Russian Jewry Analysis

Historian of Russian Jewry John D. Klier similarly observes that Jews “had been a target, for just over one hundred years of a convoluted process of social engineering directed by the Russian state.” Thus this emigration was evoked by both economic hardships and anti-Jewish violence that occurred in other parts of the tsarist Russia. Even if in Lithuania pogroms were few, Lithuanian Jews were still afraid of possible forthcoming violence. Therefore, it is not surprising that this emigration differed from the displacement of other ethnic groups, where usually young men used to emigrate with a goal of earning money for their families. Jewish emigration from the Pale of Settlement was the displacement of entire families who have never returned.
The Jewish community of Vilna also issued a statement declaring their loyalty to the tsarist Russian Empire. Many Jews were also drafted for military service. However, the growing anti-semitism and violence in the tsarist Russia made Lithuanian Jews to believe that the arrival of the German army would change this situation and Germans would treat Jews in a more considerate manner. Abramowicz writes in his memoirs about the Russian rule in the war years: “Everyone was so fed up with the persecution, libelous attacks, and high inflation that nearly all of Vilna wished to be rid of the Russians, having had enough of their barbaric behavior. The city’s residents expected that things could only be better under the Germans.” In this period, Jews were turned into scapegoats responsible for the retreat of the Russian army. Therefore, any correspondence or speaking Yiddish in public places, due to its closeness to German, the enemy’s language, was prohibited; the negative image of Jews prevailed. Nonetheless, Abramowicz remembers that soon these positive moods towards the German military changed: “when the Germans occupied