PAGE FOUR

THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Antiquity of the Jews in Russia

•

HERMAN JACOBSOHN

ESSEX

MOTOR
CARS

When the historic curtain rises on fessed. Each tried to extol his own
Russia the Jew, Torah in arm and and belittled the religion of the other.
Staff in hand, is trudging into the After listening to the disputants for
Slav lands from two directions, the some time the "'Chagan" turned to
east and the west. In southern Rus- the Christian: ''If you could not be
Sia, Armenian and Georgian his- a Christian, which religion would you
torians record that the Jew had set- adopt, the Jewish or Mohammedan?
tied among them in remote antiquity. "The Jewish," was the reply. Then
They have evidence to prove that the he turned to the Mohammedan
Children of Israel had lived round the and asked, ''If you could not be a
Black and Caspian seas prior to the Mohammedan, which religion would
destruction of the First Temple (587 you adopt?" use Jewish," was the
13. C.), trading in mules and horses answer from the second. "Well, then
with Acco, Tyre, Sidon, and other both of you agree that the Jewish
Phoenician cities. Their chief occu- religion is the best," he said as he
nation was, however, agriculture. dismissed the professors. Ile there-
These early settlers were joined by upon had himself circumcised, and
Israelite captives taken by Nebuchad- he embraced Judaism. His court and
nezzar, and later on the same coo- many of his other subjects followed
munities were augmented by Jews his example, and thus Chazaria be-
from Media and Judea. Here they came a state under the rule of a Jew.
lived peacefully under their Prince of Equal rights were granted to all re-
the Diaspira (Resit Galuta). His- ligious, sects, and creeds. As the
torians relate that King liratshai of news of the conversion spread the
Armenia obtained from Nebuchad- state became a place of refuge not
nezzar, king of Babylonia, a Jew only for Jews, but for all victims of
named Shambat, whose descendants religious persecution. Many Ezro-
became the famous Bagratuny family. pcans migrated to Chazaria. Indeed ,
This family rose to the highest po- the rise of Chazaria seems a miracle
sitions of state, but renounced their In the day when the sun of Rome had
faith upon the invasion of the Fire just set, when all Europe was plunged
Worshipers from Persia. There is in gloom, and oppression was the
reason to believe that they subse- rule, brigandage, highway robbery,
quently became the Boyars of the and piracy honorable occupations;
Slavic Druzhina, to which the Rus- when the masses of all lands lived
Sian nobility traces its ancestry. In and died with chain and ball forged
the second century before the pres- to their feet—Chazaria offered an asy-
tnt era the Jewish Amatuny family lum to all races. And it was a safe
arrived, apparently from Oriental asylum. She possessed a well-dis-
Aryan lands, and soon rose to such ciplined army, a supreme court com-
distinctions that the hereditary vice- posed of seven judges (some his-
roy (satrap) and coronator of Ar- torians say nine), two Christian, two
rnenia, whose duty was to place the Mohammedan, two Jewish, and one
frown on the head of the ruler, was heathen to represent pagan Slavonian
selected from among them. Members and Russian tribes. It was a lone
Of this family held the office to the star in a shoot-blanketed night. The
end of the Arshak dynasty (433 C. inhabitants engaged in agriculture,
E.). There are records extant that the commerce, and industry, Here Jews
Armenian king Arshan, brother of saw a glorious day hardly equaled
Tigranes (who had been a thorn in even during the sunniest days in
the flesh of Rome for many years) Palestine. Al Makdisi, an Arabian
had imprisoned the coronator Han- writer, made a proverb current in the
ania and deprived hint of all honors east: "In Chazaria are many sheep,
because he had liberated from bond- Jews, and much money." Chazaria be-
age the Jewish High Priest Hyreanus. came the mediator between east and
Throughout the centuries preced- west. There is a tradition that the
ing the Christian era the Jewish col- Chazarlans founded Kiev. Whether
cnies round the Black and Caspian the tradition is true or not, Kiev be-

60

50

40

BRAKE
HORSE
POWER

30

20

Power of conventional moto,
of same size as ESSEX

I0

RPM.

