“The Russian Jews, who are industriously working with us in all spheres of labor and activity that are accessible to them, have given so many convincing proofs of their sincere desire to be with us, to render service to our cause ... that the limitation of their right of citizenship is not only a crying injustice, but also reacts injuriously upon the very interests of the State. The Russian Empire can, and must, draw its strength from the complete union of all the nationalities inhabiting Russia, and only by the placing of all citizens upon an equal footing will the power of Russia become indestructible.
=“Russians, let us remember that the Russian Jew has no other country than Russia, and that nothing is dearer to a man than the soil on which he is born. Let us understand that the prosperity and power of Russia are inseparable from the well-being and the liberty of all the nationalities which constitute its vast Empire. Let us understand this truth, act according to our intelligence and our conscience, and we may be certain that the ultimate disappearance of persecutions against the Jews and their complete emancipation will form one of the conditions of a truly constructive imperial régime.”=
The total estimated Jewish population of Austria-Hungary is about 2,250,000, of which nearly one million were, at the beginning of the war, in the border province of Galicia, in the immediate area of hostilities.
Here, as elsewhere, the Jews manifested their keen loyalty by trooping to the colors even when they were normally exempt, as in the case of the students of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, many of whom volunteered, although not required to do so. The Government recognized this loyalty in many ways, particularly in the granting of special privileges with respect to the observances required by the Jewish religious ritual. Thus the Emperor, in his own name, sent 20,000 Tallithim (prayer shawls) for the soldiers in the field during the holidays. When, at Passover, it was discovered that the matzoths for the Jewish troops had been improperly prepared, the Government, at the instance of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, authorized the wholesale distribution of potatoes to Orthodox Jews.