Editor's Note: This decree takes up fully 15 pages in Levanda's book and is comprised of 7 chapters and 121 individual §s. It is the second of two major decrees establishing the legal position of the Jews in a wide variety of areas. The first was decreed in 1804 by Czar Alexander I (Levanda #59). Many of the laws in the individual sections of this decree remained in effect several decades later. Currently, 89 §s have been translated.
Glossary of Terms (some translated some not):
Exact ukase, given to the Senate. In consideration of the welfare of Jews living in Russia, in 1804* a legal
position was published on their civilian structure.
[unfinished]
* Levanda #59
Ch. 1 General Positions.
§ 1. Jews, being citizens of Russia, are subject to all general laws which the individual
legal positions here do not decide.
Ch. 2 On Jewish Farmers.
§ 24. Every Jew is permitted at any time to convert to the agriculturalist social class according to rules
set forth below. With the announcement of a new population census or recruit levy, such conversion
is to be completed only at its conclusion.
§ 48. Jewish merchants, petty townsmen, and artisans enjoying, in places established for their permanent
residence, all rights and privileges given to other Russian subjects of their same status, provided they are not
contrary to these laws, must be registered at their own communities in cities, even if living in mestechkos,
selos, and derevnyas.
§ 65. Rural communities of Jewish agriculturalists are set up separately from settlements of other faiths;
the manner of administering these communities is established by the example of other communities of
like status.
§ 78. Jews may perform public prayers and worship in the public places of their settlement.
No one has the right to hinder them in this, in word or deed.
§ 104. Jewish children may be accepted and taught, without any regard to other children, in public, uezd, and
parochial schools, gymnasia and private schools and boarding schools, in those places, where their fathers are
permitted residence.
Ch. 7 On Foreign Jews, Newly Arrived in Russia.
§ 118. Foreign Jews, who arrive in Russia out of necessity to be present for business dealings, actions or
lawsuits, are obligated to present the same foreign passports required from other foreigners, in which their
citizenship is indicated.
.
§ 3. Jews are permitted permanent residence:
I. In gubernias: 1) Grodno. 2) Vilna. 3) Volhynia. 4) Podol'sk. 5) Minsk. 6) Yekaterinoslav.
II. In oblasts: 7) Bessarabia. 8) Byelostok.
§ 4. In addition to the aforesaid gubernias and oblasts in the preceeding §, Jews are permitted
permanent residence, as a whole, as follows: 1) In Kiev gubernia, except the city of Kiev.
2) In Kherson gubernia, except the city of Nikolaev. 3) In Taurida gubernia, except the city of Sevastopol.
4) and 5) In gubernias: Mogilev and Vitebsk, except settlements. 6) and 7) In gubernias: Chernigov and
Poltava, except Crown and Cossack settlements from which Jews have already been expelled. 8) In Courland
gubernia, only those Jews are permitted permanent residence whose families have been recorded up to now
on the Revisions; resettlement there by Jews in other gubernias is prohibited.
9) and 10) In Liflyand gubernia, in the city of Riga and posad Shlok, with the same conditions as for
Courland Gubernia.
§ 5. In selos and derevnyas in gubernias on the Western frontier, any new Jewish settlement is prohibited
from being established closer than 50 viorsts from the border.
§ 6. As wives, by common law, follow the social class of their husbands, so Jewish wives, being
married to a Christian, may live with their husband.
§ 7. Outside the Pale of Permanent Settlement, Jews are permitted to temporarily stay only: 1) For the
purpose of taking possession of an inheritance. 2) For the purpose of establishing legal rights on property
in courts and in government offices. 3) For the purpose of business transactions and for business on contracts,
deliveries and concessions, but only if such contracts take place in towns where Jews may permanently reside.
In all three cases, the police officials are authorized to permit the Jews to stay not more than six weeks,
and staying further depends on the Gubernia administration, for reasons, respectfully heard. But the Gubernia
administration may not give an extension beyond two months without permission from higher authorities.
4) For the purpose of finishing their studies; the arts and handicrafts on the basis of
Chapters III and VI of this law.
