The Town Preacher (Der shtot-magid) - Shmuel Gozhansky

The Town-Preacher: A Story About Jewish Life (1897)1

In the late summer of 1895, there was a strike in the largest cigarette factory in the city “N”. The strike broke out because the manufacturer began to hire women to “stuff” the cigarettes. He explained that he did this because he planned to enlarge his factory. But the workers understood his true intention—to hire women to replace the male workers in his factory. He calculated that, first of all, women’s labor is much cheaper than male labor; and secondly, that it is much easier to boss around female workers than male ones, since they are more obedient than men. And what’s better for a manufacturer than cheap, obedient workhands? True, in the interim, he paid the same wages to women and men. But history has shown in many other cities that it wouldn’t be for long. In other cities, a short while after the women were hired, the female cigarette workers began to earn less and less, until they actually earned less money at cigarette stuffing than they had back when they were just cigarette packers.

All of this was known to the workers. So they walked out on their jobs. The female workers also understood how important it was for them that male workers continue to work as cigarette stuffers. Because the cigarette-packers were sub-contracted by the cigarette stuffers, not by the manufacturer, and the less the stuffers made the less the packers would be paid. So, they also joined the strike against hiring girls as stuffers.

As usual, the discussions then began: the manufacturer summoned the workers and declared that he did not, God forbid, have any evil intentions, and that he was not going to lay off anyone. But the workers were determined not to return to work until he fired the girls working as stuffers. So the manufacturer, seeing that things weren’t going well, sent out emissaries to other cities to find female workers. And meanwhile, he began to use the old, tried, home remedies: The factory manager posted a notice in the factory announcing that whoever did not appear for work would be arrested and tried for resigning from work without giving the boss two weeks advance notice.

The police then began to arrest whomever they found. But it didn’t make a difference. The whole city began to talk and debate about the matter. Some people held that the workers were rascals. How dare they give orders to the manufacturer? He’s entitled to hire whichever workers he wants to. Things went so far that the preacher, who in this city occupied the rabbi’s position, involved himself in the affair.2 He claimed that the police commissioner had asked him to make peace between the workers and the manufacturer. The preacher summoned the workers to meet with him, but of the 200 workers involved—both men and women—only a few older ones appeared at the meeting. The rabbi rebuked them, saying that striking was against the law, and that with their current strike they were bringing harm to all the Jews in Russia, because the state would begin to look upon all Jews as rebels. In addition, he literally swore to them that the manufacturer did not, God forbid, intend to take work away from the men, and would not lay off anyone.

But neither the rabbi’s rebuke, nor his promises, had any effect. The workers remained firm. Then the rabbi decided to give a sermon in the great synagogue on the matter. He cooked up a kasha of quotes from the prophets, tana’im and amora’im3 —which led all the way to the tobacco factory. Then he became agitated and began to curse all the workers, while screaming, waving his arms, and so forth. The synagogue was full of people, including workers from the tobacco factory and from other crafts. All the workers got up and left their seats.

Suddenly, the sound of whistling echoed through the synagogue. All the workers were hissing and booing the rabbi. “Rabbi, you must have gotten a 25 ruble note for that sermon!” one voice called out from the crowd.

The preacher became bewildered and forgot his train of thought. It was the first time he had ever faced such a humiliation. It was the first time that the congregation had told him that he should mind his own business. Then a worker got up on the bimah4 and explained to everyone the true meaning of the strike.

The manufacturer held out for a few more days, and then gave in. The following brochure was composed in connection with the above incident.

The Publishers

The Jewish Workers Against the Jewish Capitalists

Ever since “N” became a city, there has not been such a story, which should agitate an entire city like the story of the rabbi’s sermon in the great synagogue concerning the workers in “X’s” tobacco factory. Old Jews, with their grey beards shake their heads in pain and anguish and can’t calm themselves: “My goodness. This is the kind of story that doesn’t pass! Borukh hashem,5 we’re old men and not little children. We’ve been going to this synagogue for 50-60 years, and we never witnessed such a scandal. That the simple masses should mock the town preacher and make him appear ridiculous!”

