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State Rabbinical Schools in Vil’na and Zhitomir [117] Avraam Uri Kovner: The Vil’na Rabbinical School Avraam Uri Kovner, “Iz zapisok evreia,” Istoricheskii vestnik, 91: 3–4 (1903): 987–90. How and why our family came to be in Vil’na again, I do not remember1 —I only know that Grandmother sold her “estate.” However, nurturing a special passion for land, for “one’s own” little corner, she bought some kind of shack in the forest (not far from Vil’na) and moved there. But it had no space for our family . Nor do I remember how I, a nine-year-old boy, suddenly turned out to be a student in the first class of the Vil’na Rabbinical School. Whether they required some kind of examination to enter this school and whether I took this examination are things of which I have no distinct recollection. I only know that one nasty day I found myself among little children , students of the first class in a large, bright room on the second bench. However, a few words need to be said about this school. When it was established, it was meant to cultivate educated state rabbis and teachers for urban Jewish schools. The curriculum at the rabbinical school was eight years (like our gymnasiums), except for Latin (which apparently was not obligatory then— even at the gymnasiums under the Ministry of Education). However, German and Hebrew , study of the Bible, and some knowledge of the Talmud were obligatory, along with the fundamental principles of the Jewish faith according to Hayei Adam [The life of man] and the Shulhan Arukh [The prepared table],2 which concisely and systematically laid out the foundations of the law of Moses. The head of the school was the director, a Christian; the assistant inspector and all the teachers of general subjects were also Russian and enjoyed the rights of state service. Only the inspector and the teachers of Jewish subjects were Jewish; the inspector, moreover, was not invested with any power and [had been] appointed only for honorific reasons from [among] the prominent Vil’na Jews. Instruction , except for special Jewish subjects, was in Russian. The school, which occupied a large stone building, had a dormitory that housed a certain number of the most gifted student at public (that is, Jewish) expense.3 Among them was my older brother, subsequently well known in the medical world as the author of an extensive historical work.4 How my brother ended up there, I do not know—all the more so since the rabbinical school was considered a hotbed of freethinking and atheism among Orthodox Jews (which my parents were), and none of them sent their children there. My State Rabbinical Schools in Vil’na and Zhitomir   [413] parents’ motive for sending their own firstborn to this impious institution was undoubtedly the fact that rabbinical school students were exempted from military conscription (something that not only Jews deemed terrible —given the brutal conditions of the Nikolaevan era). Their sons, however, given that they knew neither the Russian language nor the Russian way of life, considered [attending ] this school to be the greatest misfortune . A considerable incentive for my parents must have been the desire to be rid of an extra mouth to feed, all the more so since, as a special exception for the first class, my brother was admitted at public expense. In terms of the Jewish subjects, I was better prepared than the others. But back then, Russian was completely alien to me, and hence I had absolutely no understanding of the lessons in general subjects. Soon, however, I began to make notable progress and would have fully mastered Russian had a severe illness not befallen me. I was a day student. Every day at 4:00 to 5:00 in the morning, I set out for school with my brother, who helped me prepare the homework; during these excursions in the winter, dressed extremely lightly, I caught a severe cold and came down with a fever. I stayed home in bed in dire circumstances for more than three months, all this time remaining nearly unconscious. When I finally recovered, thanks to a strong body, and showed up at school, the teachers did not recognize me and asked: who is this? After the illness, I did not remain for long at the school. My parents apparently took my illness as a punishment from above for attending the impious institution, so they withdrew me and...

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