§ 8. For transportation by water or land, Jews staying outside the Pale of Settlement are limited to:
1) times of timber floating and conveyance, 2) staying no further than the first gubernia adjacent to the
place of their settlement.
.
§ 11. Jews crossing over the borders without legal permission lose their Russian citizenship and are
not allowed to return.
§ 12. In the Jewish Pale of Settlement, as well as everywhere Jews are permitted to reside, they can
not only migrate from one place to another on a general basis, but also acquire their own immovable property of
any kind, except populated estates, ownership of which is completely prohibited for Jews.
§ 13. If a populated estate is conveyed to a Jew through inheritance, then he is obligated
to sell it within a period of six months; but if he doesn't do this, than by government order,
it has to be sold to its benefit at public auction. As far as estates placed in trusteeship,
the receipts to it which are conveyed through inheritance are given up.
§ 14. If an immovable estate that is unpopulated is given to a Jew through inheritance, outside the places
where such ownership is permitted to him, he is obligated to sell it in the same time period decreed above
for populated estates.
§ 15. It is prohibited for Jews to keep Christians as permanent domestic servants, but Jews are allowed
to engage them: a) for work of short duration, such as that required of draymen, court workers, carpenters,
stonemasons, and so on. b) for assistance in arable farming, horticulture, or market-gardening work
on lands belonging solely to Jews, and particularly in a period when the land is being initially
cultivated. c) for work in factories and mills, except, however, distilleries. d) for positions as
agents, brokers, or salesmen in trade affairs. e) for positions as advisors, salesmen, or attendants in
wineries. f) for positions as salesmen and clerks in post offices.
Note. Persons of the female sex in the Christian faith, hired by Jews as workers in the preparation
of foods and linen, or as workers in Jewish factories, must not live in any Jewish home or neighborhood.
Without this condition, their hiring is prohibited.
§ 16. Every Jew must retain forever an inherited prominence, or take for legal reasons a surname
or nickname, with no changes, in addition to his first name, given in rites or at birth.
§ 17. Marriage between Jews is not permitted before the groom has reached 18 and the bride 16 years of age.
Those who in the future enter into marriage before these ages, including parents or elder relatives
who induce or tolerate it, such marriage accomplished,
are subject to imprisonment of from two to six months, decided by judgement of the court.
§ 18. Jews, in all public akts and in all official papers, presented or sent by them to places
or persons in the administration, judiciary or police, must use the Russian language, or those which are used
in the places of their residence, but by no means in Hebrew. This same rule is to be observed by those with
jurisdiction over books prescribed by law for business transactions.
§ 19. Jewish signatures on akts that are explained in other documents presented to the government
or a court, because of an inability to write in a different language, are allowed for Jews, but changing
the language in which the document itself is written, requires the signatures to be witnessed.
.
§ 21. Karaites, where such are situated, beyond the rights herein granted to Jews by these laws, enjoy
those in addition, established in specially written decrees for them.
§ 22. Existing special regulations on Jewish recruit obligations, and supplemental regulations
on workers, remain in force.
§ 23. Every Jew must be registered in one government social class as prescribed by law. In case
of non-conformance, he will waive this, as a vagrant.
.
§ 27. In order to do arable farming, Jews may settle: a) on portions of Crown lands allocated to them
by government instructions. b) on lands they acquired by purchase, or other lawful acts in property, public or
private. c) on lands rented to them by private individuals, on mutual terms.
§ 28. Crown lands can be allocated to Jews for settlements: a) on their request b) on an annual
schedule.
§ 29. Jews may ask for allotments of vacant or quit-rent Crown land, of their own choosing, in all places
established for their permanent settlement.
§ 30. Crown lands are allotted to Jews, upon their application, with an open-ended right to use it
under the following rules: 1) that the application indicates just who desires to settle on the particular land
for farming 2) that the interested persons will be not less than 25 men. 3) that the section of land chosen is
separated from Christian settlements on Crown land or Christian landowners (selo and derevnya).
§ 31. Jews must finish settling land allocated to them no later than two years from its allotment;
If not, the land will be taken away and they will be returned to their former communities.
.
.
