Adventures in idealism; a personal record of the life of Professor Sabsovich

Front matter

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PRESHNTi:i) JJY

V\7E take pleasure in presenting, for your library, this book which deals, in part, with the development of our agricultural colony at Woodbine, New Jersey.

Contents

PAGB

Foreword by Eugene S. Benjamin. . vii

CHAPTER

Foreword

Professor H. L. Sabsovich is recognized as one of the foremost figures in the field of Jewish social service. As a great part of his active Hfe was given to the work of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, I consider it a privilege to make this acknowledgment for my colleagues and myself to his worth, his merit, and his undoubted achievements, as well as to his excellent administrative abilities, as the Builder of Woodbine and as the head of one of the Fund's most important institutions, the Woodbine Agricultural School, and later as General Agent for the Baron de Hirsch Fund.

He was a very exceptional man, in so far that he combined practical knowledge in very many directions and good executive capacity, together with an idealism as to the coming achievements of the Jewish immigrants, and the part they would fill in American life. It is gratifying to remember that he lived to see most of these prognostications come true. At all times he had the full confidence of the Trustees of the Fund, who relied upon his integrity of purpose, breadth of viewpoint and capacity to carry out a given program.

Nothing can be added to the simple and sympathetic record written by his devoted wife and to the excellent

vii viii FOREWORD

appreciation written by his associate, Mr. B. A. Palitz, except to say that he commanded respect, affection, and a high measure of appreciation from all those who had occasion to meet him in everyday life.

Never a well man, his health was a great handicap, but still he sacrificed himself and never allowed his physical condition to interfere with his work.

His death was felt by all the Trustees as a great loss to the cause which we were all attempting to serve, and every Trustee in addition felt a personal loss was sustained in taking away from us a man with whom we had always worked in complete harmony and sympathy.

Eugene S. Benjamin.

October 20, 1921.

Chapter I School Days In Russia

nr^HE man to whom I was happily married for thirty-three years is now some six years dead and buried in body, but not in spirit, not in deeds. It has taken me all of these six years to reach the point where I can speak of him with any degree of calmness — of his character, his work ! His wonderful gentleness and kindness of heart; his fine, even severe sense of duty to his family, his friends, or to the cause in which he chanced to be interested, made him beloved by all who knew him. And he always had some big cause to work for. In all the thirty-five years I knew him I do not remember a stretch of time when he was not actively engaged in some task of a public character. Since his death I have strongly felt that a life has gone out so stimulating to the youth of today and tomorrow — invaluable from whatever angle it may be considered — that, poorly as I may, I have decided to note down some of the things I know of him.

In September, 1881, I met my husband at the home of a dear friend of mine. He was a tall man, very slim — all legs and arms it seemed — with a small, pale face, illumined by large, clear, gray-blue eyes; the features finely cut, and the nobly shaped head surmounted by thick brown curls. Though only twenty years of age he looked older, because of the small beard so commonly worn by students in Russia then. He had just entered upon his second year in the Law School of the Odessa University, where a brilliant career was predicted for him.

It is to his younger sister that I am indebted for most of what I know of his childhood and boyhood. He was bom in Berdiansk, Russia, an Azov seaport. His father died when he was not quite four years old, leaving his mother with seven children — four boys and three girls. My husband was next to the youngest, and his sister, the baby of the family, was only one and a half years old. The two eldest boys, big men of fourteen and twelve, now became the sole support of the family. While nothing more could be expected of Grisha, as they called my husband, than that he should remain in the Talmud Torah, or Hebrew School, he was there distinguishing himself as the brightest pupil. In fact, by the time he was eight his brothers were so well pleased with his unusual ability and his love of study that they decided he must enter the Gymnasium just then opening its doors in Berdiansk. Though my husband was generally known to his Russian friends as Grisha or Gregory, he later in life used only

SCHOOL DAYS IN RUSSIA 3

the initials H. L., signifying Hirsch Loeb, the names formally given him by his parents.

Grisha was one of the first recommended for the free scholarships which the gymnasium was offering to the best pupils of the different schools. The scholarship consisted of free tuition and free books. It meant that he would have to be supported, but though the family had to battle with great hardships, it was decided that Grisha should continue his studies.

From the first year to the very last Grisha was at the head of his classes. But the gold medal which was rightfully his he forfeited. It happened in this way: During the last year at the Gymnasium one of the teachers, who was greatly admired by the pupils, was dismissed for expressing a little more liberalism than was wanted. The pupils refused to return to the classroom unless -this teacher was reinstated. As a result of his participation in this protest my husband lost the right to the gold medal.

