The Geniune Jew

Organ for Yiddish Matters

DER WAHRE JUDE Organ für die Gesammtinteressen des Judenthums

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Lviv, March 15th 1904

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The Genuine Jew is published every Tuesday and Friday

Lemberg, den 15.März 1904.

Germans and Czechs - and Dr Byk

The situation of Austrian Jews is quite strange. Whatever they do, everything is foul. The Polish think they are Germans and cry about them helping to Germanise Galicia. The Ruthenians clamour about them being Polish and assist in oppressing the Ruthanians. The Germans in Bohemia yell that the Jews cooperate with the Czechs and the Czechs in turn think that they are German and so on. The best opportunity of action for the Jews is to stay as far away as possible from all disputes. Wherever two nations fight, they shall not intervene if possible, because they know that in the end, everything will be blamed on them.

In the last days a situation occurred which again proved this hypothesis. Stein and Herzog, two antisemites, insulted the Czech people in parliament. The Czechs then demanded to forward this matter to a special committee which had to present a proposal which details the Reichsrat’s disapproval of the said assertions (this committee is named “committee of disapproval”). By chance, two Jews were in this committee as well: Dr. Byk and Dr Rappaport, both from Galicia. Those two explained to the committee that the committee of approval is only used if one delegate insults another personally. The delegates Stein and Herzog did not insult anyone personally, they badmouthed the Czechs as a whole. Furthermore, the committee can only commiserate about what has happened, but cannot express disapproval against Stein and Herzog. The delegate Merunowicz agreed with that and the presiding delegate Gniewosz as well. The committee decided that they will do as Dr Byk said and the presiding delegate chose him to be the speaker, he shall bring this motion forward. However, the Polish Circle was not satisfied with the decision and as Dr Byk learned this he explained that he cannot be the speaker and retreated from his position in the committee. As none of the other committee members wanted to present the decision, a new committee had to be elected. This committee decided to disapprove Stein's and Herzog’s course of action.

This molehill turned into a mountain. The Germans were of course satisfied with Dr Byk and claimed that he did the right thing, the Czech exclaimed the opposite; he was in the wrong! Dr Byk was accused of sticking with the Germans, and furthermore with antisemites. Even Polish papers write about Dr Byk’s wrongdoings; supporting Germans as a Polish delegate. A huge debate erupted. Luckily, two other Poles voted with Dr Byk and Dr Rapoport: Merunowicz and Gniewosz. Otherwise this could have ended in a true anti-semitic tale. Still, in

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anti-semitic Polish and Czech papers feature attacks against the Jew Dr Byk.

We think it doesn’t matter whether Dr Byk had accepted the committee mandate from the beginning. He didn’t have to intervene in the dispute between antisemitic Germans and antisemitic Czechs. Whatever they are doing, he shouldn’t say a word. That way he would have spared the trouble and wouldn’t give antisemitic papers a chance to rail against Jews.

Turkish politics.

Once upon a time Turkey played the most important role in world politics, back when its great army flooded half Europe. Every greater power banded together, formed alliances and contracts in order to protect themselves against the Turkish might. - This hasn’t been the case for over 200 years now. Since the Polish king John Sobieski chased the Turks away in 1683 when they besieged Vienna, they haven’t played a big role anymore. Its influence shrank, it stopped conquering other countries. Turkey was satisfied that everyone got off its back and didn’t take away its remaining countries.

But they were not allowed to rest. The Slavic countries which were oppressed before freed themselves from the Turkish burdens. Revolutions broke out and while not every revolt was successful they constantly disturbed the Turkish government and would not allow them to breathe easily. Furthermore, they waged war against Austria and Russia. After every war, little by little, land was seized and Turkey remained with less countrymass. The Slavic people freed themselves one by one; the Montenegrians, the Serbs, the Greeks, the Romanians, and the Bulgarians. Finally, only a small piece of land in Europe remained for the Sultan. The Russian emperor Nicholas called him the “sick man of Europe”. This name is quite accurate. Turkey is sick. It’s not possible to resurrect or artificially provide life support via European politics.

The European powers cannot agree to a plan, who should inherit Turkey’s power and how they want to divide the country. At last, they settled on an outcome: “Not for me - not for you!” They decided that everything should remain as it is. No one should take anything from the sultan and he in turn should not enlarge his territory as well. After the Greco-Turkish war, Turkey did not take anything from Greece and even had to hand back Crete to Prince Georg who administers it as a formality in the name of the sultan. In reality, he is the master of it and does what he wants to.

So, the powers agreed to change nothing concerning the Turkish lands. They watch over each other, nothing bad should happen there. But to calm the Slavic and Christian population down, they demanded from Turkey to introduce reformations in the European provinces. The people should not have to endure Turkish officers and be exploited by them. The savage Turks, Albanians, and Armenians need not to rob, murder, and ransack Christians.

