Both Jews and Mennonites in Russia were dependent on separation, distinct external appearance, unique dialect, inner group cohesion, international familial networks, self-governing institutions, a sojourner mentality, sense of divine mission, and a view of the other as unclean or dangerous. Each had its distinct legal privileges, restrictions, and duties under the Tsar, and each looked out for their own. For both, moderation, spiritual values, family, learning and success were important, and their related dialects made communication possible.
But the traditional occupation of eastern European Jews was
as “middlemen” between the “overwhelmingly agricultural Christian population
and various urban markets,” as peddlers, shopkeepers and suppliers of goods (note
1). Jews were forbidden to stay for longer periods in German colonies or to
erect houses or shops there. “If they try to stay, they are to be reported
immediately. If they are not, the German mayor will be held responsible” (note
2).
At least since the early 1820s Mennonites had supported
Moravian and Pietist missionaries to Jews in New Russia, as well as the
missionary work of Johann C. Moritz—a convert from Judaism (note 3). In 1830 a
law was passed in Bessarabia (near the Crimean Peninsula) that offered Jews
freedom from any taxes or benefits throughout life if they converted to
Christianity (note 4).
In 1836, landless Chortitza Mennonites began to settle the
so-called “Jewish steppe” to form the Mariupoler Mennonite Bergthal district.
These lands had been set aside in 1817 for distribution and settlement of urban
Jews, and specifically for members of the Society of Israeli Christians—an
association organized by Prince Alexander Golitsyn, Minister of Foreign Creeds.
Because the Society had so few members, the lands remained largely unsettled
and the state eventually abandoned its plans (note 5).
Prejudice towards Jews was shared broadly in Russian
society. The Russian Ministry for the Interior—which was dissatisfied with the
growing poverty of the Jewish agricultural colonies—drew up plans for
retraining its Jewish farming population, and placing all of these colonies
under the oversight of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers. About
20 percent of Jews in New Russia lived in agricultural colonies; many had been
removed from Jewish ghettos a few decades earlier.
In 1847 Johann Cornies was appointed by the Guardianship Committee to oversee the six-village experimental settlement known as the Judenplan. The plan was to attract “model” Mennonite farmers and village administrators, with special privileges and incentives—including land. Scores of Jewish homes stood empty as families had given up on agriculture and migrated back to the cities. Mennonites acquired these farms for minimal contributions to the Guardianship Committee. Approximately 100 to 140 qualified Mennonite families participated in this program.
The overseers were Mennonite—typically not respected by
their Jewish underlings, and with little authority to carry out their mandate.
While some agricultural change can be documented, the results were less than
successful and included some terrible conflicts. For example, a Mennonite mayor
in the Judenplan, Heinrich Goerz, was accused of beating and killing a Jewish
man, and complaints were issued against a successor, Jacob Dyck, for temper and
the use of corporal punishment (note 6).
On occasion legal disputes occurred between Jews and
Mennonite service providers outside of the Judenplan as well (note 7). In these
relations there was mistrust, and that distance grew as Mennonites’ economic
competencies diversified and the need for Jewish middle-men lessened. Often the
petitions by German colonists to the Guardianship Committee about Jews were in
fact a strategy to deal with “annoying competition” (note 8).
The Judenplan vision established in part by Cornies came
with good intentions. But it was paternalistic from the start, ensuring that
the two communities would not relate as neighbours.
And not surprisingly, competing notions of divine mission
were at play—Jewish, Mennonite and Russian. The notion of “model farmers”—so
central to Mennonite identity in Russia—was a contradiction in terms for some
local Jewish Rabbis, who sought to convince “simple settlers that the Chosen
People of the Jews was not destined for agriculture—this was the bitter lot of
the Goyim, the other-believers” (note 9)!
In the coming years the Jewish community would
suffer violent attack in South Russia. In May 1881 thousands of Jews in the
Berdjansk district were chased from their homes, beaten and robbed. Some fled
to the Mennonite villages for protection. In the Molotschna Colony, “Russian
lads” in Rudnerweide attacked the Jewish craftsmen who were there on Sundays,
and in Tiegerweide “Russian servants” beat the local Jews badly. Some Jews from
Tokmak found refuge in Fürstenau, though its residents were warned not to
provide shelter (note 10).
"Until now [1882] it appeared that in Russia Jews could find
protection with German colonists from the raw persecution of Russians. This
came naturally to us [Mennonites], for in our view it is not impossible that
hatred could be stirred up against Germans as well. … 'Do unto others what you
would have them do to you.' But now it is clear that this type of sympathy with
Jews also incites the hatred of the country’s population against Germans." (Note
11)
But even in this case, the unnamed Mennonite correspondent
continued the column with his own hateful language against these “lost sheep
from the House of Israel.”
---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast
---Notes---
Painting by Mykola Pymonenko, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Russia#/media/File:Pimonenko._Victime_of_fanatisme.jpg.
Note 1: Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2004), 106.
Note 2: “Inspektor Artillerie Kapitän Kotowirsch, an die
Gebietsämter von Klöstitz, Malojaroslawetz und Sarata” (March 3, 1836). No.
279, Folder 18. Letter (copied). Benjamin H. Unruh collection, Hoover
Institution Archives, Stanford University. From Mennonite Library and
Archives-Bethel College, MS. 295, folder 14, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_295/folder_14/SKMBT_C35107061313230_0034.jpg.
Note 3: James Urry, “‘Servants from far’: Mennonites and the
pan-evangelical impulse in early nineteenth-century Russia,” Mennonite
Quarterly Review 61, no. 2 (1987), 219.
Note 5: Dimitry Z. Feldman, “Archival Sources for the Genealogy of Jewish Colonists in Southern Russia in the 19th Century,” in RAGAS Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Spring 1999), https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/colonies_of_ukraine/archival_sources_for_the_genealo.htm; Johann Cornies, “No. 186, Cornies to Andrei M. Fadeev, March 12, 1830,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 1: 1812–1835, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 166f.; Jakob Stach, ed., Grunau und die Mariupoler Kolonien (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1942), V–VI;191, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/Buch/Grunau.pdf.
Note 6: Harvey Dyck, “Landlessness in the Old Colony: The Judenplan Experiment 1850–1880,” in Mennonites in Russia, edited by John Friesen (Winnipeg, MB: CMBC, 1989), 197. See also George K. Epp, Geschichte der Mennoniten in Rußland, vol. 3 (Lage: Logos, 2003), 214. Corporal punishment was used on Jewish underlings in other non-Mennonite, German-run colonies (Dmytro Myeshkov, Schawarzmeerdeutschen und ihre Welten: 1781–1871 [Essen: Klartext, 2008], 337).
Note 7: “Guardianship Committee of Foreign Settlers in South
Russia,” Inventory 2, file 12301, 1849 to 1866; Inventory 3, file 15107; also
files 15165, 1852 to 1854; Inventory 4b, file 21683, 1863, regarding quality of
flour received from Mennonite mill in Waldheim. Fond 6. From Mennonite Heritage
Centre, Winnipeg, MB, https://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/organizations/OdessaArchivesF6.htm.
Note 8: Cf. 1865 report cited in Myeshkov, Die
Schawarzmeerdeutschen und ihre Welten, 452.
Note 9: Cited in Myeshkov, Die Schawarzmeerdeutschen und
ihre Welten, 343.
---
To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "The Jewish Colony (Judenplan) and its Mennonite Agriculturalists," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 11, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-jewish-colony-judenplan-and-its.html.
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