By the time he was ten he had begun to earn his living as a teacher, coaching the more prosperous classmates, and preparing others for their entrance examinations. To be sure, the pay was a mere pittance, but he was the pride of the family and the talk of the town for earning it at so early an age. Money, however, did not mean much to him. He was exceedingly kind-hearted, and he was always giving lessons gratis to his less fortunate friends, especially during examination time.

"And so," writes his sister, "he worked very hard and had very Httle time for play. But one great temptation he had, and that was flying kites. Whenever I was fortunate enough to get one, I knew Grisha would join me and leave his books for that sport.

"He was a great reader. Every moment he could spare from his lessons and coaching, he spent in reading. When we wanted to find Grisha we had only to look to Mother's bed, and there he was, hidden in the big feather mattress and pillows, cuddled in fairyland, deep in his book.

"Vacation time would come, but he was still the busiest boy, for then he had to prepare pupils for entrance examinations, and to coach those who had failed in the examinations at the end of the year. So altogether he worked hard. Every year he contributed more and more toward the support of the family — and with the best will in the world. He was so grateful to his elder brothers for giving him the chance that they had missed that he felt he could never do enough for them.

"So it was that working hard, denying himself that essential pleasure of childhood — play, he caught a severe cold. Inflammation settled on his lungs, and at one time we thought that we should lose him. But at last, the danger over, Grisha appeared among his schoolmates once more, a very emaciated little boy. He really looked as though he had been in the grip of

SCHOOL DAYS IN RUSSIA 5

death. He was so thin, that I, his younger sister, carried him in my arms. I remember though that shortly after his illness he suddenly began to grow and soon shot up into a tall, lank youth."

It proves how high he stood in the opinion of his teachers that although he had been sick during examination time, he was promoted to the fifth class of the Gymnasium without the test and with high honors.

In his eighth year of school a number of pupils at the Odessa Gymnasium were expelled for being mixed up in some Workingmen's Circles and liberal propaganda work, and had to forfeit their diplomas. They applied to the Berdiansk Gymnasium and were admitted. When they came to Berdiansk two of them became boarders at the house of Grisha's mother. Those two boys became widely known in later years, Kostia Puritz as a physician, and Lyova Albert as a great social worker. All three became very close friends. The boys from the big city exercised a great influence on the country boy and quickened his interest in matters of public welfare. They had lived in the midst of the great movements of the time. They were full of big ideas and took a great interest in the newlystarted, revolutionary, underground paper, "Land and Freedom," which advocated the taking of the land by those who till it, and freedom of thought for all.

Berdiansk was a small country place, in no way to be compared with Odessa, but the three boys were not cast down. They set about organizing several "self-educational clubs," each taking the lead in a club where young men and women could come together and discuss affairs of general interest. That was in 1879, a time of great activity in all Russian revolutionary circles. Among these young idealists there was no question at the time of Jew and Christian, — all worked together in the cause hand in hand, organizing clubs for the masses. Of course these meetings were kept secret.

In May Grisha and his two chums graduated from the Gymnasium, and Puritz and Albert left for Odessa to enter law school. Grisha followed them in August. To enable him to pursue his studies his two Odessa friends, well known there, secured pupils for him in advance. So, when he arrived in the city, he found that he would have about seventy-five rubles a month, which would enable him to support, not only himself, but his younger sister. He therefore brought her from Berdiansk, secured lodgings and began to prepare her for college entrance.

This was the year that I graduated from Filler's Gymnasium. As soon as we were out of school four of the other graduates and I felt the need of doing something in an educational way for the Jewish poor. We decided to open a free school for Jewish girls who were not able to pay the fee to attend the private schools. Jewish girls were not admitted to the few elementary free schools of Russia. And yet we felt that these children, being of the poorest class — their

SCHOOL DAYS IN RUSSIA 7

families living in cellars and sub-cellars — needed a vocational as well as an elementary education. So we decided to open an elementary and vocational school for the girls, similar to the one opened a year previously for poor Jewish boys. Two of us were delegates to meet representatives of -the Boys' School. One of these men was my husband.

He often came to our meetings to discuss ways and means, and so energetic was the spirit of these gatherings that in a few months we opened the school for Jewish girls with seventy-five children. The school is now known all over Russia as the "Anna Siegai School." Officially the school had to be run as a private one, because it was conducted without recognition from the government. Funds for running it had to be collected secretly, and the money was raised by holding balls, bazaars, and similar entertainments. The two schools were a nucleus for the development of similar schools for boys and girls which sprang up all through the Jewish quarter. To the best of my knowledge, the original two schools exist today, greatly enlarged and extended, and now supported openly by the various Jewish organizations and city funds.