Turkey agreed to all of it. First it hesitated, searched for different excuses, but needed to give in at last and promised to introduce the reforms. Still, it did not happen. It certainly knew that no other power would dare to force introducing the reforms, because other powers would not permit it to happen. It’s near impossible for everyone to agree to one particular plan. Turkey played with different powers and at the end herded them like cattle.

The powers watched and remained silent. Their jealousy of each other would not allow them to do something against it. However, the Balkan countries were not okay with keeping quiet, so they organised revolts and riots. They knew that Turkey would suppress these riots with force. It would allow Christians being robbed and murdered which would leave the powers with no other choice than to intervene and to seize the Slavik lands back from Turkey.

Austria-Hungary as well as Russia cared the most about this matter; they are the closest neighbours and are the most invested in the Balkan countries. Both powers were also most keen on keeping the status quo in Turkey as they cannot agree on how to split the lands. If war would break out on the Balkan, both would have to intervene which both would rather avoid. So, they worked on a reform scheme which should be introduced in Turkey, mainly in Macedonia where the riots cannot be terminated. They hoped to achieve a lot with their plan: First, Turkey will not be able to find excuses anymore. If the two main powers propose a plan, every other power will have to support it and the sultan would not be able to fight against the unified European will. Second, the Balkan countries, who exploited the jealousy of Austria-Hungary and Russia and in turn did whatever they wanted to, will have to admit that the jealousy came to an end and therefore cannot be exploited anymore. Indeed, both called upon the Balkan countries to keep calm. They have to comply, whether they want to or not.

Even Turkey accepted the reform scheme. It agreed to all conditions which had been

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requested, because it realised that the powers united and excuses won’t work anymore. The world thought that finally the Balkan question would finally be answered. The riots would stop, Bulgaria and Montenegro would stop siccing on Macedonia and the perils of war would disappear. But now, the Russo-Japanese war broke out and everything starts anew.

First, the Macedonians and Bulgarians raised their heads. Russia is busy with Japan - it will not interfere with the Balkan affairs - but it will not allow Austria to interfere and take hold in the Balkan. Turkey has also started to bestir. It started to collect a lot of military and threatened to declare war on Bulgaria. Bulgaria was intimidated and calmed down. As Turkey saw that the threat worked it started to go against the reform scheme which had already been under way. The sultan reflected on the reform scheme and realised that it would diminish his power as an independent ruler as why he cannot agree to it. Every day he is looking for more objections, every day he is finding more justifications and excuses. Soon he will demand for foreign officers to be in charge of the police in Macedonia again, they should wear Turkish uniforms, soon he wants them to be able to speak Turkish again - and in the end he wants - according to the Turkish religion - that a non-Turk is not allowed to be in charge of a Turk. The foreign officers therefore cannot have any authority. The same thing he introduced to Austrian and Russian civil agents who have been provided to the general administrator Hilmi Pasha as counselors. Before he agreed for them to wield administrative influence; but now he considered it again and decided that foreigners cannot be in control. They cannot dismiss Turkish officials or punish them or similar.

However, the sultan is playing with fire. He forgets that his position in Europe is dependent on the power’s jealousy of each other. If the powers united, they would be able to put an end to him. - Moreover, the fact that Russia has its attention somewhere else could be fatal to the sultan. Until now, Russia was part of the discussion but now they have not asked for Russia’s opinion. An important competitor to the sultan’s heritage disappeared making it easier for others to divide the heritage.

Famine in Spain.

Tragic news about a horrible famine has been reported from Spain lately. In many cities inflation has grown greatly causing not only poor people, but also wealthy ones to go hungry. In the capital Madrid

one litre milk costs one crown, one litre petroleum 80 heller, one kilogram potatoes 20 heller, one kilogram bread 45 heller. Other cities are even more expensive. The destitution prevailing in the lower classes is indescribable. Seven dead, perished of starvation, have been found on the capital’s streets these days. Multiple beggars roam the streets, the police had to be called to lead them to welfare institutions. In one day alone, over 1,500 beggars were collected.

Because of hunger, riots broke out in multiple cities. In Valladolid, a heap of women with naked children carrying black saucepan through the city yelling: “We demand bread and work!” They told them in the city hall that the administration bought 6,000 kilograms of bread and will sell them cheaply. They were not satisfied and so they continued yelling and crashing around. Soon over 10,000 factory workers joined them. Fear dominated the city, everyone closed their windows and doors and hid in their basements and attics. The masses broke street lanterns, smashed in the governors and mayor’s windows, and pelted a monastery with stones. They doused the monastery in petroleum and wanted to set it ablaze. Military then appeared and broke them up. Lately, the people are upset with the clergy in general. If a riot breaks out in a city, the people will soon let off their steam with the monasteries. The military had to shoot and several people were wounded. Only then the crowd dispelled. But new riots are dreaded, because the people are furious.