§ 40. No Jew will be forcibly compelled to choose the agriculturalist social class and to resettle;
but those who actually accept this social class gain the following privileges: 1) They are freed from poll
taxes for 25 years. 2) To be freed from recruit obligations on the basis of 30 § Regulations (Legal
Code Vol. 4) i.e. settling in considerable number for 50 years, and settling in small communities for 25 years.
3) To be freed from zemstvo monetary obligations for 10 years. 4) If settling on land taken in quit-rent from
private individuals, to be freed from poll taxes after the 5th year, and from other obligations in conformity
with points 2 and 3 above.
§ 41. The privileged years will be regarded from the time from which the Jews will be excluded from the
salary of their former social class.
§ 42. At the expiration of the privileged years, Jewish farmers bear the same obligations as lie upon
Christian people of their social class.
.
§ 44. Jewish farmers are completely prohibited from conveying or delivering
to distilleries, taverns, and public houses selling strong drinks. They must also not engage in work,
however it may be, referred to them by landowners or otkupshchiki, nor have individual taverns or even
individual farms on postal roads.
§ 45. In Jewish settlements comprised of not less than 7 homes, brewing beer is permitted
for their own household use.
§ 46. Jews, settling on their own land 10 or more families of their co-religionists, receive
the right to brew bear and mead to sell to them and other local residents.
.
Ch. 3 On Jewish Merchants, Petty Townsmen, and Artisans.
§ 49. Jewish merchants, petty townsmen, and guild members who are petty townsmen, are permitted to live
outside of cities in which they are registered, and in shtetls, where shown by Revisions (in those gubernias
where these are [nevospreshcheno]) none other than by passports, on the same general rules established for other city
inhabitants in their profession. From the obligation to have passports in these cases, only owners of
manufacturing institutions and factory hands are exempted, being in the uezd of the same city in which they
are registered.
§ 50. Jewish merchants and petty townsmen, engaged in permitted trade, must not, however, sell wine and
other strong drinks on credit to peasants on pain of abolishing the debt. Additionally, all
debts negotiated between peasants, labourers, or house-serfs and Jews are considered worthless, when
clothing, household utensils, domestic livestock, agricultural tools, and harvested crops are used as
security.
§ 51. Jewish merchants of the first guild, beyond the general trading rights belonging to them inside the
Jewish Pale of Settlement, are given the following special rights: 1) they can, for the sake of sales inside
this general boundary, order wholesale any kind of goods from capitals and ports with the aid of the offices
of the local merchants, or through correspondence with factory owners. They are permitted to come to Moscow
themselves, without family, in order to purchase goods, and the period of their temporary stay
is restricted to six months. On the same basis, they are authorized to come to the port city of Riga, with
supervision over the period of their stay locally decided. 2) They can also produce in capitals and
ports, through Christian salesmen and local merchants, wholesale goods for sale in all gubernias, for settlements
that are opened to them. But selling goods in person in capitals and ports, or opening a shop there, not including
Moscow or Riga, is prohibited to Jews, on pain of their immediate expulsion and confiscation of their goods.
3) Inside the general Pale of Jewish Settlement, they can by commission from Christians, inhabitants of other
gubernias, send duty-free goods, the latter through the custom-houses of the gubernias which are opened to
Jewish residence. But the sale of goods by themselves directly, by means of these custom-houses on the border,
outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement, even with the aid of Christians, is
prohibited, with the only exception, being that decided in the following 4th point.
4) They are permitted to come to the trade fairs in:
Nizhniy-Novgorod, Irbit, Koren, Khar'kov, and Sumsk, for purchasing manufactured products in order to sell
wholesale. The period of their stay at trade fairs is limited to the duration of the trade fair.
§ 52. Jewish merchants of the second guild, in proportion, enjoy the very same general trading rights
which are granted to merchants of the first guild in the preceeding paragraph;
but in Moscow in order to purchase goods, they can remain no longer than 3 months.
§ 53. Jewish merchants of the first and second guilds, during their sojourns outside the Pale of Settlement,
are permitted to have with them their Jewish household servants, but in each case, not more than two.
§ 54. Jews are permitted to set up any kind of factory in the gubernias where they are permitted to
reside, on the same basis, and with the same freedoms as for all Russian subjects.