My husband and I met frequently at the organizing conferences. Strong mutual interest ripened our friendship, and a year later, in the spring of 1881, we were formally betrothed.

Chapter II

^TT^HE spring of 1881 was the most significant, the "^ most interesting year in my husband's early Hfe. He peacefully devoted himself to his studies, to his tutoring, to forming "Self-Education Centers," helping in the distribution of underground literature and establishing new centers. My husband counted among his friends as many Christians as Jews, and visited as many Christian homes as Jewish. The question of race and creed did not exist among the Intelligentsia at all. In the University the Jewish and Christian students were on the friendliest of terms. The meetings were just of one body — the student body. The good of Russia, of its working masses, of its peasants — these were the topics that interested and united the best among its members.

The autumn of 1881 changed everything. The whole spirit of the country was altered. The Terrorist Movement was then at its height, one high official after another having been assassinated. Czar Alexander II himself, was killed. The government needed an excuse, an explanation, a scapegoat for all the terror that was raging; for all the panic spread by the thick net of secret organizations. It was not difficult to find that scapegoat. Among the many, many Terrorists it was but natural that there should be a proportionate quota of Jews. The press, subsidized by the government, began a systematic hounding of the Jews, and denounced them as "the cause of all the trouble, inciting the people to riot and bloodshed." This cry found its echo in the universities. The Jewish students began to feel a change in atmosphere. They began to feel the animosity, not only of the Christian students, but of some of the professors as well. It was not enough to hear talk of Pogroms on the streets, in the cafes, in the places of amusement ; it finally entered the university, too. A great many of the Christian students, organized in a body "to help kill the Jews." The Jewish students, to their bewilderment and sorrow, discovered the existence of the organized body and its terrible aim. All this made a lasting impression on my husband.

Some of the Jewish students called an indignation meeting, and a "Self-Defence League" was organized. Its purpose was to protect the Jewish populace during the Pogroms, which every one knew would take place during the Passover holidays. Ten of the ablest young Jews in the student body took the lead, my husband being one of them. At once they began to organize the Jewish butchers, grain-shovelers, bricklayers, and other young workers of strength and courage. They supplied every one with any kind of tool or weapon of defense they could lay hands on, and they assigned groups of the volunteers to places in the poorest and mor - crowded districts of the city where they expected the Czar's mercenaries to do their worst — and where, on account of their extreme poverty, the victims could not buy police protection after the manner of the more wealthy Jewish citizens.

And one Sunday afternoon — the fifth day of Passover and the first of Easter — while my husband was visiting me, the Pogrom broke out. We heard shrill whistling, the smashing of windows, the wild clamor of the hoodlums, and, above all, the shouts: "Kill! kill the Jews!" My husband rushed out of the house, and that was the last I saw of him until three days later I visited him in the Odessa prison. He and his fellowstudents were nursing the wounds they had received from the hoodlums, while they were trying to protect the homes that had been attacked by the ruffians. The police had been out the whole first day of the massacre defending the hoodlums. They had clashed with the organized "Self-Defence** in several sections of the city, and bloody fights had taken place between the PogroTitschiki and the Jewish defenders. The police, in their righteous anger, arrested every one of the young Jewish students and flung them into jail.

Despite the pressure brought to bear by the fathers of the students, a number of whom were wealthy and influential citizens, it was at least two weeks before their trial took place; and then it turned out to be a farce, for every one of the arrested men was released.

It is interesting to note that most of these young students of the "Self-Defence League" became in after years well-known scientists and social workers. Alexander Krasilchek, the widely-known entomologist; Vladimir Chavkin, the bacteriologist; Kalmenowitz, who became later a member of the first Russian Duma; the respected physician, Kostia Puritz; and Lyova Albert, lawyer, the same youth with whom my husband became so friendly in Berdiansk. Of the last-named I must speak a little further.

In 1881, when a young man of twenty-seven, Albert conceived and put into execution a brilliant and humane plan, which in this country, many years later, became well known as the "Big Brother" movement. He arranged with local authorities to be notified when a boy was discharged from the penitentiary, and Albert then took him in charge. He housed, fed and clothed him, taught him a trade, and showed him that one crime does not make a criminal, and that it was possible to save him, both for himself and for the community.