For the old men, it is indeed an unheard-of story, which makes their hair stand. “How can it be?” they ask. “Aren’t Jews still one people, united in the terrible tsores6 which they have endured for thousands of years in exile? Aren’t Jews still all children of one father, with one common faith, with one common Jewish heart? Jews gather on shabbes in shul,7 so as to forget—at least for a while—their worldly affairs, forget their tsores and suffering, and to pour out their hearts in prayer before God. But look what we have lived to see in our old age! Instead of unity and brotherly love—jealousy and hatred.

Jews should quarrel in a sanctuary! The masses against the town-preacher! What a desecration!”.

Yes, this is an unheard-of story. But if we’ll think a bit more about it and observe more closely everything that has been happening of late, we’ll understand that the story with the preacher is the natural outcome of many sad stories which are unheard of, and which should upset every person with sense in his head. Has it ever been heard of that a preacher should terrify workers in shul, should threaten them with all sorts of afflictions, in this world and in the world to come, only because they’ve quarreled with their employer? Has it ever been heard of that a spiritual person, who should set an example to the rich people regarding proper behavior toward the poor, should besmirch hundreds of honest laborers, who toil their lives away in factories for a piece of bread? That he should curse and slander elderly Jews who feed their wives and children by the sweat of their brow, without asking for anyone else’s charity? To speak about them as of a band of robbers and thieves who should be put in prison?

Did it ever happen in the old days, that a Jewish manufacturer or workshop owner tried, through all sorts of devices, to throw old men out onto the street, men, who have toiled away their whole lives for him? To throw them out just to increase his already large income, through using the cheap labor of women? Did it ever happen in the old days that because of a dispute with workers, the boss turned to the despicable police, and paid them good money so that they should, not in accordance with the law, arrest workers, grab innocent people on the street, and beat them? Has it ever been heard that the head of police and the sheriff should become involved in a dispute between a Jewish boss and his Jewish workers, along with the gabbaim8 and the preacher? the former—to force the workers back to work with fists, and the latter—to incite the public against the poor workers, to call them with shameful epithets, and pour insults on them, for the sin of not wanting to give in to the almighty rich man?, for the sin of not wanting to starve with their wives and children in the street?

All of these are brand new things, which we did not know about in the past, and which we now see vividly before our eyes!

The workers refused to give in, even when they saw that the manufacturer started looking for replacement workers. All the workers in town who understood their interests supported the tobacco-workers, because they understood that the strike was not just the tobacco-workers’ affair, but was the affair of all workers.

The police and the preacher stood shoulder to shoulder with the manufacturer. The preacher, who is of one body and one soul with the wealthy, gave a sermon defaming the impudent workers, and spreading all sorts of lies about them. In that sermon, he lashed out at everything that has in recent years begun to disturb our rich men, including the booklets written for the masses in a plain and simple language.

After all these curses, insults, and lies, should anyone be surprised that he was answered with whistling? For the shul, the whole story was indeed a disgrace. But the disgrace lay not in the fact that the workers began to whistle. The disgrace lay in the sermon that our dear preacher gave. Isn’t it a disgrace for a synagogue to be made into the tool of a manufacturer, who wants to seduce his workers into acting in such a way, so that he can get richer, so that more of their hard-earned pennies can fall into his thick and dirty pockets? If the highest-ranking religious functionary in “N” can make the shul into a little marketplace, to conduct all sorts of despicable business, then the worker who publicly estimated the sum of his broker’s fee was absolutely right.

When religious functionaries consider it proper, for the sake of the bosses, to bring the capitalists’ battles into shul, must the workers be silent? The workers must speak out against these loyal servants of capital and show them that the workers are no longer a herd of quiet lambs, who can be driven as one wishes. The workers stand, and from now on will always stand, firmly in defense of their interests!

