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Jewish
Cantonist
Jewish Children
faced a choice:
kosher or torture |
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arry Domnitch
has published The Cantonist: The
Jewish Children's Army of the
Tsar, 2004. |
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It is not an easy read.
It is a very
Important read....
by
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
Intermountain Jewish News |
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Jewish
Children as young as six year old were conscripted in the
Tsra Nicholas
I's army,
beginning in 1826. |
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$9.99
reg $17
THE CANTONISTS: The Jewish Children's Army
of the Tsar
by Larry Domnitch
Soft Cover
Printed in Israel
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The
overarching themes of these
children's youth and themes of
these adolescence were forced
conversion and suffering.
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Their Term of army service was 25
years. |
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They
were yanked from home and hearth
and trusted into physically cruel,
religiously coercive and
emotionally devastating
circumstances. |
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Nicholas used his army as
conversionary tool. His goal
was blatant: to convert Jewish
children to Christianity. His more
specific tools were torture and
suffering. |
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Larry takes
time to autograph his
book |
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"Domnitch has written a very important
book." |
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He lets
the children - or those who knew them
-- tell their story. He has
mined Russian and Yiddish memoirs to
capture their voices. |
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And heroic
voices they are. I do not believe
that any Jewish parents today who is
brutally honest with himself can avoid
asking himself" Have I raised my
children to be as steadfast Jews as our
ancestors raised their children to be in
the 19th-Century Russia? |
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The
sufferings these children underwent in
resisting efforts to convert them are both
awe-inspiring and revolting. |
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Most did
resist. some gave into the
torture, none willingly. |
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The period
of the "Cantonists" -- the Jewish children
kidnapped by the Tsar or his minions - is
the perhaps most massive example of child
abuse in history. |
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It is very
hard to read this book. One weeps for
these children. IN keeping with the
theme of this kosher Living section, I
shall concentrated only their heroism in
the area of kashrut. |
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Excerpt from
the memoir of S. Beylin: |
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They served
the Cantonists shchi (cabbage soup
containing lard). The avoided the
shchi, though the only other food
available was bread. |
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"Jews, why
aren't you eating the shchi?" the lance
corporal yelled at him. |
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"I can't. It
smells of pork!" |
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"Ah, so
you're that kind. Get on your knees
before the icon and be baptized!" |
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And they
held the boy in the same position for
hour-and-a-half until his knees grew numb.
They commanded him to stand, and proceed
to deal him fifteen or twenty strokes with
the birch. |
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Russian -
Tsar Nicholas turned communal leaders
against Jews into informers and
kidnappers; and turned parents into
children abusers |
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His landlady
led him to a dark corner behind the stove,
where a sack of straw lay on the floor.
This, she indicated, was his bedroom. |
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Merimzon was
thirsty and scooped some water from the
water bucket with a ladle. He was
about to drink when the landlady threw
herself at him like an enraged lioness.
She struck him and screamed, "Anti-Christ!
Foul Satan!" Merimzon was dumbfounded, but
could not ask here why she cursed him
since he did not speak Russian. The
landlady shoved him in the chest to get
him away from her sacred water bucket.
Merimzon wanted to hit her back ,but was
afraid that they would whip him for it.
He resolved to ask a more experienced
Cantonists about the customs of the
Christians to avoid such scenes in the
future. |
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In the
evening, Merimzon went to bed in his dark
corner without any supper. He used
his little bag as a pillow and covered
himself with overcoat. He tossed and
turned for a long time,
thinking of his mother and how she had
always sung him lullabies. But he
could not fall asleep, he was hungry, and
lice, fleas, and bedbugs were biting his
flesh. Finally, he cried himself to
sleep. |
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Cantonists |
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Tsar
Nicholas decreed that Jewish Children
(`Cantonists') must serve in the Russia
Army for 25 years. The decree lasted
from 1826 to 1855 |
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Larry Domnitch has degrees in
both political science and Jewish history. He
writes extensively for newspapers and journals
throughout the United States and Israel,
especially about this unique period of
history. Larry and his family now resides in
the Mile Chai City of Denver, Colorado. |
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