He arranged it in this way. In a set of rooms which his mother portioned off for him in her large apartment house, he opened a vocational school. He fitted up the place with the proper accommodations, so that his charges could live there, free of all expense, while they were getting their training. Then he engaged an instructor, and began a systematic campaign to help unfortunate or mistaken young boys to become useful both to themselves and to the world. So successful was he that it was not long before the authorities themselves took up his plan and carried it out on a larger scale than he could afford. Thus from his nucleus grew a chain of similar schools that reached into every corner of Russia.

He had a short, but glorious life — ^his name on the lips of all liberal Russians. He survived to see his efforts take effect, but no longer; for, after he had established several homes of this character in Odessa, consumption developed and he died. There was not any one, young or old, Jew or Christian, rich or poor, illiterate or enlightened, who did not follow him either in thought or in person to his last resting-place. Every class was represented at his burial. As his fame spread so rapidly a multitude knew, loved and appreciated him. I also wish to speak of Vladimir Chavkin. Years ago, while still in his early thirties, he was one of Pasteur's assistants. When the bubonic plague broke out in India he was one of the first to volunteer to risk his life for the furtherance of science and humanity. He undertook, as is now a matter of common knowledge, the inoculation of the sick. Fortunately his splendid efforts among the plague-stricken populace met with such success that his name became known all over the

world.

The critical months of 1881 dragged by. The sky did not clear after the thunderclap. By the time autumn came a real movement toward emigration made itself evident in the thoughts and sentiments of the poorer Jews throughout their pale of settlement. The students who organized the "Self-Defence League" came together again to help shape and mould the Jewish sentiment and to bring the Jewish thought into practical channels. Accordingly they organized the *'Am-Ohlom" (The Eternal People). This society was to decide upon a plan for emigration, and to help the needy with funds. Some favored Palestine; some the Argentine. My husband came out strongly in favor of the United States of America; and so the purpose of the ''Am-Ohlom" was definitely settled as an aid and furtherance of emigration to America. Another of its objects was to show the world that a Jew was able to become a productive worker if given the proper chance. Thus agricultural colonization took shape in their imaginations as the chief objective for future time.

My husband was appointed one of the committee of the ''Am-Ohlom/' He opened a correspondence with the Jewish organizations in Cracow, Vienna, Paris and London, as well as with other Russian societies, for the purpose of raising funds. I do not know the exact amount of money collected, but I do know that responses were very generous, and many, many hundreds of the desperate people were helped to emigrate. (How my husband kept his health in those days I cannot tell.

What with his regular college work, tutoring as a means of livelihood, and the work for the '^Ant- Ohlom," he rarely had more than five hours' sleep.)

In January, 1882, the first party sent by the society, consisting of only six men — but those the very finest and most intelligent — left for Brody to wait and arrange there for the other parties to arrive. By May of 1882 three more parties left Odessa, this time hundreds going in each band. But when the government became aware of the large flow of emigration very stringent laws were promulgated, and it was impossible for the third party to obtain passports. To plan the work of the ''Am-Ohlowf' therefore became much more difficult, since an organization of this character was now prohibited by the government. Delegates from organizations in other towns were sent to us; the "Am-Ohlom'' had to manipulate passports for all the emigrants to use, and yet keep its meetings secret.

Most of the conferences were held in the house of Nuchem Rubin. It so happened that on March 13 the head of the Odessa Gendarmerie, Sj:relnikoff, was assassinated. He had been sent from St. Petersburg to rout out the nest of revolutionists. He had filled the prisons to capacity with the best youth of Odessa. But, in spite of all his vigilance, he himself was struck down and the assassins escaped. The police were in a frenzy and more alert than ever. They noticed that an unusual number of people frequented the Rubin home. They became suspicious and, concluding that the meetings were of a political nature, hoped for a clue — for some connection with this last Terroristic act, the assassination of Strelnikoff. So they decided to raid the place in the course of a big meeting which was to be held March 16. One who took an active part in the ''Am-Ohlom" — then a youth of eighteen, a delegate from Elizabetgrad — ^the late Dr. Hillel Solotaroff — described the raid to me very dramatically:

"About sixty-nine members of the 'Am-Ohlom' were present, and, during the heat of discussion, a late arrival ran in, pale and trembling.

" We are surrounded by police and Cossacks !' he gasped.

"No sooner had he uttered the words than the Captain of the Police, with several of his Cossacks, rushed in. Looking towards the very end of the room, where the speaker sat, the Captain said to his men:

"Take him! There he is!*

"The man was brought forward, but the Captain looked at him and said:

" 'No, the description calls for a different person. The man we want is tall, slim, with big gray eyes, eyeglasses, a short beard. No, this fellow does not answer the description.' "

All present recognized that he was looking for my husband. By some lucky chance he was elsewhere and was not intending to report until the very end of the meeting. Fortunately the police broke up the gathering. They took the names of those present, and ordered them to appear on the following day at the Police Station. My husband was advised early next morning by these friends, to leave the city and disappear for a week or so, until the trouble should blow over, as the Government suspected him of being a party to the assassination. He took the warning — the more willingly that by this time all work for the four parties about to emigrate was complete.