In many other cities like Málaga, Seville, Bilbao, Gijón as well as the capital Madrid, the people are very agitated and revolts can break out any day. The government is helpless, the treasury is empty and they cannot help the people.

News.

Jewish news.

(Vienna). The supreme court decided an interesting verdict. A widow (a woman whose husband died without children) had to pay her brother in law 8,000 crowns because he should release her from the obligation of levirate marriage and she should marry again. After the marriage she sued her brother in law to give her the money back, because he blackmailed her. The court dismissed the case. She then elevated the lawsuit to the supreme court which sentenced the culprit to return the money, because he exploited her plight to extort the money. (Berlin). The municipality Potsdam wants to forbid ritual slaughter in its slaughterhouse. The local Jews certainly do anything to thwart this ban.

(Rome). An antisemetic stage play was performed in an asylum. The play is about

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Jewish people luring a Christian girl to slaughter her. The government closed the asylum instantly. The director and writer of the play have been arrested because of Jew-baiting.

(St Petersburg). Russian newspapers write that what the antisemitic papers accuse the Jews of, is not true. They claim that the Jews desert from the military because they do not want to go to the battleground in East Asia. On the contrary, a lot of Jewish soldiers volunteer enthusiastically for war. - Those same papers claim that what happened in Chișinău, the demonstrations against Jews, is not true. Instead peace and quiet prevails there.

(Bulgaria). On February 26th, the following case occurred in the Bulgarian harbour city Varna: a ship came from Odessa with several Jewish families who wanted to settle down in Bulgaria. The police did not even let the Jews come onto land and explained that foreign Jews are not allowed to settle in Bulgaria. The Jews informed the Russian consulate Charykov [He was envoy in Serbia at this time, Bakhmeteff was the Russian ambassador in Bulgaria 1897-1905] who put on his official uniform and swiftly marched to the harbour with consulate officers and military. The military carried a Russian flag. The consul explained to the police chief: “If the police wants to send the Jews back to Russia, it needs to stamp on this Russian flag!” He motioned the Jews to stand between his officers and led them to a hotel. He did not allow the police to interfere and demanded them to return the passports. - Russia, which treats its own Jews that badly, looks after them abroad! Or maybe it is just because we are at war?

(New York). The recently deceased Jew Luis Gonz left half a million dollars behind for Jewish charity and private persons.

Telegrams.

The war.

Between Japan and Russia

Port Arthur. The Russian battleship in the harbour attacked the Japanese battleships who were stationed close to the harbour. Some Russian battleships started firing at the Japanese ships. The Japanese returned the fire and completely destroyed one and damaged another ship badly. A Japanese ship has also been damaged badly. The Russians retreated. The Japanese followed and bombarded the stronghold for four hours. This time they did a lot of damage. - The soldiers of the destroyed and sinking ships were arrested by the Japanese. Several dead and wounded on both sides.

London. The Japanese sent over 70,000 soldiers to Korea. The Japanese military has also landed in Manchuria and Vladivostok. Two divisions march from two sides onto Vladivostok and the city will soon be trapped from all sides. - The Russian battleships in the harbour of Vladivostok steered out into the open sea, followed by the Japanese.

St Petersburg. The former minister of war and the current supreme commander of the Russian army in East Asia, general Kuropatkin travelled to the war zone. Until he arrives there in 14 days, the Russian army will remain calm and avoid the Japanese. Only once he arrives will the army enter the war.

London. As news from Port Arthur reports, agitation prevails. Immense inflation and hunger dominates the area. - The population flees as far as they can. Even the military and generals lose their confidence. Everyone agrees that although Port Arthur’s stronghold is powerful, the city will not withstand a siege forever and soon they will have to surrender. - Several barrels of brandy are stored in the city which are fiercely protected by the officers. The military is not allowed to get ahold of these barrels, because if they do, they will forget the war. They will drink, murder, and rob their own population and the stronghold will be raided by the Japanese.

The peace in Hungary.

(Budapest). The parliament passed the recruitment act. The medical examination for the military will start on March 21 and last until the end of it. On May 9 the reserves will be sent home and the newly appointed military dispersed. - The whole country is satisfied with the conciliation between the opposition and the government.

The emperor will travel to Budapest next week and will be welcomed with a great parade.

The third Kishinev trials.

Chișinău. During the third trials following have been convicted: one defendant for four years, one to two years and eight months forced labour. 15 to one year workhouse and four minors to four months jail. 36 defendants have been discharged.

The Austrian imperial assembly.

Vienna. The Czech obstruction continues. Important discussions cannot be led.