and Italians, who also live among us.”  In Poland, Tadeusz Czacki, the historian, wrote his Discourse on the Jews (Rosprava o Zhydakh, Vilna, 1807), in which he deplores that Jews “experienced indulgence rarely, oppression often, and contempt nearly always” under the most Christian governments, and suggests a plan for reforming their condition.  But the main appeal for freedom came, as might have been expected, from the Jews themselves.  Contemporaneous with, if not before, Michel Beer’s Appel a la justice des nations et des rois, a Lithuanian Jew, during his imprisonment in Nieszvicz on a false charge, wrote a work in Polish on the Jewish problem,[2] while in 1803 Loeb, or Leon, Nebakhovich, an intimate friend of Count Shakovskoy, published The Cry of the Daughter of Judah (Fopli Docheri Yudeyskoy), the first defence of the Russian Jew in the Russian language.  The followers of the religion of love are implored to love a Jew because he is a Jew, and they are assured that the Jew who preserves his religion undefiled can be neither a bad man nor a bad citizen.

But the Jews did not wait for their dreams to be realized.  They threw themselves into the swirl of their country’s ambition, as if they had never received anything other than the tenderness of a devoted mother at her hands.  They were “kindled in a common blaze” of patriotism with the rest of the population.  That in spite of all accusations to the contrary they remained loyal to Poland, is amply proved by the history of that unfortunate country.  The characteristic kapota of the Polish Jew, his whole garb, including the yarmulka (under cap), is simply the old Polish costume, which the Jews retained after the Poles had adopted the German form of dress.[3] “When, in the year 1794,” says Czacki, “despair armed the [Polish] capital, the Jews were not afraid of death, but, mingling with the troops and the populace, they proved that danger did not terrify them, and that the cause of the fatherland was dear to them.”  With the permission of Kosciusko, Colonel Joselovich Berek, later killed at the battle of Kotzk (1809), formed a regiment of light cavalry consisting entirely of Jews, which distinguished itself especially at the siege of Warsaw.  Most of the members perished in defence of the suburb of Praga.  In the agony of death, Rabbi Hayyim longed for good tidings, that he might die in peace.  And when the fight was over, Zbitkover expended two barrels of money, one filled with gold ducats and one with silver rubles, for the live and dead soldiers who were brought to him.[4] Indeed, Prince Czartorisky was so convinced of their patriotism, that he always advocated the same rights for the Polish Jews as were claimed for the Polish Gentiles, entrusted his children to the care of Mendel Levin of Satanov, and instructed his son, Prince Ladislaus, always to remain their friend.[5]