§ 55. For the sake of factories and mills producing woolen goods, leather goods, paper goods, silk threads, linen,
hempen goods, and others, the government will encourage allotments of land to Jews, and other assistance, with
particular consideration to the needs and benefits of such enterprises.
§ 56. In order to carry out the work of factories, their Jewish proprietors can not only make use of
their co-religionists as employees, but can also hire Christian factory hands and workers, in accordance
with § 15, and discharge foreign Jewish factory hands, on that basis.
§ 57. Jews who are owners of factories or mills can enter into financial obligations for supplies for their
own manufactured wares, not limited to the Pale of Settlement.
§ 58. Jewish factory owners can bring products and manufactured goods from their own factories
to sell at trade fairs in: Nizhniy-Novgorod, Irbit, Koren, Khar'kov, and Sumsk; but foreign goods,
obliged to have customs stamps, cannot be imported by Jews for the above-mentioned trade fairs, even if they
will receive the goods from factories and somehow make some alterations to the packaging or finish, for
example, dyeing and the like.
§ 59. Jewish factory owners, for the ten years following publication of this legal position, are exempt
from payment of serf duty on purchasing their factory and mill structures.
§ 60. Jewish factory owners and mill owners, to make use of the right to send their products
to trade fairs in the interior gubernias, are obligated, without fail, to brand them with their personal brand
stamp.
§ 61. Jews, manufacturing grape wine in their own gardens, enjoy all the advantages established
by these laws for factory owners.
§ 62. Jewish artisans are permitted, in places where they are generally settled, to enter guilds,
provided it will not be contrary to the privileges specially conferred by some cities.
.
Ch. 4 On Rural and City Jewish Communities.
§ 66. In cities where Jews are registered, they are members of that community; but for the sake of
administrative affairs, particularly those concerning apportionment of taxes and conscription pertaining strictly
to Jews, they elect from amongst themselves 3 to 5 special representatives, which form the Kahal.
§ 67. The duty of the Kahal is to supervise, under strict responsibility: 1) in order that instructions from
the authorities, solely for the local Jewish inhabitants, are carried out promptly. 2) in order that Crown
assessments, taxes, and city and community revenues will be forwarded in good order from every person or Jewish
family. 3) in order that money subject to transfer to the district treasury and other places, for property, will be
remitted without delay. 4) in order that expenditures laid out for the Jewish social class and its department will be
spent in appropriate ways. 5) in order that sums advanced to the Kahal will be preserved intact. To that end,
money coming to the Kahal, is preserved for examination, by a seal (stamp) of all its members.
§ 68. The Kahal must give an annual account of their tax and revenue activities in the local Jewish community
and moreover, submit detailed reports on accounts receivable and expenditures in bound books to the
Provincial Revenue Department.
§ 69. The present members of the Kahal, elected by the local social class of Jews, must know how to read and
write in Russian, or in the language that is used for affairs of that place. They are approved by the
Gubernia administration every three years. They divide the work amongst themselves by common assent. The
Kahal is entrusted with the credit and debit of monies and has charge of payroll books and cash account books,
functioning as treasurers.
§ 70. The Kahal member, in periods revising his appointment, enjoying by custom the respect and rights of
merchants of the 2nd guild, can not belong to the highest; but he does not have trade rights for this occupation,
without payment of guild obligations.
§ 71. The Kahal may maintain a few properties for itself and necessary attendants,
with salaries established for the Jewish social classes in that place.
§ 72. Jewish communities in cities and rural areas that participate in the payment of duties
and other community taxes, by the Revision population count, internally apportion them among themselves,
by community verdict, in conformity with the conditions and resources of each.
.
§ 75. Beyond the taxes and assesments established for Jews by their status as city and rural residents,
a special tax shall be produced from them under the designation Korobotchny. Particular, detailed
laws have to be created for this tax, and in the interim, the regulations passed to date remain
in effect.
.
Ch. 5 On Religion and Rites of Faith.
Note. Under the name community worship is meant the joining of a kivute, inferred in the five books of
Moses (Torah), of not less than ten adult male Jews, i.e. current age at least 13 years.