Yes, Mr. Manufacturer and his loyal servant Mr. Preacher. You transported our battle from the factory to the shul, and from there, throughout the entire city. We thank you for that. This day has been a very useful one for us. On this day, we acquired the support and friendship of all of those masses who previously stood far apart from us. Even more. On this day we began to prevail. For only a few days later, “x” gave in to our demands. It is as the verse says, “He has dug a pit and hollowed it, and fell into the ditch which he made” (Psalms 7:16). The Capitalist dug a ditch for the workers, and then fell [into] it himself.

When the capitalists want to threaten the workers by importing quiet, obedient, hungry workers from other cities, what do you think happens? We become acquainted with these workers, explain to them how our interests are tied with theirs, and they immediate[ly] go back home to their towns. And they leave with new ideas, ideas about the unity of all workers in their struggle against the bosses and spread these ideas further.

Now, after the strike, all Jews can see that there is no longer one Jewish people, in which all live peacefully together, but that the Jewish people is divided into two classes, and that there is hatred between.

What are the reasons that our Jews now battle against each other?

There was once a time when all Jews were almost equal with each other. Some were a little richer, some were a little poorer, but the difference was very small. Then, all Jews were either agents between the landlords and peasants, small merchants, or storekeepers. All Jews made a living from the same professions, and when an evil decree was issued, it struck all Jews. In those days, Jews had the same tsores from the land lords and government officials from above and faced the same hatred from the peasants below.

But then serfdom was abolished, the railroads were built, trade expanded, factories were established, and the make-up of the Jewish people changed. Rich Jews found it possible to obtain even more money through credit, to make bigger business, and get much richer. And the poorer Jews found it impossible to compete with the rich merchant and manufacturer. The railways made it possible to send merchandise over long distances and in large volume, but that was beneficial only to the rich ones. The poor merchants found it ever more difficult to compete. And a new, indispensable thing emerged, called capital. The small merchants and craftsmen disappeared and were forced to begin selling their labor to the rich. And that is how a new class of workers came into being.

Are there any workers whose fathers were also hired hands? Very few. And there is virtually no one around whose grandfather was a worker. In one generation, there emerged a class of people forced to sell their labor to those people who have capital; and there emerged a whole class of people who live off of other people’s labor, off of sucking the blood of the people who don’t have capital.

Most capitalist’s parents were also small merchants, storekeepers etc. In the course of 50 years the Jewish nation was divided into capitalists and workers. What kind of common interests can these two classes have?

As the number of workers has grown, and their condition has become worse, they have begun to understand that things can’t go on this way, that they must see to it that their intolerable conditions be improved, that they must struggle. But the more we workers realize our interests, the more the capitalists grow to hate us. So much so that they forget that they are persecuted Jews just like us. They ask for help in struggling against us from our former common enemy—the Tsarist government and the police. The capitalists themselves tear apart the bonds which used to unite all Jews. By tearing apart those bonds, they prove that the two Jewish classes—capitalists and workers—do not have any common interests.

We should not be alarmed by this, because only through our struggle against the capitalists have we come to realize our true strength. Only through hatred of capital did we cultivate our love for our suffering brethren. Only through struggle was our consciousness raised. Should we regret that we have lost the love of our Jewish millionaires, when instead we have acquired the love which unites us with Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian workers—in short, with the workers of all lands?

If you talk with one of our educated Jews, he’ll say to you: “You are pointlessly tearing apart the bonds of friendship with the Jewish capitalists. You are, after all, bound together by the oppression which all Jews suffer equally from the state: all Jews are prohibited from living in Russia proper, all Jews are denied various rights. Therefore, all Jews should unite to secure various rights, rather than struggle against the manufacturers for a shorter workday or wages”. The preacher will add tearfully: “Brothers, one must be concerned not only with oneself, but with tovat ha-klal.9 By struggling on your own behalf, you are inciting the state to pour out its anger against all Jews. You are making things worse for all of us. Why do you forget the entirety of our holy people?” These Jewish patriots think that while struggling against the capitalists, we won’t be able to achieve anything for all of Jewry.