No more efforts could be made in this line for many reasons, the main one being the very strict police surveillance and their refusal to issue passports. By the end of May the last of the parties had left for America.

When my husband returned from his brief exile he went on with his studies and completed his third year at Law School.

On April 25th, 1882, we were married.

The first letters from the members of the "Am- Ohlom" in America — from men like the much-loved philosopher Bokal, from Dr. Paul Kaplan and from Dr. Solotaroff, came full of enthusiasm. Slowly but surely the decision was forming in my husband's mind to give up law, a profession in which he undoubtedly would have made a success, as he was considered by the faculty and the student body the most promising and brilliant man in the class. He had everything to gain by continuing with law, and had only one more year at the University. He had my father's promise of financial backing when he started to practice his profession, the ability to assist and ease life for his aged mother, to help his brothers, who had sacrificed so much to see him get his education — prospects most alluring. But sincerity in thought and purpose and great idealism were his outstanding characteristics. With his rigid uprightness and vivid sense of truth and justice, he felt that, as the leader of the ''Am-Ohlom" it was not for him to choose a safe and free profession in Russia while others were, despite their enthusiastic letters, undoubtedly enduring hardships in America. Of all the student organizers of the Self-Defence League and later of the "Am-Ohlom" he was the only one to give up a sure career to take up the dark unknown; for, in June, 1882, he decided to live up to the idea he was preaching — "Back to the Land" — "Farming for the Jews in the New Land." He would actually be their teacher and leader, and, to equip himself, he would take up agriculture as a profession.

Chapter III From Law To Agriculture

'TT^HERE was a storm of reproach and disapproval from my parents when they heard of my husband's decision. Agriculture as a profession! To become a plain mujik — as they saw it. An occupation so far below the dignity of an intelligent, balabatish (respectable) Jewish youth! But his decision was irrevocable.

I was fully in sympathy with his idea and in July, 1882, we left for Paris, which boasted a splendid agricultural college. There, upon investigation, we found that only single men could enter, as the college was located a few miles out of Paris and the students lived in dormitories.

However, we learned soon after that Zurich in Switzerland had an excellent agricultural college, and within a month we had left Paris and reached Zurich. Here we found quite a large and interesting colony of Russian students. My husband soon passed his entrance examinations and we settled down to a three-year stay.

It was during his third and last year that my husband

wrote many articles on agriculture for the leading

newspapers in Russia. These called forth splendid

FROM LAW TO AGRICULTURE 19

comment and the practical result was that a certain Maslinikoff of St. Petersburg, who in later years became Minister of Agriculture, asked him to write editorials on farming for an agricultural paper which he was soon to publish.

The course completed, in the summer of 1885 we returned to Odessa, as our friends in America, especially the late Dr. Paul Kaplan, begged us not to consider emigration at this time. All their dreams of colonization had been shattered. A few farm settlements formed in Oregon and Kansas were a total failure, and the colonists were all back in New York, working in various factories. So we decided on Odessa.

But even in so simple a venture as a journey back home my husband managed to achieve something. Two of our friends in Zurich, ithe well-known Pavel Axelrod and George Plechanov, were eager to smuggle into Russia a pamphlet which they had written, and which they had no way of sending and distributing, as the watch on the German frontier was sharp. Russia had made a secret treaty at this time, by which Germany was to arrest and deport any escaped Russian revolutionists, and to confiscate any radical literature that might be sent through her borders from England, France or Switzerland. By the action of this treaty, Leo Deutsch (a refugee well known here, in America, for the past twelve or thirteen years) was arrested on the German frontier when he left Zurich with a large supply of revolutionary literature, and handed over to the Russian authorities, who sentenced him to a long term of years in Siberia.

At this juncture Pavel Axelrod approached my husband. He told him that they had worked out a clever way of fooling the customs officials, if only he would be willing to undertake the serious mission. My hu»sband readily consented.

This was the plan: We had a great many German and French scientific books. The bindings of these, consisting of sheets of paper subjected to heavy pressure and cloth-covered, were torn off. The revolutionary pamphlets were then pressed together, covered with binders' cloth, and the books re-bound. As the forbidden literature was printed on the very finest tissue paper, whole editions were thus smuggled into Russia.