A Night of Reckoning in Kovno, Lithuania, 1917
A Night of Reckoning in Kovno, Lithuania, 1917

                         

On the Saturday night before Rosh Hashana in 1917, the start of the Ashkenazi Slichot prayers, the words of one German Rabbi, Joseph Carlebach, evoked a powerful message. 

During the horrific days of the First World War as German armies swept into the Eastern territories, many of the German Jewish soldiers who faithfully served their nation’s cause also saw their role as a service to the Jewish people, fighting to liberate Russian Jewry suffering under the yoke of Tsar Nicholas II.

Their hopes did not come to fruition. By 1917, the war did cause the collapse of the Czarist regime, but it also resulted in untold suffering for Russian Jewry.

The war also unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism in Germany that would intensify over the years to come. As Germany did not achieve victory and suffered the effects of war, many in the press and in government accused the Jews of disloyalty, despite their devoted service to the Fatherland.

In 1915, thirteen German Rabbis, were sent by the German Army high command to the Eastern front to administer to the needs of Jewry under German occupation in the Eastern Zone. These lands included Lithuania and Congress Poland.

This was a daunting task, as Jewish masses suffered from pogroms, expulsions, starvation, and disease. Jewish refugees were fleeing the fighting and excesses committed by the Russian army, and crowded into cities in desperate need.

These Rabbis were also entrusted with an additional task.

The German occupation forces deemed it important to provide an education for Jewish children that included secular subjects. One of the Rabbis, Joseph Carlebach, was delegate the task of organizing an educational system for Jews under German occupation in the Lithuanian city of Kovno.

The Rabbi devised a program based upon the German Jewish model of Torah Im Derech Eretz, “Torah Education with the Ways of the Land,” as he consulted with local Rabbinical leaders. The relatively small school soon grew as parents put their trust in Rabbi Carlebach. The Rabbi was also responsible for the reopening of the great Slobodka Yeshiva which was closed due to the ravages of the war.

On that Saturday night, September 15, 1917, Rabbi Carlebach preached at the synagogue Ohel Yaakov in Kovno. Jews converged upon the Synagogue to hear the words from the esteemed scholar and leader. The German commanders insisted that the German-Jewish soldiers sit on one side of the Synagogue, Russian Jewish soldiers on the other and in between them, the local Jews.

That night, Rabbi Carlebach stunned the audience which expected to hear words in support of his native Germany. He began with commonly heard words in German circles, “We did not want this war” which was a phrase often used by Germans to imply that Germany’s enemies, the allies, drew her reluctantly into the conflict.

But the Rabbi’s implied message was far different. He was actually stating that no one in that room wanted this destructive and devastating war, for which Germany bore much of the responsibility. Rabbi Carlebach did not absolve Germany from its responsibility for the war and its resulting carnage.

The Rabbi praised the level of Torah study in the Eastern territories and stated that German Jews had much to learn from the Eastern European Jewry. He mentioned how German Jewish soldiers were learning Torah from local Jews. He also mentioned that it was symptomatic that Jews from different sides sat together in Synagogue, separated by a German ruling, prohibited from mingling.          

German Jews may have looked down upon the Ostjuden of Eastern Europe since they were not considered as cultured as their brethren from Germany, but over time many saw the great depth and spirituality among East European Jewry. There they were together as one in Synagogue that evening.

They suddenly were not enemies on different battle lines or superiors; they were not victors and prisoners and vanquished. They were indeed brothers commiserating over the immense tragedy of that war, praying to the same Father in Heaven. Amid the madness, there was some light.

Rabbi Carlebach’s brave words were reported to the authorities, who had the Rabbi sent to the Russian front for a month as a punishment. There must have been at least one irate German soldier present who reported the event. If not for the intervention of friends, the punishment would probably have been far worse.

During those moments of reflection, as Rosh Hashanah was approaching, the Rabbi spoke directly to the audience disregarding the consequences to him. Germany, whose leaders had professed equality for all German citizens regardless of religion and ethnic back ground, when the war began in 1914, was already turning its back upon its Jews.

The failures and losses incurred were already being blamed upon the Jews, who were being accused in the press and by some politicians of disloyalty despite their zealous support of the war.

Russian Jewry was also betrayed. Almost one-half million had fought valiantly for the Czar while at the same time Russian forces were committing heinous crimes against Jewish civilians on both the Russian and Austrian fronts.

Together, Jews on opposing sides could reflect upon the events of the day and call out to their Heavenly Father as one beseeching His mercy upon Mankind and Jewry.

That night was a moment of reckoning. Rabbi Carlebach’s words that night resonated in his time and serve as an example for us today.

Parts of this article were found in “Voices of Opposition to the First World War among Jewish Thinkers” by Rivka Horowitz.  Leo Baeck Institute vol XXXIII, 1988.