Petersburg,
to deliberate how to "re-educate" the Jews. Accordingly, in the early
part of April, 1843, the notables, from different places and with
diametrically opposed views, assembled in the Russian capital.
Representing the Jews, there were Rabbi Isaac Volozhin, the dean of the
Tree of Life Yeshibah, perhaps the strongest man present; Rabbi Menahem
Mendel Shneersohn of Lubavich, leader of the Hasidic reform sect; Joseph
Heilprin, the financier and banker of Berdichev, and Bezalel (Basilius)
Stern, principal of the Jewish public schools of Odessa. Representing
the Government were Count Uvarov, Chevalier Dukstaduchinsky, and others,
with de Vrochenko, Minister of State, as chairman and Lilienthal as
secretary. Montefiore of England, Cremieux of France, and Rabbi
Philippson of Germany had been invited, but they failed to come. The
council decided to open Jewish public schools in every city where Jews
reside, and also two rabbinical seminaries, the one in Vilna, the other
in Zhitomir, the former being considered the Jewish metropolis of the
northwestern part, the latter, of the southwestern part, of Russia.
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