§ 79. Community prayer and worship can be carried out only in certain buildings, determined for this
purpose: synagogues (Bet Haknesset), and prayer-house schools (Bet Hamidrash). But whoever allows this
function in their own home without permission of the Gubernia authorities, will be punished for such with a
1000 ruble fine to the benefit of the Office of Public Charity, or if his house is worth less than this, an amount
equal to the cost of the house.
.
§ 81. In any city or settlement, where the number of Jewish houses does not exceed 30, it is permitted to
have one prayer-house school; where the number of Jewish houses doesn't exceed 80, it may have, in addition
to a prayer-house school, one synagogue; in the same place, if the number of houses will be more than 80,
it is permitted to set up for each 30 houses one school, or one synagogue for each 80 houses.
Note. This is not retroactive on the schools and synagogues that have been established up to now and
with the consent of the existing authorities.
§ 82. The premises occupied by synagogues and prayer houses are exempt from military billeting.
§ 83. Strictly prohibited in synagogues and prayer houses: a) Any assembly for reasons other
than prayer and fulfilling rites of faith. b) The keeping of any items, other than those needed for worship.
§ 84. All of the Jews continually assembled in this or that synagogue or school, in order to fulfill
rites of faith and prayer, constitute the congregation of those synagogues or schools.
§ 85. Every Jewish congregation is to elect: 1) a learned individual who can explain doubts concerning
liturgy or rites of faith; 2) synagogue or prayer-house school elders (Gabai) and 3) a Treasurer (Neimon).
These three persons form the particular administration of a synagogue or school. Its members, on approval
of gubernia officials, take oaths in the presence of the rabbi and police officials on a form under letter A.
§ 86. This administration, given charge of the internal organization and management of synagogues and
prayer houses, is obligated to: 1) [Peshchis] about care in their duties, manner, and decorum. 2) be in charge
of the sums, made up of income for synagogues and schools, placed in the account for public worship. 3) decide
for synagogues and schools, provided the need is demonstrated, on attendants, cantors, reciters, and watchmen.
4) maintain bound books in which the elders record all of the members of the congregation, with indications of
those who left, and those who again joined. Lists from these books are given yearly: one to police officials,
another to the local rabbi.
§ 87. The rabbi is the keeper and interpreter of Jewish laws. In this post, a learned and respected Jew
is appointed, elected by his co-religionists in the rural communities and cities.
Elections are carried out every three years. The elected serve, on approval of the gubernia authorities,
and taking an ensuing oath on a form.
.
§ 89. In places where Jews have neither synagogues nor prayer houses, or even if they have them,
but due to poverty cannot maintain their own rabbi, they can have one attached from the rabbinical
department of the nearest city or settlement, comprised of affairs of faith, and directly in its authority.
§ 90. The duties of the rabbi are: 1) to supervise, in order that the community's worship and rites of faith stay
within the prescribed regulations; to explain Jewish law and permit resolution of any of its perplexities;
to teach the true sense of the laws, but not to use any means other than persuasion and exhortation.
2) to direct Jews in morally observing their obligations, and in obeying the general government laws and
established powers.
3) to carry out, solely by his offices, all the rites of circumcision and naming of infants, weddings,
dissolution of marriages, and burials.
Note:. However if, in populous cities, or for other reasons, it will be difficult for the rabbi
himself to carry out the rites mentioned, then the community or the Kahal can choose a few learned Jews as
assistants, who are given the right to carry out the rites in his presence, or with his written permission.
In the latter case, he must be notified of that each time. 4) To keep metrical books in all its sections, and
to submit copies of them annually to the gubernia authorities, in the Hebrew and Russian language.
§ 91. The rabbi can, at any time, enter his synagogue or school to speak or read to his followers, and be
present for performing worship or rites of faith. He always works closest to the place of worship, and constitutes
the first person in assemblies.
.
§ 94. With respect to repayments on the annullment of marriages between Jews, for there to be no repayment
of dowry requires a decision of the rabbi, or another learned Jew, who, selected and appointed,
conducts a legal examination between the spouses.
§ 95. For particular cemeteries, assigned in places where Jews may generally settle (§ 3 and 4),
the authorities can permit buildings to prepare the dead for burial and for necessary storage for its things.
These buildings are subject to the regulations established for synagogues and prayer houses.
