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No. 12. | Vienna, 18 March 1904 — 2 Nisan 5664. | 8th Year.

The March of the Twelve Thousand.

In the girdle of steel and human bodies which Russia is winding about her Far Eastern possessions, the Jews form a strong link. Twelve thousand of them have thus far been ordered to the theatre of war, and are setting about, through winter storms, through fire and water, to keep their oath to the colours and to the law. They are young lads, full of hope, marching from the drill-ground to the field of honour; beside them fathers of families, who at parting handed their wives the bill of divorce — a proof of how free they are of craven hopes.

It is our duty to point to the Twelve Thousand who are now crossing the river-lands of Siberia, soon to go forth to meet, at the very least, severe hardships. Their proportion to the rest of the troops is at least equal to the proportion of the Russian Jews to the whole population. This fact is fitted to kill the lies about a desertion of the colours by the Jews. The spreaders of these lies must be condemned by public opinion under aggravating circumstances, because this time the motherland is calling step-children to her aid without any sad memory lessening their obedience.

There can be no doubt that the Jewish fighters of Russia will also put to shame those calumnies which deny the Jews manly courage. The very opposite of this assertion is historically proved. We shall but touch upon the brilliant valour of our forefathers; we shall also merely mention, from the Middle Ages, the deeds of passive and active heroism, the martyrs of religious confession, the fighters of post-Moorish Spain, those against Chmielnicki, against the Swedes; but from the moment when the governments summoned the Jews to pay the blood-tax, they have not had a moment's cause to regret this measure. In the wars against Napoleon, in the Italian and other campaigns of Austria, still more in the year 1870/71 and in the period following, in the Roumanian and the Bulgarian armies — everywhere the Jews displayed soldierly efficiency and a sense of duty which often far exceeded the ordinary measure.

With the martial aid of the Jews, their peaceful aid in any time of distress in the lands of their dwelling has always kept an equal and lively pace. Nor is it otherwise at present in Russia, and the Jews there are showing a high patriotism, both moral and material. In this, too, they follow a general historical example. For patriotic deeds the Bohemian Jew Treuenberg — a thing doubly unheard-of — received a patent of nobility from the strictly Catholic Ferdinand. The threefold necessity for waging war according to Montecuculi — money, money, and again money — was very often procured only with the help of the Jews. All the societies which charitably care for the fighting soldier, the Red Cross and its dependencies, have always been willingly and generously supported from the Jewish side. For the present case there are sufficiently many official and private reports to hand which show the conduct of the Russian Jews to be irreproachable, and which report numerous offers of personal or material assistance, most of which were accepted.

Concerning the Jews abroad, too, the Ambassador in Paris has reported to his Government at St. Petersburg that their doings in no way stand in hostility to the plans or the activity of Russia. The Ambassador's letter throws light upon certain sensational reports from a turbid, antisemitic source, reports which speak of political intrigues by non-Russian Jews. If only the latter had so much influence as to protect themselves!

With the sole exception of the most rabidly Jew-hating papers, the entire Russian press accordingly acknowledges the dutiful attitude of the native Jews. Nor is there any lack in it of warmly felt appeals for a later reward for this. This reward the Jews have received everywhere they have taken a personal share in the history of the States. Even if they have not caused the inherited race-hatred of the rabble to vanish, they have nevertheless been placed by the laws on an equal footing with those whose civic contributions in property and blood they shared in equal measure.

Deliberations in favour of an alteration of the legislation concerning the Jews are at present being carried on in the giant empire of the East. Perhaps it is well that the war broke out in the midst of the deliberations. The time has come in which the Jews can show by deed that on their side there is no ground for legally restricting their civic rights, since they fulfil their civic duties in full measure.