0

I000

2000

3000

Essex Trebles Power

I

Without Added Size

The Essex motor--controlled by patents—is no larger than the motor
used in the smallest and most widely known automobile.
Yet Essex gives 55 horsepower. The conventional motor develops but
18 horsepower.
Essex adds no size. It retains the small car advantages in fuel, oil and
tire economy and it gives the big-car kind of performance.
Patents make these qualities exclusive to Essex.
And as for its endurance no car of any size or cost has ever travelled
3037 miles at top speed, as an Essex stock car did to prove its reliability.
Is it any wonder more than 40,000 owners hail it the champion of all
moderate priced cars regardless of its size or weight?

seas kept growing larger and larger. came a flourishing city under their
When Vespasian captured Jerusalem influence, rivaled only by few of the
in the year 70 of the present era an large Italian metropolies. Jews in Kiev
unprecedented flood of new immi- were found all over the province.
grants flowed in from Palestine. In- They inhabited a large section of the
deed, so large had the Jewish popula- city, which was called the "Zhidy,"
Lion become in these parts that at and the gate leading to it "Zhidov-
the Persian invasion (360-370 C. E.) skaja Vorota" (Jewish Gate). The
tens of thousands of Jews were re- Graeco-Christian .metropolitans con-
moved from the cities, Arashat, stantly complained that they could
Erandashat, Zarishat, Nakhichevan, not find a way to Check the spread
of Judai m among the Christian and
etc. Jewish life had been so deeply
then p
implanted here that Jews had found- heathen populace. The Jewish scholars,
ed many schools and universities, authors, poets, grammarians, and Tal-
mud i sts make up such a long list that
it
where Hebrew was on the same foot-
ing with Greek, then the most wide- t canon be given even catalogue-
fashion.
ly understood language.
'When the light of day began shim-
During the succeeding turbulent mering in the
te west IChazaria fell.
centuries, when Rome and Persia Swyatoslav,
1 a
' , a Slavic chieftain, com-
were at each other's throats, and dur- Lined with the Ilyzantines and after
ing the period of the great migra- many unsuccessful attempts over-
tions of the wild Germanic tribes, threw it (969), and the Chazarian
Jews here suffered tremendously, suf- Jews thus came under Slavic do-
Members D. A. D. A.—Responsible Automobile Dealers Who Sell Only Reliable Cars
fered till the eighth century, when minion They spread westward and
Kennen — Jansen, MI Clemens, Mich.
Highland Auto Sales Co., Highland Park
the rulers of the kingdom of Chazaria
Birmingham Garage, Birmingham, Mich.
Thompson Auto Company, 99 Pitt St., West, Windsor.. Ont.
northwaru to what is now known as
became converted to Judaism.
Morrison
Motor
Sales
Co.,
Wyandotte,
Mich.
Standard Garage Company, Pontiac, Mich.
Lithuania and Poland.
Squires & Goldsmith, 17 North Huron St., Ypsilanti, Mich.
Chazaria roughly comprised the
Yet, unlike the arrival of the Nor-
land then occupied by a Tatar-Fin- mans in England, the Franks in
nisi' tribe, which had descended from France, the Goths in Spain and in
... ) . Al• a.
the north in the beginning of the Italy, it has so far proved impossible
third century. They drove all the to trace the exact date Israel first
other savage tribes before them and set foot upon Lithuanian and Polish
......
••■■■■■11■■
conquered the northern part of the soil. The whole question is largely
Black Sea. In the course of a few speculative. Tradition speaks of Jews Lithuania and Poland they found Jews
hundred years they became masters in Lithuania and Poland as early as already there. In the thirtenth cen-
of territory along the Sea of Azoff, the eighth century. When Duke tury Jews were engaged in commerce
the Caspian, northern Caucasus, the Boleslaw I. of Poland sent Bishop and industry along the Vistula, Oder,
Don, the lower Volga, and the Bul- Adalbert of Prague in 997 to preach and the Elbe. They had large cont-
garian countries. Later on they made the Gospel to the Prussians (Lithu- munities in Chernigov, Volhynia,
their way to Crimea, Armenia, Iberia. anians), the churchman complained Smolensk. In the year 1827 a pot of
Surrounded now by the three great of the difficulties he encountered with coins was unearthed in the Polish
religions, their ruler became interest- the Jews. This much, however, is village of Glenbok, which has since
ed in them to the extent of inviting certain: when Jews from the west ran become known as the "Glenbok
a representative of each to lay before before the terrors of the Crusaders Treasure." Some coin connoiseurs
him the principles of what they pro- in the twelfth century and came into (Continued On Page 6.)

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