But this opinion is false. We’ve seen that the Jewish capitalists have never attempted to secure any rights for the Jews. They merely bribe the officials and policemen to [disregard] certain laws—that’s how the capitalists get whatever they need. The preacher is wrong: the quieter we will be, the more we bow our heads in submission, the more the government will trample on us. […] The preacher has exposed the fact that for the Jewish capitalists, the Jews’ right-lessness is in fact advantageous. Because if the Jews are a cowardly, harried people, it will be easier to exploit them.

But no! We understand that all those voices who wish to pacify us, are shouting out of fear of our united power. We know that through our struggle against the Capitalists, we are also bringing closer the day of our common liberation, and of equal rights for all Jews.

Why did so many small storekeepers support the strikers at the tobacco factory, as did so many others who have no economic interest in the strike, or should even oppose it? The answer is: these people sense that some sort of force has awakened in the Jewish people, and they realize that the attainment of a better future for Jews depends on that force. And they are right. [...] Through struggling with the capitalists, we are becoming a force; and our force will in time become so strong that we will use it to struggle for all the rights which we are denied.

Let us ask all those skeptics: Would you have believed a year ago that the workers would prevail against the manufacturer “X”? Everywhere, Jewish workers are beginning to go out and struggle; they are beginning to organize themselves everywhere. When the Jewish workers in all Jewish cities and towns will be united, we will have the kind of power which we can’t even imagine now.

True, that force will not be enough to battle against the Russian state. But we will have reliable co-strugglers: the Russian, Polish and Lithuanian workers. Together we will struggle to attain all the rights we are lacking—the rights to strike, to form unions, to gather, to write, publish, and speak whatever we want to. We will be supported by our friends when we will begin to demand the elimination of barbaric laws which refuse to recognize us as equal human beings, equal to all other peoples in the world. We will begin to demand the elimination of tyrannical laws which have imprinted on our tired, drawn faces the mark of pathetic slaves, who can be derided and mocked by any idiot, and be trampled upon with impunity. In the struggle for our rights, our force grows—and we are the only force which will be able to secure equal civil rights for all Jews.

We workers occupy the lowest position in society. Therefore, we won’t secure the elimination of the inhumane anti-Jewish laws only for ourselves. When we, the workers, will cast off the heavy chains which enslave the entire Jewish nation, the chains will also fall from those Jews who sit on our backs and press upon us with the heavy weight of their moneybags.

We have begun to struggle for our freedom and equal rights while we still have torturers on our backs. We have done so, not so that we should have to continue carrying them on our backs. No! But having inhaled the fresh, healthy air of freedom, we will cast them off of us with greater ease.

Pay attention, capitalists! The more you weigh down upon us, the more you dig your nails into us, the greater will be your downfall, the more terrible will be your debacle!

Text taken from the open-access article "1890-1914: The Golden Era of the Bund in the Russian Empire" by David Fishman (link here).

• 1Der shtot-magid, reprinted in "Yivo Historische Shriftn", III, 1937: 721-730 (translated by David E. Fishman).
• 2In Vilna, there was a longstanding tradition that no one held the title of rabbi of the community. Instead, the preacher was informally recognized as the highest religious authority.
• 3Tana'im: rabbinic sages of the Mishna, from the first to third centuries; amora'im: rabbinic sages of the Talmud, from the third to fifth centuries.
• 4Bimah: the platform in the center of the synagogue from which the Torah is read.
• 5Borukh hashem: Thank God (Yiddish and Hebrew).
• 6Tsores: troubles (Yiddish and Hebrew).
• 7Shabbes: the Sabbath (Yiddish), shul: synagogue (Yiddish).
• 8gabba'im: synagogue officials.
• 9tovat ha-klal: the welfare of the community.