§ 96. In metrical books, the law (§ 90 paragraph 4) notwithstanding, the rabbi is to record:
a) The circumcision of every male infant or the naming of every female infant, indicated by their parents,
and day of birth, on the form under letter V. b) Every wedding and divorce, indicated by name and nickname,
age and newly determined social class, or if the marriage was dissolved, the former social class on the certificate,
on the form under letter G and D. c) The death and burial for every sex and age,
indicated by name and nickname, age, social class, and illness from which they died, on the form under the
letter E.
§ 97. Rabbis who erase by mistake a metrical book entry which they entered, are subject to a penalty,
to the benefit of the Office of Public Charity, for each blanked item for a male, 50 rubles, and for a female,
25 rubles; exposure of a metrical book entry purposely blanked, subjects them to court and punishment as
for forgery.
§ 98. The rabbi, carrying out the duties of his office above reproach, and elected again by the community,
and with its approval, personally enjoys, in places of Jewish settlement, the respect and rights of
merchants of the first guild; to engage in trade not otherwise possible on the basis of common
regulations established for Jewish traders.
§ 99. The rabbi, obtaining the respect and rights of merchants of the first guild and subsequently carrying
out his duties above reproach, for not less than nine years, is decorated with a gold medal.
§ 100. Poll taxes and other local obligations of rabbis come from the communities that elected them.
§ 101. The rabbi does not have the right to request, after completing religious ceremonies recorded in metrical
books, additional pay to that established in determining his contract. A table of this pay, written in
the Hebrew language, is to be affixed, for general information, to every synagogue and prayer-house school.
§ 102. A rabbi charged with a criminal offense is to be judged like all Jews, in commonly established
courts; but if it is shown he abused his powers, in contradiction of the education laws, or other
transgressions of his office, then by a complaint of the community, the gubernia authorities will designate
the time and place of an assembly of not less than three rabbis from that uezd, or the nearest one to it,
for the purpose of considering the complaint and pronouncing a sentence. This assembly, beyond a reprimand or
rebuke, can sentence him guilty by disenfranchising him of his profession; the sentence is carried out upon
approval of the gubernia authorities.
.
Ch. 6 On Jewish Studies and Education.
§ 105. Those Jews who finish the course of high school, receive certificates and wish to acquire the
highest degree of education, are permitted to continue their studies by entering the Universities, Academies,
and other higher institutions of learning throughout the Empire.
§ 106. Jews placing children in Christian schools, are required to declare their faith, under threat
of punishment, as for forgery. Jewish children entering the school are not forced to change their faith, nor
obligated to attend those lessons in which instruction in Christian laws is taught.
.
§ 108. Jews, entering the faculty of medical universities or the Medical-Surgical Academy,
provided they demonstrate progress with distinction, and on permission of the Ministries, can be accepted
among the government students.
§ 109. Certificates of learning, issued to Jewish children on a general basis, should indicate their
religion.
§ 110. Talented and industrious Jews who demonstrate excellent progress in the sciences can acquire an
an academic degree on the same basis as all other Russian subjects.
.
§ 112. Jewish children of the female sex may only attend the Christian academic institutions established
by the government or by private persons, in which children of the female sex, in general, are admitted.
§ 113. In addition to allowing Jewish children to attend Crown and private Christian schools, Jews
can also start up their own private or community schools, for the purpose of educating their youth in the
sciences and the fine arts and for the purpose of studying the rules of their faith.
.
§ 115. Teachers of the sciences and arts can be employed in Jewish schools, without regard to faith,
Christians as well as Jews.
§ 116. Science instruction in Jewish schools must not be done with books other than those approved by
educational authorities.
§ 117. Books in the Hebrew language, published in Russia or imported from over the border, are subject to
the general rules on censorship; but if the same place where the books are to be reviewed has no knowledge of
the Hebrew language, then they are presented to the Chief of the Censorship Administration, or to where he will
direct.
.
§ 120. Foreign Jews receiving real property estates in Russia by inheritance, are subject to the rules
prescribed for Jewish subjects.
.
.
(V.P.S.Z. Vol. X, No. 8,054).
Comments and corrections welcomed. Send to Michael Steinore
