rabbinical office, few students availed themselves of the opportunity afforded, and none obtained positions, the whole plan fell into disfavor.[8] The Government, nevertheless, remained as stubbornly determined as ever, and unable to turn all the children into Cantonists, it decided to have those who remained at home gradually converted by means of a method worked out by the Minister of Education, Uvarov.  They were forced to attend what became known as Government schools, though maintained exclusively with Jewish funds.  In order to win the confidence of the Jews for the project, Doctor Lilienthal, whose speech at the dedication of the Riga School secured him a diamond ring as a token of the czar’s approval, was sent from St. Petersburg on a mission of investigation, more especially of persuasion.

For more than three years Lilienthal was one of the most popular personages in Europe.  The eyes of all who had the amelioration of the lot of the Russian Jew at heart, it may be said the eyes of the civilized world, were fixed upon him as an epoch-maker in the history of the Jews.  Nature had formed him, physically and mentally, to be a leader among his people, and his training and temperament made it easy for him to ingratiate himself into the favor of the great.  It seemed that he was just the man to be the successful executor of the czar’s plan.

The Maskilim, above all, hailed him as the champion of the cause of Haskalah.  He was their Moses or Ezra, the God-sent redeemer of their benighted brethren out of the quagmire of fanaticism.  From various cities numerous urgent appeals came to him to hasten the execution of his great plan.  Wherever he went, he was enthusiastically received, a truly royal welcome was extended to him.  The Vilna community appropriated five thousand rubles for the school fund, and pledged itself to raise more if it were found necessary; and he was invited also to Minsk by the kahal of the city.

Unfortunately, Lilienthal’s tactics exposed him to suspicion, and the seed of discord was soon sown between him and his former admirers.  He tried to serve two masters, the czar and the Jews, and he alienated both.  The pious regarded him as a mere tool in the hands of the Government, for, they maintained, education without emancipation leads to conversion.  The enlightened element also lost confidence in one who, instead of boldly attacking superstition, preferred, while in Minsk, to identify himself not only with the Mitnaggedim, but even with the Hasidim.  He was also too headstrong and too vain of his achievements.  Benjamin Mandelstamm, who, as he tell us in his letters, considered Lilienthal “as wise as Solomon and as enterprising as Moses,” complains a little later of his arrogance, and at the last speaks of him with contempt.  His assumed superiority grieved the Maskilim, and their former enthusiasm was rapidly replaced by hatred and persecution.  He found it necessary to put himself under the protection of the police while in Minsk, and when he returned to Vilna his reception was far less hearty than it had been before.