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Chapter 10 The Portrait of a Russian-Jewish Shtadlan: Jacob Teitel's Social Solution Jacob (Yakov) Teitel (1851- 1939), a Jewish judge, criminal investigator, and philanthropist, justifiably deserves the attention of historians of Russian Jewry. His career serves as a mirror of changes in the legal and occupational status of Jewish professionals in late-tsarist Russia. Entering the Ministry of Justice in the 1870s, after it had become open to Jews as a result of the legal reform of 1864, he was forced to resign his position due to antisemitism in 1912. At that time he was the sole remaining Jewish judge in Russia and his presence in the ministry was an intolerable blemish for 1. Shcheglovitov, the infamous Minister of Justice. In his various philanthropic activities Teitel applied the tenets of Russian Populism, while employing as a practical model the approach of the shtadlal1, i.e., he sought individual exceptions to Jewish liabilities by means of personal intercession1 In his attitudes, behaviors, and life choices, Teitel's ideals reflect the goals of the 1860s and 70s-Jewish integration with Russia - which he managed to d o early in his life and which he refused to surrender, despite changes in external conditions. Teitel, however, also plays another, perhaps equally important role. With his vivid autobiography, he informs us about the development of the shtadlal1 approach, about his behind-closed-doors negotiations w ith the representatives of the Russian government. Such testimony is valuable because the shtadlal1 system is historically mute; few records exist about it. In fact, convention requires silence; the inner workings of behind-the-scenes negotiations are by definition secret and closed to the public. Therefore, Teitel's descriptions are precious for the historian 2 Teitel's biography also gives us valuable information about Jewish life in the provinces of Russia. Having spent the lion's share of his life in Samara and Saratov, Teitel describes the Jewish world in the most unlikely places. And yet in these areas, out of reach to most Jews, Teitel and others engaged in 1 The shtadlan is associated with the court Jew who, using his position of influence and authority, made requests on behalf of the Jewish people. For a positive evaluation of the shtadlall in Russia, see Klier, "Krug Gintsburgov i politika shtadlanuta," 38-54. 2 Steven Zipperstein suggested the ideas in this paragraph in a personal conversation on December 20, 1998. 182 EMPIRE JEWS Jewish philanthropy, confessional life, and administration of the local community. Teitel came of age in the last decade of Alexander II's reign in the 1870s, when, despite the attainment of privileges for the "best among us," it had become entirely clear that the "Great Reforms" would not bring full civil rights to all of Russia's Jews. Furthermore, the pogrom in Odessa in 1871 already presaged worse times to come. In addition to a hostile government, forces of dissolution were tugging from within at the stagnant Jewish community. The old maskilim (reformers of the first half of the 19th century) were discredited by the failure to produce broad and deep political change, while in many instances traditional Jews were still reluctant to take a more assertive political role outside the Jewish community3 The 1870s saw many young people turning their backs on Jewish civic life, seeking career opportunities in Russia that entailed either conversion or at least nearly complete assimilation. A small, but not meager percentage of young Jews took advantage of the opportunity, still open, to enroll in Russian universities (by 1886, 14.4 percent of all students were Jews), thereby attaining privileges denied to the vast majority. Teitel found himself among a smaller, but nevertheless vocal group of individuals -whom we may call the Russian-Jewish intelligentsia-who, professing acculturation to Russia, retained a strong Jewish identity. Inspired by the ideals of Populism, after graduation from Moscow University , Teitel wanted to be useful to Russia and her Jews. He therefore chose a career in the tsar's Ministry of Justice, becoming a criminal investigator in the provincial cities of Kazan and Samara, and later a judge in Saratov. During World War I, he worked in London collecting money for destitute Jewish refugees, and after the Bolshevik revolution, departed Russia, becoming the president of the Society of Russian Jews in Germany. Nevertheless, one can only partially explain his major achievements by pointing to his professional career. What is most important about Teitel is his philanthropic activity, through which he reveals his particular synthetic...

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