Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — NO MERCY TO THE JEWS. [ARTICLE]

NO MERCY TO THE JEWS.

of a Grand Duke—Cruel Edicts Being Enforced Relentlessly. The latest advices from St. Petersburg and other parts of Bussia show that the persecution of the J ews and the inhumanity of the Ozar’s officials toward that unhappy raoe are greater than ever before. Six edicts have been issued, aiming to disperse the Jewish subjects of Bussia, weaken their position at trading centers and crush out their religion. These edicts are enforced with the utmost rigor in many parts of the empire and with severity every where. The Moscow papers boast that, since the beginning of 1891, 20,000 Jews have been converted to orthodoxy. The unhappy converts, who have been driven to a pretended denial of their religious faith in order to escape intolerable persecution, have been deported to the district of Tcherkosovo, about five miles from Moscow. There they are rigorously governed by priests of the Bussian orthodox church, who require them to attend the services of that church and to comply with its various rules, watching narrowly for any sign of evasion or repentance. These priests have entire supervision of the wretched colony, and the alleged converts from Judaism are only allowed leave to return to Moscow upon a certificate from the priests vouching that the convert holding such document is assured in the faith of the orthodox church.