As an MA student at the University of Tartu in Estonia, a country bordering Russia and Latvia on the Baltic coast, I was interested in learning more about the country’s historic Jewish community, which survives in low numbers to the present day. This essay will be the first of two parts on the Jewish history of Estonia, focused on the community’s ‘origins’ until the Second World War.
The history of the Jewish community in Estonia begins quite recently, unlike here in Galicia–for centuries, Estonia (then part of Livonia) had been under the control of various regional empires, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Swedish Empire, and finally, and for the longest reign, the Russian (Tsarist) Empire.
Estonia in the Tsarist Empire
The relationship between the Jewish communities and the Tsarist Empire has been the subject of much scholarly study, but the context of Estonia specifically begins in the mid-19th century. Two features that characterized the experience of Jewish communities within the Tsarist Empire during this period were: the Pale of Settlement, a large area across the western portion of the Empire where Jews were allowed to settle, primarily in shtetlekh, and beyond which residency was heavily restricted, and which, at its height, contained a large portion of the world’s Jewish population; military conscription, which affected the Jewish community in two dimensions, including the so-called Nikolai Soldaten, after a decree of Tsar Nikolas (1825-1855) which obliged some Jewish men to serve in the Imperial Army for 25 years, and Cantonists, boys who were drafted at age 12 or younger, often from poor families, sent through Tsarist military academies, and then forced to complete the required 25 years.
These two features determined the appearance of the first Jewish communities in Estonia: the first congregation was founded in Tallinn in 1830, primarily by upper- and middle-class families allowed to reside outside of the Pale of Settlement, while the second congregation, founded in Tartu, was only established following Tsar Alexander II’s 1865 decree allowing for demobilized Nikolai Soldaten and Cantonists, established merchants and artisans, and Jews with higher education and their families to live beyond the Pale. According to the genealogist Len Yodaiken, “the idea behind the Tsarist thinking was, that having divorced the first two groups from their Jewish communities for 25 years or more, and having caused them to compromise their religious beliefs, time and again, they would continue in the process of assimilation by being encouraged to remain apart from the main-flow of Jewish life. Indeed by Eastern European Jewish standards, the small Estonian Jewish Community was regarded as being assimilationist” (71). By the end of the 19th century, Jewish communities had also been established in Võru, Viljandi, Valga, and Pärnu, with the largest synagogues constructed in Tallinn and Tartu.
Map showing the Pale of Settlement, 1901
Despite the heavy restrictions applied by the Tsarist government, particularly under the heavily antisemitic Tsar Alexander III (1881-1894), Jewish life in Estonia steadily grew, with yeshivot opened in Tallinn by the 1880’s, and, as greater numbers attended the University of Tartu, Jewish cultural and social life began to prosper. This trend continued even during the destructive years of the First World War: in 1917, the Jewish Drama Club was founded in Tartu.
Tallinn Synagogue, constructed in 1885
The Founding of Estonia through the Interwar Years
Around the end of the First World War, the Estonian Provisional Government declared independence; soon after, the new republic was attacked by Soviet Bolshevik forces in what became the Estonian War of Independence, concluded by the 1920 Treaty of Tartu. Approximately 200 Jews fought for the new nation’s independence, which marked a new era for the Jewish communities of Estonia. “After the First World War,” Yodaiken writes, “Estonia became an independent Republic with one of the most progressive constitutions, especially as concerned minorities, that existed at that time and even when an extreme right wing group took power, the Jews were still treated well” (72).
View of the Tartu Synagogue
In May 1919, the first Estonian Congress of Jewish congregations convened to discuss the new circumstances of Jewish life, including the idea of cultural autonomy. Later codified in a 1925 law, this high degree of cultural autonomy in Estonia was considered “an exceptional phenomenon in European cultural history” and, in response, “the Jewish National Endowment presented the Estonian government with a certificate of gratitude” (Jewish Virtual Library). In 1926, the Jewish Cultural Council was elected and the goal of cultural autonomy declared achieved. Elementary schools and a gymnasium were founded in Tallinn, which served as a major center of Estonian Jewish life; sport and student societies and mutual aid associations blossomed, while youth Zionist organizations, including Hashomer Hatzair, HeHalutz, Hasmonea, and Beitar, helped build kibbutzim in Palestine. In 1934, a chair was established at the University of Tartu School of Philosophy for the study of Judaica, headed by professor Lazar Gulkowitsch (1899-1941), a specialist in Hebrew and Aramaic and the study of Talmud.
In 1936, the tenth anniversary of Jewish cultural autonomy was celebrated. Jewish community life flourished across the country: Jewish kindergartens had been established in Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Viljandi, and Pärnu, with over 55 percent of the school-aged population enrolled in Jewish schools; the Jewish Goodwill Society of the Tallinn Congregation oversaw charity works, supported by the Jewish Assistance Union with branches in Tartu, Valga, and Pärnu; major Jewish-owned businesses took an active part in the Estonian economy; and the population reached its peak of close to 4500, or 0.4 percent of the Estonian population, with over half living in Tallinn. A 1936 report from the British newspaper The Jewish Chronicle notes that, upon the tenth anniversary of the cultural autonomy:
Estonia is the only country in Eastern Europe where neither the Government nor the people practice any discrimination against Jews and where Jews are left in peace…. the cultural autonomy granted to Estonian Jews ten years ago still holds good, and Jews are allowed to lead a free and unmolested life and fashion it in accord with their national and cultural principles.
As the Second World War approached, however, the situation of the Estonian Jewish community abruptly changed, which will be discussed in the second part of this article.
Sources:
“Estonian Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/estonia-virtual-jewish-history-tour.
Len Yodaiken, “The Estonians,” History: 5th Edition, 2004: 71-72.
Ken Kalling, “Tartu,” The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tartu.
“Estonia, an oasis of tolerance”. The Jewish Chronicle. 25 September 1936. pp. 22–23.
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