The Jewish Colony (Judenplan) and its Mennonite Agriculturalists

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 4: See https://jewinthepew.org/2015/11/28/28-november-1830-grotesque-russification-conversion-law-offers-financial-inducements-otdimjh.

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.

Comments

The Executioner of Dnepropetrovsk, 1937-38

Naum Turbovsky likely killed more Mennonites than anyone in the longer history of the Anabaptist-Mennonite movement. This is an emotionally difficult post to write because one of those men was my grandfather, Franz Bräul, born 1896. In 2019, I received the translation of his 30-page arrest, trial and execution file. To this point my mother never knew her father's fate. Naum Turbovsky's signature is on Bräul's execution order. Bräul was shot on December 11, 1937. Together with my grandfather's NKVD/ KGB file, I have the files of eight others arrested with him. Turbovsky's file is available online. Days before he signed the execution papers for those in this group, Turbovsky was given an award for the security of his prison and for his method of isolating and transferring prisoners to their interrogation—all of which “greatly contributed to the success of the investigations over the enemies of the people,” namely “military-fascist conspirators, spies and saboteurs.” T

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans

Prof. Benjamin Unruh as a Public Figure in the Nazi Era

Professor Benjamin H. Unruh (1881-1959) was a relief and immigration leader, educator, leading churchman, and official representative of Russian Mennonites outside of the Soviet Union throughout the National Socialism era in Germany. Unruh’s biography is connected to the very beginnings of Mennonite Central Committee in 1920-1922 when he served as a key spokesperson in Germany for the famine-stricken Mennonites in South Russia. Some years later he again played the central role in the rescue of thousands of Mennonites from Moscow in 1929 and, along with MCC, their resettlement in Paraguay, Brazil, and Canada. Because of Unruh’s influence and deep connections with key German government agencies in Berlin, his home office in Karlsruhe, Germany, became a relief hub for Mennonites internationally. Unruh facilitated large-scale debt forgiveness for Mennonites in Paraguay and Brazil, and negotiated preferential consideration for Mennonite relief work to the Soviet Union during the Great Famin

"Women Talking" -- and Canadian Mennonites

In March 2023 the film "Women Talking" won an Oscar for "Best adapted Screenplay." It was based on the novel of the same name by Mennonite Miriam Toews. The conservative Mennonites portrayed in the film are from the "Manitoba Colony" in Bolivia--with obvious Canadian connections. Now that many Canadians have seen the the film, Mennonites like me are being asked, "So how are you [in Markham-Stouffville, Waterloo or in St. Catharines] connected to that group?" Most would say, "We're not that type of Mennonite." And mostly that is a true answer, though unnuanced. Others will say, "Well, it is complex," but they can't quite unfold the complexity. Below is my attempt to do just that. At the heart of the story are things that happened in Ukraine (at the time "New" or "South" Russia) over 200 years ago. It is not easy to rebuild the influence and contribution of "Russian Mennonite" women and th

The Shift from Dutch to German, 1700s

Already in 1671, Mennonite Flemish Elder Georg Hansen in Danzig published his German-language catechism ( Glaubens-Bericht für die Jugend ) as preparation for youth seeking baptism. Though educational competencies varied, Hansen’s Glaubens-Bericht assumed that youth preparing for baptism had a stronger ability to read complex German than Dutch ( note 1 ). Popular Mennonite preacher Jacob Denner (1659–1746), originally from the Hamburg-Altona Mennonite Church, lived in Danzig for four years in the early 1700s. A first volume of his Dutch sermons was published in 1706 in Danzig and Amsterdam, and then in 1730 and 1751 he published two German collections. Untrained preachers would often read Denner’s sermons: “Those who preached German—which all Prussian preachers around 1750 did, with the exception of the Danzig preachers—had no sermons books from their co-religionists other than this one by Jacob Denner” ( note 2 ). In Danzig and the Vistula Delta region there were some differences

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha

“First Arrival of German Troops in Halbstadt” (Volksfreund, April 20, 1918)

“ April 19, 1918 will always remain significant in the history of the Molotschna German Colony. That which until recently could hardly be imagined has occurred: the German military has arrived to free us from the despotism, rape and pillaging of barbarous people and to reestablish the order and security of life and property--something desperately necessary for our land. For this we give thanks above all to the One in whose hands the peoples and nations and also individuals rest. ...” ( Note 1 ) Mennonites greeted their “guests and liberators” with festivities that included baked goods (Zwieback), meats and even the German anthem “ Deutschland, Deutschland über alles "—all before the watchful eyes of their Russian /Ukrainian neighbours. The troops arrived by train; and to the shock of most present, three bound prisoners—all well-known bandits and terrorists—“were brought out of one of the railway cars without any prior notice, lined up and shot right in front of us” as an exampl

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog