent of the Messiah. In short these letters eontained exactly what old, pious, simple Jews were wont to write when they had taken farewell of their life of worries, with one thought of going to the Holy Land and dying there in the fear of God.

The letters, however, also contained details of information about the organization of the Jewish remittances forwarded to Palestine; in this organization can be seen plainly the origins of the modern Chalukah Organization. Further the writers report that by means of substantial money offerings, they had succeeded in obtaining permission to erect a new synagogue for Polish worshippers. The transactions had to be carried out in Constantinople, because the erection of a synagogue was forbidden by a statute dating from the 18th century. Their joy at this sugcess was extraordinarily great. “Thanks be unto God,” ran the letter in one place, “Who has made Jerusalem His chosen, it has been granted us to effeet the suspension of the royal ukase, that we might renew our glory and re-erect the House of God which the Gentile has desecrated and the enemy destroyed.”

All the foregoing appeared to the Warsaw officials in enquiry as being highly dangerous to the state; they saw before them a widespread Confederacy, which embraced the whole Jewish world, and they took Schloime Plonski for one of the most important personages of this secret organization.

In order to understand the agitation called forth in a mighty government by the poor Jew, it is necessary to bear in mind that Alexander T, did not have a very clear understanding of Turkish political affairs. Under his patronage, the Greek national hero, Ypsilante, had organized numerous Brotherhoods of Greeks resident in Russia. Why should not the Jews attempt a similiar undertakine? Why should not the Turks purchase the help of the Jews by concessions in Palestine? And could not these Jewish instruments of Turkey become, in certain eircumstances, a danger to Russia? Says the Grand Duke in one of his reports:

“ “There cannot be any doubt that the attachment of the Tews for their ancient home has recently been awakened.. it is a consequence of the fact that money is flowing into Palestine from all countries, and particularly from those territories which are more densely populated by Jews; that this race, whose eyes have ever been fixed on the Holy Land, are daily beecoming more unfriendly and disobedient to the lands of their adoption: and finally that the Jews are entertaining secret plans for a national renaissance.....They state that the Sultan has permitted them the re-erection of their synagogue....then the Jews of all states, including the Polish, must have effected independent transactions with the Turkish government under which they live. This pec- ular partiality of the Jews for the Turks, from whom they await the rebuildine of their national home, approaches elosely a kind of infidelity to the rulers of the country in which they are born, and can, in certain eircumstances, become a positive act of treason azainst their country. In Odessa 2000 Jews carry on a regular correspondence with those Jews in Palestine whom they themselves are subsi-