As the Russo-Polish Jews had carried their Talmudic
learning back to the countries whence they originally received it, so
the Galician Jews, mostly hailing from the city of Brody, where Israel
Zamoscz, Mendel Levin, Joseph Hakohen, and others had implanted the
germs of Haskalah, now reimported it into Russia. The Jews of Odessa
were, therefore, more cultured than other Russian Jews, not excepting
those of Riga. Prosperous in business, they lavished money on their
schools, and their educational system surpassed all others in the
empire. In 1826 they had the best public school for boys, in 1835 a
similar one for girls, and in 1852 there existed fifty-nine public
schools, eleven boarding schools, and four day schools. The children
attended the Richelieu Lyceum and the "gymnasia" in larger proportion
than children of other denominations, and they were among the first, not
only in Russia, but in the whole Diaspora, to establish a
"choir-synagogue" (1840). "In most of the families," says Lilienthal,
"can be found a degree of refinement which may easily bear comparison
with the best French salon." Even Nicholas I found words of praise for
the Odessa Jews.
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